SERIES: “GOD-GIVEN GUIDELINES FOR GROWING A GREAT CHURCH”
TEXT: 1 JOHN 4:7-12
TITLE: “CONTINUALLY PRACTICE AGAPE LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER”
(Based on and material taken from Bob Russel’s When God Builds A Church)
INTRODUCTION: A. Two teenage young men were out cave exploring when they found what appeared
to be huge bear tracks deep inside a long, cavernous tunnel. They bravely decided to
keep going, but they moved ahead slowly and cautiously, keeping their eyes and ears
open in case a bear lurked nearby.
Suddenly, from behind a large rock formation jumped the biggest, meanest-looking
grizzly bear they had ever seen. The bear stood up on his hind legs, beat his chest, and
roared so loudly that is sent a terrible sound echoing off the walls of the cave.
Scared to death, the two young men decided to run for their lives. They took of on
a dash for the daylight. They had a little bit of a lead on the bear when one of the guys
dropped to the floor of the cave and started untying his boots. He whipped his
backpack off and took out a pair of running shoes and began lacing them on his feet.
His buddy yelled at him: “Hey, man! Whatta ya think you’re doin’? Let’s get
outta here! We don’t have much of a chance of outrunning that bear as it is!”
The guy on the floor hopped up and began sprinting toward the cave’s exit. He
turned and yelled over his shoulder: “I don’t have to outrun the bear. All I gotta do is
to outrun you!”
1. Do you ever feel like people treat you like bear bait?
a. When the going gets rough, they bail out on you?
b. They claim they love you until it costs them something and then, they ditch you.
2. We all have the desire to be loved.
3. God created us with the desire to be loved.
B. We live in a world starved for love
--Vance Packard calls America “ a nation of strangers.
1. As a result we’re experiencing an epidemic of loneliness in society.
a. One Gallup poll reported that four in ten Americans admit to frequent feelings
of “intense loneliness.”
b. Americans are, in fact, the loneliest people in the world.
2. Everywhere you look there are signs that people are hungering for fellowship,
community, and a sense of family.
a. For instance, beer commercials don’t sell beer.
--They sell fellowship.
b. No one is ever portrayed drinking alone
c. It’s always done in the context of people enjoying each other’s company.
d. Phrases accompany the commercials like: “it doesn’t get any better than this!”
e. Advertisers have discovered that independent-minded baby boomers are
suddenly longing to be connected as they enter middle age.
C. Dave Stone, I’d Rather See A Sermon: As times have changed, so have people. In
Time magazine, Robert Wright said, “These days, thanks to electric garage-door
openers, you can drive straight into your house, never risking contact with a
neighbor.” He’s right. We used to build a front porch with a swing, now we build a
back-deck with a privacy fence.
1. Our church needs to be a contrast to that coldness.
2. The church needs to be a place where we genuinely care for each other.
3. Jesus intended his church to be a closely-knit family where people genuinely care
for each other.
a. Jesus insisted that the outstanding characteristic of his followers should be their
love for one another.
b. Jn. 13:34-35 – “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.”
I. THE MEANING OF AGAPE LOVE
A. What do you mean when you say you love something>
1. In English, we have only one word for love: we love our pets; we love chocolate; we love our
children, our parents, and our spouses; we love Christmas; we love pizza.
--Anything that makes us feel good, we love.
2. The New Testament was originally written in the Greek language of the common people.
a. In the Greek language of the common people, there were a good number of words to express
affection for something.
b. When they’re translated into English, they’re all translated as “love”.
3. There are four basic words in the common Greek that we see most often:
a. philos – friendship or brotherly love
b. eros – romantic love or passion
c. storge – parental love
d. agape – love for the sake of love
4. Difference between first three words and agape:
a. First three are based on what the other party does for you; based on what you receive; the benefits
of the relationship
b. agape – sacrificial; exists for the sole benefit of the one being loved
B. The greatest definition of agape love is found in 1 Cor.13:4-8a – “4Love is patient, love is kind. It does
not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it
keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails.”
II. THE MODEL OF AGAPE LOVE
A. Simply, the most complete model of agape love we have is Jesus
--1 Jn. 4:10 – “10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning
sacrifice for[our sins.
1. Jn. 3:16-17 – “16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[ that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn
the world, but to save the world through him.”
2. Rom. 5:6-8 – “6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the
ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might
possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.”
B. Nolin lake and almost drowned
--I needed a savior!
1. Christ has given of Himself so that we might have salvation and eternal life
2. His love is not based on our worthiness, but his worthiness.
3. He knows that most of the time we’re not very loveable
--but He loves us anyway!
4. His love for us does not benefit Him.
--It benefits us
5. His love is unsurpassed in its scope
--Eph. 3:17b-19 – “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power,
together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and
to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness
of God.”
III. THE MINISTRY OF AGAPE LOVE
A. Augustine: “What does it look like? It has hands to help others, feet to hasten to the poor and needy,
eyes to see misery and want, ear to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.”
B. A preacher in Tennessee tells his father was not a Christian and never went to church. He said
everyone else in the family would get ready to go to church and his dad would stay home. The preacher
would come by and visit and his dad would always give him the same pat answer; “I know why you’re
here and I know what you want, you want another name and another pledge, you don’t care about me.”
The preacher relating the events said “If I heard my dad say it once I heard him say it 20 times.”
