Children of God: The Social Gospel - PS. James Murray

Hey guys, Pastor James Murray here, and I want to welcome you to the Abide Sydney podcast. This whole podcast is designed to help you on the journey of discipleship, and our mission is to make disciples of the people of Sydney. But maybe not from Sydney, we hope this blesses you, so sit back, relax, and enjoy this podcast. Look at you, everyone. Get to know each other. Love it. Love it. Love it. Well, good morning. Good morning, everyone. Happy Sunday. Happy Sunday. Good to see you on International Sunday. Hey, can we, one more time? Can we welcome all those who are here for the first time this morning? Let's make a big, really welcome. Thank you for being with us. International Sunday. Love it. So, so beautiful to, uh, celebrate the different cultures that make up our church and our community. I do want to, uh, remind everyone and, uh, bring our attention to the fact that, uh, the Bible is very clear that Jesus had a message. He says, "My, my kingdom is coming on one day, it will fully come, and I will make all things new." And, and the book of Revelation, which, uh, if you're new to faith, don't read that yet, put a pause on that. But John, the apostle who we're going to hear from today, he actually, he talked about Jesus coming and restoring, and there's no more pain, no more suffering, like this, a beautiful thing that God is going to do. However, he did say as well that, uh, a part of his new creation, this new thing he's going to do, guess what will remain the same. Our cultures, our tribes, our tongues, it will remain the same. And so, what we are experiencing here is actually a glimpse as to God's kingdom plan. How cool is that? That all, that all nation, every tribe, every tongue will be together and, uh, in harmony and peace together. So it's pretty exciting to have a glimpse of that today. On top of that, uh, we actually have, uh, we're going to celebrate in a culinary sense, post the service. Did anyone come hungry this morning? Yes. Oh, only a couple of people. That's fine, because I'll eat it. That's all good. Uh, the Brazilians are cooking. Is that right? Brazilians barbecues happening. Oh my gosh, I was so excited for that. Any other, any other, uh, any other, uh, cultural foods that we're going to be enjoying today? Anyone help me out here? Indonesian? Come on Indonesia. Let's go Indonesian food. Love that. Anything else? Samoan? Yes. Which I'm representing here today. Got my Talo. This is my Talo. So I said that right. Ula, Ula. Sorry, Ula, Ula. And then, uh, French. No, no, this is not French. I'm joking. Now we also have French food as well, which is just this all butter. It's just pure butter. It's unreal. Uh, but, uh, Talo fa is what I should say. Is that right? If you are from Samoan, Talo fa? Yes. I was waiting for Josh to do that. In my head, I could do that. But in from the external, it would sound like I'm going through puberty, like I would, it would actually, it would be horrible the way it comes out. And so I'm not going to do it. But, uh, hey, we do want to, um, celebrate all of our cultures and, and just really express and we do this every year because we want to acknowledge and celebrate all the cultures that make up our church. And we love you. We're grateful for you. We're glad that you're a part of this church family. And, uh, well, we're going to do it. We're going to jump into the word of the Lord here today. I do want to, um, let you know that, uh, if you missed out on any of this conversation, this has been, and this is actually a 13 week journey through the letter of one, John, we're at week eight. So, uh, we're past halfway now. But have you enjoyed this series so far? How it's been fun to do it with you. And, and we've called this series Children of God, because this is the, the common language that John the Apostle uses throughout this letter when he refers to us as Christians as believers. He says, you're, and it's like this affectionate term. He talks about children, us being children. And he actually, as an old man, when he writes this, so he's writing like an older man saying, hey, like I've been on this journey. I walked literally with the person of Christ. And I'm, he's actually the last remaining apostle, the last remaining, uh, original disciple of the twelve. And he writes with such affection and he's trying to help the church to actually keep on remodeling, keep reminding yourself who you are in Christ. You're a child of God. And there's so much in this, but here we go. We're going to pick up in one John chapter three and verse 11, one John chapter three and verse 11. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another and say love. Yeah, love one another. Verse 12, he says, we should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised brothers that the world hates you. Everyone pumped for Monday? Yeah, like hey, what we're going to learn today is that to live for Jesus is not going to be something that makes everybody happy. In fact, he uses very strong language. He says, don't be surprised if the world actually hates you for your faith. And that's difficult because no one really wants to be hated, do they? But he says, don't be surprised about that. We know verse 14 that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. You could also add sisters there if you want as well. Well, if it is not love abides in death, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children. Let us not love in word or talk but indeed and in truth. Come on, turn the person next to you and say, don't just talk about it. Don't just talk about it. Put a little lay at the end. Don't just love in word or in talk but indeed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him. For whenever our heart can them us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. Beloved of our heart does not condemn us. We have confidence before God. And whatever we receive, oh sorry we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandment and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another. It does as he commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him and by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. This is God's word. I want to speak to you part 8 of this Children of God series around the idea of the social gospel, the social gospel. And this is really, really important because