The Season of Advent: LOVE | December 14, 2025

Well, good morning everybody.

I had like a, a vision of how I

was gonna go about talking to you

guys with Advent and hope and,

and peace and all these things.

But, uh, I, I think I'm

rushing a little bit.

I'm just so excited about love after

singing that last song, just rejoicing

and just praising God, sitting here

thinking about what he did out of love.

Boy, we couldn't be more blessed this

advent season, this really exciting

time where we get to anticipate, well,

we already know Jesus came and there's

victory there and we're living in it.

And also to remind us of, uh, his second

coming, so we better stay vigilant.

But a couple weeks ago we talked about

that hope 'cause of his first coming and

the second coming, and the peace we have

because of what Jesus Christ did that

reconnects us to the Heavenly Father,

prince of Peace brought us back together.

Thank you God.

I'm gonna take some time

to light this candle.

That represents love.

Well, I like that you guys

can check out, uh, something.

Our youth group was a whole bunch

of leaders too, were part of

yesterday when it comes to, uh,

just sharing Jesus Christ's love.

So if you wanna start that for me.

Well, those images that, uh,

passed on behind me was a really,

really cool, real cool time.

Yesterday, we got to share Jesus' love

and in some way it was

pretty, pretty overwhelming.

Some of the stories we had, I went

with the, the ladies to our group and,

and our group had the, uh, blessing

of, of shopping for a Spanish speaking

family, not a lick English about 'em.

And so we went to Myers and we got all the

gifts for the kiddos and mom and dad, and

then we went to a Crossroads church and

wrapped all these presents and had a blast

and some sugary treats along the way.

And then we got to actually drop off

these gifts face to face with dad.

There's a little excitement that my

wife had to pull out some of those, uh,

Spanish skills from high school and she

was amazing, but we got it timed up, found

the right place, and got to meet dad.

And like I said, massive language barrier,

but there was not a barrier in the

expression of love for what we were doing.

You could tell the joy as he received

these gifts, how appreciative he

was of it, how blown away bag after

bag thinking he could carry it all.

Then realizing, oh,

this is a lot of stuff.

It's got some weight to it.

And then we got to bring it into his

house and just pray with him as a group.

It was incredible.

What a blessing.

That doesn't matter what

language barriers we have.

Love supersedes any language barrier.

And then I hear from the

boys group a scenario.

I don't, I don't know, but most

likely we have grandma and grandpa.

Grandpa's struggling and grandpa's

taking over the responsibility

of three grand babies.

And I don't know why, but to hear

the, uh, story told from a couple

of the people that were there, her

overwhelming love that she felt and

joy, and how they just kept saying

thank you with tears in their eyes.

Wow, that's doing some really

incredible, powerful stuff.

I couldn't be more proud of you youth

for just once again, getting up early

on a Saturday to come goof off with

us and share Jesus Christ's love.

But as much as, uh, we do some cool things

outta love following our, our Lord and

Savior, I'd rather point it back to him.

And his love

literally sent his son to

die on the cross for us.

Because he loves us far

more than he hates sin.

Boy, that makes a, an easy, an

easy relationship builder between

us and our Heavenly Father.

So if you guys are struggling

feeling the love this season, know

that that's your heavenly Father.

He loves you so much.

He was willing to die on a cross

in a brutal way to pay prices.

He should have never had to have

paid, but he did it because of love.

If you guys would pray

with me, let's pray.

God in heaven,

incredible.

God in heaven, our Father who

loves us so much, thank you.

Thank you for this time of year that

we get to just celebrate, enjoy, and

hope, and be filled with peace and

'cause of what you've sacrificed for us.

Creator of the universe.

And yet you serve us over and over again

with blessings and the every day and some

of the mundane, and obviously the most

critical and most important are eternity.

Thank you God for how you love God.

I pray that you would encourage us in

this season, fill us up with that love and

help us to pour it out for one another.

And I prayed in Jesus' name.

We prayed in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Rusty, one of those I can use.

Okay.

I know you got stuff on.

Thanks.

Well, Andy is not feeling well this

morning, so you gotta pinch hitter,

and we're talking about love and oh,

I've experienced a lot of that this week.

Different kind of love, you know, it's

an off love is an awfully big word

for only having four letters in it.

Uh, Andy's laid out all the different

kinds of love that they're worried.

