WEBVTT 00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:05.660 If you got a Bible this morning, I want to invite you to turn to John chapter 13, where we're going to start a new series together called One Another. 00:00:05.800 --> 00:00:07.360 As you get there, I'm going to take a drink. 00:00:09.880 --> 00:00:10.680 John 13. 00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:12.460 Chapter 13. 00:00:12.500 --> 00:00:12.960 John. 00:00:12.980 --> 00:00:17.060 Chapter 13, verses 33 to 35 is where we're going to start this morning. 00:00:17.060 --> 00:00:24.800 As you turn to the to that section of Scripture, let me set up a background for us as to why we're going through what we're going through in 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:25.750 these days ahead. 00:00:27.200 --> 00:00:31.840 there's something I believe about us as human beings. 00:00:31.880 --> 00:00:33.860 Sorry. 00:00:33.880 --> 00:00:34.040 Jared. 00:00:34.220 --> 00:00:35.000 I'm sorry. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:40.700 As human beings, that God wants to do something incredible through us. 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:45.600 And God desires to work and move through us. 00:00:45.660 --> 00:00:53.140 I believe that God wants us to grow in our walk with him, and God wants us to be able to reach one another as God 00:00:53.140 --> 00:00:56.100 transforms us from the inside out. 00:00:57.040 --> 00:01:03.330 And the way that God chooses to move and work among us is that he sees the value of us as individuals. 00:01:04.860 --> 00:01:09.930 But God created us as individuals so that we could be a blessing to one another in community. 00:01:11.220 --> 00:01:14.460 God works in the community of his people. 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:22.780 In fact, Ephesians four and one verse one says this as a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live in a life worthy of the calling you have 00:01:22.780 --> 00:01:23.910 you have received. 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:26.600 Be completely humble and gentle. 00:01:26.600 --> 00:01:33.400 Be patient, bearing with one another, and love making every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. 00:01:34.620 --> 00:01:42.020 Knowing that God desires to do something in us and through us, Paul then lists for us just a series of attitudes that we are to carry, 00:01:42.080 --> 00:01:49.640 and all of the attitudes described are relational encounters with another individual, humble, gentle, 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:56.560 patient, bearing with one another that the spirit of unity in Christ could work among us. 00:01:58.140 --> 00:02:04.220 When God calls you into the world, he also calls you into a community to reach the world. 00:02:04.540 --> 00:02:05.260 For Christ. 00:02:05.260 --> 00:02:07.380 There is power in numbers. 00:02:09.020 --> 00:02:16.420 God uses a phrase within Scripture to describe this for us as believers, he commonly uses this word 00:02:16.420 --> 00:02:17.920 one another. 00:02:17.920 --> 00:02:24.980 And if you follow the line of one another throughout scripture, you find it's used hundreds of time and description of those who are pursuing God. 00:02:25.020 --> 00:02:32.140 In the New Testament, there's phrases like serve one another, encourage one another, edify one another, confess to one another, devote to 00:02:32.140 --> 00:02:33.700 one another, honor one another. 00:02:33.700 --> 00:02:35.200 Be kind to one another. 00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:37.180 Forgive one another, submit to one another. 00:02:37.240 --> 00:02:39.760 Offer hospitality towards one another. 00:02:39.760 --> 00:02:43.800 Have humility and fellowship with one another. 00:02:45.720 --> 00:02:53.080 As you study those phrases, maybe the thought would come to mind that our desire to grow in our walk with God is seen by the way we 00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:55.620 choose to treat one another. 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:02.620 Knowing that God wants to do something glorious in you and through you. 00:03:02.620 --> 00:03:07.100 I can't help but think in studying Scripture the way that God desires to do that is in community. 00:03:09.500 --> 00:03:14.580 God created us for him being lived out in relationship towards one another. 00:03:15.980 --> 00:03:22.200 And so for the next five weeks, we're going to study the bigger phrases of the one anothers that are presented in Scripture. 00:03:22.260 --> 00:03:29.360 Five of the most heavily emphasized one another statements that you see within God's work as God desires to move 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:34.280 us and shape us in a community that's powerfully working for him. 00:03:35.960 --> 00:03:38.360 And the first happens in John chapter 13. 