Why We Do What We Do
Notes
Transcript
Thank You!
Thank You!
We survived. And, a big part of our survival is how we all helped each other thru.
Thank you!
Trust me, you don’t want COVID!
One of the strange things about this is how arbitrary it is.
Some of us had little or no symptoms.
Praise God for that!
Sara and I had different symptoms from each other and from many of you.
A few of us were hospitalized, most were not.
Most of us are in pretty good shape now and have some immunities to carry us into the summer.
We will not let our guard down, however.
Until we get to herd immunity we will still wear masks, keep out distance, wash our hand and keep our hands off of our faces.
One of the most encouraging things is, while we were down, we heard about how so many of were helping the sick ones out.
So many of you, of us, look for ways to help each other when we need it.
Sara and I owe several of you a huge thank you.
We were both quarantined for 10 days.
We needed meds, food, and our mail.
Jim & Linda, Bob and Barb picked up prescriptions for us.
Rick and Gail were all over Flagstaff for us picking stuff up and they provided meals.
Bill Baird picked up our mail.
Dave, Marylin and the kids brought wood up on my deck for me.
Barb Sherman picked things up for us.
Larry Assenheimer and Pat Fidazzo brought a plate of Xmas cookies b/c they knew Sara wasn’t up to baking some herself.
Even when we felt better, we couldn’t go out b/c we’d take the germs w/ us.
We needed you to do this for us.
Ya, we all go to Flagstaff on a regular basis. But, it’s a chore, especially, during Xmas, to make extra stops for someone else.
It’s not easy to ask for help when you’re used to being the one who helps. But, when you need it, it’s a life-saver.
Besides, giving ppl the opportunity to serve you blesses them and the community in the process.
It is an act of love to let ppl help you.
Once we were out, we were able to do these things for Tom and Gwen, and others who are still down.
This is what friends do for each other. This is what we do.
Why? B/C we care about each other. We get it. We love the ppl in this church and in this community.
We act like we actually love each other. It’s not a veneer, or b/c we think we have to, not just trying to earn points w/ God.
We genuinely do care for each other.
Just like when the P.O. was closed. Tom got together w/ a member of the community, AlisonTiffany, and organized the effort.
A number of you volunteered to stand in line in the heat in Flagstaff to pick up mail for community members who could not.
When Agee’s hosted a fund-raiser Labor Day weekend for our Fire Fighters, many of you volunteered and participated in the set up and bought raffle tickets b/c you care, not only about the Fire Fighters, but this community they protect.
What really motivates us to make these sacrifices for each other?
When you are sure when you get to heaven you will be so rich you won’t be concerned about hoarding stuff here.
You won’t concern yourself w/ hoarding your material possessions, your time, or your relational energy.
We live generously b/c we know God has been generous w/ us.
The message of 1 John 4:7-19.
One of the Xmas messages I got to pass along to you, I talked about faith.
Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Those who have faith, their lives are characterized by confidence, assurance, a positivity that God is at work behind the scenes in good ways.
We can’t see what He’s doing now, but we will. And everything we hope for will come to pass.
Hope is not what we wish for, but what we wait for.
Faith, believing this is all true, has some basis in fact. Historical facts encourage our Faith in what God is doing today and how everything will work out for our good tomorrow.
That, in turn, encourages us to live our lives generously, acting like we love each other because we know God has acted in the past like He loves us.
And now, He is in us and we share the same desire to act like we love each other now.
These desires began w/ the facts of the past.
The Facts of the Past
The Facts of the Past
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
John begins this passage w/ a command, “Let’s love each other.”
Love is a verb, not a feeling. It’s action.
Act like we love each other. Words are cheap!
And, loving actions costs us something. It’s often inconvenient and costly.
It’s not natural to make such sacrifices. What’s natural is to look out for yourself.
So, it requires God renewing your mind. That is, fundamentally changing the way you evaluate your options.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Remember, your mind is your evaluator. And your will is your chooser. Your will, will automatically choose whatever your mind determines to be your best option.
What would make your will choose an option that costs you?
God would. And only a mind that has been renewed will lead to a life that is characterized by sacrificial actions that are good for other ppl.
To be in X, in the body of X, is to experience His love first hand by what He did for you that allows you this position.
Now, since He is in you, His love is, too.
To know God, to have a personal relationship w/ Him, requires we have faith in Him and believe in Jesus for everything He is.
We just celebrated Xmas and we are on our way to Easter.
This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only son to be born of a virgin in a stable, to grow up to die on a cross, then walk out of his grave.
He lives in us, we live thru Him, because He lived and died and now lives for us.
Now, not only do we have Jesus as an example, we have Him as our source.
Our faith in Him, w/ some basis of historical facts, w/out all the details filled in for us, now encourage us to the same for each other that He did for us.
No one has ever seen God. But, when our friends and neighbors see us doing for each other the way Jesus did for us, they see the best representation of God that we have today.
Love is intrinsic to the character and nature of God. The closer we relate to Him, the more this will characterize our life and show itself in how we treat each other.
So faith, w/ some basis in historical fact, leads us to live our lives in the present in way consistent w/ the character of God.
We live like Jesus would if He were here to do it Himself.
How do we do that? Seems hard.
But, we have help.
Help in the Present
Help in the Present
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
God sent Jesus and Jesus sent the HS. They all work together to get us where God wants us to be.
This is how we know we live in Him and He in us.
How do you know the HS lives in you?
Do you know His voice when you hear it?
Do you know His power when you experience it?
Do you know the abilities He has given you when you use them?
Do you know peace when everyone else is stressed out of their minds?
Do you know self-control when everyone else is mocking each other, doing and saying things that hurt each other?
Do you know joy even when life is hard?
Do you know how you are making better decisions b/c He continues to renew your mind?
We still are at war with the sin nature that is in us.
G.I.G.O.
When we fill our minds w/ garbage, the output is garbage.
The decisions are bad.
But, when we fill our minds w/ God, the output is godly.
Better decisions that may cost us more.
How are they better? They better reflect the character of God and demonstrate that we really do care about each other.
And, if someone wants to be cared for the way we care for each other, then they need to choose to believe in Jesus the way we have and join us in the body of Christ.
Jesus proved that He loves us. John saw it personally and wrote about it. He is telling us his story.
He wrote about his own experience w/ Jesus.
From the beginning of the letter he has wanted us to share in his experience. He saw Jesus. We see evidence of Jesus and share in the experience when we see how we take care of each other.
God lives in us and gives us the ability to love like He does.
In the same way faith is assurance and confidence, we can rely on the fact that Jesus loves us and did what He did for so we can do what we want to do in the future.
Ultimately, we want paradise. Sometimes we want it here. But, either way, we will end up there b/c of what Jesus did for us here.
We don’t have to be afraid that the future will not work out the way we hope that it will.
Jesus loves us. God is love. And, there is no fear in love.
So, there is no fear about our future.
No Fear about Our Future.
No Fear about Our Future.
This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us.
Ultimately, what do we all hope for?
Heaven. Eternal life.
Sometimes we get too hung up on expecting this life to be paradise.
It’s not supposed to be.
It doesn’t have to be if we are confident we will get there eventually.
Confidence. The Greek word is “parresia”.
It’s in the same family of words that define faith. The confidence in what we hope for and assurance of what we do not see.
Not wishful thinking. Basis in fact. But holes that require belief w/out all the answers.
We have nothing t/b concerned about after we leave this life and stand before God on our judgment Day.
Faith.
Nothing to fear.
I’ve said many times I’m not afraid of dying. I’m just afraid of what will kill b/c it might hurt.
Death is part of life.
We know that we have nothing to fear b/c we know Jesus, we know the HS lives in us, and we know we have the desire to act like we love other. We want to do things for those around that cost us something.
All this is proof that we have nothing to fear when we stand before God.
We will not be punished. God only punishes those who do not have faith.
Believers never face the wrath of God.
We are disciplined by Him as a loving Father who wants us to learn something. But He never punishes out of anger.
And lest we think we deserve all this, remember what Paul said Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
He didn’t wait for us to clean ourselves up. He died for us while we were still dirty and then set out to clean us up.
We act like we love each other b/c Jesus acts like He loves us. It’s not a veneer. It’s not just an act. It’s not for the purpose of gaining points w/ God.
We have all the points we are going to get. We have everything we need.
And, b/c what is coming to us in heaven is so rich, we don’t need to hoard anything here on earth.
We can live a life of generosity, be generous w/ your money, time, relational energy. Spend it all while you’re here.
B/C, we are confident that once we get to heaven we’ll have more than we could possibly could have dreamt or could ever use.
We act like we love each other b/c we really do.
We understand what love is b/c we’ve been on the receiving end w/ Jesus. And, not that we live in Jesus and He lives in us, we have it to use to help each other when we need it.
Applications
Applications
Facts
Facts
Are Xmas and Easter just opportunities for you to dress up, decorate, eat chocolate, and get presents?
Recognize them as the factual events they are and let them strengthen your faith.
Confident Xmas happened the way the bible says it did. And Assured that Easter happened the way the bible says it did.
That same confidence will buoy you today to be certain that God is at work in good ways you can’t see but will in time.
Faith.
What About Me?
What About Me?
You may be thinking what’s up? Nobody did all that for me!
Well, love begins w/ the attitude of looking to serve and act like you love others w/out expecting anything in return.
Attitude adjustment?
Don’t be mad that you didn’t get the help you wanted.
Be eager to help others where you can and be surprised when they start helping you.
Who?
Who?
Who can you act like you love this week?
Every week look to do something fairly significant for somebody else.
A plate of cookies.
A jar of canned vegetables.
A meal.
A phone call. A well-timed question.
How are you doing?
Look for opportunities to let ppl know you care about them
We do this for other b/c Jesus did it for us.
He didn’t wait for us to deserve what He did.
He didn’t wait for us to clean up our act. He did it for us while we were still dirty and then he helped clean us up.
Don’t wait till someone deserves it. Just do it for them
When they see us helping them, and the community sees us helping each other that is the closest we will all get to seeing God until the day we stand before him receiving our eternal assignment.
What a day that will be!
We act like we love each other b/c we really do.
We understand what love is b/c we’ve been on the receiving end w/ Jesus. And, not that we live in Jesus and He lives in us, we have it to use to help each other when we need it.
We live generously b/c we know God has been generous w/ us.