Greater Than | Part Two | Pastor Brodie Kalamen

Thank you for listening to the Kelowna Christian Center podcast.

Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging to you.

For more information on KTC and how to connect, visit us at KCC.net.

How many of you are grateful that God is greater than your failures?

God is grateful than your mess ups, your blemishes, your errors.

God is greater than.

Amen?

Right on.

Well, it's good to have everyone here today.

We've got a little bit of a different location experience right now.

We've got a great drama happening this next week.

HCS is doing the Lion King Jr.

And uh if you haven't got your tickets already, you can go online, you can connect with uh uh on our website and uh find your way through to get to the Lion King Jr.

And make sure to make one of the, I think there's almost seven or five or six, I'm not sure how many performances there are, like at least one every day starting Tuesday, right through to Saturday.

Uh make sure to attend this.

How many of you have picked up your book, your journaling book, 1 John?

Been going through the Word together this uh March, our challenge to each other is to just to really go through the scripture, to spend some time diving into the Word of God.

Um I every now and then, I have to admit, there are times in my life where even though I'm in study and preparation for messages and spending my time in connect groups and meeting with people that are Christian, there's a time where it's really important for me just to come before God on my own, allow his word to speak to me personally, and challenge the things that are in my heart and actually bring alignment to my life and to my heart.

And this is a personal time, so we're encouraging you, if you haven't yet picked up a book, go into the lobby, grab one of the books on 1 John.

It's an incredible book.

I've just been, my my heart has just been reignited.

My love for God, my response to God has been challenged, and it's reflective in my worship.

Just being able to not only worship God with intellect, but with emotion is really important.

Being able just to not only respond to God with our brain, but respond to God with our heart.

Because it'd be different for me to actually like say, I love you to my wife, but there's no heart to it, versus it there she understands and she realizes that there's actually a connection between us.

And my response to that.

So when God wants us to have fellowship with him, connection to him, it really requires not just intellect, but emotion as well.

Um, this morning we're gonna continue studying through the book of 1 John.

And if you haven't got a Bible with you and you just have your phone, you can access our Wi-Fi, and no one will blame you for downloading an app in service, okay?

Our KCC app has uh has a Bible available on it.

Uh we're going to jump right into 1 John chapter 2, verse 3.

1 John 2:3

And this is John the Apostle, and John's the disciple of Jesus.

And he wrote the Gospel of John, he wrote uh the book of 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and he's writing to primarily a Jewish audience of the day.

And his theme is to expose and express the greatness of God's love and to draw us and to cause in us to have a reciprocation to that love, to actually respond to the love that God has for us in a way that's meaningful, that develop, that response is fellowship, is connection, is intimate and personal.

And so when we fellowship with God, we realize that we're better.

When we fellowship with God and we connect to God, we move from a place of just doing things based on tradition and religion, and we move into relationship.

Because God didn't come to bring religion.

He came, Jesus didn't come to bring religion.

Jesus came to establish relationship between God and men.

The whole ministry of God was to reconcile the earth to himself, to reconcile you back to the Father.

He turns the hearts of his kids back to the Father.

That's why I love the parable of the prodigal.

The prodigal son, the prodigal that was gone, had left, had checked out.

He turns back and he comes back to the Father, and the Father's heart was open to his son who was gone.

He's announced to everyone, he says, My son who was lost has now been.

We all were lost at one point in our life.

We all were had checked out and gone our own way, but God provided a way for us to come back.

How many of you are grateful that God allowed a way to come back?

He allowed us that way through Jesus Christ, who's the way, the truth, the life.

The scripture says no one comes to the Father except they come through Jesus.

He becomes the way back to the Father.

The way back home.

So we learned last week, if you want to find your way back home, if you want to find your way back to the Father, you've got to walk in the light.

Light is greater than darkness.

And wherever there's a truth, the enemy brings in a lie.

And the lie is that if you walk in darkness, if you hide your blemishes, your mistakes, all your little errors, all the things that you don't want other people to see, your insecurities, you'll be better off.

But Jesus said, if you walk in the light, that life, the light of life of God will be in you.

And so when we walk in the light, it's actually a better way to be open before God, to be vulnerable before God.

Like my wife and I have been married for like how many years now?

14?

It must be forever.

It's like 14 years.

She chased me down.

She was relentless in her pursuit of me.

It was incredible.

14 years.

Yeah, dear.

I'm digging myself a hole, aren't I?

And but she is fully aware of my hang-ups.

She's fully aware of my bad habits.

