Love is not a Black Hole [The Greatest of These] Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

good morning how are you guys happy Sunday welcome to the door of Hope if you're new here or visiting here today hi you're a wonderful person I've met you but I'm sure you're great good time here good to have you here welcome we this is our third third Sunday gathering here we started on Easter Resurrection Sunday and there's something that I've wanted to say it's not meaningful to any of you but it's meaningful to me but Easter Sunday just didn't seem the right day to share it a door of Hope this church community gathered off of 20th some Hawthorne for the first about four years it was a couple months over off Alberta and then over off 20-some Hawthorne for four years in a building that when I came on to the team as one of the one of the pastor's it was very with the poetry was too in the irony it was too thick because it was a building that as a teenager I'd spray painted and and I remember I mean you know just picture that you know and then you come to work there one day as a pastor so that was interesting and then being in this space is really interesting too the irony continues and the poetry continues and that's because I graduated high school in this room and it's very odd because and here's why so I I went to Jefferson off Alberta and Albina over in North Portland for my first two years freshman sophomore year then I had a friend of skateboarder and I had a friend who was going to an alternative school here in Portland over in Northwest off 21st and Gleeson called Metropolitan Learning Center or MLC and I had a friend I went there and he was like oh dude is great here because you know basically I don't ever have to go to class and I just turned in like all this work at the end of the semester and I just gave word every day and I was like that's where I want to go to high school and so I sold my parents some line that they bought about why I needed to transfer to there so I did but the building there didn't have an auditorium big enough for the graduation so I graduated school in here and I should not have gotten that diploma because I spent most of my days at Burnside skate park under the bridge but nonetheless I graduated high school in this room and so the poetry of it all so I I don't know if you care about that but I've got very clearly as a sense of humor there you go so so we've been here for three there's no third Sunday in here and on Resurrection Sunday Easter we finished a year and a half long journey in our teaching series as we explore the Gospel of Matthew one of the earliest accounts of Jesus's life and what we focused on where his final words in that account about Jesus declaring that as the resurrected Messiah of Israel that he's the king of the universe the king of heaven on earth he said and so what he commissioned his followers to do is to go out and tell everybody and and to call them to join Jesus's new family and to become a part of it and then he defined what that meant so he said first of all joining the family of Jesus's followers you come in by getting baptized this symbolic sacred symbol of going into the water and and so we did that last Sunday last Sunday night if you didn't come over to nice and FEMA or other building we had baptisms over a dozen people awesome stories unbelievable if you've missed it don't miss the next one when we do it the stories of what Jesus is doing to mess with people here in our church community it's really really outstanding so without awesome we celebrated that last week the first thing Jesus talks about at the end of Matthew and then the second thing is very simple he just says what is it you're going to add all these disciples and followers to the family of my people and as their king here's what it means it means to follow everything I taught you to obey and in Jesus's teachings in Matthew we focused on a few themes and we just saw it everywhere you know what you would hear Jesus talking about on the given day is the kingdom of God the God is taking back his rule and reign of the world and that Jesus is here to bring it all together and so what what is it what the appropriate response to the fact that Jesus is king of heaven on earth and here it comes into what he boiled down as the basics of what it means to follow him he said it was a conversation that he had about what's the greatest of all of God's commands and he boiled down to the great command that they had two parts do you remember it what's the first one love God love people so the kingdom of God is here Jesus is king over heaven and earth what should I do about that as his follower here's my true north as a disciple of Jesus love God love people growing in my capacity to love others well is order number one of a follower of Jesus and so we thought before we dive into another book of the Bible which we're going to do week after next we're going to jump in to a couple of months exploring the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament together oh yes but before we do that we thought no let's just let's just take Jesus at his word like he wants us to obey what he taught us love God and to love people so we just wanted to take a few weeks and just camp out on that on what it means for us to truly follow King Jesus and grow in our capacity to love and so we're being guided in our reflections on what it means to love by one of the most beautiful expositions of what love is for Christian anywhere in the whole Bible it's in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians chapter 13 so I invite you to open a Bible or turn on a Bible whichever one you do to the first Corinthians chapter chapter 13 to these sheesh sublime words so beautiful Pope Paul wrote this letter to a church community exactly now by this point a network of house churches that he had started in the bustling city of Corinth and he knew all these people because he helped start the church and you know he was around all of them became followers of Jesus and the reason he's writing this letter he heard a report