Where is the love (John 15:9-14)
Gary McManus, 07/05/2020Part of the God's Love; Beyond Belief series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
July 5, 2020
John 15:9-14
THIS is Fourth of July WEEKEND.
July 2020—things are tough.
We’ve been talking about God’s love
as a key to loving others.
I could talk about history: when in American
history that some white people did the right thing
—the loving thing for African-Americans:
the abolitionist movement, Christian evangelists,
educators who risked their lives to teach slaves.
Union soldiers who DID fight the war to end slavery.
If we’ve done things right before, can we do it again?
Can we keep doing the right things?
Can Pastor combine God’s love and history in one
sermon? Not sure but we start with God’s love.
Jesus said, teaching us to love, saying,
“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12 emphasis added).
See also John 13:34.
Also Matthew 22:36-40 and John 3:16.
“Love what God loves.”
There is a famous Psychologist a century ago
who claimed that the hardest thing to do was
to love ourselves.
What if the darkness is in OUR OWN hearts first?
It is in the Bible:
(Proverbs 28:11, Proverbs 28:13, John 9:41,
1 John 1:8, James 4:11-12,)
If the darkness is in OUR OWN hearts first,
That can be hard to see and even harder to love.
Only Jesus can help us do that.
See Matthew 7:3-5
“We humans just have a real talent for mixing
ignorance of ourselves with arrogance and certainty
about other people.
The one who wants to be a servant, (who wants to love) will humbly look to his own eyes first, and remove the log so that they CAN help the brother with the speck in their eye.
The Bible does NOT say:
this is my commandment that you love one another. . .A LOT
Jesus said, “Love one another. As I have loved you.”
Hard to love parts of ourselves.
Hard to love others when we see that part of
ourselves in others.
Hard, but not impossible.
Jesus says plainly that loving can be done.
--we are loved
--we have been shown love
--we have received the Holy Spirit
(Romans 5:5)
--John 5:17: Father and Son are working on it.
--You have the light of love. (1 John 2:10)
Amen.
Earlier: | Same day: | Later: |
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