Remember Your First Love | February 15, 2026

Thank you guys.

Man,

I, I was just telling somebody,

Clayton, I, I forgot about standing

in the hospital room, praying for

hours with your parents and not having

any idea if you were gonna make it.

And, uh.

And then here you are today

totally stealing some of the sermon

that I was gonna preach during

sharing time, which is, it's just

pretty cool to watch God at work.

Uh, it's Valentine's Day weekend

and, uh, several people have

asked who's preaching today?

And I'm like, well,

actually I'm gonna do it.

And, uh, lemme be real honest, I know

you're not supposed to steal in the Bible,

but I saw an opportunity to say to all

the other guys who are still lined up to

preach, you know, it's Valentine's Day.

You should probably focus

on your wife this weekend.

I'll go ahead and preach for you.

So I kind of snagged this one.

Uh, but it's largely important because I

have some stuff I really wanted to share.

I feel like God's really pressed on my

heart and, uh, some guys were generous

to kind of keep rolling a little bit.

Um, so the love of God, right?

How crazy.

The truth is this, right?

That we love because he first loved us.

There is no love in us

that somehow we bring.

To God and wow him with what we have.

No, he loved us while we were at sinners,

while we were a mess, while we're walking

in rebellion and sin and disobedience.

He came and he died and he

offered opportunity for us.

And even when we're running from him,

he still pursues us unconditionally

to the very gates of hell to say,

come, come be in relationship.

Come be restored.

Come find life from death.

Right?

That's incredible.

Love that God has for us.

And I this morning, I, my heart's

definitely full and you guys have

already got some great sermons out, some

people, so this is just sort of some,

you know, a filler to get us through to

the end of the, the morning together.

But I have some important stuff I want to

talk to you about on this Valentine's Day.

I don't know if you get these or not.

These are, uh, Valentine's Day cards.

Raise your hand if you, if

you got one from somebody.

Nice.

Very, very nice.

Jamie and I are notorious.

You know, listen, genetically, I

come from a family where my father

and mother would go to the Hallmark

store, I don't know if they have those

anymore, and they'd pick out a card for

each other and they'd exchange it and

they'd read it, and those cheap folks

would put their card back and walk out.

It was a really, I mean, that's

the legacy I learned, right?

So, so I try to tell my wife I have

more integrity than my parents, Jamie.

I'm not going to steal a Valentine's Day.

I'm just not gonna give you a card.

That way.

It's all, you know, I don't know.

If you celebrate Valentine's Day,

it gets a little sketchy, right?

It feels kind of trumped up and,

and, uh, the Valentine's thing was

awesome the other night, ladies.

That was super cool.

And, and there's all this

pressure though, on, on February.

14th.

Okay.

See, I don't even know the date.

February 14th.

Right.

To to show your sweetheart

that you love her.

Jamie and I had this conversation

a few years ago and she's

like, let's not do anything.

Right.

Let's just not, because it

feels so commercialized.

We love each other.

We'll find time, whatever.

But just no gifts, nothing like that.

Let's No.

Right.

And I was like, for real?

She's like, for real.

Like for real, for real.

Yep.

It's great.

It was very clear.

I do not often listen well to my wife.

I listened really well

on those instructions.

I just want you to know, so Valentine's

Day comes and mid-morning, maybe

it was the afternoon, she hands me

a card and I'm like, what is this?

And she's like, well, we can do cards.

And I was like, that's not

the definition of nothing.

Right, right.

So.

Evidently I learned a

very valuable lesson.

But it's kind of cool to get

a card from somebody that they

wrote in or that they made.

'cause they, they want to communicate,

you know, value and love and appreciation.

That's kind of a sweet thing, right?

When you're in elementary school,

it's awkward 'cause you know

somebody's probably making a play.

And what does it mean

when it's high school?

You're finding a way to try to use

Valentine's Day to finally tell

that special someone, something that

they may or may not want to hear.

