Love: The Reason It’s Most Important
Scripture: I Cor. 13; Mark 12:30-31; 1 Peter 4:8; 1 John 4:16-19
Introduction
Do you know that the heart is the first functional organ to develop in a fetus and beats spontaneously by week 4 of development? Do you also know that the heart is more than just the vessel that sends oxygenated blood throughout the body? We serve a God of love and our God of love created us to love and to receive love. In doing so He gave us an organ which not only is necessary for us to live, it is essential to our ability to give and experience love in this world.
“Psychologists once maintained that emotions were purely mental expressions generated by the brain alone. It is now known that this is not true. Emotions have as much to do with the heart and body as they do with the brain. The heart plays a particularly important role in our emotional experience. The Institute of HeartMath, a research center dedicated to the study of the heart and physiology of emotions, has found that the heart sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart as it relates to our emotions. When we experience feelings like anger, frustration, anxiety and insecurity our heart rhythm patterns become more erratic. These erratic patterns are sent to the emotional centers in the brain which recognizes it as negative or stressful feelings and thus creates the actual feelings we experience in the heart area and the body. Likewise, research has shown that when we experience heart-felt emotions like love, care, appreciation and compassion, the heart produces a very different rhythm. In this case, it is a smooth pattern that looks like gently rolling hills. This lets the brain know that the heart feels good and often creates a gentle warm feeling in the area of the heart.” (Adapted from the article “Does your heart sense your emotional state?”) So what am I saying? The heart (our physical organ) does have a role in our emotions, our feelings and ability to give and experience love. I want you to keep this in mind as you listen to this message.
Last week I shared with you why love was the reason for Christmas. As I shared with you on last Sunday, the title of my message this morning is “Love: The Reason It’s Most Important.” As you recall from last week, Paul told the Church at Corinth, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.…….And now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3, 13) Faith, hope and love, these three abides but the greatest of them is love. Why did Paul say that love was greater than faith and hope? We will take a closer look at this question in this message.
We celebrated Christmas last week and many of you received gifts that you were longing for and maybe a few that you weren’t. As I shared on last Sunday, Christmas exists because of love. Jesus came to earth to save mankind because of love. When we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ, we celebrate love. Several years ago I watched a talk show where the host had three guests, an atheist, a Jewish rabbi and a Catholic priest. The host was also Catholic. The focus of the conversation was why “religious” people believe in God and why the atheist do not. They also discussed the obvious fact that there is a division among those who believed in God but reject the belief in Christ. Both the rabbi and the priest could not believe that the atheist could teach her children that all that they were existed within them now and that there was no higher power than them. Her response to them was that the so-called “religious” people cannot agree with one another. The first place she went was Christ. She said to the priest and the rabbi that one of them must be wrong since one believed in Christ and the other did not. The rabbi responded by saying that both believed in God and that was more important. He took it a step further and said that he believed that Christ was truly the Messiah for the Gentiles, but he did not think that Christ was God’s Son. I did not hear all of the conversation, but the prevailing thought of the atheist was that if the religious people could not agree then how could she agree with and/or believe either group. While it was easy to see the differences between Christians and Jews, it is much harder to explain the differences between Christians, which is a point that the atheist quickly pointed out.
Christians are divided on a lot of issues, from how to baptize correctly to the words that must be said when the baptism takes place. We are divided on worship service, to have music or not, beliefs around the gifts of the Spirit, Church buildings versus meeting in someone home. We are divided on how we should dress, how we should act, what can and cannot be done in Church. We are divided on what we can eat, what we can watch or what music we can listen to. We are divided on who can stand in the pulpit or who can serve in other ministries of the Church. We are divided on what we believe about Jesus Christ, His teachings and the Word of God. We are divided on what is sin and its true penalty. We are divided on what we believe about salvation, who can have it and who cannot. We are divided on Church name, if the name of your Church is not right, you cannot be saved. We are divided on whether religion has to be organized or if a person can just go through life how they pleased as long as they believed “something.” Christians are divided and it not just between denominations, it can be found in individual Churches. There are people right here in this congregation that do not hold all of the same beliefs as someone else.
