Love Hurts Series

So hey, good morning and welcome to DCC. We are really glad that you are here with us today especially if it is your first time. Regardless of how you got here you have landed in a safe place full of people just like you, all of your story is safe and welcome here regardless of how it reads and you belong with us regardless of what you believe. Hope you feel that and experience that in your time with us today. So special shout out to all of our new friends here today and to all of our friends who are watching us live online right now too.

Well, we are in week 3 of this series called the Separation of Church and Hate and if you haven’t been around or tuned in let me review a little bit to make we are all on the same page as we jump back into this. In week one we talked about a very basic commandment that Jesus gave right before he was crucified, by this will everyone know that you are with me if you love one another. Knowing that Jesus said above all else love, two questions…are we majoring on minors in the church and is the absence of love in and coming out of the church creating the perception of hate in the world around us? We said yes. Then last week we said if the answer to those questions is yes then what do we do? Answer…begin to move toward not away from people who are different than us and who disagree with us, establish common ground with them, and think conversation before conversion? Last week this became fairly obvious, a big part of our problem, our inability to separate church and hate, is in our approach. So that’s where we are going to pick it up today, much more to say about that.

ILLUST> I want to jump back into this today by reading you an email that came in over the past few weeks that really has me thinking about what it is that we need to talk about as we walk back into this today. Here we go… I attended your service Easter Sunday because of friends. I worship my God and love Jesus, BUT... Revisit "Jesus in the marketplace". Thank you for reconfirming my reasons for never stepping into a church again. Your ilk are the most judgmental hypocrites on earth. My Jesus would have torn your money grabbing place apart. Good luck with that. Welcome to my world. My immediate thought was lots of churches within a few miles are you sure you got the right one? Then I thought what did you do? I went back and rewatched my message. It wasn’t me it had to be one or two or all of you. We get called a lot of things…that church, the drinking church, all grace no truth, water it down, don’t teach the Bible. We aren’t perfect, aren’t the best and certainly don’t have it all figured out but I have never heard that said about us before. This person came here and felt judged. Somehow, someway, they didn’t feel loved, they felt judged.

That’s where I want us to jump back into this today. The reason that a lot of people in the world around us want nothing to do with this thing we do called church, that a lot of people in the world around us who used to go to church and even liked it no longer do is simply this…they feel of have felt what our Easter friend said that they felt…judged by us. I think most of that is on us not them. So much of our inability to put distance between these two words, church and hate, is because of our poor understanding and bad application of what God is trying to tell us about judging people. That’s what we need to talk about in the few minutes that we have left together today. So let’s do this…perhaps one of the most uncomfortable passages in all of the Bible…1 Corinthians 5…

If you have a Bible you can turn there. If you want or need a Bible, we have Bibles on the back tables that you can grab right now if you would like if you close or on your way out. Or you can hit read off your program, hit our app, and then hit You Version, and it will all be right there in front of you. Everything I read is also going to be on the screens. So here we go 1 Corinthians 5 verse 1…

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? 3 For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. 4 So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.