more church today's scripture is coming from 1 John chapter 3 verse 16 through 18 by this we know love that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers but if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes heart against him how does God's love abide in him little children let us not love in word or talk but in do indeed and in truth amen well I'm excited to be here with you guys this morning I love each point church even though I haven't been here that often I love Tony Carter he's one of my favorite people in the world he's one of those dudes you just see him and even though he's across the room it's like he's hugging you with his face because he's smiling so big and he's such a warm personality and I've enjoyed getting to know him over the years enjoy getting to know still over the years and I'm really grateful for you guys in your ministry and he's talked about the church plant that we're planting in the west end cornerstone church and in the same way that he's saying y'all are grateful you need help we're very grateful that even as we come in there are partners in the gospel of Jesus who've been at work for a long time so we're grateful for you guys praying for you guys too and I'm excited to preach God's word for you this morning I want to start by saying this that when you say something when you make a claim you have to back it up when you make a claim with your words you have to back that claim up with your actions one of the clearest examples I can think of this in my own life is when I was in middle school now I went to this college prep school from when I was in like second grade till I graduated high school which isn't exactly the birthplace of many rappers but that's beside the point at this college prep school when I was in middle school I love basketball and because I was at this private school nobody was very good at basketball so it led me to believe that I was better than I was my average basketball skills looked quite above average at the school that I was at so when I was in maybe about eighth grade or another kid came and he was like I'm gonna be the starting point guard I was like you must not know who you messing with and I was like man I'm gonna be the starting point guard I'm nice with it I'm the second coming of Magic Johnson maybe I may have overspoken a little bit but as those tryouts came this kid who was from a public school that had maybe even above average levels of basketball skills as soon as he came he came to back up his claims and all I'll say is that after those tryouts I started to get real interested in music I knew new interest in the one that I previously had and I say that to say when you make a claim with your mouth you have to back it up with your action as Christians we claim to love one another but one of the questions I had is do we really love one another you know when we come together for a gathering like this are we really just coming together into the same building to sing songs that we all like and hearing a speech what makes a worship gathering like this different than something I went through several months ago which wasn't a worst of gathering of any sort it was just a concert with all kinds of people there and they came they sang songs together that they all like they even raised their hands and heard somebody talk a little bit what's the difference between a gathering like that and a gathering like this the difference should be love love should be the difference but do we really love each other do we even know what we mean when we say we love one another often when we think of love we think of a fuzzy feelings about somebody some of us may think of romantic comedies a song before he said who loves romantic comedies I don't really love them because they're all basically the same movie they end the same right he meets her but he's with somebody else and he ends up with her in the end and you cry or maybe young adult fiction or maybe love songs you know they're different things to give us ideas of love here's one love song that I love growing up that gives a picture the kind of love the world thinks it says see I don't need no alcohol your love makes me feel 10 feet tall without it I go through with the draw because nothing even matters at all now the skies could fall not even if my balls should call the world it seems so very small because nothing even matters at all your part of my identity I sometimes have the tendency to look at you religiously because nothing even matters to me in this song this saying I love you so much that I don't care about anything else you're all that matters I don't I don't care about my job no matter if my boss is calling it doesn't matter if everything crumbles the only thing that matters is you and I want you to know up this kind of love the kind of love it turns another human being into the center of your entire world that's not the kind of love that John is calling us to today as nobody's talking about in this passage now of course even in the scripture there is room for romantic love even intoxicating love to have to my wife who just walked out that there's room for that in scripture and in our lives but that's just not what part that's not what John is getting at here in this text what I text is talking about today is the kind of love that's more substantial than that kind of human centered love that we just heard in that song it's more enduring than that it's more difficult than that the way that I wanted to find love that I think we see in this text and throughout scripture this kind of love is a holy affection for somebody and a selfless commitment to their good the thing about how this different than that man centered love a holy affection for somebody and a selfless commitment to their good and as we go throughout this sermon I want to make sure that's what you have in mind so turn with me to first John 3 we already read that passage but I want to look at it again and as you