The Cure for a Troubled Heart, Part 4b

…I took Helen (eight years old) and Brandon (five years old) to the Cloverleaf Mall in Hattiesburg to do a little shopping. As we drove up, we spotted a Peterbilt eighteen-wheeler parked with a big sign on it that said, "Petting Zoo." The kids jumped up in a rush and asked, "Daddy, Daddy. Can we go? Please. Please. Can we go?"

"Sure," I said, flipping them both a quarter before walking into Sears. They bolted away, and I felt free to take my time looking for a scroll saw. A petting zoo consists of a portable fence erected in the mall with about six inches of sawdust and a hundred little furry baby animals of all kinds. Kids pay their money and stay in the enclosure enraptured with the squirmy little critters while their moms and dads shop.

A few minutes later, I turned around and saw Helen walking along behind me. I was shocked to see she preferred the hardware department to the petting zoo. Recognizing my error, I bent down and asked her what was wrong.

She looked up at me with those giant limpid brown eyes and said sadly, "Well, Daddy, it cost fifty cents. So, I gave Brandon my quarter." Then she said the most beautiful thing I ever heard. She repeated the family motto. The family motto is in "Love is Action!"

She had given Brandon her quarter, and no one loves cuddly furry creatures more than Helen. She had watched Sandy [wife/mom] take my steak [at dinner two weeks prior] and say, "Love is Action!" She had watched both of us do and say "Love is Action!" for years around the house and Kings Arrow Ranch. She had heard and seen "Love is Action," and now she had incorporated it into her little lifestyle. It had become part of her.

What do you think I did? Well, not what you might think. As soon as I finished my errands, I took Helen to the petting zoo. We stood by the fence and watched Brandon go crazy petting and feeding the animals. Helen stood with her hands and chin resting on the fence and just watched Brandon. I had fifty cents burning a hole in my pocket; I never offered it to Helen, and she never asked for it.

Because she knew the whole family motto. It's not "Love is Action." It's "Love is SACRIFICIAL Action!" Love always pays a price. Love always costs something. Love is expensive. When you love, benefits accrue to another's account. Love is for you, not for me. Love gives; it doesn't grab. Helen gave her quarter to Brandon and wanted to follow through with her lesson. She knew she had to taste the sacrifice. She wanted to experience that total family motto. Love is sacrificial action.

Love is perhaps THE MOST misunderstood concept in our world today.

And yet, it is THE essential truth, command and reality of scripture we MUST understand if we are to exemplify Christ in our lives.

As we continue our study of John 15, we will encounter this all important them of love.

John 15:1-17 has two main themes, abiding and fruit.

Big Idea: The true source of all fruit is the vine, not the branches. This truth provides a cure for the troubled heart that believes it is responsible for it’s own fruit.

Abiding in Christ is the means to producing fruit. Fruit is the product of abiding. Obedience, joyful and willing submission to the will of another, is the FRUIT of abiding.

Remember, obedience is not true obedience IF NOT IS NOT MOTIVATED BY A WILLING AND JOYFUL HEART. Other wise, it is just compliance /conformance. Obedience IS A HEART ISSUE before it is ever an action issue.

Obedience, a joyful and willing submission to the will of another, IS the FRUIT of abiding in Christ.

BUT as verse 10 notes (John 15:10) obedience is ALSO a means to DEEPEN ones abiding and strengthen ones intimacy with God. The more we obey (joyfully and willingly), the more our passion and intimacy with God is strengthened, motivating us EVEN MORE a depth of relationship that WILL MOTIVATE obedience to even more comprehensive means.

THIS is KEY, to understanding the second half of this section of chapter 15.

John 15:12-17.

John 15:12–17 ESV

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

If obedience is the fruit of abiding…

If abiding in the means to God answering our requests…

If obedience is the means to abiding in God’s love…

If this abiding and this obedience is the means to the fullness of joy…

What is the command?

What command are we to follow that deepens and strengths the abiding? What command are we to follow that provides the means for us to ABIDE in the Love of God? What command, when obeyed, reveals the evidence of our abiding in God?

Love one another.

The true depth of our “unselfishly choosing for another’s highest good” is the barometer of how much we are abiding in God’s love.

The truth depth of our love for God is seen in how unselfishly we love one another.

The true fruit of abiding in God, is a humble, selfless choosing for another’s highest good with joyful willingness.

The connection here with this command to love and abiding in Christ…

IF we are abiding in Christ, truly, THEN we WILL love like Him.

If we are abiding in Christ, THEN and only then can we love like He does.

