November 1, 1998 - LESSON: Ephesians 3:14-21, NRSV

SERMON TITLE: Planted in Love

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. In college, I studied American and English literature.
  2. You could not help admire and be touched by the writings of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  3. In her Sonnets from the Portuguese, Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote:
    1. Sonnet 43, How Do I Love Thee.
      1. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
      2. I love thee to the dept and breadth and height
      3. My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
      4. For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
      5. I love thee to the level of every days
      6. Most quiet need. By sun and candlelight.
      7. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
      8. I love thee purely, and they turn from Praise.
      9. I love thee with the passion put to use
      10. In my old griefs, and with my childhoods faith.
      11. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
      12. With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,
      13. Smiles, tears, of all ly life!--and, if God choose,
      14. I shall but love thee better after death.
  4. This is a beautiful poem about love
    1. We are infatuated with love.
    2. We read about it, sing about it, talk about it in so many ways.

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  5. What about our love for God?
    1. Is our love as strong as it ought to be?
    2. Is our love as wide and deep and pure as it ought to be?
    3. Is our love as genuine?
    4. Paul writes about genuine love:
      1. (Romans 12:9-18 NRSV) Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; [10] love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. [11] Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. [12] Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. [13] Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. [14] Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. [15] Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. [16] Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. [17] Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. [18] If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
      2. If love is not genuine than we ought to examine the root causes and explore the grounding of what we claim as love.
  6. Premarital preparation exploring the meaning of love.
    1. Love is a word that we often use without understanding the full meaning or application of the principals involved. The biblical material points us to a trusted source for understanding the meaning and purpose of love by providing a description and applications.
    2. This kind of love is not natural nor normal to human understanding or experience. You can understand this by reading what John has written about love.
      1. Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. Gods love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another, (1 John 4:7-11, NRSV).

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    3. On the following pages are some of the biblical texts which speak of love and marriage. It is important to read the scripture passages first to see what is included, then write a brief answer for the questions that follow.
      1. Matthew 19:4-6: He answered, Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.
        1. How do you understand the text which says that a man (and woman) shall leave father and mother?
        2. What do you think it means when it says two shall become one?
      2. 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:8a: But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
        1. From the above description of love write a brief paragraph describing what you believe it means.
        2. What do you believe it means when it says, Love never ends.?
        3. How do you think it is possible to have this kind of love?

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      3. Luke 10:25-28: Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, What is written in the law? What do you read there? He answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.
        1. How is it possible for an individual to create a proper kind of love for him or her self?
        2. How is it possible for an individual to love the neighbor as the self?
      4. Matthew 5:43-45: You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
        1. What do you think it means when it say we shall love our enemies?
        2. How do we come to love our enemies?
      5. Romans 13:8-10: Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
      6. How do you understand the words of Paul to owe noting except to love one another.
      7. How do you understand the statement that love does no wrong (that is does no harm) to another person. (What could be considered harm? How do we avoid doing harm to another?)

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  7. It is no wonder that Paul writes:
    1. (17b) I pray that you may be rooted and grounded in love.
      1. Rooted: 4492. rhizoo, rhid-zo-o; from G4491; to root (fig. become stable):--root.
      2. To be like a tree which has great roots.
      3. When the winds blow and the storm threaten it can withstand.
    2. Grounded: 2311. themelioo, them-el-ee-o-o; from G2310; to lay a basis for, i.e. (lit.) erect, or (fig.) consolidate:--(lay the) found (-ation), ground, settle.
      1. I lovingly distinguish between two groups of people who live in Mukwonago.
        1. One group are the migrants.
          1. They have moved in after living different places in a lifetime
        2. Then there are the Settled
          1. In his play written for the sesquicentennial celebration, Ken Favel, wrote vignettes that highlighted the lives of some of the peoplew ho settled Mukwonago.
            1. Some of those families live in the area today.
            2. They were settled.
            3. To be grounded is to be settled.
            4. It is to find a place and stay there.
            5. It doesnt mean there will not be changes.
            6. All homes need to be refurbished,
            7. So do our lives and belief structures.
            8. Some old gives way to new.

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    3. (19a) and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.
      1. 5235. huperballo, hoop-er-bal-lo; from G5228 and G906; to throw beyond the usual mark, i.e. (fig.) to surpass (only act. part. supereminent):--exceeding, excel, pass.
        1. To throw beyond the usual mark.
        2. To be the Olympic champion of love
      2. 1108. gnosis, gno-sis; from G1097; knowing (the act), i.e. (by impl.) knowledge:--knowledge, science.
        1. The act of knowing.
          1. Knowledge
            1. The scientific knowledge
            2. The theological knowledge
  8. Our confusion about love and its application was highlighted in one of Rod Serlings episodes of the Twilight Zone.
    1. Unacceptable Behavior,--The Christian Ministry, July 8, 1991.
    2. An episode of The Twilight Zone was set in a futuristic world where a man had been convicted of the crime of coldness.
      1. He had been insensitive and unsociable to the people around him.
      2. For this he was sentenced to one year of invisibility.
      3. He was to be ostracized and ignored by his fellow citizens.
      4. A mark was placed on his forehead indicating that no one was to talk or interact with him.
      5. At first he thought his punishment laughable.
      6. He took advantage of it by walking into stores and restaurants to take whatever he wanted.
      7. However, in time he became increasingly desperate for companionship, affection and conversation.

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      8. One evening he came upon a young woman who had also been condemned to invisibility.
      9. When he begged her simply to recognize and talk to him, she fled in fright.
      10. For long months the man languished in the agony of isolation until his sentence finally came to an end.
      11. The experience transformed him. He was warmer, more considerate and caring.
      12. But soon his new, more loving self was tested in an unexpected way.
      13. One day he ran into the woman he had begged to talk with him months earlier. She was still serving her sentence, and now she was the desperate one.
      14. She sobbed and pleaded with him to look at her and say something.
      15. When he pushed by her and kept walking she crumbled to the ground weeping. Youre so cold! Youre so cold!
      16. Feelings of compassion welled up within him.
      17. He turned, knelt down and wrapped his arms about her.
      18. Seeing this, the other people on the street began moving away from them.
      19. Warning devices began blaring, Unacceptable behavior...Unacceptable behavior.
      20. The mans love had gone beyond the limits deemed appropriate by his society.
      21. Previously condemned for being cold, he now was condemned for being unacceptable loving.
  9. The writer of the article concluded: If we allow our love to be defined and directed by God we, too, risk this condemnation.
    1. But we will be in good company, the company of Jesus.
    2. We can be like Jesus if we allow God to help us become rooted, and grounded, in love.

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