SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the First Love Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala, Florida.
SPEAKER_02: I would like to invite mommy and dead to go on.
SPEAKER_02: Goodbye, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: We're so grateful for your presence here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And for those of you who are online, we are grateful for that too.
SPEAKER_00: I would like to begin with a prayer over us.
SPEAKER_00: Our lives are so small, O Lord, and our vision so limited.
SPEAKER_00: Our courage is so frail and our hours fleeting.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, give us grace and guidance for the journey ahead.
SPEAKER_00: We have gathered here this morning because we believe that we are called together into the work that we cannot still even know the fullness of.
SPEAKER_00: And still we trust the voice of the one who has called us.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning we offer to you, God, these things.
SPEAKER_00: Our dreams, our plans, our vision.
SPEAKER_00: Shape them as you will.
SPEAKER_00: Our moments and our gifts, may they be invested toward a bright and eternal end.
SPEAKER_00: You alone, O God, by your gracious, life-giving Spirit, have the power to knit together our imperfect hearts, our weaknesses, our strength, our stories, and our gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Unite your people and multiply our offerings, O Lord, that it may resound to your glory.
SPEAKER_00: May our acts of service and creation be met and multiplied by the mysterious working of your Spirit, who weaves all things together toward redemption, more good and more glorious than we have eyes to see, more courage than we have to hope for.
SPEAKER_00: May our love and our labors now echo your love and your labors, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let all that we do here in our brief lives and in this brief moment is love.
SPEAKER_00: This is the work that you have ordained for this community.
SPEAKER_00: O Spirit of God, shape our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Spirit of God, guide our hands.
SPEAKER_00: Spirit of God, build your kingdom here among us.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We speak light and life over you this morning, and we are again grateful to be gathered in your presence.
SPEAKER_00: This is such a beautiful time to be together for us to all with great hope.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that one of the things that we have gathered for that is the most essential and the most radical thing is the communion table.
SPEAKER_00: And so for those of you who have anticipation this morning, good news, the communion table will be offered at the end of this service.
SPEAKER_00: And what does the communion table do for us?
SPEAKER_00: It offers to us an invitation to come home to our true selves.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, you are enough.
SPEAKER_00: You are made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that you have need of, it is here because you are here.
SPEAKER_00: It is within you.
SPEAKER_00: The light of Christ is within you.
SPEAKER_00: And it is with great hope this morning that we invite you into the story of Jesus and into the story that God is telling through the church.
SPEAKER_00: And you, beloved, are the church.
SPEAKER_00: This is the season of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: This is the season where we intentionally look for how we can practice living life in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Living life, not on autopilot, but living by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, when was the last time you did something that your soul said, oh that felt so good?
SPEAKER_00: There is for us an invitation during the season to stand out in the grass, to look at nature, to listen to the birds, to listen to the trees speak to us.
SPEAKER_00: This is a master.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know this, but the trees have already decided that it's so.
SPEAKER_00: There are certain times when the trees talk to each other, this is science, you can look it up, and they decide this is the year of abundance.
SPEAKER_00: We're making way more seeds than ever can be used.
SPEAKER_00: And the trees all get together and they're like, this is the year, we're doing it.
SPEAKER_00: Now is the time, abundance.
SPEAKER_00: And so they send so many seeds out that the squirrels and the other things can't even keep up with it, the birds can't keep up with it.
SPEAKER_00: There's just abundance.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to remind you, sometimes we need to be uh aware of the fact that even nature is telling us there is an abundance in this world.
SPEAKER_00: That there is not just scarcity and lack, but we are called by the Holy Spirit to attune ourselves to the source of light, which is God, and God is love.
SPEAKER_03: Well, I I think uh the season uh that I am uh most grateful for is that tomorrow's your birthday.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, hooray to me.
SPEAKER_00: And last week was your birthday.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, so very exciting things among us.
SPEAKER_03: Birthday is I just think that that I think we ought to sing happy birthday to you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love singing.
SPEAKER_03: Tomorrow Heather.
SPEAKER_03: So can tomorrow Heather's gonna be very young still.
SPEAKER_03: Yes, that is true.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm new to this whole birthday thing.
SPEAKER_00: How does it work?
SPEAKER_00: Is there a song?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a traditional song?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a different song?
SPEAKER_00: It's improv.
SPEAKER_03: And uh and the folks um online, I want you to sing along too.
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna be listening.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and so Yes, because last week was Pastor Dennis's.
SPEAKER_03: If you want to throw my name in there, I won't stop.
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
SPEAKER_00: Very nice.
SPEAKER_03: But I'm trying to focus and you know, not make it about me.
SPEAKER_03: But let's sing together.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, let's sing uh happy birthday to Heather.
SPEAKER_03: And if you want to talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll sing Pastor Dennis first because his was September 30th.
SPEAKER_00: Happy birthday to you.
SPEAKER_00: Happy birthday, dear dad.
SPEAKER_03: Happy birthday to dear.
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: You're beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: So grateful.
SPEAKER_00: We do celebrate birthdays here.
SPEAKER_00: I do want to remind you, nobody earns a birthday.
SPEAKER_00: You get them.
SPEAKER_00: They're gifts of abundance and of grace.
SPEAKER_00: And aging is a gift.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you knew that, but it is.
SPEAKER_00: And some of us unwrap it at different times, but aging is a gift and we honor it.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, we uh uh I was asking Heather what she'd like to have, and it's kind of what I like at this point for a gift is just to be with the kids, you know?
SPEAKER_03: And so I got the kids together and I said, hey, tomorrow after church, and this was yesterday, so now today after church, we're just gonna go home and make a nice meal, and your mother wants you to enjoy the meal, and then of course we will take the anointed Sunday afternoon nap as ordained by God.
SPEAKER_03: But I said to the kids, I said, There's one thing your mother really wants to do.
SPEAKER_03: Will you watch a movie with her tonight?
SPEAKER_03: And the kids were like, Yes, but oh uh Heather only picks sad movies where a pet or something dies.
SPEAKER_03: Something's terribly sad in this movie, and so we've all geared up, we're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_03: But uh we're we're prepared that uh for some reason it'll make Heather happy if we watch a sad movie.
SPEAKER_03: So we're just gonna we're gonna do it because we love you so much.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_03: So this week, watch a sad movie.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes stories, great stories, have darkness or sadness hidden in them.
SPEAKER_00: And in our human experience, to ignore sadness is to ignore a part of ourselves.
SPEAKER_03: But tell that's Nathaniel who's scarred because the kid fell off the tractor in the potato movie.
SPEAKER_03: It's scarred, it's a little kid who was a little scarred.
SPEAKER_03: Look at it.
SPEAKER_00: Grace.
SPEAKER_00: All the grace to us, all the grace to parents who make choices.
SPEAKER_00: This is the hope for us.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the beauty of the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: This is, in fact, what Jesus showed us.
SPEAKER_00: How to really own our humanity, how to thrive, and how to say, we are a part of people.
SPEAKER_03: Turn it around.
SPEAKER_03: That's your gift.
SPEAKER_00: We are we are people who can embrace the sadness, but also look forward to joy.
SPEAKER_00: That is how we are people not caught in the mire of despair.
SPEAKER_00: We can own our own hurt or the hurt that we see in our neighbor and still have hope.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, this is our human capacity, and Jesus showed us how to be fully human and how to be fully alive.
SPEAKER_00: We read this morning from a letter to Timothy, and you might be asking, why are we reading Timothy's letter?
SPEAKER_00: It's not ours.
SPEAKER_00: This is a letter that is directed toward Timothy, and it's an ancient letter, somebody else's mail from a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00: But this is essential to us because we begin to understand what it looks like when someone who is fully entrenched in the life of God, who lives in the Spirit, and then teaches us to live fully connected to our own spirit.
SPEAKER_00: What does it look like?
SPEAKER_00: What are the plans?
SPEAKER_00: And what are the stories that we should be rehearsing?
SPEAKER_00: What are the stories that we should be telling?
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that we remind people to do is you have the power to tell a more beautiful story.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what story is being told around you, you have the power to enter into the story.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus offered us when he said, Come and be a part of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus told another story than the story that had been told for centuries.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came and said to us, God is love.
SPEAKER_00: God is like a woman who looks for a lost coin.
SPEAKER_00: God is like a shepherd who leaves the 99 and goes after the one.
SPEAKER_00: God is like a father who has opened his arms to everyone who wants to return home.
SPEAKER_00: And then he calls us the older brothers and says, Will you come into the party?
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, God is about feasting as much as God is about fasting.
SPEAKER_00: And this hope for us is learning how to live in rhythm.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said this to the people around him Are you tired?
SPEAKER_00: Are you worn out?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're burned out on religion.
SPEAKER_00: Then come to me and I will show you the unforced rhythms of grace.
SPEAKER_00: I will show you how to live freely and lightly.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, this is the hope of Christ among us that we would be people who would learn how to live freely.
SPEAKER_00: Love is ultimately freedom and lightly how to live unencumbered, unattached to anything in our divine expression.
SPEAKER_03: You know, if if I held up a circle right here, and and I and from my perspective, I would see the circle.
SPEAKER_03: But to you, you'd just see a straight line.
SPEAKER_03: You see what I mean?
SPEAKER_03: Because it would be the side of the circle.
SPEAKER_03: Or if I tipped it like that, somebody would say, Well, I see an oval.
SPEAKER_03: It's based on what?
SPEAKER_03: Our point of view, our perception.
SPEAKER_03: And so I'd ask you to consider when you seem to have a perception that life is terrible, and life doesn't go your way, and life is miserable, and then there's somebody right beside you having an experience of life, and they're just filled with joy.
SPEAKER_03: And you say to yourself, well, they just have a different life.
SPEAKER_03: Or do they have a different perspective on it?
SPEAKER_03: And and I'd ask you to consider asking God to help you see the joy in it.
SPEAKER_03: Because Heather and I will do that.
SPEAKER_03: I uh, you know, we we help each other with this.
SPEAKER_03: And the other morning I I got up and I had put away the leftovers in such a way that I had portioned it all out so that I would turn this into this elaborate breakfast.
SPEAKER_03: And somebody in the middle of the night went through all my little containers that I had, I mean, I had laid it out so it was like A, B, C, D, perfect meal for me for breakfast.
SPEAKER_03: And so somebody got in there, and my first uh in the past was who ate my food?
SPEAKER_03: But then Heather and I have got this thing, of course I learned from her, you probably know this, but uh, I go, I go, hey, Heather, some blessed child of God ate my breakfast.
SPEAKER_03: And I began to pivot on what my breakfast was, and I had a wonderful breakfast.
SPEAKER_03: It was not what I anticipated, what I planned, and what I thought would be good for me.
SPEAKER_03: But I pivoted and and I pivoted to the point that I'm looking at that going, I'm grateful that somebody that I love had a good midnight snack.
SPEAKER_03: And it was all perfectly proportioned out to for them to enjoy that meal.
SPEAKER_03: But there's a perspective, and you could stand around saying, my meals are constantly being eaten by others.
SPEAKER_03: Or God can show you how good it is to serve and to give, and the joy that can be found in that.
SPEAKER_03: Amen?
SPEAKER_03: So God help us today that we have the right perspective about what's really going on.
SPEAKER_03: Because I wouldn't want to miss God because I'm sitting around complaining.
SPEAKER_03: Unless uh I could I could walk in that revised version of what I planned to have what God has for me, which is far better.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: From Paul, an apostle of Jesus, the Messiah, appointed by God's pleasure to announce the wonderful promise of life found in Jesus, the anointed Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: My beloved son, I pray for a greater release of God's grace, love, and total well-being to flow into your life from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I want to speak over you this morning that same blessing.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for a greater release of God's grace, God's love, and God's total well-being to flow into your life from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You know that I've been called to serve the God of my fathers with a clean conscience.
SPEAKER_00: Night and day I pray for you, thanking God for your life.
SPEAKER_00: I know that you have wept for me, your spiritual father, and your tears are dear to me, and I cannot wait to see you again.
SPEAKER_00: I am filled with joy.
SPEAKER_00: As I think of your strong faith that was passed down through your family line, it began with your grandmother Lois, who passed it on to your dear mother Eunice, and it is clear that you too are following in the footsteps of their godly example.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, I've never met Eunice.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know Lois, but I am grateful that they loved their family and that they loved God and showed it in such a way that Timothy, when he was ready to make a choice, was like, I see how the women in my family do it, and it is life.
SPEAKER_00: And this invitation, Paul is saying, follow in the footsteps of this wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: I'm writing to you to encourage you to fan the flame and rekindle the fire of the spiritual gift God imparted to you when I laid my hands on you.
SPEAKER_00: For God will never give you the spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit who gives you mighty power, love, and self-control.
SPEAKER_00: This is how we know God's spirit.
SPEAKER_00: God is love.
SPEAKER_00: If someone tries to put something on you that is not loving, beloved, it is not of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the scripture tells us.
SPEAKER_00: That God gives us a spirit that is mighty in power.
SPEAKER_00: And I remind you that love is the most powerful source in the universe.
SPEAKER_00: It is not a forced impression, it is an invitation.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit who has mighty power, love, and self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, this is a whole lot of gospel here, a whole lot of good news.
SPEAKER_00: You have the authority over your own self to make choices, to see things.
SPEAKER_00: You do not have, we are not to force our neighbors into doing anything.
SPEAKER_00: We are not to force our enemies into doing anything.
SPEAKER_00: Love, this power that comes from the Holy Spirit, is a power for us to live connected to the source of love.
SPEAKER_00: And then once we are connected to the source of love, we have self-control.
SPEAKER_00: It does not give, love does not give us control over others.
SPEAKER_00: Love gives us control over ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And not the true self that is holy and sealed by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That self is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: But what we're talking about here is that ego self that would try to insert itself in other people's business.
SPEAKER_00: They would try to insert itself in other people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: Love is the only license we ever have.
SPEAKER_00: If we are looking at our neighbor, it should be to make sure that they have enough food, to make sure that they have the freedoms that we have.
SPEAKER_00: And whatever we want for our own children, we must want for the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: This is what love does.
SPEAKER_00: It is freedom for all.
SPEAKER_00: It is love for all.
SPEAKER_00: This is the message of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is the message that we ourselves are supposed to carry.
SPEAKER_00: We are loved.
SPEAKER_00: We are fully connected to love.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture tells us long before the earth was formed, God had you in mind.
SPEAKER_00: That's really freaky to think about.
SPEAKER_00: Before the earth was formed, God had you in mind.
SPEAKER_00: This is the part that really oh, this part.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna say the other part again, I'm getting into this part, but pay attention, like pay attention here.
SPEAKER_00: Long before the earth was formed, God had you in mind.
SPEAKER_00: And God had settled on you to be the object of his affection.
SPEAKER_00: What a deep peace that is.
SPEAKER_00: God has already settled on you.
SPEAKER_00: You're not up for an audition.
SPEAKER_00: God already said you have the part, and I love you.
SPEAKER_00: You are already, and I just want to remind you of something, God is settled.
SPEAKER_00: So this before the world was formed, he had already determined you would be made of love, you would live in love, and you would return to love.
SPEAKER_00: And this invitation for us, the rest of that verse says that you would be made whole and holy by God's love.
SPEAKER_00: Wholeness is always a part of what love does for us.
SPEAKER_00: Wholeness brings us into the holiness, into the sacred part of us.
SPEAKER_00: But love is always the answer, and he's reminding us the Holy Spirit testifies of love.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit testifies to us of a power that love has, and the Holy Spirit can give us self-control.
SPEAKER_03: Well, I wanted to say two things in back in verse six.
SPEAKER_03: It says span the flames.
SPEAKER_03: And uh uh one of the things we're doing on Wednesday nights is we're having a prayer and meditation class, and it's an opportunity, it's kind of uh I I mean that's what we titled it, and we we certainly work on meditations in prayer, but uh, but it's it's really I I just felt like God told us to do it.
SPEAKER_03: I didn't really have a lot of detail.
SPEAKER_03: I figured he'd show us as we're doing it, and he and he hasn't, and quite uh clearly it's a it's a class about learning to connect with the Holy Spirit, to just kind of on a daily basis, you know, fan the flames of that.
SPEAKER_03: And so I just I say that as a you know a little bit of a commercial, but just to remind you that, you know, if the scripture is telling you to do this, how would you go about doing that?
SPEAKER_03: Gather together with other people and thus learn about these things that fan the flames of that connection with Holy Spirit and and and help us.
SPEAKER_03: And so I just want you to know that happens Wednesday night and it's quick from 6:30 to 7:30.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and it's a wonderful uh opportunity to learn um the the prayers and meditations and things that can help connect us with Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: And so you all are invited.
SPEAKER_03: Uh Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Uh in verse 7 there, it it's uh God has not given us a spirit of fear.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, I think it's really important.
SPEAKER_03: Uh so many people are tormented by their fears.
SPEAKER_03: Um and I think the one of the worst things we can do is kind of get the idea that maybe this is God trying to teach me a lesson, or this is God's gift to me to keep me humble, or or uh, or this is just part of my existence, and I kind of have to accept it and just go with it.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, I would really like for you to see here that that uh that in this scripture he's saying God didn't give you that spirit of fear.
SPEAKER_03: And the truth is that is a choice that I make and you make.
SPEAKER_03: Uh we'd like to write it off and say, well, he says, you know, God can give me the spirit of fear.
SPEAKER_03: So the devil gave me that spirit, and that spirit just showed up at my house one day and he knocked on the door, and I didn't open the door, but a window was left open, and so he crept in, and now I've got the spirit of fear.
SPEAKER_03: Uh it's it's really your spirit, your choices.
SPEAKER_03: And and it's great if you want to blame the devil for everything, but the problem with that is that's very ambiguous.
SPEAKER_03: And we don't know where he is, we haven't seen him, we don't know if he's gonna change things, and so we just kind of stay, and Christians stay in this idea, well, the devil just did it and he's around, I don't know what he's doing.
