Love to Sacrifice

The Spiritual Life is the process of growing more and more able to love.

Thomas Aquinas - greatest philosopher and theologian - described the 3 stages of Spiritual Life.

- Stage 1: Beginner Love. We start out here. This is like the love of the child. Self-centered, egocentric and immature. A child love’s it’s parents of course, but still love’s itself most. We love God based on what we receive. I love you because you help me. Think of Mary Magdalene - loved Jesus because after being found in prostitution with people’s hands full of stones ready to end her life, Jesus stops them and says whoever has not sinned throw the first stone. I would love Jesus too. Then he tells her to go and in no more and she commits this sin no more. Weeping over sin. We see what Jesus provides for us and we love him.

- Stage 2: Proficient Love. We mature here. Like a teenager - seeing the truths of life. The love of a teenager is fickle - has not yet become the deep, strong immovable love of an adult. One day its heartbroken for Rosalyne the next day its lovesick for Juliet. But In the progressing stage love…See what things the mother and father have done for them. Moved to be more grateful, as they understand the difficulties and sacrifices the parents have made and seek to imitate some selflessness. We seek to practice and embody Christ’s virtues - Not just weeping over sin… But seeking to exercise the goodness of God and bear his fruit!

- Stage 3: Perfect Love. Purified into maturity in this state. It is unconditional. It doesn’t say I will love you if - it says I will love you always. Loving your enemies, Suffering with Joy. When the most unloving things happen to us and around us, love comes out. Our love is tempered into an unfailing love by bearing the cross.

In fact as we bear our cross, the reason it does not crush us, is because of the Love of God. If we fall out of love with God, the cross becomes unbearable. We are only really prepared to suffer for something that we love. Childbirth for that baby. Sleepless nights caring for your children. Protecting and Laying down your life for your children.

Matt 10:38 NIV

Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

One sign that our love is growing, is that our giving becomes sacrificial.

Oh, the power of love.

Do we want that kind of love? Love does not come easily. Love is painful.

The more we love the more we must suffer. Jesus loved much so he suffered much.

Pain is good for you. No pain, no gain. I’m growing in love.

Obedience - bare minimums. Sacrifice - beyond minimums.

Luke 7:41-47 NIV

“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

Have we taken hold of MUCH forgiveness? It’s available! Receive/Forgiven Much -> Give/Love Much

After Fall Fest I was putting my daughter to bed and I said you know I got you your butterfly costume, I took you to Fall Fest, how many pieces of candy will you give me? ONE.

The Sacrificial Love of God

Ephesians 5:2 NIV

And walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (As a sacrifice to God)

Romans 8:32 NIV

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Generous with what is precious)

Ephesians 5:25 NIV

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...

In the 17 and 1800s, Shipwrecks were a daily occurrence. Dark, unlit coastlines, rock, reefs, sand bars, etc. Less than 50% of sailors survived their career at sea. One of the most treacherous stretches of coast in the world lies in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland. There is a sandstone reef called Inchcape. 11 Miles out from the Scotland’s major harbors of Edinburgh and Dundee.

The water erodes the stone in a jagged way like spikes or teeth that rip right through the bottom of a ship. The rocks were just below the waters surface. The combination of Violent Sea and Sharp Reef near a Busy Harbor made this the shipwreck capital of the world.

Some monks discovered that or 6 months of the year, when it was not storm season, for 4 hours a day - during low-tide - one portion of these rocks was exposed. Distraught over the loss of lives and because the monk’s brother was a sailor, they took a collection and had a bronze bell made. They took out many boats, and attached a sturdy gantry down into the rock from which the bell could ring. Many disasters would be averted and more importantly, lives would be saved. Inchcape was soon to become known to mariners, far and wide as ‘The Bell Rock’. Now during night and heavy swells when visibility was reduced to nil they could hear the bell warning them away. Unfortunately the sea was so rough, the bell did not make it through one season of winter storms.

In the year 1799 alone, 70 ships wrecked on this reef, and every life on board was lost.

In 1800 a 30yo junior architect, Robert Stevenson, came up with a plan for a 115 foot tall off-shore or “sea-washed” lighthouse. Only one had ever been built before - The Eddystone in the English channel, but that was only 70 foot tall in much calmer seas. His idea was to build it like an oak tree, you need a wide curved base and a narrow trunk - deflecting the force of waves upwards. It would cost 42,000 pounds and take 4 years to build. The architects on the Lighthouse board call Stevenson a fool, reject his plan, and laugh him out of the room.

Until 4 years later in 1804. The 64 gun HMS York - a great ship of the British Navy - crashes on the Bell Rock and all 500 sailors are lost.

