Called To Love

Good evening. Welcome. We're excited to see so many people here on a Wednesday night in the rain. Just a quick little introduction. We're going to be doing things a little bit differently tonight. Ashley and I are actually giving the message together. It's our first time, so pray for us. We're just believing that the spirit's just going to take over tonight. One other unique thing we're going to be doing, our friend Grace, when we told her what we were going to be speaking on tonight, after some prayer, God gave her these beautiful words. It's this art form called spoken word. In a little while, she's going to come up and share those beautiful words that God gave her with all of you. So we're really excited about that. So be praying for her also. Did everyone get one of these little cards when you came in? If not, raise your hand and Sam will get you one. You'll need it at the end of the service. Everybody has one? Perfect. All right. We are just going to let Ashley just quick pray over tonight and then we'll get started. Awesome. Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you that your presence is here with us, God, already. Lord, I pray that you would open our hearts, Lord, that every area in our heart that needs to experience the fullness of your love, God, that it would bubble up tonight at an accelerated pace in the spirit, and that we would just open our hearts to receive your tender love that changes us. We thank you for that love, God. Just right now, if everybody would just right now, just put your hands out in front of you and just say,

I receive Jesus. I receive Jesus. We just receive your love. Everything is by grace through faith. We thank you, God, for your beautiful gift of grace, and we just receive your love and receive every gift and transformation that you have for us tonight in Jesus' name. Amen. So if anyone knows me, they know that I have a lot of children, nine. So one of my children in particular had a really difficult time growing up. Everything was just a lot harder for him, making friends, having good grades, just social situations, learning how to act. Depending on what doctor we took him to when he was younger, every single one labeled him with something different. ADHD, Asperger's, autism, sensory processing disorder. It was a different label from every doctor. By the time he was in first grade, our school insisted he be on medication or he couldn't go there anymore. Now, I want to pause my story and tell you he has been miraculously healed by Jesus Christ, and so that our God heals, and that's incredible. But at this time when he was young, our family went through a lot of difficult situations with him. The kids at school were mean. They would talk about him, they wouldn't be friends with him, they made fun of him for having to take medication, they'd make up stories about him and tell the other kids about things that he'd done, and he went to a Christian school. One day, he was in fourth grade and he came home crying, just in tears.

So I went up to him, I said, what's wrong, buddy? He said, well, the kids were really mean to me at school today. The kids told me that I don't have any friends and no one likes me, and I should punch myself in the face and run away. As a mom, that was a really difficult thing to hear. It was tough watching my child cry, and all I could do was just hug him. So I started to tear up and I thought I can't let him see me like this. So I walked into my room to just deal with my emotions, and while I was there, those emotions shifted. I went from sadness and heartbreak to anger. Who did those kids think they were? These are good kids, they're raised in a Christian home, they go to church, they're at a Christian school, they should know better. Who do they think they are treating my son this way? I was very angry. So I decided I was going to go to the school, and I was going to talk to the principal, I was going to talk to the teachers, I was going to talk to the parents, and I was going to let those little brats know exactly what I thought of them. So I walked out of my bedroom ready to tell him what I was going to do, and it came upon the most beautiful scene I'd ever seen. It was my husband and my son, and they were knelt down together, and my husband had his arm around my son and they were praying. But they weren't praying for my son,

they were praying for the bullies at school. Because my son at 10 years old knew that if those bullies were going to treat him that way, that they must be lacking something, that they must be missing something, that something must be wrong in their lives. At 10 years old, he saw that, and they were praying for those kids. So now I'm crying again as you can imagine, only this time for different reasons. That story I just shared, it probably sounds a little bit familiar. I imagine if I asked you to raise your hand if you'd ever felt the way that I felt, I bet you would. You don't have to, but I'm sure every person in here would raise their hands and say, yes, I have been in a situation where I've watched someone I love sad and heartbroken. I've been there, I know what that feels like. And if I asked you if you could relate to my son by raising your hand, I bet every person would raise their hand. All of us know what that feels like to have someone treat us poorly, to have someone hurt us, to be sad. But neither of those are the questions that I want to ask you tonight. The question I'm going to ask, please don't raise your hands because I doubt very many would come up, but the question is how many of you will admit that you've been that bully, that you've been those kids at school? How many of you would say, oh yeah, that's me, that's me, I'm mean to people, I'm that bully? Probably none of you or very few of you, but sadly, I know that's not true. I've been in church my whole life and sometimes it's the people in church that are the worst. Sometimes it's the people in church that are the most judgmental that you can be. Sometimes it's the people in church that want to bad mouth somebody. It's us, me, who calls ourselves Christians, yet says, oh, did you see what she wore to church?

