Love Letters Part 4 | Jesus "a-doughs" You with Jess Schlotterbeck

He's glorious. Behold the one who has come to us.

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard. To get connected or to give online,

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Thank you and enjoy the message.

The way of love. If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy,

but don't have love, I'm nothing but a creaking of a rusty gate.

If I speak God's word with power, revealing all mysteries and making everything plain as day,

and if I have the faith that says to a mountain jump and the mountain jumps,

but I don't have love, I'm nothing. If I give everything that I own to the poor

and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love,

I've gotten nowhere. So no matter what I say, what I believe and what I do, I am bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up. It cares more for others than for self.

It doesn't want what it doesn't have. It doesn't strut around.

It doesn't have a swollen head. It doesn't force itself on others.

It isn't always me first, please. It doesn't fly off at the handle.

It doesn't keep score of the sins of others. It doesn't revel when others grovel.

It takes pleasure in the flowering of the truth.

It takes pleasure in the flowering of the truth. Puts up with anything.

Trusts God always. Always looks for the best. Never looks back.

But keeps going to the very end.

That's 1 Corinthians 13, 1 through 7 in the message. That's Eugene Peterson's version

of the beautiful scripture we mostly hear at weddings, right? And I wanted to start off today

with prefacing this series love letters, this sermon I'm going to do with defining what love is.

Let's pray. Holy Spirit,

may we always be open to your love. We need your power and understanding to truly love,

to saturate this present world with your perfect and divine love. In Jesus' name, amen.

Good morning, church family. Welcome to the Hubsanity Vineyard. I'm Jess, and I have the

pleasure of sharing with you this morning. And if you're welcoming us into your home or your other

creative spaces, we are so glad you have joined us today. I will be concluding the series love

letters. And for the last three weeks, my amazing husband, and I don't say amazing, because I'm

fluffing you up or trying to puff up his head because gosh knows he doesn't need that, right?

No, but I am just so honored to be able to share with you because he is amazing because he serves

people with his whole heart. He serves me and my family and this community of faith

and our community in general with his whole heart. And he does it to the very essence of

the love letter. And I'm so grateful for that. And I'm so grateful for the love letter. And I'm

so grateful for the love letter. And he does it to the very essence of his being. So he's very

exhausted a lot, but very fulfilled. And so today he gets the day off, which he gets to run around

with the kids and the kids wing. So I don't know if it's a day off because he loves, he loves being

with you guys. He loves sharing you. You are his heart. And he's so proud of you. So I am so

honored that I get to fill this role today. But so the last three weeks he's been talking about,

first John in the first week, he talked about light and truth and how Jesus is the truth apart

from Jesus. There is no truth. And the second week he discussed our identity as children of God.

You are a child of God. If you receive Jesus into your heart. And last week he talked to us,

talked to us about the confidence we have knowing that God is love, the confidence assurance that

God is love and that he lives in us and that we can love because God is with us. And so,

and I would argue, cause I like to argue that first Corinthians 13 can only be achieved through

God and the power of the Holy spirit because God is love. So what I share with you earlier can only

be achieved by Jesus and God's presence. So this week I was tasked with discussing second John,

which only happens to be one chapter. So, and if you guys think it's going to be a short sermon,

I am so sorry because me with me, the help of my friends, my colleagues, and everybody I've

discussed love with this week, I think we've managed to stretch one chapter into a whole

theoretical discussion that you have the pleasure of hearing right now. So I am so grateful to be

able to join with you guys this morning and share together with you. So, so love letters,

love letters are always great to receive. Do you guys like receiving love letters?

And as I was preparing for this message, I was like, Oh, I just, I usually take everything in

the universe and say, God, what do you want to say? And I search all these things. And I said,

I can start with a Shakespeare sonnet about love. That's what I should start with. And then I tried

to read it like three times and you guys, I would have butchered the heck out of it. So I was like,

that is not going to happen. And Rudy at Hagerstown healthcare shared that with our, the residents

there with our community of faith there at Hagerstown healthcare. And I said, Rudy, I'm

stealing that from you. And he's like, Jessica, you're more than welcome. So, so this, like I

said, this sermon is a menagerie of all these people are coming together and we're going to

talk about love today. So I didn't do William Shakespeare for you, but however, I did receive

a love letter this Friday. And so I want to tell you about this love letter, the intricate details

of it. So I got a card when I picked up Phoenix from, from daycare this week, our from grow,

and it was shaped like a pizza. So I have to let you know it was shaped like a pizza. And I lost

the card. That's how important it was to me. No, I'm just kidding. You know, if you're a mom, you know,

like you're going from like daycare, you've got all this stuff. And then I started the marriage

course. So, and I had all the monster trucks. So I was given all the monster. So I, but I read the

card. So, okay, I'm going to share with you cause I remember it. It was so ironic. So anyway,

there's no guilt and shame. Okay. I don't have the card anymore. So it says on a pizza,

shaped card, it says, or Phoenix wrote, or his teacher wrote, I adore you.