what we believe should change the way we interact with one another. It really should. It really should. And I have one big point, before I take the big point, I'm going to take this off because it weighs 70 kilos. And I've already got bad posture anyway. So thank you, past 80. All right. So I have one big point that I want to make. And here's the point that John is pointing us to today. Let's chuck this up on the screen. Ready? If the gospel hasn't changed us socially, it hasn't transformed us fully. And this is what John is leading us here today. It's not just enough that you believe in Jesus. It's saying it should actually be expressed in the way we do this together. This social thing called church and life together. And if we really are letting the gospel do its work, guess what's going to happen? This is going to change. Socially, we're going to interact with one another radically different to the world. Okay. So how many people know we need help to do that? Absolutely. And we need God to do that. And so let's pray and commit these moments to the Lord. So Lord, we thank you for today. Thank you for everything you're doing in the life of that church. Go right now. We slow down. It's the pace of our lives. So frantic and hectic in this city that we love. But sometimes in our pace, we are quick to rush and move on from the things you're trying to do in us. And so we just make space for you. We thank you for what you're going to do through your word and through your spirit here today. We give you that space that you meet every single person where they're at, even if they're here for the first time. They don't know you, Lord, you're just going to meet them where they're at. But even if they've been following you for a long time, Lord, you are so kind and so gracious that you continually move us forward from glory, glory and strength to strength. So we thank you for your word and what you're going to do today. In Jesus' body, don't we pray? Amen. Amen. As you grab your seat, turn the person you can tell them, we should socialize more. We really should. We don't hang out off and enough. We need to. I love it. As I got you to say that, some people are like, yeah, actually, we do need to socialize more. Okay, we're going to start this morning with a history lesson. You ready for a little bit of history? Yes. You sure? Okay, a little bit of history lesson this morning. I love ancient history. I particularly love church history, but let's bring your attention to a very famous city. Let me show you a picture of what the city would have looked like. This city was in the Greco-Roman era. It was a very, very popular city, but it was also a richly diverse city. This city was similar to others, but also had a pretty big difference compared to other cities in that era. In that every city, particularly, well, most cities had walls around them, but what this, what this, what this, what this, what this, what this, what this, What made this city different is it had walls not only outside of it, but inside of it. And these walls were pretty interesting because the walls were designed, yes, from the outside to keep people from coming in who shouldn't be there, but also on the inside. These walls separated the cultures, separated the different cultural expressions that lived in that city. In fact, this particular city, they think many scholars believe that this was actually more richly diverse than Rome this city. So many different cultures comprise this particular city. In fact, it came of different cultures like the African culture, Syrian culture, Jewish culture, Greek culture, and the Roman culture. This city, if you want to know what the name of this city is, this is the city of Antioch. This is Antioch. Now you might have heard that before, but what's interesting about this city is that if you were to live in Antioch, a lot of people, they lived in the same city, but not in the same community. Same city, but not the same community. In fact, there weren't just physical walls in the city of Antioch, but there was actually social walls. And these physical walls represented the differences, the divisions that they had socially. This city of Antioch was, again, like I said, very popular city, but something happened that Antioch, that literally it changed history and it changed our history as the church. It was a radical thing that took place in Antioch. Do you know what happened in Antioch? All right, you're going to hear it anyway. Here we go. Acts chapter 11. This is where this city comes onto the radar with the early church, Acts 11, verse 19. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen. Now there was a guy called Stephen, he was one of the early church leaders. He actually got, he got stoned to death for proclaiming Christ. He was the first martyr in the early church. And when that happened, it actually spread people all throughout the world, or throughout the known world at that time, which is fascinating that what they thought was persecution was going to stop the church. It actually grew the church. It spread the church beyond and says this that, and now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen, it traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch. There's that word, speaking the words of no one except Jews, but watch this verse 20. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Helleness also preaching the Lord Jesus and the hand of the Lord was with them. And a great number who believed turned to the Lord. And the report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. And when he came and he saw the grace of God, he was glad and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. And a great many people were added to the Lord for a whole year. This is now Paul and Barnabas, they met there for a whole year. The church, they talked there, they talked, and great many people were listening. And Antioch, in Antioch, to disciples were first called Christians. What's fascinating about this story is that here is this city that is so divided socially and culturally. But what happens is when the gospel enters into that city, it leaps over walls. Now I want to tell you this, that when you truly receive what Jesus is doing and wanting to do in humanity, it crosses cultural divide. Once used to separate us, we are now brought together. So this is what happened in that city. The city built