July 10, 2025 • 51 mins
Have you ever felt that despite your spiritual efforts, God's voice seems frustratingly distant? You're not alone. This episode dives deep into the revolutionary concept that the divine guidance we seek is already within us—we've just forgotten how to listen.
Our spiritual journey often derails when we expect God to perform according to our specifications, like a cosmic vending machine. When those expectations inevitably go unmet, disappointment takes root. But what if the problem isn't God's responsiveness, but our receptivity? The pastors share powerful insights about how our minds typically operate in two time zones—the regretful past or the anxious future—while completely missing the sacred present where God actually speaks.
The conversation reveals a startlingly simple spiritual practice that can transform your relationship with the divine: five minutes of quiet meditation each morning. Just standing barefoot on the earth, listening to nature's rhythms, and being fully present can bypass your ego's constant chatter and open a channel to wisdom that's been there all along. This isn't complicated theology—it's practical spirituality that reconnects us with what matters.
Perhaps most compelling is the discussion about unity versus conformity in spiritual community. True unity celebrates the unique perspectives each person brings, recognizing that God speaks through diverse voices—women, people of color, formerly incarcerated individuals—each offering insights that form a more complete picture of divine truth. Your particular background and experiences don't disqualify you from spiritual authority; they uniquely equip you to reach people others cannot.
Ready to move beyond religious disappointment into authentic spiritual connection? This episode offers wisdom for anyone seeking to quiet external noise and rediscover the still, small voice that's been speaking all along. Take the challenge to begin a "summer of love" through simple practices that can ultimately lead to a lifetime of spiritual presence and peace.
This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church you can donate at https://www.firstlovechurch.org/giving
In the service of LOVE,
Pastors Dennis and Heather Drake
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the First Love Church Podcast.
This is a collection of Sundayteachings inspired by the
Revised Common Lectionary andrecorded weekly in Ocala,
florida.
So I greet you this morning inthe name of Jesus and in the
presence of the Holy Spirit.
The light in us greets thelight that is already in you and
that you brought this morning,and we are grateful.
(00:21):
It is the second week inPentecost, the season of
Pentecost, this entire beautifultime that we practice what it
is like to be people who live inthe Spirit.
I appreciate so much whatThomas brought to us this
morning in this reminding ofourselves that we the Holy
Spirit in the pause, in the stop, in the quiet, in the
(00:51):
refraining from speaking, tohear what the Spirit is speaking
.
And so it's with a lot of joythis morning that we come to you
and we remind you of thesebeautiful truths that are given
to us In this season ofPentecost.
We remember that the Holy Spirithas been given to each one of
us, that spirit inside of youthat is often very quiet, that
(01:15):
speaks wisdom.
In fact, one of the wisest menthat have ever lived on the
earth said in all of yourgetting, get wisdom.
It is the principal thing Bepeople who respond to wisdom,
and wisdom that allows us tochange our thinking.
Jesus called us to a life ofwisdom and, in fact, luke's
gospel says this of Jesus thathe grew in wisdom and that he
(01:40):
grew in favor and he grew in hisability to stay in the spirit.
This is, for us, a template forourselves that we should be
people who open our minds to beable to grow in wisdom, to allow
the spirit to expand the waythat we think about things and
the way that we see things.
In fact, we read together theBeatitudes, and I want to remind
(02:04):
you the same is true today asit was in Jesus' day.
This was opposite than what theworld said.
There is a blessing for thoseof you who are brokenhearted.
There is a blessing for thoseof you who make peace instead of
war.
We are called to be peacemakers.
We are called to be people whogive up violence and who follow
(02:26):
the way of Jesus, and so thismorning, it's with a lot of joy
that we read to you the text andthat we get to discuss this
morning what it looks like to bepeople not only full of the
Spirit, but people who are wiseenough to follow the Spirit.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
You know, it's our hope today that, as we share
this message, that maybe youmight learn or be encouraged in
a way that maybe you hadn'tconsidered before, about how you
might hear the voice of god orhow that you might receive the
influence of god.
(03:01):
You know, uh, uh, there's goingto be some things that we'll
present to you, maybe for yourconsideration, that are
different than just our typicalreligious ways that we think we
do things.
I have a friend who often callsme.
He doesn't live in the areaanymore, but he often calls me
and he tells and he vents at me,I guess because I'm a pastor
(03:22):
and I guess he feels like hecan't yell at God.
So he yells at me and I mean heyells at me, he cusses at me
and he tells me how God is notfair and that he's being ripped
off.
And you know he's going tochurch but he didn't even
believe in God.
And I don't know if he wants tomake me mad or hurt my feelings
or whatever.
And oftentimes, as you know, Isay slow down, explain to me
(03:46):
what's going on.
Typically, god has disappointedan idea that he had that God
ought to do.
He had a thing that he a hoopthat he wanted God to jump
through and when, inevitably,god didn't do his little circus
trick, he's very, very mad atGod, and I wonder how much of
(04:10):
our frustration with God is ourdisappointment in him not doing
what we think he ought to do?
I'll let that soak for just asecond, but I think that that
really boils down to a lot ofdisappointments.
In fact, I run into people alot of times and they're just
like well, frankly, I don'tbelieve in God, and I think that
their inability to believe inGod, or their decision to not
(04:33):
believe in God, is based on theparameters and the things that
they put on what they think Godought to do.
If he were real.
Well, I think there should be.
You know, no children hurt ifthere's a real God.
People say things like that tome there should be no war, there
should be no poor people, thereshould be no starving people,
and so we decide sometimes inour head with our logic, why?
(04:55):
And I wish that I could answerthose questions to you today
that somehow I had the skill tobe able to communicate a word to
you that would give you perfectpeace from now on and give you
an answer every time someonebrings it up.
But I'll just say this to youthat what if maybe we take some
of the principles we talk abouttoday in learning to listen, to
(05:17):
be still, to surrender to spirit, and see if maybe God's self
would reveal to you an answer orgive you something that would
give you enough peace to sustainyou?
Because that's what I want foryou.
I don't want to give you someintellectual answer.
(05:38):
I would like to offer you theinvitation to come on that
journey with God, as God revealsGod's self to you, as we learn
how to recognize the influencethat God has in this world that
(06:02):
we were born into.
Amen, because I believe there issightings, there is evidences
of God's presence, and sometimeswe misread, misinterpret or
lack the maybe understanding ofwhat might be going on around us
.
What do you think, heather it'spossible of what might be going
(06:25):
on around us.
What do you think, heather?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
It's possible.
John's Gospel If you love me,you will keep my commandments
and I will ask the Father and hewill give you another advocate
to be with you forever.
This is the Spirit of truthwhom the world cannot receive
because it neither sees norknows the spirit.
(06:47):
And you know the spirit becausethe spirit abides with you and
will be in you.
This is the vantage point thatwe are talking about from this
morning.
Each one of you has the spiritof life, the spirit of truth,
the spirit of God in you.
Very often, when we say thingslike I was going to pray or I
(07:10):
wanted to have some kind ofresponse from God, we're looking
often from an outside source.
And I tell you, beloved, Christis in you.
You should be listening to thatinner, quiet, still voice that
reminds you you know the way andbeloved.
This morning I remind you thatJesus is a way.
Jesus is not a theology or adoctrine or even a religion.
(07:33):
Jesus is a way.
Jesus said I am the way and sogo ahead, give up religion.
It's been terrible to the wholeworld anyway.
Follow the spirit, allowyourself to be a person who is
filled with the spirit.
Jesus said if you'll allow mywords to abide in you.
If you'll live in those words,in that wisdom, my father will
(07:56):
come to you and we will live inyou and you will have life.
In fact, jesus quotes fromisaiah.
He says I have come that youwould have life and have it to
the full.
The invitation of Jesus is tolive in a frequency that is not
what is happening around you, isto live in this frequency of
love, to be able to follow theSpirit into an extravagant life,
(08:19):
a life full of God and full oflove, not just for ourselves,
but for each other.
This is the spirit of truth.
In fact, this is how the churchof Jesus Christ is born.
Jesus said I'm going away, butyou're going to have a comforter
, you're going to have a spirit,and the spirit will teach you
everything that you need to know.
Well, that's a great idea, butI don't even know what the
(08:42):
Spirit is.
So how do I know what to listento?
And wisdom shows us what theSpirit is.
Wisdom gives us the words andwe go to the sacred text and we
listen to the life of Jesus andwe hear how Jesus lived and what
Jesus knew of the Spirit.
Then we are invited to do thesame.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You know just as the band on their particular
instruments, got good at thoseinstruments, good at the
beautiful harmony that you singpart of.
That is a natural gift, butwithout you exercising that,
without you practicing, youwouldn't be able to do what you
do in such a way that you blendfor each one of the musicians to
(09:23):
be able to offer their gifts.
Yeah, it's great that you havethem, but if you're not really
aware that you even have that,unless you train in that?
Now the Bible says God hasgiven us the spirit, there's a
voice inside of you, but wouldit be foolish to think that
you're going to hear that welland recognize it all the time,
(09:43):
without ever considering thetraining that might be
responsible for you to be thislittle receptor that floats
around in this realm and detects, hears, decodes and understands
clearly the transmission thatcomes from a whole nother spirit
realm?
Well, that is silliness,wouldn't you put it that way,
(10:06):
pastor?
