Love Mission (2)

Pray

-Pray for teachers

-Pray for Afghanistan

-Pray for Fires to stop

12:00-1:30 Bring your own lunch Wednesdays in September. I want to get to know you

Emotionally Healthy Relationships Class

Introduce the family! Desiree, Emma, Lucy & Jake

We are in the middle of this series called the family of God.

And part of the family of God is Kids…and one of the most impotrant parts too.

We invest in kids here heavily, not because they are the future of the church, but because they are the church right now!

So today for children’s Sunday, I have a bit of a shorter message and my hope is that the kids will get it and you will get it......Hopefully there is something in here for everyone

Week 1

The church is the most revolutionary family in the world, with the most revolutionary mission in the world

Two Points here:

1. In the shadow of the cross Jesus forged a whole new family. He told John his disciple, “behold your mother” Because in Jesus Christ, those of us who have no blood relation are now brothers and sisters in Christ. The Church is a whole new family that you are invited into

2. Jesus sent this new family on mission, to bring in more family members, to create communities that replicated the love of the trinity. This is the great commandment. Go teach people what it is like to live in God’s love all over the world…

So CHURCH: YOU ARE A REVOLUTION:

God sees you. God knows about this fellowship of believers

Week 2:

The power of the church is remaining in God’s word

Literally God’s spirit wrote the Bible. The Bible is God speaking life to humanity

The book of Ezekiel reminds us that we need to eat the word of God and literally become God’s message…Do you spend the time in God’s word…Do you invest your time and life in God’s word so much so that your life is different?

Week 3:

Love is the currency of the church

I have intentionally said that love is currency. That choice of words is very intentional.

Currency is something that you spend, and that is what God has intended for love. You should spend love on a daily basis…Spend and be spent!

Now for those of you who are familiar with currency…Like all of us…You need to make it, to spend it.

Do you get it?

Kids: How do you make money?

Kids: How do you spend your money?

See every kid knows that they have to receive money in order to spend money.

In the same way

…You need to receive God’s love in order to give God’s love...

But here is the deal with God’s love. You can not earn it…It is freely given.

There is a concept in the Bible called “The river of God” God decides to use this metaphor of the river to show off what his love is like.

Over the summer my family and I spent some time at Hume Lake and there is a river that feeds that lake…Well we were by that river digging holes and we kept coming across roots. These roots for trees that were like 30ft away from the river...

But they grow year after year because they are by their constant source of life.

The trees are always healthy, always green…Because they are by the river

This is the point in the Bible too.

That following Jesus is this constant river of love and when you can organize your life around the river of God’s love then you will be like that tree that is always strong and always giving love to others

The book of Ezekiel imagines this.

And kids here is what I want you to try and do. Close your eyes and try and picture what I am reading…Imagine it.

Ezekiel 47:1-12

47 The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side.

3 As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. 4 He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. 5 He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. 6 He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?”

Then he led me back to the bank of the river. 7 When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. 8 He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, y where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. 9 Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. 10 Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. 11 But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. 12 Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” [1]

Now if you can visualize this great picture…

You would see the temple and the alter…and out of this alter there is a little trickle of water…And this little trickle of water gets deeper and deeper until such a time as when it is literally pushing all the bad water out and everything around it grows…

SO much so that Ezekiel goes out into the wilderness and to the dead sea and the dessert blooms with fruit and life.

He sees the dead sea becoming fresh water again.

Dry things become wet.

He sees this river teaming with life. He sees fish and trees and all kinds of life coming from the river...

The metaphors in the bible is that God is the river and when our lives are organized near that river we will always be experiencing the love of God!

There are many other places in the Bible where the river of God concept arises

But this imagery is found first in the Old Testament

It is found in

Psalm 1

where David the Psalmist talks about the person who follows God…How that person is like a tree planted near streams of water.

The idea of both

Psalm 1

and

Ezekiel 47

is that God’s love and his life is like a gushing river of water that when we plant ourselves next to it, we are able to experience his Love.

Jesus talked about this...

But every year on the feast of tabernacles the priest will take water and pour it over the alter…Symbolically showing the river of God concept off

The idea is if you want to live in the power and in the love of God then come to the river!

Come drink from the river of God…

Because he loves you and wants to have a relationship with you

And this is so cool…Jesus stands up during this ceremony…where they are playing out

Ezekiel 47

And on the last and greatest day of the festival the priest pour the water over the alter and Jesus says:

John 7:37-38

37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

Ok so let me try and capture what Jesus is saying for you: In the old testament…There is this river of God that flows from the temple...

Everything dead that it touches becomes alive...

Kind of like resurrection...

The river is God’s life…and now Jesus is saying...

Guess what? I am that river…If you drink from me…Everything dead in your life will come alive

If you drink from me, you will experience true love in a way that you have never experienced it before

So the more that we come to Jesus and take a drink…The more he is able to transform what is dead in us. The more he is able to pour his love deeply into our lives.

And the way he brings transformation into your life, is by pouring love into your life.

love is a currency that you don’t have to earn.

Many relationships will make you try to earn love. ]

Like owning a cat. You have to earn that things love!

God’s love is received by grace.

Kids question: what was something you got for your birthday? Did you have to earn it? No, you just woke up one day and someone had a party for you and you got it for free!

So the apostle Paul…When he thought about this currency of love that we all have this is what he says

Romans 13:8-10

8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Spend Love

Do you see what Paul is saying here?

Don’t have financial debt…As much as it is possible, don’t owe other people money

See when you are in debt you walk around with this low grade since of worry that you owe someone something..

You walk around with a feeling of obligation

Paul is saying, you ought to walk around with this obligation that I owe you love...

Even if you don’t...

Even if it is the person who cuts you off in traffic

Even if it is that person who did you wrong

Even if it is that family member you are not talking to

Because when you have a God who loves you like Jesus loves you…This is the only rational response!

When someone loves you very well, you’d have to be mentally ill to return that love with hate

It has been my personal philosophy:

Heading 5

In every relationship bless others more than they could ever bless you in return.

I have flaws and I am not the best at this…But for the last probably 10-15 years I have just thought…I am going to love other people and bless them more than they can bless me back

And it is addicting!

So Kids: Let’s show all of these adults how this works Jacob would you come forward…

Without God’s love you are like this dry sponge…It’s like we are a sponge sitting out in the sun...

But when we start following Jesus its like you are that sponge that gets to jump in the river for the first time.

And then the purpose of a sponge is that you soak up the water to put it on something else.

So I soak up God’s love and give it away.

Church you have this opportunity to “Always leave people better than you found them."

You have this opportunity to soak in the love of Jesus

But you were made it give it away!

WHY do we do this?

Because Jesus gave his whole life so that we can have a relationship with him.

Because Jesus wants to make the dead parts of our life, alive again!

Because, God so loved you, that he gave his one and only son

In every relationship bless others more than they could ever bless you in return.

Church: LOVE IS THE CURRENCY OF THE CHURCH!

SPEND AND BE SPENT in the pursuit of proliferating God’s love!