Pastors Brian and Jacque Lother
Brian: Welcome everybody. It's great to see you all. Welcome everybody on livestream. It's o good to have so many people really, literally around the country. We have people from many, many different states that watch us every week and we just are so grateful for you being a part of this community. Every once in a while, people will drop me a note, email or send me a card or something. I got a really interesting card or note this week. And it said this: I was looking for a get better soon card for you, pastor. I know you are not sick, but I just think your preaching could get better.
Audience: Jacque, you sent that.
Jacque: No, I didn't. I swear I didn't.
Brian: I'm going to leave you all in suspense as to who sent that to me. But how many know that you can just do your very best and sometimes it just isn't good enough for some people.
Jacque: I think that person was kidding.
Brian: He was. He was.
Jacque: Don't say he. Now, you've just got half the--
Brian: I could be misleading.
Anyways, people often are illogical and oftentimes they are unreasonable. Most of us have experienced people who are very self-centered. I have a word of the Lord for you today: Love them anyways. Love them anyways. I confessed that one of the biggest challenges for me is loving people when they are difficult to love. It's not easy, is it? It's a challenge. It took me quite a few years to realize that I can actually love somebody that I disagree with. I was not a very nice guy. Early on in the ministry. I could go into a room of people and divide them within 30 minutes and Jackie has a very forlorn look on her face remembering those days.
Jacque: You loved to argue doctrine.
Brian: I did.
Jacque: You did. Way, way back.
Brian: That's like 48 years ago. In fact, I realized as I've gotten older that I can even love someone with whom I even disapprove of their behavior. I can do that. I can love someone who I don't agree with how they think and the things that they believe. I've come to know that real love is deeper and more meaningful than just being in agreement or being able to approve what everybody does. Real love is much deeper than that. As a matter of fact, it needs to be deeper than that. Or you won't be loving anybody for very long. Because it doesn't take us very long to know somebody to disagree with how they think or what they might do. Believe it or not, we've had people in our church leave this church because someone else in the church bought something that they thought they shouldn't buy, and they didn't want to be associated with somebody like that.
That's religion, my friends. That is not the attitude of Jesus. We know that the kind of love that I'm talking about here, we call it what? Unconditional. It is unconditional love that actually holds together our families. It's unconditional love that actually holds together friendships and our churches with unconditional love, our churches would just fall apart and fragment without it. It's actually unconditional love that even holds our communities together. I'm able to disagree with somebody or even disapprove of their actions, and I can even let them know that I don't necessarily agree or feel what they want me to feel or agree with where they stand on things. But I do not have to withhold my love from them, especially in order to prove my love for God.
A lot of times, we will withhold our love from people because we are going to take God's side as we would call it, against sin. And so therefore I'm going to disassociate myself from you because I don't agree with your behavior. I have to take God's side against you. And yet, the scriptures teach us-- See, that's God trying to get our attention here this morning. That's God's way of saying amen to what I just said. And she can't even turn it off because God's saying amen here.
Jacque: You better repeat that
Brian: After I say this, you go da, da, da, da. That's the new amen. Where was I? No, this is good. I used to feel like I had to take God's side. That was it against sin. And of course, how I was living wasn't sinful and how another person was living was sinful, so I'm going to be us against them. And it created this whole us versus them. I was blinded to the reality in those days that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, that he proved his love for us. He came even when he was really disagreeing with how we were living, probably how we thought probably what we believed and certainly how we were living. And the love that Jesus commands us to walk in is the same kind of love that he walks in.
Jacque: What do they say? When you are pointing at one person, there are three fingers pointing at me.
Brian: That's right. That's very good. There is a wonderful story Jesus tells. We are not going to read it here, but you could read it later today. It's found Luke chapter 15, verses 11 through 31. It's a story of the prodigal son. Most of us know this story. This is a story of a father who made it very clear that he loved how many of his sons
Jacque: Both.
Brian: Both, both of them. Yeah. He loved both of his sons, even though each of them was illogical, unreasonable, self-centered.
Jacque: Selfish.
Brian: Yep. Yep. Self-centered in their own way. The younger son, of course, was very illogical and unreasonable, self-centered when he went to his dad. In that culture, it was extremely offensive to take your inheritance early. He requested his inheritance. His father gave it to him. He dishonored his father. He left. And then not only did he dishonor his father and take his inheritance, he didn't make wise investments, but he went to a distant country and he squandered it and lost it all. But his father, what loved him anyways. I want us to get that word anyway in our minds here. God loved him anyways.
