September 19 | Church Livestream | The Meeting House

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Applause] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] hi friends welcome to the meeting house live stream my name is mark wahl i will be your host today it is so so good to be together really excited that you could be here with us and hey if you are visiting with us i just want to again give you a special shout out i think it's so awesome that we could be together hanging out today on this uh beautiful sunday morning at least where i am here in oakville and hey if you are a kiddo watching this with your grownups in the room i just want to let you know that they have access to all the kidmax curriculum as well and so if that is something you would rather be doing why not give them a little uh look and maybe a little nudge and say hey let's look into that a little bit because that kid max curriculum is pretty great okay you have joined us for a very exciting season i am just um thrilled to be able to be talking about this if you are like me in any way you have been waiting for the past 18 months or so to begin to regather again well that is the season that we are in i know last week we welcomed oakville and downtown hamilton and this week i want to say congratulations london you are getting together in person again i think that is so awesome um we'll be continuing to talk about this over the next couple weeks as more parishes continue to regather and if you're wondering hey when when is my parish gonna regather again what is my community doing you can just go to the meeting house website meetinghouse.com fall2021 all of the information is there you can sign up for some emails and check out what your parish is doing perhaps you've never been a part of a local physical parish before and you want to look into that you can go to the same place all of that information is there it's super exciting it's um yeah in some ways just the best news now i do want to say that if you are hanging out here on the live stream that is awesome as well obviously i'm a big fan of that obviously this is the best place to be or one of them anyways and so if this is the place that you're more comfortable that is so great this is the place for you as well and to all of us whether we're meeting uh in person or online on the live stream i want to say welcome home this morning bruxy is continuing our series welcome home finding our place in god's plan and to me that is so um it's so comforting i was i was thinking a little bit about this concept welcome home welcome home what does that mean as we're kind of spread out all over the place and i know that we know that we can be home wherever that we are gathered whether it's online or in person that that is a meaningful experience that we have a reason to grow and to be in community in that way and this is no difference this is no different when we say welcome home we mean uh welcome to the family right this is um a little bit like a family business where we come together that we are we are working towards something we're not just here to hang out we're not just here to sit back and receive it's no no let's come together to work towards a purpose and we want to work to towards um building authentic communities no matter where in the world you are this is something that you can work towards this is something that we can do as family together and to me that is so exciting i was chatting with bruxy a bit this week about that and we just got so excited about this this idea of building uh authentic communities anywhere in the world i just thought that is um that's a really neat opportunity that we have here at the meeting house so in that vein i want to say welcome home welcome to the family hey if you were here last week you would have heard me talk a little bit about one of our values about being generous people and as i was reading uh this week one of the uh a verse just jumped out to me on that idea i thought it summarized it so perfectly and i just wanted to share it with you here today so this is i'm just reading from exodus 36 starting at verse 3. here it says they received from moses all the offerings the israelites had brought to carry out the work of the constructing the sanctuary and the people continued to bring free will offerings morning after morning so that all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing and said to moses the people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the lord commanded to be done then moses gave an order they sent this word throughout the camp and i love this part no man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary and so the people were restrained from bringing more wow the people were restrained from bringing more we want to be a generous community and could you imagine being a community that was restrained that we gave enough that the work was done and the the the best part about that was when it said morning after morning every single day and i just think as we as christ followers choose to follow jesus morning after morning every day that we become more like him that we become more generous people that we become more loving people that we become more authentic people that to me is the opportunity that we have as a community yes giving is one of those parts and that is a worthwhile um needed part but there are so many and as we choose jesus every day that is the opportunity that we have and friends i am excited to be um in that with you i am excited to have that opportunity together which really is the best part of it all hey i'm gonna pray and then we'll throw it over to musical worship and teaching with bruxy let's pray together father i am just in awe of what you are doing in the ways that you are at work in our lives and our communities lives and god i just pray that you would continue to remind us of your presence in our lives that you would just by your holy spirit reveal yourself to us that when things are hard when we're feeling lonely when we're having a tough day at home or at work or whatever it is that we're doing that you would show up that you would bring people into our lives that we could see your spirit at work lord that we could just be reminded that we are deeply loved and so we lift up today to you we lift up this service to you and we ask for sensitive spirits for sensitive hearts to