back to index2017-10-29 Unity in Faith and Love
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If you would, take your Bibles and turn to Colossians chapter 3, verses 8 through 15. 00:00:16.200 |
Today we're going to be speaking about a specific topic, and that topic is going to be unity. 00:00:24.720 |
This passage reads like this, "But now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, 00:00:33.520 |
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 00:00:37.840 |
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its 00:00:44.160 |
Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, 00:00:52.160 |
Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, 00:00:57.560 |
meekness and patience, bearing with one another, and if anyone has a complaint against another, 00:01:03.480 |
forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you. 00:01:09.100 |
And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 00:01:13.920 |
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, 00:01:23.160 |
Father, we ask that as your spirit has been working in our lives, that you would continue 00:01:29.720 |
to work to renew our minds and transform our hearts, particularly as we think about the 00:01:35.320 |
unity that you desire amongst your people, your household, your church. 00:01:40.400 |
I pray, Father God, that it would be our endeavor and our desire to strive for genuine unity 00:01:49.720 |
So our youth group is joining us in service today. 00:01:53.720 |
And in our youth group for the last month, we have been talking about the topic of unity. 00:02:02.400 |
It's a little bit long, but it reads like this. 00:02:06.840 |
We must strive for unity in faith in Christ, in like-mindedness, in love, in purpose, in 00:02:13.640 |
commitment, in shared life, producing joy, edification, and glory to Christ. 00:02:26.320 |
Part of the reason why it's like that, though, is not because I was trying to imitate some 00:02:30.040 |
Puritan or something, but because as I was studying the topic with the high school students, 00:02:34.880 |
I realized there is so much to say from the scriptures. 00:02:40.000 |
The scriptures have so much to say in terms of God's desire for unity, the context of 00:02:44.560 |
unity, how that unity is supposed to come about, what purpose is that unity supposed 00:02:49.320 |
to serve, how God is going to use that for His kingdom, and more. 00:02:55.960 |
Now, for our purposes for today, since I'm not doing a series through it, we're going 00:03:00.800 |
to be talking about only two elements of that statement, which is simply that we must strive 00:03:06.160 |
for unity in faith and in love, in faith and in love. 00:03:13.080 |
For those of you guys who don't know, grand total, including our teachers, is about 19 00:03:25.800 |
When we get together, we can fit in one room. 00:03:29.280 |
We can be really familiar with how, you know, what's going on in their lives, and there's 00:03:34.680 |
a ready kind of sentiment of just, "Hey, we're close." 00:03:38.680 |
But it would be naive of me to think, just because we fit into one room, that we have 00:03:44.760 |
Because there's familiarity and proximity, does that equate to unity? 00:03:50.320 |
And I would be naive to think that since our youth group is small, "Hey, we're not going 00:03:54.480 |
to have this drama, and we're not going to have major conflict, and that there would 00:03:58.480 |
be no resentment, discord, and any kind of division, even within our small group, or 00:04:08.200 |
Now, I'm really thankful because our youth group is awesome, and we don't have major 00:04:13.200 |
We don't have people fighting each other and stuff like that. 00:04:19.480 |
Now, even then, though, even then, though, I would be naive to think, just because we 00:04:25.000 |
don't have major problems, that we don't have temptations to feel apathy towards one another? 00:04:31.880 |
That even just because we don't have major drama, that there's distance, that there isn't 00:04:39.460 |
And so, one of the things I want to talk about is there are times when I can just think, 00:04:50.320 |
But I believe the Scripture challenges us to a higher standard of unity, amen? 00:04:55.800 |
And thinking about the broader context of the broader church, we, too, are susceptible 00:05:00.640 |
to the same challenges, namely because our church has been growing in multiple fashions, 00:05:06.720 |
growing in breadth and in number, growing in depth of relationships, growing in proximity 00:05:10.960 |
and closeness, growing in also differences, growing in so many fashions. 00:05:15.760 |
And so, we can, too, be susceptible to different kinds of disunity and division. 00:05:26.320 |
But as we then grow, we have to ask this challenging question, "To what standard of unity are 00:05:38.360 |
And as I've been studying this topic with the youth group for the last month, I have 00:05:41.520 |
been personally challenged, "My goodness, God's vision for the unity of the church, 00:05:47.480 |
