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So I’m gonna turn you that. They’ll tell you to turn to Philippians chapter two as we go in. The second part of this series together entitled this thing called love and talking about relationships and relationships kind of sounds like a little fluffy series that we’re going through together. But I want us to know that, uh, our pursuit in this is really to, to glorify and honor God in our lives. Because the reason God has created us is for relationships. We glorify him in relationship with him and we demonstrate the glory of the Lord in our relationship with one another. And so Jesus in Mark chapter 12 verses 29 30 when he’s asked the two greatest commands says love God, love others. They are both relational commands. We, we live our lives to the purpose of glorifying God and our relationship to him and it’s demonstrating our relationship to one another.
When we love Jesus, we can best love one another. And understanding the way God has loved us. And so relationships are pinnacle to what God has called us to. In this world. Our church exists and not to accomplish tasks, but really for God to use us to, to reach hearts. For him, it’s all about relationships. Ministry exists for relationships. We’re here for relationship. We’re here to to know God and encourage one another and through that relationship with the Lord that we’re encouraged and to encourage those in the truth of God’s word and that relationship with him that we have been called to as people wherever we are. And so the series becomes important to us and we’ve been laying out the foundation of of love and we talk about relationships. Some of the deepest wounds we ever experience in life or will experience in life come in in the sorrow of relationships.
And yet in, in the pain of relationships, we still desire to pursue them. No matter how bad or broken a relationship may be. We we crave for intimacy as people having healthy, loving relationship is our, our desire. God created us for that to enjoy and partake of relationships with one another and with him. In fact, when you think about relationships, the book of Proverbs, I’m just gonna read a couple of verses, you can stay in Philippians, but the book of Proverbs, Solomon is writing to a son and he’s sharing with him the wisdom of life and he’s, he’s declaring to him in ways to navigate relationships in this world, how to do it healthy, what it looks like when it’s unhealthy. And in Proverbs 1717 he says, one of the powerful verses on relationships, he says, a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity in our lives.
We may even be thinking about times, times where we’ve experienced relationships like this or we are experiencing relationships like this. Or maybe we’re going through a difficult time and we wish we had a relationship like this or we’ve come out of a difficult time. We’re like, why didn’t I have a relationship like this? This is important. We all, we all want those friends to love it all the time. And someone when we’re in the trenches to be there with us and they’re paramount for us and in living a life. In fact, just a couple of verses later in Proverbs chapter 18 Solomon kind of gives the flip of what it’s like when we don’t live in light of relationship. And he says this, he who separates himself seeks his own desire. He corals against all sound wisdom. So what it’s saying is isolation. The person that isolation.
Eventually what happens is you go crazy and it’s the, this is the uni bomber verse and this is like you get off by yourself and you start saying things to yourself and eventually you’ll lose the rational rationality and having people around you to speak into your life and encourage you becomes an important part of who you are because you’ve been created as a relational being. And so we crave those things in a part of having relationships includes this idea of love. In fact, we could say the foundation of relationship is experienced in love. The Bible tells us we love him because he first loved us and in the demonstration of Jesus, his love, it opened up relationship to us in him. Ultimately we see the greatest extent of relationship being demonstrated in Jesus. God makes Adam and Eve for relationship with one another and to glorify him with their lives and Adam and Eve sin against God.
They they violate him. They commit treason against the Lord’s kingdom and saying to God, we’re going to say to you, Lord, what is right and wrong. We’re going to make ourselves Lord and God in that sin. Adam and Eve hide from God and God pursues them and God has continued to pursue to the point he’s come to, to earth. He’s taken on flesh and he’s died for sin that we could experience that relationship with him for which we were created and Jesus in John chapter 13 we looked at last week defines love and relationship. He says in John 13 and verse 34 this new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another by this, others will know you are my disciples. If you have love for one another, Jesus gives the standard for love in relationship. We define it this way. Last week, leveraging all that you are to help someone become all that God has called them to be. I’ve heard a minister described relationships like this and being able to live in light of that. He’s, he said, falling in love requires a pulse, but staying in love, it requires a plan.