what you are saying to us jesus it's in your name that i pray these things amen [Music] good morning we are so happy you're here and we are so excited to worship together finally and have our spirits connect and know that god is here god is present and so feel free where you are to stand or sit to clap worship however you feel this morning let's just worship together come out of sadness from wherever you've been come brokenhearted let rescue begin come find your mercy oh sinner come near earth has no sorrow but heaven can't heal earth has no sorrow that heaven can't heal to lay down your birds [Applause] lay down your shame all who [Music] lift up your face [Music] as you are [Music] there's hope for the hopeless and all those who've come sit at the table come taste the grace there's rest for the weary a rest that endures earth has no sorrow [Music] lay down your shame all who are broken [Music] [Applause] [Music] lay down your heart come as you are [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] still earth has no sorrow that heaven can't heal earth [Music] [Music] oh [Music] lift up your face [Music] lay down your heart to lay down your birds [Music] lay down your shame [Music] lay [Music] lay down [Music] lay down your heart come as you are [Music] come as you are as you are come as you are [Music] so [Music] who am i that the highest king would welcome me i was lost but he brought me oh his love for me oh his love for me [Music] yes i am [Music] while i was a slave to sin jesus [Music] [Music] yes i [Music] am in my father's house there's a place [Applause] [Music] not forsaken i am who you say i am you are for me not against me i am who you say i [Music] sets free always free [Music] yes i am in my father's there's a place [Applause] [Music] [Music] welcome back to our series about loneliness belonging and becoming the family god created us to be it's time to get your bibles open the teaching notes and get ready to learn together welcome home today's message is called how god will change the world through the church in the third chapter of ephesians the apostle paul pauses to pray writing for this reason i kneel before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name i pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit and your inner being so that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith [Music] and i pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all of the fullness of god the apostle paul a new command i give you love one another as i have loved you so you must love one another jesus [Music] so here's what i think this command of jesus this new command love one another i think that's the key to our purpose as a church i think this is the key to unlocking how god wants to change the world through the church and how we can become the best version of ourselves so that we can be on mission to help change the world i think that this this one command of jesus helps us uh unpack so much and understand so much of new testament teaching and that's where we're headed today we're going to see how this command of jesus to love one another as christ has loved us can be used by god to help us see our purpose and and see why god wants to change the world through the church that's where we're headed you ready to go well i hope so because that's where we're going let me uh start though by playing you a voicemail that i got just recently and i don't know if you've received one of these but here's my my version of it here we go this call is that canada border services agency has seized a parcel under your name which was shipped through canada post using your identity the parcel contained illegal components there is an arrest warrant already issued under your name to talk to an officer from canada border services agency please press one and hold the line yes of course i will right now uh has anyone gotten one of these yeah okay great so uh did i press one and talk to a police officer right away no no because i didn't take it seriously because this is about the 20th time i've received one of these maybe the first time i got it i might have but that's another story so it just reminds me as i get these and as we get emails and as we these just become overt examples of of of of what happens on a subtle basis all the time and that is that we are bombarded by deception we are bombarded by people wanting to take advantage of our good nature by people who are wanting to do an end run around our defenses and somehow be a voice of authority in our lives simply in order to get something from us and that happens uh through social media that happens through advertising it happens through direct deception but it happens in a thousand three subtle ways all the time and we we are bombarded with these lies and we have to continually remind ourselves of what's true but of course it it creates a defensiveness and a lack of trust and a sense of destabilization in our relationships it's always been the case it's not worse today than it has been throughout human history but there's just new media and new ways for the deception to happen and what we need are communities of truth communities of vulnerability communities of authenticity where we can practice being real with people we can trust and and kind of regenerate our trust muscles so that we can be the relational loving people that god has caused us to be so that the callouses don't build up and we over time just continue to defend ourselves and and um and then push back against real relationships because we're fed up from all the lies at least i think that's a lie the police haven't come for me yet so um if that's true i'm in big trouble now with that in mind quick review and then we're going to press forward into some new material so we've been talking about how not only do we need communities of vulnerability and authenticity and truth we need communities of trust we need communities of patience and perseverance remember we were saying in order to push back against the loneliness because we are isolating ourselves more and more from one another some of that is circumstantial it's been foisted upon us but some of it we've participated in over the years on our own and we said there's a cycle of loneliness that we want to break and it begins with not only just our sense of loneliness but um but that loneliness leads to a hyper vigilance or