Anybody else here, a former loved one's voices as we're singing some of those oldies? I hear my grandma's voice, I mean she's long been in glory, you know what I'm saying? Some of those songs, I can hear her still and I can hear my mom and she'll be here in the next service and be tickled pink that that we're singing, some of the songs that we are today. A Peter is calling us to stand firm. He says he's writing us a letter so that we can stand firm in the grace and the truth of our Savior and today he's going to call us to love one another, to stand firm, to build a community. What an incredible journey it's already been as we have slowly made our way through the first letter of Peter, first epistle of Peter. And today we come to the 22nd verse and we're going to stop just there. So today we look at one verse, first Peter, one verse, 22. So turn on your Bibles if you have them, if not the words will be on the screen. Let's be mindful that we're reading God's very word together. Since you have an obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. Let's pray together. And Father God, I thank you for the incredible joy that we have of experiencing your love. We've got a knowing your love that has been demonstrated for us because you sent your son Jesus to come and to die so that we can live. In Jesus while you were here on earth, you said that you were going to go and prepare a place for us after you have opened up heaven for us through your righteousness, through your death, through your blood, through your resurrection. But you didn't leave us as orphans. You said that you would send and you have sent your Holy Spirit to teach us about the Father, to teach us and point us to you, Jesus, the Son, the only way home. And so spirit of Jesus, we ask that you would follow fresh upon us this morning, that you would be pleased to speak through a broken center like me. Father, open up our ears to hear from you and God, open up our minds to understand what you have for us today and soften our hearts so it's pliable to your message and empower our feet so that we can walk in light of your truth in a manner worthy of the gospel. And Father, the things that are said this morning that are wrong or that are merely my opinion may they quickly fall away and be forgotten. But God, the things that are true and the things that contain the good news of Jesus Christ, would you use those things to shape us, to be more like your son, our Savior, and it's in his powerful name we pray, amen. In Mel Gibson's, the Passion of the Christ, one of the most powerful scenes of that movie, and how do you pick one of the most powerful scenes of that movie? I mean, really, from start to finish, it's one of those riveting movies that has you in your seat and the range of emotions and how well he has portrayed that passion, the pastor to that Christ, the last few hours of his life, the time of year that we are focusing upon as well. But there was one scene in particular where Jesus was being scourged, right before he was going to be crucified, and the scourging was extra graphic and an incredible job with the cameras and just to show the gore, to show the brutality, to show the blood. I mean, and sometimes we want to clean up our Messiah that was slain for our sins, but Gibson rightfully, I believe, portrays for us and for the world in a modern sense, what it means to be a suffering servant and what it means in the beatings that he has received. And as he was being scourged and blood was flowing from his ripped open body, there was a moment where he has fallen to the ground, still chained, and he looks and focuses upon a foot of a Roman soldier, a sandal blood, a blood stained foot of a Roman soldier, his own blood, which was now on that soldier's foot, and as he focused on the foot, he went to a flashback, Gibson gave us a flashback to the last supper, specifically to Jesus, washing his disciples' feet. He was transported to that moment, just a few hours previously, where he remembered giving them incredible life lessons and showing them the love of Christ tangibly. To come to a section in Scripture where Peter, who was there, Peter, who had his feet washed that night by the Messiah, Peter, who had this unique seat of being able to look into Jesus' face as he was washing his feet. Peter, the reluctant one, who said, no, no, you can't do this to me. This Peter, who now has, I would assume, a flashback of sorts back to that moment, as he is going to call us to love one another, I can't imagine that Peter never looked at his feet the same way after that night. I can't imagine that there was ever a moment when Peter got up and he was going to slip on his sandals that he didn't just stare for a moment and remember, remember the love, the tangible love of Messiah that would slip off his sanded feet, say, sandals, not against him, slip off his foot, that'd be unusual. Slipped off his sandals and washed them and the tenderness of that. And now he's calling us remembering that to love one another. I can't help but dwell a little bit about that picture. As Jesus went around the room, it says interesting, it says he girded up himself to serve. We have been looking at Peter and Peter is calling us to gird ourselves up to serve him and in light of what Christ has done, that's exactly the last hour. Jesus was going to gird himself