Welcome to New Life, everybody. How we doing on a cold January day? Are we doing good? Yeah? All right, you got something warm in your hands? You got a coffee in your hands? You got something like that in your hands? Are you holding on to the hand of the person next to you? All right, just warming them up. That's what we're here to do, right? We're here for one another.
Well, hey guys, look, welcome. Glad to have you here at New Life. I want to welcome everybody at all of our campuses. My name's Jeff. I get a chance to serve as one of the teaching pastors here at New Life. And man, it is a joy to be a part of this church. This is a very loving, grace-filled church. You guys have loved me since day one that I got here, and that was like 25 years ago. And I hope that you feel the exact same way.
New Life has also been what I would just call a hospital for the hurting. It's been a place where so many people have walked through our doors, and they've found help and wholeness, and they've become people that are true followers of Jesus Christ. So if you're on a journey to discover who Jesus is, you came to the right place. Does anybody agree with me on that one, by the way? If you're on a journey to discover, come on. Yeah.
Hey, if you need your life changed by Jesus, if you want to become more like Jesus, you are also at the right place. Does anybody agree with me on that one? All right. Okay. Well, good. Good. That is fantastic.
So look, we kicked off a brand new teaching series. We just entitled it this. Didn't mean to be demoralizing or fearful about it, but we just said 30 days to live. Like, what if you only had 30 days to live? What would be the most important things that you would be focused on? And I think that that question in and of itself is an intriguing question. I don't think we ask ourselves those kinds of questions very often. What if I only had 30 days to live? What would I want to leave behind? And instantly my heart went to, well, you would want to leave a legacy, but what kind of legacy would you want to leave?
And then in praying about it and researching it, I discovered that, look, it really boils down to three critical things. Last week, Pastor Chris knocked the ball out of the park, everybody, when he helped us kick this series off. And he helped us understand that you've got to show more gratitude if you only had 30 more days to live. You have to show more gratitude. I would encourage you, if you didn't hear that message, please go back to mynewlifechurch.com where you can watch that message in our on-demand section. You're going to want to watch it, okay? Because look, if you only had 30 days to live, you would spend 30 minutes watching that. That's what you would do. And so I want to encourage you to go there.
Today, I want to talk to you about something that the minute I say it, you're going to be like, I already understand that one. And I'm going to say to you, I don't think you understand it completely, right? But here, if you only had 30 days to live, you would show more love. You would love more. In fact, I want to ask you a question. I want to ask you a question. I want you to contemplate it for me. In fact, if you're taking notes today or you've got your cell phone out and you have the ability to write some notes in, I just want you to think about a few names with me. I want you to think about this question. Who really loves you? Who really loves you? And I want you to think about who would be on that list of people that really love you.
Let me help you maybe define what that would look like. They put your needs ahead of their needs. Somebody that really loves you. They build you up in good times and in the tough times. They stood with you regardless of what your condition was. And they spoke truth to you even if it hurt a little. Who really loves you? Who is on that list? Who would be faithful enough to get onto that list that you would say, hey, this person or these people really love me?
In fact, I just want to give you a second. Just write that down for a moment. Just write it down. In fact, maybe just do this. Maybe would you just do this with me? I know it's awkward, but if you're sitting next to somebody that you came to church with, right, or you're just two seats away from someone that is sitting there alone, would you just turn to them really quick and would you give them one or two names of people that would be on your list of people that really love you? Come on. Just do that really quick. Just do that. Come on. This is the person next to you. One or two names. People that really love you.
Right now, I can tell already the rumbling. The rumbling, you got to the names very quickly. Anything beyond that, you started talking about where we're going to go to lunch. All right. So that's what you did immediately. It was kind of like you told them it was my mom and my dad. And then, oh, the way, hey did you check out that email by the way? And so you guys get so distracted so fast I can't let you get off the rails like that, all right? Okay, but you can quickly come up with some people.
