This Love Breaks the Rules

0:04 Welcome to Life.Church. We're so glad you're here. Before we get to the message, we wanted to let you know about Neighborhood Fall Fest coming up at the end of October. We'll have fall treats, photo ops, games, all kinds of fun for your family. It's a great opportunity to make new friends. If you live near a Life.Church location, you'll definitely want to go. We've also got an online experience you can check out. Get all the details, including dates and times at life.church.fallfest. We've got another encouraging message for you this week. Let's go to it right now. Well, sadly, when many people think of church today, they don't think of loving people. Unfortunately, sometimes they don't think of kind people. They don't think of generous people. Sadly, if you ask lots of people today to describe Christians, they're going to say things like angry, narrow, judgmental.

1:13 That certainly bothers our Heavenly Father, and that should bother us as well. Because if people don't experience love, they're not going to experience God. because our God is love. And we're in a very important message series for our church community. Today is the final message in the series, a church that pleases God. And we're talking about, that's really the cry of our heart, that we wanna be a church that honors God, pleases God in all that we do. And if you've been paying attention in previous weeks,

1:52 what is a church that pleases God? It's made up of people that are pleasing God. And today I wanna talk about a very important quality of a church and a group of people that pleases God. And the truth is this. A church that pleases God is made up of people who love like Jesus. It's made up of people who are loving like Jesus. That yes, loving can be telling the truth, but loving is telling the truth in love. And Jesus said it very, very plainly in John 13, verses 34 and 35. He said, a new command I give to you. Let's all say it together. What's the command? He said, love one another. Now, how do you do that? He said, as I have loved you, so you must love one another. And he says, by this, by love, not just by your theology or your worship style or how smart you are, but by love, by this.

2:51 Everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. A new command I give to you above all else. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. According to Jesus, love isn't optional. Love is the evidence. It's a reflection. We love as we've been loved, and that shows that we belong to God. And when we read the gospels, one thing becomes unmistakably clear, that Jesus was drawn to a lot of the people that the religious leaders actually avoided. Who did he love? Yes, he loved everyone. But you'll see Jesus drawn to very specifically love those who were broken. He loved those that were hurting. He forgave the people who were very, very sinful.

3:46 and everyone else said they're too sinful for the church and Jesus forgave their sins and loved them. He included the outcast and even the people everyone ran from, he actually would walk to. God is pleased when his church looks like his son because Jesus didn't just say he loved people. He didn't just say it, but he demonstrated it in the way that he lived. And that's why today I'm really, really excited to do something special. We call it a team teach weekend, where I'm going to open up and then I'm gonna introduce your campus pastor. And I wanna tell you right now, I am so thankful for your pastor, for the integrity, for the passion, for the love and the heart for people. And if you're new, I promise you, you're gonna feel it. Your pastor prays for you, your pastor loves you, and your pastor wants to show you the love of God.

4:46 And so today, would you just give a really warm, really, really, really excited welcome to your campus pastor. you know pastor craig couldn't have said it better i genuinely love you so so much and i love my pastor pastor craig thank you for the opportunity to team teach with you i mean who gets that opportunity right what an incredible privilege it is to share god's word with his people and i want to take a moment and just recognize that we're here in edmond oklahoma but we're also joined by people all over the world at Life.Church online. We've got a couple of locations joining us as well. I just want to take a moment to thank you for joining us today as we hear God's Word. Can we show some love to the people joining us all around the world from every single country? You know, when Pastor Craig talked to me about this message, I genuinely got really excited, and I also got kind of nervous. And I'm excited because I am a product of a loving church, And I'm a little nervous, actually really nervous, but I'll tell you more about that here in a moment.

5:53 I want to just take a moment to just recognize that today, it's a really tough day. And it's a tough time in our world. And God calls us to love people, and this can be really challenging. And that's why I'm a little nervous, because today I might say some things that you might not like. And you might not even like me by the end of this. and that makes me a little nervous because I kind of want you to like me, but I also want you to hear God's word. And so before we jump into all of that, I do want to introduce you to a person who doesn't just like me, but she loves me. My best friend, my wife Liz. This May, we will celebrate 24 years of marriage and I love her so much, but I want to show you a picture before it even started. This was way back before we even dated. This is us as teenagers at a church camp. And if you ask her, she says that I asked her to take a picture.

