March 12, 2024 • 46 mins
Have you ever found yourself at a crossroads, faced with the choice between retaliation or forgiveness, anger or love? Our Lenten journey takes us through these very human experiences, weaving a tapestry of stories that illustrate the transformative power of choosing love, even in the most trying of times. As we navigate the complexities of life, we often overlook the simple yet profound impact of love in action; from the domestic misunderstandings that test our patience to the everyday encounters that invite us to see Jesus in our midst.
During our intimate discussions, we confront the internal battles that arise in moments of frustration, like the vexing sound of early morning construction or the accidental destruction of a beloved grapevine. These narratives serve as a mirror, reflecting the ways in which our reactions can either foster a forgiving environment or escalate into regret and shame. The narrative shifts to an understanding that love and sacrifice are pillars on which we can build a life that resonates with the teachings of Jesus, inviting listeners to embrace a spirit of communion and community that extends beyond traditional barriers.
Our closing thoughts circle back to the essence of our faith, a reminder that all are welcomed to partake in the bread of life, regardless of our perceived unworthiness. Here, we're not just sharing tales; we're offering an open invitation for you to join us at the table, to find sustenance for the soul, and to recognize that growth in faith can be as simple as sharing a meal with others. This series is an open door, an opportunity to live openly, to love generously, and to follow the path that leads to true transformation and self-discovery. Join us in embracing our authentic selves and the relentless love that calls us home.
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.
We're so grateful again thatyou've gathered with us this
morning, and I remind you ofthis truth Love is already
present here.
You have love in you, lavishlove, beloved, because you are
(00:24):
the image of Christ.
There is love in you, and whenwe gather together, love is just
magnified.
The scripture tells us thiswhere two or three are gathered
together, there is Christ in themiddle of them.
And again, we're not waiting onChrist to arrive.
Christ is with us always, andso the Christ in us greets the
Christ in you, and we'regrateful for your presence here
(00:46):
this morning.
You've joined us this morning,whether in person or online.
You've joined us during thisLenten season, and this is a
joyous season, even if youdidn't know it was.
This is a time for us tounburden ourselves, to let go of
certain things in order that wemight receive and be conduits
of more love.
(01:06):
That's the goal We've beentalking about.
What is the goal for all of usin Lent?
What if it was possible that wewould let love get the last
word in everything, even in ourown conversations in our head.
What if love got the last wordthe way that you talked to
yourself?
What if love got the last wordwhen you were watching the news?
(01:27):
What if love got the last wordwhen you were driving in traffic
?
These things are possible,beloved.
We know this because God has anew creation coming for all of
us, and this is the invitation.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Could it be possible that love could have the last
word in conversations with yourspouse and your family?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I believe that is true.
Here's why because God, becauselove, because beloved.
You are sacred beings of love.
Love is already in you.
One of the things that lovedoes is unstop the well of love
that is already there.
One of the things that lovedoes is more love only equals
more love.
We're grateful this morning, inthe presence of love, that you
(02:10):
might be able to hear andreceive the love that you really
are.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You know, what you're saying is beautiful and all,
but sometimes those are justpretty words that people say at
church.
I wonder if we really canunderstand the practicality of
that.
I know for myself, I've heardthat.
But then I feel like I'm beingtaken advantage of.
When I feel that overwhelmingsense of taking advantage of, I
(02:34):
figure, well, I need to saysomething, I need to defend
myself, I need to take my standhere and I can justify that.
I would argue with any boss orany person that would defy my
sense of happiness or success orwhatever, or any family member
(02:57):
or wife or whatever.
It really boiled down to thefact that I had to come to terms
with.
Can I really trust God?
Will I really trust him thatGod has the best for us, that
God will take care of thissituation, will bring justice to
(03:20):
us?
That is when I finally venturedout in the waters of actually
holding my tongue, actuallyletting love have the last word.
It's a practice.
By no means am I standing hereperfected in this because my
children would stand up and sayboo, not true.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I've told them not to .
No, they wouldn't do that.
None of us have.
We're not booing anyone here.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Maybe my friends would, maybe we're not booing
anyone, but it's a process thatI urge you to surrender in,
because I think there are morepeople like me that might be
listening, that have that sensethat and really can we boil down
to that place of trust that Godis taking care of you and going
(04:06):
to take care of us.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
One of the beauties that when we gather together is
we tell a better story, becausesometimes in our mind we tell
stories like I'm being takenadvantage of or we have an inner
narration that may need somehealing, and so when we tell
stories together we may rememberbetter parts of the story.
We were just at a funeral lastweekend and somebody started
(04:29):
sharing a story afterward arounda table about the woman who has
since gone on into an eternalrealm and they said remember
when?
And they told their story.
And then somebody said butremember this.
And then added anotherperspective she also loved this.
And then someone else said butdon't forget about this.
This was also her and I wasthinking what a better story
(04:52):
when we all tell the story.
And that's what Jesus did whenhe said to Mary upon his
resurrection go and tell theboys that I'm alive.
Go and tell them.
There's better news than wecould have even imagined.
And the resurrection was notthe end of it, beloved.
It's the ascension and it's ourinvitation to practice
(05:13):
resurrection.
I don't know if you knew that,but you can practice
resurrection in your own life.
You can practice allowingthings that were without hope to
now have hope and allowresurrection to begin in your
life, and so together we'regoing to offer a better story
this morning.
And one of the things that Ilove about all of us together is
especially when someone amongus would say I feel like maybe
(05:37):
I'm getting taken advantage ofand maybe someone else can show
us there's areas that we can begracious in or have gratitude
for, or someone else can say tous I know how that feels, I also
felt that way, and so not onlyjust to maybe offer perspective,
but maybe offer companionshipin a difficult time and to say I
(05:58):
hear you, I'm witness to thatkind of pain.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
You know, what you're saying really inspires me
because, you know, I think thatwhen we pray a prayer like your
kingdom come, your will be done.
Sometimes we put that off ineternity, you know, and what if
Jesus's coming could be in youand I every day?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yes, we're waiting around for his return.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
But what if he lives inside of each one of us?
What if that was the deal?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
That's the deal.
That's the right.
Yes, thank you Jesus.
And so what if?
Speaker 2 (06:34):
his coming was you getting out of the way?
Oh, don't shut me down becauseI'm preaching good.
What if, really, the influencein the world will be you and I
getting out of the way andreally believing what his words
say are true and that love willconquer, you know, will bring
light to darkness?
What if the Christ in you isbright enough to stamp out
(07:01):
darkness everywhere you step?
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Thank you for that one Amen.
Well, no, that's such anencouragement.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I do want to ask a question.
When you say get out of the way, in the same way let's talk
about that just for a quickminute, because I think it's
important that we recognize ourbelovedness and we begin with
belovedness.
And when we're saying get outof our own way, it's maybe an
egoic way of thinking or maybe away that we've protected
ourselves for a long time, notour true, beloved, beautiful,
(07:32):
love selves that is how theChrist is reimagined in front of
us but to say to get out of ourown way, maybe to get past the
thing that is slowing you downor that you've used for years
and years and it doesn't workanymore, or things that we've
tried to comfort ourselves withand yet we still feel
brokenhearted, beloved.
(07:53):
Today is a good day to practiceresurrection.
There's a new way to live andthere's a way to live in love
and to live in light and to belight and to be loved to the
whole world.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Well, we ought to preach on that.
I think we're going to do ittoday.
I think so.
But you know, for us, we putout this image of what we think
we are, or what we want peopleto believe we are, and we spend
so much time propping that up.
And that's your ego, that isyour persona, that's the thing
(08:25):
you want people to see, and Igot to tell you it's a false
self, it's something that youcreated in your imagination.
And if we can get out of thatand let who God made us to be
and the Christ in us to manifest, then the ability to be
(08:48):
generous, the ability to be kind, you know, the ability to
triumph in situations where wecontinually are overwhelmed and
defeated because we're doing itin our own strength and you were
never meant to.
And so maybe today we ought totalk about how, how do we get
(09:08):
that ego out of the way?
How do we die to ourself?
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Oh, I like this kind of language.
How do we die to self but alsohave the hope of saying what is
being resurrected Dear, what isbeing resurrected in us is so
beautiful and so good.
It's not just death and that'sthe end.
This is the message of Christ.
There is so much more.
There is so much more love,sacred love between us for the
(09:35):
entire world.
I remind you of the Apostlesletter to the church at Ephesus,
and he said before the worldwas formed, God had you in mind
that you would be made whole andholy by God's love.
That is the goal that wholeness, full embodied faith, that love
(09:58):
would be preeminent in ourthoughts and in the way that we
engage the world.
And so the understanding isthat love will bring us
wholeness and that wholeness andholiness are equating.
I was thinking about this thisweek and going around, because I
was paying attention to thingsthat are sacred.
I'm getting some thingstogether for Easter and in this
(10:21):
Lenten season we put some thingsaway and we're looking for
things, and I was thinking, youknow, looking at this and
thinking this is sacred.
And then I began to challengemy own self in going well, is
there anything that is profane?
Is there anything that is notsacred?
And I couldn't find anything.
I kept looking for things thatwere not sacred, and yet I kept
(10:41):
finding them, because I keptfinding creation.
I kept finding goodness.