Now I want you to flip the tables for a second because this is very important. Who would have your name on their list? Who on this earth right now would say you really love them? Right now, be confident, like, and don't beat around the bush. Don't drop the line, right? Don't lower the bar. Who would put you on their list? Can you think about that for a second? I'm not going to have you turn to anybody and share that with them, okay? But unless you're narcissistic, right, you didn't put yourself on many people's list. There are only a few people that you would even put your name on their list.
But let me ask you this, though. The people that you said they would put my name on their list, how did it make you feel? How did it make you feel that you said, well, my spouse would put me on their list? Or my kids, my kids would put me on their list? Or my parents would put me on their list? How did it make you feel? It should have added value to your life. You should have instantly felt a little bit of joy. You should have instantaneously went like, wow, my life matters. Right?
I mean, did any of you have somebody that wasn't in your immediate family? Did any of you jump outside of your immediate family and put a name and go, yeah, I think that person, that person would probably list me? And this is not an arrogant thing. This is just like a factual thing. They would list me. They would, and I would, they would be able to prove the fact that I really, really love them. I was with them in the tough times. I stood with them on the mountains. I was with them in the valleys. Right? I've spoken love to them, even though it hurt them a little bit.
So I think when we start to contemplate, if I only had 30 days to live, I think one of the questions you would start asking yourself is, how could I get on more people's lists? How could I end my days with more people going, Jeff Baker really loves me? Insert your name. Right? I think that that would be one of your goals in life. One of your goals in life would be to see how many people would say, man, you really love them. So I would ask you, do you want to be on more people's lists? Do you want to learn how to love more? Because if you only had 30 more days to live, loving more would leave an incredible legacy for your life.
So what makes love so powerful? What makes love become one of the top three things that you would focus on if you only had 30 days to live? What makes it rise to the surface? Well, God's word tells us this, that love is the greatest force in all of the universe. First Corinthians 13:13 says this, that there are three things that will last forever. Would you read that with me? Let's start at the beginning. Read it with me at all campuses. Three things will last forever: faith, hope, and love. Read it out loud. Boldly. And the greatest of these is love.
It's the one thing that is greater than anything else. God's word says three things will last forever, but only one of them is greater than all of the rest. And that is love. And I can ask you why, why is love the greatest? Because it's the character of God. It is the very essence of God. When you know love, you know God. If you claim to know God, but you don't know love, you don't know God.
1 John 4:7-8 says this, dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God, but anyone who does not love does not know God. Why? For God is love. It seems so simple, but yet so profound at the very same time. This verse tells us very clearly that love comes from God, and anybody who loves, they know who God is. Why? Because God is love.
Did you realize that when you love, when you end up on someone else's list and they say, yes, you really love them, did you realize that you are modeling who God is to them? It is profound. So love is God. God is love. That means that the very DNA of who God is, is love. And what I love about God is that then he pulls back the veil and he goes, do you really want to know me? Then you got to know what love is. And if you want to know what love is, then he writes it right there in his word. It's like as if in the middle of the entire Bible, God pulls back the veil and he goes, do you really want to know who I am? Look right here.
First Corinthians chapter 13, verses 4 through 6. Love is patient and kind. It's not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It's not irritable. It keeps no record of being wrong. It does not rejoice about injustices, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. This is God. You can go back through this and you could insert, God is patient and kind. God's not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. God does not demand his own way. God is not irritable and God keeps no records of being wrong. God does not rejoice about injustice, but God rejoices when truth wins out.
Like you could insert God right into the middle of that and you would be discovering who God is. Why? Because God is love. Then on the heels of that, God turns around and he goes, look, I give you a command in Matthew chapter 22. Here's my command to every single one of you that listens to me. To Jeff Baker included. Love the Lord with all. With all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Don't leave anything out. Don't keep anything in reserve. Love the Lord your God with all. And then he turns around and he says, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.
