Speaker 1: Welcome to the First Love Church podcast.
Speaker 1: This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the revised common lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala, florida.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being with us this morning.
Speaker 1: We're grateful that in the center, the beginning of every week here, you are gathering with us and we're grateful for your presence.
Speaker 1: I'm grateful for every person that is here and also grateful for the band who comes and leads us in worship.
Speaker 1: I'm grateful for that.
Speaker 1: And Miss Martha's been traveling a little bit.
Speaker 1: She's here today and I'm so excited because when I was looking at the set list I was like we're going to sing how great the art and Miss Martha's not going to miss it, and I love that for all of us that in the singing of the hymns we remember all of those people who sang it before us and what an invitation it is into remembrance, into those around the throne who continue to say how great thou art.
Speaker 1: I remind you what we're a part of.
Speaker 1: We're a part of something that is an eternal current from the very beginning of time.
Speaker 1: According to the book of Ephesians, it said before the worlds were formed, before the worlds were formed, god had you in mind.
Speaker 1: That is awesome.
Speaker 1: Before there was a Grand Canyon before there were galaxies, before there was stardust.
Speaker 1: You were in the mind of love.
Speaker 1: God had you in mind, and it says that God had settled on you.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love that so much.
Speaker 1: God had settled on me, because I'm not even settled on me sometimes.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I think somebody else would be a better person than this.
Speaker 1: And God had settled on us, each one of us, to be the objects of God's affection, that we would be made whole and holy by God's love.
Speaker 1: This is the truth for us, this is the joy for us, that love restores wholeness to us and that, in our wholeness, that we have union with the holy, with the sacred.
Speaker 1: And this time of the year reminds us that this is the hope for all of us that we would so recognize the love around us, that we would enter into it, because God had already settled that we were worthy.
Speaker 1: God has already decided that we were the ones that he would love, and so I'm grateful, grateful, grateful for your presence here this morning.
Speaker 1: Thank you For those of you who are online, thank you for being here.
Speaker 1: I just remind all of us you're worthy of love.
Speaker 1: You belong in God's house, you belong anywhere God is.
Speaker 1: You are worthy.
Speaker 1: We talk about this sometimes like this is our weekly amnesia therapy, because sometimes during the week, people or things or events have happened to us and we feel unworthy or unloved, and so we come back every week to go.
Speaker 1: Wait a second I'm centered in God's love, I'm centered in grace, and so I welcome you this morning, every part of you, even the parts of you that wish they would stay in the car.
Speaker 1: Welcome in God's presence.
Speaker 1: Let the Holy Spirit anointed and let it make it holy and whole and come to God's house this morning.
Speaker 3: We're so glad you're all here today and just want you to know that if you'd like to be a part of our outreach on Wednesday, we're going to go over to Harvey's and we're going to give out a bunch of food at 11 o'clock and so if you can help us out with that and whatever capacity you would like to, you can just carry some grocery boxes or knock on some doors and pray with some people or carry the boxes why somebody else prays or be in some way involved in that.
Speaker 3: So let me know if you don't know how to get there and we'll go help some folks out, or what do you say?
Speaker 1: We're excited about that.
Speaker 1: Soyer agrees.
Speaker 1: The scripture tells us this that out of the mouths of babes and infants have you ordained praise.
Speaker 1: So every time that Soyer offers something, we should all be very grateful that among us, our children, who remind us God is awesome, and here we are doing the works of Lord.
Speaker 1: There's a few things that are coming up beside outreach on Wednesday and we're so grateful that we can all be a part of that.
Speaker 1: We had a little outreach I mean a little gathering planned, and that didn't work out exactly as we had hoped.
Speaker 1: So we have, I think, a better idea.
Speaker 1: We're going to still do something later, but on March, and we'll tell you about it on Facebook later if you have the information.
Speaker 1: But March 10th is a Sunday and we're going to have a potluck right after church and we're going to do it because it's Pastor Lee's birthday in the next couple of days.
Speaker 1: So we're going to celebrate his birthday here with us and so if you don't regularly come to church, come for Pastor Lee's birthday.
Speaker 1: I mean, come for cake, come for whatever it is that brings you.
Speaker 1: Some of us will come for other things, but come taste and see that the Lord is good, but celebrate with us and so that will be after church on the 10th.
Speaker 1: You don't have to stay if you don't want to.
Speaker 1: Maybe you don't like Pastor Lee, I don't know, I don't judge you, but maybe if you do like him then you'll stay and celebrate.
Speaker 1: That was a little bit manipulative.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of bit manipulative, and let me just call that what it is.
Speaker 1: Don't you be involved in manipulation.
Speaker 1: You let love lead you everywhere you go.
Speaker 1: If you need to leave, you go joyfully, knowing that you are loved.
Speaker 1: But if you can celebrate with us, come and celebrate goodness and community and birthdays.
Speaker 3: But let's talk about how exactly we celebrate.
Speaker 3: We celebrate by bringing some kind of a little food item.
Speaker 3: We're going to share it together.
Speaker 1: We're people who believe in resurrection and also miracles, but we've never seen the miracle happen here, like where the potluck just happens and nobody has to do anything.
Speaker 1: We have to bring our loaves and fishes or whatever, our casseroles and our chicken or whatever it is that you love to bring.
Speaker 1: Let's eat together, let's celebrate together, let's take time to do the things that matter.
Speaker 1: One of the things that we do as a community is we practice savoring.
Speaker 1: That's what real life is about, where you taste something and you really taste it.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of times in our culture right now we're kind of used to doing things fast and just like making a meat instead of like really savoring beautiful things.
Speaker 1: Making bees stand.
Speaker 1: I was watching a bee the other day and going from little to and I was thinking how great is it that we live in a place that there's still flowers.
Speaker 1: But this little bee was busy and I just stood outside and I was just watching him do his job and I was thinking bless you for all the pollinating that you're doing.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that there's so much work in the world around us that is happening and we get to be here.
Speaker 1: Let's open our eyes and appreciate all of the beauty that's around us and join with us in that.
Speaker 1: Again, this is a beautiful time of the year.
Speaker 1: Lent is a time of unloading, kind of paying attention to how we live our lives.
