Hebrews: Being Loved and People of Love

So we're in Hebrews 13.

We've been journeying through Hebrews for a while, for a few months.

Last week Sam Rapp taught on Hebrews 12, which we're gonna have to remember some of that coming into 13.

If you weren't here, I'll fill you in.

But we'll jump into verses 1 through 6 of chapter 13, and then we'll set the context.

Let brotherly love continue.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated since you also are in the body.

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have.

For he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

So we can confidently say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear.

What can man do to me?

Let's pray real quick as we think about these persons.

God, we come before you, we pray that you would open our hearts to what you have for us.

Not just in these passages, but in this book of Hebrews that lead us to this passage and most ultimately where this passage even leads us, that you are our judge, but you are our helper.

What good news that you are not just our judge, but you are a helper.

And we rest in that this morning.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

So my grandfather on my mother's side, his name was Ed Russell.

Here's a picture of him.

This is me and him as I was a little guy there, and uh my biceps are the same size now as they were then.

Uh, thought of that this week and realized that was a good uh moment for me.

His name is Ed Russell, so I'm named after him.

My name is Russell, and his name Ed Russell, so I'm named after him.

He passed away when I was in the ninth grade, and I think about him and I talk about him a good bit because all my memories of Grants are just kindness and loving regard to me.

I don't have I don't have any other I don't have any other memories except kindness and loving regard to me.

He was smart, he was incredibly kind, he was well traveled, he loved the square dance.

In his retirement, he studied a lot.

He would study in the mornings and do investments.

He made a lot of money in his retirement because he studied so much and invested so well.

And he would show up into our lives and into my life, and he would teach me stuff.

Like he would tell me how I needed to study hard and work ethic and persistence, and he would teach me about investing because he loved investing so much.

And he and he opened my first mutual fund.

I learned about a mutual fund when I was in middle school, and he opened up an Investgo mutual fund for me, and he funded it, and he taught me how to take a little bit of my grass-cut money and put it in there, and then he would come over and have a little sheet of paper and how my you know$300 had turned into$330.

And I thought that was amazing.

You know, like you could make money not doing anything.

Like, what an amazing idea we should all get behind.

And so he was bringing these like teachings to me, like ways I should live.

But it was all in the context of a love that was already secure.

Meaning I didn't study hard and I didn't save a little bit of my grass-cut money in order to be loved by him, right?

Like that love was already secure, and actually the teaching to be that way or to live that way was inside of his love for me.

And this is what Hebrews 13 gives us.

It's a laundry list of what we should do and how we should live.

But it comes after Hebrews 12, and it comes after Hebrews 1 through 12, which is just encouragement and argument, encouragement and argument, one after the other, of saying Jesus is sufficient for you.

It is not what you do for him, it is what he has already done for you.

And your belovedness is secure.

And because of that, here are some ways you should live.

So the context of Hebrews 13 is built upon all of these, what we would say, indicatives of who we are as the beloved.

And what we love to say in our church of how we understand the scriptures and how we should live as Christians is that the imperatives of what we should do in our lives and how we should live as Christians are inside of the indicatives of who we are, what's been indicated to us.

And so the indicatives fuel the imperatives.

And that's what we have here in Hebrews, another structure, again, just like so much in the Bible, of what we've been promised as the beloved fuels, holds us as we try as best we can to live out a Christian life.

And so here's what we get.

Verse one.

So point number one is this because we are perfectly loved by God, we are called to love each other with brotherly and sisterly love.

That's what the word means.

Brotherly love is the word Philadelphia, right?

We get the city of Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, which actually means brotherly or sisterly love.

So our relationship to each other is not kind of like a consumer or user, consumer or performer, and then you applaud for me.

Like the relationship is not based in like me using you for me to have worth or you using me for you to have worth.

No, no, no.

The basis, the primary basis is the brotherly and sisterly love.

When we think about each other, that's how we should think about it, as the best of brother and sister.

I follow author online, I follow author Bob Goff.

He's one of my favorite people to follow.

I don't follow a lot of people.

I follow like bears and national parks and fly fishing and stuff like that.

Bob Goff's wasn't only up, probably because most of the pictures he has is like have so much nature in them.

And his message is the same thing over and over again.

If you follow him and read his books, it's like, God is love, you're called to love.

