Not So Secret Sauce pt 5
Notes
Transcript
When we follow a recipe, we have to follow it precisely, amen?
We have to prepare properly… measure each ingredient perfectly… combine them in the correct order… mix them exactly as the directions specify… otherwise what happens?!?
Have you ever noticed that in every recipe there is that one ingredient… that one specific piece that MUST be there in the proper amount, or the whole thing just doesn’t come out right…
(example)
How many of you have ever tried to make homemade meringue for a pie?
It is a super simple recipe, isn’t it?
The ingredients are egg whites and sugar… simple right? What could go wrong?
Let me tell you… It’s one of the most difficult things to pull off isn’t it?
Because you see… If you get even one tiny bit of yolk in the mix, it messes the whole thing up!
No matter how much you beat it… It won’t fluff up!
(Twinkies are another example)
One messed up ingredient… One thing missing can mess up the whole recipe!
Look at 2 Peter 1:5-8
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;
6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;
7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice something about Peter’s recipe…
There is no limit on the ingredients… There is no precise measurement… In fact, Peter says, “add these ‘in increasing measure’”.
We can’t mess this up!
As long as we are adding these things to our lives, we will grow closer and closer to God and holiness!
But… There’s something else I want you to notice…
Peter’s recipe is a difficult one, because it is a continuous movement away from self and towards others…
We place our Faith in God… Trusting Him …
Then we add goodness… putting it into action by following God’s call on our life…
Then we add knowledge… by reading the Bible, by studying it, by going to church and fellowshipping with other Christians… allowing God’s Word and the Holy Spirit to transform us… as we come to know God intimately…
We add to that self-control… by submitting to God and the Holy Spirit’s guidance of our lives…
We add perseverance… realizing that we do not persevere alone, but by walking with Jesus daily!
Then we add godliness… godliness is the result of all the other ingredients!
Let me tell you something about this recipe:
“It is not just about ‘adding’ things to our lives… We literally are what we eat!”
Jesus said, “I have food you know nothing about...”
Look at what He says that food is:
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
We are to ingest this recipe… and to keep on eating it… until it becomes who we are!
We soak in the Love and Grace of God until it becomes who we are!
8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at 2 Pet 1:7
7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
Peter says, “Add to godliness, mutual affection, and add to that Love.”
Love is the key ingredient.
Love is a funny word in our culture…
I believe that the word “love” has lost its power in our culture today…
Think about it…
We “love” everything!
We “love” puppies… We “love” summertime (or winter)… We “love” fashion… We “love” motorcycles… We “love” the Avengers… We “love” ice cream… We “love” Chinese food… sleeping in… sunsets… Hawaii… cruises… money… wealth… cars… etc…
We “love” our spouses… our children… our neighbors.... until we don’t…
Do you see the commonality?
The Truth is… We love things that have something to give us in return!
We love things… and people… that we can gain from!
Don’t believe me? Ask yourself, “How easy is it for me to quit associating with people who don’t benefit me in some way?”
Love in this world is based in mutual benefit… But that’s NOT what Peter is talking about.
Peter uses the Greek word “agapao” which is the verb form of the word “Agape”
Agape — “unconditional love”
Agape is the highest form of Love. It is used to describe God’s Love.
It is Selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional. Agape is based purely on the person, not what can be gained from the person.
The kind of love we usually think of, or practice, is “brotherly love” at best…
Does anyone know what the word for “brotherly love” is?
“philadelphia” = “brotherly love”
Brotherly love is the love… or affection… we have for each other… It is the attraction that unites us as a group… but it is based on commonality… mutual gain…
It’s temporary…
It ends when disagreement and struggle enters the picture…
Proof — “We just ‘fell out of love’.”
Agape Love is different… it is unconditional and unending… because it is a choice!
Agape Love is choosing to love even when we disagree.
Agape Love is what we choose when they don’t look like me… act like me… or think like me…
That kind of love is “philadelphia” at best… It requires reciprocation, and we hold it primarily for those who we “like” being around…
Peter says “add to your mutual affection (philadelphia), Agape Love.”
Agape Love is different…
Agape Love Costs Us Something!
The closest example of this is the parent/child relationship… Having children costs us something, amen?
We sacrifice sleep… free time… money…
We trade time and comfort… even personal desires and wants… for the sake of making sure they are taken care of…
It costs us something!
Sacrificial and unconditional Love costs us something.
Look at Romans 5:8
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
It cost Christ something!
If we are going to be commited to living the way of Jesus, (listen) It WILL cost us!
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.
Love demands it…
John 4 holds the story of Jesus at the well. He is exhausted… He is hungry… He is physically weak… and the Disciples have gone into town in search of food…
He could have just sat down and waited… maybe even taken a nap…
But He didn’t!
The Samaritan woman presented herself at the well, and He ministered to her!
That is Agape Love!
The Church has always been at its best when it looks like Jesus!
When it is giving itself away!
But the problem is… The idea of choosing love without anything in return does not sound appealing.
We tend to look for… and consider… the “return on investment”… and that stops us in our tracks!
Agape doesn’t look for this!
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
ROI is the “wide gate”…
“But Pastor… How do we get through the narrow gate? How do we find it?”
We have been given an example… we have the blueprint!
His name is Jesus!
