WEBVTT

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 Okay, we're going to take a look at the second theme of what we've entitled, Passing Thoughts.

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 And I guess kind of it's the foundational truths that I want, that you want as well

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 for the congregation as you enter a new chapter.

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 And I want for the new church in Leith.

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 And we hope every church looks for and has.

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 And last week you were looking at loving God, and today we're looking at loving one another

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 as the next step in our last week, next week by God's grace, we'll look at loving the lost.

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 So you go into social media, there's lots of different memes, isn't there?

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 Lots of different things that people put on social media.

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 And some of the really common ones are things like, life's better when you don't care what

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 other people think.

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 You quite often get that on memes, don't you, people that are fed up.

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 They may be being treated badly.

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 Another one is distance is my new answer in 2024.

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 I no longer react.

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 I no longer argue.

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 I simply withdraw.

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 That's a common one as well, isn't it?

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 They just look after yourself.

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 Look after number one.

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 It doesn't matter what other people are doing, or just involve yourself with people who are

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 great and really are going to build you up.

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 So, avoid the complications of people.

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 Don't get involved in people's lives, they're just a mess.

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 Just keep yourself from that hassle.

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 However, I did read a good one actually, and I was researching for the sermon.

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 A bad day with a bald guy is better than a good day with a man bun.

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 So, I thought, particularly good, I like that one.

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 Sorry for any guys with men buns.

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 Nothing personal.

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 So, but it would be interesting, wouldn't it, to know what Jesus would put on a social

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 media meme.

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 Forgive 70 times 7.

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 Lay down your life for your friends.

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 Serve one another in love, it would be his memes.

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 Or the one from our verse today, love one another as I have loved you.

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 Boom!

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 I said, sendry, and it's not the kind of meme that we see in people's lives, and in our

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 own lives if we're absolutely honest, so much of the time.

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 But this is the commandment.

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 The commandment, I give you a new commandment that you love one another just as I have loved

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 you.

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 Verse 34 of the passage we read.

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 It's the commandment because it is the absolute distinguishing mark of you as a Christian

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 and of me as a Christian.

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 That's what Jesus says.

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 He says, by this all people will know that you're my disciples.

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 That's what He says.

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 That's what He focuses on.

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 And it's the mark of being a Christian.

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 What do you think the mark of being a Christian is?

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 What's your mark in the world?

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 What is it that you're leaving on people's minds and hearts when you meet up with them

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 and when they get to know you?

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 That is the distinguishing mark that Jesus wants you to have about being a Christian.

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 By this all people will know that you're my disciples as I have loved you.

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 Love one another.

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 Short verse, short sentence, He says it three times.

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 That always means it's very important when He repeats.

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 If Jesus repeats Himself, then it's not because He's got dementia.

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 It's because He knows exactly that this is what is important.

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 New commandment that you love one another, just as I've loved you, that you also love

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 one another.

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 Second time.

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 By this all men will know you're my disciples.

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 If you have love for one another, if you didn't hear it the first two times, if you love

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 one another, that's a third time.

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 He says it three times to them.

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 Three times to us in His living words because it's so significant.

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 I have loved you.

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 Now you shrug your shoulders today and you say, here we go again, He's talking about

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 love.

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 It's love.

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 It's just love.

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 It's easy.

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 It's easy stuff, isn't it?

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 This is impossible.

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 This is not just love.

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 Remember it's in the context of Judas' betrayal and Peter's denial which he prophesies here.

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 Jesus is giving, we can never shrug our shoulders at this truth.

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 We can never shrug our shoulders and say, I've gone beyond that.

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 That's kindergarten Christianity.

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 I've gone beyond it.

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 We can't do that because this contains the deepest theological truth that is in the Bible.

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 Love one another as I have loved you.

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 It's divinity breaking in to our existence.

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 That's what it is.

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 As I have loved you, He says, it's the deepest of all truth that we need to do.

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 You need to wrestle with it.

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 If you sit back today and say, well, this is for beginners, please reconsider and channel

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 the message from God's Word into your own heart.

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 Because you should be saying this is impossible.

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 You should be on your knees saying, I have no idea how to do this at one level anyway.

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 But no, stay there because it's not a council of despair.

