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Loving the brethren 3
E. Loving each other is repetitious. It’s continual and it’s hard.
1. Some people are making efforts:
a. One person shared how they had been in a small group context on a number of occasions, and there was a person who was always offensive. Someone who said what they thought, without thinking it through first. They wanted to embarrass this person like he had embarrassed so many others. Instead, they asked me what they could do to help build that person up, so they wouldn’t have to tear others down.
III. Feature #3: DYING – 1 John 3:15-16
{15} Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. {16} We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
A. Laying down our life means to change the structure of our life:
1. Our values
2. Our Priorities
3. Our Practices
B. Loving the brethren means laying down our lives:
1. Clock time
2. Calendar time
3. Eternal time
C. Loving the brethren means being willing to work with:
1. The distressed
2. The downcast
3. The dysfunctional
D. P.I.E.R. Groups is one way to accomplish this, but if you’re not in a P.I.E.R. Group, you’re missing a natural opportunity to love each other.
We’ll never be able to love the lost until we learn to love each other. And if we don’t love each other, then we don’t love God.
CONCLUSION
Going back to our drawing of what does love look like? I’ll tell you what love looks like: a computer tech, a library worker, a college student, a pastor, a fireman, a school teacher, a retiree, a librarian, a grocery clerk, a mom, an accountant, a paramedic, an administrator, a secretary, an administrative assistant, an money manager, a bank employee, a businessman or woman, a warehouse worker, a nurse, a maintenance man, a preschool worker, a chaplain, a police officer, a musician, a scientist and many more. It looks like that person you see in the mirror every morning. It looks like the person sitting next to you. It looks like anyone who will display righteousness, and share the love of God by laying down their life for their brother or sister.
Would your kids, spouse, friends, coworkers, acquaintances draw of picture of you for their picture of love? I hope so.
Rick Macdonald – Pastor at Christian Family Center, Azusa CA
#Praise the Lord
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