Sermon Summary:
In our journey with Christ, we are called to a life of holiness, a life that reflects the purity and righteousness of God. Yet, this pursuit of holiness is not a solitary endeavor, nor is it a path marked by rigid legalism. It is a journey that is intertwined with grace, love, and acceptance. As we navigate the complexities of living a godly life, we must remember that sin, while it may offer temporary pleasure, ultimately leads to destruction. It distorts our relationships, our thoughts, and our emotions. The Holy Spirit prompts us to let go of sin not to deprive us of joy, but to protect us from its harmful consequences.
Our response to sin, both in our lives and in the lives of others, should be marked by grace and love. While we do not condone ungodly behavior, we must approach those struggling with compassion, understanding that grace is the catalyst for transformation. It is grace that teaches us to reject ungodliness and to live self-controlled, upright lives. This grace was embodied in the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who, while we were still sinners, died for us. He called imperfect disciples to follow Him, just as He calls us today.
As we partake in communion, we remember the profound love of Christ, a love that accepted us in our brokenness and extended grace when we least deserved it. This love is not only something we receive; it is something we are called to share with others. Our aim is to be a people eager to do good, transformed by the love that began at the cross and continues to work in us.
The early church exemplified this radical love and holiness. They cared for the marginalized, lived with integrity, and extended hospitality to strangers. They were known for their love for one another and their commitment to living out the teachings of Christ. This is the legacy we are called to continue—a legacy of love that is powerful enough to change the world.
In summary, our lives as believers are to be marked by a balance of holiness and grace. We are to live in a way that honors God, while also extending love and acceptance to those around us. This balance is not always easy to maintain, but it is essential for the health and growth of the church and for our witness to the world.
Key Takeaways:
– Sin is a destructive force that distorts our relationships and our very being. We must heed the Holy Spirit’s guidance to let go of sin, not as a denial of pleasure, but as an embrace of the life God intends for us. This is a life marked by freedom, joy, and peace. [01:28:37]
– Grace is the divine teacher that instructs us to live godly lives. It is not a passive acceptance of sin but an active force that empowers us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. Through grace, we are changed and made eager to do what is good, reflecting the character of Christ in our daily lives. [01:06:52]
– The love of Christ is a transformative power that accepts us in our imperfection and compels us to holiness. As we remember His sacrifice through communion, we are reminded of the depth of His love and the call to live lives that honor His gift of grace. [01:34:31]
– The early church serves as a model of the radical love and holiness to which we are called. Their care for the oppressed, their integrity, and their love for one another were a testament to the transformative power of the gospel. We are called to emulate this example in our own communities and lives. [01:18:24]
– The balance of holiness and grace is like the optimal fuel mixture in an engine. Too much emphasis on one can lead to either legalism or complacency. We must seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance to find the right balance, ensuring that our lives and our churches function as God intends, full of love and righteousness. [01:25:46]
Transcript:
Well, welcome everyone. We’ve been working through, just a little bit, talking about God’s love. We can never really talk about God’s love enough. And in the last few weeks, we just looked at it and discovered there’s scripture that says that love grows. God’s love grows. It’s not something you have to make happen or can manufacture, but God’s love grows in us. And without love, it doesn’t make a difference what the church does. It’s really meaningless. It’s the, in fact, I almost think you could say that love is the power of the church.
You know, I’ve talked to lots of people in church, man, I want the power of the Holy Spirit like it was in the Bible, you know, where this happened, and this happened, and this happened. And you know, I pray for the same thing. But without love, there is no power. And for us, we need to continue to grow in love. The early church, love was part of the DNA of the early church. It’s what it did. It looked after orphans, and it looked after widows. It had a radical love. It looked after, it was the only people that would go into the leper colonies, the only people that would reach out to those that were so sick that no one else would care about them. They would adopt, you know, the infant kids that were abandoned on the streets, and they practiced an equality and a unity that wasn’t found anywhere within the Roman kingdom. The DNA of the early church was love, and it was a radical love that, in a lot of ways, changed the world.
