"Your Favorite Disney Movie"
Series: My Most Popular Blogs
1 John 4:7-12
Sunday, November 20, 2011

Introduction: If you don’t know what a blog is, a blog is a type of website or part of a website that is supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. People use blogs for many different reasons: some use it to chronicle what is going on with their kids. Others use it to share thoughts and ideas. I use it to post thoughts on different topics. It gives me another avenue to share God’s word and God’s truth with others.

I have been blogging now for over 4 years and have enjoyed this opportunity to express my thoughts. The last year or so I have blogged with others. What I mean by this is there has been a topic on which several people blog independently. The people involved all share blog ideas, and then we put them in an order and blog on one per week.

Back in May of this year the topic was ‘Your Favorite Disney Movie.’ As I looked at this topic I wondered if I wanted to take the time to write a blog on this. I wasn’t sure what I could say about this that had any relevance to people’s lives. I figured that if I was going to take my time to construct a blog, then I wanted it to have relevance.

In the end I did choose to blog on it, and to my surprise I not only got many ‘hits’ on my blogsite, but I also received a number of comments from it. People seemed to really relate to this topic and the themes in the Disney movies. So, this morning I would like to share some thoughts for you that came from this idea of ‘Your Favorite Disney Movie.’

I. The Movies I Like-

As I thought about this topic I wanted to make sure that I had a good

understanding of all the movies Disney had done. I realized that there were some movies I might think are Disney, and maybe they aren’t, and there were some that I might not realize are Disney movies and are. This is because when you think of Disney movies you usually think about animated movies, but Disney has produced many non-animated movies as well.

I did some investigating, and I found that Disney started making movies in 1937. The first movie they made was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In making this movie they set the bar for imagination and creativity, which is what Walt Disney desired for all that was associated with Disney productions. Disney set the standard for movies that entertain both kids and adults alike.

As I was thinking about the many Disney movies, I started to wonder which one I would choose as my favorite. So I went online and pulled up a list of all the Disney movies. There are so many good ones, that I found it difficult to choose. So I decided to not just choose one, but to list several. Here is my list of animated movies that I love the most: Pinocchio (made in 1940), The Jungle Book (1967), and Toy Story (1995).

While it could definitely be argued that all of the Disney movies are of high quality and entertainment, there is something about these three that stand out to me. I enjoy the music in each. I enjoy the characters. I enjoy the story line. In some way these movies just capture my attention more than the others and I just have fun watching them. They are movies I could watch over and over again.

I also like several non-animated movies made by Disney: National Treasure (2004), The Chronicles of Narnia series (2005, 2008, 2011), and Bridge to Terebithia (2007). Without going into great detail about all these movies, what I like best is how you can be drawn into a world of adventure and fun, but also experience the reality of conflict and resolution. In each movie, in their own unique way, they teach us about friendship, love, and sticking together. They challenge us with the idea that life should and can be enjoyed.

I am so glad that Disney decided to venture into the animated movie business, because there is so much that can happen in animation. I am also captivated by how these movies were put together literally one drawing at a time!! I have one of the drawings from The Jungle Book framed and sitting on my desk. Imagine how many drawings it took to make these movies. And now with computers the possibilities are endless.

II. The Message of Love- (1 John 4:7-12; John 3:16; Deuteronomy 7:7-8;

Jeremiah 17:9; Mark 7:21-22; Romans 3:23)

a. Love- An overriding theme in all of the Disney movies, is love. We

see in the movies how love helps to conquer all situations. For example, in Pinocchio you have the puppet maker Geppetto who creates Pinocchio one day. Geppetto wishes to be a father and begins to hope that Pinocchio could become a real boy. A Blue Fairy hears Geppetto’s wish and turns Pinocchio into a wooden boy. Geppetto loves him just the same…. However, there is a catch. The fairy tells Pinocchio that if he wants to become a real boy of flesh and blood he must prove himself to be brave, truthful, and unselfish and able to tell right from wrong by listening to his conscience. Geppetto believes that Pinocchio needs an education and so he sends him to school. Pinocchio never makes it to school as two con artists meet him along the way and sell him to the owner of a puppet show…. The movie goes along with Pinocchio getting into all kinds of trouble. Geppetto, because of his great love for Pinocchio doesn’t give up on Pinocchio but goes searching for him. In the process he gets swallowed by a whale. Somehow Pinocchio ends up in the same whale. Pinocchio risks his life to save Geppetto, and in the end, because of their love for each other, the Blue Fairy makes Pinocchio a real boy!!

This message of love is one that is seen in every Disney movie. The message is that love is powerful; love is the overarching power of life and relationships. With love, and in love, and by love all things are possible. Without love there is darkness, as the evil characters in the movies are devoid of love. These evil characters try to take away the loved ones from the main characters. They try and keep them from experiencing the love they so desire and seek after.

