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good morning
today in our series of messages all you need is love we're going to talk about living like
Jesus
I believe everyone learns through this through models the best model we can have for learning
about loving relationships is Jesus
in our Scripture passages morning Jesus reminds us that we're to love one another in the
same way he love us we are to follow His loving example
Pastor Scott goal this morning will be to reveal Jesus as a model for loving relationships
and the personal implications of how we can follow that model in our own personal relationships
so please open your Bible pull out message outline and follow along to worship bulletin
as I begin reading in John chapter thirteen versus thirty-one
As soon as Judas left the room Jesus said
the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into His glory
and God will be glorified because of Him
and since God receives glory because of the Son he was soon give glory to the Son
dear children I will be with you only a little longer
and as I told the Jewish leaders
He was search for me but you can't come where I'm going so now and giving you a new commitment
love each other
just as I have loved you, you should love each other
your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples
Simon Peter asked Lord where are you going?
and Jesus replied you can't go with me now that you will follow me later
people
just seem to learn faster and better when they have a model
an example of
a template
well for Christians
Jesus is our example He's our example He's Our model
He came so that we would understand what
Christianity was all about in terms of what we say and how we ought to act
our Scriptures make it very clear that
God loves us and that he wants us to love those around us
He said love each other in the same way that I have loved you
and in John thirteen thirty six
I have given you an example to follow, me
do as I have done to you
we need models we needed to examples in our life because while what is true is we'd pass
on whatever we've received
good or bad
as we speak ill of other people
it's often in proportion to how we have been loved his people
God wants us to understand just how much he loves us
He wants to enable us through the Holy Spirit to love others
the same way that He loves us
three key elements to God's love
that's our target for this morning
one way that God shows his love to us
is that He's a God who accepts us
yes He accepts us
really more than we deserve
John six thirty seven the father gives me my people everyone of them will come to me
and I will always accept them
it's great to know that God except us
we need to be accepted don't we
in fact I think the greatest pain in life, the greatest injury in life is not a
a broken bone
it's being rejected
rejection is so
powerful in our life it well I can prove it to you
just look at the crazy things that people do
just to be accepted by those
around them
a fifteen-year-old boy in Michigan
stood in a circle of his peers
for the next two minutes
they punched him and kicked him
after that he became a member
of the gang
he was asked why would you do that he said I know it's gonna hurt really bad
but I knew after that that I would be loved an accepted by everyone who it punched me
and kicked me for the rest of my life
we do crazy things
just to be accepted
just to experience love in our life
God does accept us
in fact He accepts us so that we can accept Him
He loved us so that we can love him in return the Bible says
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it but to
save it
now when I say God accepts us that doesn't mean He is
happy or please with all of our behaviors
he accepts us
He loves us
He doesn't love our sinful behavior
we know that because of
an example like the woman caught adultery in John chapter eight you know the story
Jesus makes it clear that He
accepts this woman
and because
He accepts this woman everyone else should accept her because they are imperfect too
notice he does not condone her adultery
He accepts and loves her but
He desires her to change as well doesn't He
God's acceptance of us
really helps us
respond to God in love in fact we can't love God except for the fact that He loved
us first
and I believe we really can't love other people as we could without the love of Jesus Christ
in our life first
He loved us so that we could love Him
He makes us holy
and acceptable to God
now we know we're not
holly and acceptable to God it's interesting that I don't have to convince very many people of
that
because we know we're imperfect we know we're sinners
at some of us are bigger sinners and others
but we're still all sinners were still all imperfect
and God's desire is to be in relationship with us
He knows we can't be in a relationship with Him because he's holy and we're not holy
and so he makes us acceptable to Himself
through His own actions in his son Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is holy
And as Jesus Christ is the leader of our life and he makes this holy enough to be in a relationship
with God
the scriptures are clear
about this truth
for Christ died for sins once and for all the righteous for the unrighteous
He's the righteous
We are the unrighteous
He has died for us
so that we might have a life with Him
not only now
but for all eternity
the implication is simply this that God loves us in our
sinful state with all of our imperfections
then we must love those around us with their imperfections
all
have to do that?