The strength to love sacrificially comes WHEN we abide in him. AND when we do love sacrificially, our intimacy with God deepens, our hearts become more deeply knitted together, and we find ourselves abiding even more deeply in his love.

Let’s dig in and let me show you this…

Sermon Body

Big Idea: The greatest fruit of abiding is love. The greatest love is a sacrificial love that unselfishly chooses for another’s highest good.

Abiding’s Command - John 15:12.

John 15:12 ESV

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

As followers of Christ, we are bound to the will of God. We bound to obey it, follow it EVEN WHEN our flesh does not want to.

The standard for followers of Christ IS WAY HIGHER than our own selfish desires.

The standard for followers of Christ is WAY HIGHER than that of the world.

Sadly, so few Christians (or professing Christians) are actually living by this standard. Course, none of us can do it perfectly but I see so many people who claim to be Christians not even trying to live by God’s standard in their lives.

As followers of Jesus, we are bound by HIS commands and will.

His command to us is simple, not easy, but it is simple.

Love God, love one another.

Mark 12:30-31.

Mark 12:30–31 ESV

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.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Love God, Love others.

These two command summarize ALL the commands given to us in scripture.

In fact, every other command is really only a breakdown that gets more specific on HOW we love God and HOW we love others.

And when we understand that love is “unselfishly choosing for another’s highest good…

It elevates the standard of what this love for others looks like.

It challenges us get outside of ourselves, to humble ourselves, to look up and to look out…

Truth is, this IS THE HEART of God…THIS IS GOD…THIS IS the heart of he gospel.

God IS love.

The Gospel IS THE DISPLAY of Love

Relationship with God IS ABOUT LOVE, this unselfishly choosing for another’s highest good.

This is why so much of scripture focuses on authentic, agape love.

The cross, the gospel teaches us what love is.

Faith and repentance UNITE us with that Love, with God.

Abiding in that love compels us to share that love.

Abiding in God means to live a life of love.

AND THIS DOES SIMPLY MEAN making sure everyone is happy in the flesh.

This means PUTTING OTHERS BEST INTERESTS above our own.

LOVE means discipline at times.

Love does mean rebuke at times

Love does mean admonishment, correction at times.

Love does mean holding people accountable for their actions

BUT DOING SO WITH GENTLENESS WITH a heart of restoration not destruction.

Love does mean enforcing justice.

Love does mean that we let people bear the consequence of their actions in order that they might learn the way God intends for them.

Love means PUTTING others HIGHEST need first…a need that they may well fail to see or understand.

The ironic tension here is that this is a command. However, it is also a fruit our abiding in Christ. WHICH MEANS THIS…as we ABIDE in Christ, HE provides the means for us to obey, for us to produce the fruit of obedience in our lives.

The command to ABIDE comes first.

AS we abide, THEN we are told to LOVE.

The command to love is secondary to the command to abide.

Just as in the same way as LOVE OTHERS as yourself is secondary AND FLOWS from LOVE GOD.

Look at the end of this verse…

Because the commands source FLOWS FROM GOD.

The Command’s Source - John 15:12.

John 15:12 ESV

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

We are commanded to love others…AS God has loved us.

And how has God loved us?

Phil 2:5-11.

Philippians 2:5–11 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The foundation for our loving of others, is God’s love for us.

Notice what it is not…it is not their loveliness and worthiness.

In fact, how lovable where were when God chose to love us?

Romans 5:6-11.

Romans 5:6–11 ESV

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

We were weak, sinners, enemies.

Notice the progression.

From bad to worse.

The command to love other is NOT CONDITIONAL upon their loveliness, but upon GOD’s love for us.

1 John 4:7-21.

1 John 4:7–21 ESV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Love is from whom?

God

Whoever loves has been what?

Born of God.

Meaning, our loving like Christ, our loving with a biblical love is the FRUIT of our abiding in Him and is the evidence of our relationship with God.

How was God’s love manifest for us, the weak, the sinner, the enemy?

God sent His only Son into the world, to die FOR us, IN our place.

If God so loved us, WE OUGHT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS CHRIST LOVED US.

BY THIS…BY THIS LOVE, by loving others like Jesus loved us…we know we abide in Him.

Why?

Because loving like is SUPERNATURAL love. It goes against EVERYTHING in the flesh. It goes against EVERYTHING that comes naturally to us.

It means dying to self.

It makes sacrificing because we value THEIR highest good above our own wants.

