Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Brian: We can do so much more when we see the face of God. All the saints who have gone before us stand in your presence, Lord, and with the angels, they can see your face. Today, we give you honor and reverence because we believe that one day, all the nations will see your glory and it will shine brighter than the noonday sun. Until that day we will just see in part. We will see through a mirror darkly, we will see with a veil over our face, but we can still see a glimpse. Lord that glimpse is enough for us to make it to the end, to strengthen us. Thank you that you show yourself to your people. Show us yourself even here today in a greater way. This we ask, Jesus, in your name. Amen.
Jacque: I got a picture this morning when we were worshiping. I believe that there is worship around the throne of God 24/7. There is, and it's like when we start to worship together, we come here in one accord and lift up our praises to God. It's like an on-ramp, like we are merging into that worship. As we just merge in the heavens open, and we are worshiping with the saints and the angels, joining in that eternal praise to God. His presence is so real. Help us to stay under that open heaven, God. Thank you. Thank you for your presence, you just touching us. Thank you, God. We give you praise. I had another thought; I'm full of thoughts today. I did because I thought—
Brian: You just go ahead and talk because I'm tired.
Jacque: Okay. I’ll just fix your collar here.
Brian: Okay, got to fix my collar.
Jacque: Yeah. I was thinking about the people, all of you wonderful, wonderful friends who are online today. I have people that say things when we see them all over.
Brian: I got people texting me already while watching, how the Lord has touched their hearts already in the service today.
Jacque: They will say, amen, amen. You are part of us. But so many people say to me, I watch you every Sunday. You don't watch. You are worshiping with us.
Brian: Yes.
Jacque: I just want to change that verbiage. We are worshiping together. We are worshiping together. When we worship all together you are under that open heaven in your house. I just want to… Let's start using that way to say it.
Brian: That's good. That's good. Should we dismiss the kids?
Jacque: Oh, there are other things to do, aren’t there? Yes. Kids, you go to Sunday school. Rosana, thanks for taking out the kids today. Mary, thank you for the way you serve our children. So beautiful. They are so blessed to be under your love. Yes. Nae and Adam are here today and we are so happy to see you. We are praying for you all the time, Nae. For those of you who are new, Nadine is our sweet girl. She just had her second baby three months ago. While she was pregnant, they discovered that she had thyroid cancer. She went through a surgery while pregnant to remove what they could. We've been praying and we'll have some more tests in the fall, right? So, we are going to keep praying. I'm so excited because we are going to have a baby shower for you in two weeks. So come on ladies. On Saturday, the--
Brian: 23rd.
Jacque: 23rd. We are going to bless Nae. We are going to pray for her and bless her and just have fun with her. Celebrate. Yeah. Today is a church picnic. We are going to meet up in Corcoran Park. It's just so simple. Many of you brought your lunch. Everybody bring your own thing, what you want to eat. Hy-Vee is two miles away from Corcoran Park. You can go get a great lunch there.
Brian: Right at the intersection of 10 and 116, I'm going to give a plug for my friend, Cal who owns the gas station there.
Jacque: It's called Crossroads.
Brian: Crossroads. They have a fresh deli. So go on there and get some food and then join us at the park.
Jacque: That is right by the park.
Brian: Yeah, that's right.
Jacque: We'll see you at the park.
Brian: Support our local businessmen.
Jacque: Pastor Robert, would you come up and talk about your class that is beginning. I'm so excited to see the people who are coming to be a part of that.
Brian: This is going to be good.
Robert: Praise the Lord. I was thinking about— I'm always contemplating trying to hear from the Lord to see what I was going to say. Just bear with me for a minute. I just realized I have over 21 years of formal education, five of which include formal Bible instruction. I have close to… I have 19 and a half years of being a teacher in the Bible, 19 and a half years. I run into students all over and that includes teaching in six different countries around the world in the Bible. I run into the Twin Cities all the time, all of my former students, and they always— we used to have a saying in one of the classes. I taught spiritual warfare. They said, “Pastor Robert, I'm not a casualty.”
