That We Might Love One Another | Kimberly Cummings

So, the little book that's out there is a 12-week study, and I just wrote it for my women. It's nothing fancy, but it's just a workbook for you to look and see what the word of God says about the one anothers of scripture. And so I just wanted to share with you a little bit about how that workbook came about. I spoke at a women's conference providentially at the church that my husband is now the pastor several years before he took that church. Not on our radar, but it was definitely on God's eternal radar and he was putting all the pieces providentially in place to have us there. And the first thing they asked me to do was write a study for us on the one anothers that you finished the conference with several years ago. Oh, I had never done that for my women ever. And so that's all that is. Nothing fancy. But let me tell you the power of the word of God. Our church was very sound theologically. They could preach Revelation better than anybody I know because they spent nine years in end time studies. But guess what? Through all of that, they had not learned how to one another well. And so they asked if I would write that study. So I did. And the most amazing thing happened. Our church turned from knowing everything about Revelation and end times to being this loving, dynamic, lifegiving, one anothering church. It happened like that. It was the most phenomenal thing. And my husband was like, "Can I take that study and do it with our men?" And I was like, "Well, no, but [laughter] you have God's word and you can you can do that." And because it was so beautiful to watch true believers who were hungering to do what was right and obey the word of God from the right motives out of the love of God and be transformed. And to this day, I well, I'm not a betting woman, but I would bet that we have the most loving church in Santa Clarita Valley. I believe that with all of my heart. So, if you want to grow in your love for the Lord and one another, can I just encourage you to study the one anothers, whether it's on your own or just taking that workbook, that's up to you. Well, I have a little bit of a story to tell that's the complete opposite of this. Uh, there was a church many years ago in Dallas, Texas that experienced a church split. We hate those words, don't we? We don't want to experience a church split, but it does happen. and the split there was a lawsuit because they were fighting over the property and who was going to gain the property of the church so that they could continue the church. And so when as you know uh there's a lawsuit there are people deposed and asked all the questions you know what happened how did it get to this point? Well as they dug and they deposed and they asked more questions during the hearing it was discovered that the conflict had all started over a church dinner. Go figure. Something bad happened at a potluck. Well, a certain leader in the church was sitting next to a little boy and the leader, the elder in the church got a smaller piece of ham. And that's how it all started. Not only that, was it not bad enough that this church family, this family of God that is being should be rooted and knitted together had split, but it made the Dallas Morning News. The name of Christ was harmed, ladies, was harmed because this church did not emulate and they did not revere the name of Christ. And instead, self was ruling in the hearts of the congre congregants of this Dallas church. And ladies, sadly, I have to say there are many churches that look like that today. And it is heartwrenching. And I can only imagine when it when I have felt that sting of of a lack of unity in the body of Christ. Can you imagine what that does to the heart of God? The one who sent his son to die for his beloved ones. It must ache him terribly. So we are going to talk about where this begins. If we want one another well, if we want to honor God well, if we want to be missional, if we want the world to see the love of Christ, it has to start in the body of Christ and that starts with the work of Christ. So we live in a day that is exalting self. We desire uh to make much about us. We see it everywhere. We see it on social media. We see it in all of these celebrity platforms. Um, we have become this group of people that is worshiping the messenger the the messenger of man more than God. But I want to appeal to you that we would be women who adorn the love of God. And simply put, adorn is in scripture. And I don't have time tonight to go through all the places where it talks about adorning, but there is this theme in scripture and the idea is that we make something lovely. And in Titus, a church that's having to be put in order, it says that they are to adorn the doctrine of God. Well, what is the doctrine of God? The doctrine is just what? Teaching. The teachings of God. You are to your life is to make beautiful the teachings of God. Does your life make the word of God beautiful? And we think, oh, how can we make God even more beautiful? We can't. He's sufficient on his own, right? But yet he allows us as his imagebearers and then as his in Christ ones to adorn the love of God and the doctrine of God and to make much of him. And so we want to it's not about our beauty which we're all caught up in. It's about his beauty and the loveliness of Christ. So when we are in the New Testament and you can turn uh to John 13 because that's where we're going to be tonight. There is this beautiful phrase and you can see it on the front of my workbook and it's just this simple little word and the word is oleon and it's a reciproc a reciprocal pronoun and it simply just means one another. And when you're in the scriptures, you need to take that word and you need to highlight it because God is giving you a command of how you are not to treat one another or