Looking Like Love

John chapter 13, verse 34. If you don't know

John 13:34

this scripture, then you need to know it. It's

a good thing you're here today or listening online.

John chapter 13, verse 34. Give everybody a second

John 13:34

to get there and we'll read through it and then

we'll pray. This is Jesus speaking to his disciples.

This is not long after he had washed their feet.

He had humbly showed them what it meant to be

a servant of all and given them an example to

live by and to follow. And his days on the earth

are numbered. It won't be long after this point

that he is going to be crucified. And these are

some of the last words that he spoke to his disciples

here toward the end of his life. This command

we see in John 13, 34. I give you a new command.

Love one another just as I have loved you. You

must also love one another. Let's pray. God,

we come to you. We thank you for your good word.

Dear Lord, this is a simple word to understand

what you are saying, but it is... not always

easy to live out. So I pray, dear Lord, whatever

we may have come in here with, dear Lord, sometimes

we get caught up in the weeds, even trying to

understand your words, dear Lord. We get caught

up on things and we get sidetracked with things,

but God, I pray that we just see the simplicity

of this command of Jesus Christ, that we would

examine our own life to see if we are living

this out. And God, if we're not, I pray that

you would help us to see ways in our life in

which we can show your love, that we can experience

your love, Jesus Christ. If there's one who does

not know Jesus today, I pray, God, that you would

help them to know Jesus and to know the love

of Jesus. And I pray, God, that once we experience

that love, that you would help us to live out

this command and to love others. And I ask these

things in Jesus' name. Amen. We have a whole

Bible full of teachings. We have a whole Bible

full of things that Jesus taught and that Jesus

said and a whole Old Testament that contained

the law that God had given to his people. And

it was a lot of them. We kind of are familiar

with the Ten Commandments, probably most of us,

but there were a lot of laws that God had given.

And Jesus came onto the scene and Jesus taught.

in a beautiful way that was really unlike anybody

that had come before him or anyone who had come

after him. And Jesus said something here that

was so beautiful, and I think that the more that

we read the Word of God, hopefully the more that

we read the Word of God and we read the teachings

of Jesus Christ, that we see what really matters

and what's really important. And I think it's

easy for us sometimes to fall into the trap of

religion. And there are a lot of things we do,

and they're not necessarily bad things. They're

not things that God commands us to do, but we

do them, and they're not necessarily bad. But

the problem is that we can get so caught up in

doing things that may not be bad in and of themselves

that they just become routine for us, that we

begin to blur the lines from, from what righteousness

is and the kind of religion that God really calls

us to, we kind of blur the lines from what we

think religion is to what God really wants us

to know. And that was the problem that Jesus

encountered with the people that he faced. When

he came up to his ministry, there were a lot

of religious people that he had encountered,

but they didn't really grasp the law of God and

what God really wanted. And they knew the law.

He could have probably asked many of those who

confronted him, who called him out and disliked

him. He could have probably questioned many,

if not most of them, and they probably could

have answered his questions in regards to the

law, but they didn't really understand the heart

of what the law was. They were too caught up

in their religion. And I think that we have to

be careful because we can fall into that same

trap that For us, maybe a relationship with God,

we kind of just dumb it down to, well, I'm going

to come to church on a Sunday, and I'm going

to put some money in the plate, and I'm going

to sing a few songs, and maybe I'll help with

a project the church has going on every once

in a while, and we'll leave feeling pretty good

about ourselves. And all of those things are

good things. It's good for God's people to meet

together. It's good for us to give back what

God has given to us for the furtherance of his

kingdom. It's good for us to help. in the ways

that we can, but what God really wants is our

heart. He doesn't just want us to do the religious

things. He wants us to do them with the right

heart. And so the people that Jesus encountered,

many of them were very religious, but they didn't

quite understand what God really desired. And

so they had a lot of commands that they were

aware of. But what Jesus really wants his people

to know is what's most important. And we see

this throughout the gospel accounts of Jesus

Christ. That the most important commandment is

to love the Lord your God with all your heart,

mind, soul, and strength. And the second is like

it, to love your neighbor as yourself. Now the

whole law is summed up in these two statements.

Now that's a beautiful thing. That's a beautiful

thing that Jesus was able to do. It's beautiful

that you and I today, that we don't have to sit

here and we don't have to like work our way through

the Old Testament trying to figure out what sacrifices

we got to make and this one's for that and that

you ain't got to come to a priest and man, that

was a horrible mess. And the people then failed

at it and I've got bad news. We would have failed

at it too. We would have failed God and you say,

well, how do you know that? Because we do every

day. We still fail God. We still fail to live

up to his commands. And so Jesus, In such a beautiful

way, he said, look, here's what I really want

you to get. Here's what I really want you to

know. I really want you to know that you need

to love God and you need to love other people.