that things were not going well at Corinth this is a chapter first Corinthians 13 maybe you know this chapter maybe you don't it sometimes gets read at weddings it because it's about love but of course Paul didn't write this for married people he wrote this as a part of his critique and challenge of a church community that he thought was just betraying Jesus at every turn there there were a bunch of Christians in this church community suing each other really angry all these broken relationships there was a guy sleeping with his mother-in-law in the church community Vanja their Sunday gatherings were a wreck how they took communion was really screwed up and then specifically in the section he's talking about here there were a number of people who were having really profound experiences of worship in their Sunday gathering which was not it was not that many people they would gather in a house and it would be more like an interactive Bible study with the time of worship and some of them had adopted and taken on a prayer practice that Paul himself practice of praying in speaking in unknown languages but what the way they were doing it was not the way Paul did it they were like just burst out in the gathering and just speaking something nobody could comprehend and Paul's he selects it yeah that's lame stop it because because it's weirding all these people out as he talks about in chapter 14 and he's like listen that's a totally appropriate way to pray don't freak people out when they come in to the gathering find a more appropriate way to do it it's also the case that people would have a prophecy or something that they felt like the whole community needed to hear from Jesus and so they would open the scriptures but then people were interrupting each other and being like no can actually start talking about it they were like talk over each other apologize like time out your sunday gathering is actually having the opposite purpose of what sunday gathering should be about which is celebrating good news and reminding us all that we're a community of love because of Jesus's love for us and so into that chaos of a church community he writes this to the I'm chapter it's just beautiful we're going to read it in in whole it's pretty short let's read the last sentence of chapter 12 which is the lead in he says and yet I will show you the most excellent way see if I speak in the tongues of humans or of angels but I don't have love I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal if I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have a face that can move mountains but I don't have love I'm nothing if I give all I possess to the poor and go over my body to hardship so that I might have something to boast about but don't have love I gain nothing so you love is patient love is kind love does not envy and it doesn't boast it's not proud love does not dishonor other people it's not self-seeking it's not easily angered and it keeps no record of wrongs love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth it always protects always trusts always hopes always perseveres love never fails but where there's prophecies they're going to cease and where people are praying in tongues they'll be stilled where people have knowledge it will pass away for we only know in part we only prophesy in part but when completeness comes what is only in part disappears when I was a child I talked like a child I thought like a child I reasoned like a child but when I grew up I became a man and I put childish ways behind me if we're now in the present we see only a reflection like in a mirror but then we will see face to face now in the present I only know in part but then I will know fully even as I am fully known and so now these three remain faith hope and love but the greatest of these is love did right um what do you that is just a masterpiece right there I don't care if you're religious or not there's a reason why people who aren't religious quote from this are you with me that's a sublime short essay on the nature of love holy cow I mean I feel bad saying anything else like who can top that um Paul's he had just the right amount of coffee that morning brain on all cylinders because that that's the thing of beauty so you tape it out of context you could do a lot of things with something like that but when you read this in context it's written to a community of followers of Jesus who are not doing this so he has to show what love actually is now love is one of those you know it's one of those really fuzzy I think unhelpful words in our language last week Josh explored this first paragraph just to get on the table for us just that the that what a follower of Jesus should mean when they use the word love is very very different than how people in our culture might use the word or define it I mean my goodness some of you heard me say this before I love pizza and it's true I also love ramen I love ramen and there's a growing number of great ramen places here in the city it's such a great place to be right now if you love ramen and so I'll write but then I'll use the same English word love to describe my family right I love my wife and I love my children and I love Star Wars and you saw the new trailer for rogue one you know this last week and it's like you know some other ones hopefully gonna be awesome so I love that too and so but if if the word love means the same thing in each of those scenarios I have issues you know to say I have issues and IV she's anyway but what what unhelpful word because it refers to something that I have preference for something that I've given a lifelong commitment to and then just something that anchors me and nostalgia and good storytelling and sauce so what a useless word okay I love all of those things why don't I just use different words I like this I've given a wholehearted commitment to this and I really am whatever by are you with me it's the same word and so in most other languages they have multiple different kinds of words for these things but we just use the clunky word love and so the problem that