[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to the Way Community Church Podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our mission is to show people the way to life with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: My name is Darahal and I am the pastor of the Way Community Church.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you would like to join us as a member or of you simply need prayer,
[SPEAKER_01]: or if you want to worship through giving, you can find the links and the transcription of this podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today we have a special treat as we celebrate the youth of the way community church.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am joined today by a teenager.
[SPEAKER_01]: His name is Jordan Thomas.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a senior high school.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's going to join me, Pastor Hall.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to teach the word together in a tag team format.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm excited to bring the young man to you and to study guys' words together with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to preach a topical message about what it means to receive God's forgiveness so that we have what we need to love others in the same way.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can follow along in the transcript of this podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to encourage you to grab your Bibles.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's study God's words together.
[SPEAKER_02]: Jordan is actively involved in in school community as a member of the mock trial team, the praise band, student government association, health occupation, and student organization.
[SPEAKER_02]: And outside of school, he enjoys playing the guitar, swimming, playing soccer, watching anime, and spending time with his friends.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so twice this week, Jordan and not in his parents, all met together to prepare to study, um,
[SPEAKER_02]: and to prepare our sermon that we would deliver so we study together, we prepare together, and this morning we are going to teach and preach together.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can y'all help me thank God again for Jordan Thomas?
[SPEAKER_02]: Typically here at the Wake Community Church, we start our messages reading the word and then we walk through the passages or the passage that we read from the outset.
[SPEAKER_02]: But instead, Jordan and I are going to teach a topical message, meaning we're going to look at multiple verses as we move throughout our message today.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I want to encourage you to follow us on the Bible app.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you go to the Bible app search events, look up the Wake Community Church.
[SPEAKER_02]: You will find these words there for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: As we perfectly consider what we might share, I asked Jordan to give me some ideas of themes if I would be a good idea.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so the Holy Spirit gave him an auction.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I followed in that auction.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we prepared a message today around a theme and topic that Jordan thought was important and that I agree is important.
[SPEAKER_02]: So today we want to teach with this thought in mind for a given to love.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have all been forgiven to love.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's pray together.
[SPEAKER_02]: God, we thank you for sacred space.
[SPEAKER_02]: We thank you for all that you've done, even in our midst and worship today.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for the young people who said shoulder to shoulder to us, for the children who are sitting on the laps of parents.
[SPEAKER_02]: Arts and uncles, thank you, God, for the way community church.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are blessed by what you are doing here and what you are doing in Jordan's life and in the Thomas family's life is a small piece of how you are blessing this church and his young people.
[SPEAKER_02]: I pray today, God, for those of us who are struggling to forgive.
[SPEAKER_02]: that you will give us the clarity we need, the strength we need.
[SPEAKER_02]: For those of us who are struggling to accept your forgiveness, that you will give us the humility and gratitude we need to live for given so that we might be in power to love others.
[SPEAKER_02]: We thank you, and we honor you.
[SPEAKER_02]: In Jesus' name we pray, let it be heart-safe.
[UNKNOWN]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_02]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_02]: For given to love, you know that you have really been blessed.
[SPEAKER_02]: when you realize that you cannot repay a person who has helped you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And sometimes the health is not just about the quantity or amount of help.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's about the timing of the health.
[SPEAKER_02]: because somebody can come through for you in a crutch moment and in that window of time, a small blessing can really have a big impact.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've experienced this in my life every night, particularly doing one woman I want to share.
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of people have blessed us and we are grateful for the many blessings we have received that have sustained us and invested in us to become the leaders.
[SPEAKER_02]: and servants that God has called us to be.
[SPEAKER_02]: But there was one lady back at our home church.
[SPEAKER_02]: Elizabeth Baptist Church.
[SPEAKER_02]: Her name was Brenda Garside.
[SPEAKER_02]: And she transitioned to be with the lower back in May of this year.
[SPEAKER_02]: And about 20 years ago, I was a little bit older than Jordan is now.
