Why It's Hard to Share the Love, Part 2

Stronghold number five: He or she will never come to Christ versus God desires all people to be saved. Don’t give up. If you would have asked me, “Who do you think will never come to Christ?” We’ve prayed, we’ve shared, we’ve prayed, we’ve shared, we’ve acted, we’ve loved, we’ve forgiven, we’ve…it was Theresa’s dad. Eighty-seven years old.

And, I mean, every place I’ve ever been he would come to church and I’d make sure, I’d change my message when he came. I’m gonna put the gospel in there somewhere.

And he heard it from Theresa, and we loved him, and prayed. And, in my heart of hearts, I’ve watched my wife never ever give up. Never ever give up. Never ever give up.

Guess what? Granddad came to Christ. Why? How? You guess what. I have no idea. But it was the right place, at the right time, with sowing and watering, and as I look back, I think it revolved around some deep pains and wounds, he heard the gospel through someone he could identify with. Bam! The lights came on.

Don’t you ever assume that anybody is outside of what God might do. Don’t give up. Look at what the Scripture says, “This is good and pleases God, our Savior. This is His desire who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.”

Stronghold number six is, “I’m just not bold enough,” that’s the lie, versus, “I don’t care enough.” See, a lot of times I’ve thought to myself, “You know what? I’m just not bold enough.”

Listen to Paul’s motivation. II Corinthians 5:14 and 15 he says, “For Christ’s love compels me.” The word means, “I was hemmed in.” It’s a picture of Indiana Jones. You know? And the walls are coming in and there’s no way out. That’s that word.

Paul is saying how much God has loved me. What He has delivered me from. What He has given me. It compels me. But it’s not just an emotional, love response. It’s objective truth. Because notice what he says, “Because we’re convinced that One died for all,” that’s Jesus, “therefore all died and He died for all that those who lived should live no longer for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.”

Where it says, “He died for all,” that little word “for” means, “for the sake of and in the place of.” See, the apostle Paul had this conviction. His conviction was, “There’s a real heaven. There’s a real eternity. And there’s a real Christless eternity.” And he says, “I’m compelled by what Christ has done for me and I realize He died for all.”

This unlimited grace of God, this work on the cross, this resurrection, this offer of eternal life, it’s for everyone whoever would respond.

But the conduit and the link between that truth, and that reality, and people’s hearts, and souls, and lives are people like us.

Sometimes, God gives you great opportunities to learn and I taught a little two-day seminar for a group down in Orange County. And so I was flying back, a young gal from Dubai was there. She works for Google as a project manager and, you know, I, kind of, looked sort of my daughter’s age. She looked like one of those mid to late twenties.

And we got talking a little bit and had a conversation and, you know, I’m reviewing my notes. I mean the very notes right now to give this message to you. I’m reviewing them and I always rewrite them on Saturday.

And so we get talking and so I’m very aware, “This would be a great opportunity to tell her about the love of God since I’ve been thinking, and praying, and talking about this.

And so we talk and I sort of go around it this way, and around it this way, and have you ever gotten where you, sort of, have this lump in your throat like you could tell I don’t think, I don’t think they’d really be closed but, errrrrr. And then you just don’t quite get it out. Anybody? Does that happen to anybody else?

And so, you know, I keep waiting, I keep waiting and then, like, God gives me, like, opportunity one, opportunity two, opportunity three. And I just weenie out. I mean I’m just sitting there and I’m thinking about this. And I have an outgoing personality.

And then, and then she starts reading a magazine and I just, “Oh man, I blew it. I mean there was an opportunity, there was a window, she was…” And so I put my headphones on and I, so I, okay, I better finish my notes. So guess what?

I’m on this one. I’m writing, on the plane, with her next to me. I’m writing down, “Paul is convinced. I gotta tell them. Are they, are you really convinced that eternity is real? How much God actually loves them.”

And what I realized afresh was … the stronghold is about whether I’m bold or not. It gets to be all about me, and what I’m doing, or not doing.

And as I read that just, all I can tell you, I don’t know how it works but something, it was almost physical, like, the Spirit of God came in in a fresh way and said, “I love her. Can we get off of you right now? I just love her.”

And so I thought, “Oh, John Saville, what the heck?” I turned to her and said, “Hey, how’s that magazine going?” “Going great.” I said, “Could I ask you something?” “Yeah.” I said, “Has anyone ever explained to you how much Jesus loves you?”

And I’m thinking, “Okay.” And she goes, “No.” I said, “Well, would you mind if I just told you a little bit about that?” “Sure.” And pretty soon I find out she’s only been married a year and, you know, I draw a little triangle with God at the top and men and women at the bottom and how we need physical intimacy and emotional intimacy but also spiritual intimacy.

“Oh my husband. He’s very spiritual. I’m not at all.” And I talked about how you get closer to God, then you get closer to each other because I know she’s real motivated in her marriage.

And then I had a book with me called, “Good to Great in God’s Eyes.” And, you know, she’s from Google so I said, “Have you read Collins’ book, ‘Good to Great?’” “Oh yeah!” And we went through, you know, getting great people on the bus and all the jazz.

And I said, “I was with an organization trying to do that, and God showed me that, you know, there’s practices that people that really get close to God have.” And I opened it up and I went through each of them. And she’s like, “Wow.” I said, “Would you like this?” “Yeah!” So I signed it for her and, you know, we, I said, “Here’s my email if you have any questions at all.”

And so we get up and she did not pray to receive Christ, she didn’t share it with the rest of the, you know, we were getting done. Alright?

But, I mean, it was like, lie number one: She’s not open. Boom. Lie number two: It’s a superstar. I’ve got an outgoing personality and I was hedging. And then, it’s just a process.

And what happened was I loved her. I saw her the way Jesus saw her and I just wanted to help her. And even if she would have not responded positively, it’s okay because this isn’t about me and it’s not about you. It’s just about extending the love of God.

And so we get done, I mean, this really cracked me up. So it’s all over, and I’ve written the book note, and so you know how when you get off you go up the ramp and once you get off the ramp. And she was ahead of me a little bit and she stopped. She turned like this, she goes, in her heart you could just see.

People long to be loved. And the Jesus that we serve loves them. We just need to get rid of the lies.

Stronghold number seven is, “I need to try harder to love people,” versus, “I need to experience more of God’s love personally.” See, we don’t need to try harder. We need to experience God’s love at such a fresh and new depth that we could just not not share it.

And as I thought of this I was, thought of the passage here where Jesus says to a woman who is wiping His feet with her hair, and her tears dripping, and a Pharisee thinking that she’s an immoral person, and He couldn’t be a prophet because He would know about this woman.

And you can see the passage there in Luke where Jesus turns to the Pharisee and He goes, “You know, this woman has responded in ways because she has been forgiven much and her sins, they are many. But those who have been forgiven much love much.”

And He wasn’t saying that the Pharisee needed less forgiveness than the woman. What He was really saying is, “She actually gets, and is experiencing, what I have done for her, and you don’t get it.”

When you experience God’s love you can’t not share it.

One of the greatest qualities in my wife is seeing her experience God’s love and my testimony is is that I’m so oriented toward performance that I often struggle with, “I think God loves me when I’m doing good and I don’t think He loves me as much when I’m doing bad.”

And that’s not true. And so I thought it would be more helpful and more powerful for you to hear from someone who, because of her life story, she really grasps how to experience God’s love.

So, honey, would you come share with us?

[Theresa]: Good morning. I am excited to share with you how I experience God’s love. And I encountered real love, for the first time, when I was twenty-five years old and I accepted Christ as my Savior. And I realize now, as I look back, God had been drawing me with His love for quite a while.

But it was when I actually came to a point where I understood and I recognized His love that I accepted Christ as my Savior and it was a real turning point in my life.

In I John 4:10 it says, “This is real love. It is not that we love God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” So, that’s what real love is. That it’s God sent His Son to die for us to take away our sins because He loved us so much and He wanted us to be close to Him.

Well, this love that I experienced at age twenty-five was different from any love that I had known up until that point. I had never thought of love and God in the same sentence, which, to me, seems odd now but I really never did.

When I thought about love it was romantic love, it was between a man and a woman. But not about God and a man and a woman.

And I didn’t grow up in a Christian home and I never heard my parents say to each other that they loved each other, they never told me they loved me, verbally. I never heard that word expressed in my home. And so this love that I was starting to experience was so different for me and it was wonderful.

Well, by the time I was twenty-five, I realized that there was a big hole in my heart. And that there was an ache there that longed to be filled up and I had tried to fill it up with so many things that didn’t work, and I made lots of bad decisions in my early adult years, just trying to make life work out and trying to fill up that hole in my heart.

And all growing up I could never please my dad. So I always felt like a failure and I felt like I was not very lovable. And so I was trying to find that love.

Well, I ended up getting married and it was not a good situation. And, you know, it was just the dream of my life that somebody would love me, and care for me, and it just did not work out well.

And by the time I was twenty-five I was a single mom, I had been abandoned by my husband, I had twin baby boys. And I was just in a desperate situation. I was lonely, I was depressed, I didn’t have any money, I felt abandoned. And I didn’t have any hope.

But it was at this time that I experienced God’s love for me in an amazing way. The Lord led me to work with the Director of Admissions at Fairmont State College and this man was a very godly man.

And he seemed to not be shy at all about sharing his faith even on a secular campus, which I am so thankful for now.

But as we worked together and as time would permit he began to share with me about the love of God. And he shared with me things that I had never heard before. He told me that God’s love is a love that lasts forever. That it will never end. That God’s love is a love that will never change. His love is unconditional, it doesn’t matter what I do, it doesn’t matter what I did in the past. That His love never changes for me. And that His love will care for me, that through His love He will provide for my children, and that He has hope for my future and for my kids.

And so I began to listen to what my friend was saying to me and it started to all make sense and I realized that’s what the need in my heart is longing for. It’s that real love that I’ve been longing for all this time.

And on a Sunday evening, in August, when my two little boys just turned one year old I accepted Christ as my Savior. And, at that time, I began to experience the love of God in an amazing way and He changed my life.

And He took all those broken pieces, all the terrible things that had been a part of my life and He put it all back together and He cleansed me from all of my past, and He made me new, and clean, and a new vessel.

Well, as we experience God’s love in our life what happens is, and the Scriptures teach that through the Holy Spirit, God just pours His love through our lives and it’s like a flood, He says. He floods our lives with His love.

And I’ve had my house flood before so I know that a flood is very hard to stop. It’s a powerful thing. And it just impacts wherever it goes. It changes things. And when God’s love floods through our hearts, see, we can’t stop it. It impacts the people that we’re around.

And it’s just a natural thing that happens. And so as He floods our hearts it just naturally flows out to other people.

So my prayer, for me and for all of us, is that we would be compelled by the love of God to share and reach out and care for those that are lost.