how you are to treat one another. For instance, Susan mentioned uh that we are not to bite and devour one another, right? So that's that idea of a dog chewing up chewing someone up. We're not to be like that, those dogs, right? we instead are to love one another. And so this little word one another is infused throughout the New Testament. It's used over 50 times in the New Testament. If God says something 50 times, you think it matters? I think so. I think a little bit, right? It's important. If God says it once, it matters. If he says it over 50 times, we better listen up. So ladies, as we live out these truths, we will find scriptures call away from this synthetic worship that we have been trapped in. Uh this worship of individualism, consumerism, this concept of self-love that uh has just infiltrated the church. I cannot figure out. It's oxymoronic. But yet people aren't reading the scripture and so they adopt things that appeal to their desires, right? And what do we desire? To love ourselves. We have no problem doing that. But we also see the self-centeredness instead of sincere worship and service to God through biblical one anothering. God has lovingly lovingly given us his son. And not only has he given us his son, but he has given us this word. And in John 1, we're told that that Jesus was given to us and that he explained who God was. And that word explained there is the word exed. He exed to live our lives before God. Very simple. We need to be doing that. So God has lovingly given us instructions to help us by his grace, by his strength. We don't do it on our own, but we live out our faith in such a way that these three essentials and eternal things will take place. Christ's church will be edified, the world will be evangelized, and most importantly, God will be exalted. And so as we seek to do that, we want to go to John 13 where this little command is given. And it begins in verse 34. But I'm just going to go to verse 31. And I'm going to set the context just a little bit because here Christ has just let his disciples know that one of them has betrayed him. And he has called out Judas as the betrayer. And Judas has just walked away to go do what the devil has prepared him to do to betray God in flesh. And then Jesus has these commands. And in the context of that, Jesus is doing the work of a slave. He has been washing the feet of his disciples. God in flesh is washing the feet of his disciples. He has been he has been betrayed by one of his disciples and he's about to have his other disciples all scatter and say I don't know him I don't know him poor Peter right he says you're going to betray me you are go you are going to deny me rather three times names before the crows and he can't even believe it. Not I. No. But here we have in this passage, Christ is humbly serving. He's already had to let people know that he's being betrayed and that he is going to be denied. But here he says this after uh Judas has gone out. Jesus said, "Now is the son of man." And this is in verse 31 of chapter 13. Now is the son of man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify him in himself and will glorify him immediately. Little children, I am with you for just a little while longer. He knows he's getting ready to go to the cross, right? I'm just here just a little bit longer. And so, have you ever been with someone that they know they're getting ready to to to meet God and be in eternity? They're getting ready to die. And what do they do? They give you those desires that they have that they want to tell you, I want you to get along with your siblings. I want you to stop fighting. I want you to get together. So many times a year, I had all these requests that my father had before he went to glory last August. And uh so this is what Christ is doing. He's giving his last will and testament. And he says there, I'm just with you a little longer. He says, you will seek me. And as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come. They won't be able to follow him anymore. They will not be under his teaching anymore because he is going to the cross and he is going to die and he's going to be resurrected and then he is going to ascend to his father. And so he's saying, "I've been discipling you. I'm telling you these things and now you're going to practice them." And the first thing he says is a new commandment I give you that you love one another even as I have loved you that you also love one another. By this all men all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Those were Jesus's parting words as he is being betrayed, as he is serving his disciples by washing their feet. And not only that, we know in Mark in Mark 10 that two of the disciples, James and John, were fighting over who was going to be the greatest and wanted to know who was going to be the greatest among among the disciples and be at his right side. So you have this vying for I want to be here with Christ. We have denial. We have humility. Can you imagine the heart of Christ and what was going on in his heart? A new commandment I give to you in John 13:34. Jesus gives a new commandment to of for the his disciples to love one another. So, does anybody know of another passage where maybe we have heard that we are to love one another? Well, if you were to go all the way back to Leviticus and you were to go to uh Leviticus, you would see that they are told to love one another. And not only in Leviticus, we also see that in the shama, you're to love the Lord your God. The Lord your God is one and you are to love one another. And so we see that this is really it doesn't make sense to us unless we understand that word new because the command was not new. Okay? And we see in other places you are to love the Lord your God as you love yourselves. And people have taken that as uh we can't or we can't love others