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My wife and I went through the grocery store this past week and saw already all of the Valentine's Day hearts and flowers and candies out on the shelves. We also saw couple after couple that -- for whatever reason -- had decided to lock lips and arms right in the middle of the aisles in the grocery store! It was crazy, couples were everywhere letting everybody know that they are a "couple." As strange as it seems, I guess Springtime just hits earlier in South Texas and I guess, when Spring is around the corner, people get amorous. As I walked through the grocery store this past week, I couldn't help but think that most people have only a limited view of what true love really is.

Someone said "Love is God's nature implanted within us." I believe that is true, and I believe that in living for God, we absolutely must get a "higher" revelation of love. We should be willing to copy "Godly love" and to shun the world's view. It is with all of this in mind that I began to think this week: "what is the greatest show of love in the Old and the New Testament?" The New Testament answer is easy enough: Calvary. But what of the Old? Is the greatest love story of the Hebrew scriptures, the story of Ruth refusing to leave her mother-in-law alone and choosing to live in poverty in a strange land away from her mother and father? Or is it Jacob working hard labor for 14 years for the hand of the beautiful Rachael in marriage? Is it Solomon and Shulamith, his first and true love about which that Song of all Songs was written? Or is it the prophet Hosea, who redeemed his wife from prostitution and slavery and then when she went back to her old lifestyle, bought her back and took her back as his wife?

As much as those stories are powerful and beautiful, I must admit that one lesser known story outshines them all as far as the greatest love shown. It is not romance, but rather a much deeper and purer love. It is the story of a lady perhaps you have never heard of before, the story of a lady named Rizpah.

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Rizpah did not begin her life as Jewish, but was a "Hivite" and was Gentile. King Saul had married her as a "secondary" wife. We really do not know why Saul chose to marry this woman. Perhaps it was her beauty, or as we find out later in the story, perhaps it was a great trait of loyal love that was evident within her. However it happened, Rizpah became a "rags to riches" story. She lived in the palace with the king. She wore the finest clothes and ate the very best food. As a wife of the king of Israel, she lived within the lap of luxury. God blessed her and she bore Saul two sons, which made her even more important to the king because sons were cherished above all other gifts in those days.

But then everything changed in Rizpah's life. Her husband Saul rebelled against God and the man of God and became a "God reject." An evil spirit tormented him night and day. Then came the fateful day that Saul was killed in battle and the kingdom was turned over to God's anointed, King David. That meant that Rizpah -- now widowed -- lost more than her husband, but she lost her power, her riches, her wardrobe, her palace, her way of life, her friends, and every luxury of which she had become accustomed. The fatal events of one day completely changed Rizpah's life and yet we find her in scripture, making it, doing without, and enjoying the company of the only thing that she had left in life: her two sons.

Years went by and King David flourished. In our text we read that suddenly from out of nowhere a horrible famine hit the land of Israel and lasted for three years. Crops just would not grow and slowly the supply houses began to dwindle. The people were beginning to starve. In desperation, King David what every wise leader does in a time of distress: he knelt before the Lord and prayed asking God to reveal to him the reason for the famine. God spoke to him that it was because of the persecution of a gentle, Gentile people called the Gibeonites.

Back in the days of Joshua, the Gibeonites had been smarter and quicker than the other Canaanite tribes. They realized that God was going to give the Jewish people the victory so they disguised themselves as being from a far away country and offered to be "servants" to the people of Israel if they promised to never kill them or attack them. Joshua agreed and even though the Gibeonites had tricked Joshua into thinking that they were from far away, God demanded that Israel honor the agreement. And so the Gibeonites became a part of Israel and became their servants in exchange for peace.

It was King Saul, who trying to earn the Lord's favor again, began to attack the Gibeonites and kill large numbers of them disregarding the treaty that had been made years before. And so because of King Saul's sin, now even more years later King David and Israel are in a great famine because God has heard the Gibeonites cry of help. Let me pause a moment and say that the scriptures teach us that God hears the cry of the oppressed and will avenge them. He takes on the case of the disfortunate. That ought to give you hope in bad times, that if you will call to God when you feel as if you are being mistreated, and allow Him to fight your battles, He WILL fight for you! That also ought to give a warning to all of us to be careful in the way that we act to the less fortunate. Beware of talking down to them or thinking ourselves better or taking advantage of their situation, because if they cry out to God, He will hear their cry and He will avenge their hurts! It may not happen instantly, but this scripture shows that God will make sure that what goes around comes around! Remember when you see someone less fortunate that one day the tables will be reversed if you mistreat them!

