True Love is a One-Way Street (12/15/2019)

Okay, well good morning. I was asked to help out today and we're gonna get the awesome privilege of hearing

Brother Bill preach a sermon from the pulpit. I've been asked to help do something like this a couple times and every time

I feel like I need a month to prepare. I feel like it's a very very big responsibility so forgive me if I look tired or if I yawn a lot because I was up kind of late trying to organize my thoughts we'll see but Christmas is upon us and so I wanted to do something that's related to Christmas not necessarily a

Christmas message but I think it kind of could be called that because what well

I don't have every Sunday and won't get to go verse by verse through a Bible so I want to do something topical and so I chose something

I've been studying a lot lately which is love and since Jesus showed us the ultimate act of love and and that was done in so many parts one of the main parts of that was when he came to earth gave up the glory of heaven for us and and that right there is our

Christmas story right when he was born as a baby in the manger and so I wanted to share with you some of my my thoughts some of them are almost what's the word

I'm like almost science fiction II in nature and they all sound science fiction

II which they're not fiction they're they're science II I should just say and then we'll get in some other stuff

I don't know I don't know if I'll be able to get through all of it or if it'll go real fast so we'll just go for it all right so if you would just open your

Bibles to first John 4 7 and we'll open with a word of prayer thank you father for your amazing love thank you for your word thank you that it is truth and that we can learn more about you through it and we can more about your love through it help us to show your love helps to experience your love and father

I just pray that you be with us this morning guide us through your scripture and just pray that you be in control today we know you always are but help us to submit to that it's a

Jesus name we pray Amen first John 4 7 beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth

God here we see a commandment this is something that we are supposed to do we're supposed to love each other and the reason we're supposed to love each other is because love originates with God if you look up the word of it literally means to originate and I find that interesting because I know a lot of people who are lost who seemingly love other people they seemingly love other things and they will claim to love something but they don't know

God and if love originates with God it almost seems like it's impossible for them to actually love now we know that this is a very particular kind of love that we're studying here that we're looking at this is a got they love this is the love of God but what

I think is interesting with this verse is that not only does it say love is of God meaning it originates with God it says that everyone that loveth is born of God which means the people who show this love originate with God as well and they know

God now we go on down to verse 8 he that loveth not knoweth not

God for God is love now here's where things get a little sciencey

I think this is interesting I know it's a verse that we've studied a ton and when

I've been studying love I've been trying to find certain aspects of love in Scripture and I keep when

I do all my Google searches and I keep looking for certain aspects of love I keep getting first John 4 8 that pops up and I started pondering why is that so one of the aspects that I want to focus on about love is where is it where is love and I and after much pondering

I I came up with first John 4 8 over and over again he that loveth not knoweth not

God for God is love so I want to break that down but I want to do it going backwards I want to start with the end and go back to the beginning is that okay with you guys all right so let's start with for God is love to say that something is something else we use this phrase in in algebra a lot what does it mean brother bill to say something is correct yeah it's a declarative statement of the equality of something that is equal to right so to say that something is something else is to say that that something else is equal to the something for example

Katie is my wife she equals my wife right so who is my wife my wife equals

Katie my best friend equals Katie right that's what Katie equals to me to her mom and her dad she equals something else she equals daughter and still yet different with the kiddos she equals mommy to the kiddos right and so while she doesn't equal mommy to me and she doesn't equal daughter to me if I were to ask

Katie what do you equal she could say I equal your wife

I equal my parents daughter I equal my kids mommy

I equal COO at Tradeway and so many other things so this is an interesting concept because I think to some degree

I think it's fine to say God equals love would you agree with that but I'm not so sure it's oh it's enough to say that love equals

God in other words we're only looking at a certain aspect of God when we say love so you don't get the entirety of God but you do get the entirety of love when you look at God with me so far okay so we get the entirety of love just like you get the entirety of who's my wife when you talk about Katie you don't get the entirety of Katie but you get the entirety of who's my wife in this verse we have

God telling us what he equals God is saying

God is love his his scriptures saying God is love not that love is

God but God is love so we get the entirety of what love is when we look at God now

I want to focus on the word is a little bit in a different light because is not only means equals but it lives in the present it lives in the now so I just think it's a really really cool word if you think about the fact that we serve the great

