Crossing Family I am so happy that one of my best friends in
the whole world, Matt Cameron, the pastor at River Hills
Christian Church in Loveland, OH, is bringing the Word this
week. Matt and his beautiful wife,
Lindley, have two energetic sons, Will and Levi.
Matt is a third generation preacher who is passionate about
reaching a lost, which is evident in his preaching.
He's been a speaker at our Uncommon Men's Conference and is
a featured speaker at youth camps and summer camps all
across the United States. He loves the upcoming generation
and he is dedicated to raising them up to be leaders in the
church. Matt loves to fish and cheer for
the Oklahoma Sooners, which we won't hold it against them.
But I cannot tell you how important his friendship has
meant to me, not just in my marriage, but also in my
leadership and in my walk with Jesus Christ.
We talk together almost every single week, and it is my
profound honor to have him preach to us this weekend.
So would you put a big crossing welcome together for Matt
Cameron? Thank you, Thank you.
I got to tell you the honor is all mine.
To be here this weekend, it is such a blessing.
Clayton is my best friend. I know he said I'm just one of
his. I think he did that to be nice
to all the other preachers that you bring in.
But we know who number one is. Those should have been funnier
than that people. Come on, help me.
Hey, it is so good to be at The Crossing.
I love this church. I love so many people on your
team, so many people that are on staff, so many difference makers
and people that I've gotten to know from being here so many
times over the years. And I have to tell you what I
tell everybody about The Crossing, and that is if there
was any other church that I would be wanting to be a part of
besides my church, it's here. Like, you guys have such an
unbelievable impact on your region.
I love the vision of making this the hardest region to get from
hell from or hell, hell from on planet Earth.
And I just. I hope.
Yeah, absolutely. I hope you realize what a gift
it is to be a part of this church and to realize the
blessing that God has given you to be a part of this and to make
a difference because of it. And so today I just want to
welcome all of our campuses, welcome those of you inside and
online. We've been in this study of the
book of First Corinthians for quite a while, and today we get
to perhaps the most well known chapter in the book, 1st
Corinthians 13. If you have your Bibles, you can
go ahead and turn there, but I'm guessing this is a chapter that
so many people have heard, but maybe you don't fully understand
it and maybe this would be helpful for you.
Have you ever had one of those times in your life where you
thought you knew something like you thought you really
understood it and then later on you realize, oh, I didn't fully
grasp what that was all about? My guess is many of you think
you know your pastor Clayton pretty well.
I get to say that I've known him probably longer than most people
here. He has some family and some
people that knew him growing up. But for most of you, I've known
Clayton a long time. We became best friends when we
were 18 years old, our first night in Bible college together.
And one thing that you probably do know about him is when
Clayton goes all in on something like he goes all the way in,
like there is no halfway with Clayton Hensel.
He's all gas, no brakes. And when we were younger, we
used to go see movies, like go to the theater and see that.
I know that's not like as big of a thing anymore.
But in those days, this was this was a really big deal.
And when we go see a movie, Clayton would think that he
needed to become the main character like this is this is
who I am for the next few days, sometimes weeks.
And so we went and saw this movie one time called American
Outlaws. I haven't seen this in 20 years.
So I don't know if that's a movie I can recommend or not.
Don't remember everything of it, but it's like this modern day
western with Jesse James. So we go see this movie and
Clayton afterwards, he's like, we need to go to Walmart.
And we're like, why do we need to go to Walmart?
He goes, we got to we got to become Jesse James.
Like we got to go get cap guns and do this whole thing.
And so here we are, 18 year olds going in the toy aisle at
Walmart and going and buying cap guns.
And Clayton like bought everything that they had.
Like he bought the plastic belt. He had like two different
revolver cap guns that he could spin around and does this whole
thing. And so I know kind of nerdy for
18 year olds, but hey, it's Clayton all the way in.
So we come back to the campus, our small Christian College in
Joplin, MO, and he tells the guy that's driving the car, he's
like, stop here. Matt and I are going to get out.
And so we get out and we start just, you know, firing our cap
guns like we're in the wild, Wild West and we're about to
take over a Stagecoach. Like we're rolling down the
hill. We're doing this whole thing
just idiots. And so we go through the whole
deal, get to our dorm. It's curfew at our college.
And Clayton's still wearing his whole get up, like walking
around the halls and shooting and just, you know, he's a
cowboy now. And so we go through all this,
we get called down to the lobby of our dorm because the campus
patrol like the the rent a cop, like the the people that are
that's not true. Sorry.
