Well, I want to introduce you to my family. And if we haven't met yet, here's a picture you can see right here. That's my wife Christa. And God's blessed us with three kids. We got a man child at our house now; Tyler's eighteen He's in the United High School ministry. And then my daughter, Emma was a freshman over there. And then that guy, Jack Blakey. He just turned twelve on Friday, everybody, that's right. We celebrate with some basketball at Mile Square Park, some In and Out Burger, living the good life. And Jack said something to me the other day. He said, “Dad, you know, I think my life is like the book of Romans.” And I said, “really? How so, Jack?” These are deep thoughts with Jack Blakey. And he's like, “Well, for eleven years, I've been living in the indicative. And now in my twelfth year, it's time for the imperatives in my life.” It's like, “Yeah, Jack, that's awesome!”
Hey, I want to invite everybody to come with me to Romans 12, where we do get the imperatives of how we are to live our life as the Church of Jesus Christ. And I want to encourage you to look at these verses with me in Romans 12, 9 and 10. And the reason I bring up my family is because it's not enough to just be nice with my family. As a husband, I need to love my wife as Jesus Christ has loved us in the church. Any husbands want to give it a man out there, right? You can't just be happy to be married. You can't just be like, oh, I'm really, I really have this positive feeling towards my wife. And this is all very nice here together. And the command is love. And nothing less than love is really going to work for our families. The same thing is true here at the church. Being nice to other people at church is not good enough. And that's what these verses are going to make it very clear for us here today. I'm going to read for us Romans 12:9-13. And out of respect for God's Word, I'm going to ask if we would all stand up for the public reading of Scripture. And I would encourage you to give this your full and undivided attention because this is the Word of God. Please follow along, as I read Romans 12:9.
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cleave to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead and have your seat, everybody. And that whole paragraph is about how we're supposed to be as the Church of Jesus. And I just want to go through this with you; especially look at verse nine. We're just going to go through verses 9 and 10 together. And I think Romans 12:9 really summarizes all we're learning for these eight weeks. We're calling it the be the church series as we go through these verses in Romans 12. It says, “Let love be genuine.” Hey, let's talk about how we think about one another. Do we really love one another? Is it sincere? And then it says, hey, “what is evil; cleave to what is good.” So, there are two different ideas maybe in our mind, hey, how do you get along with the one and others at church? And then how do you grow? How do you determine what God's will is where you don't do what is evil, and you do what is good. And maybe before we did this study, you thought, well, you'll go figure out how to grow and you'll go fight with sin, and you'll try to become more like Jesus. And then you'll go and hang out with other people at church, like they're two different things. But we're learning, it all goes together, the way that you and I are going to grow, the way that we're going to put on the new life of Jesus and be transformed by the renewing of our minds is we're going to be one body one, one body of Christ. And we're all going to be members of one another.
We learned last week we've got different gifts, different roles to play, but we are the one church of Jesus Christ. And if we want to be more like Jesus, we need each other. And so, as he's making this point where one body with many different parts, but we're all together in this as one. So, then he says, “Let love be genuine.” And I love how Paul puts that there. Because when you have to say, is it genuine, that means you're acknowledging that some of it is fake. Some of the way that people act at church these days, it's just being nice. It's just going through the motions. It's just putting on a mask, putting out a smile, then like everything's fine, but it's not love, and nothing less than love is going to work for the Church of Jesus Christ. Let me throw the Greek up here on the screen because sometimes it's translated Let love be genuine, sometimes let love be sincere, but really you can see it's let love be with no hypocrisy is actually what it says. Anuprokritos. The little alpha particle there is giving a negative and then you can see the hupokrites, the hypocrite. Let love be with no hypocrisy is what it's saying. Don't fake it with the love. Don't put a smile, don't put a mask on. See, in America right now, it's actually becoming okay to hate people. In fact, a lot of times when I'm out in public, I hear people exclaim, “I hate you.” And sometimes I can tell that they're joking. Sometimes they're just shouting. And I think they really hate that person. And I hear more “I hate.” I love us in America these days. And our culture right now in the scheme of this age that we're living in, you can declare anyone toxic. And once you declare them toxic, it's okay for you to have nothing to do with that person because they're not good for you anymore. We live in a cancel culture where you can block anybody you want. But guess what? You can't block anybody here at church. See? You can't hate people at church. Hey, oh, I heard you wanted to change fellowship groups. What's going on? Well, Pastor, I just hate one of the people in my old fellowship group. I just loathe this guy. I mean, I did test everything, he says in the group, can you help me find a new group, Pastor, because there's a toxic guy, and my old fellowship doesn't really fly here at church? And so here at church, if you're not supposed to hate people, do you actually go all the way to loving people? Or do you just kind of put a mask on and act like, oh, yeah, it's okay. Everything's okay. But it's not love. The command from the Scripture today is “Let love be genuine.” We either need to love one another here at church, or we need to quit. There's nothing in between. All right.
So, let's get this down for point number one. There's a handout there if you want to take some notes. Point number one: “Don't assume love.” Don't assume love. Don't assume that I must love the people at church, I have a positive feeling about going to church, it seems like it's okay. So therefore, I must love them. No, that's like me, as a naive husband, I'm happy with my wife, I've got a positive feeling towards her. So therefore, it must be love. No, love actually requires action, it actually requires a whole way that you are in your heart towards another person, where when I love my wife, I sacrifice, I lay down myself to lift her up, I listen to what she says, I care about her relationship with God When I love my wife, I actually have to get over myself and prefer her. There's a lot more than just a positive feeling when it comes to love. And so, even if you have a positive feeling. Maybe you already know you don't have a positive feeling towards other people at church. But if you do have a positive feeling, is that real love? Is that genuine? Or could it be that you are loving people with hypocrisy? Paul wants the church in Rome to think about this. And so, let's really think through what it looks like to love other people at church.
