Sunday, September 21, 2008
These are two passages that we looked at last week which tell us what love is. These are things we may have heard for a
long time about what love is. But there may be a lingering question in many of our minds – yeah, but HOW? How do I get
that kind of love? Where does that kind of love come from? Love like that seems perfect and unattainable. How could
God expect that kind of love to come from people like you and me who can never get it right? Is there anyone who thinks
they can live here on earth and have this kind of love all the time? If we’re honest, I don’t think we would truthfully be able
to say that we could love like that. There’s a good reason why we can’t, too. This is God’s kind of love – perfect love,
love that seeks only the best for other people. That definitely counts us out. It is impossible for us to love like that. Well,
that’s the end of our series on love – have a nice day. – If it were up to US, we could just go home and not give it another
thought because we can’t do it. But God does not give us a command without giving us the way to obey it. We’re going
to talk about how to love today.
Last Sunday we started our new series “Love IS Action, Love IN Action.” Love is not a feeling. Love is an act of the
will. If you missed last Sunday, you can hear the message on the website – www.plattsmouthbiblechurch.org or we can get
you a CD copy of it. We need to know what love is, so I encourage you to listen to that message. We will spend the next
3 weeks talking about how we can do the impossible – how we can love with God’s kind of love. I want to alert you that
our thinking and our comfort will be stretched in this series. Many of us are very comfortable merely being acquainted with
people – even people here at church. That’s not good enough. God wants more for us. But it will take some renewing of
our minds (Romans 12:2). We will need to see God better, we will need to see ourselves better and we will need to see
others better. But even seeing things better will not allow us to do the impossible. It may be hard, but wouldn’t it be worth
it to be able to love like God Himself? Wouldn’t it be worth it to have God show Himself and His love through you in
amazing, miraculous ways? It WILL be worth it, so I encourage you to go with me on this trip to love.
Before we go to our text for today, let’s call on our Teacher for His help. PRAY
So – how can we do the impossible? Impossible things are …well, impossible. That is usually the place where we get
stuck. Sometimes marriages get stuck there and fall apart. Sometime our relationships with our children get stuck there –
at the point of impossibility – and we lose them. How can we do the impossible? May I remind you of something amazing
that Jesus said? Talking to His disciples about the difficulty of being rich and becoming part of the kingdom of heaven,
Jesus said that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom. The
response of the disciples was that their mouths fell open – Then who CAN be saved? Jesus’ response in Matthew 19:26 is
amazing – With men this is impossible, but with God ALL things are possible. How can we do the impossible – how can
we love with the love of God? With God ALL things are possible – it is with God. Ok, HOW?
As you know, I believe that when Jesus lived on earth in human form He lived a fully human life – He never cheated and
utilized His powers as God to get through difficult or uncomfortable circumstances. He was still fully God, but He did life
the way WE have to do it. But He did it perfectly. He never sinned. Even in THAT, He never pulled out His God power.
He lived exactly the same kind of life that you have to live – with the same limitations and same distractions and same
temptations and same weaknesses. If you and I could live like Jesus, it is probably true that we could love like Jesus loved
– which was also perfect and exactly what is described in 1 John and 1 Corinthians. Can we? Can we live the way Jesus
lived?
Our kind of love always seems to be based on what WE can get, how WE feel, what makes ME happy instead of others –
remember that God’s kind of love always seeks the best for the other person, regardless of what happens to ME. That’s
what Jesus showed us when He laid down His life for us.
By the way, He didn’t just lay down His life when He died on the cross. He laid down every moment of His life all the way
through. The first time we ever hear Jesus speak was as a 12-year old – I must be about My Father’s business. Even
then, His life was for others.
1 John 3:16 says that we know love because Jesus laid down His life for us – and WE ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren (other believers). By how Jesus lived and died, we know love – not just what love is, but we know all about
love. We need to study the life and death of Jesus to know love – what it is and how to do it and who receives it.
We saw a little in 1 Corinthians 13 of what love is, too – how can we show love like that, how can we HAVE love like
that? In John 17 we a very concise explanation from Jesus of how HE lived. This may help us see how we are to live.
Actually, John 17 is Jesus praying on the last night of His earthly life. I wonder if God the Father pays attention and wants
to answer when JESUS prays? Let’s see what He prayed for. John 17:6,20-23. READ. This prayer is mostly in regard
to the followers of Jesus – not His own fears or concerns. In verse 6 and following Jesus prays for the disciples who
traveled and lived with Him for three years while He ministered. And then in verse 20, Jesus changes His focus. He prays
for those who would believe the words of those original followers and become followers of Jesus. That is US – you and
me. And what does Jesus pray for us? Verse 21 – that all of us may be one (one in Christ – not “We are the World” type
oneness, unity, tolerance, all that garbage – unity in Christ). Jesus prays that we would be IN Him and He would be IN us
just like He was IN the Father and the Father was IN Him. Why? Verse 21 continues – so that the world – those who
don’t know Jesus – may believe that God sent Jesus AND that God LOVES them (v.23).
So Jesus lived IN the Father and the Father lived IN Him. What Jesus prays for is that we – you and I – would live under
the same kind of arrangement between Him and us. Is this a key to how we can love? It is definitely a key to how we
should live. The same thing Jesus prayed for in John 17 is what Paul refers to as the mystery that was hidden from ages
and generations, but has now been revealed by God to His saints – to those who believe in Jesus Christ. This is in
Colossians 1:27. That mystery, that arrangement of living is Christ IN you.
