The Danger of a Loveless Faith

Let's lift our voices to King Jesus and put our hands together this morning. Come on. When we praise you, Lord, praise your name. Come on. ♪ I have felt the hands that bear the scars ♪ ♪ Reach down and rescue me ♪ ♪ I have known the love of the Father's heart ♪ ♪ And Friday gone out ♪ ♪ From where I was ♪ ♪ To where I'm now ♪ ♪ It's overwhelming ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ The more important ♪ ♪ Let me see you move ♪ ♪ All around me ♪ ♪ Oh, I can't help but pray ♪ ♪ Praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, I can't help but lift up ♪ ♪ Shout to the shore ♪ ♪ And when I feel without good you bled ♪ ♪ And faithful now to the end ♪ ♪ I can't help but pray ♪ ♪ Praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ For the sight of you still to save my life ♪ ♪ That I cannot repay ♪ ♪ For the cross, the boy with open arms ♪ ♪ Salvation that call ♪ ♪ From where I was ♪ ♪ To where I'm now ♪ ♪ It's overwhelming ♪

♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ The more important ♪ ♪ I see you move ♪ ♪ All around me ♪ ♪ Come on, lift it up ♪ ♪ I can't help but pray ♪ ♪ Praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ And I can't help but lift up ♪ ♪ Shout to the shore ♪ ♪ And when I feel without good you bled ♪ ♪ And faithful now to the end ♪ ♪ I can't help but pray ♪ ♪ Praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, I can't help but pray ♪ ♪ 'Cause I've got no chains on me ♪ ♪ I feel very deep ♪ ♪ I can't help but pray ♪ ♪ That there be my true ♪ ♪ Who won't be my great ♪ ♪ I can't help but pray ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm ♪ ♪ I know chains on me ♪ ♪ I feel very deep ♪ ♪ I can't help but pray ♪ ♪ 'Cause I've got no chains on me ♪ ♪ I can't help but pray ♪ ♪ Praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ And I can't help but lift up ♪ ♪ Shout to the shore ♪ ♪ And when I feel without good you bled ♪

♪ And faithful now to the end ♪ ♪ I can't help but pray ♪ ♪ Praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, I can't help but pray ♪ ♪ Praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, I can't help but pray ♪ ♪ Praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ Come on, it is good to be in the house ♪ (inspirational music) (inspirational music) (inspirational music) (inspirational music) (inspirational music) - All right, good morning, everybody. Welcome to Church. Glad you are here today. If you're brand new, welcome especially to you. I'll be out front in the lobby and I'd love to talk with you. I get to know you. Pray for you anything you'd like out there. Even give free hugs out there, all right? So I'd love to have you out there. And, man, we're thrilled that you are here. If you're watching at home today online or somewhere around the world, I'm glad to have you as well. And I'm asking if you've got a Bible of Scratip. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is where we're going to be today. We are in an 11-week journey through the Book of 1 Corinthians. We're calling this 1 Corinthians 11 dangers for every Christian. We call these dangers because they really are toxic to your spiritual life. It can even be lethal to your spiritual life. And for the vast majority of these, the hard part is you don't even recognize it. There's a subtle in nature that you may not even see it right off the bat. So I don't know if you've ever heard the phrase, don't meet your heroes. You ever heard that? And maybe you've even had a bad experience of meeting your in your mind of that person, you don't wanna meet the hero because they may not be that person.

All right, that happened to me one time. About 20 years ago, my family got to go to the Super Bowl. So I had just been married to Meredith, probably within the first six months or a year, and somehow my dad got four tickets to the Super Bowl, and he's able to buy those, and so it was like the OG family. Like, without our wives, just like me and my brother and my parents as adults and the Super Bowl that year, of all places that the Super Bowl could have been located the year we got to go, it was in Detroit, Michigan, all right? And you gotta remember, like, this is usually in February as a Super Bowl, and so it is, I mean, it is freezing, bitterly cold, and so we go to the Super Bowl that day, and it is, I mean, it is so cold, like, so, and you had to wait for security with the Super Bowl, and we were outside for probably two or three hours in line waiting to get into the stadium, and it was the Pittsburgh Steelers versus the Seahawks, like, eh, you know what, okay? Not the game that you'd wanna go to, not America's team, I might say, Dallas Cowboys, right? I heard that, I heard the moans, okay? You can find yourself in other church, I'm getting all right. (audience laughing) And so, I mean, it was an awesome experience. I'm a football guy, I'm a sports guy. I was raised on sports center, anybody else, like, were you watching a couple times a day, and anything the NFL films puts out to this day,