Let me tell you what can be a motivator for some of the divisions – the belief that I am right and you are wrong and neither of us being willing to change or consider something different from what we already believe. If you hold beliefs that are the polar opposites from someone else, we may never say it, but deep down we have the tendency to believe that we are right and the other person is wrong. If I truly believe someone else is right, then I will be faced with a decision about changing my belief and that can be very hard to do. So what do we do, we remain divided in a lot of situations. It is this divide that fuels a lot of the controversy that we find within the religious community. There is little tolerance for beliefs that do not agree with our beliefs. Now here’s the thing. If what I believe or what the other person believes does not agree with the Bible, then both of us are in disagreement with God. This division is one of the key elements as to why many choose not to go to church at all or stay home and worship through their TV. When there are 15 churches on one city block and all of them claim to have the right answer, the right path to God and salvation, how can someone know what is right? How can five people read the same Bible and walk away with five different interpretations? This is what we are faced with and what is hindering the church as a whole from growing. But trust me, this is nothing new. If you read the writings of Paul, this has been an issue from the very beginning of the Christian Church.
This time of year increases my awareness of just how divided we are as Christians. For a group of people who are supposed to live by love, we truly have a hard time expressing it. The bridge that must be built to close the division will be built on love. Love is the reason for this season which closes out each year. If we are expressing love then love is welcomed regardless of beliefs. As we close out this year, I want to remind you of a few points on love to refresh your remembrance so that as we enter 2020, we enter it thinking about the love that has been placed within us – the Jesus Christ who died for us. Let’s start with the basics – we all need love!
I. We All Need Love
Fifty-four years ago in 1965 Jackie DeShannon recorded the song “What the World Needs Now Is Love.” Co-songwriter Burt Bacharach revealed in his 2014 autobiography that this song had among the most difficult lyrics Hal David ever wrote. Because the Vietnam War was a subtext for the writers of this song they were surprised at how popular the song became once it was released. The song was originally offered to Dionne Warwick, but she turned it down at the time, saying she felt it was “too country” for her tastes and “too preachy.” However, she later recorded it for her album “Here Where There Is Love.” So why do you think she felt it was “too preachy”? Well, listen to some of the lyrics: “What the world needs now is love, sweet love, it's the only thing that there's just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love, no not just for some but for everyone. Lord, we don't need another mountain, there are mountains and hillsides enough to climb. There are oceans and rivers enough to cross, enough to last till the end of time. What the world needs now is love, sweet love, it's the only thing that there's just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love, no, not just for some but for everyone.” I remember listening to this song on the radio in the sixties and the words still hold true today as it did then, maybe even more so.
Everyone, regardless of race, background or religious beliefs, needs love. There are many people who have taught themselves that they do not need love, nor do they want it. Those decisions are often based on things that have happened to them in life. So they protect themselves by staying as far away from love as possible. This is not a natural state for people to exist in. Let me tell you why from a medical viewpoint then we will look at what the Scriptures says. With newborn babies, there is a medical condition called “Failure to Thrive (FTT)”. It can be organic or non-organic. With organic Failure to Thrive there is something physically wrong with the baby that is causing the baby not to get its nutritional needs from the food it eats. With non-organic Failure to Thrive, there is nothing physically wrong with the baby, so the cause is non-organic. This condition is diagnosed initially by monitoring the baby’s weight gain. This is the first initial sign: a baby that is losing weight or is not gaining weight based on parameters that are set. One of the later outcomes is the size of the baby’s head starts to get smaller. This is caused by malnutrition because the baby is not taking in the nutrition it needs. When this condition is diagnosed, the physician admits the baby into the hospital and monitors the baby and its interaction with the parents while increasing the baby’s nutritional intake. Although the baby will start gaining weight while in the hospital, if something is not done to correct the interaction between the mother and the child, the baby will revert back to losing weight when discharged from the hospital.
Here is my reason for telling you this. A newborn baby is born into this world with a physical need to be loved, held, caressed and interacted with. Since the baby is a newborn, this is not a learned response; it is something that was placed within them by God. A newborn baby is unable to speak or process emotional thoughts, but they intuitively understand their need for love and affection. It is as much spiritual as it is physical. When this does not happen, the baby literally begins to die. Yes, the condition can lead to the death of the baby if not corrected quickly. So when they bring the parents in, they teach them how to interact and express their love for the baby. However, in the studies that have been done, the prognosis has been disappointing. If the child does not receive the love and interactions it needs to develop, they remain behind physically, emotionally and intellectually. They easily become the “troubled” kids in the school system. I want you to understand this clearly, we were born with a need to be loved. God placed that within us and I believe He did this so that we would search for Him – the God of love. If you believe that you do not need love now and you can be an island unto yourself, you are only fooling yourself. God created us to love and to be loved. When God made Adam, He saw that he was alone. God knew that this was not good for Adam; that Adam needed someone to be there with him. Genesis 2:18 records “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone, I will make him a helper, suitable for him.” God made Eve so that Adam could be loved and express love.