The only way God allows us to love like He loves, to live like Jesus lived – to do the impossible – is to put the life of Jesus
Christ IN us through the power of the Holy Spirit. There is no other way to love the way God loves – the way He wants
us to love. This is it. This is what God has wanted from the beginning for mankind – for mankind to be totally yielded to
God and allowing God to show Himself through us. There is no other way. We can’t muster it up on our own – it’s not
good enough. We can’t pass laws to make it happen – laws only show us how we fail to keep laws. We can’t work it up
emotionally. The love has to come from God Himself. God IS love, 1 John 4. Christ, God Himself IN you.
Jesus continues as He prays in John 17 giving us indications of what it means to be in Him and how He wants us to live.
John 17:22,23. READ. Jesus asks the Father to use the glory which the Father gave Him and which He had now given to
those who believe in Him to accomplish this oneness – us in Him and Him in us. And then in verse 23, Jesus explains – for
our benefit as He prays – He explains what He means by His glory being ours. “I in them and You in Me SO THAT the
world may be made perfect (complete/mature/right) in one.” What is that glory? It is the glory of GOD. The glory of God
in us through the indwelling Jesus. Jesus had the indwelling Father in Him and that was the glory the Father gave Him.
Now Jesus extends the same glory to US. And then go down to verse 26. John 17:26. READ. Jesus declared to His
apostles, who would later declare to us, God’s name SO THAT the same love which the Father loved Jesus with would be
in US and Jesus HIMSELF would be in us.
How do we love with the kind of love spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 John 3:16? We allow our lives to be controlled
by the indwelling Son of God. We yield our lives to Him. We deny our selves, take up our cross and follow Him. We
trust in the Lord with all our hearts and do not lean on our own understanding. Anything else, anything less is not love. So
the big question is “What do I need to do to yield myself to the Lord Jesus Christ and be controlled by Him?”
If you are already a believer in Jesus Christ, you may actually have a harder time doing this than a brand new believer.
Look at Romans 12:1,2. READ. I URGE you brothers and sisters, because of the mercies God has shown you (He did
NOT allow you to remain lost, He has forgiven all your sins, He has removed you from the kingdom of darkness and
brought you into His kingdom, the Kingdom of life and light and of His beloved Son, He has removed your heart of stone
and given you a heart of flesh, a living heart, He has put His law in your heart and written it on your mind – we could keep
going and going and going) – because of the mercy that God has shown you, give your life to Him. Live for Him. Be His
totally. Make the conscious choice to turn your life over to Him in every area – no matter what. We have talked about
how our lives are like a house and we have some rooms where we don’t want Jesus to go. Open up every door and let
Him in and let Him clean it up and fix it and throw out the garbage and put in His perfect stuff instead. Romans 12:1 says
that as we give our lives to Jesus it will be and is holy (set apart completely for His purposes) and acceptable to God. And
then the next phrase in verse 1 is one I just can’t get past – “which is your reasonable service.” It literally means that to do
this – to yield our lives to Jesus Christ – is the only logical thing we can do, considering His mercies to us. It’s the only
thing that makes sense. And notice, it is a choice – “present your bodies.” Look at verse 2 again, “do not be conformed –
be transformed.” We make the choice based on all of God’s goodness to us. Do not be conformed – don’t let yourself be
crammed in to the mold of the world and take its shape like a Jell-O ring or a sand bucket. Don’t LET yourself be put in
that position. Instead, be transformed – THAT is the work of God, not ourselves, although we have to be in places where
God CAN transform us – be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Where could we find things that would transform
us and renew our minds? The Word of God is the first place. Turn to Hebrews 4:12. READ. Look at Psalm 119:105.
READ. Turn back to Psalm 107:17-20. READ. God’s Word is one of the main places we go for life transformation.
But there is another place. John 13:34,35. READ. What will it require to show love that will draw in the world? It
requires us to be together, loving one another. Where does that kind of stuff happen? In CHURCH. And I don’t just
mean “in the church building.” Not too many nonbelievers will see us loving one another in the church building. We
definitely SHOULD love one another while we’re here, but this love for one another has to be seen wherever we are. It
has to be heard by people as we talk on the phone with one another at work. It has to be seen as we share meals and do
stuff together. It has to be seen as we serve the community. It has to be seen as we deal with difficult situations with one
another. What usually happens with churches when there is difficulty is that people bail and run. That is not loving. That is
selfish. One of the reasons we are in our series on love is to help each of us to go deeper in loving one another. Out at
convention this week our speaker, Dr. Tony Beckett, quoted someone who said that the church is meant by God to be the
presence of Jesus Christ in a community. Are we? By our interaction with one another here and everywhere, are we
showing Jesus to the world in our love for one another? The only way we CAN love is to allow Love Himself – God,
Jesus, the Spirit – to do His thing in us. We yield ourselves to Him, giving Him control in every situation of our lives, and
He will always do the right thing.
What if you are just getting it this morning for the first time – I can’t love with out Jesus Christ in my life and He is not
there. You, too, need to yield your life to Him. First, admit that you are a sinner – Romans 3:23 says that ALL are sinners
and fall short of God’s glory and perfect standard. Remember that Jesus said that when we believe, He GIVES us God’s
glory – He lives in us. And that’s the only way to fix the broken relationship between us and God. What we deserve for
our sin is death, but what God offers us freely as a gift is life – eternal life in Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23). We have to take
the gift and receive it for it to be ours. And as we yield our lives to Jesus Christ, we allow Him to take His rightful place in
us – if we confess with our mouth Jesus as Lord or Master, and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead we
will be saved (Romans 10:9). He is the Master – we need to position ourselves under His authority and do what He says.
Not only will be able to show His love, He will be able to show Himself in every aspect of our lives – perfectly. That’s the
whole point of life – us IN Him and Him IN us. That’s the only way we can love the way God describes love. That’s the
only way to experience real life. Christ IN you – the hope of glory, Colossians 1:27. Are you ready to yield your life to
Him?