Turn with me to 1 Corinthians; it's just the book right next door to the right. 1 Corinthians 13 is a chapter you may have heard of as the love chapter. And just like Romans 12 talks about our gifts, and then it goes right into it's not just about you doing you with your gifts, you’ve got to do those gifts with love. It goes right to love. Well, same thing happens in 1 Corinthians and Romans 12. It described we're one body with many different gifts. And in chapter 13, it goes right into the need that there has to be love at church. Look at what it says in 1 Corinthians 13:1, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” They don't care about what you know until they know that you care. And if you're just spreading information and saying things, well that could be obnoxious, it could be rude. It's just noise to people. In fact, look what it says in 1 Corinthians 13:2, “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am” what does it say there, everybody? I am what? I'm nothing. I might look like I'm doing big things for God, but if it's not motivated by love, then it's nothing. In verse three, every time I read this verse, it cuts to my heart. It says, look at this, “If I give away all I have,” can you imagine that? Sell it all. Just get all that money out of the bank and just give it away, give away all I have or if I deliver my body to be burned, like the martyrs of the faith, like the heroes from Christian history who get burned at the stake. Why? Because they believe in Jesus, you could give away everything you have, you could give your very life and die. But if you have not love, you gain, what is it, save everybody, nothing if you're coming to church, but you're not loving the church, you're not loving God's people that he saved in Jesus, if there's no love than what we're doing here is nothing.
So, let's get that down for our first dash under point number one, we can’t assume love: “Doing Something - Love = Nothing.” And this is where I think we are at. I mean, I talked to a guy who came to our church for the first time last week, and this guy, he told me that he's been to so many churches, and he gets pushed away from those churches, because it feels like positive all the time, love all the time. But it feels false to him. It feels fake to him, and he wants to hear it like it really is. We have such a problem in the church right now, where we live in Southern California, that people don't know we are the disciples of Jesus, because of our love for one another. In fact, they don't even know what to think about us because they don't see us loving one another. They think it's all on the surface. They think it's all superficial. Is that true? People today they're like, well, I want to do something at church, give me something to do. Okay, well, here's something to do. Love other people at church. No, no, pastor that doesn't work like that. You’ve got to give me something to do? Well, let me just put it very clear. You could go and do whatever you want, if you don't have love, you're doing nothing. You could do it week after week, year after year, you could hold down that spot till you die. If you're not doing it for God's people, you're not doing it at all. That's what it says. Love is required. Here in the church, we’ve got to stop with the I don't really know this person, I'm not going to take the time to know him. I'm not going to care about him. But I'm going to smile and wave and act like everything's fine. Let love be genuine. Take the mask off, get real and really love people. That's the idea. Well, how are we going to do that?
Go to John 13. Jesus teaches the disciples how to do this in John chapter 13. He even gives a practical demonstration when he washes the disciples’ feet. Have you heard about that before? Sometimes it gets kind of sensationalized these days, but washing the disciples’ feet was meeting a practical need. They didn't have roads, they didn't go around in cars, they wore sandals. So, you're walking around in the dirt all day. Now we're going to come recline and eat this nice meal together when our feet stink. No, we just kind of wash these feet. That's what they’ve got to do. So, Jesus, he's just acting like a servant. He's just meeting the practical need. And look what it says. Go to the beginning of John 13:1. Look what it says. “It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.” Underline this, write this down if you're taking notes. Jesus, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the” what does it say, everybody? “To the end.” Jesus loves them to the fullness, to the completion. In fact, John, who writes this, he says, I am the disciple whom Jesus loved. Jesus loved us so that he died on the cross for our sins. Is anybody here today thankful for the fact that Jesus loved you all the way to the bloody end? Anybody want to praise the Lord here today? Okay. So then, look what Jesus says in John 13:34-35. Jesus says, after he washes their feet in a practical demonstration of love, of humility, of putting their needs first. Look what Jesus says in John 13:34 ““A new command I give you: Love one another.” And then here's another thing if you're taking notes, underline this, circle this, “just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.”
So, let's get that down for our second dash: “Jesus’ Love = Just as love.” Here's the secret. You say, well, it's hard to love people at church. Not all the people at church are very lovable. Have you seen some of these people around here at church? And well, just like America, a lot of people at church, they want to blame the other people as the reason that they can't love them. We don't love people because of how they love us. We love people because of how Jesus loved us. And in the same way that Jesus loved me, just as the love of Jesus, so I now can love you. It is a vertical love where Jesus humbled himself, and he died for me. Jesus loved me enough to substitute in my place, to take my punishment, he died for me. And because Jesus loves me, see, now I can pass that love on to you. See, here at church, we don't love other people because of the other people. We love people because we know Jesus has loved us. And that vertical relationship we have with Jesus defines our horizontal relationships. And I can love you, not because of me, and not because of you. But just as Jesus died and sacrificed and gave and lay down his life all the way to the very bloody end, so I can give for you, because I have love from Jesus, and I have it to pass it on. So, this whole idea, well, look at all these other people pointing fingers, blaming it on other people, this person said this, that person did that. Yeah, but what did Jesus do for you? Okay. And if Jesus did this for you, you should go and do likewise, you should go and do the same. “Just as,” such an important phrase from John 13. Why is it a new commandment? Doesn't it say to love your neighbor as yourself? Isn't that from Leviticus 19:18? What's new about it? Well, now Jesus has done it for us. Now Jesus has shown us the way. Now we can experience the love of Jesus. Jesus loved me so much, he died for me. He rose again. He intercedes for my every prayer. Everywhere I go, Jesus is already there. Nothing can separate me from the love of God that I have in Jesus Christ. I could not be more loved than I am right now by Jesus. And I just received that love and freely I receive. So now I just freely give it and I pass it on to other people.
