Love One Another | Pastor Garry Blackmon

Come on, put your hands together.

Awesome worship.

Awesome worship.

Well, I'm glad to be here again.

Thank you, Pastor Greg, for inviting me.

I'm so thankful and humble that he would uh allow me to come again and uh to United City, so it's it's it's a privilege to be to stand.

But but I thought Pastor Greg was my friend, so he's putting me back at the back cleanup.

And so I wanted to just get on first base and just have somebody move me around, but I'm glad to be here.

I know that you guys are in this series, um, this new series in 2024, a better version of you.

How to become a better version of you.

And in the words of Greg, uh Greg Pastor Chris, is this idea of becoming better of you is the putting God's first.

How do you put God's first?

Become a better version of you in putting God first.

Well, and in that idea, uh, if you put God first, then everything in your life will line up together.

You have alignment, you have agreement, you have order.

And when you have order, God will be able to flow things through you in what He wants to do.

So this morning, my assignment this morning is how to become a better version of you in the area of loving one another.

Amen.

It's gonna be a hard ride.

No amens on that one.

How to become a better version of you by loving.

Let's say this together.

Loving.

Come on now.

No, no, loving one another.

That's it.

How to become a better version of you loving one another.

Matthew chapter 6, verse 33 says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all, not some, but all of these things will be added to you.

Matthew 6:33

What things?

Things pertaining to the kingdom of God and everything that you need.

So you will have total sufficiency in Jesus Christ, and God will cause you to have all the things you need.

But why?

Why would God want and think that this would be so important for us to love one another?

Well, 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 22 gives us the answer.

1 Peter 1:22

In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 22, listen to the words.

1 Peter 1:22

It says, having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, for a sincere brotherly love, let us love one another earnestly with a pure heart.

Amen.

So what Paul is, Peter is speaking, let me give you context of Peter.

Peter is the apostle Peter.

He says that in the very first verse of chapter one.

He says, I'm apostle of Jesus Christ.

So it is Peter who's writing this letter, and he's writing this letter to Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, who are scattered abroad all around North Asia Minor, and they are suffering persecution for their faith.

They're in great persecution uh persecution, and he's talking about this idea of suffering, but in the same context, love one another.

So when you look at this idea, Paul is, I mean, Peter is saying to us that sometimes God uses his uncomfortable grace to refine love in our life.

Let me say that again.

There are often times that God uses us, his uncomfortable grace.

In life, things are uncomfortable.

So God makes us uncomfortable, but in the midst of our uncomfortable grace that he gives to us, he refines us with his love.

See, whenever we are comfortable where we are, we are not at our best.

God sometimes has to make us feel uncomfortable.

And let me say this love others makes us uncomfortable.

Let me tell you this, I'll put it this way for me.

Let me use myself because I won't use you.

Listen, at my best, when I'm struggling in life, it's hard for me to love others on my best days.

When I'm having a good day.

Amen.

Y'all can say amen.

You know someone that likes to get on your nerves?

Come on now.

Am I the only one?

People get on your nerve.

The reason why they get on your nerve is because they're not on your heart.

Whoa, okay.

Y'all with me?

Y'all feel me?

Y'all feel me?

God says, you know, it's uncomfortable for us to love.

He says, I want you to love one another.

This is not, this is not a recommendation.

This is not a suggestion.

He's saying that we need to love.

And here's Peter's main point of this section of scripture.

He says, What I want you to do, this church that is under severe persecution for their faith, that's struggling where they are.

He says, I want his main point is that you love one another, watch this, with a pure heart.

Write that down.

Love one another with a pure heart.

Now it would have been easy and tempting for Peter just to say, hang in there.

Keep your head up.

Don't worry about it.

It's going to get better down the road.

But no, Peter writes this and says, Listen, it is necessary for us to love.

And oftentimes with me, not with you, but when I'm experiencing difficulties and when doors are closing on me, and it's hard for me to even keep up with my own life, that Peter comes along and tells me to love one another.

