Loving People Who Are Different

Loving People Who Are Different

Amen. Good morning. Welcome Welcome as well as we approach the holiday season. Think of any weird family traditions. Y’all might have my uh my family does some stuff, it just seems wrong. Um they, they do a family fun run, which feels like a five K. To me. And there’s all these nephews that are like adolescent teenage track guys who do cross country and they run a spirited seems like a three mile race after we do thanksgiving meal, which seems wrong. Doesn’t that seem wrong on many levels like that should be like a six a.m. Optional event, not at two o’clock required. Everyone line up, go by age group. Anyway, that’s that’s my family tradition. I don’t know what traditions you have of your friends and family, but this is the tis the season, the holiday season is approaching uh that is different. Not my deal thanksgiving. My ideal thanksgiving involves feasting, food, football, power nap boot and rally leftover turkey stuffing. If there’s any left over, you know, go to sleep for the night, that’s my ideal thanksgiving. But people are different families are different. Uh friends are different. Last week we thought we’d do a micro series as a church. Looking at Loving. Well as a church as a preemptively striking a reality that we’re all walking into as christians walking into our different families, it could be your in laws, your actual family. It is a different world we’re walking into last week dan looked at Loving. Well when, when you disagree with others, it was excellent. You can check out our podcast, youtube, our website today, We’re going to look at how to love. Well, people who are different from you. So last week we’re looking at, we’re looking at disagreement. This week. We’re looking at different people if there’s disagreement is our differences. But our next couple months there’s a lot more family interactions than there used to be uh for most of us and that might be a good thing. That might not be a great thing for some of us. There could be a lot of history attached to the holidays for many of us. And so you go home and then you’re sleeping in the room, You grew up in the sheets you had on your bed as a kid. I mean, I don’t know what your context is, but some of you going home, their siblings at home, maybe you know, siblings fall back into the old relational ruts, there’s family, there’s friends, it’s just you’re going back in time for some of you and you’re going back to a different or difficult season of life. So in light of that, the scripture is not silent. Let’s uh let’s bow our heads and pray and focus our thoughts and our hearts on God this morning. God, we confess we need you, we need to show up and make this time worthwhile. I pray to you just encourage us instruct us with your word this morning. Help us to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves and how we live in the day and the time we live, help us to understand this concept and apply this concept into our lives. Just make this a meaningful time. Looking at your word this morning where we can walk away if meaningful action steps we can take as people. We need you God, we need you to come through and make it work in our lives. Help us to love people well, we pay some jesus name. Amen. All right. So our main passage is first john 47 through nine. We’ve spent time look at this last week. It says beloved. Let us love one another. For love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love in this, The love of God has made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. The title of How to love Well, people who are different from you, our culture says you cannot love well, people that are different from you. You cannot engage, do not pass go, do not go there. If they’re different than you, they look different, they act different. They dress differently, talk differently. Think different. You cannot have a relationship with them. That’s what our culture says about differences. Our hope is that this series this morning helps us look at the timeless troops. The timeless truths of God and the timeless word of God to appreciate and value and see differences the way God does. Um, like any pasture these days, I’ll begin our sermon of picture to illustrate differences. I’ll let you read these. If you can read these, you can’t read these email. Hello at solar church dot com. And I will email you the official meme uh, talking about the language differences of what people call things and things are walking into some of you are enjoying this or you’re concerned about what people are saying out there in the world. It’s fun to just throw something up and watch your responses. All right. So I will not read them, but it’s just verbal differences and what holiday theme about stuff. Okay. But it’s not just the language differences that we have as people, it goes way deeper than just trivial little is it is that, uh, I won’t, I won’t out my uh, colorado tongue here. Um, but differences, it’s deeper than just cheap little fun things. It gets very personal and very real for us. It seems like God loves differences. We see this in the variety of creation. The differences on trees, leaves that used to be on trees. The last couple of weeks. The differences on, you know, shapes of cats, dogs, animals creation, even the pinnacle of God’s creation. People, there’s a vast variety of differences in God’s people. The pinnacle of God’s creation. Our, our first text I’m going to build off of on this topical