SPEAKER_00: This podcast is brought to you by Grant Parkway Baptist, helping people to know, joy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProquay.org.
SPEAKER_01: Pray to go.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, that is our confession.
SPEAKER_01: This did all other ground is sinking sand.
SPEAKER_01: We sailed our ship of insecurities until it sank, and we crawled upon your shore.
SPEAKER_01: And everything we have, we bet on the blessed Redeemer in the night.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't come through, we don't have a plan B.
SPEAKER_01: But this is the great thing about you, God.
SPEAKER_01: You do not have the capacity to not come through.
SPEAKER_01: You always come through.
SPEAKER_01: There's a certainty to your being that we can build and bank our life on.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus, you said, hey, if anybody hears these words of mine and puts them into practice, like a man who built this house, dug down deep and built this house on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're here to dig down to some solid material that we can build and bank our life on.
SPEAKER_01: So when the storm comes and beats against our life, we don't collapse and then just try to save ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: We've tried that, God.
SPEAKER_01: And so we just come back to the rock that is certain and sure, constant and consistent.
SPEAKER_01: That's who you are, and that's how you are.
SPEAKER_01: And so today, God, feed us from your word.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, illuminate the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: It's not words on a page, it's not a book that was written by men.
SPEAKER_01: It was breathed out by God, recorded by men, and given to us as a gift because you want us to know who you are and who we can be because of who you are.
SPEAKER_01: And so we want to grow in that experience today.
SPEAKER_01: We want to taste and see that you're good.
SPEAKER_01: Understand what you've done that makes who we can be possible.
SPEAKER_01: This is our prayer guide.
SPEAKER_01: We prayed in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you got your Bible, I invite you to take it notebook to 1 John chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest, we're preaching through the book, the epistle of 1 John, kind of towards the back.
SPEAKER_01: There's the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: It's early in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
SPEAKER_01: And then that same person recorded three little books called epistles, kind of towards the back, almost to the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: We're in 1 John chapter 4, I'll start reading verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you today about the certainty of faith and love.
SPEAKER_01: The certainty of faith and love.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to title the sermon, uh, The Progressive Certainty of Faith and Love.
SPEAKER_01: But some of you hear progressive and you don't think of an insurance company.
SPEAKER_01: So I decided to drop that word.
SPEAKER_01: The certainty of faith and love.
SPEAKER_01: If I said progressive certainty, somebody like, what you talking about, Willis?
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, uh, I'll start reading verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible's very self-explanatory.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never been to our church, I'm gonna read from verse 13 down to verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: I have two points that the Bible makes.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so I'm gonna point to the certainty of faith and the progressive nature of love.
SPEAKER_01: Now, at the end, some questions will come up, and we'll just kind of be still.
SPEAKER_01: And the questions are written about the text that we're going to read, and they are there for you to kind of think about it, ask yourself, what does that look like with my life wrapped around it?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and I have a bag of goodness in here that only one person in this room is gonna get to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not you.
SPEAKER_01: So, anyway, uh, let me just let me just start reading.
SPEAKER_01: First John chapter 4, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says this by this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent his son to be the Savior of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
SPEAKER_01: So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.
SPEAKER_01: God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
SPEAKER_01: By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in the world.
SPEAKER_01: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
SPEAKER_01: For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
SPEAKER_01: We love because he first loved us.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar, and he does not love his he is a liar.
SPEAKER_01: For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
SPEAKER_01: And this commandment we have from him whoever loves God must also love his brother.
SPEAKER_01: Uh verse 13 and verse 17 both start with this phrase, by this, by this, by this.
SPEAKER_01: When you read the Bible, look and listen for things that are repeated, because the Bible is kind of saying, hey, here's a tangible demonstration of what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want to talk to you, first of all, I want to point out the certainty of faith.
SPEAKER_01: The certainty of faith, verse 13, he says, by this we know that we abide in him and he in us.
SPEAKER_01: How is that?
SPEAKER_01: Because we prayed the prayer, because we were sincere, can we remember the day?
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe in God?
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the point.
SPEAKER_01: We have a lot of unbiblical standards by which we evaluate our faith, whether or not we're Christian or we feel Christian.
SPEAKER_01: I've even heard people say, Do you feel Christian?
SPEAKER_01: Let me just confess to you, there's some days I don't feel very Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean I'm not, that doesn't mean I doubt my faith.
SPEAKER_01: That means that some days I just look around and just kind of think, oh my gosh, we're a long way from the garden.
SPEAKER_01: This is the jacked-up world we live in.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible gives us this certainty that we can build and bank our life on.
SPEAKER_01: And look at me, it is not based on our experiences, it is based on what God has done in us.
SPEAKER_01: By this, we know that we abide in Him and He in us.
SPEAKER_01: How is that?
