The scripture reading comes from Romans chapter 12.
Please follow along on the screen, the bulletin, or your own Bible.
Starting in verse 1, we read,
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God.
Which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Then in verse 9, we read,
Let love be genuine,
abhor what is evil,
hold fast to what is good,
love one another with brotherly affection,
outdo one another in showing honor,
do not be slothful in zeal,
be fervent in spirit,
serve the Lord.
This is the word of God.
Great.
Thank you, Joyce, for reading to us this morning.
And good morning, everybody.
It's great to see you all today.
Thank you.
I think nobody really knew what to say there, right?
You were like, do we say something?
Do we not say something?
Well, if you're new, my name is Kevin,
and it's great to have you with us today.
Now, for those of you who aren't new,
you'll know we are working through the book of Romans,
chapter 12.
And Romans 12 is this amazing passage in the Bible.
It starts off with these very famous words,
by the mercies of God.
And it comes off the back of 11 chapters
of amazing gospel teaching.
11 chapters where Paul has just been explaining
the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus,
and what it means,
and the good news of Jesus,
and the hope of Jesus,
and the profound love of Jesus,
and the fact that God saves people like us.
And then he starts off, chapter 12,
with these words,
in view of God's mercies,
or by the mercies of God.
But the problem is,
Christianity is not just meant to be doctrine
that we believe in our head.
Christianity, or being a Christian,
is not just about believing certain propositional truths.
It's about actually having the life,
and the nature, and the character of God
so shape and change our lives,
that we become a different kind of people.
Okay?
So I want to show you a photo.
Let's see if we can get this photo up on the screen.
There should be a photo.
There we go.
This photo is devastating.
It's a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan,
which, if you don't know what the Ku Klux Klan is,
it was an ultra-right-wing,
extremist,
very evil kind of brotherhood
in America,
in the American South in 1920s
to about the 1960s or so.
And so this is a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan,
but do you notice the sign that's behind him?
What does it say?
Jesus saves.
Now, that is great gospel doctrine.
Jesus saves sinners, right?
That is the truth.
That's what this church is built upon.
Jesus saves.
But what this photo shows us
is that you can believe great gospel doctrine
and not have it penetrate your life
or shape your life at all.
You can believe gospel doctrine in your head
and still live out the values of hell
rather than the glories of heaven.
And what Romans 12 is trying to show us
is that it's one thing to believe
the wonderful doctrine,
that Jesus saves.
Jesus died on the cross.
All the great stuff we were singing about earlier.
But what Romans 12 wants to show us
is how that actually shapes
and transforms our lives
and our relationships
so that we start to look like Jesus
rather than live out the values of hell.
And so one way to think about Romans 12
is that it actually describes
how the gospel shapes
our various relationships.
And so in verse 1 and 2
describes how the gospel shapes
our relationship with God.
It says,
Therefore, by the mercies of God,
present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable.
This is your spiritual act of worship.
Don't be conformed to the ways of this world,
but be transformed into the image of Christ.
And then in verse 3 to 8,
Chris explained this last week,
it shows how the gospel shapes
our relationship to ourselves.
It says,
In view of God's mercy,
don't think of yourself more highly than you ought,
but think of yourself with sober judgment.
Right?
Consider yourself a team member
with gifts of grace
to contribute to the team.
And then in verses 9 to 16,
Paul shows how the gospel
shapes our relationships
to the church family,
to the way we relate to one another.
And then in verse 17 to 21,
Paul's going to show
how the gospel shapes
our relationship to our enemies,
to those who persecute us
or cause life to be difficult.
And then in chapter 13,
Paul's going to show
how the gospel shapes
our relationship to the government
and to the state.
Okay?
So that's kind of,
chapter 12 shows
how the gospel shapes
all these areas
and relationships in our lives.
Now today,
we're going to focus on the middle one.
How the gospel shapes
our relationships
to the church family.
And today,
we're going to look at
just three verses,
verses 9 to 11,
and then next week,
we're going to pick up 12 and 13.
And so,
look at what Paul says here.
