Loving Like Jesus, episode 100 (rebroadcast)

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If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right

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here at When You Love a Prodigal and also help and hope for your own life journey.

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It is amazing to me that this is episode 100.

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I had never even listened to a podcast when I was asked to do this When You Love a Prodigal

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podcast, but my team and my husband said when I was reluctant, you can't turn down this

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great opportunity God has given you.

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So I said yes.

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And it has been such a privilege to travel with you on your prodigal wilderness journey,

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learning with you, hopefully helping and encouraging you.

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I have been so blessed as I did each podcast as I was reminded of all that God had done

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in my life and is still and will do again.

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And how much the hard journey I had with our son is blessing you.

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Yeah.

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And a blessing to be able to turn our hard years and our wilderness into words and stories

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to benefit you and I hope many others.

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And if you want and haven't, you can hear his story.

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He's there telling it in episode 50.

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I believe that our highest calling in life with Jesus is to reflect the image of God,

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the likeness of Jesus to a very hurting world and every person stumbling around in their

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own prodigal wilderness.

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And I believe that Jesus gave us the secret for ourselves, for our wanderers and for the

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world.

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That is love better than coke, better than any other song or person you've heard talking

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about the importance of love because we're talking about love like Jesus loved.

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In John 1334, Jesus made this clear and very strong statement, a new command I give you.

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He says, you've heard commands about loving God with everything in you, but this is a

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new command that you love one another.

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Then he adds, as I have loved you, so you must love one another.

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But he didn't stop there.

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He expanded on what that love looked like in John chapter 15.

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He says, my command is this, love each other as I have loved you.

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But then he defines what that love looks like.

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He says, greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for one's friends

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or one's prodigal.

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Can I do that?

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Can you, can you love, can we love like Jesus?

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Well, he knew we couldn't do it on our own, so he provided help.

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He says, going on down in John 14, he says, I will ask the Father and He will give you

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another advocate to help you and to be with you forever.

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You know him, for he lives with you and soon when Jesus left, he says, he will be in you.

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The advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, Jesus says, will teach

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you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you, even to love one another

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as I have loved you.

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So he said, yes, it's a challenging command, love as Jesus loved, even to the place of

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laying down our lives.

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Well, maybe we won't have to do that, but in a sense, when we are loving our prodigals,

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it is like laying down our lives in so many ways.

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He gives us the will and the power to do whatever it takes to care for and to win and to love

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those who are giving us so much trouble.

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So think for a minute, to whom do you want or need to show this kind of love, maybe even

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for yourself or maybe for your spouse, your children, maybe some other people in your

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life, but certainly for your prodigal.

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So as I continue and help us understand what it looks like to live in love like Jesus,

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keep in mind who you want to focus on, who you want to love like Jesus loved, even though

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it's not easy.

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So let's break this tangible.

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Again, well, you need to give your life, probably not, but it's possible.

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So what are ways we lay down our lives?

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Well, we give time.

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In fact, time is a big one for me.

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My husband would often ask me, could we go do something or could I do something?

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I would say that's not in my schedule because time was so precious to get things done.

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Serving.

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Some people have a gift of serving, so that doesn't count as laying down your life.

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I'm just joking.

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But for them, it's easy.

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For some of us, serving is not the gift that we have, and that's a challenge.

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Sometimes it's listening.

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You know, our prodigals sometimes yell at us, but sometimes they just want someone to

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listen.

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And we usually are so busy thinking about what we're going to say that we don't listen

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to what they want to say.

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Maybe all they need is some encouragement, and they'll make some better choices.

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Gratefully, the apostle Paul joins Jesus and gives us a lot of help, clarifying throughout

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his letters what it looks like to live and love like Jesus.

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So of course, we go to 1 Corinthians 13.

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And I know you know it, but I find it helpful to be reminded.

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So I'm going to just read it very slowly.

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In each description, let it sink in and maybe ask yourself, how am I doing with this one?

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So love is patient.

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Love is kind.

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It does not envy.

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It does not boast.

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It is not proud.

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You know, that was a real important one.

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My husband, who was not a proud person, the Lord called him up on the fact that he was

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judging our son.

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And one time, my husband was unhappy with our son, and he was just making bad choices

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all the time, and he's lazy and he won't work.

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And God said to him, so, Steve, how big is the gap?

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Between you and Josh.

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And Steve thought, it's pretty big.

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And then he said, and how big is the gap between you and me as far as our pride, for example?

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And Steve says, oh Lord, so much greater.

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And so it helped him to begin to not judge everything our son did, but to look instead

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for ways to help him, to encourage him, to love him.

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Love does not dishonor others.

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It is not self-seeking.

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Here's one.

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It is not easily angered.

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So when was the last time that you were angry with your loved one?

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Or someone else that God's pointing out that you could love?

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Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

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And then Paul adds, love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

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Love never fails.

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So let's pause for a minute.

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Which of these would be a way you could show love to a hard to love person in your life?

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Paul has more help for us.

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Thank you, Paul.

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In Colossians 3, we read this.

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Or as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, that's, he's talking to us, okay?

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Where God's people were holy, well, and for sure, we're dearly loved.

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He says, clothe yourselves, that is, put on.

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Wear this like clothing, okay?

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And kindness, humility, gentleness, oh, and then patience again.

