TRANSCRIPTION | August 29, 2021 | God is “_____” Series |  GOD IS...Love

 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

So I'm praying that the people online, people in the sanctuary, will all be touched by this message. And today, I just want to be a weapon of mass instruction. Okay, that's what I want to do. I want lots of people to be reached.

 

Dr. Terry Swan

I'm calling this message Cross Training. Cross Training, the radical love of God. The people who followed Jesus who died on a cross, shed his blood for us and was raised from the dead. And it is so foundational to being a disciple of Jesus, that if you are not becoming a more loving person, you should really question your walk with God. You know, maybe somebody's cashed payment in on your reality check. Because you're missing the most important thing about being a Christian. It’s that because God is love, we are to be persons of love as well. Now, there's lots of great verses in 1 John, many of you have read through that book. And it just happened when pastor Eric called on me to preach, guess where I was in my reading? I read through the Bible every year. I was in 1 John. That can't be an accident, right? God had it all planned out for us. And here's the verse from the fourth chapter, verses seven and eight that best encapsulate this. There are many other good verses too, but this one says “Beloved, Let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves God is born of God and God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

Now, John Ortberg once wrote a story about a fella in his church, whose name was Hank, and Hank was not a loving person. I think every church has one like that. Maybe it's not true at 3trees, I don't know. If you've been at churches where there's one or two persons, you just kind of wander, they're not loving? And this guy was not. This guy always showed up for church, this guy named Hank. He ushered. He always made it to Bible study. He served. There’s one of these churches that gave perfect attendance pins. Anybody grew up with that? And he had a whole drawer full of perfect attendance pins. He had done all these things, but what he wasn't doing, he wasn't loving. As he approached 60 years of age, he was still rude, he was thin skinned, he was temperamental, he was difficult, he was joyless. I even think his grandchildren called him grumpa, grumpa. And the question is, how can this be? How can a person go to church all of his life, hear 1000s of sermons, be in the presence of God again and again and again, and yet not become a loving person? Don't you think the church should be alarmed, Ortberg asks. Should we call a board meeting or get the elders together? How is it that a person can spend a lifetime in the church in which we are being spiritually formed into the image of the God of love, and yet you don't become a loving person? Listen, it is not only possible, it is probable that if you don't love God with your heart and soul, and strength and mind intentionally, Satan can steal your heart and eventually even steal your heart away from the love of God. 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

And so John actually starts out with a warning, to watch and guard ourselves against the things that we choose to love. First John, the second chapter, verse 15, “Do not love the world, or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” See, if you love your possessions too much, you'll become possessed. Now Christians have gotten this wrong over the centuries. Many Christians just have misunderstood it. John is not saying that we aren't to enjoy the world. He's not saying that. The world is a wonderful place. There's lots of beauty in it, it's good. It is totally okay to enjoy this beautiful world. Look at what the writer of Ecclesiastes says, second chapter, verse 24, :Nothing is better for a man than he should eat and drink and that his soul should enjoy good and his labor. This also I saw was from the hand of God.” We live in a beautiful world, don't we? Thank you, God for all your good things to us so much to enjoy, just don't get too attached. Two verses later in verse 17, he reminds us this world is passing away. This world is passing away. So maybe to help us this morning, it would be better to translate that verse we just read from 1 John 2:15, don't be in love with the world. Don't be infatuated by things of the world, because it can steal your heart away from God, and it can even replace God. And if it replaces God, then it becomes an idol. And at the very end of this, this little book 1 John, the very last statement John makes to the persons he's writing to, he says little children, keep yourself from idols. 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

The apostle Paul wrote to a guy about this very concern in his second letter to Timothy, and he mentions a guy named Demas. There's just one line. This is what it says: “For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.” I thought, what a sobering thought to have your name mentioned in the Bible, and the only thing that's known about you is that you are a person who used to love God, but now you love this present world more than God itself. Do you have friends or family that used to love Jesus and now they love the world more? Think of someone like that you know. They used to come to church, they're active, you knew their heart was right. But now they love the stuff better. I've got friends like that, many from college, many that were even planning to go into ministry. And maybe they're still in church, or they might even be listening to my voice right now. But they know that something is not right in their soul. They feel that something is off. 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