6:49 But I was a rapper at the time. You can see the microphone. So I think she was a fan and she just wanted a picture with me. But I love my wife so much. And when I think about those two young people, I recognize that both of us, we are a product of a loving church. Our life has been impacted by God's love through his people, through the church. And today, I want to take a moment to show you two stories about two guys so that you'll learn two truths. So if you are a note taker, I'm helping you out right now. This is how you map out your notes. Two stories about two guys so you'll learn two truths. And the first story is found in Mark chapter 2. Now, whenever the Bible doesn't name somebody, I kind of like to put a name in there just because it makes it a little more relatable to me. So we find our first story in Mark chapter 2. So we're going to give this guy a name, okay?

7:41 And his name is going to be Benito. Everybody say Benito. Okay, for those of you that don't speak Spanish, let me translate. It's Benito, okay? Benito. Let's just call him Benny, okay? This is Benny, all right? So let's read Scripture. Mark chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. It says, a few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. they gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door. And Jesus preached the word to them. Some men came bringing to him a paralyzed man. This is Benny, okay, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, this is really important. I need you to remember this scripture. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, son, your sins are forgiven.

8:43 So Benny was paralyzed. And back then, that created some feelings around paralyzed people. Like, people pitied them. They felt sorry for them. So you could say, you'd be like, man, poor Benny, right? Poor Benny. Everybody say, poor Benny. Like, he can't walk. In Spanish, you would say, pobrecito. Benito. It rhymes, right?

9:10 But what we're going to see is that he might have been poor in health, but he was rich in relationships. He had four friends that didn't pity him, but they loved him. They cared for him. And I want to show you two truths. And here's the first one. A loving church carries burdens. A loving church carries burdens. So picture the scene. Okay. The house is packed. I mean, from the windows to the walls, there's no room, right? And everybody's trying to get something from Jesus. Everybody wants something for him. But verse three says this, some men came bringing to Jesus, a paralyzed man carried by four of them. Notice what his friends didn't say and what they didn't do. They didn't say, oh, Benny, I'll be praying for you. They didn't say, oh, Benny, I hope you find some help. No, what did they do? They picked him up, carried him, and brought him to Jesus. Why? Because love doesn't watch from the sidelines. Love carries the burden. Paul told the believers in Galatia to carry each other's burdens. And in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ. In other words, love doesn't just point people to Jesus, it carries them to him. And this is important because you know this, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And this matters now more than ever, because if you're honest, if we just look at your feed, if you look at the news, we're seeing a world that's consumed with knowing more while caring less. And as Christ followers, we are in this world, but we're not of this world.

10:58 And just, let's just tell the truth. Like we have access to unlimited information on our devices. And you got to be careful to not just continue to fill your brain and lose your heart. the church is called to care. The church is called to love. And as Christ followers, we're called to love others. We're called to carry the burdens. The world, the world is all about, let me prove you wrong and show you how I'm right. Like you see that love proves that you care when you pick up the burden. And I'm so thankful for a church full of burden bearers. We got a church full of people that love to carry others. And I want to share with you three quick examples of some people that do this in our church. So, you know, the YouVersion Bible Lab. How many of you got the Bible Lab? You got the Bible Lab? You love it? Yeah? Did you know you could submit a prayer request in there? Yeah, you can submit prayer requests. So let me introduce you to Loveth.

11:58 Loveth lives in Nigeria and she volunteers for YouVersion. Loveth in six months has replied to and prayed with over 2,000 prayer requests. Just in six months. She is a burden bearer, okay? The next one. The next one is Casey. Casey, for two years, she's been writing. She volunteers with our Life.Church online team. She's been writing to inmates who send us their stories. These are people that are incarcerated, needing hope. And she's been writing letters to them every single week. She reaches out and encourages them and shows them the love of Jesus. She is a burden bearer. And there's a third example. There's a family who found out they had no place to live. And another family in the church found this out. And so they said, hey, we've got like this little old trailer that we could just give this family. They could live there. So he gave it to them and they actually let them live on their property. I don't know, I think that might be against the rules, but they let them live on their property. They carried the burdens.

13:03 And it's just three examples of our church, people that carry burdens. See, when you love, you carry the burdens. And what's amazing to me is you can show that you care in so many different ways. Like if someone's hurting, you can slow down and listen to them and pray for them. If someone's having a baby and nobody's throwing them a shower, you could be the one that says, hey, I'll throw you a baby shower. If somebody is sick, you can bring them a meal. Like, there's so many ways. And see, sometimes love looks big, and sometimes it looks small. But it's always personal. It's always personal. And what's amazing is that every single one of us has the potential to love like Jesus. You don't need a title. You don't need a platform. You don't even need to fix the problem. You just need to be willing to pick up the weight. Because when the church carries burdens, people experience the love of God. And when people experience the love of God, lives are changed. And a church that pleases God is made up of people who love like Jesus. So how does Jesus love? Jesus loves by carrying the burdens. And here's your second truth. Okay, write this down. Love breaks the rules to serve and save people.

