Sermon: Love One Another

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

You can open your Bibles to John chapter 13, 13 verses 34 through 35.

00:11

It's a springboard text, and as you get there, think about the words of that last song.

00:18

You know this is my favorite time of year. The world is focusing in upon Jesus. The time of year where you go into a mall or a grocery store, you turn on the radio, and they're singing songs about Jesus as God, singing songs about Christ's kingdom, having victory over the world, joy to the world, removing the curse as far as it's found.

00:43

It's a beautiful time of year where the secular world is doing the heavy lifting for you in terms of pointing people to Jesus.

00:50

It's actually amazing. But this particular song, Silent Night, one of my very favorite

00:57

Christmas songs, it says, we just sang it, his law is love and his gospel is peace.

01:06

His law is love. And I think we see so much about the love of God in the

01:11

Bible, we see so much about the fact that God is love, love does no harm to its neighbor, the greatest commandments, love

01:17

God, love neighbor. You see so much about love in the scriptures that it's possible, I think, for all of us to get jaded to it.

01:24

Especially in a culture today, like the culture that we live in, where love is sort of this gushy, just mushy, bland, non -defined, just emotional experience and feeling and we hear it constantly, especially over the last couple of years where the

01:43

Supreme Court decided to defy God and to call circles squares and square circles with the issue of gay mirage.

01:51

What was the anthem? The song by Macklemore, you guys know the song? What was the song?

01:58

Same love, right? I can't change, even if I tried, even if I wanted to, it was same love.

02:05

And so the whole thing is, it's all about love. I should be able to love whoever I want. Who are you to tell me that it's wrong to love somebody that I wanna love?

02:14

Don't interfere with love. And so love becomes sort of this word that's meant to just draw on your heartstrings and just to pull on your emotions to get you to feel a certain way or to go a certain way, to do something.

02:27

So love becomes just this general term like peanut butter. You just rub it all over everything, right?

02:33

Just get it all over everything. And so as Christians, I think at times we can, in the same way, just kick around the word love and think about love as Christians in a way that's not fully biblical.

02:44

And I wanted to spend just this one weekend before we start talking about the incarnation, talking about something that's been on my heart for a very, very long time.

02:51

Really, this message has been something that I've wanted to do and something I wanted to speak about for quite some time.

02:57

Talk about what does it mean to live in the body together and to love one another. It's important because that song is amazing.

03:04

It's true. His law is love. And his good news is peace. Peace with God. That's what today's about.

03:12

So John 13 as a springboard text verses 34 through 35 is where we're gonna start.

03:20

Hear now the words of the living and true God. A new commandment

03:26

I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you.

03:34

You are also to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

03:48

As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray. Father, I have no earthly right giving this message.

03:59

God, I recognize that Lord, I do not love you and love others in the way that you call me to.

04:07

Lord, I present this message to your people as someone who has fallen short of your glory.

04:16

And Lord, we come to you as your people, confessing, God, yes, we don't love you with heart, soul, mind, and strength.

04:25

And we don't love our neighbors, we love ourselves. God, we come to you as very prideful and selfish people.

04:33

Lord, we don't have any boast in this area. We recognize,

04:38

God, that you are love. You're the standard of love. And God, we have missed the mark. We missed it today.

04:45

And God, I wanna pray that you, by your spirit, please, God, that you would speak to your people today through your words and through a preacher who has no earthly right preaching it.

04:59

I pray that you would teach, that you would convict, that you would challenge, that you would, Lord, lift this church up in love, that you,

05:10

Lord, would cause us to hate pride, Lord, and to desire to love you and to love your people.

05:16

God, grant to us, God, what we cannot do in ourselves.

05:22

Grant to us, God, the strength, the ability, the desire, the delight in love.

05:31

Please cause me to decrease, Christ, to increase in this time, in Jesus' name, amen. This is powerful, it really is.

05:39

I mean, this is the stuff of Christian bumper stickers and T -shirts because it is just so compelling.

05:48

If you do any cursory reading of the religions of the world, man -made religions, and you look at the religious charlatans and con artists that have been raised up, you see kind of some distinctive characteristics in how they pull off their trick, their charade.

06:08

There's a lot of focus upon them, there's a lot of domination of the person that's beneath them, there's a lot of authoritarianism, there's a lot of pride, there's a lot of,

06:18

I'm the boss, you follow me, listen to my words, and there's a lot of focus upon the leader himself or the leader herself, and not a lot of talk of love, honestly, not the kind of love that God calls us to, not the kind of sacrificial, genuine love without hypocrisy that actually dies to self and serves other, not the kind of love that Jesus talks about when he says things like, greater love has no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends.

06:53

And this is one of those moments in the ministry of Jesus that causes people to wanna write poems, that causes people to wanna put this on a

07:04

T -shirt and stamp it on there, it's the kind of thing that spreads the message of Jesus so quickly because it's such a beautiful thing.

07:11

But it's really compelling to me, as I thought about this message, I actually thought about this particular text in the

07:17

Bible, I thought about what Jesus says here, and I thought, it's interesting when you think about it, because like I said a few moments ago, we know the great commandments.

07:26

Jesus was asked, Master, what's the greatest commandment of all? And Jesus says, what? Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad, hear,

07:34

O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. They knew it, it was their anthem, it was their pledge of allegiance, they knew what it meant, they knew what it said, they could follow

07:44

Jesus when he said it. There is only one God, and you love him, the Bible says, Deuteronomy 6, with heart and soul and mind, and Jesus says, strength.

07:55

That's what God calls you to, love. What's the greatest commandment? Is it not to murder, is it not to steal, not to covet, not to commit adultery?

08:04

Is it honor your father, your mother? What is the greatest commandment in God's law? And Jesus goes right for the foundation of what lifts everything up, what is it?

08:12

There's only one God, and you are to love him with heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's all of you, every aspect of your being,

08:19

Jesus says, that's already been the thing, that's been the deal the whole time, that's it.

08:25

See, people often, they treat Jesus in the law in such a way as like, Jesus comes in as a new lawgiver, doing away with the old and bringing in something new, when in reality,

08:35

Jesus brings in the fulfillment of all that the old was supposed to mean to them. And he points them right to it, he says, love, love

08:43

God. And then he says, second is like it, you are to love your neighbors, you love yourself. And so we already know, Jesus says, that's been the thing the whole time, that's not new.

08:54

But Jesus says here in this text, he actually says, it's compelling, a new commandment

08:59

I give to you. And what's he say? He says, you love one another.

09:05

You might be tempted to say to Jesus, Jesus, that's not a new command. As a matter of fact, that's been part of your teaching the whole time,

09:12

Lord. We know that's from the Torah, we know that Moses taught us that about God. You love

09:18

God and love your neighbor, that's not a new commandment, Jesus, that's the same old thing, I understand that.

09:23

Thanks for the reminder of how much I fail, right? Love one another. You might be tempted to think that Jesus is sort of bringing in this new wave of spirituality into the new covenant that really wasn't a part of the old, when in reality, love was always the foundation.

09:40

But it's what Jesus says here next that makes this text so compelling.

