Embracing Love: A Journey of Faith and Discipleship

Summary

In this heartfelt message, I reflect on the journey of founding and leading Saddleback Church for over 43 years. It has been a privilege to serve, love, and pray for the community, sharing in both their joys and sorrows. As Kay and I deliver our final message together, we focus on the core of our faith: saying "yes" to God and living a life of love.

Kay begins by emphasizing the importance of moving from being part of the crowd to becoming a true disciple of Jesus. She draws from Mark 8:34, where Jesus calls His followers to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him. This involves setting aside selfish ambitions, surrendering control, and overcoming fear. Kay shares personal experiences of suffering and loss, underscoring that these trials are not punishments from God but rather the result of living in a broken world. Despite the presence of evil, God remains good, and we can trust Him with our lives.

I then build on Kay's message by urging everyone to live a life of love. This means loving not just those who are easy to love, like family and friends, but extending love to everyone, regardless of differences. Love should be our highest aim and greatest ambition, as it reflects the character of God. I highlight several scriptures that emphasize the importance of love, such as Ephesians 5:2 and 1 Corinthians 13, which remind us that without love, our actions and achievements are meaningless.

To cultivate a life of love, I suggest three practical steps: continually remind ourselves of God's love, spend more time with God in His Word, and practice choosing to act in loving ways. Love is a choice and an action, not just a feeling. By making love our top priority, we align ourselves with God's purpose and experience the endurance and strength to face life's challenges.

Key Takeaways:

1. Saying Yes to God: Embrace the call to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. This involves surrendering control, overcoming fear, and trusting in God's goodness despite life's challenges. By doing so, we move from being part of the crowd to becoming true disciples. [08:34]

2. Living a Life of Love: Make love your highest aim and greatest ambition. Love should extend beyond family and friends to include everyone, regardless of differences. This reflects God's character and fulfills our purpose on earth. [33:10]

3. The Power of Love: Love is more important than anything else. It holds us together and gives us the endurance to face life's challenges. Without love, our actions and achievements are meaningless. [40:08]

4. Practical Steps to Love: Remind yourself of God's love, spend time in His Word, and practice choosing to act in loving ways. Love is a choice and an action, not just a feeling. By prioritizing love, we align with God's purpose. [53:49]

5. Endurance Through Love: Love provides the strength to endure difficult situations. By injecting love into our actions, we find the persistence and determination to overcome challenges, reflecting the love of Christ. [06:20]

Youtube Chapters:

- [00:00] - Welcome
- [00:12] - The Birth of Saddleback Church
- [01:09] - Privilege of Serving
- [02:11] - Last Message Together
- [03:39] - Say Yes to God
- [04:32] - Jesus and the Crowd
- [06:25] - From Crowd to Disciple
- [08:34] - Distinctive Marks of Discipleship
- [10:15] - Denying Self
- [13:14] - Overcoming Fear
- [17:33] - Shouldering Your Cross
- [23:18] - Following Jesus
- [27:21] - Making the Invisible God Visible
- [33:10] - Live a Life of Love
- [40:08] - Love is More Important
- [53:49] - Practical Steps to Love
- [06:20] - Endurance Through Love

Study Guide

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
1. Mark 8:34 - "Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.'"
2. Ephesians 5:2 - "And walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
3. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 - "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."

#### Observation Questions
1. What are the three distinct markers Jesus mentions in Mark 8:34 for moving from the crowd to being a disciple? ([09:02])
2. According to Ephesians 5:2, how are we instructed to live a life of love? What example are we given? ([35:12])
3. In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, what does Paul say about the importance of love in relation to spiritual gifts and sacrifices? ([44:12])
4. How does the sermon describe the transition from being part of the crowd to becoming a true disciple of Jesus? ([06:25])