He draws this picture for us that love has two dimensions to it. It has a vertical dimension to it. Love the Lord with everything. It has a horizontal dimension to it, to love one another as we love ourselves. Therefore, the picture of love becomes the very essence of our faith, the cross of Jesus Christ.
So with that understanding, if you only had 30 days to live, how would you love more? It's one thing to understand love. It's one thing to start grappling with the fact that love is God. But when you boil it down to the very practical, if you only had 30 days to live, how would you show more love? And I would suggest to you, right now, right now, right now, right now, right now, right now, right now, right now, right off the bat, that you would start loving those who God put in front of you. Does that sound too simple? Just to love those who God put in front of you?
Because one side of me goes, that sounds too simple. The other side of me goes, but look at human behavior. We have a hard time doing this. We've got these little things called cell phones, and they distract us from loving those who are in front of us. Go out and eat lunch today and see how many people are sitting around their tables looking at their cell phones versus talking to the person in front of them. I just use that as an example. Look at our fast-paced lives where we run in and we run out of things. Look at the design of our neighborhoods. Most neighborhoods are designed in some capacity, whether the garage is attached to the house or detached in the back of the house. It is to isolate us, to keep us from being with others.
We live in a world where it's me-centered and me-focused. But if you only had 30 days to live and you wanted to learn to love more, then you would start focusing on loving the people God put in front of you. I have a little motto in my life. This motto helps keep me, I think, more humble. This motto helps keep me more kind. This motto helps keep me more joy-filled. This motto helps me stay more purposeful. This motto helps me to give more of myself wherever I'm at, and that's simply this. I happen to believe that the most important person on planet Earth, listen to me, I happen to believe that the most important person on planet Earth is the person that's in front of me.
And instantly inside of you, you want to argue with me. Instantly you're like, yeah, but what about your wife? What about your kids? Well, hear me out. I just happen to believe that if I'm in a third-world country and I'm sitting down with somebody that I've never met before, that the most important person on planet Earth is the person that's in front of me. And I'm sitting down with somebody that God divined my life to be with. The most important person on planet Earth is the person that I'm standing in line with, and all of a sudden we engage in a conversation.
See, I just happen to believe that everywhere I go, whether it's to get gas at a gas station, it's to be at a grocery store, God willing, that never happens. It's to go shop for clothes, again, torture. Torture! Or it's to hop on an airplane and fly halfway around the world. I just happen to believe that everywhere I go, God is the one who's directing my steps. Does anybody else believe that about their life? Do you really believe that the basic minutiae of your life God cares about? Do you really believe that God is a part of every single minute of every single day orchestrating your life, or do you not? Because if you don't, then you're never going to be able to love the person that's right in front of you. Because for you, that person will just be a nuisance to your own agenda that you're trying to accomplish.
But when you start to believe, and you slow down, and you start to recognize that your obedience is to the lordship of Jesus Christ in your life, and that he is the one who orders my every step, then that means this, that if I'm at a coffee shop, and I'm trying to get something done, and someone walks through the door, and we start engaging in a conversation, and they sit down at the table, it just happens to be that's the most important person on planet Earth right now. Now, watch this, until my wife calls. Because how many people know that when your spouse calls, they're number one. But here's the deal. My wife already knows Jesus is number one, and she's number two.
I wasn't talking about my priorities. I'm not getting my priorities screwed up in this. What I'm talking about is my minutes. My minutes are my priorities. I'm not talking about my priorities. I'm talking about my priorities. My minutes in life are different than my priorities. My priorities are never going to change. Jesus first, my wife second, other people come somewhere. But if you're with me, and we're one-on-one, and we're driving down the road, you're the most important person on planet Earth.
See, I think for you to love the people God put in front of you, and to increase in love, you're going to have to flip a switch inside of you, that does something very similar to what I have done in my own personal life. Mother Teresa would encourage you to do the same thing as well, if her voice has any influence in your life. I mean, she dedicated herself to serving the poor and the sick in Calcutta, and she tells a story from, she used to tell a story from time to time about an old man who was in their care, who had sores all over his body and who was ignored and was abandoned by others, and she would come alongside and have to bathe him and comfort him.