walls between people, but the gospel built a family out of them. So this is beautiful because the evidence of the gospel wasn't just that they believed about Jesus, it was who they were now able to love because of Jesus. This is the gospel that we are a part of, but this is what's so fascinating about what's happening in this room here this morning, International Sunday, is that what unites us together and actually isn't our cultures and ethnicities, it's Christ. And because of Christ, different cultures and ethnicities are now meeting together to worship and celebrate and love one another. How cool is that? Like I loved it up here. There's so many different ethnicities up on stage here today. And I just love it because there's so much there that I don't have. Like, I remember that song, everybody clap your hands. That one. And then it's like, everybody move your feet. And I'm like, I'm like, that's about as good as it gets to me, okay? Like I have no, but there's this beautiful, rich diversity in rhythm and culture that's expressed through the church. And this has happened from the very beginning. In fact, Antioch, what happened there was so radical that they didn't know what to call it. They were like, holosek, before they used to be these walls and divide among us culturally, now they're meeting together, what do you even call that? And they're like, I think we should call them Christians because the thing they talk about, or the person they talk about the most is this person called the Christ. And so now they didn't know how to categorize this new group. We now, what they thought was just Christians. We now say, yeah, it's Christians, but it's also the church. That is what we're a part of. To which I want to ask a confronting question, you ready for it? Are you sure? No, you're not. Here we go. Ready? Has your belief in Jesus changed who you love? Because what the gospel tells in this story tells us is it doesn't turn us into a community that has to do life together. It makes us want to do life together. Why? Because love is the motivating force behind it. We know Jesus has command to love one another, but are we actually living out that command? And this is the challenging thought here today, why? Because we live in Sydney, the best city in the world, don't you reckon? Yes. But Sydney doesn't have physical walls separating different groups of people, but it does have social walls. It has social walls. And if we're not careful, hear me church, if we're not careful, we can bring those same walls into the church. Because we naturally gravitate towards people who are like us. We find our people, form our circles, and eventually our preferences become our clicks. And we can be friendly to everyone, without actually becoming family with people who are different from us. We can become friendly, but not family. So here's the tension of the gospel. Ready? Like you've got to ask the question, has the gospel only changed what I believe or is it changed who I love? Has it actually gone deep enough from like, man, I actually, wow, I love these people. And they are nothing like me. A fascinating outcome of the gospel, see the greatest miracle of the gospel is not simply that Jesus reconciles us to God, but that through Jesus, God reconciles us to one another. That is the beautiful part is what happening again. This is what John is trying to say, he's saying, guys, if the gospel hasn't changed as socially, has it transformed us fully? Because this is exactly what should happen. So that is the groundwork for today, are you ready to jump into the text? And this is so important, especially in the city of Sydney that we love, that is so richly diverse, we, as the church, should stand out in a way, they're like, man, what brings you guys together? Because you have so many differences, so many different cultural backgrounds, but yet you love one another. What's the secret? What's the secret source? John is going to lend us into that. So John has just been laying up in his last few chapters. He's saying, guys, when the gospel impacts your heart, it will change your relationship with God, it will change your relationship with sin. So it's more about internal, and then he gets to this point and says, guys, not only would the gospel change you internally, it'll change you externally. He's saying, it should actually change the way you socialize with other people. So what John is doing here is like a social test. He's saying, if the gospel has really impacted you, socially, it will change things. Are you ready for the social test? How many people like tests? Yeah, exactly. Three, two people, very studious. Okay, so not many people like tests, but John is saying, well, let's, let's look at this. If the gospel has done its work, then let's do this test and see if it actually has done its work fully and transformed you. So number one, the point we're going to learn here today from the first text is the primary goal of our faith. He says, verse 11, "For this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another. We should." And you've heard this from the beginning. In other words, what does that from the beginning mean? It means like Jesus lost supper, hey guys, leaving you with something. I'm going to go, but you're now it, tag your it, and I want you to continue what I started and I want you to love the way I have loved you, so go. And the early church talked about this all the time and that's why he says, hey, you've heard this from the beginning. This is a repetitive message that they would have heard over and over again, but he's trying to remind them, don't lose that. Yeah. Now, the best way I can put this is like this. How many people remember this growing up? Can we choke this picture up on the screen? Did anyone ever have this before when you were growing up? This is Cottie's cordial, anyway, Cottie's green cordial, give me a little wave here. Okay. How many people do not know what cordial is? Give me a little, okay, oh good. Let me explain what it is. It's basically like 100% sugar syrup with, it all tastes the same, really. It just changes colour, but when you put that syrup in a cup and you add a bit of water, it turns into like a nice refreshing drink, okay? So if you're growing up 80s, 90s Australia, Cottie's cordial was it. Now, how many people know that there was always one person in your family, father or mother, who