If I were to caution you at all about the movies, it is that the love that is demonstrated is a humanly love, not a godly love. While there is great sacrifice shown in the movies, it still comes from the heart, and being of the person sharing the love. It is important to note that on our own, our love is frail and weak. Without the Lord we cannot love others as we need to love. Our human love is conditional and prone to change.

While it might seem that the love displayed in these movies is all-sufficient, we know that these are fairy tale stories, and they fail to point out the insufficiency of our love shown to each other. Anyone who has loved, and been loved, knows that there are times when the one whom we love lets us down, disappoints us, and/or leaves us in the midst of our loving them!

b. God’s love- So let me take a few moments to expand on this theme

of the power of love. In 1 John 4:8 we are told, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” We are told that God is love. Love is not just part of God’s make-up, it is at the core of His being. Love is what caused God to create human beings, so He could be in a relationship with us. Love is what led God to give up His Son, Jesus Christ, to death on a cross. You know the verse so well, but let me share it with you again: John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

You could read this verse over and over again, and never take in the full meaning and result. As you read it over slowly, you take in the fact that God is not a angry, condemning God. God is a God of love! He isn’t a God caught up in declarations, rules or edicts. He is a God of love. So much so that He gave His only Son for us. WHY? So that All who believe in Him would not perish. He loved us so much that He made sure that He did everything He could do to ensure us that we could spend eternity with Him!!!

How does God really love us? That is best answered by reading 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, the great chapter on love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails…”

God is patient with us, honoring of us, trusting of us, hoping in us, persevering with us. God’s love will never fail us!! There is no other kind of love like this. The only love that comes close is fairy tale love.

Think about this: in the midst of our defiance, our constantly turning away from God, our hard-heartedness, God still loves us. God loves a hard-hearted, stiff-necked world. We stick our noses where it shouldn’t be, and yet God still pursues. We run from the one who can help, but He doesn’t give up. HE LOVES. He pursues. He persists.

When it comes to God, we don’t have to worry. Because “God so loved the world…

LOVE. Unfortunately, we have worn out this word. I can tell my wife I love her, and then in the next sentence say that I love my breakfast. Deuteronomy 7:7-8 tells us: “The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. ⁸ But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” WHY DOES GOD LOVE US? Because He created us, and chose us to be His children.

c. The love we are to have- Going back to 1 John, chapter 4, verse 7,

it says: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” We are told to love. Since I just explained to you God’s love, we should be able to understand the kind of love we are to show one another. We are called to love like God has loved us. As I share my love with my children, I then expect them to love others in this way. I love them because of who they are to me, but I also love them so that they will learn how to love others.

Some people don’t think that much about love: God’s or their own. They don’t think that they struggle to love as God loves. They have trouble understanding the significance and need for Jesus’ death. But let’s think about this for a moment:

Jeremiah 17:9- “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”

Mark 7:21-22, “For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual

immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²²greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.” Romans 3:10-11, “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; ¹¹there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.’”

Romans 3:23- “For all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory."

It is disturbing to see how this generation is oddly silent about sin. There is a new philosophy out there that believes in moral relativism. What this says is that everything is relative, and so things are only wrong if I deem them to be wrong. There is no ultimate right and wrong.

This leads to a great problem when it comes to love. If all things are relative, then how I love others is relative also. If I choose to “love” you one day, and not love you another day, that is okay, because it is okay for me. This is not only far from fairy tale love, but even farther away from God’s love and how we have been created to love.

The power of love is that it gives us strength, and hope and purpose. Love is what leads us past our struggles and gives us the reason to believe in a better life and a better world. Love is how we are empowered to excel and thrive in this life.

Conclusion: I’ve gotten away from Disney movies, but not totally. The point I’m trying to make is that Disney movies are full of loving others with a pure and deep kind of love. In these movies we see that love is what empowers the main characters. Without love these main characters would lack strength and motivation. Their purpose for doing what they do comes from love.

I mentioned how others shared their thoughts about their favorite Disney movies. Let me share a couple with you. One person says: “I like Mary Poppins because she is strong & it is about family & love. I also like Cinderella because what she believes in good and pure.” Another person says: “I think Pollyana is my all-time favorite Disney film. Every emotion was portrayed in the film, but LOVE won out. It was clean, funny, sad; a great love story. She won the whole town over and made everyone "glad;" a new thing for their town.” Love won out!

We too need to have the kind of love that gives us strength, and motivation, and purpose. This can only come to us by our first being loved by God, and then taking this love with which we are filled and passing it on to others. Listen to this powerful verse from 1 John 4:12, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” When God lives in us, His love will live in us, and we will love in a way where others see God. Amen.