Pastor Robert and TaQuaris Smith
Brian: TaQuaris and the word of God that they teach. Wednesday's a big night too. Isn't it?
Robert: This Wednesday.
Brian: Yeah. This Wednesday is another class that Robert teaches. Let's welcome them again. God bless you. We love you. Thanks so much for being a part of Hope.
Robert: Praise the Lord. It's good to be with you again this morning. Before we get started, men next Friday, the 19th is upon us, and we are going to camp Lebanon for our men's retreat. We have spaces for many, many, many, many, many, many more of you. We want you to come and see us. See Brad Netherton after the service. Those of you who are here see him at the back table. He wants to talk to you and get you signed up. The cost is $125 for the registration, but don't let that stop you. We'll figure that out. So, if that's an issue or question you have still come see Brad and the rest of the guys after service today. For those of you that have signed up, Brad wants to see you also. He has some things to give you, some instructions, the agenda for the weekend and some guidelines. So please see him. All of us that have signed up, see Brad after the service today. We are getting ready for great fun in the Lord next weekend. I'm looking forward to it. But we want more of you to join us. So wives, if there are husbands here and online that you know haven't signed up and have no excuse to sign up, please send them our way. Amen. We'd love to have them with us. Amen. Hallelujah. Next month will be one year since my family joined Hope Community.
It's actually a year ago this month that we got acquainted with the church through mama Ruby's homegoing, Jacque's mom, who I've actually known for many years before I even knew about Hope. So, I have been in fellowship with Ms. Ruby for quite some time, and she was always affectionate towards me. So that always meant a lot to me. She would always have me pray for her. So that was special to me. I miss those times. Prayer is an intimate time with the Lord. So, to be asked to do that was an honor. I was very blessed by that. We've been blessed to be here as we reflect upon it. Little did we know that just about a year ago, the very first sermons that we preached here at Hope were entitled “A Visible Community” and “A Loving Community”. Little did we know that those two sermons would set the stage for what we are sharing today. When Pastor Brian had asked Pastor Jeff and I to spend the month of August collectively sharing our vision for the future of our church community, it was immediately impressed upon me that in my spirit that the framework of what we are sharing for that vision was embedded in those two messages. Here is an advertisement for those two messages.
If you haven't listened to those messages, I would encourage you to go back and listen to A Visible Community and A Loving Community that we did about a year ago. Looking to the future, I believe there is 'great hope' for the future. In this past year, I think we've come a long way as a church family. There have been some challenges, some turnover, some attrition, some new things and sorrowful things and joyous things, whatever it is you name it. We've been through a lot in the years’ time. Would you agree with that? But I think that we've come a long way. I'm humbled and blessed at the same time by the way in which this community has embraced my family, but also that you have embraced the message that we've brought. Right now, as we look to the future, it's time for Hope Community Church to really be a trailblazer in modeling what a Christ-centered church really looks like. Eventually, I'll get to the scriptures today, but I just want to share what the Lord has put in my heart and put in my spirit concerning our church community. So, I'm trying to lay down the foundation of that. As I look ahead, I don't want to say I use the term a seer. But as I look ahead, I try to discern what's going on locally and globally in the world, try to get the mind of God and what's going on in the earth. I, again, see some challenges for us both as a nation and as a church, locally and globally. I'm not a doomsday prophet, so I'm not trying to alarm you in any way.
But I am charging us to, for lack of a better term, the old saying that says to put our money where our mouth is. What do I mean by that? In other words, it's time to move from lip service to actually looking like what we believe in Christ. There was a song by Tina Turner that says, "What's love got to do with it?" Well, Ms. Tina, when it comes to the church of Jesus Christ love has everything to do with it. We envision, as we have laid down and put forth in the month of August to share our vision of where we see Hope, where we like to see as the Lord directs us. We envision a church that is loving, so loving that even the darkest skeptic would be drawn to the radiant glow that would emanate from this place. Call me a dreamer, but I believe it's time to put our love into action. That's the title of our message today to Put Our Love in Action. Disclaimer, the word love, unfortunately in our society has been tainted. Let's not be a part of that tainted idea of love. For most of the world, love seems to be a passive thing. To me as a Christ follower, love is very strong, perfectly modeled by this man. You may know him. He was from Nazareth. He was scorched with his flesh ripped apart, beaten, and bled that he was unrecognizable, and he was nailed to a wooden cross.
