December 25, 2023 • 41 mins
Each week of December, Anna and Sarah are going through Advent (Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love). They will each have a devotional prepared about each topic, and toward the end of the episode, Anna and Sarah will be reading what others have said about their own beliefs/opinions of that episode's topic.
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boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom we told me how to get how to get to sesame street
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Hold on.
Hello friends and welcome to the fourth and final week of our series on Advent.
This week we're going to be talking about love.
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And we've almost done it.
We've done a podcast on hope, peace, and joy so far.
So if you haven't listened to those, you should go back and listen to them.
And then come back to this one.
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And so as a reminder, Advent is just like a time to reflect
and look at in eager anticipation the coming of Christ.
Well, to reflect on the first coming of Christ and to look forward in eager anticipation of the second coming of Christ.
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Yeah, that's a better way to say that.
And as we approach Christmas, we're only 10 days away when Sarah and I are recording this,
we hope that this just, I don't know, this will be released the day before Christmas?
No, the day of, wait, Christmas is on Monday.
It'll be on Christmas.
Oh my gosh, Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
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That's crazy.
Oh, what's in this?
Happy New Year!
That's beautiful.
Thank you.
So we hope this helps put you in a good mind and heart state as you celebrate Christmas and move on to the new year.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yep.
All right, so I'm going to get us started.
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Disclaimer.
I don't have my notes complete, so the Holy Spirit is, I know, the Holy Spirit is really going to be talking through me today
because we're winging it.
Me and Anna are winging it, Queens.
Honestly, yeah.
We are.
I'm a, what is it?
I will say some weeks.
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I'm a pants or not a plotter.
That's a good one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because I have literally, my notes are this.
I have Bible verse after Bible verse after Bible verse, and that's it.
And the rest is just in my head from what I was thinking.
So honestly, same.
Until my last point, I did do some legit notes, but most of mine, I'm going to read the verses in the moment and kind of say my observations as we go.
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So I figured we can kind of observe.
So I will see, let's step back into Sarah mode like my Sarah Bible study prep mode.
I think what I was thinking here was, well, OK, no, I do remember.
OK, so what I was thinking about love, I was thinking about love according to God because Anna and I did a series on love based off of First Corinthians, Chapter 13, verse four through seven.
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And here on the podcast, you can go back and listen to those if you want.
But then I was also thinking about a lot lately, even just outside of me trying to plan for this podcast episode.
I've been thinking a lot about what the world says love is and how badly if we love if we love others the way that the world encourages us to love others, it's not true love.
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And it literally just your life deteriorates like it just deteriorates.
It goes down the toilet.
So many negative things happen and maybe not right away, but just as time goes on, there's just all these things that are just negative happening in your life based off of the way that you are loving someone to the best of, quote unquote, to the best of your ability on your own without God and the way that you're wanting others to love you and looking for that love.
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Did that make sense?
Yeah.
I don't know where that my first little initial thought for all of this came from.
Because I've been also watching this is a good little tidbit also to say, I've been listening and watching this one woman on YouTube.
Say another thing it's Malena something.
She's married and has some kids, and she has some really good biblical at least so far everything I've listened to is biblical I haven't listened to all of her videos, but she and her husband have a podcast and then she also has a YouTube channel.
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Aside from the podcast, and she just has a lot of good biblical points on marriage and raising kids and just life in general.
And so everything I've listened to so far from her has been really good, but it's made me really think about how I'm loving my husband.
And so when I started looking at verses about this, I first started thinking of like how God wants me to love my husband, but also just my friends in general.
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So it's based off of that.
And my points like my observations that I might say in the moment may have nothing to do with that, but I just wanted to tell you where I kind of came with this because this has been a really hard thing for me is truly loving people with God's love might sound crazy, you know I'm over here leading a ministry with Anna here and I'm over here struggling to love people in a Christlike way but it's true I have been struggling a lot with it.
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So my first verse is Matthew five, or it's a few verses Matthew five, 40 through 42.
I'm going to go ahead and read it it says, and if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
Okay, so I'm just going to stop. So this is saying that if someone asks you to go one mile with them, sure, go the one mile, be generous go the one mile, but this is saying go another one with them, even though they didn't ask you to go an extra mile be extra generous.
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And so, but the world doesn't say that.
Right. The world's love is very limited right. So like yes be generous if they need help help them, but then as soon as it steps into your circle of what I don't want to go an extra mile.
Okay, so you don't have to you have every right to say no, you know, it's good enough that you just want the one. Yeah, it's good enough you're doing a good deed at least for the one mile.
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And then it's saying go another one. It doesn't say, if you don't want to, don't go another mile, it says straightforward you go with him two miles.
So, I don't know.
Romans 1210 says, don't just pretend to love others really love them hate what is wrong hold tightly to what is good love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.
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And then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding, then the NLT I really like it says, so then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.
Once again, and I know this talking about in the church. But as we've read in the peace episode I think it was, we were talking about how we are just, or maybe it was a different one.
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In a recent episode of the podcast where we talked about how we are just strive for peace with everyone. And it was the one we did at the library so whatever that one was one of the loved ones.
Yeah.
And anyway so it was the irritable resentful one. Yeah.
So we are to strive for peace with everyone. And, and, like it said in the NLT, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.
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And we were talking specifically about in the church, the way it worded it in NLT, I'm going to apply this to everyone.
Not that we have the same beliefs as non believers and we should be in harmony in that way because in the church body in Christ's family, yes we should be in harmony with our beliefs we should be one in that.
But we should be striving for peace with those outside of God's family as well. And we should still have that same, maybe not with the way that we believe versus their beliefs but like we should solve harmony with them when it comes in the sense that there's not conflict and strife at all times because of us.
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If it has to do with like, they don't agree with you and God is leading you to say something against what they're combating against your belief like that's different there's going to be a bit of conflict there and God's leading you to do that.
But if it's just nonsense.
Just for nonsense sake.
Shut your mouth, like don't you know have harmony have peace. What you got. We talked about this.
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I think that, like, the Bible study that I'm a part of the other night because we're going through Romans, about being a peacemaker versus being a peacekeeper.
And then, let me see. Oh, verse Romans 13 talks about verse eight says, Oh no one anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
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Your only law that you abide by should be love. Yeah, and sometimes that means like Sarah said, I forget where the peacemaker versus peacekeeper conversation came in, but we were talking about like, sorry being a peacemaker.
Sometimes that does mean that you I think because it talks about inverse in Romans 13 or 14 whether to talks about exhortation.
Sometimes you are going to have to exhort people in saying like, hey, I don't agree with this. I don't agree with this, or like that might mean going to a fellow Christian and saying like hey in order to be peacemaker right.
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Say like hey I noticed that you've fallen into some really simple patterns. And because I love you, I needed like that's not Christ honoring, but in a very respectful private way. Yeah, I think it should be done.
So, I don't know where that came from but just reminded me of the conversation we just had the other night. So yeah.
I'm flipping us to three says that make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other loving one another and working together with one mind and purpose. Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others be humble thinking of others as better than yourselves.
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So, I'm going to read the next one and then I'm going to say something about both of these verses the one that I just read in the one that I'm about to read. It says in Galatians 513 for you were called to freedom brothers only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh but through love serve one another.
Okay, so the reason I want to kind of put these two verses together and flippings to three in Galatians 513 is because there was something that God really showed me.
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I'm like three times just now.
In Philippians to three where it said, take the humble thinking of others is better than yourselves. Now that's an LTV version but in the other versions still similar.