09:46

And it ought to challenge you to your core. Because you see, you could say, okay, love

09:52

God, love neighbor, and sort of keep it general and bland, right? Like our culture would wanna do something like that today, just sort of kick around this raw, emotional experience in loving

10:02

God and loving neighbor. But what Jesus says here actually takes what he says in loving neighbor, and it brings it to a whole new place because he provides something that is new and that is different.

10:16

What? What's in John chapter one? In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was

10:24

God. He says he was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him, nothing came into being that's come into being.

10:32

And then it continues on. And what does it say in John 114? It says, and the word became, what?

10:38

Flesh, and dwelt among us. He tabernacled among us. God took on flesh and walked among us.

10:45

So what's new in this commandment which makes it so challenging and so compelling is not that love was not part of the old covenant law of God.

10:55

It was the very foundation of all the law and the prophets. It's what Jesus says here next.

11:02

He says, you're to love one another, what? Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

11:15

And that's what makes it so challenging because you can see in the law of God, all your shortcomings, all your failures, all your disregard for God's holiness, his standards.

11:23

You can see it all, and you can look into it like it's a mirror, and you can see all your failures. You can see all your warts, all your scrapes and cuts and bruises, all your darkness.

11:32

You can see in the law all that. And then you look into the face of Jesus in the New Testament, and you see love incarnate walking among us.

11:41

You see how love interacts with enemies. You see how love interacts with betrayal. You see how love interacts with those who lie, those who distort the truth, those who just seek to destroy.

11:55

You see love actually walking among us, love incarnate. And don't let that just be a pithy slogan that Christians say,

12:03

Jesus is love incarnate. You have to think about what that really means. God is love, and then love came down and actually talked to us, touched us, walked among us.

12:15

You and I know that you can see your deepest failures as a

12:21

Christian when you look at how Jesus loves others. And that's it.

12:27

You see his spectacular wisdom. You see the glory in Christ and how he actually speaks the truth.

12:33

He tells people the truth. You see the majesty of Jesus and how he argues with his opponents. You see the divinity of Christ all across the board, all across the pages of the

12:44

New Testament. But what do you see that constantly shows you your own shame and brokenness?

12:49

You see, the way that Jesus loves people is not like the way I love people. You see,

12:55

I tend to love people who love me back. Just be honest, be straightforward, I mean, come on now. Don't put the

13:00

God face on. We do that, don't we? We come into church with a God face, putting like all is well, like we're really loving.

13:06

You'll have a person that's been backstabbing you, biting you, a person that just irritates you to no end.

13:11

Come in, and what do you do? You put your God face on, you pretend to love, you pretend like all is well. Christians, we do that, right?

13:18

Because why? Because, let's be honest, it's very easy to love people who are lovable. It's very, very easy to love people in the body of Christ that actually make it easy for you to love them.

13:30

And what makes Jesus so majestic, what makes his message so compelling, what makes his life so unmatched is the fact that he loves without hypocrisy.

13:42

He loves in a genuine way. He loves people who actually are not very lovable. He loves the people who actually, most people just kick out and cast away.

13:50

He loves the people that you and I don't love. We just don't. And Jesus actually does something in his life.

13:59

He loves people who actually hurt him. And Jesus has a life and a ministry where people who are actually next to him in ministry are stealing from him in the midst of ministry.

14:11

He has a ministry full of people who actually just can't get it. They betray him. They can't keep focused on the big picture.

14:19

They actually abandon Jesus when he needs them the most. He suffers alone, and he continues to love them.

14:28

We're gonna see that in a moment with Peter and how Jesus continues to love Peter after his betrayal, how Jesus treats

14:34

Judas, even though he knows what Judas is going to do. He knows the true state of Judas.

14:41

But Jesus actually says, he says, you love one another just as I have loved you.

14:46

So here's this new commandment from Jesus, not just love God and love neighbor, but you actually love one another in the way that I have loved you.

14:56

He's my example of how I'm supposed to love the body of Christ. And then Jesus actually adds something here that continues to challenge me constantly.

15:06

It challenges me deeply in the kind of culture we live in today where we have moved away from a face -to -face intimate community with one another to we have that kind of, and now we have more of a digital intimacy with one another through social media.

15:24

We have relationships at a distance, far away. We treat intimacy now as though it was something that is real and happening all the time because it happens through my fingertips in a digital world.

15:37

Oh, I have a relationship with all kinds of Christians. Really? Where are they? Well, they're on Facebook.

15:44

I just tweeted them just the other day. And this is in particular challenging to me because we live in this kind of world today as Christians where we have these digital relationships and we destroy each other through these digital relationships.

16:01

We've moved away from real intimacy, face -to -face, eye contact intimacy, to where now we have digital relationships through text messages.

16:09

We have social media relationships. And you know what we do? We destroy each other before the watching world as Christians.

16:16

We destroy each other. What does the world see today when they actually look and say, what is it like to see

16:21

Christians interact with each other? What do they see? They see backbiting. What do they see? They see gossip. What do they see? They see tearing down.

16:28

But the amazing thing is what Jesus says here is that a new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I, as I.

16:34

I'm the example. I'll show you how. As I have loved you. And he says, this is the way the world will know.

16:41

They will know that you're my disciples by the love you have for one another. And I ask myself the question, do

16:47

I identify in that way? If you look into my life as a

16:53

Christian, you see how I love you. You see how I love my family, my wife.

16:59

You see how I love other believers that are around me. Does it identify me as an actual follower of Jesus?

17:05

Do people actually look at me and say, I know he's a Christian. I know it. How? Look how he loves.

17:13

It's amazing. Because Jesus doesn't say here something that I think a lot of particularly reformed folks think he ought to say.

17:20

The world's gonna know you're my disciples by how crystal clear you are in your theological explanations.

17:29

The world will know you're my disciples by just how much you know about the

17:36

Westminster Confession. The world's gonna know you're my disciples by just how theologically mighty you are.

17:44

Now, by the way, you know that theology matters and you know that we love theology. You know that we believe doctrine matters and it shapes your whole life.

17:52

It matters a lot. But Jesus actually says something here that it is more your love for other

17:58

Christians that identifies you with Jesus Christ than it is anything else, how you love

18:04

Christians. And the hard part here is that Christians can sometimes be, let's be frank, some of the hardest people in the world to love.

18:14

I wanna say something that A .W. Tozer said a long, long time ago when I came out of my addiction to drugs and alcohol. I was listening to a lot of Tozer and actually

18:21

Tozer said Christians are the best people in the world.

18:28

He said they're not the most perfect people in the world but they're the best people in the world and I actually really genuinely believe that, that we are all a bunch of sinners.

18:37

We hurt one another. We betray each other. We're just a lot of sinners together being sanctified by God and so we blow it a lot.

18:45

But I believe that Christians are the best people in the world but the truth be told, there are lots and lots of people who profess the name of Christ that I wouldn't wanna have dinner with.

18:56

I have a hard time loving a lot of people who name the name of Christ. And here's the thing, what makes

19:04

Jesus' statement so challenging is that he actually says you're to love one another in the way that I love you.

19:14

And what does Jesus do in his ministry? Did he love people that just looked lovely and that were lovable?

19:19

No, he actually went after the riffraff. He went after the people that most people kick aside. He went after people who actually rebelled against him and he pursued people that constantly betrayed him and that looks like the body of Christ much of the time is that Jesus saves sinners.