If you can do those things, Jesus is saying,

you've got it. You've got it. If you can do those

things, you've got it. And here he reaffirms

that same point. He says to his disciples here,

I give you. A new commandment. Now, certainly

God had called his people to love throughout

the Bible. This is not new in that sense, but

it's new in that Jesus says, here's what matters.

Jesus was soon going to go to the cross and everything

was going to be finished. He said, it is finished.

Everything was going to be fulfilled. Everything

that God had promised was going to be fulfilled

in Jesus Christ. The law was going to be fulfilled

in Jesus Christ. Everything was going to be taken

care of for you and I through Jesus Christ. The

wages of our sin was death, but Jesus paid the

ransom. He gave his life for yours and for mine.

And so Jesus had done everything, and he says,

look, here's what you need to focus on. Don't

get caught up in the Old Testament law and the

sacrifices and all these other things. Jesus

says, look, here's the new commandment. There's

a new covenant. Jesus had told his disciples

at that last supper, I'm establishing a new covenant

with my blood and my body. Here's the new covenant.

I'm establishing a new priesthood. Jesus is our

high priest as we see in the book of Hebrews.

And when there's a change in the priesthood,

the scripture says, there's a change in the law.

And so Jesus says, here's what I want you to

focus on. I give you a new command to love one

another just as I have loved you. Now that's

pretty easy for us to understand. There's not...

There's not much difficulty there, I wouldn't

think, in us understanding that very simple command.

But the difficulty doesn't come in understanding

that command. The difficulty comes in living

that command out. And the question that we need

to think about, maybe today and this week, maybe

you can spend some time and you can think about

this. And you can really ask yourself and ask

God to help you and say, God, do I really...

Love people. Now the scripture says, no man has

greater love than this, that a man would lay

down his life. Now that's exactly what Jesus

has done for us. Jesus has given his life for

every one of us. That's the ultimate example,

the ultimate definition of love. It's loving

people that are unlovable. Now it's interesting

that Jesus doesn't say in his teachings, he doesn't

say just love the lovable. Now we can all do

that. It's easy for us to love one another. Hopefully

everybody in this room, we can love one another.

Hopefully there's no troubles going on with anybody.

If there are, you need to work through that and

you sit down and talk about that. But hopefully

we can love one another. And it's easy for us

to love the lovable, but what Jesus calls us

to is... is a love that really requires some

sacrifice. It really requires some effort. And

the question that we have to answer is are we

really willing and ready to love like Jesus has

loved? Are we really ready to love those who

are unlovable? Now, I got bad news for you. When

Jesus was hanging on the cross, knowing that

you and I were going to exist, I don't believe

that he hung there and said, man, those people

are going to be so awesome. I mean, Enterprise,

they are going to be so good. And I know the

rest of the world is going to be pretty weak,

but those folks, those are good country folks,

and they're the people that I really want to

die to save. I don't know that that's what he

said. I don't know what he said or what he thought.

But I think that maybe he saw us and he saw that

we were sinners. He saw that we didn't look like

much. He saw that we were going to fail. But

even though he saw that, he still loved us. Even

though he saw all your flaws and all your sins,

even though in... In a lot of ways, you're unattractive,

and I'm unattractive because of our sinfulness.

Jesus still saw the beauty in us. And perhaps

that's what love really is. Perhaps love is not

just being attracted to what is beautiful, but

being attracted to what isn't beautiful. covered

with nastiness and wickedness and dirty and sinfulness.

That's you and I. And so Jesus shows us what

love is and he calls us to love. I give you a

new command. Love one another as I have loved

you. So it's easy for us to love the beautiful

and the lovable and the clean and the pure. But

it's not so easy for us to love those who have

hurt us. Who have done things that really hurt

us badly. Maybe physically. Maybe emotionally.

Maybe just somebody did you wrong. It's just

dirty. And those things are hard for us to get

over as human beings. We are weak in that way.

I wish that I could get over those things better.

Maybe you do. But man, those things are hard

for us to get over. And yet that's what Jesus

calls us to do. He calls us to pray for our enemies.

He calls us to love our enemies. This is a pretty

extreme teaching, but if we say we want to be

followers of Jesus Christ, then man, it's going

to take some work. We're really going to have

to ask the Lord to help change our heart. And

that change begins once we accept Jesus Christ.