up one more time and he was going to show an incredible act of mercy and love. I wonder what he thought when he washed every one of those feet. You know, he washed Judas' too, he was wondering what was going through his mind. The one whom he would say was better than he'd never been born. The one who had already committed his heart to sell him, to betray him, and here you have Jesus, the one who will kiss him in betrayal, washing his feet. What about the other 11? I mean, he tells us in Scripture that he knew, as a matter of fact, right in that in John's gospel, John's gospel, starting in chapter 13 and going to the end, really deals with the last week of Jesus' life. And right in John 14, he tells us that he knows that these feet will betray him. He knows that they will all scatter and run and he's washing those feet knowing that in his greatest hour, these feet are going to be used to run away from him, but he sees the beauty of these feet because these feet will come back by his grace and they will preach the good news of Christ. He's in that flashback, it's in that teaching moment, the context of Jesus washing his disciples feet, that Jesus gives them a new command. It's very interesting. I mean, he's in his one of his most tender moments. I mean, here he is with his best friends, the 12 and the upper room, the last supper and this moment of love and of mercy and of tenderness and he's going to give them yet one more new commandment in that context and he says this in John 13, 34, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have a love for one another of all the things, of all the things he could have said in his last hour, of all the things he could have said is a new commandment I give to you, isn't it interesting? Isn't it interesting? Think about this. At the very end, what he feels is primary, what he needs to communicate at the last moment is this new commandment love one another. Well we know that it's certainly not a new commandment of Scripture, I mean throughout Scripture God tells us to love one another, matter of fact Jesus makes it very clear we love one another, not only that, we're to love our enemies, we're to love our neighbors at ourself, I mean what is new about loving one another? Well it's this, it says as I have loved you, he could have given him anything. He could have said a new commandment I have for you, memorize Scripture, listen, memorize it. A new commandment I have for you, gather three days a week in a worship, a new commandment I have for you, give me 20% because I'm going to give you my life as a tie than offering, a new commandment is no, the new commandment is I want you to love, I want you to love one another and we see the primacy of love. The one who would come because he loves the Father so much, the one who would come to seek and to save those that are lost and the primacy of love in his own life. And the new commandment is this, build a community. The new commandment is love one another as I have loved you. You see there's a call to do just what God is calling us to do or striving to do it here at Orangewood is that's the build a community. God gives us as a call, as a mandate, as a command that we are to love one another. Peter in the first 12 verses has shown us a picture of who we are in Christ and it's an incredible picture. And those of you who have been here with us, you know that he tells us that we're chosen. He tells us that we've been sprinkled clean with a blood of Christ. He tells us that we've been caused to be born again. He tells us that we have an inheritance that cannot fade away or perish. He tells us of his love that God would have to rescue us such an incredible love that even angels peer into this and they wonder in awe of how a holy God can love sinners like us in Christ Jesus. He's told us who we are and I tell you, there's reason for us is sustaining our fall and say praise the Lord for a love that God, the father, the holy one that we have for us. But now he turns the corner in 13 and he says now I'm going to kind of tell you, first the who, now the what, what you to do in verse 13, he says there's a call, there's a call for action. He says literally gird up the loins of your mind because of who you are in Christ. Now we are called to action. He says be ready, be sober, be helpful because there's more good stuff to come. That's all in verse 13. In verse 14 he says this be obedient. It's interesting. He calls us children of obedience. How often do we feel of children of obedience and I feel like a child of disobedience much at the time, a child of wandering and yet we realize that in Christ the one who has sprinkled us, the one who has perfected us, that we are children of obedience in Christ Jesus and he calls us now to put away the past, the loss of the past and the live as children of obedience. But if there's more he says this, he calls us to obedience. I'm sorry to holiness. Not just because we're supposed to follow a list of rules and regulations. He calls us to holiness because that's his who he is and he calls us into relationship with him and as we can call him Abba father, we are to reflect his character and his quality and he is holy, he is without sin, he is perfect and now he calls us into holiness. And Peter will now tell us, he's now calling us to love, love one another. You know, it's interesting