But we all appreciate the thoughtfulness

of a Valentine's Day card and this

Valentine's weekend here, I wanna take

you over to a Valentine's Day card that

Jesus wrote, and it's really a sweet

card and it, it says some really touching

things about how much he loves us.

He says, dear Ephesus,

will you be my Valentine?

It's a loose translation.

I apologize.

Over in Revelation chapter two verses

one through five, and it's actually

to, uh, the church in Ephesus.

But as with every letter to every church

in the New Testament, the intention was

that the church of Jesus Christ would

read here and understand the message.

Right?

So this morning I wanna take you over to

Revelation chapter two, and we're gonna

spend a few minutes unpacking this really

sweet Valentine that the Lord gave to the

church in Ephesus first, and then to you.

And to me.

It says this Chapter two verse one, to

the angel of the church in Ephesus write,

these are the words of him who holds

the seven stars in his right hand and

walks among the seven golden lamp stands.

We don't really know exactly that

imagery, what it all means, but wow.

It definitely means

like this is him, right?

The younger generation, we got into that,

you know, he's him kind of vibe, right?

But this is the alpha, the

omega, the beginning, the

end, the Lord of all creation.

The one on whose thi is written,

king of kings and Lord of Lords,

who will rule forever like this

is no one to be trifled with.

And he writes these words or records

these words for the church in Ephesus.

He says this, I know your deeds, your

hard work, and your perseverance.

I know that you cannot

tolerate wicked people, right?

That you have tested those who

claim to be apostles and are not

and have found them to be false.

You've persevered and have

endured hardship for my name

and have not grown weary.

What a cool thing for Jesus

to say to his people, right?

I know your deeds.

I know what you're doing.

I see the actions of your life.

I see the works.

I see the deeds that you're busy doing.

I see it.

I see it.

I know your hard work, not your

laziness, not your lack of effort.

I know your hard work, the effort that

you're putting in, I see it and I know it.

I know how you're pressing in

and persevering and continuing.

Right?

I see it.

I know that you can't tolerate wicked

people, that you're not okay with evil

and wickedness and that it makes you

act and it makes you take a stand.

I see all of that.

I, I recognize your commitment

to righteousness over wickedness.

I recognize that you've tested those

who claim to be apostles, but they're

not, and you've found them false.

I see.

And I know that you stand on truth

and you fight for truth, and you

don't listen to stuff that is

dishonest or lies or deception.

Not just wickedness, but man, anything

close, you are standing on the truth.

You've persevered.

You've endured hardship for my name,

standing up as a follower of Jesus

and faced ridicule and difficulty.

And in all of it, you haven't grown weary.

You haven't run outta gas.

You haven't quit throwing up

your hands and said, I'm out.

What a cool encouragement

from Jesus to his church.

Man, I see what you're doing.

I see how hard you're working.

I see the stands that you're taking.

I see all of the deeds

and actions of your life.

Whew.

That is encouraging stuff from the Lord.

And if we could stop there, be amazing.

And I would say Happy Valentine's Day.

But Jesus didn't stop there.

He said this, yet, I

hold this against you.

All your hard work, all your effort,

all your deeds, all your actions,

all of the things that you're doing.

I see it.

I know it.

I'm watching, but I hold this against you.

You have forsaken your first love.

You have forsaken the love

that you had at first.

Consider how far you have fallen and

repent and do the things you did at first.

And Jesus isn't messing around all these

deeds, all these acts, all this stuff.

He goes on to say, if you don't

repent, I'll come to you and I'll

remove the lampstand from its place.

All these deeds, all these acts,

all this stuff that looks so much

like a follower of Jesus Christ.

And Jesus says, you

forsaken your love for me.

I thought what Clayton

said was pretty beautiful.

Our hearts so hard towards God,

and that's the very thing that

our Valentine wants is our heart.

He teaches us to tithe with our money.

Why?

So that he can know

that he owns our heart.

He teaches us to serve others

selflessly and love our enemies.

Why?

So that he knows he has our heart

to give, to serve, to sacrifice

that comes from the heart.

And Jesus to the church in

Ephesus says, you're doing all

kinds of stuff but your heart.

