SPEAKER_01: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grand Parkway.org.
SPEAKER_03: Father, when we say again, we're agreeing with Habakkuk in the Old Testament, the prophet who said, Lord, I've heard of your fame and I stand in all of your deeds.
SPEAKER_03: Renew them in our day.
SPEAKER_03: Translation, God, do today what you did years ago because you're the same God.
SPEAKER_03: You've not lost any power and you've not lost any of your willingness.
SPEAKER_03: You are still willing to do today what you've always done because there's a consistency and a constancy to your nature that we can build and bank our life on.
SPEAKER_03: You're the same.
SPEAKER_03: You say the same thing over and over and over through different means and different uh ways, different people, but it's the same message.
SPEAKER_03: We'll see that in the Bible again this morning.
SPEAKER_03: You don't, hey, start off saying one thing and then go, well, I changed my mind.
SPEAKER_03: You know, this is the same thing you've heard from the very beginning because you're the same God.
SPEAKER_03: That's a we we take great assurance from that because you are who the Bible says you are.
SPEAKER_03: It's the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: We need you to illuminate the scripture today, make it come off of the page and be more than just words and thoughts and ideas.
SPEAKER_03: Let it be an invitation, let it be a reminder, let it be this thing that we kind of reorient ourselves around today.
SPEAKER_03: Holy Spirit, we ask you now to reveal the Father to us, to reveal the truth to us.
SPEAKER_03: We ask for this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_03: And everyone said, Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_03: You can have a seed.
SPEAKER_03: If you got a Bible, I ask you to take it and open up to 1 John chapter 3.
SPEAKER_03: First John chapter 3.
SPEAKER_03: If you're a guest, we're preaching through the book of 1 John.
SPEAKER_03: It's our tradition here at Grand Park Way.
SPEAKER_03: We acknowledge Mother's Day, but we leave it up to you to celebrate your mom.
SPEAKER_03: So, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_03: I don't have a Mother's Day sermon today.
SPEAKER_03: And all the women are like, thank the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Anyway, uh, but I do want to talk to you about the power of love.
SPEAKER_03: The power of love, because the Bible places a priority and a capacity on this thing called love that we I think we've kind of heard it so much, we've kind of lost our sense of wonder for it.
SPEAKER_03: So I'll start reading in verse 11 of 1 John chapter 3, and I'll read that little section down to verse 24.
SPEAKER_03: And then there's three things that I want to point out from the text because this this little piece of the Bible, it breaks naturally into three parts.
SPEAKER_03: And then at the end, some questions come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_03: We'll have some time of just just, hey, just think about this.
SPEAKER_03: Just think about it.
SPEAKER_03: And then we'll be dismissed.
SPEAKER_03: And you can go get a picture with your mom at the photo booth in the lobby.
SPEAKER_03: You're down for that?
SPEAKER_03: Say amen.
SPEAKER_03: Now, if you're like 17 and you just rolled your eyes, see me after the service so I can punch you in the throat, okay?
SPEAKER_03: Uh, but I'll bless you at the end of the service and it'll all be good.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, one kid in the first service goes, That's I ain't doing that, that's lame.
SPEAKER_03: That's like, hey, it's not your day, okay?
SPEAKER_03: It's your mom's day.
SPEAKER_03: Don't be selfish.
SPEAKER_03: So I'll say to all of you, don't be selfish.
SPEAKER_03: That just make it awkward.
SPEAKER_03: You feel that?
SPEAKER_03: You're like, dude, it's Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_03: Don't get on to us.
SPEAKER_03: Anyway, 1 John chapter 3, verse 11, the Bible says this, for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
SPEAKER_03: We should not be like Cain, who is of the evil one and murdered his brother.
SPEAKER_03: And why did he murder him?
SPEAKER_03: Because his own deeds were evil and his brothers righteous.
SPEAKER_03: Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
SPEAKER_03: We know that what we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.
SPEAKER_03: Whoever does not love abides in death.
SPEAKER_03: Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
SPEAKER_03: By this we know love that he laid down his life for us.
SPEAKER_03: And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
SPEAKER_03: But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?
SPEAKER_03: Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
SPEAKER_03: By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.
SPEAKER_03: For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
SPEAKER_03: Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God, and whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
SPEAKER_03: And this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.
SPEAKER_03: Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him.
SPEAKER_03: And by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us.
SPEAKER_03: The power of love.
SPEAKER_03: Three things from the text this morning.
SPEAKER_03: Number one, loving rightly is evidence of conversion.
SPEAKER_03: Loving rightly, not just loving, but loving rightly.
SPEAKER_03: There's a model for how we love.
SPEAKER_03: That's what I mean when I say loving rightly.
SPEAKER_03: Loving rightly is evidence of conversion.
SPEAKER_03: If you like, where'd you get that?
SPEAKER_03: Right out of verse 14.
SPEAKER_03: Look at it.
SPEAKER_03: He says, We know that we have passed out of death into life because we prayed the prayer when we were 12.
SPEAKER_03: No.
SPEAKER_03: Matter of fact, it's nowhere in the Bible.
SPEAKER_03: A lot of people have said some religious incantations, and they're the most unloving people you'll ever meet in your life.
SPEAKER_03: But the Bible comes along, see, you do good until you put yourself in the context of the Bible.
SPEAKER_03: And then it's like, oh, I gotta think about that.
SPEAKER_03: Look at verse 14.
SPEAKER_03: Hey, we know that we have passed out of death into life.
SPEAKER_03: Now, first of all, stop right there.
SPEAKER_03: Have you ever had a spiritual experience with God that was so transformative that you had to describe it by saying, I passed from death into life.
SPEAKER_03: I was dead, I was incapable and unable.
SPEAKER_03: But God so worked on my dead heart that I now am in life.