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 There's great truth in this.

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 But you see, natural love, which we all have and we all share, which is great, and we thank

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 God for it, natural love, even though we tend to distort the gift of God's love.

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 But naturally what we find in our lives, what is it we do?

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 Naturally we love people who are like us, people who like you, you'll love.

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 We love people who we want to be with, who want to be with you.

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 That's the kind of people we love.

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 People who are beautiful, people who are successful, people who are middle class, people who are

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 resourced, who are the same color, the same politics, the same ethnicity, who love you.

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 But that's the kind of people naturally we're drawn to in life.

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 So often, often we love those who we deem worthy of our love.

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 They've earned our love, and we've assumed our own worthiness of being loved because

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 that's much easier, isn't it?

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 We assume people will love us because we're worthy of it, and we'll give our love to those

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 who are worthy of it.

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 And maybe it's very best in human terms, it can be completely, hugely sacrificial.

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 And sometimes at a human level, look a lot greater than Christian love.

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 But even then, in the most marvelous of circumstances where it seems a glorious love, humanly speaking,

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 if the motive doesn't recognize God's mercy in their lives and God's glory as their motives,

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 then it's a weaker love and a lesser love.

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 Now, that's what natural love sees.

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 And in the church, well, isn't church one of the greatest battlegrounds for the outworking

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 of this particular command?

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 Love one another as I've loved you.

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 Strangely but true, the church, St. Columbus, any church, if you're a visitor, the church

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 you belong to, or the church that maybe is in the figment of your imagination.

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 But church is one of the great battlegrounds for the outworking of this command, isn't

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 it?

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 Because people are not like Jesus.

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 Ah, it's easy, I love Jesus, He's perfect, He's God, He's God, the divine Son.

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 But people aren't like that, I'm not like that, you're not like that.

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 And there may be many, many situations where you can absolutely find fault with Christians

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 and with the church and with the institution for sure, and it may be a fair-tile ground

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 for walking away.

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 It may be entirely justifiable from a human point of view, see, these are a bunch of bams

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 and we can walk away from them.

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 And there may be perfectly justifiable reason because the church is full of broken sinners,

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 that's why.

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 And it's the curse of expectations, isn't it, in church?

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 The curse of Christian expectations.

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 It's a terrible thing because we have such high expectations in our marriages among our

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 friends of the preacher, of other Christians, of the leadership in the church.

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 We have high expectations because they're Christians, because they're gifted.

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 So subtle yet, it's so subtle, but yet so often that expectation that we have on others

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 of the church and of the behavior of others and the way Christians should be and churches

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 should be, we deflect that from ourselves.

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 And I'm not saying we shouldn't have an expectation of others, but it must come with the recognition

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 of the great expectation on ourselves.

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 In other words, where we allow the light of Jesus Christ first to shine into our own hearts

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 or we self-justify our lives by looking at the failings in others and the failure to

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 live up to the...

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 Our expectations, let alone Jesus, very often we take Jesus place, don't we?

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 And we think that really it's our expectations that are more important.

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 And in church, I guess, I mean, lots of reasons.

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 Everyone thinks God's on their side.

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 I think God's on my side.

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 You think God's on your side.

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 We think what we think because we think in Christ's name.

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 We're really caring about Christ and His gospel.

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 And that may be true.

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 But that will impact how we consider, think of, treat, act with one another.

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 But the other extreme in church, there's that kind of judgmental spirit that sometimes comes

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 into our...

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 And sometimes justifiably, I'm not saying...

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 I'm not giving an excuse here for bad behavior.

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 We completely justify, well, I'm talking about the importance of looking at our own hearts,

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 which we kind of looked at last week.

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 But the other extreme in churches that makes it difficult to love as I have loved you,

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 as Christ says, is for our need for approval.

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 We all need approval.

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 We all want to belong.

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 And that quite often means being nice because it's easier to be nice.

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 But there can therefore be no real depth, no reality, no faithful wounds of a friend,

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 no wrestling with the honor or the glory of God in our lives or in the lives of others,

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 and therefore no vulnerability.

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 And a great fear of being known.

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 That's one of the greatest challenges of loving one another is basically the fear of being

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 known.

