To Be Known By Love - Part Three

This is part three of our “To Be Known By Love” blog series. To catch up on the previous two posts, please click here

The last two weeks we’ve been exploring this idea that as Christians we should be known by our love. In Part One we found that it would be near impossible for a person to claim to be a follower of Christ but not have love for others. Jesus commanded us to love our God with all our heart, soul, and mind but also that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. These are the two greatest commandments.  He takes it one step further and says [paraphrasing] that we’ll be known as one of disciples by the love we have for one another.

In Part Two we took this knowledge, that we must love others, and then asked the tough question, “Am I loving?” Before you can act on this knowledge you must, first, be aware that you’re lacking in this area. It’s only then can you do the hard work of changing.

And that is the subject of today’s post: Change.

“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires “ Ephesians 4:24

Love, faith, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self control, and goodness. These should be the personality traits of a Christian. (Galatians 5:22-24) But what if they aren’t? Instead of gentleness we are stern and heavy handed. We are not peaceful but easily excitable and impatient. We neither have love for others or self control over sin. We realize after our self check that our personality traits look more like the desires of the flesh and not fruit of the Spirit.

Scientist say that by your mid 20’s or early 30’s your brain has stopped developing (mostly). This means by the time we’re 28(ish) most of our personality traits are well defined. By this time we’ll know if you’re a happy person or by nature more somber. Are you bubbly or melancholy? Do you have great patience or do things easily frustrate you? Do you struggle with a short temper or are you cool and collected in all situations? Quiet or loud. Meek or brave.

Our personality traits make up who we are and how people see us, but what if one of those traits is unbecoming or in fact is something the Bible says we should avoid? Can we change and how?

To answer the first question quickly, yes a person can absolutely change.

The mark of a believer is someone who is maturing in their faith while dying to themself by crucifying their flesh with “its passions and desires. This is how we change. We do the hard, laborious work of putting to death the things that are of our flesh.

Paul says in Ephesians 4:22-24

“To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 Paul says that in Christ we are a New Creation. Even the act of baptism is a reflection of the death of our old self and then new life in Christ. John the Baptist spoke of this need for change when we proclaimed “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Repentance is the physical act of turning away from sin (desires of the flesh) and towards Christ (new life/fruits of the spirit) .

This means we don’t get a pass for a personality trait. Yes, God made us, each and every part, but we don’t then get to say, “Well since God made me and I’m impatient, then that means he wants me to be impatient”. This would be embracing the flesh instead of crucifying it (killing it). He is the potter, we are the clay, and we don’t get to ask the potter why did you make us this way? As Paul so eloquently states, “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?”

We also don’t get a pass due to our season of life. This is a tough one because we want to believe that we are the way we are due to some external influence that was outside of our control.

1. I lost my faith after a family member died.

2. I’m going through fits of anger and rage (towards family and friends) because my spouse cheated on me.

3. I’m sick, so I’ve lost the ability to be kind to others.

4. I just want to have a good time or God wants me to be happy (no self control).

You’d be hard pressed to find examples in the Bible where these reactions to life’s circumstances (either fair or unfair) are acceptable and pleasing to God. In fact, we are told to stand firm in persecution and sickness. To turn the other cheek. That we should not be anxious about anything and we should not lose heart. Jesus tells us to love our enemies. To have faith and be steadfast when all around us seems lost.

This doesn’t mean we can’t be sad or angry when horrible, unspeakable things happen in our lives. Paul says “be angry and do not sin”. So it is not the anger that is sinful but how you react in the moment. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”  and “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The idea here is to acknowledge our weaknesses and not blame a personality trait as the reason for immaturity or sin. As followers of Jesus we should desire to be imitators of Christ. If we aren’t joyful, we should fall on our knees in repentance and ask the Holy Spirit to change us. If we aren’t gentle, Lord soften our hearts and gives us compassion for others. If we lack self control or faith, Spirit test us. If we are angry, break us. Ruin us, if need be.

Lord, if we are not loving, bring us to the place where all we have left is your love for us. The only love the surpasses all knowledge. The greatest of all love. The love that was willing to meet us at the cross and strong enough to defeat death.

Let us be known by this love.  

Get caught up on the Red Hills Church message series entitled, “The Gift of Love” via our podcast or website

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Here As In Heaven

Elevation Worship

To Be Known By Love - Part Two

This is the second part of the “To Be Known By Love” series. If you’d like catch up, you can read Part One here.

Love. As we learned last week, the core value and characteristic of any person who calls themselves a disciple of Jesus is love. For without love, we would resemble a clanging cymbal and our words, even if they are laced with the truth of the gospel, would fall on deaf ears. After all,  thanks in large part to social media, if society is good at one thing it is sniffing out a hypocrite.

