Stage 6: Life of Love | John Challinor

We are in the last week of the critical journey.

We've made it. We've rounded the corner. We are

on the last week of the critical journey. If

you have been here for all seven weeks, well

done. Good and faithful service. If you listen

to a podcast, there should be a sound for you

right now because you made it to the end of the

club. This is a monumental moment where we understand,

hopefully everything comes full circle today,

where you understand, you get to catch, if you

like, the glimpse of what this is all about.

If you're here and you go, I don't know about

this church thing, you came to a great day. You

know why? Because you're seeing where this is

going. If you hang out here, this is where it's

going. And so we started week one. We have a

graphic to kind of remind us of where we've been,

but we started week one with recognition of God.

And so recognition of God was I give my life

to Jesus, both as Savior and Lord at some point,

right? Like I give my life to him. And in giving

my life to him, what happens is I discover, hey,

I need people who have done the same thing. I

need to be around a community that has had the

same experience. And so what happens is within

the recognition of God, you begin to join community

and you start to realize quickly, hey, you know

more than I do. You live different than I do.

Would you teach me? And you kind of naturally

move into that next stage of the life of discipleship.

And the life of discipleship is best summarized

with you are just learning everything you can,

right? Like you are just taking in everything

about this new life you've been given. And at

some point you realize, hey, I've got gifts to

give. And you're like, I got to give them away.

God made me in a unique setting. I got to give

that way. I got to use it for the kingdom. And

so what happens is you begin to give this life

away. You step in and you begin to serve. And

at some point within serving, you naturally progress.

You naturally start to ask questions. The longer

you hang around God, you start to ask these deep

internal questions. You start to wrestle with

who is God and why am I here? Like you start

to wrestle with, do I really believe this Jesus

thing for myself? You start to wrestle with,

is he really trustworthy? Is he really good?

You start to wrestle with identity. And what

happens is sometimes people talk when they get

to this point, they talk like, hey, I'm losing

my faith. These questions are so intense that

I'm not even sure what I think about God anymore.

And so out of that, then at some point you emerge

on the other side, if you just keep going and

you step into this journey outward. And the journey

outward is you step into serving God again, but

it's completely different. Because now it's no

longer about you. The ego has died. There's been

a death to self. And in the death to self, what's

happened out of that is your motivation is others.

And I got good news for you, right? Like all

the other ones feel like there's this huge step

you got to take. The last one here, the life

of love. You just keep doing stage five. And

at some point you just kind of ride off into

the sunset. At some point, your life just looks

like Jesus. You love like Jesus. At some point,

when people spend time with you, they feel like

they were in the presence of Jesus. I mean, come

on. Does nobody want a friend that it feels that

way, right? I got the opportunity to observe

a memorial, a celebration of life for a gentleman

named Rodney yesterday. And those close to him

called him Pops. But one of the things I loved

was family member after family member after family

member got up and talked about Pops. And what

they talked about is how he moved through this

life. He was never in a rush. It was more about

you than it was about him. He couldn't go into

a room and not talk to everybody there and slow

down and see them. abundantly to help people,

both time and resource. And it's one thing to

do that to your family. It's another thing when

everybody gets up and says, this is what it looks

like. And maybe that's an image of what the life

of love looks like, is those people in your life

that you go, they look like Jesus if he was here.

The easiest version of this, And the life of

love and kind of moving into it is if you've

ever been around someone, like if you're a parent

and you've had now, like in my case, my daughter's

now had a baby. You know, when before the baby

arrives, everything's like baby moon. This is

going to be amazing. Everything's like glossy.

And all you're thinking about is, yep. Welcome

to sleepless nights. Right? Like you've got reality

beyond that. But what I loved watching my daughter

step into motherhood is to watch her naturally

begin to die to herself. To watch her naturally

begin to put the needs of this baby before herself.

