Loving Others in Action

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0:00We oftentimes, when we hear about a need, there's a thought that comes to most people's minds, mine included, and it's okay to admit it. The thought is, what is this going to cost me when there's a need around us? Do I have the time for this? Do I have the energy for this? We instinctively, we count the costs, we think about ourselves. But there's also something that I think you can also relate to. And that is that if you decide to help, oftentimes, not always, but oftentimes, come away with a really good feeling.

0:39You come away with a feeling of, I'm glad I did that. Maybe you'll even think, like, I actually got more out of that than I gave. And it seems to be proportional. It seems to be that the bigger the need is, the better the feeling is afterwards when we dive into it and lean into it and help. Look at God. It's a strange combination, though, isn't it? Protecting ourselves from cost, from what it might pull from us, but then feeling replenished afterwards.

1:14It's a strange combination. And it happens over and over to us. Serving other people, it has this counterintuitive result. Serving other people, when we are faced with a need, it reveals both what we struggle with and what we were made for. And that's what we're talking about today. As we continue on in week three of our little four-week sermon series on loving each other. Four passages from Paul's prison letters about agape love, selfless love, sacrificial love.

1:51Love particularly used about love among Christians, among God's people. So we're using this, these four weeks, these four passages, to help continue to sow into the ground seeds of a healthy church culture by focusing on how we're supposed to treat each other. How we're called to treat each other. If we start with that, if we take these things that we're going to learn in these four passages, these four weeks, we will have a good start. We will be on a good path, oriented in the right direction.

2:26Right? And we're already on our way. God's already doing this among us. I see it among us, all four of these things. But we're just called to keep going with it. Because there's a world watching that is lonely and isolated and confused. And is searching for community. A community like this one. Even if they don't believe the stuff that we believe, they're looking for a community like the one described in these passages. And if we can hold that forth to them and say, it's Jesus, not us, that is making this community.

2:59It's because we're distinctive people. Because of what God has done, then that's an open door for a conversation. We draw people in with what they want and we show them, what you want is fulfilled in Christ. And that's what we're going after. So, let's read the passage together. Let's go to God's word. Let's be led by him. And we're in Galatians today. Galatians chapter 5. So, let's pay attention to the word of God, which shows us the love of God and how we are called to love each other.

3:35This is Galatians 5, 13 through 18. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. But through love, serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit.

4:12And the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. And these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Pray with me.

4:33Lord, we kneel before your word. And we ask you to make it go forth into our hearts and our minds and our lives and bear fruit. Change us, Lord. Continue the good work of salvation that you have begun in us. And for those who hear this and the work of salvation has not begun because they have not put their trust in you. Would you please manifest your glory and your beauty before them? That they would see everything that their heart wants and they would go towards you with open hands and humble hearts.

5:09Lord, may this be true of all of us. Continue to form and shape this community. In Jesus' name we pray. Alright, loving others in action. Loving others in action. Jesus sets us free from self-serving to freely serve each other. Jesus sets us free from self-serving to freely serve each other. We're seeing the progression that I told you that we're going to go through. The progression of agape love over these four weeks. First, it was about loving others in thought.

5:48Our inward disposition towards other people. We have to start with that. And then the next week we took the next step. Loving others in word. Using our words of encouragement to build up others in Christ. First, now it's love in action. And I think you can agree with me that it's a certain level of challenge to love other people in your mind. Sacrificially. It's another level of challenge to love other people with your words. Sacrificially. Paul's upping the ante here.

6:18God is upping the ante. It's harder than either one of those two things to love each other in action. Sacrificially. Clearly the challenge is increasing. The waters are getting deeper. Loving others in action is a bigger ask than in thought and in word. But God's word shows us the way forward. And this is how it shows us the way forward in this passage. Here's the first step. We're going to go over a couple things that we need to embrace and get our minds around before we can step into loving others in action.

6:52Here's the first one. Embrace your true freedom. Embrace your true freedom. When you hear the word freedom, what comes to mind? When I was younger, freedom was simple. It was a driver's license and a car. The open road. A custom mixtape. Windows rolled down as I cruised around suburbia. Other people had more, maybe, grander environments to cruise around. And I was just cruising around the west end of Richmond. That was my open road. But it was enough.

7:34It was enough. It was freedom. Even better was if I was doing this in the summer. When there was no school to get to the next day. No homework to get home and do. The days were a little bit more in my control. And behind the wheel of that beat up little Honda Civic that I had, I was free.

