The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 2: Love Accepts

Episode Date: October 1, 2017

Love accepts because at the cross of Christ God accepted us even when we were unacceptable.

Amen and amen. How we doing church? Everybody all right? Good. You're looking good. Thanks for braving the elements to make it here today. If you got your Bible, grab them. We're going to be in 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4 as we continue this series about what it means to love our neighbor. Today we're going to talk about love accepts. Love accepts. And if I do this thing rightly, then everybody here should be offended by the time we leave here today. So it's probably good. There's a monsoon out there to keep all. all the wimpy Christians away.

So the real varsity folks are here to just be offended. So that's good. So the reason over the next several weeks we're going to talk about love is, because last week we answered the question, who is my neighbor? And like you've already heard, Jesus says, that's the wrong question, because that kind of, that tries to limit the scope of the love of God. And the answer is to be neighborly to whoever God puts in our path. But then the question is, what does it mean to love?

because in our culture, the way we use love, needs some definition, right? I mean, in Greek, there are four different unique words for love, and in English we only have one word for love, and so what is love? I mean, we say things like, I love tacos, and I love the Jaguars, and I love God, and I love my wife. And so hopefully those are very distinct types of love. And also, we live in a world that needs to hear what love is. I mean, as polarized as we are today, what better opportunity has the church had in a long, long time, to put on display the glory of God by the way that we are the experts and the leaders in what it means to love one another.

And so we're going to talk about this idea that love accepts. And in fact, just that word, just that phrase love accepts. If you grew up in church, a certain type of church for a long time, that idea makes you nervous right now. And you should be. So 1 Peter chapter 4, we're going to talk about it here a little bit. Just a little context about Peter. The book of 1st Peter, obviously written by the Apostle Peter, and it's about the fact that because Christ suffered,

therefore we are to suffer in light of his imminent return. The theme throughout the book is that you and I are not citizens of this world, but we are exiles or foreigners in this world awaiting the return of Christ. then it is primarily about suffering as we await his imminent return. I'll show you what I mean, 1 Peter chapter 4. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourself with the same way of thinking. In other words, if you are a Jesus follower and Jesus suffered, then you will follow him into suffering. So get the right kind of mindset, the kind of mindset that Jesus had to be prepared for this.

Skip down to verse 7. The end of all things is at hand. This is where he's talking about the return of Christ. the end of all things are at hand. And what he means here is this, is that at any moment Jesus could return to judge the living and the dead. That at any moment he could crack open heaven

and he could return, and so we should be ready. Now, the point of all this is not to get hung up on the day that he returns because Jesus himself says, knowing that is above my pay grade, and if I don't know, there's no way you're going to know. And Peter says he's coming back soon, but soon doesn't mean soon, apparently like we think of soon, because with God a day could be a thousand years

a thousand years could be a day. So that's not the point. The point is this, that we are in the last chapter. In God's redemptive story for all things to be redeemed unto himself, when we turn to the next chapter, it will be with him in glory. And if that is true, and we are believing that it is, then what he's going to say next is really, really important. The last words you get before the end are really, really important. So since we are aliens or exiles, since we are to adopt the same mind of Christ and his suffering. Since the end of all things is at hand, therefore, here's what we should do. You start out this way, be self-controlled and sober-minded.

We're going to find out that this is a way that we love one another. How? Here's a way to start. Be self-controlled, be sober-minded. The opposite of that is be full of emotion and run off at the mouth. You know what else we call that? Twitter. Okay.

Can I give you a little social media advice from the Lord? Here's what the Lord says, Proverbs 151. A gentle answer turns away wrath, a harsh word stirs up anger, the tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly. A part of what it means to love our neighbors has to do with having some self-control over our emotion and some control over our tongue. And so we should adopt the mind of Christ, be self-controlled, sober-minded for the sake of your prayers, verse 8, above all. When the Bible uses language like above all, this is a really big deal. Above all.

Above the imminent return of Christ, that's big, right? But more important than that. Above adopting the mind of Christ, above suffering like Jesus suffered. Above all that, here's what we do. Keep loving one another earnestly. This is our series. keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sin there's a definition of love right there what does love do how do we love earnestly here's how we love earnestly here's why we

love earnestly since love covers a multitude of sin so if you don't like the word accepts then scratch out accepts and write covers because that's what it says that here's what this means that love puts up with stuff that you don't want to put up with like sin that love endures offense because love covers a multitude of sin. And you're like, Pastor, are you meaning to tell me that I'm supposed to put up with sin and sin and sinfulness and things that the Bible say that you won't not do? Uh-huh. Why?

Isn't that what God did with you and me? You see, it always starts with the gospel that Jesus' love poured out at the cross covered a multitude of all of our sins, period. And if you have experienced that kind of love of God, then we are to therefore love others as he has loved us. And his love covered a multitude of our sin. Therefore, we should acceptingly receive people that are not like us, that don't look like us, that don't think like us, that don't act like us.

In fact, people that do things against us that are highly offensive to us, what do you do with that? The Bible goes, you love them. You see, here's the reality. Only God saves, and we are called to love. Don't get confused with what your role is, Christian. Let me just say this way. You are no one's Holy Spirit.

Go ahead and jot that down real quick. All right, wives, you are not your husband's Holy Spirit. Husband, you are not your wives' Holy Spirit. Parents, you are not your children's Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit of God can change someone and transnational. or regenerate someone's heart, you and I can't. God saves, we love. And what happens, a lot of us, church people, Christians, we get really confused and we get into

the fix you business. And the problem is, man, we can't fix anybody. We can't fix anybody. And so we are called to accept people, to love people, to empathize with people, to have compassion for people that are nothing at all like us. And here's why I say this, this next verse, verse nine. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. First of all, without grumbling.

God is not looking for begrudging submission. You ever get this with your kids? They're not honoring you when they begrudgingly submit to you because they know that you will withhold food, clothing, and shelter from them if they don't obey. Fine then, I just love my sister. You know what? Your mom and I are so blessed right now, son. That is not how it works. And in the same way, God is not looking for begrudging submission.

He is looking for his love that so impacts and deeply transforms us that it transforms the way we treat and see one another because of the way he treated and saw us. And so the way we do this is show hospitality. Now, this word hospitality does not mean you have the gift of doilies and scented candles. This is what we have lowered hospitality to. If you can throw a sweet party and arrange flowers to match the pillows on your couch, God bless you, ministry and Chip and Joanna, okay? But that is not what this has to do with at all. It's sad that I know who they are, but they do love Jesus. Hospitality comes from two Greek words. They jam it together. Here's what it means. Two Greek words are filo, which means love, like brotherly love, and xeno,

which is the alien, the foreigner, the stranger. So he says here, love covers a multitude of sins and show hospitality, love the outsider. Love the person that's not like you. love the person with a different skin color, love the person with a different world view, love the person with a different voting record, love the person that gets on your nerves, love the person that doesn't dress like you. And I don't mean they don't wear plaid and jeans that fit and, you know, they wear little skinnies or whatever. I'm talking about love the person like with a head wrap and a totally different form of dress. Love people that are not like you at all. This is how we are to love, that we are to love the outsider. Why? Because we were not like God at

all and he loved us. That's what it means when I say love accepts. We're not trying to fix people to be more like us that we're treating them first and foremost the way the Lord treated us. So here, let's start it up a little bit. You ready? To kneel or not to kneel? That is the question.

All right, don't say a word. If you want to talk, plant your own church. You can preach it all you won't, all right? But I'm talking around. To kneel or not to kneel? Now, everybody seemingly has an opinion. And you know how I know? I read your opinion on Facebook.

See the previous point of the message. I have an opinion. And here's the crazy thing about people with opinions. You always think your opinion's right. And rarely do you stop to just take a minute to realize the reason that you have the opinion that you have is because of your experience, your upbringing, your worldview. And if you and I have a different opinion, if I grew up like you, I would probably think of what you think. And if you grew up the way I grew up or if you had the experiences that I have, you would probably think like I think. But here's, you know what the response today in the Christian community should be to the kneel or don't kneel?

It's not even a conversation because the conversation is when two people are talking and listening to each other. In the whatever, the yelling match that's happening. Let me tell you, here's the biblical, the gospel response to kneel or don't kneel is this. Love. that's the response love that love covers a multitude of sins that if you disagree with me

in regards to this situation no matter how passionate I am and how right I feel about what I think even if I can attach Bible verses to it which I am an expert at my response is to love you especially when you don't think what I think

and here's why I'm not going to tell you what my opinion is because I think most of you would agree and stand up and clap and we'd feel real good about opinions and missed the point of the sermon, missed the point of loving your neighbor at great expense to people that don't think like you think, and miss the whole point. You see, the Christian response? Now, again, I didn't say political response. I didn't say American response.

I didn't say, depending on who you voted on, response. I said the Christian response from somebody doing something that you're, you don't agree with is love. So this means this. If you are pro-neal, if you see this as an opportunity for peaceful protest to shine light on systematic racism against people of color for years, then you know what your response to all the backlash that you've heard, whether it's from our president or your neighbor, your response is love. And if you see this as how dare you, because it's against my flag and it's getting our people and people laid down their lives, You know what your response is to that?

It ain't Facebook. It ain't a post on social media. According to Jesus, now you could do that. You're just not a Jesus follower. To be a Jesus follower as you do what Jesus does and what you respond here. And again, regardless of how right you think you are, I'm not saying you're not right, whichever side you're on. I'm saying your response in Christ is to love the people that are not like you.

to have compassion. You know what compassion means in the Bible in Greek? Compassion means to feel the feelings of someone else. That the Bible tells us that we have a high priest that empathizes with us. You see, because this is just true. You can make a point or you can make a difference. Rarely both. You can make a point.

You can go right now on Twitter and make a point and not make a difference at all. Because here's what we typically do. Here's the big problem with what's going on in our country. right now. Nobody's listening. Nobody's listening to one another because people aren't actually talking to each other. They're drawing lines, they're hunkering down, they're bunkering down, and they're throwing social media grenades, and the social media Christian is somehow calling that a Jesus thing. Jesus said that they would know that we are his disciples by our love for one

another. Not a Facebook post. And so here's what we typically do. Man, we create these little echo chambers where we all say the same thing. And let me just just warn you, Christian, if you're going to show hospitality, if you're going to love the outsider and you always find yourself in conversations where everybody's like you saying the same things, you don't have the right kind of friends according to Jesus. In this particular topic, if they're not real humans that you can talk to and say, help me understand why you and I see this differently, then the Bible would say, in my own translation, you need to get out more, bro.

You need to love some people that don't look like you, think like you, dress like you, have the same worldview as you. Because, man, it's easy to throw something at a label. It's hard to throw something at your friend. It's different. And so what is our response? Our response is love. And listen, be real careful, Christian, when you talk about, yeah, but I'm offended.

And this is my right. In America, you have the right to be wrong. You have the right to be dumb. You have the right to do all kind of stuff that have nothing to do with five following after Jesus. Because, listen, at the cross of Jesus, you lay down a lot of rights. You do for the sake of the glory of God. And you're like, what are you talking about? And man, be real careful. Because when the gospel bumps up against our Americanism, boy, we bow up. Because listen, aren't you glad our Savior didn't demand his rights at Galgotha? If he demanded a right to a free trial,

or a fair trial, it was an unfair trial. If he demanded the right to be treated the way he treated people, he always treated people perfectly. And you know what? Instead of demanding his rights, he could have been right. He could have said, I'm right, you're wrong, I'm going back to heaven, peace. I'll see you later. Actually, I'll never see you again.

You're going to hell. Bye. But instead of being right, he became the Savior and laid down his rights. My Bible says in Galatians 220, for I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave his life for me. Quit trying to be right and build relationships with people for the glory of God.

Because the crazy thing is, you might learn something. God might open up our thick heads and we learn from another human being and like Christ empathize with us on the cross, we might actually feel what another human being has felt and go, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. And you know what? That looks a lot like. That looks a lot like love covering a multitude of sin.

That looks a lot like love accepting people that are not like themselves. And so the next time you find yourself in this conversation, like this week, this week, give me at work, people are going to get together, saying all the things that you agree with, right? And what if, I dare you, when they're pointing out what some other group of people ought to do, I dare you to just roll a little love grenade in there. You ever think about that? And watch what happens. And then what Peter does here after he says,

show hospitality to one another, means love people that are not like you, then he's going to tell us how to do it, ready? As each has received a gift, use that gift to serve, one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. So how do we love? Here's how we love. It's that we actually serve one another. That you do something for people that are not like you. That you do something for people that don't think like you think, believe like you believe, look like you look. You don't just think it, you don't just feel it. You actually do it.

And that every single one of us have been giving gifts by God. Everything we have is a blood-bought gift, by Jesus himself. Every dollar you have, the time that you have, the gifts, the abilities, the talents. Everything that we have is a blood-balk gift. And what the Bible would have us do is to use those gifts to serve one another, that God did not give you all that you have for you. God didn't give you your friends, your money, the platform you have, your job, the fact that you live here.

He did not give that for you. What we find out in just a couple of verses is he gave you everything that you have for the glory of God. God. And so the way to glorify God is to spend what you have, the gifts, time, talent, ability for him. I got really good news, church. If you're in Christ, then you're gifted. Congratulations. You are gifted. Do you guys remember, I don't know if they still do it this way, but when I was in school, like elementary school and middle school, you remember the gifted classes? And like on Wednesdays at my school, this teacher would walk in and be like, all right, all the gifted kids. come on. And then these people would just get up and leave. And be like, hey, where are y'all going?

We're going to gifted. Well, what are we? Y'all just everybody else. Don't worry about it. Well, what are they going to do? They're going to do many smart things, big numbers and creativity. You wouldn't be able to understand. What about us? Well, for you, we have coloring books and glue. Just eat that and enjoy yourself. Okay. But in the church, in the body of Christ, Everybody's gifted. Every single one of us have at least one spiritual gift, and not one of us has all the spiritual gifts. And then the Lord puts us together as a family or as a body,

and everybody matters. Like you're a body, all the parts matter a bunch. And if you're just like, hey, it's just a toe, let me have it after service. You'd be like, no, no, no, I think I'm going to take it with me, right? It matters a bunch. And the reason that we all have at least one spiritual gift, and everybody doesn't have all of them is for the glory of God, and so that we would need each other,

that we would not be independent, nor would be codependent, but we would be interdependent to display the glory of God. And so this means that all throughout the week, but particularly on the weekends, man, the church puts on display the glory of God in the way that a whole bunch of different people

come together at one point, his name is Jesus, by exercising our gifts to serve one another. And some people are greatly gifted. They can sing and they have great talents. and then everybody is gifted. Some people, you have the gift of holding the door. Praise God for holding the door and handed out umbrellas and helping people get parked

because you're not doing it for you. You're doing what the Bible says. The way that we're going to love all people is you receive a gift and then you use that gift to serve one another and you are a good steward of God's very grace. In just a few weeks, we're going to talk about what it looks like to sign up to be on our serve staff here, do what this means. So use the gifts that God has given you for His glory. And then he gives us an example of a couple of gifts.

Verse 11, whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God. Now, he doesn't specifically say preach, but when I preach, the reason I take it very, very seriously is it is with a very somber attitude that I stand before people, open up the Word of God and say words on. behalf of God, because I could be speaking the oracles of God, and so could you, tomorrow morning at the cubicle when you point people to the glory of God. And whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies. So whether it's preaching the sermon or being an usher to hand out bulletins, it is a really, really big deal. And here's why it's a big deal. In order that,

in other words, why do we love, why does love cover a multitude of sins? Why do you go out of your way to love people that are not like you and maybe even some people that you don't like in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him belongs glory and dominion forever and ever amen that's why

that the reason that we do what we do in loving one another is not to make much of us but to put on display for this world to see the glory of God church what an incredible time in our society, whether it's the news or political parties or the devil himself that is trying to polarize us to hate one another. What an incredible opportunity for the church to be the leading force in this culture to put on display the glory of God by the way we love and serve one another.

Amen. Amen. You see, Dr. John Piper, like, Amy, the smartest guy alive right now. I read a lot of what he writes. I listen to, I think everything that's ever been recorded, I try to. And he says this, very famously. He says, that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. And I agree wholeheartedly.

And I would encourage to read Dr. Piper. I mean, he's a heady dude. Half the time, I don't know what he's saying. I'm sitting at the pool, sitting on the beach with my headphones on, just smiling. Gras is like, what are you listening to? I'm like, Dr. Piper. What is he talking about?

I have no idea. But I felt like I love the Lord more right now, so I'm going. That's just kind of what he does to me. So, but I would give him, if I can ever get him here for saturated, I'm trying to get him here. All right. So pray that he says yes. He needs to be in the center of God's will, which is here at Walmart from ladies' accessories, all right?

I want to add a 1B to his very famous statement. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. And then kind of a 1B, I think, is, and God is most glorified in this world when we who have received the love of God love our neighbors like God loved us. Because Jesus says the greatest apologetic would be love, that they, would know that we are Christians by our love for one another. That's why we love, not because we ought to, but we love so that in order that everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. So here's the point. Love accepts because at the cross of Christ God accepted us even when we were unacceptable. That's why. Why do you love people that sin against you? You were really

into it when you were the one sending against God, but he loved you, right? Yeah, me too. And we would be so transformed from the inside out that his love, his love would so transform us that we would be a conduit of his love. And we couldn't help but love people because people are not projects. They are objects of the love of God. Pastor Rick Warren several years ago. He's the pastor of a church called Saddleback Church, a little country. Not really. It's a huge monster church out in California.

He wrote a book called The Purpose Driven Life and about 50 other books, maybe more. It's the best-selling book. other than the Bible and the history of the world, that's kind of a big deal. And when that book sold like that, he became just over rich. And so he came up with this thing called the Peace Plan. He's just going to save the whole world through Jesus. It's crazy. And part of what he was doing is he got criticized by the church for hanging out with too many Muslim folks,

particularly in the Middle East, to feed children and educate children. And the church was like hypercritical of that. humanitarian efforts with other people groups and other religions. And here's what's crazy to me. When the world criticizes you as a Christian, okay, they should. Just don't be surprised. Jesus says, in this world, you will face trouble of many kinds. They hated me, therefore they will hate you.

So if this world hates you for standing up for Jesus, don't be surprised. And in fact, just a couple years ago, some of you know, don't going to know what I'm talking about. The world of Jacksonville kind of came against me in our church, right? Good for standing up for what the Bible says. And do I love it? Probably more than I should, okay? I'm just going to be honest. I kind of like a good fight, especially when Jesus is on my side. So it doesn't really bother me as much as it probably should, all right? But what I don't understand is when the body attacks the body. And so in response to Pastor Rick Warren, run around with people that don't believe like him, don't think like him.

Here's what he said. Rick Warren says, you cannot win enemies to Christ, only your friends. It's part of what Paul calls the ministry of reconciliation. It is Christ-like to treat people with dignity and listen to them with respect. You know what that sounds a lot like? Love covers a multitude of sin. Because you don't even have to press Pastor Rick Warren on this. He believes that those people are worshiping a false God, that they are caught up in idolatry, that Jesus is the way of the truth in the life, and no one comes to the Father except through the person and work of Jesus.

But what he's saying is, if I just punch them in the nose with John 316, then it's really hard to win your enemies to Christ. First, you need to win friends, and then as friends point them to the truth of who Jesus is. You see, here's what's crazy. You know what the Bible says leads us to repentance? it's your kindness, Lord, that leads us to repentance. So why do we so rarely choose God's way? Because God could have done anything he wanted to to lead us to repentance. Do you realize that?

God could scare us into repentance. He could. He is the almighty, holy, omnipotent, magnificent God. And if he wanted to, he could have woken you up this morning, 6 a.m. Instead of the orange clock, could have been him. Ha! And you go, okay, I'm in. I'm in.

I'm in. Stop. Leave me alone. He could. He could bless you into repentance. He could aggravate you into repentance. He could do it however he wants to. And yet the Word of God says that it's his kindness that leads us into repentance.

I think the reason is so that we don't see the gospel is purely transactional, but we see it as beautiful. And he invites us in, not to rules and religion. He invites us into relationship. So guess who should be on the leading edge in our culture of building bridges and relationships to people that are not like that. should it not be the followers of the one that draws us to repentance unto himself by his kindness? Now again, some of your life. Still not convinced. Still not convinced that love accepts unacceptable things.

And again, probably the longer you grew up in church, the more likely you are to not yet be convinced. So let's keep going. You need an example. I get it. There are many in the scriptures. Peter and Cornelius, that's a good one. The Apostles with Paul, that's a good one. I don't know if you realize, if you're new to Bible study, the Apostle Paul that wrote a bunch of the New Testament before he was Paul. His name was Saul. He was a religious terrorist. He killed Christians. And then he's on the road one day. He gets saved. He meets Jesus. And then he shows up to the disciples prayer meeting. He's like, can I come in? You want to talk about love covering a multitude of sins? I'm in the prayer meeting. I'm like, I don't think so, Scooter. My boy, Stephen, you killed him. I mean, think about this. Paul literally killed friends and family members.

of the apostles and then join them in their church, love covers a multitude of sins. They had to get over a lot to allow him in. But my favorite one of all, John chapter 8, go to John chapter 8, my favorite one of all. And the reason is my favorite is because Jesus is acting out this love covers a multitude of sin, not just at the cross, but in his interaction with a human that is not like him at all. And Jesus is going to deal with a person's identity, not with their activity. And when we got all hung up about holding grudges or drawing lines with people, it's usually because we get hung up on their activity and we forget that their identity is an image bearer of God,

a potential recipient of the grace of God poured out by Jesus at the cross. Very famous story. It actually starts at the end of 7. Verse 53. He says, they went each to his own house and then we pick it up in 8-1. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives early in the morning. He came again to the temple and all the people came to him. he sat down and he taught them.

Verse three, and the scribes and the Pharisees, these are like the religious elite, okay? The scribes in the Pharisees, they brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, placing her in the midst. Verse four, and they said to him, teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Think about this. What did Jesus and this woman have in common? Absolutely nothing. He is the perfect, righteous, spotless lamb of God, and she has been

called in the act of adultery. But here's what we know. These religious people did not care about that woman. They wanted to use her as a pawn for their own self-righteousness. And it leads me to ask a lot. It says that she was caught in the act of adultery. I mean, if you think Facebook stalking something, this is the next level of stalking, right? That they are snooping around to just try to find something that people have done wrong

so that they can make themselves look better. her. And she's called him the act. Where's the man? Where's the man? Because you can't adulterize by yourself. And so the other thing I wonder too is, and see, you've got to graduate from Sunday school thinking here, okay? This is an actual event. What's this woman wearing? You think they gave her an hour and a half to get ready for church to go see Jesus? At best, what? They throw a sheet over her and drag her in her sin and in her shame and in her adultery in front of everybody at the temple. There she is, man, beaten and battered and bruised. And they say, teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.

Verse 5. Now the law, this means, here's what they're saying. We got Bible versus Jesus. We got Bible verses. Now in the law, in this book, here's what Moses said we should do in this instance. Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say? Verse 6.