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In order. Okay, so, in my opinion, based off of everything I've read in the Bible and what God has shown me in my personal life. That's how I'm going to back this up because it is technically my opinion.
In order, I don't I don't believe that God is saying in Philippians to three that we should that that someone that Anna is better than me.
We are equal.
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But, though, so this is not saying I should think of Anna is better than me in in worth to the sense that I'm getting depressed because God made her more worth it than me. That's not what I mean.
What this is showing me personally, at least this is what I think.
Is that I need to think I need I do need to be in that mindset of Anna is better than me in a sense to to the to the degree that I put her above me in all ways that God shows me to.
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I put her above me in the way that, you know, like, for instance, if Anna walked in my house and was having a really bad day bawling her eyes out something tragic happened and she just needed someone to talk to but I'm over here.
And I'm exhausted because I've been watching two kids all day and I feel like I'm going to throw up because I don't know why just for whatever reason like I don't feel great.
I have a headache. All these things.
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I'm tired. The world would say no, Sarah. Yes, she's having a bad day, but you need to set your boundaries and go to bed.
But what God is saying, I need to go the extra mile and think of Anna better than myself.
I need to serve her because that's where that other verse came in in order to because if you think about whenever there were masters and servants and that was more common.
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Servants were looked at as lowly compared to the masters in their worth.
So this to me is saying that when I look at Anna, I should be looking at myself as a servant to her.
She is my master. Now, I'm not saying she's my boss.
So everything she says I need to do. But what I'm saying is whenever it comes to prioritizing her in our friendship, I need to think of myself as lowly in a certain way when it comes to Anna so that I can serve her with all humility, all vulnerability, all selflessness.
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You know, everything that God can give me, all characteristics from God inside of me, I can give to her wholly and fully without pride and selfishness and greed.
Yeah. And so it's really your mindset and your heart set of being a servant to the people around you.
That way I can think of her as better than myself so I can serve her to the best of my ability.
Now, if it came to, you know, obviously, I'm just going to say this disclaimer.
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If my child was like bleeding out the wazoo for some reason, obviously, I'm going to say, Anna, I'm so sorry you're having a hard time, but I need to take my kid to the hospital.
That's different, clearly.
But just on an average day with an average situation, you need to think of yourself as not as good.
Yeah.
Or think of your friend or whoever it is as better. And this applies to marriages, obviously, as well.
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So that was my, like, that was a big thing to me.
But the world doesn't tell you that. The world, you know, like we've said, they say set boundaries.
Boundaries are healthy. You do need to have boundaries. I'm not saying that.
Right. Yes. But there's healthy boundaries and there's worldly boundaries.
And worldly boundaries are just very self-served.
And you definitely don't go the extra mile most of the time.
And if you do, people are going to know and you want that you like it whenever they are boasting about you.
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You know, when in turn in Christianity, whenever you are a follower of Christ, when you go the extra mile, you do it privately.
Or if people do see it, you always glorify God. You do not put any glory on yourself.
And that is not at all what the world says.
So, OK, so the next verse is Colossians 313 and it says, put on them as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another.
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And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you.
So you also must forgive. OK. So on that very last bit of this verse, it says, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
The world says. Forgiveness can be good, but you don't always have to forgive and forget you.
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You know, you have every right, quote unquote, you have every right to not forgive somebody because they wronged you.
But what God says is that we should forgive others like he's forgiven us.
Do you know how many times I wronged God in a day? I can't even count.
I'm sure how many times I wronged God in a day.
Do you know how many times Jesus was beaten, spit upon, mocked? I mean, ridiculed.
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He was literally beaten to death when he did nothing wrong.
And I did that to him and Anna did that to him and you did that to him.
Yet he forgave us and he did that for us because he loves us and God has forgiven us and allowed us to have a relationship with him.
So if that's the way if God is saying, as the Lord has forgiven you here, then that means that I need to be forgiving others in that same way.
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If someone wronged me and I did nothing wrong in that situation, do I still need to forgive them?
Absolutely, because that's how God forgave me.
Yeah. And now I'm not saying don't set boundaries.
Don't let them, you know, if you're being trigger warning here, if you're being abused, you know, or whatever it is, if it's something to that degree, I'm not saying forgive them.
Forgive them and let them walk all over you. Yeah.
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What I'm saying is go to God, ask him to help you forgive that person.
Yes. But then you still need to go to the authorities.
You still need to find someone in your church family or whatever to help you through that and to get out of that.
I'm not saying that I'm just saying to forgive them because that's what God would want you to do.
And that's how you should love them. Even if they don't deserve to be loved.
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First Corinthians 13, four through seven, we did the series on this and then I'm going to read this and then Galatians 5, 22 through 23.
And I'll close this up with some points that I have from the Christmas story.
So first Corinthians 13, four through seven says, Love is patient and kind.
Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful.
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It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.
So I'm not going to go into extensive detail about that.
Anna I think has a few things to say about that passage.
And like I said, we did a series on it, but I had to include that because we're talking about love.
And that's literally a list of what love is and isn't.
So, but then along with this, I'm going to read the fruit of the spirit passage, which is Galatians 5, 22 through 23.
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And it says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things.
There is no law.
So if you pair that with the first Corinthians 13, 4 through 7 passage, in order to have all of these attributes that love is and isn't,
like to have all the attributes that love is and also not do and be the ones that it says love isn't.
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I don't know if I said that right, but you know what I mean?
Yeah.
You have to have the fruit of the spirit and the spirit is God's Holy Spirit.
And so in order to have God's Holy Spirit is you have to have the security of salvation.
And we've talked about this in the past, so I don't feel led to share the gospel at this very moment.
But in order to even love others with God's love, you have to have that spirit inside of you.
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You have to have God doing it through you because you can't do it on your own.
So anyway, and then a few things.
I did not write extensive notes on these, so I just put a statement there and we're just going to go with it.
If you look at the three main, I guess, characters or whatever of the, well, yeah, of the Christmas story,
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to Jesus, Joseph, and Mary.
And the way that they loved others from the stuff that we know about them through Matthew, Luke,
like through reading through the Christmas story, they loved people with a godly love.
And so we're going to stay here and we're going to discuss it for a minute, I think.
That's what I'm feeling led.
We'll see how it goes.
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But first point is, when thinking of the birth of Jesus and the prep behind that,
like between God and the Son of God, like Father and the Son of God, and then also during and after,
the way that Jesus is, Jesus, okay, my neighbor's son is outside playing and it's kind of loud,
so I'm sorry if you have earbuds on.
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The way that Jesus loved the Father, Jesus, the Son of God, loved the Father, obviously, is the ultimate way to love.
His whole life on earth, the fact that he agreed wholeheartedly to come down in such a lowly form
and so dependent, because he wasn't independent when he was born.
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He was at the most dependent stage of life.
At the mercy of his parents.
Yeah, and he was at the most vulnerable state that he could have come at, you know?
And so he did that for his Father, to glorify his Father by loving us and by loving him, by loving the Father.
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Humility, vulnerability, all of it, everything you can think of, that was love.
Jesus' love toward the Father, Jesus' love toward us, Joseph's love toward Mary.
I believe that Joseph's love from the very beginning from what we hear in the Christmas story toward Mary was godly.
Because before he had the knowledge that Mary was pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit,
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he thought what anyone would think, that she cheated on him, that she went against the law, that she got pregnant by someone else.
But the way that he was going to go about it was righteous.