So we must be guarded, as Christians, in how we use our words and how those words are reflected in our actions. We can’t preach Christ on Sunday and live like heathens the rest of the week. We can’t say we love Jesus in secret but not love others in public. We can’t show love in public but not love Jesus in secret. In essence, we must practice what we preach.

“Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.”  - Paul

But what happens now? We’ve set the standard that all christians have a duty to love our neighbors and to love God. This is the commandment, not an option, that Jesus gave us. So now that we have this knowledge, what do we do with it? What’s next?

There’s a crucial step between obtaining knowledge (knowing you need to do something) and action (doing the thing). And that step is becoming self aware.

For most people, job performance evaluations are no fun. At a previous job as a sales person, I was subjected to reviews as part of my job performance. Once a quarter I’d sit down with my managers and they would look at how many leads I received, compare that to how many leads led to contacts, and then how many of those contacts eventually turned into sales. And if I struggled at any one point, my managers would require an action plan on how I’d improve in that area over the next quarter. It was an exhaustive and, to be quite honest, infuriating process.

It’s not easy to look at yourself and ask the tough question, “Where am I struggling? Where can I improve?” But Paul, in 2 Corinthians 13:5(a), is telling us to do exactly that. He’s urging us to examine our hearts to see if sin is lurking. And by doing this “self check” you’ll know if you are in the faith and if you passed the test (5b).

Paul gives a similar command to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12-16, "Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.  Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers."

Paul is telling Timothy that to lead his church (effectively evangelize) he must not only be an example in his speech and conduct, but he must also keep an eye on himself. That he must be self aware of anything (sin) that may disrupt his ability to live as an example. Jesus’ taught this message as well.

 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25

How can you deny something that you do not know is there?  Take, as an example, Jesus’ analogy of pointing out the speck in your neighbor’s eye when you have a plank in your own. Before you can judge a person’s life (in love) you must first be able to see the giant 2 x 6 (sin) in your own life. There, again, is that crucial step of self awareness that must come before action.

If we want to be known for our love, we must evaluate our hearts to see if love dwells there. To do this, you may have to seek out people you trust (a spouse, best friend, Pastor, and of course the Holy Spirit) and ask, “Am I a loving person?” Their answer may surprise you, because how you see yourself may be completely different than how others see you. You may think you’re kind, but in reality people fear bringing any issue to you because of your judgemental spirit. You may see yourself as easy going or fun loving, when people around you would say you’re grumpy and hard to deal with. [this is something I constantly fight against]

And the truth hurts. This will be an exhaustive and, to be quite honest, infuriating process. There will be hard moments where you’ll reject their feedback because, “That simply can’t be true.” There will be even more difficult moments when you’ll receive conflicting feedback. Here you’ll need to seek the Holy Spirit and wise council to determine which is true.

Finally, this will take time. Change doesn’t happen over night and we should constantly be self evaluating our actions and heart motives to see if they line up with the characteristic traits of a Christian as determined by the Word of God. We should never stop growing in our faith or accept our sinful characteristic traits as just “who we are”. We should press on, move forward, and keep our hearts open for opportunities to mature.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2

Click here to listen to our latest sermon series “The Gift of Love”

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So WIll I

HIllsong United - Performed by Tori Kelly

To Be Known By Love - Part One

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."  -John 13:34-35

 This past Sunday Pastor Marshall kicked off a new message series called “The Gift of Love.” This series is focusing on the love between husband and wife, and in week one he detailed how love works in connection with the Christian life.

He hit on two crucial points:

1. Love requires words AND action
2. That our actions (deeds) ARE acts of love.

— If you’d like to get caught up on the message series, you can check out the podcast here —

These two points led me to some thoughts on what it would mean if you are a Christian who does not operate out of love. We all get that Christians should be loving, but what if a person calls themselves a Christian but does not have love?  And if they don’t, how can they obtain it? And what does love look like in a practical way?

Over the next several weeks I’ll be exploring this topic in more detail, but today I wanted to start with one important question: Can you be a disciple of Jesus and not love others?

“Do or Do Not. There Is No Try”- Yoda

If I were to create a step by step process for the Christian life, it would look something like this.

Step One: Believe in Jesus

Step Two: Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

Step Three: Love others

The word love is mentioned 235 times in the New Testament alone. Only Spirit, Faith, Lord, Jesus, and God are used more often. The Gospel of John accounts for 39 of the 235 with 1st John coming in at close 2nd with 26, followed by Romans (16), and 1 Corinthians and Ephesians (15).