19:38

And so you take those sinners, you bring them together into a room. What do they do a lot of? Sinning. And it becomes very, very hard to actually fulfill this commandment.

19:48

Oh, it's very easy to fake it. Let's just be real with each other and be honest. It's very, very easy to walk the

19:54

Christian life and to essentially go through the motions and to love people with hypocrisy, with pretending.

20:01

It's very, very easy to essentially live the Christian life and to come into this room on a Sunday and to worship

20:06

God together with other believers and to put on a happy face and to pretend to love one another. The difficult task is when you actually start to obey

20:13

Jesus here and that is to love others in the way that he loves us.

20:20

And just, I wanna remind you before we step forward into this, remember that Jesus says the identification, how the world will know that we are followers of Jesus Christ is in how we love each other.

20:34

So if there's a banner over every local church, every congregation, honestly, the banner ought to be love.

20:42

What are those people like? What is it like to be among that community? And the truth is, the banner over it ought to be love.

20:50

Those people love each other and I'm not talking about a gushy, emotional, they love each other, they're just so sappy with each other.

20:58

I mean, they love each other through the difficult moments, through the heartache, through the gossip, through the backbiting, they love each other with a genuine love, without hypocrisy, true affection.

21:10

They love each other, they sacrifice for each other, they're there for each other, they try to outdo each other with honor and affection.

21:19

They see each other's interests and needs as more important than their own. Love ought to identify the body of Christ.

21:28

Now, just for a moment now, just speaking at the beginning, I said, we sing a song about his law is love and his gospel is peace.

21:35

We need to think about Jesus and law. Just for a moment, we've talked a lot about this.

21:41

If you haven't listened to the messages on Matthew 5, you ought to go back and listen to those. Most of them are up on the app right now in our

21:47

Kingdom of God series. So Jesus and the law, just briefly, Matthew chapter five, verses 17 through 19, what does

21:53

Jesus say about the law? He says, do not begin to think, mei namasete, don't even let it enter into your mind that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets.

22:04

I have not come to destroy them, but to fulfill them. And Jesus says what to his people?

22:10

He says, if you teach anybody to disobey even the least of these commandments, you'll be called least in the

22:17

Kingdom of Heaven, in the Kingdom of God. He says, whoever teaches them, does them, will be called great in the

22:28

Kingdom of God. And so we gotta ask the question about Jesus and the law. Because he says, this is a new commandment that I'm giving to you.

22:35

We know what the commandments are. We know Jesus gave commandments in his earthly ministry. We know he pointed to the law of God and said, no, you do it.

22:43

I haven't come to abolish it, but to fulfill it, to bring it to its actual completed status.

22:50

But he says, a new commandment. And so we need to think about the law and Jesus. And we need to think about the fact that love is the foundation of the law and the prophets.

22:58

Matthew 22, 34 through 40. Matthew 22, 34 through 40.

23:04

It's that famous scene I just referred to. Let you read it later, write it down, put it into your heart.

23:11

Master, what's the greatest commandment in the law? And Jesus says, what? First one is to love who? God. Second one is to love who?

23:19

Neighbor. And Jesus says that upon these two commandments, all of the law and the prophets rest.

23:26

Now I want you to make sure that you have this in your minds and hearts, brothers and sisters. It's vitally important to get, especially when you start talking about issues of the love of God and the law of God in modern society, the relevance of God's law today.

23:40

Jesus says, all of the law and the prophets, not some, not most, all of the law and the prophets are built upon love for God, love for neighbor.

23:48

So think for a moment now, ready? Build a house now. You have love for God, love for neighbor. All the law and the prophets rest upon those two great commandments.

23:57

And so how do you see it now expressed? Love God, love neighbor. What does God do when he gives his people graciously his law?

24:06

In Exodus chapter 20, what do we get? We get the 10 what? 10 commandments. So love

24:11

God, love neighbor. And those 10 commandments now become fleshing out what it means to love

24:18

God, love neighbor. And this is what I mean about modern society that has a view of love that's just sort of this gushy, emotional feeling.

24:27

God doesn't do that. He doesn't say love is simply emotional. By the way, I am kind of sappy.

24:34

I like to think that I'm a romantic. I love the idea of this emotional feeling of love.

24:42

I'm not dissing that in any way. Yes, when you are at a marriage ceremony and you have a husband and a wife there, love is there and there are so many beautiful emotions happening.

24:53

And during the honeymoon. Yes, beautiful emotions. Love is there. It's beautiful.

24:59

I'm not saying diminish that. I'm not saying be cold and hard and say love is just something you do and not emotional.

25:06

Of course, love has emotional things attached to it. But love is much, much more than that.

25:16

It gets expressed in what it actually does. Love God, love neighbor. Well, what's that mean? 10 commandments.

25:22

Well, you shall have no other gods before me. Not in order, like they have to come behind me.

25:29

But God says, no other gods in my sight. None before me. So how do you love God?

25:35

Well, first commandment comes out. It's about loving God. What is it? No other gods before him. No other gods in his sight.

25:42

What's the other one? How else do you love God? Second commandment. What is it? Very good.

25:49

So don't even make something that looks like me to worship it, right? So love

25:54

God. No other gods in my sight. Don't be an idolater. I'm the only God that you get.

26:00

Don't even make one that looks like me, right? Love God. One, two.

26:06

What does it say now? Don't take the Lord God's name in vain, right?

26:11

And so now we have all these commandments now. Love God. What's it look like to love God? No other gods besides him. Don't make one that looks like him.

26:18

Don't take his name in vain. Love God, love God, love God. You start moving now into what's it mean to love my neighbor?

26:23

And then God says, it looks like this. Here's what it means to love your neighbor. What's it say? It says, don't murder them.

26:32

Don't murder your neighbor. Don't steal from your neighbor. Don't covet your neighbor's stuff.

26:39

Don't commit adultery. Like how do you love your neighbor? It actually is something.

26:45

How do I show love for my neighbor? I'm not going to steal from them. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna commit adultery.

26:52

I'm not gonna murder. I'm not gonna covet. You start to see it now. That's what it means to love. It's not just emotional response.

26:59

It's action. It's activity. It's doing things and, ready? Not doing certain things.

27:07

Love is actual action in the world. So it's amazing.

27:13

The Bible actually goes farther than just saying what most people would say and that's just love one another. Like I remember this.

27:20

The best I can do just to sort of like codify it and get it in a picture is when I was in Starbucks a long time ago and I was sitting next to a table where there's a guy sitting there and this dude walks up to him, sort of like dirty pants and dirty shirt.

27:34

He just walks up. He's got long hair, kind of like a 2010 hippie. He's like, hey man,

27:41

I see you reading your Bible there. And this guy was over here and I'm just watching this whole thing unfold. It felt, it was like a cringe -worthy moment.

27:48

And this guy's over here reading his Bible and this dude walks up. He's like, hey man, hey man, God just loves you, man.

27:54

He just loves you, man. Jesus just wants to wrap his arms around you, man, and love you, dude.

28:00

He loves you, man. Like just, you know what I'm saying? There's this feeling of just like, well, what's that even mean?

28:07

Like it's just, it's really just the kind of ethos. It's the world we live in. But the

28:12

Bible doesn't do that. It actually explains love God, love neighbor. And someone says, what's that mean? Oh, it means like this.