I'm a sucker for, and so, go through all this. What I did not realize about Super Bowl Week, and we were there for maybe two or three nights, is that it is one sports celebrity sighting after another. And again, this is 20 something years ago, so I was maybe 21, 22 years old at the time. In other words, I was not afraid to ask for an autographed den, okay? And so, we had bought, like, a football as a family, and we were having all these celebrities signing it in football players. I ended up, now, it was late one night, and it is in the middle of, like, the lobby of the hotel we're staying at, and I see a crowd around a person. And finally, the guy's like, hey, I'm gonna be general for his sake here. He was like, hey, you know, no more autographs, and I was late to the party, and so I asked some random guy, hey, can I grab your marker for a second? And so, I go, and I tap him on the shoulder, and I'm like, hey, sir, can I have your autograph? And he looks at me with a stern face, and he turns around, he says, I said no. I was like, fine, you don't have to be mean about it. And in many ways, that's what we're talking about today. You say, what in the world does that mean that we're talking about today? What we're meaning is this,

you can be as famous as you want to be. You can be as wealthy as you want to be. You can be a person that people admire. You can be the most gifted person in your family, which some of you are like, yeah, that's me, okay? Here's the point of today's message. This is like incredibly basic. If you don't have love, you don't have anything. All right, that is what First Corinthians 13 is all about. Now, relating to that situation, my fault, not his fault, I can imagine what it's like to just be on all the time and have a group around you seeing an autograph. Like, I know the dude was done for the night and my fault, all right? But he could have been nicer, right? I mean, he really could have been. So today, here's what we're gonna talk about. I'm gonna talk to you about the danger of a loveless faith. The danger of a loveless faith. Here's the hard part. You can look the part, you can act the part, you can speak the part. But if you don't have love to use another sports analogy, that's a real swing and a miss, okay? If you remember where we were last Sunday and I would just encourage you, if you weren't here last week, some of this is not gonna make sense unless you look at last Sunday.

So I would encourage you to go online, YouTube channel, our cross-church page, whatever, and you can watch last Sunday in order to get a better understanding 'cause they really are connected together. But last week, the Bible described how when you get saved, God gives you a spiritual gift to use to serve other people in your church. Paul's gonna continue this discussion, but he's gonna speak about it in relation to love. And so as we get started here, let me give you the sermon in one sentence, all right? If I were to dumb down the entire message and the entire passage, we're gonna study today. Here's what it is, write this in your journal, love always outweighs gifting. Love always outweighs gifting. The Bible again, we'll say, I'm gonna say this kind of thing over and over today. You can be the most gifted person in the world, but what really makes the difference in the lives of other people is your love. What really impacts other people, it is the power of love. So let's begin reading together, and we're gonna begin in verse one of chapter 13. Here's what he says, he says, underlem this, but have not love. I am a noisy gong or a clinging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,

and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, here it is again, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all that I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, not only a third time, but have not love, I gain nothing. You can be the most gifted person that you know, but if you're not loving, you have missed it. Think about the different giftings that he mentioned here. Again, this is a reference back to chapter 12. He says, "I can speak in tongues. "I can have prophetic powers. "I can have the wisdom to understand things. "Man, I can have a faith that moves mountains. "I can be the most generous person you know. "I can even give up my body to be burned as a martyr," he says. "But if I don't love other people, "I have missed the whole thing." He said, "Well, why would God include this in the Bible?" Like, sounds like a basic thing that we would love one another, right? And even we get the idea from the word of God that God is love, three of the most powerful words you'll read anywhere, God is love. And so why would God include this in the Bible, especially after such a long passage about spiritual gifts and all that God gives us at salvation? Here's why I think God put this in the Bible, okay? All of us have a natural tendency to be drawn towards the gifted