Did that sometime, this last fall.

Hopefully you were here for that.

And I'm not gonna repeat all of

those things, uh, but I've been

experiencing the kind of love that you.

You get from family and and friends.

On Wednesday morning, my wonderful

daughter had gone to work and everything

was slippery and people were sliding

through intersections and having

accidents and said, I just wanted to put

this out here for the wait family chat

here in Indiana, that, uh, how bad the

roads were, especially since dad seems

to be sliding into things these days.

I know that that was meant

in love and it wasn't me.

No, it wasn't Jamie.

It was, that's my daughter-in-law,

who was the daughter.

Okay.

So then, uh,

my sister called up and said, you're.

You should be taking it easy.

I said I'm taking it

about as easy as I can.

You know, Ron, where are you hiding, Ron?

You're too big to hide.

Where, where are you?

There you are.

Okay.

I couldn't see you because of

the glow of Robin behind you.

So Ron says, are you taking it easy?

And I said, yes.

I'm taking it easy.

He said, no, no.

He said Your idea of taking it easy is a

40-year-old man, not a 70-year-old man.

Now, come on.

So I know that you were saying

that out of love, Fran, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

So then, ah, I'm getting it from all

sides and, and for whatever reason,

the worst three days I have had since

this thing has happened has been.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

So whatever that was about, I don't

know, but I put together two 1000

piece puzzles in two and a half days.

So you can tell I, I tried

to put that out there.

I am not overdoing it.

You gotta spend a lot of time

just sitting doing nothing.

But in between times, I did go in and

go in the recliner and sleep in the

recliner to build up my strength to go

out and put those puzzle pieces together.

So it's on the record, it's there.

I have been being good so they can listen

to the sermon if they want to know.

Oh my goodness.

So anyway.

Since Andy's covered all the

stuff on love, I'm just gonna

get down to something simple.

Turn your Bibles over to John chapter

John 15 · chapter mention

15 and we'll start with, uh, verse nine.

Okay, John 15, verse nine.

Now, you know I'm a bugaboo about, Jamie

asked me if I had a new Bible when she

brought me down to church this morning.

And, uh, I said, yeah, I

had that several months.

Now it's a big print so I can read it.

And uh, I said, you gotta have

a Bible to carry to church.

Not like Dax who carries a phone.

Because I get up there and I tell

everybody, you know, it's important.

That's a sword.

Carry that thing with you.

It's a good thing to have, and I also

would tell people, but all you guys

that are really into all technology and

whatnot, okay, do you know what it takes

to change the version of the Bible that

you listen to all the time, about 15

seconds from somebody to enter something

and you won't even know it's been done?

That's how often you can change an

electronic version of what you read.

You get one of these, the only way

they're gonna change that version

if somebody sneaks into your house

at night and scribbles something

out and writes something in,

and you'll probably catch that.

So anyway, here we are,

John, chapter 15, verse nine.

John 15 · chapter mention

As the father has loved

me, so have I loved you.

Now remain in my love.

If you keep my commandments, commands,

excuse me, you will remain in my

love just as I have kept my father's

commands and remain in his love.

I have told you this is so

that my joy may be in you and

that your joy may be complete.

My command is this, love each

other as I have loved you.

Greater love is no one than this to

lay down one's life for one's friend.

You are my friends if you do what

I command, and I no longer call you

servants because the servant does

not know his master's business.

Instead, I have called you friends for

everything that I learned from my father.

I have been known to you.

You did not choose me, but I

chose you and appointed you so

that you might go and bear fruit.

Fruit that will last.

So that whatever you ask in my

name, the father will give you.

This is my command.

Love each other.

Okay?

So I'm not not going to dissect

that for you in Greek or various

forms of Hebrew or anything else.

We're just gonna go to the simple truth.

Jesus loved us, so we

need to love each other.

That's what you were doing yesterday.

Very important thing.

We need to love each other

as Christians,

we need to do the type of things that

Josh and the teens did yesterday.

We love each other by filling

the food pantry out here.

We need to pray for each other.

That's how we love.

We need to encourage each

other, help in time of need.

You know, the list goes on and on and on

and on of all the things that we could do,

but there's a couple of other things

that I want to bring up about loving.

God loved us, Josh, you did a great

job of just laying out the thing

of God loving us, and he does.