until we've loved ourselves. That is not what that verse is saying. That verse is saying we have no problem loving ourselves but we need to extend that love that we have for ourselves to others. But then Jesus ratches it up a notch and he says in that that passage, he says, "Love as I have loved you." Remember what Jesus is doing. He's being betrayed. He's washing the feets of the disciples and he's saying, "This is how you love. This is how you love." God in flesh is loving in a way that is new not as a new commandment but it is new in substance because it comes through the work of Jesus Christ. Okay. The substance of the command is new. The command was all the way back in Leviticus. But the substance of the commandment has changed because Jesus has come and he has shown us. He has exed the word of God explained it so that we know how to love. So love's command, this is in the middle of this private ministry that is taking place with his disciples and it's this long, like I said, this farewell discourse that Jesus had with his disciples um in John's gospel and it opens with this evening meal in the upper room in Jerusalem and we have God in flesh taking on the role of a slave washing the feet of his disciples. and talking about his betrayal. And ladies, here we see the institution of communion that took place where he says, "Take, eat. This is my body which has been broken for you." Right? And the blood of the new covenant through Jesus's blood. See, that's what makes all of this a new a new commandment. The work of Christ, the work of Christ makes it new. And such a message can hardly be underestimated. Jesus's farewell, his final words were shephering the disciples to prepare them to overcome the challenges of the world that would they would be presented with when their master was gone. And so doing so, his disciples had this new commandment to love one another. So let's look at the connections that we have here. This commandment is also recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So of course, we know uh that those are just slightly different recordings by different people, and they're are being written uh by different people. So they have a little bit of a different spin on things. Again, Leviticus 19:18, God's chosen people are told to love their neighbors as themselves. And then also the Shama and Deuteronomy. Here, O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So, as I mentioned this teaching of adorning the love of God, it's all coming on the heels of Christ's humility. Ladies, when you walk into a room, are you looking to see who you can serve or are you looking and saying, "Here I am. Come look at me." It shouldn't be that way. We need to have the heart of Christ. Have the heart of Christ and say, "Who here can I serve? Who is hurting? Who needs encouragement? who may need admonishment. Do your leaders pick out songs that are that are admonishing our souls as we sing? That's a one another. All of these things that scripture command us are rooted in the command of love. Okay? They're rooted in the command of love. And it says that we are to love one another as I have loved you. This command is tied to the personhood of Jesus Christ. It is tied to the personhood of Jesus Christ. And this is uh one commentator says it is a memory of his ministry. Ladies, as you minister, is is your ministry to others a memory of Christ? Have you ever had someone say it was like being with Christ when I was with them? Their words encouraged me as Christ was right there. Well, if you have the spirit of God, it will it will Christ will use you. The person of Jesus creates this whole new as you mentioned family of God, right? Or say a community. We like that word community. But when we use those words, we're not talking about earthly families. We're not talking about country clubs. We are talking about Christ followers that are coming together and serving the Lord for one uh and one another for the glory of God. And man, let me tell you that that is not just a community, that is a mission. When you do that, you have an opportunity to reach a lost and dying world because we don't look like the world. Because we aren't biting and devouring. Instead, we are loving and serving one another. And they see a difference because that's the light of Christ shining in us, right? And so we let our light shine before men in such a way that they see our good works for the glory of God. And can I just tell you this little story? We have a church that literally is set on a hill and we have these beautiful glass windows that overlook a lake. But what happens at certain times of the year, the sunset hits those big windows and our building can be seen from our small community. Well, this guy saw that light reflecting off of one of those glasses of those windows and he came up the hill. He went on a hike because he wanted to see what was up there. And guess what? One of our elders was up there doing some things and shared the gospel with him and he got saved. Our light, we were a city set on a hill. [laughter] Our light was shining and God is glorified. He is serving the Lord faithfully and it is so sweet to watch. So there is a missional aspect of our loving one another. When our Christ, when our church is loving one another well and following the commands of scripture of one anothering, people will come to know the Lord because we don't look like the world. We look completely different. What a refreshing thing. What an encouraging thing. I don't want to look like the world. I want people when I walk into a room to say, "I was just with someone who loves Christ deeply and is spurring me to love him as well." [snorts] So Leon Morris says this. He says, "Jesus is speaking here to this new community of believers because what's about to happen? The church is about to t to take place, right? The