Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · August 3, 2008

Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost

Prayer of the Day

Loving God, by your life-giving Spirit, we pray you draw us into your presence this hour, that we may worship you with hearts moved by your love. Amen.

Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:13

There are three things that will endure: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.

Message

Leaving a Legacy of Love

Rick Frost

For several weeks now, we’ve been talking about important things this community of faith is going to pass on to the next generation. So whether you’ve been here for six years, or six Sundays, or 60 years, all of us are in the process of leaving a very important legacy. Our text today names those core values. They are so familiar to us. We often take them for granted. We’ve heard them so many times. 

1 Corinthians 13:13 says there are three thing that endure. “There are three things that last forever: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these three things is love.” 

That’s right. The question today: Why is love the greatest? I want to suggest several reasons to you today. 

Number 1: I think it is the greatest because it is what we long for. We long for love. Every single one of us longs to be loved. It’s a universal need. We all want to be taken in. We all want to be accepted. We all want to feel valued. It’s a central dynamic, as we all know, to every dynamic relationship: mother-daughter, mother-son, father-daughter, father-son, husband-wife, boyfriend-girlfriend, Timmy-Lassie. 

You should see Jan with the cat. It’s amazing. They just love each other. It really makes a relationship. 

Anybody who is in any kind of significant relationship knows that love causes those relationships to be stronger. All of us can name examples of what it is like when love is absent. We know the damage that the absence does to any person, any human heart, when love is not there. When that is the case, our relationship can easily become possessive. 

Henri Nouwen, the great Christian writer, puts it this way: “Our hearts so much desire to be loved that we cling, or we are inclined to cling to that person who offers that love, or friendship, or affection for us, because once we’ve felt just a hint of love, we want more of it.” 

It’s like that old country song, “I like it. I love it.  I want some more of it.” 

It’s talking about the same kind of thing.

I think that explains why lovers so often bicker with each other. We call them “lovers’ quarrels,” and they tend to be quarrels between people who want more of each other than the other person is able or willing to give. When that is the case, it is very hard because love becomes obsessive. Our hearts look for and yearn for perfect love, but no human being is capable of perfect love.

If I can give one message to teenagers and people in their twenties who are engaging each other in various levels of relationships and are looking for something called love, it is to realize there is no such thing in another human being as perfect love. Only God is capable of giving you that. We have a whole world looking for perfect love, and many of them are not looking for God who is the only source of that kind of love.

Now, that tells me that we have something here at Broadway that others desperately need right here in this community. Talk about something to pass on to our friends and neighbors and to our community at large. People yearn and long to be loved.

Number 2: Another reason why love is the greatest is because it is what we need to change our lives. Quite frankly, God’s love and human love changes peoples’ lives. 

Years ago, when I was sitting in exile a long, long way from here, the Spirit of the Living God got invited into my life. Some of you have heard that story along the way.  A couple of years later, Jan came into my life with Marci and Ted. Then a couple years later, Molly came into my life. All of them brought their unique, wonderful, amazing love, and my life has never really been the same; thanks be to God. That is because love changes our lives.

Number 3: Love is the greatest, I believe, because it is a legacy we can pass on to others. If you are a visitor at Broadway, let me tell you something about the church you are visiting. I think it is sort of like a good restaurant. You have to go a couple of times and get a taste of the whole thing. Don’t just judge it on one visit. If you are willing to do that, let me tell you what is going to happen. I don’t think you can hang out in this place without feeling a sense of love. 

Typically, you get out of your car, and you are going to run into someone called a “greeter” at the door. We call them “greeters,” but they are really “lovers.” We can’t call them that, so we call them “greeters.” They are the friendliest people on the planet. You walk in, and people start singing about love. Then you start sensing people know each other and have relationships with each other, and they love each other.   You start hearing messages about God’s love. 

Kim comes up to you and gives you a hug, and Jacob will show you his love tattoos. Have you all seen Jacob’s love tattoos? If you want a love song, Mike will sing you a love song. 

Pretty soon, you see all of this happening. You see the doors to peoples’ hearts open, and you see God’s love. Then when that door opens, we begin to align our lives with Jesus’ life and, in short order, that is the Spirit of the Living Christ. It begins to fill us up with God’s love. Once you begin to experience this love, you are not just a container of God’s love.  You are actually a conduit, a pipeline, a channel of that love. 

Why is that? Well the Scripture makes it clear. God is love. First John 4 says it this way: “Whoever does not love, does not know God, because God is love.” 

You are not just taking it in. You are not just absorbing it. It is flowing through you, and you are dishing it out. You are pouring it out, and you are learning that "love” is a verb. It is not a noun. It’s an action word. The Bible is clear about this. 

That’s how anybody in the whole world knows we are Christians. It is one word “love.” First Corinthians 13:13 says, “If I give everything away to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but if I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere.” 

So, no matter what I do, what I believe, what I say, I am bankrupt without love. That’s the translation of that wonderful passage.

James 2 puts it this way: “Dear Brothers and Sisters, what is the use of saying that you have faith if you don’t prove it with your actions?”

Jesus said, “A new commandment I give you. Love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, all people know you are my disciples.”

