THE GOSPEL OF JOHN: Love & Betrayal

Pastor Steven Osborne
Transcribed by DaVinci Resolve 18
Transcription cleaned up by ChatGPT3.5.

I’m doing training every Wednesday night for about a half an hour where I’m trying to learn some software in studying the Bible and hermeneutics. And there’s just so much and I don’t get a whole lot of time to actually learn it. And again, there’s just so much to it in different books. So I’ve signed up for this training, and this guy used an illustration that was so helpful. I thought, well, I’m gonna steal that and I’m gonna apply it to this morning because I think it works.

What’s that? (Borrow.) Borrow, thank you. You probably grew up in church, huh? Okay, I borrowed.

And yeah, I think it will apply and hopefully it will be helpful. I think a lot of times when we study God’s Word, it can feel a little bit like shopping at IKEA. It is all good and well, it is fun to go through the aisles, and they have the little arrow, right? Just follow the arrow, and everything looks good, the furniture… some fool has built all of that, right? With one tool. And so when I go in, and obviously when Vanessa wants some furniture or whatever it might be, you know, I kind of size it up. I’m looking for that furniture piece that has the least amount of pieces to it. It’s like, yeah, table, four pieces, maybe I can handle it. And then, you know, I take a photo of that because I know that four pieces are gonna get me as well when I get home, and then you grab your box like, “Man, this thing feels heavy.”

And then I get home, and then all of those parts multiply. Now there’s like a hundred pieces in there for this table. Like what happened to my four pieces that I saw there, right? And then in the box, you know, and when you sit there, and I’m the guy, you know? Venessa and Hailey, they’re probably in the hot tub somewhere, like laying in bed, they’re watching a nice show. I’m the one that’s gonna have to put that thing together. That thing that was supposed to be only four pieces and now it’s a thousand pieces, and I pretty much look like that, right? It’s like, okay, I was trying to avoid to study the manual, but I guess now I have to study the manual.

And a lot of times they give you these four tools as part of the box, right? That’s all you have, you know? And so you have the manual… and you guys call that something weird. What is that, a hex? What do you guys… Hex? Allen key. Okay. Yeah, we know it as Allen key in the way I grew up in South Africa, so get on with the program, okay?

And, you know, and then you have your supplies, and that’s all you have. Now it’s kind of creativity that comes to mind, and you try and follow these instructions, and it’s all in a different language, and it’s not Afrikaans or English.

So you try and piece this together with the little numbers, and I think a lot of times even too with Scripture, you can see, it’s like, man, here’s some of the tools, it’s kind of the manuals, I’m reading God’s Word, and then you look at the supplies, and it can feel overwhelming sometimes. How do I apply that? How do I live that out?

And so as we go through today, I want you to kind of think through some of these things like, okay, here’s the tools, here’s some of the supplies, here’s the manual. Alright? So we’re in chapter 13, John chapter 13. We’re gonna start in verse 18, and I just kind of a reminder from some of the past several weeks when you look at kind of moving on from chapter 13 to 19, it covers the last 24 to 36 hours of the life of Jesus. His public ministry is over. We see in chapter 13 that he’s having this intense and intimate moment with his disciples. He’s investing in their life, he’s sharing some really important things for their lives and their ministry before he’s gonna, you know, obviously die on the cross for us. So just to kind of give you in context as we think about the next several chapters. So if you have your Bible with you, please turn to John 13 starting verse 18. If you don’t have a Bible here, please grab one from the seat in front of you. If you don’t have a Bible at home, please take that with you as well.

I am not referring to all of you. I know those I have chosen, but this is to fulfill the passage of Scripture: “He who shared my bread has turned against me.” I’m telling you now before it happens so that when it does happen, you will believe that I am who I am. Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I sent accepts me, and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.

After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in his spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.” His disciples stared at one another at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.” Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

Those are kind of heavy words.

So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do it quickly.” But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out, and it was night.

When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself and will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: where I’m going, you cannot come.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I’m going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.

May God continue to bless his word.

