Mike Huckabee

What a blessing to be here.

Boy, the music and the worship and the praise.

Just incredible.

And I'm so grateful to get to be a part of the conference tonight.

Thank you, Pastor, for the invitation to be here.

I do want to note, however, you notice the pastor, he didn't wear a tie.

He didn't tell me that.

First time in my life, I actually have a tie and a shirt that coordinate.

He told me I could take it off.

I said, No way, brother.

This matches, man.

Usually I go someplace and somebody will say, Yeah, I used to have a tie that didn't go with anything either.

So next time I come, no tie.

Blessed be the tie that binds, they say.

You know why I'm here tonight?

No, I came.

I came because I love this place.

I love Gateway.

It's one of the most amazing churches in the world, not just America, but the world.

It's incredible.

So I came because I wanted to be here because I knew it was going to be a blessing to me.

But I'm asking, do you know why I am here as part of this conference?

Well, look, I've been a pastor, so I understand.

If you have an event that goes several nights, you know that most of your folks can't make it to all of them, right?

So you need one night that's kind of on the down low so that, you know, people can feel good that they.

Honey, if we're going to have to sit one out, let it be Tuesday when Huckabee is there.

We can catch him on the TV.

So you just don't know how glad I am that you accidentally forgot this is Tuesday night.

Thank you very much.

One of the events I had when I was governor was speaking at an elementary school, the George Elementary School of Springdale, Arkansas.

Now, earlier that morning I'd been in the junior high for a science fair to hand out some awards, and then I was supposed to go over to the George Elementary School, and it was reading week across America.

And normally every year during National Week of Reading, I would go to schools and they would ask me to read a story to school children.

This day I was supposed to go read to first graders at the George Elementary School of Springdale.

Now, because the science fair ran a little late, had nothing to do with that.

I was there as long as they needed me, and then I hurried away from there.

And we got over to George Elementary, and it was, you know, 15, 20 minutes later than what we had originally thought we would be.

Principal was at the door, ringing her hands.

Oh, we've been waiting.

They're waiting down in the room for you.

Hurry, let's go.

So they hustled me down the hall.

And I got down there to the first grade class where I was supposed to read a story that day.

I walk in, all the first graders were seated on the floor around this one of these little chairs, the little first grade chair where I'm supposed to sit.

I knew I could get in it.

I wasn't sure I could ever get out of it.

But they had the book that I was supposed to read in the little chair, so I went and I sat down in the little chair.

And because I don't like to just walk in and start reading the book to these kids without having a little bit of conversation with them.

So I wanted to break the ice.

It was October, a couple of weeks before Halloween.

So I said, Well, kids, I guess some of you will be getting all costumed up.

You want to tell me about it?

Every hand went up.

And I'd call on a little boy, and he'd say something, and a little girl.

One little girl right on the front, she had her hand up, and it wasn't just like it was.

She was so energetic.

I mean, she was about I thought her arm was gonna come out of the socket.

And I thought, she can't keep this up forever.

So naturally, I was gonna call on her last.

Just to see if she could hold on to that level of energy.

And so I asked this kid, and this kid went all around.

And and finally, I realized, okay, I'm I'm down to her.

And she's still just giving it this.

So I said, yes, sweetheart, what would you like to say?

And I thought, you know, anybody this energetic probably wants to say, I just want to tell you my mother thinks you're the best governor we've ever had in the whole history of the state.

In my heart, I knew that's what she wanted to say.

So when I called on her, I later found out her name was Ashley.

I didn't know it at the time.

But I called on her, I said, yes, sweetheart, what would you like to say?

And as plainly as she could, she says, we're already late for lunch.

Somehow the fact that the governor of her state, out of hundreds and hundreds of elementary schools, had chosen her school and her classroom to come and read a story meant nothing to her.

It was Wednesday at George Elementary School in Springdale, and Wednesday was corndog day.

She could care less about the governor being at her school.

She did not want to miss the corn dog or get one that was cold.

My staff made fun of me for that for the rest of my term.

You thought you were a big deal.

You're not as important as a corn dog.

You know, your life has been reduced to rubble when you are of less value than a cold corn dog.