It's a struggle to do that.

And Paul said, and Peter says, listen, do this in such a way that you reveal Christ's love to others.

And so what he does, he talks about and gives us certain things in this text.

The first thing he gives us is this idea of a command love.

He's not suggesting he's commanding us love.

It's the word agape in the Greek.

It is a sacrificing love without expecting anything in return.

Let me show what that looks like.

I have three four children.

My daughter's 41 and my three boys 30.

They go.

Well, when they were little, we loved them unconditionally.

And here's what that meant.

When they were babies, and then when they ate, when they was eating the you know, the cranberry sauce and all of this other stuff, you know, I don't know what they ate, baby.

My wife did most of the feasion.

But when it was my time to change, you know that little stuff that comes out in the diaper?

It was nothing at that point that they could do for me.

So I can I had to love them in spite of what they can do for me.

And that's what Peter is saying.

How do we love unconditionally?

How do we love in spite of that?

He said, it's a command.

We have to do it.

And he says this, listen, it is not some pretense love.

It is not some fake love.

He uses this adjective in the front of the word love, sincere.

It is a sincere kind of love.

He says, not fake.

Don't pretend that you love.

It's sort of like plastic fruit.

Anybody ever went to some my grandmother had a bowl of that stuff on her table.

And every Saturday we went over there, we had to polish it.

You know, I was hungry one time we went over there when I was a little boy, and my wife's my mother told me, Don't touch anything, don't worry about that.

Grandmother won't give you something just take this, take whatever she gets.

And I saw that apple that day, and it was shining like somebody had polished it with wax.

I mean, but I mean, so and I and I I was just gonna just get a bite and hide it.

Man, I've been in that thing, man, and probably damn it's three or four teeth.

He says, Don't have a love that's plastic, don't have a love that's pretentious or false love.

And I'm looking at a lot of young faces because the world has given you this false pseudo-type of love.

I was a teenager once myself.

Listen, I cut the hallways with this love thing.

And I tell my daughter, listen, if ever you're talking, uh a guy's talking to you and he's doing all this here, walk away.

Because he's lying.

No, love, this is not love, this is not a pseudo-love, it is not a fake love, it is not a pretentious love.

He said, I want you to love in such a way that God is being manifested through your love.

This word love comes from the Latin word where we get the word uh without wax, apricotos, without wax, without hypocrisy, without pretense.

It is a sensitive.

In the ancient days, they had these pottery makers or porcelain guys who shape pottery and vases and bowls, and and if they messed up one, and rather than to start all over again and remake the bowl or the vase, they would take wax and put it in the mistakes and the cracks.

Anybody got any cracks?

And they would sell it, and but when they would put their product on the shelf and someone would come back, they would say, sincere.

They would say, This product was with wax, but all the customer had to do or the person that was buying it, all they had to do was take it and put it underneath the sunlight.

And the sunlight will reveal the flaws or the cracks.

And God is saying to us as believers, I want you to love, listen, sincera, without wax, without hypocrisy.

When the church of God began, just quiet love.

It's almost like talking about money.

Because this is a difficult subject.

God says, when you love, listen, when you love sincera without hypocrisy, without pretenses, listen, love covers.

Love covers the multitude of sin.

And God is saying, when he loved you, he loved all of you, cracks and all.

Amen.

Sincere.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten sin, that whosoever believed in him that should not perish.

So God says, What I want you to do, I want you to have a sincere love, is when your love is filled not with cheap substitute.

It's sincere.

So that's the command of love, but in the text he gives us some of us.

He don't even give, no, not only give us the command to love, who uh uh uh uh uh agape love, this self-sacrifice love, and not expecting return return.

Real love, but he gives us the object of love, and the object of love is one another.

Listen, brothers and sisters, we don't get the choice to choose who we're gonna love.

Amen, Pastor.

We don't get to choose who we're gonna love.

Matter of fact, in Luke's gospel chapter 6, he says, if you love those who love you, what credit is to you?

