Am I Doing This Relationship Thing Right? (North OC)

Daniel Sumoge: Uh, I know today's a special day.

Well, there's two reasons why it's special.

The first one is my, my friend Lucas Kaufman from Phoenix.

He's here today with us here in Orange County, and I don't know if you guys

know this, but Lucas was, uh, in the room when I called Savannah's

dad to say, Hey, I need to talk to you about marrying your daughter.

So Lucas kind of pumped me up to do so.

So thank you so much Lucas for that.

But also today is Mother's Day, man.

I love.

Mother's Day.

You know, I love my mom so much.

Uh, I like to think of myself as, have you guys seen that Adam Sand movie?

The Water Boy?

Yeah.

Alright.

I'm like, Bobby Boucher.

I'm like, mama says, right?

So whatever my mom says, I take it as truth.

Funny story, you know, with preaching camp coming up, the registration is

the last, uh, today, today's the last year to register, but, uh, when I was a

pre-teen, my first year of pre-teen camp.

Uh, I called home, I went to the infirmary.

'cause I figured that's where you go if you're sick and you need help.

So I went to the infirmary.

I said, call my mom.

I want to go home.

I got homesick.

I was like, I missed my mom.

I missed the home cooking.

And I called her and she was like, oh man, I'm so sorry.

Even if I could come and get you, I can't because we're in Vegas with you.

The family.

So I was stuck at teen camp, but it was a great time though.

So for those who haven't registered for pre teen camp,

just know that I turned out.

All right.

All right, so man, please go ahead and do so with that.

But, uh, as you know, we're also in a sermon series right now in the sermon

series is called Am I doing this right?

There it is.

Am I doing this right?

And this is something I feel like we can ask ourselves

more times than we can count.

Maybe for the parents here in this room, maybe you think that, you

know, your kid asked for a candy or a cookie before dinner and

you said, no, you can't have it.

But then you're in the kitchen secretly eating that cookie before dinner.

You're probably thinking, am I doing this right?

Or maybe you're like myself, where your wife makes you, you know, you

have to clean around the house and she still just critiques you about the

baseboards and all this other stuff.

But then you ask yourself, am I doing this right?

Or maybe it's our walk with God.

Maybe when you read your Bible, but forget what you read five minutes later.

Or maybe you're trying to pray in the morning, but then you're like, man,

I'm so tired, or, I have so much stuff to do that you kind of stop praying

and you wonder, am I doing this right?

You know, we've all been there and that's what this series is all about.

Moments where we're trying to learn moments when we're trying to grow,

but we're always, uh, we're not always sure if we're doing it right.

Today, uh, today's topic I feel like is definitely special because

obviously it's Mother's Day, we're gonna be talking about relationships.

Am I doing this relationship thing right?

You know, let's be real relationships.

They're a big part of our lives, whether it's in our marriage, in

our dating relationships, in our friendships with our family, with our

coworkers, relationships shapes us.

You know, if you want a strong friendship.

A healthy marriage, a closer bond with your kids or with your parents.

It all comes down to this one thing love, but not just any kind of love.

I'm not talking about the love you see in those romantic comedy movies

or the songs you hear on the radio.

Those are often about following your heart, and it's the shallow

and self-centered kind of love.

But I'm talking about the love that comes from Christ.

The Christ-like love.

It's a love that's patient, that's sacrificial, that's forgiving.

A love that says, I'm here for you, not what can you do for me?

And the only way to consistently love like that is to start with God.

When we love God with everything we got, his love fills us.

And that becomes the source of how we get to love others.

You know, for those who know about Matthew 22, if we have some, some

Bible scholars here, you guys know throughout this chapter in Matthew

22, Jesus was getting full court pressed by all the Pharisees and the

Sadducees and the teachers of the law.

These people here, you know, they, they know the word of God, that

that's what they do for a living.

They, they love it.

They know all the commands and stuff.

So they're asking Jesus, they're like, Hey, what, what's going on?

Like, do we have to pay taxes to Caesar Jesus?

Or, Hey, what is this about the resurrection?

Tell us more about it, but more in a threatening way.

And then here, uh, it stumbles upon in Matthew 22 where someone just gets

up and it said, Hey, Jesus, out of the 600 plus laws in the Old Testament.

Please just narrow it down to this one commandment.

What is the greatest commandment?

And we see in Matthew 22, verse 37, uh, through 40, it says, Jesus

Matthew 22:37

replied, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all

your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the first and greatest commandment.

