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Matthew: This is Key Life. We're here to let you know that because of what Jesus has done, God will never be angry with you again. Matt Heard is a speaker, teacher, writer, pastor, coach, and the founder and principal of a ministry called Thrive. He's been teaching this all this week.

Matt Heard: Thank you, Matthew. And I'm grateful that you've joined us this week as we are unpacking what it looks like to give Christ's love away. That's what we're doing this week. We're focusing on his words the night before he gives his life. John 13:34 and 35, Jesus said, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you're my disciples, if you love one another."

So what he's doing is calling us to be plumbing theologians in a positive sense. If you've not been with us, what that means is understanding there's a difference between a pipe and a bucket. Focusing on being more of a pipe than a bucket. What goes into a bucket stays in the bucket and stagnates. That's what happens with a lot of biblical truth. It goes into people, we don't live it out, and so we just become crusty, pompous, prideful. While we're loved by God, other people aren't. But instead, Jesus is saying, "As I've loved you, love one another. Be a pipe of my love, not just a bucket."

And so what I want to do is unpack an equation with you to think about. Think of the first ingredient being experiencing his love. The second component of the equation is extending his love. Experiencing his love plus extending his love equals exhibiting his love. That's what we're talking about this week, but we're focusing a lot on the first component, experiencing his love, because that is the hinge. If I don't grasp that, the rest is for naught.

You've heard the statement before that hurt people hurt people, which is true. But loved people love people. You can tell a lot about a person's grasp of God's love for them by how much they give it away, how much they're being a pipe. So when Jesus says, "As I have loved you, so you must love one another," it begs the question, as I mentioned yesterday: we need to understand what does it look like for Jesus to love me with agape love?

I'm bringing up four ingredients. One is that he accepts us unconditionally. That's what we started with yesterday, just unpacking that. Do you really believe that? Do I? Many of us have seen the game show, The Voice. When it first came out long ago, my wife and youngest son talked me into watching an episode with them. So I sat down. If you're not familiar with The Voice, let me describe to you how it works.

You have a musician, a singer, a really good singer. They're all really good. You get to know them a little bit, understand their stories, and then you see them go out on stage. Now when they get out on stage, there are four big red chairs turned away from them. In each one of those chairs is a celebrity, a singer, somebody that knows music, knows singing. These are the four judges. Those judges essentially are looking at the studio audience. All of those people have their chairs turned toward the stage.

So when the singer comes out and starts singing, the goal is to sing with such beauty and power and excellence and musicality that it causes one of the judges at least to hit a red button on their chair and it will swivel around. When that happens, that judge is making a statement: "I accept you. I believe in you. I want to be your coach. I want to get you to the finals of this competition, and let's win it together."

And so you can begin to see how this is playing out with this whole notion of Jesus' acceptance of us. If not, let me describe it to you because when I watched it, I was blown away. My view of God and his love for me was exposed because a lot of us think that we've got to start each day and go out and start singing and hopefully we'll do the right things, the right spiritual things, the right Bible things, the right Christian things, and maybe God will turn his big red chair towards us and say, "I accept you."

It's something that plagues all of us because we don't get agape love. We don't get this notion of unconditional. So let me give you several scenarios that come out of that, that come out of me not really believing in his acceptance. One, I have to perform well and then God will love me. Or we might say, "I've messed up and I know the Bible says he loves me, but it's just an over-the-shoulder toleration." God doesn't turn his chair; he just looks over his shoulder and says, "Yeah, I love you because I have to."

But there's another scenario that I'm praying the Holy Spirit will unpack in you as you hear this. Do I get up every day and, because of the Gospel, because of the way that God has loved me through Jesus, can I say every day, "I realize that God loves me every day before I ever sing a note"? You talk about freedom to be able to live as a loved person, to bask in that acceptance, that unconditional acceptance that he has.

So when he says, "As I have loved you," it means that I've got to grasp that he accepts me unconditionally. There's a second characteristic of that, the way that he's loved me. He doesn't just accept me unconditionally; he serves my needs. He says, "Matt, I love you," but he also says, "Those needs you've got, I've got this." Our greatest need, obviously, is for redemption, for restoration, to be restored to the original purpose that we were made for. But there are so many needs that we have that Jesus cares about, that he addresses, that he serves.

Hebrews 7:26 says, "Such a high priest truly meets our need, one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens." He meets our needs. He serves us. Matthew 6:8, "For your Father knows what you need before you ask him." Philippians 4:19, "And my God will meet all your needs." Now there's a very important asterisk here: not our wants necessarily, but our needs. And he will meet all of our needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 58:11, "The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame." So what's it look like for Jesus to love me? I've got to understand this and experience it if I'm going to give that love away as a pipe. I need to grasp in fresh ways every day he accepts me unconditionally. Secondly, he serves whatever needs I have today, ultimately that need of forgiveness, but then the daily need, some of the mundane needs. He cares about all of them.

There's a third characteristic of that agape love that he exhibits towards us, and it's comfort. He comforts our hearts. He cares deeply. Philippians 2:1, "Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love." Psalm 119:76, "May your unfailing love be my comfort." You know what the Hebrew word for unfailing there means? It means unfailing. And as a result, we can know comfort. We can know shalom. So he's saying, "Matt, I love you." What does that look like? It looks like I'm accepting you unconditionally. I want to serve your needs. I've got this. I've got you. I want to comfort your hearts.

But then a fourth characteristic of that agape love: he commits his presence to us. He says, "I'm here." When he loves us, he's saying, "I accept you. I'm serving your needs. I want to comfort your heart, and I am going to commit my presence to you all the time." Romans 8:35, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" No. We're never going to be separated, ever, from the love of Christ. He's got us.

What then, verse 31 starts all of that, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Augustine said, "God loves each of us as if there were only one of us." He says, "I'm with you." Zephaniah 3:17, "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save, and he will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with his love and he will rejoice over you with singing."

As you're starting your day, as you're in the midst of your day, as you're finishing your day, I want you to hear Jesus say, "I love you. I accept you. I've got this need that you've got. I've got it. I've got you. And I'm here." Bottom line, I'm for you. I'm not against you. I want to be a savior who, through my work on the cross, I want you to see that I'm lavishing you with my unmerited acceptance and love. My love's unfailing. It's never going to be shaken.

And I want you, before you take some responsibility that you've got to love other people, I want you to let yourself be loved by me in a way that you never have before. Then, let that love compel you to love the people around you. Be a pipe, not a bucket. And know that a key to thriving, to flourishing, to dancing, is not just loving other people. First, it's being loved by God in such a way that the people around me notice because of the way that I treat them. I hope you thrive today.

Matthew: Thank you, Matt Heard. Man, I always love it when Matt teaches, don't you? Remember that you can visit us anytime at keylife.org to listen to these episodes again, or maybe share something with a friend. Matt will return tomorrow to wrap up this series, and you don't want to miss that.

Speaking of keylife.org, we announced a bunch of things toward the end of last year and, with the craziness of the holidays, you may not have heard the news. So here we go again. First, we created a special hub for grace-oriented podcasts. Go to keylife.org/podcastnetwork to find podcasts from Pete Alwinson, Kyle Winkler, Carl Creasman, and more. More voices, more grace, more to love. Again, that's keylife.org/podcastnetwork.

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