Have you ever messed up?
Have you ever done something after the fact you were sorry you acted the
way you did? Have you ever said
something that afterwards you wished you could take it back? Guess what, if this describes you I want you
to know something that you are not alone!
We all have done this and we have done this during our walk of
faith. Can I tell you something this
morning – you are not perfect and neither am I.
When Christ comes into our life we are made new, but we also have the
human sinful nature bubbling underneath that is waiting to come forth at the
most proper time. The Scriptures tell us
that “Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until
an opportune time” (Luke 4:13, NKJ).
We need to understand that we are going to be under attack from satan,
but we don’t have to give in to this temptation. However, we have victory and that is found in
Jesus Christ. That is the good news for
us here this morning.
Turn in your Bibles as we look at a few verses that will show us that we can have victory and how that victory is found through the love of God. Let us look a verse that we learned as a child – John 3:16. I love the HCSB version of this verse – For God loved the world in this way. He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. From the time of Adam and Eve mankind had been messing up and yet, God still loved His creation and He made a way for that creation to be reconciled to Him. It was through the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ that this happened and it was not because mankind was deserving, but because of God’s love for mankind. We are told in the Scriptures, “But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” (Romans 5:8, HCSB) Think about this simple verse, God is saying although you mess up; although you upset me from time to time; even though you get angry with me sometimes; even when you turn your back on me – I STILL LOVE YOU! No matter how far we fall or how hard we try to run away – God will always still love you and me! That truly is good news!
Now there are a couple of things I want to touch on this morning concerning the love of God and how we can remain strong in our walk of faith. I believe it starts and begins with LOVE! This is a love that we receive we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. The picture of the church is that when one of us hurts we all hurt – when one of us is happy, we all are happy – when one of us needs prayer, we all gather around that person and pray. That is what I believe 1st Corinthians 13 tells us when it says to the church: “If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all the faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing” (1st Corinthians 13:2, HCSB). I also love the beginning of chapter 14 of this wonderful book of Paul where he tells us to “Pursue love” (1st Corinthians 14:1a, HCSB). Love is the key to people knowing we are followers of Jesus Christ; it is even a command from Him when he says, “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35, HCSB). Notice in this verse it doesn’t say that we can pick and choose whom we will love or whether we are to love others, it states clearly in Greek text that you must have love for others in order to be a follower of Christ. The phrase concerning our relationship with each other and with those we come into contact with in the world in which we live is translated in this verse as “one must prove their love.” We need to come to the understanding that love is an attribute of God and it is to be an attribute of us as well – and let us be honest at times it has to be a sacrificial attribute of us! I think all of us can agree that sometimes loving others is difficult and it is a sacrifice to do so, but when we realize the love that Jesus Christ has for us and the sacrifice He made for us then we should be more than willing to love each other abundantly. Let’s be honest at the end of the day the choice is ours whether we choose to love or we choose to hate!
In addition when we love one another we will find that the love of the Lord brings about a commonality of Christ with one another, and we do not focus on our short-comings and differences; we tend to build on the issues and problems when love is absent; but when we focus on the love of Christ we will strive to build each other up! See when we know the love of our Lord and Savior we will not feel beat up or beat down, but we will feel lifted up by the love of Jesus Christ! We need to understand that He is pouring His love out on us so we can pour that love out on those we come into contact with in this world in which we live! Are we pouring out that love in our lives each and every day?
Secondly, how do we love like Jesus? Turn with me to Galatians 2:19-20. I have been crucified in Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now lives in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me (HCSB). When we confessed Christ as our Lord and Savior our old self is crucified and we are resurrected into a new life with Christ as our Lord and Savior. The Scriptures speak over and over about our old self being crucified. One of those times is the passage that says, “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin…if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him!” (Romans 6:6, 8) We need to understand that when the love of Christ is in us we are a new person, a person that lives in the world, but is not addicted to the world. The Scripture tells us, “Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.” (1st John 2:15, HCSB). Now this may seem harsh, but we that know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior realize this is just a temporary place we are passing through on the way to our eternal home! How can this attitude of love happen in our lives? In the Scriptures we read, “For Christ’s love controls us” (2nd Corinthians 5:14a, HCSB). The measure of your love of God is manifested by the measure of love we have for each other!
When we allow Jesus to come in and take control of our life the love for Him will allow us to see this world and people in it differently; it will also make us see love in a different light. However, I know that there will be times that I cannot love you without the help of the Holy Spirit and there will be times that you cannot love me without the help of the Holy Spirit. Brothers and sisters the Spirit is here to teach us how to love, how to live a life that is pleasing to God as individuals and as a church. It all begins with the love which we receive when we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior! Then life changes as we know it and even though we mess up from time to time, we are forgiven by the love covering of Jesus Christ! This is good news that our Lord desires for us to experience this love and share that love with others we come into contact with. This morning I desire that you receive and experience the kind of love that can only come from Jesus Christ!
Just remember that love covers a multitude of sins!
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