did not know how to make cordial well? They were horrible at it. This for me was my father. My father was so bad, I'm like, who made it like, dad, I'm like, oh dang, dad made it? Because why? Dad would like to do a little dash, tiny dash, cordial, and then you get home and you're convinced, you're looking, oh my gosh, this is beautiful jug of green cordial, but when you drink it, you're like, dad, this is just green water. And what he'd done is, he'd done this. It had the appearance, but didn't have the substance. Appearance but not substance. And this is what John was trying to say to the early church, hey guys, let's Let's not just have the appearance of love and miss the substance. And this is really, really big, because in church, it's very easy for us to have the appearance of love, but actually have the substance of it. It is. You can come and do an environmental discovery, man, it's so loving, and it's easy to love people on a Sunday in an hour and a half. Have you noticed that? I like that person. Yeah, but you had to hung out. You haven't spent time together. You actually don't know each other. What you love is a surface level, it's a bit too superficial, too surface level of love, and what John is trying to say is, guys, don't water down the love that we should be living out, to have the appearance but lack the substance. And he's trying to stir them towards substance because he's saying, this should change, not just how we do Sunday, but how we do Monday. Does anyone feel a little confronted right now? He's like, James, you're saying they need to make time for people outside of Sunday? Yeah. Like this gospel shouldn't just change our Sunday socialising, it should change all of our socialising. Like we now are drawn to do life together, and that's easier said than done. In fact, C.S. Lewis, it was a bit heavy, but I love this quote. He said, loving everybody in general may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular. And we do that in church sometimes. We love each other, yeah, but do like show me. Like sometimes just saying that might be excuse for actually not loving anybody in particular. And John is saying this, that this environment, this space, that there is a primary goal that we're trying to achieve here, and it's loving one another. That's. Could you imagine this? Imagine if we made this our goal as a church here at Abide, that we're going to work really hard, not putting on amazing worship services on a Sunday, not just putting on great events which are all great things that we do, nothing wrong with them, but what we said the hardest thing we're going to work at, loving each other. Like we're really going to put effort into this. And this is what John is saying the church should be doing. We should be practicing this. In fact, watch this, there's two major practices as a child of God, what we should be doing. Number one, we don't make a practice of sinning, but we do make a practice of loving. So this is what John has come to, it's like, guys, this is what we're helping one another do. We're trying to help one another to not practice sin. So we're actually helping. We're not judging, we're helping. So hey, I know you got some sin stuff. Let me come alongside you. Hey, let's not practice that anymore. That thing is destroying you, but then the other side of it is what? We make a practice of loving each other. And this is big because the word practice, what does it mean? Practice. I'm not going to give you a hidden Greek word for that, it's pretty easy, right? It just means practice to do something in order to get better at it. And so when my youngest son, he's just finished his rugby league season, he's seven. Now he goes into summer soccer, sorry, not soccer, summer football for those that I don't want to offend anyone. So what is he doing in our backyard? He's constantly kicking a ball all the time, all the time. Why? Because he's practicing to get better. And what we must recognize is this is something we should be practicing in church is loving one another. And sometimes you know what, it'd be ridiculous if you're in a football team or some type of sporting team to show up in game time and expect this thing to work well if you haven't practiced. And sometimes people complain about church, the people aren't loving enough, okay, cool, are you helping with the practice? Are you practicing? Yeah. Because stop complaining about if you only show up for the game day. Oh, too harsh. Okay, here we go. But it's true. Everyone's like, okay, are you practicing with everybody else? Because we must be practicing helping one another not to practice sin, but also to practice living in love. And so the same thing with practice, how many people know practice, I don't like the term practice makes perfect because I don't think perfection is ever really attainable, but I do think practice makes progress. And so we won't always love perfectly, but we should be progressing. We should be. And let's not use, well, we're just trying to best, we're not perfect. Let's not use that as an excuse to live below the way of Jesus. We should be going, no, we're getting better at this. Why? Because we practice and we practice on one another. That's why, hey, this week, someone in the church, you're like, hey, I'm going to practice like loving on you. Not an expert, but I'm going to practice it. And I'm going to do some things that make you feel loved. Could you imagine that as a community, literally putting that into practice? This is what John's saying, because that's the goal. From the very beginning, you heard this, that we should love one another. So when you said yes to Jesus, you didn't sign up to believe in Him, you signed up to love like Him. That's what you signed up for in the Christian faith. The second thing we'll learn from this scripture is that the gospel will create unavoidable and confrontational contrast. If you're going to live this way, this Christian way, guess what, unavoidable and confrontational contrast is going to happen because you follow Jesus. He said this, we should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one, murdering his brother, why did he murder him? Watch this, because his own deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous, do not be surprise brothers, that the world hates you. We actually shouldn't be surprised, in fact, we should be ready to be