Donate to Support

Support the church that supports this blog. Donate at - www.PleasantGrove.cc Click the donate button in the upper righthand corner.
Showing posts with label Sacrificial love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sacrificial love. Show all posts

Monday, October 25, 2021

Love Endures Forever

Introduction
How do you know if someone is really a Christian?  What evidence that proves it?

If you asked 10 different people, you might get 10 different answers.

Some might say, “You know someone’s a real Christian if they pray for someone and actually heal them or prophecy about the future and have it come true.  That’s a real Christian.”

Others might say, “A real Christian reads their Bible and knows what it all means.  They can explain how Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins. They are a real Christian because they know Christian doctrine.”

Another person might argue, “No.  It all comes down to faith.  It is only by faith that a person is a real Christian.”

Yet another person might retort, “Yeah, but what about good works?  People must do good and give to the poor and help the needy.  That shows they’re a real Christian.”

Someone else would say, “Yeah but what about the martyrs?  Someone who dies for their faith, surely that’s undisputable evidence they are a real Christian—the best Christian of all.”

The members of the 1st Church of Corinth were arguing about these things.  In fact, some were saying, “I’m a better Christian than you, because I can do this or I’ve done that…”  And in answer, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians, and we find a good summary of Paul's response in 13:1-3.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

So Paul says it’s not supernatural power, it’s not knowledge of the Bible, it’s not doing good or being good, it’s not even dying as a martyr for your faith that proves you’re a Christian. Paul says, it all comes down to love.  Love is what proves you are truly a Christian.  When the love of God lives in you and you love others, that’s proof you are a Christian.

But the kind of love we’re talking about is not necessarily the type of love the world talks about.  So Paul goes on to explain what God’s love is like—the kind of love we are to have and show.  And today, I want to finish our series on Paul’s words about love from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.  Today, we learn that love endures forever.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Endurance
One of my church members, Kate Roberts, achieved a personal record at her cross country race this weekend in South Carolina.  Cross country racing is an endurance sport.  The runners push themselves to their physical limits racing long distances, competing as a team.  They train their bodies everyday to endure the pain and strain of physical exhaustion from running 3 to 6 miles as fast as they can.  I think Kate was able to run 3.1 miles in less than 20 minutes this weekend.

Endurance is the ability to withstand hardship or adversity.  How in the world does endurance belong in a definition of love?  If you are young and "in love" you tend to focus on all the ways the person you "love" makes you feel good.  When you've been married a long time, you understand much better about the "endurance" element of love.

Of course, I hope by now in this series, you understand that real love (God’s love) is not about how someone makes us feel.  Love is not a mere emotion or a pleasure we derive because we like being around someone.  Love is a gift we give to others regardless of whether we get anything at all in return.  And sometimes love—real love—has to endure many things we don’t like about others.

As a parent, I can tell you I didn’t enjoy it at all the time I took my young kids to see a movie and one of them got sick and threw up on me.  And I had to take one kid to the bathroom and get her cleaned up.  I had a change of clothes for her in the diaper bag, but not for me!  So I had to wear that filth all the way home while trying to comfort a sick child.  Yeah, that was not fun and I didn’t like it at all.  But I loved my child and cared for her.  I “endured” the disgust and discomfort of “wearing” vomit soaked clothing until I could gather up my kids and get them home, cleaned up, and then clean myself up.

But that was just a hour or so of endurance.  I think about my own Mom’s enduring love over the years with me and my siblings.  I know we have all done many things to disappoint her and even break her heart at times.  Yet she has endured.  Now, as my mother is growing older and her health is declining, we are taking loving care of her more and more (especially my older brother and younger sister, because they live closest to her).

Redefining Romantic Love
As I have told you in previous blogs, 1 Corinthians 13 wasn’t originally written about the romantic love between a husband and wife.  Yet this passage is often read at weddings, because it is such relevant advice for newlyweds. 

Our society is infatuated with the concept of romantic love.  Unfortunately, popular culture—through movies and music—has degraded the idea of romantic love to be all about how a person makes us feel.  We have taken the greatest godly virtue of all and turned it upside down.  Love in the world is not about selfless sacrifice, but about deriving pleasure at the expense of the person we “love”.