In verse 9 to 11,
I appeal to you therefore,
brothers,
by the mercies of God,
verse 9,
let love be genuine,
abhor what is evil,
hold fast to what is good,
and love one another
with brotherly affection,
outdo one another
in showing honor.
Do not be slothful in zeal,
be fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord.
We live in an age
where we as a world
and a society
are very confused
about the nature of love.
Everywhere we go,
we are bombarded
with words and images
and messages
about love.
Whether it's on the MTR line,
whether it's an advert
that you see,
a song that you listen to,
images, words, songs,
everything is bombarding us
and appealing to
a certain nature
or notion
of what love is.
And it's a kind of love
which essentially
is based on two things.
It's based on feelings,
how I feel about something,
and it's orientated
towards the self.
And so that's why
people say,
I know that I love you
because of how you make me feel.
Right?
And we hear people
talking about things,
saying like,
I guess I've fallen out of love
or we're no longer compatible
or it's not working
for me anymore.
But the Bible's going to tell us
that our relationships,
both romantic
but also platonic,
are to be shaped
by a kind of love
that is far more robust
and far more profound
than that.
That's a very superficial
and a very fragile
understanding of relationships
and of love
and of commitment.
And so despite
the flood of imagery
and the songs
and the memes
and the messages
and all the stuff
that's going on,
like undernourished kids
in a candy store,
we as modern society,
although we are bombarded
with love all around us,
we are actually
deeply starved
of the kind of robust,
radical,
transformative love
that God designed
us to both experience
and also to demonstrate
towards others.
I think we've got a picture,
another picture up here.
Okay, do you know
what this is?
This looks like a cake,
but it's not actually a cake.
Actually, this is a picture
of heaven on earth.
Okay?
Not really,
but this is amazing, right?
This looks like Kathy Tom
has been in the kitchen
at work.
This is not just one layer
of chocolate,
not just two layers,
this is five layers
of chocolate awesomeness.
Okay?
For bakers,
when Jesus says,
maybe on heaven
as it is,
maybe on earth
as it is in heaven,
this is something like
what he was thinking about.
Okay?
Five layers
of chocolate cake.
In the passage
we're going to look at
today,
Paul is going to give us
12 layers
of what a community
that is shaped
by the love of God
looks like.
And jokes aside,
what the passage
we're going to look at
is in some ways
a small picture
of what heaven on earth
is really meant
to look like.
When Jesus said,
pray like this,
let your kingdom come
that you will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Jokes aside,
he wasn't talking about
Kathy Tom's chocolate cookies.
He was talking about
a community of people
that are so shaped
by love
that earth looks like
or the church
would look like
an outpost of heaven.
And so that's what
we're going to look at
today in our passage.
And what you're going to see
is that the love
that Christ talks about
is not feelings based,
it's not orientated
towards the self.
It is sincere,
it's principled,
it's others focused,
it's family,
it's a picture
of heaven on earth.
And so look at how
Paul starts off with this.
He says this,
let love be genuine.
And that's the big idea
for today's passage.
The big idea of today's passage
and today's message
is this,
that in view of God's
radical,
robust,
transformative
love and mercy,
let us become
a kind of church
that is radically
and generously loving too.
Okay, that's what the passage
is going to call us to today.
So let's look at how
he starts.
Verse 9,
Paul says this,
let love be genuine.
Let love be genuine.
The Greek word here
for genuine
is the word
a-lipokritos.
A meaning without,
nipokritos
from where we get
the word hypocrisy,
without hypocrisy.
Now I'm sure
most of us know this,
in the ancient world
to call somebody
a hypocrite,
or the word hypocrite
wasn't a derogatory term,
it wasn't offensive.
A hypocrite was the name
for the Greek actors
who acted on stage
by wearing a mask,
right?
So they'd go on stage,
they'd wear a mask
and play a certain character,
kind of think of like
Beijing opera, right?
You put on a mask,
you play your character,
at the end of the show,
you put your mask down
and you go home,
your genuine self.
And the actors
that played this character
were called
the hypocrites.
And it was a word
that then became
a moral word
and took on the nature
that we use it
as today.
Paul is saying,
his point here
is that because
of God's grace
to people like you and I,
the church should be a place
where we no longer
wear masks,
we don't come to church
for two hours
on a Sunday,
say our Christian lines,
play the game,
and then go home
and be our genuine self.
