"The world needs to see worked out before it the miracle that binds the hearts of God's people together in Christian love. It needs to see the Lord's people sitting together in heavenly places in Christ. God knows what you can be. He knows what divine grace can do for you if you will be partakers of the divine nature" EGW, Testimonies, Vol. 9, p. 188, par. 2, p. 19, par. 1.
Scripture reading
1 John 4:11.
Suggested hymns
I love Thee Hymn No. 236
Rejoice, the Lord is King Hymn No. 456
O love that wilt not let me go Hymn No. 76
Offering prelude ... Faithfulness of Cod— Just Suppose
Just suppose the Lord should begin to make people as sick as they claim to be on Sabbath.
Just suppose the Lord should take away the child you used as an excuse for not being in worship on Sabbath.
Just suppose you had to live on ten times what you give to the Lord each week.
Just suppose the Lord should let some parents look into the future and see what their example and lax control are doing for their children.
Just suppose you had no opportunity to make amends for these things.
Just suppose the Lord should strike all who lie about their giving as He did Ananias and Sapphira.
Just suppose the Lord should make people as poor as they say they are when they are asked to help finance His work.
Children's story ... Trapped in the Cave
On January 30, 1925, a man called Floyd Collins decided to investigate a sand cave on the Estes farm in central Kentucky. He found the entrance in a deep ravine, under an overhanging rock. Floyd crawled in and disappeared into the blackness.
He hadn't come out by the next morning so the Estes 1 17-year-old son went to check. Floyd was trapped with his foot wedged into a crack in the wall of a narrow tunnel, and a large rock was on top of his leg. Early efforts to free him were fruitless.
Newspapers and radio carried the news of Floyd's plight to the whole country. Reporters flocked to the spot. The Red Cross arrived with a trained rescue team. Money, equipment, and telegrams began to pour in. People all over America were praying for the rescue of Floyd Collins. Nothing seemed to help.
Finally, a 55-foot shaft was dug straight down to within a few feet of the helpless man. Then a tunnel was carefully picked out of the rock. Shortly after noon on February 16 the rescue team reached Floyd, but it was too late.
During the funeral service Pastor Roy Biser said, "No other incident within memory has brought so many prayers from the brotherhood of man for one fellow man."
It was true. Thousands of dollars had been spent. Hundreds of men had worked in vain for more than two weeks to rescue one man. Was it worth it?
"The value of a soul who can estimate? Would you know its worth, go to Gethsemane, and there watch with Christ through those hours of anguish, when He sweat as it were great drops of blood. Look upon the Savior uplifted on the cross. .. Look upon the wounded head, the pierced side, and the marred feet. Remember that Christ risked all. For our redemption, heaven itself was imperiled. At the foot of the cross, remembering that for one sinner Christ would have laid down His life, you may estimate the value of a soul" Christ's Object Lessons, p. 196.
All about us are boys and girls trapped in sin. Someone must rescue them. There is not much time. One boy or one girl is worth all the effort you can muster. Will you join the rescue team? Tomorrow may be too late.
Sermon
The World Needs Love
Introduction
A. The basic need of every person is the need to be loved.
B. The lyrics of a popular song reflect this worldwide longing "what the world needs now is love."
C. God has met this need in Christ.
See the Father's love
A. God loves us (1 John 3:1).
When Martin Luther's translation of the Bible was being printed, a piece of type fell to the floor. The Printer's daughter later found the section, which said, "For God so loved the world that he gave." excitedly, she showed it to her mother. Her mother said it didn't make any sense. "Gave what?" The responded, "Oh Mama, it doesn't matter. If God loves me enough to give me anything, I don't have to be afraid of Him." Many think of God as harsh, judgmental, or indifferent toward the world. The truth is, He loves us. "God is love" (4:8).
B. The gift of love (4:9-10). How do we know God loves us? (v. 9). The cross is God's bold demon- stration of love.
Bennett Cerf tells of an eight-year-old girl in a Pennsylvania orphanage. She was painfully shy, unattractive, and generally shunned by the others. A rule of the home required the director's approval of my written communication prior to mailing. One afternoon the girl was seen hiding a letter in the branches of a tree that hung over the wall. The letter was seized and opened. It read: "To anybody who ends this: I love you." Our Lord Jesus was driven by a loveless world outside the city wall. He hung on the cross, a message from God to the world I love you!
The example of Christ
A. Inclusive and active (1 John 3:16-18).
A small boy in Texas has a rare disease, which prohibits anyone from touching him. He lives in a sealed environment and has never felt the actual touch of those who love him.
1. Jesus faced many "untouchables" in His day. No one wanted to touch the lepers. When they went out in public, they cried out "unclean," and people avoided them. Jesus touched the lepers; they needed His love.
2. "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (4:11).
B. Exclusive and eternal (2:15-17). The love of Christ is neither gullible nor naïve. Love of God, who is holy, means one cannot love the things, which are against Christ. We love sinners but do not love sin. "Do not love the world... [nor] the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life" (v. 15-16 RSV), Christ's love is exclusive.
C. His love is also eternal-"he who does the will of God abides for ever" (Rom. 8:39).
Conclusion
Probably no word in our vocabulary is as misunderstood as love. We apply it to food and clothing tastes, to sensual relationships, and to religious experiences. My four-year-old asked me one day, Daddy, how do you spell love?" I told her the four letters, which she proudly printed on a special note to those she loved. The spelling of love in our life is infinitely more complex. In Christ the true meaning is available, and the world desperately needs this love now. Can they see it in us?
Illustration _ Love of Christ Personified
In a testimony an evangelist one time described his mother as being love personified. As a boy he bound her sitting at the table with an old tramp one day. Apparently she had gone shopping, met the lamp along the way, and invited him home for a warm meal. During the conversation the tramp said.
"I wish there were more people like you in the world."
Where upon his mother replied, "Oh, there are. But you must look for them."
The old man simply shook his head, saying: "But, lady, I didn't need to look for you. You looked for me."
When that mother reflected her Christian kindness toward the tramp, she did something more than simply offer him welfare. It was a compassion that went out of its way to love the unlovely. And that's the story of our Savior's life, death, and resurrection. He came looking for us in the sick, the maimed, the lame, the bruised, the brokenhearted, the wretched wanderer, the poor and forgotten, the prisoner, and the lonely rich. Has he found you?
