November 26, 2024 • 47 mins
What if the most transformative power in your life was as simple as love? Join us on the First Love Church podcast as we explore the radical teachings of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, where love and compassion hold the keys to a fulfilling and peaceful existence. We dive into the tension between Jesus and the religious leaders of His time, reflecting on His profound message that challenges us to move beyond superficial labels and prioritize love above all else. Together, we unravel the essence of Jesus's teachings and consider how they compel us to live with kindness and understanding, both in our personal interactions and within our digital communities.
Listeners are invited to reflect on the power of gratitude and its ability to transform mental health and foster community, especially as we approach Thanksgiving. Through relatable anecdotes, we share insights on how love and compassion can reshape modern life. From navigating traffic with grace to fostering forgiveness, we discuss the journey of unlearning ingrained behaviors to embody the love and compassion that Jesus taught. Let go of old habits and embrace a mindset that prioritizes love, guiding your actions and interactions, and ultimately, cultivating a more generous and understanding world.
As we conclude this enlightening episode, the metaphorical invitation to "the table" serves as a powerful reminder of God's abundant grace and the inclusive nature of His love. We explore the significance of gathering as a community, emphasizing the importance of extending generosity and kindness to others, much like the teachings of Peter and John. We challenge listeners to become vessels of comfort and love, embodying the lessons learned through spiritual unity and friendship. By embracing love and unity through action, we can illuminate our paths and create a more compassionate and peaceful world.
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.
Each of us has a part to playand each of us has a role a
unique role to play in thelearning how to love and in the
(00:21):
caring of the hearts of thepeople around us, and so I'm
grateful that you're here thismorning.
Some of you who are here areheavy-hearted, who maybe haven't
heard everything that you needto hear this morning, and I want
you to hear this that you arebeloved, that you are God's own
child and that you will alwaysbe welcomed in your father's
(00:43):
house.
And so I honor you this morningthe light in you, the light,
the welcomed in your Father'shouse.
And so I honor you this morning.
The light in you, the Christ inus greets the Christ in you,
and we honor that hope among us.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I do want to thank all of the people that made sure
service went well last Sunday.
Thank you to David for all youdid there and the band for
playing while Heather and I weregone, and I don't know how many
of you were here, but did youenjoy seeing us preach up here?
(01:12):
Was that okay?
Well, maybe once a year.
We might do that when we go onvacation, because it's nice to
still stay connected with thechurch.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
But we did join the online church.
We met someone that knows usfrom online and we got to do
church with them and just be intheir presence, and so it was
kind of a gift to people whodon't get to see us on a weekly
basis.
We thought maybe anytime.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
We're not here preaching to you, we're going to
go to somebody online's house.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
And we're going to.
No, we're not withoutinvitation, not without
invitation.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
No, we're just going to actually find out where they
are.
No, we're not just going toshow up.
Show up once, anyone.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
No, no, no, that's not love, and so I remind you of
all the things that are love,and I'm just so encouraged by
the fact that the onlinepresence can connect us with so
many people and so many placesthat our hearts need just
reassuring and need the calmnessof Christ and the Holy Spirit,
(02:07):
and so I'm so grateful for thatconnection.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Did it make you feel clumped?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
No, I just breathed heart, so I'm grateful Again.
One of the things that we dotogether is we come together and
we're reminded of the words ofJesus, who is the person that we
are following.
Jesus, who is God made manifestin a human.
Jesus, who is God made manifestin a human form, showed us what
it was like to live not justsurvive, but live, to really
(02:33):
live from the deepest parts ofus, from the truest parts of us.
In fact, the mission of Jesus,as Jesus said, was prophesied
from Isaiah.
In Isaiah it says I have cometo set the captives free.
I have come to liberate thosewho are bound.
I have come to bring hope tothe hopeless.
(02:53):
And there is so much goodnessin this truly living.
And Jesus said I've come thatyou would have life, and that
you would have it to the full,that we would not just be
tolerating our life, but that wewould learn to savor every
minute of it.
And so I'm so grateful thatyou're here with us this morning
.
We're going to go to the textand we've been in the Gospel of
(03:15):
Mark and Mark's telling of Jesusand the Jesus story, and we're
going to jump right in on verse28.
But before then, the religiousteachers have been testing Jesus
and really pushing him andtrying to trap him, to get him
into trouble, because we knowthe end of the story they are
going to kill him.
(03:36):
I mean, that's their intention.
And these religious people aregoing to kill him.
And so we need to listen to thewords of Jesus and understand
them and see what is happeninghere.
And then I love that Markalways kind of gives us a little
bit of a twist in everythinghe's doing.
The villain is not always thevillain, the good guy is not
always the good guy in Mark'sparables and gospels and he kind
(03:57):
of asks us to not just putblankets over everything and say
that's good or that's bad, butto follow the way of Jesus right
in between them.
And so we meet up here in Mark,chapter 12.
One of the teachers of thereligious law was standing there
listening to the debate.
Now other gospels tell us thatthese religious people were
debating not because they wantedto hear truth or understand
(04:20):
something.
They wanted to be right.
They wanted to debate so thatthey could prove that Jesus's
way was wrong.
And Jesus's way was wrong tothem because it absolutely went
against everything that theybelieved.
And Jesus was this radicalteacher.
I think sometimes we need toremember how scandalizing Jesus
was.
His radical teaching of loveand of God was a threat to the
(04:44):
religious society.
And so these teachers werehaving a debate and this other
scribe realized that Jesus hadanswered.
Well, pay attention there Jesuswas holding not only his own,
but Jesus was teaching them.
In fact, we see this even atJesus at 12 years old.
He is talking in the temple andpeople are going why do you
(05:04):
know these things?
Why do you speak this way?
And it is this understandingthat Jesus is God and that God
is telling us things, thingsthat we didn't know.
So I'm asking the Holy Spiritthis morning to open the eyes of
our understanding, open ourhearts to be able to see the
love that is real and the lovethat's right here before them.
(05:25):
So he asks Jesus of all thecommandments and at this
particular time there were 613.
If you were a practicing Jewishperson, so a lot you could
choose from 613.
I mean, that would keep youbusy all day long just doing all
of the rules.
Which of the commandments isthe most important?
And I love this because he'sasking, you know, if we could
(05:47):
skip six but not miss nine, ifwe could do 13 but not do 23,.
Which ones can we give up andwhich ones are the most
important?
And so this is a beautiful partfor us to interject ourselves,
because then we get to see thisand we get to hear what Jesus
said is the most important, theabsolute, most important.
(06:08):
And Jesus replied the mostimportant commandment is this.
Now, if you were a Jew, uponlistening to this, you would
already know this verse.
It's called the Shema and wehad said it many times every day
.
That's what we would do as apracticing Jew, but this is what
it says.
Listen, o Israel, the Lord, ourGod, is the one and only Lord,
(06:31):
and you must love the Lord, yourGod, with all your heart, all
your soul, all your mind and allyour strength.
And the second is equallyimportant Love your neighbor as
yourself.
No other commandment is greaterthan these.
Jesus is saying this is how thewhole thing is summed up is love
.
Love is the greatest force inthis universe.
(06:54):
God is love, god is theultimate love, and love is
essential.
And Jesus is saying this.
Now, the way that you love Godis how you love your neighbor.
Jesus is saying that, how youlove the person next to you.
That is precisely how you areloving God, how you love
yourself, is a form of worshipand is a reminding of yourself
(07:17):
that you are one made by God.
So this loving the actualpeople around us this is what
Jesus is saying is absolutelythe most important.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
You know, because you understand, like, whether
you're a Jew or a Christian, wehave our Ten Commandments.
You know the Jews have their613.
But the point is in followingcommandments is how we say that
we serve God and so kind of.
You know, we can get lost inthat of, well, I just got to do
(07:50):
stuff for God.
But Jesus is really helping usunderstand here that the
commandments are really how welove and treat one another and
in that we serve God.
And so to me I find strength inthat.
I find sometimes an overwhelmingidea that I would just have to
find all this stuff in a way toserve God.
But when I look around andrealize I can just find the
(08:12):
people around me and try to dobetter in serving them, then
that's how I can really be a Godfollower.
Not perfect at this list, butthat I understand that that list
really isn't about achievingperfection but about us being
kinder to one another.
Amen, isn't that?
Isn't that a nice way to tomaybe inspire you towards that,
(08:35):
versus overwhelm you with thatlist.
Or is that just me today?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
the apostle paul instructs us let your gentleness
be known to all, because theLord is near.
He's reminding us of thepresence of love, the presence
of Jesus, and he's saying begentle.
Be gentle toward everyone.
And so this understanding ofwhat love looks like we hear
(09:02):
also from the apostle in 1Corinthians, chapter 13,.
Love is patient, love is kind,love does not push itself, love
is not rude, and so when we findthings that are rude or things
that are pushy, that is not love, and so we need to be able to
identify some of those thingsand go well, I don't have to
(09:22):
behave like that, even if thewhole world behaves like that.
We can be people so formed bythe love of Christ, so filled
with the spirit of God, that wecan love everyone.
In fact, this is the teachingof Jesus that anyone that you
find you must love, because oneof the things that people like
to do not just these people inancient times is we want to find
(09:43):
out who we cannot love.
I mean, we want to know wherethe line is.
If I have to love my neighbor,then who is my neighbor?
You know?
Like what is that?
If I have to love this, thencan I be, and here's the answer
of jesus you must love everyone.
This is the way of the christ,and this seems very simple in
practice, but beloved.
You've met people and sometimessometimes if you find a rare
(10:13):
one they're difficult to love.
And this is the hope of us infollowing the way of Jesus, that
we would learn how to love eachother in a way that brings
forth the flourishing of allpeople, of all people.
The second is equally important.
