LOVE LIFTED ME!

AUDIO LINK:




SERMONS FROM OUR SONGS
“LOVE LIFTED ME”
“GOD’S POWERFUL LOVE!”
(ROMANS 5: 5-8)

Intro:
Famous song writer James Rowe didn’t have an easy life. As a matter of fact, just performing the art of writing was a real struggle. Born January 1, 1865, James was the fifth of 9 children, but the first born boy. He and his family lived in Wales.
In 1889 James, as a 24-year-old man, immigrated to the United States, where he settled in Albany New York. During the course of his life, James worked as a teacher, government worker, railroad worker, and an inspector for the Hudson River Humane Society.
While he enjoyed his work, his true passion lay in creating. It is said that James Rowe wrote some 20,000 hymns and poems. Among them were such cherished songs as God Holds the Future in His Hands, I Walk With the King, If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again, and many others.
What makes this so amazing is what he overcame in order to pin these thousands of songs. According to his daughter, she witnessed her father, who suffered with a serious case of arthritis, spending day after day working on the words, melody, and music to many different songs. Despite the pain with which he lived, he pushed through and achieved his goals of putting his faith to the written word.
One of those songs which he labored over is found in our songbooks on page 453. There we find the well-known hymn, “Love Lifted Me.”
In order to establish the bases for our lesson, I want to ask you a question. What would motivate this man to endure the pain of this debilitating illness, and write the words to so many songs? The answer is found in the chorus of the song currently before us. “Love lifted me!” James Rowe was lifted above the pain and anguish of the moment to put to paper these words which have inspired so many for nearly 100 years.
Beginning this morning, I want us to return to a sermon series which we introduced last year. We want to examine the sermons from our songs. Today we will begin by diving into those beautiful words written by Mr. Rowe in 1912.
The question which I want us to consider is, “What is this song saying?” I want to suggest to you that this song holds for us the secret of overcoming our obstacles. This song helps you and me to shout to the world, “Through God’s powerful love, I Can!”
I want us to examine the three verses which Mr. Rowe wrote, and discover how we can rise above the struggles of our existence, and become what God wants us to be. My prayer for you is that through something that is said today, that you will understand that there is one who can lift you out of your hardships, and place you on higher ground!

I. LOVE LIFTED ME OUT OF DANGER (VERSES 1,3)

From the chorus we learn that God’s amazing love does indeed lift us higher than we could ever hope to lift ourselves. God saw our desperate condition, and met our needs. (Rom 3: 10, 23)
What I want you to notice is what James Rowe points out in VERSES 1 AND 3 as the key to taking advantage of God’s love.
We must realize our own condition. Again, God knew where we were. In fact, God still knows where we are today. (Heb 4: 13) However, if you and I don’t see the need, then we don’t have a chance. It is with this thought in mind that I want to point out the two words which we see in verse 1 that will help us to see our condition.
First I want you to notice the word, “SINKING.” More than any other word in this song, this word helps us to see the slippery slope upon which we were perched. “I was sinking deep in sin.” When sin is present, we find that we get in, and have a hard time getting out by ourselves. Think about Adam’s oldest son Cain. (Gen 4: 1-10) Consider King David. (2Sam 11-12) Even Aaron, a messenger of God found himself “sinking deep in sin.”
The same thing is true for you and me today. We often believe that we can play with sin, but not become ensnared by sin. Folks, whether we want to believe this or not, sin is just like fire. If you play with sin, you will get burned. Consider the first few words of verse 3. “Souls in danger!” Brethren, if sin is no big deal, then why is your immortal soul in danger?
In order to go along with that, we also need to notice the word “STAINED.” Just before Christmas, we had a small scale crises in our household. Hadley, or as we like to refer to her, “The great ink pen bandit” struck again. She found a pen in the living room, and drew her own Mona Lisa on our couch.
Well, we planned to have the elders, along with John and Vickie over for dinner that weekend, so something had to be done. I went online, and began looking for answers. I found suggestions galore. The only problem is that none of them worked. I tried everything from hairspray, to perfume, to Windex, to sope and water, to the Magic Eraser.
So, I returned to the computer, logged online, and went to Google. I conducted a search on removing ink pen from a leather couch. As I was looking through the links, I noticed one that I hadn’t caught before. This was a link which took me to a site that talked about home cleaning. On that page, they said that the truth is that you can’t remove stains from leather. You might get some of it off, but you will never truly remove it. In order to fix it, you need to find someone who works with leather, and allow them to work on it.
The same thing is true for us today. We are stained with sin. We are not equipped to remove the marks ourselves, but we instead need to turn it over to one who doesn’t just work with souls, but actually created them! (Gen 2: 7) Again, notice verse 3, yes your soul is in danger, and if you want help, you should turn to Jesus, because he, “completely saves.”
Here’s the wonderful part of verses 1 and 3. Once we realize our condition, cry out for help, he will indeed “lift you by his love, out of the angry waves!”

