The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 3: Love Serves

Episode Date: October 8, 2017

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  1 John 4:7-11

Amen. Amen. Church, I don't know about you, but if I'm being honest, I know this is church, no place for that. But it's been a tough week in our church, personally, in our nation, around the world. Yesterday, I don't know, a thousand of us or so gathered in this room to bury a deacon here at the church. Very untimely death that leaves behind a family. It's very hard. multiple natural disasters.

There are some of our friends, pastors that we are partnering with in the city that are just getting power back from Irma and their houses are not put the back together yet. Puerto Rico is trying to survive, dig out. The shooting in Las Vegas makes all of us scratch our head. And we see this picture that sin is not a philosophical idea or a theological construct, but sin kills and steals and destroys. Seems to be that we're the most divided and polarized in our country, more so than ever.

We're doing this serious because I love your neighbor. And what do you do? What do you do when you don't know what to do? What do when it seems like your world is on fire? And not just the world out there, but like in your own Monday through Saturday. Here's what you do. You pray. You pray.

And so that's what we're going to do across all of our campuses. This is how we're going to start the sermon. It'll be a minute before I get to the Bible part of it, and we're just going to pray. So put your phone away. Make sure you put it where you can't see it because I think smartphones have stolen billions of prayers over the last decade. So just lay it down and bow your head and close your eyes. And just you pray. You're not just going to listen to me, pray.

We're not going to do elevator music. You just sit in the silence of God and pray. God, as we sit quietly for a mere 45 seconds, for many of us, it feels like a half an hour. And God, we confess to you that as we are connected to all the information that we could possibly get our hands on around the world, it may be numbing the gift that you have given us as followers of you to be still and just know that you are God. God, we pray for our church family. God, we pray for the voice of family. Holy Spirit, would you comfort those who need to be comforted?

And God, would you convict those of us that have gotten way too comfortable? God, we pray for the victims in their family in Vegas. God, would you move in a mighty way? Would you use the gospel center churches in that place to declare that our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. God, we pray for the victims of hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, the ones dealing in Mississippi and Alabama today, the ones in Florida that are dealing with Irma, the ones in Texas with Harvey, God, the folks in Puerto Rico.

God, would you please just be with them? God, would you move and then, God, would you manifest your presence among them? We know that you're there. God, would you move in this church and would you move in this city? May the thing that you do in this place, by putting on display your glory in the way that we love one another, may it actually be the epicenter ground zero of a move of you to display your glory in this world. So, God, would you give us a peace that transcends all understanding? Would you guard our hearts and minds in Christ, Jesus?

And God, would that move so deeply in us that it transforms the way we see everybody, that we have never come eyeball to eyeball with a mere mortal. And God, may we, may we love because we have been loved. God, I thank you in a weird way. Only a sovereign God could use what seemed like only tragic events to tee up your church, your bride, your movement, your body to put on display your glory for all the world to see so that we could declare that you are more than enough

that this world has nothing for us. but that you and you alone are everything. So, God, I pray that it would not just be songs that we sing or sermons that we listen to, but God, it would be lives that we live on display for the world to see, for you and you alone to get the glory. And so, God, let us not waste your time or our time over this next hour or so as we dig into your word. God, may you do what you always do. May you move.

We pray it in Jesus' name, and all God's children said, amen. If you got your Bibles, I hope you do, grab them. We're going to be in. start in 1 John. That's the little John. It's towards the back of your Bible. If you want to go there, John was an active writer. He wrote a lot. First John is towards the back of the Bible. And then we're going to flip back up to Big John, the Gospel of John, and we'll see how it goes. This series is really not for the faint of heart. I mean, when you first see it, love your neighbor, you think, sweet, feel good hit of the fall, right? That's going to be fun. And yet, when we dig into it, what we realize

is that being a Christian is simple. It really is. It's simple. It's simple. It's simple. It's simple. Follow Jesus. You're in. Surrender your life to the Lordship of Christ. That's what it takes. Trust Jesus. When Jesus died on the cross, that counter for you. You're like, yep, I'm into that, boom. Okay. So being a Christian is simple, but actually the being a Christian part is not easy. It's not easy. To, like, walk it out, to do Christian. In fact, it's worse than not easy. It's impossible. It's absolutely impossible. Do you know how I know? And do you know how you know? I don't know. What about yesterday. How'd you do yesterday? Did you yesterday love the Lord of your God with all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your mind and all of your strength? In fact, you didn't even do it today.

Right? Many of you plan to be in the nine o'clock service. You got into a fight the whole way here. That's why you're at 1122. And then you lied at the door here. How you doing? This is blessed and highly favored. You're liar. You almost stabbed each other in the swagger wagon on the way here. It's a fact. You see, the reality is, is that if a stringent set of rules and regulations could change our heart, then Jesus died for nothing. And if a stringent set of rules and regulations worked, then the only people getting into heaven are the Southern Baptists and the Pharisees. That's it.

And if you're a Southern Baptist, I pick on you because I, myself, am a recovering Baptist. And you can't make fun of somebody unless you are one, I are one, okay? I wasn't one more than I are one, but that's how I grew up. So then what do you do, man? What do you do if the thing that Jesus caused you to do is actually impossible? because the key is not try harder. The key is not try harder. It's not.

