Love One Another: Presence Over Social Media

Don't just like the post, like who they are. Get involved in their lives. See, one of the greatest weapons the first century followers of Jesus had is because they were so persecuted. They loved each other with this radical unifying love. And if anyone had a need, do you know what what what they would do? They would take their own possessions, they'd sell it, they'd take the money, and they'd use it to meet the need of that person in their community. In fact, the scripture says they were so generous and so loving that there was no needy people among them. They got involved in each other's lives. [01:38:56] (35 seconds)  #LoveWithAction

There's something special, something powerful when we come together with other believers and seek God in prayer. There's power and presence. Think about it this way. God didn't shout his love from heaven. He showed his love on earth. He stripped himself of all heavenly glory and became one of us, Jesus. In fact, his name is Emmanuel, god with us. He lived with us. He loved those that most others rejected. He poured his heart into those that the religious community said they're not worthy. He ate with, dined with, fellowship with, tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes. [01:26:58] (41 seconds)  #EmmanuelLove

Love people. Really love them. Be present in their lives. We can send a text and we can say, I'm thinking of you, but I I don't get that. If we're thinking of them, why don't we just say I'm praying for you and pray for them? We're not into just positive thinking. We're into the power of prayer here. We can make a phone call. That's great. Phone calls are good too. We can talk. And even when it comes to being present at church here, we can watch online. We can watch it later. And there's nothing wrong with these things at all, but there is something powerful about being present with people. [01:29:09] (35 seconds)  #BePresentPray

But if if we are consumed with it, it can actually hurt our relationships and rob us from that which god values most. And we need to manage how we use social media. So I wanna raise three issues that I think technology magnifies in our relationships. It doesn't cause, it magnifies it. The first one is the term friend is evolving. For example, a friend, it used to mean somebody that you did life with. Now a friend can now, a friend can be somebody that you've never met in person, that simply follows you on Facebook or another platform. [01:14:05] (40 seconds)  #RedefineFriendship

In fact, sociologists now have phrased what they call deferred loneliness. Makes sense, doesn't it? We feel lonely, so we post something. We say something. We get immediate feedback, and it meets this short term need, but we're deferring a longing for intimacy, and we're deferring that into the future. And the loneliness we feel that we we we are deferring it for another time. We're living for likes, but longing for love. We're hooked on this instant gratification, and it's changing the way we do relationships. [01:16:19] (39 seconds)  #DeferredLoneliness

And the skeptical world, looked on, and they're like, I'm not sure if I really believe that Jesus rose from the dead. I'm not sure that I really believe what they believe, but my goodness, I really want what they've got. I want that love that they've got. And Jesus said it this way, they will know that you are my disciples by the way you love one another. The reason why I preach this with such passion is because I know that God loves people more than anything. And I can sense and taste a a taste of what it will look like when we are true lovers of people. [01:39:30] (41 seconds)  #KnownByLove

Sometimes we put our god in a little box, and our our view of who he is is just really little, but he is infinite, infinite in love, infinite in resource. Sometimes we hold out our hand, but there's so much more to our god than than his infiniteness. He is absolutely infinites and infinite. And, lord, I just pray this morning that you will open our eyes to truly how big you are, how magnificent you are, how wonderful you are, and just begin to to let us see how good you are, how much you really love us and wanna be with us. [01:09:32] (41 seconds)  #GodIsInfinite

It's it's so true. Our perspective of God is very important. But what he what is God thinking when he's thinking about you? He actually he loves you. He loves you. He loves you. And here's some descriptions of what love looks like. One Corinthians thirteen four to eight, love is patient. We could say, god is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self seeking. It's not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. [01:21:36] (34 seconds)  #LoveIsPatientKind

Many of you probably heard me say it. I pinched it from somewhere else. Love is always seeking the highest good for another. Love is always seeking the highest good for another. If I'm saying, Samuel, I love you. And I'm sitting there going, oh, I wonder how much money he's gonna give me. I wonder if you're gonna take me there. You know? If if my attitude towards him is not his very best, well, then I can't say that I'm actually loving him. And in our relationships, I believe love is the aim. [01:22:34] (32 seconds)  #SeekTheBestForOthers

You can write it down if you want, but it's not that difficult. I I don't know what to say or how to comfort you, but I'm here for you. And sometimes that's just enough. Just being there, honestly, it's it's enough. But sometimes people around you don't know what you're going through. They don't know what's going on because you haven't told them. So it's important, yes, to put yourself in the right place, but it's also to share a really good to share appropriately with people around you because I know there's people sitting all around us here now that have got stuff going on in their lives. [01:30:29] (41 seconds)  #ShowUpAndListen

