Inland Empire: Riverside
Love Poured Out - Audio
[ Music ] >> Amen. Well, it's good to hopefully you had a good fellowship there and got to meet someone or talk with someone that was good to -- I felt like we were at a little family picnic there for a few minutes. My family loves -- when I grew up, we used to do these picnics like once a year. And everybody was so busy, but everyone would come together for these picnics. We play volleyball and it was like the grownups against the kids when the grownups could still move. And I was the youngest, but I got to reunite with my cousin when we went to Atlanta recently. I haven't seen her in like 20 years. And she was just talking about those family picnics that she would come out to and just how much she looked forward to those. And I kind of had a little moment while we were talking of just like, hey, we could probably just do this for the rest of the day, just talk. But just for the sake of tradition, we'll do the sermon anyway. But God is working even among us even in our fellowship here. So I'm excited today. We're going to be looking at Romans 5. And last week was our week where we celebrated the spirit coming down on Pentecost. And if you haven't heard Jason's sermon that he did, it was really one of my favorite sermons that he has done because it really brought together the Old Testament and God walking with Adam and Eve in the desert and kind of the time where they built the tabernacle and then God coming down and filling the tabernacle. And when Solomon built the temple and they all worked on it together. And then that God says God came down and filled with smoke. And just that that was the experience of Pentecost, God coming down to live with his people in his new temple of the church. And just that experience of what, of how significant that moment was and just how many layers of God's story was happening there and that we get to be a part of that and we get to live out that community of God now. And that's maybe even as we had that fellowship break that that's the community that God resurrected to promote and to inform us. And so hopefully today we're going to be inspired in that way. But as we kind of get started here next week just to remind you guys we're going to be having our missions contribution. So thank you for all the ways you have prepared and prayed and sacrificed over the years. And just a note for this week is I want to encourage you to get some time this week to have like a dedicated prayer for your missions contribution to really connect. We have some, I put these up here before, but you can kind of connect through this all nations app that if you, you know, with your smartphone and you can go to any one of the Facebook pages of the different churches over there, the main three churches, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. And just to help you connect, you know, to be able to encourage you to even to post something on there just that, hey, we're praying for you or we're thinking about you over here in the Inland Empire in Palm Springs. They all know what Palm Springs is and, you know, just to put some love along with your offering, right? So they can really connect with you. And if you want to give today, you can go ahead and start giving today. It's not like it opened on June 2nd. You can start giving now. But I'm looking forward to seeing what God does even in this last week as we've been praying. And I'm sure God's going to make it grow. So thank you again for that. Today, we're also honoring some of our graduates among us. And I learned a few years ago that when you go from middle school to high school, it's not a graduation, it's a promotion. So we had Sebastian Sanchez that was promoted this week into high school there. So you can give love to his family, go Sebastian. And then I have pictures here of Mr. Baker, Jack Baker, PBS 24. And that's a pretty sharp picture there, man. So congratulations to you. And really growing up in the church here, we want you to feel honored and know that we're rooting for you as you go off to college. And wherever you are going, we're excited for you. We also had someone that graduated in December, but walked recently, Cody Shipperstein. Cal Poly Pomona, class of 2024. He's already got a job and everything. So he is putting it to work. He's working as an engineer here locally for now. But we're excited for him. As I was going to, we just got back from two different graduation trips. This is Connor graduated from Emory 24 as a nurse. So we have a nurse in the family now. We're excited about that. And if you need any legal assistance, we have a lawyer in the family now too. There's Chloe and we had a great time. It was really special. And I'm sure I speak for all of the parents and families, you know, to really reflect on the journey of how your kids have gotten to where they are. And we had time at each of the graduations to kind of share for the kids. And it was just really a testimony to God and just to the community that all of you are. And just that not everyone grows up in that type of family and with people around them that care. And we were just praising and thankful for all of your prayers and just how everybody has prayed for all of our kids and taught kids Kingdom class and everything. And just seeing even in our family the last six years have been full of a lot of answer to prayer. Health prayers and illness prayers and concussion prayers and all kinds of prayers. Just how God is so faithful. And so thank you guys for all that you do. And let's keep our graduates in our prayers as they continue to go on and find where God is leading them. So turn over to Romans chapter five here. And I'm going to start reading in a second. But as we read this, sometimes we just read a passage and we just like take it on its own. And maybe it's a chapter or we read a page. And we're just like, OK, this is God's message for me. This is everything on this topic. And today, as we read this, it's important to read it in the context of the whole church at Rome. You know, we're reading in Romans chapter five and he's writing to a church that is having some trouble getting along. It's having some trouble like loving each other. It's having some kind