Actually,
because of God's love
for us,
the church should be a place
where we remove our masks
and where we can love
one another
and receive love
as our genuine self,
who we genuinely are.
Now,
of course,
that's scary
and of course
that's messy
because what that means
is that if I come
with my genuine self,
you're going to have
to experience
the real me,
not the Instagram version
of me,
okay?
And that might be complicated
and that might be messy,
but it's also beautiful.
Now,
here's the one challenge,
right?
No church
is going to have
a big sign outside
saying,
we don't love people,
we don't care about you,
we just want to use
and abuse you,
take advantage of you,
come and join this church,
okay?
If you ever find a church
that says that,
here's some free advice,
you might want to look
for another church,
okay?
That's not a healthy church.
But here's the thing,
no church is going to say that,
but that church
might be better
than the kind of church
that says,
welcome,
we will love you
and accept you
like a family
and then when you're
on the inside,
you find there's backbiting,
there's backstabbing,
people come on Sunday
and they wear
their Christian smile,
but inside they're
harboring bitterness
and resentment.
Maybe it's better
to find a church
that's honest
about how unloving it is
than a church
that is playing
the hypocrite.
And so what Paul
is saying is,
by the mercies of God,
because of God's
great love for us,
the church community
should be one that
can genuinely
be authentic
and sincere
and love authentically.
So what does it look like,
let's look at the contrast,
to be insincere?
What does an insincere
church look like?
Well,
on the one hand,
insincerity is obviously
projecting an image
that the outside of you
doesn't look like
the inside of you,
right?
So you come to church
and someone says,
how are you?
And you say,
yeah, I'm good,
I'm good,
doing well, thanks.
But actually inside
you are dying.
Or it's talking to somebody
and saying,
hey, how are you doing?
Hey, I'm really sorry
to hear that.
I'm going to be praying
for you.
And actually you have
no intention of praying
for them at all,
right?
Or maybe it's coming
to church and we sing
the songs and we take
communion,
but our hearts are
actually really hard
towards God.
And so what's going on
there?
All of that is a form
of wearing a mask.
It's a form of self-love
and not an authentic love.
But there's actually
another kind of hypocrisy.
Do you remember
Jesus' famous words
in Matthew 7
where he says,
do not look at the speck
or do not say
to your brother,
let me take the speck
out of your eye
when you've got a log
in your own eye.
He says,
you hypocrite.
First take the log
out of your own eye
rather than taking
the speck out
of your brother's eye.
And what Jesus is saying
there is that
there's a kind
of hypocrisy,
there's a kind
of self-love
that minimizes
my own faults
or covers over
my own faults
and magnifies
the faults of others.
So let's say,
for instance,
one day Chris comes
to me in the office
and he says,
hey,
Kev,
the way you responded
in that staff meeting
was a bit strange.
Are you okay?
Or hey,
we've spoken
that that's not
the culture
we want to set here.
And you responded
like this.
Can we talk about that?
And I say,
what do you mean?
Didn't you do
the same thing
last week?
Or Jeremy?
Jeremy did the same
thing last week.
Well,
what am I doing?
I'm minimizing
my own faults,
magnifying someone else's
to reflect the attention
on me.
What am I doing?
I'm wearing a mask.
It's self-love.
And so,
Jesus says
that Jesus calls us
to become the community
that loves one another
without masks,
genuinely,
sincerely.
Jesus says,
by this will all people
know that you are
my disciples
if you have love,
genuine love
for one another.
And that's an amazing
thing because if you
think about it,
every church has
unique characteristics
about it, right?
You go to a church
like us
and maybe we're
a little low-key
and not particularly
fancy
and, you know,
we do our thing.
And then you go
to another church
down the road
and you find
the pastor is
very cool
and he knows
how to talk
cool and dress
cool and you think,
wow, this is a great church
and the music's like this.
And maybe you go
to a third church
and they're more
contemplative
and meditative
and high liturgy.
and Jesus says
that actually
all those things
are not
that important.