He was hung up on that cross with the sun beating down on his torn-apart body, and he uttered the words, "Forgive them." I don't know any man on the face of this earth that would do that today. But that to me was the ultimate example of love. So, love, in the Christian term community, is a very strong self-sacrificing, and hopefully will move from idea to practice. Love seems to be talked about so much that it's lost its meaning. We throw the word love around so much without really giving it the proper do. But I envisioned a church that's different. From day one when my family and I walked into the doors of this building, we felt genuine Christian Love and we still do today from the pastors down to everyone that we've come in contact with. So we are grateful. So, the challenge has been--I remember the first time getting inspired by messages and even talking with my wife about the messages that I would get. The question that would come up, whether it was stated or not was would that really minister to hope? They seem so great. They got it all together, so what could we possibly share? Well, as a teacher in the body of Christ, we talk about the Fivefold Ministry of Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastors, and Teacher. Obviously, Pastor Robert, you see the pastor in front of the name.
But God has called me to be a teacher, which I don't take lightly. A teacher in the body of Christ. I believe the number one role of a teacher is to help bring, usher, and navigate a body of people to maturity in something. So, maturity speaks of growing and challenging, and when you think you got something you can do it better type of thing. I remember in college, I considered myself a great writer. As a matter of fact, I thought at one time that's what I would do. I would become a journalist. But someone, unfortunately, told me I wasn't going to make any money. So, I gave up that dream. But I wrote tons of papers. When I teach in Bible school my students would always say, "Why is he making us write all these papers?" and I'm like, "You will never write as many papers as I have in my lifetime." I remember one time I had written a paper and I had to take it to my professor's office and talk about what he'd given us for the grade. So, for this particular paper, he gave me a B. You have to understand me getting a B on a paper, I'm like, "No, I'm going to go give this professor a piece of my mind. We got some problems. So, I went into his office, and I said, "Dr. Messina, this is an A-paper." He looked at me and said, "Robert, you are absolutely right." I thought, "Yes." I was like, "Yeah, change my grade." I was just arrogant. Yes, change my grade. I said, "I'm glad you agree. So, you are going to change my grade? He said, "Nope." I said, "I thought you just said you agree with me that this was a paper." He said, "Yes. For anybody else, it would be. But for you, you didn't do any effort. I know you could do better. I want you to go back and revise this paper, and then I'll give you an A, or you'll earn an A."
That experience at the time, as a young college student, I'm like "This guy is tripping." But that was the 19-year-old version of me. As I stand here today, the 46-year-old version of me really appreciates that moment. In a lot of ways, it framed me to be the teacher that I am today, and that's to make people better than what they think they are, even in a great place of believers that this place is whether here or online. I've met some great people that worship with us through Livestream. So, I know we have great people amongst us, but I know we can be greater. I know we can be greater. I have a mandate. I'm here on assignment to be used in whatever way to lead us into that greatness through Christ. It's not my way, Pastor Jeff. It's the Jesus way. The root of that is actionable love. Not just in our lip service, not in this great idea fantasy of love, but in real down-to-earth love.
So that's what we want to talk about today, love and action. For what I believe God has called this church to be now and in the future. I believe we are special. Call me biased, but I believe we are special. Special for the reasons that even the pastor shared just a few minutes ago, "Whom we are attracting and whom the Lord has called to this church. We can't be like everybody else." Especially in the area of loving our brothers and sisters, you can't carry the same baggage that other places carry. It won't work. Because if you are going to be a hospital for wounded and hurting people, you got to have the healthy people--as I said, Jacque--with untainted hearts that don't have hang-ups, that don't have prejudices, that are not camped out in cliques, camps, and factions and are separated by the things that separate the world... Hurting people are not going to come here. Guess what? If they do, they are not going to stay.
TaQuaris: That's right. Amen.
Robert: So, we have to be distinctive in the way that we behave first towards one another, and then that can move on to how we treat others.
TaQuaris: Too much is given, and much is required.
Robert: This is just the introduction. I'm trying to get to the scriptures. I'll let the scriptures speak for themselves. But the Lord is giving me this charge to give to you because I see the people that are afraid to come. Do you know that since I got here, since I got hired at even part-time— This is not a flag post for Pastor Robert. My life is an example for you. Like I told Pastor Brian, I'm invested in being here with blood, sweat, and tears. Hopefully, not too much blood. I'd rather be lopsided on the sweat and tears than the blood. But I think being in the kitchen I've nicked myself a few times. My wife and I spend every week literally ministering to people and encouraging them to come to this place that we call Hope, every week, almost every day. If you look around, there are people here that reflect that. But there are many more that are not because they are hurting. They don't trust. They are stuck. They've been wounded so much that I don't have the words to convince them. But we steadily put out the invitation and encouragement. We encourage them to come, taste and see. But in order for that formula to work, we got to be at our best, Hope. We have to model what we are preaching. We have to chisel at the things that will be a stumbling block for us to resemble Christ. Did you have something?