I adore you because you're sweet and you're one of a kind. And they were on pepperonis. So that's

cool too. Cause pizza is amazing. So this morning, if you hear nothing else from me,

know that I adore you. You're sweet, you're one of a kind. And, and that's my love letter to you.

That's all I have anyway. So let's just jump right into the text as John writes this letter

of encouragement. Second John one, one through three says, this letter is from John the elder.

I am writing the chosen lady and her children whom I love and truth as it does everyone else

who knows the truth because the truth lives in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy,

and peace, which come from God, the father and from Jesus Christ, the son of the father will

continue to be with us who live in truth and love. John identifies himself here as the apostle

because they, they say basically he was the only living apostle left. Right. And John also writes

this letter of encouragement and he says the chosen lady at the beginning of the letter.

Now different scholars agree different things. Sometimes women would have house churches in

their church and they would lead congregations of churches. And so he wrote to the chosen lady and

her children. Other people believe that he was writing to the church in general, but because I

am up here today, I'm going to choose to think he wrote it to a lady who was leading a church

because that's cool. Anyway, so, so John writes this letter and the first point of his letter is

to live in truth, live in truth. And the truth that John is referring to here is Jesus. So let's go

back to the beginning of that passage. My teacher and me is coming out here. So if we replace truth

in that first part of the passage passage with the word Jesus, it says, I am writing to the

chosen lady and her children whom I love in Jesus as does everyone else who knows Jesus

because Jesus lives in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, peace, which come from God,

the father and from Jesus Christ, the son of the father will continue to be with us who live in

Jesus and love. So if you replace Jesus there, that the truth, Jesus is the word truth, because

Jesus even tells us himself, John 14 six, Jesus told them, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man comes to the father, but by me. So we cannot have truth without Jesus. Right? And so I just,

I just love this passage because I get so, I'm as sad that people think that becoming a Christian is

so inclusive, right? Because Jesus doesn't define who he loves. He loves everybody. It doesn't

matter if you've murdered somebody, if you killed somebody, if you have a different color of hair,

if you're tight, you know, if you have a different color of skin, we talk about in the kids wing,

welcoming everybody, even if you have stinky feet. And usually I'm the one I say that to the kids,

I define it. Even if you have a stinky feet, Jesus loves you. Jesus is this huge funnel. And he's

saying, come, no other religion in the world says that come to me. All you are weary and heavy burden

and I will give you rest. Take and learn from me for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Jesus

is the truth here, people. And he knocks at the door of everyone's heart and he says, I have a way.

I have a better way. I have a better way than this world has just let me in because he's a gentleman

and he doesn't exclude anyone. And he says, come on. And that big funnel, he's just saying, there's

room for everybody. There's room for everybody here. Right? And he's saying, just accept my truth.

John 8 31 through 32, Jesus said to the people who believed in him, you are truly my disciples.

If you remain faithful to my teachings and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

When we live in Jesus, when we live in his truth, we are free to be the person he created. We are

free from the world standards of perfection and performance of the world. And we are free to be

perfection and performing. We are free just to love on him and him to love on us. A divine

experience. Jesus came for life and life abundantly. And God came because God brought Jesus to earth

because he wants a relationship with you. He wants, he is in love with you. He's madly in love with

you. And he sacrifices his son's life so that he could come and be with you, regardless of your

sins, regardless of your choices. He wants relationship with you. And that's the truth.

That's the truth that we can live in. And that's the truth that sets us free.

So the second reason that John writes this letter is teaching us how to grow in love.

It's about truth, Jesus, and it's about love, which is God, right?

Second, John one five says, I'm writing to you. I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we

should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one you have heard from the beginning.

Love means doing what God has commanded us. And he has commanded us to love one another just as

you heard from the beginning. You know, and this year as our community of faith, we've been

challenged to go deeper, right? And I believe we cannot grow, go deeper or grow deeper without

growing in love. We can never, never, never, never get away from love. That is the very essence of

God. That is the very heart of God. God is love and Jesus is truth, right? And so if we're going to

grow in love, remember the scripture from last week, first John four, seven and eight, it says,

dear friends, let us continue to love one another for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a

child of God and knows God, but anyone who does not love does not know God for God is love. Right?

And their book, Spiritual Formation is how to grow in Jesus with passion and confidence.