I am who resides eternally in the now it's a space between the moments in which you and I think and live because whenever we whenever we whenever we try to think of something right we could think about the future but we're not there yet and by the time we have thought about what we're doing it's already a thought in the past by the time we do it it's in the past we are not the

I am we are not in the present like God is in the present but what

I think is really interesting is that when we see

God is love we see that God is the entirety of love but also

God is in the present love that's a weird way to say it but let me say it like this if God is in the present if that's where he resides in this space between the moments in which you and I live and God equals love and let me ask a question where is love where is love if God is in the present that's where he is and God equals love and love by algebraic definition right by the by the ability to say that a equals

B then and B equals C then C must equal a right love is in the present and so this gives us a bit of a problem that already has a solution we are not in the present right we don't reside in that space

God does and yet we are told that we are supposed to love one another and if you look up the definition of the word love one another it actually is the same kind of love it's an agape love so if we if we love one another if we show each other this unconditional godlike love here's what's happening it is connecting us to a place where God is he is eternally in the present and when we show this love that only we can show like oh we can only do it because God saved us

God it's one of those 33 things that David likes to talk about that he's done to us he gave us this agape love when he gave it to us and he put it in us he gave us the ability to show it and that in a sense puts us in the present with him it's almost like love is a portal to another dimension in which we can't reach which

I think is a really neat thought I don't fully understand it yet I'm gonna keep studying it but it's it's like it we can't get to that dimension but we can see that dimension we can experience effects of that dimension through this portal called love so it connects us to God in a really unique way all right so turn to John chapter 13 33 and I think it's interesting that it tells us let's kind of go before we get before I go to John 13 35 or 13 33

I'm gonna finish up what we started there we were we were looking at John 4 8 which is he that loveth not

God or loveth not knoweth not God for God is love so that we started at the end and now

I want to go to the beginning of that verse he that loveth not knoweth not God it's interesting that it says if you don't have this love if you don't have if you don't show this love you don't know

God and when you look at love is this sort of existential portal to this other dimension that we can't reach it makes total sense because if that's where God is and you don't have the portal how can you know

God you can't know him it's just impossible to know him if you don't have this love that's why scripture tells us you will you will know them by their love one for another it's our distinguishing factor between us in the world is love it's this thing that connects us to him so that's what

I wanted to finish up with John 1st John 4 8 go to the first of that verse you can't know

God if you don't love because you're not with him you're not in his presence without that love now does that mean that we can disconnect from God when we're not showing love no the loves always in us it's always in it we may not always choose to show it but it's always there for us to access because God put it in us and once he puts it in us it's not gone please do correct

I love that that's because what does it mean it's like they missed the moment but it's not even a moment it's a place between the moments and in the only way we can linger on that place is by connecting through this love is the fact that we have this love

I mean and and and we have it whether we access it or not so we have the ability to linger in that moment and experience presence with God when we are accessing this love everybody else just they don't even they don't even see it they don't even know it's there they have no way to know it's there until God says guess what there's this place between moments

I'm here and here's how you access me I think that's great thank you for that brother Bill all right so John 1333 this has a really cool really cool twist on it too

I'm gonna I'm gonna pull it up on my phone here real quick because but somebody read verse 32 for me okay go to birth at 33 now read that for me okay yeah that's the verse

I wanted 33 okay so I used to look at this verse and I used to think this is a rule

I'm supposed to follow this is where God literally says this is a commandment

I'm giving it to you go love other people go love each other and do it the way

I loved you and I think we can all agree that kind of looks like something it's a it's a commandment it's a rule we're supposed to follow to some degree but in light of what we just studied it takes on a new meaning it's really cool because I want you to think about what the disciples are experiencing with Christ here he is literally telling them

I'm leaving and where I go you cannot follow right yeah let me where does he say that I thought that was in 32 oh is it at the end of 33 all right go ahead yeah let's see yes that's it that's it okay little children yet a little while I am with you you shall seek me and as I said unto the

Jews whither I go you cannot come so now I say to you so here imagine spending time with God in the flesh for three whole years like walking hand -in -hand with Jesus literally hand in physical hand and being with him every moment of every day watching him perform miracles watching him change lives watching him you know do wondrous things and out smart the smartest people on earth and experiencing that firsthand imagine laying on his chest like the

