John chapter 13, verse 34. If you don't know
this scripture, then you need to know it. It's
a good thing you're here today or listening online.
John chapter 13, verse 34. Give everybody a second
to get there and we'll read through it and then
we'll pray. This is Jesus speaking to his disciples.
This is not long after he had washed their feet.
He had humbly showed them what it meant to be
a servant of all and given them an example to
live by and to follow. And his days on the earth
are numbered. It won't be long after this point
that he is going to be crucified. And these are
some of the last words that he spoke to his disciples
here toward the end of his life. This command
we see in John 13, 34. I give you a new command.
Love one another just as I have loved you. You
must also love one another. Let's pray. God,
we come to you. We thank you for your good word.
Dear Lord, this is a simple word to understand
what you are saying, but it is... not always
easy to live out. So I pray, dear Lord, whatever
we may have come in here with, dear Lord, sometimes
we get caught up in the weeds, even trying to
understand your words, dear Lord. We get caught
up on things and we get sidetracked with things,
but God, I pray that we just see the simplicity
of this command of Jesus Christ, that we would
examine our own life to see if we are living
this out. And God, if we're not, I pray that
you would help us to see ways in our life in
which we can show your love, that we can experience
your love, Jesus Christ. If there's one who does
not know Jesus today, I pray, God, that you would
help them to know Jesus and to know the love
of Jesus. And I pray, God, that once we experience
that love, that you would help us to live out
this command and to love others. And I ask these
things in Jesus' name. Amen. We have a whole
Bible full of teachings. We have a whole Bible
full of things that Jesus taught and that Jesus
said and a whole Old Testament that contained
the law that God had given to his people. And
it was a lot of them. We kind of are familiar
with the Ten Commandments, probably most of us,
but there were a lot of laws that God had given.
And Jesus came onto the scene and Jesus taught.
in a beautiful way that was really unlike anybody
that had come before him or anyone who had come
after him. And Jesus said something here that
was so beautiful, and I think that the more that
we read the Word of God, hopefully the more that
we read the Word of God and we read the teachings
of Jesus Christ, that we see what really matters
and what's really important. And I think it's
easy for us sometimes to fall into the trap of
religion. And there are a lot of things we do,
and they're not necessarily bad things. They're
not things that God commands us to do, but we
do them, and they're not necessarily bad. But
the problem is that we can get so caught up in
doing things that may not be bad in and of themselves
that they just become routine for us, that we
begin to blur the lines from, from what righteousness
is and the kind of religion that God really calls
us to, we kind of blur the lines from what we
think religion is to what God really wants us
to know. And that was the problem that Jesus
encountered with the people that he faced. When
he came up to his ministry, there were a lot
of religious people that he had encountered,
but they didn't really grasp the law of God and
what God really wanted. And they knew the law.
He could have probably asked many of those who
confronted him, who called him out and disliked
him. He could have probably questioned many,
if not most of them, and they probably could
have answered his questions in regards to the
law, but they didn't really understand the heart
of what the law was. They were too caught up
in their religion. And I think that we have to
be careful because we can fall into that same
trap that For us, maybe a relationship with God,
we kind of just dumb it down to, well, I'm going
to come to church on a Sunday, and I'm going
to put some money in the plate, and I'm going
to sing a few songs, and maybe I'll help with
a project the church has going on every once
in a while, and we'll leave feeling pretty good
about ourselves. And all of those things are
good things. It's good for God's people to meet
together. It's good for us to give back what
God has given to us for the furtherance of his
kingdom. It's good for us to help. in the ways
that we can, but what God really wants is our
heart. He doesn't just want us to do the religious
things. He wants us to do them with the right
heart. And so the people that Jesus encountered,
many of them were very religious, but they didn't
quite understand what God really desired. And
so they had a lot of commands that they were
aware of. But what Jesus really wants his people
to know is what's most important. And we see
this throughout the gospel accounts of Jesus
Christ. That the most important commandment is
to love the Lord your God with all your heart,
mind, soul, and strength. And the second is like
it, to love your neighbor as yourself. Now the
whole law is summed up in these two statements.
Now that's a beautiful thing. That's a beautiful
thing that Jesus was able to do. It's beautiful
that you and I today, that we don't have to sit
here and we don't have to like work our way through
the Old Testament trying to figure out what sacrifices
we got to make and this one's for that and that
you ain't got to come to a priest and man, that
was a horrible mess. And the people then failed
at it and I've got bad news. We would have failed
at it too. We would have failed God and you say,
well, how do you know that? Because we do every
day. We still fail God. We still fail to live
up to his commands. And so Jesus, In such a beautiful
way, he said, look, here's what I really want
you to get. Here's what I really want you to
know. I really want you to know that you need
to love God and you need to love other people.