of doctrine trouble that the church was led by Jewish Christians for so long. And then the emperor Claudius came along and kicked everybody out, all the Christians. And so everyone that was left were all Gentiles. And then all the Jewish Christians then came back. So you had all the experienced Christians that were here leading the church. And then they all left. And then the church took on a whole new flavor when they came back. And they were like, what's going on here? This isn't the way we're supposed to do church. This isn't the church. This is-- you're doing it wrong. And everyone's like, no, we've been doing just fine. And Paul's addressing them and saying, hey, you know, this is really about loving. And some of those things that you were all into, that's passing along. That's moving on to another time. And so there was some issues. There was people getting drunk at church. There was people interrupting one another at church. There was-- you know, so when you read it, sometimes we read it and we're like, oh, the gospel. And it's just such a great message. And everything's so easy. And they're reading what we're going to read. But in the context of, OK, I need to now pour that out into my Christian brothers and sisters and into our church here. And so the beginning of the book of Romans here, as many of you know, is it starts off just going into this three chapters about sin and basically saying that the world has been warped by sin, right, that people are off track, that they're broken, that the Israelites are broken, that the Gentiles are broken, that we're all broken. And it concludes with the familiar scripture of all of us that all fall short of the glory of God, right? You don't need to read the Bible to know that the world is broken, right, that relationships are broken. You don't have to look too far to see pain and to see damage and to see things that aren't right and aren't like God. And I mean, even at our graduation, there was this, I don't even know, it was like just palpable tension in the world, in the school, in the Middle East. And it was just like honest. And people talking about brokenness, even in the Harvard graduation, they're talking about vulnerability and they're talking about compassion and they're talking about how much you're hurting. I felt like I was at church actually for a few minutes because there was so much talk about compassion and damage and pain and respecting one another. I'm like, man, I feel like I'm here at church because the world knows that we are hurting. And yet Paul introduces this faith that came from Christ that they now have this new status and new family and new future in Christ. And that whole term of being in Christ is a big thing. That you're in this new life, you're in this new status that now you're forgiven. Now you get to have new relationships and you get to have a new start, as he says in Gospel to John, that you get to be born again, you get to start over. And so in Abraham, in chapter four, it goes into this long speech about Abraham's faith and how all nations are blessed through him and through the faith that he placed in God when he was in an impossible situation. That this is the same faith that God wants to flow through us to the rest of the world as we put our faith in Christ, amen? This new way of life that we are supposed to manifest in the church, this new community, this impossible situation, many of us are in an impossible situation. I don't know exactly what it is, but I know you got one, it's a health situation, it's a work situation, it's a forgiveness situation, whatever it is, there's something in your life that you're just like, I don't know how this is going to change. And that's exactly where these Christians were. I don't know how we're going to do this, Abraham was in that same situation for years. And I know this is a bad analogy, but I'm going to kind of use it anyways, so I apologize in advance. But Jesus raising from the dead was that example for everyone that we're going to live again, that our life, we're going to have an eternity about us. There's like this eternal character to our lives. And I was watching Maverick the other day, and it was like Tom Cruise, how many people like Maverick? Anybody? Okay, thank you. I'm talking to you, everyone else, just be quiet. You don't have to listen for a while, okay? So it's like when he goes through this course, this impossible course that can't be done and he does it, and all the other pilots are just like, okay, it can be done. That was Jesus. He rose from the dead. Everyone thought that was going to have thought that was possible somehow, but they actually saw it, and that was for them going, oh, that's going to be us. That we're not living for this life anymore. We're living for this new world, this new life, this new future that impossible doesn't apply to us. That's pretty cool. That Jesus' resurrection was so powerful, and I think sometimes we think about his suffering more than we do his resurrection, that's another story. And so let's start reading with that in mind, because it's that impossible faith that he's referring to as we start to read in Romans chapter 5 verse 1. He says, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand." So he's talking about this faith that allows them to have peace with God, that gives them this grace in blessing and favor that God puts on them, that they're standing in. So if you just think about your life, that you're in Christ, you're at peace, you're in good standing with God, that you have this grace and favor that you're standing in. That when you walk around, when you go through your life, that you're walking around in this, with this grace following you, with this favor following you, not just forgiveness favor, but you have God's favor going with you. That he's preparing the paths for you, that he's blessing you and informing you, and that this is what we bring into our lives, our relationships, our church, that we were able to bring this peace that is not from us because we probably weren't people of peace, but God gives us this impossible peace. I know Wednesday I heard there was a discussion here about Ezekiel 37 that you guys had at midweek, which I'm sorry I missed out