more than those who love well. So you love those who are really good at certain things to the neglect of others who and just really love people in a great, great way, okay? You can easily read 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and have an over-emphasis on the gifts to the neglect of love that is produced by the Holy Spirit. So if you're reading these two chapters together, some of you are gonna be way more drawn to chapter 12 and understanding it and living it out and doing all these things to the neglect of chapter 13, that is honestly, it is elementary Christianity at its finest. Love always, always outweighs gifting here, okay? So if we're not careful, we make the Christian life about our own gifting or about other people's gifting to the neglect of others and we whiff it on the basics, okay? Let me be clear, gifting is not bad, it's just not best. So spiritual gifts to God gives us, by all means, like what a gift that God gives us, we can use it to serve other people. The Bible would just say it this way, they're just not the best thing, okay? Now, I'm gonna step into a hard territory here, okay? Any math teachers in the room today, raise your hand, okay? Anybody? We had somebody eight o'clock, okay, over there, thank you, okay. I'm not good at math, all right? My daughter, what are you doing like every night of the week? 'Cause I need help with my catch homework, all right?

We need to come over, all right? My daughter's in sixth grade, I can't do her math, all right? But I'm gonna do easy math today for you, okay? This is the extent of my mathematical capability, all right? Let me give you a little equation here. First Corinthians chapter 12, plus first Corinthians 13, here's what it equals. It equals serving others through spiritual gifts while realizing love is the greatest gift. That's what it means. So these two chapters together, which I think they need to be read together, understood together, it's all about serving others through spiritual gifts while realizing that love is the greatest gifts. In other words, it's not spiritual gifts to the neglect of love, and it's not all love to the neglect of spiritual gifts. Can you imagine if we were in a church that had no gifting whatsoever, we just loved everybody really well? Now it'd be good, which wouldn't get much done, right? Like God gives us both gifts and love here together, and that really is the key, okay? The greatest thing that you could ever give somebody is not your gifting, it is your love, okay? And now some of you may feel freed by this passage today because in all reality you think to yourself Nick, I'm not gifted, like I'm not talented, I don't have something to offer somebody else. And number one, like that's not true, I just say that.

Especially if you've given your life to Jesus God, God doesn't ask you if you want to spiritual gifts, he gives you a spiritual gift. And so it's not true that you don't have anything to offer, it's not true that you're not gifted, God has gifted you himself on purpose with the specific gift that he has given you. But if you like, in a sense of like not false humility, but you're like, Nick, I really don't know what I'm good at, like I don't really know what I have to offer other people. Here's like the greatest, most freeing thing that you could hear today. God can use you, he can use you. Not only through your gifting and again, Did you know that God can use you in your life to make a major difference for the kingdom of God just through the vehicle of love? Like if you can love other people, God can use you. And here's what I know. Every person who is hearing me today, you have the ability and the capability to love other people, something that God gives us innately. So if that helps you today, if that frees you today, man, be free in the name of the Lord, all right? Look at verse four, he continues. He says, "Love is patient and kind. "Love does not envy or boast. "It is not arrogant or rude. "It does not insist on its own way.

"It is not irritable or resentful. "It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, "but rejoices with the truth. "Love bears all things, believes all things. "It hopes all things, it endures all things." A little crowd participation. How many of you had first Corinthians chapter 13 read at your wedding, raise your hand? Anybody? Okay, I see hands all the way at the top. Okay, many of you had that. It's not wrong. It's just not about marriage. Like I think I need to say that right here at the beginning. It's not wrong that you did that, and some of you are engaged, like you just had the program printed for the wedding, like, oh my gosh, the first Corinthians 13 is already out. Don't worry, okay? By all means, read first Corinthians 13 at the wedding, just read it with the understanding that it's not about marriage. Does it apply to marriage? Absolutely. Does it apply to your workplace? Absolutely. Does it apply to your relationship with your kids? Absolutely. It's just saying about that. You know what it's about? It's about how you love the people sitting next to you today.