Towards the end of his life his dad got throat cancer. He had surgery and couldn’t talk. He said as his
dad was wasting away in the hospital room that it was filled with flowers and cards - almost all of them
from someone in the church. Food came to his house from his mom’s Sunday school class at the
church. He said people from the church came and prayed with my dad.
He said one day even though my dad couldn’t talk he took a scrap of paper and scribbled words
from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. “In this harsh world draw your breath in pain to tell my story.” He said,
dad what is your story? His dad with trembling hand wrote on the scrape of paper, “I was wrong, I was
wrong about the church.”
He said I got to talk with my dad about salvation in Christ before he died. Simply because of the
love and the fellowship of a church.
C. Bob Russell: “In a healthy church, the love that flows from the heavenly Father and through his
children is deeper, richer, faster, and more authentic than that which is found anywhere else in the
world.
1. Mk. 6:34 tells us that Jesus was filled with compassion toward the people, seeing them as “sheep
without a shepherd”.
2. In 2 Cor. 1:3, Paul describes God as “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort”, and he
commanded the church to express this kind of compassion, too.
3. Col. 3:12-14 – “12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive
whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And
over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
D. Christian Schwartz, Natural Church Development: …Our research indicates that there is a highly
significant relationship between the ability of a church to demonstrate love and its long-term growth
potential. Growing churches possess on average a measurably higher “love quotient” than stagnant or
dying [churches]…
Unfeigned, practical love has a divinely generated magnetic power far more effective than
evangelistic programs which depend almost entirely on verbal communication. People do not want to
hear us talk about love, they want to experience how Christian love really works.”
1. Why did the early church explode in growth?
--Because of their love for each other.
2. Acts. 2:42-47 – “42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous
signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common.
45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they
continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together
with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord
added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
3. When you get a group of people together who genuinely believe something, who practice it in their
lives, and who really enjoy each other, it’s such a contagious atmosphere that you can’t keep people
away from it.
4. Anne Ortlund, Up With Worship, says that the average church is too much like a bag of marbles –
we scratch against each other and make a little noise, but we really don’t affect each other much.
She says the church should be more like a bag of grapes that mesh together, producing a sweet-
tasting wine because of the interaction.
E. Practicing agape love is the true test of our faith.
--1 Jn. 3:16-18 – “16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we
ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother
in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love
with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19This then is how we know that we belong to the
truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence.”
CONCLUSION: A. Do you remember the pot-bellied pig craze a few years ago when people were
spending hundreds of dollars to own one of those exotic house pets imported from
Vietnam? Well, this craze started when breeders of these particular pigs claimed two
things: that these pigs were very smart and that they would only grow to a weight
of 40 lbs. For some reason, many people apparently loved the idea of a smart, mini-pig
running around the house for, thousands of these pigs were sold.
Well, it turned out that the breeders were only half-right. These pigs were very smart.
Some could even be trained to walk on leashes and use litter boxes. But they often grew
to weigh as much as 150lbs or more! Some grew to 250 lbs. Another drawback that the
owners of these unique pigs discovered was that they often became openly aggressive –
not at all pet-like.
So, what did people do with their unwanted pot-bellied pigs? Well, fortunately,
according to an article in U.S. News and World Report, a man named Dale Riffle came
to the rescue. Someone had given Dale one of these pigs as a gift and he fell in love with
it -- even though it never learned to use its litter box and in fact developed a tendency to
eat carpet, wall paper, and dry wall
Well, Riffle loved his pig so much that he sold his suburban home and moved with
his new pet pig, whom he had named "RUFUS," to a 5-acre farm in West Virginia...and
then he started taking in unwanted pot-bellied pigs and before long the guy was living in
"hog heaven". When the article was written he had 180 pig residents on this farm! And
these pigs don’t just live there...Riffle treats them to a luxurious lifestyle. The article
states that these little porkers snooze on beds of fresh pine shavings every night. They
wallow in mud puddles. They soak in plastic swimming pools to piped-in classical
music. They wait in line for one of Riffles belly rubs. They even socialize in age-graded
pig affinity groups....whatever that means.
And these pigs never need fear that one day they will become bacon or pork chops.
Believe it or not there is actually a waiting list for unwanted pigs wanting to get a hoof in
the door at Riffle’s farm. Riffle says, "We are all put on earth for some reason and I
guess pigs are my lot in life."
B. Now, I’m sure you would agree that it IS amazing that anyone in his right mind would
fall so totally in love with pigs!
1. But listen to something even more amazing:
2. The central theme of the Bible is that our majestic, all-powerful, all-knowing,
perfectly holy, God...is passionately in love with imperfect, sometimes openly
rebellious, frequently indifferent people like you and me.
3. You see, in many ways sin makes human beings even more unlovely than Riffle’s
pigs.
a. Listen to the bleak picture that Romans 3:10-17 paints of the human race: “There is
no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks
God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one
who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice
deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and
bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways and
the way of peace they do not know.
b. So all human beings are flawed because of sin.
--Rom. 3:23 – “23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
C. We are fallen creatures.
--Isaiah said that even our best attempts at goodness are as filthy rags in comparison to
the holiness of God.
1. But God loves us anyway.....even to the extent of wanting to adopt us as His very
own.
2. 1 Jn. 3:1a – “1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be
called children of God! And that is what we are!”