But I thought as I left that day and we were laughing about that little girl and her wanting to get to the cafeteria on time so she could get a warm corn dog, I thought, wouldn't it be great if the only thing that little girl grew up having to worry about was getting her corn dog on time?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the kids born in America today, sitting in an elementary school, had nothing else to be concerned about for their entire future than getting to the cafeteria on time.

And I thought, but that's not what these kids are gonna grow up having to worry about.

They're gonna grow up in a world in which their parents and grandparents have already spent 90% of the paychecks they've never even earned.

They're gonna grow up in a world where there's such confusion about what it means to be a family.

This week in New York, this very week, a judge has ruled that a man and a woman who are mere friends, a platonic relationship, they're cordial with each other, they don't even live together.

They're not romantically involved, they're just friends.

And the judge has granted them the opportunity to adopt a baby, a baby from Ethiopia.

And the judge's rationale was well, even though the child was split time between the man and the woman, it's okay because that too can be a family.

I'm not disparaging the intentions or the motives of the man or the woman.

In fact, I laud the fact that they want to do something gracious and kind, and I'm sure in their hearts extraordinarily benevolent.

But I do want to say that the little girl at Springdale Elementary is going to grow up in a world where the definition of family won't mean anything like it has meant throughout human history.

In Utah, a judge has decided that polygamy is in fact okay.

And why not?

How can we deny people the opportunity to marry multiple people of the opposite gender when we've decided that it's okay to marry at least one of the same?

And how is it that the definition of family has become so amazingly confused that in so many cases, even those of us who are part of the Christian family have a divorce rate that is equal to the divorce rate of the people who are not affiliated at all with the Christian faith.

Again, I understand life's tough.

Many people have tough experiences in life.

My point is, I wish that little girl didn't have to grow up worried about what it means when we say family.

But she's gonna have to grow up worrying about that, or at least wondering what does it mean, or does it mean anything?

Or does it mean whatever I want it to mean when I want it to mean it?

We're living in a time in which because the values of our culture are so very confused, a lot of people do believe that the answer is in the next election.

And you might think legitimate assumption perhaps on your part, that because I have run for office, served in office, even run for the presidency, that I too would believe that the real way that we change this country and its culture and its values is through the electoral process.

Now, I clearly believe that elections and politics have a place.

I believe it's important.

I I can't understand why somebody would ever say, Oh, I love Jesus, but I'm not gonna vote.

I don't understand that.

And it's not because you're gonna vote a certain way.

I mean, that's up to you and God, but I I can't understand that you would live in a culture that gives you the opportunity to choose leaders, and you would just say, No, I'm not going to choose.

I would say to you what I used to say to high school students when I go to high school.

I never asked them about corn dogs, by the way.

But I go to a high school and you could walk in, you could see these students all slouching and swamping, like, yeah, I'm not gonna listen to this guy.

And so the first thing I would say is, All right, how many of you here in the high school are really interested in politics and government?

And of course, virtually none of them would raise a hand.

None of them.

And I'd pause a moment, I'd look around and say, Well, I don't see a single hand.

Whew, boy, am I glad.

Well, that got their attention.

And I said, Yeah, I know that may surprise you, but actually I'm delighted to see that none of you care about politics, and I'm thrilled to see that none of you are interested in government.

Boy, does that make my job easier.

I said, you may not understand this, but I was really afraid I'd come to this school and all of you be all worked up about politics, and that was going to be tough for me.

But now that I find out that you don't care about it, I'm greatly relieved.

Because you see, we've been having some meetings at the Capitol, and we've been talking about the fact that we need to raise the age at which you can get a driver's license from 16 to 21.

And of course, their reaction, well, it was more audible than yours, but it wasn't as favorable as yours.

And there was they were moaning and groaning and screaming at me, and I said, no, no, no, no.

I said, and there's some other things we've talked about.

We we also believe that because of sexually transmitted diseases and the problems that so many teens are having with teen pregnancy, we should raise the age at which a person can legally date a member of the opposite gender to 25 unless accompanied by one or more parents.

You'd be surprised those high school students didn't think that was a good idea.