Now this word count exercise is a simplistic view of the word love. The greeks have many uses of the word love, but the two most heavily used in the Bible are agape (a selfless, unemotional or nonsexual type of love) and phileo (emotional love towards a friend). If you’d like to read further on this topic, here are two great discussion on the two uses of the word Agape and Phileo in the Bible. One and Two

But regardless of its use, given how often the word love is used in the Bible, we can easily surmise that one of the building blocks of Christianity is the very idea of love. We are told to love our enemies and do good to those who hate you. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves and we should love God with all out heart, soul, and mind. We show that we love God by carrying out his commands. And if we don’t love, we do not know God.  That the two greatest commandments are to love your God and others. Love is the key to the parent child/relationship and that we should love others because Christ first loved us. We should love our wives just as Christ loved the church. We know it was love that brought Jesus to earth and is was love that sent him to the cross. In fact, there may be no greater theme in all of the Bible than love.

But if this is true, that love is the cornerstone of our faith [remember Jesus, the cornerstone, is the embodiment of God’s love] then the answer to the question above is: No, it would seem impossible for a person to call themselves a Christian without love.

But that seems a bit harsh. Is it really fair to judge a person’s faith based on their inability to love others? Well, James basically says so.  But I’m certainly not making the claim that I know a person’s salvation or that it’s impossible to refuse to love and still be a Christian. I’m just pointing out that scripture and Jesus are clear, you’ll be known as one of his disciples by your love for others.

To take it one step further, loving others means loving those who make it difficult to love. Jesus says in Luke 6:31-33 "And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same."

Jesus is saying we don’t get a pass on this “love others” commandment just because we loved our kids, our wives, or our parents. No, we must love how he loved. And how does Jesus love? Unconditionally. Jesus’ love is unconditional.

And let’s not passover that Jesus is calling this a commandment and not an option. Certainly, there are things in the Bible that can be left up to interpretation or explained as just a sign of the times, e.g., women not speaking in church, have tongues ceased, was the earth created in 6 literal days, etc. There is no interpreting love because love itself is transcendent. So when Jesus says we should love just as he loved us, then we must love. After-all, in the wise words of Yoda, there is no try, only do.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." - 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

To love is to be Christ-like. To love is to be Christian. But to be without love is to be nothing.

So we must love.

-Lyell Walker

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Reckless Love

Cory Asbury

Prayer and Fasting 2018

Hi Red Hills Church! On Sunday I told everyone that we would be observing a church-wide fast during February. I want to give everyone a little more context and direction so we can be prepared to start on Thursday, February 1. 

In December, I was praying for God to show me what messages He wanted me to teach in 2018. I was also praying for ways our church vision could bear fruit this year. During this prayer time, I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me about calling a fast, so I am asking us to follow God’s leading. 

Red Hills Church will join together in a time of prayer and fasting from February 1-28. I am asking everyone to pick at least one, food-related item, to surrender in February. It should be something that you enjoy eating, so when you think of consuming it, you instead turn to God in prayer. That is the hidden power of prayer and fasting. When you take something that you love and say “God, I want you more than this thing” your spirit grows. That is what I want for our church, spiritual growth.

During our fast, I would like all of us to focus on three key prayer points. That way, when we deny our flesh and turn to God in prayer, we are all praying the same thing. The key points are to wake up, stay alert, and join in. 

When we pray “wake up” we are asking God to open our eyes to areas of laziness, ignorance, or blindness in our life. Examples of this can be issues of sin and spiritual immaturity or a need for fresh revelation from God’s word and a renewed passion for prayer. The Bible often uses the imagery of someone sleeping to help us understand how we can be oblivious to what God is doing, and we need to wake up.

When we pray “stay alert” we are asking God to keep our hearts ready for what He is doing, and what Satan is doing. God has plans to build His kingdom and the enemy has plans to tear that down. 1 Peter 5:8 reminds us that we should always be sober-minded and alert so that we can help build God’s kingdom and resist the enemy. This prayer point is about learning to hear God clearly and pushing back the kingdom of darkness.

When we pray “join in” we are asking God to show us open doors where we can participate in building His kingdom. God is doing 10,000 different things in the life of every believer, and we are usually aware of two of them. This prayer point is about asking God to show us where and how we can join Him in reconciling people back to Jesus.

In addition to our month of prayer and fasting, we are going to increase our Sunday morning prayer time. Starting February 4, we will have prayer every Sunday from 8am-10am at the Young Actor’s Theatre. Everyone is invited to join us and the prayer time will be drop-in, so feel free to come the whole time or just for a few minutes. 