#### Interpretation Questions
1. What does it mean to "deny yourself" and "take up your cross" in the context of modern-day discipleship? How might this look in everyday life? ([09:02])
2. How does the sermon suggest we can cultivate a life of love, and why is this important for our spiritual journey? ([53:49])
3. In what ways does the sermon suggest that love is more important than other achievements or actions? How does this align with 1 Corinthians 13:1-3? ([44:12])
4. How does the sermon address the fear of surrendering control to God, and what assurances are given about God's character? ([14:32])

#### Application Questions
1. Reflect on a time when you felt part of the "crowd" rather than a true disciple. What steps can you take to move closer to discipleship as described in Mark 8:34? ([06:25])
2. Identify a person in your life who is difficult to love. What practical steps can you take this week to show them love, as encouraged in Ephesians 5:2? ([35:12])
3. Consider the areas of your life where you seek comfort and control. How can you begin to surrender these areas to God, trusting in His goodness? ([12:07])
4. How can you remind yourself daily of God's love for you, and how might this change your interactions with others? ([53:49])
5. Think about a recent situation where you acted out of self-interest rather than love. How can you choose to act differently in a similar situation in the future? ([59:00])
6. What is one specific way you can practice "choosing to act in loving ways" this week, even when you don't feel like it? ([59:00])
7. Reflect on the statement "love is more important than anything else." How can this perspective influence your priorities and decisions this week? ([40:08])

Devotional

Day 1: Embrace the Call to Discipleship
To truly follow Jesus, one must move beyond being a mere observer and become a committed disciple. This involves a conscious decision to deny oneself, take up one's cross, and follow Him wholeheartedly. It requires setting aside personal ambitions and surrendering control to God, trusting in His goodness even amidst life's challenges. This journey is not about avoiding suffering but understanding that trials are part of living in a broken world. Despite the presence of evil, God's goodness remains steadfast, and by saying "yes" to God, we align ourselves with His purpose and become true disciples. [08:34]

Matthew 16:24-25 (ESV): "Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.'"

Reflection: What is one area of your life where you find yourself holding back from surrendering to Jesus? What would surrendering this area to Him actually look like in terms of daily habits?

Day 2: Love Beyond Boundaries
Living a life of love means making love your highest aim and greatest ambition. This love should not be limited to those who are easy to love, like family and friends, but should extend to everyone, regardless of differences. Such love reflects the character of God and fulfills our purpose on earth. By choosing to love others, we demonstrate God's love and make the invisible God visible to the world. This love is not just a feeling but a deliberate choice and action that aligns us with God's will. [33:10]

1 John 4:11-12 (ESV): "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us."

Reflection: Think of someone in your life who is difficult to love. How can you intentionally show them love today in a way that reflects God's love for you?

Day 3: The Supremacy of Love
Love is the most important virtue, surpassing all other actions and achievements. Without love, our efforts are meaningless, as love is what holds us together and gives us the endurance to face life's challenges. It is the foundation of our faith and the essence of God's character. By prioritizing love, we align ourselves with God's purpose and experience the strength to overcome obstacles. Love is not just an emotion but a powerful force that transforms lives and relationships. [40:08]

Colossians 3:14 (ESV): "And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."

Reflection: Reflect on your recent actions and achievements. How can you ensure that love is at the center of everything you do?

Day 4: Cultivating a Life of Love
To cultivate a life of love, one must continually remind themselves of God's love, spend time in His Word, and practice choosing to act in loving ways. Love is a choice and an action, not just a feeling. By making love our top priority, we align ourselves with God's purpose and experience the endurance and strength to face life's challenges. This intentional practice of love transforms our hearts and minds, allowing us to reflect God's love to others. [53:49]

1 Peter 4:8 (ESV): "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins."

Reflection: What practical steps can you take today to remind yourself of God's love and choose to act in loving ways towards others?

Day 5: Endurance Through Love
Love provides the strength to endure difficult situations. By injecting love into our actions, we find the persistence and determination to overcome challenges, reflecting the love of Christ. This endurance is not about avoiding hardships but facing them with a heart full of love and compassion. Love empowers us to persevere and remain steadfast in our faith, even when circumstances are tough. It is through love that we find the courage to continue and the hope to overcome. [06:20]

Hebrews 10:24 (ESV): "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works."