the body, far surpasses my expectation, far surpasses the standard of my own." 00:05:54.440 |
And so, we're going to take some time to think about that. 00:05:59.480 |
And so, what I'm going to show you is by sequence of level. 00:06:01.760 |
The first level, level 100, is harmony and peace, okay? 00:06:07.880 |
Let's take a look at this passage, Romans 12, verse 14 through 19. 00:06:20.560 |
"Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. 00:06:25.080 |
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 00:06:31.320 |
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 00:06:35.920 |
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 00:06:40.480 |
'Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' says the Lord." 00:06:44.840 |
So, in this vision, how would you vision it in the church? 00:06:49.320 |
If you would with me, just picture two guys, you know, they get into a little bit of conflict 00:06:53.720 |
and scuff, they say some hurtful words to each other, but now they have to resolve. 00:06:58.240 |
To apply this, they would say, "Ugh, I want to do one of these, 'What's wrong with you, 00:07:07.920 |
And the other guy's like, "Yeah, dude, we're cool. 00:07:16.400 |
Two people get in strife and they say to each other, "Hey, bygones be bygones, let's be 00:07:22.560 |
The reason why I say this is level 100 is because harmony and peace are good. 00:07:26.920 |
Unfortunately, the conception typically is peace equates to no conflict. 00:07:40.360 |
We're going to try to humble ourselves and not fight each other. 00:07:51.520 |
We should calm those odd sentiments of wanting to react or whatever it may be, but there's 00:07:58.880 |
I'm going to skip because it levels up pretty fast, okay? 00:08:04.040 |
This standard of God, this vision of God for unity, I'm going to call the unity of calling 00:08:10.640 |
Let's take a look at Ephesians 4, verse 1 through 4. 00:08:14.560 |
"I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling 00:08:19.880 |
to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with 00:08:25.360 |
one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace." 00:08:36.020 |
But I love the second part because there's this mounting, emphatic idea of where this 00:08:43.140 |
It says, "There is one body, one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs 00:08:48.660 |
to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all 00:08:57.540 |
So you see where the repetition of the terms of you're called for this. 00:09:08.620 |
Well, if you couldn't picture this with me, imagine this amazing, inspiring coach, football 00:09:15.420 |
coach, and he's rallying his troops, his football players together, and they're in this big 00:09:22.620 |
And the coach starts going off, and he's, "You were made for this. 00:09:27.900 |
You got one same jersey representing the same town. 00:09:32.100 |
And all the players come together and like, "Yeah!" 00:09:38.380 |
I'm picturing it like that in my head, that the church comes together, and if we had, 00:09:44.420 |
so to speak, this coach saying, "You got one body, one Spirit, one calling. 00:09:57.420 |
I know that's kind of funny, but in some sense, that is, right? 00:10:05.300 |
And there's an absolute, just as there is an awesome, awesome sense of fellowship and 00:10:11.580 |
partnership in sports teams, there should be even that much more to those who are called 00:10:19.900 |
Those who are called by the name of Christ, the one team, the one family of God. 00:10:24.180 |
So this is why I was saying, man, this is leveling up really fast in terms of the picture, 00:10:30.060 |
God's picture of the unity we should exhibit within our church. 00:10:34.900 |
The next one is closely tied with it, so we'll call it 350, okay? 00:10:39.780 |
Level 350 in God's vision and standard for the unity, which is for the church, is the 00:10:51.660 |
We're going to take a look at a few verses here. 00:10:54.580 |
First, we're going to look at this passage in 1 Corinthians 1, verses 10 through 13. 00:10:59.700 |
Apostle Paul says, "I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that 00:11:05.420 |
you all agree that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind 00:11:15.340 |
For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, 00:11:20.060 |
What I mean is each one of you says, "I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, and I follow Cephas, 00:11:31.100 |
So there are a couple of things I've underlined and bolded for you. 00:11:34.060 |
There is this idea of having the same mind, and in learning that there is division, Apostle 00:11:44.420 |
And so therefore, we're thinking on the level of Christ's mind and Christ's body. 00:11:50.340 |
He's not an individual with conflict of like, "I really want this personal thing, but God 00:11:54.660 |
wants this," and he has conflict of internal desires. 00:11:59.000 |
And in so much as he is singular and whole, we should be. 00:12:03.340 |
Here's another passage I want to point to you. 00:12:07.660 |
