Love Problem (1 John 3:16-18 & Luke 14:1-6)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Love Problem

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Well, good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. If you'll grab a Bible, go to 1 John. We've been zooming in on this same passage we've been looking at for the past couple weeks. We've been working through 1 John, and then in our gift series, we usually do something a little different, but we hit a passage in 1 John where he really kind of zooms in on the same idea.

So we've just tried to dig into this same passage we're going to look at again today. But before we start in the text, I want to talk about something very important to me. Sugar cookie eggnog. My brother one time, it's amazing. Sugar cookie eggnog is delicious, and it used to every year at Christmas would get to get sugar cookie eggnog. And I tasted it, and I was like, oh my goodness, I've wasted my whole life eating sugar cookies when I could have been drinking them.

And it is wonderful, and it meant a lot to me. It was very, I had a very special, wonderful bond with sugar cookie eggnog. It was delicious. I actually took a picture at one point. This is me sitting in front of my white Christmas tree with sugar cookie eggnog. And you're thinking, did you go get the thing out of the refrigerator just to pose it in front of the Christmas tree?

There are some drinks. You just bring the whole bottle with you because you know you're going to refill. And so sugar cookie eggnog is like that. It's amazing. My whole family loved it. And then it started being harder to find.

But you could get online. You could figure out what stores it was in. And we started figuring out, okay, I've got to go to this store to get sugar cookie eggnog. Then it got to where there weren't any stores around us that had it. And I received a phone call from my brother one time, and he was in Maryland. And he said, I just found a store that has sugar cookie eggnog in Pennsylvania.

It's only like an hour and a half from here. I've called them. They have it. I'm buying a case. He gets off the phone with them. They get in the vehicle.

They go get a case of sugar cookie eggnog. He brings it back to South Carolina. My family hoists him on our shoulders. He's doing this thing. It was wonderful. It was the last time I ever had sugar cookie eggnog.

They've stopped making it. I have contacted the company about this, but there was nothing I could do to change it. They stuck with their decision. Now, if you were to think that sounds crazy to ride an hour and a half one way to get sugar cookie eggnog, if you were to say that to me, you would sound an awful lot like a person who's never had sugar cookie eggnog. Because if you had it, I think you would change your mind on that. But there's a reality to there are certain things that are worth it to us.

It's worth it. It's valuable that we go. This this is absolutely worth it. And then there are other things that you go. No, that's that's not worth it. That's crazy.

You do what you wake up at five a.m. to run. What is someone chasing you? Stop it. Like like for me, expensive sunglasses. It's not worth it. Every time someone's like, look at this, they're super expensive.

I'm like, they're going to fall off your head in the water like I don't that you're going to lose. You're going to sit on. Why do you have these? But I might get caught spending some money on a watch or a pair of boots because that seems worth it to me. At any given time, you might see me and all of my clothes came from Walmart except for my watch and my boots, because that's worth it to me. That's worth the exchange.

We're doing this all the time. And I don't know what it is for you. I don't know if it's vehicles or vacations or video games. I don't know what you pick to say. This is worth. This has value.

This is something I'll give up time for. This is something I'll give energy to. But we're doing that all the time. And that's something that first John's pressing on here is he's helping us see our value system. And he's kind of poking at it. He's saying, I want to point something out to you.

I want to help you see something because there may be an issue here. There may be some breakdown here on how we're valuing things. There might be something wrong with our math when it comes to deciding what's worth it and what isn't. So let's pray and then we'll read this text together. God, I ask for your help this morning. In order for us to do what John's going to call us to, we need you at work inside of us.

That we cannot generate what we need, but we need you to help open our eyes to it and to fill us. And so, Lord, we ask for your help. We pray that you'd help us to see it. But then we pray that ultimately through your spirit you'd help us to respond. In Jesus' name. Amen.

So 1 John 3, verses 16 and 17. He says, By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Okay, so he says this is the Christian picture of love, is what Christ did for us on the cross. That's how we define love. That's how we understand love. That's how we've come to know love, is this self-sacrificing love.

It's love that lays down its life. And he says, Therefore, that's the type of people that we are, and so we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Now, in the Bible, it tells us to love our enemies. It tells us to love our neighbors. But John here specifically has in mind this distinct love that is to happen inside the household of the church.

Inside the household, the family of those who belong to Jesus. And so he says, This is how we ought to love our brothers and sisters, our siblings in Christ. That is supposed to be this type of love, this sacrifice and lay down your life kind of love for our church family. This is one of the reasons why Charles Spurgeon says that the church is the dearest place on earth. That it's meant to be this type of love, where there's grace and joy and service. He keeps going.

He says, But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? So he says that negatively. But the positive picture of that is that as God's love abides in us as Christians, we're just open-handed with each other. That we're just generous with each other. That if we see Christian brothers and sisters who have need, stuff just flows through our hand to them. That's what he's saying.

And he says, If that doesn't happen, If you see a brother or sister in Christ in need and you have the stuff but you don't help, He says there's something wrong with your math. You're doing the value wrong. You're not looking at this correctly. That's what he's getting at. And I want us, we're going to jump to Luke chapter 14. And then we'll come back to 1 John.

But I want us to move to Luke chapter 14. Where Jesus is interacting with the Pharisees. And we see this same kind of thing. That he presses on this same idea. So it's Luke chapter 14 verses 1 through 6 is what we're going to look at.

But it's the same idea. And he's going to interact with the Pharisees on this same idea. And then we'll come back to 1 John. Because 1 John, they're both kind of pointing out the same thing. So I want us to spend a little time in this story this morning.

So it says this. One Sabbath, when he, that's Jesus, Went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. They were watching him carefully. Okay. If you've been following along in Luke. If you know what's happening at this point in Luke.

You understand that we've just set this story up to be some conflict. Because we have Jesus. We have rulers of the Pharisees. And it's on a Sabbath. Every time you're reading in the Gospels. And it says on the Sabbath.

There's a good chance there's about to be some tension. Because Jesus, when he interacts with the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of the day. And he's actually at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. He's been invited to his house. So the Pharisees didn't quite know what to do with Jesus.

He obviously had some spiritual authority. He was a teacher. He was performing miracles. So all that was good. He was proclaiming some good news. But he wasn't acting the way they wanted him to act.

And so there was part of them that was drawn to him. And wanted to kind of incorporate him. But they wanted to kind of get him to fall in line with them. And so when he didn't or when he wouldn't. It was a problem. So they're still kind of keeping an eye on him.

And testing is he really from God. And is he doing things right. And one of the primary markers for the Pharisees at this time. Because they were aggressively going to keep the rules. Was the Sabbath. It was one of the only things that marked them as distinct.

Or one of the main things. Not one of the only. One of the main things that marked them as distinct. From the rest of culture. That they took Saturday as a Sabbath. It was a holy day.

They didn't work. They didn't sell. They didn't buy. They didn't even cook. They cooked the day before. And then they would have the Sabbath.

Where they would go to the synagogue. And they marked them as distinct from the Roman Empire. And so when Jesus showed up. And started breaking some of their Sabbath regulations. Not sinning. But breaking some of the Sabbath regulations.

The Pharisees did not like that at all. So they invite him to their house to eat. He's at the house of a ruler. But they're watching him closely. Not. Not.

This isn't a nice watching. They're not adoring him. They're trying to catch him. And so here's what it says. And behold. There was a man before him.

Who had dropsy. Now. It was common. For them to eat. On like a porch. Quite possible.

That they're eating kind of outside. And that people. Would be able to kind of view. What was going on. It doesn't seem likely. That this guy is a guest.

Of the meal. But he could be. But it doesn't seem likely. But he's there in front of Jesus. And seems. To want to be healed.

He has dropsy. Which. The common word. We would call this. Edema. Which is.

Certain parts of his body. Would fill up with fluid. And so that his whole arm. Might swell up. Or his legs. Might swell up.

Or both. And it can get very. Big. And very painful. And it can. Go to a lot of your limbs.

Or it can go to just one. But. It would have been a big. Noticable. Painful. Encumbrance.

And so he's there. In front of Jesus. And he's. It just says. He's in front of him. He's before him.

And it says. Jesus responded. To the lawyers and Pharisees. Them staring him down. I guess. He says.

Is it lawful. To heal. On the Sabbath. Or not. That's why they're watching. Let me see if he's going to break the Sabbath.

So he says. Let me ask you a question. Is it lawful. To heal. On the Sabbath. Or not.

But they remained. Silent. Which usually. When they remain silent. Is that they have an answer. They just don't like their answer.

They don't have to go on record. Saying it out loud. They hadn't learned. What our politicians. Have learned. Which is just answer.

A different question. That you want to talk about. But. They didn't do that. So they just stare at him.

Then he took him. And healed him. And sent him away. That sending him away part. Is one of the reasons. Why I think he probably.