Right? That's how this is supposed to work. That

the closer you get to Jesus, the more you hang

around Jesus, the more that you just naturally

begin to give your life away. That you begin

to love like him. And so if Jesus, if we're going

to love like Jesus, then Jesus has to be the

model. And as Jesus is the model, then we have

to look at the things of, okay, what made Jesus

anchored? What made Jesus hold true north? Because

his life wasn't easy, right? Like his mission

wasn't easy, but what allowed Jesus to love at

a pace that wherever he went, he was interruptible.

Wherever he went, he had time and compassion

for those around him. How did he anchor that?

And in John, John chapter 14, Philip has asked

John 14 · chapter mention

him a question. And the question has to do with

the father, right? And Philip goes, hey, show

us the father, right? And that'll be enough for

us. To which Jesus then responds in verse nine,

Jesus answered. Don't you know me, Philip? Even

after I have been among you such a long time,

anyone who has seen me has seen who? The Father.

So to see Jesus, to see Jesus was to see God

the Father. So if you knew Jesus, you knew God

the Father is what he's saying. How can you say,

show us the Father? Don't you believe that I

am? In the Father. Key words, I am in the Father.

And the Father is in me. The words I say to you,

I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it

is the Father living in me who is doing the work.

Believe me when I say I am in the Father. Okay,

you guys, is it hot in here? Okay, can we do

something about that, please? I was like, I don't

know if it's just that I got a fever right now

or like, but it's hot. Okay, sorry. Let's go

back. Verse 10. Don't you believe that I am in

the Father and the Father is in me? The words

I speak to you, I do not speak on my own authority.

So he's going, when I speak, it's not even about

me. He goes, it's not on my authority. It's the

Father's. So it's the father working in me. Rather,

it is the father living in me who is doing the

work. Okay, so what Jesus is getting at is that

if you have seen him, you've seen the father.

Now connected to that as he goes, my identity

is I am in the father. We are one. Well, if you

have been on this journey and you've had recognition

of God, right? Like you have given your life.

then at the point of giving your life to Jesus

as Savior, the New Testament writers used language

about you. And guess what that language was?

You are now in Christ and Christ is in you. You

are in Jesus and Jesus now lives in you. So much

so that the apostle Paul goes, hey, it's not

even my life anymore. The life I live is no longer

mine. The life I live is Christ in me. And so

there's this reality that's happening in the

life of Jesus where he connects the exact same

dots. Where he goes, hey, you're looking at me.

It's the Father in me doing these works. And

then what we're told is for you, as you live

the life of love, guess what your identity is?

You are in Christ and Christ wants to work through

you. The journey of the life of love is that

you become more and more and more. where you

die and Christ lives. That's that sailing off

into the, and then along with that in John chapter

six, John chapter six, verse 38. For I have come

down from heaven, not to do my will, but to do

the will of him who sent me. So Jesus goes, hey,

my purpose, my purpose is to do the will of God.

Do the will of the Father. So the Father has

sent me here. So now put yourself in the context.

You said yes to Jesus. Now what has happened

with your life is you are sent, you are sent

into your life now by Jesus for everyone around

you, right? So your response, your purpose, if

we're looking at Jesus at the model, my identity

is in Jesus and my purpose, my purpose is what

Jesus did, to do the will of God. to do the will

of the Father, which sounds really easy, right?

And so if we're going to look at Jesus as the

model and we're going to live a life of love,

then there's just some things that we've got

to just slow down and catch. And one of them

is this, that if you're going to live a life

of love and you're going to look like Jesus,

you got to live like Jesus. You got to live like

Jesus. You know what Jesus lived his life with?

Radical obedience. There's a phrase I've come

to love kind of in this whole conversation that

it's this idea of obedience regardless of the

consequences. Isn't that beautiful? That I know

my identity so much that I am in Christ. And

that means that that is my identity. My identity

is not attached to any nationality. It transcends

it. My identity is not attached to any specific

group. My identity is not attached that I like

to go to the players' championship. I enjoy golf.

