Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM-

actually we'll we'll back up we'll get a running start at it our text this morning is ephesians five the first two verses but a text without context is a pretext so we'll we'll start in chapter four verse 31 we'll take a little bit of a running start i'm going to read from the new king james so your mileage may vary let all bitterness wrath anger clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind to one another tender hearted forgiving one another and be kind to one another and be kind to one another and be kind to one another even as god in christ forgave you therefore be imitators of god as dear children and walk in love as christ has also loved us and given himself for us an offering and sacrifice to

god for a sweet smelling aroma father you've heard the prayers of your people this morning and you are more interested in speaking to us than we are interested in having you speak so would you tear down walls would you eliminate distractions would you bind the enemy would you open our hearts and our minds to the things that you brought us here to glean and understand and appropriate to our lives lord show yourself strong in these next minutes we ask in jesus name amen so paul wraps up chapter four exhorting us and exhorting us the way that he so often does he's he's he's got a putting off and a putting on that's one of paul's patterns that he goes back to again and again and again and again and again and again and again and

again and again hey put off anger and evil speaking and bitterness and wrath and all of the things and in their place put on kindness and tenderheartedness and forgiveness what he's doing in other words is imploring us pursue godliness be like jesus will you please i mean that's what paul's talking about he uses a lot of words he uses a lot of adjectives but notice the the structure notice the parallelism that he's building he's urging us to do what god did god put aside his anger and wrath for us put it aside allowed it to fall on jesus instead jesus who stood in our place and allowed himself to be punished for our crimes jesus asked that the father's justice be poured out on him so that

we could then experience the fullness of god's tenderheartedness his kindness his mercy so that we could then experience the fullness of his kindness his mercy that we could be the recipients of god's love we've received mercy we we who asked for it we who said yes god i'm willing to receive it please i need it and having received that mercy paul points out verse 32 we should then be the most merciful of all people having mercy on one another forgiving one another as god forgave us being patient and gracious and kind towards one another even as we are to one another we should then be the most merciful of all people having mercy on one another as god has all of that and more toward us so that's the context for our

passage this morning passage is a big word it's two verses but that's the context for what paul has to say in the first two verses of chapter five therefore when you come across a therefore yes what it's there for because of everything that i just said be imitators of god as dear be imitators we're to pattern our life after jesus we're to let him be our example and our guide which means verse two we're to walk in love the way that christ loved us the way that christ gave himself for us an offering and sweet smelling sacrifice to god for a sweet smelling aroma we are loved paul opens chapter five we were loved are loved forever will be loved and as we are loved so should we love as god from the beginning of time loved us and loves us

until the end of time and and beyond will love us so should we love others for all the reasons that paul just said we're to respond to god's love with love why he tells us love is worship love is an incense it's an aroma typifying our our adoration of the love of god who is love a god who because of his love sent his son to die for us love is worship it declares who god is love is also witness it declares what god has done love is not only adoration it's also declaration walk in love paul says in verse two let people see your love freak them out with your love let them see your love and wonder and hopefully ask and then discover and ponder where that love comes from

because hopefully they'll want it too paul's actually continuing a theme here he started at the top of chapter four we're kind of diving into the middle but chapter four verse one if you glance up he tells us he exhorts us to walk worthy of our calling live in a way he says that reflects our salvation that declares the power of love and that's what he's talking about the cross and reveals the product of the cross to the world what's the product of the cross for that matter what's the power of the cross same answer to both questions love walk worthy of your calling paul says in chapter four walk in worship of god who pursued you and came after you in order to save you walk in worship and walk in witness of that same god

god who led you to the cross and reveals the product of the cross to the world what's the life to save you walk chapter five verse two in love and paul's got a lot more to say on the subject because there's no subject about which paul doesn't have a lot to say he's going to keep building on this theme for the whole rest of the chapter but we're going to stop here i think the lord would have us stop here and just consider those three words walk in love just ponder what paul is saying and what he means because just just in those three words he's saying a lot three words three three syllables actually walk in love but we know small and simple small and and weak are not the same thing things that are infinitesimally small can be immensely

powerful what happens when you take the smallest atom in the universe the hydrogen atom one proton one electron and pry it apart the world went to war a couple weeks ago over that you take the smallest atom in the universe you pry it apart unbelievable power what kind of power is available what magnitude of power is unleashed when we obey that simple three-syllable instruction walk in love what kind of power is waiting there to fully answer that question i mean i mean fully answer not just wave at it not just give it the dude nod walking by yeah i see you now to understand the implications of the phrase walk in love we've got to unpack what is paul intending what is paul meaning