turn the first John chapter 3 I'll give you a little bit of background John of course is the apostle John one of the disciples of Jesus called by Jesus during his lifetime he drops everything to follow Jesus and more than just one of the disciples who is in this inner circle of Jesus he's in the inner circle within the inner circle right he's one of the three disciples closest to Jesus John even talks about one of the disciples whom Jesus loved in his gospel and I think he's talking about himself he had a special close relationship with Jesus and he writes this letter to be read by communities of Christians and it deals with a lot of important things like obedience and assurance and love you know one of the main with this is question how do we know if we know God so fences in chapter 3 John talks about identity and how we know for a child of God I'm going to read chapter 3 verses 11 to 15 before we get to our verses because I think they're so closely tied to understanding what he's saying so first John chapter 3 verse 11 I'm going to read John says for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning and we should love one another we should not be like came who was of the evil one and murdered his brother and why did he murder because his own deeds were evil in his brother's righteous do not be surprised brothers that the world hates you we know that we had passed out of death into life because we love the brothers whoever does not love abides in death everyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him so in those verses 11 to 15 he's telling us to love one another and he points to a negative example of what love is not he just pointed out came we remember came of came and able murdered his brother the way that some of us as as Americans would think of like the the prototype of evil and terrible things maybe we would think of somebody like Osama bin Laden or hit me and the Hebrew scriptures and for those people here in this that prototypical example of the most evil person you can imagine is came he's that picture of evil right and he points to him and his selfish envy his hatred he says don't follow that example so then he uses one person and one act in that person's life the murder of his brother to talk about what not to do but now in our verses today he's gonna point to another person and a specific act in that person's life that tells what love does look like specifically Jesus in his death on the cross so so it's came in the murder of his brother is the face of evil hatred then Jesus in his love on the cross is the face of sacrificial love and God has called us to love one another so he he's told us to love one another and here here verses verses 16 to 18 what that love looks like first time 316 by this we know love that he lay down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers but if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him how does God love abide in him little children let us not love and word or talk but indeed and in truth God's word and if I could sum up this passage in just a few words it would be love shows up in our action I think that's the main point of this passage that love shows up in our action so I'm gonna walk through the text in three points it seems to me no matter what text I read I can somehow put it in nice three little few points so that's what we gonna do today three points that are commands to us about the way that we should love number one lay down your life number one lay down your life what's that from verse 16 by this we know love that he laid down his life for us so if you're wondering today if you hear today wondering how should I treat other Christians here John says you should treat them like Jesus did not like came did by taking their lives but like Christ did by giving our life in order to learn how to walk a young child well they did they watch their parents right it was very interesting and nerve-wracking to watch my son begin to walk for the first time because you know he doesn't have good balance his head a little bit too big for his body he's falling over always near corners my daughter's learning to walk right now too but it's really cool to see what happens they're crawling and they're like they seem to begin to run a lot quicker like that and they begin to want to do it themselves same thing with talking my son right now you know he he repeats every word that we say right it's it's very sanctified because you have to make sure everything you say is worth repeating by you two and a half year old but this is how kids learn they watch their parents the only reason they have categories but talking and walking and interacting is because they watch their parents they watch other people well John is saying to us in this passage if we want to know how to love we don't have to wonder what love is like we don't have to come up with it on our own the model that we should watch to give us any category for what love is is Jesus and specifically what Jesus did on the cross so let's take a moment there to reflect on the death of Jesus you mean if this is our model let's reflect on what Christ did says in the text he laid down his life for us I think we sometimes look over the amazing nature of this truth we've heard that so many times it feels kind of cliche and elementary towards like we should move on the greater things but Christ laying down his life it wasn't just some random death it's not even some kind of random martyr because we could talk about all kinds of martyrs throughout history but there's something very unique about the death of Jesus again pay attention to the language John uses he doesn't just say Jesus was killed for you don't just say Jesus was murdered for us he said he laid it down his life was not snatched from his hands but he willingly gave it away listen to what Jesus says in John 1018 no one takes it from me but I lay it down of my own accord I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again