Neighbors #2: How Do I Love?

Last time we were hear together we talked about how the bible calls us to a radical, extravagant kind of love to our neighbors and we also defined our neighbors as anyone and everyone around us. It has been important to set this ground work because to go any further it is imperative that we know what the bible expects of us in regards to our neighbors and how we treat them

The Man in the Mirror

But before we go any further in looking at our neighbors its a good idea to first look at ourselves, because our willingness and capacity to care for others grows naturally out of our walk with God

In other words. the closer you are to God the more you will love the people around you.

Why? because you simply cannot Love God and not love ALL of His people!

So when we look at the man in the Mirror we must ask ourselves one question. Do we love the things that God loves?

Do we love the things God loves?

And what is it that God loves? I think that Jesus is pretty clear about this so we’ll look once again at His example in the Bible.

Now when Jesus teaches in the Bible we usually see this formula: Someone asks a question or challenges him and then we see him tell a story or parable. BUT there is ONE time where Jesus breaks this mold and does something different! so one might imagine that He thought this was an important topic.

Let’s look at this section of scripture very quickly found in

Luke 15:1–32 so we can see what is is that Jesus take so seriously.

Luke 15:1–32 ESV

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”

What Does God Love?

So there we have it… 3 parables all about the EXACT SAME THING. This is an example of a technique used all around the globe, by parents from before Jesus time and I’m sure on into the future. Repeating yourself to make sure that you are understood to your children. (I do it all the time)

anicdote about repeating things to Isaac)

I think it’s probably pretty obvious looking at this passage that Jesus’ heart is for the lost his heart is for those outside of the establishment outside of the church.

Had Jesus come for the established church of the time…

He would have been doing temple tours.

He would have visited the temple members who were the biggest tithers

He would have visited and dined with the top temple priests and Levites

He would have brought new programs or temple goers, and done appeals for renovations

He would have preached that temple attendance is the most import part of being an Israelite, and that they should work to attain status in the church… I mean temple...

Instead

he ate with Tax Collectors and sinners

he visited prostitutes

He healed the leapers and the blind

In fact he spent by far the majority of His documented time Outside and away from the temples. He openly shunned and even mocked the pharisees at times...

Instead of blessed are the pharisee for they have done good work for me, it s was

Blessed are the meek… for they will inherit the earth!

See Jesus was a radical! And He was simply about his fathers business… and since Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God are one we can infer that what Jesus Loves, God Loves too.

God Loves All People and wants to see them all saved

God Loves all people and wants to see them all saved!

It’s the central thesis of our faith isn’t it? that

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

So as those who profess to love God it’s obvious that we too must love what God loves. God Loves the lost and wants to see them saved. it is our Job to also Love the lost with a desire to see them saved.

Now i’m pretty sure that I haven't said anything yet that we all cannot agree on. as far as Christian faith goes, this is Spiritual milk.... its nutritious and easy to digest.

Yet some how we seem to fall down on the execution of the premise... :

We all say: Yes, I want to see the lost saved… but I don’t want my worship to change...

We all say: Yes, I want to be a light unto the world… but when there’s work to be done at church it’s I’m too busy

We all say: Yes, I want my neighbors to know the love of Christ…but we’ve never invited them to church....

And this isn’t said at all to condemn you, but to cause to you to think

And to evaluate your Christianity… because as I mentioned… and this is the point of the sermon.

Our willingness and capacity to care for others will grow naturally out of our walk with God.

Our Willingness and capacity to care for others will grown naturally out of our walk with God

Now that we have finished our milk. Lets start chewing on the word

(When you chew on the word you are digesting assimilating, etc)

So here we go:

If your faith doesn’t include an active drive to bring those outside of the church into it, maybe it is time to evaluate your walk with God.

Now this isn’t meant to make you feel bad. We all need to evaluate our faith constantly, because not one of us is perfect. Paul in the book of Romans tell us that

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

So even though we are all falling short, you can measure the health of your walk with God by how much you care about the things that God cares about.

God cares that there are people right now that have never heard the word of God!

measure yourself right now, by how that makes you feel

Does it make you feel angry? Sad? Indifferent? Uncomfortable? Maybe you feel indignant that I would even ask...

Here is another one:

There are people that may be walking by right now. that God wants to be members of this church.

How does that make you feel? Excited? Scared? Mad? Even more uncomfortable?

Lets try one last one:

There are people with major sin in their lives that God wants to work on through THIS church

How does that make you feel?

Uneasy? challenged? excited?

