To Love Your Neighbor Is To Refuse To Harm Them

We are here today.

If you're here in person, say hooray.

Thank you for being here in person.

If you're here online, thank you for participating online.

We're very grateful for that.

Uh just like my mom said, if you're not able to come in person, you are able to participate online, and even that online participation is holy and sacred.

Because just as uh we're singing the song Holy Spirit, you're welcome here, then all of a sudden the Spirit is welcome there.

Amen.

So the Holy Spirit will be present in your phone.

So if you need to call God, now's the time to do it while he's present on the phone.

So today is the fifteenth Sunday of Pentecost.

I know you guys have been keeping track, like my mom has.

So good job.

Well done.

Um, but we are entering a subseason in the season of Pentecost.

If you didn't know that was a thing, you can ask my mom, and then she will tell you all of the different seasons and subseasons and categories that are present.

And so when we get to learn these things together, it starts opening up our perspective to the seasons.

So we're entering the season of creation.

We go, ooh.

So when we enter seasons of creation, often we think of the Genesis story of creation, right?

God spoke and he created nothing and created everything with nothing.

Right?

We're invited into a relationship with Christ and a relationship with God.

And so we give him something, and then he creates something magnificent.

So often we see situations, challenges, different things that we would consider broken or difficult, and then God creates something with it.

Uh I went to Japan this year and I was really excited.

I'd been saving up for a while and I went and it was awesome.

Uh one of the things that I wanted to do while I was in Japan was see the cool artistry.

I genuinely forget the name of it, but it's uh I'm sure that some of you are aware of where I'm going, where uh they will restore broken pieces of pottery and ceramics with gold.

And they will be really beautiful afterwards, and you get to see what was damaged, and there is something that's beautiful there.

But um as I was walking around and looking, I saw and kind of like was looking for different areas and kind of finding like where do you go, like the pottery district or something, like where do you go for these types of things?

So as me and my friend are walking, we eventually see um this guy just smash a pot in the street, and we're both kind of taken aback, but then I'm watching the guy pick up all the pieces and stuff like that.

I'm like, that's probably where it's at, and some of that.

So then we go and we admire all the pottery, admire the things like that.

But then I was thinking about like, man, that guy just smashed it in the street.

There's no like you'd imagine like maybe a kiddie pool, you break all the pieces, you can find all the things that are there.

But the wonderful thing about a phone that I had there is that you can scan with Google and it can translate for you.

And he had like a little sign as he was picking up all the pieces.

And so I scanned it and it says, very rarely are we prepared for things that are broken.

So he didn't create an area for things to be broken.

Does that make sense?

Sometimes we're worried about getting all the pieces and bringing them all to God for there to be restoration.

Sometimes we're concerned about maybe we need to have a hundred percent of things together before we step forward.

But the invitation is bring what you have and God can get the rest.

Does that make sense?

So let's allow God to create something different within us, amen.

Amen.

Cool.

Do you guys want to read with me this morning?

Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust their money, which is so unreliable.

Their trust should be in God, who is richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.

Tell them to use their money to do good.

They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others.

By doing this, they will be storing up their treasures and good foundation for the future, so that they may experience true life.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you guys like to welcome my mom and dad as they share the word of God?

Amen.

We will.

That portion of scripture reminds us that we should do good works, that that should be something that we are a part of.

And I remind you, we are not saved by our works.

We are not saved by our ability to manufacture any kind of faith.

We are saved by Christ, faith that awakens in us to Christ, and the works then become this expression that we have experienced Christ, that this working out is not, I'm not working to get anything.

I am working because I have received love.

I'm working because I have received peace.

And so we invite you in this season.

Thomas was mentioning about the season of creation.

And during this time, we are reminded this is one of the works of the Holy Spirit, is creating.

And anything that you participate in that is creative, that is yourself participating in the good news, in the hope for a better world, for a bigger gospel.

And so we bless your creativity and take time this week and during this month to be creative intentionally, whatever it is that you do.

Maybe it's pouring a cup of tea.

Maybe you are the best at pouring tea.

Do that and do it in the presence of God, making sure that you remember that everywhere you are, God is with you.

In this season of creation, we are called to remember, and this is the Jesus way, beloved.

Jesus said, Are you anxious?

All of us would say, Yes, we live in 2026.

There's a reason to be anxious.