Rod Dempsey and Dave Early say that spiritual growth happens in three directions. And so I'm

going to talk about the three directions when it comes to love. The first is we want to love God,

right? Well, if we want to grow in love, we've got to love God first. Remember we are the vineyard,

right? The guest wifi is John 15 five. Does anybody know what that scripture is? It says,

I am the vine. You are the branches. Abide in me and me and you. And apart from me, you can do

nothing. Right? We believe we are caught a vineyard, not because we're a bunch of grapes,

but that we know that the love that we have for each other only comes when we abide in the vine

and the vine is God. That's the true love of God. Right? And so if we don't grow in that love

with our heavenly father, how are we able to love the world? Right? So we have to grow upward.

Loving God is growing upward. Matthew 22 37 says, Jesus replied, you must love the Lord your God

with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and greatest

commandment. And a second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself.

So the second way to grow in love is to serve others. It's the outward expression of growing,

right? We have the horizontal and the vertical, right? Did I do that right? Okay, perfect. All

right. Yes. Um, yeah, I get confused in directions sometimes. So outward, Jesus is our ultimate

example of serving others. John 13 one says, before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his

hour had come to leave this world and return to his father. He had loved his disciples during his

ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. Jesus knew his mission here on earth was

to love and to share God's love. So even though he knew at that moment, Judas had betrayed him,

even though he knew what was going to happen, he swallowed his pride if he had any, probably not,

but he got down on his knees. He got the basin out and he washed his disciples feet.

He washed the people that were hurting him and betraying him, and he chose love over fear,

over hate. He chose to love us. The last thing he said on the cross as he died, father, forgive them,

for they know not what they do. We need to have the heart of Jesus when it comes to growing

in our love for our neighbor. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

We need to have the heart of Jesus when it comes to growing in our love for our neighbor.

Mark 10, 43 through 45 says, but among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among

you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to everyone else.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and give up his life as a

slave. I believe Nelson Mandela puts it this way. Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for

the freedom of the people. Nelson Mandela was a South African black nationalist who spent 27 years

in prison fighting for a cause that he believed in. There was an unjust discriminatory policy in

called apartheid. Blacks and whites were torn apart, completely different society, and he

helped bring an end to this racially cruel system. He ushered in a peaceful transition to include all

of the people of South Africa. The whites, the blacks, the mixed, every single race. Because we

were all South Africans, he said. So many people wanted him to put down the white people and take

over and be hostile. And he said, no, no, we've got to love each other, right? He said, for to be free

is not merely to cast off one chains, one's chains. That respects and enhance, but to live in a way

that it respects and enhances the freedom of others. Let me say that again. For to be free is not

merely to get your own chains taken off, right? But to live in a way that respects and enhances

the freedom of others, even those who put you in slavery, even those who put you in bondage.

Galatians 5 13 says, for you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters,

but don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one

another in love. So the third point is to forgive others. I don't believe we can love and grow in

love if we don't learn how to forgive. Right? And forgive is inward. Like we in this community of

faith, we've got to learn how to get along with each other before we can love the world. Right?

When they come in, they've got to know, they know you're my disciples because you love each other.

Right? And when we love each other, it's a mess sometimes. Right? I remember one time, I mean,

my house is a mess. My kids are a mess. My car is a mess. I don't even know I'm a mess. I

picked the wrong color hair dye or something, but just a mess. Right? But God said, Jessica,

he showed me this pump. He showed me this vision of like, you guys, everybody, anybody ever been

camping before and they have those pumps of water. Yeah. Right. So he showed me this vision of just

this pump of water and you know how the water comes out and there's mud everywhere. I think

they've had greats now or something. I don't know. They've upgraded, whatever, but there's a mess.

And he said, Jessica, you cannot have life without the mess. You could have a neat house. You could

have everything go right. You could have perfect relationships if you didn't have any relationships.

Right? Life is about mess, relationships, community, us all gathered here today. We're a mess,

but that's okay because we're God's mess. Right? And we've got to learn how to get along and be

together so that we can do amazing things for the kingdom of God because we need each other,

but we have to forgive our brothers and sisters. Matthew seven, two through four says, for you will

be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is a standard by which you will be

judged. And why would you worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own

eye? Right? We are always so quick to point out and judge other people. What are they wearing? Oh

my goodness. Did you know? No. Did you know that happened to their? I wonder why she's doing that.

I wonder what's happening. You don't know. You don't know if you don't know. Right? How about

going to that person in love? So Peter asks Jesus, how many times must I forgive Jesus? And Jesus

says 70 times seven, 70 times seven, Peter, 70 times said seven Peter, forgiveness is essential

to living life in relationships. I had a friend who was getting married several years ago and I,

we had to write those letters. You know, you go to the showers and they're like,

write an encouraging note, you know, and I was like, okay. Um, but I was like forgiveness,

forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness. You can't get by forgiveness. If you're living in

a relationship, if you are a couple, if you are in a family, forgiveness is essential to living

life in relationships, forgiveness and grace. And what is grace? Love. Forgiveness is love. Right?

