Spiritual Growth: Love

Real joy is not dependent on circumstances. It

can be a steady source of strength, no matter

what you're facing. Discover how joy is more

than a feeling, it's a way of life. Order your

copy of The Strength of Joy by Dean and Jeffrey

Forrest. Now available on Amazon and Kindle.

Today we begin a brand new series that we've

entitled Spiritual Growth. Spiritual Growth.

How do you determine that? we're going to look

at those, everything surrounding spiritual growth.

1 Corinthians 2 .14 says this, The natural man

does not receive the things of the Spirit of

God, for they are foolishness to him. Everybody

say natural man. The natural man does not receive

the things of the Spirit of God, for they are

foolishness to him. nor can he know them because

they are spiritually discerned. Can't know them

because they're spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians

3, 1 through 3. This is Paul speaking to believers

in Corinth. He says, And I, brethren, could not

speak to you as spiritual people. but as to carnal,

as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and

not with solid food, for until now you were not

able to receive it, and even now you are still

not able. For you are still carnal. For where

there are envy, strife, and divisions among you,

are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?

So in this text, we find three different types

of people, right? Have you figured that out?

The first one is natural, a natural man or woman.

Everybody say natural. And then we have carnal.

Everybody say carnal. And then we have spiritual.

Everybody say spiritual. So, we're going to talk

about that. How does that happen? What do these

headings or labels, what are we describing by

that? According to the Word of God, a natural

person is a person who is unrenewed, a person

who is not born again, a person who is not a

Christian. One who is unrenewed and is led by

their sensual nature. Because a person without

Christ lives by, the only thing they have to

live by, is what feels good or what seems right

in their own eyes. Okay? Everybody's a natural

person. And then we talk about carnal people

because... Paul is talking to believers in Corinth

and he's calling them carnal. So a carnal person

is a Christian who lives according to their flesh.

We could call this an immature Christian who

lives on a childhood level. Remember he said,

I wanted to give you some meat, but all you can

take is milk. And sometimes you throw that back

up. If anybody's had a baby, they know what I'm

talking about. An immaterial Christian who lives

on a childhood level, lives their whole life

on a childhood level, because they refuse, they

will not feed on the Word of God and grow. Everybody

say carnal. Then we have a spiritual person.

A spiritual person is a Christian. who is led

by the Holy Spirit of God through the Word of

God. This is a Christian who is always growing.

Look at the person beside you and say, I haven't

arrived. I haven't arrived. So it's a person

who's always growing, regularly receives the

Word of God, and walks with the Spirit, walks

in the Spirit. That's a spiritual. Now, where

does this spiritual growth occur? The difference

between a carnal Christian and a spiritual Christian,

where's the difference happening at? Well, we've

talked about this before, but the Bible says

in 1 Thessalonians 5 .23, Now may the God of

peace make you holy in every way. May the God

of peace basically set you apart. That's what

the word holy means. It means set apart. Make

you holy in every way. And may your whole spirit

and soul and body be kept blameless until our

Lord Jesus Christ comes again. So here we find

in this verse and other verses, we find that...

Humans are three -part beings. We're three -part

beings. Where it says, may your whole spirit

and soul and body. So there's a separation in

who we are. So man is a three -part being. We

are a spirit. We're created in the image of God,

and God is spirit. It's what the Bible tells

us. Everybody say, I am a spirit. That's who

we are. That's our being. We are spirit beings.

Right? So we are spirits. We have a soul. And

we live in a body. One day this earth suit is

going to lay down, but that doesn't mean that

that's the end of you. You are a spirit being.

People are spirit beings. Spirit beings do not

cease to exist. Are you with me? They continue

living past the time when they lay down this

earth suit. Who you are continues. Okay? So,

we are spirits, we have souls, and we live in

a body. Now, our spirit comes alive at salvation,

comes alive unto God at salvation. When our spirit

is united with Christ. Everybody say, in Christ.

This takes place at salvation. We are born again.

We were spirit beings, but now we're born again

because we're alive unto God. Our spirit becomes

alive at salvation. Our spirit is united with

Christ. Our spirit is right with God. Our spirit

is righteous. Here's the deal. You will never

be any more right with God than you are right

now if you are in Christ. You are the righteousness

of God in Christ Jesus. In Christ. His righteousness

is your righteousness. You don't stand before

God based on your ability to perform anymore.

