Membership Matters	November 8, 15

What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Play youtube clip - What’s Love Got to Do with It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40dxDSXsrL8 0:51-1:10

What’s Love Got to Do with It?

It’s a searching question - what’s love got to do with it?

It’s the question we want to ask and try to answer this morning.

What does love have to do with who we are and what we do?

Bertrand Russell’s daughter said this about her dad: His whole life was a search for God...Somewhere at the back of my father’s mind, at the bottom of his heart, in the depth of his soul, there was an empty space that had once been filled by God, and he never found anything else to put in it. Vanishing Grace, Yancey

In answer to the question of what kept her dad from faith, she said this:

I would have liked to convince my father that I had found what he had been looking for, the ineffable something he had longed for all his life. I would have liked to persuade him that the search for God does not have to be in vain. But it was hopeless. He had known too many blind Christians, bleak moralists who sucked the joy from life and persecuted their opponents; he would never have been able to see the truth they were hiding. Vanishing Grace, Yancey

Yancey in his book Vanishing Grace writes that he has asked many people this question, “Tell me the first word that comes to your mind when I say Christian?

Not one time has a person put forward the word ‘love.’

What’s love got to do with it?

It would seem quite a lot!!!

Before Jesus broke the bread and passed the cup to his disciples and told them that these two elements would be symbols of the new covenant to be established by the sacrifice of his life, he gave to his followers a new command - John 13:34: Love one another.

Why did Jesus say ‘love one another’ was a new command?

The OT spoke of loving your neighbor as yourself.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expanded that command to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ to include one’s enemies.

Jesus said there is nothing unusual about loving those who love you back; or doing good to those who are good to you; or lending to those from whom you can expect repayment. People who don’t know God do this all the time.

What is unusual and remarkable is when a person who loves God, loves those who are their enemies.

One time an expert in the Law tried to test Jesus by asking what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responded by asking him, “What is written in the Law?” The expert answered: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,’ (Deuteronomy 6:5) and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ (Leviticus 19:18). Luke 10:27.

Jesus told him that he had answered his own question correctly. But the man, wanting to appear to be righteous, asked another question - who is my neighbor? In other words, ‘Who am I to love as myself?”

The answer Jesus gave him illustrated what the kind of love taught by the Scriptures looked like in action. People of that day understood there were different kinds of love. * There was the love of parents and children.

* There was romantic and sexual love. * There was the love of friends.

* There was the love of country.

But the kind of love that Jesus spoke of; the kind of love with which he loves his followers and he would have his followers’ love one another is an “unconditional” love. Thomas Aquinas described this kind of love as “willing the good of another.”

Luke 10:30-37.

We hear the word ‘Samaritan’ and fail to appreciate the great divide and tension that existed between Jews and Samaritans. But it was huge.

When the Pharisees wanted to insult Jesus they called him a Samaritan.

When Samaritan villages didn’t welcome Jesus, his disciples suggested that Jesus call down fire from heaven to destroy them.

It was no mistake that in this remarkable parable Jesus made the hero of the story a Samaritan. And I can’t help but wonder if Jesus told the story to us, who would he make the hero to be?

According to Jesus, unconditional love, even for one’s “enemies,” is what was new regarding the love he spoke of.

We learn from this parable that unconditional love sees the other and it chooses…	...to go to the other.

...to engage with the other.

...to give to the other what is needed and more.

And it does so with no expectation of receiving something back for having done so.

This is the kind of unconditional love Jesus wants his followers to have for one another. It’s the same kind of unconditional love he has for us. A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this will everyone know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

To love one another and others like Jesus loves us is something so extraordinary that Jesus said, doing so will convince everyone, “that you are my disciples.”

It is good for us to learn how to share our faith.

But Jesus didn’t say everyone will know you are my disciples if you learn how to make a good gospel presentation. He said they will know you are in relationship with me, by the kind of relationship you have with one another,

What’s love got to do with it?

According to Jesus - everything.

The new heart we are given, that is the heart of a servant, as we considered last week, is also a heart that loves like God loves.

God so loved...that he created everything that is.

God so loved...that he purposed to rescue human beings.

God so loved the world… that he gave his one and only Son.

God so loved… that he searched after us.

God so loved… that he will complete in us what he began.

Nothing can separate us from this love.

Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, not any power in all of creation.

God’s love is not stingy, but extravagant.

1 John 3:1: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us…

God loved us even when we were his enemies.

Now he has adopted us as his sons and daughters.

His love doesn’t just tolerate us; it delights in us.

Zephaniah 3:17: The Lord your God….will take great delight in you, he will	quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

If we are to be a people who are mission with Jesus, into whose hearts the Holy Spirit pours the love of God, as Romans 5:5 says, doesn’t it make sense that what would spill out of us is...love...for one another and those we are sent to?

This is why our relationships with one another and others are so important.

It’s why we make the effort to talk with others and to listen to them.

It’s why we hang out with one another and others.

This is why we invest time and effort into building friendships.

It’s why we have people into our homes and why go to theirs.

What’s love got to do with all of this? Everything!

And remember – we are not talking about warm and fuzzy feelings.

Love is a choice.

You studied in your life groups this past week about spiritual gifts.

The Spirit of God equips us with grace to serve others in Jesus’ name.

But the exercise of these giftings will accomplish little or nothing without love.

Think back to the last wedding you attended.

Was 1 Corinthians 13 read somewhere in the ceremony?

It’s been read in almost all the weddings I have attended or participated in.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a: Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails...

It is always a moving experience to watch a young couple as this passage is read. It is true that if their wedding day promises are to be kept for a lifetime, they will need to cultivate between them the kind of love 1 Corinthians 13 describes. But there is one problem.