You know, John also wrote the book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible. And in the second chapter, God speaks to him through the Spirit to the church at Ephesus, and it says God says I have something against you, you have left your first love. You've left your first love. If you want to take a look at what you love, it will clue you in. Are you more passionate about your car, a boat, a person, your family, your house, a garden, sports, UK basketball, well, maybe not this last year, but a job music money, sex, ambition, status. If so, then your heart gets slowly stolen away. Because Jesus said where your treasure is, help me out here, there's where your heart lies right there. That's loving the world and loving the things of the world. And you know, you and I know inside ourselves when something else within our souls begins to topple the preeminent love of God, we're aware. 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

But you know, I'm so grateful to God for the good things that have happened in my life. I've had a great life. The love of God came to me when I was just a child, and I surrendered to become a follower of Jesus. And this summer, I went back to northern Wisconsin to a high school reunion. Has anyone been back to a high school reunion? It's an interesting event. And I grew up in a village. It wasn’t even big enough to be called the town. It was a lovely little village, but it was small like the city limit signs are almost back to back. Okay, it's like really small. And I'd forgotten until I drove back through the little town I'd grown up in and that there's only one stoplight. There's only one stoplight and the pace was just so different. It was so much slower. And I was thinking about how Cinda and I go to Louisville a lot, and the drivers in Louisville, they kind of drive like they think it's the Kentucky Derby. You know what I'm talking about? I mean, they are aggressive, they will pass you in a carwash, they're just awful the way they drive. So I stopped my little rental car at this light. And just one single light in this tiny town, and I look over and there's the building, the restaurant where I got my first job when I was 15. It was a chicken restaurant, it was called the Pick a Chick. That name would not fly today. Pick a chick sounds like an internet dating service or something now. But that's where I got my first job. And I got looking around as I'm sitting at the stoplight, and I said it doesn't look like things have changed much here. But I wasn't looking at it with spiritual eyes. And that night, I went to my high school reunion, I met people that I'd grown up with since kindergarten, I met them in kindergarten, and the whole 13 years went to school with them. And I came to realize over the course of the night that almost all of them had become Christians. And they were just such lovely, beautiful people. And I had changed and why had we changed? It was because of the love of God. That's what had changed. It wasn’t about buildings and stuff like that. It's a work that God does in our souls. And while I was there for a couple days, I went to breakfast one morning with my youngest brother, and we came out of this restaurant. And this voice called out to me, hey, Terry Swan. And I turned and I didn't recognize this guy. And he said, Hey, are you Terry Swan used to play basketball for Cameron high School? I said yes. And he said, well, I remember you; it was a few years ago. And you know, the older I get, the better athlete I think I was. But I thought about that, that's how I was remembered there. And I exchanged a lot of my early life for dribbling a ball. And you want to know something, that was my identity then but it wasn't anymore. Because I'd fallen in love with God. And I only have so much passion. I only have so much love. And I honestly, I still enjoy sports, but I just can't get as excited as I used to because there's only so much room in my soul. See, and God occupies there. 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

Some of you know this, but I retired four weeks ago from Lindsey Wilson. And you live long enough it eventually happens. Well, thank you. Thanks, I didn’t expect that. Cleaned out my office at the end of July. And, you know, you know when you come to Columbia and Lindsey Wilson Hill and there's that beautiful, almost 10 storey round chapel that has the lit up dome you can see for miles. And many couples were married in that chapel, including Eric and Mandy. And my office was underneath there; I had the Oval Office, just two people have it. Joe Biden and me, have an oval office. But it's not mine anymore. That was my identity for a lot of years. The world passes away. I go home and I look in the closet and I've got a whole row of military uniforms. Lifetime of service to the country and that was once my identity. But that's passed on. John says the world passes away, don't get too attached. See, I actually believe, I actually believe this is an identity issue for all of us. And it's at a crisis in our culture right now. Right now, we have people who are forcefully expressing that the most important thing about your identity is your gender, or your ethnicity, or your orientation, or your nationality. And we are absolutely going backwards as a nation right now. These are people who are actually experiencing real identity theft. They don't even know who they are. They do not know who they are, they're confused about. These are people who feel good and behave badly. 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