You're clothed in His righteousness. So, in Christ,

you are righteous. And you are complete. You

have... Everything that is available in Christ

becomes available to you at salvation. Now, it

may not be manifest in your life if you don't

know what that is. Because you don't know to

walk in it if you don't know what it is. Are

you with me? Now, your soul. You are a spirit.

You have a soul. What is your soul comprised

of? It's comprised of your mind, your will, and

your emotions. So let's break it down. Your mind

is your thought life. Everybody say thought life.

Your will is your desires. And your emotions

are your feelings. Okay? So all that together,

those three things together, encompass your soul.

So you are a spirit, but you have a soul. Now,

you completely, before you came to Christ, you

completely operated in this world from the soulish

realm. Your mind, your will, and your emotions.

Your thought life, your desires, your feelings.

Becoming a spiritual person is when your spirit

and the things that are available to your spirit

begin to dominate your spirit. Who you are begins

to dominate your soul. Begins to have priority

in your soul, in your mind, in your thought life,

in your will, in your desires, in your emotions,

in your feelings. The difference between a carnal

and a spiritual person is this, spiritual growth

of the soul. That's the difference. I mean, those

carnal believers in Corinth, those baby believers

in Corinth, they were Christians. They were clothed

in the righteousness of Jesus. but they were

still mainly living out of their soul instead

of living as spirit beings. So the difference

between carnal and spiritual is spiritual growth

of the soul or the lack of spiritual growth of

the soul. Unlike physical growth, Spiritual growth

does not happen automatically over time. Physical

growth does, right? A baby doesn't stay a baby.

It grows up. We continue to grow. Physically,

it just happens. Unless there's some major problem

genetically or something like that. I mean, physical

growth just happens over time. Spiritual growth

does not just happen over time. Spiritual growth

does not come by doing time in church. I've been

a Christian for 40 years. Well, you can still

be a baby. I've been a Christian for 20 years,

30 years. Well, you can still be a spiritual

teenager. I've met some spiritual teenagers in

their 80s before. You know what a spiritual teenager

is, don't you? If you remember what you were

when you were a teenager, all of a sudden you

came to a point where you thought you knew everything

about everything and your parents didn't really

know a whole lot. You knew a whole lot more than

they knew. Right? Anybody with me? Anybody know

what I'm talking about? And the older you get,

the more you look back and you say, well, my

parents knew a lot more than I thought they knew.

Right? So spiritual growth does not happen automatically.

How is spiritual growth measured? How is spiritual

growth measured? Is it measured in your knowledge?

Is it measured in your knowledge? Could we go

up and down each aisle with a microphone and

ask you how many Bible verses you know and get

you to start repeating your memorized Bible verses

and the person who spit out the most Bible verses

would be the most spiritual one? Is that the

way it works? By knowledge? Does it work by church

attendance? No. That's not how you measure spiritual

growth. Luke 6 verses 43 and 44 says this. For

Luke 6:43

a good tree does not bear bad fruit. Nor does

a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is

known by its fruit. How many of you know Jesus

wasn't just talking about fruit trees? He's not

giving us an agricultural lesson right here.

He's talking about people. He's talking about

people. And we can look at the fruit of a person's

life and see whether that person is spiritual

or carnal by looking at the fruit they produce.

Spiritual growth is measured by spiritual fruit.

And none of us have arrived. So if we're going

to measure our spiritual growth, we're going

to measure it by how much is our spiritual fruit

increasing? Is it continually increasing? Is

it always evident in our lives? Everybody say

spiritual fruit. Matthew 7, 3 through 5 says

this. Why worry about a speck in your friend's

eye when you have a log in your own? How can

you think of saying to your friend, let me help

you get rid of that speck in your eye when you

can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite?

Play actor? We had this in our Bible study this

week. Play actor? saying one thing and living

a different way? That's what that word hypocrite

means in the Greek. It's like you've seen the

masks, the drama masks, right? One of them's

smiling, one of them looks like he's crying.

Well, back in these days, they would have plays

and they would have one person would play three

or four different characters and they'd just

put on a different mask. Sometimes they even

talked to themselves back and forth by putting

on a different mask. So you say one thing, or

you are one thing, but you're acting like something

else. First, get rid of the log in your own eye.