If you can do those things, Jesus is saying,
you've got it. You've got it. If you can do those
things, you've got it. And here he reaffirms
that same point. He says to his disciples here,
I give you. A new commandment. Now, certainly
God had called his people to love throughout
the Bible. This is not new in that sense, but
it's new in that Jesus says, here's what matters.
Jesus was soon going to go to the cross and everything
was going to be finished. He said, it is finished.
Everything was going to be fulfilled. Everything
that God had promised was going to be fulfilled
in Jesus Christ. The law was going to be fulfilled
in Jesus Christ. Everything was going to be taken
care of for you and I through Jesus Christ. The
wages of our sin was death, but Jesus paid the
ransom. He gave his life for yours and for mine.
And so Jesus had done everything, and he says,
look, here's what you need to focus on. Don't
get caught up in the Old Testament law and the
sacrifices and all these other things. Jesus
says, look, here's the new commandment. There's
a new covenant. Jesus had told his disciples
at that last supper, I'm establishing a new covenant
with my blood and my body. Here's the new covenant.
I'm establishing a new priesthood. Jesus is our
high priest as we see in the book of Hebrews.
And when there's a change in the priesthood,
the scripture says, there's a change in the law.
And so Jesus says, here's what I want you to
focus on. I give you a new command to love one
another just as I have loved you. Now that's
pretty easy for us to understand. There's not...
There's not much difficulty there, I wouldn't
think, in us understanding that very simple command.
But the difficulty doesn't come in understanding
that command. The difficulty comes in living
that command out. And the question that we need
to think about, maybe today and this week, maybe
you can spend some time and you can think about
this. And you can really ask yourself and ask
God to help you and say, God, do I really...
Love people. Now the scripture says, no man has
greater love than this, that a man would lay
down his life. Now that's exactly what Jesus
has done for us. Jesus has given his life for
every one of us. That's the ultimate example,
the ultimate definition of love. It's loving
people that are unlovable. Now it's interesting
that Jesus doesn't say in his teachings, he doesn't
say just love the lovable. Now we can all do
that. It's easy for us to love one another. Hopefully
everybody in this room, we can love one another.
Hopefully there's no troubles going on with anybody.
If there are, you need to work through that and
you sit down and talk about that. But hopefully
we can love one another. And it's easy for us
to love the lovable, but what Jesus calls us
to is... is a love that really requires some
sacrifice. It really requires some effort. And
the question that we have to answer is are we
really willing and ready to love like Jesus has
loved? Are we really ready to love those who
are unlovable? Now, I got bad news for you. When
Jesus was hanging on the cross, knowing that
you and I were going to exist, I don't believe
that he hung there and said, man, those people
are going to be so awesome. I mean, Enterprise,
they are going to be so good. And I know the
rest of the world is going to be pretty weak,
but those folks, those are good country folks,
and they're the people that I really want to
die to save. I don't know that that's what he
said. I don't know what he said or what he thought.
But I think that maybe he saw us and he saw that
we were sinners. He saw that we didn't look like
much. He saw that we were going to fail. But
even though he saw that, he still loved us. Even
though he saw all your flaws and all your sins,
even though in... In a lot of ways, you're unattractive,
and I'm unattractive because of our sinfulness.
Jesus still saw the beauty in us. And perhaps
that's what love really is. Perhaps love is not
just being attracted to what is beautiful, but
being attracted to what isn't beautiful. covered
with nastiness and wickedness and dirty and sinfulness.
That's you and I. And so Jesus shows us what
love is and he calls us to love. I give you a
new command. Love one another as I have loved
you. So it's easy for us to love the beautiful
and the lovable and the clean and the pure. But
it's not so easy for us to love those who have
hurt us. Who have done things that really hurt
us badly. Maybe physically. Maybe emotionally.
Maybe just somebody did you wrong. It's just
dirty. And those things are hard for us to get
over as human beings. We are weak in that way.
I wish that I could get over those things better.
Maybe you do. But man, those things are hard
for us to get over. And yet that's what Jesus
calls us to do. He calls us to pray for our enemies.
He calls us to love our enemies. This is a pretty
extreme teaching, but if we say we want to be
followers of Jesus Christ, then man, it's going
to take some work. We're really going to have
to ask the Lord to help change our heart. And
that change begins once we accept Jesus Christ.
