Pastor Robert and TaQuaris Smith
Praise the Lord. Now I get to do one of my most favorite things to do: share the word. I'm extra excited today because I have this beautiful young lady who for some reason said yes to me. You still say yes?
Tequaris: Yes.
Robert: Praise the Lord. Isn't she beautiful? I whispered it before we got here. I said, “I'm a blessed man. You look good today. I'm a blessed man." She is going to get me later, but that's all right. Praise the Lord. We are so glad to be here, not only today, but to join the family of Hope. It has been a blessing beyond measure already. Pastor Brian and Jacque, thank you for inviting us to the family. Thank you for our wonderful staff: Pat Jeff, Rachel Micah. All of you guys have been wonderful getting me all transitioned in and I'm very grateful in my heart for that.
Back in September we brought a message entitled "A visible community." Out of that message, I have seen a new life in Hope. We even got to go out and pass out apples in the neighborhood as a visibility project for hope. I've seen many people give testimony of how they have gotten the courage to go out, open up their mouths and share the good news of Jesus Christ. When Pastor Brian had asked me to bring the message today, as I was meditating and praying about it, the Lord put on my heart, that it's fine for us, and even talking with the men, Brad, you guys inspired me too, and talking about being a visible community, which means we would go out in the community to share the good news of Jesus Christ, we've got to kind of take a step backward for a minute, as we are in a new day in Hope and I would say even a reset in the body of Christ.
If we are to be a visible community, I have to ask the question, what does that community look like? Because if we are going to be visible, there is a certain look that we have, and I'm not talking about our external clothes that we wear, the external things that we do. But if we are going to search what it means to how the church community is to look, we have to undoubtedly look at how the church community is to behave both to those outside the church, who we are being visible to, and also how we behave to those who are the church. Notice I said are the church because I don't like that term "in the church." This is a church building, but we are the church. Amen. You see, the church is called the body of Christ because it was Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one, the son of God, whom the God had placed as the head of the church.
So the believers who make up the church are called the body of Christ. We are called out under the direction of the one who called them and paid the price for them, and that's Jesus. So there is one head, Jesus, one body, but you and I, many members that make up that body. And you know what, look around the room. We are all different. We are all diverse. But yet in that diversity, we share a common bond, and in that common bond, we are to look and sound and behave in a way that reflects our head, and that reflects the love of Jesus Christ. Jesus said it himself. As a matter of fact, Jesus can say it better than me. So sweetheart, can you read what Jesus said in John chapter 13 verses 34 and 35.
Tequaris: So now I am giving you a new commandment, love each other; just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.
Robert: You see what Jesus said? Did he say that a number of sermons we preach will prove that we are his disciples? No. Did he say how much money we had in our pocket will proof that we are his disciples? Nope. What did he say? How much we love one another, those in the body of Christ, he said that will be the marker that you belong to me. That's how you love one another. Now, as I was thinking about this and praying about it and going over, I thought in these last 20 months, I don't think the church has really done a good job of loving one another. I don't think that that would be pleasing to the one who has called the church.
As I meditate on— and I'm a reflector. I've always been a thinker, always been a person who likes to reflect on things to make things better, including myself. As I meditated on the church over the last 20 months, I would argue that there are things that have happened in the church that did not truly reflect the love of Christ, especially during a viral pandemic and what some would call a racial pandemic. The church has not been very loving towards one another, but there is good news. Everybody likes good news, right? The good news is that Jesus Christ is pleased as the church reflects a loving community, both within the church and without, meaning those in the world. That's our charge today for you and I: to see what that looks like, a loving community. Amen. That was just my introduction. Now, now we will get to preaching.
There are two points really that we are going to share with you today and seeing what this loving community number one, is not and what it should be. In that that first point, I want you to make a note that we are first called to love one another in the church. Sweetheart, can you read first John 4 and 7?
