This is the manuscript of the sermon preached at Christ Church, Los Angeles, CA on Sunday March 17, 2019. It is the fourth and final sermon in the "Love, the Badge Of The Christian" series.
Just as people in offices, factories, government, and military, wear badges to show that they belong there we as Christians have a badge too. Our badge is love. Wear the badge of love proudly so that the world can see that you belong to Christ.
John 13:34-35 ESV A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
This was a new commandment in that the love was not because they all belonged to the same nation or all looked like each other, but because they belonged to Christ. This love was to be the expression of the love of Christ, which the disciples had seen in His life and would see also in death.
To obey this new commandment to love everybody the way that God loves you you must love yourself first.
To hear the audio click on the YouTube image at the end of the manuscript.
This is the fourth and final sermon in our series “Love, The Badge Of The Christian.
Love is the thing that identifies the Christian to the world. Love is our badge.
The text for the entire series is;
John 13:34-35 ESV A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
The past few Sundays we have talked about agape love which is the most powerful, noblest type of love: sacrificial love. The kind of love that God has for man and that man has for God and that He wants us to have for everybody our Christian brothers and sisters, our family, our friends, and even our enemies, everybody.
We've talked about the positive nature of agape love; it is patient, it's always kind, it never gives up no matter what, it always believes the best, it never stops hoping, and it gives us the power to endure anything.
1 Corinthians 13:4 ESV Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
Last week we talked about what agape love does not do.
1 Corinthians 13:4b-6 ESV …love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Text:
Mark 12:28-31 ESV And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
Introduction
What Jesus is saying is that in order to love everybody you must first love God with everything you have and then you are able to love everybody else but you must love yourself first. We often think that Jesus wants us to love others more than ourselves but that's not what scripture says. What it says is that we shouldn't think more highly of ourselves than we ought.
Romans 12:3 ESV For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
But it doesn't say love others more than you love yourself. It says love others as you love yourself.
Many people suffer the pain of self-hatred and live each day with a feeling of intense worthlessness. This lack of a proper love for self makes true love for others impossible.
In the two great commandments of our Scripture reading, we find condensed into capsule form the total duty of humans to God and to their fellow humans. These two commandments are invitations that enrich life.
The measure of our love for self is the measure of love we are to express toward our neighbor. If we have a low view of self, we will have a low and critical view of others. R. Lofton Hudson said, “When a man does not love himself, he cannot love his fellow man: and when he does not understand God’s love, he does not know how to love himself” (The Religion of a Mature Person [Nashville: Broadman, 1952], 36).
I. Symptoms that indicate the lack of a proper love for self.
Do you have a habitual tendency to belittle yourself? There is a difference in humility and belittling yourself.
Do you find within yourself a refusal to believe in your own ability and worth?
Do you regularly hesitate to attempt that which is new or difficult?
Are you characterized by a feeling of loneliness and alienation from others?
Do you find that you have a tendency to escape from reality through artificial means such as drugs and alcohol?
Are you characterized by a continuing flight from one place to another and from one situation to another?
Do you have suicidal thoughts?
II. Why do people lack a proper love for themselves?
Some experience absence of love in early youth and come to have hostile feelings toward themselves.
It is important that a child experience the love of parents or other significant people. Without realizing what is happening, children may conclude that they are unlovable and worthless because they are deprived of love at a time when affection is as necessary as milk. A deficiency of affection in early infancy can lead to mental illness and despair later.
Children who are raised without parents often believe that they were rejected because they were unlovable.
Some lack a proper love for self because they were constantly assaulted by insulting criticism during the formative period of their lives.
Some form a low opinion of themselves when they compare themselves with others. The Bible says that those who compare themselves with others are not wise.
2 Corinthians 10:12 ESV Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.
Each of us needs to recognize his or her uniqueness and appreciate it as a gift from God.
Psalms 139:14 ESV I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
Some have a low opinion of self because they labor under the burden of unresolved guilt. Guilt can be a blessing from God, or it can be a horrible curse from Satan. When guilt comes from God, it is intended to bring about correction of one’s way of thinking and living. Refusing to acknowledge one’s personal responsibility for sin leads to a guilt problem that will bring about depression and self-hate down the road.
Some of us have hated ourselves because we were unwilling to accept God’s complete forgiveness of the sins we confessed.
Some of us have been willing to accept God’s forgiveness but have been unwilling to forgive ourselves. If you are unwilling either to accept God’s forgiveness or grant forgiveness to yourself, that will contribute to self-hate, and it may be the result of self-hate.