when he uses those words that's how we're going to use our time this morning we're going to consider what god means when he says let's talk let's walk in love i was going to say let's talk about love and then all of you would have gone like all saline dion on me and i would have lost you let's talk about love let's talk about us let's talk about whatever let's talk trust. Let's talk about all the things. That's one problem trying to have this conversation. Culture intrudes. It's impossible to talk about love for more than 60 seconds and not stumble

into the title of a song or a movie soundtrack or a line from a movie. Oh, that the space occupied in my brain by movie lines and 1970s singer-songwriter lyrics would actually be replaced by Bible verses, but that's not the way my brain works. A couple minutes ago, I said power of love, and you were sitting here looking at your Bibles being all spiritual. I went back to senior prom 1985, Huey Lewis and the News. Power of love. I hear bullets are coming back, and a couple

minutes before that, I asked what is love, and I noticed a couple heads bobbing. You were all Jim Carey and Will Ferrell. Baby, don't hurt me, and now you've got that in your head. You can thank me later. That's just the way it is. No, wait, that was Bruce Hornsby. If we're going to talk about love for the next however many minutes, I'm going to be dropping song lyrics into the

conversation without even meaning to, so we're just going to keep going. I'm going to talk about love. Snicker when you need to snicker, but the thing is that's part of the problem, right? The way that we think about love, the way that we talk about it, the words we use, the phrases we toss around have been so commercialized. Commoditized, trivialized, that we come across a phrase like walk in love that is just saturated

with meaning and power, but we use the word love so casually, we can sail right past it. We can just keep moving and not stop and ponder what's going on there, not ponder the significance of what it means or the magnitude of what Jesus did in the name of love. Or the enormity of what Paul is calling us to do as we walk in love. So let's get into it. What does it mean to walk in love?

I've thought about that a lot in the 30-some years since I became a believer, and I've come to the conclusion, and it's not going to surprise you, a lot of times when we say love, it means something different to us than it means to God. And you're saying, yeah, well, duh. Of course, that's true. But I had a conversation with a man who was a believer, and he was a believer, and he was a believer, and he was a believer, and he was a believer.

I had a conversation last year that rocked my world, that convinced me it's even more true than we think. I had a conversation that prompted me to set aside a week, and job one that week was paying attention to all the times that I said I love you to someone. Because I say it a lot, and I mostly mean it when I say it. But I went back that week and tried to dissect, what that word love was meaning to me every time that I said it to all the people that I said it to.

How I was using it in all of the conversations in which it came up. And it was a sobering exercise. I discovered six things that I learned that week. If you're taking notes, six bullet points. I discovered, for example, a lot of times when I use the word love, what I really mean is thank you. Dude, you brought me a Diet Coke. I love you. Now, thanking people is good.

Being grateful is part of the kindness, part of the tenderness that Paul talks about there at the end of chapter four. Paul actually talks about kindness a lot in his letters, and he expresses gratitude a lot. Believe it or not, that's controversial in some Christian circles. I served with a pastor years and years ago who dogmatically does not believe in saying thank you.

At least he didn't when I knew him. Not to Christians, at least. And his reasoning was, if you're doing it as unto the Lord, you shouldn't need thanks from me. If you're doing something that God has called you to do, if you're doing God's work, God's way for God's glory, then he'll be the one to tell you, well done, good and faithful servant. I don't want to teach people or train people to respond to the praise of man.

You can probably tell by the way I'm telling the story that I don't completely buy it. Because if God is our example, always in all things, and God says, well done, good and faithful servant, I think we can express appreciation to one another. I don't think that anyone will be stumbled if we let them know, hey, you made a difference and I appreciate it. I mean, that's just basic human kindness, right?

But love is not the same as kindness. Love is more than kindness. And love is not the same as saying thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Saying I love you in response to someone doing something nice for me,

it's a little disturbing. Because in effect, what I'm saying is, well, I love you because of what you did. I love you because you brought me the Coke Zero, but if you don't bring me a Coke Zero, I don't love you, and I don't need to love you, and I'm not going to love you. Which is not what I meant, obviously. But it is, in effect, what I said. I love you for what you did.

