Vision Sunday – Loving Those Who Hurt Us

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 Today is vision Sunday. Every January, we spend four weeks kind of casting the vision for what 20 well, the next year is going to look like.

And then the last Sunday in July, we like to remind ourselves and kind of just reignite that passion to see what we’re going to do for the rest of the year. And so we began 2024   📍 with the goal of making friends and loving other people through the practice of hospitality, peacemaking and generosity.  So in January, we’ve been saying making friends is actually. Really, really hard to do, especially in the culture that we live in today. The percentage of Americans who say they have zero close friends has actually quadrupled since 1990.

Anybody else miss the 90s? Yeah, all right. Um, 54 percent of people, that means more than half of this room, report sometimes or always feeling that no one knows you well. Chronic loneliness is the problem of our day, and it’s actually more dangerous to your health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day. It is much worse to be lonely.

And so we’ve been seeking as a church to combat that loneliness and to fulfill God’s plan for us to love God and love others through these practices. And so one of them is hospitality. We began that in February and we define hospitality the following way.   📍 The practice of hospitality is creating space over a meal, with saints, strangers, and sinners to experience the loving grace of God.

 If you’re new, I’m so proud of our church. If you came in, you’ll see we have a set the table display filled with a bunch of ping pong balls. If you’re wondering what is that all about, that represents meals that our people are having with God. With each other or with our neighbors or with people who are far from god and just like allowing god to just use that Moment, it’s pretty incredible.

We actually have since february. We have neighbors in the room today because of your guys’s hospitality God has just worked in enormous ways. We have over 400 ping pong balls filled out And that’s just the ones you remember to fill out So we’ve been averaging about 16 meals a week of our church just meeting with people over ping pong a meal.

And so we’re so grateful for your intentionality. And then in May, we took it a step further because if you have dinner with people and get to know them for any length of time, you’re going to start, you know, rubbing against each other and it’s going to start being awkward or you’re going to get offended.

And so we talked about the practice of peacemaking.   📍 The practice of peacemaking is doing the hard work of forgiving our past, forging new patterns, and framing our pain in order to fulfill our purpose of loving God And others  I know that’s a mouthful go to formed by jesus. com That’s where we keep all of our teachings on the practices if you want to catch up We just do four weeks off each practice and i’ve been really proud What’s interesting about peacemaking is I can’t really share the stories too much because it’s a bit too personal a bit too private But let me just say i’m so proud of our church.

We have forgiven each other in incredible ways We have reconciled with each other like the people in this room. I know the stories you don’t it’s incredible. We’ve been actually doing what Jesus told us to do. And next Sunday, I hope to see you there. We’re starting the last practice, which is generosity.

And so I couldn’t be more excited for that. What’s actually fascinating is the Proverbs, the wisdom literature of the Bible says, if you want to make friends, it’s actually through generosity. You want to love other people. It’s usually through generosity. So I’m excited for us to lean into that. But If I can just be transparent.

On one hand, this past year of making friends and loving other people has been beautiful. Again, it’s kind of exceeded my expectations the way that we are right now. growing together. Our church has grown. We were just with our staff yesterday and we’ve literally doubled in size compared to last summer to this summer.

And it’s all because you guys have been hospitable. You’ve been making relationships. We repeatedly hear those who are trying out the stick six. You like it here because we’re community. We know each other and we love each other. And so bravo. It’s so beautiful. But also it’s been a brutal year. It’s been hard making friends and loving other people, uh, can be really tough.

I know for me, it’s actually been filled with a lot of pain. It’s been filled with a lot of disappointment at myself. Also the, you know, having expectations of others and them failing me, us, me failing you. I don’t say this as a spectator, I am in this with you. And so I love the vision of making friends and loving other people through the practices of hospitality, peacemaking, and generosity.

It should lead to just. More friends, more love, more happiness, but it doesn’t always work out that way, and it doesn’t work out that way because we live in a world filled with sin, done by us, sin done to us, and sin done all around us. So we believe every page in the scriptures and the very beginning, we see already at Genesis three, Adam and Eve sinning against God and breaking relationship, not just with God, but with.