hated. Have a great week. What do you mean? What does he mean? Are we trying to live this antagonistic lifestyle to make people want to hate us? Not at all. That's not what John's saying. He's saying, however, that when you live a certain way, it will antagonize. It will provoke. It will create conflict and tension with others, and it should because of the way you're living. In fact, how many people have ever watched the show "Horters"? They've seen the show "Horters"? And it's quite interesting. It's a very fascinating case study into a social experiment of people who tragically most of them are in these really bad situations and they can't get out, but I'm watching one with the kids recently, this is lady. She has like 17 cats in her house, yeah, only eight of them are alive. Yeah, that's how the show goes, so this cat is one of the frees that I'm not joking, it was insane. And so these people come in to try and help to declutter the mess of their lives, and here's the thing, when you watch the show "Horters", there's one of two reactions, every time. It's either thank you so much, like thank you because I, oh my gosh, I was so stuck. And my life is such a mess, so I'm so grateful you've come to point this out, and I can get myself, get this thing clean again, that's one reaction. The other reaction, I can't believe you're doing this, how dare you touch my stuff? How dare you expose this stuff? And they actually get really, really upset, and they get aggressive against the people trying to help them. So catch this, this is what happens when you and I are in a similar way, when we start to live the gospel, it's almost like this, here's an image I'll show you, the best way I can give you a picture image, imagine like a dark messy room, and the gospel is what, the flashlight, and it's coming in, and it's exposing things in the room, and there's one of two reactions that's going to happen when the gospel exposes things in your lives or in other people's lives. Are they going to be like, yes, it's true, it's a mess. I'm so grateful that someone's going to, I'm grateful I've got to help to get me out of this mess, or it's going to be like, I can't believe you do that, can't believe you expose that. Come on, who are you to think, you could put that stuff out of me. I've seen that's the reaction. In fact, Jesus actually talked about this, John 3.20, for everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed. So hear me, not everyone's going to be happy with your discipleship to Jesus. And in fact, he lends to this, when John's writing, he says, guys, there's like cane-like figures in the world and there's able-like figures. And what is cane? He says, it said he murdered his brother because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Why did, why did cane kill Abel? It wasn't because Abel wronged him. Watch this, cane hated Abel because Abel's life became a mirror. Abel's righteousness exposed cane's unrighteousness. He disexposed it because of the way he was living before the Lord. And it said that it created an envy in him, it exposed things in him, and it turned into hate and hate turned into murder. And he said, that is what the world's going to hate you when you live for Christ why because it's exposing. It's exposing some mess in their own life, some unrighteousness in their own life to which, okay, a really big point you need to catch here. This is important. Listen, look at me, ready? When you live for Jesus, your life will pass silent judgment of others. When you truly live for Jesus, your life will pass. I'll put it word, silent judgment. So Paul, like he says this, who are we to judge people outside the church? I don't need to do that. We need to love the world, preach the gospel. We do however do some judging inside the church, not in a judgment condemning way, but like, hey, come on, yeah, we need to assess this. But when you live in the world as a follower of Christ, it's going to be like a silent judgment that gets passed on people because of the way you are living. It can't help but shed a light on people and it will if you're really living out the gospel. Do you want some examples? No, you don't. Do you? Okay, here we go. A couple of examples of that. Here we go. Like, when you're at a party and an event and everyone is getting drunk, but you don't. It reflects on them. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're not getting hammered. Like, everyone's getting. What are you doing? Oh, I just don't know. Do that. Are you judging them? No. You're. it's a silent one because you're not doing whatever else is doing. Whenever anyone else is sleeping with their partner, but you've saved sex for marriage. And people are like, oh, so are you guys together? No, I just don't do that. It reflects on them. Whenever anyone is accumulating wealth and possessions, but you're giving it away. reflex on them, when everyone is gossiping and slandering, but you remain silent even though you could add to it, it reflects on them. So these are all lifestyles of the Christian faith that don't verbally judge the world, but they passively do because you're a light in a dark place. It's got really awkward for a second. I was like, oh, he just went there, let's go back to happy songs. No, we need to hear this. Because your life should be a contrast, because not because we're moralistic and we're doing better, trying harder. No, the gospel has changed the way we live, and because of the way we're living, it's shining this new way of life that sometimes will expose the darkness in others. Confronting thought, you want to hear it? If your life never puts you in contrast with the culture, you have to ask, has the culture shaped me more than Christ. Friends, there's no such thing as undercover Christians. I'm just undercover for the Lord. I don't tell people in the Christian, sneaky like that, it's covert. There's no chameleon Christians, I'm just blending, it's if the gospel is doing its work, you can't help, I like can't help but stand out in darkness. Matthew 5, you are like a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. And when you live, you become a contrast, but friend be ready that that contrast will sometimes pass judgment, silent judgment on other people, and they're like, you think you're better than me. No, not at all. I had just as much mess, maybe even more than you did, but the light of the gospel exposed it, and I brought it to Christ, and now I'm living in the freedom, not in darkness. Amen. All right. The next thing, he then says, the world's going to hate you for living with Christ, but also let's make sure that we come back to the definition and the evidence of love. He says at verse 16, "By this we know love that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers or sisters, and if anyone has the world's good but sees his brother in need, it closes his heart against him. How does God's love abide in him, little children? Let us not love inward or talk, but indeed and in truth." This is fascinating. From the beginning, the devil, the enemy, what was he trying to do to Adam and Eve? The book of, in Genesis and the Garden of Eden's story, what was the serpent trying to do to Adam and Eve? It was pretty simple. He wasn't trying to necessarily, the serpent didn't come in to bite them. He came in to deceive them. He wanted to give them a thought, an idea, and that thought and that idea was what? You become God. You determine what is right and what is wrong. In fact, what he was trying to do is get them to redefine for themselves what is good and what is evil, what is knowledge, and what is truth. That's what he's trying to do. You choose. You redefine it. Don't listen to God. Now, catch this. The greatest temptation of every culture is not simply to reject God, but to take God's place and redefine what God has already defined. Redefine what God has said. So here we go. Do you know how the world does this? Do you want a couple of examples? Because the world is trying to redefine what God has already defined. So a couple of them, for example, freedom. The world defines freedom as what? Being able to do whatever I want. That's freedom. God defines freedom as what? Freedom is being liberated from sins so that we can live as God intended. Morality. The world defines morality like this. If it feels right to me and doesn't hurt anyone, it must be right. It's trying to redefine, but God says no, no. Our feelings matter, but God, like God, not our desires, is the final authority for what is good. Here we go. Gender. It's a big one. Gender is something you can personally define, according to your internal sense of identity, independently of your sexual, or so your biological sex. God says no, no. God created humanity, male and female. Our embodied sex is a part of His created design and forms our understanding of gender. Okay? It's in the book. Next thing. Truth. The world says, you have your truth. And I have mine. It's relative to the individual, trying to redefine what truth is. God says no. Truth is created. It's not created by us. It is grounded in God and in His Word. So we live in a culture that's trying to redefine what God has already defined. But let's get to another big topic, which John is getting to, and it's the topic of love. So, now the world's system we live in is trying to redefine what love is. What's the world's definition of love, ready? They define it this way. Love means affirming me, accepting my choices, and supporting what makes me happy. That's love. But the tension is that that is not love as described by Scripture or personified in the person of Christ. That is not love at all. In fact, John is actually writing to a church, just so you know that. They're like, yeah, totally God's doing this and that. We agree and he defined this. But what it crept into the church was this thing called "nosticism" where they're like, hey, you redefined the way you want to get to Christ. And the way they said is like, it's a super special knowledge that you need to have. And so if you just get caught up in that, don't worry about other people. Just you and your special knowledge with God, that's what matters most. So love became more and more pushed to the side in the community. They cared more about themselves than they did about one another and John says, guys, let's not move. We can't move away from that because we've seen what love really is in the person of Christ. And what I was studying this week, oh my gosh. There it is. In the very early church, you see examples of consumeristic Christianity. That's what it crept into the church. Consumeristic Christianity. What is that? You ready for this? This is so good. Loving yourself through the church. That's what consumeristic Christianity is. And this is big because we live in a culture of consumerism and guess what's happened? It's crept into the church. So now church becomes a place just like every other consumeristic source in my life. I use it just to love me. I love, I get love through the church. Now again, should we be loved in the church community? Not a trick question. Yes, we should. But when I'm supposed to love ourselves through the church, not at all. And this is crept into our Westernized Christian society. You want a couple of examples of it? Okay. You asked for it. A few examples of consumeristic Christianity. You ready? Attending church only when you feel like you need a spiritual boost. Consumeristic. Expecting everyone to care for you but not caring for anyone else. Being happy for others to serve you but never serving others. Consistently jumping from church to church because you're chasing a better church experience. Complaining when the church isn't meet your preferences while never contributing to making the church stronger. Wanting deep community and friendship but never making the effort to build them with others. Leaving church whenever you feel disappointed or challenged rather than working through difficulty and growing. This my friends is consumeristic Christianity. That is a way of loving yourself through the church. So, I was going to sit here in a moment of awkward silence because we need to accept this is crept into our paradigms. It has. And we must recognize that that is not the love demonstrated by Christ. In fact, worldly love and consumeristic Christianity shared the same DNA. They are both love turned in on themselves. That's why it's dangerous. So John comes along and says we need to love as defined by Christ. That's the love that we're trying to get in. Not consumeristic Christianity. Not world version of love. Just as long as I'm happy. No, no. Christ's version of love. He says by this we know love that he laid down his life. What's the word love here? It is the word agape. One of our favorite words here