What Are We, Part 3

Hey y'all, welcome to Free Life Chapel where we help you discover and live the free life in Christ My name is Anna and we are so excited that you decided to tune in today Feel free to check out our website freelifechapel.org to find out more about who we are what we do and how you can become a Part of it if you ever find yourself in the central Florida area Please come visit us Free Life Chapel would love to connect with you until then. Please enjoy our amazing message We have in store for you. Check it out. I need to hear you say, what are we? Have PTSD from that question It was on May 15th of 2016 Yes, I'm a man that knows dates Not history. They just that one May 15 2016. I was standing right here in Elizabeth before she was my wife walked right down that aisle Pastor Cindy snapped to me. I was singing worse on the worship team She caught my attention we started messaging over social media I slid in them DMS. Yes, I did Started messaging we went on our first day on May the 18th of 2016 and had been continuing on since but July the 29th of Changed my life forever. I Found out that day that my wife is a thug She's certified You know I'm saying like she she could throw it. So here's what happened We've been hanging out at my parents house all day was on a Sunday. We had great service. We let them take us out to eat You know still do that to this day We let them go because they pay so we went out to eat with them went back home to their house We were hanging out. That was our Sunday routine But this day was different because I walked Liz out to her car Because you know in front of the pastors you got to do the handshake goodbye my sister in Christ I Walk her out to her car And I go to open up that door and like I feel like a little bit of resistance in the door opening I'm like I've been in the gym like what is it? So I'm gonna pull a little bit hard and I've really felt like a hard push on what is going on And Liz said we need to talk. I need to ask you something

That ain't never good, I don't care if you're dating married friends, it don't matter I was nervous I'm like thinking back on all the different interactions I've had that I say something wrong that I do something wrong that I post something wrong that I think something wrong day Am I wrong something to my teeth? I didn't know what was going on. She said I have to ask you a question What are we cuz I'm older than you and you might have time for games, but I don't Mean if you want a brother that bad, that's all you had to say Like I'm I get it, but like it takes time for crazy to come out so we was just still evaluating some things, but she She she taught me a lesson that day that I'm still learning. I'm a little slow, but I get it Taught me a lesson that day that clarity is kindness What she was doing is she was trying to remove? Anything that would create a distance between what we thought and what was reality Even at that point you were helping me Liz. He's been helping me ever since she was trying to teach me That if we're on the same page, we're gonna be able to go in the same direction But if we're on different pages, we are going to ram our head into the wall time and time again Frustrated that we're not moving in the same direction, but we didn't have a clarifying conversation She was bringing clarity into my life. And as I read the Bible I'm amazed at the clarity that Jesus brought Like it didn't matter who asked the question, you know, if you ask a question, there's usually an answer Whether you like the answer or not as a whole nother deal, but there's an answer Jesus would get asked questions all the time people would bring things to him and he would just wrap it for you Ask if you don't want the truth Don't come ask me. Do you have a friend? That you know if you really don't want this. Hey, does this Does this make me look like I ate at Cheesecake Factory last night? You know those friends you don't want to ask that question because they're gonna keep it a buck with you That's exactly what Jesus did. He didn't hold anything back He told the truth 24 7 in one day There were some Pharisees these religious people who knew how to throw scripture at you But didn't know how to apply it to their own life these Pharisees

They was talking they Jesus was in a crowd had heard some of the things he was talking and they they schemed up like hey Oh, I'm finna get Jesus. He's not gonna be ready for this. We're gonna humiliate him. It's gonna be great One of the Pharisees goes up to Jesus and says hey, yo, Jesus What is the greatest commandment? Thinking that he got him, like, ha, got him. I stumped him, watch this. Just for Jesus, without hesitation, he said, love God, love people. Matthew chapter 22, verses 37 through 40. Read the highlighted parts with me. This is literally what Jesus said. Jesus said to him, you must love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest of laws. The second is like it. You must love your neighbor as you love yourself. All the laws and the writings of the early preachers depended on these two most important laws. Jesus, when he gave that answer, that was so controversial at the time, especially to those Pharisees. Again, everything was God, God, God, that there was no reality, there was no fruit of the relationship with God that they had had. Again, they were slapping people with God's word rather than loving people through God's word. And so whenever Jesus stepped in and he said this, it was controversial because this is what happened. He connected loving God and loving people as one principle,