raises then is when you become a follower of Jesus and just with all this talk about love we just import into that word and that we read in the Bible or in the teachings of Jesus what we think we already know what it means and of course what we think it means it's just by a lifetime of training in our culture about what that word means so what you have to do is just dismantle it start over again so what does Paul mean when he uses this word and this is where it's a great help that we have thirteen of his letters in the New Testament because we can we can think get a whole range of his thought over over a decade and a half of how we used words and thought about Jesus and the good news and so here's what Paul means at least when he uses the word love and it's anchored in the teachings of Jesus is that it refers not primarily as it does and in our culture to a feeling that happens to you there is feeling involved as we'll see but it primarily the word love refers to actions or behavior love is something you do if you watch Jesus use the word love watch Paul use the word love it's something you do to people it's not something you first and foremost feel and that's significant because you know our feelings about people change and shift over time but love according to Jesus and Paul is something very very different it's about this settled purpose to behave and and choose to act in this way sometimes you feel like it sometimes you do not you do it anyway let's love according to Jesus and Paul look at how Paul uses the word love this is just almost at a random sampling of three different places but where does Paul get his definition of the meaning of the word love you remember the Greek word pawpaw Josh brought it up last week Greek word the nouns right agape yeah agape so what is the gap I mean for Paul we're supposed to be all about this as followers of Jesus here's a few examples so he says in his letter to the church in Galatia he said I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me Jesus feels great about me today no essence is not what he means he says the Son of God who loved me how do I know well look at what he did he gave himself for me his letter to the Ephesians hey followers of Jesus follow God's example as dearly loved children and you yourselves walk in the way of love well what does that mean well here's an example it's just like Christ loved us he feels great about you today well I think that's true but it's way more concrete than that how do you know that he loves you he gave himself up for us I can point to Jesus's behavior in actions that took place in real time and history like that's how I know a message Iza says love Romans chapter 5 he says God demonstrates his love for us in this while we were all hapless sinners Christ died for us now here he's not talking about Jesus's love he's talking about God's love how do you know that God loves you I mean we throw it up on Billboard's on i-5 goodness sakes but of course everybody's going to read into that word whatever they think the word love means what does that mean you mean to say to somebody god loves you for a Christian it means to say Jesus gave himself for you he died for you that is God's love for you so I I barely got out of high school so it gives me great joy to give a pop quiz in the room where I graduate I surprised so when it comes to the use of the word love do you see it here who whose life's and teachings define what the word love means if I'm a follower of Jesus who Jesus you passed yes I mean it's just it's crystal clear isn't it for if this happens in all kinds of ways in becoming a follower of Jesus there's religious vocabulary that I thought I knew where the grandma talked about or whatever that so you know that I heard on Billboard's or bad Christian art or something and so you introduced this all this vocabulary say some love and so on but but well yeah in following Jesus you just you build it all from the ground up and love especially what does love mean will the love that we encounter growing up in school and so on it's just it's all it's not this it's very different this is Jesus it's about us a settled purpose to act in a way that brings about the well-being of another person regardless of how they respond that's love for a Christian it's about a ace that I make it's motivated by love but you don't always feel that motivation and so it comes down to the purpose to seek the well-being of another person regardless of how they respond to me and that motivation and the action is what's referred to by agape and it's not abstract Paul just says look at how Jesus did things that's what I'm talking about that's how he knows that he's he's loved and so what we're going to do today is very practical Paul is not going to let this remain fear in this letter that he writes we're going to focus in on the small middle paragraph verses four through the beginning of verse eight and Paul gives 16 short like two or three words each definitions of love so if you were curious about what the word love means for a Christian you have those examples it refers to action and something Jesus did that defines it but now Paul is going to give this full orbed like 16 facets like a diamond with sixteen facets in and it's one thing but at all these different ways to see it and what it is and what it does but before we do that I want to get a word picture in our minds that emerged desire was reflecting and thinking about how to talk about this as a community and also because it's the room where I graduated high school I declare to be Science Sunday for the next five minutes science you'll see two images appear here and one of them on the upper left with that thing out in space yeah that's a black hole the black hole and then on the lower right you see two the computer generated image but all the same what's what are those little guys they're cells if you like you're in biology right now no you don't you don't feel that way but this little cells one that just multiplied okay all right let's start let's start with them the upper left uh I really didn't do