What does real love look like? What gets in the way of us loving like Christ?
The Remnant Church
Cold - Todd Blanton
I thank you so much for this day Lord, I thank you for your faithfulness to us. Even when sometimes we make our faith a Sunday morning thing and not at every day or Monday morning thing, God just pray you would help us, help everyone in this room, man just to have eyes that are open in ears to hear how much you love them. The truth of your word, I've got to pray for protection and blessing and guidance, God I pray that you would help me to preach your word and to preach it well and then I wouldn't get in the way. And I will give you all the glory in Jesus Christ, name I pray. Amen. How are you guys doing today? Good. Good. Hell, my name is Todd on the pastor here, one of them. So we're going to dive right in today with some Scripture and then we'll try to, I think you'll pick up the theme here. If you have your Bibles, there's going to be a lot, but that's okay, at least at the beginning. Gospel, John chapter 13, verses 34 and 35. This is, who do you think speaking here? It's not John, it was a trick, it's Jesus, all right, Jesus is talking. And this is what he says, "I give you a new command, love one another, just as I've loved you, you are also to love one another. And by this, everyone will know that you're my disciples if you love one another." A couple of things, one is when we tend to think of being a Christian, for some reason this has happened. And I think it started from a good place. When we say love others, we tend to think of it in the context of loving people outside the church. And I'm a big evangelist kind of guy, like the gospel is the only hope for the world, it's the only hope for people, hell's a real place, it's important to tell people. But that's separate, right, and we want to love people. But this, this call here, who is Jesus talking to? Is he talking to the crowd? You may not know that, David, it's tricky, it's not. He's not talking to the crowd, he's talking to his disciples. So he tells his disciples, and listen to me, this is very subtle, he says, "If the world will know that you are my disciples, not by how you love the world, but by how you love each other." Which makes sense, right? When people look, what happened in the early church is that they said, "Why are those people always together? Why they love each other? Why they're sharing things? Why they're taking care of each other? What is different about them?" Everything is different based on the world because the world doesn't do that. The world says, "What? I've got to take care of me. I've got to take care of me and mine." So I want you to hear this, that this new command is not right here in this context. We are to love people and love the world. In the context here, this is not to love the world. This is to love each other. Same gospel in Gospel of John chapter 15, 12 through 17, listen to this, don't zone out because you hear the word love a lot. I get it. Christianity is like, "Love, love." I don't even know. I don't want to hear anymore because I know everything about love, that's what you sound like when you say that. All right. Here it is. When you got to say, "I got it." John chapter 15 verses 12 through 17, all right, perfect. I bought you time with my mockery. Verse 12, "We don't have it." Okay. Well, I didn't send it to them. I forgot about the code. They're like, "We don't have that." All right. Well, you got it in your Bible, so that's perfect. This is my command. I remember I told you, "Don't do the Christian East thing." This is my command. So he already said his command was to love one another, going to know you're my disciples. Why do you think you had to repeat it? Leave short memories, okay? This is my command. Love one another has how. I've loved you. No one has greater love than this. Listen. Church, remnant church. Very important to say this. If you're a visitor, this is to you because God had it for you, but I got to say this. This is for this church today. This sermon was prepared specifically for the remnant church, not the people watching, not the guests. It was for you today. Your turn. Because you guys tend to think because we're an evangelistic church that we're preaching to everybody else, I'm not, I'm preaching to you. So be offended now, okay? No one has greater love than this, to lay down his life for his friends. He makes a comparison and he says, I love it. Earlier he says, if you love one another, you're my disciples, then he says, I want to define what that love is. You got to love like me. And then he does this thing that they wouldn't have gotten you. And he says, no one has greater love than this, that they would lay down their life for his friends. How do we know that Jesus did that? You are my friends. If you do what I command you, boy, there's a double thing happening here. On the one hand, we say, hey, he says, you got to love like me, which is going to lead to losing your life for your friends. But then he says something crazy. You say, you're my friend, will you lose your life for me? Will you let go of your way for me? I do not call you servants anymore because a servant doesn't know what his master is doing. I've called you friends. Ooh, now I'll go back to 13. No one has greater love than this, to lay down his life for his friends. Because I've made known to you everything I've heard from my father. You did not choose me, but I chose you. I pointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain so that what ever you ask the father in my name, he will give you. This is what I command you love on another fruit, comes up a lot in Scripture. But the fruit in the context of this is very specific fruit, love. I appointed you to love like I love. Keep going. First John, a lot of John stuff here, right? First John, chapter 4, 7 and 8, verses 7 and 8. We got that one? No, perfect. I was good for once. I get a number like dyslexia or something, I forget. Dear friends, let us love one another. Here we go again, because love is from God. And everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love, now keep it, I'm going to mess with you in a minute because see already we go, love is love. I didn't even mean for this to happen, but like, no, no, no. This word love is not your version of love. Remember the word agape. We're going to talk about this. Agape love. God defines this specific kind of love. And this is not like, hey, anybody that loves anybody is loving like God, wrong. You have to love like God, okay, the way in which he loves to be of God. We'll get to that. Everyone who's loved has been born of God and knows God and the one who does not love does not know God because God is agape, a love. He is love. He is love. Love is not your definition. You've got to start with him. I'm going to lose people already. This might be where I get the visitors, like I offend you because you don't want to hear this, right? Love is not defined by what you say love is or by what the world says love is or by what is popular. The only one that can define this love is the creator of it. And John, the Apostle John goes so far as to say God is love. John 4, same chapter 2021, I'm rapid firing for a reason. If anyone says I love God and yet hates the people outside the church, ooh, it doesn't say that. Dave, picking on Dave today, he got me yesterday at Softball. If anyone says I love God and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. You look, I don't hate anybody. Well, the way God views it is, if you don't love the way he loves, if you don't want to love in this way, it's hate because the comparison, right? For a person who does not love his brother or sister, there we go again, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And we have this command from him, I love that John reminds us because he was there. The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister, brother and sister. We're talking in the faith, right? That's why Jesus said, my real family are those who love God, right? They want the things of God. That's all selling good. So love is important, agape love, God's definition of love is important. In fact, it's so important that as he says it here, he says, hey, if you're my disciple, you're going to love other Pete, you're going to love your brothers and sisters. If you don't love your brothers and sisters, you're probably not my disciple. I'm going to let that sit in again. But I go to church and I serve and I do this and I do that and I go, you know, most of the time and I help and blah, blah, blah, blah, but that's irrelevant. How