00:03:40.140 --> 00:03:44.570 In verse 33, Jesus is in the middle of a gathering with his disciples. 00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:48.640 The 12 disciples are with him in the upper room. 00:03:48.660 --> 00:03:55.560 And Jesus is spending with him the last six hours of his life just pouring out to them in the final moments. 00:03:55.600 --> 00:03:56.370 Tara, I don't have control. 00:03:56.560 --> 00:03:58.380 Can you click that to me for the next slide? 00:04:00.020 --> 00:04:07.280 In John chapter 13, Jesus is gathering with the disciples and the most intimate of settings, with the most intimate group of people that he's done ministry 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:09.540 with, living life in community. 00:04:09.660 --> 00:04:17.339 For the three and a half years that he conducted ministry on this earth, seeing what God could do in and through these individuals, these disciples, 00:04:17.339 --> 00:04:18.600 these followers of Christ. 00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:25.600 And Jesus emphasizes in these last six hours of his life some of the most important lessons that they could learn as a body of 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:26.160 believers. 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:34.580 And starting in verse 13, Jesus begins to describe his departure from the disciples and the strength that they're going to be able to find in one 00:04:34.580 --> 00:04:40.040 another, to not only sustain through this trial, but to carry on what God has called them to in this world. 00:04:40.060 --> 00:04:44.280 And it says in verse 33, my children, I will be with you only a little longer. 00:04:45.460 --> 00:04:46.300 You will look for me. 00:04:47.280 --> 00:04:52.160 And just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now where I am going, you cannot come. 00:04:53.100 --> 00:04:58.880 And verse 34, he then says, this says as way of encouragement, A new commandment I give to you. 00:04:59.020 --> 00:05:03.080 Love one another, as I have loved you, so that you must love one another. 00:05:03.180 --> 00:05:09.540 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. 00:05:11.500 --> 00:05:13.800 The final moments of Jesus life. 00:05:15.500 --> 00:05:22.840 Jesus is reminding his disciples that God's work will continue to be seen through our love for one another 00:05:24.520 --> 00:05:26.960 in a secular mentality. 00:05:26.960 --> 00:05:33.980 Maybe in America today, we could say it like this that God is advertising and branding his gospel through our love 00:05:34.420 --> 00:05:35.200 for each other. 00:05:37.240 --> 00:05:44.280 Even today in society, we can relate to the thought of advertising and branding as it correlates to products on sale. 00:05:44.280 --> 00:05:48.760 You see an image or a slogan slogan and you distinguish it to a product here. 00:05:48.760 --> 00:05:50.140 Here's your test for this morning. 00:05:50.500 --> 00:05:51.260 Just do it. 00:05:51.260 --> 00:05:51.580 Is who? 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:54.240 Nike, right? 00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:55.640 Don't leave home without it. 00:05:56.960 --> 00:05:58.460 American Express. 00:05:58.740 --> 00:06:00.330 Melts in your mouth and not in your hand. 00:06:01.570 --> 00:06:02.700 Eminem's you guys are good. 00:06:02.820 --> 00:06:06.390 Every kiss begins with, that's what's wrong with your spouse. 00:06:06.440 --> 00:06:07.320 You guys failed that one. 00:06:07.340 --> 00:06:11.420 But you are in good hands with you. 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:12.300 Don't go home. 00:06:12.320 --> 00:06:13.280 Tell your wife about K. 00:06:13.280 --> 00:06:13.800 That is not good. 00:06:14.080 --> 00:06:14.680 That's not good, right? 00:06:14.680 --> 00:06:16.080 Unless you got some jewelry in your hands. 00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:16.320 That's. 00:06:16.740 --> 00:06:18.040 That's what Jesus wants, right? 00:06:18.380 --> 00:06:19.240 Jewelry. 00:06:20.870 --> 00:06:26.440 When you see your love being displayed as products are branded in this world. 00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:34.530 When love of a believer is being displayed, it should be to such an extent that someone can look at that and recognize that. 00:06:35.620 --> 00:06:36.260 That's of God. 00:06:38.460 --> 00:06:39.300 And it's beautiful. 00:06:39.520 --> 00:06:39.660 We are. 00:06:39.760 --> 00:06:40.660 We are to live. 00:06:40.660 --> 00:06:47.740 As Jesus is saying in this passage, we are to live in such a way in our lives that when someone meets you, they meet 00:06:47.740 --> 00:06:48.060 Jesus. 00:06:50.360 --> 00:06:55.860 And the idea of love correlates with the message of the gospel, which is full of grace. 