Love that Sacrifices

Introduction

Jesus’ love is most clearly revealed in His willingness to give Himself wholly for others. Real love costs.

In our series Loving like Jesus: A radical witness in a broken world we have seen Jesus demonstrate:

Love that chooses compassion: because Jesus saw hurting people and was moved to action.

Love that forgives: Because Christ extended grace to those who failed Him.

Love that Serves: Again, Jesus showed us that true greatness is found in humble service.

Love that crosses barriers: Jesus tears down all walls and welcomes all people into God’s family

(Transition) Today we come to what may be the clearest and most powerful expression of Christ’s love: LOVE THAT SACRIFICES

The deepest love is not measured by what it says, it is measured by what it gives.

The cross reminds us that genuine love is costly.

Icebreaker

What is the most valuable thing someone has ever sacrificed for you?

(Bingo Time)

Maybe for you it was a parent working an extra job, or a spouse giving up a dream. A friend who stood by you during a difficult season in life. Maybe a mentor who invested hours in your life.

The people who have impacted your life are often those who have sacrificed something for our benefit. Love and sacrifice are inseparable. The greater the love, the greater the willingness to sacrifice.

The truth finds its ultimate express in Jesus Christ.

Let me share a quick story: There was a little boy that loved boats. He wanted to build this toy boat. He saved for it and then spent lots of time delicately putting it together. He spent hours playing with it on the banks of the creek by his house making up lots of stories. One day it got away from him. Over weeks, and even months he searched for his treasured boat and could not find it. One day he found it in the toy store on display for sale. He told the owner, “Hey it’s my boat” and the owner said sure it is when you buy it. The boy went away and worked, saved came back and bought the boat and said “now you are twice mine.”

So what does this have anything to do with love that sacrifices? See, first the boy made you, second the boy bought the boy. See first God created us, then Jesus bought us, sacrificed for us, He redeemed us. Love paid the price!

Jesus’ Love Was Self-Giving

We know that God had a plan, a purpose, with foreknowledge, and Jesus was the Way. A self-giving way. In a world that looks and says look out for yourself first, God looked and was looking at you and made a way for you through Jesus and Jesus was self-giving, and His love was self-sacrificing.

Turn with me to Philippians 2:5–8 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

He voluntarily laid aside His godly privileges.

He existed in the glory of heaven, yet he willingly left heaven’s splendor to enter our broken world

He exchanged: majesty for humility; glory for a manger; heavenly worship for earthly rejection.

No one forced Him, no, it was love that moved Him.

He took the form of a Servant

The king became a servant; The Creator entered creation; The Lord became obedient.

Love always moves downward in humility

He gave Himself completely

Jesus did not simply give His time, Or merely His resources. He gave Himself. Every act of His earthly ministry pointed toward calvary.

His love was total surrender

Application

The world asks, “what can I get out of this/it?”

Jesus kind of love says “what am I willing to give for the good of others?”

Sacrificial love requires surrender of: Convenience, comfort, pride, and personal preferences. for real love costs something.

Love Bears the Burden of Others

Love is sacrificial in the fact that it is willing to bear the burden of others. Christ was willing to be the sin bearer of us. To take on what we could not carry. The very thing that separated us from God, that kept us out of heaven, Jesus took on Himself. Look at 1Pt2:24, but to keep in context let us read

1 Peter 2:21–25 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.”

Jesus did not merely sympathize with our condition, He carried our burden. The cross was not symbolic of suffering, it was substitutionary suffering. He took upon Himself what belonged to us.

He carried what we could not carry

Our sin debt was too great, our guilt was too heavy, and our brokenness was too deep.

Yet Jesus willingly bore it all.

Isaiah 53:4 “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.”

Our Savior carried the burden so we could experience freedom!

Sacrificial love steps into another person’s pain

Jesus entered our suffering. He did not stand at a distance, He came near. Love that sacrifices chooses involvement over indifference.

Sometimes that means sitting with the grieving, helping the struggling, encouraging the discouraged, and supporting the weary. See, love carries burdens.

The cross shows the cost of redemption

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

The cross proves that God’s love is not just words, it is actions! It was demonstrated, the nails, the crown, the wounds, the suffering. They all declare the same message. You are loved and You are worth it.

Application:

Whose burden can I help carry?

Am I willing to inconvenience myself for someone else’s blessing?

Do I love only when it comes easy?

Sacrificial love moves beyond words and into action.

Sacrifice is the Standard of Christian Love

Can you turn in your bibles to 1Jn4:19, I know you can, but to keep in context let us read 1 John 4:16–19 “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us.”

Christian love is always in response to Christ’s love. We do not sacrifice to earn God’s love. We sacrifice because we already received God’s love.

Jesus sets the standard

Again, may we be reminded John 15:13 ““Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

The highest expression of love is self-sacrifice

The cross becomes the measuring stick for Christian love.

The question is not “how much do I have to do?” the question is: “How can I reflect the love Jesus showed me?”

Loving others requires dying to self

One of the greatest challenges we face in life, even as Christians is dying to self, our our own self-centeredness.

Love often means:

Choosing forgiveness over revenge

Patience over irritation

Generosity over selfishness

Reconciliation over division

Every day discipleship involves sacrifice

The world notices sacrificial love.

Anyone can say love when it is easy; anyone can love when there is something to gain. But sacrificial love is different.

When believers love generously, forgive deeply, and serve faithfully, the world gets a glimpse of Jesus radical kind of love. For Sacrificial love becomes a powerful witness.

(Conclusion) The world often defines love by feelings. Jesus defined love by sacrifice.

The world says look out for yourself; Jesus says lay down your life. The ultimate expression of love was not found in a sermon, a miracle or a crowd. It was found on a cross.

It was on the cross He bore our sins, He gave Himself for others, He carried our burden, He paid our debt, He sacrificed everything so that we could have life.

If we are going to love like Jesus the radical, we must embrace a love that is willing to sacrifice.

Major Takeaway:

When we love like Jesus:

We give rather than take

We carry burdens rather than avoid them.

We put others before ourselves

We reflect the heart of the cross

We become a powerful witness in a broken world.

Love is not proven by what it feels. Love is proven by what it is willing to give. The cross teaches us that real love always costs something, and the great the love, the greater the sacrifice.

This week may we ask God to show you a practical way to sacrificially love someone else. It could be time, resources, attention, forgiveness, encouragement, I cannot say, but God knows, so seek, ask God. Then do it with no expectations of anything in return. Because love that sacrifices is love that looks like Jesus.

(Insert slide: Jesus love on display; He gave it all invitation)