Are You Sure That's What It Means? | God Loves You the Way You Are (1 John 4:8)

This past week at VBS, we focused on how God alone gives us truth, and there is nothing more important than the truth of his love. "God is love" is one of the most beautiful and comforting truths of the Bible, but it is also one of the most abused. Some understand God's love as if it were like human love, mostly based in feelings that change according to the behavior of those around us. Others feel a God of love is like a strict parent who is tough on you in order to push you toward great accomplishments. Still others think of God as a permissive grandfather in whose eyes you can do no wrong. He is willing to overlook your faults and focus on the good qualities you have. None of these ideas is correct. God's love cannot be comforting if it is subjective and dependent on us or on our behavior. God is love and his love is comforting because his love is an objective action that finds its fulfillment in Christ. 

Transcript

Have you ever noticed how love can be an elusive thing to define? Back in high school, I had a friend who called Beijing home, and while he had an excellent handle on English, he was still looking to become more fluent. We happened to be going through the cafeteria line one day, and when I saw pizza was being served, I couldn’t contain my joy, “I love pizza day!” and my friend looked at me and said, “English is such an irresponsible language! How can you use the same word “love” to talk about how someone loves Jesus and how someone loves pizza?!” As we sat down to eat, he shared with me how in Mandarin there are several words for “love” each defining a particular love. I would try to share those words with you, but I would butcher their pronunciation. Here’s the point: What is the love we long for most? There are so many different kinds of love out there. But what is the truth when it comes to love’s ultimate definition? Our kids during VBS got to explore what Jesus has to say about that, because let’s face it, we as a culture are love-lost. 

Here’s what I mean: We all know that love is as essential to life as water and oxygen, and the variety of love that you run on will truly make or break your existence. So when we read in a passage like 1 John 4:8 the phrase, “God is love,” our society often without realizing it wants to see it more like “love is god.” This is going to date me but back in the late 2000’s I got into the Canadian band “Sloan,” and they wrote a song called “If It Feels Good, Do It.” In other words, whatever makes you happy, whatever you love to do, just do it…but is that the most real love a person can experience? Simply to chase your desires for the next bit of dopamine is that the love we truly long for? I think the youngest generation today would disagree, and yet their attitude toward the search for genuine love has gone pretty dark. Whether you’re listening to Post Malone, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, or seemingly most pop songs today, there’s a message about love that’s quite telling. Take for example this verse from the song “Birds of a Feather,” “And I don't know what I'm crying for, I don't think I could love you more, Might not be long, but baby, I, don't wanna say goodbye.” There’s this refrain of fear that if you love someone, one day they might say goodbye to you. This anxiety that if you genuinely care for someone maybe one day they will walk away from you and never return. Which brings us back to our question. “What is the love we long for most?” We seek a love that’s unconditional, that brings real pleasure, and that gives us a pricelessly, significant life. Where can we get such love? That’s actually what our VBS kids are going to help us discover today.

So kids, this is where I need your help. We’re going to briefly walk through each of our VBS stories VBS and I’m going to need your help to describe them. And as we do, we’ll get a closer and closer glimpse of the greatest love the world’s ever known. First, tell me about Adam and Eve. What kind of love did they desire they were tempted by Satan? Love for knowledge, the attractive thought of Francis Bacon, “Knowledge is power.” They had a desire for control, of strength, but in the end, they realized how little control they had, and how sin brings hopeless weakness. But in those shadows of despair, the light of love broke through, a promise of love was made, wasn’t it?

What about Daniel? He faced the temptation of buying into a lie that’s been around for thousands of years that you should simply follow your heart, do what makes you happy, and maybe love will be yours. But, instead, Daniel stood firm on the only love that gives us certain and unchanging truth.

How about that rich young man with Jesus? He had a love for security. We see it in our society today. The concept that if we can gather enough resources materially we can be self-reliant and thus, since we rely on no one else, we can have a guaranteed good life, even salvation. But Jesus loved him too much to let him stay in that delusion, and this young man walked away shattered because he loved his wealth far too much.

