Hello, Life: Where's the Love? | Part 5

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, good morning.

If you'll stand or remain standing with me, go ahead.

If you're needing a seat with our junior hires, there's some seats over there to my left, your right.

Welcome if you're new.

My name's Ryan.

Thrilled to have you.

Yeah, stand up if you have.

I'm gonna just say I know.

I changed at the last minute how I start in right now, so there you go.

We're in the book of 1 John.

I just want to read the text for us and then pray.

We stand in honor of God's word.

For this is the message you heard from the beginning.

We should love one another.

Do not be like Cain who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother.

And why did he murder him?

Because his own actions were evil and his brothers were righteous.

Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love each other.

Anyone who does not love remains in death.

Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

This is how we know what love is.

Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

If anyone has material possession and sees a brother or sister in need, but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?

Dear children, let us not love with word or speech, but with action and in truth.

Heavenly Father, we invite you here to speak to us.

What's incredible is you knew we were gonna be here.

And you designed this moment in such a way to meet with us and speak to us.

And so would you give us ears to hear, hearts to respond to what you have to say.

We long to meet with you.

In Jesus' name.

And all God's people said, Amen.

You can grab a seat.

Every day it seems that we wake up to a world that's more divided, exhausted, cynical, Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, young, old, you name it.

I mean, do you ever scroll through, you know, whether it's the newsfeed or social media and just go, is this really the world we're living in?

Really?

Rolling Stones journalist uh Matt Tabby in his book Hate Inc argues that we live in a system designed to fuel hatred, uh, to keep us addicted to outrage, anger, and division.

Why?

Because hate grabs our attention and attention drives profit.

Uh he writes this the goal of modern media is not to facilitate meaningful public debate, but to generate profit by stoking outrage and division.

And boy are they successful.

According to Pew Research, we are more divided than ever.

The political spectrum in America sees not just disagreement, but disdain for those on the other side.

Listen to this.

Over 60% of Republicans and Democrats alike now say they view members of the opposing party as immoral.

And here's the thing: it's not just affecting politics, it's bleeding into our homes, our schools, our social spaces, our churches.

Even professional sports sees this as such a problem.

I saw this last night as I was watching the Oregon, Ohio State game.

The anti-hate campaign, time out against hate.

And if Pro Sports is getting involved in it, it must be a problem.

And so it begs the question: where is life found?

Where is life found in a politically divided, polarized world?

Because it's soul-sucking, isn't it, so often, the world we live in and the inundation of division and the rhetoric of the politicians.

We're just holding our breath, hoping the season just will come to an end with as few collateral damage as possible.

The early church lived in a world just as divided and polarized as ours, by the way.

Jew, Gentile, Roman, slave, free, rich, poor.

And John knew exactly what we're facing today.

In a world that shouts that life is found in winning, being right, holding power.

The Apostle John says it's actually found somewhere else.

Not in hate, but in any guesses?

You're right, you should have said it more confidently.

Not in hate, but in love.

See, he's gonna say something that sounds so simplistic.

It sounds cliche, but it is far from simplistic, though it is simple, those are different.

It actually is profound and powerful, yet we dismiss it because we don't understand the depths of it.

He says, in a world of hate, this is where we're going today, love is the answer.

We get that, we know that, we see that, but how in the world do we actually bring this about?

What is, like, what kind of love is the answer?

What do you mean, love is the answer?

And it's not the wimpy kind of love, it's not the you know, here and there kind of love.

He's saying this love, this sacrificial, self-giving Jesus kind of love, this enemy loving kind of love is the answer.

And the question is, how do we learn to love like that?

What does it look like to love when everything around us is trying to divide us?

What does it mean to love in a polarized world without compromising truth?

And here's, I think, the real challenge.

How do we love the person we most disagree with?

Sermon titled today is Where's the Love?

Go ahead and turn to your neighbor and just say, Where's the love?

He might be going, I don't know, I don't know.

If you got your Bibles, would you turn to 1 John 3.11?

1 John 3.11, this is the way he begins this.

And by the way, John is this book, 1 John or letter, or really it's a sermon, is divided in two halves.

God is light, and because he's light, life is found in the light.

And what does that look like to walk and live in the light?

And then the second half begins right here.

God is love and life, true life, like the thing that fulfills purpose and meaning and hope, living, not just existing, is found in this love of God.

And so he begins this way: he says, For this is the message you've heard from the beginning.

We should love one another.