And we are still living in the fallout of that. Write this down. Since Genesis 3, our relationships are no longer characterized by hospitality, peacemaking, and generosity, at least not naturally. Instead, it’s by distrust, anger, and disappointment. Imagine if you even just look at those three words for a while, names will start to be highlighted in your mind.

of people who have disappointed you, people you’re still angry with today, and people you thought you can trust your life with, and they misused it and abused it. And the reality is, is you’ve done the same to other people as well. And so that’s what makes this vision very, very hard, because it feels impossible.

Dallas Willard, in his book Life Without Lack, highly recommend it. He describes what’s true for most of us, for all of us, as we make relationships in this sinful world. He says,   📍 the threats of abandonment, hover over most relationships, and people are so busy protecting themselves that they cannot love each other.

  I know this is true for me. And I know as your pastor, this has been true for you and maybe you’re sitting here today. If you’re like me, you love vision Sunday. You love being idealistic. You love to paint the future, which is brighter than the past, but maybe also in your excitement of having a community, you have been too busy protecting yourself to actually experience community.

We looked at in January community, uh, requires proximity. It requires vulnerability. It requires the willingness to get hurt. And personally for me, and I won’t go in detail, I’ve learned some things are just from my counselor, but I have been more tempted than ever to shut off myself. If you want to make, it’s always funny, the whole thing this year is making friends and loving other people, and I just knew when we said that.

I would probably be losing friends and, uh, having a hard time loving other people. And that’s exactly what’s happened. And so I’m going to try to reverse psychology the Lord. And next year’s vision is how to not get a building and we’re going to get one, you know? And so I’m so excited for that. Like, God, I’m on, I’m on to you.

Um, but that’s really, it’s been hard. And in this world, this relational world of distrust, anger, and disappointment, Jesus steps in and says, I know, but keep on loving. In fact, love those who’ve hurt you. Love those who have mistreated you. And those are radical words. And I believe the Holy Spirit is the one who empowers us to actually live that out.

But let’s look at the words of Jesus. Luke chapter six, if you’re not there already, it’ll be on the screen. We’re going to look starting in verse 27. Holy Spirit come. Verse 27. But I say to you who listen, love your enemies. Do what is good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you.

If anyone hits you on the cheek, offer the other also. And if anyone takes your coat, don’t hold back your shirt either. Give to everyone who asks you, and from someone who takes your things, don’t ask for them back. Just as you want others to do for you, Do the same for them. We call that the golden rule, right?

Verse 32, If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do what is good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to be repaid in full.

But, love your enemies. Do what is good and lend expecting nothing in return. One commentator said that might be the best definition of love is to give and expect nothing in return. Then your reward will be great and you will be the children of the most high for he is gracious to the ungrateful and evil.

Be merciful just as your father also is merciful. Let’s pray. Father. As we submit ourselves to the authority of the scriptures today, I pray that you would both expose and encourage us. Help us see the ways that we fall short of this passage. Help us even increase the names we have on the list of those who have mistreated and those who are our enemies, and then may we in turn be encouraged.

Because of the gospel. We can love even the least of these, even those who have hurt us the most. Give us wisdom to discern your word. May you continue to build our community to be doers of your word. In Jesus name. Everybody says, Amen. Amen. Amen. Let’s just kind of go back through what we just read in Luke chapter six.

There’s kind of, Jesus is a brilliant communicator and master teacher, and there’s really kind of different ways he, he frames this teaching. So first of all, in verses 27 through 28, He gives us four commands. What’s kind of fascinating, I actually had to read this in the Greek this week, because sometimes, if there’s any grammar nerds in here, the few, the proud, shout out to you, but there’s this thing called participles.

Anybody ever heard of participles before? Wonderful. Okay. The two of you were like, yes, I absolutely know what that is. So participles are, there’s a main verb and then the supporting verbs are called participles. Participle. So it’s not like the main thing, but in order to accomplish the main thing, you got to do these other things.

