If Love Makes the World Go Round: What’s Your Spin on Life? 2/14/99

John 13: 34, 35
Page 1578 Come Alive Bible

JESUS CHRIST placed great value on relationships. He not only taught principles related but He was a role model evidencing how important it is to build good relationships.

His teachings were filled with examples of how to befriend people and who to befriend. Little children, beggars, rich young rulers, sickly women, prestigious national leaders, and the poor were all recipients of His acts and expressions of friendship.

Why did Jesus and why does the Bible put such emphasis on friendship? Because friendships fortify life. To love, and be loved, is the greatest happiness of existence.

Living in a community with others makes us part of them and them part of us. Jesus Christ, in eternity past, co-existed as a member of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are the perfect example of living together in community with one another. They are Exhibit A of friendship.

On earth Christ chose twelve disciples with which to associate in a small community of traveling companions. These were His friends. Thus, in heaven and on earth by His example He has taught us the importance of friendship.

Christ knew proper relationships are good for us. A number of years ago two brothers, Will and Carl Menninger, started an institution on the Kansas plains based on the therapy of love. Today the Menninger Foundation Hospital reports one of the highest incidents of recovery of mental and emotional patients treated with the technique Christ commanded. In a word “love.”

Studies show that persons who share love have a tendency to live longer and enjoy better health. Anything our Lord urges us to do is good for us physically and emotionally as well as spiritually.

Let’s unfold our text like a three petaled flower and look at each. Petal number one:

I. THE COMMAND “THAT YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER” vs. 34
This is an appeal to – – –

A. REACH OUT
Proverbs 18:24 says, “He who would have friends must show himself friendly.” It is a simple fact.

The Roman Seneca almost 2,000 years ago wrote: “If you wish to be loved, love.”

For Christ’s sake we must reach out. That is for the sake of reaching people for Christ we must aggressively express ourselves. Friendship evangelism is one of the most effective ways of attracting people to Christ. Week after week, people walk these aisles as a result of some friend who has capitalized on their friendship to share what a relationship with Christ can mean.

Love must have an object.

If you are not a Christian and have a friend who is that is trying to share Christ with you please be patient with your Christian friend. Here is why that person is doing so. Your Christian friend has had a pleasant experience with Jesus Christ. Loving you as he or she does there is a natural desire for you to enjoy a pleasant experience with Jesus Christ. It is the highest way of saying, “I love you.”

Now to the Christian community a question. Have you ever noticed why new converts are often the best soul winners? The reason is most of their friends are lost and they know where to find them. Most Christians have withdrawn into the church so completely that they don’t know any lost people. Go out and get to be friends with some. We must socialize before we evangelize. Build bridges out of acts of love.

B. RECYCLE
The Apostle John must have had this command of Christ in the back of his mind when he wrote I John 4: 20 — “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”

What this verse means is that love must have an object and if it can’t relate to the nearest object it can’t relate to a more distant one. There is no other medium through which to demonstrate your love for God than people — all people. People give us an opportunity in an objective way of demonstrating our love for God.

If a radio station in Marietta can’t reach Alabama it surely can’t reach Tokyo. If we can’t love the people near us, we evidence we don’t have the ability to love the One in whose image they were created.

Littering and pollution are not confined to the world of paper, glass, metals, and plastics. Look into the landscape of your mind and you will see a junkyard of people you have discarded. They are there because they did not come up to your expectation for them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations. As soon as you once come up with a man’s limitations, it is all over with him…Infinitely alluring and attractive was he to you yesterday, a great hope, a sea to swim in; now, you have found his shores, found it a pond, and you care not if you never see him again.”

Count the number of people you have dumped recently while looking for the perfect one.

You can end people-littering once and for all by using the percentage method of acceptance. On a scale of 1 to 100, quickly determine how much you like a certain person. You likely will be delighted to find you like most persons at least fifty percent, some sixty or seventy. Perhaps some eighty five percent. All the time you have been thinking you hated them. Actually it is only part of them or perhaps an isolated incident you don’t like. You can accept that just like you accept a rattle or scratch on a new car. You don’t discard it because it isn’t perfect.