Then, we saw Jesus through the disciple John’s eyes, right? Jesus said something that in our post-everything world comes across as offensive, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” So exclusive, so narrow-minded, so insensitive, maybe even so bigoted and arrogant? But when the boiling of emotions settles into calmness, what if you dare consider that we are standing at the place where love’s definition confronts you? John takes us to the blood-soaked ground of death row, witnessing an execution that we can’t stop gawking at. We stand in a scene where the hopelessness of our present moment seems justified, after all, what joy can be found with death all around? But then, you see this bleeding man, burst into a smile, clear his throat, and bring an end to all your anxious questions about where real love can be experienced. He says, “It is finished!” What is the “it” he’s referring to? You know. 

Imagine Jesus looking at you from the cross, those same eyes that have seen every sad thing that’s ever happened to you, all the moments your love hasn’t been returned, all the remaining regrets when you refused love to someone else. Those same eyes that see you for who you really are, bringing the initial shock of exposure, but yet lasting hope because he doesn’t turn his gaze away from you. You remember again his words, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and his cross gives them a whole new meaning. He’s talking about love. Real love. Unconditional love. Love that brings real pleasure. The disciple John describes God’s love as such: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Do you see how Jesus defines love? Do you see how he is Love, capital “L?” Love himself, Jesus, burned a path to your heart, breaking down every sin-constructed barrier, crossing over eternity itself by shedding his blood, all to get to you, all to speak love into your very soul that gives you joy even when you have nothing to be joyful about. Do you hear how Love himself, Jesus, spoke truth to you, the truth of who you really are, the identity God longs to give you through faith in him, do you see how he never hesitates to say what needs to be said, so you can know the only truth that remains relevant forever? Can you imagine the life Love himself, Jesus, intends for you? A future that cannot be taken from you, a life free from fear and anxiety? 

A Christian named Augustine once said, “My love for you, Lord, is not an uncertain feeling, but a matter of conscious certainty. With your Word you pierced my heart, and I loved you. But heaven and earth and everything in them on all sides tell me to love you.” All of sudden, Jesus saying he’s the only way to know love’s truest definition isn’t arrogant, but clarifying. All of us live for love, and how we prioritize our different loves dictates just about every action we do and every thought we have, right? We all must live for someone or something. This is where God’s unconditional love is so sweet. Through his message to us, the best news ever, the gospel, we receive love at its purest to live for the ultimate Someone who never will go back on a promise, who always speaks the truth, who never lies, who never evades, who never says goodbye to you. There’s only one person who can love you like that and it’s your Jesus who proved it on that cross.

And as our kids know, God’s love can’t leave you the same! You have a new identity, a new purpose, a new joy that can’t be canceled, that can’t be moved, that can’t be swayed because it’s built on the rock of Jesus, which no storm in life can break! This is where we get to Paul. Kids, do you remember what Paul was so excited to do? Share Jesus! Even if people made fun of him, or tried to silence him, he wouldn’t stop, he couldn’t stop. He kept meeting more and more people searching for truth, and telling them the only lasting truth. Maybe that’s what you’re searching for too. To know the truth of what real love is, and how amazing that the kids with us today have gotten to share that with you. The love of Jesus gives us a legacy that transcends us, a life so significant that no history book could contain it, a future to grab hold of even when your world is crumbling. Your life, dear Christian, is not built on the shifting sands of society, nor the mudslide of emotions, nor the uneven opinion of others. Your life is built on Love himself, Jesus, who will never fail you.

Talk about a truth we can’t stop thinking about. That’s especially true of one of our VBS kids. We had just finished the Bible story on Monday about Adam and Eve and how God made a promise to send Jesus, showing how much he loves us, and as the kids were about to leave, one of them stayed back for a second and asked me, “Is it really true that Jesus can love me that much?” And all I could say was, “Yes and there is no question about it.” How could I say that with such certainty? Because when you take in the cross of Jesus, when you rejoice at his empty tomb, you can’t help but see that all he’s said is true. His love cannot be ended by death, his love never lies, and his love gives you truth that never changes. Amen.