And this they said to test him, that they might have some charge to be. bring against him. Here's the truth. They are right. They are right. You can go to the book of Leviticus and you can look up the law that they are talking about. They have a Bible verse, but here's the thing.

They don't love this woman at all. All they love is their own self-righteousness, and they are trying to be right. They could care less about her right relationship with God. So let me warn you, Christian, especially social media Christian. You are never, ever, ever to use the word of God against as a weapon against another human being.

It is not a weapon against people. And I know some of you are going to be like, well, oh, Pastor. Ephesians chapter 6, put on the full armor of God and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. All right, too-shay, Bible nerd, but back up three verses. Who's the enemy? We do not battle or we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against evil forces and the evil.

That's what we're supposed to fight against. not people, which means you should never ever use the love letter of God that is supposed to be a light into our feet and a lamp into our path and make it into a club to hit somebody with. If you ever do that, you're not doing it right. The Word of God is true and holy and inspired. And it is used as a sword against the enemy, but the enemy is not other people. And what they are trying to do is they're trying to use the Word of God to hurt. hurt someone. And God uses his word to show us that he loves us. And so they say, so Moses commanded

us to stone such women, what say you? And they said this to test him that they might have some charge against him. And then Jesus bent down and he wrote with his finger on the ground. And theologians lose their mind over this. Because you don't know what he wrote. There's no way to prove what he wrote. There's no way to know what he wrote so you can make up whatever you want, kind of. Lifeway Christian bookstore would have us believe he drew one of those fish. This is going to be a hot seller one day. I've read that maybe he wrote down the names of the Pharisees and scribes of their area. I don't know. Here's what I think he wrote. This is just me. I think he wrote down like, check this out. Watch what I'm about to do. The way that would translate in Dillon where I grew up is this,

hashtag, hold my beer. All right? So now, Jesus didn't drink beer. He wasn't drinking a beer. I'm not saying that. He did drink wine. What he's saying is, watch what I'm going. about to do. Some of you, that's all you're going to remember. So sad. So he bends down, he writes on the ground, probably just a distraction. Quit looking at her. Look at me. That's probably what he's doing. To just take the shame and take the condemnation and aim it at him for a second. And so then he, it says in verse seven, and as they continue to ask him, he stood up and he said to them, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. Shines a little light. on the situation. Jesus goes, okay, I know what the law says. So you don't want to do the law?

Listen, we can't do a little bit of the law. Let's do the whole law. You want to play judgment day? Let's play this game. Let's play judgment day. I'm ready. Anybody else ready? I'll go first. All the sinless people, you go ahead and cast judgment. Oh, wait, I'm the only one here. All right. Now listen, here's what you've got to know. The Pharisees have encountered Jesus already. They have seen him feed 5,000 people. They have seen him bring dead people back to life. They have seen him do miracles. They have seen him answer questions that only existed in people's mind. They know there's something about this, Jesus. And I think they get the, uh-oh. No, I don't think I want to play Judgment Day right now. You see, what they were doing is they were coming to use God's

word as a weapon against this woman. And Jesus says, all right, let's play the game. Pastor Britt was reading a book. He shared a quote out of it. I want to share with you. It says this, A flashlight shown directly in someone's eyes makes seeing harder, not easier. A flashlight misused can actually rob us of the light it is meant to provide. You see, the way Jesus loves is the way we are to love. Hang with me here for a second, okay? The Bible says in 1, or in John chapter 1, that Jesus came full of grace and full of truth. Full of grace and full of truth.

100% grace, 100% truth. It's not a seesaw. It's not like as one goes up, the other goes down. parallel tracks, there's no more full than full. Jesus came full of grace, full of truth. The Bible says that God is love. The Bible says Jesus is God. Therefore, if equals B and B,

and B, C, then A equals C. And if we want to love like Jesus loved, then we love full of grace and truth. If you're not good with math, just trust me from here on, okay? So for us to love one another is to love them full of grace and full of truth, which means this.

Is that grace without truth is not love. At best, it's a soft hug, it's neglect, it is enabling. when you are gracious towards somebody and they're ruining their life they're lost in sin they are in the darkness and in the darkness you come and put your arm around them and that's it now you just got the blind leading the blind but truth without grace is not loving it's just mean it's just legalism like yeah but i'm telling the truth the bible says let no corrupt communication come out of your mouth only that which is helpful for the needs of the hear. So if it's true, you're not just supposed to say it. You're supposed to help people.

You know what's not helpful? All truth and no grace? You know what that looks like? Here, I'm going to shine the light on the situation. You're lost in the darkness. Let me help you. Do you see the light? Yeah, I kind of do, but it's not helping as much as you think. Is it true? I don't know. And oftentimes, as Christian, particularly on social media, that's what we do. We just shine the light in somebody's eyeball and it's a whole bunch of truth and there's no grace. And the opposite, if you just put your arm around somebody and never shine a light onto the path to say, this is the way we should go because God loves us and has shown us how to live in this life, to not shine the light, man.

