Inwards - Love

0:00 Good morning. We all good? We better get over here. Everybody else good? Listen, I'm nervous up here. You don't need to be nervous down there. Okay, you're sitting there. Just get comfortable.

0:16 I'm going to do something for a start. Nobody's ever done this before. I've always wanted to. So I'm going to walk away over here, right over to this side. So there's a reason behind this. To pull this service off on a Sunday morning. Okay, it's not related to my talk, but I wanted to do it. To pull this service off on a Sunday morning takes loads and loads of people, okay?

0:32 And some of them we see out doing Live the Adventure, and some of them see there's Mike at the back. Everybody turn around and wave to Michael. Hiya, Michael. Thanks for what you do. Matt's up in the gantry, but he's stuck down behind the screen, so you can't wave to him. Okay, but there's three people I don't think anybody knows that do something on a Sunday morning, and they're in a wee dark room back there. They're all a little bit nerdy. And they film the service and they put it out across the internet.

0:59 And so the reason I walk from that side of the stage to that side of the stage is my son's up there this morning. And he was a little bit sleepy. And normally they just put a central view on. So I'm just making sure they're awake. So I hope you're awake, guys. And my son actually turned 18. So I'm sure it wouldn't be embarrassing at all if everybody just sort of wished him happy birthdays to see him afterwards. Or pat him on the head or slap him in the back or give him a hug or whatever way you normally greet people.

1:22 So I'd say that's not related to my talk. So we'll get started. now. Let's not relax everybody a wee bit now. Core values. What is a core value? Has anybody asked that question as we went through? We're seven into them out of nine.

1:36 What is a core value? A core value, a fundamental value of this church. That's what it is. It's something that if somebody was to look from the outside, okay, they would look at Glen Abbey and say, that church is a prayerful church, or that church really concentrates on God's word, or that church is a missional church or that church is a loving church. Really, really important things. And sometimes we talk about the idea of a church. We talk about the idea of a house or a building. It's God's house.

2:06 We're coming into God's house. And then we talk about that building being built with living stones. You guys are the living stones. I'm the living stone. Okay. And if we want a building to look a certain way, we got to build it with the same material. So if we want a red house, we got to build it with red bricks. Very simple.

2:24 Garth, don't criticize me afterwards, okay? But if you want a blue house, you've got to build it with the blue bricks. You want a pink house, you build it with pink bricks. Purple house, build it with purple bricks. Green house, you build it with glass. Different story. So as I'm talking this morning, I want you to listen with two sets of ears for me, if that's all right. First set of ears is I want you to listen for yourself.

2:51 These spot like this, okay? I've got them written down, so I'm going to read them out. Prayer, worship, and word. Chris and Gilbert brought that to us in September. And we've got mission, community, and witness. Jeff, Stephen, and Les Isaac brought us at the end of November, start of December. And then the three that we're going to cover now, love, service, and maturity. But as I'm talking about love specifically this morning, put your set of ears on and say, well, how can I build that into my life?

3:16 How can I be more loving? If you're going to go back and review the last six core values, how can you get those into your life? Next week is Chris is talking, how can I serve more? And Gilbert talks in two weeks. What about maturity? How can I build that into my life? Listen with that set of ears. We should listen with that set of ears every Sunday.

3:32 The second set of ears I want you to listen to is, as this organization, as this church is led in a certain way, we'll do certain things to encourage these core values to be there. back, listen with a set of ears of how are we as a church, how are we doing in these core values? What are we doing good? It's always nice when you're leadership to hear things that you're doing well. Send us a message. Let us know what's good. Let us know what we need to do more. What are we not doing?

3:59 What are we doing bad? Send us a message. Come and talk to us. The elders in this church are all very friendly. I know them all, except maybe me. I can be a little bit grumpy. Come and have a yarn with us. If you don't want to speak to an elder, that's okay.

4:12 Find somebody with a badge. They normally know something about the church. Come and talk to them. Give them an idea. Send an email to info at glenabbey.church. Get in contact in some way and feed back to us because what this church becomes is not down to people who sit and lead at an elder level or people who lead teams. What this church becomes is what is built out of the living stones that are sitting in the seat. So now you can be a wee bit nervous because you have to listen for yourself.

4:41 That's sealed. It's okay. I won't leak. Right. We're going to read. Today, the topic obviously is love. And so I could have read 66 books of the Bible and we could have had a really, really long sermon. We're not going to do that.

