♪ Now I need you ♪ ♪ My one defense ♪ All right. So originally I just thought to do a chorus all the way through, repeat with all the instruments, but I think what we'll do is chorus, repeat twice. Essentially chorus one, repeat that twice, and then we'll die out with just my one defense, my righteousness at the end.
All right, let's try that one more time. Let's go from-- (audience member speaking indistinctly) (audience member screaming) - And then also I think there's a bridge for the bridge, I don't like it. - I did, yeah, for the bridge I kinda wanted like a, I don't think it's really part of the track, but more like a low version of The Electric.
(audience member speaking indistinctly) - All right, let's try bridge one more time. (audience member speaking indistinctly) ♪ Now I need you ♪ Bridge. ♪ Teach my song to rise to you ♪ ♪ When temptation comes my way ♪ ♪ When I cannot stand, I'll follow you ♪ ♪ Jesus, you're my hope and stay ♪ ♪ Lord, I need you, oh, I need you ♪ ♪ Every hour I need you ♪ ♪ My one defense, my righteousness ♪ ♪ Oh God, now I need you ♪ ♪ Lord, I need you, oh, I need you ♪ ♪ Every hour I need you ♪ ♪ My one defense, my righteousness ♪ ♪ Oh God, now I need you ♪ ♪ My one defense, my righteousness ♪ ♪ Oh God, now I need you ♪ - All right, real quick.
Noah, for the chorus two, for some reason, it's just E and B, but I'd like to just keep it the same as the first line of chorus one, like the chord progression. So it would be E, A, E, B. (gentle music) All right, cool. Let's take a couple of minutes and then we'll pray in the corner.
(gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) - Good morning, Church family.
Happy Lord's Day. We will now begin our service. (gentle music) ♪ Oh, kneel me down again ♪ ♪ Here at your feet ♪ ♪ Show me how much you love humility ♪ ♪ Oh, spirit be the star ♪ ♪ That leads me to you ♪ ♪ The humble heart of love ♪ ♪ I see in you ♪ ♪ 'Cause you are the God of the broken ♪ ♪ Friend of the weak ♪ ♪ You wash the feet of the weary ♪ ♪ Embrace the ones in need ♪ ♪ I want to be like you, Jesus ♪ ♪ To have this heart in me ♪ ♪ You are the God of the humble ♪ ♪ You are the humble king ♪ ♪ Oh, kneel me down again ♪ ♪ Here at your feet ♪ ♪ Show me how much you love humility ♪ ♪ Oh, spirit be the star ♪ ♪ That leads me to you ♪ ♪ The humble heart of love ♪ ♪ I see in you ♪ ♪ 'Cause you are the God of the broken ♪ ♪ Friend of the weak ♪ ♪ You wash the feet of the weary ♪ ♪ Embrace the ones in need ♪ ♪ I want to be like you, Jesus ♪ ♪ To have this heart in me ♪ ♪ You are the God of the humble ♪ ♪ You are the humble king ♪ ♪ I want to be like you, Jesus ♪ ♪ To have this heart in me ♪ ♪ You are the God of the humble ♪ ♪ You are the humble king ♪ - All right, good morning.
Welcome to Bruin Community Church. We have a few announcements before we get started. We're gonna start with our family ministry field day. Andy Wong is gonna come up and give the announcement for that. - All right, good morning, church family. This announcement is for anyone who is in family ministry who became a member in 2022 or after.
You should have received an email about a week ago inviting you to this family ministry field day. So this event is gonna take place on March 22nd from 2 to 4.30 p.m. in Heritage Community Park in Irvine. Your family must sign up as a team of two. So it's either a husband or wife or a parent and child as long as the child is ages five or up.
And there's just one team allowed per family, okay? We're going to be playing some lightly competitive games, but the games are geared towards all ages, whether you're in FAM 245, FIG, or Jubilee. There's limited space, so please sign up today. Thank you. - All right, just to reiterate, it's for the newer families in the church who kind of want to meet some more people in the church to help integrate into the church.
So if you are interested in that, please sign up for that. Next Sunday, there's gonna be a newcomers welcome lunch at 1 p.m. in the Youth Chapel. So if you're new to the church and you just want to meet some of the leaders in the church and find out about the history and the church ministry philosophies, that's the lunch for you.
So please sign up for that, and that will be taking place on next Sunday at the Youth Chapel. College retreat. If you're part of the college group, the retreat is happening on March 21st to the 23rd at Oakland. The speaker is Eric Charbonnet from Pillar Baptist Church, and the sign-up is going to be until next Sunday at March 7th.
So please sign up as soon as you can. And then finally, this is just a heads-up. VBS, if you have children who are going to be participating in that, it's on June 23rd to June 27th. Just mark it on your calendar so that you'll know--June 23rd, 27th. And so they are asking for volunteers, whether you are going to be teaching or helping out with activities or cooking, they are asking for sign-ups for that.
So please, you need to be a member to participate in this for child safety training and all of that. So please sign up for that, and then they'll notify you of the meetings that are coming. I think that's it for the announcement. After I pray, again, if you are here and you have a physical offering, we have an offering box in the back on the way out.