Once we say, okay. Well, I wasn't really that

great. And don't fool yourself. If you come in

here thinking you were pretty good, don't fool

yourself today. You're not that great. But nevertheless,

Jesus died for us. And when we come to that realization

that we realize that, you know what, I'm not

that great, and I'm not deserving of the grace

of Jesus Christ, but yet he died on the cross

for me, then that's the start of the change of

our heart where we say, you know what? This is

what Jesus calls me to. This is his command to

me today. It's to love others as he has loved

us. So Jesus was willing to sacrifice his life.

Jesus was willing to suffer greatly. Jesus was

willing to get his hands dirty to do the will

of the Father. But what about you and I? We say

we love, but do we? Well, the way that we know

that we love is through our actions. It's not

just something we say. It's not just a feeling.

It's not just a word that we say to one another.

Love is shown in action. Jesus showed he loved

the Father because he was obedient to the Father.

Jesus showed that he loved God and that he loved

you and I because he gave his life on a cross.

Jesus showed that he loved people because he

had compassion on them. Jesus showed that he

loved people because he was willing to touch

people that the religious people didn't want

to touch. He was willing to drive out demons

and he was willing to heal those who were unclean.

Jesus was full of compassion. He showed his love

in so many ways. But what about you and I? So

I'm at church today. I love God. Well, I'm glad

you're at church today. I praise the Lord. That's

good. But do you show your love of God through

the way you live your life? Are there things

that God calls you to, opportunities that God

puts in your path, and you don't do it? Because

sometimes love is hard. Sometimes love calls

us to places. that we don't want to be. It calls

us to people that we don't want to be around.

There are so many people that God calls us to,

to serve, to love. The poor and the needy and

the widows and the orphans and those who are

in prison. And dealing with those people, guess

what? Very seldom is it easy. It's usually very

hard. Because we don't want to get involved with

those kind of people. We don't want to go to

the prisons, do we? You know what those people

have done in there? It's probably not safe. We

can come up with some excuses, boy. You want

some excuses to not do something? You come see

me. I can give you excuses. I should write a

book on excuses. Chan's book of excuses. I can

come up, and y 'all probably can't do this. Y

'all probably don't do this. But man, if there's

something I feel like I need to do, I can come

up with a million reasons to justify why God

probably really doesn't want me to do it. But

it don't work because in our heart, we already

know that God does want us to do it. And so we

can't. We can't go visit anybody in prison because

it's scary and it's dirty. And I'd love to do

it, but I can't do it this weekend. I got other

stuff I got to do. Can't go visit people in a

nursing home because we don't like to see people

in that shape. We come up with excuses. Part

of our excuses is we need to toughen up. I say,

oh, I can't do that. I can't go to a nursing

home. It just breaks my heart to see those people.

Well, praise the Lord. It should break our heart

to see people who are suffering. You know what

else it should do? It should cause us to have

some compassion. To say, man, these people are

suffering. They're laying in these beds all day.

And a lot of them, their family doesn't even

come to see them. And we make excuses. We say,

oh, it's too hard. Or, man, it stinks. I don't

want to go there. Oh, it's scary there. I don't

want to think about that. So we miss opportunities

to love people. Because we don't want to get

our hands dirty. We say, man, I don't want to

get involved with the orphans. want to get involved

in that. I don't know what their background is.

What am I going to get into if I get involved

with these kids? We don't want to get involved

with the poor and the needy and the homeless.

They should have done better and they wouldn't

be in that shape. Man, he's high. He's drunk.

He stinks. I don't want to do that. There's a

part of us that says, yeah, I'll just put an

extra 20 in the offering plate. Well, praise

the Lord, that's good. It takes money to do the

Lord's work, but if we really want to do the

Lord's work and our lives be transformed, then

we have to love people. We have to stop making

excuses in our life as to why we can't. We don't

want to. We've got to toughen up. And we've got

to say, God, this is hard for me and this is

scary for me. And I don't know if I really want

to do this, God. There's a part of me that doesn't.

But if we follow Jesus Christ, there should be

something within us that even though the human

part of us says, I don't want to put myself in

that situation, that the Spirit of God just calls

us to love people in a way that He loves people.

That we don't see people who are struggling and

turn a blind eye. But that we see them and it

does something to us. It breaks us in a way that

draws us to have compassion on them. But we don't

want to do that sometimes. We don't want to do

that. Because things are pretty good in this

church on this pew. Things are pretty good for

us when we come together and we sing a few songs

and we throw some money in the plate. And things

are pretty good when we do that. So don't tell

me about the person struggling on the street.