SPEAKER_03: This is how we know we've passed from death into life.
SPEAKER_03: Why?
SPEAKER_03: Because we love the brothers.
SPEAKER_03: We love other Christians.
SPEAKER_03: We're not catty and backbiting and small, or we don't keep score, we don't play relational Red Rover, Red Rover, Red Rover.
SPEAKER_03: Let everyone come over and feel the way I feel about this person because then I'll be justified in how I feel.
SPEAKER_03: No, loving rightly is evidence of conversion.
SPEAKER_03: Now, the Bible relies on its simplicity or the simplicity of its message because the truth is willing to stand alone.
SPEAKER_03: So I want you to hear the innocence.
SPEAKER_03: That's a word we don't use hardly at all in our culture.
SPEAKER_03: Hear the innocence and the naivety of the Bible as I read verse 11 out loud again.
SPEAKER_03: For this is the message you've heard from the beginning.
SPEAKER_03: God hasn't changed his mind.
SPEAKER_03: He's been saying the same thing from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_03: And here's the message that we should love one another.
SPEAKER_03: That we should love one another.
SPEAKER_03: You say, I don't get it.
SPEAKER_03: Imagine if Vladimir Putin called Zelensky, the leader of Ukraine, and said, Would you forgive me?
SPEAKER_03: I don't think we've been loving you.
SPEAKER_03: There would be no news to report.
SPEAKER_03: You would have to cancel, you'd lose, you would regain 30 minutes of your day if we just loved one another, because there'd be no controversy.
SPEAKER_03: There would be no, oh my gosh, can you believe?
SPEAKER_03: Because if you love somebody, you wouldn't sin against that person.
SPEAKER_03: Again, notice how innocent the Bible is.
SPEAKER_03: Hey, this is the message from the beginning.
SPEAKER_03: We should love one another.
SPEAKER_03: In other words, no, not a new message.
SPEAKER_03: This is the same thing he's been saying.
SPEAKER_03: This is what you should do.
SPEAKER_03: And then the Bible flips to the next verse in verse 12 and says, This is what you should not do.
SPEAKER_03: Pay attention, verse 12, we should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.
SPEAKER_03: And then the Bible invites us to think a little bit and ask this question.
SPEAKER_03: And why did he murder him?
SPEAKER_03: Cain and Abel were two brothers.
SPEAKER_03: The Bible talks about this in Genesis chapter 4.
SPEAKER_03: And one of them was jealous of the other one, and he killed him.
SPEAKER_03: The Bible says, why do you murder him?
SPEAKER_03: Because his own deeds were evil and his own brothers righteous.
SPEAKER_03: Notice the motivation.
SPEAKER_03: It wasn't because his brother was wrong, it wasn't because he disagreed with him.
SPEAKER_03: It was because he had a deep sense of awareness that my deeds are evil.
SPEAKER_03: And instead of facing that and repenting, I want to attack my brother who lives the right way.
SPEAKER_03: If you want to see it on display, turn on your TV anytime, anytime.
SPEAKER_03: And in front of the Supreme Court will be people with bullhorns screaming at each other on either side of this very controversial issue.
SPEAKER_03: And here's the reality because my self-righteousness flared up on me this morning.
SPEAKER_03: I walked through the living room to get more coffee, and my wife had a TV on, some news show, CBS some Sunday morning or whatever, and they were doing a story, and there were people two feet from each other with bullhorns screaming at each other.
SPEAKER_03: And I was just like, dude, lighten up.
SPEAKER_03: I don't think that's the deal.
SPEAKER_03: But the thought went through my mind, you know, they're not, this is gonna sound crazy.
SPEAKER_03: They're not protesting and demonstrating because they think the other person's wrong.
SPEAKER_03: That's what they want to convince you of.
SPEAKER_03: That's what the media wants to convince you of.
SPEAKER_03: I'm just submitting to you today that, like Cain, deep inside, they know that their deeds are evil, but they think if we can change the law, it's gonna change the moral nature of God, but it's not.
SPEAKER_03: You cannot legislate morality, oughtness.
SPEAKER_03: And so they're like Cain.
SPEAKER_03: They know that my deeds are evil, but they've doubled down and they've doubled down, they memorized the talking points, and they downloaded the slogans to put on the signs, and they put their pink jackets on, they go out there and they rant and rave and scream.
SPEAKER_03: And here's the thing they get the core issue is not, do you agree with me?
SPEAKER_03: Because please tell me you're you're not so selfish, both sides of it.
SPEAKER_03: Please tell me you're not so selfishly naive that you think everyone in the world should agree with you.
SPEAKER_03: Remember when it dawned on you that not everybody feels the way you feel about most things?
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
SPEAKER_03: Yes, you can't be that naive.
SPEAKER_03: But we've doubled down so much.
SPEAKER_03: We've kind of lost sight of what the real issue is.
SPEAKER_03: The core issue is not, does everyone agree with me?
SPEAKER_03: The core issue is I can't feel the evil nature of my deeds, and like Cain, I would rather attack the righteous than repent.
SPEAKER_03: Because love to ourselves, the natural state, the natural man, the person, our natural state is powerless to change our own heart.
SPEAKER_03: So it'll always be easier to attack the other person who's been changed by God.
SPEAKER_03: I walk through and I look at that and I just thought, gosh, don't they know what the real issue is?
SPEAKER_03: Because that's what my self-righteousness sounds like.
SPEAKER_03: Don't everybody think about this the way I think about this?
SPEAKER_03: It's kind of like you got a fire that's dying down and you throw a bucket of gas on it.
SPEAKER_03: You know that noise it makes almost whoosh.
SPEAKER_03: That's my self-righteous whoosh, and I was getting coffee.
SPEAKER_03: It's like, oh, that's kind of gross.
SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_03: See, the Bible comes along and says, Hey, uh, you're not better than any of those people carrying the sign.
SPEAKER_03: Because I was getting my coffee, walking back to my bathroom, and the Holy Spirit said, You know, the difference in you and those people, and I thought, I'm right, and they're wrong.
SPEAKER_03: No, no, I've changed your heart.
SPEAKER_03: I just haven't changed their heart yet.
SPEAKER_03: And all of a sudden, I'm looking through a different lens, which is why the Bible says in verse 14, uh uh, excuse me, he says, because of his own deeds, he were evil and his brothers righteous.
SPEAKER_03: Do not be surprised.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 13, brothers, do not be surprised that the world hates you.
SPEAKER_03: Do not be surprised.
SPEAKER_03: Why?
SPEAKER_03: The world there's a Greek word cosmos, and it refers to the mass of humanity, alienated from God, therefore hostile to the cause of Christ.
SPEAKER_03: The mass of humanity, alienated from God.
SPEAKER_03: Does it bother you more that people disagree with you or the fact that they're alienated from Christ?
SPEAKER_03: They're alienated, they don't understand it.
SPEAKER_03: The things of God are foolishness to them.
SPEAKER_03: And then verse 15, the Bible says, Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.
SPEAKER_03: You hate people that disagree with you?
SPEAKER_03: Everybody who hates a brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life.
SPEAKER_03: Can you imagine going to Mother's Day brunch today and your mom just confessing, Lord Jesus, thank you for this mimosa?
SPEAKER_03: I killed six people this week.
SPEAKER_03: Wouldn't that be great?
SPEAKER_03: Wouldn't you like to say, oh, I crucified Joe Biden on Tuesday and Thursday, God?
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, God, I just prayed that Donald Trump would not run for president in 2024.
SPEAKER_03: I got both sides of the aisle.
SPEAKER_03: Send me your emails.
SPEAKER_03: It would make lunch more interesting if somebody just said, hey, let's go around the table and talk about who we murdered this week.
SPEAKER_03: Can you imagine your mom?
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I murdered your dad.
SPEAKER_03: I thought such bad thoughts about him that it was murder.
SPEAKER_03: Again, when you put yourself, your behavior in the context of the Bible, there's no wiggle room.
SPEAKER_03: Whoever does not love abides in death, and everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.
SPEAKER_03: And you know it, no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
SPEAKER_03: Hello.
SPEAKER_03: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_03: No murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
SPEAKER_03: When you hear the words eternal life, don't think quantity, think quality.
SPEAKER_03: Eternal life is not living forever.
SPEAKER_03: It is that, but that's kind of almost an afterthought.
SPEAKER_03: Instead, think the life of eternity.
SPEAKER_03: And here's how the Bible, it's the Greek word Zoe, here's how the Bible defines this life that we call the life of eternity.
SPEAKER_03: It refers to the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God.
SPEAKER_03: Life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed in the portion, even in this world, of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions, among them a more perfect body, and oh also almost as an afterthought, and to last forever.
SPEAKER_03: You see, we take what the Bible says as an afterthought and make it the main motivation, and it is not enough motivation if you think eternal life, because your kids think, really?
SPEAKER_03: You want me to do this for all of eternity?
SPEAKER_03: No, thank you.
SPEAKER_03: I'd rather smoke weed with my friends.
SPEAKER_03: But the Bible comes along and says, No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_03: It's not quantity, it's quality.
SPEAKER_03: And what the text is saying here is that nobody that has this life in them does that.
SPEAKER_03: The life of eternity is so pervasively consequential that it gets into every nook and cranny and fiber of your being and begins to alter the way you exist.
SPEAKER_03: Here's the second thing the Bible tells us about the power of love.
SPEAKER_03: So we now have a frame of reference for love.
SPEAKER_03: We now have a frame of reference for love.
SPEAKER_03: If you've been married a long time, say amen.
SPEAKER_03: When you hear people that just getting married or just got married talk about love, do you kind of throw up in your mouth?
SPEAKER_03: When they pet each other, like I saw a couple of the day in a restaurant sitting on the same side of the booth, holding hands, and he was eating left-handed.
SPEAKER_03: And I just wanted to go over and go, just stop.
SPEAKER_03: Just stop.
SPEAKER_03: This is the dumbest thing in the world.
SPEAKER_03: But I just stared at him from across the restaurant because I'm self-righteous sometimes.
SPEAKER_03: It's like really, really, you don't see married people do that.
SPEAKER_03: None of you are gonna go to lunch today and go, and they and they held hands the whole time.
SPEAKER_03: I couldn't even finish my hamburger.
SPEAKER_03: I was like, oh, just take that away.
SPEAKER_03: And on the way out, I couldn't help myself.
SPEAKER_03: I said, Hey, you guys be married a long time?
SPEAKER_03: They go, we just got engaged.
SPEAKER_03: Of course you did.
SPEAKER_03: You have no idea.
SPEAKER_03: You're like, man, he's my soulmate, and we never fight.
SPEAKER_03: I wanted to say to her, you're gonna wake up in the middle of the night because that fat pig is snoring, and you're gonna think to yourself, how long do I have to hold this pillow over his face?
SPEAKER_03: But I didn't say that.
SPEAKER_03: I just said, Well, congratulations.
SPEAKER_03: What I thought was you morons have no idea.
SPEAKER_03: You might as well go out here on the interstate and pick up a hitchhiker.
SPEAKER_03: That's how well you know each other.
SPEAKER_03: But I didn't.
SPEAKER_03: I know some of y'all think, do you say everything you think?
SPEAKER_03: No, that is the scary part.
SPEAKER_03: And I just walked out and I just thought, see, you have a frame of reference for love.
SPEAKER_03: By this we know.
SPEAKER_03: Translation, look at me.
SPEAKER_03: If this hasn't happened, you would have no idea.
SPEAKER_03: You just be doing your best and hoping your spouse or your boyfriend or your girlfriend settles for it.
SPEAKER_03: But something happened that was so consequential.
SPEAKER_03: God says, right here, the whole world can see what love is like and how it acts by looking at this one thing.
SPEAKER_03: And so, what is that?
SPEAKER_03: It's the cross.
SPEAKER_03: By this we know.
SPEAKER_03: By this we know that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
SPEAKER_03: Now, this is what Jesus says all through the gospels.
SPEAKER_03: John chapter 13, it's the last supper.
SPEAKER_03: It says, Have he loved his disciples?
SPEAKER_03: He cannot love them to the end.
SPEAKER_03: He gets up from dinner, takes off his outer garment, wraps a towel around his waist, gets a basin of water, and he washes the feet of the disciples.
SPEAKER_03: Judas included.
SPEAKER_03: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_03: See, too, love makes it capable of.
SPEAKER_03: Love is compulsion and restraint.
SPEAKER_03: Can you imagine Jesus kneeling down before Judas and going, we both know you ain't you ain't down with this, right?
SPEAKER_03: Just want you to know that I know.
SPEAKER_03: Then he kind of squeezed his leg and wink game, like, hey, hey, I'm on to you.
SPEAKER_03: No, that's what we would have done.
SPEAKER_03: I want you to know you're not tricking me.
SPEAKER_03: No, but Jesus just is like, hey, I'm gonna treat you like everybody else.
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna love you.
SPEAKER_03: And then at the end, he says this, which is the greatest statement in John chapter 13.
SPEAKER_03: He gets done, sits back down, and he says, Do you understand what I've done to you?
SPEAKER_03: I didn't do it for you, I did it to you.
SPEAKER_03: In other words, I rang a bell that is so consequential, you guys do not have an excuse the rest of your life for not knowing how to love each other.
SPEAKER_03: So it starts off, verse 16, with extreme language.
SPEAKER_03: By this we know uh love.
SPEAKER_03: He laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, hey, uh, let's get crazy there.
SPEAKER_03: That's a little old, that's a little out over your skis, don't you think, God?
SPEAKER_03: And then it gets real practical because the Bible knows that left to ourselves, we'll try to wiggle off the hook and love and word and talk and not deed and action.
SPEAKER_03: And so verse 16 says, uh, by this we know love that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 17, notice the first word.
SPEAKER_03: What's the first word of verse 17?
SPEAKER_03: Say that loud.
SPEAKER_03: But why is that there?
SPEAKER_03: Because you, the Bible knows that you think you're smarter than God and you got some crazy explanation for everything.
SPEAKER_03: And the Bible says, hey, before you try to wiggle off, but if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?
SPEAKER_03: Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
SPEAKER_03: Is your love language more word and talk or deed and truth?
SPEAKER_03: Because if you're just loving in word and talk, the people in your life do not believe you anymore.
SPEAKER_03: They just don't.
SPEAKER_03: They won't have the courage to tell you, but they don't.
SPEAKER_03: They're just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right, right.
SPEAKER_03: But there's hope today.
SPEAKER_03: Because one of the greatest bands that ever lived called Foreigner.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: Put out an eight-track tape in the 80s, and I had it.
SPEAKER_03: And it had great music on there.
SPEAKER_03: This was a long time ago, boys and girls.
SPEAKER_03: And where are you, students?
SPEAKER_03: When musicians could play their instruments and sing.
SPEAKER_03: This is before Britney Spears ruined music.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, you hear them?
SPEAKER_03: Oh, Pastor Neal's being so hard.
SPEAKER_03: No, Foreigner.
SPEAKER_03: They had a great A-track, had great songs on, like Head Games.
SPEAKER_03: It's you and me, baby.
SPEAKER_03: Whoa! I went to school every day before school with a blue cloud of smoke in my brother's cutlass, listening to head games by Foreigner.
SPEAKER_03: And also they had a great song that said, started with a great line and said, I want to know what love is.
SPEAKER_03: Kind of this was a slow jam.
SPEAKER_03: Remember, and now some of you are going, what is an eight-track?
SPEAKER_03: Little music.
SPEAKER_03: There's digital, which is where we live.
SPEAKER_03: And before that, there were CDs, and then there was cassettes.
SPEAKER_03: Remember cassettes?
SPEAKER_03: You can pull them out, and then before cassettes was eight-tracks, they were about that big, about that thick, like a back, big as a sandwich.
SPEAKER_03: You try to explain it together, would you keep them in your tape case in the back window of your car?
SPEAKER_03: That's where you kept them.
SPEAKER_03: And it had four channels on the eight-track player.
SPEAKER_03: Click, click, click, click.
SPEAKER_03: I knew where when this point in the song, oh, go to channel three.
SPEAKER_03: This song is just starting.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: I want to know what love is.
SPEAKER_03: Great, great request.
SPEAKER_03: And then the next line is what I want you to show me.
SPEAKER_03: Great request, but you asked the wrong person to show you.
SPEAKER_03: Which is why many of you get the love that you get.
SPEAKER_03: You're asking the wrong person.
SPEAKER_03: I want to know what love is.
SPEAKER_03: I want you to show me.
SPEAKER_03: See, you have a frame of reference for love.
SPEAKER_03: Why?
SPEAKER_03: Because he's shown you.
SPEAKER_03: Third thing the Bible says is that loving well gives us an assured confidence.
SPEAKER_03: Loving well gives us an assured confidence.
SPEAKER_03: Look at verse 19.
SPEAKER_03: By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.
SPEAKER_03: For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything.
SPEAKER_03: Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
SPEAKER_03: And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
SPEAKER_03: Some of you, moms, especially, you cannot get to the confidence that is yours in Christ because your heart condemns you on a daily basis, and you just let it happen.
SPEAKER_03: So let me just get, let me just unpack this just for a minute.
SPEAKER_03: Loving well gives us an assured confidence.
SPEAKER_03: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_03: There's one sentence you got to really underline in your Bible.
SPEAKER_03: It's right there in verse 19.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, he says, By this we shall know we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.
SPEAKER_03: By the way, your heart, mom, is intended before, is intended to be put on display before God.
SPEAKER_03: Do not put your heart in the presence of your children, they will eat it for breakfast.
SPEAKER_03: They will say things to you like some of you had a terrible first marriage because your husband was so sorry, and by the grace of God, you met a good man.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, your kids will look at you and kind of go, I think I want to go live with dad for the summer.
SPEAKER_03: And in your mind, you're like, Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_03: After that man treated me like that, you want to leave me and go to him?
SPEAKER_03: Let me help you pack.
SPEAKER_03: Uh-oh, you feel that?
SPEAKER_03: Some of you are like, Did my kid text you?
SPEAKER_03: No.
SPEAKER_03: Your heart, now I'm not saying don't parent out of your heart, but you don't let your kids have access to your heart because depending on how they feel, they'll stomp on it or they'll take good care of it.
SPEAKER_03: That's why the Bible says very practical things like this, and reassure our heart before Him.
SPEAKER_03: Your kids don't have enough maturity, mom, to reassure your heart.
SPEAKER_03: They just don't.
SPEAKER_03: That's not even the part I want to get to.
SPEAKER_03: Here's the part where I want to get down to verse 20.
SPEAKER_03: For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything.
SPEAKER_03: You should underline that in your Bible.
SPEAKER_03: Men, women, students.
SPEAKER_03: Why?
SPEAKER_03: Whenever a heart condemns us, your heart condemns you when a worship song starts, you're like, oh, I love this song.
SPEAKER_03: And you stand up and you're getting your praise on, and about 30 seconds into it, your heart says, Are you serious right now?
SPEAKER_03: You you expect me to believe that you believe this?
SPEAKER_03: What about last week?
SPEAKER_03: What about that?
SPEAKER_03: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_03: Put your hands down and you agree.
SPEAKER_03: You put your hands down, and then you kind of look around, and then you begin to think, everybody in this room knows what I'm thinking, and they agree with me that I'm the biggest hypocrite there.
SPEAKER_03: And so you just sit down and just stop singing.
SPEAKER_03: Why?
SPEAKER_03: Because your heart condemns you.
SPEAKER_03: Notice it doesn't say if your heart condemns you, but whenever your heart condemns us.
SPEAKER_03: Somebody asked me recently, a student going to seminary said, should I take Greek?
SPEAKER_03: I said, There's a lot of resources out there.
SPEAKER_03: I don't think you have to take the class.
SPEAKER_03: Some people are gluttons for punishment.
SPEAKER_03: But the Bible was originally written in Greek.
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes it's helpful.
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes preachers just use it because it makes them look smart.
SPEAKER_03: Here it's very helpful.
SPEAKER_03: That word condemns is the Greek word kada gonosko.
SPEAKER_03: Kada gonosco.
SPEAKER_03: It's two words.
SPEAKER_03: Genosco is a Greek word for knowledge.
SPEAKER_03: Gnosis, the Gnostics that infiltrate this faith community.
SPEAKER_03: But but but gnosco, knowledge.
SPEAKER_03: Kada is down.
SPEAKER_03: Stay with me.
SPEAKER_03: Kada, down.
SPEAKER_03: Genosko, knowledge.
SPEAKER_03: Your heart condemns you because your heart takes what it knows and pulls you down to this dark place of condemnation and guilt and shame.
SPEAKER_03: And says, Oh, the reason your kids are like they are, because you weren't a good mom.
SPEAKER_03: Your heart is condemning you.
SPEAKER_03: Your heart is pulling you down to that dark place where you just kind of shrug and go, Yeah, yeah, I'm I don't know why I'm nagging my kid about his behavior.
SPEAKER_03: He's probably that way because I was a bad mom.
SPEAKER_03: No, your kids are responsible for their own behavior.
SPEAKER_03: Don't let that get attached to you.
SPEAKER_03: Matter of fact, you should tell them at brunch while you're confessing all the people you've murdered.
SPEAKER_03: Hey, by the way, I wasn't perfect, but you knuckleheads got all you need to be good people.
SPEAKER_03: And so if you're not good people, don't look at me.
SPEAKER_03: Don't you want to go to that lunch?
SPEAKER_03: I want to come to that lunch.
SPEAKER_03: Whenever our hearts condemn us, but it doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_03: But look at it in the Bible.
SPEAKER_03: God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
SPEAKER_03: When your heart condemns you, when you get your praise on and your heart goes, Really?
SPEAKER_03: Really?
SPEAKER_03: You of all people have your hands up.
SPEAKER_03: You don't believe this?
SPEAKER_03: You have to just remind yourself, oh, by the way, God is greater than my heart, and He knows everything.
SPEAKER_03: Your heart just knows what you did last night or last week.
SPEAKER_03: God knows everything.
SPEAKER_03: Remember spring break, your sophomore year of college?
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
SPEAKER_03: That's how you got that ankle tattoo.
SPEAKER_03: God knows.
SPEAKER_03: And look, he doesn't pull you down with that.
SPEAKER_03: He doesn't go, oh look, gotcha, gotcha.
SPEAKER_03: Get your hands down.
SPEAKER_03: No, God's like, oh man.
SPEAKER_03: Of course I know.
SPEAKER_03: And not only did I forgive you, I chose not to remember.
SPEAKER_03: So get your praise on.
SPEAKER_03: No, he doesn't condemn you.
SPEAKER_03: He sets you free from that.
SPEAKER_03: God is greater than your heart.
SPEAKER_03: So the next time your heart starts tugging on you, men and women, you just gotta say, you know what?
SPEAKER_03: You're not telling God anything he doesn't already know.
SPEAKER_03: He hadn't forgiven me for and set me free from.
SPEAKER_03: So I'm just gonna worship.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna do what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_03: I am gonna reassure my heart before him because he is the context that my heart was created for.
SPEAKER_03: So whenever your heart condemns you, you just got to gospel yourself and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_03: God's greater than my heart, and he knows everything.
SPEAKER_03: Most people spend so much of their time arguing with the heart, they rarely engage the heart of God and enjoy the confidence that is theirs.
SPEAKER_03: And then the Bible doesn't let us off the hook.
SPEAKER_03: You want to see something else before we're done today?
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the Bible doesn't let us off the hook.
SPEAKER_03: It goes down there and he says, uh, it goes from plural to singular to plural.
SPEAKER_03: It talks about the commandments.
SPEAKER_03: Look at it.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 21, beloved, if our heart does not condemn us and we have confidence before God, and whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
SPEAKER_03: And this is the commandment, singular, that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he come has commanded us.
SPEAKER_03: Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God.
SPEAKER_03: It's almost like the Bible saying, by keeping this one commandment, you're keeping all the commandments.
SPEAKER_03: Sound familiar?
SPEAKER_03: The disciples were talking to Jesus one day and they said, Hey, what's the greatest commandment?
SPEAKER_03: I mean, there's a lot, there's a lot of new Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, whoo! Yeah, I mean, there's like 614 Old Testament laws.
SPEAKER_03: Which one do we read?
SPEAKER_03: What's going to be on the final?
SPEAKER_03: And God said, Love the Lord your God by your heart, soul, mind, and strength to love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_03: And here, he says uh echo of the same thing.
SPEAKER_03: And this is the commandment.
SPEAKER_03: You hear that?
SPEAKER_03: You all just brace for impact, like, okay, bring it.
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna do it.
SPEAKER_03: Look how accessible and easy this is.
SPEAKER_03: Two things believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: Sounds innocuous, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_03: Believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: Believe, big word.
SPEAKER_03: It means the conviction and trust to which a man or woman is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of the soul.
SPEAKER_03: Believe.
SPEAKER_03: Believe in his existence.
SPEAKER_03: It's not just I believe in God.
SPEAKER_03: I believe there is a God.
SPEAKER_03: The demons in hell believe and tremble.
SPEAKER_03: They do.
SPEAKER_03: So just saying that you, and then there's people sitting in a circle of chairs right now somewhere, and they're saying, Oh, I believe in a higher power, I need a power greater than myself.
SPEAKER_03: You believing in the existence of God will not change your life.
SPEAKER_03: However, however, believing in his existence such that you experience him in such a way that it alters your existence will change your life.
SPEAKER_03: And so you have to ask yourself have you ever believed in God like that where you experience him?
SPEAKER_03: Whereas the psalmist said you tasted and seen that the Lord is good.
SPEAKER_03: Because the Bible says, here's the commandment.
SPEAKER_03: You get this, you get all the other commandments.
SPEAKER_03: You believe in the name.
SPEAKER_03: That's not just named by oh Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: That means the character, the essence of his being, the totality of all that he is and everything he's ever done.
SPEAKER_03: You believe in that.
SPEAKER_03: And then, secondly, here's the second part of the commandment love one another.
SPEAKER_03: See how the Bible comes full circle?
SPEAKER_03: It's just reinforcing the same message over and over.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 11 this is the message you've heard from the beginning.
SPEAKER_03: You shouldn't love one another.
SPEAKER_03: Here at the end, sticks the landing and says, Oh, by the way, love one another.
SPEAKER_03: That requires more the longer you love someone, by the way.
SPEAKER_03: It just does.
SPEAKER_03: I've been married 29 years.
SPEAKER_03: Love my wife.
SPEAKER_03: When I first got married, it was easy.
SPEAKER_03: I could sit in a restaurant and hold her hand, eat with my left hand.
SPEAKER_03: No, hey, I love you.
SPEAKER_03: I love you too.
SPEAKER_03: Now I say I love you.
SPEAKER_03: Come in from work, she's getting dinner ready.
SPEAKER_03: I love you.
SPEAKER_03: Hey, could you thank you?
SPEAKER_03: Could you get some glasses and ice and get and get some plate?
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_03: The longer you love somebody, the more it will require of you.
SPEAKER_03: It just will.
SPEAKER_03: Saw somebody in the first service, they said, Oh, you've been married 29 years.
SPEAKER_03: We just celebrate 43.
SPEAKER_03: And the guy looked at me and said, strap in.
SPEAKER_03: Whoa, wait, what do you mean what do you mean?
SPEAKER_03: He just kind of nodded, like, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03: See, here's the thing: believing in Jesus is what teaches you how to love somebody else, to love one another.
SPEAKER_03: Now I could keep talking about this and talking about this and talking about this.
SPEAKER_03: I told you earlier, you know, the great Lou Reads, the great foreigner song, I want to know what love is.
SPEAKER_03: Ask the right person to show you.
SPEAKER_03: Now I could keep talking about this, but instead I brought you some pictures that demonstrate what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_03: Let's experience this together.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Mark Brooker.
SPEAKER_00: My story is one of learning to love.
SPEAKER_00: Foreigner had a great song in the early 80s called I Want to Know What Love Is.
SPEAKER_00: And you know the second line Lou Graham sang was, and I want you to show me.
SPEAKER_00: And the reality is that people think that that had to do with Lou Graham's wife or girlfriend, and the way the world thinks about that, that's probably true.
SPEAKER_00: But what I found out was that I needed Christ to show me what love is.
SPEAKER_00: I became a Christian at 16 in a church and went off to college and really didn't spend much time with the Lord during college.
SPEAKER_00: Uh met a girl, uh we played house for a little while, ultimately got married my senior year, and um moved uh upon graduation, moved to Victoria, Texas, and I started working in the oil field.
SPEAKER_00: And within three or four months, uh she came to me and said, I want to divorce someone out of this.
SPEAKER_00: We had developed a mutual friend.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and in fact, there was a ball cap in the oil field that said, uh, my wife ran off of my best friend, and I miss him.
SPEAKER_00: And that was that was kind of our story.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so so uh right out of the chute at 21 years old, I have this uh disastrous marriage that doesn't even make the first anniversary.
SPEAKER_00: So God said, I'm I'm not gonna fix this, uh, but I do want to fix you.
SPEAKER_00: And so we began to work on my relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the first things God said was, if you want to be married again, we need to move you back to a state where you're not married.
SPEAKER_00: Quit trying to have marital privileges in your dating life.
SPEAKER_00: And I ultimately moved back to Fort Worth and um attended seminary because I thought that was how I'm gonna get closer to God.
SPEAKER_00: While there, um I was at a Leon Russell concert and saw my old friend Debbie, uh who I'd known from since the seventh grade.
SPEAKER_00: And I saw her at this concert and said, Well, so you know what's up.
SPEAKER_00: And so we started going out on dates.
SPEAKER_00: Later that summer we ended up getting married.
SPEAKER_00: Um she became a Christian as we were dating, and uh the following year we were both re-baptized in a in a church together as a husband and wife.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and God blessed us with children.
SPEAKER_00: Now, one of the things that God had told me early in this kind of rediscovering him and him changing me was make sure you understand what you're thinking about when you're talking about getting married again.
SPEAKER_00: Little was I don't know that that that was going to be a serious consideration 30 years later.
SPEAKER_00: Early in 2008, Debbie began to hear voices.
SPEAKER_00: Um we went to a series of doctors and and she was finally diagnosed with schizophrenia.
SPEAKER_00: Une of the psychiatrists told us he'd seen hundreds of schizophrenics.
SPEAKER_00: And it's never pleasant.
SPEAKER_00: It's always condemning voices and argumentative voices.
SPEAKER_00: It became increasingly difficult uh as as this disease really set in with her.
SPEAKER_00: A latent-like schizophrenia is not that common uh and probably was induced from uh pot smoking in college, to be quite frank about it.
SPEAKER_00: So what ends up uh happening is is people begin, well-meaning friends, as they find out more about this situation, say, Well, are are you gonna stay?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you have your whole life still in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna stay?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, yeah, I mean, uh, I love I love my wife, and I need to be there for her.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, people won't stick with her in this through this, is extremely important that I do.
SPEAKER_00: Suddenly, 1 Corinthians 13, the thing that people always talk about before they're married and they always have at their wedding ceremony, now really becomes real life.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just read a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: So love is patient and kind.
SPEAKER_00: Love does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude, it does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
SPEAKER_00: And love never ends, never gives up.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Bible's pretty clear that you can have all kinds of accomplishments, but if you haven't loved the people in your path that God's put for you to love, then all of that's really for naught.
SPEAKER_00: And so learning to love her through this, even though she's not the same, uh, was something that I had to depend upon Christ to pull me through.
SPEAKER_00: What Satan really wants is for your marriage to crumble, and the testimony of God's faithfulness to you and the power of the Holy Spirit and helping you manage this is all destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: And so as as time has gone on now, we had the diagnoses and we've we've had some treatments, we've had some hospitalization, the treatments, many of the treatments were just are just almost as bad as the disease.
SPEAKER_00: And so for Debbie, uh she's become very reclusive.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's very difficult for her to get out.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but we work around that.
SPEAKER_00: I have to remind myself, and I get reminders from the Holy Spirit, to make sure that you're constantly letting her know that you love her in some way by her uh uh these these little sayings on little frames and flowers and cards and those things to keep putting that in front of her, which by the way is very similar to what we get at Grant Parkway every week.
SPEAKER_00: God tells us he loves us through his word.
SPEAKER_00: God has really blessed us through this.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that sounds strange to hear, but it's drawn us closer in a very different way that the healthy life retired of the beach would have done, I think.
SPEAKER_00: There's an interesting verse that I ran across not too long ago, Philippians 1.12.
SPEAKER_00: It's Paul, he's in prison.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And that's absolutely true in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And so when people say, How do you manage through this?
SPEAKER_00: I say, I don't do it alone.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, Christ strengthens me, Christ reminds me, Christ gives me the model.
SPEAKER_00: To keep ministering to her through this, through our marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And so that I really found out the answer for, you know, uh, you know, I want to know what love is.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I found out it it comes from knowing him.
SPEAKER_00: It really does.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Mark Brooker, and my story is Warner Born into Love.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: This is the message that you've heard from the beginning.
SPEAKER_02: That we should love one another.
SPEAKER_02: And turn your phone off.
SPEAKER_03: This is the message you've heard from the beginning.
SPEAKER_03: When it gets hard and you have the resources to put your wife in a home and get on with your life, and you say, absolutely not, it's my wife.
SPEAKER_03: Whatever she goes through, I'm gonna go through.
SPEAKER_03: This is the message you've heard from the beginning.
