WEBVTT 00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:03.520 How's everybody doing this morning? 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:06.559 Some people high, some people low. 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:07.839 I understand. 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:09.439 It's okay. 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:12.720 Maybe think about how you feel as we go through the sermon today. 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:15.679 There may be some relevant applications. 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:25.280 There's a recent art, there's an article in the recent New Yorker magazine called Why So Many People Are Going No Contact with Their Parents. 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:41.439 In that article, the author, Anna Russell, says that up to 27% of Americans are estranged from a member of their family, and the article focuses primarily on adult children and their parents. 00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:47.119 That is more than one in four individuals in our country. 00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:53.439 She writes, if you haven't experienced it yourself, you probably know someone who has. 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:54.719 And she's right. 00:00:54.880 --> 00:01:05.120 I know a number of families in this church where there's estrangement, particularly between adult children and their parents. 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:12.079 And it's absolutely heartbreaking, especially if you're a parent, a parent of small children. 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:19.439 I mean, to even imagine one day that our children wouldn't talk to us is debilitating in a sense. 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:23.519 But this is a growing trend in our country, estrangement among families. 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:27.200 But the same thing is happening at the church at large for other reasons. 00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:45.040 I've been reviewing a particular curriculum on faith in politics, and the the reason the curriculum was even created, one of the reasons, was because of a growing experience of rupturing within churches and families that people were seeing within the church. 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:52.000 So this is not just a secular problem or a national problem, but it's a problem within the church. 00:01:52.239 --> 00:01:56.079 Now there was a similar situation going on in the church in Colossae. 00:01:56.159 --> 00:02:01.280 This fall, we're going through the book of Colossians and we're now in chapter three. 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:10.960 Our best understanding is that after Paul had come through this region preaching the gospel, establishing churches, some false teachers came through afterwards. 00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:15.039 And they were preaching a form of the gospel, but with a little bit of a twist. 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:20.159 And it basically said there are spiritual people and then there are spiritual people, right? 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:28.240 And it had to do with ascetic practices like fasting and staying away from certain things and certain people. 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:34.240 It was kind of playing on old stereotypes and cultural rifts. 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:51.919 Last week Russ looked at verse 11 in chapter 3, where Paul says, in the gospel, there is no Jew or Greek, Scythian, free or slave, because the Colossian church was being kind of ripped apart through a lot of divisions. 00:02:52.080 --> 00:03:00.240 And Paul is jealous in this letter to address the unity and the harmony that we have in the church. 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:06.800 And he's communicating to us that we ought to be a people who fight for unity and harmony. 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:18.159 In chapter 3, verses 1 through 11 that Russ looked at last week, Paul addresses the things we should stop doing, the things that contribute to divisions in the church. 00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:21.439 He uses the metaphor of putting on and taking off clothing. 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:25.439 He lists a number of things that we should stop doing to one another. 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:37.759 Now, in our passage this morning, verses 12 to 14, he talks about the things we should start doing or keep doing that help foster unity and harmony in the church. 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:42.240 He says, these are the things we are to put on in Christ. 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:52.719 I've titled this sermon Four Steps to Perfect Christian Harmony because I thought it would be funny if that there was a sermon on our website with that title. 00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:57.199 Because, you know, we don't really preach those kinds of sermons. 00:03:57.280 --> 00:04:04.319 And it's it's never that easy, but I have a four-point sermon, and it is about Christian harmony, so I think it's an appropriate title. 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:05.759 All right, let's jump in. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:13.680 Point one, Paul reminds us, uh, and the Colossians to ground ourselves in our new identity in Christ. 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:23.439 He writes, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:26.000 Now notice what Paul is doing here. 00:04:26.079 --> 00:04:36.879 Uh, just like Russ does with us almost every week, as he is about to tell the Colossians what they should do, he reminds them who they are. 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:40.079 Remember, we're in the middle of chapter three. 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:45.600 We've just gone through 11 verses of Paul telling the Colossians, stop doing this stuff. 00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:46.959 It's hurting you. 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:51.120 Now he's about to start saying, these are the things you should start doing. 