Last week we studied together what it meant to live like Jesus lived. This week we are looking at loving like Jesus loved.

Love is intimidating. It is the most mystical and heavenly expression of the Kingdom you can know. And of course, Jesus set the bar very high when it comes to love. And souls intuitively know how far short they fall. Still, love is the one power that will change the world, and God is intent upon establishing His love as the consuming motivation and empowering liberation for every man, woman, and child who chooses to represent Him on planet earth. When authentic love is encountered, everyone present knows that something of heaven has come to earth. The redemption of salvation is a restoration to love – the ability to both receive an outrageous love from God and in turn give it away. To love well requires both sacrifice and service. – The New Rebellion Handbook

The life of Jesus is told through a collection of stories and pictures we call the gospels. These stories and pictures give us a vivid accounting of how Jesus loved. His death on the cross demonstrates the extent of His Love. To love like Jesus loved can be seen clearly in His relationship with His disciples, His commitment to Mary and Martha, His devotion

to His own mother, His grace demonstrated to the woman caught in the very act of adultery, His tears for Jerusalem, His friendship with “sinners,” and His forgiveness to His executioners. Loving like Jesus loved is a lifelong quest of extending His love to those around us in practical ways.

Andrew Murray wrote, “Our love to God is measured by our everyday fellowship with others and the love it displays.”

In the book of John, Jesus said this:

34So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." John 13:34-35

Matthew recorded these words of Jesus:

34But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they thought up a fresh question of their own to ask him. 35One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36"Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?"

37Jesus replied, " `You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.'[e] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39A second is equally important: `Love your neighbor as yourself.'[f] 40All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments." Matthew 22:34-40

This is no suggestion. He commanded us to love one another. It is not an option. It doesn’t matter whether you feel like others or not. It is commanded. It’s not up to you to decide which people you are going to love. Jesus commanded you and I to love each other. No exceptions.

“In his book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote,

“Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor, act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.” (Our Daily Bread, February 14)

There are three very important life lessons to be learned by studying the life of Jesus and trying to love like He loved.

1. Loving like Jesus means I will be faithful

Faithfulness is always rooted in love. Being faithful means that we keep our promises. This affects our work ethic, relationships in our marriages and families and any other place where we are doing life with others.

Faithfulness is loving and it is caring about people. Let me give you a couple of areas to think about.

Love will make us faithful in our ministries.

I don’t have the time today to say much here but you need to know that there is a reason we try to hold volunteers in this church to a high standard of performance. You are not doing what you do for a staff member or a leader of some ministry. You have an audience of One that you should be performing for. Churches that have a low standard of the performance of duties or people that aren’t faithful to do what they say they will do are churches that have people that don’t understand who they are working for. Examples: “Pray for us we didn’t have time to practice this song.” That mentality is an offence to God and those you are serving.

Love will make us faithful in our marriages, our walk with God and our ministries.

2. Loving like Jesus means I will practice forgiveness

This is going to be the shortest point of the day. This is basic Christ following 101 but I am afraid this is one of the most neglected teachings of the Bible. There are two options regarding forgiveness as taught by Jesus.

When someone has offended you:

15"If another believer[c] sins against you, go privately and point out the fault. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. Matthew 18:15

Isn’t that exciting? Who do you need to forgive? Who needs to forgive you? When are you going to do something about it? Ignoring is not an option for a genuine Christ follower.

Top Ten Ways to Love When it is Hard

10. Pray regularly for that person, even if he feels like an enemy.
9. Look for practical ways to serve him, even if he doesn’t know.
8. Be available; time is the most precious gift you can offer.
7. Take opportunities to honor and speak well of that one.
6. Include him or her when appropriate, in special activities.
5. Sometimes a hug or brief touch can communicate what words cannot.
4. Take the risk to share your heart with that person; be the real you.
3. If possible, worship or pray together or in a small group.
2. Journal your desire for God’s good in their life.
1. Thank God for changing you through that person.

Let’s pause for a moment of reflection.

3. Loving like Jesus means that I will love freely

There is no substitute for unconditional love. Most of us can’t even comprehend it. There is no greater sign of love than when we love someone for no other reason except it is Christ loving them through us.

In a recent issue of Christian Century, Methodist pastor named Lawrence Wood describes a classic example from his own ministry, about a woman who started calling his church for help. And called and called and called.

Robbie wore out her welcome at the social service agencies a long time ago, Wood writes. Her poverty is real – I’ve seen the place where she lives. But she lives a hard life and runs through help like water. After a while you want to tell her enough’s enough.