Tequaris: Dear friends, let us continue to love one another for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God, but anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Robert: You hear that? God is love. God is love. He had a motivation to have a relationship with his creation. You know what that motivation was? Love. What does the scripture say For God so loved the world. He didn't say he hated the world. He didn't say he condemned the world. He said for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that you and I can be sitting here today, calling ourselves believers in the savior Jesus Christ. And so that Jesus could form the church and we could be that visible, loving, joyful community to the rest of the world because he loved us. Even when we weren't lovable, he loved us. Even when we were sinners, he called his friends. That's the love that God has for his creation. Amen. Yet it amazes me how much the so-called church, underline that, the so-called church still has a problem with this subject of love.
Do you know I've even had people try to challenge me on this subject of love, being the overarching importance in the body, in our relationship with God? Yeah. That's how sad that has gotten through religion, through tradition, through manipulation, through false teaching, through error, through flesh. The scripture told us that we read today that God is love, that love comes from God. Don't argue with me. I'm just reading the scriptures. But in conversations some would say, I don't think the church has a problem with love. Really? Tequaris, do you know any people that haven’t felt loved by the church?
Tequaris: Unfortunately, I do.
Robert: And we could go on and on and have a conversation about that, couldn't we?
Tequaris: We could.
Robert: Yeah, but we've got work to do today. Many people measure a believer's faith by many things, such as how gifted someone is or how anointed they are. I dare to say to you that the first mark of faith in the believer is how much they express the love of God with their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. If you tell me you are a believer, don't tell me how long you pray at night. Don't tell me how many scriptures you can quote. I want to see how you treat, firstly, your brothers and sisters in Christ. Then we could talk about how much you love Jesus. I'll let the words say more than me. So let's read first John 4, 9 through 12,
Tequaris: God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us and his love is brought to full expression in us.
Robert: If the church is to be a true witness to the world of God's love, then it first must be manifested among us in the body of Christ. If anyone calls himself a believer, I like to say a Christ follower because Jesus said follow me. It wasn't a one-time event. It was a lifelong call to follow him. So I liked the term Christ follower. If we call ourselves believers or Christ followers, then the love of brother and sister in the Lord is not optional, regardless of skin color, regardless of race, regardless of economic status, regardless of familial status, regardless of political affiliation, difference in opinions, we in the church are called to love one another, period.
It has so grieved me in these past few months, 20 months or so, but it's nothing new in the 20 months or so. Sin has been a problem for a long time. Flesh has been a problem for a long time, but what has happened, what God has allowed is the exposure of men's heart. That's what has happened. The exposure of men's heart is what the Lord has allowed to happen during this time. And I've been so grieved at the things that are allowed to come and divide the church. It reminds me of a phrase that the apostle Paul would say in his letters. He would say things like this should not be named among you. He said he expected certain sinful things to be dealt with by the Gentiles, but he said, these things should not be named amongst you. Those that have come out of the world of darkness and into the light of Christ, these things should not be amongst you. This should not be heard of you. Jesus said they would know that you are mine. You belong to me by the way you love treat put up with, have patience, are kind sharing, giving, loving, forgiving, joyful, patient, working hard, loving being kind to one another even in our differences, even in our disagreements, even when we disagree. Do you think I still love you?
Tequaris: Yes.
Robert: And we don't disagree that often. But shame on us to let politics and opinions divide the church. Shame on us. There needs to be a big sobbing, weeping repenting session from those that call themselves Christ followers. Shame on us that we would allow these things to separate us. And there has been a lot of separation these last 20 months over mask, over vaccination status, over social distancing, over calling things right and wrong. I don't need to examine situations; I have the spirit of God in me that can call things right or wrong. We don't have to retreat in opinions and political affiliations and traditions to call right, right, and wrong, wrong.
The scripture gives us enough of that. The love of God gives us enough of that inside of us to know what's right and what's wrong But even with that, the apostle Paul calls our relationship with one another a labor of love, because guess what? It takes work sometime to love people. We are called the body of Christ, the family of God. It takes a lot of work for me to work in my own family, to love my own family, my own flesh and blood. We have differences. We have differences in political affiliation in my family. We have different socioeconomic status in my family. We have different theological views in my family, but guess what? I love them. I would lay down my life for them. And those things can't divide us, won't divide us. And even if they have, they are not going to divide Hope Community Church either, not on my watch.