It is no wonder that so many people experience broken relationships, broken marriages, and are extremely confused and scarred when it comes to romantic love.  Our culture has created an idealized fantasy about love that does not exist, and when people fail to achieve or maintain the “feeling” of love, they feel cheated, become disillusioned, are broken-hearted, and wonder “why can’t I just find true love like everyone else?”  

Can you imagine how it would revolutionize the world and our romantic relationships if the prevailing notion of love became the biblical view of love?  If it wasn’t about how another person made you feel, but about how we gave ourselves to one another sacrificially? 

Ironically, you are more likely to find “feelings” of love more often when you stop chasing them.  When you give yourself to your spouse sacrificially, you are more likely to have romantic feelings.   And when the husband and wife are both loving each other sacrificially, they will both likely feel more intense attraction to each other. 

God’s Enduring Love
Now I want you to consider the never-ending, enduring eternal love of God for the world.
God created the universe and everything in it—the stars in the sky, the land and the sea, the plants and animals and us.  In sacrificial love, God gave us life.

When humanity broke God’s heart by turning against Him, He didn't give up; God continues to love us because His love endures forever..  God made ways to protect us—even protecting us the best He could from our own sin, while still allowing us the freedom to choose how we live.  People often get frustrated or angry with God because bad things happen to them or God.  God didn't cause those bad things.  We cause them by our sin (or they were caused because humanity has been wrecking God's perfect creation for thousands of years).  It is a miracle of God's love that we are still here and haven't completely destroyed ourselves and that God has still preserved our freedom to choose how we live.  Unfortunately, our choices cause a lot of hurt and suffering, but God still preserves us through HIs enduring love.

4,000 years ago, God chose a man of faith named Abraham to begin the process of saving the world—even saving you.  4,000 years ago.  Think about how long ago that is.  The American Revolution was 245 years ago.  That seems like a long time to a lot of us, but it is only a blip on the timeline of God's love story told in the Bible.  4,000 years ago, God was thinking about you and working to save you when He called Abraham to begin the rescue mission for humanity.

Even when Abraham’s descendants were slaves in Egypt 600 years after Abraham, God's love endured and He kept working through the Israelites to save the world.  God used Moses to deliver the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

3,000 years ago, God made David the king of Israel and said, “I will raise up one of your descendants… I will secure his royal throne forever.” (2 Samuel 7:12-13)  God was talking about Jesus, who is David's great great great... grandson.

Jesus was born 2,000 years ago.  He lived as the perfect lamb of God, without sin or blemish.  He gave his life sacrificially to atone for our sin (showing God’s perfect, unconditional love for you and me).

Through all of these thousands of years, God’s love endures.  We've given God a million reasons to give up on us, but He hasn't and He won't.  God is hoping beyond hope that people will finally hear Him calling and turn from their sins, receive His love, and be saved.

And God is hoping beyond hope that we will all start to love God and love our neighbor just as Jesus did and that our love will endure in every circumstance because real love endures forever.

My mission, the reason I’ve devoted my life to work as a pastor, is so that more and more people will turn to God and receive His love and in turn love others the way God loves us.

1 Corinthians 13:8 says, “Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!”
All the things in this world we think are so important now will pass away. 
It won’t matter what kind of clothes we wear, or the car we drive, or which house we lived in.
It won’t matter which flag we saluted or whether we were democrat or republican.
It won’t even matter if the Braves won the world series in 2021.

1 Corinthians 13:12-13 says, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that [we] know now is partial and incomplete, but then [we] will know everything completely, just as God now knows [us] completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”

Monday, September 27, 2021

Love is NOT Irritable

Introduction
Kelly and I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Puerto Rico last weekend as we celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary.  Thank you for allowing me the freedom to be away.  It was a much-needed vacation.  Puerto Rico was a beautiful, interesting place.  I learned so much about it.  Puerto Rico is an American territory and Puerto Ricans are proud America citizens.  The island has a distinctive Latin/Caribbean vibe, but it is also very much American.  90% of the people we met spoke perfect English.  And they live very much like Americans on the mainland.

