When I was a kid my parents were missionaries in the Philippines. We lived there for three years, two in one house and one in another outside of Cebu City. In most parts of the city, including the part our first house was located, were open sewers. Ditches that were filled with water containing all of the human and water waste in the neighborhood. I was six years old when we moved there, and I was 8 years old when we moved from this particular house to another house outside of the sounds and smells of the city. So I was old enough to remember many things about this house. I remember one day, my brothers and I took my dad’s tea strainer from the kitchen and used it to fish for guppies in the ditch. Yes, we were playing in the sewer. You might wonder how, on a typical blistering hot and humid day, we could play in an open sewer. You would think the smell alone would be killer. But, I don’t remember the smell. Isn’t that interesting? I remember the water ditch in front of our house, but, to me, it was just that; A ditch with water in it.
My parents freaked out when they found out where we were and what we were doing. And we particularly were in very deep trouble for using dad’s precious tea strainer. I remember asking him, “Why can’t you just wash it off?” I really didn’t understand why they were so upset.
I’m more scarred now from the memory of the bath my mom gave us. I’m pretty sure she used sandpaper and Lysol. And I’m wondering now if I was water boarded.
Sin is like this; especially the sin of selfishness. Our selfishness is just like living with an open sewer. We become acclimated to it. We don’t find it shocking at all. We become so used to it, that we live with it, play with it, and we don’t smell it. We don’t recognize that we're playing in the sewer. We’re all inherently selfish. It’s built into our human nature.
We’ve been told since we were babies to stop being selfish. One of the first lessons we learn is to share our stuff. Some of us grasped this idea better than others when we were kids, but, we’ve all heard it from our mom. “Share your toys!” But the spiritual problem with selfishness is much deeper than just the unwillingness to share toys. There are people who are unselfish, who give to others and who do a lot of charity work, but, completely miss the purpose of the mission of Jesus. Jesus said he came to save people from their sin not help them out of a bind. We help people, so that we can share Jesus with them, because Jesus is the Savior of the world.
Today is the final talk in our series "defining love.” We’ve discussed how genuine love, God's love, isn't normal. We talked about how love is faithful and that the result of faithfulness is joy. Our culture defines love in a million different ways, but, God defines love much more simply. People think we’re weird. When we love the way God loves, we’re going to be talked about. Folks are not going to understand why you love God’s way.
It’s not difficult for a follower of Jesus to understand God’s love. A follower knows what love is, because they follow the teaching of Jesus, and Jesus clearly defines love and shows us what it is. But, someone who doesn’t follow Jesus will struggle with love. In our society, love and lust are often confused with each other.
Love is faithful. Love is faithful to God and faithful in relationships. Genuine love doesn’t bolt when things get tough. We don’t lose our faith in difficult times. As a matter of fact, the opposite is true. For those who genuinely love God, difficult times are considered an opportunity to grow in faith. We receive joy in suffering. Like Paul and Silas when they were beaten and thrown in prison. How can you be singing and full of joy about your situation, if you’re suffering? Or how can Jesus on the cross gasp through his pain “Father forgive them?” Who does that? Who forgives like that? Who sings while they are being tortured? People think they know what love is, but, here’s the thing, it’s impossible to understand genuine love without a relationship with Jesus Christ, because he’s the one who shows us what real love is.
1 John says, “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins”
Last week we talked about how love can't survive between two people and between us and God without sacrifice. Someone has to make the sacrifice. God showed us what love looks like. He was the example of what genuine love, faithful love, and sacrificial love look like.
Jesus shows us that love is faithful, sacrificial and unselfish. Now, it might seem that being sacrificial and unselfish are the same thing. And I guess in essence they are, but, here’s what I consider to be the difference. Sacrifice is something we do, we make sacrifices, but, being unselfish is an attitude. Those who sacrifice do so because they are unselfish people. A selfish person doesn’t make sacrifices for anyone. A selfish person does what they want, when they want, and how they want to do it. And here’s the deal; we’re all selfish. We all struggle with selfishness. Jesus said that if you want to follow Him you have to deny yourself. A selfish person will not choose to do that. So here's the message for today summed up in a phrase:
The only way to love God and love others is to disown yourself and follow Jesus.
Jesus said, “If you want to follow me you must deny yourself.” Let’s just pause and take a look at this phrase for a second. Last week we talked about how denying yourself is a sacrificial thing. Let’s just ask a very simple question here. “What does this even mean?”