beginning of the church is about to take place. And so now we're going to have this community of believers that are gathering together and we need to know how to behave with one another because our default is what? The flesh. Our default is the flesh. Because we still have this flesh, the vi just this leftover flesh that is still on us until glory. And so when we are not walking in the spirit by the spirit, we will be taken over by the deeds of the flesh. And I'm going to talk about those a little bit tomorrow. Uh but we need to understand there is a whole new standard of love. And I think as women sometimes because we're just doers, right? And as doers sometimes we forget the motive of what we do and why why we do it. And so ladies, I tell my women all the time, motives matter. Why am I doing it? Am I doing it just to get a job done? Am I gritting my teeth and serving? Or do I do it because of the love of Christ and that he loved me so much that he gave his life for me that I am compelled to do nothing else? We have a choice. We have a chi choice. And ladies, we talk a lot about identity these days, don't we? We talk a lot about identity. This is who we want to identify with. Christ is our example. And when we follow the example of Christ, people will come in contact with the living God and see the opportunities that we have for the gospel. Christ is our standard. We are to love as we have been loved by God. Ladies, how have you been loved by God? I love gathering with women and them talking about how good God is and all the wonderful things that God has done because God is good and God can only do good. And when we are set on talking about those things, then it encourages one another. So ladies, Jesus expects his followers to love one another the way that he has loved us. He is declaring all of this in the midst of betrayal and impending death. The time has come. So he's giving these parting words and he's trying to help his disciples understand all these things in this three years of this ministry that he has had with them. They're now going to get to take to the laboratory. Right? It's not just I know these things Jesus has taught me things but these things but I get to take them to the lab and I get to practice them and I get to see what God does through them. So this commandment is consistent from with the law but it is not derived entirely from the law because it comes from Christ who embodies the word of God. His command has completely redesigned the law. It has fulfilled the law. His love has fulfilled it. And so this love has this idea of how we treat one another within the body of Christ, but also how we are to reach a lost and dying world. Yes, we are to be evangelistic. We are to be evangelistic. But when we are reaching out, we are making disciples, right? And so then as we make disciples, we are teaching others how we are to live within the body of Christ. And do you know it wasn't just Jesus. Paul says in Philippians 4, "These things that you have seen and heard in me, practice these things. You've seen these things in other men. Practice them. These are opportunities for us to make disciples." Let's consider love's commission. The love of God that resulted in God giving Jesus to the world out of love so that we could have eternal life. John 3:16, right, is the heart of the gospel. At the root of us loving one another is a gospel opportunity. There are two things that distinguish the new love commandment from the old love commandment. First, unlike the old commandment whose standard, as I said a minute ago, was the law, the new standard of love is that Jesus gave his life. And so, our motive for love is to give. Okay? We are to die to self daily. Every single day I have a mug and it says, "Today would be a great day to die to self." Because we have to be reminded every day, right? I don't really like go, "Oo, I want to die to self today. That's not where my flesh takes me." As I spend time in the word and prayer and ask the Lord to help me die to self, then that takes place. and then I can be an encouragement to others. So unlike the old commandment [clears throat] which required people to love others as themselves, they were no longer required to love others as themselves but to love as Christ had loved them. And that's where the change takes place, right? Because we love ourselves selfishly. Christ loved others sacrificially. Ladies, does your love for others have selfish motives? Do you love others because of what you get from it? That'll end up in hurt real quick. We love sacrificially regardless of how it feels, but we do it out of motive for the love of Christ. >> [snorts] >> So this new commandment calls for a mutual love that is root rooted in the ultimate love. This vision of mutual love makes the new command this churchbuilding commandment or communitybuilding commandment of Christ followers. And I just love the fact that it is the church that God uses to bring people to himself. He does the work. Kelly wasn't looking for anyone to come up the hill for him to share the gospel with. He was just being a faithful servant and someone saw a light shining and so he shared the gospel. And that's what happens. We have people come all the time because our church, if you've ever looked online at our church, it is in one of the most beautiful places in at the foot of Los Angeles National Forest. And so people are always hiking and coming up there. And so we actually have people that are watching for hikers during the service so that they can share the gospel with them. I have a friend and she said, "You should just put Romans 1 on a billboard and when they come up they can ask themselves, are they worshiping the creation or they worshiping the creator?" Because it is that beautiful there. So, [snorts] I don't want to steal any thunder from Susan because she's going to be