Everything Starts Here:Loving God

I bet at one time or another somebody commanded you to love. I remember a really uncomfortable time in my life. I was just 11 years old. And the school system where I lived decided that they were going to take four elementary schools and they were going to put all of us in one super elementary school. So I showed up as a 6th grader and instead of having 50 kids in each age in my class, there were suddenly almost 200 kids that were in my class. And they didn't realize what they were going to set off in recess because first recess, we all represented our former schools. And we started playing some serious football on the pavement. And I'm not kidding you. And I say the first month I had holes in three of the knees in my pants. And my mama pats them and she said, you're going to wear these three pair of pants every day to school this year. But one day we were playing and this kid named Jim Zawick, he sucker punched me And there were just two hits. He hit me, I hit the pavement. And afterwards, I couldn't believe it, but they took me into the principal's office and she looked at me and she said, now boys, she said, you 2 are going to have to learn how to love each other. And I thought, love each other, I want to do what Kung Fu did on TV. I don't want to love this guy, but you know, here's what we're going to learn today, and that is that Jesus commanded us to love each other because love is always our best choice in life. We're going to start with some words that the Apostle John shared. In verse 7, when he said to those he provided spiritual leadership to, he said, dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God, and they know God. Now here's what's interesting about this particular verse, and that is it's written in what scholars call the Greek horatory subjective mood. And you're probably like me, you don't use the word horatory every day. So let me give you the definition of it. The horatory subjunctive mood is used to express strong encouragement or urging, and it's even considered a gentle command. So why did John give a gentle command to the believers that he led that they needed to learn to love one another better? Well, remember, it was John who was in the upper room with Jesus. He put his head on his bosom before they took him to be captured and then to be crucified in the Garden of Gethsemane. And John heard Jesus talk about love after Judas had betrayed him. He saw Jesus' eyes when he looked into the disciples, when they were in a huge turning point moment in their life. And he said, I want you to understand the power of loving each other. Most of us know the scripture in where Jesus said, a new command I give you, love one another. And then just to make sure they wouldn't dumb love down, Jesus said, now as I have loved you, so you must love one another. But here's what's interesting. Jesus didn't just say that once in the upper room before he and his disciples descended down through the Kidron Valley and they went into the Garden of Gethsemane where he was later going to be captured by the religious leaders who would hand him over to the Romans. But Jesus said it a second time before they left the upper room. John 15, 12 says this, my command is this, Jesus said, I want you to love each other as I've loved you. Now why is that so important? Because where there's unforgiveness, people aren't going to give their best. But if love can replace that, God can bring forth things in people's future. Listen, there are people who don't believe in themselves. Nobody's ever nurtured the greatness that God has deposited on the inside of their soul. But if somebody learns to love the way that Jesus taught us to love, listen, something beautiful is going to break forth. You know, I heard a story the other day about a little boy. His name was Tommy. And Tommy saw this pet skunk run out of the woods in his backyard. Then he went to his dad and he said, dad, he said, I want to have a pet skunk. I want to capture that skunk and make it my pet. Well, his dad laughed and he said, Tommy, he said, you don't want a pet skunk because if you get a pet skunk, listen, it's going to stink. Well, this little boy wouldn't take no for an answer. So the next time he saw this skunk run out of the woods, he ran after it, got within about 5 yards, and sure enough, Tommy got sprayed. And what, Tommy never really got a pet skunk, but how many of Tommy lost a lot of friends because of what he thought about a pet skunk? And listen, love is kind of that way. There's a lot of people who chase after love, but they end up losing a lot more than they gain. And that's why Jesus wants us to take a minute and he said, I want you to think about how you receive my command to love. And John gives us three reasons. that God commands us to love in his text. And the first one is that love reveals who God created you and I to be. Let me read verse 7 again. He said, dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from God and everyone who loves has been born of God and everybody who loves knows God. In other words, if you don't want to love like Jesus loves this morning, John would say to you, are you that you've had your sins forgiven? Are you sure that God has made you reborn on the inside? Are you sure that you're practicing the faith like you should? Because if you experience God's love, you recognize that the one thing everybody in this world needs is the love of God. And John says, listen, If you're a Christian, you have the