There was one exception.  As we drove to the airport to fly home early last Monday, we were driving on a major highway at about 4:30 in the morning.  As we came to the red traffic lights, cars would slow down a bit and then run the red light when they determined the intersection was clear.  Everyone was doing it.  I guess that’s just the way they do it in Puerto Rico!  I said, “Well, that’s not the way we do it in Georgia!  So I’m not doing it!”  But then I started to get really concerned, because we would be driving along at 65 MPH and I’m thinking if I stop, these cars behind me are gonna rear end me because they’re not expecting me to stop!  So, I started gingerly running the red lights too (because I didn’t want to cause an accident!).

That got me thinking about road rage. Road rage is a modern phenomenon where drivers get angry and lose control and lash out at other drivers because of stress and frustration while driving.  Most of the time, road rage only lead to verbal attacks (or the use of obscene hand signals).  But sometimes it even spills over into physical violence. 

Road rage is a modern problem.  I don’t think people were arguing, flipping each other off, and rudely tailgating each other’s camels in Bible times.  There’s something about being inside a car that makes otherwise polite, mild-tempered people feel empowered to lash out at other people in ways they would never act if they were face to face with another human being. 

We see something similar on social media.  People will sometimes lash out and call people names and speak rudely on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in ways they would never act if they were with someone in person.  In past centuries, we might have been more polite and kept mean words to ourselves, because we were speaking with people face-to-face.  It wasn't necessarily that irritation wasn't deep down in people's hearts, but they didn't express it.  Then came the telephone where you could speak to someone miles away—maybe an operator or customer service rep you would never meet face-to-face, and suddenly people felt safer to berate someone over the phone.  Now, people are mean to others over the internet.

Anger, irritability, and unloving attitudes often hide down deep in the human heart.   But what the world needs is love.  And the kind of love our world needs is revealed in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.


Love Is NOT
Last week, David did a wonderful job teaching that love is NOT jealous or boastful or proud.  Today I tell you, Love is NOT rude.  It does not demand its on way.  And, It is NOT irritable. 

Someone who is irritable is grumpy, easily annoyed or made angry.  They are like the road raging driver who is so quick to lash out with angry words at the annoying driver who’s driving too slow in front of them (or stopping at a red light in the middle of the night in Puerto Rico while everyone else is running those red lights). 

People can get irritated when they don’t get their own way.  Irritated people are impatient and can be down right rude.  One person’s rudeness irritates someone else who then lashes out at someone else.  Before long, everyone is irritated.  And irritation and anger are slippery slopes where people sometimes slip down to rage and violence.

Real love puts a stop to it all.  When we love—really love the way God loves us—we find that love “does not demand it’s own way.”  And love is not irritable, but rather is easygoing, patient, and gentle.  Jesus once used love to quench a spark of irritation among His disciples.

Luke 10:38-42
38 As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. 40 But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”

41 But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Most people have experienced a situation like this.  Are you typically Mary or Martha in the story?  Are you the one doing all the work or the one sitting their having a good time? 

Martha was annoyed that she was doing all the work while her sister, Mary, was sitting at Jesus’ feet.  She got irritated and went to Jesus to complain.  I want you to notice verse 40.  She goes to Jesus and calls him “Lord”.  That’s a good way to start—recognizing that Jesus is the sovereign Lord of all.  But then, in frustration, she accuses the Lord.  She asks a question, but it’s not really a question.  She asks, “Doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work?”  Martha uses the question to point out what she thinks should be obvious to Jesus.  Really she was accusing Jesus saying, “My sister is making me do all the work and you aren’t doing anything about it!” And then she proceeds to try and tell the Lord what to do.  (That's pretty brash!)

I don’t want to be too hard on Martha.  She was a good woman.  She welcomed Jesus into her home.  She was being a good hostess, making sure everyone was fed—and it had to be a big meal.  There were a lot of mouths to feed—Jesus and all his disciples (that’s 13 people), plus there may have been other’s accompanying them.  It could have been a gathering of quite a few people. And Martha is trying to take care of everyone while her sister is sitting at Jesus feet.  (Sisters really know how to annoy each other, don’t they?)