So, whatever you look forbeloved, you will find.
If you are looking for thesacred, you will find it
everywhere.
You will find it in nature, youwill find it in your neighbor,
you will find it in the airaround you and you will find it
in yourself.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
But if you're looking for problems, no one here is
doing that.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
No one is looking for problems.
No, no, no, no.
What we're doing is we'relooking for places of
resurrection, and there's adifference.
When you see something and itis dead I love a line from the
Princess Bride it doesn't meanit's all the way dead.
There might be some life inthere still, and so maybe in our
(11:26):
own lives we look for, is itpossible we can allow love to
bring us back to life?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
This week Thomas and I put a trellis over our
grapevines.
We had those posts and then weput trellis over it, and so
every year in February I prunethe grapevines once a year, and
so I was kind of a little longnow, you know, because here's
March and but I want to get thattrellis up because I wanted to
fish some of those vines up nowso they'll grow over, so we can
(11:58):
walk under my dreams.
One day grapes will be hangingfrom that thing.
I don't even like grapes, butit's the coolest thing.
So I had grapes in my backyardwhen I was a kid, so I just like
them.
So we got this up here and thenit was just when you prune them
back, like 80, 90 percent.
So except for I just keep thevines and what's on the wires.
(12:19):
And then I was saving some ofthe good ones that were going
the right direction to go up andI was fishing them up in the
trellis and a son was bakingyesterday and I sliced my
fingers so many times with thosepruning things.
I put them in my pocket andthen reached down.
So I'm aggravating stuff and sothis one particular is like all
the grapevines are differentsizes and the ones, the skinnier
one, and so it didn't have likehardly any, and so I'm rifling
(12:43):
through all of these you knowvines to try to find them, sweat
and hot and cut them, you know.
And then I got this one andit's dangled right, you know,
and there's only like two onthis one that could reach.
The rest of them were good andHeather walked by.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Well, you're not going to tell that part of the
story.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
No, no, no, no take the other part of the story.
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
This is so good.
Let me tell you how it went.
Beloved, You're justing whenyou say that I am Jesus.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, no.
So here's what happened.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I am justing also.
But I really did the wrongthing.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
So she walks by and just cuts it and goes on.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
It was causing a problem, I just cut it right off
.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
There was so much work, I worked all of this, just
connect right there and I haveone and it's dangling, and it's
dangling, just so I can you know.
And then I'm getting.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
And I was so mad?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Do you know what I mean when you're just like I'm
working here, it's hot, I'mdoing all this thing, and then
she goes.
Oh sorry.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I did.
I did I apologize After I sawwhat it happened it didn't pay
off.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
My like it didn't match.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Sorry.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I'm trying to communicate something to people.
Heather, do you ever want toget to extract a pound of flesh
from someone?
Do you ever want to some waymake them pay for what they have
done to you, the harm they havedone?
And I am sitting out here hot,angry, cut up, broken hearted.
(14:12):
There's no way to tape thatback on.
She has ruined my efforts.
And then God says love gets thelast word.
Oh, but I got some stuff to say.
And there's, what is that?
Let's talk.
What is that thing that demandsthe pound of flesh, that
(14:34):
demands the last word?
What would have accomplished byme brow beating her?
No, no, more better than anykind of brow beating that she
would try to give me.
We would tear one another down.
Our own home that we want, withthat we say out of our mouth, is
(14:55):
a home, a built on love andexists on love.
But not when I'm pissed, notwhen you cut my, my grapevine.
Now, somebody help me out.
Now I just custom church.
You better believe that I'mserious now.
I mean, we have got to make achoice here, church.
And I wanted, and I thought, alot of stuff, but I didn't say
(15:18):
any of them.
She knew that I was mad, and soshe gave me some space and let
me deal with my own issues,because it's my fault.
Now, you know, and it's notright for me to intimidate and
scare and any of those things,and so all of those things I'm
trying to.
Well, honey, it'll grow backnext year, but there's, there's
(15:42):
a choice for us and you have todecide.
What kind of home do you want?
Do you want a Christ?
Because you know what I want,more than my way and to have
said what I needed to say I wantthe presence of the living God.
I want God's love that conquersdeath in the great that, that.
I want that kind of peace andsweetness where where her and I
(16:05):
can make mistakes around eachother and not be criticized and
judged for it.
I'm preaching to some peopleright now who live in that and
feel like you're well, look,it's all right unless you make
me mad.
And when you get me mad enough,when you got me mad enough,
then now I have to know there'snever anyone who has the power
(16:28):
to make you anything.
You give over to it.
And I'm preaching right now.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
That's why I'm letting you go.
I'm just listening.
Just listening.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
And so are we going to give over to that continually
, or will we give over to thespirit of love, to kindness, and
let that permeate our home?
Because I'm going to tell yousomething All I would have did
is have shame after I did what Idid, because you know how.
I know I've done it before.
Don't, don't say amen.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
I said nothing.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I left.
But it ain't funny.
It ain't funny the abuse andthe hurt that I've put on my
family because I've decided II've been pushed too far.
Well, you know what?
Now you get my wrath.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Tech, it's like, it's like wrestling up here.
We just got to make sure weknow who's going in, because I
think that when you ask, likewhat is it, that needs to be
heard, why do I need to saysomething?
When someone's angry, we haveto recognize we're brokenhearted
.
There's a hurt.
Dennis had worked really hardand he wants to have a place for
(17:39):
the family to enjoy it, and hehad suffered in the heat and he
had intention to make this onevine go a certain way.
And I do want to tell you thatwas his intention.
But we all know plants do whatthey want.
Like that may never have worked, even if I didn't go out it,
but I did.
I just came by and I just cutit, clipped it right off.
So I know that's not an excuse.
That's not an excuse.
But here let me say what'shappening is sometimes, if we're
(18:01):
not aware of our ownbrokenheartedness, what we do is
we in turn break someone else'sheart.
We want shared emotion and soif we're aware that what we are
is brokenhearted, we can ask thespirit of God, the comforter,
to come and heal us.
We don't have to try to breaksomeone else so we can have
(18:24):
mutuality.
We can say, holy Spirit, what Iwanted didn't happen and I
wanted good, I wanted good.
That's when it's difficult forus, when we want good things for
someone else and we arecriticized, or when we intended
for it to come out a certain wayand it didn't.
Those are the times when thingsreally hurt, and so when we go
(18:46):
to the tax today some of theGreeks some Greeks who had come
to Jerusalem for the Passovercelebration paid a visit to
Philip.
Philip, I'm so glad that you'rehere this morning in person,
because I love to read thescriptures about Philip.
But we have a Philip in ourmidst and since we're seeing his
name, I like in the scripturehe's a really good guy, which
(19:07):
our Philip is too.
But I, like you, know whenthings are approved and
beautiful in this way.
But they paid a visit to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in
Galilee, and they said, Sir, wewant to meet Jesus.
Now I don't want to just brushby this Well, there's so much
more that I want to get to butin this idea that somebody else
had heard about Jesus, they hadheard a lot about him and they
(19:28):
knew that Philip kind of knewhim and they were like, Sir, we
would like to see Jesus.
I wonder how many times ourneighbors actually would say to
us I would like to see Jesus, orthe people that we work with I
would like to see Jesus.
And so I think that we have topay attention to this is not
just a one time event, but thisstory, this account, gives us
(19:52):
perspective into someone else'slife.
They'd heard about him, butthey would like an interaction
with him, and so they ask hisfriends.
Beloved, we are friends ofChrist, and so very often what
the world needs, when they askus for something, is they need
to see Jesus.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
But it's so good when you say your neighbors need to
see Jesus.
You know, this morning timechanging everything.
We're trying to sleep and thenwe hear beep, beep, that
piercing sound of machinerybacking up.
And then right next door, inthat lot, like just right next
to the house, they got up beforethe crack had dawn.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
And they are moving.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, yeah, and they're moving.
You know, and I'm thinking, youknow, sunday, really you have
to do this on the Lord's Day,when we're trying to sleep, you
know.
And so I mean all those thingsI wanted to, you know, ask them
and say, but when I made eyecontact I just smiled and waved,
and so I want to maybe addressthat idea that we think God's
(20:54):
gonna come in and just changeyour feelings and all of a
sudden you're just gonna floataround and feel happy about
everyone.
But I want to offer you theconsideration that maybe those
things in life are gonna stillannoy you, but you're gonna
recognize what transformationhappens when I surrendered to
(21:17):
Christ in them.
Amen.
Did you know?
I was struggling with that thismorning with those people.
I went on a completelydifferent route.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
It was loud, like right next to our bedroom window
, and I thought, well, they havereally big machinery, that's
really big tools, that's loud.
And then I thought to myselfI'm so glad they have really big
tools, that's a really big job.
And then in the morning wasvery early still dark in fact,
the sun wasn't up and I said, ohmy gosh, I bless the work of
(21:48):
their hands.
May it be done quickly.
And this is why, because I runthe dishwasher all hours of the
night, beloved, I know that Imake noise with my tools.
That dryer has those wool ballsin them and it is thumping,
thumping, thumping all hours ofthe night, all hours of the
morning.
But those are my tools for mywork and I want them blessed.
So when I heard somebody else'swork, instead of being annoyed
(22:11):
I thought, oh, I also have toolsthat annoy other people.