II. LOVE LIFTED ME OUT OF MYSELF! (VERSE 2)

I want you to listen carefully to the words of verse 2. “All my heart to him I give, ever to him I’ll cling. In his blessed presence live, ever his praises sing. Love so mighty and so true, merits my soul’s best song, faithful, loving service too, to him belong!” There is something here in this second verse that you might not spot right off hand. There is a joy, a celebration, a deep ceded happiness that brings a smile to your face. What we see in verse 2 is complete surrender.
In order to help you understand this point, allow me to show you an interesting Old Testament contrast. First, let’s take a look at the book of Ruth. In this powerful love story, we find a beautiful example of the ideas expressed in verse 2.
Ruth is the account of a family which was torn apart, women left on their own, and true love winning out in the end. However, we also see another lesson being taught to us. We read of loyalty rewarded. Ruth, as we read in verse 4, was an inhabitant of the land of Moab. A certain family, sojourning from the land of Bethlehemjudah, came to live in Moab. While there, the patriarch of the family, a man by the name of Elemelech, passed away. He left behind his wife Naomi, and their two sons. (Ruth 1: 2-3)
After about 10 years, Naomi’s sons died as well. So, there she was, left alone in a strange land, with no one other than her two daughter-in-laws for company. Naomi decided that the time had come for her to return to her homeland. She took what was left of her family, and they began along the road to Judah. Naomi then shows amazing kindness in that she attempted to send the girls back to their parents. One of them, Orpah, did indeed return home, but Ruth refused. In Ruth 1: 16-17, she states: “And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.”
What a beautiful sentiment. Ruth set aside everything that had once been important to her, and instead followed this woman who had come to mean so much to her over the years. What’s more, she was rewarded for her loyalty. As we read the book of Ruth, in particular chapters 2-4, we learn that because she completely devoted herself to following Naomi, (and Naomi’s God), she received a great blessing. Not only was she given another husband, but she was named in the lineage of Christ. (Ruth 4: 13-17) That’s one side of the coin; now allow me to present to you a group who just couldn’t seem to completely give themselves to God.
In Jeremiah 3: 1-5, we find the weeping profit addressing the Children of God. In fact, we find him making a rather odd comparison. He states that the Children are much like an unfaithful spouse. The commitment to marriage is made, but then one or the other decides to put that commitment aside the problem with this concept is seen in God’s question in Jeremiah 3: 1. Speaking of the spouse’s body as land, he asks: “Shall not that land be greatly polluted?”
You see, unlike Ruth, the Children of God were not fully committed to him. They wanted him at times, but more often than not, they wanted little to do with him.
James Rowe, in the second verse of “Love Lifted Me”, leaves no room for doubt as to where he stands. As he wrote that song, you can see his full commitment in every word. He gives the Lord his whole heart! He gives the Lord his whole trust! He gives the Lord all his praise! He gives the Lord his best song! Finally, he gives the Lord his best service! James Rowe lived scripture by writing this verse. Christ said that in order to be called his disciples, we must take up our cross each day, deny ourselves, and follow him! (Luke 9: 23) Let me ask you, has love lifted you out of yourself?

III. CONCLUSION

“Love lifted me, Love lifted me, when nothing else could help, and love lifted me!” There are very few words which man has put to paper that contain more truth than these. God’s amazing love is indeed capable of lifting us out of both our spiritual danger, as well as out of ourselves and into service to him. The question for you is, are you willing to do that which is necessary in order to experience the powerful love of God?