The Invitation to Love

[SLIDE 1, 2] Introduction

Last in the series.

When we think of extravagant love, besides what happens on The Bachelor, here are Google’s top hits: 

A son worried about his divorced mom listed her on eBay to help her find love

A mom worried about her son’s love life advertised him on a site called “Date My Single Kid.”

A Chinese man carved 6k steps into the side of a mountain to make it easier for his wife to walk down the mountain from their home safely to town. 

How about you: what’s the most extravagant expression of love you’ve done?

Two unwritten principles of relationships: high school sweethearts rarely get married and if you grew up going to camp, those long distance relationships don't last. 

So when Patti and I met at church camp and started dating...

We navigated all the ups and downs of a long distance relationship into college: phone if we had the money, maybe seeing each other every other month and getting by writing letters - yes letters. We put them in envelopes [slide] like this, put the address here and the return address here, put a stamp on it [slide] and they look like this, dropped it in the mail and waited…Nothing instant about that messaging…

Every guy knows that there comes a “step up to the plate” time when you have to let her know how you feel in a way a letter can't. A time to show her how much you love her. It doesn’t have to be big but it does need to be significant and meaningful - it had to be extravagant to her.

There wasn’t the money to do buy her expensive jewelry or throw a pre-engagement party kind of extravagant - which in many places is a thing now. 

So I did what any romantic young man would do in the 80’s - I wrote her a song. 

When inspiration strikes you need to take advantage of it and so the day it struck I sat down with my guitar, paper and a pen and entered the creative zone. When the song was finished, I had a vision: she was going to be blown away! She would cry, we would hug and this moment would let he know I was all in.

I played it for a musician friend and when it was over, I could see in his face that he was deeply moved. After a few moments he said, “The chord progression sounds like “Grandma’s Feather Bed."

And there began and ended my career as a singer song writer.

[SLIDE 3] Fierce and Overwhelming Love

Tozer: What does it mean: God is Love? Love is what is true about God, expresses the oneness of God like holiness, justice, truth.

His other character traits can help deepen our understanding of love.

Eternal - love has no beginning or end

Infinite - love has no limits

Holy - love is pure and fiercely seeks the good of its object

J.I. Packer: Agape is a Christian invention; a new word for a new thing; almost non-existent before the NT.

Meaning comes from the revelation of God in Christ.

That revelation begins in where we’ll encounter the fierce and overwhelming love of God.

Nazareth: small town. No word for town or village (which Nazareth is) so called a city. Betrothal is more binding than modern engagement.

Luke 1:26–38 ESV

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Nazareth: small town. No word for town or village (which Nazareth is) so called a city. Betrothal is more binding than modern engagement.

Nazareth: small town. No word for town or village (which Nazareth is) so called a city. Betrothal is more binding than modern engagement.

Fierce and Overwhelming Love Keeps Its Promises

Modern Christianity offers a false hope of relief

Dependent on someone else for satisfaction

Corrupted with selfishness in every effort to change

God’s people hadn’t heard from him in a long time.

Prophecy had ceased at the close of the Old Testament period; but now God was sending his Messiah and the prophetic gift was renewed.

First word in a long time was to say, I’m keeping the promise I made - making our relationship whole again.

Fierce and Overwhelming Love Cuts Through...

Noise of Religious Confusion

What is the noise around you that makes it hard to hear and trust God's promises?

Religious Confusion

32-33 - He will be set apart from everyone else (possibly all other messiahs) and what he will be called will line up with that reality: son of the most High. His rule and reign will come from his ancestor David and his kingdom (final, once for all) is forever unlike current ideas on the messiah. Jesus would make God's rule and reign clear.

34 - Where Zechariah had a hard time believing it, Mary was puzzled. How can one bear a child without the intervention of a man. And it may happen right now.

Believing/trusting that this actually happened this way

Jewish nature of the birth narrative makes it unlikely to come from pagan sources which were similar. The subject of virgin birth does not appear in writings of Paul and M ark. Possibly a Palestinian tradition avoided by Christians to prevent Jewish offense and Greek misunderstanding of Jesus' messiahship.

Toxic faith

Toxic faith is a destructive and dangerous involvement in a religion that allows the religion, not a relationship with God, to control a person's life. People broken by various experiences, from dysfunctional families, with unrealistic expectations, and people out for their own gain or comfort seem especially prone to it. It is abusive, manipulative and can become addictive. 

It is an excuse to put off dealing with the pain in life; to wait for God to do what he wants you to do.

Toxic Faith System

God's love and favor depends on my behavior. Religious Workaholic. Restoration can't come from more work or greater focus on fixing yourself.