How many people do you suppose like you because you grade out 100% with them at all times? If others forgive you and overlook your limitations you can do the same for them.

People go to great lengths to recycle and get the maximum value from various products. For months I saved aluminum cans. I found it to be a great way to release frustrations. Stomp each one flat and they require less room. For six months I saved them and took them in to collect my fortune. My big bag of squashed cans brought $4.00. If we will go to that effort for such a small return it surely is worth an effort to recycle friends after you have found their limitations.

In Franklin, Ohio the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set up a large machine called a “hydropulper.” An unimaginable assortment of garbage is fed into it. This mess would be impossible for persons to sort out and separate, but the hydropulper by using magnets, water, wind and other means sorts the mess and divides every bit of it into reusable products. You may have a former friend you need to put in your mental hydropulper and recycle the good in this person. Thus, a thrown away person can become no longer a thrown away piece of debris but a recycled usable friend.

That is a technique that can help us obey Christ’s command and “love one another.”

C. RESPECT
The Greek word used by Christ and translated “love” is AGAPE. It carries the connotation of unselfish regard for the welfare of another. Their language was rich with meaning. They had several words for “love.” One was our word for “lust.” The entertainment media has chosen to depict virtually all love in this light. The advertising media has elected to utilize lust to sell products. The internet is now a major market for lust.

A basic difference in love and lust is,
LUST CAN NEVER WAIT TO GET,
LOVE CAN ALWAYS WAIT TO GIVE.

Sexual purity has been sacrificed on the altar of greed. Purity is still the appeal of Scripture. Parents I want to appeal to you to pattern purity for your family. It begins as it did with the teenager Daniel who “purposed not to defile himself.”

Resolve with the Psalmist: “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me” (Psalm 101:3).

One of the most secretive moral sink-holes is a tool that otherwise offers great advantages —- the internet. Parents need to set a guard for themselves and their families.

II. THE COPY “AS I HAVE LOVED YOU”
Christ has given us a pattern. His love for us is the type love we are to show one another. What kind is that? Unconditional! That is, love without limits. That is the way He loves us. He doesn’t love us because we are perfect. He doesn’t love us because we are so lovable. He has found our limits and loves us still.

AGAPE is the form of love He has for us. Agape love is selfless love. It is love which has the welfare of its object in mind. You may not like a certain Christian or even agree with his or her ways but you can and must love that one.

Of all close friendships marriage is the closest. Conflicts occur in all relationships including marriage.

After years of research it has been determined there are only two primary reasons for marital conflict: husbands and wives.

Agape is the answer to wounds in relationships. This love has the capacity of scaling any wall of rejection. It is never deflected by unlovable behavior. It heals and blesses in practical ways. Most relationships are at the mercy of fluctuating emotions. Agape love imparts stability. It is the solution for relationships comprised of imperfect human beings.

How is it He has loved us and that we are to love?

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4: 30 – 32).

Have you ever been discarded by a person or persons you love? Perhaps pastors as much as any persons in society know what rejection by people you love is. At a time in my ministry I was discarded and attempts were even made to destroy me by people I love. It is bewildering! I resolved to respond in the spirit of this text. As a result I love those persons to this day as though they had never discarded me.

You know why? Two reasons. That is the way Jesus loves me and that is the way He has told me to love others. How about you?

HOW ARE WE TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER? HOW DOES HE LOVE US?
1. Aggressively. “Herein is love; not that we loved Him, but that He loved us.” He didn’t wait for us to love Him before He loved us. We must not wait for others to love us before we are willing to love them.

2. Practically. His love did not consist of flowery speech or syrupy sentiment. His love expressed itself in deeds: “He went about doing good.” He did the greatest good in that He died for our sins.