to me because sometimes we feel that this is a lesser calling. Sometimes even maybe in the church, I mean what is the church's role, what is the primary function and there'll be some who will say, Jeff, just preach the word of God, I mean really that is it, I mean just give me Bible study, just give me head knowledge, just teach me about God's word and that is very important, it's a part of the call. So we realize that listen, the primacy of loving our neighbors, the primacy of love, the primacy of building community is not secondary, it's not, I mean he says listen, a new commandment I give to you, love one another is I have loved you, you see our nature naturally, as we are born into this world, our nature is not to love anything other than ourselves. Scripture paints an equally vivid picture of who we are apart from Christ, it calls us by nature, we are children of wrath, God's wrath, by nature our sin has separated us from a holy God, by nature we will love selfishly, we will love for selfish gain, we will love that which provides us with something in return, and nature it is all about us and our love will be self-consuming. But one of the things that Peter has done, he's bracketed this challenge for us to love one another with a reminder of who we are, that we have a new nature that we've been born again. As a matter of fact if you look in verse 23 he's going to go right into that, continue this challenge for you have been born again, not with perishable seed but with imperishable seed. You've been born again, God has caused you to be born again and here's the point, God has given us a new nature, we are new creations in Christ, so that we can love, so that we can love, love our Lord God with all of our hearts, souls, minds and strengths, so that we can love our neighbors as ourselves and as verse 22 would say God has purified our souls, so he has purified us so that we can love purely. He's getting rid of all the junk, all the junk that's natural in our lives, all that, all that stuff that oozes selfishness, all that stuff that oozes junk, because I'm going to purify all of that so that you can love intentionally the way I want to love and you can love purely. You see our purpose of our cleansing is what Peter would say is for a sincere love of the brethren. This week I was reading in my devotions an English Puritan by the name of Richard Allelene, I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name correctly, lived in the 17th century, but he said something that I just, I couldn't get out of my mind. He said this, he said Christ is the Christian's prize and a Christian's pattern, Christ is a Christian's prize and a Christian's pattern. And now what he is saying here is for us to live as Christ as Paul would say and to die as gain. The very meaning of our lives, the one who is giving us life and life abundantly is Jesus Christ. And the prize of our lives is that one day we will be like him, one day we will see him face to face. The Holy Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing that one day is coming, but he's our prize even today, because even today because Christ is our prize, we sinners can gather in a holy God's presence without fear and trembling he's going to just take us out because Christ has paid for our sins. His payment was sufficient, he has cleansed us, he is our prize, he is the atonement, he is the payment for our sins even today, but he's also our pattern. He's our pattern on how we are to live, he's our pattern on how we are to love and it's not just the pattern, it's also the prize and I think that we need to reflect both of those. When we look at Christ, we look at Him as our pattern, we can't help but again go back to John 13, where we find Jesus in the upper room and we find one who loves purely. You think of that upper room with me for just a moment, I mean, if there was ever a time, if there was ever a time in history to act selfishly, wasn't it that moment? I mean, Jesus was going to become sin, he was going to become the sin of the world. I mean, literally, while we figuratively say sometimes that we have the weight of the world on our shoulders, Jesus was heading toward the cross where he would have the weight of our sins on his shoulders. If there was ever a time to act selfishly, if there was an ever a time to be served, if there was ever a time to take it easy and joy, enjoy a meal with close friends, it was the last supper. Isn't that true? How many times have we come home from a hard day and we say to our spouse, can you just give me some time? I just need some time. I mean, the world is on my shoulders right now and I just need some downtime, I just need some me time, I just need some reflection time, I just need some alone time. I mean, is it too much to ask that the dinner is made right now because I've spent, is it too much to ask that, for the next little bit, I have the remote control and I have control with TV and no one's going to ask me to change the channel, is it too much to ask? I mean, has a dad earned that right? I mean, don't you all know, and I'm the greatest at guilt trips, don't you all know that you have food because I provide it for you? You'd be naked without me. Give me a loan, if there was ever a time, there's ever a time to justify selfishness or just self-reflection. John 13 once says this, now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour had come, listen, we can't forget this, he knew what he was about to do, it didn't surprise him, he knew. I mean, all eternity, he knew, in the hour, I mean, I just was thinking about this in my study, I wondered how the clock was ticking. I know he don't have clock, or the sands of time were going through, I mean, he must have been able to hear each grain hit, the hour is coming, that he would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During the supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon to betray him. Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God, knowing all of this, he decided to take it easy, remove himself from the 12 and sit in the corner and ponder what God was about to do. None of us could blame him if he did. He didn't. He got it from supper, and he laid aside his garments, I'll talk about humble. He took a towel, and he girded himself. He poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with a towel which he was girding, love. Love on another, this agape love, the selfless love, desiring to meet the needs of others, and that's why we have been purified, we've been purified so that we can love. And our calling of love is to meet the needs of others. This agape love is tangible love, it's love with not just words, I mean it's love with deeds, it's love in action, it's love that isn't satisfied with just some sentimental stuff that doesn't really materialize anything. It's a selfless love that we've realized, that we've been so radically loved by the Father through the sun. And we realize that He has washed our feet, and He washed them with His own blood. It's that love that we see demonstrated for us, that Christ our price, Christ our pattern, has poured out, so that we can tangibly love one another, is I have loved you. In a Christ-like manner He calls us to love others, that includes emptying ourselves, and how consumed the self are we. It usually is all about us, isn't it? I mean we really want often love so that we gain, we love so we feel better, we love so we have some kind of response, but He calls us to love as I have loved you, and therefore there's a charge to us church, there's a charge to us that our love must be selfless, that our love must be giving of ourselves because we have been loved purely by Jesus. Love fervently, He says love with all your heart, love with passion, the God is calling us not just to have a token response to one another, and you know, reggae said today, however that greet one another with a holy kiss looks like to you, that's it, but you know, and I understand there's an awkwardness and there's some social boundaries here, but really, I mean loving fervently is saying to Robert, my brother, I love you, and I really care for you with all my heart, and maybe we don't do that every worship service because no one will ever come visit our church or the ones who do the love from the heart. You know why we don't? These are because our hearts are so wounded. I mean loving from the heart is vulnerability, I mean loving from the heart is taking your heart and say here, you know what, and anytime you hand it to someone, it's going to get trash, and they're going to abuse it, and they're not going to appreciate it, and they're not going to understand it. So let me hold it back, but Jesus says, no, I have loved you perfectly. You are complete in Christ. I love you so perfectly that we are able to give our hearts and a sense to others. If they trample it, they trample it because Jesus loves us perfectly and purely with passion from the heart, with intentionality. I mean, God demonstrated his own love for us. He demonstrated, God didn't just say words. He says, I love you, and while you're still sinners, I'm going to demonstrate that love for you, and how am I going to demonstrate that love for you? I'm going to send my son to come and to die for you. Jesus demonstrates his love for us by giving up his very life. The spirit demonstrates his love for us by coming and making his home inside of us. We need to listen. We need to with intentionality love one another. Not just in passing, but with intentionality think, how can I be loving to one another? We need to love with endurance. John 131, we read earlier, it says that Jesus loved them to the end. It's one of those things we can read right by, but what does it mean to love them to the end for Jesus? What did it mean to love them to the end? You know, it means in a garden when he says, can you to my closest three, can you pray with me? Can you just stay up? I mean, sweat and blood mingle together as he knew the hour was upon him, and the way to the world was coming upon him, and he says, stay awake, stay awake and pray, and they fall asleep. They can't do it. I mean, it's Peter who says, I'll go with you. I'll go with you. I'll lay my life down with you, and Jesus says, Peter, you're going to deny me three times before the night's over. He loved them to the end. I mean, wouldn't there be a temptation just to say, give up on you guys when he stood there alone in the garden. All his friends were taken off, but he loved them to the end. Isn't it great to know he loves us to the end? I mean, do you come back to the Father and just say, here I am. I'm soiled again. I've done it again. I'm 30. I've blown it. I'm a mess. I've been where I shouldn't be. I'm thinking what I shouldn't think. I'm saying what I shouldn't say. I mean, he still loves me. I said, I'm going to love you to the end. I love you. I'm not going to let you go. I'll never let you go. And when I start, I finish. It's interesting. In John 1334, it says the proof of this love. He says, a new commandment I give you, the love one another in 34. Even if I've loved you, so love one another. Listen to 35. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Interesting. This loving fervently God wants us to use as a marker for our identity. Listen, the way we love one another is what God wants to use as a marker of our identification of who's we are. Listen, the way we love one another is what God wants to use to the world out there as a marker and an identity of that we are His. Does anybody want to repent? I mean, how does a church often, how does a world often view the church when it comes to loving one another? It's, we're going to shoot one another. You know, we're going to take one another down. But the intention of God's design for this incredible love, the selfless agape love He has for us is a marker. The way that you love one another and how can we love one another that way is when we understand who we are in Christ, when we understand that He's washed our feet, when we understand we have been purified to love and He loves us perfectly, then we love one another. And the world says, man, what is up with them? It must be their God.
You know, you can't love what you don't know. I mean, you can say I love you, but you really, I mean, it's kind of disingenuous, isn't it? I mean, having had those people tell you they love you and it's flippant, and you know, you're like, you don't even know me. And it's a matter of fact, instead of making it feel good, it kind of makes you like, wow, you love me. You don't know me. You can't love what you don't know. And God has called us to love one another and we can't love each other until we know each other, right? And then it's even harder to love each other sometimes. That's the call to a community. Sometimes we think Christianity is all about our relationship with God and it's his solo flight, you know, and and that God has redeemed us and I'm under the blood of the lamb, and therefore it's God and me and I get my Bible and he's going to the woods and it's God. I mean, there's there's some beauty and some truth to that, but it's never a solo flight. It's never intended to be a solo flight. Christianity is not just about you. It's about us. It's always been about us. Love one another. I'm going to build a community. When we look, we get to heaven. There'll be those from every tribe, tongue, and nation and people, but they're not going to just look like us. Thank God. But it's always been about us. You can't love what you don't know. That's why we such stress community. I also want to say this to some of you. Some of you have a hard time letting other people love you. Some of you, and a lot of it's pride. I mean, some of you, I mean, you don't want to have someone else love you because you feel maybe insecure or you feel like you're not worthy or you feel like you should be self-sufficient and somehow maybe it's a communication of weakness that you are slowing someone to love you, but that's not what God has intended for us. He wants us to love one another. It was Peter. It was Peter who said to Jesus and here he has a towel. He's all girded up and he's got the water and he comes to Peter and Peter says, oh, no, no, no, no, not you, Jesus. You can't wash my feet. Why? There's a real thin line of heroics there because I think Peter knew. I mean, this is the Christ. This is God's son. How could God wash my feet?
And Jesus says, listen, Peter, if I don't do this, you don't have any part of me. Typical Peter fashion, then wash everything. You know, my head does pour it all over me. Peter, you're clean. I just need to do this to your feet. But some of us need to allow others to love us and to serve us. And here's the challenge for the church. You know, we're trying to do three things well here. We're trying to worship because we believe God has made us all worshipers and worship with excellence. Interesting results from the survey. Greatest strength according to you is our worship. Praise God because I do think that's primary. The second thing we're trying to do is community. We're trying to link one another up in community and the third thing is service. So let's talk about those. One is kind of a building of community and one's kind of reaching community, isn't it? You know, the amazing thing is it's since the last several years. I would say maybe five, six, ten years ago, maybe one of our greatest weaknesses was reaching community. You thought it was one of our greatest strengths now. Reaching community. I mean, we built two houses in seven months in Edenville. I mean, it's kind of the glory. It's not about us. It really is not about us. I mean, he could have raised up rocks to do it. Listen, Orange, which is not about us. But by God's grace, it's a passion to reach community here. It's not true. I mean, we're not in the edge of our seats. And I'm telling you, we've only just begun. And if you want to sit down with me sometimes I'll tell you my dreams and they're huge. And it's not just houses at schools