It was actually birthed by a conversation Pastor Morris and I had. And, you know, I had another series already scheduled out. And as we began talking, I'm like, you know what? I feel called to do this, and we're going to do it right. And we're going to be starting an eight-week series next week called Holy Fear. And it is so critically important that we understand the fear of the Lord. You know, this is a world that loves to invoke fear. Do you agree with me? And so that's not my goal when you come to this church, that pastor just wants to scare us. I want us to understand who God is and who we are. You guys feel that? I want to understand my position in the Lord. And so that's going to be eight weeks starting next week, and I'm very excited. And this is the last message in our genuine series. I need to address something. If you are, if you're just new into the faith, or if you've been serving God a long time, you might not like this next sentence, but to follow Christ is difficult. It's not easy. And it's it's so funny. The world hears that and they're like, man, faith, faith, that's a crutch for the weak. And I want to say, try it. Try it. It challenges our normal behaviors. And it's when real transformation shows up that is the only way we can get to a place where we are a true representation of Christ. And so often we wish like it's the matrix that I could just get plugged in and all download into me, and then poof, I'm just different. I know everything I need to know. But here's the thing: there are many of us who we read who Jesus was, and we're like, okay, Lord, I hear you, I hear what you're saying. And so many of us were trying to do that fake it till you make it. We're trying to pretend like we can display who Jesus is when we haven't really let that take root in our heart. It's just expected of us, so we do it. And all I know is that the reason it's not easy following Christ is because there are everyday hurdles that is going to challenge whether or not you are a true follower of Jesus. And so today's message is probably the most confrontational on a subject that on the surface you're going to hear it. And it sounds inviting, it sounds comforting, it feels easy, but it's not. Who in this room has ever said or felt I've been betrayed? I've been betrayed. That's personal betrayal. I'm going to share with you my story of personal betrayal. It's lighthearted. It's lighthearted. We were starting off easy. 2016, I meet my good friend Dustin Hansen, and Dustin and I were talking. I'm like, I just, I want to get away from the Lord. My life's been chaos. He's like, man, I want to get away from the Lord. We said, let's go hiking in the mountains. And so, as you see right here on the left, we were we were doing a hike that day, and we started at 9,700 feet, and we were going up to over 13,000 feet that day. And so it was a serious hike. The problem was we were not acclimated, we were not acclimated to elevation yet, right? And we just said, you know what, we'll just take breaks, we'll struggle through, right? And so we're going up and we are both just absolutely huffing wind about 10,000 to 11,000 feet. And I remember it like it was yesterday. Here comes two 70-year-olds with walking kings going, what's your guys' problem? And I'm like, well, convenient for you to say, right? We just came from 900 feet here in Iowa to much greater heights. And we get to the top, and we're just taking it all in. It's it's called Mount Ida. It's there in Colorado. It's it's in Rocky Mountain National Park, and we're just taking in the views and enjoying it. And all of a sudden, something that I didn't realize till much later in life is that I get elevation sickness. And I start to feel like absolute garbage. And Dustin's like, you know, if we don't march down right now, it's gonna be dark. And I don't want to meet a bear. And I am laying, there's a picture, you see me, I'm laying on the side, and I'm like, dude, if if I move, I'm I'm gonna hurl, I'm gonna lose everything I have in my system. This is not good. I cannot move. My good buddy Dustin Hanson, you know what he decided to do? Well, we gotta go regardless. And he just starts walking. Yeah, what a friend! And I'm like, huh, well, I guess I better get going. And I struggled for the next few hours getting back. And you know, our reality is our defenses oftentimes come to taking care of ourselves, right? And this was all innocent and good fun. And I warned Dustin, I said, I'm sharing that story. He's like, you turkey, because the reality is he listens to these messages. He listens every week, and so he's gonna be hearing this and he's gonna be mad at me. But you know, it's it's all in good fun now. But yeah, definitely, definitely at the time, I'm like, man, won't you just carry me? Won't you carry me down? We're turning into