Jack Graham - Choose Love
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In our world today, love is often reduced to a fleeting emotion or a romantic feeling that comes and goes. But is this the authentic, lasting love that our hearts truly desire? God’s love reaches way beyond these temporary sentiments, offering us something much, much deeper and more transforming. Earlier this year at Prestonwood Church, we began exploring what it really means to thrive in 2025. And the response has been extraordinary. And that’s why I feel particularly led to share with you what I shared with them — you are PowerPoint family.
During today’s message, you’ll hear references to the Lord’s Table or the Lord’s Supper or communion. I believe deeply that Jesus calls us to be a part of a local church, a local community of believers, where we practice life together. And where we share the two sacred ordinances that he has given us baptism and communion, or the Lord’s Supper. I want to encourage you, wherever you are, to find a local congregation of believers that exalts Christ and teaches God’s Word, where you can participate in genuine community and communion with Christ and the church. There’s a profound spiritual enrichment that comes from sharing in this sacred ordinance that Christ has established for us, his people.
Now, as we open God’s Word together, let’s discover what it truly means to thrive with love in our daily lives. Not just with feelings that fade, come and go, but with the enduring, even eternal love that comes from God. Well, the world struggles to understand love, authentic love. Most people when you think of love and valentines, of course, we think of romantic love. And that’s good. Many people think of love as being a feeling. Some guy said love is feeling you feel like you’re going to feel when you felt a feeling you never felt before. So, of course, that’s not authentic love. We even talk about someone being lovesick, But being lovesick doesn’t actually excite me all that much.
Now, of course, we understand family love and the love of family and friends and the love of being together even in the church. But authentic love, the love of God is something else. It is something more. It is something much better. There’s a word in the New Testament for it in the language of the New Testament, Greek language, and it is agape love. And agape love is sacrificial love. It is love that serves. It is love that gives. You know, you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. And when you love as God loves, He loved the world and gave His Only Son. And so as we prepare for the Lord’s table today, as we are about to receive the Lord’s Supper this morning. We call this Communion which is fellowship. And fellowship is around this table with our Lord and with one another.
And I want to take you, therefore, to the upper room with Jesus and His disciples on Thursday night before the cross on Friday, when Jesus is having His Last Supper with His disciples. It’s the Passover meal and He engages in the Passover meal with His disciples. And He shows in this experience His great love. In fact, chapter 13, verse 1 says: «Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own», beautiful words there, «having loved His own», those who belong to Him, «who were in the world». And these are word that I’m about to read that I have reflected on time and time and time again. They are such wonderful words! «He loved them to the end».
The men around that table reclining with Jesus at this last supper, the Lord’s Supper, which became a memorial supper that we celebrate today. They were loved to the end. And here we see the heart of Jesus. In this entire thirteenth chapter of John, you see the heart of Jesus. Knowing that He was about to be betrayed, the betrayer was even in the room, Judas; denied — Peter was there, the rest of them would desert Him, run away into the darkness and hide. And yet, Jesus loved them. He loved them all the way to the end, and through it.
What was on His mind that night? Well, of course, the cross. The very reason that He was born and now is coming to the end of His earthly life, and He would be betrayed and arrested and the mock trials and then ultimately the bloody cross. He would die for the sins of the world. But what is on His mind? Not Himself. He could have been self-absorbed and self-centered and caught up in the whole situation that He was dealing with, but rather, He loved those around Him, and He loved them all the way to the end.
The cross was on His mind, for sure. But here we see what was on His heart as He loved them to the end. It was a full and forever love that He gives, not only to His disciples but all who belong to Him. This includes you; it includes me, if you belong to Jesus. He loves us to the end. He’s on His way to a bloody cross and yet, His heart is filled with divine love; God’s love. And His love included initially those who were the nearest and dearest to Him, those disciples. Those guys that He had walked with for those three years, they belonged to Him. They were His own. He loved them.
This love was, though it was, this is a simple statement. It’s a very simple statement. He loved them to the end. It’s a short sentence. He loved them to the end. And yet, think of the love, think of the truth that is in that simple sentence. He loved them all the way to the end. And really the word end there is, it could be translated He loved them fully. He loved them to completion. He loved them perfectly. He loved them to the max. And if He loved those men as to the end, He loves you as a believer and follower of Jesus to the end as well. He loves you to the max. He loves you completely, as only God can love. And this love is selfless and sacrificial and steadfast. And so He does something that stunned everyone in the room at this point.
