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Well everybody, welcome to Prairie Lakes Church this weekend. I'm delighted that you're here, whether you're joining us from one of our physical locations, spread all across Iowa or online campus, all across Iowa and beyond. We're one church on many corners. So welcome and happy November everybody. Hard to believe it's November Thanksgiving's right around the corner and I heard Christmas music in a store for the first time this week. So ready or not here.

The holidays come. Alright, let's dive right in. Today, this is week two of a series called Not In It to Win It. And during these four weeks, uh, we're looking at how we often are divided in culture. We're por polarized over politics and social issues and how we as Christians often try to win culture wars.

We often try to win arguments instead of winning people and Jesus didn't live like that. He came to lose so ultimately he would win. And so we borrowed this series title from a book written by a pastor at North Point Community Church based out of Atlanta. His name's Andy Stanley and we've learned a lot from North Point over the years and he wrote this book in response to his church's response and Christian's response to covid two, three years ago. And so I highly recommend the book.

In fact, next week big treat, uh, pastor Jesse and Pastor Andy Stanley, uh, recorded an interview and we get to be a part of that next week as the the message. So don't miss out. Uh, next week. Hey, uh, last week Pastor Jesse kicked off this series and he said two profound things that were convicting to me that I wanna start with this weekend 'cause they're good jumping off points for where we're gonna go this weekend.

The first thing was this. He said, for Jesus, the question isn't whose side is God's on or who, whose side is God on mine or somebody else's for Jesus. The question is, are you on God's side? That's the question for us as followers of Jesus. And then he quoted, uh, Andy Stanley in his book, page 26, he said, Jesus' refusal to take sides was not out of a lack of concern.

It was because what concerned him most precluded him from doing so for Jesus. A you always took precedence over a view that for Jesus the person was always more important than what side they were on of any argument. And that's where we need to be too. Now this weekend, here's the topic we're gonna talk about. It's being unified around love, being unified as followers of Jesus around love.

We're gonna talk about how despite all the things that could divide us, separate us cause conflict. The one thing that should unite Christians today is love, love for God and love for others. It should be the defining characteristic of followers of Jesus, how we treat one another. And I know some of you right now, you're starting to roll your eyes because you're like great, you know, another message about love and you may be tempted to kind of tune out.

And if you're in that spot, I wanna encourage you, please don't. Uh, the message today is gonna be anything but sentimental and squishy. And I, I hope it is a necessary corrective to some of the ways that we fall short of living out our faith and loving one another today as the church. So here's where I wanna start today, I'm gonna start with this statement. Uh, the English language is weird and some of you know what I'm talking about. Uh, we can all I think agree on that.

I remember back in English class as a kid learning all the rules to the English language, but then there was like an exception to every rule like the the I before E except after C most of the time. And then there's all these exceptions to it and really weird language like for instance, what is this word right here? Do I catch it with a poll?

Do I play it in an upright style? Do I, do I tune it in my car? My speaker's like what word is that? The English language is so strange and if you're stronger than the English language like I do, oftentimes I've got three words for you right here. They're there there. Now some of you are the grammar police and you love to correct people every time they use these words wrong and people do all the time.

And I've learned living in Iowa for about 14 years now that only about half of Iowans actually know how to use them correctly. So you if you're in that camp, can't, can't correct anybody when they use it incorrectly. But our language is strange and it is limited. And nowhere is that seen more than in the word love. Here's why we have one word for love.

I can say I love Casey's breakfast pizza and I do not the crummy kind with vegetables, but the kind that has the bacon and the eggs and the nacho cheese sauce. So good. I can say I love the Green Bay Packers and I do 'cause the winning is franchise in NFL history. Now I'm not gonna talk about this year and then I say, Hey, I love my wife and I do, I love those three things, but those are very different kinds of loves and our language is not very helpful when it comes to that.

