Have You Lost The Loving Feeling
John 14:15-21 TNIV: If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. Anyone who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.
You know the song... The Righteous Brothers voice is in your head... You've Lost that Loving Feeling... woo...woo...wooo... that loving feeling! Maybe you had the LP and you recall the scratchy sound underneath those soulful voices or you remember Maverick from Top Gun singing to the soon to be love of his life!
Whichever way you remember the words, maybe you have felt that you have lost the enthusiasm that you had when you first became a Christian.
You can no longer feel the joy you felt when you were young. In the revival when you first gave your life to Jesus you experienced that you got a new life. The things that used to be important to you were of no importance anymore. And the things that previously seemed uninteresting were now the cause of your greatest joy.
But now that feeling is gone.
You are cold and indifferent.
The word of God no longer excites you. The fellowship with other believers no longer inspires you.
Maybe this is because your health has become weaker. Due to your sickness, it has become difficult to feel any joy at all.
You read in the Bible that joy is among the fruit of the Spirit, but you must admit that you are lacking in that respect.
AND so - maybe you are thinking:
Maybe it was a mistake.
Maybe it was an illusion.
Maybe this whole thing about Christianity is a bluff.
Or maybe it did not really work for me.
When Jesus was preparing himself to go to Jerusalem, he knew that the disciples soon would experience something like this.
Jesus was going to die and the disciples would be left, wondering what's next?
Jesus is no longer among us. What shall we do? These three years of following Jesus have been good. Probably the best time of our lives. But now it's over. Jesus is dead.
We must go back to the lives we had before.
From our perspective, it does not seem like such a big deal that Jesus was getting ready to die.
Because that was his mission. That was why he came, so that he could save the world.
But the disciples at this point had not grasped the full nature of Jesus' mission.
They believed that he was the Messiah, the one that God had promised would come.
They believed that he would be Israel's savior.
They even believed that he was the son of God. But they did not understand that he had to die to be the savior of the world.
They had left everything to follow him.
They had left their own business and financial security so that they could walk around with a teacher who had no formal education.
It was quite a wager and now Jesus is going away so that he can give them a greater blessing so that the disciples could prepare for an even more intimate fellowship with him. They had lost that loving feeling. But Jesus says,
The word translated advocate, can refer to several functions.
The basic meaning is something who is called to our presence, someone called to our aid.
The coming of the Holy Spirit is the greater blessing. Through the Holy Spirit the disciples will experience the love of God in an even higher degree.
“Those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
At the end of his farewell discourse, when Jesus addresses the Father, he concludes with these words: “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (John 17:26)
The love that God the Father has for his only begotten son, Jesus Christ.
No one has ever loved anyone more than God the Father loved his only begotten son.
Jesus prays that we may experience that love.
Imagine that. God the Father will love you with the same intensity that he loves his only begotten son.
And his children will love one another with the same the love he loves his son. That is the purpose of the sending of the Holy Spirit. That is the greater blessing and it bring back for you - that loving feeling!
Love and Light
You know the song... The Righteous Brothers voice is in your head... You've Lost that Loving Feeling... woo...woo...wooo... that loving feeling! Maybe you had the LP and you recall the scratchy sound underneath those soulful voices or you remember Maverick from Top Gun singing to the soon to be love of his life! 
Whichever way you remember the words, maybe you have felt that you have lost the enthusiasm that you had when you first became a Christian.
You can no longer feel the joy you felt when you were young. In the revival when you first gave your life to Jesus you experienced that you got a new life. The things that used to be important to you were of no importance anymore. And the things that previously seemed uninteresting were now the cause of your greatest joy.
But now that feeling is gone.
You are cold and indifferent.
The word of God no longer excites you. The fellowship with other believers no longer inspires you.
Maybe this is because your health has become weaker. Due to your sickness, it has become difficult to feel any joy at all.
You read in the Bible that joy is among the fruit of the Spirit, but you must admit that you are lacking in that respect.
AND so - maybe you are thinking:
Maybe it was a mistake.
Maybe it was an illusion.
Maybe this whole thing about Christianity is a bluff.
Or maybe it did not really work for me.
When Jesus was preparing himself to go to Jerusalem, he knew that the disciples soon would experience something like this.
Jesus was going to die and the disciples would be left, wondering what's next?
Jesus is no longer among us. What shall we do? These three years of following Jesus have been good. Probably the best time of our lives. But now it's over. Jesus is dead.
We must go back to the lives we had before.
From our perspective, it does not seem like such a big deal that Jesus was getting ready to die.
Because that was his mission. That was why he came, so that he could save the world.
But the disciples at this point had not grasped the full nature of Jesus' mission.
They believed that he was the Messiah, the one that God had promised would come.
They believed that he would be Israel's savior.
They even believed that he was the son of God. But they did not understand that he had to die to be the savior of the world.
They had left everything to follow him.
They had left their own business and financial security so that they could walk around with a teacher who had no formal education.
It was quite a wager and now Jesus is going away so that he can give them a greater blessing so that the disciples could prepare for an even more intimate fellowship with him. They had lost that loving feeling. But Jesus says,
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”
The word translated advocate, can refer to several functions.
The basic meaning is something who is called to our presence, someone called to our aid.
The coming of the Holy Spirit is the greater blessing. Through the Holy Spirit the disciples will experience the love of God in an even higher degree.
“Those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
At the end of his farewell discourse, when Jesus addresses the Father, he concludes with these words: “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (John 17:26)
The love that God the Father has for his only begotten son, Jesus Christ.
Imagine that love. There is no greater love than that.
No one has ever loved anyone more than God the Father loved his only begotten son.
Jesus prays that we may experience that love.
Imagine that. God the Father will love you with the same intensity that he loves his only begotten son.
And his children will love one another with the same the love he loves his son. That is the purpose of the sending of the Holy Spirit. That is the greater blessing and it bring back for you - that loving feeling!
Love and Light
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