Bless them, bless them, maythey not hear it.
I might pray.
I didn't get to you, apparently.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
My thing is high school and she's master's or
bachelor's or whatever.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
No, but I saw the I swear we are on this thing, you
know.
I heard that noise and thoughtof my own noise.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
It was 5.55 and I turned the dryer on this morning
.
I never arrived at that thought.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Well, I came to that thought and I blessed the work
of their hands.
Big tools make big jobspossible.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Back to the drawing board.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Philip told Andrew about it and together they went
to ask Jesus.
I love this part too, Becausesomebody comes to Philip and
says, hey, we want to see Jesus.
And Jesus is like let me talkto my brother.
And so he goes and he gets hisbrother like I don't know if we
should let him in, I don't knowif we should tell him this, you
know, like I don't know how thisis gonna go, but let's have a
conversation.
So he has a side conversationwith someone and they go ask
(23:05):
Jesus about these Jews who have,these Greeks who have come to
ask.
We pause here for a moment tothank you for joining us today.
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, would you take a
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This podcast is made possiblethanks to the generosity of
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If you would like to supportthe ongoing work of First Love
(23:27):
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Speaker 2 (23:38):
This is a lot like church government.
You know it's church getting inthe way of Jesus.
You know, now we gotta decidewhere they're gonna let the
people see Jesus.
Can we just tell you right upfront you get to see Jesus.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yes, thank you very much Right we'll just spoiler
alert, no one gets to tell youyou can't talk with Jesus.
Now Jesus replies to Andrew andto Philip they're there having a
conversation.
I don't know, maybe he wasn'tdressed yet.
That's how I go.
I like there's a reason.
Jesus wasn't talking to themparticularly.
They went in and they said hey,you know the, these people have
come and they wanna talk withyou.
And then Jesus says to hispeople, to his friends, to
(24:11):
Philip and to Andrew Now thetime has come for the Son of man
to enter his glory.
Now, because we're in this sideof history, we understand this
is the beginning of the farewelldiscourse.
Jesus knows that he is gonnadie and he keeps telling his
friends don't panic, I know thatthis is gonna happen and then
there's going to be aresurrection.
They do, of course, do notunderstand it.
(24:31):
It doesn't make sense to themin their brain.
But this is the beginning ofthis.
Jesus says I tell you the truth.
So he's trying to explain thisto them through ways of plants
and agriculture.
Unless a kernel of wheat isplanted in the soil and dies, it
remains alone.
But its death will produce manynew kernels, a plentiful
(24:51):
harvest of new lives.
Those who love their life inthis world will lose it.
Those who care nothing fortheir life in this world will
keep it for eternity.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
You see where we're going with this today.
You're tracking with me.
You know, and maybe you've readthis kind of verse before and
it's like you know, how do I?
You know, what does it mean tolose your life?
You know, and we all have beengiven this life and you can lead
it, however, in whicheverdirection you want, but if you
(25:25):
will stop your will and your wayof doing things, you're gonna
die to that.
You have to die to thatunhealthy, unholy desire of
addiction if you wanna be free.
But you will have to die tothat.
And there's many, many times inour lives, daily, that we can
(25:51):
choose to die to the ego andchoose to die to our way of
doing things.
And I'm gonna tell yousomething I believe this from
the bottom of my heart.
I don't know where thisteaching was in my younger years
and I wish I had known it.
But the opportunity I cherishevery opportunity to learn to
(26:12):
die, because by the time Iactually die, I'm gonna be
really good at it.
I want to be.
I don't want, you know, andI've been in hospice with people
that die peacefully, becausethey know where they're going
and they've loved well andthey've served well and there's
a peace.
And then I've watched peoplefight it and fight it with their
(26:35):
last choking breath and I gottatell you I've seen people with
regret and I've seen peoplewithout any and I'm telling you
there's something about thatplace of service and love and
dying to it.
And it's painful, boy, whensomeone cuts your vine, but and
(26:59):
she's so sorry.
That's just easy.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
In a million years.
I would have rather cut my hairthan cut that vine, but this is
the whole.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I would much rather the vine be cut.
I love your beauty, okay, so,like we do, make no mistake, we
don't want Melcopa, you don'twant any kind of to bloodletting
.
I just, I just with that, but Ijust, you know, I just want to
remind you that it's practical,that it's happening today, you
know, and there's thesebeautiful opportunities for and
God will, because he loves youso much, he will give you an
(27:28):
opportunity to just come againstyour will, come against your
ego in your way, and maybethat's why things are always
tough for you, because youcontinue to demand your way.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Let's talk about, maybe, why we would demand our
way just for a hot second.
Because maybe you're afraid ifyou don't stand up for you, no
one else will.
Maybe experience has told you,if you don't put yourself first,
no one else will.
But I want to tell yousomething that, deep within
yourself, you already know Godis good and can be trusted.
(28:04):
Love is good and can be trusted.
In fact, it is the prophet inthe first testament where God
says don't seek your own good,because I, the Lord, have
already planned it.
Here's what I know about a goodparty.
My daughter throws a great one.
Sometimes I don't even want tothrow a party because she throws
such a better party.
(28:26):
This is true about God too.
If you have plans for your lifebeloved, let me tell you
something God has bigger andbetter ones, and so being able
to trust in that belovedness, inthat love that is already in
the universe around us, to beable to say what I can believe
in is not just healing, but Ican believe in abundance, I can
(28:48):
believe in hope, I can believein the power of love that will
allow us to look at death squarein the face unafraid.
For many years, people havesaid don't look at those things,
but let teaches us look at it.
Look at it unafraid, becauseyou know we're just passing
through.
This is a threshold.
(29:08):
This time, this realm thatwe're in even is changing, and
so it is an invitation into therealm of love, into the realm of
knowing that God's presence iswith us, even if we find
ourselves buried.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
You know there's issues in your life reoccurring
things and when they're, whenyou see them being a struggle
for you and for people aroundyou and in your relationships,
you can decide to be stubbornand keep going, or you can let
the Holy Spirit unpack things inyour life, and that's what.
Looking at death, we want tolook away, but sometimes you got
(29:45):
to look into that.
There's a thing that happens atmy house and it's happened for
years.
It's been one of the things andit might seem so silly, but
it's been just something that'salways been a problem, and it is
that when I bring home astyrofoam thing from a
restaurant and I exactly cut mymeal in half, even though I
(30:05):
wanted to eat the whole thing,but I thought to myself boy,
this is going to be great forbreakfast the next day or lunch
or even a snack, and I put it inthe fridge.
And then I go back expecting tosee the thing that I wrote my
name on in the fridge and it'sgone.
And then I do a poll Anyone doa poll?
(30:27):
Who ate it?
And all the little rodents whosnuck in there and took it to
have?
No, they, just they.
No one knows where it went, butit's empty, it's gone and you
know, except for the littlegreen decoration on the plate,
that was the only thing left inthe.
(30:50):
And I mean I have tried to talkto people and explain this, you
know, and I've tried, andthere's a thing where you can
just justify.
You know, I paid bills aroundhere, you know I'll buy you food
all this justification but it'slike, look at that, it's ugly,
it causes a problem.
Why don't I look at it?
And so I've reluctantly lookedat this thing and though I can
(31:16):
justify it, and though I cantell you that you know it boils
down to we were poor when wewere kids and I didn't have a
lot, and so you know, getting myshare my food it was it meant a
lot to me, more than I realized, and so much so that I will
sacrifice my wife or mychildren's peace, or even the
(31:39):
way that kindness towards them,my love for them, would be
sacrificed over this covenant Imade of lack.
And so I looked at thatugliness, you know, and and I
realized, for whatever reason,that is so important to me,
that's more important to me thanthe people that I love getting
fed.
It's what it is.
(32:03):
Now I could justify a plan andI can ask, and and whatever, and
they.
But at the end of the day, do Iwant good for my children and my
wife she never steals food butin I'm just saying you know, do
you want that for your, for yourpeople that you love?
Are you willing to lay downyour life if you don't get the
leftovers that you saved?
(32:24):
Because I know, oddly enough,there are so many people that
really connect with what I'msaying.
They really get behind me whenI go.
When I go, you gotta yell atthem, you gotta write your name,
you gotta teach them.
But when I say this all of asudden I get pushed back because
this is the hard part here.
This is the hard part of dyingto yourself every day and all
(32:45):
those moments.
Yeah, but you gotta teach them.
What do you gotta teach them?
To rule their house the sameway that your parents showed you
.
That didn't work really greatfor them and has caused you all
kinds of therapy bills.
So we're gonna continue in thatspiral, year after your
generation of generation, orsomebody gonna stand up and say,
no, I'm gonna teach them thatlove is the best choice and love
(33:09):
would prefer.
It seems to me scripture sayssomething about that putting
another needs above your own.
Is that not the definition oflove?
My needs are to have someleftovers.
I ordered six ribs, pastor Lee.
I ate three.
I disciplined myself so thatwhen I get later I can eat those
(33:30):
other three.
And they're gone.
The vine has been cut, the deedhas been done.
Help me Jesus.
Help me Jesus to love and tohave joyfully, not angrily, let
it ripped from my fingers, butthat my heart and my hands would
(33:51):
open up and I'd love likeChrist.