But after our praise time, our brother Adam Wu is going to come, give his testimony, and be baptized this morning. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this morning, the privilege that we have to come to the throne of grace with confidence covered by the blood of Christ.
Help us, Lord God, to never forget what it is that we have in you, that all that we do will simply be a reasonable response to the love that you've poured upon us. Help us, Lord God, that even in this giving, it would be an act of worship, it would be an expression of our gratitude and lordship to you, and may it be multiplied that your name may be honored and glorified and proclaimed wherever you send us.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let us all rise and spend a few moments to greet the neighbors around us. >> Amen, you may be seated. >> Hello, church family. My name is Adam Wu, and this is my testimony. My mother is a Christian, and some of my earliest memories are of going with her to Friday night fellowships.
However, as I grew older, I primarily called myself a Christian because I was afraid of potentially going to hell. Often at night, after I was tired, I would remember that I still hadn't prayed, and I would always think, "What if this is what makes me go to hell? What if I otherwise would have done enough to go to heaven, but because of this one missed prayer, I fall just short?" This would spur me to action, and I would conduct a sleepy and unfocused prayer.
This characterized my spiritual life for a long time, in the sense that it was mainly superstition and fear that caused me to call myself a Christian. With no personal connection or deep motivation to follow Jesus, I didn't live my life in a way that reflected my faith. I didn't do much more than attending church and conducting sleepy prayers.
Starting college, I wasn't completely ready to walk away from Christ, but I justified my lack of faith by claiming that I didn't have enough evidence. To me, it didn't seem like God was the most likely explanation for reality and for my existence. I heard the testimonies of others, and I saw how they had been personally experienced, and how they had personally experienced God.
But I didn't think that that was enough to justify his existence. After all, people can have profound religious experiences in other religions. I believed that the only universal and objective way to arrive at God's existence was logical evidence and deduction. With this in mind, I looked into apologetics and logical arguments to find a proof for God, but I couldn't find anything convincing.
Nothing I found was foolproof, enough to remove all my doubt. Only after a long time did I realize that nothing I found would be enough to fully convince me. If I was seeking satisfaction with a perfect logical proof, I would live my life in constant indecision. I would forever be unable to reject God for fear of hell, but I would also be unable to embrace him out of fear of wasting my life.
At this time, I read 1 Samuel, in which, after many years of being unable to bear children, Hannah desperately promises God that if he gives her a child, she will dedicate him to God. God answers her prayer, and she gives birth to Samuel. God didn't have to part the clouds and proclaim to Hannah that he would give her a child before she prayed to God.
She placed her faith in God first, and then God answered her prayer. Even after a lifetime of wishing for this child, when many would have cursed God, she still held true to her belief that God existed and that he was good. This struck me because I saw the similarity between my situation and Hannah's, but my attitude was reversed.
I was expecting God to reveal himself to me without first opening my heart to him or placing my faith in him. Together, with my earlier realization concerning the futility of logical proof, I decided to place my faith in God first, trying my best and my earnest to search for God with an open heart.
I allowed him to speak to me through his word, and I decided that I wouldn't need universal logical proof for God's existence. Personal evidence or experience would be enough. The personal experience I was looking for occurred when one of my relationships fell apart. Throughout this relationship, I had conducted myself according to the wisdom of the world and to my own fleshly desires.
The result was pain and hurt for both sides. As I reflected upon the damage that I had caused, I truly realized for the first time the ugliness and evil that was sin. The moment when I first saw myself in this way was frightening. My actions seemed so disconnected from the good person that I thought I was.
I realized for myself the truth of the Bible, how living by my rules and by my wisdom would only lead to pain and death. I clearly saw what separated me from God, and I finally knew why I couldn't be in his presence. I felt that I deserved eternal punishment.
However, I also knew that the Bible promised that I was already forgiven for my sins. Jesus had already died for me and given me a path to life. I felt relief and joy, but also confusion and guilt. It was hard to accept my innocence and freedom from punishment. I finally knew that only a love greater than anything I'd ever known would be capable of offering me this.
I'd finally found what I'd been praying for. God had shown himself to me. Through the existence of my sin, God demonstrated not only his existence as well, but also his love and my need for Jesus as Lord of my life. Since coming to faith, my motivation is not fear of hell, but appreciation and gratitude towards Jesus.
He saved me from the death that I know I deserve. I have repented of my sins, and although I am still sinful and wretched, I do not live in complacency or acceptance of sin. Rather, I constantly struggle against it out of a desire to imitate Christ. As I reflect upon my testimony, I am struck by God's patience, his faithfulness, and the goodness of his timing.
For so long, my heart was hardened, yet he remained. He was always reachable and eager to know me, good in all seasons. 2 Peter 3.9 reads, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." I have a deep appreciation and gratitude that God was so patient with me, that Jesus sacrificed himself to present me with an alternative to eternal death.
My life is no longer my own, but I live only so that God may be glorified. Thank you. Do you understand that when you go into the water, you are being united to Christ's death, and when you come out, you are being united to his resurrection life? God bless you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All right. Thank you, Adam. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke 10. We're going to be reading from verse 25 all the way down to verse 29. Luke 10, verse 25-29. Reading out of the NASB. "And a lawyer stood up and put him to the test, saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' He said to him, 'What is written in the law?