4:54 We're going to read from Romans 12 from verse nine. And I'm going to use this passage a little bit different than we would normally do here. It's really just a place to ground us. But I'm going to be bouncing around a wee bit as I talk about it. Romans chapter 12, verses 9, reading to verse 21. Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good.

5:16 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse.

5:34 Rejoice with those who rejoice. Mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

5:53 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath. For it is written, it is mine to avenge. I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. And we're just going to read as well from John 13, 34 and 35.

6:16 A new command I give to you, love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another. Feel the weight of that after some of the songs we've been singing. This is Jesus speaking. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. Think about what Jesus done, and that's how we should love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples. if you love one another. I'm going to read one more thing.

6:39 It is the core value that we're looking at. This is not the Bible, but we have pulled it out of the Bible, but this is how we summarize it. You can get this on Glen Abbey's website as well. We believe that as members of the church family, we are to love one another as Christ loved us. Love is demonstrated in showing hospitality, giving comfort and encouragement, bringing truth and guidance, offering humility, patience and forgiveness, and walking alongside others in their struggles. We're committed to being intentionally involved in the lives of one another. So we are giving and receiving this kind of love on a regular basis. Just before I start, I'm going to pray again.

7:13 Lord, we just thank and praise you that as we speak this morning, we're speaking out of your word, these instructions you've given to us. We thank and praise you that as I talk this morning, that you're here with us, that your presence is here, that we're here because of what your son has done and that your Holy Spirit dwells inside those of us that are in your family. Come and bless us this morning. Teach us this morning. Let us see a little bit more of you. Let us learn a little bit more about how you want us to love each other. In Jesus' name, amen. As I've kind of hinted, it would take a long time.

7:50 Somebody actually joked to me, I should just preach one sermon right through first and second service and we could just change the crowd. If you're really to dive into what is love and we could keep going, we could actually probably preach throughout the year if we took all the and we could kind of go from the Old Testament showing God's love all the way through the Old Testament and the Old Covenant and the New Covenant and the development church and so on. We're not going to do that, okay? Breathe easy. We could have also dived into this core value that's up on the screen, hence the one and other verses. So those verses in the New Testament that have that English phrase, one another, do unto one another, love one another, et cetera, et cetera. Turns out there's a hundred of those. So again, if I was to go through all hundred, that would take a long time.

8:27 So we're not going to do that. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to zoom out a bit. And I'm going to give you kind of a guidance as you read the Bible. Just a way to think about love. And both from three different aspects. And a little bit of what is love. And then we're going to go, why do we want to love each other? And maybe that question is not important to some people.

8:53 But I'm a purpose driven person. So that question is really important to me. And then last of all, how do we do this? How do we do this in a bigger sense individually? And how do we do this as a church and how we're trying to work it out? And we're going to do that. The clock is now saying nine minutes and seven seconds. And it's only supposed to be saying six minutes.

9:10 So we're going to do that a little bit faster than I planned. Okay. And we're going to be done in, say, 25 minutes or else I get in trouble with Chris. Okay. So what is love? I'm going to ask a question here, right? And this is a bit of a test to find out if I'm insane or not. Some people are sitting there thinking no need for the test.

9:33 Right, so if I say, what is love? In that completely normal way, how many people finished inside? Baby, don't hurt me. Don't hurt me no more. Let me see. So it's not just me. That's okay. That's kind of encouraging.

9:47 What is love? First thing, love, three points, all starting with S. First thing, love, is it's something we do. It's not something we feel. And now you're going, who asked the computer nerd to speak on love? It's something we do. It's self-evident right throughout the Bible. I brought up some verses there. I'm not going to go through each one of them.

10:08 But every time you get that, love is pointing towards it's something I do. It's a verb. It's the same in marriage. It's not a fuzzy feeling that we feel, and that might come and that might go. But it's something that we do. I am, as a husband, supposed to love my wife as Christ loved the church, which absolutely terrifies me because that's huge. But that's what I'm to do. That's why I'm to work it out.

10:32 We see this as well through how God demonstrated love. He didn't just sit back and have a feeling. And I'm not sure even of the theology of that because the Bible doesn't speak into that. There was actions done. He created the world. He made a prophecy right at the start that he was going to save us. If you look down through how he dealt with the Israelites and how many people he sent to rescue them and how gracious he was to them and how many times he forgave them. Look at the New Testament especially.

10:58 Christ coming down. That's an action. Christ living here. Christ dying on the cross. Christ defeating death by being resurrected and coming back to life. Those are actions. And love in this setting, it's all about actions. It's all about how we forgive each other.