You know, when I was a graduate student, one class I took at Vanderbilt, I literally read everything that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, had written, one of the greatest of Americans. And one of his most famous lines is from his I Have a Dream speech, where he prayed that someday his children would be judged by the content of their character, and not by the color of their skin. And we have gone backwards, friends, to division and hatred, and separation and anger, and tribalism, and blaming and victimization. But Dr. King said this, “I have decided to stick with love, because hate is too great of a burden to bear.” Isn’t that a great thought? Our identity cannot be found anywhere in the world. Wasn't that a great message last week, by the way, by Pastor Eric? And one of my favorite takeaways, we have a wonderful pastor and a great pastoral team, just such a blessing to be involved in 3trees. Remember Pastor Eric said people want to say I was born this way. It's who I am. But that's not the most important thing about your identity. Because when Nicodemus came to see Jesus at night, and that was the first Nick at night, by the way. Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must, help me out here, be born again. You must be born again. That's the most important thing about you. And when you are born again, then you realize your true identity, that you're a child of God. And that leads us friends to who we truly are. 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

First John, the third chapter, verse one says this, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God.” Now, anytime you see that word, behold in Scripture, it just means look at it intently. Gaze at it, think about it, because it's going to change you. And John tells us to gaze intently at the manner of God's love, which has been bestowed upon us. Manner means that you astonished, or you admire something. Do you remember that story where Jesus stops the storm and the sea raging and the winds and everything, and his disciples turn to each other, and they say, “What manner of man is this?” See, astonishment, admiration. And the manner of God's love is that it is bestowed upon us. To have it bestowed means that it's given lavishly, that we can't even calculate it. That's why we spend a whole lifetime figuring out the love of God. You could have a message on the love of God every Sunday for the rest of your life, and you wouldn't even begin to approach the depth of God's love for us. And when we understand how much Jesus loves us, that he stretches out his arms to us on the cross, and dies for us, this is cross training. You know, everybody here knows John 3:16, God so loved the world. But how about 1 John 3:16, “By this we know love because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay our lives down for our brothers.” See, this is what love is, this is how God thinks. This is how we understand it. We are children of God, not because we love God, but because God loved us while we were yet sinners, and we still are sinners, and we still sin and we need the love of God. And the Bible says, the Romans eight chapter, that nothing will ever separate us from that love. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. Nothing. 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

You know, right now, the eyes of the world are on Afghanistan, aren't they? Every day in the news, front page headlines, about Afghanistan, a lot of American lives lost, a lot of our resources. 10s of billions of dollars invested there. And we've been involved in this shameful, ill-planned, politically-motivated, hasty retreat. And reports are coming back now of many Christians being martyred, even just for having a Bible app on your cell phone. And you're wondering, in these very, very restrictive Islamic countries, can the love of God even reach to these people? How will you get it to them? Listen, friends, God loves everybody, and nothing will separate a person from the love of God. It's kind of an interesting thing when you juxtapose the beliefs about God with Islam, that we believe that the core of God is love, right? That's what we're saying today. It never says that in the Quran, the Holy Book of Muslims, it never says that God is love. And we believe that is who God is. And I've been reading reports about Muslims coming to Christ in unprecedented numbers across the globe, because they're attracted to the love of God, the real God that we know. It's like a revival. Many are coming to Christ through media ministries, like TV, through the internet, through radio. You know, the Bible says Satan is the prince of the power of the air. Would you say that much of the media, the power of the air, has been hijacked for his purposes? Christians are taking back the airwaves. But what about those Muslims who are trapped in culture where they can't even, you know, dare to risk their lives to, you know, look at the internet about Jesus or read a Bible or something like that? Listen to this. God is speaking to Muslims across the world, in their dreams, and having visions. No, this is amazing, you got to hear this. Tom Doyle was telling author Lee Strobel, that Christian missionaries are placing ads in Muslim newspapers that simply say, have you seen the man in the white robe in your dreams, he has a message for you, call this number. So many Muslims are having God implanted dreams, the man in the white robe, that Christians are placing all these ads so that they can reach them because nothing can separate us from the love of God. Does that build up your faith up today? Isn’t that great? 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