How does it read to you?' And he answered, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, with all your mind, with your neighbor as yourself.' And he said to him, 'You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.' But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'" Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we pray for understanding. We pray for illumination through your word, that you'd open our eyes to see who you are and what you have given us. Help us, Lord God, to pursue you, to love you, to proclaim you, that your word would open up not only heaven, but our own hearts toward you.
Bless this time, Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In Isaiah 43-4, Isaiah prophesied hundreds of years before Jesus came that John the Baptist, a forerunner, was going to come and prepare the way for Jesus. And this is what it says. "A voice is calling, 'Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness.
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low. And let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley.'" This illustration of bringing down the mountain and filling up the valley is all over the Bible, the Old and the New Testament.
And the illustration basically is that every road that leads to Christ will be prepared. So this was illustrating that people who are proud, who are in high places, are going to be humbled, and they're going to be brought low. And that people who are in low places, who believe that they don't deserve the grace of God, that they are going to be lifted up.
And we see this illustration all over Scripture. In particular, in the book of John, John, as he is introducing Christ to people, begins in John chapter 3 where Nicodemus, the spiritual elite, comes to Christ concerned about his reputation. Because he already has a reputation of being a religious leader, possibly a member of the Sanhedrin, one of the senators.
So this is a guy, Nicodemus, who every Jew aspired to be. This is the guy that if somebody wanted to know how to get to God, Nicodemus would have been one of the people that they found out and waited in long lines to ask him a question. And he comes to Jesus in John chapter 3 at night and has his encounter with Christ.
And then Jesus says, "You must be born again." Meaning that everything that he's done up to this point doesn't lead to salvation. That you have to be completely a new person. And then, right after that, we see him in John chapter 4 where he encounters a Samaritan woman. And this Samaritan woman, during the broad daylight, is actually concerned for Jesus.
Because she was known to be not only a Samaritan but a sinner. And so she encounters--Jesus deliberately goes to where she is, encounters him, and then she says, "Aren't you concerned? Why are you a Jewish man in broad daylight talking to a Samaritan woman?" Jesus actually pursues her and then reveals himself to her.
So if you look at that, it's very deliberate how John introduces Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman to introduce the gospel to us. That a proud man is being humbled and a humbled woman is being lifted up. And then the entrance into the kingdom of God is the same door.
There's not a better door up in the mountains. There's not a lowly door for those who are lowly. But it's that the gospel basically makes the road to Christ the same. Over and over again, we are taught, over and over again, the spiritual pride of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, and the lawyers.
It blinded them to see Christ. Whenever the Bible mentions a sinner who has gone ahead of these Pharisees, these religious elites, the people who are so meticulous in trying to keep the law, and Jesus repeatedly says, "The tax collectors, the prostitutes, the Samaritans." Those are the three groups of people that Jesus always mentions when he mentions the people in the spiritual valley.
These are not people who are welcomed into the synagogue. These are not people who people just automatically thought they don't know God. These are compromisers. But over and over again, Jesus says to them, that it is those that you think are blind, they're the ones who will see. And those who think that they see, they're the ones who are blind.
We see that in Luke 10.21, when Jesus tells his disciples, after they come back, that you're rejoicing over the fact that you have authority over demons, but he says, "Rejoice over the fact that your name is written in the book of life." And then he says, in verse 21, Luke 10, "I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to infants." After he tells them that, the text that we're looking at gives us an illustration of what that looks like.
He says, the intelligent, the wise, they're the ones who are blind, and it's the spiritual infants who are going to see. And so he introduces to us, in the next text, a lawyer who would be considered spiritual giants. They were the intelligent. They were the wise. And we see this encounter with this man, how blind he is.
And then his encounter with him leads to the parable of the Samaritan woman, a Samaritan man, where he is declared to be the righteous one. So not only is he telling them this, he's, again, Luke is revealing to us that this is what this looks like, right? A wise man who is blind, and spiritual infants who actually are the ones who are righteous before God.
So let's look at this encounter in verse 25. "The lawyer stood up." The fact that he stood up means that he wanted everybody's attention. This was not an honest question where he's coming to Jesus and saying, "Hey, I have this question. Can you answer this question? How do you inherit eternal life?" He stands up basically to show people that this is something that, to put him to the test, maybe to put him in a trap.
He stands up to put him to a test. He's saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" We already know that this is not an honest question, right? There's a difference between asking a question and questioning. I often get people who come to me, and if they're asking a question, whatever question that may be, it's easy to answer because I can tell you that these are the things that may answer your question.
But when somebody is questioning, they're questioning. They're saying, "Aren't you like this?" or "Why do you do this?" And they've already made a decision. They're just indicting me through question. You can't answer that question because no matter what you say, they're going to have a rebuttal, right? Because they're not actually looking for an answer.
Jesus, knowing this, doesn't answer the question, and he says, "Well, what do you think?" It's genius. I should do that next time. If somebody is questioning me, he says, "What do you think? What do you want to say?" Jesus responds and says, "What is written in the law? How does it read to you?" And so the lawyer, looking at the opportunity to show everybody what he knows, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." Now, you may look at that in verse 27.