3. Consistently. The love of our Model is everlasting. The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but His love abides. We are not to love with a passive feeling but with a practical affection.

John said, “…this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God MUST love his brother also.” (I John 4:21).

III. THE CONSEQUENCE “BY THIS SHALL ALL MEN KNOW….”

LOVE FOR GOD IS THE ROOT —- LOVE FOR PEOPLE THE FRUIT.

LOVE FOR GOD IS THE FOUNTAIN —- LOVE FOR PEOPLE THE STREAM.

Such love commends itself to others. It is a dead give away that something supernatural is at work. By this kind of love, which isn’t natural, the world can tell you are His disciple.

Only when the love inside the church exceeds the bitterness and hate outside the church are those outside going to want to come inside. The body of believers known as the church must maintain a loving environment if it is to please Christ and attract the lost world.

Christ wants to be your friend. He wants to establish a relationship with you. This friendship is called salvation. He wants to become your best Friend for eternity.

President Abraham Lincoln is one of the best known and loved of former presidents. One little known fact about him is that he often attended the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church on Wednesday nights. Life then was so simple he could slip out the side door of the White House and in the side door of the church without an entourage of secret service personnel. He chose Sunday nights so as not to disrupt Sunday morning worship. The pastor would leave his study door open when he knew Mr. Lincoln was coming so he could sit with the door slightly open and listen. He enjoyed the preaching of Pastor Phineas Gurley.

One evening as he walked home, his aid asked Mr. Lincoln for an appraisal of the sermon. The president, thoughtfully as always replied, “The content was excellent … he delivered with eloquence … he had put work into the message…”

“Did you think it was a great sermon?” questioned the aid.

“No,” replied the president.

“But you said that the content was excellent … it was delivered with eloquence … it showed much work.”

“Yes,” said the president, “but Pastor Gurley failed to ask us to do a great thing.”

I want to ask you to do a great thing.

If you have never trusted Christ and professed it publicly do it now.

If you have such faith in Him as Savior but have never experienced New Testament believers baptism come and let it be known you want to obey Him in this regard.

If you are a Baptist but do not have the right church home come by transfer of your membership today.

Do a great thing!

Painted Candles

Recently ABC featured a documentary on happiness. It involved extensive research. Their interviews of persons in Third World countries was interesting. When asked how happy they were, they most often answered indicating they had never thought about it. In America we think about it. It seems we have a constant monitor on our “happiness pulse.”

From a number of angles they showed money doesn’t add to our happiness unless we are in abject poverty. Then by relieving hardship it aids. Interviews were conducted with persons who had suddenly come into enormous wealth. Every one told of how it brought them problems, heartaches, and general misery. They were much less happy with it than before.

Interestingly their study showed that some persons are born with physical traits and a disposition for happiness. These physical factors they concluded are responsible for about 50% of our reason for happiness. Their study started with a three month old and went through adults to show such inclination.

One conclusion reached was that persons who had a practical Christian faith tended to be happier than those who did not. The reason is that a sense of commitment and purpose adds to happiness. Such persons have a sense that their life is in control because of their faith in God.

That is part of what Jesus was talking about when He spoke of the meaning of the lives of His followers “they may have it more abundantly.” With Him in control there is a sense of well being resulting in happiness.

May you be like the former evangelist Gypsy Smith, the Billy Graham of his day, who said, “I have never lost the wonder of being a Christian.”  Candidly, the awe of being a Christian is ever growing in the lives of those committed to Him. May you never lose the “awe” of being on the right side of the abundant life.

Our attraction to Jesus should be that of a flower for the sun. There should be a natural attraction. It results in supernatural peace and productivity. Examples abound of persons whose faith has sustained them in times of adversity. One such occurred at a time in England when Christians were being persecuted. Two who were loyal to Jesus were condemned to be burned alive. Their arrest under the rule of “Bloody Mary” in 1555 was typical.

One of the two, Hugh Latimer, said to the other, Nicholas Ridley: “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as, I trust, shall never be put out.”  Indeed, they did. Latimer actually sang hymns as the flames licked out his life. 

