2023 01 08

in Jesus name. Amen. Good morning everyone. How are you? Good. All right.

At this time, we're also going to dismiss our three to five year olds. Uh they're going to head off to their class. And the rest of us, go ahead and grab your Bibles. Luke chapter 6. We're going to be in 27 uh through 36 today. 27 through 36.

All right. And as you're turning there, I just want to officially say happy new year uh to everyone. Technically, we said it last week, but we said it to about six people. And so, uh so it was a good time. But happy new year to everyone. Hope that your uh holiday season was very joyful.

And what I want to kind of start off with before we jump into Luke um six is just kind of letting you in a little bit on on kind of what our goals are for this year. Um we we are praying that this year 2023 would would truly truly be a year of joy for you. Like that's our main goal. That's our main goal is for it to be a year of joy for you. And the way in which that is produced is by every member involved in consistent disciplehip. Like honestly that's the way it's going to happen.

every member involved in consistent disciplehip. Before the district church uh was started, when uh Josh and myself were sitting on the beaches of Miami suffering for Jesus um about seven or eight years ago, I remember us just kind of talking and praying about what what a church is and and what a church uh should be when when ultimately started and planted. and and kind of as we discussed that and deduced it from the scriptures, we really boiled it down to the the people of God enjoying God by glorifying him with their lives. I mean that like to just boil it all down. It's it's the people of God enjoying God by glorifying him with their lives. And the way in which that is ultimately accomplished is by the gospel.

It's how God saves men and women and ushers them into this people of God, to this church. And the way in which God commands us to participate in the work that he is doing to create a people among all nations to in order for him to to do that is by commanding us to go and make disciples. To go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit and teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded. All that he has commanded. That that's that's the rule. That's the one thing that he's told us to do that is going to lead us into glorifying God and enjoying him in all things.

In all things and so disciplehip, which we kind of to give that as an umbrella term, helping others follow Jesus. All right, you're like, I don't know what disciplehip is. Helping others follow Jesus is the only plan of God to save the world. It's the only means of great joy for all people because in this life, Jesus is the only one who gives life and life abundantly. He's the only one that does that. The the most joyful people that I've ever met in my life.

The most joyful people are those who treasure Jesus. Simply put, who treasure Jesus. th those who who hunger and thirst for more of Jesus. And therefore they they steward their lives in such a way that they don't let things of this world rob them of the opportunity to treasure Jesus above all else. And so they say yes to things that are going to lead them to treasuring Jesus. And they say no to things that are going to rob them of that opportunity.

And it's not to say that the things that they're saying no to are necessarily sinful things. It's just they're prioritizing the things that are going to uh um help foster an environment where they get more of Jesus, more of him in all things. And so practically speaking, as we've looked at the function of a disciple in the scriptures, we were able to deduce the characteristics of a disciple as one who worships Jesus, one who belongs to the community of faith, one who serves the body of Christ and others, and one who multiplies themselves through resources, evangelism, and disciplehip. And that's why we put together our mission as a church is simply this to glorify God. greatest goal, ultimate goal of all humanity. The reason why God created humans is to glorify God in that we are enjoying him.

Glorify God by making disciples. All right? We're just pulling it straight from Matthew 28. All right? Glorify God by making disciples of all nations. Of all nations.

And the way that we actually implement the making of disciples is by working on those characteristic traits. So we glorify God by making disciples of all nations through gospel- centered worship, gospel- centered community, gospel- centered service, and gospel- centered multiplication. And you're like, why all the gospel centrality? Because without the gospel, you don't worship. Without the gospel, you don't belong to the church. Without the gospel, you will not serve because you're not you don't know Jesus.

He's the one who came to serve. To to serve, you got to know Jesus. So, it's gospel- centered. And to multiply has to come through the overflow and result of knowing Jesus. He sends us out to do this. And so this is going to be our primary focus as pastors for our church is to is to pastor and shepherd in such a way that you are growing in your disciplehip aka your your worship, your belonging, your serving, your multiplying so that you have the greatest opportunity this year to glorify God with your lives and thus by default enjoy and treasure him above all things.