Your heart is not with me anymore.

All these religious actions, all

this spiritual discipline looking

stuff, all these motions of

spirituality, but I know your heart.

The Pharisees thought they

could look good, right?

And stand out there.

And Jesus said, Hey, I don't care

about the outside of the cup.

You can make that thing look as

nice as you want, but inside's

full of dead man's bones.

It's filthy and it's dirty.

First clean the inside of the cup,

right, and then the outside of the

cup, it's gonna take care of itself.

This scripture reminds me of what Jesus

says over in Matthew chapter seven, when

he is talking about these people who

do all this stuff, and yet he doesn't

know him On Judgment Day, Jesus said,

many will come to me and they'll say,

Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name.

We cast out demons in your name.

We perform many miracles in your name.

We did all this stuff.

That was so religious in your name.

And he says, uh, but I'll reply.

I never knew you depart from me.

Get away breakers of God's law.

Jesus wants a relationship with us.

He desires not our service,

not our acts of righteousness.

He desires our heart.

And guys he knows, he knows your

heart and he speaks clearly that all

these actions and all this pomp and

circumstance and all this show out here

that looks like righteousness and checks

all the boxes I need to check to be

a Christian man prophesying in Jesus'

name, casting out demons in Jesus' name.

That sounds like pretty

legit stuff, doesn't it?

But Jesus says those things.

Those things don't get you into

eternal life and into heaven.

A relationship with me that's

authentic and genuine, and a heart,

a heart committed and devoted to me,

that's what we're chasing, right?

It's an interesting, uh, picture this

forsaken in the Greek, the word literally

is abandoned, that you have abandoned

your heart relationship with the Lord.

Scripture says, in the end time,

the love of most will grow cold.

And guys, I don't know about your

Valentine's vibe, but like it takes work

to be in a relationship with my wife.

She's amazing and she has to

work 20 times harder than I do.

But the truth is, it takes effort

and energy, time, energy, resources,

commitment to spend and invest.

And if we don't do that.

Man, we can begin to let our love

grow cold towards one another.

And man, this, it's not complicated.

Jesus offers us relationship with him, but

that relationship requires time, energy,

resource focus, energy investment from us.

He's right there and he

loves us and he invites us.

But there are some things we get busy

doing to look like we're a good husband

or a good wife in our relationship.

And the connection at a heart level

with our spouse totally absent and we

know it, and we can do the exact same

thing in our relationship with Christ.

He called out the church in

Ephesus for abandoning the

word left or gone away from.

It's the same word actually for

divorce, that you have severed

your relationship and left desolate

and gone on to your own agenda.

Onto your own stuff.

That's the picture here that Jesus

calls out the church an Ephesus.

Who do you love?

What do you love?

That's really the question for us.

Now, James, who is known for delicate

sensitivity in what he shares,

kind of lays this out in a way.

I think that's really helpful.

And it may be too gentle for you,

so just try to look a little deeper

if it, if it hits you too soft.

But he says this, he says, you

adulterers, you adulterers people.

Don't you realize that friendship with

the world makes you an enemy of God?

And let me say to you, uh,

we don't believe that at all.

And I'm not sure the early

church believed it at all.

So he said it again, I say it again.

If you want to be a friend of the world,

you make yourself an enemy of God.

I don't mean you love mountains and trees.

It simply means that the desires

of the flesh and the sinful nature

and chasing after the things of

this world, we gotta make a choice.

We gotta make a choice whether we're

gonna choose Jesus with all our heart

or whether we're gonna choose the world.

And this language here is super strong.

It says you're committing adultery

in your relationship with the Lord.

You're cheating on God with the world.

You're choosing the harlett, the

prostitute of the world, right?

God's not playing games with it.

He uses the imagery of the

bride of Christ and covenant

relationship where we're committed.

And he says, you are in

violation of that with me.

See, here's the thing about God.

He loves us.

He wants a relationship with us.

He cares about us, but he is not

interested in sharing our relationship

status with everybody else around us.