Brian: Good.
Robert: Because that was our theme. We talked about casualties of war and they all remembered that. They just make me feel so good. They say, "Pastor, I'm not a casualty." But all that education and stuff include a master's in theological studies. I was thinking all of that means nothing to me in the sense that I'm still learning. I'm still learning who Jesus is. That's why I like teaching the word so much because the more and more— You are getting instruction, but the more and more I teach, the more and more I learn who Jesus is. What you have in me is a person who's in love with Jesus. I love my wife; I'm in love with my wife, but she doesn't even compare it to my love for Jesus and his love for me. She knows that. Don't look sad. She understands that. That's why she loves me. She knows. She is happy for that. She knows I love Jesus. That's what you get as an instructor. But in this, we can call it a class, we can call it a small group, Bible fellowship. What you are going to get is someone who is not only formally trained, but a spiritually-led teacher in the word. I don't teach— My wife would say, I'm not bragging. I don't teach without hearing from the Holy Spirit. It's something I'm serious about.
With that in mind, we can never stop learning and growing in the Lord. This is for anyone who wants to grow in the word. I don't care if you are a new convert, new salvation, a babe, mature, or you've been in church 50 years. I was talking to my dad the other day and he gave me a stumper. He asked me a question. He said, "I got a spiritual question, a Bible question for you." I'm like, oh, okay, this is a setup. I said, "Wow, dad." I said, "I have to get back to you." He said, "Good." My dad has been a believer for so long, but we never stop growing and learning every time we open up the word of God. Whoever wants to, we want you. We want us to have a great time and grow in the Lord together. Building Blocks of Faith is what it's called. We are going to have topics. We are going to talk about things like salvation and Christian living and things like that. But all of the instruction is going to be based upon the word of God. We are going to dig into the scriptures and we are going to grow. We are going to learn. We are going to wrestle. One of my life models is that I want you to be better than what you want to be.
Brian: Yeah.
Robert: That's my goal. If I can challenge you to be better than what you want to be, then I can go to sleep at night and feel content in the Lord. We are going to start Wednesday, July 20th. We are going to be here in person and we are going to be on Zoom. I need you to go to the website at myhopecommunity.com to sign up. You have to request membership for the group. Once you go in, put in your email address or your phone number, I'll get the information. I will accept you into the group and we are going to start, and we are going to go every other Wednesday. We'll provide the dates. We are going to meet from 6:30 to 8:00 PM. We are just going to have a great time in the Lord. Amen.
Brian: Amen.
Robert: So sign up. If you have any questions, please see me, I'm ready to answer that. Real quickly, please, men, don't forget to see Brad at the back table. We have Rachel, thank you. We have brochures for the men's retreat. We need you to start signing up for that and the registration sheet. We need to see you for that today. You can go online and register for the men's retreat as well. That's coming up on August 19th through 21st. It's going to be upon us real soon and we are excited about that. Also, before that, on August 6th. The men we already had, you heard us bragging about Ken's ribs. Well, on August 6th, the whole community is going to know about Ken's ribs because we are having a barbecue rib Fest. We are going to have barbecue ribs and barbecue chicken. We are going to have fun for the family. We've got inflatables. All of you that have corn hole sets, we need you to bring them because I want to start a tournament. Dave Riley, I need a rematch, but that's a whole other thing.
A collectible car show. I heard Butch, where are you? I heard you got some cars, man. We want to see the cars. If you don't have them, you should know someone who does have them. We want to put on a collectible car show as well. So spread the word. We want to see you on August 6th. Find more information. We have flyers at the back table as well. We have information online. I'm going to move out of the way because I want to get into the word too with our wonderful pastors. We have such a gift in our pastors. I want to say thank you for being a biblical example of pastors, and shepherds, but also it means a lot to me as husband and wife. What a great example you are to the body. God bless you.
Brian: Thank You. Thank you.