Relationships aren’t always easy to honor God the way that he’s called us to honor him. We need a plan and an understanding of how to do that. And so last week we define the idea of love. Today we’re going to look at the example of love, but when we talked about love and John 13 these, I want to just give this these couple of thoughts as recap cause we’re going to build on it today. But in John chapter 13 verse 34 Jesus said, love is, I have loved you in that context. Love is a verb. Love is one of actions. It’s not just a statement of filling, it’s it’s, it’s the demonstration of your life leveraging all that you are for the benefit of someone else. And we recognize within our culture, we don’t always define love in a healthy way. When we talk about love or why you love them, we tend to find love because of what you do to make me feel love. I love you because you do this to make me feel loved. And so we look at love in the sense that I go to the relationship to supply me for what I, what I need. And so because you’ve loved me, therefore I love you and, and I get from you what I need. And the problem with that is it’s not the biblical definition of love. Love is about leveraging all you are sacrificing who you are for the benefit of someone else. It’s not about what you get, but it’s about what you give.
Because when you look to other people to demonstrate your worth and value in this world, eventually what you’re going to find in those relationships is at some point they’re not going to be able to love or they might respond to you in the exact opposite of what you say love is. And when you aren’t loved in that way, does that mean you’re loving? Because the example I went to Jesus gave us in John 13 was a love that was unconditional. Love is action. We F we also said that before we understand that love is action, we need to understand that love is in the home. First John four eight and first John four 16 it tells us God is love and when describes God as love. It doesn’t use it in the form of a of a verb. It actually defines God in the form of a noun. God is love. That is the substance of who he is
and the importance of that and understanding the difference between love being a verb and love being a noun is the source by which you’re able to love. We use the example of a fish last week. The guy says, I love a fish. Oh, I love this fish and he eats the fish and he enjoys the fish, but eventually in his love for the fish, what he’s going to find out as he’s eating the fish is the fish is going to run out. And when the fish runs out, does he still love you as a human being? In order to love the way that God has called you to love means we need to understand there is a place for which we need to discover love itself in order to have an unending place to respond with love. And that place for us is found in the Lord and our lives. We look for different areas in order to to feel love or to be love and the different places to make us feel important and know that we’re loved. But the Bible reminds us that the demonstration our love doesn’t find, can find itself in other things. It finds itself in its source in the Lord whose love is on Emmy and as we’re loved in the him, we find our value in him. We’re able to love one another.
In fact, Philippians chapter two is exactly what that passage explains. See Paul in Philippians chapter two grabs a hold of the thought that Jesus shares in John 13 verse 34 and 30 and he elaborates on it. Continuing to use Jesus as an example for us to demonstrate in our love, Paul, when he’s, when he’s writing in in Philippians chapter two he’s wanting us to set our mind on an example for which we can model in our lives knowing Jesus has called us to love and John 1334 he’s explaining in Philippians two what exactly that looks like. Philippians chapter two is an important passage of scripture starting in verse three because when Paul writes this, this is actually an ancient creedal statement of the early church, and what that means is Paul didn’t, didn’t invent the passage that’s found in the scripture. He’s, he, he, he was inspired to write this passage of scripture, but the early church was already reciting this section of scripture to one another.
And as they were reciting it, Paul included in the book of Philippians because the outlines for them, this ancient creedal statement of which they were to live as an example in their lives. Not only is an important because it’s an ancient cradles example, but Philippians two is important because it deals with the nature of Jesus itself. Philippians two is a beautiful passage of scripture that explains to us, Jesus has God 100% God, and at the same time Jesus became or took on flesh, he became 100% man. And Paul uses the example of Jesus and becoming a man of how we are to demonstrate our lives the way God has called us to in relationship to one another.