That I would just naturally beable to do this perfectly, that
maybe there's community thatcould be around you to say you
know, I remember my pastor onetime.
I loved him and he was one thatwould allow the Spirit of God to
move in the church, but he alsowas bold enough to correct
people when they made a mistake.
I remember one guy stood up andhe goes Pastor, my gift in this
(10:26):
church is to be a naysayer.
I'm here to tell people whenthey're wrong.
And the pastor got up and hesaid Brother, I appreciate your
zeal, but there's no such thingas a naysayer.
The Bible says yes and amen andGod didn't call you to tell our
people no, so I'm going to haveto ask you to sit down.
Well, that guy didn't like it.
He got up and quit the church.
He didn't want to be trained.
(10:48):
Many of us don't want to betrained.
We want to be told we're rightall the time.
We want a trophy forparticipation.
Come on church.
What if we actually allowed Godand allowed our brothers and
sisters and allowed the word andreally inside of us, just that
(11:11):
discerning.
The other day the dog broke abull and Heather goes.
Oh my God, it's all over.
And I was working on churchstuff in my office, but I knew
what I should do.
You are sitting in those seats,all smug, strong, discerners of
(11:34):
the Spirit to know what Ishould do.
It doesn't take a genius toknow what to do.
The Spirit speaks to us all thetime and we reject, refuse,
refuse and ignore the voice.
See, it's not over complicated.
You follow the good, you followlove.
(11:55):
That is the key to never, everhave to be wrong when it comes
to discerning the spirit.
What would love do in thissituation?
Not stay, pretend like I didn'thear what was going on.
Now, only I would pull a movelike that.
(12:18):
No one else here are we willingto really then discomfort
ourselves to respond to thatvoice, because love will be
sacrificial.
Love will cause you to dosomething.
I got up I think it wasyesterday when Heather asked me
to do something First time sheasked me, I hopped up.
(12:40):
She freaked out.
It scared you a little bit,didn't it first time.
Imagine, if we were surrenderedin that way, what it would be
like for the people around us.
I might just preach.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I don't know what you think recently, someone was at
our home and they were veryexcited about this season.
They had just gotten off schooland I said what do you want?
And they said what I want is asummer of love.
That's what I want a summer oflove.
And it almost broke my heartBecause, beloved, a summer of
love is good, but I want a lifeof love.
I want the whole thing to belove.
(13:20):
I don't want to just have asummer of love and then a summer
of greed and then a summer ofwe don't even pay attention to
the life that we live.
I want a life of love andthat's what Jesus offered to us
and I'll give you.
Let's start with a summer oflove.
Let's do it.
Let's do it together, as achurch family.
Let's say we're going to have asummer of love.
And how do you do that?
It's an easy practice.
(13:40):
It's actually very difficult,but it's very easy at the same
time.
Here's how things ofspirituality are a paradox.
I encourage all of us to startthe very first thing in the
morning before we do anythingelse five minutes of quiet,
meditation, alertness, awareness.
(14:00):
Now, I can't do that in thehouse because I'm still a little
sleepy first thing in themorning.
But do you know, I have a dogand she is a spiritual director
in her own way and she asks togo out first thing in the
morning.
So I go out with her and Istand in the grass barefoot
teeth unbrushed, hair unmade,and I am quiet and I listen to
(14:21):
the cicadas that are screechingat us and bringing such a
beautiful summer noise, and Ilisten to the birds and I just
stand in the presence of thegood Five minutes beloved.
Try it, let's do it for thesummer.
Let's see if we can experiencea summer of love, which will
then make us so thirsty and soexcited about what would it look
(14:44):
like for us to live a life oflove.
I want to tell you two thingsabout the spirit that is in you.
The spirit is faithful.
And the second thing is if youhave questions, if anything
makes you doubt, if you areworried about something, listen
to it.
Do not ignore your doubts.
Do not skip over questions.
Stay there, wrestle it out.
Skip over questions.
Stay there, wrestle it out.
(15:04):
Get someone to help you.
Do what you need to do, but donot negate those things inside
of you that feel like this isnot right.
Don't let anyone tell you youpassed those over.
Bring them to the mat and let'swrestle them and find it till
we find the good, till we findthe path.
We do need each other and Iappreciate that you mentioned
path.
We do need each other and Iappreciate that you mentioned
(15:26):
that we need each other.
We need community.
It helps us find the wisdom,helps us sometimes find the good
, and so I want to.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Can I interject, though, because you you just
talked about meditation yes, forfive minutes we're all going to
do it.
Quiet meditation yes don't passover your assignment.
Make sure you write that downlest you forget it.
But I want to tell you that Ididn't realize that the world,
my family, my choices, whateverprogrammed me to be a person
(15:56):
that thought about my past allthe time, thought about it with
a lot of shame, a lot ofembarrassment and with a real,
genuine desire to learn from itso that I never do that again.
So I became a person that wasso convinced that if I thought
about my past enough, if Iplanned enough, then I could
(16:19):
make a different future, adifferent future.
And so my constant battle wasme warring between the shame in
the past and the plans for thefuture.
And oh, I planned and I plannedand I planned and I've planned.
For years I've planned for thefuture and nothing ever has come
(16:39):
out like I planned and Iplanned and I planned and I
consumed.
And I realized relativelyrecently, sadly, as a
57-year-old man, that I havespent almost all of my life in
the past or in the future.
In the past, thinking aboutthose things and what they did
(17:04):
to me and how they affected meand how it bothers me and how I
wish it wouldn't have happened,and all these plans of how I'm
going to adjust to my future,and you know, frankly, I'm
convinced that is not how Godhas designed you and I to live.
And I wonder if I'm not theonly person that hasn't even
(17:24):
been aware of their present,because they're so busy.
See, the past is done, it'sgone, you cannot change it.
And the future, no matter howmuch you plan it, is going to
come out different.
So the only thing and you know,quite frankly, there are many
people that will not wake uptomorrow, so there isn't, in
(17:45):
fact, a future wouldn't it besad if, then, all of that
present time was stolen or lost?
And it's stolen or lost by me,because I'm not making the
choice to stop and listen to acicada.
You know it's purposeful andthere's science for it, but go
(18:09):
outside barefooted and let yourfeet actually touch the earth,
your human feet, not your rubbertennis shoes.
But there's something actuallyin our makeup,
electricallyically, that getsground by the planet Earth.
That's why your house has awire coming out of it, going in,
(18:32):
because your house knows betterthan you I need to be grounded
to this planet or bad thingscould happen, and for us we
don't take a minute to think.
What would it be like if I juststopped everything and were
quiet?
Now, before you think this ishippy dippy stuff, we're going
to read some scriptures andmaybe it's been there the whole
(18:54):
time and just not heads, likesome of us just missed it.
But we're not not heads anylonger.
Amen.
We're being transformed, we'rebeing changed, we're being
awakened and becoming aware ofthe gift that is right in the
right here, in the right now.
Amen.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Amen.
The prophet Jeremiah said thisto us stop If your life feels
out of control, if you feeloverwhelmed, if things are
difficult for you, pause, stop,stand at the crossroads and ask
for the ancient paths.
Ask where the good ways are,and in them you will find rest
(19:35):
for your souls.
That's a beautiful portion ofscripture.
I remember it and ask myselfall the time where are the
ancient paths?
The next verse though I don'tlike to quote it to you is this
is how the next verse goes.
The prophet says but you'll saywe don't want those paths, we
want something faster, we wantmagic Beloved.
There is a difference betweenmagic and miracles.
(19:58):
Magic is a sleight of hand.
Magic doesn't change anything.
Miracles are the workings ofspirit.
And we are God's children and weare invited into the miracle
working power of God.
We are invited into lives oflove.
We are invited to hold onto thespirit and watch ourselves be
transformed.
So from the book of Galatiansin fact one of the oldest books
(20:21):
in the New Testament, written alittle bit less than about 50
years after Jesus has ascendedso we have some remembrance of
how things actually are.
Before faith came.
We were detained under the law,imprisoned until the coming
faith was revealed.
I remind you, beloved, do notget involved with all the
(20:43):
knowledge of good and evil.
That is a trap.
Follow the Spirit.
This is what Jesus gave us andsaid I am going to give you the
Spirit, and the Spirit willteach you all things.
So then the law became ourguardian until Christ, in order
that we would be justified byfaith.
But after faith has come, weare no longer under a guardian,
(21:05):
for you are all sons of God.
Through faith in Christ Jesus,you are all God's children.
We are all God's childrenbecause of what Jesus actually
did for us.
And this is just radical,because at this particular time
in history, there were some thatwere God's children and
(21:26):
everybody else was not.
There were some who calledthemselves promised and
everybody else who was out ofthe covenant.
And Paul is fighting a culturalwar here when he said listen,
the things that divide you arenot.
so, in Christ, you are all sonsof God through faith in Christ
Jesus, for as many of you aswere baptized into Christ have
(21:49):
put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek,there is neither slave nor free
, there is neither male norfemale, for you are all one in
Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit.
The evidence of God's Spirit isunity, is oneness.
The unity of God's Spirit isthat every dividing line that
(22:12):
would separate people isdissolved by the Holy Spirit,
that we recognize we are thebody of Christ, we are the
children of God.
I have a place, you have aplace, and we are not asked to
conform.