Then you will see well enough to deal with the

speck in your friend's eye. Now, this series

on spiritual growth, you may have been thinking,

well, I'm going to be able to tell how spiritual

my neighbor is. I'm going to be able to tell

how spiritual my spouse is. I'm going to be able

to tell how spiritual my dad is or my kids are.

But that's not what's happening. This whole series

on spiritual growth is a series in self -examination.

Because we're all a work in progress. We're all

a work in progress. And it's good to know...

where we are. I'm going to say that again. It's

good to know where we are. Because if I'm being

real honest with you, most of the time, I think

that I'm more spiritual than I actually am. I

know you never deal with that. You're always

way more spiritual than you think you are. But

most of the time when we look at ourselves, you

know, we think that we're doing pretty good.

Especially if we're coming to church on Sunday

morning, we think we're doing pretty good, right?

We're all a work in progress. Everybody say spiritual

fruit. Galatians 5 .22. If you spend any time

in church or going to vacation Bible school or

anything like that, you've heard these verses

before. Galatians 5 .22, but the fruit of the

Spirit, everybody say spiritual fruit. The fruit

of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

and self -control. That's spiritual fruit. And

spiritual maturity or spiritual growth is evidenced

in the spiritual fruit. Let's talk about the

first one. Fruit of the Spirit is love. Everybody

say love. The love that the Spirit produces.

The Greek word is agape. Everybody say agape.

Now, in your New Testament, the word love is

there several times in several different ways.

Okay? There's also a Greek word phileo, which

is translated love. So you need to know which

one it is. And that's easy to find out. It used

to be a big, strong concordance. Now you can

find that on your phone. Just look up interlinear

on the verse that you want to look at the word.

And look at those words. But the fruit of the

Spirit is not phileo. It's not brotherly love,

where Philadelphia got its name from. It's not

brotherly love. It's agape. And this is a definition

every time you see. When you read the verse,

God is love. It's saying God is agape. God is

love. God is also good. That's just who He is.

He's love and He's good. He does a lot of other

things, but He is love and He is good. See, if

you ever have an interpretation that doesn't

take you in that direction, you're taking the

wrong interpretation. Because God is love and

God is good. The love that the Spirit produces

in you and me, because the Holy Spirit moves

in, He takes up residence in us when we move

from being in sin to in Christ. He comes to live

in us. And the love that He produces is agape.

Here's the definition, threefold. Affection.

Everybody say affection. That means you like

the person. You like people. If you're in love,

if you're demonstrating love and growing in love,

the more you grow, the more you're going to like

people. How many of you have said, well, I love

you, but I don't like you right now. Anybody

ever said that? Anybody ever heard that? I've

said it a few times. Probably shouldn't have.

Because that meant I was not agape -ing. Because

you can't say, I love you, but I don't like you.

That's not agape. So affection is liking. Benevolence.

That means you care. Everybody say care. And

then it means love feast. Love feast. Herb likes

to eat. He's saying glory back there. Anyway.

Everybody say fellowship. That's how we break

it down. The love of God, who God is, He don't

just say He loves you, He likes you. He always

likes you. Agape is being concerned and acting

towards other people's well -being. It means

fellowship. It means... Having life together.

It means worshiping together. Communion together.

Love feast. The big picture is our life groups.

You know, we don't eat every Sunday. We eat every

once in a while, but when we have life group,

we have food and fellowship and we're together

and we look at the Word of God together. That's

in... That's a demonstration of love when we

gather together like that. And that's the love

that the Spirit produces. That's the love that

God has toward you and for you and for us. Let's

take a look at some verses. Romans 5 .5. You

better write these down fast because I'm not

going to spend a whole lot of time on them. Romans

5 .5. Now, hope does not disappoint. Our confident

expectation does not disappoint because the love

of God has been poured out in our hearts by the

Holy Spirit who was given to us. God's love has

been poured out in your heart by the Holy Spirit.

And you might say, well, I don't feel it. That's

because you're focused on everything else. That's

because you're concerned about everything else.

