FIREPROOF SERMON SERIES:
SERMON 2 -- HE FIRST LOVED US
12 October 2008
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 1 John 4
7. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9. 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.
10. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
14. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. We love because he first loved us.
-- for thousands of years, Mt. Everest loomed over the earth and mocked every attempt by humans to climb it -- at 29,035 feet -- 5-1/2 miles in elevation -- Mt. Everest is the tallest point on earth -- for centuries, men had tried to conquer Everest -- and for centuries, men had failed, with many men dying in the process
-- by the mid-twentieth century, most climbers considered the mountain unclimbable -- "It is impossible," they said. "No one will ever climb to the top of Mt. Everest -- no one will ever stand at the highest point in the world and look out over all of God's creation."
-- but, on May 29th, 1953, two men changed history -- Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal reached the top of Mt. Everest together at 11:30 am -- and stood where no one else had ever stood
-- it was not easy -- it took years of preparation -- it took weeks of climbing in extremely dangerous conditions -- freezing weather -- frostbite -- the potential for falls from cliffs and crevasses -- and altitude sickness
-- but they did it -- they had conquered Mt. Everest -- and now that they had shown it could be done, others followed in their footsteps -- since 1953, over 1,400 different climbers from twenty different countries have been to the top of Mt. Everest over 2,000 times
-- the story of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbing Mt. Everest is a good example for us -- if you're like me, you probably have difficulty doing things that you've never seen or experienced before -- I can't tell you how many times Kim has told me that my favorite words are, "It can't be done" -- it usually comes up when she asks me to fix something that I don't think can be fixed
-- but all of us say that and believe that from time to time -- and if you go through life with that attitude, you will find yourself right 100% of the time -- if you don't believe it can be done -- if you've never seen it or experienced it before -- then you're probably not going to be able to do it yourself
-- that's exactly what kept people from climbing Mt. Everest all those years -- and that's exactly what's keeping us from enjoying truly fulfilling relationships with loved ones in our lives
-- as you know, we are working on a sermon series based on the movie, "Fireproof," called, "How to Fireproof Our Relationships" -- in this series, I am going to give you practical tools and suggestions on how to be a better husband, wife, neighbor, and friend -- just like we did last week
-- this week, though, I want us to do something a little different -- we're going on a journey -- we're going to climb to the top of Mt. Relationship -- we're going to the highest relational point in our lives -- and we're going to look for the source of what we need to truly improve all of the relationships in our lives
-- a lot of people have missed out on experiencing outstanding relationships in their lives because they have never experienced true love at the deepest level -- and because they have never seen or experienced love like this, they think it can't happen -- because they have never seen love or experienced it in their lives -- they can't duplicate it or offer it to others
-- so, this morning, we're going on a journey to find true love -- we're climbing the heights of Mt. Relationship to find God -- the source of all love -- so that once we get there, we will be able to stand there at the top of that mountain in His presence and experience His love in a new way and see the perfect example we should follow as we seek to fireproof all of the relationships in our lives
-- as I said, this sermon series is based on the new movie called "Fireproof" that was put out by Sherwood Baptist Church -- as you know, the movie is about a marriage teetering on the brink of divorce -- Caleb Holt, a fire chief in Albany, GA, and his wife Catherine are struggling in their marriage -- Catherine says she wants out -- she wants a divorce -- and Caleb says it's up to her
-- but as he seeks the counsel of his family and his friends, Caleb realizes that a marriage is a special relationship that requires special care -- and just like he was trained to never leave a partner in a fire -- he comes to understand that you should never leave a partner in a marriage
-- in order to help him, Caleb's father gives him a hand-written book with practical suggestions on how to love his wife, Catherine -- the book urges him to do one act of kindness -- one act of service -- one act of love for her each day
-- Caleb starts going through the steps in the book, but they don't seem to work for him -- the problem is that since he's never experienced true love in his own life, he really doesn't know how to show it Catherine
-- it's kind of like climbing Mt. Everest -- if you've never seen anyone do it -- or if you don't have experience climbing similar types of mountains -- then it's likely you won't be able to climb Everest yourself