[SPEAKER_02]: I had to start preaching when I was 17.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, when the Garside told me, now that you are preaching, you need to dress like a preacher.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, one winter, she bought me the nicest coat I had ever worn.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a black trench coat with the interior lining to make sure I was warm.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was long enough to fit my six foot warm frame and thick enough to keep my 140 pounds warm.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I would have coat with pride for about a week, week and a half.
[SPEAKER_02]: And one day I went to work, and while I was at work, I met a man who didn't have a
[SPEAKER_02]: He didn't have food to eat, and he did not have a coat on his back.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I felt the Lord was telling me to buy and break for so I did.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I feel like the Lord was telling me to give him my coat, which I didn't want to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I did, and so after giving him the coat, I'm not gonna say I avoid it in Mother Garza.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just gonna say, I suckin' the side door to church.
[SPEAKER_02]: and didn't want her to see me coming into the church.
[SPEAKER_02]: Cole, well, you know, all the people move slow, but you can't avoid them.
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't never think you get over on somebody old.
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't let a old person trick you to think because they move slow and talk slow.
[SPEAKER_02]: They not paying attention to everything that's happening.
[SPEAKER_02]: So she was all the way to tap in.
[SPEAKER_02]: She caught me at the church one day and said,
[SPEAKER_02]: And I told her on the Garza I gave the coat away.
[SPEAKER_02]: And she looked at me with a mix of emotions that communicated dismay and a little bit of pride in the fact that I was willing to share.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I realized in that moment in a way I had let her down because I don't know what it caused her to put a coat that nice on my back.
[SPEAKER_02]: A few years later on Ebony and I, by this time, we were married, we had two little kids.
[SPEAKER_02]: Our third son was a hair yet.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we just hit one of those weeks where we just needed a little help to get the payday.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, Melissa Garza, find out, found out.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if he asked her if somebody saw us and they said, would they look hungry?
[SPEAKER_02]: We don't tell him with a Garza.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, no, I don't know what it was.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we was like a hungry.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Melissa Garza said, meet me.
[SPEAKER_02]: at the store in a parking lot, gave us the time we met her.
[SPEAKER_02]: She opened our trunk, her trunk was full of groceries.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I moved the grocery from her truck to our truck and then she handed us like $25 in cash.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we was able to make it from like a Sunday to pay day that week, right back.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thursday of Friday, off those groceries and at $25.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I realized in that moment something that I'll never forget.
[SPEAKER_02]: I realized she forgave me because she was willing to keep blessing me.
[SPEAKER_02]: The first time she blessed me, I didn't do with it what she wanted me to do, but she forgave me enough to keep loving on me.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that deeply inspiring, particularly now because we're in a season of our life where we have groceries, the last is for the week.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, we lead a church that's given away new and gently used quotes to the community.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hundreds of quotes are being given through a church that I get the lead,
[SPEAKER_02]: So in this season, that blessing, quantity wise wouldn't be as important as it was then because being blessed is not about quantity, it's about timing.
[SPEAKER_02]: When she blessed me and the way she blessed us, forever show me what it looks like to be forgiven in order to show love to other people.
[SPEAKER_02]: So today Jordan and I just want to look at a few passages in the Bible to help us really appreciate what it looks like to be forgiven in the love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so first passage we went over was John 1334-35 and what this tells us about is a new commandment.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the reverse is read, I'm giving you a new commandment that you love one another, just as I've loved you that you also love one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have a love for one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the first thing we kind of look at is why it's considered a new commandment because love is all throughout the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see love.