Whatever your answer, the good news is. that it’s OK… We are all on the same journey and while you may not be at the same spot as the person beside you, as Christians we are all moving towards the same goal, which is Christ-likeness and that means that the Holy Spirit, if you let him, He’s going to continue to form your heart to look like Jesus’ and soon you will find that your burden for the lost will increase.

And it’s this thought that brings us to our next text. For as I mentioned it is the Holy Spirit that increases our capacity to Love our Neighbors. Let us read in Galatians 5:16-25

Galatians 5:16–25 ESV

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

A Tale of 2 Lists

So Paul is talking to us about walking with the Holy Spirit (which is walking with God) And he makes 2 lists one is a list of things that we Don’t do when walking with God and a list of things that we DO when walking close with God (the HS)

We don’t have a problem with the majority of the list of things that we don’t do… and we are good at decrying the ills of Sexual Immorality, Sorcery (oh do we love to talk about witchcraft) and the like… but we kind of gloss over the ones at the end of the list. certainly the ones at the top of the list are the important ones (the Biggies) and the ones are the end where Paul just filling the space to make a good list… maybe he wanting to finish the page on the parchment he was writing on (waste not want not, right?) NO

Everything on this list was important. and it’s the ones at the end that I would argue affect how we treat our neighbors the most.

Enmity,

Causing strife amongst people in the church or outside (there are some people in the church that are great a stiring stuff up),

Jealousy (Why were they made deacon and not me?)

Rivalries! (my ministry is more important than yours) ,

Dissensions (do you know what Pastor said about such and such… I don’t want to start anything but I can believe he said that or Can you tell pastor about such and such… don’t use my name though…)

talk about Christian Leaders Article about anonymous complaints.

See Paul’s Warning is that people who display these traits will not inherit the Kingdom of God as well! Here is one of the most insidious lies that the Devil uses to fool Christians that there are some sins that are worse than others!

There are no better or worse sins! But I digress… this is about our neighbors… but then again… if this is how we treat ourselves, is it possible that we have been treating our neighbors even worse?

It’s Jesus who said this in Matthew 7:1-5

Matthew 7:1–5 ESV

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

If we look at the context of this we will find that it’s part of a Sermon that Jesus was giving, and the majority of it focused on how we treat others… so when we read a passage like this we have to assume that he is talking about the same...

He is saying: Dont Judge your neighbor, because the both of you face the same judgement

He’s saying: While you’re looking at the Sins of your neighbor maybe you should look to your own sins first

After all how can you say that God dislikes your particular sin… but is ok with my sin (and remember this is no lesser sin)

Where are you in your walk?

Now I don’t know where each of you are in your walk with God and it would be arrogant of me to assume anything (especially after talking about specks and logs but I really want to impress on how Passionate God is about how we treat our neighbors, the less then, the outsiders, etc. and I’m hoping that by highlighting how Passionate God is about the subject that we can all use it as a mirror to see where we stand in relation.

If this topic makes you excited, fills you with hope, and motivates you to head out into the world AWESOME

God cannot wait to use you in great and amazing ways in this very community! He is waiting for people just like you who want to see this community vibrant with the love of god and want to see our church as the center of it all.

God is excited with you and is going to birth ideas, and plans, and visions on your heart.

If this makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable, or indignant, or possibly sad It’s ok… The Bible also say that

ro 8:1

Romans 8:1 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And this is a verse that is meant for you today… God is not judging you on where your are right now…He is more concerned with where you are going.

and the good news is its never too late to change and do something different.

Acts 3:1-10

Acts 3:1–11 ESV

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s.

2 Regular Church Goers

Peter and John were not strangers to the Beautiful Gate. it’s a place they would have gone to regularly on their way into the temple. this was kin of like saying. Deac Moy and Deac Charles were coming through the main doors to the church… and and as we red this passage we find that there is a certain man who was born lame, who had been carried to this gate to beg for money.

So this is a story about 2 church regulars. The man who was lame was born that way, and it would be expected that he was brought there to beg on a regular bases if not daily.

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that this is someone who Peter and John knew… in fact its completely possible that this was someone that even Jesus (As a regular temple goer) would have known … the thing is in the world that Peter and John lived in beggars, lame, leper, etc. were completely common place.

So the facts of the case is that Peter and John probably pass this man by a hundred and either simply ignored him or chose not to engage with him...

Does that kind of sound like us? sometimes… passing people by ignoring their plights? looking away because we simply dont agree with their lifestyles? we look with disdane as we drive by the gun shop, or the blues can as we see the bikers smoking outside… we shake our heads and lament as we pass the 420 clinic truck often parked right across the street.

We pass by the modern day beggars, lepers and lames on our way to church, just like Peter and John probably passed by this lame man.

