What It Means To Love Like Jesus

It is for freedom that Christ sets you free. And as you experience that freedom not to go back into the bondage of sin, not to go back into the bondage and the slavery of the flesh and the desires of the flesh, but to be set free for all of that and to live as people that are full of God.

We are wrapping up the book of Galatians. It's been great to be on this journey with you the last nine weeks. I love just opening the word of God and just hearing what He has to say, and I do think this message has been so timely. Today, I'm going to read out of chapter 6:1-

"Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you two be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Or if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself, but let each one test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load."

I love that Paul often closes his letters with just the most practical advice. It's like a really good sermon. Like- "Hey, I know we've talked about a lot of big theology, but let me just boil it down for you. Take care of your business, people. You all, don't be out there just causing trouble everywhere. And if somebody is causing trouble, grab them by the collar and sit him down and in gentleness and love with the Holy Spirit's fruit, bring him back into repentance." Right?

He's just saying, "This is how you're going to walk in a manner worthy of Christ. You're going to do it together. You're going to bear each other's burdens and you're not going to think too much of yourself."

I picture Paul imagining the Galatians and all these outsiders that have come in and said, "You have to do this to follow God. You have to be circumcised. You have to do this. You have to add to the gospel to be saved." He's just so angry. He's so angry. He closes the letter later, I'm laughing at his little personality. I get his personality. He's a little passionate. He closes the letter later. He says, "See with what large letters I'm writing to you with my own hand." He is yelling at them. It's like all caps with emojis. Like, "I'm furious and I want you to hear this. I don't want you to miss this."

What he doesn't want them to miss is that the Gospel sets people free. It is good news. It's not supposed to put us in bondage. It's supposed to release us from bondage. It's supposed to set us free.

And yet there were people coming in and making it more complicated and acting like they knew it all. And Paul is just so frustrated because he is like, "Listen, none of us are that big a deal. None of us are that big a deal. None of us are that important.

It is Christ alone that is worthy of praise, that is worthy of worship, that is worthy of following, that is worthy of being known."

He says in another passage where we've talked about this before, so-and-so's baptizing this group. And so-and-so's baptizing this group and everybody's taking pride in who baptized them. And he's like, "Are you all crazy? We follow Christ. Every single person that is out preaching the word of God is just servants of God and calling you to be the same." This is the best way to view life because when you view life this way, we talked about last week the rivalries and the jealousies and the fighting and the division. When we truly view ourselves as just all servants of Christ, running after him, doing the best we can, helping each other along the way, calling out each other in love, bearing each other's burdens.

When we live that way, when we follow God in that way, it screams of a different worldview, a different system that we are part of.

I love that God sets us apart with himself, not with a set of laws and rituals any longer, but with the fruit of the spirit. We are to be so different and to have such a different aroma in a room, in a workplace, on a college campus, in a neighborhood. We're supposed to feel different, look different, smell different, be different. And the way that we do that is to exhibit what is just inside of us, which is God.

It's the fruit of a life following God.

I love that he uses fruit because it's not something we can muster up. We can't build pears, right? We can't build apples. God does that. He does that through us as we abide in him.

John talks about it. So he's just going to be real practical and he is just going to say, "Listen, this is what it looks like." And I love this quote. It comes from an author named David Guzik and it says this-

"Pride doesn't necessarily say, 'I'm better than you are.' Pride simply says, 'I'm more important than you are, so I deserve more of my own attention and love than you do.'" But biblical humility says, "I am no more important than you are, and I want to care about your burdens and I want to care about your needs and I want to help you."

I think about the beautiful conversation that is coming with Pastor Wendera and he's in Uganda, and he was in the slums of Uganda and truly was rescued out. I mean, he was given an education through compassion and grows up with an education and every opportunity in the world. And yet he goes back to the same slum and pastors the church where he became a Christian and he chooses to be there. Why? Is it easy for him? No, he's surrounded by suffering and poverty every single day. He's doing life in the middle of one of the darkest and poorest parts of the world. And he doesn't have to, but he goes there because he loves the people there, because God loves the people there. So he lays down his comfort and his life to go there and be a part of their story.

Here's the thing, if we had that attitude right here where we are, and I know we're not in the middle of Kampala, Uganda with poverty everywhere, but there is need everywhere we live. And the reason I do this, I just want to be so clear, I don't do this for fun. I do this because I believe... I do this podcast. I come to you in your car, in your living room, on your college campus, wherever you are, because I believe in you because God believes in you, because you are in touch with people that I'll never reach.

You love people that maybe no one else will ever love. And you get to be neighbors and co-workers and friends with people that need God, that need hope, that need the gospel, and to love them to be set apart, to be such a winsome presence in their life that they want your God. That's what we're supposed to be doing. And the reason I wanted to teach this book was because I think sometimes we are so fearful of making sure we're doing it right and making sure everybody else is doing it right, that we miss the whole point of what we're supposed to do with this great news that we've been given.

