Sunday, Inspiration: Sunday, June 2, 2024
Bold and Fearless Love
John 15:12-17; Matthew 5:43-47
(I am not preaching this weekend. This is a sermon manuscript from 2023)
If I am going to convince you to love boldly and fearlessly, I need first to convince you that God’s love for you is bold. “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself,” (Jeremiah 31:3) is how God speaks of his love toward you.
God's love for you is bold and everlasting. 'I have loved you with an everlasting love.' (Jeremiah 31:3) #LoveBoldly #Faith
God loves with an unfailing, everlasting love. And God proves it by sending Jesus.
As Christians, our meaning of “God” is summarized in Jesus's actions. His life, death, and resurrection define what we mean when we say God is love.
The most famous Bible verse sums it up: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Most of us interpret this verse as saying, “For God had such love for the world that he gave his only son.” I guess that is true. However, a more accurate way of understanding the passage is, “For this is the way God loves: God gives God’s only son.” God demonstrates God’s love by giving God’s very best.
God can’t love you any more than God does now. God loves you with a love that won’t let you go.
When Jesus says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12), the love he calls us to is the self-giving love God has shown us in Jesus.
If I ask you to be loving, I want you to see what kind of love you are working with. If you are enslaved, God will buy you back. If you are lost, God will find you. If you are ashamed, God will cover you. If you have wandered off, God will bring you home. And if you have given up on God, know that God has not given up on you. God loves you with a love that won’t let you go.
I heard a story about a first-grade teacher who, at the end of a long day, decided to scrap her lesson plan and have all the first-graders sit in a circle and tell each other what they wanted to be when they grew up.
One by one, each child got up and announced, “I will be a nurse,” or “I will be a banker,” or “I will be a teacher.”
The last child to speak was a child the teacher knew had experienced a lot of brokenness in his life. On many days, his eyes carried the weight of the world. His life story was defined by struggle.
But this day, there was a spark in him. He had had an experience of being loved with the depth of God’s love before he arrived at class. He stood up and told the class, “I am going to be a lion tamer. I am going to get in a cage full of fierce lions and tigers and teach those lions and tigers how to jump through hoops of fire.”
His classmates stared at him with wide-open mouths, leaving his teacher speechless. He realized what he said was hard for everyone to believe. Embarrassed, he was quick to reassure his teacher and classmates. “Well, of course,” he stammered, “I will have my mama with me.”
We can be bold like lion tamers when loving others because we know God’s great love will lead the way. God is in the arena of life with us when we are asked to love the unlovable, which can seem like taking a wild lion.
Love is how God chose to communicate with us. God sent Jesus into our experience to show us the love of God, and for those who have experienced the depth of God’s love, God sends into the experience of others to show the love of God. Love is a verb, not an adjective. It is something we do, not just feel.
When Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5: 44 - 45), he is challenging us to love with the same love we were shown when we were enemies of God. It is a challenge to take love to places where it is absent.
Take love to places where it's absent. 'Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.' (Matthew 5:44-45) #TransformativeLove #Faith
If life remains transactional for you, then your life is no better than the one who is living absent of God’s love. If you live only with an eye towards those that benefit you, what true benefit is that? Jesus says, “If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that” (Matthew 5:47).
We are being asked to take love to places where it is absent. This means taking love to places where it has been abandoned. It means taking love to those who have given up on life. Because God loved first, love is already in the places where I am afraid to go.
Love is messy because people are messy, but it mustn’t be complicated. It is the simple act of showing up and being present in the lives of others. It is being active when everyone else is passive. It is walking with a friend when they feel abandoned.
Tony Campolo, a Preacher, and Socioologist, tells the story of catching a flight out of Denver, Colorado. It was a short flight, but it seemed like an eternity.
It began nicely enough, waiting to board the plane and watching a noisy, happy little girl bouncing around, clapping her hands, and chanting, “I’m gonna see Daddy! I’m gonna see Daddy!” His smile began to sag, though. Campolo said that what was once cute after the first ten minutes became irritating and obnoxious. But then they boarded the plane.
Campolo took his seat, and to his dismay, the noisy little girl was sitting across the aisle, clapping her hands and announcing to all in a singsong fashion that she was going to see her daddy.
It was a short flight, so the flight attendant offered only cookies and drinks, and the little girl took a cookie and a Coke, then another and another. He was amazed how such a little girl could consume so many sweets on that short flight. As the plane approached Colorado Springs, it went through a thunderstorm, which made for a bouncy, rough ride.
We all know that cookies do not smell bad, nor does Coca-Cola smell bad. Therefore, if you mix cookies and Coca-Cola in a sweet little girl with a fluffy dress, patent leather shoes, and pigtails, what comes out should not smell bad. Such was not the case this time. It wasn’t long before the little girl threw up – it was all over the little girl and all over her mother. Remember those days? But the little girl didn’t miss a beat – she kept singing her song. “I’m gonna see Daddy!”
“When the airplane finally touched down, I couldn’t wait to get down the aisle and away from the smelly mess. Walking up the connecting corridor and into the airport, I saw a man standing at the end of the walkway, dressed in a white flannel suit, eagerly looking for someone. I just knew who he was, and I lingered behind because I wanted to see the encounter between this elegantly dressed father and the little, smelly girl.
“What happened next really took me by surprise. The little girl came running up to her father, and he got down on one knee and swept her into his arms. She was covered with yuck and smelled very bad, but it didn’t make any difference to him. He had his little girl, and that was all that mattered.”
Even when we are a mess, God loves us. My question is: Who do you need to love through their mess today? Who needs to be boldly loved today?
Jamey
Even in your mess, God loves you. 'Who do you need to love through their mess today?' #BoldLove #GodsLove
Discussions
What does it mean to love others as Jesus has loved us? Can you provide an example of self-giving love in your life or community?
How do you live out the concept that "Love is a verb"? What are practical ways you can show up and be present for others in your daily life?
How can we take love to places where it is absent or abandoned, as Jesus challenges us to do in Matthew 5:44-45? What specific actions can we take to bring love into difficult or hostile environments?
Prayer
Lord, help us to grasp the depth of Your love for us, a love that gave Your very best, Your only Son so that we might have eternal life. Remind us daily that Your love for us is unwavering and steadfast, even in our darkest moments. May we never forget that You love us with a love that will never let us go.
Jesus, You commanded us to love one another as You have loved us. Empower us to show self-giving love in all our relationships, to love boldly and fearlessly, just as You have shown us. Help us to see the broken, the lost, the ashamed, and the wanderers through Your eyes, reach out to them with compassion and grace, and give us the courage to love in the messy places of life. May we fully embrace Your love and share it boldly with the world around us. Amen.
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Benediction
May God's everlasting and unfailing love, who has drawn you to Himself with kindness and grace, fill your hearts and guide your steps. May you be empowered to love even in the messiest situations, knowing God's love is always present and active. Let this love lead you to be present for others, to walk alongside them in their struggles, and to show up in their moments of need. Amen.