Don't don't don't don't pat yourself on the back or or grab your hoach and give a host your your pet and and and pop.

No, God says, Listen, there's no credit in loving people who look like you or act like you, or in your same classroom, or on your team, and and or on your job, or in the church.

He says love doesn't have a choice.

The Bible says God so love.

He didn't limit his love.

The object of our love is others, but then he not only gives the command of love, the command to love, or the object of love, but he gives the measure of love.

He used this word earnestly.

Some of your translation may have fervently.

That word means in the Greek, it means to stretch, it means to fill with capacity.

Any late uh weightlifters in the house?

There gotta be some athletes in here.

Go on, raise your hand and show your muscles.

Come on.

God says, I want you to love fervently, I want you to love earnestly, I want you to love till it hurts.

That's the measure.

I want you to love to capacity.

I want you to stretch yourself out.

And I hear some of the guys, and there's a pastor, if I love any more and stretch out, I'm gonna get a cramp.

And I won't be good to anybody.

No, God says you can love, but when you love, measure the love by the capacity of which your love is going out.

It is a love that is stretched out, it's emphatically, it means it's going out.

It's a fervent love.

Can I have you to take a test in your mind?

Here's the test I wanted you to take in your mind.

Here it is.

How fervent is your love just in your close relationship?

Here's another question.

How fervent is your love with your spouse?

Oh.

Because see, love is not a feeling.

And I hear people saying all the time, Pastor, well, well, uh, uh I don't know if I can love them like that.

When I do marriage counseling, the young couples and older couples, for that matter, fact, and they sit before me and they're weeping and crying, they say, Pastor, I don't feel like I love them anymore.

Oh, I don't feel like I love him anymore.

And I say, Here's what you do.

Here's just calm down, it's gonna be okay, but you just gotta follow my direction.

Here's what you do for 30 days.

Here's what I want you to do for 30 days, act like you love them.

Because love is not a feeling, amen.

I say love has nothing to do with feeling, love is action.

And if you action, listen, your actions will change how you feel.

So here's what I want you to do for 30 days.

You don't have to say anything, but in your mind, when they're sitting around doing nothing or just watching television, he or she, or they're watching the game, just fix a big glass of lemonade with ice in it and carry it to them.

And set it down and smile and walk away.

And you're gonna come back and they are not gonna drink anything.

She's pausing me.

God says, listen, you can't you constantly do that.

You constantly act like you love, amen.

It's not false love, but God said you act because love, listen, it's not about feeling.

You can change the way you feel by the way you act.

My boys, when they were little, they were high school, they started playing baseball and football and all that.

They got they started stretching their muscles.

And uh they came in the house one day, and well, you know, that's my house, they are core convictions.

I had core convictions, that's some core conviction that's not negotiable when I am feeding you, and I'm buying the clothes and putting gas in the car, amen.

And all the two, all the young people say, Amen.

All right, and so one of my boys, my oldest son, he decided, I don't know what got into today, but he said, Dad, I don't feel like taking the trash yacht.

Dad, I don't feel like doing that today.

Didn't say anything.

You know, dad's here, right?

I say, my told went and told his mom, I'm finna change your son's feeling.

She said, Son, honey, honey, just talk to him.

No, no, no, no, no.

This is not talking.

We're gonna change some feeling into action.

Didn't have that problem anymore.

So God says you got the love.

Love, the object of your love is measured, it has no limits.

God says your love has no minutes.

Matter of fact, in Romans chapter 5, listen to this verse.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

It says this for God for the love of God, watch this, for the love of God is poured out in your hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Here's what that means: that God's love, watch this.

When you reach your capacity of loving others, that is hard to love.

Guess what God does?

It's like a bucket, He pours on love to you.

You empty, He pours more.

You empty, He pours more.

See, some of us have not, we we can't love because we haven't even reached the surface or the compassion of love.

You're still at the bottom.

God says, Listen, no, give it away.