She started calling the church to ask for groceries. Because she didn’t have a car, she couldn’t get to the food pantry. She wondered if someone could bring food out to her, even though she lived in the country, almost twenty miles out of town. Her grocery list included smoked turkey, lean roast beef and a pound of coffee (decaf).

When Wood gets out to her place he climbs out of the car into the unplowed parking lot of the ratty apartment building where Robbie lives. Trudging through the snow with the groceries, he feels the familiar ache in his lower back and the resentment growing in his gut. Robbie steps out of her door smoking a cigarette. “Did you bring me the coffee?” she asks, beaming. To avoid a conversation Wood drops off the food, says, “Well, I think that’s about it,” and leaves as fast as he can.

“It was not, he says, one of my better days in ministry. I did, however, feel lighter. In spite of myself, I felt glad to have been of some help. And about a hundred yards down the road, I had the odd feeling that when I am judged, it will be by what I do for Robbie.”

                    --Story from sermon by Karen Chakoian

To love freely is to serve others. This is our calling as a church. Loving freely means that we do whatever is necessary to build community with those in the church and those outside the church.

All around this church today are pictures like these here on the platform. We are not having a photography show but they are there to remind you and I of places and people we are called to serve. You need to take the time to notice them and reflect on them today.

I want to remind you that we are staying on this corner to connect with our neighbors and see them transformed by Christ and His love.

D.L. Moody once said, “Show me a church where there is love, and I will show you a church that is a power in the community. In Chicago a few years ago a little boy attended a Sunday school I know of. When his parents moved to another part of the city the little fellow still attended the same Sunday school, although it meant a long, tiresome walk each way. A friend asked him why he went so far, and told him that there were plenty of others just as good nearer his home. “They may be as good for others, but not for me,” was his reply. “Why not?” she asked? “Because they love a fellow over there,” he replied.

If only we could make the world believe that we loved them there would be fewer empty churches, and a smaller proportion of our population who never darken a church door. Let love replace duty in our church relations, and the world will soon be evangelized.” (Moody’s Anecdotes, Page 71-72)

We are a team. Our church is made up of teams. No one should be serving alone. Teams take work. Working with people takes work. Working alone is selfish and cheats others out of being blessed and busy. Working alone is not scriptural. Jesus sent people out in teams to work for Him.

It’s always interesting to see the things that coaches will do to build teams. Recently I stood and watched a local football team emerge from the locker room after half time and these muscular athletic guys walked out of the locker room and onto the field holding hands. Two by two they walked back to the game. There was something very powerful about it.

Lee Iacocca once asked legendary football coach Vince Lombardi what it took to make a winning team. The book Iacocca records Lombardi's answer:

"There are a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals and have plenty of discipline but still don't win the game. Then you come to the third ingredient: if you're going to play together as a team, you've got to care for one another. You've got to love each other. Each player has to be thinking about the next guy and saying to himself: 'If I don't block that man, Paul is going to get his legs broken. I have to do my job well in order that he can do his.'

"The difference between mediocrity and greatness," Lombardi said that night, "is the feeling these guys have for each other." In the healthy church, each Christian learns to care for others. As we take seriously Jesus' command to "love one another," we contribute to a winning team. (Christopher Stinnett, Walled Lake, Michigan. Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 3. Bible Illustrator)

Let me sum this up. To love like Jesus loves means that we will be and do three things:

          a. We will be faithful to God.
          b. We will be forgiving to those around us.
          c. We will love the whole world freely.

All of us in this room needed to hear some part of this message today. Everyone of us. It is a struggle to love. It is a struggle to love in a 360 manner.

With story I will close. The main character is a little stuffed rabbit, all shiny and new, who is going through the process of becoming “real” that is, more than just a toy on a shelf. As he struggles with the initial feelings of uneasiness, like some of us are struggling this morning with the concept of loving and serving others, he engages an old, worn-out, well-used, much-loved stuffed horse in conversation.

In her writing of The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams wrote enfolded these great words into her story:

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

Loving others all around you may take a little of the starch out of your personality or break down your reservations but you will be amazed at who God wants to love through you.

34So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." John 13:34-35

`You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.'[e] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39A second is equally important: `Love your neighbor as yourself.'[f Matthew 22:37-39

Sara Groves wrote these words and we are going to sing them:

Loving a person just the way they are, it's no small thing
It takes some time to see things through
Sometimes things change, sometimes we're waiting
We need grace either way

Hold on to me
I'll hold on to you
Let's find out the beauty of seeing things through

There's a lot of pain in reaching out and trying
It's a vulnerable place to be
Love and pride can't occupy the same spaces baby
Only one makes you free

Hold on to me
I'll hold on to you
Let's find out the beauty of seeing things through

If we go looking for offense
We're going to find it
If we go looking for real love
We're going to find it