Live Like Love Conquers Everything

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

  It's hard to end up in the same place unless you have a shared vision of where you're going. So just imagine we're all headed off to California but in your mind you're headed to San Francisco and in my mind I'm headed to L.A. and in someone else's mind they're headed to San Diego. Where they arrive is certainly true that it's all California but it's not in the same place.

Whether it's an organization or a family or a team or a church, unless you have a common vision that's clear about where you're going, the chances of you arriving together in the same place are pretty low. So Paul in the book of Romans has offered this great reality, that because of what God has done in the person of Christ, we cannot be separated from God's love.

There's no person, circumstance, situation, history, event that can separate us from God's love. And so Paul then, because of that reality, wants to give the church a vision for how it should live. And he does this in Romans 12, and he basically outlines three things. He says, one, I want you to be a community of love together. Two, I want you to be a blessing to the world around you. And three, I want you to overcome evil with good.

And so Paul believes that because the church is more than conquerors, that they should live like love conquers all. And so I want to offer you three ideas that can help you in your own journey.

One, Paul says, let love be genuine. I don't know if you've ever had an imitation Oreo, but I'll tell you, in my opinion, they are not the same. Maybe every once in a while you buy that sort of fake version in hopes that it's going to save you a few dollars. But then when you eat it, you realize this is not the real thing. It's not genuine. I feel similarly about those who probably brew Starbucks versus coffee created at Starbucks itself. There's just something about it. That's not quite the same.

And so what Paul says is, hey, because love conquers everything, You, the church, need to be a community yourself that lives in a way that is genuine. You have a genuine community of love, and the way you're gonna do that is through humility. The way you're gonna do that is by holding on to hope. The way you're gonna do that is by being passionate about what God wants for you.

But, for each of us, it's remembering that in Christ, one of our roles, one of our identities, one of our places in life is to help build a genuine community of love. That's what the church is to be. That's what we're trying to do here at Grace Community, is to be a genuine community of love so that those who participate experience that. They're known, they're loved, they're cared for.

So second, Paul says, hey, because of this reality, because love conquers everything, I want you to live as a blessing in the world, be a blessing to others. And here Paul offers up some really challenging things. He says, bless those who persecute you. He says, however it can be up to you, try to live peaceably with all.

He says, consider what might be viewed as noble over and over again. You know, I find a lot of encouragement that the show Ted Lasso has had so much success. And the reason is because Ted acts out a modern version of this. He commits to this idea that he would just honor people. He would love people, even his enemies.

And that encourages me in two ways. One, it gives me a vision for what that might look like in my own life. To realize that sometimes it's just about being faithful to love and mercy and hope. But also, it encourages me because its success reminds me that it hits something in the human soul that encourages them. And makes them say, you know what, this vision of being a community of love that's a blessing to everyone else really does resonate with who we want to be as humans. It's a good vision for our life.

So again, Paul says, live like love conquers everything. The way you're going to do that is you're going to build a genuine community of love.

And two, you're going to be a blessing to everyone. Not just those in your community, but those outside of your community. So how do you, how do you do that in your workplace? How do you do that in your neighborhood? How do you do that in your different social circles? Because you are to be a blessing.

And the final thing that Paul says, He says, overcome evil with good. Don't overcome evil with evil. This is challenging because I think in the midst of experiencing evil and injustice, there's a part of us that wants to return that back across the other side. But God reminds us that judgment is God's business and our business, and our business is to reflect genuine love, reflect the sacrifice and service, servanthood of Christ. And so that's what we are called to, to be a people that overcome evil with good.

I was listening to something a few years back that talked about the best form of criticism is new creation. And I love that idea because a lot of times when we're sort of, we see something that we don't like, something that we're fighting against, our move is to often condemn it, criticize it, tell all the reasons why it's not good.

But I love this idea that the way you overcome evil is with good, that you recreate something new. And in fact, we've seen God do this very thing. In the person of Christ, God overcomes evil by submitting to evil and then creates something new in the church. Something that's a blessing for everyone, all walks of life -all people- belong. And in Christ, we're shown what love looks like. And so we're to be those kind of people that persist and are relentless in overcoming evil with good.

Hey, I hope that this might give you a hopeful vision for your life. That wherever you are, you should be connected to a genuine community of love. That that community, both individually and together, you would be a blessing to everyone.

And that you would persist and be relentless at overcoming evil with good. Because you believe that in Christ, nothing can separate you from the love of God. And in fact, love conquers everything. Always great to be with you. Have an awesome week. See you soon.