SPEAKER_01: Because He has given us of His Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's the way you ought to ask yourself: Do you if you're trying to ask a question to determine the validity of your faith or evaluate your faith, ask yourself this simple question: Do I experience the power of the Holy Spirit in my life?
SPEAKER_01: Because then it takes it out of the realm of the subjective and puts it into this kind of, because this is the way the Bible always talks about it, but this is not some one-off thing in a book tucked away towards the back of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, the book of Romans says the very much the same thing in chapter 8, starting in verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: He says to the uh Paul records these words and says, You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me just stop right here.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that first sentence again.
SPEAKER_01: You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, the spirit of God, look at and listen, the spirit of God does not come to dwell inside of you to forgive you for living out of your flesh.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what he does.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit doesn't come just to say, hey, here's 24-7 forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Keep sinning, I got you covered.
SPEAKER_01: No, you're not in the flesh, but in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, because if you continue to live in the flesh, it's a sign that the spirit of God does not dwell in you.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
SPEAKER_01: But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.
SPEAKER_01: You see, think of it this way: He gave himself for you on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: He gave himself to you when he gave you the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we talk about one of those a lot more in the church than the other one.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_01: He gave himself for you on the cross, but he gave himself to you when he put his spirit inside of you.
SPEAKER_01: When a person becomes a Christian, God comes to live inside of them by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: Say amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a little bit confused, say amen.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, I'm not going for that.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps a visual will help, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna ask my friend Asher to come up on the stage right now.
SPEAKER_01: Asher, make your way out of your world there and come up here on the stage.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way.
SPEAKER_01: Clap for Asher.
SPEAKER_01: He does better when you clap.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Asher, do you have any idea what's in this bag?
SPEAKER_01: This what is in this bag is an explanation of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We don't say that out loud.
SPEAKER_01: Uh anyway, no, I'm just messing with you.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, oh, gee whiz.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, it's not a chicken, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Relax.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a snake.
SPEAKER_01: Because most of the time you talk about the Holy Spirit, and especially in the Baptist church, your mind goes to some extent.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have to like swing snakes around and like chase chickens.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: This is what the Holy Spirit is like.
SPEAKER_01: This is you.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let me put this down here, right here, okay?
SPEAKER_01: This is a glass, and this milk has been in the freezer in my office.
SPEAKER_01: It is ice cold, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so you say, What what's that got to do with me?
SPEAKER_01: This is I'll put this right here.
SPEAKER_01: This is your life.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit is tasty.
SPEAKER_01: This is what happens, Asher.
SPEAKER_01: This is somebody, okay?
SPEAKER_01: This is what happens when they become a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of them.
SPEAKER_01: You like a little bit of the Holy Spirit or a lot?
SPEAKER_01: A lot.
SPEAKER_01: Me too, Asher.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, I just let's just talk for a minute because it just fills up.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, the milk is getting to the very top.
SPEAKER_01: We better stop.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if I ask you, Asher, what is that?
SPEAKER_01: What would you say?
SPEAKER_01: It's called chocolate milk, right?
SPEAKER_01: You're all wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Look at it.
SPEAKER_01: That's not chocolate milk, that's milk with chocolate stuff at the bottom of the glass.
SPEAKER_01: This this is a great picture of many Christians.
SPEAKER_01: You have the Holy Spirit, but you don't walk in the Spirit, so the Holy Spirit just sits dormant at the bottom of your glass because you've grieved the Spirit so much that he's just he's just like, I can't really do anything because you keep being a knucklehead.
SPEAKER_01: You have the spirit, you've just never walked in it.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, you you you don't think about it, you don't pray to the Holy Spirit, you don't say, Holy Spirit, lead me into the truth about this situation.
SPEAKER_01: See, this is just milk with chocolate stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Look, there's probably an two, two, maybe an inch and a half of chocolate stuff down there.
SPEAKER_01: But see, you know what this is?
SPEAKER_01: These are spiritual disciplines.
SPEAKER_01: When you do things like pray and read the Bible and go to church and hang out with other believers, all of a sudden the change becomes obvious, Asher.
SPEAKER_01: There's so much chocolate syrup in here, Asher, this is gonna taste like chocolate syrup.
SPEAKER_01: Do you like chocolate milk?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, are you a communist?
SPEAKER_01: You better.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if I was to ask you, Asher, hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I changed my mind.
SPEAKER_01: I want just white milk.
SPEAKER_01: Could you get the chocolate out of that for me?
SPEAKER_01: Why not?
SPEAKER_01: It's not possible.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way.
SPEAKER_01: When God puts his spirit inside of you, this is what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: It's right here in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: When God gives you of his spirit, it's impossible for you to lose that.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, as a matter of fact, in Ephesians chapter 4, about verse 30, you've been sealed by the Spirit to the day of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Now God gives you his spirit, he seals you with his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Why does he do that, Asher?