do I know that? You guys have been wanting revelation, you're about to give a revelation first. I think of Gina every time, I think of Revelation, she just says, she's ready. It's a little sneak peek, okay? In the book of Revelation, Jesus, right, the Apostle John is caught up in a show on a vision in which Jesus speaks to these churches. These churches within that were real churches around and he has things to say about each of them. By the way, he's speaking to us too. Listen to what he says about the church in Ephesus, which is one of the good ones. Not the best one, but one of the good ones. Revelation chapter two verses one through four. Right to the angel of the church in Ephesus, thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands. Someday when we do that, you'll know what that means, but for them right now, that's Jesus. I know your works, your labor and your endurance and that you cannot tolerate evil people. That's a good thing, right? We agree? Nice. And you have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not means you've rooted out the fit, false teachers, that's good, right? Yeah. Thanks Jacob. And you have found them to be liars, so they stood up for truth. I know that you have persevered and endured hardship for the sake of my name and you have not grown weary. You haven't given up. This is all good. Now listen, this is like out of nowhere, but I have this against you. You have abandoned the love you had at first. This church stood through persecution, stood against evil, fought for truth, persevered and endured hardships for following Jesus. They stood up for truth. They preached the truth. They made sure the theology was right. They were serving. They were dealing with persecution. That means the world thought they were Jesus enough to hate them at times, persecute. They didn't give up. They didn't walk away from the faith. And yet Jesus says, "You have abandoned the love you had for me." And then he says something crazy, right? In the verse right after verse five in Revelation, he says, "Remember then how far you have fallen. Repent and do the works you did at first, otherwise I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent." Now some of you in the room are like, "He's going to take my salvation. That's not what the lampstand means." But it's still serious. Your church, what you are, I will take what I've given you. Listen to that. Remember how far you have fallen. All these good things. And then he comes back with, "But you have a manager first love. Look how far you've fallen from me." But I did this, but we did this. Look how far you've fallen from me, repent. Now first love here clearly is love for Jesus, okay? But let's look at all in context here. Yet based on the context, much of what we now judge a church on regarding its love for Jesus, meaning the way we would look at a church and say they love Jesus is they did it, right? And is that church face persecution for the truth? Yes. Do they endure hardships? Yes. Have they fought for truth and stood against false teachings? Yes. However, something was wrong. So remember what we said. You can't say you love God and yet hate your brother and sister. So when he says you have lost your love, he's not just talking about for him because it's for each other. He tells us that to love him means to follow his commandments, right? We know that. We said this earlier. And the commandments he pointed to in John was to love one another as I have loved you. So let that sink in. Listen to me. Do you view your love for others? I'm curious how many people got to go to the bathroom in a minute. By the way, I'm just teasing. If you really got to go to the bathroom, I'm not going to call you out. But there's like four people in this church that always got to take a PP when it's hard teaching. I'm just being honest. I'm not him. I'm just kidding. He's a good dad. I'm serious. I shouldn't have said that. Talking about people that go here long term. Let that sink in. Do you view your love? Listen, do you view your love for others or lack of love for others that's so important to Jesus that he says that to not love like that would mean you are not one of his. Is it that important? Do you view it that important? No, you don't. If you don't love like this, in fact, Jesus goes so far to say, if you don't love like this, you clearly aren't one of mine. So, when I think about that, and I think about the church, and I think about the church in general, and again, this is convicting me in a lot of ways because I'm very evangelistic we all should be. But, meaning, I remember what it was like to not know Jesus, so to know him, I want people to know because, hey, I was in danger, nobody told me I want to tell everyone. So, I'm very, you know, I can get focused on that and making sure the lost know him. And some of you in this room are lost, you don't like to be told it, but you are. It doesn't mean you're less than. It means that you're in danger. The issue is that's why I make fun of people that fall asleep in church. I love Jesus. Can't stay awake for 30 minutes. I cannot wait until the 15. I'm telling you, it's coming. And then I'm going to get complained, I've been, I've been practicing. I love Jesus. Do you fall asleep at work? I'm just asking, do you? Some of you go, yes, right? We're not when they're looking. When I think of the church though, and I think about church culture, I think of a place where we hide our mistakes, where we judge a lot of times, right, and I'm not talking about judging as we should. We should call out sin, but do we love each other as much as we practice or try to look like we're serving the community? How does that happen? How does a church do that? How did Ephesus become? They were doing all the right things, and yet they lost their first love, they weren't, they lost sight of it. How does that happen? How does that happen to churches today? How is that going to happen to the remnant? How is it happening? Because it is. Now, before I begin, I'm going to talk to the people who immediately are like, well, nobody talks to me in community, so this church sucks. Well, again, you aren't loving. You need to invest if you want to be invested in. That's natural. I'm serious, right? You can't say people don't love you if they don't ever see you because you don't know if they love you. You know what I'm saying? Let's just fend all the way around the board here. How does that happen? How do you think the church and Ephesus sat? Do you think they sat around and they said, you know what, let's have a church meeting. Hey, guys, I got an idea for our next, our next big move. Let's just stop loving each other as much. I think we should grow cold and really put all our focus on all of the other stuff. You guys in? Let's stop loving like Jesus told us too. He does that, right? That sounds bad. So how does it happen? How did their hearts grow cold? How do Christians and then churches lose their love for others? Because guess what? A church is made up of Christians. Without the Christians, there is no church. It's not the building. More important, how do Christians lose their love for one another in port? I'm sorry, love for others, but more importantly, how do they lose their love for each other? Well, I'll give you a clue. I can't remember what this is called in my speech class, but I like tell you what's coming. They define the way they want, excuse me, they define love the way they want instead of remembering that the standard is Jesus' love. If you're basing your love on me, you're better than me. Unfortunately, the standard is Jesus. And actually it's fortunately because we have a picture, right? So one is you begin to base your love on how good you are loving compared to Todd. So you're all doing great. Number two, not Todd literally, but you get the point. So two, they let the disease, you ready for me to, here we go. They let the disease of self love and self idolatry creep in. It's a disease. I deserve this. I've done enough. I'm tired. This is my day. My day is important. My, my, my, me, me, me, I, I, I, and in the soil of self focus, our hearts can and do grow cold. And so then do churches become cold. It's important to know what exactly the definition of love is. The kind of love Jesus is talking about. God is so good. God is so good because he could have, he could have, we always act like he makes everything hard. He does teach imperables because we're lazy, but also he could have just said, watch me. Go read all the gospels because the picture of what love is is there. It is right there. But he also defines it