Love.
You got one.
Are you gonna rebuttal me?
We were already at 90%.
She went to 91, but I'm notgonna argue with you.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Jen's right.
Let me just say that let's justfrom the pulpit, let's just
talk about that.
There is for us anunderstanding that in the, what
appears a momentary lack for usproduces a harvest, a harvest
that is generous, that isplentiful, that is bigger than
(34:30):
we could imagine.
You can have your one vine andyou can keep it, or you can cut
it back and get more.
That's the hope of all of us.
If you need more tips on that,you can talk to Amy, who has my
governs, and she literally doesthat for a business, and it is
beautiful work, but she'll tellyou all about.
I just ask her and then shetells me what to do.
So sometimes we need otherpeople in our lives who will say
(34:53):
to us yes, cut that back.
You can trust that God is good.
You can give that away freely.
Instead of going through liveswith tight, fisted, closed hands
.
We can open our hands andexperience.
Do you know what you can carrywith this?
Only what you have with this?
When we were little, we hadthree flights of stairs up to
(35:14):
the up to our bed.
There's a lot of stairs, so mygrandmother would say to me can
you take this upstairs?
And so I would come to her withmy things in my hands that had
to go upstairs and she wouldlook at me and say, baby, you
got to come to me with openhands.
That meant she had some thingsfor me to take upstairs.
But very often we come to Godwith our closed hands.
This is mine, this is what I'mgetting, and God has something
(35:35):
beautiful for us to take up tothe family.
Leave that stuff down.
Come with open hands to God, tothe table of communion, come to
receive that so that we canfreely give it away boy, is that
good teaching?
those who love their life inthis world will lose it.
Those who care nothing fortheir life in the world will
keep it for eternity.
(35:55):
Anyone who wants to serve memust follow me, because my
servants must be where I am andthe father will honor anyone who
serves me.
And this is what we're talkingabout when we're saying we are
disciples of Christ, that we arepeople who follow the way of
Jesus.
The way of Jesus is open hands.
(36:16):
The way of Jesus is loving thewhole world.
This is the way that God lovedthe world, that he gave his own
son.
Anyone who wants to serve memust follow me, because my
servants must be where I am.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
I just want to interject quickly, one minute,
including minute, david, thatChrist's invitation is to follow
and religion's invitation is tosit down and listen, and so
we're not asking you to jointhis church.
If you want to, that's great,but the invitation is to follow
Christ.
You leave from this place andfollow Christ.
If coming here helps you followHim, then we're doing good job,
(36:55):
then that's great.
But religion will always sitdown.
I know more than you, but Ilove that invitation.
Jesus finds these fishermen andhe says get up, come, follow me.
There's always that place ofmotion that it will require
something from you, and so Iunderstand that.
(37:15):
Maybe we've kind of all beentrained in religion, and
religion creates this idea thatunless I got my masters or my
bachelors, and I'm not eligibleto speak, or I'm not qualified,
I don't pray as good as Heatherdoes, so I can't do it.
We all have this gift, and whenwe rise up and begin to follow,
(37:39):
that's when we start to see thereal transformation.
Amen.
So understand that idea tofollow and then recognize when
you're asked to sit and see whatspirit that is where that's of,
because God's saying come, comeon just as you are, and not
(38:01):
that he'll leave us just like weare.
God just does what God does inthat capacity, but there's this
invitation to follow amen.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
We're gonna go to the communion table in just a
minute.
I'm gonna finish these verseshere and I encourage you this is
just a short, a little parse ofthe actual conversation.
Go home and read it and allowthe Holy Spirit to speak to you.
Allow the spirit to illuminateyour heart and your
understanding and see whatyou're drawn into.
But Jesus is talking to theseguys, andrew and Philip.
(38:33):
These guys wanted to hear fromhim and he begins to say things
and I appreciate this aboutJesus.
So he starts telling a story andmaybe using my holy imagination
, philip and Andrew are justlike.
We just wanted a yes or no.
Can they see you or not?
And that's not what Jesus gavethem.
Jesus gave them a teachingbecause this pattern needs to be
(38:55):
repeated.
It's not a yes or no could havebeen for those particular
people, but a pattern we can usenow as people.
And so Jesus says my soul isdeeply troubled.
Should I pray, father, save mefrom this hour.
But this is the very reason Icame.
Pause just for a moment.
If you haven't read this, I'mgonna spoil it for you.
(39:17):
But Jesus actually does this.
He actually goes to the gardenand he actually does really
wrestle this out, and I lovethis part about the humanity of
the Christ, who knows what to do, but when he actually has to do
it, he has to wrestle it out.
There's no skipping over theheartache, there's no skipping
over the frustration or thesuffering he really does, but he
(39:39):
knows the end.
He always knows the end.
I'm gonna say your will be done.
And I was thinking about this.
I was listening to a woman thisweekend and she was saying she
said God and I have a weirddance and I was like, well, I
wanna hear what that is.
And she said he'll ask me to dosomething and I'll argue and
I'll be like, absolutely not,that's the dumbest thing I've
(39:59):
ever heard.
And she goes and then alwaysturns out.
I say yeah, you're right, andshe goes, and that's how I've
lived my whole life.
She goes.
So God and I are in a lifelongargument and I thought that's a
great way to really live yourlife.
I think it is, as long as Godalways gets the answer.
There you always win.
But she's staying in, becausehere's even what Jesus say stay
in the argument.
Very often we say things aboutGod and then we turn off the
(40:21):
conversation.
We don't even go any further.
Argue it out, wrestle it out,ask some people you know, have a
conversation.
This is the very reason I cameFather, bring glory to your name
.
Then a voice spoke from heavensaying I have already brought
glory to my name and I will doso again.
(40:42):
And when the crowd heard thevoice, some thought it was
thunder.
Other declared an angel hadspoken to him.
And Jesus told them the voicewas for your benefit, not mine.
I love that beautiful thing.
Like Jesus is showing thepattern, god comes in,
reinforces it and says the gloryis already given, I'll do it
(41:03):
again.
People around, though, don'talways recognize it as the voice
of God.
Some people just thought it wasthunder.
Maybe last night you justthought it was thunder and maybe
God was speaking to someone.
Maybe I say that in jest therewas thunder, but maybe it is the
voice of angels.
But maybe it is thisconversation of saying I know
what I need to do and I'mfollowing you.
(41:26):
It's one of the reasons why wefollow Jesus to the communion
table, because Jesus says Ireally desire to have this meal
with you, and every week, whenwe gather together, we honor the
mystery that comes to thecommunion table.
That is, in fact, a reenactment, a retelling.
There is something supernaturalthat happens here.
(41:48):
So if maybe you didn't enterinto worship or into connection
during worship, or even duringthe reading of the word or our
discussion of it beloved, thereis another invitation into
connection and it is the holycommunion.
And it is so beautiful that weget to tell the story together
because we get to remind eachother.
(42:10):
All of us are welcomed at thetable of the Lord.
Not one of us is not qualifiedto come and to receive the love
that Jesus has given us, has setfor us, has invited us into,
and what we're invited into isan embodied ritual.
We're gonna taste bread and notjust talk about it.
(42:31):
And it's a tiny bit.
You will go away still hungry,but it's a reminder of how good
and how nourishing food actuallyis when you're hungry.
It's a tiny bit of the wine,but it is a reminder of what it
feels like to have your thirstquenched.
This is the love of God shedfor you, and when we practice
(42:52):
together, we remind ourselvesand we remind each other.
I'll wait for you to receivewhat you need from the Lord.
I'll wait in a line for someoneelse to be able to receive what
they need from God who lavishesa table and says come and eat
and come and drink.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
And Heather's gonna finish a couple of these verses
real quickly and we're gonnaproceed to communion.
Heather and I shared thatrecently we're at a funeral in a
particular denomination,decided to have communion in the
funeral but because we weren'tpart of that denomination, they
specifically warned us that wewere not welcome to partake of
(43:32):
the communion.
And again I just felt religionstopping us from this gift that
Christ offers.
So I wanna remind you todaythat none of you are forbidden
to come to this table.
None of you are excluded fromthis table.
None of you are worthy enoughto receive it.
We're all graced to come to thetable, and by you're not worthy
(43:56):
enough, I mean none of us haveexceeded the glory of God.
And so God extends God's lovetowards us and invites us to
partake.
And so if you've been to achurch that has told you that
you're not welcome, that's nothow we see it and if you've
(44:18):
never come to the table, weinvite you to come today and
allow your belief to grow, allowyour faith, that seed, to be
nurtured, and so there might bea great fire burning in you, or
there might be just a littlespark, and as we come to receive
(44:42):
daily bread, we receive fromGod what it is that we need for
today.
And so, by your response ofcoming forward, you're saying
yes, I want what you have for me, and so I want you to hear that
you're all welcome.
No one's obligated, you don'thave to, but we're never, ever
gonna stop you.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
I remind you too, after the resurrection,
everybody is astonished.
They didn't know that Jesus wasgoing to die, even though he
told them over and over again.
They did not think it was goingto happen this way and they
were heartbroken and they wereafraid and they were traumatized
.
