To Love Radically | Power for More | Rick Atchley

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Well, hello, everyone. Pastor Rick here. Welcome to The Hills Church, our online family, everyone in person at one of our four campuses in Dallas or Keller, West Fort Worth, North Richland Hills. Whenever I'm at one of our campuses, I always meet new people, and we're delighted that you're with us today. If you've heard me preach very long, you know that I love me some Chick-fil-A. And some of you remember a story I told recently of attending a Chick-fil-A I go to a lot and having a bit of an unsettling experience. I walked up to the counter. I placed the same order I place every morning, and it rang up less than I expected. I thought the young lady had made a mistake until I saw the ticket and realized she had given me a senior discount. And it was unsettling because I had not asked for a senior discount. I could tell what she was thinking.

That old man got all the way from his car to the counter without a walker? I'm gonna give him a break. And it got me thinking about other signs that I am getting older. And I made a list. They're not necessarily intended to be funny, just reality, things I'm noticing that help me realize I'm getting older. For example, the music I grew up with is now called classic rock. And sometimes I hear it in elevators, which really chaps me. Or I notice that fashion trends are cycling through twice. For example, I see young people wearing flared jeans and Converse thinking they're so hip, and I'm thinking, I wore that in high school. That's not hip. That was out of style. Now it's just coming back. Everything recycles. I notice that whenever I go out to eat, I always wonder, why is the music so loud? And why do all of my doctors look like they ought to be babysitting? You know you're getting older when you quit holding your stomach in no matter who walks in the room?

Or you start wearing black socks with sandals. Now I haven't reached that point yet, but if you ever see me in public in black socks and sandals, please ask my wife to put me away because I don't need to be outside anymore. And finally, you know you're getting older when you order cable so you can get the weather channel. I can see myself in all these things, well, except for the black socks and sandals. And the thing is, I embrace getting older. Aging has its problems, but it also has its perks. For example, with getting older comes time and experience, which holds the potential for wisdom. Notice I said potential because there are some old fools out there. But there's a reason churches are led by people called elders because the assumption is, especially if you follow Jesus, that over time, you have gained wisdom and discernment, especially clarity when it comes to recognizing the overrated and emphasizing the overlooked. As you get older, you realize, I spent a lot of time pursuing

what isn't that important, and I didn't spend enough time pursuing what I realize now really, really matters. And so you start asking yourself in the time you have left, what's the best use of me? And I keep coming back to this verse. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. The more you understand what really counts, the more you're going to count. count on the Holy Spirit for the help that you need. We're in this series called Power For More. This is the third of six lessons. And today, I want to share with you why we need the Holy Spirit's help to love radically. Now, there is a kind of love where you need no divine help. Jesus acknowledged it. It's a love that comes out of the flesh. It's a love that comes naturally, a love that you can will. And it's real, but it doesn't point to God in any real way. Now, Jesus acknowledged this.

Matthew 5. If you love only the people who love you, you will get no reward. Even the tax collectors do that. And if you are nice only to your friends, you're no better than other people. Even those who don't know God are nice to their friends. So, Jesus acknowledges there is a base-level kind of love that you don't need to know God to practice. The tragedy is that many people who do know God never lift their love level above what people who don't know God practice. They don't love unnaturally because they don't love supernaturally. See, loving like Jesus wants requires power for more. And that power is available. The Bible says in Romans 5 that God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. If you follow Jesus, God's love, not natural love, supernatural love, has been poured into your

heart. Why does God ever give you a gift? To hide it? He doesn't want that love to become a private reservoir. He wants it to become a flowing river. In other words, God's love is not poured to be stored. He didn't give us the Holy Spirit just to avoid sinning. It's true the Holy Spirit does call us out to be different, but then it sends us out to make a difference. In other words, we are filled to be spilled. The Holy Spirit propels us toward others, not deeper into ourselves. And we count on the Spirit, who then empowers us to do what counts. Because remember, anything we do without love doesn't count. You might know I Corinthians 13 is the longest section of the whole Bible to define what love looks like.

Let me paraphrase how it starts. If I am the most brilliant orator you have ever heard, but I don't love the people I teach, it doesn't count. If I have all knowledge, there's not a theological problem I can't speak into, but I don't love people. It doesn't count. If I have so much faith, there is no miracle I'm afraid to pray for. And I'm so generous, I bankrupt myself trying to help people. And I even die for the faith. But I don't love. Here's Paul's assessment. I have accrued nothing. I have accomplished nothing. In fact, in his exact words, I am nothing. So I'm gonna teach you some math right now, and I'm qualified because of my upbringing. My grandmothers were bookkeepers. My mother was a bookkeeper. My father was a CPA. My brother is a CPA.