It is not love to hold somebody's hand as they ruin their life. It is not. It is enabling. But it's also not love to shine light in their face and not love them and help them through. You see, so when we are called to love our own. neighbor, especially people that are different like us, different than us. Then you know what we do? Then we love them full of grace and full of truth, which means we must accept things in them that are unacceptable because Christ accepted us and we were unacceptable so that we could put our arm

around them in grace and then that's not enough. And we turn on the light to our path, the lamp to our feet. That is the word of God. That is the truth of God. That is pointing people to Jesus and say, this is the way. Let me walk with you. And here's what I know. Everybody agrees with me philosophically. You do. You're like, yep. In fact, here's how I know. On Wednesday at work, you're going to steal my illustration. You know, what this world needs is love. And love is not shining the face that you've got to put it on the ground or something. I don't know. Listen to the podcast. Are you going to try to preach it? So get really, really practical. Who's one person in your life? And you haven't been loving them, although your arms are in around them. You just

been enabling them. And you care more about the friendship than you care about the friend. and this week you need to love them enough to point them to the truth who is Jesus. You got to open your mouth, you got to shine the light on the situation and go, the path that your own leads somewhere and it leads to destruction. And I love you enough to stand it away and go, hey, listen, don't go this way, go towards Jesus. And then there's some of you, an individual person, or maybe you need to go on your social media platform and say, world, I am sorry. In my attempt to be right, I think I was self-righteous.

and I love you even if we disagree on whatever. And quit shining the light. A misused light does not help people see it. So who is an individual person that you could show grace and truth to? Because that's what love is. Verse 8. And once more, Jesus bent down and he wrote on the ground, hashtag, told you, I think that's what he wrote. But when they heard it, when they heard, hey, whoever here is sinless, you cast the first stone,

Whoever has not walked in the mud, go ahead, you walk on the carpet first, and everybody goes, uh-oh. Verse 9, but when they had heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones. Why did the older ones go first? One, they're the smartest. They're the smartest. They're mature. They understand. They got some life experience.

They get it. Which, by the way, if you're one of the older ones here at 1122, we love you. We're so glad you're here. We need you here. And if you're wondering, am I one of the older ones? You've been older longer than you think, okay? thank you though. Secondly, they've got the most sin because they've got the most time to pile it all up. But in their wisdom, they're like, I ain't playing judgment game today.

And so the older ones go first, and then Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. And Jesus stood up because she was standing up. Jesus stood up and said to her, woman. This is big. I wish you could read inflection in the Bible. It's not like, woman. you see Jesus is speaking to her with great dignity here's how I know when Jesus was on the cross this is the title that he referred to Mary with

when Jesus was on the cross and he saw his mom Mary there he looked at John his beloved disciple and he said woman behold your son son behold your mother and so he speaks to this woman with great dignity imagine what she's been called. Imagine how many Pharisees and scribes and sadducees and religious people have, with Bible terminology, called her names.

And it would be right. He could call her adulterer. He could call her whore. He could call her whatever he wants to call her. And Jesus doesn't call her that. You see, because he deals with the identity of who she is. He doesn't deal with the activity of the things that she has done. And so I say this to us all the time.

Don't believe the labels the world tries to tell you that you are. You were not your habits. You were not your sin. You were not your divorce. You were not your adultery. You were not your addiction. You're not your hormones. You were not a series of your life choices.

Those may be some of the things that you do and maybe some of the reasons that drive you to do some of the things you do. But that's not who you are. With great dignity, the king of kings and the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ is the only one that gets to tell you who you are. he looks in the face of every man and woman that would believe in him and with great dignity as the king of the universe. He says, you are my son and you are my daughter. And I'm the only one that gets to tell you who you are. And so he says, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? I think this is the first time she opened her eyes. Because I think when he heard,

he was without sin cast the first thorn, I bet she closed her eyes and she thought, here it comes. Because these are religious people. They're sinless. Or they're not going to admit that they're sinners. And I bet she's praying. let the first one hit me good so I don't feel the rest of them. And then he goes, woman, open your eyes. Look around. Look around. Where'd they go? Has no one condemned you? And she says, with great delight, no one, Lord. And Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Grace. He loves her full of grace. Paul would say it this way in Romans 8.1, therefore now, that therefore is therefore because Jesus went to the cross. And if we surrender our life to the Lordship of Christ,

then we are no longer condemned. We have the imputed righteousness of Christ no matter what you've done. Therefore, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Which means that love covered a multitude of sin. Love covered her sin. 1st Corinthians 13 says love bears all things. Love believes all things. Love hopes all things.

