The Final Command

Well, stay strong and carry on because Jesus loves you. Do you believe that this morning? Amen. Hello and good morning. Good morning balcony. My name is Mark, one of the fastest here. I want to welcome all of you here in person joining us on our live stream. We are so glad and grateful that you are with us today.

And well, if you were here last night, it was a torrent of rain. In fact, how many of you kind of like to get to church a little bit early? You don't want to rush yet? The minority of you apparently. People that got here about five, ten minutes early last night were punished for their timeliness. I don't know if any more water could have fallen out of the sky. They're just soaked. And then the people that got here like five, ten minutes later, they're just like, "What's the big deal? They're dry as a bone." So, it was crazy. But again, glad you're with us. And if you're joining us from Tahoe, somewhere in the Sierras, we're feeling for you. That's what I say. We will see you this summer.

Anyway. Hey, I want to piggyback on what Adrian said in announcements about our vision to build what we call the Hope Center. And that name is not just hype. There are vital hope-infusing ministries going on in that building. Those old modulars, I should say, pretty much seven days a week. Like we had our adult Sunday school class this morning, other classes during the week, recovery groups, support groups for mental illness. We have our food pantry and more.

And at the end of this message, I am going to share with you a powerful story of hope that took place in one of those buildings not too long ago. And we are praying that God would enable us to build a permanent home for those ministries and more to come. And if you call Twin Lakes Church home, we're inviting you to partner together as a congregation and to pray about whatever the Lord would enable you and direct you to give over a four-year pledge period. It's a four-year period.

So, for instance, if you were led to give $1,000, that would be $250 a year for those four years, right? And between this time and Palm Sunday, we hope to receive all of the pledge commitments. And then on the week after Easter, we are going to reveal the result, and that will inform how we go forward from there. As Adrian said, there's a booklet you can get in the middle of the lobby. You can go to tlc.org/hope. Or next weekend, you can join us for information meetings after each and every service next weekend.

We want everyone to be fully informed as we, again, set our sights on what the Lord may enable us to do here in the months to come. But we want to lay this before the Lord, and so I'm going to ask with this in mind and to prepare our hearts for today's message. Let's take a moment to pray. Would you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, we place this Hope Center project before you, and we ask that You would guide us and that You would provide for us according to Your will. And Lord, I also pray that You would speak to us today through Your Word and Spirit, and may Your love fill our hearts and overflow into our relationships. And Lord, we pray this in the name of Jesus and all God's people said, Amen, Amen.

Check this out. In 1967, June of '67, the first live multinational multi-satellite TV special called "Our World" was broadcast to 14 countries around the world. It was really a milestone in television history, and the estimated size of the audience, some estimates were as high as 700 million people. I mean, that's a lot of people.

And not only that, but this graphic that they used for the show, "Our World," it actually inspired what would become the iconic Burning Man Festival. You saw it many years later. Okay, I made that part up, but may as well have. But to put the size of the audience into perspective, you may know we had a Super Bowl not too long ago, the outcome of which I'd rather not delve into right now. But this game that shall not be named was viewed by 123 million people. So the "Our World" festival had more than five times the audience of the recent Super Bowl. I mean, it was amazing.

Pardon to because one of the headlining acts was the Beatles. And the Beatles chose that moment to debut a brand new song. Let's see if you can guess what it is. Here's the handwritten. This was written by John Lennon in his own handwriting, and he used this as kind of a cheat sheet while he was performing the song for this special. And the song starts out like this. There's nothing you can say that can't be... there's nothing you can do that can't be done, nothing you can sing that can't be sung, nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game. It's easy because all you need is love, right? Let me hear you say it. All you need is love. All you need is love, love. Love is all you ever need.

Very good. You guys were the best of all of the services by far, so good on you. But it was an instant hit, and it deeply resonated. At the time, there was war going on in Vietnam. There were cultural, social, political divisions, specifically in America, and love as defined by Jesus is our focus today. We're continuing in John's Gospel, chapter 15. We're going to be looking at verses 12 through 17.

And if you're with us, if you've been with us these last couple weeks, these words are part of a longer dialogue between Jesus and His disciples on the last night before He would be arrested, tried, and crucified. And so they carry this additional freight. And really hanging over, in particular, this passage is this question, are the disciples going to live out what Jesus has been teaching them for three years? I mean, what will be the glue that makes it all stick?

And earlier in the evening, in John 13:34, Jesus says this to them, He says, "A new command 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 what? Love one another." In other words, He's saying, "You can think like me, you can talk like me, but if you don't love like me, you're not going to look like me. You will not resemble me as my disciples." And so in today's passage, Jesus is going to circle back to the centrality of love.

