Love Does

This past summer I was introduced to a book called, Love Does, by Bob Goff.  After reading it, sometimes laughing, sometimes blown away, I came to the conclusion that we have at our disposal the most powerful force in all the universe: LOVE. But I am equally convinced that most of us are novices when it comes to “doing love.”  Oh yes, we love things.  We love pizza, we love sunsets, we love our treasured possessions, we love our spouses and our families. But what I’m talking about today is a radically different kind of love. A love that isn’t about us; a love that doesn’t just talk; but a love that does:  A love that pursues the lost and accepts the difficult; a love that redeems rebels and restores the wretched; a love that takes chances, risks reputation and embraces the unlovely.

This is not a love that can be known through reason, discovered through science, or found through logic or common sense.  This is not a love based on feelings or desires, but a love that seeks the best for another regardless of the cost or consequences to ourselves. What I am talking about is God’s kind of love.  For the Bible tells us: God is love. 1 John 4:16 Love is His nature. Love is His essence.  Love is the very expression of Who He Is.  And you cannot know how to love like God unless you have been loved by God. But once you encounter His love; His love shatters everything you thought you knew about love.  His love changes you, and makes you into a person who will be a blessing wherever you go. And if we are going to tap into this most powerful force in the universe; this rare quality that’s so desperately needed in our world today; if we are going to unleash our potential as God’s people, then we must begin by taking a fresh look at this LOVE THAT DOES: God’s Love. So where do we begin?  And my answer to that is in the beginning.

Love Is Why God Created Us  Love is why God created you.  Theologians speak of the fact that God created everything freely, not out of necessity.  This is a very important idea – it means that God did not make us because he was bored, lonely, or had run out of things to do. God did not create us out of need. He created us out of his love. C.S. Lewis once wrote, “God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them.”  Listen to how the Bible describes our loving creation: Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.Genesis 1:26-27

First, God created this beautiful planet. Everything He created was good. Then God created us in His image and in His likeness.  He created all these good things then He created us just like Him.  Why? So He could give us this beautiful place with all its wonders to care for and enjoy. That’s what love does.  Love gives.  Think about our world.  Everything in it is a gift from God – the air we breath, the sun that rises to announce each new day, the cool breezes, the refreshing rains.  He gave us wheat and oats, herbs and spices, bacon and sirloin, to satisfy our hunger.  He gave us timber and stone, clay and sand to shelter us.  He gave us companions to dream with, friends to laugh with.  Everything in this world is a gift to us.  And as gifts, they point beyond themselves to the Giver.  Every gift we enjoy is a sign to us of the nature of that Giver.  And if everything God created and gave to us is good, then the Giver of all things is good. The whole world and everything in it that we often take for granted is a sign of His love for us.  The whole world is a love letter from God.

And when you start to take in His generosity for you, its pretty amazing.  Have you ever noticed, that when you are standing on the beach at sunset, that the reflection of the suncomes directly to you and you alone?  He gave us the stars to illuminate our nights, music to sooth our souls, flowers to brighten our days. And how about you? There is no one else like you. God created you as one of a kind. No one has your eyes, your laugh, your personality. As David said, For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm139:13-14 Look around you. Every person is a gift from God, a wonder of God’s creative genius. All because of God’s love. Love is why God created you.

And His signs of love are all around you.  Why not take this week of thanksgiving and take note of all His gifts of love.  Thank Him for the simple things you’ve taken for granted. Thank Him for the clay on your pottery wheel, for the grass on the golf course, for the butter on your bread, for hot water you shower with.  Thank Him for eyes that see, a tongue that tastes, a hand to hold.  Thank Him for every breath you take, for knees that bend, the comfort of your bed. As James has said, Don’t be deceived, my dear brothersand sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:16-17  You see, the God who gave us creation, still gives good and perfect gifts to remind you of His love for you.  Love is why God created you.