SPEAKER_03: Like, you know, he's he's not omnipresent, he's not that powerful, uh, and I'm pretty sure he's not hanging around in Bellevue at your house.
SPEAKER_03: Uh you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03: It's like it doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_03: If he was gonna, if he's one, he's gonna be at the private White House, or you know, the Kremlin or something, or or you know, on a trek between the two, or where he's er, or you know, bombing people or or out uh I don't want to get myself in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: But I will tell you anywhere love is not.
SPEAKER_03: It's your mind that God wants you to learn to get control of, casting down arguments and thoughts that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_03: God has not given you that spirit of fear, so you don't have to stay there.
SPEAKER_03: First of all, and learning how to fan the flames of that connection that you have with God, that you could walk free, that you could walk free from fear, that you don't have to be tormented and frozen and trapped by that is should be just joy for somebody listening to what I'm saying here.
SPEAKER_03: But uh, but again, it's going to be your choices to surrender to the word of God, to the to uh obeying and the obedience.
SPEAKER_03: So God has not given me this, so I'm not gonna accept it.
SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna continue to act this way, I'm not gonna you know just continue down this path that continually torments me daily.
SPEAKER_03: I'm going to look for that way of escape.
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna trust that there is a door, that there is a path.
SPEAKER_03: And and I'm I'm heading that way, Lord.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm trusting you.
SPEAKER_03: I've heard your voice, I've heard your promise to me.
SPEAKER_03: You've not given me this spirit of fear, and so I'm going to take the authority that you've given me, and I'm gonna climb out of this pit because it is a pit of despair.
SPEAKER_03: I've had two of my best friends take their own lives.
SPEAKER_03: Well, my one friend when he was 17, and my other friend when he was 29.
SPEAKER_03: And they were two guys I played music with my whole life.
SPEAKER_03: I spent hours and hours, and you know, just these are my best friends, you know.
SPEAKER_03: And what had happened to both of them is they became overwhelmed with depression, with despair.
SPEAKER_03: You know what the definition in Webster's of despair is?
SPEAKER_03: Absence of God?
SPEAKER_03: It's actually the definition.
SPEAKER_03: And we forget that there's a joy that comes in God's presence.
SPEAKER_03: Now I'm not beating anybody up.
SPEAKER_03: I have struggled with tormenting fear my entire uh existence since I can remember.
SPEAKER_03: And I have found this path, and I'm walking this path, and I'm seeing light, and I'm coming out of darkness into light daily because I'm choosing God's promises, God's word, God's way, and then and then learning to control this because this is the problem.
SPEAKER_03: It's great if you want to point fingers and blame the devil and blame all these ambiguous things, but the truth is there is a power that you have that you've allowed yourself to think these things.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe family of origin has programmed you that way.
SPEAKER_03: I'm not blaming anybody, but I'm telling you the answer is you choosing to follow after God, choosing to denounce those thoughts, cast down arguments and those thoughts.
SPEAKER_03: No, that's not the way I should think about myself.
SPEAKER_03: That's not what's the truth about me.
SPEAKER_03: That's not what God says about me.
SPEAKER_03: And if you don't know what God says about you, get around people that know what God says about you, and they'll say it over you until you eventually believe it.
SPEAKER_03: What does Heather say to you every day when she sees you?
SPEAKER_03: You are what?
SPEAKER_03: Say that again, real loud.
SPEAKER_03: You're beloved, you're loved.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Until one day it clicks.
SPEAKER_03: I am God's beloved.
SPEAKER_03: He's not giving me the spirit of fear.
SPEAKER_03: Amen?
SPEAKER_03: I hope that helps some people, and I'm not picking on anyone, I'm just throwing you that line.
SPEAKER_03: This is the way of escape.
SPEAKER_03: You allow God's renewing of your mind to cause us to think differently, amen.
SPEAKER_00: We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're finding this episode meaningful, would you take a moment to share it with a friend?
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SPEAKER_00: If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church and the continued work of our podcast, visit us online at firstlovechurch.org, reminding you to like, follow, and subscribe.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus invited us into was a life of changing our minds about things.
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Come, change your mind about this.
SPEAKER_00: Come, there's life over here.
SPEAKER_00: Change your mind about this.
SPEAKER_00: That's really what repentance means.
SPEAKER_00: It means to think a higher thought.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder how often we uh confront ourselves and say, What do I need to change my mind about?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's very complicated to be a person who is spiritual or religious because sometimes religion has given us the most reason to be fearful or to have self-loathing.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, Come on, I want to show you another way.
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you a higher thought.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to give up those ideas that you are separate, that you don't belong.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling us a much better, more beautiful story that everyone is welcomed at the table of the Lord, that everyone is welcomed at the feast.