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in 00:12:13.140 |
the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the 00:12:18.360 |
same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 00:12:22.700 |
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant 00:12:28.580 |
Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also the interest of others. 00:12:33.940 |
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. 00:12:38.780 |
Now for the sake of time, I'm not going to read the rest of it, but he's going to explain 00:12:42.300 |
this was the mind of Christ who emptied himself for you. 00:12:49.500 |
We're talking the vision of standard to what degree of unity does God want, to the degree 00:12:55.740 |
that Christ's mind and his body and his character is whole. 00:13:01.100 |
That should be the benchmark of our collective minds being together. 00:13:06.720 |
This really does challenge like the kind of social norm of the day. 00:13:11.220 |
Going to be honest, I feel like what's cool and in in our generation is to think different. 00:13:17.300 |
I'm going to be different for the purpose of being different. 00:13:20.780 |
So I'm going to be your devil's advocate and always argue with you. 00:13:29.740 |
These passages that I read actually say I want you to think the same. 00:13:34.420 |
Think the same of have same judgment, agree with each other, all of you. 00:13:39.900 |
Now to some people they're like, "Oh, well, we shouldn't be mindless drones. 00:13:44.460 |
We all think the same, feel the same, and judge the same, and we don't want to be all 00:13:49.260 |
Well, to some degree, yes, the Bible does value, not to some degree, the Bible does 00:14:10.140 |
But at the same time, it is highlighting here that there should be a unity of the mind collectively. 00:14:16.780 |
And that degree of unity is the benchmark of Christ himself. 00:14:31.620 |
Because as thinking about the standard of God in terms of the unity that he desires 00:14:35.060 |
for this church, look at how he expresses it in John chapter 17, Jesus' prayer before 00:14:41.380 |
God directly from Christ as he goes to the cross. 00:14:45.420 |
"The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as 00:14:54.020 |
I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know 00:14:59.020 |
that you sent me and have loved them even as you loved me." 00:15:12.940 |
Of course, we're in the journey of being perfected. 00:15:20.060 |
That God desires such a unity as found between God the Father and God the Son. 00:15:25.460 |
The Trinitarian unity that God experiences, the harmony, the perfect harmony is the kind 00:15:35.720 |
See how I was explaining to you when I started thinking about the concept of unity, it far 00:15:50.500 |
Going through God's vision, God's perspective and expectation for the unity in the church, 00:16:00.260 |
And so this is now an opportunity then for us to identify if there is any lack of unity 00:16:04.620 |
with you and anybody, between the church, between groups, whatever it may be, this is 00:16:09.660 |
the opportunity for us to say, "God desires more from us." 00:16:17.200 |
With that said, I want to highlight that the unity that then we're going to strive for 00:16:25.440 |
Remember earlier I gave you that long sentence? 00:16:27.000 |
There's a lot more, but we're going to highlight two. 00:16:30.120 |
The very first one is strive for unity in faith. 00:16:37.120 |
This is not profound, new information to you, but so good for us to review in here, that 00:16:51.760 |
"But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian." 00:16:56.320 |
Meaning before was the law that was just supervising you, keeping you in check and restraining 00:17:03.120 |
But now faith has come, which has afforded us so much. 00:17:07.880 |
And then he goes on to say, "For in Christ Jesus, you're all sons of God through faith. 00:17:14.080 |
For as many of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither 00:17:18.520 |
Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you 00:17:25.240 |
And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offering heirs according to promise." 00:17:31.800 |
I want to remind us, the church, yes, is a social institution. 00:17:40.880 |
However, what supersedes everything about our social gathering is our faith. 00:17:47.400 |
There are sometimes temptations for us to desire that our gathering would be founded 00:17:55.840 |
Things like friendship, things like, you know, the sense of community. 00:18:03.720 |
The reality is we want to have friends here, you know? 00:18:06.120 |
The reality is we want to have close relationships. 00:18:08.600 |
But there has to be the superseding foundation of faith, which is to you, your commonality 00:18:15.140 |
with another individual that brings that sense of association, like, "You and I can relate. 00:18:30.200 |
That to you also is a greater foundation of loyalty than just even friendships. 00:18:37.160 |