He wants a relationship with you.

Lemme see if this makes sense.

Um, if your wife guys gave you a

Valentine's Day card filled with respect

and honor, how much you're cherished

and how proud she is to wear your last

name and to be your wife, dude, that

would hit, that would be like, let's go.

Right?

But then if she gave that

same card to seven other guys,

it would be meaningless for sure, but

it would also be really destructive

in that relationship, right?

Listen guys, as, as mean as this

sounds, we've raised generations of

followers of Jesus Christ in America

who believe that we do not have to be

sold out and committed to the Lord.

We can do our sin.

We can do what we want.

We can please the flesh and still do some

churchy stuff and God's good with it.

We can still go to church and sing

and praise him and feel bad about

it, and then go do whatever we

want to do and God doesn't care.

That's a lie.

That's not biblical.

You can hear it in a million churches

in America, but it's not biblical.

It's not the truth that Jesus spoke to us.

He says, repent, right?

Repent.

And we talk about it a lot.

Repentance is, I'm walking

this way 180 degrees.

I turn and walk the other direction.

That's the biblical word for repent.

It means a change of behavior, a

change of heart, a change of action.

Everything follows it.

You cannot walk in sin, live in

sin, choose to be sinful, and it

doesn't matter and God doesn't care.

And my relationship with Jesus

is fine and I'm all good to go.

We have this ridiculous version of

grace that we believe in in this country

that God's grace covers all of my sin.

Truth.

Yes.

God's grace doesn't give me license to

continue in sin and to be a child of

the devil, rather being a child of the

king, we make choices that are critical

and they cost us for all eternity.

And we've, we've grown up in

this world, where're like,

yeah, it doesn't really matter.

Do whatever you want to do, guys.

That's not true.

It's just not true.

We have teenagers who are just

trained, like, I go to church, hang

out, sing some good songs, but you

know, you're just gonna, you're

just gonna sin all the time anyhow.

So what difference does it really make?

Do you know that God hates sin, but

beyond just his, like, sin is bad.

I can't, I just don't, I don't like it.

Right?

He can't even be around sin.

So just do the math in that.

If he can't associate with us because our

decision to be in willful disobedience

and rebellion to him, he can't just

be an intimate relationship with

us because of our choices for sin.

Through the blood of Jesus, we can get

forgiveness and we can get a, a path back

to relationship that could be restored.

And it doesn't mean that we don't

stumble and fall and make mistakes

along the way, but if we choose to

live an outright rebellion against

what God has clearly said, we are

making choices that maybe the church

in Ephesus was struggling with, where

they abandoned and they left and they

walked away from what God had for them.

Over in Matthew, Jesus has asked

this question about, okay, so what's

the most important stuff really?

Right?

Okay, I, I hear all these things,

but what's the most important stuff

in the commandments and the law?

What's the most important?

And Jesus replies this.

He says, love the Lord your God with

all your heart, your mind, your soul.

And also in the book of, uh, mark,

it adds strength in that gospel.

This is the first and

greatest commandment.

Love God with everything you've got.

A hundred percent sold out.

God changed my heart.

God, break my heart.

God softened my heart.

God, my heart needs to be, I mean, it's

callous and it just needs to be just

ripped or shreds, man, so I can be broken

before you, everything I have, right?

And the second is like it.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

And I was thinking about this

a lot, how significant the

chronological order of this is.

This is really important.

I think first thing over all things is

to love God with everything we have.

That's number one.

Then, then once that's in its

rightful place, we're ready to

love our neighbor as ourself.

But a lot of us go the other

direction here and we're like,

okay, this God, yeah, I love him.

I'm good, but I'm just gonna do

these actions of, of, of loving

my neighbor as myself and trying

to, to do all these things.

But here's the problem.

If we don't have self in the

right place, in the right context.

It's gonna subvert what God's at

work doing here, and it's gonna

get us going the wrong direction.

Here's what I mean.

I believe that self is the enemy of love.

It's the enemy.

It's the sworn enemy of love,

our selfishness, our rebellion.