Apostle the the disciple John right the one whom Jesus loved and then him saying

I'm out of here and you can't follow me imagine what that felt like to the disciples like what no you're leaving and I think that Jesus understood that so he gave us a commandment as a response to the fact that I'm leaving and you can't be with me now you can't get where I'm going you can't go there so I give to you a new commandment that you love one another as I have loved you love ye one another so it's like Jesus is saying

I'm leaving you can't go where I'm going but we can still be together if you'll do this in that neat like that's a whole new meaning to the to the verse at least to me like I hadn't seen that it's it's not just a commandment for us to go do for other people it's a commandment for us to experience

Jesus for ourselves uh -huh but he added something didn't he right oh

I love that yes isn't that cool like he didn't tell the

Jews how to do that yeah he said you can't go where I'm going but he added something for us he said you can't go where I'm going either but love one another and you'll it's like you'll experience where I am it's so cool yeah so a new commandment

I give unto thee that you love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another now think about what it must have been like for those disciples remember love is in the present right love is the is eternally now it's a way to connect to Christ and think about those disciples if God is leaving where are your thoughts oh no right and how long until I get to see you again that's that's the only place where these disciples thoughts were

I promise you they weren't thinking about what am I gonna do while he's gone they're thinking about how do

I get back to him and Christ he had that off right at the beginning he said you're not gonna get to go where I'm going but here's how you get to me it's kind of like my little girl

Maddie so Maddie Grace has this friend Meadow who has become almost an adopted fourth child in our home she has spent so many days in our home that like they have a they have a planner at school this planner is something that they have to get signed every day by their parents they have to have a parent signature for each daily task in school our little girl

Maddie and Meadow have discovered that Meadow has Katie's signature in her planner for at least once a week for the past year at least once a week because she maybe spent the night at our house and her mom couldn't do the right in the planner so Katie had to she spends so many days and nights at our house that we have given her part of Maddie's closet she has a an alarm clock that is hers that she leaves at our house because she's just like one of our kids practically the yesterday

I was making breakfast I almost made too many breakfasts because Meadow wasn't there and so even though Meadow is always at our house and Maddie always loves spending time with Meadow she just it's it's just life to her right now when

Meadow goes home guess what the first thing Maddie starts doing is I mean

Meadow is walking towards her mommy to be leaving and Maddie's turning and already asking when is

Meadow gonna come back when can I get back to Meadow she doesn't want to think about life without Meadow just like we don't really want to think about what life is like without Christ too often we experience what life is like without Christ because we disconnect from that agape love we we get busy with things that are important things that are good but we lose sight of the connection that we're supposed to have with Christ if we will always connect with him then everything else that gets busy in our lives everything else that gets us distracted will not become a distraction but rather become an enhancement to our life with Christ Maddie's been doing that kind of thing since she was itty -bitty she didn't want to go to sleep she just always wanted to be awake so whenever she would wake up the first words out of her mouth no bedtime when she's itty -bitty we'd be starting the day she'd already be negotiating for no bedtime later that night because she knew where she wanted to be so I think under I think

Jesus understands this about us he knows that he's he left and we want to be with him so he gave us this connection to to be with him so there are a couple of things

I want to look at in how to experience love because we know we want to experience it we know we want to access it because if we access it we get to be present with Christ so I want to look at a couple of things that I've been sharing

I've been doing some devos at Tradeway and these are some of the things I've been studying about love to show us how to experience it something that we can actually apply to our lives right now and I think the more we understand what love is where it resides and where it comes from the easier it becomes for us to access it so I want to turn to Isaiah 59 16 let's talk about this amazing commandment that lets us be with Jesus we must love one another the way

Christ has loved us and that's a pretty high standard that sets the bar pretty high would you agree

I mean it we're gonna fall short of it every time but fortunately the

Bible is pretty clear about how Christ loved us so all we have to do is read about that love and then try our best to imitate that love so here we go