You've heard it from the very beginning.

What's the beginning?

Well, John's about 90 years old at this point.

Jesus rose from the grave about 50 years ago.

So 50 years ago, Jesus is teaching and telling the disciples, love one another from the very beginning.

He's like from the very beginning, we should love one another.

In fact, this is something that Jesus was absolutely clear on.

That love is to be the defining mark of a follower of Jesus.

It is to be the thing that when people look at a follower of Jesus, at a disciple, at what we call today a Christian, they would say, I'm not sure I believe what you believe or hold what you hold, but I cannot deny how you live and the love upon which you show not only each other, but everyone else around you.

John 13, 34, on the night Jesus was betrayed, he says to his disciples, a new command I give you.

And it's not new like love isn't been around, it's been commanded, but he's telling us in kind how to love.

And he says this, love one another.

How?

In the same way I have loved you.

So you are to love one another.

This is the quality, the kind of love that followers of Jesus are to have.

And then he says this line by this, by this love, the entire world will know you're my disciples.

The defining mark of a follower of Jesus fundamentally is to be our love.

Love in the way of Jesus.

And so if our lives are not marked by love, then we have to wrestle with this question: what Jesus am I following?

Because it isn't the Jesus of the New Testament.

And so we're gonna wrestle with John is gonna tell us what does love look like?

Who exactly do I love?

How do I do this?

He's gonna give us the antithesis of love, the opposite opposite of love, and then the definition of love, and we'll get some real practical ways of how do we do this in our everyday life.

The antithesis of love, he goes on to say, he says, Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one, murdered his brother.

Bummers.

And why did he murder him?

Because his own actions were evil and his brothers were righteous.

Now, Cain is the archetype of hate and division biblically.

Uh Cain and Abel, if you don't know uh their story, you can pick it up in Genesis 4, verses 1 through 11.

Genesis 4:1–11

They were brothers, they're the sons of Adam and Eve.

Uh, we don't know a lot about their story, but what we do know is Cain, well, he chose to not live rightly.

Abel did, and the thing for Cain, rather than adjusting his life and doing what was right, he had jealousy, and that jealousy eventually caused him, uh moved him to murder his brother.

It's the first recorded sin in scripture against another human being.

He's this archetype of hate and evil.

And here's what John is telling us.

If we're gonna love in the Jesus kind of love, if we're gonna be a disciple marked by love, we have to be aware of the emotions that destroy.

We have to be aware of these emotions.

Why did Cain do this?

He says his own actions were evil, his brothers were righteous.

There was an emotion of jealousy, envy, jealousy, bitterness, selfishness, contempt.

These are emotions that destroy.

It started all the way back with jealousy for Cain.

Started as a small thing.

That word evil in the text, it means an active opposition to the good, seeking to drag others down.

I like this word, it's pernicious.

Isn't that fun to say?

Just say that with me.

Pernicious.

We don't use this word a lot.

Pernicious.

It's just fun to say.

It means having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.

See, envy, jealousy, bitterness, resentment, and I could go on with other ones, it has a harmful effect, but in a subtle way.

We allow it into our lives, and in some ways it feels good as a part of our lives.

And it begins to change us and shape us in ways that we're unaware of.

It's subtle, it moves us along.

We have to be aware of the emotions that destroy, because we begin to say, well, why does that person always get the promotion?

Why does she always have it all together?

And left unchecked, our emotions grow like weeds.

If you go by my house right now, it's actually not uh my yard isn't very green, and it's not because I'm so water conscious, I wish that was the case.

I don't have a sprinkler system that works.

And so I gotta do it myself, and I'm lazy.

I was on it earlier in the summer, and I went out and I was um, you know, I did a weed and feed, and I'm like, hand got the spray trying to kill these weeds.

There was honestly about a month the yard looked great.

Uh last week I was mowing the yard, and I'm like, there are so many weeds in my yard.

What happened?

I mean, it's like it's just like overnight.

It wasn't overnight, it's several weeks, but I just didn't notice, and then all of a sudden, my backyard, I'm noticing all these weeds.

Emotions that destroy catch us by surprise.

We allow a little bit in, and it multiplies so fast, and we barely notice it, and it leads us down paths of unlove and destruction.

He says, be aware of emotions that destroy.

Then he says, be aware of excuses that deceive us.

Uh he uses an interesting word here.

He says murder.

Uh, and that's that's intense, but it's not intense just because of the word murder.