SPEAKER_01: There you go, Asher.
SPEAKER_01: So you could just enjoy the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's your goal in life.
SPEAKER_01: Now that glass is cold, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: I told you it's been in my freezer.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not kidding you.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to go back to your seat and I want you to just look at it, make eye contact with as many friends as possible and just kind of hold it up and take a big drink.
SPEAKER_01: And for the rest of the sermon, just be like people looking at you, just like, hey, there you go, this is for you.
SPEAKER_01: Enjoy more, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because how old are you right now?
SPEAKER_01: It's 13.
SPEAKER_01: What if?
SPEAKER_01: And this is what I'm telling you, it's not just a what if, it's a certainty.
SPEAKER_01: What if the reason God established a relationship with you is so that you would learn to enjoy the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_01: That's what Christianity is.
SPEAKER_01: That's why He comes to abide in you.
SPEAKER_01: Now, go enjoy the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Now, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: This is where the certainty comes from.
SPEAKER_01: He puts his spirit inside of you.
SPEAKER_01: He's not gonna take it back.
SPEAKER_01: He's not gonna say, Oh, I didn't know you were gonna do that.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: He puts the spirit in you.
SPEAKER_01: That's why in Galatians chapter 5 he says, Hey, walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Because that chocolate milk is so enjoyable, you don't want to go back.
SPEAKER_01: Now, all you're like, did he spill any?
SPEAKER_01: That's what somebody's looking at.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, here's my favorite part.
SPEAKER_01: His sister's sitting right next to him.
SPEAKER_01: And he's just like, Here's to you, sis.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Now, now, by the way, not only remember he gave himself for you on the cross, he gave himself to you by giving you the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why does he do that?
SPEAKER_01: This is what the Spirit does.
SPEAKER_01: There's three things the Spirit does right here in the text that I want you to see.
SPEAKER_01: The first one's in verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: He leads us to understand the mission of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Look at it, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't just come and just sit dormant at the bottom of our glass.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 14, and we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his son to be the savior of the world.
SPEAKER_01: He leads us to understand the mission of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The mission of Jesus, Jesus did not come to be right, even though he was right.
SPEAKER_01: He came to be the savior of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And so you have to ask yourself today, is your mission in life an echo and a reflection of the mission of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Or did you just come to be right and win spiritual discussions at work?
SPEAKER_01: Or do you remind people, hey, by the way, Jesus came to be the savior of the world?
SPEAKER_01: I was talking to somebody recently, like this past week, and the guy's like, Man, I'm I said, pretty bad.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, I've been sinning a long time.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah, since you were born.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Oh, I mean, yeah, I mean, you gotta remind me.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, But see, here's the thing, and I told him, I'm gonna talk about this to my church on Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the beauty of you being honest, because Jesus came for people like you.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Well, I said, he said, I didn't come for people that are well, I came for sick people that need a doctor.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, I'm pretty jacked up.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Jesus came for jacked up people.
SPEAKER_01: That's in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, jacked up's not in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but it says this in Luke chapter 19.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I came to seek and save that which is lost.
SPEAKER_01: You're not bad.
SPEAKER_01: It's not bad versus good, you're lost versus found.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, what if I don't want to get found just yet?
SPEAKER_01: I said, You're a real sinner, aren't you?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Yeah, I just I said, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Hold out as long as you can.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, aren't you supposed to be talking me into this?
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't talk you into this.
SPEAKER_01: But when God reveals himself to you, he will draw you to himself.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't have to put pressure on you.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're here today and you're sitting there on the ground floor up in the theater seats back there, and you're like, Yeah, I'm kind of like that guy.
SPEAKER_01: There's no pressure coming, there's no boogeyman Jesus coming.
SPEAKER_01: They were riding down the road, smoking marijuana, listening to deaf leopard, and their Camaro burned.
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing the Holy Spirit leads you to understand the mission of Jesus, and the more you understand the mission of Jesus, your mission will become like that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus did not come uh to make people feel bad.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't come to picket or to register people for a certain political party or to protest or to cash out and get out and go live on 40 acres out in the wilderness with no neighbors because that's your idea of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: No, Jesus came to get down in the nitty, gritty details of life with the beat up, the burned out, and bedraggled people.
SPEAKER_01: This is his mission.
SPEAKER_01: Is that yours?
SPEAKER_01: Second thing the Holy Spirit does, the spirit leads us to understand the deity of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, I want you to notice because you talk about the Holy Spirit, I want you to notice how doctrinally sound the Holy Spirit is.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.
SPEAKER_01: How do you confess that Jesus is the Son of God?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us elsewhere that you can't do that except by the Spirit at work inside of you.
SPEAKER_01: And so the Spirit leads us to understand the deity of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, why is that a big deal?
