In just two days, we celebrate a holiday centered around the concept of love. We’ve seen traces of it for weeks. Hearts, flowers, candy… My wife told me exactly what she wanted this year… she told me she wanted flowers…but not roses. Anyone can get roses, she said. She wanted tulips. And so I will do my best to take care of that.
If you really examine it, love is the motivation for a lot of what we do. I look at my day during a typical week. Every morning, I get up and wake up a certain 7 year old. I have to look really hard to find her because she’s so tiny. But I only finally see the little lump in the middle of the bed and I scream out “Cheyenne Nicole! Let’s go! Let’s go!”. She bounds out of bed, gets dressed and while I’m getting ready enjoys the madcap world of “SpongeBob”… I take her by Casstevens and we get three donuts (she sometimes wants four or five but the agreed upon number is always three). Now, I keep pretty late hours sometimes and there are some mornings I would rather sleep late. But this is the regular ritual. Why do I do it? Out of love.
On one day a week, I devote a couple of hours to housecleaning. Now there is nothing I hate more than that type of work. I get down on my knees and scrub the toilets. I mop the kitchen floor. I dust which means I have to move everything around and then back to its original spot. I hate it! But I know how hard my wife works during the day and though she has a higher standard for a clean house than I do, she says it still helps. And I do it because I love her. That’s my motivation.
And the feelings are reciprocated. If you ever look on the office wall behind my desk, you’ll find it decorated with all sorts of lovely pieces of artwork drawn by my 7 year old Picasso. She spent an afternoon one day decorating my wall. There is a beautiful puzzle portrait in my office as well. When my wife was down from surgery this time last year, she took the time to do that for me. Both of these had the motivation of love behind them.
Love is the highest motivation for a minister to connect with people. John Maxwell, a great guru on leadership today, says “If you don’t love them, don’t try to lead them>” Love in fact, is the highest motivation in our service to Christ. You cannot be an effective Christian, an effective servant for Jesus and don’t have love.
Consider what the Apostle Paul said in I Corinthians 13
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of ch. 12:8-10,28;& 14:1;See Mat. 7:22prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith,so that I could remove mountains, and have no charity, I am nothing.
3 And Mat. 6:1,2though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. (I Corinthians 13:1-3.. KJV)
Morgan Cryer summed it up in his song “If I don’t have love, I don’t have nothing”
I am amazed sometimes when I see people who seem to dislike everyone around them, always have something negative to say, and yet claim to love the Lord. The truth is that if we ‘re going to follow Jesus, we must learn to love.
First of all, we must love the Lord.
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: ’Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ (NIV, Mark 12:28-30)
Our theme for this church year (September to September) has been “Back to the Basics”. I am convinced that one thing that has happened to today’s churches is that we’ve gotten off target. We’ve overcomplicated things and become more about strategies than we have anything else. We glitz it up with programs and we’re all about numbers. There are churches full of people with no spiritual depth. They’re growing, but at what price? They’ve forgotten their motivation. People ask me “Brother Rick, do you want to grow as a church?”. And my answer is always “yes”… what pastor would say no to that? But I want to grow in a way that constantly points to Jesus. I don’t want to grow because we employed some major secular marketing strategy. I want to grow because people have earnestly decided that they are all about loving Him.
That’s what we’re called to do…Love Him with all our heart, our mind, our strength. But what exactly does that entail?
For one, it entails knowing and obeying God’s commandments. The scripture makes this clear in John 14:21.
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
It blows my mind sometimes when I hear people proclaim that they love the Lord but they knowingly walk in sin. “Don’t get me wrong, Brother Rick! I love the Lord at all but I’m not giving up this affair!” “Understand, Brother Rick! I think Jesus is awesome but I’m not letting go of this lifestyle!”
If we love Him, we’ll keep His commandments. We’ll do what He says. We’ll do it because we know that He first loved us.
We live in a world where we actions speak louder than words. If a man says he loves his wife and yet does not treat her with respect and decency, then those watching have a right to think he’s lying. If a kid claims he loves his parents but does nothing but rebel, than those watching have a right to think he’s not telling the truth.
In the same way, we say “we love the Lord” but we neglect His Word. We neglect His Church. We pick and choose the commandments we obey.
Do you love the Lord?
Then keep His commandments.
If we love the Lord, then we must also love the truth.
