SEEKING HOLY GROUND IN 2023: REGAINING LOVE

We have been Seeking Holy Ground in 2023!  This week’s sermon, Regaining Love, is able to plant our feet on holy ground, because God is love. (John 4:16)  Yet, we find ourselves confused about God’s love and how to love one another.  God is love but human love is not God.  It always a matter of how we define “love” in our lives and in our society.  How we define love individually, may not reflect an understanding of God’s love.  It seems we have an expectation that if God loves us, then we do not necessarily expect God to hold us accountable.  Yet, when we are not held accountable, human love can become self-serving and deeply selfish.  Another problem is that we do not fully understand unconditional love because humanity rarely loves unconditionally.  We all want to be loved but we struggle to love others.  It seems like love should be simple, but it is truly “complicated!” This week we look at Luke 6:27-38 which are Jesus’s words and they begin with, “Love your enemies….”  This is one of the most practical and difficult passages about loving one another.  It is hard enough to love our family and friends, much less our enemies!  As we look at these words and our live, we realize that we are living beneath the love that God shares with us.  This passage gives us a path not only to love our enemies but to be empowered to find the love of God in our lives!  This is our most earnest prayer that you will experience the undeniable, unrelenting, and unconditional love of God as you read, Luke 6:27-38:  

²⁷ “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you. ³² “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. ³³ And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. ³⁴ And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. ³⁵ But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. ³⁷ “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. ³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Lk. 6:27-38 NIV)