And I said, and also we would raise the age at which a person could purchase alcohol to 30.

And at this point, I had their total undivided attention.

Just this short of mob violence, let me add.

But then I would say to them, now wait a minute, hold it, guys.

A while ago you told me you didn't care anything about government or politics.

And now you're acting like it matters.

I said, you see, when you told me you didn't care about it, I assumed that whatever we did to you was fine with you.

Because you weren't interested.

And I assumed that you understood that politicians don't work for the people.

I said, I know that's what your civics book says.

That's not true.

And if you think it is, you're incredibly naive.

Let me explain it to you.

Politicians don't work for the people, they work for the voters.

See, the voters hire them, and only the voters can fire them.

People who don't vote, don't hire them, can't fire them.

Politicians are not afraid of the people, they are afraid of the voters.

And if you don't care about politics and government, we don't have to be afraid of you.

But if you start voting, you get my attention, whether I get yours or not.

They got that.

So I say that because I think sometimes there are believers who say, I'm too spiritual to vote.

Well, great.

When the government tells you you can't pray, and the government tells you you can't sing a Christmas carol in public, and when the government tells you to take down the Christmas tree, and as happened not very far from here in Frisco, Texas, when the school was told they couldn't even wear red and green, because somebody might get the idea, it was Christmas.

Then just remember, why does that happen?

It happens because people decide that politics is not something they're interested in.

So I'm saying all of this as a preface.

People who say, I'm not interested.

I would say you should be, but I also say this.

For those of you who believe that we change the world by political methods, let me assure you that despite my own personal involvement in it, it is not the way that God will change America, the culture, or the world.

For the fact is this, we can change political structures without changing the spiritual foundation of the nation.

But you cannot change the spiritual foundation of the nation without having a radical impact upon the political culture of the nation.

And if we are serious about wanting to see America, all that it can be, it is incumbent upon us to recognize that the way in which that happens is that we change the spiritual temperature of America, and when we change the spiritual temperature of America, the politics and the governmental structure of America will also change.

But if all we do is change the political systems, the structures, and the players, it will not necessarily affect the spiritual, and our nation will still be in trouble, and little Ashley at George Elementary will still have to worry about a whole lot more than the temperature of her corn dog.

Jesus left us with some pretty clear instructions, and I want to share them with you tonight.

And if you have your Bible, New Testament, your smartphone, isn't it amazing you carry the whole Bible around in something this small?

And by the way, what I love about this, if I lose it, I just call the NSA and ask them, where's my phone?

Because they know.

Gospel of John, chapter 21, verse 15.

John 21:15

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

Oh, yes, Lord, he said.

You know that I love you.

Jesus said, Feed my lambs.

Again, Jesus said, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

He answered, Yes, Lord.

You know that I love you.

Jesus said, Take care of my sheep.

The third time he said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

And Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, do you love me?

He said, Lord, you all you know all things.

And you know that I love you.

And Jesus said, Feed my sheep.

The instructions that Jesus has given us are pretty clear.

They're fundamental.

And since they come from him, we ought to follow them.

And it starts with him saying three times to Simon Peter, feed my sheep.

If you love me, feed my sheep.

There's a big condition there.

If you love me.

I you know, I guess you could read that and say it this way.

If you don't love me, you won't be feeding my sheep.

Pretty simple, isn't it?

I'm not real smart, but I can put all that together.

If you love me, feed my sheep.

If you're not feeding my sheep, you must not love me.

Are we feeding the sheep?

How important is God's word in our culture today?

Today we have a lot of focus and emphasis, and it's a good one, on nutrition and health and well-being.

I'm I'm all about that.

I think it's wonderful.

Some people are really into organic foods and free-range chickens, and you know, they care more about where the chickens were they ate than where their kids were last night.

Kind of worry about that.

Your kids are more free-range than the chickens.

Chickens are fine, you're gonna eat them.

It's your kids you need to wonder where are they running around?

Well, we're into that, and I'm I'm fine with it.

But if I'm okay with a focus upon physical nutrition, shouldn't I be concerned about spiritual nutrition?

Shouldn't we absolutely insist that we are fed good spiritual food?