great in school I barely graduated but I now wish that I would have paid attention in biology or something so and if I really if I had a second life to live and if I were halfway decent at math which I'm not I would want to go into astronomy or physics but then I have some friends who actually did go into the studies and they just do math all day that's just all it is but all the same so black holes you guys what's a black hole a black hole reminds us that the universe we inhabit is true it's stranger than the Land of Oz are you with me black holes are uh what okay so here is you and I just think of your on body right your own body takes up space in the universe and well we know is that any object the takes up space has density in the universe has this effect on things around it called a gravitational pull now you and I are very big we're clearly really tiny and so you know you can't feel that you're drawing the person sitting next to you closer to you unless you're in love or something like that but so but you know it's true it's actually it's real it's just such a weak gravitational force that it's not perceptible but you know we look at the moon at night right we see that thing what's what keeps that thing right there as opposed to flying away well it's that this planet that we're on that's hurling through space and rotating at this really fast speed even though we don't fly off of it how do you how do you not fly off the thing well it just is observing this pull on us and it also keeps the moon around it too and then you know we hope sometimes stare at this bright object in the sky called the Sun sometimes see it here in Portland and and we're of course rotating around that thing right and what keeps us from like not it's it's pulling us it's pulling us into what's happening and what on earth is a black hole this is the only way I've ever heard that has it make sense to me that doesn't require complex equations that I want to run away from so let's say you have a really soft mattress and you get a handful of marbles and you throw a bunch of marbles on the soft mattress what do they do well they just kind of weirdo and if it's a soft mattress if you look really close it'll be a little indentation right where it is but it just kind of just kind of sits there then let's say you go get your grandpa's bowling ball you know a big 13 pounder or something like that and you get that and let then let's say you hurl that right into the middle of the bed what happens let's sink down and then of course laughter to the marbles all right the marbles just all there you go it's a black hole no that's not true that's the Sun let's the Sun is the bowling ball so the black hole would be something that you don't know but it's this bottomless pit in your mattress and anything any marbles you throw in there just they just occasionally go down and it's like where does it go beyond my floor and into yeah that's a black hole black hole so there's something this is how the math works there's something in a black hole that must be something to four billion times the density of our Sun and it's there and is a big is it large no I mean it's not it's impossible that we will ever know because the gravitational pull of this thing is so intense that not even light particles or waves can escape its gravitational force it just sucks everything it's called the event horizon into it and it's just pure oblivion and what's even more interesting about black holes that we really have only been in our imagination for the last 75 years is that thing when the pole is so strong whatever the singularity is this dense thing at the center of it the pole is so strong it actually dismantles the molecules of anything that gets sucked into the hole and so it are it unmake everything that it sucks into itself it's just pure oblivion there's lots of them and in our in our universe where are we is how it's saying this is so bizarre now there there are many objects that could be the exact opposite of a black hole here is one of them on the lower right so a little single-celled is pretty simple because they're incredibly complex little things but they're very simple in terms of the rest of the complexity of the universe and of course this is one of the most simple little building blocks of biological life here on planet Earth and so algae yo starts with these and grass and flowers and kangaroos and you okay are all made of these two and these what makes these things is they're just endlessly generating constantly reproducing themselves and they've got the DNA orders and information and that all does all that thing and so here's but here's what's remarkable if a black hole is all about the singularity at the center and it sucks everything into itself and it actually destroys everything that it you know steers into its orbit but a cell is exact opposite if this is a very simple tiny little thing but it's it's marching orders of existence are to give all of its energy to make another one but what's remarkable about cells is it's not a zero-sum game it's not like cell number one it's like oh I made another one now I have no more you don't like suffering because no it's like the cell actually becomes more itself as it gives all of its energy away to another and then there's more but that's like let's just keep doing this awesome and then Maya are you with me like cell number one doesn't lose it actually becomes itself as it gives itself away and life is generated out of it precisely as it pushes out of itself the exact opposite of a black hole now I don't know why these two images came into my mind as I was reading and reflecting on first Corinthians 13 but there you go that's how my brain works apparently so I just but to me I can't think of two more vivid images of these alternate definitions of love right so you have you have a love and our culture that's primarily about desire and affection and of course like if I desire and have a section for you you're going to benefit from that but if it's ultimate source is self regard and how what you have to bring or offer is what