The Love Test: True Righteousness | unCERTAINTY, Week 5

Today's text comes from 1 John

1 John 3:11–24

3:11-24.

"For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should

love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of

the evil one and murdered his brother.

And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were

evil and his brother's righteous.

Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the

brothers. Whoever does not love abides in

death. Everyone who hates his brother is a

murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding

in him. By this, we know love, that He laid down

His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need,

yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love

abide in him? Little children, let us not love in

word or talk, but in deed and in truth.

By this, we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart

before Him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is

greater than our heart, for He knows everything.""Beloved,

if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.

And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we

keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son,

Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded

us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and

God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us, by

the spirit whom he has given us." This is the word of the

Lord. You may be

seated.

Thank you, Mary

Paul.

How's it going, Raleigh?

Whoo.

And welcome to all of you that are tuning in online as well.

I, I couldn't help, I w- As she was reading God's word, I couldn't help but get

emotional. Something that we should all be excited of and very

proud of that by the end of the year, we will have read the

letter, First John, all together as a family.

And I, I just, it overwhelmed me of how cool that is that we

get to do that as a family. Um, all right.

Let, let's get into it now. Enough of that emotional stuff, right?

(laughs)

How many of you, you're, you're excited about Thanksgiving?

Whoo.

I mean, it's Thanksgiving. You're excited, you're excited. You've got big plans.

You've already found your eating pants. You've laid 'em out. You're ready.

(laughs)

You are ready. All right, that's one group, the

excited group. Y'all settle down.

And now, now, now there's another group.

You're just saying you're excited.

(laughs)

You're just saying you're excited about Thanksgiving because the people around you

seem to be excited. But for you, you're not so sure that you're that excited.

And there's a couple of reasons for this.

Multiple reasons probably, but maybe it's because someone who's very

important to the family, they're not gonna be there this year.

It could be that. But for others, you're not

excited about it and maybe you're looking at Thanksgiving with a little bit of

dread and trepidation because of who will be there.

(laughs)

Come on. Uh, right?

(laughs)

You know that person. They get there, and then they do what they do, and they

say what they say. And the next thing you know, it's weird and awkward.

(laughs)

But my guess is there's a third group, too.

So you got those that are excited, those that are like, "Uh, I'm not so excited.

I'm just saying I'm excited." But then there's a group, you, you don't, you

just, you just don't know what to expect.

Maybe it's a new situation for you.

They're, you know, it's a new family thing you've been invited into, so you don't

know. You don't know the level of crazy or normal.

So yeah, I mean, you just don't know.

And maybe in a word, you would just say, "I'm a little uncertain.

I'm a little uncertain." And I don't know about

you, but I don't particularly

like uncertainty. I, I want it to be stable and,

and we just know what we're up against and what we're dealing with.

It, it just bothers me when things are

uncertain. And, and you think about like what Jason

alluded to earlier, it seems like every day, there's a new cultural

moment that's just very significant that makes me wonder, and maybe

you too, can we be certain about anything

at all? Is there, can we be certain about anything at

all? And I wanna tell you about a time, a season in the life of

m- for me and my family

that was very significant in terms of uncertainty.

In 2012, I suffered a near

fatal brainstem stroke. And on the other side of that, I couldn't

walk. I couldn't talk. And I couldn't see, and

what was going on around me, I was swimming in uncertainty.

And it's easy in situations like that,

unsettled situations like that, where you just don't

feel any kind of certainty. So for me personally, I had no

clue what was next. I didn't know. Would I be able to walk again?

Would I be able to talk again? Would I be able to see again?

Would I be able to play with my kids again?

Would I be able to provide for my family?

And I get it, your situation is not my situation, but I would say that we've

all been in situations, we've all been in

situations

where it felt at best that we were anxious and

unsettled. And if we were, in a, you know, a word, just pick one, we

would say, "We are uncertain." But in this series, we've been

walking through this letter written by John, and he's been

providing evidence and information, and I would say even tests, that

reveal to us, that have been revealing to us that we can

at least be certain

on that which matters most.

We can be certain on that which matters most.

And as we push toward the end of the letter, and we'll get there in a few weeks, in

chapter five, verse 13, he says, "I write these things." Here's the purpose of

the entire letter, "I write these things to you who believes..." So

notice that he's writing to believers, these are followers of Christ.

