Seek the Love That Is Above
CENTRAL TEXT: John 15:12-17; Matthew 5:43-48
John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
Matt. 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
CALL TO WORSHIP: Matthew 1:18-23
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means God with us.)
CELEBRATION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER:
CONFESSION OF SIN:
LEADER: Let us confess our sin to the Lord.
ALL: We have made most things, if not all things, about ourselves. Even in the moments of
apparent selflessness we conceal a secret self-interest. In that deep inclination we are not
ourselves–not if we belong to You. For You are in Yourself all-giving. In that is Your Glory.
Forgive us for placing ourselves at the center of our concern. Help us to see in that
self-forgetfulness both freedom and the Love that is Yours.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON: Romans 5:6-10
LEADER: For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
ALL: Thanks be to God
BENEDICTION: I John 4:10-11,17,19
LEADER: 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 17 By this is love perfected with us,
ALL: 19 We love because he first loved us.
POST SERVICE: Romans 5:6-8
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
- Why are there so many love songs, so many love stories?
- What moment or person in your life first pops into your mind when you hear the word love? Why?
- If you only had Jesus to provide you a definition of love, what would it be? Be as complete and descriptive as you can?
- What distinction does Jesus make in now designating his disciples as “friends”? They have spent years with him, but they will soon abandon him. Why is it compelling that, knowing what He knows, He still calls them “friends”? Why is that both a sobering and encouraging thought?
- How might Jesus’s call that we be perfect–i.e. complete--as your Father is perfect mean to be not something that crushes you but inspires you? How are His most loving acts from the Incarnation to the Cross be necessary to set your minds on for that call to remain an inspiration and power?
- Have you ever had to love an enemy–or someone who was at least in the moment/season acting like an enemy? Conversely, has there been a time when you received love from someone you were at the time treating as an enemy? Share as much detail as you are willing. The good, the bad, and the ugly–whether from them….or from you?
- Why would setting your mind on the love of Christ often be essential to finding the “compulsion” for and the “completion” of love in us?
Illustrations:
QUOTES:
When it finally sets me free
Will I join with the ocean blue?
Or run into a savior true?
And shake hands laughing?