even more. The word here is I've talked about in the Greek, the Greek had a lot of different words for love, Greek language, because which we do too, but we just instinctively know what it means. So if I say I love Jacob, right, that's different than when I say I love Daisy, you when you say I love you, boo, boo, boo, right, that's different than when you say you love me, I hope, right. But we all know it's a different kind of like, and he's the only one that's true, man, it ain't one. Yeah, right. It's a different kind of love we instinctively know, but the love here, and they have all those kinds of loves, filio and eros, which is romance and all that kind of stuff, but they also have a word here called agape. And that's the kind of love we're talking about here. This is a Godlike love. We know as Christians. It's the kind of love that is independent of whether I'm loved in return. See the world says love is love until you disagree with them. First Corinthians chapter 13 verses 1 through 13, you guys know it's the love chapter. Talked about it weddings. I think that's beautiful. I think it's true, but it's not talking about eros here. But although agape would cover that, it's not talking about romantic love that we make it. That's talking about a deep, deep love. Listen. Some of you all in this room right now think your love because you've got the chains that say love is blind and love is for everyone and you're wearing your love shirts, but you don't have a clue what love is because you do what makes you comfortable. That's a fact because it's better to be liked than to love someone. I told you I'd make you mad. That's okay because you've been brainwashed to believe that if I say loving someone, I say loving you is if you're jumping off a cliff, I'm going to say don't do that. It's going to hurt you. But I want to. Drug addicts want to take that next shot, that next needle. They want it more than anything in the world. Is love letting them do it? The issue here is not what is loving. The issue is self idolatry. It is defining love what we want. It's not even about this month. This was literally a coincidence, ironically, truly it was, but God does what he does. But I want you to understand that before you make a decision, let's see what he says, okay? And then work our way back. First Corinthians chapter 13, starting in verse 1, listen to this, before this, it's important to set it up. Paul's talking to the church about spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are real. He's talking about healing. He's talking about leadership, apostles. He goes, guess what? You know every single one of you has a spiritual gift if you're a Christian. If you're not a Christian, you don't. That's okay. Doesn't mean you don't have gifts. You're going to run out and say, Todd thinks I'm worthless. That's not true. But you have a gift if you're a Christian. God has equipped you with a gift. Guess what that gives for? It's not what you think. It's not to serve the world. It's to serve each other. It's to build up and edify and sanctify the body of Christ. The gift you've been given is for the body of Christ. Isn't that wild? Now, it might spill out into the world and it should. But that gift is for this place for the body. And he's talking about these crazy gifts because guess what? They start arguing like we always do of what's the best gift. Well, I'm better than you because I'm a leader and I'm better than you because I'm hospitable, right? Which I am. I guess that's Jill. That doesn't mean, right? Well, I'm better than you because I sing good and I'm better than you because I dance good. I don't know. Whatever. They made, and he had to explain to them, whoa, whoa, whoa, they're all equal. They're all important. Nobody has all the gifts. Another hint, that's a theology that's a little messed up. You also don't get to tell God which gift you want. You can pray for it, but like he determines it. Okay. Anyway, so in the context of this, Paul says, these are great. And if you actually do want to know what the best ones are, it would be this and this. If you had to rank them, they're all the same. And then he says this crazy thing in the end, it's well, he goes, but let me show you an even better way. Let me paraphrase. Let me show you the most incredible spiritual gift. Let me show you the one that's the most powerful. That's what he says. Starting in verse 13 and chapter 13, he says, if I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I'm a noisy gong or a clinging symbol. If I could speak in the tongues of angels but don't love people, it's just noise. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but I do not have love, I'm nothing. If I give away all my possessions and if I give over my body, meaning die. In order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. By the way, that's also saying that you could do all those things, right? And there not be any love behind it. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking. Self-seeking is not irritable and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. By the way, if I didn't lose you earlier, I lost all of us right there. Because you don't endure to the end on your own. We have a limit. Love never ends but as for prophecies, they'll come to an end, prophecies. As for tongues, they will cease, as for knowledge, it will come to an end, for we know in part and we prophecy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end and what are you essentially saying here? So you'll get too confused. He's like, "Am I going to need prophecy when Jesus comes back? Am I going to need somebody to interpret what the Lord wants us to do, right?" And to call us back to him because that's what prophecy really is, turn away from your sin, come back. No, because we're going to be with him. We're going to be perfect. Am I going to need to, like, understand things that are not understandable? No, because God is with us and I'm going to know every. I'm going to understand all of it. You know what I'm saying? So what he's saying is all those things that are benefiting us now before the Lord comes back and before heaven meets earth again, they won't be needed then but you know what will still be around even in the perfect will come to that. When the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. And when I became a man, I put aside childish things. That verse has been twisted. They're trying to tell you you can't read comic books. That's what that's about. You've heard that before. Well, man, don't do that. That's not what it means here, right? It's talking about in the context of love, right? It's actually really powerful. He's saying children focus on all of the little things that point to the truth, right? Children will make tongues the most power, most important thing. Children will make prophecy the most important thing. Children will make the healing the most important thing instead of the healing bringer. Whereas he says here, when I became a man, I put aside childish things and focused on the eternal. That doesn't mean those things aren't important. It just isn't the most important. What does he say in verse 12? Have I lost you? Have you fallen asleep? What do you think? James. Am I losing people? I'm talking to James. James, are I losing people? She's answering for you. No? Good. He would tell me. I'm never, never mind. For now we see, I put aside childish things. This is a beautiful picture. For now we see only as a reflection is in a mirror. Isn't that crazy? In other places in Scripture, it calls it we're in the shadow lands. All the beautiful things you've ever experienced in this world is only a shadow of how beautiful what's the come is. Isn't that incredible? I love it. I love it. C.S. Lewis even puts that in the Chronicles of Narnia, right? At the end, I don't want to ruin the whole series for you, but it would really ruin it if I told you. I'm not going to. For now we see only as a reflection in a mirror, hey, all of those things are a reflection of the truth, but then we're going to see him face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully as I am fully known, I'm going to finally know him the way he knows me. Now these three remain, remain where? In the perfect. At the end. Remember I already said all these other things are going to pass away. Faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love. In the kingdom of God when it's all restored and perfected and he comes home and fixes all this, we're still going to have faith. We believe in him. He's right here. We're going to have hope of better things. Why? Because every day is going to be better. You know that? Imagine that going to bed going, man, today was great, tomorrow is going to be better. How can it be better? It's perfect. I don't know, but it's going to be good. And then love is the greatest. We will love fully, be love, fully love each other in ways you can't fathom. Why? Because there won't be any insecurity. There won't be any worry or doubt or fear. People will be free to love without fear and sin and selfishness. So this is the kind of love Jesus is describing when he says, "You must love each other like this." When you look at Jesus and I'm trying to be faster than my messages because I had a lot playing, I'm trying to be faster. I wanted to tell you all the examples. I'm struck anytime I start to feel, I might get emotionally, anytime I start to feel like I am overwhelmed and I'm burdened and oh my goodness, I do so much for so, you know, I can do that. I can't, they don't care. And I do these things. I just go and read about Jesus preaching all day and still having the patience to answer questions that he's probably already answered. That while a crowd is literally pulling at his shirt and trying to rip him and he's trying to get through the crowd to go help someone else, he stops to talk to a woman that nobody else would talk to, why? Because he is patient, because he is kind, because he always makes time for those that no one else has time for, he always is willing to reach out and touch the leper, the untouchable. He's willing to love the unlovable. And I get it, man, I get it. I get it and I don't. I didn't grow up in church, but I'm not sure some of you have been in church for 20, 30, 40 years, you know, or percentage wise, young people could be the same. The majority of your life and love becomes a stinking word that means nothing instead of what it really is. Love is meeting needs. Love is saying, I have the capability to come beside you and I will. Love is saying, I can give you, I can meet your need. That's what Jesus does. To the blind man, he was sight, to the untouchable man, he was a touch and a hug, right? To the outcast and the adulterous, he was a defender. To the dead man, right? He was a resurrecter. He was hoped to the hopeless. Do you know that? He met all of those needs because he could. Could he have said no? Absolutely. How often do I walk by and tell myself, I don't want to talk to so-and-so because I've already talked to 15 so-and-so's today. And I can already hear your old man, your old woman inside you. Well, if I do that, I'll never rest. If I do that, I'll never sleep. If I do that, blah, blah, blah, blah. You're right. You won't on your own. And that's the whole point. You absolutely cannot love like this on your own. So let's simplify, I'll give you a list, I've got a list for you. Four people, listen. Love is, and we'll talk about it briefly, I'm going to try to make it. Love is what? Love is patient. Love is patient. Why is patience a sign of love? Why is patience a sign of love? Because patience, I mean, it's obvious, you're willing to sit with, talk with, go with someone until they get to where they need to be, need to go, right? You're willing to be there with them. You're not trying to say, "Hey, my time is more valuable than you. You're a waste of my time." It says patience is sitting in the moment. Love is kind. This is a big one that I don't see in Christianity, I'm just being honest. The church is not kind anymore. It doesn't mean Christians aren't. I'm saying church culture of the capital C is not kind anymore. You're not. You're not kind. We're not kind people. You know the word, sometimes the word is translated as gentleness. We don't go, I like that too, right? I don't go up and go, "I'm kind to you and throw you all around," right? That's not kind. Kind is meeting people where they're at and being, "Are you kind? Are you kind to each other, not out there?" It's almost like we try to be like, "I want someone to join the clubs, let's put our best face on for them." Are you kind to the person next to you? Love is what? Not envious of other success accolades or life. We all have strengths and weaknesses in life. We all have envy sometimes, but I'll be honest. This is one that I didn't see a lot because I don't, maybe because I don't like myself too much. That's unhealthy too, but envy wasn't a big deal to me, but I've seen it in others. That's an area that it can get some of you. We kind of gloss over it in the church, envy. Love isn't envious of other success, accolades or life. Why? Because love would rejoice in that. I'm not going to be envious and say, "I don't like that they have this good thing." That's what envy is. It's not even about you, really. You don't like that they have what you don't have, and you want them to not have it. That's the cold, ugly truth. Let me put it in perspective. A little girl has a rose and you say, "Well, I don't have a rose, so I'll just take yours and throw it in the trash." That's the same thing. Love is not boastful or arrogant. No, that's a big one. Why? What's boastful? Well, boastful is out loud telling everyone. Does it always sound like this? As adults, we play games. Kids, they do it in school. They'll just tell you. I mean, young adults. They'll act airy. They won't. They'll say things like, "I am better than you." Adults don't say that, but they hint at it high. Oh. That's a nice 2014 Escalade. Mine's a 16, but hey, everybody's got to start somewhere. It's boastful. Hey, you guys see my new house? There's a difference between like, "Hey, come over and check out my house." Like 2.5 million. Big sacrifice, but hey, worked hard for, right? God says, "Enjoy your blessings." It's subtle. Why is love not that? Because let's think about it deep. But when you're boastful and arrogant, you're intending to put others down. You are. How do I know that? Because in order to be above someone else, which means arrogant, they have. They have to be beneath you. Get it? Yes? Okay. Somebody's got to talk other than her, she'll keep doing it all day, yeah? In order to put yourself above others, you have to step on somebody else. And that's what arrogance creates. Number five, right? I think we're on number five. Perfect. It's not rude. It's another thing Christians aren't. Hi. I just came back from serving in Guatemala. I'm out of my way, right? Christians are rude. You know how I know? Because I used to serve at a restaurant. Anybody served before? Now, do I think some of this is an attack? Because remember, they look for reasons to point out that we're vile. But I promise you, it's true. They said that the worst day to serve is Sunday. We don't give tips, we're mean, where there's a pickle on this, take it back. I want to talk to your manager. For a pickle. Hey, let me tell you a little secret. Pickle off, okay, pull a pickle off. Now on the other hand, if you're a person serving and I say there's a pickle and you rudely are like, pick it off and be like, take it back. See, anyway, the point is, don't be rude, that's what we are, okay? And I want you to now, but also towards each other, because that's the focus here. What is rude to each other? I'm not calling out to people in the blue shirts today. I promise, it's just irony. How about a greeting team that doesn't greet members but only smiles and greets guests? That's a fact that happens here. That's a fact. And if that steps on your toes, it was meant for you. I've watched it. I've watched you smile and shake hands with the guest and then turn around a text while your brother's sister walks in. That love, that's a show, it's not rude, it doesn't ignore people, it doesn't make people feel like they're not apart. Love is sick, this is a huge one. Love is not self-seeking. You ready for this? What's self-seeking? I'm wrestling with this, with this. As the church has grown by the grace of God, and I get paid now, I didn't used to. Somebody came up to me the other day and goes, "Hey, man, what's your real job?" Still offensive, or the other one is like, "What do you do the rest of the week?" Anyway, there were some members that say that. Talk to you. Anyway, self-seeking, the reason I bring that up is, as I do that, people begin to think that everything that I do is because I get paid. If that were the case, I'd get paid 20 cents on the hour. I don't think that way. What I'm trying to say is, a lot of times you will justify your self-seeking by looking at the people that don't self-seek, that serve because you say things like, "Well, they get paid to do it," or, "They're in a job to do it," or whatever, right? I got to take care of my family. That's true. That's true. Any time though, you start to, all of a sudden, have these excuses called, "Well, I'm tired. I'm too tired. I've worked hard. I served all day. This is my day. This is my family. This is why are you saying that? Who's accusing you? Self-seeking is not always what we think. Do you put self above your brothers and sisters? How about this? Well, I'm not going to serve in children's church today because I'm sick for the twelfth time this month. That's okay. I'm all do it. Hi. I'm a mom and I don't serve in children's church, even though I have my children in every single children's church thing, and I take care of children, but I'm not going to serve there. I'll let the single ladies and the single men do it. That is disgusting. Get mad at me if you want. I'm not talking about when you're serving other places, right? I'm saying the idea that you don't have to. That's what I'm talking about. When you tell yourself you don't have to, you're willing to put weight on other people. Now, listen, the loving, sensitive, hearted people or who literally can't are like, "I should hate myself." No. I'm talking about the people who can, okay? I'm talking with people with a three-year-old that refuses to ever serve because they, quote, "aren't good with kids." Well, a little late for that. I'm just saying, "Well, I told you I was going to talk to us." To the meal team, I'm not going to show up on time repeatedly, and they have to bend to my will. See, we'll start to use love for each other to justify our own self-seeking. You have to let me have myself because that's love. I'm tired. I'm late. Everybody is. And any one time, everyone is either, what, tired, stressed or whatever my other one was. Busy. Thank you. Coming from the busy. Tired, stressed, or busy, right? If I have you raise your hand, who's tired, stressed, or busy, everyone's going to raise their hand. Don't do it. That's insane. He's like, "Me, man. I get it." Joseph was with me. He's like, "Me too." Yeah. I'm not trying to mean me. We all do it. It's so easy for it to turn into self-seeking because our mind and the enemy is very quick to point out all the things we deserve. And typically, what we deserve comes at the expense of somebody else. Jesus didn't do that. He was tired, guys. He was tired. Tells us that. And I'm going to talk about this later. Do you know that Jesus never took a break when others were in direct need but only took it when the sacrifice was on himself, morning, early morning, late at night? Why do you think that was? But in Christian culture, they write books about this now to glorify self-seeking under the guise of self-love. Seven, not irritable. All right? I can be irritable. Don't say amen to that, but I can be irritable, right? And it typically happens for me. Maybe this is you. Irritability for me towards my brother's sister is it's never about you. Like if Jacob comes out to me and I'm irritable to him, I can tell you very, very rarely is it towards him. I've created this story in my head that he's not even a person anymore. He's just another character in the book of life of people stomping on me, kicking me, hurting me, taking advantage of me. You get what I mean? Right? You ever do that? And then so I become irritable because I'm like, here it goes again. I always tell people it's that idea, if you come and poke me, like one of the things that really struck me, the Lord shared with me is, you know, I snap at people and I use this analogy. It's like, man, if you get poked every single day, the same, you know, you're eventually going to snap at being poked and it's like, yeah, but if Jacob pokes me and Jill pokes me and Sydney pokes me, that's their first time. I don't get to add them all together and say, I hate all of you, you poked me a hundred times. Jill's like, I just poked you once, right? And I'm screaming at her like she poked me a hundred times. Do you get what I'm saying or is that too? What? Jason, first time buddy, is that good? He's like, all right. He's like, I'm never coming back too late, buddy, you remember, not self-seeking, right? Not irritable. And listen, so love is not, love is forgiving, man, forgiving. We got that? No? Is it coming? It's number eight. Oh, I got you, Grant. It's trying to do too many things because he's a servant, forgiving. So how do I get that from there? Well, they don't identify others by their mistakes, their failings or their flaws. You do. How many times, I'll use me because I use you, right? All right. How many times will I let you down? Todd's a terrible pastor because he didn't come to my birthday, so he must not love me. It sounds funny, but like that pain's real, but then you've created a scenario in which that's who I am. And even if it is, what is love? Have you ever missed something that was important? Have you ever been unable to go somewhere you wanted to go? We don't think that way. We're unforgiving to each other, but love is forgiving, keeps no record of wrongs. What about a little record? No record. Love keeps no record of wrongs. That's hard. That's a choice. That means like I'm naturally going to write down the record of Blake. And every day I got to wake up and go, shh, shh, shh, it never happened. Let me tell you how that's infected the church. Well, hey, forgiveness any restoration of relationship. Within a church body it is, and then a church body forgiveness is restoration of relationship. Did you know that? Facts. But you know why you don't do that because you've been told it's okay. Just leave and go down to Jimmy Joe's Church of God down the street, right? Because there's a hundred of them. So go have it your way until it's not your way anymore and then go find another one when if Lord forbid a time comes when the Christian Church is truly persecuted, I bet you we won't be arguing and leaving each other over the stupid things we leave each other now. Love is forgiving. Forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling. It is a choice to say, I'm not going to forget if, if Jacob comes and punches me in the face, I'm not going to forget he punched me in the face and neither is my nose, right, James? I used to have a straight nose. I'll tell you that story someday, Zach and then James. I'm not going to forget that, but I can say, I'm not going to let that control the way I treat him. And forgiveness is a whole topic in and of itself, but that's what it is to not keep a record of wrongs. I will forgive the way I've been forgiven because we talked about us in men's group last week, right? My forgiveness, what I've been forgiven us far, forgiven of far exceeds what I'm forgiving. It doesn't identify others by their mistakes, failings, flaws and sins. Nine, it's joyful and loving others and serving God, joyful. Did you know that? Love finds no enjoyment, righteousness rejoices in the truth. There's a lot to that, but I simplified it for you. It's joyful and loving others. I just talked to our team, you know, it's like, hey, everyone, love each other and you guys come down and you're slopping, the meal team's slopping, the corn down and you and not joyful, here's your corn, right? Is that joyful? Is that the heart of love? Here, I'm surfing. No, it's not. It's not. Or the greeting team, y'all, some of you all, we're about to review how we do greeting. Do you think, well, I got my blue shirt on. No, it's more than that. You don't feel it. You choose it. You know why you smile? Because how does it feel when you walk in the room and nobody's smiling at you? I'm serious. Something that simple. I'm looking at some of y'all grumpy, frown faces right now. Don't pretend you're trying to -- and then you justify that. I'm just trying to protect smile lines. Some of you all have marble faces because you don't ever smile, right? Even something like that. That hit me. I used to walk around, right? You know, Jess used to do that if you know her, in case she ever watched this. You smile, Todd. They used to make me so mad because I'd be like having to go to the bathroom, right? And she's like smiling. I'm like, I don't have to smile all the time until I realized that her saying that, man, I was causing her anxiety. I was. She'll never admit that. Right? When I walk in a room, I can either come down and go where I can go. Well, there's a difference. That is love. It's joyful in doing it. Do you serve joyfully? Do you come to church joyfully? It's so funny. Remnant. I come to church. I come. You know who you are. Am I talking to you? Yep. Joyful and loving others and serving God. And I put those together because serving God is loving others. It is loving your brothers and sisters. Remember what he said? If you are my servant, you are my friend, you will love my friends. Ten is willing to go the distance. Endures all things, believes all things, right? Bears all things. Wait. Bear means to have. Wait. I bear your weight. I pick you up. I'm bearing your weight. It bears all things. But you had a 40 hour week work week, right? You don't have time for that. Tired of that too, man. It will work. You ain't the only person in the world working. Willing to go the distance. Because work just becomes another excuse for you not to love. Willing to go the distance. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. I will bear with you. I will go the distance with you. I will carry that weight because I have hope that this won't last forever with you. Not in a mean way, right? Like I will walk with you because I know who you are is worth this. I will do this because you're worth it. Because of who's, at the bare minimum, because of whose image you were made in. And if you were my brother or sister in Christ, he valued you enough to die for you. I should be able to value you enough to walk with you. Number 11. Love is eternal. I don't know that well. Love never ends. But as for prophecies they'll come to an end, tongues they will cease. Love never ends. Love is eternal. Your love for one another should be eternal. The gape is in action. Stop beating yourself up if you don't feel it. I'm telling you right now, feeling is irrelevant. A gape is a movement, it's an action, it's a direction. There's never a limit to your gape. And some of you all put limits and we'll get to this in a second because you have been blinded in the soil of self-focus. And I'm talking to the remnant and I'm tired of it because what's going to happen is we are going to become what we don't want to become. And it happens, maybe take a step further. There are some very key people in this church. This is not what I should do. Very important people that have been around for a long time that you're cold, that you believe that your position or your duration justifies you being cold. I put enough time in, I put enough in the bank, it's time to chill and coast. I'm deserved, I own, I deserve this, I'm owed this. The Lord wasn't. The Lord laid down when He was owed to love us. It's eternal, it doesn't stop. We got to keep going. We got to keep loving. This all sounds really hard. Do you think this sounds hard? Josh, is it hard? It's hard for me. It is hard. How do we do it? How do we stop? And remember, again, because while we're in this world, while we're in the Shadowlands, our natural bent is always going to be to slide back over into cold, to freeze over. By the way, you're starting to get the hint of Narnia now. Why winter comes with the queen and spring comes with the king. That's good. Like that, spring king, anyway. It's a rhyme. I'm a poet. I did know it. Hah. Eternal. It's eternal. Number 12. And I mean this, don't let this be corny because if you do, you're missing the point. Love is Jesus. Me, Brandon and I talk about this a lot, AJ, some of us, I just say it because we've had this discussion. Sometimes you'll get so burned out and every time I start to get to that place, I have to go back and read the Gospels and be reminded. Paul's words are good. It's true. It's God's word. But once something about sitting at the feet and following Jesus, walking with him and seeing how he loved, seeing how he lived, I naturally want to be where he is. When you're confused about how to love people, stop reading Oprah's book. Stop reading the blog of that influencer that's doing the dance while they tell you what love is when they have no clue and go see what the source of love has to say. Jesus' love. Everything he did his love. And when you go read the Scriptures, despite what the words, some of you have been told that he's not because you haven't spent enough time in his word. I promise you, there's not a person who truly goes to the Gospels, open hearted and open-minded that does not see love radiating from that man. And everything he does. So what are some examples? What does that look like? What does that tangibly? This all sounds good. I'm going to bring it down. I'm going to bring it down from the big stuff. This just happened yesterday. This happened in this church. I'm going to challenge him. I'm going to say good things, right? I saw a guy, and it's Ryan. I'll just say it. I wasn't going to say his name. He's going to hide his face. He don't want to hear that. He's Ryan sitting with a kid that I naturally thought was his own, and it wasn't. It was someone else's son who was having a rough day in a wedding, throwing a fit. We all know what that is. Being upset. He didn't ask. He went and took him and sat with him like his own son. I looked at it, and naturally, I thought it was his son because he loved him enough because they were in the wedding, and somebody had to step in and love him and sit with him. That's a gossip. That's a cost. He's going to ask us to sit and enjoy fellowship, and he's chilling with a boy who needs him. Agape is a family who's got the nears. They're in another place, right? They've got a graduation party in another state or town. I don't even know anymore. I get lost, right? They weren't coming, and they said they weren't coming, but it got reigned out, and they decided, even though they had an out. They already told everyone I won't be there, they showed up to what? A reception to love somebody. They didn't get a cookie for that, right? They didn't do it and come in and go, "Hey, everyone, I'm here." They just did it because they loved Josh. He don't like to be loved, but that's what it is. Love is messaging a guy. This is why I told Andy right before, and he probably thought it was weird, all right? Love is messaging a guy with encouragement and hope that the whole world's turned their back on. That was me. Even when that guy's so hurt, he can't even recognize it as love. It's not giving up on him. When all the cool kids are, when it has a cost to love someone and to stand with him and say, right? When Jesus stood with that adulterous, you know, we see it as such like a, it is a beautiful moment. It's the reputation thing. Wonder why I stand with her. We don't think of it that way. Maybe they got a relationship. You get what I mean? People think that way. Love is serving in children's church for a month straight and nobody even knows about it, and that's numerous people in here. Love is coming with an entire family and cleaning the church while you've got a little baby on your arm. Kelsey, right? The family and the little kids teaching them all, that's love. That's love. Love is sticking out of church when it drops down to 15 because the pastor is an idiot. That happened here and sticking it out and having faith. Love is a person who gives finances. I don't say it a lot, but because they don't even remember here but gave a significant portion for the children's wing because they believe and they want to love those kids. Love is sitting with people when they're lonely. Love is sitting with someone at meal who's sitting alone, even if they look like they want to be alone because the very fact that they're sitting in a crowded room means they don't want to be alone. Love is not justifying not loving the church because you feel like the church didn't love you. Love's in the small things. What hinders love? I'll make this quick-ish, right? Number one, I don't have a list so you need to write it. Number one, I have it in quotes because it's more. Number one, what hinders love? What hinders love for each other in this church is self. Self-esteem. Self-love, self-care. Now you know how I got you, you want to know how the world's brainwashed you because something made you irritated about that. Because you believe me calling you out for that means that you should deserve to be hated. That's what they've tricked you into believing. Self-love. I'll never see some of you again, by the way. Have a great day. I love you. Self-love, self-care, self-esteem, self-self, self-self, self-self, self-self. And isn't that ironic that even though we practice that over and over and over, we still find ourselves wishing we had what? We never get esteemed enough by ourselves, right? I'm never esteemed enough. I'm looking at me and going, "You're beautiful. All I want and I don't ever have enough esteem by myself because what I desire and need is not just for myself." Self-care. I'm tired. Get in line. Being tired. Self-love. That doesn't mean that you don't get sleepy. It doesn't mean you don't take rest. What I'm challenging this church to do is to stop, start asking yourself, "Am I truly empty or am I just taking the easy way to justify what I want to do and what I don't want to do?" Talking to this church. Why? God says that the beauty of the gospel is so powerful. The beauty of what God says He goes, "Yeah, I'm calling you to love really hard and you can't do it on your own, but I can do it through you." Number two, self. What hinders love? Self. We define the expectations of our love. We define love by the world's standards. So, you guess what the world says? Every world. I promise you, this is the concentrated message of the world. We should love everyone. Everyone, love everyone after we love ourselves. If whatever we have left after loving ourselves, we give to them. Jesus flips it. He does. You know why? I will love you. I will take care of you. We can't let the world tell us even the Christian culture tell us what love is because it's become infected by the parasite of self. Do you think any of the, you think Jesus would have done nearly any of the things He did if He was concerned with self? No. Nobody wants to get crucified to a cross, but let's take it down a step. Nobody wants to talk to 3,000 people that you know are going to hate you in a few months. No one wants to give a bunch of, like, give bread. I know I don't. Oh, you want some of my bread? Here's some bread because I'd be going, you're not going to be there when everyone turns on me. Right? Even, and I'm talking about even as apostles, the closest friends, He knew what they were going to do. He still loved them. Number three, we don't abide on the vine. John chapter 15, Jesus says, "I am the vine, you are the what? Branches." And He makes this, and it's 15, by the way, comes after, He's saying all this stuff I told you about love. You want to love? Here's the clue. You can't do it on your own. If you're coming to the end of your love for others, it's because you've been trying to do it on your own. Abiding in Him means I love this, it's one of my first kind of sermons, by the way. I ever didn't seminary that I studied before I left seminary. Right? And it was the idea of abide. Obeyed is rest. When I just, does a branch have to hold on to a tree? No, it sits in the tree's presence, right? It does. What a branch does is stays connected. Do you read the Bible? Do you read the Bible? Quit lying to yourself. Do you read it? Well, that doesn't help. I didn't ask that. Do you read the Bible? Because something supernatural happens. Do you pray? Do you go to church? Do you serve? Do you do the things? Do you follow Jesus? Do you rest in His presence? Because when you do, some of that rubs off on you. When you're empty, He can work through you. That's what abiding is. He says in that chapter, "You can't do anything without me. You cannot do this without me, but with me, you can do that and want more." He makes this crazy promise. He says, "My followers are going to do greater things than I did." Those are through itself. Definition of love and we don't abide on the vine. Listen, you've got to live a relationship with Jesus. You've got to live it. We tend to get tired, overwhelmed, et cetera, and then try to do it on our own. And then when we do it on our own, we either do it on our own, or we take the advice of people who don't love Jesus. So we'll literally get on and listen to this TikTok influencer, Instagram, by the way, kids, all your parents are like, "We don't do that. Yes, they do. I see them swiping." And they tell you something and they slap Jesus on it and you think that's good advice. You can't say, "Hey, how do I love like Jesus and listen to somebody that don't know Jesus?" Sometimes that's family members, sometimes that's coworkers. You cannot listen to someone else on how to love like Jesus that don't know Jesus. And yet we do that. And that's hard, especially when it's family, because they love us the best that anyone in this world can, but they don't love us like Jesus. So guess what we tend to do? You person that's not listening from this church, this is you. We say no to the wrong things and yes to the wrong things. I said that intentionally to be confusing because it means you listen. We say no to the wrong things and yes to the wrong things. It's funny how we'll sacrifice for work in a paycheck, but we won't say no to them, but we will others. I'll say yes to overtime over and over and over, but I'll say no to serving and loving. Why? Because you're self-seeking, whether you want to admit it or not. Get mad at me. That's okay. That's the church. Guess I love you. This ain't you because I don't know you that well. I don't know you that well. I know the church though. And the thing is we love you, it's weird. We use our love for each other to justify those things, right? So maybe you've seen me not loving people and you're not going to say anything to me because at the end of the day, you know I'm busy and I'll use that to my advantage. Sorry man, it's work. Providing for my family, that's not why you're doing it. That's not why you're doing it. You're saying no to the wrong things and yes to the wrong things. No, yes to overtime, no to going and seeing that person, celebrating their reception. Yes to rest, no to service. Yes to my unsafe friends because you tell yourself you're preaching the gospel to them, no to my brothers and sisters in the church. Keep it lying to yourself, what's love? Love for each other. I'm talking to me too. This church, the remnant church is not above becoming cold and when you become cold you become heartless and when we become heartless we're just another building with a cross attached to it. Be the remnant, the bracelets that we wear, it wasn't meant to just be a fashion statement though I think they look nice. A reminder that to be the remnant is a sacrifice because remember the story of the remnant and the Old Testament. They're persecuted and the prophet says there's still some of us that are following you in the midst of that. The idea of being the remnant doesn't mean we're the only remnant but we want to be a part of the remnant in this world that truly follows Jesus Christ. Well you got to amen it all the time. And I love it and I love that and it's good but I want you to hear that. No church sets out to become just a building with a cross on it. Love, community, service, even community, you know it's really sad that our community nights we have a lot of members have been members here since we used to do edge but you don't come to community nights you got better things to do. That's only for the people that don't have no friends right? Is that what it's for? Do you think I come to community night because I always need community? Sometimes I'm community doubt. Sometimes I do right? And sometimes I think I don't and I get there and I find out ooh I did. You know community not you. Guys we are forced in a world right? That's why we come here we get filled up. We're ambassadors and we go back out into that world and we spend a lot of time with people that do drain us that aren't like us. We're here ambassadors so the Bible says we're aliens in this world so the time we get to spend together is a blessing and it should be viewed that way and it should be made a priority because we spend enough time with the people that don't know them. You get it? Community like it becomes a dirty word if you view it wrong. I'm not always around you because I want to be around you I'm around you because I need to be around you. If we're not careful Rem, who am I talking to you? I'm talking to you guys that have been even the teens that have been here from the beginning. This is your home and I'm so thankful you feel comfortable here but you're the Rem that too. How do you treat the new teens that come? How do you treat the new people that come? People that have been around that are in positions whether you're a deacon, whether you're even an elder. It's all of us. Have we become cold? Have we allowed? That's why we like this picture, right? Look at that. Is that being fully iced over yet? That heart? It's not fully iced over but it's starting, isn't it? What will happen if it doesn't warm back up? It'll lose all that color and it'll eventually look like it's surroundings. Don't become cold and iced over. You know what that is too? It's serving when you want to because you don't like being told what to do. Who we, me either but that's the Lord, right? We do what He tells us to do. Am I talking to certain people? Yep. Am I talking to you? If that angered you? Yep. In