The Mark of Love

Well, good morning, church. It is an absolute privilege for me to be with you again this morning and get to share with you, because as I was coming today, just to record and speak with you. I was thinking about this psalm in Psalm 122 where it says, I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. And I hope that you are glad that you are in the house of the Lord this morning, and that the Lord is doing something in your life, and that he's been doing something in you through this series, in this last couple of weeks, where we've actually been talking about that's my church. We've been looking at what kind of church.

Jesus looks down at, and he's actually proud of. It's almost like Jesus is bragging about his church. He goes, that's it. And, you know, it's not strange for us to think that way, because we see that all in scripture. Jesus is it's kind of in his nature. You remember the story of Job, how the full heavenly host is before him, and Jesus goes, did you see Job? I am so proud of that boy. We remember how Jesus was baptized. Jesus opens the heavens. He goes, this is my son, in whom I'm well pleased. And the question that we've been asking is, what would a church look like that Jesus gets to brag about?

And what would camelback community church look like? We have been just looking in this last few weeks about what we felt Jesus is really saying to us as a church hearing Glendale, here in the greater Phoenix area, this church that's been stirring in my heart, where Jesus would really look at us and say these words that we read in Matthew 25, verse 21, where he says, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with many things. And I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness. I think Jesus is happy about the church. Jesus is joyful about what he's doing in this church.

And he's saying, well done, good, and faithful servant. Now, that's not just a Sunday school verse. That's a nice little line that we put in our fridge magnet. That's the moment, every one of us. If we're actually honest, we want to hear. Not from a stranger, not from the crowd, but from the one, from him, from Jesus himself, looking down at us, using what he gave us to be a blessing to other people.

Now, we spend the last three weeks, Pastor James has been talking so beautifully about what this looks like, looking at the kind of church, that Jesus would look at, without embarrassment, without an asterisk, or, like, inverted commas, that, without needing to explain anything to anybody, that Jesus would be looking down and saying, that one. That's mine. Now, today, I really have just the privilege to kind of close out this series and share this last message with you, because here is what I believe with everything inside of me, is I just look back over these last few weeks, that a church can be a church that is in awe of God.

A church can be a church that has faith, that walks in faith, that exhibits their faith, that lives it out. The church can also be a church that is unified, where we don't have any division. We're singing from the same song sheet. We're doing what Jesus is actually asking us to do, yet still miss that one thing. That one thing that I think is the key element to everything that Jesus has been saying.

And Jesus was never vague about that one thing, that one thing that excites him, that grips his heart, that brings him joy, that makes him want to brag about the church, that makes him feel so much pride, that Jesus is saying, because of just that one thing. I know that this church is going to thrive. So let's find out what well done really looks like for our church. Now, I want to start this morning maybe a little bit different, and let me give you 4 taglines. And if I say this tagline, let's see just in your mind, if you can associate the tagline with a specific brand that I'm going to mention. Are you ready? Here's the 1st one. Just do it.

What did you mind jump? I hope it jumped to Nike. We all know the phrase. Nike, just do it. Here's another one. You are in good hands. I wish I could say it with that deep voice. You are in good hands. I know, your mind went immediately to Allstate. If I say, what's in your wallet? These ads are everywhere. What's in your wallet? I hope your mind jumped to capital one and air is an easy one. Last one. Finger licking good. If you know that one, you quickly immediately jump to KFC, right? And see what just what just happened here.

All that happened is, I gave you a handful of words and instantly, without even trying, your brain started producing a picture, maybe even a feeling, or sometimes even a little jingle that goes along with that, that kicked in. See, that's what a tagline was built to do. It's built to take you to a brand. A tagline is something that this brand is known for. Now, according to Forbes magazine, a brand is not just something that's supposed to be memorable, a brand has to connect people. It has that ability to pull them towards that, which they actually represent. And companies will actually spend billions of dollars just trying to get that right.

It's an entire industry that is just built on answering one question. When people think of us, What do we want them to feel? What do we want people to remember us when they get in touch in contact, feel, touch, our brand? And here's what I want us to see this morning. That branding isn't just for products. According to the Bible, according to Romans, if you follow Jesus, You also have a brand. Not a slogan that you get to choose, not a logo that somebody puts on your little label, but a brand new brand, given to you the moment that you actually become his. When you said yes to Jesus, Jesus put this new brand on you, you got a new sponsorship.