7:59Adults, you might hear the word freedom and you might think of something like being self-employed. Being your own boss. Keeping your own hours. Setting your own goals. Or maybe you skip right past all of that and you go right to dreaming of winning the lottery. Not having to work anymore at all. Or maybe freedom is simply just getting a day off. Having a day to yourself. Maybe having a day by yourself. Maybe that's freedom. All of these different aspects of freedom, ideas of freedom, they all have a common element.

8:39And that's this. I can do what I want to do. I do what I want to do. That's how we define freedom. Is that what this passage means by freedom? We have to ask that question. That's why I've asked you to think about what you think about when you hear the word freedom. You were called to freedom. God tells us through Paul. We have to be careful or we're going to bring in our assumptions into this passage about what freedom is. What does God mean by freedom?

9:13Well, back at the beginning of this chapter, Paul wrote, For freedom, Christ has set us free. It's a freedom found in Christ. It's not found with a driver's license. The DMV can't give you the kind of freedom that God's talking about here. The Virginia Lottery can't give you the kind of freedom that God is talking about here. It only comes through Christ. Jesus talks about this freedom in John 8. Here's the passage. If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.

9:49Still looking for the slides? Oh, okay. Oh, gotcha. Okay. Well, just we listen to the word of God. You can just, we'll go screen free for now. Well, Jesus says this in John 8, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

10:17The word of Jesus, his word of truth, it sets us free as we rest in it. So it's Jesus that gives us his freedom, and he gives it to us in his word. But we still don't know what we've been set free from or what we've been set free to do. For that, we have to go to Romans 8. Here's verse 2. It says, The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

10:55So now we see it. Here's one thing that Jesus set you free from. If you're in Christ, he set you free from guilt. The law of sin and death. God's holy commandments have exposed us. They've shined the light on us. We have been caught red-handed. The verdict was inevitable. The punishment was severe. But then in stepped Jesus to set us free. He took our sin, our judgment, our punishment. And if you trust him, you are free from that guilt. It's not freedom from responsibility.

11:34It's not freedom from tests and having to work for someone like a boss. It's freedom from guilt. That's the freedom in Christ that we have. If the Son sets you free, you're free indeed.

11:52But in Christ, we are set free from more than just guilt. And this is the part I really want to focus on. We're set free from this too. Jesus said, Truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. On our own, we didn't sin accidentally. It was not something we just stumbled into. We sinned willfully and compulsively. We wanted nothing to do with God. We were looking out for ourselves. We were seeking satisfaction and fulfillment, but we were determined to get it apart from God.

12:29We were looking for love in all the wrong places. We were determined. God was holding it out to us. But we said, No, I'm going to get it on my own. We were looking for it in money. We were looking for it in romance. We were looking for it in achievement. In success, in entertainment. We were serving ourselves. Slavery to sin is slavery to self. And slavery to self is slavery to sin.

13:07And that is exactly what the world calls freedom. Pay attention to that. The world says you can do whatever you want with no inhibitions, no consequences, no interference. That is freedom. But God says that is slavery. To sin.

13:262 Peter tells us whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. And if you've trusted in Jesus, you've been set free from guilt and you've been set free from slavery. That's the freedom that we have in Christ. You have freedom from the bondage to self-serving. From bondage to self. Because you have a new heart. You've got a heart that no longer chases satisfaction away from Him because you have found it in Him.

14:02We should say hallelujah for this freedom. This is a whole different way of living. It's a whole different way of living to be liberated. Not just from the oppressive demands of the law, which we could never fulfill, but the slavery to keep going after that which we could never attain apart from God. We would just keep going over and over and over. We were helpless. We were condemned. We were bound. We kept going down that road to ruin, but in Christ we're free.

14:33Free from guilt and free from slavery. This is the freedom that we need to embrace. So the first step in loving others in action comes by embracing true freedom. True freedom in Christ. And the second part of this, walk by the Spirit. We have to walk by the Spirit. The Christian life is a battle. There's a battle going on in the world. A spiritual battle. But for a moment I'm not talking about that battle. I'm talking about the battle that is inside you.

15:09Within each one of us. We're under new management. But the old manager is still hanging around. Still hanging around. The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit. And the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other. What the Holy Spirit wants for you is in the opposite direction of what your flesh wants for you. We are called to not be spectators in this battle. We cannot just sit and watch and eat our popcorn.

15:45It will not go well for us if we just watch that battle. We've got to get in this. Now when Paul speaks of the flesh, you may not know this, he's not talking about our body. Paul is not agnostic. He's not down with the body. He's not trying to denigrate the body. God made us body and spirit, body and soul. When he says the flesh, he's talking about our old self, who we were before Christ. Think of it this way. You probably know, even the youngest in here, you know that history is divided, right?

16:21B.C. and A.D. Before Christ, and A.D. is Latin, Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord. You should look at your own life that way if you're in Christ. There's the Joel B.C. and the Joel A.D. Put your name in there. There is me B.C. and me A.D. When you read the flesh, and Paul, he's talking about you B.C. Before Christ. Who you were. Or who you would have been. Maybe you came to Christ at a very young age. Right? That's great. Think about who you would have been.

17:02Take your worst instincts and just take them to their logical end. Right? That's you, B.C. The distinctive feature of each person, B.C., was that life was all about me. Me with my time. My energy is for me. My money is for me. My work and my play is for me. That's the distinctive feature of life, B.C. But that's exactly the slavery that we've been set free from.

17:35That's why Paul says, do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. To walk by the Spirit means resisting self-centered living. Resist it because you know where it leads. A life of self-seeking is an exhausting, empty way to live. Chasing the desires of the flesh. It's on a treadmill. It's like being on a treadmill that never stops. Just keeps speeding up. There's no satisfaction to be found there. You just want more and more.

18:11God has liberated you from that path and He has partnered you up with someone who really knows how to satisfy you. The Spirit is powerful and good and wise. He leads us into all truth. He strengthens us for holiness. He testifies to us that we belong to God. We can trust Him. And we can trust His desires for us even when they don't line up with our desires for ourselves. Walking by the Spirit is like going out with a friend to dinner. And He says, hey, I've got this great restaurant to show you.

18:52And He describes the food and you're like, I don't know. Sounds kind of weird. I just kind of want to go, you know, to the usual place. And then He gives you that look of like, bro, come on. Trust me. Trust me. You're going to love this place. You know what I'm talking about, church, don't you? When you hear the Spirit chiming in with His desires for you. And there's that part of you that's like, but I want this. And the Spirit looks at you and He says, trust me.

19:43Will you trust Him? Will you trust Him and say no to your desires? Because there will be a conflict between what the Spirit desires for you and what your flesh desires for you.

20:02Will you trust Him even when they seem contrary? Will you believe that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus and that to get there you have a calling to say yes. I'm going to go to that restaurant even though it sounds weird. I'm going to follow Your desires for me, Spirit.

20:29Even though right now it feels like a little death. A little death of my old self. A little bit of starvation to my flesh. Yes, Spirit, I believe You. Romans 6 tells us now that we've been set free from sin and become slaves of God, the fruit you get is sanctification. And it's in eternal life. The desires of the Spirit lead there. Lead to life and holiness and joy and glory.

21:09That's where the Spirit is taking you. So embrace your true freedom and walk by the Spirit into a new way of life. And as you do, now you're ready. Now you're ready to swim into the deep waters of Agapai love.

21:30Go into those deep waters by serving one another. Paul says here, through love, serve one another. This is a necessary completion of his line of thought here. Okay? Paul, he's not just saying this to keep us busy. You know how in class sometimes the teacher was behind or you had a substitute and she gave you busy work. It's just like run out the clock time. Like, just stay busy. Don't fight. Do this work. Right? When Paul says, through love, serve one another, he's not just giving us busy work.

22:08Okay? And it's not even pragmatic. Okay? This is not just many hands make light work. It's not busy work and it's not just for pragmatic reasons. Serving others is the front lines of the battle against the flesh. That's the front lines. It's the tip of the spear for our new life in Christ. You can't really fight the desires of your old self if you keep away from other people.

22:38If you're really going to walk in new life, you get around people and their pesky needs. If you're really going to fight the old flesh and walk by the spirit, you have to be around people. Maybe not all the time, but at least sometimes.

22:58Listen to what Dietrich Bonhoeffer says. This is really insightful. It'll be up on the screen. It's also on your bulletin to read later. We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God who will thwart our plans and frustrate our ways time and again, even daily, by sending people across our path with their demands and requests. It is part of the school of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service. We do not manage our time ourselves, but allow it to be occupied by God.

23:38God Himself is directing, deliberately directing needy people into your path, into your life. For their sake and for yours. God made us to serve, or rather, He remade us to serve.

24:01I hope in talking about that strange experience of hesitating to serve but then feeling satisfied and filled up after we've done it. That hesitation is the old self, the satisfaction is the new. Agape love and action suits the new you. It suits you like a custom-tailored dress or suit. It suits you. It's made for you. To where?

24:31So I'm going to close with three ways how it suits you. Here's the first. Serving others declares your freedom. Of all nations on earth, perhaps America is one of the most free. It would be great if it stays that way. We express those freedoms all the time. We march, we speak, we gather, we form associations, we criticize the government. On the 4th of July, we blow things up. That's how we show that we're free.

25:09That we're Americans. So how do we show that we're free in Christ? How do we show that we're Christians? When you make someone a casserole. When you set up chairs and take them down.

25:33When you set up the nursery even though you don't have kids. When you help someone replace their water heater. When you drive someone to the doctor. When you do those things not for the thank you, not for the return favor, but simply to honor God by helping. You're declaring your freedom. You're declaring that you've been set free from self. From self-serving. You're saying I'm a free man. I'm a free woman. In Christ Jesus. Whenever you use your time, your resources, your energy on someone instead of yourself.

26:14Addressing their needs ahead of your own. You're declaring yourself to be a free person in Christ. Own it like that. Those are fireworks. You get excited about fireworks on the 4th of July, right? Get excited about lighting off a firework and declaring your freedom by serving someone ahead of yourself. I know that you're doing it. I see you doing it. It's so beautiful. Think of it like fireworks. fireworks. You are celebrating what God has done in your life.

26:52That you have been set free. You're declaring your independence from yourself. Your new relationship with God. You're saying Jesus has set me free. I belong to Him. He served me and now I'm serving other people.

27:12Here's the second thing. Serving others also fulfills the law. You shall love your neighbor as yourself, God told us people and Paul reminds us here. It's a beautiful call but outside of Christ it was something we could never do.

27:32We could never let go of the impulse to love ourselves first and foremost. In a community like that other people are competitors. There's backbiting. There's devouring. Ultimately everyone is in it for themselves. Love always has a limit before Christ.

27:55But the liberating power of the gospel means we're no longer competitors but companions. We look around and we don't see prey. We see partnership. Because we know where to find satisfaction. We're not on that quest anymore of satisfaction. We know where to get it. Just think of the possibilities. What could happen? What kind of community would grow if each one of us embraced all the time this freedom in Christ? What kind of community would it be?

28:32Maybe tired people out there in the world would look and want to join this simply because of what they see happening among us. It fulfills the law and it's beautiful when God's law is fulfilled. Here's the last thing. I'm going to close with this. Serving others is an act of worship.

28:56Mark 14 tells of Jesus in a dinner party. Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, was part of the group hosting this dinner. But Mary had something different planned. She didn't tell anyone about.

29:14They're hosting Jesus and to everyone's surprise, Mary comes out with this alabaster flask filled with ointment, with perfume. It's worth a year's wages. Think of that. Think of holding something in your hand that was worth a year of your wages.

29:37And she brings it to Jesus and she breaks it open. And she pours all of it out. Anointing Jesus on His head, on His feet. People watching, they call it a waste. They're like, what is she doing? All this for one person?

30:01But Jesus approves of it. It was worship. He said, you won't always have me physically here with you, but you will have others that you can serve in the future. Now, I'm sure if Jesus were to walk through that back door right now, we would fall over each other trying to get to Him.

30:33It would be a beautiful scrum. All of us trying to get as close as we can to Jesus. We'd be forming a line if we were being polite. All of us coming to Him, hearts aflame, wanting to serve Him. And no matter what we had, I know you would bring it. Wouldn't you?

30:59All of our money, all of our resources, all of our time, whatever alabaster flask you have, you would bring it to Him. I know you would. You would bring it to Him and you would break it open and you would offer it to Him right there. You would say, Jesus, here, Lord, this is for You. I've been saving this for You. such would be the heart stirred in every one of us if Jesus were here among us. If our Savior was here. But do you want to know the truth?

31:37He is here. He is here right now. And you can serve Him. You can anoint His body. We heard it from Jesus Himself earlier in the service from Matthew 25. At the final judgment, He says to people, I was hungry and You gave Me food. I was thirsty and You gave Me drink. I was a stranger and You welcomed Me. I was naked and You clothed Me. I was sick and You visited Me. I was in prison and You came to Me. And the people listening say, Jesus, we don't understand.

32:17When did we see You? I don't remember seeing You. When did we do those things for You? And Jesus answers, when You did it. To one of the least of these, You did it for Me. We are the body of Christ.

32:37When we make the sacrifice to serve others, when we break our alabaster flask to love each other in action, we are serving Him. We're serving our Lord.

32:55It's an act of worship for the One who set us free. And that's why it feels so good. That's why it feels so strangely satisfying. Because with humble, renewed hearts, we've served our Lord when we love other people in action.