In fact, to the letter to theRomans, paul the Apostle said
this do not give in to theconformity of the world, but be
(22:35):
transformed by renewing of yourmind.
This is the invitation.
The Holy Spirit will transformthe way that we think, what we
are able to conceive and tothink of.
But here is this understandingto a people who were trying to
follow and they kept getting intheir own little circles and
going us and them ups and them.
And Jesus was reminding themthrough the words of the apostle
(22:57):
here.
No, it is the oneness that theSpirit brings, it is the unity,
and we see this even in the bookof Acts.
We see this unity that theSpirit brings.
It is the unity and we see thiseven in the book of Acts.
We see this unity that theSpirit brings that we would
recognize.
There is no difference.
Every line that someone saysmakes you and me different.
That's not true anymore,because of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
You know, I want to talk for a minute about this
unity, but in there's diversity,because, uh, you know, uh, a
lot of churches still believe itor not in america in 2025, are
going to say that women aren'tallowed to be in the pulpit.
Um, that, uh, simply is just amisunderstanding of some letters
(23:39):
by paul that was speakingspecifically to churches about
specific issues that they werehaving at that time.
They were never meant to bedoctrines for the church for all
time, but even if they were,then Paul would have made a
mistake, because Christ issaying to us something different
here that there is not Jew norGreek, there's not some that you
know.
If God's chosen people are Jews, the rest of us are just
(24:01):
hand-me-downs.
No, there's not Jew nor Greek,there's not slave nor free,
there's not male nor female.
See, we're all one, you know.
But yet there's a tremendousshould be a tremendous
celebration in the uniqueness ofeach one of us, and that is
what we miss.
If, just you know, white men getup in the church and preach the
(24:22):
message, then all you're goingto get is the perspective of
what a white man has experiencedin his life as both a white and
a male.
So imagine if God said I wouldlike to express myself and the
uniqueness of who I am through awoman, or through people of
color, or through people of youknow that were incarcerated or
(24:47):
were slaves or, you know, wereother ethnic groups.
And all of these people makethis big declaration of how
unique and amazing God is.
But yet we're one, becausethere is a unity there, you know
.
But unity is not conformity.
Unity is not conformity.
Unity is that, for us to beable to trust that, through
these people that are different,the spirit of god would still
(25:08):
shine, would still reveal, wouldstill teach, would still lead,
uh, would still help us.
And so it's very important thatwe, we look at these scriptures
and, and I gotta tell you you,you sell yourself short or it's
to your own detriment if you say, because of this reason or that
(25:29):
I'm not qualified to to sharethe gospel, or I'm not qualified
to be used by god, or I'm notqualified to to really follow
the spirit, to be a person ofthe spirit, and that and that's
what I think a lot of peoplewould want you to hand over your
ability to hear the voice ofgod.
(25:49):
Oh, you don't want to do that.
I'll take that for you and thenI will use that.
Either intentionally or not, itwill be used to control you, to
keep you down, to manipulateyou, and the whole time you're
surrendering it, giving it upinstead of realizing hey, coming
from where I came, mybackground makes me specifically
(26:10):
and uniquely able to speak topeople that nobody else could.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining
us today.
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, would you take a
moment to share it with a friend?
This podcast is made possiblethanks to the generosity of
people just like you.
If you would like to supportthe ongoing work of First Love
Church and the continued work ofour podcast, visit us online at
(26:37):
firstlovechurchorg, remindingyou to like, follow and
subscribe.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
But that doesn't mean I'm the only one that should be
the voice.
Me and Heather always laughabout how my testimony involves
me taking illegal substances.
Kids, plug your ears.
My wife has a testimony ofnever once tasting alcohol or
taking drugs.
(27:02):
So who has the better testimony?
Most people want to hear myhorror stories and then other
people will say, well, no, hersis far better.
And I would say well, it reallydepends on who you're talking
to, doesn't it?
Speaker 1 (27:21):
And wisdom would tell us do not judge.
Wisdom would tell us.
It's not our place to say whatis better and what is worse.
Our job, through the power ofthe holy spirit, is to say how
will love be seen in me, howwill my eyes be healed, how will
I hold and honor the presenceand the frequency of the holy
(27:41):
spirit, the healer of the world,the thought adjuster.
So this beautiful portion ofscripture asks us to remember
this truth.
You have the Spirit inside ofyou, you know the answers, you
have what you need, and that isa difficult thing for us because
very often we have been taughtthat we don't have it and we
(28:03):
need to seek out somewhere elsefor it.
Beloved, the spirit of Christlives in you.
In fact, the scripture tells usthe same spirit that raised
Jesus from the dead, and it usesthat parameter because death is
big and death comes in manydifferent forms.
I don't know how many deathsyou'll die before you die the
(28:23):
death of a dream, the death ofan idea, the death of something,
maybe, hopefully, the death ofyour ego, the death of your
selfishness.
But there are many, many deaths.
But death to us, as a culture,as humanity, we understand death
to be an end, and the scripturetells us the same spirit that
(28:45):
lived in you, that lives in youcurrently, is the same spirit
that lived in Christ and raisedhim from the dead.
And what this is reminding usis that the spirit is bigger
than we could ever imagine andwe can trust in the resurrection
, we can trust in the ascension,that we are included in this
(29:06):
and that this spirit allows usto see things differently, to
allow our eyes to be healed.
You keep mentioning what it islike for us to celebrate
diversity.
I look to the book ofRevelation of John and it says
around the throne it's prettyamazing.
(29:27):
There's dragons, first of alland that should astonish all of
us that are flying and circlingaround there.
Look it up, it's the seraphim.
We could have a wholeconversation about that.
There's a crystal sea I mean,it goes on and on.
Rainbows everywhere.
That's what it says in thescripture.
Everything is lit with theserainbows.
And then it says there arepeople from every tribe, every
(29:48):
nation, every tongue, everyethnicity, and so it's this
beautiful place of everyone.
In fact, jesus said this whenhe said come.
Are you tired?
Are you burnt out on religion?
Is everything heavy for you?
Come to me and I will give youlife.
I'm going to show you theunforced rhythms of grace.
(30:08):
Come and receive this grace,this grace of allowing our
diversity, of allowing spirit toreframe us and to say I can
hear for myself how it is tofollow love.
There is a beauty for us inremembering this and in hearing
this.
But this, every tongue, everynation, every tribe, every time
(30:32):
that we try to say someone isdifferent and this is how they
are excluded.
Heaven is saying oh no.
I love this part about Jesuswhen he said in my father there
is so much room.
I know that there's someAmerican translations and I
loved it as a little girl andthere's an American translation.
It's just an Americantranslation and it says in my
(30:53):
father's house are many mansions, but that's not actually what
it says.
What Jesus said is in my Fatherthere is so much room Beloved.
If religion has been too narrowfor you, if spirituality has
cornered you or said you're notthere, listen to the words of
Jesus that said in my Fatherthere's so much room.
(31:13):
In his love there's enough room.
You, as you are, are welcomedinto the love of Christ and you
knew it ever since you werelittle, no matter what anyone
told you.
You knew it.
You knew it.
There has always been a voiceinside of you whispering saying
this is the way that you couldtrust yourself, that you know
(31:37):
the difference between love andhate, that you know the
difference between inclusion andexclusion.
And the Spirit of God iscalling us all to a life that is
full of love.
A summer of love is a greatstart, beloved, but let's all
get on to a life of love,because that's what Jesus came
(31:57):
for.
John 3.16 says this for God.
So loved God who is loved,loved and in God's loving, god
sent Jesus because we had gottenthe whole thing wrong.
And that's why Jesus came andsaid I'm here, but you're going
to have to unrule.
And that's why Jesus came andsaid I'm here, but you're going
(32:19):
to have to unrule, unlearn awhole bunch of things that you
thought you already knew.
You have heard it said do notcommit adultery.
But I say to you, if you evenobjectify a woman, you've
already done the damage to her.
So Jesus is saying that thereis more.
It's not about the rule, it isabout understanding the spirit
that calls us to be people ofmore love, that transforms us,
(32:43):
that allows us to change the waythat we're thinking.
The Holy Spirit, the thoughtadjuster that invites us into
this, this whole idea of thespirit being given is recorded
for us, or a version of it, inActs and you can read it.
A bunch of people from a bunchof different places gathered
together.
I appreciate very much thatwe're gathering this morning,
(33:09):
that we're gathered together.
And then there was a really bigsound, the sound of a rushing,
mighty wind.
A big sound.
And then fire came.
And then the spirit provided amiracle so that everyone could
(33:33):
understand each other.
Beloved, what if the peoplethat you love actually
understood you?
What would that world be like?
What if we understood thepeople we called our enemies?
What if we knew what they wereafraid of?
What if we knew what theylacked?
(33:54):
And what if we could meet themat the table that God is
preparing for us.
We practice holy communion hereand we understand that.
The beautiful imagery that atthe end of time there will be a
great feast again in the book ofRevelation, where it talks
about the Lamb's Supper, whereeverybody comes home, where
(34:16):
everybody eats together, whereJesus reigns there, that's a
beautiful invitation.
But the invitation is nowbeloved, that you could sit with
family and with neighbors andwith enemies and that you would
be understood.
What a gift, what a peace.
The Holy Spirit that is peaceamong us.
(34:37):
Now, this is not all just piein the sky.