It says, "Well, he's a lawyer, so he should know this." Actually, every Jew knew this. This was a constant debate among the Jews, especially the scribes, which is the weightiest law. They had 613 different laws that they identified, and they put it in order of which law is the greatest and which are laws that you can kind of get away with if you don't take it too seriously.
Of all the laws that they debated, it was universally accepted the great Shema in Deuteronomy chapter 6, 4-5 was the greatest law. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might." And then again in Leviticus 19.18, the second part of that, "You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself, and I am the Lord." Again, this was not a genius, or this is not because he's a PhD in the law.
Every Jew would have been able to answer this question because the Jews called this the great Shema. The great Shema basically in Hebrew means, it means to listen or to hear. The great hearing, the great listening, or another way to put it is the great obedience. Of all the things that you need to pay attention to, you need to pay attention to this.
And so twice a day, they got in the morning and they recited this. Before they went to sleep, they recited this. They had it memorized, they had it posted up everywhere. And then every night, you know, if you have young children, you may be in a habit of having prayer with your children before they go to sleep.
Well, this is what the Jews prayed with their children when they were young, before they went to sleep. The great Shema, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And second is like you love your neighbor as yourself, and they would recite this before they go to sleep.
So this was not new. This was not some, you know, Ph.D. answering a deep theological question. It was, "Well, what do you read?" And he said, "Love the Lord your God." So that part of it is not strange. This is universal. Any Jew would have been able to answer that question.
But the question mark is in verse 28. When Jesus hears this, he said, "You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live." Remember, that was an answer to a question, "How do you inherit eternal life?" If somebody asked you, "How do you inherit eternal life? How do I get to heaven?" and you answered them, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself," that would be blasphemy.
That would be heresy. What's the right answer? By faith, right? If you confess with your mouth that Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that he is raised from the dead, then you shall be saved. By faith, you are saved, not by works, not if you love God and love your neighbor.
So if you happen to be practicing love, that that's your ticket to heaven. And yet Jesus says, "You have answered correctly, and now you shall live." So how do we understand this? Why does he say this? Well, is it because he's now in the Old Covenant? In the Old Covenant, that people are saved by works?
In the New Covenant, we're saved by faith. Is that why? Is Jesus in the Old Covenant? No. Because we are told that Abraham was considered righteous because of what? Because of faith. So even the old saints were saved by faith, not by works. The Bible makes that very clear.
So he is not stating an Old Covenant versus something in the New Covenant. So again, how do we understand this? There's three things that I'm going to be mentioning. The second and third I'll be getting to next week, and I'm going to camp on the first one. And the first answer is because it is correct.
It is correct, and I'm going to get to that. And I'm going to share with you seven reasons why this is correct, according to what the New Testament tells us. The second reason is much more personal. He is indicting the lawyer. You're looking for a path to eternal life, and you're an expert of the law, so if you're going to keep anything, you need to keep that law perfectly.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, all your soul, not realizing that that commandment indicts him. So Jesus is turning the table and said, "If you're going to do that, you're going to have to do that." And then third is not just an indictment against the lawyer, it's an indictment against anybody who thinks that somehow by the law that they're going to get into the kingdom of heaven.
But I'll get to that next week. Today, we're going to look at the true statement, when he says, "That is correct." That is correct. That statement is correct, that all of this summarizes what God desires. Love your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Number one, I told you I'm going to give you seven of them. Number one, the reason why this is correct is because love is the fulfillment of all the laws. Love is the fulfillment of all the laws. In Matthew 22, 38 to 40, is a different instance where the Pharisees come and ask and test Jesus, "What's the greatest commandment?" Let's see how well you know the law.
And Jesus says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself." The second is like it. And on these two commandments depends the whole law and the prophets. All of the laws are summarized by these two statements. Love God and love your neighbor.
If you look at the Ten Commandments, that's exactly how it is divided. The first four commandments is, you shall have no other gods, don't make any graven images, right? You shall not use the name in vain, and you shall keep the Sabbath holy. So the first four commandments is about loving God.
Why should you not worship any other god? Because you love God. Why do you not use his name in vain? Because you love God. Why do you create an image of him and then love an imitation of him? He said, "No, because we love God." Why do you keep the Sabbath holy?
Because we're dedicating ourselves to love God. The first four commandments. The next six commandments is, honor your father and mother. Why? Because you love them. Do not murder. Why? Because you love them. So all of the next six commandments all are about loving your neighbor. Some people, and I admit that early on in my faith, I thought the Old Testament was about God's righteousness and judgment and holiness, and the New Testament is where his love and grace is revealed.
Well, that's not the case because when you look at the commandments, he says the whole commandment is summarized by love. This was not a new covenant thing. Every Jew understood this about God. Every Jew. Remember Jonah, when God sent him to Nineveh to tell them that if they don't repent that judgment is coming upon them?
Jonah didn't want to go. Why didn't he want to go? Why didn't he want to go? Because he loved them. Was he concerned that God was going to reveal his judgment against them? No. At the end, he said, "I knew it." As soon as they repented, "I knew you were merciful.