You have to forgive me. I've been a big brother all my life. I'm the eldest of five children. So sometimes the big brother in me comes out. So Hope, your big brother is speaking. And we are going to be a great representation in this community amongst us, which is going to empower us to go out like we've declared to do, and we are going to show the love of Christ in this community and beyond. Amen. Let's read first John 4, 20 and 21.
Tequaris: If someone says, I love God, but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar.
Robert: What? Wait a minute. Are we reading the scriptures?
Tequaris: Yes.
Robert: Okay. Read that again.
Tequaris: If someone says, I love God, but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar.
Robert: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Sorry. Can you read that again? I just want to sure that we are w what we are reading is clear. I just want to make sure that it is clear.
Tequaris: If someone says I love God, but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don't love people, who we can see, how can we love God whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command. It's a command. Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.
Robert: If we don't love people who we can see, how can we love God whom we cannot see? And the scripture says it's optional.
Tequaris: No, no. It's a command.
Robert: A command, a command. And I think somewhere in the scriptures, it says, if you love me, you will obey my commands. There is that love thing again. If you love me, you will do what I say, and I have commanded that you love one another. We said earlier that we are all different. We have differences outwardly inwardly, socially, traditionally,
Tequaris: Different features, different sound of voices.
Robert: How do we love in our differences?
Tequaris: Well, for starters, we need to realize that it's okay to be different. Our differences are what make us special and unique, but also, you know, one of the first fruits of the spirit is love. And so this reminds me of a scripture in the Bible where it says to esteem others, more than yourself, or if I was teaching in elementary, I would say, what is the golden rule? You want to treat people the way you want to be treated. So to me, when you love someone, if— I give you an example, since you brought up the mask situation. Some people feel comfortable wearing masks. Some people don't. Let's say I don't have to wear a mask, I'm comfortable not wearing a mask, but my sister and my brother who I'm standing next to, they don't feel comfortable with me around them unless I have a mask on and even though I hate to mask, it's sweaty, it gets on my nerves, but because I love my brother and sister, I'm going to put that mask on because I'm esteeming them higher than myself. So to me, I believe if we are operating through the spirit of God and operating to the gifts of the spirit and, not just the gifts of the spirit, but the fruit of the spirit, we are operating through love.
Robert: So in loving one another, you are saying we should prefer someone over myself?
Tequaris: Yes. Let me say this is not that you want to compromise your beliefs, not saying that, but you just want to extreme others better yourself. You want to show them that you love them. To me, love is more of an action. It's not an emotional feeling like the world says, it's an action. So someone should be able to see your love for them through your actions toward them
Robert: Action towards others. I like this love thing. I like this love thing, loving one another, esteeming others higher than yourselves. You didn't come up with those things. Did you?
Tequaris: No.
Robert: I didn't come up with those things. Where we get that from?
Tequaris: The word of God.
Robert: The word of God. And who's the word of God?
Tequaris: God, Jesus.
Robert: Jesus. So these are the words of Jesus, to think of others more higher than we think of ourselves, to prefer another over yourself. Remember when we talked about being a visible community, we use the word "being intentional," the phrase "being intentional." Let's face it. There are days that we don't feel like being so loving doing. Okay, I'll tell him myself. You all can sit there and be pious and holy. But I know someone online can attest to what I'm saying. We just can't see you nodding your head, but I'll just tell him myself. There are days that I don't feel like being so loving. You know what happens? God says, okay, I'm going to make it impossible for you to not to love someone. So it seems like on those days where I don't feel like being the most loving, I have all the opportunity in the world to be in my most loving self. And so I have to make an intentional conscious effort to get beyond how I'm feeling because loving is not about feeling, not the love that was represented in Christ. It goes beyond feeling.