SPEAKER_01: It's a big deal because Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: What that means is that we have definitive proof that God has acted personally to do something about our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again and I'll connect it to the news this week.
SPEAKER_01: The fact that Jesus is the Son of God is a big deal because you have definitive proof that God has acted personally to do something about your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that a big deal?
SPEAKER_01: It's a big deal in and of itself.
SPEAKER_01: But then also when something happens that is so evil, you're tempted to lose hope, you can be reminded, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: God has acted personally before to do something about a catastrophic situation.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray that He will act personally in this circumstance.
SPEAKER_01: You know who I've been praying for ever since I heard this?
SPEAKER_01: And when I heard it, I was like, oh, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: Some and when new layers of information come out.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, what happened in Uvaldean, and it's not this person's fault, but a teacher propped the door open that the guy got in.
SPEAKER_01: And that teacher, I'm just like, I don't know who that person is.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to know, but I'm just like, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: So I've been praying for that person.
SPEAKER_01: I want that person to understand, hey, God loves you.
SPEAKER_01: You you didn't see this coming.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of you, I've been, I got phone calls, people, oh, what's the deal?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's God, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: In 30 seconds or less, because we had little kids in here.
SPEAKER_01: 30 seconds or less, God created everyone with a free will.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Some people exercise their free will for evil, some people exercise their free will for good.
SPEAKER_01: That does not make God responsible for how people use their free will.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So don't roll up, oh, where's God?
SPEAKER_01: Same place he's always been, on the throne.
SPEAKER_01: And the spirit is at work in God's people, leading you to understand the deity of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: God has acted personally and he continues to act personally.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the third thing the Spirit does.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit convinces us of the of the love that God has for us.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't convince us, he doesn't convict us or convince us that God loves us, but he convinces us of the love God has for us.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: He said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.
SPEAKER_01: Now ask yourself, you're smart people, why would the Bible say, so we have come to know and to believe?
SPEAKER_01: You know a lot of things that you don't really believe.
SPEAKER_01: Are you aware of that?
SPEAKER_01: You know them up here.
SPEAKER_01: Now that word to believe is the Greek word pestuo, and it means to believe to the place of putting confidence in.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: If you have an NIV, a new international version of the Bible, it says verse 16 like this.
SPEAKER_01: It says, For we have come to know and rely on the love God has for us.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself as you sit here this morning, do you rely more on your love for God or on God's love for you?
SPEAKER_01: Because the church in America, I believe, is full of people who rely on their love for God.
SPEAKER_01: And so they're always feeling as if I don't quite measure up.
SPEAKER_01: There's something missing.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible says here that the Holy Spirit convinces us of the love that God has for us.
SPEAKER_01: And this is so powerful from this point on, we not only know this love, but we rely on it because we have confidence in it.
SPEAKER_01: And ask yourself: have you progressed in your understanding of God's love such that you not only know it, but you rely on it?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you still relying on your own ability?
SPEAKER_01: This is not in my notes that I sent to the guys, but let me just give you four uh evidences that you're still relying on your love.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: People that rely on their ability to love God, they they lack certainty, they're always tired, it's never enough, and they're rarely joyful.
SPEAKER_01: They lack certainty, they're always tired, it's never enough, and they're rarely joyful.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they know the love of God, but they rely on their ability to love God.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying we don't love God, I'm saying what buckles your knees is the love God has for you.
SPEAKER_01: He says in verse 19, we love because he first loved us.
SPEAKER_01: Your loving God was not your idea.
SPEAKER_01: Stop trying to sustain it in your own momentum.
SPEAKER_01: The second thing we see in the text is that we see the uh the is the progression of love.
SPEAKER_01: The progression of love.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13 starts off with by this, look at verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: By this.
SPEAKER_01: It's given a definite picture.
SPEAKER_01: By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in the world.
SPEAKER_01: There's no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
SPEAKER_01: For fear has to do with punishment.
SPEAKER_01: And whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
SPEAKER_01: Just notice, I want you to circle in verse 17 the two words with us.
SPEAKER_01: By this is love perfected, then those two words with us.
SPEAKER_01: With us.
SPEAKER_01: Very important thing that you notice.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Not only is love being perfected, but we are also being perfected.
SPEAKER_01: This means that biblically, you cannot stay the same person you've always been and just try to be more loving.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Biblically, sanctification, becoming more Christ-like is this progressive reality that is always getting more and more Christ-like, and we're being perfected with us.
SPEAKER_01: So as you become more Christ-like, you become more loving.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: Say amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to see what I'm talking about, don't turn there, but write down John chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 8, the Pharisees, religious leaders of the day when Jesus was walking the earth, uh, they're always trying to trick Jesus and get him in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: And so they got a woman that had a little setup.