Speaker 1: I have a lot of things that I carry with me because I'm a mom and now people are older and they don't need as much.
Speaker 1: But when you're the mom of a lot of littles, you're constantly thinking about what is possible that they might need and it becomes your responsibility to carry that.
Speaker 1: And as our children get over, if we're not mindful, we'll still carry things that we feel they need.
Speaker 1: But they have their own pockets and bags and things and they can do it.
Speaker 1: It's not just about children, but sometimes in our lives we carry things, things that are heavy, things that are difficult.
Speaker 1: I have a brother who doesn't carry anything in his pocket.
Speaker 1: He just doesn't.
Speaker 1: That's his thing.
Speaker 1: His aunt he doesn't, and when he is with us all the time he says to me what can I carry of yours?
Speaker 1: Now, I'm always preparing for me and for mine, and my brother carries nothing so that he can carry someone else's.
Speaker 1: What about that in our lives?
Speaker 1: What if we unloaded things that maybe we think that we need but maybe the spirit would say I want you to carry someone else's burden, someone else's pain, someone else's Now.
Speaker 1: We don't carry it forever as ours.
Speaker 1: We don't.
Speaker 1: We do it that we bring that stuff right to Jesus.
Speaker 1: We are like the man on the mat who can't get anywhere.
Speaker 1: And then four friends come.
Speaker 1: I'm saying it's four because have you ever tried to carry something?
Speaker 1: That's not even?
Speaker 1: This is how my holy imagination goes.
Speaker 1: There's four of the friends and they each get a corner Makes it easier when you're carrying somebody on a blanket.
Speaker 1: Have you ever done that as a kid?
Speaker 1: Like you're pulling one person on the corner.
Speaker 1: I think that doesn't work.
Speaker 1: Let's all get together.
Speaker 1: But in this story and we talked about it recently the friends see this man is paralyzed and they know that Jesus is the healer, and so they each lift up a corner and they take him to Jesus.
Speaker 1: That's what we mean when we're saying carry someone else's burdens, carry them to the one who can heal them, carry them to the one who can forgive sins, carry them and expect this healing in the world.
Speaker 3: Two guys could have carried him like a hammock?
Speaker 3: Yeah, but then if?
Speaker 1: it's not high enough.
Speaker 1: You're banging someone on the ground.
Speaker 1: You know how that goes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you need four.
Speaker 3: You're always better.
Speaker 1: No, I'm not always better, but I'm thinking to myself.
Speaker 3: I was just logistic when coming up with another option.
Speaker 1: No, I think you'll get more to dragging, more than carrying.
Speaker 1: If there's only two, it's dragging, if there's four, we're actually lifting and carrying.
Speaker 3: That's good.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you another thing that I love about that story, because we just have time to sell stories here, but I love that story because the friends see that he's paralyzed and it says they grab his mat and they carry it to Jesus.
Speaker 1: I've used my holy imagination, I've put myself on that mat and when someone says, we would like you could walk, you could be healed, and I say things like this is not a mat.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here on purpose.
Speaker 1: This is how my family lives.
Speaker 1: This is a cover like given to me by my parents and this is how we live.
Speaker 1: We stay in the one place and Somebody is offering to us more.
Speaker 1: You could move, you could do something for someone else, and sometimes we have to allow people in our lives just to carry us to healing, to carry us to More beauty, deeper love, richer places.
Speaker 1: Anyway, that is not the topic for today.
Speaker 1: That was free.
Speaker 1: Consider how we all have the fellowship of the mat.
Speaker 1: What does it look like for all of us to be mat carriers for the whole world?
Speaker 1: When we meet someone, how can we bring them into this threshold encounter with love?
Speaker 3: Oh man.
Speaker 3: So in this lint season, I believe that there's there's things like this that God's working on inside of each one of us.
Speaker 3: I know for me I've always kind of looked at the, the grand thing, like I want to be a rock star for Jesus, or I want to grow the big church for Jesus, you know, and he's been very comfortable for us to just to have a small church, that we're in relationship with everybody, and it come to find out.
Speaker 3: I think that's a lot better, you know, and it's maybe not for your ego, it's maybe not to impress the world.
Speaker 3: I don't get called by all my friends from Bible school to come speak at their churches, but if we were running a thousand they'd all be calling, you know, because somehow that's that's better, you know.
Speaker 3: But but I wonder if you kind of get swallowed up in that, unless you're doing something grand for God, then you're not useful.
Speaker 3: And I think about you.
Speaker 3: Know I We'd shared with you guys.
Speaker 3: On Christmas Eve day, kevin was born, our little goat, and the mom was was suffering the miscarriage with the, the Twin that it was having.
Speaker 3: So she rejected Kevin and so we've been bottle feeding him three or four times a day and you know, it's like our whole family stopped because a little goat needed Care you know he's terribly cute.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But the point is that you know, we now do we move on to have the largest flock of goats in all of central Florida.
Speaker 3: You know, we want to like, we want to move it, yeah, instead of just that.
Speaker 3: One Life that you're making is in and maybe we're not changing the goat world, but we did for Kevin.
Speaker 3: And then, lo and behold, about a week ago, this one little mom gave birth to this one little goat and its name is Arnie and it is the smallest goat, and so we're just, you know.
Speaker 1: Praise be.
Speaker 1: Arnie has a very good mother.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's a very good.
Speaker 3: But but just just in the idea of watching this, this care for these simple things, it really helps me reflect in in this lent season, that that sometimes I think maybe our big dreams have to die.
Speaker 3: We were driving by a church the other day and they were talking about if it's not grand or it's not great, it's not God or something, something like that.
Speaker 3: And I I think quite the opposite is very true, that that God Resides in the simple things.
Speaker 3: He's, he's grateful every morning, and so is so you're that you change his diaper from the night before.
Speaker 3: You know, but you know there's not gonna, we're not gonna, put a billboard up, you know, for mom of the year, although for him that's, that's his whole world, you know.
Speaker 3: And so I think that we miss God in these, in these, you know, in in these things that sometimes people would consider simple or mundane, and and and I don't want you to miss the God of the universe because he might be just, you know, in in the experience of bottle feeding Kevin.