It's the love that's everlasting. It's the love that's selfless, that's full of sacrifice that goes beyond what you feel like to do the better good, and to better the other person that you are engaged with. That's the love that we are talking about. It's the love that when you see a brother and sister that's down and out, that you don't worry about your lunch date that you have after church; you go over to see what's going on with your brother or sister. It's when you get a phone call at three o'clock in the morning and your brother or sister is crying on the phone and you rather turn over and get your last few hours of sleep because you just went to bed an hour ago, but you stay on the phone to hear your brother and sister out, to see why they are hurting and you try to meet that need. It's the love that when you see injustice going on, whether it's in the grocery store, whether it's on the traffic stop, whether it's on your job, whether it's in the parking lot that you stop and say, hey, there is a better way to go.
A few weeks ago, I was in the grocery store. As I've shared with you, I do Instacart shopping, which has been a blessing, especially during the pandemic to help people out. And one of the things that I realize is as the people are working, there are fewer and fewer people working in the stores. I see the same people working all the time, and you know what? I appreciate them. I am overly generous in loving them. You hear that? I am overly generous. I make an intentional effort to make them feel loved and encouraged.
One day there was an individual who didn't share the same values as I did, and decided to give a cashier a hard time, because that cashier was going on break, which if you are on your jobs and you get a break, you deserve to go on your break. They had shut off their lights to indicate that they were getting ready to shut down the register. But this individual thought he was privileged enough to get in the line. And so the cashier to asked me to go and, and tell them that she was closed. This person had a fit and made a big scene.
Let me share a little bit more detail. The cashier was white. Sorry, I'm not politically correct in these terms, so forgive me. The individual person, the other person that caused the ruckus was black. And so in my stance, that person was wrong, the fit that they made, even to the point of calling the store manager over to reprimand the cashier. And I said, Jesus, not today. And so the individual got upset because I was standing up for the cashier and it was like, oh, you are going to stand and he said some other things. I said, it's not about my color of my skin today. I'm rephrasing it. It wasn't about my skin color today, brother, since you call me brother. I said, it wasn't about that today. I said what it is about today is right and wrong.
You see, love causes you to cut through the chase of familiarity and tradition and respect being respect as a person. It's about. It's about calling what's right, right, and wrong, wrong and standing up for righteousness. And so the young lady starts crying. I said, "Don't worry. You are good. I know the store manager. I know all these people that work in this store. I got your back." But the manager that we thought the guy was going to talk to didn't get talked to; it was someone else, so the cashier got extra worry. I said, "Don't worry. I got your back." And so the manager came over and I said, "I'm letting you know, she didn't do anything wrong." Once I did that, there were other people, there were other customers that stood up and said the same thing. She didn't do anything wrong. She didn't do anything wrong.
And so the person who made the ruckus came over and was like, "Oh, you are going to take her side." I said, “It's not about taking side. I'm doing what's right. I love these people. I'm in here every day, every week, these people work hard and they treat people kindly.” I said, “You are not going to do this today, not on my watch.” That's what I said. And so afterwards, all the other cashiers, and there was a customer service manager, came over to me and said thank you.
If we are in the context of the church and loving our brothers and sisters, we have have an obligation. When we see something that's not right to stand up for the person that's being done wrong to. And that takes courage, but ultimately it takes the love of Christ to do the right thing because the scripture tells us— you can get mad at me with my opinions, because it's my opinion, but let me put it back to the scripture. The scripture says if you know to do right and you don't do it, it is sin. So don't argue with me; argue with the scriptures. We are not only just called to love one another; that's a starting point, but we are also called to love others. The Bible puts it, loving our neighbor. Let's see what Jesus had to say in Matthew chapter 22 versus 36 through 40
Tequaris: Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses? Jesus replied, you must love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.
Robert: As a Christ follower, we, you can't escape the full expression of love. You can't just say we love one another in the family that love of Christ has to be extended outside the family, regardless of how that person is different from you, regardless if they are outside of the church, a nonbeliever or not, et cetera. The list can go on. We can put all the disclaimers all we want to. As a Christ follower that love that we have for one another is equally important to love others outside of us. Who is your neighbor? It's anybody you come into contact with. You don't get to pick and choose who your neighbor is and sharing the love of God. Amen.
It's in that same spirit before, remember we read the scripture that says that if you don't have love for one another, who you see in the flesh, then don't say you love God. Remember that, kind of rephrasing that, whom you have not seen, but this commandment to love others is also equal to loving God. So God cares how you love people, how you treat people and guess what? Even the ones you don't like.
Tequaris: Or even the one that persecutes, he tells you to pray for them. He prayed for the two people on the cross and he prayed for the people that persecuted him. He asked God to forgive them for they know not what they do. And to me, that's an action of love. He prayed for people that brutally abused and killed him.
Robert: You see if we are going to be that visible community, which we are sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, then our love toward others, our neighbor has to be untainted. Amen. What do I mean? You see our witness towards others is hindered when we have hate or disdain for other people in our hearts. You cannot truly share the gospel of Jesus Christ without love in your heart towards all people. You can't share the good news of Christ if you are going to be a respect of persons. Shame on me. I talk to people now that I would never talk to 10 years ago. Yeah. I told you I would leave you alone. I'm telling them myself. I talked to people now that 10 years ago, you couldn't pay me enough money to talk to. Oh, he has got too many tattoos on there. I'm not going to waste my time. Oh, he looks too effeminate to me. I'm not going to waste my time. Shame on me back then. I don't do that now, but at one time, oh yeah. The judgment book went up. Yeah. I think they are worthy for me to share the gospel. This person is not shame on me.
Shame on me. That's not the love of Christ. That's not the love of God. God so loved the world that he gave his son. Everyone we come in contact with, Jesus Christ shed his blood for. God wants to draw all men unto him, regardless of what they look like, regardless of how they vote. Let me say that again. Regardless of how they vote, which is their right in this country that God has blessed us to be in— I've traveled all over the world and has many issues that I have with this country, I would still rather be here. I love traveling, but I love coming home. But God is not a respecter of persons. God is a discerner of the heart. And you just don't know; the people on the other side of the aisle made it be the most kind, loving God-fearing people that you've ever met in your life. Love one another beyond these worldly things. Amen. These worldly systems that the Bible tells us are temporary. It's passing away. Amen.
Again, we talked about how we measure our expression and faith and our love for God. We've put competition. It starts in the body of Christ, but we like to flaunt these things to the rest of the world too. We tell non-believers, I'm this type of Christian because I pray 20 hours a day. We try to flatter and impress them with how many scriptures we can quote in Hebrew and in Greek. We brag about how many people we can prophesy to, but you know what? God doesn't care about all that. Especially if you don't have love towards all people, you can prophesy up a storm. You can quote all the scriptures from Genesis to revelation. You can speak in a thousand tongues. You can do all these things, but if you don't have love in your heart, you are only going through the motions and you are just being religious and you are not reflecting the true heart of God. Last scripture,
Tequaris: First Corinthians chapter 13 versus 1 through 3. If I could speak all the languages of the earth, end of angels, but I didn't love others. I would only be a noisy go or a clinging symbol. If I had to give a prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possess all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.
Robert: It's all about the examination of your heart. When it comes to loving of others, that we would say, we have not experienced loving, or that's different than us looks different, thinks different, acts different. It's an examination of the heart that we have to have an honest conversation with ourselves and with the Lord, it's not easy, brothers and sisters, it's not easy. The Lord never said anything would be easy. He just said to do. But the thing is, if we love God, it makes it that much easier. You have something to say?
Tequaris: Well, I was going to say we can do all things to Christ who gives us the strength. And so sometimes when it's hard, that's when you need to cling to the father and ask him to give you the strength to love. Because sometimes people aren't lovable. And so sometimes you need to go into that secret place and say, okay, God, I need you to help me. I need to have patience for this person. And so that's why we have the Holy Spirit that can actually help us to do that and to accomplish that.
Robert: And that's the beauty of our relationship with God. He didn't leave it up to us. Even when Jesus walked his earth, he told his disciples; he said, "I'm going away to prepare a place for you." But he said, "I'm not going to leave you comfortless; I'm not going to leave you alone. I'm going to send the promise of the father, the Holy Spirit to come and reside in you. That's the advantage that we have. On those days, those fleshly days that Robert doesn't feel like it, then I can push Robert to the side because Robert is not the only person that is resident here. It's the holy one that lives inside of me that said, okay, I got you. You just go in the way and I'll show you the way. Well, Holy Spirit, what that person did to me was real terrible. That's okay. I'll show you the way. Well, I don't know if I can really forgive them. I'll show you the way. It's like David prayed the prayer, creating me, Lord a clean heart and renew the right spirit in me. That's what it takes, family: prayers and intentional effort to create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit in me.
Tequaris: And sometimes you have to ask God, Lord, help me to see that person the way you see them. Even ourselves sometimes, it's hard to love others when you don't love yourself. And sometimes you've got to pray and say, God, help me to see myself the way you see me, not the way the world sees me, but the way you see me.
Robert: And the center, the anchor of all of that is Jesus. If we would commit to anything in the body of Christ today, let's make a recommitment to Jesus. It's not about what church we attend, not about what event go to, but being centered in Christ. We can argue all day about many different things, but we need to be centered back to Christ.
Tequaris: Ask God to bring us back to our first love.
Robert: See, there is that love thing again. So I believe we can do this. I believe Hope can do this and I believe that the body of Christ can do this, but we've got to come back to our first love, and that's Jesus Christ. And to be intentional about embodying everything that Christ represents as we make an individual effort to conform, not to the world, but be molded to the image of Christ, then we will inevitably be able to show that that love first to us as the family of God. And then we will be able to go out. In our being visible, we will be bright and we will be a shiny light to a world that needs to see something other than what's being shoved down there you know what right now. We need to show the world that we can love each other.
Tequaris: It reminds me of the Thessalonian church, and they were known for their love for each other. That was one of the reports that Paul received was how much they esteem each other and how much they loved each other even in times that was really hard. They were getting persecuted back in the day and they just were unified and they were known for that.
Robert: The amazing thing about that story, that passage in Paul's letter to the Thessalonians. The Thessalonians were a fairly new church. They weren't believers for 30, 40, and 50, 60, 70, 80 years. So if the Thessalonian church can have a reputation, even beyond Greece and throughout Asia at the time, if they can have a representation that went way beyond their borders of how much they had love for one another, surely hope can have the reputation as a church family that exudes the love of Christ. I guarantee you that that will attract other people. All the bad experiences that people have had with so-called church will be a little bit more palatable and your witnessing efforts will get a little bit easier because they will see the manifestation of Christ's love in your heart, in your actions, in your church family. And they will see you out being visible in the community and this church will grow and the body of Christ would be better in Jesus name. Amen.
Brian: Pastor Jeff, why don't you come up and let's have a time of prayer together. Wasn't this good? It was a good reminder, kind of a recalibration. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you, Tequaris. This never gets old. We are like a high performance car that needs a lot of tune ups. This is like one of those tune ups to keep reminding us. But you know what I mean? We are made in God's image, so we are high performance. We are not just a— I won't name the brand of car. You might have one. I'm pretty safe in saying I don't think any of you have Lamborghinis. We are like this Lamborghini, that half a million dollar vehicle that needs a lot of tender, loving care, and this is one of those ways to get it. So why don't you come and let us pray.
Jeff: Thanks. Pastor Brian, something I've heard you say often is it's hard to be a Christian when you are not.
Brian: It's hard to be a Christian when you are not one.
Jeff: For all of us here and for those listening by livestream, it's hard to love others, as Tequaris said, if you don't love yourself. It's hard to love yourself, if you haven't experienced the love of God. And so the first step to learning how to really love people in your life is to receive the love that Jesus has for you. We are going to pray together and that's where we are going to start. The first place we are going to start is if you've never in your life, asked Jesus to fill you with his love, if you've never surrendered your life to Jesus and trusted him to love you and to change your life, I want you to pray this with me. And then all the rest of us are kind of in the same boat because of it's hard to love if we are not receiving God's love for us. We all need to be touched by his love on a daily basis. We need to experience what Tequaris said. We need to see ourselves the way Jesus sees us and we want to constantly be asking Jesus, show me how you love me, teach me how to love myself. Because when he starts to form his love inside of our hearts, it helps us to do exactly what you are saying, Pastor Robert, to love the people in our lives, the church, the non-church, people, just people.