this charge I received from my father the law of Jesus was not passive in the crucifixion he was actively laying down his life so that the cross of Jesus was not robbery it was charity his life was not being stolen from him he was freely giving it away and that's my problem you know as if it wasn't enough that he it already left the heavenly places to come though I still see fallen earth as if it wasn't already enough that he became a man that he was born of a woman that he created and afterwards breathe oxygen something that he thought up and spoken to existed as if it wasn't enough that he submitted himself to learning and growing and maturing like a regular man as if it wasn't enough that he hungered and thirsted and got tired like every other human being as if that wasn't enough in the sacrifice Jesus sacrificed his very life there is no greater sacrifice that somebody can make than their very life you could give your money you could give your time you can give your stuff whatever kind of stuff is very valuable you but there is no greater sacrifice than your life itself John 15 13 greater love has no one to miss that someone lay down his life for his friends and even in that Jesus was unique so there have been other people who willingly laid their life down for something nobody has ever nobody ever will do it the way that Christ did right he's no ordinary martyr as the second person of the Trinity the eternal sovereign Godhead Jesus was aware and willing to lay his life down before he was even born who else could even make that kind who else was sovereign over the people that murdered them who else created the very people that murdered them who else held the universe together by the word of their power and so sustained the very people that murdered them there is no one there is no death like the death of Jesus I want has ever been able to lay the life down with that kind of awareness and power and authority and love that Jesus did and nobody had that power and authority to take it back up like he did either death of Jesus is unique so then what motivated Jesus to lay his life down in such a unique way why did he do well John says right down the text Jesus laid his life down or us I want you to pause and consider that for a moment those of us in here who are believers in Jesus
you fearfully and wonderfully made but tragically broken you sinful envious lustful and angry you selfish rebellious you christ literally made his life down for you what does that tell us about the love of Jesus for you one thing that tells us very clearly is that God's love the love of Jesus is not based on how lovable we are but it's based on his character because we were not worth I mean a price this huge Jesus died for us I mean he also tells us the death of Jesus wasn't random it wasn't a shot in the dark Jesus laid his life down in a special way for a specific group of people John 10-11 I'm the good shepherd the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep John said he laid his life down for us Ephesians 5-25 husbands love your wife as Christ loved the church gave himself up for her Jesus had in mind the people he wanted to purchase that he would purchase when he laid down his life for them so that God said his affection is on us in eternity path knowing we would sin against him and he sent Jesus into the world to save him that's amazing love I wonder if the love of Jesus on the cross has encouraged you this week you know I know all of us we going through our own kind of things some of us have had hard weeks maybe a hard week to work maybe a hard week to the home in our marriage whatever kind of difficulties we've had I wonder if the love of God has encouraged you this week and specifically his love on the cross one way to this encourages you think about passage like Romans 8 with Paul says hey we have no reason to doubt whether or not God would give us good things he already gave Jesus if he's willing to give his son how will he not also with him freely give us all things to that tells us if there's something that we're lacking it's not because God is unwilling to give it or he's unable to give it it's because he has something he doesn't withhold good things from us but let me rephrase that he withholds good things from us he doesn't withhold the best things from us often the things that look best to us God in his infinite wisdom sees better things turns all things for our good he's already given Christ and that should encourage you whatever is being with help from you it's actually for you good because God has already given Christ let the love of God at the cross encourage you this week so as a warning this first point is my longest point so as I continue to go I hope you're not like oh my goodness he said the answer first point is my longest point so then John after reminding us I wanted to reflect on the cross for a little bit and John after reminding us of the gracious heroic loving death of Jesus he tells us how we're to respond and he says and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers remember that's what I think is the point of these verses that we should lay our lives down I don't think that the John is saying we should all find a way to be killed for brother assisted in Christ I think he's getting at the self denying nature of the Christian life that there may be some rare cases where you know following Jesus and love requires literal death like a William Tindale who died so that believers like us could read the Bible in our language that happened but that's not the case for most of us but what is required for every single believer in the world it's self-sacrifice and daily death to self it doesn't say we shouldn't consider it it's an option he says we ought to lay our lives down that word translated as ought has more force than we might think it first the sense is obligation it's what we must do in light of what Christ has done for us so that should tell