Now, sometimes in our language,because this has been
translated from another one, wehave this idea of hierarchy.
We've done this since we werelittle.
(10:35):
If you're first and somebodyelse is second, that means less
than, and that is not at allwhat this means.
He's saying there is anothercommandment.
Now, this is not the first timepeople have heard this.
This is actually still in thebook of Deuteronomy, where it
talks about this is what it'sgoing to look like for you who
are called to be God's people,how you're going to treat each
other.
You're not going to murder eachother.
That's very good for all of us.
(10:58):
We should consider this, youknow, pay attention to this, and
we need to pay attention to howwe love each other, how we
speak to each other, how we carefor each other's heart.
But the second is equally asimportant Love your neighbor as
yourself.
No other commandment is greaterthan these.
This reminds us of anotherteaching that Jesus did, where
he said that this is the goldenrule.
(11:18):
This is, do unto others as youwould have them do to you.
Pay attention to that in oursociety.
You know, like as you'redriving your car, if you would
like someone to let you in whenyou put an indicator on, that
means let someone else in whenthey put an indicator on.
We were laughing so hard theother day because you know how
(11:38):
on the expressway they havethose giant signs now and they
can change them, like if theroads are closed or there's an
accident ahead, the rightshoulder's closed all this.
And we saw one the other dayand it said the lane is not your
birthright, let them merge.
And I love that so much.
It literally said that on thesign.
(11:59):
The sign said this lane is notyour birthright, let them merge.
And I thought how brilliantthat person was who was typing
that into the overhead sign,because sometimes we do protect
the lane like it's ourbirthright Beloved.
No, let them in.
And we have to let people mergein.
Wherever they are in theirlives, wherever their lives
intersect with us, we can belight and love to them.
(12:20):
And this idea that you have tostay in your lane, I have to
stay in mine, no, beloved Lovesays let them merge, let them
come in.
You see that they have anindicator.
Sometimes they don't even putan indicator on.
This is the type of person theyare.
They're just going to turntheir front wheel to get in
front of you.
And so we have to love thosepeople who don't put indicators
on.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
That's a hard truth, beloved, even if they don't
indicate you have to let themand there's a hope for us.
And be careful about this, thisteaching, because it can get,
uh, uh, it can start sifting andwhip.
We can whip what's that wordwicking into all of your life?
Uh, we were at the airport, uh,late last night before last I
(13:00):
guess it was and early and earlyyesterday, and the people were
just you know, there's a big,long line to get your luggage
and then people were just kindof coming in front of the line
and going in and there's well,this lane is not my birth.
I wanted to go correct them andexplain lines to people maybe
(13:22):
not from around here and theidea that would I give up my
feeling of love and generosityfor the aggression and the
confrontation and the uglinessthat's about to go down?
Because you know exactly what'sgoing to go down You're going to
(13:42):
push, they're going to pushharder, it's going to escalate
into something, or you can notgive that up and you know what.
This is my opportunity andletting that silly sign that we
saw kind of show us about lovein your family too, because they
will stand in front of you inthe kitchen when you want to get
(14:04):
around.
You need to get where you'regoing.
They'll borrow the car when youneeded to drive it.
There's going to be something.
They're going to eat the foodthat you set in the refrigerator
for your specific meal.
There's going to be something.
And can we not hold on to thosethings like they're our
birthright, instead of holdingon to love, which is Amen?
(14:24):
Now, this is all in theory forme, and I'm practicing it, just
like you.
I'm not speaking as one who isperfected, but I'm on the path,
amen.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
And if I'm the path, we mean we're following the way
of jesus then the way of jesusis this you have to unlearn a
whole bunch of things that youthought you knew.
That's what Jesus said to us.
You have heard it said.
But I'm saying to you I mean,this is the teaching of Jesus.
You have heard it said hold onto your lane at all costs, sure
(14:58):
up those boundaries.
And you know what Jesus said.
Let it all go.
Jesus said love is the way.
Love, every single time.
If you're asking, the mostimportant thing, the most
important thing is love.
Why is love the most importantthing?
Because love is the mostpowerful thing, beloved.
If someone is in change, lovecan free them.
If someone is hopeless, lovecan free them.
Love in God, through God, isthe most powerful thing.
(15:22):
And the teacher of the religiouslaw replied well said, teacher.
I'm impressed with that at thisside of the story, that this
man commended the teaching ofJesus.
Well said, teacher, you havespoken the truth by saying there
is only one God and no other.
And then he begins toparaphrase it.
(15:45):
Then he begins to say this iswhat I heard you say.
And this is a beautifulpractice for us as believers, as
followers of Jesus, as peoplewho are trusting the way of
Jesus, maybe you need permissionto paraphrase some things and
be able to really understandthem.
And he says I know it isimportant to love him with all
(16:05):
my heart and all myunderstanding and all my
strength, and to love myneighbor as himself.
This is more important than tooffer all of the burnt offerings
and the sacrifices required inthe law.
Now again, your history willtell you that 70 years from this
point, after Jesus is crucified, the temple is destroyed and
(16:26):
there are no more burntofferings and sacrifices.
But here he knows it.
And he says of all of thesacrifices, all of the rules,
all of the things we do toplease God, none of it is more
important than the loving ofpeople.
In fact, before him, thepsalmist said this I know what
you require, and it is not allof the burnt offerings, it's not
(16:47):
all the rules, it's my heartand there is for us an
understanding that sometimesrules can kind of guide us and
help us when we are young and weneed that.
I mean, I think about all thetime small children and about
they need some rules.
They have to be pretty simple.
But how about no biting?
You know, that's a really goodrule and I think as far as I've
(17:09):
seen around here, we are allcompliant and that's a very good
thing, and I just want to sayno biting.
But there's a hope for us insaying that.
I'm so glad that in ourmaturity, we don't have to tell
people that as they enter theservice, don't have to tell
people that as they enter theservice, in this place, there
will be no biting.
I'm so glad that, likecollectively, our consciousness
(17:29):
has grown to a place where we'relike well, we're not going to
do that, and this is a hope forthe world.
Beloved, what if we could notspeak evil of our neighbor?
Oh, what a beautiful place thatwould be if no one said a harsh
word Beloved, this is thekingdom, this is heaven, this is
here right now.
If we could find these things.
But there is an idea that thespirit of God in us will expand
(17:49):
our ability to love, our abilityto see things the way that
Jesus did and to unlearn a lotof the patterns that we had
learned as young people or asadults.
And maybe someone gave us abook of rules and said this is
what you have to do, and I wantto remind you that love
liberates us and that the spiritof Christ brings hope to us.
(18:10):
I know it's important to lovehim with all my heart.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
When we hear.
I just want to really challengeyou to dare to really see
things the way Jesus does, toreally see things the way Jesus
does.
I think that the problem thatcan happen when coming to church
is that you hear us say thingsand they're idealistic and
they're fine for us, but yougotta go live your regular world
(18:36):
and you gotta go live your life, and so it's disconnected in
some way, and so I would ask youto dare to begin to see things
the way Jesus does and thenreally have the hope that that
will transform the world aroundyou first and out into the
entire universe.
There was a time when it wasokay for men to gather together
(19:01):
and watch them murder each otherfor sport.
That wasn't that many hundredsof years ago that it was okay
for people just to agree towatch murder, and as people
we've said no, no, and that'sjust something.
You know, there's no biting inthis room, no.
(19:25):
And then there was a time, notso long ago, where people owned
other people, and in some casesit's still going on today.
But we have all decided that isnot okay and I will not allow
that in my presence, I will notallow that around me.
(19:45):
You know, and there's so muchmore that Jesus wants to do in
this world.
You know it's not okay foranyone to be treated less than
there's not.
It's not okay for anyone to dowithout, because we have the
resources.
We just have to decide.
As people, we're going to livedifferently and love will
challenge you and it will forceyou to behave differently.
(20:07):
It will force you to look athow you've been behaving and
realize that that has got to go,that there needs to be a new
way of thinking and allow thatlove to transform you and allow
love to also forgive you whenyou fall short, to empower you
(20:31):
to get up tomorrow and try againwhen you failed today.
Amen, amen.
But I'm so confident that thereis a purpose for the church on
the earth today and it is toproject that vision, share that
vision, live out that visionthat changes humanity.
(20:54):
There's a purpose for us todemonstrate the love of Christ
and the world is desperate forit, amen.
And we are sitting on thispowder keg of great glory and
sometimes we're afraid, or maybeeven ourselves, we believe it
to be just a fantasy.
Or will we really step out inthis stuff and watch God change
(21:19):
our very world?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
I know how important it is to love him with all my
heart, with all my understandingand with all of my strength,
and to love my neighbor asmyself.
This is more important than tooffer all of the burnt offerings
and sacrifices required in thelaw.
Realizing how much the manunderstood, jesus said to him
(21:42):
you are not far from the kingdomof God.
Jesus hears this man'sparaphrase of what Jesus said
and he said yep, you have goodunderstanding.
I commend you.
You are not far from thekingdom of God.
And after that no one dared askhim any more questions.
(22:03):
I suspect that there was anexperience in the presence of
those two.
I suspect you could feel thelove charge between them that
this scribe said I know whatyou're talking about and I
believe this to be true thatloving God is more important
than all of the rules that wehave come up with.
Now.
The scribes were reallyimportant as a part of even
(22:27):
these religious groups of peoplewho kind of steered the people
of Israel and said this is whatit looks like to serve God.
And this is how.
I mean.
We know the 10 came from themount and then I think the 500
and no, the 603 other ones camefrom people.
I just want to just tell youthat sometimes we do that.
(22:49):
We make things a lot narrowerthan they need to be, and Jesus
is reminding us that loving Godlooks like loving people and the
love of God.
The scripture says, the goodnessof God brings us to repentance.