Your faith and your practice of your love for Christ is going to be so much greater 00:18:41.920 |
in terms of the kindred spirit you have versus even what? 00:18:47.120 |
Even your actual blood and flesh families, even more than your biological families to 00:18:54.880 |
Let it be the foundation of faith that builds the community. 00:18:59.440 |
And let's not expect just because that, yes, this is a social institution, other things, 00:19:05.240 |
other things to make us feel like we're connected. 00:19:08.200 |
And this is one thing that I would like to say too. 00:19:10.760 |
What we're seeing here then, because faith is the foundation of it all, faith is going 00:19:15.200 |
to be the platform and the context by which we have the sense of unity, then if we see 00:19:21.600 |
a lack of unity, if we see a lack of closeness in that bond, it's not a one-to-one correlation, 00:19:29.200 |
but we have to ask, "Man, where is our faith? 00:19:34.320 |
Again, I'm not saying just because you don't have close relationships, therefore one-to-one 00:19:39.960 |
you don't have faith or that you're not right with God. 00:19:42.600 |
However, if we see a lack of that sense of camaraderie, that sense of closeness and a 00:19:47.800 |
desire to build those kind of like a good brotherly, sisterly relationships, then there 00:19:55.760 |
And let that be an opportunity for us to examine where we are with the Lord, right? 00:20:00.560 |
Because there is a sense to which if an individual has no interest and drive in the spiritual 00:20:06.280 |
things of God, I can anticipate and expect that the bonds and loyalty and the friendships 00:20:12.280 |
that they have in the church would also weaken, right? 00:20:18.000 |
So again, just to summarize, we are making sure that our sense of bond and community 00:20:27.960 |
And anytime we try to base it on anything else, we know we're going to fail. 00:20:33.320 |
Secondly, and this is where I want to spend the bulk of our time today. 00:20:44.800 |
I'm going to reread to us the passage in Colossians chapter 3 verses. 00:20:52.080 |
It says this, "Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, 00:20:58.840 |
kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. 00:21:03.960 |
And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven 00:21:11.240 |
And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 00:21:17.720 |
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you are called in one body. 00:21:34.200 |
And it gives you the laundry list of a compassionate heart, of kindness, of humility, meekness, 00:21:40.280 |
and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other. 00:21:44.400 |
And then it ends with, "Above all these things." 00:21:47.600 |
The reason why I want to focus on the concept of love is this passage is interesting. 00:21:51.640 |
Some of your translations say, "In addition to this, put more love on." 00:21:56.840 |
The NASB says, "Above all these things," as in like, you know, more than this. 00:22:04.680 |
The reason why is because there's a sense in which as he's describing this laundry list 00:22:08.720 |
of character traits we should have, he's summarizing for us the culmination of these sentiments, 00:22:15.840 |
desires, feelings, hard attitudes that will culminate to a genuine love. 00:22:23.480 |
Something that our Savior in Jesus Christ has modeled for us. 00:22:27.520 |
So rather than going down the list and saying, "Hey, this is what humility is. 00:22:31.520 |
I'm going to approach it a little bit different way and spend the bulk of our time here. 00:22:37.520 |
And I don't want to just leave you today with, "Come on, people. 00:22:42.320 |
I want to dissect what are some elements of love that we have to exhibit towards one another 00:22:48.000 |
to pursue the kind of unity that we just went over. 00:22:53.920 |
The first element of love that I see in Scripture and in the model of our Savior is desire, 00:23:02.720 |
Love categorically, not exhaustively, but categorically can be a desire. 00:23:07.640 |
And that's kind of actually typically the way that we use the word love. 00:23:24.680 |
To give an example of this, I Google searched. 00:23:26.520 |
I said, "I want to Google," and I did, "love, desire, love. 00:23:32.520 |
I just want to warn you, when you Google search stuff, be careful because a lot of bad stuff 00:23:37.200 |
But when I Google searched love, I want something, right? 00:23:40.920 |
This movie came out, and it was the movie The Notebook, which was a long time ago, 2004. 00:23:46.240 |
Some of you guys are already, like, giggling. 00:23:48.440 |
It's like a sappy love story, and it's just chock full of poor acting and romance. 00:23:56.100 |
And Ryan Gosling is in that movie, and a lady named Rachel McAdams is in that movie. 00:24:00.160 |
Well, these two individuals, they have a love, but there's a conflict. 00:24:04.480 |
She has parents who expect her to, you know, marry the, like, handsome, rich man. 00:24:09.240 |
She clearly has an internal desire to like this guy who's, like, all shabby-looking, 00:24:14.880 |
