Love Each Other

Summary

Explore the importance of community and love through Jesus’ teachings. Discover how to embrace deeper connections with God and others.

Transcript

Well, good morning, everyone. It is so good to be able to be with you. I wish that I was able to be there with you in person, but Kelly and I are away on a pastor and spouse retreat, and so this is the next best option. And the reason for this is because we are in the middle of a series where we are sort of setting the stage for the new year, for 2026. If you still can't believe it, here we are. And the main emphasis of our 2026 Here at Journey is about community. And community is a word that is often used in the church, sometimes so much so that it loses its meaning.

But the way that we are leaning into community here, of course, is knowing our neighbors. Our neighbors are those who are around us. So right now, in this moment, you are one another's neighbors, and that's an important distinction. But also, Christian community is centered on me and you being willing to be known, being willing to be known. That's what we are seeking to offer one another here at Journey, and being in relationships with our neighbors to be willing to, of course, know them, but also to be willing to be known by them, our neighbors being the surrounding community around our church. And so, in order to emphasize this, beginning with this sermon series, Widening Circles, seeking to understand how the Holy Spirit is calling us to this community, this circle, if you will, a year of circles. But before we get into the message, this weekend is the celebration for our country, of Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the heroes of the history in our country. Dr. King was grieved by injustice, fully believed in the promise of America as it was described by our founding fathers, that all people were created equal, yet seeing that this was an area in which our country fell massively short. And so, grieved by that, and this is an important distinction for us, full of the Holy Spirit, Dr. King modeled Jesus's love and vision for humanity, spoke into the darkness, shone his light, the light fueled by the Holy Spirit at work within him. And even though Dr. King's life was cut tragically short by the brokenness of the world that he was speaking against, the light of his life still shines in our hearts and in the world around us today.

Our country would be in a much worse spot if not for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. So, find a way to recognize his life, find a way to celebrate his accomplishments and the accomplishments of others similar to him, and let's enjoy this holiday weekend together. And, and let's be attentive to where God might be calling us to recognize injustice and to move inspired by the Holy Spirit against it, because that is what Jesus did, that is what Jesus does, and that is what he has called us to do. And so we pray, God, that you would fuel us by your spirit to see the areas in which our neighbors are experiencing injustices, whatever that might look like, would you capture our attention to it? And would you inspire us to move towards the direction of wholeness for all as we seek to follow you? We ask this in your name and for your sake, amen.

So last week, we began our series, Widening Circles, and said something that might be challenging for us, said that the purpose of Christianity is not going to heaven when you die, which tends to be the main emphasis of Western Christianity, evangelical Christianity anyways, but the purpose of Christianity is not going to heaven upon death, but heaven being realized on earth. We talked about this throughout the season of Advent before Christmas, that Jesus is returning, returning in our lives, and then ultimately will return to wipe away the second oldest story of brokenness. But in the meantime, God is returning in our lives moment by moment, displacing the brokenness within us with the wholeness of the kingdom of heaven. God's kingdom is at hand is how Jesus taught us to pray, that God's kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven. And so we recognize that the calling upon our lives as followers of Jesus is the kingdom of heaven is here, not fully, but in root in our lives and in the world around us. And so to that realization, Jesus, speaking to his disciples as he is winding his time on earth down, he wrote, as we read in John 15, verse 15 last week, I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I learned from my father, I have made known to you.

This is a remarkable assertion of Jesus towards his followers. I no longer call you servants, I call you friends.

Friendship, like community in this sense, is about knowing your friend, but it's also about your friend opening up to be known by you. God is calling us, Jesus is calling us to open our lives to his spirit, to be known by him, which can be a bit of a terrifying thought and can sound a bit redundant because God already knows us. But remember, God has given us the freedom to choose, God has given us agency over our lives, and so God respects our freedom. God will not force himself on us. And so we have to open up to be known by God, just like we have to open up to be known by one another. But Jesus says, you're no longer servants. This captures something that many of us speak even or have spoken or have thought.

We wanna serve God, we wanna do something great for God, we wanna make something happen for God. And those are fine thoughts. However, God doesn't need anything from us. God simply wants friendship.

Yes, God is the judge. Yes, God is the king of the universe. Yes, Jesus is Lord of all, and there is devotion on our behalf in that. But what God desires is for us to be in friendship with him. That's the way that it was in the very beginning. God and people were friends. And so we began this idea of community with understanding God's desire for friendship with us.

This can actually be the hardest part of community, that we recognize that God just simply wants to be in friendship with us. Living in widening circles begins with you, begins with me, sitting and dining with Jesus at his table. And this is how we welcome God's kingdom in our lives, by entering into friendship with him. And so with that in mind, we talked last week with our take-home truth, being that in a line-drawing world, draw circles. The idea that God has encircled us, and so we need to be circle-drawing as well. As we move into the second part of our community initiative, we're talking about community with one another, community with each other today. And I wanna begin with the ending, or begin with the ask.

We need one another. The idea that my faith is just me and Jesus is incomplete. The idea that I can do this on my own, the ego inflated, that is not part of a whole and full spirituality. We need one another to complete the puzzle of God's action in our lives. And to that end, you and I are called, again, not just to know one another, but to be known by one another. We are seeking a new rhythm in our church to aid in this process. And I know that each of us, our time is precious.