28:18

No other gods but God. Don't make one that looks like him. Don't take his name in vain. What's it mean to love my neighbor?

28:23

Oh, it means don't murder, don't steal, don't commit adultery, don't covet their stuff. You start to see.

28:29

And then God does something spectacular in the law. Love God, love neighbor. He's right now filling it out, 10

28:36

Commandments. And then God says this, and if somebody does violate these

28:42

Commandments, here's what it means to love that person in the judicial process.

28:48

Here's what it means to love your neighbor, the victim, when somebody steals from them.

28:55

Someone says, what's with all the Levitical laws? What's with all that stuff in the law of God about theft and the penalty for theft and rape and the penalty for rape and murder and the penalty for murder?

29:05

Truth be told, all of it is love. Because the law of God does is it recognizes that when my neighbor has been violated, there's a victim and the victim has rights.

29:17

And God says, to love your neighbor, if they're stolen from, here's how you're supposed to make them whole again.

29:25

If somebody is raped, your neighbor is raped, here's how you love your neighbor so that they're actually now made whole again.

29:32

And that's what the law of God does. It's all about love. And then you have love for the poor in the

29:39

Old Testament. Who's giving to the poor in the Old Testament? The government.

29:44

No, not the government. Who's giving to the poor in the Old Testament? What does

29:49

God say? It's the people who give to the poor and they do it willingly, without coercion.

29:56

And so God says, here's how you love the poor in your society. Here's how you love the widow. Here's how you love the orphan.

30:03

The law of God is all about love. And Jesus doesn't say, well, the

30:08

Old Testament wasn't about love, now I'm giving you a new one. It's love in the New Testament. And by the way, the reason why

30:14

I bring this whole thing up right now, before I move further is just this. It is wrong how we have expressed the message of Jesus today in the evangelical

30:24

West. Here's what I mean. It's wrong for us to suggest that God in the

30:29

Old Testament was harsh, was all about justice, he was unkind, he was all about law.

30:36

And now Jesus comes along in the new and now all of a sudden we have the God of love. So we've got

30:41

God of the Old Testament is a God of law and justice, and the God of the New Testament is a

30:46

God of love. I can't tell you, brothers and sisters, how often I hear that from people. When I'm out doing evangelism with a modern day millennial who has a profession of faith in Jesus, they often use that argumentation.

31:00

The Old Testament was all about law, Jesus is about love. What I often say when people say that to me is you really need to read the book of Revelation.

31:11

Where Jesus, when he comes back, is not servant, submissive, beat up, and tortured and crucified.

31:19

This is Jesus where he comes back and his wrath is so hot, his reaction against sin so hot and so harsh, that it's described in terms of God crushing people in the wine press so that the blood is so deep, it's up to the horse's bridle.

31:38

That kind of, the blood is so deep, it's sloshed across the garment and the robe.

31:47

Love of God, only in Jesus? How about the cross itself?

31:52

What does it symbolize? The love of God. And here's what Dr. White says, often he says if you see the cross and you only see the love of God, you do not see the cross.

32:01

Because the cross is not simply about the love of God, what took Jesus to it?

32:07

The wrath of God against our sin. See, how serious is God in the New Testament about our sin?

32:15

Well, he put his son on a cross, had him crucified and destroyed for his people so that they could actually experience life.

32:22

You see justice, wrath, and love working at that cross. It's important for us to keep that in mind.

32:29

Next, speaking about the law of God, Jesus not only said that love was the foundation of all the law of God, it was always part of the commandments of God.

32:40

We see in the book of Romans something very, very important. The Apostle Paul points to the meaning of the law, and I'm gonna read it to you,

32:46

Romans chapter 13. You can run there with me if you like. Romans chapter 13, this is powerful.

32:53

After the Apostle Paul explains the function and role of the government, listen to what he says here.

33:00

I'll start in verse seven. He says, paid to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

33:14

Here it is, ready? Owe no one anything except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

33:23

For the commandments, here it is, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandments are summed up in this word.

33:36

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Who does that sound like? Jesus. But what he says next is powerful, watch.

33:45

He says, verse 10, love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

33:54

There it is again. You see, love has always been the basis of the law of God. It's always been the basis for God's commandments is love for God, love for neighbor.

34:05

But Paul, I love how Paul fleshes it out here. What's it say? Love does no harm to its neighbor.

34:14

That's the foundation. That's it. So you wanna ask yourself the question, am

34:20

I loving somebody without hypocrisy? Am I loving somebody with a genuine affection, brotherly affection?

34:28

Am I loving somebody like Jesus loves them? Well, I'll give you the basis. You want the definition?

34:33

You wanna be able to define it? When you're living with one another in the body of Christ and in your family, here's how you define it.

34:41

Love does no harm to its neighbor. Is what I'm doing right now harming my neighbor?

34:47

Is what I'm doing right now harming my brother or sister in Christ? Let's pause there for a moment.

34:54

Stop and think. Let's just be transparent with each other today and let's talk about it as a body. What sort of things happen?

35:01

Because you might look at this, watch. You're tempted to, I'm tempted to. You could look at this and you could say, okay, you should not murder.

35:08

I'm not engaged in that kind of activity in the body of Christ. Come on now, right? I'm not murdering another

35:14

Christian. We know what Jesus says. What does he say? If you hate somebody, right?

35:20

He says, well, you're already on your way. That's it. That's the foundation of murder. Don't say you're not a murderer. You ever hated a

35:26

Christian? Come on. You ever hated a Christian? Be honest.

35:34

You'd struggle with those feelings. Someone's, you know, name's the name of Christ. You name the name of Christ and you have moments where maybe you were offended by them.

35:40

Maybe they've done something treacherous to you. Maybe they've gossiped and backstabbed and bit you in some way.

35:46

Maybe they stole from you. Maybe they named the name of Christ and they seek to destroy you.

35:53

You ever hated them? Jesus says, hate is murder. You're guilty, so confess to it.

36:01

It's no good to hide from it and pretend like it's not the way that it is. Have you done it?

36:06

Confess. But you're tempted to look at this list and say, well, I'm not, like, engaged in murdering, committing adultery.

36:14

I'm not involved in it. I haven't stolen from another Christian. This doesn't really apply to me. These are the big sins.

36:22

And the truth, be told, love does no harm to its neighbor. You wanna know if you really violated God's law?

36:28

Did you harm another Christian in the body by how you talked about them behind their back?

36:35

Are you harming them by harming their reputation? Are you poisoning people to these

36:44

Christians by the way that you speak about them when no one is looking? Have you harmed them by seeking in some way to destroy them?

37:01

Think about how you live with one another in the body of Christ. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Love is the fulfillment of the law.

37:08

How do we live with each other? Are we seeking to outdo one another with honor? Are we seeking their good above our own?

37:15

Are we laying ourselves down for them? Are we seeking to build our kingdom?

37:20

Are we seeking to be in the spotlight above them? These are questions we have to ask ourselves if we're gonna be faithful Christians.

37:30

Another point about love, Jesus and the law. Love is the foundation. Go to 1

37:36

John chapter four. This is one of the most,

37:41

I think, for me, I'll just be honest with you, this is one of the most cutting portions of scripture for me, personally.

37:50

1 John chapter four, watch what he says. He says, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

37:59

For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

38:07

And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world.

