Pastor Podcast - John 15 - What is Love?

Each week Pastor Mark takes time to go deeper and talk about the week's message!  If you have questions you'd like him to answer or hear more about please send those in by texting us at the link in the show notes!

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Love is one of the most used words in our culture and one of the most misunderstood. We sit down with Pastor Mark to talk through John 15 and the kind of love Jesus actually commands, not a mood, not a slogan, but agape love that is voluntary, sacrificial, and proven by action.

We unpack why Jesus says love is the identifier of his true disciples, and why “apart from me you can do nothing” is the key to making that command livable. Abiding in Christ is not a one-time spiritual moment; it is the daily connection that lets the Holy Spirit produce real fruit when our flesh fights back. We also explore how God’s love changes what we want, how we treat people, and how we handle the hardest relationships, including the call to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

Then we get concrete. What does truth in love look like when the world pressures believers to affirm everything? We walk through Jesus’ response to the woman caught in adultery: no condemnation, no condoning, and a clear call to turn from sin. From there we move into everyday discipleship, from road rage and impatience to the quiet discipline of being interruptible with our time, seeing people as image-bearers, and taking faith-filled steps when God puts a need right in front of us.

As Easter approaches, we also talk about outreach, serving together as the body of Christ, and making the most of moments when people are more open to spiritual conversations. If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review. What is one situation that most exposes how hard it is for you to love?

New episodes every Monday
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Intro music by Joey Blair

Transcript

Welcome And Message Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Well hey Lifehouse family, welcome back to our Monday morning time. Again, we know hopefully you're watching it whenever you get a chance. Hopefully you're like sitting on the edge of your seat waiting on Monday for us. We know that's not the case, but you out there who are watching their YouTube for maybe for you. I can't wait to see you and Nate. But yeah, but um, but we do appreciate you joining us. This is a really special week. You know, Danny Mattis brought the message this week a lot on love and get an opportunity to get Pastor Mark's thoughts on John 15 and the message. And just continue to go a little deeper, can keep the conversation going. So any kind of general I mean, you can't say enough about love.

What Sacrificial Love Really Means

SPEAKER_01 0:52

You know, I mean he said it right off the bat, you know, probably much more eloquently than I'm gonna say it, but we're to be marked as Christians, as believers, children of God. We are to be marked by love. Like it's supposed to be an identifier. Jesus says very clearly, plainly, this is how you will know my disciples, like my true disciples, because there's a lot of people that make claims, right? Talk is cheap, but he says by their love. Not that they say they love, but or sing that they love or testify of it, but that they actually love. And specifically, and I loved how he right off the bat, I think, you know, he talked about the different types of love, you know, because in our English language we've kind of summed up all these different things and referred to them all as love, but in the Greek language, they they're much more specific. But we're it's the agape love, like the sacrificial love that we're to be marked by. Not just like the cheap I love puppies and pizza and kitties, you know, or you know, whatever. We are to be marked by sacrificial love, like for one another. And that this is not an option for people, right? You know, and I and I think back to my own testimony and my faith. And I would have to say, like you talk, we talk about it. The Bible says that as believers, we're new creations, you know, and I would have to say, as I think back and assess, that was something that I was surprised by. I a feeling, you know, a desire, a burden, as I would express it, that I had that had not been there before prior to my salvation. I really started to care about others and their eternities and where they would spend eternity in a way. And it's not that I was a hateful person before. I mean, I did love my family, I love, you know, my kids and people in general, Philadelphia, right? Mankind, but I didn't, I wasn't gonna, you know, go out of my way or uh sacrifice, you know, much. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, whatever the the culture would demand, like just what was expected, but not really go out of my way to sacrifice for the sake of others. And yeah, like I was really shocked to realize and feel the way I did about others, and that was the fruit of the spirit, which Galatians 5 says, the fruit of the spirit is love. And so, yeah, I mean, I'm a testimony that I could feel that, yeah, that's that's what I experienced. I don't know, can you relate to that as well?