The older son, he stayed home on the outward appearance. He looked like he was really a good son, didn't he? He did all the things his dad asked him to do, but his older son was also very illogical and unreasonable as well as being self-centered. And he refused to celebrate the return of the younger son because the older son was self-righteous. Remember the conversation he had with his dad? I've all these things--- and don't we want to do that with God? I've done all these things, therefore nothing bad should happen to me. I've done all these things and he was coming to his dad in self-righteousness, but he couldn't be happy at all about the return of his younger brother.
Rembrandt painted a wonderful painting on this story of the prodigal where the father is holding his disheveled younger son, who's in rags and so forth. But Rembrandt made a mistake. He needed to paint a second picture of the father embracing the older brother as well. He would probably have been stoic and distant like he was, but that's the love that the father had. The father loved him anyways, in spite of his self-righteousness and arrogance and unwillingness to have an attitude of forgiveness to his younger brother.
We see some scriptures here I want to cover today, Matthew chapter 22, verses 37 to 40. And we'll read that in the Passion Translation.
Jacque: Jesus answered Him, love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being and with every thought that is within you. This is the great and supreme commandment. And the second is like it in importance.
Brian: Let me stop you there for a second. Most of us would say to ourselves, well, God is not hard to love. I mean, he's attractive; he's powerful. He has got so many wonderful attributes. We don't struggle with the first half of that verse or that section of verses, do we? It makes sense. It actually makes sense that we should love the creator. It makes sense. What we struggle with is the next half of this portion of scripture, which Jesus said the second part of this is like the first part in importance. It's like the first verse in importance. It's different in function, but it's exactly like the first in importance. And we read what?
Jacque: You must love your friend in the same way you love yourself contained within these commandments to love you. To love, you will find all the meaning of the law and the prophets.
Brian: So really, in these two commandments to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, to love our friends, love our families as ourselves is contained virtually all of the teachings of the prophets and all that's in the law. Now, we'll go on to another one. We find this in John chapter 13, verse 34, where Jesus now is about to leave, he's about to be crucified. He's kind of being very intense about his spending as much time as he can with his disciples before he departs and he lays this on them.
Jacque: So I give you now a new commandment.
Brian: I wonder what they thought when they heard that. A new commandment. Wow, something new. Well, you know what? When some of us in the streams that we've been a part of theological and denominational streams, when someone says, I have a new word of the Lord for you, our ears perk up, right? Because we get tired of the old and we want something new. Isn't that our nature? We like new cars, we like new clothes. We can live in a beautiful house. I'm tired of this house. I want to get a new one. That's kind of our nature. We just, we just always want something new. And Jesus, Jesus kind of played on their lower nature as it were and said a new commandment, I have gift to you.
Jacque: So I give you now a new commandment. Love each other just as much as I have loved you.
Brian: Can you just see a collective heart sinking?
Jacque: I wanted a better commandment.
Brian: Yeah. How are we supposed to do that? Love the same way that you've loved us. He goes on to say,
Jacque: For when you demonstrate the same love I have for you by loving one another, everyone will know that you are my true followers.
Brian: I've been a part of the church my whole life. I'm 72 now and I'm still part of the church. So I believe I can have some, what I'd say constructive criticism for the church because I haven't abandoned it and I'm part of it and it's like self-examination. But I dare say that more and more and more people today are walking away from the local church and church life and community faith, because we as a church have not loved how Jesus is loved. We have nobody to blame but ourselves for our empty churches. If we want to see our churches filled again, we need to start doing what Jesus said.
We need to start loving one another because when we do, everyone will know that you are my true followers. You are my true followers. By commanding his disciples to love as he loved, Jesus is actually setting himself up as the model of the love that we are to show to each other. Hollywood is not the model; Jesus is the model. The greatest challenge and most extraordinary teaching about this whole love concept, I find in Matthew chapter five, verse 43 to 48. This is the most extraordinary challenging teaching that Jesus gave on this subject. And we find it in Matthew chapter 5: 43 to 48.
Jacque: Your ancestors have also been taught, love your neighbors and hate the one who hates you. However, I say to you, love your enemy.