And the guy is all frustrated, you know, and his moment of frustration comes over to this 00:24:20.080 |
girl, and then he says, "I know our relationship is horrible. 00:24:26.080 |
And he looks at her, and he goes, "But I want you. 00:24:29.800 |
I want all of you, and I want all of you all the time." 00:24:49.080 |
And then, I haven't watched the movie, but I've watched that clip, okay? 00:24:57.640 |
And then she, like, runs, "I have to go," and then she runs away, okay? 00:25:01.880 |
And after I saw that, I was like, "Man, this is such a cheesy movie." 00:25:07.020 |
But it so accurately depicts how our God loves us in the category of desiring us. 00:25:14.960 |
We, ourselves, are sometimes in conflict of our desires. 00:25:18.440 |
We're a mixed bag of desires, honestly, right? 00:25:27.420 |
God has never been confused about what he wants. 00:25:35.020 |
He has been absolutely explicit in his desire for his people. 00:25:40.080 |
The New Testament explains to us and says, "God has chosen you before the foundation 00:25:45.520 |
As soon as Adam appears, that's good in my sight. 00:25:51.880 |
In the book of Exodus, God says, "You're my people. 00:25:55.880 |
I show you a passage here at the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi chapter 3. 00:26:04.600 |
"And on the day that I prepare my own possession." 00:26:09.920 |
God has been absolutely clear of his longing and desire. 00:26:15.280 |
It's just we sometimes, like, "It's not that easy." 00:26:20.600 |
I'm going to go from different levels of relationships. 00:26:23.520 |
Between God, that clarity, that clarity of desire is our model. 00:26:29.800 |
In your relationships, whether it be husband and wife relationships, for marriage. 00:26:42.520 |
Just speaking to newlyweds and you guys, too. 00:26:45.660 |
In the newlywed stage, a lot of times is when you have conflict of desire. 00:26:50.440 |
What's going to be a good, good practice for you is to clarify and purify your desire. 00:26:55.400 |
There's conflict when you start wanting, like, "Oh, but I really miss my single life and 00:26:58.600 |
I want to go hang out with my friends, but I really want this, too." 00:27:01.480 |
But when a man says, "No, I wanted this," right? 00:27:15.640 |
But when we have conflicting desires, there's what? 00:27:22.680 |
You bicker and quarrel because you have no idea how to control your desires. 00:27:26.760 |
Now, by application here in the church, what kind of culture would we have if we truly 00:27:33.200 |
just desired one another like the Lord desires us? 00:27:36.760 |
Where we say, "Hey, this might be a little awkward, but we're at the same church. 00:27:42.320 |
Where we're not thinking, like, "I'm just tired. 00:27:44.640 |
I want to come to a place where I can just easy come, easy go, and that's it." 00:27:48.440 |
But rather, "I want to be with these people." 00:27:55.040 |
This happened recently, and hopefully they're not in here. 00:28:01.760 |
Then he came up to me and asked me, "Hey, do you want to go to coffee after?" 00:28:12.000 |
Going to be honest, we kind of meet up pretty regularly, so I don't know if I want to. 00:28:18.960 |
If we're going to talk about girls, I don't have the patience for that today. 00:28:25.280 |
The whole time, he's talking to me, but I was just staring at him. 00:28:29.080 |
Then he looked at me awkward and was like, "Do you want to go?" 00:28:33.840 |
I feel like, "Dude, I was doing this thing with Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams." 00:28:41.560 |
Well, from one introvert to if there's introverts out here, building community and relationships 00:28:47.520 |
in the church is sometimes hard because there's desires in us, especially as an introvert, 00:29:01.440 |
I'm so challenged by the example of Christ, the example of our Heavenly Father. 00:29:05.400 |
I'm also challenged by examples of saints in the scripture in relation to, again, relationships 00:29:10.680 |
Remember Apostle Paul, where he so eagerly desired to go to people. 00:29:21.480 |
Apostle Paul took three successive mission trips. 00:29:24.880 |
He was in the eastern part of Turkey, then he went all the way to the end of Turkey, 00:29:28.800 |
When he was in Europe, Jesus told him, "Go to Rome." 00:29:43.360 |
But he wanted to take a love offering of finances and help, and he went all the way to Jerusalem 00:29:52.480 |
What a challenge for us to exhibit that kind of love, where our desire is for the people. 00:29:59.320 |
We would definitely then have an affected culture, too. 00:30:05.960 |
Next element of love that we exhibit for the sake of unity and pursuing unity is affection. 00:30:12.360 |
This is just simply the concept of treasuring. 00:30:18.080 |
This is the concept of saying, "Not only do I want something, but I see the value." 00:30:25.400 |
I sometimes hear the conversations amongst the church, and I am so encouraged. 00:30:29.760 |
There are some of you guys who are absolutely vocal about how much you love the church. 00:30:36.560 |
