Sunday, March 28, 2010

March 28, 2010



Now that is crazy love! Cats are not supposed to love rats! Rats are supposed to be afraid of rats!

When I think that someone like Barbara would love someone like me – that is crazy love!

Remember when your children were born – especially that first one because you are unprepared for it – when they hand that like wrinkled, wet, pink, squalling thing to you and suddenly you are flooded with this CRAZY LOVE!

For this 40-Day Focus we have been talking a lot about love. What it is and what it isn’t and what it ought to be. We have been reading our Love Dare books and doing our LIFE Group studies. We have walked around and talked around this crazy thing called love but today I want to hit right at the heart of it. I WANT TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT CRAZY LOVE!

This love I am going to talk to you about is crazier than a cat loving a rat. It is crazier than Barbara loving me. It is even crazier and more intense than the love we have for our kids! This CRAZY LOVE is the unconditional love He has for us and wants us to have for our marriage partner.

Are you ready to hear about CRAZY LOVE?

“God commended His love toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

I. LOVE IS CRAZY POWERFUL – “God…..”

"Love is blind. Marriage is an eye-opener." --Leonard Ravenhill

Phillip Yancey describes grace in his book What’s So Amazing About Grace. He writes, “Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more—no amount of spiritual calisthenics and renunciations, no amount of knowledge gained from seminaries, no amount of crusading on behalf of righteous causes. And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less—no amount of racism or pride or pornography or adultery or even murder. Grace means that God already loves us as much an infinite God can possibly love.”
Does it help to think that God delights in you? Think about it! I don’t care how ugly you think you are. You are God’s delight. I don’t care how fat you are. You are God’s delight. Even if your marriage seems such a struggle. You are God’s delight. Even if you are divorced, your self-esteem wrecked. You are God’s delight. Even if you are so depressed your life feels like a black hole. You are God’s delight. Even if you threw a pity party and nobody showed up. You are God’s delight. God doesn’t abandon you because your business collapsed. You are God’s delight. God doesn’t leave you because you’re face is all wrinkled. You are God’s delight. Now, instead of wasting all that energy trying to prove to everybody that you are worth something, you can start with this idea that you already are somebody because we are the one in whom God delights!

The reason that God’s crazy love is so powerful is because love is not just what God does IT IS WHO HE IS! God loves because HE IS LOVE! It is His character! It is His nature! It is His DNA!

It is impossible for Him to NOT love you! For Him to not love you He would have to NOT BE HIM! And He is immutable – HE NEVER CHANGES. Since He never changes He will ALWAYS LOVE!

And His love is a CRAZY love! The word for His love is “agape” and there is really not English equivalent for it – so the closest I can come is CRAZY!

HAVE YOU COME TO THE PLACE WHERE YOU BELIEVE HIS CRAZY LOVE?

II. LOVE IS CRAZY PERSONAL – “……commended His love toward US….”

BUT HEY – the news gets better!

Many world religions teach a god who is a loving force or a cosmic warm fuzzy and we find love by becoming “one” with this – whatever is is……

Christianity teaches a personal love from a personal God Who wants to live in a personal relationship with every member of His creation.

A HOLY ALMIGHTY GOD WHO PERSONALLY LOVES ME AND WANTS TO KNOW ME? THAT”S CRAZY!

KARL BARTH was a German theologian who dominated the theology of the 20th century. In 1962, six years before his death, he made his only visit to the United States. One night he lectured at a seminary in Virginia, and after the lecture he met with students in the coffee shop for some informal dialogue. Someone asked him if there was any way he could summarize his vast theological findings. A student asked, "What in your judgment is the essence of the Christian faith?" Barth paused for a moment. No doubt the others waited for some profound insights from this theological giant. They got their pens and paper out and were poised. Then Barth answered, "Yes, I can summarize in a few words my understanding of the Christian faith. Let me put it this way: "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know, for the Bible Tells Me So."Needless to say, these students were dumbfounded. They expected some deep theological statement and instead heard that which Barth learned at his mother’s knees.I believe Barth was right. At the heart of the Christian gospel is this simple affirmation: JESUS LOVES ME!

Max Lucado: "If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen."

I SEARCHED FOR EFFECTIVE WAYS TO ILLUSTRATE THIS CRUCIAL POINT AND DECIDED A PICTURE IS WORTH A 1,000 WORDS – WATCH THIS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_wu61fbtMI



God’s love is powerful because He IS LOVE! It is not a concept, it is not a theory, it not a feeling or an emotion – it is HIM!

And it is even more powerful because IT IS PERSONAL. It is available for you to receive and experience! It is yours for the believing!

HAVE YOU PERSONALLY RECEIVED THE POWERFUL PERSONAL LOVE OF GOD? WOULD YOU LIKE TO?

III. LOVE IS CRAZY PROVEN – “….while we were still sinners CHRIST DIED FOR US”

The young woman was married and had two beautiful children, but one day as she was standing over the sink, washing dishes, she thought, "There must be more to life than this."When her husband came home, he found a note she’d written and he began to weep. She would call him about once every week to check on the children, and he would always tell her of his great love for her and beg her to come home. She would always say no and hang up.Finally, he hired a private investigator to find her. He went to the apartment where she was staying, nervously holding a spray of flowers in his hand as he stood at the door. He had rehearsed over and over what he would say and he finally got up the nerve to knock on the door. She opened the door and he started to speak, but she suddenly began to weep and fell into his arms. She managed to say through her tears, "Let’s go home." Months after, when things were starting to heal, he finally asked her something that had been bothering him. "All those times I talked to you on the phone; I asked you to come back and you refused. Why did you come back now?" "Before," she started, tears in her eyes, "you were just telling me that you loved me. When you came, you showed me."

We knew that God loved us, but when He really wanted to prove it He sent His Son Jesus to lay down His life for us! God’s love got personally involved!
God has always loved us with a crazy love, but nothing proved it like when He sent Jesus!

In the “Fireproof” movie what was it that finally convinced Catherine that Caleb loved her? For over forty days he had tried to show kindness and consideration and patience – but she didn’t finally believe his love until he proved it by spending his boat savings on her mom’s medical equipment. That was crazy love!

He finally became convinced of her love when she cancelled the divorce papers.

Love is proved by actions. Crazy love has to be shown by crazy acts of loving sacrifice, God did that by sending His Son. To any fair-minded person there can be no doubt!

We have been camping out in Ephesians 5 this month and it talks a lot about God’s crazy love for The Church! He loves it like a bride! And then he tells us the most amazing thing – crazy actually. He tells us that we are to love our spouse just like God loves the church – WITH A CRAZY LOVE.

(LEAVING AND CLEAVING – BUNGEE JUMP)

ARE YOU READY TO TAKE A PLUNGE INTO HIS CRAZY LOVE?

ARE YOU WILLING TO LET HIS CRAZY LOVE FLOW THROUGH YOU TO YOUR SPOUSE?

ARE YOU WILLING AS A COUPLE TO PLUNGE YOUR MARRIAGE INTO HIS CRAZY LOVE?

"The first miracle Jesus performed was at a wedding. Jesus can still do a miracle with your wedding." --Kent Crockett