satisfies and brings meaning and purpose to my life well odds are that's not going to last very long and then all of a sudden like you and I become these relational black holes constantly drawing each other into our own character flaws and our own search for meaning and purpose and love and affirmation and so not only do I end up is like bottomless pit of needing affection and affirmation but odds are like you're going to be pretty miserable if you get drawn into my black hole relational black holes thus what humans are but the way of Jesus is different it's like this commitment that's driven out of this inner life source of Perpetual other others focus and the word the Jesus and Paul used to describe that is agape it's perpetually outward oriented and and the paradox of love is that the more that I give out of myself to others the more I'd become truly human and discover myself that's the vision that Paul is describing here so get those two fixed in your mind and let's turn to these the sixteen part definition the sixteen facet definition of agape and it's very powerful and there's nothing for it but to just think through it you need this is the kind of thing that you might read through and be like that's inspiring and cool but I want to slow down and I just want us to ponder so pretend you have a cup of tea some of you have a cup of coffee you with me verse 4 oh yeah there it is right there yeah I forgot okay that's good we're going to leave that up there too so you all can see it so that's the first two things that Paul turns to is that love Jesus style love is patient and it's kind patient and it's kind think about this in terms of images so love is something that gives time like a cell it just it has time to give and you flip it over then of course so impatience is this inability to give people the time that they need or want so but that's what you're giving time so love has this discernment about the other um that I might even know what's good for someone but if I don't do it in the right time it's not love so I have time to give time to be patient you see this is about a focus on the other and what they might need or what they might require and all of a sudden you realize like yeah that's what impatience is it's like I have a timeline for how the next hour is going to work and showing up but you know one of the many Portland coffee shops where it's like eight minutes to get your cup of coffee you know and you go in there and like you dilly-dallied at home and you're late and now you're late to work or whatever and then all of a sudden the 8 minute coffee which is the normal experience here in Portland and it's quiet delightful when you're expecting it you guys know I'm talking about the slow coffee experience do you guys live here what's real hard about talking about it's wonderful isn't it unless you've been wasting your time or unless well I'm not going to say you're not a loving person but you Paul so when I said it also when I said it so there's something if I'm not willing to give time right if I'm I come in and my expectation is everybody works on my timeline let's not love the inability to give time and then Paul pairs it first off of these two statements here love septation has time to give and then let's it's kind it's connected to a word the in this language means sweetness or pleasantness so let's think about the the black hole you know or the orbit the space example so so kindness is about the kind of atmosphere that surrounds me you know in Portland words you might say the energy all right around you so you at you enter a room or somebody enters your personal space what does a feel do they sense welcome do they sense hospitality do they sense that like they're cared for or paid attention to kind kindness this love it's about this attention to how the other person perceives entering my space I want to make this a great 30 that they have in my personal space and you say you make that like the forefront the priorities paste time to give and accommodating and hospitable this where Paul starts now of course he's not writing this in the abstract but he's got specific people very specific situations in his mind but he's writing this to a church community who is exhibiting a inability to give time and a lack of welcome in how they treat each other in the sunday gathering that's why he wrote this in the first place from here you can see starts with those two and I've tried to group them together because it's not just a endless string like some of them they go together they flow together in the little little sections here so from here he goes into eight statements about love what love is not so sometimes something so beautiful and profound you can only talk about what it is by defining what it's not and that's what he's doing right here eight things that love is not that will give you an insight into what what actually is Jesus style the first one is jealous not jealous or some of your translations have not envious I thought the black holes the hell is perfect here so what what am Ramin mice am envious from jealous so I come into contact with another person and they've got something great going on in their story so you know whatever something great just happened in their life and love is able for the sake of that person to just that's so awesome like it it will explode will experience joy at the good fortune of another person because they're a human being and they're awesome and I'm so excited that that's what's happening for them but see what love is not is the black hole right so what the black hole interprets it as it just sucks everything into its own orbit and so it's this inability to rejoice in the good fortune and number of another person because all I'm thinking about when they talk about the good things in their lives all it does for me is hi the lack of those things in my homeland right and so it's like the world is just torture for somebody through the black hole because anything good that happens your friends just highlights all of the good things that are not happening to you and of course none