Wasn't invited to the meal. I think he was hanging out. Jesus heals him. Sends him home. Because if it was part of the meal. He would just heal him.

And then be like. Pass the potatoes. Jesus. So he heals him. And sends him home. Then he turns back to them.

And he says to them. Which of you. Having a son. Or an ox. That has fallen into a well. On the Sabbath day.

Will not immediately pull him out. And they could not reply. To these things. Okay. They didn't like that he healed him. They caught him.

He's a Sabbath breaker. Gotcha. But he looks at him. And he says. Which of you. Who has a son.

Or an ox. That falls in a well. On the Sabbath. Will not immediately get him out. Now. It's a good question.

If your son falls in a well. That's terrifying. I recently went. I like roller coasters and stuff. I recently went. On the scariest.

One of those kind of like. Amusement park rides. I've ever been on. In my entire life. Absolutely. Thrill ride of doom.

Terrifying. You know the fair. The one that's right over here. I pointed. Hold on. This is going to mess me up.

I get turned around in this building all the time. I'm not going to point. Take me a second. I really want to point. The fair. The fair.

All right. You know the fair. Fair. That has a little like chair lift thing. That's like a ski lift thing. But it just takes you from one side of the fair to the other.

I rode that. But with a little twist. I took a three-year-old. Yeah. So. I saw other people doing this.

And I was like. It'll be fun. They got little kids dangling up in the sky. I can do that. I was terrified. I get up there.

All there's this one little bar. And I don't know if you've ever like sat with a kid at a picnic table. But they're going to find a way to fall out. And smack their head on something. So this is just awful.

And I'm holding a three-year-old. So I put him in my lap. And I like. Kung fu monkey death gripped him. He's not going anywhere. And the whole ride.

I'm just like. This was a mistake. We should not be on this. Because there's a couple things that are just extremely terrifying with children. Heights is one of them. Water is another one.

It takes an inch of water and 30 seconds for a child to drown. Water is terrifying. And so I just held on to this kid. So if you ever want to have like a really, really scary ride. Take a small child on one of those things. It was terrifying.

I was like. Afterwards. Like I was about to get in a fist fight or something. Had adrenaline pumping. So he says if your son falls in a well.

Let me tell you what happens if your son falls in a well. You do immediately exactly what you need to do to get your son out of the well. No hesitation. I don't care what that is. You jump in the well. If your son's down in a well.

And you can't see him. And he's not responding. And he's not old enough to swim. You're in that well. Very, very quickly. Holding the kid above your head.

If my son's going to drown in a well. If that's what's going to happen. I'm going to have to drown with him. That's what happens when your son falls in a well. And he says. How many of you.

If your son falls in a well. Go. Hold on. Ah. It's the Sabbath. None of them.

He says the same for your ox. Your ox falls in a well. You're not. You're just. You're going to save it. No questions.

No considerations. But what's the response. When he says. How many of you. If your son or your ox falls in a well. What's.

But it's my son. It's my son. And if you follow that up. What's the response. I love my son. Jesus says.

Exactly. That's what he's pointing out to them. The problem. Isn't that this is the Sabbath. The problem is. You don't love this man.

That's what he's getting at. We haven't run into a Sabbath issue. We've run into a heart level love. Issue. Y'all don't care about this guy. You care about your ox.

But you don't care about him. And I want us to see something. Jesus. Sees this man. And loves this man. Because that's who Jesus is.

And he heals this man. Because that's what Jesus came to do. When Jesus is healing people. In the gospels. It's a foretaste. Of ultimately.

What he's going to accomplish. On the cross. It's a foretaste. Of what his kingdom. Is going to be like. If you were hiring.

A chef. You might would talk about. Where they'd studied. You might would talk about. Other jobs they had. But eventually.

They'd cook you some food. Not all the food. That they know how to cook. But some of it. To give you a taste. Of the way that they can cook.

And when Jesus comes. What he's doing. When he heals somebody. When he. When he offers salvation to somebody. In a certain way.

When he casts out the enemy. Or when he brings somebody back to health. What he's doing. Is giving us a foretaste. Of what he's ultimately come to accomplish. And he's ultimately.

Going to pay with his life. For this. Type of healing. But not just for this man. But for all of us.

That all of us. Are in need. Of Jesus's redemption. He sees this man. He loves this man. And he.

Heals this man. Because ultimately. What he came to do. Is to see you. And to love you. And to heal you.

But the Pharisees. Don't see it. Y'all. They miss the miracle. They see somebody. Healed from dropsy.

Goes from being swollen. And in pain. To just fine. Jesus turns. Jesus turns. While he's at lunch.

And heals somebody. If you were. Eating with somebody. And they just had to perform. Like. I don't know.

A tracheotomy. On somebody. Or they did some quick heart surgery. And then they just came right back. To eating. And they.

They don't even acknowledge this. They don't see. How wonderful. And glorious. And beautiful this is. They don't see the power.

That Jesus has. All they can see. Is that he broke the Sabbath. They miss the miracle completely. Because they don't care about this guy. They don't celebrate.

He does. His family does. I'm sure. But they don't. Because they don't care. How often.

Do we do that? We're in the presence. Of some miraculous work of the Lord. And we just can't see it. You ever hanging out. With your community group.

Somebody brings up. The same sin struggle. They've been bringing up. And you think. Oh here we go again. Here's your same old mess.

Do what? Here's a person. Who Jesus is bringing along. Who is actively fighting sin. Which I don't know. If you've ever tried to do.

Is difficult. Actively fighting sin. Walking in community. Saying it out loud. In front of a group of people. And I'm sitting over here.

Saying here we go again. Or worse. They show up. And they're finally. Getting out of some of this. They're finally changing some of this.

And my thought is about time. Really? Jesus is actively working. Redemption in someone's life. Helping them break free from sin. Helping them change who they are.

Which I don't know. If you've ever tried to change. Something about yourself. But it's difficult. And Jesus has to miraculously work in us. To make us different.

And instead of celebrating joyously. For the work of Christ. In the life of somebody. We just sit around and go. Yeah okay. About time.

Thanks. Maybe you'll be less annoying. We're with someone. And they give generously to someone else. Someone asks of them around the street. And they give to them.

And what do we think? They're just going to waste it. You're really helping that person? There's a reason why they're in this position. And we miss the grace. And the generosity.

Of Jesus at work in somebody. To hand some stuff away. We miss it. You see. The answer that they have. They don't answer him.

But the answer that they have. Is well I care about my son. I care about my ox. And that's the exact problem. Is they don't care about this man. And John's pressing on the same idea.

He's not looking at the Sabbath. He's looking at our stuff. The problem wasn't that Jesus broke the Sabbath. The problem was that their hearts were off. And John in 1 John. If we go back to 1 John.

Chapter 3. He's got in mind. He's holding up for us. Worldly goods. The things that you own. And brothers and sisters in Christ indeed.

And he says if the things that we own. Won't just be handed over. The problem. Is a love problem. The problem is that we. Care about our stuff.

Don't care that much about them. He says this. How. How. How. Does God's love.

Abide. In him. Says if he closes his heart against him. How does God's love. Abide in him. See the.

The response to this. Is not for you. To muster up more love. Because it's not your love. It's God's love. It's not for you to go.

Okay. I gotta be more loving. I gotta just figure out. How to make myself love this person. Let me just stare at him. And see if I can fall in love.

And then maybe I'll give him my iPod. Or whatever the heck. I'm supposed to do here. It's not. It's not your love. That animates this.

It's God's love. In us. That animates this. It's his love. Abiding in us. That overflows.

Out of us. And that's the type of love. We have to have. Because the reality is. That loving sinners. Is extremely difficult.

But Jesus does it excellently. And so those of us. Who are overwhelmed. And filled by the love. Of Christ. Get to do that.

Get to participate. In this type of love. So I want to take just a second. And not try to tell you. That you need to be more loving. I want to take just a second.

And tell you the type of love. That our God has. For you. This is written to Christians. If you are a Christian. God's disposition.

Towards you. Is. Love. He's not frustrated with you. He's not upset with you. He's not looking at you.

And saying about time. Get it together. You are not. Welcomed into the family of God. On some sort of technicality. It's not like everybody else.

Was welcomed in. And you get to sneak in. At the back of the pack. He. Loves. That if you belong to Christ.

You're the son. Or the daughter. That fell in the well. And he didn't think twice. About diving in. To rescue.

And to redeem. Because of his great love. For us. That he paid for your sins. Because of his great. Love.

For you. Paul. Writing in Ephesians. Says. Here's my prayer for y'all. I pray that y'all.

Would just begin to. Have be filled. With the power of the spirit. To wrap your head around. The length. And breadth.

And height. And depth. And to know the love of Christ. That surpasses knowledge. He says. This is.

His love. Is unfathomable. And I hope you can just start. Getting your head around it. You ever stood. On the edge.