But Jesus said, So go outside and look at the birds, look at the flowers, and remember, my father takes care of them.

And so God will take care of you.

So there is a remedy or a cure for our anxiety.

I read to you this morning a beautiful poem, maybe you already know it by heart, by Wendell Berry.

And in the season of creation, if you yourself don't have a plan, I would encourage you to read Sabbath poems by Wendell Berry or by John Murr.

Go outside, find a great artist or an essayist and read and allow yourself to be reignited.

But I read to you this when despair for the world grows in me, and I awake in the night at the least sound, in fear for what my life and my children's lives may be.

I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water and the great heron feet.

And I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.

I come into the presence of still water, and I feel above me the day blind stars waiting in their light.

And for a time I rest in the grace of the world and I am free.

I remind you, the invitation is to allow creation to testify to you that you are loved, that there is enough, and that God is with us.

God with us.

This is the hope for the world.

This is our hope.

This morning we read from the book of Romans, and I am grateful for your intention this morning as we go to the text together.

And we're asking that the Holy Spirit would expand our imagination.

The Holy Spirit would allow us to see things differently.

And in fact, when the apostle writes this letter to the Roman church and he says, owe nothing to anyone except for your obligation to love one another, he is criticizing the culture.

And sometimes we forget this was specifically written to people who were experiencing empire.

And this empire was oppressive, and there were the ultra-rich and there were the poor.

And the intention was in order to continue a method of domination, they, the people that had wealth, would demand your honor, or they would say, You cannot speak against us.

And they would demand these things.

And so when Paul says, hey, in the Christian fellowship, you who are filled with God's Spirit, love is going to be the only thing that you offer to each other and the only thing that you are obligated by.

You are not obligated in any other way.

And so this was a revolutionary thought.

This was a thought that brings any kind of hierarchy to absolute flat plane.

And the invitation is into equity, into equality.

Don't you don't have to owe anyone anything except for your obligation to love one another.

And if you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law.

This is so hopeful.

There were a lot of laws that people knew about.

In fact, there were over 600, and people were constantly missing and getting it wrong because there were so many rules.

Have you ever had that?

There's so many rules, you have no idea what to do.

And this invitation is there's one rule, it's love.

If you do this, if you love everyone all the time, you will fulfill all the requirements of God's law.

Yes, pastors, we've had the joy and the privilege of having so many people be a part of this church, and uh, and and in the last days of their lives, they still decided to come be a part of this church, even knowing that they had uh, you know, whatever the death sentence of whatever the doctor said, of how many ever months they had to live.

And um I recently we had a gentleman that was here part of the church, and he was dying and he was an older man and he was quiet and real wise.

And and I asked him, I said, uh, do you have any wisdom for me or anything that you'd like to share before you go on to be with Jesus and take it all with you?

Can I can you leave some with me, you know?

And he said, you know, I'd like to uh just tell you to value what you have.

He goes, I come to this church even when I don't feel like it, because he goes, I love to watch your children.

He goes, I like to watch uh Thomas get up in the beginning and just do that part of the service.

And then the Nathaniel goes over and plays the drums, and then Silas is overrunning the project uh the feed for the broadcast, and then Dave comes up and does the end of the service, and when Catherine's here, she sings and uh goes, I just like to watch your family.

And you know, uh we don't threaten the kids before service on Sunday mornings.

They threaten us.

No, I'm just kidding.

No, we but as a family, this is what we do, you know, and it was so powerful to me that he's not been the only person that's noticed something beautiful happens when everybody just decides I I owe you nothing, but I'm gonna love.

I'm just gonna love.

And we we as this little family that that don't make a ton of money in this world, we we just continue to walk in blessing.

And and I know it's because we're we're just doing the one thing that we're asked to do by God.

And and imagine you know, you're part of this family, and this family has a church.

So you just decide I'm gonna love the people that God sends in here, even though sometimes some of you are aggravating.

Don't look at your neighbor right now, but we just decide to love each other because sometimes the Drake family's aggravating, you know.

Uh but the thing that I want you to really see here is God's doing something on the earth.

He's got this little church, and he's got this we're a microcosm, the Drake family, and and so we have our little family and we decide to to just love.

We owe no one anything but to love.

We decide to get up and when when it's still early and do the little jobs that everybody does before you get here, it's a scramble to vacuum and move tables and make this place look presentable.