Brian: Well, so now he's gone beyond reasonable, hasn't he? I can see where we need to be reminded to love our family, especially when they do things that disappoint us. We have done funerals here in the past where usually I will meet with the family ahead of time and we've had to do some funerals where the family didn't want to meet ahead of time because they aren't getting along with each other. Even during the death of a parent or something, the siblings can't get along. We can see where it would be reasonable for God to say you need to start laying your differences aside and start getting along with each other. You need to start loving each other. You are family. You are family. You are family. And that resonates with a reasonableness to us. But it doesn't resonate in a reasonable way with us when Jesus says, but I want you to love your enemies. That's a whole other level of unreasonableness.
But that's the unreasonable nature of God. That's how God is. He loves those who are against him. He loves those who are opposed to him. And he can win their hearts in only one way, not by crushing them with his almighty power, which he has the ability to do. But his goal is to get after our hearts. The only thing that can change our hearts is love and grace. Let's go on.
Jacque: However, I say to you, love your enemy. Bless the one who curses you. Do something wonderful for the one who hates you.
Brian: Does anybody come to mind that that hates you? When you hear read that, does any specific person or image come to mind?
Jacque: Or situation?
Brian: Yeah. Well, Jesus is saying, what? Do something wonderful for the person that hates you? Boy, there is a list, right? There is a good list to make up: How many people hate me and what wonderful thing can I do for them. You see why this isn't religion. This only comes outta relationship with God. This only actually can happen when you realize how lost you were. In this same sermon on the mount, Jesus said, blessed are the poor or the destitute in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What does he mean by that? We can only really enter the kingdom of heaven when we realized how destitute we are in our spirits and how much we need God. When we recognize that need, then we can throw ourselves in a sense that God's mercy, ask for his mercy, invite him to be our Lord, invite him to be our God, and then walk in a way that is honoring to him. There are some more here.
Jacque: Yep. There is one more. And respond to the very ones who persecute you by praying for them.
Brian: We are not in a culture too often that we get persecuted. Yeah. I know someone you know, unfriends you or dislikes you or whatever on Facebook, and we think that that's persecution. How so many people in Africa and Asia and around the world would love that kind of persecution, right? But even when it comes to being persecuted, the command of Jesus to us is to pray for those people, not try to connive how we can get back at those people to pray for them. Pray for them.
Jacque: For that we'll reveal your identity as children of your heavenly Father. Wow.
Brian: Jesus is equating our, truly being a child of God with praying for those who persecute you, doing something wonderful for people who hate you, loving your enemies. He's actually equating doing those things with being a child of God.
Jacque: There is one more. Bless the one who curses you.
Brian: And bless the one who curses you.
Jacque: That's really a key thing for forgiving people: to bless them. Speak blessings.
Brian: So then he goes on to talk about just this incredible nature of God, which is--
Jacque: I'm going to go the line before. For that will reveal your identity as children of your heavenly Father. He is kind to all by bringing the sunrise to warm and rainfall to refresh whether a person does what is good or evil.
Brian: God brings these blessings into people's life, whether they are good or evil. We struggle with wanting to do good to someone who we would define as evil, don't we? But Jesus said, listen, God blesses the good and the and the bad. Let's go on.
Jacque: What reward do you deserve if you only love the lovable? Don't even the tax collectors do that? How are you any different from others if you limit your kindness only to your friends? Don't even un the ungodly do that? Since you are children of a perfect father in heaven, become perfect like him.
Brian: I've always been told that this verse means to try to become perfect, but we can't become perfect, so you be okay with your failures. But that's not what Jesus said. We have to understand what its mean to be perfect. The best illustration I can give you about what it means to be perfect is you complete or you function in what you are designed to do. This music stand is perfect. It is holding my notes. It'll hold music and so forth. But if you come up and look at it, there are scratches on it. It's not flawless, but it is perfect in the sense of what Jesus is talking about, that it fulfills its design and you were designed by God to love. That's what God made you for. I'll share this in a moment, but we are incomplete when we don't love. We are not fulfilling our purpose and our design when we don't walk in love. When we don't do that, we are imperfect. But when we do walk in love towards one another, we actually are perfect in the way that Jesus defines what perfect is.
We can't take our 21st century definition of what is perfect and apply it to a first century writing of what Jesus said. How many, the word etymology is the study of words and how they change meanings through the years. This word perfect when Jesus said, be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. He means for you to do what you are designed to do. When you walk in love and grace and mercy towards one another, even your enemies, you are being just like your father in heaven.