and it's community transformation in church planning. But what came out as almost one of our weaknesses now, build community and that we aren't doing a great job linking you all to one another to love one another. I mean, it's amazing. And what we try to stress so much are these C2 small groups that you need to be in community with one another. That is primary. But you know what? I've come to realize with a church. Let's talk for a minute. It's so hard because your lives are so busy. I often feel that our ministry is competing with your ministries. You know, it's interesting. I have a friend who moved down here from the New York area, big Yankee fan. He's got to love him. And he came down here and he was an elder and a PCA church in the New York City area. And he came down. He says, I cannot believe all the personal ministries in central Florida. Everybody has their own ministry. I mean, it's like, wow, I've never seen so many people with their own ministries. I don't know what to do. Who do I support? You know, I think one of our challenges is is that we want to be very kingdom focused. Listen, it's not about Orangewood. It's not about our C2 groups. You got to love one another. You got to be in community. And thank God for BSF. I mean, thank God for a ministry like BSF. They've trained up many of you women. And then phenomenal job. And your lives have been transformed. Thank God for this two-year program called CLC. The many of your lives, men, have been transformed with that community. And your lives are transformed. I say praise God for that. Praise God for a kingdom focused. But sometimes it's hard to know how we fit in. I went, had lunch this week at a Christian Chamber of Commerce meeting. And invited to go and glad to go. And I went there. I mean, we couldn't even get in the door. We were exchanging business cards of people. I mean, it's a, it's the fastest business card exchange thing. You come with a whole stack of them. You leave with a whole other stack of them. And I love watching people's expressions because they'll walk up to you and they'll start telling you what they're going to do. And how what they're doing is going to help what I'm doing. And then they'll say, now, what do you do? And I said, I'm a pastor. And they'll have all these looks on the face. Okay. And they'll go right to the next guy. And you know how to try to connect with them. But you know, it's unbelievable. I'm sitting in the front table just about, at this Christian Chamber of Commerce meeting, which seems to be a little bit of an actually more into me. But anyway, there is this big, huge sign, it's the word I'm looking for. And it says C12 groups. We're starting C12 groups. I'm like, man, that's unbelievable. We only have C2 groups. I mean, they're 10 ahead of us already. How in the world? And it's a guy who gets up and I tell you, he's a very nice man and he loves Jesus. And he stood up and he basically said this through my ears. Listen, the church is not empowering us to reach the business world. And the academic world is not empowering us to reach the business world. So we have developed a new strategy and plan. It's called C12 groups. It's for you business leaders. It's for you CEOs. And you pay, yes, it is a profitable organization, but we want to give you excellence. And I said, how do I compete? And am I supposed to compete? I mean, I'm not going to even leave us here with an answer. I want to take us to God's word. He says, listen, love one another. And I'm just realizing, you know, George Barna has written a new book. It's called Revolution. And it's really, it's a scary book. He basically says this. He basically says that the church is efficiency. It's effectiveness is passing away. That ministries that are really working out there are working by laying them out there. And these revolutionary people out there are doing such incredible things. And as a pastor of a local church, I say, yahoo, there's great things being done in the name of Jesus. Yahoo, people are coming to Christ. But what are we to do? I mean, is it all just about providing a place for you to worship? No, I think God's called us to community and be connected to one another. You see, I also see as I read God's word, there is a primacy of the church. And I'll say that unapologetically. The church is God's primary vehicle in which He chooses to execute His will. I mean, church is what the book of Ephesians would tell us is what Jesus shed His blood to purchase. It's the it's the bride of Christ. Well, God has called us to love one another. And we need to do that with great intentionality. Be a part of a community. God has made you for a community. There's a lot of opportunities for you to get plugged into a C2 group. If you're involved in a community that's great. Ask yourself the question, how does this connect back? Because listen, I want to empower you. But I also want to empower us. There's a call to action in John 13, 17, it says this. If you know these things, Jesus said, if you hear these things and you know these things, that's not it. You are blessed if you do them. You are blessed if you do them. Peter had a focus upon Jesus. He had a focus upon the reality that Jesus himself washed his feet and hearing the words, Peter, you're blessed if you do this. Go in love likewise. Go in love likewise and serve one another.