00:06:57.240 --> 00:07:04.320 You know, the part that makes us uneasy about advertising and branding in this world is the skepticism that goes along with it. 00:07:04.960 --> 00:07:12.020 We ever you ever partook of a product that was displayed to you that when you got it, you realized it wasn't worth all the beans that they were 00:07:12.020 --> 00:07:13.690 boasting about in the advertisement. 00:07:15.100 --> 00:07:16.160 I can think of a few in my life. 00:07:16.200 --> 00:07:23.760 Are you ever going to that restaurant that you've seen advertised and you step in and you think, if I take a bite of this food, I'm going to die of poisoning? 00:07:25.380 --> 00:07:31.390 There is skepticism that comes with advertising when it comes to the life of Jesus. 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:38.900 There is never going to be any amount of love that we could ever extend that will ever overhype the message of the gospel in 00:07:38.900 --> 00:07:41.000 which Christ presents to us. 00:07:43.020 --> 00:07:50.080 Having lived your life on this earth, knowing what God has commanded us to, and there's not one of us that's going to get to the end of this and said, you know 00:07:50.080 --> 00:07:51.030 what I just loved? 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:52.560 I loved too much. 00:07:54.700 --> 00:07:58.520 Because there's no extent of love that can completely display. 00:07:59.580 --> 00:08:01.460 And reveal the beauty of God's grace. 00:08:03.460 --> 00:08:10.460 Our love is to be displayed in such a way as it relates to Christ, that it creates a hunger for what we have in our relationship 00:08:10.460 --> 00:08:11.440 with Jesus. 00:08:13.540 --> 00:08:16.260 And I love the way that God describes it in this passage of Scripture. 00:08:18.320 --> 00:08:20.420 As he's ending the last of his life. 00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:28.040 And you think of all the one another statements that I've listed that we have humility and honor and devotion and forgiveness towards one another. 00:08:28.460 --> 00:08:31.980 All of those things are umbrella under this idea of love. 00:08:34.220 --> 00:08:41.419 Jesus simplifies the Christian life through a relational connection word which is all about 00:08:41.419 --> 00:08:45.480 love as it correlates to the gospel found in Christ. 00:08:47.400 --> 00:08:49.540 Following. 00:08:49.660 --> 00:08:52.300 Love is a simple message for us as believers. 00:08:54.940 --> 00:08:59.820 But it's love and grace that gives us the opportunity to see a heart transformed. 00:09:02.060 --> 00:09:07.720 The Bible says this, that we love him because he first loves us. 00:09:09.100 --> 00:09:15.360 It's the power of his love in the midst of our sin that gave us the opportunity to come to Jesus in his grace. 00:09:15.440 --> 00:09:19.840 That we may know him and his heart may transform our own. 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:28.800 The simplicity of this message of love is to say to us as a church family to measure your 00:09:28.800 --> 00:09:33.620 success is really only done in one way as a body of believers. 00:09:34.840 --> 00:09:40.500 We don't measure success on a on a Sunday morning by the attendance in the chairs. 00:09:40.520 --> 00:09:43.800 We don't measure success by the amount of baptisms we have. 00:09:43.800 --> 00:09:46.700 We don't measure success by the size of the offering. 00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:50.180 We don't measure success by the number of ministries that take place. 00:09:50.180 --> 00:09:55.000 We measure success by the way we reach the hearts of others. 00:09:55.060 --> 00:09:58.080 This idea of love that God has given to us. 00:10:00.460 --> 00:10:03.540 When we say it as a reminder to all of us. 00:10:03.780 --> 00:10:09.680 We walk out of here on Sunday morning when we have drawn closer to God. 00:10:09.740 --> 00:10:11.020 It's a success for us. 00:10:11.020 --> 00:10:18.220 I should, I should say, when we walk out on Sunday morning, when we have drawn closer to God and we encourage each other closer to 00:10:18.220 --> 00:10:19.900 him and closer to his family. 00:10:22.340 --> 00:10:23.880 Success. 00:10:25.620 --> 00:10:30.260 For us is the way that we display God's love to each other. 00:10:31.980 --> 00:10:32.640 Or to one another. 00:10:34.820 --> 00:10:41.900 The way that we know God continues his work among us and will continue his work in us and 00:10:41.980 --> 00:10:45.840 through us, is by our desire to love the way that Jesus describes. 00:10:48.300 --> 00:10:55.810 And he says in this passage that it is a command for his body of believers to those that belong to Jesus. 00:10:56.100 --> 00:10:57.840 This isn't just a thought for your life. 00:10:58.220 --> 00:11:00.380 This is what Jesus wants. 00:11:01.380 --> 00:11:08.560 And so Jesus says to us, it's not just a statement I'm making, guys, but in these last moments in this upper room, the last six 00:11:08.560 --> 00:11:11.640 hours, I'm just going to give you one command in all of this. 00:11:11.680 --> 00:11:18.480 And that is this, that you love others as I have loved you, so you all love one another. 