And we're all just running around putting cameras up and put things in place and because we want it to go over.

And I want you to think about that, because God has a church and he doesn't ask you, you don't have to do anything.

No one's being threatened here today.

But you get to do the one thing is just love and serve.

And I wonder if you realize how important your part is to what God is doing in the earth in transforming lives.

We've seen lives really be affected by the willingness of our children to do what they do here.

It's affected so many lives.

But I wonder if you see the value in you and in you just doing that one thing.

God has this plan to spread the gospel throughout this world.

And he and he doesn't need you to be a scholar and know every scripture that was ever written or and know uh all the doctrines and all this, but just can you love?

Can you just love people around you?

Can you share that?

And the beauty of being a part of a church is learning how to love each other well, because sometimes we have a skewed view of love or we have a very um narrow view of love, and that's what Jesus came to do is to show us, expand our view of love, who gets to be in.

Jesus says everyone, everyone, for God so loved the world that God sent his one and only son, that whoever believed in him would not perish.

Because God did not send Jesus to the world to condemn the world, but that the world through this kind of love would be saved, the saving of the world.

In verse 9, it says, the commandments say you must not commit adultery, you must not murder, you must not steal, you must not covet.

These and other such commandments are summed up in one commandment: love your neighbor as yourself.

Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God's law.

Beloved, in learning to love each other well, we must be willing to learn that any kind of harm we do to someone else is not loving.

And that means that we need to listen to people when they say what you're doing is hurting me.

We need to listen to others when they say, This harms me, and we need to be able to change that.

In fact, we talk about this is the season of Pentecost.

And when you look at the four story of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit shows up, the first miracle is people can hear in their own tongue what they could not hear before, what they could not understand.

So a movement of the Holy Spirit within us is listening to people, is being able to hear them, to hear their story, to hear their heart, to hear what they say harms them.

And then the choice is up to us to say, how do I allow my love to expand so that I don't harm my neighbor?

I mean, love does no harm to neighbor.

That's what the scripture says.

Love does no wrong to others.

And if it's not loving, beloved, then it is not God.

And who wants that?

Because that doesn't last.

Only God is eternal, only love is eternal.

So the invitation is to learn how to practice loving each other, to practice resurrection, to practice looking at something broken and going, I believe in the restoration of this.

I see how love could revive this, could restore it, could speak something new and create it.

But this is the scripture that reminds us, this is what the whole thing is about.

Dennis used a word just a few minutes ago, the gospel.

What a churchy word.

What does it mean?

It means good news, beloved.

Good news, you're loved.

Good news, no matter what you do, God loves you, and you can be sure of this fact.

And so there is such a beautiful hope for us in reminding us love is the only thing that matters.

Love empowered by the Holy Spirit, the love for yourself and the love for neighbor.

And in fact, then Jesus expands it further and says, even the love of enemy, love is the most important thing.

There's unloving practices that are going on around us, and uh, and I really want to challenge you too.

It's not just enough that you um uh don't practice those yourself, but that you're not complicit to it, that you're that you recognize those things and we do something about it.

Do you know uh there's things like oranges shipped in to America that don't need to be because it saves like six cents an orange or something, you know, or or six cents a truckload or something, you know, they're very minute little savings, and and yet local people struggle just because a corporation can have a big a higher dollar.

I'm not here to argue about oranges, I don't know what I'm talking about, but I but I think you understand the principle of what I'm saying is that we sometimes just by where we shop, because it's convenient, instead of maybe could we support.

They say that if you were to buy all local, it would be about an extra sixty dollars, I think, a year or something.

It's super insignificant.

But the problem is we're oftentimes just silent about it.

Uh, and we and we don't stand up for love because it's it's not just loving to smile at somebody they walk by, but it's to support a local business.

Heather and I try to do that as much as there's chain restaurants around, we look around like who are the O'Cala restaurants?

And you know, we're gonna decide to support if it's not a good meal, I'm not gonna go back.

I'm not asking you, you know, but there's loving things that we can do that are proactive.

And and I think that we need to open our eyes and look at that because we've buried our head in the sand and called capitalism good, although I think it's the best thing going.

Do you think that that's the way it is in heaven?

No, I would tell you that.

No, it is not.

That there is not just corporations in heaven full of greed.

In fact, there the scripture tells us something different that everyone, everyone is provided.