TaQuaris: I was just going to say that it's very important to be on the leadership that really has Shepherd's heart. I mentioned that to Pastor Brian and Jacque many times because I've been in the twin cities since I was 17. The first church I attended I was there for 12 years. We were affiliated with a lot of churches, singing and going to their churches. My pastor would go minister. So, I know a lot of the churches in the twin cities. Honestly, I thank God for hope. I'm not saying anything negative about other churches, but the love was sincere amongst each other, being transparent, and wanting to change. We are the church, first of all. Being in a building amongst each other, fellowshipping, and worshiping God, to be honest with you, there is a point where the church has failed people. It's sad to say, unfortunately, I've seen it. But God is calling us higher. I believe that's one of the reasons why my husband said that this place is special. Because we are living in a day and time where true love is needed, and it only comes through the love of Christ.
Robert: I'm going to try to get into some scriptures now. If we take a look at 1st John 3:14-18, it sets the tone for how we got inspired for this message.
TaQuaris: If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don't have eternal life within them. We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So, we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need, but shows no compassion--how can God's love be in that person? Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.
Robert: By our actions, by what we do. We can say, "I love you brother or sister," all we want to. But when we don't extend our hand or our ear or our comfort or money or sacrifice, whatever, then how are we really showing love for one another, especially our brothers and sisters in the Lord? If I look back at the message we did on A Loving Community, there was a point that I made in that sermon that I thought would be appropriate here, and it was this. If the church is going to be a true witness to the world of God's love, then it first must be manifested among us in the body of Christ. If anyone calls themselves a believer, I like the term a Christ follower. Then loving our brother and sister in the Lord is not optional. Regardless of skin color, regardless of so-called race, regardless of economic status, regardless of family status or origin, regardless of political affiliation... I can preach on that all day. I'll come back to that in a minute. Regardless of the differences in our opinions, we in the church are called to love one another. We in the church are different. We are meant to be different. We are not a monotone church. Globally, universally, we are made of many different people, many different languages, many different family origins, many different economic statuses, many different skin tones, and many different origins. We are all different. It is in that difference, in that diversity, that is the uniqueness and specialness of the church of Jesus Christ.
TaQuaris: Amen.
Robert: All of those differences are just to enhance the church, not divide the church. They are to enhance the church. As we go towards one goal of modeling Jesus Christ to the rest of the world and spreading the good news of his message in the different flavors, that we do it to reach all people, not to divide and be divisive over things that the world is divided upon.
TaQuaris: The Bible says that we are in the world, but we are not of the world. That has a lot to do with our lifestyle, what's in our hearts and how we think. God is the common denominator for all of this. Jesus is the common denominator. It's impossible to actually love people without Jesus. It's easy to love your family. Think about it this way. We all have our family or some relatives that we don't quite like. Everyone has that in their family, someone that might just get on your nerves. But you still love them because you know that they are your family and you were taught to love them. It's the same way we are family. It doesn't matter if I don't look like you or if I don't sound like you, we are still family.
We are embedded in the family of God. We have been adopted into the family of God through the sacrifice of Jesus. So, we have to love just like that. It doesn't matter if we don't agree all the time. We are not going to always agree. So let's just not have the expectation. We have to love. I just want to go back just a little bit, because you were mentioning things about love. The world sees love as an emotion. I just want to make this statement. It's not an emotion. It really is an action. You can feel things from the action of love, but if you think it's part of the emotion that's your soulish realm. The emotion is really part of your soulish realm. You can love someone and still might not feel a certain way. There is a difference. But love is an action. It's in doing something.
Robert: Love will be put to the test as we have seen in the last few years. There is nothing new under the sun. Things happen in cycles and patterns. We've seen a season that has been highlighted because of all the different circumstances. Notice I said it has been highlighted. The ills of our world, of our society, of our church, it has highlighted. It is exposed. It hasn't been caused. It has exposed things that have been under the surface for years, for generations. We didn't just now start having political divisiveness in this country. We did not just start having racial division in this country. It's been embedded in this country if we tell the truth. One thing about love is love tells the truth.
TaQuaris: That's right.