Jacque: We love you.
Brian: Thank you, Robert. We love you. I think if we are nice to Keith Eklund, he might even bring some sweet corn to that rib Fest. I don't know, but we got to be really nice to him over the next couple of weeks. So compliment him after he sings in the worship service.
Jacque: It'll be a fun time.
Brian: It'll be a fun time.
Jacque: We are inviting the community. We have an ad in our local Corcoran newspaper.
Brian: Yes, yes.
Jacque: We want to get some people.
Brian: Back in the 1800s, there was a slogan that became quite popular that led to what was known as the gold rush. That phrase was, “There is gold in them thar hills.” Well for you and I, there is gold out there, but it's a different kind of gold than what drove people to leave their homes on the east coast and move to the California area. In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus touches on a point of wisdom of the day that we have now referred to as the golden rule. We see this right in the middle of his Sermon on the Mount. We see this in Matthew 7:12. I want you to read it really quickly.
Jacque: Do to others, whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.
Brian: There is so much in this one sentence or phrase: do to others, what you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is in the law and the prophets. Before his time on earth was done, Jesus would teach his followers to actually transcend this moral principle. It was a relatively new thing. It was obviously a new thing in a very stunning way for his listeners. Believe it or not, Jesus wasn't actually the first person to make a religious maxim of a statement like this. Don't get offended, but I'm going to quote some people who were not part of the Christian faith. Rabbi Hillel said this, "What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your fellow man." If it's hateful to you, do not do it. Buddha actually said it this way. "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." Confucius said, "What one does not wish for oneself, one ought not to do to somebody else."
The Hindus got into the game here by saying this, "One should not behave towards others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself." Even though there are a lot of similarities here between what some of these religious leaders said and what Jesus said. Jesus’ declaration in this section of the Sermon on the Mount stands out in a lot of different ways than what these other maxims state. The first is this: most religious versions of the golden rule emphasize on what not to do. Isn't that what religion is all about? Don't do this, don't do that. Steve, you and I have had that conversation, right? Don't do this. Don't do that. Thou shalt not... That's the framework of how religion works.
A relationship works just the opposite way. Relationships work in this regard, do this, do that, do this. So Jesus comes on the scene. Some of these religious maxims actually existed before Jesus was born. Rabbi Hillel lived sometime before Jesus was born. All of their emphasis was on what not to do. You might call it the silver rule, but you certainly couldn't call it a golden rule. I remember a story about your mom when she was young, about a friend of hers or someone she knew called Dorothy, right?
Jacque: She had this little friend. My mom was from down in Arkansas and she had a little friend and people would ask her, "What's your name, honey?" And she would say, "Dorothy-don't." Because that's all her mom said to her: Dorothy don't. Dorothy don't.
Brian: Her mom and her family and the people she was around, all day long it was Dorothy don't. Don't do this, don't do that. So she thought her name was Dorothy-don't. That's the concept of so much of what religion is. I've said this on a few occasions, but I remember when I was growing up and people would say, "Hey, do you want to go to the movies with me?" Superman is playing, Roy Rogers or one of the icons of my day. And I would say, "I can't." Well, why not? It's against my religion. Brian don't, Brian don't, and pretty soon my last name becomes don't. When we are raised in a religious environment, that's what it feels like. But Jesus is coming on the scene, and he takes this to a whole other level. He says, "Do unto others what you would want them to do to you." It's a proactive thing, isn't it? Jesus invites his followers to take the initiative to love and to actually look for ways to take care of other people's needs.
He is inviting us to look for ways. In the same way that people took their pickaxe and started digging for gold, we are to actually start looking for ways in order to find this golden rule. Jesus is inviting all of us into an awareness of others around us. That's what he is doing. So often in our circles as Christians, what we've tried to become is so separate from the world, we are not even connected anymore to people. We have a theology of isolation, rather than a theology of integration. We want to integrate into people's lives so that we can bring the love of Christ to them. Jesus invites all of us into this awareness of others around us that initiates what I'd call practical compassion. What was the phrase that we just learned a few weeks ago about you can pretend to care?