The context of 1 Corinthians 13 is not marital love; it’s spiritual gifts.

Keeping this in mind let’s read 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.

As Paul wrote these verses he is using a literary technique called hyperbole.

To ensure the Christians at Corinth got the point he was trying to make, Paul intentionally exaggerated the statements he made.

Part of his exaggeration concerned the number of gifts he had… and the benefit he gained by possessing and using those gifts.

Paul wasn’t trying to suggest in verse 1 that he could speak all the languages of men and angels. His point was that even if he could… to do so without love… (bang a pot) …would make him nothing more than an irritating noise.

Paul wasn’t saying in verse 2 that he had the gift of prophecy, discernment, wisdom, knowledge, or faith.

What he was saying was that even if he did possess all those gifts, without love, they would be of no profit to anyone, including himself.

In verse 3, Paul wasn’t saying that he had been given the ability to give away everything he owned to the poor. Nor was he suggesting that he had the gift of a willingness to die for someone else. His point was, that even if he did these things, without love, they would be of no benefit…to his own reputation and spiritual standing with God, nor to the people who would receive his possessions or whose lives would be spared by his sacrifice.

1 Corinthians 13 teaches us that individuals in this church and in this community will not experience the grace of Jesus through us if we do not.. in love… use our gifts to serve them.

It’s not enough to know what our gifting is and to use those gifts.

Our gifting must be coupled with and come out of a heart that loves others as we have been loved. It is with this in mind, that we again read verses 4-8.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails...

What will people NOT experience through us as we serve them in love?

Envy. Boasting. Pride.

Rudeness. Self-promotion. Anger.

Keeping track of things done wrong.

Delight in their mistakes

What will people experience as we love them and serve them in love?

Patience. Kindness. Truthfulness.

Protection. Trust. Hope. Perseverance.

What’s love got to do with it? Everything!

How do you need to respond to the truth we’ve looked at?

The Blessing

Matthew 5:16.

May you know the blessing of your life drawing attention to the reality and to the goodness of our God.

John writes in chapter 8 of his gospel about an incident involving a woman whom the religious leaders had caught in an act of adultery.

How did the religious people deal with the woman?

John 8:3-5: The religious scholars and the Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone 4 and said, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 Moses, in the Law, commands us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"

The religious people paraded the woman into the Temple Courts, where everyone could see her and hear the charges brought against her. Their intent was to shame her.

But they were also confronting Jesus in a very public forum. He also was on trial that day.

The religious leaders appealed to the Law of Moses, believing this gave an air of legitimacy to their charges.

But the Scripture they appealed to in Leviticus 20:10 was clear: If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife – with the wife of his neighbor – both the adulterer and the adulteress were to be dealt with. Their application of Moses’ law was one-sided. Where was the man?

How did Jesus respond to the woman and to the religious leaders?

John 8:6b-11.

…Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. 7 They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone." 8 Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt. 9 Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. 10 Jesus stood up and spoke to her. "Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?" 11"No one, Master." "Neither do I," said Jesus. "Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Before responding to the woman, look at how Jesus dealt with her accusers.

They kept jabbing at him – “what do you say! Don’t you agree with Moses?!”

And what did Jesus do? He wrote with his finger in the dirt.

I wish I knew what he wrote.

Once he told them to go ahead - if they were sinless - they all left.

Jesus waited to speak with the woman until they were alone.

Jesus spoke to her – not as an object; not as an adulteress, but as a woman.

Jesus forgave her.

And, Jesus told her to sin no more.

What was the difference between how the religious crowd treated this woman and how Jesus treated her? The difference was love.

And that made all the difference.

Romans 2:4 - Don’t mistake God’s kindness, tolerance and patience as meaning he doesn’t care what you do. His kindness is intended to lead you to repentance (a radical life change).

Jesus didn’t condemn the woman.

But neither did he condone what she had done.

Rather the way in which he interacted with her presented her with an option she had never thought possible – the opportunity to begin to live a new life.

Play song: The Basin and the Towel.

Try to imagine washing the feet of someone without love.

You might do it out of obligation – you have to.

You might do it because you’re concerned what others would think about you if you didn’t.

You might do it, but make sure everyone knew how stinky the person’s feet were.

But what if it wasn’t washing feet?

What if it was caring for babies in the nursery?

What if it was helping people to find a seat on Sundays?

What if it was working with the teens on Friday night?

What if it was teaching kids at Club on Monday?

What if it was helping at the Food Bank?

What if…

What if…

When in love we use our gifting, our goal is to serve others like Jesus did.

When in love we use our gifting, what matters isn’t whether others are pleased with us. What matters is that Jesus thinks we did a good job.

God uses a variety of means to communicate to his people “where” they are to serve.

Worship and fasting – Acts 13:1-5

Trying – Acts 16:6-8

Vision – Acts 16:9; 18:9-10

An open door – 1 Corinthians 16:9

The “where” is important. While we are not going to dig into this aspect today, I need to assure you that God will put in your heart a passion for those he is calling you to serve. It may or may not be there as you would step into an opportunity. But it will grow.

How do things change?

Many believe things can change if laws are changed – caste system in India – Gandhi changed the law… but discrimination continues.

Others would argue for the use of force – invasion of Iraq – Saddam was overthrown, but the situation is still critical and incredibly complicated.

Still others advocate that re-education will bring the needed change – the example of the communists in Viet Nam and their re-education camps or the public education system of today.

When Jesus lived on earth, there were many things wrong. Utmost in people’s minds was the military occupation of Palestine. Those who flocked to Jesus hoped he would initiate military action against the Romans.

But he didn’t.

Nor did Jesus attempt to make things right by legislation.

Jesus took the much longer route; the more difficult task of implementing social and judicial reform by changing the human heart, one life at a time.