Of the coast. And just stared at the ocean. And saw how big it was. Paul says. I wish you'd get in a boat. And go out there.

And be in a place. Where all you can see is ocean. I wish that you would start. To dive to the depths. And go until it crushes you. And you realize.

That there's no way. You could have gotten to the bottom. I wish that his. Power of his spirit. Began to fill you. To understand.

How wide. And how deep. And how miraculous. And how unending. His love is towards you. Because that's the kind of love.

We have in Christ. God's love poured out for us. In Christ. That he would redeem sinners. That he would purchase sinners. And you say.

Well I'm not that lovable. He probably doesn't love me. Do not belittle the love of Christ. Do you see a child. Protecting a cricket. It's not that the cricket is glorious.

It's that the child is kind. And Jesus Christ is glorious. And he redeems. And he saves. Because he's good. And because he loves.

And that love is for you. It is a wildfire of love. For you. A love that does not destroy. But protects.

A love that keeps. A love that claims. A love that holds. A love that brings you on. Unendingly into glory with him. Jesus says.

Not only that he came and died. To redeem us from our sins. But he says. I go to prepare a place for you. He says. You're moving into my house.

I love you so much. You're going to stay forever with me. That he prefers us. I don't know if you have someone in your life like this. But if you pick up the phone.

And you call them. They want to talk to you. And they just want to keep talking to you. You have people in your life. That they're hard to get off the phone with. God's love for us.

Is a preferential love. That he pours out on his children. That he wants. Us. That's what he says in 1 John 3. He says.

See what great love the father has lavished on us. That we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. This love for us in Christ. That redeems us. And that makes us part of the family.

Is the animating love. That is at work in our hearts. And so we are first loved. And then we get to respond in love. That's what he says in verse 18. He says.

Little children. Let us not love in word or talk. But in deed. And in truth. That verse gives me a lot of courage. A lot of comfort.

You ever feel like. I must be the only Christian. Who is getting this wrong. I must be the only Christian. Who when someone asks for something. It just catches in my soul.

And I really don't want to give up the thing. Like maybe everybody else here. Really loves their brothers and sisters in Christ. And they are super generous. And I have a hard time with this. You ever feel like that?

Just me? So I really am the only one. Alright. It's cool. I love that these verses are in the scriptures. Where he corrects a thing that's wrong in me.

Because it means it was also wrong in them. And that God and his grace is at work in them. And he's also at work in me. That if there was no sin. If there was no trouble. If there would be no need to write it.

There would be no need for him to pen this letter. And say. Y'all need to grow a little bit. You need to change a little bit. If it was always just perfectly worked out by the spirit. And Christians never had a problem.

He'd never have to pen this letter. But he writes and says. Y'all need to grow a little bit. You need to soak in this love a little bit. You need the love of God to abide in you. We need to respond this way.

This is what we ought to look like. And this is what makes the church beautiful. That we love each other. Because we're animated by this unending. Deep. Forgiving.

Gracious. Forever. Ferocious. Love. Of Christ. For us.

And so we just get to swim in it. So someone in your church family needs something. We ought not to hesitate. We ought to just say. Yeah what do you need? How do I get it to you?

I've got one of those. I've got two of those. Come on. I can handle that. I can help pay that. Someone in our church family is sick.

So we just go spend time with them. We take some food to them. Or we go sit with them in the hospital. There's part of us that thinks. I've got better things to do. Than to sit in the hospital.

And the reality is. Inside the love of Christ. No you really don't. This is a glorious thing to do. Somebody in your church family needs some help. So you give up.

A very very precious Saturday. You answer the phone in the evening. And you go to someone's house. Or you have them over to your house. Somebody in your group is down or sad. And you know it.

So you go get around them on purpose. We're taught by culture to avoid sad people. But Christians don't. And you know what happens. If you're happy. And you go hang around a sad person.

You trade some of your happiness. For some of their sadness. You leave a little more sad. It's just how it works. But when you leave there a little more happy.

That's the type of substitutionary love. That we see in Christ. That he trades out his righteousness for our sin. And we leave righteous. And he leaves in sin. To be crushed on a cross.

And to rise victorious. We are animated by this wonderful love of God on our behalf. The band is going to come back up. The response to this is to not try to muscle up love. The response to this is to try to sit in. And wrap your mind around.

And be filled with the power of the love of Christ for you. If you are in Christ. You are dearly loved. And you are empowered by his love to love. This is how we get to respond. This is how we get to live.

If you are not a Christian. This love is offered to you. This welcome is offered to you. This invitation to be a part of this family is offered to you. This redemption is offered to you. It will not forever be offered.

But it can be forever yours if you will accept the offer. The king has come. He has been born among men. To redeem men. He has come to earth to redeem humanity. He has paid the price of our sin.

And he has offered amnesty. And salvation and forgiveness to all who will come to him. Come. Ask him to forgive you. Ask him to redeem you. And feel the overwhelming love of Christ for you.

And be brought into this glorious home. And Christians. May we celebrate. That our king has come. And that he has worked his love for us. And that his love fills us.

And then may we respond. As those who are overflowing. With the love of Christ. In generosity. And graciousness. And kindness.

And service. To one another. In the church family. The dearest place on earth. Let's pray.

God. God. God. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for this love. That lays down your life for us.

This love that redeems us from our sin. This love. That invites us. To be your children. And calls us into your home. And may we live.

As if our sins are forgiven. Our eternity. Is set. Our home. Is secure. Our hope.

Is held forever. In the resurrected Christ. So that worldly things. Possessions. Our stuff. Our money.

Does not matter. But your people do. And may we be able to respond. In love. As you fill us. And lead us.

In Jesus name. Amen.

Lay Down Your Life (1 John 3:16-18)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Lay Down Your Life

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We are in our Give Series this month and every year we get to pause from whatever sermon series we're doing and we get to walk through the Give Series together. It is our opportunity in the season that we celebrate the gift of Christmas that Jesus was gifted to humanity. We get to respond to that generosity by setting in the call as Christians to live generously towards others.

We get to tackle a Give project every year which is a real action step for us to live generously towards others. We get to have awesome bumpers made like that that just celebrate the season. And it's a fun time for us to pause every year and do this. We typically or sometimes we'll jump into a completely new set of texts but we've been going through 1 John over the last few months and we got to 1 John 3 and it lines up fairly well with where we are in this Give project. So we are in verses 10 through 18.

That's what Chet introduced last week and we're posting up in the back end of that in 16 through 18 today to look at this a little more closely. He says in 1 John 3 verses 16 through 18. He says, By this we know love that He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but indeed in truth. But Chet introduced this last week and we're going to spend more time on it today that God loves the world.

He loves the world but there's something special and specific about the people of God. That He loves us specially and deeply and as Christians we're called to love everyone. But there's this elevator we see in the New Testament, this sense of you're called to love deeply your brothers and sisters in Christ. So we introduced last week that in line with that idea, this Give Project specifically, we are tackling blessing. Some brothers and sisters in the faith who are in need. And then we stumbled upon an opportunity with Bethel Christian Camp.

So Bethel Christian Camp is a camp we've been connected to for years. Isaac Hill, who's on staff with us. His dad Jarl Hill is the executive director of Bethel Christian Camp. Their mission is to help make disciples throughout the summer of campers. And specifically they have a lot of focus on under-resourced families. So we love them.

We've partnered with them for years. And an opportunity came to us when Jarl said we're hiring a new program director. His name is Jason Earhart. So Jason, his wife Christine, and their four kids are moving down from Virginia. And they're going to move into an 1,100 square foot house. Jordan, you can go ahead and throw that up there.

They're going to move into this house. Okay. So it's a family of six moving into this 1,100 square foot house. And this house in particular needs a lot of love. So they said we need to do a lot of renovations on it.

We heard about it. We said, all right, we're in. How much do you need us to raise? So we need about $17,000 to renovate this house for this family who's moving down here to partner with Bethel Christian Camp and make disciples of children. So we're excited about this, this opportunity.

This family is making a sacrifice. So Jason is taking a pay cut to come down here. And a family of six is going to live in a smaller house. But they care deeply about the mission of Bethel. They care about making disciples. And we said, you know what, we want to bless this family.

Before they move down in February, let's raise the money. In January, let's go over there. Let's do some work. It needs HVAC. It needs renovations on the inside. Completely paint.

Kitchen. You name it. We said, all right, we're all in on this. Let's do this. That's the gift project that Chet introduced last week. We are excited about it.

But before we continue in this, I want to sit specifically in this idea that would compel us to actually love them well. That would compel us to rally around this and actually bless this family. And it is this specific idea of laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters in Christ. I want to sit in that and then examine some of the reasons why we actually might struggle to do this. So, let me pray. And then we will jump in today.

Lord, we love you. We are thankful for your goodness and your kindness towards us. God, I pray that you would help us worship this morning, knowing that that is true. Worship you because you're worthy. Worship you because you are generous towards us. But that you would stir in us a desire to want to love one another well.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so pull the text back up. Let's walk through this. It says, By this we know love. That he laid down his life for us.

