WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:06.879 We're continuing in our series, like we talked about hospitality, the gospel rendered. 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:11.359 And we've talked about like what is hospitality according to the scripture? 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:13.599 We talked about hospitality to a stranger. 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:17.679 Today we're talking about hospitality to a brother. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:22.800 So as we dive into the text this morning, here's what I want us to kind of start thinking about. 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:26.399 What is the aim of the church? 00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:29.280 What is the aim of the church? 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:34.719 Why are you here as a part of this thing that we call the church? 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:39.840 Really simply put, we would say that the aim of the church is the glory of God. 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:40.560 Right? 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:51.840 That's why we exist and everything we do is to see God glorified in our lives, in our work, in our relationships, in everything that we do. 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:55.119 But if that's the aim, the glory of God, right? 00:00:55.200 --> 00:01:00.320 That seems so grandiose and it seems almost impossible to achieve. 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:06.879 I think what we have to do is strive to understand what the means is by which we aspire to such an end. 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:10.799 And so I want to help us kind of think through this this morning for a moment. 00:01:10.959 --> 00:01:15.439 Here's how I would help us articulate the aim of the church. 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:17.519 The church does this, right? 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:38.239 The glory of God by being a family of sent people who go into the world with the good news of Jesus and bring found sons and daughters into the community of faith where they are discipled, cared for, loved, and sent back into the world to find others. 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:44.239 This is how we aspire to that end as his church. 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:50.000 There's an essence about this thing that we call the church, which is a familial essence. 00:01:50.239 --> 00:02:04.640 As we are being brought out of the world, as our former lives are being put to death and our new lives are being resurrected in Christ, we now are found united not only to Jesus, but we are united to one another also. 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:11.759 It is in this pursuit that we participate in the mission of God for the glory of God. 00:02:12.479 --> 00:02:35.520 Now, this mission, like I said, it works to create a unified people from a diversity of different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different traditions, social statuses, all of whom find their new identity in the person and work of Jesus alone, rather than the former things they were once identified with. 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:51.759 They're leaving behind what they once identified with, and they're trying to come together. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:56.800 This is going to create a slew of different challenges to overcome. 00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:08.479 As we are laboring in the strength of the Spirit to put the old man to death and to live out the new life that we have now in Jesus among this very diverse community. 00:03:09.199 --> 00:03:22.479 To love this new family that we've been adopted into, to work for the good of one another, to create a home where people truly feel welcomed and wanted here. 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:31.039 How do we love our brother as a reflection of the new identity that we have in Jesus? 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:34.240 That's what I hope for us to work through together today. 00:03:34.639 --> 00:03:41.039 The text this morning, it comes from the letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome. 00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:51.919 And in his greeting, he addresses them this way: all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. 00:03:52.479 --> 00:04:09.199 You see, the saints in Rome clashed with one another because you have this hybrid community of Gentiles and Jews who were now called to live together in this bond and peace of faith, even though their former lives were at war with one another. 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:18.560 Some Christians argued that non-Jewish Christians needed to keep Jewish laws and customs to actually be real, righteous Christians. 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:23.360 And others, the Gentiles, they thought that the Jewish law had become absolutely irrelevant. 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:26.000 Why does it even matter to our life today? 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:33.519 And throughout the entire letter, Paul works to show that only Jesus is the truly righteous one. 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:36.879 You see, the law cannot make someone righteous. 00:04:37.199 --> 00:04:41.360 He puts forth this work to help us understand, but it does serve a purpose. 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:48.800 While the law cannot make us righteous, it is profitable and able to point to the one who is able to make us righteous. 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:52.560 Jesus, the only true righteous one. 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:56.160 So he mends. 