God is love, you're called to love.

It just says it in different words over and over again, right?

God is love, you are called to love.

I I went back and looked through a few of his posts just over the past few weeks as I was thinking about him and thinking about this call to love.

And here's a couple ways that he words it.

Here's the first quote that I pulled from his post.

Again, like this is where he lives, okay?

You're like, I love Kennesaw Mountain, right?

But you know, this that's a little different, the coast of San Diego there.

And it's beautiful.

Jesus doesn't turn people into Christians, He turns them into love.

Now, obviously, we could get in the nuts and bolts of that and probably disagree a little bit, but the point that he's saying in a very whimsical way is to say Jesus is not calling us into some stereotype that the culture kind of puts on us of some rules-oriented or some list of rules.

No, no, no, no.

Like ultimately, what Jesus is calling us to for us to be is people of love, to be love.

The second one that I found just in the last few weeks, make love your plan.

There's less to write down that way.

And I need that, I'd love to make a list.

Like, I want to write down a whole bunch of stuff I need to do and I want to do and I want to accomplish.

Like, I will write down like get mail, just so I can check it off and feel like I did something that day.

You ever done that?

You write a few things in that list you know you can accomplish, and you're like, well, I know I can get these three done, and you check it off, you feel so good.

Like, I love a list, but the list for the Christian life is the reason why the first thing here is love each other, brotherly and sisterly love, because the root of anything else that we do is to love each other.

It's the beginning point, it's the foundation.

Now, that's been a long journey for me.

That is a long journey.

That's hard for me.

Because I want to show up.

My default is I want to show up in front of people and in front of you to prove myself.

Right?

I want to be seen as capable, even with like a boot on.

I'm like, no, I'm gonna get up on that stage.

Like, you don't worry, like I will get on that stage on Sunday.

Like, I'm gonna I want to be seen as capable and smart and right.

Usually I want to be right.

Like, that's how I want to show up.

I want to use you to justify myself.

That's my default.

That's strong in me, that flesh, to want to be that way.

But the calling is not to be like that with each other.

The calling is to love each other, brotherly and sisterly love.

Verse 2 do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.

For thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Point number two is this as a people of love, we are called to love the outsider.

My first reaction to the word hospitality is to think of my friend Linda Gray.

Linda is a generation ahead of Christy and myself, and we became friends with her and her husband and family when we lived in Atlanta.

I was starting a college ministry Bible study, and we needed a place to have this Bible study.

And so I talked around the church with somebody who might have a house who could host us, somewhere that would be willing to have, we could have dinner and Bible study every single week, all year long.

And Linda said, Oh, come check out our house.

We're just renovating it.

I think it'll be great for you.

And she hosted us for three years every single week.

Dinner every week.

Like you think it's hard to go to like a small group at somebody else's house every other week.

Like she was hosting in her home 30 to 40 college students, dinner and Bible study on Wednesday evening every single week.

She hosted our girls' birthday parties at times.

She hosted Christmas parties.

And for a while I thought we were special.

And then you slowly realize, like, no, we're not special.

Like, she was doing that for like a whole bunch of people.

Like, that's who she was.

She was hospitality.

There was never a time, never a time that I knew her in Atlanta that there was not somebody living in their house that was not a part of their family.

Just like a friend of a friend or a friend who needed a place to stay, or a friend's having a hard time and they needed somewhere to stay.

Always somebody in there.

Now, I see Linda and I say, I can't do that.

Like, like probably none of you have been to my home.

Like two of you have been to my home because it's like my fortress of solitude, right?

Like, like my home is like close the door and let me go in and like recuperate.

Like, I think of Linda, that is so far from me.

Now, some of you go like, as soon as I say that, you're like, hey, me too.

Like, I have a fortress of solitude.

My home is my fortress of solitude.

Now, this call of hospitality is certainly for those of us that are like the door is wide open, but it's also for those of us that the door is shut.

Certainly, we need to grow in having people in our homes.

I can be the first one on that list.

I need to grow in that.

But this term is bigger than this, which I'm so thankful for.

Because I don't know if I'm ever going to be like the doors are all wide open in my home type of person.

The term itself, hospitality, it literally means showing kindness to or entertaining strangers.

So that certainly includes your home.

Without a doubt, that includes your home.

But it's bigger than that.