And here's what she said about him: that every person is Jesus in disguise. See, there's something about the person in front of you being the most important because the person in front of you is Jesus in disguise. If you want to start loving people more in the last 30 days of your life, which you know obviously for us that's not the story, so what does it look like to love better for the rest of the days of our lives? It is to start looking at every single person as if they were Jesus in disguise. How would you treat Jesus if he was in front of you? How would you treat Jesus if he walked into the coffee shop and interrupted your little work day? How would you treat Jesus if he sat down next to you on a bus or a subway? How would you treat Jesus if you were in the airport and you're sitting down now next to him and you're engaged? I mean, how would you treat Jesus? Because however you would treat Jesus is how we should be treating one another.
You'll love people better when you see people as Jesus in disguise, which by the way, Jesus told us the very same thing. He gave us the same example basically in Luke chapter 10 when he told us the parable of the Good Samaritan, where a man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho and he got beat up and left on the side of the road for dead. And religious people, people who claim to know God, just walked by him and ignored him completely, left him for dead. But then another man walked by and saw his wounds, and he stopped his journey. He allowed the person that was in front of him to become the most important person on planet Earth, and he stops and he ministers to the man's wounds, a complete stranger. He ministers to his wounds, he took him to a place of safety, and he met all of his needs.
In one act, Jesus says, this complete stranger ministered to the most important person in front of him, and he did what I asked him to do. He loved an enemy. He loved a stranger. He went out of his way to do that. And in one single act of love made a massive impact on that man's life. But at the same time, I would say this to you, that Jesus is also saying to us that when we love the person right in front of us, that Jesus is able to do a purity work inside of our own hearts. He does a priority work as well. He does something inside of us that otherwise could not be done.
And I want you to listen to this. Listen to what God's word says in 1 John about loving the person in front of you. Just listen to this. It's going to blow your mind, okay? 1 John 4:12. Here's what it says about loving the person right in front of you, right? No one, okay, so pay attention. Look at the screens. No one has ever seen God, period. Just stop right there. Nobody's ever seen God, okay? No one's ever been face-to-face with God, but watch this. But since no one's ever seen God, but if we love each other, then guess what? God lives in us, and then his love is brought to full expression in us.
Wait a minute. Nobody has ever seen God, but yet people have seen God. How in the world is that possible? No one has physically stood there face-to-face with God, but people have stood there face-to-face with God. Here's the profound truth. When you decide to make the most important person on planet Earth the one in front of you and love them as if they are Jesus in disguise, you are showing them who God is. Your simple act of love is revealing, is pulling the veil back, and it's showing them who God is. You may not even have known it, but so many of you over and over and over and over and over again in your life, even though you are not God, you are showing them who God is.
And so many of you are not perfect, even though you don't have it all figured out, even though you're still trying to figure out who God is. In the midst of that, and in spite of all of that, God has allowed you to be a reflection of who he is to the world around you, and you didn't even know it. Inside of you is a power that's greater than any power that you have ever grappled with, any strength that you have ever wrestled with. It is the power and the strength of the love of God, and when you show the love of God, you reveal the expression of who God is to the world around you.
I don't know about you, but I want to do that more. If I only had 30 days to live, that's how I would want to live my life. Are you with me on this or not? So express more love this week. Just do that. Express more love this week. Slow down and give people more time. Focus on those who are in front of you. Just listen to them. Sometimes, do you realize that you don't have to have all the answers to everything? Love is just you listening. Focus on those in front of you and listen to them. Speak more encouraging words this week. Jeff Baker, speak more encouraging words this week. I'm preaching this to myself.
