The Way of Love

Guest Speaker - Pastor Stephen Cook

The Way of Love

Scripture Reading: 1 John 4:7-20

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

It's our privilege to be this morning and to see old friends and some older friends like John and Norma that we've known for a long, long time. You know, when you know that God has given you something to share, um Satan is not very happy about that. And I'm not gonna go into any details, but this last week of our lives has been more a horror story than uh uh than anything else. But Sandra said to me on the way up, she said, all this has gone wrong, but God's got something better.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Come on, great.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Um and he did. And even in the midst of the tears and the heartache and the everything else that goes with it, God showed that he is just as good as he always has been. And I just want to encourage you by saying that. I don't have to go into the details. So it is great to be here. All I'll say is halfway here we nearly turned round and went home again because of stuff that was happening. I want to share this morning on the way of love. We're in Northumberland, and uh Robert Burns didn't love live more than a hundred miles or so from here, a bit more maybe. He wrote, Oh my loves like a red, red rose that's newly sprung in June. Oh my loves like the melody that's sweetly played in tune. As fair art thou, my bonny lass, so deep in love am I, and I would love thee still, my dear, till our the seas gang dry. It's quite a long poem, but just that's just a snippet. So I I just want to share, and we'll come to the word of God in a moment. I hope you'll forgive me, but my eyes have got to this to the point now where seeing the print on the Bible is not as good as it used to be. Uh, and so I print it out in quite big type for that reason. Lord, take these words. May they be only what you want to say and how you want to say it, Lord. And spread this, your word, your bread of life, across all our hearts and lives, Lord. And Lord, I pray that it will be a means of drawing us closer to you and of drawing those who have not been walking as near to you back into your fold in the name of Jesus. Amen. Matt said to me as we came in this morning, is there anything you need? I said, Well, a good dose of the Holy Spirit. Yeah. And I trust that God by his Holy Spirit will enable us.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Yeah, come on.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Love. Well, what on earth is it? Uh lots of explanations from the scientific to the airy fairy. The subject of poetry songs, novels, magazines, films, TV programs by the dozen. In fact, the whole book of the Old Testament is taken up with the subject, the Song of Solomon. And there is that deep sense within every one of us, within the whole of humanity, to be loved and to be able to love. And so we see these proliferation of TV programs that seek to satisfy that great longing, and most of it ends up in heartache rather than a satisfaction. But in the Word of God, in the New Testament, the most commonly used word for love is agape, which is an all-encompassing love. One commentator describes it like this: it's the most radical of all the Greek words used for our word love, all encompassing, extended to all people, whether family or strangers. C.S. Lewis describes it as gift love. In John's Gospel, Jesus says these words, greater love has no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. John fifteen, thirteen. And having said those words, not many weeks later, in fact not many days later, Jesus did that unthinkable thing, which was radical in the extreme, because it's described in the scriptures as not just dying for his friends, but for his enemies, for the rebellious. Not for those who loved him, but for those who hated him. So let's look at what the scripture says in 1 John, that's the first letter of John, chapter 4, beginning at verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not know God, he who does not love, does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested, was shown toward us that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation or the atonement, the covering for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love. And he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in the world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If someone says I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him that he who loves God must love his brother also. If you were to read the first six verses of 1 John chapter 4, you'll find it's all about discerning, it's all about telling the difference between truth and error. And you know, if there is any area where we need discernment, it is in this whole area of love. We need to know the difference between truth and error. And sadly, as we look around us, we see that the word itself and the associations that go with it have been hijacked by what can only be described as a spirit of error rather than the spirit of truth. One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is discerning of spirits. And sadly, even among Christians, it is not as prevalent as it should be. Today, just a little in a little while, we will see those who have responded to and surrendered themselves to the call of the one who loved them and gave himself for them, Jesus, witnessing to their surrender by following him through the waters of baptism. What is this baptism? It's a baptism that signifies the readiness of each one of us to walk and to do the work of love. It's not just something that we do because somebody's pressed us into it or you know made us see what the scripture says and we must do it. It's right, it's an act of obedience, but it's also the, in a sense, the first step that I'm taking into walking in the love of Jesus Christ and doing his work. It says in verse 9 that we read together, in this the love of God was manifested toward us that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. But how does this work? How does this work of love translate into our lives? And verse 10 says, In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And some of the songs that we were singing this morning that were praising the fact that Jesus died for us, gave his life, shed his blood for us. And through his suffering and his death and resurrection, Jesus became for us the only means acceptable to Father God to cover our sins and bring us to the place of reconciliation, out of the place of rebellion, into the place of reconciliation with a righteous and a holy God. But nobody could do this other than the one who laid down his life for us, demonstrating the fact that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. He was the only one who could accomplish that, the only perfect one, because we have all sinned and fallen short of God's glory. But how does this work and walk of love pan out in our lives? And I say that the from verse 7, the first thing that every one of us needs to realize is that love is from God because God is love. Love, may I say, is not God. For many people. The idol that they aim for, that they grasp for, that they'll do anything for. But God says, My love is freely given. Let me draw you into that love so that you can then freely love. When we surrender our lives to the call of Jesus, when we are born from above into this new life of love, the evidence will be that we love. Maybe not perfectly, but as a learner following the master. And