Now, let me make something very clear that sometimes people are misinformed about. According to Scripture, you do not have to be a loving person to start your spiritual journey. You do no have to be a loving person in order to enter the kingdom of God. You know that, don’t you? If you don’t know it, that is OK. You don’t have to be a loving person to get in. You don’t. You can be a spoiled, self-centered, narcissistic, self-absorbed creep and get into the kingdom of God. Why do you think I’m such a happy guy? 

Seriously, you start the spiritual journey with Jesus not by loving people or being a loving person. You start the journey by making a confession of faith. That is where the line is drawn. It’s a public statement in front of God and everyone stating, “I believe Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and I accept him as Lord and Savior.” This is where we draw the line. This is where we start. 

Many people have stepped over that line, and they are no more loving than the man in the moon. You know these types of folks, and so do I. The fact is your spiritual transformation is directly related to the concrete evidence that your love is increasing. It’s impossible to have the transforming, life-changing love of the Spirit of God in your life without irrefutable signs that your love is growing.

That is why we have the “Growing” banner hanging in our sanctuary. Growing is where we start, what we do. Some of us are not very loving people, but we grow. Then everybody in your world – your family, your friends and coworkers, your neighbors, and even people from whom you are estranged in your world – know that something is different about you, because you are growing in Christ’s love.

So let’s get personal about this real quickly. How many of you here this morning believe you could become a more loving person? Here is how we pull this off. How do we pull this off in the market place tomorrow where we are going to be? How will this work in our family? How will it work in our relationship with our children, or with our parents, or with our friends at school? How do I become a more loving person?

Number 1: I believe you have to replace your desire for convenience with obedience to God’s ways. We’ve talked about this at other times, but, folks, I think it is huge and worth revisiting. Obedience is going to disrupt your life. It will mess with you if you decide to become obedient. The reason is I love convenience, and my guess is you love it, too. Sometimes love is not convenient. 

Every time we turn on the television, somebody out there knows you and I are going to open our wallet to pay for convenience. Some of you know about Blackberries. How many of you have these? They do everything. You have your phone, your computer, your e-mail, your calendar, your camera, and your music right there in the palm of your hand. It will wake you up in the morning and perk your coffee for you if you program it correctly. That’s convenience!

Now, how many of you have been to Disney World? How many of you have been more than once?   You have more than one child. Don’t you? I’ve been three times. They didn’t have this when I went last time. They tell me now there is something called a “Fast Pass.” This is true. Basically, it is a reservation for your rides, so you don’t have to wait in line, and stand, and wait like the rest of humanity. You just show up at your scheduled time, and bingo, you walk to the head of the line and you take your ride. You pay a little money, but how convenient. 

Pretty soon, they are going to have a maitre d’ there that says, “Frost, party of four. Your log is ready.” You’ve been down that ride, haven’t you? “Fish of the day – halibut, and, oh, by the way, we have a fast-pass for the restrooms, no standing in line for the stall.” They have it all. 

It’s all about convenience. We are infatuated with convenience which so often, as you know, is tied with self-centeredness. That’s where the problem comes, because selfishness is not God’s plan. Convenience is often at odds with obedience, because convenience is what I want, when I want it, the way I want it. Obedience is what God wants, when God wants, the way God wants. Spiritual maturity is the wisdom to know the difference between convenience and obedience. What does God want?

Jesus said it clearly in Matthew 22. God wants love. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. That is the first great commandment. The second one is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

So, let’s get practical. Let me give you a couple of illustrations. 

Illustration 1: You are having a conversation with somebody. You may have had this happen to you in recent times. The person talks on and on, and they are giving you way too much information. It’s as if they are flying a plane. They keep circling, and they can’t land the plane.  It’s so frustrating; you want to take a stick of dynamite and blow yourself up. What’s convenient? For me, it would be to interrupt, to get on with something that is really important, which is ME talking. That is convenient. 

What is obedience?  Love is patient and kind, and so to be obedient, I choose to listen. I listen and allow that person, in their own way and time, to reveal their heart, and I choose to put their need first. I have to go to a doctor to get stitches in my tongue a bit later, because I’ve been biting it, but that is the loving thing to do.

By the way, our Stephen Ministers are really good at this. Some of them wear their badges to tell you they are Stephen Ministers. If they don’t have a badge, you can always tell a Stephen Minister because of their huge ears. They listen so well, and they have scars on their tongues from the stitches from biting their tongues.

Illustration 2: Let’s say you are in a relationship, married or not, and one of the persons says, “I would like for us to talk more.” Let’s pretend that the person is a woman. I know it’s a stretch, but push on with me for a moment. The guy says, “Talk more. I would rather die a thousand deaths than talk more.”

Women have 15,000 words they can use and do use on any given day. Guys have 12. Women can talk about all kinds of things for endless amounts of time, and guys can answer most questions with one word: “Yes. No. Hungry. Sex. Sure. Whatever. OK.” That’s seven words, not 12. OK, so they don’t have 12.

Now, here is what is convenient. The guy says, “I’m so tired. Let’s just lie on the couch today, and turn on the TV, and watch other people talk. Won’t that be better than us talking?”