It even says that in Scripture, that he was a righteous and just man, depending on the version you read.
And so that just kind of shows you the way that he was going to go about it was good.
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He was going to privately divorce her, that way no one knew, she wouldn't get stoned to death, yada yada yada.
He loved her with a godly love, even though I'm sure he was hurt in his jaw.
Joseph's love toward God was also shown through that.
Because whenever God revealed to Joseph that it was by the power of the Holy Spirit that Mary was pregnant,
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and that it was Jesus, the son of God, inside of her, he trusted him with that.
And that's what love is, is well, you need to trust God, that's part of loving him.
And you need to act upon your trust by following through and obeying him. And that's what Joseph did.
Mary's love toward God.
Me and Anna, or Anna and I, sorry, Anna and I talked about this recently on the podcast about how amazing Mary was.
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Because she was just a teenager and she was told that she was pregnant with the son of God and she just went with it.
She was like, okay God, what you say, I mean, then it has to be true because you're God and I'm going to go with it.
And how scary would that have, like that would have been terrifying for so many reasons.
And it just shows how reverent she was about how much she loved God truly.
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And I don't know, just a few people that I think maybe you should just read and reflect on how they showed love through the Christmas story.
Because it might really convict you or maybe encourage you, who knows. So yeah, that's what I got.
It's amazing how the things you say tie into the things that I'm going to say.
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Because we don't discuss this beforehand. We have no idea what we're going to talk about.
But I'm going to start off by reading 1 John 4, 7 through 12.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. And whoever loves us was born of God and knows God.
And anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
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In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
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And then now I'm going to read. I was looking up, I don't know, I got this from an article from BibleProject.com.
And it says, I liked this quote from it. It says, biblical love refers to more than just a feeling.
It's about caring for someone regardless of their response, and it's modeled perfectly by Jesus.
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And I love that it says it's about caring for someone regardless of their response. So like regardless of how they respond to you, you're going to love them anyway.
That's good. I'm not going to go on and on. I just want to say that's something that I really have been thinking about today.
Yeah. Like literally just today I've been thinking about that specifically a lot today. That's hilarious.
Yeah. And like the quote said, it's modeled perfectly by Jesus. Jesus, perfect Jesus, who came to earth humbly to die for our sins.
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First John 4 says that God is love. And Sarah and I have before this, as she mentioned, have been doing the series on love.
And so when it starts with like the basic principle, God is love, as it says in First John 4.8.
So we've been going through in this series of verses of First Corinthians 13 at a time. And so if you've missed that, you should go check that out.
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But right now I want to read First Corinthians 13, but replacing the word love with Jesus's name.
And then I'm going to stop in between and I might have some notes and stuff.
But so I'm going to start in verse one. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not Jesus, I have a noisy gong or a clinging symbol.
And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not Jesus, I am nothing.
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If I go, if I give away all I have, and if I deliver it my body to be burned, but have not Jesus, I gain nothing.
I'm going to pause here to read Romans 11, 32 through 36, which says, Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God,
how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable are his ways for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever. Amen.
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So all that we have and all that we are is because of the Lord. We are nothing without Jesus, we're nothing apart from Jesus.
Moving on to verse four, it says Jesus is patient and kind.
Second Peter 3, 8 through 9 says, But knew not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day.
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The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
So Jesus, the Lord is so patient towards us. He wants us to come to know him. He's patient and that he'll wait for us forever.
If that's, you know, like if necessary. He doesn't want anyone to die. He doesn't want anyone to perish.
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He's not a mean God who put this plan of like judgment in place because he hates us. He did it because he loves us.
And then it goes on in verse four to say, Jesus does not envy or boast. He is not arrogant or rude. He does not insist on his own way.
Philippians 2 verses 5 through 8 says, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.
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I love it says emptied himself being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
So Jesus does not envy or boast. He's very humble. In fact, he he didn't insist on his own way, but instead submitted to the father.
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When Jesus was praying in the garden the night before he was to be killed, he said, Lord, Father, if there's any of this cut, maybe pastor me, let it happen. But then he ends with, but not my will, yet not my will, but yours be done.
And so he was so humble and obedient to the father.
In that he did nothing to exalt himself, and he did not insist on his own way. And if they imagine if he had, right, imagine if he hadn't, like we wouldn't be redeemed today.
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And then Hebrews 2, 14 through 15 says, Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who is the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who, through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery.
So because he like he took on flesh and blood, he came down as a humble little baby, born in the stable when he deserved to be born probably in a palace.
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He took on flesh and blood suffered in life suffered in ministry suffered on the cross for our sins to defeat death, because death was coming for us and Jesus knew that, and he he loved us enough that he stopped it.
And not only stopped he overcame it for once and for all forever. Back to first Corinthians 13.
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Oh, um, continue on in verse five. So, he meaning Jesus is not irritable resentful, Jesus bears all things believes all things hopes all things and there's all things. And then Jesus never ends.
I like that Jesus never ends. So imagine for a moment that as he was walking up that hill, Jesus all of a sudden, through the cross down and exclaimed that he couldn't do it anymore, or that he decided that because of our other sinfulness and wretchedness he wasn't going to die for us after all, that we weren't worth his love or mercy or redemption, or imagine him.
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God withdrawing it from Adam and Eve in the garden the moment they send and destroying them and starting over, or deciding to forsake his people in Egypt when they are in captivity in Egypt or in Babylon, or any of the other 1000s of times we turned our back on him.
Imagine that as he walked this earth suffering in ministry he decided that he was too tired or too overwhelmed or whatever it is to continue seeing people and healing them and listening to their problems.
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Imagine him turning them away.
I don't know about y'all but it's very hard for me to imagine that I like it is because that's not who Jesus is.
I'm going to read to you guys from Matthew 14 now.
And Jesus isn't all those things like Jesus is all these things I just named in first Corinthians 13.
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But Matthew 14 is like one of my favorite stories in a way of Jesus just because like it's.
I don't know I'm just gonna read it to you.
So I'm going to start in verse. I think I'm going to start in Matthew 14 verse 10, which says, He meaning King Herod sent and had john beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl and she brought her to brought it to her mother, and the disciples came and took the body and buried it and they went and told Jesus.
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And then after this, in verse 13. Now when Jesus heard this he withdrew from there, and a boat to a desolate place by himself. When the crowds heard that they followed him on foot from the towns, when he spent when he went ashore he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them.
And I'm going to stop right there.
Because this story always. I don't know it always gets to me, because you all realize how much Jesus must have loved john.
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Like, that was one of his best friends.
This is the same john the Baptist that jumped in his mother's womb. When Mary came with Jesus in her womb, because he was so full of joy. I mean they were connected from day one from before day one before day one.
They had an intimate deep connection. And Jesus must have loved john so much.
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And so like right after hearing that his cousin had been killed.
He withdrew to a desolate place. And I don't think that anyone would fault Jesus for like Sarah said kind of like setting those boundaries. Yeah, and being like hey actually my cousin one of my closest and dearest friends who was like a brother to me just passed away.
Not just passed away was murdered. Yeah, beheaded beheaded. Yeah, right. I needed, I need a day. Yeah, no one would have faulted him for that. I don't think it would have been sinful if Jesus had decided to do that.
(32:00):
But instead he looked on those people and he had compassion on them. Yeah, and he held their sick. That's what it said next. So he performed miracles he worked for the glory of his father. Yeah.
Instead of saying no I need time alone. And that's what love does. Yeah, that's what Jesus does. Well that's what we were saying earlier if you walked in my house right now. Yeah. You know distraught and all this stuff and I'm just exhausted over here with a headache.