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:57.120 But right in the middle, he says, remember who you are in Christ. 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:00.319 First, he calls them God's chosen ones. 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:04.319 This phrase was incredibly contentious. 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:08.240 This caused a huge controversy in the early church. 00:05:08.399 --> 00:05:14.000 That these Gentile believers, simply by putting their faith in Jesus, were God's chosen ones. 00:05:14.079 --> 00:05:14.399 Why? 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:27.120 Because this was the title of the Jews, the descendants of Abraham, those who were circumcised on the eighth day and had a connection to this one who was a friend of God. 00:05:27.839 --> 00:05:36.879 To tell these Gentile Christians that they are God's chosen ones, told them that they were in relationship with God. 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:38.319 They were adopted. 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:40.399 God was their father. 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:44.240 Their relationship before God was secure. 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:50.160 And that leads to these the next two words that he has here. 00:05:50.399 --> 00:05:53.759 Not only are they God's chosen the ones, but they are holy. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:55.600 We talked about this a few weeks ago. 00:05:55.680 --> 00:05:58.879 To be holy really just means to be set apart. 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:02.560 But when God uses this word, it's incredibly meaningful. 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:03.040 Right? 00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:07.920 So you can have a bunch of things, glasses or pens or rocks. 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:13.519 If you take one and you put it over here to the side, it has become holy. 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:16.720 It's become set apart, distinct from the rest. 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:22.319 And this is what Paul is saying to the Colossians you have been set apart by God. 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:26.959 You have a special place in God's heart. 00:06:27.279 --> 00:06:29.040 And he has placed you there. 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:34.240 And that special place leads to the final word or identity he puts over them. 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:35.759 They are beloved. 00:06:36.399 --> 00:06:37.839 They are chosen. 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:41.199 They are holy, and they are beloved. 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:55.120 In my opinion, this may be the most important identity marker he places on the Colossians because it answers the question of God's heart inclination towards them and towards us. 00:06:55.600 --> 00:07:06.000 God is not, you know, uh frustrated or angry or beguiled to love the Colossians or to love us. 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:08.639 He loves them freely. 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:19.759 At our last men's gathering earlier this month, Seth Milliken shared the story with the men in the church, the story of him and his wife Kara, their story of adoption. 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:25.279 They had wanted to adopt for a very long time, and I've heard lots of stories of adoption. 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:30.879 I've walked through adoption with at least one family in particular, and it's never easy. 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:32.480 It's a difficult process. 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:36.800 But hearing Seth's story, it was excruciating. 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:38.000 It took years. 00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:43.439 It was a roller coaster of hopes, being devastated again and again. 00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:52.160 And these ups and downs actually threatened to rip Seth and Kara apart from the inside. 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:58.480 And what's amazing is what was ripping them apart was this love they had for a child they had never met. 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:01.040 They didn't even know who it was yet. 00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:06.800 But then came the day when they got the call and they had a baby. 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:14.160 And the day they brought Hachi home was one of the most wonderful days in their life. 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:24.959 And hearing his story, seeing him weep standing here before the men of the church, it was an incredible picture of God's love for us in adoption. 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:30.319 This little baby Hachi had never done anything to endear himself to Seth and Kara. 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:37.519 And yet they loved him deeply, and they they celebrated on the day they brought him home. 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:50.399 Now, how much more is the love of our God who placed his love on us and actually did rip himself apart from the inside to adopt us. 00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:52.879 It is a love like no other. 00:08:53.120 --> 00:09:02.639 The love, the real love, the beautiful love of Seth and Carapales in comparison to the love God has for you if you are in Christ. 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:04.720 It is a beautiful thing. 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:14.480 As I have grown in my understanding of my own identity as God's beloved son, I've come to see that one of the things I need to confess the most, right? 00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:18.480 We just had a confession of sin earlier in our service. 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:29.039 One of the things I confess the most is my inability or lack of desire to accept God's full love for me. 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:30.720 Now that may sound weird. 