"I'm writing to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that

you may know." That you may

know. Not that you may wonder, and that you would have doubts and be

unsure, but that you may know that you have

eternal life.

Amen.

This is about knowing with assurance that our future is certain because

of who Jesus is, because what he, of what he's done, and because of where

he's leading. If Jesus is the object of our faith, if we are believing

and trusting and relying on him for our salvation, then we can live with

great confidence that we have life

eternal. And that's what John's writing about.

And we come to this passage in chapter three today, he's reaching the

core of what he's been teaching, or what he is teaching in this

letter. And he's writing for the purpose to establish in

us assurance,

assurance for us as we navigate

doubts...... as we navigate struggles and

the difficulties of life that can creep in and

leave us confused, that can leave us uncertain, and if we're honest, can

even lead... leave us

afraid. Come on, have you ever been in the middle of a surg-

uh, situation, and you're just like, "I... I'm scared.

I don't want to admit it." And you probably wouldn't say it out loud and you don't

wanna say it to anybody, but you're like, "I don't know.

I'm not sure what's next." But in the passage

today, in the passage today, John is gonna provide

us with two tests that will help us know and be confident of our

connection with God and our future with God.

Look at verse 11. Here's the first test.

I w- l- let's just call it the love test. Look, you can see it in verse 11.

"For this is the message that you've heard from the beginning, that we should..."

What? What does it say?

Love

Come on, class. Love one another. So the love test.

Do we love one another? And while this message is, I mean, certainly good

news, this is not new- new news. And John, as one of

Jesus' closest followers, heard this directly from Jesus.

You see this in the Gospel of John in chapter 13.

In verse 34, "A new commandment..." Jesus is speaking.

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you also

are to love one another." And Jesus goes on and says this, "By

this..." By this, by your love for one another,

"People, all people, will know that you are my disciples." A disciple is a

learner, is a follower. "And they will know that you are mine

if you have love for one another." But for Jesus, he's reaching

back even further. He goes back to the time of Moses. Moses writes this.

You see it in Leviticus 19, verse 18.

Leviticus 19:18

"You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge

against the sons of your own people, but you shall love

your neighbor as yourself." This is a thread that runs

throughout all of scripture. Paul picks it up when he's writing to the believers in

Rome, and he says, "All of the law can be summed up with 'Love your

neighbor as yourself.'" And then he says this in chapter 13, verse

10. "Love does no wrong to a neighbor.

Therefore love is the fulfilling

of the law." So when we come back to John, what is John actually

asking? What is John's expectation? It's this.

He's calling us for continuous displays of

love. In our actions and inner attitude, the places we go

and where we show up, continuous displays of love.

Because for John, this is fundamental to being a follower of Jesus

and a child of God. And maybe you're thinking, "What

do these continuous displays of love look like?" Because it sounds like a

lot. Maybe that, I mean, it...

It's making me tired just thinking about it.

What are you saying when you say, "Continuous displays of

love?" Well, let me frame it for you this way.

Maybe a tighter, better question would be, "What does love require of

me?" What does love require of me? Because if- if I'm

s- to love one another, well, what does love... what does that mean?

What does that mean? Well, John here, in verse 12, starts with a negative

e- e- example. He's saying, "This is what it doesn't look like.

This is what's not required of you." In verse 12, he says,

"We should not be like Cain." W-

w- if you're walking in for the first time and you're not deep in your Bible

reading, you're like, "Well, who the heck is Cain?

And why would we want to not be like him?" Well, his story is

told b- way back in the first book of the Bible, and you can find it in Genesis

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4. But here, John is gonna give us some

commentary on what happened in that story back then.

Which is a good s- and this is an aside. This is an aside.

This is a good Bible study tip for us. Um.

What does scripture say about other scripture?

Like you're getting in a place and it's a little bit fuzzy.

Well, what else does the Bible say about what's going on here?

Okay, we're back.

(laughs)

This is what John says. John is saying this as he's looking, as he's

looking back to the story in Genesis 4.

He says, "While this guy Cain, he was of the evil

one." In other words, his behavior and his

actions, they're... It was an active display of evil.