For example, the Great Commission is to go, therefore, make disciples, baptize, and teach. The actual main verb there is make. And so then we know, how do we make? Well, we go baptize and teach. What’s fascinating here, for some reason, Jesus isn’t making love your enemies, the main verb, and the rest of these He is saying all of them remain verbs.

In other words, we can’t get out of any of this. He’s not just giving advice on how to love your enemies. He’s saying we have to do all four all the time. So love your enemies. In other words, sacrifice for those who seek your harm. Do what is good to those who hate you. So seek their overall wellbeing.

Bless those who curse you. We don’t have like a cursing culture today, but we do have people speaking ill of us. And he’s saying root for those. who are rooting for your demise. And so far, just at those three first verbs, those three first commands, and honestly, if you’re like me, The list of people is kind of short.

How many enemies do I really have? And if they are my enemy, do they I don’t know. I feel like I’m kind of nice. And, uh, so I probably don’t have too many enemies in my life. But this last phrase makes me realize this list that Jesus wants us to come up with is much larger than we’d like to think. Because then he says, pray for those who mistreat you.

I don’t know about you, but for me, this list gets a whole lot larger. Right? Being mistreated Can happen even within family some of your best friends in their worst moments can mistreat you and so Jesus is saying Man, this is a hard command and it probably applies to more people than you think So he gives four commands, but now in the text in verses 29 through 30, he gives us three concrete examples.

Jesus is a great application preacher and so he gives you literal ways to apply this. So he says for example, if somebody hits you on the cheek. So this hitting on the cheek to us just sounds like hitting on the cheek, but in the text And it was symbolic for something. It used to be the synagogue leaders, they would declare you’re not allowed in the synagogue based off your family of origin, or maybe a sin that you’ve committed, something that makes you disqualified.

The leader of the synagogue would go up to you, take their backhand and slap you on the cheek. This was a symbol that you are rejected. You’re not allowed in this community. And who among us today, right? We have been rejected by people. We have been hurt by people. And so Jesus is saying, even those who have hurt you and rejected you, continue to give them love.

Then the next ones takes away your coat, which aren’t you excited to wear coats again in 10 months? Whenever that is, it feels like forever away, right? As I was reading this, I’m like, nobody has a coat here, right? But take away your coat. What? Give him your shirt also. He’s saying, look, don’t seek revenge.

Don’t hedge your bets. People are going to take and in fact, keep giving. It’s really hard. Then he says, give to everyone who asks you. One commentator put it this way, he says, the consummate example. Of giving to everyone who asks is the cross Jesus gave to those who were takers. So again, I want to make sure we understand this passage applies to all of us who in here hasn’t been rejected, who in here hasn’t been taken advantage of to some degree or another.

We all have. And so now he says, how do we respond? And Jesus says, the world responds a certain way, but we, as the followers of Jesus, if you truly my disciple, you respond in a completely different way. And that’s his point in verses 32 through 34. He says, the world, sinners, they love to help other sinners as long as those sinners help them.

It’s a, you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. He’s saying, yeah, of course you should love those who are lovable. Even sinners do that. He says that three different times. But as followers. We love those who don’t love us back. And that’s really hard to do. And here’s what’s hard, again, not to get too nerdy with the Greek.

The problem is, all of these words, these verbs, they are written in the form of a command. These are not options. If you follow Jesus, this is what we have to do if he’s truly our Lord. And it’s hard. It’s hard to love those who don’t love us back. Love us. It’s hard to love those who mistreat us. It’s so hard to love those who hurt us.

But I want to ask the obvious question. How does the world tell us to respond? If we’re in a world filled with anger, disappointment, and distrust, there’s a lot of the culture telling us to respond a certain way. And it’s totally antithetical to the way of Jesus. Look at me with me at James chapter three, it’ll be on the screen cause we’re going to kind of jump to it rather quickly.

James three, starting verse 13, it says, if you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it. By living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility. that comes from wisdom. So, so far, this is what the way of Jesus looks like. But now he says in verse 14, but, so now he’s going to say, here’s how the world usually deals with relationships.