But thankfully Greek New Testament Greek is a lot more helpful when it comes to love. In fact, there are four words for love in the Greek New Testament and here they are. There's store gay, which is love between family, like a parent child relationship. There is phileo, uh, which is love between friends Philadelphia, the city brotherly love comes from that. There's aeros which is romantic love.

And then the love we're gonna talk about today is agape love. That is unconditional sacrificial love. In fact, one John four eight says, God is love, God is agape. One Corinthians 13 talks all about love. Love is patient, love is kind. It's that word agape. It's unconditional sacrificial love. And so today when we say hey, the church should be unified around love, that's what we're talking about.

We're talking about sacrificial, unconditional love, agape love, God's love towards us that we express towards one another inside the church. Now often culture doesn't view love this way. And we know this culture likes to cheapen love and reduce it down to some counterfeit types.

And so I wanna be clear now when we talk about love and agape love and unconditional love, here's what love is not some things that culture likes to view love as. Love is not primarily a feeling. Boston saying it right, more than a feeling. And for some of you OG Christians, you remember love is a verb.

The song by DC talk love is more than just a feeling. Love is unconditional, sacrificial. It's not just a feeling. Love is also not agreement or approval. Our culture loves to combine those things. If you love me, you'll agree with me or if you love me you'll approve of what I'm doing. But love is so much deeper than that, so much deeper than approval or agreement. Love is also not tolerance. Our culture loves the word tolerance.

And the crazy thing about tolerance is tolerance is always selective. It's never really tolerant. It's only tolerant for certain groups and certain people and tolerance falls way short of agape love. For instance, think about a husband and wife making vows to one another at the altar with the pastor behind them and one of them in their vowel says, I promise to tolerate you. Like that falls a little bit short of love.

Or if you say to somebody that you know, Hey, I just tolerate you so much. Like that's not love. And then lastly, love is also not absence of conflict. Just because we argue, just because we disagree doesn't mean that we're not loving to one another. In fact, love requires forgiveness and reconciliation and, and it doesn't mean that we just don't have conflict.

Sometimes when we love each other, well we work through conflict. So love is not those things. Now here's the problem. The problem is at the church, capital C church, the global church, the body of Christ. The problem is not just that we view love differently than people around us in our culture, though we do, the problem is that the world doesn't see us living out our faith the way that we're supposed to. The problem is a lot of times with us as the church, we don't love any differently than the culture loves.

And that's a problem and that's a problem because we know that we're supposed to love differently because God has loved us. But it's a bigger problem because the culture around us, they know that we claim to follow a God who is loved. And so when we don't live that out, it's a problem. And I wanna give you this phrase today about this.

When when Christians don't live together unified or unloving God and loving each other, we rob the watching world of a clear picture of God's love. This is why this is such a big deal when we Christians, when we don't live together, unified around loving God in each other, we rob the watching world of a picture of God's love. And if they don't see love in us, where are they gonna see it?

Where are they gonna see it? As Christians, we need to live unified around loving God in each other despite our differences, despite our conflicts and our our disagreements. Because when we do love one another well we paint a clear picture of who God is and what life and his kingdom is like when we're united around love. It creates this irresistible relationship with people and irresistible community and environments where people can see God's love in action, where they can see Jesus at work.

So let's talk right now about how to do that practically. How do we be united around love? How do we create a beautiful picture for people in our little Iowas to see? So I want you to open your Bibles right now. If you got one, grab your phone, grab your Bible, turn to John chapter 13, verse 34. So New Testament goes Matthew, mark, Luke, and John.

I'm gonna put the words on the screen, but I'd love it if you grab your Bible and grab your phone if you got one and follow along. So we all know the golden rule, right? The golden rule. Jesus quotes it in Matthew seven 12 in Luke 6 31. Do unto others as you'd have them do to you treat others the way you want to be treated. And he says, that sums up the law and the prophets and a lot of us have heard that since childhood, treat others the way you want to be treated.

Sums up the law of God in one sentence. And that's a great rule and a great command. But in John chapter 13, Jesus gives us what I will call the platinum rule. It goes above the golden rule and he gives us this new command. And here's what's happened so far in Jesus' ministry prior to John 13, he's done ministry with the disciples for about three years. And uh, they've seen all kinds of miracles, all kinds of crazy things.