Or we'd all be dead.

We think of love as sacrificing

for the people we care about.

We think of love as giving

something, you know, over in the

Old Testament says, I, I will not

offer anything that costs me nothing.

That's a picture of sacrifice

there and love does cost.

If you don't understand that, then

number one, you're probably not married.

Because if you are married, it will

cost you in every way, shape, or form.

That's why it's so important to choose

the person that you marry because they

better be worth the cost both ways.

But my thing, when I read

this and when I think of love,

verse 12 says, my command is this.

Love each other as I have loved you.

Love each other.

That's a list of all those things.

But how did Jesus love?

What was his love like?

What about his.

What, what did it cost him to love?

You know, I can remember

when, oh goodness.

Andy was in, uh, kindergarten

maybe, maybe he was first grade.

Christie was in kindergarten and

Adam was just a snot nose little kid.

And for those of you who remember

Adam, my such little has changed.

You know,

he's a pastor and he is

still a snot-nosed kid.

Uh, I know he won't take the time to

listen to the sermon, so I'm safe there.

Uh, yeah, I'm sure he'll

get it done quickly.

Oh goodness.

But you know, Pam ended up with cancer.

I've shared that story over and over that.

She wasn't supposed to make

it through that year, and

that's 30 some years ago now.

But we talk a little bit about the cost.

Well, God healed her and brought her

through that, but I live with the

person that cost me my first house,

my second house, my third house.

And every car I could have ever driven

that didn't have 150,000 miles on it.

When I bought it, it cost me

to be married to that woman.

Now she is a wonderful lady

who has impeccable taste.

I mean, you know, hey, uh, you can't argue

with that piece of the pie, but you also,

if you go looking for anything in a store.

You know which piece she'll pick out.

The most expensive thing there is there,

uh, it cost me to be married to her.

Now what did it cost?

Jesus, he left the throne in heaven.

Right, okay.

He suffered and died on the cross, and

I spent most of my life working and

ministering to people that wouldn't

darken the doors of the church.

And so their response is

almost always the same.

Well, yeah, but he's, he was God's son.

He knew even if he died, he

was gonna come back to life.

It was all, it was all a setup.

Well, you know, he experienced it all.

He didn't cut himself out

of any of those things.

And one of the things that.

Has touched me that I have shared with

people forever and it's hard to get past

for people who don't know Jesus and that

when you think of God, the father sending

his son and as as Jesus is hanging on the

cross and he's already agonized in the

garden, but he is hanging on the cross

and he's there experiencing the moments

right up to death and saying, daddy,

why have you forsaken me?

And I love the term because

it's not Father, you know.

Oh, godly man in heaven.

It's Daddy.

Those of you who have had children.

Boy, there's something special

when that little guy or gal come

running up and call you daddy.

That's special.

And so he calls out to

his father, daddy, why?

Why?

Why have you forsaken me?

And the picture that always

just stuns my heart is when his

father in heaven has the choice.

Jesus has already committed himself

to that function of going and

being the sacrifice, but his father

looks out there, hears that from his

son, and his son is able to look down.

He looks right at Cole and he

says, okay, I can either have

Cole or I can have my son.

And he turns his back on his son and

says, I'd rather have coal take my son.

Now, as a dad, anybody who's been a dad

knows what kind of a price

that is oftentimes is the son.

Okay?

We experience a pain in all of those

things, but here is dad who has his heart

literally ripped out of himself because he

wants a relationship with you and with me.

That's how important we are,

and it doesn't work to say

we, that's how important I am.

That's how important coal is.

That's how important Josh is,

that God looks at that and

says, I have to do something.

So when I read this and says, my command

is this, love each other as I have loved.

Now all of a sudden love

takes on a different picture.

Is that how I love?

Over in Deuteronomy chapter

six, verse five, it says that

we are to love the Lord our God

with all of our heart and all of

our soul, all of our strength.

You know what?

That to me, creates a pretty good picture.

Number of years ago, I heard a

group of theologians discussing

what it meant to love God.

And they were trying to help people

understand this relationship because

it's different, you know, trying

to fathom this love relationship

with God that we cannot see.

We can only sense and

feel him in our heart.

And so they said the best way to picture

it is like now they used the term pizza.

Okay, now your head pastor loves pizza.

So you still have all those boxes?