God’s example for us and the need to demonstrate this in our lives. And so in Philippians chapter two in verse three Paul starts this example by sharing what we should do and should not do in relationship to what God has called us to in this world. He says in Philippians chapter two verse three, do nothing, which in Greek means nothing. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves to fall in love. It takes a pause to stay in love. It takes a plan to live in the enjoyment of relationships for what God has called us to. Paul begins by saying this one thing, do not do this one, this other thing do. So he says, do nothing from selfishness or empty. Can see this idea of a selfishness or selfish ambition. Some translations say it means compete, so it says, do nothing in order to put yourself a step above the other person.
Don’t try to prove you’re better than them. Don’t compete with them. That’s not God’s desire for relationship in order to experience the healthiness of that that it’s been intended for, but he says, rather do this with humility of mind. Regard one another is more important than yourself from this thought. Paul, for the rest of the section, we’re going to look at all the way down to verse eight. Paul is elaborating on this last statement, this thing that he desires for us to do regarding one another as more important then yourself. Well, this is an important thought for us to consider, okay? Because culturally I don’t think we’re taught to think this way culturally what we tend to be taught as in the way that really love is you got to love yourself and so you’ve got to make yourself the most important person by loving yourself first before you can love other people. I’m going to tell you why I’d disagree with that to some degree,
but rather what I what I would say for us as human beings, we, we tell ourselves you got to love yourself in order to before you can love one another. I don’t agree with, but I do agree with this.
You are important. You do have intrinsic value. You are significant, you are value, you’re of worth. But I’ll tell ya, the reason that you’re of significant value and worth is not because of what is in you. It’s not because you find your ability to love within yourself, your worth and value of who you are as a human being has everything to do with the Lord who created you with worth and value. And so in order to love yourself, my encouragement isn’t to look within yourself, but rather to look outside of yourself. This is why as a church, we define God this way, that God is the only being who finds the purpose for existence outside of himself. Everything created, finds his purpose for existing, or excuse me, God is the only being that finds a purpose for existing within himself. Everything else created finds a purpose for existing outside of himself. So your heart was created for worship, and the value of who you are isn’t found within you. It’s actually found outside of you because the one who designed you is outside of you. God. God is the one who gives you worth and value and meaning.
And so when we understand the place from which we derive our significance, love is a noun in God. Love comes from God. Uh, the, the value of who we are is found not in self, but in God. When we establish our identity for the purpose of which we are created in him and we see the worth of which we’ve been given because of him, that elevates us in our value and allows us from that position in which Jesus has placed us in him, not within ourselves, to live that in our lives. Let me give you the contrary to it. If you find value and worth in you rather than outside of you and outside of you in the Lord.
Well, we find as human beings, as we often place our value and worth based on what we do, that’s a religious way of thinking, not in who you are. Let me give you examples. When. If you find, if you find your worth in what do eventually in life, what you’re going to find out is that there’s going to come a point where you may not be able to do or you may meet someone that can do it better than you can, and so what happens to your worth and value? Well, because it was established and the accomplishments within you, it diminishes your value next to the person who may be able to do more or it may diminish your value because you may not even be capable of doing whatever it is that needs done.
If you find worth with just in yourself, apart from the Lord, that’s the danger you run into. But if you see the worth of who you are because of the weight God has made you, it elevates the significance of you before the Lord. God made you in his image. God created you for relationship. God pursued you to the extent that he gave his life, for you to know him. The demonstration of your worth wasn’t in you ever was in Christ. Who placed that worth on you by giving his life for you. You’ve never been loved like that. You will never be loved like that. But when you see his love, how beautiful it makes you because of what he’s done for you and to know that you can tap into that, you can experience that. You can walk, walk with that in this world that now in that place of love is a source that never ends.