And when Jesus shows up again,after he talks to Mary in the
(45:22):
garden, Jesus shows up at atable and he's talked with them
and he's explained things fromthe first Testament to them and
he's reminded them of what theyhave and then they eat together.
And it says when they broke thebread and when they passed it,
their eyes were opened and theysaw who he was.
(45:44):
There is for us an invitationto illumination, to something
that is other, when we eat thebread and when we drink the wine
.
There is an invitation to knowJesus in a way that we don't
know him any other way, exceptthat we eat the bread and we
drink him, and that ourspiritual eyes, the eyes of our
(46:04):
heart, the eyes of love, areopened and we can see.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's sermon.
If you would like moreinformation about us, visit us
online at firstlovechurchorg.
Welcome to the First Love Church podcast.
This is a collection of Sundayteachings inspired by the
revised common lectionary andrecorded weekly in Ocala,
florida.
We're so grateful again thatyou've gathered with us this
morning, and I remind you ofthis truth Love is already
present here.
You have love in you, lavishlove, beloved, because you are
(00:24):
the image of Christ.
There is love in you, and whenwe gather together, love is just
magnified.
The scripture tells us thiswhere two or three are gathered
together, there is Christ in themiddle of them.
And again, we're not waiting onChrist to arrive.
Christ is with us always, andso the Christ in us greets the
Christ in you, and we'regrateful for your presence here
(00:46):
this morning.
You've joined us this morning,whether in person or online.
You've joined us during thisLenten season, and this is a
joyous season, even if youdidn't know it was.
This is a time for us tounburden ourselves, to let go of
certain things in order that wemight receive and be conduits
of more love.
(01:06):
That's the goal We've beentalking about.
What is the goal for all of usin Lent?
What if it was possible that wewould let love get the last
word in everything, even in ourown conversations in our head.
What if love got the last wordthe way that you talked to
yourself?
What if love got the last wordwhen you were watching the news?
(01:27):
What if love got the last wordwhen you were driving in traffic
?
These things are possible,beloved.
We know this because God has anew creation coming for all of
us, and this is the invitation.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Could it be possible that love could have the last
word in conversations with yourspouse and your family?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I believe that is true.
Here's why because God, becauselove, because beloved.
You are sacred beings of love.
Love is already in you.
One of the things that lovedoes is unstop the well of love
that is already there.
One of the things that lovedoes is more love only equals
more love.
We're grateful this morning, inthe presence of love, that you
(02:10):
might be able to hear andreceive the love that you really
are.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You know, what you're saying is beautiful and all,
but sometimes those are justpretty words that people say at
church.
I wonder if we really canunderstand the practicality of
that.
I know for myself, I've heardthat.
But then I feel like I'm beingtaken advantage of.
When I feel that overwhelmingsense of taking advantage of, I
(02:34):
figure, well, I need to saysomething, I need to defend
myself, I need to take my standhere and I can justify that.
I would argue with any boss orany person that would defy my
sense of happiness or success orwhatever, or any family member
(02:57):
or wife or whatever.
It really boiled down to thefact that I had to come to terms
with.
Can I really trust God?
Will I really trust him thatGod has the best for us, that
God will take care of thissituation, will bring justice to
(03:20):
us?
That is when I finally venturedout in the waters of actually
holding my tongue, actuallyletting love have the last word.
It's a practice.
By no means am I standing hereperfected in this because my
children would stand up and sayboo, not true.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I've told them not to .
No, they wouldn't do that.
None of us have.
We're not booing anyone here.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Maybe my friends would, maybe we're not booing
anyone, but it's a process thatI urge you to surrender in,
because I think there are morepeople like me that might be
listening, that have that sensethat and really can we boil down
to that place of trust that Godis taking care of you and going
(04:06):
to take care of us.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
One of the beauties that when we gather together is
we tell a better story, becausesometimes in our mind we tell
stories like I'm being takenadvantage of or we have an inner
narration that may need somehealing, and so when we tell
stories together we may rememberbetter parts of the story.
We were just at a funeral lastweekend and somebody started
(04:29):
sharing a story afterward arounda table about the woman who has
since gone on into an eternalrealm and they said remember
when?
And they told their story.
And then somebody said butremember this.
And then added anotherperspective she also loved this.
And then someone else said butdon't forget about this.
This was also her and I wasthinking what a better story
(04:52):
when we all tell the story.
And that's what Jesus did whenhe said to Mary upon his
resurrection go and tell theboys that I'm alive.
Go and tell them.
There's better news than wecould have even imagined.
And the resurrection was notthe end of it, beloved.
It's the ascension and it's ourinvitation to practice
(05:13):
resurrection.
I don't know if you knew that,but you can practice
resurrection in your own life.
You can practice allowingthings that were without hope to
now have hope and allowresurrection to begin in your
life, and so together we'regoing to offer a better story
this morning.
And one of the things that Ilove about all of us together is
especially when someone amongus would say I feel like maybe
(05:37):
I'm getting taken advantage ofand maybe someone else can show
us there's areas that we can begracious in or have gratitude
for, or someone else can say tous I know how that feels, I also
felt that way, and so not onlyjust to maybe offer perspective,
but maybe offer companionshipin a difficult time and to say I
(05:58):
hear you, I'm witness to thatkind of pain.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
You know, what you're saying really inspires me
because, you know, I think thatwhen we pray a prayer like your
kingdom come, your will be done.
Sometimes we put that off ineternity, you know, and what if
Jesus's coming could be in youand I every day?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yes, we're waiting around for his return.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
But what if he lives inside of each one of us?
What if that was the deal?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
That's the deal.
That's the right.
Yes, thank you Jesus.
And so what if?
Speaker 2 (06:34):
his coming was you getting out of the way?
Oh, don't shut me down becauseI'm preaching good.
What if, really, the influencein the world will be you and I
getting out of the way andreally believing what his words
say are true and that love willconquer, you know, will bring
light to darkness?
What if the Christ in you isbright enough to stamp out
(07:01):
darkness everywhere you step?
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Thank you for that one Amen.
Well, no, that's such anencouragement.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I do want to ask a question.
When you say get out of the way, in the same way let's talk
about that just for a quickminute, because I think it's
important that we recognize ourbelovedness and we begin with
belovedness.
And when we're saying get outof our own way, it's maybe an
egoic way of thinking or maybe away that we've protected
ourselves for a long time, notour true, beloved, beautiful,
(07:32):
love selves that is how theChrist is reimagined in front of
us but to say to get out of ourown way, maybe to get past the
thing that is slowing you downor that you've used for years
and years and it doesn't workanymore, or things that we've
tried to comfort ourselves withand yet we still feel
brokenhearted, beloved.
(07:53):
Today is a good day to practiceresurrection.
There's a new way to live andthere's a way to live in love
and to live in light and to belight and to be loved to the
whole world.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Well, we ought to preach on that.
I think we're going to do ittoday.
I think so.
But you know, for us, we putout this image of what we think
we are, or what we want peopleto believe we are, and we spend
so much time propping that up.
And that's your ego, that isyour persona, that's the thing
(08:25):
you want people to see, and Igot to tell you it's a false
self, it's something that youcreated in your imagination.
And if we can get out of thatand let who God made us to be
and the Christ in us to manifest, then the ability to be
(08:48):
generous, the ability to be kind, you know, the ability to
triumph in situations where wecontinually are overwhelmed and
defeated because we're doing itin our own strength and you were
never meant to.
And so maybe today we ought totalk about how, how do we get
(09:08):
that ego out of the way?
How do we die to ourself?
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Oh, I like this kind of language.
How do we die to self but alsohave the hope of saying what is
being resurrected Dear, what isbeing resurrected in us is so
beautiful and so good.
It's not just death and that'sthe end.
This is the message of Christ.
There is so much more.
There is so much more love,sacred love between us for the
(09:35):
entire world.
I remind you of the Apostlesletter to the church at Ephesus,
and he said before the worldwas formed, God had you in mind
that you would be made whole andholy by God's love.
That is the goal that wholeness, full embodied faith, that love
(09:58):
would be preeminent in ourthoughts and in the way that we
engage the world.
And so the understanding isthat love will bring us
wholeness and that wholeness andholiness are equating.
I was thinking about this thisweek and going around, because I
was paying attention to thingsthat are sacred.
I'm getting some thingstogether for Easter and in this
(10:21):
Lenten season we put some thingsaway and we're looking for
things, and I was thinking, youknow, looking at this and
thinking this is sacred.
And then I began to challengemy own self in going well, is
there anything that is profane?
Is there anything that is notsacred?
And I couldn't find anything.
I kept looking for things thatwere not sacred, and yet I kept
(10:41):
finding them, because I keptfinding creation.
I kept finding goodness.
So, whatever you look forbeloved, you will find.
If you are looking for thesacred, you will find it
everywhere.
You will find it in nature, youwill find it in your neighbor,
you will find it in the airaround you and you will find it
in yourself.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
But if you're looking for problems, no one here is
doing that.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
No one is looking for problems.
No, no, no, no.
What we're doing is we'relooking for places of
resurrection, and there's adifference.
When you see something and itis dead I love a line from the
Princess Bride it doesn't meanit's all the way dead.
There might be some life inthere still, and so maybe in our
(11:26):
own lives we look for, is itpossible we can allow love to
bring us back to life?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
This week Thomas and I put a trellis over our
grapevines.