The famine is so bad, that David asked the Lord what am I to do and his instructions were to go to the Gibeonites and do whatever they demand. When King David met with the leaders of the Gibeonites and asked what they wanted to make up for the wrongdoing, they did not ask for silver and gold. They did not even ask for horses and land. All they wanted was the lives of seven of Saul's sons as vengeance for their many dead loved ones. So King David began to gather together 7 of the remaining sons of King Saul, and that included the only thing that Rizpah had in this world: her two boys were sentenced to die for the crimes of their father.

I want you to put yourself their for a moment at the execution. I want you to view it not through justice's eyes but from the eyes of the little lady that had lost it all. Rizpah's heart sank as the verdict was read. Tears welled up as her sons were placed upon horseback and noose wrapped around their neck. Her heart shatters as the horses ride out from under her sons leaving them dead for the sins of their father. She had nursed and held those sons and nurtured them into adulthood. They had been her sole source of joy these past few years. The grief was overwhelmingly, but what Rizpah did next is what demonstrates how far true love will really go.

The bodies were not allowed to be buried to set an example for others who would break treaties and covenants. They were removed from the ropes and left upon the rocks to decompose and be eaten by predators. Rizpah, took a piece of sackcloth and spreads it upon a nearby rock beside the bodies. For 150 days, from the beginning of barley harvest until rain fell from heaven in the fall, she guards the remains of the seven sons of Saul. Every night she sleeps lightly so that she can hear the footsteps of some jackal or scavenger and shoo them away. The days are spent waving and screaming at the vultures that are circling above. People look at the haggard looking woman with the sunburned face and blood-shot eyes as the months go on with wonder. But diligently Rizpah stays faithfully protecting those bodies. Her standing guard is her "gift of love" to her boys. Her way of saying "I love you."

Finally when news of what Rizpah is doing reaches King David, he orders the bodies removed and given a decent burial with their father King Saul. Rizpah fades from the scriptures view but the show of her love still remains.

What lessons can be learned about true love from her story! Rizpah showed that true love will go great distances to be loyal. She showed that true love is unselfish and is not dependent upon "what I am going to receive." Her boys were dead and their father was dead and they would never again benefit or help Rizpah in any way and yet despite knowing that she would not receive anything for it, she kept her vigil of sacrifice because she truly loved, therefore she did not have to receive anything in return.

I'm preaching to us today about Rizpah's example of love. What the world commonly called love today is too often simply "like" or "lust." True love has a commitment involved that has nothing to do with circumstances or whether or not that love is returned. Too many people today walk out on marriage or out on God because "things got too rough" or "the stars weren't lined up right." They did not truly love. Too many people walk out on relationships with people or God because they did not feel as if they were getting anything out of the relationship. They did not truly love with a Godly love. True love demands nothing in return.

Paul wrote about this true love in the "love chapter" of chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians. I will quote a few verses in the New King James Version:

Those are some of the most powerful words of scripture and they perfectly illustrate how great Rizpah's love for her sons was. She did not seek revenge for their deaths, but just lovingly guarded their bodies. She did not despise David or God that the truth said that her sons had to die because of Saul's deeds, she does expressed her love through devotion. She did not think twice about the sacrifice or the hardships, because to fail was not an option. She only quit after 150 days because King David had the bodies buried. If they had remained longer into the winter, she would have stayed and even died before giving up. That's true love!

Today we need to learn the lesson of Rizpah's love. We need that unselfish love in our own lives. Where our expression of love and sacrifice is not dependent upon what the other person does. If you will love your spouse and family that way, you cannot help but work it out! Love like that cannot fail. If you will love God that way, then there is not a storm big enough or a devil in hell bad enough to drag you from His care! We need unselfish love like Rizpah today!

And I want you to realize that Rizpah's love was not based upon emotions. Emotions does not keep someone faithful for 150 days in the elements. After the first two weeks, the goosebumps were gone. After she was hungry for a warm meal and a warm bath, and had been there for a while with little sleep, there was no "warm feelings" that kept her there. Her love was not based upon emotion but upon commitment!

How many people lose out with God because their love for Him is based either upon His blessings or feelings?! If they can't see a noticeable miracle or blessing that has happened lately, they are suddenly not as devoted to Him. If they go through a dry spell of a few weeks where they cannot feel His presence instead of asking God what is the reason for the famine, they give up and go back to serving their old Gods. You will not make it long living for God out of feelings and blessings. But if you can ever get a love for God that stems from commitment: an attitude that says "if He never blesses me again and never heals me again and if I never feel His presence again, still I will serve Him!" An attitude that takes all options except success away. To where your heart has only one option available to it: to be faithful because you love Him! And you worship Him because you love Him. And you serve Him because you Love Him! And all of the petty excuses disappear because you simply Love Him! We need a love like Rizpah's! We need a love higher than Rizpah's because the love that she showed to her sons, we need to exhibit to our Maker! Jesus, I serve you because I love you!

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Now that you understand the story, maybe you are asking yourself, "could any human being ever show a love GREATER than Rizpah's?" The answer is yes, but only one human being, the greatest human being that ever lived and who was more than just a human being but who was God become flesh, Jesus Christ!

Perhaps you thought when I mentioned that God allowed the killing of Saul' seven sons for the sins of their father that it seemed rather harsh. Perhaps it seemed to you cruel and perhaps a bit unfair on God's part to exact such a horrible punishment on a man's sons and a lady named Rizpah. But God allows such stories to happen to teach us of the horror of our sins.

You see the same feelings that Rizpah felt as she witnessed the death of her sons, was the same feelings that God felt when his prized creation sinned against Him and removed themselves from His presence. The same feeling of loss and hurt that Rizpah felt that day was exactly what God partook of as He watched the human race turn again and again to sin. The prized creation which He had created to have a close relationship with and to commune with and to enjoy had turned their back on Him and left God without fellowship. You and I were dead in our sins, and even though we were walking around every day in the spirit we were just as deceased and rotten as Rizpah's sons in our spiritual man!

It would have been easy for God to walk away and just say "Forget them, I'll go on and begin a new life and forget that it ever happened." But just like Rizpah, God refused to turn His back on us. Even though we stank and even though time and time again we were unfaithful, yet God kept working through the centuries, lining up man's folly to bring us to a place where we would be able to understand and grasp what would become the greatest act of love.

Because you see, God went a step further than Rizpah. Yes, He loved with a love greater than Rizpah. He said Himself:

Rizpah sacrificed her health for 150 days, but God did one better: the great spirit being that filled the universe came down and was born of woman. As 1 Timothy 3:16 says: "God became flesh" and as John 1:14 put it: He "dwelt among us." Understand that John 3:16 does not mean that God sent another to die for mankind, but uses titles such as "Son" to denote that God was born of woman. For Spirit to die, it had to first have flesh and bone and so when you see Jesus, you see God having become flesh for the express purpose of showing love to a world that was dead and lost and from which He had no promise of ever receiving anything in return. Like Rizpah, He refused to turn away, but greater than Rizpah, He was willing to sacrifice all!

Why did He do it? The answer is simple and found in our other text:

He did it so that we could "perceive" a love greater than we would ever know in our own doings. God came so that we could learn about a better, a greater, way to love. He laid down His life for us, with no promise of ever receiving anything back, because He wanted to show us true, unselfish, Godly love! He knew that in our dead state, we were incapable of loving in such a way and to even fathom such a love, so He did the unthinkable and HE died so that we could live.

It was a love greater than Rizpah's, that kept Him silent and still as they slapped his cheeks, drove the crown of thorns into his scalp, and then beat it with a reed. It was love greater than Rizpah's that kept Him meekly focused despite the mockings and the cursings that they railed at Him. It was a love greater than Rizpah's that endured 39 lashes with a whip that had metal and bone hooks in the end of the lashes and left Him at the point of death. It was a love much much greater than anything we can imagine that caused Him to not call down angels which were ready and eager to avenge Him and carried that cross up Golgotha's hill. It was a love greater than Rizpah's that kept Him still and quiet while they drove the nails through His hands and His feet and then set Him up in the air in a position that made every breath a tortuous affair. It was a love greater than Rizpah's that caused Him to use what little breath that He had to speak forgiveness to those who had done this horrible deed. It was more than just nails and ropes holding Him to the cross, but it was a love greater than Rizpah's, greater than anything we could ever have imagined, that held Him there, and He died for just the chance, just the chance you and I might one day live for Him and possibly give something back to Him. He had no promise, but He died anyway, with a prayer on His lips and you and I on His mind, Jesus Christ showed us a love greater than even Rizpah's!

True love like that never fails. That's why you and I are here today. That's why we can praise God and lift Him up and have hope in this life and the life to come. That's why we can be forgiven and have life more abundantly and be joyful and successful today, because of Jesus' great sacrifice! And yet, so often we seem to find it hard to love our neighbor, and hard to love our spouse, and hard to forgive our enemies. Can I tell you that our excuses fall way short of the perfect sacrifice of Calvary. What we need to do is to stop making excuses and to learn to love the Godly way. To learn to love unselfishly to like Rizpah and Jesus Christ, put aside our own personal comforts and our own agendas and be willing to sacrifice all so that someone else can be saved! It should have been you and I hanging on the gallows of sin. It should have been you and I that died and faced that horrible judgment, but instead Jesus took our place: it is no great sacrifice to change some things to better obey His Word. It is no great sacrifice to have to put up with a little persecution. We have received a love greater than any other. We have been the objects of a love greater than Rizpah's!