Martin Luther King Jr. Puts it this way. Forgiveness is not an occasional act,

but a permanent attitude. Our permanent attitude is I will forgive. I will forgive.

I will forgive. Does it mean it didn't hurt? No, I'm not negating your hurt or your pain,

but you can process forgiveness with God because guess what? God knows what it's like

to be betrayed, to be hurt, to be broken. Right? Process it with him first and ask him how you

should forgive. Right? Our middle school students this week had the opportunity to hear a section of

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speech. Where do we go from here? And that's, I think the question I'm

asking you guys today, where do we go from here? Right? And Nolan, and how powerful of a tool do

we have is love, right? We've got this tool in our pocket called love and we can pick it out anytime

we want to, we can choose to use it whenever we do, we can, but we don't use the tool of love.

Why not? Is it our pride? King communicates that the only way forward is to choose community and

fight against chaos by loving our neighbor. One of the speeches I listened to, the sermons I listened

to him this week, he talks about the Good Samaritan. Having a heart like the Good Samaritan

is the only way that we can come together and choose community over the chaos that was

getting ready to erupt in the nation. Okay? And so I'm going to teach you a word like Chris does,

because I'm going to, you know, I'm going to use a big word because I'm probably going to use a bunch

of little ones later. Altruism. So you guys want to say the word altruism? Are you ready to walk in

altruism? You guys don't know what it is, so you're good, you're smart, you're not going to say it.

So it's putting the needs of others before oneself. Being selfless rather than selfish, right?

Altruism is not like, oh, oh girl, it looks bad down there. I'm sorry that's happening to you.

You know, I'll be praying for you, God bless and walking on the other side of the road, right?

Altruism is empathy. It's getting down in that pit with your friend who's struggling with it.

With your friend who's struggling with depression, with your friend whose car's broken down, with your

friend who just lost their mother and saying, let's sit for a while. Let's be together in this.

How can I help you? How can I support you? How can I love you? Because you're not going to stay here.

We're going to go out of this together, right? But I understand you're hurting now. That's empathy.

That's altruism. And that's what we need to do. That's how we grow in love for our neighbor.

As a society, we tend to bring religious opinions or judgmental things upon others.

And King has this awesome quote that I wanted to use today. It says, how often do we find ourselves

categorized by a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds? How often do we find

ourselves with high blood pressure of creeds, what it should be like, how you should be living,

how you should be dressing, how you should be talking, right? Our creeds, and we're projecting

them on others, and we are anemic, low in blood when it comes to our deeds, low in action, right?

A high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds, right? And I want to challenge you to this

morning church is to be plugged into the source. The only way we can grow in love is to be

getting our love from God, right? Know where you're plugging into, right? Know what's feeding your

feeding your spirit, body, mind, and soul, right? Don't buy into the world's standards. Don't buy

into them, right? God's got a better way. He's got a way where you're free, right? Matthew 18, 15

through 16 says, if another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense.

If another person listens and confesses, you have won that brother or sister back. But if you are

unsuccessful, take another person with you and try again. And then it can be confirmed in two or three

witnesses, right? So we don't give up, right? And if you're knowing that you need to go to somebody

and ask for forgiveness or go to forgiveness, go to them first. I usually, what I do is if I've been

hurt by somebody, I go to God first. I say, God, ooh, that kind of sung. What I'm saying is,

I wonder what that was about, right? And I process it with him first. I said, God, am I being

offendable? Did that hurt my pride? What's going on here? And then, or, you know, you could, so,

and then God kind of tells me, okay, you can go to him. And I just ask God for a divine appointment,

a divine time. Now, should I go to Chris? Should I go to everybody in the office staff? Should I go

and get on my phone and text my mom and say, oh, you do not even know what this lady did to me, a

group today, right? No, but that's what we do as people because we try to justify why we are right

and they are wrong. We try to make an argument for why we are right and they are wrong, and that's

not love. It's not love because when we're both, when we're right or wrong, two people lose,

right? Two people lose. That's fighting love with hate. That's not fighting love or hate with love,

right? And that's what God wants us to do. So, choose love today, people. You'll never regret it.

And I think sometimes we forget, you know, we're growing in love together. And so, there's, these

conversations are happening here at Hub City Vineyard, right? There's people that are like,

huh, I wonder why they did this and they're getting counsel. But we have to think of,

what are we doing together? Because you know what? I don't dress like Stephen. I don't talk like

Stephen. I don't act like Stephen, but I need Stephen here to change the kingdom of God because

he has got a call and a plan and a purpose for him, right? I'm not like John. I'm not dressed like a

pirate back there today. I'm kind of dressed as an army person. I have no idea why I wear this outfit.

Lily goes, oh, that looks good. I'm like, really, Camo? Because I had nothing else. And she's like,

what are you talking about today? I said love. And I said, oh, maybe it means you have to fight for

love, right? We have to fight for love, right? But plus I just wanted to be like, we got to fight,

right? So, we do have to fight for love. So, I'm justifying my outfit now to you guys, sorry.

It was Holy Spirit. It was Holy Spirit, right? So, focus on what we're doing together, just like

the military, right? They're all in it together for a purpose, right? They're all doing something

for a purpose, and that's what we're here. We're the kingdom of God, and we're doing life together

for a purpose, to love one another, to bring each other up, to grow each other down in God's love,

and to take on the world and the evil that's out there, right? So, we've got to walk in diligence.

So, we've got to walk in diligence. That's what John talks again. He says,

diligence is careful or persistent work or effort. So, the ways we can walk in diligence is we need

to teach our children. Second John 1, 4 says, how happy I was to meet some of your children and

find them living according to the truth, just as the father commanded, right? Deuteronomy 6, 6 says,

and you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commandments that I'm giving you today.

Repeat them again and again and again and again and again to your children, right? Because

children learn by repetition. We learn by repetition. We need to pour into our children,

and the reason I'm standing here today and the reason Rhett is here today and Carl and Lauren

and Rudy and Matt Poehner who does our stuff, the reason we are serving today is because we grew up

in a community of faith that poured into us. We are children

that were poured into by churches, and we appreciate the love that was shared into us.

We had altruistic people pouring into our hearts every week, it's in our minds,

it's in our minds. And we would not be here today, I know I would not be here today without the love

that I felt when I lived at church, when I loved church as a child. I felt accepted and free,

and I was able to be myself at church, right? And so the reason we are here today is because of that.

Now churches aren't perfect, you know, we have, some of us walked away and we came back, right?

But, but those things that were poured into our hearts as young children have stayed,

not just because of our parents, which was a blessing too, but because of the church, right?

And I want to encourage you guys, we are doing a great job here at Hub City Vineyard.

I am just so excited about what God's doing in our youth and our kids. The youth took a trip

last weekend as you guys saw on the five minute countdown, you know, and the reason they were able

to go on that trip is we had a team of youth leaders that were willing to say, I'm going to

sacrifice my weekend, I'm going to sacrifice my time off, and I'm going to drive a big van in the

middle of Pennsylvania in a snowstorm so that I can let these kids experience the love of God,

experience community. And I think they got stuck, I think Lance had mud up to here, like they got,

both vans got stuck at some point off the side of the road, it was crazy, but they have lots of

good memories, you know? So lots of good memories and lots of people with that altruistic heart.

We have so many people in this community of faith and I'm so proud of you guys. And our kids team

back there, we have John dressed up as a pirate today, you know, it's kids were, it's February,

I can't say it right, February, and we're pirates and we're learning about the parables. So if you

want to have a lot of fun, go back and work in the kids, then you can walk the plank and you can have

fun with kids. So if you just want to be bored, you can stay in here with Chris. I'm just saying,

I've got, you know. No, we all need to grow. There's a time to sit and learn and there's also

a time for action, right? We need to be plugged in the vine. But yeah, so just thank those people

that took the youth and thank you guys. Yeah, and thank you guys because there were, we had

generous donations that let the youth go there. People that gave financially, that is a gift.

That is such a gift that you were able to give financially and let our youth go on that trip.

So I am so grateful for that because two of my kids went for the weekend and I had a quiet

weekend. I'm just kidding. No, I love the fact they went and they grew. You know, they were

connected into God. They went through struggles. They went through things, but they felt connected

into God. They were all crying on Sunday night about, you know, learning about mental health

and mental illness and how to get freedom from that. So it was a good time. It was a good trip.

Also, we have some people back there in the kids wing that don't really get acknowledged,

our safety team. Now we have a team of people just working to keep the kids safe. They go to the

potty about a hundred times a day. Potty break, potty break, potty break room 14, potty break room

12. They're walking down the halls, making sure your kids get to the bathroom and get back to the

room safe. And I'm just so grateful for their hearts because they're a bunch of servants. And

so just thank you guys for self. Yeah, thank you. And because of all the love you guys have,

kids are learning and growing. You know, our community of faith is learning and growing.

We're able to touch people outside of here. But what John says, the next part of the verse book,

he says, be aware of, be aware of lies. Second John one seven through eight says, I say this

because many deceivers have gone out into this world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real

body. Such a person is a deceiver and anti-Christ. Watch out that you not lose what we have worked

so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. So there are lies out there.

We do have an enemy. So when we're doing good, you guess what? There's things that are coming

against us, but we have a whole prayer team. We have people that are on a prayer team praying

and interceding for you guys every week. We're praying for your needs. And I tell people,

as soon as you volunteer for the kids wing, as soon as you say, I'm going to be a small group

leader, as soon as you say, I'm going to join this, something's going to happen. Right. And

something's going to say, oh, my car broke down or my kids sick or this happened. But that's because

the enemy doesn't want us to walk in the freedom that God has for us. And we can only achieve that

freedom. I'm not saying that the only way you can live out the Christian life is in community. We

can't do it by yourself. We can't love neighbors if we have no neighbors. Right. Right. Right. So we

have to be connected into other people because that's how we learn and grow. Right. And so,

but we need to know that there is an enemy out there and he wants to bring what the kingdom of

light is doing and the kingdom of darkness are two forces against each other. Right. And we're

bringing light into a dark world. So we're going to get attacked. You know, I always think about

those great movies where you have, you know, I can't ever think of it like the king, whatever,

they're running down the hill and they're bringing all the light into the dark areas. And that's what

we're doing here in Hagerstown and the surrounding community. We're bringing light into those dark

areas. So we're going to be under attack. So if you have a heart to pray, we need more people

to pray and to intercede for all that God's doing in our community of faith. Ephesians five,

15 through 17 says, so be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are

wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand

what the Lord wants you to do. God has a role for every single one of you here. So second John

states, we should live in truth, grow in love and walk in diligence. So I'm sure you're asking,

how can I become love to my community in the world? And so these are our action steps. And so the

short answer is you can't, you can't become love. You can't on your own, on your own. Okay.

Our only hope, accomplishing life change is by laying down our life, by laying down our rights,

just like Jesus is our example, by asking God to change our life.

I need, you need, we all need a new life. We can't, you know, I remember we need to be born again.

Right? So, so the first action step is choose, this is a choice, choose to be born again.

John three, three says, Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot

see the kingdom of God. What do you mean? Nicodemus explained, how can an old man go into back into

his mother's womb and be born again? Jesus replied, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God

without being born of water and spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit

gives birth to spiritual life. So don't be surprised when I say you must be born again.

The wind blows wherever it wants, just as you can, you can hear the wind, but you can't tell

where it comes from or where it's going. You can't explain how people are born of the spirit.

We need to be born again. We need to take our lives and lay them down and say, not me,

not my will, not Jessica's will, but your will be done, God. Right? Because in my own strength,

I'm not enough. I can never be loved, but in God's strength, I'm more than enough. I'm more than

loved. I'm more than loved. Right? And so the second point is not only to be born again,

but to be filled with the spirit. You guys just heard it there. I am John 14, 25 through 26 says,

I am telling you these things now while I'm still with you. These are Jesus's words.

But when the father sends an advocate as my representative, that is the Holy Spirit. He

will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you. John 16, 8 and 13

through 15. When he comes, he will convict the world of his sins and of God's righteousness

and of the coming judgment. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you in all truth.

He will not speak on his own, but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the

future. He will bring glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the father

is mine. And this is why I said the spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.

The Holy Spirit's job, people, is to do three things, right? Convicts us of our sin, right?

And it's not a condemning conviction. I want to say that there's no shame or there's no guilt

when it comes from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit just quickens in your spirit. Oh, that was

a bad choice. Oh, that wasn't too good, right? He convicts us of sin because we don't know

how to live apart from sin except through the spirit. So when we invite the spirit in,

he convicts us of areas in our life that we need to change, not in a condemning way, but in a loving,

kind way, because God is love, right? And so when he convicts us, he gives us the wisdom of how to

change and what to do. The other job of the Holy Spirit is to guide us, is to give us wisdom. When

you're praying and you don't know what to pray and you're going through a rough time, you pray what

the spirit tells you and he guides you. He gives you wisdom. He gives you discernment of how to

walk out of that addiction, how to walk out of that situation, how to change what you were doing

before into what he's called you to do. So that's the second job of the Holy Spirit. Convicts you.

He gives you wisdom. And then his third job is to comfort you. He doesn't say, I'm going to leave

you alone or orphan. He comforts you in the midst of your pain, in the midst of your struggle,

in the midst of what you're doing. The Holy Spirit just comes and wraps his arms around you and says,

you're mine, you're worth it. It's going to be okay. You know, God keeps every single tear that

we shed in a bottle. He says, I am with you and God is with you because he's with you through the

Holy Spirit. So we have to choose the Holy Spirit. And then the third way I believe that we can walk

in what John's telling us is to choose to have conversations face to face. Right? John two,

one 12 says, I have much more to say to you, but I don't want to do it with paper and ink.