[SPEAKER_00]: and almost every book, every page, every chapter, has something about love in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we've all, I'm pretty sure we've all heard the phrase, love your neighbor as yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in this passage, Jesus specifically states, to love and one another as I have loved you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for context, Jesus is sitting at the table during the last supper with his 12 disciples and has already exposed the fact that Judas will soon betray him and he will be crucified on the cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so later in this very same passage,
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you really think about it, these are his 12 disciples, two of them, people very close to him are betraying him and they're going to deny him and he knows this.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he does not let this betrayal get in the way of his forgiveness and love for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you can see in this passage, he sets a new standard for his people, for these disciples, for people all around the world to love as he loved us, which means unconditionally, no matter what they've done to you and what they have against you, you still love them in that same way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so in this case, he's telling us that love is one unconditional, it is proactive, and it is sacrificial.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, in this case, while sacrifice and for Jesus meant dying on the cross for our sins, for us Christians sacrifice is not always called us to lay down our lives and to die.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, sacrifice for us canals, and me giving up our own right, time, comfort, or desires for the well-being of somebody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, if you want to apply this in your life, oftentimes you're at the store, you're walking down the street, and you see somebody struggling to do something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they dropped a lot of things and he helped picking it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or you just see someone that needs a hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if you want to apply it to your life, you can be active.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can just serve without being asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if you go into your life, you go into the world and serve without being asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: You make an impact in that person's life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what that does is that spreads the love of God in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as Scripture calls us to do,
[SPEAKER_00]: So that they know Jesus through you and you're spreading the love of Christ that we are called to do as Christians unconditionally and be active about it and to do those things out and to help somebody and to spread that kind word or our hug and show love shows that Christ is in you and spreads that to other people who may not know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, in this verse, another thing with this verse is we see the words one and another repeated three times in this passage.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what we take from that is that a relationship, a relationship to the other people, allows us real life context in order to show unconditional and sacrificial love towards each other unconditionally and to have those relationships rooted in Christ.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the first thought we see here is, Jesus gives us number one a new commandment.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's John 13.
[SPEAKER_02]: The second thought we see is in first Corinthians, 13, verse 4 through 7.
[SPEAKER_02]: And from this we get the idea that love is as love does.
[SPEAKER_02]: The word of the Lord says in first Corinthians, 13 love is patient.
[SPEAKER_02]: Love is kind, it is not jealous, love does not break, it is not arrogant.
[SPEAKER_02]: It does not act disgracefully, it does not speak seek, it's own benefit, it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, it does not rejoice and on righteousness, but rejoices with the truth.
[SPEAKER_02]: It keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, indoors, all things.
[SPEAKER_02]: Really what Paul is saying here is, love is not.
[SPEAKER_02]: what love says, love is what love does.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's almost like Paul could get in the time machine and watch the 1994 hit movie starring Tom Hanks, call for his gun.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you've never seen the movie, I commend it to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is a classic.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it tells a story of a young boy who was bullied as a child because of his physical disabilities and his learning limitations.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as he grew, he was oftentimes called stupid.
[SPEAKER_02]: because of how he sounded, and so the movie features him sitting at a bus stop and as different neighbors come and join him on the bench of the bus stop, he tells different parts of his life story.
[SPEAKER_02]: And in response to those who would accuse him of being stupid because
[SPEAKER_02]: What forces trying to communicate is you're not stupid if you sound stupid, you're stupid if you do stupid things.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the same thing Paul is saying here in 1 Corinthians 13 about love.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're not loving if you use loving language, you're loving if you act with love.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's a specific type of love.
[SPEAKER_02]: He describes what distinguishes us as believers.
[SPEAKER_02]: That our love is not just any emotions, it's not just impassioned.
[SPEAKER_02]: or infillings is characterized by body's, these key distinctors.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it causes us to do something to act in a way.
[SPEAKER_02]: That proves that love is what love does.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now this term loving this original language it means affection, good wheel, benevolence.
[SPEAKER_02]: and it paints the picture of a love feast.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, a love feast is somewhat like what Jesus celebrated with his disciples right before he was about to die on the cross.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Jordan just told us that the commandment he gave was based upon the sacrifice he was about to give, but he was able to sit on a table with 12 of his closest friends, knowing all of them would hurt him one way or another in the next 24 hours.