Jesus calls us to love people anyways. He didn't say that we should love only when we feel like it. And there are a lot of times we don't feel like it. Or when it's convenient. How many know that love often is inconvenient. How many know that love opportunities come our way when we are really tired, and we don't want to have to walk in that love opportunity. How many know that we are supposed to love when the people we are to love aren't very charming? Or as our Norwegian relatives would say, charming. I know some of them are watching today.
He didn't say We are too love when people are lovable, or we should give it a try. But if we get tired or if it doesn't work out, that's okay. These are no excuses. I'm not trying to heap heavy weights upon any of us today. The fact of the matter is we just can't give up on loving because it's the only demonstration that we have that we are followers of Jesus. It really is. We'll read another verse in a little bit about what the real demonstration of being a follower of Jesus really is.
Jacque: Can I just say something about not loving flawlessly? Because when we do make mistakes and we don't love flawlessly and the Holy Spirit speaks to us and we know that we have to make that right, in doing that in apologizing and trying to talk it through such a love can be born and can grow. So even in our imperfection, we just keep choosing to love and watch the relationship.
Brian: We learned a number of years ago. Unfortunately, I come by slow freight, so I didn't really start practicing all of this, but love is a choice. Love is a choice more than anything else. I think we all realize that our Lord has commanded us to love people whether we like them or not, we are to love anyways.
Jacque: Whether we feel like it or not. It's not based on our emotions.
Brian: Wives and husbands don't go home today and say, and you are supposed to love me anyways. You just love anyways. Some people may ask the question, why? Why this kind of very extreme approach to being mistreated? The answer is this: because love is what the Christian life really is all about. It's why we are here. If we do not love others, we are not who we are supposed to be. We are not all that we can be. What was that ad? Be all that you can be, right? Well, for us to be really followers of Jesus and to be all that we can be as followers of Christ, we have to embrace this teaching of Jesus. We are not doing all that we can do if we don't love others.
We actually miss God's purposes for our lives. One of the greatest truths that I ever realized was that God actually made me for a purpose. I have a purpose, a reason for being here on this earth. So many philosophers want to ask these deep questions like, why am I here? And all this sort of stuff. But the answer is really simple. God made every single one of us for a purpose. But that purpose is to be his love extended, to really be a representation of what he is like on the earth. Jesus was the first physical real representation of what our heavenly Father was like. That's why he said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. But then he said to us, a new commandment, I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you. Even more importantly, if we do not know love, believe it or not, we will actually not know God. Let's read that. We find it in one John 4: 7-8.
Jacque: 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.
Brian: This is pretty strong, isn't it? Anyone who loves is a child of God to know about anyone who does not love, does actually not know God. I've seen people operate in some incredible giftings, spiritual giftings, words of knowledge, the prophetic, even people getting healed in meetings. But let's not forget that when Moses took his rod and threw it down on the ground and it turned into a serpent, so did the sorcerer of Egypt do the same thing. Let's not get our eyes on miracles because the scriptures teach us, and I'll show you this in a second, that the evidence of being a true follower of Jesus is not how much power we have, not that demons do what we tell them to do, not that there are miracles that happen when we pray for people. Those are not the evidence of being a follower of Jesus. It is one thing and one thing only. It is loving like Jesus. One thing, nothing else, unconditionally to all. It doesn't matter if they agree with you, they like you, they don't like you, they look like you, they don't look like you. One thing.
We get so focused on all of these other tributaries that can flow out of what it means to be a Christian, that we no longer focus on what it really means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
We are built to run on love. Every single one of us are built by God, designed by God to function in two ways: to receive love and to give love. If we are full of giving love, we have conquered the hardest part. We can't control whether or not other people love us. When they don't love us, there are wounds. There is damage that can happen to us, and we need the love of God to heal that. We live in a fallen world where all sorts of emotional, mental trauma can take place in us. But God designed us, the fuel that makes us tick and run at a hundred percent efficiency is loving one another and being loved by others.
If we want to have spiritual health, if we want to have emotional health and even to a certain degree, physical health, we need to walk in love and grace to one another. The scriptures tell us what bitterness and anger does to our bones, doesn't it? We harbor bitterness and anger. It affects us even on our physical beings. And so without love, our lives really are meaningless. I want to finish with reading this very well-known portion of scripture in First Corinthians 13: 1-3. We'll read it again in the Passion Translation.