But if you are bitterly jealous, And there is selfish ambition in your heart. This word, bitterly jealous, it’s just this idea that you have envy. So it’s not only you think you deserve something, but you pick somebody in your mind, you think, and they don’t. So God, don’t just bless me. I want to take their blessing so that at the end of the day, I have their blessing and they have nothing.

That’s bitterness. That’s jealousy. That is something that really kills you. begins to grow in the heart. If we’re not careful, selfish ambition, it’s that I’m out for me and me alone. It’s the dog eat dog world. And usually how do you fulfill selfish ambition? He goes on to say, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.

You know, you’re dealing with somebody who only cares about themselves. If they exaggerate a lot. They cover up the truth for their own agenda. They love to lie. This is a picture of somebody who doesn’t know how to have relationships, who is terrified, right? Of people. They’ve, they’ve been burnt before and now they’re out for just them.

And honestly, we’re in a world today that celebrates this, but look at what James says next for jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. So, we call hedging our bets, right, uh, make lying in order to get ahead, we just call that Thursday. But the Bible calls that demonic.

There is no room for this. But we are so used to this, James has to wake us up and go, this isn’t reality. This isn’t how we should live. Verse 16, for wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. In other words, Nothing’s going to work well. It’s going to be a world of chaos.

And maybe this is you, or maybe you know people who live this way. Their world is a mess. Because they’re trying to live how the world lives. And so, what James is saying here is this kind of relational life. It’s spiritual warfare. Making friends and loving other people is spiritual warfare. When I was praying through in January, kind of committing, okay, we’re going to become a people in 2024 to make friends and loving other people.

I knew we would get opposition and we believe the three main enemies of the soul. Are the world, the flesh, and the devil. So I was thinking through what will the world, the flesh, the devil do to us? It’s a lot. And so I was kind of counteracting, thinking through how am I going to pastor people as they go through this?

And I thought two, I thought you would respond two ways. One, I thought you would get discouraged. Making friends is hard. Going to people’s houses, hosting. It’s hard. Is awkward sometimes. And so maybe you’re just going to get discouraged. They didn’t accept my invite or I didn’t like their food, whatever.

Right. And so I thought as your pastor, I would say, Hey, don’t be discouraged. It’s my job to. Encourage. You’re great. Look at what God is doing in your life. Let me honor you. And that’s a great way. If somebody’s discouraged, you just have to encourage them. So I was ready and I’ve been ready to do that. And we’ve done that a little bit along the way.

Also, some of you, the response is grief. I know a lot of us, especially when we’re going through the genogram, looking at our family history, there’s just a lot of sadness about the things that you missed out on, things that didn’t go right. And so I actually, I’m so sad about that, but I know there’s something I can do about that.

I can just. Pray with you and be present with you and love you. Job’s friends were terrible friends because they immediately gave him answers. If you’re encountering somebody who’s grieving, the first thing you do is to stay silent, which is hard for me, right? And just love them where they’re at. And I was ready for that.

And we’ve done that a little bit, but I didn’t consider the greatest enemy to making friends and loving other people. It being bitter. Hebrews 12 actually calls it the root of bitterness. I think the enemy has tried to infiltrate our church and destroy us through what, again, the Hebrew author called a root of bitterness.

What is bitterness? Bitterness is the damaging infection that spreads when you dwell on rejection. It’s this slow growing plant that slowly but surely keeps records of all the wrongs done to you. And eventually, as you allow bitterness to take root in your heart and your life, you get convinced to the point that forgiveness is no longer an option.

If you want to make friends, you can’t without forgiveness. Bitterness says forgiveness is actually weakness. In fact, if you forgive, they’re going to take advantage of that. And so shut yourself off. Instead, be bitterly jealous, pursue selfish ambition, exaggerate and lie, and you’ll get what you need in life.

And James is saying that’s the wisdom of the world, and it is filled with demonic thoughts, and it will destroy your life. And I’m so proud to say as your pastor, Many of you have been fighting against bitterness and it has been moments and it’s been marathons and I am so overjoyed, but it has been a battle.