If God is love and we struggle with

the flesh, it's at odds, right?

Self is at odds with the God of love.

And we can look in scripture.

We did this in my Bible class

this week talking about the

different angles that we see.

Love unpacked in the New Testament.

Takes a lot of words to even get close.

'cause God's love, he's complex, right?

But arrows, which deals with

romantic love, when we are in

a romantic love relationship.

When you get consumed with your own

selfish desires and wants, how does

that do for your whole romantic vibe?

You and your spouse or your,

your girlfriend or boyfriend

or fiance or somebody?

I mean, it doesn't work.

Selfishness works against love

in a romantic relationship, man.

It's about serving and loving

and sacrificing and giving.

And when it's about me, man, it brings

destruction into that relationship.

We look at the word, uh,

Alia for friendship, right?

Philadelphia, the city of

brotherly love, who Jesus all

wrote a Valentine day too, right?

Uh, card friendship.

You know, when you get selfish in

your friendships, it does a great

thing for your friendships, right?

It makes 'em deeper,

stronger, more committed.

Not at all.

Not at all.

It, it ruins them, right?

Store gay.

The word family love in the Greek, when

mothers and daughters and dads and sons.

And when there's all of this rivalry

and selfish ambition within family, we

see destruction everywhere When we're

not committed to each other in sacrifice

and in service, and in selflessness.

And then we have this

agape love, which is epic.

It's God's unconditional love for

us, which by definition doesn't have

conditions and selfishness puts conditions

into every relationship that we have.

You're not doing enough for me.

You're not doing what I need.

I'm not getting what I want.

That's not love.

It's not biblical love.

It's definitely Hollywood love.

It's definitely Netflix love, but it's

not the love that God teaches his people.

Self is the enemy of love.

And listen, you and I are in a generation

that speaks about self love like crazy.

And we say this, you

need to love yourself.

You need to love yourself.

Can I say something biblically to you?

No.

You do not need to love yourself.

No.

You need to love God with everything

you have and everything you are.

And when you do love God, the context

of self comes into focus, right?

You can't hate yourself if you love

God and you understand you're made

in his image, created as his child.

Define fulfillment and purpose and

meaning in that context of relationship,

that you have eternal value and that

you matter, and all these physical

surface level things are just immaterial.

If you love God with everything

you have, self comes completely

into focus, as does loving your

neighbor, as does loving your enemy.

If you choose to love yourself first and

try to be all about self love, you're

gonna have a warped picture of what it

even means to love someone as yourself.

I'm a selfish person who

does whatever I want.

Well, I gotta do that for you so

you get whatever you want, right?

People who live in sin and choose

sinful lifestyles and say, this is fine.

God doesn't care.

That results in eternal death, right?

No sexually immoral person will

enter the kingdom of heaven.

God says it super clearly.

That means adulterers, pornography crap.

Uh, adultery within the context of

marriage, homosexuality all sin outside

of covenant marriage between one man,

one woman clearly in scripture says,

Hey, this path is death and destruction,

but if we're loving ourself and we're

about self-love, well, it's what I want.

Well, this other person

wants what they want.

No, it never was about any of that.

It was always about loving God first

over everything else and submitting

everything to him, fully surrender to him.

And then in that context, everything

else takes shape and makes sense to

seek the Lord with everything that we

have right to chase after him and his

kingdom and his righteousness, and

then everything else falls in line.

But if we choose to get this

outta order, man, we're a mess.

We're supposed to seek him

with all of our heart, right?

Scripture has this picture of the

center of all physical and spiritual

life, everything about who we are.

Your heart.

It's got a hunger and

thirst after righteousness.

It's gotta chase after God.

We want so many things, and if we're

honest, man, we make a bullet list of the

things that we want, that we long for.

How many of them are are God or a deeper

relationship with him or time with him?

I bet most s that doesn't even

make our list when people ask

us, and yet God knows our heart.

And he says, don't abandon, don't

forsake, don't walk away, sell out.