Robert: Love tells the truth because it wants to heal, not to divide. Lies divide. Putting your hand in the sand when your head needs to stand up is divisive or divisive. The Lord sheds lights on things so that they can be corrected and healed and improved upon and to be able to move forward. So, love exposes the lie, not for condemnation but to do something about it. I transitioned from a previous place in ministry to this place in ministry. I transitioned during a time in our nation when we were divided over the COVID pandemic. We were divided over the exposure of racial injustice, and the list goes on--and getting married. All of this was in a period of transition. I saw the ugliest side of the church that I've seen in my lifetime. It really grieves my heart that even friendships that I've had were lost or changed in some way during that time. I saw people entrenched in their camps. At the same time, it was humorous to me to see people defend certain positions when they really haven't had any investment in those positions, but they decided to choose a side.
So all of a sudden people that weren't political became the poster child of politicians. I'm sorry, I have a special issue with that because for most people, my peers, and people I've come into contact with, I've been more political than any of you will ever be. Let me clarify. I grew up in Chicago. Do you want to talk politics? I married into a political family. The family I married to worked for both Richard Daleys. So, I married into the Daley machine. My family was in the midst of anything democratic in Chicago. I did campaigns for Richard Daley, a part of the political process, the democratic machine. I go into college. I moved to Minnesota. I was a card-carrying Senate District 45 Republican. Ground roots; Republican working in the caucuses. So don't tell me about politics. Don't tell me which side of the fence we are on because quite frankly, both parties broke my heart.
TaQuaris: Amen.
Robert: Both parties. I found they manipulated me because of the color of my skin and because of my religious status. So there is no longer in me any allegiance to an organization or a party. My allegiance is to Christ. My pathway is to be led by the spirit, not by a man, not by a political party. Because when you do that, you become blinded to what is right and what is wrong. What is right or wrong is not encamped in any particular person or party. Right is right and wrong is wrong. We are all going to have our different affections towards someone or something or some organization. That's fine. That's your prerogative. That's the greatness of this country. You can choose who you want, who you want to be, who you want to side with all of that. But guess what? Patriotism does not equal Christianity. Let me say that again because that's a lie that has to stop. That's a lie that divides the church. Christianity does not equal patriotism. They are not married together. If they are, it has become an unholy union in this country and it divides us. Okay? So, for us, for Hope Community Church, you can go to the polls and vote for whoever you want to. I don't care. That's your right. That's the beauty of being in this United States of America. But my goodness, do not let that come and taint your relationship with your brothers and sisters in Christ that may think differently and feel differently than you do.
TaQuaris: Yes.
Robert: Let's not make assumptions either. One thing, as an African American don't assume that I'm going to vote or be politically aligned a certain way. I'm the wrong one. I'm led by the spirit. I'm going to do what the spirit tells me to do. I don't care how great the campaign is. I don't care how many policies I hate and don't like, and all of those things. I'm going to do what the spirit tells me to do. So, I don't listen to debates. I don't listen to the speeches. I don't listen to any of that. I say, "Lord, what do you want me to do? How do you want me to proceed?" I'm challenging us. I remember the first meeting we had as the men's group. I said, "Men, if we are going to be different, let's challenge how we've been traditionally taught to behave. Because we all come from places where we've been taught a certain way and we've been taught that those ways were right. We've dug our heels into those ways of being right." Growing up in Chicago, I was taught not to trust certain people, especially white people. With roots being from the south, I was born in the south, and that's definitely a no-no. But how does that look for me going forward in a church that's 95% white?
Even if I lived that way before, which to be quite honest and Frank, I never have, which has caused separation even in my own family and my own friends. Because from a little boy, I said, "Something's not right about that." That's why the fruit of me making that stance, I get along with, can talk to, can go up to anybody, any person at any time of the day. I don't care. "Hi, how are you doing?" I don't care about those things. But that doesn't mean that as an African American man, I don't feel pressure and I don't feel disdain for injustices. Injustices have nothing to do with skin color. Let me put that out. Injustice is injustice period. But I'm not blinded to things that are happening in this country. As a black man in the flesh, my emotions can feel some type of way. I felt sorrow. When I saw the full video of George Floyd dying in front of my eyes, my first thought was not, "There is a white man kneeling on the knee of a black man." Do you know what? My first thought was. It was, "There is a man that just died before my eyes," and I started weeping because I knew it was wrong.
The skin colors could have been reversed and guess what? I would feel the same way. I would feel the same way on a human, man-to-man level, of a right and wrong, justice and injustice level. If I look at my skin color and the things that have wrongfully happened, I get angry just because I'm Christian. Loving Jesus doesn't mean I don't get angry. But because of the love of Christ in my heart, I can't stay in that place of anger. I would never be able to minister in that place of anger. I can only minister into a place of love and because my heart is full of love, I can still stand in the place untainted to call out right and wrong without having to pick a side or have a certain affiliation. I'm getting ahead of it in the notes, but hatred and prejudice make you blind. It causes you to be in darkness and does not allow light to shine in. Amen. So, let's move a little bit.