teaching on John 15:12, but this springs right from uh John 13 that says, "This is my commandment that you love one another just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one who lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you." Ladies, are you a friend of Christ? When you desire to do the commands that Christ has given through the word of God, you're a friend of Christ. This reciprocal love among disciples that would enable them to convince the world of this commission that Christ has left them with. Isn't that amazing how this plan in eternity past that God is using to save sinners. Phenomenal. The command for the disciples to love one another as Jesus had loved them was being revealed in that footwashing. How many of you have uh washed the feet of saints? We used to belong to a church that thought that you were to wash the feet of the saints every communion. They have since changed that. But I I I do elder care and I I'll be honest with you, that is not my favorite. It's just not It's kind of gross. When we get older, our toenails do gross things. But Jesus is washing the feet of the disciples that have been out in this dirty desert land. And he is washing and bringing a picture of him washing them and cleaning them. And that picture of what Christ does in w with washing us and cleansing us from our sin. So Christ life interprets. It exedutes. It explains the the the shama. It explains who God is. It explains that this is his commandment. This it says this is my commandment. My commandment. And this carries this strong note of possession. And this new commandment is Jesus saying, "You are to obey me. You are to follow me. As I have obeyed my father, you are to obey also." And by making this commandment, the love he gives to others through the footwashing and eventually to a greater sacrifice. I mean, if I'm going to talk about things that I'm not really looking to do, dying on the cross would be high on the list, right? But yet, Christ tells me to die daily and to take up my cross and follow, right? And so, we are to die daily. So, this love, ladies, is countercultural. This love looks different than the world. This new command of love distinguishes the people of Jesus from the rest of the world. So those who claim to belong to Jesus will exhibit a conduct that reflects being identified with Christ. That makes us in Christ ones. We have been redeemed. We are in Christ because we have been found in him. We have been saved by him. That makes us an in Christ one. But then is because we are in Christ, we desire to do the one another's and live out the one anothers. I love first John, this is a way to tell if you are in the faith. And it says in 1 John 4:19, it is that we love God because he first loved us. 1 John 3:16, we know what love is because Jesus laid down his life for us. By this we are required to lay down our lives for one another. We are to die. We are to give up our self-interest, our selfish desires. We are to put off the flesh and we are to love others, serve others, admonish others. Oh, we don't like that word. We're to welcome others. We're to be affectionate with one another. I love it when I go to countries that aren't afraid of holy kisses cuz I'm a pretty uh huggy, affectionate person, but they take it another level. But Christ commanded we're to have an affectionate love for one another. When a stranger walks into your building, it happens to us all the time. They want to use our restroom because they've been on a long hike. What do they see when they walk in? Do they see a caring, affectionate body of believers? I hope so. I hope so. Ladies, we want to be like Christ and we want to love others more than ourself. And this love is rooted in the sufficient work on the cross. We don't pull up our bootstraps. We don't do it on our own and we don't do it with a complaining spirit, but instead we do it by the power of the work of Christ in us. And that should just knock our socks off. So what makes the command new is that Jesus is about to give his life and that is that new covenant that is being brought about. He is giving up his life for his sheep and he becomes the standard of love. Biblical love by definition is to be understood as sacrificing something in order to benefit another. sacrificing. Biblical love is sacrificing something to benefit another. Ladies, can I tell you that I love solitude, to a fault, sometimes it's an idol. And I know when it's an idol because as a pastor's wife, I can say that solitude will get interrupted a lot. And when it does, how do I respond? Do I sin in my thinking because I didn't get the solitude that I wanted? Do I begrudge that person because they have interrupted my time? Ladies, we know then we have some idols that need to be knocked down so that we can love as Christ has loved. Ladies, a piece of ham split a church. Can you think of things like carpet colors, music styles that split churches all because we can't esteem others higher than ourselves? And we're so busy looking out after our own personal interest that we cannot see the interest of others, much less defer to them. We are so gung-ho on this is my way and we're going to do it that way and you can go somewhere else if I don't if you don't like my way instead of dying to self and loving the person that has a different way than you. Sometimes that's hard, isn't it? But no, it's a good thing. God made the body with all of these precious people that in his providence he brings together in these local bodies. When I see my fellow image bearer, my fellow in Christ one and think they could be anywhere else but God has allowed them to be here. How can they use their gifts and skills to serve one another? How can I use the skills and gifts that God has given me to serve them? And it takes the pressure off, doesn't it? Because we're doing it in the spirit