Like it's being the kind of person in our world that shows kindness to people who are different than you, and they're from different places.

The context here is an ancient society where people were traveling around and they needed places to stay.

There's no Hampton Inn.

You can't pull up and cruise into a holiday in an express.

You needed people to open their homes to you.

And so Christians were being called to be the type of person that would say, like, yeah, you're from a different place.

You probably have different opinions because you're from a different place.

You probably don't think the same about everything as I do, but yeah, you can come into my home.

I will welcome you in.

So this bridges me, at least for me, this week, into two contemplative questions.

How do I, how do we, how do you welcome and love people who are from different places, background, and opinions?

Right?

So often the first thing to do is to set up a dualistic relationship, right?

I am A, therefore they are anti-A, and if that is true, then there's always gonna be a limit on this relationship.

Right?

I'm red, they're not red, I'm blue, they're not blue, therefore there's a limit on this relationship.

But the calling is to love each other.

The calling is not to like live in the differences, the calling is to love in spite of the differences.

Number two, and what ways do you and we need to grow in opening yourself to others so they feel the welcoming love of God?

That would be a good, that'd be a good journal for this week.

God, what are the ways I need to grow in that?

To be a more welcoming, loving person to people who are different than me.

And my prayer for us as a church, and you as individuals and families, is that we can love people who are from different places and different backgrounds and dress differently, make different amounts of money, have different opinions on different things, a range of things.

I mean, life has a lot of a range of opinions for us.

And our differences wouldn't be primarily just putting us straight into defense, but that we could look for places.

How do we love in spite of differences?

In spite that this person's a stranger and different.

We don't have to hold all the same opinions to live in peace as a community.

If all we do, this is where this hit me this week, if all I do is love people who are like me, I don't really love people, I love me, right?

Like if all I do is love people who are like me, I don't really love people, I love me.

It's like the Seinfeld episode where he falls in love with, I think her name was, was it Jenny or Janine or something, and then he he realizes like he'd been looking for himself his whole life, and then he says, like he says, Oh, I figured it out, I was just looking for myself.

I'm in love with myself.

Like, if all you do is love people that are like you, you love you, you love you, but the calling's not to love you, the calling is to love other people, the calling is to love other people.

Verse three, remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated since you also are in the body.

Point number three is this as people of love, we are called to remember and care for the mistreated.

So being in prison in this context in the ancient society didn't have ping pong table, like there's you know, there's no uh there's no Netflix, there probably weren't even meals.

Like they were dependent upon a community and people who would love the mistreated to show up and provide for them.

So for us, what that means is this invades our culture of progress.

Like how quickly we want to forget the mistreated or forget those who are disenfranchised and move on and progress and move ahead.

But really, we're called to be the first ones to show up to somebody or into an issue or a person or a people who are mistreated or disenfranchised to show love to them, for them to have provision.

So this is a calling for us to go into pain and into mess, not just to move ahead.

And this is how we're called to be loved.

People of love in this world, because we're already loved and God has come into our mess.

Verse 4 Let marriage be held in honor among them, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Now, as soon as you feel condemned by this verse, this verse is saying, God is judge.

We can rightfully proclaim that.

And we also have the rescue at the end of this passage that the Lord is our helper.

So God is judge, but because of Jesus' work for us and God's grace to us, he is our helper.

So he will judge us, but because of Jesus, the judgment upon us is compassion.

And that's such good news for so many of us that have made mistakes in this area of marriage and in sex.

And the point here, the basis here for this verse is that as people of love, we're called to great marriages and great sex.

That's the point.

Like that he wants this for us, that he would want great marriages and great sex.

Amen.

I mean, amen.

Anybody just wants, yes, like that's so good for us.

Author and counselor Dan Allender, he says this about sex.

The most crucial theological truth about sexuality is that God loves sex and evil hates it.

God made us sexual and he glories in his plan for our union and joy.

Evil hates what God loves, and it has found that more harm can be done through sex than perhaps any other means.

Often the chief battleground for the human soul is the terrain of sexuality.

So this verse assumes neither that the relationship of marriage or sex inside of marriage will be easy.

Right?

It assumes, and there's a presumption that God is for you having a great marriage and for you having great sex, but it does not presume, it actually presumes that it will be difficult to have that, and it's gonna take some intentionality.

