Auto Generated Transcript
We want to take the time this morning. We’re just going to finish up the second part of a series that we’re going through on focusing our attention on what God has desires for our church to accomplish together. And we talked about it a little bit last week. If you have your your morning bulletin with you, you’ll see on the inside of the bulletin on the left side of the page. What we’re doing to describe the vision of our church together is look at it through the eyes of a of a diamond, a baseball diamond, or a field, giving us the idea of what what God’s focus is for our church. A thought of several different ways of doing this as a church family, for some reason, kept going back to baseball. And and I have no idea why, because I don’t even enjoy baseball. It just seemed like a good way to communicate. I’m a I’m an avid sports person. I shared a little bit of my baseball stories with you last week. I wasn’t I was a pitcher in baseball, wasn’t very good at it, but attempted to to try it out. But for us, it really the baseball diamond puts it into a perspective of of of what our church is all about. Not baseball, but in God for us, we’re getting ready to end a lot of summer outreach and a lot of summer ministries. And we typically, in doing that, see new families that come to our church.
And so what we like to do is put a focus on what it means to follow after the Lord. Bailey, do me a favor and shut those two doors. We shut those doors right behind you. Thank you. Everyone wants to be that hero. Whatever sport you enjoy or watch. I think a lot of times that’s what brings. Especially the guys on Sunday after church to check their favorite team on on the NFL. Right. You want you want to see that player, that favorite player you’re cheering for accomplish that great thing on the field, that great feat. And a lot of times, if sports maybe aren’t too far behind in your past, you can picture yourself making that great Hail Mary catch to win the game for everybody. I mean, everyone dreams of that. That last minute being up at the plate and knocking that home run, right? All of us picture ourselves at different points as we’re on the baseball field. Being that Babe Ruth, we went out as a church a few weeks ago and we played baseball together at a picnic. It was an embarrassing time as a pastor to see our athletic skills out on that place, having to teach everybody you don’t stand on home plate, you stand in the batter’s box and you swing at the pitch that comes across home plate. That was that was a new thing for us, I think, in a lot of ways.
But, you know, when I got up to bat, I made sure I gave the Babe Ruth point. You’re all familiar with it, right? Just calling your shot where it’s going to go. And that would only knock it in the infield. But but people dream about that winning play that that brings it all home for their team. That we can just say, man, that was awesome. Did you see what they did? It was great. And what does that look like though for us as a church? I drew a baseball picture inside of your bulletin and talking about when in sports. But what does what does a win look like? Um, as a church, we began to define that. And on on home plate in your notes, you’ll see the very bottom. There’s a passage of Scripture quoted for us that comes from Matthew chapter 28 and 19 and 20. And, and this is kind of the the home run of the purpose in which God created his church. He said in Matthew 16 eight, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So we as a church family get to to storm down the gates of hell, carrying out God’s mission for us to be successful at that as God’s call for his church. And he specified it. He broke it down for us very simplistically before he ascended into heaven, after his, uh, his crucifixion on the cross and his resurrection from the grave, his meeting with his disciples.
And he makes this comment before his ascension to heaven. He says, therefore go and make disciples. This is in the NIV. Make disciples of all nations. This is how the church wins. This is what home plate is all about. It’s every batter that steps up to the batter’s box to to try to attempt to knock a ball out of the park or into the field. Their entire goal is to come back across all of the bases and back to home. Or if there’s anyone on base, their goal is to hit that ball, to get those guys around that base and back to home, to score that run and whatever team scores the most runs or crosses home plate. There’s all, all kinds of things involved in baseball, from pitching to defense and batting. But whoever crosses home plate the most, that is the victorious team. For us as Christians, it’s the same. The purpose of the church, if we can get across home plate, if we can do this together, we can encourage the world to to follow after this as God. This is what the win is all about as as believers in Christ. It’s about getting to that home plate, making disciples, disciples, literally. Are are followers more specifically followers of Christ? The purpose of this church. The purpose of every church throughout the world, universally, the goal should be to make disciples and followers of Jesus.
And that’s our focus here at Alpine Bible Church. What does it take to equip you to be a better follower of Christ? And what can we do to equip you to reach the world, to follow after Christ. And Jesus really when he. When we talk about making disciples, he through us just just one pitch. Everyone in this world. And I’ve talked to you about my beautiful pitching skills. It’s a lot like Jesus. I’ve only got 1 or 2. I can just throw a slow ball across home plate. But Jesus, for us, he just he threw one pitch. And it’s all about relationships. And it’s different than than any religious belief in the world. See, every religious belief in the world would have you think this, that we do the best we can and hopefully as we do good, God will eventually accept you and take you into his kingdom one day. Christianity is different. Christianity is not about a God that we try to please. We find ourselves unsuccessful and pleasing a holy God. But it’s about a God who desires a relationship so much that he came to this earth and he died on the cross for our sins, seeking after you. Religion is all about man seeking after God. But what Jesus taught us is that God desires to be close to you and Jesus through into this world. His relationship pitch by coming as a man and dying on the cross.