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Faith, hope, love, the greatest of these is love. And yeah, like you mentioned, touch on it sometimes, but the English language does not do justice to what we really truly need to mean. So defining love is so important. We aren't talking about the romantic, you know, our right love. Yeah, it's very much about the romantic love. You know, there's so much out there. Love is love. Well, what is that? It's just this physical attraction rather than true unconditional love. And we were talking, you know, we're doing our re-engage, you know, our marriage ministry, and the first week is we have to get love right, you know, within a husband-wife relationship. Too often it's, you know, is it just transactional, or if my needs are met, then I'll reciprocate. But to truly understand Agape love, which we all want, we all desire that unconditional love to be loved in that way. And then, like you say, when we truly understand God's love, then that changes us. We can start to absolutely experience and then play that out.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

I mean, we we love because he first loved us, you know. So, in response to his love, like we cannot help but love. I also think of, I often refer to Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3, where he even prays, he says, I pray that you will know with all the saints what is the depth, the height, the length, and the breadth of his amazing love that surpasses knowledge. And I really think, you know, knowing and understanding and comprehending and realizing the love of the Father, you know, the Son of the Spirit, the demonstrated love, the sacrificial love, the agape love that that has been demonstrated and is bestowed and afforded us and offered to us, like we cannot help but love back. And so interestingly, that Paul prayed that prayer, I believe, not just so that they could have a moment, be like, oh, that's so sweet, you know, how great, you know, but but really that they would be motivated and encouraged and strengthened to persevere through trials and tribulations, inspired to demonstrate likewise, right? Jesus left as an example that we might follow in his footsteps. Greater love has no one than this, that he laid down his life for his friends. Jesus washed his disciples' feet, he served people and he gave his life away. And so we're to follow his example, you know. And I do think I love in this John 15 passage, you know, again, he actually set up and gave us the context. I mean, this is, you know, the road to Jerusalem, like he's about to be crucified. He knows that. These this is the up following the uproom discourse where literally it's about to go down, all of it. Jesus knows it, he's told the disciples, and he's having these like last conversations with them to prepare them for what's to come. So this is a very significant conversation that he's having with them. And I I as intimate as it was, as loving as it was, and is, there's authority there. This is a command. Like you, we are to love. It's not a suggestion. Jesus never makes suggestions, ever. I mean, he knows everything. He he all authority in heaven and earth have been given to him. And so, with that authority, with that knowledge and wisdom, he commands us to love. But then he even encourages his disciples, talking about the helper's gonna come. Like he never gives us a command that he does not give us the ability to obey. And so the command here really is not necessarily primarily to love, it's really to obey in the form of loving other by the power of the Holy Spirit that indwells the hearts of all who believe.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

I think that's where it starts with the abiding, you know, right? Abide the first thing is if we are abiding, if we have experienced that love, if we abide in it. And you've mentioned always that verse on the height, the length, the depth, the breadth. There's four dimensions there, right? There's it's not just, you know, I'm an engineer, so I think and there you go, three dimensions. There's four because it's it's not like you said, a one-time thing, it's a time. There's God continues to love us. Sometimes you have that flash in the pan, that you know, excitement over, you know, meeting somebody new. No, this is love that ignores. So the abiding is that continual need to stay in Christ for this kind of love to be experienced and also show. You know, it's not going to happen when we disconnect and get apart from Christ because then we get back into our self-centeredness and worldliness and all those kind of things. So abiding is really the key both to experience and to show this code.

Abide In Christ To Love

SPEAKER_01 8:06

If we're going to be able to do what he has commanded us to do, we must abide. In John 15, right at the beginning of that conversation, he says, Apart from me, you can do nothing. Like, don't even try to do it on your own. Like you will fail. Like you must abide in me, stay connected, like dwell, remain in me, and I'll remain in you. But but where this really, I think, you know, where the you know, it's it it's hard. I've been married for for many years now. I don't even know how to find me for it. A long, long time. And I'm not sure. Yeah. But you, you know, we don't if we really think about it, it's challenging. Yeah, I I know probably my wife, it's been much harder for her to love me than it has been for me to love her. But yeah, things come up. You know, when you put people in the mix, you put problems in the mix, there's things to work through. I mean, it's it's just the way it is within the church, the body of Christ. I love our church, I love the people of our church, but there's some people that are difficult and challenging to love. I'm one of them. You know, I know that. But but Jesus even commands his disciples on another occasion. He says, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Like, what? Your enemies? Like, really? Like, love your enemies? It's a command, again, not a suggestion. And again, like that's impossible, right? In and of ourselves. So, this is where I think that it's just much more in your face, the challenge to love in the way that we're called to love. Love your enemies. What he gives us the ability to obey that command. And really, everything that we do, every conversation that we have, every every way that we serve, like really love should be kind of the motivation or the spark that ignites the action, right? Even speaking the truth. We're to speak the truth in love, like not just obey, right, and beat people over the heads with Bibles. Like we want them, we want to speak in strategic, effective ways, motivated by love, right? And really, I and I think that it's very helpful as believers to constantly assess like why am I doing what I'm doing? Why am I giving? Like, why am I, you know, getting tithes and offerings? Like, is it to be lauded and applauded? You know, is it to get a tax deduction? You know, I mean, is it because I think I'm gonna earn the favor of God, or is it because I love God and because I want to acknowledge and honor Him? Because He's been so good and loved me in such profound ways. Like, love should be the motivation and and the catalyst for everything that we do, how we live our lives.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

