ASI Southern Union 2015: Prepared to Stand

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ASI Southern Union

Morning Devotional: The Faith that Works by Love

Nicole Parker

The Faith that Works by Love- Part 1

This morning I want to talk to you about what we need.

I want to talk about a story to begin with.

That's how I worked my way through college.

But there's 1 that's always stuck in my mind as a time that I spent time with the children of Abraham, people who lived by faith.

I was working On a Sunday afternoon, it so happened in West Virginia.

And Sunday afternoon can be a difficult time to work because people would rather be visiting with their family.

And I remember specifically, I just kept going to 1 house after another where People were like, why are you here?

We're trying to have Sunday lunch with our friends.

They'd obviously just come from their churches.

And they were all irritated that I was there.

Then I came to a home that was different.

When they opened the door, they said, come in, come in.

I shared with them the books that I had, and they didn't have very much money, but they were very welcoming.

They said, yes, we'd like to at least get something from you.

In the short amount of time that I spent with them, and I wasn't there a long time, they were so kind, kept asking, is there anything that I can do for you?

And yet, when they knew I was a Christian, they offered, before I left the home, they said, Listen, if ever you're back in our area, if you ever need a place to sleep, come knock on our door.

This was not because I'd spent 2 hours with them and they loved me so much.

And when I walked away from that door, I thought, wow, I've been on holy ground.

I have been with the children of Abraham.

Oh, that I could have a home like theirs.

You know, I've had the same experience many times meeting other people of many different faiths.

Some of the most amazing people I've met have been Catholic nuns or priests.

You know, I don't believe that their religion teaches an accurate picture of who God is.

Their doctrines teach things about God that would make me not want to love him.

It's beautiful to see that God works on people all around the world to learn to live out his law of love.

This word love is kind of overused in our culture.

I remember going for a walk with my children and we were just going down this nice big sidewalk in Collegedale And my son ran up ahead, Seth, and he, then he came running back to me.

People were walking past us every now and then, and I noticed they were smiling.

He came running back to me, he said, Mommy, Mommy, I'm getting in love with people.

He said, Mommy, I'm walking past people and when I see them I look at them and I smile at them and then they smile back at me and then I get in love with them.

I said, well that's wonderful buddy, That's Jesus working in your heart.

But that's not quite what I mean by love.

What he meant was he was having warm feelings with people, right?

In a lot of our culture, we want to think that warm feelings equals love.

You know, there's the justice of God and then there's the love of God.

But the justice and mercy of God together make up the love of God.

So when I say love, I think we're in danger in this culture.

First, we lived in a world that for a couple thousand years there, they were taught that God was not actually loving.

That the justice of God was everything, and the mercy of God was very small.

Now, we have a culture that swung the opposite way.

Now the mercy of God is everything, and the justice of God is small and insignificant.

But God wants us to understand love is the perfect combination of justice and mercy.

And God wants to implant that righteousness within us.

What does it mean to have the righteousness of Christ poured into us?

It's not just the shallow love that the world says, yeah, you just got to love them if they want to live that way, if they want to do that.

We all love love if we get to redefine it according to our selfish feelings.

I love lots of people, but there are people that I don't feel like loving, and those are the ones that tell me whether I'm actually a loving person, right?

Laodicea, at the end of time, is immersed in a feeling-based culture.

We're told that men shall be lovers of their own selves, right?

We all love, but God doesn't want us to love ourselves.

He wants us to love him with all our heart soul mind and strength and our neighbors as ourselves That doesn't mean we hate ourselves.

It means we see every person as priceless in the light of the cross I so appreciate the songs that you shared this morning exactly what we need to understand the love of Christ.

You see, in Laodicea, where we love ourselves, we say, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and do not know that we are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

You know, we're living in a culture with a terrifying sense of self-image.

The self-esteem movement has taken root and has swept the nation and we're seeing the fruits of it.

And people who think they're entitled to whatever they feel like having.

What do we need to live within this culture but not be of this culture?

Gold tried in the fire What does the gold tried in the fire do?

How can that be the key to setting us free from our comfort zone living?

Christ's object lesson says, the gold tried in the fire is faith that works by love.

The Faith that Works by Love- Part 2

But yesterday we talked about how the law of sin is the love of self, which, you know, the love of self is what brings unrest, right?

And the love of self creates in us unbelief.

