Pastor Sherry’s message for May 5, 2024

Scriptures: Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-5; John 15:9-17

Back in 1984, the singer, Tina Turner, released a song called, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” Some of you may remember the chorus to this song:

What’s love got to do, got to do with it?

What’s love but a second-hand emotion.

What’s love got to do, got to do with it?

Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?

The song had a great tune and was catchy, but the theme was sad. She sang that you can’t trust in love. She sang that she is trying to protect herself emotionally. She was tempted to love again, but feared that if she did, her heart could be broken (and no doubt already had been).

A lot of people go through life this way.  They hold themselves back, afraid to invest in others.  They prefer emotional safety to the potential for hurt and disappointment.  Last week, I talked about how countercultural our God is…this is exactly a case in point:  We are called to love Him and to love others, despite the emotional risk to ourselves.

To quote Tina, “What’s love got to do with it?” Our Scriptures today answer:  Everything!

A. In our Gospel lesson (John 15:9-17) Jesus calls us to love Him, love others, and obey God.  He is essentially repeating and emphasizing the greatest commandments (Matthew 22:37-38)—Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and with all your mind [Be all in with God].  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it:  Love your neighbor as yourself.  He also reminds us that we demonstrate or show our love by being obedient to God.  So, even though we might be disappointed or even have had our hearts broken, our Lord wants us to continue to love Him and to love others.  Love is how we abide in Christ—it’s how we stay attached to the Vine.  Sorry, Tina, holding back out of fear is an excuse Jesus would understand but He would not want us to let that fear limit us.

B.  John, the beloved disciple, says pretty much the same thing, but with a slightly different emphasis (1 John 5:1-6): In verse 1, he defines what it means to be born again.  We believe in Jesus and we learn to love Him.  We are born again through our faith, together with our love.  In verse 3, he stipulates how we prove our love for God—This is love for God: to obey His commands.  And His commands are not burdensome….We believe, we love, we obey.  In verses 4-5, he argues that we overcome whatever evil there is in the world not by fighting, but by our faith (typically expressed in prayer).

C. Today, I want to make two points concerning these truths:

1. 1st, we often find what we are looking for, or what we are focused on: The story is told of two fellows who had been in India and happened to be visiting in the home of the same friend.  The guests were talking about mission trips and missionaries.  The first man—who had been in India all of 5 months–said, “I have no use for missions and missionaries.  I spent months there, and didn’t see that they were doing anything; in fact, in all that time I never met a missionary.  I think the church is wasting its money on missions.”  The second fellow was a quiet older gentleman.  He had not spoken up at all until this point.  He now said, “Pardon me; how long did you say you were in India?  ‘Five months.’ ‘What took you there?’  ‘I went out to hunt tigers.’  ‘And did you see any tigers?’  ‘Scores of them.’  ‘It is rather peculiar,’ said the old gentleman, ‘but I have spent thirty years in India, and in those years I never saw a tiger but I have seen hundreds of missionaries.  You went to India to hunt tigers and you found them.  I went to India to do missionary work and found many other missionaries.”

(As reported by Rev. Dr. J. Vernon McGee, Through the Bible Commentary on 1 John, Thomas Nelson, 1991, pp.143-144.)

In the same way, I had never noticed pregnant ladies in bathing suits at the beach, until I became one.  Then I saw them everywhere.  If you drive a Jeep or a Corvette, I am told, you similarly note them wherever you go. The point is that we find what we focus on.  If it’s on becoming broken-hearted, Dear Tina, that’s what we will notice.  But if we can begin to trust in love, we will begin to notice evidence of trust-worthy love all around us.

Neuroscience tells us that our brains are pre programmed to look for the negative in life.  It was probably adaptive back when we were trying to avoid saber-toothed tigers (speaking of tigers).  To habitually think positively, we have to reprogram our brains, deliberately developing new neural pathways.  We have to train ourselves to think positively and this positive thinking is highly correlated with achieving happiness.  Negativity may keep a person emotionally and physically safe, but it does not lead them to happiness.

