1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 One profound privilege of being a Christian 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:07,000 is that you belong now to a family. 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:10,000 You belong to a family. 4 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:16,000 Pastor John Piper, author, pastor, says that the church 5 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:18,000 is not a place and it's not a building, 6 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:20,000 it's not a preaching point, 7 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:23,000 it's not a spiritual service provider, 8 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:27,000 but it's a people, the family of Jesus, 9 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:31,000 sons and daughters of God, a community. 10 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:36,000 Dr. Tim Keller said something similar, 11 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:39,000 described the church as a family of orphans 12 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:41,000 adopted by grace. 13 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:47,000 Pastor Rick Warren said in Purpose Driven Life, 14 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:52,000 you are called to belong, not just believe. 15 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:55,000 The truth is that as humans, 16 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:58,000 we're wired for belonging. 17 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:00,000 It's in our very DNA. 18 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,000 There was one author and sociologist wrote 19 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:04,000 that all people have a desire to fit 20 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,000 into some sort of group or category. 21 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,000 We all want to fit in. 22 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:12,000 If you ever were in high school or junior high, 23 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:14,000 you know all about that, right? 24 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:16,000 Fit in, I want to fit in, 25 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:17,000 I want to have the right shoes, 26 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:18,000 I want to have the right pants, 27 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:21,000 the right hairstyle for whatever the current moment, 28 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:24,000 cultural moment is, I want to fit in. 29 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:26,000 I want to belong. 30 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:30,000 There was this weird study that some scientists did 31 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:34,000 when they had some spare time and some money. 32 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:36,000 They decided, hey, you know what we should do? 33 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:37,000 We should test this theory out. 34 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:40,000 And what we're gonna do is we're gonna conduct 35 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:45,000 this study and intentionally divide some folks 36 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,000 into groups based upon only their preference 37 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:50,000 for chewing gum flavor. 38 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:52,000 So, okay, let's see. 39 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:53,000 Let's divide them into their groups, 40 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:56,000 chewing gum flavor, but after the participants 41 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:59,000 were able to kind of observe what everyone else's tastes 42 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:02,000 were, what their flavor of gum was, 43 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:04,000 certain individuals were given the ability 44 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:08,000 to anonymously give money to whoever they wanted, 45 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:10,000 any other participant. 46 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:13,000 And they wanted to see who they would anonymously 47 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:17,000 give this money to with the only commonality 48 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,000 or the only thing being measured was chewing gum flavor. 49 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,000 And some of you probably already jumped to the conclusion, 50 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:24,000 right? 51 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:27,000 Those who were given the opportunity to anonymously 52 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:30,000 give money to any of the participants 53 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:34,000 overwhelmingly gave the money to the participants 54 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:36,000 who shared the same like that they had 55 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:38,000 for the same chewing gum flavor. 56 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,000 Even without speaking, even without saying it 57 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,000 or getting together, they wanted to belong. 58 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:47,000 They wanted to give to those who were like them. 59 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,000 And that study suggests that our inclination 60 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:53,000 is to form tribes or groups. 61 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:57,000 It's just natural to us to find folks who are like us 62 00:02:57,000 --> 00:02:59,000 and to want to be with them, 63 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:04,000 even at a superficial level of chewing gum flavor. 64 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,000 It's natural for humans to see the world 65 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,000 through this lens of us versus them. 66 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:15,000 I'll illustrate this point even further 67 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,000 by coming down here and grabbing from the front row 68 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:22,000 and wearing for the rest of the sermon a Charger's hat. 69 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:27,000 Crucify him. 70 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:35,000 And our ushers will go ahead and open the door 71 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:37,000 for the next thing that I'll say, which is, 72 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:42,000 I also have a dislike of the 49ers. 73 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:47,000 So, there you go. 74 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:48,000 I'm out there now. 75 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:50,000 I'm all out there. 76 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:52,000 But that just proves it, right? 77 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:55,000 You ever been to a football game or a baseball game? 78 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:56,000 You've seen the rivalries. 79 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:58,000 Then you introduce a little alcohol, 80 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:00,000 and then you've got fights and brawls going in the stands 81 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:01,000 and in the parking lot. 82 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:05,000 I took my boys once to a Charger's Raiders game. 83 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:10,000 And they're like, oh, I'm going to be a Charger. 84 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,000 They were young. 85 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:15,000 And it was actually preseason game. 86 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,000 They were young, but, man, can you imagine afterward 87 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,000 we made a beeline for our car. 88 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:24,000 There were fights breaking out on every side of the pathway, 89 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:26,000 the walkway there, people throwing fists, 90 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:28,000 and I was like, boys, just come on. 91 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:29,000 Eyes on me. 92 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:30,000 Eyes on me, ducklings. 93 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:31,000 Come on. 94 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:33,000 We got to go. 95 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:35,000 We divide. 