Love One Another II

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3.22.09

Before I left for Africa I preached on John 13:34: “Love one another”
The point of the sermon was that being part of a church is not simply attending a Sunday service, but loving your brothers and sisters in that church all through the week

Today I want to look at 10 commandments
that explain what it means to “love one another”
These are commands addressed to the church, this is how we are to be the church

Galatians 5:13
1. “Serve one another”

Gal 6:1-2
2. “restore gently the one who is caught in sin”
3. “carry each other’s burdens”

Ephesians 4:32
4. “forgive one another”
5. “be kind and compassionate to one another”

Philippians 2:3-4
6. “in humility consider others better than yourselves”
7. “look to the interests of others”

Colossians 3:16
8. “teach and admonish one another” warn

1 Thessalonians 5:11
9. “encourage one another”
10. “build each other up”

I may be wrong about this in respect to a few of you.
But I do not see that most of us are actually obeying these commands.
We can’t obey these commands if we only see each other at the Sunday service.
In order to obey these commands you would have to be living in close community with other Christians.

I want to make a proposal: a very clear way for each one of you to obey these commands.

Join a with a few other people and commit to practice these commands together as a community or simple church.

I do not mean only join East Ridge Pres and gather with all of us on Sunday, but I mean go further and join a smaller gathering of people inside ERP.

These are like small, simple churches within the larger church.

Only in a church can you obey these commandments. But it is impossible to live in community with all 200 people.

Such a simple church is not just another meeting.

It is a group of people that commit to one another, covenant with one another to practice these commands every day with one another.

Imagine if you were in a simple church with just 10-20 people and everyone in the church covenanted with the others:

“I promise to serve you, restore you gently when you sin, carry your burdens, consider you better than myself, look to your interests, forgive you, be kind and compassionate to you, teach and admonish you, encourage you, and build you up.”

(other commands could be added to this as well)

This is not a Bible class, because a class meets once and is focused on the word and not each other, focused on learning the commands not on practicing them.

This is not a prayer meeting, does not just meet once only to pray for a list of requests.

It is not even a small group in the traditional sense because that only means people sitting in a circle facing each other not people devoted to one another.

And all of these smaller simple churches get together on Sunday for praise, thanksgiving and teaching.

you have heard the phrase: “every member a minister”
this means that all of us are ministering to one another (by obeying these commands)

*
Actual steps to take
We already have several groups: men‘s groups, women‘s groups, shepherding groups. Perhaps, some or all of these could transition to become like simple churches.

I encourage the leaders of these groups to raise the bar and emphasize these commands and to bring all the members to take such a covenant oath to one another.
If you are part of a group, I encourage you to covenant with the others in your group.

I plan to start two new groups that I will oversee. I already have a Sunday night group. But I plan to start one on Wednesday night and another one to meet on Sunday morning. All are welcome.

Do any of you feel called by God to begin and lead such a group? Come talk to me.
(a leader is not a teacher)

I encourage those of you not in a group to join one with the objective to obey these commandments by God’s grace.

My goal is to have every adult in such a simple church.

*
Jesus didn’t preach a message to individuals, he started a community.
to embrace Christ and the gospel
requires that you embrace the community, a church, a group of brothers and sisters to whom you are devoted in love.

*
Such a simple church is not just a community ministering to one another, they should also minister to other members of ERP and outsiders as well.

In this way such a simple church can act as a team and serve together the needy and the suffering. They can go out and do things as a team.

Such simple churches can also do evangelism by welcoming unbelievers into the group and extending care to them.
Groups should not be closed but should be open always ready to welcome another and always reaching out to unbelievers.

John Wesley in the 1700s
traveled around England preaching in the open air and he would make many converts

his converts attend the Sunday service at the local Anglican church
but he also gathered these people into simple churches, he called classes or bands, of between 5 and 20 people.

They held each other accountable and challenged each other, loved each other, and they also ministered to the sick and poor. These groups had lay leaders.

At his death, there were 10,000 such groups in Britain and the United States.
“a company of men having the form and seeking the power of godliness, united in order to pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, to watch over one another in love”

Christ May Dwell In Your Hearts

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11.9.08

Ephesians 3:16-17a

Spurgeon:

“I know that there are a great many fishermen here this morning, and I
heartily welcome them. When you are out at sea you like to know that
there are plenty of fish in the sea all round your boats. It is a fine
thing to get in among the great shoals of fish. Yes, but there is one
thing better than that. Fish in the sea are good; but the fish in the
boat are the fish for you. Once get them in the net, or better still,
safe into the vessel, and you are glad. Now Christ in heaven, Christ
free to poor sinners is precious, but Christ here in the heart is most
precious of all. Here is the marrow and fatness. Christ on board the
vessel brings safety and calm. Christ in your house, Christ in your
heart, Christ in you; that is the cream of the matter, the honey of
the honeycomb. Christ is best known when He is Christ in you.