It is the goodness, it is thelove, it is the mercy.
These are the things belovedthat we're asked to even think
(23:11):
about.
If you have any thoughts, ifthere are things that are worthy
of praise, think on thesethings.
If there are things of peace,think on these things.
What would it look like for usto live in a world where bombing
people and war wasn't our way?
I mean beloved.
The way of Christ is the way ofpeacemaking.
When Jesus said to Peter putdown your sword, he was telling
(23:33):
all of us that's not the way todeal with conflict.
Is we're trying to lop eachother's heads off?
Beloved peace is the way.
Love involves peace, and Jesusis asking us to be peacemakers.
Again, we even hear this in theBeatitude Blessed are those who
are making peace.
They are the children of God,and so the hope for us is that
(23:55):
we would learn this way of love,that we would be stretched in
our togetherness.
At this particular time in ourhistory, we are more divided as
a people than ever, and I thinkit's because we've been
listening to the wrong stories.
And one of the things that Ilove about Jesus is he's the
master storyteller and he tellsus the truth about ourselves and
(24:16):
the world around us.
I will use the Gospel of Johnto remind you of this.
For God so loved the world thatGod gave Jesus his one and only
beloved son, that whoeverbelieved on him would not perish
but have eternal life.
For God did not send Jesus intothe world to condemn the world,
but that the world throughJesus, through the way of Jesus,
(24:39):
would be saved.
What a beautiful hope, belovedthat in the following of Jesus
comes the saving of the world.
In the following and in thetrusting of this way of love, it
changes the way that we havemaybe lived before and that we
allow ourselves to be so full ofthe light of Christ, that inner
(24:59):
light that tells us that thereis another way.
The other way might be arequirement for you to let
someone merge.
Might be you.
Let someone in Might be you,encourage yourself.
We pause here for a moment tothank you for joining us today.
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, would you take a
moment to share it with a friend?
(25:20):
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
firstlovechurchorg, remindingyou to like, follow and
subscribe In this coming month.
(25:44):
We're here the first Sunday ofNovember and here in the United
States at the end ofThanksgiving.
We celebrate Thanksgiving withone day and beloved.
I just want to tell you youcan't do it all in one day that,
in fact, thanksgiving issomething that we're supposed to
cultivate.
Being thankful is somethingthat marks us as the people of
God In everything.
Give thanks, for this is thewill of God in Christ Jesus
(26:05):
concerning you, and that, withall prayer and all supplication,
make your requests be madeknown to God, and the peace of
God will guard your heart andyour mind through Christ Jesus.
Over and over again, there areverses that talk about the
practice of thanksgiving, one ofthe things that it will also do
.
It also brings unity.
If you start talking aboutthings you're thankful for, it
(26:27):
brings unity.
I stood in a place we were inthe desert.
It was in a place called FireValley, and I don't think I
belong there.
I just there are places forother people.
Fire Valley is not for me, butI was there.
We went into one tiny littleplace that was air conditioned
in the Fire Valley and I saidright out loud oh, I'm so
grateful for this airconditioning, for anyone who is
a part of the air conditioning.
I am grateful For the personwho came in early and turned it
(26:50):
on, for the person who inventedit, for the person who keeps it
coming.
And I was just, I was so hot.
All I could think about was I'mjust so grateful, I'm so
grateful.
And then, from all over thegift shop, somebody else would
go amen, grateful to.
Here I am, I'm grateful, I'mgrateful.
Now, I didn't know these peopleeither, but they were hot and
they were miserable, just likeme.
But we found something to begrateful for together and all of
a sudden there was a unity.
All of a sudden there was likea liftedness Instead of us
(27:13):
helping out.
We're grateful for this tinyroom of air conditioning.
The rest of us have have towalk out in this desert and it's
going to be hot there too.
But we can be grateful together,and I want to encourage us as a
body of believers that we wouldspend the month of November
practicing gratitude.
Now, whether that means writingdown five or 10 things during
the day that you could bethankful for, or whether it's
you just rehearsing it out loud,but when you go outside and you
(27:36):
notice anything that you can begrateful for, name it, honor it
, and I want to tell you thenour Thanksgiving this year is
going to be better because we'renot going to get there and try
to think of things.
We will have spent the entiremonth cultivating this
thankfulness, what it can do foryour mental health.
You can go home and Google that.
The Harvard Review and someother really prestigious studies
(27:56):
have been done about what itdoes to your body to actually be
in a state of gratefulness, andnot only unity, but it does
help us in so many beautifulways.
And so, realizing how much theman understood Jesus said, you
are not far from the kingdom ofGod, beloved, what do you need
today?
Because I want to tell you it'sin the kingdom of God Every
(28:21):
good thing that we need.
We prayed a prayer this morningthat Jesus prayed for us showed
us how to pray.
May your kingdom come.
May your will be done on earthas it is in heaven.
I want to tell you that inGod's good kingdom, there are no
children that are dying becausethey are being bombed.
(28:41):
In God's good kingdom, thereare no children that are dying
because they are being bombed.
In God's good kingdom, there isno one with a hungry belly,
because the earth is full ofabundance.
In God's good kingdom, there ispeace.
In God's good kingdom, werecognize each other as sister
and brother.
In God's good kingdom, we seeevery person as equal, because
(29:03):
each person is made in the imageof Jesus.
This is what Jesus is summing upNow.
He goes to the cross rightafter this, and this is
important for us to remember.
Like at least as a parent, thisis how I do when I'm leaving.
That's when I'm like.
You know, I've probably givenyou a list of things to do, but
when I'm leaving, I'm remindingyou of the things that are
important right as I leave, andJesus is going to the cross and
(29:24):
he's reminding.
If you want to know what themost important one is, it's love
.
It's love.
Love is the guard, love is theway, love is what is required of
us.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
You know this really involves a willingness to be
reprogrammed.
I was really thinking over thepast couple months how that's
really kind of like.
The difference between us ashuman beings and any other
animal is that we really havethe ability to change our mind,
and sometimes that's going totake work.
(29:57):
But it's really cool that youcan do that, that you weren't
just this machine program set,and some of us are set on a
course.
But I tell you, if you can askGod to help, you see some things
and you know I just don't wantto be that person that's
negative all the time, you know.
And so you know I was at theairport standing in line and
these people were just decidedto glob onto me and tell me
(30:21):
about how negative everythingwas.
And I remember thinking tomyself how do I get out of this?
Because there used to be, Iwould just join in, because
that's the best thing to do.
I mean, you know you can make afriend commiserate over the
sorrow and I really realized,like you know, in changing our
(30:42):
mind we have to come up with aplan.
You know how am I going to?
You know I'm going to take apage out of Heather's book and
this is what I'm going to donext time.
When they start random persontalking about immigrants or
politics or whatever, I'm goingto say well, you know what?
You're right, let's startpraying right now and I promise
(31:05):
you they'll either bow orthey'll run like you sprayed
them with raid.
Sadly, most of the time it'sthe second, but either way, you
win right, because their heartswill be changed towards that
bitterness or that bitternesswill be removed from your life.
You know, and we have to decidethat.
(31:26):
You know that my mind needschanged in some of these
patterns, some of these waysthat I tend to always look at a
situation and it's terrible.
There are certain people.
Every time I meet them, theymanage to be able to tell me how
bad things are, and I'm alwaysamazed that they can find that
many bad things being on thisearth.
(31:48):
I'm so amazed at it.
But I have a perspectivedifference and so you know, if I
don't allow God to change me,then I will get stuck in that,
and gratitude is one of thosethings that literally has been
proven scientifically If you canhold a thought of gratitude for
(32:09):
longer than 15 seconds, then itcan begin, and it begins at
that point to change thechemical makeup of your brain
and you begin to develop newpatterns and listen.
If you're a negative person,just admit it.
(32:32):
If you didn't know that, askeveryone around you.
They will tell you.
And just in every area there'speople that are going to point
out things to you and you can belike, well, I can't believe
they told me that I was this, oryou can look at that and go
that I didn't realize that Iaffected people the way that I
am.
Lord, help me change my, mythinking on that.
(32:57):
Help me change on that.
Help me change my, becauseclearly, a pattern of thinking I
have has arrived to this, whereI I've deduced that's the best
way I should behave in thissituation.
And while everyone else isrepulsed and withdrawn because
of that, I know I don't have tostay like that.
We, we have been given thisgift as human beings to allow
(33:21):
love to give me a differentperspective.
You know, people have a lot ofproblems with immigration and
you can stand and say all kindsof stuff and have great points
that are way better thanthoughts I've ever had, you know
.
But as a simple person, I cansit and say, well, it doesn't
make sense.
You know, if everybody comes in.
How is our resources?
And you know, and you can justkind of freak out and I get that
(33:41):
.
But guess what?
My daughter is trying to gether passport to live in Paris.
Yeah, visa or visa, I'm sorry.
And now the immigrant isn'tsome theoretical person who's
pushing through borders, nowthey're the person that I love
(34:03):
more than anything, right.
And so the immigrant is mydaughter.
You see, the immigrant.
I want the best.
In fact, I will sacrifice formy daughter.
I will take less health care,if that's what it is, so that my
(34:26):
daughter doesn't have to dowithout starving, maybe in
another country.
Of course, she's not mine, butwhat about if we?
You know what I mean.
Now, these are scary thoughtsbecause it's going to challenge
you.
Well, I don't know, brother, Idon't care about all that.
I want love to rise up in meand that be why I make the
(34:48):
decisions I do.
So you know what, in fact, mydaughter was with her boyfriend
and he was saying you know, theproblem in our country is these
immigrants.
And she says hold up, yourgirlfriend is one.
He goes.
Well, I don't mean you.
Yeah, you do, but love is theonly thing that changes that
(35:09):
church.