14:22 Love breaks the rules to serve and save people. Y'all rule followers right now, you're like, what? It does. Watch what Mark says in verse four. Since the four friends could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat that the man was laying out. Now, I know for a lot of us, we're thinking like, that's so creative. It wasn't creative. It was crazy. Like they dug a hole in somebody's roof. And to us, it could sound creative, but it was not. And listen, I'm pretty sure property destruction was against the rules back then as it is now. And they didn't just break that rule, but they actually broke some social rules as well. Jesus was in the house and he was teaching. And you don't just break up or interrupt a conversation and you definitely don't interrupt a rabbi who's teaching. They broke these rules. Why? Because they loved their friend. And what's crazier to me is that Jesus didn't stop them. He didn't say, hey, hey, hey, what are y'all doing?

15:28 He didn't rebuke them. Jesus didn't look at them and say, hey, who's paying for that? Why? Why? Why didn't he stop them? Because Jesus broke the rules for love too. Jesus, he ate with sinners and the Pharisees hated that. He forgave prostitutes. That was scandalous. He touched the lepers. He loved tax collectors. Jesus broke the rules for love. And in Mark's story, he tells us that Jesus saw something. Do you remember what he saw? Do you remember? You got to look closely, okay? I want you to see this right now. I want you to look at it because Jesus didn't focus on their wealth. He didn't focus on their acumen. He didn't focus on, do they have engineering degrees? He didn't focus on any of that. What did Jesus see? Jesus saw their faith. Jesus saw their faith. he saw their faith now sometimes you hear read things in the scripture and you're like what like how do you see faith how can you see faith he saw their faith in actions expressed through love see if rules keep people from Jesus love finds another way now let's pause here briefly Let's just recap, okay?

16:52 Here's what we got. We got a paralyzed man. We got Benny, and he needs healing, and he has four friends, and what do they do? They pick him up, carry him, and lowered him, right? So everybody say with me, say, they picked him up, carried him, lowered him. Some of y'all ain't talking. I'm right here in person. I can see you. I'm not on the screen. So you guys in the chat, you can put that in there as well. So everybody together, they picked him up, carried him, and lowered him, okay? Now, this is important because I look at scripture and I'm like, wait a minute, hang on, hold up one second, because I don't know how tall ceilings were back then, but let's just say seven feet. Sounds pretty good, right? Seven feet. So these four guys bring their friend and they dig a hole through their roof, And what do they do? They make this hole and they start lowering him down, right? Now, at some point, you got to believe there was a gap between Benny and the floor.

17:51 The Bible doesn't say anything about a rope or any device. Like, they're just hanging on to Benny, right? And I just picture the conversation going something like, hey, Benito, you trust us? Oh, yeah. And I, hey, bro, I mean, Benny, I mean, he's already paralyzed. He's going to get healed. So on three, one, two, they drop him, right? Like, let's just be honest, right? So they picked him up. Say it with me. They picked him up, carried him, dropped him. Let's just call it what it is. Okay. So what does Jesus see? And what does he do? Jesus sees their faith and then he forgives his sins. He doesn't even heal them right then and there. He says, son, your sins are forgiven. Even with that statement, Jesus broke the rules. The Pharisees were saying, hey, hey, hey, only God can forgive sins. So here's my question for you.

18:56 What rules do you need to break to bring someone to Jesus? Let's be honest. It's actually easier to carry the burdens and break the rules for someone you love than for someone you don't. like, let me remind you that we're here in church and we're not supposed to lie. It's easier, right? It's easier to carry the burdens and to break the rules for someone you love and someone you don't. And as I was studying this story, it reminded me of a second guy. So this is your second story and your second guy. This guy also got picked up, carried, and dropped. and he does have a name. His name is Jonah. If you've been in church, you've heard Jonah's story. Even if you haven't been in church, you've probably heard some story about a guy getting swallowed up by a fish. You might have heard of it, but let me take just about 60 seconds and tell you the story really quickly, so you're going to have to listen fast, okay? So listen fast, all right? So Jonah is a man of God, okay? And God tells him, Jonah, I need you to go to the Ninevites, who are evil people, and I need you to tell them to repent, or I'm going to destroy them. Now, when I say evil, that doesn't do it justice. These were horrible, evil people. I'm talking about child sacrifices, torturing people, heads on stake. They were evil, and the entire world hated the Ninevites. And Jonah also didn't like them. He didn't like them. And so God tells him, go tell him this. Go tell him.