My identity is not there. Rather, my identity

is in Christ. What this means is this. You've

got to live like Jesus, which means you've got

to be obedient even when it's not convenient.

Right? You've got to be obedient even when it

means it's the opposite of what I want. How do

we know that? You look at Jesus. He's in the

garden. What does he do? He submits himself to

the will of God. Even later it captures it in

Philippians. It says he became obedient to death

on a cross. Church, we don't even grasp this.

If we're honest, we don't even grasp our faith

costing us something. We don't even grasp. There's

people on the planet today that will give their

life in the name of Jesus because they will not

renounce him. There's people on this planet that

today will become obedient unto death. Why? Because

they are so convinced that they what? They want

to look like Jesus. And we struggle. We struggle.

I struggle. We've just given up Starbucks because

Jesus asked me to. All right, let's get honest.

Hey, John, I don't want you to watch that show

anymore, but I like that show. Yeah, well, that

show doesn't lead you closer to me, but I like

it. Right? That's where the rubber meets the

road. But I really, really, really have become

good friends with this person. And I think I

like him. I think we're going to move in together.

Jesus isn't leading you to do that. Just so we're

clear. Right? Because there's a dying to self

that happens. If we're going to live and look

like Jesus, then there's a point where we go,

I am going to be radical in my obedience even

at the cost. Even at the cost that is inconvenient.

Another point that picks up on this is as you

live the life of love, you recognize that you

grow in struggle. You grow in struggles and hardships.

We talked about it last week, right? That Paul

delights in hardships and beatings and persecutions.

It's like, sign me up for that, please. Let's

go there. And yet I love that we're a church

that has a theology of pain. What I mean by that

is that pain has a purpose in our life. It's

not wasted by God because he is a good father

and everything that comes from him is good. And

so the reality around this idea of there's within

the struggle, when you are in a life of love,

when you are moving towards a life of love, you

welcome struggles because you recognize the struggle

is for growth and it is to help you die more

to yourself and look more like Jesus. Sign me

up for that. That's how I know you guys. I know

I'm not in the life of love. You know why? I'm

still a pansy. I don't want hardships. I like

comfort. And what is God doing? He's working

that out. He's working that away. Why? Because

in hardships, what you realize the further you

get, because now you can trust him and you can

trust him even in that. I mean, think about it

for a second, right? Peter. Peter writes in 1

Peter, he goes, hey, you know what? Blessed are

those who suffer for the name of Jesus. The life

of love goes, man, I am blessed. Why? Because

the goal of my life is to look like Jesus. What

did Jesus do? He showed up and suffered. And

so it's this idea that as we move through this,

these markers of maturity. Another one is this,

that you live a life of compassion. You live

a life of compassion. You look at Jesus. If he's

the model, what you see of Jesus is he moved

everywhere with compassion. Right? He was interruptible.

You could read story after story after story.

There's one in particular. It's a really long

day. And at the end of the day, there's a knock

on the door. And he's exhausted. And the knock

on the door is the town has brought all of the

sick. They brought all of the demon -possessed.

You guys, this is how I know I'm not in this

stage yet. If you show up at my house at eight

o 'clock at night with all of the people, with

all of the needs, I'm going to be like, you can

call Jenny and set up appointments. I'm not there

yet. But the life of love lives out of compassion

all the time. And it's beautiful. If you look

at Luke, Luke chapter six, Luke chapter six,

Luke chapter six, verse six. On another Sabbath,

he went into the synagogue and was teaching.

And a man was there whose right hand was shriveled.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were

looking for a reason to accuse Jesus. So they

watched him closely to see if he would heal on

the Sabbath. But Jesus knew, What they were thinking

and said to the man with the shriveled hand,

get up and stand in front of everyone. So he

got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them,

I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath to

do good. Or to do evil. So the Sabbath, just

so we're in the same conversation, the Sabbath

was a list of rules and regulations that they

believed you had to keep. God blessed the Sabbath.