Once we say, okay. Well, I wasn't really that
great. And don't fool yourself. If you come in
here thinking you were pretty good, don't fool
yourself today. You're not that great. But nevertheless,
Jesus died for us. And when we come to that realization
that we realize that, you know what, I'm not
that great, and I'm not deserving of the grace
of Jesus Christ, but yet he died on the cross
for me, then that's the start of the change of
our heart where we say, you know what? This is
what Jesus calls me to. This is his command to
me today. It's to love others as he has loved
us. So Jesus was willing to sacrifice his life.
Jesus was willing to suffer greatly. Jesus was
willing to get his hands dirty to do the will
of the Father. But what about you and I? We say
we love, but do we? Well, the way that we know
that we love is through our actions. It's not
just something we say. It's not just a feeling.
It's not just a word that we say to one another.
Love is shown in action. Jesus showed he loved
the Father because he was obedient to the Father.
Jesus showed that he loved God and that he loved
you and I because he gave his life on a cross.
Jesus showed that he loved people because he
had compassion on them. Jesus showed that he
loved people because he was willing to touch
people that the religious people didn't want
to touch. He was willing to drive out demons
and he was willing to heal those who were unclean.
Jesus was full of compassion. He showed his love
in so many ways. But what about you and I? So
I'm at church today. I love God. Well, I'm glad
you're at church today. I praise the Lord. That's
good. But do you show your love of God through
the way you live your life? Are there things
that God calls you to, opportunities that God
puts in your path, and you don't do it? Because
sometimes love is hard. Sometimes love calls
us to places. that we don't want to be. It calls
us to people that we don't want to be around.
There are so many people that God calls us to,
to serve, to love. The poor and the needy and
the widows and the orphans and those who are
in prison. And dealing with those people, guess
what? Very seldom is it easy. It's usually very
hard. Because we don't want to get involved with
those kind of people. We don't want to go to
the prisons, do we? You know what those people
have done in there? It's probably not safe. We
can come up with some excuses, boy. You want
some excuses to not do something? You come see
me. I can give you excuses. I should write a
book on excuses. Chan's book of excuses. I can
come up, and y 'all probably can't do this. Y
'all probably don't do this. But man, if there's
something I feel like I need to do, I can come
up with a million reasons to justify why God
probably really doesn't want me to do it. But
it don't work because in our heart, we already
know that God does want us to do it. And so we
can't. We can't go visit anybody in prison because
it's scary and it's dirty. And I'd love to do
it, but I can't do it this weekend. I got other
stuff I got to do. Can't go visit people in a
nursing home because we don't like to see people
in that shape. We come up with excuses. Part
of our excuses is we need to toughen up. I say,
oh, I can't do that. I can't go to a nursing
home. It just breaks my heart to see those people.
Well, praise the Lord. It should break our heart
to see people who are suffering. You know what
else it should do? It should cause us to have
some compassion. To say, man, these people are
suffering. They're laying in these beds all day.
And a lot of them, their family doesn't even
come to see them. And we make excuses. We say,
oh, it's too hard. Or, man, it stinks. I don't
want to go there. Oh, it's scary there. I don't
want to think about that. So we miss opportunities
to love people. Because we don't want to get
our hands dirty. We say, man, I don't want to
get involved with the orphans. want to get involved
in that. I don't know what their background is.
What am I going to get into if I get involved
with these kids? We don't want to get involved
with the poor and the needy and the homeless.
They should have done better and they wouldn't
be in that shape. Man, he's high. He's drunk.
He stinks. I don't want to do that. There's a
part of us that says, yeah, I'll just put an
extra 20 in the offering plate. Well, praise
the Lord, that's good. It takes money to do the
Lord's work, but if we really want to do the
Lord's work and our lives be transformed, then
we have to love people. We have to stop making
excuses in our life as to why we can't. We don't
want to. We've got to toughen up. And we've got
to say, God, this is hard for me and this is
scary for me. And I don't know if I really want
to do this, God. There's a part of me that doesn't.
But if we follow Jesus Christ, there should be
something within us that even though the human
part of us says, I don't want to put myself in
that situation, that the Spirit of God just calls
us to love people in a way that He loves people.
That we don't see people who are struggling and
turn a blind eye. But that we see them and it
does something to us. It breaks us in a way that
draws us to have compassion on them. But we don't
want to do that sometimes. We don't want to do
that. Because things are pretty good in this
church on this pew. Things are pretty good for
us when we come together and we sing a few songs
and we throw some money in the plate. And things
are pretty good when we do that. So don't tell
me about the person struggling on the street.
