-- But it goes even deeper than that, because if faith without works is dead, what killed it was probably the lack of works. If we don`t exercise our relationship with Jesus, if we don`t exercise our faith, it dies. When I did student ministry I used to take students on retreats a couple of times a year. I`d get these great speakers to come in, we`d have great music, and I`d feed them with lots of chocolate because nothing makes you feel spiritual like chocolate. We`d build a campfire, we`d sing, we`d share until everyone was saying things like, "I love you man, " and "this is the best retreat ever." We`d register a full 10 on the Kumbah-yah-meter. Everyone would come back all super charged-up spiritually, but as soon as we hit Bay area traffic, poof, it was gone. At the retreat we had a lot of good head knowledge, we had a lot of heart connection, we had a lot of good spiritual habits, but it all evaporated unless we did something with what we learned, felt, and experienced. That`s why following Jesus with our hands by serving is so important, because it is as we serve that Jesus becomes tangible, real, physical. In two ways:

1'' When we follow Jesus with our hands by serving, Jesus becomes more real to the people around us. 7 out of 10 Americans think that Christianity is irrelevant, and I think the reason they think that is because they`ve heard us Christians talk about it, but they haven`t really seen us do anything about it. We haven`t lived it out, we haven`t served them as Jesus would. In our post-modern culture, that isn`t going to show anybody Jesus. Words are very suspect these days. We`ve seen politicians and the media spin the truth, and pastors have turned out to be hypocrites. Only action convinces in our culture. As it says in the passage we read today, if someone is in need, and we say, "Go in peace, keep warm, and eat your fill, " but don`t supply their bodily needs, what good is that? That`s why it says: let us love not in word or in speech, but in truth, and in action. I read a study by some sociologists a couple of years ago who say that we are now living in what they call an "experience economy." As an example of this trend they used the development of what has happened to birthday parties in our culture. It used to be when you had a birthday you knew that your mom loved you if she got some flour and eggs and baked you a cake. They called that a "goods economy." In the 70s you knew your mom loved you because she went out and bought Betty Crocker and made you a cake. That was called a "convenience economy." But then in the 90s, what happened to kids` birthdays? You started to go to a place, a very special place, called Chuckie Cheese`s, and it was no longer a birthday party, it was a birthday experience. And it`s just getting worse. My five-year-old went to a birthday party a couple weeks ago. They went to this place with inflatable slides and bouncy things, and now all she can talk about is, "when it`s my birthday, I want to go to the inflatable bouncy place." We live in a culture of experiences: concerts, movies, Super Bowl, Las Vegas, you name it. In such a culture, the only way people are really going to know who Jesus is is if they have an experience of him through how we serve them - how we are Jesus with skin on for them. The author Reggie McNeal tells a story about his wife who went with a group of other Christians after 9/11 to clean out apartments that were near the World Trade Center. These apartments had their windows blown out, everything was covered with debris, and people were paying thousands of dollars to have them cleaned professionally; this group of Christians did it for free. Wherever they went they were asked three questions: "Who are you?" "What are you doing?" "Why are you doing it?" By the time they had answered the first two questions, they could have said anything in response to the "Why are you doing it" question and people would have listened, because they believed something so strongly that it caused them to inconvenience themselves to
serve others. So whenever they were asked, they were able to say, "we`re doing this in response to who Jesus is." When we follow Jesus with our hands by serving it makes him more real to those around us.

But it`s more than that.

2'' In my experience, when I follow Jesus with my hands by serving, it also makes him more real to me, and I believe it will do so for you as well. The things we do physically, in our bodies, are more real to us than the things we just think in our heads or feel in our hearts. It`s like riding a bike or driving a stick shift or golf, you can read about it all you want, but until you do those things physically, they don`t seem real to you, they`re just ideas. But once you do them physically they seem real ''except for golf, which just becomes real frustrating''. Once you do it, you never forget how, it becomes a part of you, and it becomes real. My wife has not ice skated in years. This winter she decided to slap on a pair of skates and hit the ice. She remembered how to do it because it was a part of who she is, and because she did it, it was an action. It`s the same with our faith. We can have all the head knowledge about Jesus in the world, we can have a great heart connection to Jesus, our spiritual habits can be fantastic, and those three Hs are important; but if it doesn`t get to our hands, if we don`t act on it, it will never be real to us, and it will never seem real. It would be as if we wanted to form a bike-riding club, but then all we did was say, "Well let`s see, first we need a committee to study it, maybe a few seminars to learn how people ride bikes in other churches, and maybe fly in a guest preacher who has ridden a bike before, preferably in Africa." Then, as a pastor, I would stand up and I would say something like, "Now, we`re not all called to actually ride a bike, it`s really more a metaphor for all forms of vehicular transportation." No!!! Nike got it right: Just do it. And when you do, bike-riding becomes more than a theory or an idea, it becomes real. As a matter of fact, it becomes fun. Doing makes it more real. It`s when we love others with Christ`s love that we begin to experience it as real in our hearts.

"-- Jesus says this crazy thing: All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted, and whoever wishes to be great among you must become a servant. In other words, up is down, and down is up. If we try to climb the ladder and achieve, we are going to end up at the bottom. But if we become a servant and put ourselves down on the bottom first, then we will be exalted. It is another one of these paradoxes that is a part of living in Jesus` upside down kingdom. But how can that be? How can up be down and down be up?