So close your eyes; raise your hands with me. And if you've never asked Jesus into your heart, I want you to pray this pray with me. I just want you to say Jesus Christ, I've never trusted you before, but I need your love. I come to you now. I choose to trust you with my life. I turn from old ways and I turn my eyes on you. Please forgive me and fill me with your love.
That prayer prayed for the very first time will change our lives forever. If you've prayed that prayer, please get on our website and let us know there is a "contact us". And you can click. You can send a message to pastor Brian. You can let us know that you've prayed. If you are here and you've prayed that prayer for the first time come and see me after the service. I want to meet you. But let's keep praying father. We need your love. We need you to love us. We need to know that you love us. Continue to fill our hearts with your love. And just as you are love at self, we ask that you would continue to make us love, so that there is a pool inside of us, out of which we can give to our friends and to our enemies, something beyond even ourselves. It's your love. We receive this word today; we receive your correction. We choose to repent before you of our judgments and our pettiness and our criticisms and our foolish words that have cut and hurt. Forgive us, father for misrepresenting you, for showing the world something other than Jesus, even though we are called your people. We repent, father. We ask you to forgive us and we purpose to be your people as you help us to love.
There may be some people flat your mind right now that you know you need to forgive and repentant of how you feel about them. So go ahead and do it; do it right now. That's how the Holy Spirit will work. He'll just remind you as you pray a prayer like this of the people that you are not loving. Who might that be? As Tequaris said, if it's really hard to find a, a way to love them, ask Jesus to help you because he does. He changes us. And the first person that he wants to change is you, not a everyone else. We are going to go forward from here. We are going to let Jesus do a good thing in us.
We don't want to quit before we pray for miracles that people need today because I know that there are people listening online and there is some here who need a healing who need help in some way; they need a breakthrough from God. I've got a friend, a young man who really needs Jesus to be his advocate in this next week in a very real way. Cheryl and I, our verse of the day, yesterday was Romans 10, 10. If you believe in your heart it counted to you as righteousness, but if you confess with your mouth, it results in salvation. I think that's a very true statement. It's one thing to believe in Jesus, but there is something about when we talk about our faith that gets our feet moving forward. Sometimes if you just keep it inside, nothing happens in terms of action.
But our mouths bring about an amazing change when we say the things that we believe. But I was thinking as Cheryl and I talked about this, the meaning of the word salvation. Who knows what that word means? Somebody throw out some of the other things that word means. Lou, what does that word mean? Healing, deliverance, nothing missing, nothing broken. Salvation isn't, just as Pastor Brian said, a place to land when you die. Being saved means that everything that Jesus died for is made of it to us. And when we say that with our mouths, something happens. As Cheryl says, when words are spoken, the whole universe hears them. This morning, we are not just going to ask Jesus for miracles. We are going to thank him for miracles and we are going to put our mouths into action. So if you need a miracle or if you have someone you love who needs a miracle, I want you to say these words with me.
Jesus, we trust you for miracles. You are the God of miracles. You are the God of healing. You are the God of healing and deliverance, nothing missing, nothing broken. That's who you are and for me and for my loved one. Say their name. I release a miracle. I release a miracle. I declare a miracle; I declare a miracle because Jesus died for us and the miracle was done. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for saving us in so many ways. Amen.
Brian: Thank you. Jesus. Sean, would you be willing to serve communion after the service today? Could you do that for us, please? Thank you. If you would like communion at the end of the service, just please go over here to the communion table and Sean will be there to offer you communion. And let's just kind of seal the deal from today with receiving the bread and body of the Lord.
So father, we just thank you for this gift today, this gift from your word to us. We thank you for the gift that you are to us. You are always giving. That's who you are. You are a giver. We just thank you Lord, that we could be in this place with each other receiving from you today. We are much richer today for having been here. Thank you, Lord. Let's raise our hands together.
And now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you and may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace and may the love of Christ dwell in your hearts. Rich. This, we pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Thank you for being here today. Again, if you would like to have communion, just please come over to the communion table and Sean will serve you today. God bless you. Have a wonderful day.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 10-31-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.