Jesus expects us to be for people just like He is for them. Let your light shine!

TRANSCRIPTION

We are in this series called “I Am For You,” and this is the last week we’re talking about God designed us for other people, that He made us to be for them, to live for them. He said that you are the light of the world, and what He means is that we are supposed to be so loving, so bright, that people would come to us so they could come to Jesus. That we’re supposed to be bright with the light of Jesus. He said we’re supposed to be so loving that we’re even supposed to love our enemies. Whoa, Jesus. Time out. Do you know what that person did to me? Do you know their character, God? And He’s like, “Yeah, I do. Love them.” This is what He asks us to do. It defies logic that we would love our enemies, because what we usually do to our enemies is we do what they did to us. We reciprocate back what they’ve done to us. But Jesus asks us to do the opposite. He asks us to love them.

Think about this. God put you in your neighborhood for the people around you. Literally, the people around you, God put you there for them. God put you in your work for the people around you so that you could give His love to them. God put you in your dysfunctional, crazy, messed up family so you could be for them. There’s a lot of like, “Ooh, I don’t know about that right now.” God put you there for them. The love of God, the life of God, the joy of God, and the peace of God are to come to the world through you. That’s what God designed for you and me to be His love, to be His light.

See, the world is craving the flavor of Jesus and we are the salt that can provide that flavor of Jesus in their lives. This is who Jesus has designed us to be. He’s designed us to be light, He’s designed us to be salt. But it’s hard, isn’t it? Has anyone honked at you recently? How about have you honked at anyone recently? Hopefully not in the parking lot, right? So, you know there’s a whole language behind honking, right? We all understand the language of honking. If you give a little meep-meep, that means, “Hi, I’m not angry, but I just want to let you know you may proceed.” If you give a meep-meep, that means, “Bro, you just cut me off, I’m not happy,” right? But if you give a meep, that means, “What are you thinking?” So we all know there’s a language behind honking, correct? We get that.

So two years ago, it was right around Christmas time, and my wife was going to visit a friend. She had taken our one year old son, Paxton. She had gotten some take out. She was taking it over to their house. It was going to be this awesome, fun night that they were going to have together, and she called me on the way there and she’s crying and she says, “My car broke down.” Her car broke down right on the hill on Alberta, so it’s icy. It’s sleeting, it’s dark. When she calls, she’s crying, but not only is she crying, our son is crying. He’s wailing in the background. So I drive there, and when I get there, it’s true. She’s got her flashers on. She’s stuck in the middle of Alberta, this busy road, right on this hill, and cars are having to go around her and she’s just weeping and my son is wailing and it’s sleeting and it’s dark. This is not where you want to be in Christmas time, right?

I’m hooking up the jumper cables, because I think it’s an alternator, so I just need to get the battery charged so I can move the car. So I’m hooking up the jumper cables, and while I’m coming around … so I just hooked up the jumper cables, I’m coming around the side of the car. Someone flies by us and gives me the meep. So in a flash of anger, I responded like you would think your pastor should. I reciprocated his rude h