This Church Believes: Perfect Love Is Our Goal!
Sermon Notes
October 26, 2008
Rev. Jim O’Neal, Senior Pastor
(480) 895-8766
Matthew 5:48 NRSV
48“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
I John 4:12 NRSV
12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God
lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
A.
Introduction
1. The Perfect Woman!
a.
Evangelist Sam Jones was running a revival meeting in
b.
How could anybody be perfect?
Only God is absolutely perfect.
2. Doctrine of Perfection
a.
Yet we United Methodists are called to believe in the “Doctrine
of Perfection.” Indeed it is the second
of Wesley’s historic questions to pastors being ordained into full
connection. There it is right after that
important question about faith in Jesus…. “Are you going on to perfection?”
b.
Specifically, this Church believes: Perfect love is our goal. This morning I will share why we believe in
perfection, and what we believe about it.
B.
This Church believes that perfect love is our goal: Because it’s in the Bible.
1. Ben Franklin’s Bible
a.
That great American, Benjamin Franklin, loved to argue. Occasionally he would find himself hard
pressed to counter the arguments of some of his learned friends. At those times he loved to say, “Give me a
day to think the matter over, for I believe I am correct.” Then he would go to his print shop, choose a
type style that looked old fashioned, and express his position in the old
English of the Bible of his day. He
would, also, add the name of a book from the Bible, with a chapter and verse
reference. The book, of course, was a
real Bible book, but the Chapter and, or the verse were made up.
b.
My friends, the scripture references to perfection are not made
up. They really do exist!
2. Today’s Scripture: Matthew 5:48 & I John 4:12
a. In Matthew 5:48,
Jesus himself says, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is
perfect.” (Matthew 5:48 RSV) And John in I John 4:12 tells us: “No one has ever
seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in
us.” (I
John 4:12 NRSV)
b. Clearly the Bible teaches something
about a call for us to “go on to perfection.”
B.
This Church believes that perfect love is our goal: Because it’s in the Bible… continued
3.
John Wesley
a. John Wesley studied the Bible and the
writings of Church leaders. He came to
this understanding of the Bible’s teachings concerning perfection: The Bible does not mean that people can
become perfect in every sense of the word.
Nor does perfection mean being totally or completely without fault,
spiritual blemish, or problems. Jesus is
not saying that we can become gods. The
best that we humans can do in this life is to be perfect in intentions. And to be clear, few people, if any, ever
reach that state where they are a person who always wants to do the loving and
right thing before God. So it is
perfection in the intention to do the loving thing that is our goal as
Christians.
b. Wesley preferred to call this process,
sanctification, referring to the desire to do the holy thing. John Wesley wrote this: “The perfection I teach, is perfect love;
loving God with all the heart: receiving
Christ as Prophet, Priest and King, to reign alone over all our thoughts, words
and actions. To say that Christ will not
reign alone in our hearts, in this life, will not enable us to give Him all our
hearts. This in my judgment is making
Him half a Savior; He can be no more, if He does not quite save us from our
sins in this life.”
C.
This Church believes that perfect love is our goal: But with a word of caution!
1. Genie in a bottle
a. Three
men were walking along the beach when they discovered a bottle. They pulled out
the cork and a magical Genie emerged.
The Genie offered them three wishes; one for each man. The first fellow said, “Make me twice as
smart.” The Genie waved his hands, there
was a “poof” and then the Genie stated, “Now you are Alex Trebec.” The second man asked, “Make me ten times
smarter!” The Genie’s response: “Poof… now you are Albert Einstein.” The third fellow asked, “Make me one-hundred
times smarter!” And the Genie
proclaimed: “Poof… you are now a woman!”
b. There
are men who think they’re better than women and vice versa. There are people who think they are better
than folks of a different race or religion.
Some people think they are better than the less educated or the
poor. And there are Christians who think
they are better than other Christians, because they live more holy lives, or
they are further on their Christian walk, or have some special gift such as
speaking in unknown tongues. Be
careful. We humans can enter into
dangerous ground when it comes to this Doctrine of Perfection. That danger is giving in to the sin of
pride. Don’t let yourself get puffed up,
as if you are better than others, because you feel you’re further along on this
road to perfection. Pride and
“Perfection in Love” simply do not go together.
The person who always wants to do the loving thing and please the Lord
is not a person who looks down on others.
2. You fried the wrong
egg!
a.
No matter what you do sometimes you can’t please others, and
sometimes things will not go well. A
newlywed young woman was trying desperately to please her demanding
husband. One morning he bellowed out, “I
want three eggs this morning. I want one
of them fried, one scrambled, and one poached!”