(32:22):
It's the same I mean it's not to the same degree obviously is what Jesus went through but it's the same idea and in an average day situation nowadays you know.
Suck it up and help your friend or suck it up and heal those people and yeah preach to them the good news have compassion on compassion on them like Jesus did. Yeah, go the extra mile.
And so that's basically all I had but I just I pray I pray I pray that you all take time this Christmas to reflect on this to just sit and think about who Jesus is and all that he's done for you and like realize the deep deep deep deep steadfast love that he has for you and then go and share that with others.
(33:01):
I think it's perfect that this coming on Christmas Day. Yeah, because the ultimate act I mean yes joy came from what Christ did for us yes peace yes hope.
Obviously those are amazing things that we've got from this but the overall thing that we got is God's love. Yeah, I mean that's the ultimate motivation, you know is love.
(33:26):
So, I mean, and looking at all that Jesus did for us, and I understand he was fully God but he was also fully man, and I just, I thinking about him in that moment, and like the emotion the other emotional exhaustion he must have been feeling.
I know me as an introvert, I would have been like heck no I'm not helping those people right now my cousin just died. I need, I need a day need a couple days. Yeah, whatever.
(33:50):
But instead, he looked on them and he had compassion on them. And so how did them come to him, so I don't know, this is crazy.
Okay, so for the past episodes for this month we have been sending out texts to people and asking them a question or two questions about that week's topic so like last week's podcast was about joy so we asked people question two different questions about joy and they
(34:17):
will get those on the podcast.
This week, because we had to kind of change when we recorded we neither one of us have anybody to read from, but I am going to attempt to call my grandparents, and ask them on the spot, our two questions about love, and they're going to answer for us.
(34:38):
So we're going to try that and see if it works. I have no idea if it will and if not, then I'll just cut this part out.
Hi grandma.
Well, is this a bad time or can I ask you a question.
Okay, so I don't know if you remember you may have forgotten because it's been a while but I was going to ask you a question for you remember me and my friend have a podcast for people can listen to us on it.
(35:03):
And I was going to ask you a question about love and I was wondering if I can just kind of ask you on the spot and the answer does not need to be this long extravagant answer it could literally just be like five words very simple it doesn't matter.
So I thought I could just ask you you can have a moment to think about it and then just kind of share what God puts on your mind about it.
Okay, is that okay and then I might do it with grandpa if he's there and okay with that. Okay, so it's actually two questions for you and then two guys two questions for grandpa.
(35:32):
So the first question is, what does love mean to you just in a general sense what does love mean to you.
Trust.
Kindness and thoughtfulness.
That's good.
(35:53):
Okay, and then what does love mean to you when thinking about the birth of Jesus Christ.
He loved me so much.
I can't imagine why but he loves me so much.
That's good.
We've talked about that some today too. That's really good.
(36:14):
Okay, well can I ask grandpa, is he there.
Okay.
Hi, grandpa.
Hi, I have two questions for you. Do you have a moment.
I don't have any answers today.
Can you try.
What does love mean to you, just in general like in a general sense what does love mean to you.
(36:38):
Peace.
Peace and goodwill.
Yes.
That's good.
The second question is, this is the last question also, is what does love mean to you when thinking about the birth of Jesus Christ.
(37:00):
Say the question again.
What does love mean to you when thinking about the birth of Jesus Christ.
It means eternity within.
That's good.
Okay, thank you. That was all I had. See you had answers.
(37:23):
Are you doing okay today.
Oh yes.
Good.
Well thank you for answering my questions.
Have a good evening.
Alright, I love you both.
Love you too babe. Bye bye.
Bye bye. Wow, that was good. Very simple.
Very simple.
Okay, well there you have it folks.
That's it.
(37:44):
Wow, it's Christmas.
Merry Christmas.
When this comes out.
So Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.
I want to say something really quickly, Anna and I have not talked about this, but I highly encourage you as a Christian to have some New Year resolutions.
And I think you need to be realistic about them.
Don't say you're going to go to the gym five days a week or you're going to eat healthy and not eat any sweets Monday through Friday.
(38:09):
You know, don't cut out everything.
I'm not saying that, but I think you need to prayerfully think about the year to come.
And figure out some spiritual things, some spiritual challenges, but realistic also.
So if you know that you can't memorize a verse a week, it's hard for you.
Don't set that as a goal.
Set, you know, maybe two verses a month.
(38:31):
Start with that.
And just have this overall resolution to say, I want to be more familiar with God's Word.
So I'm going to, my goal is to memorize two verses a month.
That's it for the whole year. Two verses each month.
You know, those types of things.
Or maybe you want to read through all of the Gospels for part of the year.
(38:52):
Maybe you want to read more of the Old Testament and kind of get more of a historical background of certain things.
You know, make some realistic, but necessary, in my opinion, resolutions so that you can grow closer to God this year and challenge yourself spiritually.
And then also have some things that aren't spiritual.
I think those are fine to have too.
Like maybe you want to try a new hobby, but also, again, be realistic with things.
(39:14):
Anna, do you not like that idea?
No.
Oh, you made a face.
Not at you.
You're not even paying attention to what I'm saying, Anna.
Texting.
I'm just kidding.
Anyway, all I'm saying is I think it's good to have New Year resolutions, spiritual and non-spiritual.
I definitely have my list.
And it might seem like a long list once you look at it, but then you actually read them.
(39:37):
And it's like some of them are like, like one of them is I want to go to a pottery class, but at least one time.
Like I want to do it more.
But because I know myself and how busy I am, one time is my goal.
If I go more, that would be awesome.
But one time is my goal.
So like be realistic about it.
But also that would be a fun thing to do with a friend.
Or maybe it could be a lost friend, you know, to maybe have a connection with them and hang out with them and share a gospel.
(40:02):
Or maybe you're like me and you don't have very many Christian friends anymore.
I don't like in my immediate area.
I only have a few.
And so I want to have more Christian friends and more of a community with that.
And so my goal for this year is to hang out with my Christian friends more often.
I guess I'm just top delivered.
I said I have a few.
You're in the few, Anna.
Anna over here is Miss Popular Gal though.
(40:23):
She has like 50 bajillion friends.
Oh, yeah.
I have like five.
But you have more than that.
You just have like maybe a few good good friends.
Yeah.
Anyway, so like one of my goals would be like to hang out with my Christian friends more often, you know, but I didn't put like once a week because that's not realistic for me.
You know, I'm not going to overdo it and overwhelm myself.
Right.
(40:44):
So, I mean, you know, I think it's healthy to have your resolutions, especially the spiritual ones.
So I just want to encourage you guys to do that.
Think about it. Pray about it.
Got anything else, Anna?
She's going to go back to texting her buddy over here.
It's not my buddy.
It's my boss, if you must know.
I'm just kidding.
(41:05):
Listen, once we finished the main session of that, I listened to your phone call with your grandparents.
I'm not going to lie.
I was like, OK, we're done.
Yeah, I know. She's going down.
My mind moved on to other things.
OK, well, happy new year.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year.
Bye.
Bye.
boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom we told me how to get how to get to sesame street
(00:12):
Hold on.
Hello friends and welcome to the fourth and final week of our series on Advent.
This week we're going to be talking about love.
(00:35):
And we've almost done it.
We've done a podcast on hope, peace, and joy so far.
So if you haven't listened to those, you should go back and listen to them.
And then come back to this one.