now why would we love someone else in their imperfections and
there's a simple test for you to take when you get home
look in the mirror
We're all imperfect
and because we're all imperfect that makes the ground level at the cross
and yea, we think our
goodness is better than somebody else's goodness their imperfection is way worse than
our imperfection
but the fact is we're all imperfect
we all fall short of God's glorious ideal some of us just farther that others
first Corinthians thirteen
Four through seven
how do we
how do we love someone else in their imperfections well
love is patient and kind
Are you patient all the time
Are you kind all the time
it is not rude
it is not irritable, you been irritable lately
keeps no record of wrong's and we're really good at doing that
Aren't we?
in fact we're so good at it we usually create a plaque or a monument
for the wrongs that have done to us but that's another message
love never gives up, never loses faith is always hopeful
if you want to love like this you'll never love like that with your own willpower
the only way that you will love that way is through God's empowering love in your life
and what empowers us is the realization that we have our faults too
that we too fall short of God's glorious ideal
that we're rude
We're irritable
we wanna keep records of wrong
that were really not all that hopeful or faithful
He is to us
and because He is
he calls us the love in the same way
and he empowers us to be successful
In that effort
Second way that God loves us is
that he values us
we are infinitely valuable to God
here's a great example
Luke twelve
what is the price of five sparrows two copper coins, two cents
yet God does not forget a single one of them
so don't be afraid you are more valuable to God that a whole flock of sparrows
Well good
Well, he could have said crows
at least sparrows are little and cute
we are more valuable to Him than what He's created Jesus is saying
in all of its majesty and all of its splender
we are more valuable than anything else that God created
Have you ever thought about what makes something valuable
It's really two things
number one it's an issue of who made it
who made it
now maybe it didn't take art appreciation in college, I didn't
and I have
stood before masterpieces and
thought well you know that's good
and then realized no, it's not just a good paining it's are masterpiece
and why is that
Van Gough
Picasso
whose name on the bottom makes a big difference yes there is a difference in price
between Timex and a Rolex
and that's about who made it
In fact once in my previous church I was running an auction night
I had a pro football jersey probably worth
sixty , seventy, eighty bucks, go online by one
I sold that football jersey
for twenty-one hundred dollars that night
now why would anybody pay twenty one hundred dollars
for San Francisco Forty-Niner jersey that they could buy online
because it didn't have
Jerry Rice's
autograph on it
you have God's autograph on you the Bible says
for we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works
which God prepared in advance for us to do you are valuable because God created you
You're valuable because
of what God was willing to pay for you
have you thought about that for just s second
value really has to do a lot with what
someone's willing to pay isn't it?
I've learned a little bit about real estate in the last couple of years
listening and hanging out
and you know it's interesting your house is only worth what somebody will pay you for it
and if you think your house is still worth what it was worth
three years ago
put it on the market and find out really fast
it's not as valuable to everybody else as it is to you
and that's proved out no one will pay that price for it
it's only worth the price if somebody's willing to pay for it you are invaluable to God
because he has paid the greatest prices in the entire universe
for you
He gave his very life
He paid the ultimate prices
first Peter one nineteen
He paid for you with a precious life blood of Christ the sinless, spotless lamb of God
because you're
valuable to God because God esteems you
we are called to esteem one another
how do you esteem or value someone else I can tell you simply, it's what you say and what
you do
Peter gives us an insight
into how to esteem another person in terms of what we say and do
in a message he writes treat everyone you meet with dignity
as royalty
as a star
there are people we have a tendency to
devalue in society
it's a good word for us to
to treat everyone we run into with great dignity
They too are created in the image of God
Jesus Christ died on the cross or their sins too
the new living translation says respect everyone and love
and it's amazing how if we respect those around us that impacts what we say and what we do
if you value someone do you gossip about them or slandered them
Do you put them down?
