Our Purpose Is To Love All Those Who Enter Our Doors

Our Purpose: To Love All Those Who Enter Our Doors

Luke 10;25-37 John 13:1-20

I want you to hold the following people inside your head as I describe them.

He found out that the cancer he thought was gone had come back and the doctors didn’t know what should the next step should be. This time it was far more serious.

This couple were having a terrible time in their marriage, they could barely speak to each other, and if you could have listened to their last fight, your would know there was little hope for their marriage surviving.

She had been arrested so many times for prostitution and now with her cocaine habit, she could barely stay in control of her mind. She could switch personalities at the drop of a hat.

He was sleeping in a vacant building down the street, and he was hungry. You could tell by the scent of the smell traveling behind him, that he hadn’t taken a bath in a long time. She found out she was pregnant again, even though she swore it was not going to happen to her again. She’s confused and doesn’t know what to do.

The last thing she expected to have happened that week was that her husband would die unexpectedly, and all the plans they were making would come to an abrupt end. She’s wondering what do I do next.

He found out from his lawyer that he should expect to spend some time in jail at the sentencing that is coming up on Tuesday. He had already been out on probation on several other serious charges.

She didn’t want to be there, and she let it be known. Her language was fowl, and that outfit she had on was not appropriate. She was just daring you to say something about it.

We are in the final message in our series on our purpose statement. What do all these people have in common? New Life At Calvary. These are the people that we have claim to be part of our purpose.

Each time we I say, “I will love all those who enter our doors, and accept them in our midst we should examine our hearts.” Do we really want to accept in all these people and love all of them or just some of them? All of these people who enter our doors are not going to be easy to love and accept.

If you are sure that your love everybody already, one of the most humbling things you can do is to take a Life Connect class on what it means to love one another, or to take a class such as loving like Jesus. You discover very quickly how much you are missing the mark.

Is there anyone here like me who has one of those imaginary last nerves. It goes something like this, “You are about to get on my last nerve.”

Usually when we say that , the next prayer we need to offer is not for the other person even though we think they surely need it, but we should be praying for ourselves, because we are preparing to step outside of the will of God for our lives.

Do you want to here some really bad news. Jesus told us to love each other as he has loved us. This does not mean we are to simply like people and be nice to them.

Some people are under the false assumption, that if I leave you alone and haven’t done anything to hurt you, I have done all I need to do , to show you that I love you and accept you.

In order for us to grow in love, Jesus intentionally sends people that are going to get on our last nerve. Our last nerve is the place we either grow in Christ or fail in Christ.

When a very respectable teacher came up to Jesus to find out who it was he was obligated to love, Jesus went to the place of the man’s last nerve. He knew this guy had a problem thinking he was better than others and that he had a problem with racism.

Jesus chose to tell the man a story to let him answer his own question. He said a Jewish man was on his way to a place, when a group of robbers beat him, robbed him, stripped him of most his clothes and left him half dead. A little later a Jewish priest came by and when he saw the man, he crossed on the other side of the road and kept going.

Next a Levite, a Jewish temple worker, came by and crossed on the other side.

Finally a Samaritan came by, saw the man, went to his aid, bandaged his wounds, and took him on his donkey to an inn. He paid the inn keeper to give the man food and shelter and offered to pay all the man’s expenses on his way back through the town.