By the way, do you know why CPAs wear gray suits? It's to add a little color to an otherwise drab existence, okay? So I know math, and I'm gonna teach you right now how they do math in heaven. Are you ready? Here it is. It's simple. Anything minus love equals nothing. It doesn't have love. It doesn't count. So when I was a young preacher, I read a book that blessed me by a professor named Haddon Robinson. He tells a story when he was a young preacher. It was the practice of his denomination that when someone was ordained in the ministry, other pastors in the area would come together and give him basically a theological examination. What do you believe about the authority of the Scriptures? What do you believe about the deity of Jesus? What's your views on the end times and the return of Christ? And they're getting to the end of what is a standard examination when one pastor says, but I have a couple more questions. And he said to the young man, do you love people? And Haddon Robbins said, now, I've heard there's no such thing

as a stupid question, but I thought that's got to be close. You're asking someone who wants to be a minister if he loves people, what do you think he's going to say? No, I don't love people. I want to go into ministry because of all the big money I can make. Of course, he's going to say, I love people. Second question, how do you know? Every pastor ought to answer that question. Every follower of Jesus ought to answer that question. If it doesn't count without love, how do you know that what you do counts? What does the capacity to love supernaturally look like? I'm going to show you two ways the Holy Spirit helps us. First, the Holy Spirit lifts our love. That natural love is more about bargaining than blessing. Natural love is based on an investment. I'm getting something back for the expense of loving you. Natural love is I will love you if, because the flesh's natural response is just to give people what they deserve. This reminds me of a story of a mother who had a four-year-old boy and a one-year-old girl. And they're playing together on the floor, and the mother's walking by, and she hears the boy began to cry. So, he comes in the room, what's wrong? And he looked up and said, she pulled my hair and it hurts. And so, she got on her knees and said to her son, listen, she's a baby. Be patient. She does not know that pulling hair hurts.

She gets up and leaves the room. Talks only two steps down the hall. She's crying. So, the mother comes back, what happened? And her son looks up and says, now she knows. And this is how the flesh works. Give people what they deserve. Now, listen to me. You don't need the help of the Holy Spirit to love people that help you. You're getting something from the exchange. But when it comes to how Jesus wants us to love, the bar is radically lifted. Listen to Jesus' own words. But to you who are willing to listen. Can I stop right there? Jesus acknowledges, some of you don't want to hear this. Some of you are not ready to accept what I'm about to teach. But if you're ready, listen. I say, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who hurt you. Do to others as you would like them to do to you. If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them. Love your enemies. Do good to them. Send to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your award from heaven will be very great.

And you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. Jesus is calling us to love the stranger, that person who doesn't look like you, have your culture or customs. He's calling you to love the struggler, that person that seems to always be making the same mistakes over and over. And frankly, they just kind of drain you. He's calling you to love the sinner, that person that is living out of line with the will of God. He's calling us to love by seeing who needs it most and deserves it least. That means for me. Jesus wants me to love the person that lied about me and they knew they were lying. Jesus wants me to love the person that owes me an apology. And I know. I'm never going to get it. He wants me to love the person that would rejoice if they heard that something ill had come my way. How far does Jesus want to stretch my love? He even wants me to love rabid Philadelphia Eagle fans. I know a pastor who is a rabid Philadelphia Eagle fan, and I can say honestly, I love him. Now, I would never let him in my pulpit because he uses bad judgment, but I really do love him. See, if natural love is about bargaining, supernatural love is about bestowing. It's not an investment, it's a commitment. I will love you. Not if, I will love you even if. It's a reckless way to love, but it's not a wasteful way to love.