00:11:20.820 --> 00:11:26.920 The thought of this command says to us something very distinct about the idea of love. 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:34.020 And I should say, in our society today, the word love has taken a pounding in the identity of what God desires for us 00:11:34.020 --> 00:11:35.720 to express in it and through it. 00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:39.000 Love is a command. 00:11:40.860 --> 00:11:45.200 Because before love is an emotion, love is a decision of your will. 00:11:46.560 --> 00:11:47.600 And that's why it can be commanded. 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:52.500 Love is a choice that we make every day. 00:11:53.260 --> 00:11:54.600 Despite the way that you feel. 00:11:57.380 --> 00:12:04.780 Love is described for us in the book of First Corinthians 13 three to verse three to verse eight, and it offers nothing 00:12:04.780 --> 00:12:06.810 as by way of thinking of the individual. 00:12:06.860 --> 00:12:09.720 But love is all about giving itself away. 00:12:10.500 --> 00:12:15.100 And when Jesus comes to this passage, he says it's a commandment, but not not just any commandment. 00:12:15.100 --> 00:12:17.250 He says to us, it's a new commandment. 00:12:18.880 --> 00:12:24.730 And when Jesus describes it as a new commandment in this passage of Scripture, he's not saying to us, this is some fresh idea. 00:12:24.760 --> 00:12:26.960 People have been loving each other for a long period of time. 00:12:28.220 --> 00:12:35.240 As a matter of fact, when Jesus quotes in Mark chapter 12 the greatest commandments in the Bible, he's quoting the Old Testament love the Lord your 00:12:35.240 --> 00:12:36.590 God and love your neighbor. 00:12:37.480 --> 00:12:42.220 Love isn't a new command, but what Jesus is saying here by new is that it's fresh. 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:47.560 The idea of this love hasn't been demonstrated to its full accord. 00:12:47.580 --> 00:12:54.740 And so when Jesus says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, look at the description he gives as I have loved 00:12:54.740 --> 00:12:57.340 you, so you must love one another. 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:02.540 And the disciples are about to realize the full magnitude of this love. 00:13:04.500 --> 00:13:08.300 As Jesus lays down his life for the well-being of another. 00:13:10.760 --> 00:13:17.760 It's new in the sense that the extent for which God's love had been demonstrated to these disciples had never been experienced 00:13:17.760 --> 00:13:20.580 that close and connection to God. 00:13:20.700 --> 00:13:24.480 God had never been flesh, and God had never given his life. 00:13:25.760 --> 00:13:28.240 And now it's the example for all of us as believers. 00:13:30.520 --> 00:13:37.680 This idea of a new commandment is one that says to us as such that it's something that we demonstrate every day that when 00:13:37.680 --> 00:13:42.100 you love in an individual, it's not enough just to love them once. 00:13:42.120 --> 00:13:45.080 But God's love is new for you every morning. 00:13:45.080 --> 00:13:52.080 And so our love in this God who has given his life for us as newness every morning should our love should be continued to be demonstrated 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:56.460 as a as a new and fresh love in relationship to one another every day. 00:13:56.680 --> 00:13:58.980 Just because you love once isn't enough. 00:13:58.980 --> 00:14:04.980 God has created you to relationally love one another sacrificially every day. 00:14:07.180 --> 00:14:13.080 So it's important for us to ask the question and understanding what is love? 00:14:15.860 --> 00:14:20.540 I just want to say, as we think about love, one of the things that love is not for us. 00:14:20.560 --> 00:14:22.330 Love is a love is not a phrase. 00:14:22.420 --> 00:14:24.480 Can't we all just get along? 00:14:26.220 --> 00:14:30.340 Love is important because of the reason we can't all just get along. 00:14:31.320 --> 00:14:33.690 We're not all always going to get along. 00:14:34.540 --> 00:14:36.080 It's called being human. 00:14:37.180 --> 00:14:44.340 But the thought of love is to say this, that I care so much, and I have such a concern about you in your life, that knowing that 00:14:44.340 --> 00:14:46.980 there are going to be points that we don't get along. 00:14:47.240 --> 00:14:48.840 I still choose to love. 00:14:48.840 --> 00:14:51.820 Because love is a decision of my will. 00:14:51.820 --> 00:14:55.160 It's the command through which Christ has called me into this world. 00:14:55.160 --> 00:15:00.420 And it is new for you every day, just as it's new for me in Jesus. 00:15:03.680 --> 00:15:06.660 Love isn't about getting along. 