I knew you were patient. I knew you were going to forgive them." Because they all knew this already. This was not a New Testament, Old Testament thing. God is the same God of the Old Testament, same God of the New Testament. And every Jew knew that the law ultimately was about loving God.
Well, it's ultimately about loving their neighbor. Galatians chapter 5, 14, it says, "For the whole law is fulfilled in one word in the statement, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" So the whole thing, without going into every detail, what God desires more than anything else is love. Secondly, love is the foundation upon the covenant with God.
Love. The basis of our relationship with God is love. Some people may hear that and say, "Well, what about his holiness?" I remember years ago, early on in church, when the Young, Restless, and Reformed Movement was just starting to take form, and all of a sudden these young guys were coming out of the seeker-friendly church, and they said, "You know what?
The problem with the church today is that we don't practice church discipline. We need to discipline people who are not walking right with God. We need to call them out." And he was so determined. It's like the next stage of church, we need to show the iron fist so that they take God seriously.
And I remember talking to him, thinking, "I think the problem with church has always been lack of love, not judgment." Part of the reason why we weren't practicing church discipline is because of a lack of love. Because we're indifferent. We're indifferent. Even if people are falling away, and they may be walking away from God, and the reason why we don't take that seriously is because we're not practicing love.
If you really loved, you'd be concerned. If your child is going astray and doing something that's going to hurt them, you're going to get involved and say something that they don't want to hear. But part of the reason why people are afraid to do that is because of lack of love.
It's not because of lack of iron fist. Love never negates holiness and obedience. John 14, 15 says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." You can obey without loving God, but you cannot love God without obeying. But the priority is love. It is love that leads us to obedience.
And so, Hosea 6, verse 6, it says, "For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offering." If you look at Israel, before it falls to the Assyrians, before it falls to the Babylonians, they were very active at the temple. They were giving all kinds of sacrifices because they conquered their enemies.
They were financially well off. So they were coming to the temple, making all kinds of sacrifices. Remember what God says through Isaiah? He said, "Your sacrifices are meaningless to me." There are all these sacrifices that you're giving. You're giving animals, but you're not giving your heart. Even the music that you sing, it says, "It's noise to me." And I remember reading that, thinking, "God commanded them to do this, and yet he says, 'I detest it.'" Because what God desired of these sacrifices was not the animals, but the heart.
It was an avenue to express their loyalty and love to God. Instead, they made it a checklist to do something. I did it. God didn't command these sacrifices because he loved barbecue. He liked the smell of dead animals, and so he loves barbecue. So he said, "Make all these sacrifices to me." He said, "No, you're just making these sacrifices, but there's nothing.
You're not genuinely repenting. You don't care about the foreigners. You don't care about the lost." What God desired always was our heart. The law was an avenue to show our heart, but ultimately it was our heart. You guys know the passage in Ephesians 5.22, which is a passage that's often quoted in weddings, where it tells us the relationship between husband and wife, and how a wife should submit to their husband, as the church does to Christ, and then tells the husband to love their wives as Christ loved the church.
Sacrificially gave his life for his wife. But in the conclusion of everything he says, he says the whole reason why he's giving you this illustration was so that you may understand the relationship that we have with Christ in verse 32. "This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church." The whole reason why he gave the illustration about the love relationship between husband and wife, how the wife loves her husband by submission and honoring him, how the husband loves the wife by sacrifice, is what this covenant love relationship looks like, so that we may have a better understanding of our relationship with Christ.
What God desires of us isn't simply obligation. Imagine if you were standing on the altar, and your vow was from this day forward, "I'm going to do my best to meet my legal obligation as a husband." Right? And the wife's just tearing up, so she's so touched. "You're going to do your legal obligation for me?" Right?
"You're going to save money on taxes?" No, when you make the vow, you're basically saying that from this day forward, you're my partner. I'm going to leave and cleave. That I'm going to forget about anything else that I was distracted by. There's no other woman for me but you.
From this day forward, you're my priority. I'm going to give my life if it's better for you. That's basically what a vow is, a covenant relationship is. That whatever distraction, whatever that was priority before you met your wife, that that's your priority now. So the Bible gives us that that's the relationship that he is pursuing, that he desires of us.
Not just his creation to bring them back into submission. Not simply to people who are doing wrong and rebellion, to stop rebelling. He's bringing us all the way into the inner chamber to restore that covenant relationship with him. That's why he says to love. In the book of Revelation, you have this model church, the church of Ephesus.
And this is what he says, "I know your deeds, your toil, "your perseverance, "and you cannot tolerate evil men. "You protest to those "who call themselves apostles. "They are not. "You found them to be false, "and you have perseverance "and endured my namesake "and have not grown weary." Perfect church.
Especially if you're in a Bible teaching church that do an inductive Bible study, memorizing scripture. You know the theology. You're reading all the systematic theology. It's like this church has it all. They're testing false doctrine. They're persevering. They're enduring for his namesake. They're not growing weary. They're testing even the apostles to make sure that they are sent from God.
And then he says in verse 3, "But I have this against you, "that you have left your first love." Despite all that they have, he says the primary thing that God is looking for is that you have forsaken it. And he says, "If you do not remember, "if you do not repent, "and you do not redo the things "that you did at first," he says, "I will take away my lampstand." Lampstand basically means his presence.
