Good morning. Are you ready for worship? Are you ready to experience the Love Of God?
Then lets sing
I Know Not Why God's Wonderous Grace
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Romans 5 1-11
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
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Let us go into a time of prayer and let us sing: How Deep the Father's Love
Let Us Pray
Lord God, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth. You, who faithfully keep your promises when I walk with You; and who always stand ready to receive me when I turn back in repentance from sin. Lord, occasionally I listen to my deceitful heart and I’m tempted to think you don’t love me. Then I remember that You revealed Your unfailing, encompassing love by sending Your one and only Son into the world. You gave Him up as a sacrifice for my sins so that I could come alive through him. And now I’ll live with you in eternity because of your great love and His great sacrifice. Father God, You loved me before I surrendered my life to You. Back then, You gave up Your Son for sinful me. Knowing this, I can’t doubt that You’ll give me every good gift because You’ve already given me the best Gift. Your love can’t be contained, Lord. Not now, not ever, and not by any conceivable or inconceivable thing. And because I’m wrapped in Your love forever, I can overcome anything. Including my doubt and fear. Lord, I love you right back. And because I’m overwhelmed by your precious, powerful love for me, I offer my life as a sacrifice of love back to You. Use me to love others, Lord, the way You love me. I pray in Jesus’ precious, saving name. Amen.
Let us share together in the Lords Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Let us listen to the Staff Songster Sing: When God Comes Near.
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God's Radical Love
Love means different things to different people – mostly we think of it as a feeling of affection that we may have towards someone. But that definition is a mile wide, and yet only an inch deep. One thing that love is – perhaps the most important thing – is radical sacrifice. Hmm. We don’t like to talk about THAT too much!
The famous movie star Marilyn Monroe once said this, she said:
I’m selfish, impatient and just a little insecure. I make mistakes, I’m out of control and at times I’m hard to handle but if you can’t handle me at my worst then you certainly don’t deserve me at my best.
That’s a cheery thought, isn’t it? But it makes an important point. See, people who are perfect are easy to love aren’t they? They never make mistakes, they never fall short of our expectations, they never disappoint us, they never hurt us, they never ignore us. See those people are so easy to love but have you ever found one, a perfect person that is? No, me neither.
Of course, we know that there aren’t any perfect people walking on this planet. We know that in our heads but that doesn’t stop us from expecting perfection when we go looking for love. Friendship is a form of love, being a parent involves loving, in fact in a sense we can interact with work colleagues, associates, acquaintances either in love or not, with compassion or not, with kindness or not. You understand what I’m saying.
Now the dictionary tells me that love is a strong feeling of affection and even attraction. Of course, that can be true, well it’s true at least in part at least some of the time but that dictionary definition falls such a long way short of what love really is. That romantic sort of love is easy to have when the person we’re loving is perfect right. But anybody who has ever been married will tell you that their lifelong soul mate is far from perfect lots of the time.
Anybody who has ever been a parent will tell you that their children are far from perfect. No parent is perfect either. So, what is love? What’s the definition of love when people and situations and circumstances and relationships are imperfect which let’s face it, they are most of the time? What does love mean?
Jesus once said:
No greater love has any man than to lay down his life for his friends.
If we stop and think about it, it’s absolutely true because in an imperfect world loving imperfect people is about sacrifice. In fact, I’d like to propose an entirely different definition of love to my dictionary. Love is the decision we make to unconditionally care for, support and honour someone on their good days and on their bad days and the fruit of that love is that it develops a relationship that becomes rich and satisfying.
In other words, the feelings follow along behind the decision to radically sacrifice ourselves to another person, to put up with their failures, to help them when they’re acting badly rather than criticise them, to give them the space to make mistakes and still be there for them when they come to their senses. If we are constantly judging others, we don't have time to love them. Love is not judging people; love is not punishing people; love is not punching them back in the face when they punch you in the face. And in my experience, I’m sure in yours too, that sort of love hurts, not all the time but at least some of the time. Love is a radical sacrifice that hurts and when we choose to live out that radical sacrifice, relationships develop that lasts a lifetime.
How’s that for a definition of love? Radical, sacrificial, unconditional love. What would our world look like if everybody adopted that definition of love and lived that definition of love instead of that, superficial, inch deep, dictionary definition ‘a strong feeling of affection’ which always falls short of the reality, which always is going to disappoint us.
Affection is the reward of love; the feeling is the result of love. Love isn’t just a noun, it’s not simply something that we have or we don’t have, it’s also a verb, it’s a doing word. Love is something we are meant to do and the doing part of love, the doing part is sacrifice.
The more we sacrifice the more we experience the feeling of love. Think about it, think about how much a parent will sacrifice for a child, the sleepless nights, the worries, the conflict, the tears, the arguments. By the time a child becomes a young adult a mother’s and father’s investment is huge, it’s massive.
Why do we as parents learn to love our children more and more as time goes on? Why are we so proud when they achieve something, or when they become effective young adults or when they achieve this or that? Why do we love them so much in our hearts? I’ll tell you why. Not only because they’re our own flesh and blood but because we’ve invested so much in them, and those achievements are the fruits of our investment. That’s why if feels so good to be a parent even when along the way it costs us so much.
It’s a beautiful picture of what love is really meant to be. We each would like to think that we would leave behind a legacy of love that when we’re gone our children, our grandchildren, our friends, our wider family, all the people we’ve come into contact with will be better off for having known us.
It’s pretty natural to want that but let me tell you, there can be no lasting legacy of love that our lives leave behind unless we’re living out the right definition of love. And that definition is that love is a decision to make a radical sacrifice for other people and radical sacrifices always, always costs us something.
True greatness isn’t about what we achieve; true greatness is about what we leave behind in the hearts of those whom we’ve served. Again, that’s exactly what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 23, verse 11, He said:
The greatest among you will be the servant of all.
Can I ask you this? What definition of love are you living out? That shallow dictionary definition, or the real definition, the true definition of radical sacrifice. And what would your world look like, your relationships, your life if the love you lived involved radical sacrifice?
Questions like that really make you think. They make me think. The most beautiful, the most sublime definition of love that I’ve ever read comes of course from the Bible in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Have a listen once again.
Love is patient and love is kind. Love isn’t envious or boastful or arrogant or rude, it doesn’t insist on its own way, it’s not irritable or resentful, it doesn’t rejoice in wrongdoing but love rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things and it endures all things. Love never ends.
It seems to me that every part of that definition or description is an explanation of the sacrifice involved in loving. Patience, that’s a sacrifice. Kindness, that’s a sacrifice. Not being envious, boastful, arrogant or rude, not insisting on our own way, not being irritable or resentful, bearing all things, enduring all things. They are all about sacrifice and this was a sacrifice that never ends.
There’s nothing lovey-dovey or fluffy about any of that. It’s all about sacrifice. The sort of love that God is calling you and me to is the sort of love that involves sacrifice, radical sacrifice. The sort that the Apostle Paul writes about in Romans chapter 5, verse 8:
God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
My friends, anyone who wants to live a life that leaves behind a lasting legacy of love, they need to be living that sort of a life, that sort of a love. It’s as simple as that.
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Lets sing out a love song to God. Let us surrender all that we are to the God Of Love
The Lord bless thee and keep thee
The Lord make His face to shine upon thee
And be gracious unto thee
The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee
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