The Sermon I Wanted to Preach, But Didn't Feel Like I Could
I was recently given a stark reminder of the importance of capitalizing on the opportunity to affirm, encourage, or simply share with someone your love and appreciation for them. In my role as a cross country coach at Liberty High School, I missed an opportunity to do so with one of the girls on the team. She noticed and shared with her family that I had not said anything to her after one of her races. I was saddened, naturally, but also chastened. Taking advantage of those moments can be significant, even transformational, in a person’s life.
As the Lead Pastor of this church, I have a bit of a unique vantage point most weekends. From that position, here are a few things I love about this church – both as a collective unit and as it relates to the individuals who make up the whole.
I am always encouraged by the tops of your heads. I see them each weekend as you stop looking at me and start looking at the bible in your lap or on your phone. The tops of your heads tell me something about the longing of your hearts. You want to know God, to see beauty of His Word, to find Jesus on the pages of the Bible alongside your brothers and sisters in Christ.
I am always encouraged by the shuffling of your feet. I hear them as you enter the sanctuary each Sunday. The sound reminds me that you have made a commitment not necessarily to LCF, but to Jesus – to be part of the Church. That tells me something about the commitment of your hearts. You want to be part of the Church that Jesus is building and the work that He is doing in the world and you’ve chosen, in this season, to do so at LCF.
I am always encouraged by the sound of your voices. I hear them as you lift them in song. I don’t even care whether they’re on beat or in key. As I stand and worship alongside you on Sunday mornings, the sound of your voices tells me something about the passion of your hearts. You want to sing of your love for Jesus.
What I am blessed by, encouraged by, and love about this church (as a collective unit and as individuals) is that from all the visible things I can possible work from, this church longs for Jesus, is committed to Jesus, is passionate about Jesus. Are those longings, commitments, and passions perfect? No, off course not. They will not be in any church until we arrive in glory and surround the throne of God as one body, comprised of members from every tribe, nation, and tongue. But I do believe that those longings, commitments, and passions are genuine. I would not want to serve or lead in a place that is any different.
I want to do something very simple this morning: offer one reminder and one encouragement for our church in this current season. I suspect that they are the reminder and the encouragement I would want to offer to any church in any season.
One Reminder
Liberty Christian Fellowship, Jesus loves this church more than anyone else loves this church. There is one phrase in Ephesians 5:1-2 that drives that reminder home for me.
Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. (emphasis added by me)
Paul’s call to the Ephesian church (and to us today) is to live a new life in Christ that is markedly different than the one lived before Christ. It is a call to living a life that is based on and reflects the character of God. New life in Christ impacts our desires, our minds, how we talk, how we work, how we handle our anger, the way we interact with one another, with our spouses, with our children, with those who are not believers. In sum, Paul says, we are to be imitators of God.
But notice how clear Paul is in why we are to live these new lives. We are not doing that in order to be loved. We are imitating God precisely because we are dearly loved. And how do we know we are dearly loved? What does that love entail? Paul gives us that reminder, too: Jesus gave Himself for us.
The rest of Scripture tells us that Jesus gave Himself willingly, in accordance with the will of the Father. We are told that Jesus gave Himself over to the agony and humiliation of the cross in order redeem both the Church as a collective entity (in all its multi-national, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic beauty) but also for each believer as a unique individual (in all our sin and unworthiness). The beauty of the gospel that explodes off the pages of scripture is that both of those realities are equally, gloriously true and worthy of celebration.
Paul says that Jesus gave Himself for our redemption, salvation, justification as a wiling sacrifice that was pleasing to God. That’s the depth of the love that Jesus has for the church – for each of its individuals and for its entire corporate whole.
That is how I can say with such great certainty that Jesus loves this church – and the entirety of the global Church – more than anyone else ever will. He loves this church more than any of our current or former staff. He loves this church more than I do as the Lead Pastor today or Kim May does as the church’s Founding Pastor. He loves this church more the person who has attended for 30 years or the person who just started attending in the last month.