Come here where life exists and the

path that leads to eternal life and

opportunity is in this relationship.

But you're gonna chase the stuff

of this world, like James says.

And man, you're gonna end up being

a friend of the world and you're

gonna have all the stuff the

world offers, but in the end, it's

gonna cost you your eternal soul.

And Jesus loves you enough to

say, Hey, choose that path.

That's death.

I don't care what it caught.

Jesus said, Hey, it's better to

cut off your right arm, right,

or to poke out your right eye

and make it into heaven than not.

That's a pretty powerful picture of

saying no to our flesh of repenting and

turning and going a different direction.

Even if we really, really want to do

the sinful thing or the thing that God

says we shouldn't do and can't do and

gotta stay away from, oh, it's okay.

He still loves me.

Yes, he loves you.

He loves you enough to tell you the

truth, that if you keep doing it,

eternal death, it's just simple.

It's just simple with all of your soul.

This is literally in the, in the Hebrew

of the very breath of life within

us, that which animates our flesh and

our body and who we are as a person.

Everything about us, our

heart, our soul, our mind.

This picture here is literally all

of our understanding, knowledge, our

wisdom, our searching, our digging,

our logic, everything that we think.

Intellect we bring before the

Lord and we say, Lord, I'm gonna

chase after you with all of this.

And then I love that Mark's

gospel includes the word strength.

We are to chase after the Lord

with all of our ability, all of

our force, and all of our might.

And listen, man, when we get this

first, when this is what we're

pursuing and chasing and what we're

about, man, all of our relationships,

all of our circumstances, all of

our struggles, all the stuff of this

life grows strangely dim, right?

It comes into focus for what it really is.

God cares about your circumstance.

He cares about your situation.

He cares about you.

But man, he is not gonna

enable you to chase the world.

He wants you to chase him and to be

in a loving relationship with him.

Guys, on this Valentine's Day

weekend, lemme just encourage you.

Fellas.

If you want a great relationship

with your wife, if you want your

relationship with your, with your wife

to be like S tier, top level, amazing.

Love God with everything you've

got, quit trying to love her better.

Quit trying to figure out how to

do things that make her happy.

You love God with everything you've got

everything, every fiber of your being.

'cause check this out.

When you get the first thing

right, everything else falls right.

When you're sold out to Jesus

Christ with everything you've

got, you can't not love your wife.

You can't screw up serving her in love.

You can't mistreat her and not

care for her, and not lead her and

not be a discipler to your spouse.

You can't do any of the things that

you're trying so hard to do on your own.

But instead to say, God, I'm gonna chase

after you with everything I've got.

And wives, same thing, man.

Ladies, not man.

Uh, if you want a relationship with

your husband, that's incredible.

Stop trying to do everything he

wants you to do and make him happy

and all this, and chase after

Jesus with everything you have.

I mean, just think this through, right?

Ladies, you're smarter than us.

Totally legit.

But your best ideas and your best

concepts, they're not quite as good,

better than the guys, but they're

not quite as good as the creator

of life itself and the creator

of these ridiculous husbands that

we all have here, ladies, right?

And so he knows, and he will show you

and he will teach you, and he will

lead you how to be the most effective

in marriage you possibly can, but

it's not through submitting to your

husband and chasing what he wants.

It's through submitting to Jesus and

walking with him so intimately and so

connected that he guides each step,

each decision, each direction, and

it transforms how marriage works.

And listen, if you're single and you want

to be in a loving relationship, man, this

gets people all the time, God, please,

please, I want to be in this relationship.

Just bring the right, you want to

have the most amazing relationship.

As a single person and find somebody

to spend your life with that brings

fulfillment and purpose and meaning

and all those things to chase after

Jesus with everything you have.

Because when you are aligned with him

in total sold out commitment, he'll

finally be ready to bring the person

into your life that he's been working on.

But maybe your commitment to him and

your faithfulness, he wasn't gonna

send his daughter or his son into a

relationship to somebody who wasn't

gonna lead well or serve and love well.

Right?

