What Love Is
What does love look like in your life?
Today on campus, it looks like food distribution and prayer. Tomorrow, it'll look like hundreds of people gathered to learn more about how they can support their loved ones, friends, schools and this community around mental health wellness. On Thursday, it'll look like people in grief coming together to be reminded that they're seen and loved and valued. Love is Jesus and in His name, we get to love others well. Really well.
We are currently in the middle of our What Love Is series. For the past few Sundays and the ones to come, the messages have and will continue to focus on the truth of love. Not our feelings about it. Not how society or trends try to define it. But what it actually is and how Jesus has displayed Himself as love to our world, from generation to generation. Last Sunday, teacher, Nathan Milnik asked the congregation this, "Are you an effective Christian?". Are we prepared to be dropped into any situation and, with the knowledge of who Christ is and what He's done for us, share that well with others? Have we been affected by the life and death of Jesus so much so that it has changed our mindset and our heart?
The text we looked at on Sunday was Luke 24, specifically the Road to Emmaus when Jesus low-key appeared to two of His disciples after His death and resurrection, and hid His identity from them. Do we realize we are walking with Jesus in our day to day lives? Are we remembering that because of His sovereignty, He is with us in all things? What habits in our lives need to change to reconcile our identity in a risen Christ who lives in us?
Colossians 1:15-23 says this,
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
Christ wants to heal all of it- the separation of man from God, man from nature, man from self and man from others. Why? You know this, church. Because of His great love for us. Ephesians 2:1-10 spells this out wonderfully,
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
How are we addressing our broken world in light of how God is inviting us to be a part of His heart for reconciliation? Church, as we head into the Christmas season, reflecting on the birth of our Savior, we have every opportunity to fully live out our identity in Christ Jesus. May you be encouraged today. May you know the greatest love in the history of the world and be affected by what He did to reconcile your heart.
Today on campus, it looks like food distribution and prayer. Tomorrow, it'll look like hundreds of people gathered to learn more about how they can support their loved ones, friends, schools and this community around mental health wellness. On Thursday, it'll look like people in grief coming together to be reminded that they're seen and loved and valued. Love is Jesus and in His name, we get to love others well. Really well.
We are currently in the middle of our What Love Is series. For the past few Sundays and the ones to come, the messages have and will continue to focus on the truth of love. Not our feelings about it. Not how society or trends try to define it. But what it actually is and how Jesus has displayed Himself as love to our world, from generation to generation. Last Sunday, teacher, Nathan Milnik asked the congregation this, "Are you an effective Christian?". Are we prepared to be dropped into any situation and, with the knowledge of who Christ is and what He's done for us, share that well with others? Have we been affected by the life and death of Jesus so much so that it has changed our mindset and our heart?
The text we looked at on Sunday was Luke 24, specifically the Road to Emmaus when Jesus low-key appeared to two of His disciples after His death and resurrection, and hid His identity from them. Do we realize we are walking with Jesus in our day to day lives? Are we remembering that because of His sovereignty, He is with us in all things? What habits in our lives need to change to reconcile our identity in a risen Christ who lives in us?
Colossians 1:15-23 says this,
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
Christ wants to heal all of it- the separation of man from God, man from nature, man from self and man from others. Why? You know this, church. Because of His great love for us. Ephesians 2:1-10 spells this out wonderfully,
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
How are we addressing our broken world in light of how God is inviting us to be a part of His heart for reconciliation? Church, as we head into the Christmas season, reflecting on the birth of our Savior, we have every opportunity to fully live out our identity in Christ Jesus. May you be encouraged today. May you know the greatest love in the history of the world and be affected by what He did to reconcile your heart.
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