One that's supposed to be literally so obvious to the world. So consistently on display that people don't need a tagline explained to them. They just recognize it from being around the brand. Let me read the verse to you. And we'll talk about what we're going to be speaking about. It says, in Romans 13, verse 8, it says, let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt of love. Love one another. For whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. Oh, I love this. The commandments. You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and whatever other command there may be.

are summed up in this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Herein in this verses lies not just a brand, but a brand new brand. It's one that identifies us. See, Jesus is speaking about love. Love. is that brand. is, is, is, is, that thing that the church is supposed to be famous for. That's the thing that Jesus wants to brag about, about how much the church loves people. The kind of people that act in a way that can make our relationships, our homes, our cities, and this world a better place. I want to take you just through this verse this morning.

And here is something that I see how the church, when it moves in love. When it moves, something happens. And then this 1st movement that he's speaking about here, the church that Jesus gets to brag about. He says something about our debt is always outstanding. Now, I want us to slow down to this verse a little bit this morning, just look at this with me for a second. I love how Paul phrases this. He says, let no debt remain outstanding. Now, this is just a quick clarification because a lot of people have spoken about this verse. A lot of people use this verse, and they actually interpret this verse a little bit wrongly.

They have been misquoting this out of context a little while because this is the verse that people say you know, you shouldn't have any debt. God doesn't want us to have any debt. And that denotes a lot of other scriptures, then, for example, in Deuteronomy 15, where he speaks about, you know, freely lend to somebody. And, you know, there's nothing wrong with having a home loan or a car loan or something like that because that's not the context. But Paul is pointing to a different kind of debt in this story. Speaking about a debt that cannot be measured in currency. One that isn't measured in something that you can just pay off.

Every single day of your life, this debt. gets to be paid off. I love what he says. He says church, this is the brand. He says, let us keep the debt of love. Think about how strange that is just for a moment, because every other debt in your life is a debt that you want to get to zero. You want to pay your home loan off. You want to get that to zero, that mortgage. Let that thing disappear, your credit card. Let us get that to zero. You celebrate when you pay something off. But Paul says, this debt. He says, leave it just as it is. Leave this debt outstanding.

He says, because our purpose, the church that Jesus loves, is a church that is forever going to be paying off that debt, not because we are bad at paying it, but because it was never designed to be paid off in the 1st place, for God so loved the world. And I think we could have stopped at that verse because the love of God is just continuing. And it's this, this death is designed to be paid daily to everyone for the rest of our lives. Now, if we read this, I honestly, I think this should really be terrifying a lot of us, if we're honest with ourselves, because most of us are used to relationships with an endpoint, right?

You do your part, and I do my part, and we kind of have this transactional thing, and then the ledger balances, and then everybody goes on this way. But that's not how the brand of love works. This is not how the church that Jesus brags about works. This is not the, how camelback church works. We're not that kind of people. We the people that says, we're gonna hold on to this death of love. We just want to love people in our community. This is the brand that says, you will never wake up one morning and be finished loving the people around you. You will never graduate kind of out of that. You will never earn the right to stop. And he moves on.

He says, love doesn't even need a list because it already covers the entire list. what Paul says, what I mean about this. He says this, the commandments, the list. You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, shall not covet, and when other any other commandment there may be, are all summed up in this one commandment. Love your neighbor. As yourself. Now, he takes the entire moral law of the Old Testament, that part of the Ten Commandments dealing really with how we treat each other, and he says, love, is what carries this.

Love is what's underneath all of this, the entire time, not because love replaces the commandments, but he says, because love is actually the engine that actually drives those commandments, because I love God, I get to live out these commandments. I don't follow these commandments, because it is a commandment or a law. No, I do it because I love the one who gave it. And you don't need to rule, telling you not to steal from someone that you genuinely love, right? We don't steal from those that we genuinely love. You don't need a rule even telling you to slander somebody if you are really into them and you really love them.

I won't slander them. Why? Because I love them. The rules exist because love, left unattended. usually gets replaced with self-interest. And therefore, he says love is actually present in active. The rules stop actually being our restraints. And we start doing what he's saying, the church that he's proud of. That's why Paul can say with so much confidence. He says, love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. It doesn't say, love is a fulfillment. He doesn't say, love is part of the performance. He say, it is the entire fulfillment. full stop. And here is where I want to be honest with you.

