Love Big

This evening, we have an intersection of two sermon series that I believe are both timely and extremely important.

This morning, we officially concluded our series, “This is Church” but this message could serve as the true final installment.

On Sunday nights, we are just a couple of message into our “Solid Ground” series which talks about house habits or life habits of a faithful Christian.

AND… tonight is Night at the Altar. A special evening set aside to pray and seek the Lord.

The message God laid on my heart works for all three scenarios. And truly… the topic we are talking about is ESSENTIAL in our walk as believers, our existence as the church, and in our pursuit of the Lord.

That topic… is love. The house habit is we choose to LOVE BIG. The building block from our AM series would be if we want to be a growing and healthy body, we must be a loving body. So tonight, we look at the importance of choosing to love big.

Remember, our habits are behaviors that are so common in our daily life that we often do them without thinking. How awesome would it be if… we could love God, and love people… without having to put much thought to it!

I realize that most of us have made a habit of loving God without having to think about it… that might sound odd but what I mean is you don’t have to stop and think about whether or not you are going to love the Lord today. Of course we are going to love God today! As for me and my house...

But what about in the area of loving people? Has loving others become so exercised in your life that it comes almost naturally?

God desires for His people to love people as He loves them. This truth of love is not a suggestion… it is a command.

When it comes to the church, we need to pay close attention to the placement of Scripture regarding love.

1 Corinthians 12 is all about the body of Christ and its spiritual giftings. It is a reminder of who we are, how God has blessed us, and what we are to do. We have spent seven weeks talking about how God wants to build this body for His purpose right here in the heartland.

The very next chapter in 1 Corinthians reveals the core of it all - love. To paraphrase, it says we can operate as a body and exercise the gifts of the Spirit all day long… but if love is not CENTRAL to all that we do… all we are doing is making more noise. In a sense, all we are doing is putting on a show.

The chapter goes on to say that the spiritual giftings are given for a certain time… but love is eternal. It also specifies that LOVE NEVER FAILS.

The point is… if love is missing from the body of Christ, then we have forgotten who brought us together and how He brought us together in the first place!

Here’s the deal: The core of the gospel is love. To clarify… it is not our love for God but God’s love for us that defines the gospel story.

1 John 4:10 NIV

10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

The Bible, from front to back, is God’s story of love. And we need to never forget that. Now more than ever does our world and culture need a church that loves big. Now more than ever does this world needed to be reminded that God loves them.

God communicates His love through the cross.

God communicates His love through the church… or at least He desires to.

The problem is… we don’t always get that. The problem is, love can sometimes get replaced with other “habits”

What other habits can get in the way of loving people?

Judgement. Comparison. Envy. Jealousy. Hatred. Bitterness. Self righteousness. Condemnation. Passivity. Own “understanding.”

These are habits the Bible warns us against. These are mindsets that can diminish not only our ability to love people… but our desire to love people. And I get it… people can make it difficult to love people! But before we try to play that excuse… think about the truth that God loved us AND loves us in our own shortcomings!

God commands His people to love others as He has loved us. Loving people is our prayer focus this evening. Loving people is the house habit we want to either establish or reinforce in prayer.

In order to move from an unloving habit to a loving habit… we need to first look at some of the reasons why a believer might struggle to love others. We need to answer the question, “what is it that is causing us (me) not to love big?”

Answering the Question: Why Don’t We Love Big?

God loves us… BIG TIME! Nothing can separate us from His love! So… what keeps separating us from loving others? Some of these answers might surprise you… others might hit home.

The point is to make us aware of the obstacles so we can better carry out the command to love.

One of those reasons we struggle to love is our DIFFERENCES.

Our differences are what make us unique! But… they can also cause us to build walls between us and others who are different from us.

We may not understand why people do what they do.

We may not understand how people think as they do.

We may not understand why people enjoy what they do.

We struggle to find common ground. That doesn’t make us enemies… but that might cause us to withdraw from extending them love.

Some differences are hard to see. Others are clear and on the surface. When we choose to allow our differences to keep us apart we are focusing on the difference… instead of valuing what we share.

What is it that we share… with every man, woman, and child on this earth? What commonality can we find no matter our race, social status, age, or gender? WE ARE ALL CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD!

When we start with the truth that every human is created in God’s image and therefore is worthy of our love and respect, it changes the way we see differences.

Another reason (and we talked about these a bit this morning) are our PREFERENCES.

Our differences expose our preferences. And there is nothing wrong with having preferences. We all prefer and like different things. This includes:

Political preferences

Entertainment preferences

Cultural preferences

Food preferences

And even theological preferences. Make no mistake about it… your preferences and bias influence they way you look at the Word. We might even find ourselves trying to inject our bias into our interpretation. We hold to the core truths regarding salvation, eternity, and doctrine… but sometimes the way we feel about something… will try to shape our faith and understanding of Scripture regarding that topic.

The key here is choosing to love someone over our own preferences.

This requirement to love people over our own preferences is why we cannot cancel others, whether on the right, left, or in the middle. It means we must love those who don’t share our preferences, beliefs, or truth. We VALUE and love them as God does.

A third reason might be our EXPERIENCES.

This is simply what we have been through, seen, and even how we were raised.

We have a tendency to build guard rails in our lives based on our past experiences - good or bad. These guard rails can limit us in our love for others based off a memory… instead of a current circumstance. The sad thing is… that person may have nothing to do with the hurt you once experienced.

Our experiences will try to tell us what kind of people we can trust… what kind of people we should avoid.

We try to NOT relive the experiences that brought us pain.

We try to OPEN more opportunity for experiences that brought us pleasure.

We try to evaluate if a person is going to hurt us… or make us happy… and make decisions from there.

I want to make something clear on this point: healthy boundaries are sometimes necessary in certain situations. But even if a boundary is called for… we are to love the person no matter what.

We need to be careful that the result of past experiences don’t keep us from missing out on future possibilities.

These are but a few reasons why we might struggle to love people. And if you notice something… they are all rooted in self.

This is why it is so important that we remember Jesus’ first instruction for those who want to be His disciple.

Luke 9:23–24 NIV

23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

If we want to love people as Christ loves us… we have to move beyond self. We have to love in a selfless way… as Christ did. Selfless love looks beyond any personal reason not to love… and looks to most important reason why we should love… BECAUSE GOD LOVED US FIRST.

As we move beyond self… there is another question to consider. If these are some of the things that can keep us from loving big… what does loving big look like?

Answering the Question: How Do We Love Big?

Love… is an action. Loving big is more than words… it is compassion in action. THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR ACTION WHEN IT COMES TO LOVING PEOPLE.

God so loved the world that HE TOOK ACTION. He moved on our behalf and what He did came at a GREAT cost.

Too many times… we don’t want to pay the cost of loving others. We might be afraid of what others will think, afraid of being taken advantage of, afraid of being inconvenienced, afraid of being rejected. AFRAID, AFRAID, AFRAID. Listen, God has not given His church a spirit of fear… so if fear is keeping you from loving others… just know that spirit is not coming from the Lord!

Jesus is God’s love in action. And that is the model or example God has given us to follow.

James 2:15-16 says it this way.

James 2:15–16 NIV

15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?

This isn’t faith in action… nor is it love in action. James goes on to say that faith not accompanied by action is dead. Church… love that does not compel us to act… is no love at all.

How do we love big? Through BOLD and APPLICABLE Action.

What Jesus did was BOLD. What Jesus did was APPLICABLE. His actions were like no other action AND they met a very specific need.

Bottom line is: loving people will require us to do whatever it takes under the leading of the Spirit to meet the need of that person.

Consider the story of the beggar at the gate called Beautiful in Acts 3. Peter and John encountered a crippled man asking for money. They could not give what they did not have, but they gave what they did have… and the man was healed of his infirmity.

I firmly believe the Spirit of God directed them to pray in that way. God will lead you to give in loving ways… and He will also lead you when the right answer is… no. Sometimes the giving of money is the easy answer or easy way out… but remember, there was noting easy about the cross.

Maybe God is asking you to have the hard conversation. Maybe God is calling you to stop enabling bad behavior. Maybe God is calling you to give the truth… His truth… that has the power to set souls free! Love isn’t always giving what is wanted… but often giving what is needed.

Loving big is a bold and applicable love. It follows the example of Jesus and requires action from the church both corporately and independently.

YOU CAN NEVER GO WRONG WITH LOVING OTHERS. That is… unless your motive is to boost self.

Loving others is to boost the name of Jesus… it is giving to others what Christ has given us… in hopes it will lead more people to Jesus so they can experience His love first hand.

We want to love big. We want to put action to this love. We want to drop all reasons or excuses not to love.

Prayer Points

This moves us to our prayer points for the evening. And before we can pray for our love for others to increase, we need to pray for our love for God to increase.

Why start there? Because He is our source. He is love itself. If we feel a distance growing in our love for others… perhaps it is a reflection of the level of love we have for God.

So the first things we are going to do is call the worship team back up to the stage, and spend the next few minutes loving of God. I want us to draw close to Him. I want us to lay down any distractions and spend time in His presence. Let’s give God all that we are… let’s express our love to Him and open our hearts to Him.

If you would like to come to the altars and worship Him there, I would encourage you to do so. Let’s press in and give Him our highest praise!

WORSHIP: Draw Me Close

Secondly, let’s pray for God to increase our love for others.

This means… moving beyond distractions or excuses and loving those around us. This means… denying our self… and following Jesus.

Will you join me in this prayer tonight: God, help me to love others as You love them. Help me extend to others the same kind of love you have extended toward me.

PRAYER

Lastly, let’s pray for God to help our love for others be bold and applicable. This prayer might sound funny at first, but bear with me.

God, help me to take up my cross daily in my love for you and in my love for others. Lead me by Your Spirit and Word as I share the love of Christ in my community.

Why take up your cross?

This is what bold and applicable love… looks like. Jesus didn’t earn or deserve the cross… but He carried it anyway. It was bold. It was costly. It was what we needed.

Jesus didn’t stop at praying for sinners… Jesus didn’t stop at fellowship with sinners… Jesus gave at that He could… all that was required… to set sinners free. He sacrificed Himself that we could be forgiven.

That is what taking up our cross is… suffering, sacrifice, doing what must be done no matter the cost. We do this for God… God has called us to do this for others.

Are you willing and ready to be bold in your love and to give what is needed? Let’s reach out to God and ask for His help.

Our love for God and for people are extremely important house habits… behaviors we should do without having to think twice about it. It is a command of the Lord… that will change this world forever.