You know, for many years, I struggled and I wondered about people who die and don't have a chance to repent and accept Christ. You struggle with that question? It's a tough one, especially those who die suddenly, right? People who die in a split second in a car accident, or fall, or a heart attack, and they're gone just like that. No chance for a profession of faith. You know, what happens to that person? Because the Bible says it is appointed unto man once they die, and then comes to judgment. I mean, do they go straight to hell in a handbasket? What happens to that person? 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

I will tell you the first funeral that I ever did, as a very young, just ordained minister, was a funeral for a man whose last earthly act was to commit adultery with his neighbor's wife. And as that man came out of her house, the outraged husband was hiding in the bushes and he blew the back of his head off with a shotgun. And that adulterous man left three grieving little girls who didn't get to grow up with a dad. And that was a tough funeral to do. And I'd wondered, where does he go? And then I heard the testimony of a man named Ian McCormack, a New Zealander who spoke here in the area. I don't know, Cinda, how many years ago it was, it was like eight or 10 years ago that Ian McCormick came. He spoke at Campbellsville University. He spoke at Lindsey Wilson college. And his testimony is recorded on his website, aglimpseofeternity.org. And there's a movie about his life called the Perfect Wave. And I promise you, it'll be truly worth your time to watch and listen to it. It'll change you. And Ian McCormick, from New Zealand, was raised in a Christian home. They were Anglicans. His mother prayed for him. But when he became a young man, he decided that he was an atheist, and what he called the free thinker. And his passion, his idol in his life was he loved to surf and dive. And when he was 24 years old, he sold everything that he had, and he decided to embark on a hedonistic holiday, traveling around the world surfing and diving until his money ran out. And he was night diving off an island off the coast of Africa, and he was stung five times on the forearms, by box jellyfish, some of the most poisonous creatures on the earth. Usually one sting will kill a person in a matter of minutes. And he was stung five times. He was brought to the shore, they had to wait a long time on an ambulance that missed the address for where he was. And then they had to take him 15 miles to a hospital. And he was still alive, but he knew that he was dying, okay. And as he was dying there in that ambulance, all he could think about was his mother's prayers, and about his wasted life and how he just lived for himself. And as he was in the ambulance, he didn't even know how to pray himself. And he said, like a bright light, the letters and the words of the Lord's Prayer appeared to him. And he began praying that prayer and he prayed for forgiveness of sins. This part of the testimony just grabs me because it was as if God slowed down time to give him a chance to repent because he should have just died immediately. And Ian McCormick prayed for forgiveness of sins as he was dying. When he got to the hospital, he was already too far gone, there was too much poison circulating and his body. And he realized in a moment that he was now dying, and he was starting to go somewhere. And then to his terror, he realized that he was no longer in his body, but he was in a horrible place of total darkness. And he had never been so frightened. He cried out in horror, and he heard voices in torment, hissing at him to shut up. And he realized that he was in hell. And his description of it is so terrifying, I can't even recount it here. But I tell you what it will put the fear of God in you. And Ian McCormick called out and said, God, oh God, I repented before I died. I know that there's no repenting afterwards, God, please let me return. And I will tell everyone that this is real, and I will dedicate my life to you. And he said, at that moment, he saw a light and a voice telling him to tilt his head. And he tilted his head and he realized he was back in his body. And he had been dead for 20 minutes. And his body had actually been pushed over to the side because they were going to take it to the morgue. And when he tilted his head, the hospital staff came rushing up to him, and he miraculously survived. And he went on to become a minister, and dedicate his life to telling people that the spiritual truths that we teach are real. And he'd experienced that. 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