And the second is like it.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

All the prophet, all the law and the prophets.

Hang on to these two commandments.

That's the foundation.

Love God and love people, but here's the thing, if we don't love God with all our

being, with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, then we're

trying to love others on an empty tank, and that's when things get messy, right?

Church.

That's when we get impatient.

That's when we get jealous.

We get bitter, we get insecure, we get controlling.

Not because we don't care, but because we're not rooted in the love of Christ.

First, let me ask you, have you ever tried to love someone right?

A parent, maybe a friend, your spouse, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, and

still felt like something was just off.

Like, man, I'm doing my best, but you know, I'm showing up, I'm

doing, you know, I'm being kind.

I'm trying to make it work.

But there's still this tension.

There's still this miscommunication.

There's this insecurity, man, something's off and you can't

quite put your finger on it.

You know?

Maybe the problem isn't our effort, but maybe it's our foundation.

We're trying to do life.

We're trying to do relationships.

We're trying to do faith without first inking ourselves in God's love.

But can I be real with you all this morning?

I know.

You know, it's, it's not easy.

It's not easy to always be rooted with God.

Life gets busy.

We've got school, we've got work, we've got sports, got family, we got

bills, we have appointments, group text, laundry, dinner, all this stuff.

And somewhere in the middle of that, we start forgetting what's

important that relationships.

They're not built by accident.

I think about my relationship with my wife, Savannah.

It didn't just happen because we liked each other or had a few things in common.

It was built with intention.

It was built through conversations, through choosing to listen

when I'd rather be speaking.

It's through showing up through forgiving, through the hard conversations.

It's been built through effort and being present, and that's true for every

relationship in your life that matters.

Think about your best friend.

You don't just drift into that deep friendship that you have with them.

You don't just stumble into a strong marriage.

You don't accidentally just get close to God.

It takes time being intentional with our time, with our attention, with our heart,

because the truth is you can be around someone but still be distant from them.

You can be doing the right things, but you can still miss on the relationship.

For me, I definitely fell short with this not too long ago,

literally last week, where I was caught up in doing so many things.

For those who don't know, I worked part-time for the church,

so I have another part-time job.

So I was doing that.

I was planning up for teen camp, so I was calling the parents and the teens.

I was running the LA teen ball and man, there was just so many things I had to do.

And then on top of that I was like, man, let me be a great husband.

Lemme be an encouraging husband as I always am.

Right, Savannah?

Yeah, there it is.

Yes.

I was like, let me do the laundry.

Not only let me do the laundry, some of us, we stop at the laundry

part, but I also folded the clothes.

And then I was like, matter of fact, let me put these clothes away.

And then on top of that I was like, you know what, man?

Let me go grocery shopping too.

So I got the groceries, but then I was like, you know what,

I'm gonna go one step above.

Let me actually cook these groceries.

Let me have dinner ready for Savannah.

I was doing all these things.

All these things, they weren't bad things.

They were great things.

But then one day, literally, I think it was probably last Saturday or Sunday,

Savannah was just like, man, I, I haven't connected with you all week.

And I was like, well, babe, like, yeah, I know, but I'm doing all these things.

I have so much on my plate because I don't want you to stress out.

I don't wanna give you the leftovers I have to do.

But she was like, no, no, no.

Like I don't care about that.

I just want to connect with you.

You see, I was doing everything for her, but Miss seeing, actually being with her.

Are you with me, church?

Yes, sir.

And that's when it hit me that I was busy, but I wasn't present.

I was productive, but I wasn't connected.

And that's exactly what we're gonna see.

Uh, as we, uh, we're gonna dive into a story and Luke chapter 10,

Luke 10 · chapter mention

we're gonna dive into a story of two sisters named Mary and Martha,

both encounter Jesus, both love him.

They both made different choices in the presence of Jesus.

In Luke chapter 10, verse 38 through 42, it reads as Jesus and

Luke 10:38–42

his disciples were on their way.

He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.

She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he

said, but Martha was distracted by all the preparation that had to be made.

She came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister

has left me to work by myself?

Tell her to help me.

Martha.

Martha, the Lord answered.

You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are

needed or indeed, only one Mary has chosen what is better and it

will not be taken away from her.

You know what is happening here?

You know Jesus, he's been traveling.

Uh, he just sent out his 72 disciples earlier in this chapter to spread

the message of the Kingdom of God.