That just came out from the overflow of the heart.
The mouth speaks. But this guy who's not like a
real police officer, just whatever you want to call him,
he calls us in And Clayton, your pastor at 18 years old comes in.
I mean, Wyatt Earp, Jesse Jamestown, he's twirling his
guns around, and this guy's trying to be so serious.
And he's like, Sir, please. We've had reports of shots fired
and Clayton just popping caps just, you know, flinging him
around. And I have to try to hold it
together because this dude's taken his job so seriously.
But Clayton's taken so seriously that he is now Jesse James, you
know, and just going through. So anyways, that story has
nothing to do with my message, but I just thought it'd be fun
to tell a story about Clayton. But you come to 1st Corinthians
13, and from a literary viewpoint, this might just be
the greatest chapter Paul ever wrote.
We've all probably heard it at weddings before.
And so let's read it together. I'll read it and you can just
kind of follow along. First Corinthians 13 he says, If
I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love,
I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy, and can fathom all mysteries and
all knowledge, and have faith that can move mountains, but do
not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the
poor and give over my body to hardship, that I may boast but
do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient. Love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, It is not proud, it does
not dishonor others. It is not self seeking, it is
not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trust, always hopes, always
perseveres. Love never fails.
But where there are prophecies, they will cease.
Where there are tongues, they will be stilled.
Where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
For we know in part, and we prophecy in part, but when
completeness comes, what is in part disappears.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a
child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the
ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a
reflection, as in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part. Then I shall know fully, even as
I am fully known. And now these three remain
faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is
love. We pray with me, Heavenly
Father, we know that Your Word tells us that God is love.
We know that Jesus said greater love has no one than this, that
a man would lay down his life for his friends.
You tell us in first John that this is love, not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his one and only Son as the
atoning sacrifice for our sins. And Lord, today I pray that you
would help us to understand how wide, how long, how high, how
deep is the love of Christ. Lord, fill each and every one of
us with that type of love. And all God's people said Amen.
When you look at a passage in Scripture, you got to figure out
where it fits. And so First Corinthians 13,
it's one of those that all of us have probably heard before.
But where does it come? It comes right after chapter 12
as all this discussion about spiritual gifts.
And look at the very last verse of First Corinthians 12, verse
31. Look how it ends now eagerly
desire the greater gifts and I, we'll show you the most
excellent way. The most excellent way that Paul
is going to show us is the way of love.
Love is one of those words that we use for everything, right?
Like I love my mom, I love my wife, I love my boys, I love hot
dogs. You know, like we used it for
everything. And it doesn't always mean the
same thing. The Greek word for love in this
passage is the word agape. You know what's interesting to
me? That the word agape was one of
the rarest words used for love in ancient Greek literature.
Yet when you open up your New Testament, it's used the most
frequently for love. You see, when we say I love you,
often we mean I love me and I want you.
Most people, including Christians, seem to think of
love as nice feelings, warm affection, maybe romance, maybe
desire. But agape love this God, love
this unconditional love is a self giving love, love that
demands something of us, love that's more concerned with
giving than receiving. And the sad truth is it's as
rare today in the modern church as it was in Corinth.
You remember in John chapter 13, Jesus is coming to the end of
his life. It's Thursday night, the night
he will be betrayed and arrested.
And before that happens, he's in the upper room and the disciples
are having an argument with one another about who's the
greatest. And Jesus begins to notice
something about his disciples. And do you remember what he
does? He goes and takes off his outer
garments. He wraps a towel around his
waist and picks up a basin and he begins to wash his disciples
feet. But if you look at the very
beginning of that chapter, it tells us an insight about Jesus.
He says when he noticed his disciples were having this
discussion and that their feet weren't washed, he now showed
them. And it uses this phrase the full
extent of his love. He tells him after he watches
him go and do likewise. In fact, if you go down just a
couple more verses in John 13 verses 34 and 35, Jesus says a
new command. I give you love one another as I
have loved you. So you must also love one
another. And don't miss this.
By this everyone, the entire world will know you are my
disciples. If you have love, one for
another, but love is missing from a lot of churches.
The church in Corinth had its issues.
They were loud with spiritual activity, but very quiet when it
came to love. And so that's why I think Paul
begins chapter 13 saying if I speak in the tongues of men or
angels but have not love, what I'm just a resounding gong or a
clanging cymbal, I can make a lot of noise.
