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The Agape Cabin

Some have said that “confession” is good for the soul, but not for the reputation.    Well, I have a confession to make.  As we kick off the new year here at Mountain Springs, I felt that I should share with you what God’s been doing in my life.

Revelation 2: 1-4

Vs. 1-3
• The Ephesian church was the leading church in the region.

• John, who is writing this letter, is the Senior Pastor Emeritus of this church.

• Jesus is speaking to him in a vision.

• Jesus says, “You are a hardworking church.”

• “You have great endurance.”

• “You are bearing good fruit as a church.”

• “You love holiness.”

• “You know your apologetics well and can recognize a cult and cult leaders.”

• “You are laboring and working hard to get the gospel out.  Your mission programs, youth and children’s ministries are fantastic.”
Vs. 4
• But Jesus has one thing against the church at Ephesus:  they had lost their love for Him.

• He calls it their “first love” because He is referring to that passion of the first time they had fallen in love with Him.

• They have all the orthodoxy right:  the right beliefs, the right thinking, and the right actions on the outside, but something is missing!

• The Ministry for Jesus had replaced the Jesus of the Ministry.

• Love for the ministry of Jesus had replaced love for the Jesus of the ministry.

The past two years have really been hard for Liz and me:
• Through many difficulties and struggles on the home front, coupled with the construction of this building, finances, and growth of the church, I have found myself “off balance” and succumbing to these pressures.

• I have often felt “dragged” forward by many different pressures, external and internal.

• Ex.  Have you ever had the red oil light blinking on the dashboard of your car?  God has been trying to get my attention for a long time:  people have confronted me at times, and my internal spiritual indicator light has been blinking for quite a while.

• About a month ago, the pressure, anxiety, and questions became intense.  I dropped everything for two days and went to a mountain cabin.

• My prayer for this time was not to look at any of the mechanics of the church, programs, ministries, or budgets, but to seek the heart of Jesus, to seek His heart for me.

• Ex.  One of our prophetic intercessors gave me the word, “Go back to the beginning.”

• As I saw this little cabin beside a lake, as I entered this cabin in Florrisant,
I was taken back to my years at my grandfather’s cabin in South Carolina.  My grandfather’s cabin was special for several reasons:

1) Dad taught me to hunt and fish there;

2)  It was there that I felt so loved by my parents and felt so secure as a boy becoming a man.  I was 12 and 13 years old when we lived there;

3)  It was there at the cabin that I discovered my masculine heart.

• Ex.  I was taken back to right after I had come to know Christ.  I was walking to biology class at the University of Georgia when the liquid love of the Holy Spirit was just suddenly poured into my heart.

o I wept for hours as the Lord poured His love into me a fresh new way.

o Like “liquid honey” being poured into my heart, the Holy Spirit came upon me and showed His great love for me.

Romans 5:5
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

• God gave me a “love awakening” in this little cabin a month ago, awakening me to the love of my parents and the love of Jesus.

• I am experiencing a “love awakening” that is affecting everything in my life: my parenting, leadership, and pastoring.

Luke 10:25-28
• I love this passage because of the last sentence:   “do this and you will live.”
 
• It is only as we learn to love God with everything, our heart, soul, strength, and mind that we really find life!

• Life is found through love!  Do you want life?  Begin loving!

• Gil Bailie writes, “Don’t ask what the world needs.  Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

• Ex.  I am returning to my first love relationship with Jesus, loving Him with all my heart and head!

• It is a love awakening!

• The heart of the church is the heart of Jesus.

• Ex.  You may remember the death of Brian Maxwell in 2004 of a heart attack.  He was the founder of the multi-million dollar PowerBar industry and a world class marathon runner.  He was the picture of health on the outside, but at 52, his heart just stopped beating!

o The Bible says:

1 Corinthians 12:27
Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

o The church is called the body of Christ; we are His arms, feet, and head, and like Brian Maxwell, we could look great in all the appendages of the body, but the heart is what keeps the body alive.

o My arms and chest might be able to bench press 200 lbs.  I might be able to run a 5 minute mile, but if the heart stops beating, within minutes everything else will atrophy and die.

o The heart of the believer is love for Jesus.

• The heart of the church is love for Jesus.

A Revolution of Love

• God wants a Revolution of Extravagant Love in our city!!

• God wants a Revolution of Extravagant Love in our country!!

• God wants a Revolution of Extravagant Love all over the world!!

• He wants a people who have encountered His great love on the heart level, not just the head level.

o Yes, most of us know the love of God in the head.  We know in our mind that Jesus died for us; we’ve memorized the verses; we’ve studied the Bible.

o But, Jesus wants us know His love at the heart level.  That’s the deepest level; that’s surrendering to His love.

• It’s the Trinity of Love!  The mandate of love is the Trinity of Love.

Matthew 22:37-40
Jesus said to him: “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment.  39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

• The Love Trinity:  love God, love yourself, love people!

• You can’t really love people until you love yourself!  But, you can’t love yourself until you encounter God’s love for you.

• Ex.  As I prayed for those youth two weeks ago at our Rite of Passage Ceremony, I saw in their eyes their longing for love! 

• There is no problem, addiction, disease, sin, or illness that an experience of God’s Agape Love would not take care of, forgive, and set free.