I think several weeks when we were kind of setting the tone, we’re in that scene with the Last Supper. And culturally, the setting would have been maybe more of a U-shaped table. You had, not… as we think about a fancy dinner, the culture was to lean into your meal. So probably everyone was kind of leaning on their right hand at this table. It was low. We’re assuming from different passages obviously that Jesus was probably the guest of honor in the middle. And then, you know, the disciples around him. And we can see that on his right hand probably was John, and probably on his left was Judas.

And so they’re going through this meal, and Jesus is sharing with them about this very strange night. I mean, it’s already been strange a little bit with Jesus washing their feet, it’s like, “Thank you, Jesus, for making that very awkward for us.” And then he’s talking about, “Yeah, if I don’t wash your feet, you can’t be a part of me.” And now it’s going to get even weirder, and he’s going to say, “Hey, some of you or one of you are going to betray me.”

Somewhere in that moment, we see this image. Obviously, Peter was probably not directly next to Jesus, but he somehow gets a message to John, and it’s like, “Hey, John, you’re closest to Jesus, just ask him, who is that going to be?” And I like that passage where it says like, “John, the disciple that Jesus loved,” right? It doesn’t say John in that moment, but we know that is John. And so John… and so it kind of makes sense, so maybe Jesus is sitting like this, and you have John, and John is having conversation with Jesus, like, “Jesus, not sure what you’re talking about. A little weird night already. Who are you talking about? Can you kind of give me a sign here a little bit?” And it’s like, “Well, it’s going to be the one that I give this bread to.” And then he breaks bread, dips it, and then he gives it to Judas. But we can see that obviously the disciples have no clue. So, this is the context of this passage and some of the things that is happening. There is so much beauty and so much truth and doctrine in this.

And so, several things that we’ll work through, and I’ll highlight some of the things that really spoke to me, and through different things that I was reading and listening to, and I pray that it will challenge and encourage you this morning as well. So, we’ll just work slowly through some of these things. We’ll read there through 18 again.

I am not referring to all of you. I know those I have chosen.

So let me just pause there. Jesus is trying to communicate to them that he knows his disciples and he knows what Judas will be doing in the coming hours, and the betrayal that will happen. There’s some great encouragement for us this morning as we think about this world and all of the challenges. It’s easy to think, “Oh, God has no idea some of the challenges, the things that my family is going through. He’s busy in Egypt, He’s busy in Israel, He’s busy in Gaza.” And yes to all of those things. But at the end of the day, He knows His kids as well. Can I hear an amen?

And so God wants to have this intimacy and this relationship with us. He knows you well. Even if you don’t know God, that’s okay for now, but I want you to know that God knows you. He knows you. He created you. And He knows His disciples, and He knows their flaws. I mean, He knew all the stuff that Judas was going to do even when He picked him. You know, many times in my own life, I was just… early days of ministry and college and some of the things that I’ve done in my life, it’s like, “God, are you sure? Do you know what you’re doing trying to make me a pastor?” I am the worst candidate, right? It’s like, do you know my secret sins and things that if all of you know today, it’s like, man, I will feel so guilty. And we see this even with Judas, all the stuff that he’s gonna do, Jesus still picked him, and He gave him an opportunity. I believe throughout Scripture, we see that Jesus gives him an opportunity to repent and to figure things out that are going on in his heart. Obviously, he didn’t do it; there were some darker things going on in his heart. But I just want you to know this morning that Jesus knows you and He cares for you. You’re not alone. He doesn’t want you to feel like you’re going alone through some of these things.

My heart just, you know, just this whole idea about what’s happening in the world. I was driving from Adventurous Christians, it’s on Gunflint Trail just north of Grand Marais, and there’s a point where you don’t have any cell phone reception. It’s just beautiful, right? It’s hard, but it’s beautiful too. I only have one radio station that works, and it’s like talk radio that just kind of, I don’t know how it happened, but that just popped up, and it’s the only thing, and they were interviewing a family in Venezuela. I don’t know if you know this, but there’s about eight million people in Venezuela that’s being misplaced right now—they’re leaving the country because of the economy and the politics and stuff that’s going on.