And so as a human being, you have a choice in that being a being created for worship. Your heart will look for a spot to find value worth and meaning. And so you will pursue it in different things in this life, whether it be, whether it be tasks, whether uh, jobs, accomplishments, you’ll try to find your worth and that you might try to find it in other people, but at some point, every one of those things will come to an end or, or they will be unable to love. But, but because of Jesus, his love that’s unending, his, his, his care for you, that’s a never ending, never dying, never stopping. Love that source of love. Rather than living your life for an audience of several things in this world, living your life for an audience of one and finding your value in that. That’s the only reason you would even begin to think. You can live your life like this regarding one another is more important than yourself because of the way Jesus has elevated you and the strength of that relationship, you then can elevate one another in the value and worth of who they are because unless you see the significance of who you are in light of Christ, this is the way you’re going to view relationships with people. In my desperation, I need you to tell, tell me how important
I am. I need to put myself above you so that you can declare how important I am as a human being because I’ve got no other source to explain to me my value and worth and meaning in this life.
Now, I will say the beauty of who God is is that God created us for relationship and in that relationship we have opportunity to mimic the goodness of God. What I’m saying in God’s community, especially when we love one another. It is because God has loved us first and so in our relationship to one another and loving one another, it is an ultimate reflection of our creator who designed us to love one another. Even in a relationship where someone doesn’t know Jesus, you can still be thankful for the goodness of Jesus because in that relationship, when you experience anything as far as love is concerned, it is because the creator God has designed us in his image. And so whether someone acknowledges the goodness of God or not in their life, the only reason we’re capable of loving it all is because God designed us that way. And in that you can always praise God. We reflect the Lord and our relationship, whether we acknowledge it or not, that the goodness of God’s community is that we know the source from which that love comes. And so in a very tangible way because of our love for God in a very tangible way, we get to demonstrate the goodness of God in our relationship to one another.
And the only reason I would regard someone else’s more important than myself is because ultimately I find the purpose for my existence and the one who created me for relationship in them. I know some of y’all, your momma told you growing up, you were the most important person in the world. You’re always most important, but, but what this verse is saying, it’s actually you’re not always the first important person in the world. Now, let me tell you, there’s a difference here between positional worth and intrinsic work, and that’s what this verse is saying intrinsically, everyone in here this morning, you are important, but positionally you’re not always the most important person in the room.
Positionally, you’re not always listen for it in person in the room. If you’ve ever, if you’ve ever gone to a birthday, if you’ve ever gone to a wedding, if you’ve ever gone to a funeral, if you’ve ever gone to a graduation, you’re not the most important person there. Whoever that ceremony is, acknowledging holds that position. So there’s a difference between intrinsic worth and positional worth. But let me just tell you this. If you’re a believer in a room in a different sense, you are always the most important person in the room.
The Bible tells us in second Corinthians chapter five and verse 20 you are ambassadors for Christ, which means wherever you go as God’s people, you become the most important person in the room. In this sentence, God has put you in a place to be a light for Christ and just as you’ve seen the significance of what Jesus has done for you so you have opportunity to demonstrate that in the relationships that God has placed you in in this world, and in that sense, your relationship to God becomes highly significant because in that relationship with elevates you to a place in which when you walk into a room, you can take this positional stance towards other people because you know how important they are in light of who God is because of Christ’s love for you and resting in that love. It gives you a, a place to elevate people in this world, in positional value and worth because of your relationship to Jesus. It says, if you’re married, your spouse is more important. When you walk in a room to honor Christ, you honor them, your kids, your church, family, whatever relationship God gets you to interact in this world. It’s not because your intrinsic value is meaningless, but it has everything to do with understanding why your intrinsic value is so important in the Lord.
And so we have opportunity in that then to re guard one another as more important than our selves. This is how you nurture a powerful and healthy community and the idea of love then and remember our goal is in loving. It’s not what we get, but rather what we give because of what Christ has done, the very definition of love, leveraging all that you are to encourage someone else to all that they can become in Christ. When you consider what this passage is saying, this verse, it’s, it’s considering how you care for the most valued possession in your life.
