All right, if you could turn your Bibles with me to Matthew 22 verses 36 through 40. I think initially when I started this I said I'm going to give me a couple weeks and we're going to jump into Hebrews chapter 7. I don't think so, not yet. Okay? So you're going to have to give me a couple more weeks.

So actually I started this sermon this morning thinking that I'll be done with this and I have one more sermon next week but I didn't get through the sermon first service. Okay? So I'm going to try to wrap it up next week so we can jump into Hebrews the following week after that but no guarantee.

All right? We'll see what happens. Okay? But again, I believe that this is so important. I don't want to rush through any of this. Matthew 22, 36 to 40. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind." This is a great and foremost commandment.

The second is like it. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself and on these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, what an awesome and gracious and loving God you are. Help us, Lord God, to have a soft heart that is you are the powder and we are the clay.

We desire to be molded, Lord God, into your image and what you desire us to be. I pray that the power of the cross would convict us, remind us, refresh us, renew us that we truly may be new creatures, Lord God. That we may be people who worship you in spirit and in truth.

May your word goes forth and will not return until it has accomplished the purpose that you have ordained it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Have you ever said in any point of your Christian life, "I love Christ, but I don't love the church." Or have you ever tried to invite somebody to church and they said to you, "I love the gospel.

The messages that you're sharing with me, it's an awesome message about the love of Christ, but I don't believe the church." Maybe you've thought that at some point and maybe you're trying to share the gospel. Maybe there's somebody in your life right now who's professing to be a believer of Jesus Christ, but he says, "I love Christ, but I can't stand the church." So now, especially with all the technology, there's more options to stay at home and just kind of video stream live services.

And he said, "I want the message, I want the love of Christ, I want the scriptures, but I don't want to be around people." You know, the message that we've been talking about, the two greatest commandments, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love others as yourself, are the two central commandments according to Jesus that wraps up every other commandment.

So what he's saying here is not one of many important things that we need to get right. It is the central thing, and if you don't get this, then he says, "You missed the whole point of Christianity." You know, whenever we talk about agape love, it is easy to talk about.

I don't know if ever in my years of preaching that I've ever had a hard time preaching about agape love. Agape love, I can preach this until I retire every single Sunday, because the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is filled with teachings and examples, after examples, after examples about agape love.

And whenever agape love is preached, people are encouraged, people are enlightened. And it's like, thank you for preaching that. And it's not difficult to preach about agape love, because who wouldn't? The Son of God who died for us, who are undeserving while we were yet blaspheming, while we were yet sinners, he loves us.

And even after we convert, even after we swear, as long as we repent, he accepts us. He made us adopted children. Who wouldn't want to hear that message? It is easy to preach, but it is the most difficult thing to practice. It's something that we admire from a distance.

We want to talk about, we want to memorize scripture about the agape love. But as soon as we get to the therefore, therefore, considering all that he has done, therefore, live up to the calling of that gospel. And even that sounds beautiful, great to memorize. But as soon as we begin to practice this, we realize how impossible it is to do.

You have memories of specific people in your life who have hurt you deeply. Some of you have some horrendous experiences in church. Maybe even by your small believers, maybe even by your pastors. Some of you have been slandered deliberately, maybe have been targeted and somebody betrayed you. And you have, if you've been a Christian or if you've been a human being for any length of time, maybe even have been physically assaulted.

So when we talk about God loving us unconditionally, it's a beautiful story that we're all attracted to, but as soon as we get to therefore, therefore, you practice the same. How do you do that? How do you do that? How do you practice this agape love? There's four things that he mentions here that I want to highlight.

And again, I don't want to skim through it because there's so much to unpack here. He says that the second commandment is like it. So that's the first part that we're going to unpack. What does that mean that the second commandment is like it? And then, probably next week, he said the target of these people, of this agape love, is our neighbors.