If you know John chapter 13, this is the passage in which Jesus then gets up from the table and begins to wash the feet, the dirty feet of those disciples. Now, of course, it was common in that day for someone to wash the feet when you were reclining. Remember, they were reclining at dinner. You didn’t want smelly feet in your face. They didn’t eat at a table. DaVinci’s portrayal of the Last Supper wasn’t exactly right, sitting around a table, posing. No, as in the Jewish tradition, they would have been reclining at a small table.
So it was very important in the house that feet be cleaned. And typically, if it was a wealthy family, there would be a slave to do this work. But since apparently no servant was available and the disciples were so busy arguing just before all this of who was going to be greatest in the kingdom, who’s going to sit on the right? Who’s going to sit on the left? Who’s going to be the greatest? So the disciples are all wrapped up in themselves, and so no one is washing the feet of those in the room. So what did Jesus do? As the divine servant, like a slave, He stripped down from his outer cloak and took the form of a slave and got on the floor and washed with a towel and a basin, washed the feet of those disciples, one by one.
And so we see the model and the measure, therefore, of divine love, the model and the measure of divine love. Out of the depths of His own pain, as He faced the cross, He gets on the floor and does the menial task of a servant. This is our Jesus. On the last night of His earthly life, He shows us His loving heart, a love that stoops to conquer, a love that bends and kneels and serves, that loves all of us all the way to the end! This is real love; this is agape, authentic love. It is the love of Christ that is ultimately displayed at the cross.
In a later chapter, John chapter 15, still in the upper room, this John chapter 13, 14, 15 and 16 is the upper room conversation that Jesus had on that dark night with His disciples, and gave us and them so many wonderful promises that we share today. Promises regarding His Word and the Holy Spirit. And the promise of joy and the promise of peace and the promise of heaven. All that’s there! But in the middle of it, in John chapter 15 and verse 13, He says, «Greater love has no man than this, but that a man would lay down his life for his friends».
And so we know that Jesus would lay down His life for us. We are so loved, even though we are undeserving and unfit and unworthy. When we come to the Lord’s table today to receive the Bread and the Cup, we do this because of the grace of God, not because we’ve earned it or deserve to be at the table of the Lord. In fact, sometimes before you receive the Lord’s Supper, you may think I am unworthy of this. And the answer is yes, we are! But we do not take the Cup and the Bread because we are worthy, but because He is worthy, and the One who has made a way for us. He would in a few hours die on the cross, and He would carry His love for them and for us to the bloody end! That is the model and measure of love.
But then look down in verse 34, verses 34 and 35, because we also see in this fantastic scripture the mark of divine love. And what is the mark of divine love? Jesus said in verse 34: «A new commandment I give to you»! Why is this new? God told us that we were to love Him and love one another in the Old Testament. Jesus had already spoken on numerous occasions of love: the love of God, and the love of people. So in what sense is Jesus saying, this is a new commandment that I give to you? How is it possibly new? It’s one of the oldest commandments. It’s one of the first commandments. How is it new? This commandment is the last commandment that Jesus gives before the cross. So why is it new? He says: «that you love one another just as I have loved you».
It’s new because this is a love that the world has never seen before. It’s the love of God displayed in Christ. It’s the love demonstrated at the cross. Romans 5:8, Greater, rather, «But God shows His love, demonstrates His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us». We are commanded to love as He loves, to love like Jesus loves. That is why it’s new. This is something altogether different. This is not a human love; this is a divine love. This is the love, agape love of Christ Himself. And it is the love… and you say, so how? How does God love? How does Jesus love? «as I have loved you». He’s just shown us that this love kneels, it bends, it stoops, it serves. It loves at any cost. It loves all the way and never stops loving.
Love is verb! Love acts. Love moves when love sees a need. There was a need. It was a simple thing. It was a physical thing. Dirty feet. Disciples who needed a touch of the cleansing hand of God. And so He did that. So how do we love like Jesus? First John 3:18 says, «Little children, let us not love in word or in talk, but in», what? Say it, «in deed and in truth». This is how we are to love. So to love like Jesus is the mark of a Christian. Not some bumper sticker or tee shirt that we wear. The mark of Christ in His Church is love.