us something about our faith that right what does it say about Christian love that this is the model that we're to follow not a pet on the back but a bloody death not a cheerful phrase but sacrificing everything the Christian life is one of self denial and specifically self denying love and we ought to love like Christ it but you know we we're a little sinful you know we're partial who may say hey which which brothers and sisters am I supposed to lay my life down for that my post to lay my life down for her because you know she got a message like her too is it just those who deserve not of Christ as our example Romans five for while we was still weak the right time Christ died for the ungodly all he's going for one was scarcely died for righteous person I love that that's so honest right I mean most of the things will doubt somebody good is what he said though perhaps for a good person one with their even a die but God chose his love for us in the while we were still sinners Christ died for us Jesus died for messy people there were no deserving sinners who he died for only undeserving sinners and Jesus has called us to love even the most messy people if we're really going to love like Jesus loved that means we have to love people who are not so lovable those who haven't even been loving towards us even those who are resistant to our love the love that John calls for is stronger than you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours if even if you stabbed me in my back I'll scratch your it's deeper than that Jesus is our example so when we brand somebody unlovable we're forgetting the very gospel we say we believe it because we were unlovable and Christ is loved us you know hearing this text of course John is talking to Christians what it means by up but I know there are many people who are not Christians who consider themselves to be loving and maybe some people here today who don't think much of the death of Jesus but feel that that doesn't have anything to do with their love and so I would never suggest that somebody who's not a Christian couldn't do anything other we would consider loving I think that's untrue and dishonest but according to this text if you don't know Christ you don't know love at least not the love that John is talking about because it's saying this is how we know love is how we know what it is and the kind of holy affection and selfless commitment can only come from the source of all love which is the Lord Jesus and I don't need that but it has this kind of love has God above all there's no holy affection for others if you don't even know the holy one and you can't truly seek someone's good if you haven't learned from God what good actually is you know we like to come up with our own definitions of good and that's why we're so confused about love in our world today even thinking that the most loving thing to do would be to affirm somebody in their sin that's loving it's unloving to point to the truth of God that's because we're confused we don't even know what God what love is because we don't know what good is because we don't know God the kind of love that John is talking about can only flow from understanding the cross that's how we know love and that should be an encouragement to us the guy has shown us love if you if you hit it and you don't know Jesus you don't know this love you never experience this love of Christ I want to urge you and remind you and proclaim to you that you can know this love even right now like right now as you sit in this room you can become acquainted with real love right now as you sit in this room you can become acquainted with the kind of love that doesn't run away when it gets difficult but comes after you knowing that it'll be more difficult than even you understand the kind of love that would pay the price for sins that you committed this is the death of Jesus if you hit it and you don't know Jesus I want to encourage you to turn away from your sins and trust him he died on the cross why sins so we don't have to pay the penalty for them so that when we face the judge and our record looks bad we can point to the record of Jesus instead so that when our resume doesn't qualify it's a spend eternity with God because I say hey I know my resume falls short but Jesus is giving me his and that only happens with faith in Jesus that only happens by repentance and faith in Jesus so I know this church well enough to know that same guy so let's appreciate every week and if these brothers were glad to walk with you through that I urge you to trust Jesus and know this love some people may wonder hey oh see we're all talking about being gospel center why are you always focusing on the cross and this is why it's the only way we know what love is let's do Jesus but that is a very long point number one lay down your life number two looking at verse 17 it's open your heart there is someone number two open your heart the world let me say this far read verse 17 again the world has a very different view of material things and scripture does and we'll see this in and this next verse so the world the way the world views stuff is hey get everything you can enjoy it as much as you possibly can and that's the end of this is why one of the this is one of the reasons why the influence of the world is so dangerous because it appeals to the stuff our heart already wants to do right so when the world lies to us and say hey to get everything you can and enjoy it as much as you can and that's the end of it our heart is like okay I like that that's what we want to do anyway right it's what our hearts want to hear but if you notice whenever scripture talks about money material things it's never saying get as much as you can enjoy it as much as you can it's often warning us and exhorting us towards generosity and that generosity plays a big role in our love for one another so if you wonder why all of a sudden jump to money finances material things look