This is how do I live as aperson of peace, how do I live
as a person who has laid down myweapons and is following the
way of Jesus into nonviolence,into ways of peacemaking, into
ways of hope, into ways of realliving.
Beloved, a life of love, notjust one summer.
(35:00):
A life of love.
This is empowered to us by theHoly Spirit.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
You know, a little bit ago you mentioned about the
ego and I want to talk aboutthat for a second because, you
know, I don't know how muchthought you really give to your
ego, but you know there's aquestion of who am I and the you
that answers that question isthe you.
(35:28):
The ego is the person thatyou're trying to make everybody
believe you are, or that youwant to be or that you want to
be.
You know, and the ego really isthat mechanism that worries
about the past, and part ofthat's just common sense.
I mean, if you, you know we hada bad winter last winter and
(35:50):
you don't learn from that pastand save enough food in the
summer, then you die.
So I'm not saying that thesekind of instincts are wicked at
the root, they're just out ofbalance in most of our lives and
the ego is so driven thatsometimes we don't realize that
all of our decisions are made bythe ego and not by the spirit.
(36:11):
And then we justify later whywe did what we did later, why we
did what we did.
But you know, deep down, ormaybe you don't, maybe we've not
learned the voice of the spiritbecause the ego screams so loud
.
And the other day I have thisreally nice when it works this
(36:34):
amazing piece of software foraudio.
But it's finicky.
It'll just decide it's notgoing to load and then all the
expense we paid for it, all thework that we could do with it,
is just on hold because thatlittle circle is just spinning
and we're just waiting for thatthing to load.
And then sometimes I'll get madand say, heather, I'm going to
(36:56):
throw this computer across theroom.
She'll say, well, let me take alook at it.
And then she holds command keysand she can get the thing to
boot up in a back door.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
It's magic beloved.
It's not real magic.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
It's a magical back door, this button to push and
she got in past the thing thatwas not letting this thing load.
Now some of you might betracking with me here, because I
believe that spinning aroundblock is your ego and you maybe
(37:36):
don't even realize how stuck youare.
Because you maybe don't evenrealize how stuck you are
Because you're going to blessGod, take care of you, because
when you were little, no onetook care of you.
And you're going to do this,and this is the right thing, and
to tell you why I do it,because this happened in the
past.
And all this instead of shh,there's a timeless one, a God of
(37:57):
the ages, jesus, who's put.
There's a timeless one, a Godof the ages, who has put God's
spirit within you, and we canlisten to that.
But we don't know.
We don't know how to bypassthat ego.
It screams so loud we didn'teven know this was going on.
(38:17):
How do I get past it, pastor?
What is the codes?
Well, we're going to sell thoseafter church.
No, I'm just kidding.
No, the truth is it is sobeautiful and it is so free.
But the key to get past thatthe back door is meditation, is
(38:42):
that when you decide to just bepresent.
Shut down that thinker thing.
Shut down that I've got to dothis, I've got to do this.
I'm just going to be in thepresence.
I mean, you know, are we goingto read the scripture where the
rocks or the wind is so strongthat the rocks are crushed?
(39:02):
No, but you could tell it, butthe Lord was not in that wind
and the fire burns sotremendously that, but the Lord
(39:24):
was not in the fire, but, quiet,in the still small voice, the
Lord could be heard.
I think we go about this thingwrong.
We're going to figure it out,we're going to do this thing,
and I wonder how much of yourprayer life is just you reading
your requests off to God, whoalready knew everything that you
(39:45):
have need of.
And maybe God's looking for atime when I would be quiet long
enough for him to be able todownload some direction, some
answers or maybe even a piece totell me I don't even need the
stuff, that I think that I needAll that list that I come up
(40:08):
with and my haste and mystruggle about my past and my
future.
Maybe I could realize right nowI have everything I need.
It was Father's Day last Sundayand so we went to Tony's Sushi
my favorite place to eat in town, but consequently my kids as
well and they took me out, andHeather and some there with my
(40:31):
sons, and I just sat back andthey were just telling stories.
They're adults, they're thesemen who could be anywhere on the
earth, and they decided thatthey would give that gift to me
(40:53):
and it was the best gift.
I don't want a tie or a sweater.
I wanted to sit at that tableand I wanted to watch them tell
stories and I could have missedthat in my haste, because what's
for dessert?
Or what are we going to doafter?
I've got a nap coming in?
(41:14):
Or you know what next weekholds?
Come on church.
Do we stop?
Or I got a nap coming in, oryou know what next week holds?
Oh, da-da-da, da-da-da, Come onchurch.
Do we stop and just realize atthat moment I had everything
that I need and I was full and Iwas perfectly content, I was
(41:39):
experienced in the summer oflove.
And then I leave that presenceand I go off, driven by my ego,
to conquer the world, driven bymy ego, to try to give some
peace and satisfaction inside ofme that it can only come by way
(42:01):
of the presence of the livingGod.
And so I trade that off and Imiss what we could have on a
regular basis.
Am I speaking to anybody else,or is this just me, right, don't
we miss?
And then, in those quiet times,in that still small voice, god
(42:25):
can remind me what are youstriving for?
Sometimes I'd find myself in myroom, my office, practicing a
guitar riff.
I'm 57, who am I performingthis riff for?
And I'll hear Heather and Silasout playing Connect Four.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
It gets loud.
Beloved.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
And there's part of me that wants to shut the door
on their noise.
So I could finish my thing thatmy ego would say once you can
play that, you've arrived,you're the master.
Or I could say does that matter?
(43:12):
Or does what's going on out onthat table?
Is that life?
Is that what it's all about?
Amen, and the Spirit will leadus if we'll take a minute.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
I was just thinking of the book of Ecclesiastes.
Again, the wisest person in theworld said everything is a
vapor, it's all so fast, andthat's one of the reasons we
need elders in our life, peoplewho are old enough to tell us it
is fast.
It feels long Especially whenyou have a lot of littles.
Those days seem long, but it'sfast.
But the author of Ecclesiastessays it's all in vain, all of it
(43:58):
, all of it.
And it says everything that youtried and worked at it's not
going to matter.
And so the writer ofEcclesiastes says this so eat
good food in the presence ofyour friends.
Beloved, this is simple things.
Meditate in the morning, fiveminutes a day, and in the summer
of love, eat good food withyour friends.
(44:19):
These are ways that we followinto the spirit.
I want to read to you the 23rdPsalm.
Dennis keeps mentioning thetable and I cannot hear that
without hearing David's version.
The Lord is my friend and myshepherd.
I always have more than enough.
(44:40):
He offers a resting place forme in his luxurious love.
His tracks take me to oasisesof peace near the quiet brook of
bliss, and in that quietness herestores and revives my life.
He opens before me the rightpath and he leads me along his
(45:05):
footsteps of righteousness sothat I can bring honor to his
name.
And even when the path takes methrough the valley of deepest
darkness, fear will not conquerme, because you already have
your authority, is my strengthand my peace.
The comfort of your love takesaway all of my fear.
(45:26):
I will never be lonely becauseyou are always near me.
You have become my deliciousfeast and even when enemies dare
to fight, you anoint me withthe fragrance of the Holy Spirit
and you give me all I can drinkof you until my cup overflows.
(45:47):
So why do I fear the future?
Only goodness and tender lovepursue me all the days of my
life and afterward, when my lifeis through, I will return to
you and to your gloriouspresence, and I will be in your
love forever.
(46:08):
Amen, amen.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
I've had the privilege of going to hospice
and being with people in theirfinal moments and I've seen
people struggle and fight andI've seen people so peacefully
just go from this life into thearms of Christ the most amazing
(46:38):
thing.
But what a contrast.
And you know, I'm convincedthat if you don't practice dying
you're not going to be any goodat it.
And how does one practice dying?
You know it's when that glassbreaks out there and you were
(46:58):
doing something.
And you know what you're doingnow has to die for the greater
good.
That you put down that guitarand go enjoy that game with your
family.
That you let the third andfourth and fifth car cut in
(47:19):
front of you when they all seenthat barrier, 500 feet till that
lane ends.
I die and I practice.
I practice every day.
I got things to do.
I can't stop and meditate, Ican stop and I'm surrendering to
love and I'm practicing that tothe point that there might be
(47:43):
one day when you're right atthat edge and you're going.
I'm breathing my last breathsright now, but I can trust that
God's meeting me on the otherside, because every time I've
surrendered in the past, god'smet me on the other side and
(48:06):
things have been better.
So I can trust that.
I used to think that as a pastor, you know, my success or my
approval was how well I prayedfor the sick.
I remember the first time alady asked me to come pray for
her husband.
The next day I called her andsaid how is he?
She goes?
Oh, he died a half an hourafter you left.
I am terrible at praying forthe sick, and I realized, though
(48:32):
, through all these experiences,that my job isn't to keep you
here, because it turns outthere's a 100% death rate to
this deal.
My job is to help you go, helpyou get there one day.
(48:54):
Now, for many, many of us,that's a long, long time away,
but for all of us it'll maybenot show up soon enough or never
seem to come around at all.
But there's a place wherethat's all okay, when we have
learned to trust the Spirit ofGod, because that's what this
(49:16):
whole thing is about.
You know we sprinkle it withthe benefits.
Oh, you'll benefit by trustingwith the Holy Spirit, but I tell
you, I believe our life dependson it and learning how to
surrender to Spirit.