(00:56):
And so as a reminder, Advent is just like a time to reflect
and look at in eager anticipation the coming of Christ.
Well, to reflect on the first coming of Christ and to look forward in eager anticipation of the second coming of Christ.
(01:18):
Yeah, that's a better way to say that.
And as we approach Christmas, we're only 10 days away when Sarah and I are recording this,
we hope that this just, I don't know, this will be released the day before Christmas?
No, the day of, wait, Christmas is on Monday.
It'll be on Christmas.
Oh my gosh, Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
(01:39):
That's crazy.
Oh, what's in this?
Happy New Year!
That's beautiful.
Thank you.
So we hope this helps put you in a good mind and heart state as you celebrate Christmas and move on to the new year.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yep.
All right, so I'm going to get us started.
(02:02):
Disclaimer.
I don't have my notes complete, so the Holy Spirit is, I know, the Holy Spirit is really going to be talking through me today
because we're winging it.
Me and Anna are winging it, Queens.
Honestly, yeah.
We are.
I'm a, what is it?
I will say some weeks.
(02:22):
I'm a pants or not a plotter.
That's a good one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because I have literally, my notes are this.
I have Bible verse after Bible verse after Bible verse, and that's it.
And the rest is just in my head from what I was thinking.
So honestly, same.
Until my last point, I did do some legit notes, but most of mine, I'm going to read the verses in the moment and kind of say my observations as we go.
(02:46):
So I figured we can kind of observe.
So I will see, let's step back into Sarah mode like my Sarah Bible study prep mode.
I think what I was thinking here was, well, OK, no, I do remember.
OK, so what I was thinking about love, I was thinking about love according to God because Anna and I did a series on love based off of First Corinthians, Chapter 13, verse four through seven.
(03:14):
And here on the podcast, you can go back and listen to those if you want.
But then I was also thinking about a lot lately, even just outside of me trying to plan for this podcast episode.
I've been thinking a lot about what the world says love is and how badly if we love if we love others the way that the world encourages us to love others, it's not true love.
(03:41):
And it literally just your life deteriorates like it just deteriorates.
It goes down the toilet.
So many negative things happen and maybe not right away, but just as time goes on, there's just all these things that are just negative happening in your life based off of the way that you are loving someone to the best of, quote unquote, to the best of your ability on your own without God and the way that you're wanting others to love you and looking for that love.
(04:07):
Did that make sense?
Yeah.
I don't know where that my first little initial thought for all of this came from.
Because I've been also watching this is a good little tidbit also to say, I've been listening and watching this one woman on YouTube.
Say another thing it's Malena something.
She's married and has some kids, and she has some really good biblical at least so far everything I've listened to is biblical I haven't listened to all of her videos, but she and her husband have a podcast and then she also has a YouTube channel.
(04:38):
Aside from the podcast, and she just has a lot of good biblical points on marriage and raising kids and just life in general.
And so everything I've listened to so far from her has been really good, but it's made me really think about how I'm loving my husband.
And so when I started looking at verses about this, I first started thinking of like how God wants me to love my husband, but also just my friends in general.
(05:03):
So it's based off of that.
And my points like my observations that I might say in the moment may have nothing to do with that, but I just wanted to tell you where I kind of came with this because this has been a really hard thing for me is truly loving people with God's love might sound crazy, you know I'm over here leading a ministry with Anna here and I'm over here struggling to love people in a Christlike way but it's true I have been struggling a lot with it.
(05:24):
So my first verse is Matthew five, or it's a few verses Matthew five, 40 through 42.
I'm going to go ahead and read it it says, and if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
Okay, so I'm just going to stop. So this is saying that if someone asks you to go one mile with them, sure, go the one mile, be generous go the one mile, but this is saying go another one with them, even though they didn't ask you to go an extra mile be extra generous.
(06:00):
And so, but the world doesn't say that.
Right. The world's love is very limited right. So like yes be generous if they need help help them, but then as soon as it steps into your circle of what I don't want to go an extra mile.
Okay, so you don't have to you have every right to say no, you know, it's good enough that you just want the one. Yeah, it's good enough you're doing a good deed at least for the one mile.
(06:26):
And then it's saying go another one. It doesn't say, if you don't want to, don't go another mile, it says straightforward you go with him two miles.
So, I don't know.
Romans 1210 says, don't just pretend to love others really love them hate what is wrong hold tightly to what is good love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.
(06:59):
And then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding, then the NLT I really like it says, so then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.
Once again, and I know this talking about in the church. But as we've read in the peace episode I think it was, we were talking about how we are just, or maybe it was a different one.
(07:21):
In a recent episode of the podcast where we talked about how we are just strive for peace with everyone. And it was the one we did at the library so whatever that one was one of the loved ones.
Yeah.
And anyway so it was the irritable resentful one. Yeah.
So we are to strive for peace with everyone. And, and, like it said in the NLT, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.
(07:47):
And we were talking specifically about in the church, the way it worded it in NLT, I'm going to apply this to everyone.
Not that we have the same beliefs as non believers and we should be in harmony in that way because in the church body in Christ's family, yes we should be in harmony with our beliefs we should be one in that.
But we should be striving for peace with those outside of God's family as well. And we should still have that same, maybe not with the way that we believe versus their beliefs but like we should solve harmony with them when it comes in the sense that there's not conflict and strife at all times because of us.
(08:27):
If it has to do with like, they don't agree with you and God is leading you to say something against what they're combating against your belief like that's different there's going to be a bit of conflict there and God's leading you to do that.
But if it's just nonsense.
Just for nonsense sake.
Shut your mouth, like don't you know have harmony have peace. What you got. We talked about this.
(08:51):
I think that, like, the Bible study that I'm a part of the other night because we're going through Romans, about being a peacemaker versus being a peacekeeper.
And then, let me see. Oh, verse Romans 13 talks about verse eight says, Oh no one anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
(09:13):
Your only law that you abide by should be love. Yeah, and sometimes that means like Sarah said, I forget where the peacemaker versus peacekeeper conversation came in, but we were talking about like, sorry being a peacemaker.
Sometimes that does mean that you I think because it talks about inverse in Romans 13 or 14 whether to talks about exhortation.
Sometimes you are going to have to exhort people in saying like, hey, I don't agree with this. I don't agree with this, or like that might mean going to a fellow Christian and saying like hey in order to be peacemaker right.
(09:46):
Say like hey I noticed that you've fallen into some really simple patterns. And because I love you, I needed like that's not Christ honoring, but in a very respectful private way. Yeah, I think it should be done.
So, I don't know where that came from but just reminded me of the conversation we just had the other night. So yeah.
I'm flipping us to three says that make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other loving one another and working together with one mind and purpose. Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others be humble thinking of others as better than yourselves.
(10:29):
So, I'm going to read the next one and then I'm going to say something about both of these verses the one that I just read in the one that I'm about to read. It says in Galatians 513 for you were called to freedom brothers only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh but through love serve one another.
Okay, so the reason I want to kind of put these two verses together and flippings to three in Galatians 513 is because there was something that God really showed me.
(10:51):
I'm like three times just now.
In Philippians to three where it said, take the humble thinking of others is better than yourselves. Now that's an LTV version but in the other versions still similar.
(11:19):
In order. Okay, so, in my opinion, based off of everything I've read in the Bible and what God has shown me in my personal life. That's how I'm going to back this up because it is technically my opinion.
In order, I don't I don't believe that God is saying in Philippians to three that we should that that someone that Anna is better than me.