I don't love other people because of them. I love them because Jesus loved me. Go to 1 John 3:16. And you'll see that that was John 13. Okay, so John wrote the gospel so that we would believe in Jesus. Go to 1 John 3:16. This is the sequel that John wrote. So, this is now written to the people. Do you believe in Jesus? Well, John wants you to know you have eternal life. John wants you to be confident and have assurance. John wants you bursting out of your skin. Yeah, Jesus saved me. And one of the main things that John refers to throughout these five chapters of 1 John, that he wrote, “so you could have assurance of your salvation.” Here's how you're really going to see the proof. Here's the evidence that Jesus has saved you, is when you love your one anothers, you love your brothers and sisters in Christ, you love the church people. How do you end up loving those people? Because you really know the love of Jesus yourself. Maybe you've heard of John 3:16. Look at 1 John 3:16. “We know that God so loved us, he gave his one and only Son Jesus.” Look what it says here. 1 John 3:16. “By this we know love, that Jesus laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” Now “brothers” is a key word today, so pay attention to that. Look what it says, 1 John 3:17, let's get very specific. “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” Look at this question from John, how does God's love abide in him? God met your need when he sent Jesus to save you from your sin. Now, you could meet somebody else's need, but you're like, no, you're going to keep it for yourself. Is that the love of God in you? And then he says this in 1 John 3:18. This is very convicting little children. “Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” Okay, now I just want to highlight from verse 17, where it talks about having the world's goods and seeing someone in need, because the main way that I hear 1 John 3:17 get brought up is when we're talking about somebody that we might see as homeless, somebody that looks like they're out on the street, they look like they're poor. They look like they're in financial need. And somebody will say, well, if I have this world's goods, and I see somebody in need, who am I to close my heart? Well, let me just make it very clear. That could be a great thing to help somebody who's homeless or poor. That's not what this verse is saying. What word does it use to describe? It's talking about your brother; it's talking about in this context. Who are the brothers? They are the other believers in Jesus. So specifically, the kind of love we're talking about is a love of the one anothers, the love of other people who also believe in Jesus, your brothers or your sisters in Christ. That's what it's saying. Do you even know what the needs are of other people? Have you even talked to them enough? Or spent enough time with them to even see what other people are going through, or where they're at? So, you could even seek to meet their needs. And you can't just have this like, well, I would love the people at my church. You can't just say it. You can't just feel it. No. What are you doing about it? No, where is the truth to it? That's what John says. Yeah, a lot of people are going to feel like they've got love, but there's no action. And love is a verb. See, I think some people, they're just like, I feel positive about people at my church. That's not enough. Being nice is not enough.
What does it look like for you to meet other people's needs in actions of love? So, let's put this up here on the screen. You can have this idea of love. But if you're not doing something, you're still at nothing. So, you can be like, well, no, I feel love in my heart. Okay, great. Feeling love in your heart from Jesus to you, that's a good start. But just like Jesus laid down his life for you, you can't say you're laying down your life for people without actually doing anything. See, this is what I had to learn. Like, hey, my wife, she could be a great lady, but I'm her husband, and God's commanded me to love her in the same way that Jesus loved me, which means proactive. What could she point to that demonstrates my love? How am I listening and understanding and showing care? It requires conversation, it requires time, it requires shared interest. I can't just say I love my wife, because I'm so happy and I feel positive. What am I doing? See, when people know that you love them, because you're doing it because it's true because it's a genuine and sincere drumbeat of 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians is a great example. These people here in Thessalonica, they were a great example of a church that really loved, and we want to be here in Huntington Beach, a church that really loves, otherwise, we're doing nothing here. And I'm so thankful being here over nine years now, doing church together in Huntington Beach, and some of us moved here to get this started. There are people at this church, they don't just say they love other people, they live like they love other people. There are people who give tirelessly. There are people here who really care. And it is such a blessing to know these people and to be loved by them. Maybe, you know, some of these brothers and sisters that we’re blessed with here at the church, who are really reaching out to their one anothers in love. And that's the kind of church he's talking to here in 1 Thessalonians 4:9. He says, “Now concerning,” and again, notice this key word of the day here now “concerning brotherly love.” Okay, so family love, sibling love, like your other Christian people now concerning, there's all kinds of love. Yeah, you should love your wife. If you're a husband, you should love your family. Yes, you should love even your neighbor, you should love your enemies even.
There are all kinds of love. But these passages are highlighting the love that Christians have for one another as brothers and sisters. Let me talk about that brotherly love, the Christian love. He says, “You have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.’ Like, I can see it, I can see that Jesus has loved you. And just as Jesus loved you, you're loving one another. In fact, for that, indeed, is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. These Christians, they didn't even just love the one anothers in their own city, they were known for loving even other cities in their region. And so, he says, “We urge you, we encourage you brothers, do this more and more.” Excel still more, abound even more. And I want to say that to some of the brothers and sisters that have been loving people here. I hope that he, over the nine something years or nine and a few months now that we've been going, I think we've done more than nothing here. I think God's done it. Jesus is building his church; people have been saved. People have come together. To some degree the church is being built here in Huntington Beach. You know why? Because people are actually doing it in love. And people really care for other people. And if you're one of those people, I thank you so much for loving the one anothers, and I want to encourage you, let your love increase. Don't stop. Please don't stop loving other people.