She's fully aware of everything in my life where I end in error.

And my life really, she knows where I need renovation.

She knows where I need help.

But let me tell you, Natalie doesn't want, my wife doesn't want a perfect Brody.

She just wants an honest Brody.

That's perfect.

That's perfect.

But she wants an honest person.

And sometimes we think that if we walk in darkness, our relationship will be stronger.

But the fact is, she already knows my weaknesses.

She already knows my insecurities.

She already knows the areas where I mess up.

And so what she really wants is someone who walks honestly.

And when when we come before God, we realize that God already knows where we've messed up.

He already knows we're not perfect.

He doesn't want perfect people.

He knows he's not going to get it.

So you just come before God honestly.

And you just confess to God your error.

And you say, God help.

I realize that I'm hurting, and I know that you can heal.

I know that I've got hangups and I know that you can bring me back to life.

So living in honesty, living in the light is the first step to relationship and having true fellowship with God, true connection with God.

Honesty will provide that way of trust, and that trust will open the door to relationship.

In our nature, we think that people want perfection, but they just want that honesty.

Another factor to help us in living a life where we are in connection and in fellowship with God is by learning how to love.

Love better.

How to love.

If we want to have that relationship with each other, it goes beyond honesty and into a love, into a verb, an action, where we actually learn to love one another.

I'm going to read to you from 1 John chapter 2, starting in verse 3.

1 John 2 · chapter mention

It says this we know that we've come to know him if we keep his commandments.

Whoever says I know him, but does not do what he commands is a liar.

And the truth is not in that person.

But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is made complete in him.

This is how we know that we're in him.

Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

Set the standard up there a little bit.

Set the standard high.

This is God's word towards us.

Dear friends, I'm not writing you a new commandment, but an old one, which you've heard since the beginning.

This old command is the message you've heard, yet I'm writing you a new command.

Its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing, the true light is already shining.

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the dark.

Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there's nothing in them to make them stumble.

But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the dark and walks around in darkness.

They don't know where they're going because the darkness has blinded them and they stumble along the way.

If we want to walk a greater than life, we need to walk that life that's not only in the light, but walk a life that is in love.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you this morning for your word.

Lord, we open up our hearts to your word and we just say, change us by it, uh, transform us by it, wash us by your word.

Lord, we open up our heart to expose the dark places in our life, Lord, in our in our own heart.

We say, Lord, we want you and we want all of you.

We want less of us and more of you.

We want to live on earth as it is in heaven.

We want that lifestyle that you've fully intended for us, Lord.

We want to live above and not below, Lord.

We want to live ahead and not behind.

Lord, we want to live the way that you intended for us.

And so we offer this time to you, Lord, to speak to us by your Holy Spirit in Jesus' name.

And everyone who wants that says, Amen.

Amen.

A number of years ago, um, so the the message today is really love is greater than darkness, or love is greater than hate.

And uh I know I have to remember you don't have screens behind you this morning.

That's the title.

So if you're taking notes, and it's scientifically proven, if you take notes, your chances for a better mansion in heaven, it will happen.

So it's scientific, it's proven.

The other day, I was reminded of uh an experience I had.

I had the opportunity to meet a prophet.

A prophet.

A prophet, someone who just God speaks to this individual.

Just God, God's spoken and does unique things with these individuals.

And prophetic people are oftentimes in a, they're looking at life kind of like, what's ahead?

They've got this idea of what's on the other side of the hill, but they're they can't quite see it yet.

So they're working all the time to try and bring clarity to what they see, but they see it all, it's all fuzzy, and it's all uh it's all in a in a little bit of a haze.

And so this one prophet, um, his name was Bob Jones, and if many of you may have heard of him, um long-term, uh probably spent about 50 years in just prophetic ministry.

But a number of years ago, I was introduced to him, and he he spent his life doing what God told him to do, and oftentimes that was anti-cultural, and it oftentimes put a mark on him.

And he experienced a situation where he actually died and had one of those afterlife, after life experiences, like beyond life here experiences.

And his story was impactful to me at that point in time.

He when he was sharing, he said, he said, in this experience there was a lineup, and people, he had just died, and he realized he was died.

He was standing with this angel guide of sorts, and he could see this lineup.

And he said, this lineup was lined up to meet Jesus, and Jesus was at the very front, and Jesus was there, and his eyes were like just those big pools of blue, it was like pools of blue water.

And Jesus was asking a question to the people who were approaching him, and the the question was one simple question.

And the question was this Did you learn to love?