in this church. Agape means this. Ready? One way sacrificial love. That's the love of Christ that we should be demonstrating here in the church. What is one sacrificial love? It's this. I want to love and serve you and do its best for you with nothing in return, even if it costs me. That's it. That's called agape love. Can we take a moment? Can we celebrate all our musicians, the people preparing food, our kids, everyone who served here today. Let's celebrate them. Why celebrate them? Because they're doing this. It's one way it's sacrificial, but it's done with a heart of love. In fact, I thought I'd give it another definition of agape because I've used this so many times before. Let's freshen it up a little bit, James. You ready for this? What's agape? You can say it like this. Jesus demonstrating his love through a believer. So when we participate in one way sacrificial love, guess what's happening? Jesus is loving through us. And we're showing Jesus love to one another and to the world. Love isn't just about declaration. It's about demonstration is what John is saying. He's saying, don't just love in Word, but love in deed. In fact, I would go as far to say this, agape love can only be seen. It can only be seen. Because we say things like love you, love you, love you, love that person, better best. Love you. Is that bad to do that? No, he says, yeah, you're allowed to love in Word. He says, don't just love in Word, love in deed. In other words, hey, I love you, let me show you. Let me show you, let me not just declaration but demonstration of what is happening and here's what he says, we should love and not just love the world to guess what he says love should start. In the church, this is coming back to that point one, this is a place where we practice love and we demonstrate love, he says this for the brothers, the word of brothers in Greek is the word of Delphoy which means basically fellow Christians and so we need to be demonstrating love most here, not just out there, in fact love starts here, now how many people know that's difficult? It is, I find it really easy to love people at a distance. Oh, I see that person for a while, I love that about them, that's really good and then you start doing life on life and you're like, oh, oh, you're a little, a lovable sometimes. You're difficult to love some, and again, this is thing, Jesus, how can you command an emotion? You can't. Jesus didn't say love them as in like, oh, no, no, that will come, I really believe that but he says, I command you to a gapo on another as I have loved you, in other words, it doesn't matter what you feel, give one way sacrificial to each other and you just keep doing it. And that is a demonstration to the world that you are my disciples. See we proclaim the gospel because Jesus loves people, we demonstrate the gospel because Jesus wants to show his love through us. That is what we're doing here. For last but not least, the affirmation and the insurances of Jesus working us versus 19 to 24. This is where it gets a little, I was like studying this week, I'm like, okay, how do I explain this? This is so cryptic it seems, like John, did you, like, I don't know where your head's at right now. You had this really good topic about love and brotherly love and working with, and then you get in this whole idea of like, here's the words you use, it's already verse 19. For whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart and we have confidence before God, but he says, even if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God. Anyone lost? No, you've got it? I did, I was lost. I'm like, oh my gosh, what does he mean by this? And he's the same things like this that we believe in the name of the Son of Jesus Christ and he commanded us to love and he says there's a spirit at work within us and he's like, John, what are you trying to do? What are you trying to say? And this is what I really felt as I studied this more and more, John is trying to get across through these last few texts because he has been saying, guys, love each other. This should socially change the way you do life. But John like a good caring pastor. He basically says, guys, I know you're going to really go after this. I can see that, but sometimes you're not going to nail it. Sometimes you're actually going to drop the ball. And he starts saying, but regardless, I want you to keep affirming that you're a child of God. Regardless. Now, this is huge. One of the most defining moments of my life, the most defining moments, was when I was 15. I was 15 and I came home to my parents and I was absolutely stoned out of my head. I'd been spoken with my friends who I go surfing with, on the beach somewhere on the northern beaches. And I came home. My eyes were like bloodshot. I was very chill. And my parents said, what have you been doing? I'm like, not much, not much, but I'm super hungry, what do you go? I was like, and I remember my parents looking at me and they caught on pretty quickly as to what I had been doing. And my parents, the couple of things that I'm really grateful for, my parents. But one thing that my parents never said to me, which I would encourage every parent in this room, I'm not an expert, but I do have four kids. And I want to say this, one thing my parents never said to me was, I'm disappointed in you. I said that. They did correct me when I did the wrong things with the words, I'm disappointed and never came out of their mouth, which I want to encourage every parent in this room. Never say that to your kids. Why? Because disappointment means what? I had a point at you. Now I'm unappointing you. That's heavy language. You're up here, but now you're down here. I'm disappointing. I'm disappointing where you were in my status. So they never did that. But what they did do that day is that they saw my behaviour and instead of saying we're disappointed, they said James, it's not who you are. I was like, they didn't even ground me, punish me, it was like, that's just not who you are. And that was enough. I was like, oh, because in that moment, what they did is they didn't affirm a behaviour, they affirmed an identity. They said, this is who you are. They didn't approve. Again, the behaviour that I was going through, and in the same way, catch this ready. The gospel never approves of our sin, but it always affirms our righteousness. Always. And this is what