96 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:38,000 We gather around what we like. 97 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:42,000 And who's like us? 98 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:45,000 Got friends down in Lodi, pastors. 99 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:47,000 And I remember having a conversation with one 100 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:49,000 then once talking about Lodi, 101 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,000 and there's some railroad tracks in Lodi. 102 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:54,000 And there's the people who live on that side of the railroad tracks, 103 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:57,000 and there's the people who live on the other side of the railroad tracks. 104 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:00,000 And these people are different and don't like each other. 105 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:03,000 And you can imagine what happens when government officials think 106 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:06,000 that the great idea is to integrate them into the same school. 107 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:08,000 And it's like, what on earth is going on here? 108 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:10,000 We've got to get through this tension that's here. 109 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:14,000 And for whatever reason, they've divided. 110 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:16,000 They have different socioeconomic status. 111 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:18,000 Maybe it's racial. 112 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:21,000 Whatever the divide is, we divide. 113 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:23,000 We're always drawing lines. 114 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:27,000 We're always building up walls, us versus them. 115 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:35,000 Don't even get me started on social media, right? 116 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:38,000 It would be one thing if we just wanted to belong to a group. 117 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:41,000 We just wanted to have folks that we could be with and be like. 118 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,000 But the problem is, as we've illustrated, 119 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:46,000 is that not only do we want to belong, 120 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:50,000 but we also in the end favor our group over other groups. 121 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:55,000 And this, in some instances, works its way toward wanting and wishing 122 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:59,000 and willing the demise of the other group. 123 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:00,000 So I want to ask you this morning, 124 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:04,000 how many invisible lines have you drawn in your life 125 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:09,000 separating you or us from them? 126 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:10,000 How many lines have you drawn? 127 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:17,000 How many walls have you erected to say, us, we're not like them? 128 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:19,000 And then I want to go a little bit further and ask, 129 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:26,000 at what cost to our ability to love as Christ's love? 130 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:30,000 What is the cost of those walls and dividing lines that you have erected 131 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,000 in your life, that I've erected in my life, 132 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:37,000 to my ability to share and show the love of Jesus in this world? 133 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:40,000 There is a cost. 134 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:43,000 There is a cost. 135 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:46,000 And the truth is that our human desire for belonging 136 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:51,000 is utterly and completely corrupted by sin. 137 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:52,000 It's corrupted by sin. 138 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:57,000 Sin is this small word that's just packed with implications. 139 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:02,000 The Bible shows that before anything or anyone was created, 140 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:06,000 God, who has no beginning, was there. 141 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:11,000 And that God exists in a unique way beyond our comprehension. 142 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:15,000 God exists as a Trinity. 143 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:21,000 God as three persons who share in one divine essence. 144 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:23,000 And in a sense, you could say that God existed 145 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:26,000 and has always existed in a community, 146 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:29,000 as hard as it is for us to wrap our brain around that concept, 147 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:33,000 that God, three persons in one essence, one divine essence, 148 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:38,000 has existed in a community for all time, 149 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:47,000 eternally existing in eternal existing mutual love. 150 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:49,000 Jesus, who is the second person of the Trinity, 151 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:52,000 said of his father that his father had loved him 152 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:54,000 since before the foundations of the world, 153 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:58,000 since before creation, they existed in a relationship 154 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:01,000 of mutual love. 155 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:03,000 And that is what makes up the Godhead, 156 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:08,000 or who we call God, three persons, one essence, 157 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:13,000 a God of mutual love. 158 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:16,000 And it was out of this eternally existing love 159 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:20,000 between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit 160 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:29,000 that God poured out that love and created humankind, created us. 161 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:34,000 Humans exist because the God of love, overflowing with love, 162 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:40,000 made objects of love so that he could relate to them in love. 163 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:43,000 And not only that, but Genesis says that God made humankind 164 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:47,000 in his own image and likeness. 165 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:50,000 In other words, God made humankind with the same capacity 166 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:55,000 to love and to relate. 167 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:57,000 So if that's true and that's the beginning, what happened, right? 168 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:00,000 Well, we rebelled. 169 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:04,000 We rebelled against our Creator, and instead of returning to God 170 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:07,000 the love that he had poured out to us in creation, 171 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:10,000 we chose instead to believe a lie, 172 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:14,000 to believe that God was not out for our good, 173 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:17,000 that God wanted to withhold something from us, 174 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:20,000 that God wanted to keep from us what was good, 175 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:23,000 and that the only way that we could live in advance in our life 176 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:26,000 was if we took hold of it ourselves, 177 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:30,000 if we reached out and took hold of whatever it is that we wanted, 178 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:35,000 not trusting God, but instead grabbing it for ourselves. 179 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:40,000 And in doing so, we broke God's commands, 180 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:43,000 and humankind became lawbreakers. 