Let's continue to see what love in action looks like. Some of you may have seen the teasers and you saw love, and you may have all these nice little feelings and all of that. "Oh, we ready for Pastor Robert." I still want you to have that excitement for this message, even though it may be a little heavier than you thought. That's good. Because I want to take the greatness of where we are at in love, and I want us to be challenged to even go greater. To even go greater. But these are the areas if you question... Hopefully, you are like me and I want to question myself, "Okay, Lord, I think I'm doing pretty good. But where do I need improvement?" That's what this message is for our community because we all need improvement. We have not arrived. I haven't arrived. There are days that I'm challenged to keep this flesh in check. I've been challenged a lot this past year. So, I've not arrived. But I can come back to the center, and the center is Christ. Philippians 2:3&4.
TaQuaris: Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit; but in loneliness of mine let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Robert: We are bringing this word love to how we are every day. What does this look like? What does this love in action look like? Also, love is a weapon that can be used against the enemy, it can be used against our flesh and those fleshly deeds, those carnal ways that we have. Love can be used to combat that. One of the challenges that we have, especially outside of Christ, is trying to esteem others higher than ourselves. Well, thankfully in Christ, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit prompts us, allows us, and empowers us to be able to esteem others higher than ourselves, to have others' interests even over yours as the body of Christ. Are you motivated by the needs of your brothers before you are motivated by the needs of yourself? The reason I bring it up--to give you a real-world example, there are a lot of us that were taught you get yours first. A lot of people have been brought into the church, "Hey, I get mine first and whatever's left over then I'll give you something." But that's not the love of Christ. That's not the way of Jesus. The way of Jesus is to think of others first. That should be a motivating factor when it comes to our relationship with the body of Christ. First John 2: 9-11.
TaQuaris: If anyone claims, "I am living in the light," but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness. Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in a light and does not because others to stumble. But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.
Robert: That's what I was alluding to before. This love has to be the love that's birth in our hearts, through the Holy Spirit towards one another. We have to put that up against how we truly feel about another brother or sister in the Lord. Because if we say we love Jesus and we have this filthiness in our hearts, the scripture tells us we are walking in darkness. We can't even lead people into the things of Christ when we have this darkness inside of us. The church has downgraded how we treat one another. We've downgraded how the Lord looks at how we truly treat or how we think, and how our minds are towards one another. What that has caused in the church, and we've seen it manifest, where we can have this glorious display of gifts and charisma and even entertainment and all of this festivity at the expense of not worrying about how we come across to other people. What kind of sense does it make? I've heard the excuse that you excuse prophets in the church from being mean because they follow the spirit. Or they are prophetic. So somehow in the last 50 years, prophetic equals mean and abusive. Does that make sense? But you've heard it, haven't you?
I see some nods and I'm sure you guys online have seen it too. Does that make sense at all? Do you think God is winking at the so-called prophetic abusing his children? But I've seen it. I've heard it and been a victim of it. That's not Christ. That's not Christ. There are empty chairs in this auditorium today because people have been falling victim to that very same thing. It's not Christ. It comes from a very dark place. We as believers are to possess a deep love for one another. Maybe sometimes in the Building Blocks of Faith, I know most bible students cringe when you start talking about the original languages, Hebrew and Greek, especially in the New Testament. We may do a time just to do some Greek study and some word study. Because if you look at these letters that we are reading and you look at the language that's being used, especially when it talks about the love of Christ that we are to have. It's some very rich language. The picture that's being put forth for the love is not just this love that you have for chocolate ice cream. The Apostle Paul uses things being turned in your bowels of all places, that from your inside out we are to have this love for one another. The same type of love, that motivated Jesus to go to the cross.
We are not ordinary people. We are not just some clique or organization that's come together. We are the body of Christ. If we are the body of Christ, we exemplify the head of the body, which is Christ. He had a deep love for us. He said, "People will know that you are my disciples," by what? "The Love that you have for one Another." It wasn't that love that we have for one another that the world wouldn't see, is not the love that's displayed by the world. It's something distinctive and different about the love that comes through the body of Christ that attracts people who are broken and who are dark and are looking for a place of comfort and healing. It looks different. That's where we are going, church. It's not easy. It's not hard or difficult because we are bad people. It's because we have this flesh that's been trained up well, that's been fortified well, and in most places unfortunately and in the church, it hasn't been challenged either. It's gone unchecked. But for where I believe God wants us to go as a community, it's time to check it. It's time to kill that flesh. It's time to put it to death. It's a new day. No more status quo, no more being comfortable where we are. Let's set this place on fire. Not literally.