00:04:56.399 --> 00:05:07.600 The finished work of Christ mends the rifts that separate us from one another, and his righteousness brings people together in a new united yet diverse family. 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:21.680 See, the work of the New Testament, we see part of the emphasis is to identify and recognize the diversity of this new family, but not celebrate diversity for diversity's sake, right? 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:25.759 That's the trend and mantra of the culture that we find ourselves in today. 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:38.079 No, what they actually worked to celebrate was not the diversity, but that which unified them as a diverse people: the one faith, one gospel, one baptism, one Lord. 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:55.279 So not only does Paul work to prove how this is all displayed in Jesus, but he also sets forth to show us how it should be demonstrated among his people in response to this glorious gospel of grace. 00:05:55.759 --> 00:06:03.360 And as we come to chapter 12 of this letter, we are shown how every aspect of our lives is worship unto God. 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:09.120 There's not one part of our life that is not a worshipful response. 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:27.759 That we are called to pursue the renewing of our mind so that our lives of worship would reflect this truth, that we are being conformed to the image of Jesus rather than being continually conformed to the image of this world. 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:34.480 And the church is called to be this peculiar people, right? 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:46.000 This family with inside of culture that looks strange to the way that culture understands relationships and work and kindness and generosity and hospitality. 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:52.079 That we're called to be a peculiar people to the surrounding culture that we find ourselves in. 00:06:52.480 --> 00:07:04.480 And one where that peculiarness is realized in yours and mine, selfless, sacrificial love for one another. 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:08.480 We no longer operate in the ways and customs of the world, right? 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:20.240 Our former lives, our former identities, where we lived as these autonomous individuals who go throughout our life seeking our own selfish ultimate good. 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:28.319 But now we are a unified body, consisting of many members who work toward the good of one another. 00:07:28.639 --> 00:07:35.600 Because it's in that pursuit, the pursuit of your brother's good, you actually find your true good. 00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:46.000 It is to love one another in such a way that your peculiar life makes it evident to a watching world that you belong to Jesus. 00:07:47.199 --> 00:08:00.079 And so that peculiar familial love is qualified for us here in the text as we come to Romans 12, 9 through 13. 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:03.040 Paul says this. 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:31.199 If God has genuinely loved us, then how should we genuinely love one another in response to that? 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:37.519 And Paul says, you have to start with your love being genuine. 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:42.320 The love for our brother should be genuine. 00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:44.720 Think about that language. 00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:51.120 Your love, here's what Paul says, if you're going to love your brother, here's where we have to start. 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:56.320 We have to start with a love that is real, authentic, and genuine. 00:08:56.559 --> 00:09:02.080 And then he's gonna work through the rest of this passage to help us understand what that looks like. 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:09.440 Because if we were left to our own understanding of what genuine love is, I can guarantee you we would get it wrong. 00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:25.840 And in our pursuit of trying to love others under our own discernment and our own understanding of what that looks like qualified, inevitably our sinfulness would shine through and we would fail to do that faithfully. 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:31.840 You see, a love that is real and sincere, not one that is fraudulent and filled with empty words. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:33.600 This is what he calls us to. 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:44.240 The intention behind the word genuine that he uses here, he's speaking to like a stage player, someone who is pretending to be a character that they are not. 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:47.679 I don't know if you guys like theater or musicals. 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:50.720 I never did until I had daughters who liked them. 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:55.039 And then I was like, I have to like these things because I like my daughters. 00:09:55.200 --> 00:09:58.639 And so I've watched musicals against my will. 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:02.080 They have come to a place where I actually enjoy them now. 00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:06.399 But you see these people pretending to be these characters of who they are not. 00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:10.879 This isn't really that that's not Alexander Hamilton on stage. 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:12.480 I don't know if you guys know that or not. 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:16.799 It's a stage player who's pretending to be a character that they aren't. 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:19.600 Paul's saying, let your love be genuine. 