When you give love away, listen, I will pour more on you.

Anybody needs the love of God today?

Anyone made any mistakes today, yesterday, this morning?

Can I tell you what God did?

When you left your capacity of love, God poured more on you when you got here.

Or when you left your driveway.

So he says it's the measure of not on the command to love, not of the object love of one another, but he says it's the measure of love.

But then he says in the text, love with a pure heart.

That's the source of love.

That's the love that's scribed in this case.

And here it's like this ideal of God says, uh, David says when he writes Psalm 51, create in me a clean heart, oh Lord, and renew what?

A right spirit within me.

God has given all of us who are faith walkers or followers of Christ, He has given us a pure heart to love.

Wow.

When I thought about that man, it made me shudder because I understood that there is something that is not recommended here, it's not suggestion, but it's a command.

And he says, What God would do if you want to become a better version of who you are, God says, I will increase that virtue of love in you to be all that you can be.

And here's how he said, Let me give you these three things.

Here's the reason why God gave us this command and the capacity for us to do it, and it's critical for us how to do it.

Here's the first one He says, It's because our souls have been purified to God.

Verse 22, read it again.

He says, This having purified your souls by the obedience to the truth.

You catch it?

He says, Right now, at this very moment, your heart and your soul has already been pure.

Or purified.

The translation of purification in the New Testament text, it simply means this.

It is meaning that we have, watch this, we have been sanctified in God totally.

What do you mean, pastor being sanctified?

It's this idea of spiritual transformation.

We have been transformed by the love of God, and that's what makes our heart pure.

You say, Well, Pastor, I don't always feel like my heart is pure because that's some ugly stuff sometimes in my heart.

My heart and my mind goes places that it shouldn't go.

God says, But you know what?

Even in the midst of that, your heart has already been pure.

Why should we love one another?

Because our hearts are already poor.

We have the capacity to love.

You have, let me kill you.

You have total sufficiency in Jesus Christ.

There's nothing you lack.

Colossians says, you have everything you need to walk out the Christian life, especially in this area called loving one another.

Amen, Pastor.

And so he says this idea that you have you have everything that you need.

You've been made pure in Christ.

And he refers to this purification process as the truth.

How many of you know that truth is a person?

Jesus said in John, I am the way, definite article.

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man can come to the Father except me.

The definite order means that he's the only way, he's the only personification of truth.

When you look at Jesus, it's truth.

And guess what?

That truth has been poured into you.

Do you realize that as believers, you have the living word, the logos in you is called the Holy Spirit.

He is the word of truth.

And when you walk around and say, Pastor, I cannot do this.

It's hard.

I know it may be a it may be a divorce, it may someone mistreated you, it may the your girlfriend or boyfriend left you somewhere, and you found that it doesn't matter.

God says the capacity of love goes beyond that.

Now I'm preaching here, so I know it's hard because I'm not in your shoes.

But guess who is with you?

The parakletus.

And watch this.

The Bible says he is the parakletus.

He comes alongside of us to aid us in the time of need.

Now, watch this.

He's not gonna do all the work.

He said, God, give it, you gotta help me.

He says, I am.

I'm in you.

I'm right when you take the step, I have already taken them.

I am the parakletos.

I am the one that.

Aids you in the time of need.

And God says, even in your struggle, God says he will be with you.

So it's this idea that we can love because our souls have been purified.

But look what else in the text it says.

It says that, watch this, that we we have the living word.

I'm sorry about we have the we have the uh gospel that has been given us new life.

He says in verse 23 that we have been born again.

Look what it says, verse 23.

That we have been born again in God.

And that word born again means conversion.

Meaning that you've been regenerated, you've been changed.

You have a new life in Jesus Christ.

Amen.

This this is the good news of salvation.

And the key point here is not only, but we are actually living out this new creation in Christ.

You are born again.

It may be someone here that never received Jesus Christ.

You know what that means.

It means that we've been reborn spiritually, not through flesh and blood, but through the Spirit of God.