Enjoy and treasure him above all things. And that person will be the most person the most joyful person you will ever meet. I guarantee it because the scriptures guarantee it. I promise you. None of this is saying that this year is going to be the best circumstances for your life. We're not promising that.

We're not promising that this is going to be the year that you make the most money you've ever made. They mean you make the most friends that you've ever made or that you make whatever it is that you think is going to be that thing that fills that void that satisfies. I'm not saying that those things are going to happen. But by treasuring Jesus above all else, this will be the greatest year of joy that you've ever experienced. You've ever experienced. Nothing compares to it.

And that's what we're going to focus on. I want to give you an example of what that's going to look like because you're like, "That's that all sounds great. We've heard that probably, but I want to give you an example by giving you an example of District Dan. All right. Creating the character District Dan. All right.

District Dan's a member of our church. We don't have any Dan, so this is why it's safe. Dan attends maybe three out of four Sundays per month. Actively reads his Bible. He prays regularly to the Lord. He sings praise and worship at home, in his car, etc.

Dan also belongs to a community group where he's able to belong to a group of people who know him uh who he knows them. They edify him. They spur him on to treasure Jesus. They celebrate with him the delights of life. Uh they also walk with him and lament with him the burdens, the experiences of life. From a gospel- centered worship and a gospel- centered community standpoint, Dan's doing well.

Obviously, there's always going to be room for growth in all buckets. There's always going to be room for growth. But from those two points, Dan's doing well. However, from a gospel- centered service and multiplication, Dan maybe is is not engaged in serving the body of Christ. From a ministry standpoint, Dan also does not engage in certain aspects of multiplication, whether it be giving to the mission of God via the district church or also sharing his faith with others via evangelism. This doesn't make Dan necessarily a bad church member, but it only reveals that Dan is not getting to experience the full benefits of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and to engage fully in what's going to bring him life and life abundantly.

And so, we want to help disciple Dan. We want to help Dan with this by serving the body of Christ an important way that is nurturing and growing his faith in our church. And so, we're gonna encourage him. We're going to say, "Hey, Daniel, like we we see that Jesus has commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe." So, like, let's let's help you teach someone how to observe that Jesus is good and that he's gracious and that God is holy and that the scriptures are his inspired word. So, let's plug you into little district where you are teaching others about Jesus.

And so, we would love for you to serve our body in that way because it isn't just glorified child care. It is us teaching one another and teaching our littles. And so Dan, what we want you to do is we want you to talk to Greg and an we want you to say, "Hey, is there a way in which I can help fulfill my calling to serve the body?" And so go and do that. If your name's not Dan, go and do that. That'd be awesome.

We would love for you to get connected in that way. There's other ministries that that Dan can serve in as well. Beyond that, we want to say, "Hey, Dan, we want you to be able to steward your way to where you're not tied to all of your resources, whether that's time and energy and money and so forth, that it's just serving you. Is it serving the mission of God? Is it serving others?" Like, let's help you multiply your resources so that it doesn't just impact you, but it impacts others.

You're not just considering the interest of yourself, but you're considering the interest of others. And so, how can you do that? How can we work that out? How can we help you figure out finances and help you figure out your time and your schedule so that you multiply yourself? We want to disciple in that way. Have you ever evangelized?

Have you ever Have you ever told someone about Jesus? We want to help you with that. Go sign up to for the equip class that gives you specific ways in which you can begin evangelizing with somebody. We want to disciple you. We want to help you in these areas so that as Paul has talked about in many of his letters, he he ties his joy to ultimately what he shares. What he shares is not it's not just the treasuring of Jesus.

It's the expression of what you treasure in Jesus when you then engage that with someone else and they begin treasuring it as well. is when the joy is complete. It's complete. So even for let's say district Dan who is engaged in worship and belonging in a community and through that process is enjoying Jesus. He's not enjoying Jesus to the fullest because it's not being completed by the expression of going and multiplying himself through service and multiplication as well. We want to see wellrounded disciples.

Well-rounded disciples. And that's going to be our focus. That's what we're going to be looking at this year. And to connect this to what I'm preaching on today, I want you I want to say this. Disciplehip ultimately means that change is necessary. Change is necessary.