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:25.759 Don't be like a person who's pretending to be a character that they truly aren't. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:35.840 John Calvin, who was a leader of the Reformation in the 1500s, he says this about Paul's uh uh uh charge to have our love be genuine. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:48.000 He says, Love is no other but that which is free from all dissimulation, free of anything counterfeit, free of any hypocrisy. 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:56.159 If we are ever going to truly love our brother, that love must be with all counterfeits tossed aside. 00:10:57.120 --> 00:10:58.879 It must be genuine. 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:01.279 So, what does that look like? 00:11:02.799 --> 00:11:06.159 The apostle then spends the rest of this passage helping us understand. 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:12.480 He first says that genuine love is called to abore what is evil and hold fast to what is good. 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:22.240 So if you're following along in your Bible with us today, his first qualifying of what genuine love looks like is to abore what is evil and to hold fast what is good. 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:26.639 I don't know if this has caught your attention yet, but it was something that was really interesting to me. 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:32.399 Paul qualifies genuine love first by our call to hate something. 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:35.600 Abore what is evil. 00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:38.080 Now that got me thinking. 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:44.480 Why would Paul say, if you really want to genuinely love someone, you actually have to start with hating something? 00:11:45.279 --> 00:11:52.320 I would argue that you and I are lesser lovers because we don't hate enough. 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:57.440 We don't hate what harms our brother. 00:11:57.679 --> 00:12:08.000 We don't hate the sin in our own life that brings death and destruction to our own souls and to the relationships and people that we claim to love around us. 00:12:08.159 --> 00:12:21.440 We don't detest and despise the destruction of our actions, the injustices we participate in enough, and because of that, we are lesser lovers. 00:12:23.200 --> 00:12:32.080 You see, Paul says, if we're going to start with a genuine love, we're going to start with the hatred of that which is evil. 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:42.559 Because if we truly hated what was evil, it would make us greater lovers for the righteousness and goodness of others. 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:47.679 You see, that animosity for evil should cause us to hold fast to what is good. 00:12:47.759 --> 00:12:50.399 We see this pairing with one another, right? 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:56.559 To be united to every effort of loving kindness that works for the good of another. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:02.799 If we're going to turn away from this thing, we're going to be united and hold fast to something else. 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:11.679 This is the exact same language that we see actually in Genesis 2.24, as God presents Eve over to Adam. 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:16.000 The first song of humanity is recorded for us in this passage. 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:17.840 And Adam's gonna say something here. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:27.840 He says, Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and he shall hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:38.159 That is the same language Paul's using here that we're going to leave behind all that does harm to ourselves and to the people that we love. 00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:40.720 And in that, we're going to be united. 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:48.639 It's almost going to be as if you can't see a distinction between my personhood and my love for another person. 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:53.840 Because that unity is going to be so evident in our life. 00:13:56.159 --> 00:14:05.360 Paul continues in saying that genuine love is to love one another with brotherly affection, to outdo one another in showing honor. 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:08.960 We're to love in a way that truly reflects a family. 00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:15.600 This brotherly love, a people who are joined together by a common bond of faith. 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:17.759 But not just that. 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:22.320 We're a people who are intimately known by one another. 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:25.360 When you're family, you know each other. 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:35.440 You know each other's victories, you know each other's failures, you know each other's strengths and weaknesses, you're known. 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:41.519 And that's what the scripture calls us to be is known by one another. 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:47.840 Now, the meaning behind the word to honor is actually to communicate a person's worth. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:52.559 So he says, love each other with a brotherly affection, outdo one another with honor. 00:14:52.720 --> 00:15:05.279 What he's trying to communicate here is that we should actually labor to communicate the person's presence as meaningful and full of worth. 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:06.000 Right? 