but he put it into order. And any time you read something in the Bible, you've activated interns, we've learned this. Order matters. Order matters. The law of first mention. Order matters. I love God, and then I'm able to love people. When I love God first, I can love people right. If I don't love God first, I'm not going to be able to love people properly. My love for God produces an obedience of me obeying God that then translates to me being able to love people. So what are we? We're people who love. We're Christ followers. That's what we do. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter if I know you or not, if you're family or not, my skin color or not, we went to the same school or not, you're a Redskins fan or not. We can give love even to our enemies. We can give love. Go Cowboys. We can give love to anybody. And so here's what I want to do today. I want to talk real quick about three quick things about this idea, this word of love. And here's the thing.

Love is something that is so common. It's a common word that you and I use, but I would liken it this way. Liz and I have been married since 2018. It's been the best years of her life. And there's some things that we are able to talk about marriage, but I would be ignorant to say that I know everything about being a husband. You and I, maybe there's some things that we know about love, have experienced about love, have learned about love, but none of us are experts on this thing. And so let's talk about what does the Bible have to say about this thing of love and maybe find other ways that we can begin to apply it to people in our life. The first thing that we need to realize is this. God is love. I know it's super deep. But here's the thing. It's not a big thought, but it has big meaning. God is love. And because God is the one who came up with the idea of love, He's the one that gets to define what love is. Because He designed it, He gets to be the one to define it. Liz and I, we have two kids, Malachi Santiago Thomas and Talia Sage Thomas. Now, you might encounter them. You might interact with them. Maybe you give them a nickname, and it's fun, and it's all smiles.

But that does not mean that their name has changed. Just because you call it that does not mean that now everything about that has changed. The ones who made them are the ones who have the authority in order to name them. God said, I'm the one that made love, so I'm the one that is able to now define what love is. 1 John chapter 4, verse 8, the Bible says this. Those who do not love do not know God. Why? Because God is love. And if I don't love God properly, I will never be able to love people properly. There's a book that we read, and I have read in Activate. And one of the things that it talks about in this book is my relationship this way dictates how well relationships here go. The better my relationship is with God, the better my relationship is with my wife. The better my relationship is with God, the better my relationship is with my kids, with my friends, with coworkers, with strangers. But it starts with first being connected with God. If I don't have a good connection vertically, I probably won't be able to have a good connection horizontally. I might get it right sometimes. I might accidentally slip and mess it up. I might have some good things going for me, but there won't be the consistency of this true word of love

that God birthed, that God gave. We have to make sure that God is the priority and the focal point. And once I love him, I'm able to love people. Well, God is love. And then the second thing is this. Jesus embodied love. It was fully who he was. He was perfect in every way, including how he loved people. How was he so perfect? Well, because he loved God fully, not partially. Like, I love you so much, God, I'm gonna do what you say. I love you so much, God, that I'm gonna put your ways in front of my ways. I love you so much, I'm going to obey your word. Jesus loved God so fully that he was able to love people so fully, not holding anything back, not tiptoeing into the water, but complete kamikaze, throw it in there. That's the kind of love that Jesus gave. He sat with people that others ignored. His love wasn't just for the popular. He didn't just sit at that lunch table. He wasn't piled around that cubicle at work. He wanted everybody to feel a part and connected. He listened to those that society rejected. He knew that your story is one of the most valuable things that you have,

