SEP 23 2018 | Stuff Jesus Said S1E8 | Love One Another

Sea Change Church · Stuff Jesus Said · "Love One Another" Pastor Harry Wilson · September 23, 2018
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Awesome. Ava, Lucy, don't sit down yet. We need you. Come on up. Come on up. You guys are working hard today. You guys are reading the scripture. Let's have it. Hi, my name is Ava Belise, and today I'm going to be reading Matthew 10, 37 through 39. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life will lose it. And whoever lost his life will find it. Whoever lost his life for me, for my sake will find it. I will be reading Luke 14, 26 through 27. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and child and brother and sister, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and comes after me cannot be my disciple. Amen. Right on. Good job, guys.

I saw that second verses. I was looking out and I saw some smiles turned to like confused frowns. Like, what are we talking about today? My name is Harry. I'm the youth pastor on staff. And thanks for joining us on this youth Sunday. Pretty self-explanatory verses, right? Hate your family. We can kind of call it a day on that. Amen. No, not so much. So I have family actually here today. I got my mom and my sister flew out from New York to be here today.

Right? Wow. Look at the applause you guys get. I think probably after this verse, they're wondering why they're here. My grandparents are here today. And then my mother-in-law and my father-in-law made it out, took a trek from Orange County to be here today. Okay. So I love family, man. And so even though this verse is somewhat confrontational that we're speaking about today. And we're in the midst of a series called Stuff Jesus Said, looking at the words in red.

My millennial version is the mic drop moments of Jesus. And we're looking at these controversial statements, these things Jesus said that were provocative. And that's what Pastor Adam's been teaching on. And that's why we're in this verse today. And as I was asked to prepare a message for this series, in the midst of that, I had a friend come up to me. One of my really good friends. His name's Ben. I went to high school with him.

He was on my wrestling team. He even made it into my wedding. So I like this guy a lot. But he is a profound atheist, you could say. A strong atheist. And he brought this verse to me recently, about a month ago, and said, ha ha, Jesus isn't all so good. We love this Jesus that like cuddles with lambs, that loves everybody. And he brought this verse hoping that I'd be surprised like I'd never seen it before. Like, oh my gosh, no way, you know.

But he brings this verse. And so I entered this dialogue with him. And what I realized coming out of the dialogue is this is a confusing verse. And it is something that we have to talk about and we have to teach on. And so after that dialogue, I realized that's something I want to teach on today. So what's Jesus saying? What does this mean? Because as Christians, aren't we so often told that we're made for relationship, that we're made for communion?

We're often told, I'm made for communion with God, with communion with others. That's why we gather here on Sundays. Isn't that like part of our calling and our purpose? Aren't we built for this relationship? So what could this mean? And doesn't that idea go all the way back to the book of Genesis? In the very beginning, man in the garden and God. And God looks at man and he says, you know, it's not good for man to be alone.

And the interesting thing about that scripture is that man wasn't alone, right? He had God. Like God was there. This massive presence, the holy of holies was there with man. And God still looked and said, no, he needs, you know, he needs a suitable partner. He needs someone to partner with him in life. He needs this thing that becomes family. And so the idea that we're built for relationship is a deep scriptural understanding.

It goes back to the book of Genesis. And not only is it scriptural, it's a modern scientific understanding. We understand this today through modern science that we are built for relationship. I was doing just some research as I was preparing for this message this week. And I was looking at studies on loneliness. And there's a study that showed, and by the way, I know sometimes you might look up here and they're like, who is this 16-year-old looking kid telling me these facts, right?

I kept all my sources in your notes. So if you want to fact check me, please, I invite you. So loneliness, I found this, I love the giggles. I found this scripture, or not scripture, this scientific article talking about loneliness. And what they found was loneliness actually can kill you faster than obesity. That loneliness physiologically can actually kill you faster than obesity. And I put in your notes that it's a more potent poison.

And I just want to pause here for a second, because if you're in a state where you're like, man, that's me, that's really hard. Please, like, we'd love to talk to you. We'd love to get connected. Get connected at this church. Talk to somebody. I mean, any of the pastors or staff or people here would love to talk to you. But we find, even through science, that we are absolutely built for relational connection. Jonathan Haidt is a psychologist.

He's written several books. I really like his work. He's written many books, and he's also done a lot of studies. And in his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, something that I'm currently reading, he says this about relationship. Strong social relationship strengthens the immune system, extends life more than just quitting smoking wood, and reduces the risks of depression and anxiety. So it is clear, right? When we look at the science and we look at the deep scriptural understanding and we have those two things together, it's clear we are built for relationship.

So what is Jesus talking about here when he talks about having to hate our family in order to be a disciple of him? What does that mean? Doesn't it seem kind of contradictory? And one thing we have to do to start to understand this verse is we need to look at context. We need to look at the context of the scripture. And I love context. In my own walk, knowing about the context of scripture has been absolutely so important for me as I try to wrestle and figure out my faith.

I love context so much so we'll see how many times I can say it in this message, context. Pastor Joe Brandy, you guys know him. He's in France right now with Adam Stattmiller and others. I did not receive that invitation, but that's all right. I don't think I surf well enough, so I just wasn't invited. But I'm here with you today, so that's okay. He teaches our strength finders for the staff. He teaches strength finders, and we take this test, and we look at our top five strengths.

And my number three was context. And I don't actually, in context, know what that means. But I know that I love context. And so I came up with five keys for context of our scripture. And one is the author who wrote it. The author who wrote it. The audience, who they were writing to. The era, when it was written. The geographical location, where it's written. And that earliest primary interpretation. And those are important things as we dive into the scripture.

And we don't have the time to dive into all of the context. There's plenty of it to help us understand this verse. But for the sake of this message, what we will do is look at another powerful teaching by Jesus. Also in the book of Matthew, like one of our scriptures today. That might at first seem kind of contradictory. But I think will give us some light into what he's talking about here. So in Matthew 22, 36 through 40, I put this in your notes as well.

It says, This is a really interesting teaching by Jesus. This is a really interesting teaching by Jesus. Because we have, first we have, we'll call him a student. Because he acknowledges Jesus as rabbi. He says, Rabbi, teacher, what is the most important law? What's the most important? And there's a culture in Judaism at the time of rule following. Like if I can know the right rules to follow, if I can be in right line with God, and I know the rules, and I can stay in my lane, then maybe me and God will be okay.

And that's a big part of the culture in Judaism. So whether to trick Jesus or just to know, he comes and he asks Jesus, what's the most important? What's that rule that I can hang my hat on? What's the one rule to follow? And Jesus says, love the Lord your God with all you have. And love your neighbor as yourself. The second is like it, to love your neighbor. And Jesus wasn't asked for a second, right? He was asked for one verse.

What is the one thing to hang my hat on? But it's so important to Jesus that he includes the second, that we are loving one another. He wasn't asked for that, but he continues to expand that we must love one another. And this is because Jesus knows that when we start to love one another, when we move into, or when we start to love God, when we move into deep relationship with God, I become more fully human, more fully alive, more who I'm created to be.

And I look to God and then the fruits of the spirit, the things like love, joy, patience, gentleness, those things that are of heaven. If I'm sourcing those things from heaven, they will overflow in me and overflow into my relationships with others. And that is a key understanding as we move into loving God first. Because I can try to love people on my own, on my own strength, but turns out I run out of peace. I run out of patience.

I run out of love. I run out of kindness. So where are we sourcing those things from? God says we have to source them. What's up, girls? God says we have to source them from him first. That's a key understanding that he's number one. Source it from him first. What we find in this teaching of the greatest commandment is we can't fulfill the latter, meaning loving one another well, without the former, without first truly pressing in to God.

There's a study done in Princeton Theological Seminary that I think relates to this, because this begs the question of how well are we doing this? If we really are, if that's the idea, that we move closer in relationship with God and we love one another as well, how well are we actually doing it is what begs the question. And in 1973, Princeton Theological Seminary did a study trying to figure out how well do we love our neighbor?

And so what they did was they had two groups of students, one group who was going to, and these are all individuals, they don't know about the others and know they're in a study, but they're told that they're going to give a message on the Good Samaritan. And so they're left time in a building to come up with this message about the Good Samaritan. There's another group, this is the control group, who is told that you're going to just give a message about what you could do when you graduate school.

And what they wanted to see was if those individuals who are like engaged in Scripture, if they would be more likely, especially the Scripture about the Good Samaritan, which is all about loving and helping your neighbor, if those people are more likely to stop for somebody on the road and actually help them out. Are those people more likely engaged in Scripture to stop and help that person on the road than the other people who aren't necessarily engaged in Scripture?

The interesting thing this study found was no. There was no statistical difference between either groups, which is interesting for us as Christians. We're like, what's going on? What's happening here? Why is this different? What they did find in the study was that what served as a predictor of whether people would stop to help somebody was time, how much time they had on the road. And they were told three different things.

They were told one of three things. So they were told either you have plenty of time as they're finishing up their message. Why don't you head over and start the walk to go deliver your message? And so they're told either that or you're running a little short on time. You should start to kind of make your way over there. Or they were told you're late. You're already out of time. They're already expecting you. You need to get across campus and go deliver this message.

And what they found in this sermon is that 63% of people in the low hurry situations who had plenty of time stopped to help that person. And that's okay. That's more than half, right? We would wish it was 100, but it's more than half. And what they did, by the way, I should say, they placed an actor, somebody who needed help, who was like in distress and was crying out for help. So just know that in the study. And 63% of people stopped to help them who were in a low hurry situation.

45% of people in the medium situation, we see it drop a little, stopped to help in the medium hurry. And then when it was a high stress, high hurry situation, you've got to get over there and do what you're going to do, only 10% of people stopped to help. And even those who are preparing a message on the Good Samaritan were reported to step over the individual physically on their way to the message. Ouch, right? That is hard for us to hear as followers of Christ.

You're like, what are you talking about? But what's the point of this? The point is that when we are always on the go, as our culture continues to speed up, it turns out we don't love our neighbors as well. We lose sight of this all-important second commandment. If we're not slowing down, we start to begin to lose sight of this all-important, love your neighbor, second commandment that Jesus gave. And we start to, our vision narrows and we miss him.

So this is relevant, so relevant to us because our culture is always speeding up. And how do we, how do we begin to slow down? How do we begin to source all things from God, to have time to carve out with God and slow down throughout our day? This is bad news if you're like me and you're a prey while you drive, while you eat kind of person, right? Where you're trying to get everywhere and trying to get it all done at the same time and rush to class or rush to work.

And that's hard. And it's not that you can't make your car your sanctuary and pray. That all works. But is it enough? I think what this study shows is no. Is that we really need to carve out time, to source time from God, so much so that I get my space with God. And it's so important. And I'm alive with my father and I'm turning off my phone and I'm setting everything else aside. And I'm saying, God, it's you and me and nothing else matters.

It's as if I could hate everything else. Because right now, all that matters is my father. Because I know that if I'm going to love people well, I have to source everything from you. And I think Jesus uses this word hate very specifically. We would love to look at the Greek and find that it really didn't mean hate, right? We look at it and we're like, oh, it wasn't actually hate. It was like a small dislike. But that's not unfortunate.

I tried. Trust me. I looked at the Greek. It's not the case. It means it's, I think the other word was like detest. So not a ton better. He uses this word hate. And I think the reason is, is it evokes an emotion in us. It really evokes an emotion when he uses this word hate. And what we find and studies have shown that with individuals, with people, when you evoke an emotion in them, we remember things better. We learn better and we act more.

If that's why Jesus simply doesn't just say, you know, make God number one and everyone else number two. There's no, there's no emotion in that, right? He says, God is number one so much so that you must hate everyone else. And we're stirred and we remember and we're talking about it. I wrote in your notes that modern Christianity as a title offers us little separation from the secular, but it is through Christ's teaching of divine prioritization that we find relational transformation.

So the question becomes is how well are you, are we prioritizing God today? And if you're like me, you know that you could be a better brother, a better son, a better husband, a better pastor, a better friend, if you were better at sourcing your life from God. And I want you to know that this is an incredibly challenging teaching for me because I live my life on the go. I'm always running. I'm a full-time student. I try to pour everything I can into this youth ministry and I want to get home to see my wife.

And so I'm constantly on the go. And this is a challenging teaching for me. So what does it look like to wait? Maybe it's waking up an hour early, an hour early and spending 45 minutes in prayer to start your day. Maybe it's just allowing yourself enough time that you don't have to run to your office because you're late for a meeting. What is it? How can we shift the culture in our lives to slow down because it's clear that we need to?

They wrote this in this study, in this Good Samaritan study. It's in your notes. It said the ethics become a luxury as the speed of our daily lives increases. We need to slow down. And I'm not sure. My wife sitting over there plays the piano so beautifully. I love seeing her up there. It's awesome. And I'm not sure she loves the note about physically slowing down walking because she's like an Olympic speed walker. She just books it from where she goes.

She's got long legs, so her strides are incredible. And I don't have that. I call it the pastor pace. Like no matter how late I am, I just can't move that fast. And so often she's just dragging me along. So this helps make the point that even though sometimes those things that seem kind of ridiculous, like walking a little bit slower, might help shift the culture in our life. Those things might be powerful. Don't use the pulpit to win an argument, though.

That's not what I'm doing. I realize how that might sound like, yeah, he stuck it to her. But if your culture of your life is hurry, what this study has shown is that you're missing opportunity for altruism and connection. I'm going to say that one more time. If the culture of your life is hurry, then you're likely missing opportunity for altruism and connection. And this is the example we have in Jesus' ministry. This is the example we have in his life.

We're hard pressed to find in the Bible Jesus sprinting from town to town, rushing from town to town, even though Jesus has an incredibly important job. He's the Messiah, the living God on earth, come to bring God's kingdom to earth, spreading the good news, healing others. And you might think that he's like, I got to go here as quick as I can. I got to go here as quick as I can. There's a lot of sinners over here. I got to go there quick.

Just kidding. But he's running from town to town. That's not the culture we see in Jesus' life. Because if the culture of Jesus' life was hurry, they wouldn't have seen Zacchaeus in the tree as he walked by. He certainly wouldn't have heard his disciples bickering behind him about who had a higher place in heaven. I don't think he would have stopped to offer a teaching about how ridiculous that is. And he so often wouldn't have got off on his own to pray up in the mountains or wherever he went.

So often he left everything to go source things from his father. This is the culture of Jesus' life. It's not hurry. And that's hard. But how can we adapt to that? How can our life begin to look more like the culture of Jesus' life? He says this in John 13, 34 through 35. A new commandment I give to you. That you love one another just as I have loved you. You are also to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples.

If you have love for one another. People will literally recognize us by how well we love one another. And turns out we don't do it well in a rush. Turns out we do it better when we listen to that first commandment about hating our family. And going first and sourcing everything from God. If I do that first. Then those fruits of the spirit. Those things of the father. I'm sourcing life from heaven. Then that should overflow into my life.

And it's not a culture of hurry. We do that so much better. And that's how we are recognized by other people. That's how we are a light to this world. Is by how well we love others. How well are you loving others today? If you're like me you could do it a lot better. To love one another well. We must pursue God above all else. So that the fruits of his spirit seep into us. So that our following of Christ is not just a modern form of religiosity.

But a source of life so powerful. That it has a tangible effect on our world. And that's what we believe in this church. Right? We believe that if we can start to source things from heaven. Then that first corner of our heart might be affected. That number one corner. Our heart might change if I source everything from God first. And then if all our hearts are changed. If we're all having that corner of our heart affected.

Then this corner is certainly going to change in La Jolla. And then when we all go home to our neighborhoods. And our respective homes. Then those neighborhoods might change. Because all of our hearts are changed. And if all of our neighborhoods are changing. Then we begin to change the world. That's what we believe at this church. That we can change the world. Based on how we love one another. And it all starts with sourcing things from God.

Amen? I want to invite the worship team back up. As we go ahead and pray.