We are equal.
(11:41):
But, though, so this is not saying I should think of Anna is better than me in in worth to the sense that I'm getting depressed because God made her more worth it than me. That's not what I mean.
What this is showing me personally, at least this is what I think.
Is that I need to think I need I do need to be in that mindset of Anna is better than me in a sense to to the to the degree that I put her above me in all ways that God shows me to.
(12:10):
I put her above me in the way that, you know, like, for instance, if Anna walked in my house and was having a really bad day bawling her eyes out something tragic happened and she just needed someone to talk to but I'm over here.
And I'm exhausted because I've been watching two kids all day and I feel like I'm going to throw up because I don't know why just for whatever reason like I don't feel great.
I have a headache. All these things.
(12:32):
I'm tired. The world would say no, Sarah. Yes, she's having a bad day, but you need to set your boundaries and go to bed.
But what God is saying, I need to go the extra mile and think of Anna better than myself.
I need to serve her because that's where that other verse came in in order to because if you think about whenever there were masters and servants and that was more common.
(12:53):
Servants were looked at as lowly compared to the masters in their worth.
So this to me is saying that when I look at Anna, I should be looking at myself as a servant to her.
She is my master. Now, I'm not saying she's my boss.
So everything she says I need to do. But what I'm saying is whenever it comes to prioritizing her in our friendship, I need to think of myself as lowly in a certain way when it comes to Anna so that I can serve her with all humility, all vulnerability, all selflessness.
(13:25):
You know, everything that God can give me, all characteristics from God inside of me, I can give to her wholly and fully without pride and selfishness and greed.
Yeah. And so it's really your mindset and your heart set of being a servant to the people around you.
That way I can think of her as better than myself so I can serve her to the best of my ability.
Now, if it came to, you know, obviously, I'm just going to say this disclaimer.
(13:48):
If my child was like bleeding out the wazoo for some reason, obviously, I'm going to say, Anna, I'm so sorry you're having a hard time, but I need to take my kid to the hospital.
That's different, clearly.
But just on an average day with an average situation, you need to think of yourself as not as good.
Yeah.
Or think of your friend or whoever it is as better. And this applies to marriages, obviously, as well.
(14:09):
So that was my, like, that was a big thing to me.
But the world doesn't tell you that. The world, you know, like we've said, they say set boundaries.
Boundaries are healthy. You do need to have boundaries. I'm not saying that.
Right. Yes. But there's healthy boundaries and there's worldly boundaries.
And worldly boundaries are just very self-served.
And you definitely don't go the extra mile most of the time.
And if you do, people are going to know and you want that you like it whenever they are boasting about you.
(14:35):
You know, when in turn in Christianity, whenever you are a follower of Christ, when you go the extra mile, you do it privately.
Or if people do see it, you always glorify God. You do not put any glory on yourself.
And that is not at all what the world says.
So, OK, so the next verse is Colossians 313 and it says, put on them as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another.
(15:02):
And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you.
So you also must forgive. OK. So on that very last bit of this verse, it says, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
The world says. Forgiveness can be good, but you don't always have to forgive and forget you.
(15:24):
You know, you have every right, quote unquote, you have every right to not forgive somebody because they wronged you.
But what God says is that we should forgive others like he's forgiven us.
Do you know how many times I wronged God in a day? I can't even count.
I'm sure how many times I wronged God in a day.
Do you know how many times Jesus was beaten, spit upon, mocked? I mean, ridiculed.
(15:48):
He was literally beaten to death when he did nothing wrong.
And I did that to him and Anna did that to him and you did that to him.
Yet he forgave us and he did that for us because he loves us and God has forgiven us and allowed us to have a relationship with him.
So if that's the way if God is saying, as the Lord has forgiven you here, then that means that I need to be forgiving others in that same way.
(16:14):
If someone wronged me and I did nothing wrong in that situation, do I still need to forgive them?
Absolutely, because that's how God forgave me.
Yeah. And now I'm not saying don't set boundaries.
Don't let them, you know, if you're being trigger warning here, if you're being abused, you know, or whatever it is, if it's something to that degree, I'm not saying forgive them.
Forgive them and let them walk all over you. Yeah.
(16:37):
What I'm saying is go to God, ask him to help you forgive that person.
Yes. But then you still need to go to the authorities.
You still need to find someone in your church family or whatever to help you through that and to get out of that.
I'm not saying that I'm just saying to forgive them because that's what God would want you to do.
And that's how you should love them. Even if they don't deserve to be loved.
(16:59):
First Corinthians 13, four through seven, we did the series on this and then I'm going to read this and then Galatians 5, 22 through 23.
And I'll close this up with some points that I have from the Christmas story.
So first Corinthians 13, four through seven says, Love is patient and kind.
Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful.
(17:20):
It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.
So I'm not going to go into extensive detail about that.
Anna I think has a few things to say about that passage.
And like I said, we did a series on it, but I had to include that because we're talking about love.
And that's literally a list of what love is and isn't.
So, but then along with this, I'm going to read the fruit of the spirit passage, which is Galatians 5, 22 through 23.
(17:46):
And it says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things.
There is no law.
So if you pair that with the first Corinthians 13, 4 through 7 passage, in order to have all of these attributes that love is and isn't,
like to have all the attributes that love is and also not do and be the ones that it says love isn't.
(18:09):
I don't know if I said that right, but you know what I mean?
Yeah.
You have to have the fruit of the spirit and the spirit is God's Holy Spirit.
And so in order to have God's Holy Spirit is you have to have the security of salvation.
And we've talked about this in the past, so I don't feel led to share the gospel at this very moment.
But in order to even love others with God's love, you have to have that spirit inside of you.
(18:33):
You have to have God doing it through you because you can't do it on your own.
So anyway, and then a few things.
I did not write extensive notes on these, so I just put a statement there and we're just going to go with it.
If you look at the three main, I guess, characters or whatever of the, well, yeah, of the Christmas story,
(18:56):
to Jesus, Joseph, and Mary.
And the way that they loved others from the stuff that we know about them through Matthew, Luke,
like through reading through the Christmas story, they loved people with a godly love.
And so we're going to stay here and we're going to discuss it for a minute, I think.
That's what I'm feeling led.
We'll see how it goes.
(19:18):
But first point is, when thinking of the birth of Jesus and the prep behind that,
like between God and the Son of God, like Father and the Son of God, and then also during and after,
the way that Jesus is, Jesus, okay, my neighbor's son is outside playing and it's kind of loud,
so I'm sorry if you have earbuds on.
(19:40):
The way that Jesus loved the Father, Jesus, the Son of God, loved the Father, obviously, is the ultimate way to love.
His whole life on earth, the fact that he agreed wholeheartedly to come down in such a lowly form
and so dependent, because he wasn't independent when he was born.
(20:04):
He was at the most dependent stage of life.
At the mercy of his parents.
Yeah, and he was at the most vulnerable state that he could have come at, you know?
And so he did that for his Father, to glorify his Father by loving us and by loving him, by loving the Father.
(20:26):
Humility, vulnerability, all of it, everything you can think of, that was love.
Jesus' love toward the Father, Jesus' love toward us, Joseph's love toward Mary.
I believe that Joseph's love from the very beginning from what we hear in the Christmas story toward Mary was godly.
Because before he had the knowledge that Mary was pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit,
(20:51):
he thought what anyone would think, that she cheated on him, that she went against the law, that she got pregnant by someone else.
But the way that he was going to go about it was righteous.