SPEAKER_01: They got a woman caught in the act of adultery.
SPEAKER_01: They throw her at the feet of Jesus and they say, Now, Jesus, the law rocks in hand, the law says we should stone such women.
SPEAKER_01: What do you say?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, the Bible says, just stoops down and writes in the dirt.
SPEAKER_01: And he looked up and he said, I tell you what, whoever's without sin cast the first stone.
SPEAKER_01: And then the Bible says this they dropped their walks and departed.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the phrase the older ones first.
SPEAKER_01: Because, see, love.
SPEAKER_01: It being perfected with With us.
SPEAKER_01: As you mature as a believer, you should become a more loving person.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're being perfected and love is being perfected.
SPEAKER_01: Now that word perfected doesn't mean perfection, it means you're accomplishing the goal.
SPEAKER_01: It's from the Greek word telos, is the root word.
SPEAKER_01: And here it's the word, it's a tense, telaos.
SPEAKER_01: And it's, hey, I'm I'm reaching the goal.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm being perfected.
SPEAKER_01: I'm being more Christ-like.
SPEAKER_01: I'm maturing, and the love of God in me is maturing at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: If not, then what happens is that you find yourself in situations where you see love as nothing more than another form of impression management.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Unless you understand the correlation between these two realities, love just becomes another form of impression management.
SPEAKER_01: The kind of love is not something you can turn off and on to get you out of social encounters where you run into people you hate.
SPEAKER_01: Here's how you know that you're not being perfected with love, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because you get in certain situations, you see certain people, and you're like, oh, hey, good to see you.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're gonna be there at the picnic.
SPEAKER_01: And your kids are behind you looking at each other like, who is our mom right now, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Everybody knows my mom hates this person.
SPEAKER_01: Love, because you're not been perfected with love.
SPEAKER_01: You you're the same person you've always been, and you just say, Oh, be loving.
SPEAKER_01: And your kids are watching you be phony.
SPEAKER_01: And they're just like, they're just in the backseat rolling their eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, what are you kids doing?
SPEAKER_01: Nothing, mom, nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what's here's what's not happened.
SPEAKER_01: You have not been perfected with love.
SPEAKER_01: And so love is now a spiritual form of impression management.
SPEAKER_01: Like someone said to me this week, I am such a jerk, or I took a listening class in college.
SPEAKER_01: Someone said to this week in a conversation, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know I love you, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, No, I don't.
SPEAKER_01: What would you point to in our relationship as evidence for me that you love me?
SPEAKER_01: All you do is thank me for all the things I do for you.
SPEAKER_01: I can do that for strangers.
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, come on, don't hate.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not hating, I'm just telling the truth.
SPEAKER_01: You see, I've been perfected in love.
SPEAKER_01: So as I grow and mature spiritually, my concept of love grows and matures.
SPEAKER_01: So you can't just love me with words.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean that.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you know I love you, right?
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this question: do the people in your life who you love, do they know you love them and why?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you like this guy?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you know I love you, right?
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
SPEAKER_01: Why would you ever have to say that to a person?
SPEAKER_01: It's like saying to your wife today on the way home, you know I love you, right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm in the backseat going, why is she doubting?
SPEAKER_01: Why do you have to call for this sense of reassurance?
SPEAKER_01: See, here's here's two things that we see right here.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, perfecting love prepares us for what is to come.
SPEAKER_01: See, because we with us, with us, by this is love perfected with us.
SPEAKER_01: This is important because it prepares you for what is to come.
SPEAKER_01: Uh to be perfected, it's that Greek word, tele-ao, and it means to bring to completion, to reach the goal.
SPEAKER_01: This is important, beloved, because the love of God, the goal of the love of God, hear this, is not to make you feel better, not to make you feel forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: The goal of the love of God is not even to, in this case, to make you feel loved.
SPEAKER_01: The goal of the love of God is to soul work in you that it does something in you, and what it does in you is it gets you ready for the day of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And so you stand before God with confidence.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the love of God is supposed to be doing in us.
SPEAKER_01: It's being perfected with us such that we stand before God.
SPEAKER_01: So let me ask you the question: if you stood before God today, would you have confidence?
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, this is the God that knows everything you've ever done and why you did it.
SPEAKER_01: Would you have confidence to stand before that God today and just be like, here I am?
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: So you're empowered to have this confidence and not fear punishment.
SPEAKER_01: I was having coffee this week with a friend of mine who's a Catholic, very devout Catholic, and we disagree about things.
SPEAKER_01: And every once in a while, this person likes to ask me questions, and I'm like, sure.
SPEAKER_01: And and the topic of purgatory came up, and and she said, Well, I know I'm going to purgatory.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Why are you going to purgatory?
SPEAKER_01: She said, Because I got to get cleansed of my sins.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, Do you believe in purgatory?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I went to purgatory for my honeymoon.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great ski resort in Colorado.