I love you for what you just did for me, and I won't love you if you don't do for me. But that's not imitating God. That's not walking in love. What had we done for God exactly when Jesus died for us on the cross? What had we done other than rebel against him? We love him because he first loved us. Okay, that's true. That's 1 John 4, 19. But if we're going to love like God, we need to go beyond that.

If we're going to love like Jesus, we need to love the people who didn't love us first, who aren't loving us, who aren't giving us any reason to thank or appreciating them. I said I took a week and tried to pay attention to the times I talked about loving people, the times I said I was loving people, and what I meant. That was the first thing that I noticed. A lot of times, I say I love you when I mean thank you.

But love is more than appreciating people who do nice stuff for us. That's number one. If you're taking notes, there's five more. We're a total of six because the list is incomplete. Walking in love is more than appreciating people who help me. That's number one. Walking in love, number two, is more than supporting the people who agree with me. The second time I caught myself talking about love,

I was excited about finding somebody who was like-minded with me, who agreed with me, who thought like me about a particular relationship. And I was so psyched. I couldn't wait to say, you said what I wanted to say, but you said it first, and you said it better. You said it so well. Oh, man, I love you. You said what I wanted to say, but if I had said it, I would have made a haggis out of it.

Oh, I love you. You said it. You rock. I love you. I was excited. I'm occasionally an excitable boy. And it's okay to be excited. And it's okay to love people that you find unity with, especially about stuff. It's about stuff that matters. But what about the people we disagree with? Touchstone of liberty in our country used to be the idea, I completely disagree with what you're saying,

but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. That used to be who we were. That idea has fallen by the wayside. That's been replaced by, I completely disagree with what you're saying, and if you say it again, I'll cancel you. And oh, by the way, I'm going to hate you quite a lot in the meantime. What happened there? Part of what happened there is we've gotten away from the Bible.

And in getting away from the Bible, we've gotten away from knowing and believing each of us is created in God's image, precious in his eyes, a soul that he died for. Every person you've ever met is a soul that Jesus died for. We need to handle each other with care. But where would any of us be if God's love only extended to the people that God agrees with? If Jesus' death was,

if Jesus' death was only effectual for the ones that God looked at and said, oh, I love him, he's just like me. The number you're looking for if you're trying to do the math is zero. While we were his enemies, Romans 5, 10, while we were his enemies, Jesus died for us. We were completely unlike God in every way when Jesus went to the cross. Our thoughts, our feelings, our motivation, our choices,

entirely contrary to God. And if we happen to find out that we're not like God, we're completely unlike God. And if we happen to find out that we're not like God, and if we happen to find out that we're not like God, and if we happen to find out that we're not like God, and if we happen to find ourselves on the same side as God on a particular issue, it was for different reasons because we were all about selfishness and he is always about holiness. We had nothing in common with God and yet he died for us.

Walking in love is not just loving those that we agree with or those who agree with us. That was number two. Walking in love, number three, is also more than loving the people who make sense to us. It's more than loving the people who make sense to us. It's more than loving the people we understand or who understand us. Example, one of the people that I say I love you to

the most is my daughter. Not just because she's my daughter, not just because she's related to me, but because she gets me on a level that nobody else does. Some of you know my daughter. She looks like me. She talks like me. She thinks like me. We make sense to each other, which is a blessing to both of us because mostly we don't make sense to each other. We don't make sense to anybody else.

And those moments where I know that she understands me in a way that is eluding the rest of the room are the moments that I'm most likely to say, oh, I love you. But in those moments, again, I'm confusing love with gratitude because love is love when somebody doesn't get you, who can't grasp what it is to be you and they go on of their way to bless you and serve you anyway. That's my wife. That's my wife.

Who 35 years later looks at me and shakes her head and says, I do not understand you. I do not begin to comprehend what it's like to be you or to make the choices that you make. And then she goes right on working, right on loving, right on sacrificing for me. Me, the one she doesn't get. Me, the one that she doesn't remotely understand. And I think after 35 years has given up trying.

But even so, let me add another dimension. Let me flip this around. Because in a broad sense, Ann and I, my wife and I, aren't that different. Yeah, yeah, up close, I'm a little deranged. But if you zoom out, if you go panorama view, we're both white, we're both college educated. We both grew up in the middle of the country in religious homes with middle income parents.

And we both had two parents. So in a lot of respects, we're not that different. So it's not that surprising we'd end up together because racially, culturally, politically, spiritually, socioeconomically, we understand each other. Same background, broadly speaking, a lot of the same experiences. And from that, a lot of the same assumptions, a lot of the same values, a lot of the same priorities.