on, but if you weren't there, it's the story of this dry bones and the prophet Ezekiel is walking around in this field of dry bones, which is all of Israelites of the past who were destroyed, and they're sitting in captivity. Basically it's kind of a precursor to the resurrection of Israel out of captivity, or the resurrection of Christ, or the resurrection of us, I mean all of the above. But basically standing in this place of no hope, proclaiming hope, proclaiming life. And really that's where we stand, we stand in a place of hope that we can proclaim life even when we don't see it because of Christ. And one of the brothers that was at that midweek Wednesday said that he was moved because he never thought about it in that way that and how it relates to us is that sometimes we get so caught up in suffering that we don't see hope, that we don't see God. We don't see God working because we're so caught up in all the dead bones around us. And yet because of Christ as Christians we have that opportunity to have our eyes opened. And then let's go on to the next part here. He says not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, and we're going to come back to that in a minute. Because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given us, amen. And so if you're anything like me, when I start talking, reading about sufferings and perseverance and character, and what do you start thinking about? Okay, Jesus, that's a spiritual thing to think about, yes. I start thinking about man, that doesn't sound like fun, right? That's not, I don't really like that part of it. Suffering and perseverance and character, I feel like I'm going to the gym, right? Suffering and perseverance and character and you know it's good for you, but it's horrible in the moment. And yet he's talking about glory in our sufferings that somehow, because we're in Christ and we have hope and we have faith and we have peace, that we can somehow see glory while we're in our suffering. That's a miraculous thing, it's like Jesus seeing the thief on the cross while he was suffering, right? It's the same thing. He's suffering but he was still able to see this beauty happening and because of Christ, we're able to maybe step out of our suffering to see God in it, in that time. I know as I'm looking out, I see a lot of you have been in impossible situations, knowing you, I almost can know and know all of them, a lot of them, just some of them. But you, so you know what this is to come out of an impossible situation and to see God in it afterwards. Some of you are in an impossible situation now. That's when it's hard to see, right? It's hard to see when you're right in the middle of it. You don't see it till later as we had a time of sharing for our kids there and to, at their graduation and then you see where everything was going when it was really hard in the moment. You know and one of the things that moved me was hearing Chloe share about her new husband, they were married last summer. But her just sharing how much he had influenced her life and like changed her priorities. And that's something that we were trying to do for the longest time, right? As parents, you want to help your kids and they don't always get it from you, they get it from you up to a point. And then to see like, "Wow, okay, she really is God's using him to really mold her and shape her." And I was, you know, that was just cool to see. But in the moment you don't see it. You know, you wonder, "Are they ever going to move back?" You know, as parents, you think all kinds of things, where your kids are going to live and where your grandkids are going to be. And just to know that God's got a plan and all of that, that has nothing to do with this. I just got off track here. Suffering and perseverance, character and hope. What it is not is kind of grin and bear it. Just like suffer through it. That's not what he's talking about. That's what, that's my default, that's what I kind of default to, right? It's like, "Okay, just suffer through it, you know, a few more wind sprints and you're going to be done." You know? No, he's not talking about that. He's saying, "God is working in your life. God is producing something glorious in your life as you're going through whatever it may be. Whatever suffering they were going through, they lived in a Roman world, they, many of them were slaves, they didn't have any freedoms, they had to carry people's stuff, pay taxes. I mean, they had all kinds of issues and yet they found hope and it says that God's love was poured out into their hearts through the Holy Spirit. That's the part that really stuck out with me. That God just poured out his Holy Spirit into their hearts, his love and it just, it made me think of Jesus pouring out his life, pouring out his blood, pouring out the Spirit at Pentecost and then God pouring the Spirit into us that he's given us the ability to love like Christ. He's given us the new command to love like Christ, but he's given us the ability to do that and yet it's so easy to not do that. How do you allow this love to flow through you to someone else? I have no idea. The best I can figure is to try to meditate on what that love is, to try to visualize that peace and love that God has given us and just try to show it and pour it out to those around you in your community, in your church, in your community at work, in your neighborhood. I don't know how it all happens, but I know that it comes from Christ, that we're able to love one another, that we're able to go through this life together, that we share suffering with each other. Think about your life and who you can pour out God's love to. You know, it has to be someone close. I don't pour it out like long distance, it's got to be someone in your life that you can pour it out to. And God gives you those chances. Maybe it's a simple, and a lot of you have done this even in the past six months, just by pouring out to one another. Maybe it's a coffee, maybe it's a dinner, maybe it's a talk, maybe it's a prayer. I don't know, but just pouring it out to someone near you. That's how God's love gets poured out. One of the kids, kingdom teachers was like, "Hey, we're going to have all the kids and their parents over afterwards