The Bible tells us in Romans five six, for while we were yet without strength, Christ died. Meaning this when it comes to your relationship with God, you don’t hold an iota of power or ability to get close to you. But in Romans five six it says, while you were without strength, Jesus died for you. It says in Romans five eight, But God demonstrates his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, in the midst of your disgustingness, in the midst of our sin, in the midst of everything that’s vile about human beings. Jesus died for us and got through into this world as relationship pitch. Remember in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. God had that perfect relationship with Adam and Eve before sin destroyed it. And just as he created Adam and Eve in the garden, fellowshipping with him before sin interfered with that relationship, Jesus came to this world and died for that sin, to restore that relationship that we lost. Romans tells us in chapter ten, for whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. In this loving relationship that Jesus pitched into the world as responded to by us, but also placing our faith and love back towards him. The cool thing about love is you can’t make someone do it. It’s a matter of choice, a matter of free will. You get the decision to choose what you want to love and how you want to love it.
And God demonstrating his love towards us and while we were yet sinners, has asked us as beings to return that love back to him. He created you for a relationship with him. Your sin eliminated it. But God came to this world to restore it, and he died on the cross on your behalf for your sin to restore that. And that’s why Jesus gave us the greatest command was to go into this world and to make disciples, because being a disciple is a follower of Christ. And the very reason of my existence, the very purpose of my being, is only found solely in everything that God is, and identifying myself through his eyes. I’m only going to live to the the greatest expectation I could possibly ever live in this world. By choosing to surrender myself to Christ and growing in that relationship with him. And so God comes to this statement in Matthew or excuse me, Mark chapter 12 and verse 29. You also find it in Matthew chapter 22. And he pitches to us a relationship pitch because he understands the necessity for human beings to connect with him in relationship in spite of our sin, trusting in Jesus and everything that he’s done. And it says, Jesus answered, he was. He was asked by a Pharisee, what is the greatest command that man could obey? Jesus breaks it down for him very simply in Mark chapter 12.
He says, Jesus answered, the foremost is hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. And in this law we find one simple word, one simple focus, what we are all about here at church, and that is relationships. The most important thing that Jesus emphasizes is a relationship to him. And so if you come on Sunday morning, the focus of our church, as we gather together, is to celebrate the presence of God and enjoy that relationship with him. And as we look out at the the people who come and make up what the body of Christ here is Alpine Bible Church, we we seek to encourage one another and just say, keep looking to Jesus. I mean, whatever we face in this world, whatever trial or pain or triumph or success that we go through. Jesus died for that. Jesus created you for that relationship with him to enjoy the pleasures of life and the sin that we face in our own world that that we can’t rid ourselves of. Jesus died for that because he loves you. He would desire nothing more than to have you growing in that relationship with him. For you to come to the full understanding of what it means to walk with him as a disciple.
Jesus loves you, and he says to us, and he pitches to us a relationship. And so first base becomes for us you have it marked for you on your notes, but first base becomes all about relationships. It starts with a relationship with God. Every batter, when he gets up to bat, the first focus that he has on his mind is how in the world can I get to that first base, that I can begin to even run the bases back to home and score and win for this team? And what is it going to take to get there? And so every Christian’s mind should be focused on what is it. What does it mean for us to win as Christians? How do we become what God wants us to be and we be disciples of God. And so how do we get to that first base so we can even begin to run those bases in the Lord? And it starts with a loving relationship with him. I mean, you can’t even begin to think about second and third base. And I know last week I left you on first base. I looked out in the audience as you saw I was only on first base, and we’d been here for about 45 minutes. That you begin worried, thinking if I was going to take you around the rest of the bases. That was fun to keep you in suspense. You can’t even begin to get to second or third unless you first get to first base, unless you’re playing baseball with Alpine Bible Church.
Sometimes we run the bases backwards, but but it’s about running to first, and it starts with that loving relationship with God. And picture for a moment in Mark chapter 12 and in Matthew 22, the same story is existing. The Sadducees are arguing with Jesus trying to trick Jesus, and Jesus responds so wisely that then the Pharisees come to Jesus with a question, a question that they had debated for hundreds of years. What’s the greatest commandment I’ve told you in the Old Testament and the five books of the Bible and the Pentateuch, there are 613 commandments that are that are listed there. Uh, 365 of them are don’t do commandments, 248 are do do good commandments or things that you are to do as a believer. And so the Pharisees were debating back and forth out of all these 613, if we could just like, not have to worry about six a list of 613 what’s one thing that God would want us to do? And so a Pharisee asked Jesus, and Jesus made the the the statement, you’re to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. But what’s interesting about the whole commandment is when he steps back into into chapter 22 and verse 40, after he states, he says, all the laws and the prophets hang on these two commands.