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:34.960 If that sounds weird to you, you're not alone, but I encourage you to think about that. 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:47.120 What I've realized is that most of the sins I commit, most of the sins I commit by failing to act, flow out of my disbelief and my doubt that God loves me. 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:53.759 If I doubt God loves me, I run to empty cisterns looking for validation and fulfillment. 00:09:53.919 --> 00:09:58.159 If I doubt that God's love, God loves me, I will fail to act out of fear. 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:01.440 A failure or failure of other people. 00:10:10.559 --> 00:10:12.000 Alright, point two. 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:18.799 Paul tells us that we are to clothe ourselves with these five Jesus virtues. 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:20.879 Let's look at 12 and 13 again. 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:32.960 He says, put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:34.240 Now, what do you see? 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:39.360 What's a common theme you see running through all of these words? 00:10:39.600 --> 00:10:47.440 I would argue that they all have a quality of a diminishment of self and the exaltation of others. 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:49.600 Compassion, what is compassion? 00:10:49.759 --> 00:10:52.639 It literally means to suffer with. 00:10:53.440 --> 00:11:00.960 Compassion is the willingness to come along someone else in a time of suffering and enter into that suffering with them. 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:08.799 I heard someone this week describe compassion as the willingness to take part in the consciousness of another. 00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:16.399 It is the willingness to walk in their shoes, choosing to see the world through their eyes. 00:11:16.799 --> 00:11:29.440 Compassion is the difference between offering someone a platitude in a moment of suffering, and then offering them yourself as you sit with them in a dark time. 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:31.360 Humility. 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:36.879 Humility is the willingness to check yourself for the benefit of the other. 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:45.279 You may be in an argument or engaged in a problem with someone else, and you believe or you know you have the right answer. 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:53.840 You may be in a dispute or an argument with someone else, and you know that it is your right to win this case or to win this argument. 00:11:54.240 --> 00:12:04.639 But humility asks us to pause and to say and to ask, what is to the benefit of the other in this situation? 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:09.519 The heart of humility is a twofold confession. 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:13.120 First, we confess that we are not God. 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:19.840 And second, we confess that the person we are interacting with is an image bearer of God. 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:25.759 Do all the honor and glory due to an image bearer, just as we are. 00:12:27.039 --> 00:12:29.679 Third, Paul talks about patience. 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:36.639 These are all qualities that help nurture a flourishing community with harmony. 00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:37.840 Now, what is patience? 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:40.480 I love the old school word for patience. 00:12:40.639 --> 00:12:41.919 Do you remember what it is? 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:43.840 Long suffering. 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:45.679 Isn't that a better word? 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:47.039 Don't be patient. 00:12:47.360 --> 00:12:48.399 Suffer long. 00:12:49.279 --> 00:12:53.759 Patience, it comes from the same word root as compassion, right? 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:55.840 Passion means to suffer. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:00.320 That's why we talk about Jesus' passion being his death on the cross. 00:13:00.559 --> 00:13:06.399 Patience is the literal, comes from the literal Latin root for suffer. 00:13:06.559 --> 00:13:09.120 So listen to what Paul means by that. 00:13:09.759 --> 00:13:18.000 For community to flourish, it implies that sometimes being with someone is suffering. 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:22.159 I sort of meant that as a joke. 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:23.600 You can laugh at that. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:27.600 I mean, think about that. 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:37.039 For community to flourish, you have to be, and I have to be, around people that we consider it suffering to be around. 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:46.879 Sometimes today we we get this idea that, well, our community should be people who think like us and look like us and agree with us and kind of affirm my choices. 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:49.519 That's the great benefit of the internet, right? 00:13:49.679 --> 00:13:55.519 If no one around me agrees with what I say, I can find those five other people on the internet. 00:13:56.559 --> 00:13:58.399 But that's not community. 00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:02.879 Community is having patience. 00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:08.960 Being with people who drive you crazy, make you angry and annoyed. 00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:14.879 I mean, think about it, this is what causes and offers community. 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:29.200 The underlying message of this passage is that for community to flourish, every one of us is called to a humble posture, to be willing to bear with others as those who are also beloved of God. 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:32.080 That's a question we can ask ourselves. 00:14:32.240 --> 00:14:33.919 I mean, this person is a Christian. 