Loving To The End

A Sermon For


"Good Shepherd Sunday"


Jesus knew that the hour had come 


for him to leave this world and go to the Father. 


Having loved his own who were in the world, 


he loved them to the end.

John 13:1 / NIV

This is how we know what love is: 


Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. 


And we ought to lay down our lives
 

for our brothers and sisters. 


If anyone has material possessions 

and sees a brother or sister in need 


but has no pity on them, 


how can the love of God be in that person? 


Dear children, 


let us not love with words or speech


but with actions and in truth.

1 John 3:16-18 / NIV

Epistle Lesson  -  1 John 3:11-24

Gospel Lesson  -   John 10 

First Question:  What to you love? What are you passionate about?


•     Answer these questions to discover your passion or what you truly love:

o  What makes you smile?


o  What drives you forward in life? 


o  What consumes your "free time?"




o  What brings you not just a moment or two of joy   - but a deep sense of meaning, and purpose?


o  What actions bring you a sense of personal worth . . .  a sense of making a real difference in this world? 


o  What touches your heart, your soul?  Have you listened to the language of your heart and your soul lately to discover just why you are walk around on this earthly plain? 

       


Now I know what some of you are thinking!


•     Gracious me, Pastor Milt! I've barely had time to think about anything beyond the 1,001 things I have to do each week. I'm too busy for such musings.


•          How’d you spend the week?  Were you too busy to consider anything more than the long list of things that just had to done ASAP!  (Note:  When asked the question "What is your passion?" 75% say they have no idea!)


•     I've been:

o  Running some errands, 


o  Picking up some milk, bread and a few things at the store,

o  Paying the bills,

o  Mowing the lawn

o  Fixing the care

o  Taking the kids to games

o  Doing the laundry,

o  Scheduling appointments,

o  Carrying out the recycling and the garbage,

o  Answering email,

o  Going to meetings,

o  Getting the report done,

o  Waiting, stuck in traffic

o  Add what you've been doing to the list! 

      

•     The Chinese pictograph for “busy”  comprises two characters: heart and killing.   (Click Here to See the Pictograph.)

         


•   Being "busy" with no real goal in mind kills the heart.  It kills the PASSION and the FIRE in our souls.  To be merely "busy" with no real sense of purpose in the things you do brings spiritual death to us long before our bodies find their way to the grave.

  


•   Being "busy" isn't a bad thing if we are engaged in action driven by the passion of the Spirit God has placed deep with the fiber of your being!  John Wesley was an amazingly busy man.  He rode horses and carriages thousands of miles. Wrong thousands of pages of text. Preached thousands of times.  He was "busy" but busy with a mission to bring holiness and hope to broken people and peace to a broken nation.  He was on fire.  He was lit up by the Spirit of Christ.  John Wesley has been quoted as saying "The Holy Spirit sets me on fire and people come to see me burn."  Some scholars question this saying but it expresses the truth about his life.  We was truly on fire for God.  


•     This brings me to a second question for today. 

      

        

Second Question:  Do the things you love the most . . . the things you are really passionate about . . . connect with God's Passionate Purpose for your life and for his whole creation? 


•     To put it another way, can you take the things you love and use that passion, to love as Jesus loved? 


•     Jesus love for us was complete, fully compassionate. He loved us as John puts it "to the end." 


o  John 13:1:  Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 


•     In 1 this first epistle from John, his words repeat his essential message over and over gain. 


o  1 JOHN 3

11 For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another


14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.


16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.


18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

        

What Jesus' Love and his Passion Accomplished


•    Jesus' love brought new life from death. 


•    It opened the door to a whole new world . . .  a new creation.


•     He revealed to us God's ultimate purpose  -  to restore us and all creation . . . to set all things broken by sin right once more! 


•    He love gave this world faith and hope for the future.

 


•    His love gave us an example of just how to love fully and completely.


•    He love revealed a way to build a new community in which people are able live together in peace and harmony.  


•    This was Jesus mission and it was his passion.  He loved to 'THE END.'

•    As Disciples of Jesus our passion should be to love this life, this earth, others in this life with us in ways that help to bring into being loving and just world.


•    We are to nurture the best in every one: family, friends strangers even our enemies.


•   We are to release the power of God in others not control them or see them as somehow radically different from us. 


•    We are to take all the gifts God has given us and give back. We are to turn our passion into work for this world.


•    We are called of God to reach out to shape  (ie in the sense of "co-creators with God) a loving and just world, 
to nurture one another’s best self, 
to nurture the best selves of every one, family, friends, and strangers.

•    We have received so much. From all that we have, we give back, 
we turn our gifts and passions into work in the world.

      

        

Final Question: What are you willing to die for?


•    Are you willing to allow to die for the cause of Christ?


•    Are you willing to lay down your life
 . . 

o To build bridges that bring unity and give birth to true community; 


o To transform individual lives and 


o To change this world? 



•     We are to let go of everything that keeps us from loving as Jesus loved . . . fully, completely, whole and free!



•     God can take your life and consecrate it to accomplish his purpose to redeem his whole creation.