Impossible To Ignore • Part 3 with Jake Miller

Welcome to the Southside Church Podcast, weekly content that inspires all of us to follow Jesus.

Join us each week for a message from one of our fantastic communicators that provide practical ways to grow our faith, challenge ourselves, and to love others more.

And now, this week's message.

Well, it is good to see all of you on this beautiful Sunday morning.

You know, uh I would say it's probably safe to say that most of us enjoy uh a good love story, don't we?

I mean, we we do.

And even as I say that, there may be something that's coming to your mind.

Maybe it's uh a movie that you love, maybe it's a book that you read at some point.

Maybe for you it's your own love story.

I that would be the hope for all of us.

Maybe it is your love story, but we I think it's it's fair to say that we're mostly pro-love, right?

I don't think there's many of us that would say that we're anti-love.

We're generally in favor of love.

Maybe if you're on the other side of a relationship that ended poorly or ended in a way that you didn't want, maybe for a moment you're anti-love, but in general, you are pro-love.

And love shows up everywhere in our culture, doesn't it?

It shows up in movies.

For some reason, it is the number one selling genre of book, romance novels.

I don't understand that, but maybe that's your thing, and that's totally fine if it is.

It shows up in music, it shows up in literature.

We post about it on social media.

We're definitely in favor of sharing our love for things on social media.

We spend obscene amounts of money celebrating and elevating love at weddings.

Love is everywhere, and we use the word love often, don't we?

And in some ways, it's it's a very meaningful word, and when we use it in meaningful ways, like when we say we love our kids, like we we love our kids most of the time, right?

Maybe not that thing they did last week, and that's fine.

We can we can forget about that.

But we do love them.

We love our spouses, right?

And this is the moment when you turn to that person next to you and you smile, yes, I love you, I do, right?

We love our spouses, we love our kids, we love our parents, we love our families, right?

We love maybe we love our jobs, we love our friends.

There's a lot of things in life that we love, and those are really deep and meaningful personal feelings that we have.

There's also some things that we love that are kind of frivolous.

Like, for instance, I love sports and we love our favorite teams, I love music, we love movies, I love a good chicken sandwich, I love Chick-fil-A.

I'm there often, I would be there today, but they're closed on Sundays, which, you know, I get it, but gosh, it's tough sometimes.

There's a lot of things that we say that we love, but you and I both know that love is more than just our favorite restaurant, it's more than just our favorite Netflix binge or whatever it is that's on TV at the moment.

In fact, last week we continued our series, Impossible to Ignore, and we looked at the life of Jesus, and we looked at what love did for us, what Jesus did for us.

And what we said is that love is measured by what it is willing to give.

Love is measured by what it's willing to give.

And what we know about Jesus is that Jesus didn't go to the cross because he felt like he had to, or he felt like he was compelled to.

He went to the cross because what?

He loved us.

He loved us so much that he died for us.

To be sure, he could have stepped off of that cross at any moment, but love compelled him to stay.

Love compelled him to stay.

And you see, that's where we begin to run into some problems as followers of Jesus.

Are we like Jesus?

Sometimes.

Are we always like Jesus?

No.

Should we try to be like him?

Absolutely.

But does love truly compel us to do things for others?

You see, that's where we begin to run into a problem because most people love something until it costs them something.

Most of us in the room.

And I think it's safe to say that we do, we love things, and we're willing to show love to things until we bump up against what it's going to cost us, until we bump up against the payment.

You see, love sounds obvious until that neighbor is really annoying to you, right?

The one that when you're outside doing yard work and they come outside, you're like, please don't talk to me, please don't talk to me, please don't talk to me.

Like, love sounds obvious until that annoying neighbor wants to talk to you.

Maybe it sounds great until your coworker is being really difficult.

And when you see them walking down the hall, you put your AirPods in because you're like, I just want to tune out, I don't want to have a conversation.

Maybe you hear them walking down the hall and you shut your door if you have a door to your office, because that coworker is just not somebody that you really have a lot of patience with right now.

It's not somebody you really want to love.

Love sounds really good until your spouse is distant.

You know, when your spouse feels a little bit more like a roommate, some of your interactions are more transactional than they are loving and meaningful.

Love sounds incredible until your child is rebellious, until your parents are manipulative, until your friends talk about you behind your back.

Love sounds incredible until it actually begins to cost us something.

In other words, everybody likes the idea of love until it requires something from them.