We can be absolutely certain that our enemy, the devil, will do all that he can to cause us to hate ourselves. The devil is a liar and deceiver. The name Satan means “accuser.” It is part of his strategy to cause people to hate themselves. Hating yourself makes it impossible for you to genuinely love God and others.
Just as people in offices, factories, government, and military, wear badges to show that they belong there we as Christians have a badge too. Our badge is love. Wear the badge of love proudly so that the world can see that you belong to Christ.
John 13:34-35 ESV A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
This was a new commandment in that the love was not because they all belonged to the same nation or all looked like each other, but because they belonged to Christ. This love was to be the expression of the love of Christ, which the disciples had seen in His life and would see also in death.
To obey this new commandment to love everybody the way that God loves you you must love yourself first.
To hear the audio click on the YouTube image at the end of the manuscript.
This is the fourth and final sermon in our series “Love, The Badge Of The Christian.
Love is the thing that identifies the Christian to the world. Love is our badge.
The text for the entire series is;
John 13:34-35 ESV A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
The past few Sundays we have talked about agape love which is the most powerful, noblest type of love: sacrificial love. The kind of love that God has for man and that man has for God and that He wants us to have for everybody our Christian brothers and sisters, our family, our friends, and even our enemies, everybody.
We've talked about the positive nature of agape love; it is patient, it's always kind, it never gives up no matter what, it always believes the best, it never stops hoping, and it gives us the power to endure anything.
1 Corinthians 13:4 ESV Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
Last week we talked about what agape love does not do.
1 Corinthians 13:4b-6 ESV …love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Text:
Mark 12:28-31 ESV And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
Introduction
What Jesus is saying is that in order to love everybody you must first love God with everything you have and then you are able to love everybody else but you must love yourself first. We often think that Jesus wants us to love others more than ourselves but that's not what scripture says. What it says is that we shouldn't think more highly of ourselves than we ought.
Romans 12:3 ESV For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
But it doesn't say love others more than you love yourself. It says love others as you love yourself.
Many people suffer the pain of self-hatred and live each day with a feeling of intense worthlessness. This lack of a proper love for self makes true love for others impossible.
In the two great commandments of our Scripture reading, we find condensed into capsule form the total duty of humans to God and to their fellow humans. These two commandments are invitations that enrich life.
The measure of our love for self is the measure of love we are to express toward our neighbor. If we have a low view of self, we will have a low and critical view of others. R. Lofton Hudson said, “When a man does not love himself, he cannot love his fellow man: and when he does not understand God’s love, he does not know how to love himself” (The Religion of a Mature Person [Nashville: Broadman, 1952], 36).
I. Symptoms that indicate the lack of a proper love for self.
Do you have a habitual tendency to belittle yourself? There is a difference in humility and belittling yourself.
Do you find within yourself a refusal to believe in your own ability and worth?
Do you regularly hesitate to attempt that which is new or difficult?
Are you characterized by a feeling of loneliness and alienation from others?
Do you find that you have a tendency to escape from reality through artificial means such as drugs and alcohol?
Are you characterized by a continuing flight from one place to another and from one situation to another?
Do you have suicidal thoughts?
II. Why do people lack a proper love for themselves?
Some experience absence of love in early youth and come to have hostile feelings toward themselves.
It is important that a child experience the love of parents or other significant people. Without realizing what is happening, children may conclude that they are unlovable and worthless because they are deprived of love at a time when affection is as necessary as milk. A deficiency of affection in early infancy can lead to mental illness and despair later.
Children who are raised without parents often believe that they were rejected because they were unlovable.
Some lack a proper love for self because they were constantly assaulted by insulting criticism during the formative period of their lives.
Some form a low opinion of themselves when they compare themselves with others. The Bible says that those who compare themselves with others are not wise.
2 Corinthians 10:12 ESV Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.
Each of us needs to recognize his or her uniqueness and appreciate it as a gift from God.
Psalms 139:14 ESV I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
Some have a low opinion of self because they labor under the burden of unresolved guilt. Guilt can be a blessing from God, or it can be a horrible curse from Satan. When guilt comes from God, it is intended to bring about correction of one’s way of thinking and living. Refusing to acknowledge one’s personal responsibility for sin leads to a guilt problem that will bring about depression and self-hate down the road.
Some of us have hated ourselves because we were unwilling to accept God’s complete forgiveness of the sins we confessed.