It was determined. The evil that he was ex- uh, spewing forth was determined, it

was aggressive. It opposed everything

that was good. So in John's mind, "Don't be like that.

Don't be like that." John, uh, goes on and says, "Well, you know what?

Cain murdered his brother.

He murdered his brother." And the language here for this murder is

so graphic. It literally means to cut the

throat.

And I don't know about you, but you're reading that and you're like, "What could've

possibly have happened

that that became the result?"

And when I'm studying this and I'm wrestling with this, this is what came to my

mind. I'm like,

"What got him there?

What got him there? What series of ev-

events, what string of decisions, what happened in his childhood, what took

place in his family that would lead Cain to think, 'You know what?

The best option

before me is murder'? What would get him there?"

And so, I'm thinking, "If that got him there, is it

possible..." Listen. "Is it

possible for me to get there?

Is it possible for me to get there?" So I asked myself the second question, "What

would it take to get me there? What type of

experience, what type of pain would lead me to take violent action?" Now,

listen, listen. I'm not suggesting that you will respond to dry turkey or

undercooked mac and cheese with this level of violence.

That's not what I'm saying.

(laughs)

But listen to me. Listen. I don't think Cain, as he was

mapping out his life,

was planning on decision-making himself to a place of

stupid.And

maybe the problem wasn't that he planned himself towards ruin, but

that he didn't plan himself away from it.

See, wisdom takes work,

it takes vigilance. I love the way Ryan Holiday

captures this, this thought in his new book about wisdom.

He says, "There is always more to learn, more to know, more to

understand about the world and yourself."

And then this is where it gets a little bit alarming for me, he says, "But the

converse is also true." Listen, "No matter how dumb

someone seems to be,

(laughs) there is always room for

surprise."

(laughs)

"For human stupidity is also

infinite."

Some of you have seen this in action.

And sometimes the actor may have been you.

(coughs)

But here's the problem, when infinite stupidity

meets tempting opportunity,

the outcomes can get disastrous really, really, really

quick. When we go over to Genesis to the

story, the original story in chapter 4,

when you look at verse 7, there's a conversation going on between God and

Cain.

And it says there, God speaking to Cain, "If you do

well, will you not be accepted? And if

you do not do well," look at this, this is alarming to me,

"sin is crouching at the door. Its desire

is contrary to you, but you must

rule over it." He's letting us know, he's

reminding us sin is a threat, it's always, it's always crouching,

it's ready to pounce

when we least expect it, when we're ready or if we're not.

And if we're not ready, listen, listen, if we're not ready, we

have no chance to rule over it. We have no

chance to rule over it. And when we continue in John's story as he's

talking about Cain's demise, what went wrong? He asks the question, "Well, why?

What went, what happened here?" And he answers it and says, "Because his

own deeds were evil and his brother's were righteous."

Now when you think about context, because

if you've been here for the last few weeks, this looks back up, you can see that

he's given an example from verse eight in this chapter, and he's talking about what

he'd been talking about in verse 10.

So when you're reading back through this later, notice the

connections. But what happens here when John asks the question,

it reveals not only a problem that Cain has, it reveals a problem that

I have, and it reveals a problem that you have.

It's a heart problem. It's a heart problem.

You and I have heart problem, what are we gonna do with these matters of the heart?

But look at the sequence in the life of Cain.

Jealousy led to hatred, and hatred led to murder.

What seems like often in our lives, like small

decisions that could be insignificant, they can

spiral and result in massive

destruction. What John is getting to is this idea that our inner nature, our inner

nature, what's going on in our heads and in our hearts will

overflow in how we act and how we behave.

Instead of ruling his anger, instead of ruling his jealousy, instead of ruling his

resentment, Cain allowed it to rule him, and it resulted

in an action that he couldn't walk back.

Now I don't know about you, but I don't wanna be on the wrong side of a decision

that I've made that I can't walk back.

And so let me ask you, this is the portion of the message where I get in your

business,

what are you allowing to rule you?

What are you allowing to rule

you?

You see, 'cause what we, how we deal with

what we have to deal with

is a big deal. How we deal with what we have to

deal with is a big deal, because our

response says something about us.

Our response reveals something that's going on in our

heart.

John in verse 13 says, "Do not be surprised, brothers, that the

world hates you." Uh, let me just

remind us that evil has been trying to disrupt, destroy, and

overcome, overcome good since the beginning.

And this love/hate language, this is the strongest language, the

strongest expression of our em- our emotions.

And this is what John is really pressing into

in this part of his letter. And he's just reminding us, listen, if you're

a follower of Christ,

if you're a follower of Christ, how you look to a watching world should be

noticeably different than what the world is offering.

The look of love looks very different.

And how do we know that there's a difference?

He says in verse 14, "We know that we have passed out of death into

life." Well, what can we know? We can know that there, a

move has happened, that we have moved from death to life.

The word pass means that there has been a movement from one place to

another, and here he's talking about a spiritual movement that has

happened. Well, how is it revealed?

How can we know that this movement has taken place?

He says it's because of our love for the brothers, and it's do- this is not just

limited to guys, he's talking about the whole family here.

It is revealed, it is revealed in our love for others.

John is not saying that loving others earns our eternal life, what he is saying

that it is evidence that a transformation has

taken place. But what could be alarming and what you need to notice alongside

this is if there is not love for others, that is

evidence as well. It's evidence that a

transformation has not

occurred.And I was wrestling with this.

This, this seems like hard, you love or you hate?

But I don't know about you, maybe you've experienced this.

Have you ever bumped into someone and they're just ...

they're easy to love? You're like, "Man, I like

you. We could hang out." And then there's, there's times you bump into

someone, they're, they're not easy to love but they're easy to

...

they're easy to hate. You're like, you're three seconds in their presence and you'd

like to fry their jaw. (smacking sound)

(laughing)

Like what is that?

And where does that even come from, right?

But where are we ... where ... what if we're in the middle of that?

We know that we are to love others, but we have

this connection and we have this relationship and it's difficult and it's heavy

and we're trying to navigate our way through it.

For those of you that are in that place with some of your relationships, I would

just encourage you,

look at the trajectory. What's going on in your heart?

Maybe the hating that you hate, it's a good

indicator that transformation is occurring, that you're moving

in the right direction. And this is a big deal.

It's a big deal that we need to wrestle with because he says in verse 15, "Everyone

who hates his brother is a murderer."

See, we think hate's hate and murder's murder, but here they're

equated. John is equating one's inner attitude with one's

overt actions. But where did John get this

thinking? Where did John get this thinking?

Where did this come from?

He heard it

from the mouth of Jesus.

In the Sermon on the Mount, this is what Jesus says, "You have heard it said to

those of old, 'You shall not murder and whoever murders will be

liable to judgment.'"

Well, I mean, we could agree with that. That, that all sounds good.

Yes, murder is bad, judgment on someone who does murder, that seems good.

But then Jesus levels it up when he goes on and continues to say, "But I

say to you, everyone who is angry with his brother will be

liable." And he goes on and says, "Whoever insults his brother

will be liable. Whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable." Now

I don't know what your Thanksgiving table could be like, but some of this back half

stuff, maybe it's there.

And this is why Paul encourages those of us as followers of Christ

that we should constantly be examining ourselves and testing ourselves

to see whether we are in the faith. He says in Second

Corinthians 13, "Examine yourselves. Examine yourselves.

Test yourselves.

Make sure you're not failing the test." And how can we know if we

meet the test? And then John goes to a positive

example. Look at verse 16. This is what love looks like.

He gives us a supreme example of love, "By this we know

love, that he laid down his life." We

can know Jesus, we can know Jesus not in concept

but in relationship. And as John is unpacking this, what we see is that Jesus

denied himself and he took up our ...

his cross for our benefit, and now John is challenging us that we should

deny ourselves, that we should take up our cross for the benefit of

others. And what does that mean? It

means being selfless and sacrificial.

This is what the life of faith looks like.

This is what it means to follow the example of Jesus.

It means loving another will cost you something.

Amen.

So just to recap where he's been. He's talking about love hate, the love hate

test. Hate is negative and it seeks to harm of others.

Love is positive and it seeks the welfare of others.

Hate leads to hurtful activity. Love is other,

others-oriented. Hate is haughty. Hate is self-righteous.

Love is humble, it is sacrificial.

Following the example of Cain, it can result in murder.

Following the example of Jesus, it can come with great

... or at great personal cost. And so let me just ask you, what's going on in

your head? What's going on in your heart?

Because this is the battleground.

This is the battleground of the love hate test.

We should be examining ourselves and asking ourselves this

often. Often.

And then John practically shows us, well, how can we

tell? How can we tell which way we're moving?

How can we tell if we have a good trajectory here?

He, he says in verse 17, "But if anyone goes, if anyone has the

world's goods and sees his brother in need

yet closes his heart against him, how does God's

love abide in him?" So when you see someone in need, when you see a need that needs

to be met, what's your first response?

Is your heart open or is your heart closed? Are, are you soft?

Do you have a soft heart in that situation or are you cynical?

Are you generous or are you stingy?

These things reveal things about our heart.

Love is willing to surrender, it's willing to enrich the life of another.

And here at Raleigh Campus, in this season, there are multiple things

going on that you can be involved with that are, that are low-hanging fruit in

how you can serve others and love others.

In Garner, we, we're doing the Miracle Mall.

What an opportunity to get in and meet the needs of families there.

The Community Caroling will be a opportunity here at Raleigh.

And let's just say, can we all agree we liked it better when it was Caroling with,

with Corey?

But either way, we'll go with caroling, you know, Community Caroling.

And then at Apex, they, they're gathering bikes, you know, Bikes for

Hope. So are you standing around? Listen, are you standing around waiting to be

served or are you looking for opportunities to make an impact on the

life of another by serving them selflessly?

And then John implores us, "Let us not love in word or talk

but in deed or in truth."

John is letting us know that love does.

It's not expressed in mere talk or in sentiment but it's

in actions and in deeds.And that brings us to the test

question. Remember, we said this was a test, so here's the test question.

Do I love only in speech,

or do I love in sacrificial action?

Is my so-called love limited to my

heartfelt post on social media?

Or maybe the good intentions that float through my head?

Maybe, come on, uh, this is the season, you guys are busy, you're all

important. Does your schedule hinder you

from loving others?

And John has reminded us that we are to love one another (laughs)

He's given us a negative example, he's given us a positive example, and as we round

the corner in verse 19, he's gonna start building towards our second

test. So the first test, the love test, love-hate test,

and now he's moving towards a second test to give us encouragement and confidence

as we fight for certainty in our faith

journey. In verse 19 and 20, he's gonna bring up matters

of the heart. He's gonna bring up matters of the heart, and we will see that

our heart can both assure us

and condemn us. In 19, he uses the word again,

know. If we can know, we can know, we can know, it's not,

"Uh, I wonder, I'm not certain, I don't know." No, you can know.

You can know. This is not about hoping. But notice his clarity.

He doesn't frame this as a question. He gives it as a statement.

"We are of the truth."

He is reminding us of our sure identity and our origin in

Christ.

According to the second part of verse 19, our hearts can be

reassured. And I don't know about you, but in seasons of uncertainty, what do you

have to do to find some assurance, some rest, some reassurance

before Him? See, the heart is so tricky.

It is so tricky. Look at verse 20. You can see, our heart condemns us.

But notice how John responds with such optimism.

He says, he, he's optimistic though because he sees God is greater

than our heart, and He knows

everything. When we approach God, we are approaching the one who knows

everything about our hearts. He knows what's what.

And He has already told us all the way back in chapter two verse one that we have

an advocate, we're not in this alone.

We have someone who is interceding for us, we have a helper, we have one that's

gonna encourage us and one that's gonna comfort us.

And he says in 21, "If our heart doesn't condemn, we have confidence before

God." And the confidence that he's talking about is access

to the throne room where the decisions of the universe are

made. He's talking about prayer. He's talking about

prayer and he mentions it here the first time in his letter, and I love the image

that he uses. He says, "Before God," which is

this idea of a face-to-face relationship.

And he says in 22, "When we ask." He's talking about

prayer. He's talking about a connection and a conversation with God, and he's

pointing out, he's pointing out here that answered, answered

prayer, answered prayer is not merely

a fortuitous circumstance. It didn't happen by good luck.