your experiences, your perspective on what has happened. He says, I want to listen, I will humble myself. I have all the answers, but I want to hear your heart. Yes, I can fix it, but I want to hear what it is, not just that you want, but what are you needing? Let me listen to you. He walked with outcasts, completely not afraid in order to get somebody else's reputation on him because he knew I'm gonna treat you better than you've ever been treated, so get around me. It didn't matter. The tax collectors of that day, they were considered outcasts. He hung out with them. The Bible said he hung out with drunks. Didn't matter, let me get with them. That he hung out with sinners, that's everybody. But the Bible says he hung out with them too, a perfect God wanting to show love, and he did so not by finding perfect people, but by finding people who mess up, but need his love, who need his help. That's why John chapter 15, verse 13, the Bible says this, no one has greater love, I love this translation, nor stronger commitment than to lay down his life for his friends. Yeah, Jesus sat with people, and he listened to people, and he walked with people, but he also died for people, and his sacrifice of his life was done

not for celebration, but was done out of love. It was a love offering. It was a love sacrifice, that my heart to yours. This is the best way that I can love you, and nobody can even begin to love you in this kind of a manner. That is what Jesus did, and I love in that translation how he said no one has greater love, nor stronger commitment because that's exactly what love is. It's a commitment, it's a choice. You know how we commit to go to the gym, but don't love it? I commit to be on a diet until it's no longer convenient. Love is not a matter of convenience. It's not a matter of if it feels good. It's a decision that I make. I'm committed to this thing fully. I love saying this whenever we're at the Blinn and we're talking with students because the facial reactions I get is crazy. I think you might be able to relate with this if you're married, maybe this has happened to you. There's been multiple times, remember I said my wife is a thug? There's been multiple times my wife and I have had alternative perspectives to how we want to handle something or do something, and my wife will come to me and she says, "'Caleb, I love you, but I don't like you right now.'" What you mean you love me,

but you don't like me right now? Like, I'm me. She said, that's exactly why I don't hit. She said, I love you, but I don't like you right now. Again, she taught me another lesson. I don't have to want to love, it's my decision. My likes, my preferences, they change. Circumstantially, depending on who I'm with, depending on what we're doing, my likes might change, but my commitments keep me grounded, that no matter what it is happens, it keeps me grounded, it keeps me rooted, that no matter what happens, it's me and you, girl. It doesn't make a difference. There is a commitment here called love. Jesus made a commitment not to like us, to love us, to do even more, to go above and beyond, not just because it's comfortable, not like me because, oh good, you showed up in church, but hey, if you don't read your Bible every single day, now, ah, I'm out to get you. That's not what it was. He said, I have a love for you that you can't earn, you can't deserve it, you can just embrace this love. My dad used to tell me growing up, Caleb, there is nothing you can do that will make me not love you. There are things you can do that will take the blessings of relationship away. If you lie to me, don't ask me for money.

You lie to me, give me those truck keys. If you lie to me, there will be consequences, but even inside of that, I'm doing it all out of love, a love that celebrates and a love that redirects. That's what Jesus here was talking about. His love wasn't based on convenience. It was a commitment, and if I can say it this way, his love was a TikTok tutorial on what we should be doing this year. You ever gone on TikTok and you said how to clean something? How to get this stain off of this shirt? How to put together a Murphy bed from Ikea that your wife bought before you go out of town? No, that was just my life, my bad. I TikTok things, my wife TikToks things in order to learn not just to have things on paper, but to have a visual example. Show me the steps, show me the process. That's exactly what we get as we look at Jesus's life, the exact example, follow his steps, and you'll get these results. God is love, Jesus embodied love, and now you and I, we get to join in the party, we get to show love. I'm so glad that you and I have a seat at the table. You and I have a spot on the team. We don't have to just watch from the sidelines and be bystanders and celebrate what has happened. Jesus said, no, I want you to put on a jersey. Let's go, let's get you dirty.