Jacque: If I were to speak with eloquence and earth's many languages and in the heavenly tongues of angels, yet I didn't express myself with love, my words would be reduced to the hollow sound of nothing more than a clinging symbol.
Brian: How many would pay a lot of money to go to a symbol recital?
Jacque: How many would want to sit through a free one?
Brian: How many would go to a symbol recital if you got paid? That's probably the better question. Symbols are great, but you know what you need to have a symbol sound good? A hundred-piece orchestra or a good loud guitar with a trap set. This whole description of Paul here is saying that I could be the most eloquent orator that's ever lived, I can speak in multiple languages, including the language that people are using in heaven, whatever language that might be, the language that the angels speak to one another. I can speak, I can become fluent in all those things, but if I don't love all of that, oratory is nothing but a symbol recital. That's all it is. Let's go on.
Jacque: And if I were to have the gift of prophecy with a profound understanding of God's hidden secrets--
Brian: How many of us have run after people who we believe have the gift of prophecy and know these hidden secrets of God? There are thousands of people today on the internet running after those kinds of people. And he goes on to say, even if I were to have this gift of prophecy or this profound understanding of God's hidden secrets, if I had this so all these thousands of people wanted to chase after me because of what I obtained or had, and if I possess unending supernatural knowledge and if I had the greatest gift of faith that could actually move mountains, but never learned to love, what am I?
Jacque: I am nothing.
Brian: I'm nothing. I'm nothing. Let's seek the right thing. Be blessed by prophecy. Be blessed by miracles. Be blessed by all of that. I'm open to it all, but I don't want that to be what I'm seeking after. I don't because that is not the model of what will reflect who is. He goes on to say one more thing.
Jacque: And if I were to be so generous as to give away everything I own to feed the poor and to offer my body to be burned as a martyr without the pure motive of love, I would gain nothing of value.
Brian: So we can even be very kind and generous and really show loving things to do. We can even do that. But if our motive of our heart isn't to truly be like Jesus in loving-- because you know what? There are a lot of philanthropists in the world who are very self-centered. That sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it? A self-centered philanthropist. A person who gives away millions of dollars. So our motive needs to still be one of wanting to be like Jesus, to reflect him, reflect him fully in such a way that they will know we are Christians by our love.
That was an old song that came out of the Jesus movement. "And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love.' Why did we lose that? Why did we get onto better things? There is nothing better to do as a follower of Jesus than to truly love one another. Nothing. I know you've heard probably a thousand sermons on love, but I hope this one takes a deeper resonance in your heart today. Because you will find people that are illogical, that don't make sense, that are self-centered. You will encounter people who are spiteful and unkind, vindictive and the word of the Lord to us as a congregation as this: Love them anyways. Love them anyways. It's the best thing we can do. And we may never even see the results of it in our lifetime, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was executed by the Nazis right before Hitler took his own life.
Here was this incredible German pastor theologian, stayed in Germany, stood up against the Nazis and their horrific plans for the perfect race. He walked in love and he loved the officers who were torturing him. He loved the officers who had incarcerated him and they executed him just prior to Hitler's committing suicide in for spite. It was for spite. He never saw the benefits of loving. And that's not what we are to keep our eyes on. Amen. We are to keep our eyes on one thing, keep our eyes on Jesus because he's worthy of it all, isn't he? He's worthy of it all. He's worthy of us walking in love. He's worthy of us saying yes to this new commandment, to love one another in the same way that he has loved us. Pastor Robert, would you come, please?
Robert: Praise the Lord. I was praying. I'm like, man, don't get up there and preach a second sermon, brother, man. Man, man, man. I got a whole bunch of stuff.
Brian: Well let it come up. Let it come up.
Robert: It's like you got one assignment brother. Go up there and close in prayer. But I do want to give a practical illustration. Put some teeth to pastor's message. Because a lot of times we hear sermons and you can say, yeah, that sounds good, but how am I supposed to do that type thing? I've got two quick examples. Both of them personal in a way, but both of them just blow my mind at the power of love. The first example is, I lost a dear college friend about 20 years ago to a drunk driver. This breaks all denominational stereotypes too. This friend came from a large Catholic family. I mean, you can't get no more Catholic than the parents were named John and Mary. Her name was Rebecca, and she had like seven siblings. But it is the sweetest family that I knew.