It's about how you love the people on your row, people in your small group, people in your other services here today. Okay, and the other campuses today. Like, that's what this passage is all about. It is much broader. It's about how you love other people in the church. Again, it extends beyond that, but by all means, let it be read and interpreted rightly, first of all, that this is how you love other people within your own church, okay? Let me contrast what I just read with the world's definition of love. Okay, here's the world's definition of love. Love is a feeling, all right? It's a feeling. So when I feel it, I show it. Think about this within the context of church. Like, if I feel like I love my church right now, then I'm gonna be all in. Like, I'm gonna look forward to today's like legacy Sunday. But if I don't really feel it right now, I'm just not gonna be all in. If you don't feel love for other people in your small group, especially that annoying guy, he always prays too long, makes it about himself, you laugh 'cause that person's in your small group, okay? Like, if you do all of these things, well, I don't really feel it.

You're gonna have a very limited capability of love right there, okay? Love is not a feeling, love is a choice. Let's take this, let's take the passage and let's apply it to marriage, okay? This explains why so many marriages end after a long season of marriage. Maybe the kids, you know, graduate, get out of the house and marriage falls apart and one of the spouses or both spouses, when I just, I mean, I think we just fell out of love. I just don't feel it anymore, like what I used to feel when I was around that person, I just don't feel it anymore. And, you know, love is a choice, love is a decision, you didn't fall out of love, you fell out of repentance, you fell out of obedience, you fell out of scripture first in your life, like, that's what you fell out of. And so I have zero doubt that there are some of you who are here today, but you're sitting next to someone right now and it's tense. It's tense because you're like, you're like trying to make it work, like I'm talking about a spouse situation, I saw two college guys be like, (audience laughing) I got the, it was y'all right here, like, you're fine, okay? (audience laughing) That was funny.

I have no doubt there are spouses sitting next to one another this morning, who there's just a, there's tension. And, you know, even though we're joking here and there, like, you know, you could cut the tension with a knife between the two of you because you have fallen out of love. And it's got by the name of Ted Cunningham, some of you may remember Ted Cunningham, Ted's spoken out of church multiple times, he's really a relational expert, he's a pastor in Branson. And he's spoken here several times. I heard him this summer speak to a group and he put the picture of a bus on the screen. I wanna put up the same picture here for you. And you got all these things that are going on within, you got scripture in the mix, you got tradition, like maybe from your family or from your church, you got experiences, you have reason, and then you have emotions. And he's like, listen, that's all a part of your life, it's all a part of being a full person there. And yet what you gotta determine is who's gonna drive the bust of your life? Like who's gonna drive the bust? And for some of you, tradition in your family drives the bust. Well, my parents did it, my family grew up, we did it this way, or you got the bust of experience, you got the driving of experience.

Well, I've been through this, or you got reason or intellectualism, and that drives the bust of your life. Or if I were to share with you, honestly, what I believe my hunch is, is my hunch is that many of you, see the thing in the very back, emotions, for many of you, your emotions are driving the bust. And Ted's point was this, like all of these things are important, like God gave you emotions, so we listen to the emotions going on in our heart, and in our soul. We reason together, we think about things like experience and tradition. Just none of those are to drive the bust. The only thing that should drive the bust is scripture. And so, I would ask you like, if this was the bust of your life, is it in that order? And I'm not really concerned about passenger seat, second row, or the couch in the back, all right? I'm more concerned about what is driving the busts of your life. And only you know that, I don't know that for your life, but you probably know that looking at those things. And so I want you to understand love through the lens of scripture, not through the lens of a feeling. So here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna read the same exact passage to you again. And here's what we're gonna do.

I'm gonna read it slowly. I think there's value in reading the Bible slowly. For some of you, you have your time in the morning, and you've got a certain amount of chapters in your mind that you have to read so that God won't be mad at you that day. Your life's now home, extreme. And but your speed reading, because you're trying to get to the gym, trying to get to the office, trying to get the kids in the car, gotta get to class. And so you're speed reading. And if I say, hey, what'd you read about in the word this morning? You'd be like, Abraham? Maybe? So here's my advice. If that's you, read less and read slower. Read less and read slower. I had a dyslexic friend who came up to me after the eight o'clock and he's like, thank you. Thank you for that, all right? So read less, read slowly. Let me do that too with you right here, okay? And I'm gonna underline some key things. Love is patient. It's kind. It does not envy or boast.