Oh, I saw him at the bar. Oh my gosh, do you know she was arrested last week? I saw it in the paper. Right? Christians who were raised in church, who know better. Sometimes we're the most judgmental people and it makes me think, what does God think of that? But that story that I shared with you, God felt exactly how I felt as a mother. God watched his child, his child who might be making bad choices, his child who might be unique, his child who might not fit in socially, his child who isn't living the life they're supposed to. And he watches them heartbroken and God is sad for them, but then God said in the shifts to anger, anger at his people who should know better, who are letting themselves treat his child this way. He expects better from us. And we can sit in church and talk about the 10 commandments. We can sit in church and talk about the 613 rules in the Old Testament. But I'm here to tell you tonight that God has one rule, one, just one. And you might say, you know what, Katie? There's more than one. There's one. And even Jesus said there were two. There's only one. Okay, if you read Matthew 22, 37, the Pharisees are trying to trick Jesus. And they said, Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? And Jesus said, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Now he goes on and says, love your neighbor as yourself. But he's only reiterating how important that first commandment was. Because if you love God with all your heart, you don't need to be told to love your neighbor. You don't need...

The other 612 laws are irrelevant. Because if you truly understand what it's like to love God with everything that you have, the very thought of treating one of his children with anything but love would be reprehensible to you. You wouldn't need to be told, don't murder. You wouldn't need to be told, don't commit adultery. You wouldn't need to be told, you have to forgive. You wouldn't need to be told, don't dishonor this person. Don't hold this person accountable. Because if you truly love God, you just would love his children. Yeah, that's so good, Katie. And you know, tonight we're obviously being a little bit vulnerable with our stories and entrusting you all with that because it's worth it if we can open up our hearts so that you can see our stories and that we can grow from each other. Because that's what we do as believers, we grow from each other. And so, thank you for sharing that, Katie, it's beautiful. You know, I was on the little bit of the other end of the story, to be perfectly honest. So Katie looks great with her story and I'm going to play the bad guy just for a second. Because Katie and I are good friends and we swap stories, you know, every now and then and things will come up. And one day we were rehearsing this and the Holy Spirit just laid this on my mind and was like, you tell the story of when you were the bully. And I was like, no, I don't want to tell that story. And he's like, yeah, but they need to know and they need to know the reasoning behind it. So long story short, I grew up in church, pretty good kid, you know, love Jesus, love my parents, didn't cuss, drink or smoke, great. Cussed every now and then, but you get the point. And so, you know, Jesus. This was an important part of my entire life. Well, in youth group, you know, I went to a great youth group,

you know, had some great friends, but there was so much insecurity in me, just like all of us go through in high school. And I had so much insecurity. And I just, you know, when you're insecure, you think you're the only one that's insecure. So whatever it takes for you to look better than someone else, you'll do, right? So I was the leader of the worship team at my youth group, and I was terrible. Like, Kenzie literally is 85 times better than I was ever at 14 or 15. I started, and I was so out of tune, and I would play, and I just thought I was really great, and I really wasn't that great. And I remember tying my identity and my importance to how well I played and how I was on stage. And I remember people would come up to me afterwards, and I would get their attention, and I would get their affection, and I would get their worth. Oh, you're great, you know, you're up there. And it kind of got to my head, and I was like, yeah, yeah, I am kind of great, huh, you know? 15, 16 years old, yeah, I'm pretty great. And some of the people in the back, you know, that never really got attention that now, I don't know what they were dealing with before. And we all like different ways from insecurity, but I would look and see them in the back,

and I wouldn't pay any attention to them. I wanted people to look at me. I wanted them to see what I was doing. I was the one on stage. And I looked back, and I see some, you know, I've talked to the Lord multiple times about, I remember those broken kids in the back that never really came up, and I had my clique and my posse and my group of people, and a lot of people probably thought that I acted a notch above other people. But to be honest, as much of maybe a jerk that I looked sometimes in my youth group, I was more broken than the people that I was acting a notch above. I was so insecure. I thought I had to have something that would make me important. I didn't know my identity in Jesus. I had to have something that would make me look just a little bit better than everybody else, because if I had that, then maybe people would think I was important. And so I'm not making excuses for bullying. I'm not making excuses for people coming and acting like they're better than other people at all. But if you can understand that it comes from a place of brokenness, and it comes from what's called a spirit of performance. It's literally this, if I'll perform good enough,