He just raised Lazarus from the dead. Uh, he just entered Jerusalem to shouts of Hosanna. He institutes communion the last supper, then he washes his disciples feet dirty, stinky teenage dude feet and he washes those feet. And then he says this, he says, A new command I give you love one another as I have loved you.

So you must love one another by this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. So the golden rule is treat others the way you wanna be treated. But Jesus takes it a step further with a platinum rule and he says, treat others love others the way that I have loved you. A new command, not just Old Testament laws, not just fulfilling prior laws but saying I'm gonna go above and beyond and I want you to love people the way that I have loved you.

Now we hear these words and we immediately think of the cross and and we should. But 2000 years ago when he said that to Peter and James and John and the other disciples, they didn't hear cross. What they heard was love. Like Jesus has loved us already, which is what well, he called them to be his disciples out of an ordinary everyday life to witness the greatest miracles in the history of the world. Jesus loved them.

He called them, he forgave them. He spent life with them. He camped three and a half years in the Middle Eastern desert with them. He washed their feet and serve them. So Jesus says that loving others and isn't just treating others the way we wanna be treated. 'cause sometimes we don't know how we wanna be treated and sometimes we don't want to be treated well. Jesus says treat others the way I have treated you.

Love others the way I have loved you. Because we know how God has loved us, don't we? We know how Jesus has treated us. He is forgiven us. He's died for us. He's given his life for us. He's patient with us. He unconditionally loves us, he provides for us. And that's how amazing God's love for us is. And Jesus says, you've experienced all of this from me.

Now go and love other people the way that I have loved you. And the last verse is so important because he says by this, people are gonna know that you're my followers. By the way that you love one another, it's gonna be visible and obvious that you follow me. That you're not gonna have to explain it to anybody.

It's gonna be evident by the way that you live that you follow me because you live a life of love, my friends. Do people assume that you are a follower of Jesus because of how well you love other people around you? The platinum rule is love others the way Christ has loved you, which is great, but Jesus takes it even a step further than that. He, he gives us some instructions on how to do that 2000 years ago.

Because 2000 years ago, Jesus actually prayed for us today, which is mind blowing. So I want you to turn your Bibles right now to John chapter 17 verse 20. So just a few chapters over John 1720. And here's what Jesus prays for you and what Jesus prays for me 2000 years ago. Here's what he prays. Verse 20 says, my prayer is not for them alone, meaning the disciples.

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, which is all of us, every single one of us, Jesus prays for us who would come to faith in him. And here's what he prays. Look at verse 21. That all of them may be one father just as you or in me and I am in you. May they also be in us. So the world may believe that you sent me, Jesus prays that just as the Father and the Son are one and connected together, that we would be together Christians, that we would be one, that God would be in us and we would be connected to him and connected to one another. And how does he want us to be? One? Look at verse 22.

I've given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one. Look at this I in them and you in me so that they may be brought to complete unity, which has a cool rhyme to it too, right? I in them and you and me. So they may be brought to complete unity. Being united with Christ and having his life within us means that we have the agape love of God inside of us.

Which means that enables us to do what? To live in unity together with one another as the body of Christ. That we don't have to live divided. That we can live united as God's people because his love dwells in us. And here's the result. He says, then the world will know that you've sent me and have loved me, even loved them even as you have loved me. He says, the proof that followers of Jesus have God inside of them, dwelling inside of them that are living out love in their lives, is that they are unified with one another. That they're living in unity.

That life with him is different. That God is who he claims to be. Now first of all, this is just mind blowing. 2000 years ago, Jesus prays for you and he prays for me. But notice he doesn't pray that we would have perfect lives. He doesn't pray that we'd be without conflict. He doesn't pray that we'd agree on all the same things politically or socially.