And to be sure, love does require something from us.

And you see, that is where Jesus refuses to let us just keep love as an idea.

It's not just a good thought, it's not just a feeling that we have, it's not just an emotion that we have.

Jesus does not merely invite us to appreciate love.

In fact, he commands us, he commands us to practice it.

He commands us to practice it.

So, for the last couple of weeks, we've been in a series called Impossible to Ignore.

We've been looking at the life of Jesus.

And in week one, we talked about who Jesus is.

And we said that we cannot begin with Jesus as merely a man, right?

The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus is God.

In the beginning was the Word, Jesus.

And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

So many of us think that Jesus is someone who just entered into our story.

He just came in at halftime.

In the New Testament, he shows up into our world.

But what the Gospel of John reminds us and what scripture tells us is that Jesus has been there from the beginning.

He is the author of our stories.

And then last week we looked at what that love did on our behalf, the fact that Jesus went to the cross on our behalf.

Not because he felt like he had to, but because he loved us that much.

So today, if you're a follower of Jesus, I think you're going to be challenged to see what Jesus tells us we are now supposed to do in response to that love that he showed us.

If you're not a follower of Jesus, two things.

One, I'm really glad you're here.

If you're new to our church or you're new to church in general, maybe you're just checking this whole faith thing out, not sure you believe any of it, not really sure what to think about Christians.

I'm so glad you're here.

And my hope, my prayer for you today is that something you hear, something you experience inspires you to maybe investigate it a little bit further, to see what Jesus offers you, the grace and the hope that we have in Jesus.

But if nothing else, if you're not a follower of Jesus, this is your opportunity today to watch those of us who are get a little uncomfortable and to maybe squirm just a little bit about what Jesus has to say about love.

You see, for those of us who are followers of Jesus, our greatest issue with love is that we really want to experience Jesus' love for us.

But we don't always easily express that love for others, do we?

In other words, we want the benefits of Jesus' love without accepting the responsibility of becoming, yes, becoming people who love like Jesus.

It's a challenge to become someone who loves the way that Jesus is, but we do want the benefits of that love that he offers us.

We love it when Jesus is patient with us.

And my goodness, he has been patient with me so many times in my life.

I imagine there are times that my Heavenly Father is incredibly frustrated with me, looking at me like, Jake, man, we've talked about this.

Why are you doing that again?

Why are you being so impatient?

We love it when Jesus is patient with us.

Yet we don't always easily offer that same patience to other people, do we?

I mean, not just in big things.

We have a hard time offering patience to people when we're sitting in traffic.

It's hard to offer that patience to people.

We love it when Jesus moves toward our mess, right?

We love it when he moves toward our mess.

And rest assured, he has moved toward my mess and your mess so many times.

But we have a really hard time moving toward other people when they're in their mess, don't we?

Like it's a good thought.

I kind of want to move, like, I see that mess over there, and I mean that's a shame.

I really hate that they're dealing with that, but somebody else will take care of that.

Somebody else, I don't really know what to do.

I don't know what to say, I don't know how to respond.

So I'm just gonna trust that somebody else is gonna come along and help clean up that mess.

We want Jesus to move toward our mess, but we're so reluctant to move toward other people's messes.

We love it when Jesus forgives us.

We're so grateful that he forgives us for the abundant things that we do wrong, the number of times that we miss the mark, yet we are so slow to offer forgiveness to others.

We have such a hard time offering the same forgiveness that God freely gives us to other people when they hurt us.

And we justify it.

We justify our anger, we justify withholding the forgiveness from them into a watching world.

The fact that we do things like this as followers of Jesus is what makes it so confusing to people to watch Christianity play out.

You see, they hear us, people who don't follow Jesus, they hear us talk about the love of Jesus, but they don't always see the love of Jesus in us.

They hear us talk about it, they hear us talk about all the things that we know, the things that we believe, the things that we want to do, but they don't always see it in us.

In fact, wouldn't you say that many Christians are known more for what we are against than for how we love others?

If you've been around our church for any length of time, you've heard us talk about being for this community because we believe that for far too long the church has been known for what it's against.

We want to be known for what we are for, and we believe that the best way, the best way to show people around us that God is for them is by how well we love them and by how well we serve them.

But most Christians, or many Christians, are often known more for what we are against.

We're known more for our opinions than we are for our love for others.