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He goes on and says, bear with each other.

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Forgive one another if any of you have a grievance against someone.

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Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

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And over all these virtues put on, love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

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So as we seek to cooperate with God as he's working in our lives to give us compassion

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and kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiving, he says it's love that's going

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to pull that all together.

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So think for a minute about your last conversation or interaction with your prodigal.

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Did love cover it?

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And then in Romans 12, Paul gives us more help on what it looks like to love like Jesus.

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This whole section in a Bible heading is love in action.

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Love must be sincere, hate what is evil, cling to what is good.

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Let's see, hate what is evil.

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That could be the evil that our loved person is doing, but it could also be the attitudes

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of our heart, but cling to what is good.

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Be devoted to one another in love.

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Oh, here's a good one.

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Honor one another above yourselves.

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Not easy.

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Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor.

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Keep wanting to grow.

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Keep wanting to help your loved one to be loved and to grow and become the person God

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created them to be.

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Serve the Lord.

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Be joyful in hope.

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Sometimes living with a prodigal seems to steal joy away from us, but love is going to be

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joyful increasingly.

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Patient and affliction.

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There's that word patient again.

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Faithful in prayer.

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Oh, we haven't mentioned that.

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Probably the next most important, maybe the most important thing we can do for our loved

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ones is to pray for them.

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We should pray for ourselves too, since obviously as we're reading through this, we have some

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areas to grow in, but we can pray for them always.

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And sometimes we just need to shut up and just go to the Lord and talk to him about

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them because he's the one who can really do the transformation in them.

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He goes on to say, bless those who persecute you.

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Bless and do not curse.

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Speaking of cursing, next week we're going to talk about turning curses into blessings.

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That sounds almost impossible.

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I can remember not only one time that Josh would come home drunk and angry and get mad

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at me, though I hadn't done anything to be part of that.

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And then he would go out in our front yard and start screaming and yelling and cursing

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as loud as he could.

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And of course, we had neighbors.

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And so I'm going out there trying to convince him to come in, and we would talk inside.

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But he says, don't curse in response.

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It's so easy when they are saying ugly things for us to let ugly words come out of our mouths.

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He says, don't do that.

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He says, rejoice with those who rejoice.

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Mourn with those who mourn.

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Live in harmony with one another.

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Don't be proud.

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Be willing to associate with people of low position.

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Do not be conceited.

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So these are pretty high standards that Paul has set for us as he describes what it means

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to love like Jesus loves.

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And love is the way that we woo our loved ones back to us, back to the Lord, back to

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better choices in their lives.

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In Romans 2.4, it tells us that God says it's not following all the rules that will work.

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He says, what will work is what I have done.

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I woo people to myself with loving kindness.

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And that's what God's asking us to do.

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And again, it's not impossible because he's given us the spirit of God living in us.

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We have the means to love like that.

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But now I imagine you're thinking, but my prodigal takes advantage of me if I do those

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things.

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They might do that.

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Yes.

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And they certainly don't love back.

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Well, they may say that and act it, but my guess in most cases, there is some love there

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and we can help to draw it out.

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What my kid needs, my prodigal needs is tough love.

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And if you've been listening to these podcasts, you know that that's not my favorite approach.

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Yes, we need to have some standards.

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We need to have some boundaries for us and our homes and what's allowed.

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That's okay.

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But how we tell them that, how we establish those makes all the difference in the world.

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And that can be done in love.

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And rather than coming up with anger against them and saying, if you're going to do that,

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then you're leaving.

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Or if you're going to do that, you're grounded for a year, whatever we might say.

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If we can come to them even in times of needed correction, if we can come in love, it can

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make all the difference.

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As I said two weeks ago in the last episode we did on mercy, love does need courage and

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it needs some firmness.

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But even that must be done with love.

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We have to set those boundaries to find the consequences, but we do it with love and grace.

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Now, I know you're tired of me saying that maybe, but it is the way Jesus said, love

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them like I love them and I wooed them with loving kindness.

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Now I confess that I did not always speak and respond with love with my prodigal.

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But the Lord was patient and faithful as he showed me over and over how much he loved

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me and my prodigal and assured me that as I let the Holy Spirit fill me and remind me

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and guide me, I had the power, I had the desire, I had the ways to love like Jesus.

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Jesus knew we couldn't do it on our own.

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He said, I'm sending my spirit to live in you and as you let him fill you up and be

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in control, he will give you what you need to love like Jesus.

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It's Jesus' new command, love as I have loved, but with supernatural power to do it.

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He had that power and he's given it to us.

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So take a minute.

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Ask God where he wants you to grow and learn to love like Jesus, especially to your loved

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wanderer, then thank him for the help he has promised through the Holy Spirit.

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Today, choose to pray, to speak, to act with the love of Jesus flowing through you.

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Look for an opportunity to let the love of Jesus flow through you to your prodigal and

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any other hard to love person in your life.

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Thanks for celebrating with me on this hundredth episode of the podcast.

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Why don't you celebrate by telling your friends about it, someone you know with a prodigal.

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We usually find out about each other, don't we?

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So let them know about this podcast.

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You can subscribe so that it comes to you in your email every week, a reminder that the

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podcast is coming up.

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But mostly seek to live out what God shows you, lots of love flowing through you, grace

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coming through you.

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God bless you.