Would you come to this great church?

Would it even be a great church, if instead of the pastor giving the word of God so plainly and clearly, as Pastor Robert does here at Gateway, would you really be interested in coming and fighting through the parking lot and the crowds if he got up here every day and said, I'm going to read a poem today.

It's a poem about a puppy.

I hope it blesses you.

And maybe it would, but I mean, I think at some point, poems about puppies, you're gonna say, Look, you know what?

No offense, Pastor, but I need something a little deeper than that.

Problem is we don't get much good spiritual food.

We live in a time of absolute biblical ignorance.

I am amazed how little people know about the Bible.

I grew up in a time when we were reading Bible stories, even but in families where we didn't go to church, but there was still a sense of a God knowledge.

There was an understanding.

I mean, today you ask most kids who Adam and Eve are, and they think they were the winners of season four of Dancing with the Stars.

They think that the whole story of Daniel and the Lion's Den was a Nat Geo special last season.

That David and Goliath won a Grammy as the top country duo last year.

And that Paul and John were a couple of guys that joined with George and Ringo to form one of the best bands in the world.

They have no idea they wrote something of the Bible.

Different Paul and John, by the way, for those of you saying, really, I didn't know that.

Was that before Wings or after Wings?

Biblical ignorance.

Why does that matter?

Because it's hard to know how to play the game if you don't know what the rules are.

Today, when people make arguments that to those of us who are what I would call biblical believers, and it sounds so foreign to us, it's foreign to us because we say, wait a minute, that that is so completely out of the nature of God's will and God's word.

And yet, has it ever Crossed your mind that if you believe, for example, in traditional marriage, or if you believe in the idea that a person should actually work for that which he receives, what a novel idea.

But if you really believe that and you speak it as if it is a truth, that you are the one who's out of the mainstream.

That you are the one that has to defend that view.

And that you are the one who will be held in contempt and will be ridiculed for taking such an antiquated and ridiculous position.

And you will be told that you are, quote, on the wrong side of history.

That's one of the phrases that you hear today a lot.

You're on the wrong side of history.

Really?

How did I get on the wrong side of history?

How much history has there been of this new culture?

Here's my point.

Jesus told us to feed the sheep.

What are we feeding them?

And if we're not feeding them his word, his truth, his principles, those things which are eternal, then is it any small wonder that the sheep are sick?

And if the sheep are sick, all that is around them will be sick as well.

You see, I really am troubled because I see biblical ignorance in our culture that is profound.

And as I said, if we don't know the rules of the game, we can't win the game.

You gotta know the rules.

What are the rules?

Who wrote them?

Well, if you believe that there is a God and He created us and we didn't create Him, that's fundamental because if you don't believe that, none of this will make sense.

Let's start.

You believe God?

You believe there is one?

Okay.

Do you believe we created Him so that we could sort of feel better about ourselves, or did He create us?

Most of us here in this room and watching probably online and on day star would say, I think He created us.

Do you know that believing that is becoming an increasingly odd point of view?

Do you realize that fewer and fewer people today in America believe that God created us?

And the ones who believe that there is a God increasingly believe that God is a distant, impersonal, detached entity somewhere, but He's not at all involved in our personal lives and had really nothing to do with who we are and what we are in our present form.

We're the weirdos.

Jesus said, Feed my sheep.

And in order to feed the sheep, we've got to understand that if we don't, we don't love Jesus.

It's just, boy, that sounds blunt, doesn't it?

But if we're not feeding the good food, then Jesus said, you really don't love him.

Because three times that was the criteria.

By the way, I think sometimes we live in our lives where we want so much for God to put us in a different place.

Has it ever occurred to you, as I try to remind myself regularly, that God may in fact want you somewhere other than where you are, but until he opens that door for you to be where you think you ought to be, where you are is there for a reason.

But the fact is, God has you where you are because he probably has someone to whom you're to minister where you are.

And if you minister to that person or those persons where you are, God may open up another place.

But until you're faithful in feeding the sheep that are already within your hands' grasp, don't expect him to put you in a different pasture, because how could he entrust you to a different flock if you will not feed the flock you've got?

That makes no sense.

Jesus said, feed.

By the way, if you feed, you do something else, you will lead.

Because you cannot feed if you don't lead, you cannot lead if you don't feed.

And it's implicit in his command.

Leaders, their job is to empower and equip others.

See, I've always believed that the real essence of leadership is not to get behind people and kick them in the backside and tell them what they ought to do, it's get in front of them, model a behavior, and say, follow me and do what I do.

That's leadership.

Asking people to do something that you don't feel that you should be doing is not leadership.

You see, leaders never ask others to do what they are unwilling to do.

Never.

Now, leaders may not be able to put up all the chairs, but they're not going to be going to say, you put up the chairs because I'm too good to.

And in fact, a good leader will go put up some chairs until some people say, Leader, we don't need you putting up chairs.

We can do that.

Do something that we value you in more than this.

But the leader who says, Oh, I'm not going to put up chairs, I'm way too good for that.

It's not a leader.

And by the way, here's another thing about a leader.

When a leader has to tell you that he's the leader, there's one thing you can know.

He ain't the leader.

Leaders never have to come into the mouse.

I'm the leader here.

I don't know if y'all know this or not, but I am the leader.

Have you ever been in the position, the situation where somebody had to continually remind you, I just want y'all to know I'm the boss.

Some of you work for someone like that.

Some of you are married to someone like that, but I don't want to go there.

You get the picture.

When a person is constantly reminding you that he or she is in charge, the one thing that person has communicated to you, though they don't realize it, is that they are not in charge.

Because a person who really leads doesn't have to announce it.

A person who is a true leader leads and people follow.

And the exhortations is not calling attention to self, it's calling attention to the task that needs to be performed and the team of getting there.

In Judges chapter 9, there's an incredible story that people really ought to pay attention to.

Judges 9 · chapter mention

It's the story of Abimelech.

And Abimelech went to the people, and he really wanted to be a leader.

He wasn't much of one, but he wanted to be so badly.

And here's what he told him.

He said, If you'll let me be your leader, I will simplify your life.

I will make it easier for you.

I'll make the decisions for you.

You won't have to decide anything.

I'll decide for you.

Hear me tonight.

A person who tells you that he will simplify your life is not a leader.

A person who tells you that he will take away the burdens of you having to have any responsibility, and he will accept responsibility for your decisions.

That person is not a leader.

That person is a megalomaniac.

That person is dangerous.

When somebody in government tells you that they will make your life simpler, beware.

It is not the purpose of a leader to make people less responsible.

It is the purpose of a true leader to help people become the most responsible that they can possibly be.

Not to make them dependent, but to make them independent and capable of acting on their own.

I cannot imagine anything more painful as a parent or now as a grandparent than my children or grandchildren never being able to grow up to a point of maturity, whether they could speak or walk, or whether they could think or make decisions, or even butter a piece of toast.

It would break my heart.

What happens to a country when our leaders tell us, elect me, I'll take your problems, I'll make your life easy, I'll simplify your life.

Run from that.

That is not a biblical model.

That is the sin of Abimelech.

Read Judges 9 and see what happens to the culture.

Read what happens to the people, who entrust to someone who claims to be their leader, but who makes them more dependent, less independent, and who ultimately takes away their capacity to be responsible and accountable for their own lives and actions.

It is the end of our culture and the end of our country when we create a generation that is more dependent and completely irresponsible and never says, yes, it's my fault.

We must have a group of people who recognize we are responsible and we are accountable to God and to each other.

Now let me say that if we feed the sheep because we love Jesus, and if we love Jesus, we'll feed the sheep.

And if we do that, we'll be leading because that's what he asked us to do, and that's entrusting leadership.

He didn't say, Peter, this is the worst, the least, the most unimportant job I could give.

He said, This is the most important thing you can do.

This is leadership.

I'm giving you something of importance.

That's leadership.

You get it, Peter?

You love me?

Feed my sheep.

Now I'm giving you this responsibility, so since it's a responsibility and you have it, that's leadership.

Feed, lead.

By the way, one other thing.

Bleed.

That's right, bleed.

I didn't explicitly say, Peter, you're gonna die for me.