John is saying, John is saying, hey, you might blow it sometimes on this journey of living this life of love, this social gospel. You're not always going to nail it, but always come back to who you are in Christ. Come back to it over and over and over again. What John is saying is that your good works are the source of your salvation. They're the byproducts. So if your heart's saying, yeah, you've done a really good job, that's fine. But don't get your heart caught up when you don't do a good thing too. And keep coming back because of Jesus, our identity and security is no longer ultimately in what you have achieved, or what you have failed at, what others think of you, or even what you think of yourself, your identity rests in what God has made you in Christ. You are a child of God. Come on, let's celebrate that today. This is huge. Because what John is trying to say here, we're going to live this social gospel. We're going to let the gospel change the way we live with one another, but we're not always going to nail it, but don't beat yourself up. But then also don't get too puffed up either when you're crushing it. He said, have this healthy gospel confidence that I am on end by the grace of God. And when I fail, I get back up, I'm still a child of God. And when I'm winning, I still remind myself, I'm a child of God. I didn't earn any of this. And this is really important to us as we close here this morning. One of Manning says like this, my deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I've done nothing to earn it or deserve it. The greatest awareness of myself is that I'm deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I've done nothing to earn it or deserve it. You see, this gospel that we preach about every week, it actually should change us socially. It should. And if it isn't changing us socially, it hasn't transformed us deeply. And I just believe her up here, but I haven't let the gospel reach here. Because how do you know? This changes. This changes. I find that the more I follow Jesus, the more I find people lovable. People I'm like, I never would have loved you. Oh my gosh, I would have, I would have just, no, I wouldn't have. Yes, I definitely, no, but the gospel just changes your heart. I don't know what it is, I've got this affinity, I've got this affection. What is that? It's the gospel changing us. This is what they saw in the Church of Antioch, I said, whoa, the only way I can describe that behavior is Christian, which meant little Christ, that's what it means, Christian, little Christ. You're like a little version that one you keep talking about. Wow. That's because they saw how they loved. Why? The gospel doesn't change. It doesn't change a socially, it hasn't transformed us deeply. We need to let it transform us deeply. Amen? Why don't you stand your feet as we finish here this morning? I'm going to finish with a couple of questions, questions for reflection here, because we want to be not just hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word. And here's the question we're going to chuck up on the screen. This following Jesus actually changed who I love. It hasn't. It should. That's a good point of reflection. If it hasn't, okay, God, Holy Spirit, do a work in me. The end of that scripture says, he's spirit is abiding in you and it's changing to be more and more like Christ than love like him. Next question, where does my life look more like the culture than Christ? Where does my life look more like the culture than Christ? And again, no condemnation here this morning, but maybe you've just been a bit of chameleon in that area. You're blending in when you should be standing out. So you bring it to the Lord. Lord, I'm probably showing away from my faith in this space. Help me to be bolder now, to be a light because as much as a light can cause some people to hate the way you live, it also can attract people. In fact, most of the time it does. Wow, that's profound the way you live. Next question, am I approaching church as a consumer or someone called to love? That's a good one. A consumeristic, Westernized culture. Have I, am I, love you in saying this and I really do, are you loving yourself through the church? That's not the love that Christ said we should live. So how do I change that? Well, agape, agape, agape, I've got to focus on loving others. Next one, who can I practically and sacrificially love this week? What would it look like this week if you're like, I'm going to think about the need of someone in my church community and I'm going to meet it this week? In fact, I'm going to find out, hey, he's only going on in your life right now. I can help you with like, oh, actually, I'm moving this week. Oh, sorry, busy. No, don't do that. Okay? No, but you know, there's something like that. Yeah. Like, oh, yeah, yeah. I'll come. I'll help you move. I'll help you pack up some boxes. It's usually the one that people like agape doesn't work there. Yeah. No, but you know, what is the practical needs? That's agape. That's what the world looks in and goes. That's not just kindness. That's sacrificial. We're going to finish with a prayer. I'm going to read it up front. Then we're going to pray together. Here's the prayer. Father, thank you for loving us through Jesus. Break down the walls in our hearts. and teach us to love beyond our preferences. Help us to love sacrificially and to demonstrate the gospel through our actions. Remind us that our identity is securing Christ and let your love be seen in us and through us in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, we're gonna pray this together. We do this every week to pray together as a church. So would you pray it out loud with me? Let's say together. Ready, Father? Thank you for loving us through Jesus. Break down the walls in our hearts and teach us to love beyond our preferences. Help us to love sacrificially and demonstrate the gospel through our actions. Remind us that our identity is secure in Christ and let your love be seen in us and through us in Jesus' name. Well, we hope this podcast has inspired you on your journey of discipleship to Jesus. If you want to know more about our church, just go to abide.cidney. We'd love to get to know you. If not, you're from another place. Hey, why don't you share this with someone else and hopefully it helps them as they continue to follow Jesus. Have a great week.