Speaker 1: I remind you that one of the gifts of the church is to remind us that every moment is sacred, every moment.
Speaker 1: When you're cleaning a toilet, you're doing it in the presence of the divine.
Speaker 1: When you're making a sandwich, you're doing it in the presence of the divine.
Speaker 1: Every person you made meat is the image of Christ, is the image of love and God, and so nothing we do is Secular, nothing we do is outside of that.
Speaker 1: It is just our awareness, the presence of God all around us at all times.
Speaker 1: Doug is gonna read from us for us this morning.
Speaker 1: Dove, I know who you have, I'm sorry, dove.
Speaker 1: Dove, like the Holy Spirit, dove is gonna read for us Isaiah 58.
Speaker 1: Now, during the season of Lent, one of the things that we encourage you to do is to read Isaiah 58 on your own time as well and Consider this.
Speaker 1: This is one of the, the prophecies from the book of Isaiah.
Speaker 1: That is a corrective, because there's one way of thinking about things, and then God has to come and correct how we thought about things.
Speaker 1: So a lot of times, when love comes to us, it has to correct us and has to change the way that we think about something, and so we invite you this morning To listen to the word of the Lord from Isaiah 58.
Speaker 2: Shout with the voice of a trumpet.
Speaker 2: Blast, shout aloud, don't be timid.
Speaker 2: Tell my people, israel, of their sins.
Speaker 2: Yet they act so pious.
Speaker 2: They come to the temple every day and seem delighted to learn about me.
Speaker 2: They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God.
Speaker 2: They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me.
Speaker 2: We have fasted before you.
Speaker 2: They say why aren't you impressed?
Speaker 2: We have been very hard on ourselves and you don't even notice it.
Speaker 2: I Will tell you why.
Speaker 2: I respond Because you are fasting to please yourselves.
Speaker 2: Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers.
Speaker 2: What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling the king?
Speaker 2: The kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.
Speaker 2: You humble yourselves by doing through them, by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds, bending the wind.
Speaker 2: You dress in burlap and cover Yourselves with ashes.
Speaker 2: Is that what you call fasting?
Speaker 2: Do you really think this will please the Lord?
Speaker 2: No, this is the kind of fasting I want.
Speaker 2: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned, lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Speaker 2: Let the oppressed go free and remove the chains that bind people.
Speaker 2: Share your food with the hungry and give shelter to the homeless.
Speaker 2: Give clothes to those who need them and Do not hide from relatives who need your help.
Speaker 2: Then your salvation will come.
Speaker 2: Then your salvation will come like the dawn and your wounds will quickly heal.
Speaker 2: Your godliness will lead you forward and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
Speaker 2: Then, when you call, the Lord will answer yes, I am here.
Speaker 2: He will quickly reply.
Speaker 2: Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.
Speaker 2: Stop pointing your fingers and spreading vicious rumors.
Speaker 2: Feed the hungry, help those in trouble.
Speaker 2: Then your light will shine out from the darkness and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
Speaker 2: The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength.
Speaker 2: You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.
Speaker 2: Some of you will rebuild desert ruins of your cities.
Speaker 2: Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.
Speaker 2: Keep the Sabbath day holy.
Speaker 2: Don't pursue your own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the Lord's holy day.
Speaker 2: Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on this day and Don't follow your own desires or talk idly.
Speaker 2: Then the Lord will be your delight.
Speaker 2: I will give you great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promise to your ancestor, jacob and I.
Speaker 2: The Lord have spoken.
Speaker 2: Thanks be to God.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: We remind ourselves that fasting is one of the pillars of Lent and it's one of the things, in fact, that Jesus told his followers they were going to do.
Speaker 1: According to Matthew, chapter 6, jesus said when you pray, when you fast, when you give, these are things that Jesus expects us, as people who follow, to actually practice.
Speaker 1: These are practices into a new way of living.
Speaker 1: But here we see over and over again that Jesus is fast and that even what is told to us through the prophet Isaiah is not just about us.
Speaker 1: You hear in the fasting what God wants feed the hungry.
Speaker 1: That's not so much about you, is about your neighbor.
Speaker 1: Release the prisoner.
Speaker 1: That's about somebody else who is being pushed down in a system of oppression and injustice.
Speaker 1: You know, care for those who have no clothes.
Speaker 1: Again, that's about your neighbor.
Speaker 1: And so I remind you that the fasting that God has called us to is a life of social justice.
Speaker 1: It's a life of looking around and going where is the need and how can I be a part of help?
Speaker 1: We prayed a prayer this morning that the church has been praying for thousands of years your kingdom come.
Speaker 1: Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaker 1: In my house.
Speaker 1: I like to pray in Ocala as it is in heaven, because I remember all of the people that I'm living with, and then I remind myself that I also live in Ocala and so I'm to be the hands and feet of this Jesus that I say that I want him to come, and so there's an invitation for all of us to hear those things and to say this is what God wants from us to be people who engage in radical love, not just for ourselves.
Speaker 1: We hear the good news, we know we're loved, we understand we're beloved, but then we go out and love the whole world and we tell everyone else that they're invited to the table, that there is belovedness for them as well, and so it's with a lot of joy this morning that we get to go to the text in Mark, chapter 8.
Speaker 1: And this is in our Lenten journey.
Speaker 1: I remind you that we're a part of the global church of Jesus Christ, so you're a part of God's body that is everywhere here on the earth, and so when we come together and we remember these things, we remember that we're united and this is the message of love for the whole world.
Speaker 3: And I just wanted to mention too, as Heather was speaking about fasting and obviously, that greater purpose in what God's doing inside of us we do invite you to consider fasting with us during the season on Wednesdays we're doing it fast and so if you've been doing that, thank you so much and remember that it's just not a deal where you go God wants me just to do without some food, but it's an opportunity when you can control and deny your flesh for a moment and say you're not going to get what you want exactly when you want that, and maybe take those hunger pains as little reminders to pray.
Speaker 3: And so if you consider doing that with us whether it's one meal, two meals, all three meals or a 24-hour fast boat, whatever works for you and your life I'd love for you to consider doing that with us and just give God an opportunity and one of the things that we can do when we fast is perhaps consider someone else who is going through a fast that they didn't choose.