Some of us have been willing to accept God’s forgiveness but have been unwilling to forgive ourselves. If you are unwilling either to accept God’s forgiveness or grant forgiveness to yourself, that will contribute to self-hate, and it may be the result of self-hate.
We can be absolutely certain that our enemy, the devil, will do all that he can to cause us to hate ourselves. The devil is a liar and deceiver. The name Satan means “accuser.” It is part of his strategy to cause people to hate themselves. Hating yourself makes it impossible for you to genuinely love God and others.
III. How can we develop a proper love for self?
To properly love others, we need to recognize and respond to the good news that God loves us as sinners even though he knows all about us
John 3:16 ESV "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 5:6-8 ESV For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Nothing is hidden from the piercing, penetrating eye of the all-seeing, all-knowing God. No secrets can be hidden from him. The good news of the gospel is that God loves us and extends his grace and mercy toward us even though we are sinners.
The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that through him God forgives us of all our sins and redeems us from the waste of sin.
Acts 10:43 ESV To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
The gospel is not good advice. It is good news for sinners. Try to recognize the height and depth and length and breadth of God’s love for you.
That was Paul's prayer for the Ephesians.
Ephesians 3:14-19 ESV For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
1 John 1:9 ESV Accept God’s forgiveness and forgive yourself
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from all that separates us from him. By faith let us accept this tremendous gift. By faith let us respond to the truth that God holds our sins against us no longer. Let us accept the truth that God has accepted us into his family as his dear children.
1 John 3:1-3 ESV See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Jesus sought to help people overcome anxiety by encouraging them to evaluate themselves from God’s viewpoint. He urged his disciples to take a lesson from the sparrows and llilies.
Matthew 6:26-29 ESV Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
The God who loves the birds of the air and the plants of the field loves us and will help us to be what he meant us to be if we will but trust him day by day and do the best we can. He also said that we should accept ourselves because the agony of anxiety will not help us add one inch to our stature or one hour to the length of our life.
Luke 12:25-26 ESV And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
By God’s grace let us accept and love ourselves as we are.
Dedicate yourself to something bigger than yourself
Matthew 6:33 ESV But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
The person who is wrapped up in self makes a mighty small package. If we would truly appreciate and respect ourselves, let us give ourselves to the service of our God and to a ministry of helpfulness to others. Doing so will help us appreciate the person we are.
Conclusion
God loves you. He really loves you. He has proven that love in the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ. He continues to manifest that love through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You can demonstrate your love for yourself by making Jesus Christ the Lord of love, the Lord and leader of your life. Come to him now and mean it with all your heart.
To properly love others, we need to recognize and respond to the good news that God loves us as sinners even though he knows all about us
John 3:16 ESV "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 5:6-8 ESV For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Nothing is hidden from the piercing, penetrating eye of the all-seeing, all-knowing God. No secrets can be hidden from him. The good news of the gospel is that God loves us and extends his grace and mercy toward us even though we are sinners.
The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that through him God forgives us of all our sins and redeems us from the waste of sin.
Acts 10:43 ESV To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
The gospel is not good advice. It is good news for sinners. Try to recognize the height and depth and length and breadth of God’s love for you.
That was Paul's prayer for the Ephesians.
Ephesians 3:14-19 ESV For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
1 John 1:9 ESV Accept God’s forgiveness and forgive yourself
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from all that separates us from him. By faith let us accept this tremendous gift. By faith let us respond to the truth that God holds our sins against us no longer. Let us accept the truth that God has accepted us into his family as his dear children.
1 John 3:1-3 ESV See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Jesus sought to help people overcome anxiety by encouraging them to evaluate themselves from God’s viewpoint. He urged his disciples to take a lesson from the sparrows and llilies.
Matthew 6:26-29 ESV Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
The God who loves the birds of the air and the plants of the field loves us and will help us to be what he meant us to be if we will but trust him day by day and do the best we can. He also said that we should accept ourselves because the agony of anxiety will not help us add one inch to our stature or one hour to the length of our life.
Luke 12:25-26 ESV And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
By God’s grace let us accept and love ourselves as we are.
Dedicate yourself to something bigger than yourself
Matthew 6:33 ESV But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
The person who is wrapped up in self makes a mighty small package. If we would truly appreciate and respect ourselves, let us give ourselves to the service of our God and to a ministry of helpfulness to others. Doing so will help us appreciate the person we are.
Conclusion
God loves you. He really loves you. He has proven that love in the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ. He continues to manifest that love through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You can demonstrate your love for yourself by making Jesus Christ the Lord of love, the Lord and leader of your life. Come to him now and mean it with all your heart.
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