It even says that in Scripture, that he was a righteous and just man, depending on the version you read.
And so that just kind of shows you the way that he was going to go about it was good.
(21:14):
He was going to privately divorce her, that way no one knew, she wouldn't get stoned to death, yada yada yada.
He loved her with a godly love, even though I'm sure he was hurt in his jaw.
Joseph's love toward God was also shown through that.
Because whenever God revealed to Joseph that it was by the power of the Holy Spirit that Mary was pregnant,
(21:36):
and that it was Jesus, the son of God, inside of her, he trusted him with that.
And that's what love is, is well, you need to trust God, that's part of loving him.
And you need to act upon your trust by following through and obeying him. And that's what Joseph did.
Mary's love toward God.
Me and Anna, or Anna and I, sorry, Anna and I talked about this recently on the podcast about how amazing Mary was.
(22:03):
Because she was just a teenager and she was told that she was pregnant with the son of God and she just went with it.
She was like, okay God, what you say, I mean, then it has to be true because you're God and I'm going to go with it.
And how scary would that have, like that would have been terrifying for so many reasons.
And it just shows how reverent she was about how much she loved God truly.
(22:26):
And I don't know, just a few people that I think maybe you should just read and reflect on how they showed love through the Christmas story.
Because it might really convict you or maybe encourage you, who knows. So yeah, that's what I got.
It's amazing how the things you say tie into the things that I'm going to say.
(22:53):
Because we don't discuss this beforehand. We have no idea what we're going to talk about.
But I'm going to start off by reading 1 John 4, 7 through 12.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. And whoever loves us was born of God and knows God.
And anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
(23:15):
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
(23:40):
And then now I'm going to read. I was looking up, I don't know, I got this from an article from BibleProject.com.
And it says, I liked this quote from it. It says, biblical love refers to more than just a feeling.
It's about caring for someone regardless of their response, and it's modeled perfectly by Jesus.
(24:01):
And I love that it says it's about caring for someone regardless of their response. So like regardless of how they respond to you, you're going to love them anyway.
That's good. I'm not going to go on and on. I just want to say that's something that I really have been thinking about today.
Yeah. Like literally just today I've been thinking about that specifically a lot today. That's hilarious.
Yeah. And like the quote said, it's modeled perfectly by Jesus. Jesus, perfect Jesus, who came to earth humbly to die for our sins.
(24:29):
First John 4 says that God is love. And Sarah and I have before this, as she mentioned, have been doing the series on love.
And so when it starts with like the basic principle, God is love, as it says in First John 4.8.
So we've been going through in this series of verses of First Corinthians 13 at a time. And so if you've missed that, you should go check that out.
(24:52):
But right now I want to read First Corinthians 13, but replacing the word love with Jesus's name.
And then I'm going to stop in between and I might have some notes and stuff.
But so I'm going to start in verse one. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not Jesus, I have a noisy gong or a clinging symbol.
And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not Jesus, I am nothing.
(25:21):
If I go, if I give away all I have, and if I deliver it my body to be burned, but have not Jesus, I gain nothing.
I'm going to pause here to read Romans 11, 32 through 36, which says, Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God,
how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable are his ways for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever. Amen.
(25:55):
So all that we have and all that we are is because of the Lord. We are nothing without Jesus, we're nothing apart from Jesus.
Moving on to verse four, it says Jesus is patient and kind.
Second Peter 3, 8 through 9 says, But knew not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day.
(26:18):
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
So Jesus, the Lord is so patient towards us. He wants us to come to know him. He's patient and that he'll wait for us forever.
If that's, you know, like if necessary. He doesn't want anyone to die. He doesn't want anyone to perish.
(26:43):
He's not a mean God who put this plan of like judgment in place because he hates us. He did it because he loves us.
And then it goes on in verse four to say, Jesus does not envy or boast. He is not arrogant or rude. He does not insist on his own way.
Philippians 2 verses 5 through 8 says, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.
(27:13):
I love it says emptied himself being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
So Jesus does not envy or boast. He's very humble. In fact, he he didn't insist on his own way, but instead submitted to the father.
(27:34):
When Jesus was praying in the garden the night before he was to be killed, he said, Lord, Father, if there's any of this cut, maybe pastor me, let it happen. But then he ends with, but not my will, yet not my will, but yours be done.
And so he was so humble and obedient to the father.
In that he did nothing to exalt himself, and he did not insist on his own way. And if they imagine if he had, right, imagine if he hadn't, like we wouldn't be redeemed today.
(28:04):
And then Hebrews 2, 14 through 15 says, Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who is the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who, through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery.
So because he like he took on flesh and blood, he came down as a humble little baby, born in the stable when he deserved to be born probably in a palace.
(28:31):
He took on flesh and blood suffered in life suffered in ministry suffered on the cross for our sins to defeat death, because death was coming for us and Jesus knew that, and he he loved us enough that he stopped it.
And not only stopped he overcame it for once and for all forever. Back to first Corinthians 13.
(28:53):
Oh, um, continue on in verse five. So, he meaning Jesus is not irritable resentful, Jesus bears all things believes all things hopes all things and there's all things. And then Jesus never ends.
I like that Jesus never ends. So imagine for a moment that as he was walking up that hill, Jesus all of a sudden, through the cross down and exclaimed that he couldn't do it anymore, or that he decided that because of our other sinfulness and wretchedness he wasn't going to die for us after all, that we weren't worth his love or mercy or redemption, or imagine him.
(29:25):
God withdrawing it from Adam and Eve in the garden the moment they send and destroying them and starting over, or deciding to forsake his people in Egypt when they are in captivity in Egypt or in Babylon, or any of the other 1000s of times we turned our back on him.
Imagine that as he walked this earth suffering in ministry he decided that he was too tired or too overwhelmed or whatever it is to continue seeing people and healing them and listening to their problems.
(29:50):
Imagine him turning them away.
I don't know about y'all but it's very hard for me to imagine that I like it is because that's not who Jesus is.
I'm going to read to you guys from Matthew 14 now.
And Jesus isn't all those things like Jesus is all these things I just named in first Corinthians 13.
(30:11):
But Matthew 14 is like one of my favorite stories in a way of Jesus just because like it's.
I don't know I'm just gonna read it to you.
So I'm going to start in verse. I think I'm going to start in Matthew 14 verse 10, which says, He meaning King Herod sent and had john beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl and she brought her to brought it to her mother, and the disciples came and took the body and buried it and they went and told Jesus.
(30:42):
And then after this, in verse 13. Now when Jesus heard this he withdrew from there, and a boat to a desolate place by himself. When the crowds heard that they followed him on foot from the towns, when he spent when he went ashore he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them.
And I'm going to stop right there.
Because this story always. I don't know it always gets to me, because you all realize how much Jesus must have loved john.
(31:12):
Like, that was one of his best friends.
This is the same john the Baptist that jumped in his mother's womb. When Mary came with Jesus in her womb, because he was so full of joy. I mean they were connected from day one from before day one before day one.
They had an intimate deep connection. And Jesus must have loved john so much.
(31:33):
And so like right after hearing that his cousin had been killed.
He withdrew to a desolate place. And I don't think that anyone would fault Jesus for like Sarah said kind of like setting those boundaries. Yeah, and being like hey actually my cousin one of my closest and dearest friends who was like a brother to me just passed away.
Not just passed away was murdered. Yeah, beheaded beheaded. Yeah, right. I needed, I need a day. Yeah, no one would have faulted him for that. I don't think it would have been sinful if Jesus had decided to do that.