We should be marked by love, right? Like you say, truth and love. We're not out to win arguments, we're not out to win debates truly. If we believe, like you said, if we care about people's eternal destiny, we and hey, I've experienced this love. I want to I want you to experience the same. Right. You know, I'd like you to have that opportunity from a giving way, not a you know, sort of again, self-centered, just trying to justify or whatever, make people feel down. Like, no, we have to do both.

Love Speaks Truth Without Condemning

SPEAKER_01 11:18

And this wasn't new. This idea, this concept of love was not new with Jesus. Like, this is the way, I mean, what's the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God. Love the Lord your heart, mind, and strength. And the second that's like it was as yourself, your neighbors, yeah. Others as yourself. And he even Jesus goes on to say, like neighbor's not just who lives next to you, right? Not just your next door neighbor. But he says, all the law and the prophets, everything, like from you know, Genesis all the way to Malachi, every command scripture, like really the root, like the heart behind all of it was to be love, love for God. God doesn't want a bunch of robots checking off boxes, going through the motions, trying to manipulate him, coerce him, entice him to do things for them. No, he it's always been about relationship. It's always been about love. And Jesus spelled that out, explained it, broke it down for them. Like all the law and the prophets, it's all it all can be summed up. It falls under the umbrella of those two commandments. And what he did in living out his life was model it in a profound way. So again, like so we can read the law and the prophets and still come to the same conclusion. But Jesus's life clarified and clarifies, and that's really what our goal should be as his followers. Like we should be able to, the, as the way, in the way that we live our lives, clarify for the lost and night world around us, like what this love, this agape love is. Now, Jesus didn't just go around hugging people. Like, what is love? Like, what is true love? Oftentimes I say here at Lifehouse that when you know the truth, the gospel, the most loving thing to do is to speak the truth when you know the truth. And on the flip side, by implication, the most unloving thing to do when you know the truth of the gospel is to not share the gospel. Right, right. I you think about it in these terms, maybe you know, if you had the cure to cancer, like you literally had the cure to cancer. This is just an illustration, and you didn't share that information, right? Like, how would you behold that? How ridiculous would that be? Like to even think of that concept when you had the ability to save people's lives, and we're talking about a much profound, this is eternities, right? Heaven, hell, condemnation, salvation. Like these this is what lies in the balance. Like, how could we not like do whatever we can to get that information out there? And so I think that our world has defined love in a different way and saying that love is just accepting everything, that's not what it is, affirming everything. No, and uh, he gave, Danny gave on Sunday the example of the woman that was caught in the act of adultery in John chapter eight. And I love that example. I think that really helps me kind of understand, you know, because it's not necessarily black and white where you draw lines, but essentially, you know, you know, the testimony, these religious men really with the motive of trying to cast Jesus in doing something or saying something that they could arrest him for, throw this woman who's caught in the act of adultery before him. Jesus writes something in the sand, looks at them, and says, Let whoever is without sin cast the first stone. Right. They all walked away from the oldest to the youngest. And Jesus looks around and says, Woman, where are your accusers? And they they all left and and he said, Who's left to condemn you? No one he said, Neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more. And one way that I kind of summarize that is Jesus did not condemn her, but he also did not condone her behavior or celebrate her behavior. What our world pressures us to do as believers is to celebrate sin. That's not loving. Like you cannot love God and not hate what he hates, right? He hates sin because the wages of sin is death. So we can't celebrate sin and we can't even condone it. Like we cannot be okay with sin. We can't be okay. If we really love someone, we cannot be okay with death for them. So we're not going to condone, we're not going to celebrate. And we're also, though, not going to condemn. We need to remember that. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Oh, 100% does. And I think that's again, Danny laid it out. Well, kind of the identity versus the nature, you know, is it kind of in her? We see the person, the image bearer of God, you know, like who they are, who God created them to be, but they are caught in sin. So we're speaking the truth. Like, hey, what you're doing is not okay. You know, like we have to call out the sin, the brokenness, because we want restoration, you know, we know ultimate restoration will come in heaven when perfected, you know, based on faith. But in this time here and now, should we keep on going on in sin? You know, and again, it's going to destroy you, you know, whether you're a believer, especially if you're not a believer, you know, you're headed down the road to destruction. But even believers, you know, like this is not how you're meant to live. This is not how you're meant to be. So separating that, and then we should accept the person as a person, as an image bearer of God, but reject this sinful behavior and those kind of things. So keeping that balanced, you know, because too often we want to make people's identity like, well, you're an alcoholic, that's who you are, or you know, you're an adulterer, that's who you are. Well, no, you're a broken person who is caught in this thing, where I said, separate that, you're a soul, call that out. The loving thing to do is to call that out and share the truth.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Absolutely. You know, and it's not even just people that we engage with like directly, you know, in who have like glaring sin, you know, in their lives. But I I even think where this kind of plays out in my life where I feel convicted sometimes. We're talking about this earlier, road rage for me. You know, I'm a guy who likes to get to where like I'm supposed to go, like this cut to the chase. And I really do. I I sometimes I speed, I need to repent of that and not speed, you know. But sometimes I can get behind someone and feel really frustrated, you know, like, man, get out of the way. Like, I got a place to go, you know, and you're hindering me. And I feel not love for that person, but contempt for that person. And I, man, it really just reveals the pride in my heart, the selfishness in my heart. Like, who knows, you know, what's going on with that person? Like, you know, I need to have more compassion, right? And not contempt. And I do, I I feel contempt at times, and that's not, man, that's not from the Lord. That's not the fruit of the spirit. That's the fruit of the flesh. And I want to put to death the flesh with its desires and its passions. And just I it just kind of is a humbling thing. It's kind of a convicting thing, like when that comes out, and when I feel that, that's ugh, I hate that. Like, I want to feel more love. And I really think that that's an appropriate prayer for us to pray. Like, we should we should pray, like, Lord, give me the ability to love. Like, I want to be obedient to your command to love even my enemies, you know, and pray for those who persecute me, but love our wives, right? In the way that Jesus loved the church and just people in general who have problems and who may not be like us and who had, you know, we should feel compassion. Jesus felt compassion when he looked at the sheep without a shepherd, he felt compassion for them, really, in the depth, not even just fleeting, you know, like, oh, poor things. He can just pity them. But that the word there in Matthew chapter nine, it's like a in the pit of his gut, like when he looked at people that were caught, who were trapped, who didn't know the truth, who were being led astray. Like he really felt compassion. And he said, he told his disciples, pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into the harvest. For the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few. Like, don't just do nothing, do something, go, you know, and pray. Love, praise, right? I do think that that's a helpful thing when there's people that you're struggling with to love. Pray for them. Yes. You know, not just pray that the Lord would give you the ability to love, but actually obey the command. Pray for those who persecute you, pray for everybody, you know, pray for them. And if you pray sincerely, humbly, genuinely, you know, I I really believe the spirit will bear the fruit.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