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:19.039 We should let other people around us know that they are actually wanted and that their presence within this community is something that is valued and treasured by the people who love them. 00:15:19.840 --> 00:15:30.559 You see, there is, I would submit, no greater toxin to the human mind than to believe that your presence doesn't matter. 00:15:32.399 --> 00:15:34.000 I mean, think about that for a moment. 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:36.879 You've probably been in a relationship like that. 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:47.200 You've probably been in a workplace like that, you've been somewhere where you were led to believe that your presence there just didn't matter. 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:51.039 Or maybe there was even animosity toward your presence there. 00:15:52.159 --> 00:16:05.200 And that does something to you, it destroys people, it causes them to truly bring into physical reality the absence of their presence. 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:08.320 This is what it does to an image-bearer of God. 00:16:09.919 --> 00:16:17.120 You see, we are supposed to be a people, to labor in such a way that no brother ever falls victim to that. 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:26.080 Genuine love is also to not be slothful in zeal, but be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:31.759 You see, to allow for the forgetfulness of self and to spend ourselves for the good of our brother. 00:16:31.919 --> 00:16:51.279 We're not supposed to be lazy in good works, but we are supposed to be working toward one another's good in Christ, to have a heart that is lit on fire by heaven and kindled by a dependence on the Spirit's present in our life and our own submission to his leading. 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:56.399 You see that we're actually eager to do good while the opportunity to do it is still here. 00:16:56.639 --> 00:16:58.000 Paul talked about this all the time. 00:16:58.080 --> 00:17:07.839 As you see the day drawing near, as you see this time on earth shortening, be even more eager to do good for those around you. 00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:12.559 We're not called to be lazy, we're not called to assume tomorrow will come. 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:17.920 We are called today and now to work for the good of our brothers. 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:26.160 That we're eager to do good, to be engaged in mission, in making disciples. 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:38.480 You see, that our love, he goes on to say, because we are laboring in the mission of the church, to rejoice in hope, to be patient in tribulation, to be constant in prayer. 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:41.759 What does it mean to rejoice in hope? 00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:42.559 Right? 00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:51.920 It's to look out forward to the promises guaranteed to us in Christ, that they will be fulfilled for us. 00:17:52.160 --> 00:18:04.480 It's something that we can't see here and now, but we with great expectation look forward to the day that is promised to us, that's sealed for us in his life, death, burial, and resurrection. 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:12.079 As he came out of the grave, he guaranteed for us that every word of his promise will be fulfilled. 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:19.920 We rejoice in that hope, not in what we see now, present before us, but what has been guaranteed for us to come in him. 00:18:20.799 --> 00:18:29.119 That our eyes would be fixed on the expectation of the revealing of the Lordship of Christ and the coming of the fullness of his kingdom. 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:31.119 We rejoice in that hope. 00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:45.359 And because we're able to rejoice in something not yet seen, now in this moment, we should patiently endure any fiery trial that we may be found worthy to suffer. 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:49.440 Knowing that through it our faith is being perfected. 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:52.400 This is why God allows us to suffer. 00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:58.480 This is why the scriptures use such peculiar language as one who is worthy to suffer. 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:03.440 I've been meditating on that language that it seems so foreign to us. 00:19:03.839 --> 00:19:15.119 When God counts us as his children worthy to suffer, so often we want to take that cloak that's been placed upon us, and we want to tear off that garb and run as far as possible as we can from it. 00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:16.799 And God said, Don't you understand? 00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:23.839 It's through this suffering that I've counted you worthy to endure, your faith is going to be perfected through this trial. 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:25.839 This is my love for you. 00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:32.160 That gold that's deep down inside of you is purified and revealed. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:42.799 You see, that our joy would not be found in the momentary circumstances of this life, but in the eager expectation of the life to come. 00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:54.400 And in that, you and I, that we would walk and walk with one another through trials with patient endurance. 00:19:55.200 --> 00:19:57.599 And if we're gonna do that, right? 00:19:57.920 --> 00:20:07.359 If we're gonna do that, rejoice in hope and be patient in tribulation, we have to realize that that's going to be something beyond our own inherent strength. 