Loving God by Loving Each Other

March 14, 2021

Introduction

How many of you have picked up a flyer or a gospel tract that told you that God loved you? How many of you have seen a commercial or advertisements to say to you that God loves you.? You know, I'd bet that each one of us has encountered that message quite a few times. But, the times we remember other times experience the love of God.

We may put up signs in front of our church to tell our neighborhood that God loves them. We may pay for advertising On Facebook to say to our neighbors that God loves them. But it may be only when we knock on a door and listen to a story and then pray with someone that they believe it. We may tell our fellow brothers and sisters in the church that we love them, but it's not until we drop a meal by or stop by at the end of the service to talk that they believe about it.

Sometimes there's quite a bit of resistance in our hearts and minds when it comes to meeting a need. We see a homeless person on the side of the road begging, and we've got too much to do legitimately so. We see someone broken down by the side of the road, and we've got 20 excuses for why we shouldn't stop to help them.

And yet, some of the most amazing experiences I've had have been the times when I've listened to the leading of the Holy Spirit to care for and love someone. They've been times when I've interrupted the schedule I had planned to value the need that came to my attention.

Throughout the scripture, gone has shown his love for vulnerable people, widows, orphans, poor people, single moms, addicts, the elderly, and the homeless.

Jesus began his earthly ministry reading from this passage in Isaiah:

Luke 4:16–19 ESV

16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Jesus had a prejudice, if you will, to move towards people who needed help. It didn't matter what race or gender they were. It didn't matter if they were poor or rich. Jesus took pains to reach the people society did its best to avoid.

Today, in the same way, rich people expect to rule and vulnerable people on the edges of our world. And yet, the ministry Jesus had we can still have today.

I love how much Jesus cared for everyone around him

Matthew 15:29–32 ESV

29 Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. 30 And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, 31 so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel. 32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”

He relentlessly allowed his time to be consumed by others' care while still making time for the relationships and tasks that were important.

When I walk into a room where I don't know many people, I tend to feel threatened until I can meet at least a few people. I love the story of Jesus having dinner with Simon, the pharisee.

Luke 7:37–38 ESV

37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

This woman walks in totally consumed by her worship of Jesus and sacrifices a priceless perfume to love on Jesus. She was able to walk through the glares and the disdainful looks of the men around her because she was focused on Jesus. Simon was far more concerned about his status.

Simon was concerned about the stamps of this woman and what she had done. The woman was only worried about worshipping Jesus. Which one are we? What can we hardly keep ourselves from doing? Do we naturally criticize and find fault in others? Or are we more concerned about the hearts of the people we meet?

You know, sometimes we see Jesus as this painting. Either Jesus is crucified and on the cross suffering for us. Or Jesus is this teacher standing in front of thousands. Or Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God in heaven. Jesus was and is all of these things. But do you know what he was most when he walked the earth? He was a man who loved to rub shoulders with and spend time with the blind, the lame, the children, the underprivileged sinners, and more. He loved hurting people.

And you know what? He called those hurting people to care for others. But we need to remember that Jesus doesn't contact us to love others out of empty hearts. We need to be careful because if we try to do an act of love for someone else out of a self-centered nature, we will find ourselves annoyed, irritated, and doing more harm than good.

It's been said

Graced people grace people.

Healed people heal people.

Forgiven people forgive people.

Loved people love people.

Accepted people accept people.

"Serve Your City" page 53

Sometimes, we believe this myth that we need to have our lives altogether to help someone else out. This is a lie. Our capacity to help people depends more on what God has done in us than where we are right now. It depends more on our view of God than on what we have accomplished.

To live with compassion for others, we need to love with a certain degree of brokenness. For us to be consistently compassionate people, we need to be shocked by the grace of God in our lives. We need to be in all of the reality that the creator of the universe stooped himself low enough to come into our world to love on us. If we get that, then we can earn how to love others. If we get the grace of God, we will understand how to be compassionate to others.

And do you know what? Living with a conscious reality and awareness of God's grace transforms your heart.

I love this quote:

"Grace shatters and humbles our sense of superiority" -"Serve Your City" page 56

You know, the world celebrates what you can accomplish. The world celebrates the experiences you and I can have when the world celebrates looking out for yourself and your own identity. But when you and I experienced the grace of God in our lives, it turns our worldly priorities upside down. We see that we can sacrifice to serve others, and that be OK. We know that we can let go of hurts and offenses and offer forgiveness. We can live with peace because of what God's done for us. Experiencing God's grace equips us to live in astonishing ways in our world.

When we come to grips with God's grace in our lives, it will equip us to pour grace into others' lives. If you struggle with this idea of showing compassion to others, the solution is to meditate on what God has done for you.

I love what Jesus said in

Matthew 25:34–40 ESV

34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Did you get that? Jesus talked about a time when we will stand before God in heaven, and he will bless us and reward us for how we loved him. And righteous people will stand before Jesus and ask the question, "How did we love you?"

Jesus will reply that they loved these brothers and sisters of his in the same way they loved him. I think in this passage, Jesus is talking about those who follow his teachings. Jesus is talking about his disciples. He's talking about Christians. If you and I are going to be faithful in loving and following Jesus, we must be authentic and showing compassionate love to each other. We must be obedient to God.

This idea of compassionate ministry starts in the church, it begins with how we care for each other, extending throughout our community.

We have to be careful, though. It is tempting to shape the church around the preferences of the rich, the beautiful, and the powerful. Those who are vulnerable and hurting don't always have a voice. We must be a community that is proactive in looking out for the needs of others.

Conclusion

I want to challenge you to consider your heart this week. Has your heart been transformed by an experience of the grace of God?

Here's how you know you need to spend more time meditating on God's grace:

You find yourself judging those who are worse off than you.

You find no room in your life for hurting people.

The thought of taking time to care for someone else irritates you.

This last week Ashley and I had our cars broken into at our house. At first, I thought it was just petty mischief. Annoying but not a big deal. Around Thursday this week, I discovered that I had a package containing $1000 of phones in the car, and now, it was gone. That bothers me.

But it wasn't long before God showed me the more significant problem I had was how I was reacting. I needed to be more concerned about the heart and soul of the person who robbed me than about the possessions lost. The more significant thing that God needed me to do was not to solve the mystery of the theft but to pray for the thief's heart.

Where is your heart this week?

Have you taken time to be amazed at the capacity Jesus had to love outcasts and people who were rejected by society?

Think about your life. Think of all the ways that God has shown grace to you. Think about the times he has saved you from a stupid choice. Think about the times he has healed you from sickness. Now translate that grace you have received into grace for others.

Take time to listen to others instead of assuming you know what they are thinking.

Take time to be patient with others instead of rushing to what you want.

Schedule enough time in your day so that you can be interrupted by a need.

If we're going to obey God, we must have room for compassion in our lives. We must be generously compassionate to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We must take time to listen and love and care for the needs in our church.

If we're going to obey God and follow Jesus, we must be willing to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit throughout our lives. We must have a bent toward compassion throughout our lives whether it's the grocery store, online, at work, or in our neighborhoods.

We must daily allow ourselves to be amazed by the grace of God. This is something we do in our devotions. This is something we do in our times of prayer. This is something we walk through our days, amazed by. And when we are amazed by God's grace towards oz. When we are aware of how much God has done for us. When we know these things, it becomes so much more natural to show compassion to others. But living this way also requires listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit. It means having enough quiet in your heart to sense when God is leading you to slow down and love on someone.