Let's get that down for our fourth dash here: “Jesus' Love = "Just As" Love = Doing Something = Do More.” I mean, we've got Jesus' love, which leads to our “just as” love, and we can't say we have love unless we're doing something, and if you have been doing something, please, as Paul writes to the Thessalonians, “I say to you, do so more and more, abound in that love.” Don't stop loving other people. I know sometimes it can be hard to love people, it can hurt to love people. You reach out to people, and then they act like they don't care you. You invest in somebody, and then they fall away from the faith. You're giving, and sometimes you're wondering, what exactly am I getting back in return? And there have been times where I feel spent, loving people, and maybe I start to feel sorry for myself, and I start to feel a little lonely. And I'm like, here I am dying on the hill of love, and people are not loving me back. And every single time I began to have that wrong focus where I stopped thinking about others, and I make it about myself, guess who is always there to meet me when I feel alone? Guess who knows way more than I ever will about loving people and not being loved back.
See, I've never been alone. I've never been lonely. See, every single time I start thinking, well, I'm giving, and I'm not sure who really cares. Well, if there's anybody who can relate to that it's the Lord Jesus Christ. And he gave and they mocked him, he gave, and even his own disciples denied him and abandoned him. Jesus, he gave it all to the bloody end, and many people did not care that the love of Jesus was right there for them. And what I found, as I seek to love other people, is what a joy it is to be there with Jesus Christ, to know his love for me, and to pass it on. There's no place I'd rather be than giving love away to other people in the name of Jesus. Because I want to know Jesus, I want to share in his sufferings, I want to have fellowship with Jesus for the rest of my life and into eternity. And when I'm seeking to love his people, I'm right there with Jesus Christ. Anybody want to say amen to that? If you know the fellowship that there is with Jesus loving other people, don't stop loving those people. Trust me, if you try to make it about you, and go find something else, you're not going to find something better to do with your life than love like Jesus loved you. That is real life. There's nothing better. It's not about receiving, it's about giving. Jesus showed us the way and the way is love. And if you know the way of Jesus, don't stop, keep going. Don't grow weary in doing good, especially to those of the household of faith. If you have a chance to love people don't make it about you, don't make it about whether they're loving you back. That's what every other group of people all over the world makes it about. I scratch your back; you scratch my back. That's not how we roll here at church. No, I love you, not because of you, I love you because Jesus already loved me, and began his love for you. It's not stopping anytime soon. Jesus, he loves his people to the end. And so, because Jesus has loved you and keeps loving you and will always love you, you can keep loving, and when you do, you'll find yourself right there with Jesus. No better place to be now.
Go back to Romans 12 Verse 10. Okay, we’ve got to see that there really needs to be love, love from our heart that leads to doing something in truth, and the love of Jesus put on display. And once we get there, don't stop, keep going with that love. Keep pouring yourself out. Keep giving, expecting nothing in return, because that's where you're going to find your fellowship with Jesus. But see, he says, “Let love be genuine” there in Romans 12:9. He calls out the fake love, he calls out the false positive, let there be no hypocrisy in this love. And then he gets into they stay away from evil, “hate evil, cleave to what is good, discern what God wants you to do.” So, you can't love people and not care about the sin in their life. You can't love people and not care about the truth. And if you come back next week, we'll get to that part of the sermon, but I want to just keep it about the love, before we also get to the truth there, and what is evil and what is good. So, look ahead to Romans 12:10 because I want you to see this phrase here in verse 10. “Love one another,” and then here's this word. I've said, here's our key word of the day. “Love one another with brotherly affection.” Okay.
Who here has a brother? Does anybody here have a brother? Raise your hand if you’ve got a brother. Now in the Bible when it was written, though, the way it was spoken, it was in a masculine tone. So sometimes you might even see the word brother, and then you might have a footnote that says brothers and sisters. So, just because it was written in the masculine tense does not mean that it doesn't include the ladies, as well. So, let's see another round of hands. Who's got brothers and or sisters, who's got siblings, okay? How do you feel about those people? Because that's the same way that family feeling that's my brother. That's my sister. The way you would feel about those people it's saying love one another here at church, with that same kind of love you would have for brother, the word in the Greek is literally philadelphia, right? The city of brotherly love. You want to know why they named a city in America, Philadelphia? because Paul was championing that word as how people at church should love one another, like brothers. Now I have a brother, who's here at our church. Actually, that guy Bill that came out here, who has like a passion for college age young men and women to get saved. That guy is my brother. And I don't mean my brother in Christ. I mean, Bill and I have the same mom; that guy is my brother, okay. I've known that guy all his life. I am the older brother, okay. And we work together here at the church. And if you think, well, that's a little interesting, working with your brother at church. That's exactly what I used to think, wasn't a big fan of working with my brother at church; felt a little interesting to me. And then when I realized that Jesus was choosing brothers, like Peter and Andrew, and James and John, I got down off my high horse and realized I probably shouldn't have higher standards than Jesus. Right? So, I was very happy to start working with my brother, Bill. And I'm so blessed to serve the Lord with him here at our church. But let me just tell you the fact that bill is now a pastor in the Church of Jesus Christ is a miracle of the Almighty God. Okay? Because I can tell you stories. I'm going to have to exercise the fruit of the spirit of self-control here today, or this sermon will derail right now. Okay? Bill was an instigator of nefarious purposes when he grew up. And I'm just going to keep my comments brief on that matter, but there was one night at the dinner table at the Blakey house, and Bill was saying the same stuff as he has been prone to do. And he was saying that at school, there were eleven kids that were bullying him on the playground at our Elementary School. He called them the electrocuting eleven, is what he said. And I'd had enough at that point. I pushed