If you want
to go to church
where the music
is phenomenal
and there's smoke
machines and lights
and buzzing stuff,
that's okay.
If you want
to go to church
where there's more
hymns and it's
traditional and liturgical,
that's okay.
But the defining
feature of the church
is Jesus,
is not the music
or the dress code
or how you speak,
it is their genuine
love for one another.
By the mercies
of God,
let your love
be genuine,
sincere.
Now,
of course,
that's the first thing,
okay.
Now,
we mustn't confuse
genuineness
or sincere love
with just niceness
or politeness,
okay.
The kind of loving
community
Jesus envisaged
is not one
that's simply sweet
and just nice
all the time
but one that's robust
because look at
what Paul says next.
Look at verse,
is it still verse 9?
Still verse 9,
I think.
He says,
abhor what is evil
and hold fast
to what is good.
Now,
the word abhor
means to loathe
something,
to detest something,
kind of like
to hate something.
Paul,
and the word
to hold fast
is actually the word
used elsewhere
in the New Testament
for sexual intimacy,
for marriage,
to be united
to one another.
And so Paul says,
in view of God's mercy,
be genuinely loving,
hating what is evil
and holding fast,
uniting yourself
to that which is good.
But in the Greek language,
this is actually
all one sentence.
There's one train
of thought here.
So he's saying,
let your love be genuine
by detesting what's evil
and holding fast
to what's good.
There's a connection there.
And think about it
this way.
What Paul is saying here
is that a community
that's genuinely loving
will also hate
that which is evil
and destructive
and detrimental
to the well-being
of the community.
So think about it
this way, right?
How many of us here,
if your sister
or your mother
or your wife
or your daughter
is threatened,
how many of us
would say,
oh,
that's a pity.
I hope that doesn't
happen again.
If there isn't
something inside of you
that gets riled
when somebody threatens
a family member,
we'd question
how much you love them.
Or let's say
your mother
is diagnosed with cancer
or your child
is diagnosed with cancer.
It is not something
inside of us
that gets angry at that.
Well, we'd question
how much we genuinely
love our family members.
And Paul's saying
the same thing.
Because of our love
for one another,
when there's something
that threatens
the well-being
of the community,
there should be
something inside of us
that responds to that.
It says,
no, that's not right.
We need to talk about that.
In fact,
one commentator says
it's not just
this inward feeling.
He said it's an intense
inward rejection
of all that is wrong.
It's a repudiation.
So it's not just
this passive saying,
oh, that's really not good.
That really,
I hope that doesn't happen.
It's actually a rejection
of the evil
that's threatening
the well-being
of the church family.
In other words,
the gospel doesn't confuse
robust love
with gentle tolerance.
Does that make sense?
So in our culture,
we tend to think
that we live in a culture
that says love
is all feeling-based.
But the New Testament
actually says
that the kind of love
which causes community
to flourish
is robust.
So think about it
this way.
Imagine you are,
you go camping
with a friend
and you see a snake
slithering
towards your tense friend,
your friend's tent,
okay?
Your tense friend,
right?
You see a snake
slithering towards him.
You don't say,
oh, well,
I guess it's none
of my business.
Oh, you pick up a stick,
you scream,
and you shout,
and you maybe even
risk a little bit
of danger.
You do some crazy things
that you wouldn't
normally do.
You've got to get
that snake away,
right?
In the same way,
when we see danger
moving towards
our church community,
we don't just say,
oh, well,
I guess it's none
of my business.
Because of our genuine
love for one another,
we move towards each other
and say, hey,
this might be
a difficult conversation,
but I love you so much.
Can we talk about this?
A few years ago,
I have a very,
very dear friend of mine,
very, very close friend.
And I,
for some reason,
this friend of mine
is married,
he's got kids,
and there's another family
that are good friends
of theirs.
And they used to do
a lot together
and go on holidays together
and that kind of stuff.
And I,
for some reason,
I don't know why,
just felt like the guy,
my friend,
his relationship
with the wife
and this family,
something just felt not,
I was feeling
uncomfortable about it.
Just felt like
they were too close.
And for months,
I was wrestling with this.
And one day,
I plucked up
every ounce of courage
I could find
in my being.