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 We're known by Christ to the very core of our being, and He causes us to be known of

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 one another.

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 But the reality of that therefore means our desire simply to be nice and not be vulnerable

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 and not be exposed means that we can be bland and have a shallow, shadowy existence as a

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 church.

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 These are some of the dangers that I've picked out.

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 I'm sure there's many more, and many more related to my own heart.

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 But we're called to love Christians as Christ loves us.

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 And I just want to focus for a few minutes on the church family, obviously St. Columbus,

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 but again, if you're visiting whatever church family you belong to, I know there's a broader

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 emphasis to this command.

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 There's a broader emphasis against sectarianism, against theological snobbery, denominational

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 pride, not associating with others because they think differently from me theologically,

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 or they're not the same.

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 They don't worship in the same way.

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 My test has always been, well, I think maybe more so as I've got older, am I going to spend

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 eternity with these people?

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 Do they love Jesus?

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 That's good enough.

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 It doesn't mean we're all the same.

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 It doesn't mean we agree with one another and everything.

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 It doesn't mean we're going to partner in every gospel venture, but it means we bless

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 one another and we love one another.

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 And we don't criticize and condemn them because they're slightly different from us.

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 That's part of the wider picture, which I'm not going to start getting rambling on about.

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 But let's look at, for ourselves, Christ's church.

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 Christ's love, brother.

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 We don't have time to spend a great deal of focus on going into great depth here.

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 I hope you will yourselves, and I hope it's a lifelong process for us.

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 But you remember, take time to look at Philippians 2, which speaks so beautifully about the love

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 of Christ who considered others before himself.

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 He considered others before himself.

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 That's the work of Christ as He comes and lives His life.

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 Now, I was thinking walking in this morning about Jesus, 30 years.

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 30 years, we don't know anything apart from a couple of little details about His birth

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 and His teenage year.

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 But nothing, nothing but that 30 years before that prepared Him for His public ministry,

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 His death, His crucifixion and resurrection.

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 He was considering others before himself.

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 Our needs, your needs before His own.

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 That's what He was doing long before He was even born.

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 He made, Philippians 2 tells us He made Himself nothing, nothing.

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 The one who created the world from nothing becomes nothing on our behalf in the incarnation

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 and His life on the cross, obedient to death, the infinite cost that we will never understand

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 that sets us free.

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 He made Himself nothing.

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 We have nothing to offer, nothing whatsoever to offer to the living God for our salvation

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 and for our hope.

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 He made Himself nothing in order to give us everything, Jesus Christ.

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 And our great battle is that it's always all about me.

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 And that's the greatest fight that we wrestle against, that it's about me rather than about

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 this Christ who gave Himself up for me and His grace, His free redeeming grace for us.

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 Now there are approximately 49 one another's in the New Testament that are recorded for

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 us, which really are just an outworking of this command to love one another as I have

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 loved you.

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 They express what it looks like for us to live like Christ, because it expresses what

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 Christ, how Christ loves you in your Christian life.

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 Think of some of them.

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 Build one another up, accept one another, care for one another, bear one another's burdens,

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 forgive, be patient, speak the truth in love, be kind and compassionate, submit, teach,

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 comfort, encourage, example, do good works for one another.

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 Be hospitable, that is the love of people you've not met before, the love of strangers.

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 That's what hospitality means biblically.

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 It's broader than that.

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 Use your gifts for one another, pray for one another.

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 All of these things, that's how Christ lives for you.

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 That's how Christ loves you in all of these ways.

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 Look up the one another's.

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 When I left Roscain, my first charge, I'd done a series on the one another's interestingly,

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 and a lady in the congregation, what's the word?

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 She cross-stitched.

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 Is it?

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 Cross-stitched.

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 She cross-stitched them all.

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 Must have taken her days, days.

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 I've got them down, well, I've taken it off the wall, but it was down the wall in the

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 office.

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 I've remembered it.

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 I've kept it, because the greatest gift I could have been given, the one another's cross-stitched.

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 And it reminds us, it doesn't just say, this is a moral way, this is how you should live.

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 It says, this is how Christ loves me.

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 This is how I should love one another.

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 And of course, there's a couple of negative ones as well.