Thankfully, Jesus didn’t get irritated with Martha.  He loved Martha (and her sister, Mary).  Rather than escalating the situation, Jesus said the truth in a gentle way.  He speaks tenderly, “My dear Martha…”  It’s a very tender way to rebuke her.  He knows her name and she’s dear to him.  Jesus appreciates what she’s doing—or at least he appreciates she is trying to help in the best way she knows how, by taking care of the meal.  But Jesus also conveys that what He really wants, the food that truly feeds him, is to teach and to have students soaking up the Good News about God’s Kingdom he came to give the world.  Mary is sitting at Jesus feet listening.  She has chosen the most important thing.  While Martha is “worried and upset over all these details”, Mary is sitting in the listening at the feet of God’s only begotten Son. 

My Way, Highway
Love does not demand its own way.  When we try to demand our own way, we are easily frustrated. When we are frustrated, we become irritable. When we’re irritable, we are rude. We might even say something for which we’ll be sorry later.  We might even go to the Lord, like Martha, and try to rebuke him saying something like:  “Now listen here Lord!  You should’ve told so-and-so to do what I wanted them to do.”  In that moment, we’re not loving God.  We’re not loving our neighbor. 

When we act like that, we’re being selfish and demanding our own way.  Our “own way” might not be the most important way.  It may not even be the right way.  We’re so distracted by all our plans and concerns that we don't care.  We’re not thinking of anyone else.  That's not love.

Martha was so distracted and concerned by all the details of fixing a big dinner for her guests that she missed the main point of the gathering, which was to spend time with Jesus.  The best hosts I’ve ever known—people who truly have a gift for hospitality—know how to make people feel welcome.  They don’t get so wrapped up in the details of serving that they lose sight of the people they are serving.  Exceptional hosts always keep the main thing the main thing. And the main thing is the people they are hosting.  The food, the setting, and everything else supports the people and if they they don't, they are simply discarded. 

When we get so wrapped up in accomplishing all our own big plans, we may not even notice our big plans have nothing to do with what Jesus really wants.  And who’s plans do you think are more important—ours or Jesus’?

So if you find yourself “demanding your own way”, it might be a good time to check yourself and ask: “Have I drifted off course here?  Does it really matter?  Why am I so upset and frustrated?  What’s the main point of all this anyway?  Have I abandoned love in this circumstance for the sake of something I really want?  Am I demanding my own way?” 

Conclusion
The kind of love our world desperately needs is "patient and kind.  It is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.  It does not demand its own way.  It is not irritable."  That’s only half the definition of real love from 1 Corinthians 13, but can you imagine how much better our world would be if everyone just lived out this first half of 1 Corinthians 13's definition of love? 

Well, if you are a Christian—if you call Jesus Lord—you are called to live this way.  The early Christians changed their world with this kind of love.  They started out as just a handful of people living in a hostile, unloving, unchristian world, but they didn’t let that stop them. 

You see, Jesus didn’t say, “Go out there and only love the people who are loving to you.”  No, Jesus said, “Love everyone.” He even said, “Love your enemies.  Pray for those who persecute you.”  And that’s what those early Christians did and it changed their world.

And that’s what Christians are called to do today—to love everyone, even our enemies.  When we do, it changes our world and makes it better.  So we need to get out there and do it. 

Maybe you aren’t a Christian, yet.  Maybe you haven’t decided to follow Jesus.  I would like to invite you to start today.  Jesus loved you so much he gave His own life for you.  And there is no greater love than this.  His love is so deep and powerful it can set you free from sin and shame.  It frees you from the wounds of the past and gives you a whole new future.  You can make a fresh start through Jesus' love.  Jesus’ love will change your live and empower you to change others too.  

You see, Jesus has already won.  And if you decide to follow him, you are included in His victory too.  There won’t be anything this world can do to you, because you’ve already won.  You have nothing to lose, because you've already been crucified with Christ and risen to new life and you have the greatest reward anyone can ever receive--eternal life.  So you have nothing to lose!  Even if the evil forces of the world kill you, they still can’t defeat you because you have eternal life.  Living is serving Jesus and sharing His love with the world.  Dying is going Home to live forever celebrating Jesus love in the holy presence of God, where there will be no more sickness or sorrow or suffering or death.  For as the Bible says in Philippians 1:21, “Living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.”