That his relationship with this church is going to be severed. That all the things that you are doing is going to amount to nothing. This is a model, especially to a church that takes theology seriously, and we want to make sure that we have the pure gospel. But he said, "You may have all of that, "and you have forsaken your first love." It means nothing.
In Matthew 10, 37, "He who loves father and mother more than me "is not worthy of me, "and he who loves son or daughter more than me "is not worthy of me." Of course Jesus is not saying, "Do not love your mother and father." He's the one who teaches us to love our father and mother.
He's saying that first and foremost, our covenant relationship is with him. Even before mother, even before father, even before children, our covenant relationship, we're married to him first. Because our marriage to him is what affects how we love our mother and father and our children. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 16, 22, Paul goes so far as to say, "If anyone does not love the Lord, "he is to be accursed." He doesn't say, "Anybody who doesn't obey, "anybody who doesn't act right, "he who does not love the Lord, "he is accursed." The primary identifying mark of someone who has met the Lord, he says, is love.
Love. Then in John 20, if you remember, when Peter and the disciples fail miserably, after the resurrection, he calls them and he cooks them breakfast, and then he wants to restore Peter. When he restores Peter, remember what Jesus says? Did he say to Peter, "You failed miserably. "You denied me to my face "three times, "just as I said you were going to do.
"Are you going to do that again?" Peter says, "No." "You sure you're not going to do that again?" "No." "You better not do that again." "No, Lord, I won't do that again." Is that what happens? What happens there? He wants to restore Peter, and he says, "Do you love me "more than these?" "Yes, I love you." "Do you love me more than these?" "Yes, I love you." "Do you really love me more than these?" "Lord, of course I love you." He said, "Then feed my sheep." His restoration and his calling to ministry was, "Do you love me?" Not, "Are you going to be disciplined?" "Are you going to get this right?" He said, "Do you love me?" The primary identifying mark of somebody who is called to do ministry is not their gifting, is not their talent, is not their experience, is not their fruit.
It's their love. Because that's what he asked. In order to prepare Peter for ministry, to declare who he is, he had to make sure, "Do you love me?" And that is not a question just for Peter and the apostle. That's a question for every single Christian. That if you are seriously going to follow Christ, the primary question that he's going to ask is, "Do you love me?" Because the primary pursuit of our God is a restored covenant relationship with him.
Number three, love is the fuel for ministry. Why does he say, "Do you love me?" Because love is the fuel. 2 Corinthians 5:14, "For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all die, considering the love that he gave me, and that love compels me to love." He writes this in the context of people judging him, questioning his apostleship.
He's saying things that they don't like, and they say, "You know what, that guy, I don't know if we can take him seriously." He put a thorn on his side, agonizing before God. He said, "Why do you endure? Why do you persevere? Why am I writing this letter?" There's so many other cities that he can go to.
It's in that context that the reason why I persevere and why I'm pleading with you is because the love of Christ compels me. Because Christ loved me this way, so I love you. Galatians 5:6, "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith," what? "Working through love." Not just faith, right?
Not just work, not hard work, not discipline, not just discipleship. He says, "Faith working through love." Love is the fuel. Love is the fuel that causes us to labor, to persevere. Fourthly, love is the goal. It's a goal of our ministry. It's a goal of our sanctification. 1 Timothy 1.5, after Paul tells Timothy to command these men who are teaching false doctrines, command them with the authority that I give you and the authority that Jesus gave me, command them to stop teaching these false doctrines.
But as he commissions him, he reminds Timothy, "But the goal of this instruction is love." Not to expose them, not to simply shame them, not to fight evil and say, "We're going to conquer this evil." He said, "No. The goal of why we're telling you to fight is love." You know, some of the most ugly things that we see in Christendom is people who are so committed to the truth with very little love, thinking that as long as we have truth, as long as we have truth, that we're excused.
No, he says, "No. Even as we fight for truth, don't forget that the goal is love from a pure heart, good conscience, and a sincere faith." Meaning that if you're discipling somebody and they become very proficient in theology, very disciplined, and they know how to carry out ministry, they know how to lead, and yet they're not growing in love, you missed the whole point.
The purpose of discipleship is love. So how do you measure if somebody is growing in their faith? It's like, "Knowledge? Don't get me wrong. All of this stuff is important." But he says, "The ultimate goal is love." Are they growing in love? Philippians 1, 9 through 10, Paul calls this Thessalonian church, or the Philippian church, a model church in Macedonia.
Even in the midst of poverty, they were begging Paul, "Give us an opportunity to give." And they were known for their love, and yet he says, "In this I pray that your love may abound still more and more." Don't stop. You're known for your love, but don't stop. You have to keep going because this is the right path.
You're practicing love, but you need to do more and more. He says the same thing in 1 Thessalonians. He says, "Timothy comes back and gives them a report that their faith is abounding, and the evidence of this faith is the love that they were practicing to all the saints." And then he tells them, "Don't stop to do this more and more." Because that's the final goal.