So they’re interviewing this one family. They’re about to sell everything that they have to try and get to the United States. I’m assuming through this conversation that it wasn’t getting here legally, right? But they were selling their TV for $80, and then they interviewed this mom about trying… she went to the store in Venezuela somewhere selling her baby’s clothes because she was hoping to hold on to that because they wanted to have more kids, and suddenly that dream is crushed because it’s not going to happen in Venezuela, and they need this money to travel. So they’re talking about how they have to eat, like, twice a day. Sometimes they allow the kids to sleep in late because they don’t have money for the kids to ask for breakfast, right? And then one of the boys just developed asthma, and it’s $32 for his medication. And the dad is like, “How do I pick? Do I pick meds? Do I pick the food? What do I do?” And then they were talking about their journey… and again, I’m all for legal entry, and this is not the conversation we’re having here, but the dad was telling how they’re fearful because there’s a 60-mile area where they have to walk through a jungle. There’s some forest areas here that I don’t even want to walk 500 feet at night, right? It’s like, “I don’t know, there’s maybe a coyote, there’s maybe a bear.” But they were talking about some of the stuff that can happen next to people on this trail. So imagine taking your kid and walking through some of that trail for 60 miles, right?

And so, in that moment, I was just first of all, I was just like, “Lord, I am so grateful that I live here and that you have people that’s willing to pay such a price to get to the United States because of the hope of a better life,” right? And so in that moment, you know, my heart just felt like it was extended to that family. If I had a way to just send them money… So I was thinking last night, it was kind of date night again for us. Like Saturday nights, we try and date night. So I’m going it’s like, “Okay, do I just take...” So I think I’m thinking about this message and about $32 for those meds, and I have to take Venessa, and it’s like, “Okay, is it going to be McDonald’s?” It’s like, “Okay, I better step up my game.” So it’s like, I took her to a fancier place and it’s like $44. And then I was just like, “Man, I’m so grateful and blessed that I can… don’t have to worry about $44 in the sense that I can just bless my wife and say, “Man, I appreciate you,” without really thinking about that. I don’t have to pick asthma medicine.

But just that, as I’m driving and I see God’s beauty, that awareness of just, “Man, I am so blessed.” And yet I find myself complaining so easily about the stuff I don’t have. And that just really helped me to just have a sense of more gratitude. And I was telling the Lord as I’m driving with my good cup of coffee, I stopped at a place… Fika? Is it Fika? how you guys say it, Fyka? Fika? Say half-Swedish. And I was drinking out of a cup that said “uffda” at Grand Marais. I’m there, I’m now 60% Swedish. And, you know, it’s like, “Man, life is good.” Life is good to us this morning, amen? We are blessed, even if you’re dealing with stuff this morning, you’re still blessed. We’re in a good place. And here’s the good news: God knows you, even the hard stuff. God knows that family and the stuff that they’re going through.

So then He continues,

I’m not referring to all of you. I know those I have chosen, but this is to fulfill the passage of Scripture: “He who shared my bread has turned against me.”

So Jesus is now quoting a passage from Psalms, chapter 41, and says, “Even my close friend, someone I trust, one who shared my bread has turned against me.” And so Jesus is saying, “Hey, there was kind of this prophetic word back many, many years ago. Somebody was sharing that, and now, in a sense, here it is coming into fulfillment.”

And again, within a biblical context, when somebody is offering you that, you know, you’re kind of hanging out at home… ok, other side… hanging out at home, and somebody takes a piece of bread and they dip it in a good salsa, and they’re kind of feeding you. It was really... It wasn’t weird. It might be a little weird for us now if it’s not your spouse or your kid, right? I don’t know how well that will go if the staff tomorrow morning if we’re sitting there, and I’m starting to feed them chips and salsa, right? A little weird. But it was a compliment. Culturally, it was just to say, “This is the way that I honor you,” and to share bread talks about intimacy.

So here, you can see what he’s talking about is, first of all, it’s like, “Man, somebody that I mean, so, such a close relationship with is gonna betray me; they’re gonna turn against me.” So that’s what he’s talking about here.

Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me, and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.