181 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:46,000 And what has happened since then for all of humanity, 182 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:48,000 everyone who's in the sound of my voice, 183 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:50,000 everyone who's in this room, is this, 184 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:53,000 that we have gone into a death spiral. 185 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:57,000 Sin has caused a death spiral to happen with God's good creation. 186 00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:59,000 And even in the biblical narrative, 187 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:05,000 the very next thing that happens is that two brothers turn against each other, 188 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:08,000 one against the other, and murders him. 189 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:11,000 We see the human relationship begin to unravel. 190 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:13,000 We see murder introduced. 191 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:18,000 We see war and deceit, deception, hating. 192 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:21,000 And we began to see the grouping and categories 193 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:26,000 that become all too familiar for us as humans, 194 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:29,000 where we gather up with those who are like us, 195 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:32,000 and those who are not like us, we hate. 196 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:35,000 Those who are not like us, we despise. 197 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:37,000 Those who are not like us, 198 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:41,000 we can even unconsciously make all kinds of judgments about them, 199 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:44,000 never meeting them, never knowing them, 200 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,000 they're just not like me. 201 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:48,000 They're not like us. 202 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:54,000 And so we divide, we conquer, and then we gloat, 203 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:58,000 like every time the 49ers lose. 204 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:01,000 Sorry. 205 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:04,000 Sorry. 206 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:09,000 I can feel the tension in the room. 207 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:13,000 We don't resemble the love. 208 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:17,000 We don't resemble the love that overflowed from the creator at the beginning, 209 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:20,000 that poured out into our lives. 210 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:25,000 But here's the glory of the gospel that God was not done with creation yet, 211 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:28,000 that God would not abandon his work, 212 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:33,000 that God had a plan even for that. 213 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:37,000 I work with wood often, well, at least I did before my garage 214 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:41,000 filled up with all kinds of stuff, so less often now than before. 215 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:44,000 But when I would go down and do some woodworking, 216 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:46,000 I'd oftentimes have this beautiful concept in my mind 217 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:48,000 of this thing I was going to create. 218 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:50,000 Of course, I lacked all the skill to do it, 219 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:52,000 but I had it in my mind still, 220 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:55,000 and the internet will make you believe all kinds of things about yourself, 221 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:57,000 that you can do anything, especially YouTube. 222 00:11:57,000 --> 00:11:59,000 So I would go down to the garage and I'd be like, 223 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:03,000 here we go, we're launching out, we're going to build this thing. 224 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:07,000 And a couple hours into it, a lot of sweat later, 225 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:10,000 you look at your mutant child and you're like, ugh, 226 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:14,000 and throw it off into a bin somewhere to collect dust. 227 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:18,000 And repeatedly doing that, I abandoned many, many projects. 228 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:21,000 There are also other projects that I would start, 229 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:24,000 and if you had the dedication and the wherewithal, you would start, 230 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:27,000 and maybe it didn't originally look like it was supposed to. 231 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:30,000 But I had in mind a way that you could recreate this thing 232 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:33,000 to something beautiful. 233 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:36,000 That's a relative term, nothing I ever made was beautiful, 234 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:40,000 but functional. 235 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:42,000 God wasn't done with his creation. 236 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:45,000 He had created it in goodness, he had called it good. 237 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:50,000 But a function of that creation is that mankind chose rebellion. 238 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:53,000 And God, instead of wrapping it up in a little bundle 239 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:57,000 and throwing it on the dustbin of history or throwing it in the fire, 240 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:00,000 he says, you know what, I'm going to recreate this. 241 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:03,000 I'm going to do something unexpected. 242 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:06,000 And in fact, what God would do is that he would tear the divide 243 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:11,000 between heaven and earth wide open in order to save and restore his creation. 244 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:16,000 Jesus Christ, the God who took on humanity, came to do just that. 245 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:21,000 He came to reclaim the human heart, the heart that had been corrupted by sin, 246 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:24,000 the heart that had drawn dividing lines and said, us and them, 247 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:26,000 Jesus said, I'm going to reclaim that. 248 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:29,000 I'm going to reclaim that human heart, but not just rehabilitate it, 249 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:32,000 not just dust it off so that it looks pretty. 250 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:35,000 In fact, what I'm going to do is I'm going to remake it. 251 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:41,000 I'm going to remake it altogether. 252 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:45,000 And Jesus as a man, he would love God perfectly. 253 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:47,000 He would love others perfectly. 254 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:49,000 He would obey God and he would seek him, 255 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:54,000 not for his own interests, but he would willingly place himself in our place 256 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:58,000 to take the just penalty for our sin on that cross 257 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:02,000 so that we in place of the penalty that we deserve, 258 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:06,000 the wrath that we deserve, we might receive forgiveness. 259 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:09,000 We might have our debt lifted off as we sang earlier. 260 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:11,000 It is done. 261 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:13,000 It is finished. 262 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:19,000 No more debt I owe. 263 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:26,000 To be a Christian is to have a completely new heart, a new heart. 264 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:37,000 Tim Keller has a quote, to be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. 265 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:42,000 To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. 