5 THINGS: Love in the Kingdom - September 28, 2025
INTRODUCTION
What would you say if you only had time to tell your loved ones one thing?
In this sermon series, I will be sharing with you thoughts on these issues.
The love of God - September 14, 2025
Love according to the Word - September 21, 2025
Love in the Kingdom
Love and righteousness
Love yourself
Love is a Kingdom characteristic.
A young teenage boy and girl were setting in a swing on her parents front porch way up in the mountains of North Carolina. They spent a lot of time there away from everyone. Just them. They would talk about all kinds of things. Things about when they had grown up. What they would do: go to college which for them meant moving away from home and getting enough money to go. For him it would mean getting a job or going into the military for some good job training. Would they have a family together?
Every Friday evening it was the same. He really liked coming to see her, but her mother’s cooking was another good thing about the visit.
When he got ready to go he would hold her hand and tell her he would see her next Friday and hug her. But tonight he was feeling tender towards her so he hugged her and said at the bottom of the porch stairs: You know I love you so much I would fight the biggest man, swim the deepest ocean, climb the highest mountain because I love you so much. He kisses her for the first time and turned to leave. Looking back at her as he opened the gate to leave. I’ll see you next Friday if it don't rain.
Roy Fowler, Sermon Central, September 19, 2020.
Love in the Kingdom has no end.
Let us pray.
I. OUR FATHER
A. Love originates in God.
1 John 4:19 NIV
“We love because he first loved us.”
1 John 4:19 NIV
B. Our love comes from Him.
1 John 4:8 NIV
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:8 NIV
C. Our love must permeate our lives.
1 Corinthians 16:14 NIV
“Do everything in love.”
1 Corinthians 16:14 NIV
“Whoever loves much, does much.”
Thomas a’ Kempis (author of The Imitation of Christ, devotional)
II. BROTHERS AND SISTERS
An anonymous soul has expressed it well:
Love is the spark that kindles the fires of compassion.
Compassion is the fire that flames the candle of service.
Service is the candle that ignites the torch of hope.
Hope is the torch that lights the beacon of faith.
Faith is the beacon that reflects the power of God.
God is the power that creates the miracle of love.
G. Curtis Jones. 1000 Illustrations For Preaching And Teaching. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1986, p. 223.
A. The command to love our neighbor begins in the Kingdom.
1. Love starts here and goes there.
Galatians 5:13-14 NIV
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.””
Galatians 5:13-14 NIV
2. Our change brings a change in how we love.
1 John 3:14-15 NIV
“We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”
1 John 3:14-15 NIV
B. Love is always about relationship.
LOVE’S CHALLENGES
What joy to love the saints above
When I get home to glory.
To love below, the saints I know,
Well, that’s another story!
To love mankind I always find
To be a simple task.
To have love for the man next door
Is more than one should ask!
Love’s full and free when two agree;
It isn’t hard at all.
But easy it ain’t to love the saint
Who drives me up the wall!
When someone’s kind, and has Christ’s mind,
I love him with great ease.
But one who hurts with words he blurts,
Don’t make me love him, please!
If no one needs my loving deeds,
I love unstintingly.
But hungry saints with real complaints
Should stay away from me!
But Jesus said, to those He led,
This is to be the only sign –
You must love one another so that all will discover
that you are truly mine.
Anonymous
1. Love deeply
1 Peter 1:22 NIV
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.”
1 Peter 1:22 NIV
2. Love for imperfect people
1 Peter 4:8 NIV
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
1 Peter 4:8 NIV
3. Love as humility
Romans 12:10 NIV
“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
Romans 12:10 NIV
C. Love comes with a price.
It was February 1941, Auschwitz, Poland. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan priest put in the infamous death camp for helping Jews escape Nazi terrorism.
Months went by and in desperation an escape took place. The camp rule was enforced. Ten people would be rounded up randomly and herded into a cell where they would die of starvation and exposure as a lesson against future escape attempts.
Names were called. A Polish Jew Frandishek Gasovnachek was called. He cried, "Wait, I have a wife and children!" Kolbe stepped forward and said, "I will take his place." Kolbe was marched into the cell with nine others where he managed to live until August 14.
This story was chronicled on an NBC news special several years ago. Gasovnachek, by this time 82, was shown telling this story while tears streamed down his cheeks. A mobile camera followed him around his little white house to a marble monument carefully tended with flowers. The inscription read:
IN MEMORY OF MAXIMILIAN KOLBE
HE DIED IN MY PLACE.
Every day Gasovnachek lived since 1941, he lived with the knowledge, "I live because someone died for me." Every year on August 14 he travels to Auschwitz in memory of Kolbe.
Sermon Central, February 18, 202.
John 15:13 NIV
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
John 15:13 NIV
Philippians 2:1-8 NIV
“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!”
Philippians 2:1-8 NIV
III. STRANGERS
A. Those we do not know
Hebrews 13:1-2 NIV
“Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”
Hebrews 13:1-2 NIV
You and I tend to offer hospitality to only a limited number of
people--persons whom we already know, mostly relatives and a few close
friends. But, in Abraham’s time, hospitality was extended to whomever needed
it--strangers and acquaintances alike. In fact, in its original form,
"hospitality" combines two separate words--one meaning friend and the other
meaning stranger. So, from the beginning of its usage, hospitality has
carried with it the idea of making friends out of strangers.
James W. Cox, The Minister’s Manual, Harper, 1994, p. 109.
B. Those who are suffering
Hebrews 13:3 NIV
“Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”
Hebrews 13:3 NIV
1. Those who deserve their suffering
2. Those who don’t deserve their suffering
IV. ENEMIES
Luke 6:27-36 NIV
““But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Luke 6:27-36 NIV
An Armenian nurse had been held captive along with her brother by the Turks. Her brother was slain by a Turkish soldier before her eyes. Somehow she escaped and later became a nurse in a military hospital. One day she was stunned to find that the same man who had killed her brother had been captured and brought wounded to the hospital where she worked. Something within her cried out "Vengeance." But a stronger voice called for her to love. She nursed the man back to health. Finally, the recuperating soldier asked her, "Why didn’t you let me die?" Her answer was, "I am a follower of Him who said, ’Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you’". Impressed with her answer, the young soldier replied, "I never heard such words before. Tell me more. I want this kind of religion."
Jeremias Fababier, “Fruitfulness Comes from the Heart”, May 29, 2012.
A. Love your enemies.
B. Do good to those who hate you.
C. Bless those who curse you.
D. Pray for those who mistreat you.
CONCLUSION
Love comes from our Father. Love must be shared with our brothers and sisters. Love must flow to those we do not know. Love belongs even to our enemies. If we cannot love everyone like God, we cannot truly love anyone. Love because God loves us.
INVITATION
It is our custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word. You may want to follow Jesus. You may want to proclaim your faith. You may want to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things). Perhaps you want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Possibly, if you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to become a member of Kenwood Church. If you have been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come forward now. If you would like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God is doing in your life.
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