Love is Blind... On Purpose // Ty Gibson

hey everybody thank you so much for joining us again for the storyline worship service online the times in which we live are strange and it doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon but thankfully technology has come to the rescue and we can connect by this means we're gonna be diving in to a very significant part of Scripture so I want to encourage you get a Bible wherever you are in the world and chime in in the chat let us know where you're from let us know what we can pray for beyond that comment on the message we have hosts there that are eager to interact with you and so I want to encourage you to participate in our time together today by that means by chiming in to the message let us know what you think let us know what the points are in the message that are standing out to you and that are of significance in your own walk with God and in your experience and relationships with people right now in your life so the message today that I want to explore with you is going to be an exploration of what I'm gonna call one of the strangest characteristics of love come on you know that love is weird at times there are things about love that are just downright odd we're going to explore one of the strangest characteristics of love today in our time together but we're going to discover along the way that this very strange characteristic of love turns out to be an extremely powerful and vital aspect of love now I'm going to summarize what we're about to explore in this very simple and straightforward statement and it is simply this love is blind on purpose love is blind not accidentally but intentionally love is blind on purpose now in order to dig in to this characteristic of love I want you to look with me at an Old Testament prophecy in Isaiah chapter 42 just grab a Bible open up to Isaiah 42 and as you're doing I want to remind you that one of the key features of the Bible especially the Old Testament is that over and over again we are encountering songs and poems that are foretelling the up and coming savior of the world these are called Messianic prophecies you hear in the word messianic the word Messiah which in the New Testament is translated as Christ the Old Testament is written in Hebrew mostly and the upcoming savior of the world is called Messiah the New Testament is written primarily in Greek or totally in Greek and the word that encapsulate the savior of the world is Christ it's a title it's not a name his name is Jesus that's his human name that is a common name at the time in fact and the Hebrew version of Jesus would be Joshua or Yeshua Jesus Christ is the savior of the world and when he comes to the world we can expect him to behave in certain ways that the Old Testament prophecies have foretold so we can identify him we can say yep that's him he is fulfilling the prophecies that foretold exactly what he would do now this is a very very odd prophecy in Isaiah chapter 42 first of all we know that it is a messianic prophecy because in verse 1 we have these words which are words that are coming straight from the Father through God the Father through the prophet Isaiah so when you hear these words you're hearing the father speak through the prophet and the father says behold or look upon behold my servant whom I uphold my elect one that is my chosen one my selected one in whom my soul delights I have put my spirit upon him and he will bring forth justice for the Gentiles so in the opening verse of Isaiah 42 we have the father saying I'm sending forth from myself to the world the one who will be the savior of the world and you'll know him by the fact that he will be the one who starts to bring forth justice finally for the Gentiles now why does justice need to be brought forth for the Gentiles well because you have to remember that throughout scripture whatever verse whatever passage whatever story we encounter all of it is happening within the storyline of Scripture within the narrative of Scripture now the narrative backdrop here is that God had called a man named Abraham out of Babylon out of ur of the Chaldeans and he was called out according to Genesis chapter 12 for a very specific purpose he was called out we might say of the world of the Gentile world he was called out of the world in order to go back in to the world he wasn't called out because he was super special and God liked him more than he liked anybody else Abraham was called out for a mission for a ministry he was called out to an evangelistic project that would be global that would be worldwide so God said Abraham I'm calling you out and this is chapter 12 of Genesis I'm calling you out so that in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed do you see that I'm calling you out so that the whole world can be blessed well as the story continues to unfold what happens is the children of Israel who are the descendants of Abraham become very closer to way and porochial and they become very sectarian they separate themselves from the world and they begin to look down their long spiritual morally superior noses at the Gentile nations rather than coming out in order to go in they become a segregated group of people who think that they're better than everybody else and so it is into that that Isaiah's prophecy is speaking his prophecy comes along and says listen when I send forth the Messiah through the lineage of Abraham he's going to do the right thing for the Gentiles for the Gentile nations he's going to do what was the intent all along what was the intent all along that the whole world would be blessed through Israel Jesus comes into the world now to bless the whole world and he is going to be the fulfillment of God's original blessing through Abraham so that's the backdrop now that we have that backdrop in verse one here's the strange part of the prophecy that I want to call to your attention the prophecy goes on to describe that the Messiah will