This is like a very um graphic word in the Greek.

Uh, I'm trying to look around at how many kids are in here to how graphically I can share this word.

It means um to butcher, to kill violently, literally to cut the throat and blood everywhere.

Literally.

Yeah.

And interestingly enough, it occurs frequently in sacrificial context, implying a religious butchering, a slain wed to piety, murder laced with prayer.

That we can feel so justified in what we feel uh and what we are, so that we do things.

Nancy Ortberg has talked here a few times.

Last time she explained this triangle when we are in conflict.

Uh, she's I've had her explain it to me and our team at different times.

And this triangle is we go to this conflict triangle of victim, villain, hero.

We immediately kind of devolve to that that when we're in conflict with someone else, so uh maybe you're the victim, uh, they're always the villain.

They're evil, they're bad, and maybe sometimes we're both the victim and the hero because of the way we're gonna respond.

Uh and he says we've got to be so careful because we uh make characters of people, we we simplify them and think the worst of them, be aware of excuses that deceive, and he explains it even further.

He says, Don't be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you, you're gonna have bad behavior.

Now, this is interesting.

Loving the way Jesus loves means their bad behavior never justifies our bad behavior.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, you've heard it said, an eye for an eye, the Rex Talion, the retribution, the law of retribution.

But I say to you, if someone slaps you on the cheek, turn the other help me out.

Cheek.

If someone forces you to go a mile, walk another.

Yeah, thank you.

You you got it right.

That's good.

Like their bad behavior never justifies our bad behavior.

Well, they deserved it.

She had what's coming to her.

I wouldn't have to if they didn't.

Um, not this last week, but the week before, my wife and I were at a prayer conference, and um, it's up in San Francisco.

We were staying up there and driving home from a prayer conference.

Oh boy.

Um well, so so we're driving.

I I pray for my driving.

Okay, pray for my driving.

No, we're driving.

I put my blinker on to change lanes.

There's a lot of space, tons of room.

As I put my blinker on to head over, the car behind me speeds up to take that space and honk.

So I did the most loving thing I could think of at that moment, and I tapped my brakes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Leaving a prayer conference.

I was sitting, my wife's next to me, and then she's mad at me for tapping my brakes.

I'm justifying my behavior of what they did, so I'm mad at her for being mad at me for tapping my brakes.

Then the guy flies past us, giving us the bird, woohoo! And he leaves.

I'm like, fantastic, whatever.

His bad behavior as a follower of Jesus never justifies my bad behavior.

If we're gonna love the way Jesus loves, don't be just surprised.

Don't be shocked.

That's what Jesus experienced.

It's the reason he taught us, and then he goes on and says, We know that we've passed from death to life because we love each other.

Like, anyone who does not remain in death, anyone who does not love remains in death.

Without love, you're it's dead.

Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer.

He's he's going back to the Sermon on the Mount again.

Like, you know, you've heard it said, don't murder, which is a good thing.

You shouldn't do that.

That's bad, that's wrong.

But then he goes, if we have hate for our brother or sister, it's the same.

He says, anyone who seeks to take a life either internally or in reality does not have eternal life residing in him.

Here's what he's saying: we don't have life when we're holding on to hate.

We don't have life when we're holding on to hate.

The way Jesus would say it in Matthew 22, this was the conversation of the day.

They were constantly wrestling with what's the greatest command.

He said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And then he gives this little connection.

He says, and the second is like it.

And that little connection isn't just like these are similar.

What it is is the way it's constructed is it means these two are interlinked.

You can't have one without the other.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

What he's saying is, I can't love God and not be good with you.

I can't be good with God and not be loving to you.

When I have hate or anger in my heart towards you, I'm not in love or acting in a love relationship with God.

And it makes sense because if you came up to me and you're like, Ryan, oh gosh, man, I love you, man.

Like, yeah, I love you too.

That's cool.

And then I watch you treat my kid poorly.

Be like, we ain't good.

Not at all.

And God's saying, when you treat my kids, when you treat those created in the Imago Dei, the very image of God, poorly with disdain or hate, we aren't good.

And as a result, we don't have life when we're holding on to hate.

This word hate is not just a passing sense of emotion, this momentary, it's in the present active tense.

It's a state of being, it's a holding onto, it's a fostering, it's a harboring.

It means to allow hate or ill will to settle into the heart.

Have you ever been around someone who exudes bitterness?

Envy, jealousy.

