"The Way of Love
" Sermon Transcript for June 17, 2001Scripture Reading: Romans 12:9-18
By Reverend Mike Beck
"Seeing the Unseen Christ" and how His presence transforms our life. And one of the ways in which we can see the unseen Christ is when we share His love with others. On the Emmaus weekend, one of the choruses they like to sing goes like this, "Love, Love, Love, Love, the gospel in one word is love." And how true that is! If you take the Scripture and boil it down to one word, we would certainly boil it down to that word "love". Love is at the very heart of the nature of God. "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son." John 3:16.
And as we read through the pages of Scripture over and over again, we see this command to love others. In John 15:12 are these words of Jesus, "My command is this:..." And notice that we’ve highlighted the word "command". That’s a strong word! Jesus isn’t saying, "If you have time, think about doing this." But He says, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." In John 13:35 Jesus said, "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples..." Not with how much Scripture you have memorized, not how many Bible studies you’ve been a part of, not how much money you gave to the church offering. But He says this is the way people are going to know that you are My disciples, "If you love one another."
In the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:40, Jesus said this. He said, it goes very much along with our theme today, he said, "When you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto Me." And in that wonderful 13th Chapter of I Corinthians the Apostle Paul puts it very strongly when he said, "If I have a faith that can move mountains...." and, friends, that would be a pretty strong faith, he says, "If I give all that I have to the poor. If I surrender my body to the flames as a martyr..." But he says, if I do those things "...and have not love, I gain nothing." I Corinthians 13:2-3
And I was thinking in preparing this message today for how many sermons have been preached on love, how can I say it and communicate it in some kind of fresh way? I thought first of all of an old saying that goes like this, "Love begins at home". And in the book, "The Unseen Guest", I came across these probing questions that I would share with you. "Within our church, is Christian love expressed in such a way that others can see the living Christ? That He is truly present among His people? In the early church it is recorded in the Book of Acts that others remarked about these new Christians, "My how they love one another!" Or the author of our book says, "Is it possible that our relationships within the body of Christ are just as flawed, just as hateful as the world around us?"
Sometimes we see ourselves best through humor. And in the materials that were provided for us for the 50-Day Adventure, there is a wonderful video segment that’s too good not to share with you today. And, friends, I want you to know it’s okay to laugh in church as you watch this clip, where this church has become a zero tolerance church, where they’re practicing rough love on one another. We would never treat others in our church family like this or would we? Maybe you can see yourself in this video.
VIDEO CLIP: "The Zero Tolerance Church"
Now we wouldn’t do that to each other or would we? Because I think the sad truth is the reason the church of Jesus Christ hasn’t had the impact it could have on the world around us is the way the world sees us treat one another--not any differently than they do.
But what are some of the things that prevent the love of Christ from being seen in us? I would call those "Love Inhibitors". One is self-centeredness, where we’re so wrapped up in what’s going on in our little world that we don’t even see the needs of others around us. A spirit of unforgiveness is a strong love inhibitor. Remember the words of Jesus who said, "If you don’t forgive others, you cut yourself off from my forgiveness." Love is inhibited when we hold on to that hurtful thing or deed that someone did to us. Sometimes 25 years ago, we’re still unwilling to let it go. Self-righteousness inhibits love where we see ourselves as being better somehow than others around us. One that is related to that is judgmentalism. We’re always sitting in judgment of what is going on around us instead of giving others the benefit of doubt. Criticism inhibits love. How many persons working so hard to try and do the best they can do to advance the cause of Christ and then have been cut to the very core of their being by a critical comment from someone else. Jumping to conclusions inhibits love. And, friends, I don’t know about you, but there’s been an awful lot of times in my life where I hastily jumped to conclusions about something and then later on, to use the words of Paul Harvey, "heard the rest of the story". And when we jump to conclusions we are inhibiting love being shared by others. And then I believe this last one probably has hurt the cause of Christ more than any other - gossip. For it seems like God’s people often love to share that hateful word of gossip about other church people just as much as the world around us. I would ask you to evaluate your own life prayerfully as to which of these "love inhibitors" are present in your life and need to be dealt with through the power of the Holy Spirt.
In closing, I want to take the scripture we read today from Romans and break it down in to small segments to see what it has to teach us about being a more loving people. First of all it begins saying, "love must be sincere". Oh, there are some people that mush it all over you, but you know there’s not that sincerity about their words. And as I look at these segments and thought how might I illustrate them, more often than not there were people that came to my mind. On this matter of "love being sincere", and I could have used many folks, but Letty Kasting if there’s ever anybody that I see sincere love shining through, it’s you. And it just radiates from you. "Hate what is evil..." the scripture tells us, "...cling to what is good". That’s what Reverend Dan is going to be speaking on next Sunday. "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love". Friends, what a gift my Dad and I were given this past week as we visited daily there at the bedside of Patsy Vandivier. If ever there was witnessed devoted love for another person, we witnessed it there by that bed. There were times in which there were as many as 30 family members devotedly gathered there in her final days.