And here's the point. How many of the people that I love fall into that category? How many of the people that I say I love you, I tell them that I love you, and I even work hard to love, are in the category of people that make sense to me. People who look like me. People whose background I can relate to, whose lives I understand.

You gotta wonder if that's part of why Sunday morning is the most segregated three hours in the country. And then you gotta ask yourself, how well did God understand us when Jesus decided, decided to die for us? And yes, Jesus is God and is forever God and never stopped being God. And so as God is omniscient and understands everything perfectly, I get it. But in another sense,

I don't think he understood us at all, Patrick. Hebrews 5.8, one of the most mind-blowing verses in the New Testament. Hebrews 5.8 tells us that Jesus learned obedience. Because yes, in one sense, Jesus was God. He was omniscient. But the author of Hebrews tells us that he still needed to learn experientially what it was to obey God the Father, living for the first time as a human.

That was new. That was different. And intellectually, he forever and eternally understood it, but living it experientially was something he had to learn. Jesus had to learn obedience. Question, when did Jesus learn? When did he learn sin? Temptation, yes. Sin, not at all. He was a lamb without spot or blemish. So in that sense, he went to the cross not fully understanding us.

Because not only is sin entirely contrary to his nature, sin is fundamentally irrational. Rebellion against a good and true and loving and perfect God, that doesn't make sense to me and I do it. Jesus never did. And yet he died for those of us who do. While we were yet sinners, Christ came for us. Wanna walk in love? One of my favorite pastors to read and listen to

over the last few years is Ray Ortlund. And I remember at a conference a couple years ago, he said, you wanna walk in love? Pray that God would give you an opportunity to lay down your life for someone who doesn't look like you. Someone whose life doesn't make sense to you. You wanna walk in love? And I said, yeah. Because walking in love is not just loving the people

we understand or who understand us. That was number three. Fourth time I noticed myself saying I love you was when I noticed somebody making life easier for me. And it wasn't what they were doing, it was what they weren't doing. They weren't doing anything for me, but they weren't asking anything of me either. They were being low maintenance. And I turned to someone and I said, I love the Lord.

maintenance people. Moms, you can relate to this. When you go 15 minutes without your toddler saying, mommy, mommy, mommy, or your three-year-old saying, why, why? Explain this to me. Oh, I love you. It's been 15 minutes and you haven't asked me for one thing. You don't need help. You don't need me to go out of my way for you. You don't expect me to pick up

after you. You're not expecting me to spend time or money on you. Oh, man, I love you. Because why wouldn't I? It's easy to love someone who is not asking for anything, who doesn't require anything, doesn't demand anything, doesn't cost anything. But if it doesn't cost, is it love? And I'm going to say the answer is no. David, 2 Samuel 24, 24. David said, 2 Samuel 24, 24, I will not offer to the Lord that which

cost me nothing. Because offering, worship, in David's mind, in David's heart, meant sacrifice. Worship is declaring our love. And love costs. That's the definition of love. Christ-like love, agape love, is sacrificial love. Sacrificial love, by definition, involves sacrifice. And you've heard this taught, taught. You've even taught it to other people in other contexts.

You know that giving isn't giving if it's just spare change. If it's just the stuff that you grab down to the lint trap of your dryer. You've had somebody say to you, so are you tithing or are you tipping? That makes sense to us in the context of giving. It makes sense to us in the context of serving. Ministry isn't ministry if my ministry is limited to places and

times and people and activities of my choosing. If I only serve at places and times of my choosing, doing the things that I want with the people that I want to do them with, I'm not a servant, I'm a volunteer. By the same token, love that only loves when it's easy or convenient isn't love. In this case, when I said I love you to the person who was making life easy for me by being maintenance, they were loving me.

They were going out of their way to not put things on my plate. They went out of their way, they took time they could have spent doing other things, they inconvenienced themselves to make sure they wouldn't be a burden. In effect, they sacrificed to lighten my load. But when I said I love you, that was just words. I mean, benefit of the doubt, if I really want to be gracious to myself,

because who doesn't want to be gracious to themselves? When I said, I love you for being low maintenance, I could have meant saying, I could have meant, and I'm willing to do the same thing for you in the future. I'll love you the way that you're loving me at a future date and time. But in my heart, that's not what I meant. In my heart, even if I hadn't said that, I'm not sure that I would have meant it. Do we love when it costs?