And we want to see changes happen within our own community, within our own families, and can I tell you, the way that happens is really through love. The church has come a long ways. We have better, more concrete doctrinal teaching because of centuries of guys writing deep theological papers, and they’ve chewed on these big concepts, and so we’ve come up with these great theological teachings, and we’ve got a freedom to worship, and we have a world that recognizes our religion, and we have great teachings and books and abundance of knowledge that have been accumulated over the years. We have a lot of great things, but church, we can’t get away from the one thing that’s most important, and that’s being a people that know how to love. Without love, it’s all meaningless.
I ask you a question: Can a church take love too far? Can you take love too far? Jesus said to love your enemies. Jesus said to love your neighbor. He said to love those who persecute you. Every one of those, we all say, “Oh, I like that. I like that. I like that.” But when it really comes down to it, like, “Ooh, that’s hard,” right? Some of us don’t have nice neighbors. Some of us have enemies that are not pleasant people. Some of us have people that persecute us that aren’t, we don’t want to be their friend, yet alone love them. How far do we go in this world to love? Are we called to love the Muslims? Are we called to love political leaders? Are we called to love transgender, drug addicts, prostitutes, homeless people that are mentally broken?
I don’t know if you’ve ever gone to Ray’s. I know you’ve all gone to Ray’s, but I don’t know if you’ve ever stood there in the parking lot, and you kind of hear this voice screaming off over in the distance. You know what I’m talking about, right? One of our homeless gentlemen, he comes and we feed him here on Sunday nights. Even our people, even our homeless community, avoid this guy. And he just sits there at the picnic table, and he’s yelling at about six different people, and there’s, of course, no one there. And you’re just like, “I’m just going to keep my space.” And I’m not telling you to go up and give him a hug, right? I don’t know how that’s going to go over. But you say, how far does the love that the church is supposed to go? How far did the love of Jesus go for us? Probably a whole lot farther than us giving some guy that’s got some delusional stuff going on in his mind.
Anyways, Jesus’ love for us has gone a long ways. And here’s one of our biggest challenges, though. Here’s one of our biggest challenges is, how do we love a person without us putting a stamp of approval on the life, the sinful lifestyle that they’re choosing? How do you love someone without saying, “I’m in agreement,” or “It’s good for you to just keep going on with your sinful life”? That’s a challenge for us in churches. We struggle with this.
You see, God is 100% love. But God is also 100% holy. Holy means he’s demanding for right living. He’s pure, and he’s holy. He’s also gracious and loving. And he’s 100% both. And we struggle because we don’t have the capacity in our humanity to be 100% loving and holy at the same time like God does. God has no problem with the balance of how to be 100% holy and 100% loving. While we struggle with it, God’s holy and pure. He hates sin. God hates sin because he sees that it brings death. It destroys relationships. It breaks unity. Sin likes to isolate. Sin corrupts the way we think and we feel. We don’t think right, and we don’t feel right. It messes with us. God hates sin and what it does, but he loves people. And he knows that people will all struggle with sin. And they’ve been born with it. And so he’s compassionate towards the broken. And he’s gracious, and he’s kind.
See, sometimes we kind of treat it like a coin. One side of the coin is grace, and the other side of the coin is holiness. And we flip a coin, and we kind of choose which one are we going to be. Am I going to lean on the side of demanding for purity and holiness, or am I going to lean on the side that’s gracious and loving and forgiving and kind? And like I said, God’s 100% both. For us, we don’t know how to just one side or the other. It’s hard to be both. You know, it’s not like you run into a situation, and you pull out the coin, “I’m going to be nice today,” right? You know, I don’t know. Maybe that would work for you. But I don’t know if that’s, you know, how do we know when’s the right time? Because you’ve all been in churches. And some churches put a lot of emphasis on holiness. Some churches put a lot of emphasis on grace and love. And can I tell you what? They’re both right. They’re both right. But God’s both at the same time. And that’s a challenge I want to lay out for us.
If we’re out of balance on holiness, even though it’s 100% God’s heart, if we’re out of balance on holiness, meaning we choose and demand for right living and holiness, and we aren’t as much as an emphasis on the love and the graciousness, if you put too much emphasis on the holiness, you know, then people start focusing on their outward actions, and they strive really hard indeed and thought. We can become obsessed with being right and pure. And if someone isn’t right and pure, we don’t know how to be gracious to them. And they don’t necessarily feel safe in the church. And what we do is we run the risk of becoming legalistic, bitter in our heart towards others. We run the risk of being judgmental, which we talked about last week. We run the risk of being full of pride. So when we stray one side too far, it creates an atmosphere that isn’t necessarily a healthy church atmosphere.