critique where we just become on edge we're assessing ourselves and we're assessing others which then leads to suspicion of others or a preoccupation with self either one either direction that this sends us into can mean that others will move away from us because you know what it's like to be around someone who's either fully preoccupied with themselves even in an insecure way maybe they're not self-aggrandizing but they're like i'm i'm i'm always questioning i'm insecure but if they're still preoccupied with self after a while we just get tired of that or or if they're always suspicious of us and how we're trying to approach them we tend to find excuses to not be engaged with them as much and if that's us who's in that position it means that well it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy people don't like me as much as i was afraid of and now why are they finding excuses not to hang out with me they're moving away it reinforces my loneliness and the cycle goes around again this time it's reinforced and it's deeper then it goes around again reinforced and deeper and we've said our communities of patience and perseverance are going to help for many of us break this cycle gallup poll says that on a global scale north americans rate as the loneliest people on the planet and we've said how about a quarter of us at any given time may consciously be aware of our loneliness but there is a loneliness i think subconsciously that is a part of our lives all the time the role of the church in healing and bringing wholeness is so important for such a time as this it's always been the case but especially today we talked a few weeks ago about how then we want to normalize loneliness and talking about loneliness because it's a universal human experience we don't have to pretend it's not us remember we said uh we should be able to say that we're lonely as much as we might say that i'm hungry or something else about us so we might say hey i'm hungry want to grab dinner together and that would seem normal but it should also seem normal for us to say hey i'm lonely want to grab dinner together and that becomes an opportunity for us to just be real we've said that as of last week as we looked at ephesians chapter 2 that the church is not just given god's mission and it's not just on god's mission the church is god's mission we look to ephesians 2 where it says the purpose of the cross is to bring the two groups into one so that those who are racially divided and divided by oppressor and oppression and oppressed and those who are divided by socio-economic class and by gender and by all the different things that put them put them in different categories that they're brought into one family and if god can create that miracle in the first century he can do it in the 21st century he wants to do that and he wants then that to be a light to the world so the church forming the church this family is god's mission it's the miracle he wants to accomplish in this life we we um we find our identity not in race but in grace and that makes us this one new humanity in ephesians chapter 2. so now moving forward we want to ask the question then how does god want to use us in our new identity to change the world i'm convinced that jesus does this in a way that you can't find it in any other religion or philosophy on the planet now the religious impulse is not going away it's been a part of humanity for as long as there's been humans we we believe there's something more out there we have this intuitive sense that there's something more and we want to reach out for it that's just part of being human and even for those of us who would then claim atheism or agnosticism as our banner we still reach out to connect with something beyond ourselves the impulse doesn't go away we just find alternate explanations for it but the impulse is still there it's not going anywhere we we are a worshipping creature we we we reach out and honor and stand in awe of something larger than ourselves we worship by design and we become like what we worship and what jesus does is he gathers up all of our spiritual worshipful intuitions and impulses and he channels them into a movement of love that has the potential to change the planet like nothing else here's how he does it three steps three steps first of all and for some of us at the meeting house this is a reminder of things we've talked about before let's walk through it quickly step number one jesus takes two commands of love god and love your neighbor and he binds them together into a bidirectional spirituality he says don't even think about one without the other when he's asked what's the greatest commandment and he says love god he then says and there's a second love your neighbor is yourself you have to take the two together so that's step one that's at the beginning of christ's time with his disciples but then by the end of his time with his disciples after they've seen how much he loves them he's able to give them a love upgrade and so the second step is this jesus reverses the direction of emphasis in our vertical love from love for god to love from god so initially jesus said love god and love your neighbor as yourself reach out your love in two directions then at the end of his time with his disciples he says a new command i give you do you remember in john 13 34 a new command i give you love one another as i have loved you so you must love one another now it is no longer make sure you love god and you love one another it is make sure you know how much you're loved the direction of the vertical is now reversed make sure you know how much you're loved and he couldn't say this at the beginning of his time with his disciples he couldn't say love one another as i've loved you they don't realize yet how much christ loves them but now this is the last supper at the end of his time with his disciples after spending three years together they all have personal experiences of looking into the eyes of jesus in different contexts and seeing his grace his forgiveness as encouragement his rebuke but knowing that it all has happened in the context of love they know how loved they are so now jesus can say now as you've experienced my love share that love with one another and then the final step is left for the church to empower what we find in the rest of the new testament is the command to love god and love your