Building Godly relationships #7

By Pastor George Lehman

 

LOVE is a little word; people make it BIG.
(Make it: Active, real, effective.)



Relationship is not the cherry on the cake; IT IS THE CAKE!

One of the greatest abilities and gifts God has placed in our heart is to LOVE.



John 15:16-17 (Amp) - 16You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed you [I have planted you], that you might go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit may be lasting [that it may remain, abide], so that whatever you ask the Father in My Name [as presenting all that I AM], He may give it to you. 

17This is what I command you: that you love one another.              

 

John 15:12 (Amp) - This is My commandment:  that you love one another [just] as I have loved you.               



Sadly, love as one of the rarest and most valuable gifts in the world, we don’t use it as we should.

God wants us to value what He values.

We are called to LOVE people, because God values people.  The truth is, God sees us as valuable, important and as priceless gifts.

We at times value things that aren’t valuable.  People who have been touched by God value relationships.  They master loving people in word and deed.



Colossians 1:4 (NIV) - Because we have heard of your (1)faith in Christ Jesus and of the (2)love you have for all the saints               

What was their clear, obvious identification mark?

Love God
They loved one another.

 

Romans 12:9 (Msg) - Love from the centre of who you are; don’t fake it, run for dear life from evil, hold on for dear life to good.

 

Paul’s prayer for the church:

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 (Amp)  - 12And may the Lord make you to increase and excel and overflow in love for one another and for all people, just as we also do for you.  13So that He may strengthen and confirm and establish your hearts faultlessly pure and unblameable in holiness in the sight of our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) with all His saints (the holy and glorified people of God)! Amen, (so be it)!

 

Walking in love prepares me for the coming of Jesus.  Full and running over with love.



Peter says, “Since you’ve changed, make sure that you love one another.”

1 Peter 1:22 (Amp) - Since by your obedience to the Truth through the [Holy] Spirit you have purified your hearts for the sincere affection of the brethren, [see that you] love one another fervently from a pure heart.

 

1 John 4:7 (Amp) - Beloved, let us love one another, for love is (springs) from God; and he who loves [his fellowmen] is begotten (born) of God and is coming [progressively] to know and understand God [to perceive and recognize and get a better and clearer knowledge of Him]. 

 

When I begin to put loving others into practice, I begin to understand God’s heart.

 

1 John 4:12 (Amp) - No man has at any time [yet] seen God.  But if we love one another, God abides (lives and remains) in us and His love (that love which is essentially His) is brought to completion (to its full maturity, runs its full course, is perfected) in us!



A story of friendship:

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.

 

Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.  It took the remainder of the class period to finish the assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

 

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

 

On Monday, she gave each student his/her list.  Before long, the entire class was smiling.

“Really?” she heard whispered.  “I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!” and “I didn’t know others like me so much,” were most of the comments.

 

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again.  She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn’t matter.  The exercise had accomplished its purpose.  The students were happy with themselves and one another.

 

That group of students moved on.  Several years later, one of the students were killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student.  She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before.  He looked so handsome, so mature.

 

The church was packed with his friends.  One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin.  The teacher was the last one.  As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as a pallbearer came up to her.  “Were you Mark’s math teacher?” he asked.  She nodded:  ‘yes.”  Then he said:  “Mark talked about you a lot.

 

After the funeral, most of Mark’s former classmates went together to a luncheon.  Mark’s mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak to his teacher.  “We want so how you something“, his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket.  “They found this on Mark when he was killed.  We thought you might recognize it.”  Opening the wallet, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times.  The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark’s classmates had said about him.  “Thank you so much for doing that,” Mark’s mother said.  “As you can see, Mark treasured it.”

 

All of Mark’s former classmates started to gather around.  Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, “I still have my list.  It’s in the top drawer of my desk at home.”  Chuck’s wife said, “Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.”  “I have mine too,” Marilyn said.  “It’s in my diary.”  Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group.  “I carry this with me at all times,” Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued:  “I think we all saved our lists.”  That’s when the teacher finally sat down and cried.

 

 

She cried for mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.  The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day.  And we don’t know when that one day will be.  So please, tell the people you love them that they are valuable, special, important and you care for them.  God created us in His image so let’s go out of our way and build Godly relationships with one another.  DO IT, before it is too late…



How easily we fall into the trap of the enemy: Without thinking, we can be so unloving.



Sadly, we too often love things and use people when we should be using things and loving people.

What you are in your heart is how you really are.



Luke 6:45-46 (NIV) - 45The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.  For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.  46“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”



The only condition for loving, is to love without condition.



1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (LB) - 4Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, 5never haughty or selfish or rude.  Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy.  It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong.  6It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever truth wins out.  7If you love someone you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost.  You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him.  8All the special gifts and powers from God will someday come to an end, but love goes on forever.



The love of God IN US is the key to freedom to build Godly relationships.

Philippians 1:9-10 (Amp) - 9And this I pray: that your love may abound yet more and more and extend to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight [that your love may display itself in greater depth of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment], 10So that you may surely learn to sense what is vital, and approve and prize what is excellent and of real value [recognizing the highest and the best, and distinguishing the moral differences], and that you may be untainted and pure and unerring and blameless [so that with hearts sincere and certain and unsullied, you may approach] the day of Christ [not stumbling nor causing others to stumble].                           

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