And now he has entered a, a village, a town in Bethany, a town he often visited,

and here he's welcome by Mary and Martha.

Let's break this down here, you know?

And the first thing it says is, Martha opened her home to him.

Now, I don't wanna skip past that because Martha is not doing anything wrong here.

In fact, she's doing something right.

She's opening her home, she's being hospitable, she's being responsible.

She welcomes Jesus in.

And I think this matters because at least when I read this passage,

when I think about Martha, I always, to be honest with you, I think of

her as, as the screw up sister.

Like, man, you can't get it right.

What is wrong with you, Martha?

Jesus is right there.

What are you doing?

But then as I was studying out this week, I was like, wait, that's not true.

Actually, Martha's not lazy.

She's not indifferent.

She's not rebellious.

She's doing what many of us try to do.

She's trying to take care of everything.

She's doing something good, but yet in doing something good, she's

still missing something essential.

As you see in verse 39 here we get to, to Mary says, Mary sat at the

Lord's feet listening to what he said.

You know, that might not sound like a big deal to us in our culture, but

back then in that culture, in Jesus's time, it was a big deal, especially for

a woman to sit at a feet of a rabbi.

Usually in that time it was mostly dominated by by men, and it was always

a disciple who sat at the rabbi's feet wanting to listen, wanting to learn

from them, to be trained by them.

We see that Jesus, as he's in the home of Mary and Martha, that Mary decides

to take on that posture of a disciple.

She wants to be a learner, a follower.

You know, Mary wasn't just chilling in the living room.

She wasn't like, all right, Martha, you got the dinner.

Alright, I'm gonna kick my feet up.

I'm gonna chill with Jesus in the room.

No, she was making a bold spiritual choice.

She was prioritizing being present with Jesus rather than performing for him.

She was choosing a relationship over responsibility.

She wasn't doing less because she cared less, but she was

doing what mattered most.

Being with Jesus, Mary wasn't lazy, but she decided to be still.

She decided to listen and draw near.

She wasn't being less faithful, but being more attentive.

And then we shift back here to Martha, it says, but Martha was distracted.

Distracted by what?

Word distracted, not wicked, not disobedient.

Not sinful, but just distracted.

Distracted by many things.

Many things that aren't bad things, not sinful things, but

good things, necessary things.

She was busy.

She was like, I have to prepare dinner.

I have to be serviceful.

I have to make sure everything's just right.

Martha was preparing a meal for Jesus, but in doing all that, she

was missing the moment with Jesus.

She's doing things for him, but missing the chance to just sit with him.

And we see that in her frustration.

She says, Lord, don't you care?

She starts accusing Jesus.

You guys ever been there?

Man, you're doing all the right things.

You're serving, you're giving.

You're working hard.

You're keeping it all together, and it just hits you in a moment

and you just wonder, God, don't you just care what I'm doing?

Can't you just show me favor?

Maybe it's not just with God.

Maybe you felt that in other relationships, whether it's with your

spouse or your friend or a family member, you're doing everything you can.

But it feels like no one notices or worse that no one cares.

And in Martha's case here we see she's overwhelmed.

You know, when we get overwhelmed, tired, or stretched, it's easy to

start blaming the people closest to us.

Growing up when I was feeling a lot, the people who were in my life that would get

it from me are my parents and my siblings.

They say one wrong thing and I explode.

And now today it's Savannah, but I try not to do as much.

So please pray for her for that.

But think about it.

Why do we blow up on the people closest to us?

Well, they're, they're right there.

They're the ones right there.

When we often get our breaking point, it's the people around us who often end

up feeling the brunt of our frustration.

They're the ones, uh, who in our mind should be, should understand

us the most, and they don't seem to.

So it's easy to project all our stress in the moment and

unmet expectations onto them.

But what I love here in this verse is Jesus, you know, he was just like,

okay, where is this coming from?

Like, okay, Martha's just exploding.

In my case, when Savannah would do that to me or any of my

roommates, I would be like, all right, let's match fire with fire.

Let's do this.

But Jesus was like, oh, Martha, Martha.

I just love how he said that.

It wasn't screaming.

I don't see exclamation points.

He didn't say Martha.

Martha, like, what is wrong with you?

He just says, you are worried, upset about many things, but the one thing,

but only one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen what is better and

it will not be taken away from her.

Jesus.

He doesn't yell.

He doesn't shame her.