Amen, isn't that good for us?
Isn't it good medicine, what wejust heard?
Speaker 1 (35:14):
One of the things that I loved about our trip
together and I love about ourchurch community and the
community at large that isgifted to us in our humanness is
we all have a love forsomething, and when we get
together and can be in unity,then our love for whatever it is
that we love can influence thepeople around them.
We were walking together Silas,I and Dennis and there were
(35:37):
many people walking with us, andwe were in Zion National Park
and there's things that I love.
We'd just been in Death Valleyand so water to me was just
glorious, I don't know.
It was sparkled more like therewas water in this Zion.
I was like, forget Death Valley, people, come to Zion.
I mean, let's start singing asong to Zion, to Zion, upward we
go.
That's an old hymn, in case youdidn't know that, but this idea
(35:58):
of there's water in Zion, andso every time we'd go somewhere,
all of a sudden something wouldchange and I'd be like there's
moss.
That means there's water, evenif we can't see it, and you know
like I'm excited about it.
So then Silas was like, oh,look at the moss, because again
he's getting now excited,because I'm getting excited for
where the water is and we satdown by streams of water and
they were just so incrediblybeautiful.
(36:19):
I'll put some of them onFacebook for you because it's
just wonderful.
And we sat there and we prayedfor you, each person.
We prayed for the things thatyou care about, and I care about
water and about seeing thingsthrive.
And Silas likes the animals andthe animals, particularly these
really chunky, chunky squirrels.
They're getting ready forwinter and they got their like
(36:41):
winter coats on.
They're just chunk amongst,they're just adorable and
they're just everywhere and hewas looking for those.
And then Kylie is a new friendto us and I've had an issue and
Jesus said that I could unlearnsome things.
In my mind.
There was a really big cavernbetween good bugs and bad bugs.
I mean a mosquito.
She hasn't convinced me yet,but I cannot find a reason for
(37:02):
them.
They just feel like they're badin my mind and I know that
there's a part of life that theygive toward.
But I have a good and bad thingwhen it comes to bugs.
But because of Kylie'sinfluence I'm like, well, let
them live.
I might not understand it, butthey have a role to play.
It's not my business to tellthat bug it can't be here unless
Kylie tells me that bug isinvasive.
(37:22):
And then you know I'm ajudgment woman here.
But let mercy rule in us andone of the things I love about
when people love something andthey share with us, it expands
our capacity to see things, tochange the way that we live, to
include more things.
I'm sure that kylie has manythings that she loves more than
bugs, but her appreciation ofthat has inspired and allowed us
(37:46):
to change us me, to change theline that says that you're
either good or bad.
I'm like constantlyinterrogating a bug.
You know, are you going to biteme?
Do you belong here?
You know, instead of just going, the world is full of such
beauty.
There is such gorgeous,beautiful things that are
happening between people, and ifall you hear is negativity,
beloved, turn the channel,change the way that you feel
(38:09):
inside and find things that aregood.
Beloved.
People are amazing.
The things that people arecreating in these days, the art
that people are doing isincredible.
There's one particulargentleman who is taking.
He was grading leaves.
I was watching this thing,different lining up all these
leaves on the ground andsomebody said, what are you
going to do?
And he was like, oh, I'm goingto make art.
And they're like we're in themiddle of a forest, where you're
(38:29):
going to make art.
And they're like we're in themiddle of a forest, where are
you going to make art?
He makes the most beautiful arton trees.
He uses honey and puts the leafon the trees and then makes
these like they're just gloriousand just the mind of someone
who thought I'll pick up thethings that are on the ground
and put them all up the trunkand make these beautiful art.
It's just.
People are amazing because we'remade in the image of a
beautiful God who is a creator,who is an artist.
(38:50):
I mean, the very first way thatGod introduces God's self to us
is creator, is artist, andthere is a hope for us in
finding the beauty Beloved.
We are followers of Jesus.
We can see things differently.
We can choose to see the love.
We can choose to understandthat the kingdom of God means
love, joy, peace, patience,goodness, gentleness.
(39:13):
These are the things thatremind us, in the spirit of God,
in the hope of God, that thereis a chance for a new world to
come, and it can come now, inour midst, as we follow this way
of love.
There is hope for us, not onlyin the idea idea, but in what we
do.
In fact, most of our worldintends to divide us.
(39:34):
We want to know what teamsomeone has to be on, where they
are, rate them, find them,separate them, and what the
communion table does for us isunite us.
This is such a beautiful, sacredmystery.
It is such an incrediblesacrament that every time that
we get together in fact, jesussaid, I want you to do this
(39:55):
Every time you gather together,do it, do this, have this meal
together to remember me I wantto tell you that Jesus is always
among us.
He's not just present at thecommunion table.
The presence and the nearnessof God is promised to us, that
every person that you meet,jesus stands right next to them.
(40:15):
Jesus is so near to them.
And so, maybe, when you thinkabout that and you think of the
apostle who said let yourgentleness be known to all, the
Lord is near, reminding you thatthis precious person is made in
the image of God and the tableof the Lord is a spiritual thing
.
But not only is it spiritual, itis supernatural.
There is something that comesupon our obedience and our trust
(40:40):
.
There is something that remindsus that it is the love of God
that was given for us thatchanges us, that invites us into
this new birth, into this newfamily, into this hope of
generosity.
There is a gift for us at theLord's table.
For those of you today, evenwho are with us and who are
suffering, there is a comfortfor you at the table of the Lord
(41:02):
.
Every time we come to theLord's table, we are reminded
every resource that I have, thatI have need of, is found in God
, and so, whether you needhealing, whether you need
comfort, whether you need a mindadjustment or peace, all of it
is found at the table of theLord as we remind ourselves of
(41:24):
the goodness of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
You know, as human beings, we're going to walk
around somewhere and we're goingto get our fed.
You know, as human beings,we're going to walk around
somewhere and we're going to getour fed.
You know you're going toscrounge around today and get
some kind of lunch or dinner.
You'll scurry around your lifeand try to get fed and truth is,
you'll get information pouredinto you at one way or the other
.
And so I really think thatcoming to the Lord's table is
(41:48):
for us, intentional.
And so I really think thatcoming to the Lord's table is
for us intentional.
You know, I could hear and getfed anywhere, but I'm choosing
this place.
You know, and the truth is,since we were young, this world
has been feeding you, has beentraining you, and you didn't
realize.
But your frame of mind and theway that you process is just but
(42:11):
come natural, training you andyou didn't realize.
But your frame of mind and theway that you process Is just but
come natural to you by what wasgiven to you, you know.
And so If we don't challengethat, and that's what I believe
Coming to the table of the Lorddoes, and coming to church and
being a part of you know, eversince we were little, we heard
(42:32):
one of these things is not likethe other, one of these things
just doesn't belong.
And that's the way we correlateeverything in life.
What am I going to keep?
What am I going to discard?
What is good, what is bad, whatis in, what is out?
And then we come to the tableof the lord and god says you're
all my beloved and.
And god is asking, and I reallywant you to catch this.
(42:54):
I know we're winding down onour teaching, but don't, don't
tune me out here, because thatdualistic thinking is what the
world hands us, but the theability to be able to change and
begin to see people instead ofin that way of value this one's
(43:14):
tall, this one's short, thisone's black, this one's white,
this one's good, this one's bad,this one can help me, this one
can't To see them the way Goddoes His children, our brothers
and sisters.
That changes something in ourthinking and the way that we
approach a person.
(43:34):
We don't have to approach himwith with any aggression.
I saw someone just the other dayin Las Vegas and they this lady
was giving me the stink eye andI think in past time I would
have been.
What does she want?
Does she want to go?
What's her problem?
What's this opposite?
So I don't know her, but that'smy sister and I said, hey, why
(43:59):
are you giving me the stink eye?
She goes.
I didn't give you no stink eye.
I said, yeah, you are, why areyou?
But I wasn't aggressive, Iwasn't mad and I wasn't mad and
I made that woman.
I need her smile, you know,because that, just that, the way
(44:20):
of looking at that, it'sbreaking down for me.
I don't want to see that personas my opposition.
That person has some issue thatmaybe I can help with.
Amen, what if love can reallybreak down this?
(44:40):
What if love really cantransform?
And I believe in it so muchthat we're going to celebrate
the Lord's table and invite youin a few moments to come up,
because I believe, when wereceive what he has for us, that
daily bread, that within it isthe ability to see things
(45:02):
differently, to transform fromwho we were into who he's called
us to become.
Amen.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
So we will continue to be people who break bread and
we will be people who remember,who pass the piece and pieces
of torn loaves as bodies thatkeep the score of the body that
was given, the body that wasbroken, the body that was healed
, and together we bear witnessto the tearing apart, to the
(45:31):
groaning of creation, to thewarring of flesh, as we gather
together to heal from ourproclivity, to forget that we
are not alone.
We are never alone.
As we gather at the table thetable that is full of the grace
of God who lives and who livesin each of us, we will continue
(45:54):
to drink the wine and eat thebread and tell the stories, to
tell each other better storiesof a kingdom that is yet to come
, a kingdom that is full ofpeace, a kingdom that is full of
love, a kingdom that we full ofpeace, a kingdom that is full
of love, a kingdom that we willnot forget, the kingdom that is
(46:21):
of the Christ.
And we gather together thismorning and we remind you of
this truth that everyone iswelcomed at the table of the
Lord, that love has heaped up afeast and invited everyone.
And at the table of the Lordwe're reminded that every good
thing we have is given to us bythe love of Christ, by God's
love.
The food that we eat, thebreath that we inhale, that is
(46:43):
because of the love of Christ.
And so I remind you that, inthat generosity, that we then
too have opportunity to bepeople of generosity, that we
would give the world everythingthat we have been given.