neighbor as yourself is now absent it just doesn't come up again in the rest of the new testament the church doesn't get together to encourage each other love god remember to love god and love your neighbors yourself they just jump straight to the second command and make that the first so you have passages like galatians 5 14 where the apostle paul says this for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command now it's just one command and he lists the second command as though it's the first command the entire law is fulfilled in this one command love your neighbor as yourself he assumes if you're reading this letter if you're showing up at church you already are saying i love god yeah we hear you but now if you really want to show us that you love god let's see how well you love your neighbor first john 3 16 first john 3 16. this is how we know what love is jesus christ laid his life down for us and we ought to lay our lives down for you would expect the sentence to end for jesus jesus has given his life for you and you should give your life for jesus i learned it that way in sunday school i can remember a sunday school teacher saying jesus died for you the least you can do is live for him and that makes sense jesus has done something for me i should do something for jesus it makes sense logically but it's not the way the new testament love ethic actually works jesus gave his life for you so you ought to give your life for everybody else you receive from god through jesus and then what you receive you offer outward and that becomes our worship now this horizontal understanding of worship is the game changer for the landscape of religion on the planet that the way we worship god is by loving other people around us for instance look at this verse in romans 15 verse 7 romans 15 verse 7 says this accept or embrace or receive or welcome four different possible translations of a greek word praslambano which uh which actually means to pull close aggressively what a great word proslam bono to hug passionately with power to grab and pull close praslambano it's greek but i i picture in my mind with an italian flair all right just say hey yeah come on boom pull him in for the hug pros lembano and it says we are to proslam bono one another to welcome welcome home this is your my space is always my home wherever i go in some sense i'm welcoming you into my space relational space through my attention through my hospitality through my kindness welcome into my space i proselyted you i take the initiative to pull you close and then you can say no thank you but at least we won't have a lot of people waiting for everyone else to take the initiative because we're insecure because we're worried about the calluses from all the deception in the herd of the world or waiting for someone else to take the initiative this becomes a safe place where we can practice and listen i know this is hard i'm one of those people taking the initiative is difficult for me and for us introverts we're grateful for you extroverts who do take the initiative thank you but for all of us we need to practice this i need a safe place where i can practice this where i can flex this muscle actually look around and say who's alone who needs who looks like they could use some encouragement i'm going to take the initiative and move into their space and proslam bono them hey listen if people leave the meeting house because they say the people there are just so friendly and they're just so emotionally welcoming and everyone's talking to me i can't stand it if they leave because of that then so be it there will come a time in their life where they will say i know where to go where the people welcome me if that's why people leave so be it but my guess is that's often just not the reason why people leave church it's because they come they hang out they wait they maybe talk to someone maybe they don't then they say i don't know i just kind of flew under the radar and i didn't have the initiative to start conversations no one started with me we just didn't connect so church should be the place filled with people who are learning to prolong bono one another to pull close and to find a variety of ways to do that now if we're going to do that what's our motivation well it's he says i want you to do this as you see in the verse embrace receive welcome accept one another then just as christ has proselyted you accepted received welcome embraced you so again what we receive from jesus we don't try and give back to jesus directly i mean you can i mean prayer and worship beautiful ways of reaching up but the new testament emphasis is that the way i'm going to do that is rather than just saying invisible god i'm conjuring love for you say well i can start with what's visible right around me i can start with the people around me and god will receive that as worship so i could just go lean into each other of people's lives take the initiative as worship to god so he says accept one another then just as christ has accepted you you see the last line in that verse let's put it up again it's just got to sit there it's just too visually important in order to what bring praise to god this is our worship service yes we sing songs yes we pray all important ultimately when we then turn all of that energy into loving one another we are also bringing praise to god like i said that can change the nature of religion the nature of spirituality it can change the nature of the human experience it can change the world with that in mind let's open up our bibles together to ephesians 3 and we'll take a longer look at one passage that unpacks this a little bit more ephesians chapter 3. so we're not going to put this one up on the screen we're looking at our bibles hopefully you've got your bible regardless of where you're watching this and if not you can pull up an app on your phone or on your computer and look at ephesians 3 ephesians chapter 3. we'll look at this for a few minutes and then we'll throw it open to some q a ephesians 3 and we'll start around verse 14. ephesians 3 14 and onward all right here is a passage where the apostle paul is praying for the church now right after this passage he's going to get into the ethical portion of his letter when the apostle paul writes to churches the first half of his letter is usually theological giving them a foundation of understanding who they are who god is i am who you say i am that we're going to accept our identity as god claims it to be and then from there he moves into ethical instructions in light of this here's how you should live and this is a transitional passage he's been laying down the foundation last week we looked at ephesians chapter 2 who you are and that you are the purpose that jesus came for this thing called the church now in chapter three he he pauses and he prays for the church he doesn't just pray i pray that you guys would learn to love god more he prays i i pray that you would learn how much god loves you and that would empower you to now get ready for the rest of the letter which is how you're going to go and love other people well and we see this played out over and over again throughout the new testament this is just one example so starting at verse 14 ephesians 3 14 for this reason i kneel by the way look at verse 1 of chapter 3 which begins for this reason i paul the prisoner of jesus christ for the sake of you gentiles that's verse 1. i don't know if if it if if it seems to you like that's a sentence that got un that's unfinished and it is chapter three verse one for this reason i paul the prisoner of christ jesus for the sake of you gentiles and then verse two starts a new sentence um i love this uh translators point out that the apostle paul began a thought in verse one and then forgot what he was saying he got distracted by something else really encouraging we don't have time to go through it but that's the that's the first two and onward chapter for this reason i want to say this to you oh wait there's something else and he goes on to some and then they say here at verse 14 is where he recaptures his thought from verse 1. and i just love the humanness of the bible isn't it fun that god partners with persons with people to uh when you know we come across things in the bible you say well that's not perfect or that's that's very human or that's got a simple human flaw to it that's part of our theology that's not shocking to us that's not oh no that's us saying yeah that's exactly what the bible tells us that's how god uses us how he conveys his messages with people that's the case so i find that beautiful and by the way though if you continue reading look at verse 4 chapter 3 verse 4. paul says in reading this then you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of christ there's something beautiful about reading this we're getting to know two things we're getting to know jesus better and we're getting to know paul better he says in reading this you're understanding me better in my insight and you're getting to know jesus better that's what happens every time we read this book when we read this we're getting to know humans better we're getting to know our spiritual ancestors better we're getting to know first century christians who were part of that first generation of it all and who suffered so much so that this faith could endure we get to know their heart we get mentored by them and of course they help us get to know jesus keep our eyes fixed on jesus to see jesus clearly both are happening all the time both are beautiful all right now verse 14. i didn't plan on saying any of that but that's that's bonus material free of charge here we go verse 14 now for this reason i kneel before the father from whom every family on heaven and earth derives its name i pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being so that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and i pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the lords holy people to great this whole time he's praying that we might have the spirit in us who's going to give us power but power to what this is a beautiful poetic prayer but he's really just building up to one solid prayer that we might be empowered by the spirit of god for something is it the power to work miracles i mean paul would love that but that's not his primary prayer is it the power to be bold in our evangelism to share the gospel with the world paul would love that it's just not his primary prayer the starting point for everything else is it the power to make wise decisions he's going to talk about making wise decisions in the rest of the letter but first he needs to get us empowered what is the power what's he praying for that we would be empowered well let's keep reading he says i pray that you would have uh power together with all the lord's holy people that is together with all the saints so we're going to have an answer to this prayer when we come together there is a togetherness here too he's not praying i pray that you when you are by yourself would have a supernatural experience that you when you were isolated would would experience the fullness of god's going to be with us when we're by ourselves absolutely but paul's saying the his his understanding is that the fullness of this empowerment of the holy spirit is going to happen when we come together when you are together with all the saints is the phrase here and that's just what he's been talking about in the chapter before we talked about last week god bringing us together is his purpose so he says i pray that when you are coming together that you would have power together with all the lord's holy people to grasp what's the power now to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of christ so jesus says a new command i give you love one another as i have loved you and that means the love that you have for one another is going to be directly correlated to your grasp of how much christ loves you which is the love of god towards you jesus love others as i've loved you so then rather than just keep commanding love them better love them better love them better paul says i'm just going to pray that you see how much jesus loves you more how much jesus loves you more how much jesus loves you more and if you can grasp that you will then love other people more you'll have more you'll be more empowered to see he says his love for you is so strong i'm gonna have to pray that the holy spirit fills you and makes you strong and gives you power on the inside so that you have the ability to to to really receive it and stand up underneath it and say whoa i i can i'd crush you with the weight of his amazing love so i'm gonna have to pray that you're strengthened to even be able to see so the holy spirit