Don't tell me about the person down the road
that doesn't have food to eat. Don't tell me
about the kids who don't have a family. Don't
tell me about the homeless guy. Don't tell me
about the people in the prisons. I don't want
to hear about them because that's going to mess
up my little view of the world. And we don't
want to have to deal with that. We don't want
to have to think about it. And so we just, we
push these things to the side. But that's not
love. Jesus saw those who were weak and who were
sick and who were sinners. And Jesus showed love.
He brought love to them. He brought compassion
to them. And what about you and I? What about
you and I? You can't just tell people you love
them. You have to show people you love them.
You want to lead people to Jesus Christ, you
love them. You can share the gospel with them,
praise the Lord, you do that. And there are a
lot of people that come to the Lord. But if you
really want people to listen to you, you love
those people. And you make the time. We'll say
that, oh, I ain't got time, I'm too busy. Boy,
don't we say that. We are all so busy. It is
unbelievable that we can be here today. We are
so busy. How in the world did we carve out an
hour? And you're hoping it's only going to be
an hour. God, please don't let him preach 15
minutes too long. I'm too busy. We're always
so busy. I say that sometimes. Like I always,
in my mind, I think, I'm so busy. And then somebody
will ask me occasionally, they'll say, oh, what
did you do today? Or this week? And I'm like,
dang. I am so busy, but I really can't think
of five things that I did this week that are
worth anything. So maybe we aren't as busy as
we think we are. And maybe you need to make some
time this week to love somebody. Now, I don't
know who that is, but you probably do. You probably
already know somebody that's on your mind, that's
on your heart. Make some time and love that person.
You say, I don't want to go see that person.
It's too hard. They're in bad shape. Well, then
you've got to toughen up. You don't think it's
hard for people who are struggling and who are
in bad health? You don't think it's hard for
them to sit there alone day after day after day?
You say, man, I wish I could help somebody. I
know they ain't got no food, but I don't know.
We ain't got much food either. Well, you got
some food. Maybe you got a bag of rice you could
take. Maybe you got something you could do. Maybe
instead of turning a blind eye and a deaf ear
to those in need, we say, okay, God, help me
to love people like you love people. There are
lots of people that we encounter. We need to
love them. Some of you may be saying, yeah, but
you're the preacher. That's your job. It is my
job, praise the Lord. But it's your job. It's
not just the job of the preacher to love people.
It's the job of the Christian. So those of us
who follow Jesus Christ, that's what God calls
us to. And you don't even know the blessing that
you're missing. You don't even know. When you
miss those opportunities to love. And we miss
them because sometimes we just kind of prejudge.
We've got a preconceived notion about the people
that we're going to see or choices that they
made or whatever's going on in their life. But
maybe we just need to ask God to help us to get
that out of our mind and just talk to people
as though they are people. And just love them.
Just find out who they are. Find out what their
struggles are, their pains are. Just love them.
Just show some compassion. And whatever way that
looks like, I don't know there's a million needs
and a bunch of ways to meet those needs. But
you might be surprised how much a visit would
mean to somebody. Because one day, Praise the
Lord, we can all get here today because we're
all here. That's great. One day, if you live
long enough, it may be you in a bed, in a room,
in a place that's not your home, and there you
are alone, afraid, miserable, and in pain with
nothing to look forward to but a meal that tastes
horrible. And neighbors that are hollering and
screaming across the hall from you. And that's
all you've got to look forward to. And you never
see a soul that comes to say hello. That's going
to be you one day probably. It's a good chance
that's going to be you. Wouldn't it be great
if you said, you know what? I don't know if anybody's
going to come see me when I'm old, but I'm going
to go see somebody. And I'm going to love somebody.
And I don't know why that homeless person's on
the street and what their struggles are, but
if not by the grace of God, that could be me
one day. And I don't know what they've done,
and they may not deserve a morsel of food from
me, but I see them and I have compassion on them,
just as Jesus did. So I'm going to love them.
If we're going to love like Jesus loved, we're
going to have to get our hands dirty. It's not
always going to be easy. It's going to mean that
sometimes we get out of our comfort zone. We
have to do things that are tough, that are painful,
things that break our heart. But maybe in that
process we learn things about people. Maybe in
that process, God begins to change our heart
as our heart begins to have compassion on others.
Jesus said, I give you a new command to love
like I have loved. I watched a video this week.