And I've got to tell you,
it was one of the hardest things
I've ever done in my life.
And I said,
hey, bro,
this is going to be
a difficult conversation.
But do you mind
if we talk about this?
I feel awkward
and uncomfortable
when I see you
relating to this lady.
Can I ask you
just to
be very aware of that?
And he was very gracious
and he just said,
hey, thank you.
And
that was all.
And it was all fine.
And I honestly thought
that relationship
might come to an end.
I thought he might hate me
and never want to see me again.
And I didn't want to do that.
And I didn't want to have
that conversation.
But because I love him
and I love his family
and I remember thinking
to myself,
imagine in five years time
this guy comes to me
and says,
hey, my marriage is over.
I'm leaving my wife and kids.
I would,
I don't know what I'd do
to myself.
Friends,
Jesus says
that genuine love
means we abhor,
we loathe
when we see the cancer of sin
moving towards our community.
We pluck up the courage
and out of gentleness
and humility
we say,
can I have a conversation?
Can we talk about this?
And the truth is
maybe there was nothing there.
I don't really know.
And maybe one day
I'll get to heaven
and I didn't need
to have that conversation.
But maybe I did.
Genuine love
moves towards one another
like that.
And so,
what this means
is that
contrary to popular notions
of love,
the kind of love
that God calls
the community to exhibit
is principled,
not just feelings based.
It's not just based
on personal preferences.
You know someone loves you
when they're willing
to go against
personal preferences
for the sake of
what's good
and right
and wholesome.
And so,
just by the way,
for those of us
that are single here,
if your boyfriend
or your girlfriend
ever says,
hey,
if you love me
you'll sleep with me
or if you love me
you'll go away with me
or you'll move in with me,
they don't love you.
They're putting
personal preferences
above what's good
and right
and good for you
and your relationship.
genuine love
puts principle
above just
personal preferences.
Okay?
Abore what is evil,
hold fast,
fight for what is good.
Now,
some of us
might think,
oh my goodness,
all this talk
makes me nervous,
right?
Because now,
if I join a church
like this,
everyone's going to be
analyzing my life
and scrutinizing my life
and everyone's going to be
coming and pointing out
all sorts of things
in my life.
And that's not
the case at all.
Remember Jesus' words?
First,
let's look at our own hearts.
We don't want to become
a community
where everyone's
pointing the finger
at everyone else.
That's not the kind
of community we are.
And here's why.
Because Paul says
we're a family.
We're a family.
Look at his words
in verse 10.
He says,
love one another
with brotherly affection.
Now,
Paul actually uses
two words here
that are
in Roman context,
Greek culture,
were deeply
family related.
The first one
where he says
love one another
is actually the word
that describes
a parent's love
for their child.
It's that deep delight
that a parent takes
in their child.
You know,
if you have young children,
if Fiona and Chris,
you guys are at the stage
or there's a whole bunch
of others,
Chris and Justin
at the back there,
your kids can just
have a terrible day.
They're screaming
and they're grumpy
and they're fighting
with you.
And then they go to sleep
and they're asleep
in their crib
and you look at them
and you think,
oh,
aren't they so beautiful?
Right?
And you think,
can you just,
did you forgot
what just happened
an hour ago?
It's that parental
deep delight
that you have
in your kids.
Paul says,
delight in one another,
love one another
like the parents
love for their children.
And then he uses
this other word,
oh, by the way,
family is messy, right?
It is grumpiness
and there's tiredness
and there's challenges.
Every family is messy.
But parents still
love their children
despite that.
Friends,
you know the church
is messy.
There's grumpiness
and there's tiredness
and there's challenges
and there's temper tantrums
in the church.
But Paul says,
we're a family.
Delight in one another
nevertheless.
And then he uses
another word,
the word Philadelphia
for brotherly affection.
And literally just the word
that siblings,
the love that siblings
have for each other
that is forged
over a long period of time
of going through
all sorts of battles
and life together.
You know that if you've got
a sibling
and you've grown up,
your sibling is the kind
of person that
you can just go to their house,
you don't need to say anything,
you can just flop down
on the couch,
you can go to their fridge
and just open up their fridge
and they know how you feel
even without using words.
