Bella Vista Church of Christ

10/13/2019 A.M.

Living The Good Life

The Greatest Of These Is Love

Not long after they met… Scott & Kim were invited to volunteer at the Bridge Ministry… A thirteen-year-old ministry serving the HOMELESS under the Jefferson Street Bridge in Nashville,Tennessee.

Scott said… You know… It’s easy to look through and around this sector of society…. But then I heard Jesus say… They will know you by your love.

Seeing… Listening… Serving… Hugging… and Praying… for and with these special people alongside Kim was where I was the happiest and felt the most fulfilled.

Looking into the eyes and souls of those who are hurting lifted us both into what Jesus said was the abundant life.

So… By Christmas of that year… Scott and Kim had made their intentions clear… They were asking God for His timing for their wedding and hoped He would help fill in some of the numerous details.

After all the city of Nashville offered plenty of great venues… There were a number of Fridays… Saturdays… Sundays… Available for a wedding.

But that’s not what God brought them to… Not what He placed in their hearts…

• He placed in their heart to get married on a Tuesday… Nobody gets married on a Tuesday… But they felt led to that…

• Not only to a Tuesday Night… But to have the wedding under the Jefferson Street Bridge…

• And their guests would be the homeless they were serving each Tuesday evening.

Wow… It was a real destination wedding… Shared with their special guests… Guests that Jesus would have invited… The poor… The crippled…The lame… The blind… The Homeless.

So… Invitations were sent to the… Highways… Byways… and Hedges.

May 9^th 2017… Scott… Kim… Their fellow church servants… Along with more than two hundred of their homeless friends gathered for…

• An Amazing Meal…

• A Worship Service…

• And a Heartfelt Wedding Ceremony.

Not one attendee was left… unmoved… unchanged… Because Love filled each heart. Scott & Kim’s love ran-over… Spilled into the heart of each and every homeless individual… Giving them a sure sign that they were loved by… God… Kim & Scott… And the church.

Last Sunday… We started a series… Living the Good Life…Based upon the words of Jesus found in John 10.10… I came that you might have life… And have it more abundantly… Life at its best… Life to the fullest… The good life.

We began the series noting that living like Jesus helps us navigate the storms of life. Storms that inevitably come our way.

We discovered two Scriptures that contain some character traits which belonged to Jesus… that when applied to our daily walk… We too will experience this life that’s… Good… abundant… Above the ORDINARY.

One such Scripture was from the pen of Peter… A list which He says…

• Will make our calling and election sure…

• That will enable us to be effective and productive in God’s Kingdom.

The other Scripture was from Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia… Where he wrote about The fruit of the Spirit.

Paul says… Don’t be prompted to live by the wine of the world… Desires of the world.

• But by the fruit of the Spirit…

• God’s Spirit…

• the Spirit of Jesus in us.

As we read these two Scriptures… We note that both mention Love… The result of Jesus living in us is love…That we love!!

So this morning… Another Scripture we want to become familiar with… First John chapter four… Access a Worship Bulletin… Read with me beginning with the verse numbered seven… Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No-one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Come… Let us see what we can learn about

finding the good life through loving others…

What is this love?

I suppose there is not a more complex word than LOVE…

We talk about loving… Pizza… Apple pie… An automobile…Country… Mother… God.

We talk about… Falling in love… Making love… A lost love.

Mark Jones says… Love is like the Chicken Pox…Everybody catches it sometime.

• The human heart is desperate for love…

• Love is oxygen for the soul…

• Love brings a lifetime of blessings.

• We don’t want to think of life without it.

Our Bible has a lot to say about love and loving… The NIV uses the word 567 times.

The Biblical Narrative is about God’s unconditional and relentless love for us.

Forgiveness… God’s presence in our life… Our eternal salvation… Is about love…

• God loving us…

• Our response by loving Him…

• And our love for one another.

Love is the foundation for everything good…It’s the motive for the way we live.

Secondly… The New Testament speaks of a special kind of love… Agape.

This love isn’t just a feeling… A sensation…

This love wears work gloves and handles the everyday nuts and bolts of life…

• It hugs the hurting…

• Feeds the hungry…

• Tends to the sick…

• Visits the lonely…

• Comforts the sorrowful…

• Touches the untouchable…

• Puts up with the insufferable…

It even ministers to the homeless under Nashville’s Jefferson Street Bridge.

Jesus came bringing this kind of love…

Agape is a love of the will…

Agape is a decision…

Agape seeks nothing in return…

Agape loves regardless of the behavior of the recipient…

Agape is the power to move us toward another person with no expectations... No expectations!!

Agape is not self-centered… But others-centered…

Agape is unconditional…

Agape is Divine Love… The love God has for us.

Thirdly… We are commanded to Agape

A teenager was asked what she thought love was and she said… Love is a feeling you feel… That what you feel… Is a feeling you never felt before.

Listen church… Agape is not a feeling!!

A feeling is something that just happens to us…Brought on by circumstances beyond our control... But Biblical Agape Love is not just a feeling… It’s a command.