Now, before we dive into this, I want to make sure that we understand that what Jesus calls us to do, actually commands us to do, we actually cannot do in our own strength. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to enliven us and to give us the power to actually love in the way that Jesus is calling, is commanding us to do. So I want to make that very clear, because this is not just a, you know, kind of double down and try harder. This is within the context of the coming of the Holy Spirit who will ignite the potential and the power of the disciples to carry out the Lord's will and His mission. And so again, we want to keep that in mind.

In fact, we're going to be focusing on that next weekend. But now, John 15:12–17, please follow along as I read. "My command is this, love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit fruit that will last. And so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you. This is my command, love each other."

Again, very clear what his emphasis is. Love, love, love. And you know what? Without this love, you cannot actually be the person that you were created to be. You can't because Scripture teaches that we were created to bear God's image, to reflect His love, His goodness into the world. But to fall short of this, to miss the mark, is what the Bible calls sin. All sin comes down to a failure to love and we're all guilty. Sin is a failure to love in one way or another because sin is ultimately about putting yourself first. Love on the other hand serves. Love sacrifices. Love seeks God's best for others.

In fact, take a look at your notes. I want to show you what I think is a key insight into what Jesus is saying in these verses. First what it says in verse 13, circle these two words, lay down, where He says that love involves Him laying down Himself for His friends. This is one word in the original language that this was written in. And it can mean to put, to set, to lay, or to place. And then jump down to verse 16 where it says, "You didn't choose me, but I chose you and appointed you." Circle the word appointed. And then I'll connect these two parts of these verses with a line because again, in the original language, it's the same word, just one word. Has a lot of different connotations.

So in 13 where it's to lay down, in 16 it is to lift up, to put in place to appoint, which really frames what Jesus is communicating throughout this passage. And so the big idea goes like this. Jesus laid down His life in order to lift our lives up. He's going to say this in a number of ways. In fact, this is the essence of the good news, right? That He laid down His life in order to lift us out of sin and death and give us all the many blessings that He has in store for us.

Here it is again in verse 13, when He says, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life," that's what He does for us, "for His friends." We are friends of God as a result of what He has done for us. And then Jesus basically turns to His disciples and us by extension and says, "Now as I have loved you, I call you, I command you to love one another." It's a simple concept, but let's face it, love can mean so many different things in our culture.

I want to unpack this a little bit so that we can really kind of tease out what Jesus is saying here. And then we are going to remember and celebrate this as we gather in communion together. But first of all, let's look at these verses and in particular three ways that I can love and lift up others. And in order to get to that, I want to suggest you three questions that you can ask yourself, and I've been asking myself this week.

The first question goes like this, ask yourself, "Who can I serve?" Who can I serve? Because that's what love does, love serves. And so who needs your help with something? Who needs you to serve them in some way? You know, the vast majority of us are not going to be asked to lay down our lives for someone in a single moment, right? I mean, that could happen, but for most of it, we will lay our lives down for others in day-to-day ordinary moments in acts of service as we put their needs ahead of our own.

You know, picking up a prescription for a neighbor, providing a meal for someone who is sick, or providing a meal for your own family. For some of you, it's going to look like you sitting in traffic crawling your way down Highway 1 because it's part of supporting your family as part of your daily work. Right now, I think of heroes, and I don't use that as an exaggeration, heroes that are serving in our nursery, in our children's ministry, on behalf of others, people who may or may not even have kids of their own, and yet they are there serving.

And by the way, if you have any interest in being that kind of hero, please let us know. But there's no shortage of ways to express acts of love, and admittedly, most of them go unnoticed, you know, uncelebrated, and yet God sees each and every one of them because they are a fulfillment of this command. They matter as we love one another.

Just a couple of years ago, a woman in this church who I've known for a long time, she calls me up and she asks if I can come to her house because she had an advanced stage of cancer, and she was not expected to live very long. And so sitting around her kitchen table, she showed me how she had gotten all her affairs in order. She had very specific instructions for me. She wanted me to conduct her memorial service, and she was clear about, "I want this person to speak. I don't want this person to speak." You know, it was all laid out, which was great.

But this is what struck me. The thing that was most on her heart, her biggest burden, wasn't her health, nor was it even the fact that she was expected to pass in the near future. The thing that bothered her most is that as a result, she would no longer be able to serve as a court-appointed special advocate, the CASA program. That was her deepest burden. And I just sat there at the table just being struck by how enduring that passion was to serve those kids even in the face of her own mortality.