This is the hope of the good news of Jesus, that there is enough, that there, the illusion, the lie is scarcity.

And this again is something that we see that God showed the children of Israel.

If you look in the Hebrew Bible, there's a story of them going through the wilderness and there's no food.

And so God provides food and it's manna that comes down from heaven.

And God says, you take it every day as much as you need.

Don't take any more than you need, or it's gonna rot.

And so, you know what the people do?

Take more than they need, because scarcity is something that is wired into us culturally.

We're afraid that if we don't have, we're gonna grab and we're gonna greet.

And God is training the people that follow Him.

You don't have to be greedy.

You can just take what you need and it will be there.

God will provide for you.

So this invitation is over and over again, God says, that love opens its hands, and the invitation is not into greed, but into provision, into recognizing the only time you should be looking in your neighbor's bowl is to make sure your neighbor has enough, not to compare.

I was watching something online I shared with Heather, it was so powerful.

Uh, they took these parrots and they uh introduced them to money.

Uh they gave them washers, and every washer uh that they returned back to the people, they got feed.

So they they trained these little parrots.

So when the parrot got hungry, it would give a washer out, and then that uh they dump the food in the uh and once those parrots got trained where they they could live off of the the money that they had, they had the parrots together and they gave one parrot all of the washers and one parrot uh only a few.

And so they introduced scarcity to the uh, and what they were what they were thinking was going to happen was that the one parrot would store up.

But what happened was the parrot was slipping washers underneath the thing to the parrot without.

Now even God has wired this into animals, something that we as human beings can't get.

It's not about getting all you can, canning all you get, and then sitting on your can.

It's about giving, sharing, and seeing that others around you's needs are being met.

That is what love is.

Amen.

And God is allowing you to live through this life and you and I to learn this truth and a choice to surrender to it.

And instead, we exalt people, and I've heard people fight for billionaires.

Oh no, they have a right to be a billionaire.

And they've convinced you, yeah, you because you could be one too.

Well, yeah, you could also be struck by lightning 80 times in the next two days.

But it's probably odds are not gonna happen.

And same, same with this idea that we reserve the right to be this billionaire instead of all of us saying, that's just not okay for us to hoard everything while people do without.

Now, I'm not suggesting that there not be wealthy people, but I'm just saying that you recognize with your wealth comes a responsibility to do your part, to help those that are around you.

If you're doing well, help your children.

If you're doing well, help your neighbor.

And it doesn't only happen monetarily, it happens in whatever privilege that you find that you have, in whatever equity that you have.

You you recognize this is for all.

The apostle says this, this is all the more urgent for you.

Know how late it is.

Time is running out.

I remind you, this was written over 2,000 years ago.

And the apostle recognized, oh, because time is an illusion, we know that, but the time that we experience right now, this time, we only have a certain number of days on the earth.

And so the invitation is to wake up.

The invitation is to allow the spirit to reawaken us, to allow the spirit to uh to change the way that we think and to expand our version of love and what we understand love to do.

Wake up, for your salvation is nearer now than when you first believed.

The night is almost gone, and the day of salvation will soon be here.

So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes.

I loved that.

Yes.

And it's just a joy to take your clothes off and get into the shower.

You're like, ugh, so glad I don't have to wear that anymore.

Beloved, greed is a filthy, filthy thing.

Take it off.

And I loved this invitation that it said, you remove your dark deeds.

You don't need to ask someone else to take it off for you.

You take off the dirty clothes, you take off the things that do not serve the world, you take off the thoughts that keep you in bondage.

And now put on the armor of right living.

This is this beautiful invitation into recognizing what is the light of Christ, what is the presence of God here.

You remove the dark deeds like dirty clothes.

How do we do that?

We do that through changing the way that we think.

Jesus said this to us.

I would love you to repent.

This is how the kingdom comes.

Change the way that you think.

Beloved, that may be one of the hardest things that you do is change the way that you think.

Because you've made ruts in your brain thinking over the same thing over and over again.

And at some point, you might need a good therapist to help you change the way that you think.

And you might need to invite, give consent to the Holy Spirit to change the way that you think.

But sometimes where you are in your life is a result because you think this way.

And there's an invitation in Christ to change the way that you think, to expand it, to allow it to be higher, to ascend.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit.

I wanted to uh interject the thought that that you could uh maybe consider asking, Holy Spirit, is there another way I could be looking at this?