Jesus said…

• A new commandment I give you… That you agape one another… John 13.34…

• This is My commandment… That you agape one another as I have loved you… John 15.12

• By this all will know you’re My disciples… If you agape one another… John 13.35

Number four… How do we know if we agape one another?…

Is it because of a feeling we have for one another?… No!!..

Agape is not a feeling… Love is a doing… Love is about what we do for others…

Agape is a verb.

Jesus told the church at Ephesus in Revelation chapter two that they had lost their first love… Rememberwhat Jesus told them was the solution to lost love??… How to gain it back?... In verse five… do the first works… Love is A behavior.

We see this in First Corinthians chapter thirteen… 4-8… Love is patient… Love is kind. Love does not envy… It does not boast… Is not proud. It is not rude… Is not self-seeking… Is not easily angered… Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love never delights in evil… But rejoices with the truth. Love always protects… Always trusts… Always hopes… Always perseveres… Love never fails.

It’s interesting to note that after telling us what genuine agape love looks like in this chapter… The first word in chapter fourteen is … Pursue Love.

This command is not ambiguous…

We are called to love… And the love Jesus commands is a behavior.

Agape love is a gift from God that automatically results in Evangelism.

Listen to Paul in Romans 5.5… The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

The desire to agape… The capacity to agape… This special Agape Love is a gift from God… Something He poured into our heart.

But this gift comes with an obligation… Second Timothy 1.7 plainly says…. God has not given us a spirit of fear… But of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Church… God has given us the capacity to love and He commands us to use that gift.

Henry Drummond… In his classic sermon on love… Illustrated it this way… When a magnet is attached to a piece of steel… And left there for a time…The piece of steel becomes a magnet also.

• When we stay attached to Jesus…

• When we walk in step with the Spirit…

• When we add Peter’s Christian Graces to our life…

The love of Jesus passes right through us into others… We become magnets for God… Drawing others to Jesus.

This is EVANGELISM at work!!

Indeed… Agape is evangelism… Our drawing others to Christ.

Church… Without agape… There can be no genuine evangelism!

Agape evangelism…

• Must be with proper motive…

• Is always authentic…

Otherwise it is not agape...Listen to these Scriptures on Motive!…

1 Peter 1.22… Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have a sincere love for your brothers… Love one another deeply… From the heart.

1 John 1.17 & 18… If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue… But with actions and in truth.

1 Timothy 1.5 reads… The goal of this command is love, which comes from… a pure heart… A good conscience… and a sincere faith.

Genuine agape always comes with… pure motive… Right motive!!... Amen?

OK… What will help us practice New Testament Agape…

Four quick things we must be willing to do…

We must Reflect on God’s love for us.

Listen to these two Scriptures put together…

1 John 3.16 & 4.11… This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for our brothers… Since God so loved us… we also ought to love one another.

Then Second Corinthians 5.14 has Paul saying... That the love of God compels us because He died for us.

We need to pray for grEater love.

Philippians 1.9… This is my prayer… That your love may abound more and more.

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians was… I pray that out of God’s glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being… So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you… Being rooted and established in love… may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Our text says… God is love…

• So… If we are filled with LOVE… We are filled with GOD…

• If LOVE lives in us… God lives in us…

• If we don’t have love…We don’t have God!

Here’s a sobering thought… Are we asking God to help us have a greater love for others? All others?... Or are we trying to excuse the way we feel toward some around us?

We must not be afraid to take the risk.

Listen… To love others… To agape others… We must be willing to be wounded!

To love others is to be vulnerable!

Jesus said… We are even to… Love… Agape… our enemies.

Church… Are we willing here?... Really?

Question is… Are we conforming to the ways of the world… Or loving like Jesus?

Let’s not lie to ourselves… But be honest… Loving others… All others… Means we must take the risk… You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy… But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Living in love means we must practice every day…

Sometimes we think we must do something great in the Lords Kingdom…And we spend a lifetime searching for that something… Not so!

It’s… the daily… Moment-To-Moment… love we show others that counts.

Think of it this way… Instead of giving a thousand dollars to the Lord… Break that thousand dollars into quarters… Then spend twenty-five cents of love daily… Small things like…

• Hugging the hurting…

• Feeding the hungry…

• Tending to the sick…

• Visiting the lonely…

• Comforting the sorrowful…

• Touching the untouchable…

• Putting up with the insufferable…

• Ministering to the homeless under Nashville’s Jefferson Street Bridge.

It was Paul who wrote… Let all… A-L-L… Let ALL that you do be done with love… Agape!

This morning’s invitation and challenge is that we be born again… Born to love as god loves by…Faith… Repentance… and New Testament Baptism… Raised to walk in the Good Life…A life of love.

As His children… Our challenge is to live in agape…

John wrote… Beloved… Let us love one another… For Love is of God… He who loves is born of God and knows God.

Come live the Abundant LIFE WITH JESUS… LIVING IN LOVE… As we stand and sing this song together.