fills us up and gets us ready first of all to just have a glimpse at the mind-blowing love of jesus and it is mind-blowing that's what he says next he he says that you would have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge i want you to know the thing that you can't know i want you to i want you to know experientially what you'll never figure out intellectually i mean we could say jesus loves you god loves you you go yeah yeah okay great great great because yeah i know i i can there's a lot of words about how much god loves you here but words can sometimes just fly past us so i'm praying that the holy spirit will help you actually experience it that you'll have some sense that you'll know because knowing within a hebrew idiom is usually experiential not just intellectual it's an intimacy i want you to become intimately familiar with the love that god has for you which goes way beyond what you can figure out intellectually it's just going to go beyond words i want you to know this love that surpasses knowledge to know this love that surpasses knowledge it's mind blowing it blows past what you figure out intellectually and helps you experience it that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of god because god is love he's going to fill you up and you'll realize how loved you are and then his little benediction now to him who was able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine i like that imagine imagine god loving you the best way possible and it's more than that imagine the best case scenario and it's better than that to him who can do immeasurably more than all that we can ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us that is at work within us this is true i know do you believe it it's worth asking do do you really actually believe do i believe this that that we're actually talking about a mystical supernatural experience that we're always having we're just not always aware of it his power is in us reinforcing his love for us we just sometimes don't slow down enough to tune into this reality but he says according to his power that is at work within us to him be glory in the church to him be glory in the church and in christ jesus two places glory of god the worship of god the aw of god the glory of god is going to shine brightly he says in two places in the church and in christ jesus we're on par with christ because apart from the church jesus is just theoretical let me tell you there was a story there was a man 2000 years ago died on the cross to prove his love for you great nice story bruxy ah let me show you how that gets embodied today the difference that makes in a community of imperfect people but who are realizing how much they're loved and then from that point they go out being more forgiving more gracious more kind more merciful taking more initiative to love other people around them now that's the glory of god in the church and in christ jesus he says the glory of god in the church and in christ jesus he says throughout all the generations and forever and ever throughout all the generations and forever and ever forever and ever that's eternity generations is very rooted in this life so the church continues to bring god glory in two ways yes forever we're gonna live for eternity and we'll be perfected wonderful but generation to generation that's here and now too god wants to change the world through the church god wants to change the world through the church when we are being the best version of ourselves we are not just growing we're doing something on behalf of the world around us when we become healthy when we realize how much we're loved it's it's a it's a high calling it's a huge mission but it just begins by realizing just how crazy about you god is he's nuts about you and and i can't find the words the apostle paul couldn't find the word so i can't find the words to speak to your intellect to convince you of that so when we're done here we're gonna we're gonna have some q a now and then when we're done we're just gonna pray that we will slow down enough and tune in to what the holy spirit is already saying to each of us but first let's throw it open a q a and in order to do that i'm checking my phone for texts all right here we go jordan says did jesus change his teaching by the end of his ministry that the second commandment is now equal with the first or if not what did second mean when he said it and the second is like it so right so jesus says the first commandments love god and the second is love your neighbors yourself and then the new testament church just skips straight to the second and says that's the first what gave them the right how dare you ignore the flow of jesus's teaching he said there's a first and there's a second he binds them together and then the church says we'll just focus on the second what made and that's where i think john 13 34 is the transition i think this is a great question what gave the church the right to focus on the second and call it the first because jesus said a new command i give you see he says it's new yes before he was talking to the religious leaders who asked him what's the greatest command and he says love god and love your neighbors yourself it's as much as they could bear at the time and it's good it's good teaching then jesus says to his intimates to his disciples who actually know him he couldn't say that to a pharisee as i have loved you love one another they don't know how much jesus has loved them right so in the context where they're talking about the law what's the greatest commandment in the torah he says i will bind the two together for you that's a starting point and it's beautiful that's step one love god and love your neighbor love god and love your neighbor but that becomes for his disciples love god by loving your neighbor not just love god and but love god by by loving your neighbor you worship the almighty and that that transitional john 13 34 command i think is the window to help us see how that happens great great question jordan thank you luis asks how do you help someone accept that god loves them or understand what that looks like especially when being loved is not part of their experience yeah thank you louise i think it's going to have to be patience over time which means perseverance patience perseverance and and vulnerability we'll talk more about this next week as we