00:15:08.500 --> 00:15:10.420 But love is what's needed. 00:15:10.460 --> 00:15:11.730 That we may walk in peace. 00:15:13.940 --> 00:15:20.360 The Bible says in the book of Romans that we are to seek peace with all men, especially to the household of faith. 00:15:21.880 --> 00:15:23.880 The Bible tells us to love one another. 00:15:23.880 --> 00:15:29.540 Do you know the reason Scripture says this to us is because we as people need reminded of it. 00:15:29.820 --> 00:15:30.960 We're not always good at this. 00:15:32.400 --> 00:15:39.000 It's something that we need to acknowledge readily with in our minds and understanding what God has called us to in the simplicity of this command. 00:15:39.040 --> 00:15:44.680 But I want to be clear in saying that just because you love doesn't mean you have to like. 00:15:45.740 --> 00:15:50.740 And what I mean is this you can love someone, but you don't have to agree with them. 00:15:53.260 --> 00:15:56.380 Matter of fact, that's what Jesus has loved, demonstrates, doesn't it? 00:15:58.100 --> 00:16:02.880 There are plenty of things in my life that I have done that Jesus does not agree with. 00:16:03.540 --> 00:16:05.800 Five minutes after church, I'll do another one right. 00:16:08.540 --> 00:16:08.640 But love. 00:16:11.540 --> 00:16:13.540 Love by the grace of God through his gospel. 00:16:15.380 --> 00:16:21.600 And the love that's been demonstrated in Jesus's life for me, regardless of who I am and what I've done. 00:16:23.320 --> 00:16:28.660 Let me see the beauty of who he is and the opportunity I have to embrace him. 00:16:30.260 --> 00:16:37.890 Which is why God calls us into this world, to live in such a way that when people meet you, they have the opportunity to meet Jesus. 00:16:39.940 --> 00:16:46.860 It's as if to say to you, as a body of believers this morning, knowing that God commands us to love because we are people that don't always get along. 00:16:46.860 --> 00:16:49.620 But love is what unites us as one with one another. 00:16:49.620 --> 00:16:52.660 And God desires to move in us and through us as we're one. 00:16:52.660 --> 00:16:55.400 The power of the church is seen as we're one. 00:16:55.400 --> 00:16:55.660 Maybe. 00:16:56.160 --> 00:17:03.000 Maybe it's suggesting to you that God has given you irregular people in your life to teach you how to love. 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:07.560 I mean, anyone can love the lovable. 00:17:09.520 --> 00:17:16.700 But it's those who take a stand for Christ to love, those in need, those that are difficult to love, that the beauty of love is 00:17:16.700 --> 00:17:17.609 truly demonstrated. 00:17:19.300 --> 00:17:26.319 And you think in the moments of Jesus's life in John chapter 13, going into the upper room, he's about to wash the feet of the very one who is 00:17:26.319 --> 00:17:28.490 going to betray him, to be crucified. 00:17:29.180 --> 00:17:35.580 And he's about to wash the feet of the disciples who are going to flee with him, and from him in his greatest hour of need. 00:17:35.600 --> 00:17:37.940 And yet he still chooses to love. 00:17:40.280 --> 00:17:41.420 And when God calls you to love. 00:17:43.660 --> 00:17:46.040 The very people that God desires to reach. 00:17:47.540 --> 00:17:49.600 Are the ones whose hearts are hardened to his truth. 00:17:52.940 --> 00:17:53.780 Loving someone. 00:17:55.920 --> 00:17:58.140 Doesn't say that we have to agree with each other. 00:17:59.840 --> 00:18:02.760 In fact, what it says is because I love you so much. 00:18:04.420 --> 00:18:06.860 And knowing that you may stand in opposition of Jesus. 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:11.920 I love you enough to talk to you about the truth of Christ. 00:18:15.380 --> 00:18:18.320 We don't have to live in agreement. 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:22.220 What God's called us to do is love. 00:18:23.800 --> 00:18:28.780 In first John chapter three and verse 16, he gives a description of what this love is. 00:18:28.940 --> 00:18:31.700 He says this is how we know what love is. 00:18:32.780 --> 00:18:40.120 If you want an example, he says, Jesus Christ lay down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers 00:18:40.120 --> 00:18:41.480 and sisters. 00:18:43.340 --> 00:18:50.360 The greatest extent of love is the total giving of yourself away for one another, or for 00:18:50.360 --> 00:18:52.340 the well-being of another. 00:18:54.640 --> 00:19:01.800 When I consider what Jesus says within this passage of Scripture and the honesty of being a believer, I would say to you this morning, I know this. 00:19:03.800 --> 00:19:05.100 I know this command. 00:19:05.420 --> 00:19:07.960 And that's not where the disconnect is in my life. 00:19:08.220 --> 00:19:13.400 The connection in my life that I need is the strength to live that way. 00:19:15.660 --> 00:19:15.920 Huh? 00:19:16.060 --> 00:19:18.540 How do I carry out this type of love? 00:19:18.760 --> 00:19:25.920 Where when I come to people, the most important thing that I think in my life is that when they walk away from an encounter with me, that they 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:28.000 could see the joy of Jesus. 