I want us to think about where does it start we know that if God is love and God there is no beginning and there is no end you could almost say there is there is no real start to love it's it's got this aspect that you can't find the beginning of it it's which makes it even cooler because it's it's a depth of love that you can never find the end of you can't find the beginning to it you can't find the end of it it's it's eternal like God is eternal because it's part of it's part of who he is but our first recognition of it towards us is when we see

Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit the Trinity of God working together to create to plan out creation and we see here in Isaiah 59 the three of them are are talking they're they're basically planning out what they're gonna do is before God said let there be light before he formed the heavens and the earth before he made man from the dust of the earth and the beast of the field he before he breathed life into our nostrils and gave us a name he was already planning out the environment in which he was gonna show his love the void in which his love was going to fill and the way in which he was going to connect us to that love here we have

God an eternal being existing by himself of himself for himself and he has this desire to share who he is with someone or something and so he plans it all out

I thought I had this verse in my in my notes so would someone read it for me

Isaiah 59 16 it's a weird kind of verse because it he saw that there was no man it shows us this is before we're created and wondered there was no intercessor and then it shows that he he fills that need therefore his own arm brought salvation for him and his own righteousness and sustained him meaning it sustained man all right so there was no man and yet before there was man

God's in his infinite foreknowledge in his his ability to plan out this whole game of life he says man is in need of an intercessor and there is no intercessor for man so I'm gonna be that intercessor and he becomes that intercessor for us so that's where love starts for us is when

God says I'm going to show it and this is how I'm going to show it so it started in the mind of God and then it's played out through creation when he forms us any and he had us eat of the knowledge of good and evil

I know we were told not to by God but it was all part of his plan I was I'm going through this really cool it's like a class from Hillsdale Bible College and pop started it to have you gotten very far through it yet pop okay well you're a little further than I am because I started it really really started it yesterday or day before and one of the coolest things that it's talking about in that is the creation of man and Adam and Eve in particular and they were told not to eat of the garden or not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil right and what he brings out is that we all look at this tree as if it's a bad thing but it wasn't a bad thing it was a good thing we were just told not to do a particular thing with it and he even goes as far to say look at its name it is the knowledge the tree of the knowledge of what good and evil so that means that when they ate of the tree they got a double portion of knowledge they got a portion of good and they got a portion of evil and what's interesting about it is that it instantly created shame in their lives right because all of a sudden their eyes were opened they knew that they were naked they knew that they they had something to be ashamed of and what

I think is really cool about the the good side of this fruit is that it must give them an even better picture of how good

God is compared to their newfound knowledge of this evil so the more they thought about the good that they received this knowledge of good from God the more they realized how bad they were and the more they thought about how bad they were the more good

God seemed to them so it created this this ever -growing gap between their their evil and God's goodness it was really interesting really interesting thought so to fill this gap

God saw that this gap was gonna need to be filled he saw that they were gonna eat of the tree he saw that that it was going to cause them to realize just how evil they were and how good

I am and there it's an infinite gap that could never be filled by man so I'm the only one that can do it so I'm gonna do it and that's where God's love for us started it's really cool

I think what we can learn how to apply this to our lives is that if we're gonna show this kind of love to each other we have to be intentional we have to plan it out it takes planning it takes work to show this love you can't just I mean there are ways we can show this love in the moment and be and and react in love when someone may not show us love we can react with love and that's showing it a

God type love but if you really want to show this agape love to each other plan it out be intentional try to be present with the people you are around understand what they're going through understand what their needs are and think about how can you meet the needs this is something

I want to be very intentional about personally I want to I want to be a little bit more aware of what other people are going on through what are they experiencing and how can

I fill certain voids in their life so let let's move on let's go to John chapter 15 verse 13 this is another verse that we are extremely familiar with something that we've studied and studied and studied a lot but if we look at what

Christ has done and what he has planned out then it takes on a pretty cool new meaning as well greater love hath no man than this than a man laid down his life for his friends how many of y 'all have read this verse a lot how many times do we picture

Christ on the cross when we read this verse almost every time right like so many times we picture

Christ on the cross when we think about him laying down his life for his friends but I want us to think about what

Christ had to do in order for the cross to be effective what did he have to do he had to make the sacrifice of giving up himself and his his glory in heaven to come to earth so it meant ignoring his own desires to come to earth and while he was at earth correct he had to live a perfect life in order for the cross to even be effectual for the cross to have any effect whatsoever