Don't tell me about the person down the road

that doesn't have food to eat. Don't tell me

about the kids who don't have a family. Don't

tell me about the homeless guy. Don't tell me

about the people in the prisons. I don't want

to hear about them because that's going to mess

up my little view of the world. And we don't

want to have to deal with that. We don't want

to have to think about it. And so we just, we

push these things to the side. But that's not

love. Jesus saw those who were weak and who were

sick and who were sinners. And Jesus showed love.

He brought love to them. He brought compassion

to them. And what about you and I? What about

you and I? You can't just tell people you love

them. You have to show people you love them.

You want to lead people to Jesus Christ, you

love them. You can share the gospel with them,

praise the Lord, you do that. And there are a

lot of people that come to the Lord. But if you

really want people to listen to you, you love

those people. And you make the time. We'll say

that, oh, I ain't got time, I'm too busy. Boy,

don't we say that. We are all so busy. It is

unbelievable that we can be here today. We are

so busy. How in the world did we carve out an

hour? And you're hoping it's only going to be

an hour. God, please don't let him preach 15

minutes too long. I'm too busy. We're always

so busy. I say that sometimes. Like I always,

in my mind, I think, I'm so busy. And then somebody

will ask me occasionally, they'll say, oh, what

did you do today? Or this week? And I'm like,

dang. I am so busy, but I really can't think

of five things that I did this week that are

worth anything. So maybe we aren't as busy as

we think we are. And maybe you need to make some

time this week to love somebody. Now, I don't

know who that is, but you probably do. You probably

already know somebody that's on your mind, that's

on your heart. Make some time and love that person.

You say, I don't want to go see that person.

It's too hard. They're in bad shape. Well, then

you've got to toughen up. You don't think it's

hard for people who are struggling and who are

in bad health? You don't think it's hard for

them to sit there alone day after day after day?

You say, man, I wish I could help somebody. I

know they ain't got no food, but I don't know.

We ain't got much food either. Well, you got

some food. Maybe you got a bag of rice you could

take. Maybe you got something you could do. Maybe

instead of turning a blind eye and a deaf ear

to those in need, we say, okay, God, help me

to love people like you love people. There are

lots of people that we encounter. We need to

love them. Some of you may be saying, yeah, but

you're the preacher. That's your job. It is my

job, praise the Lord. But it's your job. It's

not just the job of the preacher to love people.

It's the job of the Christian. So those of us

who follow Jesus Christ, that's what God calls

us to. And you don't even know the blessing that

you're missing. You don't even know. When you

miss those opportunities to love. And we miss

them because sometimes we just kind of prejudge.

We've got a preconceived notion about the people

that we're going to see or choices that they

made or whatever's going on in their life. But

maybe we just need to ask God to help us to get

that out of our mind and just talk to people

as though they are people. And just love them.

Just find out who they are. Find out what their

struggles are, their pains are. Just love them.

Just show some compassion. And whatever way that

looks like, I don't know there's a million needs

and a bunch of ways to meet those needs. But

you might be surprised how much a visit would

mean to somebody. Because one day, Praise the

Lord, we can all get here today because we're

all here. That's great. One day, if you live

long enough, it may be you in a bed, in a room,

in a place that's not your home, and there you

are alone, afraid, miserable, and in pain with

nothing to look forward to but a meal that tastes

horrible. And neighbors that are hollering and

screaming across the hall from you. And that's

all you've got to look forward to. And you never

see a soul that comes to say hello. That's going

to be you one day probably. It's a good chance

that's going to be you. Wouldn't it be great

if you said, you know what? I don't know if anybody's

going to come see me when I'm old, but I'm going

to go see somebody. And I'm going to love somebody.

And I don't know why that homeless person's on

the street and what their struggles are, but

if not by the grace of God, that could be me

one day. And I don't know what they've done,

and they may not deserve a morsel of food from

me, but I see them and I have compassion on them,

just as Jesus did. So I'm going to love them.

If we're going to love like Jesus loved, we're

going to have to get our hands dirty. It's not

always going to be easy. It's going to mean that

sometimes we get out of our comfort zone. We

have to do things that are tough, that are painful,

things that break our heart. But maybe in that

process we learn things about people. Maybe in

that process, God begins to change our heart

as our heart begins to have compassion on others.

Jesus said, I give you a new command to love

like I have loved. I watched a video this week.

