SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the First Love Church podcast.
SPEAKER_01: This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala, Florida.
SPEAKER_01: This is such a beautiful joy to be with here this morning.
SPEAKER_01: For those of you who have been here before, welcome home.
SPEAKER_01: For those of you who have never been here, welcome home.
SPEAKER_01: This is the grace that love reminds us of.
SPEAKER_01: We are every one of us welcomed in God's presence.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us made in the very image of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm so grateful this morning to be in the presence of light with you.
SPEAKER_01: There are lots of beautiful babies and small children in our congregation this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to remind you what a joy and a privilege that is.
SPEAKER_01: Especially what a privilege it is to be with ones so fresh from God.
SPEAKER_01: And they remember so many things about the source.
SPEAKER_01: And so it is with open hearts and with lots of grace we invite all of ourselves into the sanctuary this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I am again so grateful to be in your presence this 19th Sunday of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I bring that up?
SPEAKER_01: For 19 Sundays we have been practicing, not just Sundays, during the week as well, what it looks like to be people who attune our hearts to the Holy Spirit, what it looks like to be people who pay attention to the work of the Spirit among us, what it looks like to be people who live and move and have our being in spirit.
SPEAKER_01: This morning, it is with incredible grace that we invite you to this portion of our service while we will look at the text together, that we will listen to the words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And we like to refer to this type of or portion of the service as your weekly amnesia therapy.
SPEAKER_01: During the week, you may have forgotten who you are, whose you are, and how we invite each other to live.
SPEAKER_01: And this is an invitation to hear the words of Jesus together.
SPEAKER_01: Together we're going to read this portion of the scripture, and then we I will read you ones later.
SPEAKER_01: But together we read this: Matthew 7.
SPEAKER_01: Refuse to be a critic, full of bias toward others, and judgment will not be passed on you.
SPEAKER_01: For you will be judged by the same standard that you use to judge others.
SPEAKER_01: The measurement you use on them will be used on you.
SPEAKER_01: Why would you focus on the flaw in someone else's life and yet fail to notice the glaring flaws of your own?
SPEAKER_01: How could you say to your friend, Let me show you where you're wrong when you're guilty of even more?
SPEAKER_01: At this point, I like to just put my eyes down.
SPEAKER_01: And then we can all pray the prayer together, Lord have mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.
SPEAKER_01: You're being hyper-critical and a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_01: First, acknowledge your own blind spots and deal with them.
SPEAKER_01: And then you'll be capable of dealing with the blind spot of your friend.
SPEAKER_01: Who would hang earrings on a dog's ear or throw pearls in front of wild pigs?
SPEAKER_01: They'll only trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces.
SPEAKER_01: These are the words of Jesus reminding us of this truth that we are to be mindful, not to involve ourselves in the criticism of others, not to be so full of our own personal bias that we miss the light of Christ that is shining for us.
SPEAKER_01: And this is an invitation into the practice of real love.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if uh maybe uh any of you or very few of you really believe that verse.
SPEAKER_00: And I would really challenge you on that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that if you didn't judge other people, you wouldn't be judged.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think if you really believed that, you wouldn't say, look at that idiot the way they're driving.
SPEAKER_00: Can you believe that guy?
SPEAKER_00: Can you believe that lady in front of me?
SPEAKER_00: Could you know I can't believe what these politicians are doing.
SPEAKER_00: I can't, you know, come on.
SPEAKER_00: What the scripture's saying to us is incredible.
SPEAKER_00: If you would stop judging other people, you yourself would not be judged.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be judged.
SPEAKER_00: So all I gotta do is lay that down, and I gotta tell you how deep it runs.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think for most of my life I've had accusations against my sons.
SPEAKER_00: From the time they were little kids.
SPEAKER_00: I told you, how many times did I tell you not to bring plates up into your room?
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna get ants.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, they're they're up there just disrespecting me.
SPEAKER_00: They're up there, you know, they don't care what I say, they have no honor of their father.