Because when you're having conflict, when you're having struggle, when things don't seem to be smooth, you maybe you don't feel the presence of God, you're not self-sabotaging on purpose.

I just want to ruin my life for a while.

What you're doing is you're acting on the beliefs that you have.

And you're convinced that they're the right way, or you wouldn't be doing them.

Unless you're completely insane here, and we'll have an altar call for you, the complete insane.

But for the rest of us, we're just doing what we have gathered is the best choice based on our past experiences.

But I bet you that not a hundred percent of those decisions are a-okay and perfect with God and exactly what you need to be doing.

I would guess that you have contrived some concepts and ideas based on lack and based on fear, and based on peoples who were in authority to you that you looked up to that maybe weren't the most godly or had the best intents at heart.

And so as a result, we're acting on those beliefs.

And and it's a it's a simple thing to ask, but a difficult thing to follow through with.

To really ask, God, is there another way that I could be thinking about this?

Is there another way to see this?

Because the way I see it now, this this is not right.

This is not, this should not be, you know, and if you can ask God, I'm telling you from personal experience, God can open up your eyes to another way of looking at it.

And it's amazing because I have guys all the time around me, well, I can't believe you're putting up with that, or why would you do that?

You know, and I'm like, because God has shown me another way.

There's a way of love that doesn't have to, you know, uh uh your kids need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps because that's the way, yeah.

How well'd that go for you in your 20s and 30s with your broken bootstraps and your broken back and your sorrow, you know?

Wouldn't it have been nice if someone had come along and brought some assistance to you and eased your burden and took a bill off of your back?

And so we get in these habits.

Well, you know, that's the way it was done for me when we was kids.

Yeah, and when when you were as kids, it wasn't that great.

Those aren't the great old days, those are the days you're in therapy for.

Don't shut me down because I'm preaching.

If you're not in therapy, maybe you should go.

Maybe that's it.

Because you need another way to look at it, and the Holy Spirit will do it.

If you'll ask in a pure, honest way, if you know, because this is what I believe is right.

Help me see, is there something I'm missing here?

And how that I'm approaching my future, how I'm addressing my children.

I see people have such a conflict with their kids.

And they go, Well, I told them this is the way I am, and if you're gonna if you want to be around me, you're gonna have to accept it.

I can't figure out why my kids never call me and talk to me.

Because you told them you're not gonna change at all, and so don't come around here unless you accept me the way I am.

What if you just changed?

You let God show you another way, and you weren't so dang stubborn.

After you revive those kids off the ground and woke them back up, you could have a relationship that you're never gonna have with that stubborn thinking.

I'm preaching to somebody.

And the invitation is not just in our family relations, but how we recognize the family relation is supposed to be for the whole world, all of us, brothers and sisters, because all of us, sons and daughters of God, we are in relationship with people.

And what we see the Holy Spirit able to do in the work of Scripture is bring unity, is not to divide, but to unify, to bring people together.

Because we belong to the day, we must live decent, honor-filled lives for all to see.

Beloved, love and justice go hand in hand together.

Love and justice require from each other.

Love says, I want justice, I want justice to be done.

So we must be people who do works that establish justice, who say this is not okay that there are children dying of hunger in this world.

When we throw away food, that there has to be a better way.

And we're a part of imagining what it would look like for all of us to live in equity because we belong to the day, because we are children of light, because the light of Christ has come.

Don't participate in the darkness of drunkenness or greedy exploits or in quarreling and jealousy.

Beloved, if you see these kinds of works, the scripture says God is not in them.

If you see works of greedy exploits, of quarreling, of jealousy, that means that love is not present there.

And so don't participate in that.

You take that off like dirty clothes and put on the light that is Christ.

Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What does it look like for you to put on the armor of light?

In another scripture, it says, put on love.

Choose it, put it on.

You choose to put on love, and when you have taken it off, have you ever put something on and then a bit later getting uncomfortable?

So you took it off and then later put it back on.

I don't know if you've done that.

We're from the Midwest, so that happens a lot.

You go into school in the morning and it's freezing cold.

And then at lunchtime, it's hot, hot, hot.

So you hang your coat up, and then in the afternoon it's still hot, so you don't take your coat out of the locker, and then the next morning you freeze on the way to school because your coat's in the locker.

And that sometimes is such a beautiful invitation for us to remember that we put on love yesterday, but then we took it off.