Because that's what it comes down to. Love's a choice, not an emotion. Love's a fact, not a feeling. Love shows up and puts up and pays up. Do I do that? I had to walk away and ask myself, would I do that with them in that relationship ever? Or do I really mean when I say I love you in that context is what I really mean? I'm glad I don't have to love you. I'm glad pleasant

sounding words are enough. How do we remember the meaning of grace? Probably in children's church somewhere, there's a poster that says, God's riches at Christ's expense. What would we know of God's love? What riches would we enjoy if it weren't for Christ's expense? If it weren't for the cross and the price that Jesus paid on the cross, the sacrifice that he made? See, walking in love is more than appreciating the people who

don't ask us to love them. It's loving the people who don't ask us to love them. It's bearing their burdens. Without being asked, even in a way that defies expectation. It's us being low maintenance, even when it costs us to be, especially when it costs us to be that way. Walking in love is more than acknowledging the people who don't ask us to love. It's loving the people who don't ask us to love.

Walking in love, here's number five, is also more than valuing relationships that help us. That work for us. That benefit us. But that are basically transactional. Fifth time I remember saying I love you that particular week, it was to someone who delivered on a promise. Someone who held up their end of a bargain. They did something for me and it cost and I was

appreciative. But the whole reason that they did the thing that they did was because I did something for them first, which cost me. We exchanged time for time. We exchanged time for time. We exchanged time for time. We exchanged time for time. We exchanged time for time. We exchanged time for time. Service for service. I said I love you because the transaction was complete. The quid pro quo was

quote. We'd loved each other, loved each other, the way that John, Paul, George, and Ringo taught us. In the end, the love that we take equal to the love we make. The only problem with that is that that's not love. That's a song lyric again. Love doesn't love in order to be loved. Love loves because that's what we love. That's what we love. That's what we love. That's what we love. That's what

that's what love does. Because that's what love is. And I make that point at every single wedding that I do. Because when Paul talks about love later in Ephesians 5, down towards the end of the chapter, he talks about marriage. What he's talking about is agape love, others-centered love. And when we stand before God and witnesses and exchange marriage vows,

we're making a unilateral promise to love someone, to accept that person as our ministry. We make vows before God and man, I'm going to love that person no matter what. I'm not promising to love them as long as they love me, or as well as they love me, or in proportion to how they love me. That's not marriage. Marriage isn't like hiring a plumber. You trade money for time and expertise. I'll give you money, you fix my sink.

If my sink stops leaking, I'll give you the money. If my sink is still leaking, you're not getting paid. That's not a marriage covenant. A marriage covenant is much more like the covenant that God made with Israel. The one that he made with Abraham, specifically. The unilateral covenant that God made. Abraham was asleep, he wasn't even awake for it. When God said, I'm going to love you, and I'm going to love your descendants,

and there's nothing you can do about it. He has, right? The main character of the Bible is Israel. Jesus is the hero. But from a literary perspective, the main character is Israel, who tries, not tries, who succeeds again and again and again, and sticking their thumb in God's eye. And what does he do? Continually, unrelentingly, God loves Israel, and there's nothing they can do about it. Their conduct changes how he loves,

it doesn't change that he loves. When I promised to love Anne, that promise wasn't contingent on Anne being lovely or lovable, or on her even loving me back. I promised to love her the way that God loves Israel, but I promised to love her the way that Jesus loves me, unconditionally. And the thing is, that's not just marriage. That's the love that we're supposed to have for everyone as Christ

followers. Marriage is a specific example of a general principle. When we look at the husbands love your wives, wives love your children, we look at the husbands love your wives, wives love your husband's passage. That's a specific instance of a general principle that Paul states a couple verses earlier. Verse 21, he says, be subject to one another, serve one another, sacrifice for one

another. He gets to marriage at the end of the chapter, but that's a specific example of a principle that he starts setting up all the way at the top. Love like Jesus. How does Jesus love? Unconditionally. Okay, then love. Love each other the same way. Jesus didn't die on the cross to get anything from us. Well, wait, he gets glory. Yes, he does. But he didn't need it. He was already perfect. He was

already complete. Jesus lacked nothing, and our salvation cost him. We sometimes talk about the great exchange, the divine bargain. But what are we really pointing at when we say that? We traded guilt for glory. We traded being God's enemy for being adopted into his family. Not exactly an even trade. That wasn't Jesus giving in order to get. Walking in love is giving in order to give. Love doesn't love because love needs something or wants

