Love Like Jesus: Costly, Radical Forgiveness and Repentance

Truth and love were always delivered with compassion, not condemnation. Love without truth, loving Jesus without truth is shallow. And sometimes you find out how much people love Jesus when it comes close to home. Loving Jesus without truth is shallow, but also truth without love is crushing. Jesus helped both perfectly in balance. In a culture that's forgotten what real love is, Jesus gives us this incredible pattern. We can love people deeply without affirming their sin. We don't put up with sin, but we do put up with people, even people like you and me who don't deserve it. We can speak truth clearly without condemning them. This is not compromise. It's Jesus. [01:04:54] (50 seconds)  #TruthAndLoveBalance

The world world around you loves with conditions. I love you if you agree with me. I love you if you look like me. I love you if you're my political persuasion. I love you if you and you can fill in the blanks. I love you as long as it costs me nothing. Love cost loving Jesus will cost you everything, pride and arrogance and pretense. Loving Jesus will be the most rewarding thing you've ever done and also the hardest thing because we all try to do it in our own strength instead of his strength. He is the model for love. And that's what Jesus says, you have a higher calling, a higher standard. Love your enemies. Do good to them. [01:06:42] (52 seconds)  #LoveCostsEverything

I like so much that sometimes we label people as bad people or heathens or the enemy because it feels safer than loving them. But Jesus calls them lost, and Jesus calls them hurting, and he came from the hurting and the lost and the broken like you and me. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us, Romans chapter five verse number eight. Jesus did not wait to be to clean ourselves up, he just died for us first. He didn't wait for us to come near to him, he drew near to us. He didn't wait for us to say yes to his sacrifice. He just gave himself so that we could come. Jesus loves when it's undeserved. And here's the second story. [01:11:35] (42 seconds)  #UndeservedGrace

Loving like Jesus in scripture is never a feeling. It's a commitment and a promise. I love you, God, more than anything else, and I love people like you love people. Loving like Jesus, first and foremost, is a call to Jesus. If the highest place I sit is at your feet, if the one word you speak, Lord God, that's enough for me. In a world like ours, it's a call to him. It's a call to him other than anything else. It's a call to turn the other cheek. It's a call to go the second mile. It's a call not to post when you're upset or when you're not upset. It's a call to love people like Jesus loves you. How much does he love you? He gave everything for you and none of us deserve it. [00:57:14] (62 seconds)  #LoveIsCommitment

Truth and love were always delivered with compassion, not condemnation. Love without truth, loving Jesus without truth is shallow. And sometimes you find out how much people love Jesus when it comes close to home. Loving Jesus without truth is shallow, but also truth without love is crushing. Jesus helped both perfectly in balance. In a culture that's forgotten what real love is, Jesus gives us this incredible pattern. We can love people deeply without affirming their sin. We don't put up with sin, but we do put up with people, even people like you and me who don't deserve it. We can speak truth clearly without condemning them. This is not compromise. It's Jesus. [01:04:54] (50 seconds)  #SpeakTruthWithLove

Most of us in this room, if we're honest with ourselves, it's so easy to love people who love us back. It's so easy to care for people when they care for us back. And especially, we know, sometime down the road, they're gonna treat us good like we just treated them. But how about when they despitefully use you? How about when they do things at work that undercut you, that cost you a promotion? How about the people pick on you at school because you're a follower of Jesus? Do you love them? No way, pastor. Uh-uh. That's a love I've never had before. That's the love Jesus says you have to have. [01:05:49] (41 seconds)  #LoveTheUnlovable

You and I are vessels. The word of God says that we are temples of the Holy Spirit. But you know what God wants to do in this temple? He wants to clear us out. He wants to clean out his temple so that he's the only thing there. But some of you have rooms in your life that are full of pain and sort of anger and sort of bitterness, and you tell with your hands raised, oh, God, I love you so much. I would do anything for you, God. And you walk out the door and something's going to be said by a family member that you can't stand or a coworker and what's gonna rise up in you is not love but hate. And Jesus said, you can't have blessing and cursing out of the same vessel. [01:10:28] (44 seconds)  #EmptyToBeFilled

Did you hear me? The pastor, how can I write this? You have no rights in Jesus. When you came to Jesus, you gave up your rights. My lord and my god special. I asked, I'm an American. I have my rights. There's no American section in heaven. And there's no Democrat section in heaven or Republican or Independent. How come that didn't get the applause of the first one? Maybe Jesus knows us better we know ourselves. Can I say this to you? What God is saying is, here's what the world says. I'm flipping it upside down. This is where this love of Jesus becomes unmistakable because many of you hold tightly to your hurt. [01:09:09] (63 seconds)  #SurrenderYourRights