back from the table. I had no peace eating my peas anymore. I was like, are we going to listen to this guy, this guy tell us stories about eleven people bullying him. I was appealing to my parents, like, come on. This is ridiculous. Well as the Lord would have it, just a few days after that, through some assembly schedule, I ended up having lunch at the same time as Bill. And I'm sitting there eating my sandwich, and I see somebody kicking up dust on the playground. And lo and behold, it is my brother Bill. And there's a guy chasing him and another guy, three guys, four guys, five guys. There are eleven guys chasing my brother Bill across the playground. And I'm like, the electrocuting eleven! And they're real. It's all true. It's real. And I felt in that moment something like one of the strongest things I've ever felt like: That's my brother. I mean, sure, I might give him a hard time at the dinner table, but how dare you mess with my brother Bill? And there was some kind of hulk-like superhero thing rising up within me. And I grabbed Shawn, who was the biggest kid in our entire elementary school. And I was like, Shawn, we’ve got to go rescue my brother. And we start tearing across the playground. The speed of the Lord was at our feet, and we're going to rescue. By the time we get to Bill, he's eleven people deep in a dog pile; they are on top of him. He's crying out, right? And Shawn gets there. And he's just starts throwing little kids into the air. Like, I can still see little kids just flying in the air. And he's just clearing, and I grabbed Bill and I pull him out of there. And that's my brother out there. You guys touch my brother! And I'm dusting him off. Bill, are you okay? I am so ready to defend my brother. And Bill. He's kind of wobbling. He stables himself. And he says, “You guys will never catch me again.” And he takes off running across the playground. And I'm just like, you guys can have him. Right? But see, that's that feeling that that's my brother. See, even before Bill and I ever worked here together at the church, here's something I knew about my brother Bill. I could call him anytime, day or night, and he was going to take that call. And you know what he knew? It didn't matter where he was. It didn't matter what he had gotten into. I am your brother, man. You don't even have to say it when you're the brother. You just know that there is a bond there that cannot be broken. Is that how you think about other people at church? Do you love one another with a brotherly love? This is the main way that the Bible teaches us.
Back in the day, we weren't known as Christians. Back in the day, it was like it was known as The Way, and the main way that Christians were referred to one another is, brothers. This whole idea of bro, guess who started all of that? This whole idea of philadelphia, brotherly love, guess who started all of that? Paul was spreading that as the way the church should think. Church is meant to be a family experience. We're meant to be in this together. That's the point. Look back at Romans 12:1. Look at how this whole passage began, this whole turning point in Romans 12, the now we're going to go from all the mercy of God for us. And now we're going to respond to God, and we're going to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, and we're going to get our minds renewed, and be transformed. Look how it all begins, “I appeal to you, I encourage you, therefore.” What does he call everybody? He says, “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers.” See, brothers and sisters. See, we’ve all got to love the same way our Father in heaven adopted us into his family. Nobody was born in the family of God, you got to be born again to get into that family. And God, in his love, he adopted us, and now I'm a son of the Most High. And you if you're my fellow believer in Jesus, you are a son or daughter of the living God. And that makes us all brothers and sisters together in the family of heaven. And so is that how you think about the people? These are my brothers. These are my sisters.
Go back to Romans 10:1. This one really stands out to me in Romans chapter 10, verse 1. He has been saying “brothers” the whole time. And it's not just like a phrase that they would use. It's the way they thought of one another. It's how they identified one another. And he says, here, this one really gets to my mind, he says, “Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.” If you remember from Romans 10, who is Paul praying and desiring would be saved? Who is the “them” that he's talking about here? The Jews. Well, Paul, before he met Jesus, he was like the Jew of all Jews. He was of the tribe of Benjamin; he was a Pharisee of all the Pharisees. When they started killing Christians, they put their garments down at the leader, and the leader was Saul himself. Like this guy was the Jew, he was the pinnacle of the Jews. And now he's saying the Jews are them. And you guys are my brothers and sisters. I mean, he's writing to people in Rome, that are Jews and Gentiles. And he's acting like he's more with them than just the Jews, the Jews are the “them”; these people, they're the brothers. Wow.
Go back to Romans 1:13. And he had this tone from the very beginning, because he felt sad that he had never come to see them in Rome. And he wanted to go and see them in Rome. The reason he wrote the letter to the church in Rome, the reason he wrote Romans was because he wanted to go, but he wasn't able to. So, he put his teaching down. And he says here in Romans 1:13, “I don't want you to be unaware brothers.” I don't want you to think I don't care. “I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you.” Like, I want to get there, I want to be with you. You are my brothers and sisters. We're a family.
So, let's get this down now for point number two. You need to “Love your church one anothers like family members.” Love your church one anothers like family members. See, this is where something's not right in the way we do church today. Because when you get together at family gatherings, and you've got that crazy uncle, and maybe you've got the crazy uncle, and that crazy uncle says whatever he's going to say. And that guy does whatever he's going to do, but it's okay, because he's your crazy uncle. But then you go to a fellowship group, another family gathering, and somebody over there is saying crazy things. And you're like, I don't want anything to do with that person. I don't have any relationship with them. You'll own the crazy uncle, but not the person who needs help at church? And that just shows we're not thinking of church like a family. We're not thinking of other believers as brothers and sisters. And so, Paul just makes that very clear. Here's a command from Romans 12:10 for our church in Huntington Beach. Are these people your brothers because you're supposed to love one another with brotherly love the same way you would feel towards your family, that natural familial affection you have for your siblings? Yeah, have that for your brothers and sisters in Christ. They may not be from the same mother and may not be blood, but we've been saved by the same blood of our Lord Jesus. And we're in this together.