Speaker 1: On Wednesdays, when I'm fasting, I'm remembering every single mother who is in a war zone, who cannot go to the grocery store as they please to feed their family.
Speaker 1: And so when I don't do that, then I am praying and saying hear their cries, lord, you who move heaven, hear their cries.
Speaker 1: And then I'm doing what I can do, as you can do.
Speaker 1: We can call our senators, we can live ways that are just and true, and we can pray for an end to war.
Speaker 1: This is not our idea.
Speaker 1: This is God's idea.
Speaker 1: I just want to tell you that this God that we serve, god who is love, said a day will come, and my prayer is come quickly, lord Jesus.
Speaker 1: But a day will come when you no longer train your sons for war, you no longer have swords that you use to fight each other, but you take those swords and you turn them into plowsheers that you would harvest for the thriving of all humanity.
Speaker 1: That is the day of the Lord beloved, when we give up our fights and our quarreling and we live in peace and in harmony.
Speaker 1: And so beloved.
Speaker 1: I extend the invitation to you.
Speaker 1: What are you doing to bring harmony and love and peace to the world?
Speaker 1: Mark Mark, chapter 8,.
Speaker 1: Jesus began to tell them that the son of man must suffer many terrible things, be rejected by the elders, the leading priests and the teachers of religious law, that he would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead.
Speaker 1: Now we get to hear this years later, like in hindsight.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you most wisdom comes to us in hindsight.
Speaker 1: It really does.
Speaker 1: Most wisdom we can learn is because of things.
Speaker 1: So we stand in a really unique place, like the people that are hearing this are listening to Jesus talk, but it's making no sense to them.
Speaker 1: They're listening to him, they believe him, but it just absolutely does not compute with the way that they view the world and how they know the scriptures or how they know prophecy or how they know God is coming.
Speaker 3: Also because of that advantage of hindsight, we don't really have to look at this lit and seasoned, linear.
Speaker 3: We can look at it from the aspect that, sure, this is where this is headed right to the cross but we also know about resurrection, so we can embrace the cross and resurrection at the same time.
Speaker 3: And that is significant and important to you, because you know, the suffering is just the suffering, but without the resurrection it's without the hope, it's without the transformation, it's without the God on it, amen.
Speaker 3: And so when we do look at these times of fasting, we're not just looking at it as a place of suffering, or even reading these scriptures.
Speaker 3: It's just where Jesus is going to die.
Speaker 3: We know the story, we know the resurrection.
Speaker 3: That is the hope for us as followers of Christ.
Speaker 3: That is our advantage in this world.
Speaker 3: There is a resurrection and that is promised for us and we can look for that in all areas where suffering is present.
Speaker 3: Amen.
Speaker 1: When you're saying that, it's reminding me of Colossians, chapter 3 in the Passion Translation.
Speaker 1: Christ's resurrection is now your resurrection too.
Speaker 1: This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that is where Christ sits at the place of all power, honor and authority.
Speaker 1: Feast on the treasures from the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, not with the distractions of the earth around you.
Speaker 1: Your crucifixion with Christ has severed the tide to an ordinary life and your now true life is hidden away with God, in Christ and as Christ himself is seen for who he really is.
Speaker 1: Who you really are, will be revealed, for you are one with God in his glory.
Speaker 1: That's a beautiful, beautiful invitation.
Speaker 1: Your resurrection is tied to Christ's resurrection.
Speaker 1: Good news, beloved, that it is not just the dying, it is this practicing of resurrection.
Speaker 1: If you go to the local Ocala Post Office downtown and you go to the first window, that's there.
Speaker 1: Mr Curtis is usually there and I want to tell you that if you have a moment, colossians chapter 3 is his favorite thing to talk about.
Speaker 1: I ended that conversation one time.
Speaker 1: It took about 25 minutes.
Speaker 1: We were standing there talking, doing the business, and I stood to the side.
Speaker 1: He helped other people.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about Colossians, chapter 3.
Speaker 1: And Silas said to me is this why the Post Office takes long?
Speaker 1: And I'm like yes, it is because Mr Curtis also loves this.
Speaker 1: Your resurrection is tied to Christ.
Speaker 1: We can look at the death all around us in the world and we can remember there is a spirit alive in us, that same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.
Speaker 1: We can look at death and not become cynical.
Speaker 1: We are people of light and love, so look around for the people who also know that the whole world's resurrection is tied to Christ.
Speaker 1: That's good.
Speaker 1: We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: If you're finding this episode meaningful, would you take a moment to share it with a friend?
Speaker 1: This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of people just like you.
Speaker 1: If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church and the continued work of our podcast, visit us online at firstlovechurchorg, reminding you to like, follow and subscribe.
Speaker 1: As he talked about this openly with his disciples, jesus is sharing what is actually gonna happen.
Speaker 1: He wants to prep his friends.
Speaker 1: He's telling them listen the way that you think that it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna happen because these people had already sworn allegiance to him.
Speaker 1: They were you are the way.
Speaker 1: You are the truth.
Speaker 1: We're giving up our other rabbis, we're following you.
Speaker 1: And Jesus said listen, terrible things are gonna happen to me, and then I'm actually gonna be put to death, and then God will raise me from the dead.
Speaker 1: And it is wah, wah, wah.
Speaker 1: They do not even understand that.
Speaker 1: And Jesus is really trying to tell them hey, I want you to be prepared for this, I want you to understand it.
Speaker 1: And they cannot.
Speaker 1: And Jesus is talking and these are his friends.
Speaker 1: He is with these people, he is fishing with these people.
Speaker 1: He is living with these people.
Speaker 1: He is weeping when they weep.
Speaker 1: He is laughing when they laugh.
Speaker 1: They're going to funerals and weddings together.
Speaker 1: They are living life and he's sharing with them.
Speaker 1: Hey, this is not gonna happen the way that you think it is.
Speaker 1: And as he talked openly about it, peter took him aside.
Speaker 1: You gotta love Peter I mean, I just do and I think that he's in there as a character for all of us.
Speaker 1: He took Jesus aside.
Speaker 1: I just remind you again.
Speaker 1: I have hindsight here, but this is God manifest in human form.
