Latest / In the Stillness Podcast / Love Shouldn’t Be Optional!

Transcript

Love Shouldn’t Be Optional! · In the Stillness Podcast

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  Hey y'all, happy Friday. We made it to the end of another
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  week and I'm so happy that y'all are joining me today.
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  This is friendly on In the Stillness podcast and I just
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  want to ask you guys right off the bat a question.
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  If love is the evidence of a transformed life, what is your
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  life currently proving or communicating?
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  Because love is one of those most talked about, redefined
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  words in our culture. Everyone seems to have their own
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  version of it, but today we are really anchoring ourselves in
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  the Word of God and what it says about love.
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  Because love is not just a feeling, it's an action and it
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  is self sacrificial. So we are going to be reading in
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  first John chapter 3 through verses 11 to 15 today.
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  The beautiful message you've heard right from the start is
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  that we should walk in self sacrificing love toward one
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  another. We should not be like Cain who
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  yielded to the evil 1 and brutally murdered his own
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  brother Abel. And why did he murder him?
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  Because his own actions were evil and his brother's
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  righteous. So don't be shocked, beloved, if
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  you experience the world's hatred.
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  Yet we can be assured that we have been translated from
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  spiritual death into spiritual life because we love the family
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  of believers. A loveless life remains
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  spiritually dead. Everyone who keeps hating A
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  fellow believer is a murderer, and you know that no murderer
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  has eternal life living within. OK, I want to harp on this one
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  line. A loveless life remains
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  spiritually dead. So not struggling, not just
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  working on it, it's dead. And love, according to the
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  Bible, is a giving of oneself. In First Corinthians chapter 13,
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  it is super clear cut that you can do all the right things, say
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  all the right things, but without love, you're just noise.
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  So let me ask you guys, are your actions truly rooted in love or
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  is it just your intention? I want to go to Genesis 4 and
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  talk about Cain and Abel really quick because obviously it
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  addresses that here. Basically what happens is Cain
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  kills Abel, his brother, because the Lord accepted Abel's
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  offering and not his own. Why?
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  Because Abel gave God his best, but Cain did not.
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  And it was Abel's obedience that exposed Cain's compromise, his
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  half heartedness. And instead of letting the
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  conviction move him into repentance, he actually let it
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  turn into resentment. And if we're honest, are there
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  times when we can do the same thing where we just sit in the
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  bitterness or in the resentment? Cain did not just feel anger, he
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  agreed with it. He partnered with anger, and
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  eventually he acted on it. There's a progression, anger
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  being the emotion, rage whenever you bring in a tool that can be
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  destructive, and then wrath. That is what actually happens
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  when it turns into an action. And the Bible says in Ephesians
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  4 verse 26, in your anger do not sin.
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  Cain did not follow that though because he let his feeling
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  become action and that action was submission to the enemy.
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  So I just want to ask, is there anything that you are coming
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  into agreement with that is not from the Lord, that is not pure
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  hearted or righteous? When you feel jealousy or
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  offense and anger rising, are you taking it directly to God or
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  are you actually letting it lead you?
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  Because even though it is cliche, actions do speak louder
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  than words. And here's another truth that we
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  don't always like to think about.
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  If you're actually living for Jesus, people are going to
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  dislike you. Jesus says in John 15 verse 18
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  that the world will hate you because it hated Him first.
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  Because ultimately, righteous living exposes what is not
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  righteous. So ask yourself, am I living for
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  God and God alone, or am I living for the approval of
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  others? Galatians one verse 10 says if
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  we're trying to please people, we cannot be servants of Christ.
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  So you cannot be deeply used by God and deeply committed to
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  being liked by people simultaneously.
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  At some point, you're going to hit a crossroads and you're
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  going to have to pick. Now let's bring it back to love
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  because love is the evidence of a changed life.
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  Again, the verse that says a loveless life remains
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  spiritually dead. So how do we grow in this?
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  Well, First Thessalonians 3 verse 12 shows Paul praying for
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  the church that our love would increase in overflow, and that
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  should be our prayer too. So practically ask yourself, is
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  my love increasing or is it just staying comfortable?
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  Is it out of baseline? Your love is not just being kind
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  when it's easy. It's choosing people when it's
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  costly, when it's inconvenient or uncomfortable.
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  And that's exactly why it looks like Jesus, because he loved
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  radically. It was so opposite of what the
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  world knew. And here's a gut check I'm
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  sitting with. And what us to all hear.
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  If someone looked at your life, your words, your responses, even
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  your private thoughts, would they conclude that you're marked
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  by love? Or is it that you just believe
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  in it? So what does this look like in
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  the real world? Well, it looks like serving,
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  encouraging, praying for people, praying over people, rejoicing
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  with them, even mourning with them, and honestly just being
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  present, doing things out of love, because without love, your
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  actions are empty. So a question that I'm sitting
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  with is, how am I loving the family of God right now?
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  We can make it simple. A lot of the times on my morning
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  prayer walks, I'll ask the Lord to put someone on my heart to
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  reach out to that day, to text them encouragement, or maybe to
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  call someone, check in and see how they're doing, how you can
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  be praying for them. Speak life over people, notice
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  people more. That is the essence of love.
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  And Christianity is a religion of the heart.
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  Jesus says in Matthew 5 verse 21 that hatred in your heart is
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  equivalent to murder because the truth is thoughts initiate and
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  wrong desires lead to wrong actions.
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  Hebrews 12 verse 15 warns us that if you have a bitter root,
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  that is super dangerous because if you let it just sit there, it
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  grows. So is there anything in your
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  heart that does not reflect the pure love of God?
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  And if there is, pray about it. Ask the Lord to soften your
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  heart and to make you look more like His Son.
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  Here's the beauty of it all. Self sacrificial love is so
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  opposite of our human nature that when we live it out
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  authentically, it points straight to Jesus.
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  Love is a fruit of the Spirit for a reason.
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  It fuels everything. So don't limit it.
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  Don't keep your love safeguarded.
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  Stop loving people at a level that just feels comfortable.
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  My encouragement is to ask God to stretch you to love when it's
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  inconvenient to give, when it's costly to see people the way
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  that he sees them. Because at the end of the day,
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  love is not optional in the Kingdom of God.
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  It's the evidence that you've actually been transformed.
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  So let's go ahead and closeout in prayer.
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  Jesus, thank you for showing us what true, real love looks like,
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  not just in words, but in action in your life.
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  God, I pray that you would search our hearts.
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  Know us. If there is anything in us that
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  is not reflecting Your love, I pray that you would remove it.
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  Cleanse us. Would you teach us to bring our
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  emotions to You instead of acting on them?
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  Help us to not partner with what's not from You.
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  Lord, I pray that our love for You would overflow and that our
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  love for others would abound. Would You make us people who
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  love so boldly and selflessly and consistently take us beyond
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  what is comfortable? May our lives reflect you in a
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  way that draws others in so that they can see the person of Jesus
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  through us. We give our hearts to you today
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  God, and we pray this in Jesus holy name, Amen.
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  OK y'all, well that's today's episode.
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  I hope you all have a great rest of your Friday.
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  Enjoy the weekend and I will see y'all on the next one.