if I'll be good enough, if I can be good at something just enough so that I can act a slight notch above you, then maybe it'll make me look better, and maybe I'll gain your acceptance. Maybe that I'll be able to get your acceptance. And if that takes even stepping on somebody else and even bullying somebody else, then maybe, just maybe, I'll be worth something too. And so we go through this cycle of broken people, from the ones that are bullied, to the ones that are doing the bullying, to the ones that act like they're better, to the ones that hunker down and don't think that they're better, and we go through because all of us are so broken and in desperate need of wholeness, in desperate need of a Savior. And that's where it brings us to, is how are we going to love the people if we're broken ourselves and we're already wounded ourselves, how are we gonna love those people? And how are we gonna receive love? There is a desperate need for wholeness and healing in the body of Christ. Because let me tell you something, if you walked into the building right now, and your arm, not to be graphic, but your arm was slit open and you were bleeding everywhere, everybody would flip out and say,

oh, call 911, let's go, bring him to the hospital, hurry, call an ambulance. But we walk into the church every day with our hearts busted open, bleeding, and we act like everything's fine. How you doing? Oh, I'm great, God bless you, I'm blessed and highly favored. But really on the inside, there's places on the inside that need desperate healing and we're in desperate need of love from other people, whether we're doing the bullying or whether we're the ones being bullied, we're in desperate need, so it's easy to judge and say, oh, they bullied, they were so bad. But the ones that were bullying were probably in worse shape than the ones that were getting bullied. And that's what brings us in desperate need of a savior. Sometimes it's hard to do the right thing and it's hard to treat people the right way. Philippians 4.13 is a verse we use all the time, it says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, right, and that's a beautiful verse. I love that verse, but we tend to use it for big things, like I'm gonna quit smoking, I can do this because Christ strengthens me, or I'm gonna quit my job, or I'm gonna go into the ministry, or I'm gonna start public speaking, I'm gonna become president, whatever it is, we have these big ideas and we say, well, I can do this because of the strength Jesus Christ gives me, right? But sometimes we forget that we need to use that verse

in the small, everyday things that we face, like denying our flesh. Like saying, no, I'm not going to judge that person because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I'm not going to share that juicy story about somebody because I can do all things. I'm not going to hold this person accountable, even though they should be, because I can do all things. And like Ashley said, sometimes we treat people poorly, and most of the time it's for selfish reasons. We want to be liked. We want to be liked more than somebody else. We want people to think we're funny. We want people to think we're important. We want people to think that we're better at them than something. We need to start saying, I can deny my flesh and let that person be better than me because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. What if we started saying things like, I can love this person. I can forgive this person. I may be jealous of this person because they're beautiful, stronger, smarter than me, but I'm going to tell them that I look up to them. What if instead of calling someone out for their bad choices,

we started encouraging them? What if we started loving people the way God calls us to love them? Yeah, that's so good. You know, just like she was saying, what if we actually started that? Like, what if we, instead of giving in to those insecurities, and it took a long time, it took years of a process, but the Lord began to reveal to me that the only reason that I wanted to act better than other people was because I was so broken on the inside and I didn't know who I was. I'd been in church my whole life and I didn't know who I was. I didn't know that I was so important and so worth it and so loved. You hear that, but until it drops in your heart, you're not going to act that way. And so the only remedy that will completely ale this entire situation is the love of God. We think, oh, let's cut it off, let's stop, let's stop judging everybody now. But the only way that we can do this, that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us is because he first loved us. The only remedy that's really gonna bring a drastic change in our life and bring massive repentance in our life,

it's the love of God that brings us to repentance. You can beat somebody over the head all day long, but you know, when I was in my youth group and I was insecure and trying to act just a little bit better than everybody else, if somebody would have came up to me and they would have said, hey, I just want you to really know you're really beautiful and you're really worth it. You know, I would have dropped my act just like that. Just like that. We can cut behavior off at the surface, but it doesn't heal the wound. We can cut behavior off and say, stop this, stop acting like that, stop being like that, stop doing that, but the only thing that's gonna heal at the root is the love of God. Because if we don't have the true transforming love of Jesus that comes into our heart and makes us know the identity and the worth that we carry, every time we step on a trigger point or a landmine, we're gonna release into a bad place because of the wound that's in our heart. So the only remedy for that is for the love of God to pour into those areas and those lies of our heart where we've believed lies of worthlessness, where we've believed lies of insecurity, where we've believed lies of other people maybe being better than us or judging us instead of believing and knowing what the truth