But that can go the other direction too. If you become such a loving place, but you kind of ignore the holiness aspect, then you start accepting people and sin and saying, “Well, you know, it’s okay for sin to be in the church. God loves everyone, and you know, the church is for sinners.” By the way, I believe church is for sinners. I have no problem with that. But there’s a point in time where we got to put our arms around someone that says, “You know, we need to change our lifestyle. You know, you can’t keep up with this down this path that God’s not calling us to walk down.” And so sometimes we can be out of grace and say, “Well, God will forgive.” And remember this: If you’re allowing people to continue in their sin, you’re allowing them to have death and destruction in their life. You’re allowing them to have something that destroys relationship in their life. You’re allowing for them to keep a hold of something that changes their thinking and their feelings so they don’t think right, so they don’t feel right. And there’s a point in time where we got to say, “You know, no, we can’t continue on this path.”
So that’s the hard part of where’s the balance, right? So there’s a scripture, fortunately, that helps me, that I think gives us, will help us with that balance, found in Titus. It says this: “For the grace of God has appeared and offers salvation to all people. It, God’s grace, teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”
Paul’s writing to Titus. Titus is mentioned in only four books of the Bible, one of them being the book that’s written to him. And Paul calls him, in the book of Titus, he calls him “my true son in the common faith.” In the book of Corinthians, he calls him his brother. He’s a special person, a special connection. Titus follows with Paul on his missionary journeys. And he’s probably might be the most trustworthy guy in the Bible, other than Jesus. Because you know what Titus’ role is? To collect the offering of the church. You’ve got to trust this guy, right? And we’re not talking just every week, you know, collecting offering every week, right? Titus would have, would come to the city, that people would be saving up their savings, and they would give it all to Titus so he could go and disperse it as the church has, as the leaders of the church have deemed it necessary to go help out the other churches. So he could have a chunk of money given to him at any one time. And Paul’s like, “This is my brother, this is the guy I trust.”
Titus was also called to go to Crete, the island of Crete. Paul, on his first missionary journey, went through the whole island of Crete, and then he came back to the island of Crete, and then he sent Titus to Crete. And he told Titus, “Titus,” and when you read the book of Titus, Titus’ job is to raise up elders in every church. He’s supposed to go to every city in Crete and raise up the Christian elder for the church. And then Paul tells him, “This is what you’re looking for in a deacon, this is what you’re looking for in an elder, this is what you’re looking for, you know, to raise up these people. These are the standards, and this is the type of living that you want these people to be.” So Titus is this well-trusted member of Paul’s team, going into the world. And he tells him, “God’s grace has come, and what it does is it teaches you. God’s grace teaches you to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. God’s grace teaches you to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.” It teaches us, and it changes us.
I love this last statement, by the way, in that verse, that Jesus has come to purify a people, to make them His very own. A people that is, what’s it say? Eager to do what is good. You know, I just like that. That He is trying to raise up a church of people that are eager to do good, that live pure and live gracious at the same time.
There’s a girl named Tina. She was born into a drug addict home. By the age of three, everything fell apart. Not that everything was together in the first place, but everything fell apart, and she ended up getting put into the state system, the foster care system. And so she, by the time she’s 14 years old, she’s lived in 17 homes. No consistency in life. Some good families, some families that are just there, going through the motions. So she’s just family to family to family. She’s never really anywhere more than seven, eight, nine months. Some of it, she’s got behavioral issues that doesn’t work, and she’s rebellious. Can we just, understandably, just say she’s kind of a mess emotionally?
