A Disciple Is... a person loved by God!
The one need that every person has more than any other is to love and be loved!
Leonard Sweet says, “We live in a world awash in love songs and love stories, but where love that looks beyond self is as rare as clocks and windows in a casino.”
He tells the story of an anthropologist who was studying the Hopi Native American culture who took notice of the dominance of rain themes in their art and music. “Why,” he asked a tribal leader, “do so many of your songs deal with the subject of rain?” The Hopi man replied that it was because water is so scarce in the desert where they live. Then he asked the anthropologist, “Is that why so many of your songs are about love?”
The Three Hardest Words, I Love You, Leonard Sweet
Self-love is everywhere.
ill. The story is told of two pastors meeting, both of whom had recently published a book. The first went on and on about how well his book was doing, how many letters he was getting, and how the doors to so many speaking engagements were opening as a result. “But,” he said, “enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What did you think of my new book?”
To many self-love is lauded as a virtue. Where a person is not living well, making poor choices, the diagnosis often includes a reference to a lack of self-esteem. There may be some truth to that, but the fact is that where sin exists, self-esteem is lost for sin makes us, in the Bible’s words, “objects of God’s wrath!” I believe that somewhere, in the depth of our soul, when know when we are alienated from our Father for we are made to know and love Him, to experience His love. And, when we feel the ache of loneliness, or meaning, or love - our hunger for love surfaces, often in a desire for connectedness with others.
Ill.- When Maribel was visiting our home a couple of weeks ago with her baby boy who is just one year old, I took notice, once again, how hard even a baby works to gain approval and to connect with others. Little Devin would lock eyes with me and smile widely, inviting me to touch him, hold him, or play. Even at age one, he would act in ways that he knew Mommy liked so she would talk with him. He is well socialized and craves love, as he is able to understand it.
I remember the ways that my own children sought love as they grew up. Even as teenagers, when relationships with parents are so often strained by the craving for independence, they would show us their accomplishments, ask us to listen to the songs of their band, cry with us when they were disappointed or afraid. After their adventures in the wider world, they wanted to come back to the nest and enjoy our loving approval.
I understood that the love they needed was often different than the love they wanted! I was not their best buddy who approved of all their antics! Nor did they need to worry that I would reject them like their fickle friends who grew tired of them and turned to others. They will tell you today one of my phrases repeated too often, “You’re too young to divorce this family, which you need more than you know. When your friends are gone, we will still be here for you.”
I am their Dad, whose love is unconditional, steady even when they were wandering, even when they were rebelling. And the true nature of my love demanded that I correct them when necessary, that I risk their rage when I imposed limits that they did not understand or appreciate. Each of them has since told Bev and I how much our love for them means, how safe they felt within the boundaries we gave them.
Perhaps you’re confused about love, not sure you agree that hunger for love is universal. That’s very understandable! The problem may be the word itself! Love is one of the most over-worked words in our vocabulary. We love our spouse, cars, NASCAR, and apple pie. Of course we know that the feeling being described as love is very different in each usage. Then, too, in most of pop culture love is almost always used in a way that is synonymous with physical desire. “Making love” often has nothing at all to do with anything like love.
Because of all this confusion about the meaning and expression of love, many of us are reluctant to admit to ourselves or anyone else that we need to be loved! They might well react very strangely.
Ill. Recently, I have re-discovered the power of the statement, “I love you.” Since Dad has been so critically ill, and I have concerns that each of our conversations could possibly be our last one on this earth, I say, “I love you” to him every time we speak. And, I find myself saying those three wonderful words much more frequently to others, too. I don’t really care if somebody overhears the exchange and brings their confusion about love to my words. As the Bible says, “to the pure, all things are pure!” (Titus 1.15)
And we have some very, very dumb ideas about the nature of love, even when we’re trying to get it right.
A cultural icon of my time was a movie called ‘Love Story,’ that contains a very stupid line that most people my age know. “Love means you never have to say you’re sorry.” In truth, love will often cause us to realize the ways we have failed one we profess to love. If we genuinely love, we will readily express our sorrow at having caused pain to another!
A Danish philosopher named Kierkegaard regarded it as folly to think of loving someone to a certain degree. Love is not a thing of degree. It is like purity. Something is either pure or corrupt. There is no middle ground. In the same way, one either loves or he does not love.
The Three Hardest Words, I Love You, Leonard Sweet
So let’s get a working definition for love.
In your Bible, in the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, there is a description of love.
1 Cor. 13:4-7
That definition is a far cry from the romantic notions that pass for love in our culture, isn’t it? What do we learn in that passage?
-That love is a choice.
-That love is other-centered, not self-centered.
-That love requires much of us in the nature of loyalty, commitment, and support for another.
-That love is not as fragile as our love songs would have us think. It endures, is steady, and perseveres!
Here’s the good news. God loves you with a complete, whole, and nurturing love!