How about this? Hug more people this week. I mean, don't be weird about it. My pastor said, I got to hug people. And you're going around hugging people, right? You're going to end up in jail. And I'm not coming to visit you. I'll send another pastor, all right? But I mean, seriously, like, those who you can hug, hug them. What I'm saying is, like, express love. I guarantee you, you will never regret speaking words of encouragement to others. You'll never regret hugging a person. Because if you've ever been in a situation where somebody that you know died quickly, what was your very first thoughts? What happened? You went back to the last moment you had with them. And unfortunately, too many people in that situation have regrets. I wish we didn't argue. I wish that I would have hugged them. I wish I would have told them just one more time, I love you.
If you only had 30 days to live, I'm just going to tell you this. You would want to be on more people's lists. I remember when that person hugged me. I remember when that person made eye contact with me and they spoke those words, I'll never forget, words of life to me. I remember that. I remember the moments. When they only had so much time left. But yet they spent that 30 minutes just listening to me. They made me the most important person on planet Earth.
Lastly, I would encourage you this week to express more love by being more generous. Use your resources. Be more generous. First, be more generous to God. Okay? Because you're going to see him one day. And I think you want to stand before him going, I was as generous as I could with you, Lord. With what you gave me, I gave it back to you. I think that's what you're going to want to say. Right? But then, also, how can you be more generous with others? You'll never regret that. Because remember, you can't take any of this with you. So you might as well use it to love the Lord. Right? And to love others. Are you with me so far?
All right. Hey, look, if you only had 30 days to live, let me give you one last thing. All right? How about do this? Stay close to the source of love. So you want to stay close to the source of love. Because, I mean, in all reality, there's nothing inside of you. You don't have like a crank inside of you that you can go, I'm going to love more. I'm going to love more. I'm going to love more. I'm going to love more. Okay, here I go. And I'm going to love more. You can tell yourself before you get out of the car and you walk into a meeting where you know it's going to be difficult, I'm going to be more kind in this meeting. Right? You can do that. But you cannot generate more love inside of you. God is the one who generates love.
Here's what 1 John 4:17 says about it. He goes, look, as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. You want your love to grow more perfect? The more you live in God, the more your love grows more perfect. The closer you get to the source of love, the more you reflect what true love is. It's like, look, I was just recently traveling and my cell phone, the battery was getting ready to die. And a buddy of mine, he gave me this little black box and he goes, hey, use this. And so he gives me the black box. And I'm like, okay, what am I supposed to do with this? There's no cord attached to it. He goes, just lay your phone on the black box, bro. It's going to take care of it. Sure enough, I lay my phone on the little black box and bam, my phone starts charging. And I'm like, what? This is awesome. You took something that was getting ready to be, you know, useless and you brought life back to it. Why? Because my phone stayed close to the wireless charger.
This is the same thing for your life. When you stay close to the source of love, then you become more useful and you can show more love. So this week, this week, right? Every day this week, here's what I want you to practice. I want you to practice a couple of things. Take time to reflect on the love that God has for you. Every day this week. Every day this week. So earlier in that last point, okay, you're going to make the person in front of you the most important person on planet Earth. And this point, this is going to be you and God. No one else is around.
And I want you to take time to reflect on the love that God has for you. And then what I want you to do is every day this week, in some capacity, I want you to make a move toward God. How would you make a move toward God? You'd be in his word a little bit. You might want to put on a worship song. Just take a moment just to worship the Lord. This you and whatever Spotify song is playing. How can you make a move toward God? Can you sit out on your back porch and, you know, with a cup of coffee, maybe not on a day like today. Can you bundle up like you're an Eskimo and sit on your back porch? With a cup of coffee. You're going to have to do this quick because the coffee's going to get cold in like three seconds. So you have to move fast, people. But can you find a place, get a cup of coffee and just let life slow down for a moment and just sit there and meditate on the greatness of God?
Look, I'm just saying to you that when you get closer to the source called God, your love becomes more perfect. Your love becomes more pure. It means that your love becomes more powerful.