Love never fails. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. even you could be made acceptable before the almighty God and people like us could love unacceptable people because Christ accepted us when we were made when we were unacceptable and so he says then neither do I condemn you but he doesn't stop there our world would have us stop there it doesn't stop there because because love is full of grace and truth so he keeps coming full of truth and he says now go and from now on, sin no more. Sin no more.

He shines a light onto her path, and he's saying he puts his arm around or neither do I condemn you. Now, you are on a path that leads to destruction. It's going to destroy you. It's going to destroy your family. You can be destroyed for all of eternity. Now go and sin no more. Go in a different way. Repent.

Go in a way that comes after me. And he doesn't say, it's not your fault. You're born this way. You're predisposed to it. It's not your fault because your parents raised you a certain way or it's the culture. no, no, no, no. He didn't say quit making less mistakes. He didn't say, you got to tweak this and that about your activity. Uh-uh. He dealt with her identity. Woman, I do not condemn you. That's grace. Now go and sin no more. That's truth. That's why we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves.

That's why we, that's why God calls us that love covers the multitude of sin. Because in Christ on the cross he covered over our sin. C.S. Lewis says this in his book, The Weight of Glory, I would highly encourage you to read it. You're going to need a thesaurus, but you should go through it anyway. He says this, there are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. The context of his book is this, that every single one of us are on an eternal trajectory. If we are apart from Christ, your eternal trajectory is hell, and you will be transformed or morphed into something that is such an abomination one day that if we were to see the eternal future version, you

of you, it would scare us to death more than any horror movie. But if you are in Christ, you were on an eternal trajectory that one day will be glorified, transformed in the twinkling of an eye, that if you were to see the future eternal glorified version of you, we would be tempted to worship such a beautiful being that one day you will be. To the over 40 crowd, can I get a hallelujah for the glorified body coming, all right? Praise God. You 20-year-old. You just wait. So that's what he's talking about when he says there's no ordinary people. You've never talked to a mere mortal.

And our charity, he wrote this in a day where charity and love are interchangeable, so I'll translate. And our love must be real and costly love with deep feeling for the sins. You don't overlook sin. You're highly offended by that. Understand that sin is a really big deal. Deep feelings for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner. no mere tolerance or indulgence, which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. In other words, C.S. Lewis, long before the bumper sticker came out, said that we're not called to tolerance.

The Christian ethic is infinitely higher than tolerance. Tolerance means to put up with you. Love demands that we lay down our lives for one another. And he says next to the blessed sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. You see, why are we called to love, to accept people that are unacceptable? Because that's how Christ loved us. And that sort of activity towards people that may disagree with us, have a different worldview with us, be from a different religion, whatever it may be, puts on display the glory of God, that God is love. And greater love has no one than this, that Jesus Christ died for our sin. And so the way we're going to close up this service is we're going to

celebrate Holy Communion. Here's why. Because it is a beautiful picture of the fact that love covers a multitude of sin. And here's what I mean. Very practically speaking, on the night Jesus was betrayed and the disciples got together to celebrate Holy Communion, he's shifting gears from Passover to the Lord's suffer. There are 12 disciples at the table plus Jesus. There were two, that night especially, that were wholly unacceptable. Judas escaped. Judas escaped. carry it that night for 30 pieces of silver, he's going to take that payment to betray Jesus. And you know what Jesus doesn't do? Jesus does not say, get out of my table, man.

You go, and once you get that situation right, then and only then are you invited to my table. Guess who else is there? The apostle Peter. And on that night, Peter promises, I would never leave you, I would never forsake you. And Jesus is like, not tonight before the alarm goes off, bro. Three times. Peter goes, not me. He's lying about his lying.

And you know what Jesus does? He accepts because love accepts. He gets up from the table. He dresses himself as a servant and he washes his disciples feet. Even the betrayer and the liar. He serves them and says, I have set for you an example. You'll be blessed if you do likewise. So in just a second, we're going to celebrate communion.

I'm going to parade. Campus pastors are going to set it up at the campuses. I'll do it here. And it is an image. It is Christ showing us what it looks like for love to cover, a multitude of sin, for love to accept for the kindness of God to lead us to repentance. Let us pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love because you love us first.

And God, we thank you for the truth. The truth is not an idea and truth is not a concept. Truth is a person, the person and work of Jesus, that you are the way, the truth, the life. None of us have a right relationship with God apart from you. And God, we thank you for your grace, because it is by grace that we have been saved through faith, not by works, because we would brag about that. And God, I thank you that you came full of grace and full of truth, and that's what love is. And so, Lord, to put your glory on display for the entire world to see,

Lord, help us get over ourselves. Help us to not make much of our own preferences, but to make much of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And help us to do so by loving one another the way you have loved us. We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen.