Sermon Tone Analysis
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Good Morning!
I’m am very excited to begin this new study together.
I want to lay out for you this morning how this is going to work over the next six or seven weeks.
My hope is that you have had a chance to get the book or audio and that you have dipped your toe in the water.
If not, that is quite alright.
These messages are designed to accompany the book, but we won’t be discussing everything that is covered in each chapter.
Reading both will definitely be beneficial to your understanding of what it means to love like Jesus.
That is going to be our focus for this study.
I want us to understand something as we begin today.
LOVING LIKE JESUS IS POSSIBLE.
IT IS THE BEST WAY TO LIVE.
INTRODUCTION
Are you a coffee drinker?
Some are, and some miss out on one of God’s greatest gifts.
Actually, it’s not the coffee.
It’s the conversations that often spontaneously surface while holding on to that cup.
Friends talk about a lot of different things, but after favorite movies, kids, sports, and politics, the conversation eventually settles into relationships, and the joys and pains caused by them.
There’s not a person alive who doesn’t want to be a better lover.
I’m not getting weird — I mean a lover of people, a lover of family, of others.
I want to love better, and I’m convinced you do too.
But it’s hard stuff.
If we are going to be a people who Love Like Jesus, there are some things we need to understand right out of the gate.
It’s not difficult for each of us to daydream about a person in our world who we struggle to love.
I think our knee-jerk reaction to those that we struggle to love is to assume that the fault is on their end.
It is that mentality that we all need to have challenged.
One of the great things about the country that we live in is the fact that it is so diverse.
Louisiana itself is a melting pot of cultures, world views, and behavioral norms.
Let me give you an example to get your brain juices flowing this morning.
1. Culture - In the world that I operate in, the fuel industry, there is a group that is professionally referred to as the Emerging Network Retailers.
There is even a class that each Gilbarco Sales team is required to take to educate all of us on the cultural differences that we are going to encounter as we engage with this network.
The people we are learning about are first and second generation immigrants from places like India, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, etc.
Their way of doing business, family structure, values, languages, and expectations are very different from ours.
If we are not careful, by “we” I mean all of us, will make assumptions about their behavior based on our culture, feel offended, and miss the opportunity to have a wonderful relationship.
I’ll tell you, some of my best, and favorite customers are first and second generation immigrants.
They are professional, kind, incredibly hard working, generous, and a joy to be around.
We are required to go through this training because there are many in our industry, and I used to be one of them, that would get offended when they would try to negotiate the price of a project.
For us, that is rude, for them, to not negotiate is to be a poor business man.
Understanding their culture makes all the difference in the world and opens up possibilities that simply would not exist if we continue to ignore that we are culturally different.
Louisiana is such a beautiful tapestry of cultures because we have embraced our differences and brought together the beauty that exist in all of them.
If we are going to Love Like Jesus, we must acknowledge that not all the people in our lives think and act like we do.
I believe that by the time we finish this study, we are going to see the beauty in what God is doing by creating us all so different, yet so similar.
So how are we going to go about such a large task?
We’re going to talk about it in this new series we’re starting today.
It’s about observing the life of Jesus, and so imitating His life that you and I begin to love like Him.
To put it bluntly,
I WANT TO LOVE LIKE JESUS AND SO DO YOU.
You may not even be part of the church world, but something inside of you gravitates toward having solutions to relationship challenges you face.
Spouse, kids, neighbors, friends, peers, colleagues, extra grace required people, and enemies.
Who wouldn’t want to have improved friendships, courtships, partnerships, or relationships?
As we begin this series, you need to understand that none of us have arrived.
We are all trying to figure it out, trying to get it right, largely because we know the stakes are so high.
All of us intuitively know that our actions, even our intentions, can and do have a generational impact.
So, this is something we want to get right.
Love is the overarching theme of the entire Bible and particularly the New Testament.
Every New Testament writer doesn't just touch on the subject, they lean upon the topic of love.
It’s also the theme of most movies and best sellers.
It’s the theme of every wedding ceremony.
It’s talked about at every funeral in the context of remembering life on this side of heaven.
Hanging out on Pinterest will show you a ton of verses on love that can adorn the walls of homes and coffee shops around the world.
Les Parrott recently wrote a book called Love Like That.
I believe it has the potential to move us all from the aspirational and inspirational aspects of love to the tactical and practical.
So, we're starting this series and this campaign called, LOVE LIKE THAT, to help us all love like that, namely, LOVE LIKE JESUS.
The theme passage for this entire series is found in the book of Ephesians.
Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus begins with some of the greatest foundational principles of Christianity.
Principles of adoption, of the blessings of God, God’s selection process, the nature of His glorious grace, the depth of salvation and redemption, and the ultimate purposes of God.
Pretty heavy stuff.
By the time you slide into Ephesians chapter 5, you may be thinking, “How does a person live out a successful life, a meaningful life, a significant life of love?” Ephesians 5:1-2 gives us the ultimate key.
I'm reluctant to use the term “ultimate key” because as a pastor, we tend to speak in hyperbole more often than we should…” the greatest verse” … “the key to life” … “the answer to your situation.”
But, that being said, take a look at these two verses, and we'll dissect them together.
You may end up agreeing with my conclusion.
The NIV says this:
In the Message paraphrase, we get a little more contemporary clarity.
There’s been a boatload written on love.
No new revelation here.
The whole of the Christian life is summed up by Jesus to “love God and love your neighbor.”
We’ll look into that in just a bit.
But it’s always the HOW that trips us up.
Ephesians 5:1-2 is all about the HOW.
THERE ARE THREE QUESTIONS WE MUST ASK OURSELVES.
1. HOW DO I BEGIN?
Don’t you love how Paul broaches the subject of “how” by saying, “follow God’s example” or “watch what God does, and then you do it.”
The simplicity of his opening statement is profound.
The “how” is connected to watching, observing, looking intently into the life of Jesus Christ.
We aren’t the best observers.
In fact, our culture frowns on watching others too closely.
There’s a word for that: “creepy.”
I have heard from time to time of friends and family who love to people watch.
Just looking at how people relate at airports, amusement parks, and malls.
Too much of that, however, and you’re not just creepy, you’re considered a “stalker.”
The culture in other countries… not so much.
In India, it is not considered rude or a violation of personal space to stare at another person.
Ask any world traveler what their experience has been, and often they feel their personal space has been violated by constant, prying eyes.
Moving beyond culture and back to the scriptures, I’m taken back at the number of times the New Testament records Jesus staring intently into a person just before He does something remarkable.
John 1:42 says...
To look at something “intently” means to look beyond the surface, to look beyond the present, to look into the future possibilities.
Jesus looked at Peter, not just for who he was in the present, but for what his life could be.
Jesus never judged a book by its cover.
How many times did Jesus remind people that they had eyes but could not see?
Mark 8:18 says...
Or how many times did Peter and Paul both fix their eyes on a situation before God did a miracle?
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