And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. This is brothers, brothers and sisters in Christ. The family of God. But, verse 17. If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.

At Christmas, we get to celebrate that God in his love and his humility came for us. And that doesn't register like it should. Because God is big. He made everything. He made the universe in all of its glory. A few weeks back, I was reading Garden and Gun, which is a magazine that I get.

It's a magazine that I like. And I was reading it and it said that 80% of Americans have never seen the Milky Way. And I was like, I've never seen the Milky Way. You can see that with a naked eye. And then you like go to different, like there are different places that have, around the world that are called dark sites that have less light pollution. You can look up when the sky is right and see the Milky Way.

So I like went all in and looked at pictures and videos and started making plans. Like I want to see this because it's unbelievable to look up at the heavens and see the galaxy. And when you look at that, you just feel so small because the sight is so big. And when you take a step back as a Christian, you realize God made that and it's small to him. Like it doesn't compare. It's a passing worth and his glory.

That's how big our God is. When you understand how big our God is, you understand how much he loves us. That he came for us. That Jesus left the comforts of heaven. And he came for us. Like when you sit in that reality, it's just overwhelming that at Christmas, Jesus loves us so much that he laid down his life and he came for us.

Once you press into that, it says, by this we know love that he laid down his life for us. By this we know Christ who is love. When you understand and believe and are immersed and are infatuated with who he is, it says that his love is going to abide in us. And more specifically, the things that he cares about. We're going to care about. That's what happens when you love someone.

Like a few weeks back, I got to officiate my sister's wedding and it was an exciting time for me. It was the most fun wedding I've ever been to. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The ceremony was beautiful. I was so glad that I got to be a part of it. One of the things I got to share with the people who were there was that I knew that my sister was falling for this guy.

When one weekend I was talking to my mom. I was like, what's Kat? What's my sister? What's she doing this weekend? I said, well, she's at a NASCAR race. I said, wait, what?

Huh? She never, like NASCAR was never on her radar. She was a beauty pageant. She queen. She was a cheerleader. Like, she was dainty.

Like, she, no. Like, at a NASCAR race. And I found out later, oh, yeah, she's also, she goes camping with him. Camping in the outdoors. Are you serious? I was like, man, she's falling for this guy.

That she would, and that's what happens. When you love someone, you become about what they're about, right? You start to love their interests. You start to care about the things that they care about. When you love Christ, you care about what he cares about. You're all in.

And when he says, love your church family. Love your brothers and sisters. That's what you care about. And he's highlighting this is what we should do. Yet you close your heart. That's what he's saying.

You close your heart. The KJV here says, shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him. When you look at all the translations alongside that, it's like, man, that one's a little different. But actually, it's probably the most closest to the text. What it's conveying there is that the innermost part of you. That the love of Christ should impact the innermost part of you.

And when you shut your heart, when you close that off, you are stopping the love of God that should flow through you. And we feel this. When you see something, you're like, man, someone should do something about this. When you see a Compassion International ad and you see children that are in deep need. Whatever thing that you come across that just starts to prod at your heart. You feel this feeling rise up inside you.

That someone should do something. And then something stops us often. And that's the closing of our heart. It damns up the river of compassions that should flow through us. We should look at Christ. Behold him for who he is.

And when we're doing that, his compassion flows through us. But we stop it. That's the problem that John is addressing here. And he has a question for us. He says, how can God's love abide in you if you're willing to close your heart? How can the love of God reside in you, flow through you?

How could Christ be the most important, beautiful, worthy of worship being in the universe for us if you don't love his people? If you don't love the church? If you love Christ, he will capture your heart. And you absolutely will. But there's something in us.

There's something in us that guides to break down the walls that we close off towards showing compassion towards others. And he goes on to say in verse 18, like this isn't a compassion that flows through you that is just talked about. This is not mere words. This isn't just saying someone should do something about this. Someone with means should do something about this. That the heart of a Christian breaks for his brother and sister and says, amen, what can I do?

What do you need from me, Lord? How can I help? That's what John's trying to inspire in these churches he's writing to. That's what the scriptures are pleading with us to do as well. Especially in the American church. In the American church, we have some of the most collective, the highest collective wealth of almost any church in the history of humanity.

And we have a lot of wealth in America and in the American church. And in our church, we're not, you know, we're not killing it, right? We're just not. Like we were a blue collar, middle class. Like that's who we are. But so you might think, okay, well, other churches can go for this even harder because they have more.

But the reality is when you look at us compared to the global church, it's like, no, we have an incredible amount of means. We have incredible ability to bless other Christians, to invest in other ministries, to do, to give. But there's something in us, even in our own selves, even in our own hearts, that stops us all the time. And that's what we're trying to see. That's what John's trying to diagnose. And it's what he's trying to help us see.

There's something in us that keeps us from doing that. So I want to ask some questions. I want to diagnose this a little bit to see what it is that actually keeps us from having a heart that's filled with the compassion and love of Christ. And it's extended towards others. And it's not to, hear this, it's not to do a guilt trip. Okay?

A guilt trip might get you to open your checkbook for this gift project. And that's fine for a moment. But what we need is God to continue to mold and shape and break our hearts so that we might continuously live in generosity and tap into the benefits and the goodness that is found in that type of obedience. We need that. But we need to look at when he says, by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us.

That phrasing there, we need to actually sit in that. That if Jesus is the one by which we know love and his sacrifice and his laying down of his life is something that we need to stare at, be consumed with, and to learn from. That I want to take a few minutes to walk through a few different teachings, a few different things that Jesus did to help us see how Jesus modeled this so that we might be a people that can do this well. And as we walk through a few different things, there are four things I want us to see. If we examine kind of the problem beneath the surface within us that keeps us from doing this, then we have a chance at seeing the love of Christ flow through us.

There are four things I want us to see as we walk through this. First, I want us to see this life in light of eternity. See this life in light of eternity. Second, I want us to see our stuff in light of eternity. We're going to see that's two sides of the same coin there. Three, I want us to see church family as family.

And fourth, I want us to see the sacrifice of Christ. So, four things I want us to see. All right, four. The first two things I want us to see this morning. I want to look at one text from Matthew 6, the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus is teaching in verses 19 and 20. He says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. All right, let's sit in this passage for a moment. Let's first see this life in light of eternity. One of the things that we fail to see as Christians is that eternity, okay? 60 million plus years into infinity. That is greater than 80 years.

That equation makes sense on paper. That millions and billions of years is greater than just 80 years. But we don't functionally live like that's true sometimes. We miss that. And when he says, But if anyone has the world's goods, We don't see that. That eternity is longer than just 80 years in this life.

So I want it to be very practical for a moment. When you enter the workforce, Okay? 18, 20, 25, whenever that is for you. When you enter the workforce, You've got 60 to 70 years ahead of you, If you are fortunate. And here's what happens. This is what the world sells us on.

Make as much money as possible. So that you can purchase comfort now. And have some comforts now. And throw money ahead in the future. So you can have a nest egg of comfort later.

That's the American dream. Buy what you can now. Store up for the comfort that you can have later. Go hard after this. It's the reason why right now you see a ton of advertisers on TV that are selling you on. This is what makes you feel good.

Like you see a Lexus commercial. And it says, Buy this with a big red bow on it at Christmastime. It feels good. Which those commercials annoy me for various reasons. First off, Who springs a Lexus on their spouse and gets away with it? Like that, You've got to be in a way different tax bracket to pull it off.

Secondly, Those commercials are almost always with a snowy backdrop. And it's like, Listen, That is only some parts of the country. Like y'all are missing it. It's neither here nor there. But, You get sold on this idea of purchasing comfort. Now, Make sure you save enough for later.

Make sure that when you're 65, You can buy an RV and go all around the country. That you can play golf as much as you want. So that you can travel to Europe. That you can see all the parts of the world. So that you can get the most out of this life right now.

That's the American dream that is given to us. And I want to be very practical here. Nobody here is in the 1%. Alright? We're just, None of us are killing it. Here's why this is really important.

Because if I was speaking to a bunch of people who were absolutely loaded, Packed in the ceiling, It would be a different thing. I would touch different things. But I want to be real practical for us for a moment. If you go hard after that American dream, As middle class people, You can't live generously. The margins aren't there. You can't do it.

You don't have the means to do it. If you've got to upgrade your car every three to five years, If you've got to upgrade your house every three to five years, Which when I was doing more real estate, I saw over and over again, When you've got to continuously throw large chunks of money at your retirement, And do the basics. Like eat. Feed yourself. Feed your family if you've got family. Eat your home.

Which is really painful these days. With inflation and everything that's happening. And then you've got to subscribe to like 15 different things. Because that's now the basics for us in America. But, When you do all of these things, And then you look at your budget if you have one, Or you look at your bank account if you don't. You're like, I don't know how I can live generously.