It means sacrificing and humbling ourselves BECAUSE GOD’S LOVE AND OUR RELATIONSHIP TO HIM MEANS EVERYTHING and we will put to death anything that threatens or hinders that.

We love…why?

Because he first loved us.

His love is the foundation.

His love is the source

His love is the motivation

His love is the power

His love is the joy

With which we love others AS HE LOVED US.

Notice the sober warning at the end…

If we say we love God, but fail to lover others, AS HE LOVED US, what we are?

Liars.

FOR our love for others flows from our love for God.

AND if we cannot even come to love those whom God has physically placed in our lives, we can see, touch, smell, hear, and interact with audibly and physically, how can we learn to love God whom we cannot see?

Point is this…The SOURCE, the FOUNDATION, the MOTIVATION for loving others AS CHRIST LOVED US, is HIS LOVE FOR US.

If we are not loving others well, we do not love God well.

If we are not loving others well, we are not abiding in His love.

TO abide in His love WILL PRODUCE HIS LOVE in us.

What does it look like to love AS CHRIST LOVED US?

What does it look like to love biblically?

What is the greatest display of love?

The Command’s Greatness - John 15:13.

John 15:13 ESV

13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Lay down his life…

Picture of death.

All in, sacrificial kind of love that puts the HIGHEST NEED OF OTHERS first.

The greatest display of “unselfishly choosing for another’s highest good” is a total and complete giving of oneself for another…to the point of laying down one’s life.

There is no greater display of self sacrifice than this.

Let me paint this picture another way though…

Luke 9:23-27.

Luke 9:23–27 ESV

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27 But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

We are told that the price for following Jesus is dying to self. Taking up our cross, dying to our wants and wishes in order to live for another, for HIM.

YES, there is no greater display than one willing dying, physically, for the sake of another

A display Jesus willing did for us.

BUT, how many of us will really be called, or presented with the need or opportunity to do this?

BUT one’s willingness TO DIE TO SELF for the sake of others IS WHAT THIS GREATEST DISPLAY OF LOVE IS ALL ABOUT.

THUS, we can lay down our lives for others WHILE WE ARE STILL YET BREATHING.

As we DIE to ourselves and LIVE FOR CHRIST, the kind of love that was shown to us IN CHRIST will be exemplified THROUGH US to others.

AND THIS WILL INVOLVE a daily dying to ourselves and living for God and for others. An upward and outward focus.

We can live EVERYDAY laying down our lives for Christ and for those whom God has called us to love and serve.

The heart behind laying down our lives physically and dying to self, taking up our cross and following Jesus is the same…a willingness to prioritize and elevate the needs of others over our own.

Living or dying, we can lay down our lives for others.

Question is…WILL YOU?

Are you?

Big Idea: The greatest fruit of abiding is love. The greatest love is a sacrificial love that unselfishly chooses for another’s highest good.

What happens when we love like this? What does it reveal?

The Command’s Revelation John 15:14-16.

John 15:14 ESV

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.

It reveals the reality of ones relationship with God.

It reveals the depth of ones relationship with God.

IF we love like this….

If we do what God commands, WE PROVE, not earn, our friendship with God.

Obedience to another happens for one reason and one reason only…respect, love, devotion.

REMEMBER, true obedience is done with a JOYFUL and WILLING heart.

We may COMPLY out of fear…but this is not obedience. This is compliance. On the surface we may not be able to tell the difference, but there is one.

OBEDIENCE happens out of reverence, devotion, and love. Joyfully and willingly.

REVEALING the evidence of the relationship as it exists. And the extent to which we are willing to obey (joyfully and willingly) reveals the strength and depth of that relationship.

Listen to what Jesus goes on to say…

John 15:15–16 ESV

15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

This passage, along with Isaiah 9:6 (“6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” ) was the focus of my meditation just the other day.

The sharing of one’s plans and knowledge changes the nature of one’s relationship. It expresses the nature of one’s relationship.

A servant is not purposefully included in the master’s plan. He is not invited into the decision making process NOR is he necessarily included in those with whom the plan is shared.

The sharing of the plan reveals the reality that the nature of the relationship is different. Changed. And the more of oneself, the more of one’s plans and one’s knowledge that is shared, the greater the revelation of the depth of one’s relationship.

Jesus’ point here is this…YOU ARE FRIENDS, and it is revealed by the fact that I have willingly included you in my plans. I have shared it with you. This changes the nature of our relationship. You are MORE than servants. You are not friends.

I have engaged in intimate fellowship and relationship with you.

And what’s more…I CHOSE YOU. I chose to do so. This was not YOUR doing, but mine.