You'll start to love and feel differently, compassionate. Yeah. And even you mentioned the road rage. I'm always what is the first thing that love is in First Corinthians?

SPEAKER_01 20:10

I think that's there for a reason. If you never feel content, you never feel road rage. Nate, Nate's a guy who knows the speed limit. I believe. Well, I was a traffic engineer, so I learned in my younger years.

From Road Rage To Compassion

SPEAKER_00 20:21

It's there for a reason. So but yeah, sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. We'll get but I won't get into that. Yeah, but honestly, it just we need but the Lord. Are we patient? Are we? That was even it was a thing talking about just Christian hospitality. Are we interruptible? You know, too often these days in our society, we're so busy, so things I gotta be here, I gotta be there. Are you willing to even let just God interrupt you? And a lot of times we're not, you know, like we have our schedule, our agenda, those kind of things. And I think, like you say, that when we feel that way, it sort of reveals that we're about us, we're about our agenda, our timeline, our things when we can't be interrupted to show love, you know, to often these days, one of the most loving things you can do is give somebody your time, you know, it's just so valuable. But we we want to withhold it. So, you know, I think Danny, I was really, I want to make sure just you talk about love being voluntary, sacrificial, and action-oriented, you know. Like you were saying, we have the ability, it's a command. So I think it was C.S. Lewis who said, you know, love is really an act of the will, it's not just the feeling. We want to make it a feeling. We talked about marriage in a lot of ways too many times. We hear your husband. Well, I just don't feel in love anymore. Right. Okay, so still love, you know, like you can still be in love. And a lot of times it's the action, it's the you know, moving outward and loving, and then the feelings will often follow. Like you said, praying for your enemies when you pray for your enemies, when you serve your spouse, the feelings will follow. But too often we want to be like, Well, I'll forgive or I'll love when I feel like it, or when they move towards me, I'll wait for them to move towards me. God blesses.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Obedience, not disobedience. And so I do think that when we take steps of faith, like preemptively to the feeling, God blesses that kind of to affirm what you're saying. And you know, partial obedience, not obedience, delayed obedience, not obedience, right? Obedience, God blesses obedience. And I truly do believe, and I've experienced that myself in taking those steps of faith to serve people, you know, when the feeling's not even there, but knowing it's the right thing to do, God will bless that. I think of the familiar parable of the good Samaritan. We don't want to be like those two guys, right, who saw the hurt, the beggar on the side of the road, not the beggar, but the guy who was beat up and uh cast away. We want to be like the Samaritan, you know, who stopped and just the links. He didn't just even just address in the moment. He was interruptible. I love that example. I'll have to confess, that's something that I struggled with too. Again, type A, schedule-oriented. You know, I like when things go according to planned and when I can see what I'm supposed to do all that day. We do need to be interruptible, and we do need to stop and to listen and to see, to have eyes to see, because Jesus did, right? And he's our example. And so I'm real thankful that you brought up that point. Brothers and sisters, be interruptible. Yeah. And if there are opportunities, like these divine appointments, you know, that the Lord sets before us, we want to take advantage and steward well. I say, you know, do I really mean but I say I do, but like I say, as a shepherd, you know, as a pastor of this church, you know, we want to steward well, not just every penny that's placed on the offering plate, not just every person that comes in the door, like that's an opportunity, but every opportunity itself. Like we want to steward that well. Kingdom opportunities. We don't want to miss them. And so I think oftentimes I have, and I just don't want to. I want to be a servant of the Lord. Here, here I am. Whatever, wherever, whenever is what I say. Lord, give me the ability to live that out and in and affirm that declaration.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Always remind it of experiencing God too. The first thing is we got to see where God is working. A lot of times we want God to come where we're at or do what we're doing, our schedule, but when we're not interruptible, because that's the interrupt, like, oh wow, you know, God is working in this person's life, right? It's a major need. This is where I can show.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Yeah, and join him there in the work. Exactly. So another thing to touch on, I don't know. I hope you're keeping track of time.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

You know, listeners aren't bailing out on us. But this is all of us.

Be Interruptible And Step Out

SPEAKER_01 24:42

This is not just the church staff or the pastors or the elders. All of us are. But he doesn't say just you know it says. Yeah, so oftentimes, you know, people, I think for good reason, you know, because God always calls us out of our comfort zones. Yes. So faith, without faith, it's impossible to please God. And so you can count on it. If God's gonna call you or lead you or guide you by his spirit to do something, faith is gonna be a part of the equation. Like just that is Christianity 101, following Jesus 101. But so oftentimes people think, oh, well, I can't address that need, or I can't, you know, help that person. So, Pastor Mark, can you go help that person? Or hey, mate, like go, do you see what I see? But the fact that God has given you eyes to see that person or placed you in a position, like that's something to consider. You know, I'm not saying don't ever like say, hey, Pastor Mark, can you help me help this person or you know, but uh rise up, you know, and say, like if God has shown you something or someone, it's for a reason. If the spirit has given you eyes to see, like, and you may not know what to do or how to respond, but again, I think the spirit will lead you as you obey on that faith journey, you know, to address the need that he has revealed to you specifically as his servant. And I just think, man, that is one way that God shows up and shows off in a glorious way, is what his people are willing to say. Like, like, you know, I'll do what I can, help me, Lord. Again, he doesn't expect us to do us, do it in our own power and our own strength. He will make a way, he's given us a helper so that we can help, you know, other people and love them.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

