Judgment part 3
Now that we know what the judgment of God was--not a death sentence, but an eternal life sentence--we can execute that judgment. And, according to Psalm 149:9 it is not just something we SHOULD do. "To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD." Its our honor to execute this judgment. To stop judging by appearance, and judge righteous judgment. To see people the way God sees them. Not getting caught up on surface stuff. Not "I can't tell you what it really is, I can only tell you what it looks like." Because we KNOW what it really is. We know the truth of the matter. And truth is higher than fact. And watch this, because tonight I want to focus on HOW we execute the righteous judgment of God. God's judgment was LIFE, right? So we excecute that judgment... by living. And, as we know, to live is to love. To love is to live. There is no better way to show people God than to love people. Because God IS love. There is no better way to judge people than by loving them. Because God judged us according to His love. Look at Romans 5:8, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." When we had nothing to give... God gave us everything. His Son. His Spirit. His life. Himself. He did it because He loved us. He did it to SHOW His love to us. Jesus said there is no greater love that a man can have than to lay His life down for His friends. And then He went to the cross and did that very thing. He put His money where His mouth was. But, one more time, Jesus dying wasn't God's judgment. That was Jesus sacrificing Himself to free us from the death that we were already in. Before the cross we were dead in our trespasses and sins. The second death of the cross made us dead to death. Dead to sin. So that we could rise again and walk in newness of life. So that we could experience His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life as He lives His own life in us, and through us, and as us. God's judgment wasn't to strike down His Son. God's judgment was to raise Him back to life. And us in Him. So now we CAN live. And BY living--by letting God love us and loving Him back by loving each other--we are executing His righteous judgment. And that's our honor. That's HOW we honor Him! I mention this I feel like a lot, but it drives me crazy when religious folk let PEOPLE suffer in order to "serve God." Guys. Come on. We serve God BY serving others. "I can't help you. I have to go to church." Well... maybe BE the church. Maybe judge people to be more important than rituals. I've long said there are only two important things: God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. Because, realistically, the ONLY important thing is love. So let's stop judging whether or not to love people--based on whether or not it looks like they deserve it--and let's be honorable. Let's be holy. Let's be graceful. Merciful. Let's LIVE. Let's... love...