In this day when the faith of Christians is being tested let us not be mere painted candles.

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) That is His purpose for you.

While rejoicing in that admirable and encouraging truth reflect on the first half of the verse which depict what our adversary is up to: “…the thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”

Wisely choose which you long to obey. The contrasts are incomparable.

A Matchless Master to Model – 7/18/99

John 13:1-5

JESUS CHRIST is our intended model. His mission in coming was to do the will of Him who sent Him in seeking and saving. Those saved then are to allow Him to be their role model. Christ is the prototype of what God the Father wants us to be.

All that the Son was to the Father we are to be to the Son.

All that the Father was to the Son the Son wants to be to us.

Most folks have at some time enjoyed playing any one of many types of games where items are hidden and persons try to find them. Often the best hiding places are those where hunters would least expect to find the item. It is so easy it is overlooked. Practically everyone is looking for happiness, a sense of purpose, fulfillment, and joy. Where they are found is so obvious it is overlooked.

Francis of Assisi, son of a wealthy merchant, gave up his inheritance to live a life of poverty serving among the poor. He distilled principles leading to happiness and fulfillment in this verse:

Lord make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury – pardon.
Where there is doubt – faith.
Where there is darkness – light.
Where there is sadness – joy.
Oh, divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console.
To be understood as to understand.
To be loved as to love.
For it is giving that we receive
It is in pardoning that we pardon.
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

The unsuspected place where life finds meaning is in being a servant. We tend to think that is the last place it can be found. Instead of looking there we tend to turn to celebrity hood.

One reason so many people, especially youth, don’t have a sense of purpose and fulfillment is they have material things they know they don’t deserve and didn’t earn and deep down they feel guilty. Knowing the material things haven’t satisfied they perceive more material things will satisfy. Unfortunately that only deepens the sense of emptiness.

Life only has meaning when it has a purpose and the more challenging the purpose the more meaningful the life. Serving Christ in your daily life affords that gratification.

Let’s engage in a case study of Christ cast in the role of a servant to better understand our role as servants. John 13:1-7 reveals a very special ministry Jesus performed to His own. Contained in this account are found secrets to fulfillment and happiness.

The moment at hand was one of great stress. Christ knew He was to die the next day. At times of stress and difficulty most folks want strokes and warm fuzzes. Instead, Christ sought solace in service. By observing His responses to stress we can see how we too can handle it. He —

I. SHOWED COMPASSION
His disciples had followed Him about three years and still had not caught on to what He was truly trying to do in their lives. They were still arguing over their positions of order in His kingdom (Luke 22:34).

Privately the mother of James and John, an earthly aunt of Jesus, had tried to gain a family favor by asking that her boys be allowed to sit on his right and left in His kingdom. This upset the disciples. They weren’t disturbed because she did but because she beat their own little Jewish mothers to the point. They were still concerned about status not servanthood.

Customs of the day help us understand the true teaching of our test. Guests normally bathed before going to a special dinner. Sanitation and dusty roads caused persons walking to get their feet dirty. Therefore, hosts had servants to wash the feet of the guests. The towel was a symbol of servanthood. Jesus, Himself, laid aside His robes, took the towel and washed their feet. This is a picture of Philippians 2: 5 – 8.

This took commitment. If we are going to follow our Teacher and Lord, we must also have commitment. There are ten different Greek words in the New Testament for commitment. A look at two of them will aid our understanding.

First Peter 4:19, “There fore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit (PARATITHESTHOSAN) their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.” This word for commitment means to lay down something for another. It is an appeal for the kind of commitment that prompts one to lay down their life in service for Christ.

John 2:24, A great group of people sought Christ because of His popularity and near celebrity status at the moment. “But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men.” This word means to entrust. We are to commit, that is, entrust ourselves to Him because He is trustworthy.