But you'll say things like, "I love this church," and then you'll say, "It's the absolute best, 00:30:40.920 |
I'm like, "No, no, no, it's not the only church. 00:30:45.000 |
But I get the sentiment, and I'm encouraged by that. 00:30:48.080 |
And then some of you protect this church like it's your own family. 00:30:50.960 |
Someone just talked about, "How dare you say that about the church?" 00:30:53.400 |
"Don't talk about my mom," kind of thing, the same attitude. 00:30:57.240 |
And then some of you love the church so much, "Let's move to Texas and live together on 00:31:10.640 |
There is not the love of like, "I just want this," but there's a love of treasuring this, 00:31:15.200 |
you know, treasuring what we have, being thankful. 00:31:18.800 |
And I do want to point to God's treasuring of His people as an example of that. 00:31:23.200 |
This is a passage I've preached on before, and it's just such a passage of immense, explicit 00:31:36.240 |
It's not on the screen because it's kind of long, but we're going to just read this together. 00:31:48.240 |
So Hosea chapter 11, we're going to go from verses 1 through 8. 00:31:52.600 |
And honestly, every time I read it, it's just heart-wrenching because God's so not in implicit 00:32:14.760 |
The more they called him, the more they went from them. 00:32:18.520 |
They kept sacrificing to Baals and burning incense to idols. 00:32:25.480 |
I took them in my arms, but they did not know that I healed them. 00:32:29.160 |
I led them with cords of a man with bonds of love, and I became to them as one who lifts 00:32:38.640 |
They will not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria. 00:32:42.000 |
He will be their king because they refused to return to me. 00:32:45.120 |
The sword will whirl against their cities and will demolish their gate bars and consume 00:32:50.800 |
So my people are bent on turning from me, though they call them to the one on high, 00:32:57.600 |
So so far what you see is God saying, "I loved Israel like my son." 00:33:03.640 |
Like when a baby needs help, when a youth, young child, teen needs help, I helped him, 00:33:08.920 |
He just never recognized that, and he's always turning from me. 00:33:16.120 |
Verse 8, "But how can I give you up, O Ephraim? 00:33:32.840 |
I will not destroy Ephraim again, for I am God. 00:33:36.160 |
I am not a man, the holy one in your midst, and I will not come in wrath." 00:33:43.000 |
What I hear saying is, "I'm not just one of you. 00:33:52.560 |
And in that I see God treasuring his people to a degree where his promises of, "I will 00:34:05.120 |
But likewise, when it comes to our relationships, too, if we are to mature in the love of God 00:34:10.280 |
and the love of Christ, we, too, have to have that kind of posture to cherish the people 00:34:19.480 |
When people hurt you, when they disappoint you, when they let you down, you have options, 00:34:32.640 |
If people annoy you, you might be thinking, "Dude, I don't want to be unsanctified. 00:34:36.440 |
I want to be sanctified, so I'm not going to come around you." 00:34:39.600 |
Or you might even be thinking, "Dude, you hit me. 00:34:41.360 |
I get to hit you back because that's the law of the land." 00:34:45.680 |
But even if we believe that to be legitimate, that is not in likeness of our God. 00:34:52.680 |
I love the fact that Apostle Paul, clearly, he's been let down by people. 00:34:59.640 |
He talks about how when he was beaten, no one was around. 00:35:08.600 |
And I would gladly work all day, work all night just to provide for you, just so that 00:35:13.160 |
you don't think I'm doing this out of some kind of selfish motive." 00:35:16.880 |
Likewise for us, we will understand people's love for us when we see that kind of affection. 00:35:24.400 |
And again, coming down to the idea of unity within the church, imagine the change of culture 00:35:28.720 |
when we have that kind of, you know, the sight and eye of preciousness. 00:35:34.920 |
When we look at our fellow congregation members and we don't think like, "Ugh, selfish people 00:35:45.880 |
And that could be weird, so don't do that verbally. 00:35:51.000 |
But I work with, you guys know I work with college a lot and I work with youth group 00:35:58.320 |
When you guys are together and you're laughing and talking, I'm just like a dad and I'm like, 00:36:08.240 |
But I pray that we would all see our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that way, that 00:36:12.600 |
there would never be a heart, an eye of disdain towards one another. 00:36:16.160 |
Because that is the kind of love Christ shows us. 00:36:22.120 |
Element three is genuine care in the labor of love. 00:36:32.440 |
Second we had love as expressed categorically in affection, treasuring. 00:36:36.120 |
Thirdly, we have love as expressed in the labor of love. 00:36:40.600 |
Many times if you read conservative Christian books, they'll say, "Hey, love's not a feeling. 00:36:51.200 |