It's soul sucking, isn't it?

They may have a smile on their face, but it just drips out all around them.

It seeps out of their words, affects the environment, it diminishes them, it kills the life in them.

First, the warning, the antithesis of love.

The way of Cain.

Then he's gonna give us the definition of love.

This is how we know what love is.

What does it look like to love in the way of Jesus?

Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

I'm gonna read that again.

And I want first, if you have your Bibles here taking notes, circle the word no.

Secondly, when I finish it, I want you to just, if you're, if that resonates with you, I want you to just say amen.

Like, yes.

Like this is how I know love is he has first loved me.

This is how we know what love is.

Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

If Cain is the archetype of hate, Division, Jesus is the archetype of love.

In John 15, 20 uh 12, he would look and say, This is my command, love each other.

Exactly what John is saying.

And then he would say, Greater love has no one than this, than he that laid down his life for his friends.

A murderer takes life, it takes the most valuable thing from you.

The most valuable, precious thing we could ever do is give our life for another.

And then Jesus says, You are my friends.

And I love this word no.

I had you circle it.

It's the Greek word gnosko.

It's not just knowledge like I intellectually know something, I understand facts about this.

This word is knowledge that goes beyond knowing facts or information, knowledge by way of experience, intimate understanding.

It's personal.

This is how we know what love is.

It's not just like you heard about love, it's not even that Jesus set an example or you saw what love is, that you personally, powerfully, and profoundly experienced the very love of Christ, like it pervaded and invaded your heart.

I am in the experienced the love of God.

Well, how has Jesus loved you?

How has he loved you?

How has he loved me?

Well, at our very worst, he gave his very best.

When we wanted nothing to do with him, he still came before us.

He stepped out of eternity and glory and humility, became vulnerable one of us.

Scripture tells us that though he was rich, for our sake he became poor so that in him we might become rich.

Again, he became sin so that in him we might become the very righteousness of God.

On the cross, with nails drilled through his hand and a crown on his head and his back bloodied and beaten, he cries out to his father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

It is a love that no matter how far you've ever gone, no matter what you've ever done, no matter where you've wandered, he says, You are always welcome back, and my arms have always been open wide.

And even as you're running from me, I'm still going after you.

And the minute you turn to me, you say, he says, Welcome, I love you, and I cover you.

That is the love of Jesus.

And then John says this, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

We are to love others the way Jesus loved us.

Like when I experience the unconditional, unrelenting love of my Savior, when I'm actually overwhelmed by that and allow it to not just be in my head but move to my heart, then he says, You are to love others the way I have loved you.

He uses this word laid down.

It's a technical term.

To take off, setting aside something.

It literally means to divest oneself of something that is precious and personally valuable.

In John 10, 11, it's the Good Shepherd, the story that Jesus is telling.

He says, the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

In John 13, and it's where Jesus, this is how he loved his disciples, how he loves us.

He got up from the table as the Last Supper, and he takes off his garment, his outer cloak, and he becomes and takes on the nature of a servant to wash their feet.

It's that word of taking off that outer garment of servitude.

It's divesting.

Like love is costly.

Loving the way Jesus loves, inconvenience.

We are to love Jesus or love others the way Jesus loved us.

This kind of love is not devoid of feelings.

It, however, is not defined by feelings.

It is sacrificial, self-giving for the good of others.

And then he gives us an example.

He's bringing it home.

Stay with me.

This is how we do it.

And he gives us an example.

He says, if anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?

Who?

First thing he's going to tell us is love costs time, money, and energy.

Material possession, the financial means by which one lives, resources needed to maintain life.

Do you have material possession?

Some of you don't.

Most of us do.

Do you have financial means by which you live?

Resources to maintain life?

John is clear that our financial generosity is an act of love.

The gospel is love and it's generosity at the heart of it, for God so loved the world that he gave.

It's generous.

We cannot be miserly and loving at the same time.

We cannot be stingy and loving at the same time.

We cannot be withholding and say we're loving at the same time.

We cannot have material possession and pass someone in need and have the ability to meet that need and say, I'm still loving you.

Because it was an act of generosity.

Those that showed up on Saturday and this morning and gave up sleep so that you could have this moment, we could have this moment together.

It was an act of love.

Those that are serving your kids that you don't want to be with, I know because you're not with them right now.

Just kidding.

It's an act of love.

We don't even make that connection that when we give financially, it's actually an act of love.