Now, I'm very happy to report to you that she outlived her prognosis by a long shot. In fact, she's still with us. And she's still devoted to being an advocate for kids that are in the court program. And so, you know, I think of stuff like that, and I just go, "Wow, how can I serve? How can you serve?" Many of you already are, but maybe think of a particular person who has a need that you might meet this week out of love for them. You might even want to write it down and pray that God would give you an opportunity to meet that need because love serves.

The second question to ask ourselves is this, "Who can I include?" Jesus gives us such a warm welcome, includes us in His Father's business. He says, watch this, verse 15, "I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything I learned from my father I have made known to you." Now, think about it, being called a servant of God, that's a high honor. A servant of the God of the universe, really? But then He says, "No, no." "I actually want to call you friends. I want to include you in what God is doing on this earth."

And you may wonder sometimes like, "Why would God ever want me to do anything?" Sometimes we even doubt, "How could God even love me?" Now, we may tell ourselves, "Well, I guess God loves me because it's part of His job description, right? Being God, He's got to love me, but I can't imagine He actually likes me. You know, love, okay, the light, I made a lot of messes.

Reminds me of when I was a kid, my friends and I, we would buy these little packages that had baseball cards and then we'd buy them a little store called Piggy Market, which was over in Aptos. And all these packages, they had the same thing in them. You opened it up and there would be a little stick of gum in there that was a good 40, 50 years old. And then there would be five baseball cards. And usually the way it went down is you might like see one player that you were excited about, "Oh, okay, I think I saw that guy or heard about him." The other four, forget it. You never heard of them in your life. Like, "Oh, Joe Schmo plays for the A's." Never knew that.

And yet we would keep buying them because there was a thought, "One of these days I'm going to open up that packet and there's going to be Willie Mays looking back at me." You know, Willie McCun ... Mickey Manil would be like, "Wow!" And if you think about it, it's kind of like gambling for kids. Can we just keep, you know, shelling out the money with the whole, one of these days, "I'm going to hit it big, man!" But my point is this. I think far too often we can find ourselves feeling like, you know, the less desirable baseball players in the card collection. You know what I'm saying? Like God, you know, he wants Billy Graham's card. You know, he wants Mother Teresa's card. And he wants René's card. So I guess, you know, he had to just, he just had to buy the old packet and include some of us just so he could get the ones he wanted.

And Jesus says, "No, no, nothing could be further from the truth. This is what Jesus said. You didn't choose me. I chose you. I chose you. I chose you. I chose you. I chose you. You are my friends. And I chose you not to just, you know, put you on the bench, have you sit in the dugout. No, no, no, no, no. I chose you to have a special role in what I'm doing in this world to live as a member of my kingdom in anticipation of its fulfillment when heaven and earth come together. You're a partner in that because you've been chosen. You're his friend.

And so now, in acknowledgement of that kind of wide welcome, how can I include others? How can I say, "Hey, God has been so good to me. I would love for you to share in that." Maybe it's inviting them to be part of your small group or inviting them to sit with you in a service. I know several of you just during the holidays, you were so hospitable. You invited people to sit around your holiday table and include them in your holidays.

Growing up, my mom was particularly hospitable when it came to our friends. She just wanted our friends to feel so comfortable, so welcome in our home. And over the course of time, some of them were literally grafted into our family. That's not an overstatement. So much so that it's probably now 30 plus years ago, our church was putting together what we call a pictorial directory. It was a photo directory of everyone in the church. Some of you may remember this.

And when it came time for our family picture to be taken, they suggested you wear a tie and kind of look nice and stuff. Well, we, you know, abided by all that. And yet my mom also invited some of our friends to be in the photo with us. In fact, here's a little blast from the past. Here's that photo right here, still in that old directory. And you got me, t-shirt, and tie. Okay, showed up. Dress code. Check. My brother Paul here, I'm not quite sure. I think he's about to fall asleep. That was Paul's gift, a flash. He just, quick reflexes there. Dr. Paul Spurlock, I might add, a fellow pastor. I just got his doctorate, so congratulations, Paul.

My sister, Jennifer, my other sister Barbara, she was married by then, so she's also in the directory with her husband, my mom, my dad, and four of our friends, you know. This was not met with approval by the pastor that was organizing this whole thing. Kind of, I think it kind of felt like we were trying to undermine this whole endeavor. There may have been a little of truth to that, but I can tell you more than anything else. My mom was making a statement to these men, these young men, our friends, saying, "I love you like I love my sons." And so she wanted to include them in this moment.