You say, here's the crazy thing. Did you realize that Jesus commands us to love? Like, love is a command. He says, love, do it. We don't talk about command as a love. In our culture, we talk about love as an accident. I didn't mean to. I fell in it and it got on me.

I'm sorry. This is not my fault. Jesus is like, that's not love. He commands us to love one another, and the way that we're going to love one another, the way we're going to be able to do this thing, is not by trying harder. Gritting our teeth. Come on, you can do this. The way that we do it according to Jesus is he says, come on, abide in me. Stay close to me. So when you do what you're doing right now,

when you come to a worship gathering like this, it's a part of the abiding. When you crack open your Bible during the week, that's a part of the abiding. When you spend some time in prayer, it's a part of the abiding. When you treat somebody as if they are more important than you during the week, that's abiding. That's how you draw close to Jesus. And when you abide, when you get close to him, he says he will get close to you. There's a promise that he will always keep. And in so doing, he begins to cultivate in you an environment whereby the fruit of the spirit is produced, not manufactured. Manufactured is from the outside of the end. Produced is from the inside out. And guess who bats lead off in the fruit of the spirit? It is love. There's a whole list. You know what the last one is? Self-control.

Thank God. So we're going to start with love. And so if you get to 1, John 3, 16. We're going to see like what the root, what the bedrock of this love is. First John 316, by this we know love. And this that he's going to unpack is the gospel. This is the bedrock of love. And not only is it the bedrock and the foundation of love, it's also how we know what we are to do in loving one another. By this we know love. That he, Jesus, lay down his life for us. This is the gospel. That that's what love. is. My definition of love, I made it up during the Man series, take it for what it's worth. Love

is your joy in the Lord, expressed towards others at great expense to yourself. So where do you get this? It is my version of 1st John. So 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. That's what we ought to do. The reason you should sign up for serve day, the reason that you should love your neighbor as yourself, is because Jesus has done this on our behalf. There's an ought here. You see, in our world, in our world that has a secular worldview, a godless worldview, an atheistic worldview, there is no such thing as ought if there is no God. Why ought we love one another? Well, and I've heard people say, well,

it's better for our society. According to who? Because not very long ago, there were very civilized societies that decided to kill one race of people. They ought to do that for the survival of fittest. In fact, not just back during the World Wars, right now there are countries that claim, hey, we fix the genetic problem by killing a group of people, by aborting Down syndrome babies, to wipe out what may be the happiest people group on the planet because a group thought, we ought to do this. You see, there is no ought if you don't know God. The reason that we love one another is because every human being that you have ever come eyeball to eyeball with, first of all, was created as an image bearer of God, which means every human being, regardless of what they can

contribute to society or regardless of their genetic makeup or their physical or mental abilities, every single human being is infinitely more important than any other, any other creature on this planet. So you take the person in the hospital that can do no thing for society. and sea biscuit, and God says that human wins every time. And that's why we ought to love one another. Because God made us in his image, and we have the ability to give and receive love. And so we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Love says we ought to lay down our lives.

Most of us aren't willing to lay down our opinion for a minute. Most of us aren't willing to lay down Twitter. Hey, bro, can you just give it 24 hours and let some people cry for a second? for you got to make a point. Most of us aren't willing to lay down a check of any significant value. Why? Because we've got to get ours. Most of us aren't willing to lay down a Saturday morning, much less our lives. And Jesus says, this is what love is.

Verse 17, but if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brothers in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? The answer, it does not. It doesn't. The evidence that you have received the love of God is that you love one another the way God has loved us. You see, hurt people, hurt people, abused people, abused people. Newsflash, loved people, loved people. This is what John is saying.

So how in the world could you look at somebody that is in great need and not do anything about it? Verse 18, little children. Man, this is so big. Did he call them little children? Let us not love in word or talk. How good are we at that? That's called Twitter. Man, we can post some verses and retweet somebody else's stuff.

Let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and truth. In other words, love is a verb. And if your mind just went D.C. talk, then you're a Christian from the 90s, all right? So, God bless you. You see, here's what he's saying, man, is that you don't get credits for feelings. But what we often do is we credit our account for feelings. that we have. Like, intentions are meaningless.

Feelings of love, you know, I'm not saying they're useless. God made us to have and give and receive feelings and all of that. But those feelings are not love. What good is it to feel love and not actually love somebody is what he's saying? I'll give you an example. I probably shouldn't share this with you. Whatever. Gretchen and I have been married for 17 and a half years, February will be 18.

Okay, so we've been at it for a minute. minute. When we were about six months in, I thought things were going great. I mean, it was great. Thanks, Pedy. All right. So, it's my elder. I really did. If you were to say, how are things going? I was like, this is the greatest thing in the world, okay? I've got a beautiful wife. She loves me. She loves Jesus. We got a new little house that we live in. I work at church. That's going good. I get to make out, guilt free. Praise God for that. And then I have, like, just magic floor in my bedroom. What do you mean? I just take my clothes. I just throw them on there, and then magically, two days later, they're just folded back in my closet and drawers.

