Sermon Starters -- Pour Me Some Love

Title: "Pour Me Some Love"

Occasion: Victory Highway Wesleyan Church, December 6, 2020

I. Introduction

• The surprise themes of Advent
• New Testament texts of love (1 Cor. 13; Matthew 5 and 22; John 3:16)

Text: Romans 5:1-11

• Prayer
• 5:1-11 in the flow of Romans (concludes what came before, begins what follows)
• We are in between the first and second coming. Victory over individual and cosmic Sin is won, but final consummation awaits. In the meantime, we struggle with suffering and temptation.

A. God loves us -- no really!

• Often two kinds of people -- those who don't realize they don't deserve God's love and those who don't think they have it.
• The Sheldon Coopers (Big Bang Theory) -- "Could it be me? No, I'm a delight."
• The person who doesn't hear the part after the "but" ("I like you, but...")
• On the other hand, there is the person that David Seamands said has a broken antenna. 
• Reread Romans 5:6-8
• "While we were God's enemies Christ died for us."
• Some want to wiggle out of God's love for his enemies or want to redefine love to where it doesn't mean what it seems to mean. God has shown us what it means.

B. The Holy Spirit is God's love poured into us.

• Romans 5:5 is a little ambiguous -- is it God's love or our love of God?
• Probably God's love for us, in the first place
• The context is one of suffering and testing.
• Reread Romans 5:3-5
• The love of God gets us through trials and temptations.
• Victor Frankl tweet: "A person with a why can bear any how."
• We have something better than Frankl's random "why." We have the true why and purpose. And we have the Holy Spirit to power us through.
• Illustration of needing others.
• Without God, we are stuck in Romans 7.
• James 1:5 tells us to seek wisdom from God in times of trial.
• Suffering leads to perseverance leads to character leads to hope.

C. The love of God overflows from us to others

• The other possible meaning of Romans 5:5
• Illustration of overflowing (e.g., water)
• What does it look like?
• Illustration of love overflowing.
• Golden Rule is how it plays out (Matt. 7:12)
• Tweet: Love rejoices with those who rejoice. It weeps with those who weep.
• Not always easy -- your sibling, during an election

III. Conclusion

• I believe God would have come even if Adam had not sinned, because God loves us.
• Don't know what you're facing, but the love of God is ready to flow into you.
• Give love until you feel love. When you feel love, it will overflow.

Advent Scriptures

I lead in a service that reads the lectionary each Sunday. I am always amazed at the way it weaves together Scripture from the Psalms, OT, Epistles, and Gospels each week in keeping with the Christian season. And it does so in a way that gets through most of Scripture every three years.

The Scriptures for the four Sundays before Christmas, Advent, are brilliant. They weave together readings that have to do with Christ's first coming with readings relating to his second.   Look at the sequences this year (Year A):

Week 1 (December 1)
1. Psalm 122 (going up to Jerusalem to the house of the Lord)
2. Isaiah 2:1-5 (flocking to the future holy mountain)
3. Romans 13:11-14 (Waking up from sleep)
4. Matthew 24:36-44 (not knowing the time of Christ's return)

Notice how the Scriptures begin to get us ready for Jesus' coming. We are going up to the temple. We are waking up from sleep. We are looking forward to the time when Christ will return to his holy mountain, although we do not know the day or the hour.

Week 2 (December 8, today)
1. Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 (about the king taking care of the poor)
2. Isaiah 11:1-10 (the coming righteous Branch passage)
3. Romans 15:4-13 (about good news for the Gentiles)
4. Matthew 3:1-12 (John the Baptist preparing the way)

John the Baptist prepared the way of Jesus' ministry, a ministry in which the king of kings brought good news to the poor, just like the kings of old. Jesus was the righteous Branch that was promised, the one who eventually would bring light to the nations.

Week 3 (December 15)
1. Isaiah 35:1-10 (the return to Zion)
2. Luke 1:47-55 (the Magnificat)
3. James 5:7-10 (patience until the Lord's return)
4. Matthew 11:2-11 (signs that Jesus is the Messiah)

We are on the holy highway back to Zion. We are patiently waiting for him to come, looking for the signs of his kingdom. Meanwhile, we hear Mary's song as she celebrates what God is already doing within her.

Week 4 (December 22)
1. Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 (restore us, O Lord)
2. Isaiah 7:10-16 (virgin birth passage)
3. Romans 1:1-7 (about Jesus the Son of David)
4. Matthew 1:18-25 (Joseph's dream about Jesus)

Joseph was promised that Mary would give birth to the Messiah. Isaiah 7 saw it long before though Spirit eyes. Paul tells of the accomplishment in Romans. Lord, please restore us.

Second Sunday of Advent: Hebrews 11

In one reckoning, the second Sunday of Advent thinks about hope.  Hebrews 11 might seem like a strange place to go for Advent.  It is more usually associated with faith.  But hope and faith are intricately connected in Hebrews 11.

Hebrews 11 does not give a definition of faith but multiple descriptions of faith.  It's opening proverb is that faith is the stuff we have now of things we are hoping will come to pass.  Faith is the proof we have now of things we do not yet see.  In keeping with the overall meaning of Hebrews, Hebrews connects faith with continuing on in our journey through this world even though Christ has not yet returned.  In this context, faith is about endurance.  It is believing in the things for which we hope even though they have not yet materialized.

In the context of Hebrews, the invisible has to do with promises God has given us for the future.  These are not promises not to suffer.  Quite the contrary--Hebrews 11 is full of examples of people who did suffer on this earth, though they looked to a city and country that was yet to come.  But we can of course expand the meaning to things we cannot see now too.

We can believe this year that God is in control, despite the fact that he allows a lot of things to happen we might want to change if we were God.  We can believe that it is right to love our enemies and to live a selfless life, even though our human intuition tells us this is stupidity.  And we can believe that one day, God will play out the final reset on evil that he started on the cross.