We're known more for our critiques, the things that we criticize, privately and publicly, than we are for our love for others.

We're known more for some of the things that we share online, for some of the things that we comment on those that share online.

I don't know about you, but I've never had my mind changed in the comments section of a social media post.

But we're known for engaging in arguments with people, as if that's going to make a difference.

We're known more for that than we are for our love for others.

We're known more for what we boycott or the things that we're against.

Those things often, not always, but often speak louder than our love for Jesus.

Some of us are more committed to being right than we are to being loving.

Some of us are more committed to being right than we are to being kind.

Some of us are more formed by outrage and the things that we watch and the things that we consume than we are by compassion, than we are by empathy and feeling.

And look, there's some of us in here today that if we sat down across from someone for a cup of coffee and they asked us to explain the love of Jesus to them, we could do a great job explaining it.

But we would not do as equally a good job as sharing it or showing it with that very same person across the table from us.

That should bother us.

That should bother us.

I want to ask you a question.

And I told you this might be a little uncomfortable today, and this question might sting a little bit, but I think that where we're going today, we've got to look at it through this lens.

If people judged Jesus, if people judge Jesus by the way that I love others, by the way that you love others, what would they believe about him?

What picture would they paint in their minds of who Jesus is?

If all they had to go on was how you acted and how you treated others, what would they believe about him?

What would they say about him?

You see, this is not a new problem.

If there's some good news in this, this is not a new problem.

You see, Jesus knew that his followers would need a way to make sure, to make sure that the world could recognize them.

So on the night before he was crucified, he gathered with his disciples for what we now know is the Last Supper.

He knew it would be the last time that he would gather with all of them together.

And he told them exactly what they needed to do, to ensure that everyone in the world around them would know that they are his followers.

We're going to be looking again this morning at the Gospel of John.

If you've got your Bibles, I would love for you to follow along.

If you've got a device with scripture on it, that is great as well.

If you need a Bible, if you don't own a Bible, we've got some Bibles in the back, please feel free to grab one or if you just want to use one today to follow along.

We'll be in the Gospel of John, chapter 13, beginning in verse 34.

John 13 · chapter mention

This is John talking about this night that Jesus was with his disciples and what Jesus was sharing with them during this meal.

Jesus said this in verse 34 a new command I give you.

Love one another.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

You see, here's the thing about what Jesus is saying in this moment.

This is not throwaway advice.

This is not just a suggestion.

This is like 11th hour, I'm about to die, and this is what I want to say to you stuff.

This is the thing that we talk about sometimes with our spouses or with people that we love that, like, hey, if you only had a few minutes to live, what would you want to say to the people that you love the most?

This is what Jesus chose to say to the people that he loved and spent so much time with.

A new command I give you: love one another.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

And by the way, he was saying this to them, knowing, knowing what was about to happen.

He actually washed the disciples' feet, knowing that Judas, Judas was about to betray him.

Judas had already sold him out.

He gets down to wash their feet, knowing that Peter is about to deny him, not once, not twice, three times.

Jesus, yeah, nah, never heard of him.

Don't know what you're talking about.

I'm gonna go in another direction.

Jesus knows that's coming.

And his other disciples, who, by the way, are all going to abandon him and run away because they have no idea what to do or what to expect going forward.

Can you imagine?

Can you imagine?

Knowing that people in your life that you love dearly, that you've spent several years with, investing in, can you imagine getting down on your knees to wash their feet, knowing what was about to happen, knowing that they were going to turn their backs on you.

I have a hard time imagining doing that for anyone, let alone someone that I knew was about to betray me.

You see, Jesus didn't wash Judas' feet because he deserved it.

He washed Judas' feet because that's what love does.

That's what love does.

When you realize that you're the most powerful person in the room, as Jesus did, he got on his knees and he served others because that's what love requires of us.

You see, oftentimes we think that loving somebody means we approve of them or we approve of their behavior, that in some way Jesus was endorsing what Judas was about to do or what Peter was about to do.

We think sometimes that loving somebody means that we trust them or that we believe that what they're doing is okay, that we think loving someone means that there's no boundaries, that there's no lines, that somehow we're condoning their behavior.

That's not it at all.

What we don't understand and what Jesus was telling us that another person's behavior, it doesn't get to determine our posture, somebody else's behavior, what somebody else is doing, somebody else's lifestyle, somebody else's choices, somebody else's actions toward us or toward others, don't get to determine our posture toward them because love isn't primarily about what the other person deserves.

It's not, it's about what Jesus has commanded of us, it's about what Jesus has called me and you, all of us, to become.

This will be good.

No, he says what?

He says, A new command I give you, not merely a suggestion.

Some of the final words that Jesus spoke to his closest followers, they weren't about him, it was about others.

And he said, A new command I give you.

Love others the way that I have loved you.

For those of us who are followers of Jesus, what that means for us is that love is not optional.

For those of us who follow Jesus, love isn't an option, it's a command.

You don't get to decide whether love fits your personality, whether loving that other person, well, we just don't really jive.

It's not up to you.

You don't get to decide whether it fits your schedule.

Oh, that's a shame that they're walking through that, but I've got too much on my plate.

I can't help there, I can't serve there, I can't love there.

You don't get to decide whether your politics line up with it.

It doesn't matter.

We vote differently, who cares?

That doesn't matter.

That's a child of God.

You don't get to decide that your temperament or your comfort level just don't line up with this person.

Somebody else will do it.

Somebody else will come along, somebody else will show them love.

No.

Jesus said, You want to see what love is?

Look at me.

Look at me, Jesus.

For those of us who follow Jesus, if we're looking for a definition of love, the Christian definition of love is what?

It's Jesus.

If we're following Jesus, the Christian definition of love is Jesus.

Notice what I didn't say here.

The definition of love is not culture.

Or what culture says it is.

What culture tells us that it should be.

It's not our emotions, it's not what we feel in here, it's not convenience.

Love is not personal preference.

It's not personal preference.

Love isn't always what we feel toward someone.

It's not always what we feel towards someone.

We have a lot of feelings, don't we?

We have a lot of feelings, a lot of feelings toward others.

Love is what we're willing to do.

Not because of our feelings, not because of our emotions, but because of Jesus.

I want to continue in our verse 34, and I want to add verse 35 to it.

Now I want to read 34 again.

A new command I give you, love one another.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

And then what does Jesus say after this?

He says, By this, by this, everyone will know that you are my disciples.

If you love one another, by this, how you love one another.

That's how people are going to know.

Jesus didn't say, by your church attendance.

Everyone will know that you're my disciple.

He didn't say by how well you sing the worship songs, they will know you're my disciple.

He didn't say how well you know scripture, they will know that you're my disciples.

He didn't say by your political preferences or political opinions or your ability to win arguments or what you share or don't share online.

None of that is applicable.

Jesus says, by this, by how you love one another, that's how people are going to know that you follow me.

That's how people will know.

That's it.

Full stop.

Nothing else.

I want to share a story that we see in the Gospel of Luke.

And this story, like many stories that we see in the Gospels, includes a group of people called the Pharisees.

And the Pharisees were these people that really just, they were the religious elite of that day.

They were very stuck in the Old Testament law, the tradition, the what they believed, they were very skeptical of Jesus, didn't believe that Jesus was who he said he was.

And so in this case, they were trying to find ways to kind of trap him or to trick him into doing something that he shouldn't do.

They thought he was heretical.

They thought he was a blasphemer.

They were trying to always catch him to kind of prove that they were right and that he was actually wrong.

And this story includes a time like that.

We're going to be in the Gospel of Luke.

Now, verse uh chapter 10, verses 25 through 28.

On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.

Teacher, he asked, What must I do to inherit eternal life?

What is written in the law?

He replied, How do you read it?

This is Jesus talking back to him.

How do you read it?

What do you think it says?

And this Pharisee answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.

And love your neighbor, love your neighbor as yourself.

And Jesus looked at him, yeah, that's right.

You have answered correctly.

Do this, and you will live.

So at this moment, this Pharisee, this religious elite who's always trying to trap Jesus, kind of has a snarky, sarcastic response, which is kind of how I assume they talked most of the time anyway.

It just always, when I read their words, I always feel like that's kind of snarky.

I don't know that I really love that.

So he asks Jesus this very direct question.

He wanted to justify himself.

And in verse 29, he, the Pharisee, wanted to justify himself.

So he asks Jesus, Well, who's my neighbor?

All right, smart guy.

Who's my neighbor?

You're supposed to love my neighbor as myself.

So smug.

And what he's doing here is he's looking for a loophole.

He's looking for a way around it.

He's essentially asking, let's be really clear here, who is actually included in my responsibility to love?