Jacque: You can pretend to care, but you can't pretend to show up.
Brian: That's pretty powerful. Isn't it?
Jacque: Ashley Judd said that at her mom's funeral.
Brian: Yeah. You can pretend--
Jacque: You can pretend to care.
Brian: You can pretend to care about people, but you can't pretend to show up. You either show up or you don't show up, don't you? You either get involved in the compassionate help in other people's lives, or you don't. Don't be offended by this, but it's like you can't be kind of pregnant. You either are, or you aren't. Not kind of. You either are, or you aren't, and we can't kind of love. We either do, or we are not. This kind of love puts the emphasis on those who actually are in need, people who are actually poor, people who are lonely, people who are marginalized. I would say this, I hope you would agree with me. If we truly follow this golden rule, if we truly follow this, this has the potential to be a global changer. It really does.
Jacque: There we go with our mission statement again.
Brian: Yes.
Jacque: Bringing that love of Jesus to the whole world one person at a time.
Brian: At a time. Yes. Love is not just not doing harmful things. Love is not just not doing harmful things, but rather love is doing good. It's doing good for others, taking the initiative to care, taking the initiative to intervene, and dare I say, interrupt the status quo of somebody else's life with practical goodness. There is a question that I think, and Pastor Robert and I have talked about this. There is a question that I think it's important for all of us to ask ourselves. That question is this: how can I help? How can I help when someone has a heartache? How can I help when someone has a need? How can I help?
Jacque: So many times, when I talk to people who are really hurting and you ask them that question, they don't even know what to say. We can ask the Lord too. You can ask them and then ask the Lord, show me how I can help them.
Brian: The best comfort that Job's comforters brought was in the first week that they showed up. Do you remember the story? They just sat there with him for a week. They just sat there. Then they started to open their mouths and ruined everything. Sometimes all we need to do is just be there for people. Not necessarily—
Jacque: Weep with those who weep.
Brian: That's right. Not necessarily— you know what we try to do all the time? We try to give an answer for why a person has a problem or difficulty or challenge in their life. We try to give answers to why this person might have passed away or why this person got into some sort of difficulty in their life, an accident, some setback, or why they lost their job. We are always trying to put some kind of spiritual candy coating on it. Sometimes we just mess the situation up more by doing that. All God wants us to do is show up and say, "How can I help?" What can I do to be a blessing to you in this situation? If God wants to explain himself, he can. But the fact of the matter is he doesn't need us to help him with explaining why he does what he does.
Jacque: Sometimes we talk because it's just so uncomfortable.
Brian: It is. Sometimes we don't know what to say. So we start just talking and then we insert foot into the mouth. Anyways, the love ethic of Jesus calls for us to be aware and alert to others around us, just to have that sensitivity. Jesus is calling all of us out of the littleness of our self-absorption and into the vastness of a world of opportunities, to make a difference. Robert said to me the other day, he was asking a friend of his, what are you doing? And it's not like, what are you doing? It's like, what are you doing? What are we doing? The church is not a consumer place my friends. The church is a place to express love. The body of Christ is a place to express the love of Jesus. I get a little frustrated as a spiritual leader or as a pastor when I hear people talk about this church or that church or that place, or what have you, and all the things that they are trying to do to entice people to come. Rather than being a community that actually serves, cares for one another and is there for one another, and really expresses the love of God for each other.
Jesus is teaching in this golden rule about a love that is an expression of alertness, an expression of empathy, as well as an expression of imagination. Sometimes we need to ask ourselves, what Lord, how do I help here? What can I do? How can I be more creative in bringing compassion? One of the first things that we see here is that Jesus is being very intentional about what it means to love. The second thing is this: Jesus also expands our understanding of who we are to love. When Jesus says to treat others, do unto others. This word, others, is the Greek word anthrōpos and it's where we get the word Anthropology from. Anthropology is the study of humanity, the study of people. Jesus is saying to treat others as you want to be treated.