And now here we are needing it.

And the invitation is keep putting on love until it is, in fact, the scripture says, your most important garment.

Put on love, choose love, choose to expand the way that you love yourself, the way that you see compassion, that you move with the same compassion that Jesus had for the world.

Instead, clothe yourself.

This is personal responsibility, beloved.

And it's one of the things that you can learn in therapy: personal responsibility.

You don't get to say, well, they weren't loving to me.

That's their issue.

You be loving to them, you put on love.

And now you the same thing is true with your own thoughts toward yourself.

Allow compassion, allow mercy, allow grace to fill your heart.

And when you need help, ask for the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, help me see myself differently.

Holy Spirit, help me see my neighbor differently.

Help me see those that I name an enemy differently.

Help me see differently.

Yeah, we're talking about, you know, things that you would do in the home and with relationship, but I would hope that you would allow God to help you see things differently outside of the home and globally how we can make a difference as well.

Because, you know, when that change begins to happen, it's it wouldn't end at your front door.

It would begin uh uh really in and that we could be part of movement, you know.

And I'd ask you to consider even when you're buying your clothes, are you buying them ethically?

You know, are you just buying them from the cheapest place?

You know, some of those clothes are made with uh you know materials and dyes and stuff that are poisoning people.

What if you bought shoes from a place that that for every shoe you buy, they they buy a pair for homeless people or socks or or things like that.

And and and you can't change the whole world, but you know what?

If you would begin to see there's places to put your money and places not to, that's gonna speak really loudly.

And and you, you know, oftentimes I think we're lulled into this idea that you can't make a difference.

Beloved, Jesus showed us that you absolutely can, that you have power to make a difference in your own life and in the life of people around you, putting on the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Think with me for a moment, use your holy imagination, think of a bad situation, and then imagine what would happen in that bad situation if Jesus were there.

It would no longer be a bad situation, right?

Like something would happen, a miracle would happen, and there would no longer be a bad situation.

You put on the presence of Christ, you be that miracle.

Beloved, we are children of God, we are entitled to miracles, we are entitled to acts of kindness.

The scripture says to us, be about the works of kindness, be about these good works because you know who you are.

And this invitation to be radicalized by love, to allow the love of Christ to absolutely transform us.

Jesus said, the kingdom of God is so close to you, it's in your mouth, it's so close, it's right here.

A lot of times we think that Jesus came so that we could have a better afterlife.

Beloved, Jesus came so that we could have heaven now, so that we could be in the presence of love right now.

And Jesus showed us what God looks like.

So everything that Jesus did, this is what God is doing.

And God cares about people that are suffering, and God concerns himself with people that are suffering.

There is a verse in the Hebrew Bible, and the prophet Jeremiah says, This is what the Lord says.

This is what I have against you that you do not trouble yourself on behalf of others.

Love troubles itself on behalf of others.

Love is caring about the fact that others' needs are being met.

Not it not because your needs won't be met, but because you know your needs are being met.

And so there's this invitation not into enmeshment, but into interdependence.

There is this invitation to recognize that the stars, the galaxies, all of them testify of God, but also so does the moss, and so do the tiny microbes that remind us that God is present, that creation is present.

One of the things that the poet Wendell Berry reminds us to do is practice resurrection.

Practice thinking about resurrection.

Mary Magdalene also said the same kind of thing: return, return to the good, return to life, return to the practice of being a life giver.

I was listening to someone the other day, and they were talking about that in order to be a hunter, you have to be patient and you have to wait in order to kill.

And there was this woman who interrupted, and she said, That's fine, that's what you know.

I want to tell you what takes time, healing.

I want to tell you what takes time, resurrection.

Sometimes it's an entire lifetime that you practice waiting for the healing, nurturing the healing.

And so, as followers of Jesus, we are to be people who nurture healing about our Father's business, healing the world, healing the world.

And and and the our hope is healing ourselves, allowing the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ to be what we clothe ourselves in.

You know, I've had a really neat vantage point uh as pastor uh raising a family and having uh friends uh similar age with children uh uh of similar age.

Uh and then uh I've also had this vantage point of having Pastor Lee and Carol as uh mentors, as heroes, uh uh, you know, surrogate parents.

And so I've been able to watch them live their life, uh been living my own life and watch my friends navigate and make their choices, and and I've noticed something that people do as they become become empty nesters.