And so Jesus in a sense is just saying, “Hey, I’m not done yet with sinning people. People need to accept me. If they accept me, they accept the Father, and they need to accept You if they want to accept me as well.” And so all of this isn’t clear. This is kind of that IKEA moment. The disciples probably… the box is open, they’re like, “One tool. All of the details here. What do we do,” okay? So just kind of think in that context.

His disciples started … at one another at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.” Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”

Now, I just want to hang here for several minutes. I love this. It says “One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved was reclining next to him.” Now, we can read many things, and there’s many great theological conversations around what this all means. Now, I don’t think we need to overcomplicate it. I can see three or four different angles to it, but I think here’s the heart of it: for John to have the revelation that he is loved by God, that he is loved by Jesus, and that just really spoke to me. In a sense, when we think about some of the things that is coming, where he’s talking about, “Now love God, love your neighbor,” right? The new commandment, the first commandment that we have here. For John to have the revelation that he is loved by God. I truly think, for many of us—because I have been there, I have lived this—it is still hard for us to think that Jesus really loves us. That he truly loves us.

This morning, I want you to know that God loves you. When you study the Gospels and you look at the pure gospel message, you know, we’re reminded in John, it says that God gave His one and only Son to die for us. And the motivation wasn’t to bring judgment; the motivation is love. And so we have this beautiful opportunity when we receive Christ as our Savior and when we’re His children, I want you to know this: you can be loved by God. Don’t allow the enemy to steal that identity. Don’t allow some of the things from your past and your mistakes that you have made—don’t make that your identity. That is not who you are. You are one of His, and He loves you. Somehow, we’ve got to get that into our heads, and then we’ve got to live that out and walk that out. Man, I am loved. Can we answer that? You know, from now on, if we answer our cell phones, and maybe it’s that wrong number, and it’s like, “Hey, who’s this?” It’s like, “Well, I’m the disciple that Jesus loves.” It’s a new identity, and I bet you when we start to live like that, it is going to change our insights, it’s going to change our spirit, it’s going to change our heart, it’s going to change our minds.

So let me ask you this this morning: Do you believe God loves you personally and intimately? I want you to know you can have this assurance this morning. Now, we don’t see this in John, but we do see this in Matthew chapter 26, kind of the same setting but from a different perspective. And there’s this moment where Jesus is saying, “Hey, somebody’s gonna betray me,” and then there’s a sweet moment where the disciples are going to say, “Okay, Jesus, is it me? Is it I,” right? And when you read that, you can kind of see that they’re upset about it; they’re emotional about it as they’re trying to figure some of this out. What is this moment? “What do you mean that there’s somebody in this group for three-plus years we’ve been doing life together?” And this was a shock on their system.

It’s fascinating when you look at this passage that nobody is expecting it to be Judas. Nobody is saying, “Yeah, I knew it was Judas.” Nobody! Nobody is saying that. That really got me as I was reading through the commentaries and different things. It’s like, yeah, that’s truly... I mean, everyone is in shock. Even when Judas is leaving, we see when he leaves the room, actually, the disciples are still thinking good things about him because they’re thinking that Jesus is sending him to go and buy some supplies. Nobody has any idea of the things that just happened, and they’re still thinking good things about Judas. So somehow in their ministry of doing life together for three years, sitting under the teaching of Jesus and all of the stuff that he saw, he had somehow the head knowledge, but there was still some dark things happening in his life. And that can be true in every church, right? In every setting. I mean, just if we’re honest, maybe a little harder word this morning. You know, just because you’re in church doesn’t mean that there’s some dark things going on in your life, and we might never know. You know, you can sit... we can all sit here all holy, and that’s the same, it’s a warning to you, to any pastor, any person that you follow. I mean, I just… don’t ever think I’m perfect because I am not. By the grace of God, I have no idea why he has picked me to stand in front of you, but it can be any of you. There’s no difference between me… and I have my own battles. I battle sometimes in marriage; I battle sometimes with raising a teenager. She is making it very easy for us, so I don’t have a lot of experience in trying to... she’s… I’m sorry if you don’t have a Hailey, she’s pretty awesome. So you can’t have her… or my wife. I don’t want that to maybe sound like weird, like… I like my wife too. Right?