I get to eat new food, home-cooked food. That's not microwave. That's pretty cool. The house is clear. This is great. This is so great. We're about six months in. I'm getting ready for the gym, because I did that a lot, probably too much, which is probably

part of this conversation. And I know you can't tell now, but back in the day, it was on, okay? I peaked early, 26 or so. And so she comes and sits down. She goes, we need to talk. Yeah, now I've realized that's a lie. When the wife says we need to talk, that's not what she means. We implies there's going to be like, we talking.

What I now know is that she means, I'm going to give you a sermon, and you should probably take notes, and the application steps are at the end. Okay. No, look, man, she was right. She was just right. So here's what she said. This isn't working. It's even working.

And I was like, in my mind, what do you mean? It's not working? It's working. What are you talking about this isn't working? Should I go through the list again? All right? The guilt-free makeout? Have I been over this one? This is awesome.

And basically, as I began to defend myself, here's what I went to. I gave myself credit for feelings. Because she said, do you even love me? What do you mean? Do I love you? You know, I feel, I just, don't you remember six months ago? I said I do. I still do?

It's in here. She was like, well, if you love me, you should mop. I'm going to mock. If you love me, maybe we could go to a restaurant and, like, sit down and not get our food from a clown through a window. How about that? Or maybe we would spend time together, and you look at me instead of looking at football. And I was like, you don't like football? I mean, you know, clueless.

And basically what she is saying, she didn't use exactly these words. She was saying that I wasn't loving her, regardless of all these feelings, because I did. I had all these, I would see her and things would happen on the inside. I'd hear French horns and fill butterflies. Okay, those things happen, and those things are useless if you don't do something about it. This is the way, this is the way, oh, by the way, somebody there is church, man, they gave us, they gave me a copy of the book Five Love Languages. It helped like crazy because the premise of the book, you should read it. The premise of the book is this, love does stuff.

Love doesn't just feel stuff. Love does, if you love this person, then you will do things. Acts of service, words of affirmation, whatever. Here's the way James says it in James Chapter 2. He's going to use the word faith, but it's very applicable. In James 2.14, what good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but he doesn't have works. Like, you say you love God, but you don't actually do anything about it? Can that faith save him?

And the answer is no. And it's not that works save you, it's that faith works. So if you don't have works driven by faith, then the reality is you actually don't have faith. If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace and be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? The answer is it's not good. It is useless.

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. You get no credit for intentions. We know this. How many of you, right now, to be honest, all right, how many of you have a job, gym membership and you have not been since September, huh? Anybody. You got to raise them. Come on. All right, good. Anybody else? You liars. I know the people that run the gym. They make all of their money off the people that don't come. All right. Now here's the thing. When you get, you get no credit for a gym membership because you have great intentions. You go into that place, man,

feeling good, walking around, taking a tour, right? And you're like, yep, maybe I'll do that. I ain't never doing that, you know, you kind of make up your mind. And then you leave from that place, go to Lulu, get you some real expensive tight clothes and a fitness magazine, and a little thing that goes on your key ring. What credit do you get for that? None. Let me tell you what has never happened. You've never rolled up in church.

People are like, girl, look at you. What you've been doing? I have a gym membership. Where do you go to the gym? No, I don't go to the gym. I just got the key ring and wear Lulu and bam. And bam, look at me now. Uh-uh.

Intentions? You want your credit for intentions. Or unread books on your Kindle. They're worthless. It's not until you open the book or a to-do list. A to-do list is worthless unless it becomes a to-done list. And a lot of times in our life and love, we have these intentions. We have these ideas, but it's not the idea or the belief that matters.

It is the application of that thing that matters. I've learned it firsthand back in the day when I used to work with middle schoolers as a youth pastor. Now I own one. I have one at my house, my very old middle schooler. And belief doesn't change you. Application does. Let's take, I don't know, deodorant, for example. Do you believe in deodorant?

Yes, I do. Do you have access to deodorant? Yes, it's in your room, it's in my room, it's all over the house. Have you used it before and experienced? Yes, I believe in deodorant. Okay. Your belief in deodorant doesn't do it. It is the application of deodorant

that not only changes you but your entire surroundings. Because we give ourselves credit for feelings. And they don't count. Last one, man. You'd be watching TV late at night and that commercial comes on, black and white, little puppy face in the arms of an angel. And you just stuff starts happening in here, doesn't it?

you're like, oh. And in that moment, you credit yourself as righteous before God because you had a feeling in here. God, how good am I that I am stirred and moved by this? Now, what do you do about? Nothing. Nothing. That dog dies and you feel good.

Now, just as an aside, let's just be straight about this. We really shouldn't be spending money on saving the dogs and cats until the people have enough food, okay? Let me just be on record, all right? Amen. And listen, if you don't agree, I've got a great. great book you should read. It's called the Bible. I used to look through it. There's a whole big section back here where they would just chop them in half before the Lord. You like this? He went,

yep, that's good. Wipe the blood everywhere. All right? So, just chew on that for a minute. So, in other words, love is an action. Love does. You don't get credit from feeling stuff. I'm not anti-feeling, but you don't get credit for the feelings that are generated. What happens is, is if it's actual love, then love does stuff. Love serves. Love moves. I want to back up to John chapter 13. And in John chapter 13, what's going to happen is we're going to get a practical application, a practical look at what does it look like to love our neighbors as ourselves. And so it starts out this way, John 131.

