First Love Church
These podcasts are messages that were preached at First Love Church in Ocala, Florida. We hope that you are encouraged and inspired by what you hear. We are a non denominational, egalitarian church that practices a generous orthodoxy. Find out more about our local congregation online at firstlovechurch.org.
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First Love Church
Holy Discomfort: When God Moves, You Move Too
What does it truly mean to be one with God and with each other? In this deeply moving exploration of Jesus's prayer in John 17, we discover the radical nature of unity that transcends mere agreement or conformity.
The journey begins with a fresh perspective on resurrection—not just as a historical event, but as an everyday reality we witness in healing, transformed thinking, and nature itself. Like Florida's resurrection ferns that appear dead until rain brings them vibrantly back to life, we too experience restoration through the Spirit's renewing power. This perspective shifts how we see seemingly hopeless situations in our lives and the world around us.
At the heart of the message is Jesus's extraordinary prayer that we would be one as He and the Father are one. This sacred unity doesn't erase our beautiful differences but celebrates them within a deeper connection. We're invited to recognize that God's plan includes diversity by design—diverse people worshipping with one voice. This unity requires us to lay down our hierarchies, privileges, and labels to embrace our true shared identity as beloved children.
Perhaps most challenging is the call to become "agents of change" rather than bystanders. Through vulnerable stories of missed opportunities and holy discomfort, we discover that transformation often happens when we're willing to step into difficult situations with love. Rather than just praying "fix it, Jesus," we're reminded that we are Christ's hands and feet—the embodiment of divine love in a hurting world.
The message offers particular grace around worry, distinguishing between helpful planning and harmful anxiety. Instead of feeling shame about natural human concerns, we're encouraged to consciously redirect our thoughts toward trust: "I choose to remind myself that God is going to take care of me." This practice doesn't deny life's difficulties but transforms how we face them.
Most powerfully, we're reminded that we are loved by God exactly as Jesus is loved—a truth that revolutionizes how we see ourselves and others. This love becomes the foundation for authentic service and unity. As we close with communion, we witness this truth embodied: at Christ's table, all are welcomed equally to receive unmerited grace.
How might your life change if you truly believed that nothing—not fear, failure, or even death itself—could separate you from this perfect love? Join us as we explore what it means to live as one with God and each other in a divided world.
This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church you can donate at https://www.firstlovechurch.org/giving
In the service of LOVE,
Pastors Dennis and Heather Drake
Welcome to the First Love Church Podcast. This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the Revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala, florida. This is the seventh Sunday of Easter and so, as we celebrate together the power of resurrection, somebody asked me the other day do you still believe in resurrection? And I said yes, I see it all the time. I really do, and I hope that you do too.
Speaker 1:I see it in the resurrection of my friend who had a surgery, and I'm so grateful for the brilliant surgeons that attended to her. But the work that it took for her to get back her strength, the time that she spent in physical therapy, the time, the work that she's in now and walks beloved, that's resurrection. My friend here, our brother, who told me the other day I changed the way I thought, think about this, that's resurrection, brother. This is for all of us. When we allow the Holy Spirit to change us, to transform us, when we become the love of Christ, when we acknowledge and accept that we are the light of the world, because Jesus said we are the light of the world, because Jesus said we are the light of the world, there is for us a newness, and so it is with joy I practice resurrection with you. This is the seventh Sunday, and so that means next week we change in the church calendar and we go into the series of Pentecost.
Speaker 2:You know, I want to talk about resurrection too, Because I moved down here to Florida and I saw all these dead ferns in people's trees and I'm like, what are you going to have to do? Dig that out and they go? No, that's resurrection fern. You know about this. Maybe some of you people watching this online don't know what we got going on down here in Florida, but it ain't all crazy People doing stuff.
Speaker 2:Hey, look at this, we're doing some powerful resurrection around here too, and one of the things that just blew me away was just wait around until the rain. And when the rain comes, those ferns are glorious, beautiful and lush, like nothing ever happened, and they were withered before that rain. Amen. And some of you might feel weathered and dead, but wait until the Spirit washes over you. The. Some of you might feel weathered and dead, but wait until the spirit washes over you. The water of the, of the spirit of God, watch you come to life, and I would I just encourage you not to lose that hope for family members and for things in your life that seem dead and seem hopeless.
Speaker 1:We just need the Holy Spirit to hover over that formless void and uh and let creation uh, resurrect something amazing out of that death, amen this is for us an invitation into hope, it's an invitation into greater love, it's an invitation into allowing the holy spirit to resurrect the good and the great that is among us, the kingdom that's so close that Jesus said it's so close to you, it's in your mouth, it's breathing with you. And so, as we celebrate this last Sunday of Easter, next Sunday is Pentecost, and as wonderful as resurrection is beloved, the spirit living and dwelling in us, oh, that's even better. And then what happens is what we have ordinary time, and I kind of feel like it's a little bit of a letdown. But from Advent all the way till right now, we tell the story of Jesus, and then we'd have Pentecost, and then it's considered the story of man. It becomes the practice Now that you've seen Jesus do these things.
Speaker 1:Now here's your turn. Here's the summer of love for us beloved. How do we serve the world? How do we receive the love of Christ? How do we stay in the frequency of the Holy Spirit so that we are about our Father's business the same way that Jesus does? How do we receive the witness of Jesus who said I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. Jesus, fully man, fully human. Who said this is what it looks like when God shows up on the earth the hungry are fed, those who are disenfranchised are welcomed to the table, those who are inherently pushed down by patriarchy and by hierarchies and by anything that keeps them down. Jesus is the great equalizer and he says love is the new way. Love has always been the way, but you got a little confused, beloved, that's okay. Love is still the way, and this excellent good news of the Holy Spirit with us.
Speaker 1:We do get to read today in the Gospel of John, and the witness there is so beautiful and I was thinking well, we started in 17 and there's a certain amount of verses I'm like, but we should go back to, and by the time I got back, I was like John 1. We can't read from John 1 to 17 while we're here together, but you can, and so I encourage you during this time to reread those things and particularly hang out in the 17. The whole thing is what Jesus is praying for us. I'm excited to talk with you about this this morning. I don't know if you could tell I have been all week, but the truth of it is there is grace, there is so much goodness, and I'm glad you're here this morning.
Speaker 2:Amen. I wanted to kind of piggyback on what Heather and Thomas said about that holy discomfort and because we all want the Holy Spirit to move. But I think it's kind of like a deal where I pray God you fix that mess, and we forget that we are going to be involved in that holy discomfort of God moving in that mess, that you got to get your hands in there and a little bit you got to be involved. Yesterday I went over to serve somebody and it was an old lady. But at this old lady's house was this uh guy and he immediately got on my nerves. Uh, he didn't know me from anyone, but he felt very comfortable to run down the old lady I was there to try to serve. Uh, run down, the run down, the neighbors run down, uh, and in a matter of minutes it doesn't work. And he almost pulled a ladder a hundred pound ladder down on my head and so I was not in a service mood.
Speaker 2:I was here to serve the lady that I felt like deserved and needed to help, and this guy. I tell you what I had a ought I didn't want to hear him talk anymore. I didn't want to hear the negativity. It took me out of my spiritual mood to come serve and help. And I got to tell you, I drove off. And as I got some quiet time and Silas was with me and Silas was like this is sketch we got to get out of here. And it was, you know. And so we did.
Speaker 2:We got out of there, but when I got alone I'm driving I said God, what was the deal with that? What was that? And God said you missed the chance to love me. You missed your brother in pain. He was running his yapper and I wanted just to shut him up. And my best way to shut him up was just get out of there. Now, if I would have joined in with his reindeer games, it would have been better if I got out of there.
Speaker 2:But do you understand, we are agents of the Holy Spirit. We're not thermometers, we're thermostats. We're the ones that go in and change. And I missed the opportunity just to say you know, I can tell you're tormented, I can tell you're struggling and just bring the Holy Spirit. And what would have happened is either transformation or he would have ran out there like I spread him with a can of Raid like a scorched roach or something. But either way I could have changed the atmosphere versus letting that drive me out.
Speaker 2:And so today, as we're looking at these things, please don't look at them as something that you just kind of well, I'm going to request the Holy Spirit, just give me a mulligan on this and a do-over and you fix this. But how can I be involved in transformation and that there is resurrection power flowing through me? It is available for us, it is literally all around us. And church, we're missing it because we're hoping in the sweet by and by. One day it will all be fixed. One day he will fix all. When we are agents of change, church, somebody look at your neighbor and say you're an agent of change.
Speaker 1:You're an agent of change and you might have to look in the mirror and remind yourself of that too. You have the capacity for transformation because the Holy Spirit lives in you. Thank you, sue, from someone else who's looking at this transformation, you said fix it, jesus. There was one time Sister Motes, which was an elderly sister in our church, was watching somebody do something foolish and she said, ooh, fix it, jesus. There was one time Sister Motes, which was an elderly sister in our church, was watching somebody who do something foolish and she said, oh, fix it, jesus, like that.
Speaker 1:And my grandmother got out of her seat and the eyebrows went up. And my grandmother said you prayed and I am Jesus in this place. And she fixed it For so many of us. Are we waiting for the skies to part, if Jesus is here, if we see this needs to be fixed? And I'm not talking about fix it in ourselves. She literally was saying we need Jesus, we need another. Jesus is another way, not the way that we're all going to fix it now. We're just going to, you know, make this guy stop talking, this irritating person or this beloved brother who is in pain, and the invitation is to center ourselves because we are always in Christ and to say Jesus, what do you want done here, right now?
Speaker 2:Yes, that's it.
Speaker 1:And how are my hands and my feet? We are the body of Christ beloved. One of the things we do is receive communion every time we're here, and we are transformed by this renewal, by this beautiful mystery, by this invitation to the table of the Eucharist, where we all come together, but that there is for us a spiritual changing, there is for us an invitation into more, and so when we you know, when you talk about the table and remembering what are we remembering? Jesus. Yes, thank you Of recognition and remember.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he rose from the grave. There's resurrection.
Speaker 2:So, in our remembrance. Let's remember the right things. I'm supposed to eat bread. Is that what you're supposed to remember? Are you supposed to remember what he did and what that table represents, that you get your daily bread? Oh, wait a minute. I have what I need to face this problem tomorrow, because some of you might have some stuff going on this week. Maybe not everybody just has a perfect life. Maybe somebody's got some family members that are giving them a hard time or a job that seems to be too difficult or whatever. Do you remember that when you receive the table, that we're receiving the resurrected Christ to come into our lives and straighten out those things?
Speaker 1:And this is what fixing it. Jesus looked like in that time, in that particular moment, right before he said it, he took his shirt off and he grabbed a towel and a basin and he began to serve people. So when we pray and we say, lord, fix this. Or look at the world around us, it's broken and how do we revive it, or how do we breathe real life into this chaos? It is through loving acts of service. It is through following the Jesus way.
Speaker 1:Jesus wiped the feet of these disciples, washed them, told them to come to the table and then broke bread and then gave them. Jesus began the job of serving, which is really unbelievable to people around him, because you are the Christ, you are God among us and you are going to serve, because this is the way to greatness. The scripture tells us this If you want to be great in God's kingdom, become the servant of all. There is for us an understanding, a transformation that our service is service for Christ, not service because I don't want you to do that anymore. Service because this is what Jesus would do here in this place. But I am excited today, in John chapter 17, to remind ourselves, to remind you, that this is a prayer that somebody I don't think that there was a stenographer at that very time, but this made such an impact on them that years later they rehearsed it and they reminded each other of it.
Speaker 1:And this is in the Gospel of John. And John tells us in the very beginning John's Gospel. He reminds us of this incredible cosmology. This is about the world. This is an invitation, about this incredible creator who invites us home, back to ourselves, and Jesus is the word made flesh. That's what John's gospel tells us. We had this idea of God and Jesus came and Jesus was the manifestation of God. Here Jesus is God made flesh, jesus is God. Before we didn't know what God looked like. Now we do. It looks like Jesus. It looks like the lover of the entire world. And so here we come, in this particular portion During my time. Here, jesus is praying out loud and praying so that other people can hear. This is different than when Jesus told us that, as disciples, go home and pray in your closet. He's doing this for instruction, right before he leaves. There was so much. This is in the farewell discourse and Jesus really wants to, right before he leaves, make an impact on his followers. So he's praying and we're overhearing this.
Speaker 1:During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name that you gave me and I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the scripture foretold. And now I'm coming to you and I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy, and I have given them your word. Now I want to remind you about that because Jesus is saying I have given them your word. Now I want to remind you about that because Jesus is saying I have given them myself. Jesus is the word, jesus is God's word, and anytime there is a question, the written word must bow to the living word. Jesus is the way. The world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. And I'm not asking you to take them out of the world. Well, some days I feel like I wish he would have, I wish you would have, just. And again, I don't know the plan and I am not very interested in being uncomfortable, and so there is a holy discomfort that we're all invited into, but to keep them safe from the evil one Mother Teresa was tending to the lepers one time and someone was with her and at this one particular time he said when he lifted, when she lifted someone up to receive a cool glass of water, part of their body stayed on the ground.
Speaker 1:And the person that was with her said they were horrified at what they experienced. And they said all they saw from Mother Teresa was that she was so unbelievably tender and kind. And they asked her later. They said how come you didn't look away? How come you weren't revulsed by what you experienced? And she said everyone I look at, I see as Jesus in distressing disguise. Everyone I look at, I see as Jesus in distressing disguise. What if we could all receive that kind of healing? And look at everyone as Jesus in distressing disguise? This is Jesus, how we are attending to the light of the world. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth. Teach them your word, which is truth, beloved.
Speaker 1:This is what Jesus is praying for you. This is good news. If you don't know how to pray for yourself, john 17 reminds you that Jesus is our intercessor and he is praying this for you. Just as you sent me into the world. I am sending them into the world and I give myself as a holy. I love this verse. Jesus thought of you and he thought of me, and he's thinking of people that are coming even after us, and he's praying for us. I am praying not only for these disciples, but for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one, as you are in me, father, and I am in you, and may they be in us, so the world will believe that you sent me.
Speaker 2:I accidentally fell into something with God. On this journey I'm on, I began to recognize that my driving terrified my wife, and I mean literally. She was scared, she had a fake brake that she would step on and she would be crying out to Jesus, and it would almost make me mad, like you don't trust me. But I realized instead of making it about me, I am what happened was I went to Europe with my friend Jerry and I rode in the passenger side of somebody that's never driven on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side. And so I realized that for two weeks I was forced to drive in what I call the seat of vulnerability, and that's the seat that has to see everything but has no control over it. I don't have a steering wheel and I don't have a brake see everything but has no control over it. I don't have a steering wheel and I don't have a brake.