Life Circumstances and Expectations

Unmarried and going to be pregnant.

Fear

28-29 - Fear strikes Mary both by the sight of Gabriel and his declaration that she is favored and that God is with her.

Expressed Love

[SLIDE 4] Finding God’s Favor

Chosen

Difficulty understanding and receiving God's favor

Given to the best, brightest, wisest, richest, most popular and influential

1. Foolish according to world standards

2. Chosen to shame the wise according to those standards

3. Weak to shame the strong, powerful, influential

4. Low and despised to bring to nothing things that are

Finding favor with God is evidenced by her conceiving a baby without having been with a man. His name will be the Lord is Salvation (Joshua).

Confused

34 - Where Zechariah had a hard time believing it, Mary was puzzled. How can one bear a child without the intervention of a man. And it may happen right now.

Afraid

28-29 - Fear strikes Mary both by the sight of Gabriel and his declaration that she is favored and that God is with her.

Overshadows With Power

35 - Through the spirit, God's power will overshadow her to conceive the child making him the holy son of God.

Differentiated from Greek mythology whereby gods have relations with humans.

Makes The Impossible Possible

Love is demonstrated by action

36-37 - To further address her confusion, Gabriel tells her of Elizabeth's pregnancy. If that's possible, this is too.

Mary’s Response

Jared Commercial: She said Yes.

38 - Mary: quiet submission, complete obedience (She said yes: let it be according to your word), and quiet heroism. Could not be sure whether she would suffer or maybe die for this. She recognized the will of God and accepted it.

Love

[SLIDE 5] Invitation to Love

Invitation to Love

Embracing Our Chosenness

Receive God’s Favor

Mary was the first of many to be chosen/invited

An invitation to experience it (and it’s promise)

An invitation to participate in it (share the promise)

Confusion and Fear Are Faced

Everything about God's kingdom is subversive to the pathways of how the world functions.

Confusion and Fear Are Faced

Nothing we can do to make God love us any more or any less

Fear

It Cuts Through

Noise of our Confusion

Tim Keller: In every other religion, the founder points to eternal life, bug because Jesus is God come in the flesh, he is eternal life. To unite with him by faith, to know him in love, is to have this life. Period. Full stop.

Life Circumstances and Expectations

Life is not about winning

Life is not about using social power to get what we want

Life is about loving the opposition in the face of real cost

Life is not about having it all.

"If you've ever known the love of God, you know it's nothing but reckless and it's nothing but raging. Sometimes it hurts to be loved, and if it doesn't hurt it's probably not love, may be infatuation. I think a lot of American people are infatuated with God, but we don't really love Him, and they don't really let Him love them. Being loved by God is one of the most painful things in the world, it's also the only thing that can bring us salvation and it's like everything else that is really wonderful, there's a little bit of pain in it, little bit of hurt." 

Rich Mullins

Exilic spirituality has to make peace with the partial rather than the whole. I

We must let our expectations of one another in the body of Christ and of the church die. 

An exilic community offers less and invites you to bring all you can to the community itself.

Fear

Nadia Comaneci: I don’t run from a challenge because I’m afraid. Instead I run toward it because they only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your feet.

Worth the Risk

Finding God’s Favor

Mary was the first of many to be chosen/invited

An invitation to experience it (and it’s promise)

Evidence of the prophetic fulfillment of the coming of the Messiah. The birth narrative sets the context for everything to follow. Namely, Jesus, proclamation that the Kingdom of God (forever kingdom) is now here.

Evidence of the prophetic fulfillment of the coming of the Messiah. The birth narrative sets the context for everything to follow. Namely, Jesus, proclamation that the Kingdom of God (forever kingdom) is now here.

An invitation to participate in it (share the promise)

Does the invitation to experience and be part of God's demonstration of love seem risky to you? in what way?

Every invitation requires a response.

Does the invitation to experience and be part of God's demonstration of love seem risky to you? in what way?

When we come to a profound trust in his love and care for us, our vision of the world is transformed. It is no longer a threatening place that provokes fear. With our good shepherd with us, we can come to fear no evil.

You don’t have to be worthy of it

The wonder of the gospel is not the love of the beautiful; it’s when Beauty kisses the Beast.

Dallas Willard: When we embrace the reality of God’s love and care for us, we see that “this present world is a perfectly safe place for us to be.”

The Beast isn’t loved because he has changed; the Beast is changed when he is loved.

When we come to a profound trust in his love and care for us, our vision of the world is transformed. It is no longer a threatening place that provokes fear. With our good shepherd with us, we can come to fear no evil.