and just have a dinner just to celebrate a year of kids kingdom." And I was like, "That's a great, that's just honor and heart to pour out that love from the spirit on one another." And so it got me thinking about, "That's the whole point of the Bible, pouring out God's love to those around us." That was the whole point of the church, so God could pour out His love, and that makes me think that's the whole point of us, to just pour that out in however way we can through all of our imperfections to others around us. But it made me think about the Middle East too, as we're giving here, that they have a similar, we share the same community, we share the same love and spirit. And so we, this is the picture of their building there, I think I showed this one last time, this was their building last year, this is their building this year. So that's like a massive change in one year. They're having the grand opening coming up. But it's not about the building and all that, it's about their, now their community has a place to be. Now they can pour out God's love on each other and share it. That's the community we share with them. We get to just see pictures, here's a picture of a couple in Lebanon that got baptized this week. She's from a Muslim background and we kind of just hear like little snapshots. She was there serving with the hope people beforehand and all the Christians. And we sometimes forget, man, okay, their family was changed, like their whole world was changed. Just like your world was changed. Why? Because the spirit was poured out into them. And their kids are now changed and that affects how they love their parents and their neighbors. And here's a picture of them, that's the couple that we just saw that got baptized there. And they have this ministry called the shrewd and humble ministry, the one that reaches out to people of Muslim backgrounds. You know, because you have to be a little more careful and, you know, and I look at that and we look at that and go, man, that's so amazing. We see all these things on TV and then you see people from Muslim background, you know, converting. And here's the guy on the left who is baptized with his wife in Yemen and the country is so oppressive that they can't even publish pictures of the women. I don't know, somehow that's how they are. And we look at that and I look at that and I go, man, that's incredible. I mean, that's just so amazing. But it's the same thing that happened with all of you, that you are here. You overcame amazing and incredible things. You went through suffering and challenges and miracles happened for you to be here. You're just the same. Sometimes I know, I do it too. I look at them in the Middle East and I go, man, you guys are like, you're on another heaven than us. But we're all the same. They don't feel that way. They feel like, hey, we're just trying to love Jesus and we're just trying to pour out God's love to the next person next to us. They're reading the same Bible in a different language, you know? So to even appreciate the miracles that we see that they're just as miraculous as what you see in the Middle East, amen? All right, we're going to close it out here. It says, you see, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And a lot of us have read the Scripture many times, but to think about the blood of Christ being poured out for you, to think about being saved, to being reconciled and celebrating the love of the cross together. I don't know what it was to die for His enemies or to be saved from His wrath. Maybe that's a sermon for another time. But I do know that He died for those who didn't care about Him yet. And in that same way, we get a chance to love those that don't care yet, too. We get a chance to be poured out in a similar way and to honor that love that Jesus had for the world before it cared. Maybe if we had the attitude that no matter what happens, I'm going to pour out the love of Jesus. I'm going to promote reconciliation like Christ. Not every situation will be reconciled, but I'm going to promote reconciliation like Christ. Sometimes I was going to say church life, but just in life, we get caught up with so many things and we get sideways with people and we get angry with people. It seems almost too simple to say that the answer is in communion. All that, we have it. We have peace, we have forgiveness, we have love that's already been poured out for us, that's already been demonstrated by Christ. And yet we have so many details involved and this person did this and they did that and sometimes even as a minister, it can become about like, well, this person's upset and what do we need to do to help that person not be angry and how is this person going to feel? And it's like, really, it's the blood of Christ that just should take care of all that. Help us love each other, help us to let it go. Help us to be free, help us to focus on what matters. And I pray that even as we take communion today, because really that's where this book was going, you can picture them reading this section like, oh yes, this is amazing and then he gets to the end, he's like, now do it, now live it, live it, live it with each other. The blood of Christ, that's all you need. All those problems you got, that's right there. And I pray that as we take communion today, that that can really inform our community and inform our lives. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your Son, we thank you for His blood that was shed for us. We thank you for this faith that you've given us somehow that allows us to stand in your favor. We thank you for the miracles that you've shown us, that give us hope, even if we don't, we're not in a situation that looks very hopeful, we can find hope in you. I pray that you help us to see you in our sufferings and to have faith in that you're working and to find hope, wherever we are, because you poured out your love on us through your spirit. God, I pray that today that we can claim that, that we can claim that place of forgiveness, that we can claim the blood of Christ, that we can put ourselves, make ourselves last and make it more. Thank you for your love for us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.
Inland Empire Church of Christ