Was it a waste for Jesus to wash the feet of Judas? See, love without expecting is never wasted because it's sourced in God, it's offered to God, and it looks like God because it is so indiscriminate. When God sends rain, he just pours it on everybody. And Holy Spirit love is the same way. It's just poured out wherever you are. Who gets Holy Spirit love? Wherever you are, the person around you gets it. And think how liberating that is, that the Holy Spirit releases us from the burden of having to decide who we might love today. There's a woman that was a pioneer in children's ministry. She was doing it before anyone else. Her name was Henrietta Mears. And in her lifetime, she saw a lot of young men and women enter ministry, and she was asked as an older lady, what was the secret to your success? She said, I tried to imagine every child that would walk into my class had a name tag, and it said, hello, my name is, please help me feel important. What counts is loving people unnaturally, which means we're going to have to learn to love super naturally. And the best place to start is your church, family. Some things you learn first at home. My wife and I have nephews and nieces that were homeschooled. And when our children would go and visit their cousins, they noticed that their cousins did not go to school the way our children understood it. So coming back from one of those visits, our six-year-old at the time, Matthew, who could be a little overly dramatic, was having a morning where he did not want to go to school. And he said to his mother, why? Why can't I be house trained? Well, we have house trained all our children. Because some things you learn first in the family.

And this is what the Holy Spirit does, not just lift our love. The Holy Spirit gifts our love. Now I told you that 1 Corinthians 13 is the longest text in the Bible on what love looks like. Keep it in context. I told you I'm good at math. Chapter 13 comes right after chapter 12 and right before chapter 14. And all three of those chapters are Paul giving counsel to the church in Corinth about the use of spiritual gifts. See, one way the Holy Spirit gives us a supernatural empowerment to love is through a supernatural endowment for love. In other words, do you realize that every time you come to church, you should bring a gift with you? A few years ago, my wife and I got on an airplane, and in came a young family with a couple of small kids. And they started handing out baggies to everyone on their row, and the rows in front of them, and the rows right after them. And we got a baggie, and it was full of pieces of candy and earplugs. And they basically said, we're sorry, it's going to be noisy, thank you for your patience. When you come to church, you should bring a gift with you. And you have a gift. Let me show you that. This is how chapter 12 starts. Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us, I don't want you to misunderstand this. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. And please notice, a spiritual gift is given to some of you? No. A spiritual gift is given to each of you. Why? So that we can help each other.

It's God's will that we learn about spiritual gifts, so that we will use them in accordance with God's will. So that we won't think the purpose of the gift is to puff myself up, but the purpose of my gift is to build you up. Because having the gift is not the point. The point is using the gift to love somebody. So Paul talks about in chapter 12, you have different gifts. Not the same gift. And just like in your body, the eye isn't jealous because it's not an ear, and the hand isn't jealous because it's not a foot. You all have different gifts. You're not jealous of this. Desire to use your gifts. But he closes a chapter with this line. And I will show you the most excellent way. And that is how we get to chapter 13. In the middle of talking about spiritual gifts, he starts talking about the way of love. Because love is the only way to do anything that counts. And when you look at his definition of love, what does it look like? Love is patient. Love is kind. It's never rude. Doesn't keep a record of wrongs. Sounds like the fruit of the Spirit. That the Holy Spirit's love has been poured into your heart, and now it's splashing out on other people. And you love these people because he's given you a gift to give them. And then he starts chapter 14 with these words. You follow the way of love. And how do we do that? Look at the next phrase. Eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit. Especially prophecy. Okay, I'm going to take two minutes and go on an excursion that probably needs about two sermons.

Because in this section, Paul is comparing prophecy to another gift of the Spirit called tongues. Now, what's the gift of tongues? Well, in Acts 2, the gift seems to be either speaking in a foreign language or speaking and people are hearing in a foreign language. And in Acts 2, the gift of tongues is to bless others with hearing the gospel. But there seems to be in Acts chapter 14 another kind of spiritual gift of tongues where someone has a language they use when they pray to God. Some people call it a prayer language. I came to this church in 1989. And since I have been at this church, we've had people in our church with this gift, including elders and ministers. Now, I do not have that gift. I have gifts, but not that gift. I don't feel less than anyone who has it. I don't feel more than anyone. We each have our gift. Now, at our church, though, if you do have that gift of a prayer language, we ask you to use it in your prayer closet, not in the big assembly. Why? Look at verse 4. Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. It's a beautiful thing to edify yourself, but when you come to church,

you bring a gift to build up other people. So use those gifts. Now, I know some of you are brand-new Christians, and this is all very new to you. I also know some of you did not grow up in churches that talked about gifts. This might be a little disconcerting to you because you're afraid, if we start using spiritual gifts here, some people will be puffed up and proud, and it'll lead to showiness and weirdness. Okay, let me just say, trust me, 47 years of pastoring, people who are weird with the Holy Spirit are weird without the Holy Spirit, okay? I'm sorry, that sounds a little judgmental, but it's the absolute truth. I understand that some people can misuse their gifts because they're seeking validation and not edification. This is what Paul is dealing with in chapters 12 and 14. But he doesn't clean up the mess of immature people using their gifts by saying, just stop it. The right response to misuse is not disuse, it is proper use. Because there's something much worse than being in a church where a few immature people misuse their spiritual gift. It is being in a church that leads you to think that Jesus is essential, but operating in the power of the Holy Spirit is optional.

