Love

(Click on the pic to the left to listen to audio too)

There’s a  story about the actor who was playing the part of Christ in the Passion Play in the Ozarks.  As he carried the cross up the hill a tourist began heckling, making fun of him, & shouting insults at him. Finally, the actor had taken all of it he could take. So he threw down his cross, walked over to the tourist, & punched him out.

After the play was over, the director told him, “I know he was a pest, but I can’t condone what you did. Besides, you’re playing the part of Jesus, & Jesus never retaliated. So don’t do anything like that again.” Well, the man promised he wouldn’t. But the next day the heckler was back worse than before, & finally the actor exploded & punched him out again.

The director said, “That’s it. I have to fire you. We just can’t have you behaving this way while playing the part of Jesus.” The actor begged, “Please give me one more chance. I really need this job, & I can handle it if it happens again.” So the director decided to give him another chance.

The next day he was carrying his cross up the street. Sure enough, the heckler was there again. You could tell that the actor was really trying to control himself, but it was about to get the best of him. He was clinching his fists & grinding his teeth. Finally, he looked at the heckler & said, “I’ll meet you after the resurrection!”

None of us in here will ever be able to love like Jesus. But we can commit ourselves to love like Jesus. We commit ourselves to figuring our ways to love. When you commit yourself to loving anybody you begin to change the way you think, change the way you feel, change the way you do life.

We don’t love naturally. Loving God and loving others is supernatural.

When I met my wife something happened in me that goes beyond reason. I really can’t describe what happened in me. It just happened. This little video clip will give you an understanding of what happened (its only 1 min and 50 seconds long). Click here to see it.

It also happens in friendships. There is just certain people who you connect with more than others. You can’t explain it – it just happens. Like Jonathan and David. You can’t explain it. When I met Jesus for the first time at age 18 – the same thing happened in me. I could explain it – but it was something that is really unexplainable. I just know when I met him I began to think differently. I began to live differently.

To commit ourselves to love like Jesus is to make ourselves vulnerable to hurt, pain, and suffering.

CS Lewis said, To love at all is to be venerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin or your selfishness. But in that casket–safe, dark, motionless, airless–it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable…The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers…of love is …. Hell. 

Hurt, pain, and suffering are a part of loving. These are the very same things (hurt, pain, and suffering) that  could cause you to stop loving God and others. We need to accept the reality that people are going to hurt us – sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally.  Why does it hurt? Because we love them.

If it doesn’t hurt then you are not loving them. Sometimes we can get so hurt that are heart grows hard to the point where we can’t love them any more.

Why didn’t Jesus heart grow hard towards God, His father? He was hurt (wounded) more than we will ever be hurt. He went through more pain than we will ever go through. He suffered more than we will ever suffer. He was abandoned by the Father at a point of need.

Why didn’t Jesus heart grow hard towards God? Because He loved his Father and not what His Father could do for Him.

It is important to note that God loves us  not for what we can do for Him. There is nothing we can do to make Him love us. He already does. There are no prerequisites. There are no conditions. He already has a relationship with you because he was there when you were knit together in your mother’s womb.

The question is …. Do you love Him? Will you open up your heart to Him?

It is also important at this point to know that you really don’t love God if you expect Him to do something for you. He is not a genie in a bottle that will meet your top three needs.  Actually, He never promised to meet any of our needs – he only promised to be there.

If we are honest we really don’t need God. We need Him to do stuff for us.

• We need God to get us that job we want.
• We need God to provide us that significant other in our life
• We need God to make the changes we need to make in our life.
• We need God to take our pain and heart ache away
• .We need God to make our life better.
• We need God to take control of our life and make it right.

He says  “ I don’t want control of your life – I want you to surrender it!”

When you say, “I need God” PERIOD. That is when the supernatural begins to happen. He will meet you at your deepest need – the need for a relationship with Him. Nothing else. No one else. God alone.

We need a relationship with God. It is what we are all yearning for. Whether you are agnostic, atheist, or just a religious person (believe God is a control freak) – we are yearning for the same thing – to be loved. Only God can love you the way you need to be loved. We think we need more money. We think we need a better job. We think we need a new spouse. We think we need new kids. We think we need this and we think we need that. We think we need a boyfriend. We think we need a girlfriend. And we wear ourselves out chasing after them.

The only thing you need is to understand is that you are loved by God. Nothing else and no one else matters.

Jesus had confidence that His father loved Him. Even when they did mean and cruel things to Him – He never stopped loving Him. And God never stopped loving Him when mean and cruel things were happening to His only son.

You can put your confidence in the fact that God will not stop loving you even when others do mean and cruel things to you. Understanding how much God loves me gives one confidence to love others.

Because you understand that if God loves ME …. He can love anybody.

Loving others is the most important thing you and I can be doing. Last week we learned that the most important thing we can do is to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

When you love others – you make yourself vulnerable. You give them your heart. That is a very dangerous thing to do. Because when you love someone one you begin to care about them. When you care about them you serve them. When you serve them you give them opportunity to break your heart.

Look at Jesus …

Jesus healed people.

Jesus fed people.

Jesus did miracles for people.

And what did they do to him? They nailed him on the cross.

Jesus served people for their good and intrinsic value, not for what people could bring to him.

Dr. Tim Keller gives us this definition of love:

Love means to serve a person for their good and
intrinsic value, not for what the person brings you.

We are to love people who won’t love us back.

We are to serve people who will never serve us.

We are to help people who will never help us.

In the life of Jesus Christ, we see a living example of the fruit of the Spirit. Jesus modeled love, but He did so in a way that challenges our culture’s understanding of love. In this Corinthian passage Jesus shows that love is more than romance or a feeling. Fundamentally, love is an action.

1 John 3:18 New Living Translation says this:

18 Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.

If you love someone one you are going to serve them. There is no way around it.

In John 13  Jesus demonstrates His love for the disciples by moving straight to where they are least attractive—their feet. We tend to avoid loving less attractive people. We like to love beautiful people so that we can feel better about ourselves.

Those who we tend to avoid are the ones we need to serve. You can pray for them all you want but until you serve them you are not really loving them. If all you do is hang around beautiful people you will never really learn how to love.

Again look at the life of Jesus. He didn’t hang around beautiful people. Look at this list:

• Prostitutes
• Tax Collectors
• Really difficult religious people
• Demon possessed
• Judas his betrayer
• You and I

To Jesus, people are people. Everyone deserves to be loved for their intrinsic value and not for what they can bring to you. Romans 5:8 reminds us that while we were yet sinners, he died for us.

He is committed to loving us to the end. He is patient, kind, doesn’t keep a record of wrongs, He is not rude, and so on.

He tells us to go and love others who can’t love you back.

To serve people who will never serve you.

Help people who will never help you.

He is asking for a  commitment  to love Him by committing ourselves to loving others.