You can look it up. It was almost too hard to
watch, I'll be honest with you. It was about
a young man. His name was Marky Jackwiz, and
he was 21 years old when he passed away. He was
born with a rare disease. I won't even try to
say the medical term. It's usually known by the
name of butterfly skin. If you're not familiar
with this disease, I'll tell you a little bit
about it. As the body is formed in the womb,
the skin doesn't form properly. It doesn't stick
together. It doesn't stick to you. And so very
likely, with the lightest little brush, the skin
is removed from your body. So when this young
man was born, when he came from the womb, just
that process had left him with a lot of his skin
removed. He wasn't expected to live very long.
He ended up living 21 years. There are lots of
videos about him, about his family, about his
story. And pitiful, pitiful. You can only imagine
the pain that he felt from the moment he was
conceived in the womb to the moment that he died.
His skin was constantly... Being removed from
his skin day after day after day. Hard to look
upon something like that. Hard to look upon something
like that. We don't want to know that those stories
exist. We don't want to know that those people
exist. But those are people that need to know
that there is the love of Jesus Christ, that
there is compassion, that there is hope. Can
you imagine being in such pain? Day in and day
out for 21 years with your skin being ripped
from your body. You can't take antibiotics continually.
And so to keep infection from spreading throughout
the body, bandages are dipped in bleach and wrapped
around his body, his open wounds. Day after day.
After day. And you want to know something. That's
pretty crazy about. Marky. Is that he loved.
Jesus Christ. And you watch him. His frail. Skinless
body. With blood seeping. From his open wounds.
You see these videos of Marky with his hands
to the heavens praising the Lord. Day after day
after day. I don't know what's going on in your
life. And I ain't telling you that it ain't bad.
I'm not belittling your situation. Maybe things
aren't as bad as you thought they were. Before
he died, a few days before he died, he told his
mother, he said, I saw Jesus. He said, Jesus
came to me. He let me see him. And his mother
said, what did he look like? And Mark, he said,
he looked like love. He looked like love. What
do people say about you and me? If you were to
ask people that know you, what does he look like?
What does she look like? How would people describe
you? I'm not talking about, oh, he's six foot
tall, he's got a beard, he's 100. I'm not talking
about that. I'm talking about if people had to
describe you, what word would they describe you
with? But they say, well, he looks like anger.
He looks like meanness. He looks like wickedness.
He looks like negativity. What word would people
use to describe you? Let's not fool ourselves,
because we'd probably all sit here and say, boy,
if somebody had to describe me, they would say
awesome. Maybe we're not that awesome. When Mark
saw Jesus, he said he looks like love. Can people
say that about us? Can people say that about
you? In a way that you treat other people? In
a way that you have compassion on other people?
In a way that you care for other people? By the
way that you give to other people? By the way
that you pray for other people and hug other
people and give an encouraging word to other
people. Can people describe you as love? Well,
if not, today's a good day for us to go to the
Lord and say, God, we know what love is through
Jesus Christ. Help us to experience that and
help us to be love to others. Because that's
what Jesus has called us to. I give you a new
command. Love one another as I have loved you.
Are you doing that today? Do you have opportunities
to love and you make excuses to avoid it? Stop
making excuses. God gives you opportunities.
And ask Him to give you the strength to love
like He's loved. Maybe today you don't really
know what love is. Maybe you're questioning and
you're trying to figure out what love is. Love
is Jesus. Love is Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
who was beaten and mocked and nailed to a cross
so that your sins could be forgiven. Not because
you deserve it, but because he loves you. That's
the Lord and Savior worth loving. And it's Jesus
Christ who said, look, here's the example. And
here's your command. Go and do the same. Let's
pray. God, we come to you today. We thank you
for your good word. I pray that you help us to
examine our own hearts. Help us to see, God,
if there's things there that shouldn't be there.
Maybe we don't love the way that we should. God,
I pray that you would help us to be a people
that would see the opportunities we have to serve
and not make up excuses. Dear Lord, it's not
always easy. There may be times, God, that we
have to get our hands dirty. But dear Lord, whatever
it is you call us to, I pray, God, that we would
look at people different, dear Lord. That we
wouldn't look with a heart of judgment, but that
we would look with a heart of compassion, and
that would drive our actions, dear Lord. God,
if there's one that doesn't know Jesus Christ,
I pray today that they would know His love, that
they would experience His love. And for the rest
who do know Him, God, I pray that we would follow
this command to love others. And I ask these
things in Jesus' name. Amen.