SPEAKER_00: All this stuff, all this accusation, when the truth is, aren't they just a bunch of kids who was in the middle of a show and wanted a snack?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe my booming words aren't as important to them as I think they are to me.
SPEAKER_00: But there's accusations that we have.
SPEAKER_00: And I know for me, I was a sneaky kid, and I'd had an accusation that my kids were constantly sneaking, it was wicked, it was wrong, and I realized that I was trapped, and I was trapping them because when I judge, I set the example of that's how you're to behave.
SPEAKER_00: And when I judge, I receive that judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing me that you could cut out the majority of your problems by just letting down that one guilty pleasure of judging everyone and everything?
SPEAKER_01: And can I add that there's a really beautiful practice?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's great in theory, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: But how do we really practice that?
SPEAKER_01: The practice is forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: The practice is I see it and I choose forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Jesus offered us.
SPEAKER_01: This is why we're here, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: We are to be light, we are to be love, and we are to be people of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: We are to be the people who forgive.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the scripture tells us if you forgive someone's sin, it's already forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: So there is so much power that we are leaving on the table in forgiveness and in transformation, but in all of us, listening to the words of Jesus saying, do not judge.
SPEAKER_01: Look at your own self.
SPEAKER_01: Take care of the telephone poles in your own eyes before you're looking for splinters in other people's eyes.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, take care of the telephone poles and you'll be able to see yourself a lot better.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the invitation into reflection, into hearing the words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Together in this season of Pentecost, we read and we hear what Jesus is teaching us about the Holy Spirit, that we are to be people full of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, when Jesus is starting the church, when Jesus is saying, This is what it looks like to be people who live a different way, inviting us into the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus does not give his disciples a book.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't give them a set of rules, he doesn't give them even a tabernacle or a church.
SPEAKER_01: He said, You will be the church.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus said, What I'm gonna give you is my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, we are to be people attuned to Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We are to be people who listen to the voice of spirit and to be people who are animated by that spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I just want to remind you that God has not left you orphaned, but God gave you the Holy Spirit for this life.
SPEAKER_00: And this life is difficult to navigate.
SPEAKER_00: And if we don't learn and train ourselves to hear voice of spirit, we don't learn to be able to follow the Holy Spirit, then we're certainly gonna have run run-ins, we're gonna have struggles and we're gonna have difficult times.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe some of you find yourself in a very difficult time.
SPEAKER_00: And I assure you that God has made a way of escape for us.
SPEAKER_00: And the the power of the Holy Spirit is available to you and I.
SPEAKER_00: And um, so much of the time that that's downplayed, even in church.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we stand up here and we preach the word every week, but if the word were not met with the Holy Spirit, it would be useless.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand?
SPEAKER_00: It's the Holy Spirit that comes upon the word that makes it alive and helps you understand and activate it.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as followers of Christ, we ought to be uh interested, concerned, and learning about the mystical, about the supernatural, that that is part of this walk.
SPEAKER_00: And we sometimes I think live too natural, and so we miss the very presence of God, the very direction of God, the very assistance that he's provided, because he knows that there's there's struggles in this earth.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So one day Jesus taught the apostles to keep praying, never stop, or lose hope.
SPEAKER_01: And you have to ask yourself right here, why is this important to Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Because we as people often lose hope.
SPEAKER_01: The things around us do not change or they're difficult, and so it causes us to lose hope, and Jesus is reminding us don't lose hope.
SPEAKER_01: I hope that you hear that this morning, not as a command, but as a gentle invitation, as if Jesus were standing right in front of you, looking at you, seeing you, and saying, Don't lose hope.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, hope is the evidence of things that are unseen.
SPEAKER_01: It allows us to be people of faith.
SPEAKER_01: It allows us to be people who are moved by love.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus one day taught the disciples to keep praying.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, I know you have prayed before.
SPEAKER_01: Keep praying.
SPEAKER_01: I know that you've prayed for years.
SPEAKER_01: Keep praying.
SPEAKER_01: This is the invitation of Jesus into a life of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And what really is prayer?
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is connection, communion, and communication with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we have uh on Wednesday nights, we've been doing, you know, just for a season, we're doing a prayer and meditation class.
SPEAKER_00: And it's uh really to help us uh uh expound on really the understanding of what prayer is.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think when I came among the charismatics, I was taught uh, and and tell tell me if this rings true with many of you, that it almost felt like learning scriptures and the promises of God were to recall so that I could hold God accountable to his words so that he'd have to give me what he said he was gonna give me.
SPEAKER_00: And if I didn't put in that demand, Hebrews chapter 11, you know, like a vending machine, you know, A12, and then I get my my Wrigley Spearmint chewing gum, falls down on the thing, and I reach in and grab it, or it gets stuck and you gotta shake the machine.
SPEAKER_00: So, how many of you felt like you were shaking the machine, but you're not getting the stuff out that you promised, you know?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's all prayer was learning a promise from God, memorizing it and repeating it back until you think you were gonna get it.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, uh part of prayer certainly is meditating on God's word.
SPEAKER_00: But but you know, I think a very important part of prayer, and when he says continually praying, you know, there's a there's a part of just being quiet.
SPEAKER_00: How are you gonna get an answer unless you shut up long enough to hear it?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: But if I'd given my laundry list to God and telling God exactly how he needs to fix all my problems, as if I could fix any of them or I would already have done it.
SPEAKER_00: So my ways and my plan probably are gonna pale in comparison to the living God, amen?
SPEAKER_00: So what if we learn to be quiet and understood that that was part of prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Then we could see how you could pray without ceasing.
SPEAKER_00: Be quiet a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to understand when he says pray without ceasing.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't, oh no, I gotta, you know, you know, listen to Larry Lee's pray one hour without what was that, Terry Knott or something?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I can't remember what it was.
SPEAKER_00: But the thing is, you know, we make these like rules and plans and stuff on how that we got, and we make it very regimented when it's a lifestyle, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Just just uh naturally flowing out of you, amen.
SPEAKER_00: You're all looking at me like a cow looks at a new fence.
SPEAKER_01: This is an invitation, though, for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: It's an invitation to practice being aware of the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of the reasons why nature is so important to us as a witness, as a reminder.
SPEAKER_01: The trees and the earth and the skies and everything witnessing to us, testifying, you are loved.
SPEAKER_01: There is abundance here, an invitation into the mystery.
SPEAKER_01: One day Jesus taught the apostles to keep praying, never stop or lose hope.
SPEAKER_01: And he shared this illustration.
SPEAKER_01: In a certain town, there was a civil judge, a thick-skinned, a godless man who had no fear of others' opinions.
SPEAKER_01: And there was a poor widow in that town who kept pleading with the judge grant me justice and protect me against my oppressor.
SPEAKER_01: This woman who is an outcast, this woman who society has done wrong.
SPEAKER_01: In this particular culture, widows had lost everything, all of their rights, all of their defenses, everything.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is talking about a marginalized people, people who the system, the empire, has absolutely taken advantage of.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is saying, pay attention to how this widow, how this marginalized one behaves, and emulate that.
SPEAKER_01: What you're gonna see here is the faithfulness of this person who cannot count on the government, who cannot count on any system, even her culture, to take care of her.
SPEAKER_01: And so there is for us an invitation.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus begins to tell us something, and I want to remind you of something the prophet Micah said.
SPEAKER_01: God has told you, oh man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you, that you would love mercy, that you would do justice, and that you would walk humbly with your God.
SPEAKER_01: This is something the people there already knew that God's intention for mankind was that we would be people who love mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Not that we would be people who are excited about a judgment, but we are people loving mercy, we are people loving justice, and we are people who understand the power it is to walk in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I want you to see here too, because I think this passage of scripture is misunderstood sometimes in our own mind.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you know, am I just supposed to keep pestering God until he decides to go ahead and do something nice for me?
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I think that we can misunderstand that uh that that it's uh because I've heard people say you just gotta keep on pestering after God, just keep on asking, keep on asking.
SPEAKER_00: But but really it's the it's the understanding that this woman had that this judge had the ability to help.
SPEAKER_00: And so she wasn't gonna look elsewhere, and she was going to maintain her focus on the one who had her answer.
SPEAKER_00: Is anyone tracking with me?
SPEAKER_00: That that you and I aren't to beg as if God will just throw scraps to you.
SPEAKER_00: You were his son, you're his daughter.
SPEAKER_00: What it proves to you and and the resolve is I'm not looking elsewhere.
SPEAKER_00: God is my answer.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna stay focused and I'm gonna keep my trust there.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think so much of the time we're in and out.
SPEAKER_00: We're very washed with the waves, the in and out of sometimes we're on fire, sometimes we're ice cold, sometimes we really believe this stuff, and sometimes it really doesn't seem to be real to us.
SPEAKER_00: And is there a place where you can settle in your heart?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going nowhere else.
SPEAKER_00: That I trust God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the one I'm connecting my heart with, and this is where my trust lies.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_01: If you're finding this episode meaningful, would you take a moment to share it with a friend?
SPEAKER_01: This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of people just like you.
SPEAKER_01: 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_01: That's an interesting proposition.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's one of the reasons why Jesus had to come, because he had to remind us of how good God was.
SPEAKER_01: God is.
SPEAKER_01: That God is love, beloved, nothing else.
SPEAKER_01: God is love.
SPEAKER_01: And love is the answer to every question that you have.
SPEAKER_01: What should I do about what would love do?
SPEAKER_01: What should I think about, what would love think?
SPEAKER_01: What should I share?
SPEAKER_01: What would love share?
SPEAKER_01: This is the invitation for us that love is the fulfillment of every single law.
SPEAKER_01: The judge ignored her pleas for quite some time, but she kept asking.
SPEAKER_01: I like that part very much.
SPEAKER_01: She knew, and you do too, beloved, you knew, you know in yourself what is wrong and what is right.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit has already told you, you know what is merciful and what is cruel.
SPEAKER_01: And beloved, cruelty has no place in our humanity.
SPEAKER_01: Cruelty is not from God.
SPEAKER_01: Cruelty is not who we are supposed to be.
SPEAKER_01: We are to be people formed by love.
SPEAKER_01: He ignored her plea for quite some time and she kept acting.
SPEAKER_01: Eventually, he said to himself, This widow keeps annoying me, demanding her rights.
SPEAKER_01: That's a little I don't know, it makes me want to inhale, like really big.
SPEAKER_01: Demanding her rights.
SPEAKER_01: He knew he was standing against her rights.
SPEAKER_01: He knew exactly what he was doing, and Jesus is showing us this parable.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm tired of listening to her.
SPEAKER_01: And even though I'm not a religious man and I don't care about the opinions of others, I'll just get her off my back by answering her claims for justice, and I'll rule in her favor, then she'll leave me alone.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord continued, did you hear what the ungodly judge said?
SPEAKER_01: That he would answer her persistent request.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you know?
SPEAKER_01: And again, here is one of Jesus' main goals for us that we would unlearn things that we have learned about God.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is teaching us something about God that we did not know.
SPEAKER_01: Did you not know that God, the true judge, will grant justice to all his beloved ones who cry out to him night and day, and he will pour out his spirit upon them.
SPEAKER_01: The prophet Joel also said this.
SPEAKER_01: Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will have visions.
SPEAKER_01: And there is an invitation to us to imagine a world without hierarchy, to imagine a world of equality, to imagine a world where God's spirit is poured out upon all flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is telling the people who are listening, listen, in answer to the unjustice, in answer to your prayers, God will pour out his spirit upon you, and he will not delay to answer you, and he will give you what you ask for.
SPEAKER_00: What's it look like when God's Spirit is poured out on people?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to kind of ask yourself, get some kind of a vision.
SPEAKER_00: What does that look like?
SPEAKER_00: Because if God is love, I don't exactly know how it's gonna flesh out, but I know it's gonna involve God's love.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be loving.
SPEAKER_00: His people are going to be loving.
SPEAKER_00: That is going to be how we win.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is love.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So if we would actually be Him in this world, we'd have to be a lot more loving.
