Pastor Cal Lord's Recent Sermons
"God Loves Me"
Mark 1:40-45 February 15, 2009
I want to tell you that it is a total coincidence that love is sprinkled from one end of this service to
the other on Valentine’s Day weekend. When I chose the text and the title I wasn’t even thinking
about preaching it on Valentine’s day. It was a snowy day in January. When I picked out the
hymns and the verse of the week, I hadn’t even given a thought to the fact that I needed to get
something for Lori on that special day. My theme was love and that’s all there was to it. Yesterday
it hit me how ironic this was going to be. It looks like I planned it all along. Well here’s the truth: I
didn’t plan it but maybe someone else did.
You see I want to talk about love today. But I’m not going to talk about gushy, romantic, make you
feel mushy, kind of love. I am going to talk about real love. I am going to talk about the love that
lasts and is faithful and forms a foundation for every good thing that happens in life.
The first thing you need to know about love is this: Love is a choice. I think too many of us get that
wrong and we end up being disappointed. You see love isn’t something you fall into, it is something
you grow. You grow it every day by making a choice to love once again. It has nothing to do with
feelings.
I heard a beautiful story this week from a friend of mine about how he and his wife met.
Dave Thomas is the pastor of First Baptist North Stonington. Back in 1970 he was a chaplain in the
Navy Reserves. He got a call that one of his men was in the Newport Hospital and he decided to
drive up there to visit him. As Dave tells the story, he was single at that time and pretty lonely. On
the long drive to Newport he was overcome with the desire to stop and pray about his situation. So
he got out of the van and got on his knees and prayed that God would bring a woman into his life.
When Dave got to the hospital he walked down the hall and ran into a nurse who gave him nothing
but grief. He finally got in to see his patient, prayed with him and left the room. The nurse had an
about face after she heard him with his man. They got to talking and he asked her out. Later that
night at diner he told her that he had decided he was going to marry her. With a twinkle in his eye,
he says, and that was twenty eight years ago.
Now I could say that Dave made a choice and that was it. But the truth is that his wife was the one
who really made the choice. She decided she could love this simple man and become his wife.
Anyone who has been married for any length of time will tell you that they remain married because
both partners choose to do so. Let’s be honest: Most of us are hard to live with. We are
demanding, selfish, boring and what else did you tell me to say Lori…
Now what does this have to do with God? It is simple. God chose to love us long before we
decided to love him. God’s love is not based on anything we did or anything we deserve or
anything we can do. God loves us simply because we are who we are. If that doesn’t blow your
mind, then I don’t know what will.
Paul says in Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
In other words there were not even any preconditions for God to love us. He didn’t say, “well you
better do this or that and then I’ll think about it.” God loved us first. That’s our
Bible verse. Let’s say it together.
We love him , because he first loved us. I John 4:19
There’s an old song "Jesus Love Me" that many of us sang in Sunday School. It goes…
Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong, they are weak but
he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes. Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible Tells me so.
There is another one that goes like this;
I am so glad that our Father in heaven tells of his love in the book he has given.
Wonderful things in the Bible I see, This is the dearest that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus
loves me, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves even me.
I learned both of these songs as a fifth grader in Sunday School. They stuck with me. At a time
when I was wondering what was wrong with me because my mother had abandoned me and left
home, I found hope in the fact that somehow God loved me. I didn’t understand it, but God chose
to love me and it saved my life.
You see that was the message that a broken world was yearning for the day Jesus walked the
streets of Galilee. Mark tells us that Jesus began healing people along the streets and casting out
demons along the way.
There is no litmus test for the people who meet Jesus on the street. He sees them and their needs
and he reaches out in love and compassion and gives them what they need.
Our text today focuses on a man with leprosy. His flesh was literally rotting away on his body. He
was cast out of his home and put away from his family. No one would go near him for fear of
contracting the disease. From the day he was diagnosed, he was cut off from every meaningful
thing he had ever known or done. His life was over.
The law said that if he were to leave the leper colony he had to shout out to the world that a leper
was nearby. He had to warn people and he had to steer clear of everyone. That wasn’t a thing that
was going to get you loved and admired by your peers.
The law said that if you touched a leper, you became unclean and had to be ceremonially cleansed.
You were set apart and could not return to your religious duties for a proscribed period of time.
That means by coming in contact with a leper, you were also alienated and removed from God’s
protection and care.
Now I know there are people today who are sick and feel that way. I spoke with a friend of mine
online last night who has cancer and feels so isolated from everyone. She is afraid that even God
has abandoned her.