00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:28.260 How? 00:19:28.460 --> 00:19:29.300 How do I do that? 00:19:31.160 --> 00:19:36.680 Well, the wonderful part is that John is referred to in the Gospel of John as the beloved of the Lord. 00:19:36.680 --> 00:19:43.260 And not only does he write about the love of God in John chapter 13, he also writes about living out this love in first John. 00:19:44.540 --> 00:19:51.680 He says in chapter two and verse nine, he says, anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still 00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:52.340 in the darkness. 00:19:54.040 --> 00:19:59.560 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 00:20:00.760 --> 00:20:05.500 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in darkness. 00:20:05.560 --> 00:20:07.240 They do not know where they are going. 00:20:07.940 --> 00:20:10.600 The reason I come to church on Sunday. 00:20:13.660 --> 00:20:15.200 The reason I gather to worship. 00:20:15.260 --> 00:20:19.500 I don't attend church on Sunday just to just to be in church. 00:20:21.540 --> 00:20:23.200 Attend church on Sunday. 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:26.240 Because my desire is to connect to Jesus. 00:20:27.960 --> 00:20:30.900 More than anything, I want to be next to Jesus. 00:20:32.120 --> 00:20:33.210 I want to worship Jesus. 00:20:33.500 --> 00:20:34.310 I want to know Jesus. 00:20:34.680 --> 00:20:38.360 I know how important that connection to Jesus just is. 00:20:39.500 --> 00:20:46.740 Out of all the things in this world that we might find worthy, I just need to intellectually, emotionally, with all of my heart, 00:20:46.740 --> 00:20:48.660 remind myself the importance of Jesus. 00:20:48.700 --> 00:20:49.860 And this is what this passage says. 00:20:51.160 --> 00:20:52.440 If that's important to you. 00:20:53.520 --> 00:20:55.420 Then the way that you treat one another. 00:20:57.120 --> 00:21:03.820 The way that you acknowledge one another declares the importance of your understanding that you have in Jesus. 00:21:05.540 --> 00:21:09.920 If I'm serious about my worship with God, then I'm going to be serious in my gathering together with God. 00:21:09.960 --> 00:21:13.640 And so it says, it says this for us in this passage. 00:21:13.640 --> 00:21:17.600 We have to be willing to let go of the hate, to let God work through your heart. 00:21:18.700 --> 00:21:25.440 In fact, God is saying, if you have heart or hate in your heart against someone, your relationship with God doesn't grow. 00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:32.380 Your vertical relationship with God is affected by your horizontal relationship with others. 00:21:32.420 --> 00:21:39.420 And so if you know that you need to deepen in your love with your walk with God, and you need the strength to grow 00:21:39.420 --> 00:21:43.880 in that love with your walk with God, that you may love the way that God has called you into this world. 00:21:44.080 --> 00:21:45.400 Well, it says to you, do you? 00:21:45.460 --> 00:21:47.380 Do you hold hate in your heart? 00:21:48.820 --> 00:21:55.840 Because if there's hate in your heart, you are blocking off this wonderful God who desires to lavish his goodness within your life, that he may 00:21:55.840 --> 00:22:02.980 grow you exponentially, continuing in your relationship with him so that you may then continue in loving in your relationship towards one 00:22:02.980 --> 00:22:08.700 another if you want to grow. 00:22:09.020 --> 00:22:11.460 Invest in the growth of another. 00:22:13.400 --> 00:22:20.440 The way you demonstrate your connection to God is seen in the way you relate to one 00:22:20.440 --> 00:22:20.740 another. 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:23.860 Has nothing to do with groins. 00:22:27.500 --> 00:22:27.940 If you want to grow. 00:22:29.500 --> 00:22:30.140 Let go of hate. 00:22:32.840 --> 00:22:35.160 Be willing to lay that down before the Lord. 00:22:37.560 --> 00:22:42.500 To understand that what God desires to do is to speak to your heart when you're harboring that hate. 00:22:44.020 --> 00:22:51.100 The disconnecting yourself from the one who desires to grow you in this love verse John 316, 00:22:51.100 --> 00:22:51.680 it says this. 00:22:51.780 --> 00:22:53.640 This is how we know what love is. 00:22:55.040 --> 00:23:00.950 Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 00:23:02.780 --> 00:23:09.780 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need, but does not have pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 00:23:10.900 --> 00:23:15.980 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth. 00:23:17.100 --> 00:23:23.170 This is how we can know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence. 00:23:25.600 --> 00:23:32.740 This passage just emphasizes the need of letting yourself get out of the way and to let God work on you. 00:23:32.800 --> 00:23:39.300 Not only do you just let go of the hate towards one another, but you see the needs of the world as Jesus sees and needs in the world. 