We have been justified by faith, and all that means is when Jesus Christ looks at you, he looks at you as just as you never sinned before.

That's justification.

Right now, you and I who are believers, we are being sanctified.

And one day we will be glorified.

We're in the process.

We're not all there yet.

Can I tell you something?

Now don't tell my congregation this.

But I'm not an angel.

They think I'm I'm thinking I'm the best thing since sliced bread.

And don't go, don't go spoiling that, okay?

I am being transformed.

I'm being sanctified.

To walk out this new life in Christ.

And that's what he calls us to do.

See, this love is not a love that you do on yourself or on your own.

It is him that is in you.

Can I say it this way?

Since we have been born again, we ought to be billboards for God.

And let me say parenthetically, I'm not looking at anybody.

Some of our billboards need to be taken down.

Because when you listen, you are a visible representation of the invisible God.

We're not just here to represent Christ, we're here to represent Christ to the world.

And the world is dying, but they need this.

Listen, if we would just act upon this born-again thing that happened to us, if we just act upon this idea of love, we could change this community.

We can change this city, we can change the world.

Because love covers a multitude of sin.

I'm gonna say something.

I thought they cut.

I don't know what they didn't tell me not to say it.

Okay, you gave me the thumbs up.

Love covers a multitude of sin.

When you're born again, watch this.

You can love the hell out of people.

They're gonna cut that, I think.

Pastor Chris going, see that man.

He's not invite me back.

No, no, you can.

Jesus died on the cross.

He didn't wake up one day and felt like it was a good day to die.

As a matter of fact, when he's in the garden of the sending me, he told his disciples, watch for me.

And the Bible says he prayed as blood came out of his pores.

Father, take this cup from me.

And then those words come out nevertheless, not my will.

But done.

That's what born believers do.

Not my will, but thy will be done.

In your school, in your neighborhood, people who are hard to love, God says, You are the one that has the capacity to love them into the kingdom.

Men Jesus says this.

Watch this, watch this.

The world will know that you are truly born again and my disciples when you start where?

When you love one another.

It's hard.

I know it's hard.

I'm in this frame called flesh.

I know it's hard.

But God says you have the capacity to do it because you have been transformed.

You've been regenerated.

You've been made anew in Christ.

Let me give you the last thing.

Why?

Here's the third reason why Peter offers why we should love one another with pure hearts.

It's because of the living word endures forever.

It's in verse 24.

Listen to what it says.

Because afar all flesh is like the grass and all its glory like the flowers of the grass.

The grass withers and the flower fades away, but the word of the Lord remains what?

Forever.

It is an enduring word.

It never gets old, it never dries up, it never stops, it never ceases.

It's endured forever.

Our new and eternal life in Christ is secure.

It can never be taken away.

This living word is in us until we go to glory.

Matter of fact, this verse in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 25 is identical verse to Isaiah chapter 1 40, verse 6 and 8.

1 Peter 1:25 Isaiah 1 · chapter mention

And this idea of flowers fading and grass withered away.

But he says, watch this.

But the word of the Lord remains forever.

And here's what that means.

Good growth requires good food.

Let's say that together.

Come on, you ready?

Good growth.

Come on, come on, everybody.

Good growth requires good food.

Amen.

When you eat healthy, I know all these the young kids with water burgers and stuff like that.

You know, you know, they big Macs and stuff.

But but good growth requires good food.

This is our food.

You eat this, you can love.

You chew on this once a day.

I think that was Chris's first sermon.

It's spending time with God the first of the day.

Once a week.

If you get this food in you, you will grow.

And when you grow, listen, you can flourish, you can nourish.

The word of God nourishes us, it keeps us.

When you have a left, listen, when you have a lack of strength in your capacity to love, is it because you're not eating the word?

You're not spending time with God.

And anything that's healthy will grow if it's planted in good soil.

Come on, I'm preaching to somebody.

Whether plant or people, if it's in good soil, it's gonna grow.

