Not Our Own. Series

Is just praying for them…

Praying that Jesus… would take them home right?

I’m just kidding.

No but seriously… Praying for good to come their way.

Praying for the things going on in their life.

Praying that they’d have a good day.

Prayer is so powerful… and it has the ability to change others…

But more importantly… it has the ability…

to change ourselves.

**Now as we wrap things up today…

I think with all of this… it’d be so easy to think or wonder….

“Well… how important is love?” I mean really…

How important is it that we love others?

Because I’ve been following Jesus for years now Pastor…

and this just kinda seems shallow… and elementary…

And I’m a deep Christian…

And I wanna grow in my understanding of God.

and this just seems so basic…

And so… I’m just curious… as followers of Jesus…

like… does this really matter?

And does God really care about this?

Well… going back to our verses… listen to what Paul says…

Before He explains what love is.

Listen to what he says…

And again… Paul’s talking to a church… just like us…

And here’s what he says… He says:

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of the angels,

but didn't love others,

I would only be like a noisy gong or a clashing cymbal.

And just picture that… (move hands)

Is there anything worse?

And he goes onto say… that if I have such a complete faith

that I could physically move mountains…

which would be impressive…

but I don't have love… I am nothing. I’m nothing.

And then hear this…

He says… If I gave everything I have to the poor

and even sacrificed my body for God…

Like if I died because of my faith…

but I don't have love, I receive no benefit whatsoever.

I mean… Paul’s basically saying…

That loving God and loving others… it’s like the most important thing.

And you can be as religious as you want.

And you can do a bunch of awesome great things…

in the name of Jesus.

And you can be baptized… and confirmed… and made into a saint.

And you can look and sound all holy…

And you can give all your money away…

And memorize the entire Bible.

But if you don’t have love like this…

It all means nothing. Nothing.

Wow… right?

It’s like… we might wanna take note of this.

I mean God’s making it clear…

that loving people like this… is a core value of what it means to follow Jesus.

**And I know for myself… something that I often think about…

is that at the end of my life… at my funeral someday.

And is that morbid to think about?

At the end of my life… I pray that those closest to me…

will have the best things to say about me.

That those closest to me…

Starting with my wife Bec…

and the kids… my family… and my friends…

the people in my small group.

The different staff that I’ve worked with.

my neighbors…

I pray that these people will be the first people in line…

to talk about my love for God…

and my love for others.

I mean… Adam was far from perfect…

He was the first to admit it…

He was kinda crazy… and he was bald at a young age.

and he was crazy passionate…

but there’s no question that He loved Jesus…

and he loved people.

I mean… what a failure it would be…

to pastor a church…