Christ had to live perfectly and it wasn't easy to do and if you think well he was

God so of course it was easier for him he sweat blood now

I've worked extremely hard in my life before I have worked I've worked outside done manual labor

I've worked in the dead heat of summer I've in basketball games

I have I have poured every ounce of my being into trying to to overwork at a particular task and I have worked till I've thrown up before I have worked till I was so sweated it all like you get the the salt you can see the salt from your sweat all over your clothes

I have worked as hard as I know humanly possible how to work

I've experienced and if you've never tried that before do it it's a really neat experience because when you've done it makes you feel different but I've never worked so hard that I started sweating blood have you

I don't know if it's even possible for man to work that hard but Christ did he worked that hard to be perfect for us so that he could die and have this perfect sacrifice for us and fill that gap so that no longer would we have to look at how evil we were in comparison to how good

God was and never have a way to bridge the gap now we could look at how good Christ was and that his

Christ that his goodness covered our evil so that the the gap is filled instantly there's there is no void and so when we read

John chapter 15 verse 13 greater love hath no man than this that a man laid down his life for his friends

I think it's interesting to think of it from the perspective of Christ laid down his life not it didn't just die he he lived his entire life 33 years perfectly for us and the only reason why he did it was because he had his eyes on the prize and what was the prize a reuniting of man with God that was

Christ's prize he wanted us to experience what he experiences every day and so he wanted to fill that void and the only way he could do it was if he never made a single mistake which means the only way he could never make a single mistake was to never forget why he was doing it that meant that we were 100 % always on Christ's mind always we never he never forgot about us for even a moment because in a moment it's all it takes to sin right and we experience that like we can be walking with Christ and then in one moment let go of his hand and boom we find ourselves sinning and it can in my life it it's frustrating and I don't even understand how it works where I'll be walking with Christ and I'll feel close to him and within the same day it can become the worst day of of my life it feels like like I can't believe

I'm this bad like that I can and it bugs me even more

I start to experience what Adam and Eve experienced in the garden when that happens because I remember what what

I was experiencing at the beginning of the day and I remember how good it was and at the end of the day I'm like how bad am

I I must be so so bad because I got to this point when I was at that point it makes it makes sin seem so much worse and yet Christ never even for one moment forgot his connection with God or forgot his desire to connect man with God not even for one whole moment for 33 years no wonder he was sweating blood and he did that with us on his mind so if we want to show this agape love not only do we need to be intentional and plan out and be present with the people that that have that are around us that have voids they have needs in their lives we need to in order to even be able to do that we have to be thinking of each other our thoughts have to be for the other person not for us and that's hard for us to do because even when we think about doing something good for someone else what do we think they're gonna love me for this they're gonna they're gonna be so thankful for this they're gonna

I can't wait to see the look on their face when I'll be like I can't say it too loud we got something really awesome for the kiddos for Christmas Katie and I can't wait to show it to him because we can't wait to see their reaction for us it's kind of a selfish thing to be honest

I mean we we love giving it to them but partly because we love getting the reaction that they give back to us so it's kind of a difficult thing for us to to always have our thoughts towards the other person because we know there's gonna be a reaction we know there's gonna be something that they get in return for us and I and I don't think it's wrong to think about that but you got to be aware that it can become a selfish thing

I do think that Christ when he thinks about us he can't wait to see the looks on our faces he can't wait to see what it's like for us to be present with him in heaven but at the same time he doesn't lose sight of the fact that there is a need for us so it doesn't become a selfish thing like I can't wait to experience this with them it's

I can't it's like this eternal I can't wait for them to experience it it's a hundred percent selfless with Christ and so we've got to practice that because we're not gonna be very good at it

I think we can get better at it the more we think about all right what else can

I do for them and that's the way we we get better at it once we figure out what we can do for each other and we start to work towards doing it instead of dwelling on what the reaction is gonna be for us we should be looking towards what's the next thing we can do for them and that will keep that in the forefront of our minds

I mean if you think about all the different things Christ has done for us it's not just you're going to heaven he's building more and more layers into this salvation experience for us and it keeps us it keeps his mind eternally on us let's go to Romans chapter 5 verse 8 and we're running out of time so we'll wrap it up with this

