Today's text comes from 1 John
3:11-24.
"For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should
love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of
the evil one and murdered his brother.
And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were
evil and his brother's righteous.
Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the
brothers. Whoever does not love abides in
death. Everyone who hates his brother is a
murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding
in him. By this, we know love, that He laid down
His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need,
yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love
abide in him? Little children, let us not love in
word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
By this, we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart
before Him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is
greater than our heart, for He knows everything.""Beloved,
if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we
keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son,
Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded
us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and
God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us, by
the spirit whom he has given us." This is the word of the
Lord. You may be
seated.
Thank you, Mary
Paul.
How's it going, Raleigh?
Whoo.
And welcome to all of you that are tuning in online as well.
I, I couldn't help, I w- As she was reading God's word, I couldn't help but get
emotional. Something that we should all be excited of and very
proud of that by the end of the year, we will have read the
letter, First John, all together as a family.
And I, I just, it overwhelmed me of how cool that is that we
get to do that as a family. Um, all right.
Let, let's get into it now. Enough of that emotional stuff, right?
(laughs)
How many of you, you're, you're excited about Thanksgiving?
Whoo.
I mean, it's Thanksgiving. You're excited, you're excited. You've got big plans.
You've already found your eating pants. You've laid 'em out. You're ready.
(laughs)
You are ready. All right, that's one group, the
excited group. Y'all settle down.
And now, now, now there's another group.
You're just saying you're excited.
(laughs)
You're just saying you're excited about Thanksgiving because the people around you
seem to be excited. But for you, you're not so sure that you're that excited.
And there's a couple of reasons for this.
Multiple reasons probably, but maybe it's because someone who's very
important to the family, they're not gonna be there this year.
It could be that. But for others, you're not
excited about it and maybe you're looking at Thanksgiving with a little bit of
dread and trepidation because of who will be there.
(laughs)
Come on. Uh, right?
(laughs)
You know that person. They get there, and then they do what they do, and they
say what they say. And the next thing you know, it's weird and awkward.
(laughs)
But my guess is there's a third group, too.
So you got those that are excited, those that are like, "Uh, I'm not so excited.
I'm just saying I'm excited." But then there's a group, you, you don't, you
just, you just don't know what to expect.
Maybe it's a new situation for you.
They're, you know, it's a new family thing you've been invited into, so you don't
know. You don't know the level of crazy or normal.
So yeah, I mean, you just don't know.
And maybe in a word, you would just say, "I'm a little uncertain.
I'm a little uncertain." And I don't know about
you, but I don't particularly
like uncertainty. I, I want it to be stable and,
and we just know what we're up against and what we're dealing with.
It, it just bothers me when things are
uncertain. And, and you think about like what Jason
alluded to earlier, it seems like every day, there's a new cultural
moment that's just very significant that makes me wonder, and maybe
you too, can we be certain about anything
at all? Is there, can we be certain about anything at
all? And I wanna tell you about a time, a season in the life of
m- for me and my family
that was very significant in terms of uncertainty.
In 2012, I suffered a near
fatal brainstem stroke. And on the other side of that, I couldn't
walk. I couldn't talk. And I couldn't see, and
what was going on around me, I was swimming in uncertainty.
And it's easy in situations like that,
unsettled situations like that, where you just don't
feel any kind of certainty. So for me personally, I had no
clue what was next. I didn't know. Would I be able to walk again?
Would I be able to talk again? Would I be able to see again?
Would I be able to play with my kids again?
Would I be able to provide for my family?
And I get it, your situation is not my situation, but I would say that we've
all been in situations, we've all been in
situations
where it felt at best that we were anxious and
unsettled. And if we were, in a, you know, a word, just pick one, we
would say, "We are uncertain." But in this series, we've been
walking through this letter written by John, and he's been
providing evidence and information, and I would say even tests, that
reveal to us, that have been revealing to us that we can
at least be certain
on that which matters most.
We can be certain on that which matters most.
And as we push toward the end of the letter, and we'll get there in a few weeks, in
chapter five, verse 13, he says, "I write these things." Here's the purpose of
the entire letter, "I write these things to you who believes..." So
notice that he's writing to believers, these are followers of Christ.
"I'm writing to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that
you may know." That you may
know. Not that you may wonder, and that you would have doubts and be
unsure, but that you may know that you have
eternal life.
Amen.
This is about knowing with assurance that our future is certain because
of who Jesus is, because what he, of what he's done, and because of where
he's leading. If Jesus is the object of our faith, if we are believing
and trusting and relying on him for our salvation, then we can live with
great confidence that we have life
eternal. And that's what John's writing about.