And as soon as people said, Yes, I've learned to love, I learned to love, they would get sucked into his eyes.

I told you this is prophetic stuff.

This is like, I'm not saying you're gonna go to heaven, this will be your experience, right?

I'm just saying this is what he had.

And people got sucked into his eyes, and I was like, wow, that's pretty animated.

And so they got sucked into his eyes, and he watches this little girl walked up to Jesus, and Jesus asked her, Did you learn to love?

And this little girl got sucked into his eyes, and he was excited.

He's like, Oh, I'm ready.

He walks up because he he had died and he had done everything in his ability, like to really champion the message of the good news, champion the word.

And he goes, he walks up to Jesus, and and and as he's waiting there, the he's looking at this other line up, and there's some people there who are are really oddly shaped, and it just one guy was wrapped in turf in in like landscaping.

Just like grass and dirt and fabric and all this stuff, and he was wrapped in it, he was just trapped in this turfing.

He asked the guy, he said, What's what's up?

And I'm thinking, What's up too?

Like, he says, Well, this is what this man loved.

He loved his yard, he loved his grass.

He loved, he took you everyone has that person on the street who has who's that person, right?

Every week he spends his time making sure everything is meticulous, and what he loved is what he'll serve for eternity.

He's trapped in this grass.

And so another person, of course, it was a little bit more symbolic and perhaps a little bit more uh understandable.

He another man was trapped in a glass, in a bottle.

And you can imagine what that was.

He said, Well, what about this man?

He's trapped in a bottle, he's just sucked into the form of this bottle.

He says, Well, this man, he served alcohol, he served, he served going to the bars and served doing all, like, spend all his time, resources, attention.

He loved drink.

And now for eternity, he'll be his master will be drink.

And at that point in time, I thought about it and I thought I'm not gonna tell you what happened at the end.

Did he get sucked into his eyes after God sent him back?

And that's how I heard from him.

I didn't go to the other side and talk to all my kids that was here.

But I came back, I thought, Lord, how do I love?

Do I love well?

Do I know how to love?

Do I know how to love like Jesus loved?

Would Jesus be happy with my demonstration of love?

Would Jesus be happy with the way I love?

And love is a word oftentimes that we we describe as an emotion, but the Bible says love is an emotion, love is a person that God is love.

He's not love isn't a feeling, it's a it's an actual person that abides with us, works through us.

And we often say things like, you know, we love ice cream, we love, we love, you know, the weather outside, we love the sun, we love spring, it's spring.

We love to sleep.

Many of you know what that feels like.

Um we love that, we love that experience, but on the same hand, we talk about love as like we love our children, we love our spouse, we love, we love our family.

And so there's a difference and there's uh an experience that accompanies love.

Love can take on different ranges of emotion because if I had a choice between my uh that that chocolate that I love so much, or my children, I'd choose my children.

Sometimes it's a toss up there.

But love is one of those, love is one of those experiences that we have.

It's our defining characteristic as a Christian.

Though scripture says that that the world knows that we're his and we belong to him because we have love for one another.

Well, how loving is the church?

How do we love?

Are you good at being able to love people?

Are you good at loving others?

It always comes back to the first commandment, and Jesus said this.

He said, This is all the commandments are wrapped up into this one love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, with strength, and love your neighbor.

Both of those contain that that love element.

And to be honest, I'm not one to actually talk about love because love for me is like it's an emotion, it's hard for me to connect to.

Am I good at love?

Like love, I like things I can touch and feel.

This creates stability to me.

It's like I understand it, I understand structure, what it feels like, and what it, the shape and the function of it.

Just give me simple instruction and I'll be happy.

But love doesn't have that same instruction.

And I don't know if we ever take lessons in university how to love well.

We don't hear many people teaching how to love.

So the question is, how do we love?

If we know that love is critical for loving God, how do we love God?

If we know love is critical for loving others, how do we love others?

How do we do what John is telling us we need to do?

We need to live in this experience of love.

Well, the Bible talks, John gives us a hint, he says, about God, and it's in the first few verses of chapter three is that there's this emphasis on obedience.

And here's where it really comes down to if you love me, you'll do what I say.

Oh, I hate that scripture.

Oh, because I want to do what I want, right?

And my kids, I see it all the time in my children.

I just, if you love me, do what I say.

And the challenge is that they don't do what I tell them to do, or they delay, or they drag their feet, or they shuffle along.

It's like if you love me, like at this point in time, I really empathize with God.

At this point, obedience.

