Legacy #02 - Show Some Love

Jesus is God with us, come to show us God's love.

When someone tells us that God loves us, that's a really nice thought. We often smile, nod, and sometimes try to take that knowledge into our heart to let it change us. But I often find that the word "love" gets used so often, that it comes to mean nothing. Depending on the time and place, even my sons telling me "I love you, daddy" can make me roll my eyes. Like when it's time to go to bed, and they are stalling, and they say "Daddy, daddy, daddy... um, daddy... um, I love you, daddy."

That's nice, now go to bed :-)

But because of the common usage of this word, we often miss it's actual magnitude.

So, when we say "love" we've typically reduced that word to meaning we like something or something feels good. But that's not the type of love that Jesus shows. Jesus shows us that when God tells us we are loved it goes much deeper than that.

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Through Jesus, we see that God's love is A NEVER ENDING COMMITMENT TO THE WORTH AND VALUE OF A PERSON.

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In other words, Jesus shows us that God's love is incredibly gritty. That's a word we've been using to describe something we want to be true about Bethany Christian tennis players. We want to play with grit. We want to stick to it. We want to be committed to putting forth our best.

But in love, grit is when you'll stick with another person, no matter what they throw in your face. For example, I love the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. This takes place in John 4. Here's a woman who has many problems, so many in fact that she's going to draw water at a time when no else will, just so that she doesn't have to interact with them.

And when she sees Jesus, she throws out all sorts of excuses to make him turn away from her. She reminds him that she is a Samaritan and he is a Jew, so they aren't supposed to talk. She makes the excuse of being a woman talking to a man, which may have been inappropriate to some. She brings up practical excuses, that Jesus has no instrument to dip into the well to get the living water he's offering her. Eventually, she even faces something she's ashamed of - that's she had many husbands and is living with someone who is not her husband.

And through all the excuses and the dodges, Jesus stays right there. He sticks with her. If she wants the living water, that will allow her to see her own worth and value as a person, then she's going to get it. Jesus isn't going to be the one to walk away.

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That's the essence of God's love, and Jesus puts it another way in Luke 4:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

In other words, I'm not leaving you when you feel poor, imprisoned, blind, or oppressed. Instead, God's love is coming into those situations. It is going to get into the grit and the gunk of what has hurt you, and God's love is going to proclaim to those situations: YOU ARE FAVORED BY GOD. YOU HAVE INCREDIBLE WORTH.

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Our team is going to show God's love this year, even through the grit and guck. We're going to do that because we're trying to follow Jesus, whose at the top of the ladder inspiring us and at the same time right there beside us, encouraging us through the Holy Spirit.

So, you might get frustrated. You might slam a racket. You might quit a drill. You might get angry at your doubles partner. You might get sick. You might get proud. You might win.

Through it all, we're going to be with you, reminding you that you have incredible worth.