Or did your mom make 'em get rid of them?

Garage mall.

They're still there.

Okay.

If you went someplace, you needed

a box from that pizza place.

Okay.

And.

When we go to Minnesota as a

family, everybody wants to go

to Zorbas or Tasty Pizza North.

And I gained five pounds

just sitting there with doing

nothing 'cause gotta have pizza.

Okay, well these guys said, you know, it's

not like loving your wife, your kids, it's

like, well I love pizza or I love steak.

And that really bothered

me the more I heard that.

'cause I'm, I'm pretty simple.

It's,

if the Bible makes sense, don't try

to make something crazy out of it.

But it made meto and think

what does it mean to love God?

And I came back to the point of

the way he loved us.

Is that he would rather

sacrifice whatever it took

for his love to reach us and to

have a love relationship with us.

That's not like loving pizza or steak or

loving going to Florida in the winter.

It's nothing like that.

If I am going to love the Lord

my God with all of my heart,

then I need to love in a way that

says I cannot live without him.

Does that make sense?

Pretty simple.

Do I love God like that, or is God.

Something that's very convenient

to help me in my life, to help me

walk, to help me do what's there.

And, and I need to come and spend my time

in church when it's my opportunity to do

so or do I need to find that relationship

with him that is really and truly love.

Now,

my wife did something for me the

other morning when I had my crash.

Why?

Uh, I was able, after I got off the

phone with nine one one, I was able to

call her 'cause she's at the airport.

It's about, at that point, a

little before, five in the morning.

And I said, well honey,

I just totaled the truck.

And she kind of chuckled because

she thought I was making a joke.

Joke.

Well then she realized I wasn't

making a joke and I was able to

say, well, the police are here.

I've gotta get off the phone.

So okay, I'll call you back.

Or vice versa.

Well, this went on until they

were loading the plane was the

next time I got a chance to call.

It was 10 minutes.

She said, I have to go on silent.

And I said, that's fine.

I'm okay.

Call me when you get to Las Vegas.

That was the stop over

point getting to Oregon.

And that was fine.

We talked, we did all that.

So I get a call on Wednesday morning

after she's out there and she

says, Marty, what is wrong with me?

You know, I got my list out right

away and, and got, then I thought,

no, I better put that away.

And I said, what, what,

what are you talking about?

And she said, it was 10 minutes before

the plane was gonna leave the ground.

I don't know whether you were

seriously hurt, but you're okay.

You're gonna make it whether they're

hauling you off in an ambulance and

you're just want me to know when

the time comes that you're okay?

She said, I just got on

that plane and flew off.

What's wrong with me?

You're my husband.

I needed to know that before I left town.

And I said, well, it's nice to know

that you thought of me, and which she

did, but I said, I'm getting along fine.

Just.

Stay there, take care of your

mom for the next two weeks and

I'll see you when you get home.

And, uh, it's, it's been fun

because once before there were a

bunch of things that happened while

she was taking care of her dad.

And she said, if there's things going on,

just don't tell me because I can't handle

any more than what I'm dealing with here.

And I said, okay, this was

before I had the accident.

And so I said, so you

want me to lie to you?

And she said, no.

Well, yeah.

And so I'll be very glad when

she gets home because I can

finally tell her the truth.

About the last two weeks have been like,

but thank you all for not spreading

bad rumors that I am in trouble.

So that's very important.

However, you know, she was thinking at

that moment, go back to that Wednesday

morning and it was just like, you

know, I'm just carrying on with life.

I, I was needed out

there, so I'm, I'm going.

I had to get on the plane.

That's when the tickets saw

her, and you just do that.

And she just felt, she did,

she felt really bad that she

just didn't even think of that.

She said, you know, if, if you were

in a hospital, I would've just got

on a plane and flown back home.

And I didn't even think to do that

because life was busy and I'm carrying on.

Well, that's kind of how we get

in our relationship with the Lord.

You know, we're busy.

We have basketball games.

I like to go to all the

basketball games that I can.

Okay, we have a job to do, and if we can

fit Jesus in there somewhere, we'll do it.

But to say to him, you know, you're

the most important thing in my life.

Before my life goes crazy today, I need

to know that things are all right here.

We need to be okay.

I got 10 minutes before my world just

goes into total chaos, and I need to

know before that 10 minutes is up, that

things are good because I love you, Lord.