(32:00):
But instead he looked on those people and he had compassion on them. Yeah, and he held their sick. That's what it said next. So he performed miracles he worked for the glory of his father. Yeah.
Instead of saying no I need time alone. And that's what love does. Yeah, that's what Jesus does. Well that's what we were saying earlier if you walked in my house right now. Yeah. You know distraught and all this stuff and I'm just exhausted over here with a headache.
(32:22):
It's the same I mean it's not to the same degree obviously is what Jesus went through but it's the same idea and in an average day situation nowadays you know.
Suck it up and help your friend or suck it up and heal those people and yeah preach to them the good news have compassion on compassion on them like Jesus did. Yeah, go the extra mile.
And so that's basically all I had but I just I pray I pray I pray that you all take time this Christmas to reflect on this to just sit and think about who Jesus is and all that he's done for you and like realize the deep deep deep deep steadfast love that he has for you and then go and share that with others.
(33:01):
I think it's perfect that this coming on Christmas Day. Yeah, because the ultimate act I mean yes joy came from what Christ did for us yes peace yes hope.
Obviously those are amazing things that we've got from this but the overall thing that we got is God's love. Yeah, I mean that's the ultimate motivation, you know is love.
(33:26):
So, I mean, and looking at all that Jesus did for us, and I understand he was fully God but he was also fully man, and I just, I thinking about him in that moment, and like the emotion the other emotional exhaustion he must have been feeling.
I know me as an introvert, I would have been like heck no I'm not helping those people right now my cousin just died. I need, I need a day need a couple days. Yeah, whatever.
(33:50):
But instead, he looked on them and he had compassion on them. And so how did them come to him, so I don't know, this is crazy.
Okay, so for the past episodes for this month we have been sending out texts to people and asking them a question or two questions about that week's topic so like last week's podcast was about joy so we asked people question two different questions about joy and they
(34:17):
will get those on the podcast.
This week, because we had to kind of change when we recorded we neither one of us have anybody to read from, but I am going to attempt to call my grandparents, and ask them on the spot, our two questions about love, and they're going to answer for us.
(34:38):
So we're going to try that and see if it works. I have no idea if it will and if not, then I'll just cut this part out.
Hi grandma.
Well, is this a bad time or can I ask you a question.
Okay, so I don't know if you remember you may have forgotten because it's been a while but I was going to ask you a question for you remember me and my friend have a podcast for people can listen to us on it.
(35:03):
And I was going to ask you a question about love and I was wondering if I can just kind of ask you on the spot and the answer does not need to be this long extravagant answer it could literally just be like five words very simple it doesn't matter.
So I thought I could just ask you you can have a moment to think about it and then just kind of share what God puts on your mind about it.
Okay, is that okay and then I might do it with grandpa if he's there and okay with that. Okay, so it's actually two questions for you and then two guys two questions for grandpa.
(35:32):
So the first question is, what does love mean to you just in a general sense what does love mean to you.
Trust.
Kindness and thoughtfulness.
That's good.
(35:53):
Okay, and then what does love mean to you when thinking about the birth of Jesus Christ.
He loved me so much.
I can't imagine why but he loves me so much.
That's good.
We've talked about that some today too. That's really good.
(36:14):
Okay, well can I ask grandpa, is he there.
Okay.
Hi, grandpa.
Hi, I have two questions for you. Do you have a moment.
I don't have any answers today.
Can you try.
What does love mean to you, just in general like in a general sense what does love mean to you.
(36:38):
Peace.
Peace and goodwill.
Yes.
That's good.
The second question is, this is the last question also, is what does love mean to you when thinking about the birth of Jesus Christ.
(37:00):
Say the question again.
What does love mean to you when thinking about the birth of Jesus Christ.
It means eternity within.
That's good.
Okay, thank you. That was all I had. See you had answers.
(37:23):
Are you doing okay today.
Oh yes.
Good.
Well thank you for answering my questions.
Have a good evening.
Alright, I love you both.
Love you too babe. Bye bye.
Bye bye. Wow, that was good. Very simple.
Very simple.
Okay, well there you have it folks.
That's it.
(37:44):
Wow, it's Christmas.
Merry Christmas.
When this comes out.
So Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.
I want to say something really quickly, Anna and I have not talked about this, but I highly encourage you as a Christian to have some New Year resolutions.
And I think you need to be realistic about them.
Don't say you're going to go to the gym five days a week or you're going to eat healthy and not eat any sweets Monday through Friday.
(38:09):
You know, don't cut out everything.
I'm not saying that, but I think you need to prayerfully think about the year to come.
And figure out some spiritual things, some spiritual challenges, but realistic also.
So if you know that you can't memorize a verse a week, it's hard for you.
Don't set that as a goal.
Set, you know, maybe two verses a month.
(38:31):
Start with that.
And just have this overall resolution to say, I want to be more familiar with God's Word.
So I'm going to, my goal is to memorize two verses a month.
That's it for the whole year. Two verses each month.
You know, those types of things.
Or maybe you want to read through all of the Gospels for part of the year.
(38:52):
Maybe you want to read more of the Old Testament and kind of get more of a historical background of certain things.
You know, make some realistic, but necessary, in my opinion, resolutions so that you can grow closer to God this year and challenge yourself spiritually.
And then also have some things that aren't spiritual.
I think those are fine to have too.
Like maybe you want to try a new hobby, but also, again, be realistic with things.
(39:14):
Anna, do you not like that idea?
No.
Oh, you made a face.
Not at you.
You're not even paying attention to what I'm saying, Anna.
Texting.
I'm just kidding.
Anyway, all I'm saying is I think it's good to have New Year resolutions, spiritual and non-spiritual.
I definitely have my list.
And it might seem like a long list once you look at it, but then you actually read them.
(39:37):
And it's like some of them are like, like one of them is I want to go to a pottery class, but at least one time.
Like I want to do it more.
But because I know myself and how busy I am, one time is my goal.
If I go more, that would be awesome.
But one time is my goal.
So like be realistic about it.
But also that would be a fun thing to do with a friend.
Or maybe it could be a lost friend, you know, to maybe have a connection with them and hang out with them and share a gospel.
(40:02):
Or maybe you're like me and you don't have very many Christian friends anymore.
I don't like in my immediate area.
I only have a few.
And so I want to have more Christian friends and more of a community with that.
And so my goal for this year is to hang out with my Christian friends more often.
I guess I'm just top delivered.
I said I have a few.
You're in the few, Anna.
Anna over here is Miss Popular Gal though.
(40:23):
She has like 50 bajillion friends.
Oh, yeah.
I have like five.
But you have more than that.
You just have like maybe a few good good friends.
Yeah.
Anyway, so like one of my goals would be like to hang out with my Christian friends more often, you know, but I didn't put like once a week because that's not realistic for me.
You know, I'm not going to overdo it and overwhelm myself.
Right.
(40:44):
So, I mean, you know, I think it's healthy to have your resolutions, especially the spiritual ones.
So I just want to encourage you guys to do that.
Think about it. Pray about it.
Got anything else, Anna?
She's going to go back to texting her buddy over here.
It's not my buddy.
It's my boss, if you must know.
I'm just kidding.
(41:05):
Listen, once we finished the main session of that, I listened to your phone call with your grandparents.
I'm not going to lie.
I was like, OK, we're done.
Yeah, I know. She's going down.
My mind moved on to other things.
OK, well, happy new year.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year.
Bye.
Bye.
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