a story. In John chapter 13, I encourage you to turn there. We're only reading two verses today, but here's the significant thing in this story: it's it's the Passion Week, and you guys know what Passion Week is, right? That's the week leading up to Jesus' death. And it's Thursday in Passion Week, and Jesus is in the upper room with the 12 disciples, and we learn in this chapter, in verse 2, that Judas has already been prompted by Satan to betray Jesus, but in the verse right before that, in John 13:1, it said that Jesus knew the hour had come. The text even said that he loved them until the very end. So he washed everybody's feet in this setting, including Judas's, and the cross is hours away, and we're going to read his final command. And this final command that he gives, it's not optional, it's not a suggestion. And so the goal for us is to be marked by genuine faith and be a true disciple until he returns. And so listen to what he said, even in the midst of betrayal. John 13, 34 through 35. So now I am giving you a new commandment. Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. I'm gonna say this again because we've heard it. We've heard it a hundred times, but what we don't understand is here, the weight of everything that is coming is upon Jesus, and he takes that moment instead of saying, Judas, you you jerk. He doesn't say that. Instead, this is what he says: love each other just as I have loved you. You should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world you are my disciples. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your word. And God, today I pray that it be cemented in our hearts and we understand the challenge that you are calling us to, God, and your people must rise up, or within us is not displayed who you really are. And so, God, I just ask that, Lord, you we will be awakened today to the truth. In Jesus' name. Amen. In these two verses, Jesus, he gives us these three truths that should both comfort us and it should challenge us. And I I want us to be honest with each other. To truly love one another is difficult. You can say, like, I can love this person that's in this room, but then I might pick the very person that you're like, no, not them. Not them. And so we got to walk in these truths, no matter how hard it is. And the first truth is Jesus is saying, Hey, I'm giving you a new command. You've been living differently. This is a new way to live. You ought to love one another. Now, I read this and I think, how is this new? I want us to read the old command. Listen to this. Out of Leviticus chapter 19, 18, it says, Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_01So here's this command, love your neighbor. And people before Christ, they lived under this old covenant. And check this out the Hebrew word for love in Leviticus 19, 18 is ahav. And this is a very broad term for love. It means affection, loyalty, covenant, commitment, care. And so it's this rich word that can include emotional love, or it could include romantic love, or it just could include loyalty. It was a it was a very broad word. And so Jesus, in light of bringing his Holy Spirit, what he is doing is he is speaking of a love that is empowered, not by, not within yourselves, not something that is derived from emotion. He is speaking of a love that comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Listen to Ezekiel 36, 26 through 27. And this is this is critical for this new command. In Ezekiel 36, 26 through 27, it says, And I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. I will put my spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. You see what this is. This is an Old Testament messianic promise. And so it is looking ahead to a new covenant that Jesus would establish with his blood. And this very covenant that gives us a new heart and the indwelling spirit, so we can actually love one another the way he loved us. Because I am telling you, without the love of Christ, I just can't. Who has met people that you're like, they are incapable of allowing me to love them, or I cannot love them because of what they've done to me? Come on, raise your hand. Let's be honest here. So within ourselves, this cannot be done. I want you to catch that. Because there are so many people in this world, they're trying to learn to do it on their own, but they're like, I just can't. The love of Jesus is different. It's different. So Jesus uses this Greek word in John 13, 34. It's agape. And what agape is, it's not ahav, it's agape. And it's an elevated love. It's it's something that's requiring more from us. So it's self-giving, it's sacrificial, it's this covenant love. And check this out this is what I love. It requires the highest good of a person.
SPEAKER_00And even Jesus said, Why do you call me good? Only my father. My father is good.