We had those posts and then weput trellis over it, and so
every year in February I prunethe grapevines once a year, and
so I was kind of a little longnow, you know, because here's
March and but I want to get thattrellis up because I wanted to
fish some of those vines up nowso they'll grow over, so we can
(11:58):
walk under my dreams.
One day grapes will be hangingfrom that thing.
I don't even like grapes, butit's the coolest thing.
So I had grapes in my backyardwhen I was a kid, so I just like
them.
So we got this up here and thenit was just when you prune them
back, like 80, 90 percent.
So except for I just keep thevines and what's on the wires.
(12:19):
And then I was saving some ofthe good ones that were going
the right direction to go up andI was fishing them up in the
trellis and a son was bakingyesterday and I sliced my
fingers so many times with thosepruning things.
I put them in my pocket andthen reached down.
So I'm aggravating stuff and sothis one particular is like all
the grapevines are differentsizes and the ones, the skinnier
one, and so it didn't have likehardly any, and so I'm rifling
(12:43):
through all of these you knowvines to try to find them, sweat
and hot and cut them, you know.
And then I got this one andit's dangled right, you know,
and there's only like two onthis one that could reach.
The rest of them were good andHeather walked by.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Well, you're not going to tell that part of the
story.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
No, no, no, no take the other part of the story.
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
This is so good.
Let me tell you how it went.
Beloved, You're justing whenyou say that I am Jesus.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, no.
So here's what happened.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I am justing also.
But I really did the wrongthing.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
So she walks by and just cuts it and goes on.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
It was causing a problem, I just cut it right off
.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
There was so much work, I worked all of this, just
connect right there and I haveone and it's dangling, and it's
dangling, just so I can you know.
And then I'm getting.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
And I was so mad?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Do you know what I mean when you're just like I'm
working here, it's hot, I'mdoing all this thing, and then
she goes.
Oh sorry.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
I did.
I did I apologize After I sawwhat it happened it didn't pay
off.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
My like it didn't match.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Sorry.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
I'm trying to communicate something to people.
Heather, do you ever want toget to extract a pound of flesh
from someone?
Do you ever want to some waymake them pay for what they have
done to you, the harm they havedone?
And I am sitting out here hot,angry, cut up, broken hearted.
(14:12):
There's no way to tape thatback on.
She has ruined my efforts.
And then God says love gets thelast word.
Oh, but I got some stuff to say.
And there's, what is that?
Let's talk.
What is that thing that demandsthe pound of flesh, that
(14:34):
demands the last word?
What would have accomplished byme brow beating her?
No, no, more better than anykind of brow beating that she
would try to give me.
We would tear one another down.
Our own home that we want, withthat we say out of our mouth, is
(14:55):
a home, a built on love andexists on love.
But not when I'm pissed, notwhen you cut my, my grapevine.
Now, somebody help me out.
Now I just custom church.
You better believe that I'mserious now.
I mean, we have got to make achoice here, church.
And I wanted, and I thought, alot of stuff, but I didn't say
(15:18):
any of them.
She knew that I was mad, and soshe gave me some space and let
me deal with my own issues,because it's my fault.
Now, you know, and it's notright for me to intimidate and
scare and any of those things,and so all of those things I'm
trying to.
Well, honey, it'll grow backnext year, but there's, there's
(15:42):
a choice for us and you have todecide.
What kind of home do you want?
Do you want a Christ?
Because you know what I want,more than my way and to have
said what I needed to say I wantthe presence of the living God.
I want God's love that conquersdeath in the great that, that.
I want that kind of peace andsweetness where where her and I
(16:05):
can make mistakes around eachother and not be criticized and
judged for it.
I'm preaching to some peopleright now who live in that and
feel like you're well, look,it's all right unless you make
me mad.
And when you get me mad enough,when you got me mad enough,
then now I have to know there'snever anyone who has the power
(16:28):
to make you anything.
You give over to it.
And I'm preaching right now.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
That's why I'm letting you go.
I'm just listening.
Just listening.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
And so are we going to give over to that continually
, or will we give over to thespirit of love, to kindness, and
let that permeate our home?
Because I'm going to tell yousomething All I would have did
is have shame after I did what Idid, because you know how.
I know I've done it before.
Don't, don't say amen.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
I said nothing.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I left.
But it ain't funny.
It ain't funny the abuse andthe hurt that I've put on my
family because I've decided II've been pushed too far.
Well, you know what?
Now you get my wrath.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Tech, it's like, it's like wrestling up here.
We just got to make sure weknow who's going in, because I
think that when you ask, likewhat is it, that needs to be
heard, why do I need to saysomething?
When someone's angry, we haveto recognize we're brokenhearted
.
There's a hurt.
Dennis had worked really hardand he wants to have a place for
(17:39):
the family to enjoy it, and hehad suffered in the heat and he
had intention to make this onevine go a certain way.
And I do want to tell you thatwas his intention.
But we all know plants do whatthey want.
Like that may never have worked, even if I didn't go out it,
but I did.
I just came by and I just cutit, clipped it right off.
So I know that's not an excuse.
That's not an excuse.
But here let me say what'shappening is sometimes, if we're
(18:01):
not aware of our ownbrokenheartedness, what we do is
we in turn break someone else'sheart.
We want shared emotion and soif we're aware that what we are
is brokenhearted, we can ask thespirit of God, the comforter,
to come and heal us.
We don't have to try to breaksomeone else so we can have
(18:24):
mutuality.
We can say, holy Spirit, what Iwanted didn't happen and I
wanted good, I wanted good.
That's when it's difficult forus, when we want good things for
someone else and we arecriticized, or when we intended
for it to come out a certain wayand it didn't.
Those are the times when thingsreally hurt, and so when we go
(18:46):
to the tax today some of theGreeks some Greeks who had come
to Jerusalem for the Passovercelebration paid a visit to
Philip.
Philip, I'm so glad that you'rehere this morning in person,
because I love to read thescriptures about Philip.
But we have a Philip in ourmidst and since we're seeing his
name, I like in the scripturehe's a really good guy, which
(19:07):
our Philip is too.
But I, like you, know whenthings are approved and
beautiful in this way.
But they paid a visit to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in
Galilee, and they said, Sir, wewant to meet Jesus.
Now I don't want to just brushby this Well, there's so much
more that I want to get to butin this idea that somebody else
had heard about Jesus, they hadheard a lot about him and they
(19:28):
knew that Philip kind of knewhim and they were like, Sir, we
would like to see Jesus.
I wonder how many times ourneighbors actually would say to
us I would like to see Jesus, orthe people that we work with I
would like to see Jesus.
And so I think that we have topay attention to this is not
just a one time event, but thisstory, this account, gives us
(19:52):
perspective into someone else'slife.
They'd heard about him, butthey would like an interaction
with him, and so they ask hisfriends.
Beloved, we are friends ofChrist, and so very often what
the world needs, when they askus for something, is they need
to see Jesus.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
But it's so good when you say your neighbors need to
see Jesus.
You know, this morning timechanging everything.
We're trying to sleep and thenwe hear beep, beep, that
piercing sound of machinerybacking up.
And then right next door, inthat lot, like just right next
to the house, they got up beforethe crack had dawn.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
And they are moving.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, yeah, and they're moving.
You know, and I'm thinking, youknow, sunday, really you have
to do this on the Lord's Day,when we're trying to sleep, you
know.
And so I mean all those thingsI wanted to, you know, ask them
and say, but when I made eyecontact I just smiled and waved,
and so I want to maybe addressthat idea that we think God's
(20:54):
gonna come in and just changeyour feelings and all of a
sudden you're just gonna floataround and feel happy about
everyone.
But I want to offer you theconsideration that maybe those
things in life are gonna stillannoy you, but you're gonna
recognize what transformationhappens when I surrendered to
(21:17):
Christ in them.
Amen.
Did you know?
I was struggling with that thismorning with those people.
I went on a completelydifferent route.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
It was loud, like right next to our bedroom window
, and I thought, well, they havereally big machinery, that's
really big tools, that's loud.
And then I thought to myselfI'm so glad they have really big
tools, that's a really big job.
And then in the morning wasvery early still dark in fact,
the sun wasn't up and I said, ohmy gosh, I bless the work of
(21:48):
their hands.
May it be done quickly.
And this is why, because I runthe dishwasher all hours of the
night, beloved, I know that Imake noise with my tools.
That dryer has those wool ballsin them and it is thumping,
thumping, thumping all hours ofthe night, all hours of the
morning.
But those are my tools for mywork and I want them blessed.
So when I heard somebody else'swork, instead of being annoyed
(22:11):
I thought, oh, I also have toolsthat annoy other people.
Bless them, bless them, maythey not hear it.
I might pray.
I didn't get to you, apparently.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
My thing is high school and she's master's or
bachelor's or whatever.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
No, but I saw the I swear we are on this thing, you
know.
I heard that noise and thoughtof my own noise.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
It was 5.55 and I turned the dryer on this morning
.
I never arrived at that thought.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Well, I came to that thought and I blessed the work
of their hands.
Big tools make big jobspossible.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Back to the drawing board.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Philip told Andrew about it and together they went
to ask Jesus.
