What is love, the human side of it

The following is my sermon notes from yesterday, OCtober 20th. This is the first look at John 15:12-17 as we look at the human side of love as defined by God's word. We look at the definition, the characteristics of it and then we look at the example that Jesus gave us of a true, sacrificial and selfless love. SENDING THE VERY BEST Someone has composed the following list of "Cards You'll Never See at Hallmark": "Looking back over the years that we've been together, I can't help but wonder.... What was I thinking?!" "I've always wanted to have someone to hold, someone to love.... After having met you, I've changed my mind." "As the days go by, I think of how lucky I am.... that you're not here to ruin it for me." "As you grow older, Mom, I think of all the gifts you've given me..... Like the need for therapy." "You look great for your age.... Almost life-like!" "When we were together, you always said you'd die for me.... Now that we've broken up, I think it's time you kept your promise." "We have been friends for a very long time.... What do you say we call it quits?" "I'm so miserable without you.... It's almost like you're here." "You are such a good friend that if we were on a sinking ship and there was only one life jacket.... I'd miss you heaps and think of you often." Somehow those cards truly don't seem very appropriate for a card company that advertises with the slogan, "When you care enough to send the very best." Greeting card companies certainly have made it easy for us to let our friends and relatives know that we care about them. John 15:12-17 v. 12-13 We are to love each other just as Jesus loved us, and he loved us enough to give up His life for us. We may never have to die for someone, we may never have to make that ultimate sacrifice, but there should be people in our lives who know without a doubt that we would if it came down to it. Love isn’t just this big fuzzy feeling, emotions and hugs and kisses. It’s sacrifice and selflessness. Some ways that we can show sacrificial love is through: - Listening - Helping - Encouraging - Giving Think about this, all of us know at least one person(most of us know many) who need someone to meet these needs in some way. I have learned through life, my days working with the homeless, to my days as a youth pastor and now pastor, to my jail ministry and everywhere in between. There is no one on the face of this earth who doesn’t want their feelings validated. No one. They need someone to listen. They need someone to help them. They need someone to encourage them. They need someone to give towards their needs. Evaluate all of your life’s settings, are you meeting the needs of the people that God placed in your life? How about at home and at work are you: - actively listening to what is going on, or are you just there trying to drown it out by being busy, or unavailable. Or maybe you are listening simply to wait for your opportunity to give imput. - helping out in any way you can, chores, income, errands? - encouraging? Let’s admit it there are always those people who we can count on for a real pick me up, and there are those who we avoid because we know they will drain us. - giving, of your time, resources, are you treating everything you have like it’s yours or are you actively sharing it because you realize it all belongs to God? Greater love has no one that to lay down their life for his friends. Like I said you may never have to make that sacrifice, but are you willing to put your life on hold for your loved ones, friends and fellow Christians? Now to verse 15 This is one of my favorite attributes of Jesus, the fact that he was so humble. Philipians 2:5-11 says Now these verses are thought to have been a hymn from the early Christian church because they so closely parallel verses from Isaiah 53. Regardless, if we are Christians we are to love and we are to imitate Christ, and we can’t imitate his actions without first imitating his attitude. This passage points us to 7 key characteristics that I want to touch on just briefly. 1. Jesus has always existed. 2. Jesus is equal to God because He is God. 3. Jesus became a man, gave up His seat in Heaven to become mortal. 4. Jesus did not just take on the appearance of man, he became man. 5. Jesus loved His father and us so much that He gave up His divine rights. 6. He died on the cross for our sins, so that we could have eternal life, so that we could be forgiven of our sins, and so that we could have a personal relationship with God. 7. He knowingly died, and rose again to go right back to His seat at His Father’s right hand. Now looking at those facts, looking at those verses, how do you define love? Is your definition of love anything close to God’s definition, or to Jesus’ example? What is Love? When someone says, "I don't love you anymore," it shakes you to your very core. It caused me to ponder the true meaning of love as never before. After many years, I arrived at the only definition that makes any sense. Since God is love and we must compare our love to him, we come up short if we define it any other way. For you see, in the final analysis, "Love is a commitment with a beginning and no end." Christ chose to love us and he has never stopped. He never will. We should be very careful with a word like love. Are we willing to make that kind of commitment? Thanks for reading and have a great day!