When he is talking about others, he is talking about everybody, others, everybody. Let's look at a verse that we actually referenced last week in a different context. It's Leviticus 19:18, this strange chapter that gives us all sorts of commands. Some that we have thought, well, I can follow that one and others that we say I'm going to forget about that one. Go back and listen to my message from last week about that. This one is something that Jesus quoted in a question, but I want to read this first.
Jacque: Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
Brian: Leviticus, when the law was given, it was given to the nation of Israel and it says in this context: do not seek revenge or bear grudge against fellow Israeli, but love your neighbor as yourself. They weren't supposed to bear grudges against a fellow Israelite. A religious man comes along who hears Jesus teaching here, and he asks the question. Do you remember what the question was? Who's my neighbor? In the context of the Torah and the rabbinical writings, the neighbor was someone who's the Jewish kinfolk, someone who was just connected to the Jewish culture. That's my neighbor. We might think the same, someone who is a Corcoranite or a Minnesotan, or maybe an American. Jesus's answer is given through this one story that he talks about the Good Samaritan. Let's read just part of it. It's in Luke 10:25-29.
Jacque: One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question. "Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus replied, "What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?" The man answered, "You must love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself." "Right," Jesus told him. "Do this and you will live." The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
Brian: The question, “Who is my neighbor?” the reason for this was this guy was trying to justify himself because of all the things that he had done. Of course, the answer he was looking for, this religious leader, was your Jewish kinfolk; that's who you are supposed to love. But the answer Jesus gives charts a whole new moral territory for not only all of Israel but really for everybody, for all of us. This was a radical, new, dare I say, enemy-embracing, other-centered, love ethic when he starts to tell the story of the Good Samaritan, and he almost villainizes the rabbi or the religious leader and so forth. The guys who really loved as God wanted him to love were those terrible Samaritan people. This was a new concept of neighbor. This neighbor is now everyone and anyone that we have an opportunity to help, in what I call life-giving ways. These are the others that we are to do unto in the golden rule. Do unto others. It's not about what we are not supposed to do. It's about what we are to be empowered to do. The interesting thing, we read it again. Let's read Matthew 7: 12 one more time here.
Jacque: Do to others, whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.
Brian: That part really grabbed me, because there has been a fairly large section of my life that when I read the law and much of the prophets, it wasn't read through the lens of Jesus. It was read through a very angry God. It was read through the lens of retribution and almost in the same spirit of the disciples when they said to Jesus, "Should we call fire down from heaven?" Of course, Jesus's response was what? You don't actually know what spirit you are of. Interestingly enough, that incident happened in the same vicinity that Elijah and the prophets of Baal happened. I'm not sure how many years, maybe 700 years earlier, roughly. This encounter where fire comes down from heaven and consumes the prophets, consumes the altar, and then Elijah goes and they kill 400 false prophets. We've read those portions of scripture and we've kind of taken that into our hearts that that's an okay way to treat people who are unbelievers. Jesus actually comes on the scene as we've shown on a few other occasions, where he actually starts to counterman stuff from the old covenant. He said, "You've heard it said, but I tell you to do this." You've heard it said an eye for an eye, but I tell you to do this. In this teaching on the golden rule, what Jesus says is that this principle of do unto others as you would have them do unto you, everything in the law and the prophets are summed up in that one phrase.
As I began to understand this teaching from the Sermon on the Mount, I had to go back and say, Lord, I'm reading some of this stuff wrong. I'm reading it wrong because I'm drawing the wrong conclusions when I read this. We've all seen the people that have taken the Bible and a sword and killed other people with it. It’s like there is something wrong with this picture. When we read the Bible, if proactive love for others is not what we find there when we read it, then we are reading it wrong. We have to go back again. If we don't find proactive love for other people when we read the scriptures, we are reading it wrong, and we need to slow down. We need to start again. The good thing about God is he does do-overs. I like that about God. We have to keep Jesus in the center of the whole story until we actually begin to see the love that he is talking about.