38:14

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

38:24

Now watch, verse seven. Beloved, let us love one another.

38:31

For love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows

38:37

God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.

38:44

In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.

38:52

In this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

39:05

That is the defining moment of God's love. In Christ, God becoming a man to love us so that we could know

39:13

God. And here's the crazy thing about the whole deal. You might say as you read this text, but God, there are lots of Christians that I don't wanna love, to be honest with you.

39:24

There are lots of Christians that don't deserve my love. They're not worthy of my love. Jesus, you don't understand.

39:31

This person that you're saying that I have to love, this person has betrayed me. This person has spoken poorly of me.

39:39

This person has actually sought to destroy me. This person has stolen from me. This person seeks to injure me.

39:46

This person constantly seeks their own above me. This person is prideful.

39:54

And the truth is, is the very text that tells you that if you've been born of God, you're gonna love your brother is the very text that defines it by saying that God shows you his love in that he became flesh to do what?

40:11

To be the propitiation for your sins, to take the wrath of God, to exhaust it over your sins, to reconcile you to God.

40:19

You can say, I think in a haughty way, God, you don't understand. This Christian that you tell me to love, this person hates me.

40:30

This person is a rebel against me. This person seeks to destroy me. And the truth be told, all you have to do to see the hypocrisy in what you're saying is you simply have to look up and see what?

40:46

That the one telling you to love your neighbor, to love your brother, commanding you to do so, and saying that the identification of whether you know him is whether you love your brother, this one who says it is the one who actually loved and pursued you.

41:01

You're the enemy of God. You might be saying, what enemy? Enemy of God?

41:09

That's precisely how God actually defines you and me before Christ.

41:15

Enemies of God, haters of God, hostile toward God. What, children of wrath, dead in our sins and trespasses.

41:22

That's how the Bible defines us, not righteous, non God -seeking. And so we could say in a very hypocritical way,

41:29

God, you don't understand what it's like to love this very unlovable person. And the truth be told,

41:34

God looks down upon you as his precious possession, his child, and you're the enemy.

41:44

You're the hater of God. You're the one who has brought shame to God's name. You're the one who has run from God.

41:50

You're the rebel. Let me ask you a question. When you think about the person who makes it very hard to love them as a

41:57

Christian, what are some of the things that cause you to think it's hard to love them?

42:04

Is it the way that they act towards you? Is it, are they fake with you?

42:12

Are they hypocrites? Are they the kind of people who say one thing to your face and then as soon as you turn your back, they do something else?

42:23

Are they the kind of people that seem to be your enemy behind your back?

42:30

Let me ask you a question. Are you that way to God every day? Of your life.

42:37

Are you the person that actually says to God, God, I love you with all my heart.

42:44

Here's my hands, God. I raise my hands to you, God, and worship of you. You are worthy of honor and blessing and glory.

42:50

And you walk out those doors and when nobody's looking, you let your mind run rampant.

42:57

You say one thing with your lips to God and you turn around 20 minutes later and you have one mouth that blesses

43:05

God and another mouth that curses another person. Are you the hypocrite in that you say you can't love another person because of the way that they are and you neglect to remember that God loves you every single day despite her hypocrisy.

43:24

Despite the fact that you make yourself his enemy constantly. Despite the fact that you say one thing and you do another.

43:32

No, we can never say as Christians, I could never love this person because what kind of hypocrisy is that?

43:38

God's the one that pursued you. You might say, I could never pursue this person with love. You don't know what they do to me.

43:46

You don't know how they act like my enemy. And the truth is, is that's God's relationship to you and me every single day.

43:53

Who did Jesus die for? The lovable? Who does Jesus die for? The righteous?

43:59

Who does Jesus die for? People who are seeking him? No. His love is displayed most powerfully in the fact that he's actually dying for people who hate him.

44:13

And what's the text say? Not that we love God, but that what? He loved us.

44:21

That's the definition of the love of God in the life of the Christian. Is that God is pursuing people who are unlovable, unrighteous, rebels, and they don't love him.

44:32

They're the rebels. You say, how could I possibly love somebody who is not lovable and doesn't love me back?

44:42

Answer, just look up. Just look up. I have to remember that constantly.

44:50

When people are hard to love, when it's painful to love people sometimes, I have to remember that I look up to a

44:56

God who pursued me and I'm the unloving, unlovable, shameful rebel,

45:05

I'm the enemy. And yet he set his love upon me. And so Jesus says, here's the definition, the great commandment, this new commandment that I give to you, you love one another in the way that I've loved you.

45:18

And the Bible says clearly, look, if you say that you know God and you don't love your brother, you don't know him. People say, how could you ever say somebody's not a

45:25

Christian? Well, John says, here's how you can say that you're not a Christian.

45:31

If you do not love your brother, you are not a Christian. Stop pretending.

45:39

If you're not a loving person, you don't know God. Because whoever's been born of God has

45:44

God who is love within them. You want the definition? You want the defining moment?

45:51

It's in your love. If you don't love people, then you don't know

45:57

God. You haven't been born of God because God is love. And don't you love the sweetness of this moment?

46:05

First, John, who wrote it? Not a trick question, very good, okay. John, and don't you love the fact,

46:13

I find this so beautiful, these little moments. John wrote this epistle.

46:21

And John's famous for what? What's famous about Jesus' relationship with John? He's a disciple

46:28

Jesus loved, right? He has a special relationship with John that was different than his relationship with others.

46:34

And don't say, well, that's not really fair. Let me ask you a question. Do you have people that you love more than others? Yeah, is it fair for you?

46:41

It's fair for God. He can love whoever he wants, however he wants. He shouldn't love me anyway, so I should keep my mouth shut about who are his favorite people.

46:49

I don't know, okay. It's a disciple that he loved. They have a special relationship with each other. And don't you love that the person who was closest to Jesus has this intimate relationship with Jesus?

46:59

In his epistle, the thing he has to point you to is if you say that you know him, if you say you know my

47:08

Savior and my friend and you hate your brother, you're in darkness, you don't know him.

47:14

John's saying, I know Jesus. I know him. I have a special relationship with him.

47:20

And I'm telling you right now that if you name his name, if you say that you know him and you hate your brother, you're in darkness, you don't know my

47:29

Jesus because my Jesus is love. I think that's powerful testimony to listen.

47:38

What must have been so compelling to John was this particular point, the love of Jesus.

47:45

He couldn't get away from it. Near the end of his life, he can't get away from it.

47:51

It was the thing that marked Jesus most for him, love. And John could say, look,

47:59

I know him. And if you say that you do, you better love in the way that he did.

48:06

Next, I wanna point you to just a quick observation in terms of if you're feeling right now very low and very broken and very sinful, like I have when

48:17

I've prepared this message, when I encourage you to think about something, how does the Bible say it happens?

48:24

What's the blessing of this new covenant? We've talked about it a lot over the last couple of weeks. Ezekiel 36, what does

48:29

God say he's gonna do? Take out the heart of stone and he's gonna do what? He's gonna put a hard flesh there. It was hard before and now it's malleable.

48:36

Now it's workable to God, right? And then he says what? I'm gonna put my spirit within them and cause them to observe my statutes.