Let's get you invested into this game. Let's partner together. How do I do that? By showing others love. Loving people is a byproduct of my love and obedience for God. That's literally what the Bible says in John chapter 13, verse 35. The Bible says this, your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples, that you are my disciple, that you are one that is disciplined in doing things my way, that my love for him puts me under submission to him to be able to do things his way, and then we're able to get his results. My perspective and ideas for marriage, what it looks like to repent to your spouse, what it looks like to repent to your kid, what it looks like to love freely and openly, what it means to be a man and to protect and to be there, but also to be a man that'll roll around on the ground and act goofy and silly, that perspective of mine came from my dad. He is the starting point for what it means to me to be a husband and to be a father, because that was the example that I had, and then from there, as he said, Caleb, I'm still learning some things,

he's still teaching me things, and as we pursue Christ together, we're continuing to learn more and more things. Paul, the quarterback of Christianity who wrote two thirds of the New Testament, he said, hey guys, I know I've written a whole lot of things, but please don't get it twisted. These aren't my ideas. I'm not the starting point. He actually said it this way, follow me as I follow Christ. I'm not the one setting the example, I'm just following the example. And so. Join me on following what Jesus is like. In doing that, here's how he said you and I are able to show love. Some ways that we can do this. First Corinthians 13 starts listing some different things out. Love is patient, not just able to wait, but it's the posture of my heart while I'm waiting. Love is kind, love celebrates others. Love is humble, love respects others. It puts others first, love controls reactions, amen. Love forgives, love values honesty, love handles, believes, hopes, and endures all things. Paul, in writing that out, was not giving us a list of here's my top 10 things for you and I to do. He said, no, hey, here's some things that Jesus has modeled

that if we're wanting to know how do we love people well, let's just obey what Jesus has said. These attributes, these things. The Bible says it is the kindness of the Lord that draws men to repentance. God's love, his heart of engagement for people is the thing that creates the transformation. Our love for people, when we partner with God, helps to transform our homes, our workplace, our schools, our jobs, the environment, the culture that we're in, the cities that we're in, the communities that we are in. So what do we do? You and I, we partner with God to show love. God designed love, Jesus fulfilled love, and we show love. But I have a question for you. Whenever I ran off those lists of what love is, did you hear one of those that you know, okay, I need to work on that one? The reality is, I probably need to work on all of them. Because maybe I've done an accidentally good job in one area of my life showing patience, but when I'm at the drive-thru of Chick-fil-A, and I got my mobile Go order, I need that thing, there's always different rooms and areas for us to grow, which just shows me and it reminds me that we can't achieve that kind of love on our own. It is above our pay grade, just like Pastor Scott said,

we know what we need to change, we know what we need to do, but we have no capacity to reach that level on our own. We do have the capacity, it's just not in us, it's actually in Christ, it's in Jesus. In school, as Pastor Scott said, and one of my professors, his name is Pastor Mark Batterson, he's out of Washington D.C., he said this last semester and it was one of the most convicting things I've ever heard. I wish I could unhear it and I'm grateful that I can't. Here's what he said, it's easy to act like a Christian, it's hard to react like a Christian. Here is what I feel when I'm reading these verses, when it comes to love, if I love people without Jesus, I might be able to put on a good face, but as soon as the table's turned or as soon as life starts lifing, it goes away. But my relationship with Jesus changes me, watch, from the inside out. So now it's not just my actions, now it's also my re-actions. That's why the Bible says we need to transform ourselves daily. There's more growth, there's more love, there's more obedience, there's more leaning to Jesus that I'm able to have and when I do that, then I'm able to love people properly and that's really what Holy Spirit does. He shows us how to love Jesus by obeying Jesus through those convictions and through those affirmations. Have you ever done something, okay,

I'll tell it myself so you don't tell your business. You ever like got something said to you, maybe you saw something on social media and boy, you had something, the best thought that has ever came across a man's mind and you was like, oh, I gotta let them know. So you get on your phone and you like, like back to old school, T9 texting, like you was going quick with it, like just going, going, going, going, going and you went to hit send and there was something that said, ah, hold on, don't do that. They know where you go to church, don't do that. You deleted the text message. You did not send it, and later on, you were proud of yourself. That is Holy Spirit celebrating you, encouraging you, partying with you for listening to that emergency break from heaven. And in the same way that I've felt those feelings, I've also felt His direction. Caleb, you blew it. You were too quick. You were too harsh. You didn't love. You didn't listen. You were hearing them, but you weren't listening to them. Come on, son. You can do better. It's an encouragement. It's a correction to move me forward, not a correction to sit me down. That's what His love does, and that's why we need Holy Spirit. John 14, 15 says this, if you love me, obey my commandments.