They call Stevenson back and (with some modiications and a chief engineer) approve the project to begin in 1807.

He recruited 60 men. As they knew this would the most difficult lighthouse ever built - they would lose some lives in order to save many. You had to meet 3 requirements - 1. Christian. 2. Adventurous. Able to live at sea, and 3. Fearless. It was like Gideon’s 300 men - are you afraid? no fear can come! They got paid 1lb a week. Masons Blacksmiths and Sailors. They prayed before they began and when they finished work each day - committed to 1 mission - to build a lighthouse to save many lives.

LET’S TALK ABOUT DEVOTION

The first year they used pickaxes to dig deep foundations. Sharpening tools non-stop. With 12 steel beams drilled down into the rock forming an iron tripod.

The 2nd year after winter months, they came back and everyone was shocked - the beam were still there!

They built a beacon house - barracks for his workers on top of the beams like stilts - so the could be based on site, ready for each low tide. Totally alone - enduring storms in their little cabin swaying, 11 miles out at sea.

At the end of the 2nd difficult year they had laid 3 courses of stone and the lighthouse was 6’. But with great sacrifice.

One of the deaths that year was the youngest of the crew - a 16 year old boy. Word went to his family on the Scottish shores. And the men of the crew were surprised that one of the next supply ships carried his 14 year old brother, who had volunteered to take his place.

The 3rd year - the built it from 6’ to over 80’. But with great sacrifice.

One day - the Pully system breaks and a beam falls crushing the legs of Michael Wishart. He is so devoted to the lighthouse, that as he lays there in Robert Stevenson’s hands, realizes he will likely never walk or do heavy physical labor again - he says Please - can i be the lighthouse keeper?

The 4th year they build the final courses - But with great sacrifice.

Back on shore, Stevenson’s twins and youngest daughter die of hooping cough.

Finally they light the 24 lanterns and with new technology of parabolic reflectors that magnified and focused the beam into the brightest light in the world at the time.

Into one of the Darkest and Dangerous places in the world. Comes the brightest light the world had ever seen.

213 years later, the Bell Rock LightHouse still stands as that world’s oldest active see washed lighthouse and the bell rock claims no more lives!

Sacrifice doesn’t earn grace it extends grace.

Motivated by love! Not directed by obligations, coerced by guilt or pursuing self-righteousness, or for personal gain.

Matthew 9:13 NIV

But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

People were giving for a works-based right-standing with God. Not out of love for God and people.

1 Corinthians 13:3 NIV

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Here’s a problem - Sometimes we feel Insufficient, Inadequate, Insecure, Incomplete - And we start doing things to feel like we are enough.

We were talking about this in the Brotherhood Group on Wednesday night. When we start working out of a different motivation than love, we are shifting off mission. And it doesn’t matter what we give - we gain nothing because we’re investing into a self-righteousness account.

Someone in this room is so overwhelmed with falling short, you don’t an identity.

You can’t tell people who you are. Only what you arent.

Im not rich enough. Im not good enough. Im not smart enough. Im not pretty enough. Im not funny enough. Im not cool enough.

But when we receive the LOVE of GOD that makes us more than enough - we reciprocate it - we give it back to him.

We lay all those shortcomings on the altar and we become a living sacrifice.

We want everyone to know that perfect love. We start to sacrifice.

I am a living sacrifice, giving sacrifices.

Sacrifice is a Cheerful and Defiant Privilege.

θυσία - Sacrifice. From Thuo - Kill/Slaughter/Butcher

It is purposeful. Because I give this something will die and something greater will live.

I will put something to death: my free time, my weekends, my pride, my pleasures, my nest eggs, my comforts, my extras, decadent excesses.

Jonah 2:9 NIV

But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

God has called us to be conduit of blessing rather than keepers of blessing.

“People talk and ask me about the sacrifice I have made spending my life in Africa, but it is, in fact, no sacrifice, it is a privilege.” - david livingstone

A combination of holding loosely and loving dearly. Widows mite. I love God dearly - and I love what God has given me dearly not for my own needs, but because I get to glorify God by my stewardship - so I hold them loosely - not control them for my will, but giving t

Sacrifice is defiant giving. It isn’t measured by what we give, but by what we keep and what we give in spite of.

Sacrifice is the bridge between the Needs and the Answer.

God is deserving of it.

People are waiting on it.

We are capable of it.

And if we have an attitude about it there is someone ready to take our place.

Love is a union of wills with God.

You may be in garden agony right now.

Luke 6:46 NIV

Why do you call me Lord Lord and do not the things which i will?