• Ex.  On the streets of Winnipeg, I watched as prostitutes wept uncontrollably as the love of God was poured into them.

• I believe that God set up the church to be a place where we experience the love of Jesus on a deep level.

• A revolution of love is when we are becoming His head, His hands, and His feet, but remember, it all flows from the heart; the blood flows from the heart.

Luke 4:18-19
"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD." 

• This is what a loving church does!  This is the Love Mission of Jesus!  This is what Jesus did.

• People are broken, hurting, troubled, and lonely.  Jesus is our example of how to live with love.

• Jesus said, “learn from Me.”

• We must have the heart of Jesus, and then the blood of Jesus will flow throughout the whole body, to the arms, legs ,and feet.

John 15:9-17
As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.  11 These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.  12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.  14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.     16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  17 These things I command you, that you love one another.

• If we abide in the love of Jesus, if we love one another, God will answer our prayers.

• God will bear great fruit through you!

• I believe that:

o Jesus is our model for love,
o He is our mandate of love, and
o He gave us a method for His love.

• Jesus’ method of love was the forming and building of a small group.

o I mean, we’re talking about Jesus.  He could have started an itinerate healing ministry.  Everyone got healed by Him!

o He could have started a huge evangelistic association:  Jesus Association for Evangelism.

o Why not the Jesus Signs and Wonders Seminars?

o Instead, Jesus formed a small group and began loving on 12 men.

Mark 3:14
Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach.

Vs. 14a
• The first thing we notice is that Jesus limited the number of disciples.

• It was truly a “small group” of 12.

• And 12 is the perfect number for a small group according to Jesus.

• Thousands were going to follow Him, yet he only wanted a few to pour his life into.

• Real, deep family happens in the context of the day to day:  the meals at home, the intimate conversations, knowing names, remembering birthdays, birthday parties, fishing trips, etc.

Charles Spurgeon, the 19th century pastor in London, once said, “Communion is strength; solitude is weakness…the sheep of Jesus flock together.  The social element is the genius of Christianity.”

Small groups are the key to building family relationships.

It is no overstatement to say that life and love happen most powerfully in small groups:

• The most profound help for personal struggles happens in small groups.

• The deepest teaching in this church happens in small groups.

• The best counseling in this church happens through the relationships built in small groups.

• The deepest wisdom and advice comes through people who have come to know others through a small group.

• The most effective leadership in this church happens in our small groups.

• The best relationship building in this church happens through small groups.

• The best visitation happens through the relationships developed in small groups.

• The most important, life changing decisions will happen in the context of relationship with others.

• The closest friends you will ever have come through small group relationship.

Ex.  Helen of Troy must have really been something:

• Two mighty kingdoms went to war over her.

• Thousands of men gave up their lives so that one man could have her.

• Hers was “the face that launched a thousand ships.”

• Helen was the wife of Menelaus, king of Greece, in the 9th century BC.

• Their home was a peaceful Mediterranean kingdom until the arrival of Paris, Prince of Troy.

• Paris fell in love with Helen, and, depending on the version of the story you’ve heard, she fell in love with him.

• Under the cover of night, Paris stole away with Helen and took her back to Troy.

• It was the beginning of the Trojan War.

• Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon amassed a mighty Greek army and set off in a thousand ships to lay siege on Troy, all to win Helen back.

• Few have ever been so pursued as Helen of Troy.

o Sometimes we wonder if we’ve ever been noticed.

o Maybe your father never came to your games.

o Maybe your mother was too busy with her things.

o We all come into the world longing for attention and longing to be pursued.

o All of us long to be appreciated and loved.

o We long to be pursued simply for ourselves, not for anything we’ve done or anything we can give out, but just loved because someone cares about our heart.

o John Eldredge writes, “We long to be known and we fear it like nothing else.  Most people live with a subtle dread that one day they will be discovered for who they really are and the world will be appalled” (p. 84 The Sacred Romance).

o So we learn to pose, posture, and perform for people’s love and God’s love.

o Let’s go back to Helen of Troy.  She was more than that, she was: Helen Like No Other Woman; Helen the Pursued; Helen the Beloved; Helen the Captured and Rescued.

o Her identity is inseparable from her relationships.

o Menelaus risked everything, all of his resources, a thousand ships, and thousands of men, to rescue the one whom he loved!!

• The Gospel says that we are “beloved.”

• Like Helen, we have created a cosmic crisis.

• We also have been stolen away from our True Love.

• And He has launched the greatest rescue campaign in the history of the world.

• God created us for intimacy with Him.

• When we turn our backs on him, He promises to come and rescue us.

• He also came at night, incognito, as a little baby.  The Ancient of Days made his raid into enemy territory.

• The world lay under the power of Satan, and Jesus invaded demonically, held territory, and came to rescue you because of love

• He has laid siege to the kingdom of darkness and the idols of our hearts because He wants to win back your life to Himself.

• His reckless ambition and fearless intention is to win you over with His love.

Jeremiah 29:11-14
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

• We have been stolen away from our True Love.

• And He has launched the greatest rescue campaign in the history of the world.

• Jesus wants you to know that He loves you as you are, and He longs for you to have a deep intimate relationship with Him.

• If you would like a deeper touch and a deeper encounter with God’s love, if you are hungry to know Christ’s love, please stand up.