Question1: "Where can I find lasting love?"

I want to address one question that I believe every person is asking - a question for which Jesus is the only answer: Where can I find lasting love?  These words are written all over the pages of human history.  From poems to love songs to movies to relationships, it rings clearly from every heart: "Who will love me and keep loving me?"  It's amazing to me how often this question surfaces in popular music specifically.  Music gives us unusually transparent glimpses into the insecurities of a person's soul, and popular music can be very revealing in terms of the questions people are asking.  For example, on Christina Perri's album, "Lovestrong," 10 out of 12 songs explore the emotions surrounding her unmet expectations for love. In these songs, Perri expresses a desire to be loved, vulnerability and hope that her love will stay with her, sorrow and disillusionment when her love leaves, angry tirades against her love, desire for revenge, celebrations when her x-love suffers like she did, and finally, hope that her love will return. 

Whether it's a movie, a song or a Hollywood story, we can see everywhere that people aren't getting out of love what they want.  It's not that there's anything wrong with love.  No, the problem is where we're searching for love.  We get frustrated and angry when our desires go unmet by the people in our lives, but the reason we continue to experience this gamete of negative emotions is because we continue to expect of people what only God can provide. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has planted "eternity" in every human heart.  The reason our longing for "lasting love" can't be met by this world is because nothing in this world lasts.  It's like trying to squeeze orange juice from a rock or pound nails with a shoe.  The world is not suited to meet our eternal desires precisely because the world is not eternal.

But God is eternal! And as Stephen Charnock writes, "Since God is eternal, he has eternal power to match his word.  His promises are established upon his eternity, so they are solid ground for our trust... Men may break their promises, but God who inhabits eternity will never change."  It's good to find a person who cares, but far too often they're unable to help us.  Furthermore, there are many who are able to help, but they're often unwilling. In Jesus, we find One who not only has infinite knowledge of our needs, but he has the willingness and eternal power to meet them.  Remember that it was Jesus who said to his people, "I have loved you with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself" (Jeremiah 31:3).  This is why I believe that Jesus alone is the answer to the question, "Where can I find lasting love?"

Jesus is the Answer

            Of all Christian clichés, "Jesus is the answer" has got to be one of the most well-known. But clichés, like stereotypes, exist for a reason.  Expressions earn the label "cliché" when they get overused, but why else would a phrase get overused if it didn't communicate some truth?  Still, Christian clichés often garner only disdain from the world. For example, I saw a bumper sticker recently that said, "If Jesus is the answer, what's the question?" Frankly, I think they make a good point. Christians are often too quick to dispense catchy quips and one-liners, all the while failing to truly engage their culture in the real, difficult matters of life.  We in the church may have all the answers, but we too often have no understanding of the questions. "Jesus is the answer" runs the risk of becoming nothing more than a vague generality, a yawning platitude, an excuse to avoid confronting our world with its reasonable challenges.      

            It might be true that Jesus is the answer, but to what question?  Is Jesus the answer to 2+2?  No, the answer for that is 4.  What I'm aiming at is not a philosophical tirade but a practical provocation for us to make sure we understand the world's questions before glibly retorting, "Jesus is the answer." 

            So, what are the world's questions, and how is Jesus the answer?  Over the next three weeks, I hope to address what I consider to be the three biggest questions every person is asking (whether they verbalize it or not).  These are questions for which Jesus is the only real answer:

            1) Where can I find lasting love? 

            2) Who will satisfy my desire for happiness?

            3) How can I achieve stability and security? 

            Next week, we'll look at the first question and explore our fundamental desire for love that lasts, but before we tackle the questions, I want to be clear what I mean by "Jesus." When I say that Jesus is the answer, I don't mean the sum of Christian teaching or some system of moral living whereby mankind may better himself.  Nor do I mean belief in what Jesus taught or ascent to Christianity as a superior code of ethics.  When I say that Jesus is the answer, I mean the person of Jesus, the Living One... Christ himself is the answer!  Asking "What would Jesus do" may satisfy the religious appetites of carnal man, but it won't lead to Christ-infused living or produce the fruitful life that pleases God.  Rather than presumptuously guessing what Jesus might do in a given situation and manufacturing a mode of spirituality, what if we yielded to the Holy Spirit and actually let Jesus live his life through us?  Jesus - the One who promised "I will be with you, even to the end" - it is He who possesses, in his very being, the answer to every question that spiritually frustrated man has ever asked.  In John 15, Jesus did not send his disciples away for altruistic living. He drew them near for abundant life. So as we proceed, may we each remember to abide in Christ himself as the answer to our questions, the healer of our brokenness, the solution to all our enigmas.