And this was about, like, quarter to eight in the morning. And I walked across the car park, and I don't know if you know that when the band's practicing here in the morning, it's on the speakers outside as well. And I'm I'm listening to the worship music as I approach, and it's like I lifted. I walk in the door and there's people here already, and the first person I saw was pastor Luke, and I lifted again. By the time we meet for our prayer at 08:00, this is like fifteen minutes, I was ready to go. Simply, I'd put myself in the right place. I started to be around people that were just leaking life, and and I was really lifted. [01:26:14] (42 seconds)  #FindLifeInCommunity

They come up with ideas how to be generous, and by their generosity, they stand. I love the thought of getting together. Maybe Samuel and I are getting together, and we we we we come together and we go, hey. How can we how can we love on Josiah today? How can we do our very best to show him that we really really love him? It kinda could be the sneaky snig sniggering thing. How can we bless him? How can we bless him? I I love the thought that's given here in the Bible. We plan, we scheme, we think about how we're gonna love one another. Wouldn't it be amazing to get together and do that? [01:24:42] (35 seconds)  #LoveByDesign

Just just get it into you, and I say that strategically as well because the messages that are that are spoken here at Harmony are not just some random pick that oh, what should we talk about this week? Oh, let's that one. It's it's not. The holy spirit is leading and drawing us through a a pattern of growth, a pattern of moving us into where he is taking us as a church and as individuals. So they're not just random things. You see, we when we as part of this church, we are ushering in the kingdom of God as Christ is building his church. [01:10:59] (37 seconds)  #SpiritLedGrowth

So I would the the structure of the church at that stage was that at the beginning, we'd sing a song and then there was a thirty second meet and greet. I would come after the meet and greet because I didn't wanna talk with anybody. It's just where I was at. And then the at the end of the service, there was one last song after the preach. So after the preach, I'd bail. I just didn't want to talk with anybody, but I knew I needed to be in the right place, and I put myself here. And after a while, I got asked to do something. I got asked to play keys on the stage, and and just starting to engage with people again was actually part of my healing. [01:31:42] (38 seconds)  #EngageToHeal

It's a picture of who God is. It's a picture of how God looks at us when he says he loves us. I love this little this little thing and and follow me. I'm only gonna say it once. What do you think God thinks when God thinks about you? Because what you think God thinks when God thinks about you determines what you think when you think about God. Is that true? Say it again, Samuel. I'm not gonna say it again, Samuel. You should have been listening. [01:21:06] (29 seconds)  #GodThinksOfYou

And when I've made the effort to actually go and see people in their moment of grief, you're sitting there in their lounge just after one of their loved ones has passed away, and this thought can actually stop people from going when you ask the question, what do I say? What do I say? It can stop us sending a text. It can stop us making a phone call. It can stop us going when we think, what do I say? You know, a number of times, the answer for me is, I have no idea. I don't have any great words of wisdom, so I'll simply say this. [01:29:52] (37 seconds)  #JustBeThere

If some of us need to rediscover the power of practicing presence and being together with other people, it's actually really good for us. I remember it was a couple of months back. I woke up in the morning. I wasn't sick. I was just feeling really flat. I don't know what was happening. And I thought, oh, gonna go to church. This is a Sunday morning. And I thought, oh, yeah. I could go there. I'm not doing anything super important. I could call in sick and say I'm not bothering. But I didn't. I felt the holy spirit say, just just go, Andrew. Just go. And I came. [01:25:36] (37 seconds)  #PracticePresence

And my prayer is that you don't walk out the door without sharing that somebody because we wanna do life together, and we want to to pray with you. We wanna love on you. We want you to know that you are very much loved. I applaud people for putting themselves in the right place even when they're struggling. In the process for me of leaving the police, I got into a place where I was I was quite depressed, not majorly, but a little bit anyway, and I still knew I needed to go to church. [01:31:10] (32 seconds)  #DoLifeTogether

I've messed up too many times, but there is a real freedom that comes with knowing Jesus. As we come into communion, I think it's really important that we know who Jesus is in our life. And the beauty is that God came and became one of us in the person of his son Jesus, who was without sin, without sin completely, And he became sin for us on the cross. He died and he rose again so that anyone anyone who calls on his name would be saved. Every sin in your life would be washed away, and you would be brand new. Maybe you're sitting here, you're searching and longing for something. Let me tell you what it is. You're searching and longing for a relationship with God through Christ. Nothing else will satisfy. Many of you, that's why you're here today and and you sense that. You know there's more. [01:41:09] (70 seconds)  #FindFreedomInChrist

God is a relational God, and he created us to love us and to love one another. And we can love each other from a distance with technology, but we can love us love each other so much more face to face. So I don't know what this means for you, but I I want you to really think about it. It might mean that you ask somebody to lunch today or next week or during the week, and you sit across from that person and just let the conversation go. And you just listen and you pray and you laugh and you tell stories and you love on them. It might mean you do something crazy. See, in our society today, we you've made it if you lived in a walled community, in a gated community. You've made it. [01:32:40] (44 seconds)  #FaceToFaceConnection