Now, friends, isn't that just like our God? Do you realize the level of the love of God has for each of us? You can be one inch from eternity in hell, and God will snatch you back just for your mother's prayers. If you obey, if you do it God's ways, someday that will be you someday, that will be me. We will all die, and God wants no one to perish eternally. Anybody here got someone that you've been praying to except Jesus, maybe for a long time? Let's see a show of hands. Even if you're watching on television, raise your hand, I can't see it. A brother, sister, a parent, a daughter, a son, a friend. Can God's love reach them? Absolutely. Hold on to that. See, there's a lot of Christians, when you talk about God's love, they use the same vocabulary, but they don't use the same dictionary. In God's dictionary, godly love equals obedience. That's what it says in 1 John: godly love equals obedience. To love is to obey. Love is not a feeling. Godly love is not a feeling. It is an act of the will. Jesus did not feel good on the cross. It was excruciating. And yet it was the most loving act in history. That's why John writes 1 John five. He says, This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

 

Dr. Terry Swan

This is going to be our last point about the lavish, astonishing love of God. We display our love for God by our actions, our practices, our giving, our keeping God's commandments, our loving others. In other words, love obeyed, must be displayed. Can you say that with me, love obeyed, must be displayed. We are meant to be ambassadors for God. We are not to be secret agents. All God says is just look around your world and God will open up your eyes and show you who to love and how to love. Two weeks ago, Cinda and I were at 4th Street Live in Louisville. And we stopped to get a slice of pizza, each of us. And Cinda happened to notice a young, scruffy homeless young man, kind of looking and then go into an alley. I didn't see him. And Cinda, who is always attuned to the love of God turns to me and says, Terry why don't you go buy him a slice of pizza taken into the alley? And so I did. You know, I took it out to the young man, and he accepted it. And then while we're walking away, Cinda said a prayer, an unusual prayer. She said, go home to your mother. Go home to your mother. I wonder if anybody else is even praying for that young man. He didn't even look 20 years old. And you say there's so many homeless people out there. But you can express the love of God to one. And in that moment, I think the kingdom of God's love came into an alley on 4th Street Live in Louisville. See, that's how it works. You just look around and God will put you in the right place. Bloom where you're planted. 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

You know, I have a friend who is a drill sergeant for a lot of years. His name was Fidel Jiminez. And he was tough. He was tougher than a $2 steak. He was tough. And God planted Sergeant Jimnez to be a trainer of young soldiers. You know, you think of a drill sergeant just barking at you and yelling and stuff. But even though he had to command these soldiers, the love of God would just come through him and he would invite them to come to church. We call it chapel in the army, and I thought he’s just blooming where he's planting. You know, since Cinda and I've come through retirement, we moved a lot of stuff. I came across a photo a few weeks ago that I hadn't remembered seeing. And it had to be one of the earlier photos of me. But it's a photo of a living room, and it's all these relatives of mine. There's my grandparents and aunts and uncles and things like that. But the thing that would strike you, if you saw that photo is right in the center, smiling broadly, is a little year-and-a-half-old toddler with blond hair, just grinning broadly into the camera. And it's, it's me. And I just, it's like, I look so confident, and like, everybody loves me, and I'm the center of the world, and, I was. I was the first grandchild on that side of the family. And just looking at that picture, I realized how I've been surrounded by love. I had people who listened to me and affirmed me, and watched out for me, and treated me lovingly, and gently with the love of God. They spoke blessing into my life. I actually think love is more caught than it is taught. And the manner of God's love, remember, is meant to be lavish, a lavish kind of attention. And that's why I Cinda and I tried to do that with our kids, you know, and now with our grandkids. And that's what happened to me. And if, if there is any success, or confidence in my later years, I think most of it was derived by those loving people who surrounded me when my personality was being formed. And I had one person who especially loved me. Now my folks really loved me, but I would call her a manner mentor. Did you have somebody like that in your life that was so loving, that you said when I grow up, I want to be a loving person like that? Do you have somebody like that? That you just admire? And for me, it was my paternal grandmother, Cecilia Swan, five foot one inches tall, Swedish immigrant, broken English. And today, her grandchildren and great grandchildren still talk about her as if she's still alive, and she's been dead for 35 years. Sixth grade education, a homemaker. And I actually think she had the gift of evangelism. Now, you know, it's not going to work to preach at your family, right? That doesn't work, that just drives them away. But she would listen to you. She would be interested in you. She was loving and caring, and she loved to talk about Jesus, and she’d invite you to church. And today out of her family line, everyone on her side of the family is a Christian except one. Look, even Jesus lost one, right? 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