So what does James say to do? He says there’s a Jesus way to fight this bitterness. Look at verse 17. But the wisdom from above from God is first of all pure, which is the literal opposite of jealousy, right? You just want what’s best for everybody. It’s also peace loving, meaning you get along with each other.

It’s really hard to offend you. It’s gentle at all times. You’re patient spirit and willing to yield to others, which means you have a teachable spirit. You’re the first one to repent. You don’t need to have your way. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds, which means you, you cover offenses quickly, and it shows no favoritism and is always sincere, meaning it’s not hypocritical.

You’re not lying to get ahead. It’s genuine and true. Verse 18. Here’s the beauty. Here’s the promise. And those who are peacemakers. will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. It sounds great, but if you’re like me, what does a harvest of righteousness even mean? It’s honestly what we’re seeking to do as a church family.

I think Eugene Peterson, one of my favorite poets, pastors, and authors, uh, he put it this way. A harvest of righteousness is quote, a healthy, robust community that lives right with God. That’s what we’re after, but that doesn’t happen. unless we’re doing the hard work of making peace. So is this even possible?

A healthy, robust community that lives right with God, hear me, doesn’t just happen because we want it. I believe it happens because of the grace of God, but also because it is hard work and it is holy work. And so here’s the big idea for today. As we’re doing this hard work of hospitality, peacemaking, we’re about to do generosity.

I feel like I just need to take one step back and encourage us. Look, we make friends and love other people through the hard work of hospitality, peacemaking, and generosity, but we maintain friends and love those who hurt us through the holy work of faith, death to self. and agape love. A quick word on each.

This actually is, this is a very much a message inspired by Dallas Willard today. He calls those last three phrases the triangle of sufficiency, the, the way to live the Christian life. So let me point out each. First, the holy work of faith. Uh, we’re going to talk about this a little bit on the Formed by Jesus podcast this week, me and Pastor Caleb.

But sadly, faith has kind of been robbed of its original meaning, especially since the Enlightenment. And so in other words, faith has kind of. Um, been emptied of its power by claiming faith is just mental assent. Now, faith is mental assent. It’s believing Jesus did die and raised again and all of that.

But it’s, it’s not less than that. It’s more than that. It’s not just mental assent. Faith can be translated as trust or reliance. We like to say a lot at our church, faith isn’t about passing a test. It’s not like you can ace the quiz. It’s about placing your trust. It’s this whole life reliance on God.

Elton Trueblood, I think it’s one of my favorite quotes defining what faith is. He was a Quaker and a chaplain to Harvard and Stanford in the 20th century. He says the following,   📍 faith is not belief without proof,   which I think we often try to communicate it that way in our culture today. And that is not right.

Instead, it’s trust without reservation. I actually believe biblical faith is rooted in reality. I actually believe if you follow the way of Jesus, not only are the scriptures plausible, they’re desirable. It is the right way to live. So faith is trusting in this and it continues to prove itself. The way of Jesus is the right way to live.

But you’ll notice what faith is, is it’s constantly beckoning you to deeper and deeper reliance. Um, just a few weeks ago, we were going through the last half of Acts chapter 9 together. If you remember, I talked about the three stages of faith. I never want to ask if you remember because then I’ll just quit my job because I know none of you remember.

So let me recap it for you real quick. I said the first stage of faith is what we called reap. This whole idea of reap is when you begin to follow Jesus, you kind of live your life by this mantra, which is great for a time. If I insert blank, God will. Insert blank. So the most rudimentary one is if I pray, God will make me feel better, right?

Or if I give, God will bless me in some way or fashion. More on that next week. That’s great, but eventually you realize you need to trust the Lord more and enter into situations that aren’t always so sure. And that is the next stage is risk. Risk says when I insert the blank. God might insert the blank.

Easy example, when I step out the boat, God might make sure I don’t sink. Or I might sink. And so, what is faith? It’s trusting. God is calling me to do this. So I’m taking this step. God might protect us, or it might feel like He isn’t. But I’m gonna do it anyways. And then you have the third stage, the stage of maturity is rest, where it’s even if, insert the blank, God is, insert the blank, even if I am thrown into a fiery furnace and die, God is good.