I think what’s important to you, the way you polish it up, the way you set it aside, how it’s got its own special place to protect it. No one can touch it for sure unless you’re there and they may not even be allowed to touch it along. You care for it that much or you can think maybe in a relationship, someone that you loved and you were interested in and you wanted to get to know more and maybe your spouse, when you first started dating, you didn’t know how it was going to work out and then all of a sudden they say you share with someone, they cough. They go, Oh, you know you’re so happy and for hours you spend time on the phone. Just elevating that relationship. What happened doting on one another, appreciating blessing that it is to be in each other’s presence.
Paul is saying this passage, this is how you generate and nurture your relationships. This is how you stay in love. This is, this is about growing in love. I’m growing in love is not something that necessarily happens naturally. The dying to self, the benefit of the relationship. I’m the most important person in the room. Bow the hell, right? Don’t they know what this does to me? I’m the most special one here. The idea of, of uh, of giving up your position for the benefit of the relationship to elevate the other person. Paul Paul is saying this, this example that I’m sharing this, this idea is how relationships nurture and grow. It’s how your relationship with Jesus grows. I mean, you think about it, God came surrendering himself in humility that you may know him and then he calls you to die in him, that you in that relationship could live together. This idea of elevating, it’s not just about an instantaneous fix.
Sometimes when relationships aren’t going well, we go in series like this. Sometimes we’re looking for the one trigger thing that we can just push and then everything fixes itself. But what he’s saying in Philippians chapter two verse three is this, this isn’t just a one, one hit wonder here. This is a, this is a lifestyle of choosing to do this in order that relationships may flourish in your life. And so it’s not about an instantaneous fix, but praise God. God’s not just about instantaneous fixes because what God teaches us in living this out, this one is the extent that he’s going to love us and to what it really means to love the way God has called us to love. Love wouldn’t be love without the adversity that it faces the demonstration to overcome hardship in order to love. It’s what makes love, love, and so in, in the desire to just want to carry this example, to live out this plan, to make it a part of our lives is the way we glorify God. And also at the same time, honor relationships even when someone may not be deserving of love. In fact, what makes love, love is that people aren’t deserving of it, and yet Jesus still loved us and sin.
You know, the truth is when you think of a verse like this, it’s goal. And what I mean is you’re not always going to be perfect at it. In fact, unless you’re Jesus, you’re going to fail. But can I tell you one of the most important lessons I think we can teach children, people in relationships with us. It’s how to honor God in adversity, how to still honor God in failure as a father of two kids, this, this passage gives me a place to go to my kids and say, you know what? I messed up the kids. Here’s what I want you to know. This is my standard. This is what I know Jesus desires for me and this is how I want to treat you guys. This is how I want you to see how to treat other people. I’d say to myself, that’s not always going to be perfect at it, but you can see in what it’s shared in this passage. It’s the goal in which we reflect Jesus most in our relationships and then he goes on in verse four and says this, do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also the interest of others. I’m going to tell you that all the verses in the section, this is the hardest for me because now you’re going to judge me real quick, but let me, let me tell you why and then you’ll agree with me. All right, pastor can’t live at birth. He’s so bad.
Look, I’m, I’m only interested in things that interest me. So if you’re interested in something that doesn’t interest me, I’m not interested. That’s why this versus so, and you’re just like me, so judge me. But it is difficult to be interested in when and something that other people are interested in when you don’t care. If I could get rid of HGTV, I would you guys, you must have, you’re like, I hate them already. I’m new here and I don’t even want to let HGTV. That’s a blessing. Oh man. But here’s the one. I feel like as a pastor, I’m going through building project building to this place. Like, Oh, let’s just get getting in here. It’s a blessing. And it was difficult. Okay. I don’t even wanna look at another building project in my life and I know there’s one in the future somewhere. I don’t, I don’t even care about them.