Why don’t you make a choice to be a Christian and follow Jesus today? I invite you to pray to Jesus right now and ask Him to forgive you and accept you as His follower.  He will save you and give you Eternal life and also fill you with His Holy Spirit who will guide you to live for Him and His Kingdom.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Silly Love Songs Part 2 - Revealed in Christ

1 John 3:16
We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.

Introduction
            We all want to feel loved and we want to love others.  Love is programed is in our human code.  Maybe that’s why we are so infatuated with love songs.  One study showed that about 60% of the most popular songs from the last 50 years are about romantic love.[i]  In 2009, a study claimed that 92% of the top selling songs contained themes of romance, sexual appeal, or attraction.[ii]  As I was preparing for this message series about a month ago, I pasted on Facebook, asking for suggestions of cheesy love songs.  I was surprised and overwhelmed with a flood of suggestions.  It’s been a month and people are still adding song suggestions to the post!  The playlist I made from all the suggestions is over and hour and a half long!  (You can see the suggestions on my Facebook page here.) Apparently, we love our silly love songs!

The World’s View of Love
            One of the first silly love songs many children sing is:  Kelly and Chris, sittin’ in a tree.  K-I-S-S-I-N-G.  First comes love. Then comes marriage. Here comes Kelly with a baby carriage!  What a silly song!  Sadly, it is a fairly accurate description of the world’s childish view of love.  The popular conception of love is that two people see each other and it is Love at First Sight.  According to the way I define love--real love--there's no such thing as love at first sight.  There may be attraction at first sight, but that's not the same as love.  Love is something deeper that flows from a relationship that develops over time.
            The popular notion of love stories in our culture says two people meet and they Fall in Love.  In this way of thinking, falling in love is as accidental as falling in a ditch!  You have no control over it.  Again, you may certainly be caught off guard and be accidentally attracted to someone.  That is why it may be important to be careful who you hang around with.  It might not be wise for a woman and a man who are not married or in a committed relationship to hang out alone together.  Men and women are designed to develop attractions to each other and it can happen quite by accident.  That's why you have to be careful.  Again, I must point out that attraction is not the same as love.  Attraction sometimes leads to a relationship of  love, but authentic love is a choice.  We have the power to choose it or reject it.  Love does not happen by accident.  You don't fall into love by accident.  You choose it or you don't.
            In the popular imagination, people fall in love because they’ve found their One True Love.  And people often have this terrible fear they might miss out on meeting the one.  There is this notion that the is just one person out there who is meant to be your soul mate.  People feel a tremendous pressure to find their one true love.  Friends, life is not a Disney fairytale.  You don’t just have one true love out there.  There are lots of fish in the sea (as a more realistic expression goes).  There's not just one but plenty of people out there who could all qualify as your "one true love".  certainly, there are those out there who are more or less compatible with you, but there are plenty to choose from.  And your “One True Love” is the one person you choose to love and who chooses to love you for the rest of your lives.
 
The Bible and Love
            We often accept these unrealistic notions about romantic love as the gospel truth with out even thinking about it.  However, if we really want to know the truth about love, we need to search the timeless truths in the Bible.  When the Bible talks about love, it is not primarily talking about romantic love.  Remember what Jesus said?  He said the first and greatest commandment was to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  And the second greatest commandment was not love your wife.  It was love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:30)
            One of the most common scriptures to read at a wedding is 1 Corinthians 13 (known as the love chapter).  It reads: "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."  This really is wonderful advice to give to a couple as they tie the knot, but that's not why Paul wrote it in the first century.  Paul gave that advice to the people of his church to instruct them on how to getting along each other in church.  It was not about romantic love.
            When we here the word love, we often jump directly to romantic love, but that is not the primary focus of the Scriptures.  The very first time the Bible uses the word love is in Genesis 22:2 and it’s talking about the way Abraham loves his son Isaac.  Ephesians 5:25 does give advice about the love between a husband and wife, but it says, “Husbands, love your wives," (not by giving them a heart shaped box of chocolates, or flowers, or by writing them a sonnet, but love them) "just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”  
          Love comes in many forms and it’s not just about (or even primarily about) romantic love.  1 John 3:16 tells us what real love is.  It says, We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.”            Wouldn’t you agree: the most precious gift anyone can give is their life?  We admire firefighters and others who risk there life and sometimes even lose their lives trying to save others.  That is how Jesus loves us.            Romans 5:7-8 says, "Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners."  Jesus died for some good people.  (And I would argue that many of those people were good or did good things because they felt loved by how Jesus died for them.)  However, Jesus also died for some very bad people.  He died to offer forgiveness and grace and love to some people who've done some very evil things.  Maybe even some people who know one would have died for.  Jesus even died for the yong man who killed all those students at the school in Florida last week.  And Jesus died for all those who were killed.  That is the great love of Jesus. 


