January 23, 2011

“LIVING ON PURPOSE”

Week Three – “Finding Your Purity” Romans 12:9-10


Review:


Our Purpose – “overcoming evil with good”

We are a team – every member has a position to play and the team wins as each member plays his position and gets wins at that position. Each of us matters and it matters to the team what we do.

We are a body – every member has an equally important place in that body and must find it for the body to become healthy and growing.

Our Unity – comes from surrendering to God:
Our Ego
Our Evil
Our Efforts

Our Community – comes from serving in the church in the Spirit

How do we preserve and maintain this healthy climate in the church?

PURITY

“Love must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves.” Romans 12:9-10

PURITY = MATURITY, as in, mature love. That is what we have seen displayed in David and Trish Tait over the years they have served FWC. It is the love that Gerald and Brenda have modeled as they lead the church and even now as they serve.

Once a team, once a body finds the unity and community that are essential to a godly, growing, healthy church – then they must maintain it. How?

PURE LOVE THAT IS MATURE IS:

1) HONEST – “Love must be honest and true……”

This deals with your motives. Honest love isn’t manipulative. Honest love faces the hard truth of selfish love and repents of it. Get real with God!

2) HOLY – “…..hate what is evil….”

This deals with your Master. Who is the source of your love? How do you get it? You have to hate your selfish love to get sincere love. This will take some true repentance. It will require some discipline. You can’t love and hate at the same time.

3) HELPFUL – “….hold onto what is good….”

This deals with your mission. The purpose of believers is to be confront the evil in the world with the goodness of God!

4) HEARTY – “…..love each other deeply…..”

This deals with your meaning. Are you going to devote your life to self-seeking or are you going to invest in others? Are you willing to be vulnerable? Will you risk getting hurt by others in order to be able to help them?

5) HUMBLE – “…..honor others more than yourselves.”

This deals with your maturity. Are you willing to stand in the shadows and shine the spotlight on others? Are you willing to be a “nobody” to help make “somebodys”. Will you decrease so others can increase?

THIS IS PURE LOVE!

THIS IS POWERFUL LOVE!

THIS IS CHRISTIAN LOVE!

THIS IS CONTAGIOUS LOVE!

THIS IS DAVID AND TRISH LOVE!

THIS IS WHY WE WILL MISS THEM SO MUCH!

WE WILL NEED SOME PEOPLE TO STEP UP AND LEARN TO LOVE LIKE THEM!

WHO WILL THAT BE? WHO WILL COMMIT TO LOVE:

HONESTLY
HOLY
HELPFUL
HEARTY

HUMBLE

January 22, 2011

"Your love must be real. Hate what is evil, and hold on to what is good. Love each other like brothers and sisters. Give each other more honor than you want for yourselves." Romans 12:9-10

Telling someone to love like this is equivalent to telling your dog to act like a cat. It is unnatural. The love that God demands of you in this portion of Scripture is unnatural. Think about it!

To love this way you must be sincere, i.e. - authentic, the real deal! That is not your nature! It is natural to fake it. You show only your best side and mask or hide your faults, flaws and weaknesses. You don't like those parts of your nature and you are sure that if others knew how you really are they wouldn't like you either!

Loving others with a real, true, genuine and sincere love is not natural!

Likewise, expecting someone to hate evil and cling to good is very idealistic isn't it? That won't really happen. It is not the way we are! How can you hate evil when your very nature is controlled by evil? Your natural way of loving is selfish love. It is a love that manipulates others to get what it wants. Therefore selfish love uses other people, sometimes abuses them to gratify its desires.

Loving others with a holy and unselfish love is unnatural.

So it is with brotherly love or a love that prefers others above your own wants and needs. It is not in your nature to honor others. You want the spotlight! You want the credit! Center-stage belongs to you! You deserve the honor! You have earned it!

Honor others? Why?

Pure love requires a maturity that is not natural. True love, Christian love, requires a fundamental change in your nature. As the Scripture declares, you must "be transformed by the renewing of your mind"! That is not just unnatural it is supernatural! Only God can do that because only God loves like that! It begins the moment you recieve the love that God has for you in Christ Jesus! When you recieve His love you also recieve the desire to love others. Along with that desire comes the ability to love others because - HE LOVES THROUGH YOU!

Are you ready for some radical love? Are you tired of shallow self-centered love? Are you wanting to help others rather than hurting them?

Repent of your selfish love and surrender to the supernatural endless love of God!

January 21, 2011

"Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other." Romans 12:9-10

You have heard about "love/hate" relationships. Maybe you have had some. So you know there really is a fine line between love and hate. They are equally strong passions. Love has tremendous power for good while hatred can cause great harm.

Both love and hatred have a place in the heart of a Christian. In some situations you must hate one thing in order to love another. For instance, if you love the Chicago Bears (as I do) you MUST hate the Green Bay Packers. That's just the way it is! Always has been that way and always will be.

Okay, maybe I can find a better example.

In verses nine and ten, you are told that in order to love others with a godly love, you must hate evil. That would be the evil that tries to intrude into your heart as well and the evil that would attack or invade others. The word used here is a strong word. It indicates that you must be disgusted by evil and find it loathsome.

Do you?

If you saw an imminent physical threat to your loved one you would immediate cry out ro warm them or run to protect them. That is because true love protects. So, how then can you truly love someone and ignore a greater threat - the threat of evil to their immortal soul?

What would you think of a lifeguard at the beach who sees someone struggling in the waves and while fully aware of the threat, chooses to ignore it, preferring to work on his tan. That would anger you! And it should! You would conclude that lifeguard does not care about people nor takes his job seriously.

But in the same way, when you see evil or destructive habits or behavior in a loved one and you tolerate it you are not doing your duty as a Christian.

One measure of how much you love a brother or a sister is how much evil you are willing to tolerate in their lives. Or, another indication would be how much evil you are willing to condone or even participate in with them. The degree to which you ignore or tolerate evil is an indication of how little you love. Perhaps you have remained silent not wanting to offend or force a confrontation. Maybe you have convinced yourself that is the loving thing to do. Romans 12:9-10 challenges that notion.

Loving God and loving others demands a hatred of evil.

January 20, 2011

"Love must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves." Romans 12:9-10

"Love each other deeply" says the Scripture. The word that is used is the word for "brotherly love". Within the fellowship of the church you are to love others like family. The "phileo" type of love is the highest measure of love which human beings are capable of sharing. It refers to a genuine warm emotional feeling of fondness and familiarity. In other words, when you love a fellow Christian give it all you've got. Don't hold back.

Why should you not love your fellow believers like you love family? Afterall, you have the same Father. If you love God you certainly should love those in your church fellowship who also love God. You love them because God, your Father loves them. You love them deeply because they are spiritual family.

And why should you not love your fellow believers who not only share you Father, but also share your faith. Faith is a powerful force in the life of a believer. Faith is a set of beliefs about Who God is, how He operates, how He loves you and what He wants you to do and to become. A common system of beliefs and values can form a strong bond for friendship and fellowship among believers in a local church. Sharing strong beliefs at the core of your being with other believers is a strong uniting factor.

Also, when you worship and work together within the fellowship of a church you share the same focus. You want that fellowship to prosper and grow. The people and the pastors and the ministries of that church has inspired you and instructed you and invested in you over the years and it has become an important part of your life. Because you value that you value others who share your passion for the the health of that church. You are a team, you are members of the body who are working together to achieve shared goals. That is a strong common bond.

Love one another deeply as you would a brother or a sister. Live in unity and harmony with them. Share spiritual community as you worship together , serve each other and reach out to the needs in your city.

Having the same Father, the same faith and an indentical focus are important factors in loving each other deeply (like brothers or sisters) within a local church fellowship. It is a powerful bond! It will bless you in your spirit and build you in your spiritual development!

Do you have a brotherly love for those who worship with you? If not, why not?

January 19, 2011

"Love must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves." Romans 12:9-10

Who doesn't want true love? Who wouldn't benefit from it? What church couldn't use more of it?

True love is hard to find. Maybe that is because it is hard to do.

In these two verses Paul gives us perhaps the most concise description of true love found anywhere - even more concise than I Corinthians 13.

Life is all about relationships and therefore, love is essential. God wired you to thrive within loving relationships but sin infected your nature with selfishness and selfishness is the great "anti-love".