at verse 17 but if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him how does God's love abide in him read that again but if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him how does God's love abide in him so John is already giving us his sacrificial picture of love by pointing to Jesus and now he's going to immediately apply it to a realized situation almost like a litmus test here's a question what do you do when you see your brother or sister in need what do you think about that for me when he says the world's good here in verse 17 he means material thing he's saying if anyone has what they need if anyone has plenty materially so that the pitching he's painting is a someone who has everything they need they see that their brother or sister does not have what they need yet they close their heart towards them calling he's not saying hey if you don't have nothing somebody else has nothing and you can't help them out that's not what he's talking about here he's saying you have plenty but your brother's sister is lacking he closed your heart love of God is in him now it's already clear that John makes some assumptions about finances that the world doesn't have that doesn't sound like it everything you can enjoy it as much as you can and leave it at that John makes assumptions one the real love isn't too weak to make it to our wild it's John makes the assumption that the kind of real sacrificial love he's talking about makes this way to every area of our life including our while
somebody might say what is someone else not having what they need have to do with me I worked hard for this money the scripture always assumes that we have a responsibility towards one another scripture assumes we cannot think through our finances without considering our brothers and sisters and Jesus so I mean when you sit down with your budget you cannot faithfully think about your finances without thinking about your brothers and sisters and Jesus love will always cost us something and if it doesn't ever hurt if love never hurts and it's not real love right this isn't a new concept John is introducing here in this letter if you look at the early church and the book of Acts they seem to be caring for each other in these ways Acts 2 44 and all who believed were together and had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need now a reread of texts like that one like lower let that be descriptive and not priest read let that be just you tell me what they're doing not what I need to do because I like my stuff they were selling everything they had to make sure everybody was careful and that is a serious kind of commitment to one another's good it is a thing money and stuff is so easy to turn it to an idol especially if we have a lot of it it's so easy which is why scripture is always warning I mean look through what scripture says about money it's very rare that it's positive it's often warning and exhorting not because money and stuff is bad but because of human heart is bad and we're likely to cling to it in unhelpful ways so if you're here today and you're wealthy or you're just doing really well or even if you're just getting by fine do you think that God gave you that wealth and enough just so you can enjoy it for yourself just so you can enjoy whatever you felt like acquiring just so you can have the security of knowing you're stacking a bread in the bank well scripture is clear that if any of us get rich we're only rich in order to be rich in good works of course we can enjoy the stuff God gives us God has also called us to be rich in good works should lead to greater generosity we gotta be careful not to let our hearts cling to our money we gotta fight greed wait if I agree this with generosity the way to fight hoarding everything for yourself is giving it away giving it away for good reason sin Corinthians 8 14 to 15 is what Paul says to the Corinthians he says if I don't mean that others should be eased and you burdened but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need so that their abundance may supply your needs that there may be fairness as it is written whoever gathered much had nothing less over who and whoever gathered little had no luck so we say look I'm not saying that you know that you should just be burdened and they should have it easy I'm not saying they should be able to sit around and you just give them all this of you work hard for he said when you have a lot part of the reason that so you can help them why they don't have a lot and the other way around when you don't have a lot today would help you that there's this mutual exchange of the things that God has given us abundance is never an end in itself abundance is there to help meet the needs of us never an end in itself God has called us to care for one another the picture John gives us not of people forced to care for other people this isn't communism this is just love within the community right people who love each other faithfully using the resources God entrusted them to care for one another and so this is an opportunity for us to fight greed with generosity I'm a reverse 17 again if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him how does God love abiding him let's talk about that phrase closes his heart against him you know just say to anybody just decides not to help him he uses this image of closing their heart that's a strong image that's like somebody slamming a door in somebody's face it's like your brother's sister being outside you're inside reading the newspaper they outside cold using newspapers for blankets and you slam the door in their face it's a strong image the sense of our heart going cold toward them closing off any affection that would leave that you'll care for them basically refusing to care about them and caring for them one example I saw this was in a biography of Steve Jobs that Steve Jobs had this daughter named Lisa and and Steve Jobs rough season of his life wasn't in