Being committed doesn’t mean you will be victorious at all times. It does mean you will always be successful by God’s standard. Some loss and failure is part of life.

There is a commercial featuring Michael Jordan. It pictures him striding on the court where he helped lead the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships. The crowd is chanting his name. As he pauses in the commercial, we hear his thoughts: “I’ve missed 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost over 300 games. Twenty-six times I took the winning shot and missed….and because of this I’m a success.”

Any achiever “misses” and “loses” on occasion. They achieve because they are committed and consistent. Any person who consistently serves Christ is a winner by the standard of our Lord.

II. SPOKE A COMMAND “Do as I have done” (Vs. 15)
Foot washing has often been misunderstood and on occasion practiced with the wrong spirit. There is a rural church in Tennessee with its name on the sign out front: “Left Foot Baptist Church.” The church was a split off from the mother church. There a dispute arose over which foot should be washed first, the left or right. Being unable to resolve the conflict an element withdrew and started the new church giving it the name of their preference; “Left Foot Baptist Church.” It would have to be Baptist!

This is not a command to engage in foot washing. We know this because:

Foot washing was a very common practice and Jesus said He was giving us “A new commandment” (vs. 34).

If it were merely foot washing about which He spoke, He would not have said, “What I am doing you do not understand…” (vs. 7). They understood foot washing, BUT they sure didn’t understand loving servanthood.

If it were merely foot washing He would not have asked, “Do you know what I have done unto you?” (Vs. 12).

If it were foot washing He would not have said, “you should do as I have done to you” (Vs. 15), but would have said, “you should do what I have done to you.”

The “new commandment” related to:
A. Humility. Christ was — Appealing to His followers to set aside rank. Assuming even the lowest rank for “one another.”
B. Cleansing. He was picturing for us our role in stopping to help others enjoy spiritual cleansing. Galatians 6:1, “brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, considering yourselves lest you also, be tempted.”
C. Love. In verse 13 He said, “You call me Teacher (Master) and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.”
“Teacher” one from whom to learn.
“Lord” one to follow.
In essence He was saying, “I have taught you humility and love now follow my example.”

III. STRESSED CLEANSING
Verse 10 teaches a great spiritual truth. Christ used two words of significance: “He who is bathed (LOUO) needs only to wash (NIPTO) his feet…”

“Bathed” refers to salvation in which a person is totally forgiven of all sin.

Christians walk in the world and unfortunately though they are saved they sometimes yield to temptation and commit a sin. Though this sin doesn’t rob the sinning Christian of salvation, it does rob such a one of the joy of their salvation and clouds their effective witness. Therefore, such Christians need spiritual cleansing. I John 1:9 is a short course in HOW TO.

Peter went from one extreme to another. Before he understood what Christ was teaching, he said, “You shall never wash my feet.” Once he caught on, he over did it and said, “Lord not my feet only, but also my hands and my feet” (Vs. 9).

Some persons confuse the issue and say they want to be saved “again.” If they were ever once saved what they need is spiritual cleansing, that is, I John 1:9.

If you want to be a happy servant, get cleansed and help others get cleansed — “If you know these things, happy are you if you do them” (Vs. 17).

Let’s go back to the word COMMITMENT. According to the Word of God to make a commitment is to turn something over to someone. I want to appeal to each of you to turn your life over to the Teacher/Lord and become His servant.

Revelation 19 tells us that Jesus Christ comes back, He is going to have “on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Will you today by your actions say, “He is my Sovereign, the One I obey?”

What Would You Give for Self-Control?

Acts 24:24-25

Jesus wants to enable you to have self-control. Do you want self-control?  It is available only to those who dare bring themselves under His supernatural control.

Understand it clearly.  In speaking of self-control, reference is not simply to will power. That is only a part of true self-control. Galatians 5: 22, 23 refers to the fruit, that is the harvest of the Spirit. The ninth item is self-control.  It is thus depicted as a product of a life under the control of the Holy Spirit.

