Jesus Unfiltered - Love - Love... Serves!, Part 2

Do you need a friend? Do you go to church or a small group or get around Christians and feel like you don't really belong? Would you like to know the secret to building friendships, filling your heart with joy, and really being a part of the group God's called you to?

That's today. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international teaching and discipleship ministry motivating Christians to live like Christians. And that sense of loneliness Chip just referred to is a real problem today.

In the aftermath of the pandemic, people are more disconnected and isolated than ever before. So in this program, Chip offers help to believers struggling with those feelings as he continues the third volume of his Jesus Unfiltered series. But before we begin, let me encourage you to try using Chip's message notes while you listen. They contain his outline, scripture references, and fill-ins to help you remember what you hear.

To download these message notes, go to the broadcasts tab at livingontheedge.org, app listeners tap fill-in notes. Well, if you have a Bible, go to John chapter 13 as we join Chip with part two of his message, Love Serves. Men God wants you to serve.

Women God wants you to serve. Having eyes of how you drive, what you do, where you go, seeing yourself not as how do I climb over other people to get to this role, but how do I actually help other people be successful? What do they need to hear? What do they need to do?

What tools do they need? How do I help my kids be, not make me look good, but be successful in their relationship with God and how God's wired them? When you begin to think that way, it will transform things.

Now, here's the thing. The promise is that when we live that way, what did Jesus say? Blessed are you.

The word makarias, it means happy, joyful. Here's all I can tell you. This is true in a family. You're either a consumer, what do I get? What do I get?

Who's coming through for me? What about this? And no matter how much you can consume, it's never enough. Or you're a servant and you're helping other people be successful.

And as you give your life and give your time and help others, God fills you up with joy and out of his goodness often gives you the things you dream about. Have you ever wondered why people that are mega, mega, mega wealthy get to a point where it's like you can't consume anymore? Almost every person who gets mega, mega wealthy has this crisis of life and realizes what?

The only thing that matters is helping other people, so they start a foundation. You know what they're realizing? They're just realizing what Jesus taught. The only thing that's really going to matter very much out of your life, out of my life, we think it's all about the achievement and what people think and what we acquire. The only thing that will really matter is faith working itself out in love. And wherever you are, whether it's here at church or in your home or with your roommates or at work, when you begin to say, I want to serve, I will tell you a paradigm shift and something begins to happen that will change the course of your life not only for you, but guess what? People will begin to see a Christian living like a Christian.

Love humbly serves those we lead, those that we have influence with. Second, we're going to see the next picture is he's going to be betrayed. Pick up the text with me, if you will, in verse 21. After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in his spirit and he testified, I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me. His disciples stared at one another at a loss to know which one of them he meant.

One of the disciples whom Jesus loved was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple, it's John, and said, ask him which one. Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, it is the one I will give this piece of bread when I've dipped it in the dish. After dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus turns to his left, what you're about to do, do quickly, Jesus told him. But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.

Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the feast or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And I think this is both accurate and metaphorical, and it was night. Darkness is coming.

Evil is going to reign for a very short season. Jesus predicts his betrayal because the disciples need to know this is not an accident. And then he does something that is absolutely mind-boggling. He has Judas seated at the second place of honor. And I can't go through it in time, but if you knew how a Passover happens, the meal is very mechanical, if you will. You do this, then there's a glass of wine for redemption, and you tell the story, and there's the herbs. And then you get to a certain place, and then what the leader does is he takes a piece of bread, it's kind of like flat bread or like falafel bread, and he would take it, and there would be a dish with part of the lamb, and he would dip it in, and then he would offer it to the guest of honor. And it was a point in time where they were talking about this dish and this dip was for the forgiveness of our sins.

They've been passed over by the grace of God. Jesus was extending love and opportunity and forgiveness to Judas. And Judas rejects it. And he gets up, and he leaves, and he cooperates with Satan. And for a period of time, then, evil will reign. And the disciples, now the tension's gone out of the room.