of what Jesus thinks about us is. The problem is because of our selfishness, we justify our actions. We justify treating someone poorly. We say things like, well, they deserve it. Well, you don't know how they hurt me. You don't know what they said to me. You don't know what kind of life they're living. We justify what we do. I easily could have justified telling my son to punch all those kids in the face at school, but that's not what Jesus calls us to do. He calls us to treat people right regardless of the way they treat us. He tells us in John 13, 35, that they should know us by our love. And Jesus was the perfect example of this. Now, Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and that's beautiful, and that's amazing, and there's nothing that can compare to that incredible act of selflessness. And I think we honor him and celebrate that, but sometimes I think we forget to honor what he did for us while he was walking on this earth, because Jesus could not have been the perfect sacrifice if he hadn't lived the perfect life. Jesus walked on this earth for 33 years and not once talked harshly about someone. Not once looked at someone in the wrong way.

When the people were mocking him, he loved them. When the people were lying about him, he loved them. When they were trying to trick him, he loved them. When they betrayed him, spit on him, beat him, he loved them. When he's hanging on the cross, dying for the very people who put him there that don't even realize it or appreciate what he's doing, he loved those people. Nothing we do compares to what he had to go through. It's mind-boggling what he put up with, the love that he had for people. I can't, I'll be honest, I can't go one day without having negative thoughts about someone. I can't go one day without being disappointed in someone, without judging someone, without being frustrated. I can't treat everybody nice for an entire day. Jesus literally did it for more than 33 years. That is incredible, but he did it because he understood the love of God. So how do we do that? I mean, how do we act like Jesus? We see this perfect example and we're like, I can't do that, you know? And you get into this helpless point. Well, I think it's because, and this is just my theory, this isn't, you know, this is mixes of the word that have kind of came into a revelation, and you can ask Holy Spirit and search the scriptures yourself on this, but I think it's because we've had a problem in the church

with thinking that we are sinners saved by grace and thinking that we are lowly dirt earthworms while God is great and glorious. But that's not the gospel. That's not what he came to do. He didn't come so that you could be a sinner and try to get it together every day. He didn't come so that you could maybe feel half insecure all the time or half whatever all the time, and instead of living a life that, because the Christian life isn't just difficult, it's impossible. That's why it was lived perfectly through Jesus, and that's why he did a cheat sheet for you. That's why he did it. He literally, it literally says in the word that there's been a divine transfer, that we've been transferred from the spirit of darkness into the spirit of light, that we're not little worms anymore that are just, oh, next to a holy God, but that we've been made holy, that we've been made righteous, but we're not gonna act like that unless we really believe that, because if we continue to believe all we are, we're just a sinner, we're just nothing but a good old saved by grace sinner, well, great, you're probably gonna act like a sinner, because to be perfectly honest,

until we get it in our hearts and in our minds the truth that Jesus has came, and he has literally taken his spirit without zero, with zero selfishness, with zero hidden agenda or ambition, and he's come and he said, here, take my spirit and put it inside of you, that's what gives us the ability, this is our identity in Christ, this is why we're able to live, because on my own, I can't, I can't, if you know what, if somebody's unjust to me or one of my family members, I'm ready to go, it's on, if somebody makes fun of me, I'm ready to go fight, I'm fiery comes out, but you know what, with the spirit of Jesus inside of me, I'm able to love, I'm able to love in the patience and the love and the peace of Jesus, and that's the only way, that's the only way, so yes, sometimes it's a process, because in my younger days, when I felt insecure and had to be something for someone, it's taken years, but I finally come to know and understand that who I am in Jesus is enough, so if you think I'm talented up here, great,

but I don't really care, I care what he thinks about me, I care what Jesus thinks, and that's how our mentality needs to be, is we care what the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords thinks about us, and he calls you righteous, he calls you holy, he calls you good enough, he calls you enough, so why does anybody else have to call you enough, why do you have to be a notch above anybody else now, because you're already seated in heavenly places, you're already royalty, so why on earth would you have to be better than anybody else, why would you have to act arrogant or a notch above anybody else, why would you have to judge anybody else or think that you have to be a notch above, why, because now, you've been seated and divinely transferred by the Spirit of God, and you are royal, and you are a co-heir, you share in the glory of Jesus. You know, I had a vision a couple months back, and there was someone that I was close to, and I had really, you know, just poured my heart into them. And there were some things that happened, and I was treated really wrongly in this process. And I just, my heart just broke.

