February 14, 2011 Real Love!

"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."

Happy Valentine's Day, my dear brothers and sisters. I did not really plan it this way, but this week is the week I am going to be talking about love. It is a beautiful morning here at the Southern Location of the North Pole. We are going to have a touch of spring and I love it. Today is Monday and the day we pray for our leaders, veterans, military, police, firefighters and all others who work to keep us healthy and safe. It is also the day we pray for our leaders. Let's start today with prayer and then go to the message.

Dear Father in Heaven, I pray today for our leaders, our president and all of our other leaders, national, state, local, all of them who have authority over us. Lord, bless them and watch over them. I also pray today for Harrisburg City Mayor, Linda Thompson, a young lady who loves You dearly and just flat out needs You holding her hand. Keep her strong in faith, dear Lord. I pray also today for our veterans and for our disabled veterans, some who are just out of high school and might be spending their life in a military hospital. Lord, bless them. I pray for our military, for those in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Merchant Marines, and all of our guard units. In our area, Lord, I asked you bless the 28th Army Guard and the 193rd Air Guard, and please watch over 193rd Chaplain, Pastor/Major Richard Denison. Lord, please also watch over this line and keep it going on to help others. Always, Lord, keep me on track, on track with You and no others. I love You, Jesus. And I pray in your name. Amen.

The Big Trip 10-1 Real Love 1: John 3:16 - "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." (NIV)

Matthew 5:43 - "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He cause His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (NIV)

Jesus is telling us to love those who persecute you, and folks, let's be honest with each other, sometimes that is very, very hard to do. You have people maybe putting out rumors about you, maybe something from your past, or maybe something you had nothing to do with. Folks, there are a lot of people out there who just hate others, and it runs deep. We see it on the Nation News, and we even see it in families. Example, just last week in this small town in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, in the town of Myerstown, a man shot his wife to death. He also shot his dog and then as the police arrived he shot at them using his ten year old step-daughter as a shield. There is not a day goes past that you don't hear of things like this on the news. Where does all that hate come from? Brothers and sisters, the hate comes from evil and evil comes from Satan and his band of workers. So when you find people who hate you in your life, how do we really look at them and love them, and I mean really love them, not just say it?

The examples in the Bible are great, (that was a bright statement). Jesus always shows us good examples. When the sun comes up, it shines on the good and the evil. When it rains, people who don't even believe in Jesus get rain also. When God handed out brains, why some of the brightest people are evil. Think about that, if those brains were doing good it would be better for everyone. Of course there are people who don't love Jesus who are not evil people, they just don't love Jesus.

The example of the rain is just great, for when it rains, it will rain on my garden and also the gardens of those who might not believe in Jesus.

I want to bring this out, to really love someone who is your enemy or a person that really hates you, you must get past that fact or those facts, we need to be very, very careful not to let the hate of those who hate us rub off on us and we start to be hating them. I have heard people say that we need to love others, even if we don't like them. HOW DOES ONE DO THAT? Now I will say that we need to love people, all people, even those who are living a full life of sin, but we need to hate their sins, as God hates all sin.

Also, we are all sinners, and our Lord God gave His Son to die for us, all of us. We also need to get over the fact that people connect love and sex for they do not need to be related. You know there is a lot to this, loving your enemies, there really, really is. You might think, well this is easy, but sometimes we really need to work at it, we really, really do. I know for a fact that I want everyone to like me, and I am sure that in this old world there might be one or two who just can't stand me. (I am sure there are more than that.)

Luke 23:34 - Jesus said, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." (NIV)
Let's look at this, let's really look at this. Maybe some of the people who might hate us don't really know us, or they don't understand us. And I know for a fact that I love some people that even others might not understand why I love them. People who have said hateful things over the years... There is one thing that my mother got imbedded deep into me was to love others and not be afraid to hug others. My mamma, when she lived, loved everyone, and I never heard her and I mean this, I never heard her say an unkind word about another person, never. I pray that people will forgive me for although I love people and I learned to be a hugger and to truly love people, there were times when my mouth could and would cut people down others and I really had to work at that. So you need to love your enemies, but you know the more you love Jesus, the more you really love Him, the easier it gets to love all others.

All this week we are going to be looking at Love, and loving others and of course loving our Lord Jesus. I pray today that by the end of the week, our love grows deeper and deeper for others and for Jesus also.

Now go forth, loving others and of course sharing of your blessings. Love ya, Pastor Dan.