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:35.200 God loves them. 00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:39.279 I don't know how, I don't know why, but he does. 00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:42.000 And he calls me to do the same. 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:57.360 One of the critiques of that article I referenced earlier from The New Yorker is this kind of therapeutic tendency that is growing in our culture that says, you know, we should really just cut off or expunge difficult relationships. 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:08.639 Now, there are circumstances in which circumstances are such that we do need to cut off a human being for abusive relationships or something like that. 00:15:08.960 --> 00:15:12.399 But that is by far the exception. 00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:25.519 Especially within the community of faith, Paul tells us that we enter the community thinking less of ourselves, more of others, willing to suffer for the sake of our community. 00:15:25.919 --> 00:15:27.279 All right, point three. 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:30.639 When others fail us, forgive. 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:42.559 Paul continues, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:47.440 What's beautiful about this passage, if, you know, it's e this is just three verses, right? 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:52.399 We can read through them super quick and kind of just go skim over the top. 00:15:52.559 --> 00:15:59.519 But if you really slow down and you see what Paul is saying and see his thought process, it's in it's really beautiful and refreshing. 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:07.039 Because what Paul is addressing here is what we all already know, and that that's that we fail at this stuff. 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:07.759 Right? 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:10.639 Humility, meekness, compassion. 00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:13.840 There's nothing uniquely Christian about those things. 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:21.440 Any guru, any belief system, any culture can can list those virtues on the wall. 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:26.000 But here's the question: what do I do when you fail me? 00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:27.519 Because you will. 00:16:28.240 --> 00:16:31.279 And what do you do when I fail you? 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:33.440 Because I will. 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:37.679 The answer, in brief, is that we forgive. 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:47.039 Now, forgiveness is one of those topics that I don't know if for all time, but I feel like today forgiveness is one of these things that we get all tangled up in. 00:16:47.120 --> 00:16:50.080 There's a lot of kind of confusion and misconception. 00:16:50.159 --> 00:16:52.399 So let me just address a couple of those. 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:57.919 Forgiving someone does not mean that we pretend like nothing happened. 00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:05.119 It doesn't mean that there will be no consequences, either communally or legally. 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:12.079 A wife can forgive her husband for physical abuse, but he may still go to jail. 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:13.119 Right? 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:23.279 We may forgive someone who has harmed us, but it doesn't mean we're going to respond or act or continue to act with them like that thing didn't happen. 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:30.480 More and more today we're seeing stories coming out about abuses within churches and ministries. 00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:36.160 We've heard about the Catholic Church and their child abuse scandals. 00:17:36.319 --> 00:17:43.599 We've also heard of other denominations where there's infidelity or abuse of power, lots of things, those are coming out. 00:17:43.839 --> 00:17:50.640 And there's a variety of reasons why churches and ministries and individuals tend to cover over those things and not talk about them. 00:17:50.720 --> 00:18:00.960 But one of the reasons that is often brought up is we thought we could deal with this in-house as a community, that if we just forgave one another, then everything would be fine. 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:08.960 But it but it tends to overlook this reality that forgiveness doesn't mean that there are no consequences. 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:20.000 Sometimes women are counseled by the leaders of their church to simply forgive their abusive husbands because he seems to be repentant right now. 00:18:20.400 --> 00:18:37.119 And if that is truly the case, if a husband wrongs a wife or a wife wrongs a husband, and then that is called out to the leadership of the church, and there's true repentance and true forgiveness, that is reconciliation, and that is glorious, and we should absolutely celebrate it and fight for it. 00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:44.160 But when we have a wrong view of forgiveness, patterns of abuse can continue for years and decades. 00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:58.240 Simply because someone says that they're repentant in the moment doesn't mean that they are long term, and we need to see the fruit of repentance and make sure that there are consequences for wrongs that are happening. 00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:01.680 Forgiveness means, this is what forgiveness actually means. 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:06.640 It means giving up the right to retribution for an offense. 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:10.400 So if I wrong you, I owe you a debt. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:16.720 And for me to repay that debt puts things back in their rightful balance, that's called justice. 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:20.480 And that's what we are, we are to fight for justice. 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:29.920 But sometimes justice isn't available to us, but forgiveness is the canceling of that debt. 