TaQuaris: Just as Jeff said, God has more for us. He does. God has more for us. We haven't arrived. He wants to take us to the new level, from glory to glory. I also want to mention that sometimes we get in our mind that it's all about our church, our particular community. That's a division in the body of Christ as well. I've witnessed it myself. "Oh, because I don't go to this church anymore you guys don't love me anymore." But no, even outside of Hope Community I meet many people that I know are part of the body of Christ and I love all of them just the same. Because we still are family, we have a deep level of love, and it comes from Jesus. I'll just give you a little tidbit of something. When I was growing up, I've been through a lot of things in my life. A very dysfunctional family, my parents were on drugs, my dad used to beat my mom and he was very crazy in the household--I'm the baby of five. But I thank you for the blood of Christ and I thank you for Jesus because his love was in our house. If you see any of my siblings and my parent, well, my dad passed away in 2011, you wouldn't even know that we've been through what we've been through.
In all our neighbors and our friends, it was something about our family that they just loved. But what they had seen was the light of Jesus there and they gravitated toward us. Even now in our adult years, we are the ones they come to for prayer and for wisdom. Even with my mom, her siblings come to her now. She was a black sheep of the family. I'm saying that to say when Jesus found me as a kid in that house going through so much trauma that I couldn't even express it. I felt that Jesus was real, and I said to myself, "Okay, God, if you are real then there must be hope." That's what I said as a kid. Something just grew inside of me for the body of Christ. As a kid, all I could think about was people. I want them to know the love of God. I want them to know that God can work miracles and that he can do so many things. So, for me, I'm going to be honest. I didn't struggle with that as much, growing up and loving people. I'm just being honest. I'm not better than anybody, right? But I've been through so much that I have compassion for people, whether it's people in the body of Christ or people that are outside of the body of Christ, the wounded, the hurt.
That is my desire. That is my passion. As a kid, I used to just go and tell people about Christ. I was made fun of a little bit, but it was my love for them. Even if they didn't even know Christ, I still had this love for them. I just wanted them to know how good he is and what he can do. I've seen miracles and it's not just about the miracles. But God placed that in me, it wasn't me. That's my point in bringing this up. Going through trauma while growing up, how God just put the love of Christ inside of my heart for people, for the hurting, for the wounded. So, the Bible says love is the principal thing. It also says that love covers a multitude of sins. It didn't say, "Oh, I'm okay with your sin." No, because you are going to love someone and tell them the truth through the spirit of Christ, right? But it covers that person. Also, you were going about different ministry gifts and this charismatic movement, and we are all for the gifts, right? But still, in Corinthians, it says, "Love is above all of that." You can do all of this. You can prophesy, you can do all of this, but if you don’t have love for your brother, it means nothing. So that's just something to think about.
We going to ponder and pray, "God help us." I've been through a lot of different things as an African American woman, especially working in different jobs, corporations, and things like that. But it was nothing but the love of God that is in my heart, that I can love people in spite of being persecuted and different things like that. It's nothing but the love of God. Even though I feel like I was wrong sometimes, I wake up in the morning and I have my prayer time driving to work, I say, "God create in me a clean heart and renew the right spirit in me." Because sometimes I was upset and I was angry, but I'm like, "God, I need you just like David right now." Because guess what? If I didn't get healed, right? If I didn't bring all of that to the father--and some people don't even know God, and some of them do know God supposedly. But if I didn't bring that to God, I still wouldn't be able to walk and be a light on my job every day. Right. I wouldn't be able to minister through that. I will be blinded by the darkness.
Robert: Amen. Love has to be genuine and authentic, just like our relationship with Christ. I like how this translation in Romans puts it. Romans 12: 9&10.
TaQuaris: Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.
Robert: As I said, don't just pretend to love others. Really love them. TaQuaris was talking about the family of God and that's how the Lord intended us to be, a family of God. It's interesting as I was talking about the languages. Here in this passage if you read it in Greek, the idea here is... In Greek, there are different words for love depending on the expression of that love. A lot of times, the so-called Christian Love that we are described by is called agape. But in this particular verse here agape is not used. The idea is related to us being a family of God. So, it's that brotherly love, that brotherly affection that the Lord is calling us to be, that brotherly affection to one another, like you would love your own flesh and blood, brothers and sisters or families or uncles or grandpa or mom. It's that brotherly affection. That's how we are. I don't know why that message has gone away from the church that that's how we are.
We are not just coming here on Sundays to look at each other, look good and go our separate ways and not have any care or thought about one another. God forbid, do you think of your own family, flesh, and blood that way? The scripture tells us, "No." Even more so, we are to feel that way and honor each other that way in the body of Christ. I am called to honor you, to delight in honoring you, to praise you when you have successes, to weep with you when you have sorrow, to come alongside you, and to be with you as a family, as a brother and sister. That's why we have to grow to challenge ourselves, get out of our comfort zones and have that genuine affection toward one another. Amen. This next scripture, I think this is the last scripture that we want to give you. It actually gets into the nitty-gritty of what I called a code of conduct. How our love for us makes us look different from former behaviors, but behaviors that are very carnal and fleshly. Romans 12: 14-21.
TaQuaris: Bless those who persecute you. Don't curse them; pray that God will bless them.
Robert: Wait a minute. Let's stop there for a second. Read that again.
TaQuaris: Bless those who persecute you. Don't curse them; pray that God will bless them.
Robert: When was the last time you bless someone that persecuted you? Everybody, don’t answer at once. It doesn't seem like an ideal thing to do, does it? But there is wisdom in what the Lord is telling us, and we have to trust in the wisdom that comes from the Lord.
TaQuaris: May I continue?
Robert: Mm-hmm.
TaQuaris: Before I continue, I want to say something about this scripture. This actually kind of blessed my life growing up, just that first part. In the King James Version, I believe it reads something that's, "Bless those who persecute you, bless those, don't curse them--" or something like that. He repeated himself to me. And that stood out to me. Okay, God, you just said, "Bless those who persecute you." Then you said, "Don't curse them." Then you went back to, "Bless them, I say." To me, honestly, I was like, God, you must know it's hard to do that. So you had to say it twice to us, "Look I say, bless those..." Okay. Be happy with those who are happy and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other. Don't be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don't think you know it all. Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the scripture says, "I will take revenge; I will pay them back," says the Lord. Instead, "If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads." Don't let evil conquer you but conquer evil by doing good.
Robert: The love of Christ produces a new way of living for us. I call it a new code of conduct in our relationships. Obviously, the Apostle Paul was writing to a group of believers, and they were having some issues in their relationships. So, he had to address these things to tell them, "This is not the way that you respond in these situations, even the ones that you consider yourself enemies." Hopefully, we don't consider anybody an enemy in the body of Christ. But if we make an application to this, let's just say people we don't get along with. I think there are people we don't get along with in the body of Christ, people that you don't get along with. The love of Christ doesn't give you an excuse not to express love towards them. Did you hear that? Just because you don't get along or don't like them, doesn't give you an excuse to not bless them, because here is the wisdom in Christ. It says, "When you are kind to those who are not kind to you, it's like burning coals on their heads--ashamed."
They have to be a really dark or evil person to not be convicted or feel some type of way when you respond opposite the way they are responding to you. Love wants harmony, not division. So the old worldly way says, "If someone harms you or someone wrongs you, you cut off relationship with them." Or you feel some type of way and you want harm to come to them. But Christ has a new law and that's the law of love. The law of love is a law of peace and reconciliation and restoration that wants the best for people. So even those that persecute you and do wrong to you, the love of Christ said, "I will example the love of Christ to them that will be able to not justify their wrongdoing but convict them in their heart so that they lean towards the light of correction and truth." So instead of it being one whole person, there are two whole people that can be drawn to Christ.
That's what the purpose of it is. Christians, we are not soft and loving and passive for the sake of being soft, loving, and passive. As I say all the time, there is a method to our madness. Because to the world and to the flesh, that's madness. "You are being kind to someone who's mistreating you. What's wrong with you?" Christians are mocked in the world because of it. Sometimes even in the church, "What's wrong with you, girl? You should go off on them. What's wrong with you? They told you this, you should go off and tell..." But that's not the Christ way. The Christ way says yeah, they are going to be told they are wrong, but it's not going to be the telling that you think it is going to be. The conviction of them being wrong is going to be you showing the love of Christ towards them, you giving the example of how to behave and how not to behave."