48:44

How do you and I do this? How do you love the unlovable? Truth be told, it's not you, but God who is working in you.

48:54

And so if you say, hey, I want to love others, but I struggle with it, praise

49:00

God. That actually is evidence of the spirit of God in your life. If you say, no, I have no love for anybody,

49:05

I don't wanna love anybody, I really don't care about the message you're preaching. I would say, you need to repent of your sins in a hurry because you probably don't know

49:12

God. But if you wanna know how is this gonna be possible for me to actually love others in the way that Jesus loves me?

49:18

And the answer is the spirit of God. What's the promise in the book of Romans? What? We're sinners, we're not righteous.

49:26

God provides Christ. It is through faith in him and faith alone, apart from any work of law, that we're joined to Christ.

49:32

God credits to us righteousness, does not count our sins against us. And then what does he do? By his spirit, he causes us to fulfill the law of God, which is to what?

49:44

Love God, love your neighbor. You see, when I see Jesus saying to me, a great, a new commandment

49:52

I give to you, and he says, you love people like I do, as a redeemed person with a new heart, not from myself,

49:59

I say, man, I want to. God, I really want to.

50:05

I wanna love my wife the way that you love me. I wanna love my kids the way that you love me. I wanna love my church the way that you love me.

50:11

I really want to, and God, show me my brokenness. Show me my hypocrisy. Show me how

50:16

I fail constantly. The only reason you ever get there is because the spirit of God indwells you.

50:22

I'm gonna point you to something very important. Love is not simply an emotion, but it is activity.

50:29

And the way to show you that, I think you know where I'm going. Where's the love passage? Where's the love passage?

50:35

First Corinthians what? 13, go to it. You guys are like, I know that passage because it is exhausted at every

50:43

Christian wedding, okay? First Corinthians chapter 13, I just wanna point you to it for a moment to show you another example of God's word giving love to us in a defined way, not some bland, emotional way, but a actual definition, something that it does.

51:03

First Corinthians 13, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,

51:11

I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love,

51:22

I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love,

51:30

I gain nothing. Pause. Man, that is challenging.

51:41

Because you can look at it and just on the face of it say, that's some intense ministry happening there. And if you don't have love doing all those things,

51:49

I get it, it's worthless. How about the more mundane? How about the more mundane?

51:58

How about if I serve in ministry in the body of Christ?

52:09

How about if I serve in the abortion mill ministry, but if I don't have love, it's worthless?

52:16

How about if I serve out on the streets this week to reach the

52:22

Mormon people, but I don't have love, it's worthless? How about if I am part of a small group, but I don't have love, it's worthless?

52:37

He starts to think more now in like the real nitty gritty, like put your hands around it. Like I'm a deacon,

52:43

I'm a deacon at Apologia Church, but I don't have love. Paul says, worthless.

52:51

Stop. Give it up. Stop pretending. No value.

52:58

You see, you can serve Jesus all day long in Christian ministry, but if you don't have love, it is garbage before the throne of God.

53:09

It's worthless. This is challenging to me.

53:16

As a Christian, it is genuinely challenging to me as a believer. I have to ask myself the question constantly, what's the motivation for doing this?

53:25

Every single time I go out to the Mormon temple, every, this is honest to God, every single time,

53:30

I have to check my heart. Why am I doing this? Am I doing this because I'm being recorded and there's gonna be a video up that 200 ,000 people see?

53:42

Am I talking to this person right now because I wanna look like I'm winning an argument? Am I doing this right now so that I get some sort of praise?

53:53

Or am I doing this for the benefit of the person? Am I going to the abortion mill because I wanna be able to tell people, oh,

53:59

I'll go to the abortion mill. I saw all these babies saved. I have to ask myself those questions.

54:06

Am I taking this task on because I genuinely love God, his truth, and these people, or am

54:14

I doing it because of selfish motivation and reasons? Do you ask yourself those questions?

54:20

Because I have to ask myself those questions constantly. Love, why are you doing it?

54:26

Why are you going to Kauai? Why? Why, is it because it's beautiful? Because it's a great vacation?

54:32

Why? Why are you going to Kauai? Are you going to Kauai so people think you're super spiritual because you're going to Kauai and planning a church?

54:39

Why are you going to Kauai? Why do you have a reach group? Why? Is it because you have a position of authority and power?

54:47

Why? Is it because you want people to think you know a lot about Jesus? Why? Why do you serve

54:52

God in ministry? Is it because you genuinely love God and love others, or is it for some other reason?

54:59

Is it about the glory of Jesus Christ or something else? But watch, he says this.

55:06

Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast.

55:13

It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful.

55:23

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

55:34

Love never ends, never fails. You know what

55:41

I love to do? I love to do what someone taught me a long time ago. And that's look at this text.

55:50

All these defining parts of love, right? It's not rude, it's not boastful, it's not resentful.

55:56

Hopes all things, believes all things. Love never fails. And remember that God is love.

56:03

Love is, it's an attribute of God, but God can be defined as love.

56:08

He is love. And put him in the text. Jesus is patient and kind.

56:21

Jesus does not envy or boast. Jesus is not arrogant or rude.

56:31

Jesus does not insist on his own way. Jesus is not irritable or resentful.

56:39

Jesus does not rejoice at wrongdoing. Jesus rejoices with the truth.

56:46

Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

56:53

Jesus never fails. You bring all that together, the entire revelation of God as God defines love.

57:04

And we know who Jesus is. And Jesus says, you are to love one another as I have loved you. You start to now get to the scriptures and flesh it all out.

57:11

What does it mean to love others in the way that Jesus has loved us? You look at his life, you look at his ministry, you look at how he loved others, and you look at passages like this in Paul defining love, and you see that is

57:23

Christ, up and down, all across his life. And you ask yourself the question, is that me?

57:36

Am I patient? Am I kind?

57:43

Am I the kind of person that envies others and what they do and their position? Am I the kind of person that boasts?

57:52

Am I arrogant and rude? Do I always insist on my own way?

57:58

Am I irritable and resentful? Are you starting to feel it?

58:05

Man, this challenges me. It cuts me deep. Okay, guys, watch this.

58:13

This is important. You can do the charade. You can come into church, you can pretend.

58:21

You can smile at people and show them your teeth. You can do the Christian thing. You can do ministry.

58:26

You can walk among God's people, and you can basically stay within the framework of what it means to be

58:31

Christian. You can have your doctrine right. You can cross the T's and dot the I's. You can recite the solas.

58:38

You can recite the catechism, the confession. You can not be engaged in blatant, outright sin.

58:44

You're not a drunkard. You're not committing adultery. You're not murdering people. You're not stealing. And you can say, I think

58:49

I've pretty much got my life looking pretty Christian. But the truth of the matter is, is you dig a little deeper, you look under the surface, and you have a person that, watch, they know the catechism, they know the confession.

59:01

They can actually explain the doctrines of grace. They can quote Scripture left and right. They can serve

59:06

God out in those streets with the gospel. And that person can be the most resentful, unkind, envying, boastful, proud person, which identifies something, hypocrisy.

59:24

What's Romans say? Paul says it so beautifully. He says, watch, he says, let love be genuine.

59:33

And some translations say, watch, they say, let love be without hypocrisy, without pretending, let it be genuine.