00:23:40.600 --> 00:23:45.060 And as God calls you into this world to reach others for him, so God grows within your heart. 00:23:45.080 --> 00:23:53.100 This continued desire to love, because your connection and your relationship with God remains open. 00:23:53.100 --> 00:23:57.980 Connecting to others allows me to rest in the presence of the one who empowers me. 00:23:59.900 --> 00:24:01.120 I love the way that he ends. 00:24:01.220 --> 00:24:08.480 In verse 19 he says, this is how we can know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:09.460 his presence. 00:24:13.320 --> 00:24:16.960 For us the way that God has designed us to love in this world. 00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:22.660 For me, when I when I first became a believer, I realized what Jesus said was to love. 00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:25.240 Love him sacrificially above everyone else. 00:24:25.300 --> 00:24:27.900 And there was a as a young believer realizing one day I was going to get married. 00:24:27.940 --> 00:24:34.160 And that felt weird to me because I felt like I was supposed to love my wife, the future wife, the most, and I'm supposed to love Jesus the most. 00:24:34.160 --> 00:24:35.070 And how am I going to do that? 00:24:35.120 --> 00:24:36.580 What's my wife going to say to that? 00:24:36.680 --> 00:24:43.760 And but then I began to realize that when it's when I love Jesus with all that I am, and I lay my life down to him the way that 00:24:43.760 --> 00:24:50.310 he desires for me, to that I, I begin to love my wife in a way that I could have never loved her before. 00:24:51.840 --> 00:24:56.680 God grows my capacity to love through an understanding of his love. 00:24:58.220 --> 00:25:03.160 It gives me the opportunity to lay down the hate that I that I carry when I when I was a young boy. 00:25:04.780 --> 00:25:07.300 I had a heart that was just full of hate. 00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:16.440 And I felt like as a person, I had such a wonderful excuse to carry hate in my life for my hate was based on my 00:25:16.620 --> 00:25:20.920 circumstances and the people that I desired to hate. 00:25:21.020 --> 00:25:22.820 Their hatred was far worse than mine. 00:25:22.820 --> 00:25:29.940 So it was okay to allow my hate to overpower them and to treat them particular ways, because I wanted 00:25:29.940 --> 00:25:31.240 to defeat their hate. 00:25:31.240 --> 00:25:35.500 And so I justified my hate as a solution towards their hate. 00:25:38.140 --> 00:25:39.920 As if the end justified the means. 00:25:42.180 --> 00:25:42.830 And then I'm at Jesus. 00:25:46.240 --> 00:25:48.300 And Christ transformed my heart overnight. 00:25:50.600 --> 00:25:57.680 For the first time in my life, I found a place where I didn't have to worry about repaying evil 00:25:57.680 --> 00:25:59.860 for evil or with evil. 00:26:02.380 --> 00:26:05.200 Anger for an individual is a hard burden to bear. 00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:10.160 But I found a place that I would allow me to give up. 00:26:11.860 --> 00:26:19.080 I found a person whose love and grace had more power to change things with a far more greater degree than the hate 00:26:19.080 --> 00:26:20.340 my heart could ever do. 00:26:21.900 --> 00:26:29.060 I found a God so big that he could not only mend the anger in my heart, but he could also be trusted to handle all of those things and 00:26:29.060 --> 00:26:32.300 all of those people who had wronged me better than I could do in my own strength. 00:26:34.660 --> 00:26:35.960 And so it gives me an opportunity. 00:26:37.540 --> 00:26:38.040 To give up. 00:26:40.120 --> 00:26:45.180 And give over to a king whose power of love cannot be compared. 00:26:47.300 --> 00:26:50.400 And I choose now to reflect his goodness in this world. 00:26:55.260 --> 00:26:56.120 God's desire. 00:26:57.860 --> 00:26:58.380 In our lives. 00:27:00.080 --> 00:27:01.080 Is to work in that way. 00:27:03.840 --> 00:27:10.320 So you walk in this world and when people wrong us, we put it on our own backs to right those wrongs. 00:27:12.800 --> 00:27:14.240 And maybe by our own hate. 00:27:17.400 --> 00:27:19.060 But the goodness of Jesus. 