So let's wrap this up. Let's remember this. There's no greater love than the love of Jesus. No greater love than the love of Christ. Jesus said this about himself in John 15:13. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. This is what Jesus did for us, guys. Look how great the love of God is for us. And God shows us this great love through Jesus Christ giving his life on the cross so that we can do one thing and do one thing really well better than anything else, and that is this, to show incredible love to others.
But we need God to increase our capacity on love. Is anybody here with me on that? Is anybody here that would say, man, you know what? I want to do this, Jeff, but I mean, I need God to increase my capacity to love more. Anybody with me? Come on, let me just see hands all over the place in all auditoriums. I need God to increase my capacity to love more. I need God to increase my capacity to love more. Okay. All right. That's good. We're going to pray about that.
But before we pray about it, what do we know to be true? Like what part do we play in this? Here's a couple of thoughts to consider. The more that you know the love of God, the more that you can love. So we have a part to play, okay? We want God to increase our capacity. We have to lean in and start learning the love of God for our life. I gave you a couple of critical instructions to do that this week.
The more important love becomes in your life, the more love you will show. But the urgency of like, man, today is the only day I'm guaranteed right now, this very moment. This is the only thing I'm guaranteed is the moment I'm standing in front of you. I'm going to make it the most important. I'm going to love more than I have ever loved before. I, not arrogantly, I, in a Jesus-loving way, want to be on more people's list that would say, I love them. I want my coworkers to feel that way. My neighbors to feel that way. Extended family to feel that way. I want them to say, Jeff Baker loves me more than almost anybody on this planet. Like, you want to be that kind of person.
So love is going to have to become more important to you. And you, your selfishness is going to have to become less important. Because you're leaving a legacy, my friends. What legacy are you leaving? So the more important love becomes, the more love you will show. Here's what else we know. That when you remember how short life is, you're going to be more important to your the more authentic your love will become. When there's an urgency, when you wake up every day thanking the Lord that, God, you woke me up and you gave me breath again today, I'm going to do everything I can because I don't know what happens through this day.
The more you remember that life is short, the more authentic your love will become. And when you keep those perspectives in mind, then you can pray and you can say, God, increase my capacity to love. You can pray. Pray for God. I want you to do this every day this week. Pray, God, increase my capacity to love. In fact, how about we do that right now? Can we pray that God would increase our capacity to love more? And if that's you, why don't you stand with me?
Jesus, you showed us the most incredible picture of love when you laid down your life for those who you call friends. And that's us. Lord, you call us friends. And it was the greatest love when you gave your life on the cross. And so, Lord, you did that so that we could show love to others. But, God, we don't know how to do it. We're not good at it. We're selfish. We're prideful. We're arrogant. We're self-centered. We're arrogant. We make life all about us. We consume more than we give. That's just us being open and honest with you, Lord, because we're human.
But, Lord, we believe that supernaturally you can increase our capacity to love. And we want to leave a greater legacy than we've ever had. And we want to leave a greater legacy than we've ever lived before in our life. And so, Lord, would you increase our capacity to love? We're going to do everything we can to get close to the source of love. We're going to do everything we can to remind ourselves that the most important person on planet Earth is the one that you divinely put in front of us. But, Lord, we need you to increase our capacity to listen more.
Increase our capacity to speak words of encouragement more. We need you to increase our capacity to stop making conversations about us and make it about others. We need you to increase our capacity so we have more grace and mercy for others. Lord, for some of us, we need you to increase our capacity just so that we would hug more. Lord, increase our capacity to love more that causes us to slow down and take advantage of the moment you put in front of us.
Lord, I'm surprised. I'm surprised by the thought that, Lord, the people in front of me are like Jesus in disguise. And may I never forget it. May that picture soak into my soul so that everywhere I go, I maximize the moments showing the love of God to others as I see Jesus in others. In Jesus' name, amen.
on Jan 19, 2025
