A New Kind of Love

A New Kind of Love
Finding joy in Loving God

By CHRIS BURY and MARY MARSH
Sept. 1, 2009— ABC http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Story?id=8462247&page=1

John McAfee knows about risk. A mathematician by training, in the late 1980s he developed the antivirus computer software program that has become a household name. In the 1990s he pioneered instant-messaging. In both cases, he grew bored and cashed out. At his peak, he was reportedly worth about $100 million.
Like many wealthy Americans, McAfee was hit hard with the simultaneous collapse of real estate, stocks and Wall Street investment banks. But he got whacked more than most, since much of his fortune was tied up in luxury properties.
Last Saturday, auctioneers worked up bids for his 80-acre retreat in the high desert of Rodeo, N.M. With a private airstrip and hangar, it's a slice of paradise, and it's all up for grabs.

McAfee has sold his private twin-engine plane, beachfront property in Hawaii and a Colorado mansion in the shadow of Pike's Peak. His posh New Mexico getaway is the last property to hit the auction block.
"At one point, I had five houses in five different locations and it's impractical, it's almost insane to have that much real estate," he conceded. "You can only be in one place at a time."

McAfee admits that he got caught up in the culture of consumption.
"We are the ultimate consumer society," he said. "If you succeed within that culture, then you're simply more bonded to it. You feel like, 'Yes, I've got all this money, the ability to get things' ... and so you just do it. People buy yachts, they buy jets, they buy multiple homes."
McAfee himself indulged his whims and passions, spending millions to promote the sport of aero-trekking: tiny motorized kites that enthusiasts fly to explore the remotest corners of the country.

McAfee says he expects no sympathy. "Oh, God, I hope they don't have sympathy. I don't have sympathy for my position," he said. "I'm perfectly happy."

In fact, he believes that to a certain extent, the recession has served a useful purpose: "It's brought home a dose of reality," he said. "And sometimes a little pain is necessary to see and understand the true circumstances of your life."

McAfee's net worth dropped from within the ballpark of $100 million to less than $10 million, he told ABC News. But instead of feeling a sense of loss, he says he feels free.
"I feel a sense of freedom," he said. "People think that it's a joy to own things. But it really isn't."
"I'm happy to get rid of them [possessions]. I have a few pennies in my pocket. I don't have stuff to worry about," he said.
"I feel freer. I have less responsibility and obligations. And I have enough money left to feed myself," he said.
After 65 years, his attitude about money, he says, is forever changed.
"I think most people don't sit down and ask, 'What do I need?" not "What do I want?" Because we all want everything," he explained. "But what do we need? We don't need very much. We really don't ... The things we want and the things we need are two different things."

This year, you may be anticipating success by…
New friends to enjoy; new job for fulfillment;

We have many loves, but when our loves are disordered, it’s inevitable that our values get distorted under the crush of economics, fast company, etc.
We experience the most intense joy when we find ourselves loving God for all He is worth.

Premise:
I. We love many things, but our loves are “disordered” as Augustine said.
II. We can learn to love God.
III. We have designed our congregation to equip us love God and one another.
IV. If you throw in your lot with us, you will learn, with us, how
i. to love God above all else, and
ii. to love your neighbour as yourself.

Outline:
A. We know the divine expectation is that we love God above all things.
a. Our love for God consumes all that we are.
i. Deut. 6:5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
b. Our love for God comes from God himself.
i. POSITIVELY: 1John 4:16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
ii. NEGATIVELY: 1John 4:8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
iii. 1Cor. 16:22 If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed.

Problem!!!
c. Our loves are distorted:
i. We love things.
ii. We use people.
DOUBLE PROBLEM:
d. 1 Cor. 16:22 If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed.
We are NOT the first to see the dilemma:

David Naugle…[Augustine’s] concept of disordered love in which the soul seeks satisfaction in things that are metaphysically incapable of providing it is strikingly applicable to our day.

The quest for happiness consists in attaching ourselves in love to objects of desire that we think will make us happy. But for this to occur, a knowledge of the metaphysical order and value of objects of love is necessary such that love might be properly ordered.
Love is disordered when it seeks final happiness in temporal and finite objects, an action which engenders all kinds of pathologies in human behavior.
The human condition as envisaged by Augustine calls for nothing less than the radical reconstruction of the human personality through Christian conversion and reunion with the only proper object of happiness which is the Godhead. Augustine's own conversion experience as set forth in the Confessions is the paradigm.

B. We know that love for Christ casts all other loves into shadow.
a. Love for God is love for Christ. John 8:42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me…”
b. Love for Christ supersedes all other loves: Matt. 10:37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me;
and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

C. We understand that a surpassing love for Christ leads us into great joy.
a. 1Pet. 1:8 …and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
b. John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
Obeying the command to love is not the first step to loving God
D. We must understand the place of obedience; obedience follows love.
a. John 14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
b. Piper: [This is] …the effect of love, not the essence of love…
E. We learn to love God when we experience God’s love for us.
a. We first experience God’s love.
b. Then we can learn to love God.
c. So then, How do we experience God’s love?
1John 4:10-12 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
i. God loved first: evidenced by the sending of the Son.
ii. Being loved of God, we love one another.
iii. AS we love one another, God perfects his love within us.
iv. We love God BY loving one another.

Appplication: HOW CAN YOU EXPERIENCE GOD’S LOVE?
DIRECTLY, as you pray, read the Word, meditate on His character
INDIRECTLY, mediated through friendships

Reorder your loves! We need one another to gain personal insight, to obtain the will to persevere, to enjoy the successes we may find.

Don't be forced to liquidate the objects of your love, cultivate the sort of love that lasts forever.

Reprise: If you throw in your lot with us, you may learn, with us, how
to love God above all else, and
to love your neighbour as yourself.