2. The 2nd point is that any fight we face in the world is God’s to contend with.  He usually does not call us to fight but rather to obey Him in faith.  Paradoxically, Joshua’s battle at Jericho is a perfect example of this (Joshua 6:1-20).  Joshua was God’s choice to succeed Moses as the leader of the children of Israel.  The Lord charged him with taking the Promised Land and conquering the pagans who inhabited it.  Lest you feel sorry for the pagan Canaanites, please note that the Lord gave them over 400 years to accept Him as God and they refused.  They seemed to prefer sacrificing their babies to the fire, and all the sexually perverse religious rituals they performed, to worshipping a holy God.  So He determined that He—who owns the whole earth—would give the land to His Chosen Ones.

In a strategy that is masterful and brilliant, God first stopped up the Jordan at flood stage so all 2 million Israelites could cross over into Canaan (on dry land, as the text makes clear).  Remember the generation that had refused to trust in God to take the Promised Land 40 years earlier had all died out during the wilderness wanderings.  They had experienced the Red Sea Crossing.  Their younger descendants had not.  So God repeats the miracle, both to show them He is with them and to remind them of what He had done for them in the past.

Now bear in mind that this strategy no doubt freaked out the folks of Jericho, who mistakenly thought they were safe until the Spring floods receded. Then when the Hebrew army approached the city, they simply marched around the outside of the city walls.  The Levites carried the Ark of the Covenant and 7 priests blew ram’s horn trumpets, signaling that the Lord will be taking the city.  The soldiers followed, armed, but did not engage the enemy.  They did this once a day, as per the Lord’s instructions, for six days.  Don’t you know the folks of Jericho were wondering, “What in the world are they up to?”  The truth is that our God was engaged in psychological warfare.

On the 7th day (seven being the number for completion or perfection), they marched around the city seven times.  On the 7th trip, the trumpets were blown, the marching army and the encamped women, children, and elderly shouted in unison, and the city walls suddenly collapsed.  Without their massive walls to protect them—and given how psychologically demoralized they must have been–the citizens of Jericho were quickly overcome.

This is such a great example of how God fights for us (2 Chronicles 20:15)—This is what the Lord says to you: “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army.  For the battle is not yours , but God’s.”  We often summarize this passage by saying “the battle belongs to the Lord.”  Back in Joshua 5:14, and prior to the circular marches, Joshua had encountered the pre-incarnate Christ, Who calls Himself, the Commander of the Army of the Lord (Remember, when Jesus comes again, He will slay all the evil people at Armageddon; He will return as the “Commander of the Army of the Lord”).  At this meeting, Jesus told General Joshua God’s strategy and said to Joshua, See I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 

We may not have a similar encounter with Jesus, but it is still true that the battles we believers face belong to the Lord.  Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12—For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  The forces of evil inhabit this world.  When things look to be inspired by evil, we utilize the main weapons we have—the sword of the Spirit (the Word of God) and prayer.  Upset about the economy?  Pray that God would reverse the policies and the governmental overspending that have led to inflation.

Distressed about strife or broken relationships in your family or difficulties at work?  Pray that God will soften hard hearts and bring about peace and reconciliation.  Out of work? Pray that God would supply the right job and help you to have the right attitude as you embark on it. Troubled about your health or your finances?  Pray.  None of these issues is too difficult for God to address and to transform.  On our own, we can’t but He can!

We worship the God who is love.  So “What’s love got to do with it?”  Everything!  Love is the key.  Love is of foremost importance to God–followed closely behind by our faith and our obedience.  We are usually not called to fight; instead, we are called to believe, to trust in the Lord.

If we love God, have faith in Him, and are obedient, we are indeed His children.  He will and does provide for us.  He will and does protect us.  He will and does bless us and shower us with His love!  Thanks be to God Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!  Alleluia, Alleluia!

©️2024 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams