Episode 009: Love Unlocked - Receiving God's Unconditional Love

Have you ever wondered why it's so difficult to believe you're truly loved, no matter what? That struggle is at the heart of our spiritual journey.

"Love like Jesus" sounds simple, but requires something profound first—allowing ourselves to be fully loved by Him. In this soul-stirring conversation, we unpack the vast difference between human love (conditional, performance-based) and God's agape love (unconditional, steadfast, relentless).

The Bible uses multiple words for "love" that our English language compresses into one. We explore eros (romantic passion), philia (deep friendship), storge (family connection), and most importantly, agape—God's sacrificial love that cannot be earned and will never be withdrawn. In the Hebrew, "chesed" appears 245 times in the Old Testament, emphasizing God's covenant faithfulness even when we fail.

Many of us intellectually understand God loves us, but something blocks us from experiencing this love fully. We examine how confirmation bias leads us to interpret life events in ways that reinforce our feelings of unworthiness. We share personal stories of encountering God's love through unexpected signs, helping strangers, and finding healing from past relationship wounds.

The transformation happens when we move from head knowledge to heart experience—from reading about honey to actually tasting its sweetness. When we begin experiencing God's love rather than just thinking about it, everything changes. Our capacity to love ourselves and others expands dramatically.

Ready to break through the barriers keeping you from receiving God's complete love? Join us for practical steps to increase your capacity for divine connection. Remember, staying broken is harder than healing—and God's arms are always open, no matter where you've been or what you've done.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Good morning.
Good morning, here we are backat it.
Yeah, it's been a minute.
We've got some fun things toshare this morning.
We sure do.
Yeah, starting to hear fromsome of you amazing listeners
out there, and I think whatwould be fun is if we start to
share unnamed people who arelistening some of their feedback
and kind of showcase what itlooks like to share light and

(00:34):
hope on each episode and then ifyou recognize yourself and what
we're sharing, you can go aheadand tag yourself.
I love that, right.
So for example, it just happenednaturally and organically this
week In episode three ongratitude, someone that I was
talking about, who turned meinto HR once upon a time, heard

(00:58):
the story and theyself-identified wow, this is me.
And they took a clip and theyshared it on their Instagram
story, tagged the Double Dosepodcast, and said I think this
was me and, bingo, they got itright.
So congratulations, kellyFisher out there.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
She reached out to me .
She said she can't rememberwhether it was before or after
10 am.
She said fortunately I didn'tget smacked like you mentioned
in the last episode.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yes, that's so funny, but I love that.
I love that she was able to seeherself in the stories that
we're sharing, and it justtouched her to know that she
wanted to share it with thepeople that she knows, so she
took it, she shared the podcastwith her Instagram account and

(01:50):
Facebook account and encouragedthe people that she loves and
cares about to go follow theDouble Dose podcast, because
it's starting to infuse hope andlight where we need it, and so
I would encourage everyone who'slistening that, if God is
touching you in and through ourvoices, we ask that you like us
on all the social mediaplatforms and, most importantly,

(02:10):
share it with your friends andyour loved ones, right, and then
share with us how it's blessingyou.
I have another story fromsomeone that I literally have
not talked to, probably sinceelementary school, and so you
have these long-distancefriendships that you have out on
Facebook, right, and thisindividual reached out to me on

(02:33):
Messenger and said hey, I justwant you to know that this
podcast is really blessing me.
And she shared some more, andit was incredible.
I couldn't believe it, and thefunny thing about it is just to
give a point in reference ofwhat this person means to me.
She was older than I, was inelementary school and someone
that I looked up to.

(02:54):
She was more of a friend of mysister's than myself, but her
best friend.
Her name was Carissa, andCarissa is the reason why I
named my firstborn Carissa, soliterally, through this podcast,
it's like a full circle momentwhere God is bringing people

(03:15):
from early on back forward andusing the voice to just touch
them where they're at today, andso, for that individual
listening to this episode, ifyou want a cameo call-out, like
I just called out, kelly Fisher,be sure to share it on social
media and tag yourself so we canhonor you by what God is doing

(03:37):
in and through your life.
What kind of stories do youhave?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Well, we're so grateful for all the messages
that have been pouring in fromall kinds of people encouraging
us, letting us know how God'sshowing up, and that's exactly a
great example of one of themany ways that he speaks to
individuals, because I can'ttell you.
Well, I can tell you.
You know how many folks havesaid you know this particular

(04:00):
podcast.
When Angelique said this, orElisa you said this, it was a
moment in their life withsomething that they were
struggling with and the wordthat they just needed to hear.
So Holy Spirit, you know,flowing through us straight to
them was just a beautiful thing.
One of the fun ones that I justheard, literally days ago, was

(04:23):
a friend was catching up andthen actually revisiting some of
the podcasts, and she startedfrom the very beginning.
She had like a four and a halfor a five-hour drive, was going
through all of them and she saidthe entire time I felt like I
was in the palm of God's hand.
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Isn't that?
Yes, wow, she'll bounce yes.
I was like well, that is whatit's all about.
It is, and so when we ask youto share this with your friends
and your family, it's not togive glory to Elise and Andrew.
Our hearts are for the Lord andwe know and we trust that he's
working in and through us and hesays to shout from the
housetops for all to hear whathe whispers in our ear.

(05:04):
And the housetops.
Back in the day when Jesuswalked the earth, the housetops,
the rooftops, were used toactually broadcast messages.
It was almost like their formof local radio, because the
sound would travel.
And so we're called tobroadcast the good news, and so
we're doing that faithfully,through just trusting that the

(05:25):
Lord's going to have His waythrough this podcast.
And then when you, as alistener, take this podcast and
share it with your friends,you're broadcasting His truth
and you're literally followingand being obedient to the call
of Go Make Disciples of theNations Spreading hope and light
.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Thank you, thank you for doing that.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Well, how about in your personal life, anything
worth reporting in the lastcouple of weeks?
Well, me and my hubby poppeddown to 30A, the magical spot
down in Florida between Duzdenand.
Panama City.
We absolutely love it.
I don't know.
It was just a couple days ofrespite and time of connection
and it was just amazing.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Did I see you had the grandbabies too.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
I saw some hand-holding with some little
ones, oh my gosh, the cutestever.
So little James and little Emma.
My daughter Lee and her husbandAlex happened to be down on 30A
for a week vacation and we wereplanning to come in over Labor
Day weekend.
So there just happened to beone evening where our paths
overlapped, and so we got tospend a little bit.
Be one evening where our pathsoverlapped, and so we got to

(06:25):
spend a little bit of one-on-onequality time together.
And yes, little James with hislittle backwards hat, I tell you
the cutest thing that meltsyour heart.
right, he's a mush, he justmushes me.
But, yeah, he loves his papaand he loves his Gigi and he has
to hold our hands and he wantsto talk to us.
He's just edible.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
That's awesome.
How about you?
I love it.
My mom had a birthday.
She came up and we celebratedhere, yeah, which was super fun.
I had a birthday last week.
I was going to say someone elsehad a birthday, yeah, we have a
little dinner party, as youknow, planned for tonight.
A little belated dinner party.
I'm excited about.
My parents celebrated 52 yearsof marriage.

(07:05):
Wow, praise the Lord, you mightremember they were 18 and 19, 19
and 20 when they married, so alot of changes over those years
but, yeah, sticking it out.
My company celebrated nineyears in business and two years
into the merger with Bridgepoint, so that was a fabulous
decision, all good and the bestnews of all.

(07:27):
As you might remember also andthis is interesting also in our
gratitude episode I spoke aboutmeeting Butch that one morning
that I ran out of eggs, yes, yes.
Went to Harris Teeter and he wasstocking in the produce section
there.
And, sure enough, just as heprayed and believed and had

(07:48):
faith, on August 29th he rangthat cancer-free bell.
Praise the Lord, I know.
We are ringing that bell withhim and I shared that video on
social media so y'all can checkit out there.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, it's so good, I love it.
And that brings us to today.
So what are we going to getinto today?

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Well, we're wearing these t-shirts for a couple of
reasons today, and not justbecause they're super cute,
right, and they have anincredible aspirational message
on them, right.
Love like Jesus, that's right.
Amen.
I mean, we wake up everymorning with that as a goal,
right, but by 10 am, as you saidin the last episode, who knows?

(08:27):
Right, depending upon what'shappened in our day.
But quick shout out to LittleSisters Boutique, which is an
adorable online boutique byLaura Little Sock and Courtney
Swindell, two beautiful sisterswho happen to go to our church.
They love each other, they lovethe Lord.
They have beautiful things likethis hats, shirts, fringe
jackets, you name it.

(08:47):
But the second reason thatwe're wearing these t-shirts is
because today we are talkingabout love.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yes, and before we dive into why we're talking
about love, I just want toconnect the dots for those who
may be listening and notwatching.
You'll need to go hop onYouTube to see what we're
talking about with theset-shirts.
And secondly, you might noticeour feet.
At least.
I forgot her shoes today.
Yes, I did, and at least I putsocks on my feet.

(09:17):
Okay, why did we do that?
Hey, jesus was barefoot.
Amen, he was.
But this is the deal.
So I sent a little text messageto my friend this morning and I
said hey, I know you got ust-shirts from that cute little
online store.
What are you wearing with it?
And she goes I'm going to bewearing some jeans.
I said, great, I can do me somejeans.
And then she goes can we bebarefoot again?
And I said well, you can, butnot me, because my toes need

(09:40):
some help.
So I'm wearing my fuzzy sockstoday, just so y'all know.
And why are we doing this?
Because we actually got a lotof great feedback from our
listeners or watchers, I shouldsay when we were barefoot on one
episode.
People noticed and they lovedit.
So we love you.
We're talking about love today.
We love you and our feet are inservice to you.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
That's right.
Okay, now, why are we talkingabout love today?
I?

Speaker 1 (10:02):
think that was a ploy to get a pedicure gift
certificate Y'all.
I need pedicure help.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Go ahead, yes so we are talking about love and
instantly when people hear thatword, you feel something.
And that something looks alittle bit different from person
to person, based on our ownexperiences.
For some of us, we hear theword love and we feel all warm
and fuzzy inside.
We feel peace and safety andsecurity.

(10:30):
But unfortunately, there'speople out there who hear that
word and they feel pain becausethe only love that they've ever
known is something that leftthem feeling uncertain or unsafe
.
But regardless of what end ofthe spectrum you're on, what
emotion bubbles up for you, thereality for all of us is, at

(10:52):
some point we've been let downby love.
So many of us have becomehardwired as a result of that to
then start to believe that if Ibehave a certain way, if I look
a certain way, if I perform orachieve a certain standard, then

(11:13):
I will be loved, that there'sstrings attached to it.
And so the ways that we'veexperienced love impacts the
ways that we see love and,whether we realize it or not, it
really impacts everything, eventhe way that we see love, and
whether we realize it or not, itreally impacts everything, even
the way that we see God and howwe see His love 100%.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
The fact is, is God is love, and God's love can't be
earned, and there's nothingthat can separate us from it.
Paul's very clear Romans 8.38,famous scripture nothing can
separate us from the love of God.
And the reality is, is there'sa lot of things that separates
us from human love.
Just like you just described,we're in shame, and so therefore

(11:57):
there's a block between me andanother person.
They can't love me, I can'tlove them.
It's kind of bilateral, and sothe way that we live out love on
this side of heaven, in ourflesh, is not a mere example of
how God loves us.
Yeah, and so this is a criticalcornerstone to how we even

(12:19):
think about the health of ourrelationship with God, which is
then an overflow to the healthof our relationship with others.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yeah, yeah.
And we're going to be unpackingall of that truth today.
We're going to look at thedifference between human love
and God's love, and then thereal meat of this episode is
going to be why so many of usstruggle to walk fully in the
fullness of God's love.
And the reality is just likethese t-shirts say.
I mean, we can't possibly havea chance of loving like Jesus

(12:50):
until we let Him love us first.
Right?

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Absolutely, and it's funny too, and you're going to
get into this a little bit, butthe word love is so diluted in
today's culture that we're goingto put some meat on the bones
to even what love is.
Yeah, and so you want to goahead and kick us into that?

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Well, I'll add a little bit more.
I mean, when you think aboutGod's love, it's a love that you
can't earn and you can't lose,right?
And people hear that and theythink what the heck is that?
Yeah, right.
I mean, when you've spent yourwhole life trying to be worthy
of love, how do we suddenlybelieve in a love that says I

(13:40):
loved you first.
I love you no matter what youhave done, no matter what you're
going to do.
I love you, period, no matterwhat.
I love you as you first.
I love you no matter what youhave done, no matter what you're
going to do.
I love you, period, no matterwhat.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
I love you as you are .

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah, we're going to help unpack all of that today,
and especially the things thatkeep us from his love.
So you want me to start.
We're going to break down kindof the difference we use the
word love I think you werealluding to for everything in
the.
English language right.
I love pizza, I love my husbandor wife, I love my dog.

(14:14):
But the Bible's really cool.
For a lot of reasons theBible's really cool, but it
actually breaks down differentkinds of love that we don't have
in the English language.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Exactly so, setting the stage on what the Bible
talks about love, we have acouple different things that we
need to start from.
First, the Old Testament.
The Old Testament's written inthe Hebrew language and the
prominent word for love in theHebrew language is hesed.
And then, moving to the NewTestament, in the Greek, there
are four core words that theBible uses to reference

(14:50):
different types of love, and thefirst, starting with eros,
e-r-o-s.
And this is the type of lovethat you experience in a
romantic, intimate relationship.
Romantic, intimate relationshipThink when you're in high
school and you have the firstboy or girl in front of you and

(15:12):
you get the goosebumps insideand all the human desire starts
to fill up.
It's the encapsulation of thebook of Song of Songs in the
Bible.
For those of you who aren'tfamiliar with that, it's written
by King Solomon and it is afiery book on the intimacy of
the flesh between husband andwife and how God designed us

(15:35):
with the sexual romanticintimacy.
So the eros is that type offiery, steamy, intimate type of
love.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, that book in the Bible reads a little bit
like a romance novel, right.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
Oh, it does To your point.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
it's the kind that makes you want to get out of the
yoga pants and the sweats andfix your hair and light some
candles and do some kitchen slowdancing, right, yes, so,
contrary to some belief, god isfor passion and intimacy right,
100%, that's right and thenthere's philia, which is

(16:10):
friendship or brotherly love.
That's like that ride or diefriend kind of love.
Jesus said greater love has noone than this, that he lay down
his life for his friends.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, and it's where we also get the name of
Philadelphia, so we have acouple cities across America.
That's the brotherly love.
That's what it means, and it'sthe type of love that's going to
get someone out of their houseand on the road to meet their
friend where they're at, becausethe friend's hurting and pain
needs some love.
It's the type of love thatmakes a girlfriend realize that

(16:49):
one of her friends is in her 40sand no one's ever thrown her a
birthday party, and it stirs herup to throw her a birthday
party.
I think you've been known to dothat, yeah, and so it's the type
of love that I've actuallydescribed to you lately, where
you are the type of personfriend to me where in my life

(17:10):
yeah, I'm not going to say howold I am, I almost did, but I
just paused myself.
I grieve over the fact that youhaven't been in my life since I
was in earlier stages, that I'mblessed that God's put you in
my life now, but I just thinkabout so many missed years of
opportunity.
Just that's how much I love you.

(17:31):
It's that those people that youjust treasure the friendships
for and you're just going to goover high water to make sure
that they feel loved and thatthey are loved.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
I hope you know I feel the same way, and so that
is such a testament to tellingpeople you know how you feel,
because when you say that I havenever, that might be the most
beautiful thing I've ever heard.
I have grieved the time thatwe've lost.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
I mean that is really beautiful.
Well, that's how I feel in myheart.
You're going to make me cry.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
I'm pausing because is it storage?
I'm going to have to cut thattoo.
Sorry, Kaden, Is that how I sayit?
Storage or storage?
Do you even know?

Speaker 1 (18:17):
I don't think we should cut it.
I think you should go with it.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
No, no, no, we're not going to cut it, I just need to
know how to say it.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Well, our audience just heard you say it and if
it's wrong, they will love you.
They will love you.
Is it storage?
I don't know what you don'tknow.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
I think you should just-.
We should know.
I'm embarrassed, we don't know,all right.
Well, next up is storage love.
Which is we're going with that?
There's storge, much like targeno, I'm kidding.
Which is family love?
It's the natural affectionbetween parents and children.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
It's the love that.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
I have, of course, for my brother, but it's not
just for family, it's actuallyloving others as if they are
family.
So Paul actually talks a lotabout this kind of love in
Romans 12.10 in his letter tothe church, where he says to be
devoted to one another in love,basically to treat one another
like family, with devotion andhonor, putting others first.

(19:16):
So typically it's used mostnaturally between family right,
where it's the thing that makesmoms and dads watch Frozen 87
times, right.
But as Paul reminds us, it'smeant to extend beyond the
family into the church family,to love your brothers and

(19:38):
sisters as if they were family100%, and that type of love
never goes away.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
It's, you know, god.
He literally yokes our soulstogether and it doesn't matter
how much, generally speaking,how much hurt and distance can
be between a family member andyou, it creates that gap in your
heart because it's that sort ofconnection, love, soul tie
connection, love that you'reyoked for good, bad or worse,

(20:06):
like you're yoked, and it'sgenerational, and so it spans
time and so it doesn't matterAgain.
It's why if you lose a lovedone, you know, even 20 years ago
, it feels like just yesterday.
Even 20 years ago it feels likejust yesterday.

(20:29):
The distance of time will helpyou have peace to a degree, but
there's still that loveconnection, always into infinity
, whether there's pain in therelationship or just the loss of
the relationship.
It's a real deep love.
And then we get into thisnotion of agape love.
I just love agape and I know Isaid it right.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
I know you said it right too.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
I'm just teasing and again, it's not earned, it's not
deserved, but it is sacrificialand it is just there, and
there's only one that canactually truly be in this agape
love, and it's a state of being,it's sacrificial in nature and
it is John 3, 16 that God camein the world.

(21:17):
He gave his one and only son,and so he gave it all so we
could have it all.
And there's no boundary lines onthat.
And the idea is that he hadthat in the forethought of his
thinking before the sin in thegarden even entered, meaning

(21:41):
that it was the Father, son,holy Spirit in the beginning and
His book of life had alreadybeen created.
He already knew the story andthey had already pre-decided
that they would sacrificethemselves to save us, their

(22:01):
creation, and there is nogreater love than that.
And it goes on to say in John15 that there is no greater love
than to lay down your life forthe one that you love in John 15
.
It's the love that knows noboundaries.

(22:22):
It doesn't matter how manytimes you have hurt me.
I'm not going to give you spaceand time to hurt me, but I've
already forgiven you before youeven hurt me again.
It's the 99.
You'll leave the 99 to go chasethe one sheep, because that one
sheep you're there to love.
It's the prodigal son, right?

(22:49):
The prodigal son didn't waitfor the son to walk up the
driveway in Luke 15.
The father just chases the sonas soon as he saw a speck of him
hitting the driveway.
It is just relentless, therelentless love of God.
And it's really hard in ourworld to truly understand this

(23:10):
type of love because we live ina dichotomy.
We absolutely have the love ofGod, agape love, available to us
each and every moment, but welive in such a broken world of
division and hate and just painthat these two things are

(23:31):
coexisting together.
But we don't feel themcoexisting.
We tend to lean towards what wesee in the flesh and not rest
and dwell and abide in the agapelove of God.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, you know, what occurred to me when we were
preparing for this is hearingagape.
Agape almost sounds like breathmuch in the same way that
Yahweh does, yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
Have you ever thought about that?
Maybe?

Speaker 2 (24:00):
I'm not the first one to think that, but I don't
think that's coincidental.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
He's in the breath, he's in the moment, he's just so
with us.
That's absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
Yeah.
So again, it's unlike anythingthat we can possibly imagine
with regard to human love,because it's not earned, it's
not deserved, it never changes,it never keeps score.
It's completely irrational.
And you said sacrificial, andyou mentioned who runs after the

(24:32):
prodigal, who chases, leavesthe 99 for the one who dies for
their enemies.
Human love is beautiful, butit's conditional.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, it's wild.
So if you really just pause fora moment, I want to dive in,
get into the scripture a littlebit, because the scripture is
the authoritative source on alltruth, specifically love.
And love is one of the greatesttopics from Genesis through
Revelation.
And if we start with Paul, sojust start with Paul.

(25:05):
We've said it before, say itagain the guy was a terrorist.
He was slaughtering Christians.
There's no difference betweenPaul in the New Testament—okay,
saul, he was renamed toPaul—when Saul was literally
brutalizing, setting people onfire and murdering people

(25:27):
because they claimed the love ofChrist.
That's no difference than ISISgoing and killing Jews and going
and killing Christians today.
Zero difference.
And people really have a hardtime reconciling that truth.
And God still loved him in hisdestruction and said you are
going to help launch the churchto the Gentiles.

(25:48):
It's pretty profound.
And you have Paul in Romans 5,8 saying but God demonstrates
his own love for us in this.
This is a man who killedmultitudes of people, but God
demonstrates his love for us inthis.
While we were still sinners,christ died for us.

(26:09):
So he's referencing a deadChrist that has risen and this
is in the rearview mirror and heis benefiting from what Christ
did on the cross.
And then, if you kind of rewindthe clock and go, well, what
did Jesus say before he actuallyput himself on the cross to die

(26:29):
for the sinners?
And we see in John again, 15,starting at verse 9, and I'm
going to read this chunk ofscripture because I really want
God, really wants this truth tohit everyone's heart.
As the Father has loved me, soJesus Christ.
No one disagrees that he was aman who was set apart, who had

(26:51):
so much love, compassion andmercy, and I mean he truly was
just.
If he wasn't God, he was aflawless human being, but we
know he is the deity.
So as the Father has loved me,so I have loved you.
Now, remain in my love.
If you keep my commands, youwill remain in my love.

(27:16):
Well, what is the command?
I'm going to keep reading.
Just as I have kept my Father'scommands and remain in His love
.
I have told you this so thatthe joy may be in you and your
joy may be complete.
There's peace.
When we truly know who God isand know His love, joy becomes
complete.

(27:36):
My command is this.
This is the command.
This sums up the entire BibleLove each other as I have loved
you.
It's that simple.
You are my friends if you dowhat I command.
If you love each other as Ihave loved you, then you are my
friend.
I no longer call you servants,because a servant does not know

(27:57):
his master's business.
Instead, I have called youfriends For everything that I
have learned from my Father.
I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but Ichose you and I appointed you so
that you may go and bear fruit,fruit that will last, so that
whatever you ask in the name, inmy name, the Father will give

(28:18):
you.
This is my command.
It's not a request.
It's a command.
It's obedience Love each other,love each other.
So why did this scripture hit myheart to share today?
Because this is the finalmoments before Jesus went to the

(28:39):
cross.
This is the place in John wherehe is basically regurgitating
three and a half years worth ofministry back on his disciples.
He is drilling into them.
You can't miss this, as I haveloved you, you need to go and
you need to love, and there's agreat consequence If you don't

(29:02):
love, the people won't believethat I came, and they need to
know my love.
The command is love and thereality is is because God is
love.
God says go.
This is the greatest commandthat you should love the Lord,
your God, with all your heart,with all your mind, with all
your soul.
And the second is love thyneighbor as yourself.

(29:26):
What people miss in that isthat I have to love my neighbor.
Okay, I got to love my neighborlike I love God.
It actually doesn't say that.
It says love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, mind and
soul, and love your neighbor asyourself yourself.
If you don't love yourselfbecause of what the world has
done to you, because there'sshame in front of you, because

(29:49):
there's all the roadblocks youthink you got to earn it, you're
not worthy.
Fill in the blank If you can'tlove yourself, you can't love
God, you can't love yourneighbor.
And so there's an order.
The order is love God, and whenyou truly know His love, you're
naturally going to loveyourself because you're going to

(30:10):
actually understand who you arein.
His love, then you have thecapability to love your neighbor
.
And it's that flow, it's likeeverything from Genesis to the
cross, to his second coming, isrooted and baked into his love.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
Yeah, you see us.
Lewis echoes the Bible too, byreminding us that God loves us
not because we are lovable, butbecause he is love.
Amen, so we don't ever earn Hislove.
He gives it freely, no matterwhat, not because we're worthy
of it, but because of who he is.
It isn't fragile, it doesn'twaver, it's steady.

(30:48):
When human love is shaky andconditional, right yeah.
And it transforms everything toyour point from the inside out,
which enables us to become andthen overflow with this
abundance of love, beyondanything that we could have ever
imagined, asked for or thoughtfor ourselves.

(31:09):
He sees every broken part of us, everything that we've ever
done wrong, and says I love youstill.
I mean it's, it's and you know,and for some of us listening to
this, I I feel like even folkswho have grown up in in um
church type settings for forsome people this is all new, you
know, and in some cases I feellike even in church scenarios

(31:34):
they've been taught that Godgives and takes His love away
based on whether we are good orbad, and it's really important
to understand that biblicallythat is inaccurate 100%.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, if you really keep getting into what the Bible
says on it, let's dig a littlebit deeper into it.
So you got this notion of agapelove, which is in the Greek the
sacrificial, immeasurable love,right, just went through that.
Well, the sister I call it thecousin or the sister is in the
Old Testament and it's thechesed love, right?

(32:11):
It is this incredible.
You said it, I'm putting thename to it steadfast love.
It's the loving, kindness,mercy, covenant, loyal, faithful
love of God.
It combines love, loyalty andmercy.
Love, loyalty and mercy, thefaithful love that God shows in

(32:31):
keeping His covenant with us,even when His people fail.
It's not an emotion, it's aliving breathing the breath of
God.
It's a living, breathingfaithful action by God right now
, in this moment.
Has said has said this is thepowerful thing in this moment.

(32:53):
Has said this is the powerfulthing.
It appears 245 times in the OldTestament.
It's heavily connected to thebook of Psalms.
You can literally open up toPsalm 136.
Psalm 136 has 26 verses in itand every single verse is
punctuated with His love enduresforever.

(33:14):
The next verse His love enduresforever.
It's like if you're not goingto get this, it doesn't matter
what you do.
It goes through humanity.
26 verses humans stink, humansstink, humans stink, but God's
love endures forever.
It's steadfast when we keepsinning and sinning and sinning.
He's steadfast to keep lovingand loving, and loving.

(33:36):
It is incredible when you readthe Old Testament and you can
see how humanity literallyfinally turns and runs their
hearts to God and in one chapterlater they're away from Him
again and it's like you just sawwhat happened to you before.
Why are you running away fromme?
And then the very next chapter,they're going back to him.

(33:56):
Because God is constantlypursuing.
If we flip forward to agape inthe New Testament, it appears
116 times.
And then if we relate that toagapeo, which is the love in
action, it's the sacrificiallove in action that is

(34:17):
referenced 143 times.
So do the math.
You're like up to 500 differentteachings, which is the
predominance of what the Lord isteaching throughout the
scriptures.
People often say the Bible likeit's boring.
I can't.
No, there's so many rules andregulations and da-da, no, it's

(34:38):
the relentless pursuit of God.
Loving you is what the Bible isand literally, matthew 22, 37,.
In action, jesus replied to thepeople love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart, mind andsoul and love your neighbor as
yourself.
That's what I referenced before.
But this is it.
If you don't understand hislove fully, like this relentless

(35:03):
, chesed agape love, get chasingit, because when you chase him
you're going to find him.
He will be found by you,because he's already chasing you
.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
Yeah, and you hit on this a little bit earlier too.
It's worth repeating that themore that we let in his love the
more that we love him, the morethat we come to know Jesus and
build an authentic relationshipwith him.
The amazing and beautiful thingis and we've said it a million
times is that transformationthat happens in your heart.

(35:34):
So what inevitably happens isyou want to be more like Him.
You want to honor Him and Hislove by being a better human and
loving others the way that heloved us 100%.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
If I kind of just liken it back to this greatest
command to love the Lord, yourGod, with all your heart, mind
and soul, and love your neighboras yourself.
And you're in this pursuit of.
Well, what does that truly mean?
To love the Lord, your God,with all your heart, mind and
soul?
I don't know how to even begin.
Okay, just want to make aconnection point to that really

(36:13):
quick.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
And.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
I know we're going to get into deeper application
later, but I think it's justreal time, so important.
There are so many times in mylife where I don't love myself,
and so, if we think about that,love the Lord, your God, and
then your neighbor as yourself.
If you're not loving yourneighbor like you love God, that
means you're probably notloving yourself.

(36:36):
Well, so let's start with self.
So what is my self-talk?
Oh, you screwed up again.
Oh, you're not deserving ofthat promotion, whatever it is.
You're not worthy of the loveof your children or your husband
, or you deserve the crueltreatment you receive from
somebody.
Just fill in the blank of thatnegative self-talk.

(36:59):
Yeah, when you speak againstyourself that way, you're
speaking against God himself.
Yeah, it's like whoa, and sotake each thought captive.
It's really again.
What is my self-talk?
Am I loving?
Am I kind?
Am I merciful?
That's good.

(37:19):
Am I loyal to myself?
God is faithful, he's loyal,he's merciful.
Am I those things to myself?
And if I can't be that tomyself, that's an indicator of
what God is trying to teach meabout Him.
Yeah, so God, show me this, sothen I can love myself, I can be
loyal to myself, I can bemerciful to myself.

(37:40):
So then, when the person who Iwant to slap by 10 o'clock, the
person I want to slap by 10o'clock, truly God is revealing
Himself to us in the frictionhe's trying to teach us to say
hey, listen, there's anattribute about my love you
quite don't understand andyou're not walking in, because

(38:00):
if you truly understood thebreadth of my love, you wouldn't
be showing up the way you'reshowing up.
And so those moments are themoments, the people who you have
a hard time loving.
It is not the problem of theperson, I'm telling you.
Yes, there's annoying peopleout there.
There's people that drive you.
They're not your cup of tea.

(38:21):
You can do life without them.
But God has them in your lifefor a reason because that
person's teaching you somethingyou need to know about the
goodness and the love of God, toincrease your capacity to
receive His love, so you canoverflow and be a vessel to the
person in front of you.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
Yeah, well, you're walking us into really such an
important part of this episodetoday, which is we can
understand logically andbiblically that God loves us and
he never stops chasing us.
Yet so many of us are out herewandering around, struggling,
really struggling to let in thefullness of His love.

(38:58):
So there's a lot of reasons,but let's talk about a few of
those now.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
So one in particular is head knowledge versus the
heart knowledge.
Until you experience Him, it'sreally hard to understand the
depth and breadth of his love.
So you have to shift from justhead knowledge to heart
knowledge.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Yeah, yeah, experiencing him is such a hard
thing to help people understand,to articulate right, until it's
happened to you.
I mean I could put it this wayyou know it's like head
knowledge is knowing the facts.
It's reading the nutritionlabel on you know the jar of

(39:40):
honey, or understanding that theshore, with the waves crashing
all around you.
You have to experience it.
I think another good way todescribe it would be like how do

(40:02):
you explain to somebody who'slived underground their entire
life what it feels like to feelthe warmth of the sun on your
face?
That's like experiencing him.
And there's so many differentways that we experience him.
I mean, we've got storiesgalore.
Even you and I have someincredible stories about these

(40:23):
downloads that we've beengetting.
And then we come together andwe had no conversation about it.
But, oh my gosh, it all maps up.
I mean he speaks to us innumbers.
You're really big on this.
Lots of different ways, but Ican give you I'll give you kind
of two quick examples.
One that comes to mind is mymom, who I've been suffering for

(40:46):
years with numerous symptomsthat were truly affecting her
quality of life, removing herfrom everyday things that she
enjoyed, like bike riding andwhatnot, and she was here
probably about a year ago andcoincidentally which, of course,
it's never a coincidence wejust went through an incredible

(41:07):
series at the church on healing,and so her and I sat down on
the sofa we watched one of thesermons that I thought would
really hit her heart andresonate with her on healing and
having almost resurrection kindof faith and we sat there on
the sofa with tears streamingdown our face, we prayed out
loud with the pastor.

(41:28):
At the end we were done.
We get up, we transition intothe kitchen, we're going into
breakfast time and in thatmoment I said something to her
equivalent to and now we justneed to believe that it's done.
And right in that moment shegoes Alisa, alisa, and I'm like
what Someone's breaking in Onher phone is 818.

(41:53):
And in that moment I burst intotears because 818 is her like
Holy Spirit sign that alwaysit's something she notices in
various places, whether it's ona clock or even in other ways,
when she's having a moment withthe Lord or praying, things of
that nature.
And so that was his way ofsaying you know, I'm here, I see

(42:20):
you, it is done.
Another really cool one thathappened was in the very
beginning of our podcast, and Ididn't want to share this when
we first kicked things offbecause I knew it was coming.
So a friend of mine watched ourtestimonies and she watched
Atheist.
Is Atheism Dead?
You know, god is real?

(42:40):
And she would never normallytake an entire hour plus to
listen to a podcast like that,you know.
But she did it because sheloves me.
And so she had been having ahard time for a few weeks like
kind of everything that could gowrong was going wrong.
And that day her dryer brokeand it was just the straw that
broke the camel's back.
She's yelling, she's yelling atGod.

(43:02):
She admitted to me and then,after she even said God, I spent
over an hour of my timelistening to a podcast about you
Like why is this happening?
And so, after she calmed down,she went to bed that night and
she asked the show me prayer.
And then the very next morningshe's out walking the dogs, as

(43:23):
she always does, on the golfcourse, you know, and there's
the ponds all over the golfcourse.
And she said I'm walking.
And in that moment again, Iasked the show me prayer,
feeling kind of disconnectedfrom God.
She admitted and she said Ilooked down over in the side and
in the pond there was aperfectly placed cross, nothing

(43:45):
else around it Beautiful Twosticks, I mean to scale and the
whole thing.
And the best part is she burstinto tears telling me the story.
I had tears coming down too,because she knew he was speaking
to her.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
It's crazy.
So it's really when hispresence shows up in your life
in a tangible way and somepeople may think it's strange or
voodoo to say oh God speaksthrough numbers.
I think it's strange or voodooto say oh God speaks through
numbers, but the entire Hebrewlanguage is underpinned by
numbers.
Every character in the alphabetactually has a correlating

(44:27):
number in geometria and it's allcorrelated and God speaks very
clearly through it.
And you can study Jewishtradition and you're going to
see it.
And there's so many stories inthe Bible where God will say do
something weird, walk aroundJericho seven times and blow
some trumpets and all of asudden the walls are just going
to fall down.

(44:47):
Yeah, like His ways are not ourways, but he says this when we
seek Him, we will find Him.
Like his ways are not our ways,but he says this when we seek
him, we will find him.
And he will start to create apattern in our life where we
know he's speaking to us so wecan hear him.
And so you talk about numbers.
I've got two quick littlestories.
My predominant number is 537.

(45:08):
It can be 537, 735.
It doesn't matter, it's like 5,3, and a 7 somewhere in a
pattern together.
And it's because I was raisedin a town called Prophetstown
and if you call Prophetstown youhave to dial the prefix 815.
And then to hit Prophetstown,it's 537.
So 815's Illinois, and then 537will get you to Prophetstown,

(45:31):
illinois.
And so every time I see 537 or357, 357, it doesn't matter what
I see I know God is gettingready to—He's saying something
to me, and typically whathappens to me is I will
literally be in prayer onsomething and I will ask Him
something and I will feel ananswer, and then I'll glance not

(45:53):
even trying to do it, but I'mglancing at my phone, I'm
glancing at the microwave, I'mglancing at whatever, and all of
a sudden it's there.
It's like an affirmation it'sdone.
And so that happens to meconstantly.
I can't even Even knowing youwere going to share your story
on 818 with your mom.
I was praying for the podcastthis morning and 818 pops up on

(46:14):
my phone.
I screenshot it and said God'sin it today.
This is amazing, but when I wasin New York a couple weeks ago,
I shared that on the lastepisode, in episode eight, that
I found myself in New York on abusiness trip.
Well, one thing I didn't shareis the first night I was there,
I was on hunt for a smoothie.
Now I'm in New York.

(46:35):
Look at your face.
You were serious about thesmoothie.
I'm very serious I got lost.
Not lost, I didn't get lost,but I ended up on streets.
I had no business being on, andit's after nine o'clock at
night and it's dark, and it'sNew York City, right.
And finally I'm like you knowwhat?
I think I've hit the do notenter zone for this girl and I
needed to turn around and findmy way back to Times Square.

(46:57):
So that's what I did.
I did pick up a smoothie alongthe way, but it was an adventure
.
But when I hit Times Square,it's now like 9.30 at night.
Anybody that knows me knows thatmy bedtime is between 9 and
9.30.
So me being up in New YorkTimes Square at 9.30 at night,
there's nothing that I want todo except for run straight to my
hotel room and close my eyes asfast as possible, sure.

(47:19):
But as I'm going through TimesSquare, I literally pass this
lady who's four foot nothing andshe's like 90 years old, and I
could hear the distress in hervoice and I walk past her like
oh, I think she's lost, and Ijust keep beelining it because I
got to go to bed, and then itwas just literally the prompting

(47:41):
in your gut that says turnaround and ask her if she's okay
.
And I'm like, no, I don't gottime for this.
I'm like I got to go to bed andI'm like a block away from her
now in Times Square.
So I'm walking through TimesSquare I'm like, oh my gosh, I
have to turn around.
I have to turn around right now, because you kept hearing it.
I kept hearing it, and so Iturned around.
I ma'am, ma'am, are you okay?

(48:02):
Are you lost?
Yes, I'm lost.
I don't know what to do.
The Uber driver he's an idiotand he just dumped me here and I
don't know where my hotel isand I can't get there.
And she was in a complete stateof panic and she's got family
in Ohio and no one's there tohelp her.
And I said okay, ma'am, listen,I'm going to get you to your

(48:23):
hotel room.
What's your hotel?
Long story short, the firsthotel we get to, she swears it's
her hotel.
It's not her hotel.
And so then we're now findingreservation systems to try to
figure out what hotel inManhattan this little old,
precious lady is at.
An hour goes by and I'm finallydropping her off to her hotel

(48:46):
room oh, wow and got her alltucked in and it was quite the
adventure, sweetest thing.
But that's, that's what it is.
It's like.
Do we have eyes to see, ears tohear the need in the moment?
And are we listening to thatgut whisper that puts us back in
the pathway of someone whoneeds our love and our care,
despite our own agenda?
That's experiencing God so good, so what's something else that

(49:12):
could be stopping us fromreceiving His love?

Speaker 2 (49:15):
You alluded to this several times earlier, but
feeling unworthy is a huge one.
Quite frankly, it might be themain one, right?
I mean, so many of us arewalking around feeling
completely and totally unworthyof his love, but, spoiler alert,
the reality is not a single oneof us are worthy of his love,

(49:37):
right?
So you got to let go of that.
But the problem comes is whenwe're allowing the unworthiness
that we put on ourselves, or theenemy puts on ourselves, to
block us, create a filter ofletting his love through, and
one of those kinds of filters isa concept that's called
confirmation bias, which is ourtendency to seek out, interpret

(50:02):
experience, every interaction inlife in a way that already
confirms what we believe aboutourselves.
And so that means, if I believethat I'm unworthy, then every
mistake, every failure, everyunanswered prayer, I'm going to
automatically interpret as Goddoesn't love me.

(50:25):
I am, in fact, unworthy.
And so we develop those filtersfrom a lot of different things
choices that we've made, actionsthat we've taken.
But we can also develop themfrom things that happened to us
that maybe we had no controlover in our lives, that have
impacted our identity and areclouding the way that we see

(50:47):
God's love because we haven'tyet done the work to heal and
release those things.
You know childhood wounds,rejection.
You know abandonment, betrayal,all of those things tell us a
story, you know that screams youaren't worthy of love.
That screams you aren't worthyof love.
And the worst part is when welet the enemy get us to believe

(51:11):
that story, because then whathappens is Christ's love feels
completely and totally foreignand unattainable, even
threatening right In some cases,because we're walking through
life with this filter that'spreventing us from walking fully
in His love, even though wemight be walking around with
overwhelming evidence to thecontrary.

(51:32):
We're ignoring all of thatbecause we have this bias that
says I'm not worthy, seek out,I'm not worthy.
It's true.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
It's so true I liken it to some of my own experiences
in my own life and so when Iwas being raised, and even in
early relationships that I had,you know intimately, I never had
consistent, strong male rolemodels.

(52:01):
I never had a consistent rolemodel as a father who knew how
to love well as a father andearly relationships, even my
first husband determined that Iwasn't worthy of love because he
had to look in other places tofind love right and so it just
kind of reinforced the I'm notworthy of receiving love.

(52:27):
And I still remember this likeit was yesterday, and I still
find myself having moments, eventoday, that when I first went
out with my husband, my husbandJohn, that the first night that
we went out I basically wordvomited my entire life to him in

(52:49):
one night and I'm like he'seither going to run for the
hills or he's going to say youknow what?
She's pretty quacky and I loveher a lot.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
Well, we know the net result of that.
Fortunately, yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
So he opted.
He was like, yeah, I'm going totake her out on a second date.
And I still remember just theshock.
And I lived in this state ofshock Even when he proposed to
me.
It was like I was shocked.
Because I was like how can thisman who's so worthy love
someone who's so unworthy?
And I really felt like therewas this mismatch.

(53:24):
And I always felt like how did Iget so lucky?
And even when my husband and Iare having intimate emotional
relational conversations today,I will catch myself thinking how
did I deserve him?

Speaker 2 (53:40):
Oh, that's beautiful though.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
But he's so good and he's so pure of heart.
He's such a good, loving man,yeah, and it's just who he is
that I'm just so.
My brain wired growing up wasthe antithesis of him, yeah, and
so I still find myself pinchingmyself going.

(54:04):
I get to taste and see goodlove through him and I'm so
thankful for that.
And it's just a crumb of whatGod's love is.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
Yeah, you know, oh, that's so beautiful.
Well, and you're able toreceive John's love because you
receive God's love.

Speaker 1 (54:21):
And John's love really helped fortify the safety
of being able to receive God'slove and John's love really
helped fortify the safety ofbeing able to receive God's love
.
So I had a lot of fear.
I had a lot of issues that Ihad to work through.
Just even God, as in my headGod was a male figure in this
dominant male father, white hair, yelling.

(54:41):
You know, male father, whitehair, yelling, you know, kind of
like Wizard of Oz evil, yeah,and that's kind of the image I
had in my head that I had toearn that image as love.
And I didn't ever know how,because I'd never had any role
models to actually receive lovefrom.
If that makes sense, it does,yeah.

(55:11):
And so when I was receivingJohn's love, it actually created
space in my heart to learn andlean into God more and to know
Him more.
And then I could almostpersonify it through my
relationship with God, I meanwith John, and I think it's hard
to put into words, and I thinkit's hard to put into words, but
God gives us really goodrelationships as a reflection
we're made in His image, so thehealthy versions of ourselves

(55:34):
are best feet forward.
He gives us these relationshipsas an image bearer of Christ,
of Him.
So when we do seek out healthyrelationships, we actually can
learn more about who he is.
But if we're stuck in unhealthyrelationships, it's really

(55:58):
difficult to try to detach fromthe unhealthy relationships and
to actually learn who God is.
So my question would be whatrelationships could be hindering
your own perception of who Godis and how do you get straight
on that so you can actuallylearn and receive from Him?

Speaker 2 (56:21):
Yeah, yeah, when I think of confirmation bias and
unworthiness, I think about whatGod's been doing in and through
me with my fear of publicspeaking, which I've been very
transparent of that kind ofalong the way, and I don't even
know exactly where that comesfrom.
I mean I guess from the numeroustimes that I've felt like it

(56:45):
didn't go well or, uh, what Iread or didn't read from
people's faces.
You know when I public spoke,um, but you know here, uh, I've
had to be really careful about,especially in the, the first few
episodes.
You know I can easily get onthat negative track myself
watching back the episodes andzero in on everything.

(57:09):
You know that I did wrong oh,look at that weird face.
Or you say right too many times.
Or could you say sure, one moretime?
Or how about the ums?
You know I mean and get on that.
You know whole hamster wheel andnot at all focus on the
evidence.
To the contrary, we showed upwith open hearts, we shared a

(57:33):
beautiful message, we let theHoly Spirit work through us, we
made people laugh.
The messages that have comepouring in about the double dose
and how it's impacting people'slives.
You know it's just when we zeroin on these negative things
about ourselves, we aren't.
We aren't confirming truth,we're confirming fear.

(57:54):
Right, and if we aren't careful, then we end up conditioning
ourselves to believe that story.
But it's not God's voice.
But it's not God's voice andit's definitely not His love.
His love says I choose you, I'mproud of you, I love you, and

(58:25):
it's so important to understandthat, because when we don't
believe that, when we tearourselves down and we let fear
and insecurity take over, I meanGod he doesn't just shrug His
shoulders.
He grieves, grieves yes, I mean, he grieves.
I don't know how you helppeople.
Maybe you can help me connectthese dots.
It is like standing at the footof the cross and saying that

(58:47):
doesn't count for me.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
I mean, just let that sink in.
I mean, you can watch thePassion of Christ and the
Passion of Christ, right, that'swhat it's called in the movie
and you can say that everythingthat he went through was for
naught.
It's like that's a powerfulstatement, yeah, and it just

(59:10):
goes back to this we have toknow God to love God.
If we don't know him, if wedon't experience him, you're
without excuse.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
Because he will be found by you.
Yeah, you're without excuse.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
Yeah, Because he will be found by you.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
Yeah, so the encouragement is get off the
couch, get off the social media,get off the whatever's holding
you back from getting to knowhim.
That should be the number onepriority.
From there, you will increaseyour capacity to love yourself
and to love others.
It's good.
It's that simple.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
It's good.
It's that simple, it's good,yeah, and how about this one,
too?
What about?
While I think unworthiness iscertainly the primary one,
another one that occurred to meis there might be many people
walking around who actually areaware of God's love, but
understand that if we let Hislove fully in, it's going to

(01:00:08):
require something of us.
Right, like we've got to stepup to that and change.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
Yeah, there's the notion.
It goes back to kind of what wetouched on earlier people's
perception of why they don'tread the Bible it's too hard to
understand, it's too complicated.
Oh, it's a bunch of rules andregulations, and that is the lie
of the enemy.
I'm telling you right now it'sthe lie of the enemy.
There's nothing more excitingthan when you start to taste and

(01:00:39):
experience God, when you startto see supernatural things
happen right before your eyes.
Like we talked about a coupleof ways to hear and we're going
to do an episode on hearing fromhim in full but like when you
really start to be intentionaland you're hearing from an
unseen God.
There's nothing more exciting,yeah, there's nothing more
hopeful, because you have a Godthat is completely in control of

(01:01:01):
all things.
Control of all things, and it'snot again the big bad genie
popping out of the bottle or theevil wizard of Oz shouting out
from Oz.
It is this loving being thatwants nothing but the very best
for us, and this notion of wegot to let go of something.

(01:01:22):
We said it in the last episode.
I believe Anything he needs usto let go of us is because
there's something so muchgreater on the other side of it.
Yeah, he'll expose all of it assoon as we're ready to let go
of the thing that we're holdingstrong onto.
Anything we're holding strongonto, that we don't want to let
go, is a stronghold on us.
Yeah, and the strongholds haveto go to go into the abundance

(01:01:46):
of God.
On the last episode, too, wetalked about how God tests us so
we can be trusted.
Yeah, okay, there's the notion,too, that even in the testing,
when we fail, god not increasingour territory is not to punish

(01:02:10):
us, meaning if we fail the test,we don't get to expand and grow
His kingdom.
That's not unloving.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
It's quite the opposite, it's quite loving.
Yeah, opposite, it's quiteloving.
And so the test is protectingus from our own demise.
And so there's so much.
We say we will love you if wecan trust you.
So that's culture.
Culture says I trust you, Ilove you.

