And the temple model is just not the temple that was there on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It's just a model of clear back. Every religion has this temple model religion to where sacred men, sacred text, sacred place. And Jesus brought something brand new to the table, something brand new. And last week it was the brand new you beside of you and not the you of you, me, my, I. It's the you beside of you because there comes a time in every Christian's walk that once you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, you've settled your salvation, you've asked Christ to come into your heart and forgive you of your sins, there comes a time in your walk that you have got to move past the I, the me, the you of all in all of us. You've got to move past that to become a servant to the you beside of you. You've got to become a witness to the you beside of you. It's not all about you anymore. You're fine between you and God. Then it becomes, thank you. I was blowing myself away. I don't know what that means. But this brand new Jesus model signaled an end when Christ came on the scene, it signaled an end of the temple model and the beginning of something brand new. And the sad part is, is it's still new today because some of us just still don't get it. We don't understand that our Christianity is different from what it was in the Old Testament. It's different from what it was once Jesus come on the scene. It's brand new. And we also discussed last week why we shouldn't lie and cheat and steal and gossip and, and have premarital sex. And, and it was not because, well, the Bible says so, and it's a list of things we got to do. No, it's because God does not want us to hurt each other when we lie and cheat and steal and have premarital sex. And someone said, well, now, preacher, but what if it's consensual? Ah, you got me, didn't you? You got me. Well, you know, what if your little niece or nephew or maybe a smaller brother or sister comes and says, Hey, bub, you know, sis, or maybe it's Uncle Randy, me and my best friend, we're going to take us a butter knife and we're going to poke each other's eyes out. Now don't you worry, it's consensual. But it's consensual. What would you do? Well, that's okay. It's consensual. Do you just go right? No, you wouldn't. It'd be no, no, no, no, no. Don't you do that because you're not supposed to hurt you and you're not supposed to hurt someone else either. That's the brand new. That's the Jesus model. That's what's different than a temple model. And we are all smart enough to know when we're hurting someone else. We're all smart enough to know when we're hurting someone else or elevating ourself above someone else. And this morning, the question is, what does love require of me? All this, you, all this brand new stuff, love one another. We're breaking from a temple model to a Jesus model. The question is then, if we're going to put it into practice, if we're going to do this the way Jesus required us to do or the way he said we were to do it, love God, love others, love your neighbor as yourself, all the Bible leads to this one or two commands of us to love God and love others. How do we put that into practice? What does this love require of us? And the first thing that comes to mind, do you really need a verse for every single thing? Do you really need a verse for every single thing? Do we have to do a Bible study to bring out each little specific item? of what does love require of me or what should we not be doing versus what should we be doing? Do you really have to go any deeper than love your neighbor as yourself? And if you will take the one principle, this one command, this one idea This use, this thing that Jesus brought to the table as a filter through which you read the New Testament, through which you look at the teachings of Jesus, through which you look at the teachings of the Apostle Paul and the teachings of Peter. The entire New Testament will come alive to you whenever you look at it under the context of love God, Love your enemies, love your neighbor as yourself. It'll come alive to you. And we make it, you know, here's the bottom line. The New Testament imperatives, the commands, the imperatives in the New Testament, all the commands, everything that is there are just examples. They're just examples and God did not give us a specific example for everything that we can come up with. But what He did do, He didn't need to even. Because He didn't need to give us an example for everything. The New Testament imperatives are simple examples of how to demonstrate your love for God by loving others. It's just that simple. And you say, OK, I can get that. I want you to listen, and I really want you to pay attention. Tune back to my station, close your browser up, put me front instead of Amazon, or quit counting lights and ceiling tiles. I want you to listen a minute. When you first hear this, And I understand where your mind would go. I understand what you think. And some of you have probably said, Preacher, you are dumbing down Christianity. You're dumbing it down to just say, all we're supposed to do is love God and love others as ourselves. And you're throwing out the details. And this stuff you are talking about is It's kind of like a woodstock. That goes back to some of us, doesn't it? Some of us way before your time. But you're making this just a big woodstock for Christians. This is just some big love fest. And you want us all to get along or go along to get along and love one another and be a bunch of Christian hippies and, you know, it's just all going to work out kind of philosophy. I know where your mind goes, because that's where my mind goes. When you look at it from this perspective, it's just some sloppy Christianity mentality and and we don't have to take the text seriously. That's the criticism, and those thoughts are why I want you to listen to what I'm about to say. The Jesus model. Is less complicated. It's less complicated, yes, but it is far more demanding. It's less complicated, but it is far more demanding. Don't you ever forget this. The epicenter of the Christian faith is a man that those who followed him believed he was from God. And don't you ever forget that the epicenter of the Christian faith is a man that those who knew him best believed that he was God's Son and that he was the Messiah. And don't you ever forget that the epicenter of all this teaching is