You can look it up. It was almost too hard to

watch, I'll be honest with you. It was about

a young man. His name was Marky Jackwiz, and

he was 21 years old when he passed away. He was

born with a rare disease. I won't even try to

say the medical term. It's usually known by the

name of butterfly skin. If you're not familiar

with this disease, I'll tell you a little bit

about it. As the body is formed in the womb,

the skin doesn't form properly. It doesn't stick

together. It doesn't stick to you. And so very

likely, with the lightest little brush, the skin

is removed from your body. So when this young

man was born, when he came from the womb, just

that process had left him with a lot of his skin

removed. He wasn't expected to live very long.

He ended up living 21 years. There are lots of

videos about him, about his family, about his

story. And pitiful, pitiful. You can only imagine

the pain that he felt from the moment he was

conceived in the womb to the moment that he died.

His skin was constantly... Being removed from

his skin day after day after day. Hard to look

upon something like that. Hard to look upon something

like that. We don't want to know that those stories

exist. We don't want to know that those people

exist. But those are people that need to know

that there is the love of Jesus Christ, that

there is compassion, that there is hope. Can

you imagine being in such pain? Day in and day

out for 21 years with your skin being ripped

from your body. You can't take antibiotics continually.

And so to keep infection from spreading throughout

the body, bandages are dipped in bleach and wrapped

around his body, his open wounds. Day after day.

After day. And you want to know something. That's

pretty crazy about. Marky. Is that he loved.

Jesus Christ. And you watch him. His frail. Skinless

body. With blood seeping. From his open wounds.

You see these videos of Marky with his hands

to the heavens praising the Lord. Day after day

after day. I don't know what's going on in your

life. And I ain't telling you that it ain't bad.

I'm not belittling your situation. Maybe things

aren't as bad as you thought they were. Before

he died, a few days before he died, he told his

mother, he said, I saw Jesus. He said, Jesus

came to me. He let me see him. And his mother

said, what did he look like? And Mark, he said,

he looked like love. He looked like love. What

do people say about you and me? If you were to

ask people that know you, what does he look like?

What does she look like? How would people describe

you? I'm not talking about, oh, he's six foot

tall, he's got a beard, he's 100. I'm not talking

about that. I'm talking about if people had to

describe you, what word would they describe you

with? But they say, well, he looks like anger.

He looks like meanness. He looks like wickedness.

He looks like negativity. What word would people

use to describe you? Let's not fool ourselves,

because we'd probably all sit here and say, boy,

if somebody had to describe me, they would say

awesome. Maybe we're not that awesome. When Mark

saw Jesus, he said he looks like love. Can people

say that about us? Can people say that about

you? In a way that you treat other people? In

a way that you have compassion on other people?

In a way that you care for other people? By the

way that you give to other people? By the way

that you pray for other people and hug other

people and give an encouraging word to other

people. Can people describe you as love? Well,

if not, today's a good day for us to go to the

Lord and say, God, we know what love is through

Jesus Christ. Help us to experience that and

help us to be love to others. Because that's

what Jesus has called us to. I give you a new

command. Love one another as I have loved you.

Are you doing that today? Do you have opportunities

to love and you make excuses to avoid it? Stop

making excuses. God gives you opportunities.

And ask Him to give you the strength to love

like He's loved. Maybe today you don't really

know what love is. Maybe you're questioning and

you're trying to figure out what love is. Love

is Jesus. Love is Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

who was beaten and mocked and nailed to a cross

so that your sins could be forgiven. Not because

you deserve it, but because he loves you. That's

the Lord and Savior worth loving. And it's Jesus

Christ who said, look, here's the example. And

here's your command. Go and do the same. Let's

pray. God, we come to you today. We thank you

for your good word. I pray that you help us to

examine our own hearts. Help us to see, God,

if there's things there that shouldn't be there.

Maybe we don't love the way that we should. God,

I pray that you would help us to be a people

that would see the opportunities we have to serve

and not make up excuses. Dear Lord, it's not

always easy. There may be times, God, that we

have to get our hands dirty. But dear Lord, whatever

it is you call us to, I pray, God, that we would

look at people different, dear Lord. That we

wouldn't look with a heart of judgment, but that

we would look with a heart of compassion, and

that would drive our actions, dear Lord. God,

if there's one that doesn't know Jesus Christ,

I pray today that they would know His love, that

they would experience His love. And for the rest

who do know Him, God, I pray that we would follow

this command to love others. And I ask these

things in Jesus' name. Amen.