Rev. David Holwick G
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
February 20, 2000
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
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I. I love what you do for ME.
A. For thousands of years, society has lifted up selfless love.
1) It is also known as altruism or sacrificial love.
2) The main idea is that love is real only when I give of
myself and expect nothing in return.
B. Gary Hull thinks selfless love is full of baloney. #44
It suggests this kind of Valentine Card:
"I get no pleasure from your existence.
I obtain no personal enjoyment from the way you look, dress,
move, act or think.
Our relationship profits me not.
You satisfy no sexual, emotional or intellectual needs of mine.
You're a charity case, and I'm with you only out of pity.
Love, XXX."
C. He says genuine love is the most selfish experience possible.
1) It benefits your life in a way that involves no sacrifice
of others to yourself, or of yourself to others.
2) To love a person is selfish because it means that you value
that person, that he or she makes your life better,
that he or she is an intense source of joy to you.
3) Love is not sacrificial but an investment in someone whose
happiness is crucially important to your own.
a) It would only be a sacrifice for a stranger or enemy.
b) Self-denying love would not care if loved one is healthy
or sick, feels pleasure or pain.
D. Altruistic love is a crime.
1) People who want love but can't offer anything are parasites.
2) They seek an unearned spiritual value in the same way that
a thief seeks unearned wealth.
3) This is a basic tenet of the philosophy of Ayn Rand, who
said selfishness should be a virtue, not a vice.
II. More truthful than we care to admit?
A. Much "Christian love" is not that sacrificial.
1) We love because we want to be loved. "Tit for tat."
2) We want to love those who are beautiful, who are rich,
who can offer us something and make us look good.
3) The Bible says we tend to assess people by their outward
appearances. That's where we focus our love, too.
B. Even our sacrificial loving can be lacking.
1) When we expend ourselves to the limit, we often do it
out of a need for attention.
2) We have all heard of the "martyr complex.
3) When we pretend to be selfless, are we really seeking
subtle, egotistic rewards?
III. The radical teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
A. Jesus knew all about selfish love. Matthew 5:46-47
1) Even tax collectors will love those who love them back!
2) He knew religious people had a weakness here.
B. The best love is sacrificial love.
1) Giving love to those who can't, or won't, love us back.
a) Outcasts, like lepers and foreigners.
b) The weak, like children and the poor.
c) Enemies.
2) We are not self-hating, but other-seeking.
a) Focus is on other person, not us.
b) Focus is on loving actions more than warm feelings.
1> This is how we can love an enemy.
3) Sacrificial love is best expressed in service.
a) Develop a heart that wants to do for others.
b) We may end up enjoying this, but our joy is not the
focus.
c) Anybody can serve.
C. Jesus modeled sacrificial love throughout his life.
1) The ultimate love is giving your life for a friend.
a) He taught it.
b) He did it.
2) (my very first "sermon" in high school - parable of kid
on tricycle heading into street...)
3) Jesus' death on the cross was his act of love.
a) We don't deserve it, but he offers it anyway.
b) Romans 5:8 - "While we are still sinners, Christ died
for us."
c) It has the power to change us.
IV. Focusing on yourself vs. focusing on Jesus.
A. Richard Foster, in "Celebration of Discipline," describes the
characteristics of two approaches to love / service.
Self-focused service is:
1. Concerned with impressive gains.
2. Requires external reward, appreciation, and applause.
3. Highly concerned about results.
4. Affected by feelings.
5. Insists on meeting the need; it demands the opportunity
to help.
Christ-focused service:
1. Doesn't distinguish between small and large.
2. Content to be hidden. God's approval is sufficient.
3. Free of the need to calculate results.
It delights only in service.
4. Ministers simply and faithfully because there is a need.
The service disciplines the feelings.
5. Listens with tenderness and patience.
It can serve by waiting in silence.
#369
V. The chink in the armor of Ayn Rand's selfish love.
A. It always has to think, "What's in it for me?"
1) It stumbles over the outcasts and losers.
2) But in God's eyes, we are ALL losers.
B. Selfishness comes easily to us.
1) Notice the number of negatives in 1 Corinthians 13:
a) Love shouldn't envy, boast, be proud.
b) It isn't rude, self-seeking, easily angered, keeping
track of every wrong.
2) The positives show us how to dig out of the hole:
a) Be patient and kind.
b) Rejoice with the truth.
c) Love for the long haul - always protect, trust, hope,
persevere.
VI. God's love can be poured out in our hearts.
A. His love is enough for us.
B. It frees us to love others and expect nothing back.
C. God can meet our unfulfilled needs.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 44 "The Greatest Love Is A Very Selfish Love," by Gary Hull, senior
writer for the Ayn Rand Institute in Marina Del Rey, California.
Daily Record newspaper of Parsippany, New Jersey; February 13,
2000, page O-1.
#369 Leadership Magazine, "The Back Page," by Paul Robbins, Fall
1988, page 146.
These and 5,500 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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