I don't know how I can give to anything. And you see a need that arises. Or the Christians need help. And it's like, I don't know how I can swing this. The reason we can't swing this, Is because of all the things, That we gear our lives toward in this life right now. Because we've lost sight that we're going towards eternity.

We've lost sight of that eternity is greater than, The 80 years that are in this life. So here's how this could look differently for us. You enter the workforce. Alright? And you've got 60 to 70 years. Or right now, You're rethinking your life.

You've got 30, 20, 40, How many of your years left you've got in front of you. You say, I am going to make an impact for the kingdom, With the time that I have on this earth. Randy Alcorn in the, I think it's the treasury principle, He says, Nothing makes a journey more difficult than a heavy backpack, Filled with nice but unnecessary things. Pilgrims travel light. Like, you own that. And it's like, There's a lot of unnecessary things that I could accumulate, But I don't live for this life.

Like, I don't need this. I'm living for eternity. I'm going to travel light. So what you do is, Is you leverage your life for the kingdom of God. You leverage your life, Your time. And you organize that in a way that you can serve the local church.

You structure your budget in a way that reflects your values. That you don't take positions and jobs that consume your life, That make your job your object of worship. That you leverage your life for the kingdom. That you pass on goods. The world's goods. And everything that will be offered to you, On a regular basis.

Why? Because you believe that that life in eternity is better. Because you see Christians that are in front of you that are eternal. Pitted alongside the things that you could purchase. Like, no, I want to be able to bless those who are in need. That you orient your life around this understanding that life is eternal.

And every decision you make for work and for spending and everything flows through that. That you live modestly because your eye is on the eternal prize. Because you believe that temporary comfort is less than eternal joy. And that is the anthem for how you live. And in the world's goods, that's just a tool. Money.

Stuff. That's just things. That's just a tool. That allows you to take care of your needs and your family and your life. But also be generous towards others.

That we miss this when we exchange it. When we mess this up and we say the end is the things we can purchase. That's how we fall prey to the American dream. We travel light because we know this life is temporary. We pack. And this life has a Christian understanding that it is light because we're living for the next one.

My wife and I, we're getting ready to go to Disney World on Saturday. Which I think I said this two weeks ago. Don't tell my kids. Because my wife will harm you. But it's a surprise of them.

But we are getting ready to go to Disney World. We are going to pack with that in mind. After my wife spent all week packing, I said, Babe, guess what? I want to take the piano with me to Disney World. She'd be like, You are crazy. What are you thinking?

It's a temporary trip. Here, we pack accordingly. In this life, we carry the things that we need. Because our mind is in eternity. Alright, here's the second side of that coin. Second, see our stuff in light of eternity.

So you've got to see your life in light of eternity, but you've got to see your stuff in light of eternity. Alright. Our economy is built off of consumerism. Not a huge shock. Alright. Our economy is built off consumerism.

Advertisements are geared towards helping you see that if you had this product, how good would you feel? How much better would your life be? Right? You see something, scroll across on Instagram, and they're previewing the product. And you're like, I want that. That's going to be good.

Like you see something on TV, and it's like, man, I would look so good in that, driving that. Like that's the whole goal. To help create this need or want in you, and for you to buy that, to fulfill that need. Now, this is what I would love to see happen. Is that if you purchased something, or if you saw something that they wanted you to purchase, and they advertised that product, and then they fast-forwarded like a year, or two years, or three years, or ten years, and they showed you the same product. They showed your iPhone all cracked up.

They showed your car with a bunch of dents in it. Like we need that. Like if the buy now button on Amazon showed the product that they were selling first picture, like let me see the second picture, and it's you throwing it in the trash in six months. Like how much money would you not spend at Amazon, right? Like the picture for us would be six months later selling it on Facebook for sale or wanted for like $5. Come buy it.

Like if we had that, like I want to show you, this is the side-by-side. This is a Samsung phone, right? It looks very sleek and nice. I've never owned a Samsung phone, but that looks very nice. And you look at this, and it's like, man, I want that. But if you just had, I took a screenshot for sale for sale for you wanted.

And that's, that, I don't know how long ago a Galaxy S9 was. But when that was out, man, that was happening. Like that was it. And this person is sadly selling it. There's no way they're going to sell that. But they're selling that for $80.

Please buy this. Like if you just had that mindset, the things that you purchased just don't last. Man, how much more freeing will we live? How much easier it would be to say no to things? It's like, that's why I love how practical Matthew 6 is. How practical Jesus' teaching is.

He says, why would you leverage your money and your hope and some of your anxiety about buying that? Why would you leverage it for things that moth and rust destroy? Translation. Translation. Things that end up, end up in a landfill. Why do we do this to ourselves?

It doesn't last. I mean, it's, I mean, it doesn't last like it did 30 years ago. They don't even build things for you to like buy and repair things now. Like I, I buy something and I want to repair it. And it's like, no, you can't. You must replace it.

I'm like, this is rigged. Like I want, this is ridiculous. Like do you buy, now you just got to buy things and replace things. Like it doesn't last. Like we need to see that. Because what happens is, is that we close our hearts towards other Christians who are in need for that.

We close our hearts towards other Christians in need for stuff that will not last. You need to see that picture right there pitted against a brother or sister in need. And Jesus says, sow up treasures in heaven. That's better. And the New Testament teaching on that is, is that listen, we, we believe that that by the blood of Christ, by grace through faith, he redeems us, he rescues us and brings us into the family of God. But once you are a Christian, there is this teaching that you are storing up riches in heaven.

That your works matter now in Christ. That there's some kind of heavenly reward. And we don't know what that is. Like we don't have real strong pictures for that. But Jesus says it's good.

He says it's eternal riches. Live as if eternity is true. Live as if the stuff that you can buy in this life will not last. It's not worth your hopes. It's not worth your desires. Don't fall for it.

Three. Three. See church family as family. See church family as family. It's going to be difficult for us to actually love to lay down our lives for brothers and sisters in Christ. If you don't view them as brothers and sisters.

We don't have a shot at doing that. If we don't see family, church family in the way that Jesus calls us to. Jesus in Matthew 12. His family is trying to get a hold of him. And we walked through this in the Gospel of Matthew a few years ago. I want to read this.

Because I think this is incredibly important for us to understand. He says. It says while he was still speaking to the people. He's been teaching. It says behold. His mother and his brothers stood outside.

Asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him. Who is my mother? And who are my brothers? And stretching out his hand towards his disciples. He said.

Here are my mothers and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my father in heaven. Is my brother and sister and mother. Now. Jesus. Loves.

His mama. Okay. Fact. Go to the end of the Gospel of John. Jesus. Loves his mama.

He honors his family. He's not denigrating his family. Not doing that at all. He is elevating. The eternal family of God. He's trying to help us see.

That the eternal. Family. Of God. Matters. We need that. Alright.

Because a cultural southern value. For us. Is family. Like we care a lot about it down south. I love when Hollywood tries to write. TV shows.

And movie scripts. And capture. That idea. It's just like. They. They think everything for us is Hatfields and McCoys.

That if you cross your brother or your cousin. You're going to kill somebody. It's like. We're not. That unhinged. Right.

But they. Are making some observations. That are accurate. We do care about family. More so than different parts of the country. Like we.

Love. Our family. There's a lot of love. And loyalty. And care that we have for our earthly family. And we should.

Absolutely. The Bible teaches this over and over again. But that love. And loyalty. And care. And devotion.

That we have for earthly family. Jesus says. Take that. Step it up. That is elevated also. For the family of God.

For the people of God. For your brothers and sisters. That love. And loyalty. And devotion. Is meant for your church family.

In a way that you would. See your brother in need. And lay. Down your life for them. So that you would see another Christian need.

And say. What can I do? We don't have a shot of that. If we don't see church family as family. If we don't see extended church family. A global church family.

As the family of God. We don't have a shot of that. If we see. What we do right now. As a social aspect. Of what we do.

Like if Sundays. Are just a social thing. That we do. If groups. Are just a social aspect. Of our lives.

We're missing it. We're missing it. And how easy. Will it be for us. To close off our heart. Towards another brother and sister.

In Christ. Who is in need. We have got to see family. As family. Four. We have to see the sacrifice.

Of Christ. That's pinnacle. That's the basis. For all of us. To see. What Christ has done.

He says. By this. Verse 16. We know. Love. That he laid down his life for us.

And we have to lay down our lives. For the brothers. We will never understand the sacrifice. We will never live out this sacrifice for others. If at the forefront of our mind. And our soul.

Isn't the sacrifice of Christ. It's not just that. He left heaven for us. It's not just he left heaven. When we celebrate at Christmas. And came for us.

It's from the manger. To the cross. And everything in between. God lays his life down. Up into the pinnacle sacrifice. Of Christ.