I'm not making a difference. I'm doing nothing continues in
verse 2. If I have the gift of prophecy
and can fathom all mysteries and knowledge, and if I can have
faith that can move mountains but do not have love, I am
nothing. Listen, you can be gifted but
empty. Don't miss that phrase.
I am nothing. Verse three.
He continues one more time. He says if I give all I possess
to the poor and I give over my body if I make the ultimate
sacrifice to hardship, that I may be boast but do not have
love. I gain nothing, I do nothing.
I am nothing, I gain nothing. What Paul's doing here is he's
speaking in hyperbole. It's an over exaggerated way of
stating something in order to prove a point.
It's like saying hey listen, these shoes are worth like
$1,000,000. They're not.
They're not at all, but we say those type of things.
And what Paul is doing is he's using these exaggerated
statements about the greatest things you can do in following
Jesus, and he says all of it is meaningless without love.
In fact, throughout history, it's proven to be difficult for
the church to be loving. It's easier to be Orthodox than
loving. It's easier to be active in
church activity than it is to be loving.
And I would submit to you that the longer the church is around,
the harder it is for it to remain loving.
Don't believe me? Look at the church in Ephesus in
a the the place that Paul spent more time than any other church
he went to. And yet you remember what Jesus
says, Revelation chapter 2, the first church mentioned in the
Book of Revelation. He tells them this in verse 4.
Yet I hold this against you. You have forsaken the love you
had at first. So don't miss what's happening.
Chapter 13 in First Corinthians is the pinnacle, the central
chapter of Paul's lengthy discussion on spiritual gifts.
Clayton started it last week. In chapter 12, we get to chapter
13. Next week we'll close this
discussion out. But I want you to hear me having
a spiritual gift doesn't make you spiritual.
That's not how it works. You can you can miss the whole
thing. In fact, one commentator puts it
this way. The Corinthian Christians were
not walking in the Spirit. They were selfish, self
designing, self willed, self motivated, doing everything
possible to promote their own interest and welfare.
Everyone was doing his own thing for his own good with little or
no regard for others. The Corinthians did not lack in
any gift, but they were terribly deficient in spiritual fruit
because they were not walking in the source and power both of the
gifts and the fruit. Among the many things those
believers lacked, the most significant was love.
I would be willing to say that First Corinthians 13, the
original intent of all of the descriptions that Paul gives
about love were to counteract things that he's already brought
up in the book. All these issues, all of these
problems, he's using First Corinthians 13 and saying love
is the antidote to all of these things you've already dealt
with. Can I go just through a few of
them for you? When Paul says love is patient,
do you remember the Corinthians who were quick to take each
other to court in First Corinthians 6 or in in First
Corinthians 8 when you had the people that were impatient with
those who were weaker in the faith?
Hey, just come along. No patience bears with others
instead of demanding something of them.
First Corinthians 6-7 remember what Jesus or what Paul told
him. He says why not suffer wrong?
He says no love is patient, love is kind and yet you had in the
Chapter 11, you had the wealthy who were humiliating the poor
people during the Lord's Supper. Paul tells him kindness looks
for ways to include others. In fact in First Corinthians 8
verse 1, he says knowledge puffs up.
But what? But love builds up that love
does not envy. Yet they had this envy fuel
division the the the opening pages of his letter.
What do they say? I follow Paul, I follow Apollos.
Yet with love that doesn't envy, we rejoice in others giftedness
and their callings instead of competing for attention and
finding who do we like better than others.
No, love does not boast. Yet the Corinthians bragged
about wisdom and eloquence and last week we even saw that they
were bragging about their spiritual gifts.
But true spirituality doesn't need a spotlight, it boasts in
Christ alone. Remember how Paul started in
First Corinthians 131? He said, let the one who boast,
boast in the Lord. We could go through every single
characteristic, but what you will find is that what Paul is
saying to these people, this guy's love is what does all of
this and you're missing the most important thing.
So what does it look like for you?
Like let's get personal for a moment and ask ourselves, what
does love look like in our lives?
Love is patient. Are you?
You find yourself frustrated when people don't move at your
pace. Maybe you snap at your kids
because they take too long getting ready.
Or you roll your eyes at a Co worker who just doesn't get the
task done the way that you thought it should be done and
the pace that you thought it should be done.
Love is kind. Are you?
I don't know about you, but for me, I can find myself using
sarcasm at times instead of being kind to people.
Maybe you find yourself being too harsh and cold instead of
compassionate and loving. Maybe you found yourself in a
situation where a hurting friend comes up and says something to
you and your first response is what you should have known
better. Might not be the kindest thing
to say. Love does not envy.