study on how to love people that are different, how to love them. Well, there are different. We we go to first Thessalonians five verses 13 and 14. It says this be at peace among yourselves and we exhort you brothers and sisters warn those who are idle comfort, the discouraged, help, the weak, be patient with everyone. So I think it’s important to just kind of set the table on. There are differences in people. People are different people are different. They’re not all the same. There’s no we love personality assessments in our culture. You might be a certain number or certain spirit animal or certain certain veggie tale. I don’t know. But there’s personality assessments. We take all the time to appreciate our differences and how unique we are as people, I like how paul categorizes three different people here in this passage, idle people, discouraged people and weak people. If you think of last thanksgiving as soon as the dishes got done, there was a lot of idle people looking at their phones and not cleaning up the meal. If you think of. But I think forward to this thing that won’t be you this year, christian, that’s not gonna be you’re gonna be a not idle christian after thanksgiving, you’re gonna get to work clearing the table trash. But think of think of this, this, this looking forward and your little mental imagination here looking forward. There’s gonna be a lot of discouraged people at thanksgiving this year, some people went to the very season of loss, they lost friends, they lost jobs, they lost family relationships, they’re deeply fatigued. This is probably the most loneliest time of the year for people in general. On top of that, you had the pandemic. This has been a brutal, discouraging season for many people you’re gonna have thanksgiving dinner with your friends and family. You have a meal with are going to be deeply discouraged. If you think of week, I don’t know of anyone who’s feeling unusually strong these days in their life and their walk with God and their position in life, there’s very, very, very weak people, you’re going to be interacting with these next 567 days idle discussion week. We need to warn idle people. If someone is discouraged, we need to comfort them. And if someone is weak, we need to help them. And with everyone, we’re commanded to be patient with everyone. And the matter here, the Order matters and this matters. We need the right word at the right time to the right person in the right way. And if we get these wrong and we misdiagnose where someone is, we do not help their situation. The Order matters. If someone is idle. If someone is ideally sitting on their sofa looking at their phone and you help them and their idleness, you help them. They just conned you into doing the dishes? If someone is weak? If someone is weak and you come and you comfort someone who’s weak? They don’t need comfort. They need your help. If someone is discouraged and you warned them and then discouragement, you’re just keeping problems upon problems on people. We need to correctly see people have the right word at the right time to the right person in the right way, idle people discourage people weak. People need warning, comfort and help. We’re commanded to be at peace with everyone and we’re commanded to be patient with everyone. Peace is the main command of that text we’re looking at. Mhm. How was that lived out warning, comforting, helping and being patient of everyone. How has that lived out in a person’s life? When you spend time with friends and families next couple of weeks you’re going to have a flavor for the conversation. Just the way they carry themselves, How they interact in public with you and how they interact in private. You’re gonna have a feel for how your aunts are your cousins? Are your in laws? Are you gonna know what they were just permeates out of them? Are they helping comforting patient loving to you? Or the aggressive, passive aggressive, passive argumentative, judgmental and impatient? How we how we think and how we view people and how we act and how we speak. Really does set a trajectory for how we’re perceived by other people argumentative, passive passive aggressive, judgmental and impatient. That is the opposite of that passage in 1st Thessalonians five. Why is this so hard? Why is this so difficult for us as people? I think our american society really does embrace this author really hit this article nail on the head. He really got us as a christian culture in America. The Gospel coalition has an author named Thadeus Williams who wrote an article this last week, which I appreciated. It says self worship is the fastest growing religion. This is his name of his title, his article and these are like the main points he makes in the middle of his article, he says this your mind is a source and standard of truth. And so no matter what Trust yourself, Hashtag the answers are within your emotions are authoritative. So never question or let anyone else question your feelings. Hashtag follow your heart, You are sovereign, So flex your omnipotence and bend the universe around your dreams and desires. Hashtag live your truth, your supreme. So always act according to your chief end to glorify and enjoy yourself forever. Hashtag YOLO, You are the standard of goodness. So don’t let anyone oppress you with the antiquity and antiquity stated notion of being a sinner who needs grace. Hashtag never change you are the creator. So use that limitless creative power to craft or an identity and purpose? Hashtag authenticity