Well, she’s 14 years old, and she comes into a family, and this family loves her. Christian family loves her. And after three months, sitting at the dinner table, the mom and dad looked at her and said, “You know, we’ve been praying, and said God wants us to adopt you.” No one adopts 14-year-olds, by the way. And she just starts, she just cries and cries and cries because she’s found someone that says, “We want you to be in our life. We want you to be part of our family.” And so they adopt her, and it changed her. So this girl that had behavioral issues now goes into high school. She graduates high school with a 3.6 GPA and has stability. She goes to community college and does well in community college and feels like she wants to get into the medical field. And so she goes to, this is not in Oregon, she goes to Iowa, and she goes to the med program and pre-med undergrad, and then she gets her doctorate. She becomes a cardiologist. Long, I mean, I’m skipping over, you know, huge parts of her story. But she becomes a cardiologist. She buys a house next to her adopted parents, and she takes care of her parents. She gets, she’s married, she has three girls, and the three girls get to grow up next to Nana and Papa, and her life’s changed. You know, because someone said, “I love you. I want you to be part of my life, and I want you to be part of our family.”
Can I tell you what? Every one of you in this room’s adopted, where God says, “I want you to be part of my family.” And that love changes us. It changes us, that we don’t look at things the way we used to look. Here’s what it says in Ephesians 2:19, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.” See, grace loves people and accepts people, people that aren’t perfect. It does not mean that you put the stamp of approval on their sinful choices. But can I tell you what? God gave everyone a freedom of choice. It’s not your job to choose for someone else. It’s your job to love someone else. It’s your job to be gracious and kind and point them to Jesus. It’s God’s job to change them. It’s God’s job, it’s the Holy Spirit’s plan to change people’s hearts. So for us, we get to just love.
See, here’s how the church normally works. If you look like us, and you act like us, then we’ll accept you. That’s how a church normally works. You know how Jesus works, right? I will accept you and love you, and then you will maybe begin to start acting and behaving and looking like us. It’s a totally different perspective. Instead of waiting for someone to come in our doors to have everything together and compliment our, you know, making us look better by the way they behave, instead of saying, “You know what? People coming in the door that might not make us look good. They might be difficult, but we get to love and accept them anyways.” And God’s love changes people. When you love folks, it changes them. It changes them.
God loves people, but can I tell you? You’re all adopted into God’s kingdom. God likes to keep a clean house. We’re not going to take a poll of hands on who’s the clean people and who’s not clean people. But you know what I’m talking about. Some people really like to keep a clean house. My mom was one of those folks. I can remember at age about six, seven years old, I remember my mom coming into my bedroom saying, “No, this doesn’t work. This is not
The way he presents the evidence and goes through it, I did the same thing that I really love. His name is Aristides. He’s a Greek. He’s actually from Athens. And he wrote a letter to the emperor in 125 A.D. Kind of a little old. Because it’s translated from the Latin. So you know, translations aren’t always perfect. But just follow with me. I want to read this for three, four minutes. And it gives us a glimpse of the early church. As he’s telling Emperor Hadrian about what the church is like.
For they, the Christians, they know and trust in God, the creator of heaven and of earth, in whom and from whom are all things, to whom there is no other God as companion, from whom they received commandments which they engraved upon their minds and observe in hope and expectations of the world which is to come. Wherefore they do not commit adultery nor fornication, nor bear false witness, nor embezzle what is held and pledged, nor covet what is not theirs. They honor father and mother, and show kindness to those near them. And whenever they are judges, they judge uprightly.
They do not worship idols made in the image of man, and whatsoever they would not that others should do unto them, they do not to others. And of the food which is consecrated to idols, they do not eat, for they are pure. And their oppressors they comfort and make them their friends. They do good to their enemies, and to their women, O King, as pure as virgins, and their daughters are modest, and their men keep themselves from every unlawful union and from all uncleanness. In the hope of a recompense to come in the other world.
Further, if one or other of them have bondmen or bondwomen or children, through love towards them, they persuade them to become Christians. And when they have done so, they call them brethren without distinction. They do not worship strange gods, and they go their way in all modesty and cheerfulness. Falsehood is not found among them, and they love one another. And from widows they do not turn away their esteem, and they deliver the orphan from him who treats him harshly. And he who has, gives to him who has not, without boasting.
And when they see a stranger, they take him into their homes and rejoice over him as a very brother, for they not call them brethren after the flesh, but brethren after the spirit and in God. And whenever one of their poor passes from the world, each one of them, according to his ability, gives heed to him and carefully sees to his burial. And if they hear that one of their number is imprisoned or afflicted on account of the name of their Messiah, all of them anxiously minister to his necessity. And if it is possible to redeem him, they set him free.