-- Let`s take the first part. All who exalt themselves will be humbled. Let`s take the first part. All who exalt themselves will be humbled. If you think about it, that is true. What do we get for all our efforts to get to the top, to achieve and succeed? Well for starters, we get a lot of stress. Recently I read about parents in Manhattan who as soon as they get pregnant, put their unborn child on a waiting list to get into one of the finest preschools in the city, so that then the kid will have a leg up on getting into one of the best kindergartens, and elementary schools, and high schools, and Harvard. And so that the kid can grow up to be a neurotic, overworked stress-case, because it was such a good experience for their parents, right? We get stress. Then even when we do achieve and succeed the thrill never lasts. We all know the feeling of getting the promotion, or the best car on the block, or the bigger house - it doesn`t last; it wears out. Even our biggest achievements are very quickly forgotten. I was talking to some friends who work in the world of finance this week, and they said that every January 1st all of their performance records are wiped clean. They start at zero every year. It doesn`t matter what they did the year before, every January 1st they all start at zero. It`s a "what have you done for me lately" world. Even our best achievements are very quickly forgotten, if not by us, by everyone else. As I was starting my career in ministry, I had an older pastor say to me, "Scott, there will be four stages in your career. The first stage will be people asking, `Who is Scott Dudley?` The second stage, people will say, `Get me Scott Dudley.` In the third stage, they`re going to say, `Get me a young Scott Dudley.` And the fourth stage, `Who is Scott Dudley?`" That`s what it all comes down to folks - no matter what we achieve, it doesn`t last, it gets forgotten. And even when we do achieve something, ever notice how folks aren`t nearly as impressed with us as we think they ought to be.

I think this means we do two things in life. To move up by moving down means:

1) We do our best at what God has given us to do, and let God take care of our status and reputation. You see, Jesus isn`t saying in these passages that we should not strive for excellence, that we should not do our best. That`s not what Jesus is saying. There is nothing wrong with achievement, and there is nothing wrong with being exalted - if God is the one exalting you, pushing you up. That`s the point of the story that Jesus tells about the dinner party, where Jesus says don`t take the best seat, take the lowest seat. Then if the host moves you up, that`s great. It`s not wrong to sit in the seat of honor, it`s wrong to grab for it. If God assigns it to you, though, take it. So here`s what we do. In business " you make the best products you can make, and you always try to make it better, and if you end up at the top of the market, great. If you don`t, that`s not your call, it is God`s call; don`t worry about it. In your career " you concentrate on being the best teacher, or manager, or lawyer, or student, whatever you are, and you are always trying to improve, and if that lands you in the corner office with the view, awesome. If not, that`s God`s call, don`t worry about it. We do our best at what God has given us to do, and let him worry about our
reputation and our status.

The second way that we move up by moving down is we become servants.

2) We serve others. Servant here doesn`t mean being a groveling, trample-on person. It means caring for other and helping them become all God created them to be. We can do this in several easy ways. One is just to pay attention to other people, and really listen to them. I don`t know about you, but I can get in my own little world and not even notice others. I do that here sometimes; I really do it at home. I will come back from work and start reading a magazine or something, and I`ll hear this sort of sound in the background, but I don`t quite tune in. But gradually, I begin to tune in and pick out what the sound is, and it`s my wife saying, "Are you listening to me? You`re not paying attention, are you?" I always say, "Oh, yes, I`m listening, yes I am - I`m just multi-tasking." To serve someone means we pay attention to them, and we listen carefully to what they are saying and to listen with patience. As a friend of mine says, when his wife comes to him and says, "I have something I`d like to talk about, " he has learned that "what is it now" does not count as compassionate listening.

Another way we serve is simply to do things that will help make some one else`s life easier. In my old church in California there was a retired Admiral from the Navy who was great at this. He had been in charge of entire fleets, he had known Presidents and Senators, but he always said to us, "What do you need me to do? I`ll sweep floors, I`ll clean the windows, I`ll do anything." What`s amazing is he meant it. He would literally sweep floors and clean windows. I had such respect for him that even though he was this big deal Admiral, he was willing to serve like that just to make our lives easier at the church. That is being a servant. My wife tells me that I am most attractive to her when I am taking out the garbage. She says, "Nothing says romance like a man with a trash can." Being a servant means doing simple things that help other people make their life easier.

-- Finally, being a servant means finding ways to help other succeed and become all that God created them to be. One of the people who has served me most in my life is the Senior Pastor I worked for in California. He was constantly giving up his own preaching time, constantly taking a back seat so that I could develop my gifts as a pastor. That`s being a servant. We serve when we listen; we serve when we do things that simply help make other people`s lives easier; and we serve when we take a back seat and help others become everything God created them to be.

Hello,

I have been searching for answers regarding a few questions about something Jesus said. 

The original second great commandment mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40 was first given in Leviticus 19:18, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself;”

The new commandment was given by Jesus in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

Then Jesus tells us ‘how’ He loves us in John 15:9, “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you;”

So, Jesus loves us just as the Father loves Him. 

Are we now to love one another (including our self) just as the Father loves Jesus?

If so, then did ‘how’ we are to love one another change with the coming of Jesus (and His finished work culminating at the cross), from being defined by the Mosaic Law to being defined by how the Father loves Jesus?

Any help in directing me to materials or persons that can help answer these questions would be greatly appreciated.

Warmly