Speaker 2:And as I came back, I realized that what I was doing is saying to that person I love you and will protect you and will be your spouse and your partner for life. But for life, she was signed up to a terrifying thrill ride, an amusement park that she didn't want to go to and and, plus, it was risking her life and her children. And and I began to to realize that there's something wrong with the way I drive, with the anger and the competitiveness, and and God began to show me that you know, start looking at these drivers and I've shared this story with you a bunch of times how I'm going through this journey of of seeing those, those people that want to drive all the way up when you clearly see that lane is ending and they drive up, and then they want to cut over in front of you at the last minute. And instead of looking at those as the idiots that need to learn a lesson, I began to look at them as my brother, danny, who just made a mistake or just was in a hurry or just needed my mercy and I'm always going to let Danny and he's my brother. And so I realized that, um, that through that accidental decision to begin to work on that, that everybody's my brother, everybody's my sister, god is saying that we're one. Do you realize the difference when you stop competing with people, including the people in your home, when you stop trying to win and you realize that if I'm one with this person, I want them to win. I want you know.
Speaker 2:And we begin to see Jesus understood this and he said I pray that they would know that you're one, the way you and I are one. They, the father and Jesus, worked in such a symbiotic way and such a free and natural way and such a way where nothing one had that the other didn't have, and there's such freedom in that. But yet in our way of competing and struggling and fighting and trying to say we're better than someone else or that person's different because of their life choices or their behavior, instead we begin to allow God to manifest what he has been praying for 2,000 years over you and I that we would become one. And then we would begin to see the people in our lives not as burdens that we have to take care of, but people that we can freely bless and give to. And when we start seeing our family that way, we start seeing our family grow out into our neighbors and into our world. And then all of a sudden we realize even people that look so different from us, so ethnically different, so even faith-based different, that they are still my brother.
Speaker 2:And if I can allow God to help me learn that oneness.
Speaker 2:But we're like no, not for those people that stepped on my foot.
Speaker 2:I will not allow that and I'm going to go step on there and we want to be the vengeance of God when he didn't say I fill you with my vengeance on that day of Pentecost, I fill you with my anger and my wrath, no, oh, but I want to fill you with my spirit, the spirit of unity, of oneness, of love, and what overtakes any kind of anger and wrath and judgment is God's love.
Speaker 2:So I want a double dose of that. And you know what we may just do. We may just name the church First Love and we may just preach it every time we get together, and we may just realize that, no matter how many times we hear it, we need it more and we need to learn to surrender more. And there's still areas of our life that are in such darkness and we are on our own. When God's invited us to this place of family and unity, of oneness, of peace and joy, oh, don't you want in, or do you want to keep the struggle up, keep fighting somehow that we can win in our individuality and in our way of separation, or can we surrender daily to the way, god would have us be one.
Speaker 1:I love the ideas that you're reminding us of this oneness, and I remind you that it is not conformity that God is looking for, but oneness. There is unity, there is for us, a acceptance and a delight in the difference that God has made for us, for us, and so we won't all have the exact same expression, we won't all have the exact same way of doing something, but that is part of God's plan. God's plan includes the diversity, and if you want to know where this, I get this idea as you can, it's in the book of Revelation, and I saw them as one group of people worshiping around the throne. This is Revelation, said, and I heard them with one voice, thousands upon thousands upon thousands, from every tribe, every tongue, every nation. Them with one voice, thousands upon thousands upon thousands, from every tribe, every tongue, every nation, and with one voice they declared worthy is the Lamb. God is not asking for conformity. God is saying that love brings us together and that unity is again. In the Old Testament, or the First Testament, it said that the blessing of the Lord has already been spoken there. Jesus is praying for our unity. I have given them the glory that you have given me so that they may be one as we are one.
Speaker 1:We use a lot of language in church settings, things like glory Show us your glory, and what does glory actually mean? And where is the glory of God? And Jesus tells us where it is right. Here it's in actual, in the doing. I have given them the glory that you gave me, so they may be one as we are one.
Speaker 1:He said I have received your glory, I've received this invitation into doing, into being your light in the world, your goodness, the manifestator of this incredible miracles. I am in them and you are in me, beloved. That's just a whole lot of hope, christ in us, the hope of glory. Jesus said I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Together in God's house, in this sacred space, I'm going to ask that you would take a moment with us, all of us together, and consider that God loves us as much as he loves Jesus. You are loved by God as much as God loves Jesus. Not when you get together, not when you stop doing that thing. You are loved right now as much as God loves Jesus.
Speaker 2:You know, one of the greatest ways, I think, that this can become real to you is allowing yourself to love what you would consider as the unlovable. Because I had this, this person that came around the house and and just because of their behavior they, they really seemed kind of almost to be like a trouble for our family, just kind of a burden and a struggle all the time, and, and so they seem to be around more than I. I was really thrilled for them to be around the house. And one day this person had to do something for school, and so they said you know, as an atheist, we're trying to do a class to you know, and so I want to interview some pastors. And so we said okay, you can do that, we'll sit down. And so Heather and I did, and this person began to talk to us, and as they talked I began to see where that combativeness came from.
Speaker 2:That always seemed to be a real struggle for me, because this person, in their asking us questions, began to reveal some things about themselves, and this person was really, really wounded and really authentically just way unnecessarily mistreated, and it was by church people. So then I thought how odd it is that they even would come by a church people, and I almost wonder if that little provoking was just to see who are these people real or? But as they, as this person, began to share, I just began to weep and weep and fall in love with this person, to the point that this is how hypocritical I was. People love with this person to the point that this is how hypocritical I was. People would call this person irritating and I'd say stop, don't talk about my friend that way. Don't say that I love that person, don't talk bad about him. That's my friend.
Speaker 2:Because something happened to me that I began to see, with a love that wasn't my own and my boundaries that I had were expanded by God, and that started to open up an understanding in me. Maybe I could be loved by God even more than I could imagine, even more than I could believe that I am loved that way, because I feel like that rejected person, that person who deserves just to be cast out. Maybe, in the same way that God gave me the ability to love, god already has that kind of love towards me. Do you see what I'm saying? That you expanding your heart will help you understand the love by which you are loved and cared for, and without that understanding, we stay on the outside, we stay wounded, we stay wounded, we stay broken. It's that love that brings healing, doesn't it?
Speaker 1:We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today. If you're finding this episode meaningful, would you take a moment to share it with a friend? This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of people just like you. 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:And I think that it is the Holy Spirit that we need to lean into or pay attention to or ask to help us to see things differently, to see people in another way, to see ourselves in another way One of the jobs that the Holy Spirit who is given to us. I want to remind you too. When Jesus shows up and breathes on the disciples after the resurrection and says I'm giving you the Holy Spirit, he also says peace, and so when you find yourself in anxiety, when you find yourself in worry and I say this as a recovering worrier and I feel like if there was an Olympic team for worrying, I think I could have made the team I could do it. I can worry over anything and I could worry even at night when I slept. I could turn the pillow over to get it cool, and then I could also worry at that point too, and beloved, that is not something that actually in any way goes with the love of Christ.
Speaker 1:That love is the opposite of fear, and when we experience fear, when we experience worry, what we're doing is we're thinking about another reality. It's a very arrogant thing to say I know what's going to happen. We don't, and Jesus tells us here in the prayer I am with them. Beloved, we have Christ with us, there is joy with us, there is hope with us. Now, do worrying thoughts still come to me? Yes, but I do not entertain them because I remember and I remind myself, and we have this practice of going. I know what to do.
Speaker 1:Worrying produces nothing, jesus even told us that which one of you can change how tall you are by tomorrow by worrying about how short you are now? The answer is none of us. How can you worry about something and change it? But by manifesting the love, but by being the light, but by tuning into the Spirit of God that is with us, we can have this peace. But it says I want them and you will love them as much as you love me, Father.
Speaker 2:I want these whom you've given to me to like, follow and subscribe.
Speaker 1:I also find a lot of good news in that little bit. The Father loves Jesus and I think the Father gives Jesus what Jesus wants. I think Jesus gets what Jesus prays for, and he wants me to be with him, and he wants my babies to be with him, and he wants all the people that I love to be with him and he wants the people that I don't love to be with him too. In John, chapter 3, it says For God so loved the world, the whole thing, that he gave his one and only son that whoever believed would not perish but have eternal life. Because God did not send Jesus here to condemn the world, so beloved.
Speaker 1:If Jesus is not condemning the world, then that is none of our business to do it either. If Jesus is not condemning you, then you need to not condemn you. If Jesus is the compassionate witness for your pain when you struggle, if Jesus is there, not poking his finger at you or saying no, no, no or bringing shame, if Jesus is there as the compassionate witness, then that is what we need to do toward ourselves when we find ourselves falling short of the grace or the love that is there. Jesus says I want them to be where I am. I don't know if you worry about anyone After I just said it's just opposite of love. But I don't know if you do it anyway, because sometimes I do. But there is nothing that I could want more for anyone I love than to be in the presence of Jesus. Anyone I love.
Speaker 1:If I want anything for them, it's the presence of loving Jesus, and Jesus said he wants that. So good for me that Jesus wants it and good to get in this idea. This is the hope for all of us. This is the way we're changed. We begin to give our thoughts over and join the thoughts that God has with us. When you are self-reflecting, I invite you only to stand in the presence of loving Jesus and say Jesus, what is God thinking about me right now? Not your list of things where you didn't measure up, not your list of ways that you're separate, but this beautiful invitation to live outside of the illusion of separateness and say Jesus is praying that wherever he is, I am, Jesus is praying and asking God that we would have unity. I can have confidence beloved that that is going to happen, that there is an invitation into this.
Speaker 2:You know, I want to talk for a minute about worry, because we all do it and then we all feel at certain times, at certain levels of shame for doing it. We feel like, how dare you worry? And feel bad for worrying. And I want you to know something that I really beat myself up spiritually because I thought that worry was this thing that I did and I was choosing to do it and God is just mad at me for doing it, because there's all this instruction to tell us about not worrying. And I want you to think about something your mind, it's just a computer that God made and it runs and it does runs programs and one of the things it does is it worries.
Speaker 2:And part of the evolutionary success of human beings is that we've worried and thought of things that could come up and we made plans of how we could survive that thing that comes up. I mean it was a good thing that people worried, wonder if we're going to have enough food for winter. The first people to make it through the winter probably worried that summer. The first people to make it through the winter probably worried that summer now. So so I'm saying that maybe we mistake what is worry and what is planning. You know there's things there that you should think about your future. You should consider these things, but the bible says don't worry about your future, trust god. You. You understand that, that we know when you get into the the bad place with that. And what we do is, and what I think is, instead of us feeling shame for having those natural thoughts that the computer just does, but it's what you do with them, I choose now I have these worried thoughts, I choose to remind myself that God's going to take care of me, and that's what I do. I remind myself of God's going to take care of me, and that's what I do. I remind myself of God's promises that he's made me one. I don't have to be afraid. And see, I begin to handle things differently, you know. And so I departmentalize worry where it is. Well, you know that's excess and stress. I'm not going to do that, but I thank God that he's given me the ability to, to consider and to plan on things. I mean it's smart to put away projectiles during a hurricane, you know it just keeps them from busting out your windows or your neighbors. You know what I mean. So, but but if I sit around every day and go. I can't have lawn furniture because one day it's going to blow away in a hurricane. Then I have a problem. And so allow God to help you understand the difference between that constant professional what Heather talks about Olympic level.
Speaker 2:Worry that some of you are in competition in to a place of. Can I just trust God? Yeah, he was giving me this gift, but I've abused it to a place of. Can I just trust God? Yeah, he was giving me this gift, but I've abused it. I have this gift to be able to figure things out, and I should figure out things that you know that are coming up against my life, but I have to ultimately trust that God's going to give me that wisdom and that there's going to be a peace that I'm led by. And so anytime I think the key for Heather and I we've learned once it steps out of any kind of peace, then we know we've missed it, we've missed the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:The Spirit of God is wisdom, and you can even look in the First Testament. It's beautiful. From the very beginning, wisdom has been the Spirit of God and this understanding that when we have anxiety or when we have things that we're worried about, we need to remind ourselves what is the spirit of God saying about this? For those of you who have had children, and even if you didn't have children, but you've seen children, even if they're not yours- Even if you yourself were once a child.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't know, sometimes we just don't have the awareness then. But when Thomas first started walking, level up on a new fear. I just want to tell you that, because when your babies are held, you can control where they're going. Once they start walking by themselves, again new fear is unlocked, like they can just get all over and then you can decide well, I'm just never going to put them down because I don't want them to walk. And then eventually they're taller than you and that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:But there's this idea of we have to learn to walk together with them, and that's the piece To be able to say. One of the beauties of training children and nurturing them is teaching them to trust the Holy Spirit for yourself. And so one of the things that I would ask my little people all the time is what would wisdom tell you to do about this? Let wisdom guide you, because sometimes they would say you don't do it because you're afraid, so I'm going to do it. I'm like don't just do things just because I wouldn't. That's not a wisdom either. Do things that wisdom would tell you to do, and this is the spirit. The spirit of God is wisdom. So check in with yourselves and say what would I do instead? Then I want to tell you so I felt like I was going really great and had a bunch of kids and we all got past the walk-in thing and I was able to just walk with them, teach them, guide them with them.
Speaker 1:And then they started driving cars, beloved, new fear, unlocked, new anxiety, worried about, because not only them, it's somebody else. Do you know what I mean? As we progress in life, it's not like we're going to have less concern, we actually have more. But then how do we live differently? How do we live in trust? Every time, a thought comes to me Thomas leaves super early in the morning and we have a little door and it goes deet, deet, deet, lets you know the door has been locked. So at 4.30 in the morning, in the complete dark, I hear it. I know he's left New fear, unlocked Every morning, 4.30. It's dark outside, some people are driving. What are they doing? They're not going to Starbucks in the store, you know, like they're up, maybe they've been up from the night before. Or I can say I thank you, father, that you love my family, that you love Thomas and that you're with him, and that he has wisdom and that wisdom leads him and that becomes the practice for us. Not that I'm not aware that my children now he drives, and has driven for a very long time. And then Catherine started driving in foreign countries. A new fear unlocked because you know like, here's your baby, she's in a weird car, she's a rental car in Tuscany, and you know like.
Speaker 1:So we can live our lives trapped by thoughts, or we can live our lives transcendent, because we are in the frequency of the Holy Spirit and saying this is what has happened. So it's not that we push thoughts out of our head and say there's nothing to worry about. Beloved, there is you and I both. I mean, if we exchanged worries, I could probably look at you and go yep, I'd worry about that too. Excellent, good job on you, except for the fact that we're not to trade worries, we're to trade peace, we're to look at that and go.
Speaker 1:I see that that you are concerned with, and I bring the thoughts of Christ to it. I bring the peace of God to it. I ask for mercy, one of my favorite prayers, and it has been the prayers of thousands for millennia. Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me, have mercy on my children, have mercy on this world, this invitation, and so one of the things that Jesus is praying first of all, I mean take a nap today. It's just well, that's a glorious thing, that's a spiritual practice, in case you didn't know it, but legitimately, take a nap because Jesus is praying for you. You know all of the things that you are worried about, concerned about all of the things that you are frustrated with. Jesus has got it. He is praying for you that you would be one with the Father, that we would all be in unity.
Speaker 1:Oh, righteous Father, the world doesn't know you. I think that's very interesting because the people around him would have said oh yes, we know God, we know all the rules. We've been doing this for a very long time. You're very young, we're old, we know God. And Jesus said oh, righteous Father, this world does not know you. We know God. And Jesus said oh, righteous father, this world does not know you, but I do. And these disciples know that you sent me and I have revealed you to them and I will continue to do so. Beloved, this is hope for us, that this continued revelation of who Jesus is will happen with us our entire life, the more that we walk with Jesus, the more that we will be revealed in this beauty that God is saying. This is what it looks like to be fully human, to be fully divine, to step into the power of the Holy Spirit, to allow the Spirit to transform us. Then your love for me will be in them.
Speaker 2:I want to talk to you just for this moment about this unity and this love. You know, heather and I, we were sitting in Chicago and we said let's start a church. And we were all humble back then, hoping God would just bless it. So we said, hey, god, we'll take all the people other churches don't want. We'll take the ones because a lot of churches they want the rich people but they kind of chunk the ordinary. They like the people that are really good at whatever skills they need, but the people that are aging out of that department and can't do this, you know they don't want them. And we were over there saying we wanted all of you misfits. And then look what happened he gave us the misfits and then we started to renegotiate with God. No second thought, can we have those? And then some tithers Not that you're not, but big tithers. You know, god, we want to live on easy street here and obviously you're giving because we're still in existence. I digest, but I want you to understand that we stumbled on something. You know what we're not going to be.
Speaker 2:You know, we were at a few big churches on TV doing all kinds of stuff and all of a sudden Heather and I were just stuck in this obscure little place in Ocala with this sometimes 100 people, sometimes 50 people, and we got up every Sunday morning, as we did this morning, and we give 150%, we give everything and we give like we're preaching to 1,000 people, but we're not looking over your head and wondering where they are. We're preaching to the people people but we're not looking over your head wondering where they are. We're preaching to the people that God sent us and what we've realized is that God rewards when you just serve and love, when you're not in it for some scam or some way to level up or some way to get something better, you know. And so what happened is we stumbled on something as a family. You know what We'd be in the car and kids would be, you know, hurt about somebody, said something at church or did something, and we all look at each other and it doesn't come from Heather and I all the time, sometimes other kids. Well, let's just love and serve, let's just go there and be nice and be kind and see what God does. And year after year we've been doing that and year after year, somehow our bills are paid Somehow people do give. And when they don't give.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we'll go to the mailbox on a Monday morning and there'll be a weird tithe check from someone we don't know and God is taking. And it turns out oh, so you mean you can just give and you don't get the return from the people you're given. You get the return from God. Oh, that's a better deal. And so we started to, as a family, just double down on it. We're going to love and we're going to get in unity and as a family.
Speaker 2:And I'm asking you, come on this journey with us, because what I'm seeing now I'm old enough, now that it's been quite a few years and somehow those kids they've forgiven me for all the pain I've caused them and they love Heather and I and they show up because they don't have to. Not one of them's getting paid Look at them over there and they serve and I get to play music with my drummer, son, and my keyboard player and sometimes bass player, son, and we get to and I'm trying to articulate the joy that we've stumbled in by these principles and it's overtaken the sorrow of what I've done in the past and it's overtaken the fear of will there be something for us tomorrow, because I realize if you'll just serve. God will put someone in your path today and tomorrow and if he finds one that's willing just to love, he's gonna love through you. And I gotta tell you that all the accolades you can get and all the things that you could acquire will not put satisfaction in your life like it will to be one with God. I've pursued my whole life music, and one after one I hear the stories about those great musicians who succeeded great things but died with a gun barrel in their mouth Because that success that does not provide what God is offering through the spirit of oneness, that you can lay your head down unafraid at night, that you don't have to worry, that you can have peace. And I'm telling you what it is something that you grow in Our heart expands our understanding of God learning that frequency, learning that song and learning to harmonize with that song and sing along with it and recognize when it comes.
Speaker 2:I missed it yesterday big time, but I'm not going to sit in sorrow and moping. I'm going to use it as an opportunity to teach all of us. We're probably all missing opportunities, but let's get in tune, let's get on board. I'm inviting you to come on this journey with us where we would be one with God and we would love like God and we would make a difference in the world today and people say, oh, it's growing darker. But I say to you, the light will shine more brightly, be more easily seen and recognized in you and I when we let it shine. Come on church. Somebody say amen, amen. We might just preach Ed. What do you think?
Speaker 1:I just want to remind all of us. I have revealed you to them and will continue to do so. We can all expect to see more of God than we ever did before. We can expect to have our capacity to understand and to walk in the Spirit expanded. This is the life that has been gifted to us, and then your love for me will be in them and I will be in them. I want all the love that God has for me. I don't want to push any of it aside, and I want all the love that God has for the whole world and I want to see it and I want to be a part of it. I want to be a part of this transcendent. I want to be. This is the invitation of Jesus.
Speaker 1:It was really important in the at the time of the writing of the text. Meals were a really big deal eating together, and I still think they have a lot of importance, but there wasn't like a drive-through falafel place at the time of Jesus, and so I just want us to remember that, like if you ate something, you were really aware that somebody served it. I mean, now we get our drive-through, you don't have to see the person who's sweating to do that. But in that time I mean you saw the man who brought the crops in. You saw the man who took care of the livestock and then butchered it. I mean you were aware of the work that went into even enjoying a meal together. And it is essential that we, as people who follow Jesus, remember that Jesus ate with everyone. There was no one that was disqualified from the table that Jesus ate at and in that time that wasn't so. There were tables for different people based on your hierarchy or how you got there.
Speaker 1:And one of the beauties of the love of Jesus Christ is we get to lay all of our name badges down by the door and just come into the table of the Lord. It is not everything that anyone said of you, or even that you say of yourself. You are loved by God, the same way that Jesus is loved by God, and you are welcomed to the table by eating with Jesus. What we do is give up all of the name tags, we give up all of the things that separate us, we give up all of the hierarchy, we give up all of the privilege and we receive this unmerited grace we receive our true selves, that we are loved by God, who is love and the hope of even practicing communion, but recognizing. We get to come in together and say what do we have? What can I give, what can I be part of? We've had people come in and they're like we're very confused because no one has a name tag on, and I think that name tags limit us. That's your one job.
Speaker 1:We are loving people and we whatever the need is. How do we best fill it? If you're looking to get something off a really high shelf, I'm not your girl, but there are other people that are, and so the invitation for us is to say what's in my hands? What can I give? What can I give? How can I serve? How am I aware that the love in me gives me strength to be able to serve? Lets me see what needs to be done. And it reminds us.
Speaker 1:The love in me is to say somebody else come to this table. There's plenty of room for you here, no matter who you are, no matter what table you've been disqualified from. Come to the table of the Lord, because there's room for you here. There's always a chair for you at the table of the Lord. There is for us an invitation to even allow all the parts of us.
Speaker 1:I just want to remind you that holiness is wholeness, that there is for us this practice of bringing every part of us into the house of the Lord. Don't leave any parts of yourself at home, that you're loved, every bit of you in the house of God, at the table of the Lord. And there is for us an understanding, a practice. Whatever it is that you have, how can you serve you know, and we do that in practical ways. We do that in giving our tithes and offerings. We do that in paying attention, listening to the people around us. Is there a need that I can meet? Or even just bringing your holy presence? You are the light of the world, beloved, and you came today. And as we gather, the light gets bigger. As we gather together, the love of Christ is reflected. There is hope for us in the gathering and in the renewing.
Speaker 2:I worked at a big church once and I had my name on the curb. I had it Church. I had the name tag. You were there, you saw it, it was pretty awesome. My curb Not too Church. I had the name tag. You were there, you saw that it was pretty awesome. My curb Not too similar to a tombstone actually.
Speaker 2:It's interesting and I think people have asked me from time to time am I going to put a name tag here on my parking spot? And what I say is no, because I get here before everybody else and I get that spot and then usually Dave or Ryan gets here first and they just don't take it. But if you want a good spot, you see, this is not complicated. You show up early and you serve. You know, you know, and it's really that's what that's. We wait around for a name tag when you go find your curb and you pull up to it early, you know, and you just find it and you serve and and that's what, that's what we see in the example of Christ. You know not that he was there to. In fact he said it. I'm not here to be served, but to serve. And Heather talks about, you know, here he is on the, you know, with the guy sitting out here. All right, I've gathered you together. Let me tell you how great I am.
Speaker 2:Instead, he, he takes the the robe off and and gets a towel and kneels down and washes the feet of the disciples the ones that would causing problems and and go the wrong direction and ask the wrong questions and and just showed the love and serving that, uh, that God, that God offers you and I, and so we're getting ready to go into communion now, and so I want to remind you of that table and what it does.
Speaker 2:It transforms you and I from those people, those tombstone people that have our names on the curves, to those living people that are just showing up and serving, and it doesn't matter if anyone sees, because you can give a cup of cool water in private and God will see that thing. There's not anything you could do in that place of loving and serving your family, your friends, your job, what seems to be so unnoticed, god sees and rewards openly for that. So if you're watching us online, we want you to partake in communion. If you're here, we practice intinction, so we're going to invite you up and have the communion elements here. But if you're watching us online, gather your elements up now so that you can partake with us, because we want you all to receive, and all are welcome.
Speaker 1:From Romans, chapter 8. All creation anticipates the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom over death and decay, and we, as Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us, a foretaste of future glory, also grown to be released from suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for the day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including new bodies that he has promised us, and now that we are saved, we look eagerly toward this freedom, and the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress, for we do not even know what we should pray or how we should pray, but the Holy Spirit prays with us in groanings that cannot be expressed in words, and the Father, who knows all hearts, knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for believers to be in harmony with God's own will, and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. What can we say, then, about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who could ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his own son, but gave him up for us, won't God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us to whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? Absolutely not. No, he is the one who has given us right, standing with himself. Who will condemn us? Will Jesus? No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the highest place of honor next to God praying for us.
Speaker 1:Can anything separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean we no longer are loved if we have trouble or calamity, if we are hungry or cold, if we are in danger or in death? No, despite all of these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loves us, and I am convinced that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of Christ. Death can't, life can't, angels can't, demons can't. Our fears for today and our worries about tomorrow, and even the power of hell, cannot keep God's love from us. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon. If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurchorg.