59:43

And you and I have a choice as we walk away from a message like this. You have a choice. You hear a message like this, you can say, oh, there are parts of that message that are really beautiful, powerful.

59:52

The word of God just spoke to me. And you can walk out that door and you can leave it right behind you, or you can actually get on your face before communion.

59:59

You can get on your face tonight. You can get with your family tonight. You can start confessing sin. You can start saying, I'm unkind, please forgive me.

01:00:09

I am so proud, please forgive me. I'm resentful,

01:00:16

I'm jealous. You know, like, that happens a lot within the

01:00:21

Christian community, right? You know that a lot of people destroy one another, hurt one another. You know what the foundation of it is? Jealousy.

01:00:29

So the lack of love happens because of jealousy, resentment, bitterness.

01:00:36

How will you respond to the message today, the word of God today, and how you love? You're just gonna go along your

01:00:43

Christian life and allow yourself to stay in a place where you can basically convince everyone around you that you've got it together as a

01:00:52

Christian? Or are you actually gonna now, as a believer, let God challenge you in this moment to show you you don't understand?

01:00:59

It was about love, genuine love, without hypocrisy. It was about love.

01:01:09

Okay, just a couple of things to point out. One, love is sacrifice. John 15, 13, greater love has no man than this, than a man laid down his life for his friends.

01:01:19

Jesus displays how he loves people in ministry who betray him. Can I ask you a question?

01:01:25

You ever thought about this, just quickly? You ever thought about the fact that Jesus knows the entire time that Judas is gonna betray him?

01:01:30

Knows it, it's predestined that God's gonna allow him to have what he wants. He's gonna betray Jesus. Do you ever think about something for a moment now?

01:01:37

Why did Judas keep hanging around Jesus? Three and a half year ministry, three and a half year ministry,

01:01:43

Jesus hangs out with Judas, Judas with Jesus, and there was nothing with Jesus that caused

01:01:51

Judas to wanna take off. Like, Jesus wasn't like, miffed by him. Jesus didn't treat him like, with abuse.

01:01:57

Jesus was actually, for some odd reason, somebody that Judas wanted to still be around, and Jesus knew the whole time that he was gonna betray him, and that's his enemy.

01:02:13

He acts as his enemy. How does love act? It acts like that, even to enemies, even to people who betray within ministry.

01:02:21

How about Peter? Peter denies he even knows Jesus three times, once because of a servant girl, with an earshot of Jesus, and what does

01:02:31

Jesus do? Does he keep Peter at arm's distance? Does he go, no, no, no, you need to earn that forgiveness,

01:02:38

Peter. No, no, we'll see, we'll see. Peter sees Jesus after the resurrection.

01:02:45

He comes diving after Jesus into the water, swimming, running to Jesus. Why is he running to Jesus? He knows what he did to betray him.

01:02:53

He knows how he denied him, and he runs at Jesus. Why? Because of the expectation, the anticipation, what he knows about Jesus is that if he runs toward him,

01:03:05

Jesus will receive him. He runs towards Jesus, and Jesus does this beautiful, you have to love it.

01:03:12

It's in John 20, 21, 21, what's Jesus do? He denies him three times, so Jesus, what?

01:03:19

He gets him back three times. He says, do you love me? He says, yeah, Lord, you know that I love you. He says, do you love me?

01:03:26

He says, Lord, you know that I love you. He says, do you love me? He says, Lord, you know everything. You already know everything.

01:03:33

You know that I love you. Feed my sheep. He reckons, Peter runs at him, because he knows he can, and he reconciles him.

01:03:41

Jesus isn't like, maybe. We'll see. We'll work on this. We'll get along our way.

01:03:48

Jesus receives him. Do you love me? Yeah, feed my sheep. Do you love me? Feed my sheep.

01:03:54

Do you love me? He reconciles him. Are you that way with people who betray you, or do you make them earn it?

01:04:01

Do you have a higher standard for forgiveness than Jesus does? Do you? Do you say, yeah,

01:04:07

I'll forgive you, but I will see how well you do?

01:04:18

Because if so, if our forgiveness is like that, if it's an earned kind of forgiveness, if it's a conditional kind of forgiveness, then that's the kind of forgiveness that is so haughty as to say that I have a higher standard of mercy and forgiveness than the

01:04:34

God of the universe. Jesus went after the thief on the cross.

01:04:40

Jesus went after the undesirables. Here's the last thing I'll say here, in terms of so what.

01:04:46

Can I ask you just to think by these last points for a moment now? In the body, how we live with each other as Christians in the church.

01:04:56

You need to challenge yourself and ask God to help you, to challenge you on loving the unlovable.

01:05:06

Because let me tell you right now, and maybe this will help you. Maybe some of you guys are new believers. Let me give you something that I wish someone would have told me when

01:05:12

I first became a Christian. Let me tell you something, ready? The honeymoon at some point is gonna be over.

01:05:20

Okay? You become a Christian. You get into the body of Christ, right? And let me just say, it's spectacular, and that spectacularness never goes away.

01:05:29

God is truly here. I have a love for Christians that is supernatural. It is, honestly, it's, can

01:05:36

I use the word? I know I don't really mean it, but magical, in a sense, the love that Christians have for one another.

01:05:41

When I went to New Zealand and I met Christians there who loved Jesus for the first time, it was like we've known each other our entire lives.

01:05:48

There was some kind of mystical, supernatural love and affection. It's like I only have known you for five minutes, and it feels like I've known you for eternity, and I love you with a passion and a love that I can't explain.

01:06:03

Yes, there is something unbelievably supernatural about the love Christians have for one another, but can

01:06:08

I tell you something? Again, that I wish someone had told me, at some point, the honeymoon's gonna be over. And all of a sudden, you're gonna look to your left and your right, and you're gonna say, yeah,

01:06:17

I love you, but you're kind of making me sick. Yeah, I love you, but there are things about you that tick me off and keep me up at night.

01:06:30

Yeah, I love you, but honestly, at 2 a .m. last night, I hated you for about 30 minutes.

01:06:38

Because I thought about that thing that you did or you said. I thought about that post you made on Facebook that was really about me.

01:06:46

Right? You have to understand something as Christians, that you are in a community of sinners that are saved by the same

01:06:53

Savior, and what do you think will happen when a bunch of sinners get together in a community?

01:06:59

They're gonna sin. And let me just tell you ahead of time, if you anticipate that people are gonna fail you and sin against you, just like they did against Jesus, if you anticipate it, if you prepare yourself for it, and you commit to love them anyways in the way that Jesus loves you, you're gonna glorify

01:07:18

God, you're gonna be sanctified, and so are they. You have to be willing to love the unlovable.

01:07:24

And I wanna tell you this, let me tell you ahead of time, and again, I wish people would've told me this, people in the body of Christ will hurt you.

01:07:34

They will hurt you. Christians are gonna hurt you. If you're in the body of Christ for an extended period of time, you're gonna be wounded by somebody.

01:07:45

Let me tell you, I understand that pain. Some of the deepest wounds I've ever experienced in my entire life, and this is the truth before God, have not been from unbelievers, they have not been from family, and I've gotten some pretty rough treatment from both.

01:08:01

They have been from people who are named in the name of Christ. And let me tell you right now, those are wounds that take a long time to heal.