In fact, at one point, peter andJohn are walking into the
temple and they said listen, Idon't have the things that you
(47:04):
think you need, but whatever Ihave, I give it to you freely,
whatever is in our hands.
What if we could be generousand loving to the world this
week?
I am not a prophet, but this isa week that a lot of people
will feel disheartened, beloved.
We have an answer.
We have the comforter inside ofus and we can be comfort and we
can be peace and we can be love.
(47:25):
And we can be peace and we canbe love and we can practice what
we learn at the table, and thatis that everyone is welcomed,
that, without any kind ofregulation, everyone is invited
to the table of the Lord,because God is just that good.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's sermon.
If you would like moreinformation about us, visit us
(47:48):
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.
Each of us has a part to playand each of us has a role a
unique role to play in thelearning how to love and in the
(00:21):
caring of the hearts of thepeople around us, and so I'm
grateful that you're here thismorning.
Some of you who are here areheavy-hearted, who maybe haven't
heard everything that you needto hear this morning, and I want
you to hear this that you arebeloved, that you are God's own
child and that you will alwaysbe welcomed in your father's
(00:43):
house.
And so I honor you this morningthe light in you, the light,
the welcomed in your Father'shouse.
And so I honor you this morning.
The light in you, the Christ inus greets the Christ in you,
and we honor that hope among us.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I do want to thank all of the people that made sure
service went well last Sunday.
Thank you to David for all youdid there and the band for
playing while Heather and I weregone, and I don't know how many
of you were here, but did youenjoy seeing us preach up here?
(01:12):
Was that okay?
Well, maybe once a year.
We might do that when we go onvacation, because it's nice to
still stay connected with thechurch.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
But we did join the online church.
We met someone that knows usfrom online and we got to do
church with them and just be intheir presence, and so it was
kind of a gift to people whodon't get to see us on a weekly
basis.
We thought maybe anytime.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
We're not here preaching to you, we're going to
go to somebody online's house.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
And we're going to.
No, we're not withoutinvitation, not without
invitation.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
No, we're just going to actually find out where they
are.
No, we're not just going toshow up.
Show up once, anyone.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
No, no, no, that's not love, and so I remind you of
all the things that are love,and I'm just so encouraged by
the fact that the onlinepresence can connect us with so
many people and so many placesthat our hearts need just
reassuring and need the calmnessof Christ and the Holy Spirit,
(02:07):
and so I'm so grateful for thatconnection.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Did it make you feel clumped?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
No, I just breathed heart, so I'm grateful Again.
One of the things that we dotogether is we come together and
we're reminded of the words ofJesus, who is the person that we
are following.
Jesus, who is God made manifestin a human.
Jesus, who is God made manifestin a human form, showed us what
it was like to live not justsurvive, but live, to really
(02:33):
live from the deepest parts ofus, from the truest parts of us.
In fact, the mission of Jesus,as Jesus said, was prophesied
from Isaiah.
In Isaiah it says I have cometo set the captives free.
I have come to liberate thosewho are bound.
I have come to bring hope tothe hopeless.
(02:53):
And there is so much goodnessin this truly living.
And Jesus said I've come thatyou would have life, and that
you would have it to the full,that we would not just be
tolerating our life, but that wewould learn to savor every
minute of it.
And so I'm so grateful thatyou're here with us this morning
.
We're going to go to the textand we've been in the Gospel of
(03:15):
Mark and Mark's telling of Jesusand the Jesus story, and we're
going to jump right in on verse28.
But before then, the religiousteachers have been testing Jesus
and really pushing him andtrying to trap him, to get him
into trouble, because we knowthe end of the story they are
going to kill him.
(03:36):
I mean, that's their intention.
And these religious people aregoing to kill him.
And so we need to listen to thewords of Jesus and understand
them and see what is happeninghere.
And then I love that Markalways kind of gives us a little
bit of a twist in everythinghe's doing.
The villain is not always thevillain, the good guy is not
always the good guy in Mark'sparables and gospels and he kind
(03:57):
of asks us to not just putblankets over everything and say
that's good or that's bad, butto follow the way of Jesus right
in between them.
And so we meet up here in Mark,chapter 12.
One of the teachers of thereligious law was standing there
listening to the debate.
Now other gospels tell us thatthese religious people were
debating not because they wantedto hear truth or understand
(04:20):
something.
They wanted to be right.
They wanted to debate so thatthey could prove that Jesus's
way was wrong.
And Jesus's way was wrong tothem because it absolutely went
against everything that theybelieved.
And Jesus was this radicalteacher.
I think sometimes we need toremember how scandalizing Jesus
was.
His radical teaching of loveand of God was a threat to the
(04:44):
religious society.
And so these teachers werehaving a debate and this other
scribe realized that Jesus hadanswered.
Well, pay attention there Jesuswas holding not only his own,
but Jesus was teaching them.
In fact, we see this even atJesus at 12 years old.
He is talking in the temple andpeople are going why do you
(05:04):
know these things?
Why do you speak this way?
And it is this understandingthat Jesus is God and that God
is telling us things, thingsthat we didn't know.
So I'm asking the Holy Spiritthis morning to open the eyes of
our understanding, open ourhearts to be able to see the
love that is real and the lovethat's right here before them.
(05:25):
So he asks Jesus of all thecommandments and at this
particular time there were 613.
If you were a practicing Jewishperson, so a lot you could
choose from 613.
I mean, that would keep youbusy all day long just doing all
of the rules.
Which of the commandments isthe most important?
And I love this because he'sasking, you know, if we could
(05:47):
skip six but not miss nine, ifwe could do 13 but not do 23,.
Which ones can we give up andwhich ones are the most
important?
And so this is a beautiful partfor us to interject ourselves,
because then we get to see thisand we get to hear what Jesus
said is the most important, theabsolute, most important.
(06:08):
And Jesus replied the mostimportant commandment is this.
Now, if you were a Jew, uponlistening to this, you would
already know this verse.
It's called the Shema and wehad said it many times every day
.
That's what we would do as apracticing Jew, but this is what
it says.
Listen, o Israel, the Lord, ourGod, is the one and only Lord,
(06:31):
and you must love the Lord, yourGod, with all your heart, all
your soul, all your mind and allyour strength.
And the second is equallyimportant Love your neighbor as
yourself.
No other commandment is greaterthan these.
Jesus is saying this is how thewhole thing is summed up is love
.
Love is the greatest force inthis universe.
(06:54):
God is love, god is theultimate love, and love is
essential.
And Jesus is saying this.
Now, the way that you love Godis how you love your neighbor.
Jesus is saying that, how youlove the person next to you.
That is precisely how you areloving God, how you love
yourself, is a form of worshipand is a reminding of yourself
(07:17):
that you are one made by God.
So this loving the actualpeople around us this is what
Jesus is saying is absolutelythe most important.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
You know, because you understand, like, whether
you're a Jew or a Christian, wehave our Ten Commandments.
You know the Jews have their613.
But the point is in followingcommandments is how we say that
we serve God and so kind of.
You know, we can get lost inthat of, well, I just got to do
(07:50):
stuff for God.
But Jesus is really helping usunderstand here that the
commandments are really how welove and treat one another and
in that we serve God.
And so to me I find strength inthat.
I find sometimes an overwhelmingidea that I would just have to
find all this stuff in a way toserve God.
But when I look around andrealize I can just find the
(08:12):
people around me and try to dobetter in serving them, then
that's how I can really be a Godfollower.
Not perfect at this list, butthat I understand that that list
really isn't about achievingperfection but about us being
kinder to one another.
Amen, isn't that?
Isn't that a nice way to tomaybe inspire you towards that,
(08:35):
versus overwhelm you with thatlist.
Or is that just me today?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
the apostle paul instructs us let your gentleness
be known to all, because theLord is near.
He's reminding us of thepresence of love, the presence
of Jesus, and he's saying begentle.
Be gentle toward everyone.
And so this understanding ofwhat love looks like we hear
(09:02):
also from the apostle in 1Corinthians, chapter 13,.
Love is patient, love is kind,love does not push itself, love
is not rude, and so when we findthings that are rude or things
that are pushy, that is not love, and so we need to be able to
identify some of those thingsand go well, I don't have to
(09:22):
behave like that, even if thewhole world behaves like that.
We can be people so formed bythe love of Christ, so filled
with the spirit of God, that wecan love everyone.
In fact, this is the teachingof Jesus that anyone that you
find you must love, because oneof the things that people like
to do not just these people inancient times is we want to find
(09:43):
out who we cannot love.
I mean, we want to know wherethe line is.
If I have to love my neighbor,then who is my neighbor?
You know?
Like what is that?
If I have to love this, thencan I be, and here's the answer
of jesus you must love everyone.
This is the way of the christ,and this seems very simple in
practice, but beloved.
You've met people and sometimessometimes if you find a rare
(10:13):
one they're difficult to love.
And this is the hope of us infollowing the way of Jesus, that
we would learn how to love eachother in a way that brings
forth the flourishing of allpeople, of all people.
The second is equally important.
Now, sometimes in our language,because this has been
translated from another one, wehave this idea of hierarchy.
We've done this since we werelittle.
(10:35):
If you're first and somebodyelse is second, that means less
than, and that is not at allwhat this means.
He's saying there is anothercommandment.
Now, this is not the first timepeople have heard this.
This is actually still in thebook of Deuteronomy, where it
talks about this is what it'sgoing to look like for you who
are called to be God's people,how you're going to treat each
other.
You're not going to murder eachother.
That's very good for all of us.
(10:58):
We should consider this, youknow, pay attention to this, and
we need to pay attention to howwe love each other, how we
speak to each other, how we carefor each other's heart.
But the second is equally asimportant Love your neighbor as
yourself.
No other commandment is greaterthan these.