And we'll unpack that again next week. And then he says to the degree that we are to love them is to love like we are to love ourselves. And then he says, finally, all of this fulfills the law. All of the law, whole of the law is summarized in these two commandments.

So this morning, I want to first, and then we'll see how far we get, but the first one that we want to look at, and he says, after we're talking about the high view of loving God with all our hearts, all mind, and strength, and he says the second to love others is like it.

What does that mean that it is like it? Now you don't get this in the English, but in the Greek, it's really important that we understand the word that he's using here. Because this word, misapplied, at one point in church history, could have completely divided the church. One of the first theological debates that the church debated over, I mean, almost to death, and I'm not exaggerating, there was a guy named Arius who came out and he said that Jesus is homoousius.

Homoousius. Again, I know this means nothing to you now, but give me a second. And then Athanasius came out and he said, no, he's not homoousius, he is homoousius. And the difference between the two words is homoousius means that he is similar to God in substance. Homoousius means that he is the same in substance.

So Arius was arguing to convince the whole church, and at one point he was very successful, that Jesus is not the same as God. That Jesus is similar in substance. So Jesus is elevated to a God status, but there was a time when Jesus did not exist, so he is not the same.

The doctrine that you and I profess to believe is that Jesus Christ is homoousius, he is the same. He is the third person of the triune God. So this little iota, this little I made the difference between embracing the true God and the false God. And Athanasius at one point in church history, by himself, risking his life, he said this is not what the scripture teaches.

Again, part of the reason why I believe that the canon was available commonly to many people at the time is because of this doctrine. And he was able to argue scripturally that Jesus Christ is homoousius, not homoiousius. Now even if all of that went over your head, it's a very, very important part of church history.

But the point that I'm trying to make, that this little iota, this little I, makes a difference between is he saying it is the same or it is similar? And let me tell you, the word that he is using here is homoious, not homoous. That it is like it, that it is not the same.

Now why is that important? The application of that is that you can love people and not love God because it is not the same. You can be committed to social justice and not love God. You can be a good mother, good father, you can be a good person, a good neighbor, and not love God.

You've probably met many people who are not believers in Christ who are very generous. They feed the homeless, they fight for certain social justices. And all of these things are great. The Bible tells us that if we say that we love God and we don't love our neighbor, it's fake.

So it is a quality that God desires. But loving our neighbors doesn't equal loving God. But the Bible also says that you cannot love God and not love your neighbor. You can love your neighbor and not love God, but you cannot love God and not love your neighbor. So for somebody to say that I love Christ, the head, but I can't stand the body.

That's no different than if a husband or wife is getting married and the husband says, "You know what? I want to marry your head, but the rest of your body, I'm not ready." I like this part of you, who you are, right here, the head. I like your lips, I like your nose.

But from here down, I don't want to make a covenant relationship. So when I put a ring on you at the wedding ceremony, I'm going to put it on your nose, not your finger. Ridiculous. You cannot have a covenant relationship with your wife with just the head. Because the Bible describes Christ the head and the church is the body of Christ.

So this word is significant because you can love people without loving God, but you cannot love God without loving people. In fact, the Bible tells us that the central identifying mark of a Christian is this love. John chapter 13, 34 to 35, Jesus says, "A new commandment I give to you that you love one another." Let me stop right there.

If you read any part of the Old Testament, you already know that this commandment to love your neighbor is not new. He mentions it in many places in the Old Testament. He told the nation of Israel to love your neighbor. But Jesus says, "This is a new commandment that I give to you that you love one another." And he qualifies it, "Even as I have loved you." He wasn't just talking about this generic love to love people because most people that I know, Christian or non-Christian, practice some level of love with somebody.

Between husband and wife, most parents I know love their children. Most parents. Most people that I know have somebody that they love. He's not talking about the practice of just any kind of love. He's talking about this agape love, "Even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." He says, "By this." This is the identifying mark of a Christian.