of you have felt this before right you have know what I'm talking about don't you it's not theory it's like yesterday okay with the people that live in your house like yeah yeah so so love is this capacity to be happy and to experience joy at the good fortune of another even though that's not what's happening in my black hole profound and the connects to the the next three that are all connected here doesn't brag it's not arrogant it's not rude so bragging we gets about words the words people are constantly talking about themselves and their accomplishments or whatever so why does a person do that well that can be rooted in a couple mindsets the one that he highlights here is Eric arrogance and the word he is is this really clever it's a metaphor and some of you have it in your translations of puff puff puff tup it's like think of a balloon you blow up a balloon that's the word he is is inflated self inflated so somebody who constantly talks about themselves or there's their favorite topic of conversation is themselves right so what's good what the mind what's the mindset under what motivates that kind of behavior it's somebody whose self inflate 'add somebody who genuinely thinks that they're more important than everybody else around them and then of course if they're constantly talking about themselves because they really believe that they're more important than everyone else and that's going to result not just in words that mindset is going to result in behavior they calls rude or dishonorable to see the connection here and so I guess I'm probably not just going to talk about myself like I'm not going to pay attention to what's going on with you I'm going to act in ways that violate your dignity as you and being and so it's this little triad rights this inability to think about other people in what's happening with them and that's because I'm focused on the thing at the bottom of my abyss of a black hole of a part in mind and then what that does is it is it means that I only draw attention to myself and then I behave in ways that actually hurt and damage other people when they get sucked into my little dark universe for things that love is not hi guys done it gets better or worse depending on your PIN here so look at this we'll try out here love doesn't seek its own it's not easily angered it keeps no record of wrongs so doesn't seek its own they have to you have to qualify that of course because I'm there are some things you really ought to do for your well-being and they're your responsibility you have to brush your teeth you know and if you need to prioritize brushing your teeth so ever having conversation with the friends and you should probably do that that's a so that's not that's obviously not what he's talking about so he's talking about prioritizing my interests my agendas my time my to-do list so consistently over that of other people that it generates all of these other casualties like somebody who perpetually prioritizes their interests over another person and what they value over what other people value this is this is somebody that I work you would you would call touchy-touchy it's the person you have to walk on eggshells around and you discover what this person values the most of course when they get angry at you when you know this co-worker maybe your this co-worker right right and what's anger right the psychologists tell us anger is one of these things you could call a derivative emotion it's not a root issue anger is this emotional fight-or-flight mode that we get into when something even deeper gets triggered the sump even more important to us that we value or that is significant to us and anger is what's generated this emotional energy inside of us when that's violated or threatened or put in jeopardy and you find out what you value by what makes you angry it's like a curse all right because you're like dang is I think that's what makes me angry that's so petty that's so stupid I mean when's the last time you got angry runs and not that you blew up and yelled at somebody but you know the deal inside you does raise temperature saying you know that like when did that happen to you last and odds are that's a good indicator as to what you think is most important and what's so complex about it is that half the time it's good it's really good things or things that you might need I'm living with toddlers oh my gosh right so you know there's no absolutely no personal space this is having dinner last night and I mean I what I think of is when I watch nature shows and it's the baby monkeys crawling all over the adult monkeys and it's like uh that's my life I'm trying to eat I just one bite of food and it's like they're on the arm and this and like a so I would you you know there's no personal space no personal time and so that's for sure Maya I just comes up inside of me this violation of my personal space and time just all of the time and I'm but I'm blowing it up it's mostly enjoyable but I there are moments there are moments that's what is that it's that and so somebody who really believes their deal is more important than another's you're constantly going to be in this provocative agitated state of being and then when you exist in that state of being then the people who cross you and agitate you and violate what you think is most important you never forget it you never forget it right you remember the people who crossed you and who don't value what you values black hole dude it's this way of existing in the universe that everybody has to get sucked into here and they are unmade in the process and so am I and so he rounds out the eight- definitions with this love does not delight in wrongdoing but celebrates with the truth love does not delight in wrongdoing and not you know if you read that out loud you go that one I got I got this one I'm doing pretty good on this one whenever there's a tragedy or an earthquake or something I don't celebrate like so right I don't delight in or I don't delight in hearing about people doing horrible things to each other but that's the Paul he got to you if you