Again, Christ became a man. He he changed. Christ became a man so that men and women might become like Christ. Change is necessary. Disciplehip is the umbrella term for the entire process of transitioning someone from sinner to saint. Change transformation.

It's having a new identity as a saint impact every area of your life. Every area of your life. Your relationship with God. your relationship with others. It's not saying we want the best out of you. It's what we want the best for you.

We want the best for you. And so we're not going to disciple in order to pull out of you more, but rather disciple in such a way that you receive more for your ultimate joy in treasuring Jesus and becoming like him. As we walk through this and as we just live together and do this together, the best for you does not involve or does involve you being conformed to the image of Christ. You being transformed by the renewing of your mind, you experiencing change. I want you to hear this in Ephesians 4 20- 24. But that is not what the way that you learned Christ.

He's talk he's kind of combating something that they heard assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus to put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life. It's a way of life. It's a way of doing things and it's corrupt through deceitful desires. But verse 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. So a change of of thought and to put on the new self, the identity of Christ which is created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So going from sinner to saint is this putting off of old self, putting on of new self and changing, being transformed through that process of disciplehip.

If I could sum up modern mainstream Christianity, it'd be this. Too many people want a God that saves them but doesn't change them. That that's what mainstream Christianity is preaching today. We want a God that saves us, forgives us, but does not change us. Does not change us. The gospel does not work like that.

And this passage today is proof. This passage is showing us one of the ways God is changing mankind through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And again, there are there are thousands of way God is changing us and transforming us. It's not enough to just say be godly. Be Christlike. What does it mean to be godly?

What does it mean to be Christlike? Well, every every sermon's aim every Sunday is to show you the answers to those questions to those questions. That's why the Christian who attends 40 Sundays out of the year is going to understand more of what it means to be like Christ than the one who attends 20. The one who's engaged in community group on a regular basis is going to be more godly and more like Christ than the one who does not. The one who serves is going to be more like Christ and more godly than the one who does not. The one who multiplies is going to be more like Christ and more godly than the one who does not.

It's engaging in Christ making disciples of all nations so that we are conformed to the image of Jesus. And that is a lifong process. A lifelong process. And today is one in which we can be like Christ. When it comes to those, again, as Grant shared with us, when it comes to those considered your enemies, those who persecute you, who disagree with you, who are hostile toward you, who hate you, to be like our culture would be to cancel them, right? To cancel them, to disengage, to discriminate, to ridicule, and in some extremes to dehumanize them.

That's what our culture is teaching us to observe and do. Our culture wants to believe that judging, shaming, ridiculing, blaming, and cancelling others is what actually leads our enemies to change their position. But how's that working? How many of us have changed someone's mind by sharing or shaming them through a Facebook post or Instagram story? Like, has anyone ever got that DM back that said, "Thank you for taking this stance and this position. I've now changed."

No. We just feel better about our position. How many of us have changed someone's mind by ridiculing them or trying to make them feel guilty? If anything, it just broadens the gap and makes you more of an adversary, a foe, or an enemy. God doesn't tell us to cancel our enemies. God doesn't tell us to ridicule them.

God has a different way. Titus 3:4-6 puts it this way. When the goodness and loving kindness of God our savior appeared, he saved us. He saved us. It's this goodness and this loving kindness of God that actually saves us and leads us to change. Not ridicule, not cancelling, but rather love and kindness leads us to change.

Leads us to repentance. As Romans 2:4 says, God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. Colossians 3:12 and 14 says this, "Put on them as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, cancelling each other. Just making sure you're listening. No, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you. So you also must forgive.

And above all these, put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. It is this love, the very love of God that Paul commands us to put on that allows us to have a different posture, a reaction or intention towards others who bring you any level of harm, distress, anger, so forth. And so Luke records for us today in Luke 6:27-36 what Jesus commands as a way of doing things differently that actually has the power to affect change. To affect change to combat the way of the world with the way of Christ to put off the old self and walk in the new self. This is how Jesus acts. This comes from his very nature.

And so let's read this. Luke 6:27-36. Jesus as he is teaching this and this is a you're some wonder is this the sermon on the mount? Because we know the sermon on the mount primarily popularity is Matthew 5 um Matthew 5 through7. We're believing uh that this is Luke as he's doing all of his research and as he's doing all of his interviews has stumbled upon the sermon on the mount or having people tell him and let him know what the sermon on the mount is. And this is him being able to record through his lens and through his writing what the sermon on the mount was and what it was teaching and so forth.

And he says this, or quoting Jesus, "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you. and from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

This is very hard to accomplish. Like, if we're just honest, right? Like, this is hard stuff. There's an easier way to love. This is the hard way to love, but it is the Christlike way to love. There's an easier way to love.

There's a more natural way to love. And that's why Jesus shares this next perspective in 32 through34. This is our natural posture in loving. He says, "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them? And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you?

For even sinners do the same? And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. It It's easy to love those who love you. So surround yourself with those who look like you, talk like you, and think like you. That's easy.

Only associate with those who would never disagree with you. That's the easy way of life. But we can say, "Thank you, Jesus." That That's not what Jesus did. That's not what Jesus did. If it were, we would not have Christmas to celebrate.

He would have never left the Father's side. He would have never left the presence of angels if he only associated with those who agree with him. If he only associated with those who were like him, who were without sin, who were holy and blameless and righteous, he would have never left heaven. But he entered into the presence of his enemies, those who were hostile to him, those who did not agree with him. He came to those who would despise him and reject him and revile him and ultimately murder and kill him. And this is what he tells us of why he did that.

Verse 35, love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great and you will be sons of the most high for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful. The the the foundation of love towards others is the mercy of God towards us. It's the foundation. God will never ask us or better command us to do something that God is not the example that God is not the model that God is not the means of accomplishing the same thing. In other words, he won't ask you to do something he is not willing to do himself.

Even more so, he will not command us to do something that is a conflict of interest for himself. So when God tells us to love your enemies, it's because it flows from the very nature of God himself. It comes from the experience of God. It originates from the will of God. It is empowered by the spirit of God. So when God tells us to love our enemies, it's because God has loved his enemies perfectly and therefore has the ability to empower us to do the same when we become of God.

Sons and daughters of him. He empowers us. It's not therefore an impossible task or way of life. Impossible for those who are sinners. Possible for those who are saints. Because of Jesus.

Because of Jesus. Because he did. We can. We can. And this gets into something that scripture uses. And as we continue even walking through just disciplehip in general, what we like to refer to as indicatives and imperatives.

God will never command you an imperative without providing for us the means of accomplishing that imperative by the indicative, the source, the example, the model. Let me give you an illustration of what that looks like. Romans 5'8, God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for us. While we were sinners, Christ moved towards us as enemies and died for us. Took our pain, took our punishment, took our wrath that God had due us and placed it on himself.

He died for us. and then is able to command us to basically do the same thing. 1 John 4:19, we love because he first loved us. The indicative is because he first loved us. Imperative, go and love your enemies. We love because of him.

Because of him. And you can see that throughout all of the scriptures. We serve because he first served us. We give because he first gave to us. We send because he first sent Jesus. He he he does not command the church to do anything that Jesus did not first do and then provide the means and the resources in order to then accomplish that church that people going out and fulfilling whatever the imperative is that he caused you to go and do.

This is the beauty of God being outside of time is that when he says go and make disciples, God outside of time has already this is this is this is concept all right has already made all of the disciples that he's going to make like what because we have the glimpse in revelation that says there is a picture before the throne of God of a people that are worshiping him. And this ain't a people that all look alike and sound alike and talk alike and agree and whatnot. It's a people from every tribe, every tongue, every nation that even in the mission of God going to take the gospel to them had nations and tribes killing them because they don't want it. They're enemies. But yet, perseverance. Go send, get people, win them for Jesus.

Make you fishers of men. go get it to them. They persevered, got the gospel to them. God saved them. God made disciples of them. And in the end, we are able to see this picture that from every tribe, tongue, and nation, there are a people of God, way more of a multitude than we can count, that are standing before the throne of God, worshiping, enjoying God forever.

forever. God will not tell us and command us to do something that he has not done and is doing. And so 1 John 4:7-12 says this, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God." Indicative imperative. Love one another because it's 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 was made manifest among us. That God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. One another.

No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. It was always interesting and caught me off guard why he even just throws in there, no one has ever seen God. But when he then attaches, if we love one another, God abides in us. What he's saying is is our love that proves we are disciples of Jesus. Our love that goes out is the world seeing God and experiencing the mercy and grace that comes from him.

God abides in us and that love is then perfected in us. In us as this brings us to our time of communion. He said something interesting in there that you're like an interesting word in this is love. Not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. propitiation. It's a fancy word which basically just means it's Christ's act of love for us has appeased God's act of wrath against us.

It's appeased God. You see, we were enemies of God. That that's just that's just true. All right? Like it again, modern mainstream Christianity wants to like find that glimmer of hope that there's good in us and therefore God was like, "Man, we got to got to go save the good from the bad." And so, let's go and rescue this good and create this little subculture of good.

But no, like it's God's looking down at the earth and it's all a domain of darkness, no light. Jesus, I'm sending you. I'm sending you. And what you're going to do is you're going to go and you're going to be the light in the darkness. But in order for me to transform that darkness to become light, your light has to go dark. I'm going to crush you.

I'm going to take the sin of the darkness and I'm going to substitute it. I'm going to place it on you at the cross. I'm going to crush you. I'm going to pour out all of my hatred towards sin and sinners. All right? Don't go evangelizing people saying God loves the sinner but hates the sin.

It's not true. If you read through the Psalms, you will see scriptures that say God abhores sinners. His wrath is not just towards your action or your thoughts. It's towards you, your identity. He hates it and is not in relationship with it, but he loves what he's going to redeem that looks like his son Jesus. So he sends his son Jesus.

Jesus comes into the darkness and he takes everything that he hates about us and he places it on his son Jesus and he says, "Jesus, I'm going to crush you with my wrath. And Jesus enters into the picture and grows up. As we walk through the first few chapters of of Luke, Jesus grows up and at one point, as we'll get to, for the joy that was set before him, he endured this wrath. I mean, that'll give you a different perspective of circumstances and how you find joy in the difficulty of what you're walking through in life. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. Why?

Because he knew what it was going to produce. The joy is us. It's us. It's the people of God that are produced out of the death of Jesus at the cross. It's the forgiveness that we get to feel. It's it's all the ridicle ridicule and the shame and the guilt and the the pain that we have because of our sin is removed.

And it brings joy to Jesus knowing that he is making a people that are like him and that get to experience everything that he experiences in his relationship with the father and the spirit and that he g grants us access to all of that as co-airs of him. He said it's for that joy that I'm going to send you also so that you get to experience that same joy. It's not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be this substitute for our sins. Because of Jesus sacrifice, God's wrath towards sin is satisfied. Satisfied. And God's love towards saints is established.

It's established. There's nothing you can do to change it. That's the beauty of the whole thing. There's nothing you can do as a saint to make God love you less, to make God love you more because he put Christ in you. He loves you as he loves his son Jesus. That wells up joy within us.

We're going to take a moment now. We're going to observe by remembering this sacrifice that Christ made in order for us to have that perspective of worship and what he did in coming to love his enemies. His enemies. So I want you to go ahead and stand. And as you stand, I want you to come down for those who again believe that this is what Jesus was sent for. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Christ died for us. As my my my son quoted on Christmas, John 3:16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. If you believe that Jesus Christ was sent to take all of your sin, absorb it at the cross, and be crushed so that God's wrath towards you would be satisfied. If you believe that, that God forgave you of your sins and has risen you to now walk in this new self, this new life, this new way of being conformed to the image of Jesus, we invite you to participate in this act. If you've not believed that, you're still kind of wrestling through, I don't know if I believe in Jesus, don't know if I'm saved, we ask that you not partake of it because there's nothing magical about this wafer and this juice that's going to to like save you. It's not this fancy spiritual act.

This is a remembrance for saints to be refueled on a weekly basis of our worship of God and what he's ultimately done in loving sinners.