Love Is Not A Word It's An Action

 TRANSCRIPT

I thought I'd start with a moment that I think that many of you will relate to, and it was a late one afternoon. I was at Ravina Town Center and I was done. It had been a big day and I was exhausted and I wanted to get home, had to grab some groceries and so I'm hurrying past head down. Just wanna get out there when I feel this nudge to go into target.

I am not a shopper, I'm not a window shopper. There's nothing really about shopping centers that I enjoy. So I was like, oh man, what's, what is this? So I opened my bring app on my phone, like maybe I've forgotten to grab something. And the nudge is just like my memory, attempting to tell me to do something.

There's nothing on my bring, my, my List app. So I was like, what is going on? But I tried to dismiss it, but I couldn't shake it. At this stage, I'm nearly at the car park, but I walk back and I walk into Target and. That's when I saw her. But truthfully, I didn't really see her because I walked straight past her and she was sitting on a wheelie walker.

You know those frames. They also convert into handy little seats, and she's sitting there with her shoes beside her and a pair of slippers on the floor, and she's leaning down trying to put her shoes back on, and obviously she's been trying these slippers on. And I walked right past her because I was just in a rush.

I just wanted to get home. And then it hit me as I was already past her that maybe she was the reason that I'd felt that nudge, that little prompt to head into target. I. And so I turned around and I came back and I popped down in front of her and I said, can I help you? And she looked up with relief in her eyes and she said, yes, please.

I can't put my shoes back on. Anyway, so I'm, I kneel down in front of her and I'm helping her place her feet in her shoes and zipping her. She didn't even have laces to zip. It's very handy. Thought that'll be good. One day in life when I can't handle, but anyway, I'm helping, I'll put her shoes on and she starts sharing with me.

She's just turned 90 and she just had surgery the week before and this was her first like outing out, since that surgery. And she just talked about how she felt so alone and she said, thank you for stopping. You saw me. And I thought I didn't really, I really honestly nearly missed it. I could have in my busyness, just walked straight on by and it wasn't some life altering moment, but it did mean something to her.

And as I headed home, then in the car only. Delayed. Honestly, by only a few minutes, I found myself actually wondering how many of these moments do I miss? How many times am I too rushed, too caught up in my own stuff, too distracted to really see the people that are right in front of us. And in that moment, I was reminded about something that I learned in high school.

I was the science nerd back then. I did chemistry, I did biology, and I did physics, and I loved all of them. And so I thought this morning we could have a little physics lesson. Who's keen? The girls are keen. I got some physics lovers. All right, so do you remember, for those of you that are a little bit older, you have to cast your mind back a little bit further.

That was a subtle dig, wasn't it? Who remembers the difference between potential and kinetic energy? Okay, I've got a lot of blank faces. Did we do physics? No. Okay. Alright. Lucky you came to church this morning. Physics lesson 1 0 1. Picture a massive boulder sitting at the top of a hill. It's just sitting there.

It is loaded with energy, but it's potential energy. 'cause it is just sitting there. It's currently making no impact at all. But the moment it starts to roll, that potential energy turns into kinetic energy. That's right. And there is movement, there is momentum, there is impact. Stay with me. What if love was the same?

We can have the right intentions, we can care deeply. We can believe in compassion, but until we actually do something, it's just potential.

When we look at Jesus, his love was never just potential. He lived love in action. It was never stagnant. It was kinetic and the kind of love that Jesus had, it pulled him to towards people constantly. He didn't just teach about compassion. He actually lived it out, and whenever he saw people that were hurting, whenever he saw people that were lonely, whenever he saw people that were overlooked and rejected, he moved towards them.

His compassion moved him towards them. He didn't glance and then walked past. He stopped. And he acted. And whether it was healing people or feeding people or praying for people or just listening to people time and time again, we see Jesus compassion in action. And that challenges me because I can have all of the good intentions, all of the potential in the world, but if I am never moved to act.

Then it's just potential. And that is the theme that I wanna unpack with us this morning. This idea that our love can be kinetic, that there's power in seeing people. Acting. Maybe you've had moments like I constantly have where you wanted to help or you've seen someone but you didn't. And it's hard. And I understand, like we, that's the tension that we constantly live in.