Now the one thing that I know is

if you love the Lord like that.

Your family will know it.

Your friends will know it.

Your colleagues at work will know it.

Everyone around you will know it

because you can't hide it.

You know, Ryan and Sarah, 12

years, I congratulated Ryan back

there and said, man, that's great.

I wouldn't have given you 12 months.

But you know, you, you made it.

And,

and I didn't mean a word of that

about making it the 12 months.

Okay?

I had to be a part in their wedding.

You know,

Mike sitting back there, Mike's been

away from the church for a long time and.

I sit back in the back so I can get out

to the back and greet everybody here.

I don't want people leaving the

church without knowing that they

were noticed and they were important.

That's why Pam and I are back there

and skip out, so you can't get by us.

And I try to stand guard and it's,

it's not like, oh, you gotta do that.

I want you to know you're important.

But when I sit back there and I see

people that I've had a hand in helping

them find Jesus, and I watch them

worship and I watch them do what that

is, there's lots of Sunday morning,

I just sit back there and shed a

tear because it's that important.

Mike, when you walked into the

speedway down there and saw Pam and

I and you came over and just gave me

a big old hug, and you cried telling

me how much that I meant to you, why?

What's that worth?

It's, it's worth everything.

We sacrifice meaningless

things to get worthless stuff.

Jesus sacrificed something

that demonstrated love

and he turned around and he said,

I want you to love just like that.

When you do that, people listen.

People listen to your story and they

don't just say, huh, crazy old man.

You know that poor police

officer that had me stuck in

his car for about half an hour?

I bet you he was wishing,

you know, it's not that cold.

Go up and sit in your car.

I'll, I'll give you a

ride when you're done.

And

I'm willing to talk to anybody about

almost anything at almost any time.

But man, he knows about the church.

He knows about my calling.

He knows about Jesus.

He knows about how important that is.

And all he had to say at the end

of that time was, well, you know,

that was really important story.

Thank you for sharing that with me.

Great.

He's on about his day,

but you never can tell.

But he knew one thing and in the

midst of a, an adrenaline rush like

I've never had before, and pain at

losing my best friend and my pickup

truck there and sitting there in his,

I don't know whether they called it

Drunk tank or what, they got one little

seat on the, on the side in the back.

It's the other half.

He has his stuff and they got this like

a, I don't know what the thing, it,

it's like a tote made out of this stuff

and it goes up underneath the seat and

back up and everything and comes around

and you can't even move in that thing.

But I'm sure it's because.

Pick up the drunks and stick 'em in

there, and if they're gonna puke on

everything, they can just wipe it out.

And most uncomfortable place it was.

But that was a little throne room for he

and I and the Lord that morning because

I had a chance and I was gonna take it.

Well,

the other part that I wanna leave

you with is over in 16, after he

is called his friends and he says,

you didn't choose me, I chose you.

I didn't decide that I was

gonna be this good Christian

man, or this or something else.

He said, I picked you.

I wanted.

This relationship with you,

that's a pretty good thing.

God, of all the universe, the savior

of the world came along and he

said, Marty, I want, I want you.

And boy, I haven't been

worth being wanted.

And I don't know what on

earth he ever saw in me,

but he wanted me.

And you're sitting here this

morning and he wants you

just that bad.

He wants you.

So this week, this whole season, as

we think about love, and we think,

obviously the whole world thinks about.

How much God loves us.

But I'd like to give you a

little challenge as you go out

through this whole season that

everybody you come in contact with

say, man, something about that guy.

Something about that lady.

They really love the Lord.

The devil's doing everything

he can to destroy God's plan.

He had people killed at Brown University.

He had 13 Jewish people over in Australia

that were gunned down this morning.

The world is

being drawn to a point where

they want to destroy God's plan.

Either God's people will stand up and

love him with all of their heart and all

of their soul and all of their strength,

and it will impact the world.

Okay?

Let's do what we can.

Lord Jesus,

we need to love you for all we're worth.

And for some of us that seems

to just happen real easily

and for others, it seems like

we don't even know how to love ourselves.

So I pray that you would really,

really impact us this season.

So the world can see who, who you

are and that they can see it in us.

So there's something really

physical to look at and know

that you are real, that you are alive,

helps us to be a living demonstration.

And your name, we ask it.

Amen.