Faith Talk - October 20, 2024
Sunday: October 20, 2024
Series: Faith and Politics
Sermon: Faith and Politics: Love Your Neighbor
Series: Faith and Politics
Sermon: Faith and Politics: Love Your Neighbor
Scripture
Mark 12:30-31 – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”
Summary
Today, we continued our series, Faith and Politics. Pastor Brian opened by commenting on God’s creation and design for life from conception to birth. We recognize God is the author of life, and we want to support His design (Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 51:5; Psalm 139:13-16).
We were also challenged to not only vote our Christian values but to behave like Christ as we do. Jesus taught us to love God with everything we are and everything we do. He also taught us to love our neighbors. This starts with the neighbors we worship with.
The main threat to our love for one another (unity), and therefore, our effectiveness for God’s Kingdom, is putting a secular identity before our sacred identity. Our sacred identity is in the person of Jesus Christ, not in a secular political policy or a secular ideology. We must understand the enemy is dividing people in our secular culture and not get led astray into secular identities, arguments, and division as a sacred church.
As Jesus often does, He takes it even one step further and teaches us something better, something sacred. He teaches we are to even love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48). The enemies referred to in this passage are generally understood as those who oppose or harm you, including personal adversaries or groups that stand against you. For our discussion, those who disagree with you politically. We learned four aspects to love those we disagree with:
We were also challenged to not only vote our Christian values but to behave like Christ as we do. Jesus taught us to love God with everything we are and everything we do. He also taught us to love our neighbors. This starts with the neighbors we worship with.
The main threat to our love for one another (unity), and therefore, our effectiveness for God’s Kingdom, is putting a secular identity before our sacred identity. Our sacred identity is in the person of Jesus Christ, not in a secular political policy or a secular ideology. We must understand the enemy is dividing people in our secular culture and not get led astray into secular identities, arguments, and division as a sacred church.
As Jesus often does, He takes it even one step further and teaches us something better, something sacred. He teaches we are to even love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48). The enemies referred to in this passage are generally understood as those who oppose or harm you, including personal adversaries or groups that stand against you. For our discussion, those who disagree with you politically. We learned four aspects to love those we disagree with:
- Love even when it feels unnatural.
- Love when you pray.
- Love who is all around you.
- Love because you need hope as much as anyone does.
Discussion
- Share what stood out to you most from today’s sermon.
- Share your experience with politics in church. Have you seen political opinion cause division between people in the church?
- What went wrong? How could it have been handled better? Why is it so important for the church to stay unified even if there are political differences?
- Discuss the importance of your sacred identity in Christ versus the secular identities of the world.
- As related to faith and politics, why is it important for followers of Jesus to maintain their primary identity in Christ?
- Discuss how you have seen Christians act poorly toward people they have political differences with.
- How should Christians behave toward people they oppose politically? Why is this important?
Pray Together
Father, thank You for being the Creator of life from conception, to birth, through life, until death. We trust You and your plan for each one of us. I ask that You rid me of any identity I am putting ahead of who I am in Jesus. I ask You to use me as a unifier of the church. I ask You to enable me to love my neighbor. We commit to love those we disagree with politically, so we represent Your love to everyone around us. Lead us to stand for truth while loving others in this divided political season. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
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