Text: I John 4:19, "We love Him because He first loved us."
One of the questions that often confront us as believers is the "why" question. It relates to the very core of our existence as believers…
Why do you go to church?
Why do you pay your tithes?
Why do you pray?
Why do you follow your pastor?
Why do you lift up your hands in worship?
Why do you get up every Sunday morning and go to church?
Why do you sing God’s praises?
This interrogative question is simply answered with a calm answer. The answer is because I love the Lord, He heard my cry and pitied my every groan and long as trouble rise, and I live I’ll hasten to His throne.
But for some people, recitations from song lyrics aren’t convincing enough. For some people the reading of a few scriptures isn’t enough. The question again is why…
Why do you do what you do?
Why do you preach?
Why do you sing?
Why do you pray?
Why do you go to Sunday School?
Why do you usher?
Why do you serve as a Deacon?
Why do you give?
The world has a legitimate question and query. After all, why would you spend all of the time that you did this morning to bathe or shower, get dressed, apply makeup, comb your hair, eat breakfast, get into your car and come to this place?
Why would you fight traffic to get here?
Why would you waste gasoline to get here when it’s almost $3 a gallon?
Why would you spend valuable time in this building to praise God?
Why would you put clothes in the cleaners and wrinkle them by sitting in church for two hours?
Why would you risk the ridicule of friends, the ridicule of neighbors, the ridicule of your relatives, and yes, even the ridicule of those who you sit next to as you shed a silent tear or lift up a holy hand or praise God to the top of your lungs?
After all, you could have stayed home this morning. You could have done like more than 60% of the residents of Columbus and stayed locked in, in front of a television set, or worked in the yard.
You could have worked on your car this morning.
You could have got caught up on some sleep that you lost last night.
You could have gone to the mall, after all, the crowds are normally down on Sunday morning, and you could have found that outfit that screams out your name.
But you came here anyhow. And I’m curious why?????
After all, the choir is the same. They are not going to dedicate a song to anyone in this room. They don’t have agents or managers. They don’t have stage lighting and they don’t have record albums out. And yet every song – you know what’s going to happen – it’s going to have something to do about Jesus, it’s going to give praise to Jesus, it’s going to get excited about Jesus, it’s going to lead us into worship of Christ.
And I want to know why?
After all, the preacher is the same. His message is not going to change. You know what’s going to happen. He’s going to expound upon a passage. He’s going to look at the text from all angles and then no matter what he’s going to talk about Jesus dying on a cross, Jesus hanging between two thieves, Jesus hanging his head locks of his shoulders, Jesus buried in a borrowed tomb and then Jesus getting up with all power in his hand.
I mean is there anybody here from California, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, Oregon, Georgia, Arkansas, Illinois, Florida, D.C., and other parts of the country, who have gathered in this place, with scents of perfume permeating the air, with cologne that is name brand or designer brand, with designer knock offs, filling the room.
Why???
Have you tried to explain to those around you about your faith?
In 1 John 4, the Apostle John writes this text, which has similarities but distinctive differences. He is now writing not as a young firebrand, but as a seasoned saint. He is up in his years, and he now desires to dispense fatherly advice. He writes, yes, to his spiritual children – those who he has led to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and as some writers have suggested, who are grappling with the lure of worldliness and the guile of false teachers.
John considered it necessary to set the record straight. After all, when you review the life of John it is not a pretty picture. John was a disciple of Jesus but he had his own ministry to deal with. John’s ministry would take him to the Isle of Patmos. John’s ministry would take him to a vat of oil. John’s ministry would see him persecuted for the gospel sake. John’s ministry would take him from the closest fellowships with Jesus to receiving Jesus’ mother at his crucifixion to his current position. An elder thinks of life in a different way. It is a time of reflection. You look back on things that you did right, you think about thinks that you did incorrectly. You start seeing that there are more days behind you than days that are available before you.
John, why???
After all you could have had a great career in another field. Surely with your resilience you could have been a natural born leader. You could have served as a counselor to the Roman Government. You may have been a great Jewish temple leader. Or you could have thrived in one of the commercial industries of that day. You could have made a lot of money in the sea faring industry. But you threw it all away, you left your family and friends, you left the confines of a sure paycheck and tossed it all away to follow some man who’s mother said that his father ain’t really his father but his father sits high and looks low.
WHY???
This old man John says, I need to tell you something. And he suggests that it is not a singular sensation – it is a "group thing." John seems to intimate that there must be somewhere out there – other men, other women who think like he does. Other people out there who have made the same type of commitment to this Christ. After all in verse five and six he talks about people who are of the world, and then he used the first person nominative case – he says we – but he quickly qualifies it. He says "we" are "of God." He says that we hear God and those who are not of God does not hear him. He says we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
John has the audacity to speak on behalf of all of us. I don’t recall the election that was held that gave John that kind of burden, but apparently the Holy Spirit placed the burden there. He uses the case "we" over and over again throughout this chapter and by the time verse 19 comes along, he declares something for us – in case that we don’t have the collective boldness to proclaim it or perhaps there is a degree of timidity that may not let you proclaim it on your job or in your classroom or in your neighborhood.