-- let's take a moment and look at a scene from the movie [Show Clip 2]
-- "You cannot give what you do not have" -- Caleb wasn't able to truly love Catherine because he had never experienced true love in his own life -- without that example -- without a source of love on which to draw -- Caleb was forced to draw from his own strength and from his own idea of love -- but it wasn't enough
-- we live in a culture that is fixated on love -- we see it pictured in our movies -- we hear it idolized in our songs -- it dominates what we think and believe and do as a nation -- but the image of love that most of us have is not real love -- it's Hollywood love -- it's emotional -- it feels good for the moment -- but it won't last
-- Dan Seaborn with "Winning at Home" ministries once spoke about a woman in the midwest who divorced her husband because he didn't love her like the character in a movie -- she had just watched the movie, "The Bridges of Madison County" -- and as she watched that movie, she thought to herself that her husband would never love her in that way -- so she wanted to divorce him and find someone who would -- that's what she actually put on her divorce papers -- "He doesn't love me like Robert Kincaid loved Francesca in 'The Bridges of Madison County'"
-- this is the picture of love that a lot of us have learned -- and when we try to build a marriage or another relationship on this image of love -- it just won't work
-- this isn't love -- this is infatuation -- it can be a step on the path of love -- but it's never the end of a journey -- that's what Caleb and Catherine found out in their marriage in this movie -- you can't build a marriage on infatuation -- you can only build it on true love -- but you can't give true love unless you have first received it in your own life
-- so, where do we find true love? -- where do we go to find the source of true love? -- we find it right here in this passage from 1 John 4
-- this epistle -- this letter -- was written by the Apostle John -- John was one of the first of Jesus' disciples -- he had lived with Jesus for three years -- he had watched Jesus as He lived among us -- healing and teaching and preaching -- John had seen the love of Christ expressed in tangible ways every day -- and through his experience with Jesus, John came to know and understand true, perfect love in his own life
-- the love of God defined him -- in fact, in the gospel of John, John doesn't even name himself -- he calls himself by the phrase, "the disciple Jesus loved" -- for John, it was Jesus' love that gave him life and made him who he was
-- at the time this letter is written, John is an old man -- scholars think he could be in his 80s to 90s -- he's lived a long life serving God -- preaching and teaching and sharing with countless others the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection -- but now, at the end of his life, he can't help but give away what Jesus gave to him -- and that was perfect, unconditional love
-- it's practically all he can talk about -- all he can think about -- all he cares about -- let's look back at what he had to tell us about God's love
-- verse 7
7. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
-- like I said, John was obsessed with love -- in these two verses, John used the word "love" five times -- he says we should "love one another, for love comes from God" -- the Greek word that John uses here is the word, agape -- it refers to true, unconditional love -- sacrificial love -- the love that puts another person first
-- John says, "love one another without condition -- love them regardless of who they are -- love them regardless of what they do -- love them from your heart and with your whole being"
-- that's not the message of the world -- the world tells you to love in response to someone else -- the world tells you that marriage is a contract -- you only have to love someone -- you only have to stay married -- if the other person fulfills their end of the deal
-- the world tells you, "if your partner is not fulfilling you, then you can leave -- if you're partner is not making you happy, then you can leave -- if you're partner is not responding to you the way you want them to, then you can leave"
-- but John says different -- John says "love them regardless -- love them when you first wake up in the morning and they're not at their best -- love them when they're grumpy and have had a bad day -- love them when they're sick and tired -- love them when they don't seem to care about you -- love them always without condition"
-- but there's a caveat -- we can only love in this way if we have first experienced it in our own lives -- John says, "love them like this, because God loves you" -- in other words, the source of love is God Himself -- the only way you can love someone unconditionally -- sacrificially -- is if you have experienced that type of love in your own life
-- in the movie "Fireproof," Caleb was trying to love Catherine in his own strength -- he was trying to heal her marriage by loving her like the world said to love her -- and when she didn't respond to his efforts -- he was ready to give up
-- because he had never experienced agape love in his own life, he couldn't give it to her -- you can only give away what you already have
-- verse 9
9. 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.
10. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
-- John wanted his readers to understand the image of true, unconditional love so they could give it to others -- "This is how God loved us," John said. "This is what love looks like."
-- you know since I have been married, I can't tell you the number of times that Kim has drug home orphaned animals of one kind or another -- I remember a few years ago when she brought home a kitten that she had found at the base -- this kitten was wild -- it was vicious -- she actually had to put out a trap to catch it -- and that kitten hated her
-- she put it in a cage there in the house -- and every time she walked by, that kitten would hiss at her -- every time she opened the cage to feed it, that kitten would try to bite her -- it would scratch her -- it would spit at her -- it hated her
-- but Kim still showed love to that kitten -- even though it hissed at her -- even though it spit at her -- even though her arms were scratched to pieces -- she still showed love to that kitten -- she fed it and took care of it and loved it
-- that's just what God did for us -- God created us -- He made us in His own image -- and when we turned away from Him -- when we rejected Him -- when we spat in His face and disobeyed Him and did things our own way -- when we were mean and nasty to Him -- He still loved us
-- He loved us so much that He sent His only Son to earth for us -- He sent Jesus to die for us on the cross so that we might be forgiven of our sins and receive eternal life with Him -- He gave all He had so that we might know and experience His love
-- God loved us without condition -- in spite of all that we did to Him, He loved us -- and John says here, "since God loved us -- since God agaped us -- then we should agape others"
-- in the movie clip we watched, we see the moment when Caleb realizes that he has never known the love of God in his life -- we see the moment when Caleb realizes that he had been treating God just like Catherine was treating him -- and he finds himself at the foot of the cross -- at the top of Mt. Relationship -- at the source of agape love
-- in order to love someone else, we must know love in our own lives first -- John tells us that God is love -- so, if we want to have real fulfilling relationships with others in our lives -- if we want to experience and show agape love to others, then we must know God
-- so, how does that happen?
-- verse 12
12. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
14. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
16. 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.
-- we come to know God through His Son, Christ Jesus -- the Bible tells us that Jesus came to earth to die for us -- to pay the penalty for our sins -- for our wrong-doings -- on the cross -- He came to forgive us for all the wrong things that we have done -- and He rose from the dead on the third day to prove that He had conquered sin and death and won for us eternal life with Him -- John points to the cross and says, "This is love"
-- to receive that love -- to drink from the fountain and source of love -- to receive God in our lives -- is something that we have to do if we truly want to experience love in all of our relationships
-- the Bible says that you do that by believing in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God -- by believing that Jesus died on the cross for your sins -- by asking Him to forgive you of your sins -- and by receiving His offer of love and life
-- in Revelation 3:20, Jesus says, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with Me"
-- Jesus is knocking on the door right now -- He's offering you life and love with Him -- He's offering you a wellspring of love that will overflow from your heart to others in your life -- all you have to do is respond -- all you have to do is open that door -- and Jesus will come in
-- you can't give what you don't know -- if you truly want to know love and to know that you are loved -- if you truly want to give love to others -- then you have to receive the love that God is offering us through Jesus
-- I'm going to close in prayer right now -- and when I do, I'm going to lead us in a prayer of salvation -- a prayer that opens the door that Jesus is knocking on
-- keep in mind that the words don't really matter -- there's no secret incantation -- there's no special words that you have to say to get Jesus to save you -- what matters is your heart -- the words hopefully just express what is going on in your hearts as you trust and believe in God's promise of salvation through Jesus' death and resurrection
-- let's pray [pray]
-- before the last hymn is played, one more thing I want to do -- at the end of the service last week, I gave each of you a love dare -- something tangible for you to do this past week to show someone that you loved them
-- I hope that you did that
-- well, this week is the same -- I've got another love dare for you -- at the back of the church, there's another slip of paper with the love dare written on it -- there's one for husbands -- one for wives -- and one for singles
-- I want to challenge you to take one of these love dares and to go out this week and do what it says to do -- if you run into difficulty, then I want to encourage you to read 1 Corinthians 13 and pray and ask God what you might do
-- remember that even the smallest acts can show love if you do them with your whole heart
[close with hymn]
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