SPEAKER_00: He repeats in a different way that we've heard it from the 23rd Psalm, the psalmist, an ancient story that says, even if I have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear evil because you will be with me.
SPEAKER_00: It does not say that evil will not be there, but it just means you will not be alone, that love will always be a presence for you, that you will always have the presence of divine love that you can connect with, that you can receive light and source from.
SPEAKER_00: God has not given you, will never give you the spirit of fear.
SPEAKER_00: So if someone comes to you and says, This is what God says, and it makes you afraid, love it, no.
SPEAKER_00: God does not give us the spirit of fear.
SPEAKER_03: God gives you.
SPEAKER_03: I hear people, these Bible scholars rebuking us, saying, No, the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: That means the awe of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And we've reverential respect.
SPEAKER_00: We should definitely be in awe.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't, again, my prescription to you is always the James Webb telescope.
SPEAKER_00: Find it, look at it, be inspired, astonished at the awe of the world around us.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how much you've traveled, I hope you have.
SPEAKER_00: But if you ever, while you're walking, happened on a stream that you have no idea where the source of it is, like magic, water coming out of a rock or from another place.
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Our world testifies to us all the time.
SPEAKER_00: There is goodness everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: God is love, beloved, and God is.
SPEAKER_00: Calling us to be people thoroughly saturated and rooted in love so that when we live out our lives, what people see is our connection to love.
SPEAKER_00: So never be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor be embarrassed over my imprisonment.
SPEAKER_00: But overcome every evil by the revelation of the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is how we overcome evil by this understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what the power of God is, beloved?
SPEAKER_00: They just told us love.
SPEAKER_00: Love is the most incredible power.
SPEAKER_00: God is love.
SPEAKER_00: And so we overcome evil by love, not by doing other evil.
SPEAKER_00: We overcome evil by allowing our thoughts to be changed, by practicing forgiveness, by being people who live differently.
SPEAKER_00: He gave us resurrection life and drew us to himself by his holy calling on our lives.
SPEAKER_00: You have a holy calling, beloved, and it is to be the one that is delighted in by God.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't because of any good we have done, but by his divine pleasure and his marvelous grace that confirmed our union with the anointed Jesus even before time began.
SPEAKER_00: This truth is now being unveiled by the revelation of the anointed Jesus, our life giver, who has dismantled death, obliterating all its effects on our lives and manifested his immortal life in us by the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: This is good news.
SPEAKER_00: Death lied to us and said it is the ultimate separation.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came out of that grave and said, There is no separation.
SPEAKER_00: Love is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: We are called into love.
SPEAKER_00: And this love is a source of life and hope for us.
SPEAKER_00: The truth is now being unveiled by the revelation of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: John's gospel said this.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, there was a conversation.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the word.
SPEAKER_00: And the word was God.
SPEAKER_00: And the word was with God.
SPEAKER_00: And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, God, came.
SPEAKER_00: He had a conversation with Mary first.
SPEAKER_00: We love that.
SPEAKER_00: Advent's coming, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: So much grace in Advent.
SPEAKER_00: Hope.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just like be geared up for that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be the cheerleader.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, Advent's coming.
SPEAKER_00: We can all hope for this.
SPEAKER_00: So God shows up and has a conversation with Mary, and he's like, the people have gotten it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: The people have gotten me wrong.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do something else.
SPEAKER_00: I would like to have your consent.
SPEAKER_00: You and I, we're going to do something by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And Mary hears this invitation and she said, Yes, be it unto me according to your word.
SPEAKER_00: And you know the story.
SPEAKER_00: And this incredible Jesus is born among us as one of us, fully human, and says, This is what it looks like to come back to God.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it looks like to use the power that God has given us.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what Jesus used his power for?
SPEAKER_00: Never for his own work.
SPEAKER_00: Always for the work of love.
SPEAKER_00: He went about doing good and healing every single person who was oppressed, releasing those who were imprisoned.
SPEAKER_00: Real love takes that power and sets other people free.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus showed us.
SPEAKER_00: Real love is being fully loved, and then being able to go to the margins and say, you're with me.
SPEAKER_00: We're, this is our table now.
SPEAKER_00: This is where we belong.
SPEAKER_00: This life is being unveiled by the revelation of the anointed Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul said this: that Jesus is the perfect image of an invisible God.
SPEAKER_00: We once didn't know what God looked like, and now we do.
SPEAKER_00: It is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We once didn't think that God was with the lepers, and Jesus went and touched them and healed them.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't think that God was with the marginalized.
SPEAKER_00: And then the Holy Spirit shows up.