We were doing our 101 last week.

It's our new to awakening, get connected, hear about the heart and values.

And we're just sharing our stories.

It was beautiful, it was wonderful.

I love getting to know those who are new at our church.

And this gal was sharing her story, and she kind of grew up, I think it was Catholic background, hadn't been in church in a long time, wanted to like start, you know, having this spiritual thirst, come back to church, struggling with anxiety and depression.

Do you know what Sunday she came on?

It was in the spring.

Her very first Sunday in this space, in this room, was during our anxiety series when we're teaching and talking on depression.

Isn't it amazing, one, that God actually crafts this moment.

He knew you were here.

He knew this message and this time and this space, and he longs to speak to you and meet you in a very personal way.

And that moment never would have happened without those who gave generously to open up a way for her to encounter the presence of Jesus and for him to meet her personally.

Because if we give, it's an act of love.

Love, it always cost.

It always costs us time, it always cost us money, it always costs us energy.

And then he says, love requires seeing others' needs.

He says, if anyone has material possession and sees a brother or sister, it's seeing others' needs.

We don't see people anymore because we live such a hurried, fast-paced life.

To see is to observe something with sustained attention, to come to an understanding, to perceive or notice.

Hurry is the great enemy of the soul.

We rush through our lives.

I rush through my lives.

We have so many different important things, and there are important, but we don't see people anymore.

Love requires at least pausing long enough, looking around enough.

God, who have you put along my path today?

Who are the people in front of me?

And I don't know about you, but I think when I'm talking about seeing, you we are inundated with so much of like crappy stuff that's going on in the world, right?

And can't it's so easy to get desensitized to where we just don't even see it.

You just turn on the news feed and you're like, oh my gosh.

Something that John doesn't he is a little bit earlier, he was talking about the plural brothers and sisters, and in this context, he just he brings it to the singular, to the personal.

He says brother or sister.

My job actually isn't to solve all the world's problems as a follower of Jesus.

But my job is to engage in someone else's world to be the hands and feet of Jesus to that person.

And I'm gonna go do for one, that one person.

I can't do everything for everyone, but I can do something for someone.

And when I begin to stop back, when I step back and take a look and actually see people.

Imagine if we just saw people here in this moment, had a conversation, asked a deeper question, leaned in.

Love costs time, money, and energy.

Love requires seeing others' needs.

And then finally, love is when compassion moves to action.

He goes on and says, sees a brother's need, but then has no pity for them.

This word no pity, no, uh isn't just no, it means to shut, to lock, to close one's heart against.

Oh, how I've been guilty so many times of just closing my heart because I don't want to deal with it.

Don't close your heart.

And then this word pity, it's the Greek word, it's a fun word to say, splegisomai.

I know, it's just fun.

Um and I'm a dork, you know.

I like saying, I like Greek, whatever.

Uh pity to have compassion, a deep feeling that produces action.

In fact, this is the word splegisomai is this this guttural hurt.

Like your heart breaks.

Like, when was the last time you allowed your heart to break for someone?

Where like it just was a sucker punch to the gut.

See, love requires when is when compassion is moved to action.

I think the question in our day, as it was in Jesus' day, was what are the boundaries of this kind of love?

Like, is this for everyone?

In fact, an expert of the law was questioning Jesus, this very question, you know, what's the greatest command?

Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, and mind, love your neighbor as yourself.

And then he asked this question because uh, like, love my neighbor.

Well, who's my neighbor?

Who do I have to love like that?

Because that's a big deal.

And then Jesus tells this story, it's called the Good Samaritan.

Even if you've never heard of the story of the Good Samaritan, you know the Good Samaritan like this idea because it's in our language, in our cultural dialect.

And and he tells this story, and here's how it goes.

He says, There was a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, this 17-mile journey, it's actually quite treacherous, rocky, Canaan needs travel.

As he's traveling uh down to Jericho, uh, he falls into the hands of some bandits, some robbers, they beat him, leave him half dead, naked.

And then it says that a priest comes along.

Imagine, pastor, this person's paid to be good.

Um, and he shows up and he sees this man, and he steps to the other side and keeps on going.

And then he and then it says a Levite came along.

This is yeah, let's just pretend like this.

Just a normal, dedicated church going person, call themselves a Christian, sees this man in need, half dead, probably had plenty of excuses why busy, don't want to get messy, whatever.

He's probably dead anyways.

I'm probably not a lot I could do.