00:27:21.400 --> 00:27:28.460 Is that he loves you so much that he knows every wrong you've ever gone through, every tear 00:27:28.460 --> 00:27:29.780 you've ever shed. 00:27:31.780 --> 00:27:33.260 And while he's also a loving God. 00:27:35.400 --> 00:27:36.220 He's just got. 00:27:38.260 --> 00:27:41.160 And he's got plans for those things that harm you. 00:27:43.540 --> 00:27:44.420 But not only in that. 00:27:46.060 --> 00:27:47.280 It's got the power to change them. 00:27:49.740 --> 00:27:50.720 To transform them. 00:27:52.800 --> 00:27:57.880 Whereas the burden of your hate may be able to have an effect on something, but it will be negative. 00:27:58.760 --> 00:27:59.760 It may change something. 00:28:01.840 --> 00:28:02.540 But God's love. 00:28:04.390 --> 00:28:05.680 Transforms from the inside out. 00:28:07.460 --> 00:28:12.320 And his powers far greater than any hate that you could carry towards some circumstance that you want to change. 00:28:14.660 --> 00:28:16.280 And you need to give them the freedom to do that. 00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:19.680 And the way that you do that. 00:28:21.180 --> 00:28:22.280 It's resting in his presence. 00:28:24.860 --> 00:28:28.360 God won't work in your hate. 00:28:30.520 --> 00:28:31.380 God works in your love. 00:28:34.620 --> 00:28:37.840 God wants to connect you in such a way that his love grows you. 00:28:39.700 --> 00:28:40.960 But the hate that you carry. 00:28:42.380 --> 00:28:46.400 Distances you from him in such a way, and he can't speak to your heart. 00:28:50.660 --> 00:28:52.220 The beauty of love for us as people. 00:28:55.160 --> 00:28:56.640 Is that despite the circumstances. 00:28:58.280 --> 00:29:03.680 Jesus has given everything for you, and you know how his love just transforms your life. 00:29:05.070 --> 00:29:10.720 And for the first time in your life, you can come to a place where it's not measured by what you do. 00:29:12.520 --> 00:29:17.640 We as people know that we mess up, and we as people know that we need grace. 00:29:17.700 --> 00:29:20.080 And in this world it is difficult to find. 00:29:20.080 --> 00:29:22.190 But for the first time in your life, there isn't enough. 00:29:22.500 --> 00:29:24.500 There is nothing that Jesus wants from you. 00:29:26.100 --> 00:29:27.100 He just wants you. 00:29:28.980 --> 00:29:31.170 He wants you resting in his presence. 00:29:31.280 --> 00:29:36.800 And as he works within your heart, he wants you to display the goodness of who he is in this world. 00:29:36.820 --> 00:29:40.320 But it comes by coming to him empty handed that he may grow you. 00:29:40.320 --> 00:29:40.920 So let go. 00:29:41.220 --> 00:29:41.840 Let go of hate. 00:29:44.540 --> 00:29:45.060 Of ill will. 00:29:47.460 --> 00:29:49.720 What Jesus wants is a new command of unity. 00:29:52.040 --> 00:29:54.680 And you think about the beauty of what God can do in his church. 00:29:56.600 --> 00:30:03.960 And the beauty of what God does in us and through us happens as we as people gather together, seeking 00:30:03.960 --> 00:30:10.980 the victory in Christ, connecting closer to him and through that, just loving one another, 00:30:11.020 --> 00:30:12.620 closer to Christ. 00:30:15.860 --> 00:30:16.700 Love for us. 00:30:18.800 --> 00:30:21.680 Love exists because we're not always going to get along. 00:30:23.980 --> 00:30:31.240 But is to say, despite the circumstances that might present to us challenges and our relationships, we're looking to what God has 00:30:31.240 --> 00:30:36.660 before us, and that calling is far greater than any tension in our relationship. 00:30:36.800 --> 00:30:43.840 And so, regardless of that tension, I just want to say to you, in these moments, I'm choosing by my will to love you, that we 00:30:43.840 --> 00:30:48.480 may rejoice in what Christ desires to do in us and through us. 00:30:51.820 --> 00:30:53.450 When we think about these one anothers together. 00:30:55.560 --> 00:30:57.520 It's important to start with the thought of love. 00:30:59.380 --> 00:31:01.140 Because love is the backbone. 00:31:01.220 --> 00:31:04.720 Through all these things that God desires to do in us and through us as a church body. 00:31:06.340 --> 00:31:07.560 So here's the commitment we make. 00:31:09.360 --> 00:31:13.000 God has given us in this upper room one command with his disciples. 00:31:15.020 --> 00:31:22.120 That we will look at one another in tension and circumstances, and we will look into this world that God has called us to 00:31:22.120 --> 00:31:27.680 and know we're not always going to agree, but we're going to love you, and we're going to love you enough to share the truth with you. 00:31:28.060 --> 00:31:30.500 And we're going to love you enough to be bold if needed. 00:31:30.580 --> 00:31:33.380 And we're going to love you enough to be reserved if needed. 00:31:33.480 --> 00:31:37.060 And we're going to love you and enough to spend time with you if needed. 00:31:37.060 --> 00:31:40.040 And we're going to love you enough just to be present next to you. 00:31:40.060 --> 00:31:45.420 And if needed, we're going to love you the way that Christ has called us to love you. 00:31:45.420 --> 00:31:48.720 So that when you encounter me, you meet Jesus.