something. Love loves because that's what love does. How much time and energy do I spend loving people who can't or won't love me back? Wichita, you know, is a community of, round numbers, 500,000 people. And there's some 500 churches for that 500,000 people. And one of the tragedies is a lot of times, pastors, churches, we look at each other, we look at the church down the block, the fellowship around the corner, the gathering

across town as the competition. If someone's sitting in their building, they're not sitting in ours. If somebody's sitting under their teaching, they're not sitting under mine. And I get frustrated when we go to hand out flyers for an outreach or a worship event or a gathering or a prayer or something. And the response that I get quite often from other pastors is, why would I help bring people to your fellowship? Okay, I thought we were here

building the kingdom of God. Easy for me to point that finger, but then someone will bring to my attention, hey, there's an outreach on the north side of town. And my flesh is my flesh, and my flesh says, there's no way that anyone in that part of town is ever going to make it to our fellowship. What's in it for us? That's not love. Sixth one. Sixth time I noticed myself saying, I love you, the week that I decided to pay

attention to all the times I said, I love you. The sixth one wasn't a conversation I had with someone. Well, it was, but it was a conversation I had with someone about someone, someone that my daughter and I both know well, and I'd lost track of, I'd lost visibility of. And I said, hey, how's so-and-so doing? And the answer was, oh, he's working hard. By which she meant he's

overcoming adversity. He's making a lot of progress in a lot of areas of his life. And I said, again, I love him. By which I meant, I love that about him. I love that he's working hard, and it's paying off, and good things are happening, and he deserves them. He's earned them. He's earned them. He's earned them. He's earned them. He's earned them. He's earned them.

I love that he's getting after it, and that he's getting it. My daughter's comment, and I don't think she even knew what she was saying when she said it, but her comment was, yeah, it's easy to love a guy like him. And I knew what she meant because we're so alike. It's easy to love someone who wants it and goes after it and wants the right things and goes after them the right way.

But then I went away and asked myself, what about the people who are harder to love We fall into that sometimes. I'll talk about me. I fall into that sometimes. I fall into the trap of looking at people and sizing them up, evaluating them. Are they worthy of my love? Do they deserve it? Are they working hard? Are they trying? I can almost always find grace for someone who's trying. I used to coach high school

basketball. When I coached basketball, I loved basketball. I loved basketball. I loved basketball. I loved basketball. I loved basketball. I loved supporting and exhorting and encouraging the kid who always hustled and dove for every loose ball and ran back on every play, even if he wasn't particularly skilled. I had a really hard time supporting or even caring much about the exceptional athlete who

wasn't interested in working at being even more exceptional. And I'm the same way today. I can almost always find grace for someone that I think is trying. And I almost always find grace for someone who isn't. The person who isn't trying at all or the person who isn't trying the way that I want them to be trying, the way that I expect them to be trying, the right way. But where would I be?

Where would any of us be if the prerequisite for receiving God's love was to already be trying? Where would we be if when we stopped trying, when we weren't working hard, when we weren't doing our best, God turned off the faucet? And the flow of grace just stopped. One of my challenges as a pastor, just being real, I love teaching. This is my happy place. I don't get the same jazz evangelizing.

Because teaching, you're meeting me more than halfway. You showed up. And most of you are leaning in. You've got your Bible out. You've got your notebook out. You're taking notes. Man, taking notes. If you want to love Ryan, take notes. That loves a pastor. The point is, this is easy because you're showing up and you're leaning in and you give the appearance of people who are willing to learn. The people who are walking through lives,

not even looking around and noticing that creation declares the glory of God. The people who have audacity to say, yeah, first there was nothing and then it blew up. Creation demands the existence of a creator and someone who doesn't see that they're not even trying. And it's not as easy for me to care. That's my flesh. But I got a lot of flesh. What I try to remember in those moments is which one of us was trying when God decided to love us?