Speaker 1: Jesus, who is part of the Trinity, gave up himself and comes and is raised as a human to bring us to life, to show us how to live.
Speaker 1: And Peter's like I need to tell you something.
Speaker 1: You're doing it wrong Now.
Speaker 1: I wonder how many times we do that to God.
Speaker 1: Now, god, you're doing it wrong.
Speaker 1: You're taking too long on this one thing.
Speaker 1: This came too fast.
Speaker 1: I was not prepared.
Speaker 1: We have all kinds of things that we feel like we can tell God Now.
Speaker 1: This is not the way it was supposed to be, because Peter knew the scriptures.
Speaker 1: He knew that a Messiah was coming.
Speaker 1: And now Jesus is talking about what Messiahship is going to look like.
Speaker 1: And Peter's like brother, no, we're not going to do that.
Speaker 1: You know this whole oppression.
Speaker 1: We're not going to be oppressed anymore.
Speaker 1: We're God's people and we're going to be on the top.
Speaker 3: You know how does this apply to you and I?
Speaker 3: You know we really need to look, because it is so easy to make a God in our own image.
Speaker 3: You know we hear about people in the Old Testament doing that and how foolish they were.
Speaker 3: But why is that written in there?
Speaker 3: And why is someone who spent every day with Jesus able to rebuke him, try to bring correction to him and say you're not doing this right?
Speaker 3: Because he had an idea of what Messiah would be and this is not his idea, and yet he's demonstrating true Messiah and the person right next to him isn't seeing it.
Speaker 3: Because of his own idea.
Speaker 3: Oh man, help us Lord.
Speaker 3: Because what about God are we missing?
Speaker 3: Because of our own ideas?
Speaker 3: Because I'm convinced he ought to do things a certain way.
Speaker 3: In my life.
Speaker 3: I should never struggle, I should never do without, I should never have lack and all of those things that get behind me devil, you know and so many of those things can be tremendous teachers for me, can be healing for me.
Speaker 3: Nobody liked that teaching.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're turning on me.
Speaker 3: I can see it in their faces.
Speaker 3: But I really warn you as God warns all of us, I think, in this to not make that mistake of telling God how he needs to be God Instead, can we be studious and somehow awake and pay enough attention to see who God really is and not miss him on that day of meeting with God?
Speaker 1: That's a good word.
Speaker 1: What have we done to create God in our own image?
Speaker 1: And you might say, like I do?
Speaker 1: Of course not.
Speaker 1: I don't have any of that.
Speaker 1: I'm a believer.
Speaker 1: I don't have idols.
Speaker 1: But does God only like the people you like?
Speaker 2: Is.
Speaker 1: God, loving to the people that you love and then vengeful or full of judgment for people who aren't like you.
Speaker 1: I mean, we have to look at that.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I have been practicing recently and perhaps you, as Spirit leads you, listen to this or consider this For a long time and I've been raised in the church since I was very, very small, at the age of four, and I have gone to church a lot and I love Jesus and I have been committed to the way of Jesus as best as I know it, or as the way I know it for my whole life.
Speaker 1: And one of the words that I use a lot, because it was gifted to me by the church and also by the text, is Almighty God.
Speaker 1: And it makes me feel good, like when I pray and say Almighty God, because I need God to move.
Speaker 1: In places I can't move, when I feel weak and I feel helpless.
Speaker 1: Almighty God.
Speaker 1: But I want to tell you what an even bigger or more powerful word than that is all loving God.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't need to access that one very much because, you know, I just need some might and some power, and I'm very much like Peter.
Speaker 1: I just need God to come and do what I think should be done and bring the justice that I deem should be done in the world.
Speaker 1: And Jesus comes and he has a bowl of water and a towel and he's serving people.
Speaker 1: And how are we going to do anything with that?
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just, it's already somebody's job, you know, let's not do that.
Speaker 1: Let's Almighty God, come and move our oppressors.
Speaker 1: And Jesus shows up and says here, here's my body broken for you have some bread Eat.
Speaker 1: Like this is not going to do anything.
Speaker 1: Let's get in there, almighty God.
Speaker 1: Let's Almighty this.
Speaker 1: Let's use your strength.
Speaker 1: And Jesus comes in and says this is what love looks like, this is what strengths look like.
Speaker 1: You serve, you humble yourself, you get in there and you meet the needs.
Speaker 3: You know, years ago I was kind of really into hockey and I was getting to go down to Miami I mean Tampa and watch my St Louis Blues beat the lightning.
Speaker 1: I like the way you said that they were beating them.
Speaker 1: That's why you liked it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I was all excited.
Speaker 3: Of course I go down there and then my team loses.
Speaker 3: But don't focus on that part of the story.
Speaker 3: I'm going down there and I was so excited to be able to see my favorite team and it's so close and all that, and so I was just feeling very grateful and all of a sudden I noticed that somebody was preaching on the side of the road as we were driving to our parking and I thought how cool, I'll roll down the window and listen.
Speaker 3: About the time I rolled down the window, it was the part of the guy's sermon where he said don't worry about your enemies, because when Jesus comes back, he's going to crush them and grind them into powder and the blood will spill and flow.
Speaker 3: And he was going on this deal and I'm like whoop, roll them up.
Speaker 3: Not Jesus, false prophet.
Speaker 3: But it's interesting that if in your heart you're vengeful, guess what the God you serve will tend to be?
Speaker 3: He'll be very vengeful.
Speaker 3: If we would allow love to overtake our hearts, then we could really begin to see this gentle God of love and then how love is so much greater than might.
Speaker 3: And so we're not taken away from any titles of God.
Speaker 3: But why do we focus on the one that we wish that we could yield over our neighbors or over our situation?
Speaker 3: And so I really think that we want to be cautious, because that is a slippery slope on making God in our own image, because I've heard people say well, the God I serve would do this.
Speaker 3: And well, that's probably true, because the God I remember one guy was telling me about, and whether you have a gun or not in your house is finest between you and the Lord.
Speaker 3: I have a bunch of heirlooms that were given to me.
Speaker 3: I have my great-grandpa's double barrel shotgun.
Speaker 3: That would never dream of firing it because it would probably blow up my face, but I remember this one guy was telling me he goes yeah, I keep a gun in my house.