Can you imagine? I mean, some of you, can I just ask you to think back to when you've been betrayed? I mean, some of you have been betrayed in business, right? Some of you had a mate walk out on you and hook up with someone else. Some of you had a boyfriend or girlfriend that you came in and found out.

Some of you have walked into a room and seen either your girlfriend, your husband, your wife logged on and looking at pictures that you're thinking, what about me? I mean, I've been betrayed two or three deep, deep times. And the level of anger and hurt was almost overwhelming.

Can you imagine the kind of love that extends forgiveness to someone? Earlier, he washed the feet of the very person that he knew. Remember, I said, repeated, he knew, his time has come.

He knew. Application. You know, when you look on the front of that sheet and say, am I really a loving person? It's not a lot about emotion sometimes.

It's not about a gooey feeling. It's about humbly serving those we lead, and then it's about intentionally serving those who hate us. Even when it doesn't change their behavior. Sometimes you hear the great stories, and I've certainly told my share, and it is amazing that sometimes we love those who hate us, and we do good who, those who do evil against us, and good is more powerful than evil. And Romans 12 write that great principle of 17 to 21, if your enemy's hungry, feed him.

If he's thirsty, give him a drink. And so doing, you keep burning coals on his head, and that's not a picture of burning their brains out. It's a picture in the ancient Near East of repentance. You do good to your enemies. You love your enemies. Jesus would say in Luke 6, I put the passage there, what profit is there if you love those who love you, if you lend money who lend the money to you? But when you love your enemies, when you pray for those who desperately use you, when you love those who persecute you, this finds favor with God, because then you're being a son or a daughter, in other words, like the most high God, because God is a God who gives mercy to the good and to the evil.

If we could grasp how good and how kind God is to everyone, and the apostle would say it's the kindness of God that leads to repentance. And so I'm telling you that your love quotient is, is there ways that that person even who's betrayed you. Now, don't get me wrong, there has to be some boundaries. This doesn't mean you're a doormat.

You might have to do it anonymously because you can't have a relationship with someone who's abused you. But good is more powerful than evil. And the kind of love that turned the world completely upside down was a group of followers that started washing each other's feet. They didn't come to church as consumers. They didn't say, well, this children's ministry is like this. I kind of like the worship at that church a little bit better. I look a little bit like this. And you know what, you know what, they're doing too many of those kind of songs and I want them to do more of these kind of songs and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's a consumer mentality.

Christians who live like Christians come and say, God, how do you want to use me? I've been through a divorce. I bet I could help someone.

I had an abortion. I bet I could help someone with that. You know what? I got a business and I'm looking for people.

You know what? I'm going to probe maybe some people that need a job. I'm coming to serve.

I'm coming to love. And I'm even going to do it to the people that I know hate me. Our impact in the LGBT community will be being truthful and holding true to scripture and then loving them in ways where they shake their head and think, I thought you were the narrow, bigoted, evangelical, you know, anti-intellectual people that blow up clinics and hold up signs and call us names. And unfortunately, many of them have experienced Christians like that. And they'll meet you at your work and in your neighborhood and our deep, genuine friendships, and they'll just meet someone who loves them. And you know what?

We won't agree with the sin in their life any more than the fornicators and the idolaters and the drunks and the porn addicts that we have in our church. Right? Right? I'm sorry. I didn't hear you.

Right? Okay. So, sexual sin is sexual sin. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and he'll be back to continue the third volume of our Jesus Unfiltered series, Love. But let me quickly tell you we are more than a broadcast ministry. We're passionate about supporting pastors globally, developing helpful resources, and sharing the gospel with this next generation.

So if you'd like to partner with us in these areas, go to livingonthedge.org to learn how. Well, here again is Chip. I got to minister in Santa Cruz for twelve and a half years. And before things got big here, it was way, way big there in terms of the LGBT community. And they picketed the church and thought we were crazy and on and on. And we just teamed together, and we drove HIV patients to the doctor. We drove all the HIV patients to the grocery store. And we told them, we'll only tell you about Jesus if you ask.

And then we launched a ministry to run away teens, and then we fed the poor downtown. And the mayor who was an avowed homosexual, he and I began to get to know one another. I mean, literally, his view of us were, I mean, like some of us have a jaundiced, prejudicial view of people. You think, you know, all people in the LGBT are like this or like, you know what, they're people. Like real people with real personalities, with real issues. And we can disagree, and there is a sin issue there, like I have my sin issues and you have your sin issues. But what helped me was not telling me, people telling me how bad I was.

What helped me was a group of people actually love me. And they didn't compromise the truth, but they love me. The real Jesus, the historical Jesus, the supernatural Jesus, the power of God, that's what's going to change the world. This is following a historic fully God, fully man, Lord and Savior of the world as historic cataclysmic events are aligning in a way. And we are followers, and we serve. We serve those we lead. We serve those who hate us, even if they never change. And they know that, you know what, our relationship with you isn't based on now you start coming to church, now you repent, now you come to Christ.

I pray they will. But Judas didn't change, and Jesus washed his feet. Judas didn't change, and Jesus offered him the place of honor.

Scene number one, he washes his feet. Scene number two, Judas betrays Jesus. Scene number three, Jesus prepares his disciples for his arrest. And we pick up the story in verse 31. When he was gone, speaking of Judas, Jesus now responds, what's happened? Sort of a prophetic moment.

Darkness has happened. The plan is going to go. He will be arrested.

There'll be three mock trials. He'll be beat within an inch of his life. They'll take thorns and put it into his scalp. There'll be this moment in all of history where the sin of all men will fall upon him, and the father will turn away. And he'll bear your sin and my sin, and he'll cry out in anguish, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And what he knows is he's got to prepare these disciples to make it through this. Now it's the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him.

If God is glorified in him, then God will glorify the Son in himself and will glorify him at once. Here's his perspective to the betrayal. All authority and power has been given to me. I know where I came from, heaven. I know where I'm going.

I'm on mission. And Isaiah in prediction would say, and he set his face like a flint. Now I know God glory means something is revealed.

It's enhanced. The Hebrew word means wait. The weightiness, the reality, the truth, the love of God is going to be made known because God the Son will die for you and me and then rise from the dead. That's his response to suffering. Now he wants to prepare his disciples because he realizes they're going to be scared to death and they're going to fail. And so he says, my little children, I'll be with you only a little longer.

You'll look for me. And just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now where I'm going, you cannot come. He uses a very interesting word. It's not just brothers. He literally, it's a word for a smaller child. He's being like a father to them.

I'm going to leave and you can't come right now. And now he gives them a new commandment to sustain them. A new commandment I've given to you that you love one another, that you love one another just as I have loved you. So it's new. The word means fresh commandment. The old commandment was what?

Love your neighbor as yourself. So the bar is I need to love you the way I want to be loved. He goes, no, no, no, no, no.

The bar goes up. I want you to love each other the way I loved you. And if you're a disciple sitting in that room, how did he love them that night? He took the lowliest position and washed their feet. In a few hours they'll realize, here comes Judas. What's all those people with him and the clubs and the sword?

He's the one. And in their mind they'll go, he washed his feet. He gave him the seat of honor. And the reason we're in this room is there was a very small band of struggling people who lived out loving one another and washing each other's feet and being servants to one another and servants to people who hated them in such profound ways that love never fails. And it turned the world upside down. And then what happens is any good thing that starts as a movement, it gets institutionalized, right? And then people want status. And then there's all these roles. And then if you have a big role, then they put your face in stained glass.

And then they get, you know, connected with politics. And, you know, 40% of the people that are followers of Jesus don't go to church at all anymore in America because they've had such a bad church experience or they've been burned and someone let them down or someone gossiped about them or there was immorality or they got used or application. Love passionately serves those in the body of Christ. Love passionately serves those in the body of Christ. Love doesn't come to a service. Love passionately serves. Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 here says, let us consider one another, how to spur or spark, stir up one another to love and good works, not abandoning the habit of assembling as is the manner of Psalm.

In other words, the expectation of the New Testament is that we'll be doing life in community and know one another and spur one another on by our example, by our love, by our servanthood that I would want to walk more with God because I get to hang out with you. I watch how you love your family. I watch what you do at work. I watch the sacrifice of your time and your energy and your money to help other people. That's the picture.

It's iron sharpening iron. So the question I have for me, the question I have for us is are we going to be people who love each other? Are we going to be people that love those who hate us by our attitudes, by our words, by our sacrifice? God, that requires such grace.

We cannot do this, but by your grace, we can. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and the message you just heard, Love Serves, is from the third volume of our Jesus Unfiltered series titled Love. Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. The Bible tells us we love because Jesus first loved us. So in our study in the Gospel of John, Chip will help us better understand this divine love.

Discover from Christ's perfect example five foundational qualities of godly love that can lead to more fulfilling relationships with others and a deeper connection to our Heavenly Father. Now, if you've missed any part of this series, the Chip Ingram app is a great way to catch up anytime. Chip's in studio with me now. Chip, as many of our regular listeners know, our mission is to help Christians really live like Christians. I understand you have a story that really brings that idea to life. I sure do, Dave.

At some point, you wonder, is Living on the Edge really making a difference? I got a note in the mail that I just have to share. Listen to this.

Dear Chip, We don't have enough words to show our gratitude. At one point, my husband and I both thought things were so bad they'd never get better. But thankfully, I heard one of your sermons that spoke to our situation. So I started listening on a regular basis.

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I just remind you, we're all so personally focused and we're human, that over a million people this week will hear what you're hearing. And not only that, but then the broadcast and the teaching and the small groups will go to China, to the Middle East, and places all around the world because people pray and because people partner financially. And so if you're one of those partners, can I just tell you thank you very, very much? If you're one of those partners that kind of gives now and then and would ever consider prayerfully to say, you know, I bet I could give just a little a month, boy, those monthly partners really help us understand what we can project and making budgets. It's a huge help. And if you have never partnered with us financially, would you just today say, Lord, is this something you want me to do?

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Well, here again is Chip with his application for this message. As we wrap up today's program, Jesus models some formidable challenges. I mean, love not only serves those that we lead, love serves those who betray us and hate us.

Think about that. In fact, the apostle Paul would say in Romans 12 that the way that we overcome all this evil that we see in the world is to overcome it with good. In other words, we actually trade in the evil that we get and we give in exchange for that good. I mean, good works, kindness, forgiveness, love. Now, you know, those are all nice words, but that is really tough.

I would ask you if I went on your Facebook page, would I see acts of love toward people that you're really against or in the world that's happening, the persecution and the negative stereotypes that we as followers of Christ are getting right now? How do you respond to that? I mean, what's coming out of your mouth and my mouth?

What do you say in coffee shops? How do you treat people? I don't know where you're at, but we live in a very divided country politically, a very divided country racially, a very divided country religiously. I want you to think about whatever side you happen to be on, who's the other side? Let me just ask you this. Are you treating them the way Jesus treated Judas?

I know that's a tall order. You know what? Here's the lie. The lie is that we give tit for tat. The lie is that we're going to convince people by coercing. They're the bad people, whoever they are. We're the good people. All of that produces more and more anger and strife.

Jesus loved, cared for, forgave Judas. As I see this passage too, I just see an amazing amount of grace. I can't do that. You can't do that. God can do it, but we have to pull down every stronghold and the lies that we believe about others and the stereotypes. This country, the church, and our world won't change until we as believers radically love those that we're convinced hate us.

Wow. Powerful challenge, Chip. And if you're looking for some additional teaching on this topic, let me encourage you to listen to Chip's message, How to Overcome the Evil Aimed at You. It's from Chip's popular series, True Spirituality, and it really gets to the heart of loving people, especially those who despise and reject us. Go to specialoffersatlivingontheedge.org or the Chip Ingram app to listen to that program or the entire series from Romans Chapter 12. Again, go to specialoffersatlivingonttheedge.org or the Chip Ingram app to learn more. Until next time, this is Dave Drouie saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.