I was so hurt. And you know what? I made up my mind and made a decision, and I said, you know what, I'm going to close my heart off now. Somebody gets close to me, I'll do a couple nice things for them, but I'm putting my heart in a box, locking it up. Y'all are nodding your heads because you know and you've been there. You're like, you hurt me, fine, I'm going to shut my heart off forever. It's fine. I'm not opening it up to nobody. And that was the mentality that I had, because I was hurt. And so the thing that we do is we don't want to get hurt again, so we shove it in a box and we say no more, it's not allowed anymore. And I just made up my mind, that was what I was going to do, you know. And somehow still love, I don't know how my theology on that was. And so one night, the Lord visits me in an encounter, and he rips open his chest and he shows me his heart, and he said, Ashley, every single day, my children have the ability to rip my heart open. And every day, I get hurt, every single day, but every single day, I choose to open my heart again. And because you have my spirit, Ashley, you can choose to open your heart again and again and again. And it was in that moment that the Lord softened my heart, and it was only by his spirit and only by his blood that I'm able to love again. Because it's a natural human tendency, somebody hurts you, fine, block them off, cut you off for the rest of my life. Somebody talks bad about you, nope, you ain't got any more authority in my life, bye, you know. There's some human dignity that comes in. But Jesus offers another direction and another way, and he says, no, no, no, I'm able to

open my heart again, and because I'm able to, you have my spirit inside of you. And sometimes we just got to reach down and access it. Luke 6, 45 says, For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. So what is your heart full of? Is it full of love, forgiveness, grace, mercy, compassion? Probably not. But that's because, like Ashley said, that's not a human, natural way to respond to someone when they hurt you. To just love someone, to just forgive, it's not natural, it's not easy. Romans 14, 13, though, tells us to make up our mind to love. Love is not an emotion, it's a decision. Our emotions justify things. Our emotions frustrate us. Our emotions cause judgment. Our emotions create unforgiveness. But Paul tells us that God calls us to choose love despite how we feel. I have a story similar to what Ashley just shared. I was in a situation a few weeks back, and I was trying to help someone that was making some bad choices, and they just kept making bad choices. It was really frustrating to me. And so one morning, I'm in my closet praying, but my mind kept thinking about this person instead of my prayer. I don't know if any of you have ever been distracted while praying before, but I kept thinking, oh, gosh, I wish I would have said this to that person. Oh, next time I see that person, I'm going to say this, and I'm replaying everything in my head. No, Katie, focus and pray. And then I'd start thinking about this person again, and I'm like, okay, Katie, focus. And I just prayed. I said, God, give me your eyes to see them how you see them, and your heart to love them

how you love them. And that's kind of my go-to prayer. It's what I say. I've probably said it 1,000 times, because that's what I have to work on. I have this automatic judgment against someone that I don't mean to, and I know it's wrong. And that's why I literally have prayed 1,000 times, God, give me your eyes to see them how you see them. Give me your heart to love them how you love them. But this time, God did. It was amazing. I was sitting in my closet, and all of a sudden, in front of me was Jesus's face. It was beautiful. It was right there, right in front of me. And he was staring at me. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. And I noticed he was wearing glasses. And I thought, well, that's really strange. Jesus shouldn't need glasses. He should have perfect vision. And as he takes his glasses off, I'm suddenly somewhere else. And I'm in a, it's like a park, but like in a big city. So there's like a park behind me with grass. and kids and people playing but I'm sitting on a bench and there's a big wide sidewalk in front of me and people everywhere so busy and people were walking and they were talking and they were laughing and they were we're wearing these bright colored clothes it was just a really fun place to be but then Jesus took his glasses and he put them on my face and everything changed the world got dark everyone's clothes got very dim no one was laughing anymore no one was talking if I could describe in one word what the people were like the word that came to me was heavy the people were walking around heavy and I

