What does it mean to love people like Jesus would? In real, day-to-day life?

here is my thought flow process to answer the following question in preparation for preaching in BIG Church at Shelton FBC. i delivered this message this morning. [i was asked not to present the original message i had prepared to deliver even though it was validated as a great message and very biblical, practical and full of sound theology - just not "the right time".] this is not meant to be a complete essay, nor was it presented word-for-word, but rather as a tool that i used in my prep time.


...

What does it mean to love people like Jesus would? In real, day-to-day life?


Good Morning, I'm .justin, a youth minister here at FBC. This morning, you're going to get a glimpse into what we've been up to in YOUth Ministry lately.
This summer, we've been doing a series called "What is the TRUTH?" where students have had the opportunity to submit questions anonymously that they may have in several different ways: online at 1bCYOUth.org, via TXT message, or by putting them in "the TRUTH? box". Then, I've chosen a question each week and looked at what Scripture says about each topic. I've also done extensive research and shared some of my personal experiences with the topics that were submitted. In your bulletin, you’ll see a list of the questions that we’ve answered so far. If you’re interested in reading my responses, just write it on the comment card and I’ll be sure to get you a copy of my talk notes. This morning, we're going to answer one of the questions the students have submitted, but first, let me pray.


The question for this morning is a really simple one and I love the student’s heart for asking it:

What does it mean to love people like Jesus would? In real, day-to-day life?

We all could be asking that question more, couldn’t we?

In order to answer it, I’d like to take a look at a couple things that Jesus DID to show his love for people.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 9:9-13

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.
10 Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. 11 But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”
[NOTICE WHO HAD OFFENSE HERE- JESUS? Or the “religious people”?]

12 When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” 13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

The first step in loving people like Jesus would is to determine who that is. No one argues that it’s easy to love the people who are just like you. The people that dress like you, talk like you, vote like you, read books like you, get paid like you… but Jesus shows us something more. His lifestyle includes people that are considered “unclean” and “reputable sinners”. He is so loved by non-believers that he is invited to their houses and parties.

Here’s a question:
do you have any REAL friends that aren’t Christians? When was the last time you were invited to a non-christian’s home to hang out or eat dinner? If so, what did you chose to do?

[insert INVITE TO FBC CHURCH IN THE PARK here.]

Did you notice that in the story, it was the religious leaders that had a problem with Jesus’s actions… UMMM. HE’S JESUS!!! They prided themselves on knowing Scripture really well, so it was funny when Jesus told them to go away and learn the REAL meaning of this well-known passage found in Hosea 6:6:

“I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.”

What a rude awakening for them that must have been! Jesus tells them that he has not come for those that THINK they are righteous, but instead those that KNOW they are sinners!

And that’s step 2: know your place! The religious leaders THOUGHT they knew their place: to not associate with “sinners”, but instead were proven drastically wrong! Instead, Jesus showed them that they need to KNOW that they are sinners too! This then would make it easy for them to love other sinners and to show them mercy!

This is a tough one to get our heads around and hands in action to doing, but it’s absolutely crucial in loving people like Jesus in practical day-to-day life!

1. hang out with people who aren’t “like you”!
2. know you’re place: a sinner in need of GOD’S MERCY… this produces HUMILITY!

Next, let’s look at Matthew 14.

Jesus has just gotten news that his cousin and friend, John the Baptizer was unjustly murdered by King Herod, so he went away in a boat by himself to grieve and be alone. But because of his popularity among the people [REMEMBER: He spends time with them and shows them mercy!!!], the people ran along the water and followed him so that when he landed to shore there was already a great number of people waiting there to hear him teach and to be healed by him.

Isn’t that the way life sometimes is? All you need is to be alone, to have some time to yourself. You need a break. Things at work are crazy busy and on the verge of going bad. Your boss will not stop riding your tail. Things at school or with your friends are so dysfunctional. Your family seems shattered and broken, and all you need is to take a breather, find some rest, take time to lace your gloves back up, then headed back into the battle? It was that way for Jesus too.

But here’s how he loved people. practically. In real, day-to-day life:

14 Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
15 That evening the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.”
16 But Jesus said, “That isn’t necessary—you feed them.”
17 “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!” they answered.
18 “Bring them here,” he said. 19 Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people. 20 They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers. 21 About 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children!

Did you notice the disciple’s response? Isn’t it so much like our own?
Send them away – let them fend for themselves!
But Jesus, in love and overflowing compassion, in the midst of tough situations and a draining day of ministry, said that they should stay. He told his followers:
YOU WILL FEED THEM!

And that’s just what we are to do: meet the needs of our community.

You live your life at work, at home, with friends, around Shelton. You see needs all around. You hear about them everywhere. What do we do about them? Like the disciples, do we leave people to fend for themselves? Do we leave it up to some one else to figure it out?

This past Monday, I stopped at Chevron to pick up a sack of Sour Balls candy for the Chargers v. Seahawks game [what a sad loss, huh?], and the cashier [a young woman] commented on my "GOD uses a Mac" t-shirt that my wife bought me for Christmas a few years ago. She said I must work at a computer store I said, actually I work at a church, but I really love Apple computers. She asked which one. I told her I'm a youth minister at first baptist downtown. She asked which one that was. I told her it was the big white one across from the civic center. Then she told me one of the most incredible [and refreshing] things I've heard all week.

A few years ago, she came in for a food voucher for her and her daughter. They were at the end of their rope. The church gave her a $75 food voucher for Fred Meyer. This year she is completing her Bachelor of Arts and graduating from college. You could tell in her face she was genuinely thankful and that was one of the events that had changed her life.

Through the ministry of our Church’s food voucher program, we/YOU have made a difference in countless lives around our community. Pam B., Natalie, Lauree, Pam K., and Ana all spend much time during their day doling out mercy and compassion to people who come through the doors of our church needing help and assistance. And because of their attitudes and your giving, we’re able to do that.

On the first Saturday of every month [including next Saturday] a handful of people from our congregation help to prepare and serve a meal to those that are hungry at Shelton Community Dinners over at St. David’s Parish Hall. The YOUth have been doing this for a year now, and we’re not stopping!

There are many [CHRISTIAN] ministries around Shelton that provide meals, clothes, showers, and beds to those in need.

This past weekend, through the work of the Boaz Project we gave away 134+ backpacks to school kids in need at the Festival of Hope. In early June, tons of people from our church got together to pick up garbage and pray for Shelton. Each Christmas we participate in Operation Christmas Child’s Shoebox giveaway and bless kids around the world and we do the blessing tree to bring Christmas and celebration to families right here in Shelton.

And these are just ONE WAY that we are able to love people like Jesus did, practically, in day-to-day life.

BUT giving tithes and offerings to Church and volunteering isn’t the ONLY way to meet the needs of our community! I would argue that an even more effective way is to walk through life with your eyes open, looking for the needs of not only the lowest on the social ladder [homeless], but also those that are in your neighborhood – THEN MEETING THEM! It’s mowing lawns of your elderly neighbor. It’s making dinner for the mom with a whole gaggle of kids, it’s helping your neighbor on his weekend construction project. It’s inviting your friends and neighbors over for dinner or a BBQ. It’s paying for the meal of the person behind you in the drive-thru. It’s creative and it’s adventurous and it’s bold and it takes courage! It’s FUN!

And like Jesus’ loaves in the story, give of yourself to meet the needs of others FIRST, and he’ll take care of you with baskets left over!

So loving people practically, in day-to-day life like Jesus is:

1. hang out with people who aren’t “like you”!
2. know you’re place: a sinner in need of GOD’S MERCY… this produces HUMILITY!
3. Meeting the Needs of your Community

Turn with me to John 8:4-11, as we look at how our attitudes can help to love people like Jesus. In this story, we see a woman who was caught in the act of adultery. Obviously guilty. We know people like that don’t we? The “obviously guilty”. Maybe it’s adultery. Maybe it’s lying. Maybe it’s manipulation. Maybe it’s theft. Maybe it’s not being a loving dad. Point is: they’re guilty.

4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
[ 6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.] 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
11 “No, Lord,” she said.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

How do we handle the “OBVIOUSLY GUILTY”? in this story, Jesus reminds us of the truth, which points us back to one of our first points: the one who has never sinned may cast the first stone. Now, he doesn’t invalidate the fact that the woman sinned. Adultery is horrible, and should never go overlooked. However, it was HOW Jesus handled it that made all the difference in showing her his love. Practically. He said, “I DON’T CONDEMN YOU.”

It’s easy for us to condemn the obviously guilty, isn’t it? Especially when everyone else in the crowd has rocks too. Hurling insults. Speaking judgment on them. projecting their own guilt of their own sins onto the one who is “obviously guilty”. But Jesus didn’t get into that. In fact, he protected the “obviously guilty” from harm. But he didn’t leave it there as overlooked, he told the woman to repent. To GO AND SIN NO MORE. He knew that his next act of love would be one that covers over her sin.

Our final story of the morning is the greatest example of the practical love of Jesus: His unjust death on the cross.

2 Corinthians 5:21, tells it like this:

Jesus Christ, who never sinned, became sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of GOD.

Jesus, GOD-incarnate entered into human history, to live and have dinner and party with and amongst us sinners. He came to love us by showing mercy, meeting our needs, and pointing us to repent of sin. Then, after teaching and living as an example of the Father, He was murdered for the Truth: that He is GOD. And as He died, all of the sins of the world, including mine, yours, and the “obviously guilty” were transferred to Him. And in doing so, he pays the penalty of our actions, our thoughts, our words, and our motives. But he didn’t stay dead. After three days in the grave, he rose to new life, conquering Satan, sin and death. And in doing so, transfers to us the holy spirit which sanctifies us, makes us clean, that we may become the righteousness of GOD. Martin Luther calls this “the Great Exchange”: our sin onto Christ for His Righteousness.

It’s the greatest act of practical love that Jesus has shown. And it’s one that we can’t necessarily duplicate. But it is one that we must receive. It’s one that must be the basis for which we do all other acts of love for our neighbor. Earlier in this same chapter of 2 Corinthians 5[:14], Paul writes that it is the “love of Christ that COMPELS us” to keep on keeping on in this world- to continue to love people practically, in day-to-day life.

But here's the thing... i'm going to be really honest with you for a little minute. although Kristi and i know these things that i'm teaching about... we really suck at doing them. we feel so busy and spun up with church meetings, small groups, committees, service projects, etc. that when we have a spare moment, all we need to do is rest! we want to be committed to building margin in our life so that we can give of our time to those that Jesus would. we're not doing this really well, but we want to...

that's why I’m so proud of our students for asking this question. They want to know how so they can do it. The love of Christ is urging them on. Will you join us?

I’d like us to close in a time of reflection. I’m going to play a song that you can listen to by David Crowder called “surely we can change”. It’s got great words along this theme, but mostly, I’d like you to reflect on the practical ways that GOD is laying on your heart to love specific people like Jesus does, in practical day-to-day life. Then don’t delay in executing that in the love of Christ.




Surely We Can Change

And the problem is this
We were bought with a kiss
But the cheek still turned
Even when it wasn't hit

And I don't know
What to do with a love like that
And I don't know
How to be a love like that

When all the love in the world
Is right here among us
And hatred too
And so we must choose
What our hands will do

Where there is pain
Let there be grace
Where there is suffering
Bring serenity
For those afraid
Help them be brave
Where there is misery
Bring expectancy

And surely we can change
Surely we can change
Something

And the problem it seems
Is with you and me
Not the Love who came
To repair everything

Where there is pain
Let us bring grace
Where there is suffering
Bring serenity
For those afraid
Let us be brave
Where there is misery
Let us bring them relief

And surely we can change
Surely we can change
Oh surely we can change
Something