11:13 How we live with empathy. How we instruct one another, how we don't sue each other. That one's up there. The one I didn't put up is four times. It actually says we're to greet each other with a holy kiss or a hug. But I left that up because that's just dodgy talking about that. It's something we do. Love is something we do.

11:36 It's actions and it's all over the Bible. If you open up the Bible and read any decent amount of it, at some point it'll tell you something, how we're supposed to interact between each other. This is not rocket science. So it isn't. This is just something that if you've been brought up through the church and you've read the Bible, you're going to know that it's there. Especially if you read down through the Gospels and Paul's letters. It's all over the place. Love is something we do.

12:03 Which means if you're not doing these things, you're not loving. Does that make sense? And then if we do these things and we talk about what is love, it is something we do. And then the next S, and I've been a wee bit liberal in how I've worked these S's out, it's a safe place. Love produces a safe place and encouraging a building up or preparing place. Because if we're together as a church and we're encouraging each other and we're building each other up and we're being nice to each other and we're empathizing, we're rejoicing when something great happens, as happened this morning, we now have Granny Hazel right back there. I just wanted to get that in the service. She hits that, I think, so go ahead and call her that on your way out.

12:51 That's brilliant, and we get to rejoice, and we get to rejoice with that. And then we look at the situation in Ecuador, and we get to pray for those guys, and we get to empathize with them. And sometimes here we mourn with those that are mourning that are going through illness or have lost a loved one. That's all part of it, and it produces an amazing place. Because each one of us have to leave here on a Sunday, or leave home group on a Monday night, or whatever it is that we do, that place that we get encouraged. We have to go out into a workplace, or a school, or a university, or whatever fills your week. And we have to live as a Christian, and sometimes that's difficult. And we need a place where we can land.

13:38 We need a place that encourages us and builds us up. And that, I think, is where the love thing comes in inside this setting, inside this church. And who wouldn't want to be a part of a church that practiced all these things? It would be amazing. Somewhere where it's not a zero-sum game, somewhere where you don't just be nice to people that are nice to you, because these things don't land with a proviso. It doesn't say in the Bible, be kind to the person who is kind to you. It just says be kind to one another, love one another. These things don't really depend on the other side.

14:20 As a person sitting there, it's not okay to look around and go, well, I'm not going to be kind because you want to see what he done to me. Bible actually says, and it's very blatant in the passage that we read out, that you're supposed to be kind to that person too. You're supposed to be kind to everyone. You're supposed to be encouraging to everyone. Forgiveness is supposed to be right around. We're supposed to love everyone in the church. What a place to be in. The next word is not so much a word.

14:49 So if you're up here, love is something we do. If you're in here and you think with your heart, what a place to be. It's a safe and encouraging place. The last one is a picture. Okay. Love is a scrum and you're like, where is he going with this? That's that picture of the best sport in the world. And anybody that says football, you're wrong.

15:13 And it's a picture of the best team at playing that sport. The one on the right, which I hope is the same way that you see it. It's the Ireland team playing somebody that used to give them a challenge, the England team, but not anymore. A scrum. How did I get there? As a church, we're something that we want to do. Individually, we're something we've want to do. We've been given a task by God to do it.

15:37 And we're driving together as a church in the same direction. It's a little bit like a scrum. There's eight people on either side of that scrum. The total weight on either side is somewhere between 900 kilograms and a ton. And the way the scrum works is if all eight people work perfectly together. And they bind themselves together. So you'll see the front row. You'll often see it.

15:57 My son plays in the hooker position too, so I see it a lot. You'll often see the hooker come up. And he'll lift his hands and the two props will come either side. and they bind right in and they squeeze in. The second row come in and they bind in a strange way into the group. And then the back row forwards come in and they bind in. And it's the binding, okay, which is also the laws of the game because if you unbind, it's a penalty. It's that they bind together and they drive together.

16:21 And I think that, to me, is a picture of love. And if you don't get it, that's all right because it works for me. But it's a picture of love, the scrum. And that's what we're about. We're about driving in the same direction as a church. And it's the love that's going to bind us. and it's that camaraderie. If you ever see in rugby something that I don't like about the game now when they win a scrum penalty, the celebration that goes on, but it's huge for them because they've worked together for something and they've drove together and they've got it.

16:48 So whether you think in your head, love is something you do, and if that's what you want to take away, take that away. If you think with your heart, it's a place that we're trying to create that's encouraging, that's building up, that's a safe place. Or if you think in pictures, love is like a scrum. That's what we're trying to grasp. All of those things coming together to work that out. That's the what is love. It's got nothing to do with baby, not don't hurt me or whatever. What else goes on in that song?