John says, "We love Him." John declares that there is something that has occurred between the will, the emotion and the intellect that has caused us to connect with someone we have not seen, but He sees us all of the time. We connect with someone we have not touched, but He touched us all this morning with the fingertips of his love with grace underneath his nails. We connect with someone who is a spirit but He leaves His fingerprint across the pages of our lives and turns the pages with uncanny care and accuracy.
John says, "We love Him."
How can we love someone who is nestled in the very fabric of life itself? Who declares before Abraham was I am…
Who declares that there was not anything made that was made except it was made by him.
Maybe you’re here today and you know him. But that’s not enough. The depth of the desired relationship that He wants to accomplish goes eons beyond just a casual brush by relationship. He has no desire to be a celebrity in your life who just shows up at the big events and forsakes you the rest of the time. Maybe you came here this morning because you think that He only makes Sunday morning guest appearances but allow me to tell you…
He’s on call 24/7
He’s never too busy to hear your cry.
He walks with me.
He talks with me.
He hears your faintest cry.
He will answer by and by.
John says, "We love him." But John, how can you love someone who has allowed so much personal heartbreak in your life? After all your life has been turned upside down, you’ve visited prisons and stayed in them temporarily.
How can you love him? After all, if we tell the truth in this room, even though we’ve been promised that "over there" every day will be Sunday and the Sabbath will have no end…. what about now?
With wars and rumors of wars…. children being gunned down in our streets…. unemployment rising…. governments in crises… housing averaging $200,000 in most small cities alone…. but John leans back in his rocking chair and says, "we love Him."
Maybe he’s right – is there any body here that loves him? I must admit to you my brothers and sister that yes, I do love him. And I must concur with the prolific ness of the writer John – yes, I love him, and yes, I have my reasons. I can only sum it up in one word…. because.
Momma growing up would get angry with her children. She would refuse us some requests that we made from her. With feigned tears in our eyes, we would ask, how come we couldn’t go outside? How come we had to do our homework after we got home? How come we couldn’t do like the other kids do – and she would say because I said so. That answer never received an appeal. Her word was law.
But John says, it’s because…
It’s because He first loved us. Could it be that my love toward Him is not a voluntary gesture but it’s a reactionary gesture? Could it be that my love for Christ is reduced to a reciprocal response? Why do I love Him?
He made the first move.
He touched me first.
He was concerned about me first.
He noticed me first.
He wanted my best first.
He wanted to use me first.
He wanted to be my savior first.
He wanted to be my Lord first.
He first loved us. And once again, John has grouped me into a picture that is not just a personalized jacket – but I am a part of a group again – he loved us.
John’s earliest writings says "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth upon him should not perish but have ever lasting life."
Some people say Love isn’t love until you give it away. But Jesus says love isn’t love until I give my life. Because he loved me first, that suggests that there was a time when I didn’t love him. And yes, there was that time. Maybe you’re in this room this morning and you don’t love him – yet. But there’s time to get to love him now.
I didn’t love Him while I was out drinking and smoking.
I didn’t love Him while I was out playing and partying.
I didn’t love Him while I was out having a good time.
I didn’t love Him while I was messing around and cavorting.
I didn’t love Him while I was hitting and missing.
Even though I didn’t love him at the time – He loved me first. I believe that He even loved me before I knew who I was. He loved me because Jeremiah intimates that He knew me even before I was formed in the womb of my mother. Even before egg and seed came together. Even before I was a glint in my mother’s eye. He loved me.
Somebody here – aught to be glad that He loves you – even if you don’t love him yet….
He loves you even though you’re wrestling with a drug habit.
He loves you even though your bills are high and money is low.
He loves you even though you’ve got issues and lifestyles.
He loves you no matter how many tattoos and piercing you have.
He loves you no matter how rough your childhood has been.
He loves you no matter how trying your week has been.
He loves you even though you may have lost your job this week.
He loves you even though you may be throwing personal pity parties.
How do we know he loves us?
Because …he first loved us.
On a hill called Calvary ...He first loved us.
As they pierced His Hands ...He first loved us.
As they pierced His feet ….He first loved us.
As they lifted him high ...He first loved us.
As he got up with all power in his hand …He first loved us.
Is there anybody here who knows that if no one else in this world cares, if no one else bothers to say good morning to you, if no one else holds you in the midnight hour, if no one else speaks a word to soul….
YES…. He loves me.
YES…. He loves me.
YES…. He loves me.
YES…. He loves me.
You ought to say it with me…
YES…. He loves me…. (Close)
