Community Updates from Dr. Bob: 10/4/2023
Out of the Overflow
For the last few weeks of our sermon series on Living and Loving Like Jesus, we’ve been focusing on Jesus’ relationship with God… how he engages God the Father in his own humanity and how that can serve as a template for how we can do the same. We’ve looked at how Jesus prayed, how he did what he saw the Father doing, and how he relied on the Holy Spirit. And hopefully we have all come away with a renewed perspective on how we can engage with God as well.
We’ll now be transitioning from Loving God to Loving Others—the next part in the series. It’s on-purpose that loving others follows directly on the heels of loving God: our energy for loving others comes out of the overflow of our life with God. As Pastor Brett shared in Discipleship Lab this past Monday night, out of that overflow of intimacy with God flows our love and service to the world around us.
As we’re cultivating our intimacy with God, He changes us… He transforms us. That’s why we’re focused on what Jesus did: He who says he abides in him [Jesus] ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 2:6, ESV)
In Times of Transition
At no time is our spiritual formation (loving God) more important than during times of transition. As Tod Bolsinger writes in his article in Fuller Magazine:
Indeed, in times of great uncertainty, perhaps more than other times, those
of deepest faith find themselves refocused on that which is most foundational—and that is not our own surviving and thriving. As C. S. Lewis wrote in the throes of World War II, “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”
In the vulnerability of the earliest centuries of the Christian movement, in times of great global despair, and in the midst of a long struggle for freedom, the most profoundly Christian instinct is to reach out in love, care, and hospitality to others. Their love of God is inextricably tied to Jesus’ co-priority of loving one’s neighbor (Mark 12:28–34)—and right at the point of deepest pain and need….
When we don’t know what to do, we can always do what we have been taught to always do. Come together. Be formed for the challenge. Listen for the pain of our neighbors. Love them well.
For our spiritual formation is not for the sake of self-care or self-improvement, but for the sake of loving others. In times of transition, it’s important to go back to those things we know God has called us to. When we don’t know what to do, when the future is uncertain: love others.
When the world around us sees something really different, that’s what makes the impact. So here’s what to pray about:
- That as a community of faith we would love God wholeheartedly.
- That out of the overflow of that transformation in our lives, we would love others sacrificially.
- That we would go on to make disciples, live with compassion, and join in the mission of Jesus.
The degree to which we live into this reality will determine the future of the church… not only of our local church, but of the impact of the Church Universal on the world around us.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. (2 Cor. 1:3-4, NIV)