On the cross. For us. His blood spilled out. For us. If we don't hold that out. In front of us.

And have that as the basis. For why we should lay down. Our lives. For our brothers and sisters. We don't have a shot at this. We'll fall for lesser comforts.

And lesser things. Over sacrifice. Towards others. We're called to lay down. Our lives. And our own self-interest.

Which is harm. That's a radical call. That Jesus calls us to. So. I know from time to time. That somebody stands up here.

The other guy who preaches half the time. He likes to play up. That I like weird movies. And it's. He's. He likes to play it up.

He's a funny guy. And he has lots of jokes on. On I like sad movies. Depressing movies. And all. You know.

They have to be called films and cinema. He has all kinds of things to say about. The things I. Watch. I was watching over the day. This indie film about.

This woman who dies of cancer. And. I knew it going into it. Like I chose this. I read this article. On the Gospel Coalition.

Which is a. Is a helpful site. For a lot of different articles. And theology and stuff. And there's this movie. Movie review of this movie.

Called Our Friend. That probably none of you have seen. Because it didn't do well at all. And it does sometimes fit. In the category of movies. That I watch.

But. I can watch this. Because they said. Listen. This movie embodies. This sacrificial.

Friendships. Like I'm going to watch this. Which disclaimer. It's got some language in it. But it does embody this.

It's a true story. Okay. It's a true story. About three friends. And. Three friends from college.

Two of them are married. One of them goes on. They stay connected for years. Then all of a sudden. The wife. Gets.

Terminal cancer. And. And it's. Incredibly hard on him. This is a younger family. They're like late 30s.

They've got kids. And he's trying to take care of his wife. And his friend. Their friend says. I'm going to move in with you. So he moves from New Orleans.

To Alabama. And he. He lives with them. For the last 12 to 18 months. Of her life. And it's just this.

This. Sacrifice. That he. He quits his job. And he moves there. And he.

Serves her. And he serves him. And he watches their kids. And gets them to school. And helps with. Cancer treatment.

As she's slowly fading. And as she's. Her mind is. Falling apart. He. Serves them.

And loves them. All the way to her. Final. Last. Breath. And it's this.

This choice. To sacrifice. Because he. Loves. Them. And he lays down his life.

And when you see that. It's like. That's it. That's a picture of the gospel. That you would lay down your life. That you would.

Moved on their city. If it required it. That you would lay down your life. For. Someone else. Because you see them.

As eternal family of God. And we as Christians. Have a higher ideal. That. That we are bound together. By this.

Jesus. Who laid his life down for us. How much more. Should we. Lay down our lives. For those who are in need.

Like we. Need this. And when we do this. We tap into something. That is eternal. And good.

But it takes some self reflection. It takes looking. At the ways we don't want to die. To ourself. The ways we don't want to sacrifice. I feel this.

Y'all. I feel this. I. I say I'm in a busy season sometimes. It's really just a busy life. Just the reality of it.

And I. And I. And I. And sometimes. Like I. I look at my schedule.

And needs come up. And I'm like. I've got things. I need to do. And I'm so convicted. Because I've got people in my life.

That don't do that. Like they. They move outside of their schedule. Because they love people. And it's like. I need to.

Grow in this. That I wouldn't value. My. Time. So much.

That I would. Not look. At a brother in need. A sister in need. And have compassion towards them. We.

Need this. We need to see the unmet wants. And the unmet needs. And the things that we want to buy. And the things we want to purchase. And the things that we want to accumulate in our life.

We need to say. That is. Less than. Than other Christians in need. That is less than. Than my brother.

Or my sister. Who is in need. We need to see the opportunities that we have in front of us. Some of which come at great personal cost. I mean. Sacrifice is that.

Is great. Personal. Personal. Cost. To you. Just as Jesus.

Had great. Personal. Cost. To him. We get to. Live that out towards others.

And we got an opportunity in front of us. With this. Give project. And some of you might be thinking. Listen. I.

Renovate a house. I got stuff. That needs renovated. I got stuff. That needs to get done. I got.

I got things that I. Want to do. And I want to. Impress upon you. That part of this. When we have opportunities.

To give. It isn't always. About what we're committing to. It's about our heart approach. It's about our heart approach. That says.

Even when I don't have. I give. And I sacrifice. And I choose to do that over. And over. And over.

Again. We got an opportunity in front of us. With the Earhart family. You can build a picture up to them. This. This.

Family. Is sacrificing a lot. To come down here. It's taking a pay cut. Moving into a smaller house. And they're going to sacrifice.

For the mission of Christ. At Bethel. And we got this house. We got this opportunity. And it's a real. Tangible thing.

That we get to do. To live out the gospel. We get to raise. Some money. To be able to bless them. The house needs a lot of work.

And it's just a way to love them well. That as they sacrifice. For the mission of Christ. We get to sacrifice a little bit. To be able to. Serve them.

So they can come in February. Ready to go. But it's not about this. Alone. This is a tangible thing. We get to grow in.

But we get to use this. As a springboard. Into a lifestyle. That understands eternity. The ten trillion years. Is greater than just a few.

That our stuff. Will. Faith. And it's not worthy of our worship. We get to use this. As an opportunity.

To see that. Family. Eternal family. Matters. And we get to use this. As an opportunity.

To look. At the sacrifice. Of our savior. And let that. Flow. Into our heart.

And that compassion. Flow out. In a lifestyle. That chooses. To live generously. Towards others.

Love the Brothers (1 John 3:11-18)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Love the Brothers

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. It is our Give Series. We are excited every time, every year around this time and every time around this year. That's what I almost said.

Go to 1 John chapter 3. We've been working through 1 John and usually we would pause and focus just on Give Series stuff and go somewhere else, but John went there anyway, so we're going to just keep going through John because he's going to talk about what we would have paused to talk about. Our Give Series is around Christmas. We want to celebrate Christmas and we want to respond a little bit to how our culture celebrates Christmas because our culture, Christmas is a Christian holiday and culturally we have a lot of Christian background, a lot of Christian history. And so you have this idea of generosity and sacrifice and love and kindness and peace that all comes in with Christmas.

We have this idea of worship that Jesus would come and that he would humble himself to come redeem sinners, this idea of hope, this idea of light in darkness, that all kind of comes in. And then what happens is culturally we try to pull out the Jesus part. We want to keep peace. We want to keep joy. We want to keep life. We're cool with all of that.

But then we also want to infuse consumerism. And so it's like you bought a filet mignon and you cooked it perfectly and then you pour strawberry syrup on top of it. They just don't go together. It doesn't work right. Certainly Christmas is a time for celebration. Certainly it's a time for feasting.

Certainly it's a time for giving. But we've, we've amped it up so much with consumerism because our whole culture runs off of us buying things we don't need. Buying shoes before other shoes wear out. Buying shoes for this type of occasion. Buying shoes to be this type of person. Buying this shirt that makes us this type of person.

Buying things that help us have an identity. Buying more things than we need and replacing the things that aren't bad with new things. That's our, that's our whole system. It's what it's built off of. And you're a good American. If you go spend money, the news comes out and says, Hey, y'all hadn't been consuming like you're supposed to.

And you go, well, I got to do my duty. I said, I was thankful yesterday and now I got to go get some new stuff. It's just, that's, that's the system that we have culturally. And then we have as Christians, we're supposed to approach this differently. We're supposed to see this differently. And so at our gift series, we try to just push back on consumerism and amp up generosity.

We want some of our money to just walk out the door and to go towards things that don't benefit us. That's why I love the song that was just sung on that little video. It's from citizens. It's called, why don't you marry Christmas? It says, I see the writing on the wall. We've been through all of this before longer lists and grander gifts, brighter lights, entitled kids.

Well, if you love it so much, why don't you marry Christmas? The happy feelings that we had, are they just boxed up in the past? Buying more we can't afford. That's American. The pressure's high, but what's it for? Well, if you love it so much, why don't you marry Christmas?

So our hope in our gift series is to push back on some of this just consumer driven stuff and say, Hey, let's remember what this is actually about. And then let's respond as Christians with generosity. Let's give some money away at this time of year. We bring in money and we give money out for a Lottie moon. It's a Christmas offering, which goes towards the international mission board and towards international missions. It goes directly towards sending missionaries overseas.

And then as a church, we also come together to do our gift project, which is where we've helped church plants in Tennessee and downtown Columbia. We've helped people who had had some flood damage to their home. We came together and raised money for that. We were able to raise some money for some children's gifts and a party that we were able to throw in, in Columbia as well. We raised money for a women's shelter. We've raised money for overseas missions in Honduras and in Egypt.

So I get the distinct privilege of announcing our gift project today. Later. First John chapter three, we're going to pick up in verse 11. I'm going to pray and we're going to walk through as John presses on this idea. And then we'll get to talk through how we're going to be able to practice it together. So let's pray.