Do you know what I mean?
Paul says that's the kind
of relationships
that the church should have
that are forged
over a long period of time
of working through
challenges together
so that actually
you're so natural,
you're so just yourself
with each other
that you don't need
to put on a pretense.
It's the kind
of family relationships
where you delight
each other naturally.
You know,
some families,
you need to have
a bunch of rules
on the wall, right?
So in this family
we talk kindly
to each other,
we make our bed,
we take the plates
through to the kitchen
afterwards,
we don't put feet
on the couch,
all those sorts of rules.
But actually a great family
is one that doesn't have
to have those rules
on the wall,
they just know
how to love each other
naturally.
Paul's saying,
delight in one another
with that kind
of brotherly affection
so that we don't come
to church and say,
rule 7.3
of the Watermark Constitution
says,
you will arrive
at church at 10.30,
right?
Actually just out
of love for one another
we know how to behave.
Okay,
that's the third thing.
Fourth layer
of our cake
is this,
and actually this is
going to be the last one,
is this.
Paul says,
a church that's
shaped by the gospel
is selfless
or self-forgetful.
Look at what he says here.
He says,
outdo one another
in showing honor.
Now,
this is one of those phrases
that you read over
in your Bible
very quickly,
especially in a list
of 12 commands.
Okay,
there's 12 commands
in this passage.
You read the list
of 12 commands.
Love one another genuinely,
abhor this,
love this,
do this,
outdo one another
in showing honor,
be fervent,
blah, blah, blah,
and you read over it
and it just goes
straight over your head.
But just think about
that for a second.
Imagine a church community
that is committed
to outdoing one another
in honoring each other
all the time.
And what that means
is prefer to honor
one another
than being honored.
Come to church
with a mindset
that says,
how can I serve
and esteem somebody else?
How can I lift
somebody else up
rather than
how can I be esteemed?
How can I be lifted up?
It's the kind of community
where you're putting time
and effort
and energy
into thinking,
how can I lift up
somebody
and encourage
somebody else
rather than always
looking to be encouraged
and built up yourself?
Outside of the gospel,
we've all got to fight
for every bit of honor
and recognition
that we can get.
But that kind of culture
necessarily excludes
one another.
It tramples people.
It abuses people
and it hurts people.
How many of us
in the workplace,
there's a culture
of a dog-eat-dog culture.
You've got to get
on top of people.
It's super competitive.
And if you're not on top,
you're getting left behind.
But how many of us
have felt marginalized,
used and abused,
trampled on
and excluded?
Paul's saying,
what would it look like
for the church
that is shaped
by the radical love
of Christ
to be a church community
that so honors
one another
that we're lifting
and building
one another up
rather than seeking
to be honored?
Paul says that
in the gospel,
Jesus Christ bestows
on us an honor
and an identity
that is so securing,
so undeserved,
so reassuring,
it leads to what
Tim Keller calls
a kind of self-forgetfulness
where you just naturally,
it transforms us
from being honor seekers
to being honor givers.
And notice here
that the honor
that Paul calls us
to give
is not based on
giftedness
or personality
or position
in the church
or position
in society,
it's an honor
that's given
based on the fact
that we are blood
bought by Christ,
that Christ is
the head of the church
and the head
of our family.
And so friends,
imagine each church,
each Sunday
we arrived at church
thinking,
how can I honor,
how can I esteem,
how can I encourage
somebody today?
Imagine throughout the week
there's a myriad
of text messages
that are going
across Hong Kong,
messages,
scriptures,
prayers,
as we seek
to honor
and encourage
one another.
What a beautiful church
and picture
to be part of.
And Paul goes on here
and he says,
do not be slothful
or lazy in zeal,
but be fervent
in the spirit,
serving the Lord.
And Dallas Willow
said this,
he said,
the opposite of love
is not hate,
but laziness.
Think about that
for a second.
The opposite of love
is not hate,
but laziness.
And that's so true.
And so Paul says,
don't be lazy
in the way
that you serve
one another
because actually
that's selfishness.
And so practically
that might mean
coming to church
or CG
even when you
don't feel like it
because you know,
hey,
this isn't about me,
this is about
serving the family.