Let’s just take the word ‘deny’. The word in the language of Jesus is arneomai. This word means to say no or to deny, but, it has a deeper meaning, too. The word also means to refuse to identify with or to disown. So here’s the implication. You don’t belong to yourself if you choose to follow Jesus and His teaching. To deny yourself, is to disown yourself, and to completely and totally receive as your identity a follower of Jesus.
We all have documents that prove who we are; a Birth certificate, drivers license, maybe a passport, health card, you get the idea. A Jesus follower doesn’t have a document that proves this identity. We have an action. When Jesus Christ raised himself from the dead, he proved His identity as the Son of God and also provided proof to all those who choose to follow Him.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” We need to understand this principle as a core truth or foundation of our faith. We do not belong in this world, we’re like immigrants. Our home is in heaven with our Father. That is where we belong. The New Testament uses this kind of language to help us understand this. 1 Peter 1:17-19 says, “And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as “foreigners in the land.” For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God."
We all struggle with selfishness because we live in this world and we’re flawed. You’re not ever going to be perfect. We have to keep reminding each other that our faith isn’t about our activity, our faith is about why we act. Why we do what we do. I’m an American citizen living in Canada. I’m reminded of that fact almost every day of my life. When I’m in the US, it's different. I just simply go about my business as a citizen of the country I belong to. As citizens of Canada, I seriously doubt that everyday you are reminded by a letter, an email, a phone call that you are in fact a citizen of Canada. You just go about your business in the country you belong to and on special days, like Remembrance, or July 1 you might take some time to reflect and be grateful that you are a citizen of Canada. Maybe sometime in a prayer you thank God you live here for the freedoms you enjoy.
In order for me and my family to live here we have to fill out all kinds of paperwork every year. We have to renew our MSI, and our Social Insurance numbers. Our kids want to work but they can’t because they’re not able to get work permits. We’re always being reminded in one way or another that we live in a foreign country. But the truth is, we should all feel this way about the world we live in.
Jesus followers want to be with their Father in heaven. We want to be where Jesus is, but, we also realize at the same time we have a mission on this foreign soil. We have a purpose for being here. That purpose is to love people like Jesus loves, to serve people like Jesus serves. We are to be like Jesus in this world so that others will see who He is and want to follow Him too. Even though many in our world will choose not too, we are not the judge, or the jury to determine who is worthy of God’s love, who is worthy of Salvation, we are only to love and serve like Jesus in the world, and allow God to be the judge of His creation.
The only way to love God and love others is to live an unselfish life. This means to live with the truth and the understanding that our identity is in Jesus Christ, through His resurrection, and that we don’t really belong here. Our stuff isn’t ours. Even our bodies are not ours. Everything belongs to Jesus Christ. Everything.
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 1 John 4:16-17
We are called as followers of Jesus out of our homes, out of our churches, out of our routines, even out of our families to love like Jesus loves in our community. We can say we love God if we want to, but, Jesus teaches us that the only way to follow Him, is to love and serve people like He does. Jesus wants people to find Him, to discover His redemption. People don’t have to die in their sin, but, they must choose to throw away their identity and follow Jesus.
Those who choose to live life the way they want to; it’s like they are living with an open sewer. They become used to it, they live in it, play in it, and don’t smell it. They don’t recognize they’re playing in the sewer. Those of us who are followers of Jesus, we know, because Jesus tells us about the sewer. He tells us our lives are stinking it up. Once we realize that we don’t have to be in the sewer any more, that there is actually a better life, a healthier, more abundant life we’ll never go back to playing in the sewer. But there are a lot of folks all around us who just don’t get it. They’re so used to the stench of living for themselves they don’t know any better. We must love our community enough to share with them who Jesus is. To show them the sewer they’re playing in, and to help them grasp the love of Jesus. We can’t just talk about it. We have to show folks what it means to live with Jesus, so they’ll see that there is a better way to live in this world.
So we’ve spent three Sundays defining love. Real love. True love. This isn’t the way most would define love, but, most folks don’t have a clue what love is. Most people regularly confuse love and lust. This is weird love. And this is the summary.
Genuine love is faithful especially in very difficult and painful circumstances and full of joy. It’s impossible to love others and God without making sacrifices. And the only way to really love God and love others is to disown yourself and follow Jesus.