Speaker 3: Anyone comes to my house, I'll shoot him dead and then I'll pray with them as they bleed out to accept Christ.
Speaker 1: Together.
Speaker 1: Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.
Speaker 3: And I'm like well you know, I don't.
Speaker 3: And this person was very proud of their Christianity because in their mind, god would judge.
Speaker 3: Anyone who would come to their house would get to go meet Jesus right away, and he thought he was the soul winner.
Speaker 3: He was leading people to Christ by directly introducing them face to face, by shooting them, and you understand like you're shaking your heads.
Speaker 3: But how much do we carve our personality out in this totem pole of what we?
Speaker 3: And then look, there's God.
Speaker 3: Oh, help us, lord.
Speaker 1: And that's why we need the message of the Christ.
Speaker 1: That's why Jesus had to come, because not just us but the whole world had gotten love wrong.
Speaker 1: And Jesus comes by the Holy Spirit to show us that there is another way of radical love, of love that involves the whole world and God's intention to bring all of his beautiful children back to the table.
Speaker 1: So Peter is taking.
Speaker 1: I appreciate so much Peter's wisdom.
Speaker 1: He's not there for all the guys telling this.
Speaker 1: He's gonna take them aside because he cares and he's doing the things the right way.
Speaker 1: On the side, I'm gonna tell Jesus he needs a little reprimand.
Speaker 1: Jesus turns around and looks at his disciples and then reprimands Peter Get away from me, satan.
Speaker 1: He said you are seeing things from a human point of view, not from God.
Speaker 1: Before you feel too sorry for Peter, he makes an adjustment In a little bit.
Speaker 1: He's the one who says Jesus, you are the Christ.
Speaker 1: And Jesus says you did not reveal that to yourself.
Speaker 1: God did I love that about Peter, this duality One minute we're telling Jesus how he's got it wrong and the next minute we're recognizing Jesus as the Messiah.
Speaker 1: So there is for us a beautiful grace in all of this.
Speaker 1: It was not cast away.
Speaker 1: But Jesus said you're seeing things from a human point of view, not from God.
Speaker 1: And so may our eyes be healed in this Lenten season.
Speaker 1: May we see the world from God's point of view.
Speaker 1: May we see our neighbors and our enemies and the whole world through God's eyes, god's loving eyes toward us.
Speaker 3: I wanna just interject real quickly because I don't wanna totally blow past that verse 33 there, because Jesus just called Peter the devil.
Speaker 3: And so I've heard teaching where people talk about how, just for this moment, that Satan had entered Peter.
Speaker 3: And I think when you do that, you over mystify things and we begin to start looking at the demonic as it's, this force like the Jedi force in Star Wars, and it's all mystical and we can't understand it.
Speaker 3: But we know certain people have it and yield it and we're all afraid of it and stuff.
Speaker 3: Really, this was a demonic mindset that Peter had.
Speaker 3: He was no more Satan at that moment than he is God when he said God revealed that to you.
Speaker 3: Peter wasn't all of a sudden our God to be worshiped, nor is he Satan in this moment.
Speaker 3: But I think it's really important for us to understand really then, instead of us making such a big deal about the demonic and all these forces and stuff, that we realize that quite often times in scripture we're talking about a carnal, a worldly, a low lining type of thinking that gets you nowhere.
Speaker 3: But there's a place where God wants to bring us up higher in our thinking, where we would think more like God, and so when we look at the demonic in that aspect, it's not something so mystical that you can't understand.
Speaker 3: It's something very practical that you need to walk away from.
Speaker 3: You need to recognize that anger and when you meditate on that man, I should have said to that guy next time I'm gonna, and you plan all that.
Speaker 3: What you're doing is get me behind me, satan.
Speaker 3: Now, satan didn't interview, but you decided to have that kind of an energy and mentality and stay in that kind of thinking instead of God wanting to take you up higher.
Speaker 3: What if the next time that person says to you he yells at you in traffic, you say I apologize, I bless you.
Speaker 3: I did it the other day and it freaked the guy out Cuz he started screaming at me and I said I apologize to you, I am sorry, I did not let you go first, and the guy goes I didn't say anything and I'm like you just screamed at me.
Speaker 3: He was so freaked out that he literally blurted out a lie.
Speaker 3: Within five seconds of screaming at me, he said I didn't say anything, I'm like okay, I imagine that whole thing.
Speaker 3: I was like, but it literally kind words turn away wrath and change the energy of the thing.
Speaker 3: So we can either have that kind of thing and be thinking in this way, or let God say get behind me.
Speaker 3: We don't want that kind of demonic energy and thought and talk.
Speaker 3: Let's go to where I have for you, this place of love and kindness, and this is in fact, the whole entire way that Jesus called us to live.
Speaker 1: He said I call you to live lives of repentance.
Speaker 1: And repentance is not saying I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Repentance is changing the way that you think.
Speaker 1: That's actually quite hard.
Speaker 1: That's actually you unloading a lot of things because we think the way that we think, because we think it's right.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna tell you, the invitation to life in the spirit is giving up those kind of things and allowing a higher thought, allowing a more loving thought.
Speaker 1: Then, calling the crowd of his disciples, he said if any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way.
Speaker 1: Take up your cross and follow me.
Speaker 1: If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.
Speaker 1: But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the good news, you will save it.
Speaker 1: And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
Speaker 1: Is anything worth more than your soul?
Speaker 1: So Jesus is really offering us this really deep, beautiful introspection, this invitation to go inward and to say what is it going to cost you?
Speaker 1: What is it like to pay attention to your own soul?
Speaker 1: What is it like to listen to your soul and don't make a compromise so that you give up your soul on behalf of something else?
Speaker 1: Jesus is reminding us this is the pattern this dying and allowing the spirit to resurrect us, dying to ego, dying to false ways of self, dying to the way that we project ourselves and giving something else Not dying to our soul.
Speaker 1: Our soul is eternal.
Speaker 1: It is beautiful, it is whole and holy.
Speaker 1: It will stand in the presence of Almighty.
Speaker 1: But the way that we present ourselves now is our choice.
Speaker 1: And Jesus is saying listen, if you wanna live like I live, then deny your ego, deny your plans and join with God in God's plans for the loving and the saving of the whole earth.