Like you're telling me to love my neighbor, but who is that exactly?

Like, is there a line?

Is there like a place that we just don't go?

There's a few people though.

You're not sure that you're not talking about everybody.

There's a few people that are like, well, yeah, we don't love those people.

Like, we don't love what they do, right?

So who is my neighbor?

And I love how Jesus responds.

And he responds with what is one of the most famous parables in all of Scripture.

Even if you're not a follower of Jesus, even if you're not a really, you know, uh consider yourself a church person, you're probably familiar with the parable of the good Samaritan.

So I want to read that parable to you all the way through, beginning in verse 30.

In reply to this question, well, and who is my neighbor?

This snarky question, Jesus said, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers.

They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.

A priest happened to be going down the same road.

And when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.

So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

I want to pause there for a moment because what you're seeing here is what we talked about a moment ago.

Oftentimes we love it when Jesus, when God will move toward us in our mess, these guys, I'm gonna just step right over here.

I don't really want anything to do with that mess over there.

That is not a person that I feel like I want to love.

So I'm just gonna walk down the street right past them and essentially pretend that he's not even there.

But but a Samaritan came along.

As he traveled, came to where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him.

He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine.

Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

The next day he took out two dinari and gave them to the innkeeper.

Look after him, he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense that you may have.

So, to summarize, we've got two guys who walk along, see it, and what was their thought?

Not my problem.

Somebody else will take care of that.

That's not really somebody that I feel like I need to love.

They don't deserve me to show them love.

So I'm gonna move along.

And then a Samaritan man, one of the last people that in those days they would have thought would be the one who would actually show love and help and assistance, comes along and says, No, this is my problem.

I am going to help.

I am going to do something about that.

So as Jesus is sharing this parable, he looks now at the Pharisees and says, This, which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?

The expert in the law, the Pharisee, the guy who knows it all, remember?

The one who had mercy on him.

And Jesus said, Go and do likewise.

Go and do likewise.

That is the charge that Jesus is giving all of us because the Pharisee is not just asking, Who is my neighbor?

He wants to know where is the limit on the love that I'm supposed to share with other people.

And Jesus is saying, There is no limit.

There is no limit.

If you're asking the same question this morning, who's my neighbor?

Where does it stop?

Where does the line get drawn?

Who is your neighbor?

Everyone you meet.

There is not a person that you encounter that is not made in the image of our Creator.

There's not a person that you encounter that is not a child of God.

If you are a follower of Jesus, this is not optional.

This isn't optional.

Jesus commands us, doesn't suggest it to us.

He doesn't say, here's a nice thought, or hey, if you have time, he commands us to love others like him so that the world will now see him through us.

And the best way to do that, if you're looking for kind of a cheat code or a cheat sheet, how do I know when I'm supposed to do this?

It's a very simple question.

And if you've been at our church for any length of time, you have heard us ask this question before, and it will not be the last time that you hear me ask it.

What does love require of me?

What does love require of me in this moment, in this situation?

You see, the the reason that this question is so great is because it cuts through all of all of the mess.

It cuts through all of the ambiguity of like, well, who is my neighbor and should I really do this?

And well, what about those people, or what about this situation?

It cuts through all of that in any situation.

You see, like the Pharisees, whether we want to admit this or not, I'm guilty, maybe you're guilty as well.

We tend to look for ways around it, don't we?

We tend to look for ways to kind of get around it.

We look for the loopholes, especially, especially for the people that we don't believe deserve to be loved.

We play judge and jury in this situation.

Well, I don't think they deserve it.

Well, I'm not sure that they deserve that.

Somebody else will take care of it.

How did we get to a point where we begin dictating and judging who deserves to be loved?

I mean, have you ever thought about it?

How much do you really deserve God's love?

How much do you deserve what Jesus did for you?

None of us deserve it.

There's nothing that we could have done to earn it.

We certainly don't deserve it.

He gave his life anyway.

These words from the Apostle Paul, we actually looked at this verse last week.

I want to look at it again.

Romans chapter 5, verse 8.

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates his own what?

Love for us.

In this, that while we were still sinners, Christ did what?

He died for us.

Jesus loved us before we got our act together.

He knows everything about us.

He has always known everything about us.

He knows everything we've ever done and everything we ever will do.

He died anyway.

He moved toward us long before we ever made a decision to move toward him.

