Love Others 2

INTRO-

We have been talking about the now what. When we accept Christ as lord and savior now what. What does it mean to be a christian and what does it mean to be the church.

We have been talking about what it means to follow Jesus and what it means for our church to follow Jesus together.

I believe scripture points to three things as foundation for living out faith.

I - Try to love God w/o loving others

LG LO MDGC and GC

I - Try to love god w/o loving others - A time I tried to do something w/o doing the bits i didn't like.

This week LO

I - Half Cleaning the house

I am really good at half cleaning the house

Big paper - Clean the kitchen

Sermon struggles - vaccum

difficult conversation - bathroom

In seminairy erin would look forward to finals week because I would be looking for ways to avoid what I really needed to be doing.

W- Try to Love God w/o loving others

Especially after a long week it feels really good to clean the house.

INTRO-

In fact there are a few things around the house like that. I will do almost all of a chore, but stop short before its finished.

Do the laundry, but don’t put it away.

clean the living room, but toss Foster’s toys behind a chair instead of putting them back where they go.

Put the cold groceries away, but leave the rest.

And I tend to think, wrongly, that this counts as doing the chore and it should drive erin Crazy.

When i was a kid i would clean my room by shoving everything into the closet.

W - Try to love God w/o loving others

But of course this doesnt really count. If you wash the dishes w/o putting them away have you really washed the dishes?

INTRO-

We have been talking about what it means to follow Jesus and what it means for our church to follow Jesus together. And I see this impulse at work in myself when it comes to following Jesus.

We have been talking about what it means to follow Jesus and what it means for our church to follow Jesus together.

I believe scripture points to three things as foundation for living out faith.

LG LO MD

GC and GC

Matthew 22:34-37

34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus says everything hangs on these commandments.

This week our focus is Loving neighbor or Love Others. And sometimes when I am presented with that call to LOVE OTHERS I would rather do just about anyhting else and I dont think I’m alone in this.

W- Try to Love God w/o loving others

W- Try to Love God w/o loving others

We are pretty good at loving people

When it doesn't cost much

When people are lovable

The easy to get along with

People like us

Those who love us.

We all have people we know God is calling us to love, but it seems like too much work, we want them to come to us, we are afraid they will reject us or embarrass us, or hurt us.

More challenging with

- the needy

G - Its not enough to LG w/o LO - Loving God and others is intimately connected. Because GOD LOVES THEM. How can you love God, and not love the people he loves?

The needy

The different

the other

The difficult

Its when we encounter the kinds of people that are hard for us to love that we start to get creative in how we see Jesus words here. right? I know I do.

THen we get really creative

Duh! They should really do that!

Jesus coundnt have meant it like that!

Dont hate, tolerate

cultivate warm feelings

accuse others of not loving

Try real hard to love and get discouraged

What about bad people?

What about sinners?

WHat are the limits?

Even bible commentaries try and find ways out of this one.

Its like nailing down Jello, we keep jumping out of the way.

This is so hard that we want to be let off the hook and we are not alone.

G - Its not enough to LG w/o LO - LOVING GOD is LOVING OTHERS God’s love makes it possible for us to love others

Amos - Isreal tries to LG w/o loving people, God responds - AMOS says DO JUSTICE (God cares about the innocent)

You Can’t Love God without Loving Others

Ancient Isreal tried to love God, without loving others often. They would worship in temple, make sacrifices, sing songs and celebrate festivals. But they neglected to take care of the poor, the orphan, and the foriegner in their midst. God said this to them in AMOS 5:21-24

21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals;

your assemblies are a stench to me.

22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them.

Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,

I will have no regard for them.

23 Away with the noise of your songs!

I will not listen to the music of your harps.

24 But let justice roll on like a river,

righteousness like a never-failing stream!

I dont want whatever you think your giving me, if your neglecting people.

God says, “I dont want whatever you think you’re giving me, if your neglecting people.”

These are hard words, but I think they are worth hearing. God says, if you arent going to care for people, I dont have anything for you.

Jesus - Took this further. He drew near to the most difficult people and loved them. ANd he told everyone to do the same. TO love Neighbor as SELF, and then he did it.

People resisted, questioned, and challenged.

People tried to find the boundaries, the minimums and the limits. - Samaritian - Pharisees

Just like we do.

Where we constantly look for ways to narrow the scope of love, Jesus said this in what I think of as one of the most challenging passages in all of scripture Luke 6:27-39

27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 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. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 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.

35 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. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

wow

(ELABORATE)

And he proved it out the cross “Father forgive them.”

US

There is no way out of it, no doing the Love God but not love others part. We are to love all others, even when it feels impossible for our hearts to do. Because it’s foudational to the gospel.

But God doesn’t make us do it alone. he did it first for us.

Love others sits at the foundation of the Gospel, it is because of God’s love for enemies that he loved you.

The Gospel, the good news at its most simple is this. God Really, really, really loves you. PERIOD (elaborate)

God Really, really, really loves you. PERIOD (elaborate)

Enough to come

God Really, really, really loves you. PERIOD (elaborate)

Enough to die

for you

Just for you, just because he made you, thats it. GOD really ,really, really, loves you.

EVEN THOUGH YOU DONT DESERVE IT. (elaborate)

EVEN THOUGH YOU DONT DESERVE IT. (elaborate)

Even though you were his enemy at one pont.

Its only when we understand our lives out of that foundational truth, that we can really love others w/o running dry.

WHEN you embrace God’s love for you, so much that he died on the cross when you did nothing. You realize that its not about pleasing God to recieve his love. YOU ALREADY have it!

WHEN you embrace God’s love for you, so much that he died on the cross when you did nothing. You realize that its not about pleasing God to recieve his love. YOU ALREADY have it! We are called to celebrate that fact by sharing his love with others too.

You are loved by God.

God loved us so much that he sent his son to die for us.

Know that GOd loves your brothers/sisters your friends, your relatives, your aquaintaneces, the people that drive you crazy, the peopel that scare you, yes even your competitors and enemies.

GOD LOVES THEM JUST LIKE HE LOVES YOU. The same way. Its not that if you fail to love them God will be disapointed in you or whatever. Its that THEY ARE JUST LIKE YOU, as a reciepent of love, LIVE LOVE.

And how could you love God without caring about the people he cares about? Yourself, but also others.

puts it this way.

“we love because he first loved us.”

IF YOU GROUND YOUR LIFE IN GOD”S LOVE. Loving neighbor as yourself becomes possible.

Y - A challenge to LOVE

If you have never really embraced God’s love for you today is the day...

Y - A challenge to LOVE

Trans: How can we respond to the self Giving love of Christ, we pour it out to others.

So start with those who are near. WIth those God puts in your path.

This is one of the main points of the church. Its a place to learn to love people and to be reminded how.

My challenge is that each of us TODAY, would use the wall and try one of these things. And that each of us would consider voulenteering for and attending “Talk Saves Lives” as one way to learn how to love somone in need. ANd finally that each week we would commite to intentionally loving one other person only becasue we know God loves them like he loves us.

One idea: Love others Wall

Pray for someone

Write a note

call/visit/pray

take somone out to lunch

Love your neighbor

take somone out to lunch

Then Love further!

Talk saves lives

Challenge this week

Share love with 3 people this week out of the love God has for you.

1 here at church.

Love your enemy

1 family member or friend.

A way to get started. Love Other’s wall.

1 enemy or stranger.

W - We love, because first loved us

Story - Someone had to make the first move.

G

When we turned away from God, and when we still do. God is always making the first move to reach out and love us.

He sent his son, he offers his grace freely. Since before you were born God has been reaching out to you. He always makes the first move of love.

We all have people we know God is calling us to love, but it seems like too much work, we want them to come to us, we are afraid they will reject us or embarras us, or hurt us.

But someone has to make the first move. And we arent loving God if we cant love others

GOD loves you, Go love others

Carry on his tradition that started iwth Christ.

May we be known as a people whose love for God is made complete in the way we love each other, our neighbors, and yes even our enemies as ourselves.

This is so increibly important to God that he calls it one of the two things that everything else in scripture hangs off of.

Without getting this right, we are missing the point. With out love for others everything we do togehter as a church is hollow perhaps even destructive. That is why it is core to our mission, that we would be a people known for love of God and love for neighbor.

May we be known as a people whose love for God is made complete in the way we love each other, our neighbors, and yes even our enemies as ourselves.