We’re known for our truth and doctrine, yes, we’re to love in truth and act in truth. But this love is our testimony. It is the testimony that Jesus has changed our lives, that His love has made us someone new, something new. Because the love of Jesus Christ is now in us and we love like Him. This is how people will know that we are Christians because we love one another. Jesus said, think about this; I love this part, says, «Love one another as I have loved you». Love is a person. Do you see that? «As I have loved you».
I have loved you. And His love is perfect and passionate and personal. And it is impossible to love like this apart from His love in you, His very life living in you. God has given us such great love. And we’re to demonstrate that love, the love of Jesus in acts of ministry and service to those who need the touch and the transforming power of God. A love like these refuses to give up. A love like this knows no limits, no limitation. A love like this is blind to color or creed. A love like this is for people who don’t love us. A love like this is for those who like us or don’t like us. Not just like-minded love, but the love even, Jesus said, of our enemies.
And dear, dear church, this is how we reach people for Christ. This is why we tell the world, and not just in words but in deeds, that God loves you and we love you. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 1, that we are to follow the way of love, «pursue love». The New Living Translation gives it this way: «Let love be your highest goal». What are your goals? Well, you probably have a number of goals right now. Things you want to do, maybe career goals, your career path. Maybe some physical goals, maybe it’s family goals. You’ve got some goals and those are good. But of all the goals, what does the scripture tell us? Pursue love. Let love be the highest goal of your life.
And when Paul here in 1 Corinthians 14 says follow the way of love, pursue love, it’s a Super Bowl word. You know why I say that? Because it’s a sweaty word. It’s a word that suggests strenuous, rigorous activity. Well, Paul uses this same word when he says, «I press on towards the mark of the prize of the high calling in Jesus Christ». That word press on, pursue, that’s what he’s saying. Pursue love. Our goal is to experience in faith in Jesus Christ a love that doesn’t let us go and never lets go of us. How do you have this kind of love? Well, pray. Ask God for this love.
This is what Paul said in Philippians 1:9-10, and it is my prayer. Look at these verses. «And it is my prayer that you your love may abound», that it be abundant, «more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ», that is, the day Christ returns. The New Living Bible once again gives this in these words: «I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and more and more».
Ask God to fill you with His love and then love out of the overflow of His love in you! We ought to begin each day by asking God to fill us with His love, so that we could just spend our day pouring out His love on people around us. Ask God to open your eyes for lost people and to give you a love for people, including people that aren’t like you. Ask God to help you love your neighbor. Yeah, that neighbor that maybe you don’t like. But God said, love that neighbor. And then allow the Holy Spirit to live and love through you. The fruit of the Spirit is love. The secret of loving is to allow the Holy Spirit to love supernaturally through you. This is not a human love. This is God’s love. The fruit of the Spirit is love.
Romans 5:5 tells us that the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit to love people where they are; to share the Gospel. So we are to draw from the inexhaustible, limitless, and supernatural love of Christ. My love wears out, but His doesn’t. Could I just say one more thing very quickly? You never run out of opportunities to love people when you love like Jesus. Did we hear that? You never run out of opportunities to love people when you love like Jesus. The opportunities are everywhere. And then finally, begin to love by faith.
Trust God and say, I believe You want to love people through me. This means forgiving people as we learned in a few messages ago on choosing forgiveness. That by faith you can’t do it on your own, but by faith out of the overflow, you overlook offenses; you refuse to retaliate. You love by faith. You show mercy to those who may not deserve mercy. We only do this by the power of His great love. And remember this, God will never command you to do anything… Did Jesus command us to love one another as He has loved us? Did He do it? Is that a commandment? This is not a suggestion. This is not optional.
So Jesus never asks us to do anything, God will never ask us to do anything that He will not enable us to do. So if He says, love that person and you pray, you ask the Holy Spirit to fill you, you ask the love of God to be poured out in your heart through you. And then by faith, you may not feel it. You may not want to do it, but by faith you choose to believe God. And you do what He tells you to do. And in verse 17 of this thirteenth chapter, Jesus said, «Happy are you when you do these things». Everybody wants to be happy. Happiness is in the love of Jesus poured out through us to people all around us. Amen?