started noticing these black spots and I thought what what are those black spots and as I'm looking I noticed they're right here in people's chest the black spots were their hearts because the people's their hearts were dead and they may have been physically alive walking around but they were dead inside and Jesus was showing me this to tell me those are the people that I'm treating back those are the people that I'm judging we don't know where their walk is with Christ but they must not fully understand God's love or they wouldn't look like this and and when you are dead physically you need blood to be alive but when you are dead spiritually guess what you also need blood to be alive only it's a different kind of blood it's a special kind of blood it's the blood of Jesus Christ and God tells us that when we get saved we get the blood of Jesus Christ in us and it is our job to take that and put it into other people it's our job to see their broken black dead hearts and say I want to help bring them to life because I want to share what God gave me to share if you if you walk around and say I don't know what my purpose on this earth is that's it right there that's it to take the gift that God gave you and share it with others and literally bring their spirits to life what is love what does love look like love is patient you would say and is quick to forgive it is always kind and gentle and looking to give it is a force in this world that is second to none that desperately needs to be lavished on everyone it's easy to give to those who deserve it to those who lift you up and make you feel worth it but what about those who don't the ones who can't don't know how to or just won't this is when true love gets called to action when we're face to face with these people what is our reaction do we run do we hide do we put up walls are we quick to forget our many flaws now I'm not getting on to you because I've been guilty of this my eyes are just getting open to what real love is to embrace those who've hurt you and spit in your face to show them mercy to

show them grace to give freedom for failure and from expectation to empower them to destroy all their limitations hurt people hurt people this is so true so what if we look deeper at why they do what they do be sensitive to their pain and help patch up their wounds because if we're honest haven't we all reacted from brokenness inside our own pain the fuel to push others love aside but there's freedom to be had for me and for you and once we've tasted that freedom we can help them taste it too my challenge is simple as you go on your way remember the state you were in when you first were saved how Jesus loved you relentlessly and still does to this day and in the middle of your imperfections he's committed to stay he's a good model for us on how to love well and if we emulate him the world be able to tell so let's start with showing some love to ourselves as we do this it will be easier to love others as well because we're in this together we need each other So let's be family again. Let's be sisters. Let's be brothers. If y'all would, why don't you just stand to your feet just a couple minutes. Katie's gonna walk us through a couple of what you were handed with a few minutes ago and then we're gonna go another direction. So we have a challenge for you today. It's really a two-part challenge. The first part is we want you to know and understand how much God loves you and what the love of God can do for you. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you are pure, you are clean, you are holy. God sees you as a righteous child that he loves dearly. You need to comprehend this so deep in your heart that his love overflows out of you onto other people. Proverbs 18 21 tells us death and life are in the power of the tongue. And Romans 4 17 tells us we can call things into existence. So we are going to use our tongue to call life into existence. On these cards there's a declaration at the top. What I'd like to do first is have all of us read this together. Read it out loud and just declare this now. So if you will, if you'll read this with me. I have the Spirit of the Lord in me and I can do all things. I will love unconditionally with Jesus' love. I am patient, kind, never envying, not boasting, not rude, quick to forgive, quick to honor others, and I keep

no record of wrongs because of God's empowering grace within me. I will love people by enduring, believing, hoping, and persevering with them. I now let go of all resentment and unforgiveness and I call up all of God's love and compassion in me to extend to my circle of influence. I am forgiven, grace-filled, empowered, and full of love. I will extend forgiveness, grace, empowerment, and love to everyone around me. It is simply who I am because of Jesus and I call that to be activated now by the Spirit of God. We want you to take these home and we want you to say this, say it in the morning, say it at night, say it a thousand times a day if you need to until this sinks into your soul and you fully understand and believe it. And the second part of this, as you see, is the bottom part. We want you to go home tonight and pray about God opening your heart to someone that maybe you didn't realize it, but you weren't treating the way that he wants you to treat. Maybe there's a child that he loves desperately that he wants you to reach out to, that he wants you to show love to even though it may be difficult. And so we're asking you to take this home and just fill this out. Pray about it, put the person's name in there, put some unique ways that you can just show love and kindness. It can be one person, it could be two, it can be three, it doesn't matter. But just ask God, who do you need me to love this week? Yeah, so we're gonna just take a few minutes and do some ministry time before we go tonight. And so Junior, if you'd play that other instrumental, that'd be great. We're gonna give the musicians a break tonight. And just for a moment, I want you just to search your heart just for a second. And we're just gonna take a few moments and just close your eyes for a second. And I want, just for a second, we're just gonna engage with the Holy Spirit and ask him, you know, there's all, no matter how holy we are, there's one level of righteousness and it's the blood of Jesus. And just for a moment, I want you to just ask Jesus, Lord, is there a situation in my life where maybe I'm holding unforgiveness? Or maybe there's a situation where you just feel really stuck. And maybe in your mind you have a right to hold unforgiveness, because they were wrong to you. They hurt you. It was unjust. And you think if you forgive them,