Dang It, Prince!
            I had planned to sprinkle some silly love song lyrics through this message like last week to drive home some of my points.  The song that came to mind for this section was Prince's song, "I Would Die For You.”  I never really listen to all the lyrics before as a child when the song was popular (and their kind of hard to understand when Prince is singing).  So I thought I better look up the lyrics so I could get them right.  I was very surprised by what I found.  These are some very spiritual lyrics that are could speak to us today!  Not the kind of thing you would expect from a pop icon famous for his sex appeal and provocative dancing and lyrics.  But listen to what he sings:
I'm not a woman.  I'm not a man.  I am something that you'll never understand.
[You see, the deepest love is not about romantic love.  It's about Christ's love for you.]
I'll never beat you.  I'll never lie.  And if you're evil I'll forgive you by and by.
[As Prince sings, he emphasizes the word "you" each time he sings this]
'Cause you, I would die for you, yeah; Darling if you want me to.
You, I would die for you


[And the song continues...]
I'm not your lover.  I'm not your friend.  I am something that you'll never comprehend.
No need to worry.  No need to cry.  I'm your messiah and you're the reason why.
'Cause you, I would die for you, yeah. Darling if you want me to.
You, I would die for you

[Listen to the song here]

            Do you realize the love you need doesn’t come from a man or a woman?  Until you realize it and find the love of God that fulfills your soul, you’re not really ready to be in a deep romantic relationship with someone.  Otherwise, you’ll constantly be expecting them to fill the God-shaped whole in your soul.  And they can’t.  At best, they’ll just leave you feeling unsatisfied.  They’ll be unhappy.  You’ll be unhappy.  In more severe cases, you’ll reach out for anyone to be in a relationship with in a desperate attempt to fill the void.  And you’ll do it again and again even if people keep using and abusing you. 
            The love you need doesn’t come from your kids or your parents or your friends.  Sure, we all need our parents to love us.  We all want our kids to love us.  And we all need friends who love us.  But if you’re looking to your parents, your kids, or friends to fill your need for God’s love, you’re setting yourself up for failure and disappointment.  If you have the love of God, you can get by without the love of these others; but if you don't have the love of God, none of these others will do.
            The love we need is found in Jesus.  He already died for you.  For you!  You are loved with the most deep and desperate and unlimited love!  Jesus suffered the most unimaginable pain and agony and death for you!  Let that sink in.  Let that encourage you.  Let that fill you from the bottoms of your feet to top of your heard and to the very depths of your soul.

Loving Others
            1 John 3:16 says, We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.”  We love others, because Jesus first loved us.  We are called to love the way Jesus loved us--by giving up our lives for them.  Giving up our lives doesn't necessarily mean dying.  More often, it means living selflessly with sacrificial love.  Because of what Christ did for us, we can join in with Prince as we sing to the world:  “I would die for you!  For our spouse – “I would die for you!”  For our children – “I would die for you!”  For our parents – “I would die for you!”  For our friends – “I would die for you!”  For our enemies – “I would die for you!”  For everyone – “I would die for you!”

Invitation
            I would like to invite you to receive the love of Jesus.  He died for you. Receive his love.  Accept it.  Become his dearly beloved child.  Not because you deserve it.  But because He did it for you!  If you've never done so, please pray to accept his love today.  And start living your life for him as he died for you.
            I would also like to invite everyone to be filled with the love of Jesus.  He died for you.  Now he calls you to love others sacrificially.  We can’t do that on our own.  We need to be filled with Jesus’ love in order to love others the way Jesus loves us.  So pray and ask Jesus to fill you today. 




[i] http://news.ufl.edu/archive/2007/05/love-still-dominates-pop-song-lyrics-but-with-raunchier-language.html
[ii] https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/09/92-top-ten-billboard-songs-are-about-sex/337242/