Sermon Notes: The Need For Love Part 1

EPHESIANS 3:16-19 16May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality]. 17May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, 18That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; 19[That you may really come] to know [practically, [e]through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses [f]mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] [g]unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and [h]become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!

"Love is a basic human need," says Dean Ornish, M.D., author of Love and Survival: 8 Pathways to Intimacy and Health. "When we don't get it, we pay a price in how long we live and how likely we are to get sick."
We may also pay a price if we don't give love. According to Stephen Post Ph.D. professor of bioethics and religion Ohio's Case Western University, research shows that loving acts neutralize the kind of negative emotions that adversely affect immune, endocrine and cardiovascular function. Studies published over the past five years show that loving and helping others has health benefits, says Post. There may even be a physiological response or "helper's high" that makes people feel stronger and more energetic and counters some of the harmful effects of stress.
Fifty years ago at the University of Wisconsin, psychologist Harry Harlow believed that affection and connection were the foundations of life. In a landmark experiment, Harlow took baby monkeys from their real mothers, giving them wire "moms" devised to deliver milk. But the youngsters would only cuddle when their surrogates were covered in a furry cloth. These monkeys thrived, while those with the bare-wire models didn't. The results proved Harlow's theory that attachment to another is as crucial a drive as thirst, hunger and sex.
A landmark 1945 study by René Spitz established that love is so vital to infants that those deprived of it may perish for want of it. The study looked at "a hospital where a group of children—all under three years of age—were fed and clothed adequately but, because of too few nurses, given very little personal attention. No one talked to them, carried them around, or cuddled them. The human results were devastating: within two years fully a third of the children had died and the rest were mentally retarded . . . The conclusion seemed to be clear: loving attention is as essential as food for the human infant" (James McKee, Sociology: The Study Of Society, 1981, p. 79).
That people need love is considered a basic truth by many scientists. In "Can't Do Without Love," U.S. News and World Report reported that biologists "know that love is central to human existence . . . The capacity for loving emotions is . . . written into our biochemistry, essential if children are to grow and thrive" (Feb. 17, 1997, p. 58).
From birth to death, love is not just the focus of human experience but also the life force of the mind, determining our moods, stabilizing our bodily rhythms, and changing the structure of our brains. The body's physiology ensures that relationships determine and fix our identities. Love makes us who we are, and who we can become. (A General Theory of Love, 2000, Lewis by Amini, Lannon, p.viii)
Recently I met a group of scientists in America who said that the rate of mental illness in their country was quite high—around 12 percent of the population. It became clear during our discussion that the main cause of depression was not a lack of material necessities, but a deprivation of the affection of others. Dalai Lama
Humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from a large social group, such as clubs, office culture, religious groups, professional organizations, sports teams, gangs, or small social connections (family members, intimate partners, mentors, close colleagues, confidants). They need to love and be loved by others.
The need for love lies at the very foundation of human existence. It results from the profound interdependence we all share with one another. However capable and skillful an individual may be, left alone he or she will not survive. However vigorous and independent one may feel during the most prosperous periods of life, when one is sick or very young or very old, one must depend on the support of others.
The need to be loved is exceptionally strong in all human beings. From childhood to old age, humans want to be loved by those around them. Love connects people in the strongest of ways. It produces care and concern, without which no one would take the responsibility of looking after others. Love makes the difficulties of life bearable, and helps ease the struggles of life. The love given to a child is more important than any material goods the family can provide.
Life cannot just run on cold and hard rules. The warmth of love is necessary to infuse spirit and joy in life. A home without love, however orderly and organized, has not fulfilled its true purpose. A family is not just a micro-organization where the material needs of its members are met. This could be done by a state run facility. A family’s outstanding characteristic is that members love one another, and this emotion binds them together. Love or the lack of it has a profound effect on the lives of children. Their mental capabilities, their fluency of speech, their observations and deductions on life, are all affected by it. That is why Islam emphasizes the display of love to one’s family. Imam Ja`far as-Sadiq

You don't need money, don't take fame
Don't need no credit card to ride this train
It's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes
but it might just save your life
That's the power of love

  Huey Lewis 

All you need is love. 

 John Lennon

What you have just heard is the tip of the iceberg from the world of science, psychology, Buddhism, Islam and music that love is a need. Not a want or just a desire but a need. Love is as vital to our lives and survival as air, water, food, clothing and shelter. Without it we perish. With it we don’t just live, we thrive.
The only example that came from the Bible was the section from Ephesians. It just shows through research, common sense, science and even differing religions that love is recognized as a need. Of course God’s word has been stating the same thing for a long time now.
Paul in writing his letter to the Ephesian church prayed that out of the rich treasury of God’s glory that the Holy Spirit would reside in our innermost being and personality so that we would be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man so that Christ would make Himself at home and dwell within us so that deep within us we would be rooted deep in His love and that His love would be secure in us.
So that through His power and strength that we would be able to lay hold of and grasp within ourselves and along with one another the infinite dimensions of God’s love for us.
That we would REALLY come to know the love of Christ which is so much greater than mere knowing about it. He wants us to know the experience of His love. So that we would be people filled with His fullness and [h]become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!
Since all Scripture is given by inspiration of The Holy Spirit and is God breathed (meaning there is His life in these words) it is safe to say that this is not just the prayer of Paul but it is the heart desire and will of God Himself.
God doesn’t just want us to know the concept and idea that God loves us; He wants us to dwell in the reality and experience of His love. Because if science, psychology, other religions and the arts all recognize love as a human need then its safe to say that God recognizes it too.
And since God is the source of all things; of life itself then it is also safe to assume that He being the source of His divine perfect love makes it available to us just as He has made air, water, food, clothing and shelter available to us. For God has certainly and without doubt supplied us with all we need.
So if all of this is true then why is it that many of us know about His love but few of us dwell in the reality and experience of His love? Why is it then that so many Christians rarely if ever express and present to the world around them a person who has been fundamentally and radically changed by the experience of dwelling in God’s love? Why is it that we look and sound like those who walk around this earth speaking the language of the lost; complaining. Why do we have to fight so hard with our self absorption in order to even begin to consider what is going on with someone else around us, maybe someone in our homes and in our own beds? Why do we feel that we aren’t good enough Christians yet and that I need to do all this work for Christ in order to gain His acceptance and approval? How come I don’t have a clue about this so called victorious Christian life of rest and peace in Him? Why is my life being ruled more by my emotions instead of the eternal truth of God’s word? How come I haven’t learned how to be content in all things like Paul was able to learn? Why do I continue to believe the lies about myself that my inner man mumbles to me when I want to go to sleep that I am worthless and unlovable and that no one really cares about me because why would they?

Stay tuned for part 2...