Which one of us was getting after it when God chose to soften our hearts and draw us to himself? How hard were we trying when God stooped down to reveal himself to us? When God invaded our lives with people who wanted to tell us about him and how much he loves us? I wasn't trying even a little bit. Walking in love isn't just for the deserving. The people that we sit in judgment on, the people

that we decide, okay, he's working hard. He's doing his best. He's like me. No, the people who are like me are the ones who are entirely undeserving. The least, the last, and the lost. So where are we at? What do we know? We know that walking in love isn't thanking those who help me, applauding those who agree with me, appreciating those who understand me. It's not an equal exchange with people who are loving me. And it's not helping those

who first prove themselves worthy. Because what do those six things have in common? Right here, dude. And love isn't about me. Walking in love is taking me out of the equation. Walking in love is serving others. Whether the other looks like me, relates to me, knows me, whether I think they deserve it or appreciate it or are ever going to reciprocate it. Walking in love is serving sacrificially the way that Jesus loves and serves me.

Loves others. And Jesus tells us that every, almost every time he talks about love. Luke chapter six. Flip there or just listen. Just a couple of verses. Luke chapter six, verse 32. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Why is that a big deal? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to

you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend from those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? Sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. That's not love. Jesus goes on to say, love your enemies. Do good and lend hoping for nothing in return. And your reward will be great. And you'll be sons of the most high. Saying I love you is easy. I did it again and again that

week, the week I've been talking about. I do it again and again most weeks. I say I love you a lot. because it's easy saying I love you is easy actually loving people not so much loving people is hard and I was reminded of that this week knowing that I was going to talk about this if you if you start paying attention you'll be overwhelmed with how easy it is to love the people who love us who bless us who serve us who do for us and how much harder it is to love the people who are just showing up and being people saying I love you is easy saying I love Jesus is easy read your bible pray every day show up on Sundays and try not to sleep hey look at me I'm loving Jesus saying I love Jesus is easy loving Jesus following Jesus being a disciple is hard

for all the same reasons we've been talking about because at some point loving Jesus check this at some point loving Jesus has to stop being all about the getting, getting fed, getting knowledge, getting wisdom, getting counsel, getting support, getting community, getting answers to prayer, at some point, if we're loving Jesus, it's got to be about more than the getting. It's got to be about the giving, serving, sacrificing, praying, praising, participating, being a blessing, walking in love the way that Jesus did. Are you still in 1 Timothy or just finished 1 Timothy?

Still in. Okay, we are too. We are too. All through 1 Timothy, Paul talks about, the whole book is Paul talking about what it is to be the church, right? 1 Timothy 3.15, I'm writing so that you might know how to conduct yourselves in the house of God. That's his topic sentence for the whole letter. Talks about it all through 1 Timothy, talks about it all through

Ephesians, and it's everything he's been talking about this morning. How God, took a group of people who did not deserve him, who fundamentally hated him and could never repay him, and just loved them. Loved them while they were yet sinners. Loved them so much he died for them. Sent them into the world to be witnesses to people just like them. Jesus sent us out into

the world to love people just like us. People who don't deserve it. People who will probably never be loved. People who will probably never be loved. People who will probably never be loved. Might even hate us for trying to love them. Because when Jesus sent out the disciples, he warned them. Hey, a lot of times, probably most of the time, your love will not be reciprocated.

The love that you take won't be equal to the love that you make. Be ready for apathy. Be ready for hostility. And decide in advance it doesn't matter. Because that's what love does. Love walks in love and keeps walking in love. Try an experiment this week. Do what I did. Try to pay attention to the times that you say I love you. And then either in the moment or make a mental note and circle back to it later.

But every time that you notice that you say I love you, circle back and ask yourself. Ask God the Holy Spirit to speak and reveal you to yourself. What did you mean? What were you saying? And what would happen if you meant what you said? What would happen in that moment with that person in that context if you took the next step beyond saying it and actually walked in love? Do that experiment for a week. It'll blow your mind. And if you let it,

it'll change your life. Father, would you teach us? Would you teach us to walk in love? Would you be faithful as you are to show us ourselves? Reveal us to us the way that you see us and know us and understand us.

Wanting to love, intending to love. These are good things, Lord. Even that is a gift from you. Because in our flesh, we have no use for loving. Being loved, great. But if you want to be loved, great. Wanting to love, intending to love. These are good things, Lord. Even that is a gift from you. Knowing that love is even a thing is a divine gift from you. It's an expression of your Holy

Spirit living in us. But Father, we ask that your Spirit would rule and reign and provoke us and prompt us and drive us to move beyond mere words and be doers, that our lives would be worship and witness, overflowing with the love of God. Would you please stand? As we leave here today, I just pray that your Holy Spirit go with us, Lord, and continue to minister to our lives. Lord, change us. Change our hearts. Change my reflection of yours.

We love you, Lord, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.