But if you're like me, sometimes you might resent other people's
success, wondering why it happens to them and not you.
Maybe you find yourself scrolling through social media
and a friend gets engaged and you're going why not me yet?
Or maybe it's friends that got pregnant and you're wondering
why God hasn't given that gift to you, but he gives it to them
and they're not near as good as you are.
Love does not boast. But man, I sure see a lot of
people trying to make sure everybody else knows how great
their life is going on social media.
Anybody ever noticed that? Not about you, but other people.
Other people are really good at making sure you see the places
they're going, the upgrades they made to their house, how good
their kids at sports. You know, I have AI have my
oldest son is 15 years old and he he became the varsity
quarterback. As a freshman in high school
this year, stole the job from a junior in high school is
awesome. You know, it was really cool.
Like we were excited for it. It's great.
But here's the thing, if you go to my social media feed or
anyone in my family social media feed, guess what?
You won't find any highlights of the interceptions that he threw.
None of them. The kid threw 12 of them this
year. Like you're never going to see
him, but you'll see all the touchdowns.
You'll see all of those things. Why is it like that?
Because man, we sure love to self promote.
Love is not proud. If you're like me, maybe you
find yourself believing that you're better than someone else,
that you're above what someone else is doing.
Maybe you find it in yourself when you refuse to admit you're
wrong to your spouse. Maybe prevent pretending that
you're too busy when someone asks you to come help him do
something. Love does not dishonor others,
but maybe you find yourself tearing other people down in
order to lift yourself up. Love's not self seeking, but do
you ever find yourself Go well, what's in it for me?
What do I get out of it? Love's not easily angered, but
maybe if you're like me, there's times when you find yourself
reacting before you spend time reflecting on what just
happened. You know, the Bible tells us to
be slow to anger, and yet there's times when I can have a
little bit of a quick temper, and maybe you're like that as
well, that love keeps no record of wrongs.
Should I go there? There's a There's a tendency for
us to bring up the past, isn't there?
Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trust, always hopes, always
perseveres. Love never fails.
Then Paul moves into First Corinthians 13 starting in verse
8 and he's beginning to close out what he's saying about love
and he says, but there where there are prophecies, they will
cease. He's calling back to how he
started this chapter where there are tongues, they will be
stilled. Where there is knowledge, it
will pass away. Verse 80 saying all of these
things are going to go away for verse 9, for we know in part we
prophecy in part, but when completeness comes, when Jesus
returns, what is in part disappears.
We long for that day, don't we? Right now we don't get to see
the full picture. We don't understand everything
fully, but like we just kind of look like as if we're looking in
a mirror. But one day Jesus will come back
and what's in part will disappear.
And then he uses this illustration.
Verse 11 says, when I was a child, I talked like a child.
I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child.
But when I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
Verse 11 is not some random metaphor that Paul just throws
in there. It's Paul's critique of childish
faith. Childish faith prioritizes self
over love. I told you I have a 15 year old.
I also have a 12 year old who is in 7th grade and my boys, I, I
will tell you, I love the phase of life we're in.
It's crazy having a high school or anyone that's with me in that
and a middle school at the same time.
Like it's wild. I spent the majority of my
career in youth ministry with high school and middle school
students and now I'm like, man, now I have them like this is
tough. I wish I would have had them
when I was in ministry. I would have understood a whole
lot more. But anyways, as my boys got have
gotten older, you know what I find myself, I find what I care
about is a whole lot different for them.
When they were younger, I was just so excited to hear him say
words the first time. Like when they can finally say
something clearly and you hear your kid for the first time say
I love you daddy. When you take their first steps,
when they go through all of these things and all of their
firsts are amazing. It's awesome.
You know what I care about more now that my boys are older?
Who are they becoming? How are they treating other
people? How are they at including people
that everyone else has put on the sidelines?
How are they serving? Why?
Because that's the sign of maturity.
You see, childish faith seeks recognition, and childish is
different than childlike. We're supposed to have faith
like a child, but we're not supposed to be childish in our
faith. A childish faith seeks
recognition where mature love seeks relationship.
Childish faith wants to be right where mature love wants to be
like Christ. You've heard Clayton say this
before. The mark of maturity is not
knowledge. What is it?
It's you obeying what God's Word says, that you begin to love
like Jesus. And so in verse 12, Paul says,
for now we only see, or we see only as a reflection as in a
mirror. Then we shall see face to face
what a beautiful picture of what's common isn't.