His love goes beyond desire, has nothing to do with beauty, cannot be earned with better grades or faultless morality. It is a love that is given freely, to all those who, by faith, will receive it. The Bible says, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!" (Romans 5:8-9, NIV)
God's gift of love, His salvation, is for all of us. None of us is too bad so as to be beyond His reach, or too good so as be above His love. None of us is too broken, too undesirable, too far gone to accept Him or to be accepted by Him. The Enemy of your soul wants you to see your sins and failures written in bold capital letters. He wants you to feel the awful unworthiness as long as you will stay focused on self. For then, you will fail to see the Cross with the marred form of Jesus, with His arms extended wide in symbolic embrace of the world.
John says, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17
Just as we have seen that love, when God defines it, is much more that sentiment. Love is a robust emotion involving costly choices. We also learn from the Word that love is a powerful change agent.
That being true, we should expect that when we experience the love of God, our world will be turned upside down! God’s love does a wonderful thing in you and me.
TEXT - Ephesians 3:17b-19
Ephesians 3:17-19 NLT
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
In this passage, Paul mixes metaphors! He alludes to two things to help us understand the powerful effect of experiencing God’s love.
First, he prays that beloved Believers will be like trees that are well-rooted.
I love a thunderstorm. The fury of the wind, whipping the trees, driving the rain, accompanied by crashing thunder and flashes of lightning is about as impressive a display of power as I can imagine. In one house we lived in, a bi-level, there was an overhand of one floor that extended about 4 feet out and was about 4 feet from ground level. It was a perfect place observe the fury of storms. The kids, who were in elementary school at the time, loved to huddle close with me as the rain came down in torrents just in front of our eyes. We oohed and aahed together. How do those huge trees resist such force? They have deep root systems, hidden in the earth, extending like a network in all directions!
Life will bring storms. Difficult times are bound to happen to us. When cancer strikes, or our spouse rejects us for another, or our job is out-sourced, or aging confronts us with our weakness, or temptation comes at us like a tsunami - we need to be well rooted. Without a source of stability, some people fall apart, turn to alcohol, drugs, or promiscuity. Some descend into depression. Some become enraged, bitter, or miserable.
But, if Christ is in us, and we have a sound theology that has taught us about the amazing grace and inexhaustible love, we are steady through it all. Yes, we weep. Yes, we are battered. Yes, we hope for the storm to subside. We are secure, never the less, in the Love of God.
Second, he prays that beloved Believers will be like beautiful, completed temples full of God’s Presence.
He says that we need to grasp the all dimensions of Christ’s love, even though we cannot stretch our minds to take it all in, on this side of Heaven. Living in the love of Christ gives us substance, makes us beautiful like a well-constructed building, and then God fills us up like He filled the old Temple in Jerusalem. The picture he sketches is wonderful!
When Solomon dedicated the temple of God in Jerusalem, something amazing happened. Listen to a little excerpt of the account. 2 Chronicles 6:40-7:2
“Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. Now arise, O LORD God, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. May your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, may your saints rejoice in your goodness. O LORD God, do not reject your anointed one. Remember the great love promised to David your servant.”
When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled it.”
The glory of the Lord is His radiance, His splendor, His majesty. On that day, what was without earthly substance became so weighty that the priests could not go about their priestly duties, for they were overcome with God.
Believer, the more of Christ and His love that we accept and know, the more the radiance of God will characterize our lives! We are transformed, not by religious fervor, but by the power of His love!
John is uncompromising in his declaration of the transformative nature of the love of God. If I had time I would read the entirety of the 4th chapter of John’s first letter. A key part says, 1 John 4:10-11
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:16-19
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 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.
We love because he first loved us.
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A disciple is a person who greatest need is met by a gift offered freely by God - the gift of love!
Don’t think having a good time in life, an easy road is the evidence of His love! Just like I, as a father, knew that my kids sometimes needed a different expression of love than they wanted, so with our Heavenly Father, who loves us for our highest good and for purposes of His kingdom.
Believer, are you accepting the gift? Are you letting God love you?
I want to close with words from Dr. Leonard Sweet -
“Until it becomes personal, love is no more tangible than a nice idea, no more powerful than an intriguing theory. ... God as the Supreme Source of ‘Being Love’ is a pleasant thought, but it is nothing more than that until belief changes to faith through direct experience.
Belief is saying, ‘I believe in a loving God.’ Faith is saying, ‘Jesus loves me this I know.’
Belief says, ‘God is love.’ Faith says, ‘God loves me.’
... The does not say, ‘God is loving.’... rather that the Being himself is Love.”
The Three Hardest Words, I Love You, Leonard Sweet
They are simple words, and their very simplicity can hide, at first glance, the power that is in them:
God loves you! How I pray that you will live in His love, letting the power of it, soak into every thought, every word, every act - so that the steadiness and glory of Jesus Christ is what you know and what others see in you.
Amen.