The second command was to love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus is as if he’s taking this Pharisee and he says, do you see this Bible that I’ve given you? Do you see the existence and purpose of all history? Let’s take it back and get just a moment and get a bird’s eye view and everything that I’ve ever accomplished in the lives of men throughout all of history exists for one purpose, and that is to love God, the prophets, the law, everything hangs together in just this one single statement. Here we find in this passage of Scripture the greatest person to ever exist and one of the greatest times to ever exist. Simplifying and making one of the most important statements that we could ever read as human beings. And he says this love the Lord your God with all your heart. People, if you really want to live, if you want to know what life is all about, if you want to get everything in your life in order, it starts with the relationship with God. Because that from that relationship with God flows everything else in life. Because God is ultimately in control and he’s dictated to us the most important, significant statement that he could ever make in all of history in just one sentence. Love the Lord your God. Jesus gave the second command to us in the same passage of Scripture, and you find it in both Matthew and Mark.
It comes in chapter 12 and verse 31. It says, the second is this you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. This morning what I would like to do with us for the rest of the service is continue to run the bases before us. We have the focus of what we are about as a church, and that is we’re about making disciples. And the way we accomplish this is through relationship with God. But God didn’t give us a relationship with him just to keep it to ourselves. You think about, to those of you who are married or dating, if you think about your significant other when that relationship began, do you remember how excited you were You know, that finally took place and how that love began to grow. And so you shared it with other people. You let it be made known that that that relationship existed. And it’s the same with Jesus, because when God comes in your heart, it tells us in the Bible that he creates within you a new spirit. In John chapter three he says, you’re born again. He takes that heart that was wicked, and he takes that heart that was desperate and that heart that was sinful. And the Bible tells us he just completely washes it new. And that relationship with him for the first time really begins. This is eternal life, that you may know him in the moment that you trust in Jesus, you begin to know him and and grow in that relationship because of what he’s done for you.
By making that sacrifice on the cross for your sins. And he desires for you to engage that relationship into this world. And so he gives us the second commandment you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And I just want to point out this morning, just in point, number one in your notes, it’s the love of God that compels us towards loving others. You’re never going to begin to love the world the way that God desires to love the world through you. Unless you first start by loving God the way that God desires for you to love him. And your love for God is what compels you to look out into this world and begin to love others. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And this morning I just want to simply break out through the rest of Scripture. What that means in Jesus made this this statement for us in in Matthew and Mark and and in the book of Luke. But you see, when Jesus made the statement, it was just written in the in the first four gospels. And so then we had the, the history of the church that came on the scene, and they began to expound upon what it meant for us to to love our neighbors and care for one another as God has demonstrated his love for us.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Anyone ever heard of the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you want done unto you, right? You’ve heard that. I heard it a lot growing up in school with my teachers, when they. When I would get a little out of line. Do unto others. Or my mom was a little kid. I’m sure you’ve heard that right. Do unto others as you want. That’s actually a Bible verse. It comes from Matthew chapter seven. We keep the Bible in school, right? So it says so in everything. Do to others what you would have them do to you. For this sums up the law and the prophets. You know the statement that Jesus is making in Mark 12 and in Matthew chapter 22, I think is is a similar statement that he made in Matthew chapter seven. The love of God is compelling us towards other people. And he says this, do unto others as you would want have them done unto you. And the problem I began to realize as I grew as a Christian is when I heard this statement made, I never heard it made in context. And context makes a world of difference as as you begin to read the Bible, if you don’t just take out a snippet of a verse, but you read in context of what the author actually intended when he wrote it.
So when you put the rest of Matthew chapter seven with this passage of Scripture. It says to us in verse seven, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock, and the door will be open to you. It’s talking about a relationship to God. Go after that. And it says, for everyone who asks, receives, he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him? See in the previous verses everything that it’s talking about is a relationship with God. And so look at these next three words. So in everything it’s basically saying to us, to us in summation of everything that we wrote about a relationship with God. So in everything, now that you understand about a relationship with God, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to do to others what you would have done to you. God is saying this out of the flowing relationship with me that you have and explore and begin to know, and you seek and you find and you grow in from that, then it funnels to the rest of this world, and to the love of God compels us towards loving others.
The Bible tells us in John chapter seven and verse 38 that from us flows living water, because of what Jesus has done in our hearts and minds, and this living water flows out into the world. Something else I want to point. And just in the love of God to us comes in Romans chapter 13 and verse eight. Thinking about loving your neighbor as yourself as God has commanded, it says in Romans 13 eight, let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another. So if you have any credit card debt, pay that off. But but the one debt that you want is to love one another. Do you understand why the whole focus of the law and the prophets hangs on this. And whether or not you understand what a relationship with God will be demonstrated in the way that you portray that to this world and and making loving sacrifice indebted to one another. This is the opportunity for us to live the gospel. Let me give you an example. When someone makes you mad. Um, instead of praying for their justice, you respond with their mercy. Yesterday, while we were at Highland Fling doing ministry, and I think we were attempting to do what Romans 13 eight tells us to in Mark 12 just loving the community, sharing Christ with one another.
My mom called me and, um, she told me that my uncle had passed away and, um, my uncle loved he loved the Lord and he was always a positive guy to be around. And and as a kid, I saw this verse played out continually in his life. And I think in just a matter of just five minutes in a car ride with my uncle, he taught me more without even saying words. He taught me more about what this verse meant, um, than any any sermon would have given to me. As we I remember as a young child, we were I was probably in high school. We went to a bowling alley together, and we got to to the bowling alley. And this guy came up to him and he and he was irritated and just running off at the mouth, and he was just saying some things to calm the guy down a little bit. He was obviously having a tough day. And so the guy began to attack my uncle and he responded with nothing but but love towards this guy. And he said, God bless their hearts as he as he walked off and he just prayed for him. He didn’t even say anything to me other than that. I just I just heard it taking place. And then after that tense moment, we got in the car when our bowling time was over, we drove home and somebody cut him off, and I.
I grew up riding the kind of cars where if someone does that, you let them know how much you didn’t appreciate it. And and he just says as this lady pulls out in front of him. Oh, bless her heart, she wasn’t even paying attention and freaking out in the seat beside him, thinking, are you kidding me? She almost killed us. Why are we on internally? Because he’s so calm about it. And then I realized, as knowing that my uncle was a believer in God, and he was walking with the Lord, what was taking place here, and that he was continuing his love for one another. And every opportunity we face in life that brings us adversity. Through opposition and other people, we have the opportunity to live the gospel out with one another. And by gospel I just mean simply the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Nothing else. Okay. In this while you were yet sinners, Jesus died for you. Jesus went to second base for you. He reached out in love towards others. He reached out in love for this world. And as you go through this world and people frustrate you, people irritate you. People get on your nerves. And I know there’s legal, uh, laws that we have that put people in jail if they do specific things that are wrong. And I think if we break the law, we need to go to jail, you know? So I’m not saying I’m not saying we don’t deserve punishment sometimes, but what I’m saying is I, as a believer, is whenever someone wrongs you, it gives you the opportunity to, rather than cry out for their justice, to respond with mercy and grace, just like God did in your life.
And so whenever a guy is mean to you at a at a bowling alley, you can say, God, just just like you love me. In those moments where I was just most wicked God, I’m loving him. And just like I cut off somebody the other day and caused them probably to take your name in vain. Um, God, when this person cuts me off, I’m still loving him. I want to rip out my horn this week. So when we carry the love of God and that relationship to this world, and we’re about loving others, what you become is people who live the grace of God. You are people who literally in your life live the gospel. And that’s where that relationship with God starts and it continues. It’s all about the gospel. It’s all about the death, burial, resurrection of Christ. It’s all about that relationship with him. It’s all about becoming a follower with Jesus through the gospel that he has provided for us. By the grace and mercy he continues to extend to us each and every day of our lives. And you get the opportunity to do that. So the rest of these bases, that’s what it’s all about, living that relationship with God before other people.
In first Corinthians 1313, this is a famous passage of defining what love is for us. I think Jesus did it in Mark 12 as well with all your strength, heart, soul and mind. But in verse 13 he comes to the end after explaining all about love. And he says, but now faith, hope, love, abide, these three, these three things. But the greatest of these is love. Kind of a striking verse for me. And a lot of times when I, when I was growing in the Lord trying to understand what these different faith, hope and love Things meant to me. It seemed like God should put faith most important because faith is about placing your trust in him. But as I begin to look at the the idea of what these three words meant in this verse, faith deals a lot with the past. And the more you learn to trust things in your life, the more faith you’re able to put in it, right? I drive my car every day, and I and it’s it’s gotten me everywhere I’ve ever wanted to go. And so I know when I go in and start my car, I don’t prepare to warm it up or get it ready for the journey. It does its job. I’ve got some faith in it. Driving on the road. There’s the yellow lines, and I just trust after time that no one’s ever going to cross it.
People haven’t crossed it and hit me yet. And so I placed faith in that. And faith does a lot with the past and your understanding with God, as God has demonstrated himself to you in Scripture. And as you grow in your understanding and knowledge of him, you begin to put your faith in what you’ve understood him to be. Hope is the anticipation of everything to come. What God has promised you in the future. A lot of us in our lives are hoping things in God. We’re hoping certain things work out for us, maybe in the job world, but we hope towards the future. But what love deals with is now. In the presence of where we are as people. The way that we work in this moment is love, and we grow in that love and continue in that love. And so Paul makes in this statement that what we are to be about as a church, if the greatest commandment is to love God and and the greatest commandment is to to second greatest, to love thy neighbor. We we deal in the idea of love because love deals with the moment. It’s about love. So let me help you fill out the second and third base as we just continue on this morning. Loving your neighbor starts with the church. So in base number two this morning, you can put love the church or loving the church.