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:34.960 I say to you, you don't have to repay me for that debt that you owe me. 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:39.200 And of course, when we talk about the canceling of debts, we think of the gospel, right? 00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:46.000 This is the story of the gospel that we owed God a sin debt that was we could never repay. 00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:51.680 And so we deserved the wrath of God for all eternity. 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:58.559 And yet God came towards us, forgiving us for our sins through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. 00:19:58.799 --> 00:20:08.079 And when we put our faith in Christ, we are forgiven because he has paid our debt and it has been forgiven of us. 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:13.440 And it's right here that the power of forgiveness comes to us. 00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:17.200 We don't well it up in ourselves, we don't do our duty. 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:21.839 We look and we gaze upon the forgiveness we have been given in Christ. 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:31.279 When we struggle to forgive, and we do, forgiveness is one of the most difficult things that we as people and as Christians are called to do. 00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:36.079 But if you're struggling to forgive, Jesus says, don't look at the one you need to forgive. 00:20:36.160 --> 00:20:37.039 Look at me. 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:39.359 Look at me on the cross. 00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:41.920 Look at what I have given you. 00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:54.559 And when your heart is changed and renewed and filled with the love and gratitude of the forgiveness we have received, then you have the power to go to forgive another. 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:00.880 When we need help with forgiveness, Jesus was nice enough to give us a parable about it. 00:21:01.039 --> 00:21:05.440 In Matthew 18, it's called the Parable of the Unforgiving Servants. 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:10.559 And I encourage you to go there if that's something you are struggling with today. 00:21:11.119 --> 00:21:22.319 The last thing I want to say on the subject of forgiveness is that often forgiveness is not a one and done, especially for things that are kind of deep hurts and deep wrongs. 00:21:22.880 --> 00:21:35.279 You may have been wronged by someone in the past and you have truly forgiven them, but you may find yourself months, years later, with anger, resentment, and that desire for justice to well up in you again. 00:21:35.359 --> 00:21:40.240 And sometimes we can be kind of really surprised and ashamed. 00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:42.400 But that that's very normal. 00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:47.200 And so Jesus says, yes, those things have been dragged up in your heart again. 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:50.640 It's time for us to walk through the process of forgiveness again. 00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:57.920 So it is not, it's not it's often not a one and done, but something that we will come back to again and again. 00:21:58.160 --> 00:21:59.680 All right, final point, point four. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:02.240 When all else fails, love. 00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:10.319 Paul writes in verse 14: Above all else, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:20.079 Paul closes this brief section fighting for harmony within the local church with this phrase, above all else. 00:22:21.599 --> 00:22:22.559 You see what he's saying? 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:23.599 This is a catch-all. 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:30.000 When he mentions love, he's not tagging it on the end of a list of virtues or attributes or commands. 00:22:30.079 --> 00:22:35.279 He is saying, love includes everything we've been talking about. 00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:37.440 Like a many faceted diamond. 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:40.880 Love is the diamond, and all of these other things are part of it. 00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:49.519 And this is why Jesus can sum up the whole Old Testament with two brief commands: love God and love your neighbor. 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:59.839 And love in this sense is not necessarily a warm feeling of affection for another, though that is a definition, a correct definition of love. 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:03.920 But rather, love as DC Talk taught us is a verb. 00:23:04.799 --> 00:23:06.559 Any DC Talk fans out there? 00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:08.559 Man, okay. 00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:12.960 Love as Jesus taught and modeled for us. 00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:18.799 The basic definition is to die to self for the good of another. 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:22.799 Zoe, our oldest, uh, just moved to college. 00:23:22.880 --> 00:23:24.640 We took her there a couple weekends ago. 00:23:24.799 --> 00:23:27.839 She's in Savannah at the Savannah College of Art and Design. 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:29.279 We are so proud of her. 00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:32.720 According to Instagram, she's living her best life. 00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:34.640 She has a great group of friends. 00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:36.240 She's loving her classes. 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:39.039 Um, we're so, so proud of her. 00:23:39.519 --> 00:23:42.400 Just this last week, Tuesday night, I went to bed early. 00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:44.880 I don't think I had slept well the night before. 00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:50.559 Uh I think I was asleep by or before 9.30, and I was so happy. 