Now, before the Feast of the Passover, we've got to stop here. This is a really big deal. Every year, every Jewish person would gather together and they would celebrate the Feast of the Passover. And when the Passover was, as you go all the way back to the book of Exodus, when the people of God, when the nation of Israel were slaves in Egypt, they cried out to God for 400 years, and then God hears their cry and sends Moses as a deliver to deliver his people. And he goes to Pharaoh and he says, God says, let my people go. And Pharaoh goes, nope.

And then they kind of negotiate. Sometimes he says, yes, he changes his mind. So to loosen up Pharaoh's heart, God sends 10 plagues. And every single one of the plagues was, my God's bigger than your God plague. So they would worship the frog God, and so God would just be in charge of the frogs, and frogs would take over to the place. And they'd be like, well, we worship the Nile. So, okay, cool, we'll turn that to blood.

We worship the sun. And God's like, I'll blot that out for a little while. So every single one of the plagues were just to display God's sovereign power over everything. That he was not one of the gods among God. He is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And so then the last plague, the 10th plague, is called the plague of the firstborn. And so God goes to Moses and says, Moses, you need to tell your families to get one. one spotless lamb.

And tonight, you need to shed the blood of that lamb and put it on the doorpost of your house. Because I'm going to send an angel of death. And whoever has the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of your house, the angel of death will pass over. But if you don't have the blood of the lamb, then the angel of death will take the firstborn of every family. And so the dad would come home and talk to his oldest son.

Hey, buddy, we need to go and get a perfect spotless lamb and shed his blood and put it on the doorpost. And I'm sure the kid was like, well, why, man? It's not a lamb's fault. What did he do? That's not fair. And then the dad will say, okay, if we don't do that, then the angel of the dead gets you. And the kid goes, come here, Elam.

Come on, come on, come on. Convert, okay? And so he's, they go get the lamb, shed the blood, put it on the doorpost. And then there's this meal that they're supposed to eat. And basically it's camp food. Like camping food. The reason is because it needs to happen fast. Because the moment the angel of death comes, Pharaoh is going to be like, fine, get out of here.

And Moses basically says, so everybody need to eat with your tennis shoes on, like sleep in your sweatpants so you can be ready to go. In fact, we don't even have time to let the bread rise, so we're going to eat unleavened bread. And so that whole meal, that Passover meal that they gathered together to celebrate, was to point back to the Exodus in the book of Exodus, and then what Jesus is going to do, remember we did this last week here, we celebrated Holy Communion, Jesus is going to take the Passover meal, shift gears into the new covenant, and say, that blood of the lamb that causes the angel of death to pass over,

that whole thing, that rescuing from bondage under Pharaoh and taking you to the promised land, That whole thing you've been doing, your whole life, I am. I am the personification. I am the fulfillment. I am what God was pointing to in that whole event. So that's what they're gathered together to do. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Some translations say, he showed them the full extent. of his love. This means this. He's going to love them until his very last breath here on this earth. He's talking about, they don't know this yet, but it's talking about he's going to demonstrate for us his love at the cross. Romans 5-8, that God demonstrates his love for us and this, that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. So we use this as a phrase. Jesus did it literally. He loved us to death. He loved us to death. Now, what he's going to do, though, if you're new to Bible study, spoiler alert, he's going to serve the disciples by washing their feet in this chapter. And I think what's happening here, because they don't know that he's going to the cross the next day,

even though he just would tell them relentlessly, somehow they were a little slow on the uptake, which is good news for you. If half the time you're sitting in the sermon, you're like, I don't know what he's talking about. You can make a great disciple because Jesus is a much better teacher than me and his disciples are like, we don't know what you're talking about all the time, okay? And so since they don't know that he's going to demonstrate his ultimate love at the cross, when Jesus gets up from the table and serves the disciples, it is like a picture that points to ultimate sacrificial love.

So on Saturday, October the 21st, as we are serving our community and serving our neighbors, the reason that we do this is because it gives them, it gives our world a picture of what Jesus ultimately did on the cross when we humble ourselves and make their deal a bigger deal than our deal. And so he says, He loved them to the end. Verse two. And during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Ascariat, Simon's son to betray him, remember last week?

Love accepts. That Jesus knows that Judas is sitting at the table and that Judas has already decided to betray Jesus. Now listen, we give Judas a hard time except the problem is we're Judas. Judas tells how Jesus is Jesus is, for 30 pieces of silver, we're willing to sell him out for much less. I mean, there's a bunch of us to sell out Jesus for a raise, for another Facebook like, to impress some people that we work with, and we know we're not even going to work there in six more months. And so, Jesus, though, accepts Judas.

Here's what's crazy about Jesus that is so different than us. We most often posture ourselves for protection. Jesus postured himself for betrayal. That's how willing he was to risk love. And so knowing that Judas Iscariot had already decided to betray him, verse 3, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God. Verse 4, he rose from supper. All right, stop, don't look down, look at me.