her life he kind of abandoned her came back into her life later but they always had this hard relationship and so they were in this kind of bad patch and she was ready to go to college and because he was mad at her during that season he refused to give her any money for college even though he's a billionaire at this point and she has to go to some family friend and beg them for money that's the kind of bitterness and closing your heart off towards somebody the John is talking about just because he was mad at her that was cold of him to do we cannot coldly close our hearts towards one another but most of the time our close hearts towards one another and not gonna be kind of blatantly obvious and bitter like Steve Jobs right it's gonna be more because of apathy it's gonna be more kind of apathetic and oblivious other people's needs because they're a needy brothers and sisters all around us but our factions are so wrapped up in ourselves and everything that we're doing that we don't even notice their needs oh only thing we think about is our wants and our desires and our problems and our own needs and we're so wrapped up in those that we don't even know about the needs of other people or we don't care enough to know more almost like when people are looking at their phone and they're so in that phone they bumping into people and bumping into stuff and then bump into them on purpose they were just so wrapped up in what they were doing that they were oblivious that everybody around them often was so committed to our good that there's no room in our hearts for commitment to the good of other people and that's a heart problem that's a love problem that's a closing our hearts to other people kind problem is a question think about your life with other people in this very church would you even know if there were needy brothers and sisters around you would you even be aware if the people that you see on Sunday morning the people in your small group would you even be aware if they needed something loving one another requires that we actually pay attention to each other right it might mean that we have to ask some probing questions beyond how you doing today good to see it might mean that we ask something beyond that it might mean that we actually have meals together
you know that also requires a kind of vulnerability from us letting other people in and out just saying that God is provided away for our needs to be met by other brothers and sisters and if we're too proud to let other people know our needs we're not allowing them to be faithful and we're not allowing God to bless us with this very clear blessing he wants to give us in the life of the church there's no room for kind of scrooge like stinginess or even an obliviousness in God's church i money won't be with us forever but our brothers and sisters they actually will now let me just real quick not saying we should enable one another you should not pay a single dude's rent so he can sit in there and play playstation and eat Cheetos that's not it's not a good use of your money okay that's not what Paul's saying and I was John is saying it's not what trip is saying okay i'm just make that clear the opposite Paul like he says in the thesis boy he says hey the thief you need to stop stealing so that you actually have some money to contribute to the community that's counter-cultural work hard for the sake of other people right so this is actually motivation to work hard because it's part of what love and the family of God looks like as churches we want to love not only people in our community our local church we want to love people from other churches as well with generosity then we want to give the churches who are spreading the gospel elsewhere international mission other church plants in Atlanta because it's planned but we should be very generous to both the Christians and our immediate churches and those outside you know God has given us I mean this is what Paul's talking about with the Corinthians blessing other churches all right so we need to lay down our lives right we need to open up our hearts last point I'm a three we need to love with our actions in verse 18 John addresses them these Christians is little children he calls him that a beloved a few times in the letter almost he's like he's serving as an example of the very thing he's calling us to love one another and he's showing his affection to him this is what he says verse 18 little children let us not love in word or talk but indeed and in truth let us not love in word or talk but indeed and in truth so to trace the flow of the passage Jesus laid his life down so we should lay our lives down then he said how can you say the love of the Father is in you if you close your heart to your needy brother now we summed it up by saying we should love with our Dean so for some reason we often have this category in our mind of this kind of love that's just verbal that we just express with our words it is a sense that we can love somebody just because we think favorably of them and when we think about a warm thoughts come to our mind is that's a kind of love and I just want to be clear John's not saying we have two options for how to love he's not saying hey there's one way to love this just word of talk and deed and truth pick this one he's saying this one isn't love this one is the deed and truth that that's what love really is there is no passive love there's only active love that's the only form of love so you cannot be claim to be committed to the good of your brother's sister when you're unwilling to do anything for the good of your brother's sister and be like me saying I'm committed to my neighborhood being clean and I'm kicking cans on my way inside the house what I know you're not kicking up any trash is not a real commitment there love only shows up in actions our actions call I bluff one of the modern things that amazed me is a lie detector test because it's kind of scary because