Pastor Stan Simmons
January 28, 2007 - W0704

Today we are privileged to have a man who exudes love. Guest Pastor Stan Simmons is here from Billings, Montana. When I asked him to share his heart and fellowship with us, he said yes right away especially since it was seventeen degrees below zero there. So here he is -- a wonderful man who will share a message about love.

Today, I’d like to talk about love. Love is a learned behavior. So the way we view love is important. And Jesus taught us two important things: The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself.

So imagine looking through a pair of eye glasses. Let’s call them “love glasses” with one lens representing loving God and the other loving people. Therefore, when we look through these glasses, we’re actually looking through both lenses at the same time. Now when we look through the “loving God lens” we see that we love God no matter what kind of day we have good or bad. This is the way we see life. Similarly, as we look through the other lens “loving people” we love people of all shapes and sizes. However, as we have all learned we’re not going to always like everyone. What is the difference between liking and loving people and wanting the best for them? Let’s look and see the implication on this thing called love. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (1Cor. 13:4-8).

Notice that love isn’t described as a feeling and although it does involve our emotion, it goes far beyond that. The idea of love begins the moment we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We begin to experience the love of God as a Father because we are a child of God.

For some of us it may be challenging to think of God as a loving and perfect Father because of our history with our own fathers. Yet it is from our glimpses of our own fathers that we get an idea of what God is like. Let me share a glimpse of love I have of my father. One day, while in the fourth grade my dad came home from being gone for several weeks. Every spring my dad would leave because he was a sheep shearer. He’d go to California, Oregon then Montana to do this. I remember once he gave me a jar of pennies. Let me just say that in the mid-fifties a jar of pennies to a fourth grade boy was a lot. It meant the world to me then and even more to me now. It’s because I know what I meant to my dad. The thought of my dad empting his pockets and thinking of me while putting pennies in a jar helped me understand that he missed me and anticipated his return home to be with me. Yet here’s a question, did my dad put those pennies in a jar because I was a perfect little boy? Of course not, Yet my dad kept saving pennies for me while he was away because he missed me and was thinking about me.

The point is my father didn’t love me because I was better one day and then stop loving me because I was bad on another day. He loved me regardless because he was my father and I was his son. You see a father-son relationship is not based on behavior. Did my father discipline me? Trust me, he did. Was he disappointed in me? Of course he was. But I didn’t stop being his son and he did not love me any less.

And so how much more is God’s love for us? Our heavenly Father loves each and every one of us unconditionally. We are precious to Him. And as He demonstrates His love for us, He shows us how we are to love others. How do we do that? Well, here are three key points to live a life of love.

                                  If YOU WANT TO LIVE A LIFE OF LOVE:

1.     LIVE IN THE LOVE OF GOD.

Our God loves us as a Father who loves His children. And it is with an unceasing love.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:35, 37-39 NIV).

God loves us like a perfect Father and it isn’t based on our behavior. Of course He does want us to behave well, but He doesn’t stop loving us when we don’t. The next point to remember if we are to live a life of love is to…

2.     OVERCOME PAST PERCEPTIONS OF LOVE.

Valentines Day is coming up so go back in time to the first time we ever fell in love with someone. It may have been called puppy love or an infatuation. But back then, we were in love.

For me, when I was still in school I drew a heart in my notebook with my initials “S.S.”and ”S.N” for the girl I loved. She was a cute little brunette! I loved her so much and she loved me so much. Well actually, I don’t know if she loved me or not. But the big deal was that I loved her. And I couldn’t imagine loving anyone else besides Sandra Nichols.

But a few weeks later, I scratched out her initials “S.N.” and wrote “C.E.” for Caralee Edmond. She had light brown hair and sat behind me in class. We were in love. She gave me her necklace and I wore it around my neck. Later I bought a half-heart necklace, had my name “Stan” engraved on it, and I put it around Caralee’s neck the next day. Oh man! We loved each other! Then a few weeks later, I scratched out Caralee’s initials and…I think you got the picture here.

The point is this. There is a depth of love that many people never experience. Why? Because they think love is something to fall in and out of. Aren’t you glad that our Father does not fall in and out of love with us! His love is enduring and everlasting. His love is permanent and lasts forever.    

So first let’s remember we want to live in the love of our Father. Secondly, we want to understand that God’s love doesn’t go away. It’s steady and steadfast. And finally, as we live the live of love, we want to…

3.     VIEW PEOPLE AS GOD DOES.

Max Lucado wrote a children’s story called “You Are Special”. It’s a story of Wemmicks who were little wooden people who stuck gold stars and grey dots on one another all day. Getting a gold star was dependent on abilities, looks, etc. On the other hand, if a Wemmick couldn’t do much or they were flawed in some way, they'd receive a grey dot.

Punchinello was a Wemmick covered with grey dots. One day he noticed a Wemmick girl who didn’t have any stars or grey dots on her. In fact, every time a Wemmick would stick a star or dot on her, it fell off. So Punchinello asked the girl about it. She told him that she went up to the hill everyday to see her maker Eli. She added that Eli reminded her how special she was and that he loved her. It didn’t matter what Wemmicks thought of her. What mattered most was what Eli thought of her. So she told Punchinello to go up and see Eli.

So Punchinello went to see Eli who was so pleased to see him. Punchinello was surprised that Eli knew his name. But of course he knew his name for Eli made him. Eli noticed Punchinello had a lot of grey dots and when Punchinello tried to apologize, Eli said it didn’t matter what the other Wemmicks thought. All that mattered was Eli loved him and that he was special.

When Punchinello got up to leave after a few minutes of visiting, Eli invited him to come back and see him often. You see, Eli wanted to remind him how much he was loved and cared about. Then as Punchinello believed what Eli said, one of the grey dots fell to the ground.

Many of us can identify with this story. Our self-image or the way we view ourself was formulated to a large degree on what other people thought and said about us. Sometimes, it’s not a positive thing. We tend to judge and evaluate one another in unhealthy ways.

What we should do is spend more time with God understanding how much He loves and cares for us. Notice what Jesus said about judging others. “Jesus said, ‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.’” (Matt. 7:1-5 NIV).

Here are four thoughts that come from this Scripture:

• The tendency we have is to judge and evaluate one another based on our perceptions.
• The problem is that we don’t see clearly. Jesus described it as we have a log in our own eye. In other words, we are blinded by our sinfulness.
• The solution is to focus on the log in our eye or to focus on dealing with our own sinfulness and our relationship with the Lord. Allow Him to work on us for the rest of our lives.
• The result of this will revolutionize our attitudes and relationships with other people.

Let us remember that God loves us as a perfect Father. Let us not only learn to live in the love of God and enjoy that for ourselves, but let us extend that love to others in the same way God loves us. Our Father loves us unconditionally. It’s not based upon what others think of you or what you’ve been taught to think about yourself. He loves us as our perfect heavenly Father.

Discussion Questions

Q1) In scriptures 1 Cor.13:4-8, what areas would you say you may need to work on?

Q2) Is there anything that hinders you from believing God’s unconditional love for you?

Q3) Is there a tendency or perception that hinders your ability to love others as God does?   

Q4) Are you willing to allow God to stretch your ability to love in order that you may love other’s the way He does?

"All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong with our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.”  (2 Tim. 3:16-17 NLT)

 Sermon Notes Ministry: Debbie Chang, Doreen Rabaino, Leighton Loo, &

Jay Tsukayama