I mean, do you realize how painfully true some of those thoughts are about. What is this permeating in our world today and how wrong those thoughts are that are permeating in our christian world today. Some of your like Yeah, that’s no, no that’s bad. That’s bad. That is a narcissistic, self centered, self worshiping view of self or you are the one we sing songs to your, the one we read stories about all stories and all roads lead themselves to you as a person. That is our, that is a big value in America and it’s becoming a big value in american Christianity. The individual, the self, the bootstrap pulling effect of you making it happen. That is a big part of who we are as a culture as a people. We’re full of ourselves. We don’t empty ourselves when we come together for the holidays, when you’re around different people. Being full of yourself. Self centered is a very self serving way to live and it’s not the way christ lives is thanksgiving about me. Is it about we or is it about God and being thankful if you were to rank that is God first we other second and you last God says to be peace to be at peace, to be patient, to be a peacemaker, to be on purpose, to live of a mission during this christmas thanksgiving season when you’re going to be find yourself surrounded by idle, weak and discouraged people. Our world says be triggered by each other, speak your truth promote yourself and hype yourself but a mature christian picks up first Thessalonians five and makes that those versus their mantra when dealing with different people, different people is difficult for immature christians to engage with. If you’re an immature christian, you don’t do different, you don’t do different. If you’re a mature, mature christians embrace the mess, they lean into the messiness and they lean into relationships and they want to give the right word at the right time to the right person idol. We can discourage people immature christians take this passage and they mutate it to a version of maturity that is very self centered, where their speech and their actions prove how self centered, immature they are to their families, difference in people are next passages in difference in perspective Picking up in verse 11. But when Cephas, Cephas, this is Peter came to antioch, I opposed him to his face. This is Paul because he stood condemned for before certain men came from James, he was eating with the gentiles, but when they came, this is non jews came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision. Party verse 13, and the rest of the jews acted hypocritically they follow the leader, their leader of the church along with him. So that even Barnabas who is paul’s wingman was led astray because of their hypocrisy Verse 14, but when I saw that their conduct was not in step of the truth of the Gospel. I said to Cephas peter before them all, If you though a jew live like a gentile and not like a jew, how can you force the gentiles to live? Like jews? Paul confronts peter and anti Ock, paul confronts peter for being a hypocrite. And you’re sitting there thinking, what are you talking about? Mike, Okay, so paul is one of the founders of the early church rolled. If jesus early on his ministry, he was the rock that God would jesus build his church upon. He preached the gospel and thousands got saved. He was a pillar of the founder of the early church. The early converts to Christianity were jews, they weren’t white, black asian hispanic, people like us, they were jews predominantly mono ethnic people. And the question they are answering was how jewish do you have to be to be a good christian and how christian Christianity in jewish, jewish culture combined. And they were debating this controversy in their church world, was not masks or vaccines or party politics. It was it was circumcision. That’s way more personal than than a mask in my mind. That makes it very interesting. You welcome to the church, we’re gonna baptize you and we’re gonna circumcise you. That’s a that’s an interesting they were debating that because circumstances, decision circumcision is a jewish custom of cultural practice and these non jews were becoming christians. The question is how jewish you have to be to join the majority culture of the early converts, which were juice and the answer was you have to be jewish at all is the answer. But but paul paul called out peter for being a hypocrite for being partial prejudiced, favoritism, people pleasing, he was sinning, he was being racist to non jews who are coming in there were early converts. If TMZ ran the article today, the world renowned would the headline would say like this world renowned evangelist missionary church planner, paul calls out church founder lead pastor of Jerusalem megachurch Peter for being racist on twitter, that’s what I would say if this happened today. This is an example for us in the text of paul, warning Peter who’s being idle and being a people pleaser like he’s been his entire career, he has a history of fearing man, paul publicly rebuked peter for being idle and he’s rebuking publicly a pillar, a founder and a leader of the church for being idle. We are not talking about differences in perspectives like is this sin or not sin like as your aunt racist or not racist, that’s not what we’re that’s I think it’s bigger than that Because if it’s black or white, check the boxes this sin is this not sin. I think you guys would get that concept, but it’s once we get out of the sin or not sin arena to the second level in the