talk about what it means to be vulnerable and authentic in community but i think we can't force a breakthrough with anyone and we can't preach harder don't you know how loved you are uh what's that scene in what's the movie it's coming it's just oh good will hunting do you remember that movie and he keeps saying is it not your fault is that the line he keeps repeating it's not your fault it's not your fault or something like that and he just i know it's not my fault but it's not your fault i know it's not my fault it's not your fault i know it's not he just keeps saying it saying it saying it until finally he has a breakthrough moment and there's a lot of tears and he realizes something true that's how my brain just remembered that i don't even know if it's accurate um does anyone in this room seen goodwill hunt am i is my sort of close okay thank you uh that's what comes to mind i don't think we can necessarily do that with people you are loved infinitely and beautifully i have a hard time exceeding that well then you need to know it you are loved beautifully we'll just scare people i understand um and so while we want to we can't force that kind of breakthrough but what we can through gentleness perseverance ongoing kindness in community just create the environment and the space for the holy spirit to orchestrate the breakthrough and that's where we i believe in home church and whether that's happening in person or online whether that's a one-on-one conversation whether that's on the telephone it's on a screen or it's in person any way we can humanly connect as the church with one another not just listening to sermons but with one another we're creating that environment of patience and perseverance and practice where we can practice this and i think then patiently over time then there's going to start to be aha moments for people that will come in different ways i love the fact that the pressure's off we don't have to force these moments we don't have to artificially create them we create the environment we create the space for them to happen and so the pressure's off us we just need to love one another to the best that we can and it's going to be us loving one another and reinforcing that that's going to help us all i think grow because of it so i hope uh you know the meeting house home church is where we do that i hope that if you're hanging out at the meeting house for any length of time that that becomes the place and especially for those who are listening online that that becomes something that will be your next step is to get involved in a home church and and and get involved in the lives of one another persistently patiently over time these are great questions thanks you guys let me um let me uh just take a moment to pray uh i want to pray that well let's just unite our prayer with the apostle paul it's a 2000 year old prayer and and the same god the same jesus the same church needs that reality today so i'll use my own words rather than just repeat the apostle paul's but i would love for you to partner your prayer with me maybe you're praying for yourself or you're praying for people in your family or you're praying for people you don't even know who are part of the church in general but let's pray that god makes his reality the reality of his love for us so real that's not our stopping point we don't just receive his love so we can sit there and be loved but so that we're so packed full of his love we want to then share it with others around us and through that god wants to change the world let's pray heavenly father thank you for the love of jesus i thank you that what we see in christ's love for us is your love for us we can know that the creator of the universe called us into existence so you could love us more i pray for my brothers and sisters who struggle to know how valuable they are and how loved they are that your spirit would catch their attention and reinforce this reality that you would give them the strength to even begin to bear your incredible love for them i pray you would fill them with your spirit give them eyes to see jesus and they would know that your father heart towards them is rich and real and they would know how high and how deep and how wide how long your love is for them and i pray together as as a community that all of this would drive us closer together toward one another that we might reinforce the beauty of your love for us and through that we look forward to how you might use us to change the world around us in jesus name i pray amen [Music] all this pain i wonder if i'll ever find my way i wonder if my life could really change [Music] all this earth could all that is lost ever be found could a garden come up from this ground at all [Music] you make beautiful things you make beautiful things out of the dust you make beautiful things you make beautiful things out of us [Music] all around hope is springing up from this old crown out of chaos life is being found in you [Music] cause you make beautiful things things out of the dust you make beautiful things out [Music] you make beautiful things [Music] you make beautiful things you make beautiful things [Music] [Applause] wow [Music] [Applause] [Music] you make me new you are making me new you make me new you are making me new you make me new you are making me new [Music] you make me new you are making me new you make beautiful things things out of the dust you make beautiful things you make beautiful things you make beautiful things out of the dust you make beautiful things [Music] amen amen wow how great boy it has been so good to be together today hey i hope that you have been encouraged throughout our time together today and i pray that this week that you would just remember and that you would be able to experience god's love and that as a result you would be able to love those around you have a great week and we'll see you next time peace [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hmm okay [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Meeting House

Views: 2,185

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: the meeting house, bruxy cavey, the meeting house livestream, the meeting house live, church live, church live stream, church online, jesus, live church music, the meeting house music

Id: 0flX6f4QV1Y

Length: 81min 45sec (4905 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021