Amen.

And I know that because there's a product on the market right now.

I never use it because I kill plants.

I'm a plant killer.

You give me a plant, it's gonna die.

I do not have a green thumb, so don't bring any plants to my house.

But that's something on the mark calls this white word.

It's called miracle growth.

Anybody use that?

Come on, ladies in the gardeners.

Does it work?

Yeah, because listen, the soil is good.

And when the soil is good, listen, you'll be healthy.

When you eat fish, you become healthy.

The word of God will endure forever.

It will not fade, it will not get old.

You can you can you can live 20 years from now and come back and open the word of God, and it's just gonna be as fresh as the day the apostles wrote it.

And when we are gone, it's still gonna be fresh.

And God says we have to feed upon the word because it nourishes our soul.

You feed on this book.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

And whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Let me close with this.

Saint Jerome, who was a theologian and historian of ancient times, and he tells a story about the last life of the apostle John, John the beloved.

And as he got older, he was more frail and weak and he could not walk.

His voice did not project that much, but they would always come and get John and carry him to the church.

And John would come in the church and he would preach a five-word sermon.

Wouldn't you like that?

Just preach five words and you go on your way.

And here's the words little children love one another.

And he preached that every Sunday, and they would, and the men, the leaders, would always say, Is that it?

Is that it?

Is that it?

Is that all we get?

And they got frustrated.

And it was hard, you know, come to church and hear the same same thing.

Love, little children, love one another.

So one of them got enough courage to go to him.

And he went to him and said, Brother John, is it anything else you can tell us?

Can you give us something deep?

Can you give us something cerebral, something heavy, ideologically that we can pack?

And in John's fashion, he has already replied.

I love this.

He says, because he says, he's what's it?

He says, because it is the Lord's command, and if a long is kept, it's sufficient.

Now that's pretty, that made me feel good when I saw that.

He responded saying, This is the Lord's command, and if you keep it, that's enough.

Y'all still ain't getting it.

He's saying, if you just love one another, if you just experience and show forth love, that's sufficient.

You don't need to know about eschatology, you don't need about the rapture, you don't.

I don't care if you're pro-strib or pre-millennium, I don't care if you don't talk about the ninth toe on the beast of Daniels.

He says nothing that really matters.

If you just love one another, you've done enough.

I see if I was at my church, I I'll close this way.

See, the Bible, see, I know because that was a song that keeps me this.

See, when I keep stretching, God keeps pouring.

The more I stretch, He keeps pouring.

That was a song you probably heard.

I was sinking deep in sin, far from the blissful shores.

And from the waters.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

I want you to get it.

Love lifted me.

When you get down, brothers and sisters, when you don't think you can love your husband or love your wife, or love your kids, or love your neighbor, or love the co-worker that's in the cubicle with you because they get on your laugh nerves.

You in high school and you see that geeky guy or that beasty guy on the football field.

Love.

Love lifting us.

And guess what?

It doesn't just do it once.

Every time I fall down.

God loves lifting.

Every head bowed, every eye closed.

You may be hearing it, you may be visiting it your first time, or you may just kind of saw the sign on the freeway and you pull it in the parking lot.

Whatever the brought you here today, the providence of God, you're setting in these seats.

And if you have never placed faith in Christ alone, by grace alone, the Bible says in Romans chapter 10, if we can confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that God has raised us from the dead, we can be saved.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

We shall be saved.

Because it's with the mouth, the confession made in the heart, and righteousness is presented by faith alone.

It's a gift.

Ephesians tell, it's not by works that we are saved, but by faith and by grace alone.

And if you're here this morning and you've never placed faith in Christ, you've never verbally committed your life to Christ and said to God, God, I'm a sinner.

I need your salvagic work of to play in my heart.

Give me the gift of faith to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God.

I want to place faith in that alone.

It's not works, I don't have to do anything, I don't have to think anything, it's just confess with my mouth.