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 Don't lie to one another, pass judgment on one another, bite and devour one another, gossip

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 against one another, provoke one another, envy, slander, grumble.

00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:48.720
 Ding, ding.

00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:52.160
 I recognize some of these things in me, do you?

00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:54.160
 I'm sure you do.

00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:56.480
 Because naturally that's what we battle with.

00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:00.360
 And naturally that's what we're asked to change in our hearts.

00:18:00.360 --> 00:18:05.079
 And we can't do it without the living power of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and the love

00:18:05.079 --> 00:18:09.360
 of Christ and recognizing what Christ has done for us.

00:18:09.360 --> 00:18:12.079
 That's what Coral preached here.

00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:15.400
 That's what I've preached here for 22 years.

00:18:15.400 --> 00:18:17.960
 And that is the core of who we are.

00:18:17.960 --> 00:18:21.160
 Love God and love one another and love the lost.

00:18:21.160 --> 00:18:22.160
 That's what we preach.

00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:23.160
 There's infinite depth.

00:18:23.160 --> 00:18:28.799
 If you think there's not infinite depth there, you're on a different track.

00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:33.240
 And I'm telling you, get off it and get back on this track.

00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:38.519
 This is the only track there is.

00:18:38.519 --> 00:18:41.880
 And the great thing for us as Christians is we have the gift of the Holy Spirit.

00:18:41.880 --> 00:18:49.920
 He says, as I have loved you, and the presumption for us is, as we recognize this, because He's

00:18:49.920 --> 00:18:53.960
 speaking to His disciples, is that we have recognized that.

00:18:53.960 --> 00:19:01.640
 We've recognized the way He's loved us, infinitely, freely, fully.

00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:07.640
 It's not because we're better than anyone else or because we can earn it.

00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:11.480
 And we've repented of trying to do things on our own and we've come to Jesus Christ and

00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:12.960
 we've accepted the truth.

00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:16.240
 We've confessed and we follow Him.

00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:17.720
 Can I just have a quick aside?

00:19:17.720 --> 00:19:19.720
 Have you done that?

00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:24.000
 Do you recognize?

00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:25.720
 There's no other way.

00:19:25.720 --> 00:19:29.200
 Jesus Christ says, confess your sins, repent and follow me.

00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:32.640
 That's what the disciples did, even in all their failure and their falling.

00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:40.079
 It truly is the greatest reality that you'll ever seek and look for and find in your life.

00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:44.319
 So we have the gift as Christians of the Holy Spirit which brought life to us and it brings

00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:52.399
 the divine presence into our lives so that we can be one with one another.

00:19:52.399 --> 00:20:00.599
 You really need to read John 13, yeah, John 13 through to 17 to fully unpack what he says

00:20:00.599 --> 00:20:02.480
 in this verse, but loving one another.

00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:03.480
 It's all there.

00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:04.480
 Magnificent stuff.

00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:08.519
 Go home and take time to read these four chapters.

00:20:08.519 --> 00:20:12.879
 Because as Christians, you can't sit here this morning and I can't sit here and say,

00:20:12.879 --> 00:20:15.480
 I have excuses for not loving.

00:20:15.480 --> 00:20:21.279
 You can't say, well, you know, they're really, they really are objectionable people.

00:20:21.279 --> 00:20:22.279
 We can't say that.

00:20:22.279 --> 00:20:26.799
 I really do try my best, but I'm doing my best, but I can't do it.

00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:31.720
 You can't say that about anything in the Christian life because we've been gifted the divine

00:20:31.720 --> 00:20:35.519
 presence so that we can do His will.

00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:41.599
 I'm just an addict to sin.

00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:42.599
 Get over it.

00:20:42.599 --> 00:20:43.599
 Grow up.

00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:46.559
 You've got the Holy Spirit.

00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:47.559
 We can't use that.

00:20:47.559 --> 00:20:50.440
 I'm not saying we're not going to sin, but I say, don't use it as an excuse.

00:20:50.440 --> 00:20:55.440
 Don't stay away saying, oh, I just can't really, with the poor me and all that goes with that.

00:20:55.440 --> 00:20:56.440
 We have no excuses.

00:20:56.440 --> 00:21:04.440
 We're called to be because we are in Christ beautiful and whole and redeemed and bought

00:21:04.440 --> 00:21:12.480
 back and you can't continue as a Christian doing this in a solo act.

00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:13.480
 It's a community task.

00:21:13.480 --> 00:21:17.920
 They do say about what it takes a village to bring up a child or something like that.

00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:21.400
 I don't know what this phrase is, but there's a lot of truth in it.

00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:25.400
 It takes a community to be a Christian.

00:21:25.400 --> 00:21:30.320
 You can't be a Christian on your own, really, because there's this whole massive new commandment

00:21:30.320 --> 00:21:32.440
 that we're called to outwork.

00:21:32.440 --> 00:21:36.400
 It's not just riding solo away into the sunset.

00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:38.400
 I love Jesus.

00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:40.720
 To hell with everyone else.

00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:45.440
 It doesn't work that way because we're called to be in community because we're riding towards

00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:51.840
 a great community, a great community of believers for eternity.

00:21:51.840 --> 00:21:53.559
 And the call is for transformation.

00:21:53.559 --> 00:21:57.920
 So your testimony, your testimony in mind is never, oh, God did this for me 20 years

00:21:57.920 --> 00:21:58.920
 ago.

00:21:58.920 --> 00:21:59.920
 He saved me.

00:21:59.920 --> 00:22:02.640
 He had a daily, weekly transformation.

00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:07.880
 Oh, yes, what I needed to repent of last week.

00:22:07.880 --> 00:22:11.759
 It's not just what Christ has done, it's what Christ is doing.

00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:12.759
 It's what I'm learning.

00:22:12.759 --> 00:22:15.920
 It's how I'm changing through Him and in Him.

00:22:15.920 --> 00:22:20.279
 I respond differently to people in the church now than I did 20 years ago.

00:22:20.279 --> 00:22:22.039
 Is that what you can say?

00:22:22.039 --> 00:22:26.720
 I would have acted as a young Christian very differently to this difficult situation with

00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:29.920
 other Christians than I am now.

00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:36.839
 See, what's not of first importance is being polite and moral and church going and Bible

00:22:36.839 --> 00:22:40.960
 reading and hardworking and friendly.

00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:44.839
 It's loving one another the way Jesus loves us.

00:22:44.839 --> 00:22:52.440
 It's radical, transformational, impossibly great, and we need the Holy Spirit because

00:22:52.440 --> 00:22:54.360
 what we are here.

00:22:54.359 --> 00:22:59.159
 This is, you know, it's very common in films now, film trilogies or film series to have

00:22:59.159 --> 00:23:00.159
 a prequel.

00:23:00.159 --> 00:23:02.479
 Well, this is the prequel of heaven.

00:23:02.479 --> 00:23:04.559
 That's what it's supposed to be.

00:23:04.559 --> 00:23:10.799
 The church is not laughable that the church is supposed to be the prequel of heaven.

00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:17.439
 Sometimes it's more like hell and it's supposed to be like heaven because of the way we act.

00:23:17.439 --> 00:23:21.759
 It's a prequel of heaven, our destination.

00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:24.400
 This is how we make Jesus famous.

00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:28.240
 I'll say maybe more about that in a sense next week.

00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:31.039
 By this all people will know that you're mid.

00:23:31.039 --> 00:23:33.119
 It's that all people will know.

00:23:33.119 --> 00:23:40.240
 So we have to work out somehow both how to love Jesus His way and then how to share that

00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:42.400
 in a way that all people can see it.

00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:46.079
 That's what we're called to do and that's what we're to recognize.

00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:48.400
 That's how we'll make Jesus famous.

00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:56.840
 So lastly, briefly, this command for sins is just in applying it again.

00:23:56.840 --> 00:23:58.040
 Just recognizing it.

00:23:58.040 --> 00:24:00.120
 First of all, it's impossibility.

00:24:00.120 --> 00:24:04.560
 That's the first great, that's the great step in recognizing it's possible.

00:24:04.560 --> 00:24:09.040
 If you're part of sins, if you're a member of sins, but you've never seen that the love

00:24:09.040 --> 00:24:14.240
 you're called to show others, love your call to show others can't be done naturally.

00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:17.440
 It is more than just a natural love.

00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:24.080
 If you don't and haven't ever seen that this love and this change in your heart needs prayer

00:24:24.080 --> 00:24:32.000
 and transformation and grace, then do take a serious look at your heart and at the gospel

00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:33.000
 message.

00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:38.039
 It might be nice, but it's not discipleship.

00:24:38.039 --> 00:24:40.160
 Christ's way.

00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:48.840
 And just simply ask Christ to show you His diagnosis of your heart and also His great

00:24:48.840 --> 00:24:55.800
 redemption and His great calling on your life to love one another as He has loved you.

00:24:55.800 --> 00:24:58.880
 Because it clearly is sacrificial, isn't it?

00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:03.400
 We've got a reputation for hospitality in St. Columbus and that's great.

00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:08.800
 It's a wonderful thing.

00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:13.799
 It's part of what I really love about this church.

00:25:13.799 --> 00:25:15.720
 But it's tough, isn't it?

00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:20.599
 Love of a stranger, because that's what it means as we said earlier, primarily.

00:25:20.599 --> 00:25:25.519
 Love of someone you're not naturally connected with or connected to.

00:25:25.519 --> 00:25:30.079
 It means opening your hearts and opening your homes and opening your gifts to others.

00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:35.919
 But it's such a powerful witness to the gospel message in every way, the sacrificiality of

00:25:35.919 --> 00:25:37.119
 it.

00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:40.679
 And it does take time and inspired prayer and action.

00:25:40.679 --> 00:25:45.519
 But I'm calling you to keep it going, to develop it, to mature it, to spread it.

00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:50.079
 If you're married, share that calling with your partner.

00:25:50.079 --> 00:25:51.879
 Love them, obviously.

00:25:51.879 --> 00:25:53.879
 Love one another, that's the first calling.

00:25:53.879 --> 00:25:59.119
 But then together, love the church.

00:25:59.119 --> 00:26:06.199
 Love St. Columbus and develop one another externally of each other to do that.

00:26:06.200 --> 00:26:10.720
 And I say, if you have families, they can become all-consuming, can't they?

00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:16.720
 And there's a rightful focus and primacy of the family.

00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:24.120
 But also, take your family into this community and teach your children.

00:26:24.120 --> 00:26:28.400
 From a very early age, this amazing reality of loving one another as I've loved you, show

00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:30.400
 them how it's done.

00:26:30.400 --> 00:26:33.200
 Don't separate them from it, but show them how it's done.

00:26:33.200 --> 00:26:40.880
 And just engulf yourself within the family of the church as well, involving them, teaching

00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:42.240
 them about this love.

00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:47.640
 As individuals, be brothers and sisters in the church family.

00:26:47.640 --> 00:26:50.279
 Give your heart to it.

00:26:50.279 --> 00:26:56.640
 Give your heart to being part of this church family with all the difficulty and the challenge

00:26:56.640 --> 00:26:57.640
 of that.

00:26:57.640 --> 00:27:00.720
 And you know, there's another side to that.

00:27:00.720 --> 00:27:05.400
 You know, the great danger of preaching is always, na-na-na-na-na.

00:27:05.400 --> 00:27:06.960
 Nag, nag, nag.

00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:09.960
 Do, do, change, change, change.

00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:15.880
 And there's, oh, there is that element to grace working in us, transforming us.

00:27:15.880 --> 00:27:18.759
 But there is always another side to love, isn't it?

00:27:18.759 --> 00:27:25.480
 It's not just loving and taking that responsibility.

00:27:25.480 --> 00:27:29.880
 The other side, this is maybe underplayed and underspoken.

00:27:29.880 --> 00:27:33.920
 You need to allow yourself to be loved.

00:27:33.920 --> 00:27:37.360
 Now, that can be very, that's a hard side of it.

00:27:37.360 --> 00:27:40.360
 You need to allow yourself to be loved.

00:27:40.360 --> 00:27:49.640
 You need to allow the walls of your individuality to be broken down, to be vulnerable, to belong.

00:27:49.640 --> 00:27:56.960
 And that can be tough to be loved by people that you're not naturally attracted to or

00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:04.120
 who have maybe, with whom you've had difficulties in the past.

00:28:04.120 --> 00:28:13.400
 It's tremendously self-sacrificing to allow your heart to be open.

00:28:13.400 --> 00:28:14.799
 Why?

00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:18.880
 Because it will undoubtedly be broken.

00:28:18.880 --> 00:28:19.880
 Undoubtedly be broken.

00:28:19.880 --> 00:28:28.240
 There's no doubt that your heart will be broken as you serve in this way.

00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:37.800
 But along with that vulnerability, must be a sense of self-examining about what it might

00:28:37.800 --> 00:28:45.400
 be, oh God forbid, what it might be in my heart that makes me unlovable.

00:28:45.400 --> 00:28:47.880
 That's part of it too.

00:28:47.880 --> 00:28:56.440
 When we find difficulties, intentions and opposition, our tendency is to look at others

00:28:56.440 --> 00:29:02.960
 always and find the area of thought which may be absolutely real and genuine and we'll

00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:05.640
 need dealt with.

00:29:05.640 --> 00:29:08.560
 But there's a self-examination that's involved in this as well.

00:29:08.560 --> 00:29:12.520
 It says, well, what makes me ugly here?

00:29:12.519 --> 00:29:20.039
 What makes other people be repelled from me and it may be that that is part of this great

00:29:20.039 --> 00:29:22.160
 sacrificial task.

00:29:22.160 --> 00:29:23.879
 So it's sacrificial.

00:29:23.879 --> 00:29:24.879
 It's impossible.

00:29:24.879 --> 00:29:29.879
 It's an unnatural unity as we've said and we recognize that.

00:29:29.879 --> 00:29:36.440
 What we want in St. Columbus because it comes from Galatians 3, 28 and 29, there's neither

00:29:36.440 --> 00:29:44.720
 Jew nor Greek, male nor female and all the divisions where one in Christ is, it takes

00:29:44.720 --> 00:29:53.480
 time and effort to build this unnatural unity which is not human-based.

00:29:53.480 --> 00:30:02.840
 We have to come out sometimes of our racial, class, sex, cultural, educational, social,

00:30:02.839 --> 00:30:11.639
 sexuality, ecclesiastical bubbles and break them old of what we find easy to be alongside.

00:30:11.639 --> 00:30:21.759
 Now I am old now, as you well know, 60, I'm very old but I have lived through division

00:30:21.759 --> 00:30:25.319
 in the church for ten years.

00:30:25.319 --> 00:30:31.299
 Deep, deep division in the free church from 1990 to the year 2000 as a minister.

00:30:31.299 --> 00:30:35.519
 And it's the ugliest thing I've ever experienced and I was part of it.

00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:39.839
 I was part of the ugliness.

00:30:39.839 --> 00:30:52.839
 But it's undoubtedly what was the foundation of the renewal of the work in St. C's.

00:30:52.839 --> 00:30:58.039
 It was birthed out of that blackness which is why I will never go back to it.

00:30:58.039 --> 00:31:02.920
 By God's grace He changed us and renewed us and gave us a different focus.

00:31:02.920 --> 00:31:05.159
 It's an unnatural unity.

00:31:05.159 --> 00:31:09.519
 We need to work towards it because division in the church is the ugliest division in the

00:31:09.519 --> 00:31:10.519
 world.

00:31:10.519 --> 00:31:14.039
 You know that and we fight against it.

00:31:14.039 --> 00:31:15.039
 It's self-forgetful.

00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:16.039
 Coming to it, I'm nearly finished.

00:31:16.039 --> 00:31:17.039
 It's self-forgetful.

00:31:17.039 --> 00:31:21.879
 So it's not consumerist.

00:31:21.879 --> 00:31:23.319
 It's not about what's suiting me.

00:31:23.319 --> 00:31:28.159
 Now I know that there will be change from February onwards, that has to be.

00:31:28.159 --> 00:31:29.159
 It's a new chapter.

00:31:29.159 --> 00:31:30.159
 It's got to be.

00:31:30.159 --> 00:31:33.319
 It wouldn't be right if there wasn't change.

00:31:33.319 --> 00:31:37.240
 Some of the changes are going to be what you want and you look for.

00:31:37.240 --> 00:31:40.319
 Some of them you might not like.

00:31:40.319 --> 00:31:42.000
 But there's not radical change.

00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:43.319
 There's not a revolution.

00:31:43.319 --> 00:31:44.919
 It's just evolution.

00:31:44.919 --> 00:31:45.919
 It's progression.

00:31:45.919 --> 00:31:47.279
 That's how it should be.

00:31:47.279 --> 00:31:53.240
 But no one and nothing is ever everyone's cup of tea in a church.

00:31:53.240 --> 00:31:54.240
 Ever think that?

00:31:54.240 --> 00:32:02.120
 If you ever think that, the fact that you're in the church is, and me in the church, is

00:32:02.120 --> 00:32:04.680
 absolute proof that it can never be.

00:32:04.680 --> 00:32:10.680
 We're called to respond by putting the gospel, grace, and other people first.

00:32:10.680 --> 00:32:12.759
 That's the battle you have to face.

00:32:12.759 --> 00:32:19.599
 And you can't sit today and say, this is an easy work and there's no challenge here.

00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:25.759
 This is the major challenge that every one of us faces, to be committed to a church family,

00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:32.240
 get 100% behind it through all the difficulties and the battles and the struggles and the

00:32:32.240 --> 00:32:39.359
 failings of others and ourselves, and let Christ mold us through it.

00:32:39.359 --> 00:32:40.359
 It's self-forgetful.

00:32:40.359 --> 00:32:41.359
 It's visionary.

00:32:41.359 --> 00:32:49.000
 Second and last thing, see the church as a plowed field of forgiveness.

00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:50.359
 That's the biggest challenge.

00:32:50.359 --> 00:32:54.079
 Every time we rage and gossip and reject, think of Christ.

00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:55.640
 Think of His forgiveness.

00:32:55.640 --> 00:33:00.200
 Think of Judas' betrayal and Peter's denial.

00:33:00.200 --> 00:33:02.000
 And think of His love.

00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:07.480
 And lastly, remember that this loving one another as Christ loved you is not just about

00:33:07.480 --> 00:33:11.000
 the hour we're together.

00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:13.480
 It's that, but it's much, much more than that.

00:33:13.480 --> 00:33:19.240
 It's about committing in love to one another as people through big church, small church,

00:33:19.240 --> 00:33:24.400
 all relatives speaking through the city groups, through families, through individuals coming

00:33:24.400 --> 00:33:27.640
 together because that is...

00:33:27.640 --> 00:33:33.799
 And doing that with your non-Christian friends is part of it.

00:33:33.799 --> 00:33:40.759
 Draw the all people into this community to experience true divine love in action.

00:33:40.759 --> 00:33:43.319
 That is how people will know we're disciples.

00:33:43.319 --> 00:33:45.879
 That's where it starts.

00:33:45.879 --> 00:33:46.879
 That's what it's about.

00:33:46.879 --> 00:33:52.919
 It's about loving in such a way with your non-Christian friends coming in around your

00:33:52.919 --> 00:33:57.679
 Christian community to see that they love one another, that we love one another just

00:33:57.679 --> 00:34:00.079
 as Christ has loved us.

00:34:00.079 --> 00:34:01.079
 Amen.

00:34:01.079 --> 00:34:05.319
 Father, help us to live and love the way you want us to.

00:34:05.319 --> 00:34:11.039
 And we thank you that we can end this service with the Lord's Supper, which is that great

00:34:11.039 --> 00:34:20.400
 physical and tangible reminder to us of your provision for us, the nourishment of life,

00:34:20.400 --> 00:34:24.480
 spiritual life given to us through the death of Jesus on the cross.

00:34:24.480 --> 00:34:25.480
 Remind us of that.

00:34:25.480 --> 00:34:28.400
 Fill us with that hope.

00:34:28.400 --> 00:34:30.239
 Help us to rejoice in it.

00:34:30.239 --> 00:34:34.519
 Help us to see more clearly, descend into our hearts in the power of the Holy Spirit

00:34:34.519 --> 00:34:39.759
 in the way that you've never done before, among us as we celebrate the Lord's Supper.

00:34:39.760 --> 00:34:42.440
 And to teach us your way, we ask in Jesus' name.

00:34:42.440 --> 00:35:10.440
 Amen.