He doesn't say, man, why can't you be like your sister Mary?

But he speaks with love, with tenderness, with clarity.

He says, Martha, I see your effort, man.

I'm so grateful for you wanting to put on this great dinner for

me, but I want your attention.

I appreciate your service, but I want your presence.

Mary chose what is better, not what is easier, not what is more comfortable not

is what looks more spiritual, but she chose a better thing, and Jesus says that

will not be taken away from her because time spent with Jesus is never wasted.

It's never in vain.

It's the better part.

It's the part that sustains you when everything else feels overwhelming.

It's the part that centers your life or your heart around the, the

chaotic life that you may have.

So the big question for us this morning today is, are we busy doing for

Jesus, that we miss being with Jesus?

Because the better part, the thing Jesus says that really

matters isn't the full schedule.

It's not the perfect dinner.

It's not the the perfect execution plan.

It's presence.

Presence, not presence like gifts, but presence, like attention.

It's relationship.

It's sitting at his feet and listening, and that's something, as he says,

that can never be taken away.

But all the other things that you guys have going on in your lives, the tasks,

the responsibilities, the constant striving, those things can be taken away.

They're temporary.

They fade, but time spent with Jesus.

That right there can never be taken away.

That is eternal and in our lives, in our faith, in our

families and our friendships.

Are we doing the same thing Martha did?

Maybe it's, you know, coming here, showing up to church, showing up to events.

We read our Bibles, but sometimes only to check a box.

We keep moving.

We keep doing what we keep performing.

Or maybe it's in our friendships and relationships where you're

constantly doing things for others, making sure they're happy.

Yet not taking the time to slow down and listen to what

Jesus is trying to say to you.

We keep running from one task to the next thinking that's what's needed.

But we never stop and just be still with him.

And when we don't do that church, we end up like Martha, not rebellious,

not lazy, not in sin, but just distracted, busy doing things for

God while missing being with God.

And the same things happen in our relationships too.

We try to care.

We try to help, but we get overwhelmed, we get distracted.

We can get stretched thin, and before we know it, we're present in the

room, but we're absent in the heart.

We're going through the motions, but not really connecting.

You know, as I think about it, man, I think about, man, how,

how can I shift from this?

How do I recognize that I don't have to fall into the same trap?

And more importantly, how do we get back to what really matters?

Whether it's with God or your spouse or your kids or your friends

or your ministry, it's not just about doing the right things.

It's about being fully there.

So what does it look like?

Church, when we do relationships wrong, when we don't do it God's

way, well, let's start here.

We have this self-focused love.

We start asking the wrong questions.

We ask maybe, what am I gonna get out of this relationship?

Instead of asking, how can I love or how can I give?

What we need, what we want, what we're not getting.

We approach relationships like consumers.

If it stops working for me, I'm just gonna get rid of it and I'm gonna go

somewhere else and receive that love.

But love.

We're talking about real love that Christ love.

It's not about how someone else feels us.

That's about how we pour out our love from God already given to us.

When we all make it, when we make it all about ourselves,

relationships, they tend to break down.

Think about maybe that friendship you had with somebody, maybe you called it

quit 'cause you're like, man, I'm giving too much to it, or I'm not receiving.

Or maybe you are the person getting too much and not giving, because

relationships, they can't thrive when one person is always taking and never giving.

You know, another way we can be doing it wrong is we prioritize performance.

We focus more on what we're doing rather than who we're doing it for.

And we lose the heart of the relationship.

Our value becomes tied to the output.

Whether in our marriage or our friendship or our faith, we start treating

love like a job rather than a joy.

We think if I just do more, then I'll just be enough.

But God, he's not grading us on our busy schedules and, and our to-do lists.

He's looking for our heart.

Another sign of getting it wrong is we seek validation instead of

resting in God's unconditional love, we try to earn acceptance.

It's human nature to want to get notice, to get praise, to be approved of.

So we keep striving to for it, but this creates a fragile relationship

because the moment we stop performing, we fear will no longer be loved.

But that's not how God's work.

God works, his love is not earned, but it's received.

We can also become distracted.

We're physically present, but mentally we're elsewhere Scrolling on our phone

at the dinner table while our spouse is trying to connect with us or our kids.

Thinking about tomorrow instead of being present today.

I dunno about you guys, but this is where I can struggle the most.

Even in my prayer where man, I, I have trouble sitting still through it.