Obedience is such a critical part of our experience when we're talking about how to love God.

Because the scripture literally says we know that we come to know him if we keep his commandments.

If we do what he tells us to do, it's loving God.

If we forgive, it's loving God.

If we're kind and gentle and pray for our enemies, it's loving God.

If we give sacrificially, generously, if we honor and we throw honor on people and we honor our family and our mothers and our fathers and we honor others, we honor up, down, all around, we honor.

If we live excellence in our life, we're loving God.

If we live giving God our best, we're honoring God.

If we love the unlovable, in quotes, in the world, we're honoring God.

If we take care of the one, we're loving God.

If we give our shirt to that person who doesn't have a shirt, we're loving God.

If we give without bias, we're loving God.

Jesus Himself had to learn obedience.

The scripture says that he learned it through the things he suffered.

He actually had to suffer learning obedience.

I got a lot of spankings.

It may not be like I got a lot.

I was a firstborn, I still am a firstborn.

I'm a firstborn, I I am.

I am more competitive than I think.

I'm more determined than I think.

I may even be more stubborn than I know.

I know, it's hard for me to believe as well.

I have this determined side in me.

And I remember my parents would always say, you need to, and I remember saying to them, and I remember this time, my parents often remind my kids of my failings, which is interesting.

And they say, your dad would sit at the table and he would say, Oh God, I try so hard to do the right thing.

How many of you have ever been there?

I try so hard, God, I keep messing up.

How many of you have been there?

I'm not alone here.

No judgment.

But I'm not alone in this place, okay?

But there's this place in our life where we love God.

We have to obey what he says.

It's a way that we learn, it's a way that we actually love God.

I watch my language.

I watch the purity of my talk.

I watch the things that I see, realizing that this is a body of God at the temple of God.

I watch what I listen, I care for what I listen to.

Like I don't listen to gossip or slander or people cutting other people down.

I'm I'm encouraging, I'm doing the right thing.

Why?

To honor God.

So many of us in our life, we either have two choices.

We can either hit rock bottom or we can uh go to the school of hard knocks.

And I I love again about this parable of the uh prodigal, the prodigal hit rock bottom.

He it came to a place in his life where he was literally eating the food that was supposed to be given to pigs, and it came to a place where he said, God, I'm done.

I'm done, I'm going back to my father's house.

And some of us are like that.

We try and do things in our own way until finally we say, No, it's enough is enough.

I need to turn back.

And I need to make that make that change and take that tough journey.

John mentioned this great love and obedience in probably the most famous of his writings, where it says, God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son.

He gave him.

And Jesus said it, you know, he didn't want to go to the cross, but he obeyed even to the point of going to the cross.

There was obedience in the son.

And if God response to the Son, if Jesus' response to his father was obedience even to death, what should our response be?

The Bible says that God disciplines those he loves.

In other words, there's a discipline that comes to those who actually want to be loved by God.

Knowing that he loves us is a guarantee that he will discipline us.

You very few people in this room can discipline my kids because you don't have the same love for my kids as I do.

I love my kids.

That's why I discipline my kids.

I want them to grow up strong.

I want them to grow up with the right responses and right heart towards God.

And so I discipline them.

Other people will just be like, okay, okay, here, like, no running on the stage, no running, like there, they'll be nice to my kids.

My kids, it's like if you're if you start running, you hurt yourself, you're in big trouble.

Like, you're in big trouble.

The Lord disciplines those he loves.

And if God loves us, we can expect that discipline.

Um, I I love the fact that our church has learned this love towards God because loving God is actually how is actually experiencing a better way.

Like there's a reason why you come early to church on a Sunday morning.

You come early, you get your seat ready, you've got your coffee, you've got, you've been already in the word, you've been already in prayer by Sunday morning, because you're coming ready to worship God because there's a love in your heart for God.

There's a reason why there are volunteers outside and in the lobby and at our greeters and our first impression teams and our media teams and our worship teams, our kids' ministry, who you gotta pray for today.

Those kids had one hour less sleep and they walked in looking like it, right?

But those kids, you know, they're serving because what?

There's been a great activation of love in their heart for the things that God loves.

And God loves the kids and God loves people, and so the more you begin to serve, the more you begin to realize that love of God in and through us.

So we move into that experience.

Obedience creates a way for me to overcome in my life.

I have to learn obedience and I have to step into it, and I have to welcome it, and I have to extend it to other people, and that's why I go even to my kinetic groups and I just say, hey guys, I'm an open book.

What do you see?