(01:02:41):
That's not what God says.
God says you can fail the test.
Trust every single day, but youcan never, ever, ever,
evaporate my love.
The consequence will be thatyou're not going to be the one
shouting from the housetops therighteousness and the fruit of
your life, and I want that foryou.
I'm chasing you down because Iwant that for you.

Speaker 2 (01:03:04):
Yeah, yeah, In the beginning.
There you hit on something thatmakes me think.
There's a famous saying that'sfamous for a reason Choose your
heart right.
You know we think transformingand being called higher is
harder.
You know letting go of thefamiliar, the self-centeredness,
you know all of our guiltypleasures and whatnot, but the

(01:03:26):
reality is staying the same isso much harder.
Carrying shame is harder, right, Living without peace is harder
.
So much harder.
Filling emptiness with thingsthat never really satisfy us is
harder.
So God's love doesn't make lifeharder.
He makes everything moremeaningful, more beautiful, more

(01:03:46):
real, and he offers us changewith his love that, if we're
honest, our souls are aching forreally.
Come to me all who are weary andburdened, and I will give you
rest, Right, Matthew 11, 28.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
Amen.
It's like if we believe in ourminds that anything that's
unrighteous will create us frombeing undeserving of His love.
Yeah, so this is what we say.
Any act of unrighteousness,therefore, we will separate us
from the love of God.
But God says your ways are notmy ways, your thoughts are not
my thoughts.
Nothing can separate you frommy love.

(01:04:24):
So, child, seek me out.
You will be found.
I will be found by you and Iwill wash you new into my love.
Beautiful, and it's a promise.
We can stand firm in thispromise.
So now, as we step intopractical steps to grow in the
fullness of love, it starts withthat promise.
He says nothing can separateyou from my love.

(01:04:45):
I have loved you before youwere even created.
In the fullness of love, itstarts with that promise.
He says nothing can separateyou from my love.
I have loved you before youwere even created in the womb.
I will love you no matter what.
My love endures forever.
And when you seek me, you willbe found by me, when you seek me
with your whole heart.
So now let's get into thepractical steps.
For how do people get into thefullness of God's love?

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
Yeah, many of these we've spoken about.
But just to refresh name thebarrier.
You know we think we have tofeel worthy before we can
receive God's love, but thetruth is, you know, we receive
His love first, and then ourworthiness grows out of that.
Because inevitably, we want tobe more like Him, right.
A part of that is, you know,facing our childhood wounds.

(01:05:28):
You know what are the thingsthat we got to get real about
and heal.
God can't heal anything that werefuse to acknowledge and lay
at his feet right.
Another practical step, youknow, is to pause.
We're in the middle of that,you know, shame spiral or that.
You know, confirmation biaskind of filter, where all we're

(01:05:50):
doing is looking forunworthiness, you know, or
feeling like we can't measure up.
You know, lean on scripture,amen, chock full.
So much to change the channel.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
Absolutely Over 500 scriptures in the Bible that
speak of the goodness, of God'slove, just as a starting point.
So when we think aboutscripture, we meditate on it, we
memorize it, we get it tuckedin our heart and that becomes an
overflow.
We pray it out.
So if I'm in a tense situation,I'm feeling hurt, I'm feeling
unworthy, whatever it is thenegative feeling that I'm in in

(01:06:26):
the moment God, show me yourlove in this moment.
Teach me, teach me, teach meand, even more importantly, what
are you trying to reveal aboutyourself and your love in this
friction point that I have?
Yeah, right, yeah, and show me,show me, show me Like when we
pray, show me prayers.
We, all of a sudden, he willimmediately start to show us.

(01:06:47):
Yeah.
The other thing that I think issuper important worship.
Yes, get your heart fixed onworship songs, not that talk
about what God does for us, buttalk about who God is for us and
in us.
Yeah, and like talking aboutHis love.
And I just captured a few of myfavorite ones.

(01:07:09):
So Reckless Love by CoreyAsbury, the reckless love of God
.
Listen to the lyrics, listen tothe songs, just get into the
moment with the Lord andmeditate through music who the
Lord is.
What is this reckless love thatchases us down?
Who is God Good, good Father?
By Chris Tomlin.

(01:07:30):
That song helped me so muchwhen it came out to visualize
God is a good, good fatherbecause I didn't have a father
figure to point to right.
So we can learn about theattributes of God through music.
Your love never fails by Jesus'culture, I mean.
His love never fails.
Never gives up on me.
You don't want me singing, butI'm starting to get into the jam
.

(01:07:50):
God's so loved by we, thekingdom, how he loves.
What a beautiful name, King ofmy heart.
There's so many.
You can just go to Google andsay worship songs to learn about
God's love and through musicyou can learn on it.
Abide in His word, abide in thelyrics of the song and just be

(01:08:13):
in that space where yourcapacity for love for Him can
increase and out to others myplaylist was on shuffle on the
way to this episode today and Iheard the Truth by Megan Woods
oh love, Not coincidental.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
Again, all about this concept.
So it doesn't matter whatyou've done or how many times
you've fallen, Just a reminderto everyone listening that you
are never too far gone for God'slove, amen.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
And so we're going to close with, of course, a book
recommendation.
And so A Shepherd Looks a lookat Psalm 23.
This is by far one of myfavorite books in the world.
I've read it countless timesand I'm going to keep on reading
it.
But it literally, when we saythat God is the good shepherd,
and he chases the one.
He chases the one and leavesthe 99, like he chases the one.

(01:09:05):
It goes into the depths of whatit takes to be a shepherd of
sheep, and the intricacies ofeach verse.
It's just so rich, I mean, it'sso dense.
It's a little little itty-bittybook, but, my goodness, it's
going to open your mind to thegoodness of God's love.
So with that, I think I'm goingto pray us out.

(01:09:27):
Is that good, okay?
Well, heavenly Father, we justlove you.
We love you so, so, very much,and we just thank you that you
are a good, good Father and youare faithfully increasing our
experience of you and who youare and increasing our capacity
to love you more and to thedepths that we never even
thought were possible, to be anoverflowing stream of living

(01:09:52):
waters of love to those who needyour love around us.
Lord, just thank you that yourlove covers the multitude of
sins, lord, and that you arejust so quick to say yes and
amen when we draw near to you.
So just thank you for justshowing our listeners who you
are, more and more each andevery day.

(01:10:13):
We all have so much to learnabout the vastness of your love.
So, lord, we're just sothankful for your faithfulness,
your mercy and your love thatendures forever.
In the name of Jesus, we pray,amen, amen.