If you don't feel the love of God, then your

concerns are in the wrong place. Your focus is

in the wrong place. The Ephesians 3 prayer, during

our last series, the door, talking about our

mind being the door, The power of God to flow

through. Ephesians 3 prayer talks about love.

Start in verse 17. That Christ may dwell in your

hearts through faith. That you being rooted and

grounded in love. We're supposed to be rooted

and grounded in agape. What does rooted and grounded

mean? If you're rooted and grounded, you're growing,

but you're also stable. Roots stabilize the plants

and draw nourishment. We're supposed to be rooted

and grounded in love, in God's love. And Paul

prays that we may be able to comprehend with

all the saints, What is the width, the length,

the depth, and the height of God's love? To know

the love of Christ. It says, which passes knowledge.

So what does that tell us? It's always bigger.

We get a handle on it. We know it. But there's

always more. There's always more. It's always

bigger than our minds can comprehend. The love

of God for us. To know the love of Christ which

passes knowledge that you may be filled with

all the fullness of God. The more you're filled

with the fullness of God, the more you're filled

with love because God is love. 1 John 4, 11.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to

love one another. So when we receive His love,

It's not just for us. It's supposed to be in

us and working through us to display God's love.

God wants to display His love through you. So

how can we grow in love? How's that fruit going

to grow? How's it going to mature? How's it going

to be evident? Ephesians 5, 1 and 2 says this,

Therefore be imitators of God. as dear children.

Be imitators of God as dear children. Did any

of you ever get, when you were little, did you

get in your parents' shoes? They're way too big

for you. But you put your feet in their shoes

and try to walk in their shoes. Because you want

to be like them. You want to grow up. You want

to, you know. I remember having my dad's, shoes

on, trying to hold them on, keep them from falling

off because my foot was so short in my dad's

big shoe. But I wanted to be like him. I wanted

to be like him. And we need to want to be like

God. Listen, the more time you spend with someone,

the more you're going to, talk like them, and

act like them. Is that right? Now, it's easier

for us to see that in other people than it is

for us to see in ourselves. But the more time

you spend, the more you look alike. The more

you start to think alike. The more you start

to talk alike. The more you start to act alike.

Ephesians 5, 1 and 2. Or verse 2. And walk in

love. Everybody say walk in love. Everybody say

imitate God. Everybody say walk in love. That's

how we live our lives. This doesn't say if you

feel like it. It's kind of a command. Walk in

love. We're supposed to walk in love. As Christ

also has loved us, we're supposed to walk in

love just like Christ walks in love towards us.

And He gave Himself for us, an offering and a

sacrifice to God for a sweet -smelling aroma.

Everybody say, walk in love. Colossians 3 .14

But above all these things, put on love. Which

is the bond of perfection. Everybody say, put

on love. So we imitate God. Right? We imitate

God. We walk in love. And we put on love. So

every day before you face the world, you need

to consciously put on love like you put on your

clothes. Intentionally. Consciously. Stand in

front of the mirror and say, I put on the love

of God. I know I'm going to face some challenges

today to walk in love. Hello? Do we have some

challenges to walk in love every once in a while?

Anybody? I know I'm going to face some challenges

for me walking in love, so I'm putting on the

love of God. I'm putting on agape. If we started

our lives like that, how big of a difference

would it make when those challenges come? Above

all these things, put on love. And then back

to our first, Galatians 5, 22 and 23. The fruit

of the Spirit is love. So how are we going to

put it on? We've got to be connected to the Holy

Spirit of God. We have to acknowledge Him. We

have to walk in Him and walk with Him. For the

love of God to grow, to be increasingly growing

in our lives. It's the fruit of the Spirit. It's

spiritual fruit. The work in us is going to come

through Him. Now, who am I supposed to love like

that? Who am I supposed to like? Who am I supposed

to be? Concerned about their well -being. Who

am I supposed to want to fellowship with? 1 Peter

1 .22 Since you have purified your souls and

obeyed the truth through the Spirit in sincere

love of the brethren, love one another fervently

with a pure heart. The right motivation. A pure

heart. Because some people try to use love to

manipulate. Has anybody ever been manipulated

by someone using the concept of love? They've

used it to manipulate you. But this is saying,

look, now that you've been purified and obeying

the truth through the Spirit, in sincere love

of the brethren, love one another. So I want

you to take a look to your right. Take a look

to your left. Take a look in front of you. Take

a look behind you. Whether today's your first

time here or not, the Bible is telling you that

you're supposed to love the brother. Whether

you've been here a long time and like to pick

on each other or not, I saw y 'all picking during

that. You're supposed to love the brethren. Love

other believers. That's why it's so terrible

when there's division and fighting and strife

in churches. Because the love of God is not there.