And so they told you how to live the Sabbath.

And it was all these rules that you had to keep.

And so Jesus is now challenging. He says, I ask

you, which is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good

or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it.

He looked around at them all and then said to

the man, stretch out your hand. He did so and

his hand was completely restored. But the Pharisees

and the teachers of the law were furious and

began to discuss with one another what they might

do to Jesus. Okay, so Jesus moving with compassion,

right? I love that if you're going to move with

compassion in your life, you see people, you

see their pain. You feel their pain first before

you see the issue. I'll be honest with you. In

America, in Western society, we're not good at

this. We want to make it about the issue and

miss the person. What you see with Jesus when

he lived a life of compassion, he never missed

the person. And so in this setting, he has, I

love it. He has him stand up in front of them

all. You couldn't miss what he was doing. This

moment is like drop the mic moment because he

can tell how mad they are. And I love that this,

Jesus sees the person, he stands up and his hand

is healed in front of them. Why? Because Jesus

chose to see the person, to see the pain, to

step into the pain and to bring healing, even

at the expense of what? The opinion of those

around him. Church, maybe we just need to rally

around that as we move towards the life of love,

we're going to be people that make a bunch of

people uncomfortable and unhappy because we don't

look like them anymore. We don't sound like them

anymore. The things that they care about, we

don't care about anymore. What we care about

is that you would see Jesus in everything that

I do, that you would feel like you had been with

Jesus, that we move like Jesus. There's another

story in Luke chapter seven and verse 11. Soon

afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain and

his disciples and a large crowd went with him,

along with him. As he approached the town gate,

a dead person was being carried out. The only

son of his mother and she was a widow. Like culturally,

we don't have time to unpack it. This is a massive

moment in this woman's life. This is a massive

loss. This is not just the loss of a child. This

is above and beyond that. And a large crowd from

the town was with her. When the Lord saw her,

his heart went out to her and he said, don't

cry. Then he went up and touched the buyer they

were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still.

He said, Young man, I say to you, get up. The

dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus

gave him back to his mother. No? Doesn't do it

for you? Isn't it funny? Isn't it funny? We can

read this. I was thinking about this earlier

because we do run -throughs and make sure all

the verses are on screen. And I'm reading this

and I'm like, I just read about the dead coming

back to life and we read it like, yeah, and he

came back to life. Right? But that's who Jesus

is. And I love this setting, right? Because there's

this funeral procession happening. And as the

funeral procession is happening, The people are

doing the work of love. They are mourning for

this lady. They are doing the work of love alongside

her. I find it fascinating that their work of

love was from a distance because they didn't

have true compassion. Because there was still

a distance because if they came into contact,

they would become unclean. So there is a, I will

be with you to a certain point, but I will not.

And I love that Jesus' act of love, if we're

going to look like Jesus, then we've got to do

the things that Jesus did. And what you see about

this life of love is you move with compassion

in everything you do. And I love that Jesus steps

into this moment with her. And it says the reason

he did it is his heart. His heart, the seat of

his emotions, the seat of his soul went out to

her. And what does he do? He does the unthinkable.

He reaches out and he touches. Why? Because compassion

will move you towards people and their pain every

time. If we are going to love, and live a life

of love like Jesus, we're going to have to move

into the pain. Here's an example, just because

we've been talking about it. You guys, the 200

,000 that we've been talking about, that 200

,000, like it could become just, okay, I gotta

go pray about that. But if you pray about it

and you miss the people, which is why we've spent

weeks talking about the people that show up in

those spaces, I would encourage you that before

you make a decision, show up at Park Collective

and the Commons and go see on a Thursday night

what's happening with the youth over there. I

would encourage you, show up on a Wednesday.

Go sit with the recovery people. There's Bible

studies that are happening. They would love to

have you, but hear some of the stories because

it will transform your heart. We're transformed

by people, not by issues. We're transformed by

people, not simple. I've got to wrestle with

this thought. I would encourage you to show up

over here on a Wednesday and just look at the

amount of students that are showing up because

they have a passion to know Jesus and we have

the opportunity to change their lives forever.