20:30 Jonah knows who God is. God is gracious. God is good. And he thinks, well, what if they repent? he's going to forgive them. I don't want that. So what does Jonah do? He disobeys God. He goes in the opposite direction, gets on a ship and starts sailing in the opposite direction. But how many of you know, sometimes God will break the rules to get your attention. I don't know what the weather forecast was, but they didn't expect the storm. God sends a storm and the ship is getting tossed around. All the shipmates are going crazy. What is going to happen? What's happening? They wake up Jonah. Jonah wakes up and he's like, sorry guys, my bad. This is on me. And so what do they do? They picked him up, carried him, dropped him in the ocean, right? The storm calms down. A big fish comes, swallows him up. Three days, three nights in the belly of the fish, drops him on the shore. Jonah stands in front of the Ninevites and he's like, fine, I'll tell him. So he gets up there and he says, repent, turn or burn. And I could imagine him just kind of stepping away and saying, all right, I did it. Smite them. Strike them down. You know what's crazy? It's crazy what happens.

21:40 They repent. Watch what Jonah 3.10 says. When God did what? When God saw, sound familiar? Jesus saw when God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways. He relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. He saw, they turned and he forgave.

22:13 So one guy needs Jesus. One guy is called to preach. both get picked up, carried, and dropped. So let's just call it what it is. Most of us, we don't need to dig holes in roofs. We need to make room in our heart for people that we don't like. There are people you don't like. Let's just be honest. Gossipers. Anybody like a gossiper? No. Self-centered people? No. One-uppers? One-downers? Android users? Green bubbles, ah! All joking aside, we have to be honest. There are certain types of people, certain groups, certain individuals that you don't like and that you maybe even hate.

23:14 See, the world is growing more and more hateful. The rules are clear on who you're supposed to like and who you're supposed to hate. If you're this political party, you hate this political party. If you're this race, you hate this race. If someone in your family hurt you, it's okay to hate them. And let me just be clear, this isn't just an America thing. This happens all over the world. There are countries that for centuries, if not thousands of years, you've been told, those people we don't like. If you're honest, you might even think to yourself, who is deserving of God's love? And you might think, well, not those people. See, the world is growing more hateful, but you got to break the rules, your rules, society norms. You got to break the rules to love people to Jesus. The world says, hate them, fear them. But this book says, love your neighbor. This book says, lay down your life. This book says, give God's love away.

24:26 Be generous with your love. And as Christ followers, we're called to live by his word, not by what the world says. Are you willing to love people that you might not even like? Some of us are waiting for the world to become more loving. Some of us might be waiting for the system to become more caring. It's time to stop waiting. It's time to start loving. and as your pastor i think about our church i think about the beauty of our church the faces of our church and i think about how many of you are people who care and carry each other's burdens people who are willing to do anything short of in to reach people for Jesus. I think about a church of people who don't just care, they carry the burdens, who don't just follow the rules, but they rescue people. Maybe today you need someone to carry you and remind you of your purpose, that your purpose is to love even those you may not like. Why? Why? Why does this matter? Why is this important? Because it's all for the one.

25:49 it's all for the one. It's because there's still room for one more, one more hurting person, one more person that's far from God that needs healing and hope. There's room for one more. It's all about the one. Why? Because at one point, you were the one. I was the one. you were the one that needed to be carried. I was the one that needed to be loved. It's all about the one. I think back to just in my life, how many times the church has loved me. I think of about our first baby that we had a miscarriage and lost our baby, and that spiraled me into depression and anxiety and loneliness and secret sin and shame. It wasn't until I went to a pastor and just told him everything that was happening. And that pastor picked me up. He carried me and he laid me down. He dropped me at the feet of Jesus to find healing, to become whole, to be made new. And I think about 15 years ago when I picked up my family from Los Angeles and moved to Oklahoma City and Life.Church loved us and cared for us and accepted us and embraced us.