think you're doing good here you just got whatever I don't know what's the oh it's a show it's a thing Punk'd there you go thank you thank you to the cup so so think if you were to watch someone you know at a restaurant you know blow up and get agitated and yell at another person what do you think yourself oh oh so inappropriate yeah and then you hear the one your friends is like gossiping about not year another Christian friend is gossiping but it's the prayer meeting hey did you hear about so-and-so let's pray you should be really be praying for them right and you hear about that you're like oh this such a wrong way to treat people of course and all right you could go down the list right like thinking you're more important being easily angered and being resentful of what other people did you three years ago and of course when other people do those things just like oh oh so horrible wish they would just follow Jesus right and then of course but love doesn't delight in in wrongdoing but the fact is is that I choose these behaviors all of the time I choose them clearly I like behaving this way cuz I keep doing it and so what love is able to do it's able to name that and to know no longer see pleasure or benefit from these ways of existing as a human but can celebrate truth celebrate truth truce is what's happening when you work through something like this and all of us in the rivers getting nailed okay it is like dang it I am NOT a great person right and that's worth celebrating apparently truth the truth about who we are can celebrate truth and it's a paradox of what it means to be a follower of Jesus right there's something about how Jesus lives and talks and treats people because you read about him and at the same time it's Noble and inspiring it's true you go there is a truly human one right but at the same time it exposes all of the wrongdoing inside of me and if I'm a follower of Jesus apparently that's worth celebrating we're celebrating there's something there's something about following Jesus is perpetually inconvenient the moment that Jesus becomes simply somebody who under rights my value system that I already think and know and believe you know you're not following Jesus anymore right it's that there's something it's existing in this perpetual state of vulnerability and second-guessing your motivations and yourself knowing that the valve is wrong doing that I delight in and so what I celebrate is having the spotlight shown on all of my flaws and failures and it's not because we love self-loathing around here or hate ourselves it's actually just the opposite because love is creative and it's Jesus's love that actually begins like a cell Jesus gives of himself and he's not less himself we are actually more ourselves because of it and then we exist together as a family look how he rounds it out here he ships out of the negatives here let's pause real quick here and this is a good exercise let's let's try and turn each of those negatives inside out so that's what love is not so underneath that is what love is well love is patient it's kind love is genuinely able to celebrate good stuff in the life of other people good fortune love loves to talk about the good things than other people more than itself love actually thinks that other people are more important and and so LOV will treat people in a way that accommodates them so they aren't easily offended unnecessary unnecessarily love genuinely seeks what's best for other people and it takes a it takes a lot to make love angry and then when you do make love angry it quickly forgives love love lament the tragedy of the human condition but it celebrates the truth love is always supportive always trusts always hopes always persevere some of your English translations you have here instead of always the phrase all things bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things but of course Paul doesn't mean that literally like you believe all things I you know I believe four plus four is nine okay it's it's not Noble that's stupid to the point that it's okay so what he means all things is in all circumstances in all situations consistently always what it means is always and so that's why I think our English translations that go this route help us get more what he's saying so love is always supportive if love is truly others focused then it knows that there's life is hard and so I'm going to be a source of stable support in the lives of the people around me and that's because it always trusts love always has a belief that there is what Luke it's what Luke Skywalker says to his father unless like there's still some good in you I sense it right now think it's like that it's like that so it's it's a trust right that I'm in this relationship this is different this person's made in the image of God and they're acting like a black hole right now but I trust that the Jesus is doing something and can do something in this person to turn them into the very opposite of what they are right now and so love will always hope they will always hope for the best for this person even if somebody hurt me I just doesn't mean I need to like spend all my time around them anymore but doesn't mean I reach I reach a place where like where it were is this person the person that hurt me what happened to them like what's all the screwed up stuff that they've experienced that makes the behavior they did to me seemed like fine to them and so love is able to hope and say like man I hope they catch a break and I hope they think about how much Jesus loves them and that they can find a better way forward love always trust and always hoped and so love always persevere and knows that there were all if for any meaningful relationship to grow and be healthy there will be setbacks and there will be challenges because love never fails hey done um 16 ways that I failed in the last seven days yeah how are you feeling geez what do you do with this love celebrates the truth so there's there's something to acknowledging the spotlight like where did Paul even get this idea of how to exist as who can live like