All these Christians, several clergy, all of them are active in church and community. You say what can a little Swedish immigrant woman do with a sixth grade education, and a homemaker? Oh, she influenced generations to come. You got children in your home? Some of you do. There's your mission field right there. Parenting is tough, but you cannot go wrong if you love them with the love of God. You don't have to run to the other side of town, or go on a mission trip or something. Just look around your home, look at your neighbors, or your work, or look at an alley beside a restaurant, on 4th Street Live. The Bible says because God loved us, we must also love. We love God first of all, that's the vertical component; and then when we're filled with God's holy love, we love others, that's the horizontal component, loving people intentionally. 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

I’m going to be inviting the musicians to come on up now. I'm wondering for some of you, if you've sensed, when I spoke about it, that your love, maybe it's getting a little bit cold. You kind of know when the fire is going out. You're aware that if it's within you. Maybe you’re just loving the world a little too much and not loving God enough. Listen, God wants you to be reignited. And God would do that today in a millisecond. Maybe you've been walking with the Lord for a long time, and your family members say you're not very loving. You say I need to change that picture, right fast. Because if I don't love, it's as if I don't even know God. And I bet there are persons in the sanctuary and even watching online, that you're not even sure if you are a God follower. You don't even know if you've surrendered to Christ. And I tell you that story of Ian McCormick, and you start realizing about the afterlife, you say I want to have my name in the book of life. And I want to know that I'll be in the forever family. And God would do that for you today. You shouldn't linger and wait over something as important as that. Or I'm betting there's even several of you that you've got something in your life that's gotten in the way, maybe it's a personal sin, I don't know, you just haven't been obedient like you should. And Jesus said, If you love me, you will obey me. Behold, the Bible says, behold, just look around. How about if you decide to be the loving one in your marriage? How about if you decide to be the loving parent, or the loving sibling, or the loving neighbor, or the loving person in your dormitory, or the loving person at your job? God will fill you with supernatural love this morning, more than you could ever even imagine. Because it's not about you. It's about God's love for us. 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

And we're gonna invite you, as we always do here, 3trees to use the altar. You know what the great thing about the altar is? People don't know if you're coming and praying for your sick grandmother, or you're praying for some deep sin in your life. They don't know. But God knows. God knows. And that should never hold you back from coming forward and saying a prayer. So I'm going to ask their campus pastor to come join me, and would you all stand please here for a moment, let's just stand together. And I'd like to say a prayer for you. Let’s all bow together, shall we? 

 

Dr. Terry Swan

Oh, God, hear the prayer of our hearts today. You've been speaking to us so directly because your Word and 1 John is so direct and so clear cut. We thank you. We thank you for the loving sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. We thank you for his shed blood that forgives every sin. And we ask now, Lord, that you would fill us with holy love. Let your Holy Spirit search our minds like a spotlight, cleanse us. Help us to be obedient and decide today, today, today, this very hour, that I will love others as Jesus loves. And now we pray this in the Majestic Name of Jesus who died for us and rose from the dead to give us resurrection power. And the people of God said, amen.