Right Now is the Right Time - Leverage the moment for impact.

Romans 5:6 NIV

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. (Right now is the Right Time because there are those powerless).

We are living in a Spiritual Black Friday. Your investment can bring salvation to someones doorstep and it doesn’t even cost that much.

At just the right time - while we were powerless. At that exact time this lighthouse had to be built, while ship after ship wrecking powerless in the mouth of bell rocks - At this exact moment while people are waiting on the Gospel in Burkina Faso while they are still sinners - we can sacrifice for them! We can have garden agony but love is tempered when we say God this might hurt BUT NOT MY WILL BUT YOUR WILL be done!

2 Corinthians 9:10 NIV

10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

The same God that gives you fully-baked blessings, also gives you a bag of potential, go grow some blessings for others. Go put in work!

God has called us to be conduit of blessing rather than keepers of blessing.

Are we giving what is required in order to fulfill our own calling?

The imitation of Christ says many want the consolations of Christ but there are few who want his trials. Many will follow him to the banquet table, but fewer drink a cup of his passion.

Virtue of Compunction – is the burden of sorrow for sin

God promises to supply our needs as we trust in him. So what does it mean to sacrifice and we know God is going to provide for us?

Sacrifice isn’t measured by what we give, its measured by what we keep. Or what we give in spite of.

Father Helmuts Libietus

We must have his love and his love responds to needs.

“In this we have known gods love, he has laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down out lives for others.”

He that has substance and see his brothers in need and does not give to him. How does he have the love of God in him? First, John or second John?

Comparison trap - They have endured more hardships than me. Or are you think of how much more you’re sacrificing then the next guy.

Accommodation of holding loosely and loving dearly. Widows mite.

Thomas Kempis - The Imitation of Christ, Chapter 43; On the Wonderful Effect of Divine Love

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As yet my love is weak, and my virtue imperfect, and I have great need of Your strength and comfort. Therefore, visit me often, I pray, and instruct me in Your holy laws. Set me free from evil passions, and heal my heart from all disorderly affections; that, healed and cleansed in spirit, I may grow able to love, strong to endure, and steadfast to persevere.

Love is a mighty power, a great and complete good; Love alone lightens every burden, and makes the rough places smooth. It bears every hardship as though it were nothing, and renders all bitterness sweet and acceptable. The love of Jesus is noble, and inspires us to great deeds; it moves us always to desire perfection. Love aspires to high things,and is held back by nothing base. Love longs to be free, a stranger to every worldly desire, lest its inner vision become dimmed, and lest worldly self-interest hinder it or ill fortune cast it down. Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger, nothing higher, nothing wider, nothing more pleasant, nothing fuller or better in heaven or earth; for love is born of God,( I John 4:7)v\ and can rest only in God, above all created things.

Love flies, runs, and leaps for joy; it is free and unrestrained. Love gives all for all, resting in One who is highest above all things, from whom every good flows and proceeds. Love does not regard the gifts, but turns to the Giver of all good gifts. Love knows no limits, but ardently transcends all bounds. Love feels no burden, takes no account of toil, attempts things beyond its strength; love sees nothing as impossible, for it feels able to achieve all things. Love therefore does great things; it is strange and effective; while he who lacks love faints and fails.

Love is watchful, and while resting, never sleeps; weary, it is never exhausted; imprisoned, it is never in bonds; alarmed, it is never afraid; like a living flame and a burning torch, it surges upward and surely surmounts every obstacle. Whoever loves God knows well the sound of His voice. A loud cry in the ears of God is that burning love of the soul which exclaims, `My God and my love, You are all mine, and I am Yours.'Deepen Your love in me, O Lord, that I may learn in my inmost heart how sweet it is to love, to be dissolved, and to plunge myself into Your love. Let Your love possess and raise me above myself, with a fervour and wonder beyond imagination. Let me sing the song of love. (Isa. 5:1) Let me follow You, my Beloved, into the heights. Let my soul spend itself in Your praise, rejoicing for love. Let me love You more than myself, and myself only for Your own sake. Let me love all men who truly love You, as the law of love commands, which shines out from You.

Love is swift, pure, tender, joyful, and pleasant. Love is strong, patient, faithful, prudent, long-suffering, vigorous, and never self-seeking.(I Cor.13:4) For when a man is self-seeking he abandons love. Love is watchful, humble, and upright; Love is not fickle and sentimental, nor is it intent on vanities. It is sober, pure, steadfast, quiet, and guarded in all the senses. Love is submissive and obedient to superiors, mean and contemptible in its own sight, devoted and thankful to God, trusting and hoping in Him even when not enjoying His sweetness; for none can live in love without suffering.