Jesus spent a lot of time talking about love. Mark 12:30-31 says, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” We were created to love and to be loved.
II. The Effects of Love
When I started this message I told you that the only way to close the division that separates us is through love. Love can do miracles when nothing else works. Love can penetrate the thickest wall and the heaviest heart. It started with love and it will end with love. John 3:16 tells us that God sent Jesus because He loved us. Jesus suffered and died on the cross because He loved us. No matter how we say it, the truth of the matter is that we are about love. The word of God says this about love: 1 Peter 4:8: “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” When you love, it covers a multitude of sins. It covers the faults, the weaknesses, the hurts, the transgressions, the differences, everything. When you begin to walk in love, you do not choose who you will love based on what you receive back from them, you love indiscriminately. You love everybody. Yes I know some of you have been hurt, love anyway. Yes I know you do not want to put yourself out there, love anyway. When we perfect love, our fears are released.
First John 4:16-19 says, “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because He first loved us.” These verses are talking about our relationship with God. We have come to know and understand God’s love for us and who we are in Him. That understanding gives us confidence that when we stand before Him we will not receive punishment but eternal life. We have no fear of hell because we are wrapped up in the love of God. God’s love when perfected within us casts out all fear of hell.
I want to point something out. First John says God abides in the person who loves and the person who loves abides in God. Do you see what this is saying New Light? When we do not love the way our Father loves, then our love is not being perfected – our love is not maturing. Remember when the Bible says that Jesus had compassion on people? It was out of His love for people that His heart melted for them. There are far too many Christians, including some within the sound of my voice this morning, who are not walking in compassion. They are walking in very little love. That is what these verses are saying to us. But I want to take it one step further so that you can understand what love can do for you right now, today, and for the rest of your life.
Some of you who are listening to this message or are reading it have been hurt. Some of your hurts run deep, so deep that you are afraid of caring for anyone. What these verses tell us is that the fear and torment that we carry within can be replaced with our understanding of God’s love for us and our accepting that love and then living our lives out of that love. When we accept God’s love, we become love. Why does this happen? Whatever God abides in becomes like He is. We cannot make God become like us, but He can help us become like Him as it relates to how we love. When His love is perfected within us, the fears that we carry, whatever they are, but especially pertaining to relationships, cease to control us. Does that mean we will never experience any hurts again? No, but you always have a Father to go to when it happens. When we love, we receive love in return. If we focus on loving others while allowing others to love us, we live. If we believe that we exist on an emotional island alone and we do not need the love of others, we are living, yet we are already dead. We are dead emotionally and spiritually. Physical death is all that remains.
Love is the bridge that will enable us to interact with anyone, regardless of their religious beliefs or even if they are an atheist. Love is the one gift that continues to give, over and over and over. It never fades, grows old or stops giving. As we close out 2019, I want to share a few Scriptures with you about love so that you can fully grasp the power that lies within it and within you and why Paul said that it is the greatest when compared to our faith and hope. Nothing that we will ever accomplish will be greater than the love that we hold for and share with our fellowman. Think about the message captured in these verses:
Proverbs 10:12: “Hatred stirs up strife: but love covers all sins.”
John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 15:12-13: “This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a: “Love suffers long, and is kind; love envies not; love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up. Does not behave itself rudely, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, keeps no record of evil. Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…...”
1 Corinthians 16:13-14: “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be men, be strong. Let all your things be done with love.”
1 John 4:7-12: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that loves not knows not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
Colossians 3:13-14: “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.”
As we close this year, wherever you are spiritually and emotionally, know that God created you in love and you have the capacity to love others. Allow God’s love to envelop you and you will find how easy it is to share it with others. If you get nothing else from this message, please remember this: “When you were created, God created you to need love. Although you may be older now, what God placed within you is still there – you still need love. Love is the most important thing that all of us need, have and can share.” May God bless and keep you.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. We are developing more social media streams so please stand by and we will notify you once those channels are up and running. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