Now, if you know the text, you already know what's happening. But think about this. Jesus knowing that he is before all things, that all things have been created by him, for him, through him, and to him. Jesus, knowing that he is the fullness of God incarnate, the most powerful being in the universe. He rose up from supper to do what? To flex? To show power? To prove himself?

To walk over to Judas and be like, what in the name of me are you about to do? What do you do? what do you do when you realize that you have all the power? What do you do when you look around the board table and you realize you're the CEO? What do you do when you walk into work and you realize you're the manager on duty and everybody reports to you? And some of you're like, listen, I never have the power. Okay, sometimes many, many people here are the CEO of the business, but sometimes you're the CEO of the swagger wagon and everybody in there and carpool is three feet tall.

What do you do when you're the mom, when you're the dad, when you look around, I coach a little league baseball team, what do I do when I'm in the dugout and everybody's this tall and I'm this tall? What do you do? Now, I know if you've been around church, you lie and you're like, I just dress myself as a servant. No, you don't, you liar. You know what I do? I'm just going to admit this. I am the worst. I'm the worst.

And I'm not talking about a thing that I used to struggle with. Christians love to talk about the things they struggle with back in the 80s. I'm talking about this week. I have a tendency, I have a propensity that if I'm supposed to be the boss, then if anybody shows any disrespect towards me, then, man, my flesh just wars within me. And I got to stand up and flex and make sure people know. I mean, it is not good.

And I'm not talking about a long, I'm talking about Thursday. day. The last official meeting I had before we gathered together here to preach, and I knew I was preaching this. I'm in a meeting and somebody was like, you know what you want to do? And I'm like, all right, all right, listen. Why don't you tell me what I'm about to do? I mean, all like, all right, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, hey, calm, they're in this room right now going, he's right. He's not even, this is not an illustration. This was Thursday. Last night, man, last night, Gretchen and I have a moment of intense fellowship where she is iron sharpens iron, right and I am being defensive about this very thing and I don't it is man it's just pride and power

and ego and what do you do Jesus knowing all things have been put under his authority and he rose up from supper but I I am laying this on the altar saying Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit please convict me and change me and humble me and help me respond to you better than I have. And here's what he does. He lays aside his outer garments and taking the towel he tied it around his waist. And he poured water into a basin and he began to wash his disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. Now listen, this is the lowest of low jobs. This is the worst job. It was like the servants didn't want to do this one. The worst. Because if you've been a Christian a while and you've been to some foot-washers,

ceremony. It's not that. We do that sometimes. We do it here at church. Honestly, it's usually my idea, but I can't stand it. I don't like well-pedicured feet that I'm married to, much less your gross man foot. You understand? And so, I don't want to be touching anybody's feet. And that's in the 21st century, man. First century feet, beyond nasty. Have you seen the Jesus movies? They had walking around in high tops. Everybody's got the Jesus handles on. It was very hip back in the day. They're walking in the streets. They're walking outside. And also, into Jesus movies, notice there's a bunch of donkeys and stuff walking around? You ever notice there's not like the people in your neighborhood walking around with animal excrement? That's a new phenomenon

that humans would walk around with animal stuff in a bag. Like, hey, what are you doing? That's weird, all right? That's not happening in the first century. Big old, like hefty bag full of donkey stuff. No. Guess where it is? It's on the feet. And then when they would come in to eat, they did not eat like Da Vinci's painting. All right? It's not like they all sat at the scorers table all around one side and Jesus had the selfie stick. Like, come on boys. This will be a big deal. No. The table was like one foot off the ground and they would lounge.

They would lay all over it, which means, depending on which way you lean down to eat dinner, somebody's nasty feet are like in your face. So if you're laying there, you're like, hey, man, it was the towel guy. I get the towel guy. John has got his stinky feet. You know he runs fast, but man, I'm trying to get, it's about to get my hummus and just stop, man. Stop. Like, this isn't a word picture.

This is a thing. It was a really big deal. And then Jesus, here's how you know it's nasty. need. Nobody helps him. You know how like at your work, if the boss starts doing something, you're like, no, no, let me get that. Like, if we have a lunch meeting around here and I get up to get a plate, everybody, everybody's like, oh, it's get plates. And everybody gets plates. I never take a plate because everybody's like, let me get that. Okay, here. Nobody steps up to help Jesus. They're like, ugh, I don't want to do that. And I don't know what the modern day equivalent is.

I don't. Maybe it's taking out the trash, it's cleaning the toilets at your house. I don't know what it is. But in every situation you walk into, there is the low job. And what Jesus says is, knowing that all authority and power had been given under me, I humble myself and lowered myself to take the job nobody else wanted to take. You see, everybody is okay with being a servant until you get treated like one. And the reality is this, see, we like to use servant as an adjective to the kind of leader we are. Well, I'm a servant leader. That's cool, because Jesus never said to do that. He just said, be a servant, period. And everybody's okay with being a servant until you get treated like one.