SPEAKER_00: This is the hope for us, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: He's manifested this life in us by the gospel.
SPEAKER_03: I want us to take a moment and look in verse 10 where it says, Jesus our life giver.
SPEAKER_03: Life giver or life taker?
unknown: Life giver.
SPEAKER_03: Life giver.
SPEAKER_03: And it goes on to say in verse 10 that he has dismantled death.
SPEAKER_03: And I know that there's people here and under the sound of my voice, I'll watch and online, that are tormented on a very regular basis with a fear of dying.
SPEAKER_03: Just the fear that there's just nothing after this, that we die.
SPEAKER_03: And I want you to see that we really, as believers in Christ, should not even utter the word death and dying.
SPEAKER_03: People graduate, they move on to another plane, but you don't stop existing.
SPEAKER_03: You stop being here.
SPEAKER_03: But absence from the body is the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: You are an eternal being.
SPEAKER_03: Your consciousness will live forever.
SPEAKER_03: The real you.
SPEAKER_03: Not in this body, but some of you ought to be happy about that.
SPEAKER_03: But I think right now you ought to be happy in whatever condition you find your body in because it's your license to be here now, and you get to hang around with me and Heather on her birthday.
SPEAKER_03: So we should be grateful for that, what we have now.
SPEAKER_03: But we should be reminded on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_03: Death has no sting, it has no power over me.
SPEAKER_03: I just move on.
SPEAKER_03: I graduate.
SPEAKER_03: I go into another place, a place that God has prepared for me.
SPEAKER_03: And I remind myself of these things, these promises, and I can trust God who is good.
SPEAKER_03: He's the life giver.
SPEAKER_03: The evidence that he's good is love.
SPEAKER_03: The evidence he's good is that we get to see the things when we open up our eyes and see them.
SPEAKER_03: And that same giver of life promises where you're going to be and what's going to happen and what has happened to your loved ones that have gone on before you.
SPEAKER_03: So I don't have to be tormented by that fear.
SPEAKER_03: When I remember what God has promised me, what God says, amen?
SPEAKER_03: And let's maybe even change our own language when we talk about that.
SPEAKER_03: Because there's no dying for any of us.
SPEAKER_03: They're just moving on to know as we're known.
SPEAKER_03: Isn't that good news?
SPEAKER_00: He has anointed me as his preacher, his apostle, and a teacher of truth to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: The confidence of my calling enables me to overcome every difficulty without shame, for I have an intimate revelation of this God.
SPEAKER_00: And my faith in him convinces me that he is more than able to keep all that I've placed in his hands safe and secure until the fullness of his appearing.
SPEAKER_00: That's really good.
SPEAKER_00: May you also be convinced that God is able to keep safe everything that you put in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: Put yourself there first.
SPEAKER_00: But for everyone or everything you care about, it is an invitation for you to put that in the hands of loving Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: To turn over those places of worry and concern and to put it in the hands of loving Jesus, who is so willing to take all of you, every part of you, and say, Come home, return to love, beloved, come in to the party.
SPEAKER_03: You know, every one of us have some cantankerous family member or dear friend, loved one, and we uh through our religious teaching have grown to fear for their soul and almost be convinced that they're outside of God's reach.
SPEAKER_03: I've heard so many people say that, which is so ridiculous.
SPEAKER_03: You were quite cantankerous yourself, and somehow you have found the light.
SPEAKER_03: You've been found in the light, if I'm to be uh a little bit more clear.
SPEAKER_03: And there's a place of real faith where you can take that cantankerous individual and recognize God loves them more than I do.
SPEAKER_03: God, the eternal parent, loves their child even more than I do.
SPEAKER_03: And I can place this individual.
SPEAKER_03: It doesn't mean I have to, if if their cantankerous behavior hurts and harms me, it doesn't mean I stay in the presence of that.
SPEAKER_03: I may have to step way outside of that.
SPEAKER_03: But there's a place where I can put those people in faith, in trusting that God will take care of that person.
SPEAKER_03: And I can be confident, I don't know how it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, could you have planned your path towards salvation?
SPEAKER_03: I don't know how God will do it, but I know the God who created this whole thing, this whole universe.
SPEAKER_03: And again, if we if we think it too complicated, look at the James Webb telescope and look at the little patch that's no bigger than you looking up at the moon, that section of sky has tens of thousands of galaxies within that scope.
SPEAKER_03: The galaxies which have hundreds of thousands of stars in them, each one, and planets orbiting them.
SPEAKER_03: My God is so much greater and more powerful than I could even imagine.
SPEAKER_03: Why would I not trust him with the life of a child, of a parent, of a friend, of an enemy.