It is not arrogant. It's not rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable. Don't elbow the person next to you. It's also not resentful. Doesn't rejoice at wrongdoing, but it rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things and it also believes all things and it hopes all things. I want you to circle one word in your Bible or in your journal today. It's the word endures. Love endures all things. I could break down every one of the, what it maybe eight or 10 things right there. And I could throw a list up here and I could give you the background biblically like from the original language. Like can we be honest with you? Like most of those things are self-explanatory. Are they not? You don't need a Greek breakdown of rude. Just don't be a jerk. You don't need like the behind the scenes message on what it looks like to be irritable. Just look at yourself in the mirror in the morning, right? But there is one that I think really gets to the heart of what real love is like and it is the word endures.

And how do you circle it just a moment ago? It's a Greek word pronounced like this, hypominate. And here's what it means. So again, it's translated as the word endurance, your translation may even give the word perseverance. They're same idea, but it means to remain steadfast in the face of unpleasant circumstances. So let me put this back on you. Anybody dealing with unpleasant circumstances in a relationship? Again, let's think, context first. So anybody having an unpleasant circumstance with somebody else here at our church? Like you walked in a different entrance today because you knew that they always parked at the back. So you try to park on the side, came through the preschool because you know they come this and they always sit up there. So you used to try to sit over here. I mean, I avoided altogether. I went to a different service. They're at the spring down campus. I move campuses. Stuff like that. Anybody got an unpleasant circumstance with a relationship at work? You take the long way to your desk every morning. So you don't have to walk by her, walk by him. How many of you go the opposite way into your apartment complex or the opposite hallway

in your dorms 'cause you got an unpleasant circumstance with somebody else? Or let's take this in marriage and family. Anybody got an unpleasant circumstance going on with a spouse, with a child, with a parent, with a you fill in the blank? What is the overall point here? Love remains steadfast in the face of unpleasant circumstances. Here's the first seven verses in a nutshell. Love is not about me, it's about you. It's not about me, it is about you. So let me give you a tip. All right, this is like pastoral advice from first Corinthians on if you want your relationships to work in your family, your friendships, your business, school, whatever it is, here's what it is. You love people like that. It is all about you and it is not about me. Pastor James McDonald said it this way a long time ago and he even wrote it in a unique way that I've never forgotten. He says it this way, love is you before me. And look at the screen of how he writes it. Letter you, letter B, number four, then me. It's an easy way to remember it, just written it in a different way. And so some of you need to put this on your, put it on your mirror, put it on the home screen of your phone, wherever you'll see it a lot.

This is the heartbeat of those verses. So who needs this today that love is you before me? Keep on reading, look at verse eight. This is where it's not gonna make sense if you weren't here last week, all right? So go back listen last week 'cause he gets back into spiritual gifts. He says love never ends as for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. So look at the two key phrases. They will pass away and they will cease. As for knowledge, it will also, it will pass away. Now there's potentially a distinction between how these three will actually end. Some Bible scholars put prophecies and knowledge in a different lane than tongues, all right? Related to tongues, if you remember, we talked about the miraculous gifts of the spirit last week. Four different views, go back, watch that again. But I talked about two different views at the beginning, one called cessationism, which believes that the miraculous gifts have ceased. I told you that I fall into a category that is open but cautious. In other words, I believe that God can do whatever he wants to do, however he wants to do it, whenever he wants to do it, I believe God can still heal. He could use somebody to speak in tongues

to share the gospel in a language. They don't know with somebody in their original language. But I'm also cautious as to what, much of what we see today. So if you're here today or you're here last week, you're like, well, I don't understand how anybody could get to like a view of cessationism or if you have even opened but cautious, like why are we not just wide open towards all the gifts? Verse eight is a reason why many people fall into one of those two lanes including myself of light. There is an ending to these gifts is what the Bible is saying. When that is, is the debatable thing, but these will end. You say, well, what's the point of our state then? Here's where the point of our state is. It's all about love. It's not about the gifts, it's all about love. Again, love always, always, always outweighs gifting. That's the point of the entire passage, including verse eight reiterates that by using spiritual gifts like these things are going to end. and we prophesy in part but when the perfect comes..." Circle our underlying the word perfect. The partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. And when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. That includes getting autographs from other grown men. Okay, right there. Verse 12, "For now we see in a mirror dimly..." This is really key, but then face to face. "Now I know in part, and then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." You say, "Well, Nick, what is the perfect that you mentioned there? Can I tell you what it is not? It's not talking about now. You don't need me to tell you this world is not perfect. This world is not right. What we have now is the temporary. We have the

partial. And what this passage is pointing our eyes to is it is pointing our eyes to the return of Jesus to this earth. You may be new to the Bible or new to church, new to Christianity. Let me give you some words that you need to understand. Jesus Christ is coming back. He is coming back, and He will return. And when He returns, He will establish a new heaven and a new earth, and it is then that we will have what this passage talks about. We will then have the perfect. You say, "Well, what's the whole thing about like the childish mindset thing there?" But it's all about this is that God's Word is pushing us to move on from childish mindsets. Listen to me, to move on from childish habits, to move on from childish ways and to look forward that man one day Christ is returning. And I'm not going to see dimly through a mirror, but then I'm going to see Jesus face to face, pointing our eyes towards eternity. And so what's another point that Paul is making in this passage? Then gifts are important. God has given gifts. Gifts are to be used for serving other people. But this is verses 8 through 12. Gifts are also temporary. You know what's not temporary? Love. You know what will last? Love. You know what matters most? Love. You know what is eternal? Love. That's what the Bible's saying. You're getting that today? This doesn't pass away. So build your life on love. Write this statement down. Love is the measure of spiritual maturity. Love is the measure of spiritual maturity. We often look at people filled with knowledge who know a lot of the Bible and we say, "That's the spiritually mature person." Or we look at gifted people in the church who can use their gift for the sake of the glory of God and serving other people and we say, "Man, that's the person who's spiritually mature." Not according to the word. You know who the spiritually mature person is? It's the 12-year-old girl who loves her friends well. It's the wife who is enduring unpleasant circumstances with a lost husband. It is the person who forgives well when wronged. It is the person who gives grace when everybody else is looking to throw stones. It's the person who keeps their mouth shut when everybody else is blabbering on social media. It is the person who looks different, who treats people different, who runs towards those who are shunned, who runs towards those in need, who runs towards the people at your cafeteria who are sitting alone and everybody else makes fun of. That's what love is. When everybody else just is bad mouth in the person at the office, you're the person who sticks up for them or who just simply walks away in love. That is the measure of spiritual maturity. And so how do we measure whether we are where we need to be with the Lord? How's my love? How's my love for other people in my church? How's my love for other people in my

family? How's my love for people in the community? How's my love for people at the office? How is my love? That is the mark of spiritual maturity in my life. That is the mark of spiritual maturity in your life as well. The passage ends like this. This is like the famous thing that somebody gives you in a frame at your wedding. This is it right here. First Corinthians 13 verse 13. So now faith, hope and love abide these three. Let's read this last phrase together. But the greatest of these is what it is. Let's do a survey of everybody today. If you think faith is important, raise your hand. Important to have faith, okay, good. If you think hope is a good trait, raise your hand. As good as those are, the Bible is saying, love trumps those. Love is greater than faith. Love is greater than hope. Love always outweighs, gifting. Guess I'll say to you with verse 13 lingo. Love even outweighs faith and even outweighs hope. I titled this message the danger of a loveless faith. And here's the hard thing about a loveless faith is that it's often hard to spot. Because you can look really good on the outside and really loveless on the inside. Some of the most judgmental people that you'll ever meet are people who have all the knowledge of God in the world and all the knowledge of the Bible and a heart that lacks love. It's not that we throw away our minds, not that we throw away intellectualism. There's a lot to learn, a lot to believe. But the danger here is that you can live a loveless life