do you yell at them
do you
exclude them
do you avoid them
yea you do
you'll pick another aisle in the grocery store just because they are there
dignity
respect
that's how we esteem another person
why should we esteem other people because God esteems us
He values us
the third thing and I think this is one of the hard things about God's love
and that is that
he's a forgiver
we think God is a wrong keeper, don't we
we think God has a
an ipad with a page on it with our name
every once in awhile a little angel flutters up in writes down all the things we've done
wrong
by ten o'clock
don't wait we do
we have that belief because we think somehow were supposed to pay
somehow God is mad at us
somehow God wants to condemn us instead of save us
but the truth is that God is not
a fault finder he's a fault forgiver
He forgives us of our sins
I am the God who forgives your sins and I do this because of who I am
I will not hold your sins against you
if God doesn't it hold our sins against us
then why are we doing that
then why are we holding this in terms of someone else
towards us
against them
forgiveness is a concrete expression of God's love in our life there's nothing better that
God can do for us
than to forgive us of our sins
long ago even before He made the world Ephesians one four
God loves us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes
what's God's plan for you
He wants to
put you on his team have you be a part of His family
He doesn't want you carrying around the guilt and shame of your mistake, your failures
your miss cues
He wants to wipe
clean the slate John tells us
and when we confessed our shortcomings, our sins our imperfections to Him
He hold this against us? No forgives us
He's that kind of a loving God
He loves us even when we don't deserve it
He forgives us even though he is righteous
and has been given the power to judge us
now we would like God's forgiveness in our life
the hard part is that he calls us to forgive those around us
you must make allowances for each other's faults, I don't like to do that
I really I don't, I don't like to make allowances I'd like to avoid other people faults
and the idea that you have to make allowances what the Bible is really saying here is
no you don't get to avoid them
you've got to be involved with them
and you've got to love them and here I'm not talking about an abusive circumstance
don't misunderstand what I'm saying
we ought to have good boundaries, healthy boundaries in life
what I am saying is that one of the ways we tried to deal with those we need to forgive
is we try to forget them
instead of forgive them
and the Bible is clear here know you've got to stay in relationship with them and make allowances
for each other's faults, forgive the person who offends you
remember the Lord forgave you so you must forgive others
Jesus says in Luke six
forgive and you will be forgiven
if we're going to forgive there's two key issues we must wrestle with
number one is
that they may never understand just how much
they've hurt us
we have to be willing to give up that right
the acknowledgement of our hurt it always feels better
when someone who has hurt us knows they've hurt us
does that make us feel a little bit better see I told you you're a jerk
I'm proof of you're a jerk
we have to give up
the right
for our hurt to be acknowledged by the other person
and then the other thing we have to give up is
the opportunity to get even
played a little football in high school I was a outside linebacker
and outside linebackers kind of live with a code that is, well you may have gotten
the better of me last play watch out
I'm going to get the better of you on this play
I going to what?
I'm gonna get even for you run it over me last time
you hurt me now I'm going to hurt you back
and eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth
Jesus says no
His goal is reconciliation, reconciliation always starts with forgiveness you won't always
reconcile with everyone you forgive because reconciliation takes
two people
but forgiveness
only takes one
isn't that what this meal was all about
it's about the one who forgets
we can only be reconciled to God because God wants us to reconcile with us
He does love usu
He accepts s with all of our imperfections
He values us more than anything else that He created
it doesn't matter how heinous your crime is
there isn't anything that Jesus Christ can't and won't forgive
God demonstrated His love
and yes he wants us to
to demonstrate His love to one another
he didn't wait for us to start he started first
He took the bread and He broke it when he sat with the disciples
He made it clear I'm giving my body
and if that were not enough he sealed His love and forgiveness of us with his burial
all I have to do is talk about forgiveness and I know you've got
pictures of people
certain circumstances in your life
push right up to the front
when the Bible talks about valuing others and
we know that there's some people we
really don't value
we avoid and we overlook them
We ignore them
and when it comes to accepting other people we want except all the best foot
forwards
we can get our arms around
but love them in their imperfection
we are to love one another as Jesus Christ loved us and let me help you out here that
sacrificial
It takes sacrificial love to love
the unacceptable
the devalued
the failures
in your world and in this world
but we must
we can
because of all that Christ come to do
in this services we take communion
share these words is that the bread has passed this is Christ body broken for you
Take it individually
God loves you
personally
as the cup is passed hear these words this is Christ blood shed for you and I want you hold the cup
because we like to symbolizes God's family that we're going to be a loving family one
way or another
you know we're all in this together
that loving other people start with the person right next to you this morning
and then it goes out in concentric circles to people we don't even know on the other
side of the planet
God loves us
let us take that in this morning
let us return that to Him
as we celebrate this supper
those assisting please come forward