Love has to be expressed in the will, the intention of your heart as shown in the action 00:36:59.380 |
And genuine love will express itself when you are willing to do, right? 00:37:03.560 |
Earlier, it challenged us to have a sense of harmony where you do what is right before 00:37:07.360 |
all, what is honorable, what is good for their benefit, to have their interests in mind. 00:37:12.040 |
So when you do what is in the best interest of the other individual, even at the cost 00:37:16.800 |
of yours, then all of a sudden realize, "Oh, shoot. 00:37:25.520 |
And that's the kind of love that God has shown us, isn't it? 00:37:28.520 |
Just for the sake of time, I want all of us to remember, if we ever sometimes doubt, like 00:37:33.320 |
because certain things don't go wrong or some things go wrong and they don't turn out the 00:37:37.120 |
way we want, we might say, "But what is God doing? 00:37:42.720 |
But remember that the intention and the labor of God so meticulously has been, God is working 00:37:48.840 |
all things for the good of those who love Him. 00:37:52.200 |
And the book of Romans chapter 8 says, when you see that pure intent of God, you can bank 00:37:57.440 |
on the fact that even if there's sword, fire, destruction, nothing is going to separate 00:38:04.760 |
Even if with your physical eyes, you see nothing but chaos, you have to believe it. 00:38:10.400 |
God absolutely has the best intentions for His glory and for you. 00:38:19.120 |
And when I think about Christ, to the degree in which He would go to do what is in our 00:38:24.020 |
best interest, I think about that sometimes like, Jesus could have demanded people serve 00:38:33.440 |
Him, but He said, "I came to serve and not to be served." 00:38:37.880 |
Jesus could have come and said, "You all need to bow down," but rather He looked on 00:38:42.420 |
His people with pity and He said, "You all need sacrifice. 00:38:49.600 |
The book of Hebrews says, "Because you're flesh and blood and you need a substitute, 00:38:55.840 |
Jesus said, "You need a sympathetic priest, I'll be your high priest. 00:38:59.560 |
You need a king to guide you because you're blind and you're wandering. 00:39:06.800 |
Christ has exhibited such pure intentions for us as a people. 00:39:12.680 |
We need to model that in the church, to have pure intentions. 00:39:17.520 |
If sometimes we have expectations of each other, check your heart. 00:39:23.560 |
Is it for their good, for their edification, sanctification, for their uplifting, for their 00:39:29.440 |
faith, or do you just want people around you just because you want people around you? 00:39:35.040 |
You see, these three things that I'm talking about right now, desire, affection, and the 00:39:41.720 |
You have to have that kind of intentionality, that kind of affection, and that kind of desire. 00:39:46.320 |
If it's unbalanced, if it's devoid of one another, you know what it's going to become. 00:39:58.960 |
And ladies, I gave this advice at the first service. 00:40:01.520 |
I'm going to give this advice too for these single ladies. 00:40:04.040 |
There's going to come a time when a guy's like, "Hey, girl. 00:40:11.360 |
Don't be flattered by that initially, because there are a lot of men. 00:40:15.200 |
In their character, they want you because they saw something good. 00:40:18.920 |
You have to decipher, is this man of a certain character where he knows how to practice not 00:40:28.200 |
I want you, I have affection for you, and I will do what is in my power for your absolute 00:40:36.840 |
But don't be flattered because just some guy noticed you and said, "Ooh," right? 00:40:54.760 |
And when they do, they're going to allow us to practice something even more beautiful, 00:41:07.040 |
When you do that, okay, when you practice that kind of love, it's going to not so much 00:41:11.960 |
be like, "Oh, I'm just going to have to deal with you." 00:41:15.480 |
But by your love, you're going to forget yourself. 00:41:20.760 |
By your desire, by your affection, you're going to forget, just like any good parent, 00:41:25.320 |
any good brother, any good family, any good friend. 00:41:30.400 |
And sometimes, honestly speaking, what is the greatest hindrance? 00:41:34.320 |
What is the greatest hindrance to larger context unity is just a simple question, "But what 00:41:42.560 |
And then all of a sudden, unity is shone, right? 00:41:45.720 |
Last point, I'm wrapping up here, is element of forgiveness. 00:41:52.520 |
Now forgiveness and love, it does go hand in hand. 00:41:55.520 |
This might feel like too specific of a concept, but you understand that forgiveness is an 00:42:05.420 |
Without desire to want to be near somebody, there is going to be no motivation forgiveness. 00:42:10.680 |
Without that kind of affection, there's going to be no context of forgiveness. 00:42:14.200 |
Without trying to do what's best for that individual, there's going to be no incentive, 00:42:22.000 |
Forgiveness is possible as a fruit of that kind of love, and that's why I say it's like 00:42:29.440 |
