· Who are you closes to in your family?
o Why are you close to that person?
§ Is it hard to show love backs towards that person?
· It’s the same with us Christians and God
o 1 John 4:19
§ We love each other because he loved us first.
· How are you doing with showing love to others that are living in sin or aren’t Christians?
· How do you think we are doing with showing love towards homosexuals, foul mouth kids, liars, and non-believers?
· We love them, but we don’t have to agree with what they do
o Luke 5:27-32
§ After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
§ 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
§ 31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
· Us Christians are called to be like Christ, so in this passage Christ showed loved to those still enslaved to sin, but he went to show that they can be set free, to let them know that this isn’t what they were created for.
· John 8:34
o Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin
§ Whoever sins is controlled by it.
· We need to start seeing people like Jesus did
o When Jesus was hanging on a cross he said “Father forgive them for they not know what they do”
§ Jesus wasn’t looking at them and hating them, He was looking at what they are doing. He was looking at the sin in their life and what was controlling them.
· That is the reason He gave his life. To set them and us free.
o God never meant for us to be slaves to sin or anything, God wants us to be free.
· The reason why Christians talk about sin so much is because sin enslaves us.
o God has a better life for us
· We don’t need to judge others for sinning
o We all have sinned a lot, why are you gonna judge someone for sinning when you have sinned too?
§ Matthew 7:1-5
· “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. 2 For you will be treated as you treat others.[a] The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.[b]
· 3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye[c] when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend,[d] ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
o We don’t need to judge somebody for being a homosexual or being a liar because they have hang ups.
§ If we look at ourselves and see what God has saved us from that we have no right to judge anyone for what they have done wrong.
· We are commanded
o To love, to love at all cost
§ Jesus has given us a command
· Luke 10:27
o He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.
§ Not with a little of your heart or a little bit of your soul, but with ALL of your heart and ALL of your soul.
· See people the way Jesus did
· Matthew 9:36
i. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
a. Want to help others like Jesus did, have sympathy for others.
· Reach out the way people (Luke 5:27-32)
· Love people the way Jesus did
· (John 8:1-7)
i. Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
ii. 4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The Law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
iii. 6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”
· To love them, to want something better for them. Not show how awesome I am or anything, but to show how AWESOME He is and show them that they can be free.
· My question for you guys is
· Are you a slave right now? Is there sin in your life right now that you haven’t asked God to forgive you of?
i. There is great news for you
a. Jesus told a great parable: Matthew 18:12-14
a. “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? (13) And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! (14) In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.
i. I want you to know that He is leaving everybody else and coming after you.
· The devil likes to tell you lies that God hates us for what we have done.
· Jesus tells us the exact opposite, Jesus says he is coming after you.
i. His arms are wide open to you, he wants you. He wants to find you he wants to rescue you; He wants to set you free. He wants you no longer a slave.
a. If you think God is pointing his finger at you for what you have done. That’s a lie.
a. God is looking at you with his arms wide open.
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