I just, I gotta rush through it because I have so many things to do and like

Martha, when we're, uh, around Jesus, but not really with him, and we miss sacred

moments because our minds are cluttered.

We can also have duty as a foundation.

That's a sign of doing it wrong.

We start saying, oh, I have to.

I have to serve, I have to call that brother or sister.

I have to show up.

And yes, there is discipline and love, but if we all feel this pressure

and never passion and something's off, when duty becomes the engine of

our relationships, they turn cold.

We don't need less discipline, but we need deeper devotion.

And lastly, when we do it wrong, we can start serving without connection.

We do acts of love, but we neglect the person we're loving Like myself,

this past week or last week, I was doing things for Savannah,

but I wasn't connecting with her.

And I think about maybe we can, uh, fall victim of that as well.

Maybe we're we get up early and we serve here at church.

Amen.

That's great, but maybe you don't connect with the person you're serving with.

You know, when it comes to serving for someone, uh, you

can still be far from them.

You know, the heart of service is always connection.

I dunno about you, but when I was thinking about this, this was

me just thinking, okay, signs of doing it wrong for a relationship.

These are areas where I think about, man, I can fall shorted.

I don't know why, but man, I, I can get very insecure.

I think about, man, there's no hope, Daniel.

You're just gonna be a terrible person for the rest of your life.

You're gonna be a terrible husband.

But what I love about Jesus, what I love about his response to Martha, it wasn't

just correction of like, or a rebuke of like, man, what is wrong with you?

Man, get it together.

But he was just like, no, Martha, hey, you're distracted.

He didn't condemn her for her hard work, but instead he gently

pointed her to a better way.

So I thought about, man, what, what do you, what do I think Jesus would

point to if I wanted to get it right?

If I wanted get a a right relationship with God and want a right relationship

with anyone else in my life?

If I want a strong relationship, it runs on three things.

I think it runs on present, it runs on love, and it runs on a real connection.

Because I, I believe that these are the foundations that make a relationship

not only survive, but thrive.

You know, when I think about prioritizing presence, we live in

a world where it rewards hustle.

You know, doing the gritty, doing all that, getting down dirty.

God invites us though to be still in a culture where it says, do more, be more.

Prove yourself.

Jesus is saying, no.

He's looking for us.

He's asking us to be still.

I think about in Luke 10, verse 38, which we just read, is that Mary sat

Luke 10:38

at the Lord's feet listening to him.

She was being with him, and that's what prioritizing presence looks like.

Not squeezing God into the leftover corners of our day, but really planning

our day centered with God around him.

Rounded.

It's choosing to sit with no agenda, to pray without rushing.

To read scriptures without trying to finish it, but trying to listen.

And in our relationship it means to show up fully when you're out, you know, at

the dinner table, it means putting your phones down, making eye contact with the

person across from you, listening to them showing that you mattered, not just with

words, but with my attention as well.

You know, Jesus was never too busy to stop for one person, so let's really slow down

and try to mirror that by, by being fully present with God and with each other.

With presence, uh, with having a presence.

It's not enough if it's not rooted in the right motive,

and that's where love comes in.

Everything changes when love becomes the reason.

Think about his greatest commandment.

What we read just earlier, it wasn't, hey, try harder, do more.

It was simply love, love god and love people.

That was the foundation.

You know, if we serve out of guilt, we'll grow bitter.

If we give because we feel pressure, then we'll burn out.

If love is our motive, our love for God and each other,

then our faith becomes alive.

I dunno about you guys, but when my foundation is in love, I find

myself to forgive people quicker.

I serve with joy and not resentment.

I don't quit when things get hard.

I care more about the person's heart rather than the appearance.

Love reminds that people matter more than performance.

It's not out of obligation, but out of the overflow of our heart.

God's love is filling us.

Then we spill into others how we treat others.

And then finally, we need more than just love.

In theory.

We need a real connection.

This was a huge part of Jesus' rhythm.

He didn't just wake up every morning and says, all right, it's time to baptize.

Time to heal, time to save the loss.

Do all these things.

No, he did do that later on.

But what did he do?

He went to a solitary place to connect with his father.

That was his source and that was his strength, and that's our strength as well.

But here's where we often can get it wrong, this is where I can get it wrong

too, is that we try to do life with, uh, for God, without doing life with God.

We try to love people without being filled by God first.

But when we stay connected, when we, uh, make a space just to be

with him, we stop performing.

We stop pretending we're not out to prove we're living from a place of peace.