SPEAKER_01: I went to purgatory for my honeymoon, and this marriage has been hell ever since.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, No, seriously, I said, No, I don't believe in purgatory.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, we fundamentally disagree.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get to this in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you have the right categories.
SPEAKER_01: We'll come back to that.
SPEAKER_01: And because I have the right categories, I could disagree and still be a loving person.
SPEAKER_01: I said, No, here she said, Why don't you believe in purgatory?
SPEAKER_01: I don't believe in purgatory because you said that's where you go to get cleansed of your sins.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus died on the cross to pay for all my sins.
SPEAKER_01: I put nothing on the same level with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And she just went, huh?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And we kept on talking.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't conflictual.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't call her names.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't call me names.
SPEAKER_01: But because of Jesus, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Because of Jesus, I can stand before God on judgment day with confidence, not arrogance, but just this humble confidence.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the Bible, you should be thinking, hey, now, why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17 tells us.
SPEAKER_01: Look right there.
SPEAKER_01: He says, By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: How do you get that?
SPEAKER_01: Because as he is, so also are we in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Now, okay, now that you've said that, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: When the Bible says, because as he is, that's a reference to Jesus, so are we in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Not in nature, but in standing.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, now you're really lost me there.
SPEAKER_01: Stay with me, okay?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible's not, we're not morbid, and the Bible's not saying, Oh, you're little gods, and you're no, no.
SPEAKER_01: You do not have the nature of God, but you have the same standing that God has, I mean, that Jesus has before God.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you were born of God.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, John chapter 1, the gospel of John chapter 1, verse 12 and 13 says it like this: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become to become the children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when someone also asked me this week, my daughter, my oldest daughter's getting married August 19th.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Hey, how's the wedding coming?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Expensively.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, How are you doing with that?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Hey, here's the thing News flash men, everything you give birth to, you're responsible for.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy goes, I don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I gave birth to them.
SPEAKER_01: I said, by the way, I'll pay for a sister's wedding as well.
SPEAKER_01: Mary saving for that.
SPEAKER_01: As a parent, you say no to yourself to say yes to your kids.
SPEAKER_01: And it and it's not a big sacrifice, it's a reality, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So put on your big boy pants, stop buying all your boy toys that just collect in the garage and prepare for your children's future.
SPEAKER_01: That's your job.
SPEAKER_01: It's not our job.
SPEAKER_01: Don't send me uh a fun letter about your kid's wedding because I ain't giving nothing.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I've got one before.
SPEAKER_01: I just flipped the letter on the back and wrote, You're kidding me, right?
SPEAKER_01: Mailed it back to him.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy goes, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: You I mean, whatever you get, whatever I give birth to, I'm responsible for.
SPEAKER_01: That's my kid.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not begrudging, like, hey, babe, here's the budget.
SPEAKER_01: If you go over, that's okay, we'll get it sorted.
SPEAKER_01: I thought that part, I didn't say that part.
SPEAKER_01: No, I just, he said, so what?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Now, my friend's 33 and single, never been married.
SPEAKER_01: Selfish as a day is long.
SPEAKER_01: Goes to Kabul three times a year.
SPEAKER_01: Married people don't go to Kabul three times a year.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe if you're married and don't have kids, but if you got kids, you ain't going to Kabul three times a year.
SPEAKER_01: You can go once, glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: And them kids are expensive.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I told a friend of mine the other day he got two little ones.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Hey man, so you're just getting married.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Start saving now.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I mean, what's I said, let me just let me just give it to you like this, my man.
SPEAKER_01: These little kids right here, these little ankle biters, they are as cheap now as they're ever gonna be.
SPEAKER_01: Because he was talking about how expensive, man, we gotta buy diapers and butt.
SPEAKER_01: You wait till they want a car and a cell phone.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And he's just like, it's not helping me.
SPEAKER_01: I think, yeah, I'm helping you.
SPEAKER_01: And I told him the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, whatever you give birth to, you're responsible for.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Why am I telling you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because when God gives birth to you, he takes responsibility for you.
SPEAKER_01: He puts his spirit inside of you and he moves you to follow his decrees.
SPEAKER_01: It's not hard.
SPEAKER_01: It's not, oh man, I don't know what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: You you as he is in the world, so are we.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you have the same standing before God that Jesus does.
SPEAKER_01: Not nature, but status and standing.
SPEAKER_01: You were born of God by God.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't get there on your own.
SPEAKER_01: You were born on third base, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't hit a triple.
SPEAKER_01: Put the bat down.
SPEAKER_01: The last thing we see is this is the love of God is visible.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20 and 21.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna get at you here on this Memorial Day before I get you out.