He prays one thing that we would be united around love. That love would be the defining thing, a characteristic for followers of Jesus that no matter what we would be united and we'd love each other. Well. So that's pretty easy, right? Like just, just go and do that. Christians go and be united. Go and love each other.

Well we all know it's not that easy. I mean we all know there's real barriers to loving one another well within the church. And so here's a statement that I want to give to you and we're gonna come back to this a few times. I think it's really, really important to just say this out loud. Okay?

Disagreements and conflicts within the church are inevitable. But division is is a choice. Disagreements conflicts within the church, they're inevitable, they're gonna happen. But division is a choice. As followers of Jesus, we're not gonna be completely aligned on all things. It's impossible for us to be, but we shouldn't divide fellowship and quit loving one another regardless of what we believe about other things.

We should always be united around love despite our earthly differences And, and living at odds with other Christians and separate from other Christians and not demonstrating love to other Christians is not an option. Think about all the ways that we divide today politically or socially. Are you team donkey, team elephant or neither? Are you pro-war in Ukraine and America and being involved? Are you pro, pro-war in the Middle East and America getting involved or there?

There's so many different social political issues that we could say, Hey, I support this. You support that. I'm over here. You're over here. But it's not just social issues and politics, it's church issues. Sometimes we divide over secondary issues in the church style of worship in times theology, preaching, topical messages or preaching exo messages through books of the Bible, line by line, verse by verse. And so often we divide over those things.

And it's not just that, but there's a lot of times that we divide because we don't talk to each other anymore. There's no proximity, there's no relational connectedness in the church. We, we don't take time to hear other people's viewpoints. We, we lob social media grenades at one another and get really loud because we don't take time to hear the perspectives of others.

Or sometimes we divide because we live in these echo chambers where everybody agrees with us and we block out all the people that disagree. One comment from somebody who we don't agree with and we block 'em because we don't want to hear that. We divide over a lot of different things and we lack unity. And again, that robs the watching world of a picture of the way things in the body of Christ could and should be. My friends over the last three years, um, I as a pastor experienced a lot of division.

I I saw individual after individual family after family couple after couple leave our church. And oftentimes it was for I would say non-essential things. They divided fellowship and they said, I'm not gonna pour into and invest in love Prairie Lake Church anymore. I'm gonna go somewhere else because I disagree with this political thing or this cultural thing.

And it breaks my heart to see people divide because that's a choice. And we don't have to go there. And we, people need to see the church united around love. And so I'm gonna come back to this statement again. Disagreements and conflicts within the church. They're gonna happen. We're not gonna see eye to eye on everything and value everything the same.

But division is a choice. And my friends, it's a choice we shouldn't make that we should love one another. We should be united around love no matter what. No matter what. It's impossible to live divided from other Christians and fulfill the law of Christ. You can't do both.

It's impossible to live divided from other Christians and fulfill the law of Christ. So here's what I wanna do with the rest of our time together. I wanna look at the New Testament church, the early church, the church that changed the world. And I wanna look at how they lived. And here's why the early New Testament church transformed the world. When the church is unified around love, it is a beacon of light.

It's a city on a hill. In fact, early Christians, they were actually called pagans by the Roman Empire because they didn't worship all the Roman gods. They worshiped one God. They followed Jesus. And the church was persecuted because they were living counter culturally. They were living in this community, unified around love. And the Roman Empire and the people around them didn't know what to do with them 'cause it was so radical and counter-cultural and different.

And it changed the world. Think about this. From the time Jesus ascended into heaven after his resurrection to 300 ad those 300 years, Christianity went from a persecuted group on the underbelly of Roman society to the state religion of the Roman Empire, even Constantine, the great converted to Christianity and was baptized.

Why? 'cause the church was unified around love. The church was unified around love. And people saw that and it was irresistible. And they wanted to be a part of that. They wanted to be a part of it. And think about this, the the love of the New Testament church 2000 years ago, it shattered all the cultural norms of the day. It brought dignity and equal value and worth to women, to slaves, to people of all different cultures and backgrounds or racial or ethnic groups.