That’s convenience. Now what would be the obedient thing? That would be the guy putting the needs of the other person above his own. Oh, my gosh.  That is difficult. That is why we are talking about this today.

These are just two simple illustrations. It could be anything. It could be what the wonderful Mother Theresa called “little, tiny, small acts of kindness.” Almost every minute of every day there are a gazillion things, tasks, opportunities, a written note, an appropriate touch, or a kind word. You can do that all day long, and that is called love.

When you do that, when you choose to love, the Spirit of the Living God shows up and uses your acts of kindness to meet that other person’s need.  Soon that Spirit starts to grow in you, and you slowly become a more loving person. Then it is almost as natural as breathing to you.

Folks, in today’s world that is huge. That is rare, and that is a biggie. That is my message to you, and I hope you will pass on this legacy of love to the next generation. I’m confident we will pass it on. 

Is it easy? No. It is difficult. If it wasn’t difficult, we’d all be more loving people than we are. The only way I know how to do that is Number 2.

Number 2: Soak. Soak in God’s love and constantly get filled up, because if you don’t, (at least I know this from my experience) you won’t have anything to give to somebody else. I view your spiritual life and my spiritual life as a bucket – getting it filled up. 

Did anyone notice the fountain when you came in the sanctuary today? The fountain is out there by the narthex. Is it running today?  Yes, it is. It has beautiful water, and you see what resembles a desert place? The people who designed that were trying to get this message across. That fountain represents the love of God, and we have to soak in that, not just look at it, or touch it, but fill up the bucket. We have to get close to it, so we have something to give when we leave. 

[Rick holds up bucket.] Some of us, today, have an empty bucket. It’s as dry as it can be. This thing will hold a gallon or two of water, but we need to be next to the fountain in order for us to fill up. So, I think, that the way we fill ourselves up with the love of God is to spend some time with God.

I don’t know about your days or your weeks, but with your family and my family, with the church, with the community, with the people in the market place, wherever I am, if that bucket isn’t filled, I’m not going to be a very loving person. Indeed, I’m probably going to be more attracted to convenience than I am obedience, just because my bucket gets low. 

How do we soak in this? Some of us soak in worship services. Some of us get filled in small groups. Some of us do it by reading God’s Word, or praying, or meditating, or journaling, or taking part in a service project. There are all kinds of ways. It doesn’t matter. We are all different. Everybody fills the bucket in a different way. The important thing is that you fill it up. What matters is that you soak up God’s love.

There are three images I want to leave with you today.

Number 1: The love of God is personal. God’s love is very personal. I think what this means is that regardless of your past, regardless of your performance, God knows you better than you know yourself. God knows everything about you, and God also loves you and never stops loving you. C.S. Lewis said it this way: “God, who needs nothing, loves into existence you and me in order that God might love us.”

Jesus said it this way, recorded in John 10: “I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep.” 

God knows us personally and loves us personally.

Number 2: God’s love is transformational.  Folks, if you or someone you know and love is trying to change their OWN life, you already know what’s going to happen. It’s not going to happen. The reason that it’s not going to happen is that God’s love, according to tradition, according to the witness of the ages, is the power that DOES help us change our lives for the better.  It has that compelling, convincing, sort of irresistible way of making your life better and my life better.  Second Corinthians 5 puts it this way: “If anyone belongs to Christ, is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old is gone. Everything is made new.”

God’s love is personal. It is transformational.

Number 3: God’s love is sacrificial.  Everybody in this room, you know, and I know, there is no way to create freedom, any kind of freedom, without a cost.  There is so much in God’s creation that is in a state of rebellion right now: so many ways, so many places, where human beings, sometimes us, have chosen independence.  We have chosen independence that leads to dominance and even death, over a loving relationship and the fullness of life. So it is that God had to pay a huge price to open that path to what we call reconciliation.

William Young wrote a wonderful book, The Shack.  I recommend it to you if you haven’t read it. It says, “God doesn’t do humiliation. God doesn’t do guilt. God does not do condemnation.  Why?  Because they don’t produce one speck of wholeness or righteousness.   That’s why they were nailed into Jesus on the cross.” 

Wow! The controlling power of that separation from God, that rebellion, is monumental folks. You know that?  I think it’s the source of most of the pain and suffering that’s going on in this world.

The good news today is that Jesus’ sacrificial love on that cross has the power, the actual power, to break that controlling power.  A sacrifice of love, that leads to life now and life eternal.

Ephesians 5 says it beautifully: “Live a life filled with love for others, following the example of Christ, who loved you and gave himself up as a sacrifice for you.”

That’s the legacy I believe we are going to leave to the next generation.  It is one where faith is more powerful than fear, where hope is more powerful than despair, where love is more powerful than hate, and where life always, always, always, is more powerful than death.

Let it be, Lord. Let it be.

And all the people say… “Amen.”

Benediction

Beloved One, we thank you for loving us. Bathed in this love, we are soaked to the soul with affirmation and appreciation of who we are in you. Be to us the living water that saturates and quenches our hearts. Let your hope pour from us and into the thirsting world. Amen.