We’re beginning a new series today on Teamwork. This is ministry month so we want to emphasize how we can bond together and work together as one for Christ so we can help more people.
One of our main goals as a church is to be a people-helping church, a ministering church. We don’t want to be a church that just sits around and moans about the needs around us – we want to roll up our sleeves and get involved in helping others, as God would have us to. We don’t want to just learn all the time and not put the truth into practice. We want to balance worship of God and service to others.
Since that’s our aim it’s essential that we continue to exercise good teamwork. So we’re going to look at a passage of Scripture that remarkably exemplifies the concept of working together as a team.
Simon Peter, the rough-cut, outspoken yet tenderhearted and insightful leader of the twelve apostles of Jesus wrote several letters in his later life to strengthen the church’s teamwork. So we’re going to look at a passage from the first of those letters this month. First Peter, chapter four, verses 8 through 11.
8Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.
10God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you. 11Are you called to be a speaker? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Are you called to help others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then God will be given glory in everything through Jesus Christ. All glory and power belong to him forever and ever. Amen.
Lee Iacocca once asked legendary football coach Vince Lombardi what it took to make a winning team. Lombardi said, "There are a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals and have plenty of discipline but still don’t win the game. Then you come to the third ingredient: if you’re going to play together as a team, you’ve got to care for one another. You’ve got to love each other. Each player has to be thinking about the next guy. You’ve got to do your job well in order that he can do his. The difference between mediocrity and greatness is the feeling these guys have for each other."
That’s profound and its also very practical.
Great teams in sports, in business, and especially in the church, are formulated when the members of the team love each other. That’s why Peter assigned this principle the "most important of all" status.
"Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other."
Please circle that word "show." That word indicates that it’s not enough to have love in your heart – you must SHOW love in your life!
There’s no question that every one of us wants to be loved and to love others. But it’s not enough for others to know that you love them – you must SHOW you love others! Love is not an abstract idea. Love must be manifested. True love is not just something you feel – it’s something you demonstrate!
Marriages have problems when partners don’t show love to one another. A husband and wife may love each other deeply but have a miserable marriage because they don’t know how to show their love for one another.
You can’t raise kids properly without showing them love. You can’t have true, lasting, satisfying friendships if your friends can’t tell that you love them. You can’t experience relationships in the community or in your church family without showing and receiving love.
So this is a very important topic.
For some of you, showing love is not a problem. For some of you it’s easy to show love. It’s comes naturally to you because of your temperament or because of how you were raised. Others of you have a more difficult time showing love. You don’t feel comfortable showing your love. You may simply have never learned how to show love.
But whether it comes natural or not – we all need to grow in this area because everybody needs to know they are loved. You especially need to know how to show love if you are a follower of Christ because Jesus said, "All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other." (John 13:35 NCV)
What we’re going to do today is see HOW to show love to others.
The good news is - God tells us how in His Word, so we’re going to look at some Scriptures that provide the know-how, the practical wisdom to follow this standard of love that so permeates what following Christ is all about.
There’s no way we can cover all the Bible says about love today because the Bible is a book of love and "God is love." (1 John 4:8) But we’re going to look at several Scriptures that give us specific instructions on HOW to show love to others.
We’re going to begin with the words of Christ Himself.
Jesus said in Luke 6:31 (CEV) "Treat others just as you want to be treated."
So there’s your first law of showing love to others:
1. Treat others just as you want to be treated.
This has been called "The Golden Rule" because it is so valuable. It’s like gold.
You want others to treat you with love and respect and there’s nothing wrong with that. Jesus uses something you can readily understand to teach you something you need to know. You need to treat others just as you want to be treated.
You want others to listen to you when you talk. You want them to think about your needs. You want them take initiative in seeking you out. You want them to show you love by the things they do for you. You want their love and forgiveness when you misbehave. You want understanding and second chances.
Jesus says then, you start doing that for others. Start listening when they talk. Be interested in what they’re saying – don’t just yawn and look away while they’re talking. Don’t just be thinking about what you’re going to say next – really focus on what they’re saying.
Start taking the initiative in seeking others out. Start meeting their needs. Start showing them love by the things you do. Forgive others and be patient with them. Be kind and understanding even when they aren’t acting right.
This great guideline of Jesus is pretty simple. It’s pretty straightforward. It’s pretty well known. BUT IT’S ALSO PRETTY EASY TO OVERLOOK BECAUSE OF OUR HUMAN WEAKNESSES. So we need to be reminded.
1 Corinthians 13:4 (NLT) - Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. 6 It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance
The second law of love builds on the first one. Not only should you treat others the way you want to be treated, you should
2. Treat others the way Jesus treats you.
John 13:34 (NLT) - "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. (And then Christ tells us HOW to love each other.) Just as I have loved you, you should love each other."
Jesus reemphasized this factor in John 15:12.
12 "I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you."
Jesus says, "I want you to love others the way I love you. I want you to treat others the way I treat you."
That’s pretty good treatment! Some have even dubbed this "The Platinum Rule." The Golden Rule is to treat others the way you want to be treated and one step up from that is to treat them the way Jesus treats you!
All you have to do is ask yourself, "How does Christ treat me? That’s how I need to treat others."
How does Christ show His love for you? That’s the way you need to show your love to others.
Five times the New Testament flatly declares that Jesus "gave Himself" for you. (Gal. 1:4; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 5:25; 1 Tim. 2:6; and Titus 2:14) Look at one of those verses with me.