And Jesus says, yeah, this is what the kingdom of God is about. To show the full extent of his love, he humbles himself, dresses himself as a servant, and he washes his disciples' feet. Verse 6. And he came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? And Jesus answered him, what I am doing, you do not understand now. But afterwards you will understand. Peter said, time out, of course Peter's going to talk. That's what Peter does, which is a little

leadership lesson for you right here. Jesus just told him, you don't know what you're talking about. And Peter goes, that reminds me, I should say stuff. Okay, if you don't know what you're talking about, you shouldn't say stuff. Because as you talk, you make it evident to everybody else that you don't know what you're talking about. All right? Hey, let me just talk some more until everybody understands. I don't know what I'm talking about because I need to validate myself in this room and here at the Lord's table. And what we should do is practice silence, okay? But not Peter, he can't do it. Makes me feel better about being a disciple. Peter says to him, you shall never wash my feet. And Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no share

with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and head. And I think the other disciples are like, Peter, you're just making it super weird right now, okay, bro. It ain't bath time. But there's something really important here. You see, we would say to Peter, Peter, you don't get to determine the stipulations by which you come to Jesus or by which Jesus comes to you. That is not what a disciple, that is not what surrender means. When we come to God and say, okay, this is how you

save me. Or God, if you, then I, there are no if, then contracts with the sovereign king of the universe. He comes when he wants as he wants. And you know what we do? We surrender. We say, I give up. God, it's on your

terms, it's not on my terms. And so Jesus says to him in verse 10, the one who is bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you, for he knew who was to betray him. That is why he said, not all of you are clean. And I think he looked over at Judas. He was like, all of you are clean, but not every one of you. Now, this next part is super important, because Jesus is going to give commentary to what he just did,

and he normally doesn't do this. And I think the reason that he gives commentary to what he just did is because he knows this is my last teaching moment with the disciples. Normally, something like this would happen, and he'd be like, that reminds me of a story. There was a jet plane and a scarecrow, and you're like, okay, am I the plane? Am I the scarecrow? What do I do?

That's what he would do. He would teach him parables so that you would, like, marinate on it. Well, he doesn't have time for that. He's just going to tell him what the deal is right here. Verse 12, and when he'd wash their feet, he put on his outer garment, he resumed his place, and he said to them, do you understand what I have done to you? Crickets.

And I think their lack of response is evidence. No, we have no idea what you're doing right now. And so he explains it, verse 13, you call me teacher, capital T, that's rabbi, it's a title. You call me rabbi and lord, capital L, Lord. This is not like Lord of the Manor or ladies and lords. The Greek word is curious, which means like divine sovereign Lord, king of kings, lord of the Lord's kind of Lord. So you call me teacher and Lord, and you are right for so.

I am. Now when he says this, we just read right past it because we think, yeah, that's just how it reads in English. When he says that sentence, I mean, their hair blows back. They're like, here's what he's saying. In Exodus chapter 3, when Moses, who we talked about earlier, he sees this burning bush, but it's not being consumed. And he thinks, that's cool. So he walks over to check it out and then God Almighty speaks. This is Moses. Moses, take off your shoes for your standing on holy ground. So Moses takes off his shoes and he bow. his face because he's scared he might come face to face with God and be burnt to a crisp. And God says, Moses, I want you to go to Pharaoh on my behalf and say, let my people go.

And Moses is like, after a little excuses and stuff, then he says, okay, I'll go. But if they ask, who sent me, who shall I say sent me? And God says, you tell them that my name is Yahweh. That's the Hebrew word. It's called a tetragram. It's just four letters. And Yahweh, the way you say it, it's supposed to sound like the way you breathe. Yahweh. It's translated, I am, or I am that I am, or to be who I be. In other words, there's no past,

there's no present, there is the eternal now. The uncreated creator says, I am. That's who sent you. So now you fast forward a couple thousand years, and Jesus, after saying, I am the personification of the Passover, I am the blood of the lamb that's put on the doorpost of your heart, You call me rabbi, that's cool, you call me Lord, and you are right for so Yahweh. That is what he's declaring on the night that he was betrayed and went to the cross the next day, that he is God. And so, yeah, they're not totally grabbing onto it. So I love to use the Bible as commentary unto itself.

So if you flip over to Matthew chapter 26, in Matthew chapter 26, you've got a different author talking about the same event. And they're not describing two to different events, but anytime you have two different sources talking about the same event, sometimes you get different details. Like if you watch the Georgia game highlights from yesterday on ESPN, you might see Fromm's touchdown to Gobwin, or you might see one of Chubbs' touchdowns.

There's a couple there. But then if you flip over to Fox, it might be the freshman. Number seven, Swift, that's a cool name for a running back. It might be his touchdown or Sony Michelle. There's so many to choose from right now. So it's kind of like that, okay? So here's what Matthew says about the same event. When it was evening, this is chapter 26 versus 20 to 25.

When it was evening, he reclined at the table with 12. And as they were eating, he said, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me. And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, is that I, Lord, capital L, Lord. Curious, Lord, means preeminent, sovereign, before all things. Is it I, Lord? It says one after another. just going down the line. Is it I Lord? Is it I Lord? Is it I Lord? Verse 23. And he answered, he who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.

