Value 5: Love without Limits

Manuscript Template

Title:  Value 5: Love without Limits

Focus Statement:  

Function Statement:  

Tweetable Phrase:  

Main Text:  

Love - Luke 6:27-36

Forgive - Luke 6:37-42

Supporting Text:  

Redemptive Closure (point to Jesus):  Luke 23:34

Benediction:  Matthew 22:37-40

WELCOME

Good morning!!! My name is Ryan Hanson, and I have the honor of serving here at The Light KC as the lead pastor. I’m so glad you’re here with us.

‌Welcome to those joining us online. We hope you're doing well and hope to see you in person in the coming weeks.

And a special welcome to those joining us for the first time. We’re so glad you chose to be here.

ME/INTRO - Tension

So, does anyone know what this is?

[picture: Hole in Carpet - zoomed]

If you couldn’t guess, it is a hole in the living room carpet from my previous house in Michigan.

[picture: Hole in Carpet]

Can anyone guess what this is?

[picture: Abby - zoomed]

Yes, it is the forehead of Ellie’s dog - Abby when she was a puppy.

[picture: Abby - Puppy]

The story behind these pictures is that Ellie wanted a dog for a long time. I was always against it. I had a dog growing up. I knew that they were a lot of work and severely limit how you live your life. A dog has to be let outside every couple hours. A dog needs regular exercise, attention, love, etc. If these things aren’t met, the dog destroys things. I didn’t want to have to come home every day for lunch, or not be able to go somewhere for the weekend, because of the dog, so I didn’t want one.

Well, during COVID when everyone was home all the time, my excuses for not wanting a dog didn’t carry as much weight and Andrea and I gave in and agreed to let Ellie get a dog. Ellie was very excited. She watched all the dog training videos she could. She did all the research and figured out everything we needed to get for the dog.

Andrea and Ellie did research intro breeds, breeders, and the day finally came to pick out the dog Ellie wanted. We got the call from the breeder, and Ellie went. Eight weeks later we went back and picked up Abby, Ellie’s dog.

Things seemed to go well. Ellie loved Abby.

[picture: Abby - Ellie]

But...

Reality set in.

Abby required work. And the worst chore related to having any dog is...poop scooping.

[picture: Abby - poop]

And that is where we have to be careful...

The danger we face with anything in life, is what we choose to focus on.

Nothing is perfectly good, or bad. It is always a combination of both.

Ellie loved Abby.

But, Ellie didn’t like the chores associated with having Abby.

I definitely didn’t like the hole Abby chewed in the carpet.

We can choose to focus on the good.

Or…we can choose to dwell on the bad.

It all comes down to the FRAME we use to view the events of our lives.

Just like the first images, the devil wants us to ZOOM IN, focus on the bad aspects of life, grow bitter, and retreat from life.

God wants us to ZOOM OUT, see the bigger picture, see the bad in context of all the good, and focus on the good things.

Ellie and I could have looked through a SMALL FRAME, ZOOMED IN on the hole in the carpet and the weekly chores.

OR...we could look through a LARGE FRAME, ZOOMED OUT and see all the joy and love that Abby has brough to our lives.

Over the years Abby has...

Been a constant companion to the kids, showing them unconditional love.

[picture: Abby - snuggle]

Been a sled dog, pulling the kids on the sled when the lake froze over.

[picture: Abby - Sled Dog]

Gone on family walks with us, even if she gives up and needs to be carried home.

[picture: Abby - walk]

And even joined the kids in rooting for the Chiefs.

[picture: Abby - Chiefs]

For our family, having a dog has brought a lot of joy and love into our lives.

...despite the periodic destruction and regular chores associated with having her.

WE - Tension

I don’t know what your experience is with pets.

If you like them or want nothing to do with them, that’s up to you.

But...

The problem is, what do we do when it is a person that hurts us?

What do we do when our FRAME SHRINKS with regards to a person, when we ZOOM IN and all we can see when we look or think about them is the bad things they’ve done to us?

How do we reclaim our ability to ZOOM OUT, use a LARGER FRAME and see the good and the bad in context?

Today as we continue our series on The Light KC’s mission, vision, and values we’re going to discuss our 5th value: Loving Without Limits.

But we have to recognize that loving without limits, means that we do everything we can to love as God loves.

We have to love those people that we can’t see any good in.

We have to learn to forgive the people that have hurt us

We have to love those people that have hurt us.

...so that we can ZOOM OUT, see them through a LARGER FRAME, so that we can see every person through the eyes of God...

...a unique person, created by God for a purpose, that carries the image of God within them.

To Love without Limits, we need to learn to forgive

But as anyone who has tried to forgive someone for doing something that has truly hurt them knows, forgiving is very hard.

So...how do we do that?

How do we forgive?

How do we love without limits?

How do we Love as God loves us?

These are the questions I’d like to talk about today as we continue our series titled “The 5W’s of Church”

We’re in week 6 of our 7 week series, we’re going to go over our church’s mission, vision, and values to answer

WHY - THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH exists

WHO - we are as a local expression of the church, The Light KC

WHAT God is calling us to do as His church

WHY we feel God put The Light KC WHERE He has in Overland Park, KS

and...HOW - we as the church feel called to live out the mission and vision God has given us

I hope you’ll be able to join us each and every week for this series as we break down the mission, vision, and values that a group of 16 of you came up with earlier this year and look forward to what that means for us and our collective future.

Week 1 we discussed our Mission and Vision. To review:

Mission (Why we exist)

To reflect the light of God’s love and grace to everyone, everywhere, at all times.

Vision (Who we hope to be)

To be the family of God, where all people are welcomed, loved, invited into a saving relationship with Jesus, and sent to live out their God-given purpose.

We’re currently walking through our values, that spell out the ACRONYM F.A.M.I.L.Y.

We’ve discussed

F: Faith Fueled

A: Action Oriented

M: Missionally Minded

I: Intentional Hospitality

Today we’re going to talk about our fifth value: Loving without Limits

F: Faith Fueled

A: Action Oriented

M: Missionally Minded

I: Intentional Hospitality

L: Love without Limits

If you missed the previous messages, please feel free go to our website, TheLightKC.org, to catch up.

As we begin, please turn with me to [Luke 6]

We’ll have the scripture on the screen, but if you have a Bible with you, or Bible app on your phone, I’d encourage you to turn to the passage and follow along. There is nothing that replaces having God’s word in your hand.

AND... if you don’t have a Bible, we have Bibles under the seats. If you don’t have a bible and would like one, please come see me after the service and I’ll get you one you can keep.

Let's dive in.

GOD - Text

Love

Before we dive into Luke 6, I want to start by reading a quote from Charles Spurgeon, a very gifted preacher from the 1800s, on the love of God as I think it captures it better than I could.

"Consider carefully who it is that loves you, namely, the Most High God...God loves his people because he will love them, and for no other reason known to us...This love too, it is sweet to remember, is utterly unbounded and altogether unequalled. You cannot say of God’s love it has gone thereto, but it shall go no further. It is impossible to conceive a point beyond its glorious tide; but if there were such a point, it would yet reach it, for the love of God glories to be without limit of any kind towards his people. He loves us much better than we love our children, for we often love them so badly that we bring them up to evil, and we tolerate them in sin. He loves us better than we love ourselves, for self-love it is that ruins us; but God’s love it is that saves us, and lifts us up to heaven and to perfection. There is no love that can any more be compared with God’s, than the faint gleam of a candle can be likened to the blaze of the sun at noonday. He loves his people so much that he gives them all that he hath...this love is unvarying and unsleeping...upon this matter of the love of God, we triumphantly believe that it is undying and unfailing.”

Charles Spurgeon

This is the love that we’re called to reflect to the world.

And let’s be honest this is a high bar.

Realistically a bar we will never reach, but one we’re called to aspire toward.

Charles Spurgeon is only echoing the very high bar that Jesus sets for the way we love others in Luke 6.

Please join me as we read:

Luke 6:27–36 NIV

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

If we are going to love as God loves, we need to LOVE WITHOUT LIMITS. We need to love everyone.

That doesn’t mean that we agree with or condone what everyone is doing.

God doesn’t agree or condone everything we do, but God loves us in spite of what we do.

God loves us so much that He pursues us at our worst, to call us to something better, a life in relationship with Him.

But...just like Ellie with her dog Abby, to love as God calls us to love, we need to learn to forgive the wrongs others commit against us.

I think Jesus knew this would be one of the major hurdles we’d face in loving as we’re called to love, as Jesus speaks about forgiveness in the very next section of scripture.

Forgiveness

Let’s pick back up in Luke 6:37:

Luke 6:37–38 NIV

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

I think there is two main things Jesus is trying to show us here.

1. God will use the same criteria to judge us as we use to judge others. And consequently, God will extend forgiveness to us as freely as we choose to extend forgiveness to others.

2. When it comes to forgiveness and judgement, we also need to learn to forgive ourselves.

I want to take a look at both of these this morning.

Forgiving Others

I think we need to start by being honest with ourselves about what we think forgiveness should be.

What we want others to do before we forgive them

Acknowledge - you recognize what you did was wrong

Feeling / Empathy - you feel the pain you caused others

Confession - admit your part of the wrong

Promise - desire to do what you can to not repeat the wrong

But we can’t control other people.