And maybe you hear and you desire prayer, and you're having a difficult time loving someone that's close to you, relational, maybe you're in a dysfunctional situation, and it's hard for you to hear this message and think, can I really love this person?

If you're a believer, you can, but it takes the living word to transform a renewess in your heart to do so.

And if that's you, would you come?

Gracious God, our Father, we thank you for this word today.

Thank you for the worship.

Thank you, Father, that you gave your people desire to come and hear your word this morning.

We thank you for the musicians and the worship experience they set so that we would hear your word, God, in clarity, with boldness, expositionly, Lord.

And I pray, God, that you would do a work in this place like you've never done before.

Fill us till we won't know more.

Feed us, God, continuously.

May we walk out of this place to know that we've had an encounter with you that's real and personal.

Touch today, Lord.

Do the work that you and only you can do.

And we'll be careful to give you the glory, the praise, and the honor.

For it's in the strong name of our Christ we do pray.

And all of God's people said, Amen.

United City, will you stay in with us?

Before you just take off and go about your day, don't miss out on the opportunity that God is with you and God wants to continue to spend time with you.

If you made the decision to surrender your life to Jesus for the very first time, I want to encourage you to make your way down to the front.

We have a team down here ready to pray with you, pray for you.

Maybe you're in this room and you're like, I just I just need some prayer, whether it be over your finances, over your family, a situation, relationship, whatever that may be, we want to take some time to pray with you.

And to pray for you.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to spend time in the presence of God in the Switch.

Church, it's a real blessing to have a pastor of another church visit us, invest in us, pour into us, and Gary Blackman has been a tremendous friend to United City Church for several years now.

So can we just appreciate Pastor Gary?

Man, we love you.

We love you very, very much.

Continue praying for Pastor Gary.

He's he's a pastor of a church on the other side of town that's growing and thriving, and it's amazing what God is putting before him.

And so we're just very honored to partner with you in this city for the gospel.

And so we're just appreciative of Pastor Gary.

If you're here today and maybe it's your first time, maybe it's your first time in a long time, and you don't know anything about our church, then I want to invite you to come to the Growth Track.

It happens every single Sunday at 10 o'clock in the Growth Track Room.

That's the place that you can find out who we are, where we can hear your story, and you can ask us any question that you want to ask us about this church.

We would love to meet you there.

And finally, less than two weeks away is Encounter Weekend.

All right, so praise God.

Praise God.

Encounter weekend is for six through 12th graders.

It's one of the most amazing things that we do in the entire year at the life of this church.

So I want to encourage you if you have a sixth or 12th grader, or if you are a sixth through 12th grader, you've got to get registered this week.

Reach out to us, we will help you get registered.

It's gonna be an amazing time.

And for everyone who may not have a sixth through 12th grader, here's what you need to hear.

You want to be a part of this weekend.

It's amazing.

I mean, there's nothing like this room being filled with teenagers worshiping and praising Jesus, kids getting saved.

I mean, it's an awesome, awesome experience.

We have so many different opportunities where we need people to step up and to serve.

Step up and to love the teenagers in this community in an awesome, awesome way that is centered around the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And to quote my good friend Gary, it's time to not just talk about it, it's time to be about it.

All right, let's get let's get active, let's take action.

So I want to encourage you, sign up on our website, on the events page, sign up to serve at Encounter Weekend.

It's gonna be an amazing, amazing weekend.

Church, we love you.

God bless.

Have a great week.

Wow, what an amazing message we got to hear this morning.

I hope the Lord showed himself to you in a fresh, new way.

Hey, if you made a decision today to follow Jesus or a decision for Christ, we would love to process that with you, and so text the word next to 55498, and someone from our team will be more than happy to reach out and process that with you.

If you missed the message or you missed a note or two and you want to go back, don't worry.

We've got the option for that as well.

It's gonna be available on Spotify as well as Apple Music.

This has been an amazing morning.

We love you guys so much, and we hope to see you next week.

Bye-bye.