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Back at the previous turn of the century, one of the greatest preachers in America was a man named D. L. Moody. He pastored a large congregation in Chicago, Illinois. He was in Birmingham, England preaching a revival when a young British man came up to him and said "Mr. Moody, I hope to go to America one day, and when I do, I shall preach for you in Chicago." Mr. Moody smiled and was nice, and thinking that it was highly unlikely that he would ever see the young man again said "if you come to America, we will be glad to receive you."

Six months later, Mr. Moody received a letter in the mail from New York signed by that same young man. It said "Dear Mr. Moody, I am in New York City. Wednesday I shall be in Chicago, and I shall preach for you that Wednesday night." Mr. Moody took the letter, was frankly amazed at it, and told his board of deacons, "look, I must be out of town Wednesday night, this young man will be preaching for us." "I have no idea how the service will go so one of you needs to be prepared to take over if he stumbles or stutters too much or gets off on something weird." With that Mr. Moody left town.

Wednesday came, and the young man named Henry Morehouse showed up as promised and he got up to preach. He stood up and read his text, John 3:16. He preached one of the most dynamic messages on the love of God that they had ever heard. At the end of the service in those days, they would make an appeal for those who wanted to pray to stay for the "afterservice." When he made this "altar call" for the first time ever, no one left. Everyone from the oldest to the youngest prayed pouring their hearts out to Jesus and redevoting their life back to God. People who had never been moved before had tears flowing down their cheeks. The deacons came and approached the young man and said, "could you be here tomorrow night?" The young man promised to come back the next night.

They announced services for Thursday night. The crowd had grown. Again the young man got up to preach and again he read John 3:16 as his text. Again he preached about the love of God so strongly that every person stayed late into the night praying and talking to God.

The same thing happened Friday night with the same text, and the same result and even a more phenomenal move of the Spirit of God. They announced services for Saturday night.

Saturday afternoon, Mr. Moody arrived back into town and walked into his house. His wife, Mrs. Moody, told him "we are having revival." Moody was amazed. "A revival? Why the deacons did not tell me of a revival!" "Dear" Mrs. Moody told the pastor, "the young man from England has been preaching and we are having a God-sent revival. I want you to go listen to him and get converted."

Mr. Moody couldn't believe his ears. "Converted?" he said. "I've been a preacher over 20 years, and I have been the pastor of this church for years. What do you mean?" "Just go to the service tonight, you'll find out what I mean."

He did. He sat on the front row and once again heard the young man read John 3:16 and preach about getting a revelation of the sacrificial love of God. Stirred as he had never been before, Pastor Moody hid his face in the floor and later said that that one service had forever changed his preaching, his teaching, and his entire life. He had been serving God out of obligation to do what is right, and not out of a true sacrificial love!

Can I tell you that it is possible to be faithful to God for even a large amount of time and even be somewhat successful in the Spirit by serving God out of obligation. But God wants someone to get beyond that level tonight. To get to a deeper level of commitment. One that like Rizpah's does not whine at what may seem like injustice in your life. One that does not try to seek the easy road. One that does not use every little storm and discomfort to be an excuse to quit and give up or complain. One that does not even give second thought to the great sacrifice that being committed will bring, but one that stays true even if there was no promise of getting anything back! That's the kind of love that we have received from God. Don't you think that He is deserving of that same sacrificial love back? Is our life too much to ask? Doesn't He deserve to receive a love greater than Rizpah's?!

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I close with this:

I once heard the story of a missionary to the Chickapia Indians in southern New Mexico. As he began to learn their language, the missionary was astonished to find that they had no word for "love." They translated John 3:16 this way: "For God so hurt in His heart, that He gave His only Son."

Have you ever thought about how God felt when man turned away from Him. And how He feels when you continue in sin and don't give everything to Him? Or how He feels when we complain about really the small things that He asks of us? Could it be that He hurts? Could it be that it was that hurt that led Him to show you and I a love far greater than Rizpah's because instead of us dying, we were allowed to live while He took our place! To such a love there is only one proper answer: I must give my life or "lose my life" for His sake. I must sell out to His purpose. I must present myself "a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable." I must give up my will for His will. Only complete giving of yourself will ever come close to matching the love that He has shown to us: the love greater than even Rizpah's!