A culmination of gathering of all that love and affection in your heart is going to provide 00:42:34.520 |
the opportunity for true reconciliation in the church. 00:42:40.080 |
I'm going to say this, that the Scriptures absolutely assume there will be conflict, 00:42:48.840 |
As we grow closer and closer together, as we grow broader and broader in number, as 00:42:52.720 |
there are more and more differences in the church, there is going to be conflict. 00:42:57.000 |
And I mentioned to you again that when this conflict comes, you have certain options of 00:43:00.360 |
becoming distant, embittered, hurt, taking revenge, or whatever it may be. 00:43:09.480 |
Should one of us have a complaint against one another, let us forgive. 00:43:17.360 |
Now, that's something profound to think about. 00:43:20.080 |
I will say that what I've seen in both myself and other people, when you have a complaint, 00:43:26.720 |
like someone is like this, or someone did that, and therefore I have a complaint in 00:43:31.040 |
my heart, and then someone gives me advice, like you need to forgive that individual, 00:43:37.200 |
That forgiveness means, dude, stop making such a big deal about it, right? 00:44:01.280 |
Is that the way God simplistically forgave you and said, "Good news. 00:44:06.760 |
All that sin stuff I talked about, how you had to go through sacrifice, and now Jesus 00:44:17.840 |
And this is when, again, I am just reminded, simple truths of the gospel, and then reminded 00:44:23.640 |
what God expects of true unity, reconciliation, and coming together is so far beyond my norms, 00:44:33.480 |
Because when I think about Jesus, I start remembering all the things I mentioned before. 00:44:37.840 |
For Christ to forgive us, how He forgave us, what steps He took. 00:45:00.040 |
He sought to shed light and let you see His glory, let you see what's right. 00:45:07.320 |
The redemptive approach of Christ to forgive and to be united and to be truly one was so 00:45:21.300 |
That whatever steps it takes for us to say, "You know, I love you, and I don't want there 00:45:33.760 |
And what's more, I'm willing to go the steps that Christ gave." 00:45:42.120 |
I'm willing to go as far as my God has gone with me. 00:45:53.520 |
There was recently just a sense of bitterness in my heart. 00:45:56.680 |
And I've been telling people, "No, it doesn't bother me that much." 00:45:59.200 |
And what happened was right before I left to China, my parents got a divorce. 00:46:03.680 |
And I'm standing there thinking, "Come on, you're like 75. 00:46:11.280 |
And because it was bitter, I didn't want my kids around that. 00:46:14.520 |
So my older brother saw that like, "Hey, did you talk to our parents yet?" 00:46:21.520 |
It's like, "Well, I don't think she wants to talk to me." 00:46:27.120 |
And I've been trying, I've been trying, but what I realized subconsciously, I was doing 00:46:32.880 |
Because subconsciously I know if I get involved, that's a burden to me. 00:46:41.440 |
If I get involved with them, that's a burden to me. 00:46:48.720 |
And my older brother, like, he really, really helped me to think about this as we're talking 00:46:54.560 |
He said, "I'm struggling with the same thing." 00:47:10.380 |
We can't just separate them from their grandkids. 00:47:14.200 |
Likewise, for us, we are called the household of God. 00:47:19.040 |
And though it might make sense for us in practicality, distance creates safety. 00:47:25.440 |
But that distance will also create lack of unity, and in that, God will not be pleased. 00:47:33.320 |
Because our Heavenly Father will be so pleased to see His house united. 00:47:39.440 |
Our Heavenly Father desires to see His children love each other. 00:47:43.440 |
Our Heavenly Father desires to see His kingdom have a solidarity. 00:47:48.720 |
Let's do all that to the pleasure of our God. 00:48:00.520 |
"Behold, how good and pleasant is it when brothers dwell in unity. 00:48:04.640 |
It is like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard and running down on the 00:48:13.200 |
Heavenly Father, I pray that God, You would bless us, Lord, with greater understanding 00:48:17.640 |
of the profound nature of Your love, that we would desire to practice that faith in 00:48:23.200 |
our lives and to exhibit that love in our lives and in our church. 00:48:27.840 |
But I pray, Father God, that You would also allow us to experience the great blessedness 00:48:35.440 |
Lord, we thank You so much that You've brought us together, that You have orchestrated and 00:48:41.480 |
pieced together this church according to Your great design. 00:48:44.480 |
Lord, all the more than we hope to continue to strive to build it to become what You desire 00:48:52.400 |
Lord, we thank You for Your great patience with us. 00:48:56.000 |
We thank You for the privilege of being called Your children and being invited into Your 00:49:01.800 |
We pray all the more that as we then live our lives in that house, that it would be