00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:08.880 And so, what does Paul say? 00:20:09.200 --> 00:20:11.119 Be constant in prayer, then. 00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:33.759 Be constant in prayer for your brother, that they would endure and persevere, that they would be kept by his grace, to rejoice with one another in the things not yet seen but promised to us, guaranteed for us in Christ, that our eyes would be fixed on the expectation of the revealing of who he is. 00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:37.200 This is what we should be constant in prayer for. 00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:50.559 We must continually petition God to not allow our hearts to faint or for our faith to be found fraudulent in the face of adversity. 00:20:51.039 --> 00:20:58.079 Finally, genuine love contributes to the needs of the saints and seeks to show hospitality. 00:20:59.039 --> 00:21:01.039 Think about that language, right? 00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:02.720 Contribute to the needs of the saints. 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:04.880 You know what that demands out of you and me? 00:21:05.440 --> 00:21:07.759 Here's how we typically go through life. 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:17.920 We have a very narrow field of vision that tends to be focused downward on our own needs and the things that we're struggling and going through. 00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:33.680 To be able to actually contribute to the needs of others is going to cause us and require of us that we pick our head up, that we widen our field of view, and that we're actually able to be aware of the needs of others around us. 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:36.079 And what is this brother going through? 00:21:36.240 --> 00:21:38.720 What is this sister suffering under? 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:42.559 What is this family uh needing in this moment? 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:52.400 And how can we create the margin to be able to demonstrate generosity and hospitality to them? 00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:59.599 How can we do that as a people if we're not even aware of what our brothers and sisters are going? 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:01.440 Through in this life. 00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:21.440 You see, we're supposed to open our hearts and our homes, our closets, in our cupboards to let them know beyond any sense of doubt that they are loved, that they're seen, that what they're going through is caught our awareness. 00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:30.400 You see, a genuine love is the principle, ultimately, to love your brother as yourself. 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:45.680 And Paul has to work to qualify what that looks like for us, but if we just distill it down to its very essence, it's the same message that's been written from the Old Testament to the New that we would love one another as we would love ourselves. 00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:58.799 But many times the love that we say we have in the church sadly is discovered to be more of a stage play than an experienced reality. 00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:07.119 If we're honest with ourselves, it's often very difficult for us to love our brother with a love that is genuine. 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:12.640 And as a result, our love is often very disingenuous. 00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:16.720 Our love is often very disingenuous. 00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:22.240 You see, this is the problem the world has with the church. 00:23:23.680 --> 00:23:36.000 We claim that we know and have received the genuine love of God, yet we fail miserably to show that love to one another. 00:23:37.599 --> 00:23:41.359 We are so self-interested. 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:45.920 And I think that there are two primary ways that we struggle with this reality. 00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:51.359 One of the ways that we do this is we speak empty words that are absent from any action. 00:23:51.599 --> 00:23:55.200 We speak empty words that are absent from action. 00:23:55.680 --> 00:23:59.119 You and I, and here's one thing that you got to know about me. 00:23:59.200 --> 00:24:04.240 If you don't know me, I'm preaching this sermon first and foremost to myself. 00:24:05.359 --> 00:24:18.160 This is being wrecked with uh guilt and shame in really healthy ways that makes me aware of my continued dependency of the spirit, of the gospel being made realized in my life, right? 00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:28.799 I'm walking up here this morning realizing I have many a time told one of you, I'll pray for you, and I didn't. 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:32.240 And I hate that. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:37.200 I've used words and phrases, many of you have as well. 00:24:37.359 --> 00:24:38.799 Oh, I'll pray for you, brother. 00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:42.000 Hey, don't worry, God has a plan for you, sister. 00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:45.599 Hey, I know this is hard, but everything's gonna work out for your good, right? 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:51.039 I know life is a shipwreck right now, but don't worry, it's all gonna be great. 00:24:51.359 --> 00:25:02.799 And a myriad of other platitudes that are more intended to make others believe that you care for them rather than getting your hands dirty in the genuine effort to care for them. 00:25:04.319 --> 00:25:05.599 I've done it. 00:25:05.839 --> 00:25:06.799 You've done it. 00:25:09.119 --> 00:25:12.079 You see, like the world. 00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:13.920 Remember we talked about earlier? 