It broke my heart to get the news that she lost her life at the hands of a drunk driver. But this family, to this day. I'm sure they felt the loss of their daughter, their sister. They could have had all kind of vengeful, vindictive, malicious ways they wanted to express with the person that was guilty. But you know what they did, Pastor? They pleaded with the judge to have leniency for the guy. Instead of serving all the time behind jail, that he would serve his time going around acknowledging what he did wrong so that someone else wouldn't make the same mistake. That's what this family did. I'm sitting here, I'm angry as all get out. That was the furthest from my mind. But yet this family, they've pleaded adamantly for the judge to do that. And this guy was granted that leniency to go and to do that. You are talking about loving your enemy.
Jack, you often hear me talk about not having a tainted heart. The things that I share with us in this community comes from my life experiences, my life training. The reason why I don't have a tainted heart, and I don't say that boastfully, I don't have a tainted heart. My heart is free to love because I've already been birthed through pain and sorrow. My parents divorced when I was four years old. My mom remarried into a family, to a man that raised me when I was four years old. But for 12 of those years of my rearing, he was very violent and abusing to my mom as a drunk. So much to the point, I didn't know what it, what it was like to go to sleep at night without hearing smacks of the face and sounds of being thrown up against the wall.
I have every, every reason to be angry and to hate this man. He died about six years ago and I went to the funeral representing him just as if he was my own biological father. To his dying day, even though I was not his flesh and blood, he still called me his firstborn son. Instead of being angry with him over the years, God allowed me to see him, see his imperfections and to not look at him in his imperfections, but to appreciate the things that he represented in my life.
He taught me how to tie a tie. He taught me how to polish my shoes. I ended up going to the high school that he went to because he went there. He accepted me as his own child. So what am I saying? Did I appreciate the abuse that my mom went through? No. But I did not let that dictate and taint my heart so that I would grow up to be a bitter person. I looked beyond that. I actually felt sorry for him. You see, when the Lord commands us to love one another, we are always thinking about the other person. The Lord does that for us so that we are not tainted, so that we are not compromised.
When we choose it to do it God's way, we allow the love of God to change and to mold us so that we can affect the world in a different way. I don't blame you. So many people choose the opposite route, and their lives show that my life has been a life of love despite being sorrowful. There were many tears. But God has used me to be a bridge to so many people across this great world. You can drop me anywhere, anywhere. I'm going to befriend someone whether they like it or not, because my heart is free. I've seen the worst, but I still love.
I've shared that with you to, to know that we, you can fill in the blank. It's possible. It's possible. It's possible. You just gotta let God. It's possible. My prayer for you here, and those that are watching, is for the Lord to show you the power and the beauty of love. Love has a more transformative power than any gift, any demonstration of any gift that you can think of. Love has the transformative power to change and influence lies even in the darkest depths. My prayer for you today is let God remove every bitterness, every disappointment, and even every fear to love. And that you'll remove in your mind, the false burden that you have to agree with the behavior. How many of you know that the behaviors I just mention, I do not agree with, with anything in my being? But that you allow God to move through you and to allow God to see people, you to see people as God does, who looks beyond our faults and our bad behaviors and our weaknesses and our flaws and reaches out in love to win us, to change us through his love.
God use us in a special way. Like pastor said, we may not see it, we may not even understand it, but we trust you. If you said it, we trust it, we believe it and we should do it. Lord, wherever we don't know the way or how to love-- there has been many ways, Lord. I'm like, Lord, I don't know how to love this person. The response is always the same: but I do. Let me show you the way. And he will. And he does. And He's doing even right now. So thank you Father for showing us the way to love, trusting in you, removing our doubt, removing our fear, and let us walk in your way. In Jesus name. Amen.
Brian: Thank you for being here today. It's good to see everybody excited about our Easter celebration service and our Good Friday service. We welcome you to that. And then of course, this Friday, the wonderful music for Sarah Renner and of course, Micah. I've been listening to Micah's music all his life and it's getting better all the time. So it's always great. Let's raise our hands together.
Jacque: Always makes me so happy, Micah's music.
Brian: Yep, it does. Let's raise our hands together.
Now 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. And may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may your heart be overflowing with the love of Jesus Christ. This we pray the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Thank you all for being here today. Have a wonderful day. Enjoy the sun. Dave and Lou will be serving communion over here today, and we have people to pray for you at the altar as well if you want communion. God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 3-26-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.