Friends,
this is the kind
of church
that the gospel
creates
where the mercies
of God
form a gospel
community.
Now,
one last thing
before we close.
It is possible,
it's possible,
Chris actually
reminded me
of this week.
It's possible
for us
to know
all this kind
of behavior
and to
try and manufacture
a counterfeit version
of all these
characteristics.
So it's easy
to think,
hey,
Christians,
I know we should
be loving
and so we
act loving.
Christians
should be
genuine
so we
act genuine.
It's easy
to try
and act
out these
characteristics
without having
a gospel
shaped
transformed
life.
And so
what that
means is
that the
church
will be
formed
but will
look like
this
but in a
counterfeit
version.
And we
all know
a counterfeit
version
just sucks,
right?
If you ever
try to take
a bite
of a
counterfeit
piece of
cake,
foam cake,
it's not
going to
satisfy,
right?
There,
there,
there is,
I was thinking
about this
last night,
have you ever
gone to
Madame
Two Swords
and you
see
Ed Sheeran
or someone,
have you ever
tried a
relationship
with that
person?
They might
look good
from a
distance but
it's not
going to
really,
you're not
going to
have much
of a
relationship
with them.
So how
do we
become the
kind of
community?
Let me
explain what
I mean by
that.
We can
come to
church and
you can
just be
harsh and
judgmental and
arrogant and
then we
say,
hey I'm
just speaking
the truth
and love.
I don't
want to
wear a
mask,
I want
to be
real.
I see
the cancer
in your
life,
I see
the snake
slithering
towards your
door and
because I
love you,
I want to
tell you as
it is.
So we
just become
this harsh
judgmental
community,
right?
It's a
counterfeit
version.
Or maybe
we go around
just puffing
everybody up and
encouraging people
all the time,
bless you
brother,
you are so
wonderful and
we just
become this
kind of
cheesy,
superficial,
mutually
affirming
community that
doesn't need to
actually know how
to speak the
truth and
love.
Or maybe we
come to church
and we're all
just grumpy
and lazy
and moaning
and we say,
I just want to
be genuine.
I don't want to
wear a mask,
I don't feel like
being here,
I don't like you,
this is who I am,
just deal with it,
right?
And so we put on
this counterfeit
version of being
genuine.
So how do we
become the kind
of community that's
genuine and
authentic,
sincere,
without hypocrisy,
which has the
courage to call
sin what it is,
and yet at the
same time is
still full of
brotherly affection,
honor,
and genuine
love?
How do we
become that
kind of community?
And the
answer is that
we've got to
be formed,
on the
biblical language,
rooted and
grounded in
the immeasurably
awesome,
robust,
transformative
love of God
for us.
you've got to
be so
shaped and
rooted and
grounded in
God's profound
love for us
that it
transforms us
from the kind
of people that
are self-focused
towards those
that are others
focused.
It transforms us
from the kind
of people that
are always looking
towards ourselves
to the kind
of people that
are willing to
give genuine
love away.
Paul starts off
and he says,
by the mercies
of God,
by Christ's
profound love
on the cross
for us,
be this kind
of community.
And so,
remember this
famous verse
in 1 John
chapter 4?
John writes
this,
he says,
we love
because God
first loved us.
Oscar,
you might need
to help
Elliot there.
this is
parental love,
brotherly affection.
Shame.
I don't know
what to say.
Paul says this,
Paul says,
we love
because God
first loved us.
Now,
I always thought
that that meant
we love God
because he first
loved us.
And that is
true in a way,
but actually
what this verse
is talking about,
we love one another
because God's
profound love
has been poured
into our hearts.
Because John
goes on to say,
we love
because God
first loved us,
therefore no one
can say,
I love God
and hate his brother.
How can you say,
I love God
whom you haven't
seen,
if you dislike
and hate your
brothers and
sisters whom you
can't see?
So John is saying,
we love one another
because God's love
has first been
poured into
our hearts.
The apostle Paul
says it like this
in Ephesians,
be kind to one another,
tenderhearted,
forgiving one another
as God in Christ
forgives us.