The son of man goes as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. Judas who would betray him answered. Is it I? What's the word? Rabbi. Not Lord. Not Lord. that Judas knew him as teacher, good moral teacher, but not Lord King of the universe sovereign of which you would surrender your life to. Let me give you the thing that I am most afraid of as the pastor of this church. The thing that literally brings tears in my eyes,

the thing that I labor and prayer over, the thing that wakes me up in the middle of the night sometimes. Because every time a magazine comes out with one of these fast-growing lists and we're on it again and all of that, Here's what scares me to death of the thousands and thousands of people that show up at 1122. I'm afraid that a bunch of you know Jesus is teacher and not Lord. Like, I don't know why you come. I'm not super concerned about why you begin coming.

Some of you get tricked to be here and God saves you, praise God. But if you continue to come because you think Jesus is a teacher. If you think, you know what, it really helps. I mean, it's made me a better husband. I'm kind of a better father. Or maybe I can meet some people and network. There's so many people here. I kind of run my business good this way.

Or you know what? We've got kids now and good gosh, I want them to not do what I did in college. So let me raise them in this. Maybe that'll be a different technique. And what is what I'm so afraid of is from here right now. I can't tell. I mean, from the looks of it, everybody looks like they're going to heaven to me. Everybody's sitting up, paying attention, laugh at the right time.

and what if you don't know him as Lord? Nobody would have thought Judas was on the outs. He was the only one with an official title. He was the treasurer. Everybody thought he was in. And yet, right here at the Lord's table, where Jesus is laying out the gospel, all he sees him as is a good moral teacher.

Jesus did not come as a good moral teacher. He didn't. Man, you can dismiss him as a lunatic. You can spit at him as a liar. But you cannot, you cannot. bring him down to good moral teacher. He is either the Lord of the universe or nothing. That's what C.S. Lewis says in mere Christianity.

I said, do you know him? You see, so now, in that context, let's jump back to John, 14. If, that's a big if, if you know him as Lord, if I then, your Lord and Teacher, notice the reversal of the titles. Not Teacher and Lord, but Lord first and then Teacher. if I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you. In other words, if he is your Lord, this is not about performance, this is not about proving that you love God,

this is not about pretending that you're in, this is not begrudging submission, this is not, if you don't, then he doesn't know you. this is rooted in the reality that if you have been hit by the freight train of the love of an almighty God, then erection ruins your life in the best way possible. It changes your priorities. It changes what matters to you. That you can't go to eyeball with another human in need and not reflect on the reality that you did not deserve to be loved and helped by God. And yet he made himself nothing to lift you up. Therefore, if you have received that kind of love from God, therefore we ought to love one another in the same way.

That's what he's talked about. It is rooted in the gospel. Verse 16, truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. And this does not mean, if you sign up on October 21st,

you're more likely to get the raise. No, the blessing is when you serve, you are like Jesus. And there's no greater blessing. That God uses us humbling ourselves and putting ourselves in positions of serving to help people in need to transform us from the inside out to the image and likeness of his son Jesus. And then he keeps going. He keeps going. By the time you get in verse 34,

he says this, a new command I give you that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. And by this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. See, we are a movement for all people. Do you know what our marketing campaign is? It is not a billboard on 95 of me and Gretchen, and she puts on a big white hat. We're like, hey, come here. That is not what it is. Glamour photos of the staff.

That's not what we're doing. The biblical marketing strategy is love. Love. And I believe, I believe, honestly, with the national tragedies, with Irma just hitting here, with the divisiveness in our culture. I think that God has created a platform. He has teed this thing up right now where the church can take the lead on love

and put on display the glory of God for the whole world to see. That God is love, but we've actually got to do something about it, and I just show up and talk about it. So here's the point. The point is actually a bunch of verses from 1 John, chapter 4. Dr. John Piper says that this event in John 13 where Jesus says, I'm going to show you the full extent of my love, that it is the initiating epicenter of the five chapters in 1st John, which just spell out how we are to love one another, like Jesus says in John 13.

So 1 John 4, beginning of verse 7 says, Beloved, you just got to stop right there. Beloved, that's the title which God calls us. to be loved, to be loved. You know how I'm going to rant all the time and say, this world doesn't get to tell you who you are, you're not your past, you're not your sin, you're not your habits, you're not your addiction, you're not your whatever,

but only Jesus gets to tell you who you are. Jesus calls you Beloved, which is not only a title, it's also an action. How about be loved? Because you'll never know how to love until you know how to be loved by the ultimate I am. And so he says, beloved, let us love one another,

for love is from God, And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. It does not say love is God, but God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world that we might live through him. This means we live and love and look like Jesus. That's what we're supposed to do. Verse 10, in this is love.

Not that we love God. In other words, we're not doing these things to prove ourselves to God. It's not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin. Propitiation means a payment that satisfies, which means this church, that God cannot be dissatisfied in you, because he was ultimately satisfied in the life, death, and resurrection of his son. And so when you know how to be love, beloved, then we can be loved towards one another. Verse 11, Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. So here's how we do it.

Let's get real practical. Number one, throw a party in your house and invite your neighbors. We're going to stay on this one every week. Okay? Don't just have that idea. You know, you drive down the road and you see that guy, I should probably do that. And then you just give him this.