"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord". And I
think what the Apostle Paul is trying to say to us there is if you’re sincerely going to try and love others sometimes that gets tiring. Sometimes you’ve got to feel worn out in well doing. And as I thought about illustrating this, the illustration came to me on Monday evening. I was on my way home from Bible School and over in the corner of the north parking lot there were car headlights shining on the new area of landscaping over there. Merilee Allen and Veneita Taylor had been here all evening helping with Bible School. They had been here earlier in the day as well. And there they are under the lights of a car headlight pulling weeds out of that new area of landscaping. But they were doing it out of love. They are a good example of "never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord."
Paul goes on then to say, "Be joyful in hope, be patient in affliction, be faithful in prayer". Now some of you who are new to Grace Church aren’t going to know the lady I’m going to mention, but when I thought about this command of Paul the lady that came to my mind was Dorothy Cross. "Joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." For on a lot of Tuesday afternoons, I get the privilege of leading the Intercessory Prayer Group that meets there in the Wesley Center. And it is a struggle for Dorothy to walk from her apartment down to the Walnut Room. But I’ve been with her in some times in which she had to be very patient in affliction; but she is so joyful. She wants to come and pray for the church she loves so much. A love enhancer is for us to be "joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."
"Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality". And the person that came to my mind there was Mary Dougherty. Mary is just always wanting to do things for others. In fact, sometimes its a nice problem to have, I have to pull the reigns in on Mary because she’s wearing out the rest of the Mary Circle trying to do things for others. "Share with God’s people in need. Practice hospitality." "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse." I’ve got a number of retired preachers hearing my voice now who have got more than their share of opportunity to put this in to practice. "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse". "Rejoice with those who rejoice". In fact, one of the things we need to work on is to learn how to celebrate more the good fortune of others instead of being jealous that it didn’t come to us. "Mourn...", Paul says then, "with those who mourn". There were some of you yesterday who brought food for the funeral dinner for Pasty Vandivier’s family that had a tremendous ministry with sharing in that way. That was your way of "mourning with those that mourn."
"Live in harmony with one another". One of the things that a number of persons have spent several hours in discussing here at Grace and celebrating is the fact that here at Grace Church we probably have more diversity theologically than most other churches would have. We’ve got persons in our midst on the very liberal end of the spectrum; we’ve got persons on the other end fundamental in their theology. But the thing we have celebrated here at Grace is in the midst of all that diversity we have tremendous unity in seeking to advance the cause of Jesus Christ. Paul says, "Live in harmony with one another".
"Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position". If you want a litmus test of how you are doing on that one, honestly answer this question. How do you treat the server at the restaurant and how do you treat the cashier at WalMart? Do you have a friendly word for them, a smile, a thank you? The Bible says, "do not be proud, but be willing to associate with those of low position". "Do not be conceited". And I thought of our Bishop, Bishop White in this regard. A very powerful man; a very intellectual person. But you never know it being around him. He simply is not a proud or conceited person. "Do not repay evil for evil". That’s our natural reaction. But, friends, when we repay evil for evil it only makes things worse, it doesn’t solve anything.
"Be careful...", Paul says, "to do what is right". And we remember there the words of Jesus who said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven. And then He concludes his instructions with these words, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with one another." And I want to say a word this morning to some of you in this regard. I want you to look very carefully at that command of God to us. "If it is possible and as far as it depends on you, live in peace with one another." For I fear that there may be some of you so sincere in your faith, who you have tried over and over again to make a situation right with another person. You have gone the umpteenth mile to do that but the problem is, they’re not willing to let it happen. And I think God, in this verse, tells you not to beat yourself up on something over which you have no control. For the last I checked, I can control what goes on within me, but I cannot control what the other person chooses to do. "If it is possible as far as it depends on you, live in peace with one another."
I think it would be appropriate to close this message with that wonderful prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. The words are on the screen. Let it be the prayer of your heart as we share it together.
"Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me show love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
Oh, divine Master, grant that I may not so much
Seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
And it is in dying that we are born into eternal life."
May that indeed be the prayer of each of our hearts. I thought it might be appropriate for our closing chorus of response to sing that little camp chorus, "They will Know We are Christians by our Love". Let’s stand and sing it together.
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