Jesus said in John 8:32 that “We shall know the truth and the truth shall set us free”.
What is that truth?
The Word of God is the truth.
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In it are the answers to every issue of life. It is not an archaic book of facts and stories but a living breathing document that tells us the truth of God’s love, grace and judgement. And we must love it.
It ought to be the first place we go in times of trouble.
The first place we go to in times of tragedy.
The first place we go when making a decision.
Ever notice how when we’re in times of trouble and we ask for help, we often roll our eyes when someone suggests the Bible or offers a prayer? We act as though that’s not really an answer when in fact, it is THE ANSWER!
Truth is not what we make it.
Truth is not what is relative to circumstances.
The Word of God is truth.
And we must love every page of it. Even the pages that hurt, even the pages that expose our sin and ugliness. Even the pages that make us angry because it tells it like it is.
It tells us God’s plan for our lives.
We must carry on a great love affair with the Word of God.
And then we must love our calling.
“I don’t have a calling, Brother Rick!”
Yes you do.
If you were saved and baptized and consider yourself a believer, than you have a calling.
You have something God wants you to do.
We talked about this in 40 Days of Purpose.
We are called to worship. And it’s not just the Sunday morning, three hymns, a sermon, and go to Chili’s type of worship. The truth is that this is not worship at all if we don’t have a lifestyle of worship.
What is that lifestyle?
Paul showed us that lifestyle.
You want to see a life that worshipped God.
Look at the Apostle Paul.
He said “No matter what my circumstances, no matter what comes upon me. No matter what stones they throw at me, no matter what prison they put me in, I will serve Jesus. I will press on toward the mark of the upper high calling of God (Phil.3:14). I know that I can do all things through Him who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13).”
That was a lifestyle that was sold out to Jesus.
That is our calling.
Matthew 16:24 tells us that . We are to deny ourselves, take up our Cross and follow Him.
And we are not to do it begrudgingly. We are to do it with everything that is within us. We are not to say “I serve because I have to!”
We are to recognize that it is a calling on our life. And we are to love that calling.
What a privilege it is to serve the one who served us on the Cross!
That’s why I don’t understand when people begrudgingly accept a teaching position or committee assignment. I don’t understand when people say “If nobody else will….” That’s why I won’t take that answer anymore. You either come into a position of service out of excitement and love and gratitude or don’t come in at all.
We need joyful servants.
One’s who love their calling.
And more than we need them, God needs them.
Our calling is to put Him first.
Not to say “Lord, if I have time… it depends on what I’m doing… on whether or not I serve you today”.
He must come above everything.
Our job.
Our hobbies.
Our relationships.
Because when we do that, all those things become much more sweeter.
And finally, we must love people.
“Love your neighbor as yourself”
The truth is that if we really love God with all our heart, we will love people.
And we will love them unconditionally.
We will love them because He loves them.
When people tell me that they have a hard time loving someone or forgiving someone, I want to tell them that your problem is not with them, it is with God.
You’re having a hard time being obedient when He says “forgive”.
You’re having a hard time being obedient when He says “Love your enemies.”
We are called to love people regardless of the circumstances.
And the calling to love people and love God cannot be separated.
We must love the kid that gets on our nerves.
We must love the ones that gossip against us.
When we say “well, you can’t blame me for holding this anger in”…yes I can…because you’re the one that chooses to be disobedient.
We must love those who we don’t understand.
We must love those who we can’t see.
We support missions because the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 tells us to. We know that we may never see this side of Heaven what that money does. But we are to love those people enough that it doesn’t matter and love them anyway. We are to love them enough to give so that they may hear the Gospel.
We are to love the ones who have hurt us.
We are to put aside the anger, the hurt feelings, the feelings of resentment, and love anyway.
Why?
Because when we don’t , we are not hurting those people. We are to love God.
And it shows through our countenance and our attitude.
“I love Jesus…it’s just people I have a problem with.”
That type of attitude doesn’t even make sense.
We learn to love anyway. Serve anyway. We’re not responsible for the actions of others. We are responsible to obey God.. because we love Him, love His truth, love His calling… and He says “Love one another”.
Valentines Day. Let’s not let it be the only day we express love for one another. Let’s not let it be the only day we express love for His Holy Word. Let’s not let it be the only day we reach out to someone.
Let’s make everyday a Valentines Day in our Walk with God.