When this is God's thing anyway, your ego can't fight and cause
(49:39):
some extra minute or grow someinch to your height or or
somehow produce something you'vedeceived yourself.
You're living in a lie and anillusion if you think anything
outside of the generosity of theSpirit of God is given to you
or I.
So how about if I learn to slowdown and then just appreciate
(50:05):
that and walk and live in that?
Doesn't this sound like abetter pace?
Speaker 1 (50:13):
The evidence of God's Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, gentleness.
You know these things.
The evidence of God's spiritliving through us is love, joy,
(50:34):
peace, patience, gentleness,self-control.
And then the writer says andthere's no law against these
things, there is nothing thatwill corral you in that there is
no law, that love is notgreater than God is love and God
(50:56):
is calling us back to God'sself.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's sermon.
If you would like moreinformation about us, visit us
online at firstlovechurchorg.
Welcome to the First Love Church Podcast.
This is a collection of Sundayteachings inspired by the
Revised Common Lectionary andrecorded weekly in Ocala,
florida.
So I greet you this morning inthe name of Jesus and in the
presence of the Holy Spirit.
The light in us greets thelight that is already in you and
that you brought this morning,and we are grateful.
(00:21):
It is the second week inPentecost, the season of
Pentecost, this entire beautifultime that we practice what it
is like to be people who live inthe Spirit.
I appreciate so much whatThomas brought to us this
morning in this reminding ofourselves that we the Holy
Spirit in the pause, in the stop, in the quiet, in the
(00:51):
refraining from speaking, tohear what the Spirit is speaking
.
And so it's with a lot of joythis morning that we come to you
and we remind you of thesebeautiful truths that are given
to us In this season ofPentecost.
We remember that the Holy Spirithas been given to each one of
us, that spirit inside of youthat is often very quiet, that
(01:15):
speaks wisdom.
In fact, one of the wisest menthat have ever lived on the
earth said in all of yourgetting, get wisdom.
It is the principal thing Bepeople who respond to wisdom,
and wisdom that allows us tochange our thinking.
Jesus called us to a life ofwisdom and, in fact, luke's
gospel says this of Jesus thathe grew in wisdom and that he
(01:40):
grew in favor and he grew in hisability to stay in the spirit.
This is, for us, a template forourselves that we should be
people who open our minds to beable to grow in wisdom, to allow
the spirit to expand the waythat we think about things and
the way that we see things.
In fact, we read together theBeatitudes, and I want to remind
(02:04):
you the same is true today asit was in Jesus' day.
This was opposite than what theworld said.
There is a blessing for thoseof you who are brokenhearted.
There is a blessing for thoseof you who make peace instead of
war.
We are called to be peacemakers.
We are called to be people whogive up violence and who follow
(02:26):
the way of Jesus, and so thismorning, it's with a lot of joy
that we read to you the text andthat we get to discuss this
morning what it looks like to bepeople not only full of the
Spirit, but people who are wiseenough to follow the Spirit.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
You know, it's our hope today that, as we share
this message, that maybe youmight learn or be encouraged in
a way that maybe you hadn'tconsidered before, about how you
might hear the voice of god orhow that you might receive the
influence of god.
(03:01):
You know, uh, uh, there's goingto be some things that we'll
present to you, maybe for yourconsideration, that are
different than just our typicalreligious ways that we think we
do things.
I have a friend who often callsme.
He doesn't live in the areaanymore, but he often calls me
and he tells and he vents at me,I guess because I'm a pastor
(03:22):
and I guess he feels like hecan't yell at God.
So he yells at me and I mean heyells at me, he cusses at me
and he tells me how God is notfair and that he's being ripped
off.
And you know he's going tochurch but he didn't even
believe in God.
And I don't know if he wants tomake me mad or hurt my feelings
or whatever.
And oftentimes, as you know, Isay slow down, explain to me
(03:46):
what's going on.
Typically, god has disappointedan idea that he had that God
ought to do.
He had a thing that he a hoopthat he wanted God to jump
through and when, inevitably,god didn't do his little circus
trick, he's very, very mad atGod, and I wonder how much of
(04:10):
our frustration with God is ourdisappointment in him not doing
what we think he ought to do?
I'll let that soak for just asecond, but I think that that
really boils down to a lot ofdisappointments.
In fact, I run into people alot of times and they're just
like well, frankly, I don'tbelieve in God, and I think that
their inability to believe inGod, or their decision to not
(04:33):
believe in God, is based on theparameters and the things that
they put on what they think Godought to do.
If he were real.
Well, I think there should be.
You know, no children hurt ifthere's a real God.
People say things like that tome there should be no war, there
should be no poor people, thereshould be no starving people,
and so we decide sometimes inour head with our logic, why?
(04:55):
And I wish that I could answerthose questions to you today
that somehow I had the skill tobe able to communicate a word to
you that would give you perfectpeace from now on and give you
an answer every time someonebrings it up.
But I'll just say this to youthat what if maybe we take some
of the principles we talk abouttoday in learning to listen, to
(05:17):
be still, to surrender to spirit, and see if maybe God's self
would reveal to you an answer orgive you something that would
give you enough peace to sustainyou?
Because that's what I want foryou.
I don't want to give you someintellectual answer.
(05:38):
I would like to offer you theinvitation to come on that
journey with God, as God revealsGod's self to you, as we learn
how to recognize the influencethat God has in this world that
(06:02):
we were born into.
Amen, because I believe there issightings, there is evidences
of God's presence, and sometimeswe misread, misinterpret or
lack the maybe understanding ofwhat might be going on around us
.
What do you think, heather it'spossible of what might be going
(06:25):
on around us.
What do you think, heather?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
It's possible.
John's Gospel If you love me,you will keep my commandments
and I will ask the Father and hewill give you another advocate
to be with you forever.
This is the Spirit of truthwhom the world cannot receive
because it neither sees norknows the spirit.
(06:47):
And you know the spirit becausethe spirit abides with you and
will be in you.
This is the vantage point thatwe are talking about from this
morning.
Each one of you has the spiritof life, the spirit of truth,
the spirit of God in you.
Very often, when we say thingslike I was going to pray or I
(07:10):
wanted to have some kind ofresponse from God, we're looking
often from an outside source.
And I tell you, beloved, Christis in you.
You should be listening to thatinner, quiet, still voice that
reminds you you know the way andbeloved.
This morning I remind you thatJesus is a way.
Jesus is not a theology or adoctrine or even a religion.
(07:33):
Jesus is a way.
Jesus said I am the way and sogo ahead, give up religion.
It's been terrible to the wholeworld anyway.
Follow the spirit, allowyourself to be a person who is
filled with the spirit.
Jesus said if you'll allow mywords to abide in you.
If you'll live in those words,in that wisdom, my father will
(07:56):
come to you and we will live inyou and you will have life.
In fact, jesus quotes fromisaiah.
He says I have come that youwould have life and have it to
the full.
The invitation of Jesus is tolive in a frequency that is not
what is happening around you, isto live in this frequency of
love, to be able to follow theSpirit into an extravagant life,
(08:19):
a life full of God and full oflove, not just for ourselves,
but for each other.
This is the spirit of truth.
In fact, this is how the churchof Jesus Christ is born.
Jesus said I'm going away, butyou're going to have a comforter
, you're going to have a spirit,and the spirit will teach you
everything that you need to know.
Well, that's a great idea, butI don't even know what the
(08:42):
Spirit is.
So how do I know what to listento?
And wisdom shows us what theSpirit is.
Wisdom gives us the words andwe go to the sacred text and we
listen to the life of Jesus andwe hear how Jesus lived and what
Jesus knew of the Spirit.
Then we are invited to do thesame.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You know just as the band on their particular
instruments, got good at thoseinstruments, good at the
beautiful harmony that you singpart of.
That is a natural gift, butwithout you exercising that,
without you practicing, youwouldn't be able to do what you
do in such a way that you blendfor each one of the musicians to
(09:23):
be able to offer their gifts.
Yeah, it's great that you havethem, but if you're not really
aware that you even have that,unless you train in that?
Now the Bible says God hasgiven us the spirit, there's a
voice inside of you, but wouldit be foolish to think that
you're going to hear that welland recognize it all the time,
(09:43):
without ever considering thetraining that might be
responsible for you to be thislittle receptor that floats
around in this realm and detects, hears, decodes and understands
clearly the transmission thatcomes from a whole nother spirit
realm?
Well, that is silliness,wouldn't you put it that way,
(10:06):
pastor?
That I would just naturally beable to do this perfectly, that
maybe there's community thatcould be around you to say you
know, I remember my pastor onetime.
I loved him and he was one thatwould allow the Spirit of God to
move in the church, but he alsowas bold enough to correct
people when they made a mistake.
I remember one guy stood up andhe goes Pastor, my gift in this
(10:26):
church is to be a naysayer.
I'm here to tell people whenthey're wrong.
And the pastor got up and hesaid Brother, I appreciate your
zeal, but there's no such thingas a naysayer.
The Bible says yes and amen andGod didn't call you to tell our
people no, so I'm going to haveto ask you to sit down.
Well, that guy didn't like it.
He got up and quit the church.
He didn't want to be trained.
(10:48):
Many of us don't want to betrained.
We want to be told we're rightall the time.
We want a trophy forparticipation.
Come on church.