"By this, all men will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another." Let me take a step back and unpack this. Because when we typically think of a good Christian, we think of right theology. We think of church attendance. Maybe generosity. Maybe faithfulness to church.

And there's many things that we can look at. Maybe certain kind of morality. Maybe you don't do certain things and you do certain things. And so we look at all these external things and all of these things are qualities that the Bible says that a Christian should have. But above all of that, above all of that, Jesus himself said, "But the central identifying mark of a genuine conversion is agape love." Again he says in 1 John 3, 14, "We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren." He doesn't say, "We know that we are saved because I confessed the right doctrine." Even though it is central to our faith.

If you confessed Christ, the wrong Christ, the wrong doctrine of the gospel, you can't be saved because your faith is defected. Out of all the things that could be highlighted, he says, "The central thing that causes me to know that I have passed from death to life is this agape love.

He who does not love abides in death." So the love that he is referring to is not just this any kind of love because anybody who practices love, "Oh, I love my kids so I must be a Christian. And I'm pretty generous to my neighbors so I'm a good Christian.

I support compassion so I give to orphaned kids so I must be a Christian." Well that's not what he's referring to. He said very specifically, "As I have loved you." Loving people that you would not normally love if it wasn't for Christ. In fact, it's spelled out for us.

Jesus spells it out in Luke chapter 6, 32 to 35. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Because this is the love that you and I know. Even now, think about the friends that you have. Think about the social group that you belong to.

Why are you in that social group? You don't need to tell me because I already know. It's because those people love me back. Those are easier people for me to love. If we were non-Christians, and we don't care what you think, because if you're hard to love, why pour any energy into that?

I don't have anything restraining me from shunning that person, maybe even slandering them. In fact, the Bible tells us eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, to restrain us from taking vengeance because he understands our natural inclination is if somebody tries to hurt me, that I don't just turn the other cheek, I take vengeance.

But we're Christians. We're more savvy than that. Our church is watching, especially if you're a pastor preaching every Sunday. You know what I mean? I got to fake it good. So we're Christians. We're a bit more savvy than that. So what we do is we surround people that make us feel comfortable, and then the people who don't make us feel comfortable, people that we don't like, people that offend us, we keep them acquaintances.

So we practice love with lovable people, and then we keep other people as acquaintances because they bother us. This agape love that he's talking about is not a natural thing that a common man practices. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even the sinners love those who love them.

Because this is not sacrificial. This is not agape love. We love because they will love us. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Now think about what he is saying. That's what all of us do. "Oh, you remember my birthday?

Okay, next time your birthday comes around, I'm going to remember you. Oh, you were kind to me, so next time, okay, I'm going to be kind to you. Oh, you jerk. I'm going to be jerk to you next time. I'm going to hide it so nobody can tell." But that's normally how we practice love.

He said, "But what credit is that? For even the sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?" What kind of a foolish business advice is this? If you only lend to those people who are going to pay you back, I mean, it sounds great on paper, but who would teach somebody, "That guy has poor credit.

You've given him money before and it took him 15 years to pay you back." Or maybe some of them didn't even pay you back. He said, "What money?" He said, "If you only lend money to people who has a track record of giving you back and appreciative of what you've done," he said, "What credit is that to you?" It sounds great on paper, but in practice, it's like, "Are you serious?

Who would lend to somebody that you know is not going to pay you back? Who does that? Who teaches that? And if you did practice that, no one's going to pat you on the back and say, 'Man, your agape love is awesome.'" You're going to say, "You're so foolish.

Why would you do that? You're so naive. How would you set yourself up for that?" But he says, beyond that, he says, "Love your enemies." You know who the enemies are? If it's difficult to be around people who make you uncomfortable, enemies are people who are out to hurt you, who've made plans to slander you.

So if we don't like being around people that makes us uncomfortable and we keep them acquaintances and we love people that we love, but he goes beyond that. This agape love takes us beyond that. He says, "No, love those who are deliberately trying to hurt you, and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high God, for himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men." Man, you know as well as I do how difficult it is to be gracious to somebody who is ungrateful.

Have you ever had any friend like that? My whole youth group was like that. Yeah, Joe was in my youth group. What did I say? Except Joe. That's why he's an elder at our church right now. I remember when I was a youth pastor, my full-time pay was like $1,300 a month.

These kids don't have money, so I would take them out to eat, and I would buy them drinks, and everything that I would, fix their cars. And then the one time that I couldn't take them out to eat, they're like, "Oh my God, he doesn't care." I remember this one particular kid, I won't name his name, because he's not here anyway, you wouldn't know.

I mean, for years I'd meet up with him, buy him food, lunch, and all this stuff, and he took me out to eat one time for my birthday. He talked about that one lunch for the next five years. Remember when I took you out? I remember in the back of my mind, it's like, "Remember the three years I invested in your life?" How hard is it to love somebody who is ungrateful?

How hard is it to love people who are selfish? See the reason why the identifying mark of a genuine believer is that this agape love that affected us is now coming out of us, because this is not something that you and I can practice in our flesh. The evidence that you and I have become new creation is that something alien came in, and now it is obvious, obvious that we are Jesus' disciples because Jesus did the same.

And that's what he says, the primary identifying mark of a genuine Christian is the practice of this alien love. That's why he's saying you can love people like everybody else loves people and not love God, but if you've been loved by God and you love God, you cannot possibly reject his body.

I know how difficult this is, and I know probably some of you are already thinking in your mind this one particular person or this group of people who have wronged you. And it's great hearing sermons, it's great talking about it, it's great hearing about the love of Christ, but when you actually try to practice, are you serious?

Who does that? See this agape love, it goes against every sense of fairness. It goes against every sense of fairness and justice because we're not taught that. You're not taught that if somebody hits you, turn the other cheek. Who teaches that? Those of you who have kids, do you teach that?

If a bully comes and bullies you at school, also give him your dinner. If a bully comes and punches you, take him out to ... Who teaches that to their kids? You teach them how to box, MMA, put him on an arm bar, make sure that he never does this again.

It goes against everything that we know of fairness and justice. And so it humbles us because it is completely alien. There's nothing that we can measure with and say, "Oh, that's what that means," outside of Christ. It goes against our survival instinct. You know, right now the coronavirus is spreading all over the world, and I heard that Korea has kind of been locked down.

I was talking to a friend and said, "This mega church, they're sending out emails telling people not to come to church because they're afraid. They're afraid that it's going to spread." Our IMB missionaries, our denomination sent millions of dollars pulling missionaries out of China and spread them all over Asia to keep them safe for a period.

Whenever we think that something is going to harm us, our natural instinct to survive is to stay away. So if you're buying a house and you find out your neighbor is a crack addict or it's a crack house, immediately you're not going to buy that house, right? Because our natural instinct is to be safe.

See, people who are ungrateful, people who are our enemies, people who are deliberately out to get us, these are people who will fight against our natural instinct to be safe. And yet, the practice of agape love forces us to be in situation where it is unsafe for us. So it goes against our natural survival instinct.

Every single one of us. You know, some of you guys, and I told you that I'm not a big fan of Disneyland. It doesn't make me happy. It's just the happiest. Some of you, it makes you very happy. It makes me tired. Even the thought of going to Disneyland, right?

Again, this isn't, nothing innately wrong with Disneyland, but just for me personally and my wife, I think, we, like the thought of being around all those people walking around, because I don't get enough joy from riding those rides to put up with all these other stuff. And some of you guys do.

The rides are good enough or it makes you happy enough to go. Our natural instinct is, when you take vacation, you want to go there because it makes you happy. If it doesn't make you happy, you're not going to go. And that's the way we make decisions about everything.

Does it make you happy? Does it not make you happy? You choose certain places to vacation. Because if I go there, it makes me happy. If I go eat that, it makes me happy. If I do this, it doesn't make me happy. And that's how we make decisions. But this agape love, at the core of it, causes us to be unhappy, to be surrounded by people that are difficult to love, and to make a deliberate choice to be in that situation and to reach out and to practice this love that Jesus practiced with us.

That's why this is an alien love, because we don't practice this. Not only do we not practice this, we don't value this. If you lend to people who aren't going to lend to you, if you are gracious and spend a lot of it to people who are not going to be grateful to you, if you put yourself in a situation where your enemy can attack you and you're vulnerable, you're dumb.

People aren't going to praise you for that. The only people, when you truly understand this agape love, are the people where the love of God caused us to open our eyes. That's why the Bible tells us that the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing. It is foolishness.

You know, sometimes that we've been Christians for so long, we don't understand how it sounds to a non-Christian. Why wouldn't you? Jesus loves you so much. Why wouldn't you believe him? If you think of it from a non-Christian's perspective, it's like, we were blaspheming his name, we deserve hell, but he sent his only begotten son and died for me, gave me eternal life, made me his adopted child, co-heirs with Christ, and then as a result, if you believe that to practice with other people, that's foolish.

You want me to accept this and change my life and my destiny based upon this message? He says it's foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who believe, it is the power of God. And that is the central power that changed us. And that's the central power that exists in genuine believers that causes us to build this community with people that sometimes naturally would make us feel uncomfortable.

And that's why he says the central mark of a Christian is that. You know, the best example of this, the change of this agape power, from this agape power, is the New Testament itself. Who is known as the apostle of love? You guys memorizing 1 John? Who's the apostle of love?

John. John. John, right? I know you knew it. You guys are just being Asian. Alright. John is known as the apostle of love. Because he wrote 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, he wrote the Gospel of John, and there's more teaching, more commands about this agape, unconditional love, from apostle John than any other apostle.

But you know what apostle John was known for? You know what he was known for before he wrote these Gospels? Luke chapter 9, 51 through 56. Before I get there, John and James' nickname, John and his brother James' nickname was sons of what? Thunder. Sons of Thunder. You don't get that nickname for being gentle.

You know what I mean? Sons of Thunder. Thunder is not when you think of peaceful, quiet vacations, like thunder. Sons of Thunder automatically means these guys probably hot tempered. And these guys are built for thunder. That's what that means, right? And we see an example in Luke chapter 9, 51 through 56.

When the days were approaching for his ascension, he was determined to go to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him. So Jesus is preparing to go to Jerusalem, to go to the cross, and then he sent his disciples to go ahead and prepare that he was going to go through Samaria, and then he was going to get to Jerusalem.

When they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements, and the Jews naturally did not get along. They have a long history, hundreds of years of animosity toward one another. Because the Jews considered the Samaritans to be compromised. So some of the Jews, when the Babylonians and Assyrians took them into captivity, some of the Jews stayed and they intermarried with the Assyrians.

So they were considered unclean. So even though they wanted to be seen as Jews, the Jews saw them as Gentiles. So they were natural enemies. So when somebody is coming from Galilee, let's say Galilee and Jerusalem is kind of like NorCal and SoCal, right? And in order to get to SoCal, you need to go through Bakersfield.

So Bakersfield, Samaria, as an example. So typically, because they didn't want to go through Bakersfield, they would go all the way around. They would go all the way around, and it may take an extra half a day or a day's journey, but that's how much they hated each other.

Jesus decides to go through Bakersfield. They go through Samaria. And in Samaria, he said, "These guys are going to Jerusalem. We're not going to help these guys." And so it triggers James and John in verse 54. When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" Let me stop right there.

Sometimes we read the Bible like we're reading some kind of fairy tale. And so we read it and say, "Jack and the Beanstalk went and it grew and went to heaven." And we read that like we're reading a fairy tale, not realizing sometimes this is real. This is an actual event that happened.