Forget HGTV. Right. And then I think my wife is so good at that stuff. She is so good at that stuff. And then not, this is not a knock at her eye. She just, she’s so good at that. And then we watch it and you know, they filmed that thing and like in like two weeks and they make it look like you can accomplish all that in 30 minutes. Like that is not fair. That is not fair. Don’t you put those ideas in? My wife said, get rid of the TV please. Yeah, like interested in it. All right. I could go home with more examples, but it’s only gonna make me look worse. So how do you do that? The only way you can do this, just to understand who you are in light of who is only you can live your life with such sacrifice. The only way you’re going to want to positionally elevate someone else is to have the confidence of who you are already in Jesus. So not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
And then if you thought, okay, this is challenging, no way is this possible. Paul then gives an example. He’s saying, here’s how it looks specifically. And then it describes in verse five have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. If you want the tangible way. Jesus in verse six who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. Uh, Clawson’s two nine the fullness of Christ dwells in bodily form. Jesus was literally God wrapped in flesh. That’s why Jesus said who he has seen has seen me, has seen the father and the very tangible way Jesus has gotten the flesh, but they’re really understanding. I think the explanation that tax, I liked the way the NIV says, verse six let me read it for you. It says, do not consider equality with God. Jesus did not consider equality with God, something to be used to his own advantage.
What it’s saying is when Jesus stepped in a room, Jesus was always the most important person in the room. Jesus is always the most important person, period. But when Jesus walked the earth and he went into a room, he was the most important person in the room. But Jesus never used the Trump card to say to everyone, Hey, everybody, before we start this party, just need you to know I’m the most important person here today.
He didn’t. You already knew who his identity was and he wrapped himself in that and the relationship with the father so that when Jesus walked in the room, he leveraged his position in love to elevate those in the so through the love of Christ, we can become all that God has called us to be. Jesus didn’t have to tell people he was the most important room. And you know what makes him such a great leader? Even though you knew Jesus is the most important person in the room. By his presence, he made you feel like the most important person in the room and by his love, he felt so appreciated by what Christ represented and Jesus in that leveraged himself and his intrinsic value, his who he was to elevate us in our needs so we can become all that we are, and the Bible tells us we love him because he first loved us.
What we see in that example is it nurtured beautiful and healthy relationships. Can people take advantage of it? Sure will. People take advantage of it? Yes, but opens the door. It opens the door for you to experience the relationships for which God has created you to experience in this world starting with him. And so he’s saying in this passage though, Jesus being God, he never called that Trump card, but rather when he walked into the room, he walked in the purpose of serving one another. In fact, and in verse seven it says this, but emptied himself. Jesus emptied himself, taking the form of a bond servant, which is the lowest of servants and being made in the likeness of men being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. This idea of of MTM himself is that the Christ took no accolades. Rather he turned them away in order to elevate us because of our name.
You cannot do this unless you’re filled with something else. I your relationship with God, what it’s saying in this passage as you can be right or you can lower yourself and be relation in relationship. You can be right and be lonely or you can lower yourself. The benefit of relationship. All relationships struggle. All relationships have problems. No relationship will survive without forgiveness. You can be right or you can give up the position for the benefit of others. I think Jesus was always honest, but in the interesting thing about Jesus as Jesus, when he went to the room, he didn’t always address every problem in the room.
It didn’t address every problem in the room, but he always pointed people to him. And what I mean is in our relationships in this world, you can go through and micromanage every problem you’ve got. I wouldn’t recommend it, but you could do it. And in doing that, they’re still never closer to Christ trying. I think what Jesus understood is that there was something greater that he was calling us to. And we can keep her mind on the goal. When our desire became about that passion, all the other crap fades away. And so legal [inaudible] directly, you can go through relationship and micromanage everything. You know what you did wrong, and you could be completely right. You did this. And that’s, and that’s, and that’s, and that’s, I don’t know whose voice that is, but Lord have mercy if they exist, right? I mean, you can be right. You can be in a spouse, in a relationship, hounding your spouse about everything they do wrong. You can be totally right. You could win the battle.