Steps to the other side and keeps going on.

And then Jesus does something so brilliant.

He takes what for those the people in that day, the Jewish people in that day, would be what they'd consider an enemy.

A Samaritan, a person they despised.

The area of Samaria was kind of in the center of the region of Israel.

They wouldn't even walk through that area.

They would spend a day's journey to walk around just to not even be around these people.

Who is somebody you despise?

And if you go, nobody, you're lying.

You despise somebody.

An enemy in the ancient day was one with whom you would not welcome into your house.

What type of person would you struggle to welcome into your house?

Republican, Democrat, nationalism, wokeism.

You name it.

And then Jesus chooses that person to be the hero of the story.

And what it says is the Samaritan person sees this person and they had splegizomai.

Like, we're supposed to be enemies, but in reality, we're just humans, and I see that you are hurting, and my heart hurts to the point of action.

And so I'm gonna pick you up, I'm gonna clean you up, I'm gonna put you on my donkey, I'm gonna take you into town, I'm gonna pay for your bills and take care of you and check in on you because that is what love does.

And then Jesus asked this great question.

He says, He says, Who was the neighbor and the person, this uh this lawyer?

He couldn't even say the name Samaritan.

He says, the one who had compassion.

And then Jesus says, Go and do likewise.

In a world of hate, love is the answer, but it is not any kind of love.

It is love in the way that Jesus has loved you.

Sacrificial, self-giving.

A love that meets you where you're at, but because he loves you so much, he won't leave you where you're at.

And then John closes out this way.

Dear children, let us not love in word or speech, but with action and in truth.

We need to love in word, don't get me wrong.

We need to post, share, and love, but we need action and in truth.

Uh, virtuous signaling is kind of what we do today.

The act of expressing moral values to gain social approval rather than promote real change.

Out of it, uh, research says it's produced slackism.

Activism and slack together, where individuals feel they've contributed enough to a cause by sharing or liking contact.

In fact, Pew Research says 64% of those engaged in online advocacy feel less inclined to engage in further action.

Why?

Because they're perceived their social media presence is sufficient.

And Jesus says, My neighbor is anyone with a legitimate need for which God has given me the resources to meet that need.

Well, near the beginning of the school year, on uh nights where they had AU practice, the boys are going to work out, they're lifting, and then all of a sudden, the first time we we had like six or seven teenage boys in our house.

They spent all day, they um they just lifted weights, and then they're gonna go to basketball practice for like two hours that night.

We're just looking at them like they need food.

I'm just Jenny and I are pulling whatever we have out uh of our you know um uh pantry and just how do we feed starving teenage boys that eat more than any human ever should?

It started something.

Well, then they're there there was that was a Monday night, then they're there again on a Thursday night.

Well, we need food.

And we're like, well, okay.

Do we have material possession to do that?

Sure.

Do we have opportunity?

Do we see a need?

And and one of the realities is a number of these boys don't even have a dad.

And if God's brought them into our home.

And so we started.

We're like, well, we can't uh afford protein.

Uh all these they eat a lot.

I mean, when we get the we get the Costco size uh hamburger meat, they go through like seven pounds of ground beef.

It's insane.

My father-in-law got so excited about it.

He he sent us like 40 pounds of pasta because we realized one one of those we got to do pasta.

See, love is as simple as that.

Where we go, here's what we have, here's the people God's put in front of us.

We weren't even really planning on it.

It's not like we're doing anything and you know, had this plan.

It's just like, here's the people in front of us, let's be present to it.

And God, how do you want to use us in that moment?

And we're gonna be in their lives and just God has given us so many opportunities all around us.

Let us not love with word and speech, but in action.

Who has God called you to love?

Who has he put along your path?

For some, as we close, I'm gonna invite the band to come up.

What are the emotions that are actually underwriting your love?

That you need to just confess.

That's the extra grace required people.

That God may just be asking you to, what is a specific act of love this week for them?

Because at the heart of it, love is the gospel.

We're gonna partake in communion.

And we know what love is because he first loved us and gave his life an atoning sacrifice for us.

Communion is his body broken for us, that's the bread represents that, his blood poured out for us.

And my prayer is as we do this as a community, you would be overwhelmed personally, know his love.

And then that we would be a people of love.

We would love those simply that God puts along our path.

Let's worship.

We hope you were blessed by this message.

Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded.

And hey, we'd love to connect with you.

Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.com slash card.