You Are Special, Just as You Are

Intro - Veteran’s Day (Brief)

...we celebrate those who willingly mirrored Christ’s sacrifice for the least of these. For the oppressed. The foreigner. Those who don’t look or act like us. For a cause that runs so much deeper than we know. Freedom. Of life. Of thought. Of decisions. Of life.

They have that freedom, we have that freedom, because of those who stand in the gap for others. Afraid of what might happen, but willing to worry less for self than others so much that standing in the gap is the only thing to do.

So if you have served, please stand and allow us to show you our thanks today.

[after applause] But that thanks, all too often only happens today. We don’t show the fruits of that gratitude in our lives. Either for them, or for Christ. More to the point, we take that gratitude as evidence of love of us alone, and so we love ourself more than others. We become more proud than helpful, and more envious than content. We lose the love of God, and because of that the world can’t see it either.

As we continue this series in what love looks like, we will stop for a bit today to talk about what love doesn’t look like. And what we should never look like either.

Pray

[hatepic]

Did you know that you can love someone, something, even yourself, and not have to hate those who aren’t that person or thing?

Did you know that you can love someone, something, even yourself, and not have to hate those who aren’t that person or thing?

That sounds like a silly question, I know, but we need to ask it today. I mean, can you love Draughn, and not hate East Burke? Can you love East Burke and not hate Freedom?

Can you love a position without hating someone who holds another? Can you love a cause or celebrity, without hating someone who doesn’t?

Can you love anything, and not the other?

Of course the answer is yes. But in our souls, is that really the answer?

Paul would tell us it isn’t. I say that, because here in this moment he is tying together the idea of what love is with what our reaction to loving in our flawed human way will be!

[picofawards]

You can really see that in the way we give awards to children. And in general, how we treat children. Don’t hear this wrong, we should celebrate EVERY achievement of every child! But it is we parents who need some help. When we raise our children, do we remind them of their value apart from the awards? Apart from the accomplishments. Do we love them enough to help them to see that they are special regardless of a trophy or achievement? Both in our words, and in our actions and the things we support or encourage in them.

No - all too often we push them to excel, we sometimes even stack the deck so that they will be awarded things! Some do the homework for their kids, or their projects. Maybe we push them toward things they don’t really like because someone else is doing it, so our kids need to do it too! Even worse, sometimes we denigrate other parents passive aggressively on Social Media, to act like we are somehow better, our children are somehow better - and insodoing we denigrate those children as well.

In other words, our love of self, based on our pride and envy of the perceived attention or love that some other child - or some other person - might be getting drives us to forget the love that is supposed to live in us.

In our envy of another, or our desire to boast in our most precious creation, we lose sight of love - for them and for others.

[tenlepers]

This happens to all of us though. When someone gets a promotion that you wanted, your first reaction probably isn’t to feel good for them. Our unending envy, our desire to be thought of as more special - and sometimes just as special as others - it gets in the way of the love that we are supposed to live out.

[story of ten lepers]

...now be honest with yourself. Those other 9, did the wrong thing, right?

What if I told you that Jesus isn’t saying that. What if I told you that our desire to be “right” gets in the way of our loving others? What if I told you that it is the envy of thinking someone else is getting love that causes us to think badly of those who don’t do like we do?

You see, it is that same envy - the arrogance with which we live, and the boastful and rude attitude with which we approach life; the way we gatekeep and act as if we alone know the answers -that is what gets in the way of others feeling love! And honestly, sometimes that seems to be our intent. But we need to understand, even if that isn’t our intent, those feelings will absolutely stop us from feeling the love God has for us!

They become a stumbling block for ourselves. The more we envy others. The more we boast in ourselves. The more we are rude to those around us. The greater the distance is between us and God.

[distancefromGod]

After all, those emotions are simply a rejection of an internal feeling of unworthiness! So when we envy others, or boast in ourselves, our jobs, our kids, our social decision, our clothes, our whatever - when we treat others like they are doing something wrong, or that they don’t matter, we are actually trying to cover up a hole in us that is formed by our own unwillingness to allow God to love us just as we are.

And church, please hear this clearly, I don’t care what you have accomplished or not accomplished, what you have done - good or bad - what you think of yourself, or what you think others think of you.

God made you special. And He loves you enough to give up everything for you.

There is no distance that we must close between God and us. But there is a distance that we create when we stop seeing our own worth, our own value, our own importance from God’s point of view.

You see, the truth is, you don’t have to smart to be loved by God - something I am eternally grateful for. You don’t have to wear certain clothes - or even avoid wearing certain clothes. You don’t have to be the prettiest. You don’t have to be the strongest. You don’t have to be the wealthiest. You don’t have to be the most devout. You don’t have to be the hardest worker. You don’t have to be the most popular. You don’t have to be the best athlete, or most popular, or righteous, or even fit in wherever you are! In fact, Jesus, if He was here today with us, would likely tell us all to get off of social media! Get away from making your opinion about everything known! Stop being so concerned about your public perception and start handing your life, your kids life, your jobs, your opinions, your future - YOUR EVERYTHING - TO ME! JUST STOP TRYING TO BE ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE, STOP TRYING TO BE LOVED, AND UNDERSTAND THE TRUTH OF HIS SACRIFICE FOR THE WHOLE WORLD!

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE ANYTHING EXCEPT YOURSELF TO BE LOVED BEYOND MEASURE!

And the quicker we realize that, the sooner, and better, we will be able to love the world around us.

[Picofcartoon]

You see, when you know you are loved, you don’t envy others! When you know you are special you don’t want others to feel left out! When you feel loved, you want others to feel it too! And church, you want them to feel love FAR MORE than you want them to hear your opinion, or feel different, or wrong.

You don’t want them to feel envy, you don’t want to brag, you don’t want that, because you don’t want anyone else to feel anything less than the loved creation of God Himself that they are.

In short, because you made room for God to love you just as you are, you can love yourself, and that leaves room for you to love others too.

[explain cartoon]

And when we can love like that, when we show an example of an unenvious life that boasts only in God and rejoices in the accomplishments of others - when we do that - we take the stumbling block away from ourselves, and from the world.

Hebrews 12:14–15 ESV

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

That is what the author of Hebrews is saying to us in that text. Holiness doesn’t mean being high and mighty! Both the Greek word, and the cultural implications of this idea point us to the reality.

You see, holiness isn’t a destination! If it were, Christ’s perfection is pointless. No holiness in the Bible refers to a process of becoming more similar to God. Better put even than that, holiness is nothing more than the revealing of the incarnation of God - His likeness - in ourselves. An incarnation that never brags on Social Media, or divides others based on our own standards - from clothes to religion and everything in between.

That isn’t love. That isn’t what the holiness of Christ brings. We are holy, because He is holy. We love because His love for us lives in our hearts. Not because of anything we could ever do. But because of the very image of God that lives in me, and you, and them - everyone.

And when we understand God’s love for us, and live out that love, we find that we don’t have to have an opinion. We don’t have to be envious, or rude, or petty. And because of that we remove that stumbling block - and because of that we find peace and love. And then we bring with us that same peace through which everyone can see the Lord!

We weed out that root of bitterness. We stop causing these troubles that we constantly pray that God takes away! In short, we become the instrument of God’s love and peace that we need - that the world needs - to find the value that lies within us all.

[firststeps]

This is the first step church. Sure have patience. Be kind. Those are unbelievably important. But you will only be faking it as long as you have envy, or arrogance and rudeness in you.

So our first step is hearing these words again, but not from me. After all, I am at the end of the day nothing. Just a pastor. Sometimes a wordy one at that.

But we all have someone who loves us, here on this earth. Our veterans show that for us so well. And our God even better. Some are gone from us, maybe, some are not. But for a few seconds I want to be silent, and I want you to hear them again. Hear them tell you they love you. Picture their smile. Remember those moments when you understood so clearly what love really is. That love that goes beyond all understanding. That love we have all known, but sometimes forget.

[pause for 10-15 seconds]

You are special. You are amazing. You are a masterpiece of God’s own design. You are loved.

[pray]