May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your
sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.
“Greater
love hath no man than he lay down his life for his brother.” This was epitomized so clearly from the movie
“Lone Survivor” how the main character Marcus Luttrell was willing to fight to
the very end to save and protect not only his Seal Team Unit, but the very
village that protected him. This act,
not only of bravery, but also love is exactly what we have heard this morning
from our epistle reading.
The
love that one has for his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ is something
that God calls us to be. God has this
love for us which is clearly manifest through what His Son and our Savior Jesus
Christ did on the Cross of Calvary.
Jesus Christ loves us so much that He gave Himself up so we might
live. John wrote, “God is love, and the one who
abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
God
is in each of us daily, sometimes we choose not to show our love, we hide it,
not only from our family, our spouse, children and even our parents, but even
our church and community. Yet God is
still present in us and through us, He still loves us and daily impacts each of
us. We are the result of the love of our
parents and God honors us with His sacrifice.
John goes on to explain that “We love, because He first loved us.” The love God has for us is manifest not only
in the world we live in that is provided oxygen for us to breathe, food to eat,
a government that protects us by soldiers like Luttrell, but also here in the
church that we are a part of and worship with weekly.
Today
we the people of Emmanuel show our love for our community by welcoming Sky
Ranch into our midst and providing them not only a place to lay their heads,
the means to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but also the opportunity to
have a kingdom impact here at Emmanuel and in Goodland. By our congregation stepping up and bringing
water, snacks, meals, a place to minister, and coming to the program on
Thursday night, we show our love for one another. All because God first loved us and died for
each of us.
There
are times when we cower in fear of saying something to our brothers and sisters
in Christ, because we are fearful of the ramifications upon our relationship
with them and the history we have had from raising kids, watching sporting
events together or even spending the evening or weekend together or in Denver,
but what we harm is our relationship with Jesus Christ. John says, “There is no fear in love; but
perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who
fears is not perfected in love.”
But God offers us daily the opportunity to become perfected in
love. God wants us to ‘abide in love’
and overcome evil with love. God sees
the love in each of us. I don’t say it
often enough, but I love each of you sitting here in the pew and our brother’s
and sisters that are not here this morning.
You are my brothers and sisters in Christ and I not only love you as
your Pastor, but especially your brother.
We
need reminded that the love we have for one another can overcome and has
overcome evil in our world through Jesus Christ. And this is what we the church of Emmanuel can
do through God working through us, in us and enabling us to stand together in
love. In recent months we have had
numerous deaths within our congregation.
Yet, as a congregation we have stood together loving each other hugging
each other and holding each other up in prayer, serving the funeral dinners
that minister to the family and even attending the funerals of our friends,
neighbors and brothers and sisters in Christ.
Just
as in the Old Testament before Jesus came into Bethlehem, God inspired people
to show the love and grace He was offering for the Israelite people. We are not just their ancestors, but we have
Jesus Christ among us and we remember His coming and sacrificing for us here at
Emmanuel and we can show the love.
Recently
at one funeral, I saw a long-time member of our church, instrumental in many
behind the scenes ways, who does not currently attend regularly, but they felt
it was important to come and not only pay respect, but love and support the
family during their time of loss. This
is huge as a congregation. We are
showing our love and our true nature by being the body of the CHURCH, being the
Body of Christ, being ‘perfected in love’ as we are in this world that we live
in as God’s Children of Emmanuel.
Not
only have we supported each other when death knocks at our door, but we also
support one another in life.
Specifically I was witness of someone here at Emmanuel not well known
for compassion, showing or revealing themselves when faced with a most
difficult situation. A very intimate
part of a members life was shared and they not only did pastoral ministry and I
was proud of them, but they showed their love for this person and their family. This is the beauty of we the body of Christ
here at Emmanuel.
There
was once a little girl who lived in an orphanage. She wasn’t liked by anybody and even the
administrators wanted to get rid of her, because she wasn’t from the local
area. One day she was seen by another
little girl writing a note and leaving it outside of the premises, which was
against the rules. The administrator
immediately ran to where the note had been hidden and found the ‘illegal
note’. What the little girl had written
in fact wasn’t what the administrator imagined.
It was a simple note with the following:
“To whoever finds this….I love you.”
That little girl epitomized what we as a congregation are doing this
week, spreading the love we have from our Savior Jesus Christ for all of
Goodland.
Just
as Paul and John both wrote in Holy Scriptures, this is a commandment from God
to love. John ends saying, “And
this commandment we have from Him [Jesus Christ], that the one who loves God
should love his brother also.”
And this is exactly what we do as a congregation here at Emmanuel. We are living this out, not just
individually, but collectively this week with our Vacation Bible School,
supporting each other in our troubles and being the church of God for all
mankind. Including all of us saints
gathered here at Emmanuel this morning preparing for a fun filled week of
Vacation Bible School, loving our community and showing the love of God that
resides in each of us. AMEN.
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