It's not stack on behaviors and obedience and morality. It is to abide, to be so near and close to God that the fruit of God shows up in our life and we're an ambassador for him on this earth.

How was He on this earth? He loved everybody.

He welcomed everybody. He welcomed children and tax collectors and sinners. He welcomed them all and he loved them and he didn't try to fix them right away. He fed them, he healed them. He cared for their needs. Then he shared the hope of the gospel with them, the hope of himself with them. "Follow me. I'm the way, the truth and the life and no one gets to the Father but through me." And he gives them the ultimate hope, which is eternal life. And then we are supposed to be like Jesus. We're supposed to love like Jesus. We're supposed to be doing greater works than even Jesus did. And some of you are, and I hear the stories and it's amazing. And then some of you feel the bondage of this world and you feel stuck and you've lost perspective.

I get that too because that's been me on lots of days, that I forget what we're doing and what the purpose is. It feels complicated and confusing and I know, but I am here fighting with large letters. Can you see the large letters that I've written with? Can you hear my passion? Can you feel the burning I feel in my belly for you that you would be free? It is for freedom. Christ set you free, we read last week. It is for freedom that Christ sets you free.

And as you experience that freedom, not to go back into the bondage of sin, not to go back into the bondage and the slavery of the flesh and the desires of the flesh, but to be set free for all of that and to live as people that are full of God, full of hope and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness, self-control, those words are so convicting. Are they true of you? Are they true of you? Is it the way that you live? And if they aren't, you don't have to feel shame. You just trust Jesus and you abide with him more.

When I noticed myself being edgy and irritable and bothered and cranky and comparing and all of those things, when I notice that is the state of my heart, I just have to remember, okay, that is not the fruit of the spirit. Probably haven't been with him in a little while. And I go back. I did this last night in my bed. I had not spent time with Jesus in a few days just out of travel and craziness that had been happening. I just stopped what I was doing and I didn't turn on the television and I just pulled out my Bible in a book and I prayed and I was with God for a few minutes, 20, 30 minutes. I reset and I came back to my place, to my person in Jesus, and I felt peace again.

So you can do that right where you are today. You can turn this off and you can close your eyes wherever you are, and you can talk to him and you can say, "I want to be with you. I want a relationship with you." Ultimately, guys, this is the point that he's a relational God and he's invited us into a relationship with himself.

As we walk with him, as we relate to him, as we know him better and better, our lives change. Our lives look more like his. We're supposed to be salt and light in the darkness. We're supposed to go to the darkness where salt and light is needed the most.

We have to do that with wisdom. We have to do that with the Spirit's help. We have to do that with the help of our community.

We can't go as lone rangers into that, but that is the call, that we would love people that have never experienced the love of Christ.

It's how the world has changed. I just worry sometimes we just make it so complicated that to follow God feels so complicated for people and they don't know where to begin. It’s not complicated. As we live it out in our own simple ways and where it has become complicated for you, where you feel like a million thoughts and feelings and mistakes are running through your mind and it feels hard to pray, you feel distant. I just pray that all of that would just move away. The enemy is loud and the enemy loves to complicate things, but God is simple and clear, and the way to him is a relationship. That's what he wants. He wants a relationship with you.

If you've never trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, it is so simple. "Jesus, I believe you are the son of God, and I want a relationship with you. I believe that you paid for my sins. I believe that because of what you did on the cross, that I can be right forever. And I believe that means that now I'm a child of yours and I want a relationship with you. I want to follow you, and I believe that you raise from the dead. And because you raised from the dead, I will raise from the dead one day." It's that simple. You pray that and you begin walking with him and talking with him, and you begin a relationship with him.

Some of you that prayed that many years ago, you've forgotten how simple it is. You've added to what it means to follow God, a million things. And I would just say, remember, his burden is easy and his load is light. That is who he is. He wants to carry your life, your burdens with you. He does not want it to be cumbersome, to follow him. He wants it to be easy because He's with you. Now, I'm not saying life will be easy, dang it, that is not promised. In fact, the opposite is promised. In this life we will have trouble, but the hope is that God is in it with us and that what we experience on a given Tuesday is bearable. Not because we are functioning in our own strength, but because God issues us his strength. It's true. It's possible. I felt it in my own life. I've seen it in my sister's life. I've seen it in so many people's life that I love. He proves enough. He proves enough.

So wherever you are, whatever you are doing, whatever you are in the middle of, whatever struggle or suffering you are facing, I pray for two things for you, I pray one that you would confide in God and two, that you would ask for help because we aren't supposed to carry all of this alone. One way the burden gets lighter is we have the people of God with us and we aren't alone in it.