I've got it I've got a question after this one this is the last point

I have on what is love like and then I've got a question for us but God commandeth his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners

Christ died for us this verse shows us that love is a one -way street it is not a two -way street he didn't love us because of something we did he didn't love us he doesn't love us if we obey him he doesn't even love us in spite of who we are because if he loved us for that reason because you know man man does this sometimes we get where we will love we'll show someone love in spite of who they are to show how great we are you see but if that person ever changed then that that would mess up our love for them but that doesn't happen with Christ because he doesn't love us in spite of who are who we are because he doesn't love in spite man has this perverted idea of what love is so we will look at someone and we'll say

I love you in spite what a horrible thing to say how how is it even possible to love someone in spite them at the same time like that's what we do though and Christ doesn't love us in spite he loves us just because he has the ability to because it is in his nature to because he can so he does and so it is a one -way street scripture tells us we were enemies with Christ and yet he died for us so while we're spitting on him while we're beating him while we're abusing him and while we still do that today post -salvation we still treat him poorly it never even affects his love for us it is a one -way street so how can we show this to someone else think about how to love each other and just love whether they're good whether they're bad whether they're happy whether they're sad

I'm starting to sound like dr. Seuss because I'm rhyming like just love

I read a book one time I can't remember the name of it but it had a really cool phrase where it said it's just love period

I said it's not if love not because love not in spite of love it's just love period

I think it was every man's battle I think that might have been it but it's a great idea

Spurgeon wrote a sermon Oh how he loves and it describes in much better detail than I have

Christ's love for us what it has done for us and what it has done to us but he ends his message with this question do you love

Christ I've been talking this whole time about loving each other and how do we do it but then we have to ask ourselves do we love

God if we do if we love him as the disciple

John did then our thoughts will always be with him if we want to lay upon his chest and experience the closeness of Christ we have to be humble we have to be broken scripture tells us that he draws near to the brokenhearted we have to understand our complete evilness and how he's covered us with it with his love he's covered it with his love and bridged the gap we have to understand that in order to experience this and be present with Christ to be in the eternal now with him we have to show this love one for another even as Christ has loved us and that brings a whole new meaning to another scripture when

Christ asked Peter do you love me yes Lord I love you and feed my sheep do you love me

Peter of course I do feed my lambs do you love me feed my sheep if you love

God and you want to be with God if you want to be in the present with God it requires acts of service it requires planning it requires thinking of other people because that's how he told us to connect to him to connect to each other and so in Christmas I think it's a really neat time for us to celebrate

God's love because we show each other that love we we share it we talk about his love but then we show it with each other and so that's what it's about I think it's cool that's didn't think

I'd get all emotional about it but it's cool yeah love that's all

I have for today but I do want you guys to help me love so like if you have a need in your life tell me about it

I know I'm busy I've got kids I've got work I travel a lot sometimes

I miss church and stuff but sometimes I'm here too and one thing that I do love to do something that I get enjoyment out of I'll be honest

I like to see the looks on people's faces when I help them it's a little bit selfish but I do but it can help you know and so help me love you if you have a need in your life if even if it's just something where I pray for you or if it's something where you need me to come do something for you it's a great it's a great opportunity for me to show my kids how to show the love of Christ I'll bring them along with me you have something that you need let me know and I'd like to do something for you questions comments anybody really appreciate brother bill adding what he added to that because it's a really neat distinction

God has given us where no one else has that access the

Jews didn't have that access but Christ gave us access to him even though he left for a while so let's experience that together anything else all right let's let's pray

Heavenly Father Lord we just thank you for your love we thank you that you showed us your love in an infinite way that you came to earth as a humble servant gave up your glory in heaven and you lived a perfect life with only us and your father in mind you saw a gap between us and him you saw our evil compared to his goodness and you saw and even wondered that there was no intercessor for us and you said

I'll do it and your salvation does sustain us and we thank you for that or we pray that we really want to experience you we want to be with you and we know that you are not physically on this earth with us but you gave us your spirit and with that spirit in us we have a way to connect to you in the eternal present by showing your love when we don't show love to each other we are showing