Even if I lose all of my relationships here on earth, God is faithful. You see how it’s a journey, a progression towards total trust in God. Jesus in Luke 6 tells us to have faith by saying, love your enemies, verse 35. And when you keep doing this, your reward will be great. And typically you might experience it here in this life, but you certainly will experience this reward in the next.

So Jesus is saying, trust me, do not give up. Keep loving your enemies and keep blessing those who curse you. That requires faith. Making friends and loving other people requires faith quickly to prayers that maybe if you feel like God is calling you to work on your faith to prayers that have helped me so much.

First one, it’s from the Bible. Uh, it’s when the father says like lowercase father, a dude says to Jesus, Lord, I believe help my unbelief, right? That’s a great prayer of faith. I believe. But there’s also ways I don’t. So help me in my unbelief. That’s great. The second prayer is more from church history, and I love it.

It’s this prayer, Lord, I don’t understand you, but I trust you. This doesn’t make sense, but I trust you. I’m relying on you, so I’m going to keep doing it. Pray those two prayers if you feel like you’re struggling with your faith. So again, how are we going to make friends and love like other people? It’s through these practices, absolutely.

Hospitality, peacemaking, and now generosity. But along the way, you’re going to hit speed bumps if you do It won’t work if you don’t put on faith. And then secondly, you don’t put on the death to self. Death to self is a holy work that’s far too ignored and looked over today. Jesus made it super clear.

What did he tell his disciples? Pick up your cross, your cross, not just my cross, your cross, and follow me. The cross is a necklace. It’s an earring today. It’s hard for us to recognize the symbol. But this was the ultimate picture of death, the ultimate picture of surrender. And Jesus is saying, that’s how you get in.

Death to self is getting to the point where you no longer need life to go a certain way. How many of us have actually died to ourselves? I know I have a lot to go, I have a lot to work on. There’s certain things in my life I’m still so mad at God because it’s not going a certain way, and yet this week I’ve been so confronted.

This is the way of Jesus. See, the cross is central because it’s what Jesus did for us. Right? We would not be forgiven without his payment on the cross for our sins, but we often forget the cross is a symbol for you and me. Jesus died for us and we are called to die with him. Paul in Galatians 2 20 says, I have been crucified with Christ.

What is this crucifixion? It’s not literal. Okay. At least I don’t think so. For most of us. What is it? It’s things like releasing our desires. Giving God a reputation, our glory, and releasing our need to have our way with people. And I am just convinced we cannot grow in all that God has for us if we refuse to die to self.

Let me give you some examples what I think that death can look like, maybe for some people in this room. And I think it looks different for all of us in the different stages we’re in. One thing is to die to what others say about you. Some of you haven’t taken that step of faith to even get baptized, or other larger steps of faith because you’re so worried about your peers.

Another thing is to die to your fear of not having enough. I know for me, my family, we’re talking about generosity this next week. Man, the economy, all that stuff, that’s, that’s made me nervous. Dying to, um, bitterness, letting go of that, not letting that control your life, dying from your resentment of being looked over and not appreciated, dying from getting your way in every relationship.

You know what? I’m not going to be right in every single situation. I don’t have to defend myself. Or dying for your need to dominate others. Dallas Willard, yet again, he says in his book, Life Without Lack, he says,   📍 this is difficult for those who depend on themselves and their own abilities. And are unwilling to let go of themselves and trust God.

They are unable to say, I don’t have to dominate. I don’t need to have my way. I can live without all the little pleasures I was taught that I needed in order to avoid being a failure.   📍 And then he says, such, are they truly miserable? Jesus made it clear that to pursue these things in reliance upon ourselves is the surest.

way to lose our souls   Dying to self Is a call for all of life and boy, is it hard? But it’s worth it What i’ve noticed is dying to self is less about something you do and more about what’s something done to you So like it’s just a spirit of release. It’s just a spirit of god. I’m not in control It’s i’m letting go of my clenched fist god i’m dying to all these things I want in life and i’m just trusting you And it’s amazing what God does.

