We are continuing our look at the
stronghold of God. Often when a series of
messages is preached we have the tendency
to see them merely as individual messages
and lose the intended emphasis. So I want
to refresh your heart and mind as to why
we are looking at the stronghold of God.
Nahum 1:7 "The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who
trust in Him."
Stronghold: 1. A fortified place or a fortress. 2. A place of survival or refuge.
Tonight we look at the stronghold of love. God is our stronghold of love! His love for us is a
place of shelter and rest. His love is our city of refuge and survival. He loves us!
1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is
born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves
torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
1. Stronghold of Love Allows Us to Love
"Let us love one another" . . . we like to talk about love but do we like to love? We’re too much
like the little girl who stayed over for dinner at her friend’s. The vegetable was buttered broccoli,
and the mother asked if she liked it. The little girl replied very politely, "Oh, yes I love it." But
when the bowl of broccoli was passed she declined to take any. The mother asked, "I thought
you said you love broccoli?" The girl replied, "Oh, yes ma’am, I do, but not enough to eat it!"
I think we are too quick to say we love, when in reality we don’t love enough to really love.
William Beckett III suggests we have a "glass bottle model of love." We make a deposit and wait
for the return before we love again. That love is selfish and shares no space in the stronghold of
God’s love. To enter the stronghold of love allows us to love others regardless.
Our love is often guard with self-made boundaries that keep us from really loving.
Luke 6:32 "But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love
those who love them.
"If what we call love doesn’t take us beyond ourselves, it is not really love. If we have the idea
that love is characterized as cautious, wise, sensible, shrewd, and never taken to extremes, we
have missed the true meaning." - Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost" February 21
John 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
We might want to ignore or explain away, "you love one another," but we cannot ignore or
explain away, "as I have loved you." "If there’s anything better than to be loved it is loving."
Entering the stronghold of God’s love allows us to really love.
1 John 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
2. Stronghold of Love Identifies Us to God
"For love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God."I must admit when
preparing this sermon I thought "Why did I choose to preach another message on love?" I’ll tell
you why we need another message on love. Love is the greatest identification to God and the
work He is accomplishing in our lives.
John identifies love originating with God . . . God is love. And he proceeds to give the identifying
mark of God in our lives as the ability to love. John shows the radical nature of the born-again
experience in that it produces a God-like love in us.
This love is that volitional love ... I choose to love you ... as opposed to the purely emotional
love that states . . . I will love you if . . . and the boundaries are set.
Luke 7:41-43 "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred
denarii, and the other fifty. 42 "And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely
forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?" 43 Simon answered
and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more." And He said to him, "You have rightly
judged."
Which of these two debtors might you or I be? Do we think our sin was less to forgive than
someone you has murdered or robbed? Becareful! For God’s Word says if we hate our brother
we are a murderer (1 John 3:15) and if we fail to give the tithe we rob (Malachi 3:8) God!
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
Someone has said, "We are never more like God than when we love." Because love identifies us
to God.
John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved
you, that you also love one another. 35 "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you
have love for one another."
3. Stronghold of Love Perfects Us to God
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves
torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
John declares that when the time comes to stand before the judgment seat of God we should
have "no fear." By fear he means to be afraid of. Our relationship with God is one that is based
upon His accepting love of us. His unconditional love welcomes us now and in the future yet to
come.
To love in the love of God is not naturally expressed by men and women. It is that born-again
love of supernatural quality. It is that selfless love. This is not the "glass bottle" love, for our
love is to be marked with "no deposit and no return." Meaning we just love with no expectations
of something in return.
Matthew 5:43-48 "You have heard that it was said, ’You shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy.’ 44 "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those
who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 "that you may be
sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends
rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 "For if you love those who love you, what reward have
you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 "And if you greet your brethren only, what
do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 "Therefore you shall be
perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Our modern "throw away" society encourages us to get rid of people in our lives who are difficult
to get along with, whether they are friends, family or acquaintances.
- Notes from Nelson’s Study Bible
Perfect love casts the fears of rejection, hurt, unfair, and all the rest away from our hearts and
allows us to just love! "Love, to be real, must cost. It must hurt. It must empty us of self."-
Mother Teresa From the lips of this little lady we gather a greater awareness of the love of God . . .
"For God so loved the world that He gave . . ." It cost Him His Son! That’s perfect love! That’s
real love!
Conclusion:
Entering the stronghold of God’s love will allow our love to become real.
’What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day . . . "Real isn’t how you are made," said the Skin
Horse. "It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just
to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become real." . . . The Rabbit sighed. He
thought it would be a long time before this magic called Real happened to him. He longed to
become Real . . ." - excerpts from The Velveteen Rabbit
We ought to long for our love to become real so that it . . . allows us to love, identifies us to God,
perfects us to God.
Amen!
This sermon was preached by Robert AuBuchon at Trinity Baptist Church. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated,
are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights
reserved Copyright RFTPsermons.com All Rights Reserved