I love this part too, Becausesomebody comes to Philip and
says, hey, we want to see Jesus.
And Jesus is like let me talkto my brother.
And so he goes and he gets hisbrother like I don't know if we
should let him in, I don't knowif we should tell him this, you
know, like I don't know how thisis gonna go, but let's have a
conversation.
So he has a side conversationwith someone and they go ask
(23:05):
Jesus about these Jews who have,these Greeks who have come to
ask.
We pause here for a moment tothank you for joining us today.
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, would you take a
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This podcast is made possiblethanks to the generosity of
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(23:27):
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Speaker 2 (23:38):
This is a lot like church government.
You know it's church getting inthe way of Jesus.
You know, now we gotta decidewhere they're gonna let the
people see Jesus.
Can we just tell you right upfront you get to see Jesus.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yes, thank you very much Right we'll just spoiler
alert, no one gets to tell youyou can't talk with Jesus.
Now Jesus replies to Andrew andto Philip they're there having a
conversation.
I don't know, maybe he wasn'tdressed yet.
That's how I go.
I like there's a reason.
Jesus wasn't talking to themparticularly.
They went in and they said hey,you know the, these people have
come and they wanna talk withyou.
And then Jesus says to hispeople, to his friends, to
(24:11):
Philip and to Andrew Now thetime has come for the Son of man
to enter his glory.
Now, because we're in this sideof history, we understand this
is the beginning of the farewelldiscourse.
Jesus knows that he is gonnadie and he keeps telling his
friends don't panic, I know thatthis is gonna happen and then
there's going to be aresurrection.
They do, of course, do notunderstand it.
(24:31):
It doesn't make sense to themin their brain.
But this is the beginning ofthis.
Jesus says I tell you the truth.
So he's trying to explain thisto them through ways of plants
and agriculture.
Unless a kernel of wheat isplanted in the soil and dies, it
remains alone.
But its death will produce manynew kernels, a plentiful
(24:51):
harvest of new lives.
Those who love their life inthis world will lose it.
Those who care nothing fortheir life in this world will
keep it for eternity.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
You see where we're going with this today.
You're tracking with me.
You know, and maybe you've readthis kind of verse before and
it's like you know, how do I?
You know, what does it mean tolose your life?
You know, and we all have beengiven this life and you can lead
it, however, in whicheverdirection you want, but if you
(25:25):
will stop your will and your wayof doing things, you're gonna
die to that.
You have to die to thatunhealthy, unholy desire of
addiction if you wanna be free.
But you will have to die tothat.
And there's many, many times inour lives, daily, that we can
(25:51):
choose to die to the ego andchoose to die to our way of
doing things.
And I'm gonna tell yousomething I believe this from
the bottom of my heart.
I don't know where thisteaching was in my younger years
and I wish I had known it.
But the opportunity I cherishevery opportunity to learn to
(26:12):
die, because by the time Iactually die, I'm gonna be
really good at it.
I want to be.
I don't want, you know, andI've been in hospice with people
that die peacefully, becausethey know where they're going
and they've loved well andthey've served well and there's
a peace.
And then I've watched peoplefight it and fight it with their
(26:35):
last choking breath and I gottatell you I've seen people with
regret and I've seen peoplewithout any and I'm telling you
there's something about thatplace of service and love and
dying to it.
And it's painful, boy, whensomeone cuts your vine, but and
(26:59):
she's so sorry.
That's just easy.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
In a million years.
I would have rather cut my hairthan cut that vine, but this is
the whole.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I would much rather the vine be cut.
I love your beauty, okay, so,like we do, make no mistake, we
don't want Melcopa, you don'twant any kind of to bloodletting
.
I just, I just with that, but Ijust, you know, I just want to
remind you that it's practical,that it's happening today, you
know, and there's thesebeautiful opportunities for and
God will, because he loves youso much, he will give you an
(27:28):
opportunity to just come againstyour will, come against your
ego in your way, and maybethat's why things are always
tough for you, because youcontinue to demand your way.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Let's talk about, maybe, why we would demand our
way just for a hot second.
Because maybe you're afraid ifyou don't stand up for you, no
one else will.
Maybe experience has told you,if you don't put yourself first,
no one else will.
But I want to tell yousomething that, deep within
yourself, you already know Godis good and can be trusted.
(28:04):
Love is good and can be trusted.
In fact, it is the prophet inthe first testament where God
says don't seek your own good,because I, the Lord, have
already planned it.
Here's what I know about a goodparty.
My daughter throws a great one.
Sometimes I don't even want tothrow a party because she throws
such a better party.
(28:26):
This is true about God too.
If you have plans for your lifebeloved, let me tell you
something God has bigger andbetter ones, and so being able
to trust in that belovedness, inthat love that is already in
the universe around us, to beable to say what I can believe
in is not just healing, but Ican believe in abundance, I can
(28:48):
believe in hope, I can believein the power of love that will
allow us to look at death squarein the face unafraid.
For many years, people havesaid don't look at those things,
but let teaches us look at it.
Look at it unafraid, becauseyou know we're just passing
through.
This is a threshold.
(29:08):
This time, this realm thatwe're in even is changing, and
so it is an invitation into therealm of love, into the realm of
knowing that God's presence iswith us, even if we find
ourselves buried.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
You know there's issues in your life reoccurring
things and when they're, whenyou see them being a struggle
for you and for people aroundyou and in your relationships,
you can decide to be stubbornand keep going, or you can let
the Holy Spirit unpack things inyour life, and that's what.
Looking at death, we want tolook away, but sometimes you got
(29:45):
to look into that.
There's a thing that happens atmy house and it's happened for
years.
It's been one of the things andit might seem so silly, but
it's been just something that'salways been a problem, and it is
that when I bring home astyrofoam thing from a
restaurant and I exactly cut mymeal in half, even though I
(30:05):
wanted to eat the whole thing,but I thought to myself boy,
this is going to be great forbreakfast the next day or lunch
or even a snack, and I put it inthe fridge.
And then I go back expecting tosee the thing that I wrote my
name on in the fridge and it'sgone.
And then I do a poll Anyone doa poll?
(30:27):
Who ate it?
And all the little rodents whosnuck in there and took it to
have?
No, they, just they.
No one knows where it went, butit's empty, it's gone and you
know, except for the littlegreen decoration on the plate,
that was the only thing left inthe.
(30:50):
And I mean I have tried to talkto people and explain this, you
know, and I've tried, andthere's a thing where you can
just justify.
You know, I paid bills aroundhere, you know I'll buy you food
all this justification but it'slike, look at that, it's ugly,
it causes a problem.
Why don't I look at it?
And so I've reluctantly lookedat this thing and though I can
(31:16):
justify it, and though I cantell you that you know it boils
down to we were poor when wewere kids and I didn't have a
lot, and so you know, getting myshare my food it was it meant a
lot to me, more than I realized, and so much so that I will
sacrifice my wife or mychildren's peace, or even the
(31:39):
way that kindness towards them,my love for them, would be
sacrificed over this covenant Imade of lack.
And so I looked at thatugliness, you know, and and I
realized, for whatever reason,that is so important to me,
that's more important to me thanthe people that I love getting
fed.
It's what it is.
(32:03):
Now I could justify a plan andI can ask, and and whatever, and
they.
But at the end of the day, do Iwant good for my children and my
wife she never steals food butin I'm just saying you know, do
you want that for your, for yourpeople that you love?
Are you willing to lay downyour life if you don't get the
leftovers that you saved?
(32:24):
Because I know, oddly enough,there are so many people that
really connect with what I'msaying.
They really get behind me whenI go.
When I go, you gotta yell atthem, you gotta write your name,
you gotta teach them.
But when I say this all of asudden I get pushed back because
this is the hard part here.
This is the hard part of dyingto yourself every day and all
(32:45):
those moments.
Yeah, but you gotta teach them.
What do you gotta teach them?
To rule their house the sameway that your parents showed you
.
That didn't work really greatfor them and has caused you all
kinds of therapy bills.
So we're gonna continue in thatspiral, year after your
generation of generation, orsomebody gonna stand up and say,
no, I'm gonna teach them thatlove is the best choice and love
(33:09):
would prefer.
It seems to me scripture sayssomething about that putting
another needs above your own.
Is that not the definition oflove?
My needs are to have someleftovers.
I ordered six ribs, pastor Lee.
I ate three.
I disciplined myself so thatwhen I get later I can eat those
(33:30):
other three.
And they're gone.
The vine has been cut, the deedhas been done.
Help me Jesus.
Help me Jesus to love and tohave joyfully, not angrily, let
it ripped from my fingers, butthat my heart and my hands would
(33:51):
open up and I'd love likeChrist.
Love.
You got one.
Are you gonna rebuttal me?
We were already at 90%.
She went to 91, but I'm notgonna argue with you.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Jen's right.
Let me just say that let's justfrom the pulpit, let's just
talk about that.
There is for us anunderstanding that in the, what
appears a momentary lack for usproduces a harvest, a harvest
that is generous, that isplentiful, that is bigger than
(34:30):
we could imagine.
You can have your one vine andyou can keep it, or you can cut
it back and get more.
That's the hope of all of us.
If you need more tips on that,you can talk to Amy, who has my
governs, and she literally doesthat for a business, and it is
beautiful work, but she'll tellyou all about.