And let me just say why for a moment. When I say church I don’t mean this building. We don’t love this building. I you know, if this building were to fall apart tomorrow, we could still meet as a family. The church is the people. And when I say the church, I don’t just mean Alpine Bible Church. I mean every church without throughout Utah Valley, every believer that you ever come in contact, any Christian throughout this world that is the church. This is God’s church. And so the love of God’s got to start with the church because God came up here, plan a go into all the world and preach the gospel. He made that statement to the church. The church’s responsibility is to carry out God’s work in this world. God desires to work through you. You are a miracle, people, because God has come into your life. He’s working on your heart and your mind, and you are a demonstration of the miracle of what God is doing in your life. And if the church can’t stay on task for what God is trying to accomplish, and if we can’t first begin to love him and stay unified here, then we’re never going to fulfill the purpose that God has called us to do. Now, I realize based on the passage of Scripture, we’re taking a little bit of liberty in saying that when God says love your neighbors, he doesn’t specifically say church there.
But as you look in the rest of Scripture now, as it was defined where the church began to first love one another and demonstrate that love for one another, it started within the church, the church members, the people that made up the body of Christ there. Paul’s response if you just want to look for just a moment, this is what the Apostle Paul said in your notes. You’ll see more verses than what I’m going to share this morning. You can go back and look at them later if you desire. But Galatians 610, Paul says this. Then while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household, of the faith. God or Paul is saying to us through God’s inspiration that that he desires for us to to do good in this world, to love this world, to do good things. It doesn’t save us. But that’s what God’s desire is as he’s working within our hearts. And he’s saying that especially most significant, if that love and that good is to be done, it’s to be done within the body of Christ. He says in Philippians two two, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on being one. So we come together and we’re we’re loving. We’re all focused on the same thing together. That’s what our sermon is about today, focusing on the same thing.
We’re united in the purpose that God wants to accomplish. We understand God wants us to be a disciple and make disciples. He says, but with humility of mind regarding one another as much more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. So we don’t come to the church and think it’s all about me. What can I do for me? What can I get today? How does that work for me? Why doesn’t the church play what I want and do the way I want? Our focus when we come is Jesus. And so we begin to think, okay, Jesus, I want to grow close to you and I want this church to. And so before we even walk in the doors this morning, we begin to fill our minds with the things that pushes and compels the church closer to God. How can we get there? That’s last week. I know I threatened with painting the walls pink. If you don’t like the way things go, but those things become such a side note to what God wants to accomplish. People can get off on such ignorant tangents of thinking what God might want, because it’s your own selfish desire, rather than what God really wants to accomplish. And Paul is saying, don’t. Don’t allow that to happen here. Be unified in what you desire. He says in first Corinthians 1118, for in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that division exists among you.
One of the things that tore the Apostle Paul apart emotionally on the inside about what was taking place in Corinth is that they weren’t unified in what God desired to accomplish in the world. And so Paul recognizes that before the believers. But not only does Paul make a statement of the church, and not only is it important to see how Paul qualifies the church as being so significant for us and one another, we also see. Excuse me. Let me go back. I didn’t put it in there. God’s desire for the church as well. Let me just read this. Ephesians 122 and he says, put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave himself as head over all things to the church. Jesus is the head of the church. It’s not about me. It’s not about you. It’s about the head. It’s about him. It’s all about a relationship with him. So I hope we never walk out of this church and have any other picture of what our desire is to accomplish with one another, but he is the head and and that is the focus in Ephesians five 2027. He says, this is what his desire is for the church, that he might present to himself the church, you and I, in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.
So one of the negative statements about, or one of the negative things in Christianity about this passage that we’re looking at today in Mark chapter 12, is that when we start dealing with the idea of love, it gets it can get really fluffy, kind of like pansy type stuff. Um, but the love of God, the way he intends within the within the body of Christ to be demonstrated as such a sacrificial giving, not thinking of yourself, selfless love, desiring for one another the same thing in Christ. As you desire for yourself, grow into one another, giving everything that we have to grow in that relationship with him. Give in. Sacrificing, laying it all down the altar for God. I mean, when we talk about the love that God is talking about here, it’s not what we see in our culture. It’s just surrendering all that we are to all that he wants to accomplish in our hearts and minds together. And he says here that the desire is having no spot or wrinkle. Spot or wrinkles, referring in this passage as as sin. Sin is what destroys the relationship with God. Sin is what destroys your fellowship with God. And as a church, when I talk about love, I don’t mean this. We come to church and we get warm feelings, or we come to church and we just want to leave happy. I know some people that that’s their goal when they come.