It says now I know in part. Then I shall know fully, even as
I am fully known. Can I get devotional with you,
just for a moment? That last phrase, Then I shall
know fully. We all long for that.
But don't miss the very last phrase, even as I am fully
known. Do you realize that?
The God in heaven, the Creator. God knows you.
There's nothing hidden from his sight.
He knows the number of hairs on your head.
Some of you that's easier to count than others, but like he,
he knows all of the things. You don't go anywhere.
In fact, Psalm 139 says that before you ever came to be, that
every one of your days was written now in his book.
Not meaning that God caused all of those things that happened in
your life, but God knows them and he cares and he loves you.
And there is no other person in your life that knows you like
your heavenly Father does. And so don't try to hide from
him. Don't try to run away from him.
Don't think that there's no way he can understand.
No, he knows and he cares. And then Paul finishes it out
this chapter with verse 13. And now these three remain
faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these, say
it with me, is love. When we hear this idea that the
greatest of these is love, I hope that it was natural for you
at some point as you hear these to go.
You know what these all kind of sound like Jesus, because First
Corinthians 13 isn't just describing what love does, it is
describing who Jesus is. In fact, if you replace the word
love with Jesus, you'll see it fits perfectly.
Can I do it for us? Jesus is patient.
Second, Peter 39 says he is patient with you, not wanting
anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Jesus is kind. Romans 24 says God's kindness is
intended to lead you to repentance.
Jesus does not envy, He does not boast.
Jesus is not proud. In fact, Philippians chapter 2
says though he was in very nature God, he did not consider
equality with God something to be grasped.
So he emptied himself. He made himself nothing.
Taking the very nature of a servant became obedient to
death, even death on a cross. Jesus does not dishonor others.
You remember when the woman caught in adultery in John
chapter 8, she comes up before him and he tells her after
everyone else has left and dropped their stones.
Neither do I condemn you go and from now on sin no more.
Jesus is not self seeking. Mark 1045 says For even the Son
of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his
life as a ransom for many. Jesus is not easily angered.
In Matthew Chapter 11 verse 29 he says I am gentle and lowly in
heart. Jesus keeps no record of wrongs.
Do you remember from the cross? In Luke chapter 23 verse 34 he
says father forgive them for they know not what they do.
The psalmist puts it this way in Psalm one O 3 verse 12 as far as
the east is from the West so has so far as he removed our
transgressions from us. Hear me Jesus does not delight
in evil but rejoices with the truth.
In John chapter 8 verses 31 and 32.
He says if you abide in my word, you will know the truth and the
truth will set you free. Jesus always protects.
John 1011 says I am the Good Shepherd and what does he do?
The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Jesus always trust, always hopes, always perseveres.
Hebrews 12 verse 2 says, For the joy set before him, he endured
the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand
of the throne of God. Hear me, people, Jesus never
fails, Romans 8 says. For I am convinced that neither
death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present
nor the future, nor any powers, nor height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
A church filled with love will accomplish a whole lot more than
a church full of talent. We're going to move to a time of
decision. You know, I think it's safe to
say and safe to believe that everybody listen to my voice
right now. We desire that type of love so
much so that we try to find love in a whole bunch of different
places. Sometimes we try to seek it out
in, in earthly relationships, we try to seek it out maybe through
movies or through the screen or even through music can kind of
maybe start to shape our picture and our view of love.
And so a lot of times we, we try to find it in wrong places,
don't we? But I just want to invite those
of you listen to my voice who've never started an intimate
personal relationship with Jesus, who've never stepped into
that. You just got a taste of the
definition of love, and his name is Jesus.
He is the very definition of love.
And so much so that he moved on our behalf, so much so that he
sacrificed on our behalf, so much so that he gave his life
for us. And first, Peter Ford says that
love covers a multitude of sins. And let me just be honest with
you, all of us, we have sin and Jesus covers it.
And so here's the the invitation in this time, in this moment, no
matter where you're sitting in life, no matter what you've been
through, no matter what carried you in this room, here's the
simple truth of the gospel today.
You can receive that. You can believe that Jesus is
love and that he covers the multitude of sins, and you can
accept that freedom and that free gift of salvation right
now. And that's what this moment is
about. That's why we do it every single
week, because there are people. Sometimes it takes maybe just a
couple times to hear the gospel. Sometimes it takes months to
hear the gospel, and sometimes it takes years.
But I have a question for you. Who's that going to be today?