capacity to love because you have been born of God. You say, pastor, why is that true? Well, because we share some biological traits with the animal world, but there's something that happened at creation in Genesis 2.7. It says, the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground that he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And at that point, man became a human being. He became a living being who was created in the image of God. That's why animals don't act like you and I do. They don't have the nature of God deposited on the inside of them. But if you're a person, you never feel more fully alive than when you love well because when God breathed into you and God created you, God gave you the capacity to love other people. And that's what John wanted people to understand. Jesus also wanted somebody to understand this in John chapter 3. Nicodemus was one of the 71 people who were considered Israel's highest religious leaders, and he respected and admired Jesus because of the miracles that were being performed and because of the amazing way Jesus talked and helped people understand God. And Jesus said this to Nicodemus. He said, Nicodemus, I want you to understand that very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they're born again. In other words, Jesus wanted him to know that Christianity is about what we learn, but it's not all about what we learn. Jesus wanted us to understand we can be smart, but if we don't solve the love challenge that's going on in our world, we're never going to experience what the kingdom of God wants us to experience. I believe that if you and I were in heaven for five seconds and if we felt the quality of life that heaven offered for just five seconds, I believe we would come back to this earth and we would be more determined to love the way that God loves. So John starts by telling us that love comes from God, and if you're a believer, you have the capacity to love because you were created in the image of God. You know, I heard a story about the great general Alexander the Great. And they were in a fierce battle. And one of his soldiers acted cowardly instead of showing the courage that he should have shown in the battle. They ended up bringing him to Alexander the Great to be sentenced. And when they brought him to Alexander the Great, he learned that this soldier's name was also Alexander. And Alexander the Great looked this soldier in the eye and he said, son, you have two choices. You can either change your name or you can change your conduct. You see, that's what Jesus was doing with his disciples when he said, by this all men are going to know that you're my disciples if you love one another. And listen, I know love isn't easy. Some days I go home and I do the wrong thing and I get the cold shoulder. If I do the wrong thing two days in a row, I might get cold dinner. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Sometimes I go home and I've worked so hard and I just want to rest and Miss Tamara comes and she wants to put me to work. And it just doesn't feel like love. I told her the other day because she kept talking. I said, honey, did you know that men are going to go up in the rapture first? She looked at me and she said, what do you mean men are going to go up in the rapture first? I said, well, honey, the Bible says in Revelation 8.1 that there was silence in heaven for half an hour. So it had to be that men were the first ones to go up in the rapture. But seriously, I want you to know this morning morning that you have the capacity to love if you're a child of God because love comes from God and everyone who is born of God and anybody who even knows God well in their hearts knows that he's a God of love. Here's the second thing John talked about and he said we should receive God's command to love like Jesus because love begins releasing the presence of God around us. Verse 8 says, whoever does not love doesn't know God because God is love. So the best definition of love that I can think of is this, that love is the presence of God in action. You know, that's why when we read the Bible, God doesn't just talk about the stuff that we're supposed to do as a Christian. But he talks a lot about the spirit that we do it with as believers. Let me give you some examples. Galatians 513 says, through love, that we're supposed to serve one another. First John 3, verse 18 says, dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with action and in truth. In other words, love is not a feeling, love is not a mood that you get into, but love is the presence of God. That is the very definition of love. And listen, I saw something terrible happen as a child that I'm going to talk about in our service when we rededicate ourselves to our country in just a couple of weeks. And that is, I remember a world, and you may not believe this, and I want to really be careful because I know many of us aren't in first marriages today. Society has changed so much since I was a kid, and many of us were in abusive marriages. Many of us have good reasons for why we've done what we've done. So please don't hear this wrong when I say it today. But did you know when I was a kid, if somebody had an affair on their spouse, they were most likely going to lose their children because it was considered a lack of character. And in today's world, beginning in 1969, there's something that's called no fault divorce, which means if I don't like how we're getting along, I can just walk out on the relationship