[SPEAKER_02]: He knew one was going to betray him.
[SPEAKER_02]: He knew one was going to deny him and he knew the other 10 were going to desert him.
[SPEAKER_02]: But he was still able to have a meal with them.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the question is how?
[SPEAKER_02]: What Jesus shows us is that that meal was possible because forgiveness made fellowship possible.
[SPEAKER_02]: So when Paul describes the type of love we ought to have as believers, I want you to think about the picture of a love feast.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, the way we do communion nowadays doesn't really paint the full picture, because we do it in a very succinct and expedient way.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, we got little cups, with a little juice, prepackage, with a little cracker, so that we can do it in a timely way, and a clean way.
[SPEAKER_02]: But really, communion is a time of feasting, and fun, where the bread and wine are the central elements, but not the only elements.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the idea is the only way you can sit at this table is if you've been forgiven, if you show the love of Christ to others.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want you to think about some people who you love, but you wouldn't like eating with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want you to think about some people you like, but you wouldn't love eating with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: What makes that fellowship possible, only forgiveness?
[SPEAKER_02]: Some tables you can only sit at, because you have been forgiven, and you have been willing to forgive.
[SPEAKER_02]: So love is as love does, and love acts in the ways that Paul described here in first Corinthians chapter 13.
[SPEAKER_00]: OK, and so our next point is giving a gift that we have received.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this verse you chose for this was Ephesians 432, which reads, be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just as God in Christ has also forgiven you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so in that last part right there, we see a returning theme.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what this does is it creates another reference to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when we read this, we kind of start to see that not only is Jesus sacrificed on the cross for us, a bridge between God and man, but also kind of like to show us how Jesus, the Jesus sacrificed on the cross, gives us that example of love and forgiveness that we are called to show others.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this yet against a standard for our forgiveness to reflect God's forgiveness for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: God did not wait for the people to give him an apology.
[SPEAKER_00]: God did not wait for them to fix their mistakes and earn that forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: He simply forgave us because of that love for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, for an example, let's say someone walks in, you invite someone into your house, and they come into your house and they kill your pet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Knowing it will cause you emotional harm.
[SPEAKER_00]: They just kill it.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't apologize, they just kill your pet, and they walk out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, you may still feel grief and sorrow and sadness for that pet, but that can and should not stop you from forgiving that person wholeheartedly, because what we understand is,
[SPEAKER_00]: Forgiveness and grief are two separate things.
[SPEAKER_00]: So grief is an emotional process that can not be rushed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Grief is a deep sorrow or sadness for a significant loss to usually love one or something we love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, forgiveness is an internal decision that we make each and every time we see that person or each and every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is that internal decision to say, hey, I know you did this, I know you wrong me, but I forgive you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And letting that out, letting those negative emotions out brings peace to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the connection here is that, so you feel that grief but you forgiven them, and now this reconciliation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Reconciliation is not guaranteed in forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: So just because you, just because you killed my pet and I forgive you, I don't got to let you back into my house, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You, you, I, look, I forgive you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to talk to you, you're still my friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: I forgive you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not going to touch my stuff, though.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not coming back to my house.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what we see in that is we kind of did the same thing to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: God gave us something precious to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gave us his son.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gave us Jesus Christ in flesh.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what we did is we took that and we kind of ruined it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We mocked him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He came to be his perfect and he taught us his ways, his morals, how to live, and we rejected that because we were being told truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: People became angry with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They mocked him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They tortured him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They beat him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they killed him up on that cross after God gave him to us to show us the way to life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so God did not take anger on us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He did not retaliate.
[SPEAKER_00]: He simply used that as a way to forgive us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He used it as a pathway to forgive us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the thing is, I am very grateful that God is able to forgive and reconcile at the same time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So while that's not, that may not be the thing for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's love, God's relationship with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is the perfect framework for morals and standards on love and forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: So God can reconcile with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know that if we are believers and we leave this earth and we are saved, we will let us back into his house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Regardless of what we did to his son, regardless of the way we treated him and still treat him today.
[SPEAKER_00]: He lets us back into that house.
[SPEAKER_00]: He lets us into heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: We stand in front of him and he lets us in and he forgives us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we can all be grateful, I'm very grateful that he is able to have that relationship with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Another thing we have to understand is that forgiveness is more about us than it is for other persons.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when someone wrongs you and you hold that resentment, that bitterness, that those negative emotions inside of you, all that does is where you down and it doesn't even affect the person that did it to you at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: That just builds up inside of you and causes you emotional distress, it clogs your thoughts, you can't think, you get anger when you see them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the purpose of that is to pray in the release that forgiveness to God because that heals you.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you forgiving that person, again, also can spread that love of Christ because they start to think.
[SPEAKER_00]: They kill your pet, you forgave them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why did you forgive me?
[SPEAKER_00]: And the thing is, it's that framework of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't ask for your forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't earn your forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't deserve it, but you give it to them why because God did the same for us.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me just pause the song very real quick.
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember one time I was a younger preacher, and I was preaching for this old to preacher.
[SPEAKER_02]: His name was Terrence Curtis, and afterwards, he looked at me and said, I tackle preachers.
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, I almost tackled you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I ain't know what he meant then.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know what he means now.
[SPEAKER_02]: All last month when we were going through our series on Hillin, I didn't notice until we were studying this week for parapherics on it.
[SPEAKER_02]: The same message I was teaching in here, he was teaching in the greenhouse every week, every Sunday last month.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not going to tackle you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just saying, I want it too.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, back to the assignment.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the first thought is a new commandment.
[SPEAKER_02]: We looked at John chapter 13.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then love is as love does.
[SPEAKER_02]: And first correct me as 13.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then giving the gift we have received, in Ephesians 432, 4th and finally, let's look at forgiveness in full gallop.
[SPEAKER_02]: First Peter 4, verse number eight says, above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
[SPEAKER_02]: Peter is writing to Christians who are dispersed through first-century Greek territories.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's important because the church started in Jerusalem, but as a result of persecution, politically Christians had to spread out in order to save their lives.
[SPEAKER_02]: As long as they stay concentrated in Jerusalem, the church became an easy target for the Roman Empire to try to stamp out.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they had to spread out sort of a difficult for the enemy to stop the move of the gospel.
[SPEAKER_02]: So as they spread out, Peter writes to them across all these different territories, and he tells them, hey, when you were dispersed, remember, love is what makes us different.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the love we have, we are our cultivate by keeping that love fervent.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let the church say fervent.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's important for us to understand.
[SPEAKER_02]: Fervent love is the love we keep at a certain level of effectiveness by nurturing it and cultivating it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right now we're sitting in church here at T.O.C.C.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are the church gathered.
[SPEAKER_02]: In a few minutes, we're going to give the benediction.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to all leave and go in our cars.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we're going to be the church scatter.
[SPEAKER_02]: When we hear, we show love through hugging nicks and shaking hands and smiling faces.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we all not forget the love that differentiates us when we are the church scatter.
[SPEAKER_02]: So when you scatter the heritage high school or rock their high school or tam is little cafe or whatever restaurants you're going to go to or home remember that scattered, we're still showing love.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's up to us to keep that little fervent, because that's what distinguishes us from people who don't know the Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: So while we were studying, we would look at the term fervent.
[SPEAKER_02]: Jordan explained to me that it's really a picture of a horse in full gallop.
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you think about a horse, a horse was made to run full speed.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right?
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't imagine a horse that's not able to run full speed.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was designed by God to pick him up and put him down.
[SPEAKER_02]: The muscle structure, the legs, the way it's shaped, the balance is core strength.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's aerodynamic engineering.
[SPEAKER_02]: The way the hair flows down is bad.
[SPEAKER_02]: A horse was made to move fast.
[SPEAKER_02]: And when a horse is at full speed, it's a gallop.
[SPEAKER_02]: now the jockey that's on that horse has to keep the horse at the gallop speed by charging it by speaking to it by sparing it the the the rider has to make sure the horse doesn't slow down now imagine that same horse if it had a house on his back even though it was engineered that's not a house.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that
[SPEAKER_02]: Imagine that horse unable to move in the way that it was designed to move.
[SPEAKER_02]: Imagine that horse exhausted, uncare it for, and weigh down.
[SPEAKER_02]: What would happen is what could have been a gallop turns into a trot?
[SPEAKER_02]: What could have been a trot turns into a walk?
[SPEAKER_02]: And what could have been a walk ultimately would cause the horse to cave in?
[SPEAKER_02]: God is giving you.
[SPEAKER_02]: as a believer, the capacity to love, but it's up to us to make sure we don't let grudges weigh our love down from running full speed.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you a person who likes to get even, if you a person who likes to hold grudges, if you a person who likes to get revenge, what you have done is slow down the love and your heart to a slow try.
[SPEAKER_02]: And what's going to end up happening is, under the weight of your unforgiveness, your love will cave in.
[SPEAKER_02]: God has called us as believers to have forgiveness and forgather.
[SPEAKER_02]: Moving full speed at a steady pace, letting nothing hold us back.
[SPEAKER_02]: And what I've discovered of what you would, we would know intuitively about watching a horse ride, the faster it's moving, the harder it is to put burdens on it.
[SPEAKER_02]: The harder it is to weigh it down.
[SPEAKER_02]: When we forgive freely and move into full gallon, it's going to be hard for the devil to put the weight on you of unforgiveness, the burden of bitterness, the pain of holding onto what somebody has done for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: You'll be moving at such a speed that the darkness can't even catch you.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I want to encourage you, let's embrace the reality that we've all been forgiven so that we might love others.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have been given a new commandment.
[SPEAKER_02]: Love one another as I have loved you.
[SPEAKER_02]: We see that love is as love does, because love is distinct in the way we show it to one another.
[SPEAKER_02]: We give the gift that we have received, we forgive because we've been forgiven.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then, fourth and finally, we want our forgiveness to be at four gather.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when we put these four passages together together, we're giving a blueprint of how to live and love perfectly in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, it shows that love is not just a feeling, but active choice made multiple times a day to love others.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we use crisis that framework that blueprint, that foundation of how to love.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now the question is, crisis, the perfect, I'm not, how do I love like, Christ every day?
[SPEAKER_00]: And the thing is, you don't, you're going to mess up.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not going to forgive perfectly every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to mess up that anger overtake you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to not love someone.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to mess up, not show love to somebody
[SPEAKER_00]: And the thing is, the goal is not to be perfect every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: The goal is to become a better Christian tomorrow than I was today.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the goal.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to become better in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to look at Christ and you want to become better every single day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the question you asked yourself from your face of situations where you need to forgive or where you need to love is what would Jesus do?
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the question.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what Jesus did is Jesus died on the cross and he sacrificed for us and forgave us despite what we did to him and we are called to do the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to give you guys an action item for this week.
[SPEAKER_00]: I encourage you all to, I encourage you all to do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone, after church, it could be today, it could be at any point in the week, it just find the time to do this, to find someone who's down or low on spirit and offer them a hug, a smile or a kind word and really just show them that you love them, show them that love of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if you don't know who they are, we are called to love everybody unconditionally and equally.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, also, I want you to try and be ready and willing to sacrifice something in your life for the well-being of somebody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take time out of your day to go help someone with something or to sacrifice something of yours.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, past your sacrifices, co, after that lady gave it to him, just give something of yours away or anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just take something out of your day out of your soul to go build somebody else up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what that does is, when people do not know Christ,
[SPEAKER_00]: and they see Christ in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is how we make new believers and new people and they come to the church and they learn these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.