266 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:44,000 The gospel is this. 267 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:49,000 We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, 268 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:55,000 yet at the same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ 269 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:59,000 than we ever dared hope. 270 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:04,000 To be a Christian is to be, to have a completely new heart, 271 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:07,000 to receive the love of God in Christ, 272 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:10,000 to be set free from our guilt and shame, 273 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:12,000 and to be brought into a new family. 274 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:17,000 And the new hearted Christian, the new hearted Christian is governed by a law 275 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:22,000 and that is the law of love. 276 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:26,000 In Romans chapter 13, beginning in verse 8, 277 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:29,000 Paul writing to the church in Rome, 278 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:33,000 Jewish and Gentile believers where he's trying to get them to understand 279 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:36,000 the gospel of Jesus Christ and how glorious it is 280 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:38,000 that it didn't create two separate people, 281 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:42,000 but God in the gospel and the good news was trying to unite the people 282 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:46,000 to tear down the dividing walls and bring them together in Christ. 283 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:49,000 He's trying to do, say that the traditional walls and categories 284 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:52,000 of ethnicity and culture and religious background, 285 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:54,000 those are no more in Christ. 286 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:58,000 We are one, made whole again in Christ. 287 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:00,000 Those were the effects of sin. 288 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:03,000 Those were the product of a corrupt heart. 289 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:06,000 But in Christ we might be brought together again, 290 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:07,000 no more dividing lines. 291 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:10,000 He says this in Romans 13, beginning in verse 8, 292 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:19,000 do not owe anyone anything except to love one another, 293 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:23,000 for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 294 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:26,000 The commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, 295 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:31,000 do not covet or any other commandment are summed up by this commandment, 296 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:33,000 love your neighbor as yourself. 297 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:43,000 Love does no wrong to a neighbor, love therefore is the fulfillment of the law. 298 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:47,000 To them, Paul is saying, beginning by saying, 299 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:50,000 don't owe anything to anyone except to love one another, 300 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:54,000 for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 301 00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:57,000 Another version says, let no debt remain outstanding, 302 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:02,000 except your continuing debt to love one another. 303 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:06,000 And so Paul begins here by saying that your first priority in this new family 304 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,000 that you've been brought into in Christ, 305 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:12,000 if you are in Christ, you are family, you belong, 306 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:14,000 you are a part of a new family, 307 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:19,000 and in this new family your first priority is to love one another. 308 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:24,000 Church, love one another, love one another. 309 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:28,000 This is to believers, this kind of love has a drawing effect. 310 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:33,000 Jesus said to his disciples, they will know you are mine. 311 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:36,000 By what? 312 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:40,000 By the way you love one another. 313 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:43,000 The way we love one another becomes a drawing, 314 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:46,000 has a drawing effect on the world around us. 315 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:49,000 It begins here, it begins in the house, 316 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:52,000 and the way that we love one another becomes this standing invitation 317 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:57,000 to everyone outside that they can exit a world of hate, 318 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:00,000 and come into a kingdom of love. 319 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:04,000 Exit a world of hate, exit a world of walls and dividing lines, 320 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:06,000 and come into the kingdom of love. 321 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:09,000 That's what our love for one another does. 322 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:12,000 But it doesn't stop there. 323 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:14,000 It doesn't end there. 324 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:17,000 He goes on, Paul says not only that we are to love one another, 325 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:23,000 but then he says, when we love another, we fulfill the law. 326 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:25,000 And love another is a way of him saying, 327 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:28,000 kind of blowing it out, love one another, that's code for the church. 328 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:30,000 That's code for believers. 329 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:33,000 But to love another, well, that expands it out. 330 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:36,000 And he goes even further by saying to love your neighbor as yourself. 331 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:39,000 Well, Jesus taught who our neighbor is. 332 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:42,000 In the illustration that he used, it was the very people 333 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:46,000 that the Jewish folks reviled and hated, the Samaritans. 334 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:51,000 He said, he used them as the example of the person who did good 335 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:55,000 by loving the Jewish man who was injured. 336 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,000 That's what it means to love. 337 00:18:57,000 --> 00:18:59,000 And so he blows it out and says it doesn't stop 338 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:01,000 with just loving one another. 339 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:03,000 He expands it to everyone outside. 340 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:05,000 You can imagine this, right? 341 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:08,000 If you go out and you hook up with someone at coffee, 342 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,000 you go to the local Starbucks. 343 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:14,000 And you meet them, you're like, hey, I want to evangelize this person. 344 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:16,000 I want them to know Jesus. 345 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:19,000 So I'm going to be super nice to them, always have a smile, 346 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:21,000 be very pleasant with them. 347 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:22,000 I'm going to love them. 348 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:24,000 They're going to think, wow, man, this guy's a believer 349 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:26,000 and his life is so different. 350 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:28,000 He loves me and he loves everyone. 351 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:30,000 I see the way he interacts with everyone else. 352 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:33,000 And finally, you break through and you get him to come to church. 353 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:37,000 I think you bring him here and he finds out that we hate each other. 354 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:39,000 We can't stand each other. 355 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:40,000 We're backbiting. 356 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:41,000 We're talking about each other. 357 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:43,000 There's little factions in the corner gossiping 358 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:45,000 and slandering and talking. 359 00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:47,000 What is he going to think? 360 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:49,000 It starts here. 361 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:54,000 It starts among God's people to love one another deeply. 362 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:59,000 We can't bring them in until we understand that. 363 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:03,000 The moment they step in, they'll go, what a bunch of hypocrites. 364 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:07,000 What a bunch of whitewashed tombs. 365 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:14,000 And so it starts here, but it spills out the doors. 366 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:17,000 It tears down the wall. 367 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:19,000 We can't contain it because when it's in here 368 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:23,000 and it starts to bubble out, people start to take notice. 369 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:27,000 And then when they do visit, they go, oh, my gosh, it's even better here. 370 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:28,000 I was just meeting with you. 371 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:32,000 Now there's 50, 60, 70 other people who are just like you, 372 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:39,000 who are growing in love and care and genuine concern. 373 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:42,000 Tear it down. 374 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:47,000 It is sin, Paul says, to allow a debt to remain outstanding. 375 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:49,000 It's sin to allow a debt to remain. 376 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:53,000 That doesn't mean you can't borrow, you can't get your car loan or your home loan, 377 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:55,000 but you should pay it back. 378 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:56,000 That's what that means. 379 00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:59,000 When you borrow money from someone else, it's not your money. 380 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:02,000 Pay back, then it's yours. 381 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:03,000 That's what he's saying. 382 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:05,000 Let no debt remain outstanding. 383 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:08,000 Pay it the way that you agreed to on time. 384 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:15,000 But then he says there is a debt that no matter how much you pay, 385 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:20,000 will never be fulfilled, never be completely current. 386 00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:23,000 It will always be running. 387 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:28,000 And that is your remaining debt to love one another. 388 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:33,000 And that means if you're here and you're 150 years old, anyone? 389 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:34,000 I see you. 390 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:35,000 Yeah. 391 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:37,000 Jordan back in the back, 150. 392 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:42,000 Or anywhere underneath that, no one in here can say, I have loved enough. 393 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:46,000 I have loved enough. 394 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:49,000 I'm free. 395 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:51,000 Jordan's going to love this. 396 00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:53,000 Jordan's a good friend. 397 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:54,000 Jordan Mugford there at the back. 398 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:55,000 He raised his hand. 399 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,000 He's 150 years old, so he's got a lot of knowledge and wisdom. 400 00:21:58,000 --> 00:21:59,000 He's going to love this one. 401 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:02,000 The national debt is about $30 trillion. 402 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:03,000 It's north of 30 trillion. 403 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:05,000 I can't even keep track of it. 404 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:10,000 North of 30 trillion dollars is our national debt in the U.S. 405 00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:17,000 Did you know that if you were to spend $1,000 every single day of your life, 406 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:23,000 that it would take you 82 million years to pay off the national debt? 407 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:28,000 Spend $1,000 a day every day for the rest of your life, 408 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:33,000 it would take you 82 million years to pay off the national debt. 409 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:34,000 That's how big that number. 410 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:36,000 That's not even real. 411 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,000 That's not real money at that point in time. 412 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:42,000 That's just something. 413 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:47,000 You owe your brothers and sisters and others a debt of love 414 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:52,000 that is more expansive than the national debt. 415 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:53,000 You owe your brothers and sisters. 416 00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:54,000 Turn to your left and right. 417 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:56,000 Look at the people around you. 418 00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:59,000 These folks in here, your brothers and sisters in Christ, 419 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:04,000 if you are in Christ, you owe them a debt of love that is more expansive 420 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:05,000 than the national debt. 421 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:10,000 But the paradox is that we continually, as we continually pay on that debt of love, 422 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:13,000 we're actually fulfilling the law. 423 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:16,000 We're actually fulfilling the law as we continually pay on that debt. 424 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:20,000 We're living out God's intention for human relationships 425 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:26,000 in the fullest possible way, to love one another. 426 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:31,000 Paul had actually spent some time earlier in Romans explaining 427 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:33,000 what kind of love he is talking about. 428 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:37,000 Beginning in Romans chapter 12, verse 9, we read, 429 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:40,000 let love be without hypocrisy. 430 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:43,000 How many of you guys like hypocrites? 431 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:45,000 Yeah? 432 00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:48,000 Detest evil. 433 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:49,000 Cling to what is good. 434 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:53,000 Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. 435 00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:57,000 This is a concept that's very difficult for some folks to believe that they were 436 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:05,000 brought into a family that is more real than maybe even their blood relatives. 437 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:09,000 More real that your brothers and sisters in Christ, 438 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:16,000 they are your eternal family, the family for which you will spend all of eternity. 439 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:19,000 And so you are to love them as brothers and sisters. 440 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:20,000 I love this next part. 441 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:24,000 Take the lead in honoring one another. 442 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:25,000 Take the lead. 443 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:27,000 Don't wait. 444 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:31,000 Take the lead in honoring one another. 445 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:35,000 And don't do it half-hearted, begrudgingly. 446 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:38,000 Do it with zeal. 447 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:41,000 Fervor like in the Spirit, like serving the Lord. 448 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:43,000 Love one another. 449 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:45,000 Rejoice in hope. 450 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:47,000 Be patient in affliction. 451 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:48,000 Persistent in prayer. 452 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,000 And share with the saints in need. 453 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:53,000 Pursue hospitality. 454 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:57,000 This is the kind of love that we've been brought into, the family of God. 455 00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:01,000 What it means to belong is to belong in a family of love that represents the 456 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,000 words of Romans, that Romans 12 represents to us. 457 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,000 And it's very instructive. 458 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:09,000 But you know that this kind of love, while it would be good, 459 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:12,000 it would not be revolutionary. 460 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,000 There are groups in this world that do not have Christ, 461 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:20,000 yet love very well internally in their group. 462 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,000 Do you know the next part is what breaks it free? 463 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:28,000 The next part is what blows it out and makes it a revolutionary kind of love. 464 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:33,000 Bless those who persecute you. 465 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:37,000 Bless and do not curse. 466 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:41,000 Bless those who are against you, who are in opposition to you, 467 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:44,000 who stand for everything you don't stand for. 468 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:45,000 Bless them. 469 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,000 Hold your tongue. 470 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:50,000 Don't curse. 471 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:52,000 That's radical. 472 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:53,000 That's radical. 473 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:59,000 And later on down in verse 19 he says, friends, do not avenge yourselves, 474 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:03,000 but instead leave room for God's wrath because it is written, 475 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:06,000 vengeance belongs to me, I will repay, says the Lord. 476 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:13,000 But if your enemy is hungry, tell him, tough luck, move along. 477 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,000 Is that what it says? 478 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,000 What does it say? 479 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:23,000 If your enemy is hungry, feed him. 480 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:29,000 If he's thirsty, give him something to drink, 481 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:35,000 for in doing so you will heap fiery coals on his head. 482 00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:41,000 Brothers and sisters, we don't conquer evil with evil. 483 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:47,000 In this family, we conquer evil by doing good. 484 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:50,000 By doing good. 485 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:52,000 And this is the revolutionary stuff. 486 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:54,000 This is the stuff that people look in. 487 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:57,000 And when believers have lived this out, the outside world goes, 488 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,000 what is going on over there? 489 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,000 I've got to catch a glimpse. 490 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:04,000 I've got to know someone on the inside. 491 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:06,000 I've got to rub shoulders with them. 492 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:07,000 I've got questions. 493 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:10,000 Who lives this way? 494 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:13,000 Paul says we can live this way in Christ. 495 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,000 This is our invitation. 496 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:21,000 This is what we are brought in to belong to as a family that loves in this way. 497 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:25,000 Don't commit adultery or murder or steal or covet, 498 00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:29,000 and then he kind of throws in this catch-all or any other commandments, 499 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,000 because they're all fulfilled, wrapped up in the commandment 500 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:36,000 to love your neighbor as yourself. 501 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:39,000 Paul brings in a couple of elements of the moral law, 502 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:46,000 the Ten Commandments, and how they express the idea of loving your neighbor as yourself. 503 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:49,000 With that same care and utmost concern that you give to yourself, 504 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:52,000 you are to give to the other. 505 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:58,000 You're to love as you expect to be loved. 506 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:00,000 Adultery. 507 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:01,000 Do not commit adultery. 508 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:06,000 That is hatred toward your wife, hatred toward your children, 509 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:10,000 hatred toward the other party involved and everyone they're connected with. 510 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:13,000 That is not love. 511 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:17,000 If you're a child of light, if you're in Christ, you've been called out of that life. 512 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:21,000 You are to abandon it and begin to live a life of love. 513 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:25,000 Adultery is not love, and it hurts a lot of people. 514 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:29,000 How many of you guys know that? 515 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:31,000 Adultery hurts a lot of people. It's not love. 516 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:33,000 Murder. 517 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:37,000 We have no right to decide unilaterally who gets to live and who doesn't. 518 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,000 That is not our prerogative. 519 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,000 That is over our pay grade. 520 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,000 That is not within our authority. 521 00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:47,000 Murder is not love. 522 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:50,000 Stealing. 523 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:55,000 I know a lot of folks today will like to twist this and bend it and read. 524 00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,000 No. 525 00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:00,000 The Bible says that we're to entrust ourselves to the Lord. 526 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,000 It says that God will provide all of our needs. 527 00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:08,000 The Bible says that he looks down on us and he knows our needs before we even know it. 528 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:12,000 And that we're to entrust ourselves to him to meet those needs on a day-to-day basis. 529 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,000 Stealing is taking that control into our own hands. 530 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:21,000 Stealing is saying, I will take what I want or what I think I need for myself. 531 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,000 It's got all the stink of the Garden of Eden. 532 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:29,000 They looked, they saw, it was good and pleasing, so they reached out and took for themselves. 533 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,000 Stealing is not love. 534 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,000 Stealing is taking someone else's stuff. 535 00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:42,000 Because you have a higher estimation of yourself. 536 00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:49,000 Dance break. 537 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:50,000 Coveting. 538 00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:52,000 Lust. 539 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,000 Coveting is lust and it begins in the heart. 540 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:58,000 You can have the appearance on the outside that everything is good. 541 00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:02,000 Did you know, like you can covet in your heart. 542 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:07,000 You can look and want what is not yours and what God has not provided for you. 543 00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:11,000 And what he has deemed is not necessary for you today. 544 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:15,000 And you can look and want it and want it so bad in your heart. 545 00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:20,000 And the Bible says that's not love because that distorts our relationship with God. 546 00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,000 And that distorts our relationship with others. 547 00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:28,000 We begin to look at them for what they have and what we want from them. 548 00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:31,000 Not out of love. 549 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:38,000 Paul exhortation to love one another deeply and unconditionally is not this mere lofty idea for us. 550 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:44,000 Aspirational only, but it's really truly the very essence of our new identity in Christ. 551 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:47,000 It's who he has made you to be. 552 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:52,000 It is the new heart, the transformed heart that he's remade within you to be able to love this way. 553 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:55,000 It's not something you conjure up or you work up. 554 00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,000 But it's something that you lean into, something he's already done. 555 00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:03,000 And this radical love fulfills the law and it transcends our natural inclinations. 556 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:10,000 And it serves as a powerful testimony of the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ at work within believers. 557 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:14,000 People look and go, you're not the same if they knew you before. 558 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:20,000 Or they run into you and they go, I want more of what you have. 559 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:27,000 If we consider the implications of love and the kind of love that's listed here, the kind of love that tears down walls, 560 00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:31,000 it's a love that blesses those who persecute. 561 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:35,000 It's a love that nourishes our enemies. 562 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:46,000 It's a love that's revolutionary in nature and it's something the world desperately needs to see. 563 00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:54,000 Not only will it change individuals, but I have seen and witnessed this kind of love change communities. 564 00:31:54,000 --> 00:32:00,000 This kind of love, if we become what we are made to be in Christ, 565 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:07,000 this kind of love can reshape the very community and fabric of the community around you. 566 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:14,000 Marriages can be restored where coldness and walls have been built up within a marriage. 567 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:20,000 Marriages can be restored when this kind of love is injected into the life of the marriage. 568 00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:25,000 Family relationships are relationships that have broken down because numerous things. 569 00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:32,000 When a believer says, I will no longer live as under the pattern of the world or under the sinful heart that was before, 570 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:38,000 but I'm going to live into the love that I've been invited into, the fellowship with God, who is love, 571 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:43,000 the fellowship with God I'm invited into, I will live that love out. 572 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:50,000 You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take the lead to honor the person who reviles me. 573 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:58,000 I'm going to take the lead to cross the bounds, the chasm that has developed between me and my spouse. 574 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:02,000 I'm going to take the lead and I'm going to honor them. 575 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:05,000 And I'm going to see, I'm going to leave it to the Lord and see what he does. 576 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:08,000 I'm going to see what this kind of revolutionary love could do. 577 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:13,000 It's not because I do some voodoo or I wave my hands a certain way and then boom, it happens. 578 00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:19,000 And it's not even because I have the right words, it's because I trust my loving creator, 579 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:29,000 who created me out of his own love and wants me to live in that love every day. 580 00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:37,000 Our deep seated needs for belonging is not just a human trait, but a divine design. 581 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:42,000 I'm going to invite the worship team to come on up. 582 00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:51,000 God in his triune nature exemplifies what perfect community and love is. 583 00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:56,000 We can look to him and we see through Jesus and his sacrifice 584 00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:01,000 that you and I are invited to belong in a whole new way. 585 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:06,000 A whole new way. It's not about, hey I lived my life and I loved in a certain way out there 586 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:10,000 and then I met Christ and I just bring all that in here. 587 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:15,000 I promise you that's all the hypocrisy and bad stuff you see in churches. 588 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:18,000 It's when we bring all that stuff in here and think we just go on with it. 589 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:22,000 No, it's about saying my heart was made new. 590 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:29,000 I need to, Paul later on in Romans says we need to put on Christ. 591 00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:32,000 We need to be clothed in Christ. 592 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:42,000 We need to put off our old stuff and put on Christ and live into our new identity in Christ. 593 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:47,000 No longer for hate, but for love. No longer to divide, but to unite. 594 00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:51,000 The revolutionary love that Paul describes in Romans is not just an ideal, 595 00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:54,000 but it's a calling for every single Christian. 596 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:58,000 It's a love that goes beyond our comfort zones, beyond our natural affinities, 597 00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:06,000 but beyond all the lines that the world wants to draw and say these are your categories, now get into them. 598 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:09,000 Race has been a big one, right? 599 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:14,000 The world comes and says these are your lines, get in your categories. 600 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:17,000 And the church of God is a beautiful tapestry. 601 00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:21,000 It says those aren't the lines we look at anymore. 602 00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:26,000 We are united in Christ, brought together in his love. 603 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:31,000 Forget those lines, I won't listen to that anymore. 604 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:36,000 That was Paul's heart in writing Romans and writing Galatians. 605 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:48,000 One man brought together the dividing line conquered in Christ so that we could live in love and unity. 606 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:54,000 We could see the power of God manifest among us in the relationships that are restored 607 00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:59,000 and the people who are saved, the lost who are brought in, 608 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:04,000 the house of the Lord, the people of God gathered to worship, 609 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:10,000 the churches filled with ears eager to hear the word of God. 610 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:14,000 Isn't that a beautiful dream? 611 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:19,000 A vision to see what God could do through a group of people who are just dedicated 612 00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:24,000 to do to one another what he did for us. 613 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:27,000 We're not giving more. We can never be greater than him. 614 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:29,000 He gave far more than we could ever give. 615 00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:33,000 But we can follow his example and love each other. 616 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:37,000 And we can begin here so that when we bring others in, 617 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:42,000 they too get to experience that kind of love. 618 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:48,000 Will you bow your head, close your eyes? 619 00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:58,000 So we pray before we pray, I just want to take a moment and have you examine your heart. 620 00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:04,000 I want you to reflect on your own tendencies toward tribalism, 621 00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:14,000 your own tendencies to draw lines, categories, your own mentality of us versus them. 622 00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:21,000 We joked about football. We can set that one aside. 623 00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:24,000 There are other areas. 624 00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:28,000 I'll tell you right now. 625 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:39,000 I have seen brother and sister effectively slander, gossip, hate, 626 00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:44,000 and as Jesus says, the kind of anger that is likened to murder. 627 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:52,000 Their own brothers and sisters because of a political disagreement. 628 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:59,000 Those are the world's lines. Those are the world's lines. 629 00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:03,000 Always comes around. We hit this time. 630 00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:07,000 And we want to own and slaughter the other side. 631 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:12,000 And it's interesting to see how the church reacts. We can be something different in this world. 632 00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:18,000 We could be something that shines the love in light of Christ. 633 00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:23,000 Maybe your tendency is that you draw circles of love and acceptance around only a few people 634 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:27,000 and you exclude others for whatever reason. 635 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:31,000 I tell you, the gospel of Jesus wants to break down those walls. 636 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:40,000 He wants to open up and let Christ's love shine through you in a way that will blow your minds as you begin to do it. 637 00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:45,000 Where have you drawn those lines? 638 00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:52,000 I also want to say some of you need to look for a way this week to radically serve, 639 00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:57,000 to take the initiative, to take the lead, to serve in honor of another. 640 00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:02,000 That there's someone that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you even now. 641 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:09,000 That you need to cross the breach. You need to cross the great divide and take the lead to honor them. 642 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:21,000 And that in that relationship you're going to see the love of Christ break loose. 643 00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:28,000 I also want to say that here in our church and in the church of Jesus at large, 644 00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:34,000 we need to take steps, active steps to bridge the divide that we experience here. 645 00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:39,000 And this involves reaching out across the aisle to people who are not like you. 646 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:45,000 I don't know if you know this, but in churches people still divide all the time, even within the same walls. 647 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:49,000 Whatever the group, whatever the category, whatever the area. 648 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:52,000 Maybe it's age, maybe it's race, maybe it's culture, maybe it's money. 649 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:56,000 Whatever it is we divide, even within the walls of the church. 650 00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:00,000 That's the old man, that's the old self, that's sin. 651 00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:08,000 We're being invited into the new life, the new heart, the love of God. 652 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:13,000 Father, we pray and ask that you would fill us with your love. 653 00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:17,000 We ask that the Holy Spirit would help us in the times that are difficult 654 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:20,000 or the times where we revert to the way it's always been. 655 00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:25,000 Help us, Lord, to overcome, to put off the old self and to put on the new self 656 00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:29,000 that's being made in the image of Christ, to clothe ourselves with Christ 657 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:33,000 and find Christ's love, the kind of love that would step down from heaven. 658 00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:37,000 That while we were yet enemies, that He would die for us. 659 00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:42,000 That when we were the furthest from you and had done the most to offend the God of creation, 660 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:45,000 the God of love, that you would cross the breach. 661 00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:49,000 We're not doing anything new, we're only reflecting the goodness and love of our God. 662 00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:54,000 Help us, God. We're not strong enough. 663 00:40:54,000 --> 00:41:00,000 Help us, God, we don't have the strength, we need the Holy Spirit at work in our lives to do this. 664 00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:05,000 God, we probably are even blind to even see the areas that we even need to address. 665 00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:07,000 Help us to see. 666 00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:14,000 Give us eyes to see where you're leading us in love. 667 00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:20,000 Lord, may you do a radical work to the brothers and sisters who are present in this room 668 00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:25,000 as they go out as ambassadors of love 669 00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:31,000 and we begin to see your goodness and your love break free in this world. 670 00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:39,000 All glory to you, you alone we say, in Jesus' name, Amen. 671 00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:44,000 Let our love be the evidence of our transformation 672 00:41:44,000 --> 00:42:13,000 and the invitation for others to experience the belonging that can only be found in Jesus Christ.