As a pastoral staff, we want you to know, brothers and sisters, that we love you dearly. That was the reason for wanting our pastoral staff to share a bit over the course of our all-church worship service. We wanted you to hear of the love we have for you and the encouragement and blessing that you are to us! But would we never forget that Jesus loves this church more, and that His love for this church is categorically different than the love we, as pastoral staff, have for this church.
The love we have for you is a dim, often failing shadow of the love that Jesus has for you. At our very best, our love for you will wax and wane. At our very best, our love for you will be somewhat conditional, despite our earnest attempts for it not to be. At our very best, we will sacrifice for you and serve you to the utmost of what are ultimately feeble and finite capacities.
Jesus’ love is wholly, categorically different. His love for you is perfect, eternal, unfailing, never wavering. His love for you is unconditional, not at all based on what you have done for him. His love for you is completely sacrificial in every way.
LCF, Jesus both currently loves and has eternally loved you, giving Himself for you as a willing, sacrificial offering that was pleasing to God. Jesus loves this church more than anyone. If we forget this, or allow ourselves to think differently, we can quickly start to think that this church is ours, rather than joyfully embracing the fact that it is His – purchased with His blood, for His gory.
One Encouragement
Our response to His love for us is to love Him more than anything. We are to love Him more than we love His gifts and benefits. We are to love Him more than we love the things he helped create in the world. We are to love Him more than the people He has placed in our lives. We are to love Him more than our careers, our comfort, our reputation, our wealth, our plans, or any other thing. We are to love Him more than we love this church.
How do you best love your family? By loving Jesus the most.
How do you best love your neighbor? By loving Jesus the most.
How do you best love the lost and the nations? By loving Jesus the most.
How do you best love your spouse or friends? By loving Jesus the most.
How do you rightly appreciate your stuff? By loving Jesus the most.
How do you rightly appreciate this country? By loving Jesus the most.
How do you rightly appreciate your wealth? By loving Jesus the most.
How do you rightly engage with your job? By loving Jesus the most.
How do you rightly engage with your hobbies? By loving Jesus the most.
How do you best love this church? By loving Jesus the most.
And how do you love Jesus the most? By remembering that He loved and gave Himself for you.
Since June 1, 1986 – 38yrs – this church has existed for one purpose: to help people love Jesus most. Our mission is to build devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Another way to say that would be to say that devoted followers of Jesus Christ are people who love Jesus the most.
Maybe it would be helpful to clarify what LCF is not about. At LCF, the goal is not primarily…
…to teach husbands how to be better husbands or wives to be better wives or kids to be more obedient kids or parents to be better parents.
…to help all of us figure out how to be better neighbors or community members.
…to help all of us love the nations more.
…to learn how to care less about our stuff.
…to teach us how to be good patriots or instill a particular set of political values.
…to teach us how to handle our wealth.
…to figure out how to be better employees at our places of business.
The goal at Liberty Christian Fellowship is not, in any way, shape, or form, to build devoted attendees of Liberty Christian Fellowship.
None of those are inherently bad things. They simply are not the main thing.
The goal of this church is for us, as a local body of believers, to glorify God by learning day-by-day, week-by-week, year-by-year, season-by-season, how to love Jesus most – most deeply, most passionately. That is why we sing the songs we sing, preach the way we preach, offer the programs we offer, etc. So we can all learn, in relationship with one another, how to love Jesus more than any other person or thing in the world.
And so, church, the encouragement is to press on, to love Jesus most, to not give in to the temptation to love something else more than we love Him, to fan into flame others’ love for Him, to nurture that love in your children, to foster it in your spouse and loved ones, to hold it high and cling to it tightly.
Our commitment as a pastoral staff, my commitment as Lead Pastor, is that we are going to keep right on doing that – by seeking Him in His word, relating to Him in prayer, worshiping Him in song, relying upon His Spirit. We invite you to join in that and to hold us accountable to it. May we never give in to the felt pressure to do otherwise. From that place, we’ll allow the other stuff to happen by His power and His grace.
Church, we love you deeply. I love you deeply. But here is an important reminder: Jesus loves this church – collectively and individually – more than anyone else. Would our response always be to love Him more than anything else. For it is out of that love relationship that everything else flows.
