2-17-2020

Good Morning All, 

    John 15:13; “The greatest love you can show is to give your life for your friends”.

     Have you ever seen the movies Armageddon?  It starred Bruce Willis.  It was about an attempt to head off an asteroid that is heading toward earth.  The plot is that a team of oil drilling specialist will land on the asteroid, drill a hole into the asteroid, and place a nuclear bomb in the hole and blow the asteroid up. There are all sorts of troubles; in the end the switch for the bomb malfunctions so someone must stay on the asteroid and manually set it off.  Bruce Willis, the hero, stays behind to set off the bomb and saves the world.  Everyone sees him as the greatest hero ever.  He gave his life so that the rest of the world could live.

    This is usually how we view our heroes.  They end up larger than life and die in order for others to live.  He might be a soldier who attacks the enemy to save his platoon.  It might be the guy who jumps on the grenade or the person who jumps in front of someone else when the bullets start flying.  This is how we see this verse playing out.  Yet when we do, we are really missing a great point that Scriptures make about our lives.  Most of us will never face a situation where our life is in danger of ending but this verse still applies to us.  This is because God calls us to give up our life for others.

    The way that most of us will face this is by giving up our life in a different fashion.  We “give up our life” when we put aside our own selfish desires out of love for those around us.  The most obvious time this occurs is in marriage.  Both partners must be willing to “give up their life” for the other for the marriage to be healthy and successful.  Each must remember that a decision affect more than just themselves.  A new job offer should be discussed before being accepted.  The purchase of a major item should be discussed before it occurs.  We also see it when children enter the family.  The needs of the child can’t be left for the desires of the parents.  These are the more obvious but what about the lesser ones?

     God calls us to give up our lives for our friends.  If your friends are in need of help, do you give up some of your selfish desires to help them?  God calls us to do this.  Do we give up some luxury in order to give someone else a need that they have?  Maybe you like to buy a fancy cup of coffee every day for lunch.  If you gave up one $4.00 cup of coffee a week, you could give $200 towards a local food bank.  This is just one example, very simple, of “giving up your life” in order to help others.  It doesn’t have to be you jumping on a grenade, it might just be giving up a small luxury for someone who has a need right now.  Can you do that?

Gracious Father, you sent Jesus to give up his life that we might have salvation.  Help me to give up some of the things that I do not need that I may help someone who is in need.  Father, there are many who have great needs today, use me to be your arms to embrace them with your grace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret