Compelled & Compelling | Part 3

Speaker 1 00:00:04 Come on. Good morning, church. Good morning. Come on. Why don't you high five, two people and say Good morning. Go on. Let them know you're glad they're here. Good morning. Let 'em know. Good morning. Anyone in this room had their life transformed by the love of God? Hey, come on. There's some joy in the house. Life has been completely transformed by the, by the love of God. The love of God, uh, changes things, doesn't it? Come on. It changes things. It transforms things. And, uh, I, I believe that the love of God is continuing that story and narrative this morning as he invites us, as the love of God, as God himself invites us towards what it means to live out as a compelled people. Compelled and compelling is the series, uh, we're in. And, uh, I I'm continuing that, uh, as part three today. What if I was to tell you that the love of Jesus is still to this day transforming people's lives all across this world? Speaker 1 00:01:15 What if I was to tell you that in prison cells come fix or having dreams about the person of Jesus and being embraced by his love? What if I was to tell you people who are fleeing and feel like they have no home? I become an awakened to the love of Jesus and finding a home in him. What if I was to say that even in some of the most hurtful and painful circumstances, Jesus is turning up with his love and radically transforming people's lives? What if I was to tell you that Christ's love compels us into a broken world to be light in the darkness? Speaker 1 00:02:02 We're reading from two Corinthians five US, 14 to 15, and it says, these words for Christ's love compels us. Everyone say compels for Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that Jesus died for us all and therefore we have died with him. And he died for all. And those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for live for him who died and raised again. What we've been doing in this series compelled and compelling is we have been trying to encourage us, the church, the family, all of us in this room today and those watching online, that we believe as we are compelled by the love of Christ, we are sent into the world to be a, a light in the darkness to represent his love as best as we can. And what we've been looking at is we've been exploring one Corinthians 13. Speaker 1 00:02:53 Anyone ever read one Corinthians 13, the chapter of love before? Hey. And what we've been doing is we've breaking that down and going through just, uh, really expositionally going through it and, and exploring what it means for Jesus to model that love. One Christians 13 is based on the person of Jesus, but then also how we can be compelled to reflect that love to be carriers of that same love. And how many people know that the love of Jesus is different to what the world will say love is. Hey, the love of Jesus is, is completely different. In fact, I would argue that love is not defined by what culture says, but love is defined by what scripture say. Love is defined in the person of Jesus himself. It says that God is love. That's who he is. He embodies love. He is the personification of one Corinthians 13. Speaker 1 00:03:38 He is, he is love, and it is by his love that we are compelled when we embrace the love of Jesus. And when we find the love of Jesus, when we are invited into his love, there is something inside of us that should be compelled to go out, compelled to make a difference, compelled to share that love with, with other people, to share that love with, with the world, to be compelled and to also be compelling that when people see the church, they see a mosaic of of what heaven can taste like, of what heaven can feel like that when they see the church, even in its brokenness and even in its flaws, they see a savior who loves the church, died for the church and gives himself to the church that we can be compelled and we can be compelling. I want you to see this morning that God's love is precise and distinctive in its purpose. Speaker 1 00:04:34 That God's love pursues us and chases us. That it, it breaks down wars of hostility and it it charges down barriers of exclusion that God's love is, is always inviting us to a new narrative, the way of his kingdom. That God's love is only found in its definition by the person of Jesus who is charged of compassion. And the greatest news of all, the greatest news that this series can bring to all of our hearts this morning is that God's love is not dependent on, on what we do, but God's love is dependent on who he is. He's love. So we continue reading first Corinthians 13 versus five to seven, and I'm gonna give you four, four parts of love that we're exploring this morning and these four parts, I'm gonna show you a Bible story within the gospels that I believe Jesus literally shows how he models this love. Speaker 1 00:05:34 And then I'm gonna hopefully just bring a challenge and an encouragement of how we can also carry this love. Is that okay? Church, I want Corinthians 30 in verse five to seven. I'd love to encourage you to take notes. You wanna get your phones out or if you've got a a notepad with you, I feel that this could be helpful for you to take notes. We're gonna explore the love of God together and how we can model it. Firstly, it says this, Love thinks no evil. Love thinks no evil, love does not rejoice. Iniquity, love rejoices in the truth. And love bears all things for principles, for clear principles. Love thinks no evil. Love does not rejoice in inequity in other persons. It doesn't rejoice in failure, personal failure, but also failure around us. Love does does rejoice in the truth. It celebrates the truth. Speaker 1 00:06:33 And then also love bears all things. Lemme show you a story that happened in in John chapter eight. It's one of my favorite stories, and it's a story of how Jesus, I believe embodies these four components of love. In this story, you will see that love, uh, doesn't think evil and, and we see Jesus who is unwilling to embrace the world's philosophy of evil. And then we see Jesus in this story also not rejoice in inequity, not rejoicing in failure of other people. And we're in a world right now that rejoices in the failure of other people. Let me tell you that all over the place, we, uh, are seen consistently in the world news of people that are desperately looking for people to fail because they knew that failure and evil is really easy reads we're attracted to it. Human nature. We see these headlines that Jason's even spoke about this morning, headlines of bad news. Speaker 1 00:07:24 The the press know that bad news gets more clicks than good news does. Friends we're people of good news. Amen. We have a different narrative to the way we think in the way we operate. And Jesus wasn't willing to embrace the bad news. He was here to be bringers of good news. So he didn't rejoice in the failure iniquity of other people. But what Jesus did do is he, he rejoiced in the truth. He celebrated truth. He had a wonderful way of, of bringing truth without it hurting other people. And then fourthly, we of course know that Jesus, he bears all things. And in this story we see how he takes on the pain and sin of people. The stories found in John chapter eight and, and what happens One morning Jesus has been in his ministry, he's been working, people are aware of who he is, He's been doing signs and wonders. Speaker 1 00:08:12 And one morning it says in John chapter eight verse one that Jesus woke up and when he woke up early in the morning, he decided that it would be good for his soul to go to the temple court and to be with others and brothers and sisters who are gonna worship the same God. And he gets up early in the morning even though he is tired, even though he probably could done that extra hour that we all had in our beds this morning. Amen. Even though he could have probably slept in and enjoyed that sleeping, you know, he is doing lots of work for the kingdom, lots of things. But still in this moment we read that Jesus wakes up and he makes his way to the temple courts in odds to rejoice and believe of similar people to read the hearing and scripture reading, to, to worship together and be to come together. Speaker 1 00:08:51 We see something already here, don't we church that even in our worst days, in even in our good days, we need one another. Amen. We need to make it a commitment to gather together, whether that's small or big, because the reality is I need you and you need each other. And Jesus wakes up, he goes to the temple, probably not expecting to do any form of ministry. He wasn't on the preaching road or that morning, but when Jesus turns up, other people start to turn up. Coincidence happens in scripture. So Jesus goes to the temple courts and it says in verse two when he gets there that he, he sits down and as he sits down, the crowds started to gather. People are in the morning as they're on the way to church, they start to hear about the greatest teacher of all time is coming to church this morning. Speaker 1 00:09:33 We've gotta get them, we've gotta invite friends. So it says that the temple courts started to fill up with all these people. And it said in that moment Jesus realized that he was gonna have to do some teaching. So it says he sits down and he sits down and he starts to teach the people the mysteries of the kingdom of God. He starts to share the people that he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, that he is the word in flesh. He is exactly who the temple and who the church needs. And he starts to gather the masses. People are sat in every space possible to listen to the teachings of Jesus. As he sat there with the Old Testament opened up teaching and fulfilling what the prophet said about the Savior and the Messiah who would come and fulfill the word of God. Speaker 1 00:10:16 And in the middle of this teaching, people are listening in and sharing mysteries that have never been spoken about before. People are in awe with that which he is saying. And then in the middle of his teaching, there's this scuffle it takes out of the back. In fact, there's about 10 to 15 men and they start powering the way into the temple courts. And people just like you are now start to turn around and go, What's all this commotion? What's going on? And Jesus stops his teaching because he realizes that everyone is starting to look back at what's taken place. And these 50 men are huddled up and they're, they're grappling the way they're stepping over people as they're making their way towards the front of where Jesus sat. And there's murmurs and this noise and frustration and nobody knows what's going on. There's just this wrestle that's taken place is this crowd, this scrum of people start to mo make their way forward. And then in the middle of this temple courts filled with hundreds of people. Jesus has sat down and then this, this group of religious leaders, the people who are usually doing the teaching, those who are usually doing what Jesus was doing that morning, they come and they throw this woman at his feet. Speaker 1 00:11:28 This woman falls down at the feet of Jesus. There's a gasp in the room. Jesus locks eyes with the woman as he sat down. She's right, right in front of him. Her hair is noted up and she's got a little bit of blood coming down a lip. Her makeup started to go all over the shop and he looks up at this, this group of religious, and they look at Jesus and they say, Teacher <laugh>, that's who you are, isn't it? You're the one that everyone comes to the temple courts with. You're the reason why nobody comes to listen to my readings anymore. Teacher, the one that knows everything about the Old Testament. Yeah, I know who you are. This woman here, she's been caught in the act of adultery. And according to the Old Testament that you've been teaching about this morning, it says that we should stone her. What do you say? Speaker 1 00:12:31 Teacher stands up. Jesus is looking around and he knows that this moment is caught between a rock and a hard place. He's been going around preaching about forgiveness and about how he fulfills the Old Testament. He's been going around about how we should actually have, have a better narrative for people and better narrative for the way of life and women specifically. And here he is in front of him and he is caught between two things. One, he rather goes against the Old Testament law, which does say that this woman is due to be stoned and killed for her unfaithfulness or two, he goes against his own words, he stands there and he looks around, there's a silence and he does something really peculiar. This woman's still on the ground, she's probably crying a little bit, looking up thinking I'm, I'm about to die. And he, he goes down to the floor and he just starts to write someone that the Bible doesn't tell us what he's writing in the dirt. Speaker 1 00:13:26 It's most likely true that the woman's the only person that can read what he's actually writing in the dirt. I'll leave it to your imagination as to what he might have been writing, but he's writing something specific. He's writing something intentional. And then the, the religious leaders, they start to ask again for more, Come on teacher, stop biting your time. Tell us, tell us what you think. So he stops, right? And he stands up and he says the words that we've all, we've all heard before. He who is without sin can throw or cast the first stone. Speaker 1 00:14:05 Silence beckons the room again. The religious leaders have got no words at this point. He stands there and then it says, he goes back down and he starts to write in the dust again. And as he's writing in the dust, he's looking at eyes at this woman, the woman's looking down at what he's writing, he's looking her in the eyes. And then in the background of this moment, the sound of footsteps, everyone starts to leave the temple courts because everyone in that moment is starting to recognize something. We we're all sinners, we've all done wrong. I, I can't, I can't throw this first stone because I'm just as guilty. And he starts to leave and the woman is just fixated on Jesus. And he's right in. And then he stands back up and he looks over. Five, 10 minutes has passed in, the whole room has completely deserted. And here's the words that Jesus says to the woman, Where are your accusers? Is there one here that can condemn you? She looks back at Jesus and she says, No, Lord Jesus said, neither do I go and sin sin no more. Speaker 1 00:15:25 The love of Christ compels us. It compels us to engage differently. It compels us to not just go along with a crowd. It compels us to live differently, to engage differently, to be in ourselves, in people different. And we are so often fixated. I know I am. And this is just me being honest with you. Now, church, we're fixated on being liked. We hate the rumors going around about us. We don't like other people liking us. And here we have Jesus who has a whole room against him, Yet because of the love of Christ, he's willing to stand up and stand out even at the risk of being canceled, even at the risk of being mox and rejected. It was the love of Jesus that compelled him to make, to make a stent. It's a different kind of love. It's a bold love. It's a fearless love. Speaker 1 00:16:25 It's a love that's rooted in something other than opinions of people. It's love in itself, a love that thinks no evil, A love that does not rejoice in inequity but rejoices in the truth. A love that bears all things. Just over the next 10 to 15 minutes, I wanna break down these four components of lu and I wanna show you how they're found within this story. And then what I wanna do is I wanna just try bring a gentle, uh, encouragement or challenge depending on what the spirit does in your heart about how we can actually adopt some of these four principles in our life. Just this week. I'm not thinking of just radical transformation, I'm just thinking about practical things this week that perhaps we can put into play and into practice based on these four components of what love is first. Love thinks no evil. Speaker 1 00:17:15 I found it fascinating, absolutely fascinating during the ministry time. Mark has no idea what I'm speaking on. He's not with us right now. He has no idea what I was about to share on yet he started to, what I believe confirms some of the word that I was gonna give this morning because as I was exploring and thinking about how love thinks no evil, it wasn't the evil and it wasn't the love that grabbed my hat, my, my mind, and my heart. It was the word that's in the middle. Thinks love thinks no evil could have said anything in that point, could have said love acts in a way that's not evil, love in a way that's not evil, love does and lives in a way that's not evil. But instead, the writer here starts speaking about how love thinks, the mind process what's in our heads. Speaker 1 00:18:00 Love thinks no, no evil, no evil comes into the thought patterns of those who are living in in love. And actually love isn't just an action we demonstrate, but it's actually something that takes place in our thought. Life love thinks, thinks no evil. Are you aware there's a, there's a war on people's minds taking place all around the world, but potentially even all around this room, the mind is a battlefield where the enemy is longing to run, riot in how we think where nobody else sees is crucially important to how we operate. It's how we act. The thought life, the thinking and the way we think in our minds is crucially, op, crucially important to the way we live out love. Listen to these words in two Corinthians 10 verses three to five, it says these words for though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does, the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, the weapons we fight with have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish every argument and every pre potential that self that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And here comes the kick of verse and we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. Speaker 1 00:19:42 Sounds like there's a a little bit to unpack there when it comes to our mind. Doesn't, it sounds that actually Paul's trying to get us to see something that perhaps the greatest battles aren't the worlds that are taking place around us, but the greatest battles are the ones that are taking place within us. And love, love thinks no evil. A love of Christ compels us to take every captive, every four, which is not of his kingdom, to believe that we can say no to that which isn't from God when it enters our mind to believe that we can not believe the lies that the enemy is whispering into our mind to believe that we can have a different narrative in the way we think, to perhaps the way we used to think. To believe that God isn't just interested in healing parts of who we are, but is interested in healing the whole of who we are. To believe that even in a world that is chaotic in our thinking, that we serve a God who is faithful enough to believe that he can heal every aspect of our mind. That we can think in colosians three, two ways that are higher rather than ways that are lower. Speaker 1 00:20:53 In other words, I believe a minor change in our mentality can produce a major change in our reality. A minor change in our mentality can produce a major change in our, in our reality. The Pharisees are looking for evil within every story that they find Jesus attached to, to find evil in the woman and to think of evil within Jesus. But Jesus see in their hearts and knowing what they're up to, he still doesn't respond with the same tactics. But instead, Jesus uses love to disarm every evil situation he has faced with. Wow, we are compelled to do the same. Speaker 1 00:21:51 Love thinks no evil, to take every thought captive, to be compelled to not respond in a worldly way, but to have faith that love is the greater narrative of our minds. Think about it for a moment as I move on to the second, second thought, think about it. In fact, just, just for a second, just close your eyes and just, just ask, God, we've already done this in the ministry time, but just do this again. I think there's something significant on this. Ask the Lord, Lord, help me by your love to think no evil, to think no evil of my brothers and sisters, to think no evil of my family members and my friends. And here's the big one to think no evil even of myself for love, the love of Christ. It compels us to think no evil. In your name we pray. Amen. Speaker 1 00:23:07 So here the Pharisees looking to try catch Jesus out in verse six it says, they were saying this to try, um, trip him up, that they were thinking evil like their, their the whole motive and the whole persona of the, when they're approaching this moment in the temple courts was all thought of evil. In fact, when you look at the backstory of this, some scholars would even argue that the religious leaders like specifically set up the woman to fail. Like it was like a hip job. Like they knew that if they could get this woman to literally find themselves in a position where she's committing adultery, they knew that she could use her and abuse her in order to trip up Jesus. It felt like that most scholars, most thinking that write, write the history and understand the history and write books about this. Like they think that this was all one big scam to trip Jesus up. Speaker 1 00:23:52 They thought evil consistently, think in evil, consistently doubting, consistently believe in the worst, consistently looking for the worst in people. France, can I tell you something that I believeable in my heart? We are not called to think the worst in people. We're called to think the best in people. There is something about our hearts and our lives, a church where we should be the most encouraging people we can possibly be in our lives. You know, there's no one out there, no one in the world that is being absolutely diluted and and struggling with over encouragement. Speaker 1 00:24:23 You know, that's taking place, don't you <laugh>, and I dunno about you, but in my life I wanna be around people who are gonna encourage me, be around people who are gonna bring out the best in me, who choose to see the best before they see the worst. Because heck, we've got all worse in our life, right? We've all got difficulties and problems. The world is filled with it. We only need to turn on our phones and look at the news to see the problems in our world. But what would it look like if the church was to rise up and to no longer think evil, but to think the best in faith to believe that God is still building his church in faith to believe that God is still rescuing people and calling people back to a better way of life. What would it look like if we became the most encouraging people to ever walk this land? Speaker 1 00:25:03 That's what it looks like to think no evil. And when we're compelled by the love of Christ, when we're called by the love of Christ, when we're sent out from this place into our weeks, when we go into our office and we have lunch with our wives and our husbands and our children, when we go into our day for the rest of this day, I wanna encourage you. Love thinks no evil, but love will always see the best in one another. Using encouragement. Encouragement actually according to Romans is a spiritual gift. Did you know that we, we read, uh, Corinthians and we believe that spiritual gifts are just prophecy and words of wisdom and words of knowledge. But we read Romans, we see more spiritual gifts. And here's what it says. Encouragement is a spiritual gift, is a gift given to the believers, given to the church to use to show the person of Jesus to a broken wealth. Speaker 1 00:25:48 Love thinks no evil, but the Pharisees were thinking evil. The Pharisees were looking to trip up. The Pharisees were coming with a perspective of if I can just corner this person with his backup against the wall with nowhere to go, I'll be right, we'll be right and we can get this person who's an imposter out of here. Immediately they were thinking evil because they not encountered the love of God. They might have encountered the love of scripture, but they not encountered the love of God and the love of God. It it shapes the way we see scripture. It shapes the way we see this world. It shapes the way we see ourselves and we come under with an understanding of what the love of God is. It changes our perspective, it changes our thoughts. Love thinks no evil, but the Pharisees were not just thinking evil. Speaker 1 00:26:37 The Pharisees went one step further and they started to rejoice in inequity. In other words, the Pharisees were rejoicing in the downfall or potential downfall of people around them. You read this scripture, Has anyone ever heard of cancel culture before? Okay, some of you have, some of you haven't cancel culture's. The thing that started to take place recently over the last six to 12 months, and it's an online real perspective, it's it's kind of, um, the young adult generation and and the generation of young people right now. This is a big thing, a big talking point of what they're looking at. And effectively what they've been looking at and exploring is that there's this narrative rising up all around us that when someone makes a mistake, especially someone who is living a, a popular position, someone who is well known, someone who has lots of followers, who has uh, is very well known around the world, when one mistake comes out, there's this thing called cancel culture. Speaker 1 00:27:29 And cancel culture effectively is trying to cancel every aspect of influence on that person. That when a mistake starts to take place and something goes wrong that comes out to the public eye, there is this culture that bombards the person of you no longer have the right to even be part of the conversation anymore. You are completely canceled. And this narrative of cancel culture has come about recently, it started to popularize in the younger generation. But let me tell you, cancel culture took place in the scripture. The Pharisees were consistently looking to cancel people. The Pharisees were consistently looking at the behavior of people and trying to cancel them according to their behavior. But Jesus comes along. And when a woman who had every right to be canceled according to the Old Testament, he chose not to cancel. Why? Because love rejoices not in inequity. Love. Rejoice is not in failure. Speaker 1 00:28:32 I wanna just gently say something here. Church, we are gonna live the rest of our lives around people who are gonna make mistakes and who are gonna fail. And the way we show the love of Jesus is instead of first going towards punishment, we go towards restoration. You see, there's a dichotomy taking place here in this story between the two ways of the worlds, the way of the kingdom and the way of this world is two very contrasting views and it still takes place today you see that the the world's way of love is to punish in odds to restore. It's the cancel, it's to throw, throw them into a jail cell, throw away the key, lock them up. It's the, it's the punish in order to restore. But the kingdom's way of love and hear this for a moment, the kingdom's way of love is to forgive. In order to restore. Speaker 1 00:29:37 It's to forgive in order to, I would argue that forgiveness is always more powerful than punishment. Now you might be looking at me, you might be thinking, But what does this mean for justice? Don't get me wrong. I believe we should be a people that uphold justice. I believe we should. We serve the God of justice. Of course we do. It just means that in moments of failure, our hearts as a church had always been towards loving kindness before they bend towards punishment. You see, punishment may deal with people's actions, but forgiveness looks the deal with people's hearts. Speaker 1 00:30:24 And Jesus, he, he came for our hearts, not our actions. And I'm so thankful that he did because if he didn't, I be as guilt as anyone else in this room. But he came for our hearts. And I wanna encourage you this week to be as gentle as you can with people. We speak about power a lot. And let me tell you one of the most powerful access to be gentle, to be as gentle as you can with everyone you brush shoulders with this week and even with yourself because it seems to me like lately everyone is walking around a little bit wounded and a little bit weirded and a little bit worried. And if we could just make room to be patient, to speak softly and to carry mercy, I believe we stop rejoicing, inequity and we move towards what? Rejoicing in truth because truth, truth is is the gospel. Speaker 1 00:31:44 Truth is Jesus. What did Jesus say? He said, I am the way, I am, the way the truth and the life. A few chapters later in the book of John, he says, You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Jesus mentions to his disciples that the woman of the well there is a time is coming and timer now where our worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth. You see, friends, Jesus is the truth and he holds the fullness of truth in all of his ways. And the reason why we rejoice in truth is because Jesus is the truth. And when we think of the person of Jesus, we have much to rejoice about. Speaker 1 00:32:33 How in this story does Jesus rejoice in the truth? Well, he allows everyone to know that the truth says that we're all guilty, but he does it in a way that doesn't exclude and he does it in a way that doesn't hurt. There's a, I heard a preacher once speak about how uh, the book of John says that Jesus came and he was the fulfillment of grace and truth. Anyone heard that He came in grace and truth. Hey, and I heard a preacher once speaking about this and and it really helped my perspective in thinking about this. He said that the as Jesus came in grace and truth is an order. It's not truth in grace. It's grace and truth. And it's a really fascinating prospect to think about that actually the order is significant to the way we help bring the person of Jesus to a world. Speaker 1 00:33:12 And so often we are so desperate to get the truth out there. All we are doing is hardening and building up the walls around people's hearts. But if we would first come with grace and then come with truth, we probably have a better outlook of reflecting the person of Jesus to a broken world. There's truth at stand in the story. The truth is is this woman is guilty. The truth is this woman deserves to be stoned. The truth is this woman has been caught red hand in she has been unfaithful to people around us. She'd been unfaithful to God, unfaithful to the world and unfaithful to people. The truth here, the truth is that she deserves to be stoned. The Pharisees knew this. They knew that the Old Testament said the truth in this matter of the situation is that this woman should be rejected and killed. Her life should be taken away. But if it was just about truth, that would've taken place. But God came in what? Speaker 1 00:34:02 In grace and truth. And here's the beauty of what Jesus does, friends, here's what he does is he starts to allow us all to recognize that the truth only takes place in our hearts when grace has first been encountered. And the reality is, is this woman was guilty, she was caught red-handed the truth, did condemn her, but friends so have us all. And he looks and he says, the first one, who hasn't sinned? The first one, who the truth hasn't condemned. You throw the first stone and everyone leaves. And here, here is the most beautiful part of this story. This one person in this story that can throw the stone and his name's Jesus, the only one who hadn't sinned. The only one who's got no record of wrong, the only one who is spotless, blameless, and perfect in all of his ways. And as everyone else leaves, the woman is face to face, the one that can throw the first stone. But instead he says this, Where are your accusers? Do they still condemn? No Lord, neither do I, Grace go in sin. No more truth. How do I get here and end? It's the final part of the passage, isn't it? Love bears all things. That's Jesus Christ, the one who bought all the weight and all the sin and all the shame for me and for you. That's the love of our savior. That's the love that compels us to go church of your standards. We pray Speaker 1 00:36:27 Day. Norland is an incredible author and I'm gonna end with this quote. He said, he said these words and I want you to just think about these words as we, as we pray, and we we're gonna close up straight after this. He says these words, God is not wanting you to deserve his love. God is wanting you to enjoy His love, to live in it, to find a freedom with it, to know that when we're in his love, we can think no evil. We can rejoice not in other people's failures, but we can rejoice in truth and we can bear all things as we go into the world today compelled to be compelling to others towards Jesus. I want to encourage you that love of Christ that bears all things invites you. It invites you into a better way of living. I'm gonna pray as a pray. I'm gonna pray a blessing on us all. Pray a blessing on me for this week as well. And then I'm gonna give an opportunity invitation for anyone in the room that wants to give a life to Jesus to be able to do so. I dunno if there's anyone in here who doesn't know Jesus, but I don't wanna give uh, a sermon without giving an opportunity for that. Would you close your eyes to church if that's okay? Speaker 1 00:37:42 Father, I thank you so much that your love covers us. I thank you that your love shapes us. I thank you that your love saves us and I thank you that your love compels us. Speaker 1 00:37:55 And Father, the reality of the Christian faith is it's not how much our hearts and our loves are set on you, it's how unshakably your heart is set on us. And Father, I thank you that you pursue us with your love every single day. And as we've gathered together this morning, as we've celebrated, as we've sang our songs, as we've immersed ourselves in the scripture sharing about how your love changes things, it takes me back to the moment, Lord, it takes me back to the moment where I first met your love. And from that moment onwards, my life has changed the trajectory of where I was going or what I wanted, it drastically changed because your love changes things. It changes people and environments and situations and circumstances. It changes the way we think. It changes our perspective. And Father, I pray for us all in this room this morning, every single one of us, no matter how well we know your love or whether we've never encountered it before I pray this week, as we go into our jobs, as we go into our circumstances, wherever we are going, I pray Lord that it's your love that compels us to a different way of living. Speaker 1 00:38:57 I pray, Lord, that you help us think no evil Lord. Uh, there's something there right now that I believe even, even if there's people in this room that are dealing with unforgiveness Speaker 1 00:39:08 And thinking no evil is really hard because of situations they've gone through. I pray by your spirit and by your mercy and your grace, you help people to forgive you, help people to let go of bitterness. And you help people move towards a freedom of thinking. Father, your word says that love, rejoice is not in failure. And I pray, Lord, as we go into our today, we're kind to ourselves when we fail, but we're also kind to of us in our marriages and in our families, in our friendships, in our work situations, with our colleagues. We know this week we're gonna encounter failure. We're gonna encounter people who will fail and we are gonna fail ourselves. And we ask, Lord, your love stands in the gap between our failure and between what you have accomplished. I pray, Lord, that you love helps us, helps us see the best in one another rather than the worst. Speaker 1 00:40:00 I pray, Lord, that your love doesn't come from a perspective of wanting to find the bad, but wanting to find the good. And Father, your word says that your love rejoices on truth. And all of us in this room, we want to thank you that you are the way, you are the truth, and you are the life. We want to thank you that your truth is set us free and you now call us to a life that is full, that is satisfied, and that is complete in your presence. Follow. We thank you for your word and for your scripture. We thank you that we can in this place at the moment, gather together on a Sunday morning and read your word freely and express your word freely. And in so many places that's not possible. So we thank you right now for our situation that we can do that. We thank you for your truth, the truth over our lives that we have been saved, called and set free by your gospel. And Father, we thank you finally that Your love says you bear all things so we can as well. So I pray a blessing on us all in here, Speaker 1 00:40:59 That you'll help us carry the weight of things that sometimes we don't want to carry the weight off. You'll help us bear things that we might not wanna bear at times, but you compel us and strengthen us to be able to do it as every eye is closed in this room. As we end with that scripture of love bears all things. We know that you in the most costly fashion, beared everything for us. You came to the brokenness of this world and lived a perfect life. You set people free and are still doing so today. And you died a horrific, excruciating in death. In order to pay the fine and penalty of sin, you absorb the evil into yourself so that everyone who confesses your name and believes in you can have everlasting life. Is anyone in this room Speaker 1 00:41:57 That today or this moment is a moment where they say, I want to give my life to Jesus. I wanna say yes to the call of Jesus. I wanna say yes to the plan of Jesus. I wanna know his love in all of its fullness. I'm only gonna give it a few seconds. But if that's, shoot, I wanna pray for you specifically and the church is gonna join me in that prayer. As every eye is closed out of privacy for your decision, I want you to just lift up your hand really high if this is a decision you wanna make today. Thank you, sir. Thank you Madden. Is anyone else in this room, those online? You can comment as well at this point. Speaker 1 00:42:36 Church, would you just join me in praying for this, this incredible woman who's given a life to Jesus today? Let's pray together. Father, we thank you that your blood covers all our sins. We thank you Lord that you, You rewrite our story, You redeem our history and you collars into a new way. And Father, as we stand in prayer with our sister today, we denounce evil. We turn away from our wrong thinking and sin and we turn towards your love that bears all things. And I ask Holy Spirit that you feel is all afresh. May we know your love and your purpose. Surround us with people of faith that can build us up and strengthen us and encourage us. And as we go into this week, may we go completely transformed, not partially transform, completely transformed by your love. And so that woman that just prayed this prayer, would you just pray this prayer with me? Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for me. You can say it in your head, Thank you that you love me, and thank you that you paid the price for my sin. I turn away from my ways. I repent of my sin and I turn towards your love. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit, Speaker 1 00:43:55 And I ask you to help me know that you are good. Pray this in your wonderful name. Amen.