And we come to this passage in chapter three today, he's reaching the
core of what he's been teaching, or what he is teaching in this
letter. And he's writing for the purpose to establish in
us assurance,
assurance for us as we navigate
doubts...... as we navigate struggles and
the difficulties of life that can creep in and
leave us confused, that can leave us uncertain, and if we're honest, can
even lead... leave us
afraid. Come on, have you ever been in the middle of a surg-
uh, situation, and you're just like, "I... I'm scared.
I don't want to admit it." And you probably wouldn't say it out loud and you don't
wanna say it to anybody, but you're like, "I don't know.
I'm not sure what's next." But in the passage
today, in the passage today, John is gonna provide
us with two tests that will help us know and be confident of our
connection with God and our future with God.
Look at verse 11. Here's the first test.
I w- l- let's just call it the love test. Look, you can see it in verse 11.
"For this is the message that you've heard from the beginning, that we should..."
What? What does it say?
Love
Come on, class. Love one another. So the love test.
Do we love one another? And while this message is, I mean, certainly good
news, this is not new- new news. And John, as one of
Jesus' closest followers, heard this directly from Jesus.
You see this in the Gospel of John in chapter 13.
In verse 34, "A new commandment..." Jesus is speaking.
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also
are to love one another." And Jesus goes on and says this, "By
this..." By this, by your love for one another,
"People, all people, will know that you are my disciples." A disciple is a
learner, is a follower. "And they will know that you are mine
if you have love for one another." But for Jesus, he's reaching
back even further. He goes back to the time of Moses. Moses writes this.
You see it in Leviticus 19, verse 18.
"You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge
against the sons of your own people, but you shall love
your neighbor as yourself." This is a thread that runs
throughout all of scripture. Paul picks it up when he's writing to the believers in
Rome, and he says, "All of the law can be summed up with 'Love your
neighbor as yourself.'" And then he says this in chapter 13, verse
10. "Love does no wrong to a neighbor.
Therefore love is the fulfilling
of the law." So when we come back to John, what is John actually
asking? What is John's expectation? It's this.
He's calling us for continuous displays of
love. In our actions and inner attitude, the places we go
and where we show up, continuous displays of love.
Because for John, this is fundamental to being a follower of Jesus
and a child of God. And maybe you're thinking, "What
do these continuous displays of love look like?" Because it sounds like a
lot. Maybe that, I mean, it...
It's making me tired just thinking about it.
What are you saying when you say, "Continuous displays of
love?" Well, let me frame it for you this way.
Maybe a tighter, better question would be, "What does love require of
me?" What does love require of me? Because if- if I'm
s- to love one another, well, what does love... what does that mean?
What does that mean? Well, John here, in verse 12, starts with a negative
e- e- example. He's saying, "This is what it doesn't look like.
This is what's not required of you." In verse 12, he says,
"We should not be like Cain." W-
w- if you're walking in for the first time and you're not deep in your Bible
reading, you're like, "Well, who the heck is Cain?
And why would we want to not be like him?" Well, his story is
told b- way back in the first book of the Bible, and you can find it in Genesis
chapter 4. But here, John is gonna give us some
commentary on what happened in that story back then.
Which is a good s- and this is an aside. This is an aside.
This is a good Bible study tip for us. Um.
What does scripture say about other scripture?
Like you're getting in a place and it's a little bit fuzzy.
Well, what else does the Bible say about what's going on here?
Okay, we're back.
(laughs)
This is what John says. John is saying this as he's looking, as he's
looking back to the story in Genesis 4.
He says, "While this guy Cain, he was of the evil
one." In other words, his behavior and his
actions, they're... It was an active display of evil.
It was determined. The evil that he was ex- uh, spewing forth was determined, it
was aggressive. It opposed everything
that was good. So in John's mind, "Don't be like that.
Don't be like that." John, uh, goes on and says, "Well, you know what?
Cain murdered his brother.
He murdered his brother." And the language here for this murder is
so graphic. It literally means to cut the
throat.
And I don't know about you, but you're reading that and you're like, "What could've
possibly have happened
that that became the result?"
And when I'm studying this and I'm wrestling with this, this is what came to my
mind. I'm like,
"What got him there?
What got him there? What series of ev-
events, what string of decisions, what happened in his childhood, what took
place in his family that would lead Cain to think, 'You know what?
The best option
before me is murder'? What would get him there?"