and you can like really still look pretty spiritual. You can still lead a small group. You still serve in some way at the church. You can still, you know, look the part. You can have your Bible out in your journal out and you're taking notes and everybody who looks at you is like, man, he's got it together. She's got it together. And the reality is you only really have it together if you love people well. So anybody in here need to forgive somebody else? Anybody in here need to endure a difficult circumstance with somebody else? Anybody need to apologize to somebody else? Any married folk in the room today need to say, listen, I know we've had some conversations and I want to end those. Let's have some different conversations about how we can make this work. And so maybe you're here today and God has convicted you of a loveless faith. I've like, Nick, man, this is me. I've so judgmental in my heart. I'm so critical of people. I'm just gonna invite you to come to the altar just a moment, get right with God. Lord, I don't wanna be that anymore. I just wanna be a loving person. Maybe you're here today and God has really spoken through your heart and it's more inspiring.

It's not like convicting of something you've done wrong. You're just like, I want to be that. I wanna be that person. Man, I'm gonna invite you to come to the altar. Lord, give me the strength to love people well. Give me opportunities to love people well. How many married people need to come to the altar and just with open Bible, pray verses four through seven, Lord, I pray that you would help us to identify in our own lives with these three things, these several things right there. (gentle music) If I knew your circumstance, I have zeroed out, there are hundreds of situations in this room represented by your lives. You have somebody in your life that is hard to love. It's an unpleasant circumstance. It's a dysfunctional parent. It's a dysfunctional kid. It's a dysfunctional spouse. It's somebody at your office. Somebody here at the church. I know, I don't know what to do. I want to do what you're saying and what the Word of God is saying. I don't know how to get there. And I'm gonna invite you to come to the altar. Just ask God for wisdom. Look at James says, if you'll ask for wisdom, God will give you wisdom.

Think about that bus illustration. How many of you have let emotions drive the bus of your life or reason drive the bus of your life or other things like that? And you just need to freshly submit to God's Word. Lord, I want scripture to be in the driver's seat. It's gonna invite you to come to business with the Lord. Maybe you're here today and you've never trusted Christ personally. And man, you wonder if what I'm saying about how God is love, you wonder if that applies to you. 'Cause in your mind, your entire life, you've had this thought of, man, God's angry with me. God's mad at me. And man, I've showed up at church and all these people are perfect. Everybody's got it together. The preacher seems like he's got it together. And man, this thing is not for me. This gospel you speak of, it's not for me. This God and this offer of hope and salvation I just want you to understand this. There is never an example in the Bible or in history where if someone with all of their sin, all of their past, all of their pain, all of their regret, anyone who has ever come to Jesus with genuine repentance has never been turned away. And that will include you. You say, Nick, you have no idea what I've done. I don't, I don't.

I just know what he did. And what he did on the cross, what we celebrated with the Lord's Supper earlier in our service, that is enough. And that can be enough for you today. I want you to just bow ahead and close our eyes. If you are here today and you say, Nick, that is me, like I need Christ. Our staff is making their way to the front of each aisle. And if you know you need to give your life to Jesus, like that is your step. I'm going to invite you as soon as we begin to sing in just a moment, we're going to stand together. And as soon as we stand, I'm just going to ask you just to make your way out of the aisle that you're on and just make your way down here. You say, God, look in front of all these people and for all these people who listen are on your side. This is a family. So any decision you make for Jesus will be cheered on by this group, will be rejoiced in by this group. So when you come, all you got to do is take the hand of one of these men or women. All you got to say is I need to give my life to Jesus. We'll lead you to faith in Christ today. Others of you are at a place where you identify in one of those other things that I talked about. You want to be this person, you want to have this type of marriage, you're in a difficult spot with somebody else and you're like, I don't know what to do, God.

I need the wisdom. If you've on any of those categories I mentioned a moment ago, I'm going to invite you to come and ask the Lord for wisdom. You come to the altar, the altar is a place of surrender. God, I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on you. So Father, it is in our hearts and in our desire, Lord, as we wrap up the service. By your Holy Spirit, you would compel people to be saved, you would compel people who are Christians to make steps of surrender before you, whatever that looks like. We trust in you to do that. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. - Amen.