Title: Loving One Another
Text: I John 2:7-11
Pray!!!
Read Text!!!
Introduction:
- (Explain the hitting by Todd B with the paper in hand)
- I don’t believe it was his intention to break the person’s neck nor injure him badly.
- But because of rage and anger, he acted out.
- Choosing love everyday of our lives will keep us from harm and mark us as being Christ’s disciple.
- It’s hard, but it’s something we must pursue.
- Pursuing to live in the realm of love, is choosing to live in Christ.
Transition:
- Why must we choose or pursue to love other people? I have 4 points that will help us in this area of our lives. It will also draw us closer to God.
Point 1: Because choosing love on a daily basis will heal your emotions
- Love will heal you of unforgiveness, bitterness and anger.
- It will heal you of guilt and regret.
- The Bible says in Prov 10:12, “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.”
- Also I Peter 4:8 says, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
- God does not make loving people an option, because when we choose to love people that rub us the wrong way, it brings healing to our souls.
- If it were an option to love others, we would choose not to love other people, because it’s easier to get angry. We think it makes us feel better to lash out.
- But loving people brings healing and we need to experience that part of our relationship with God.
Some years ago, Dr. Karl Menninger, noted doctor and psychologist, was seeking the cause of many of his patients’ ills. One day he called in his clinical staff and proceeded to unfold a plan for developing, in his clinic, an atmosphere of creative love. All patients were to be given large quantities of love; no unloving attitudes were to be displayed in the presence of the patients, and all nurses and doctors were to go about their work in and out of the various rooms with a loving attitude. At the end of six months, the time spent by patients in the institution was cut in half.
On ingenious teenager, tired of reading bedtime stories to his little sister, decided to record several of her favorite stories on tape. He told her, "now you can hear your stories anytime you want. Isn’t that great?" She looked at the machine for a moment and then replied, "No. It hasn’t got a lap."
- Choosing love will heal emotions, and bring the peace of God to your situation.
- Love truly covers over a multitude of sins. If it is not in your life, you are not choosing love.
- God commands us to love, but the choose to heed that command is our choice. We will either choose to do it God’s way, or suffer the consequences.
- But what happen when we don’t practice love in order for our emotions to be healed?
Point 2: Because not choosing love will produce in us evil
(Our text)
- Hatred and murder are what’s opposite to love.
- Hatred can become an all consuming obession.
Ester 5:9 says, “Haman went out that day happy and in high spirits. But when he saw Mordecai at the king’s gate and observed that he neither rose nor showed fear in his presence, he was filled with rage against Mordecai.”
- Haman was so consumed with hatred toward Mordecai that he could not even enjoy the honor of being invited to Esther’s party.
- Many Christians today, are invited to the King’s table to dine with Jesus, we come to church and we find we can’t enjoy the presence of the Lord because of hatred toward someone.
- It’s time to confess it and release it to the Lord, making it right and choosing to love.
- Choosing not to love, and holding onto bitterness and anger will only backfire in time in your life. (Read Esther 6:13; 7:9-10)
- Bitterness only hurts the one who is carrying the grudge.
- Anger will destroy you if you choose not to love people.
- Never let the enemy deceive you or me into thinking that we have a right to be angry with our brothers or sisters, in the end it will destroy us if not confessed.
- Hatred also leads us to disobey God
Jonah 1:3 says, “But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.”
- Why did he do this because of hatred towards a sinful people.
- Spiritual pride will cost us dearly in our relationship with God.
- You are no better then anyone else, all of us needed Jesus to die for us.
- Everyone has the right to hear the gospel once.
- But hatred blinds us to the needs around us. What’s important to God is not important to us.
- What God is passionate for, we are not.
- Hatred cripples the believer. It will cause you to make decisions that aren’t Godly.
- It will bring you outside the will of God, it will cost you your health and security.
- It will cost you money to feed this anger and hatred that we love to choose and hang onto.
- It did for Jonah and it will for us.
- Therefore choosing anger is evil and outside the will of God for a believers life.
- Choose love and stay away from evil, because it will destroy your life.
One of the worst cases of hatred I have ever come across is found in a will written in 1935 by a Mr. Donohoe. It says, "Unto my two daughters, Frances Marie and Denise Victoria, by reason of their unfilial attitude toward a doting father, . . . I leave the sum of $1.00 to each and a father’s curse. May their lives be fraught with misery, unhappiness, and poignant sorrow. May their deaths be soon and of a lingering malignant and torturous nature." The last line of the will is so vicious I shudder to quote it. It reads, "May their souls rest in hell and suffer the torments of the condemned for eternity."
A man who hates to be slapped on the back packs his coat with TNT and waits for this man who always slaps his back. His idea is when he hits me I will get him, I’ll blow him up. Hate kills both the person who you hate, but also yourself as well. Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.
Point 3: Because Choosing Love Drives out Fear
I John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
- What fear is John talking about?
- When fear comes as a result of not trusting in God to sustain you.
- Does not mean that you are not saved, it means God has some work to do in us.
- If we have fears about tommorow, or about life, family etc. We have not been made perfect in love.
- We have more growing to do in our situation.
Let me give you an example:
- As parents I have had fears for my children, about sending them to school and letting
them go. But if I don’t allow the Lord to help me it has the potential to consume me.
- To further explain, I was watching Dr. Phil one night and the program was about letting go of your children. One set of parents could not leave there kids for one minute, it was torture for them.......explain further!
- Fears have the potential to consume us and make us not look to the Word and hold to the promises or look to God in prayer.
- Determine that you are going to be made perfect in love.
- Understand that God is watching over you right now as I speak.
- Take comfort, He has commanded His angels to watch over us.
One summer night during a severe thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small son into bed. She was about to turn the light off when he asked in a trembling voice, "Mommy, will you stay with me all night?" Smiling, the mother gave him a warm, reassuring hug and said tenderly, "I can’t dear. I have to sleep in Daddy’s room." A long silence followed. At last it was broken by a shaky voice saying, "The big sissy!"
Sometimes the Lord calms the storm. Sometimes he lets the storm rage and calms his child.
Point 4: Because choosing love keeps us from selfishness
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
- True love always gives, God gave us everything because He loves us.
- As Christians the manifestation of love will be our giving of time, money, ourselves because we love one another.
- Now that does not mean we will not struggle with this, we need to pursue this with all our strength.
Point 5: Because choosing love guides us
I John 2:11 says, “But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.”
- When we chose not to love, we are not being guided by the Holy Spirit, but rather are blinded by our own hatred and anger.
- We can read from God’s word and hear sermons, but never fully receive because of hatred.
- It’s hard for someone to make God honoring decisions because there lives our consumed with hatred.
- If we are not striving to love people or live in love, we run into danger of not being lead by the Spirit in our lives.
- If we are living in Hatred or any kind of anger, the decisions we make may not be God honoring. (Example Numbers 14-15)
Conclusion:
- Todd B is an example of the nation of Israel. I don’t know the motive of Todd B, but thing I do no, he acted out of anger at the time. I am glad he was remorseful and said he was sorry, but by then it was too late.
- He can’t play hockey but must suffer the consequences of his actions and choice.
- But not only him, his teammates, family and organization who got a 250,000 fine for the mishap.
- Just lack the children of Israel suffered from the lack of love, trust in God from there parents.
- My challenge to you and me this evening is that we will pursue love now, so we don’t do something we regret in the future.
Lets Pray!!!