00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:21.759 We're supposed to be finding our new identity in Christ, not our continued identity in the former things of once we once lived. 00:25:21.920 --> 00:25:24.000 Too often we are like the world. 00:25:24.160 --> 00:25:35.119 We spend more time in virtue signaling, trying to convince others that we are kind and loving than we do in actually loving the people near to us. 00:25:37.039 --> 00:25:54.559 Many in this room, we've said, I'll pray for you an excessively amount more of times than we have ever paused in our busy life, placed our hand on the shoulder of our brother, and petitioned God on their behalf. 00:25:57.440 --> 00:25:59.039 Why do we do that? 00:26:01.440 --> 00:26:15.039 Why have we abdicated a genuine love for our brother that is born from a sincere faith for an appearance of love that is empty and absent of any good? 00:26:16.480 --> 00:26:19.359 This is what John James talked about, right? 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:25.599 And we we are a church that believes we are saved by grace through faith. 00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:37.279 We are not saved by any works of our own, but it is the merit of Christ in his perfect work that is given to us when we become born again through the power of the Spirit. 00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:41.119 And now we are counted righteous because he is righteous. 00:26:41.200 --> 00:26:44.960 So we are not saved by our works, but here's where James comes in, right? 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:49.279 And Martin Luther, great reformer, he had a big problem with Jesus' little brother. 00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:53.119 In fact, he tore out the book of James and said it didn't belong in the canon. 00:26:53.279 --> 00:26:58.960 He had such just animosity toward it because James is putting something forward here. 00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:10.240 He's saying, How in the world can you claim to have faith, yet the life that you live shows no evidence that you truly have it? 00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:18.240 You see, we're not saved by works, but we are saved by a faith that produces works. 00:27:19.359 --> 00:27:25.359 And that works is seen and made evident in the way that we love one another. 00:27:26.880 --> 00:27:40.400 James says this in his epistle, second chapter, he wrote, If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled. 00:27:40.880 --> 00:27:42.480 I'll pray for you. 00:27:43.279 --> 00:27:46.720 Without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:50.240 So also, faith by itself, what is he saying? 00:27:50.400 --> 00:27:57.279 Faith without accompanying works, if it does not have those works, is dead. 00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:03.359 Can I tell you that is a terrifying statement? 00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:20.640 If you claim to have faith and the way you live your life doesn't show any evidence of that, we're only left to assume that the faith that we say we have is no faith at all, that it's the deadness we've walked in continuing in our life. 00:28:21.519 --> 00:28:32.240 You see, a person with an appearance of love that is discovered to only be empty words, they should be gripped by a fear that the faith they claim to have is dead and useless. 00:28:33.359 --> 00:28:39.119 Others of us, though, we demand action before actively loving others. 00:28:39.359 --> 00:28:41.759 We demand action before actively loving others. 00:28:41.839 --> 00:28:47.519 So we might not be just empty words, but we are full of legalism. 00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:48.640 Right? 00:28:49.039 --> 00:28:52.559 Here's some uh what you would call folk theology. 00:28:52.880 --> 00:28:55.279 God helps those who help themselves. 00:28:56.079 --> 00:28:58.000 Well, that's nowhere in scripture. 00:28:58.319 --> 00:28:59.200 Thank God. 00:28:59.440 --> 00:28:59.920 Right? 00:29:00.319 --> 00:29:11.039 If God helped you because you helped yourself, you and I would still be in a completely despondent state, unable to do anything about our situation. 00:29:12.319 --> 00:29:15.440 God helps us in spite of ourselves. 00:29:16.079 --> 00:29:18.559 That is his mercy and grace for us. 00:29:19.519 --> 00:29:24.799 Sometimes, though, you and I, we demand others take action before that we will ever help them. 00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:31.039 Our disingenuous love isn't found in empty words, but it is in legalistic demands. 00:29:31.200 --> 00:29:33.279 We fail to love our brother freely. 00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:37.839 We fail to love our brother in the way that we have been loved by Jesus. 00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:40.559 That he came and sought us out. 00:29:40.799 --> 00:29:52.400 Why did Jesus come to seek and save the lost, to hunt us down, to overwhelm us with his grace, and to bring us in as a person and member of his family? 00:29:53.279 --> 00:29:55.279 That's what he did for us. 00:29:56.559 --> 00:30:06.960 You see, our love in one another is supposed to be in response to that, to Jesus' love for us, not in response to the actions of our brother. 00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:13.519 You see, our relationships with one another are mostly built on the foundation of individual performance. 00:30:13.759 --> 00:30:17.119 I will love you or I will show you love if. 00:30:18.160 --> 00:30:24.160 And that if is so crippling in the relationships that we have with one another. 00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:28.799 Because we build our relationship on this consumer trading. 00:30:29.119 --> 00:30:32.720 If you give me this, I will then give you this. 00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:40.400 You see, we base how we're going to love our brother by the efforts that they've made to actually help themselves. 