We just want to feel good about ourselves. But it says in this passage of Scripture that God wants you without spot or blemish, meaning this if there is sin in your life, God wants to take control of it. I mean, God will forgive it, but what God wants to do is to make it pure. So for you to get as close as you can to a relationship with him, it’s not about leaving and feeling happy about yourself. It’s about even in the times where you have sin in your life, coming to church if you have to, and just confronting that sin and laying it back on the altar and saying, God, take this. It’s not about making me happy. It’s about making me holy. It’s about making me pure in my walk with you. And so Jesus desires to love the church and present the church to to them in that way. And and what I like about the previous verse is that it describes in, in Mark chapter 12 and verse 29, that when we are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, it just defines for us what that love looks like and how it addresses every area of our life, and the heart and the soul and the mind. And when you look in in Mark chapter 12 and verse 31, it says, you are to love. The second commandment is like that in the King James.
It has the word like that, reminding us that it’s similar to the the previous verse, that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. And so it doesn’t it doesn’t break down what that love looks like. As far as the aspects of man being heart, soul and mind, but and the strength of man, it doesn’t it doesn’t define that for us, but it gives us a good table and understanding of if we were to break down areas of love in our lives, what would that look like if we were to demonstrate it to the body of Christ? If we to demonstrate loving the Lord your God with all our heart, soul and mind to the body of Christ. What does it look like as you go through different passages of Scripture? You’ll see. And I’m going to flip through these pretty quickly. But Paul talks about in one part, loving the church with his heart. He says, apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Paul’s desire was to see that church grow in a relationship with him. So his heart began to tug towards thinking about how to motivate the body of Christ to get closer, closer to the Lord with with the soul. Paul says in Second Corinthians 1213 and 18 to 22 he says, by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether, uh, but now God has placed the members, each one of them in the body, just as he desired.
If if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body, and the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you or or again the head to the feet. I have no need of you. And so it’s saying to this, you guys, once you’ve trusted in Christ, you have become a member of God’s body. We’re all a member of one body together, Jesus being the head of our body. Whenever someone is absent within the church, whenever someone leaves, whenever someone moves because we are one member, we literally feel the pain of that absence. I don’t know who here would want to volunteer to be a foot, but if I just made you a foot this morning or let you be, I don’t know, a shoulder. Today we were absent from our shoulder and our foot. Paul describes it here as a body for us to realize that the pain of being separated in the church should be real to us, to every member within the body works together to accomplish God’s purpose. And when it’s absent, we feel that pain and we carry that within our hearts. And so with all our soul, we we become one united body and member together. Bible also tells us with with our mind. It says in Jude 13I felt the necessity to write to you, appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once and all handed down to the saints.
Notice the word once and for all. Okay. When God delivered to us His Word, here’s how it came once and for all. Meaning it doesn’t need to happen again. We’ve got it today. And so in Jude one three, it tells us once and for all this truth was handed down to the saints, and the responsibility of the body of Christ becomes this, that we are to learn what God has for us, that we are to grow and to carry the beliefs that God desires for us to know within His Word. Let’s take a side note for a moment and just let you know, um, when our midweek services start back up and we begin our Bible study again as a church family, we’re going to start membership classes. We’re to the point now where we can allow that as a as a church family. And so what we’re going to define is just the major beliefs of the church. It’s going to be a good class, whether whether you want to officially be a member of of the church or not, we’re going to come up with an official statement for that. But it’s an agreement of the major cause of Christianity, the beliefs of Christianity and what we believe together as a church family. This solidifies us or to the point in our culture where we have to do that because there are lawsuits existing in churches.
And I don’t I don’t want us to be sued. So it requires us to do that for insurance purposes. But on top of that, it identifies us as a community as well. And so we’ll go through those beliefs together. We’re going to do it Sunday morning and Wednesday as well. There’s going to be one location at Saratoga and then here at church that we’ll study that together and give you an opportunity to say, yes, this is what I believe. Yes, I’m going to agree with the church and yes, in unison of mind loving one another, I’m going to join with you and what God is talking about in the Bible. Loving God with our mind and loving others towards that will help us to understand what makes us as a body of Christ. What are the cause of what we believe? Uh, at the very depths of Christianity and understanding Christ. But not only that, it could serve as a dual purpose as well. If you’re not interested in joining, or maybe you can be even an honorary member if you have a membership at another church. But if you’re growing for the first time in your faith and you want to understand what is Christianity all about, I mean, what is the Bible? Is it really trustworthy? Who who is Jesus? What is this salvation all about? This.
This will give you a time just to examine, to see the evidence, to find out and determine in your own heart and mind if you can even begin to trust what God communicates to us in His Word, it will serve for us as either way. But God desires for you to love him with the mind and to love the church with the mind as well. The Bible says in acts 17 that the church was more noble than those in Thessalonica, because they received the word of God with all readiness of mind. And then they searched the scriptures daily to determine whether or not it was true. That, to me is a compelling verse for me to continue to dig into God’s Word, because they were described in the Bible as being noble, because God’s because these people took it within their hearts and their minds to to search what the scriptures said, to see if it was true. They used their mind for what God intended for it. And God desires for you to learn with your mind as well, to to exercise it and to share it with the Body of Christ. Here’s what happens with us as believers is we begin to study together. When you study the Word of God and I study the Word of God, and we get together and we begin to talk, guess what we start talking about because it’s fresh on our mind.
The Word of God. And as we begin to share that with one another off of our lips, what we’re learning with one another and the Word of God together, when we encounter an unbeliever, another believer in this world, because the Word of God is so fresh upon our lips, guess what? We begin to share the Word of God and naturally, we become agents of sharing God’s love into this world because we’re exercising that with one another. But the Bible tells us not only the mind, but he says also the strength. If I could just take one section and say, make this significant to listening to today, let me just say this is it. Within churches, you’ll find feuds a lot of times. And so here’s what happens when people argue within the church. They’ll either leave the church and join another church, or they’ll leave and not come back at all. And Paul says, part of you growing in your relationship with God is really learning about how to get along with other people. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Right? We’ve said you can’t go home by yourself and practice patience. You need somebody that really tests your patience and you can’t really go home and practice love by yourself. You need somebody to love. And it’s not just someone that’s easy to love. You really need somebody hard to love. Because everyone can love someone easy to love.
But the Bible says, love everyone. And so when you come to church and you’ve got those difficult people to love and those people that really rub your patience, that’s okay, because you are in a church where you’re going to learn to live like Jesus more than anybody. And it says in this verse, Paul says in Colossians 313, forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against you, even as Christ forgave you, so also also do ye. Demonstrate that gospel not forsaking it says in Hebrews ten, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. I mean, it’s like it’s a biblical command to actually come and congregate with the body of Christ, um, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much that the more as ye see the day approaching, you’ll see if you look up later verses in strength in the passages of Portaferry, as Paul carries the word in Colossians 313 is forbearing. It’s literally exerting yourself of energy and strength to love people when they make it difficult. Sometimes the church doesn’t doesn’t get any better with people leaving or getting upset. It only gets better as we learn to forgive and love, and we only carry God’s calling and passion in this world as we are more united. As Paul said, can I tell you, as I get ready to get into this next point, loving your neighbor also includes the world.
And this is the last, last base, third base. Love your neighbor or excuse me? Love the world. Neighbor literally means fellow man. It’s everybody. But as we get into this last passage of Scripture, I’m going to tell you as a church, one of the things that we’re going to do, we’re going to focus on is Sunday morning. We’re going to start at 1030. We gathered together and we started growing as a church family when there were about 20 members or so. You want to make sure everybody is present before you start. And so you kind of wait for that last person. But we’re going to start at 1030 and here’s here’s what I want to get across. When we start at 1030, we’re serious about our worship with God. It’s not something we kind of lackadaisically wake up with on Sunday morning and just kind of fluidly start, you know, we’re serious about meeting God when we gather together at 1030 in the morning to meet God. And so whether you’re here at 1030 or not, we’re starting. We won’t point any fingers, but we’re going there as a church. I don’t want it to become a habit of us to to continue to, to show up late as we continue growing together as a family. And the body gets bigger because we won’t be able to break it, but we’re going to demonstrate to the world that, yes, we are serious about God by starting at that time.
And so God’s call for us at third base is to love the world as well, to love everyone else. Let me just ask, before we start talking about loving your neighbor, do you actually do you know your neighbor? We could take it literally. It means fellow man, but. And that’s everybody. But do you know your neighbor? Have you taken the time to love them? And that’s the closest person for you. It says, If God is working within our hearts to literally go out and to love our neighbor, and even if it’s a neighbor, that’s difficult. God doesn’t give up on them. You think of some of the greatest giants within the Bible, some of the great men of faith that we could talk about. Paul, he was a murderer, persecuted Christians. David was a murderer and an adulterer. Moses, he was a murderer. And I just described to you some of the major characters that are given to us through through Scripture and some of the greatest stories of faith that exist in the Bible, because God reached into that heart and he changed it in their relationship with him. And so it doesn’t give us a platform to determine our own lives, who we’re going to love, because God and His great mercy loves everybody. But it says that we are to love like if we’re to break it down just for the world. Let me give it quick. Paul says his heart’s desires for the world to come to the knowledge of him.
Brother, my heart’s in prayer for them. My heart’s desire in prayer for them is for their salvation. Loving the world with the heart. How do we love that world? We begin to pray from our heart that God would save him. Not only that, but with the soul. Paul reminds us in Titus chapter three. Remember where you were. Don’t look down your noses at people. Remember where you came from and the miracle that God had to work in your heart, in your life to even begin to to to dream of changing and to molding you in his image. So we are a collection of sinners. There’s nothing perfect about us. And we all have these fallacies and and sin that keep us from our relationship with God. And there is nothing perfect about our church. Matter of fact, we welcome all sinners here. It says in Titus three, for we also once were foolish ourselves. We were disobedient. We were deceived. We were enslaved in various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God, our Savior, and His love for mankind appeared, he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done, but by his mercy he saved us. And God is that same miracle. God, working in the souls and hearts of other people, tells us in Peter.