And if there is among them any that is poor and needy, and if they have no spare food, they fast two or three days in order to supply to the needy their lack of food. They observe the precepts of their Messiah with much care, living justly and soberly as the Lord their God commanded them. Every morning and every hour, they give thanks and praise to God for his loving-kindness toward them. And for their food and their drink, they offer thanksgiving to him.
And if any righteous man among them passes from the world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God, and they escort his body as if it were setting out from one place to another. And the whole thing keeps going on and on and on. But it’s a glimpse of what was the church like in the early 100 A.D.s. And it’s a solid scriptural teaching about what God’s gracious life is trying to create in us and right living.
So, how do you think Emperor Hadrian took this? Actually, some scholars ascribe Hadrian’s religious tolerance with this apology letter, meaning that he liked it so much he actually had it published and put out for all to read. So he had him publish it and put it up on the walls and in whatever libraries and around town because he saw the example that the Christian church was living. And he said, you know what? We could probably do a little bit more of that.
Doesn’t say he ever became a Christian, but he was the first Roman emperor that was an emperor of peace and tolerance towards the Christians. Talked about how they did good to their enemy. They were kind to women, took care of poor and widows. They didn’t give themselves to sexual sins. They loved one another. There was no falsehood on their lips. They brought strangers into their homes and helped them. They helped give proper burial to the poor. They gave food to those in need.
That’s a life that’s been touched by grace, that God changed my life, and I’m going to love others with a love that God’s loved me with. The early church, they were called to live better. They were called to love better. We talked about last week that we’re called to love well, and we’re called to live well. Live that pure, holy life that God’s calling you to live. Not out of legalistic follow the rules. Because the legalistic follow the rules is, I check the boxes, I did my daily thing.
We love rules because just tell me what to do. It doesn’t work that way when it comes to the grace side because it’s harder to check the boxes of love because you have to ask God, “God, how can I love? How can I love better? What do I need to do to do a better job of loving?” It’s a lot more work to choose grace than it is to choose legalism, which is some churches, not all, there’s a lot of great churches out there, but most churches, they do, they hold on to that legalistic mindset.
And by the way, God is 100% holy. He is, he’s 100% holy. But there needs to be, there needs to be a mixture. Did you know that the church is not called to be camouflaged? The Christian life was not called to be camouflaged, just blend in with society. You know what the word holy means? To be set apart. To look different. To not just blend in with everyone else. And we get to demonstrate a better love and a higher standard. But we also get to be very gracious and holy at the same time.
There’s this, if you look at a car, we put fuel in the car, and the car, you know, turn the key, and we go, right? It’s all good. But did you know that if you have 100% fuel mixture in your engine, your car won’t ignite, right? Your engine actually infuses air into your fuel mixture, right? In fact, there’s the exact formula. Isaac, do you know what the number is? My son would be the only one in the room to know that. I had to look it up. It is exactly right, 14.7 parts air to one part fuel is the optimal. Yeah, Nick’s like really impressed. You knew that, didn’t you? You knew that, didn’t you? 14.7 parts fuel to, or air to one part fuel is the perfect mixture for the firing that needs to take place in your engine.
And if you have too little of a mixture, then it misfires if there’s too much air. And then if it’s not enough air, it doesn’t have an ability. You have to have oxygen. If you don’t have that mixture of grace and hope, you don’t work right. And can I tell you, if the church doesn’t have that nice mixture of grace and hope, grace and holiness, we don’t work right, right? We sputter. We push the foot on the gas pedal, but it doesn’t seem to want to go. “Why isn’t this working right, you stupid car? What’s going on, right?” And we get frustrated at the church, and we get frustrated at our own.
There’s a mixture of… Yeah, we need to live for holiness and aim for holiness in our life, but man, we need to be full of love and grace, absolutely full of it. And let that love go far. Love your enemies and those who persecute you. Isn’t it amazing, the early church? Someone would persecute them. They would invite them over to the house and befriend them. That’s so hard to do. Being friends with someone that’s a jerk is not always the most pleasant. That’s not my recipe of how a good evening is going to go. I’m like, okay, I would rather sit down and do this, or this, or this, or this, but the type of love that embraces difficult people, that befriends people, that reaches out to people, but also still being holy and not compromising, there’s a mixture there.