if I don't like how we're getting along. You know what God would say to us? God would say, if you don't like how you're getting along, let the love of Jesus infiltrate your relationship. And I promise you, it'll banish the darkness like the sun banishes the darkness whenever it rises in the east. Amen? You see, love comes from God, and all of us have capacity to love whenever we're born of God. But the second thing we need to understand is it's love that releases the presence of God in the surroundings. That's why we're told in John 12, verse 10, be devoted to one another in love. words, devotion that doesn't have love is never going to make it the distance. First Peter 1.22 says, now that you've purified yourself by obeying the truth, so you have sincere love for each other, love each other deeply from the heart. In other words, if you want to know why there's so much phony love being practiced in the world today, it's because love has to be rooted in the presence of God. So every believer has the capacity to love like Jesus because we're born of God. But here's the second thing. Every believer has a calling to love like Jesus because Jesus commanded us to love. And here's the third and final thing I want us to see from John's writing this morning, and that is love is what causes God's purposes to be realized in our life. Listen to 1 John 4.9. It says, this is how God showed His love among us. He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. In other words, aren't you glad that God didn't just talk about love, but God sent Jesus into the world to show us what real love looks like? You know, whenever lepers were banished and whenever lepers were made to just enjoy or be in a miserable state because people looked at it as sin, Jesus showed up with love and He said, He said, that's not how heaven sees this leper. I'm going to touch them whatever they do wrong. Aren't you glad you don't have to be perfect to be loved by Jesus? He's going to touch you and He's going to eliminate pain no matter what you've ever done as a person. Amen? Jesus came to earth to show us what love looked like. Have you ever thought about why Jesus endured the agony that Jesus endured on the cross? Jesus Himself told us in John chapter 12 verse 32 and 33. He said, When I'm lifted up from the earth, He said, I'm going to draw all people to myself. And the Bible says He did this, or He said this to show what kind of death He was getting ready to die. And when Jesus talked about this death, He said to His disciples, He said, My soul is so troubled within me. He knew how difficult it was going to be to die the death that Jesus died. In fact, medical professionals and many historians have written about how crucifixion is probably the most agonizing way to die that human beings have ever devised for a person to die. So why would God have Jesus die the kind of death that He died? Because the truth is Jesus had to die for our sins. Peter wrote about it in 1 Peter 3:18. He said, Christ also suffered for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God. So Jesus had to die for my sins and your sins for us to go to heaven. But really, they could have just slit his throat like they did a sacrificial animal and it wouldn't have been so painful. Or somebody could have stabbed him in the heart like many people have been stabbed in the heart and it wouldn't have been so painful. But Jesus told us why. He endured that terrible death on the cross of Calvary. And he said because when I'm lifted up and people see how much I love every single one of them He said I'm doing it so their hearts melt and they receive the love of God and they get drawn to me Paul talked about it in Romans 8 verse 32 He said if God didn't spare his own son But he freely gave him up for us all Won't he also give us richly all things in other words if you need forgiveness, look to the cross. If you need healing, look to the cross. If you need deliverance, look to the cross. If you need restoration, look to the cross. The kind of love that hung on that cross with the kind of capacity our God has can do everything that's ever been promised in the Bible. How many of you know that's the kind of love Jesus wants us loved with. And He wants us to understand that miraculous things are going to happen whenever we receive God's challenge to love. And He wants you to know you can do it because if you're a child of God, you have the capacity to love and you also have the call to love. Now, I'm going to close the service by, first of all, sharing a story in my own life that shows how important love was whenever God challenged me to love. But before I do that, I want to read some words from the Apostle Paul that indicate that God challenged him to love the exact same way. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul wrote this, If I speak in the tongue of men and of angels, but I don't have love, I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. In other words, Paul said, I learned that I can be talking and I can be saying the right things. I can have heaven's message on my lips, but if I'm talking and I'm not getting through, the chance is God wants me to learn more about love. Then he went on and he said, if I have the gift of prophecy and I can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but if I don't have love, He said, I'm nothing. In other words, Paul said, I can speak what's right with no results. He said, I can be having faith for God's best in people's life, but if I don't have love, I'm going to fail. I'm going to be frustrated instead of succeeding. Then he said this, he said, if I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but I don't have love, he said, I'm going to gain nothing. What a sad thing that a lack of love could keep us from the things that our heart desires the most. I want to share a story in my own life. I grew up in a wonderful Catholic family, but whenever I came to faith as a 17 year old, my mom didn't understand me coming to faith. And so for seven years, she made my life really, really difficult. As a matter of fact, in April of 1985, whenever she was diagnosed with cancer that ultimately killed her later that year, I was preaching somewhere about 5 hours away. And when I got the news, I went and bought my mom flowers. I jumped in the car. I canceled my preaching engagement, walked into the house, and I just wanted to be with my mom. You know what my mom's response was? She started bawling. And she said, Jimmy, could you ever forgive me for seven years of trying to crush my baby? Let me tell you what brought her to that point. It was May of 1984, and I was an itinerant missionary evangelist traveling all over the world, speaking in schools, speaking in churches. And I was home for just two weeks. And when I was home, I had just started learning the guitar. And I tell people I've never really played the guitar. I beat the guitar. How many of you know there's a difference? And I was beating the guitar in my bedroom, and I was singing a song that was popular at that time, Thou Art Worthy, O Jehovah. And as I was singing it, evidently my mom was out in the hall. And she heard it, and so concerned, she opened the door. And she said, oh, no, Jimmy, you haven't become a Jehovah Witness, have you? And I assured her that's not what I've done. But God is my witness that when I shut the door and I was going to continue in worship, I could tell instantly that the Holy Spirit had something on His heart that I needed to hear. And as I prayed, he challenged me and he said, you know what? You've spoken the truth. You've done some good things, but you haven't loved your mother the way that you should have loved your mother. And I spent the next 15 minutes thinking about all the loads of laundry that my mother did. I thought about how she protected me from the wrong girls because when I was young I had the gift of evangelism. If God made them pretty, I thought I could make them holy. Can you say amen? I thought about how she watched over me. She was part of the MBI, which is the Mother's Bureau of Investigation. It exists all across this country in an underground form. And as I thought about how she deserved to be loved, my heart was overcome. So I got up at dawn the next day and we lived on about eight tenths of an acre. And I started trimming all of her trees. I started trimming all of her shrubs. I washed all of her windows. And she looked out the window. I thought she was going to faint, wondering what I was doing out there. Finally it was dinner and she said, Jimmy, what's gotten into you? And I said, well, mom, the love of God has gotten into me. And I repented to my mother for not loving her like I should. This was May of 1984. I left for a six-month preaching to her throughout Costa Rica, throughout Finland, throughout Uganda. And as I went, I was praying for her a lot, and it was amazing how God was sending the perfect people from my community to witness love to my mother. And then there were a couple times when I was in prayer, the gifts of the Spirit started working to really show my mom that God was real. I mean, one day he spoke to me, my grandfather went to the hospital that day, and I called her and I said, mom, God spoke to me that grandpa went to the hospital, and she was just dumbfounded on the other end of the phone. I flew home from Uganda about 30 plus hours. And when I got in the door, you know what my mama said to me? She said, Jim, you are not going to bed until you pray with me to be born again. That was December of 1984. But here's what I believe with all my heart, beloved church family. I believe that if it wasn't for the love, that maybe there's a really good chance that all the other things, the people who visited her, the gifts of the Spirit without love, listen, things wouldn't have worked out. And we all have things in our life today that we may know the truth, but it may take more love for God to bless us. There are hearts we want to see softened. And we may have all the commitment in the world. We may think I'd do anything to see that change. But listen, you may have a chance to do anything and that anything may be rooted in the love of God. And here's why all of us should be eager to follow God's command to love. And I close with this. First John 4, 12 says this, no one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us, and His love is made complete in us. That Greek word complete means to finish, to fulfill, to make perfect God's plan. And that's why God commands us to love like Jesus loved, because love reveals who God created us to be, love releases the presence of God among us, and love causes God's purposes to be realized in our life. That's why we weren't just created to love with the capacity to love, and we're not just called to love. But God's given every believer a commission to love like Jesus did, because love's our best choice. And how many of you want to see all the consequences God brings to pass whenever we choose to love like Jesus loved? Amen.