But as great as God loves us through His creation; it PALES in comparison to His love for us as rebellious sinners.  After all, when we turned away from God and went our own way, when we failed to love Him and love our neighbor, each one of us did damage to the image of God in us and broke the heart of God. And when there was no way we could ever repair the damage done and make ourselves right with our Creator, that’s when love stepped in to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Love Is Why God Died For Us Paul put it this way: You see, at just the right time, whenwe were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8    When sin caused us to turn our backs on God and damage our lives with sin and guilt, the logical thing for God to do was to give up on us – to toss us out and start over. But that’s just the thing about love. Love never gives up. And God didn’t give up on you.  God didn’t give up on us.  He didn’t toss us out. Rather, He came up with a way to cleanse us from the filth of our sin, restore us from the harm we caused, remove our guilt and make us right with Him.  So love gave us what we could not give ourselves.  Love gave us His Son: His one and only Son who lived a sinless life and offered himself as the sacrifice for our sin, by shedding His blood for us the cross. And it was there on that cross, where love did for uswhat we could not do for ourselves.  Jesus died for us – when we were powerless to save ourselves.

He loved us when He could have rejected us.  He loved us when we had nothing in us to love.  But He loved us all the same.  He risked His all for you.  He gave His life for you, because that’s what God’s love does. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13 Love Does.Love is what led Jesus to the cross.  Love is why Jesus laid down His life for you.  Love gives and Jesus gave His all.  As he himself said, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16  And now because love did…

The Gift of God’s Love Is Ours For The Taking   As Paul has written: For the wages ofsin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

The point is amazingly simple, which is why so many of us just don’t get it.  Heaven is free because love is free.  Eternal life is free because love is free. Forgiveness is free because love is free. It is ours for the taking.  And the taking is faith…

You see, God practices what He preaches.  He loves the sinner and hates only the sin. The father of the prodigal son did not say to his repentant son: “You are welcome home, Son, but of course you must now pay me back for all the harm you’ve done and all the money you’ve wasted.” He didn’t even say, “I hope you’ve learned your lesson.”  He simply fell on his neck, kissed him, and wept.  He accepted him completely, he restored him fully.  Because that’s what love does.

This is the radical, all in, love of God. It’s free. It’s yours for the taking. God offers His love to you, no strings attached.  And His love is found in Jesus.  God loves you so much, that He didn’t want to confuse you.  He made salvation simple.  Just look to Jesus.  Put your trust in Jesus.  There is no greater love than Jesus. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12  The gift of God’s love is ours for the taking. Have you received God’s love?  Have you received Jesus?  For if you have, you don’t just come home to the Father who loves you, you don’t just receive cleansing of sin and removal of guilt.  No, you get all this and more, and the more is this:

God Gives His Love To You  The beauty of God’s love is that His love is full of grace upon grace.  When you receive Jesus as God’s gift of eternal life, you receive a spiritual transfusion from God.  He gives you a whole new life. He gives you the very nature, the very life of Jesus.  Jesus takes up residence in you and you become a different person, a new creation in Christ “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”2 Corinthians 5:17

What is a Christian?  It is not someone who believes the teachings of Jesus, for even the demons believe God’s Word and shudder.  No, a Christian is a different being, a new creature, with a whole new nature.  What happens at the moment of faith is that you are born again, spiritually, within, with God’s nature… And if God is love, the effect of the new birth is that you now have a share in your Father’s nature, which is LOVE.

And that changes everything.  Listen to how Peter Kreeft describes God’s new life in us: The most liberating discovery is that since God has filled us with His own life, our loving can be like a tube open at both ends, with God’s love coming in one end and out the other, in by faith and out by works.  The alternative is to be a tube open only at one end, the neighbor’s end.  Then we try to squeeze our own toothpaste out of the tube.  But we have only a finite amount of spiritual toothpaste to give. So we worry about squandering it. But God’s supply of love is infinite.  That’s why we are now free to love recklessly. It is no longer our supply of love we love with, but God’s.

The good news is that God has given us unlimited potential to love like Him.  Hear this truth: God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.  Romans 5:5 Love Does!  Love Gives! God has changed us with His love and God has given us a reservoir of love, so…

We Are Free To Love We love because He first loved us.1 John 4:19  With Jesus’ life now residing in you, you are God’s beloved love machine.  You and I now have unlimited potential to love anyone with the love of Jesus.  And that’s the whole point.

This is our potential… and it is unlimited! As Bob Goff writes in the intro of his book, Love Does: God, who didn’t choose someone else to express His creative presence to the world, who didn’t tap the rock star or the popular kid to get things done. He chose you and me.  We are the means, the method, the object and the delivery vehicle.  Bob Goff

If you have received God’s love by believing in Jesus Christ, then God has given you the power to change the world, by loving one person at a time.  For that’s what love does.  Let’s pray!