Galatians 2: 20 - I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, (In other words, Paul is saying, "Christ is now calling the shots in my life. He’s my leader." Why would he say that?) who loved me and gave himself for me.
That’s how much Christ loved you. He loved you so much He gave Himself for you. That’s how He showed His love for you. He didn’t just talk about loving you. He proved how much He loved you by giving Himself, by coming to earth as a human being, by living and dying for you.
That’s great love! If you ever begin to feel unloved, if you get to the place that you think no one loves you - look at the cross of Jesus! He loves you so much He was willing to die for you! God is not just a God who talks about love. He shows you how much He loves you! And that’s what He wants us to do for others.
If you’re going to love others the way Christ loves them you’re going to have to give yourself like Christ gave Himself.
The Laws of Showing Love to Others:
1. Treat others the way you want to be treated.
2. Treat others the way Jesus treats you. Give yourself away to others.
So far it’s been pretty basic stuff.
Let’s dig a little deeper. Here’s the third law of showing love to others:
3. Take delight in honoring others.
"Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other." (Romans 10:10 NLT)
This is a very practical thing you can do to show someone you love and appreciate them. Give them recognition. Give them attention. Everybody needs attention. Everybody needs to be honored from time to time.
Spouses need to honor one another. Children need to honor their parents. That’s even one of the Ten Commandments. "Honor your father and mother." You need to honor your family and friends, your co-workers, your boss, your employees, and anyone in your life that you love.
We’re going to pause to honor someone right now. Jeff and Teresa Woodbury and Stephen would you step forward please?
Most of you know that during the time period of over a year Jeff and Teresa and Stephen have been unloading, setting up, then re-loading and hauling all of our sound and visual equipment while we met at temporary locations. We owe them a debt of gratitude because this was service "above and beyond the call of duty."
I know they went to all that trouble because they love God and they love others. But since today is the first Sunday they won’t have to load everything back up we wanted to say "thank you" and give them a little token of our appreciation. We have a gift card to a nice restaurant for them and it comes with hearts of love and appreciation. And let’s also honor them together with a round of applause.
Thank you.
The Bible says we need to take delight in honoring others. We need to look for opportunities to show others what they mean to us. It might be a kind word or maybe a small gift. It might be a pat on the back or a compliment. Little things can make a big difference in the life of someone you love.
Here’s another law of love.
4. Meet others’ needs.
1 John 3:17-18 (NCV) What if a person has enough money to live on and sees his brother in need of food and clothing? If he does not help him, how can the love of God be in him? 18My children, let us not love with words or in talk only. Let us love by what we do and in truth.
[Skit]
There are other laws of love in the Bible but here’s on last one for today.
5. Love others by faith.
Ephesians 3:17 (NCV) I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your life will be strong in love and be built on love.
Sometimes you’re not going to feel like it, but like so many others areas of your life you’re going to have to love by faith.
Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, said he used to preach a sermon on love that had four points: 1) God loves you unconditionally; 2) You are commanded to love others – God, your neighbors, your enemies; 3) You are incapable of loving others in your own strength; and 4) you can love others with God’s love.
That’s good biblical coaching. But, he said God showed him something was still missing from his sermon on love. He said God showed him through the Word and through experience that he needed to add a fifth point: 5) you’ve got to love by faith. You’ve got to show love even if you don’t feel love. That’s not being hypocritical. That’s living by faith.
Bright tells the story of two gifted attorneys who had great professional animosity, even hatred for one another. "Even though they were distinguished members of the same firm, they were constantly criticizing and making life miserable for each other."
"One of the men received Christ through our ministry and some months later came for counsel.
"I have hated and criticized my partner for years," he said, "and he has been equally antagonistic toward me. But now that I am a Christian, I don’t feel right about continuing our warfare. What shall I do?"
"Why not ask your partner to forgive you and tell him that you love him?" I suggested.
"I could never do that!" he exclaimed. "That would be hypocritical. I don’t love him. How could I tell him I love him when I don’t?"
I explained that God commands His children to love even their enemies and that His agape, supernatural, unconditional love is an expression of our will, which we excercise by faith.
Together we knelt to pray and my friend asked God’s forgiveness for his critical attitude toward his law partner and claimed God’s love for him by faith.
Early the next morning, my friend walked into his partner’s office and announced, "Something wonderful has happened to me. I have become a Christian. And I have come to ask you to forgive me for all that I have done to hurt you in the past, and to tell you that I love you."
His partner was so surprised and convicted of his own sin that he responded to this amazing confession by asking my friend to forgive him. Then to my friend’s surprise, his partner said, "I would like to become a Christian, too. Would you show me what I need to do?"
If you are going to love by faith you need to first make a faith commitment to Him.
John 1:11 (CEV)He came into his own world, but his own nation did not welcome him. 12Yet some people accepted him and put their faith in him. So he gave them the right to be the children of God.
Your right to become God’s child is tied to placing your faith in Jesus Christ. If you’ve never done that before, why not pray this simple prayer from your heart: "Dear God, I realize I need you in my life. I need your love so I can show love to others like I want to. Forgive all my sins because of what Jesus did for me by dying on the cross in my place. I now place my faith in Jesus. Thank you for your love God."
For those of you who are already Christ followers - are you really showing love in your life? Do you need to put your love into action? Commit to these laws of love today.