We live in a fast paced world and our schedules are full with very little margin, and we're constantly, ru rushing from place to place and there is so much brokenness. Isn't there everywhere that we look and it's easy in the midst of our own busyness and in the midst of our own, overwhelm to some degree to just glance or just to keep scrolling or just simply to be distracted and pass by, and maybe we sympathize, but we do it from a distance often.

Maybe we want to help. We definitely don't wanna be the kind of people that ignore others, but we are tired and we're stretched and we want to make a difference. But maybe we wonder, can I actually do anything? But I wanna suggest to you this morning that loving our city and being for the people in our community isn't actually about massive grand gestures and heroic acts.

Maybe it just starts with seeing the people that are in front of you on the path that you are walking, seeing them, the way that God sees them, seeing them the way that Jesus does. What if being for the Gold Coast was that simple? Stopping to notice. And choosing to move toward the need 'cause we are meant to carry his presence into our homes and into our businesses, and into our workplaces, and in our schools and our gyms, and all of the places that we are gathering.

We carry his presence with us. And when we live like that, when we actually see people and we move towards them, that is kinetic love and that's what I wanna unpack today. So before we unpack some pretty awesome stories that Jesus shared about this kind of kinetic love, I wanna quickly touch on something that underpins the whole conversation.

So three different terminologies and the difference between them. So number one, sympathy. Sympathy says, I feel bad for you. Sympathy is often a really detached response. There's nothing up close and personal about sympathy. It actually unintentionally creates distance, but then there's a difference between sympathy and a beautiful thing called empathy.

Empathy actually says, I feel. With you. Empathy seeks to understand and to feel what it is that the other person is going through. It's a choice to actually share in what they are feeling, and it builds connection. And then when we have empathy, it can grow into something with movement. And that is compassion.

Because compassion says, not only do I feel with you, but I wanna help ease your suffering. That's what compassion does. It comes from a Latin word that means to suffer with and. It basically is empathy that is moving towards the need. It doesn't just acknowledge that there's pain, it steps towards it and wants to do something about it, and compassion.

This is what we see in Jesus time and time again. There's a beautiful story in Luke. It's recorded in the book of Luke 13, and Jesus in this passage is teaching in a synagogue and this woman. Basically who has been crippled for 18 years comes up to hear him. And in this moment, Jesus doesn't just see her condition that most other people were just seeing.

He actually sees her. He sees her pain, and he sees her weariness and he sees her humanity and he does not wait. You know what he says? He says, when Jesus saw her. He called her forward and he said to her woman, you are set free from your infirmity. In this story, it was actually the Sabbath, and at this time it was considered wrong to work on the Sabbath, like it was forbidden.

And so the religious leaders in this one statement were completely outraged that Jesus would do that. But he, Jesus, he was never driven by rules. He was driven by what? Compassion by love he saw, he felt, and so he acted. And that's what love looks like when it actually moves. That's when empathy becomes compassion, and compassion becomes action.

So I wanna start this morning with a verse that I. I would say all of us are familiar with, and I'm gonna go so far as to say, even if you've never picked up the Bible this morning in this room or you're watching online, you are probably still gonna be familiar with this verse. 'cause we see it at sporting events and we see it on placards often.

And it's John three 16. It's beautiful. It says, for God so loved the world. Oh cool. You can read this verse and give simultaneously. I love that. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him. Would not perish, but have eternal life. These are powerful words.

They were written by John 2000 years ago, but they still echo with that same life today. And to give you some context on this, Jesus is chatting with Nicodemus and he is a really respected member of the Jewish Council Back then, and just before this, we actually read that Nicodemus came at night. To question Jesus.

And I found that really fascinating. 'cause I thought, I wonder why he did that. Was that out of fear? Was it a little bit of like concern or maybe was it just curiosity? Was he and I think that maybe it was a little bit of all of those things probably. But he was interested to find out about this Jesus and this different way of life that he'd been teaching.

And so in this conversation, John captures the essence of the gospel in this one sentence, for God so loved. That's the posture that God has towards each and every one of us. Love. That's his starting point. That's his why. It's not obligation, it's not duty. It's love the world. The world, not just the good people, not just the religious ones, not just the righteous the world.

Every single one of us. The coworker that frustrates you, the family member that just causes you to, the neighbor that always complains, God includes all of them in. The world. And so what did that love cause him to do that he gave love moves. Real love acts. It sacrifices, it asks of itself, what does love require?