Sup. All right? Go beyond Sup and bring him over for like Supper. Okay, that's what we're calling us to do. Just invite people into your home. Number two, humble yourself and serve, and I left a blank in your notes. Fill that thing in. Because I think we're all pretty good at like signing up for the church.

serve day and then we get home and we don't serve home very well or you go to work like here's what I dare you to do think of the person in your office that you don't want to help at all because he's unservable write him down I dare you you know immediately who I'm talking about and the reason and I know that guy you can't stand that guy but guess what man before Christ you were can't standable either. And Christ died for us. And so whatever that thing is at work. Or this will blow your kids' mind. I dare you to do this. Do your kids chores this week. And I know every mom is like, I do them every week. I understand, but like, leave that part out. Just do the chores. And then don't say anything about it. And when your kids are like, what? Is everything okay? Are we moving? You and dad, all right? Is Jesus coming back?

I mean, something is going on here. It's an opportunity to go. You know what? Actually, God did a bunch of stuff for me. that was my responsibility. So I just thought I would love you. Or it is. Spouse. You know that thing that your spouse hates to do? Just do that thing for them. Without trying to get a reward from it. Once again, I'm not a good example. I'm the worst. I will unload the dishwasher at my house. But only when Gretchen's home, and I'm the loudest dish putter-upper in the history of dishes. There has been times I've stood in the kitchen waiting for her to come out of the bedroom. Oh, just putting up to, just hashtag love your neighbor. Okay?

So not that. I'm going to have to re-listen to my own talk and do stuff. Last one, we've talked about it every week. There's two last ones, though. Sign up for serve day. Sign up for serve day. Right now, as a response to the gospel, get out your phone, go to the app or go to the website, C-O-E-2.com slash serve day and sign up.

And God has wired you in a certain way. You could do big major projects. You could rake. some things where you just go sit and read with people. There's a whole bunch of served day options. And then one more, one more. And this was just kind of by the providential hand of God. Thursday was Reagan's birthday, so I went to eat lunch, whether at school at Chet's Creek, and I bumped into a girl named Audrey to have known for a long time. And she works for the McKinsey Wilson Foundation. And she primarily serves at, it's called the Mark, right across the street here.

And she says to me, she knows where we're in this Love Your Neighbor series. And she says, you know what, I really need, I really need some men to come and help mentor men, young boys, really, fatherless guys. And I was like, what do they have to do? And she's like, I don't, just be a man, just be a male, 17 to 107. If you're in that category, come on. And any time, any time Monday through Thursday from 3 to 6, you don't even have to say that the whole time, you could just do one hour a week or one hour every week, whatever you could do. It's right across the street at Portside, right? Literally our neighbors.

and it's a bunch of boys without dads and yeah dude they're getting in trouble like crazy just think about it man you got in trouble and you had a dad and so it's just a mess and so we need we need men all kinds all colors all everybody just 1122 men to just go and mentor them and you could kick a soccer ball and feel like I don't do that cool just sit in the air condition and talk whatever it is and then if you're like well I can't do three to six I got a job during the week no problem me too so Saturdays from 10 to 12 they do this thing called rising tide and you just go man you just go and just mentor these guys and so if you want to do that then here's here's audrey's email address you can just email her right now audrey at care give grow.org Audrey at caregiv grow.org also audrey's single so if you're

25 to 35 you might meet a wife I'm just trying to serve her that's what I'm trying to do okay so So she asked me to, and then she said she was kidding. I don't think she was kidding, so we'll see. So here's the thing, man. The reason we're doing this series right now, love your neighbor, is because it's right on the heels of gospel awakening. So here's what I think. I think if the Apostle John started coming to our church,

I mean like literally somehow, began to attend 1122, John, who had supper with God, who heard the command, love one another as I have loved you. And if the Apostle John came to saturated, if he was one of the 15,000 people that attended saturated, and he thought, well, man, that was cool. He had some of the best preachers around the world

and special lights and new songs and people just more hands up than normal and more people at the prayer altar than normal. And wow, that was really, really great. But do you guys realize that on an average weekend right now, we have between 8,000 and 8,800 people attend on all of our campuses. And none of you come every weekend, and we know who you are. So that puts us, what, 15,000 people around town say, yep, that's my church. And if out of 15,000 people, we don't have

4,000 people sign up to serve our city. And we can't get 12 or 14 grown men to go over to port side and spend an hour or a week with people. I think the Apostle John would be like, he had a nice song, but whatever, you don't mean it. You didn't mean it. You didn't mean it. If you come here and open your Bible and raise your hand and sing and move, so good. But don't love. Don't do something? And I think, I think we're just like a glanging gong or a symbol. The church, God has given us this opportunity to put on display the love of God.

Because what we are praying for in that revival season, And as God revive us, breathe afresh your love new in us, so that we could receive the love of God so much that you would fuel us to love our neighbors as ourselves. So church, be he not merely hears of the word and so deceive ourselves, but let us do what it says. Would you please stand and pray with me? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you because you loved us first. God, I thank you for that love. I thank you that your love is never. ending, never failing, always pursuing, and ever persistent.

And God, may we be so transformed by the great I am that we walk in your example of loving one another as you have loved us. God, I pray that you would stir in us, the Church of 1122, as individuals in our homes and at work, and then collectively, not just on October 21st, but all the time, God, that we would put on display you and your love for us in the way that we love one another. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.