do all kinds of incredible works he will heal the death and caused them to hear which when we read the New Testament account we see Jesus doing that he will open blind eyes he will literally heal people's literal physical blindness but check this out once the prophecy in Isaiah 42 tells us that the Messiah will heal deaf ears and heal blind eyes it says something really odd in verses 18 through 20 listen to these words here you deaf and look you blind that you may see who is blind but my servant or deaf as my messenger whom I have sent whom I send check this out seen many things but you do not observe and opening ears but you do not hear do you see what's happening here this is poetry and it is so artistically crafted that you have to look beneath the surface to know exactly what is being said here but it's pretty obvious the prophecy follows this kind of trajectory it says wow when the Messiah comes he's gonna heal people's deaf ears he's gonna heal their blind eyes and then the prophecy says that the Messiah himself we'll be blind and deaf the Messiah himself will be blind and deaf which makes you wonder when we see Jesus come to the world and we read the Gospels of Matthew Mark Luke and John we don't encounter a blind and deaf Messiah or do we well according to the prophecy I want you to notice this when the prophecy says that my servant whom I have sinned in you sent to you will be deaf my messenger will be blind verse 20 tells us in what sense poetically symbolically in what sense he will be blind and deaf seeing many things but he won't observe hearing or opening the ears of others but he himself does not hear well what's happening here is the prophecy is telling us that there is a sense in which the very one who is opening blind eyes and unstopping deaf ears will himself see many things but not see he will hear many things but not here what does this mean well if we go back to chapter 11 now we were in Isaiah chapter 42 now we're in chapter 11 it'll all come crystal clear because here Isaiah again is telling us essentially that when the Messiah comes he will operate relationally with blindness with deafness notice this in chapter 11 of Isaiah we know again that this is a messianic prophecy because it says that there will come forth this is worth verse 1 a rod capital R from the stem of Jesse that is Jesse who was the father of David in the biblical story there's going to come one fourth from this lineage from Jesse who gave birth to or had in his lineage David who then eventually through that lineage the Messiah will come we know that this is a messianic prophecy because it is foretelling the coming of the Savior through the lineage of Jesse and David and then it says this in verse 2 the Spirit of the Lord God shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and of might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord now watch this with all of this wisdom which we're going to call relational wisdom with all of this understanding which we're going to call relational understanding for reasons that will become evident as we read the next two verses with all of this wisdom and all of this understanding notice these words verses three and four his the Messiah's delight is in the fear of the Lord and he will not judge by the sight of his eyes nor will he decide by what he hears with his ears but with righteousness he will judge the poor and decide with equity for or in favor of the meek of the earth he will not judge by the sight of his eyes he's not literally blind he's not literally deaf he is relating to people in such a way that he is overlooking their faults and their failures in their sins in order to redeem them in order to save them by the ingenious wisdom and understanding of a very high level of what we call today emotional intelligence Jesus was the most emotionally intelligent person who has ever lived he was a relational genius how was he a relational genius well according to the prophecy the Messiah is blind while he sees the Messiah is death while he knows everything he sees exactly what's going on he knows all the pea with whom he is interacting he sees Peters weaknesses and failures and yet he remains in relationship with Peter he sees the weaknesses and failures the dysfunctions of the sons of thunder James and John those two brothers that he called to be his disciples he sees exactly what their failures and weaknesses are and yet he remains in relationship with them this is phenomenal he even knows according to the Gospel story he even knows that Judas all along the way has been contemplating betraying the Savior and yet Jesus does not ostracize him Jesus remains in relationship with Judas with James and John with Peter this is the genius by the way of why the masses flocked to him this is one of the features of the Gospel story that is absolutely mind-blowing we have a setting in which there are all these religious leaders they're called the Pharisees the scribes the Sadducees and these religious leaders are continually in the process of teaching the people they're continually in the process of of preaching sermons they're continually in the process of quote-unquote doing ministry they're the religious leaders after all and yet the people are repelled by them we see this in the Gospel story just read Matthew Mark Luke or John the people are repelled by the very religious leaders that have the responsibility of drawing them in their whole job is to create attraction to God and yet they are creating an overwhelming sense an emotional sense in the people in which the people feel obligated on an intellectual level they feel obligated on a cultural level they feel obligated on a religious level but they are leaning out on in emotional level they have to but they don't want to are you hearing me they have to listen to the Pharisees and the scribes and they have to pay their tithes they have to keep the Sabbath they have to they have to they have to they have