Go to 1 Thessalonians 2 if you can. Go back to First Thessalonians with me. We've tried to make this a theme here at our church. The church is a family. And the first book of the Bible we ever preached through was 1 Thessalonians. And, wow, what an amazing thing happened at this church. Because the gospel rang out from them it echoed from them and many people got saved. And people were talking about it; all over modern day country of Greece all over that territory. People are like, have you heard about what's going on in Thessalonica? And Paul came in here, you can read about it in Acts 17. He preached the gospel; he wasn't there very long. And then the Jews came, and they persecuted him. And he had to flee town for his life. So, it's not like he had years with these people. He had weeks with these people. Not a lot of old-time memories, not a lot of pictures for the slideshow. But he loves them like they're his family. But what he says in 1 Thessalonians 2, I'll just give you some of the highlights. He says, “For you yourselves know brothers that are coming to you is not in vain.” You guys know the gospel rang out. Many of you got saved. The church exploded. You guys know what happened. And then look what he says in 1 Thessalonians 2:7. This is amazing. “But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.” I mean, here's Paul, Paul's a grown man. He's a single man, and he's referring to himself that I cared for you like a mom cares for her kids. Hey, PSA, everybody. Mother's Day is one week from today. All right? Just want to make sure everybody knows that. Do you want to get between mama bear and her cubs? Is there this like tender, gentle care that moms have for their kids? I mean, do moms know all these things about their kids what they need when they need it? He's saying hey, just like a mom cares for her precious little one, that's the same way I cared for you. 1 Thessalonians 2:8. He says, We, so being affectionately desirous of you,” like I have this affection where I desired you. He says, “we were ready to share with you, not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves.” Because you had become very dear to us. We weren't just there to drop the gospel and let you figure it out. We weren't just there to give you the information. No, we were there to give you our lives, to give you who we are to give you our very souls. That's how dear you were to me. That's how much I cared about you. Look down even to verse 11. Like he uses the example of a dad. “You know how like a father with his children,” like a dad who's like, listen to me, kid, I’ve got to teach you something about life. “We exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.” Like, I was speaking to you like a father who really wants his kid to get it so they don't go the wrong way in life. I was speaking to you like a dad. And then verse 17. Look at what it says here in verse 17, “but since we were torn away from you, brothers,” here it is again, “brothers”. Oh, I'm so sorry that I'm not with you. I was torn away from you for a short time, torn away from you in person, but not in heart. I'm still thinking about you. Even though I'm not there with you. “We endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face because we wanted to come to you.” Paul again and again, I kept trying to get back to Thessalonica. I kept trying to come and see you. I really wanted to be there, “but Satan was keeping me away from you.” And it seems like a lot of people at church these days they’ve got no problem. So now they’ve got no problem. I'll see you next week. No problem. Quick, text in the group chat. Not going to make it tonight. No big deal. This guy, Paul, he acted like if he couldn't be there with them. Big problem. Satan's the one keeping us apart. When he says, “we were torn away from you,” it's like we were “orphaned” from you when I wasn't with you. It felt like I wasn't with my family. This is Paul's comparison of how we should love each other in the church.
Okay, and I want to make that very clear to everybody here today. This is not a competition. It's not a competition between how we love our family and how we love our church family. Now there's no competition, you can go and love your family. And you can also love the other people at church in that same kind of way. So, a lot of people they act like I don't like this kind of teaching. I've experienced this now many times where people are very hesitant to embrace philadelphia, the brotherly love at church; church is a family. I've seen people really resist that because I'm over here loving my family, and I love my family very much. And I want to make sure my family is cared for. And so, I'm just going to focus on loving them. I don't know if I can love my family and love all these other people here at the church. So, I'm only going to love my family. And what they see it as like a competition. No, I can't love the people at church because I’ve got to love my own family. But see Paul's not saying there's any competition. He's saying there's a comparison in the way that you care about your family. That's good. Yeah, yeah. You love your brother. You love your sister. You honor your father and mother; you, if you're a husband, I hope you love your wife, I hope you teach your kids, I hope you cherish your precious children. I want to encourage you, if God's blessed you with a family, be all you can be with that family, give everything you've got to your family. Just all Paul's saying is, yeah, and then treat people at church that same way. He's not saying love your family any less. He's saying love the people at church more is what he's saying. And so, I hope you can see it like that, like we're using a comparison of a love that you feel very strongly. And then we're begging the question, do you love people at church in that same strong way as you would your own family? And there's this idea that is very present in the church today, that people think if I love people at church, it will hurt my family. And maybe there was hypocrisy that they encountered before where somebody was one way at home, and another way at church. And that's a big problem. So maybe that's where that thought comes from. But I can tell that many people think, well, I can't really give myself to the other people at church, because I’ve got to protect me and my own family, and I don't want anything bad to happen to them.