17:12 Or actually, I did the strange thing last night just for a bit of a laugh. I asked Siri to play love songs in my car. Got an Apple Music subscription. My word, they're awful. Somebody said, some say love is like a river and love is like a razor. Yeah, it's awful. Don't do it. Not recommended.

17:35 What is love? Okay. Why do we love? I'm going to speed up a little bit just to go through this. So why do we love? Matt's brought up all the points there. Number one, because it would be amazing. Okay.

17:52 Because God has loved us and then that's supposed to bubble out. We could stop with because God told us to, but we're not going to because we love God and not love each other. That's quite chilling when you read out. 1 John 4, 2021. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother and sister is a liar. How's that way up in your life? How's that way up in my life? I claim to love God, but there's that guy in the church I can't stand.

18:21 How does that lie up? It's quite heavy because we have a task to do and having this safe place helps us to do it. So do you ever ask the question, Why when I become a Christian, why don't I go straight to heaven? Did you ever ask that question? You know, why am I still here on earth? Because as a Christian, you already have eternal life. It's sealed, okay? The Bible talks to us about being wrapped in God's hand, and we can't get out of that.

18:45 That's in the Gospel of John, okay? So why are we still here? Ephesians 2 tells us that we've been saved because God's really good. He saved us by grace. And we're created, or God's work was created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he's planned for us before to do. There's something for you to do. As a Christian, if you're not doing something to build the kingdom of God, you got it wrong. There's something for you to do.

19:11 And having this safe place and this encouraging place to send us out to do that is really, really important. These last two are the two I want to concentrate on. Okay? As a church, as Glen Abbey Church, we're situated right on the edge of Glen Gormley in Newton Abbey. Believe it or not, people look in on us and they look in on us as a church and they draw a judgment. That could be right and that could be wrong. You can debate that all day, but it happens. And in the Bible we read that part of the reason that people are going to know that we are God's disciples, Jesus himself said this, is that we love one another.

19:44 And it works that way too. If people look in on us as a church and go, ooh, they're all sort of backbiting and gossiping and pulling each other down. And if you go there, you get hurt. That ain't making the gospel attractive. It's not how it works. And part of us loving each other because it's something we should do because God has told us and all of these other reasons, acts as a witness too. That's a responsibility. Let that sit on you.

20:11 As a church, part of our witness is how we love each other, is the community that we build up here. And then it zooms out again. Ephesians 3.10, His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms according to his eternal purpose they accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. So through the church the manifold wisdom of God would be made known to the angels. So as a church we want this environment that is good for us, that builds us up, that encourages, that sends us out into the world. We want this environment because it is a witness to Glyn Gormley, to Newton Abbey, to Ballyclare, Carrick, Mosley, whatever goes that way in the church, Ballyclare direction, into Mollusk. We're to be a witness in that setting and then zoom out. And this is huge.

21:07 And let the weight sit. Angels are looking on. And we somehow are to represent God's manifold wisdom and display that back in how we are. Let the weight of that sit. Why are we to love? There is big things going on. And that's what we're supposed to be. Let the weight of that sit.

21:32 That's why. So if you're a purpose-driven person, maybe that's... I'm trying to speak to lots of different people in different ways. But if you're a purpose-driven person, that's why we're doing it. That's what we're doing. How do we do it? How do we do it? Maybe you're sitting here going, I can't.

21:52 or that's too hard for me or maybe just zoning it in a wee bit do you expect me to be kind to and maybe you're actually moving with your eyes and looking at somebody here okay be discreet about that because that would be really embarrassing but maybe that's what's going on do you expect me to forgive that person do you expect me to encourage that person and maybe it is hard maybe it's not and maybe you're amazing and afterwards if you come up and tell me how to be like that that'd be really good because sometimes I find this hard. I find it hard to work out. A couple of things. Okay. Number one, if you're sitting going, something's going to be hard. How do you know you can't do it if you don't do it? The person that's hard to be kind to, have you tried being kind to them? Just a little thought.

22:45 We live in the feeling of our thinking. Nobody's going to know who Ali Hutchinson is, I don't think. He's a friend of mine. if you do know him you're really blessed because he's a proper stellar guy he's a business coach that comes in to um to my workplace to night tech solutions where i work and he does a bit of business coaching and one of the things he says to everybody and says it all time oh we live in the feeling of our thinking it sounds like a really fluffy modern phrase but actually i think it's grounded in the bible the bible actually and forgive me because i learned most of my bible verses in the King James Version. The Bible talks about the mind. It talks about girding up the loins of your mind. Who else remembers it like that? Everybody's sort of my age and above when you learned it in the King James Version.