00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:46.880 Or we do it through a self-righteous assessment of the choices that has caused them to be in their time of need. 00:30:47.039 --> 00:30:54.400 Or we've done it through the condescending counsel that we offer to see if they will even try to better their situation first. 00:30:56.400 --> 00:31:03.039 You see, you and I, we're really not interested in loving others out of the grace that we've received in Jesus. 00:31:03.519 --> 00:31:11.680 We're much more interested in loving others by the work that they've done to obtain it from us. 00:31:14.720 --> 00:31:21.599 Sure, I'll help you if I see that you first work to help yourself. 00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:24.799 Both of these people. 00:31:25.279 --> 00:31:35.039 The one with the empty words and the other with legalistic demands, there's a foundational common reality to them. 00:31:35.680 --> 00:31:46.400 Both of them are more concerned with their own appearance of love than they are of genuinely loving their brother. 00:31:48.079 --> 00:31:51.440 They're preoccupied with their own self-righteousness. 00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:03.200 And church, have we been a people who have been saved by grace, but now somehow believe we've earned God's love and favor and kindness toward us? 00:32:03.279 --> 00:32:04.400 Because look at us. 00:32:04.640 --> 00:32:05.759 Look at us, right? 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:07.039 Who to thunk? 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:11.440 We have to repent. 00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:14.079 This is the call to us this morning. 00:32:14.240 --> 00:32:18.480 We have to repent from a disingenuous love for one another. 00:32:18.640 --> 00:32:24.559 And we have to work to genuinely love our brother from the love that we have received in Jesus. 00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:34.319 And the good news for you and for me is that Jesus genuinely loves us. 00:32:36.559 --> 00:32:40.079 Jesus genuinely loves us. 00:32:40.480 --> 00:32:52.640 You see, Jesus' love for the brother, of whom he is the elder, the firstborn among many others, is genuine and it's absent of any counterfeit. 00:32:52.799 --> 00:32:59.119 His love for you is not a stage play, it is from the very reality of his being. 00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:06.480 Jesus abhorred what was evil through his perfect obedience and fulfillment of the law. 00:33:06.799 --> 00:33:12.240 He held fast to what was good, submitting himself in every way to the perfect will of the Father. 00:33:12.559 --> 00:33:18.880 He loved us as an orphan without a name or a home to bring us into the family of God. 00:33:19.119 --> 00:33:25.200 He displayed our immeasurable worth, giving his life as a ransom to redeem us. 00:33:25.440 --> 00:33:31.519 He was not slothful, but his face was set like a flint to Calvary, filled with the Spirit. 00:33:31.680 --> 00:33:37.920 His passion sustained the flame to fulfill his service to seek and save the lost. 00:33:38.079 --> 00:33:44.160 He endured the cross and despised the shame for the hope-filled joy that was set before him. 00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:50.160 Like a lamb led to the slaughter, he did not open up his mouth, but was patient in his tribulation. 00:33:50.400 --> 00:33:55.519 He never ceases to pray for us, interceding on our behalf at the right hand of the Father. 00:33:55.759 --> 00:34:01.279 He satisfies our greatest need by giving his very life that we might have eternal life in him. 00:34:01.519 --> 00:34:11.199 And he shows us hospitality by adopting us into his family, preparing a home for our inheritance, and seating us at the table of his wedding feast. 00:34:11.519 --> 00:34:14.000 Jesus genuinely loves you. 00:34:15.360 --> 00:34:17.360 And that's good news. 00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:21.840 That's good news. 00:34:23.119 --> 00:34:34.639 You see, in our receiving and being restored in that love, we're able to respond in genuine love for our brother. 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:52.239 And the greater you and I know and experience and are filled with gratitude for the way that Jesus loves us, we're going to be enabled to love our brother as a reflection of that gospel truth. 00:34:53.840 --> 00:34:58.320 So my hope for us at Sacred Mission is simple. 00:34:59.440 --> 00:35:02.000 That we would have a love that is genuine. 00:35:03.599 --> 00:35:10.079 That we would be in place known for a genuine love for one another. 00:35:11.039 --> 00:35:17.280 Imagine if we could love each other the same way that Jesus has genuinely loved us. 00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:21.760 Authentic, heartfelt, true. 00:35:23.519 --> 00:35:28.960 If we're going to love our brother, that love must be with all counterfeits tossed aside. 00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:41.599 Because it is the display of that genuine, peculiar love that the watching world around us are going to know that we are his. 00:35:42.079 --> 00:35:44.960 This is Jesus' words, John 13, 35. 00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:46.400 By this, by what? 00:35:46.559 --> 00:35:47.840 By your love for one another. 00:35:48.079 --> 00:35:57.519 By this, all people, the world, will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. 00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:02.079 If you genuinely love your brother. 00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:29.599 Expressing real benevolence, generosity, charity, hospitality to one another. 00:36:30.719 --> 00:36:33.760 I'll close with this quote from John Calvin. 00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:50.880 He says, This it is indeed then only that we prove our love to be genuine when we relieve needy brethren for no other reason but that of exercising our benevolence. 00:36:52.320 --> 00:37:05.039 If we're going to say we have genuine love, it will never just be in the words that we speak, it'll be seen and experienced and realized in the actions that we take. 00:37:05.360 --> 00:37:06.559 Let's pray.