The suffering little bride did as requested, and the eggs were cooked
perfectly! She presented them to her
husband. The bitter bully shouted, “You
can‘t do anything right.” “What’s the
matter?” she asked, and then added, “The eggs are cooked just the way you like
them!” He replied, “But you fried the
wrong egg.” (I think she chose the wrong
man.)
b.
Sometimes no matter what you do things do not work out. Even if you are totally
loving in your intentions, you can make mistakes. You may say something that unintentionally
hurts another. You may have an accident
and make a bigger mess of things. Being
perfect in your love does not mean that everything is going to work out
perfectly!
D.
This Church believes that perfect love is our goal:
Because
it has the power to motivate us to be better people!
1. Bugs in your conversion
experience!
a. A
new pastor called on a family in the Church.
The family consisted of Mom and Dad, two kids, and Grandfather. As they talked the pastor gently inquired
concerning where they were in their faith.
Grandfather immediately informed the pastor that he had been a Christian
for over seventy years. He said, “I was
a teenager, and I had a near death experience.
This motivated me to go to a revival at our Church, and there I gave my
heart to Jesus! I wrote it all down, so
I would never forget. I have found that
others enjoy hearing the story, and that it has helped lead people to the
Lord.” Then Granddad turned to his
Granddaughter and told her to fetch his conversion story from the chest in his
bedroom. The little girl came back all
upset. She held in her hand some
yellowed and moth eaten pieces of paper.
The print was faded and words had been eaten away. She sobbed, “Grandpa, there are bugs in your
conversion experience!”
b. One of the tough truths of life is
this: You are either moving forward or
you are moving back. You can’t stay
still. Salvation is an event. Growth in grace or sanctification as Wesley
called it is a process. If you have
given your heart to Jesus, then Jesus is always in the process of helping you
become a better and more loving person.
2. Paul Westphal
a.
Paul Westphal the former basketball
player and coach of the Phoenix Suns once shared this in an interview: He was the younger brother. He loved to play basketball with his brother
and his friends. His brother and his
buddies were bigger, taller, and stronger.
Paul couldn’t out jump them or back them down. So he learned to use both hands. He developed the skill of going right or left
and shooting with either hand. The
bigger boys motivated him to be better!
b.
We have a Savior who is a lot bigger than us. And while Jesus probably doesn’t want to take
you on “one on one” in basketball, He does want to motivate you. He wants you to look at His life and to see
what the true person of God looks like.
And He wants you to follow and emulate Him.
3. As Good As It Gets
a.
In the movie AS GOOD AS IT GETS Jack Nicholson plays the part of
a bitter novelist named Melvin. He is
nasty to just about everybody, and he is especially mean to his gay
neighbor. Then he meets a woman named
Carol, played by Helen Hunt. . She is a waitress, and despite his orneriness
she treats him with dignity. Carol sees
something in him that others do not.
They begin to have romantic interest in each other. Melvin several times nearly destroys the
relationship. He makes a snide remark
about her cheap little housedress and hurts her feelings. Finally Carol tells him to give her a
compliment or else she will leave. He
thinks and thinks and then finally says, “You make me want to be a better man.”
b.
When you and I look at the life of Jesus and see His perfect love
we are motivated to be better men and women.
We see in his life what could be for us, and how the world would be so
much better if people loved as He did.
And above all else His sacrificial act of love upon the cross touches
our hearts. He freely gave to us a gift
we do not deserve. And we want to say
“Thank You” to Jesus by doing the things that please Him.
E.
Conclusion
1.
This Church believes that perfect love is our goal!
a.
Because it’s in the Bible.
b.
But with a word of caution!
c.
Because it has the power to motivate us to be better people!
2. WWJD
a.
Being on the road to perfection simple means living a life in
which you ask yourself in each and every moment: “What would Jesus do?”
b.
Charles Sheldon in his book IN HIS STEPS challenged people to try
that for one year. He knew that, if a
Church dared to love like Jesus, great things would happen. Individual lives would be changed for the
better, the entire congregation would come alive, and a community would be
transformed! Are you willing to take the
step and live each day following the example of Jesus’ love? After all “Perfect Love” is our goal.
This Church Believes:
Perfect Love Is Our Goal!
1. Because it’s in the Bible.
2. But with a word of caution!
3. Because it has the power
to motivate us to be better
people!
Matthew 5:48 NRSV
48“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly
Father is perfect.”
I John 4:12 NRSV
12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God
lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.