To think of exercising self-control apart from the power of God would be as foolish as an astronaut going into space without the proper support system.  The Lord gives us His Word, His Holy Spirit, His personal presence, His enabling grace, and His strength. He then says, “I have given you the tools, now you do the job,” — show self-control.

Do you have self-control?  Can you listen to a beautiful bird and not want to cage it?  Can you see a beautiful flower and not want to pick it?  Can you see an attractive member of the opposite sex and not want to sexually compromise him or her?  Can you break a chocolate bar into four parts with your own bare hands and only eat one piece?

To help maintain self-control think of your vain imagination, improper impulses, inordinate appetites, and impure emotions to be four wild horses. Consider yourself as having the reigns in your hands and giving them over to Jesus to control. Then apply Philippians 1:5 which exhorts believers to “let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.”  At this point you turn the person, item, or situation that is about to gain control over to Christ. Don’t just try to quit thinking about it. Think about it in a manner you think Christ would think of it.  Have the same mind about it you know He would.

The best time to do this is when you first realize you are losing self-control. The Scripture speaks of “that sin which does so easily beset you.” (Hebrews 12: 1) The NKJ says, “the sin which so easily ensnares you.” It simply means there is a sin to which you are more vulnerable than any other. Right?  Right!  

First, identify it. Next, think for a moment about the things that normally precede you losing self-control regarding this sin. Do the conditions involve a place, situation, person, or feeling?  What happens just before you lose self-control?

At that point focus on two things: 1) the Christ mind — you are going to think His thoughts, and 2) the presence of Christ — you are going to behave as though you are in His presence. . .  because you are.

F.W. Boreham, the great Australian preacher, said, “We make our decisions, and then our decisions turn around and make us.”

The Source of Life’s Dynamic

Acts 17:28

Jesus adds a new dimension to life. One of the first persons to enjoy this life change was Paul. In Athens he preached at Mars Hill. Lining the roadway up to the Acropolis were statues of gods. He used the statue to an unknown God to make known his God. Paul was an intellect; he quoted two obscure Greek poets – Aratus & Cleanthes. Thus, he related to the people in a way they could understand. He said in Christ we: “…live and move and have our being….”

Many persons are living a life described in Hamlet as “stale, flat and unprofitable.”

A modern philosophic writer, James Dillet Freeman, expressed it: “We live in a time of revolt against reason. Revolt against beauty. Revolt against joy. Life stinks, people say, life stinks!” 

“In Him….” As a person in a submarine is dependent upon it for survival while surrounded by an alien environment, so we are in Christ in this world.

We live, that is, we EXIST, have vitality. Therefore, “Walk in newness of life…” (Romans 6:4), “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind…” (Ephesians 4:23)

We live an estimated average of one half million hours. Use this hour to consider the greatest hygiene the world has ever known. Jesus cleanses and purifies. 

We move, that is we EXERCISE, have dynamic energy.

We have our being, that is, we EXPRESS, the completeness of our personality.

Mahalia Jackson rose from the Mississippi levy to London’s Albert Hall. Her dad worked on river docks during the week and preached on weekends. She grew up singing.  One of her recordings sold over 8 million copies, entitled, “Moving On Up.” These lines are in it: “What do you want to be? Where do you want to go?” There is a condition; “You’ve got to have a made-up mind.”

Have you a made-up mind regarding Jesus. If not, what will you do with Jesus? There are three possible responses: YES, NO, MAYBE.

Because of the “X” factor known as death, that uncertainty of life, to say “maybe” is to put yourself in the NO category. Therefore, resolve to have a made-up mind to trust Him.

Writer Tolstoy asked some Russian peasants to teach him their secrets of happiness. Their joy prompted them to treat everyone like a gem. One answered: “You were created by God. When you stay in creative contact with God, then joy is continuous. But if you get away from God, then you get away from the life force. You can get away from continuous joy. Return to God, my friend, return…to His Son, the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, and you will find good days.” Do so and in Him you can live, and move, and have your being.