Whoever is not prepared to endure everything, and to stand firmly by the will of the Beloved, is not worthy to be called a lover. A lover must willingly accept every hardship and bitterness for the sake of his Beloved, and must never desert Him because of adversity.

Because as soon as you encounter a little trouble, you abandon what you have begun, and eagerly seek for comfort.

Be also on your guard against vain complacency and conceit, for this leads many into error, and causes almost incurable blindness of heart.

Without love, the outward work is of no value; but whatever is done out of love, be it never so little, is wholly fruitful. For God regards the greatness of the love that prompts a man, rather than the greatness of his achievement. Whoever is moved by true and perfect love is never self-seeking, but desires only that God's glory may be served in all things. - Thomas Kempis - The Imitation of Christ, Chapter 15

Parabolic glass and dioptric mirrors focused the light in a new way.

Darkest and dangerous place

Bell Rock Lighthouse

There is a 200 year old sea-washed lighthouse off the coast of Scotland called the Bell Rock Lighthouse. It’s one of the 7 wonders of the industrial world. Brooklyn Bridge, Hoover Dam, the Panama Canal and the Transcontinental Railway.

Moral improvement and scientific progress go hand in hand.

Building a lighthouse to save many lives.

1 ton stones cut in an exact design. 2,500 stones.

1807 - light reflexters together make the brifhtest light ever shined on earth.

Let every stone remain long after our eyes cease to behold it.

Only enough money for 4 years of work. After 2 years of work… they only had 3 level/courses of stone laid. About 6 feet high

Only 80 hours of building

One of their row boats is swpet away and only half thr crew can fit on board. 6 went and 6 stayed behind - willing to sacrifice themselves - god sent them a supply boat drom the main land.

Goes from 6 feet to 100 feet tall.

Then up to 115 feet.

At thr end of each day they would read a scripture and pray.

3/4 of the way to completion.

1810 - the final season.

Romans 13:11-12 NIV

11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Stevenson, the grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson, had dreamed for years of making his mark on the world, by bringing light to the treacherous Scottish coast. He aimed to take on the most dangerous place of all, the Bell Rock, a large reef 11 miles out to sea, dangerously positioned in the approach to the Firth of Forth.

In 1799, over 70 ships went down in a violent storm that raged along the coast, yet still the authorities opposed his plan.

In 1800 robert setevnson traveled to the rock. 2 hours exposed. If your close enough to see them its too late. The sandstone rock eas like jagged teeth.

How could anyone build a lighthouse 11 miles out to sea, on a rock that was submerged by up to 16 feet of water for most of the day? Battling against the odds, Stevenson did eventually build his lighthouse, and to this day it shines out across the North Sea, the oldest offshore lighthouse still standing anywhere in the world.

In reality, their introduction, principally in the 19th and early 20th century, was responsible for saving tens of thousands of lives. Even during the wars of the 18th century, by far the most significant peril faced by sailors was that of being shipwrecked. The coastline is a hazardous place, full of rocky headlands, hidden reefs, dangerous sand bars and lee shores. At the end of the 18th century, with a tiny number of exceptions, it was also dark and unlit. As a result, shipwrecks were an almost daily occurrence, inevitably accompanied by the loss of most of those onboard. One writer has estimated that a young sailor in 1800 had a less than even chance of surviving his chosen career.

Like the Eddystone Rocks, the Bell Rock was out at sea, in the main shipping lane into Edinburgh, and was notorious amongst mariners. Unlike the reef near Plymouth, it was only exposed briefly at low tide, a fact that made the construction of a lighthouse there widely considered to be impossible. But Stevenson combated this by building a barracks for his workers on top of an iron tripod, drilled into the rock. This meant that they could be based on site, ready for each low tide. How the men felt during storms, as their little cabin swayed alarmingly, and the rocks beneath them vanished under the waves is hard to imagine. Meanwhile, Stevenson had the component parts of the lighthouse build on shore, each carefully numbered, ready to be shipped out and fitted together like the pieces of a jigsaw. When finished, the Bell Rock was considered one of the engineering marvels of the age.

3 Generations of Stevenson’s built 82 lighthouses on the coast of Scotland

Between 1791 and 1937, three generations of the Stevenson family battled to light up one of the most dangerous coastlines in the world

Dark night of the senses: 3 parts.

God takes away the candy of the consolation of the senses and leaves us arid or dry in our prayers/spiritual season.

The person has a continued desire for God and perseveres in faithfulness.

A difficulty meditating, reading and praying - Typically just simply gazing upon and being in his presence. Not the same as laziness of spiritual disciplines.