What if we actually allowed Godand allowed our brothers and
sisters and allowed the word andreally inside of us, just that
(11:11):
discerning.
The other day the dog broke abull and Heather goes.
Oh my God, it's all over.
And I was working on churchstuff in my office, but I knew
what I should do.
You are sitting in those seats,all smug, strong, discerners of
(11:34):
the Spirit to know what Ishould do.
It doesn't take a genius toknow what to do.
The Spirit speaks to us all thetime and we reject, refuse,
refuse and ignore the voice.
See, it's not over complicated.
You follow the good, you followlove.
(11:55):
That is the key to never, everhave to be wrong when it comes
to discerning the spirit.
What would love do in thissituation?
Not stay, pretend like I didn'thear what was going on.
Now, only I would pull a movelike that.
(12:18):
No one else here are we willingto really then discomfort
ourselves to respond to thatvoice, because love will be
sacrificial.
Love will cause you to dosomething.
I got up I think it wasyesterday when Heather asked me
to do something First time sheasked me, I hopped up.
(12:40):
She freaked out.
It scared you a little bit,didn't it first time.
Imagine, if we were surrenderedin that way, what it would be
like for the people around us.
I might just preach.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I don't know what you think recently, someone was at
our home and they were veryexcited about this season.
They had just gotten off schooland I said what do you want?
And they said what I want is asummer of love.
That's what I want a summer oflove.
And it almost broke my heartBecause, beloved, a summer of
love is good, but I want a lifeof love.
I want the whole thing to belove.
(13:20):
I don't want to just have asummer of love and then a summer
of greed and then a summer ofwe don't even pay attention to
the life that we live.
I want a life of love andthat's what Jesus offered to us
and I'll give you.
Let's start with a summer oflove.
Let's do it.
Let's do it together, as achurch family.
Let's say we're going to have asummer of love.
And how do you do that?
It's an easy practice.
(13:40):
It's actually very difficult,but it's very easy at the same
time.
Here's how things ofspirituality are a paradox.
I encourage all of us to startthe very first thing in the
morning before we do anythingelse five minutes of quiet,
meditation, alertness, awareness.
(14:00):
Now, I can't do that in thehouse because I'm still a little
sleepy first thing in themorning.
But do you know, I have a dogand she is a spiritual director
in her own way and she asks togo out first thing in the
morning.
So I go out with her and Istand in the grass barefoot
teeth unbrushed, hair unmade,and I am quiet and I listen to
(14:21):
the cicadas that are screechingat us and bringing such a
beautiful summer noise, and Ilisten to the birds and I just
stand in the presence of thegood Five minutes beloved.
Try it, let's do it for thesummer.
Let's see if we can experiencea summer of love, which will
then make us so thirsty and soexcited about what would it look
(14:44):
like for us to live a life oflove.
I want to tell you two thingsabout the spirit that is in you.
The spirit is faithful.
And the second thing is if youhave questions, if anything
makes you doubt, if you areworried about something, listen
to it.
Do not ignore your doubts.
Do not skip over questions.
Stay there, wrestle it out.
Skip over questions.
Stay there, wrestle it out.
(15:04):
Get someone to help you.
Do what you need to do, but donot negate those things inside
of you that feel like this isnot right.
Don't let anyone tell you youpassed those over.
Bring them to the mat and let'swrestle them and find it till
we find the good, till we findthe path.
We do need each other and Iappreciate that you mentioned
path.
We do need each other and Iappreciate that you mentioned
(15:26):
that we need each other.
We need community.
It helps us find the wisdom,helps us sometimes find the good
, and so I want to.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Can I interject, though, because you you just
talked about meditation yes, forfive minutes we're all going to
do it.
Quiet meditation yes don't passover your assignment.
Make sure you write that downlest you forget it.
But I want to tell you that Ididn't realize that the world,
my family, my choices, whateverprogrammed me to be a person
(15:56):
that thought about my past allthe time, thought about it with
a lot of shame, a lot ofembarrassment and with a real,
genuine desire to learn from itso that I never do that again.
So I became a person that wasso convinced that if I thought
about my past enough, if Iplanned enough, then I could
(16:19):
make a different future, adifferent future.
And so my constant battle wasme warring between the shame in
the past and the plans for thefuture.
And oh, I planned and I plannedand I planned and I've planned.
For years I've planned for thefuture and nothing ever has come
(16:39):
out like I planned and Iplanned and I planned and I
consumed.
And I realized relativelyrecently, sadly, as a
57-year-old man, that I havespent almost all of my life in
the past or in the future.
In the past, thinking aboutthose things and what they did
(17:04):
to me and how they affected meand how it bothers me and how I
wish it wouldn't have happened,and all these plans of how I'm
going to adjust to my future,and you know, frankly, I'm
convinced that is not how Godhas designed you and I to live.
And I wonder if I'm not theonly person that hasn't even
(17:24):
been aware of their present,because they're so busy.
See, the past is done, it'sgone, you cannot change it.
And the future, no matter howmuch you plan it, is going to
come out different.
So the only thing and you know,quite frankly, there are many
people that will not wake uptomorrow, so there isn't, in
(17:45):
fact, a future wouldn't it besad if, then, all of that
present time was stolen or lost?
And it's stolen or lost by me,because I'm not making the
choice to stop and listen to acicada.
You know it's purposeful andthere's science for it, but go
(18:09):
outside barefooted and let yourfeet actually touch the earth,
your human feet, not your rubbertennis shoes.
But there's something actuallyin our makeup,
electricallyically, that getsground by the planet Earth.
That's why your house has awire coming out of it, going in,
(18:32):
because your house knows betterthan you I need to be grounded
to this planet or bad thingscould happen, and for us we
don't take a minute to think.
What would it be like if I juststopped everything and were
quiet?
Now, before you think this ishippy dippy stuff, we're going
to read some scriptures andmaybe it's been there the whole
(18:54):
time and just not heads, likesome of us just missed it.
But we're not not heads anylonger.
Amen.
We're being transformed, we'rebeing changed, we're being
awakened and becoming aware ofthe gift that is right in the
right here, in the right now.
Amen.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Amen.
The prophet Jeremiah said thisto us stop If your life feels
out of control, if you feeloverwhelmed, if things are
difficult for you, pause, stop,stand at the crossroads and ask
for the ancient paths.
Ask where the good ways are,and in them you will find rest
(19:35):
for your souls.
That's a beautiful portion ofscripture.
I remember it and ask myselfall the time where are the
ancient paths?
The next verse though I don'tlike to quote it to you is this
is how the next verse goes.
The prophet says but you'll saywe don't want those paths, we
want something faster, we wantmagic Beloved.
There is a difference betweenmagic and miracles.
(19:58):
Magic is a sleight of hand.
Magic doesn't change anything.
Miracles are the workings ofspirit.
And we are God's children and weare invited into the miracle
working power of God.
We are invited into lives oflove.
We are invited to hold onto thespirit and watch ourselves be
transformed.
So from the book of Galatiansin fact one of the oldest books
(20:21):
in the New Testament, written alittle bit less than about 50
years after Jesus has ascendedso we have some remembrance of
how things actually are.
Before faith came.
We were detained under the law,imprisoned until the coming
faith was revealed.
I remind you, beloved, do notget involved with all the
(20:43):
knowledge of good and evil.
That is a trap.
Follow the Spirit.
This is what Jesus gave us andsaid I am going to give you the
Spirit, and the Spirit willteach you all things.
So then the law became ourguardian until Christ, in order
that we would be justified byfaith.
But after faith has come, weare no longer under a guardian,
(21:05):
for you are all sons of God.
Through faith in Christ Jesus,you are all God's children.
We are all God's childrenbecause of what Jesus actually
did for us.
And this is just radical,because at this particular time
in history, there were some thatwere God's children and
(21:26):
everybody else was not.
There were some who calledthemselves promised and
everybody else who was out ofthe covenant.
And Paul is fighting a culturalwar here when he said listen,
the things that divide you arenot.
so, in Christ, you are all sonsof God through faith in Christ
Jesus, for as many of you aswere baptized into Christ have
(21:49):
put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek,there is neither slave nor free
, there is neither male norfemale, for you are all one in
Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit.
The evidence of God's Spirit isunity, is oneness.
The unity of God's Spirit isthat every dividing line that
(22:12):
would separate people isdissolved by the Holy Spirit,
that we recognize we are thebody of Christ, we are the
children of God.
I have a place, you have aplace, and we are not asked to
conform.
In fact, to the letter to theRomans, paul the Apostle said
this do not give in to theconformity of the world, but be
(22:35):
transformed by renewing of yourmind.
This is the invitation.
The Holy Spirit will transformthe way that we think, what we
are able to conceive and tothink of.
But here is this understandingto a people who were trying to
follow and they kept getting intheir own little circles and
going us and them ups and them.
And Jesus was reminding themthrough the words of the apostle
(22:57):
here.
No, it is the oneness that theSpirit brings, it is the unity,
and we see this even in the bookof Acts.
We see this unity that theSpirit brings.
It is the unity and we see thiseven in the book of Acts.
We see this unity that theSpirit brings that we would
recognize.
There is no difference.
Every line that someone saysmakes you and me different.
That's not true anymore,because of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
You know, I want to talk for a minute about this
unity, but in there's diversity,because, uh, you know, uh, a
lot of churches still believe itor not in america in 2025, are
going to say that women aren'tallowed to be in the pulpit.