then I'm not, I'm just letting it go. They just get off the hook if I forgive them. They just, it's just not fair what they did. You may not realize it, but you're really drinking poison and hoping that they'll die. It's all unforgiveness is death. doing. And maybe you had a right, maybe you had a reason, maybe somebody hurt you and ripped your heart out. But I promise you that as a believer in your veins flows the forgiving blood of Jesus and how quickly we forget how forgiven we are and how much grace has been lavished on us. So for a moment it may be unforgiveness, it may just be a spot in your heart where you just feel kind of stuck. You just feel maybe a little bit stuck. If it's a possibility maybe Junior if you could just dim the lights back there just to make it just a little more intimate. We just want to, we don't want to call anybody out or make you shine a spotlight on you by any means, but just for a moment with your eyes closed we're gonna pray. And I want you just for a moment if there's a certain situation that the Holy Spirit pops up in your mind, whether you're a leader, whether you're a church member or whatever, whether you just casually just bounced in here tonight. Just for a moment if the Holy Spirit reveals something to you it's an area of your heart that he's wanting to heal tonight and allow the love of Jesus to flow through. Maybe it's a situation that's constantly in your face again. Maybe it was like Katie where one of your kids are being bullied every day and you're just it's in your face every day and you have to choose forgiveness every day and you just can't do it. And you're so mad and you're mad at God and you're mad at other people and you just can't let it go. There's healing tonight. There's this precious love of Jesus tonight flowing in the room. We've been praying over all day, all week, for three weeks we've been praying that the love of God would just flow through this entire room and that if it was just for one person tonight it'd be worth it. That there's just buckets of his love, his liquid love coming and you think I never can forgive them. I can't do it. I can't. Maybe you're mad at God. Maybe you're mad at the world. Maybe you're mad at people but whatever it is you just don't feel

like you can just let it go. Well tonight there's healing in the place tonight. And it starts with this one simple act of obedience. Just one simple act where you just say Jesus I can't but you can. That's it. That's all it takes. Just out of your mouth just those words I forgive you. You don't even have to feel it. Just out of your words I forgive you. I forgive you. It's gonna get a little easier each time because guess what you have it already inside of you. That's why it eats you alive is because it's not part of you. It's not who you are. That's why it's just that's why it's destructive to you is because it's not who you are. But we're lining up and we're coming into alignment with what Jesus has called us to be and he's told us to he's literally put his spirit on the inside of us and given us the grace within us. It's who we are and why would you act any different than who you are already. So Holy Spirit we just ask right now come on everybody pray and we just ask right now Jesus for your presence to overtake us and overflow us and whether it's a leader whether it's somebody that's been in church their whole life whether it's somebody that bounced in tonight whether it's somebody that needs forgiveness for the first time from all their sins whatever it looks like Jesus I pray that you would begin to pierce every heart in the room God. I pray Lord that your love would just overflow and overtake right now in every person's heart Jesus that if there's situations Lord where they're having trouble loving if there's situations God that we've all been there that we've all walked through it that we all come to those points and circumstances in our life I pray Lord right now that you would begin to release your liquid love on their hearts and I just want to invite you right now if you feel the Holy Spirit drawing your heart what Katie and I want to pray over you and we just went and we could have pastor come as well and he's he's gonna help pastor David if you would come as well we're gonna we're gonna have him pray pray over you all as well and if you just need some encouragement and some grace to not to be able to love we want to love on you and we want to we want to release the love of God over you so if that's you and you feel the Holy Spirit drawing you we just want to invite you to the front right now we

just want to invite you to allow the love of Jesus to come and we're gonna pray over you is that anybody tonight I'm just gonna give a couple minutes to allow the Holy Spirit if it's anybody tonight that you just feel in your heart you're like I need I just need a fresh outpouring of the love of God maybe just feel dry you just feel I just need the love of God to come in you just feel the Holy Spirit drawing you we want to just give you that opportunity to come we won't keep you all night just want to give it give the opportunity if you need the love of God to be poured out stronger in your life