Radiation—Love
All scripture marked NKJV: The New King James Version. 1996, c1982. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
My wife and I love the card game “Canasta”. Around 1950, Canasta became the biggest card came craze ever. (www.unclesgames.com) My parents played it and Monica and I bought a set and began to play several years ago. One year, we took a vacation up to one of the Kentucky State Parks and all we did was play cards—it was a great way to spend time together.
When I went home for mid-tour, one night I ran by Publix and picked up some chips and salsa and drinks. After supper, I cleaned off the table and set out the cards and the food. I called Monica and we sat down to a night of canasta.
We sat down and she took the cards and the score sheet. Then she began to deal. It was then that we both realized that we didn’t have a clue on how to play.
We knew that it involved cards and that it was fun. The last time we played was over a year ago.
Too many times, we react the same way with regard to our spiritual life. We forget how to play—how to do the basics and we are lost with nothing to focus on…many times we simply walk away.
We are in a series of messages about Radiation. We are using the term “Radiation” to describe the light that we omit to others. The first week we talked about who should be emitting light. Last week, we discuss what we should be doing to emit light. Tonight, we are going to talk a couple of minutes about how to we emit light.
In order to fully, understand how we are to show the world that we mean business—we must get back to the very basics of Christianity.
Jesus gives us the basics, while he is teaching. We have come to know it as the “Great Commandment” found in Mark 12. Mark 12 is found on page 896 in the red Bible underneath your chair.
Look down at verse 28—found in the right hand column about halfway down on page 896.
28 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?” (MK 12:29, NKJV)
The scribe is asking him—what does Jesus consider most important—of all of the things that Jesus could say—what would Jesus consider “THE” most important of all the commandments. He says to…
1. Love God
Look at Mark 12: 29.
29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. (MK 12:29-30, NKJV)
As basic as that sounds—loving God is the most important thing Jesus says that we should be doing. This is the essence of our message to the world—that we are people that love God…and that we have a God worth loving.
John Piper says that “love is the overflow of joy in God.”(Piper, John. Desiring God, 2003)
For those of you who are coffee drinkers, you would understand this. Have you ever filled your coffee cup to the brim with coffee, before adding the cream and sugar.
This always happens at Burger King. You go through the drive through the server hands you a full cup of coffee, and several packets of cream and sugar—for me its 4 sugars and one cream.
You pull over to get out of the way and you open up you cup, add the cream and sugar—and everything is good until you have to still—then it’s like starting the blend without the cap…coffee goes flying everywhere.
Anyway, the point is the coffee that gets left over is the love. The coffee in the cup is the joy. We need to be so filled with the joy of God that our overflow is continually running over.
We need to have joy in who God is, what he has done for us, and what He will do for the world. Jesus died on a cross in our place—even as dirty and as grumpy as we are—he loved us anyway…in fact he is joyous about our lives enough that it over flows. He died so that we may have life—abundant life!
When we choose to have joy in our God, we begin to love Him and that is radiated throughout our lives and into the people that we meet.
How do we love God? Jesus answers that commandment as well;
In John 14:15 Jesus says;
“If you love Me, keep My commandments. (JN 14:15, NKJV)
As you love him, do what he says—Read your Bible, Pray to Him, Share His message—do what He says, and do it out of love—not obligation. Do it because you are so joyous that God has given you the opportunity to serve Him.
As you love God and serve Him, the world will see, and you will begin to look for opportunities to follow the second greatest commandment.
Which is to…
2. Love Your Neighbor
Look at verse 31.
31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
(MK 12:31, NKJV)
We are to love our neighbors. Who are our neighbors?
It seems many of us stopped talking about our neighbors when we got out of preschool. We remember a Sesame Street song “Who are the people in your neighborhood?” The end that song says they are “The people that you meet each day.”
Jesus explains what a neighbor is when a lawyer asks the same question. The story is found in Luke 10:26-37, which is on page 918.
A lawyer came to him asking;
“Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus focuses back to the basics—back to what is important. Focuses on what we are talking about tonight. “Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself”
And the lawyer asks the question---“Who is my neighbor?”