But this story is in the Bible because there was a difference… this time Peter and John stoped, and they helped this man. instead of passing this man by as usualy the came to him… they didn’t have money, they wern’t bringing him food,

but what they did have was the word of God,

what they did have was acceptance into a community. and dont make any mistakes, this healing was not only a healing but an invitation in to the Christian community. this was a message that he was now accepted a member of a group that wanted him to be a part of it.

But this is one of the morals that we can take from this story.

It’s never to late to change!

like i mentioned Peter and John were likely no strangers to this man. he was their neighbor in ever sense of the word. he was close, the was a part for their church and Ethnic community! and Peter and John would have known the “Law” on loving your neighbor. and yet these two likely spent a good portion of their adult lives (not to mention the entirety of their Christian Lives) passing right on by their neighbor!

but it’s important to see here that it is never to late to change.

it’s never too late to say, I’m going to do something different THIS TIME.

It’s never to late to turn the titanic around!!

No matter how you feel right now about your neighbors the people around you, the people around this community and the people around this church. it is NEVER to late to decide that YOU are going to make a change.

I was reading an article recently in Church Leaders by Carey Nieuwhof and if I could I’d like to read a quote from it:

Perhaps the first obstacle between non-Christians and Christians is that relatively few Christians actively pursue meaningful friendships with people who don’t share their faith. Between churches that offer programs five nights a week (leaving little time for Christians to make friends outside the church) and Christians who are afraid of the world, many Christians don’t pursue authentic relationships with non-Christians.

Which means much of the interaction non-Christians have is situational and observational rather than truly relational. They observe Christians in life and at work, notices traces of judgment and hypocrisy, and draw all kinds of conclusions. I get that.

But Jesus went so much deeper than that. Jesus pursued friendships with people who were different than him. Whose lifestyles were far different than anything God had in mind for them (or for people in relationship with him).

Yet Jesus was their friend. He went to their house for dinner. They traveled together. They shared moments and meals and life.

It scandalized the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, and sadly, when it’s practiced authentically, it still scandalizes most of us today.

Think about it. When was the last time you hung out with a hooker?

When was the last time you had someone who’s not your skin color, not your political persuasion and doesn’t share your value system over for dinner, or when was the last time you broke bread with an addict (who’s not in recovery)?

As you think about your neighbors.. as you think about the people that are out in the world… the people that may (and I hope) start coming to this very church.

As you think about how you feel about all that. think also about how people (especially the Pharisee's) felt about Jesus doing the same thing. Think about the Pharisees and their reactions.

One of the devices contained within the bible to help us evaluate ourselves is showing us ourselves through other people. in the New Testament we often see ourselves in the lives of the Pharisee’s who saw themselves as threatened and attacked by what Jesus represented.

Jesus was a scandal to the church of the day

The Temple of the day was meant to be a Jew’s only club… and in fact even a “Certain Jews” only club and they were are the top of the list.

The had lived their lives trying to be Holy and perfect for the coming of the messiah. The tried so hard to show the world around them what is was to be “Holy and Acceptable in the Lord sight”… but in doing that the lost sight of the fact that Gods desire is that All should be saved. and so over time instead of becoming the greeters at the door that God intended. they became bouncers at a guarded gate.

Instead of becoming those that would usher in the age of All being accepted into the body of Christ. the became relics of an old order. cast aside by the God they claimed to serve.

Their Walk with God was meant to teach them how to love others more. it deviated and instead they taught each-other to hate instead. to the point where they were they sought to kill the son of their own God.

and we look at the pharisees with contempt. how could they have gotten it so wrong? how could they have changed from what God wanted to what God hated so quickly?

and yet as we look with pity at he pharisees of yesterday we run the danger of becoming just like them. we run the risk of becoming the bouncers of our day, deciding who gets to come into our special club instead of actively welcoming all who would come.

After all who have you ever seen change their mind because of being Judged?

and isn’t that Gods job, not ours anyway?

So as I conclude this evening I want to call each of us to look at our walk with Christ in the way he does.

When you look at the Bible one of Jesus’s primary concerns was how we treat others. it would seem that He sees his relationship with us and how we treat others as one in the same.

As we deepen our walk with him we will naturally choose to treat people with more love.

As we deepen our walk with Him we will naturally ant to see more people walk with Him too

As we deepen our walk with Him we will naturally love all the more, the things that He Loves.

The Lost and the wayward,

He loved the prodigal son, not because of his sin, but because he humbled himself and came home.

He loved the prostitutes, the politicians and the tax collectors.

And He loves us too.

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