I just ask her and then shetells me what to do.
So sometimes we need otherpeople in our lives who will say
(34:53):
to us yes, cut that back.
You can trust that God is good.
You can give that away freely.
Instead of going through liveswith tight, fisted, closed hands
.
We can open our hands andexperience.
Do you know what you can carrywith this?
Only what you have with this?
When we were little, we hadthree flights of stairs up to
(35:14):
the up to our bed.
There's a lot of stairs, so mygrandmother would say to me can
you take this upstairs?
And so I would come to her withmy things in my hands that had
to go upstairs and she wouldlook at me and say, baby, you
got to come to me with openhands.
That meant she had some thingsfor me to take upstairs.
But very often we come to Godwith our closed hands.
This is mine, this is what I'mgetting, and God has something
(35:35):
beautiful for us to take up tothe family.
Leave that stuff down.
Come with open hands to God, tothe table of communion, come to
receive that so that we canfreely give it away boy, is that
good teaching?
those who love their life inthis world will lose it.
Those who care nothing fortheir life in the world will
keep it for eternity.
(35:55):
Anyone who wants to serve memust follow me, because my
servants must be where I am andthe father will honor anyone who
serves me.
And this is what we're talkingabout when we're saying we are
disciples of Christ, that we arepeople who follow the way of
Jesus.
The way of Jesus is open hands.
(36:16):
The way of Jesus is loving thewhole world.
This is the way that God lovedthe world, that he gave his own
son.
Anyone who wants to serve memust follow me, because my
servants must be where I am.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
I just want to interject quickly, one minute,
including minute, david, thatChrist's invitation is to follow
and religion's invitation is tosit down and listen, and so
we're not asking you to jointhis church.
If you want to, that's great,but the invitation is to follow
Christ.
You leave from this place andfollow Christ.
If coming here helps you followHim, then we're doing good job,
(36:55):
then that's great.
But religion will always sitdown.
I know more than you, but Ilove that invitation.
Jesus finds these fishermen andhe says get up, come, follow me.
There's always that place ofmotion that it will require
something from you, and so Iunderstand that.
(37:15):
Maybe we've kind of all beentrained in religion, and
religion creates this idea thatunless I got my masters or my
bachelors, and I'm not eligibleto speak, or I'm not qualified,
I don't pray as good as Heatherdoes, so I can't do it.
We all have this gift, and whenwe rise up and begin to follow,
(37:39):
that's when we start to see thereal transformation.
Amen.
So understand that idea tofollow and then recognize when
you're asked to sit and see whatspirit that is where that's of,
because God's saying come, comeon just as you are, and not
(38:01):
that he'll leave us just like weare.
God just does what God does inthat capacity, but there's this
invitation to follow amen.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
We're gonna go to the communion table in just a
minute.
I'm gonna finish these verseshere and I encourage you this is
just a short, a little parse ofthe actual conversation.
Go home and read it and allowthe Holy Spirit to speak to you.
Allow the spirit to illuminateyour heart and your
understanding and see whatyou're drawn into.
But Jesus is talking to theseguys, andrew and Philip.
(38:33):
These guys wanted to hear fromhim and he begins to say things
and I appreciate this aboutJesus.
So he starts telling a story andmaybe using my holy imagination
, philip and Andrew are justlike.
We just wanted a yes or no.
Can they see you or not?
And that's not what Jesus gavethem.
Jesus gave them a teachingbecause this pattern needs to be
(38:55):
repeated.
It's not a yes or no could havebeen for those particular
people, but a pattern we can usenow as people.
And so Jesus says my soul isdeeply troubled.
Should I pray, father, save mefrom this hour.
But this is the very reason Icame.
Pause just for a moment.
If you haven't read this, I'mgonna spoil it for you.
(39:17):
But Jesus actually does this.
He actually goes to the gardenand he actually does really
wrestle this out, and I lovethis part about the humanity of
the Christ, who knows what to do, but when he actually has to do
it, he has to wrestle it out.
There's no skipping over theheartache, there's no skipping
over the frustration or thesuffering he really does, but he
(39:39):
knows the end.
He always knows the end.
I'm gonna say your will be done.
And I was thinking about this.
I was listening to a woman thisweekend and she was saying she
said God and I have a weirddance and I was like, well, I
wanna hear what that is.
And she said he'll ask me to dosomething and I'll argue and
I'll be like, absolutely not,that's the dumbest thing I've
(39:59):
ever heard.
And she goes and then alwaysturns out.
I say yeah, you're right, andshe goes, and that's how I've
lived my whole life.
She goes.
So God and I are in a lifelongargument and I thought that's a
great way to really live yourlife.
I think it is, as long as Godalways gets the answer.
There you always win.
But she's staying in, becausehere's even what Jesus say stay
in the argument.
Very often we say things aboutGod and then we turn off the
(40:21):
conversation.
We don't even go any further.
Argue it out, wrestle it out,ask some people you know, have a
conversation.
This is the very reason I cameFather, bring glory to your name
.
Then a voice spoke from heavensaying I have already brought
glory to my name and I will doso again.
(40:42):
And when the crowd heard thevoice, some thought it was
thunder.
Other declared an angel hadspoken to him.
And Jesus told them the voicewas for your benefit, not mine.
I love that beautiful thing.
Like Jesus is showing thepattern, god comes in,
reinforces it and says the gloryis already given, I'll do it
(41:03):
again.
People around, though, don'talways recognize it as the voice
of God.
Some people just thought it wasthunder.
Maybe last night you justthought it was thunder and maybe
God was speaking to someone.
Maybe I say that in jest therewas thunder, but maybe it is the
voice of angels.
But maybe it is thisconversation of saying I know
what I need to do and I'mfollowing you.
(41:26):
It's one of the reasons why wefollow Jesus to the communion
table, because Jesus says Ireally desire to have this meal
with you, and every week, whenwe gather together, we honor the
mystery that comes to thecommunion table.
That is, in fact, a reenactment, a retelling.
There is something supernaturalthat happens here.
(41:48):
So if maybe you didn't enterinto worship or into connection
during worship, or even duringthe reading of the word or our
discussion of it beloved, thereis another invitation into
connection and it is the holycommunion.
And it is so beautiful that weget to tell the story together
because we get to remind eachother.
(42:10):
All of us are welcomed at thetable of the Lord.
Not one of us is not qualifiedto come and to receive the love
that Jesus has given us, has setfor us, has invited us into,
and what we're invited into isan embodied ritual.
We're gonna taste bread and notjust talk about it.
(42:31):
And it's a tiny bit.
You will go away still hungry,but it's a reminder of how good
and how nourishing food actuallyis when you're hungry.
It's a tiny bit of the wine,but it is a reminder of what it
feels like to have your thirstquenched.
This is the love of God shedfor you, and when we practice
(42:52):
together, we remind ourselvesand we remind each other.
I'll wait for you to receivewhat you need from the Lord.
I'll wait in a line for someoneelse to be able to receive what
they need from God who lavishesa table and says come and eat
and come and drink.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
And Heather's gonna finish a couple of these verses
real quickly and we're gonnaproceed to communion.
Heather and I shared thatrecently we're at a funeral in a
particular denomination,decided to have communion in the
funeral but because we weren'tpart of that denomination, they
specifically warned us that wewere not welcome to partake of
(43:32):
the communion.
And again I just felt religionstopping us from this gift that
Christ offers.
So I wanna remind you todaythat none of you are forbidden
to come to this table.
None of you are excluded fromthis table.
None of you are worthy enoughto receive it.
We're all graced to come to thetable, and by you're not worthy
(43:56):
enough, I mean none of us haveexceeded the glory of God.
And so God extends God's lovetowards us and invites us to
partake.
And so if you've been to achurch that has told you that
you're not welcome, that's nothow we see it and if you've
(44:18):
never come to the table, weinvite you to come today and
allow your belief to grow, allowyour faith, that seed, to be
nurtured, and so there might bea great fire burning in you, or
there might be just a littlespark, and as we come to receive
(44:42):
daily bread, we receive fromGod what it is that we need for
today.
And so, by your response ofcoming forward, you're saying
yes, I want what you have for me, and so I want you to hear that
you're all welcome.
No one's obligated, you don'thave to, but we're never, ever
gonna stop you.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
I remind you too, after the resurrection,
everybody is astonished.
They didn't know that Jesus wasgoing to die, even though he
told them over and over again.
They did not think it was goingto happen this way and they
were heartbroken and they wereafraid and they were traumatized
.
And when Jesus shows up again,after he talks to Mary in the
(45:22):
garden, Jesus shows up at atable and he's talked with them
and he's explained things fromthe first Testament to them and
he's reminded them of what theyhave and then they eat together.
And it says when they broke thebread and when they passed it,
their eyes were opened and theysaw who he was.
(45:44):
There is for us an invitationto illumination, to something
that is other, when we eat thebread and when we drink the wine
.
There is an invitation to knowJesus in a way that we don't
know him any other way, exceptthat we eat the bread and we
drink him, and that ourspiritual eyes, the eyes of our
(46:04):
heart, the eyes of love, areopened and we can see.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's sermon.
If you would like moreinformation about us, visit us
online at firstlovechurchorg.
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