This reminds us of anotherteaching that Jesus did, where
he said that this is the goldenrule.
(11:18):
This is, do unto others as youwould have them do to you.
Pay attention to that in oursociety.
You know, like as you'redriving your car, if you would
like someone to let you in whenyou put an indicator on, that
means let someone else in whenthey put an indicator on.
We were laughing so hard theother day because you know how
(11:38):
on the expressway they havethose giant signs now and they
can change them, like if theroads are closed or there's an
accident ahead, the rightshoulder's closed all this.
And we saw one the other dayand it said the lane is not your
birthright, let them merge.
And I love that so much.
It literally said that on thesign.
(11:59):
The sign said this lane is notyour birthright, let them merge.
And I thought how brilliantthat person was who was typing
that into the overhead sign,because sometimes we do protect
the lane like it's ourbirthright Beloved.
No, let them in.
And we have to let people mergein.
Wherever they are in theirlives, wherever their lives
intersect with us, we can belight and love to them.
(12:20):
And this idea that you have tostay in your lane, I have to
stay in mine, no, beloved Lovesays let them merge, let them
come in.
You see that they have anindicator.
Sometimes they don't even putan indicator on.
This is the type of person theyare.
They're just going to turntheir front wheel to get in
front of you.
And so we have to love thosepeople who don't put indicators
on.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
That's a hard truth, beloved, even if they don't
indicate you have to let themand there's a hope for us.
And be careful about this, thisteaching, because it can get,
uh, uh, it can start sifting andwhip.
We can whip what's that wordwicking into all of your life?
Uh, we were at the airport, uh,late last night before last I
(13:00):
guess it was and early and earlyyesterday, and the people were
just you know, there's a big,long line to get your luggage
and then people were just kindof coming in front of the line
and going in and there's well,this lane is not my birth.
I wanted to go correct them andexplain lines to people maybe
(13:22):
not from around here and theidea that would I give up my
feeling of love and generosityfor the aggression and the
confrontation and the uglinessthat's about to go down?
Because you know exactly what'sgoing to go down You're going to
(13:42):
push, they're going to pushharder, it's going to escalate
into something, or you can notgive that up and you know what.
This is my opportunity andletting that silly sign that we
saw kind of show us about lovein your family too, because they
will stand in front of you inthe kitchen when you want to get
(14:04):
around.
You need to get where you'regoing.
They'll borrow the car when youneeded to drive it.
There's going to be something.
They're going to eat the foodthat you set in the refrigerator
for your specific meal.
There's going to be something.
And can we not hold on to thosethings like they're our
birthright, instead of holdingon to love, which is Amen?
(14:24):
Now, this is all in theory forme, and I'm practicing it, just
like you.
I'm not speaking as one who isperfected, but I'm on the path,
amen.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
And if I'm the path, we mean we're following the way
of jesus then the way of jesusis this you have to unlearn a
whole bunch of things that youthought you knew.
That's what Jesus said to us.
You have heard it said.
But I'm saying to you I mean,this is the teaching of Jesus.
You have heard it said hold onto your lane at all costs, sure
(14:58):
up those boundaries.
And you know what Jesus said.
Let it all go.
Jesus said love is the way.
Love, every single time.
If you're asking, the mostimportant thing, the most
important thing is love.
Why is love the most importantthing?
Because love is the mostpowerful thing, beloved.
If someone is in change, lovecan free them.
If someone is hopeless, lovecan free them.
Love in God, through God, isthe most powerful thing.
(15:22):
And the teacher of the religiouslaw replied well said, teacher.
I'm impressed with that at thisside of the story, that this
man commended the teaching ofJesus.
Well said, teacher, you havespoken the truth by saying there
is only one God and no other.
And then he begins toparaphrase it.
(15:45):
Then he begins to say this iswhat I heard you say.
And this is a beautifulpractice for us as believers, as
followers of Jesus, as peoplewho are trusting the way of
Jesus, maybe you need permissionto paraphrase some things and
be able to really understandthem.
And he says I know it isimportant to love him with all
(16:05):
my heart and all myunderstanding and all my
strength, and to love myneighbor as himself.
This is more important than tooffer all of the burnt offerings
and the sacrifices required inthe law.
Now again, your history willtell you that 70 years from this
point, after Jesus is crucified, the temple is destroyed and
(16:26):
there are no more burntofferings and sacrifices.
But here he knows it.
And he says of all of thesacrifices, all of the rules,
all of the things we do toplease God, none of it is more
important than the loving ofpeople.
In fact, before him, thepsalmist said this I know what
you require, and it is not allof the burnt offerings, it's not
(16:47):
all the rules, it's my heartand there is for us an
understanding that sometimesrules can kind of guide us and
help us when we are young and weneed that.
I mean, I think about all thetime small children and about
they need some rules.
They have to be pretty simple.
But how about no biting?
You know, that's a really goodrule and I think as far as I've
(17:09):
seen around here, we are allcompliant and that's a very good
thing, and I just want to sayno biting.
But there's a hope for us insaying that.
I'm so glad that in ourmaturity, we don't have to tell
people that as they enter theservice, don't have to tell
people that as they enter theservice, in this place, there
will be no biting.
I'm so glad that, likecollectively, our consciousness
(17:29):
has grown to a place where we'relike well, we're not going to
do that, and this is a hope forthe world.
Beloved, what if we could notspeak evil of our neighbor?
Oh, what a beautiful place thatwould be if no one said a harsh
word Beloved, this is thekingdom, this is heaven, this is
here right now.
If we could find these things.
But there is an idea that thespirit of God in us will expand
(17:49):
our ability to love, our abilityto see things the way that
Jesus did and to unlearn a lotof the patterns that we had
learned as young people or asadults.
And maybe someone gave us abook of rules and said this is
what you have to do, and I wantto remind you that love
liberates us and that the spiritof Christ brings hope to us.
(18:10):
I know it's important to lovehim with all my heart.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
When we hear.
I just want to really challengeyou to dare to really see
things the way Jesus does, toreally see things the way Jesus
does.
I think that the problem thatcan happen when coming to church
is that you hear us say thingsand they're idealistic and
they're fine for us, but yougotta go live your regular world
(18:36):
and you gotta go live your life, and so it's disconnected in
some way, and so I would ask youto dare to begin to see things
the way Jesus does and thenreally have the hope that that
will transform the world aroundyou first and out into the
entire universe.
There was a time when it wasokay for men to gather together
(19:01):
and watch them murder each otherfor sport.
That wasn't that many hundredsof years ago that it was okay
for people just to agree towatch murder, and as people
we've said no, no, and that'sjust something.
You know, there's no biting inthis room, no.
(19:25):
And then there was a time, notso long ago, where people owned
other people, and in some casesit's still going on today.
But we have all decided that isnot okay and I will not allow
that in my presence, I will notallow that around me.
(19:45):
You know, and there's so muchmore that Jesus wants to do in
this world.
You know it's not okay foranyone to be treated less than
there's not.
It's not okay for anyone to dowithout, because we have the
resources.
We just have to decide.
As people, we're going to livedifferently and love will
challenge you and it will forceyou to behave differently.
(20:07):
It will force you to look athow you've been behaving and
realize that that has got to go,that there needs to be a new
way of thinking and allow thatlove to transform you and allow
love to also forgive you whenyou fall short, to empower you
(20:31):
to get up tomorrow and try againwhen you failed today.
Amen, amen.
But I'm so confident that thereis a purpose for the church on
the earth today and it is toproject that vision, share that
vision, live out that visionthat changes humanity.
(20:54):
There's a purpose for us todemonstrate the love of Christ
and the world is desperate forit, amen.
And we are sitting on thispowder keg of great glory and
sometimes we're afraid, or maybeeven ourselves, we believe it
to be just a fantasy.
Or will we really step out inthis stuff and watch God change
(21:19):
our very world?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
I know how important it is to love him with all my
heart, with all my understandingand with all of my strength,
and to love my neighbor asmyself.
This is more important than tooffer all of the burnt offerings
and sacrifices required in thelaw.
Realizing how much the manunderstood, jesus said to him
(21:42):
you are not far from the kingdomof God.
Jesus hears this man'sparaphrase of what Jesus said
and he said yep, you have goodunderstanding.
I commend you.
You are not far from thekingdom of God.
And after that no one dared askhim any more questions.
(22:03):
I suspect that there was anexperience in the presence of
those two.
I suspect you could feel thelove charge between them that
this scribe said I know whatyou're talking about and I
believe this to be true thatloving God is more important
than all of the rules that wehave come up with.
Now.
The scribes were reallyimportant as a part of even
(22:27):
these religious groups of peoplewho kind of steered the people
of Israel and said this is whatit looks like to serve God.
And this is how.
I mean.
We know the 10 came from themount and then I think the 500
and no, the 603 other ones camefrom people.
I just want to just tell youthat sometimes we do that.
(22:49):
We make things a lot narrowerthan they need to be, and Jesus
is reminding us that loving Godlooks like loving people and the
love of God.
The scripture says, the goodnessof God brings us to repentance.
It is the goodness, it is thelove, it is the mercy.
These are the things belovedthat we're asked to even think
(23:11):
about.
If you have any thoughts, ifthere are things that are worthy
of praise, think on thesethings.
If there are things of peace,think on these things.
What would it look like for usto live in a world where bombing
people and war wasn't our way?
I mean beloved.
The way of Christ is the way ofpeacemaking.
When Jesus said to Peter putdown your sword, he was telling
(23:33):
all of us that's not the way todeal with conflict.
Is we're trying to lop eachother's heads off?
Beloved peace is the way.
Love involves peace, and Jesusis asking us to be peacemakers.
Again, we even hear this in theBeatitude Blessed are those who
are making peace.
