May 7, 2017
Morning Service

We are looking together into what a “new normal” should look like after accepting Jesus’ invitation to “Follow Me.”  We first saw how Peter was no longer just a fisherman, but quickly became a leader of a group of believers that changed the world.  Last week we began to visualize our “new normal” by building a foundation of loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and body.  Jesus said this:

Mark 12:29-31  And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord;  (30)  and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." This is the first commandment.  (31)  And the second is like this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

·         Last week we focused on the first commandment and found love defined in I Cor. 13 and that “God is love” in I John 4.  Please realize the importance of your relationship with Christ.  All the other good works that we do, and all the people we are able to love and serve come as a result of that relationship.  It is very important that you keep your foundation strong.  It is much like the orders you receive on an airplane about the oxygen mask.  You must be sure you are safe first before you can help others.

·           This morning we will build upon our foundation of loving God by looking at the second commandment of loving your neighbor as yourself.  In the parable of the “Good Samaritan” Jesus clearly explained that all men are our neighbors.  Let’ begin to build as we return to I John 4.

 

1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.  (8)  The one who does not love has not known God. For God is love.  (9)  In this the love of God was revealed in us, because God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.  (10)  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  (11)  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.  (12)  No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us.

·         As we saw in I Cor. 13 love is much more than a feeling.  It is a choice to act.  God so loved us that He chose to become a man to die a death we deserved paying a price for our sin that we could not pay.  This is love in action.  It is this love that we now must choose to imitate and live it out by loving one another.  In fact we are most like Jesus when we are loving one another.  Verse 12 says “His love is perfected in us.”

 

John 13:34-35 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you should also love one another.  (35)  By this all shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love toward one another.

·         Here Jesus asks us to follow His example.  As you read the 4 Gospels look for ways Jesus displayed His love for the disciples and imitate that.  That love then really defines us as a follower of Jesus Christ.  We love because we are loved.  You cannot be a follower of Christ and not have love for your fellow man in your heart.  It is impossible to separate the two.  To choose to follow Christ we must love our brothers.

1 John 4:19-21 We love Him because He first loved us.  (20)  If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For if he does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?  (21)  And we have this commandment from Him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.

·         It is easy to say we love God when that love doesn’t cost us anything more than a little of our time on Sunday morning.  Being a Christ follower goes much deeper than just going to church. The real test of our love for God, our love in action, is how we treat others around us at home, work, and even at Walmart.  We cannot truly love God and neglect the people God has placed in our lives to be loved by us.  That love sometimes can be as simple as a smile or “hello how are you.”  But sometimes it goes deeper.

 

1 John 3:16-18 By this we have known the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.  (17)  But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother having need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God dwell in him?  (18)  My children let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

·         Here is the challenging part of this love we have been commanded to imitate; we can’t only say it we have to DO IT!  To love someone comes with a cost of giving of yourself to others.  That could be with money, time, a phone call, a prayer, or of one of many other big and small efforts.   The key is that we choose to love with action.  It is our actions that truly reveal the love that is in our heart much more than our words.  What does that look like?

·         Loving one another is just doing life together.  We are part of each other’s lives and we work, cry, pray, praise, struggle and laugh together. 

Romans 12:15-16 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep; (16) be of the same mind toward one another.  Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble.  Do not be wise in your own opinion.

·         We cry together at funerals and rejoice at weddings and birthdays.  We are not focused only on our lives but take great interest in others as well.  We care enough to not only ask each other about our struggles, but to join each other in them.  Love helps carry others burdens.  Love shares good times and bad times equally.

·         Loving one another is fulfilling the Will of God for your life.  It also fulfills all the other commandments combined.  Paul told the Roman church this:

Romans 13:8-10 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves another has fulfilled the Law.  (9)  For: "Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not bear false witness; do not lust;" and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  (10)  Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.

·         Paul also stated it very plainly that we cannot just go through the motions, but we must truly love.

Romans 12:9-10  NLT  Don’t just pretend that you love others.  Really love them!  Hate what is wrong and stand on the side of good.  (10) Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other. 

·         As we truly love God with our heart, soul, mind and body we are yielding ourselves to the bidding of the Holy Spirit.  With time our choice to love becomes really who we are and it no longer is a choice but our natural behavior. God is love.  He abides in us.  We will love God and we will love one another.  That is our “New Normal.”

 

Lord grant us the strength, courage and desire to love others as You loved us.