(These questions can be conversational if there is time. Many residents will want to share how their experience went. Listen closely and take note. Otherwise they are simply motivational to inspire residents to act based on their compassion and empathy having been through the same process as new residents are going through)
? How did you feel? Fearful, Angry, Hopeless, alone???
? How did you react?
Sometimes when we experience significant loss or change, we want to withdraw and seclude ourselves.
Our room becomes our hiding place and our TV becomes our best friend.
What do you think are some of the most important things a person needs when he or she first moves into to a place like this one?????????????
Left alone???? For how long?
What does isolation do to a person???????????????????
How important are caring friendships?
Yes, friendships are essential!!!
Here is a definition of a caring friend. Tell me if you agree:
A caring friend is someone who wants to know you and actually cares for you, someone who desires to be a blessing to you, and is willing to acknowledge you and your feelings, to protect you, and even respectfully correct or disagree with you when it might help you.
Is that a good definition?
This kind of friendship is rooted in the love of God.
When God speaks of His love for us and our responsibility to love our neighbors, He is speaking about a caring friendship.
(Repeat this definition)
Nitty Gritty:
Let’s look at what God says about love in Verse #1:
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
~ 1 John 4:7-8
? Selfless love is the characteristic that identifies us as God’s children.
? A life of love is what we have been born into.
If you don’t care about your neighbor, your room mate, the lady down the hall…even the most difficult person down the hall, then how much of God’s love do you have within yourself?
Does God base His Love for us on our being worthy of His love?
Jesus is speaking in Verse #2.
Listen to what he says about loving one another:
Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
~ John 13:34-35
? This is not a suggestion for a better life, it is a command
What is a command????????
? Selfless love is the primary characteristic that identifies us as Jesus’ disciples.
Love is more than being friendly.
Being friendly, nice, or pleasant is good and important, but it is only the first step toward the kind of love that Jesus has called us to share.
Jesus was personal with the woman at the well. Jesus was personal with the blind man at Bethesda. He wasn’t just a nice man, right??? He immediately made it known He cared for who He was talking to and what they were going thru.
He empathized.
Let’s look at how God showed His love to us. Look at Verse #3:
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ~ 1 John 4:9-10
Anybody know what “atoning” means?
To Atone is to Pay For
? A loving friend looks at the needs of others and gives what they can to help that person to stand, or to become complete, without any expectation in return.
How many of us know somebody who keeps score on favors? Or somebody who remembers our every wrong doing and reminds of them endlessly?????? That’s not a true friend!
? God loved us so much that He gave Jesus, His greatest treasure, to make us complete.
? God did not wait for us to reach out to Him, He came to us first.
How would our lives be if Jesus never came to us? Think about that for a minute????
? Do you know anyone who does not know Jesus?
? Do you know someone who is not experiencing the blessing of Jesus’ grace and friendship?
? Do you know someone who does not have a friend to value, help, or care for or even about them?
The God who lives in you, loves them, and wants to be their friend
Can I get an Amen to that????
Let’s look at Verse #4:
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another,
God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. ~ 1 John 4:11-12
Since God loves everyone we will ever meet, He wants us to love them also!
Yet, love needs a vessel to express itself.
Without a vessel, love can only be words and ideas.
When we are born again, we become vessels which God can live in and love through.
The more willing we are to obey Jesus’ command to love, the more God’s love will reach others.
This is how love is made complete among us!
We can love God til the cows come home but if we aren’t loving His people, then do we really in fact actually honestly love God????????????????????????????????
Story Time:
There was a lady named Julie, who was relatively young—in her late sixties. She had a stroke and after a short hospital stay, she was moved into a large nursing home.
She avoided conversations and would only talk to the caregivers when she was asked questions or needed something. Nothing Else. Ring a Bell?
Most of the time she would sleep or watch TV. She was sad.
How many of you were that way once upon a time?????????????
How many know somebody here who is like that now???????????????
It was several weeks later when Julie began to attend the weekly Bible study.
She was friendly and pleasant and easy to talk with and obviously a believer in Jesus.
Someone asked Julie about this obvious change in her attitude or demeanor.
She told him that after several weeks of being depressed and realizing she could do nothing to change her circumstances,
And, then shared that there was nothing she could do to go back home,
so she decided to accept that this was her home.
“I don’t like that I have to live here,” she told him, “but I’m going to make the best of it.”
Julie relied on the Lord to help her, and for seven years, she was a friend to almost every person where she lived.
Her season in these less than desirable circumstances gave her many new friends and
deepened her love in her Lord Jesus
From my personal experience, the More we love God’s people, not just being friendly and nice, but actually loving them with our actions -
The more we are able to love God Himself and even appreciate God more than before!
Julie is now in Heaven, and still enjoying God’s love!
It is important to realize that every person needs to be loved.
God wants you to love Him by loving your neighbor as yourself so that all
people may know He loves them!
Please don’t wait for others to reach out first!
Be the first to be the loving and caring friend. Jesus will guide you and help you keep His
commands.
“If you do not like how your day is going, go down the hall and make someone else’s day good.”
By this, they will know they are loved and you, too, will have a better day!
Questions:
? Has anyone here been a caring friend to you?
? How valuable is their friendship?
? Do you know anyone here who needs a friend?
? Would you be willing to pray for God’s direction and courage, and then reach out to them?
? How many might say to yourself I’m too shy or don’t know what to say…
Start with Hi there! My name is… Most likely they will lead you into a conversation that blesses you both!
If not, start with small talk and see where it goes?
I can’t end this message without addressing something that may be embarrassing to some people
Some may be handicapped and unable to physically do the things I spoke about here today.
FRET NOT! Sometimes a simple smile and a head nod goes a long way.
I read an article that stated Only 7% of our communications are through words!
The rest comes through:
• body language
• Facial expressions
• Tone of voice
• Gestures
• A simple touch of your hand and or a compassionate look in your eyes
Remember: If you can, then DO
If you can’t do, then pray for those who can
Everybody here can still show love regardless of your physical abilities
Some of the greatest “I love you’s” in my life came thru a twinkle in someone’s eye, a hug, or a touch
A simple holding of a hand and a warm smile can say more than words ever could!
END in heartfelt prayer