Speaker 3: You know, being a follower of Christ or being a Christian comes with a doctrine that was handed to us.
Speaker 3: And because it was handed to us, it seemed like a good thing at the time.
Speaker 3: But it's oftentimes doctrine of man that it's corrupt and it's wrong.
Speaker 3: And a friend of mine had made a post the other day and he loves the Lord, but he had talked about just with his therapist realizing that he picked up, as a young Christian, a lot of shame associated with doctrine.
Speaker 3: You know, if you have this original sin and your garbage and fundamentally in fact I got kicked out of the nomination for preaching that your heart is good, as it says all throughout scripture I could show you very, but no, no, we're fundamentally evil and that doctrine of man so prevailed in that place that a fifth grade kid stood up and rebuked me as I was preaching.
Speaker 3: That runs deep, my friend.
Speaker 3: And what happened?
Speaker 3: My friend was just saying we've got to be careful because Christianity has handed us a lot of shame and shame keeps us from going where, and so it was a really beautiful post that he made.
Speaker 3: But you could tell like fundamental Christians were like, oh, I feel sorry for you and like how deceived you are, you know.
Speaker 3: And the truth is, we're deceived by the doctrine that we grab ahold of.
Speaker 3: Just because it was labeled Christian doesn't mean that it's from Christ, amen.
Speaker 3: And so we need to look at that through the lens of love and through who God really is.
Speaker 3: And I said all that to say that, when we pass through this scripture and talk about picking up your cross, what does that mean to you?
Speaker 3: We have to be real careful.
Speaker 3: Yes, because for some people that means I've just got to do more.
Speaker 3: Hmm, that suffering is what God wants from me, and so I want it for myself.
Speaker 3: And you know what?
Speaker 3: The thing that I demand to myself?
Speaker 3: I'm expecting it from everybody else.
Speaker 3: As hard as you are on yourself, that's how hard you will be on your spouse, on your children.
Speaker 3: And so what happens is, if we don't really understand what it means to pick up our cross, then we will put our own definitions.
Speaker 3: Or there's a lot of religious people who are very happy to hand you a bunch of duty, a bunch of works that you will have to do to somehow please a God who said you're my beloved, I love you and I have redeemed you, you know.
Speaker 3: And so what does it mean, let's talk about that for a minute.
Speaker 3: What would it mean then to pick up a cross?
Speaker 3: If, for many of us, that just means I've got to suffer more, I've got to do more, that somehow I'm just not enough for God.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate this line of consideration, because if we're not mindful, we are not careful or tender around other people and their suffering, a lot of times we'll just, instead of giving them another way to live or helping carry a burden to Christ, we'll just say well, that's what you should do.
Speaker 1: We suffer as Christian.
Speaker 1: You know suffer.
Speaker 1: It was hard for me when I was growing up, so it should be hard for you too.
Speaker 1: No, beloved Jesus has come and they're right.
Speaker 1: There's a higher way, there's a loving way that we're called into and I think oftentimes this kind of thought, where you say somebody needs to suffer, is we're forgetting what Jesus is offering in the suffering.
Speaker 1: Jesus is not saying we have to live in abusive marriages.
Speaker 1: Jesus is not saying we have to tolerate people who are evil toward us or that are abusive toward us.
Speaker 1: In fact, the proverb says if you stand in the way of a person who is abusive and you don't run, then you're a fool.
Speaker 1: So don't do that.
Speaker 1: Go the way of the wise, get away from people like that.
Speaker 1: Let the Lord help them, but you don't have to see that that's not.
Speaker 1: Part of your suffering is taking someone else's abuse.
Speaker 1: And so be mindful, when we hear someone else's suffering, that we don't immediately judge it and call it good or bad or we know where to put it.
Speaker 1: We don't.
Speaker 1: We can be with people while they suffer and bring them to Jesus, but Jesus is saying you'll suffer in your ego, you'll suffer in your plan, because even we see this.
Speaker 1: And now I didn't make this up.
Speaker 1: I will tell you this is how Jesus suffered, because we know the night of Gethsemane, we know the night.
Speaker 1: He's in the garden.
Speaker 1: He is suffering, and he's suffering because he wants another plan.
Speaker 1: I also suffer that.
Speaker 1: You suffer that this is the suffering we're called to.
Speaker 1: Jesus said this to God if there could be another way, let's choose that way.
Speaker 1: I love that for me, because I'm always looking for another way.
Speaker 1: You know, like if this is a good way, perhaps there's another.
Speaker 1: I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist too, so I'm also looking for those things.
Speaker 1: And so we have to find love.
Speaker 1: Love is the way for us, and so be mindful.
Speaker 1: When you have suffering, ask yourself did I generate the suffering myself?
Speaker 1: Did someone hand me this suffering?
Speaker 1: Or is this just the suffering of letting go of my ego, of surrendering to love's higher thought?
Speaker 1: That's what we're called to when we want God to come and crush our enemies.
Speaker 1: And Jesus said I'm inviting them all to the table.
Speaker 1: They're gonna be family, they're gonna be transformed.
Speaker 1: We're all gonna sit together at a table.
Speaker 1: We're gonna eat and we're like could they be at another end of the table Because I don't want.
Speaker 1: And Jesus is like I'm gonna make a feast, you're gonna be there and all your enemies are gonna be invited to that table too.
Speaker 1: That, this love, this radical, inclusive love, where a father is looking for a son who leaves and comes home, where a father goes out to the field to an elder brother who has been doing it the right way and says please come into the party, whether you are returning from the land that you left in or you are in the fields and will not party, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: Respond to what the Spirit is telling us, that God is telling us.
Speaker 1: And God is saying here's where real life is.
Speaker 1: That's what I love about what Jesus told us.
Speaker 1: This is what it means for human flourishing.
Speaker 1: When someone is having a wedding, rejoice with them, enjoy yourself, eat good food this is what the scripture says.
Speaker 1: And when someone is weeping, weep with them.
Speaker 1: We practice resurrection.
Speaker 1: We've been talking about this.
Speaker 1: This is a season to look for resurrection.
Speaker 1: I was outside, in our backyard, and resurrection is coming.