And certainly, we want to continue moving at a pace of resting and relaxing when we are together. I fully believe in the rhythms of Sabbath rest, and we need not only to live into those patterns, but we need to continue to pursue those patterns even more, the patterns of rest that God has given us. But community plays an intricate role even in that. And so, beginning in February, February 1st, actually, we're going to start Sunday morning circles for all age groups. We've got things for the youngest kids to the oldest adults. And we're going to begin these circles at 10 a.m. on Sundays. And so, we're asking you to consider participating in these circles beginning February 1st.

That is the ask today.

To help you in this process understand what these circles are about, I want to ask the question, why are these circles important? Why is it important for us to gather together at 10 a.m. before our Sunday morning gathering and to sit in these circles together? Well, if you study the life of Jesus and the teaching of Jesus, you will see a consistent ethic develop in him and in his teaching. And it goes like this. You are loved, so therefore, love. You are a recipient of God's love, therefore, love others. For Jesus, the love of God is demonstrated by the recipient of God's love, loving their neighbors.

I'll say that again. For Jesus, the love of God is demonstrated by the recipient loving their neighbors. Who is my neighbor? Remember, we've asked this question a lot. Well, your neighbors are who you are sharing space with. At any given moment, whomever is next to you, that is your neighbor. And so, the love of God that you have experienced is demonstrated by you loving your neighbor.

Yes, we are beneficiaries of God's love in our lives. But in order for us to demonstrate that love, it has to be done in the context of loving our neighbors. One of my signs that I am an adult is that I love a luscious green lawn at my house. It's something that I spend a lot of time on, I'm invested in it, it's something that I care about, it's something that I find pride in. In my backyard, you know, we have dogs and children, so they sort of ruin my lawn parade. But also, there is a low spot where all of the water funnels in one particular area in my backyard. And the water sits there longer than it does anywhere else.

Everywhere else it drains well or runs off into this low spot. And when we have big rains and frequent rains, the grass in that area actually drowns. And it's hard to keep that spot in my yard lush, like the rest of it. The other areas of my lawn, they have proper drainage and they stay well hydrated when it's raining, but water also passes through them. And I wanna highlight that because for us in our lives, when we have an area of our lives where we're just receiving and we're not demonstrating God's love by loving our neighbors well, that's going to eventually start to drown out God's presence in our lives. I know that might be a little bit of a stretch to understand, but it is the truth. You cannot contain God's love and just hold onto it tightly.

You will suffocate it. You will drown God's love for you because God's love in you is meant to be demonstrated through you. It is too good to hold onto for yourself. You know, it's like to understand this, maybe think about like a good book that you love, a book that really captured your attention or a movie or a song. When we hear those songs or sing or read those books or watch that movie, you can't help but share it with your neighbor. Oh man, you gotta see this. This is gonna be great.

Or if it's a food or whatever it is, you gotta come to this place and check this out. This is so good. It's too good for me to keep to myself. And so it is with God's love. God's love is eternal. God's love is infinite. God's love has been long before we have existed and will continue long after we are gone.

God's love is not scarce. It is given freely to everyone. You can never have too much of God's love, but if you try to hold onto it for yourself, we end up becoming self-centered and self-indulgent. And in the scriptures, there is nothing more detrimental to faith than selfishness. It's the thing that Jesus talked about the most, greed and selfishness and being self-indulgent. So our friendship with God fills us with love, the love of God, and it leads us to our neighbors. As we've said, our neighbors are those by which we are surrounded.

So following Jesus is about loving our neighbors. I want to wrap up this conversation by rereading John 15, beginning in verse nine. And I want you to pay attention to how Jesus sets up this paragraph of teaching. So in verse nine, he says this. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love. Verse 10 says, if you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love.

I have told you this, Jesus says, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. So Jesus is saying, live by my commandments because I have shown you what my Father has shown me. I have remained in him as I am encouraging you to remain in him. And so live by my commandments. Well, what are the commandments? Verse 12, so that my joy may be complete. My command is this, love each other as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for one's friend. You are my friends when I do what I command, what did he command? To love one another. I no longer call you servants, as we read earlier, because a servant does not know this master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I learned from my Father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me, verse 16, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. So that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you.

This is my command, love each other. Why are these circles important for us? What is at stake if we are unable to live in this community that God has called us to? Well, remaining in God's love is intricately entwined with loving one another. God's joy in us is intricately entwined with loving one another. This is Jesus's command, love each other. That's what we are seeking to devote a portion of our time together, specifically to learning to love each other.

So our take home truth for today is very simple. Love each other, love each other. It's what Jesus commands for us. I wanna offer a prayer for you and then I want you to spend just a moment considering

how you and I can make these new circles we are venturing on a priority for us in our weekly rhythm, but also an opportunity for us to prepare to be known by one another as we seek to be known by God. That we are drawing circles around one another. We are circle drawers. We are no longer drawing lines to keep others out. We are drawing circles around our neighbors to love one another.

Let's pray. God, you have commanded us to love one another. For some of us, this can be a very scary thing. For some of us, we are longing a deeper connection with others, with our neighbors. For some of us, we're still on the fence of whether this is something that is worth our time. But God, I pray that we would today be sensitive to where your spirit is leading us. We believe these new circles are opportunities for us to enter into deeper community with one another, deeper community with you, deeper community with our neighbors around us.

And so God, I pray that we wouldn't just take a pastor's word for it, but that we would seek your spirit's calling to us in this initiative to be sensitive to where you are leading us in this moment of community with one another. We ask these things, Jesus, in your name and for your sake. Amen.