I want to tell you, you’re gonna lose the war because you’re more interested in being right than you are in the relationship because you’re a position of rightness becomes more important. You could be riding lonely or you can lower yourself die to suffer the benefit of the relationship. Now you could tell me, you could tell me, I don’t know if I’m specifically talking to anybody. Let’s just say I’m talking to other people. Not, not even here this morning. Get us off herself. But, but you can tell me, but you don’t know how hard it is. Right? And I can tell you, you’re right. I know I don’t, but I can promise you in any harder than Jesus,
Jesus loved the worst sinners. Jesus loved us at our most unlovable point. And yet people took advantage of it. But the beauty of that is that through the love that it’s demonstrated, it’s not about what he gets it about what he gave. So we can experience the goodness of that relationship because we are created for in Christ. It’s the same thing with any relationship you have in this world. You can choose to be right and win the battle, but you lose the war. So it says in verse eight being found in the parents says, man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. And so it’s saying, it’s saying to us that Jesus, he did more than listen to a conversation. He did more than wash the dishes. He did more than than do the laundry. And he died. He elevated the relationship above himself.
Why? So you could live relationships, need life. They need forgiveness. They did Def so that it can live. Let me close here. Queen Victoria. I’m really a stewed on queen Victoria and know everything there is to know about her queen Victoria and say it like, uh, yeah. I know the history of over here. I know nothing other than this about queen Victoria. She had a daughter named queen, uh, princess Alice. So there you go. That’s nice to know that princess Alice had a child that had contracted diptheria in the 18 hundreds and the doctors told the princess, you cannot have physical contact with your daughter or you could die. And so has her daughter suffered through diptheria. Princess Alice would go by her bedside to encourage you, but she would not touch her. But then she had one of those motherly moments or in the midst of fighting that battle with diptheria, her child couldn’t breathe and seeing her struggle to gasp for air. The princess jumped towards her daughter and she picked her up and she held her.
She held her tie just to give her the opportunity to set up and to be able to, to breathe in. And she leaned in and then the act of love, she just kissed her daughter not long after the princess contracted theory and she died as well. They look at that and you think to yourself, rationally, the preservation of life is what you’re after and don’t make any sense, right? You’re a parent of a child. You know what that love is, right? So just abandoned the whole sense of yourself to recklessly pursue someone, to love them. You don’t need any explanation as to why that princess would do that. Your child is in need. You just love Solomon song of Solomon chapter eight in verse seven says this, many waters cannot quench love nor can rivers drown it out.
The need to love and to be loved is at the core of who you are because you’re created as a human being in the image of God to reflect his glory in the world to the relationships that you have with one another. And while we look at the story of the princess and her love her love for a child, and you may even say to yourself, you know I love like that. I want to love like that. There’s other times in our lives where we fight and we think our position is more important and so the response and is that we, we kill the love in that relationship rather than use our relationship to honor. But this is, Jesus teaches us in the story through his example. It teaches us there is a way to resolve every conflict and still love and value one another. There is a way to resolve conflict and love and value one another. How? Lowering yourself. Why would you do that? Cause you’ve discovered the value of who you are and a place much deeper than that relationship. It’s the one who’s placed your worth and value upon you. Jesus. The love is Jesus loves. We’ve got to be loved by the one who loves us in that way, which is Christ alone and the intrinsic worth which has been attributed to us because of Christ. It gives us the place and position to lower ourselves, to elevate someone else because Jesus has made us strong and in that relationships find healing.
So this morning I had to say, you’re right. I don’t know how difficult we have it in relationships in our lives. I dunno the challenges that you face, I care, but I don’t know all that’s on your shoulders. But I know the example we’ve been given, and I know he was completely right to stay where he was, but yeah, for the sake of the relationship, he lowered himself that end that we could be elevated to experience that love in him and enjoy that relationship for which we’d been created. My encouragement to you this morning, don’t give up that fight love as Jesus has loved you because I’m doing that. You opened the door of opportunity to experience the health for which relationships were created in Christ.