Therefore,
walk in love
as Christ
has loved us
and gave himself
up for us
on the cross.
Friends,
when the depths
of Christ's
profound,
robust,
transformative love
grips and shapes
my heart,
it will cause
a kind of
self-forgetfulness
which enables me
and empowers me
to love those
around me
and those in the
community.
And so what this
means is unless
our hearts are
constantly shaped
and melted
and informed
by God's love
for us,
our relationships
with each other
will always tend
towards the self.
And if you think
about that,
that's why the
gospel needs to
constantly be
informing our
hearts,
week in and
week out.
We can't just say,
you know,
once upon time
in 1989,
I heard the gospel,
it was amazing,
my heart was broken
and I became a
Christian.
Well,
1989 is wonderful
but what about
2021?
This week,
my life needs
to be shaped
by the mercies
of God
so that this week
I am able to
love those
that sometimes
I find it hard
to love.
Friends,
when the love
of God shapes
our hearts,
it causes us
to become
this kind
of community.
And so the key
to loving genuinely
is to be so secure
in Christ's radical,
robust,
transforming love,
it frees us
to become
these kind
of people.
And so friends,
do you find yourself
needing to be
honored?
You find yourself
always thinking,
how can I look good
in front of others?
Friends,
the irony is
the more you look
to be honored,
you will never
be satisfied.
The answer is
you've got to look
to Jesus,
the one who
became so dishonored
and so shamed
on the cross
in order to give
you a name
and an identity
and an honor
that will never
be taken from you.
Friends,
look to Jesus.
Friends,
do you find it
hard to love
and delight
members of the
church family?
Do you find it's
hard to cross
the barrier
across cultures,
socioeconomic groups,
sometimes easier
just to be aloof
or to stay
within your friends
or your preferences?
Friends,
you've got to look
to the one
who though
he was God,
he left the comforts
of heaven,
crossed the ultimate
divide,
came to earth,
took on humanity,
took on our servanthood
and went to the cross
for us that we could
be included
in his family.
Friends,
do you sometimes
find it easier
to tolerate
just sin
and wickedness
to keep the peace
rather than to
graciously go to
a brother or sister
and say,
hey,
can we talk
about this?
Friends,
you've got to
come to Jesus,
the one who took
upon himself
all the evil,
all that is disgusting,
all that is abhorrent
in the world,
all that is broken
in our lives
in order that God
would hold fast
to us
and never let us go.
Come to Jesus.
Friends,
when people in church
let you down
or disappoint you,
when people overlook you,
when you've served
and you've served
and no one says
thank you
and you feel like
that's it,
I'm done,
what do you do?
Friends,
you come to Jesus,
the one who loved you
to the end,
the one who literally
loved you to death,
the one who loved you
so deeply
and has poured
his love into you
even when you
were his enemy
and we come to him
and say,
Christ,
help me to love others
like you have loved me.
Paul says,
by the mercies of God,
because of Christ's
profound love for us,
that even when we
were his enemies,
he went to the cross
for us,
by the mercies of God,
love one another genuinely,
abhor what is evil,
hold fast to what is good,
delight in one another
with brotherly affection,
outdo one another
with honor,
be fervent in the spirit,
not lazy in zeal,
serving the Lord
and one another.
Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus,
we come to you this morning
deeply challenged
by this passage,
God.
If we look at our own lives
and our hearts,
we acknowledge and confess,
Lord,
that it's so hard
for us to love like this.
God,
by nature,
our hearts are turned
in on ourselves
and we tend to love
selfishly.
But Jesus,
we know
and are convinced
and many of us
have experienced
the profound,
transformative love
of Jesus.
And so God,
we ask this morning
that you pour the gospel
into our hearts,
that you shape us
by the gospel once again.
That God,
we will be a church community
that doesn't just have
a banner that says
Jesus saves,
but actually in the depth
of our hearts,
we are so rooted
and grounded
in your love
that God actually
makes us the kind
of community
that expresses
and demonstrates
this love
one to another.
And so Christ,
we pray by your spirit,
won't you come
and help us?
Won't you shape us?
Won't you change us?
Won't you form us?
In your awesome
and your tender
and your gracious name
we pray.
Amen.