third level of this conversation, that’s when we get in trouble because if it’s sin were called, they were called to repent were called to correct someone Matthew 18, correct them were called, You know, Pray wait with them or approach them, you know, rebuke them, grab someone else and encourage them in Matthew 18. That whole principle of talking to brother or sister challenge, exhorting them when they’re wrong and incent, I think we got an idea on how to do that as people. This passage is talking about differences in sin or not sin, but for us, let’s take it a step beyond that. It’s beyond just sin or not. Sin. If it’s beyond someone being prejudiced and biased in their heart to other people and in their lives and their actions, other people. What if it’s about someone’s preference? What if you’re sitting around having dinner with someone next couple of weeks and someone’s preferences come out? It’s not sin or not. Sin. If someone’s preference where someone’s position on a controversial issue that’s brewing in our culture today? Like there’s primary secondary and tertiary issues in the world events. If you’re sitting there at thanksgiving dinner about to jump into a debate with your cousin’s girlfriend. Um, and you’re wondering about why am I gonna start debating someone, I hardly know about mask covid vaccines, the president election parenting advice from kids who people who don’t have kids or people who raise bad kids or old family fights. If you’re about to jump into that, this is not a sin or not sin issue, this is a preference opinion issue. What do you do of that mike, do you think the question is, do you think you know this those issues have caused christians to turn against each other, has caused churches to turn on each other and then come after each other in an unhealthy way. Do you think jesus pleased the high priestly prayer of him, praying for unity of all believers. You think jesus pleased at how well behaved as christians in America? Looking at those challenges, think to yourself in five days, this is going to matter to you, alright, this data is going to matter, so pay attention in five days if it’s not a sin or not sin box and you can’t just check that box easy. It’s someone’s preference or someone’s opinion on something or someone’s position they’ve taken. I think there’s some help, we can look at looking at principles, Remember your perspective is not 100% right, your perspective is not 90% right. Your perspective is probably maybe not 80% right. Your first take. Your hot take isn’t 100% trustworthy. So think about this. Our church has three hundreds of people coming on a typical sunday and if 209 people that attend all of our different community groups throughout the week, there’s a lot of life on life, different perspectives that come together in our church world, here’s how we wrap our arms around variant variant different perspectives that people have And our membership class, we walk through this, we have a tier one which we call the cardinal doctrines the gospel and salvation. If you get this wrong, you get Christianity wrong and I’m not talking to a christian, I’m talking to a non christian, there’s a ton of topics that this hard to get all exclusive list on this, but it’s like who is jesus, is he, is he God’s son who rose from the dead to save mankind? Or is he just another teacher? If we talk about man’s depravity since depravity, we talk about the deity of christ, we talked about jesus atonement on the cross, the physical, physical resurrection of jesus christ. We talk about salvation made possible by God’s grace and faith alone, through christ alone, we talk about completely how you’re safe completely apart from human works. We talked about the inerrancy and infallibility and authority of scripture. We talked about the doctrine of the trinity, We can talk about a lot of things, but here # one is your Christian or not a Christian. I have people go to the membership class that are not christian that are trying to debate our statement of faith, it’s like you heard Jehovah witness, we’re not a Jehovah witness church, this church is built for christians, I mean, your family is not built for christians, your family might have non christians in your family, but you got to realize this is a tier one, is this person a christian or not a christian, I’m talking to Tier two is basic teachings of the Christian faith. Some examples of basic teachings is the second coming heaven and hell, believers, resurrection, marriages, one flesh between a man and a woman, the 10 Commandments, water baptism, communion, sabbath and tithing and a whole list of other second tier basic teachings of the christian faith, cheer number three, So is this person Christian is this basic teachings of Christianity. Tier # three is convictions and practices we have as a church as a church. We have convictions and practices as a people. We have a church governance, we have male only elders and pastors, we have assurance of salvation, eternal security, the role of charismatic in the church, the signs and gifts in the church today, we have believers baptist’s baptism versus infant baptism and we exercise church discipline, There’s convictions and practices we have as a people that we deal with as a people. We’ve settled those issues as people and then we get to tier four and five, which might be your dinner table. You’re walking into for thanksgiving here for his personal beliefs and convictions on various doctrines and there’s a whole bunch of christian