of Christ and not in our own power. And I've mentioned that this also has a mentional a missional dimension. Remember Dallas Morning News printed that article talking about a church split over a piece of ham? That church became the laughing stock of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. Their testimony was shot. The name of Christ was torn down over a piece of ham. Over a piece of ham. Ladies, is your love worldly and fleshly or is it heavenly? If it is worldly, it won't stand out. Will look just like the rest of the world. We'll be a country club. It won't adorn the beauty of God. It will not make Christ beautiful. It will be selfexalting. Ladies, we are to be a shining light in the world. This is how God uses his gospel message to save others. Selfless biblical love is an identity marker of a disciple. We all were like, "Oh, my identity is this. I'm a pastor's wife. I'm this. I'm that. No, I am a Christ follower. I am a Christ follower. I am a disciple of Christ. And loving others is an identity marker. We love because God first loved us. God is love. And let me just ask you a few concluding questions. To not love as Christ loves is to choose not to identify with Christ. Have you ever been ashamed? Or do you ever read stories of someone who in a moment recanted their faith but then regretted it and repented? We forget who we are identifying with. But praise God, we have this love that we have received as Christ followers. And it is nothing like the love thyself self-esteem movement that falls empty and flat every single time. It will not satisfy. And you'll look for more ways to love thyself instead of loving Christ, the one who can only satisfy. We don't need the latest psychology trends. We need one another. I think one of the biggest tragedies that happened during COVID was that people thought it was okay to to have Zoom church. There are actually churches called online church. That is called an oxymoron because we don't have community. We do not one another on Zoom. You can't you can't wash the feet of the saints on Zoom. Zoom church is an oxymoron. I think that's one of the saddest things that happened. People had to learn how to one another again because they got so used. And I I'll confess that I I kind of like the fact that there were places I couldn't go and things I couldn't do. It was like, "Oh, well, there's other things I can do around my house and get some things done." And so it was productive. But oh, that first time we got back together, we just sobbed. We missed each other so much. If if if because in California, right, they tried to take church away from us for a really long time. But when when you're away from the body of believers, is your heart sad? Do you miss it? When we got back from my husband's sbatical, we were greeted with such love and excitement and we were so happy to see each other and to be with each other again. It was like this sweet family reunion. And when my husband got up to the pull pit, he just he had to gather his voice when he saw all those people out there that he loved so much. Can you say the same? Or is church attendance one anothering based on your convenience and not the commands of Christ? Are our circumstances and our feelings ruling our love? Do we allow circumstances to decide whether we'll love that hard to love person? Because sometimes I'm hard to love. I really am. But they love me anyway because they love Christ. Right? Scripture says, "I've been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me. And the life that I now live, I live in the flesh by I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. Galatians 2:20. To live by faith is to be faithful to the commands of Christ. Philippians 2 3-5. If I am truly loving as Christ, I will do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but I will consider others more important than myself. And it says, have this attitude which was in Christ Jesus. This was his mindset. This was his life on earth before he was exalted above every name. Ladies, he loved us not because we were lovable. My church family loves me not because I'm lovable. They love me because God is love and because they have been commanded to love. Ladies, we were enemies of Christ. And yet he loved us. We can love. And why do we love him? First John 4:19. because he first loved us. How do we love him in return? It says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." We don't like those words. We don't like that. We live in this society that doesn't want to be told what to do. God is very clear. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. We have given up on this idea of authority and so we want to do our own thing. And ladies, it won't end well for you. I promise. I promise. Ladies, if you love the Lord, you will keep his commandments. I love what the Valley of Vision says. It puts it this way. It says, "Teach me that Christ cannot be the way if I am the end. That he cannot be redeemer if I think I am my own savior. There can be no true union with him while the creature has my heart." What is he saying? We love the creation more than the the creator, right? That there can be no true union with him while the creature has my heart. Ladies, what creature has your heart? What desire do you have so much that you're willing to give up the love of God and the obedience to God? And then it says, "Faith accepts him as redeemer and Lord or not at all." We like this idea of being saved, right? would like the fire insurance but oh a master over me. But that is how we know we belong to him. Ladies, we are slaves of Christ, willing slaves following Christ with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our might, with all of our strength. Loving as Christ has loved will affect how we interact with one another. How we serve, how we sing, how we counsel, how we open our hearts