They're being carnal. In carnal. I knew a church

in Seneca, South Carolina. They had to call multiple

ambulances and the police after a business meeting.

Took people to the hospital. All in the name

of church. Just people mad, divisive, fighting,

hate. Paul called out those people in Corinth.

He said, you're just carnal. Nothing spiritual

about that when there's division and strife in

a church. Nothing spiritual at all. 1 John 4,

7. Dear friends, let us continue to love one

another, for love comes from God. So we love

each other. We love each other. John 13, 34.

Just as I have loved you, Jesus says, you should

love each other. Just like the way I love you,

you should love each other. Your love for one

another will prove to the world that you are

my disciples. So if we're not walking in love,

we're not acting like Jesus' disciples. We're

not demonstrating to the world that we are Christ's

followers if we're not walking in love. Am I

supposed to love anyone else like that? I mean,

we talked about loving people, brothers and sisters

in Christ and showing the love of Christ in a

local body. Am I supposed to love anyone else

like that? I'm glad you asked. This is where

it gets serious, right? Matthew 5, 43. Jesus

said, you've heard the law. That says love your

neighbor. And hate your enemy. But I say. Love

your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.

In that way. You will be acting as true children.

Of your father in heaven. Everybody say spiritual

fruit. I mean, it's kind of easy to love your

neighbor and hate your enemy, right? But Jesus

says love your enemies. Those people that don't

act right. Those people that don't do right.

Those people that crawl under your skin. You

know what I'm talking about? Jesus said love

your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.

And that way, you'll be acting like a real Christian.

Luke 10, verse 25. One day, an expert in religious

Luke 10:25

law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this

question. Teacher, what should I do to inherit

eternal life? Jesus replied, what does the law

of Moses say? Everybody say 10 commandments.

What does the law of Moses say? How do you read

it? How do you interpret it? How do you understand

it? The man answered. You must love the Lord

your God with all your heart, all your soul,

and all your strength, and all your mind. And

love your neighbor as yourself. Right, Jesus

told him. Because Ten Commandments is summed

up in love, right? Part of it talks about loving

God. And the rest of it talks about loving other

people correctly. Right, Jesus told him. Do this

and you will live. The man wanted to justify

his actions. So he asked Jesus. You know, I got

that down, but who is my neighbor? Who is my

neighbor? Is that my friend? Is that the person

that I enjoy being around? Come on now, don't

check out. Jesus replied with a story. A Jewish

man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho,

and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped

him of his clothes, beat him up, left him half

dead. I don't know how you get half dead, but

they left him. They left him half dead beside

the road. By chance, a priest came along. When

he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the

other side of the road and passed him by. A temple

assistant walked over and looked at him lying

there, but he also passed by on the other side.

Then... A despised Samaritan. Everybody say despised.

A despised Samaritan came along. And when he

saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going

over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds

with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then

he put the man on his own donkey and took him

to an inn where he took care of him. The next

day, he handed the innkeeper two silver coins,

telling him, take care of this man. If his bill

runs higher than this, I'll pay you next time

I'm here. And then Jesus looked at this Pharisee

and said, now, which one of these three would

you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked

by bandits? Which one was the neighbor? The man

replied, the one who showed him mercy. Then Jesus

says, yes, now go and do that. Go and do the

same. Go and do that. Be that person. Be that

person. You don't really get the full impact

of this story without knowing something. Most

religious leaders, most Pharisees in this day

hated Samaritans. The Jews hated the Samaritans.

Hated them. If people talked to God every day,

most of them would have in their prayer in the

morning, they would say, God... Let me have a

good day today by not even seeing one of those

dog Samaritans. That's how bad it was. And now

Jesus is talking to a Jew. And then he gives

him, he says, who's my neighbor? And where does

Jesus go? Because this guy that he's talking

to hates Samaritans. He's all happy about all

the religious people and the Pharisees and the

religious leaders, and Jesus shows that those

people weren't walking in God's love. But this

despised Samaritan was walking in agape. Here's

your example. And boy, did this guy have to swallow

real big before he said, I guess the neighbor's

the one that showed mercy. Because he was just

wound up in that. I mean, that was their culture.

