Love and the church

The love of God should be evident in our lives and in our church.

•First, what is love?
Love is a misconstrued word in the English language. I can say that I love my mom and I can also say that I love chocolate cake. Just our use of the word love begs the question of what love truly is. 
In Greek there are a few different words for love. First there’s mania which is actually more of a word for obsession than it is for love. Second there’s eros which is emotional love. Third, there is stodgy which is somewhat of a motherly love. Fourth there is phileo love which is of course brotherly love. And lastly there is agape love which is unconditional love, the love that we refer to as the love of God.
We all experience these types of loves, and we all search for the eros love. We all want that feel good warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from having someone to share life with. That’s how God made us, He created Eve for Adam because He knew Adam would long for that kind of love and it wouldn’t be good for him to be alone. We all hunger for love. We all hunger for acceptance. This longing for love comes from a much deeper search for agape love that can only come from the Creator. One of my favorite movies is "Les Mis” and the final line states “To love another person is to see the Face of God.” In our search for love from the Creator we can find it in loving others.

•As Christians God’s love should be evident in our lives
Everywhere we see the apostles go we see them doing stuff for others. In Acts chapter 3 Peter and John heal the lame man. Verse four says, “Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on the man and said, ‘Look at us!’ And he began to give them attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, ‘I do not possess silver or gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—Walk!’” We then see the man get up and walk. The apostles followed in the ways of Christ. They were willing to show their love for the strangers in any way that they could.
Sometimes God’s love is going to make us do crazy things. Move to verse 36 of the same chapter. Leading up to this point we discover that the church was working together and were putting their funds together and no one there was hungry and no one was lacking in anything. Because the people who had possessions sold them to help provide for the ones without. Verse 36 states, “Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means son of Encouragement), and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” Barnabas felt God call on him to sell what he had, and he did it. 
God’s love was evident in the life of Barnabas. Acts 16 once again shows us another time in the life of Barnabas that he was able to express the love of God. Verse 36 says, “After some days Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Let us return and visit the brethren in every city which we proclaimed the Word of the Lord, and see how they are.’ Barnabas wanted to take John called Mark along with them also. But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to work. And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyrpus. But Paul chose Silas and left, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord.” So we see that Paul and Barnabas get into an argument about Mark. Paul does not want Mark to travel with them because he has deserted them before. However Barnabas wants to give Mark a second chance. They end up parting ways but we see that later on in the book of Colossians that Paul commends Mark on his service to the Lord. Barnabas didn’t depend on works for him to love Mark. God doesn't depend on our works for Him to love us, He loves us as we are. Does He want us to do works for Him? Absolutely! But He loves us because we are His. Barnabas chose to love Mark because he knew he was God’s creation. If we want God’s love to be apparent in our lives we have to love others as Christ loved us. 

•Love should be evident in our church
What do you think of when you think about church? A place we go on Sundays, a group of believers gathered, something we are supposed to do. What are some negative things you think about when you think about church? Hypocritical, judgmental, not being able to fit in, not being accepted, not very worshipful. What are some positive things? Learning, a house of prayer, willingness to serve and give. So the last question is what should the church be? What do we even call this building that we worship in? We often refer to it as a sanctuary. Webster defines sanctuary as a place where someone is given shelter and protection. Sanctuary is the act of keeping one safe. This church should be a sanctuary, a place where we can come and be ourselves. A place where we can come and not have to worry about others judging us, a place where we can comfort each other and provide for each other. Because that is what God’s love does. His love protects us, His love gives us what we need, His love is our sanctuary. We might as well call churches theaters now a days. Because it’s all just a show. We each put our make up and costumes on to fool everyone else into thinking we are someone that we are not. We put on our show so that we don’t have to be the one that get’s looked down on. Just stop. Stop! Take off the costume, take off the makeup and be yourself before God and before others. If you want a church that loves, you have to have a church that’s truthful. You can’t fake the love of God, you can’t just put it on and take it off. It just ain’t gonna work. 
This church has a tendency to talk about things and not really do stuff. When all is said and done, more is said than done. Start doing. Sit down together, study together, go out and serve the community together. If you really want community, share your stories together. The best group of folks I have ever been with was in one of my college classes. The first two weeks of classes we sat together in a circle and shared our entire life stories all the good and all the bad. Nothing that was said in that room left that room and no one was judged for the wrongs they had done. Never before and never since have I seen a group of people so willing to work together to accomplish anything. We knew that we were all equals and because of that there was nothing keeping us from being ourselves and using the gift God had given us. Create community and when you create it others will want to be a part. If you want something to grow and become successful the people in the process have to like it.
As I leave this church I hope that this time of searching for a pastor brings this church closer together. It will either bring you together or rip you apart and I pray that it draws you closer together. This church needs to be a sanctuary, a house of prayer for all people. As I spoke with folks on what they thought of church the word exclusive came up. Christianity cannot afford to be exclusive. Not even that, but it is impossible for Christianity to be exclusive. If it is, then it’s not like Christ at all. Christ invited everyone, not just the good and not just the bad. Everyone is welcome to the call of Christ. We long to be accepted, we need to be able to find that acceptance in the church. Today I ask you to give the gift of going first. I ask you to step up and step away from the theatrics and step into the light of God. Be real with others and be real with yourself. Accept others, love others, and as it says in the book of Micah do justice and love kindness. If you will all do these together this church will be a sanctuary of lovingkindess.

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