There is the sun; I do not know how many thousands of times the sun is
bigger than the earth, and yet the sun can come into a little room or
a close cell; and what is more, the sun can get in through a chink.
When the shutters have been closed I have known him come in through a
little round hole in them. So Christ can come in through a little
faith — a mere chink of confidence. If you are such a poor believer
that you can hardly think of assurance or confidence, yet if you do
trust the Lord, as surely as the sun comes in by a narrow crack, so
will Christ come into your soul by the smallest opening of true faith.
How wise it will be on your part where you see your Lord’s sunny face
shining through the lattices to say, “I am not going to be satisfied
with these mere glints and gleams, I would fain walk in the light of
His countenance. Pull up those blinds; let the heavenly sun shrine in,
and let me rejoice in its glory.”

There may be a valuable medicine that works like magic to expel a
man’s pains, and cure his diseases; but it is of no efficacy till it
is within him! When it commences to purify his blood, and to
strengthen his frame, he is in a fair way to know it without depending
upon the witness of others. Get Christ in you, curing your sin, Christ
in you filling your soul with love to virtue and holiness, bathing
your heart in comfort, and fining it with heavenly inspirations, —
then will you know the Lord. Christ believed in, Christ possessed,
Christ experienced, Christ in you, this is worth a world.

Did you ever hear the legend of a man whose garden produced nothing
else but weeds, till at last he met with a strange foreign flower of
singular vitality. The story is that he sowed a handful of this seed
in his overgrown garden, and left it to work its own sweet way. He
slept and rose, and knew not how the seed was growing till on a day he
opened the gate and saw a scene which much astounded him. He knew that
the seed would produce a dainty flower and he looked for it; but he
had little dreamed that the plant would cover the whole garden. So it
was; the flower had exterminated every weed, till us he looked from
one end to the other from wall to wall he could see nothing but the
fair colors of that rare plant, and smell nothing but its delicious
perfume. Christ is that plant of renown. If he be sown in the soil of
your soul, he will gradually eat out the roots of all ill weeds and
poisonous plants, till over all your nature there shall be Christ in
you.”

1. To have the Spirit in you and to have Christ in you is the same experience

not two different experiences

Christ is in you by the Spirit

if the Spirit is strengthening you
then Christ is in you, working through you

2. A different experience than receiving Spirit at conversion

This is Paul’s prayer for people who are already Christians

This must be the prayer of Christians for themselves

3. Being strengthened by the Spirit is not automatic for all
Christians but must be sought by prayer

4. There is no second Spiritual phase of the Christian life but the
Spirit must be sought daily anew

5. Any love and goodness in a person can only come from the spiritual
operation of God inside the person

Naturally in the flesh without the Spirit’s help we cannot love in the
manner of Christ

6. all people are not called to be prophets and apostles but we are
all called to be strengthened by the Spirit

God does not just work through prophets and apostles
he works through us

7. Being strengthened by the Spirit is much greater than knowing Jesus
in the flesh

Jesus said in John 16:7
“It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the
Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

Jesus went away to send the Spirit

To live in the day of Jesus and walk and talk with Jesus is nothing
compared to living in the day of the Spirit in which we live

8. when you eat the Supper there is not automatic grace unless the prayer of your heart is I want
Christ within me

when you eat and drink and bring the food within
the prayer of your heart must be to have the Spirit work within

9. Today is the day the Spirit should be sought

Do not worry about what you will do next week or the rest of your life.

Today you need the Spirit’s work.
Today seek it.

what will you do today?

Ephesians 1-3

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11.2.08

Ephesians
(early church read whole letters in meetings)

summary of 1:1-10
Paul is praising God because God has given the Ephesians in Jesus Christ
every spiritual blessing (“in the heavenlies”
means in the unseen spiritual reality)
(not material blessings)
READ and summary

This is what God has already done
This was all God’s plan from the beginning of the world

his plan also includes
that at the right time
all things will be united under Christ

summary of 1:11-14
Paul continues to praise God
Jews (we) were first brought into Christ
then Gentiles (you) were included in Christ
and given the Holy Spirit
READ and summary
this is what God has done already

summary of 1:15-23
Paul prays that God would give the Ephesians “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation” to know God better
READ and summary

this is what God will do
this is what is available to us by prayer as it was to the Ephesians

“pray that you may know his incomparably great power for us who believe”
(the same power that raised Christ)
know it in the sense of experience it
not know about it

summary of 2:1-7
Paul says all of us
were spiritually dead in evil way of life
But God intervened out of his mercy, love, grace and kindness made us spiritually alive
READ and summary

verse 3
“objects of wrath”
God working against what they were doing
“wrath” does not mean God did not love them

verse 6
united us with Christ in his resurrection and reign
“seated with him in the heavenlies” unseen spiritual reality

summary of 2:8-10
They were saved by the work of God
it is not their own work
they are God’s work
God works through them to do good works
READ and summary

my brother Philip said the other night
at the Reformation service
good works are not the gift you give God
but the gift God will give you

if you are not doing good
don’t flee from God and hide from him
ashamed
flee to God for his help
you are not doing good because you need his help
God will work in us and through us to do good works

summary of 2:11-22
Paul reminds the Ephesian Gentiles that once they were separated from Christ
but now God brought Jews and Gentiles together and made them one
READ and summary

15-16
made them one by at the cross abolishing the ceremonial law, the religious rituals of the Jews
which separated Jew from Gentile
by being killed Christ killed their hostility

summary of 3:1-13
Paul is saying he was called to proclaim to the Gentiles about Christ
and bring them with the Jews into one body
READ and summary
this is what God has done through Paul

*
now this is Paul’s prayer for them
no summary just listen
3:14-21

I want to encourage you this morning that this is what God stands ready to give
by grace not by your work
through the Spirit not through religion

get excited!
this is what God stands ready to give
this is what Paul prayed for
this is what we can pray for

A Church for the Outside Community

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12.30.07

I was ordained in January of 2004.
In the last 4 years I have not baptized a new believer.
The church is growing in number
but almost entirely by taking Christians from other churches
not by making converts from the world

And this is true of most churches that grow.
Their new members come from other churches.
and from the children of families already in the faith

Having almost no impact on the oustide community

I want to examine 3 reasons why I believe this is the case.
(there are, of course, many other reasons as well)

I. The first problem is that we speak the gospel only
and we do not do the gospel

speaking the gospel is not sufficient
We must do the gospel

Imagine a church that was known not for going door-to-door (speaking)
or handing out tracts or inviting people to come to a service (speaking)
or holding revivals or conferences,
but known for doing good to the people in the community.

Imagine a church that was a blessing to the people in the community
who do not go to the church.

Imagine getting a reputation for being those who do the gospel,
not simply speak it.

I don’t think they listen to gospel words preached on the street,
presented door to door, written in tracts, etc.
They cannot hear our words about the gospel,
when our actions deny the gospel.

Q: Are we doing good to the people in our city/ community
as members not of East Ridge Pres, but Christ’s church?

What do I mean by “doing the gospel”?

Ephesians 5:1-2

We are to live a life of love
because this is the way of God
because this is the way Christ loved
this is the gospel!
doing the gospel is imitating the love of God
and the love of Christ for sinners

Colossians 3:12

Why does Paul tell the Colossians to clothe themselves
with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience?
Because the gospel is that God and Jesus acted toward us
with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
He is telling them to do the gospel.
In fact, Paul never commands lay Christians
to evangelize and preach the gospel to outsiders.
But he tells them dozens of times to do the gospel.

1 Peter 2:12

The pagans/the outsiders
those in the community
are to see in us good deeds:
deeds of love and mercy, gospel deeds.
This will result in the conversion of some
but even if they do not convert– this is our duty.

1 Peter 3:1

A wife is taught to win over her unbelieving husband
by her actions not her words.
It is my opinion that this is good advice
for most of us in many of our relationships with the outside community.
We should win the community by doing the gospel.

II. A second problem is that American churches are filled with American individualists.

In the American culture we put the individual before the community
and we live in isolated private individualistic worlds.

We shield ourselves from the community
and maintain our private worlds against the public world.
We hide in our homes as sanctuaries.
No one can get in without our permission.

Unlike other cultures in the world
where your home stands open to the community
where you don’t barricade yourself in your own home
but you live with the whole community
through the day

Typical American man has a wife and 2 kids
he goes to work where he comes in contact with a few people out of the necessity of his work, the rest of the people he doesn’t need and he ignores them.
At noon he buys his lunch from someone he does not know.
He gets in his car and drives home into his garage, closes the garage door behind him, goes straight into the house and does not come out again until it is time to go to work. He turns on the TV, eats his dinner with his household, and remains in his sanctuary.
On Sunday he goes to a service. He shakes a few hands, sits through the service, shakes a few hands on the way out, goes out to eat and sits at a table with his family alone and then goes right back to his house again.

Where is the opportunity for love to the community?
Many Americans Christians very rarely love anyone outside a very small circle of Christians and family.

Philippians 2:4
Look to others interests beside your own
(notice next verse– we are to do this because it is the gospel of Jesus)

Individualism is looking to your own interests (your households interest).
the gospel way is looking to others interest

Individualism is exclusion.
It is shutting out people that we don‘t want in.
Individualism is a rejection of the gospel.
The gospel is about embracing those outside.
Looking to their interests.

III. A third problem is that Churches emphasize Church services and programs over everything else.

Galatians 6:10

There is a call here to do good especially to your fellow believers
but there is also a clear command to do good to all

We think of church and Christianity as the big worship service and this distracts us from what God really told us to do: love one another and do good to all men
Church services are not wrong.
It is just that they are secondary.
The love commands are primary.
We have it reversed.
We put church services as primary.
When we do church services, we think we are doing good.
But this is not doing good.
It is possible to attend church services and not do good to anyone– in the church or outside in the community.
God never told Christians to hold big worship services and build big buildings.
He did tell us to get together and love one another.
He did tell us to do good to all people.
This is primary.

Important Conclusion:
This is not a technique to get more converts.
We are to love because Christ loved us, not as a ruse to score a convert.
Christians and the people in churches are to live for the benefit of outsiders.
We are to live for the benefit of unbelievers.
We are to live for the benefit of Muslims and Jews and Atheists and the average people who have no clear beliefs.
We must love the people who are raw: uncooked by years in the church.

We are not told “Do this because you will get converts.”
We are told, “Do this because this is the way God is. This is the gospel.”
To speak gospel and not do gospel is a lie and hypocrisy.

All Things in Heaven and on Earth

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12.23.07

What do we celebrate on Christmas?
The giving of Jesus to us (by God)

some celebrate Christmas individualistically
this is what Jesus did for me

but let me suggest that Jesus means something much bigger
there is so much more to celebrate

I want to expand your vision this morning
so your Christmas is much
bigger than you

in one sense Christmas is not about you
and what Jesus did for you

Nazi Germany occupied France
for over 4 years during WWII (1940-44)

on August 25, 1944
Paris was liberated by the Allied forces

imagine if a man came out to greet the Allied troops:
“Thank you for rescuing me.
I knew you would come for me.
I knew that
one day I would be rescued by you.”

That would be absurd.

The celebration that day in Paris was a celebration not of one man’s
rescue but of the liberation of the whole city.

Christmas is a celebration of something much bigger than you.

Ephesians 1:9-10

This passage tells us the purpose of God in giving Jesus.
his will, his pleasure in sending Jesus

it is much bigger than you:
to unite all things in Christ

don’t celebrate your individual salvation but the salvation of everything

“when the times will have reached their fulfillment”
in history– not after you die
in history– in a certain year on the timeline
the whole universe will be brought under Christ
rescued from evil and harm
loving one another, under a good king

yes, there will be some who are put out of the kingdom under Christ
as when the Allied forces marched into Paris the Nazis were
imprisoned, sent away

but that does not erase the thrust of this passage:
ALL THINGS will be united under Christ
This is against the kind of pessimism
we often hear today
this is majestic optimism

this is against the kind of individualism we hear today: Jesus for me
it is not about you
it is about the universe

it is not about heaven after you die
it is about the history of the whole world

Ephesians 2:14-16

Christmas is not just about you
it is about Jesus making a new human race right now, in the present time

bringing together people who were once enemies and hostile to one another
Jesus makes the two one
the “one man” is a new human race

In the present Jesus has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility
he has abolished the Jewish ceremonial law
and given everyone access to God directly
no matter race or culture

we celebrate this at Christmas
that despite the wars and hatred of the mankind between races and cultures
God has established a new human race that is not divided by race and culture

In 2000 years the church has outlasted every nation and government.
None are still standing that were standing at the conception of the church.
The church will outlast all present nations and governments.
Empires and Civilizations are short lived in comparison.
Even without power or armies, we will continue when Superpowers
crumble and fall.
Even in the face of great opposition and persecution we have thrived.
we will grow and multiply while empires diminish and break up.

and in this church we unite all races and cultures and nations as
brothers and sisters

Ephesians 3:18

Some have said this is personal
You need to know Christ’s love for you
This is a description of how big Christ’s love is for you

but I disagree — that is a typical way to individualize this passage
to make it all about you
this is about Christ’s love and how wide and long and high and deep it is
in other words: how much and how many it contains
this is about its size, its expansion to include all, to take in the world

Christmas is not just about Christ’s love for you
but also his love for everyone else

and once again, yes, I know that some will be rejected by Christ
because of their crimes against their fellow men and God
and because they refuse to leave those crimes

but you must note here the expansive tone, this is not Christ’s love
for a handful
but his love for all

This Christmas let us celebrate
not an individualistic salvation
not some cultural ghetto Christmas
national, racial or denominational Xmas
let us celebrate the salvation of the universe

the bringing together of all races and people
and the love of Jesus which is wide and long and high and deep
and envelops them all

not a Presbyterian Christmas nor an American Christmas nor family
Christmas, but celebrate Christmas for the universe