Speaker 1: Beloved.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of brown leaves.
Speaker 1: They are falling off the trees.
Speaker 1: It seems like way more than even the fall, but I'm excited because I'm like.
Speaker 1: The new green has pushed off that brown and this place is coming alive.
Speaker 1: The same is true in us.
Speaker 1: We might have to shed some old ideas.
Speaker 1: Old things are passing away.
Speaker 1: Behold, god is making all things new.
Speaker 1: There is a new way of loving ourselves, being compassionate with ourselves.
Speaker 1: There is hope for us in changing the way that we think and then truly living.
Speaker 3: I love what Heather's talking about.
Speaker 3: A lot of times people think, well, I just got to stay in this abusive marriage because God wants to redeem this person.
Speaker 1: And God does want to redeem them, but not on your back.
Speaker 3: And so somehow you're going to then be the cross, and so we get fed a lot of things along that line.
Speaker 3: But then why, god, why don't you be more specific?
Speaker 3: Why don't you tell us exactly what the cross is?
Speaker 3: And I believe it's because it's so different for each person.
Speaker 3: You pick up your cross and you'll already know what it is, cause you know it's funny.
Speaker 3: I was talking with Demi.
Speaker 3: I don't think he'd mind me sharing all this personal stuff.
Speaker 3: He should.
Speaker 1: Oh, no, good for you, but he and I were talking and I was sharing this personal stuff that he revealed to me.
Speaker 3: No, I'm teasing, I just wanted to get him so.
Speaker 1: But I as he sits back there and serves.
Speaker 3: Serves.
Speaker 3: I'm going to see, but I was talking to him and I was sharing about how that this journey for me is causing me to need to continue to step back and be quiet, and he's going.
Speaker 3: That is so wild because in my journey, it's causing me to step up and speak out, because my tendency is, you know, the loud one that's going to get the attention, and so God's going.
Speaker 3: I want to do something in you know, in perspective, in you, that lets you, you know your ego, be able to die in this place of trusting me and that you don't have to be this thing.
Speaker 3: And then, whereas for people like Demi, it might be very easy for you to go, you know that's cool, we just won't say anything but then dying to yourself is is for you standing up and standing, and so he said that he goes.
Speaker 3: I'm going to be available to do more readings and you know, opening up or closing the services.
Speaker 3: Look at.
Speaker 1: God beloved, look at God For all of us.
Speaker 1: We, we.
Speaker 1: I totally threw you out there in the bus.
Speaker 1: Yeah, grace, brother, grace, grace for all of us, grace for when we want to do more than we actually can, Grace for our own compassion, one of the things I hope that you would hear.
Speaker 1: And we're going to go to the communion table in just a moment, because it absolutely is the highlight of our time together the table of the Lord.
Speaker 1: Whatever we have need of it, is here at the table, and I love that.
Speaker 1: It's a ritual that acknowledges our humanity, our spirituality, does not dismiss our humanity, but honors it.
Speaker 1: This flesh that we are made of, this dust that we are returning to, this is stardust.
Speaker 1: This is the thing that is blessed, that is holy, and when we come to the communion table, we honor this body and we honor the body of Christ and we honor the body that we are a part of collectively, and there's hope in it.
Speaker 1: Beloved, I want you to hear the words of Christ calling you not just to death, but to real life.
Speaker 1: What would it look like for you to enjoy every moment of your day?
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what it would be for me.
Speaker 1: My day has to go exactly the way I've planned, because I've planned good for myself.
Speaker 1: You laugh, but I have.
Speaker 1: I've planned it, and I've included some other people because I love them.
Speaker 1: That's very nice.
Speaker 1: Also, through the prophet Jeremiah, God said do not plan good for yourself, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: I, the Lord, have planned it.
Speaker 1: Can we trust that God?
Speaker 1: has built good things into our world, into our lives.
Speaker 1: So this practice of giving up of self is really a practice of I know there's something greater, I know there's a life that is full of spirit, that is full of hope, and that is what we're being called to.
Speaker 1: The resurrection is the work of spirit, it's God's work, but our work is the laying down of ego, is the laying down of plans, is the surrender, and not surrender in an arm wrestling match, beloved.
Speaker 1: If you want to have an arm wrestling match, you check that up with Carol Madsen.
Speaker 1: But if you're looking for something more I said that one time at a woman's fellowship, because the word surrender has to us this idea that it is an arm wrestling match oh, I've gotta surrender this.
Speaker 1: It's so hard.
Speaker 1: But I wanna tell you that it actually is the surrender like to a good kiss.
Speaker 1: It's a completely different thing.
Speaker 1: If you're surrendering, are you surrendering to love or are you surrendering because someone has you pinned?
Speaker 1: So anyway, I had mentioned this one time and I'm like, hey, this is not an arm wrestling match.
Speaker 1: If you wanna do an arm wrestling match, and the woman actually said I am the world champion arm wrestler.
Speaker 1: And I was like what?
Speaker 1: And she goes Google it right now, which I love about the Google we Google it.
Speaker 1: There was her picture.
Speaker 1: She's the world champion arm wrestler and I'm like, well, I didn't say that because you were here, I was saying that.
Speaker 1: So she took on a few women and indeed she was champion.
Speaker 1: But here is the hope for us that we're not surrendering to God, who is pinning us and making us be something we're not.
Speaker 1: We're surrendering to love, to being awakened to something that is so much more.
Speaker 1: There's a verse in the prophets in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: It said I will lead her into the wilderness.
Speaker 1: We see this with Jesus and we all want to avoid the wilderness.
Speaker 1: Scary things are there, a lot of lack is there.
Speaker 1: But wilderness, in the poetic language of the First Testament, is always this understanding.
Speaker 1: It's where you let go of ego, where you let go of your plans and you come to something more.
Speaker 1: But this is what God says I will draw her to the desert, to the wilderness, and I will cover her face with kisses and she will know that I am her God.
Speaker 1: What, if?
Speaker 1: What you need to hear this morning is that a God who sees you and who loves you.
Speaker 1: And in that knowing, in that surrender, in that surrender to love, you will know who the Lord is.
Speaker 1: We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon.
Speaker 1: If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurchorg.