Should you love?  One thing is for certain, whenever you choose to love it is a RISK.  It is actually one of the highest risk activities you can participate in.  There is a song I heard recently that said, “if love was a plane, nobody would get on.”  Unfortunately, choosing not to love hurts you more than anyone. The greatest commandments are clear, they demand everything from you, LOVE, but nevertheless, they are a risk.

Jesus commanded love, He first loved…You have #NOTHINGTOLOSE

“Love teaches us to YIELD, it’s worth the RISK”

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.^“ Matthew 22:37-39

All love for a Christ follower is motivated out of the the reality that Jesus loved us first. “While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8  Caught up in our own lives and our own selfishness and pursuit of things and idols, Jesus went to the cross and laid down his life for us as the ultimate act of love.”  Furthermore Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”  To call yourself a disciple of Jesus, love IS and love DOES.  Our love first starts with Jesus and it must extend to others.  This may be the hard part, but it’s worth the risk.  We are to love enemies, friends, people whom we don’t even know.  We love more fully when we realize, we really have #nothingtolose.

2 Things You Will Have To Overcome In Order To Fully Love People –

1. Fear of Rejection  – EVEN IF EVERYONE DISOWNS YOU, JESUS WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU.  This one is a hard one.  I don’t know about you, but I tend to care deeply about what others think about me.  Most of us want to be accepted and loved, but many times we withhold love because we don’t want to get hurt.  We have all been rejected at one time or another by a person, a parent, a brother, a spouse, or maybe a coworker.  Rejection is real and it can be scarring and devastating to our emotional health.  Especially if we were rejected by a parent at a young age, this is something that can lead to a developmental love disorder.  We manipulate words, use people, and make love a corrupted usury and we hedge our bets against the hurts that can come from rejection.  A failure to trust can create a character deficiency that never fully reconciles us being transformed by Jesus.  Because we are now purchased by Jesus, we are to identify with and resemble a life transformed with the very DNA and new identity of the Holiness of the resurrected Jesus.  “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” 1 John 4:18   You have #NOTHINGTOLOSE

2. Fear of Sacrifice – EVEN IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANYTHING IN THE END, YOU FOLLOWED JESUS!  Fear of sacrifice makes love conditional, this was never God’s intent.  In order to fully love, it can’t be about you.  You don’t love based on what you can get out of it, you love because it is who you are and how you are defined.  Selfless love is perhaps the most significant sign of someone who is choosing to follow Jesus.  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, “If you have not love you are a loud gong or a clanging symbol.”  This basically means you may be doing lots of stuff, a lot of activity but you are just making noise.  Fear of sacrifice means you are focusing more on your needs than the other persons.  Self preservation, self fulfillment and self centeredness are all driven by fear of losing something.  Control is an illusion and when you love sacrificially, you give control to God and others in order to manifest an evidence of a living God.   You have #NOTHINGTOLOSE

One simple question as I close… Who is God calling you to love today?  Go ahead, you have nothing to lose.

One simple act of obedience can cause a #rippleeffect

Josh

This Sunday at 217church:

April 19 – Go Plant Seeds – The parable of the seeds

April 26 – Go Do Good – The Good Samaritan

May 3 – Go Do Right – The Wise and the Foolish Builders

Join us at 217church, a multi-site, contemporary church in Mercer County NJ.  217church is a family with small groups in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that meets Sundays in the Hamilton AMC24 Theater 10:00am and Sharon Elementary school in Robbinsville, NJ at 11:00.  Our new Robbinsville/East Windsor Campus meets every Sunday.  If you are looking for a church in East Windsor NJ, Lawrenceville NJ, Ewing NJ, Robbinsville NJ, Hightstown NJ, Hamilton NJ, Mercer County, Middlesex County or Bucks County, PA, we would love to have you join us.  Don’t miss our weekend services. Visit www.217church.com for more information. or watch a weekend message here