Well, I just want to say something out of my own personal experience. I grew up a pastor's kid. Okay? I watched my dad become a pastor, when I was in the fourth and fifth grade. When I was in sixth grade, he started at this other church. When I was a freshman in high school, we moved to Texas, not because our family lived there, but because he was going to be the pastor of a church there. And I watched my dad live and die for people, many of them they did not care. That did not hurt me. That was a great thing in my life. In fact, I have two brothers, Bill and another brother named Ben, and all three of us Blakey boys, we have all become now not just saved believers in Jesus, but we're all now pastors in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, my dad and mom got three kids, three boys, they all end up pastors. And sometimes people ask my dad, like, what's your secret? How do your kids all stay in love with Jesus like, and now they're all pastors, what did you do with these kids? And my dad's a humble guy, and he'll say, “I've got no secret sauce.” But if I'm allowed to give my opinion, as the oldest brother, I'll tell you exactly what my dad did. He took us to church. And he showed us what love is, not just at home, but with God's people. And see that made a difference in my life. It didn't hurt me. I'm not sad that I grew up a pastor's kid. And maybe there are a lot of bad examples out there. I'm here to tell you that watching my family be about the church, not just about our family, we had great times growing up about the church. There was a benefit there. And as I grew up, I did not want to be a pastor. I wanted to be a journalist. That's what I was going to do. I was going to work at the Orange County Register. Good thing I got out of that at the right time. You know what I mean? My brother Bill, I'm not quite sure what he was going to do. I'm pretty sure he was going to be rich. That was his plan. And then my younger brother Ben, he was going to be the President of the United States of America. And we were all convinced, Ben, he could do it. He would do a good job, right? All three of us end up pastors. How does that happen? Because there are people that need to be loved. People that need to be cared for. These are God's people; these people are our family. We got it. We’ve got a lot of brothers, I want to make it very clear that I’ve got a lot more brothers than Bill here at this church. I love working with my brother, Bill. But I’ve got all kinds of men at this church, who are my brothers, men, that if I called them, and they saw my name on their phone, no matter what day it was time it was middle of the night it was, they would take that call because we are Ride or Die brothers in Christ. See, as you know, I've got my own family now, my kids 18, 15, 12. And guess what they've lived in. They've lived in a pastor's family. They've been pastor's kids. Has it hurt my kids to grow up, where we don't just love each other at home, but we love the people at the church? I would actually argue the exact opposite of that. Not only if you came over to our house, two people really love each other there. But my kids are learning how important the people of God are and how it's better to give than to receive. I think they're benefiting, not being hurt by loving other people. So, I’ve just got to say, from my personal experience growing up within a pastor's family now, having a pastor's family of my own, I don't find any conflict between loving my family and loving my church family. In fact, I think the more love the better. That's what I think. And so, if you're hesitant if you're like, well, I want to just make sure my family is okay. Look, we get it. We want to make sure our family is okay too. And that feeling that you have is how you are commanded to feel about the other people here. You're supposed to get to know these people, like your brothers and your sisters.
So go back to Romans 12:10. And when it says “Love one another with brotherly affection,” that means, well not only do we need to have a real love, but it needs to be like family where we are committed to one another. And then he says this in another phrase here in verse 10, where he says, “outdo one another.” So, whenever you see this brotherly idea, or whenever you see this one another idea, that means we're talking about fellow Christians, and really people that were in the church with is who we're talking about. So, it says, “outdo one another in showing honor.” and I'll throw the Greek word for outdo up here on the screen: proēgeomai. You can see it's another compound word where pro is this prefix that means before,” and then it's like how you would consider or think about other people. So, it's like going before other people thinking first of other people, leading the way with other people, so they translate it out do other people. the idea is you don't wait for how the other people are going to treat you. You go before them you lead the way with them you out do them don't make it like horizontal where if they treat me away, I’ll treat them back away. No, our love, it comes from God. It comes just as Jesus loved us. It's a vertical love. And have you received the love of Jesus? Then don't wait for other people to love you to show honor to you to give you the respect you deserve as a brother or sister in Christ. No, go before them. Lead the way, outdo them. It's not dependent on whether they love you. You know what you can do? Don't wait for them. Take the initiative.
Let's get that down for point number three: Don't wait for them. Take the initiative. Don't go to your fellowship group or don't hang out with other people this week, wondering, are they going to love me more after that sermon? Like I wonder if anybody will give me a gift, or I wonder if anybody will say I'm sorry to me. I wonder who's going to love me after this. No, you go and “outdo one another in showing honor.” You go before them, you lead the way, you start thinking, man, how do I let these people know you are my bro, you are my sister in Christ? I love you with a family affection, with a brotherly love and I'm here for you and I want to meet your needs and show that love in my actions. How could you go and lead the way? Go before your one anothers, not just responding when they come and do something for you. See, the love of Jesus takes initiative. That's the one of the main things whenever I think Jesus loves me, this I know, I am so thankful that Jesus didn't wait for me to get my act together. Anybody want to say amen to that? I'm so thankful that Jesus didn't wait for me to start loving him, or start doing good works for him, or start cleaning up my own life. No, while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. He didn't wait for me. He came for me. And if you're going to have this posture at church, well, when people prove their love for me, then I'll prove my love for them. That's not there. No, no, no. Outdo one another in showing honor. No, Jesus has proven his love for you. You go and prove your love for the one anothers. Don't get into the scheme of the age where you blame it on the other people. If you don't love people at church, that's between you and Jesus. You can't blame it on the other people at church. And so, we’ve got to go before and lead the way with one another. Because Jesus has first loved us, we can now first love other people at church.