But Peter one day would die for him.

And why?

The same guy that ran and hid in the courtyard of Caiaphas?

And all he was being asked, hey, weren't you with that Galilean?

Aren't you with this guy?

Don't you know him?

No, I don't know him.

Three times he was asked, Do you know this guy?

No.

You sure you don't know him?

No, I don't know him.

Well, you've got an accent like the Galileans.

I'm pretty sure you were with him.

I think we've seen you.

No, it wasn't me.

And the cock crowed.

And the prophecy was fulfilled.

This same coward who sat there at the court of Caiaphas at the campfire at night and denied three times that he knew Jesus now says, I will feed your sheep.

And would one day be crucified upside down because it was reported that Peter did not feel worthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord, and he asked to be crucified upside down so that he wouldn't die in the same manner as the one to whom he had entrusted his soul.

What changed him?

He had been entrusted.

Are we willing to pay a price?

Are we willing to take a risk?

I'm afraid sometimes we live in our cultures where we are very happy to receive the benefits of being a Christian.

We just don't want the real responsibilities if it means that some people are going to misunderstand us, are going to hate us, are going to scorn us.

There was a time when it was pretty popular to be Christian.

It was good for business, in fact.

I don't know what kind of town you grew up in.

I grew up in a very small town.

Everybody knew each other.

I could get in trouble nine blocks from my house.

By the time I could ride my bicycle home, six people had called my parents and told them what I'd done.

You know the phrase, takes a village to raise a child.

I don't know if it does or not, but the whole village worked on me.

I know that.

And they all felt like they could discipline me.

You know, you do that today, you'd have people arrested.

Every person in the neighborhood felt like they could take a whack at me, you know, and they did.

I'm not suggesting that we need to go back to that.

There's some people in my neighborhood I wouldn't trust whacking my kids, okay?

But I mean, I'm just telling you it was a different culture because we all lived in a world in which there was a sense of community.

We don't have that.

What we have today is a an independence, an awkwardness.

That's very different.

It was once a time when if a person were a businessman of the community, like in the small town where I grew up, if he said, I'm not a Christian, heavens know, I'm not going to church, I hate church, hate God.

God wouldn't be in business very long.

Now, he could be the biggest hypocrite in the world and really not love God, but he would it certainly pretend that he did because to not do so would kill his business.

Today, there are people whose businesses are being killed because they have taken a stand for Christ.

There are people who are paying a price today.

David Green and the Green family of Hobby Lobby risk losing their entire business because they refuse to spend the money that they earn to pay for things that they find to be morally objectionable in health insurance.

And they could be fined a million and a half dollars a day, and at that cost, it wouldn't take long before it would bankrupt their company.

And you know what they've said?

To the glory of God and to their credit, and I thank God for their courage.

They have said, if it bankrupted, it bankrupted.

But here we stand, we can do no other.

God bless them.

And you know what's bad?

There are too few of the people like that.

Why is it that we celebrate them and applaud them?

Because they're the ones who stand out.

How many others are like them who would be willing to risk everything that they've worked a whole lifetime for to be able to say, I will not budge my moral convictions.

And so we're living in a time when people are having to finally understand that to love Jesus is to feed.

And it's to bleed.

I think some folks are willing to feed.

They might even be willing to lead.

But are you willing to bleed?

What are you willing to give up to follow Jesus?

To show that you love him.

See, I used to think I knew what love looked like.

But then I saw love in a way.

In a moment in an afternoon at a hospital that changed my understanding of what love means.

Delbert Garrett was a retired pastor in Texarkana.

Almost 30 years ago, I was his pastor.

His wife, whose given name was Roberta, but everybody called her Robbie, started developing early signs of Alzheimer's disease.

And at first she just couldn't remember people's names, and you know the drill.

It's a progressive disease.

A person never gets better, they only get worse.

I'm watching my mother-in-law go through it right now.

It's the most horrible thing, I think.

It's worse than death because it is death.

It just takes so long to fully realize it.

And Robbie started forgetting things, and then it got more severe than just forgetting somebody's name when she saw them.

She'd leave a pot of peas on the stove and it would burn.