SPEAKER_03: That we who've been loved by God unconditionally, should turn around and love the people in our life unconditionally as well.
SPEAKER_03: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_03: If you're our guests, just relax.
SPEAKER_03: We like to teach the Bible.
SPEAKER_03: We think you should hear the gospel and see the gospel.
SPEAKER_03: And today you've had the privilege of both.
SPEAKER_03: And then we'd like to spend some time just thinking about what we've heard.
SPEAKER_03: And so some questions come up on the screen for you to think about.
SPEAKER_03: Let me voice a prayer.
SPEAKER_03: Let's just be still for a moment before we leave.
SPEAKER_03: God, thanks for the beauty of hearing and seeing the gospel.
SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of people in this room that think their marriage is hard, and all of a sudden it doesn't feel as hard as it did eight minutes ago.
SPEAKER_03: That's not shame, that's just perspective.
SPEAKER_03: And so I thank you that in the body of Christ, everyone's carrying a burden, everyone's walking through something, everyone's just yucking it out and telling themselves, no, I gotta keep going.
SPEAKER_03: We're like Peter, God.
SPEAKER_03: We're like, where else are we gonna go for the words of life?
SPEAKER_03: We don't have a plan B.
SPEAKER_03: So, Holy Spirit, just brood over us while we think about this.
SPEAKER_03: God, thank you that there's a depth and a wideness to your love that means that you've not forgotten anybody in this room.
SPEAKER_03: They may feel like I'm just here because I asked my mom, what do you want for Mother's Day?
SPEAKER_03: And she said, I want you to go to church with me.
SPEAKER_03: That's okay.
SPEAKER_03: It's not an accident.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe a divine ricochet, but not an accident.
SPEAKER_03: Nobody here is beyond the pale.
SPEAKER_03: There's a depth to God's mercy and a breadth to his love.
SPEAKER_03: We don't find anywhere else.
SPEAKER_03: We've just come to just soak ourselves in it today, God.
SPEAKER_03: So that we represent you accurately, that we get better at loving people.
SPEAKER_03: Let's stop murdering people and love people the way you loved us.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_03: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: If you're a guest, I'm gonna say thanks for being here.
SPEAKER_03: You're always welcome.
SPEAKER_03: If you have a church that you're meaningfully connected to, then you stay there and support your church.
SPEAKER_03: But if you don't, we'd love you to consider being a part of what God's doing here at Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_03: We have a bunch of different opportunities for involvement.
SPEAKER_03: Let me make you aware of a few of those just for like a minute through our video announcements today.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_01: Here's some things we want you to know.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new, text Welcome to 281-626-5707.
SPEAKER_01: This way we can know that you're here and get you connected with our church.
SPEAKER_01: Men's Breakfast is this Tuesday.
SPEAKER_01: Join us for free breakfast and time and God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: On May 22nd, Houston Welcomes Refugees will hold an orientation to get involved with helping refugees.
SPEAKER_01: The next Varsity Gathering is May 19th.
SPEAKER_01: Matt Barnhill will be speaking on the topic parenting your adult children.
SPEAKER_01: If you're 60 and over, we'd love to have you join us.
SPEAKER_01: Register at grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions about what you heard today, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_03: For those of you who may not know, maybe you're new to our church, the varsity is a ministry that's designed specifically for people age 60 and over.
SPEAKER_03: Uh and our next lunch, we have a lunch.
SPEAKER_03: We're going to have a hymn sing.
SPEAKER_03: Clyde will lead us in singing some hymns.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and then Matt Barnhill, who's a counselor here in town, is going to talk about parenting your adult children.
SPEAKER_03: And then we'll have a catered meal from the Texas Roadhouse.
SPEAKER_03: It'll be grilled chicken breast, uh, baked potato, and salad.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, all that you get for 10 bucks.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, the deadline to register is a week from the day.
SPEAKER_03: So if you haven't registered yet, I want to encourage you to go to the to our website and look under events tab and you'll see the thing for a little uh ad for the varsity.
SPEAKER_03: Click on it and get yourself signed up.
SPEAKER_03: All right.
SPEAKER_03: Uh two other things.
SPEAKER_03: First of all, uh in the lobby, in the connections room, that little jutted out part right there, there is a photo opportunity, a photo booth set up for Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_03: So make sure and make some time.
SPEAKER_03: Students, look at your mom and say, Hey, I want to take my picture with you.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I know some of you are like, really, dude?
SPEAKER_03: Come see me, I'll be right here.
SPEAKER_03: I have a word from the Lord for you.
SPEAKER_03: And it's this, I'll give it to you all right now.
SPEAKER_03: You're gonna look back on this this time in your life and wish you'd have been different.
SPEAKER_03: You hear that?
SPEAKER_03: That's that's from people that were maybe not the most respectful to our parents.
SPEAKER_03: You're just you're gonna look back and go, I was an idiot.
SPEAKER_03: I'm not calling you one, I'm saying you're gonna call yourself that.
SPEAKER_03: So don't miss the opportunity to not be an idiot, okay?
SPEAKER_03: How about that for coming to church?
SPEAKER_03: Last thing is some of our pastors be available down front.
SPEAKER_03: I'll also ask Mark Brooker, the man you saw in the video, to make himself available.
SPEAKER_03: You may want to speak a word, or you may just say, hey, I can you pray for me?
SPEAKER_03: I find loving my wife a little bit difficult.
SPEAKER_03: Uh and so he'll be available as well.
SPEAKER_03: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_03: We'd like to conclude our service with a smoking blessing.
SPEAKER_03: So hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_03: God is greater than your heart, and he knows everything.
SPEAKER_03: So depart now and live in the greatness of what God knows.
SPEAKER_03: And choose to believe it.
SPEAKER_03: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Bless you.