If love truly guides our hearts, then rules become redundant. Rules become unnecessary if we have love in our hearts. But if we don't have love in our hearts, then we have to coerce people by laws and all this other stuff. When we embrace the way of love as our guide, it will always lead us to do the right thing. If you have the love of Christ in your heart, you'll always be led to do the right thing. As a litmus test, when we find ourselves actually not doing the right thing, we need to take a step back and say, "Where did I not have the love of Christ in my heart?" God doesn't condemn us for that. It's a revelation to us, isn't it? Because the scripture says love never what? Love never fails. Love never fails. Make no mistake about it. Jesus was not trying to modify or extend the old covenant when he came on the scene. He wasn't trying to do that. He was actually rather trying to end the way of law in favor of the way of love. There is a big difference. There is a big difference between Dorothy don’t and do unto others as you would have them to do unto you.
The Law of Moses certainly may have been inspired, but when Jesus came on the scene, it became retired. We should learn that. When Jesus came on the scene, the law of God, the law as it was, the Torah became retired. Through Jesus, the way of law was made actually obsolete. If you look at Hebrews 8:13, we see this scripture.
Jacque: When God speaks of a new covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.
Brian: That's pretty straightforward, isn't it? It's hard not to understand what that one verse means. When Jesus speaks of a new covenant, when God speaks of a new covenant, it means that he made the first one obsolete and it's now out of date. It's obsolete because it's been annulled. If a relationship or some kind of agreement has been annulled, then it's no longer enforced; it's obsolete. The new covenant is better than the old covenant. Let's look at Hebrew 7:22
Jacque: Because of this oath, Jesus is the one who guarantees this better covenant with God.
Brian: The writer of Hebrews is saying the new covenant is a better covenant and the new covenant is guaranteed by Jesus. Who is a better guarantor than Jesus? Have you ever signed a loan for somebody? Has any of you ever done that, ever signed for a loan for somebody? Do you know what you are doing? You are saying I'm actually more reliable than the guy applying for the loan. That's what you are saying.
Jacque: And you guarantee.
Brian: Because you are guaranteeing it. If the person that was getting the loan was more reliable for the loan than you were, you wouldn't be guaranteeing it. They might be guaranteeing a loan for you, right? We see here that because of this oath, Jesus is the one who guarantees this better covenant. This old covenant had one really fatal flaw to it, and we see that in Hebrews 8:7.
Jacque: If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it.
Brian: This is very clear. There were some faults with the first covenant. The writer here says if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second one. But it was; it had faults in it. It wasn't built to last. It was inspired by God. It was given for a purpose. One of the great theologians of the late 20th century and early 21st century is N.T. Wright. I want to read a quote from him regarding the Torah or the law. He says, "The Torah is given for a specific period of time and then it is set aside. Not because it was a bad thing that is now happily abolished. That's not the reason it was set aside, but because it was a good thing whose purpose had now been accomplished."
Jacque: I got this picture. It was like scaffolding.
Brian: That's a good one. I got another example too that I'm going to give here in a second.
Jacque: The scaffolding to begin the building.
Brian: Yes. You don't leave the scaffolding up after the building is built, do you? The scaffolding is just there to help with the construction. I had this picture that the Torah was like the first stage of a rocket. You look at this rocket on the launching pad and it's beautiful and it's massive and it's big, and it works its way up to a smaller point to the top. You hear the countdown and the countdown hits zero and the engines ignite, and this thing is just powerfully pushed up into the atmosphere. Once it hits a certain height and certain miles, what happens to that rocket? It falls off, doesn't it? It just falls off. What goes out into orbit looks entirely different than what it looked like on the launching pad. That's the old covenant versus Jesus. What is in outer space after that rocket launches its cargo is the space capsule, which contains the astronauts and other living things. Jesus is that space capsule.