to go through the motions the endless prescribed motions of religiosity and so they're doing it they're doing it they're doing their duty they're moving through the nonstop process of ritualistic religious obligation but they don't want to and then Jesus comes along and according to the gospel stories in Matthew Mark Luke and John the gospel stories plural of these four individuals that are writing the story from different angles these four accounts of the life of Jesus all of them have one thing for sure in common and that is this that the people the people are attracted to Jesus they're drawn to him they're just coming out in mass to hang on every word he speaks they are blown away by the things that he is saying and the way he is Jesus is attracting the people to himself and through himself to God because he is overlooking he is compensating relationally he is letting them feel comfortable in his presence he is can I say it ever so bluntly he is simply loving them and they feel it it's palpable it's in the air everybody the rumor is going around hey there's a new rabbi in town there's a new Pharisee in town there's a new sad you see in town what is he who is he maybe the rumor is going around maybe he's the guy we've been waiting for and the rumor under the breath is never never has a man spoken like this man nobody is like him were surrounded by religious leaders and none of them have ever related to us the way he's relating to it Jesus earns a reputation what's the reputation he earns well it's kind of a it's kind of a slap in the face because he earns this reputation from the religious leaders who despise him and the slap in the face they think it's a slap in the face they saw he's a friend of sinners well in fact it's a compliment they mean it as an insult but it is in fact a compliment it's a compliment because Jesus is in fact the friend of sinners he's drawing close to them he's taking the initiative and because he's taking the initiative to draw close to them well the relational dynamic underway is that they're drawing close to him he's reaching out first and they are responding to him why well because according to Isaiah's prophecies in chapter 11 of as Isaiah and chapter 42 according to the Bible's prophecies of the coming Messiah the Messiah will himself be blind to the failures and sins of the people to whom he's ministering and yet he knows every one of them he's not involuntarily blind he's not gullible he's not naive it's not as if he's not fully aware of the sins of each and every one of the people with whom he's interacting he knows your guilt he knows my guilt our shame is evident and fully open to the eyes of God and yet Jesus just moves into relationships with people as if they're as innocent as the day is long Jesus is relating to these people as if they've never done anything wrong Jesus is simply allowing his love to do what love very strangely at first glance does what is love do love love overlooks the failures of others in order to remain in a relationship and call people in to a higher level of relational integrity this amazing we know this is what's happening in the gospel because it is in fact an overtly stated gospel dynamic it's a biblical truth that I don't have of course time now to show you how many times it occurs over and over again but I'm going to give you a couple of examples one from the Old Testament one from the new this is from proverbs chapter 10 and verse 12 we're straightforward the wisest man who ever put pen to paper Solomon says love covers all sins what why would love cover sin well don't take this to mean that love excuses sin love doesn't excuse sin in fact you could say that love is a very very much a high level of accountability for sin but it is a high level of accountability for sin precisely because it reveals the higher standard of love in spite of our failures and sins so love according to proverbs 10 and verse 12 love covers all sins and then when we come to the New Testament Peter the Apostle Peter who should know a thing or two about having love cover sin Peter in 1st Peter chapter 4 and verse 8 picks up on this Old Testament theme of love covering sin and he says it this way and he's speaking now in the context of of the body of Christ he's saying hey I'll tell you exactly how you as fellow members of the Church of God need to relate to one other one another he says in verse 8 of 1st Peter 4 check this out Peter says above all things this sounds pretty important he's saying this is number one agenda item above all things have fervent love for one another why Peter for love will cover a multitude of sins well there it is again we have Peter telling us precisely what Solomon told us and that is that love has this very odd and yet powerful characteristic of compensating in relationships we could call it in fact relational compensation we could describe it as taking up the slack in a relationship whenever slack needs to be taken up if somebody is failing the first thing to do is to draw closer to them not to pull away from them when people are falling the first thing to do is to lean in to them not to lean out the last thing somebody needs when they are falling over in their quest to do what is right or falling backwards when they have completely lost sight of what it means to live a life of integrity it doesn't matter if it is a failure that is unintentional a weakness of character that the person himself or herself is blind to or sometimes let's face it people do engage in premeditated wrongs but they fail we fail I fail you fail and when we fail scripture is saying by the example of Jesus and by the teachings of Scripture that the thing to do is to allow love to cover to compensate to take up the slack in the relationship when I say that this is an odd characteristic of love I mean that it's strange and yet is very common we all experience it all the time in fact in our relationships we have no other way to continue in