SPEAKER_01: Because I know some of y'all got got plans this afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you ain't working tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: I know what your plans are.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone, and by the way, look at me, enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: Just don't be a knucklehead.
SPEAKER_01: Don't call me, hey, he's drunk in the swimming pool.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Throw the pool furniture and on top of him.
SPEAKER_01: Leave me alone.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.
SPEAKER_01: For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you wish the love of God was invisible?
SPEAKER_01: It'd be so easy.
SPEAKER_01: You know I love you, right?
SPEAKER_01: Not really, no.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: He says, in this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother.
SPEAKER_01: See, the love of God is visible, it's tangible and demonstratable.
SPEAKER_01: It would be easy if it was just invisible.
SPEAKER_01: You could just hate people and say you love.
SPEAKER_01: But see, here's what it comes down to, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta have the right categories.
SPEAKER_01: Most of us, I'm afraid, you have the wrong categories.
SPEAKER_01: You have categories like Catholic and Protestant, gay versus straight, conservative, liberal, Democrat, Republican, left, right, black, white, CNN, Fox News, mental health, gun control.
SPEAKER_01: That's dominating the conversation this week.
SPEAKER_01: Wrong categories.
SPEAKER_01: You're failing at your primary task.
SPEAKER_01: What if from God's perspective these are the categories?
SPEAKER_01: Love and hate.
SPEAKER_01: Then when you see ladies or men, you see that guy you hate and you got to fake it in front of your kids.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, John, good to see you, man.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you, brother.
SPEAKER_01: And your kids are like, hey, dad, isn't that the guy you talk about all the time?
SPEAKER_01: You're not being perfected with love.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: You're still here, and you got this big theology of love, but no one believes you.
SPEAKER_01: Because they know what you're really like.
SPEAKER_01: You're just saying all the right things.
SPEAKER_01: See, what happens is you get the right categories, you're able to, it's not all the other stuff.
SPEAKER_01: It's love and hate.
SPEAKER_01: Love and hate.
SPEAKER_01: If that's the only categories, then trust me, from experience, love and hate, then you you find yourself doing things you by nature wouldn't do.
SPEAKER_01: Like if I said the name Ross King, if you know who I'm talking about, say amen.
SPEAKER_01: Ross King is a singer-songwriter, grew up in college station, greatly used of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now he lives in Nashville.
SPEAKER_01: We've been friends forever.
SPEAKER_01: And every once in a while, people will say to me, Hey, uh, tell me about you and Ross King.
SPEAKER_01: And I say, Oh, we've been friends forever.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes I want to just choke him.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, when we first met, we were doing a camp together, a youth camp, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because back then I didn't have the right categories.
SPEAKER_01: I had categories like right and wrong, and and and we were in a restaurant in Leakey, Texas.
SPEAKER_01: It was me and Ross and his percussionist, a guy named Craig Weaver.
SPEAKER_01: And Ross and I were talking, and the conversation kind of started picking up momentum, and I liked that.
SPEAKER_01: And he was disagreeing, and I was like, You're wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And so I was kind of talking with some volume.
SPEAKER_01: He was talking with some volume.
SPEAKER_01: And at one point I said, We can go outside and settle this.
SPEAKER_01: And and because I had their own categories.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a brag, that's a confession.
SPEAKER_01: When you have the wrong categories, you act small.
SPEAKER_01: When you have the right categories, you can act really big.
SPEAKER_01: I had the wrong categories.
SPEAKER_01: So I was just like, hey, don't talk to me disrespectfully.
SPEAKER_01: We'll go outside.
SPEAKER_01: And Craig stood up and said, Hey guys, God, God, this is getting a little heated.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, he goes, You're here leading worship.
SPEAKER_01: And Neil, you're here speaking to the cat.
SPEAKER_01: I can put a beat down on him and preach really good tonight.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the sick thing.
SPEAKER_01: I actually believed that back then.
SPEAKER_01: And I was just like, I ain't all your friends today and them.
SPEAKER_01: I'll put a thumpin' on your melon.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, come on, man.
SPEAKER_01: I said, All right, all right, let's just be done.
SPEAKER_01: So we ate, left about 12:30, got back.
SPEAKER_01: I played basketball, some guys.
SPEAKER_01: Went to my room, took a shower.
SPEAKER_01: I'm laying down.
SPEAKER_01: I got to preach in about two hours.
SPEAKER_01: And clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit says, Really?
SPEAKER_01: You gonna just leave this where it was at lunch?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he's wrong.
SPEAKER_01: That's not my fault.
SPEAKER_01: Why am I?
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Wrong categories, Neil.
SPEAKER_01: Ross King doesn't know that you love him.
SPEAKER_01: I want him to know that you love him.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, he knows I love him.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, you're gonna demonstrate your love for him.
SPEAKER_01: What do you want me to do?
