ONENESS: LOVING ONE ANOTHER
Romans 13:8-10; Acts 2:42
S: A Place of Grace
Th: Oneness
Pr: We are to be known for our love.
?: Who? Who do we love?
KW: Person
TS: We will find in our study three persons that we are to love.
The ____ person we are to love is…
I. GOD
II. ONE ANOTHER
III. OUR NEIGHBOR
RMBC 4/2/00 AM
INTRODUCTION:
Have you figured out what you owe yet?
ILL Computer screen (Snoopy)
I have on my screen on my computer, a comic strip from Peanuts (I believe Bill Garvin sent it to me). It is a picture of Snoopy typing a letter on top of his doghouse. The letter begins this way: “Dear IRS.” Snoopy thinks for a moment and then finishes, “I am writing to you to cancel my subscription. Please take my name off your mailing list.”
Oh, if only that could be done.
Well, the bill to the IRS is due soon, isn’t it?
I anticipate I’ll be writing a nice size check.
Bills!
They come without fail.
You pay them, but like weeds, they just keep coming back.
There is the light bill, the gas bill, the water bill, the fuel bill, mortgage payments, insurance bills, credit card bills, car payments, and on, and on, and on, ad infinitum.
Some of you may feel like you are buried under a mountain of bills, not knowing which ones to pay first.
ILL Internet (bills)
There was a man who had a unique way of paying bills. He was overextended and couldn’t pay all of them every month. One month, one of his creditors called him and demanded payment on a certain account. He said, "Look, the way I pay my bills is to put them all in a hat and pull five of them out. Now if you don’t quit bugging me, next month I won’t even put you in the hat!"
Well, that is an interesting method of paying bills, isn’t it?
Our study today reveals that there is something that each one of us owes.
TRANSITION:
This is our third message out of four that speaks about what is known theologically as the four marks of the church.
The reason I have chosen this path is that if we are going to be a church that is characterized by “Grace-Full Living,” these are essentials for us.
1. If we are to be a place of grace, we need to fulfill the four marks of the church.
Now, the four marks of the church define the church’s essentials.
The church is to be one, holy, apostolic and catholic church.
1.1 One: Love one another
When we speak of the church being one, we speak of its unity.
We are speaking of its need to care for and love one another.
This is our emphasis today.
1.2 Holy: Worship God
Two weeks ago, we spoke of the holiness of the church as observed in worship.
Simply, we worship God.
The church is never to lose its perspective.
We keep it by worshipping.
1.3 Apostolic: Grow in Grace
Last week, we spoke of the importance of being a growing Christian.
We are to grow in grace.
We are apostolic when we do this because we are following the teaching of the apostles.
When we are growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are apostolic.
1.4 Catholic: Universal Gospel
Finally, next week, we will speak of the catholicity of the church.
That is, it is the mission of the church to reach all peoples, all over the world.
The gospel is inclusive.
All nations are to hear the message of grace.
In Romans 13:8, a text we will consider later, we learn that…
2. We owe love.
It is our primary debt.
You know, when we see someone we owe money to, what do you think about?
You think, “I owe them money.”
In the same way, anyone we meet we are to think, “I owe him or her love.”
The reason from Scripture can be put this way…
“Jesus paid your sin debt when you were flat broke.”
I like that statement.
“Jesus paid your sin debt when you were flat broke.”
You know, we have been given so much that our lives are overflowing with the experience of being loved by God.
As a result, that overflow should extend to others.
So much so…
3. WE ARE TO BE KNOWN FOR OUR LOVE.
But to whom do we demonstrate that love?
Well…
4. We will find in our study three persons that we are to love.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first person we are to love is GOD.
1. Our first priority of love is toward God (Deuteronomy 6:5).
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
This is the primary command of Scripture.
We are to love God first.
He is our first priority.
There is to be no other gods in our life.
He alone is to be worshipped and loved.
Now, the great thing about this is that…
2. When we love God properly, then all other relationships will fall into place.
When we love God rightly, it is then that we can love each other properly.
We will have the right perspective about who God is, who we are and how we are to treat others.
Then, we will fully see that we owe the debt of love to every person.
II. The second person we are to love is ONE ANOTHER.
1. We reflect Christ when we love one another (John 15:12).
Jesus said:
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Jesus loved us.
He loved us all the way to the cross.
He loved us all the way to the cross so that we would know how to love one another.
ILL Notebook: Love (bigger the better)
Barry and Karen Spilchuk were the proud "Parents of the Day" at their son, Michael’s, kindergarten class. They had fun as he toured them around his classroom and introduced them to all his friends. They joined in for cut and paste and sewing and spent the better part of the morning in the sandbox. It was a riot! "Circle up!" called the teacher, "It’s story time." Not wanting to look out of place, the parents "circled up" with the rest of their new buddies. After finishing the story, entitled “Big,” the teacher asked this enthusiastic group, "What makes you feel big?" "Bugs make me feel big," yelled one young student. "Ants," hollered another. "Mosquitoes," called out one more. The teacher, trying to bring some order back to the class, started calling on children with their hands up. Pointing to one little girl, the teacher said, "Yes dear, what makes you feel big?" "My mommy," was the reply. "How does your mommy make you feel big?" quizzed the teacher. "That’s easy," said the child. "When she hugs me and says I love you, Jessica!"
That is powerful, isn’t it?
When we love each other, we make each other bigger.
We establish the dignity and the importance of the other.
Now, why can’t we do that in the church?
You see, what amazes me is how poorly we love one another in the church.
What amazes me is how easily hurt we are!
What amazes me is how hurtful we can be!
What amazes me is that though we have been given so much love, we still love so little!
And frankly, if we are going to be a place of grace, and characterized by “Grace-Full Living,” we have to get this right.
We have no choice.
We must learn to consistently love one another.
For…
2. When we love one another, it becomes an attraction point to others (Acts 2:42-47).
Note the success of the early church:
(42) They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (43) Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. (44) All the believers were together and had everything in common. (45) Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. (46) Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, (47) praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Note that the believers were together.
They were united.
The Holy Spirit was fresh on them and they were living lives characterized by oneness.
And do you see what was the result?
The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
People were coming to Christ because they wanted to be a part of this new thing that God was doing.
They were attracted to the oneness.
They were attracted to a people that genuinely loved one another.
III. The third person we are to love is OUR NEIGHBOR.
Romans 13:8-10 says…
(8) Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. (9) The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (10) Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
While the early commands of the Ten Commandments spoke about loving God, the latter commands summed up easily into “love your neighbor as yourself.”
There is an assumption here that we must note.
We do love ourselves.
Sometimes we distort it, but the truth of the matter is that God has given us value.
He has given us dignity, approval, and self-respect.
As a result, we are called on to love people, even people that are not like us.
Yes, we are to love the butcher, baker, and Cadillac-maker.
For…
1. Love satisfies all the commandments.
Someone has said that in the Old Testament that there are 538 sins to commit and 613 laws to break.
This means that there is a total of 1,151 ways to go wrong Biblically.
In other words, there are over 1,000 ways to go wrong every minute of every hour of every day.
That is a lot of potential to go wrong.
But Paul doesn’t want us hung up there.
He says that our highest obligation toward men is our obligation to love them.
This doesn’t mean that other commands and other obligations don’t apply.
Instead it means that when we love, when we are motivated by love, we are going to get the rest of them right.
We will do good.
We will reach out.
We will be a help.
Yet, we do find that God’s commands are broken.
And what is amazing is that some claim that though they have broken commands, it is all right because they were motivated by love.
But this completely misses the point.
For…
2. When we break the commands, it is because we fail to love others.
The word love without the commandments is a plastic word which can he twisted and shaped in many different ways to defend a course of action which is in fact contrary to God’s law.
ILL Internet (adultery)
For instance, a married man may justify an adulterous affair with another woman because of "love." He could say to himself; "You know it is not really fair to my present wife, Susan, to continue being married to her when I do not really feel affection for her. And since my feelings of love and affection are so strong for my girl friend, Katherine, they must be from God. Only God would grant me such delight and happiness in being with another person. I know it sounds strange, but I believe God really wants me to break off my marriage with Susan and marry Katherine. God is not the sort of God who would want me to live miserably with Susan when he has planted a deep love for Katherine in my heart. God is not a god who wants people to live together when they are so unhappy, and so I believe he is leading me to start a new life with Katherine."
Do you see the distortion that easily can take place?
But the simple truth is that adultery harms our neighbor.
It does great damage to the individuals and families involved.
It destroys the intimacy of the marital union.
It is a sin against love.
Or think of this example…
ILL Internet (getting married)
Margie is 21 years old and deeply in love with Greg and they both want to get married. The only problem is that Greg is not a Christian. Margie, though is convinced that these powerful feelings of affection she has for Greg must be from God. Her pastor counsels her not to marry him, but she believes that God will use her to bring Greg to the faith. Thus, she goes ahead, marries him, and asks God to bless the union. Once again, Margie’s resolve to marry Greg may sound very spiritual, especially when she says that the Lord will use her to win Greg. But her decision to marry Greg violates a specific command of scripture. I Corinthians 7:39 says to marry "only in the Lord" which means that believers must only marry other believers.
If you love your neighbor as yourself, you’ll do him good and not hurt.
You will neither covet his possessions, nor steal his goods, nor kill him, nor lie about him, nor sleep with his wife.
Rather, you will be looking for ways to help him, encourage him, and build him up.
You will be treating him like you treat yourself, with lots of tender loving care.
Someone once posted in their home, what they called “The Laws of Love.”
It went like this:
ILL Internet (laws of love)
If you open it, you close it.
If you turn it on, you turn it off.
If you unlock it, you lock it.
If you break it, you fix it.
If you can’t fix it, you call in somebody who can.
If you borrow it, you return it.
If you use it, you take care of it.
If you make a mess, you clean it up.
If you move it, you put it back where it was.
If it belongs to someone else and you want to use it, ask their permission.
If you don’t know how to operate it, leave it alone.
If it doesn’t concern you, just don’t mess with it.
That’s a great list, because it focuses on how your action affects someone else.
If you follow it, you will be thinking of the other person.
For true love involves the motivation of the heart.
You see…
3. We need to show the simple grace of love in action.
This is the great demand of the hour!
ILL Internet (bus)
A lady by the name of Opal Whetset is a Christian writer. She was riding on a bus one night; a Greyhound bus between Flagstaff, Arizona to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was a cold February night, and the bus stopped in a little Native-American community. A young Native-American Indian teenager got on the bus and sat down behind her. Maybe it was the warmth of the bus or the rocking motion, but she could tell that by his breathing that he was soon asleep. Sometime later he awakened and ran down the aisle and asked about a certain stop where he was supposed to get off. The driver snapped back and said, "We passed that stop a long time ago. Why didn’t you get off then?" The boy went back to his seat. She could tell he was anxious and upset. Immediately he walked back to the driver, and he said, "Will you stop the bus and let me get off and walk back to where I was supposed to get off?" The bus driver said, "No, it’s too cold and it’s too far. You’d freeze. You’ve got to ride the bus all the way into Albuquerque, then catch another bus back to your stop. The Indian sat down in his seat behind Opal, and she could tell he was so upset. She turned around to this young man she never met before, and said, "Are you afraid? Is there anything I can do to help?" He said, I don’t know what to do. I’ve never been to Albuquerque, and besides, I don’t have any money. They’re going to make me pay again. I don’t know what to do." She said, "Well listen, don’t worry, you just stick with me. When we get to Albuquerque, I’ll make sure you get on the right bus. And if they want to charge you, which they shouldn’t do, I’ll buy your ticket." Then Opal went up, talked to the bus driver, and explained the situation. She said, "Can you make sure the next bus he gets on, they don’t charge him to take him back to where he needs to go?" The bus driver finally agreed. Opal went back, sat down, and turned to the Indian behind her and said, "It’s all taken care of. Don’t you worry. Everything’s going to be okay." For ten minutes, there was total silence, and then Opal felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and that young man was leaning forward, and he asked her this question. He said, "Ma’am, are you a Christian?"
Has anybody ever asked you, "Are you a Christian?"
Has your faith been obvious enough by your actions that someone was curious enough to ask?
APPLICATION:
1. We often talk a good game about love, but our demonstration is lacking.
We all agree that we ought to love God.
We all agree that we ought to love one another.
We all agree that we ought to love our neighbor as ourselves.
So we agree.
But, can anyone tell?
ILL Notebook: Love (regards, Bill)
A young soldier, serving overseas, was writing a letter to his fiancée. He had written only a few lines when he decided to express his great love for her more emphatically. "I’ll send her a telegram," he told himself. He dashed to the telegraph office, completed a message form, and handed it to the clerk. It read, "I love you, I love, I love you, Bill." "You can add one more word for the same price," said the clerk. The soldier scratched his head, puzzled a bit over the telegram, wrote something on the form and handed it back to the clerk. The message now read, "I love you, I love you, I love you. Regards, Bill."
We hear messages here every Sunday about love, about our responsibilities as good Christians to love one another.
In our prayer and in our worship, we say to one another, to the neighborhood, to the larger community and to the world, "I love you, I love you, I love you."
But often it comes through as "regards," cold and unreal!
We need to realize this…
2. There is no stronger demonstration of the truth of Christianity than our love.
If we are true followers of Christ, we will put our love into action.
If we are truly interested in being the church God has designed us to be, we will be devoted to loving people, no matter who they are or where they come from.
If we are truly dedicated in fulfilling our mission to make disciples of all nations, we will love one another and we will love our neighbor as ourselves.
COMMUNION:
This is how we show the presence of Christ in the world.
We show Christ in our lives, by showing one another and others how to love.
And we do that by loving on another.
When Bonnie Thomas’s husband, Bob, died very suddenly in January 1994, she received condolences from people she hadn’t heard from in years: letters, cards, flowers, calls, visits. She was overwhelmed with grief, yet uplifted by this outpouring of love from family, friends and even mere acquaintances. One message touched her profoundly. She received a letter from her best friend from sixth grade through high school. They had drifted somewhat since graduation in 1949, as she stayed in our hometown and Bonnie had not. But it was the kind of friendship that could quickly resume even if they lost touch for five or ten years. Her friend’s husband, Pete, had died perhaps 20 years ago at a young age, leaving her with deep sorrow and heavy responsibilities: finding a job and raising three young children. In her letter she shared an anecdote about Bonnie’s mother (now long deceased). She wrote, "When Pete died, your dear mother hugged me and said, ’Trudy, I don’t know what to say…so I’ll just say I love you.’” She closed her letter to me repeating my mother’s words of so long ago, "Bonnie, I don’t know what to say... so I’ll just say I love you." Bonnie felt she could almost hear her mother speaking to her. What a powerful message of sympathy! How dear of her friend to cherish it all those years and then pass it on to me. I love you. Perfect words. A gift.
Bonnie’s friend gave a great gift.
It was the gift of love.
We come to Communion today to celebrate the same kind of gift today.
For from the cross, Jesus said very simply to you, “I love you.”
So today, I invite you to taste the love of God and the grace of Christ.
Taste and drink deep.
Wrap yourself in God’s love.
Those of us that know Jesus are invited to share in the elements of the table.
If you do not know Jesus, that is, you have not received Him as your Savior and Lord, your life is not characterized by a faith that trusts Him with your whole life, just let the elements pass by.
Please wait until the time comes when you have a personally experienced His love in your life.
We practice “communion” because we are to remember the death of the Lord Jesus.
We take the bread to remind us that it was by the body of our Savior that our salvation came.
He died in our place.
He became our substitute.
We take the cup to remind us that it was by the blood of our Savior that our salvation came.
He died for our sins.
He became our sacrifice.
Being led in prayer by ________________________ let us take a moment and thank Him for being our sacrifice.
(Prayer)
The apostle Paul writes, "The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me."
Let’s partake together.
__________________ will now come and lead us in prayer.
Again, the apostle Paul writes, "In the same way, after supper he took the cup saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
Let’s partake together.
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Love God…make Him your priority, for when you do, all the matters and relationships in your life will find the right perspective;
Love one another…make those around you a priority to love, for when we do, others will be attracted to the community of faith and desire to join;
Love your neighbor…do good to those around you, share the good God has shown you; draw them and win them that they may know the joy of a life secure, now and for eternity.
Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