And so, I'm thinking, "If that got him there, is it
possible..." Listen. "Is it
possible for me to get there?
Is it possible for me to get there?" So I asked myself the second question, "What
would it take to get me there? What type of
experience, what type of pain would lead me to take violent action?" Now,
listen, listen. I'm not suggesting that you will respond to dry turkey or
undercooked mac and cheese with this level of violence.
That's not what I'm saying.
(laughs)
But listen to me. Listen. I don't think Cain, as he was
mapping out his life,
was planning on decision-making himself to a place of
stupid.And
maybe the problem wasn't that he planned himself towards ruin, but
that he didn't plan himself away from it.
See, wisdom takes work,
it takes vigilance. I love the way Ryan Holiday
captures this, this thought in his new book about wisdom.
He says, "There is always more to learn, more to know, more to
understand about the world and yourself."
And then this is where it gets a little bit alarming for me, he says, "But the
converse is also true." Listen, "No matter how dumb
someone seems to be,
(laughs) there is always room for
surprise."
(laughs)
"For human stupidity is also
infinite."
Some of you have seen this in action.
And sometimes the actor may have been you.
(coughs)
But here's the problem, when infinite stupidity
meets tempting opportunity,
the outcomes can get disastrous really, really, really
quick. When we go over to Genesis to the
story, the original story in chapter 4,
when you look at verse 7, there's a conversation going on between God and
Cain.
And it says there, God speaking to Cain, "If you do
well, will you not be accepted? And if
you do not do well," look at this, this is alarming to me,
"sin is crouching at the door. Its desire
is contrary to you, but you must
rule over it." He's letting us know, he's
reminding us sin is a threat, it's always, it's always crouching,
it's ready to pounce
when we least expect it, when we're ready or if we're not.
And if we're not ready, listen, listen, if we're not ready, we
have no chance to rule over it. We have no
chance to rule over it. And when we continue in John's story as he's
talking about Cain's demise, what went wrong? He asks the question, "Well, why?
What went, what happened here?" And he answers it and says, "Because his
own deeds were evil and his brother's were righteous."
Now when you think about context, because
if you've been here for the last few weeks, this looks back up, you can see that
he's given an example from verse eight in this chapter, and he's talking about what
he'd been talking about in verse 10.
So when you're reading back through this later, notice the
connections. But what happens here when John asks the question,
it reveals not only a problem that Cain has, it reveals a problem that
I have, and it reveals a problem that you have.
It's a heart problem. It's a heart problem.
You and I have heart problem, what are we gonna do with these matters of the heart?
But look at the sequence in the life of Cain.
Jealousy led to hatred, and hatred led to murder.
What seems like often in our lives, like small
decisions that could be insignificant, they can
spiral and result in massive
destruction. What John is getting to is this idea that our inner nature, our inner
nature, what's going on in our heads and in our hearts will
overflow in how we act and how we behave.
Instead of ruling his anger, instead of ruling his jealousy, instead of ruling his
resentment, Cain allowed it to rule him, and it resulted
in an action that he couldn't walk back.
Now I don't know about you, but I don't wanna be on the wrong side of a decision
that I've made that I can't walk back.
And so let me ask you, this is the portion of the message where I get in your
business,
what are you allowing to rule you?
What are you allowing to rule
you?
You see, 'cause what we, how we deal with
what we have to deal with
is a big deal. How we deal with what we have to
deal with is a big deal, because our
response says something about us.
Our response reveals something that's going on in our
heart.
John in verse 13 says, "Do not be surprised, brothers, that the
world hates you." Uh, let me just
remind us that evil has been trying to disrupt, destroy, and
overcome, overcome good since the beginning.
And this love/hate language, this is the strongest language, the
strongest expression of our em- our emotions.
And this is what John is really pressing into
in this part of his letter. And he's just reminding us, listen, if you're
a follower of Christ,
if you're a follower of Christ, how you look to a watching world should be
noticeably different than what the world is offering.
The look of love looks very different.
And how do we know that there's a difference?
He says in verse 14, "We know that we have passed out of death into
life." Well, what can we know? We can know that there, a
move has happened, that we have moved from death to life.
The word pass means that there has been a movement from one place to
another, and here he's talking about a spiritual movement that has
happened. Well, how is it revealed?
How can we know that this movement has taken place?
He says it's because of our love for the brothers, and it's do- this is not just
limited to guys, he's talking about the whole family here.
It is revealed, it is revealed in our love for others.