Everything that we do. Why do you do discipleship? Why do you do inductive Bible study? Why do we learn? Why do we get trained? Ultimately, it's to love. If somehow your knowledge of the Word of God is causing you to have a more critical spirit and lack of love, then you missed the whole point of discipleship.
The goal of his commandment, he says, is love. Number five. Love is what causes us to persevere in fellowship. 1 Peter 4:8. "Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins." One of the most practical advice you can give in a church.
Observing a community for 20, 30 years, you have people coming and going, and they get excited, and then the honeymoon period is over, and you get to rub each other, their sins and faults, and then you get disappointed, and then people come, people go. I mean, watching this community in the last 28 years, 30 years, I mean, you see a cycle over, and there's nothing new under the sun.
We see cycles over and over and over and over again. You come in, get excited. Something about the church is exciting to you, but as soon as you get close enough, like any other human being, any other group, you begin to see the warts, shortcomings, the selfishness, pride. You see all of it.
And once that happens, that's when the real test of a community happens is when you begin to see the warts of people, right? Not the honeymoon. Not when you walk into a room and you see a pretty girl and it's like, I love her. That's very superficial. I love her.
I like her hair. I like her perfume. I like the way she walks. And then after the honeymoon is over and you see their faults, you see some selfishness and all of that. And that's when the community is really tested. That's when a family is really starting to come together.
But what brings us together? Just more disciplined people? If we had just smarter people? If we had more experienced people? If we had more older people? No. It says love covers a multitude of sins. Love. If a community isn't growing in love, it will only endure through the honeymoon stage when everything smells nice, everything looks good.
But what causes us to persevere is love. Love is what causes us to persevere. And six, love is the ultimate evidence of salvation. John 4, 7-8. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
And then in John 13, 33-35, Jesus says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Even as I have loved you, that you love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Remember when God created us, he created us to be what?
Image bearers of God. We are to reflect God's glory. But because of our sins, we've been separated from God and we're no longer able to glorify God because we've been tainted by our sin. So the whole purpose of salvation is to restore us to God so that we may be the image bearers of God again.
To reflect him. And so what he's saying here is, what he desires more than anything else that we reflect of him is his love. Love. He says, if you say that you love God and you don't love one another, he said, you don't really know God. He said, the primary thing that Jesus is going to look for as evidence that you are my followers, he says, if you love the way I loved you.
And this is not just talking about any love because even non-Christians love. Even non-Christians love their mom, their dad, their children, their good friends. He's not talking about any love. He's talking about a covenant love. Despite God demonstrates his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
If you love each other as I have loved you, then they will know that you are my disciples. Love is the ultimate evidence of our salvation. And then seventh and finally, love is the greatest of the virtue. First Corinthians 13, 13. But now faith, hope, and love abide these strings, but the greatest of these is love.
You know, if you were to put it theologically and put it on paper, if you were to choose which one is the greatest, I think theologically we would say faith. Because faith is what connects us to God. Faith is what regenerates us. Faith is what causes us to be connected.
Our whole destiny is changed because of faith. So theologically we would say faith. Maybe hope. Hope is the one that causes us to persevere. That no matter what trials and difficulty and persecution comes, because of the hope of the promise of eternal life, that we're able to persevere. Love is just an outcome of that.
But he says no, it's love. Of faith, hope, and love. Love is the greatest because the purpose of why we have faith is to bring us ultimately to love. The reason why we persevere is to bring us to the final stage of love. The goal of this commandment is love.
So imagine the weight of what he is saying. Of faith, love, faith, hope, and love, the greatest. Now I would say, you know, at the minimum, he's saying, well, they're equal. He doesn't say that. No, love is the greatest. You know why he's saying that? You know why he's telling the Corinthians that of faith, hope, and love, love is the greatest?
Because this was a church that was divided by their faith. They were one-upping each other. You know, I follow Paul. I follow, you know, I follow Apollos, and I follow Jesus, and they are one-upping each other because their faith is greater than the others. That we're somehow more righteous because of you, because of who we follow and what we know.
Do you not know that God chose you because you were dumb? Because you were base, you were nothing, and now you come into the church, and you're trying to be somebody in the church? Do you not realize that of all the things that you are pursuing, the greatest is love?
The reason why you're being divided is because you've forgotten that, he says. Of faith, hope, and love, the greatest is love. So the natural question that we have is, how do we get this then, right? The greatest, all the commandments, all of it fulfilled in love. Now go do it.
Let's go, right? You just go home and it's like-- No, no, no, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. Is that how you get love? Just watch. How do you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength? Are you just determined to do it?
Man, it is the greatest, but it is impossible. It is impossible if you are willing yourself to do it. Remember Martha? She was so busy. I'm doing all this stuff, and remember Jesus says, "But Mary has chosen what is best." You're worried about so many things, but what was Mary doing?
Mary's just standing, just learning, just soaking it up, just receiving the love of Christ. She's just soaking it up. Mary has chosen what is best. Martha--churches love Marthas. Marthas are the ones who are cleaning the bathrooms. Marthas are the ones who are cooking. Marthas are the one who's doing the shadow.
Marthas--the church loves Marthas because the church is dirty without Marthas. We don't get things done without Marthas. Evangelism doesn't happen without Marthas. I mean, when the Marthas are gone, I mean, you see it. We love Marthas. He's not condemning Marthas, but he says Mary has chosen what is best.