SPEAKER_01: I looked over in this little plastic trash can in my hotel room.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, why am I looking at that?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're gonna take that bag out, you're gonna fill it up with warm water, you're gonna get some of these hand towels, you're gonna go to his room, and you're gonna get on your knees and wash his feet.
SPEAKER_01: That was my thought exactly.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01: The devil's trying to make me look foolish, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And it was about 30 seconds of internal dialogue, and I was like, and I laughed that loud.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, That is really you.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is why I love Ross King.
SPEAKER_01: I go to his hotel room, I knock on the door, he opens it up, he goes, Oh my gosh, of course you're doing this.
SPEAKER_01: He walked in, and his wife was in there, and Craig, the referee, was in there, and I said, You gotta stay on the edge of the bed.
SPEAKER_01: And his wife was like, Oh my gosh, this is so sweet.
SPEAKER_01: And Ross is laughing and crying, and Craig is just going, Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: And I just I washed all them's feet.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because earlier I had the wrong categories.
SPEAKER_01: And when you have the wrong categories, you act really small.
SPEAKER_01: You see people, you're like, oh hey, hey, brother, good to see you.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know you went to church here, but I left my last church because you were there.
SPEAKER_01: Now you're here.
SPEAKER_01: Stop following me around.
SPEAKER_01: It was great.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll say, What do we do?
SPEAKER_01: I said, nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray and I'll see you over at the tabernacle for worship.
SPEAKER_01: It's great.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, we still get in disagreements.
SPEAKER_01: We still, and I'm just like, you're so wrong, but man, I love you.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, All right, let's go eat.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: When you get the categories wrong, you gotta act small.
SPEAKER_01: When you get the categories right, you're capable of bigness.
SPEAKER_01: God made you for bigness.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest, just relax.
SPEAKER_01: Put your hand quietly over the mouth of your children.
SPEAKER_01: They're fine, leave them alone.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Just let me voice a prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Clyde's gonna sing something over us.
SPEAKER_01: Some questions come on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: The questions are designed to kind of turn your intellect and your head kind of towards the text that we read today.
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you for our kids.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: That sometimes the cattle are lowing in here, and that's fine.
SPEAKER_01: We want our kids to see what worship looks like in big church.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, brood over us now as we just take just a moment to ask ourselves what had our name on it.
SPEAKER_01: God, when we hear that simple phrase, God is love, we are comforted and we were called and we are caused.
SPEAKER_01: We're caused to live and be a certain way because the Bible says that's who you are, how you are.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, where we've been hating, uh may we confess our hate this week, which doesn't make sense to a lot of us because we've been taught manners in the church to be nice.
SPEAKER_01: And if we were going to be honest, we would confess to people that we've hated them.
SPEAKER_01: That's a statement about us, not a statement about them.
SPEAKER_01: It's a statement of how small and petty and catty and childish we can be.
SPEAKER_01: To be so loved by God and turn around and hate our brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, give us the courage this week to confess our love and our hate and to own it.
SPEAKER_01: Because the love of God is being perfected along with us.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't want to miss out.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to consume the love of God upon our lusty impression management.
SPEAKER_01: We want to be real, authentic, integrated people.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, help us to do that, we pray.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: There's somebody in this room that you were wondering, what are you gonna do with the rest of that?
SPEAKER_01: So, in case you're wondering what I was gonna do with the rest of that, anybody here really like chocolate milk?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody?
SPEAKER_01: Come here, young lady, right there on the end.
SPEAKER_01: Come here.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what's your name?
SPEAKER_01: Maddie.
SPEAKER_01: In the Bible, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing that God's gonna keep all the promises he's ever made.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to not use a glass.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to take this lid off there and just drink this right out of the jug, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And just be reminded that God keeps his word.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
SPEAKER_01: Run free.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, take a snip right now.
SPEAKER_01: Get after.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: That's yours.
SPEAKER_01: Take it with you.
SPEAKER_01: How about a hand for my friend Maddie?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, the great thing about little kids is they they don't know how to fake it.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Anybody like chocolate milk?
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Me.
SPEAKER_01: I said, now you drink it, take it off.
SPEAKER_01: She'd like writing out.
SPEAKER_01: Look like Wade Collier on a moonshine jug, anyway.
SPEAKER_01: We'd like to conclude our services with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet if you would.
SPEAKER_01: And hey, don't ask Maddie to share her chocolate milk because it ain't yours.
SPEAKER_01: She doesn't put her mouth on it.
SPEAKER_01: You see that?
SPEAKER_01: Clearly, she's not homeschooled.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: He gave himself for you on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And he so loved you that he gave himself to you in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Depart now and walk in the Spirit, and you'll find yourself not fulfilling the desires of your flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Holy Spirit is so stinking enjoyable.
SPEAKER_01: Enjoy who is in you.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.