Listen, it's not complicated, but when

we love God with everything we have,

it changes everything in our life, and

it brings us more joy and more purpose

and more meaning, and more fulfillment,

and all the things that the enemy wants

us to chase somewhere else, right?

It's all lies and illusion.

This was a brutal finale to

the letter that Jesus wrote.

There's a little bit more he says, but.

This is really the core of his

rebuke and know this, Jesus

says, I rebuke those that I love.

I treat like sons and daughters

with discipline, those that I

love and I care about, right?

And he says to his people,

turn, turn, walk away from sin.

Walk away from this chasing of

the world and turn and walk to me.

It's an open invitation to come

and to turn from the darkness and

the sin and the wickedness, and

to walk in relationship with him.

And instead of forsaking our first love,

he calls us to be people who forsake the

world, who forsake the things that are

flesh once and chases, and instead all

in right loving God with all, not part

all of our heart, loving God with all our

soul, all our mind, and all our strength.

Is it a risk?

Hey.

Loves a risk.

Right?

Loves a risk, but we

choose it all the time.

How about trusting the eternal king

of kings and Lord of Lords, our

heavenly Father who loves us Jesus, who

invites us into relationship with him.

There's nothing more important.

There's no relationship.

More important.

And when our relationship

with Jesus Christ is locked

in, man, everything changes.

Alright, Clayton, come

join me a second boy.

We're gonna do something

fun here as we wrap up.

Rusty's gonna play one quick chord here.

Uh, just you on your guitar with,

uh, that last song we did the chorus

of something about God loving us.

And Clayton asked me, he said,

dude, could I just pray for us this

morning as we wrap up the service?

Did you say that?

I can't remember exactly.

I think it was something like that.

I don't remember that.

Okay.

I, I just thought you did.

Maybe I, maybe it was probably your dad.

He just spoke over.

But here's how we're

gonna end this morning.

Um, we're gonna let Clayton

close this in prayer a minute.

Um.

Not because he is got the

craziest boots I've ever seen.

Um, not because this dude is a

finished product or he's an amazing

guy who's got it all perfected.

Um, no Clayton's a roofer and

roofers for Jesus is our new thing.

We're starting.

I'm just kidding.

Um, but I love this dude's heart.

And if you've ever spent time talking

to him, there's an authenticity in

his desire to chase after Jesus.

And what I want you to know is this,

it's not about your perfection.

It's not about you getting it all right?

The church and Ephesus did, they

were crushing it on all the stuff

that looked right, but Jesus knew

the authenticity of their heart.

And so I want Clayton to pray over us this

morning as we close for our hearts and

for each of us, and that as we leave this

place today where God's been present with

us, that for each of us, we'll be honest

with him, and we'll talk to him today and

this week ahead about where our heart is

with him, and we'll let the Holy Spirit.

Break us down and begin to transform us.

And maybe that'll look

like crying in your car.

Maybe it'll look like singing or dancing

in the streets, whatever that looks like.

It's my heart for you.

And I think it's Clayton's heart for you,

that you get to experience the cool things

that God's doing in his life in an effort

to just be soft and tender, to repent

and turn, and to be in relationship with

the greatest Valentine there ever was.

So would you mind praying

for us, my friend And

dear God, I just wanna say thank you.

Thank you for everything that you're

doing and in all of our lives it shows.

It means so much to us.

Um, I just wanna pray again, continue

to break down and soften my heart

till it's softer than a feather.

I just want to, I just want to continue

to praise and say thank you because

the things that you've shown me,

and I'm sure you've shown a lot of

other people in this room, is that.

When we ask and we ask with intent,

not for ourselves, but for your will,

our lives change for the better.

I just want to ask also that as we all

dive into the war word, myself included,

that you let the Holy Spirits guide, guide

our thoughts into what you want us to

hear from that and what you want from us.

Thank you, God, for who you are,

and thank you for loving us.

In your name I pray, amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Thanks buddy.

Alright guys, get out there and love

well and reach for the king of Kings

and Lord of lords and the week ahead.

Love you guys.