1John 3:1

Lavish.  What comes to mind?  Maybe a scene from someone’s Valentine’s Day.  She comes home from work.  There are some roses and a card.  Nice.  We’re going out to dinner he says, so she gets ready.  But then a limousine drives up.  We’re going some  place special. Lavish, wouldn’t you say?

Yet Valentine’s Day can’t take the place of a consistent, giving love in a relationship.  Real love, love that counts for something is more than a lavish moment.  That love takes time.

We’ve come here today to think about the love God lavished on us.  Time and again, his love for us stands out.  And now the Lord would have us think of the time he gives us in this life.  How do we use it?  You see,

Love Takes Time
I.  God’s time for us, his children (1a)
II.  Our time to grow in His love
III.  Our time for people that do not know him

The apostle John by now is an old man.  He has seen so much in his years as Christ’s apostle.  Some very wonderful things.  But also he has seen how this world can treat those who follow Christ.  Yet even with those painful memories of Jesus’ people put to death and mistreated, even with those continuing threats, John’s heart spills over with this: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1)

That love that made us God’s children.  That love that counts us as God’s children.  That love took time.  It takes time. God’s time. His time for us, his children

I think about his time in a garden long ago.  Our first parents Adam and Eve had made an awful decision.  To stop trusting in God and believe a lie.  Now instead of peace, they were afraid. Instead of innocence and joy they knew guilt.  And instead of life, they faced death.

And even though this happened long ago, it was like you I and  were there.  For the tragedy of Adam and Eve became ours when the time came for us to be born into this fallen world.

But we see something else in that garden.  God’s time for us, his children. Think about it.  When our Father had every reason to be done with us, he spoke a very special promise.  A promise that would give hope.  A promise that would offer forgiveness and life to dying sinners like you and me.  A promise of God’s time for us his children.

We know what that time would bring. ⁴ But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, ⁵ to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. (Gal 4:4,5)  The life Jesus lived was God’s time for you.  Every moment of every day, was time lived for you.  It was time lived as we should live, but fail.  The Son of God took our place in this life and then stepped up to suffer what we deserve.  He stepped up to make it possible for sinners like you and me to be God’s children.

But that love took time. It took God’s time, the Son of God’s time, to bleed and die for each of us. It took time, agonizing time for him to pay the price to  set us free.  But that’s what we are in Him.  Free from guilt, free from death. Free to live our lives in hope.

But God’s time for you did not end there.  God’s time for us reached right into our lives. It had to otherwise we would still be lost.  You see, we don’t come into this world as children of God.  But look what God the Holy Spirit took the time to do for you. ²³ For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. (1Peter1) Sometime in your life the Spirit changed your heart to believe what you could not before.  He came to you in the word, the word with the water of your baptism, the word shared with you and gave you a new birth as a child of God.

Now think of what his love takes time to do.  This God over the whole universe has time to hear your prayers as if you were the only one speaking to him.  He has time to be with you every step of life’s way and hold your hand as you go.  And in time, he will bring you to another kind of life.  A life where you won’t have to worry about time.  About your time, or the time of those you love.  That’s God’s love for us, his children.  A love that made us his children.  A love that treats us as his children.  Yes, a love that takes time.

Now we have this time.  He gives us this time, 24 hours in every day. Here I’d like you to think about something.  One of these days you are going to look back and wish you had spent more time with someone.  I wish I had spent more time with my mom before she got Alzheimer’s, before she drifted away into a fog.  For love takes time.

What about the Lord?  Again love takes time.  This is our time.  Will we use it? This is our time to grow in God’s love.  Think of what St Paul wrote to the Ephesians.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

Well how does that happen?  How do we grow up in that love?  How do we begin to stand in awe of God’s love for us in Christ?  That love takes time.  It takes time in God’s Word. For there we begin to realize how lost we were and what we really deserved.  Yet God’s hand reached out to save us.  It reached out to draw us near as his dear children.  But that love takes times.  It takes our time to be in this Word. It takes our time to come to Holy Communion where Jesus comes to us in such a special way.   So take the time.  Our time to grow in God’s love.

Well that love, God’s love, gives birth to another.  John says it this way in chapter 4:1, Dear friends us let us love one another, for love comes from God.   But again that kind of love takes time.

Often we find ourselves pressed for time.  The demand of this life can crowd out the people God has placed in our lives.  Sometimes we have no choice.  A soldier is deployed to the other side of the world.  Some jobs require travel.  But part of that press for time can come from the choices we make.  How do we use our time? We say we love our spouse, our children.  We say we care about our brothers and sisters in Christ.  But what do our choices say?  My choice to spend so much time on the internet, my choice to spend so much time on the job or doing my hobby or playing golf with my buddies. Could that be the reason we have little time for each other? Could that be the reason we have no time for a widow who has lost her best friend.

Years ago, when Karen and I were first married, the Coast Guard offered tuition refunds if you took a college course.  We were barely married when I signed up for a course to begin my master’s degree.  So I would come home from work, eat supper and hole up in my room to study.  What a great way to begin your life together.  I finally wised up. No more of that!  Because you see, Love takes time.  Time to care, time to serve, time to listen. Time to help. That’s time well spent. That’s love that comes from God.

But God wants his love, God wants our love to go out in another direction.  And that love takes time too.  Our time for people that do not know the Lord. Think about what John writes here. The reason the world does not know us (as children of God) is that it did not know him.

When John uses the word know, he’s talking about more than just knowing that there are some folks called Christians who pray to Jesus and call God their father.  Many people know that.  John is talking about knowing Jesus as my Savior from sin and death who has made me his Father’s dear child.  But how can they know unless someone tells them?  How can your friend know? How can your boyfriend know?  How can your apartment manager know unless someone cares enough, loves enough to tell them what Jesus has done for you. How can they know unless you invite them to a Bible class, or a worship service where can they can hear.  For faith comes from hearing the message. (Rom v10:17)

But that love takes time.  Our time for people who do not know the Lord.  For God’s time was also for them.  His time on the cross.  His time to come out of his tomb in victory over sin and death. That time was not just for you.  It was for them.

So now he calls on us to use our time.  For love takes time.  And so here I’d like to encourage you to do just. This next Saturday and Sunday… You see it in your bulletin.  Look at it with me.  On Saturday… On Sunday…(Outreach Seminar…Mission Festival)

I’m looking forward to seeing you there.  It’s easy to say: I love God. I love Jesus. It easy to say we care about the lost.   But remember: Love takes time.  Amen.