The Torah, the law, old covenant were that rocket that brought us to Jesus, getting into orbit in a sense. There is a capsule that safely carries us home or to Mars or wherever the destination would be, or Venus or to the other parts or reaches, where no man has dared gone before. That capsule is Jesus and Jesus was what everything was pointing to in the old covenant. Jesus looks a lot different than the first stage of that rocket. When you read the law, apart from Jesus, it almost looks as though it's in opposition to Jesus. But when you take Jesus and overlay it, you begin to see past all of the things that feel like God is angry and condemning and judging. You see a whole different side of things. That's why Jesus said, "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.” And in this is the essence of all of the laws and the prophet, all the laws and the prophets. Today, let's look for ways to meet other people's needs because there is gold out there. The gold isn't the gold that we spend. The gold is the golden rule of loving other people. Invest in there.
I did a quick rereading of 1st Corinthians 13 this past week. I read it maybe three or four times. Again, it really jumps out at me. In that chapter, there are things that, especially sometimes in our streams of theological belief and what-have-you, that we gravitate to. We gravitate to wanting miracles. I want miracles. I want Nae to be healed. I want other people to be healed. I want Jeff's eye to be healed. Those of you watching by Livestream, if you have a need, I want you to be healed. I want people with breathing issues to have new lungs. I want people with broken shoulders to have their shoulders healed. I want that for people. I believe in that for people. I get inspired when I receive real prophetic words from Pastor Robert or other people who have prophetic words. They inspire when they bring life. I'm thankful for the revelation that we can get from God. But 1st Corinthians is very clear, 13 that prophecy is going to fall away, and healings are going to be done with, and revelation is going to go away. The one thing that is going to remain is love. It's love. I would suggest as the followers of Jesus, that we let God dole out those things as he wills, because that's what the word of God says, he will give these gifts as he wills. Let us focus on being these incredible followers of Jesus that do unto others as you would have others do unto us.
Jacque: Lives filled with the fruit of the spirit.
Brian: That's right. Yes. When we see and read that chapter, it gives some definitions as to what love is, but the essence of that chapter is telling us that love will last forever and let us really get good at loving. Let's get good at being what Jesus is. God is love. Let's get good at that. Let's get good at loving others and doing unto others. Let's not let our walk with God become relegated to don't do this, thou shalt not do that, and all of that joy getting sucked out of us by all of these religious restrictions that would be put on earth. Let's focus on how we can actually find the gold in them thar hills, the golden rule. Let's do unto others as we would want people to do unto us. Jesus took that whole, what might be called a religious maxim, and took it to a whole new level, a whole new place. He took it out of the realm of don't do this, don't do that, and brought it into the realm of saying, I can empower you to do. I can empower you to love. We need Jesus to do that in our lives. Pastor Robert, would you come?
Robert: Praise the Lord. It's a good message today. Amen. When I hear a good message, I like to ask the Lord, how can I respond to that message today? I'm going to give a prayer and then I'm going to give us a challenge as a way of responding to the message today. When I was in seminary in my pastoral care classes, I remember the instructor would always tell us that when we would respond to people or a situation, for us not to always go to look to say something, but the most important part was us, our presence. In other words, show up. Out of all the things we studied, that stayed with me the most: Just to show up. We can say all the things, we love you, we are there for you, brother, we are praying for you, sister, I wish things would be better for you, but we don't show up. Those words just fall to the ground. When people are hurting in a time of need and need encouragement, what’s more powerful than your words is to be right next to them. Oftentimes, you don't have to say a word, just be a shoulder that they can lean on. Be a hand that they can touch or be a listening ear. Sometimes people just want to be heard. Sometimes I tell my wife and friends, "Sometimes we just need to learn to just shut up. Just shut up. We don't have to talk all the time. Just be there for people. Let's pray this way if you will.
