Heart to Heart WK 1

Intro

Welcome to February…

Be honest right now, how many of y’all still thought it was January when you came in today? I feel you!

But no, it is February. February is a big month. President’s day is this month, it’s black history month, there’s Groundhog Day- for anyone who knows what that is…

Hey, Ezra turns 1 year old this month, any other birthdays in February? Shout out to y’all. Ezra actually doesn’t get a birthday this year, leap years only!

But more than anything, February is the month of Love! We’ve got Valentine’s day, hearts, pink everything, Conversation Hearts come out of nowhere- somebody tell me where those things live the rest of the year? They just SPAWN in February every year!

But everywhere you look we see talk about love this month. From Movies about love, tv show episodes, podcasts, music… everyone is talking about love. What you love, who you love, what to get, give, and do for those you love.

The world has a lot to say about love. But it seems like there is some confusion because people will say they love pizza, they love football, they love tik tok and they love their mom. Some people even say they love Clemson…Surely, love cannot mean the same thing in all of those different scenarios.

To clear up any confusion, this month we are going to dig into what the Bible actually says about love. And in case you didn’t know- it has a lot to say about love!

Lucky for us, our God is Love and so He has the perfect definitions, examples, and instructions when it comes to love! Let’s get to the heart of matters of the heart, let’s talk about love!

To get us started this week, turn with me to John chapter 15. This chapter should sound pretty familiar.

We are picking up in the middle of Jesus’ farewell address to his disciples. This is likely happening on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus will be arrested, then tortured and killed on the cross. So these are his parting words before that all takes place. Jesus covers a lot in this message to them but we are picking up in the middle of Jesus instructing his disciples about their relationships with others as His disciples. This is where we see that famous illustration that Jesus uses to describe our relationship with him. He says that his followers must abide in Him. To remain, to live in Jesus. He says that we are the branches and He is the vine. We have to stay connected to the vine to live and bear fruit. Most of us are hopefully familiar with that passage, it’s a great one to sit with and pray through! But Jesus’ point is that we have to be connected to him daily, in every moment for his life to flow through us and bring fruit- the results of a life full of His spirit in the world around us. The Christian life is not just knowing who Jesus is but being spiritually connected to Jesus with our entire life!

Like a branch connected to a particular vine- the fruit we produce will match the vine we are attached to. Meaning- if a branch is connected to a grape vine what fruit will it produce? GRAPES.

What if we are connected to an apple tree? Apples.

What if we’re connected to a Chick Fil A?

The point is the fruit of our lives will always match what we are connected to.

Keep that in mind as we read these verses where Jesus continues the abide/remain idea with his disciples.

Let’s pick up in verse 9 of John 15.

John 15:9-11

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15

9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

Jesus, God the Son, teaches us here how we experience real love.

The Father Loves the Son, The son has loved us with that love. As we follow Jesus and obey Him, we get to experience that love of the Father within us!

Clearly all definitions of love are not equal.

Jesus is clear here- Real love only comes from God.

Love doesn’t come from our emotions, or from a relationship, or from any chemical reactions. Real love only comes from God. That is a critical place to start in understanding love. Because if we get this wrong we look to all the wrong places to experience what only comes from God!

We receive real love from God the Father through our relationship with Jesus and we get to walk in it as we obey Jesus with our lives.

So, we get to experience and live in the love of God as we follow Jesus. Let’s see what Jesus says next. verse 12.

John 15:12-13

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15

12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus doesn’t suggest, or recommend that his followers love one another- no This is my command- love one another as I have loved you.

And Jesus is clear what that means. Those disciples listening wouldn’t fully get it at that moment, but we all see it clearly looking back. Jesus would be arrested soon after speaking those words, he would be beaten, tortured, and he would go to the cross, suffer and die in our place. He would do all of that not because he deserved any of it, but because God loved us that much- that He would send his one and only son into this world so that anyone who believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life!

The love Jesus showed us is the ultimate, self-sacrificial love of God Himself. God stepped into our mess and brokenness to save us. While we were totally and utterly hopelessly lost in our sin, God was willing to sacrifice His own Son to save us! That is real love!

Real love is self-sacrificial.

Jesus says there is literally no greater love than to sacrifice yourself for your friends.

This is not what love looks like in our world today.

I remember as a kid in 2nd grade at Carrollwood Elementary back in Tampa, FL there was a guy in my class who said He was my friend. He would run up and call me his best friend, he would say hey I love you man. And of course I was a nice kid and would be nice to Him because I thought he really was my friend. But this guy would also take stuff from me, push me around and make fun of me.As a nice kid I was so confused because he said he was my friend, I knew how friends should act, but he didn’t treat me the way I was treating him. My parents eventually helped me see that this guy was not my friend because what he said, and how he treated me weren’t lining up.

Unfortunately, these sort of relationships happen a lot in our world.

So often people talk about loving each other but only truly care about what they can get from a relationship. How does it benefit them?

Yeah I love you…

as long as you always do what I want.

I love you as long as you don’t do anything I don’t like.

as long as you don’t hurt my feelings.

as long as you don’t ask too much of me.

as long as you do what I tell you.

as long as I am always happy…

Listen, like my parents sat me down, can I just help someone here see- that relationship is not one of love if it sounds like that!

Maybe you are the one who puts the conditions on the relationship or you have someone who is demanding things of you in the name of love, listen that isn’t what real love is. No, the real love of our savior doesn’t demand anything of us or put conditions on our relationship. The real love of God is freely pour out for us on the cross and available to anyone who comes to Jesus. The real love of God sacrificed everything for us! We get to receive and walk in that love through Jesus- and Jesus calls us to extend that kind of love to one another!

Jesus alone is the standard of love we are called to.

Jesus embodied real love, offers us real love and calls us to real love!

He goes on to wrap up these thoughts in the last few verses of the section.

Pick up in verse 14 with me.

John 15:14-17

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master, is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.

17 “This is what I command you: Love one another.

Jesus ties this all back to the passage before about abiding in him and bearing fruit. HE ultimately is saying here that the fruit we bear is real love of God in and through our lives as we follow Jesus in obedience. Being a disciple of Jesus is ultimately about becoming people of love. That sounds really cheesy if you have the wrong idea of love.

But when you realize that real love comes from God. Jesus alone is the standard of real love and that real love always takes sacrifice.

Then we understand that becoming people of love means becoming people who put others first. We don’t demand from those we love, we actually offer everything we’ve got for them.

We seek their best over our own.

We look for ways to serve and give and sacrifice.

People of love look like the savior who gave His life for them.

So, does this characterize the love you show in your life?

Is this the experience of our ministry for anyone and everyone who comes in here each week?

It’s not easy to be people of love. It costs us comfort. It costs our convenience and preferences. But if we truly receive the real love of God through Jesus, we are able to actively grow in that love and self-sacrificially love those around us.

This morning, I want you to take a moment and reflect on the relationships in your life. Do they look like this kind of love?

Bow your heads with me before we go to our groups and let’s respond together.

What does love really look like in your life right now? Both the relationships you are in and the way you love people how Jesus commands you to as His follower?

Is there any relationship you need to reevaluate because what you thought was love is so far from the standard of real love we see from Jesus?

Is there any way you need to start really loving people like God loves you?

Pray.