Plan for: Thanksgiving | Advent | Christmas
Plan for: Thanksgiving | Advent | Christmas
This sermon explores the concept of love as a permanent, enduring force, greater than faith and hope, and emphasizes the importance of expressing this love to those around us, as guided by the teachings in 1 Corinthians and 1 John.
Welcome everyone! I’m so glad you’re here as we’re wrapping up our series Love God; Love People, where we’ve talked a lot about God’s love, the example Christ set for us, and the difficulty of loving others in the midst of sin and brokenness. Today, we’re tying it all together by looking at the permanence of love and the importance of sowing love into the world around us. As an example of this love-filled posture, I want to share a story about one of the most selfless and loving people of our time, Mother Teresa.
“During my first encounters with Mother Teresa…I was struck by her profound humility. I knew that she was world famous and I had imagined that all famous people have a sense of their own greatness, a pride that shows through in their words and manners. There was none of that in Mother Teresa. There was an apparent selflessness in her, a quality that is not easy to find, even in non-famous people. It was as if she was totally unaware of herself, as if she was aware of only God and others. I had never met anyone in my life as humble as Mother Teresa. She was as humble as the poor whom we would lift up out of the gutters. Her humility was strikingly beautiful to me. Mother Teresa embodied so many other qualities as well, qualities that are all too rare in the world today.”
Humble. Kind. Caring. Compassionate. These are all qualities Mother Teresa shared with others and these are several of the specific ways we are called to love others as we follow Jesus.
What we haven’t discussed yet in this series is the eternal impact our choices have on others and the importance of keeping a long view of love, the gospel, and the redemptive work of Jesus.
Mother Teresa embodied so many other qualities as well, qualities that are all too rare in the world today.
In week 1 we took a look at the greatest commandment shared by Jesus. When confronted by the Pharisees Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (1 John 13:34-35) Is it possible that Jesus simplified the commandments for us to help us stay focused on what matters most? Maybe He was trying to get our energy fixated on one of the few things that will last throughout eternity.
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