They are the children of God,and so the hope for us is that
(23:55):
we would learn this way of love,that we would be stretched in
our togetherness.
At this particular time in ourhistory, we are more divided as
a people than ever, and I thinkit's because we've been
listening to the wrong stories.
And one of the things that Ilove about Jesus is he's the
master storyteller and he tellsus the truth about ourselves and
(24:16):
the world around us.
I will use the Gospel of Johnto remind you of this.
For God so loved the world thatGod gave Jesus his one and only
beloved son, that whoeverbelieved on him would not perish
but have eternal life.
For God did not send Jesus intothe world to condemn the world,
but that the world throughJesus, through the way of Jesus,
(24:39):
would be saved.
What a beautiful hope, belovedthat in the following of Jesus
comes the saving of the world.
In the following and in thetrusting of this way of love, it
changes the way that we havemaybe lived before and that we
allow ourselves to be so full ofthe light of Christ, that inner
(24:59):
light that tells us that thereis another way.
The other way might be arequirement for you to let
someone merge.
Might be you.
Let someone in Might be you,encourage yourself.
We pause here for a moment tothank you for joining us today.
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, would you take a
moment to share it with a friend?
(25:20):
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
firstlovechurchorg, remindingyou to like, follow and
subscribe In this coming month.
(25:44):
We're here the first Sunday ofNovember and here in the United
States at the end ofThanksgiving.
We celebrate Thanksgiving withone day and beloved.
I just want to tell you youcan't do it all in one day that,
in fact, thanksgiving issomething that we're supposed to
cultivate.
Being thankful is somethingthat marks us as the people of
God In everything.
Give thanks, for this is thewill of God in Christ Jesus
(26:05):
concerning you, and that, withall prayer and all supplication,
make your requests be madeknown to God, and the peace of
God will guard your heart andyour mind through Christ Jesus.
Over and over again, there areverses that talk about the
practice of thanksgiving, one ofthe things that it will also do
.
It also brings unity.
If you start talking aboutthings you're thankful for, it
(26:27):
brings unity.
I stood in a place we were inthe desert.
It was in a place called FireValley, and I don't think I
belong there.
I just there are places forother people.
Fire Valley is not for me, butI was there.
We went into one tiny littleplace that was air conditioned
in the Fire Valley and I saidright out loud oh, I'm so
grateful for this airconditioning, for anyone who is
a part of the air conditioning.
I am grateful For the personwho came in early and turned it
(26:50):
on, for the person who inventedit, for the person who keeps it
coming.
And I was just, I was so hot.
All I could think about was I'mjust so grateful, I'm so
grateful.
And then, from all over thegift shop, somebody else would
go amen, grateful to.
Here I am, I'm grateful, I'mgrateful.
Now, I didn't know these peopleeither, but they were hot and
they were miserable, just likeme.
But we found something to begrateful for together and all of
a sudden there was a unity.
All of a sudden there was likea liftedness Instead of us
(27:13):
helping out.
We're grateful for this tinyroom of air conditioning.
The rest of us have have towalk out in this desert and it's
going to be hot there too.
But we can be grateful together,and I want to encourage us as a
body of believers that we wouldspend the month of November
practicing gratitude.
Now, whether that means writingdown five or 10 things during
the day that you could bethankful for, or whether it's
you just rehearsing it out loud,but when you go outside and you
(27:36):
notice anything that you can begrateful for, name it, honor it
, and I want to tell you thenour Thanksgiving this year is
going to be better because we'renot going to get there and try
to think of things.
We will have spent the entiremonth cultivating this
thankfulness, what it can do foryour mental health.
You can go home and Google that.
The Harvard Review and someother really prestigious studies
(27:56):
have been done about what itdoes to your body to actually be
in a state of gratefulness, andnot only unity, but it does
help us in so many beautifulways.
And so, realizing how much theman understood Jesus said, you
are not far from the kingdom ofGod, beloved, what do you need
today?
Because I want to tell you it'sin the kingdom of God Every
(28:21):
good thing that we need.
We prayed a prayer this morningthat Jesus prayed for us showed
us how to pray.
May your kingdom come.
May your will be done on earthas it is in heaven.
I want to tell you that inGod's good kingdom, there are no
children that are dying becausethey are being bombed.
(28:41):
In God's good kingdom, thereare no children that are dying
because they are being bombed.
In God's good kingdom, there isno one with a hungry belly,
because the earth is full ofabundance.
In God's good kingdom, there ispeace.
In God's good kingdom, werecognize each other as sister
and brother.
In God's good kingdom, we seeevery person as equal, because
(29:03):
each person is made in the imageof Jesus.
This is what Jesus is summing upNow.
He goes to the cross rightafter this, and this is
important for us to remember.
Like at least as a parent, thisis how I do when I'm leaving.
That's when I'm like.
You know, I've probably givenyou a list of things to do, but
when I'm leaving, I'm remindingyou of the things that are
important right as I leave, andJesus is going to the cross and
(29:24):
he's reminding.
If you want to know what themost important one is, it's love
.
It's love.
Love is the guard, love is theway, love is what is required of
us.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
You know this really involves a willingness to be
reprogrammed.
I was really thinking over thepast couple months how that's
really kind of like.
The difference between us ashuman beings and any other
animal is that we really havethe ability to change our mind,
and sometimes that's going totake work.
(29:57):
But it's really cool that youcan do that, that you weren't
just this machine program set,and some of us are set on a
course.
But I tell you, if you can askGod to help, you see some things
and you know I just don't wantto be that person that's
negative all the time, you know.
And so you know I was at theairport standing in line and
these people were just decidedto glob onto me and tell me
(30:21):
about how negative everythingwas.
And I remember thinking tomyself how do I get out of this?
Because there used to be, Iwould just join in, because
that's the best thing to do.
I mean, you know you can make afriend commiserate over the
sorrow and I really realized,like you know, in changing our
(30:42):
mind we have to come up with aplan.
You know how am I going to?
You know I'm going to take apage out of Heather's book and
this is what I'm going to donext time.
When they start random persontalking about immigrants or
politics or whatever, I'm goingto say well, you know what?
You're right, let's startpraying right now and I promise
(31:05):
you they'll either bow orthey'll run like you sprayed
them with raid.
Sadly, most of the time it'sthe second, but either way, you
win right, because their heartswill be changed towards that
bitterness or that bitternesswill be removed from your life.
You know, and we have to decidethat.
(31:26):
You know that my mind needschanged in some of these
patterns, some of these waysthat I tend to always look at a
situation and it's terrible.
There are certain people.
Every time I meet them, theymanage to be able to tell me how
bad things are, and I'm alwaysamazed that they can find that
many bad things being on thisearth.
(31:48):
I'm so amazed at it.
But I have a perspectivedifference and so you know, if I
don't allow God to change me,then I will get stuck in that,
and gratitude is one of thosethings that literally has been
proven scientifically If you canhold a thought of gratitude for
(32:09):
longer than 15 seconds, then itcan begin, and it begins at
that point to change thechemical makeup of your brain
and you begin to develop newpatterns and listen.
If you're a negative person,just admit it.
(32:32):
If you didn't know that, askeveryone around you.
They will tell you.
And just in every area there'speople that are going to point
out things to you and you can belike, well, I can't believe
they told me that I was this, oryou can look at that and go
that I didn't realize that Iaffected people the way that I
am.
Lord, help me change my, mythinking on that.
(32:57):
Help me change on that.
Help me change my, becauseclearly, a pattern of thinking I
have has arrived to this, whereI I've deduced that's the best
way I should behave in thissituation.
And while everyone else isrepulsed and withdrawn because
of that, I know I don't have tostay like that.
We, we have been given thisgift as human beings to allow
(33:21):
love to give me a differentperspective.
You know, people have a lot ofproblems with immigration and
you can stand and say all kindsof stuff and have great points
that are way better thanthoughts I've ever had, you know
.
But as a simple person, I cansit and say, well, it doesn't
make sense.
You know, if everybody comes in.
How is our resources?
And you know, and you can justkind of freak out and I get that
(33:41):
.
But guess what?
My daughter is trying to gether passport to live in Paris.
Yeah, visa or visa, I'm sorry.
And now the immigrant isn'tsome theoretical person who's
pushing through borders, nowthey're the person that I love
(34:03):
more than anything, right.
And so the immigrant is mydaughter.
You see, the immigrant.
I want the best.
In fact, I will sacrifice formy daughter.
I will take less health care,if that's what it is, so that my
(34:26):
daughter doesn't have to dowithout starving, maybe in
another country.
Of course, she's not mine, butwhat about if we?
You know what I mean.
Now, these are scary thoughtsbecause it's going to challenge
you.
Well, I don't know, brother, Idon't care about all that.
I want love to rise up in meand that be why I make the
(34:48):
decisions I do.
So you know what, in fact, mydaughter was with her boyfriend
and he was saying you know, theproblem in our country is these
immigrants.
And she says hold up, yourgirlfriend is one.
He goes.
Well, I don't mean you.
Yeah, you do, but love is theonly thing that changes that
(35:09):
church.
Amen, isn't that good for us?
Isn't it good medicine, what wejust heard?
Speaker 1 (35:14):
One of the things that I loved about our trip
together and I love about ourchurch community and the
community at large that isgifted to us in our humanness is
we all have a love forsomething, and when we get
together and can be in unity,then our love for whatever it is
that we love can influence thepeople around them.
We were walking together Silas,I and Dennis and there were
(35:37):
many people walking with us, andwe were in Zion National Park
and there's things that I love.
We'd just been in Death Valleyand so water to me was just
glorious, I don't know.
It was sparkled more like therewas water in this Zion.
I was like, forget Death Valley, people, come to Zion.
I mean, let's start singing asong to Zion, to Zion, upward we
go.