Um, that, uh, simply is just amisunderstanding of some letters
(23:39):
by paul that was speakingspecifically to churches about
specific issues that they werehaving at that time.
They were never meant to bedoctrines for the church for all
time, but even if they were,then Paul would have made a
mistake, because Christ issaying to us something different
here that there is not Jew norGreek, there's not some that you
know.
If God's chosen people are Jews, the rest of us are just
(24:01):
hand-me-downs.
No, there's not Jew nor Greek,there's not slave nor free,
there's not male nor female.
See, we're all one, you know.
But yet there's a tremendousshould be a tremendous
celebration in the uniqueness ofeach one of us, and that is
what we miss.
If, just you know, white men getup in the church and preach the
(24:22):
message, then all you're goingto get is the perspective of
what a white man has experiencedin his life as both a white and
a male.
So imagine if God said I wouldlike to express myself and the
uniqueness of who I am through awoman, or through people of
color, or through people of youknow that were incarcerated or
(24:47):
were slaves or, you know, wereother ethnic groups.
And all of these people makethis big declaration of how
unique and amazing God is.
But yet we're one, becausethere is a unity there, you know
.
But unity is not conformity.
Unity is not conformity.
Unity is that, for us to beable to trust that, through
these people that are different,the spirit of god would still
(25:08):
shine, would still reveal, wouldstill teach, would still lead,
uh, would still help us.
And so it's very important thatwe, we look at these scriptures
and, and I gotta tell you you,you sell yourself short or it's
to your own detriment if you say, because of this reason or that
(25:29):
I'm not qualified to to sharethe gospel, or I'm not qualified
to be used by god, or I'm notqualified to to really follow
the spirit, to be a person ofthe spirit, and that and that's
what I think a lot of peoplewould want you to hand over your
ability to hear the voice ofgod.
(25:49):
Oh, you don't want to do that.
I'll take that for you and thenI will use that.
Either intentionally or not, itwill be used to control you, to
keep you down, to manipulateyou, and the whole time you're
surrendering it, giving it upinstead of realizing hey, coming
from where I came, mybackground makes me specifically
(26:10):
and uniquely able to speak topeople that nobody else could.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining
us today.
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, would you take a
moment to share it with a friend?
This podcast is made possiblethanks to the generosity of
people just like you.
If you would like to supportthe ongoing work of First Love
Church and the continued work ofour podcast, visit us online at
(26:37):
firstlovechurchorg, remindingyou to like, follow and
subscribe.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
But that doesn't mean I'm the only one that should be
the voice.
Me and Heather always laughabout how my testimony involves
me taking illegal substances.
Kids, plug your ears.
My wife has a testimony ofnever once tasting alcohol or
taking drugs.
(27:02):
So who has the better testimony?
Most people want to hear myhorror stories and then other
people will say, well, no, hersis far better.
And I would say well, it reallydepends on who you're talking
to, doesn't it?
Speaker 1 (27:21):
And wisdom would tell us do not judge.
Wisdom would tell us.
It's not our place to say whatis better and what is worse.
Our job, through the power ofthe holy spirit, is to say how
will love be seen in me, howwill my eyes be healed, how will
I hold and honor the presenceand the frequency of the holy
(27:41):
spirit, the healer of the world,the thought adjuster.
So this beautiful portion ofscripture asks us to remember
this truth.
You have the Spirit inside ofyou, you know the answers, you
have what you need, and that isa difficult thing for us because
very often we have been taughtthat we don't have it and we
(28:03):
need to seek out somewhere elsefor it.
Beloved, the spirit of Christlives in you.
In fact, the scripture tells usthe same spirit that raised
Jesus from the dead, and it usesthat parameter because death is
big and death comes in manydifferent forms.
I don't know how many deathsyou'll die before you die the
(28:23):
death of a dream, the death ofan idea, the death of something,
maybe, hopefully, the death ofyour ego, the death of your
selfishness.
But there are many, many deaths.
But death to us, as a culture,as humanity, we understand death
to be an end, and the scripturetells us the same spirit that
(28:45):
lived in you, that lives in youcurrently, is the same spirit
that lived in Christ and raisedhim from the dead.
And what this is reminding usis that the spirit is bigger
than we could ever imagine andwe can trust in the resurrection
, we can trust in the ascension,that we are included in this
(29:06):
and that this spirit allows usto see things differently, to
allow our eyes to be healed.
You keep mentioning what it islike for us to celebrate
diversity.
I look to the book ofRevelation of John and it says
around the throne it's prettyamazing.
(29:27):
There's dragons, first of alland that should astonish all of
us that are flying and circlingaround there.
Look it up, it's the seraphim.
We could have a wholeconversation about that.
There's a crystal sea I mean,it goes on and on.
Rainbows everywhere.
That's what it says in thescripture.
Everything is lit with theserainbows.
And then it says there arepeople from every tribe, every
(29:48):
nation, every tongue, everyethnicity, and so it's this
beautiful place of everyone.
In fact, jesus said this whenhe said come.
Are you tired?
Are you burnt out on religion?
Is everything heavy for you?
Come to me and I will give youlife.
I'm going to show you theunforced rhythms of grace.
(30:08):
Come and receive this grace,this grace of allowing our
diversity, of allowing spirit toreframe us and to say I can
hear for myself how it is tofollow love.
There is a beauty for us inremembering this and in hearing
this.
But this, every tongue, everynation, every tribe, every time
(30:32):
that we try to say someone isdifferent and this is how they
are excluded.
Heaven is saying oh no.
I love this part about Jesuswhen he said in my father there
is so much room.
I know that there's someAmerican translations and I
loved it as a little girl andthere's an American translation.
It's just an Americantranslation and it says in my
(30:53):
father's house are many mansions, but that's not actually what
it says.
What Jesus said is in my Fatherthere is so much room Beloved.
If religion has been too narrowfor you, if spirituality has
cornered you or said you're notthere, listen to the words of
Jesus that said in my Fatherthere's so much room.
(31:13):
In his love there's enough room.
You, as you are, are welcomedinto the love of Christ and you
knew it ever since you werelittle, no matter what anyone
told you.
You knew it.
You knew it.
There has always been a voiceinside of you whispering saying
this is the way that you couldtrust yourself, that you know
(31:37):
the difference between love andhate, that you know the
difference between inclusion andexclusion.
And the Spirit of God iscalling us all to a life that is
full of love.
A summer of love is a greatstart, beloved, but let's all
get on to a life of love,because that's what Jesus came
(31:57):
for.
John 3.16 says this for God.
So loved God who is loved,loved and in God's loving, god
sent Jesus because we had gottenthe whole thing wrong.
And that's why Jesus came andsaid I'm here, but you're going
to have to unrule.
And that's why Jesus came andsaid I'm here, but you're going
(32:19):
to have to unrule, unlearn awhole bunch of things that you
thought you already knew.
You have heard it said do notcommit adultery.
But I say to you, if you evenobjectify a woman, you've
already done the damage to her.
So Jesus is saying that thereis more.
It's not about the rule, it isabout understanding the spirit
that calls us to be people ofmore love, that transforms us,
(32:43):
that allows us to change the waythat we're thinking.
The Holy Spirit, the thoughtadjuster that invites us into
this, this whole idea of thespirit being given is recorded
for us, or a version of it, inActs and you can read it.
A bunch of people from a bunchof different places gathered
together.
I appreciate very much thatwe're gathering this morning,
(33:09):
that we're gathered together.
And then there was a really bigsound, the sound of a rushing,
mighty wind.
A big sound.
And then fire came.
And then the spirit provided amiracle so that everyone could
(33:33):
understand each other.
Beloved, what if the peoplethat you love actually
understood you?
What would that world be like?
What if we understood thepeople we called our enemies?
What if we knew what they wereafraid of?
What if we knew what theylacked?
(33:54):
And what if we could meet themat the table that God is
preparing for us.
We practice holy communion hereand we understand that.
The beautiful imagery that atthe end of time there will be a
great feast again in the book ofRevelation, where it talks
about the Lamb's Supper, whereeverybody comes home, where
(34:16):
everybody eats together, whereJesus reigns there, that's a
beautiful invitation.
But the invitation is nowbeloved, that you could sit with
family and with neighbors andwith enemies and that you would
be understood.
What a gift, what a peace.
The Holy Spirit that is peaceamong us.
(34:37):
Now, this is not all just piein the sky.
This is how do I live as aperson of peace, how do I live
as a person who has laid down myweapons and is following the
way of Jesus into nonviolence,into ways of peacemaking, into
ways of hope, into ways of realliving.
Beloved, a life of love, notjust one summer.
(35:00):
A life of love.
This is empowered to us by theHoly Spirit.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
You know, a little bit ago you mentioned about the
ego and I want to talk aboutthat for a second because, you
know, I don't know how muchthought you really give to your
ego, but you know there's aquestion of who am I and the you
that answers that question isthe you.
(35:28):
The ego is the person thatyou're trying to make everybody
believe you are, or that youwant to be or that you want to
be.
You know, and the ego really isthat mechanism that worries
about the past, and part ofthat's just common sense.
I mean, if you, you know we hada bad winter last winter and
(35:50):
you don't learn from that pastand save enough food in the
summer, then you die.