So, the reason why it's hard for you to love others is because you love yourself more. Until you want to love more than be loved you will struggle with true love. Wow, that's honest!

Perhaps that's why this verse describing true love begins by demanding honesty. Until you are honest about your lack of love how can you ever hope to honestly love?

Selfish love is manipulative. It always look for an edge or an angle to get what it wants. When you are angling for what YOU want you will not be interested in what others want. Self-love is the "anti-love". Insincere love uses people rather than serves them. When others feel used by you not only do they not feel loved by you, it is demeaning to them. No one wants to feel like an object.

How do you get over the self-love so you can love others with a sincere love?

Back to the honesty! True love begins with repenting to God for your self-love. Call it what it is - SIN. The root of all sin is selfishness and that must be dug out by the root! Only the God of perfect love can do that.

The antidote for self-love is God's love. Maybe that is why Jesus commanded us to "Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself". Until you love God more that you love yourself it will be impossible to love others and not try to manipulate them. Actually, you will try to manipulate God, too!

Get over it! Root out SIN and get sincere!

January 18, 2011

"Love must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves." Romans 12:9-10

Mature love is pure love. It is the love God has for you as revealed in His Son, Jesus. It is pure love because it comes from pure motives.

Mature love is honest. It has nothing to hide and no hidden motive or agenda. Honest love seeks the best for others and gives its best to others. It acts on the truth and speaks the truth and deals truthfully with those it loves.

Mature love is humble. It puts the needs and interests of others ahead of its own. There is no pretense or need to impress. It is not concerned about maintaining an image or protecting an ego. It is not afraid to risk in order to make others feel loved.

Mature love hates hurtful things and therefore doesn't hurt others. It opposes evil things and stays clear of evil itself. Evil is the anti-love because it promotes selfishness.

Mature love is helpful. It embraces the things that are good and helpful for others. It looks for the things that are good and helpful in others. It encourages and serves to bring out the best in others.

Mature love honors others by honoring God and obeying His Word.

Mature love is pure love because it comes out of pure motives and expresses itself in ways worthy of God's love. This is the love you receive from God and the love He expects you to share with others. And this is the love that fosters unity and community within the Body of Christ.

January 17, 2011

"Love must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves." Romans 12:9-10

Everyone wants love. Everyone needs love. Very few know how to give it. Many have trouble receiving it.

Tucked into the center of this incredible chapter about finding our purpose is this admonition to learn how to love. Could it be that love is at the heart of our purpose?

Uh..........yes!

Once the ego, and the evil and the emotions have been surrendered, and once the mind has had a supernatural transformation (by the way, the word for "transformation" is the root word for "metamorphosis" - which is what happens when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly). What happens in your heart and mind is no less miraculous than that!

When you have removed the obstacles to loving God and of recieving His love, you have positioned yourself to think and act in loving ways. One expression of that is serving in the Body using your spiritual gift.

So, the result of heeding these admonitions will be unity and community in the Body. As hard as it is to get there, how in the world do you maintain it?

Unity and community are preserved by maturity. Mature love will keep the Body healthy and growing.

What is mature love? What does it look like? What are the characteristics that mark this love? That will be the theme of our posts this week.

Mature love is sincere. Sincere means "real", not "phony", not "faked". The origins of the word "sincere" comes from two words meaning "without wax". Interesting, eh? It comes from a practice common to unscrupulous potters when they sold their wares in the market. Occasionally as the pots were being fired in the kiln, a few of them would crack. You have known enough crackpots in your lifetime to know that doesn't work. But rather than take the loss on the pots that had cracked the dishonest potter would melt wax and seal over the cracks and paint the pottery to hide their deception. Then they would sell the defective pots at full price. Only when that pot sat in the sun and the wax melted did the buyer realize he had been swindled. So, to protect their own business and reputation, honest potters would put up a sign at their booth that said "Sine Cere" - "without wax".

Mature love does not try to cover the cracks in its life nor does it reject others for the imperfections they have. As Peter admonishes, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." I Peter 4:8 Mature love lets the love of God seep through the cracks of their life and into the cracks of others!

Do you love with a mature love? Do you know someone who loves you like that?