This morning, church. This is not a kind of sentimental love, this kind of puppy love. This is not the kind of love that only shows up when somebody really deserves it, when it's convenient or when relationships are easy. Paul isn't describing a feeling that you wait for you to catch. No, no, he's speaking about something that you chose. I chose to pay that debt of love to the people around me that's consistently there, right? Even those people that sometimes make it hard for us to love them. Um, I was actually even thinking about calling this sermon today, I actually wrote it down and penciled it out.

I wanted to say, let's call this message, how to hug a vampire. You know, how do we love those people that are actually sucking the life out of us? And Jesus is saying, whether it's a puppy love, or whether it becomes a little bit harder and you need to choose to love somebody every day. It doesn't matter. We are tied to paying this debt of love. Now watch what Jesus does with the same idea. This was Paul's idea, but Jesus, on the last night, he was together with his disciples. Jesus sat down hours before the cross, and Jesus said these words. This is in John 13, verse 34, he says, a new commandment, I give you. Love one another.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples. If you love one another. See, this new part. How Jesus says, a new commandment I give you. This new part isn't the loving. It's literally the measuring stick that we use. See, this idea that we just read about in Romans 13. Is Paul quoting that commandment that we find actually in Leviticus 19. Which Jesus quoted when somebody asks Jesus, Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? Well, Jesus 1st quoted Deuteronomy 6? Love the Lord your God.

And then he quoted this one that Paul was also just quoting in Romans 13, where he says, love your neighbor as yourself. Now, see, this idea of love your neighbor is yourself. That's not a new commandment. It's actually been in scripture all along. It's been in the Old Testament forever. And nobody in that room, hearing Jesus that night was actually confused about whether they were supposed to love people. They knew they were supposed to love people. But Jesus changed, that made this commandment new was the measuring stick. And in Jesus, in this term, he says, a new commandment I give you today. He says, love one another, and here it is.

As I have loved you. You see how beautiful Jesus turns that around from the Old Testament into the New Testament? In the Old Testament, Jesus says, love your neighbor as you love yourself. You know, sometimes in the morning, I wake up and I look in the mirror of my hair in different directions, and I don't love myself too much, if I have to be honest. You know, sometimes it doesn't look so good. And if I'm gonna love you, in that moment, the way that I feel about myself and loving myself, I'm not gonna love you with such a good standard or good measuring stick.

And so here in the New Testament, Jesus comes and he switches that around, he says, I don't want you to love as you love yourself. He says, I want you to love in the same way that I loved you. It's now measured against how Jesus loved us. And in this context about how Jesus loved a room full of men. A room full of men whose feet it just washed. Knowing in that moment as he's washing them. drying off them. I'm just thinking about how Jesus would kneel down and knowing that that person sitting in front of him. And a few hours from now is going to betray him. Sell him out to the Romans.

How another one is going to stand around a fire and deny him 3 times. And Jesus was looking at them, and what Jesus was doing is he loved them before they ever had an opportunity to prove themselves faithful. He loved them knowing exactly how they'd fail him. And then he told them that this is the new standard. Not as you wanted somebody to love you, but as I have loved you. I love that this is not a manageable standard even in our own strength, right?

Nobody in this room, I think, can manufacture that kind of energy or passion or that kind of love or out of willpower, which is exactly the point of what we're talking about this morning is that this love was never meant to be self generated. It meant that this love 1st needed to be received before this love could be given. As I have loved you. See, before I was formed in my mother's womb, Jesus knew me fully. Before there was ever a word on my mouth, Jesus knew them fully. The scripture is so full and rich of these stories about how God's focus is on us.

If I think of a Psalm and Psalm 8, how it says, God, what is man that you are mindful of him? The idea that God falls his mind with us. That's what God is busy doing. He is constantly just pouring out his love for us. And what I love about this is that this is a label that cannot be faked. This is one of those brands that you can't take to a sweatshop in some other country and make a fake brand from, because Jesus said this plainly, he says, by this, everyone will know that you are my disciples. If you love, one another.

Jesus wasn't saying, not by your doctrine, not by your worship style, not by how many times you've come to church in the last year, not by how beautiful this church and how clean this church is, not by how amazing our worship team is. No, no, he's saying by this, this one thing. A watching world, looking at us, knowing whose they are, and living out what God had given them. There's this old line. It was made famous by this preacher called John Joett. And John Joet said this. He says, there is a love whose measure is that of an umbrella. Your love is only as big as an umbrella, where you only really love small.

You love personal, covering you and maybe a person that could probably stand closest to you. And then he says, but then there is a love that's a little bit bigger than an umbrella. It's more the love of a big tent. Where I love my family. I love extended people, people that are close to me. I can bring them in. He says, but then there is another life. that goes beyond that big tent. It's this love whose comprehension is like the immeasurable sky itself, he calls it. He speaks about love with no edge, no ceiling, nothing to refuse. Nothing to cover. It's just this open, wide love.

And Joe had said, the whole aim of the New Testament is the conversion of the umbrella into the tent and the tent into this glorious canopy of his unfolding heavens. This means, for you and me, this church, camelback, this church, the one that Jesus brags about. This is the church that's going to push the walls of family love until it includes the neighbor. And then we're going to push back again a little bit until it includes the stranger in our city. And then one more time, we're going to keep on pushing these walls a little bit back. until it begins a little uncomfortable, till we're going to start loving our enemy.

That's what the brand looks like when it's real, church. It's an umbrella held not just over us. It's not gonna stay small. The commandment isn't, love the people who are easy to love, and manage everybody else. The commanders, as I have loved you. No edges, no ceilings, so go in love, one another. So what does this look like in the next 7 days? Church, here's what I want, when I need us to understand. If this is going to be the church that Jesus brags about. There's something that I don't want us to leave here today just thinking, okay, I understand that. I get the scriptures. It was a great series. Thank you.

I'm looking forward to the next series. No, I really want us to leave here today. and make this practical. Here's what paying this debt actually looks like every single day. Maybe you need to name that one person who, you have quietly stopped extending love to, not out of hatred. Just out of neglect, and reach out to them this week before Friday. And if I'm honest with you, I'm preaching to myself because I know there's people in my life that I need to reach out to. Not because of a fallout, but because of just neglect, because time goes by, and things get busy, but you think of them, but you never reach out.

And I know that the time is short. We need to start looking out, and I know there are other people sitting here with that same tension today, that there are people in this room that you know that you need to go extend the love of Christ to. Maybe you need to pick one relationship. Maybe it's even in this church where you've been keeping score. Maybe today is the day where you cancel that score in forgiveness, saying, you know, I'm going to go extend that. Gratitude of the debt of love. to somebody. Maybe you need to ask someone close to you this week. Is there a way that I failed you?

Maybe I didn't love you the way you wanted me to, to, to love you. Maybe you need to go sit together and have an answer. Find maybe a person outside of your normal circle as we start pushing these walls away, outside of that normal circle, someone who doesn't look like you, vote like you, doesn't worship like you, doesn't think like you. Maybe just go and have a conversation, extend the love of God to him. I think Joette was right just as Jesus was right. That this feeling, Always follows, obedience. We start becoming obedient to the commandment of love, the death of love.

Then we get to choose the same response as Romans 13 before the response of our flesh. He says, pay the debt. Don't collect it. So where does this kind of leave us this morning. And here's the question. I think it's the question, this whole series has actually been building towards, and it's just, one of those questions that only you can answer as you leave this church this morning. If Jesus, Walk through the doors of this church right now. Not to inspect the sermon, or to see how good the worship was, but simply to watch. How do we treat others around us? Where do you look at us this morning and say, well done.

Well done, good and faithful, serve it. Or would he see a whole room full of people who are in awe of them, which faith start building because they see him. Again, back into unity with God, but we don't love one another. That's why he says in Corinthians, if we don't love, we're like a holo gong. We mean nothing. to anybody around us. Now church, just hear me this morning as we close. See, this assignment. Is the same. When you walk out these doors, go and pay the debt, go and pay your debt, go pay your debt of love, and you already told us exactly what that faithfulness looks like with one another. Love one another as he has loved us.

See, that's a mark that nobody can fake. We can't fake that kind of love. That's the true love that comes from God. Well done, good, and faithful servant. Come and share in your master's happiness. That's my church. Let's be that church. Let me pray for us this morning. Lord, thank you for us as a church this morning that can come together. And Lord, we want to make a commitment. To say, Lord, we commit ourselves to paying the debt of love to other people. This debt that's just outstanding day by day. Lord, we're going to cover your this world, this city.

We're in, we're family, we're gonna push that out, father, to the stranger, to the ones we don't know. We're going to just cover the city with the love of God. Why? Because, Lord, we cannot keep silent because what you have done in us for us to us through us. We are so grateful. I am glad when they say to me, come to the house of the Lord. Lord, why? Because your love is real and tangible. Thank you, Lord, for these people as they leave in Jesus' name. Amen.