a man who died in his own blood, a man who died in the saliva of other men, and a man who took your place on a cross. That's what the Jesus model looks like. And don't you ever forget that the temple model, it may be much simpler. But the Jesus model is far more demanding. Here's how I know that. Here's how I know it. Those of you who've been raised in any kind of religion. Those of you who've been in church very long. Christianity or otherwise. Here's what you already know. It's easy to find a place to hide in the temple. It's easy to find a place to hide in the temple. You say, what do you mean by that? It's easy to find a place to hide in the temple model approach to Christianity. Here's what that sounds like. Well, I don't really think anyone knows exactly what that means. And Jesus, you know, that's not in red letters. He didn't mention that specifically. Or you'll say, and Paul said this in one place, and yet Peter said something different over here. And, and, you know, there's a contradiction. And Paul said, well, you know, preacher, what Paul said there, you know, that should or should not be on a list of things to do in this day and age and in this culture. Well, that's in the old Testament. I've heard how many times you heard that? Well, that's in the old Testament. And my preacher, here's one, my preacher said this, and that's different than what you're telling me. And you know, my granddaddy said this, or my grandma taught this. Temple thinking is easy to hide and find places to scurry off and get lost in the temple. And then there's one. Well, I can confess it and then I'll be OK. Treat people like and confess it and it'll be OK. In temple religion, it's easy to always find a loophole. It's easy to find a place to hide under a temple model, even the Christian version and especially the Christian version. It's easy. But it's difficult, it's difficult to find a place to hide from love your enemy as yourself. Jesus' model. It's difficult to find a place to hide from be merciful, Christ said, even as your father is merciful. Jesus model. It's difficult to hide. From forgive. Even as your father. Forgave you. It's difficult to find a place to hide from do good. To those that hate you. Oh. It's difficult to find a place to hide from pray for them who despitefully use you. Jesus model. It's difficult to hide from judge not. That you be not judged. Jesus' model. It's difficult to hide from love your neighbor as yourself. It's difficult to hide from every idle word that men shall speak. They shall give an account of it, Jesus said. It's difficult to hide from, it's not that which goes into a man's mouth of a man that defiles him, but that which comes out of his mouth that defiles him. That'll put gossip and talking about others in its right place, doesn't it? Ladies and gentlemen, don't tell me. That this is some Casper milquetoast way of thinking, form of Christianity that looks like Woodstock. Don't tell me it's some love fest or some form of just love everyone. These are the words that Christ spoke. That's the red letter in your Bible. And by the way, it's the same Bible that we beat people over the head with with our list of things to do and don't do. And you should do and you shouldn't do. And you need to act and dress and wear your hair and your pants and your slacks and all the stuff. Come from the exact same book that we beat him over the head with for years. Don't dress this way when you come to church and dress this way when you come to church and don't you do this while you're in the church and don't you act like you don't you realize that's the holy of holies. I'm not talking disrespect. I'm not talking ill reverence. I'm just telling you there is a difficult phenomenon that it takes to live Christianity the way that Jesus defined it, which is brand new. And it's still brand new to the church today because we're not living it that way. See, following Jesus. There's no place to hide. Because in most instances, let's just be honest. We know the answer to the question. We already know it. We already know it. We just blow right through it like a roadblock. We know the answer to the question, what does love require of me? And we make excuse. You can Bible verse yourself. You can Old Testament yourself. You can hide in the temple. But at the end of the day, everyone in this room knows, what does love require of me? You know it. You know it. And the fact of the matter is, this is the essence that I've been speaking about for the last six weeks or seven weeks counting today. This is the essence of what following Jesus is supposed to look like. When folks look at you, you go visit with Michael and I just a week or two. Just a couple Thursdays. Come call us sometime. We'll split and you can go with either one of us. You go talk to people that's been, and the most that you, you don't hear nothing about what I'm talking about. You hear all about why I used to go to church and such and such and such and such and such and such and such and such and such and such and such. Just ask him. Well, we used to go at such and such and such and such and bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup. And it has nothing. They weren't loved to death. There was no Woodstock there. We've turned people off to the Jesus model and turned them on to a temple model, religion. And if you think it's easy, if you think this is simple, I'm telling you that this is extremely different from what church is today. or what it has been. I could take and give you a piece of paper and everyone in this room could write down an experience. If you didn't put your name on it and everyone in this room could write down some experience where you've been hurt by some Christian, some church, some form of temple model thinking or religion and we could write a book It's not simple. It's not easy. It's more demanding. And it's more difficult to live the Jesus model. The fact of the matter is, if you think this is watered down, when your heavenly father answered the question, what does love require of me? It cost him his son. And when your Savior answered the question, what does love require of me? It cost Him His life. And His words to us were, follow Me. It's demanding. It's difficult. It is real simple, but it is demanding. It is very difficult. And I'm telling you, it is very different from what the church of Christ, the living Christ is doing today. It's different. What does love require of me? How different is it? Everything else is simply commentary. Everything else is simply illustration. Everything else is simply an example of what love requires of me. Go ye in all the world. That's what he said. Love people. Be a witness for me. You say, now preacher, you're just messing with what I believe. You're just messing with my theology. You're missing it. And I'll email you something. Don't send me your emails because I really don't want to hear it. You're messing with me. I'll talk to you about it later. No, go talk to someone else that'll listen to your garbage because I'm not going to. The fact of the matter is this is easy, but it's demanding and it's difficult and it is different. You have left God out of this, preacher. And I heard you say the other day, you know, this is horizontal and not vertical. And you're just pulling me down and forgetting about the worship and the glory of God. And what about the glory? And Jesus answered that. I mentioned this last week. I want to go in a little more detail. And what I read to you next, I hope that it bothers you when you go home. I hope that it bothers you and shows you just how different this is versus what we know as jerk and what we know as temple model. Because the fact of the matter is it had an impact on Jesus's followers and I hope it has the same impact that it does on you. Look at verse 31 of that text. When the Son of Man comes in His glory, there's our word. When He comes in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. There's your word. Verse 32. And all the nations will be gathered. We know what this event looks like, what we've been taught. Everybody's going to gather. Christ is going to return. He's going to ride back on this white horse. He's going to be there in that time. And all the nations will be gathered together before Him. And He will separate them one from another as shepherds, and divide the sheep from His goats. And man, this is, whoo! This is going to get in, not going to get in. And He will set them apart. You just look at that. The sheep on the right hand, the goats on the left. And then the king will say to those on his right hand, come. I'm going to get in folks. Come. You blessed of my father inherit. The kingdom. Prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Where I was hungry. And you gave me food. I was thirsty. And you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me and I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord. When? Did we see you? When did we see you? Man, when did we see you? And we would answer with, I saw him at camp. We would answer, I saw him in church Sunday morning. I saw him during the worship and the singing. I saw him at a revival. One man said to me last Sunday morning, I saw him in your foyer. By the image of the prisms of the glass on the wall through the reflection of the cross. Somebody else may say, well, I saw him in church. Jesus, when did we see you? I didn't see Jesus. I don't know that I've ever seen him. Let me show you the difference. How different. When did we see you? hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink. When did we see you and do all that? Next. When would we see you a stranger and take you in and naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? King will answer and say to them, assuredly, I say to you in as much as you did it. To one of the least of these, my brethren. It's different. Because you're going to see him if you go to the riverfront. on Saturday morning. You're going to see Him. When you go see Jim in the hospital, thank God he's here and God restored him back to his health, but you're going to see Him then. You're going to see Him. Whenever you take some book bags to some little kids, at school. You're going to see them when you drop a plate of food off at somebody's house if their house is not good enough that they can't cook for themselves. See, that looks different than straighten up and fly right. That looks a whole lot different than shouting and waving our hands and running up and down the aisles, doesn't it? It looks a whole lot different And putting on our good clothes and running off to church. Looks a whole lot different. And some of our self-righteous, holy attitudes, have I got it all together. Don't tell me I'm watering it down. Looks different. Visiting those in prison or in the hospital. The nursing home. I'm telling you the Jesus model looks and is different than what most churches are pushing today. It looks a whole lot different than what most Christians are practicing today. Can you imagine what would happen? Let's just start in your family. Let's let's let's start right there. If you would ask each other, what does love require of me? and practice that. Let's just do it for a week. How much different would it look and what if all we did and say went through the filter of what does love require of me? Because we know what that looks like. our community, our city. What if Christians, red, yellow, black, white, brown, would lay aside, I know what I've been taught. I know how I've been treated. What if they would lay aside, I know what I believe. What if we'd lay aside, I know what papa or granddaddy or mama said, but you don't understand how my family, I was raised preacher. What if, what if, what if we laid all that aside and put into practice the Jesus model? What if folks were envious of the people at Big Branch Church simply because of not what we believe, but how we treat each other? What if we just started asking, what does love require of me? Well, but you don't know what they did. What if? But you don't know how I was... What if? You'd lay all of it aside. Push it back. But they didn't come and see me when I was sick. And they didn't run to the hospital. And they didn't... I could go on and write books and chapters and volumes. And you could too. What if we laid all that aside and says, what does love require of me? What if we practice the Jesus model the way that Christ left us to do and threw away our temple model thinking? So when you leave. And your criticism is it's watered down. It's a woodstock round there now. Some big love fest. I'm going to take that as a compliment. Even though you mean it as a criticism. Because I know the difference. of what Jesus model looks like versus what temple model looks like. And I know everyone in this room does too. If we just put it into practice. Let's stand.