Gtcotr/ss021410
Today, all across the United States and in many parts of the world as well, it is Valentine’s Day. So, for all you sweethearts out there, Happy Valentine’s Day!
Key Scripture: 1 John 4:19 We love Him because He loved us first.
While I was studying the Bible this week, preparing for this morning, I was interrupted several times by what I have come to know as the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So, before we get into the heart of our message today, allow me to pass on to you what I understand the Lord wants someone who is listening this morning to know. If this applies to you, take it as a word of admonition and encouragement from God.
“It won’t help you to hate America, it won’t help you to hurt America … it will only hurt you and it will hurt everyone else who is affected by your actions.”
“It won’t help you to hate your spouse, it won’t help you to hurt your spouse … it will only hurt you and it will hurt everyone else who is affected by your actions.”
“It won’t help your to hate your job, your boss, or your friend turned enemy … it won’t help you to hurt them … it will only hurt you and it will hurt everyone else who is affected by your actions.”
“It won’t help you to hate God, it won’t help you to try and hurt God by not listening to Him or by not being His friend … it will only hurt you and it will hurt everyone else who is affected by your actions.”
“Someone who is listening to me today is about to make a terrible mistake - Stop the hate; Stop the hurt; and let your healing begin.”
Now, let’s pray!
For some reason I have this gift of loving people right off the bat, at first sight. I can’t explain it but it works for me. Perhaps God gave me this peculiar gift so that I could be a better Pastor and representative of His Kingdom. And, I can’t help but imagine that many of you have this same gift working in your life.
In fact, I think we all have it. However, it may have gotten lost in some of you through the years and covered up under a pile of life experiences, personal disappointments, or adopted skepticisms. Allowing your past to dictate your future can lead you to pre-judge others unfairly.
Whatever happened to innocence … to just liking others right off the bat and for no good reason.
For those of you who have been around for a decade or two, you can pretty much predict what I am going to say in response to about any comment you make during a conversation. I am a fairly consistent guy, relentless in my chosen pursuits, patient to the core and reasonably predictable.
Each service I make the same rounds if at all possible, circling all over the church, past every room, upstairs and downstairs, visiting each department from the nursery to the musicians, walking, talking and touching almost everyone I see, as much as time will allow. I am usually one of the last ones to leave.
Often my conversations with others will conclude with a hug or a handshake and the comment “I love you”, to which some are in the habit of replying, “I love you more.” Anyone whom I have known and conversed with for a decade or two can pretty much predict what I will say next: I say, “but I loved you first!”
The reply I have gotten most often through the years is something like, “yes, you are probably right …" I don’t know if I am just hard to love at first sight or what, but I sure am glad that I grow on people … and, I work pretty consistently on getting the people I love to love me back.
Although I say, “I loved you first”, with a quick passing glance, it is for me nonetheless the truth. I am a lover at heart and it seems so natural and so easy to me to love people at first sight and for no good reason … other than perhaps God placed this love in my heart and I choose to let it live. Sometimes it is almost overwhelming and I feel my face light up when I see you. I don’t know what to call it but love! I think I love you … even if I don’t know you --- it’s a gift!
What do I mean when I say the word love? Allow me to use the scriptures to explain how love feels and how love acts, and perhaps how we can know if we are letting love live in and through us.
1 Corinthians 13 (The New Living Translation)
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.
I’ve met these people … but hey, I love them anyway …
2 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.
3 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.
4 ¶ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Hating those who hurt you – or,
Hurting those who hate you …
Neither one will help you
Unforgiveness and/or vengeful pursuits make you the victim of your own doings and torture your soul.
1 John 4
7 ¶ Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him.
10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.
19 We love Him because He loved us first.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates their fellow man, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?
21 And He has given us this command: Those who love God must also love others.
So … Let the love of God live in you and love like God loves – meaning:
1. Love others first
2. Love others for no good reason
3. Don’t let life teach you otherwise
Begin building meaningful relationships today.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