relationships if we don't choose deliberately to allow our love to take up some relational slack no relationship will last without forgiveness without mercy without compassion if all of us were suddenly to hold all of the rest of us fully accountable for everything wrong we've ever done there would not be a single person in the world who would have a friend left we would be a friendless world full of judgment and condemnation all the while each of us as friendless individuals full of judgment for others we would be blind to the fact that we are as guilty we are as fallen we are as sinful as the next person in Song of Solomon one of my favorite lines is in chapter 4 in verse 7 where the man says to the woman in this beautiful song you are altogether beautiful my darling there is no flaw in you no flaw in her okay I did not I did not in any way shape or form expect that I would be able myself to comprehend the concept of flawlessness when I first came to Christ I in the beginning of my journey thought flawlessness is something I needed to achieve in order to get his favor it turns out that love attributes flawlessness to the beloved we know this is how it works when Solomon says to the Shulamite to his girlfriend to his bride-to-be you are altogether beautiful come on let's be honest she's not altogether beautiful there are things about her that if any of us including Solomon gets to know her some things are going to come to the surface that overlook that we're not noticed and what does this mean that there is no flaw in you of course there are flaws in her but this is poetically describing the fact that love love covers love is blind intentionally on purpose so one of two things is happening in the gospel either we must beautify ourselves in order to earn God's favor or God's favor exerts a beautifying effect on us let me say it this way either we need to become beautiful in order that God might love us or God loves us in order that we might become beautiful this is fascinating because there are in fact two kinds of love that encapsulate these different ways of relating there is in the Greek language eros & agape eros love is the love of the beautiful you have to already be beautiful in order for eros to love you eros is that kind of love that is attracted to the beautiful but agape agape is different agape beautifies the beloved agape actually loves before there is any moral beauty before there is any righteousness the gospel says that God already loves you and me and because he loves us he allows his love to cover a multitude of sins he takes up all the relational slack and by taking up all the relational slack he remains in relationship with us he remains in a relationship with us he remains in relationship with us rather than holding us accountable for our sins to the point of cutting us off he holds us accountable for our sins in the context of his love for us so that we might be motivated by his love to turn to change to repent I love the way GK Chester encapsulate this idea when he says a thing must be loved before it can be loveable by which he means of course a person a person must be loved before they can become lovable anybody who's ever been a parent knows this you have to love your children even when they are not lovable in order that they might rise to the standard of your love for them and become lovable so let me summarize what we're discovering like this the only way that I can become more than I am is to be treated as more than I am we experience this all the time in our marriages in our relationships with our children with our colleagues at work in all of our friendships we all know that in order for our relationship to be maintained and for it to flourish each one of us at every step along the way need to be treated as if we were better than we actually are and that my friends is the secret of the gospel the good news is that God in Christ allows his love to cover a multitude of sins in order that we by falling in love with him because of his love for us might begin to rise above those things that would destroy us if they continue jesus loves you already and his love is the beautifying force of the gospel there's nothing you can do in order to elevate yourself to become worthy of his love he just loves you full stop period end of concept and then in the light of his love everything can change so my appeal to you my appeal to myself is that you and I would allow the love of God to compensate for our own relational failings that is to say to just open up and receive the merciful forgiving pardoning love of God in Christ but then to go a step further and to allow that love to spill over in the way we treat others to allow our love to cover a multitude of sins would you pray with me over that kind of picture of God and of what our own lives might become Father in heaven I want to thank you that your love strangely enough is blind but that it's blind on purpose because in fact you do see everything you know everything about me and yet you love me still and father I want to thank you that by partaking of your love I can begin to love others the way that you have loved me in Jesus name Amen hey thanks so much for watching we hope that message was a blessing to you God's Word is powerful it penetrates into our minds into our hearts brings about transformation in every aspect of our lives listen we don't want you to miss any content so again we want to encourage you to click on subscribe and track with the content that's going to be coming out week after week and if you'd like to partner with us in this global Ministry of taking the gospel of Christ to the whole world we want to invite you to become a partner in this ministry click give and join with us you

Channel: Storyline Church

Views: 4,396

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Keywords: storyline church, tygibson, love is blind

Id: d5qW9zR9fFA

Length: 33min 7sec (1987 seconds)

Published: Sat May 16 2020