By having them step into a recognition of God,

by having them get on this journey way sooner

than some of us wish we would have. We have the

chance to do that, but you won't step in and

you won't be moved with compassion if you don't

see people. You have to see people. Another way

that Jesus is our model is he was detached from

things. You know what I love about people in

the life of love? is they don't renounce things.

It doesn't mean that all of a sudden they're

like, oh, I just don't like stuff anymore. Instead,

what's happened is their heart's no longer attached

to it and they've learned that they can live

without it. It's this beautiful thing that happens.

It doesn't mean that they're not going to tell

you what's nice and what's not and what they

would love and what they have. But the life of

love is this beautiful detachment from things.

Another thing about the life of love is level

doesn't matter. What do I mean by that? Where

they serve doesn't matter because the question

they are now asking is what do you want me to

do? What do you want me to do, God? And it's

radical obedience. And what I love about people

in the life of love, right, because you think

about the critical journey, they're the most

mature people we have in our church family. But

what I love about it is they're probably serving

in places you never see them. They're behind

the scenes because none of that matters anymore.

What matters is they're serving where God has

called them to serve. We have an elder in the

church. That for many, many years, as long as

I have been at Heights, he has showed up on a

Wednesday night to put a melody to memory verses

for our kiddos. I think it's second and third

graders, not positive on that. Sometimes he raps.

You would never know that if I didn't say that.

Because it doesn't matter to him. He's an elder.

He could pull rank and go, that's too low for

me. You know what I love about Jesus? There's

a moment around the table where Jesus takes off

an outer garment and picks up a towel. And he

does the most menial task. He gets down and he

washes the feet of the disciples. What is the

model of the life of love? It's an act of service

that you will sit in the most menial spot because

none of that matters anymore. It's beautiful.

And again, this is how I know I'm not at the

life of love yet. Because there's all these things

that I go, man, God is still working on me. God

is still working on me. God is still working

on me. Can I encourage you? I don't know how

you feel about the critical journey, how you

feel about where you are, but remember, the whole

kind of point of this, excuse me, the whole kind

of point, the whole point of this was that you

would find your home base. You would find your

stage. And you would recognize, God, this is

where I'm at in my journey with you. And you

would have an active way to begin growing and

step forward. I don't know if you've seen it

or not, but there's these eagles from Big Bear.

No? Yeah, some do. Shadow and Jackie, right?

It's pretty amazing. They got their babies now.

It's pretty phenomenal. A couple of years ago,

a friend of ours got us watching it. If you ever

want something relaxing in the morning, by the

way, just put it on and watch the sunrise come

up. with an eagle sitting on a nest. That's pretty

incredible. What's incredible about the eagles

is how they continue to build their nest. They

continue to come back and strengthen. They continue

to come back and clear out the bottom and put

new bedding down. They get rid of the old food

and they bring in new twigs, sticks, whatever's

needed. And they continue to reinforce it and

build it up. And the nests become quite large.

When you think of the critical journey, think

of a nest. You are reinforcing. You may be in

a productive life, but it does not mean that

you're not stepping back and continuing to learn

and continuing to put rhythms in your life. And

what you're doing is, even though my home base

is stage three, what I'm actually doing is I'm

just shoring up the nest. I'm adding to it, right?

And you may find yourself further on the journey.

I love that during COVID, one of the things I

realized is I needed better rhythms in my life.

And I spent a journey with God where things that

I thought I knew, I didn't know. And so it was

back to the life of discipleship. And it was

all these rhythms that I needed to get more secure

in my life. But you cycle back and you cycle

through. It's not just like you just weave on

a journey. It's like a nest. You keep going back

and you keep building up that part because you

realize it got weak. You keep, even though, even

though your stage may be one of the others. And

so I got a question for you as we close. Where

are you stuck? We're all stuck. Where are you

stuck? Where do you need to reinforce the nest?