some of you will know, understand what I mean by an apprentice piece that carpenters join us would make to uh show that they had been following their master carpenter and taking note of what uh the way that he wanted things done. And God is preparing us for his works of service, works of love, and everything that we do, whether it is serving in the local church, like many of you do here, it should be bathed in love. It's got to be the way of love. You know, God's love has been manifested to us as his new creation, so that we in turn will show his sacrificial love. And I quoted the words of Jesus, greater love has no one than this. You know, when Jesus was on the cross, almost just before his dying breath, he looked down at those around the cross, those that he loved, and those that hated him with every fiber of their being. And he said, Father, forgive them because they don't know what they are doing. And then in verse 11 it says, If God so loved us, so loved us, we ought to love one another. Now that doesn't always mean we will like what other people do. We don't have to. There'll be times when we don't. We may not like what they do to us or say about us, but we can allow love to be our motivation in dealing with people because first of all God abides in us, and then God's love is being perfected in us, and it will evidence that God's spirit is dwelling in us. If I can be personal, I must admit, and particularly it has grown as I've moved to the south of London, live in South London. For me, love is not the overriding factor for people who drive like idiots. And I must admit I've seen more idiot driving in my travels around where we live than I've ever seen anywhere else. I've seen a bit of it in on the A1 as well, I must admit, up here, but not anywhere near as much. I saw a motorcycle one day, red light, came up, totally ignored it, drove straight across the junction. That's just one example. I want to make it clear that I am not being dismissive of anyone who has experienced what is illegal, immoral, or harmful because they are serious things. And I've met people and some of them are friends where those things have happened to them. But even then, love can override the lifelong effects. Can I just give you an example? Now, not all of you were alive in 1987. I was. John and Norma were certainly. But in 1987, in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, there was an IRA bomb exploded at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day service. Just hours after the explosion, Gordon Wilson recalled the situation he and his daughter were in as they held hands under rubble. On the fifth time of asking his daughter if she was alright, she answered, Daddy, I love you very much. Those were her last words. Just hours later, Gordon said, I have lost my daughter, but I bear no ill will. Meaning towards the IRA, no grudge. God has a plan and he is good. And we shall meet again. Cori Tenboom, imprisoned by the Nazis in Ravensbrook concentration camp. After the war was over, her sister died in that camp. But after the war was over she was preaching and teaching. And in one of the places where that was happen where it happened, the very guard that gave them the worst time in the concentration camp was present in that meeting. She was faced with a dilemma of either obeying God or disobeying God. And she chose to some extent initially reluctantly but she chose with God's Spirit helping her to shake hands with him. You see there are things that happen in our lives which are difficult to cope with. And there are things that stay in our memory which are difficult to cope with initially. Can I tell you something around when I was around about seven which was just a few years ago in primary school I was using a pencil um hadn't I don't think I'd got to the point where they allowed us the uh the dippy pens to to write with um and if if you don't know what a dippy pen is ask your granddad or your grandma. And and suddenly my pencil disappeared and the the lad next to me had taken it and claimed it as his own and the teacher believed him. Now why do I remember that? Because Satan could use that to make me bitter that lad probably would never have remembered it to this day but it it's still in my mind you see the memories may fade over time and they do but God's all surpassing all pervading love enables us even in the worst of situations to overcome and in verse 14 thirdly it says we testify that the Father has sent his son as the savior of the world. The result of love pervading our lives is that it is of itself a testimony that the Father has sent his son a savior of the world. And those who have set out on this way of love those being baptized today have this testimony Jesus is my savior and calls me to take up my cross and follow him as my Lord and master he has shown me what sacrificial love is by dying for me not for his own sin but mine. And water baptism is that step that demonstrates the desire to continue to walk in this love of love with Jesus. And we confess with our mouth and our actions that he is our Lord and Savior and Stephen the first martyr when he was being stoned to death for his testimony to the to the religious rulers said Lord do not hold this sin against them in Acts 760 and so verse 19 says we love him because he first loved us yes loving others is vital but loving him is our lifeline our ability to love those around us does not depend on some kind of love capacity but it totally depends on him who loved us and gave himself for us. We love him because he first loved us and so we become channels of that love to people around us. We demonstrate that we are truly followers and disciples of Jesus that we have taken up our cross and are following him and this is a challenge not to just to those who as yet may not know Jesus Christ as their Savior but it's a challenge to everyone who calls himself a Christian who owns Jesus as Lord. And in a few moments Matt is going to come and will bring a challenge to those who don't know Jesus or not walking as close to Jesus as they should. But I just want us to pray I just want us to stand and pray. Can we stand? This word that the Lord has laid in my heart is not just to be preached. It's to be applied to me it's to be applied to whoever of us say that we own Jesus as Savior and I'm just gonna pray before I hand back to to Matt and if you if you want a greater reality with God in this walk of love or if you know that you have struggles in certain areas about it if there are things that you just want to put your hand up to God and say yes Lord just help me to walk more closely to you taking up my cross and following you and I'm raising my hand because despite my age I know I need to I need to keep that sometimes I need to be brought back to that place as Sandra did the other day to me of knowing that God loves me and so I can love him and walk in that love. If you want to raise your hand and just say Lord help me just help me Lord I need more of your love I need to show more of your love I just pray you will enable each one of us who own you a Savior for us to know that deep work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that will cause us again to take up our cross and to follow you and to demonstrate that sacrificial love Lord to those around us that are so much in need of it help us we pray Lord by your Spirit that your name will be glorified that your n the and that the glory of that name will be spread around this whole area of Prader and Northumberland and North Durham in the name of Jesus amen