Love letters only go so far. Right? You can't really truly experience the love of somebody

through a love letter. Right? For I hope to visit you soon and talk with you face to face.

Then our joy will be complete. Face to face conversations. People are so critical. Right?

They're so critical. I even just Googled it this morning because I needed an example here. And I

found from the Grossman's group, six benefits of face to face communication. It demonstrates

importance for people. You're important to me. Let's meet face to face. I hear you're struggling

with something. Let's get together. Let's have coffee. It interprets when you meet somebody

face to face, you know what they're feeling and their thoughts because communication is nonverbal

too. Right? It enhances credibility and trust. If I'm willing to take time with you, if I'm willing

to sit down with you in a group and pray over you and listen to you, I'm willing to be there for you

and listen to you, you've got, you're able to trust me more. Right? Builds relationships. You're able

to gather feedback from the other person. You can learn and grow from each other. Right? And it

addresses sensitive issues and shows you care. Face to face conversations. You know, groups are

so important. Getting together with somebody, having a friend that you can discuss these things

with. You know, during our marriage course on Friday evening, the discussion was centered

around the art of communication and the key thing was listen, listen, listen, listen, like

forgiveness, forgiveness, listen. Right? How many times do we not listen to what the other person

is saying? Right? Their feelings are valid. We use feelings not to stay stuck in our feelings, but to

identify what's going on in our hearts and our spirits and how we can get healed and move forward.

Right? What's going on in your spirit? How are you feeling? Let's listen to the person and then be

able to walk them through it. Right? One key to doing this, according to Lexi, who is in my women's

group, is having unoffendable hearts. Right? When we were doing our women's group, we were setting up

the boundaries that we all wanted to have. And she said, we just need to have unoffendable hearts.

And how easy is that to say, but how hard is that to live out? What is an unoffendable heart?

Like giving the person the benefit of the doubt. Right? Choosing to trust rather than to judge.

Right? I mean, in this group, the only reason this group started, because Caitlin had a baby.

Caitlin is my other group leader. She had a baby and she experienced really hard things after being

a mom. You know, she wanted to have this baby, but she experienced a lot of hard things. And she

wanted to be able to support other moms who experience hard things after they have babies.

Right? There's a lot of things that happen to us as women. There's a lot of things that happen to

us. And we need support from other moms. And Caitlin's like, okay, we can do this. We can

clean their dishes. We can do this. And I'm like, Caitlin, let's just start by getting together face

to face and truly knowing each other and loving and supporting each other. So that's why our

group started is just so we can get together with other moms, whatever stage of life you are in as

a mom and support and encourage one another. And then out of that, we'd love to birth supporting

other moms practically too, but we got to know each other. We got to meet face to face. We need

to have a relationship, right? Referring back to 1 Corinthians that I read at the beginning of our

time here today, 1 Corinthians 12, 11 through 12 says, when I was a child, I spoke as a child.

I thought as a child and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.

Now we see imperfectly like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with

perfect clarity. All that we know is now partial and incomplete, but then we will know everything

completely just as God now knows me completely. We don't know what we don't know people. And we've

got to trust that God's got it all together, right? I don't know how my life's going to be

tomorrow or next week, but I know the creator of the universe loves me, right? Clarity comes at the

end of time, at the end of faithfulness, baby steps, one step at a time. When I did grief share,

I talk about the new normal. They say just take one step at a time, just do the next thing, right?

And you know, I needed, I needed everybody this week, right? I needed everybody this week. I need

a grief share this week. I need the Hagerstown Healthcare this week. I needed my mom's care this

week. I needed the marriage, people at marriage course this week because I didn't have it to give,

right? I didn't have this message to give, but they had it. I took a little bit from everybody

and that's what a community is about, right? Point four is remember that love lives through eternity.

And one of the things that John Lennon got right, who Dan's going to play for me right,

is all we need is love, right? Might have gotten a lot of other things right,

wrong, but we do. All we need is love and I don't think we can ever walk away from that truth that

we need to be rooted and grounded and grow in love because guess what? Love lasts for eternity.

Love kills hate. Love kills violence. Love births new things, right? And so we can never, never,

never, never walk away from that truth that if we are to grow deeper within our relationship with

God that we need to be rooted and grounded in love, right? First Corinthians 12, 13 says three

things will last forever, faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. John 13,

35 says by this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

The world doesn't want to go into, the world doesn't need any more clubs. The world doesn't

need any perfect people. The world needs people that love each other. They see the love that we

have for each other and they want to be part of it. I think it's fun to be in this community of

faith because I love being with all of you. I love being with everybody because I get so much life

from you guys, right? So much love from you guys. We just had freedom night a couple weeks ago. Did

anybody go to the freedom night? It was an amazing time of worship, amazing time of giving up things.

And so I'm going to, but so I didn't know what I was going to give up for freedom night. I'm like,

ah, I got it together. I don't need to give up anything. I gave up this, I gave it this for 21

days. I'm good. I'm like, God, what am I going to give up? Well, actually I kept asking and God

didn't tell me, so I didn't think that. So I went to the bathroom, I went pee, so I had to teach you,

I have to be calm and since I told you altruism, so yeah, I went pee and the last times when I pee,

I think a lot. So I'm like, oh, I got an idea. So ever I'm in a meeting, I'm like, I got to pee.

I go to it and go out. I come back with an idea. And so anyway, so how to keep it real. Okay. I'm

wearing camo. Anyway, so I didn't pee outside. I peed inside too. So I said, God, what do you want

me to give up? You still haven't told me. And he said, I want you to give up pride and

perfection. All right. I don't really have either one of those, but I'll lay them down at your altar.

Right? Well, obviously God knew what he was doing because since that time I am completely

and utterly lost people. Like I went into staff meeting, they're like, you're supposed to have

devotion. I'm like, and I would normally in my pride be like, oh, I got it. I can just pull out

the scripture of the day. I was like, I don't have it. And I went into another meeting and somebody

says, oh, Jessica, you're supposed to do this. I was like, I can't, I need your help. And I went

somewhere else and I'm like, I just really am feeling insecure about this and I, I need your

help. And so it's amazing thing when you give up pride, you give up your pride and doing it on your

own, you're able to connect to community because I needed Lisa, I needed Rudy, I needed Chris, I needed

Steven, I needed John this week. I needed everybody to get this message together because I didn't have

it in myself. I didn't even have it connecting to God. I needed to connect to people. Right? So when

you give up pride, and then giving up perfect, right? What is perfect? I mean, you wouldn't,

if you would have told me, oh, you struggle with perfection. I don't know. I just always want to

do my best. I just always want to get the best thing done. Right? Right. But what are we measuring

our standards against? Like we have freedom in Christ to be who we are all the time. Right? And

perfection puts a straight jacket on us and says, you've got to be this way. Cause people are looking

at you. Who cares what people think about you? Love them, but they're, you don't define by other

people. You're defined by God and God created all your bodies. Beautiful. He created all of

you. Beautiful. You know, you created you all perfect and unique and wonderfully. You're fearfully

and wonderfully made, you know, and I was struggling. I was like, oh gosh, how am I going to do this?

And I was like, oh, this is so often God's like, no, it's not. You are my masterpiece

created in Christ Jesus. We, if we know the truth of what God says about us, we don't have to worry

about being perfect. We don't have to worry about being full of pride. We can let those go because

we have a heavenly father who's divinely interceding for us and we have the freedom to just be. Right?

This week I was doing like in my workouts, I was just having fun with my workouts. I like

did like gorilla lifts. Like, I don't know, I did all these primal movements and I was just

laughing at myself, like lifting 30 pound weights and like a gorilla form. I'm not going to demonstrate

people in the office thought it, you know, and I love to run, but I was just like, hey,

I'm free to run. Right? I'm, we get to do this. We get to move our bodies. We get to honor God

with our bodies. I'm free to eat. God gave me food. I'm free. Right? And if I'm loving God and I'm

loving others, he's got the plan. Right? He'll show you. Right?

The opposite of perfectionism is acceptance. Acceptance says, this is who I am and I'm willing

to be vulnerable with you. Right? If I'm not willing to be vulnerable with you, how can you

be vulnerable with me? Vulnerability only happens when we give up perfection and we just say, hey,

this is who I am. Take it or leave it. Right? All right. So right now, as Dan's playing,

we're just going to pray. If you guys would want to join me in praying, praying, I just feel like

we need to be born again. And you guys might say, Jessica, well, I did that 20 years ago, or I did

that, you know, when I was five or whatever, but, but there's nothing wrong with reconnecting into

the heart of God, the heart of God for love, for life and for truth. And so if you're willing today,

I would just like you to pray with me this simple prayer that will help you be born again and then

be filled with the spirit. All right. So if you want to repeat after me, Jesus, I choose

to be born again. I choose your life. Forgive me for my pride and my selfish ways.

I lay down my rights before your throne and I choose you. I choose my identity in you.

I choose your love for my life.