SPEAKER_01And so within ourselves, we are we are incapable. We need Jesus Christ, and we need that love that Jesus demonstrated on the cross to affect us if we want to demonstrate it to others. And so Jesus is saying, don't love as you are accustomed to, love as I have demonstrated. And so what he's saying is, this is deliberate in quality, it's deliberate in its standard, and that love is something that comes from deep inside. It's not of us, it's of God. And so to love one another is the true challenge. Come on, say amen. It's hard to love one another, but yet the New Testament repeats this command over 50 times. Whoever knows when the message isn't getting through the first time, you need to say it over and over and over and over again, right? It says things like love one another, be devoted to one another, serve one another, forgive one another, encourage one another, bear with one another. And so what I am declaring is this should be the relational DNA of this church. It should. It should be that we can identify that Jesus is in this place and Jesus is in us. Here's the struggle though. The struggle of loving people is that we are sinners. And so we let the sin get in the way, and you and I, we might be saved by grace, but here's the thing: you still got some baggage, right? Still got baggage, you still can develop blind spots, you can have those sharp, prickly edges, you might have a history of hurt. And so our attitude becomes love some? Yeah. Others, eh, not so much. And so we we have these personality clashes, and maybe you're carrying wounds from another Christian, and you're like, you know, what what what I tie to the tie to those hurts is the church. Well, I'm telling you, that's unfair because we're all imperfect, right? Every single one of us. And so you and I, we can have theological disagreements, and then all of a sudden we let things become personal and walk in hurt. So we start to be selective about who we love.
SPEAKER_00Well, I only want to be around people that are similar to me. Let me tell you, that does not make for a well-rounded individual. It does not.
SPEAKER_01Or they tend to agree with everything that I think, so I'm gonna hang around them. Maybe it's someone that actively works to never offend you. So you can just live whatever truth you want to live, and they're just like, uh-huh, yeah, way to go, cool. That is not the kind of people we need in our life. And Jesus, he he knowing all this, knowing every flaw that we have, he knows it's difficult. So he just doesn't stop in this passage with that command. Hey, love one another. All right, I'm gonna go die on the cross. He didn't say that. Instead, he immediately gives us the standard, and here's the thing: it is so impossible. It is so impossible. Listen to this standard, it's the supreme standard because there's no higher standard. He says, as I have loved you.
SPEAKER_00Jesus, I that doesn't compare.
SPEAKER_01But here's the thing when Jesus says, no, no, no, according to God, this is the standard. And so we can make excuses, but when that's the standard, every excuse is silenced. We need Jesus. We need Jesus. And we can't just excuse behaviors. Jesus says, look to me as the example. Don't look at that person on the right or the left as the example.
SPEAKER_00Don't please don't look at the pastor as the example.
SPEAKER_01And what we what what happens with us when Jesus says this, our sinful nature all of a sudden becomes determined to find something wrong with Jesus. And you know why?
SPEAKER_00Because we don't want to live to such a high standard. But I want us to look at the context of the scripture. This is important.
SPEAKER_01Jesus had just washed their feet. John 13, verses 4 through 5. We we read about it again in 1215. And here's the thing: Jesus took the position of a lowly servant in this moment, and he grabbed this towel and he grabbed the basin. Check this out. That was reserved for the lowest position in a household. The very lowest position. Jesus is like, I'm going to wash their feet. I'm going to wash their dirty, calloused feet. These men who they walk all day in sandals and so dirt, guess what? It wasn't cars driving back then, right? It was like, it was donkeys, it was horses, it was it was all those kind of pull-behind buggies. So you can imagine what they're walking in. Are you hearing me? You can imagine what their feet probably look like. Probably the bottom is like leather. And yet he was knowingly washing the feet of men who abandoned him, would deny him, and who would betray him. In verse 11, it states Jesus knew he was going to be betrayed. Verse 27, he knew the devil had already entered Judas. Yet, check this out. Jesus loved him until the very end. It didn't say, okay, knowing what I know now, in light of what I know now, Judas, take a hike. Everything in me would have wanted to say that. Judas, it's time to go, it's time for you to go. There was no public shaming, no withholding his kindness from him. Instead, what he did, he still chose to take the position of the lowly servant, and he chose to honor him, serve him, and treated him with dignity.
SPEAKER_00And Jesus did this until Judas left. This is the pattern that we see in Christ.