So think about it for a second. Sometimes you could just read that as, "Oh, they wanted to kill everybody." And then they moved on. Look at the way he says that. "Oh, they don't want to help us. Lord, you want me to kill all of them right now?" That's basically what he is saying.

The way he says it, it sounds like he did it before. You know what I'm saying? Look at it. He says it so casually. "Oh, they're not going to help us. Should I kill all of them right now?" Does he have the power to bring fire from heaven? I don't know.

Maybe that's why they call them sons of thunder, maybe because they did it before. I don't know. But he's like, "Okay, this is our Messiah. How dare they not honor him? Who do they think they are? Kill them." Look what Jesus says. But he turned and rebuked them and he said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of." What does he mean by that?

You don't really know me. That's what he was saying. You don't really know me. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy man's lives, but to save them. And then it just says, "And then they went on their way. And then they just walked to Jerusalem." That's the apostle of love.

That's the apostle of love. Even after that, as they were coming, Jesus was saying, "I'm going to go be crucified and be raised up on the third day." And James and John could not get this out of their head. "Well, who's going to sit on your left and who's going to sit on the right?" In fact, they sent their mom.

Their mommy went to talk to the Messiah. "Would you, in your glorified, let my son sit on the left and to the right?" So James and John, their mindset was like anybody else. "We sacrifice to follow you. What do we get out of this? We're following the Messiah. How dare they dishonor us?

Kill them all." How did that guy become the apostle of love? Well, he himself says it in 1 John 4, 7. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love." Do you think that as Apostle John was writing this, that he was thinking about that incident?

"Let us love, for love is from God." It wasn't from him. It wasn't something that he conjured up. It wasn't because he was discipled, he was sanctified, and somehow he became this love. He said, "No, love was given to me. I didn't have this. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, because that's the evidence that he is with God, because this love wasn't taught by your mom.

It wasn't taught by your dad. It wasn't taught because you went to a good school. It wasn't taught because you had a good discipler. This can only be taught by God, because only God himself practices love." And he said, "That's the true evidence. Who does not love does not know God, for God is love." Do you think when he was writing this that he remembered what Jesus said?

"You don't know me. That's not what I came to do." First John 4, 19, "We love because he first loved us." This is not one of many things that the church needs to get right. We need discipleship, we need evangelism, missions, right theology. All of these things are crucial to the church, but at the center of all of that is agape love.

Even Apostle Paul. You know who Apostle Paul was? He was the one responsible for the first martyr of the church, but that wasn't enough. He instigated his friends to go after all the Christians. He couldn't stand the fact that their Messiah and the kingdom of God that only belonged to the Jews was beginning to open to the Gentiles.

And by his own description, when he talked about righteousness before he met Christ, he said, "As for Zeal," what does he say? "Persecutor of the church." He hated the Gentiles. And he was willing to even go to jail and even be martyred for this cause because it was against Roman law for him to kill people without a trial.

And he was willing to do that. That's how zealous he was. That's how much he hated the Gentiles. And yet, Apostle Paul was called to be the apostle of who? The Gentiles. Why? Well, Paul says it himself. Because he wasn't trying to magnify Paul's education. He wasn't trying to magnify Paul's Roman citizenship or his great learning.

He said, "No, he was chosen because he was the worst of sinners." To magnify who? God's agape love. See, when we truly understand the love of God, it automatically humbles us because that's the nature of agape love. A proud Christian is a man who does not know God because it is a contradictory of term.

If your education causes you to be proud, your education has led you away from Christ. If your fruitfulness has caused you to be proud, those fruits are ultimately not from God because at the core of who we worship is this agape love that is alien, that we don't understand and yet we believe.

And it is that alien love that affects us, that causes us to be different. Again, as I said, this is not one of many important things in the church. It is the foundation of the church itself. And that's why the scripture says, "Of love, faith, and hope." We're saved by faith.