30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
In the next two verses a Priest and a Levite pass this man by. I could preach all day about this story, but I want you to notice that it was the religious and the self-righteous that passed the man by. So many times Christian’s are too busy with their own religiosity to be neighbors to others, and to show mercy to those in need.
33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. (Lk 10:25-37, NKJV)
It was this Samaritan man who was the neighbor; he was the one to show mercy on the other man. We need to be like this man in the story.
There are people all around us who are beaten and broken by this world that we live in. They are lost, looking for direction and hope.
You are in a position to care for them and encourage them as they go through the painful times in life.
We need to have constant situational awareness of the people that are around us, we may not agree with them, we may not hang out with them, we may not even like them—it doesn’t matter…we are to love our neighbor.
Now, I want us to shift gears a little. We see that the Bible clearly teaches us to “Love the Lord your God and to “Love your neighbor as yourself”.
But in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives us a little more to think about. And I believe, especially in our position, we need to address it.
If we are to be light to the world. If you are to give off Radiation, you are to
Love God—that’s understood.
Love Our Neighbors—that’s easy to understand. We need to be good to people.
But we are to be radical in our faith. So the Bible teaches that we are also to;
3. Love Your Enemies
Turn to Matthew 5:43-44, 46-47, found on page 853 in the red Bible.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,…(Mt 5:43-44, NKJV)
We need to love our enemies. We need to pray for those who persecute us.
This is not a new concept that Jesus was the first to put forward.
Proverbs 25:21 says:
21 If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat;
And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
(Pr 25:21, NKJV)
Exodus 23:4-5 says:
4 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.” (Ex 23:4, NKJV)
Our job here is to fight a war. That means many times killing others to conquer the forces of oppression. But it all falls into following the rules of engagement. We are not a people who kill indiscriminately. We are a peaceful people who seek to provide a safe free land for these people in Iraq. We are to love and have compassion on the soldiers and the people that fight against us. Who knows maybe our kindness can win more battles than our hatred. There is a balance. There are those times when we are to engage the enemy. And when we engage, we do so decisively and powerfully. But there will come a day, when victory is achieved, we must show compassion and show light to them as well.
This also applies to the individual enemies that we have in our personal life as well. When we have disagreements and hardships between others we are to love them.
Many times we react to our enemies like this mouse I heard about in the Stars and Stripes. (10 Jan 06)
A homeowner in New Mexico was burning some trash one day while he was cleaning his property. He had caught this mouse inside and decided just to throw it one the fire. The next thing he knew, the burning mouse ran under the house and caught the house on fire. The house burned to the ground.
Many times in our personal relationships, we are incredibly eager to destroy our enemies—be it through rumors, through spiteful remarks, through gossip, you name it. We seek to burn the enemies house down.
This is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says that we are to pray for our enemies. We are to love our enemies. This is God’s command to us. Through this we show the world our light.
We show our radiation to others around us, through loving God, through loving our neighbors, and through loving our enemies.
Over the years, I have come to love two sports—Baseball and NASCAR. I never played Baseball on a team and I’m too chicken to drive too much over the speed limit—so participation has long been limited to watching the cars go around the track on TV or attending the local minor league baseball team.
That was up until Playstation 2. On the PS2, I can be the baseball player I never was. I can drive the car into the wall—that’s the only kill I’ve accomplished. I can be in the game.
You have an opportunity to get in the game tonight. To Love God, to Love your neighbor, to love your enemies—to radiate light for all of those around you to see.
Some of you tonight are wondering about what it means find that joy I mentioned earlier—a joy that draws you in to express love for God.
This joy is a result of what God has done in your life. All of us are sinners. We have sinned against God. And the Bible says that sin is punishable only by death. Jesus paid this price by dying on a cross in our place. All we must do is accept him as that payment. Accept that payment from him.
You can do that tonight. After the service, I will be here at the from and would love to share with you how to accept this payment and to be saved.
Let us pray.