Go to 1 Timothy 5 with me. I have just one more passage to kind of finalize this thought of church being a family and the kind of real love we're supposed to have. 1 Timothy chapter 5, if you can turn there with me. Timothy is a young pastor, and I love how Paul tells him to think about different people in the church. You know, Timothy, he had guys who are older than him, men who were younger than him. Women who were older, women who were younger. Look how Paul says it to Timothy. 1 Timothy 5 wanted to. “Do not rebuke an older man but encouraged him as you would have a father.” “Treat the older men as the fathers, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.” Hey, Timothy, you know that person or that person? You think of them as a member of your family. Think of what Jesus said. “Who are my mother and brothers all they're the people who do the will of God.” And so now, I talk to older men with respect. And I think of the ladies as mothers or sisters. That's what he's telling Timothy to do. Change your whole view on this. These people they're here, they've been adopted by the love of God, they've been saved by the blood of Jesus. These people are your people because they're God's people. And so, I told you about my family that I've got. Right now, I told you about me and my brother Bill, growing up. The main thing I want to tell you about is my family that I have right here with all of you, like we are a family. And there's only one way that this works, we can't just be nice. We have to love. And the day that I can tell I'm coming in here and I'm not loving you, I will quit, I will resign, I will walk away, I will not be here doing this, it I'm doing nothing unless it is love. And I'm here to love you. I'm here to love you to the very end, I've got no other plans. I've got nothing else I want to do with my life than die, ride or die right here with you in Huntington Beach. And hey, if we're brothers, you can call me and I can call you, because that's what it means to really share the life of Jesus Christ. And so, are you thinking that way? I want to encourage you to really let this sermon get to your heart. This isn't just something to know people at church should love one another. Do you do this?
And so, flip your handout over if you've been taking notes. If you haven't been taking notes, well, you pull this handout out of your bulletin right now. I want you to really see that we can't just go on from this without taking a moment to think it through without evaluating ourselves. Like, hey, when he says, “Let love be genuine,” it begs the question, are you putting on a mask here today? Are you just being nice here today? Do you just have a positive feeling about what's going on? Well, I wouldn't say I hate anybody. That's not the question. The question is, can you say you love somebody? When he says, “Let love be genuine and love one another with a brotherly love,” the burden of proof is now on you to be able to say yes, I do love people. And that's got to look like something, just as Jesus loved me. So, what does it look like for you to love other people? Or do some of us need to admit right here, right now, I'm not thinking about this church like a family. Do some of us right here even need to think of somebody that we acted like was somebody else's crazy uncle and we wanted nothing to do with them? Are there people that we need to go, and we need to say, hey, I'm sorry because I haven't been acting like you're my brother. I haven't been acting like, you're my sister. I've been acting like, there's distance between us. And I've been acting like, that's okay, because we just are at church. But really, I can see now that it's never okay for there to be distance between a brother and a sister. Have you ever experienced that? Have you ever talked to somebody about that? Oh, I've got my brother. He lives in Minnesota. Oh, how's your brother doing? Oh, I don't know, we haven't talked for ten years. Have you ever heard somebody say that? Like the separation of the siblings, like right away when somebody's like, oh, I haven't talked to my parents in years, or oh, my sister doesn't want to talk to me anymore. Like right away when I talk to people. And they say that I feel that right away, you feel the heaviness of that, like, wait a minute, the person that you grew up with, the person that’s in your same family, you haven't talked in a decade, like neither one of you will even get on the phone with each other. Like right away, I'll say to that person, like, hey, is that on you? Do you need to call them and say you're sorry, because I'll pray for you to do that. And if it's on them, we'll all pray that God will work on their heart because we all get it right away, people who are family, they're not supposed to not talk to each other anymore. They're not supposed to separate. That's a terrible thing, when even a natural family when they lose their love for one another, that hurts every time you see that wrong. So, if we're supposed to be a family here, then we can't separate from one another. We can't act like it's okay to never talk to a brother or a sister again. So maybe there's even a Christian person that you know, and someday you and that person, you're going to be up there worshipping Jesus together in the city of the New Jerusalem, you just don't want to occupy the same space with them right down here on planet earth right now. That's not right. If you've been acting like that towards another Christian, you need to pick up the phone and make a call like a brother or sister. Like, hey, I'm sorry. I've been acting like we're not brothers and sisters. Will you please forgive me? Because I should be loving you in Christ. So there needs to give real thought to this. We can't just be like, oh yeah, people at church should love one another. No, this is a very clear example where you can't just know this. You’ve got to do this. Do you love one anothers like brothers and sisters? let me pray for us right now.
Father in heaven. We come before you and we need your help with this, Father, we really do. This is not how it's going all around us. There's so much fake niceness. There's so much of false positive vibes, where people are just very pleasant at church, but they don't spend time together. They don't show care for one another, they don't meet the needs of each other. Father, we need you to take these words that Paul wrote to the church in Rome. Let love be genuine. Love one another with a brotherly love, outdo one another in showing honor. Father, will you take these words, while you put them on our heart. And if people need to go to the other people they know and say they're sorry, I pray that you will give them the strength to do that. I pray that for people who, I'm just going to love my family, I can't also love the people at church. I pray that you would open their eyes to see and know how they love their family is exactly the template for how to love other people at church, that it’s not a competition, it's a comparison. And that we are your adopted once; we are your children, and we call on you as our Father. And if all of us are praying to you, in the name of Jesus, and if all of us are coming before you, to worship you, and to love you, and adore you, and call on us as our dad, Father. If all of us are doing that together, then we are brothers and sisters in the same family. And Father, I pray that at this church, we would really be a family that we would treat one another. Just as Jesus has loved us. Father, I just want to take a moment right now to worship you for the great love with which you have loved us that you had one and only Son Jesus and you gave your Son Jesus to save a bunch of sinners like us, oh, how you loved us, Father. And as you gave your Son to die in our place, you have now brought so many of us into your family, you've adopted us in that love, and now you went from your one and only Son to now we have so many sons and daughters of the Most High here today. So many of us we know that nothing can separate us from the love you have for us in Jesus Christ. You have proven your love for us through the blood of your Son Jesus. So, Father, we ask that just as Jesus has loved us that we would love each other, and that we would now prove that we know you've loved us by loving the other people here at this church. Father, please do a mighty work of love here among us. We ask you in Jesus’ name, Amen.