I want to be obedient.

What does the word say?

Is my life reflected in that word?

I want it.

Teach me, help me, keep me growing because I want to learn to love God well.

I want to learn to love him well.

I want to learn to do what he says because when I learn that, I overcome something in my life that says Brody's way is the best way, and I actually move into God's way, and God's way opens me up to freedom and opportunity, and a greater love and experience for other people.

He opens up my eyes to see.

Loving God is one thing, but loving others is another.

I take this love that God has given to me, and I it's the Bible talks about it like a cup that runs over, and I get so full of the love of God that my only response is to give what I've been given to other people.

And so what happens is those people who've been loved well love well.

The scripture also said, just like it is forgiveness, forgive us as we forgive others.

Like as God's forgiven me a lot, it allows me opportunity to forgive other people a lot.

And when I open my heart to being loved by God and loving God, and I open my spirit up to Him and I say, Lord, let me embrace all the love that you have for me.

And I embrace Him fully.

I become so full that no matter where I go, I'm spilling the love to the world.

I'm spilling love to the people I encounter and the people I meet.

And I don't see gender, I don't see uh position in life, I don't see uh, you know, what the difference money would make in people, I don't see race, I don't see any type of hierarchy.

I just embrace the way Jesus would embrace.

So I learn to love God better.

This week I I had a like and I'm still I'm telling you today, I'm still learning how to love.

I don't know how to love like the way Jesus loved.

I'm still learning.

I'm but I'm praying every day.

I'm like, Lord, teach me how to love better.

Teach me how to love people who love me, teach me how to love people who don't love me, who say nice things to me, and those who say not nice things to me.

Bless them.

Amen.

But I met a friend uh of mine this week, and uh he believes in God, but is struggling with defining his relationship with God.

He doesn't know how to define it.

It's it's a really interesting opportunity.

Uh in I'm grateful to be a part of his journey and his experience with God.

And uh, but this week, this past week, tragically, his wife passed away.

It was just a sudden passing.

And I got the call.

And this is a family that I I hang out with, this is a family that every time there's like a wedding I'm a part of, or an anniversary, or they need someone to pray over their dinner, Pastor Brody will do it, right?

Like that's my role in that family.

A lot of them are believers, I don't know many of them who are, but it gives me opportunity, and I got the call, and of course it's a tragedy, and understandably I'm not sure as what to do, and uh it's a sensitive time, and I meet at his house, and I I pull out all the stops.

I'm just saying, Lord, how do I love?

Teach me how to love, like what do I do?

And you know those situations, just because you have a title as a pastor doesn't make it any easier.

You're walking into an environment where you're like, what do I do?

So I literally am like, Lord, teach me how to love, and I pulled out all the stops.

I brought gifts.

Pepperoni.

I brought, I brought gifts.

When he saw me at the door, I just I opened up my arms, I gave him the biggest bear hug I could.

I used physical touch.

I I encouraged him where he was in his in terms of his his where he was going in his life, and I just I just encouraged him.

I I spent time like talking to him about his stories that he had with his wife.

I spent that quality time, and I spent time just actually embracing who he was, and I asked, hey, is there anything I can do for you?

And many of you know, like, there are like those five love languages, and I just said, I don't know which one works, but it's like a shotgun approach.

I'm gonna use everything in my arsenal.

Why?

Because I want to learn to love well.

So I'm not gonna hold anything back.

And the opportunity comes in our life where we just say, Lord, I'm gonna I'm gonna open up my heart and I'm just going to do whatever I can to be able to embrace the world and to embrace other people into my life.

And so my encouragement to you today is to do the same.

Um, my wife, I'm using her a lot as an example this morning.

It's it's wonderful, isn't it?

Don't you love that?

I learned about myself this week, and even just even responding to my wife.

Like it's amazing you can be married to someone for 14 years and still mess up on not knowing how to love that person well.

And so all the women are like, yeah, I can understand that, yeah.

And I remember this week I I got up early and I thought, you know what, I'm gonna, I'm, I'm up.

I made myself a beautiful cup of like silky cram coffee.

It's like, it was just perfect in that cup.

And I sat down at the table and I put the coffee on the counter, and I was just gonna enjoy time between me and the Lord and myself.

And uh in comes my wife around the corner, and she just stops and she looks.

And I'm like, oh my goodness, what have I done?

I didn't know what I had done, and she says, Where's my coffee?

And I'm thinking, not that she wanted acts of service, because her love language isn't actually acts of service.