SPEAKER_01Check this out sacrificial, humble, unconditional forgiving. And so what God is calling us to do, He's calling us to serve those, even those who seem undeserving. My life verse is Mark 10, 45. Mark 10, 45 says, For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And let me tell you, there are times it is easier to serve someone who is grateful than someone who's ungrateful, right? There are times where you're like, oh, I'd I'd love to help them. And there's some, well, definitely not. I don't want to help them. And I I go back to a painful story, and I don't say it with pride, but I had to learn a lot at this moment about my attitude and how I how I approach ministry. And some of you might react a certain way, and you're gonna find out I reacted a different way, and you're gonna be like, wow, God can use us. My very first church, I started pastoring at the age of 27. Is there any 27-year-olds in the room that are freaked out by that right now? Senior pastor at 27. And Wendy and I, we had our fourth child, Eva, in 2009. And up to that point, it was it was weird that we never really felt like part of the church, no matter how hard we tried. It was a small community. It's tough to break into a small community. And one day, about a year before we left there, they had the epiphany, you know, we have never honored your kids before. And we had been carrying a lot of hurt from that, right? Like Wendy was relegated to the nursery, and no one ever even came to talk to her because our our boys that we were working through all the challenges of special needs, young children, and it was hard. And so we have this party, and because our kids' birthdays are all pretty much evenly spread out throughout the year. And we have this party for all four of them, and everyone brings presents. And they're doing a great job. They're honoring the kids, and it's great. And then one of the guys comes up to me and says, Hey, the toilet's clogged. Will you go take care of it? And hands me a plunger as we're doing this birthday party for my kids. And you know what I wanted to do with that plunger at that moment? And you know what I did?
SPEAKER_00I looked at the group and I said, hold on, I'll be right back. And I walked to the bathroom. It took two plunges, guys.
SPEAKER_01It was not bad. But at that moment, I had to check my heart. I had to check my heart. And Jesus is calling us to love on a larger scale beyond what we know and understand. And that's the challenge of Jesus' love, right? With the human condition. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 5, 43 through 48. He says, You have heard the law that says, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect.
SPEAKER_00Lord, what an impossible standard. But here's the thing: even the religious leaders in Jesus' day, they had lowered the standard so much.
SPEAKER_01We read Leviticus 19, 18. You guys read it. What did it say? Love your neighbor. It didn't go beyond that. But the religious leaders of Jesus' day, they they developed their own standard that says, love your neighbor, hate your enemy.
SPEAKER_00Well, that feels kind of good. Yeah, I like that one. Jesus raises the level to the Father's heart.
SPEAKER_01Love your enemies. Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Get outside of your circle and not be afraid to love on people who might seem unlovely.
SPEAKER_00If we can't do that, we're no different than tax collectors and pagans. And again, we go back to we struggle loving people because people are difficult.
SPEAKER_01So maybe they gossiped about you. Maybe a loved one just keeps wounding you. Maybe it's someone in this room, and and their personality just grates on you, or their politics, it just absolutely makes them impossible to love. And everything in our flesh screams, they don't deserve it. God, they don't deserve my love. They don't deserve my best. And you might think, you know, I'm gonna see this person today and I'll be civil, but I'm not gonna go that extra mile with them.
SPEAKER_00Maybe we go all the way to refusing to wash their feet. But Jesus says, as I have loved you. He's seen the betrayal. He knows at times where we've made a mockery of him. But yet he still chooses to wash our feet.
SPEAKER_01Romans 5.8 says, but God showed his great love for us, sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5.10 it says, since our friends for since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his son while we were still his enemies, think about it, we were in the position of enemy in our sin. We will certainly be saved through the life of his son. And so for you and I, the cross was the ultimate foot washing. It was Jesus' foot washing, it was his means of making us cleansed before the Lord. And so Jesus chose to do that for everyone, even the ones who openly mocked him as he was being beaten and put on the cross. Listen to Matthew 27, 39 through 41. It says, the people passing by the passers by shouted, shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery as he hung on the cross. It said, look at you now. The guy's dying. Look at you now, they yelled at him. You said you were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the son of God, do you hear the mockery here? If you are the son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross. Yet they didn't even realize had he come down from the cross, they would not be redeemed before the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_00The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus.
SPEAKER_01The Son of God, the all-powerful, he chose to suffer and die.
SPEAKER_00You're sitting there thinking, man, I don't I don't like being hurt. And I will tell you don't get into ministry. Don't get into ministry. Don't minister to others. You don't like being hurt?