You know when we get that real connection, we lead with peace and not pressure.

We offer grace and not guilt.

We're not giving from emptiness.

We're giving from the overflow.

So this morning, church, if you're feeling exhausted, I wanted you to consider, maybe

it's not because you're doing too much.

Maybe it could be that you're trying to give without first being fully connected.

And Jesus, he didn't live like that.

He started with God and then he gave to others.

So I really wanna courage.

Let's really follow this rhythm because when we prioritize presence, make love

our foundation, have a real connection, we stop striving and start abiding.

That's when faith becomes alive and that's when we can truly get it right.

I mean, just imagine church.

What would it look like if we in our relationships that uh, we

lived out our relationships in the way that Jesus described, not out

of duty bout of love, not out of performance, but out of presence.

Not rushed and distracted, but rooted and intentional, man.

What would that look like for us church?

What would it look like in our families, in our marriages, in our

friendships, in our ministry, if we live from a place like that?

Not just doing relationships but doing them right because we're doing

it with God at the center of it.

That's the kind of relationship God wants us to have, and it's

the kind of relationship he wants us to build with others.

So today, whether you feel like Mary or Mar Martha know this, know that

Jesus is not asking for perfection, but he is longing for your presence.

He's not saying try harder.

He's saying Come closer.

Because the better part, the only that matters is simply being with him.

And as Jesus told Mary, when we be with Jesus, when we choose to be with

God, that can never be taken away.

So, as we close today, I wanna leave us with some, uh, practicals.

Let's get real practical here about doing relationships, right?

Not out of pressure, but from presence and not out of guilt, but out of grace.

You know, first I want us to, let's try to make space for God this week.

You know, uh, maybe it's just five or 10 minutes, maybe you're not in the rhythm.

Try to do five to 10 minutes, try to read a scripture.

I mean, the Bible app does a great job saying a verse right there for you, man.

Try to read that.

Try to meditate on that.

Try to pray.

When we choose to center ourselves with God, when we get our relationship

with God, right, man, that means we can truly love and appreciate and it

really affects others in our lives.

Second, let's give to someone your presence and not just your productivity.

Think about someone in your life who needs your attention, not just your help.

Maybe it's your spouse or your kid or your friend, but this week really slow down.

Look them in the eye and listen.

Be present.

Love looks like showing up.

And lastly, this is a hard one here, but love someone who's hard to love.

Jesus.

Didn't say love that person who makes it easy for you or love that

person who you agree with the most.

He said, love your neighbor.

So this week, do something loving for someone that maybe

frustrated you, that maybe annoyed you, that disagreed with you.

Try to talk to 'em.

Try to forgive them.

Pray for them.

Call them, text them, bless them.

'cause that's what love does.

As we take communion together, remember that Jesus didn't just tell us how

to love, but he also showed it.

He backed it up as well.

I mean, he sat at the table with all his disciples, with

those who are gonna betray him.

He washed their feet, he broke bread, and he gave thanks.

And ultimately, he carried the cross for us.

And I think the cross is the clearest picture of what love looks like.

God or Jesus loving all his heart with all his soul, with all his mind so that

we could love him and others the same.

Close out in one John chapter four, verse nine through 11.

Uh, it says, this is how God showed his love among us.

He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him.

This is love.

Not that uh, we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as

an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also had to love one another

As we take communion together, let's remember that the love.

Not just a command, but it's a gift.

God showed his love by sacrificing his son as an atoning sacrifice for us.

And Jesus in his perfect love laid down his life For us, this is the

love we are called to reflect, not just in words, but in our actions, in

our hearts, and in our relationships.

Amen.

Let's go to God in prayer and then we'll take communion.

Heavenly Father, uh.

Thank you for just your incredible gift, incredible gift of, of your love.

As we take this bread and we take this cup, we remember Jesus' body

and His blood being on the cross.

God, we are humbled by his depth of love, a love that reaches

us even in our own brokenness.

And Lord, we ask you to help examine our hearts today.

Not just for what we've done, but for how we've loved.

Help us to love you with all our heart, with all our soul, and with

all our mind, so that way we can love others as you have loved us.

Lord, as we take communion, I pray you can draw us closer back to you,

back to the relationship you desire for us, and let this moment remind

us that love can hold us together.

We thank you for your time.

God, we thank you for your incredible grace, your mercy, and your love,

and your son's name we pray.

Amen.