I don’t care what your situation is, whether you have been jilted by a lover, or are facing serious
illness or have been fired from work, or abandoned by a parent there is often a feeling that no one
loves you or cares about you. That’s because we base so much of our feeling of worth on what
other’s say and do to us.
Well I want to tell you that Jesus understands that in no uncertain terms and that’s why our little
scripture lesson is so important today. Right at the outset of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus makes a
statement by his actions. Biblical historians will note that although Matthew is the first book in the
New Testament, Mark is the first of the four that was written and circulated and oldest of the four
Gospels. So here we have the earliest stories of Jesus and they give us a picture of the man.
Now Jesus didn’t have a scheduled visit here in Galilee. He just happened by and he heard this man’
s cries. He risked his own health and safety and even his reputation. But when he saw the man, the
scripture says “he had compassion” and he reached out and healed him.
“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
This man didn’t do anything to earn Jesus’ favor. He simply called out to him. Jesus did the one
thing that the leper needed most but never expected to happen. He reached out and touched him.
Remember, according to the law, when Jesus touched him Jesus became unclean, too. But Jesus
went ahead and did it anyway. Why?
I think it was because Jesus was giving him a gift he would never forget. There is something very
special about human touch that communicates friendship and concern and even love. No one else
would come close to that man. So when Jesus touched him, it became an emotional and moving
moment the he would never forget.
Yes Jesus loves me, Yes Jesus loves me.
The truth is that Jesus loves each and every one of us here today. You may be thinking, “How can
he love me? Especially if he knows what I was thinking or what I’ve done.” You may be thinking,
“Why should he love me. No one else does. I’m too sarcastic and I know I have a temper.” You
may be thinking “I’m so shy. I can’t express myself. I could never get up in front of a crowd and
accept Jesus publically. So how can I expect him to accept me?”
The truth is that none of that matters… Well, it matters because once you realize Jesus loves you,
you can’t help but want to begin to change the things you know aren’t right in your life. But it
doesn’t make one iota of a difference to whether Jesus loves you or not.
That’s the message of the Gospel. Jesus Christ loved you so much, that he saw your sin and he
gave his life up on the cross so that we might be forgiven and spend eternity with him.
As the old saying goes, Jesus loves you this much (arms extended.) So I might as well say it.
Happy Valentine’s Day. God loves you. Be blessed. Amen.
Mark 1:40-45 February 15, 2009
I want to tell you that it is a total coincidence that love is sprinkled from one end of this service to
the other on Valentine’s Day weekend. When I chose the text and the title I wasn’t even thinking
about preaching it on Valentine’s day. It was a snowy day in January. When I picked out the
hymns and the verse of the week, I hadn’t even given a thought to the fact that I needed to get
something for Lori on that special day. My theme was love and that’s all there was to it. Yesterday
it hit me how ironic this was going to be. It looks like I planned it all along. Well here’s the truth: I
didn’t plan it but maybe someone else did.
You see I want to talk about love today. But I’m not going to talk about gushy, romantic, make you
feel mushy, kind of love. I am going to talk about real love. I am going to talk about the love that
lasts and is faithful and forms a foundation for every good thing that happens in life.
The first thing you need to know about love is this: Love is a choice. I think too many of us get that
wrong and we end up being disappointed. You see love isn’t something you fall into, it is something
you grow. You grow it every day by making a choice to love once again. It has nothing to do with
feelings.
I heard a beautiful story this week from a friend of mine about how he and his wife met.
Dave Thomas is the pastor of First Baptist North Stonington. Back in 1970 he was a chaplain in the
Navy Reserves. He got a call that one of his men was in the Newport Hospital and he decided to
drive up there to visit him. As Dave tells the story, he was single at that time and pretty lonely. On
the long drive to Newport he was overcome with the desire to stop and pray about his situation. So
he got out of the van and got on his knees and prayed that God would bring a woman into his life.
When Dave got to the hospital he walked down the hall and ran into a nurse who gave him nothing
but grief. He finally got in to see his patient, prayed with him and left the room. The nurse had an
about face after she heard him with his man. They got to talking and he asked her out. Later that
night at diner he told her that he had decided he was going to marry her. With a twinkle in his eye,
he says, and that was twenty eight years ago.
Now I could say that Dave made a choice and that was it. But the truth is that his wife was the one
who really made the choice. She decided she could love this simple man and become his wife.