They had developed this habit of just having to take care of everybody but themselves.

So they kind of said to themselves, boy, when we get rid of those kids, we're really gonna start taking care of ourselves.

We're really gonna start putting ourselves number one.

And then I watched Pastor Lee and Carolyn, and and I never watched them put themselves number one.

I always watched themselves serve other people.

Now, their their home was an empty nest, and but they would still always always have it as the forefront.

How how can they serve maybe let some people stay there for a season or or try to serve people?

And of course they're still enjoying themselves or whatnot.

They're they're not in some burdened situation.

But I watched other people turn the corner and they're like, now that them kids are gone and they threw them out, you know, uh, we're we're gonna now we're gonna party hardy, you know, we're gonna live our lives, we're getting our, you know, we're gonna get back our teenage years.

Well, you're not, you're just gonna look like an idiot, uh acting like you're a teenager because you're definitely not.

I'm looking at you.

Uh and so the thing is, how do you then take this life that you would developed learning how to serve other people, and now when they're gone, shift to serving just other people, like double down on it now.

Well, I can do this, I can do this for others now.

I've had training doing it for my, and that's what example you've set for us.

And so if you if you don't fully understand what I'm talking about, in the next couple weeks or months, ask Pastor Lee and Carroll if you can take them out to lunch after church.

They'll let you pick their favorite restaurant and let it and buy it for them, and they'll let you.

And then just pick their brain and ask them what what is Dennis talking about here, because I'm not glorifying them as Saint Perfect and they've done everything right.

But I will tell you that they've done so many things right and so many things beautifully, just because they decided not to always choose themselves.

And I watch people, and every single time I watch people that now that it's an empty desk and they're going for themselves or whatever, it always derails because we're not created for that.

We're created to serve and to give.

And so I'm telling you, if you can allow this shift, and I'm talking to somebody that must be going through there, maybe several people, and you're going through that shift, and you know, we thought we were getting ready to be that empty nester, and then God said, No, we're gonna give you silas.

And so then we start it over again.

But hey, in another uh few months, he could be 18.

We'd be like, hey, buddy, there's the door.

Or we could be like, no, let's, how long can we serve him and make his life better?

And how and now can we learn that that's what this was all about anyway?

Learning really how to give of yourself and and that there was more when you thought it was empty, the tank, and that we can give and love and serve.

And that's what God is calling us to, and that's what fulfills a life.

Not in trying to chase those your past.

And I mean, I played in the cover band out in the villages for a couple of years until I couldn't do it anymore.

Watch those old people dance to those 70 songs when back when they were sexy and they're not sexy now, and they're trying to, and so they get enough liquid courage in them to uh to get out on that dance floor and boogie because they it puts away the cramps and the pains.

But I'm telling you, you you're not 16 anymore.

Please stop deceiving yourself and others.

And you're just put you're making the rest of us a little queasy, to be honest with you.

And so do you but do you see what I'm saying?

I'm not trying to make fun of the old, but I'm just saying that that if we can understand that what's beautiful is watching a couple live their life for someone else and give.

That's when I watch you guys do that, it's so and David, it is just beautiful, it's inspiring to us.

That selfishness inspires no one in it, it doesn't help your children, it doesn't help anyone around you, and you will not be fulfilled in it.

Oh, Heather, get the car started.

Clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and don't let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil, selfish desires.

Don't let yourself even think about it.

You know what you would tell them if you had a chance.

Don't even go there.

You know what you would do, how you would turn.

No, the apostles said, no, don't even participate in that.

Don't allow yourself, again, this is again part of this the text we read over the past few weeks.

This is talking about vengeance, where you're gonna you were gonna get what was yours.

And the invitation is again, this is further on the same subject.

Don't even allow yourself that illusion that you would be selfish, that you would be the one who gets it.

This is an invitation into the life of Christ.

This is an invitation to be radicalized by love.

This is an invitation to see things differently and to participate in the resurrection of this new world.

This is an invitation into real life.

Jesus said, I have come that you would have life and have it to the full.

Beloved, paying attention to your spiritual life.

The scripture says that's where all life comes from.

Recognizing the depth of what you commit to in allowing an expansion in your spiritual life by the Holy Spirit to change the way that you think, to allow yourself to be more in love with the world.

World and more in love with life, to be able to see things and be awed by them.