this right where to Paul get his definition of love who whose life defines love for Paul geez alright so let's start there so there's one human and he's a remarkable human he's more than these even more than a human but he's not less than him he's a human and he's the human that you and I are made to be but perpetually fail to be and that's the point like love is able is able to look at the spotlight on all my wrongdoing and all my flaws and failures and the paradox of being a Christian and receiving Jesus love is that this exposure of what's inside of me it drives me neither to denial but also needed to despair wreck is denial this is like oh you know this is being way to self analytical it's like well no it's not you know the fact that we behave this way is why the world is the way that it is or why we don't behave this way so like it's not being overly analytical it's being honest and so there's no reason denying like how we actually behave and think about each other we're just we're a whole planet of relational little black holes colliding into each other sucking each other into our own oblivion and if you think that's way too bleak of an estimate of human history why did you have graduate high school why are you familiar with human history my goodness look at what we're doing to each other and so there's no reason denying that but the paradox of the good news is it's precisely through that acknowledgment that I find I find my avoidance of despair because who'd Jesus is and his his victory over our sin and over our death what's happening on the cross the cross is precisely where Jesus allowed himself to get sucked into the Oblivion of our selfishness and sin he allowed it to destroy him but our core confession is that God's love for us and the person of Jesus is more powerful than our oblivion and our sin in our death and that's what we celebrated on Resurrection Sunday it's what we celebrate every Sunday as we gather on the first day of the week which is the day of the week that Jesus broke the power of death and sin and so we don't go the path of despair either because we believe that Jesus is real and that the person who is this like the person who embodies all of this of agape love that he's alive and the D's in our midst that his actual life presence is working messing with us and pushing us growing our capacity through each other through the scriptures through all of the classic ways the people connect with Jesus and embody that through service to each other and I we celebrated a dozen people last week getting baptized the Jesus is messing with and he's turned he's turning them into these kinds of people and I it's neither it's neither denial nor despair it's not being triumphant it's just this humility that we sit in because because what's valuable and true about me is that the Son of God loves me and he gave himself for me amen that's what's true about me I know what kind of person I am left to my own devices but I'm not left to my own devices that's the whole point amen amen so here's what I'd like to do I don't want this to remain SIA reticle I want to close by just reading it through one last time but I'm going to read it through in a way but I'm purposefully going to draw to mind people in your life who's in your life a spouse or roommates people you work by people in your family people that you live next to and as we read through it let just one - but probably not - just one person just let Jesus bring one person clear get their face right here as we read through it again and just hold that relationship for that person in your attention and prayers and as we worship I pray as you come forward to take the bread and the cup pray about the kind of human being that you are towards that person and confess what you need to confess and dream and pray about what you could become for that person in your lives in the name of Jesus in the last seven days who who did you lose your patience with who were you unkind to in the last week whose good fortune were you just unable to celebrate because you were so self focused who did you talk about yourself way too much when you were with this week who do you think you're way better than and so you you treat them in ways that violate their dignity who did you ignore their priorities so that you could prioritize your own and therefore you lost your temper with them when they didn't think your thing was more important than their thing and now you're bitter and resentful about it in what ways does your behavior show that you actually choose to live this way what would it look like to celebrate the truth of who you really are left to your own devices and in light of the love of Jesus who did you back out on this week who have you given up believing in and hoping for who were you not around for when they needed you who did you fail Lord Jesus we we want to be honest and truthful about the patterns of our behavior the patterns of our thinking the way we regard ourselves the way we treat other people and it's not beautiful Jesus but we believe you are beautiful and who you are to us and the way you spoke and treated people you are loved Jesus and we know that you love us despite the fact that we do not deserve it or respond to your love in a way that's appropriate and so Jesus we need to be changed by you Jesus we celebrate the truth that even in light of our deepest flaws and failures you remain utterly committed to us you are kind in your patient you're not easily angered by us you stay eternally committed to us and you love us when Jesus we need your love to create new life and new realities and new capacities to love within us so we come to the bread in the cup Jesus we participate and retell the story of your life giving deaths that was for us we need the power of your resurrection life and presence to make us new thank you for your love for us Jesus and we pray in your name amen amen you

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

Views: 114,121

Keywords:

Id: NATiuF0tsqY

Length: 59min 10sec (3550 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 19 2017