the church. If you're a guest, I wasn't talking to you. That's a Holy Spirit. How's your heart? I'm serious. How's your heart? Is it warm? You know. You know. I notice when it's getting cold. How's your love? Have you grown cold? Have you started to get a little frosty and freeze over? Do you do all the things on the outside? You do serve. Maybe the other side. You do all of the things but you know inside your heart has become pretty cold and like Jesus said of the church in Ephesus but you've forgotten your first love. You're doing it all but you've forgotten. Why? We want to, we have goals as a church that we think God's called us to. We can't do that as a cold church because the church is on fire is never going to get cold. This should challenge every single person in here. Not a single person in here should it not. It does me. So what are we going to do about it? I'm not going to worry about what you're going to do about it. You can't control that. And neither should you. What are you going to do about it? What am I going to do about it? And there's people in here right now that you're going to come play some music if you would. It's going to be a little different. So pay attention. I think you may need that. She's going to play some music and I want to talk to you for a second. There's some of you in this room -- man, it's such a -- you make -- I would just hug you if I could because you probably know Jesus' love and you know it and you -- that's why you're here. But maybe people who claimed his name haven't always been as loving. And that gets real confusing because they can sound like they talk for him, doesn't it? It sounds like they speak for him. And sometimes the gospel gets twisted because you're like, "It seems like it's all about pretending to be these things, but never really doing it." Well, I was never going to have music again here. That's not the truth. And the bottom line is the gospel is it's real whether it's people always live it out or not. And see, where I can get in trouble and when I begin to grow cold, even toward Jesus, and some of you in this room, like you're being called, he's called to you for years and you've even maybe been coming to the rate lately or people in this church that may not be saved but have tricked people, you're drawn to them. But your heart's a little cold, probably because it's been hurt, all right? Because when it's icy, it's kind of safer. And you have reasons for that. And I'm not going to sit here and tell you that those reasons aren't real, but what I'm going to tell you is I want to tell you that God loves you so much. Even if, even with, all those evens in your head when I say that, God loves me even with yeah. Even though I've done this, yes. Even though I didn't do that, yes. Even though, yes. That's who he's the God of. He's the God of the even those. The gospel is pretty simple. God created everything and he created us to be in a relationship with him and he loves us and he had one rule and the rule is, I'm God and you're not, I'm God, you're not. I tell you what truth is, you don't tell me what truth is. And what happened is we said, I don't like your rules. I think I'm going to be better at saying what love is and what truth is and all of those things. That's what Adam and Eve did. And before you go, well, why am I getting punished for them? You're not, you're getting punished because you do it. And every time we say that his truth isn't true and that what I want goes above his wishes, we have rebelled against the king. And because a perfect holy God cannot remain perfect in holy while in relationship with something that is not perfect in holy, the branch was snapped off the tree. Why is that? You can't take a pure white snowball and a mud ball and touch it and the white snowball stays white. It doesn't happen that way. He cannot be with us. And so we are separate. He gave us what we wanted. You want to life without me, then have it. And what has happened for thousands of years is we see the ramifications and the consequences of a life and a creation that has wandered away from the Creator. We don't know where to go. We don't know what to do. We don't know where life is. We don't know where light is. We are blind people stumbling around, hoping to feel safe, clinging to each other, clinging to things. And it never lasts. You know it and I know it. And we look around and we say, maybe this identity, maybe I'll be this person. It don't make me happy. Maybe I'll be this person or maybe I'll have a month dedicated to this struggle that I have or this thing that I want and if I put all my faith and hope in that, then I will be complete and whole. It's bigger than all of that. Your worth is not who, what you're attracted to, your worth is not found in the identity you have, the money you have, the status you have, and your worth is not found in the mistakes that you've made. Your worth is found in the image of who you are made in. We're separated from him and we can't make our way back and religions popped up. Well, maybe if I do this and this, I can get back to God, but it doesn't work. I always think of a boat with leaks. Every time I try to put my finger in one of those bad areas of my life, another one pops up. And I'm sticking around with my toes and everything, right? This ship is sinking and the cause was separated, right? Well, maybe I didn't sin. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The Bible tells us, and the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. That means you and I have earned it. The Bible is real. Why don't believe in that good? Do you believe in gravity? Why? Because you understand, right? Go jump off the building. I don't believe. It might seem true why you're floating in air, but there'll become a time of impact when reality crushes what we expected to have. So that's it and all of the needs that you have, your loneliness, your suffering, your broken heartedness, the abuse that was done to you, the holes in your heart, the aches you have, the feeling of being lost, all of those things. See, sometimes we forget that he's the answer to all of it. He's the answer to all of it. He throws in life and forgiveness and with it, all those other things we need. So we're in a bad situation. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We need help. We need to get to him. So what happened? God made a way for us to get to him, how he came to us. God sent his only son. God gave up his divinity, his Godhood to live like us, right? The honor that he had to live like us, Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth existed. He was born. He lived a perfect life. He taught us what it was supposed to be like. He taught us how to act so that we can minimize the brokenness of this world. But then he did something we couldn't do. God told us how to act hourly, but he offers to heal us inwardly. The one area that we can't get to and the one area that religion will never get to. What does that mean? Well, it means this. Jesus, remember that, that wages of sin is death? He came down, died on a cross. He took your place. Well, that doesn't make sense. I know. Isn't that crazy? He loves you so much that on that cross he was thinking of you. He took your wages and what he's offering you today is the opportunity for you to give him a trade. You give him your sin. Your brokenness, your hurt, your mistakes, and he will give you the benefits of his perfect spotless life. That's it. But what if I've done this? What about this? I'm stuck in this. I'm addicted. I'm in this. It doesn't matter. The Bible says if you confess with your lips and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and was raised from the dead, you will be saved. He'll throw an eternal life and just as a bonus, hope, and joy and peace. He will begin the process of healing all those areas that no amount of Oprah, no amount of bottles and no amount of pills can ever get to you. This is real. You have an opportunity today briefly to respond to that. I don't normally do this. You've got about five minutes. I'm trying to be faster, okay? Whatever God's called you to do and how He's called you to respond, if you're cold-hearted, you can repent, talk to Him. If you're in this room, you don't know Jesus, there's people up here willing to pray for you. I'm wandering around like Batman. Find me, okay? And we'll pray, don't leave today without knowing and being assured of the fact that you were saved forever. Whatever you do, don't leave the same as you came in because if you do, you're choosing to. 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