Unbelief, hang on here, Let me get my slides up there again for you unbelief is The inability to believe that the law of love is the best way to run the universe God has told us that we should live by the law of love, but we want to live by the law of self.

When we refuse to believe that God's law of love is the best way to live, then we set in motion unbelief, which sets in motion pride.

And we see that with Lucifer's story right?

And every sin ever since then I would challenge anyone to find any sin that's not rooted in unbelief and pride.

This cycle of the 2 that feeds love of self.

If we can believe, if we can take by faith the love of God and realize this is the principle that runs the universe, the seeking of the lowest place, the service, that faith that we have in the love of God will give us humility.

It will help us to see ourselves the way God sees us, as weak and helpless and sinful as we are, but at the same time as priceless, as of infinite worth, infinitely loved in the light of the cross.

And this is the great power of the gospel.

Just as unbelief and pride are the cycle at the root of every sin, so faith and humility reverse that cycle.

Now, I wanna tell you a few stories because how does that look in real life?

You know, I know for many people that's that's a great concept.

My husband does a lot of pastoral work, and he's started at least 5 church plants or helped out in leading with the starting of at least 5 or 6 church plants in Africa and here in the States.

And there's 1 story of a church plant project, though, that I remember especially.

There was this passionate team of young evangelists.

They didn't have very much money, but they had great vision, what God wanted to do through them.

And they were absolutely confident God was leading them.

They couldn't decide who was going to be the leader of the church.

The reality was every 1 of them secretly wanted to be the pastor.

Because they knew this is going to be a vision that's going to change the world.

So they didn't always want to say it right up in front, but this battle underneath the surface kept spilling over into the way they related to each other, messing up their church plant until finally they realized what was going on.

They made things right between themselves.

No 1 wanted to be the head of this church.

Now the actual picture of what those men looked like might be a little more like this.

The church plant that the disciples were trying to start with Jesus had a great vision behind it.

God wanted to do something mighty through them.

But what cycle was destroying the disciples' ability to do God's work?

If I don't try to push for the highest place, what if God doesn't put me there?

That pride prevented them from being ready.

They sincerely wanted to serve God, but they didn't understand what it meant to enlist in the service of God.

When Jesus said to the rich young ruler, you want to follow me?

They'd just finally gotten hope when this guy comes walking up to them.

You know, in those days you could tell this guy had money.

They may have even known who he was and they were like, yes, lamb for supper.

And the disciples are like, oh Jesus, don't mess this 1 up.

And then Jesus says, sorry, if you wanna follow me, You're gonna have to seek the lowest place.

You're gonna have to become despised and rejected.

You're gonna have to lose the status you have.

And yet here were these 12 disciples following Jesus, and that whole concept that Jesus had just shared was still a mystery to them.

What heartbreak Jesus must have faced at that last supper as he sat there watching, waiting.

These are the 12 men he's been training to start the church plant that will change the world.

They're looking around, I'm not doing it, I'm not doing it, I'm not doing it, mm-mm, mm-mm.

They all think I'm the 1 who's going to do it.

And so Jesus girded himself with a towel.

And then after he washed their feet, according to Luke 22 at least, he sat down with them and he talked with them about this.

Luke 22 verses 24 through 27 says, A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.

And he said to them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, but not so with you.

Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader as 1 who serves.

I am among you as the 1 who serves." Jesus wanted each of them to look for the lowest place.

Because this cycle of unbelief and pride was chewing out the life of them.

So Jesus did something to change their vision.

He demonstrated to them the law of the universe.

Imagine the story if they had reached that upper room and then John or Peter or Matthew or someone had seen, hey, nobody's washed anybody's feet and had rushed off to get water.

And then 1 of the others had said, no, no, don't do that, let me, let me.

Think of the joy that would have flooded Jesus' heart If he had seen that, if he had been able to be blessed by seeing, yes, I'm about to face the cross, but it's not in vain.

The seeds of the gospel are taking root in their lives and are springing up in a new way of living.

By God's grace, let us not seek the highest place.

Don't let this story be written of us too, So that someday 2, 000 years from now in the annals of history in the universe when people turn to the page that was 2015 They'll see the same thing We all had to fight for the highest place.

No Jesus wants to teach us the lesson of faith and humility.

Faith is belief in God's character of love.

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Morning Devotional: The Faith that Works by Love

The Faith that Works by Love- Part 1

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