God, we ask for joy and delight. As we read your word, we pray that you would help us to see Christ clearly. You might change our hearts. Help us to be loving people in Jesus name. Amen. So John in this section is going to give us one big picture and then one practice.

So he's going to give us one big picture, something for us to see, and he's going to give us something to do the way that this ought to show up in our lives. So he says this in verse 11, for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. This most likely the beginning of these talking about is the beginning of the proclamation of the gospel, the beginning of Christ's work that we would have love for one another in the church. But it's connected to the call in the old Testament to be loving and gracious to the people of Israel and to the people around you.

We should love one another. Verse 12, we should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brothers righteous. Do not be surprised brothers that the world hates you. So he says this kind of big picture, we shouldn't be like Cain who murdered his brother.

And it's like, okay, sound advice. But he's, he's painting up on one side, the epitome of worldly approach to others. That's why he says, don't be surprised when the world hates you. He's saying, this is kind of the epitome of non-Christian approach. And then he says, and here's the epitome of a Christian approach that he keeps going. Verse 14, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.

Whoever does not love abides in death that the brothers, there is the church that there is supposed to be a distinct, special love for Christians in the church. Now, Christians are told by Christ to love our enemies, to love our neighbors, and to love the church. So you're, you're told if you're a Christian, that's everybody. They fit in one of those categories. He expands neighbor to whoever's around you. Enemies are all the people that dislike you.

And then you're Christian brothers and sisters. So we're supposed to love everybody, but the, the, the Bible presses on this idea that the church should have distinct, special, greater love, protection, care, defense for those who belong to Jesus. Those are the brothers. And this idea that we are all children of God is not a biblical idea. The biblical idea is that we are all made by God and that all humans are made in his image and therefore have value, dignity. But to be a child of God is a blood bought gift from Jesus to those who believe.

That's what John says in chapter one of his, uh, the gospel of John, that for those who believe, he gave him the right to be called children of God. That's what he says at the beginning of chapter three. And this is that he says that we, how great is it? How good is God to us that we get to be called children? And so we are, but it's through the work of Christ that we're children of God. And so there's this family of God that we're meant to show love to one another.

So he keeps going. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. That's a bold claim. We're going to look at that in a second.

By this, we know love that he, that's Christ, laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. One big picture. Cain on one hand, Christ on the other. That our approach is going to be more like Cain's or more like Christ's. That's what he's getting at.

That you're going to look like a disciple of Cain or a disciple of Christ. He says, we know that if we hate, we're murderers. Did we know that? That your heart posture matters. That just painting a smile on your face while you loathe someone is still a problem for you because God sees your heart. That he actually cares about your heart, not your actions.

This isn't just about your morality. Can you act out the right things? It's like, no, he cares about who you are. So for those of you who are unfamiliar with Cain, so far, you know that he murdered his brother. Well, I'm going to tell you that story a little bit. That's from Genesis chapter three.

Adam and Eve have sons, Cain the oldest, then Abel or Abel. My uncle Abel fusses at me because it's spelled Abel and it's probably pronounced Abel or Abel. So I'm going to call him Abel just for the sake of my uncle. Then sorry. So Cain and Abel, they both at some point come to the Lord to give him a sacrifice.

Abel brings sheep from his flock. It says he brings the first. And then it says in some time, Cain brings some fruit. God has regard for Abel and not for Cain. Cain immediately, it says his face has fallen. He's frustrated by this, that God was pleased by Abel's sacrifice, but not by his.

It seems as if Abel was genuinely worshiping the Lord, was delighting in the Lord, brought the first of what he had. And that Cain thought, okay, well, this may be a good thing for me to do. And somehow it'll garner some favor because as soon as it doesn't work, his heart does not tender towards the Lord to say, what's wrong? What did I do? Like to respond well, he hardens himself towards the Lord, which seems as if it was, he came in it self-interested and when it didn't work, he was frustrated. Then it says he talks to his brother, takes him out in the field and murders him.

That's crazy. But it's the epitome, the physical manifestation of Cain's idea of how the world works, which is you exist for his good. Everything's about me. Therefore, everyone else is expendable. If they benefit me, if they help me, if they bring joy to my life, they get to stay. What's her name?

Marie Kondo. He does that with people. Does this inspire joy? No, in the trash. That's what he does. Christ is the opposite of that.

When you look at a manger, when you look at a nativity scene, that's Christ coming and saying, I'm not here to be served, but to serve. I'm here for everyone else. Therefore, I'm expendable. I'm here to sacrifice so that they might be satisfied. I'm here to suffer for them. Whereas Cain says, you need to sacrifice so that I might be satisfied.

You need to suffer for me. That's his big picture, that we're going to have one of those postures. I'm going to show you a few ways that kind of shows up. If you ever had a friend who knew a guy, maybe you're this person, you know a guy, you have a guy, you have a guy that gets you tickets to things. You have a guy that gets you out of tickets for things. You have a guy that, that can help you fix a car.

You have a guy that can, like, I, oh, I know this person to help us get a deal on this. I know, I know a shoe guy. I know a person who can help, like, and that's, you ever been around that person and you've, I've thought, that must be nice. He's got like a bullpen of perks. Oh, you're going to Disney World? Let me make some phone calls.

Who do you, do you know Mickey? What, who do you do it? But the reality of that is I've got these people around me and I appreciate the fact that they enhance my life. I'm going to make a phone call. They're going to make my life better. I don't know what they do on their end, but be honest with you, I don't care.

Just want this thing. Have you ever been the guy that someone knew? You ever been the only person who owned a truck and a group of friends? I have. When we first planted this church, we were part-time movers. It's just a thing.

And you have to work on your heart in those moments because you're getting a phone call and it's, hey, I'd love for you to sacrifice for me. And there's part of us that really wants to be in the Cain position and really dislikes being in the Christ position. I'd really like for you to sacrifice for me. That would be excellent. And I'd really like to not have to sacrifice for you. Honestly, if you make me suffer and sacrifice too much for you, I don't want to be your friend anymore.

Now, if you sacrifice and suffer for me, that's actually how I define a good friend. I don't want to be a good friend. I want to have good friends. So he writes and says, Christians, do we look like Christ or should we be called Cainians? He didn't say that because it's dumb, but that's what he's getting at. Do we look like disciples of Cain?

People exist for my benefit. All right. I'm going to, I'm going to say a thing that may not garner me some friends. Let me get a drink of water first. Let's talk about wedding vows.

All right. I'm not a huge fan personally of people who write, people of when people write their own wedding vows and I'll explain why. Vows are promises, promises that you make so that you'll keep them when you don't want to keep them anymore. That's the point of a promise. When people write their own vows, they often don't write promises. They write poems about how much they like the other person.

And that's fine. Those are great. Some of them are very beautiful. I've listened to some and thought that's beautiful. It's just not a vow saying, I love how much you love my friends. I love how much you love my dog.

I love how much you love me is nice, but it's not a promise. If anything, it puts pressure on them. I'm going to need you to keep loving my friends, my dog and me. I want my, my wife to think I'm attractive. I want her to think I'm fun to be around, but at our wedding, I want her to promise to stay with me when I'm unattractive and no fun to be around. That's what I want.

I want her to look a lot more like Christ who sacrifices for the sake of love. Then I appreciate what benefits I get. Now we certainly should appreciate that. That's a part of relationships. I get that. But what I'm saying is there's this idea that this is the good stuff and this isn't, but this is where Christ went and it's where he invites us to go because it's actually the good stuff.

There's actually joy here. There's actually freedom here. There's actually delight here and Christ is there. So in the sacrifice, we get more Christ because we need more Christ in suffering. We get more Christ because we need more Christ in generosity. We get more Christ because we need more Christ and he's actually what is good.

That's what he's saying. That's the big picture. Then he says this, we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. That ought to be what this looks like. Jesus refers to it at one point as a city on a hill, that it ought to be beautiful to behold, that it ought to be warming and welcoming and joyful, that people ought to come and be around the church for a while and go, oh my goodness, I have to have that. That's one of the reasons why we invite people who are not believers to join community groups.

If you're not a believer, we want you to join a community group. And yes, this is a terrible, terrible trick because if you join a community group and you stick around one for a while and you see what real Christians look like in life and you begin to see how they love each other and how they love you, we're convinced that you'll see how Jesus loves you and you'll begin to love Jesus. And we want Jesus for you because he's wonderful. But that's what it's supposed to be like. It's supposed to be this beautiful thing that draws you in, that we're to love one another. There's supposed to be grace and sacrifice and generosity flowing out all across the board all the time where everybody shows up thinking, I'm here for your good.

And when you do that, you're free and there's delight and there's joy and there's love and it makes everything better. I've said this all the time and I'm convinced of it. If you want to be miserable, think everything's about you. Show up right now and ask, how much do I like this? How much do I appreciate this? How much do I wish things were like that?