Sanctify Christ in your hearts. Literally make Christ primary in your lives. Think about the gospel. Think about Jesus coming to this world and giving himself for you. Sanctify him in your heart and be ready to make a defense to everyone that asks. And I like what it says at the end with gentleness and reverence. See, God wants you to set him apart in his heart, that you may learn about him. As you learn about him, you can begin to share him with the world and make a difference for him. And as you share him with the world, here’s the way they want you to do it with gentleness and reverence. You know, it’s hard to hear, um, that you’re a sinner and you need a savior. And it’s hard to hear that if you hold a belief, it may not be true. And you don’t need to make yourself an obstacle for people to understand that. All you need to do is share that same mercy that came into your world with other people through Christ. And he says to do that with gentleness and reverence. Not only do we do that with our mind, but the Bible also tells us with strength. Pick up your cross and follow me. And Jesus’s call for the believers wasn’t an easy call. Think about carrying a cross, just as Jesus has done, and Jesus has called you to pick up his cross and follow him to Christianity, following Christ.
Being a disciple is not for wimps. Jesus has called you to a commitment and a sacrifice of of extreme proportion. The demonstration of our commitment to this world is what keeps our focus. Let me just close with this verse. This will be the last verse I share with you guys today. Paul wrote this to us in first Corinthians chapter nine and verse 19. This was an address to people who maybe thought that their their church life was all about them and what they could get and the agenda that they could force. But here’s what Paul’s philosophy became. He understood that the purpose of life, the purpose of the church, is to make disciples. And in making those disciples, it begins by relationship with God. And God didn’t desire for that relationship with God to stay with him, but he desires for it to expand to others, starting with the church and out into the world, and understanding that Paul understood that his role also was not focus on himself, but to think about this world as he focused and sanctified Christ in his heart and his mind. And he said to the weak, I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? And here’s the part.
We’re going to cross home plate together. Run in such a way that you may win. See God’s goal for us. He’s got a plan. He’s got a desire. And just like the Apostle Paul used God to was used by God to speak this. We are running the bases together and what God’s desire for us is to come around first, second, third and all the way back to the home and we cross home plate together. We celebrate that win because God is working in us, and he’s working in the hearts and minds of other people as well. Run in such a way that you, as a body of Christ, may win. The only reason these two commands exist in our Bible is because God has extended his hand of love to us. By his mercy and grace, we are able to be where we are today. Jesus Himself is not asking you as a church to give anything more than he has already given himself. That’s how you know the mark of a great leader. Jesus has sacrificed it all and just asks you as a church to return that love. One of the commentaries I read said this. Here we find two commands simple enough for a child to understand. Short enough for anyone to remember. Sweeping enough to include every possibility. Strong enough to stand the test of time.
God will never require anything else of his creation, and he certainly has no reason to require anything more. It is all included in these two laws. So, church, here’s the question this morning as we close in a word of prayer. Um, do you want to be on God’s plan? God’s desire to love him with everything that you are, and to let that loving relationship with God so begin to change your heart as he sanctifies within you, makes you pure and holy, that you go into this world and you begin to love others towards him as well. And that same truth that set you free in Christ, and experiencing his sacrifice for your sins and growing with him is that same truth. He desires for this world to know as well as they grow in that relationship with him. That is your job, that is your calling, and it is your privilege. There is no plan A, you are it. And the success of God’s mission being carried out determines to your obedience to surrender to his call and will, and for us as a family, to be focused. Let’s close in a word of prayer. God, I pray that our hearts become passionate towards being focused on this one. Command God to see that what you desire for us is just to grow close and and God, your desire for us is to to surrender to you and just love you.
God, I thank you that you haven’t asked us to do that blindly, but you’ve provided the way and and coming to the cross and dying for us to to demonstrate your love towards us. And while we were just wretched and sin and God, what an opportunity it is as people, having been changed by you to go out into this world and say God, when they deserve justice, we give grace and love as well. I’m thinking of living in Utah and the extent of our calling, just to reach out into this world and say, Jesus loves you. Jesus wants to grow closer. I pray that that just be on our hearts and minds, that we can come as a church and grow in that together. Encourage one another in that. God, make it fresh on our lips and our hearts and our minds that when we leave, we may be able to share that with this world and declare it boldly to everyone from our immediate neighbor to the rest of this world. We may shine your truth and love for you. God. We thank you for this morning blessing our time. God, we just pray you bless the rest of our week. Be with us. Keep us close to you and it’s in Jesus name. Amen. Don’t forget if you’re going to the park today to RSVP, let Greg and Richie know for the youth event. We got the well in the back. We’ll start raising money.