Who's going to get up out of their seat maybe for the first
time and take some of the boldest steps they've ever taken
before? They're going to put 1 foot in
front of the other. They're going to come forward.
And maybe you do that just by yourself and you come up to
these steps and you just get down on your knees and you just
cry out to the Lord. I need you, Jesus.
I want that type of love. Maybe for some of you, you're
just like, I got questions. I don't know how to reconcile
some of the things that I've done.
I don't know how to accept that love.
I don't know how to walk in that love.
And in just a little bit, there's going to be some
incredible people that'll be underneath the the screen right
over by the baptistry that would love to help you start walking
in that relationship with Jesus. If you're online right now,
there's some incredible difference makers right there
ready to answer some of the questions that you've been
wrestling with. Maybe in the chat you just need
to simply type, I need Jesus. I don't invite you to do that.
That is why we exist as a church is to help people find that
intimate personal relationship with him.
For the rest of us in this room, I'm going to kind of ask the
question that that Matt asked, but if we're in this time of
maybe a little confrontation with the Lord is here's the
question, how are you doing with love?
How's your patience? How's your kindness?
Do you envy what others have? Let's just go through it.
Are you boastful or are you proud?
Are you self seeking or are you just an angry person?
Have you kept a record of wrongs for far too long and it's been
damaging some relationships around you?
Have you been delighting in evil and you can fill in what that
evil is in your life for far too long?
Has there been something that just has a grip over your life
that you just feel constricted, you feel restrained, you feel
held back? And as I was standing here
giving this invitation on Thursday, it's amazing how fast
life can hit you till this moment.
I found myself last night coming home and there's moments in my
life I was like, man, I'm not love to my kids right now.
Like there was, there was moments where I was like, I was
just faced with what the word of God said and how Jesus is love
and how he's not self seeking and how he's not easily angered.
And then I was like, whoa, Lord, that hit me fast.
The world hit me fast. So I just want you to know, I
get how you're feeling, but here's what I know.
When we're confronted with the word of God, we're confronted
with a choice. What do I do with it?
How do I respond to it? Do I just say, ah, no, that's
just who I am. That's just my personality,
that's how I was raised. That's just who I am.
Or we can just say, no, that's not who I am.
And you can get down on your knees if you're struggling this
area because chances are you're struggling like I'm struggling
in an area of love. And what would it look like as
a, as a people, as a body of believers who say, I accept
Jesus's word and I need to do what it says.
I need to be obey what it says, because that's what true
maturity looks like. And so that's what we're going
to do in this moment. You're going to hear a song.
We're going to start singing about the reckless love of God.
And, and I'm just going to invite you in this, this room
and, and wherever you're watching online, just to humble
yourself to start rejoicing with the truth, to start doing what
it says and start protecting others around you.
The way we do that is we, we start saying, I'm going to start
praying for others as well. I'm going to start building
trust with the people you're doing life with.
I'm going to have hope that God's promises are real.
I'm going to persevere through hardship.
I'm going to believe that love never fails.
I think that's the type of church that we are.
I think that's what this moment is about.
And so let's do this in just a bit as we stand.
Here's what we're going to do. We're going to declare love over
our life. Oh, we're going to declare
victory over our life. We're going to declare Jesus
over our life. And we're not just going to be
loud with spiritual activity. We're not just going to be like,
well, I go to church and I'm in Group and I serve.
That's awesome. But we do that because we want
to be loud in love. And if we're going to make this
place the hardest place on planet earth to get the hell
from, we have to be loud in love.
And it starts right here and it starts in this moment, and it
starts in a posture of humility. And so as you stand up with me,
let's pray. And I'm just going to invite you
right now. If you got something on your
heart, you got something on your mind, you need to just repent.
You need to turn away from, you can start coming up to the front
right now. You can start getting down on
your knees. But let's do this right now.
Jesus, you are love, you are kind, You are so patient for
with us. We don't deserve it, but Lord
you are anyways. Thank you for your sacrifice,
thank you for the gifts that you are to us.
And Lord, as a church, I know it's sometimes hard for our
people just to get out of their comfort zones.
It's hard for me sometimes to get outside my comfort zone.
But I pray, Lord, during this song, we wouldn't just be
stagnant. We wouldn't just be still.
We would just listen and be obedient to what your Spirit is
calling us. And Lord, we just humble
ourselves before you and just say, here I am.
Lord, would you reveal anything inside of me that is not love?
Let me turn away from it and turn to you.
Jesus, we love you. Thank you.
Your name I pray. Amen.