23:27 Gird up the loins of your mind. Lift them up so they're not trailing them, picking up rubbish. It also says, you know, whatever things are good, of good report, and so on, think on these things. God knew about the importance of our mind and the way that we think. So if we examine the phrase, I can't, what are we saying? What are we saying when we say I? When you say I, if you're here in this service and you are saved, if you've asked Jesus to forgive your sins, when you say I, you're saying me, a chosen child of the one true God who runs the universe. That's what the I means in that statement.

23:59 When you say I, you're saying me, a co-heir with Christ. A co-heir with Christ. You're saying me, somebody who is forgiven of my sins, is freed from the power of sin, who's living a life that is already eternal, and who's filled with a hope that's in the future. That's what you're saying when you're saying I. When you say I, you're saying me, somebody who, and feel the way to this, right now, the Holy Spirit is within. God is within me right now. That's who you're saying every time you say I when you're a Christian. So when you say I can't, you're saying me. A chosen child of God, a co-heir with Christ, somebody forgiven for their sins, filled with hope, and totally indwelt by the Holy Spirit, can't.

24:50 It makes less sense when you say it like that. The Bible tells us that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, is Galatians 5. What that means is what is naturally going to come out of our lives if we don't put all the rubbish on top of it is going to be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The first of those there was love. it's going to naturally bubble out. I'm going to tell you that you can. I'm not going to say that it's going to be easy but each one of us can be hospitable, forgiving, encouraging, empathetic. Each one of us can live in love in this community.

25:28 It is possible and it should be possible and we should do it and we are going to feel. And maybe you're sitting in there and this is exceptionally hard because sometimes really mean things have been done to us. Sometimes people act like tubes for translating the service. I'm not sure how that translates. Sometimes we need a windering again, and maybe that's been done, but we need to stand up, and you can still do it. You can still be loving. You can still act it out because you're a chosen child of God filled with the Holy Spirit. You're going to trip up.

26:00 You're going to fail, and it's not going to be perfect the first time, but we can make it happen. I was given 25 minutes. You guys can't see it, but I'm going 26 minutes and 12 seconds. So very, very quickly to finish off. How does this work out practically? Well, it works out constantly, even in the big setting like this here. And actually, I'll tell you a very practical way that works out.

26:28 Before I get up here this morning, about eight people had texted me either yesterday or this morning, just saying they were praying for me. That's love working out. I'm not going to name your names, even though I've embarrassed several other people. I'm not going to name your names. Huge, big effect it had and was very, very encouraging. That's love working out. And bits and pieces like that going on all the time. Walking up to somebody, just encouraging them, saying something nice.

26:52 It works out like that. But the main way this works out is in relationship. That's the main way that it works out. We have home groups, Monday club, young adults, youth, kids. You get into service teams. Chris will talk about service next week. but in Glen Abbey as well, when you serve in the church, you'll be part of a team, and you start interacting with people. You need to be in one of these things.

27:15 It's not written in the Bible, so it's not something that I can say as a biblical mandate, but it's the way the church works. You get involved, you get in relationship. I'm in a home group, a huge believer in a home group. If you're not in a home group, not next week, nor the next week, but the next week, we're going to start a Tide series in Matthew. Brilliant time to join. Come up and speak to somebody with something around their neck, they'll direct you in the direction of home groups or get on to glenabbey.church and all the home groups are there and you can see the ugly mug of all of the home group leaders and you can work out which one you think would be nice and you can go and join that home group. Get into a home group, get stuck in. Sunday night, Monday night or Tuesday night find one that suits you and get stuck in and start forming relationships and start being iron that sharpens iron and start being an encourager and start being a lover with people that you're actually in a relationship with.

28:03 I'm going to stop there. and I am going to pray and I have given the guys no warning. So I'll try and pray a wee bit longer so that they can get up. Is that good? Is that good? So let's just pray and the guys will come up and they'll lead us in a song. God, we just thank you that you love us. We thank you that you loved us when we were unlovable and that you sent your son and that you gave us a way to be part of your family.

28:38 I just pray, Lord, that the jumble of words that has been said this morning, Lord, that it comes and that you take it and you make it make sense and you speak into hearts. You speak into my heart. Speak into the rest of the hearts here, Lord, and that you refine us and you change us and you sanctify us and you make us into a wee bit more of what you want us to be and that we can, through that, lift your name high, that we can make you famous we can glorify you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.