Sharon Presbyterian Youth (SPY) Sunday

Youth Sunday at Sharon Presbyterian was several weeks ago and we have been blessed again by the faith shown by our future leaders. We as a church are very proud of how our young adults have progressed. It is a testament of the love and caring of the our church, our community, loved ones and most of all, parents. We celebrate with them.

One of the young adults that lead us on Youth Sunday was Ally Butler. We thank Ally for her service and her dedication. A copy of her sermon is below:

~ God Is Love ~

Good morning and happy Valentines Day.

• Jimmy Hendrix once said that “when the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.”
• Paul McCartney wrote “In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."
• An anonymous writer wrote “if love is the answer then can you please repeat the question?”

My Dad says he learned a lot about love at a youth group retreat one April at Camp Grier. He said there were about 150 kids standing around a huge bonfire that the camp counselors had been stoking for about two hours. Red embers from the fire were rising up into the black sky. Even though it was April, it had started to snow; so the white snow falling provided a contrast to the rising red embers. It was almost as though the songs of praise to the Lord sung around that campfire were raised to the heavens within the embers; only to be returned as blessings by God in the form of the snow flakes. My Dad remembers looking around at the 10 or 15 kids from Sharon that had become such good friends and feeling a type of Christian love that transcends all other types of love. John Alexander used to stand in this pulpit and preach about “agape” love, which is the “top of the mountain” type of love that we all strive for. My Dad says he found it for about 30 minutes at Camp Grier, and that he’s only experienced it a few times since.

We all think we know what love is. Most kids have experienced the love they have for their parents; a love that is engrained naturally for those that nurture and provide for us. We usually find out about puppy love in Middle School. Anybody can find out about lust; just spend about 10 minutes on the internet. After that, however, love gets a little more complicated. If you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend for more than a few months when you’re in high school or college, love starts to involve things like commitment and communication; and it gets pretty hard. And if things go South with this kind of relationship, it can really hurt. If we’re lucky, one day we find our “true love”, or our soul mate, and we make a lifelong commitment. Obviously, I don’t totally understand marriage, but there is definitely love involved; but it’s just mixed in with a lot of other emotions and things that some couples figure out and some don’t. But that’s another topic for another day. Finally, you parents out there have experienced the unconditional love you have for your children. I hope to experience that kind of love someday, the kind of love where your children become a part of your very being; where their joys are your joys and their pain is your pain.

But what about God? Where does he fit in to this discussion of love?

I think we would all agree that the love God has for us is stronger than any love we will ever experience. But what about our love for God? Can we safely say we love God more than we love our family? Or money? Or what about our cell phones? Is god really more important to us in our day to day lives than our cell phones?

I mentioned Agape love earlier. Agape love is the most common form of love in the Bible. It might be likened to the sacrificial love a parent has for their child regardless of whether such love is reciprocated. But it may be even more than that. Agape is love which is of and from God, whose very nature is love itself. The first letter of John in the New Testament, chapter 4 verse 8, says “whoever does not love does not know God because God is love.”

To me, that means that true love has to involve God. I discussed some of the different types of love earlier, but those types of love are like watching a good movie on TV. But when that love is in the name of God, it gets amped up several notches; like watching that same movie on a 42” high definition TV with surround sound. Aren’t marriages better when God is in the picture? Doesn’t the love a family has for each other hold up better when Church and God are part of its foundation?

Thanks to the members of this congregation, our high school youth group goes on a Mission trip every Summer. We work hard and sleep on the floor in hot classrooms, but we also have two Christ-centered programs and two devotions every day. Not coincidentally, at the end of this week the love we have for each other is greater than at any other time during the year. We also come to love the crew members we work with that week. The crews start the week as complete strangers and by Friday night we have six new loving relationships built on Christ. If you asked any of the participants of the adult Mission trips to Peru, I’m sure they would tell you the same thing. The trips are centered around God and the work is done in God’s name. So at the end of these trips, the Christian love we feel for each other and for those we are serving is greater than any of the “Imposter” types of love the media says we should be seeking.

So the next time you see a magazine ad telling you that flatter abs will improve your love life, or the next time a night of watching TV makes you believe you are the only person in America without a steamy love life, or the next time you’re about to just give up on love entirely, don’t believe any of it. Instead, work on the love you have for God. After all, God’s first Commandment is to love him with your whole body, soul and mind. Romans Chapter 5, verse 5 says: “God has poured out his love into our hearts”. Perhaps it is time for us to pour some of that love back towards God. Amen

Audio link to this sermon

Sharon Presbyterian Youth Programs