01:08:09

And you can approach it one of two ways. You can actually say, I've been wounded by this Christian in a

01:08:15

Christian community, and so I'm gonna leave. I'm gonna go find another church where there's no sinners.

01:08:22

Right? What? What? So you can do that. You can say, I'm gonna go to a church where there are no sinners.

01:08:28

Well, lots of luck with that. If you find one, don't go to it because you'll screw it up. Right? You can say,

01:08:35

I'm just gonna leave. Or you can do what Jesus does, and that's when in ministry, he was betrayed.

01:08:42

When people hurt him, he didn't abandon them. He didn't get angry with God.

01:08:52

He's God in the flesh. He doesn't actually get mad at the Father, turn away from the Father, and call

01:08:57

God the Father unfaithful because a Christian hurt him. He actually does what?

01:09:03

He continues to pursue the church, even though they're the very ones who hurt him. He continues to sacrifice himself for their good, even though they're the guilty ones.

01:09:14

Christians will hurt you. Christians will betray you. Christians will gossip about you.

01:09:22

Christians will lie about you. Christians will disappoint you. You might be thinking, well, thank you,

01:09:30

Jeff, for that wonderfully encouraging message. We'll see you next week. Now, why do

01:09:37

I bring it up? Why do I say it in the way that I did? Here's why. Because I wanna take very seriously what

01:09:42

Jesus says when you're to love one another as he has loved us. Anticipate that the person next to you is still being sanctified just like you.

01:09:53

And watch, here's how you actually handle that sin in the body. How do you love each other? First and foremost, the only way you could possibly not abandon all of this when you're hurt by a

01:10:03

Christian is to focus upon your vertical relationship with God. How is God to this sinner?

01:10:10

How is God to this rebel? How is he to me? What hypocrisy to stand before God one day, leaving the body of Christ in some way, hating other

01:10:21

Christians, to stand before God one day, righteous and blameless, of course, forgiven in Jesus, to stand before him and say, well,

01:10:29

God, I couldn't forgive them because they gossiped, because they were just unlovable, because they were just so mean and unkind to me.

01:10:40

You're talking to the one who gets that from you every single day of your life.

01:10:48

What kind of hypocrisy is that? To pretend like I have a higher standard than God, that my standards for mercy and forgiveness are higher than his.

01:10:57

How do you handle this in the body of Christ? You need to love them as an act of worship to Christ.

01:11:05

Somebody betrays you, somebody sins against you, here's the question you need to ask.

01:11:11

Is this something that love can just cover? Is something that love can just cover? Do I need to do what

01:11:16

Jesus says in Matthew 18 and go to confront them? Okay, maybe not really. Is this something I could just cover?

01:11:22

Because remember, what does Jesus say in Matthew 25? When he gives us this glimpse into the future where God's gonna vindicate all of his people on the last day by talking about their good works that they had done, and what does he say?

01:11:33

He says, you visited me in prison, you gave me a drink of water, you did this, you did this, and they're gonna say, when,

01:11:40

Lord? When did we visit you in prison? When did we do this? When did we do this? What does Jesus say? As much as you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me.

01:11:53

Remember that when you love another Christian who sins against you, when you love somebody in the body of Christ who's hurt you, as an act of worship to God, it's as though you're doing it to Christ himself.

01:12:08

How do I love the person that gossips about me? How do I love the person that backbites? How do I love the person that betrays me?

01:12:15

I remember that my act of love in this moment and genuinely loving them with a godly, genuine, genuine affection is an act of worship to Jesus.

01:12:24

And he knows that my loving them in this moment is out of a desire to please him, honor him, and to worship him.

01:12:34

Remember that all that you do is an act of worship to God. Number one, sorry, number three, recognize that God's sanctifying the church.

01:12:44

This is the last point. All of us recognize something, hopefully, and that is that God is sanctifying me as an individual.

01:12:56

Do you believe that? Do you believe that? That Jesus saved you, he's washed you of your sins, he's covered you in his righteousness, and God indwells you?

01:13:05

Do you believe that God is showing you your sins constantly and he's shaping you? Don't you believe that he's never gonna be done on this side of heaven?

01:13:13

He that began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ, amen? So we all say, he's sanctifying me and I'm a mess,

01:13:21

I'm a hot mess, right? He's sanctifying me. But watch, he's also, according to the scriptures, sanctifying the church.

01:13:32

And where is the spirit of God acting and moving? Within the bride of Christ.

01:13:38

And what is Jesus doing? He's presenting us, right, as this unstained bride with no blemish.

01:13:47

So what's it mean? Watch, ready? When God puts me, as a person being sanctified, into a body with other sinners who are being sanctified, you better believe that God is allowing these moments of collision.

01:14:00

He's allowing these opportunities for love to win, to happen, because he's not just sanctifying you, he's sanctifying them and them and them and us together.

01:14:14

Every sin that occurs in the body of Christ is an opportunity to glorify God and to love one another.

01:14:22

Every sin that takes place in the body of Christ is not by accident, but by divine permission.

01:14:29

And every sin that takes place in the body of Christ is an opportunity to let the glory of God reside on a church in that the love of Christ is the most prevalent thing in the body at that time.

01:14:49

How do you love one another? How do you love? Do you love in the way that Jesus does?

01:14:58

What can we repent of? We can repent of our pride.

01:15:08

We can repent of our bitterness. We can repent of our jealousy. We can repent of our anger.

01:15:16

We can repent of our hostilities. As I was preparing this message,

01:15:25

I thought a lot about myself. I thought a lot about how

01:15:30

I love my wife and my kids. I thought a lot about how I love the church. And I was challenged.

01:15:37

And I've done a lot of repenting in response to preparing this message.

01:15:43

How are you gonna respond to the message? What do you need to repent of? Let me ask you this.

01:15:51

How do you love your wife? How do you love your kids?

01:15:59

How do you love your husband? How do you love the sister in Christ next to you?

01:16:06

How do you love your brother in Christ next to you? How do you love your pastors? How? Okay, now think about it.

01:16:16

What do you need to repent of? What do you need to confess to God right now?

01:16:23

What do you need to bring to Him? What do you need to say to the person next to you right now?

01:16:31

That's a worshipful response, how you respond. And the joy of it all, this is the beautiful thing, is that if you're in Christ, there is no condemnation, there is no judgment.

01:16:45

Jesus already received all the punishment for your lack of love, for your sins against love.

01:16:55

The joy is no sins counted against me, I'm only counted righteous in Jesus.

01:17:01

And if that doesn't motivate you to love others, I don't know what will. I don't know what will. Let's pray.

01:17:07

Father, I pray that you'd bless the message that went out today, that you'd use it for your glory, that you'd challenge this body,

01:17:15

God, to love in the way that you love us. Please, God, show me, show us,

01:17:23

God, the way that we don't love like you. Help this church, God, to love you and love others in the way that you call us to.

01:17:33

God, please, right now, in this moment, if there's people in this room that do not truly know you,

01:17:40

I pray that they would turn to Christ, the one who died and rose again for sinners to be reconciled to God.

01:17:48

And I pray for the Christians in this room right now who do know you, that have walked with you for years, even, that have sinned in not having genuine affection, genuine love,

01:18:03

I pray that you'd convict us now, challenge us, cause us, God, by your Spirit, to love in the way that you do.