00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:53.440 Uh just looking forward to a good night's sleep. 00:23:53.599 --> 00:24:07.680 At 11:30, I was awakened by my phone buzzing on the bedside table, and so I uh grab the phone, blearily, stumble out of bed, try to leave the room so I don't wake Stacey. 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:08.559 It's Zoe. 00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:15.519 And I answer the phone thinking, you know, what is this emergency that my daughter is calling me in the middle of the night? 00:24:15.599 --> 00:24:17.599 You know, fear welling up. 00:24:17.759 --> 00:24:20.079 Um well, it was a computer question. 00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:23.759 Um, Dad, computer's not working. 00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:25.359 Do you know how to fix this? 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:28.960 Uh okay, got it. 00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:32.480 Um and we talk about it briefly. 00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:36.400 Um as we're going, she says, Oh, do you want to say hi to everybody? 00:24:36.559 --> 00:24:39.039 And I start to shake my said no, but it's too late. 00:24:39.119 --> 00:24:51.519 She's like moving the phone around the room, and it's full of her new friends and buddies I've never met, and there I am, like with my hair sticking up, and um she says, Somebody thinks your beard is cool. 00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:52.480 I'm like, oh. 00:24:53.440 --> 00:24:59.440 Um ultimately I was not able to help her with the computer question. 00:24:59.680 --> 00:25:06.400 And as we were getting ready to hang up, uh, I felt this anger stir in my stomach. 00:25:06.559 --> 00:25:08.400 It was a righteous anger, I think. 00:25:08.559 --> 00:25:14.400 Um, and it started to come up, and it was, you know, past my heart and it was coming up into my throat. 00:25:14.480 --> 00:25:27.119 And I was about to say in a mean, grumpy voice, because it's the middle of the night, Zoe, don't ever call me after 11 unless someone is dead or dying. 00:25:27.279 --> 00:25:27.920 And who's kidding? 00:25:28.079 --> 00:25:28.799 Who am I kidding? 00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:30.160 Don't call me after nine. 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:30.960 Right. 00:25:31.759 --> 00:25:39.920 Um, but as it was coming up and I was getting ready to speak, I had this thought, I really miss my daughter. 00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:41.599 I'm sad that she's gone. 00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:44.799 Am I willing to give up a few hours of sleep? 00:25:45.119 --> 00:25:52.720 Because uh, have no doubt, it will it took me three hours to get back to sleep, and that's normal for someone my age. 00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:55.839 Um yeah. 00:25:56.880 --> 00:25:58.400 Yeah, I love my daughter. 00:25:58.480 --> 00:26:03.039 I miss her, and I am willing to give up my sleep for her. 00:26:04.559 --> 00:26:05.519 That was love. 00:26:06.160 --> 00:26:09.359 Self-sacrifice for her benefit. 00:26:09.599 --> 00:26:22.000 Now, I I tell a funny mundane story because more often than not, way more often than not, love comes in the small, mundane moments of life. 00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:30.799 And community is held together by those small moments when we're tempted to bitterness or contempt or selfishness. 00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:39.279 Jesus tells us to love one another, to die to ourselves in this moment for the benefit of another. 00:26:39.839 --> 00:26:45.440 But the beautiful beautiful thing about love is that it covers a multitude of sins. 00:26:46.079 --> 00:26:48.559 That's what Peter writes to us. 00:26:49.200 --> 00:27:03.519 Love can cover my teenage daughter calling me at 11:30 at night and interrupting my night of sleep, but it can also cover betrayal, murder, infidelity, and all of sin. 00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:06.480 That's what we learn in the gospel. 00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:13.920 That's when we look what we learn when we look at the Lord who loves us and gave himself for us. 00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:22.240 And that's why Paul writes here in our passage that love binds everything together in perfect harmony. 00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:32.960 See, when we experience that welcoming, humble, forgiving, hospitable love in Jesus, we want to make our home there, don't we? 00:27:33.759 --> 00:27:45.680 And when others come into our community, and in our community, they experience that welcoming, humble, forgiving, hospitable love, that they want to make their home here. 00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:51.440 That's the mission that the Lord has given us as his church. 00:27:52.480 --> 00:28:02.079 To fight for unity, to fight for harmony through humility, compassion, and forgiveness, through love. 00:28:02.799 --> 00:28:06.240 Because that is the heart of God, the beloved. 00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:17.759 And as the world around us is coming apart of the scenes, these family estrangements are growing into trend, to simply cut off the people in our lives. 00:28:18.480 --> 00:28:22.160 That's what the world looks like when sin reigns. 00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:32.400 But when Jesus reigns, he gives us the power and the heart to love and to forgive, and to have a flourishing community. 00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:36.079 Beloved, that is what the Lord is calling us to. 00:28:36.640 --> 00:28:44.400 We fail day in and day out, but he meets us in our failure, and he forms our community to his glory and to our good. 00:28:44.799 --> 00:28:45.839 Let's pray. 00:28:46.799 --> 00:28:49.839 Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 00:28:50.160 --> 00:28:51.839 Thank you, Lord, for this good word. 00:28:52.000 --> 00:29:05.440 We pray that you would um plant it deep within our hearts, that it would bear much fruit in this place, that we would benefit from a flourishing community, and that others would come in and experience it as well. 00:29:05.759 --> 00:29:08.079 We pray this with thanksgiving in Jesus' name. 00:29:08.319 --> 00:29:08.799 Amen.