And now what does he tell us to do?

He says, Go and do likewise.

Go and do likewise.

A new command I give you to love others the way that I have loved you.

That's how people will know that you are my disciples.

Jesus put God's love on display for us.

And then what does he do?

He calls us to put God's love on display through us, through how we love one another.

So, what does love require of you?

It's a great question.

I wonder if you thought about that in terms of the things that you do every day.

What does love require of you at home?

And maybe it means apologizing first?

Maybe it means taking the low place.

Maybe it means doing the things that you should do without being asked.

Maybe it means moving toward your spouse or your kids in a situation where you would rather hold your ground.

What about at church?

Maybe it means you step into a role, you start serving other people.

Maybe it means just simply saying hello to somebody that you typically pass in the hallway that you've never met.

Maybe somebody that you sit near on a Sunday morning.

Maybe they sit by themselves.

What would it look like to just go and sit with them, introduce yourself, get to know them?

What does love require of you in that moment?

What does love require of you with your neighbor?

Yes, even that annoying neighbor.

What does it look like?

What does it look like to actually learn their name?

Learn their story, share a little bit of your story.

Get to know them, pray for them.

What does it look like to move toward your enemy, the person that's your adversary, the person that you'd really rather not be around?

What does love require of you?

Maybe it requires that you just pray for them.

Maybe it's difficult to be around them.

I get that, but what does it look like to just pray for them?

Look, if our love makes room for us to treat people poorly, or excuse me, if our faith leaves room for us to treat people poorly, I would say we're doing it wrong.

I would say we're doing it wrong.

There's a better way.

Jesus has called us to a better way, and that's why Jesus is impossible to ignore.

He shows us the love of the Father, and then he sends us out into the world to put it on display for other people.

So I want you to imagine for a moment, as we wrap up this morning, imagine.

Imagine if the people around you, the people that you encounter this week, imagine if they saw Jesus simply because they encountered you.

Can you imagine what a difference we could make in our community, in our city?

Imagine the people outside of these walls, the people that you'll encounter this afternoon, the people that you'll encounter at work tomorrow, the people that you're going to encounter everywhere you go.

Imagine if they saw Jesus this week simply because they encountered you.

Imagine if your spouse saw Jesus because they were around you.

Imagine if your kids, your friends, your coworkers, imagine how different their life might look if they saw Jesus in you because of the way that you treated them.

Jesus told us.

By how we love others.

The world should be able to see the love of Jesus through us, through the people of Jesus.

In week one, we learned that Jesus is God.

We believe that Jesus is God, God with us.

Last week we talked about God's love for us and what that love did for us.

Today, what's impossible to ignore is that Jesus doesn't just tell us what love is, he shows us what love looks like.

And now he's called on us to show the world what that looks like.

So I want to ask you one more question.

It's the same question I asked you as we started.

And I wonder what it looks like through the lens of having heard what Jesus says about it.

If people judged Jesus by the way that I love others, by the way that you love others, what would they believe about him?

What would they say?

What picture would be painted for them about who Jesus is?

The people around us should know Jesus because they've met us.

And that's impossible to ignore.

I'm gonna ask our band to come back out.

We're gonna sing one more song together because the only true response to what Jesus did for us and what he has called us to do for others is to worship him.

So with that in mind, I'd love to pray for us.

The band will be out.

We'll sing one more song together.

Would you bow your heads and pray with me?

Heavenly Father.

God, I pray that for every single one of us that we would be encouraged today.

Regardless of where we've been, regardless of where we've done, regardless of how and why and where we've gotten this wrong in our lives, that we would be encouraged today to love others the way that you have called us to love.

God, you laid down your life for us while we were still sinners.

We still don't get it right, God.

You gave your love away.

You laid down your life for us, and you have called us to move toward others the same way.

And I pray that we would do that.

May we be a church that is known for how we love others.

May we be a group of people that is known in our neighborhoods, in our places of work, in our church, in our community, in our homes as those who love you.

And because of that, we love others deeply.

Not because it's convenient, not because it's our preference, not because of an emotion, but because it was a command from you.

So God, would you lead us to those around us this week?

Lead us in your love to those around us.

And may we ask the question in every situation, in this moment, what does love require of me?

What does your love for me require that I do to love others in this situation, Father?

And we pray that you will be magnified and glorified every single time we show that love to others, Father.

And we pray all of this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, our King.

Amen.