The New Testament church brought together Jews and Romans and Samaritans. It brought together rich and poor. It brought together religious and previously unreligious people. And it pulled all of them together in a community of love. You wanna talk about messy? Think about that. But you wanna talk about beautiful. Think about that. See, a lot of times we think we got it rough today because of how divided we are.

Boy, 2000 years ago, it was a challenge to be together as the church and to be aligned around love. But they did. And here's the result. Today in 2023, over 2.2 billion people claim faith in Jesus. That's over a third of the world. The New Testament's been translated in over 1,600 different languages, which means it worked. Love worked, the gospel worked, it changed lives, the church worked. It's still changing lives today.

And here's why it worked 2000 years ago. Let's look at Acts two together. In Acts chapter two. There's this beautiful passage we often kinda hold it up as like the utopian ideal of the church. And in many ways it was. But this can be our reality today. Here's what it says. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching of the fellowship, the break of bread and the prayer.

And everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together. They had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.

And the Lord added to their number every day. Those who are being saved a beautiful picture of being united around love. They were united around love. Did they have differences? Absolutely. Did they have conflicts and disagreements every single day? They did. Did they express frustrations? Did they need to forgive one another? Did they have difficult moments? Check, check and check.

But were they divided? No. Why? Because they were united around love the agape love of God and expressing that together was the main driving force of the early New Testament church. It was their primary concern. Not all the differences but love. And it changed the world and that kind of community and that kind of love is still changing our world today. And so the question is this, how do we do this?

How do we live Acts two in our lives today? How do we live unified around love? What practically do we need to do in order to live united around love as the church and not let divisions around politics or social issues or theological things that are secondary divide us? How do we live unified around love? I'm gonna give you three things. So if you're taking notes, I wanna encourage you to write these things down.

How can we live unified around love? Number one, praying and worshiping together. Verse 42 and 43 of Acts talked about how they, they, they committed themselves to the apostle teaching and worship and prayer, meaning that they got together and they worshiped together. And this sounds really simple, but think about it. Think about this.

You know what happens when a Republican and Democrat get together at church and they sit next to each other and they sing songs to Jesus together? You know what happens? Worship and unity and love despite disagreements politically. You know what happens when people that have deeply hurt one another in relationship come to church under the same roof together?

They sing the same songs to Jesus. They hear a message like this together. You know what happens for forgiveness and reconciliation? Love something that people outside of the church wonder at and marvel. It doesn't make sense to them. It says that signs and wonders were happening in the New Testament Church that lame, were walking sick, were healed, demons were cast out.

But do you know what the greatest sign and wonder was 2000 years ago in Acts two? The greatest sign and wonder was that people were finding faith in Jesus Christ in a community of love. That sinners were repenting of sin. That people from different ethnicities and tribes and languages and families and political backgrounds were all worshiping God together.

That was the greatest sign and the greatest wonder that they were unified around love. When God's people gathered together to worship in unity, despite all the things that could divide them, it is a beacon of light, a city on a hill to the watching world where they go, wow, what? What is it with these people? They're, they're different.

And the answer is love. Unity around love by praying and worshiping together. That's number one. Here's number two. Here's the second thing we gotta do. If we're gonna be unified around love, verses 44 and 45, carrying one another's burdens. You say, how do I live unified around love? We carry one another's burdens in verse 44 when it says they had all things in common. That's the Greek word coins.

And it doesn't mean that they lost their identity. It means they shared things. They were generous, they provided for one another. In fact, Galatians six, two says this, Galatians six, two says, carry each other's burdens and in this way you'll fulfill the law of Christ. Remember the law of Christ, the platinum rule. Love others the way God has loved you. How do I do that?

Carry each other's burdens and say, well what? What does that mean practically? Here's what it means. It means that you bless others financially who are in need. It means that you serve others in need no matter what that looks like. Whether it's raking leaves or helping 'em move or shoveling snow or whatever, that you practically serve others that need help.

It means that you meet with others to listen to them, to pray with them. It means that you show up when people are at most need, whether it's the hospital or when they're moving or when they just need to talk, that you show up and you bear someone else's burdens when you carry another person's burdens. It is a tangible, practical way to demonstrate love and alignment regardless of how you might disagree, regardless of if you've hurt one another in the past.

When you serve someone else, it's a radical picture of love. If you wanna see me cry like a baby, all you gotta do is show me one of those videos of the lonely widow that finds community and love and support, or the family whose primary breadwinner has cancer and the church bands together and pays for all their medical bills.

Or the the family that's struggling, lost a wife or lost a husband and the kids are struggling and somebody drops off a brand new vehicle that's paid for that. That kind of stuff. I will weep. Why? 'cause it's a picture of love. It's a picture of the church. It's a picture of the body of Christ. And I don't care how we might disagree politically or socially.

I'm going to choose to love you and serve you and carry your burdens no matter what. My friends whose burden can you carry in love today? That's number two. And here's the last thing we learned from Acts chapter two. The way that we live aligned together, united together around love is this sharing life together, sharing life together. Prayer lake church, we call as being connected relationally that we do life with others.

We resist the temptation to be self-sufficient and alone. And we constantly put ourselves in relational spots with other followers of Jesus that we want to be known and to know others, that we meet together, that we connect together, whether that's at church or in coffee shops or in homes or around businesses that we gather together so that the watching world sees followers of Jesus Christ, united around love, united around love.

Proximity leads to greater understanding and empathy. Even when we disagree with people, when there's proximity, we learn to love them and respect them even when we disagree with them. We learn to treat them with respect. When faith is shared, the vision isn't necessary. We welcome others in and we practice to one another by being together.

It causes us to love one another differently, to respect one another, care for one another, honor one another. When we gather together, we practice all those one another's. When we don't get together as Christians visibly, we rob the watching world of a picture, of what love looks like, of what serving looks like, what being united around love looks like no matter what.

It is impossible, my friends, to live out the platinum rule. If you're not building Christian community, it's impossible to be aligned around love. If you're avoiding community with other followers of Jesus for any reason, for any reason, that's how we live aligned around love, praying and worshiping together, carrying one another's burdens and sharing life together.

So here's how I want to close. You can put your stuff away and I'm just gonna ask you a question or two here. If someone followed you around for a week and they watched how you lived, your interactions on social media, how you spent your time, how you spent your money, would there be enough evidence to convict you of being guilty, of loving others the way Christ has loved you?

Would there be evidence? Are you fulfilling the law of Christ to love others the way that Jesus has loved you? My friends, our world is divided and that division's only gonna grow. It's not gonna decrease. And our mission at Prairie Lakes Church is to be a bunch of known matter followers who are united around love.

And that's never been more important and that's never been more impactful for the people in your little eye with, to see tangibly the church loving one another so well that it's irresistible. And people say, I'm curious about those people because there's people from different, different backgrounds and ethnicities and socioeconomic status and political affiliations, and they're all coming together under one roof, united around love treating one another in a way that I've never seen people do before. That stands out that is unique.

I'm gonna come back to this line one more time. Friends, disagreements and conflicts within the church are inevitable, but division is a choice. And so as a church, my friends, let's not choose division, let's choose love. Let's choose to be united around love. Let's pray together all together right now, all across all of our campuses.

Let's pray. Hey, God, we know that you're a good God and you're a God of agape love. This sacrificial, unconditional love. And God is so easy in this world today to live divided from other Christians, to let political things or cultural things or secondary theological things divide us. But God, you want us to be united. God help us to do our best, to carry one another's burdens, to fulfill your law, the law of Christ to love one another. Well, God, we cannot do that on our own.

So would you feel us by the power of your Holy Spirit with all courage and wisdom and affection for one another, God so that people can see you at work so that we don't rob the watching world of a picture of your love. God, help us to do our best to paint a beautiful picture for the world around us, God or little Iowa, of what you're like and how good and loving you are.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I.