But there’s… life happens, and there’s pride, and there’s jealousy, and there’s anger… things in my life, and many times I have to kind of do that same thing. I think this is good for us as disciples to say, “Is it I, Lord? Is it I? Is there some things here that I just need to bring to you, to bring to repentance?” Because if I leave it, if I don’t deal with it, it might mess up my life, and the sin might have severe consequences. It will have severe consequences on my ministry. It will have severe consequences on my marriage, you know, just… you name it. When we don’t deal with sin, it creates havoc, and it had significant issues, obviously, in the life of Judas, when we read that whole story. But I was just surprised that nobody knew that it was Judas.

And Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give the piece of bread when I’ve dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

I believe, still in that moment, that he had an opportunity to repent and to deal with his heart and to come clean. And it’s fascinating, still in that moment, as he’s still receiving from Jesus Christ, that Satan enters into his life. This was not a… when you think it’s kind of October and Halloween, and if… you know, I was thinking about maybe taking Venessa to a movie, but it’s like all scary movies with just this time of the month, like, I definitely don’t want to sit through that. I don’t want to take Vanessa to a scary movie on our date night, right? I’ve bombed enough with movie choices, so I got smarter over the years. But a lot of that, you know, we have this extreme image of demonic stuff, but this happened. I don’t even know if Judas knew what was happening, but Jesus could see in the spiritual realm some of the things that was happening here. And it says that Satan entered into him. And again, he walked away. Nobody knew except Jesus. All I can say is this: don’t mess with Satan. Don’t play with Satan; don’t play with things that will create that open door.

And you know, again, we’re human. We mess up. God is good. God will help us through, but there are consequences, and it can have an impact. So allow the Holy Spirit to lead you as we make wise choices.

Verse 31:

When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself and will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: where I’m going, you cannot come.”

Because he is going to the cross. He’s talking to Peter and his disciples, saying, “You can’t follow me. This is on me.” And this is a good reminder for us as well this morning again, that’s to say, need to go and die on a cross. Jesus did it. We don’t have to follow Him to the cross again in that sense. He did it; it was enough. You and I can experience redemption; we can experience the freedom of sin and the freedom of all of these bondages because Jesus did it. You and I don’t have to go through that suffering. There’s still some religions and beliefs—I don’t know if you’ve seen it—where they have to just kind of whip themselves, and the pain, and then there’s some traditions where they pick somebody, and they kind of go through the same crucifixion. And it’s like, why? It is done. It’s done.

Then 34,

A new command I give you: love one another as I have loved you. So you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, ‘Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.”

And praise the Lord, we’ll be able to follow later as well.

Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

A couple things, just when we think about this commandment about loving. I don’t know about you, but it’s hard to love. Last week, I shared with you, we have to… when we read God’s Word, we gotta say, “I’m all in.” We can’t say, “Oh, I like John 12, but I don’t like John 15. You know what? I like Romans 8, and I like Romans 10, but boy, Romans 1 and 2, I’m not going to take any of that.” And so when He’s telling us to live out this commandment to love God and to love people, we’re really actually supposed to do it. You know that, right? No? Is that new to all of you this morning? Ok, now I see why God sent me to Salem.

Now, easy to love you, easy to love people that look, smell, act the way I do, but are we willing to love the unlovable? Jesus did it. I was that unlovable. You were that unlovable. And He showed us the way. And here’s what I know: there’s no way that I can do this in the flesh or in my own strength. I cannot do it; I will fall short every time.

Now, a couple of things I want you to know. This is important. You and I can do it because God loved us first. He showed us the way. He didn’t say, “Okay, you love first, and then I will die on the cross.” He did it, He made a way, He showed us how, and He said, “Because I love you, because I loved you first, you can do it.” And this morning, I want you to know this: God’s love is unconditional. His love is unconditional. Ephesians 2, verses 4 and 5: “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” Don’t add anything else to it.