Like great marriages and great sex inside of marriage, they're marked by secure individuals, Hebrews 1 through 12, so secure in the belovedness of Jesus' love for you, you don't have to use the other person.

You can come in with honesty and vulnerability and service.

I mean, I'm so thankful.

We have a faith and a Bible that does not shame sex.

Like maybe we come from a background that shames sex.

Maybe we're in a place or a church that shames sex, but the Bible and our faith does not shame sex.

It actually esteems it to be so great and so powerful that it should be held within marriage.

It is that powerful, not that it's that shameful it should be held within marriage, it's that wonderful it should be held within marriage.

It's that powerful it should be held within marriage.

And the Bible's not prude.

I mean, do you remember when you discovered the Song of Solomon and you were 14 years old?

I mean, do you remember that day?

I mean, I can remember when a friend showed me that sensual poetry.

I mean, that was a quiet timer, too, right?

I mean, that was woo.

I mean, that was more brigarton than fireproof, to be honest.

I mean, it was, that's some stuff in there, right?

You read that.

I mean, that's the rated R part of the Bible.

I mean, we don't teach it in the sixth grade, but it's so sensual.

But man, it's in there and it's a part of our faith.

That the Bible's not prude.

I mean, the Bible is so for, and God is so for great marriages and great sex and not shame upon it, but it is so powerful, and it should be used for our good inside of that right relationship.

Verses five and six.

Keep your life free from the love of money.

So he goes straight from sex to money.

So he's really hitting the big ones here.

Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have.

For he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper.

I will not fear what can man do to me.

So point number five is this as people of love, God desires us to steward money as to grow in a peace-filled, content heart.

I mean, isn't that what we want, anyways?

Like, on the on the topic of money, whether you're like a spender and a researcher and a dreamer and a spender, or whether you're like the saver and the hoarder and you're kind of overconsumed with how much, how much, how much can I keep.

Like, either way, aren't you really just wanting a content, peace-filled existence in this world?

And that's what God wants for you, anyways.

And what He knows is it won't come by an overuse or overconsumption or idolatry of money.

It will come with money being properly stewarded in its proper place of usage, but not love.

I mean, it's what we really want, anyways.

I mean, if I really chase down why this week, as I'm on the couch and I have watched enough Caribbean life, right?

Like I've seen a lot of Caribbean life and Hawaii life.

I know what people are purchasing and the prices of condos and houses in these two locations.

And they're all about the same, by the way, to fill you in if you watch enough of those.

I know that.

I also know that Kenny Chesney owns an 86-foot uh gunmetal gray Riva yacht.

Okay, and you say, well, that's impressive that Russell.

I also know there's one for sale in Italy for$3.7 million.

Like, that's how far I will go into this.

And I also know this.

I do truly believe just a day on that yacht, and I could be a very happy, peace-filled, content person.

Like I truly believe that, and it's not true, right?

Like I'd get on the yacht and I'd get seasick or get a headache, and you know, I mean, whatever, right?

It'd be hotter than I want it to be.

Like, it's just what happens, right?

But like we make that illusion, but like on the other side or underneath, or deeper than like the gunmetal gray 80 six-foot yacht is, or whatever yours is.

It's just like a new sweater or lamp or whatever.

Like, underneath that is like, I just want to be at peace.

I mean, that's what we're after.

And what God is saying is like, it won't come by sex, and it won't come by money.

Like, it won't even come by control and power.

It won't come by just loving yourself over and over again.

Like, it's about being loved, and it's about loving others, and it's about being content in Him.

That's the point.

I mean, all of this, it brings me back to you.

Remember how they would get a donkey to like keep moving ahead, and they'd hold a stick with a carrot out in front of the donkey's face.

Have you ever seen images of that?

Like a carrot on a stick out in front of the donkey.

We're the donkey, by the way, in this illustration.

Uh, and the donkey will just keep walking forever, exhausting itself, trying to get to the carrot, but never get the carrot.

Like, that's what this stuff, these these idols, and these idols are at the intersection of our sin and woundedness, so there's a lot going on, but they are the carrot.

That you'll never get to it.

Like, you'll never really gonna get the contentment of the carrot because it's always gonna be just a few steps away.

And so we just keep walking.