That's an old hymn, in case youdidn't know that, but this idea
(35:58):
of there's water in Zion, andso every time we'd go somewhere,
all of a sudden something wouldchange and I'd be like there's
moss.
That means there's water, evenif we can't see it, and you know
like I'm excited about it.
So then Silas was like, oh,look at the moss, because again
he's getting now excited,because I'm getting excited for
where the water is and we satdown by streams of water and
they were just so incrediblybeautiful.
(36:19):
I'll put some of them onFacebook for you because it's
just wonderful.
And we sat there and we prayedfor you, each person.
We prayed for the things thatyou care about, and I care about
water and about seeing thingsthrive.
And Silas likes the animals andthe animals, particularly these
really chunky, chunky squirrels.
They're getting ready forwinter and they got their like
(36:41):
winter coats on.
They're just chunk amongst,they're just adorable and
they're just everywhere and hewas looking for those.
And then Kylie is a new friendto us and I've had an issue and
Jesus said that I could unlearnsome things.
In my mind.
There was a really big cavernbetween good bugs and bad bugs.
I mean a mosquito.
She hasn't convinced me yet,but I cannot find a reason for
(37:02):
them.
They just feel like they're badin my mind and I know that
there's a part of life that theygive toward.
But I have a good and bad thingwhen it comes to bugs.
But because of Kylie'sinfluence I'm like, well, let
them live.
I might not understand it, butthey have a role to play.
It's not my business to tellthat bug it can't be here unless
Kylie tells me that bug isinvasive.
(37:22):
And then you know I'm ajudgment woman here.
But let mercy rule in us andone of the things I love about
when people love something andthey share with us, it expands
our capacity to see things, tochange the way that we live, to
include more things.
I'm sure that kylie has manythings that she loves more than
bugs, but her appreciation ofthat has inspired and allowed us
(37:46):
to change us me, to change theline that says that you're
either good or bad.
I'm like constantlyinterrogating a bug.
You know, are you going to biteme?
Do you belong here?
You know, instead of just going, the world is full of such
beauty.
There is such gorgeous,beautiful things that are
happening between people, and ifall you hear is negativity,
beloved, turn the channel,change the way that you feel
(38:09):
inside and find things that aregood.
Beloved.
People are amazing.
The things that people arecreating in these days, the art
that people are doing isincredible.
There's one particulargentleman who is taking.
He was grading leaves.
I was watching this thing,different lining up all these
leaves on the ground andsomebody said, what are you
going to do?
And he was like, oh, I'm goingto make art.
And they're like we're in themiddle of a forest, where you're
(38:29):
going to make art.
And they're like we're in themiddle of a forest, where are
you going to make art?
He makes the most beautiful arton trees.
He uses honey and puts the leafon the trees and then makes
these like they're just gloriousand just the mind of someone
who thought I'll pick up thethings that are on the ground
and put them all up the trunkand make these beautiful art.
It's just.
People are amazing because we'remade in the image of a
beautiful God who is a creator,who is an artist.
(38:50):
I mean, the very first way thatGod introduces God's self to us
is creator, is artist, andthere is a hope for us in
finding the beauty Beloved.
We are followers of Jesus.
We can see things differently.
We can choose to see the love.
We can choose to understandthat the kingdom of God means
love, joy, peace, patience,goodness, gentleness.
(39:13):
These are the things thatremind us, in the spirit of God,
in the hope of God, that thereis a chance for a new world to
come, and it can come now, inour midst, as we follow this way
of love.
There is hope for us, not onlyin the idea idea, but in what we
do.
In fact, most of our worldintends to divide us.
(39:34):
We want to know what teamsomeone has to be on, where they
are, rate them, find them,separate them, and what the
communion table does for us isunite us.
This is such a beautiful, sacredmystery.
It is such an incrediblesacrament that every time that
we get together in fact, jesussaid, I want you to do this
(39:55):
Every time you gather together,do it, do this, have this meal
together to remember me I wantto tell you that Jesus is always
among us.
He's not just present at thecommunion table.
The presence and the nearnessof God is promised to us, that
every person that you meet,jesus stands right next to them.
(40:15):
Jesus is so near to them.
And so, maybe, when you thinkabout that and you think of the
apostle who said let yourgentleness be known to all, the
Lord is near, reminding you thatthis precious person is made in
the image of God and the tableof the Lord is a spiritual thing
.
But not only is it spiritual, itis supernatural.
There is something that comesupon our obedience and our trust
(40:40):
.
There is something that remindsus that it is the love of God
that was given for us thatchanges us, that invites us into
this new birth, into this newfamily, into this hope of
generosity.
There is a gift for us at theLord's table.
For those of you today, evenwho are with us and who are
suffering, there is a comfortfor you at the table of the Lord
(41:02):
.
Every time we come to theLord's table, we are reminded
every resource that I have, thatI have need of, is found in God
, and so, whether you needhealing, whether you need
comfort, whether you need a mindadjustment or peace, all of it
is found at the table of theLord as we remind ourselves of
(41:24):
the goodness of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
You know, as human beings, we're going to walk
around somewhere and we're goingto get our fed.
You know, as human beings,we're going to walk around
somewhere and we're going to getour fed.
You know you're going toscrounge around today and get
some kind of lunch or dinner.
You'll scurry around your lifeand try to get fed and truth is,
you'll get information pouredinto you at one way or the other
.
And so I really think thatcoming to the Lord's table is
(41:48):
for us, intentional.
And so I really think thatcoming to the Lord's table is
for us intentional.
You know, I could hear and getfed anywhere, but I'm choosing
this place.
You know, and the truth is,since we were young, this world
has been feeding you, has beentraining you, and you didn't
realize.
But your frame of mind and theway that you process is just but
(42:11):
come natural, training you andyou didn't realize.
But your frame of mind and theway that you process Is just but
come natural to you by what wasgiven to you, you know.
And so If we don't challengethat, and that's what I believe
Coming to the table of the Lorddoes, and coming to church and
being a part of you know, eversince we were little, we heard
(42:32):
one of these things is not likethe other, one of these things
just doesn't belong.
And that's the way we correlateeverything in life.
What am I going to keep?
What am I going to discard?
What is good, what is bad, whatis in, what is out?
And then we come to the tableof the lord and god says you're
all my beloved and.
And god is asking, and I reallywant you to catch this.
(42:54):
I know we're winding down onour teaching, but don't, don't
tune me out here, because thatdualistic thinking is what the
world hands us, but the theability to be able to change and
begin to see people instead ofin that way of value this one's
(43:14):
tall, this one's short, thisone's black, this one's white,
this one's good, this one's bad,this one can help me, this one
can't To see them the way Goddoes His children, our brothers
and sisters.
That changes something in ourthinking and the way that we
approach a person.
(43:34):
We don't have to approach himwith with any aggression.
I saw someone just the other dayin Las Vegas and they this lady
was giving me the stink eye andI think in past time I would
have been.
What does she want?
Does she want to go?
What's her problem?
What's this opposite?
So I don't know her, but that'smy sister and I said, hey, why
(43:59):
are you giving me the stink eye?
She goes.
I didn't give you no stink eye.
I said, yeah, you are, why areyou?
But I wasn't aggressive, Iwasn't mad and I wasn't mad and
I made that woman.
I need her smile, you know,because that, just that, the way
(44:20):
of looking at that, it'sbreaking down for me.
I don't want to see that personas my opposition.
That person has some issue thatmaybe I can help with.
Amen, what if love can reallybreak down this?
(44:40):
What if love really cantransform?
And I believe in it so muchthat we're going to celebrate
the Lord's table and invite youin a few moments to come up,
because I believe, when wereceive what he has for us, that
daily bread, that within it isthe ability to see things
(45:02):
differently, to transform fromwho we were into who he's called
us to become.
Amen.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
So we will continue to be people who break bread and
we will be people who remember,who pass the piece and pieces
of torn loaves as bodies thatkeep the score of the body that
was given, the body that wasbroken, the body that was healed
, and together we bear witnessto the tearing apart, to the
(45:31):
groaning of creation, to thewarring of flesh, as we gather
together to heal from ourproclivity, to forget that we
are not alone.
We are never alone.
As we gather at the table thetable that is full of the grace
of God who lives and who livesin each of us, we will continue
(45:54):
to drink the wine and eat thebread and tell the stories, to
tell each other better storiesof a kingdom that is yet to come
, a kingdom that is full ofpeace, a kingdom that is full of
love, a kingdom that we full ofpeace, a kingdom that is full
of love, a kingdom that we willnot forget, the kingdom that is
(46:21):
of the Christ.
And we gather together thismorning and we remind you of
this truth that everyone iswelcomed at the table of the
Lord, that love has heaped up afeast and invited everyone.
And at the table of the Lordwe're reminded that every good
thing we have is given to us bythe love of Christ, by God's
love.
The food that we eat, thebreath that we inhale, that is
(46:43):
because of the love of Christ.
And so I remind you that, inthat generosity, that we then
too have opportunity to bepeople of generosity, that we
would give the world everythingthat we have been given.
In fact, at one point, peter andJohn are walking into the
temple and they said listen, Idon't have the things that you
(47:04):
think you need, but whatever Ihave, I give it to you freely,
whatever is in our hands.
What if we could be generousand loving to the world this
week?
I am not a prophet, but this isa week that a lot of people
will feel disheartened, beloved.
We have an answer.
We have the comforter inside ofus and we can be comfort and we
can be peace and we can be love.
(47:25):
And we can be peace and we canbe love and we can practice what
we learn at the table, and thatis that everyone is welcomed,
that, without any kind ofregulation, everyone is invited
to the table of the Lord,because God is just that good.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's sermon.
If you would like moreinformation about us, visit us
(47:48):
online at firstlovechurchorg.
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