Saying yes to a faith that is risky.

Let me go bury my dad.

Dallas Willard: When we embrace the reality of God’s love and care for us, we see that “this present world is a perfectly safe place for us to be.”

What’s in your way?

Participate in His Love

The calling of God is to embrace the truth of God's promise and allow him to live in you and through you.

Rich Mullins

Seth Godin Beyond showing up

You've probably got that part nailed. Butt in seat, smile on your face. We often run into people who understand their job to be showing up on time to do the work that's assigned. We've moved way beyond that now. Showing up and taking notes isn't your job. Your job is to surprise and delight and to change the agenda. Your job is to escalate, reset expectations and make us delighted that you are part of the team.

The Impossible Becomes Possible

The wonder of the gospel is not the love of the beautiful; it’s when Beauty kisses the Beast.

The Beast isn’t loved because he has changed; the Beast is changed when he is loved.

The best

Surrendering to the overshadowing of God's power to make the impossible in our lives and our world possible

To be controlled by love is to no longer live to please self and to no longer see, think of and speak of others according to the external sphere of human standards.

Everything about God's kingdom is subversive to the pathways of how the world functions.

Robb Wolf: The only way to deal with an unhealthy world is to become so absolutely healthy that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

Demands a Response

Worth the Risk

Evidence of the prophetic fulfillment of the coming of the Messiah. The birth narrative sets the context for everything to follow. Namely, Jesus, proclamation that the Kingdom of God (forever kingdom) is now here.

Does the invitation to experience and be part of God's demonstration of love seem risky to you? in what way?

When we come to a profound trust in his love and care for us, our vision of the world is transformed. It is no longer a threatening place that provokes fear. With our good shepherd with us, we can come to fear no evil.

Dallas Willard: When we embrace the reality of God’s love and care for us, we see that “this present world is a perfectly safe place for us to be.”

Experience the Love of God: Receive His Favor

Mary was the first of many to be chosen/invited

Receive God’s Favor

Mary was the first of many to be chosen/invited

An invitation to experience it (and it’s promise)

An invitation to participate in it (share the promise)

Every invitation requires a response.

You don’t have to be worthy of it

Saying yes to a faith that is risky.

Let me go bury my dad.

What’s in your way?

You don’t have to be worthy of it

Saying yes to a faith that is risky.

Let me go bury my dad.

What’s in your way?

The calling of God is to embrace the truth of God's promise today and allow him to live in you and through you.

"If you've ever known the love of God, you know it's nothing but reckless and it's nothing but raging. Sometimes it hurts to be loved, and if it doesn't hurt it's probably not love, may be infatuation. I think a lot of American people are infatuated with God, but we don't really love Him, and they don't really let Him love them. Being loved by God is one of the most painful things in the world, it's also the only thing that can bring us salvation and it's like everything else that is really wonderful, there's a little bit of pain in it, little bit of hurt." 

Rich Mullins

Rich Mullins

What Do YOU Say?

38 - How do you respond to that? Mary: quiet submission, complete obedience (She said yes: let it be according to your word), and quiet heroism. Could not be sure whether she would suffer or maybe die for this. She recognized the will of God and accepted it.

Seth Godin Beyond showing up

You've probably got that part nailed. Butt in seat, smile on your face. We often run into people who understand their job to be showing up on time to do the work that's assigned.We've moved way beyond that now. Showing up and taking notes isn't your job. Your job is to surprise and delight and to change the agenda. Your job is to escalate, reset expectations and make us delighted that you are part of the team.

You've probably got that part nailed. Butt in seat, smile on your face. We often run into people who understand their job to be showing up on time to do the work that's assigned.We've moved way beyond that now. Showing up and taking notes isn't your job. Your job is to surprise and delight and to change the agenda. Your job is to escalate, reset expectations and make us delighted that you are part of the team.

Evidence of the prophetic fulfillment of the coming of the Messiah. The birth narrative sets the context for everything to follow. Namely, Jesus, proclamation that the Kingdom of God (forever kingdom) is now here.

Does the invitation to experience and be part of God's demonstration of love seem risky to you? in what way?

When we come to a profound trust in his love and care for us, our vision of the world is transformed. It is no longer a threatening place that provokes fear. With our good shepherd with us, we can come to fear no evil.

Dallas Willard: When we embrace the reality of God’s love and care for us, we see that “this present world is a perfectly safe place for us to be.”

Saying yes to a faith that is risky.

Let me go bury my dad.

Saying yes to a faith that is risky

What’s in your way.