And what this passage is taking us to is to understand that these idols, these idols, we're never gonna find contentment in them.

We're never gonna find peace in them.

So this passage just takes us into like the fact that we want contentment, but that comes through these promises.

For he has said, verse five, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

So we He can confidently say, verse six, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear.

What can man do to me?

Right?

Oh, what kind of freedom is that?

And peace is that?

To be free of what man could do to me or say about me or the opinions that people could have upon me because I have the Lord's presence in my life.

Point six, last point, lots of points this morning.

Point six is this Knowing God's presence is to be enveloped by God's welcoming, fear-removing embrace.

Just to be surrounded by God's sufficiency, Jesus' sufficiency, and his love for you.

That is fear-removing, right?

That's what the pastor said.

The Lord is my helper, I will not fear.

So as we're growing and becoming more and more aware of God's presence in our life, we're also growing aware of our fears, and also that we don't have to be afraid of those things.

That's our transformation.

So either we're going to live by fear, fear of not having enough, fear of not having enough money, or not being loved enough, or important enough, or beautiful enough, fear of being hurt or lost or not in control, fear of getting sick, or fear of somebody else getting sick.

Or we live by the great rescue that this passage takes us, it re-anchors us into, as Hebrews 1 through 12 has.

That is, the Lord is our helper.

That can sound a little churchy.

For me, it sounds like our Heavenly Father desires such a relationship with us.

He wants to be your companion.

And it's not to be a condemner.

It's not to belittle us or police us, it's to help us.

Which is so good when we think about this laundry list of Christian living that we just went through.

Things that are really good for us that we need to live and honor the Lord with.

But God doesn't send us out and say, like, pull up your bootstraps, off you go.

God says, no, like I fully welcome you, embrace you, and accept you in Jesus, and I walk with you.

I'm your helper.

So I had this foot surgery on Tuesday.

So I was laid up Tuesday afternoon, like on the couch all day, Tuesday, Wednesday after work, some on the couch, you know, that has about a four-hour time span before you go nuts, and then it's more Caribbean life for the rest of the day.

And Christy was my helper.

I could barely walk on Tuesday, and Wednesday just was the foot was so sore.

And so it was more like crawl to the bathroom, or Christy would kind of carry me to the bathroom, and she would bring me food and drinks, and I got into that.

I'll just be honest.

Like I got into like, hey, I need this and I want this, and hey, I need that.

And I mean, I was getting into the whole helper thing.

But her role was helper.

Like, that's what she was doing.

And because that's what she was willing to do and willing to be without condemnation or complaint.

I was allowed to be weak.

Right?

Like I was just allowed to be sick for a couple days.

I was allowed to be not feel great for a couple days.

Because she was willing to be helper.

I didn't have to be afraid.

I was going to offend her.

I didn't have to be afraid that she was going to get fed up with me, right?

Like, no, no, no.

Like she said, I'm all in for a couple days, all in, whatever you need.

That's what we have here in Hebrews 13.

I mean, look, think of the context of this book.

Hebrews 1 through 12, such foundation of Jesus' sufficiency.

Our belovedness is secure.

Hebrews 12, last week, Sam Rat preached and just unpackaged for us and served us the buffet of the goodness of the new covenant.

That we don't have to live by law, but we get to live under grace.

And then out of that comes how do you live as a Christian?

And we get this list of great Christian principles for us.

And at the end of that list, just when you think, I'm not going to be able to do all that, like, oh, the judgment's going to come down, yet another reminder.

Like the Lord is your helper, He is with you.

Some stuff is going to stop, and some stuff is going to start as He's your helper, and there's conviction and comfort and equipping and transformation.

But you are people who are loved.

You're the beloved, and you are called to love.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your grace to us.

That as you call, you equip.

As you call, you have already called us, beloved.

And that all the ways that you have asked for us to live in this world, it is inside of your love for us.

We are so thankful that we live in that sort of freedom.

And while we know the freedom we have in Jesus, even now, right here in this moment, we know there is freedom we do not even know of because we do not trust in you in greater ways.

We have not sought out your presence in greater ways.

And we have not honored you.

And yet, in all those shortcomings, you're not just a judge.

You're a helper.

You are our rescuer.

May we live in the great indicatives and promises of the Scripture that we might live in these imperatives of what you have called us to be.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.