So this week, I invite you to just think, pray, maybe write down a name. Who can I include? You know, who can I include? And then final question is this, who can I lift up? Jesus said, "I chose you and appointed you." In other words, I lifted you up so that you might go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, and so that whatever you ask in my name, my Father will give you. Now we ran across this phrase last week, but you know, most of us would probably assume that when Jesus says, "Whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you," probably his, you know, chief concern is not our next car or a bigger house.

I mean, I wouldn't want to rule that out because who am I to say how God answers prayer? But what I'm really confident of is imagine saying, "Lord, would you help me to lift up this person in my life, this person that I really want to be able to impact with your love? So show me how to do that." And God goes, "Yeah, hmm, I don't know about that. That's kind of a big ask, right? No way. God delights in those verses. God is happy to answer, "Yes, and I will give you the power to do that."

And so, "Do you know anyone who needs encouragement, perhaps, needs to be lifted up because they're down, they're defeated, they're depressed, maybe they're in a season of grief? Pray for them, lift them up in prayer and then lift them up by, perhaps, sending them a note, a text, inviting them to coffee. Let them know that you see them, that you love them, and that you are there for them because love lifts people up in active, tangible ways.

Maybe you know someone who is... I don't know. Sometimes we become so accustomed to this that the goodness that we receive as friends, as children of God, we forget that not everybody enjoys that, not everybody knows that, not everybody assumes that. And so, maybe this week, God would have you thinking, praying, asking that He would give you insight into how to share the goodness of God that you enjoy with them, right? How to share Jesus with them in a way that's not off-putting, but rather it would be a powerful moment where they are introduced to the one who wants to lift them up and call them friend.

You know what I'm saying? Well, I can guarantee you this. If you pray towards that end, if you ask God to open up your eyes to someone you might lift up, you're not going to have to lift... You're not going to have to look very long because people like that abound. They're all around us because everybody's got a story. Everybody has burdens and everyone needs love.

I saw a powerful reminder of this just this week. You know, one of the small groups that meets in the modulars is a group called Beloved. Beloved is a women's ministry. And at the heart of their purpose is this statement right here. It says, "You are God's beloved." God's beloved daughter. And He wants you to live free from the binding shame of behavior patterns, addiction, and codependency. That's what they're about.

And while anonymity in these gatherings is the norm, one woman just recently, her name is Kimberly, she wanted to share about the impact that the love of the other women around her, the impact that it had on her life. This is Kimberly's story. Watch the screen.

Hi, my name is Kimberly Barnes. I'm here to share my story with how I came into the room of Beloved. Six months ago, I was really struggling, not just with my addiction, but with my faith and who, you know, just my journey in life. And I entered into the room scared, very, very scared, hopeless, broken. You know, when I entered the room, I was really there for help with my addiction issues. And I had, about a few weeks in, I had found out I was pregnant and I was not expecting it. It was such a huge shock, so much fear, so much anxiety, you know, came over me. I really needed a place of hope and saving and that's what Beloved gave me.

You know, I had an abortion schedule that, you know, I knew, okay, in the meeting I needed to reach out to the women, share my story. And it was truly amazing what happened. I had so much love and support and the prayers that I received really helped for me to make the decision not to go through with the abortion. And I've never been more confident in who I am. I've never felt more close to God and to my unborn son. And I am looking forward to, in about a month, welcoming him to the world. And it's all truly because of all the beautiful, beautiful women in that meeting that I've met and all their help. So thank you.

Wow. That's so powerful. No shaming, no judgment, just love. They just loved her. I want to thank Kimberly for her courage and her transparency, sharing her story. Thank you, Kimberly, for that. And I think I speak for all of you when I say, "May the Lord bless you and bless your baby as well." Amen? Amen.

Well, listen. What started as a crisis now has become an expression of faith, hope, and love. And so this week, my friends and fellow Jesus followers, the power of the Holy Spirit, may the love of God so fill you that it can't help but flow through you. Amen? Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness and your grace. We thank you for your love because all of us have a story. All of us have deep, deep burdens. And so, Lord, we come to you in this moment just as we are. We come with our mistakes. We come with our faults. We come with everything we are. And we say, "Lord, thank you that by your grace you receive us. Thank you that by laying down your life for us, you have lifted us up into friendship, into your family as your sons and daughters." And so, Lord, we have so much. We're so grateful. And I pray for anyone here today that this is new to them or they've been kind of sitting on the fence and yet your love has touched their heart and they sense you inviting them to receive what you did for them when you died on the cross and took upon yourself their sins, their death. And yet you didn't stay in the ground, Lord. You rose from the dead. And so we speak to you now as our living Lord and we thank you and we praise you. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.