Dear Lord, help me to be like you, to see people like you see people, and to have a heart of compassion, to meet people where they are. Lord, I want to be a presence like you are in my life. I want to be a presence to others. Holy Spirit, have your way with me. Even this week, have a way with me to be able to show up in someone's life. I know someone that's hurting, that's physically sick, that's mentally depressed, that's addicted to drugs, that lost their job, that has going through a divorce, that has lost a child, that has struggling financially. They are struggling socially. They are struggling emotionally. Lord, have your way with them by using me to represent you. Build a bridge where every pathway is broken so that the olive branch can be extended, and the love of Christ could be manifested through my presence.
Father God, in order for that to happen, my heart has to be untainted. So, I pray that you remove every prejudice, every resentment, all anger, all malice, all grief, revenge, distrust, fear, doubt, skepticism, confusion, anger, hatred, abandonment, and rejection. Recreate in me a clean heart that's free, that's full of the Holy Ghost, that's full of freedom, that's full of Liberty, that's full of power and most importantly that's full of love. I believe, Lord, that we can make a difference in someone's life this week in Jesus's mighty name. Amen. If you've prayed that prayer, I want you to tentatively, actively be waiting for the Lord to give you instruction. When he gives you the call, just show up in Jesus' name. Amen.
Brian: I received a call last night and was informed that an acquaintance of ours tried to commit suicide. I haven't seen this person for many years, but my heart goes out to this person that they are in such a place emotionally, that they no longer want to live. They've lost all hope. Since last evening, through the service today, I've just been asking the Lord, please show me how I can make a difference in that person's life. Show me how I can love them in a way that if that were me, I would want them to love me. Sometimes we pray and then we just have to wait to see how God leads us. If we would just really become more aware of our surroundings— sometimes we live life with such tunnel vision that we lose sight of what is happening around us, and the people around us who are really desperate to have a Jesus encounter.
We are to be Jesus to these people. We are to be Jesus with the skin on that they need, so hopefully they would come to a place where they could actually really believe in faith by faith in the God whom they can't see. We all have these opportunities really all the time and they don't become less the older you get. It feels like the older I get, the more people that I have met over the course of my life and those people need me. They need me to love them in the way that I would want them to love me. We have such a ripe harvest field in front of us. We are living in an age that I have personally never experienced anything like we are living in the times of today. I'm sure that there was an evangelist when I was young that probably said the same thing when I was seven. But I think we would all agree that because information is so easily received today, we are so much more aware of what is happening around the world. Little countries that would never make the news now are making the news in America.
In Sri Lanka, for example, their food prices have gone up 65% in less than a year. Imagine what that would do to us if that was America. We can't just take this information in and not have a response. We have to, as followers of Jesus, bring while it is still day, the love of Christ to these people that we rub shoulders with, that we find out about. Let's do unto others in the same way that we would want to be treated if we were in their shoes. God bless you. Thank you for being here today. For those of you who are watching by livestream, if you are in the Metro area, come out and join us at Corcoran Park. We would love to have you join us for our picnic this afternoon. If you forgot to bring your lunch, that's okay. Stop by my friend's gas station down on the corner of 116 and 10 and go into the Fresh Deli. They will give you something good to eat there. We'll see you at the park.
Jacque: We have a praise report. We've been praying for Jean Gmach.
Brian: Yes, and Jean is here.
Jacque: She is here today.
Brian: Yes. God bless you.
Jacque: She came back from being very, very, very sick with pesticide poisoning and already compromised lungs. I'm so grateful you are okay and you are here today, Jean.
Brian: Yeah. We'll keep praying.
Jacque: Thank you for praying.
Brian: Yeah. Let's raise our hands together, shall we? May the Lord bless you, and may the Lord keep you. 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. May you do unto others what you would want them to do for you. This we pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Thank you so much for being here today.
Jacque: Dave and Deb will be serving communion. Thank you
Brian: Right over here.
Jacque: The prayer team, people will be here to pray with you if you'd like further prayer today.
Brian: God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 7-10-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.