TaQuaris: Sometimes that doesn't always happen. Then what are you going to do? You still got to love them. It's okay sometimes to have boundaries with people. We are not a doormat. Our love is not a weak love. We are not a doormat. We are not to let people just walk over us. So God gave us wisdom. That's why we got to continue to pray as Jeff said. Jeff and Cheryl said, "God can give you wisdom on how to deal with the most unloving person." I believe that one of the main reasons why this has been on our hearts is for us to be more of a loving community. It's not for ourselves though. Sometimes Christians can be very selfish. It's all about us in our own house. God didn't put us on the earth for just us. We are here to be a sacrifice for other people because there is a dying world out there. We get stuck in these walls, we get filled, we come, and we hear the word, we get full, and we go home, we eat and we are fine. What are you going to do with what God is putting in you? What is it for? It is not for ourselves, it's for the people in the world. The Bible said, "God wishes that no one should perish."
So really the whole meaning of all of this is because we are going to go to heaven. Hopefully, all of us go to heaven. We all want to, right? We want to bring people along with us because that's love. You can't want to bring people with you if you don't love them. It's very impossible to do that. So, we have to realize, we have to model that. We, for what? The world, because at the end of the day, it's about souls. It really is because this world is coming to an end eventually. It really is. So, what are we going to do while we are in the world, while we are in this world right now? What are we going to do with it? What are we going to do for others? It's our motivation. Our love is what motivates us to get out of our comfort zone and to witness to somebody at the grocery store, to be the light and the salt. It's the motivation of our love for Christ that motivates us and wants us to change who we are and be transformed in his image because we really love Christ.
That's our motivation. We got to get out of ourselves. We got to think about others because God is going to take care of us. Start thinking about others and start interceding for other people. I get these emails from Hope about praying for certain things and I appreciate that. When I see it, I just think about that person or that situation, my heart goes out and I immediately pray. That's what we have to do. We have to intercede for each other. We have to come together. God is all about unity and harmony. But I want you guys to understand love is not weak. Sometimes, honestly, we can think that we just got to be walked on and we got to take everything too. No, because if you read about Jesus, he was not weak. Okay. He loved and he corrected out of the spirit of love too.
Robert: I want to leave you with this. God cares about how we treat people within the church and without the church. Can we, as a community of believers, raise that bar of expression of love? I believe we can. I think it's possible. It's going to take an intentional work of laying aside everything that doesn't matter. We have a boatload of stuff that at the end of the day, doesn't matter. It's fading. Everything in this world is fading. But it's going to take an intentional work of laying that aside and emphasizing the life that Jesus modeled. When in doubt follow Jesus. I believe that Hope Community Church, the hope for the future rests in us intentionally modeling Jesus, being passionate about modeling Jesus, authentically modeling Jesus, lovingly modeling Jesus. I believe that our future is very bright, and I think that more people would be drawn into our community of believers.
I believe that as we do just as the Thessalonian church was known throughout Greece. They weren't known pastors by their preaching. They weren't known for their prophesying. They weren't known by how much money they had. They were known throughout all of Greece for one thing and one thing only. It was the love that they had for one another in the body of Christ. Father, we thank you for this treasure that you've given us in this earthen vessel, and that treasure is your spirit. That treasure is something that we carry to the rest of the world, but it starts with us. Father, we pray to you because you've given us our large assignment to model something that is not popular in the fleshly realms. But we know and believe through your spirit that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Lord, we know that it won't happen because we want it to happen. We thank you that all the things that are lining up for this church and this community.
We thank you that Pastor Jeff and Cheryl have laid down the groundwork for us to continue to be a praying church, not just in the public eyesight, but always having that awareness to be in communion with you through praying, speaking, and listening. We pray that as we build upon the love that we already have for one another, we will continue to challenge ourselves to destroy every remnant of that old man that would bring division and strife amongst each other. We pray that as Pastor Brian lays out what's happening around us, our minds would be opened up to see all the great opportunities that we have to witness the love of Christ to this growing community that's happening right before our eyes, that will not only be positive for us right now, but that would have a great impact for generations to come. So, Father God, we thank you that you would bless us and that you would show us the way and that we would gladly follow, in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.
Brian: What a wonderful message. Terrific. Thank you, Pastor Robert and TaQuaris. God bless you. In order for this to work, we have to be intentional about it. A lot of times we just kind of want God to do everything but we have to just take this in and be intentional about it. So, father, we just ask that you help us to be conscious as we live our daily lives while living in this way. Let's raise our hands together. May the Lord bless you. May the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you, his peace. Let us be intentional about loving more, going deeper and higher in the love of Christ. This we pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. We will have people to pray with you at the altar here this morning if you need prayer for anything. I'll be over here to your left, my right, to serve communion to those of you who'd like to have communion today. God bless you. Don't forget to check-in. You can have lunch and bring your dessert home with you today thanks to our dear Russian friends. God bless you. Have a good day.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 8-14-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.