God didn't just shout, I love you from heaven, and then leave us to figure it out. He sent, he gave his most precious gift. The motivation of the cross was compassion, and so he gave his one and only son the best that he had to give. It cost him everything. That whoever believes in him, no exclusions, none.

We are all included. We are all included. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life for whoever. Believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Not just temporary help here and now, but eternal life, hope, forgiveness, restoration, life. Those are the things that we find in Jesus. So that to me is the radical nature of the gospel.

It shows me that we serve a God who is for our community. I. Who is for humanity? He is actively for us. He sees our brokenness and our sin and our need, and instead of pulling back, he draws closer. That is the God we serve. And if that is how God loves us, how can we not but love others the same way? Why?

Because he sees us. He sees our value. We are his image bearers. Every single one made in the image of God and so is every single person that we encounter so we can be for others because they are created in an image of God and because he is for them. You know what's easy to do as humans who fail, is that we can look at someone and we can think that their worth somehow is affected by the way that they act.

We see someone make a mistake or someone that does something offensive to us or someone who votes differently to us or whatever the case may be. And somehow in our humanness, we begin to judge and we begin to, I don't know, just treat them differently instead of seeing them as created in the image of God and.

I wanna remind you this morning that the sacredness of a person doesn't disappear because of a really bad day. It also doesn't get any better on a really good day. It's intrinsically in people because they are created in the image of God. And so Jesus, he teaches us to see people differently, not as categories, not as, their politics or their past or their opinions, but simply as people created in his image and deeply loved by him. And so to see people like Jesus is actually to resist the urge to write them off and to resist the urge to judge them and to look beyond circumstances or labels or behavior, and to just see their sacredness.

Being for others means choosing to love and to serve, honoring the image of God that is within every single person, even those that the world overlooks or dismisses, or that we personally might struggle with. And that's why one of our family values here at our church is honor and respect, because every single person that we encounter.

Is made in the image of God and every single person that we encounter is a person that God sent his son for and that Jesus willingly went to the cross for. And so when we see people truly see people the way that God sees them, our love can't stay passive. It's got to act, it's got to move because it becomes compassion.

And so I wanna share a story with you this morning that again, I think most of you will be familiar with. And it's one that I love and it is the Parable of the Good Samaritan. And I know that you've all heard it before, most of you, at least, I'm sure. But I ask you this morning just to be open to not just.

Oh, here we go again. But actually to listen and allow the Holy Spirit to challenge you with the kind of kinetic love and compassion that we should have for other people. It's found in the book of Luke. Luke records this story for us and basically to set it up, he says that there was a expert of the law, and he comes and he questions Jesus.

And he says he wants to test him. And he says, teacher. What must I do to inherit eternal life? And so Jesus, as he often does, very clever like this, he says, he turns it around and he says you tell me. What do you think? What does the law say? And he says he says this, love the Lord your guide with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus says after he says this, yes, you've answered correctly. Do this. Just do this and you will live. But the man, he wants to justify himself a little bit. And so he has another question for Jesus. He says who is my neighbor? And this is not. Like an innocent question here. It's actually an attempt to draw boundaries.

He's like saying how far does this whole love thing have to go? Really? Who do I really have to care about? Who do I really have to show compassion to? And so Jesus tells a story and he says that a man was going down to Jerusalem. From Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers and they stripped him of his clothes and they beat him, and they went away, leaving him half dead.

And then Jesus continues, he says A priest happened to be going down the same road. And when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. And then Jesus says, a second man came by a Levite and he came to the place and he saw. He saw him, but he too passed by on the other side. These were religious leaders.

They should have stopped right. They saw a man in need, they should have stopped. And let's pause just for a minute to understand a little bit more about what Jesus' audience at the time would've heard. The priest. He was high status. He was like this high status religious guy and he's probably, maybe.

Just finished his temple service and for him touching a dead body and it says that he looked half dead. So for him, touching a dead body would have made him ritually unclean for seven days. So that would've cost him time, and it would've cost him potentially some income. I don't know how all that worked back in the day.

It also would've cost him. Reputation. So he's got a bunch of excuses, right? And then there's the the Levi. I guess in today's terms, maybe we could say he was a really all in. Church volunteer ministry volunteer. And he possibly was following the priest's lead. He, maybe he wasn't sure either.

Maybe he was afraid of being ambushed 'cause it was a dangerous stretch of road and he was concerned for his own safety. Either way we're not really sure, but the point is they have excuses. Jesus doesn't really let those excuses fly. And before we judge them too quickly, I wanna just say at this point, aren't we similar?

Not literally. We don't literally cross the road and walk on by, but I'm too busy, I'm running late. I've got the kids with me. It might be unsafe. Maybe it's a scam. Someone else will help.

I wouldn't know what to say. I'm tired. Maybe next time we might not literally cross the street, but we cross it with our choices. We cross the street with our excuses. We disengage. Compassion isn't convenient. It's costly, but that's what makes it powerful. And so let's continue on with the story it says, but a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was and when he saw him.

He took pity on him. Now, this sentence would have stunned Jesus followers. For those that were listening, Samaritans were seen as outsiders. They were. Religiously, culturally, ethnically considered outsiders. And so there was actually hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans. And so if this story, as Jesus was telling it would continue following the script, they would've expected the Samaritan to do the same thing.

To cross the road and to keep passing by or possibly do something even worse because of the hostility that was there. But Jesus flips the narrative, doesn't he? And he says when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and he bandaged his wounds and he poured on oil and wine. And then he put the man on his own donkey and he bought him to an inn and he took care of him, and then it doesn't stop there.

The next day he took out two denari and he gave them to the innkeeper and he said, look after him and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense that you might have. The Samaritan saw the man and he was moved by compassion and he acted. He acted and the cost was significant. If we think about that in today's kind of world two, Ari was about two days wage.

So depending on your job we are looking what, 400, $500 maybe cost of a hotel night, couple of hundred dollars, probably more here on the Gold Coast First Aid supplies. 150 bucks, I don't know. But then he basically leaves his credit card and says, and anything else that you know, you incur, I'm good for it.

He is the Visa charge me time, money, safety, reputation, the Samaritan risks it all to love somebody who may have despised him if the roles were reversed. That's the impact. And so Jesus goes on and he says, so which of these three do you think was the neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?

And the expert replies, and I'm thinking he's a little bit reluctantly replying at this point. He says the one who had mercy on him, and then Jesus' words are as much for that man as they are for us today. He says, go and do likewise. Go and do likewise. This is the heart of the gospel, not asking who is my neighbor?

But being a neighbor to every single person that is on the path that you are traveling. Am I becoming the kind of person that sees, am I becoming the kind of person who stops, who willingly steps in not over. Not around, not to the other side of the path, but moves toward the hurt. Love sees love stops.

Love steps in. So let's bring this home. Each and every one of us is walking on a unique path. Each and everyone, and every single day we pass people in our workplaces, in our schools, in our gyms, even in our homes who are bleeding. They are hurting.

They're not lying, figuratively in a ditch like the man in Jesus' story. But they're bleeding on the inside. They're bruised, they are hurting relationally. They are dying spiritually, and they're broken. They're all around us unseen. So who are you walking past? Is there a colleague that you avoid? Is there a neighbor who irritates you?

Is it a family member who is just so lonely? Is there a friend that you have that you've noticed is just starting to silently withdraw? Maybe it's a stranger that God is nudging you towards? Do you see their pain or do you just see their behavior? I. Have you justified keeping your distance? Has human nature kicked in and you've become critical and judgmental instead of empathetic?

Have you felt the Holy Spirit's whisper to lean in to reach out, but you've let the excuses win? Let me ask you this morning gently, but really directly, what does love require? What does love require? If we stopped focusing on what it might cost us and instead just started asking what it might mean to them, I think that we might find a whole lot more of kinetic love.

Will it be inconvenient? Absolutely. When is it ever not? You might feel under equipped. For sure, but you walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and he is the one who equips you and gives you the words love doesn't wait for perfect conditions. Jesus certainly didn't, not when it came to us, and imagine what could happen this week.

Each and every one of us as people of God, start to see the people in our world as image bearers, as people that are worthy of love, as people that are not interruptions or problems, but as people that God is already pursuing and that he's positioned you to help nudge towards Jesus. Because when we see people really see people.

They see Jesus. That's the truth. That's the truth. Every smile, every invitation, every word of encouragement, every act of generosity, they can become a window into the very heart of God. And you get to play a part in that. Love sees and love moves towards the need. Oh, is that okay? Yeah, you're all a little bit quiet.

I hope it's not too much. Okay, I thought it would be really beautiful this morning to end our time together with communion, and I wonder if those that are serving could begin to do that. The core of everything that I've talked about today, really. Is the great commandment to love the Lord of God with all of your heart and all of your soul, and all of your strength and all of your mind, and out of that place of love to love your neighbor as yourself.

That is the life that Jesus invites us into and to love God completely with. All that we are. And then to use that love to generously love the people that are on our path and to reflect his love towards them that draws him in. That is the heartbeat of what it means to be for others. It's not branding, it's not a strategy.

It's not just a message that we have written on t-shirts. It's actually a response to the way that God has loved us. That's what it is because God so loved the world. So now we go and we love, we live as scent people because we are his representatives. We have a simple phrase for that here at our church.

We call it living mission. Thank you, Jackie. That's lovely. Thank you. We call it living Mission. Walking out our faith in real time. As disciples of Jesus, we are being transformed into His image and we are sent with his message, and so we walk the path that he has us on and we are spirit led. We are ready to share the reason for the hope that we have and the freedom that we found in Jesus.

God is for people. So we are for people, not just in theory, but in practice. Can you imagine, and I love how Kev. Showed us just before that we are the church. This building is not the church. We are the church. Can you imagine if we, the church started living this out each and every day? If we really started to see the people that were right in front of us, imagine if we were known for loving Beyond Boundary.

It'd be incredible. We can be for people because God is for people. Ask God to help you see them like that. Teach your kids to start to see people like that. I grew up in a home where my mom and my dad modeled for me compassion and generosity and kindness, and as a result of that, I believe my sisters and I learnt to see people the same way.

Parents, what a responsibility, but what a gift as well to raise a generation of Christ followers that would really see. Really see the image of God in each and every person. So let your theology that God is for you become your action that you are for people. That's all I wanna say this morning.

Let your theology of God is for me. Become the action that you are for people. As we come to this time of communion this morning, I wonder if we could just pause whether you're in the room or whether you are with us online this morning. For God so loved the world that he gave. He didn't stay distant. He moved towards us and he gave his one and only son so that we could have life, real life.

Eternal life and this bread and this cup, they are more than just symbols. They are reminders of the kind of love that moves of how far love will go when it moves. Love that left heaven and took on flesh and went to the cross, and walked into death and rose again.

Jesus saw our deepest need. He saw our brokenness and he saw our sin, and he acted to bring us home. This is my body broken for you, and this is my blood willingly poured out for you and for those of us who follow Jesus. Communion is not just a moment to remember, but to respond. To let the sacrifice of Jesus reshape our priorities, to allow his compassion, to move us closer to others, to live lives of hope and of love, not just with our words, but with our actions.

And so as you, as Jesus followers this morning, as you hold. The bread and the cup. I want you to ask yourselves, who is God calling me to see? Where is he asking me to move? How can I be for others because I know that my God is for me. And as we take the bread and the cup, we let his love. Really shape our own.

And we remember that we are loved and we choose again in this moment to live the kind of lives that honors that love and that is compelled by that love as we love others. And maybe today you're here and you are not sure where you stand with guide. You are exploring. Maybe you're curious, those of you online as well, cautious perhaps, and that's okay.

But I wanna tell you something as well that maybe will surprise you. And that is that God is already for you. He is already for you. Before you change anything, before you feel the need to have to clean your life up or do anything, he is already for you. We don't have to earn his love, and you don't have to fix yourself first.

He sees you and he moved towards you. You just need to receive what he's already done and maybe today. Even in this moment, something is stirring in your heart, and maybe today is the day where you say, Jesus, you gave your life for me, and in return, I wanna live my life for you. I wanna receive that love.

I wanna know you, and I wanna step into relationship with you. It's a step of trust, and it's the beginning of a brand new journey, and it's a journey that brings life, not just here and now. But forevermore. And if that's you are so welcome. You are so welcome to join us on that journey. In fact, you could even just pray with me right now, and maybe that's something that as a church family, we could just to heavenly Father, we choose to trust you, God, we choose to trust and to rest in the knowledge that you are for us and that Jesus died for us.

God, we surrender our lives to you. We choose to follow Jesus, and I thank you, God for your forgiveness, and I thank you for the life that we have here and now and forever with you.