That keeps the whole church immature. So I'm thankful that ever since I've been at this church, people have encouraged and built me up by using their gifts. I have received many prophetic words that have built me up. I have many times received words of encouragement. Paul says that's a gift, Romans 12. He also says Romans 12, there's a gift of generosity. There have been times, especially some years ago, when people with that gift really encouraged my family with their generosity. There's a gift of faith. Have you ever come to church and man, you're just struggling, you're doubting, and someone comes up to you and they're like, they've got the faith gift. And it's like they loan you some of their faith to help you keep believing. That's a beautiful gift. And so we have these different gifts that we can use that have blessed me time and time again. I've heard people say church is boring. Let me tell you, it's only boring if you're a spectator and you came expecting a show and you didn't like the show. What if you came not as a spectator, but as a participant? What if you came to church wondering and praying, Lord, who you want me to love today? Because I'm available. What if you prayed, Lord, who can I build up today? And then you walked in expected faith.

What might be unleashed in our church if that's how we came to church? I know one thing, it would not be boring. I think it would be beautiful. I've learned this. I've learned that you can't grow a church in loving people just by preaching about it. Why should you wanna operate in the dimension of your gift? Because you love people. And the Holy Spirit has given you the ability to love them at a whole new level. To love people more radically. And the result is that even the unbeliever recognizes this is not natural. And he ends that chapter by saying that unbeliever will fall down and worship God, explaining God is really among you. Because our greatest witness is love from above. We need to remember that, church. Many churches today are eager to have power. They're compromising to get political power. We don't change the world by cutting off people's ears, but by putting ears back on people. We are not in love with power. We believe in the power of love. And a lot of the things that churches do, you can find in other places. But there's no place you can go and experience Holy Spirit love except the church of Jesus Christ. And Jesus said, this is how they're gonna know who you are.

They're not gonna know who we are by our doctrine. Doctrine's important, but unbelievers don't know truth from lies. They're not gonna know who we are by our ethics. Ethics matter, but unbelievers don't know what's right and what's wrong. But even an unbeliever can recognize when love isn't natural. It's at a whole different level. That's our best witness. I want to close with a story I heard Gary Buchanan tell. He's a Christian author, and there's a woman in his church named Tracy, and she's a worship minister. And she had one of those weeks every mother can understand. Lots of little crises, kids being sick, just a crazy, busy lifestyle young moms have. She wakes up on Sunday morning, and she's supposed to lead people to God, and she doesn't feel close to God. She's just worn out. And she comes into the living room, and her daughter, who's going to school and just learning to read and write, has gotten a crayon and has marked on the front window. And she's thinking, oh, no, that's just one more mess to deal with until she read what her daughter wrote. And she had written, with her best little spelling, the fruit of the Spirit. And it ministered to Tracy as she realized

nothing going on outside can keep from what God is doing inside me from coming out. But she was especially blessed when she looked at one more little painting in the corner where her daughter had written, love one another. And you're thinking, she misspelled one. Well, maybe she did. And maybe she didn't. Because love is the way we bring the world to Jesus. And so the takeaway this week, church, is simple. I didn't say it was easy. I said it was simple. Ask the Holy Spirit to start growing you into a person of radical love. Make it your aim. When you come to church, I'm coming to love somebody. And I'm bringing a gift because I have one. You can't stop aging. But if you live like that, it will never get old. Bow your heads, God. I'm asking you to grow us into a community of radical love. The love that we read about in 1 Corinthians 13, it's not rude, never arrogant, always ready to forgive. Loves the truth. Help us, God, to become people of radical Holy Spirit love. I pray it starts today, that many of us, before we get to our car, realize that's the person God wants me to love. I pray, God, that you would continue to give us a hunger to be led by the Spirit, not by what comes natural.

We pray this because we think it's in line with your will, and it would bring glory to Jesus. We ask in his name, amen.