John is not saying that loving others earns our eternal life, what he is saying
that it is evidence that a transformation has
taken place. But what could be alarming and what you need to notice alongside
this is if there is not love for others, that is
evidence as well. It's evidence that a
transformation has not
occurred.And I was wrestling with this.
This, this seems like hard, you love or you hate?
But I don't know about you, maybe you've experienced this.
Have you ever bumped into someone and they're just ...
they're easy to love? You're like, "Man, I like
you. We could hang out." And then there's, there's times you bump into
someone, they're, they're not easy to love but they're easy to
...
they're easy to hate. You're like, you're three seconds in their presence and you'd
like to fry their jaw. (smacking sound)
(laughing)
Like what is that?
And where does that even come from, right?
But where are we ... where ... what if we're in the middle of that?
We know that we are to love others, but we have
this connection and we have this relationship and it's difficult and it's heavy
and we're trying to navigate our way through it.
For those of you that are in that place with some of your relationships, I would
just encourage you,
look at the trajectory. What's going on in your heart?
Maybe the hating that you hate, it's a good
indicator that transformation is occurring, that you're moving
in the right direction. And this is a big deal.
It's a big deal that we need to wrestle with because he says in verse 15, "Everyone
who hates his brother is a murderer."
See, we think hate's hate and murder's murder, but here they're
equated. John is equating one's inner attitude with one's
overt actions. But where did John get this
thinking? Where did John get this thinking?
Where did this come from?
He heard it
from the mouth of Jesus.
In the Sermon on the Mount, this is what Jesus says, "You have heard it said to
those of old, 'You shall not murder and whoever murders will be
liable to judgment.'"
Well, I mean, we could agree with that. That, that all sounds good.
Yes, murder is bad, judgment on someone who does murder, that seems good.
But then Jesus levels it up when he goes on and continues to say, "But I
say to you, everyone who is angry with his brother will be
liable." And he goes on and says, "Whoever insults his brother
will be liable. Whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable." Now
I don't know what your Thanksgiving table could be like, but some of this back half
stuff, maybe it's there.
And this is why Paul encourages those of us as followers of Christ
that we should constantly be examining ourselves and testing ourselves
to see whether we are in the faith. He says in Second
Corinthians 13, "Examine yourselves. Examine yourselves.
Test yourselves.
Make sure you're not failing the test." And how can we know if we
meet the test? And then John goes to a positive
example. Look at verse 16. This is what love looks like.
He gives us a supreme example of love, "By this we know
love, that he laid down his life." We
can know Jesus, we can know Jesus not in concept
but in relationship. And as John is unpacking this, what we see is that Jesus
denied himself and he took up our ...
his cross for our benefit, and now John is challenging us that we should
deny ourselves, that we should take up our cross for the benefit of
others. And what does that mean? It
means being selfless and sacrificial.
This is what the life of faith looks like.
This is what it means to follow the example of Jesus.
It means loving another will cost you something.
Amen.
So just to recap where he's been. He's talking about love hate, the love hate
test. Hate is negative and it seeks to harm of others.
Love is positive and it seeks the welfare of others.
Hate leads to hurtful activity. Love is other,
others-oriented. Hate is haughty. Hate is self-righteous.
Love is humble, it is sacrificial.
Following the example of Cain, it can result in murder.
Following the example of Jesus, it can come with great
... or at great personal cost. And so let me just ask you, what's going on in
your head? What's going on in your heart?
Because this is the battleground.
This is the battleground of the love hate test.
We should be examining ourselves and asking ourselves this
often. Often.
And then John practically shows us, well, how can we
tell? How can we tell which way we're moving?
How can we tell if we have a good trajectory here?
He, he says in verse 17, "But if anyone goes, if anyone has the
world's goods and sees his brother in need
yet closes his heart against him, how does God's
love abide in him?" So when you see someone in need, when you see a need that needs
to be met, what's your first response?
Is your heart open or is your heart closed? Are, are you soft?
Do you have a soft heart in that situation or are you cynical?
Are you generous or are you stingy?
These things reveal things about our heart.
Love is willing to surrender, it's willing to enrich the life of another.
And here at Raleigh Campus, in this season, there are multiple things
going on that you can be involved with that are, that are low-hanging fruit in
how you can serve others and love others.
In Garner, we, we're doing the Miracle Mall.
What an opportunity to get in and meet the needs of families there.
The Community Caroling will be a opportunity here at Raleigh.
And let's just say, can we all agree we liked it better when it was Caroling with,
with Corey?