And if Delbert wasn't right there to go and turn the stove off and to take care of her, she could have burned the house down.

One day he came home from running an error and he'd just been gone for about 30 minutes to the store not far from their street on 24th Street, and he got back into the neighborhood and he looked up ahead, and Robbie was out in the middle of the street just wandering around in a busy four-lane street.

He understood, and we all told him, Robbie, our reader Delbert, you're not going to be able to keep Robbie at home forever.

Not by yourself.

Delbert's heart was broken because he couldn't stand the thought of putting her in a long-term care center.

And he tried, diligently, he tried to keep her at home.

But he got to the place where she was becoming an increasing danger to herself and to everyone around her.

And Delbert finally made the tough decision that many families have had to make.

And he made arrangements for her to go into a long-term care center where she'd be having 24 hour supervision.

But Delbert would go to Robbie's side every day, three times a day.

He fed her every single meal: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

And we said to him, Delbert, you need some time away.

You need some time to get away, relax.

You know, we'll come take care of some of this for you.

Let us take a day.

No, no, no.

She's my wife.

I love her.

I'll be there.

And every day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, no fail.

Delbert went and sat by Robbie's side.

The condition worsened as Alzheimer's does, and she got to the stage where she didn't recognize anyone, including Delbert.

In the final days of her life, she was in the hospital.

By this time, her state was virtually catatonic.

She had no expressions whatsoever, virtually no reflexes.

She stared at the wall in front of her straight ahead.

She had not spoken a word in more than a year.

I'd gone by to see Robbie in the hospital.

As I approached the room, I heard voices in there, and I thought, well, that's odd, because certainly not Robbie talking to anyone.

I got closer.

The door was cracked by just a little bit, so I just sort of looked in, and I saw something that I'll never forget as long as I live.

And I stood there for a moment and I watched.

The voice was Delbert's.

He stood over Robbie's bedside with a little bowl of soft food and a spoon.

And he would take just a little bit of the food and he would put it up to her lips.

And he'd say, Here, sweetheart, you gotta have something to eat now, honey.

Take a bite.

And he would gently put that spoon to her lips.

And nothing but reflex, and she would take a little bit into her mouth and swallow.

And he would wait and wipe her chin ever so gently.

And he'd say, Now, honey, have another bite.

Sweet Archie, gotta have some, gotta have some nourishment.

He'd take that spoon, he'd put it very gently back to her mouth and wait till she felt the spoon and took the saw food and swallowed it.

And I watched this for a second, I realized, what's he getting out of this?

Robbie hasn't said to Delbert in two years.

Delbert, I love you.

She hadn't even smiled in over a year.

She's had zero facial expressions.

She can't squeeze his hand.

She can't kiss him.

She can't hug him.

She doesn't even know he's there.

She has no earthly idea that he's in the room.

And he certainly, though he continues to say the sweetest, kindest words, has no expectation that he will get any reciprocal kindness in return from her.

But there he stands, spoon in hand, bite by bite, saying, I love you, honey.

Here, sweetheart.

Take a little more.

And I watched and I thought, this is love.

Love is when you give everything you have, even when there's nothing coming back.

Nothing.

Not a smile, not a verbal affirmation, not a wink, not a hug, nothing.

Jesus said, if you love me, feed my sheep.

Do we love him?

What if we don't get anything back?

What if we're not getting everything we want out of God?

I know too many people that they give up on God as soon as God hasn't given them what they think he ought to be giving them.

Greatest picture of love is not when we get what we want God to give us.

It's when we give what God told us to give the sheep.

Do you love him?

Do you really, really love him?

Let's pray.

Lord God, we so easily let the words come out of our mouth.

And we say, oh God, we love you.

Then I'm asked, my own soul, what does that mean?

Do I even understand it?

Do I really love you or do I love what you do for me?

Would I love you if I got nothing back?

Would I love you just because I'm being obedient to what you told me to do?

You told me to feed the sheep, lead them, and bleed for them.

Do I love you that much, Lord?

God, I pray that we will.

Not just for our sake, but for this nation we love and this world that we are responsible for.

May we love you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.