Forgiveness does not require the other person to do anything.

Forgiveness is a gift that you give the other person, and yourself.

The only person that is hurt by your choice not to forgive, is you.

You hold the pain, you grow bitter, and you spend immeasurable time thinking about what happened

The quote, “you drink poison, hoping the other person will die” applies very well to someone who refuses to forgive.

But, even if the other person does nothing, forgiveness is possible.

You can forgive someone who doesn’t even recognize they did anything wrong.

You can forgive someone for actions that have caused deep / lasting pain

You can free yourself from the anchor that unforgiveness is to your life, keeping you stuck in your past, and unable to move forward into the future God created you to live.

But...as we’ve said, it’s not easy.

The book “Soul Care” lists 8 steps to forgiveness

Remember God’s grace - it’s easier to forgive someone else, when you remember everything God has forgive you of

2. Pray blessings on your enemies - it’s hard to hold a grudge if you are praying blessings for the person who hurt you. We need to learn to see people as more than their worst moment.

3. See yourself like your offender - often we’re guilty of the very thing that we’re mad at someone else for, we need to step back, humble ourselves, and admit that we’ve hurt people as well

4. Offer forgiveness at the level of the offense

Frustrations

some people do small things that frustrate us

it leaves us feeling like we have no value

we need to learn to be mature and let them go

someone forgetting to show up to a meeting

Failures

some people fail to live up to their promises and cause us pain

we are left feeling victimized

we need to enter into the Matthew 18 process of reconciliation

former pastor who promised to write a reference letter for my foster son and failed to do so after promising on two separate occasions

Flagrant fouls

some people intentionally exploit us, use us for what we can do and leave when we have nothing more to give them -

we are left feeling violated

it changes how we feel about ourselves, who we think we are

we need the power of the Holy Spirit to give us the strength to forgive and heal our self-image

Joseph in the OT

5. Choose Forgiveness - no matter what people have done to us, forgiveness is a choice

6. Process through the forgiveness

Slow

In bits and pieces, a little at a time

With anger left over - we need to let God handle justice

Given freely, or not at all

7. Remember God is redemptive - remember that no matter what has happened to you, God can use it for good

8. Grieve your hurts and losses - there will be hurt, there will be losses, we will need to work through that pain

YOU - Takeaway

I don’t know each of your stories

I don’t know what others have done to you in your past

I don’t know who you are struggling to forgive

I do know that if we are to live up to the calling to LOVE AS GOD LOVES US, to LOVE WITHOUT LIMITS, we have to FORGIVE AS GOD FORGAVE US

Forgiving others is hard, but it is do-able.

But the hard truth is...

Sometimes, forgiving ourselves is even harder.

Forgiving Ourselves

From the book “Forgive and Forget” p. 97 - to forgive yourself you need to...

1. Start with honesty about what you did

2. Know that you will need courage to face the self-righteous crowd that wants you to live in permanent shame

3. You will need to be concrete about what you are forgiving yourself for

4. You finally need to confirm your self-forgiveness with a reckless act of love

Love is the signal that you have done it, that you have forgiven yourself

When you can freely give and receive love, you are well on your way to healing

Just know that if you have confessed your sins to God and do everything you can, empowered by the Holy Spirit to repent, God will forgive you

1 John 1:9 NIV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

And if you confess your sins to others, you will find healing

James 5:16 NIV

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

WE / JESUS - Redemptive Close - Call to Action

We have the greatest example of forgiveness in Jesus.

Even when He was on the cross, betrayed by the Jewish elite, abandoned by his 12 closest friends (disciples), and dying for crimes he didn’t commit...Jesus prayed that God forgives everyone responsible.

Luke 23:34 NIV

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

When we view the world through a SMALL FRAME, ZOOMED IN on the wrongs committed against us, we lose the ability put the events into perspective and every future event is defined by the one bad interaction we had that we are now laser focused on. Nothing else matters, we see only the bad, and consequently we are unable to forgive.

And because all we’re focused in on is the negative, we can’t reflect the love of God to those who need it the most.

We can’t show people the LIMITLESS LOVE that God has shown us.

God wants to free us of the pain of our pasts.

God wants to forgive us from the things we’ve done in our past.

God wants to help us forgive others from the things they’ve done to us.

God wants to free us to LOVE WITHOUT LIMITS, ZOOMING OUT, looking through a GOD SIZED FRAME, so we can see the good and the bad and choose to love anyway.

40 of us had the opportunity Thursday to listen to Daryl Cripe share his journey of LOVING WITHOUT LIMITS.

He told the story of HIS ONE. The one non-believer that he lives by, has a true relationship with, and has significantly rearranged his life for.

He talked about how he’s had to learn new hobbies (comics), go places and do things he typically wouldn’t naturally do, AND go through the ups and downs of delighting in this friendship, grieving the times he’s shared the gospel with no response (knowing that his ONEs may not be in eternity with him), and celebrating the times the Holy Spirit has moved and the gospel message he shared led to his friend receiving Jesus as their savior and starting a relationship of their own with God.

If we’re going to be the church God is calling us to be, we should each have at least (1) non-believer friend that we do life with. Maybe God’s calling you to have multiple non-believing friends that you do life with.

The church is God’s chosen people to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10), and we are the people he has chosen to “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19).

Of the 40 people that came, many named their ONE, 10 acknowledged they didn’t have a ONE in their life and committed to GOING. To engaging in activities and places where non-believers will be. Not to “get a project” but to make themselves available for whatever God has for them.

I personally was extremely convicted Thursday. Whereas I have a few non-believers that I meet with regularly, being new to Kansas, I have no engaged much in environments where non-believers would be. I’ve been invited to running groups, cycling groups, triathlon groups and honestly declined going to any. It was inconvenient, I’d have to do what they want to do, train at the intensity they want to train at, do the races they want to do. I’d have to sacrifice.

*** And that’s the truth of today. To LOVE WITHOUT LIMITS, we will all have to sacrifice something.

But, if we choose to engage with non-believers, if we have non-believing friends, if we learn to forgive ourselves for our past, and we learn to forgive others for the pain they’ve inflicted on us...

...I believe God will act through our obedience and do “immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

The question for me, and the question for you today is...WILL YOU?

WILL YOU risk loving everyone God puts in your path without limits?

WILL WE as a church risk the tight knit community we have to love everyone God puts in our path without limits?

For those who didn’t come Thursday, I have some more response cards up front. If you feel like God is calling you to engage, I ask that you come up during the last song.

If you have a ONE, write their first name on the card, and pray for them, committing to ride the ups and downs of the relationship and obediently following the prompting of the Holy Spirit as you love that ONE without limits.

If you don’t have a one, but feel God nudging you to engage, write “GO”. Commit to going to that group that you have been avoiding, or engage in the relationships you have been resisting. If you don’t have a clear vision of what GOING looks like, pray that God shows you where He wants you to GO.

Leave the cards up front, at the alter / feet of God when you’re done praying.

To conclude...

If we were to sum up today’s value in on statement, this is how I’d do it.

Value #5: At The Light KC, we will be a church that LOVES WITHOUT LIMITS. We will be a people that aspire to love others as God loves us. We will refuse to define people by their worst moments, but step back and view people in the context of the entirety of who they are; seeing the good, viewing the bad in context, and knowing that they are an image bearer of God. We will learn to extend forgiveness to others, because God extended forgiveness to us. We will actively engage with non-believers, reflecting God’s LIMITLESS LOVE, praying that everyone would come into a personal saving relationship with Jesus Christ. And we will forgive ourselves, knowing that once we confess, God already has.

PRAYER 

Will you join me in prayer...

SONG 

As we enter into our final song, I want to open the steps up front as an altar to anyone who needs God this week. The steps are open for you to pray to the God who is with you, who loves you, you wants to give you His peace.

‌

You may feel a hand on your shoulder as I or one of the elders join you in prayer.

BENEDICTION 

Matthew 22:37–40 NIV

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

This week...

Let’s stop defining people by their worst moments

Let’s ZOOM OUT and view others as image bearers of God, seeing the good, and viewing their mistakes in context

Let’s forgive others, because God has already forgiven us

Let’s engage with non-believers, praying that everyone comes into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ

Let’s forgive ourselves, showing ourselves the limitless love that God has for us

Let’s love everyone without limits

Quick reminder...

October 29th - Prayer Workshop

November 6th - Care Portal - response team training

Digging Deeper Bible Study - Wednesday at 6 PM - Programming for all ages

If you’re new, please stop by our info desk, or see me. We’d love to say “hi” and get you know you a bit better.

I hope you have a great week.

Go in peace.

You are dismissed.

DISCIPLESHIP QUESTIONS (download into APP)

In what ways can we reflect God's love in our daily interactions with others?

What does it mean to love without limits in the context of our church community?

How can you apply the concept of 'loving without limits' in your friendships?

How can seeing others as image bearers of God change the way you treat them?

In what ways can you practice empathy toward others, even those who have wronged you?

How can we actively choose to focus on the good in our relationships despite past hurts?

What practical steps can we take to forgive those who have wronged us?

How does understanding our own need for forgiveness impact our ability to forgive others?

What challenges do you face when trying to forgive someone who has hurt you?

What does it look like to engage with non-believers in a way that reflects God's love?