So I'm not saying that thesekind of instincts are wicked at
the root, they're just out ofbalance in most of our lives and
the ego is so driven thatsometimes we don't realize that
all of our decisions are made bythe ego and not by the spirit.
(36:11):
And then we justify later whywe did what we did later, why we
did what we did.
But you know, deep down, ormaybe you don't, maybe we've not
learned the voice of the spiritbecause the ego screams so loud
.
And the other day I have thisreally nice when it works this
(36:34):
amazing piece of software foraudio.
But it's finicky.
It'll just decide it's notgoing to load and then all the
expense we paid for it, all thework that we could do with it,
is just on hold because thatlittle circle is just spinning
and we're just waiting for thatthing to load.
And then sometimes I'll get madand say, heather, I'm going to
(36:56):
throw this computer across theroom.
She'll say, well, let me take alook at it.
And then she holds command keysand she can get the thing to
boot up in a back door.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
It's magic beloved.
It's not real magic.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
It's a magical back door, this button to push and
she got in past the thing thatwas not letting this thing load.
Now some of you might betracking with me here, because I
believe that spinning aroundblock is your ego and you maybe
(37:36):
don't even realize how stuck youare.
Because you maybe don't evenrealize how stuck you are
Because you're going to blessGod, take care of you, because
when you were little, no onetook care of you.
And you're going to do this,and this is the right thing, and
to tell you why I do it,because this happened in the
past.
And all this instead of shh,there's a timeless one, a God of
(37:57):
the ages, jesus, who's put.
There's a timeless one, a Godof the ages, who has put God's
spirit within you, and we canlisten to that.
But we don't know.
We don't know how to bypassthat ego.
It screams so loud we didn'teven know this was going on.
(38:17):
How do I get past it, pastor?
What is the codes?
Well, we're going to sell thoseafter church.
No, I'm just kidding.
No, the truth is it is sobeautiful and it is so free.
But the key to get past thatthe back door is meditation, is
(38:42):
that when you decide to just bepresent.
Shut down that thinker thing.
Shut down that I've got to dothis, I've got to do this.
I'm just going to be in thepresence.
I mean, you know, are we goingto read the scripture where the
rocks or the wind is so strongthat the rocks are crushed?
(39:02):
No, but you could tell it, butthe Lord was not in that wind
and the fire burns sotremendously that, but the Lord
(39:24):
was not in the fire, but, quiet,in the still small voice, the
Lord could be heard.
I think we go about this thingwrong.
We're going to figure it out,we're going to do this thing,
and I wonder how much of yourprayer life is just you reading
your requests off to God, whoalready knew everything that you
(39:45):
have need of.
And maybe God's looking for atime when I would be quiet long
enough for him to be able todownload some direction, some
answers or maybe even a piece totell me I don't even need the
stuff, that I think that I needAll that list that I come up
(40:08):
with and my haste and mystruggle about my past and my
future.
Maybe I could realize right nowI have everything I need.
It was Father's Day last Sundayand so we went to Tony's Sushi
my favorite place to eat in town, but consequently my kids as
well and they took me out, andHeather and some there with my
(40:31):
sons, and I just sat back andthey were just telling stories.
They're adults, they're thesemen who could be anywhere on the
earth, and they decided thatthey would give that gift to me
(40:53):
and it was the best gift.
I don't want a tie or a sweater.
I wanted to sit at that tableand I wanted to watch them tell
stories and I could have missedthat in my haste, because what's
for dessert?
Or what are we going to doafter?
I've got a nap coming in?
(41:14):
Or you know what next weekholds?
Come on church.
Do we stop?
Or I got a nap coming in, oryou know what next week holds?
Oh, da-da-da, da-da-da, Come onchurch.
Do we stop and just realize atthat moment I had everything
that I need and I was full and Iwas perfectly content, I was
(41:39):
experienced in the summer oflove.
And then I leave that presenceand I go off, driven by my ego,
to conquer the world, driven bymy ego, to try to give some
peace and satisfaction inside ofme that it can only come by way
(42:01):
of the presence of the livingGod.
And so I trade that off and Imiss what we could have on a
regular basis.
Am I speaking to anybody else,or is this just me, right, don't
we miss?
And then, in those quiet times,in that still small voice, god
(42:25):
can remind me what are youstriving for?
Sometimes I'd find myself in myroom, my office, practicing a
guitar riff.
I'm 57, who am I performingthis riff for?
And I'll hear Heather and Silasout playing Connect Four.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
It gets loud.
Beloved.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
And there's part of me that wants to shut the door
on their noise.
So I could finish my thing thatmy ego would say once you can
play that, you've arrived,you're the master.
Or I could say does that matter?
(43:12):
Or does what's going on out onthat table?
Is that life?
Is that what it's all about?
Amen, and the Spirit will leadus if we'll take a minute.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
I was just thinking of the book of Ecclesiastes.
Again, the wisest person in theworld said everything is a
vapor, it's all so fast, andthat's one of the reasons we
need elders in our life, peoplewho are old enough to tell us it
is fast.
It feels long Especially whenyou have a lot of littles.
Those days seem long, but it'sfast.
But the author of Ecclesiastessays it's all in vain, all of it
(43:58):
, all of it.
And it says everything that youtried and worked at it's not
going to matter.
And so the writer ofEcclesiastes says this so eat
good food in the presence ofyour friends.
Beloved, this is simple things.
Meditate in the morning, fiveminutes a day, and in the summer
of love, eat good food withyour friends.
(44:19):
These are ways that we followinto the spirit.
I want to read to you the 23rdPsalm.
Dennis keeps mentioning thetable and I cannot hear that
without hearing David's version.
The Lord is my friend and myshepherd.
I always have more than enough.
(44:40):
He offers a resting place forme in his luxurious love.
His tracks take me to oasisesof peace near the quiet brook of
bliss, and in that quietness herestores and revives my life.
He opens before me the rightpath and he leads me along his
(45:05):
footsteps of righteousness sothat I can bring honor to his
name.
And even when the path takes methrough the valley of deepest
darkness, fear will not conquerme, because you already have
your authority, is my strengthand my peace.
The comfort of your love takesaway all of my fear.
(45:26):
I will never be lonely becauseyou are always near me.
You have become my deliciousfeast and even when enemies dare
to fight, you anoint me withthe fragrance of the Holy Spirit
and you give me all I can drinkof you until my cup overflows.
(45:47):
So why do I fear the future?
Only goodness and tender lovepursue me all the days of my
life and afterward, when my lifeis through, I will return to
you and to your gloriouspresence, and I will be in your
love forever.
(46:08):
Amen, amen.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
I've had the privilege of going to hospice
and being with people in theirfinal moments and I've seen
people struggle and fight andI've seen people so peacefully
just go from this life into thearms of Christ the most amazing
(46:38):
thing.
But what a contrast.
And you know, I'm convincedthat if you don't practice dying
you're not going to be any goodat it.
And how does one practice dying?
You know it's when that glassbreaks out there and you were
(46:58):
doing something.
And you know what you're doingnow has to die for the greater
good.
That you put down that guitarand go enjoy that game with your
family.
That you let the third andfourth and fifth car cut in
(47:19):
front of you when they all seenthat barrier, 500 feet till that
lane ends.
I die and I practice.
I practice every day.
I got things to do.
I can't stop and meditate, Ican stop and I'm surrendering to
love and I'm practicing that tothe point that there might be
(47:43):
one day when you're right atthat edge and you're going.
I'm breathing my last breathsright now, but I can trust that
God's meeting me on the otherside, because every time I've
surrendered in the past, god'smet me on the other side and
(48:06):
things have been better.
So I can trust that.
I used to think that as a pastor, you know, my success or my
approval was how well I prayedfor the sick.
I remember the first time alady asked me to come pray for
her husband.
The next day I called her andsaid how is he?
She goes?
Oh, he died a half an hourafter you left.
I am terrible at praying forthe sick, and I realized, though
(48:32):
, through all these experiences,that my job isn't to keep you
here, because it turns outthere's a 100% death rate to
this deal.
My job is to help you go, helpyou get there one day.
(48:54):
Now, for many, many of us,that's a long, long time away,
but for all of us it'll maybenot show up soon enough or never
seem to come around at all.
But there's a place wherethat's all okay, when we have
learned to trust the Spirit ofGod, because that's what this
(49:16):
whole thing is about.
You know we sprinkle it withthe benefits.
Oh, you'll benefit by trustingwith the Holy Spirit, but I tell
you, I believe our life dependson it and learning how to
surrender to Spirit.
When this is God's thing anyway, your ego can't fight and cause
(49:39):
some extra minute or grow someinch to your height or or
somehow produce something you'vedeceived yourself.
You're living in a lie and anillusion if you think anything
outside of the generosity of theSpirit of God is given to you
or I.
So how about if I learn to slowdown and then just appreciate
(50:05):
that and walk and live in that?
Doesn't this sound like abetter pace?
Speaker 1 (50:13):
The evidence of God's Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, gentleness.
You know these things.
The evidence of God's spiritliving through us is love, joy,
(50:34):
peace, patience, gentleness,self-control.
And then the writer says andthere's no law against these
things, there is nothing thatwill corral you in that there is
no law, that love is notgreater than God is love and God
(50:56):
is calling us back to God'sself.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's sermon.
If you would like moreinformation about us, visit us
online at firstlovechurchorg.
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