And we really miss out, you know. Like again, we love to help people support, but you know, miss out on the blessing of being part of what God's doing. Oh, like I say, the feelings come when you take the initiative that God is showing you when you act, when you move forward, stepping out in faith, it will bless you. It's scary, it's hard, but that's when the blessing is come, you know, and it's not in some prosperity, tangible rich, but it's just that I would find them.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

It's it's God when he meets us. I would say beyond just to use a more dramatic word, it's not just the blessing comes, the glory comes. Like the glory of God. Like, like in when we are willing to step out in faith in these ways, like he shows up and takes us deeper and farther with him. We get to experience him in ways that we would not otherwise like talk about a blessing. I mean, it is, yeah. So I just really want to challenge and charge us as a congregation, and and I I want to say and confess, like, there are times that I feel convicted. I need to be interruptible. I do, and I need to have I, Lord, give me more compassion and love. I do feel that it's the fruit of the spirit, but my flesh still fights that. I don't want to feel contempt for people. I want to love what God loves. I'm called to, commanded to love what and who God loves, and to not feel the contempt and the condemnation that I often feel really that's the fruit of the flesh. And so, man, it's exciting to think about like, you know, what's ahead because there's a lot of hurting people out there, a lot of people who need to know the love of God, who are oblivious to it, and we're conduits. We know the truth. We know that God is love and that he loves the world so much that he gave his only begotten son. His love was demonstrated on the cross while we were still sinners. And so, what an opportunity we have to share that good news.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

And speaking of, Easter's coming up. We certainly could talk about love for hours.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

It's actually a deep topic.

Easter Invite And Serve Together

SPEAKER_00 28:40

And so hopefully this has been helpful in getting you to rethink maybe your conceptions of love, things you hear in society, make sure, look biblically. I think even just as Danny was going through, you know, brotherly love, romantic love, family love, agape is really godly love. The way I think it kind of I wrote it all down in terms of that. So if you want godly love, if you want that transcendent love, like this is what it's all about. So we hope this helped you. But Easter's coming. It's gonna be a great time to you know share the love of Christ. He ultimately showed that love and going to the cross for us. So it's an opportunity. On Sunday's coming, we're gonna get it back in Zachariah.

Final Charge And Farewell

SPEAKER_01 29:18

This is really, you know, really the body of Christ, right? It's hands, feet, it's it's every member coming together that to function, to fulfill the Great Commission. But absolutely, in our culture, what we commemorate, that the time that we have commemorated, set aside to commemorate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is an opportunity because there are people who who really in actuality, and I don't say this in a condemning way, but just in let's just be honest, who think they're saved, but they're not saved. They have not repented of their sins, believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't follow him, and so they're astray, they're still on that broad road that leads to destruction. But they're gonna be here. Like they come when they wouldn't otherwise come, they'll come because this is what our culture often does. Culture's changing, but I think we still have a little bit of this afterglow with that. Like people are coming. Let's make the most of this opportunity. Let's love on them in profound ways. Let's serve for the extravaganza. Thousands of people have in the past come on our campus, most of them not connected to a local church body for whatever reason, various reasons, but let's show them the love of Jesus in an impactful way. Let's be marked by love. Let's let's let our love engage with people in such a way that it's appealing, you know, and really draws people. And so let's let's do that on with the extravaganza. Let's gather for Palm Sunday. Lots of opportunities. All hands on deck. I I want to dispel the myth. I know some people come and they think like that church's a well-old machine, they got it all together, they don't need me. No, we need you. There are a lot of people like spending a lot of energy and effort, and they love doing it. One, we need you, and then secondly, like we want you to enjoy the blessing of serving and exercising those faith muscles and being a part of what God is doing here, being a part of what God has called you, all of us, to do. So we invite you to be a part of all of that.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Lifehouse family, thanks for taking the time. We hope to see you in extravaganza if you can serve. Hopefully, we'll see you poem Sunday, getting back into Zachariah is going to be a great time in God's word. So stick with us. And man, such a great time of year to be showing the love of Christ in our community, to others in your family, to your neighbors. Really take up that call, take up that command of Christ as we walk forward.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

So Jesus says, if I be lifted up, I will draw a minute to myself. And so let's trust him that as we serve him in ways that lift up and magnify his name and have these conversations, that we will see the fruit of that. And that is people that we love coming to saving faith, growing in their faith. So let's trust that he will draw a minute to himself in response to or in connection to our lifting him up in those ways. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

Lifehouse family, we'll see you next time.