Jesus didn’t worry about ROI… He simply Loved!
ex. — We look at addicts, and we tend to think “How can I help? How can I get through to them? How can I make them change? (ROI)”
When all we can do… and what they need the most… is for us to pray, share, and show…
That’s what Jesus does for us!
Everything that He asks us to do, He demonstrated first!
Jesus demonstrates Agape Love in His Life… His Death… and His continued work in our lives!
I want you to see something… Look at John 15:9-10
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
Jesus set the example of what it is to live IN God’s Love.
Now… look at John 15:11-13
11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Jesus is looking directly at His impending journey to the Cross, and He tells them, “Here is what I’m asking you to do. LOVE ONE ANOTHER.”
“Agape one another.”
“Agape” is a noun…
Do you know what that means?
We are to “give” the real, tangible Love that Christ gave us to others. Agape is a real, tangible thing that can be given away… no strings attached… Christ gave it to us, and we are commanded to give it to others.
Look at John 15:13, Jesus says:
13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Agape is not Love until it is given away!
Agape is NOT focused on us… on what we will gain… it is 100% focused on others!
Agape Love looks like Jesus being hung on that cross… willingly giving up His Life so we can find ours!
Agape Love looks like His body being broken and His blood being shed to break the grip of sin and death on us!
It is selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional… and it began long before He was ever crucified…
Jesus’s life was filled with danger… over and over again it looked like He would have his life taken from Him forcibly. BUT…
He makes it an act of His own will!
In Mt 26:39 (explain)
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
He chose…
47 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people.
48 Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.”
49 Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.
50 Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.” Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him.
51 With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.
52 “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.
53 Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?
The mob had swords, clubs, and torches… they were ready to forcibly take Him, but Jesus willingly gives Himself up.
Pilate thought he had the power of life and death… look what Jesus says to Him:
11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
On the Cross...
30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
His life was not taken from Him, He WILLINGLY gave it up!
When Peter tells us to add to our Faith… goodness… knowledge… self-control… perseverance… godliness… mutual affection… and Love… This is what he was thinking of…
Agape is selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional.
It is meant to be given away… shared… That means that we have to “lay ourselves down” for the sake of others!
This is what God expects of us!
But… Here’s the good news… We don’t do it alone…
Look at 1 John 4:19
19 We love because he first loved us.
Jesus Loves Us Before We Love Him!
Gen 1:26-27 — God created people
Gen 1:28 — He blessed them…
Look at Gen 1:31
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
God loved what He had made… including us!
Not enough?
Look at Gen 2:15-18
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
His love for man (for us) would not allow Him to leave us alone!
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
God walked in the Garden with them… enjoying a loving personal relationship…
After the Fall, God could have just wiped the slate clean and started over, BUT…
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
His Love provided covering and protection instead…
Still not enough?
— Noah (Gen 6:8)
— God protected him and his family…
Gen 18-19 — Sodom and Gamorrah
— Love saved Lot and his family (-1)
fast forward — Israelites in the desert… Love never left
fast forward — David…
Fast forward — Paul…
fast forward again — US!!! You and I!!!
God’s Love has never left us!
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Rom 5:8 tells us that “while we were still dead in our sin, Jesus made the decision to put us before Himself!”
What we do with the Agape Love God has given us matters!!!
Nothing has taught me more about Agape Love than being married!
As soon as I said “I Do!”… My freedom… My will… My power… My life… has been challenged… Because to love my wife well… I must lay myself down.
Look at Eph 5:21-28
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
Want to know the secret to a strong, stable, fulfilling marriage?
It’s Agape Love!
It’s putting others first.
It’s allowing someone else to have the last word.
It’s swallowing your pride… admitting you’re wrong… practicing the word “sorry”… (listen) It’s not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.
Agape Love means laying down Our Will and Our Desires. That may be — no scratch that! — that IS the most loving thing we can do for someone else!
I may be free to do or say or act in a certain manner, BUT… for the sake of the love and the relationship, I choose to lay my rights down… Not just with people who are like me… who I see eye to eye with… who I get along with… who have never hurt me…
But… with those who don’t “fit” in our “box”.
Following Jesus means “we practice love in spite of our differences or pain.”
Agape Love is a life submitted to the Spirit of God.
Agape Love is not some polished Christian belief, that we lift up and talk about from time to time… It’s a Lifestyle!
It is Love in Action!
It is evidenced by how we live… what we do.
How I love people puts on display how I love God.
Unfortunately, many Christians have been Christian for most of their lives, yet they still struggle to love the people around them.
Is that us?!?!
Do we struggle to love ALL the people around us?
Peter tells us “You never stop growing. You never stop ‘leveling up’. Agape Love is is the goal. Without Love, we have nothing!”
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
We can do all the right things. We can look like we have it all together. But… if we do not have Love, we have gained nothing!
Love is the key ingredient… Love honors God and honors others around us.
Love is the most powerful force in the universe.
It can change lives… It can change people… It can change circumstances and outcomes…
God offers it to us in Christ, unconditionally, so that we, in turn, can offer it to others, unconditionally.
What will you do with the Love God has given you?
Will you continue to put conditions on it? Or, Will you sacrifice yourself and give it away unconditionally?
What would happen if we became a people who are willing to choose to love selflessly, truly selflessly, sacrificially, and unconditionally, NO MATTER THE COST TO US?
I believe that way of living CAN AND WILL change the world!
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;
6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;
7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
(prayer)