Love is... Not Easy (Love is fierce)

Weekly Recap

Sunday

We talked about how God’s love is 1000% better than the worlds Love

Monday

We talked about how our love is a valuable currency that we cannot get back. We discussed that we can either give that to things that are valueless, or we can give that love to the will of God and love people well as we are called and that the love we give to the will of God has a return on investment that we can’t even fathom.

So we are called to love! It’s going to take sacrifice, and patience and a whole lot of Jesus in our lives to be able to love people well!

Tonight, the title of this message is Love is… Not Easy or Love is Fierce.

Loving someone the way that God would have you love someone is going to be the the hardest, craziest, most wonderful and rewarding thing that you have ever done.

Let’s tuck into our bible passage this evening.

1 John 3:13–14 ESV

Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

The fact of the matter is, we are called to do the impossible! We are called to love one another like Christ, and called to love the world around us even though they are going to literally hate us. We are called to high performance, fierce, crazy love.

The very beginning of this passage John makes a big point that I think we all really need to take to heart. “Do not be surprised”.

Surprise can shake you.

Surprise has been used in war and in sport to shake the other team/group to the point that they loose.

Surprise is something that is used in sports frequently to defeat the other team. Sometimes the surprise is planned and sometimes the surprise just comes and the losing team just was not ready for it.

The greatest sports surprise that I was ever able to witness was the one that took place in Minnesota, February 6th 2017 in the year of our Lord. The date that the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the evil empire the New England Patriots.

Philly was in a spot of the game where they didn’t look like they were going to be able to win. They were holding their own but they weren’t quite slamming them down like they had done with all the other teams that they had played against that season. I want to show you guys this...

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It was 4th down, everybody was expecting a FG everyone was expecting the eagles to take the three and move on to be later defeated by the evil empire. But the Eagles had a surprise! THEY WENT FOR IT.

If you’re an eagles fan or anti TB it’s easy to get excited about this and move on but the truth here is that this surprise was the turning point of the game, the 15-3 team that was about to be a 16 and 3 team was defeated! By a team of ragamuffins!

The surprise defeated the Patriots. Guys, the enemy wants to surprise you so that you are defeated. What does that look like for us in the real world?

It looks like a friend that betrays you, it looks like someone you look up to failing you it looks like a pastor or church leader being caught up in sin. Maybe it looks like a best friend that rejects you when they find out that you have made a decision for Christ. Maybe it looks like a S.O. that dumps you when you set boundaries that honor God. Guys, no one around you is perfect, we are all susceptible to failing, especially those of us in the world that have not accepted Jesus as lord.

Do not be Surprised at the sin. Expect it.

When we expect it, we can pray for it and about it and it does not knock us off balance. Decide today to no longer be surprised at just how messed up people can be. Side note, don’t take this as permission to be cynical. Still be heart broken still pray for them still love them well, but don’t allow it to effect your faith. SO many people have allowed the failing of others to point them away from Christ. Don’t fall for it.

The World Hates You

Geez Tim. That’s a lot.

Did any of you ever have your mother tell you “don’t say hate! It means kill!”

Let’s also remember, the World is the system of immorality that exists that Hates who God is and what he stands for.

Yes. That system want’s to see you dead or worse, see you reject christ and lead others down the same path!

We are not be surprised at this because we know that the Christian Faith stands against everything the world believes in.

MAN! If we ended there that would be so sad and hard. But There is hope! Let’s re-read the rest of the passage here.

“ We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.”

We don’t have to live with the HATE we have LOVE

Here is the deal, we in the body of Christ, we have REAL Love. We don’t have to put up with how hateful the world can be towards us and each-other. We have been given the REAL example of Real love from God himself!

I just want to pause here for a moment. How many of you are involved at some level with a youth group in your church. Or even at church in general.

Guys, It’s your responsibility to make sure that your group is a safe space. Because school is hard, families are hard life is hard. But church! Church should not be hard. The bible is clear. God’s people are to love one another.

That means creating a safe space

that means kindness

that means sacrifice

that means not allowing sin into the camp.

If you have a friend or a youth pastor call you out on your sin in a loving way a)it’ll still hurt and b) that’s not them judging you that’s them helping you. So don’t keep on your pride of life stuff that we talked about last night. Own it repent from it and move on.

Quick Recap

So - how do we do that then? how do we go about loving people like Jesus did even though people are people.

People Hurt

People Wrong us

people are ultimately people and are full of sin.

Jesus’ love is unrelenting, Jesus Love is unconditional and Jesus’ love is life changing! So how are we to love those around us when they HATE us and HURT us.

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 CSB

Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.

Be Patient!

Patience here isn’t waiting for your hotpocket to cool off enough to eat it. Patience here is talking about waiting for the other person to come to a level of maturity in Christ for them to understand that their behaviour is wrong. Sometimes with our prompting.

Terry Story - Patience.

Be Kind!

Being kind to those who hurt us is hard. But it’s what we are called to do. Hold open doors, help with homework, be there for them! Ask them how they are when you can tell they are sad. Be kind to them! “kill it with kindness”

I had this teacher - Mrs. Lokia.

OOPPP

I remember this from last night -

No Boasting, Envy or Arrogance

sound similar to something we said last night? Acting this way to someone else and living in that sin is not loving them well. It’s just pointing them back to the world.

It goes on to say that rudeness and self-seeking are bad ideas as well! That’s just not love.

Don’t keep a Record of Wrongs

When me and my wife were in pre-marital counseling. We had a long discussion about forgiveness. If we forgive we MUST forget. If not we cannot love. I had been holding a grudge. She had been too. Our marriage was so much better after that.

In summary do this:

Bear With, believe In, Hope For and Endure all!

That is how you love the world well! That is how you love those who hurt you.

It will be hard, but you have a group of believers, your church family that will encourage you and push you onward and if and when that fails you have Jesus on your side! You can do it!

At the end of the day, the world knows that their love isn't working and that it’s miserable. They might not be able to articulate it but most know something is off. The problem is when they look around for something better, they look at the church and see us acting just like the world, not loving people the way that Jesus loved.

People - We are to be the salt of the earth. We are to be different. Let’s love fiercely!

Love your church family fiercely!

Love your mission field fiercely!

The worlds love is leading to death, but we have the good news of the gift of life.

Call for salvation.

Pray to end.