Jesus Closed Every Loophole With Five Words
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This particular message today, um, is gonna really hit home for some people. Uh, because we in the Western church have, um, conveniently mixed the old covenant with the new covenant to justify our position on some things and to give us some excuses as to why we don't have to do the things perhaps Jesus said and maybe He didn't really mean, but I think He did actually mean it.
So, this morning, I would normally do this little thing, this little song thing that we do, for those of you that were around a long time. And we just go, "Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do." What's the words? That's the way. "That's the way. Uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it." Sometimes we have to hear some things, this once again is gonna mess with us, but we need to learn to like the thing that's sometimes a bit difficult.
So let me start with this. There's, there's some people on the screen here now that have, uh, a lot in common. This guy called Wesley over here, uh, he was in a s- at, working in a railway and that someone fell, had a seizure, fell onto the railway tracks. He immediately leapt down, 'cause there was an oncoming train, positioned the person, lay with them till the train went over the top of them, and came back, and they both lived.
But he selflessly, s- he's mirroring someone. He selflessly put himself in danger for the sake of another person that he did not even know. Jordan, she got caught into, in a very nasty firefight where a lot of bullets were flying. She wrapped herself around her child. She died, and her child lived. That's mirroring someone that's willing to position themselves in danger and sacrifice themselves for the life of another.
This guy here, Lavielle, he's a professor. Once again, in a, in a university. There's a shootout going on. He's at the door. He barricades himself behind the door to get the 30, 40 students out. They shoot him through the door. He dies. He stands in the gap. He stands in the gap and gives his life to protect the students that were in his care.
They have a lot in common with someone. And this guy here, Ahmed Al-Hamid. He's a Muslim gentleman that actually, during the time when they were trying to shoot and kill the Jewish worshipers, he disarmed one of the worshipers. So here's someone that's put his life in danger for a faith that he doesn't actually believe in.
He's of a different religious persuasion altogether, and yet they all have this same thing in common: willing to sacrifice themselves for what is going on around them. And what I wanna talk about this morning is I wanna talk a little bit about this, what Jesus actually said, and where it needs to... what we understood about it and where it really needs to go is so important.
'Cause He set an example for us to understand, so I'm gonna pull this back into our world now to help you understand some things. When, years ago, I was pastoring another church as an associate pastor, and they asked me to write a membership covenant for the church. So I started writing this membership covenant for the church.
And I started writing it, and it was brilliant. It had all this kind of stuff. And then I realized, basically, all I was doing was creating another set of laws to ask these people to live by and to live up to so that they didn't sin, so that we, as the leaders, wouldn't look bad. And I realized there's something fundamentally wrong with the motive of this.
And so I kind of paused, and I kind of stopped. And I kind of left it, and we kind of never really did anything with it because I couldn't settle on it. And then I find myself down here, and now I'm the senior pastor, and it's like, "Well, our church, we need a membership covenant." And so I instinctively knew I couldn't go with where we were before, and I knew, like, it couldn't come from the engine of obligation, compliance to laws and rules.
It had to come out of connection. It had to come out of relationship because that's what Jesus was all about. So we came up with a whole different thing about visi- mission and strategy and values and everything, but everything was tied to relationship and connection, not to compliance. But here's the thing, old habits die hard.
And that was a great series that we did. If you didn't catch that series, you should go back and watch it with someone. Old habits die hard. So we'd worked this whole thing out, but then it came to our SOAP devotions. And so I know how important this is, so I had written up a document to show this is all great, this is wonderful, this is what I need them to do, and I need you to daily sit at people's feet.
So I wrote this whole thing, nice little booklet going out, and I put the word "daily" on it. I put the word "daily"
And unbeknownst to me, I moved what was a process of love and connection, I turned it into a law. This is how easy it is. And I remember fighting with God about this. "Hey, listen, don't you want 'em to do all those kind of things? I'm doing the right thing here." "Yes, I do, but I want them to do it 'cause they want to do it, not because you're telling them that they have to do it."
So I had to go back and rewrite it. This is before you had AI and you could change it all like that. And I had to change the word to regularly. Regularly. You decide regularly when to do your SOAP devotions. Do I still believe that daily? Absolutely, I believe that daily you should be sitting at Jesus' feet for everything so that you don't fall back into compliance and legal and all that kind of stuff, but you stay in the right place.
But I discovered it's frighteningly easy to start something in the spirit and quickly turn it into a law, a law that hurts people. Now, law can control behavior to a certain degree, but it can't produce love. It can't produce love. And we all know, and have been around people that love is a duty. It's a duty.
You know, sometimes you gotta go to that family event and see people that you don't normally see and don't particularly like, but you gotta go there. That's the duty of love. Now, for some of you, you had a shiver go up your spine, and I wanna tell you what that was. That was the Ghost of Christmas Past.
That is coming up in the future, just a few months. Because it's at those times when you get around pe- It's like, "Oh my goodness, this is really difficult. Really difficult."
People that go to work, got a job, they go to work. "How you going?" "Terrible. I'm miserable. I'm unhappy." I don't wanna work. Why? Well, you don't understand. I worked hard last week. Well, how long? Three days. Serious? Let me take you back to Book of Genesis. It says, "Six days shall a person work and have one off." I think we've got it all wrong.
But it's like, it's like this, this thing in them that's like, "Duty. I'm doing my duty." And maybe they come and they do their duty and nobody's happy, nobody gets blessed, nobody's encouraged. It's like, they're just, it's just awful. And they go, "Well, I'm serving at church." Why? "Because Pastor Kev says I have to, and that's what you gotta do to be a good Christian."
Don't bother If it's coming out of duty, it doesn't do anything, and duty love is exhausting. It is so exhausting. And here's the thing, Jesus never said to us, "I want you just to grit your teeth and just love that unlovable person. Just suck it up. Put up with them." He never said that. He says, "I need you to love with, with a, with a different kind of engine, and so that things don't fall back into like, well, I'll manage this with the rule book.
Give me the rule book and I'll manage it." No, no, you gotta learn to love. So here's what I wanna do. I wanna take you on a little journey of history From 613 laws down to one, and how Jesus did this, 'cause He's a master at helping people see the truth. If you go back to Genesis, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth and everything, and it started with human beings.
It's all there. The context of what is holding the whole universe and everything together is love. How do I know that? Because John the Apostle wrote down, "God is love." So love held it all together. But because God loved us human beings, He says, "I want, I don't, I can't force you to love me. I want you to love me.
I'll give you free will." Very bad move. That could go horribly wrong, and it did go horribly wrong. Even after being warned, "If you do, you'll die. You'll break everything. Sin and death are coming, it'll be a big mess." They didn't listen. They knew better. They opted to self-govern rather than listen to what God would say is best for them.
Then it just goes from bad to worse for the first six, seven chapters. It gets to the point where God says, "The thoughts of human heart are evil all the time. I'm done. This is game over. Let's get Noah and a big flood." He's gonna wipe the whole thing out. But fortunately, with Noah, He finds someone that's righteous.
Not perfect, but righteous, and He decides to have another go and start again. But now He's wiser. Letting people figure it out for themselves, not a good idea. That's not gonna work well. So then He says, "I gotta put some laws in place." And He raises up, uh, Abraham through Moses and then comes up with a law, and they get the whole thing, and they get 613 laws.
613. I don't know why 613. I'd have rounded it up or rounded it down, but 613, what it turned out to be. There's all these laws, and laws were given here. Just think about this. They were, the laws were given to be a guardrail. God saw what happened when they were left to their own devices. Not good. It goes from bad to worse to horrible.
So they, they were a guardrail to hold broken people in some sort of, some sort of morality without anarchy taking place until He can resolve it, until Jesus. He gets the Messiah here, and it's all will change. Now the law was good. It was so good. It was amazingly good. It was so good you couldn't live up to it.
So what was good for us ended up becoming bad for us, 'cause all the law did was point out all the flaws that you have and then condemned you to death. Good night. Close the door. But Jesus is turning up, and by the time Jesus gets on the scene, the system that God put in place, this good system of the law, it's appalling.
It's so corrupt. He cannot believe how corrupt it is. So then He starts the journey. Now let me show you the journey. This is what... We're gonna go to a different system. And He uses two lawyers. Now, most of you think lawyers have no use, but He uses two lawyers to get this point across. Two of them. One comes up to Him and says, "Okay.
All right. What's the greatest command? What's the greatest command?" He goes, "Well, here it is. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." Okay, so that's the greatest command. Thank you very much. Oh, and the second one is like it. Second one? I didn't ask for a second one.
I just want one. Just one. No, and the second one's like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. So love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself So Jesus has taken six hundred and thirteen laws and he's trying to crunch them down to two transitionary laws. And he goes on to say, "And all the law and the prophets hang on these two commands."
Jesus, what are you saying? We've got six hundred and thirteen laws. You're saying if I just love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, and out of that place of health love my neighbor, are you saying I've accomplished the whole six hundred and thirteen? Uh-huh. Yep But do you know, even with the two laws, there's a problem 'Cause 613 down to two, it leaves a loophole.
A loophole
And here's the first loopover, l- the first loophole it leaves, and I'm gonna bounce to the second account with the second lawyer, who must have been around when this first lawyer was asking his question, 'cause he was only trying to stump Jesus. He must have been there and heard, heard how he answered and what Jesus did.
So the second lawyer, he turns up and goes, same thing, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Now, you see he's switched. He's not, he's not asking about the law anymore because he's already heard that. "What do I gotta do to r- receive eternal life?" And he goes, "Well," Jesus says, "Well, what's written in the law?"
Uh, well, you know, "Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength." "Yeah, okay, yeah. Love your neighbor as yourself." "Oh, yeah, cool. I got that." And Jesus says to him, "You have answered correctly, but it goes on." He goes on from there. "Do this, and you will live." So you've answered correctly. Just do this, what you've just said.
Y- what you just said, you just do this, and you will live. But look at the next line. "But he wanted to justify himself." He wanted to justify himself. Now, this is how we lean back as followers of the way, and you lean back to rules and laws, because you can find lots of things in there to justify the way that you're thinking, what you wanna do, not what Jesus wanna do.
So he's asking this question because he's gone through this process and is like, "Oh, okay. All right. Justify myself." And then Jesus asked him, "So who is actually your neighbor? Who's your neighbor?" He's asking that question, sorry. He's saying, "Who's my neighbor?" Now, he knew who his neighbor was, because in ancient Judaism, the, you love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and then you loved your neighbor, which is every other Jew.
No one else. Everyone else was enemies. So in his mind, he's trying to work the system, because he's trying to figure, "Well, who's actually, uh, my neighbor, Jesus?" And trying to trick him up, because if he says anything other than what they know and what they believe, they've got him. He's walked into a trap.
He goes, "Well, okay." He said, "All right. You wanna justify yourself, so you wanna figure this thing out? All right. All right. Uh, who's your neighbor?" And he's thinking to himself, "I got him," you know, like, because we all know, we all know who our neighbor is. It's our fellow Jews. Everyone else can literally go to hell.
Just our fellow Jews, that's it. And we're cool on that, because we got 613 laws that'll enable that to happen. So then he tells him a story, and he says, "Let me tell you a story. Some guy, he's beaten up to death on the... lying dead on the, half dead on the side of the road, and a couple of you religious guys, you know, your boys, you know, your team, come down and they see him, and what do they do?
They go, 'Oh my goodness,' and they walk to the other side of the road, and they step over him and walk away." They didn't engage at all. They had laws in there that enabled them to do that when they're loopholed. So Jesus goes on and says, "But hey, along comes a Samaritan." The lawyer would've been freaking out.
"What? Samaritan?" They hated the Samaritans. They didn't even consider them human. They called them dogs. They were a subhuman species. And the Samaritan comes along, and the Samaritan comes along, and he gets down on his knees and he patches up the guy, cleans up his wounds, then he picks him up and puts him on his donkey, takes him to this inn.
Says to the innkeeper, "Could you look after him and love on him, care for him? And if there's any more I owe you, I'll pay you when I get back." And the, the lawyer must have been going, "What are you talking about? Jesus, you're making the Samaritan the hero in this thing. We think we're the heroes. Avoid all that stuff."
No. And Jesus is about to close the loophole. He says to the lawyer, "So which one, to the poor old dude on the floor, is his neighbor?" Man, I would've loved to have been there for this interaction, 'cause this lawyer knows the minute he opens his mouth, he's done. He's tried to loop Jesus into something, and Jesus has boxed him right into a corner.
Which one is the neighbor? And I reckon he'd have gone, "Oh, you know, the Samaritan, I suppose, the one that just..."
And as soon as he said it, he was done. And then Jesus said to him, he said, "Well, you know what? You should go and do likewise. Go follow his example." That's a neighbor He was closing the loophole of manipulating laws which the Jews had become particularly good at. And He says, "Now your neighbor is the person right in front of you, whoever it is.
Not, you're not allowed to avoid them, and you're not allowed to just tolerate them. You actually have to love them, encourage them, give them just something to eat, feed them, drink, look after them." I think that lawyer would have went away feeling particularly dismayed. Because basically Jesus has said, "Your neighbor is no longer just your Jewish friends.
That exclusive season is over. Your neighbor is everyone, even sometimes ones that's your enemy." Met up there before? He's serving what they consider to be their enemies. The Muslims feel like the Jews are the enemy, Jews feels like the Muslims are the enemy. But he has caught something of Jesus, and he doesn't even know it.
It's instinctively about what's coming out. So two laws down, from 613 down to two. That's a pretty good jump, I reckon. That's a pretty good jump. But he realized there's still a loophole. 'Cause whenever there's more than one directive, you can manipulate the system. Can you imagine now what sort of a mess they were in with 1300- 613 laws that they can manipulate and dodge in and out of and justify to do whatever?
No wonder when Jesus gets you, He said, "Mate, this thing is whole corrupt. It's so corrupt, it's a tear down." He told His guys, "Don't get enamored by this. This is getting torn down. I'm done with this." So this is just amazing. But there's another loophole that has been closed as well, which Jesus addressed a little bit earlier on.
So he's saying now, loving God and loving your neighbor, they're not two laws with two ticks. "Well, as long as I've done this one." Because the reality is for the Jews, you could love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and it didn't matter two hoots about your neighbor. You could do whatever.
You're still okay with God. Jesus is now saying, "That's changing. This is the new covenant. That's changing now." Now, we go to Matthew Chapter 5, and Jesus, this is where He set it up beforehand. He's the master of this. And it's where Jesus is reinterpreting the laws of Moses in Matthew, um, Chapter 5. And He says, "You have heard it said, 'Do not commit murder.'"
That's a good thing. That's great. We shouldn't do that. But I'm gonna say to you, if you're angry with your brother or sister... Now, He's already moved that neighbor thing from brother and sister to wide. He says, "If you're angry with someone, it's not gonna end well for you." And Jesus said, you know, like, "You've heard that it's said, Moses said, 'Don't commit adultery.'"
Well, they had a fine way of working around that one. Don't commit adultery. But I'm telling you, if you even lust after a man or a woman, you're guilty. He's moving this thing. They don't even know what He's doing, but He's moving this thing to a conscious level, and He's raising the bar way up above the law.
Which is why He said, "If you do those first few commands, those two, you don't have to worry about that. You'll cover everything easily."
So he's been talking to them about this, this group of people, and this is where he said something which they would have missed, but it's part of closing the loopholes. He says, "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar." Now, there are some
Leaders in the world that like to refer to their building as temples and this as altars. So you don't have to go very far, you're only gonna get to here. But in here, when he says, "If you are offering your gift at the altar," they've had to go maybe two, three-day walking journey, 'cause they have to go to the temple.
That's the only place. They've got to go to Jerusalem. So he said, "Now, if when you go, bring your gift," that's a three-day journey, say, at the altar. "Now, if when you get there, you remember that your brother and sister has something against you." They'd been going, "What are you talking about, Jesus? This coming here to the temple, that's just to make me right with you.
I haven't got to worry about them." He goes, "Apparently, it's different." It's going to be different in this new system. If you have something against them, what have you got to do? What have I got to do, Lord? Keep going
Leave your gift at the front of the altar and first go and be reconciled to them and then come back and give your gift. So three days, you got an issue with someone, three days back, sort the issue out, three days forward. It's a 10-day journey here to sort this thing out. They're going, they're looking at Him going, "This is not gonna happen, Jesus.
That is not important. What's important is for me to be right with God. Doesn't matter a hood about everyone else." You go, "Eh." And they would've just missed it completely, but I don't know if you caught it either. He's saying, "When you come to worship Me, if you've got an issue with your neighbor, I'm not listening" And that's a tough one for us to, to, uh, to accept the shift in that because everything about the temple, as long as you were right with God, doesn't matter about everything else.
'Cause as long as I'm right with God. I even hear people talk like that. "Well, I'm right with God. I said this, that." But, but you're s- it's out of sorts here. "Doesn't matter, as long as I'm right with God." No, no, no, no, no. He is shutting down that loophole. Basically, He's saying, "You know what? You can come in here and you can sing worship to me all day long, but if it's not right between you and your neighbor, I'm not listening.
You can pray all day long, but if you've got issue between you and your neighbor and it's not right, I'm not listening." You could even... This is sacrilege. You could even do devotions every day. Every day, do devotions, maybe twice. And He's going, "If it's not right out there, I'm just not listening. If your relationships are broken this way, don't bother coming this way."
This is the big shift that everybody, everybody missed, and people are still missing now. He's saying, "Your worship and your love for God is no longer gonna be an excuse for lack of reconciliation with your brothers and sisters." And He's gonna go on now, and He's gonna really seal the deal for us the night before He goes to the cross And He's sharing with His guys, they're at the Passover meal, and He's the teacher, He's the rabbi, and they're all listening, and they're listening to every word He said.
And then He gets up in the middle of it, and He takes off His rabbi shawl, which is His teacher thing, puts on a towel, and He starts washing their feet. He humbly takes on the servant role and washes their feet, and they're really uncomfortable about this. "This is not right, Jesus. This is not how it operates.
It's been like this for 1,400 years. This is not right, Jesus." "This is how it has to be." He said, "If I don't sacrificially serve you and wash your feet, you can't have a part of me, and you're gonna have to do the same." It was uncomfortable for them. And then He says, "But don't you know what I've done this for?
I've done this for an example for you. Because this is the way that you're supposed to actually treat each other." And then at the end of that time, He says... I think He would've said something like, "You know what? I'm gonna show you. By this I'm showing you how much I love you, pick up a towel, and love and serve you.
But you're gonna see a demonstration of my love for you that's gonna take your breath away, and mine." He was setting the platform. He's, He's been all the way working through, making sure that human beings, and particularly these new people of the Way, don't keep manipulating and bringing things in to justify things that they want to do.
So He says, "I have a new command for you boys." To which they thought, "Jesus, we've had 613 of them. You go down to two. We don't need, we don't need another new command." "Yeah, you do. You need one new command, and here it is: Love one another as I have loved you. So you must." It's a command. It's not a suggestion.
You must love one another. "Love one another as I have loved you."
You see what he's done with this last one?
The disciples thought, "Oh, we don't need another command. We've already got those. We just, we've figured this thing out. You know, I love my neighbor, I do this kind of thing." He's going, "No, that's not, it's not enough because your, your version of neighbor is not what it's supposed to be." It's not the exclusive nation of ancient Israel anymore.
It's for all nations and all people, all shapes and sizes. This is a new kind of love. And he says, "As I have loved you." And, and the two, the two verses that he used for the love God and love people, they knew them 'cause they came out of their Torah, out of the first five books of the Bible. One was in Deuteronomy, one was in Leviticus.
So he was using their own text to establish there's something new coming, and it's unbelievably different. What's different about this now is you don't anymore love your neighbor as yourself. He says, "You love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength." They were all cool on that, "And then love your neighbor as yourself however you feel."
If you don't feel good about yourself, treat them badly. If you feel good, treat them well. But now he's switched it He said, "No, no. You love one another now," which is your neighbor, "the same way that I have loved you." The standard has gone way up. It's gone way up. He said, "You love one another the way I have loved you."
Well, how did you love us, Jesus? Well, um, we should pick up a towel. Yeah, you're gonna see something very spectacular shortly. I'm gonna lay down my life for you. It's a way different kind of love. And John himself, the disciple that Jesus loved, he writes about this. Once again, just these little things that are dropped in there to help us understand this, this is shifting significantly.
He says, "If you can't love your brothers and sisters who you see, you'll never be able to love God."
God has changed this thing around in the new covenant. This is why the people of the way were so irresistible. Because they didn't love the way they felt they wanted to love people, they loved the way that Jesus had loved them, and they sacrificed their lives the way that Jesus sacrificed for them, and it changes the whole dynamic of everything, the way, the motive, everything that goes on.
Jesus took those last two commands, 613 down to two, and he meshed them into one way of living. You love one another the way I've loved you. Not two commands anymore, it's just one. You don't get to decide, well, how you'll love your neighbor, how ever you feel. No, no, you need to love your neighbor the way that I've loved you It's changed so significantly.
When He put those last five words in, "As I have loved you," that closed every loophole. It shut the door 'Cause sometimes we love people with agendas. I don't know if you do that. Times you have an agenda in there. You think you don't have an agenda, but you really do. And you think they don't know that you've got an agenda, but they really do.
But when people experience love that's coming to them from the love of Christ, the way that Christ has sacrificed, that changes everything. See, the new measure now is not love your neighbor as yourself, it's now you love your neighbor the way that Jesus loved. And also, don't forget that your neighbor might be a Samaritan, might be someone that you don't even like.
How am I gonna do that, Lord? See, it's, Jesus has been uncomplicating this. 613 down to two on the journey, down to one, and removed all the loopholes, and that's the new standard. That's what made the church so res- irresistible in the first century. I mean, Chr- Christ followers are doing all sorts of acts of kindness and all sorts of high standards of morality, and they didn't even have a Bible.
Most of the church in the West now has a Bible, and they're not doing it. They didn't even have a Bible. No one told them you shouldn't lie. They knew that instinctively. Why? Because Jesus wouldn't lie No one had to say, "Listen, I don't think you should be, like, flirting around with that girl over there the way you are.
I think you guys should honor your wife." No one had to teach them that because they knew that Jesus wouldn't do that. So if he wouldn't do that, I shouldn't do that either. And he just, he develops this whole thing through the simple service of picking up a towel. The- that's where it begins. He says, "Just pick up a towel."
And that, that a- act of picking up a towel and loving someone the way that Jesus has loved them changes your heart. It changes your position. It changes everything about you. It's far less complex, but far more demanding Less complex, but far more demanding. 'Cause now, what does love require of you? You've gotta ask that question every time.
And not what you think it is, but what does that love require out of the love that Jesus has shown you? So when you're angry with someone, and you just wanna, like, punch their head in, okay, "Lord, how do I love this person and respond to this person the way that You have loved me?" It changes it. If you're offended, same thing.
This person's come... "Okay, Lord, how do I love them the way that You've loved me?" Even if they disagree with you. And I hate it when people disagree with me, and especially if they're right. Drives me nuts. But it's like, okay, you gotta let... Yeah, he's disagreeing. But it's that same thing. It's gotta be that pause where you gotta go, "Okay, what does love require of me?"
And listen, you don't need the answer to 613 laws if you know the one that taught you how to love, and you embrace Jesus, and you embrace everything about Him in the way that you love the one anothers. And your wo- first one another's your spouse, second is your kids, goes out to your work, goes everywhere.
And then occasionally, you'll end up in a situation like we had this, the guys at the start. You bump into someone that's in need in the middle of nowhere, and then, ah, I'm not gonna do the Jewish thing where I just walk away or step over. We lean in. It's amazing. No avoiding. No avoiding. Now, I know this is gonna, this is gonna be really, this is gonna be really pointy, because there are some of us that, uh, have relationships in our families that are not what they should be.
Some of us have a relationship with our brothers and sisters in here. It's like, "Well, you know, I don't really agree with them. Don't really care, but that's okay. They can do their thing, and I'll just avoid them, and I'll tolerate them." Well, you can do that, but then, but according to Jesus, don't worry about praying, don't worry about singing.
God's not listening. He says you gotta sort it out. And we always say around here, it's not sin that hurts the church, it's unresolved sin. Because we all sin. We all lose it at times. We all make mistakes, but there's gotta be that reconciliation. You can't fudge that and just say, "Well, I'll just put them off at arm's length and shunt them away."
That's not what Jesus would do. He, He would lean in and try and figure out. Now, let, one caveat in here for you. Sometimes, sometimes if the person's not responsive, you can't fix it. You can't fix it, and then that's where you've gotta graciously pray for them and leave that with Jesus. But sometimes we know we should be doing some things, but we just don't wanna do it because it's uncomfortable, and I might have to say sorry, 'cause I did say some bad things.
And I don't really wanna say sorry. Jesus said, "Well, it's, it's not about who's right and it's not about who's wrong It's about who is gonna model what I came to put in place through my death, burial, and resurrection. Who is gonna love one another the way that I have loved you? That's the one that brings restoration.
It's not about winning. Whenever you're thinking about, "I need to win a fight," you are in the law. You're all over here, and there is no winning that fight. If we could've won that fight, Jesus would just come and give us a couple more laws and wrapped it up nicely. He said, "It doesn't work. It doesn't work."
I was thinking about it the other day, 'cause some... When, in the middle of COVID, I was having, having a bit of fun. I was bored, as most of us were. And so I did this thing where I set up a political party, and I called it the CS, uh, the CSL Party. And anyway, I, I kinda like strung it along for a while until the Greens and the Liberals and a couple others, they all started asking me when I'm launching my party.
And I said, "It's a joke, man. Uh, like, it's, it's just a joke. I'm having a bit of fun." And so, and I... But they said, "Well, what is the CSL Party?" I said, "Oh, man," I was like, "I know that's top secret," 'cause in case I ever launch it, you know? And so th- this went on for, like, months, and they just badgered me, kept coming at me, "When we launching?
When we launching it?" And in the end, I said, I said, "Look, the CSL Party, none of you guys understand it. None of you guys understand it. You're just all over the shop." "Oh, please tell us what it is." "CSL, Common Sense Leadership. That's my party." But then, the other day I was thinking about it, maybe we should start that party.
I wonder if the Aussie people are desperate enough yet. And maybe I will just run it on one thing. With a towel, serving, so you don't have to make an appointment to see the prime minister. You just come see me here. I'll be on the mop or something. But just one thing. All I want you to do is love one another the way that Jesus loved you.
But I don't believe in Jesus. That's okay. I'm not saying you gotta believe in Jesus. I'm just saying, I want you to love one another the way, you know, Easter, Easter, death, burial, resurrection, we've all got that, and Christmas. I'm just saying, what if we just all loved the way that he loved? That seemed like a pretty good start, and maybe we do that.
What if we just do that as a nation? That'd be a great start, what do you think? Here's what would happen if I could get that in there. Divorce rates would plummet. Kids, foster kids, it would plummet. If people started loving one another the way that Jesus loves them, if a husband and wife loved sacrificially each other the way Jesus, it would change everything Imagine the government actually making decisions out of that.
Okay, these people here. Okay, they're upset, they're angry. How do we love them the way that Jesus loved them? How do we put something in place that helps them? Man, I think it could change everything. Workplaces where people came to work grateful for the fact that they've got a job, and with a spring in their step, looking for someone to love on.
That's what we should be like, looking for someone to love all the time. Even before I came in here this morning, there's a lady, I'm not sure, I hope I don't offend you if you're outside still. Uh, she was out there with her little children and, um, she heard some music and she said, "My kid is obsessed with music.
Can you come in? Could, could we come in?" I said, "Come in any time. Come in, hang around, walk in and out. We don't care about any of that kind of stuff." But this little one is, like, sensing something. Little one doesn't know what they're sensing, but if a place is driven by the love of God, and the love that's in Jesus is coming through us into them, they know it.
They may not understand it, but they know it. Violent crime would go down in my s- political party. Religious indifferences, we could even resolve that, because even if I don't like your religion, well, I gotta love you the way that Jesus would love you, so it takes all the sting, all the problem, and all the fighting that goes on in the law system.
That's why we have family values. All these family values, they're up on here, right there, right now. There it goes, Josie. Bang. Maybe not. Computer error, okay. Let me know if it turns up. Anyway, there are our values, and the values are there. They're not laws. They're not laws that we actually say, "You have to do this."
What they are are Spirit led. Love and generosity, fun and wow, honor and respect, protect and serve, live and grow, courage and conviction, counter culture. They are all what is the evidence of a community of people that are so in love with God that they are allowing the love of Jesus to flow through them into everybody, everywhere.
And the reason we have these little things called villages where we say to you, "Bre- break up from here and go and hang, huddle in places," is the simple th- reason. It's all through one another. So Sunday's okay, we're all together, but you need to get with a small group of people and one another, because once you get into a small group, you'll discover that there's a dynamic in there that will help you, because you won't like them at times.
They'll say things and you won't like it, and they'll disagree with you, and then you've gotta figure out what to do with that. But if you, I gotta love them the way that Jesus loves them. It's a training ground for us to live. Jesus didn't do all this to get rid, just, just to get rid of laws. He did it to give us a different way to live.
A simple way to live, but a demanding way to live. So here's what I want you to do across this week. I want you to think about not 613 laws, I want you to think about one person. I want you to think about one person that you are finding it hard to love Hey, why you looking at me like that? One person that you're finding it hard to love, and maybe there's a hurt that's involved there, or maybe there's a disappointment.
Maybe there's a history. Maybe the relationship, you're still in it, but technically it's n- null and void. It's not really got love in it. But I want you to think about that. And rather than fighting about the things you disagree on, how about trying to say, "Jesus, would you teach me to love that person? Not the way I think they should be loved as my neighbor and I decide, but teach me to love them the way that you love them."
And just ask, "What does love require of me? What does love require?" Put away this ideology. "Well, they did this. They deserve that. Who was right? They were wrong. They need to do this." Put all that away. That's to do with law, and that's to do with fighting. It doesn't matter who's right. It doesn't matter who's wrong.
What matters is who is gonna follow Jesus' command You know the biggest problem with the church in the West today? is that they agree with Jesus. They just don't do what he said to do
But according to Jesus, if you don't do what I've said to do, that's not gonna be all that entertaining
So by next week I want to have heard from text or something like that, "I made contact with this person. I offered an apology. I granted forgiveness. We went out, we shared a meal. We laughed, we cried, and we worked it through. And now my heart is whole. My heart is clean. Now I can worship, and my worship will be a blessing to God."
Can you imagine a church like that, a community like that everywhere, that's loving people like that? We don't pass judgment on people, but we lean in and love the way that Jesus tells us t- to love. And here's where it goes. If we love the way that Jesus commanded us to love, not with our own discernment, like love, oh, I'll just how to love my neighbor.
No, no, I love them the way that Jesus tells us to love them. That makes us irresistible. But Jesus said, "This is the thing. This is the thing." Not your doctrine, not your theology, not your preaching, not your songs. "This is the thing that will help people know that you are my disciples." He's not just simply simplifying ru- rules.
He's showing us a different way to live. That's why He said to them, "Hey, a new command I give you: love one another the way I've loved you, so you must." If you're a follower of Jesus, it's not an option. You must love the way that Jesus loved. And then He goes on and says, "And by this, everyone will know that you're my disciples."
Everyone will know. You don't need to grab a Bible and run around the r- world telling everybody that you're a follower of Jesus. They'll know you by your love. I know plenty of people that sprout the Bible off in lots of places, and people hate them. And why do they hate them? Because it's devoid of love It's devoid of love.
Nobody wants to be beaten into the kingdom. Jesus never beat anyone into the kingdom. He just presented a different way to live. He said, "There's a different way. You don't need the 613. I brought it down to two. But even with two, when there's two directives, you guys will find a loophole, 'cause that's what humans do.
But now I closed the loophole. Now you gotta love one another the way I've loved you." That is a whole new ballgame. And keep in mind, used to... under the Old Covenant, you could be okay with God and hate your enemies. Now, to your okay this way, God's not working it this way. So your, you're out of sorts with people around you will affect your dynamic of your connection with God.
It's a complete reversal, a complete flip of the script. And I am so grateful to God that He took us on the journey that we've been on, because many of you got this, and you love people unconditionally, and you serve people the way that Jesus served them, and we do it every week, we do it every weekend, any opportunity we can, to let people know that there are some people out here that still follow the way of Jesus, that love the way He loved, and that is irresistible to them.
It's irresistible. Let's pray. Father, I just wanna thank You first for, for loving me, the way You did. Uh, I could never have imagined from where I came from at 21 years of age, making the decision to follow You, and with such brokenness and such lack of purpose and idea and, and a lack of love and confusion about everything, but You helped me.
You reached out to me when I was kinda like lying dead on the side of the road and through some people. And Lord, I pray that, uh, You would just help us to remember this is the engine of the irresistible church. This is the engine of the way. One command, loving one another, whoever that one another is on the rhythms and routines of our lives as a neighbor.
Loving one another the way You've loved us. That is the royal command, and that is the thing that lets people see us. And when they see us, they see and they experience You. So Father, I am just really grateful for that, and I pray that You would help us across this week. Some of us need to make a phone call.
Mm. Some to have a conversation. Give us courage to have that conversation, to start the process of restoring any areas where our relationships are broken and strained, so that we can comfortably then come before You in joy, knowing that our worship and our love and our prayer and our reading in that, it's got a clean pathway through to You.
Because it seems to be now that it's contingent on the way we love each other to how we love You. So Lord, I just ask that You would just give us the courage to go on that journey. We thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.