We should be married to awe and amazement.

We should be looking at things like, can you believe we live in a world with moss, beloved?

It's incredible.

And the birds, come on, we live in a world with birds, and their songs in the morning tell the trees when to awake.

And it's just we get to God is so beautiful, and we get to live in this beauty as long as we wake up.

Because you know what?

We live our life on autopilot.

We live our life asleep.

And the Holy Spirit says, Wake up, thou that sleepest, wake up, arise.

The light of Christ is in you.

Be a person who allows Christ to reawaken you into the spiritual person that you are.

You got our King James on us for a second, too.

We'll wake us sometimes.

I do go a little King James on us.

I don't prefer the other ones.

That's what I was taught when I was an itty bitty girl.

We had the King James version.

And so if you ever want to go, whoa, and if you ever want to feel bad or heavy about something, I can give some King James.

Let's not do that.

Let's stay in the light of Christ and let's stay in this moment where together we can celebrate ourselves being radicalized by more love.

One of the ways that we do that is we participate in holy communion.

Every time we gather together, we remember, and we remember Jesus, who was telling his disciples, while Rome was a terrible empire over the whole earth on a regular basis.

They thought of ways to be cruel, to be mean, to be torturesome, because they thought that power was what we should have.

And Jesus showed them a different way.

Jesus said, My kingdom's coming.

And then he takes a towel and a basin and he washes the feet of people.

Peter said, We believe in Jesus.

And so he took out his sword because he's going to protect Jesus.

And Jesus said, put that away.

That is not how the kingdom comes, not through violence.

The kingdom comes, God's will, God's purpose comes when we allow ourselves to be people so full of love, when we allow ourselves to feel the love of Christ and then to breathe that same love out, that's how things change.

And the invitation is at the communion table that we would have what we need.

We receive the love of Christ.

We receive forgiveness of sins.

And so we come and we are forgiven and we come and we receive Christ.

And then we are to go broken, blessed, and given to the whole world.

So every time we come, we meet a mystery.

Every time we come, we get to experience the feast that love has set up for us.

Whatever you need, Jesus meets you at the communion table.

We need a miracle, we need transformation.

We need to really uh open up our hearts and begin to see the vision of what uh that love could be like, what our lives could be like, what our relationships could be like if love ruled, what would that be like?

And so communion is that daily bread, that thing that we need of today to sustain us as we are on this journey in this walk with God, this walk of transformation.

I hope that you can look back over the past year and say, boy, I see God's uh fingerprints in my life.

I see transformation.

I'm closer to God today than I was before.

If not, there's no shame.

Just recognize somewhere along the line you backslid and you're further away than.

And I love that repentance is that one amazing act that puts us back on course immediately, wherever we are and however far off we may have gotten.

And so at this time of uh communion, we can uh call to mind maybe the things that we've done that have uh distracted us and and uh let us uh let ourselves be led astray and and we can just repent, which means change our mind, change our direction.

Now here in this church we practice intinction, and what that means is in a moment we're gonna invite you to come up here and take the bread, dip it in the cup, and receive it as you go back to your seat.

Uh, but maybe not everybody here can um uh walk up here physically, or maybe you have a food allergy and you can't have the bread.

We have an answer for you.

Dave right there has uh some communion cups, and he's gonna get those uh for you.

And when he uh brings them back, if you lift up your hand and let him know you'd like to have one, he'll serve you with that communion cup, and you can uh partake in communion with us here.

And if you're watching online, I want you to take this opportunity to gather your communion elements because we want to pray with you and we want to uh celebrate Holy Communion with you as well.

So whether you're here or online, we want you to be a part of Holy Communion with us.

Amen?

I don't know if you had something you want to read.

On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it.

And he gave it to his disciples.

He said, This is my body broken for you.

Take and eat.

And as often as you do this, do this in remembrance of me.

And then he took the cup.

And he gave laughing and he gave thank you.

This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.

It is made welcome for everybody.

This is the invitation for the whole world to come and receive the peace that love has set up.

Amen.

Well, if you're watching us online, I want you to take the bread and receive the body of Christ.

Take the cup and receive Christ's shed blood.

We thank you so much for being a part of our uh church service by watching us online and and uh and through participating in communion.

We thank you for your prayers and financial support and your uh support by watching us.

And until next time we say God bless you.

So long.