All right, here's what I mean, that if you're

in a recognition of God, right, so you've said

yes to Jesus, then one of the common places for

you to get stuck is you need community. And so

I would just encourage you, if you feel like

I've said yes to Jesus, but you haven't stepped

into community, step into community. That's the

next natural progression of your growth. Those

of you that go, I'm in the life of discipleship.

I'm learning all this stuff about Jesus. You

know how you get stuck in the life of discipleship?

You think you're right and everybody else is

wrong. You just keep consuming information. You

keep reading books and the more books you read,

you read them by the same authors, right? You

read them from the same stream and they just

back up everything you think. That's dangerous,

by the way. And so what happens then is you think

you're right and everybody else is wrong and

you can get stuck by just being consumed by proving

your point and building your knowledge. Another

way that you get stuck within the life of discipleship

As you're here and everything's great, right?

And then you realize, hey, something I think

is right, they don't think is the same way. And

so I'm gonna go somewhere else. And here's what

happens. You get to the next place and you get

to the next place. You're so excited. This is

the best church I've ever been at. You're the

best communicator I've ever heard. I don't mind

it when you say that. Just kidding, just kidding.

Right, but you get there and you're like, everything's

so good. And seriously, when people show up that

way, you know what I think? Give it four months

and we're gonna make you mad. We're gonna hurt

you and you won't be here anymore because you'll

be onto the next group that you need to find

the group that thinks just like you because you've

become so rigid. And that's how you get stuck.

If you find yourself becoming rigid, You need

to spend time in community and allow community

to work through that stuff. If you're in the

life of production, meaning you're doing work

for God and you feel like, man, I'm serving and

I'm going, here's the thing. Ambition, ambition

is how you get stuck. What do I mean by that?

Oh, you're climbing forward, right? Like if I

do this, then I'm gonna end up there and I'm

gonna end up there. And what happens is you create

a false identity. Instead of your identity being

in Christ, it's now in you. And then you burn

out. And so if you find yourself burning out,

there's a good chance that you need to step back

and go, hey, I've held on to some stuff here.

Stage four, the way you get stuck in that if

you're in the inward journey. Here's the thing,

you guys. Stage four is a needed part of your

growth. You have to go through the pain of wrestling

with God. You have to. But here's the thing.

We can get stuck looking internally. We can get

stuck making it about us. We can get stuck looking

at who we are. We can get stuck looking for answers

that just don't exist. There are some questions

that you will never have answered this side of

eternity. And I think sometimes when we get to

eternity, we won't care. I got good news for

you. When you get to stage five, you don't get

stuck. You know what you do in stage five? You

just drift off into the future and look like

Jesus. You love like Jesus. Can you imagine,

you guys, a group of people who every single

time people spend time with them, they go, it

was like being. with Jesus. Can you imagine a

place where people come and sit with you and

they go, it was about everyone else. It was about

looking and living and loving like Jesus and

not like us. That's why this journey is so critical.

Do not give up. Keep walking forward. Keep asking

questions. Because the end goal is that we will

look and we will love like Jesus. Would you pray

with me? God, thanks for loving us the way you

do. God, thank you that you are the God that

does the impossible. You are the God that takes

the broken, the fragmented of humanity and you

put it back. God, you take dead things and you

bring them to life. God, as you continue to take

us from dead and you continue to move us to live

the life of love you created us for. That we

would look and reflect you in everything we do.

God, the image is that you are taking it from

a grave and you are making it a garden. You are

bringing life where there was once death. And

so God, we just celebrate that today. We just

celebrate you today. We celebrate what you're

doing in our lives today. God, help us to know

where we're stuck. Speak to us, we pray. But

God, as we just give worship back to you because

you are worthy. Thank you for bringing life.

from death today. We are grateful, and everybody

said, amen.