and our homes to those in our sphere of influence. It will look different. Christ will be the center. Christ will be the Lord. When we don't feel like one anothering, anybody else guilty. Guilty. We essentially are insulting the character of God who is lavishly given his his given us his son. We are insulting the character of God who has given us Christ and his spirit to love. Our actions will speak in that manner with self-driven feelings rather with than with self-sacrificing love. Ladies, the glory of the gospel gets to be seen through one anothering and one anothering is specifically for believers. But yet there's a missional aspect. Are others coming to know Christ because of the way you treat one another? When my husband and I joined a church in 1997, I believe it was, I said, "This is the most loving church I have seen in a long time." And he didn't get all puffed up. He didn't have a worldly answer. He said, "Well, that's the love of Christ in us. Like, how could it be any other way? It's the way it's supposed to be. Does your church look like that? And you say, "No, maybe not." Well, ladies, guess how that starts. If you want to belong to a church that loves one another, you love one another. If you want to belong to a church that is not afraid to admonish one another, then you learn how to lovingly admonish others. Because the wounds of a friend are faithful and they will come to love you. And guess what? The next time they have a problem, you'll be the first one they come to if they're truly teachable. So before I close in prayer, I want to ask you some questions to prayerfully consider. If you were to ask a leader of your church, "Am I a joy and crown to the ministry?" What would his answer be? Or would you be characterized more as maybe just someone who warms the pew? What would your pastor's honest or elders honest answer be? Do your does your leadership look forward to being with you? Or do the hairs on the back of their neck rise when they see you coming because you have a reputation of being a complainer, being critical without the love of Christ, just asking for a friend. Do they see you as someone who only offers their opinion without any obligation to serve? A lot of times people have a lot of ideas about what should be going down in a church, but they're not willing to get dirty doing it themselves. Where do you find yourself in that? How about in your heart of hearts? Do I love and long to be with my brothers and sisters in Christ for the purpose of mutual edification and service through the one anothers? Do I long for it? Do I desire it? Do I anticipate it? Am I excited about it when I get to see my sisters in Christ and look to see how I can serve them? Christ for the joy that was set before him went to the cross because he knew what waited ahead. He knew that glory waited. Ladies, do you have that joy? Maybe you're like the two leeches in Proverbs 30:15 who were known for sucking the lifeblood out of others rather than giving care. What did the leeches say? Give, give, give, give, just take. They were just taking, right? I pray that that is not you. I pray that that is not you, your church. How about, are you checking off a box? Oops, I did that. If that's the case, you may be a modern-day Pharisee. Guard your hearts. Motives matter. Is your motive because of the love of Christ and what Christ has done in your life? Or are you just checking off the boxes? Is serving the Lord and one another within the church on my heart and mind and feet and hands every day? There are some days I go to bed and my eyes close before I hit the pillow because it was such a fullrich day and it just feels so good. We talk about being blessed. That's being blessed that I have the privilege to emulate Christ in serving others. What a privilege. We live in such a selfcentered society. Or maybe you're one of those that just hides in the shadows hoping that nobody notices you and you're waiting like, "Oh, if they want something, they'll ask me." Instead of being a willing servant like Christ, we need to evaluate our hearts. How about your neighbors in your sphere of influence? Do they know that I identify with Christ or do I look so much like the world that they think I'm just one of them? They'll get pretty uncomfortable pretty quick when you're talking about Christ in your life, in your fellowship with the believers. Or they'll be interested and you'll have an opportunity for the gospel. Ladies, have you made an effort to be known by those within the sphere of influence around you to make Christ known? How you serve your neighbors will show Christ or not? consider these questions and we're going to be looking at how we can serve one another, but also we're going to be looking at how we can forgive one another by putting off the deeds of the flesh and putting on Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we cannot be rooted and grounded in Christ if we are not in Christ and we do not have a relationship with your son. So, Father, we must have the love of Christ through the salvation of Christ so that we can love others like Christ. Father, we cannot do it on our own. It is a work of the spirit from salvation to glorification. He is doing the work and we rejoice in that we we get to participate. What a privilege father that you would take enemies and make them friends. Father, that is us. We were your enemy yet your son died for us. Father, I pray that we would see that glorious love of Christ and desire to serve others the way we have been shown in the scripture. Help us. It is by the strength of the spirit, not our own. And it is in the merit and glory of Jesus Christ's name, not our own, that we come to you. Forgive us where we fall short. Forgive us where our flesh has taken over. Lord, help us. Show us how we can be about the business of our father in Jesus name. Amen.