My obedience towards Jesus, it transforms every aspect of my life, including how I'm able to love others. Everybody stand to your feet. God designed love so He gets the chance to define love. We have the example, the epitome of what love is through the lifestyle of Jesus, and God allows us to partner with Him in showing love for people the way that they might not experience from others. A couple weeks ago at the Blend, every Wednesday night, sixth through twelfth graders get there. We have a great time. Shameless plug. At the Blend a couple weeks ago, we had a Y2K fit night, year 2000 clothing night for those who might not speak that language. At that night, it was just to have fun. It had to do with the series that we were in, some talks that we were in, and it was a great time. We dressed up. Some looked a little bit too good, literally put the tape on the face with the hat sideways. Some of us were goofy and bought a grill on Amazon just for fun, and it was going all the way. It was a great time, but while I was getting dressed that night and trying to figure out what I wanted to wear, because I was excited, I reached in my drawer, and I saw a watch that was my grandfather's, Pastor Cindy's. It's this watch right here. I was like, cool, 2000's gold was in, so let me wear that. It'd be fun. A couple years ago, last year actually, I took this watch to a jeweler because the watch wasn't working. When my grandfather passed away, I was honored to get some of his jewelry in remembrance of him. I had never worn it, so this was going to be the first time of me wearing it.

I took it to the jeweler last year, and I had asked him, hey, I need to get the battery changed on this, and the jeweler, wow, that's a beautiful watch. That's so cool. I haven't seen one like this before, but the problem is they don't make batteries like that anymore. He said, so do you want me to ... I mean, we can melt it, and you could turn it into something else, or you can sell it, and if I sell it, brother, you can't change the watch battery. What you going to do with it? I'm trying to figure out what was going on here. I decided to keep it. I was like, it has a value to me, even though it wasn't working. There was still a value, so I kept it. A couple weeks ago, I put it on to go to the blend that night, and as I'm worshiping that night, I look down, my watch started ticking. I was so excited. Thank you for sharing the excitement. Now, let me say this. I'm not saying Jesus resurrected my watch. I'm not saying he can't. I'm just not saying he did. That's not what happened. I learned something about my watch that night. This watch is an auto-wind watch. It runs off of movement. If it stays still, it's not going to tick, and the time won't change. As long as it feels a movement, it will continue to tell you the right time. That is just like our faith with Jesus. The more I engage, the more I work with, the more I put in action my relationship with Jesus, he will show me the right time to love, to encourage, to speak truth, to celebrate.

He knows exactly what we need, exactly when we need it, but we need to make sure we're engaging in our faith. Let's do that this week. Let's find a way. How can I grow my relationship and my love for God, knowing, believing, and expecting that it's going to transform my relationship with other people? Father God, we love you so much. Beyond grateful for the engagement. example that you have. God, thank you for being clear with us on what real true love is. Jesus, your example of love to where we're not shooting from the hip trying to wonder how we can love people the best. You've showed us how and God I thank you for allowing us to partner with you and what you're doing. I pray that our relationship with you grows and as we continue to pursue you, obey you, love you. I pray that we're able to see the byproduct of our relationships with spouses, friends, colleagues, workers, other classmates, kids continue to grow. In Jesus name we pray, amen. We hope this message encouraged you. For more encouraging messages check us out at our website freelifechapel.org. Until then we hope to see you next time. Have a blessed week.