Somebody challenged me this morning by something that they posted on Facebook, and they said, “When we look at the event of the thief on the cross that was dying next to Jesus, when we look at that very deeply, that will mess with your theology.” It will truly mess with our Western culture theology because a lot of times in our minds, we still think about all the things we need to do before we can earn salvation. And here you have a half-naked thief that is next to Jesus on the cross. He’s got absolutely nothing to offer. He can’t go on his knees; he can’t go on a missions trip; he can’t give. Right? He can’t go to Bible school quickly. He’s got zero things to offer but just his faith, and that’s all that was required in that moment. Isn’t that beautiful? Don’t limit God’s love for you or for other people or other nations. Do not play that game; we can’t afford it. We’re supposed to love.

I mean, just look at 1 Corinthians 13:4–8. I usually preach this on weddings, and when I do premarital counseling. This is the definition of love: “Love is patient” (2 out of 10 for me), “love is kind” (maybe a 6 out of 10), “does not envy” (I think I’m okay), “does not boast” (maybe a 7), “it is not proud” (I don’t know, some days), “it does not dishonor others” (man, that’s maybe a 2), “it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrong” (man, maybe a half point out of 10 for me on that one, right?). And it continues, “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” When we read that, how much of that does it talk about feelings? Zero. He’s not talking about feelings in this. It’s like, “Well, I can’t do that. I don’t feel love for that person.” Nowhere does it say to love means we have to have that type of feelings. But this is it, this is God’s definition on what it means to love, and how are we doing with those things?

Now, I want to just go back again and say, look at… and I think here’s the answer. Okay, here’s the instruction, the manual piece. Just look at John 15. We will go into more details. John 15. Here’s a key: verse 4, “Remain in me as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” Here’s the key piece of it: to achieve this love, it needs to come from the Father. God needs to be… the Holy Spirit needs to be inside of you. You need to draw near to God daily. And again, we all struggle with that. Life is busy. But we will fall on our face every time if we’re going to try to do this in the flesh. We can’t do it; we need the power of God. We need God’s Word, to study it, for the Holy Spirit to make it alive in our lives and to transform us.

Alright, practical tools. Here’s the tools. Now we’re getting to the tool piece here. Okay, with IKEA. What does it mean? Because I was thinking about that just in my own life. Again, I don’t want to send you home today feeling like you’re looking at all the IKEA pieces, right? It’s like, “Okay, love, I got some of it, but what do I do with it?” So here I want to help you with some practical things.

First of all, you have to draw near to God; that’s where it’s got to start. Practical things.

Out of that: encourage and esteem one another. Let’s practice that, amen? It’s gotta happen in our lives; it’s gotta happen in this church, and it does. I’m very grateful for you.

Learn to listen. James 1:19, right? It’s like, “Man, be slow to speak, quick to listen.” So many things will be solved in our world today if we just create time to just listen. There is… we can show much love by listening. I had to practice that this week, and it was hard with just somebody, and I just said, “Okay…” a family member, I said, “I know you’ve got a lot on your mind. I probably have really good answers for you, and I can solve your problem in five minutes, but I’m gonna give you 20 minutes because I want to show I love you. Share with me what’s on your heart.” And they shared. And I tried to listen. I was going, “mm mm mm… I said 20 minutes, I’ll give him 20 minutes… mm.” Learn to listen.

Serve one another. Man, it’s not easy. Busy. Some nights I have to do stuff and serve, and I’m just tired. And sometimes I avoid my phone when it rings, and I know they’re gonna need something, but I try and answer. I just ignore Christo’s phone calls.

And pray. Matthew 5, verse 44: “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in Heaven.” We gotta pray. We gotta pray for enemies. We gotta pray for the craziness that is happening in our world.

And then, you know, just pondering this one: Refuse to wish misfortune on others. When we have been hurt, it’s easy to say, “Man, I wish this and this on you,” but let’s allow that spirit of love, God’s Spirit, to work through our lives. Don’t worry right now about the world; let’s start just with these practical things in your family, and in our church, and in your neighborhood. Let’s start there, and it’s gonna spill over.

But I want you this morning to maybe just start and say, “Is it I, Lord? How am I doing? Do I really know you? Is your spirit alive in my life? Is there some dark things that I need to take care of? Is it I?” And you only know if your love is flowing out of you, and if you’re loving people. If not, this morning, this is your morning to make right with Jesus and invite him and draw near to him. Start there, just draw near to him in this place. So let’s close our eyes.