Now, I feel really smart, so stick with me. Notice this painting over here on the screen.   📍 so, this painting actually was in the 15th century. It’s the Italian Renaissance artist Filippo Lippi. And he created what this is called the Madonna and the Child, or other people translate it the Virgin and the Child.

It’s Mary and Jesus. Now, art critics have had their heyday on this, on this painting, uh, because, and let me be clear, you won’t catch me in an art gallery. But what I hear about this painting is the proportions are off. One thing, for example, is the hills are not, uh, in balance with the photo. Everything’s just a little bit wonky.

And so critics for ages have just kind of said, we don’t know why this, this painting is so famous. There’s so many issues. And then one critic one day realized he, why, why did he paint it this way? And so he did some research and he, he realized that this painting wasn’t commissioned for an art gallery.

No, uh, uh, Filippo Lippi was, was commissioned to create this painting for the altar. So he put two and two together and he realized this painting is supposed to be seen from your knees.   When people come to pray before the Father and are assured of God’s grace. And so this critic got on his knees and it became one of the most beautiful paintings he’s ever seen.

In the same way, this idea of making friends, loving other people, it honestly is a bit out of proportion. It’s a bit wonky. If we’re not willing to die to ourselves and get on our knees in humility. And look to God and to God alone. We must die to self. So we maintain friends and love those who hurt us through the holy work of faith, death to self, and lastly, agape love.

Agape love just means God’s love. And so first of all, what I mean by that, it’s embracing and allowing. God to love you. And I actually believe most of us, we’re not ready to receive his love until we’ve taken the step of faith and die to ourself. But when that happens, we are now open, receptive to God’s wonderful work.

And, I just have to be honest. I find it so hard to preach on the love of God because I know there’s no heights or depths. It’s, it’s as vast, I think, for eternity we’ll learn about His love. But honestly, I still have problems allowing God to love me. For example, maybe, maybe you can relate. I love the, the phrase, God loves you.

I get uncomfortable with the phrase that God likes you, but He does. I, I’m fine saying God loves you. But this is also true. God delights in you. And because you’re his child, for those who are marked by the cross, God loves to give his children good gifts. He’s a good God, full of love. And we must open ourselves up to that.

We cannot practice hospitality, generosity, peacemaking, if it’s not from the center of being loved and extending that love. 1 John 4, 7. John, as an old saint, he says, Dear friends, let us love one another because love is love. Love is from God. I think the point he’s making, there’s a reciprocal relationship.

I have found when I want to recognize and experience God’s love for me, I typically find it when I am seeking to love others. Because when I seek to love others, I am now tapping into a resource that is not my own. When I am impatient with others and so annoyed by the faithlessness and the fickleness of people I am then drawn to realize how God has been so patient with me How he has been so good even though I was faithless.

He is still Faithful and so as I continue to try to love others I am drawn to see how much God has loved me and so some of us we don’t know the depths of God’s love because we’ve never tried the Hard work of making friends and loving other people. These things come together. In other words, as we give this love, we receive it more than ever.

St. Francis of Assisi, he’s, it’s part of this prayer called the Peace Prayer. In it, he says the following,   📍 Oh, divine master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that we receive.   And that’s the vision we have for Passion Creek Church.

In giving our hospitality, we gain a family. In giving peace, sacrificing ourselves and getting our own way, we receive a harvest of righteousness, a healthy, robust community that lives right with God. And in next week, giving our resources, Acts 20 says we actually receive happiness, blessing. And so I want us to lean into the vision, but I want us to know it is impossible without God.

It will require faith. Hebrews 11 says without faith, it is impossible to please God. To make friends and love other people, it’s going to require death to self. But Jesus says in Matthew 16, those who die to themselves will finally find their life. And we can’t do it without agape love, his sacrificial love.

And the good news, 1 John 4 says, we love Because he first. loved us. And that’s the invitation. And I want to ask you, I hope it’s all three, but maybe it’s just one. Which one is God calling you to take another step toward today?