Anyone who has been married for any length of time will tell you that they remain married because
both partners choose to do so. Let’s be honest: Most of us are hard to live with. We are
demanding, selfish, boring and what else did you tell me to say Lori…
Now what does this have to do with God? It is simple. God chose to love us long before we
decided to love him. God’s love is not based on anything we did or anything we deserve or
anything we can do. God loves us simply because we are who we are. If that doesn’t blow your
mind, then I don’t know what will.
Paul says in Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
In other words there were not even any preconditions for God to love us. He didn’t say, “well you
better do this or that and then I’ll think about it.” God loved us first. That’s our
Bible verse. Let’s say it together.
We love him , because he first loved us. I John 4:19
There’s an old song "Jesus Love Me" that many of us sang in Sunday School. It goes…
Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong, they are weak but
he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes. Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible Tells me so.
There is another one that goes like this;
I am so glad that our Father in heaven tells of his love in the book he has given.
Wonderful things in the Bible I see, This is the dearest that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus
loves me, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves even me.
I learned both of these songs as a fifth grader in Sunday School. They stuck with me. At a time
when I was wondering what was wrong with me because my mother had abandoned me and left
home, I found hope in the fact that somehow God loved me. I didn’t understand it, but God chose
to love me and it saved my life.
You see that was the message that a broken world was yearning for the day Jesus walked the
streets of Galilee. Mark tells us that Jesus began healing people along the streets and casting out
demons along the way.
There is no litmus test for the people who meet Jesus on the street. He sees them and their needs
and he reaches out in love and compassion and gives them what they need.
Our text today focuses on a man with leprosy. His flesh was literally rotting away on his body. He
was cast out of his home and put away from his family. No one would go near him for fear of
contracting the disease. From the day he was diagnosed, he was cut off from every meaningful
thing he had ever known or done. His life was over.
The law said that if he were to leave the leper colony he had to shout out to the world that a leper
was nearby. He had to warn people and he had to steer clear of everyone. That wasn’t a thing that
was going to get you loved and admired by your peers.
The law said that if you touched a leper, you became unclean and had to be ceremonially cleansed.
You were set apart and could not return to your religious duties for a proscribed period of time.
That means by coming in contact with a leper, you were also alienated and removed from God’s
protection and care.
Now I know there are people today who are sick and feel that way. I spoke with a friend of mine
online last night who has cancer and feels so isolated from everyone. She is afraid that even God
has abandoned her.
I don’t care what your situation is, whether you have been jilted by a lover, or are facing serious
illness or have been fired from work, or abandoned by a parent there is often a feeling that no one
loves you or cares about you. That’s because we base so much of our feeling of worth on what
other’s say and do to us.
Well I want to tell you that Jesus understands that in no uncertain terms and that’s why our little
scripture lesson is so important today. Right at the outset of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus makes a
statement by his actions. Biblical historians will note that although Matthew is the first book in the
New Testament, Mark is the first of the four that was written and circulated and oldest of the four
Gospels. So here we have the earliest stories of Jesus and they give us a picture of the man.
Now Jesus didn’t have a scheduled visit here in Galilee. He just happened by and he heard this man’
s cries. He risked his own health and safety and even his reputation. But when he saw the man, the
scripture says “he had compassion” and he reached out and healed him.
“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
This man didn’t do anything to earn Jesus’ favor. He simply called out to him. Jesus did the one
thing that the leper needed most but never expected to happen. He reached out and touched him.
Remember, according to the law, when Jesus touched him Jesus became unclean, too. But Jesus
went ahead and did it anyway. Why?
I think it was because Jesus was giving him a gift he would never forget. There is something very
special about human touch that communicates friendship and concern and even love. No one else
would come close to that man. So when Jesus touched him, it became an emotional and moving
moment the he would never forget.
Yes Jesus loves me, Yes Jesus loves me.
The truth is that Jesus loves each and every one of us here today. You may be thinking, “How can
he love me? Especially if he knows what I was thinking or what I’ve done.” You may be thinking,
“Why should he love me. No one else does. I’m too sarcastic and I know I have a temper.” You
may be thinking “I’m so shy. I can’t express myself. I could never get up in front of a crowd and
accept Jesus publically. So how can I expect him to accept me?”
The truth is that none of that matters… Well, it matters because once you realize Jesus loves you,
you can’t help but want to begin to change the things you know aren’t right in your life. But it
doesn’t make one iota of a difference to whether Jesus loves you or not.
That’s the message of the Gospel. Jesus Christ loved you so much, that he saw your sin and he
gave his life up on the cross so that we might be forgiven and spend eternity with him.
As the old saying goes, Jesus loves you this much (arms extended.) So I might as well say it.
Happy Valentine’s Day. God loves you. Be blessed. Amen.
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