Hope is the reason why we persevere. But of these things, the greatest is love. The greatest is love. Sometimes in the church, we can get busy discipling, wanting to be holy, getting the doctrines right, sharing the gospel, and there's so many things that can wrap our time and keep us busy.

And all of these things are very, very, very important because obedience to God is important. But the Bible also says you can do all of that and have not love and it means nothing. You can speak tongues of men and of angels. You can have had a holy spiritual encounter with God that causes you to speak tongues of men and of angels and have not love, it's nothing.

You can have everything that you own and you sell and you give it to the poor. If you do not practice agape love, it means nothing. You can even give your body to be burned as a martyr for the purpose of the gospel and have not love. Even then, that's so hard to understand.

Why would somebody be willing to give their life and then at the end of it, God says it was nothing. Think about the terrorists who are willing to give their life for what we believe to be a lie. There's people who are complete atheists who set themselves on fire in protest of government because they want something and they want to go out in glory.

Paul is saying this to the Corinthians church in 1 Corinthians 13 because he was talking to a group of people who were competing with each other for righteousness. Who's more holy? Who's got the doctrines right? Who's on the right side? Is it Paul? Is it Apollos? Who's saying the right things?

Who should we align ourselves to? So Apostle Paul is telling this church who's divided because they're not practicing this love and he said you can have all of that. You can be under the right person. You can be at the right church. You can say the right things, do the right things.

And he says yet if you do not have this love, you missed the whole point of our salvation. Because the central mark of a church is not the number, is not the quality of the preaching, is not how well we duplicate ourselves, how well it's organized, is not the doctrinal statement that we sign.

Again, all of these things are things that God calls us to do. But the central mark of a Christian is this agape love, this alien love. That's why he says a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. And if you do this, then the world will know that you are my disciples.

I pray as a church, I really feel like we're kind of at a point in our church where I told our leaders and I think the India team that we went to, I feel like we're kind of in stage four, round four. At least that's kind of how I feel.

It's ideological, like oh, we're going to change the world for Jesus Christ. I've been a ministry long enough to know that's not in my power. And then round two is you get beat up. Oh shoot, I might lose. That's round two. Round three is kind of like, okay, let's do it, let's get second wind.

And we're going to go back into this fight and we're going to do this. And you realize just like round one, you get punched in the face and it's like wow, this is hard. And so round four, it feels like to me that it's more of a commitment to finish the race.

I started this, so we're going to finish this. Because it's worth the fight. But at the center of this fight is not world evangelization. Is not get everybody to study the Bible and memorize Genesis to Revelation. Disciple, raise up leaders, plant churches. All of these things are important. All of these things that we want to do, we plan to do.

Social justice is important, is very important. I'm going to be talking about that next week. But above all of that, if we have a church that is cold toward Christ, and that is being manifested in the coldness in the way that we practice love with one another, then we miss the whole point of why we're here.

So my prayer and my encouragement as we go to the next stage of our church, to think practically. So again, this is easy to preach. It's easy to preach. There's so much material in the Bible. But think about that person that you've been stiff-arming. Think about that group of people that made you feel uncomfortable and that you've been kind of keeping at a distance.

Think about the acquaintances in your life because these people make you feel uncomfortable. Because that's where the application needs to be. It might be with your wife. It might be with your husband. It might be with your kids. It might be with your neighbor, your co-worker, your mom, your dad, your brother, your sister.

It might be with the person sitting next to you. That that's where the rubber meets the road. To love Christ and then to love others. That Christ may be glorified. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we know we are weak. We are inspired by your love. We are changed by the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yet our flesh struggles to bear fruit in this way. Help us, Lord God, to magnify you that the world may truly know that Christ is our Lord. Help us as a church, Lord God, above everything else that we would be known to be people who love one another with the love that Christ has given us.

May Christ in his name alone be magnified. In Jesus' name we pray.