I don’t know what the Christian mixture is. I’m sure it’s different than 14.7 to 1, but there’s a mixture in there of holiness and grace that the church has to have. And you know what? I can’t tell you where that mixture’s at for your life, but there’s a God that knows exactly what that is. And we get to walk with the Holy Spirit and let him be the one to lead us and guide us. And when he says stop doing this, you know what? Maybe we should stop doing it. Because sin will mess up your relationships. Sin will mess up the way you think and feel.
My pastor would tell me this. I’ve said it many times. You’ve heard it before if you’ve been here around long. Sin will take you farther than you ever wanted to go. Sin will cost you more than you ever wanted to pay. And sin will keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay. It will get a hold of you and mess with you so much. And so when the Holy Spirit’s saying let go of something, there’s a reason. He’s not trying to take away your fun. He recognizes how much damage this does to your life.
But when someone else is struggling, can I say, don’t pull out the whip and beat them up. Be loving and gracious. Not agreeing with their lifestyle choices, but recognizing if I love them and accept them, grace, as he said to Titus, grace teaches us and changes us to become more holy. And it encourages us to let go of that ungodliness. And so that’s our prayer, is Lord, that we can accept your grace and allow you to change us. That we can live holy but also be very gracious and kind to others that might not be living holy. That we can find that beautiful mixture within the engine that wants to run at an optimal level.
Lord, here’s the church, we want to run at that optimal level, to be able to be who you’re calling us to be. That’s our prayer. Help us with that. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
We’re going to take communion. It’s kind of the grace thing that God did for us. So while we’re singing, we can have a couple of people pass around the communion elements. And then we’ll take communion together after we’re done singing.
Well, Jesus, you accepted us before we had it all together. You loved us when we were imperfect. In fact, your word says that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You picked 12 disciples that did not have it all together. And you said, “Come follow me.” The same words that you say to us. “Come follow me. Walk with me. I will make you fishers of men. I will take you to places that you never thought you could go. You will be able to do things that you never thought you’d be able to do.” As we do it together.
So Lord, thank you that you accept us in our brokenness. And you’re gracious to us when we don’t deserve it. And so Lord, we take this bread, recognizing our brokenness, how you broke yourself for us so that we could be made whole again. We didn’t deserve it. But it’s the work that you took upon yourself to do for us. And Lord, this juice, being symbolistic of your blood, that love that went to the cross for us, that love that changed the world, that love that changed our life in this room, and that love that we want to demonstrate to others that would hopefully change their lives also.
Lord, we want to receive your love as well as give your love. We want to become holy and pure. And I love what it said in the end of that Titus verse, that we would become eager to do and live what is right. Because your love compels us to walk out of holiness and to do your work. So Lord, thank you for that transforming love that comes, that came, started on the cross, flows from the cross down all the way through the generations into our life right now, that will wash us clean so that we can be filled with a love for others and walking in that purity that you called us to walk in.
So thank you for this plan, this juice, this relationship we get to have with you. We take it in remembrance of you. We also take it saying, “This is who we want to be.” So that’s our prayer, Lord. Come. Come into our hearts and change us. Give us eyes to see the people you want us to love, and teach us the ways that we can love them so that your love can change them too. We pray that all in Jesus’ name.
I was going to actually say that, but I wasn’t going to say it in front of everyone. Happy birthday, Dorothy, 85 years old. Give Dorothy a hug. She needs 85 of them, one hug for every year. So get going. Be blessed. Good seeing you all.
Next week, my friend Mike Mercer is going to come, who represents Compassion First. Mike was my locker partner in high school, and he kind of adopted me, and his family, I had a house key, and it was weird. I actually had chores at my friend’s house that I had to do every week because I spent so much time at his house. So this is a long-running friendship, and I’m excited for him to come next week and share his heart, his wisdom with you. So come next week and soak it up because he’s got a lot of good things to share with us.
All right, thanks everyone. Be blessed.