SPEAKER_03: Amen?
SPEAKER_03: And that's what God's in and I love that verse.
SPEAKER_03: How it reminds us that we can trust.
SPEAKER_03: And it's good to put those in his hand.
SPEAKER_03: Amen?
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The mystics remind us, the psalmist reminds us, that God who knows the stars by name.
SPEAKER_00: The psalmist says to us that God's thoughts, loving thoughts toward us, are more than all the sands in the seas.
SPEAKER_00: God's loving thoughts toward you are great.
SPEAKER_00: God is not angry with you, God is not disappointed in you, God does not wish that you would turn it around.
SPEAKER_00: God loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And God is saying to you, you are made of love.
SPEAKER_00: Return to love.
SPEAKER_00: This is the hope for the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: Allow the healing words that you have heard from me live in you and make them a model for your life as your faith and love in the anointed one grows even more.
SPEAKER_00: My prayer for you this morning is the same thing that Paul prayed for Timothy, that you would allow these healing words to live in you and make these healing words of hope and of mystery and of love be the model of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Guard well this incomparable treasure by the spirit of holiness that lives within you.
SPEAKER_00: You are sacred, beloved, because you are made in the image of the sacred.
SPEAKER_00: You are holy, each one of us holy, because we bear the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You are loved and you are delighted in by the Godhead, by the universe.
SPEAKER_00: Love is your birthright, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: You are entitled to love, to belonging because you are made in the image of all belonging and all love.
SPEAKER_00: You are made in the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: God with us.
SPEAKER_00: This is Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: This is the promise of Advent.
SPEAKER_00: God with us, love with us, hope with us.
SPEAKER_01: Would you bow your heads with us this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Would you testify to us of your love for us, of your hope for us?
SPEAKER_00: And would you remind us again of our place in all things?
SPEAKER_00: Would you remind us that our names are tattooed on your hands?
SPEAKER_00: Would you remind us that everything that we are concerned about as we put them in your hands, that you are faithful and capable of holding these things precious until the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: I want to look at verse 14 before we move on to communion and just guard well the incomparable treasure by the Spirit of Holiness living in you.
SPEAKER_03: You know, in guarding these things, kind of has the idea that someone's sneaking around and they're going to swipe it from you.
SPEAKER_03: But I'd ask you to consider maybe that in guarding it, it is you guard it against your own negative thoughts.
SPEAKER_03: Because what you agree with is what you have.
SPEAKER_03: And when I agree with the fact that I'm not going to amount to much and that I I you know I'm just a mess up, and I'm not whatever these things are, we we forget to what is the glorious treasure, these promises of God, that you are love, that you are great, that you're made from greatness.
SPEAKER_03: And so I really do need to guard that within my own mind and my own heart.
SPEAKER_03: Because, you know, out of that abundance of the heart, you know, the mouth declares that thing.
SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, you can hang around with somebody or somebody can hang around with you for a very short period of time and really know what you believe by the way you speak about yourself.
SPEAKER_03: And the Bible instructs us to guard that, and that is your responsibility.
SPEAKER_03: We've been given such a precious gift.
SPEAKER_03: Now, this is not a message of works to you, but to remind you of the responsibility of taking authority over this massive quantum computer that's been put between your ears.
SPEAKER_03: And it can run all kinds of programs, it can run all kinds of processes.
SPEAKER_03: But you need to control what it's doing.
SPEAKER_03: No, we're not gonna run that program anymore.
SPEAKER_03: We're not gonna review that tape.
SPEAKER_03: Some of you are still running those floppy discs.
SPEAKER_03: That's stuff that happened a long time ago.
SPEAKER_03: And I mean, this is a there is such a treasure in you.
SPEAKER_03: And we go around blaming somebody else.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, those things happened in our past.
SPEAKER_03: But what's happening right now, you have a choice.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Guard your heart with all diligence.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus also reminds us that love does no harm to its neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, if you are harming your neighbors, stop it.
SPEAKER_00: Return to love.
SPEAKER_00: Come back, come back to love.
SPEAKER_00: If you're harming yourself, stop it.
SPEAKER_00: Return to love.
SPEAKER_00: Love does no harm to its neighbors and thus fulfills the whole law.
SPEAKER_00: Everything fulfilled in the love of God, the love of neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: This is the invitation we have to walk in peace, to walk in holiness, to walk in God's love.
SPEAKER_00: This becomes a choice for us.
SPEAKER_00: How do you make the choice?
SPEAKER_00: It's as easy as return to love.
SPEAKER_00: Return to love.
SPEAKER_00: This is the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurch.org.