Lifting others up

Opening Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 (CSB)

4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends.

Communion Scripture

1 John 3:1 (CSB)

See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are!

Sermon Notes

Last time, we talked about what love looks like, including the verses we read at the beginning:

patient, kind, humble, forgiving, resilient, trusting, hopeful.

If this is what love looks like, why is there so little of it in the church? Why do we judge and criticize each other without really listening to the struggles we each have? Why are we so quick to speak without listening? Why do we not open our hearts to each other? Why do we often fear what others will think or say if we are honest about what is happening inside us?

Matthew 22:39 (NASB 2020)

The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’

Could this be our problem? That we don’t love ourselves correctly? Loving ourselves means having a deep level of care for ourselves. We can never know that kind of confidence-building love for ourselves if we don’t believe in God’s love for us.

If we don’t trust in God’s perfect, unstoppable love for us, we won’t really love ourselves as He does and we will find it impossible to truly love others.

Do you remember this event from Jesus’ ministry?

John 9:1–3 (NASB 2020)

1 As Jesus passed by, He saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

Can you imagine going through life blind. And the people around you are always whispering about why you are blind? Did you sin? Did your parents sin. It MUST be your fault!

If you are carrying guilt and shame and always think you’re too bad or too evil to really know God’s love, you will never be free to help others.

1 John 3:1 (CSB)

See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are!

Here is an important question:

Are you still trying to be good enough for love which God has freely given you?

Before you were born, He loved you!

Before you ever sinned, He sent His only son and died for all your sins!

Before you ever knew you needed Him, He sought you and invited you to come to Him for His love and forgiveness.

Before you repented of sins, He was already looking forward to forgiving you and setting you free.

All these things we have read about love ARE THE WAY HE LOVES YOU!

People were so attracted to Jesus, not just because He was a great teacher and did miracles, but because He loved! He loved because He was confident in the love His Father had for Him. Do you have that kind of confidence or are you still trying to earn His love? The more we know Jesus, the more we are free to love others and hope for the best from them.

For the church to live out this kind of love, we have some work to do.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NASB 2020)

Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you also are doing.

Asbury University is located in a small town in Kentucky. Recently, God began to work in an unusual way on that campus. Some students were praying and asking God to come and help them. Different ones began to confess sins that were keeping them from walking with God. As they did so, they prayed for each other and committed to help each other. They began to encourage each other and build one another up. Before long, other students were attracted, then more. They sang some simple songs of worship to Jesus. They prayed, they confessed, they simply enjoyed God’s presence, then others came, then others. This went on the rest of that day, then all night, then the next day and the next night. People were beginning to hear that God was at work. They started coming from other universities and other places. Some even traveled from outside the US to experience the love and presence of God.

ALL BECAUSE OF LOVE AND PRAYER AND BUILDING EACH OTHER UP!

Cathy and I have a friend who recently wrote these words:

"The first ten years of my Christian faith were done in compulsion and in the flesh apart from the love of Christ. Eventually I found myself disillusioned and full of resentment and gave up on the Christian life and tragically broke up my family in the process."

What would it be like if this church was a place where people like our friend found the love of God and their hearts began to change on a regular basis? I can tell you, this is what God wants to do here!

Paul goes on a few verses later:

1 Thessalonians 5:14–15 (NASB 2020)

14 We urge you, brothers and sisters, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek what is good for one another and for all people.

Let’s spend a few minutes with these verses, for they are very important in Lifting Others Up.

“Admonish the unruly”

“Admonish” it literally to “put an idea in someone’s mind. The idea is to warn someone gently.

“Unruly” are those who are out of order or out of place.

I loved to go fishing when I was a kid. My dad wasn’t able to take me as often as I liked, but I had an uncle who didn’t have a family of his own and he also loved to fish so I would go with him. One summer day we had been fishing on the river. It came time to go home and we had to climb a tall riverbank to get back to the truck. I was in the lead in some thick brush when my uncle suddenly pushed me from behind and yelled, “Get up there!” I was shocked because he had never done anything like that before. Why was he treating me like that? Once I was up the riverbank a ways, he said, “There’s a large rattlesnake down here and you almost stepped on it!

My uncle admonished me — he put an idea in my mind that day — because I was in a place I shouldn’t be. AND he may have saved my life!

Here’s something I learned.

We are all unruly sometimes!

If my uncle treated me like that all the time, I wouldn’t want to go fishing with him.

We must all be ready to help someone see the danger in front of them.

I like to put this another way. Sometimes I need a kick in the pants! You do, too! I usually don’t like it when it happens, but it makes a huge difference when I trust in the love of the one doing the kicking.

But, If all I do is tell people how wrong they are, they won’t be listening when they really need me.

Encourage the fainthearted, help the weak.

You may remember this moment:

https://youtu.be/9ARuL3r99SA

(Please play this video on screen.)

Be patient with everyone.

“Patient” is the word for longsuffering.

1 Thessalonians 5:15 (NASB 2020)

15 See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek what is good for one another and for all people.

How do you know whether to admonish or encourage or help?

Simple answer: ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom. No answer is right all the time and it will take sensitivity to learn. However, if you always see what is good for each other, you will grow in trust and together will grow in the faith.