It is a specific response from God because we are

yielding to Him and being obedient to His

commands. And it's a condition, but not the cause of answered prayer.

And we are invited to come boldly to God

because of the work of Jesus Christ.

You see, Jesus kept God's commandments perfectly when we didn't.

He kept, He com- He kept God's commandments perfectly when

we couldn't. He kept God's commandments perfectly when we

wouldn't

because of the shape of our heart. And when it comes to prayer, let me give you

another aside. When, when it comes to prayer, it's not, it's rare that we

ask too much.

In fact, because of our guilt and our shame and because of things that have gone on

in our past, we are more likely to ask too little.

And I wanna challenge you. What big prayers are you praying?

What big prayers should you be praying?

Because you know what's going on in your life, you know what's going on in the life

of your family, you know you should be leaning in.

I want to remind you of who you should be praying to or who you are praying to.

And it makes me think of the words in a John Newton hymn where he reminds us that

you are coming to a king, large petitions would you bring,

for his grace and power are such that none can ever ask

too much. What are you going after in prayer before the

King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

Don't go short on your prayers. John sums up this section in 23 and

24.

He says, "This is the commandment that we believe in the name of

His son, and love one another." John calls for an

explicit belief in Christ

and an active love for one another.

Love for others flows from belief in Christ, and belief and

love are connected. You cannot have one without

the other.

Believing in Christ is trusting in who He

is. It's trusting in what He has done, and it is

trusting in where He is leading. And it's

trusting where He's leading. And it's trusting where He's

leading. It's trusting where He's leading even when

it doesn't make sense and it makes you feel anxious and it makes you feel

uncertain. But trusting in where He's leading, what that

looks like,

what that looks like is doing what He says.

And this is the second test, the obey and abide

test.

Are you trusting Him enough to obey and do what He says?

Are you willing to remain? In verse 24, that's where you see the word

abide. We've seen it throughout this series.

It means to remain, it means to trust.

And for John, abiding is the epitome......

of trusting Christ. Trusting Christ will result in confident

assurance for us

and love and action towards

others.

And the test question for us:

Am I obeying God's two foundational

commandments; faith in Jesus

and love for other people?

Now listen, these, these tests are not meant

to crush

or discourage Christ followers. They're meant to give us

assurance. They're meant to give us confidence.

But they're also there for another reason.

To nudge us just in case there is even a

little bit of spiritual

drift. And that can be

tough, but a loving God doesn't want us to

drift in a wrong direction. Now, earlier

I mentioned

a very uncertain time for my family in the wake of my

stroke,

and when we talk about love and action,

it's, it can get easy for us to dismiss it.

We can say things like, "Someone else'll step

up. Someone else'll do

it." And dependent on your level of cynicism, you could

look at a situation at, at a family and

say, "That's not so much. They should be able to

handle that themselves."

I want to share with you

how my perspective was changed. When we were

in a mess and completely overwhelmed and not sure what to do

next,

a group of people showed up.

We didn't ask. They showed up and they prayed and they

provided. They prayed for us and they provided for us.

And by providing, uh, uh,

mealss,

gift cards. They ran errands, like taking our kids to their

practices.

And listen, I know that on the giving end

some of that can seem insignificant and it's not that

much.

On the giving end, that's not that much, uh, it's no big

deal.

But I want you to know

that it is not insignificant

on the receiving end.

It is not insignificant on the receiving

end, and as Christ followers we have a significant

opportunity to make an impact on the world around

us.

Even with what might seem like small

things, small acts, insignificant,

they can change someone's

perspective, and when one

person's perspective changes,

that could be a catalyst for changing the

world. And so when I look back on that season of

uncertainty and I think it through, I can only respond with

gratitude

that my perspective was changed on how God loves

and how he's at work in the world. And let me tell

you, I hope you come to that realization

during this season as well. Let me pray for

you.

Dear Heavenly Father,

I'm so grateful

that even in s- uncertainty

we can be certain of your love towards us

because of the sacrificial, sacrificial love and

acts of your Son. Thank you, thank you, thank you,

and may we look at that and may your love and acts

frame everything that we do and think during this season, and that we

would respond

only with gratitude. And it's in your Son's name we pray.

Amen.