SPEAKER_01Well then, I don't know. Don't read a self-help book. I got nothing for you. You know. Jesus chose to suffer and die. And this was his response. Listen to Luke 23 and 34. After after all this, this is Jesus' response. Jesus said, Father, forgive them. For they know not what they're doing. And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice as he's praying that prayer. Guys, this is the standard. It's not how the world loves. It's not even how what we determine good Christians love. It's as Jesus is loved. And so here's the thing. This is so important. Because many of you are like, man, I'm telling my friends about church, and they just won't come, and I can't really connect anyone with Jesus, and so I'm struggling there. And we think, I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00This loving in this manner is the convincing proof to the world that the love of Jesus is in us. Because Jesus said, by this, by this love, everybody will know.
SPEAKER_01So what happens is this all of a sudden becomes our missional purpose. That if we're like, okay, Jesus, I'm hearing you, I'm gonna walk through this. Even this is a little difficult to love them, but I'm gonna do my best. Jesus says, by this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another, and this becomes a purposeful mission. It is my mission to love people, even through all the challenges, even through all the hurt. Because let's be real, the world is full of division, right? And yet the world is looking at a church that they see is full of division. The world is full of hate. Yet the world looks at a church that they see is hateful. The world's full of tribalism, it's full of self-interest, and the one thing that I can guarantee is that the world is watching us and they are taking notice to see whether or not the supernatural love of Jesus Christ is in us. You know, we're all hypocrites in the eyes of the world. Listen to John 17, 21. This is Jesus' prayer. He was in the garden. I pray that they will all be one. This is Jesus praying to God. Just as you and I are one, as you are in me, Father, and I am in you, and they and may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. Church, our love is our witness. Our love is our witness. And it's a it's a piercing challenge because when the world looks at our church, when the world looks at our small group, when the world looks at our relationships, do they see the distinguishing marks of Jesus? Or are they seeing the same clicks, gossip, unforgiveness? Are they seeing this conditional acceptance that is just like any other social group?
SPEAKER_00And because people are difficult, we often fail here. We do. And when we do, the world sees hypocrisy instead of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01And so it's one of the simplest and hardest commands that Jesus ever gave. Love one another as I have loved you, and Jared, if you could come over and grab a guitar.
SPEAKER_00To step up to this command, it will cost you things. It'll cost you pride.
SPEAKER_01It's gonna cost you your rights, things that you feel you have a right to. God strips away. It's gonna cost you comfort. It's gonna cost you grudges that you've held on to for all of your life. The one who commands it is the one who has already loved us perfectly. And now, this is the awesome thing. Now, what he does is he instills his Holy Spirit in us so that we can love the same way. It's not in us, church. It's not in us in and of ourselves. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can accomplish this. And so some of you are saying, Pastor, this is impossible. You don't know my situation. I will tell you, the Holy Spirit does, God does, and he has the ability to get you through. Guys, I am sick to death of people that are saying, I need help, but I can't talk to you, Pastor. You don't understand my situation. You don't understand what I've gone through. Until you've walked through my shoes, you can't understand. And what I want to tell you is you are disqualifying every person that can speak into your life. And so what we have to do is we have to recognize that if I want to live a certain way, if I want to be a certain way, I have to look to God. I don't look to the world as my example. And so it's choosing to surrender what I think I know and go to the feet of the Lord and say, God, I have to love like your son is loved. It's no other way. It's the kind of love that says, I don't care how hurt I get, I need to demonstrate Jesus to them because that's the only thing that's gonna save them. I'm gonna tell you a story. I'm gonna try and get through it. 2006, there's this Amish community in Pennsylvania. Their kids just went to school one day, the way they always do. And on an October 2nd, there was this 32-year-old milk truck driver named Charles Carl Roberts. And he entered a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. He barricaded the doors, bound the hands and feet of 10 young girls ages 6 to 13, and then he opened fire on them. Killed five of them and critically wounded the other five before taking his own life. The entire community was shattered. Peaceful people, simple people who they they never harmed anyone. And I can only under I can only try and imagine the grief, right? And here's the thing. What happened next stunned the world at the time, and especially that community. Within hours