And I think about first love. He said, "You have forsaken your first love." Now, you know what he tells the church to do? Remember the height from which you had fallen. Repent and redo the things at first. Whenever I think about that, I remember early on as a Christian back in college, I wrestled with this so much because if this is the greatest commandment, this has to be my greatest pursuit.
Above evangelism and preaching and right doctrine and all this stuff is important, but he says this is the greatest commandment. And I remember, I'm not sure if I love God like that. I love my mom. I love my brothers at that point. I didn't meet my wife yet. I'm not sure if I can say I love God like that.
So I kept on praying, "God, what does that mean? "How do I get that? How do I do that? "Do I just will myself?" And I remember I would ask my Bible study leaders, and one of the leaders told me, "Just say I love you 100 times. "I love you, God.
I love you, God. "I love you, God. I love you, God." So I don't know how many times that in prayer I would say, "I love you, God. I love you, God. "I love you, God. I love you, God. I love you, God." And I'd open my eyes and nothing.
We've actually say it in Korean, "Saranghaeyo, saranghaeyo, saranghaeyo." Obviously, it didn't happen that way. But God did answer my prayers. You know how he answered my prayers? There was a very difficult, lonely period in my life. It was all during that period. And I had a prayer closet that me and my roommates would use, and I would go in there early in the morning to do my quiet time and take some time to pray.
All of a sudden, it hit me. I wonder if I disappeared, how long it would take for my family to look for me. It was a very depressing thought because I was away and I wasn't living at home. I kind of cut myself off from my school friends because I wanted to get trained, and I was in apartment training and all that.
And that thought of, "Oh, I'm by myself, "and all my roommates are 10, 11, 12 years older than me, "so I'm not their peers." And that thought is of like, "Oh, I wonder who would look for me if I was gone." And it just hit me like a ton of bricks.
God knows you're in here. God knows you're in here. And all of a sudden, everything that I already knew, everything that I already believed became so real. I know he loved me. I confess. I know I'm here because he loves me, but it wasn't real to me. And when his love became real to me, my love for him was simply a response.
"How can I not love this guy?" Sometimes we get so caught up in like, "What should I do? "How do I bear fruit? How do I raise money? "What's the next stage of my life, and how do I do this? "How do I manage my money?" We get so caught up in doing something for God, but the primary thing that he's waiting for is for us to come to him.
Even prayer. We want to be devoted to pray. So I've been going to morning prayer, and I go there, and I'm trying to like, "Okay, I've got to pray, "and I've got all these things I've got to pray for, "and I've got to pray for this. I've got to pray for that." And I sit there trying to think of all the things I've got to pray for, and in the middle of prayer, I'm like, "You know, all he desires is me.
"I don't have to go to prayer and go through all this list. "Oh, yeah, I pray." So I started sitting and saying, "Lord, I'm here. "I just want to be near to you. "You have anything to say to me? Here I am." "Lord, I don't know what you want me to pray for, "and I have so many things, and I will pray for those things, "but Lord, first and foremost, I just want to be near you." And just burden just lifts, right?
Like even the way I pray sometimes is like, "I've got to get this done," instead of just coming to him. And I look at the Scriptures, and Jesus would constantly break away from his disciples to be with the Lord. And then we look at that and say, "Oh, Jesus needed refueling with his Father, "and that's why he needed to be refueled so that he can go back and work." Do you think maybe Jesus went there to rest?
Everybody is clamoring for him. Everybody has a question. Everybody wants to test him that he broke away with his Father because that's where he felt home more than any place else. That's where he had refuge. That's where he felt the love more than any place else. So, yes, he was refueled, but he was simply refueled not because he put in the time of prayer.
It's because he was with the Lord. He was with the Lord. God wants this more than anything else. Above everything that we're doing, love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then and only then will God give you the strength to love your neighbor as yourself.
Let's pray. Gracious Father, help us to genuinely love you. Have confidence, Lord God, that all that we do would be an overflow of your tremendous love toward us. Open our eyes, Father, to see what it is that we already have in you, that we would become worshipers who worship you in spirit and in truth.
We love you. Help us, Lord God, to love you more. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Say, Lord, I come. Lord, I come. I confess. Thou in me. I find my rest. Without you, I fall apart. You're the one that guides my heart.
Lord, I need you. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour I need you. My one defense, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need you. Where sin runs deep, your grace is more. Grace is found is where you are. Where you are, Lord, I am free. Holiness is Christ in me.
Lord, I need you. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour I need you. My one defense, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need you. So teach my song. So teach my song to rest to you. When temptation comes my way. When I cannot stand, I'll fall on you.
Jesus, you're my hope and stay. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour I need you. My one defense, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need you. Lord, I need you. Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour I need you. My one defense, my righteousness.
Oh, God, how I need you. My one defense, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need you. Let's pray. First Peter 1.8. And though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him now, but believe in him. You greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.
Help us, Lord God, to love you, to spread this love to all those around. That more and more people may come to know what it is that you have done for us. That more and more people would come to worship you, to love you. And send us that we may be your ambassadors wherever you send us this week.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.