Jews hated Samaritans. I'm just going to remind

us. No matter who we are or where we're from

or how we were brought up, all of us are conditioned

by society to have prejudices in one way or another.

All of us. None of us are immune to that. None

of us. Some of you are looking at me real holy

right now, but I'm saying none of us. None of

us are completely immune to this. Some prejudices

cause you to think and act like you're superior

to other people. You're better than other people.

Some prejudices cause you to hate other people.

So some prejudices make you look down on other

people. Other prejudices make you hate other

people and despise other people. Sometimes they

do both. It can be over gender. It can be over

status. It can be over belief. You know, religious

belief, political belief. Can anybody see that

there's a lot of prejudice in politics? I don't

preach politics. I don't say people's... I don't

even care what side you're on. But on both sides,

there's a whole lot of hate. A whole lot of hate.

Division. Stirring. All the time stirring. Race.

Being stirred up. I mean, it's okay to talk about

these things in church, right? It's okay to talk

about it. As far as God's concerned, there's

only one race. Humanity is one race. According

to the world, there are multiple races, but according

to the Bible, there's only one race. 1 Corinthians

16, 14. Here's what it boils down to. Let all

that you do. Somebody say everything. Let all

that you do. Be done with love. Agape. Every

time, every verse that I've used the word love,

none of them were phileo. Every single one of

them were agape. We like. We don't say we love

you, but we don't like you right now because

then we've stepped out of agape. We're concerned

about the well -being of others. Not just a mental

concern, but a willingness to act. We want to

share life with other people. Now, some people

will refuse, obviously. Some people refuse to

share life and fellowship with you. And some

people would refuse to worship with us. But as

far as we're concerned, We walk in low. We walk

in low. And in this series, we're taking a measure

for our personal benefit. Remember, not for your

spouse, your kids, your parents, your, you know.

We're taking a look on the inside. Personal measurement.

Personal fruit inspection. The measure of your

love for others. The measure that it is increasing

or not. The measure that it is evidenced in your

life on a daily basis or not. That's a good measure

of your spiritual growth. and the level of your

spiritual maturity. So, how many of you would

say, well, I can see that God is working. Come

on. I can see that God is working. I can see

that God is talking to me right now, telling

me that I could be... More walking in love and

more putting on love. I've got some growth that

needs to take place. Anybody? I hope nobody in

the room says, I'm arrived at love, man. I'm

a love person. I just exude the love of God 24

-7. That should be where we're headed. That should

be the goal. That we'll never be as developed

in the love of God as God is fully developed

in His love. We need to be moving forward. Because

ultimately, when your co -workers look at you,

when your neighbors look at you, when your family

looks at you, And some of us have people that,

you know, they know that we're Christians, but

they're not Christians. And they know that we

go to church, but they don't go to church. But

they're watching. Always watching. Those co -workers

are always watching. Gayna has heard two co -workers

talking about another co -worker that was always

talking about Jesus and church, and she heard

them talking about that other co -worker and

said, and she says it, she's a Christian. And

these are people who aren't Christians, but they're

looking at the life of this other co -worker

and saying, she ain't much of a Christian if

she's a Christian. Hello? The Bible says that

the world will know, our neighbors will know,

our family will know that we are Christians,

Christ followers, by our love. By our love. Let's

pray together. God, I thank you for today. I

thank you for your word. I pray that it will

be planted in our hearts. God, we know that your

word does not bring condemnation. By Your Spirit

speaking Your Word to us and bringing Your Word

to us, You're just calling us up higher from

where we are. You're not beating us down. So

I thank You for that. Thank You for loving us

in such a way that You do want to call us up

higher and You do want the fruit, the spiritual

fruit that You give us to increase in us. You

want to work with us and cooperate with us in

that. So we yield to you. We yield to your truth.

We yield to your word. May it be planted in our

hearts and produce an overflowing harvest of

love. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. This online

worship experience was brought to you by the

friends and partners of Elation Church.