Reflection: Think of a challenging situation you are currently facing. How can you infuse love into your response to this challenge, and what impact might that have on the outcome?

Quotes

If any of you wants to be my followers, he told them you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. In the amplified version it says Jesus called the crowd together with his disciples and he said to them if anyone wishes to follow me as my disciple, he must deny himself which means set aside selfish interest, and take up his cross, expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come, and follow me, believing in me conforming to my example in living and if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in me. [00:09:00]

I got the idea that if I fully said yes to God I mean like just laid it all out there and said God I am yours you can do with me as you want anytime anywhere any place I belong to you that to really do that from the depths and the core of who I am that God's response would be to hurt me that God's response would be that the bottom would fall out of my life that the wheels would come off the bus that everything would go to hell in a handbasket in about three seconds if I fully surrender to God like like he's this cosmic guy sitting up there waiting for us to say yes to him so that he can go that was the moment I was waiting for now you look what I'm gonna do as though that's the kind of God we're dealing with. [00:13:41]

God is good that is a misperception and a complete character assassination of God if that is our approach to him if if we think that if we really say yes that he will unleash havoc in our lives in response it causes us to try to withhold parts of ourselves like withhold relationships um God we play this deal or no deal with God um God I will love you I will serve you I will be yours but don't touch my children God I love you I will serve you I'm yours but don't you touch my marriage God I love you truly I'm yours I'm yours but if you leave my family in need all that are off and we act as though we need to protect pieces and parts and parcels of our heart and our affections and our relationships from God because if we give them to him he might what take them away. [00:14:35]

I want to take just a quick look at these three distinguishing marks so these three distinguishing decisions that can move us from being part of the crowd to being a disciple of Jesus Christ the first is he says put aside selfish ambition put aside selfish ambition a couple other words that explain that a little bit would be to deny yourself to surrender to God those are some of the words that Jesus used well to be honest that's not a very pleasant or easy place to start because most of us are not particularly interested in surrendering we're not particularly interested in saying no to ourselves we're not particularly interested in shifting our focus away from selfish concerns or selfish ambition we're pretty much about us. [00:10:01]

The second distinguishing mark of or how to move from being part of the crowd to being Jesus disciple it's a hard one if that first one wasn't hard it gets a little bit harder from here because what Jesus says is in verse 34 a disciple must shoulder your cross the amplified says a disciple will take up his cross expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come visualize the scene again Jesus is talking to this crowd of people he's talking to his disciples and I wonder I'm just wondering just speculating but I'm wondering if out of the corner of his eye in the periphery of his vision Jesus didn't notice a man over here carrying a cross up to the site of crucifixion where he would die and it reminded Jesus to say to these who were listening to them I identify with that man because I too am going to shoulder across and die. [00:17:37]

If you and I are going to follow Jesus fully we have to be disturbed enough about some of the evil some of the brokenness some of the pain some of the suffering in our world that we move from that place of comfort and control and we say God if you want me to give my very life on behalf of others in the way that you did for me my answer to you is yes if you are willing to grapple at this level with Jesus with God about your commitment to him and you take those baby steps of saying yes God I I want to learn what it means to deny myself to set aside the focus on my own selfish ambition I want to I want to be willing to be disturbed by what I see in this world to the point that if you ask me I will give you my very life it will ruin you it will ruin you and it will take you to this third mark that Jesus laid out it sounds so simple follow me those sound like the simplest words in the English language doesn't sound like a very high bar but then you see what Jesus said about following him he said believing in me conforming to my example in living and if need be or perhaps dying suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in me. [00:22:00]

Live a life of love live a life of love inject love into everything you do and express love to everyone you meet now I know what you're thinking you're thinking well Rick I already live a life of love are you sure are you sure I'm not talking about loving your family and loving your friends that's easy to do anybody even an atheist can do that loving your friends loving your family loving those who are lovable doesn't require God's spirit in your life not at all anybody can do that but living a life of love means you make a conscious effort to show love to anybody and everybody and all people with no exceptions regardless of how they look what they believe how they vote and every other difference that we see in our society. [00:33:10]

Everything you do must be done with love whoa there's no wiggle room in that verse everything you do must be done with love everything yeah even little things yeah you think of a thousand ways to show love in everything you do uh you could give somebody your parking spot out of love you could you could say a kind word to everybody you meet out of love you can refuse to be snarky on social media out of love you can overlook an irritation everything literally means everything now I know you say uh I I know Rick this is a nice ideal everything you do you do in love but is it really that important next verse Colossians 3 14 tells us love is more important than anything else I don't know how to get any clearer love is more important than anything else love is what holds you together when you're coming apart holds you together in perfect unity. [00:39:32]

Seek a life of love as if your life depended on it because it does okay I hope you're getting the message here living a life of love is the thing God wants more than anything else from you he says seek a life of love as if your life depended on it because it does what does it mean to seek it means you search for something with all your heart uh you don't just do it casually it's a pursuit it's a it's a pursuit that you keep going on until you get it to seek means to focus it means to give your total attention let me ask you what gets most of your attention never thought about that I think about it all the time what gets most of my attention what do you typically focus on most each day God says I want your first goal in life to be love I want your highest aim in life to be loved I want your greatest ambition in life to be loved to live a life of love and show it to everyone. [00:41:31]

Learning to love better better than you are right now yeah you love but you need to go a lot deeper so do I learning to love better should be my first priority for the rest of my life will you do that will you make learning to love better the first priority for the rest of your life why should I do that well let's look at another passage you know the famous passage in scripture on love is called first Corinthians 13 it's Paul's love letter it's it's quoted at weddings everywhere first Corinthians chapter 13 first three verses verse 8 and verse 13 gives us four powerful reasons on why this ought to be your top priority in life not anything else this ought to be your top priority in life because it details in first Corinthians 13 how love or life minus love equals nothing. [00:43:36]

Keep reminding myself how much God loves me that's the first step keep reminding ourselves how much God leaves me we love because God first loved us now how do you do that how do I keep reminding myself we build it into a habit and build a habit of somehow every hour thinking about God really loves me what has God done for me and reviewing the goodness and graciousness and greatness and grace of God you might want to this week just to start this habit set an alarm on your phone uh maybe once an hour and when that thing goes off remind yourself pause how much God loves me in John first John chapter 4 verse 7 and 9 and 11 says this love comes from God it gets perverted but all love comes from God and God showed how much he loves us by sending his only son into the world so that we can have eternal life through him this is real love and the rest of the verse says this and since God loves us that much we surely ought to love each other anytime you don't feel like acting in a loving way and that happens to me a lot you've forgotten how much God loves you at that moment you've forgotten how much God loves you we love because he first loved us God never stops loving you even when you act in unlovable ways how many times you've heard me say you can't make God stop loving you. [00:53:49]

Practice choosing to act in loving ways now I intentionally use this phrase practice choosing to act in loving ways choosing to act in loving ways because it corrects two big misconceptions about love first love is a choice people act like someone well I just fell in love like what you didn't have any choice no you're attracted you don't have any choice over attractions but you do have choice on who you love and you choose who you're going to love and choose who you're not going to love it is an act of the will you choose who you love you choose who you won't love it's your choice love is a choice if it were simply an emotion God couldn't command it you can't command an emotion I command you to be happy when you're sad I command you uh to be funny I command you no you can't command an emotion love is a choice number two love is an action it's something you do it's not something to talk about love creates feelings really good feelings but love is far more than a feeling it's an action and it's a choice and it's easier to act your way into a feeling than feel your way into an action it's far more than words or emotions it's behavior and so you can actually practice choosing to act in loving ways and if you don't feel loving just start acting loving guess what the feelings will come love is like a muscle you strengthen it with practice you strengthen it with use and you get better at it you get more skilled at loving. [01:00:39]

Chatbot

Transcript

What was the most surprising thing in this sermon?

Were there any personal stories shared?