And you'll just be miserable. If you show up thinking, I'm here to serve, guess what? You'll have a lot of opportunity for it and you'll be free and there'll be a lot of joy. We're supposed to be marked by this. John was marked by this. The night before Jesus, the night Jesus was betrayed, the night before he dies, he gets his disciples together and he says, the world's going to know that you belong to me by the way you love one another.

And he says, no man has a greater love than this, than that he lay down his life for his friends. And the next day, the disciple John, at a very young age, stands at the foot of the cross, watching his friend die. Not understanding fully why this had to happen, not understanding fully what was going on, but knowing that a man that had magnificent power and strengths, that he understood to be God in the flesh, was willingly laying down his life and dying and that he was intentionally doing this. John sees him rise from the grave. And John says, that's us forever. That's what we were born out of.

That's who we are. That's the blood that pumps through our veins is sacrifice and suffering and generosity for the good of others and the glory of Christ. That's what John calls us to. So he gives us this big picture and he says, we're either going to be in this posture, our heart's going to be bent towards wanting from others, taking from others, towards exalting self, or our heart's going to be bent towards sacrifice and selflessness. So he gives us a test.

But verse 17, if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? This just got real tangible. Takes this big picture that we ought to be selfless, that we ought to love one another, that we ought to be laying down our lives for others. And then you say, okay, yeah, I'll lay down my life for others. And he says, okay, hand over your stuff. And it's like, I thought you said life, not stuff.

It makes it real tangible, real fast. He says, we ought to look like Christ. And you're like, yes, we ought to look like Christ. Hallelujah. Hand me your wallet. What?

For, for, no. What? This is a trick. He says, no, this is an indication of where your heart is. Do you have stuff and see someone who needs that stuff? Do you keep that stuff?

That's the thing about stuff. It's the thing about money. It's the thing about tangible items. If you have it, I don't have it. If you eat the last cookie, I don't eat the last cookie. Because you ate it.

I wanted that cookie. That's how that works. If I, if you need $200 and I have $200 and I give you $200, that $200 does not pay my electrical bill. Or let me go to that concert I've been saving up for. Let me go eat at Ruth's Chris. Or Cracker Barrel eight times.

Or Taco Bell 150 times. I think I covered all of, all of us here now. Made it really, made you really feel it. That's the reality of if we have the things and we give away the things, we sacrifice. We don't have it anymore. We, we suffer because it was taken out of us.

Have you noticed that? That's one of the things they teach you in sales is a hand of the person, the item that you're selling because when they touch it, it becomes theirs. I sold swimming pools. If by the end of the night I had you hugging the item I had handed you, I was selling you a swimming pool. If I handed you stuff and you just put it in your lap, oh buddy, there was a pool in your backyard because it became yours. You ever seen somebody hurt some of your stuff and you felt it?

Invite kids over to your house. You'll see what I'm talking about. You'll watch them start doing something and you'll feel it in your body while they do a thing to a wall. It's like, and if they're your kids, you can respond appropriately. If they're not your kids, you have to look at their parents. Like, are you going to hit them?

But you can feel it. That's why he takes that here. He says, do we love people? Let me ask you a question. Do you give stuff away? Does all your money go to you?

You ever see somebody needing the thing and you just gave them the thing? Do you have a spot in your closet where your favorite coat used to be? Do you have fewer shoes because somebody else has more shoes? Do you not do a thing every month so that someone else can have something like electricity every month? He says, that's how you know if you love. If we can see that someone needs something and we have that something and we can talk ourselves out of giving them that something, he says something really scary.

He says, if you can close the door on your heart like that, I'm not sure Christ is inside there. So he says, let's paraphrase. Yet closes his heart against him. How does God's love abide in him? This idea that the love of God is flowing out from your heart and if you close the doors, it bursts the doors back open. But if you can close the doors and they stay closed, he just says, the love of God's like the Kool-Aid man.

It's coming through. And so if you can just turn that off and keep it off, I don't know if you know Jesus. I don't know if you've been overwhelmed by the love that he has for you because that's what overwhelms us. It's what pours through us. This love that doesn't end. This love that captures us.

This love that saves us. This love that redeems us. This love that flows. And so he says, when you see someone needs, you just think, this is my moment. This is the type of person I am because this is what Christ came to do for me and I get to do it for you. That's what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount.

He says, we're supposed to give to the ungrateful. We're supposed to give to our enemies. This idea that we're just supposed to give. They don't deserve it. Yes. Absolutely.

Isn't that why you became a Christian? Didn't you run headlong to Christ because you didn't deserve it? Isn't that what overwhelmed your soul? He says this, little children, let us not love in word or in talk, but in deed and in truth. Don't just tell people you love them. Don't just show up and sing about it.

Let's do it. My wife and I got to go to stay in a little mountain cabin thing for just a couple of days. It was Airbnb. We had a good time because our children weren't there. I love my kids, but this was nice. And we got to stay there for a couple of days and we were riding down to go try to find some food in the evening.

We rode over and we saw, it was beautiful. It's like nestled in the mountains. It was glowing. It looked like something out of like Disney World magic. Like it seemed almost fake. The city just glowing and we were heading down towards it and it was like, this is, look at this.

And when we got closer, it was a paper mill. It was a lot closer than we thought. It glistened beautifully, but you got close and it was like smoke and pipes and all the things that were little twinkling lights were just so that I guess people wouldn't like run into them or whatever. And it smelled like a paper mill. We're supposed to be a city on a hill that gets more and more beautiful and sweet and delightful the closer you get. Not that seems neat on the outside and the further you get in, the faker it becomes.

That's why he says, let's not love and word and talk. Let's not seem good. Let's not have and have nothing. Let's actually have the good stuff. Let's love and deed and truth.

You actually don't have to talk about it at all. Jesus says, it's better if you don't. Let's just do this stuff. Let's just look like we belong to the king of the universe who gave up everything so that we could belong to him. Let's look like people who were purchased by blood so money doesn't mean anything.

If you've been purchased by the blood of God, green things with Uncle Sam on them just doesn't matter as much. If we can rest in Christ and delight in Christ then the world's goods are just the world's goods. We're going to spend a couple of weeks just looking at this and talking about this and we want this to be who we are and how we practice all the time but we're going to pick one thing to do together right now. So we said John says is there some brothers who have a need? That's a good thing for Christians to jump in on and you may actually know of that. You may have that in your group.

You may have that around you where you say this is a Christian brother that have a need. It's Christmas time. I'm going to help but the reality is that should happen in January and February and March. It should be a hey these people around me they have needs. I have this stuff. Let's go.

And just constantly joyously looking like Christians but we're coming together for gift series to practically apply this in one specific way. So we just said do we know some Christians around us that have a need and anything that fits those categories a brother with a need works. We heard Raz Bradley brought this to our attention because he's on the board at Bethel Christian Camp and he said this is a little weird he said because I'm on the board there and we just said no it's not because all the things we've ever done have been with people that we've known that we knew about that's how this works and this one specifically is who's around who's a brother that you see and need do you see the need so Bethel Christian Camp is a camp in Gaston it's named Bethel and it's a Christian camp they do a lot of during the summer they do a lot of stuff with underserved children most of the children that come are on some form of a scholarship they have a couple of weeks during the summer where all the kids are on scholarship they run a really tight budget so that they can be very generous their director retired program director retired and they're hiring a new one and this new program director this is him and his wife Jason and Christine Arrington they're taking a pay cut moving from Virginia they're moving out of a nicer home into a smaller home they're taking a bigger budget making it a smaller budget so that they can be a part of what's happening and to join and serve and we found out that they were things are tight but they're trying to renovate this home a little bit Bethel is and so we just said hey if it serves them well as they serve y'all well and serve these kids well we want to help renovate that home we want to help make that a little nicer these are their four children and they're moving down with them in the background you can kind of see the home where I think they're coming from and then this is the one they're moving into and so we're going to go in as they try to renovate some of that and we're going to just help because they need some of the world's goods and we have some of the world's goods and we're the type of people because we belong to Christ who give things up so that other people can have them because Jesus gave stuff up so that we can have him and that's just how we act so we're going to practice this specifically together now we asked Jarl who's kind of head of things over there to send us some information what he sent us was a four minute video that explains a little bit of the heart behind Bethel and introduces us to the Arringtons and tells us a little bit about what they're going to do so we're going to watch that it's four minutes then I'm going to come up and say a few more things and that's it that's our gift project this year so we'll watch this hello Mill City my name is Jarl Hill some of you might know me as the director at Bethel Christian Camp some of you might know me as Isaac's dad and some of you might know me as Scott and Kit's son but most important of all is that I'm a child of God I'm a follower of Jesus Christ you see I think that who we think we are who we really believe that we are is vitally important it forms everything that we do we all know the story of how our great great great grandparents Adam and Eve were created by God and given a beautiful kingdom in which to live but that they decided to snub God because they thought they knew better and that's