of the shooting, guys, the bodies were still being identified. They were still sending the other five to the hospital not knowing what was gonna happen. Parents in shock. Members of the Amish community began reaching out to the killer's widow and his three young children. They brought them food. They comforted them. And they said, We forgive you. Several Amish families attended Charles Roberts' funeral. One Amish grandfather holding his granddaughter's funeral on the same day said to the Roberts family, We must not think evil of this man. Another Amish man whose daughter was among those killed, he later said, Forgiveness is a decision. It's not a feeling. We choose to forgive because Christ forgave us. Media was stunned. Didn't know how to react. News outlets called it the most remarkable example of forgiveness in modern history. And many went on saying, I've never seen anything like that. Beloved Jesus. Beloved Jesus. So you and I, we can we can determine what we think love should look like, but we only need to let Jesus Christ determine what true love looks like. Come on, can you give the Lord a hand clap of praise this morning? That's who Jesus is. So I want you to understand that is the bar, right? That is that is the standard. That's how we measure these things. It is not by wow, that's a really good person. I need to live like them. No, live like Jesus. It's Jesus who sets that standard. And so all of a sudden it puts every excuse I have, guys, into question. Every excuse I have is into question because it's not up to God's standard. And I want to do as Jesus did. Lord, I need help. And so many are in this room, and you know what? The Lord is when you got a lifeline, all you gotta do is open up your eyes and just grab it. But so many are just saying, I need to hold on to this feeling. It's the only thing getting me through. I'm telling you, bitterness is not worth dying with. It's not saving anybody, including yourself. You gotta let it go. You gotta learn to love like Jesus. You gotta learn to love one another. You gotta learn to love that betrayer, even when you know you are in the throes of getting ready to be taken and crucified on a cross. I want you to bow your heads right now. I can't imagine the unimaginable pain in here. And so many of you, you might have walked in here thinking, no one understands. Jesus does. He does. And if we want to play the comparison game, we can play that all day long, but guys, it's not. It's not worth it. It's not. We need true surrender to you. And say, Lord, I choose for you to be my example. And so those of you today who would just say, Pastor, I've got a lot I need to lay down. I just want to encourage you. Look at me. You're carrying hurts. Unimaginable pain. I'm telling you, no one understands more than Jesus Christ. No one. And the thing is, you have to let the transformation of the Holy Spirit change you. You look for any other worldly means, you're gonna be disappointed. Because what it does is it trades, it trades our pain. Nothing to cover it up but the blood of Jesus Christ. And so what I invite you to do is to just plead for the Lord to forgive you. Because it's sin. Our ring on forgiveness is sin. The Lord to forgive you. And then to also teach you to forgive those who are not easy to forgive. That Jesus Christ might demonstrate how we ought to love other people, that is just such a challenge sometimes. And it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that He is gonna do that. And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna invite you up all to stand up right now. And Heidi, if you could just come grab a mic. You know, Jared's playing the song Freedom Reigns. Let me tell you, holding on to unforgiveness, you'll never experience that true freedom. But the moment we learn to just let go and say, God, I need your Holy Spirit to fill me right now, because I struggle, that's when we begin to truly experience that freedom. And so what I invite you to do is I invite you, if you need prayer, as we sing this song, just to come up and say, Man, I need the Spirit of God to come upon me. I need to learn to let go. I need to move forward. We're gonna make time for that. So I want to pray, and then we're gonna sing, and I invite you to just come forward. Father God. Lord, there are so many of us carrying hurt that God really isn't ours to carry anymore because we believe in you. But God, I know so many people still wrestle with this issue of learning to love as you have commanded us to do, and it's because, Lord, every example that we set before us is not the supreme example in your son Jesus. And so, God, we invite you today, Lord, not just to forgive us, but Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit that we can love the world the way your son Jesus Christ did. Lord, a true transformation can take place. A transformation that says, I know what they did, but it doesn't matter because Jesus Christ died for them. A love that is forgiving, a love that says, I am as deserving of hell as anyone else, but yet I was saved by the grace of God through his Son Jesus Christ. And Lord, we just cling to that right now. And that is what we need to get us through. So, Lord, may true forgiveness reign. Forgiveness isn't just for us, it's for those who've sinned against us. It's for everyone who can call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.