SPEAKER_00: That's we're gonna have to surrender to Spirit for that to be accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: I had this dream that I just couldn't figure it out for a while, almost like a week or more.
SPEAKER_00: I had this dream that that there was a uh a calamity happened, and there was all these people running towards it instead of away.
SPEAKER_00: And they were all super angry and they were just yelling, and they were running, and and I and I and I one guy kind of caught my gaze and he just was angry and he was screaming at me.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I felt the urge to yell back because you know I could come up with a sarcastic remark or two.
SPEAKER_00: I've been known to have one even loaded in the chamber for such an occasion.
SPEAKER_00: But I was prompted to just say, No, I love you.
SPEAKER_00: And he yelled and I said, No, I love you.
SPEAKER_00: And he yelled more, and I said, No, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: I love you.
SPEAKER_00: And it was like something drained off of this person, and he and he smiled and he started to cry.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, I love you too.
SPEAKER_00: And he quit running towards the calamity, and he turned and he started looking at at other people that were running, and he started saying it to them.
SPEAKER_00: And I started grabbing somebody else because it started to make sense to me.
SPEAKER_00: You mean instead of us trying to fix all the calamities and trying to vote all the right people and trying to do all the stuff, we just have to be loving right here?
SPEAKER_00: And other people are gonna be drawn to that goodness, and that that kind of movement cannot be stopped by any kind of government, any politician, any kind of uh uh uh uh you know laws that are put out there.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can stop us when we understand the power of what we have and the influence we have.
SPEAKER_00: And and I think to myself that, you know, I spend so much time thinking, I can't make a difference.
SPEAKER_00: Because how am I gonna go and at my age and become a politician and make things?
SPEAKER_00: Or am I gonna go out and and and and make a whole denomination and do and I miss the fact that the Spirit of God lives on the inside of me.
SPEAKER_00: And the way this works is not that you and I go change them, but we allow ourselves to be changed, and then we invite everybody to the revolution.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you want to come?
SPEAKER_00: It's already here.
SPEAKER_00: Not down the road, it's already here.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said this.
SPEAKER_01: The spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna quote John Lennon, but I think it's better you go quote Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: No, God, you were way better than me.
SPEAKER_01: I was gonna remind you, beloved, that Jesus said, the kingdom is already here.
SPEAKER_01: It's already here.
SPEAKER_01: We just have to awaken to it.
SPEAKER_01: And I love that you invited us to the revolution because love is the revolution, it always has been.
SPEAKER_01: That is what Jesus came and did, and that's why people missed him.
SPEAKER_01: Because they wanted another something.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, This is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I will anoint this way.
SPEAKER_01: This way of being in the world, this nonviolent love, this way of looking at things different.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what Jesus went about doing healing people, doing good.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, our eyes, all of us collectively, need to be healed so that we would see things for what they actually are.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what it means to be attuned to the voice of spirit, that you can see what really is happening, and that you are invited into what Jesus is offering all of us.
SPEAKER_01: And he will pour out his spirit upon them, and he will not delay to answer you or to give you what you ask for.
SPEAKER_01: God will give swift justice to those who don't give up.
SPEAKER_01: So be ever praying, ever expecting, just like the widow was with the judge.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, when the Son of Man comes back, will he find this kind of persistent faithfulness in his people?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is asking a question, and it's the question that he's been asking for a few chapters here.
SPEAKER_01: When the Son of Man comes back, will he find faithfulness?
SPEAKER_01: Will he find you being faithful to love?
SPEAKER_01: What you began in love, don't follow it up with rules.
SPEAKER_01: The invitation that Jesus gave us is to receive love and then to stay in love.
SPEAKER_01: That we would be people only who are modeled and energized by the love that Christ has given us.
SPEAKER_01: This invitation that Jesus is asking all of us.
SPEAKER_01: Can you be faithful in this?
SPEAKER_01: Can you be faithful to stay in love?
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, I just want to tell you this is the truth.
SPEAKER_01: It is easier to fall in love than to stay in love.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone who's been married more than 40 years would tell you it takes more effort to stay in love than it does to fall into love.
SPEAKER_01: Is it worth it?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely positively.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to remind you that it is beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: I think this is why we love babies.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, they're so cute, and they never talk back, and they only I mean they're just adorable, and they have those big eyes, and we're in love with them.
SPEAKER_01: Those babies turn into beautiful, wonderful teenagers with those big, beautiful eyes, and their soft complexions in their cheeks, and they just adore you, and they only want you to be in their presence.
SPEAKER_01: It's not true.
SPEAKER_01: But I just reminding you our hearts do not have to change.
SPEAKER_01: Our hearts need to stay in that same kind of love and not in the ability of our own self.
SPEAKER_01: This is the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: This is why during the season of Pentecost we talk about love.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit empowers us to love differently, to love ourselves, to love our enemies, and to love our neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: I heard somebody say if they could build a time machine, would they go back and kill baby Hitler?
SPEAKER_00: And they said they couldn't kill a baby, but they could kill teenage Hitler.
SPEAKER_01: No, beloved, the answer is love.
SPEAKER_01: It is not, it is it is never, ever murder.
SPEAKER_01: This is the reason, in fact, that we see what happened with the Empire.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Empire killed Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was perfect love.
SPEAKER_01: And the Empire said, That has to stop.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to kill it.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus offers us another way.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus offers us another life.
SPEAKER_01: God will give swift justice to those who don't give up.
SPEAKER_01: So be ever praying, ever expecting, just like the widow was with the judge.
SPEAKER_01: Yet when the Son of Man comes back, will he find this kind of persistent faithfulness in his people?
SPEAKER_01: I read to you from Matthew 23.
SPEAKER_01: What sorrow awaits you teachers of the religious law and you Pharisees, hypocrites.
SPEAKER_01: I always like to disclude myself in that rack.
SPEAKER_01: When I read things like that, I'm like, that's for someone else, because that's not who I am.
SPEAKER_01: I would like to say, Well, that's I hope those people, those people.
SPEAKER_01: Anytime you say those people, beloved, that should be a little indication of something.
SPEAKER_01: I wish those people would listen to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We might be judging.
SPEAKER_01: We also might be those people.
SPEAKER_01: That's the truth of it.
SPEAKER_01: We are all one in this idea of separateness that we can get over a line in.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is saying, there's a sorrow that waits for you because you're careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens.
SPEAKER_01: And this was a practice because tithing was, this is how the temple was actually taken care of, but it was how social programs actually worked.
SPEAKER_01: How people had bread and food that was given to them was because people tithed.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, Listen, you people who are looking and taking even a mint leaf and counting the ten leaves and then tithing the eleventh.
SPEAKER_01: You ignore the more important.
SPEAKER_01: Aspects of the law, justice, mercy, and faith.
SPEAKER_01: You should tithe, yes.
SPEAKER_01: This is the words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But don't neglect the more important things.
SPEAKER_01: When you do the important things, justice, and you love mercy and you walk with God, you will be generous.
SPEAKER_01: But do not think for one minute you can just give one part and withhold justice from somewhere else.
SPEAKER_01: This is the invitation of Jesus into wholehearted living.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said this, yes, you should.
SPEAKER_01: You should be generous.
SPEAKER_01: But you should also not neglect justice, mercy, faith.
SPEAKER_01: This is an invitation for us to say, I will be careful.
SPEAKER_01: I will hear the warning of Jesus and I will do these things.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when I first came to the Lord, I was so filled with zeal that uh, you know, just going to church on Wednesday night, Sunday morning, and Sunday night wasn't enough.
SPEAKER_00: I had a couple Bible studies at my house.
SPEAKER_00: I had some Bible study during the week for people at our church, and then I had another Bible study for my metalhead friends who wouldn't go to church, and then I'd have a Bible study with my family.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I just every day and every minute, and I remember this one older uh saint that I really admired said to me, He said, I really love your zeal.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Don't let the church people steal your zeal.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Wait, you know, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm on fire and stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, I've been around this thing for a little while, and now I know exactly what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: People are like, oh, take it easy, brother.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing preaching, you know, at Bible studies?
SPEAKER_00: You don't even know, you know, all the books.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever read all the books?
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know how many books of the Bible there were.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't read it, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I just, I would just get something that I was excited about and I started talking about it, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And oh, well, you better take it easy, you better go learn, you know, and and then all of a sudden you I go to Bible school and I'm thinking, oh, Bible school is just gonna help us get, you know, learn about all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And all they did was sit and tell you, stop preaching, learn our doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: And then doctrine are just ideas that men, uh, yeah, and traditions that men uh read the Bible and and deciphered, and then all of a sudden I began so weighted down with those doctrines, I I I was afraid to say anything to anyone.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have confidence to go out and just witness to people, and I'd realized that that that that teachers of the law, and I'm not saying you shouldn't learn doctrine, but I'm gonna tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to understand that if it's if you trade your zeal for it, you've done something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Or if or if just all the rules and stuff or what you really, you know, just consuming doctrine and knowing more is you then you've you've derailed.
SPEAKER_00: Because just that sounds good to I want to learn more about God.
SPEAKER_00: But what you do is you learn yourself into this place of solitude where you know so much more than everybody else, and and so they're all foolish and I don't talk to them, then you're missing our our our calling.
SPEAKER_00: It's to just go out and love people.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you have to really just smile and and uh and in a in a sentence or two that those people make, you have to decide which one of those foolish things should I address.
SPEAKER_01: Or none of them.
SPEAKER_00: Or none of them.
SPEAKER_00: And just love them and smile and and and think about those people that loved you when you were young and just loved you even though you were just a young, foolish person.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and and so I want us to kind of wake up out of that, that really where the church has been, I think, is just in this place of consuming knowledge for just to get doctrine, which paralyzes us and makes us quiet.
SPEAKER_00: Can we just find the one thing that ignites us?
SPEAKER_00: And I believe what unites us and and ignites us is the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: That we are all equal and we're all one.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: On another whole note, I remind you that the zeal that Dennis is talking about is the zeal for love, is the zeal for the knowledge that all people would known they come home to God, that you can come back to God.
SPEAKER_01: You can leave where you are and you can come home.
SPEAKER_01: The table is already set for you.
SPEAKER_01: You can leave where you are in your famine, in your hunger, and you can come home.
SPEAKER_01: The Father has already set a table for you.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, that is the zeal that we have.
SPEAKER_01: Set me as a seal upon your arm.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it says one of the ancient mystics remind us that love is stronger than the grave.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus showed us.
SPEAKER_01: That love is the strongest force in the world, and it invites us not into domination, but it invites us into Holy Spirit transformation, that the creation that God is waiting for is all of us turning back to that kind of love.
SPEAKER_01: There is such a hope for us in saying the table that we practice here together is the table that we're setting for the whole world, and we're inviting you into the mystery, into this place of holy communion.
SPEAKER_01: We're inviting you to practice here so that what you have received here, you will go out in the world, and you will remember that you yourselves are loved, and that we are to be people known by our love.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Jesus said, This is the only test.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be known as disciples or followers by your love.
SPEAKER_01: How loving are you?
SPEAKER_01: All of us would like to say that we're really good at loving, and that's why it's really important to be a part of a community because all of a sudden you will find where the edges of your love are.
SPEAKER_01: You will find, oh, not that one.
SPEAKER_01: And that one is supposed to be yours too.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the invitation of the church that we would expand our love because we expand our capacity to know each other's stories.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what the table of the Lord does for us.
SPEAKER_01: It invites us into this holy mystery.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when we see these verses talking about the the religious teachers and the Pharisees, and we always assume that there's someone else.
SPEAKER_00: But what if you need an awakening?
SPEAKER_00: What if you need an awakening of love?
SPEAKER_00: What is gonna shake us awake with that beautiful kiss from God?
SPEAKER_00: And just reminder that you are deeply loved.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon.
SPEAKER_01: If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurch.org.