doctrines, different viewpoints on the election, homeschooling public school christian school, how you do evangelism when jesus coming back different viewpoints on the millennial, there’s, there’s variations of different views you can have on personal beliefs and convictions on various doctrines And then we get to tier five, it’s going out in order of importance. Tier five is divisive issues the Bible does not address and that’s party politics, social consumption of alcohol. If you have coffee in the auditorium, who fights over that, what bible, what bible translation do you use? As long as it’s not, the message will be alright, hymns versus contemporary music vaccines mask and person versus streaming church. There’s tears 12, tiers one and two christians, protestant christians have had the most amount of consensus in the history of the church since the church was founded. Tier three is what we’ve decided as a local elder team as a local membership team of our church. Here’s four and five. We don’t address a ton because we try to keep the main thing. The main thing, Tiers 12 and three, here’s 12 and three is green light go two years, four and five is red light. Stop check your audience, make sure you know who you’re talking to and what you’re talking about and then proceed with caution. Does that make some sense to you? If it doesn’t come to a membership class, it’s the fourth sunday of each month, we spend more than three minutes on that whole topic. But the big idea the most important, the most essential things. We keep the main thing and tears. Four and five. A church in church history has had the least amount of consensus. We are not building our church around tears four and five. But there’s a there’s a there’s something that gets flushed out as you think about what values people have and what differences they have and how they come to that place and their differences. And just unsolicited advice when dealing with differences. How do we get here? How do we get here where you could be sitting at a dinner table, have radically different opinions on the same problem. And I think if you think about it for a little bit, there’s people have differences. They have different opinions and they have ground rules that are king of their minds. King of their emotions. King of their king of truth in their mind. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna label five different people that you’re probably interact with the rest of your life group. Number one. Their opinions, their experience, their personal perspective is king of their their definition of truth, their opinions, their experiences and perspectives is king of truth in their mind. Your truth is your truth. My truth is my truth. I’m going to speak my truth. That’s that’s group number one group. Number two. Science. Some blog somewhere on the website, some web site, some blog. Some stats somewhere is King of truth. Whatever that. As long as that stat or that science backs my opinion. That’s my truth. That’s group. Number two. Group. Number three is whatever is culturally relevant, popular or trendy is the truth. King of truth of my life? Whatever’s popular, trendy and relevant and culturally cool at the time. That’s group number three. Group number four offense is king. Whoever could be offended 1st wins. Sorry about the group number four, I’m not going to move on. Group number five. Number five. This is hopefully where you land scripture is king. God’s word for all of life is king for your life, not your opinions, not what’s popular, not what scientific this week, not offense you have this week. God’s word is king. It’s the standard of truth for all of your life, I think is we just want to manipulate and con and make the proof text. What we wanted to say. We got to honestly look at what the bible says. But when you’re talking to people and there’s differences there very well coming from very different places of standards of truth in their life. So you might come into a Judeo christian protestant background of answers to controversial topics. But the people you’re having dinner with a thanksgiving very well, probably don’t have that, potentially if they do, it’s a version of it that might not be might not be lined up with all of the bible. Your conversation. I think you have to realize that people are coming from different places. That’s what got us here. So what do you do in that fun messiness of life and ministry and being on mission and a very divided culture? What do you do? Your conversation posture is key? We can’t be abundant. We can’t be, you know, you know parroting something we read five minutes before we got there, we have to be our posture has been very humble how we engage with people. I would challenge you to be annoyingly humble, annoyingly humble. Like what’s annoyingly humble? I don’t know, but you should show us what annoyingly humble is. Um but I do think your posture matters matters. There’s this man who is not annoying anybody’s humble. Um he him and I mean on Wednesday mornings and I think what is really good, he’s agali mature man. What’s really good is he’s mentoring me. But he asked questions when I share something, an opinion, a preference of thought, something that has not been vetted by scripture, that’s just you know my truth today or how I’m feeling this morning or if I share something that’s off heel gently and lovingly and humbly ask me questions like where do you where do you get that in the bible? Have you thought about if you did that? What about this? How would you answer this question? He’s asking questions in a humble posture that helps me. It lowers my defense, but it also helps point me back to my standard of truth, which is the bible as a christian. No, it’s not your case for everyone? So you can’t ask someone across the dinner table Thanksgiving, where do you get that in the bible. That like I don’t think the bible is real. So I understand that this but your posture should be humble asking questions because the person the person talking is the person doing the learning. Your job is not to lecture and man splaying and woman’s playing to your family. Your job is to love your family. Learn from your family and lead your family that are idle, discouraged and weak people and deliver a piece of everyone. A mature believers don’t get this. Mature believers learn and listen and they ask questions. Remember the one doing the talking is one doing the listening, ask leading questions. Have a posture to learn. Covid mask vaccines, the president election parenting advice. Old family fights you have a job. Your job is to walk into situations like that and learn from them. And remember you’re talking to people that need to be warned, comforted, helped and your command to be at peace and be at patience of everyone differences in perspective is revealing. It reveals what is king of truth in people’s lives and reveals who is mature and who is immature in their faith. Warren comfort, help and be patient. If everyone strive for peace, let’s move on to the next point Differences in roles. She reached me in verse 14 it says this. Indeed the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say because I am not a hand, I don’t belong to the body, it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. And if the if the ear should say because I am not and I don’t belong to the body, it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. The whole body were an eye, where would the hearing B And if the whole body were near where with the sense of smell be, but if it is, but if it is God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted and if we were all the same, where would the body be as it is? There are many parts but one body. So paul is writing to a church has a lot of issues, a lot of controversy and scandal and differences in fighting in the church. The apostle paul, I knew how to help lead people from different backgrounds to the unifying banner of jesus christ that brought them together. If you were, if you’re walking to church this morning and on you because you’re a good member and you walk and park a ways away. If you’re walking to church this morning and you walked over an ear, you would think Peter the Apostle Peter must have been here this morning as a guest preacher at the first service, wow those pastors know how to woo in some big heavy hitters to share at our church, but men and women, it is, should be concerning to see a body part, a limb laying on the street as a christian. A lone ranger, isolated christian is a dangerous bad place to be. We need each other. I don’t have all the gifts, I don’t have a lot of the gifts, I have a two or three of the gifts that are good and helpful, we’re gonna lean on a lot of y’all for a lot of other gifts. Does that make sense? There’s, there’s parts of this body we need from each other. Uh each, each part of the body has different roles, believers have different roles in the family of God. We don’t look at each other and say, why can’t you be more like this christian that God is uniquely made each christian individually. Some parts of the body have a different role. They’re designed to be walked all over their defeat. Other body parts, they smell like the nose and the feet. Other body parts are prone to think brains, other parts of the body are prone to do hands. Other parts of the body are prone to feel us heart bleeding heart. People lets us other parts of the body are prone to sit. Other parts of the broader, you’re prone to sit marginal Christianity. Just kind of sitting around. I know we have different parts of the body, different roles, but we all come together under the banner of christ who have brought us all together as christians, God has different roles and different gifting in different spots on the team, on the family for each person in this church, we should not get mad at people that are different than us. We should embrace their differences and they’re wiring their temperaments of perspectives, their gifting, it’s different than us. God gave the gifts to the church, not to one member of a church. Unless your church is self worship, then yes, you have all the gifts to worship yourself. If your church is bigger than yourself, it’s the worship jesus and be in the body of christ. Don’t be jealous of other christians, jealousy doesn’t look good on you, christian. Some brothers and sisters are more positive than you. They’re more pessimistic than you. They’re more passionate than you. They’re more practical than you. They’re different than you because you are not the standard of living and thinking as a christian, we need each other love the diversity, love. The difference is that in the body of christ, love the way the different way that each of us uniquely serve and worship God. I love the way that we uniquely are image bearers of God. If you see and appreciate these differences you’re seeing and appreciating God’s working in the lives of the men and women around you. For me when I go into situations, I know I’m gonna be challenged. I know I’m not gonna love what I’m hearing, I’m not gonna love what I’m being told, I have to pray before I get there so you should pray before thanksgiving day, pray for people by name. It seems to disarm you incorrectly posture your heart in a way to serve love and courage. Be patient and ideally exhort and comfort and warn people, if you’re praying for people are different than you, you’re gonna love them the way you’re supposed to love them, which is different than what the world does. If we’re honest, if we’re honest, it’s very hard for us to do because we’ve inflated view of ourselves, we inflated your own gifting our own roles, our own preferences are king in our life, You have certain skills that I don’t have and I have skills that you don’t have a God created us and interdependent way to appreciate each other’s differences. Only Jesus is the perfect 10 and every gifting and we’re not Jesus, I’m not Jesus, you’re not Jesus, we need each other. So as we close, how to love. Well, people who are just different from you. So just remind ourselves of some things I’ve said already, the reality is we do not love well people that are different than us, even our people closest to us. If we’re honest, we have to apologize to our our siblings, our wife, our kids, our parents, we have to apologize to the people closest to us if we’re actually walking and humble gospel obedience because we failed them. we fail to live up to be the Godly man. The Godly woman that God has called us to be. We don’t roll in our own loving our we don’t love them. Well, people closest to us. The reality is olders, older people not don’t want to engage with younger people. Younger people don’t engage with older people. People tend to prioritize their own season of life. They don’t embrace the differences. If we’re honest, we don’t like people that are different from us to use biblical words or prone from reading the bible were prone to partiality, favoritism prejudice and bias to who is the most like me, Who is the most like you. We pick it, we choose it, we shop it, we sit in it. We we embrace what we our preferences. Our king, if we’re honest. And that is sent prejudice, partiality, favoritism bias is sent. The bible has a very clear word, a three letter word for that sin. It calls that sin. We don’t doctor up that those words to mean other things that should not be in the people of God. We can be if we’re honest, we can be fearful, intimidated by differences and God isn’t afraid and intimidated by differences. God made differences in our life. But the reality is the last point. We are not that difference verse 19 here we love because he first loved us. If anyone says I love God and yet hates his brother sister, he is a liar for the person who does not love his brother Sister, whom he has seen cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And we have this command from him, The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister. We are not that different. We all need the same gospel of jesus christ. We all need jesus, we all need grace, we all need the gospel, we all need salvation. God made diversity. And we avoid it. God designed different and we avoid it, we avoid different, but we’re all the same under the banner of jesus christ. As soon as you see someone who’s different than you, they’re older than you, they’re younger than you. They look different than you. They talk different than you. They think different than you think that is a person that needs the gospel, jesus christ who God loves. And I’m an ambassador’s commissioned on mission to love that person, I need to love them. Well, in the Book of revelation, it talks about every tribe nation, language will all be united together under a worship of God And the differences that we see in our tribe nation language. Now, they can be seen in the church today, but they may never be seen in our city. I’m not naive, but they need to be seen among the people of God because we reflect an ultimate worship experience of what it will be like in heaven and revelations 19 when all the nations and tribes and languages the world come together under unifying loving worshiping banner of jesus christ. But we have to show that now in the body of christ because in heaven it will be that way and I do think there are some differences and disagreements that will not be concluded on this side of heaven. The bible talks about jesus wipe away every tear. There’s some confusing things that jesus can bring clarity to in heaven. There’s judgments that God will make writes in heaven and we’ll be right forever in heaven. We may not be right here and now. You need to immerse yourself. If you desire to love people well in your life the next couple of weeks, you need to deeply immerse yourself in loving God well and loving the gospel. Well, we have a chance of being different as people that love our fans, friends and family different if we love God well and love others. Well, let’s let’s pray as thomas comes up and lead us in our communion. Lord, let’s pray God. I thank you for how you loved us. Well, you came to different people and you gave us what we didn’t deserve and you give us what we ultimately needed the gospel and grace and salvation. You didn’t get hung up on preferences or opinions or temporary things. You got wrapped up in the main thing I purchased. Give us wisdom helps to love people will help us to love you Well, we pray in jesus name. Amen.

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Love Well