Her love language is don't you go in having a coffee by yourself and not allowing me to spend quality time with you.

Having that coffee.

I did I hear an amen from all the quality time people in the room, Anthony, woo! Quality time, and so we know that that's true.

I messed up, and apparently it's an offense in our house to drink coffee alone now.

So I took that opportunity and I said, Lord, what can I do?

What can or what can I do to better serve my wife?

So I just said, you know what, I'm gonna love better, and I went and made her a coffee, and together we sat down and I listened to her and we talked, and sometimes people with quality time are just odd at times.

They don't we don't need to do anything, we just need to be together.

It's like sometimes she says, Let's go for a drive.

I'm like, where?

She goes, it doesn't matter.

I'm like, God, my male brain is just like fritzing out.

She's like, no, we're just gonna go for a drive, just you and I.

I'm like, okay, just point it, I'll drive, and she just loves it.

Learning how to love God is one thing, learning how to love other people is another thing.

And so we work together to actually develop that love in our hearts for each other.

Love, if love isn't there, then the only thing that is there is the Bible talks, there's no other difference than love.

You can't have a little bit of love and a little hate.

If love isn't there, then it's hate.

And hate, the scripture says, turns to murder.

It's in the heart of a person, it's in the heart of the individual.

And even this whole drama on The Lion King Jr.

this week is all about two brothers.

It starts really about the two brothers, and there's one that's jealous over the other and and doesn't have the same love in his heart towards the other, and it starts the story, and it actually it's it's a murder story.

You should come to the Lion King Jr.

It's great for the kids, it's great for, but literally is a story about the lesson of if there is no love, then there's only hate.

And hate in our heart will resolve into murder, will result in murder.

And we don't want that in our heart towards anyone, especially people within the church, because how do we show the crazy, unrelentless love of God to the world if we can't have it first among ourselves?

So we work brother to brother, sister to sister, deal with it over communion, deal with it over community to actually live a life that is honoring God and honoring others.

Would you bow your heads with me?

Father, we thank you this morning for your love towards us.

I thank you, Lord, that uh you cared, you loved us, that while we were still sinners, you died for us.

While we were still sinning, you loved us enough to die for us.

So today, Lord, in the in the spirit of that great love, we just open up our hearts to you.

And there may be two types of people in the room today.

There may be one that's saying, I have never experienced the love of God.

I don't know God to know his love.

And if that's speaking to you today, I want to lead you in a prayer, a prayer of salvation, where it just you open your heart to receive the love of God, to receive the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross that would separate you from the love of the Father, so that you can fully embrace the love of the Father.

And there may be others of you in this room today who are just sensing today, I want, I want to learn to love better and I need Holy Spirit help.

I need God walking with me, moving through me, helping me love God and love other people better.

If you're in that first category today and you've never experienced the love of God, and you want to experience that love today, I'm gonna lead you in a prayer, but I'm just gonna ask you to do one thing.

I'm gonna ask you just to raise your hand if that's you today.

I see that hand right there.

You want the love of God, and that's the first, the the first and primary thing you want.

You want it today.

See that hand.

Is there anyone else in this room today?

You want to experience the love of God in your own life, in your own heart.

Amen.

Well, would you just pray with me together as a church?

Would you say, Heavenly Father, today is my day of new beginning.

I receive the love.

Jesus, I receive your sacrifice.

You became the way, the truth, and the life, and you opened up the way to love from the Father.

I receive your love today.

I confess of my sin, and I embrace this free gift in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

And if those of you are in the room today who are just sensing, I want a fresh filling of the love of God.

I just want you to open up your hearts.

If you want to, just open up your hands.

And I'm just gonna pray, Holy Spirit.

Today we need the love of the Father to be in our lives, Lord.

You're the giver of every good and perfect gift.

It comes from you.

And today, Father, we just we just acknowledge our need that we aren't good at loving without you, that we need you alive and filling our hearts and dynamicing our lives, Lord, so that we can not only love those in our community, but love the world like you love the world.

Father, we realize that we've sinned, we've done things our own way, we've let our own emotions get in the way.

But today, Father, we turn to you.

We say, we confess, we need forgiveness, we need a fresh new beginning, and we want your love to fill our lives today, Lord, to be a blessing to the world.

In Jesus' name.

In Jesus' name, everyone, if you want that, you just say, in the name of Jesus.

In the name of Jesus, only through Jesus, we have that fresh funnel of God's love pouring into our heart.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's give the Lord a round of applause and celebrate him this morning.

Amen.