Sent as Beloved: Becoming a People of Deep Love

Right? If you wanna be a plumber, do you just read books and listen to podcasts on plumbing? No. Like, at some point, you need to work with water and pipes. If we want to be a people of deep love in the world, we actually need to learn from the holy spirit how to love. We need to actually do things. And, again, not out of our own power, but aligning with the Holy Spirit and learning how to love. None of us are there yet. Like, all of us are in process. None of us are Jesus, but all of us will, by the power of the Holy Spirit, become like Jesus. [00:37:14] (40 seconds)  #FaithInAction

He gathers some doubters and some worshippers. Man, this is a mixed bag of folks. I think often we think, oh, man. Perfect love casts out all fear. They're perfect. Like, they are so brave and willing to go, and I think we miss that Jesus calls doubting worshipers to be his witnesses in the world. He sends the not yet perfected people in progress, people struggle with doubt and sin to be his witnesses in the world. [00:43:55] (39 seconds)  #ImperfectWitnesses

The word here in Greek, for power is the word where we get the word dynamite in English. So the dynamite power of God goes with us to do God's work in the world. And it starts in Jerusalem, and what that means is it starts where you are. This is your sphere of influence. This is where you work, where you grab coffee. This is the block you live on, And it goes from there into the surrounding region, Monterey Bay, whatever towns are around you to the very ends of the earth. [00:46:02] (36 seconds)  #StartWhereYouAre

Stage two is all about learning. Yay. Good. Learn. But what often happens, particularly in the American church, is we get stuck as consumers of religious information. And we just stay here for decades. Oh, man. I'm man, I'm getting fed at this church. I'm gonna stay here. I'm not getting fed. I'm gonna find somewhere else. So we just church hop, and we become these sort of I I don't know. Whatever. Unsat whatever. You get the idea. The point is we get stuck here. [00:52:04] (31 seconds)  #FromConsumerToContributor

Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me for I am gentle and lowly of heart. But this idea that we participate, God sends the Holy Spirit into us, and we sort of yoke up. Right? This is a agricultural or husbandry. Is that the right word? Metaphor. Right? Of we are now in partnership learning from the Holy Spirit who is the spirit of Jesus. He's gentle and he's teaching us how to be like him, how to love God and neighbor. This is first Corinthians three. This is this idea that Paul says, yeah, I planted Apollos, this other guy, he watered, but God did the growth. We have this role. We have an active participatory role, but God does the growth. The spirit is with us. [00:34:46] (46 seconds)  #YokedWithTheSpirit

He wants us along for the ride to boldly proclaim the kingdom of God, to heal the sick, to set the oppressed free, to care for children and the marginalized, preach about the forgiveness of sins and the grace of God. The list goes on. Right? And we are invited to walk this path. Right? So that God's love and grace are heard through the ends of the earth so that every human community knows who God is. And as we do it, so that we become more like Jesus, a people of deep love, a people who are actually a blessing in the world. [00:49:32] (53 seconds)  #BeTheBlessing

I just think this is a really beautiful picture of the church. We are an intergenerational fellowship. Josiah couldn't hold that hose, but Matthew could hold him, and then he could hold the hose. We are not all invited to do everything. But as Matthew's holding Josiah, someone else is praying for a neighbor, someone else is driving the truck. In order to get the water where it needs to be, we all have a role to play. [01:09:51] (42 seconds)  #EverybodyHasARole

So often, we kick the can of actually loving people and learning to love until we're more mature. So then what happens functionally is that the faith journey becomes primarily about me and God and excludes neighbor. The faithful person is the person who attends bible study, is the person who has a really good prayer life, or whatever. And it's like we often don't even think about, oh, the person who's laying down their life in love in all of these ways. This can be a huge miss. I've been studying in Isaiah for the last few months. [00:54:07] (41 seconds)  #FaithIncludesNeighbor