27:06 And I think about my pastors, Pastor Craig and Amy, who we just celebrated 30 years, 30 years ago, they planted a church that broke the rules. People told them you can't do that in church, but they broke the rules to create a place where everyone can come just as they are. I think about my leaders who are breaking some rules by even letting me stand on this stage. Why? Because I don't have a seminary degree. I dropped out of college right before I graduated. But on paper, by the rules, I'm not qualified to stand up here, but they broke the rules because of God's anointing and his grace, and by his favor I'm able to stand on this stage and give you God's Word. It's all about the one. And I think about it just even in my childhood, because remember that trailer? Remember that family? That was my family. Somebody did that for us. Somebody gave us a place to live.

28:04 Somebody cared for us. And if he did that for me, I want to lay my life down, reaching one more, doing anything to care for the one. And you can too. You can do it too. You can love people, all people. You can pick them up. You can carry them. And you can lay them at the feet of Jesus, loving them to Christ. And in this way, if we do this, look, online, if we do this together, if you love people to Jesus, if I love people to Jesus, we go from being people who please God to being a church that pleases God. And that is what we are going to be. We're going to be a church that pleases God. So God, we thank you. Thank you that you are a good, loving Father.

28:57 That you loved us, Father God, when nobody else would. As we pray today, I recognize that there are some of you here today that even just thinking about your pain and the pain that you've experienced in your life, I can understand that it can be hard to have love in your heart for that person who betrayed you, that person who abused you, that person who hurt you, the people that labeled you. I can understand it can be hard to have love for them. But if you'll come to your heavenly father and ask him, he will miraculously give you the ability to love them. today as we pray if you're here and you say you know what i want jesus to make me more loving i want him to make me a more loving person if that's you and i hope this is everyone here today would you just raise your hand i want to pray for you say yeah i want to i want jesus to make me more loving god would you make us a loving church father god would you make us a loving people, Lord. God, that we would love others towards you. Lord, even the people that we may not connect with, the people that we are far from, the people that just look different, Father God, Lord, that you would just put your love in our hearts for them. That we would remember that they're the one that you cared for, that the good shepherd leaves the 99 to go after the one, to pick up the one, to carry the one and bring them home. And so would you use us to love the one that's far from you? As we continue praying, nobody looking around. There are those of you here today that as you hear about this love from God, if you're honest, you might say, listen, I don't know that God could love someone like me. Like I've made a lot of mistakes. I've done a lot bad things. I've hurt people. There's just no way God could love me. Let me just tell you,

31:05 I understand where you're at. I was there too. I felt like my sins disqualified me from a loving God. And if I can just be honest with you, if we were to just sit down and have a conversation and I ask you, hey, do you know God's love? Have you surrendered to him? Have you found healing? If you were honest, you might say things like, well, I don't know. I don't know where I stand with God, let me just tell you right now. God loves you so much, and he knew that our sin would separate us from him, and so he did something. He broke the rules. He sent his son Jesus, who lived a perfect life. He did not sin, and Jesus did something for us that we could not do. Jesus broke the rules for you. Jesus picked up the cross, carried it, and laid his life down for love. He did it because he loved you. And scripture tells us that anyone who calls on Christ, anyone who turns from their sin, repents from their sin and turns towards God would be saved, would be forgiven. And for many of you, that's actually why you're here today.

32:13 It's to turn away from your sins, to repent, to say, God, I need you in my life. I need your forgiveness and your grace. And that is why you're here. And so in a moment, I'm going to count to three. And when I get to three, if that's you, I want you to raise your hand up to say, yes, I need Jesus. I'm a sinner in need of a savior. And if that's you, I'm going to count to three. When I get to three, I want you to lift your hand up right now. One, God loves you. He's here for you today, ready to forgive you and give you a new life. Two, don't wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow's not promised to anyone. Today is your day of salvation. Three, come on, lift your hand up right now and look up at me. I see you there. God bless you here in the front. God is with you. I in Christ, others that say yes. Those of you online, just type in the chat. I give my life to Jesus as we surrender to Jesus today. I got you right here as well. God bless you, brother. Come on, church. You should be celebrating big as people turn to Jesus.

33:11 We're going to pray together. Those of you online, just repeat this prayer with us. Say, Heavenly Father, Almighty God, I give you my life. I surrender my heart. Today I declare Jesus as my Lord and my Savior. I receive your love. Fill me with your Spirit so I can follow you, serve you, and love others like you love me. Thank you for that love. Thank you for new life. now you have mine in Jesus name I pray somebody get a little crazy somebody get a little loud come on celebrate new life in Jesus today