Does that truth not simply stagger us?

At least it should.

The truth that God chose us, and chooses to reveal to us HIMSELF and His plan, that he chooses to share his knowledge with us, that he engaged us as friends…

THIS OUGHT to have a profound impact on us…namely that we reciprocate our devotion and love.

And the fruit of that reciprocation is repentance, faith, and obedience.

Obedience which reveals the reality AND the depth of that relationship and it’s intimacy.

IF YOU KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS…

You evidence your faith, your repentance, and the friendship/intimacy that comes from that.

This obedience is the fruit of love, which is the fruit of abiding.

Big Idea: The greatest fruit of abiding is love. The greatest love is a sacrificial love that unselfishly chooses for another’s highest good.

Notice now, how Jesus rounds this conversation out.

What is the purpose of abiding in His love?

Abiding’s Purpose - John 15:17.

John 15:17 ESV

17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Abide in me, abide in my love…

Keep my commands so that you can abide in my love…

SO THAT you will bear fruit, prove to be my disciples

Loving one another.

THE FRUIT of abiding, is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13.

1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

God shares his love with us, God invites us to ABIDE in His love for us SO THAT we would share that love, passing it forward to others.

We are to be a CONDUIT of love NOT a CULVERT for love.

We are loved, SO THAT we will love.

We love BECAUSE we are loved.

The more we abide in His love, the more we are motivated to share that love.

The more we share that love, the deeper our delight in God’s love, the more deeply we abide in His love. The more we OBEY and LOVE ONE ANOTHER, the more we abide in His love and enjoy the depth of intimacy that comes from abiding in His love.

And the more we abide, the more love we have to share, the more love we WANT to share.

You don’t feel particularly loving towards people? You are not abiding in His love.

Abiding’s purpose is this…. ABIDE IN MY LOVE so that you are empowered and compelled to love one another.

Conclusion

Big Idea: The greatest fruit of abiding is love. The greatest love is a sacrificial love that unselfishly chooses for another’s highest good.

Abiding’s Command - John 15:12.

The Command’s Source - John 15:12.

The Command’s Greatness - John 15:13.

The Command’s Revelation - John 15:14-16.

Abiding’s Purpose - John 15:17.

As we ABIDE in God, may HIS LOVE flow THROUGH us, may HIS FRUIT be produced IN US, and may the world come to see and know the glory of the God we privileged to be in intimate relationship with as we continue growing together to become more like Jesus for the glory of God.

Application

Why is love one of the most misunderstood concepts in our culture and church today?

Media and the world have made it out to be an emotion we have no control over.

We are not looking to scripture to define love for us.

We WANT it to be misunderstood so that it can feed into our fleshly desires.

Infatuation, lust, and the emotional aspect of love have been blended with the biblical idea of love so that there is no longer any distinction between them.

Why cannot we not love like Christ without first being loved by Christ?

We cannot even know what love is without first being loved by Christ. He is the standard, example, and definition of love.

We cannot loved like Christ without first being changed by HIS love and given the power from Him to love like him.

What must we do to foster a heart of love into our lives?

Reflect and meditate OFTEN on His love for us.

Reflect and meditate often on our own unlovability.

Live in community with other believers who can encourage us to love.

Live in community with other believers who serve as daily conduits of God’s love to us.

Obey and unselfishly choose for another’s highest good daily.

Stay in the word.

Foster an active and vibrant prayer life.

Faithfully sit under sound teaching of God’s word.

How do we learn to love our enemies?

Meditate on God’s example of loving his enemies in scripture.

Learn to see all man, including our enemies, through the lens of the gospel and their sin and need for Christ.

Reflect upon our sin and how much God has forgiven us.

Die to self, take up cross DAILY and follow Jesus.

Learn to see and prioritize God’s will and desires rather than our own (of being vindicated and paid back for wrongs against us).

Spend so much time with God (abide in Go) that His desires become your own.

What practical ways can we love those who seek our harm?

Pray for them.

Forgive them as often as they sin against you.

Refuse to speak ill of them in private or public.

Confront them in their wrong doing IN A SPIRIT OF GENTLENESS AND KINDNESS for the sake of protecting and restoring them.

Find some tangible and practical way to serve them.

How do we “lay down our lives” everyday for others?

Pray for them.

Practice empathy and sympathy.

Be patient with them.

Serve them in some tangible way.

Do not repay evil for evil but serve and be gracious

Do not gossip.

Yield up your desires to put their desires and needs above your own.

Unselfishly choose for their highest good.

Same answers as #5.

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