it can with pretty good accuracy determine whether or not somebody's lying and I probably watch too much CSI and stuff but that's probably one of my fears like someone banging on the table in front of me with a lie detector test out of but if our actions are kind of a lie detector test for what we say about our love you're wondering whether not you you say I love my brothers and sisters think about your past week think about whether or not there was actual self-sacrificing action that went with that love and protest think about whether or not you have given to any needs of your brothers and sisters I mean that's that's the lie detector test very quickly has it shown up in your actions and this is convicting even as I preach this because I'm thinking about my week life right and this is why we have the cross to turn back to each and every day man how could we ever love the way the crisis love we desperately desperately need is great I think one of the reasons that we don't love will sometimes is because we don't like to be inconvenienced but if the cross tells us anything it's that love is not convenient some of us love serving as long as it's serving in a way that we enjoy single dudes I hate cannot start a PlayStation ministry we can only serve in ways that are convenient for us again if love doesn't hurt ever then it's not real love it's sacrificial so here's a quick word to to the introverts I'm an introvert if you're an introvert don't worry about it don't raise your hand you don't want to be singled out in groups anyway it's a quick word to the introverts who don't have as much kind of relational money to spend right who get worn out a little more quicker with interaction as an introvert I want to encourage you to push yourself right to make sacrifices to push yourself relationally to spend more time with people don't welcome people into your home and I want to encourage extra extroverts to be aware that sometimes we don't want to be around you and that's okay you can you can love us by recognizing that and bearing with your introverted brothers and sisters but love is going to cause some sacrifice it's going to cause some pushing outside of yourself it's going to cause some real dying to yourself and self-denied because love is not just sustaining from mean things it's actively doing good so here's a question to ask yourself you can consider it homework what is something special what is a special way you can love somebody this week what brother sister can you initiate with and reach out to to find a way to love them one of the the ways that people used to serve me and my wife all the time is we would get emails from people in the church I mean it it felt like man up from heaven saying hey when can I watch your kids I'm free this day this day and this day and I would just have a little prayer session right there because I really needed it who is there in the life of this church what brother sister can you reach out to and just find a way to love right initiate right hey can I bring you a new hey can I watch your kids hey can I cut your grave hey can we reach church I know you I know you discouraged right now let let's go through a passage what a ways that you can initiate to love brothers and sisters to reach out to them that's is where the beauty of the death of Jesus speaks to us because in his love he saw us out he pursued us and he laid down his life for us he did not wait for us to say hey love me in this way he saw this out and met our need and met that conflict with love
what I would hate to happen is for us to leave here today discouraged because of all the ways we don't love as we should we are sinners we do fail to love because we value ourselves too much we do fail to love because we're sinful we do need to love God more but if we want to grow in our love according to this passage the best thing for us to do is to meditate on the gospel of Jesus so yes do things find ways to love people better be active but what we want to fuel that love is not a checkbox but the gospel of Jesus that's how we know love that's what should fuel every single ounce of our obedience as a cross of Jesus I want you to have to pay attention to how much the cross is the example used for all kinds of Christian character you know perseverance and Hebrew swell Jesus for the joy set before him endured the cross humility and Philippians too right have this mind among yourself and Christ Jesus who emptied himself and with obedience to the point of that every kind of obedience we can find in scripture we can see examples of it in the cross meditate on the gospel of Jesus that's what's going to show you this love more collude and that's what we want to fuel this love we want to lay our lives down we want to open up our hearts and we want to love with our actions well let me tell you I personally have a terrible memory and if I'm ever going to remember things one of the things I do is I write stuff on post it notes you know the post it notes right now you you post it plays it the first amen I got from this one and what it does is when you forget things you may walk by it and you see that posted note and it reminds you right well as believers in Jesus the amazing opportunity God has given us is to be little posted notes posted around the life of local churches and posted in the city of Atlanta reminders of God's love for people who don't remember what God's love is like for people who've never heard of what God's love is like we get to be little posted I mean we don't just gather here then we go out and we're all everywhere and each other's lives and in the lives of people around we get to be little posted notes who get to love people and show people a little picture of what the love of Jesus is like and there is no greater privilege in all the world I want to encourage you reflect on that gospel and strive to love like Jesus did and when you don't run back to the love of Jesus and ask him to help let's pray