I am excited to see what the Holy Spirit does in our church during February, and thank you for joining us in this season of spiritual growth.

-- Pastor Marshall Ochs

Let Them Hear

Several times throughout the Gospels we see Jesus saying,  “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” We find this in Matthew 11:15, Mark 4:9 (parallel verse in Luke 8:8), again in Mark 4:23, and Luke 14:35. This phrase “ears to hear” is also used many times in the Old Testament, as well. (Deut 29:4; Jeremiah 25:4; Ezekiel 3:10, 12:2, 40:4, 44:5)

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

At first, this seems like a simple statement about listening. Jesus is talking, so it would make sense for those around him to listen. I say something similar to my kids all the time.

Me: What are those things on the side of your head?

One of my kids: Ears

Me: And what do you do with ears?

One of my kids: Listen

Me: Exactly

And Jesus is basically saying the same thing here, “I gave you ears to hear, so listen to my words”. But the English translation is lacking in both detail and context. It’s not wrong, it’s just incomplete, in my opinion.

What Does It Mean to Hear?

 I hate to get all “Merriam-Webster Dictionary” on you, but words mean something. We need to remember that the Bible was written in two different languages: Hebrew (OT) and Greek (NT).

So while the English translation of the New Testament we read today was written in Greek, it was spoken in Hebrew. And words, like hear, can mean something different in all three languages. Remember, Jesus was speaking in Aramaic (in the family of Hebrew) So, understanding the meaning of a word we read English, that was spoken in Aramaic but written down in Greek is critical to discerning the larger context and meaning of Jesus’ words.

Lost yet? Bear with me.

“He Who Has Ears to Hear, Let Him Hear.”

The writers of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all used the greek word Akouo for hear (see verse above). This word in Greek simply means “to hear, to be endowed with the ability to hear, or to hear something”. Simple, right? Jesus says hear, so the Greek equivalent of Akouo is the perfect fit. Ehhh, not so much.

Obviously, Jesus didn’t use the English or Greek word “hear” in 1st century Israel. Again, he was Jewish and, speaking Aramaic, he would have used the word Shama. Now, the Shama is also the name of a Jewish prayer found in Deuteronomy 6. This first part of this prayer starts like this:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

Shama, in Hebrew and Aramaic, means to hear, listen to, obey. Did you catch that? Shama, the word Jesus would have most certainly used, means to hear, listen, AND obey. Unlike the Greek and English word for hear, in Hebrew the three “meanings” are intrinsically connected. Obedience is intertwined with hearing.

Reading that verse again…

“Hear and obey [Shama], O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

Naturally, this is what I meant to say to my kids. “Use your ears to hear, listen, AND obey.” But that is not the definition of the word “hear” in English. All that word means to us is to be “informed of or to be made aware”. No expectation of obedience in our modern use of the word “hear” (though it’s likely implied).

But Shama provides a whole new meaning. The expectation now is clearly to hear and obey at the same time. Now Jesus’ words make more sense but they also comes with more weight. 

Let’s now use the meaning of Shama in Mark 4:21-25.

And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.

 If anyone has ears to hear and obey [Shama], let him hear and obey [Shama]”

And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear and obey [Shama]: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

Again in Matthew 11:11-15. Jesus speaking to the crowds about John the Baptist and his message to repent for the kingdom of heaven is near:

This is he of whom it is written, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John,  and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.

He who has ears to hear and obey [Shama], let him hear and obey [Shama]”

Luke 8, after Jesus explains the parable of the sower:

And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out,

“He who has ears to hear and obey [Shama], let him hear and obey [Shama]”

And finally, Luke 14:34-35. Jesus has used three different parables and now uses salt as a way to explain how it [salt] is worthless if it “loses its taste”.

“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away.

He who has ears to hear and obey [Shama], let him hear and obey [Shama]”.

Parables were not just a way for Jesus to explain the more difficult concepts of the Kingdom of God to simple minded people. He used them to drive home a crucial point. It’s not just good enough to hear the word, but we must also obey it. .

I believe this meaning places a greater weight on James 1:19-25.

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Hearing is passive (meaning we can’t help but do it) but obedience is active (It takes effort on our part). And Jesus clearly lays down the expectation that those who hear his words will also obey them, and if they don’t, they are like salt that loses its taste.

But we are not salt that loses its taste. We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. A city on a hill that cannot be hidden. So let us hear the word, do the word, and let our light “shine before others, so that they may see our good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Amen

[Here's a quick link to a video further explaining the Shama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KQLOuIKaRA]

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Nobody Like You

Red Rocks Worship