But either way, we'll go with caroling, you know, Community Caroling.
And then at Apex, they, they're gathering bikes, you know, Bikes for
Hope. So are you standing around? Listen, are you standing around waiting to be
served or are you looking for opportunities to make an impact on the
life of another by serving them selflessly?
And then John implores us, "Let us not love in word or talk
but in deed or in truth."
John is letting us know that love does.
It's not expressed in mere talk or in sentiment but it's
in actions and in deeds.And that brings us to the test
question. Remember, we said this was a test, so here's the test question.
Do I love only in speech,
or do I love in sacrificial action?
Is my so-called love limited to my
heartfelt post on social media?
Or maybe the good intentions that float through my head?
Maybe, come on, uh, this is the season, you guys are busy, you're all
important. Does your schedule hinder you
from loving others?
And John has reminded us that we are to love one another (laughs)
He's given us a negative example, he's given us a positive example, and as we round
the corner in verse 19, he's gonna start building towards our second
test. So the first test, the love test, love-hate test,
and now he's moving towards a second test to give us encouragement and confidence
as we fight for certainty in our faith
journey. In verse 19 and 20, he's gonna bring up matters
of the heart. He's gonna bring up matters of the heart, and we will see that
our heart can both assure us
and condemn us. In 19, he uses the word again,
know. If we can know, we can know, we can know, it's not,
"Uh, I wonder, I'm not certain, I don't know." No, you can know.
You can know. This is not about hoping. But notice his clarity.
He doesn't frame this as a question. He gives it as a statement.
"We are of the truth."
He is reminding us of our sure identity and our origin in
Christ.
According to the second part of verse 19, our hearts can be
reassured. And I don't know about you, but in seasons of uncertainty, what do you
have to do to find some assurance, some rest, some reassurance
before Him? See, the heart is so tricky.
It is so tricky. Look at verse 20. You can see, our heart condemns us.
But notice how John responds with such optimism.
He says, he, he's optimistic though because he sees God is greater
than our heart, and He knows
everything. When we approach God, we are approaching the one who knows
everything about our hearts. He knows what's what.
And He has already told us all the way back in chapter two verse one that we have
an advocate, we're not in this alone.
We have someone who is interceding for us, we have a helper, we have one that's
gonna encourage us and one that's gonna comfort us.
And he says in 21, "If our heart doesn't condemn, we have confidence before
God." And the confidence that he's talking about is access
to the throne room where the decisions of the universe are
made. He's talking about prayer. He's talking about
prayer and he mentions it here the first time in his letter, and I love the image
that he uses. He says, "Before God," which is
this idea of a face-to-face relationship.
And he says in 22, "When we ask." He's talking about
prayer. He's talking about a connection and a conversation with God, and he's
pointing out, he's pointing out here that answered, answered
prayer, answered prayer is not merely
a fortuitous circumstance. It didn't happen by good luck.
It is a specific response from God because we are
yielding to Him and being obedient to His
commands. And it's a condition, but not the cause of answered prayer.
And we are invited to come boldly to God
because of the work of Jesus Christ.
You see, Jesus kept God's commandments perfectly when we didn't.
He kept, He com- He kept God's commandments perfectly when
we couldn't. He kept God's commandments perfectly when we
wouldn't
because of the shape of our heart. And when it comes to prayer, let me give you
another aside. When, when it comes to prayer, it's not, it's rare that we
ask too much.
In fact, because of our guilt and our shame and because of things that have gone on
in our past, we are more likely to ask too little.
And I wanna challenge you. What big prayers are you praying?
What big prayers should you be praying?
Because you know what's going on in your life, you know what's going on in the life
of your family, you know you should be leaning in.
I want to remind you of who you should be praying to or who you are praying to.
And it makes me think of the words in a John Newton hymn where he reminds us that
you are coming to a king, large petitions would you bring,
for his grace and power are such that none can ever ask
too much. What are you going after in prayer before the
King of Kings and Lord of Lords?
Don't go short on your prayers. John sums up this section in 23 and
24.
He says, "This is the commandment that we believe in the name of
His son, and love one another." John calls for an
explicit belief in Christ
and an active love for one another.
Love for others flows from belief in Christ, and belief and
love are connected. You cannot have one without
the other.
Believing in Christ is trusting in who He
is. It's trusting in what He has done, and it is
trusting in where He is leading. And it's
trusting where He's leading. And it's trusting where He's
leading. It's trusting where He's leading even when
it doesn't make sense and it makes you feel anxious and it makes you feel
uncertain. But trusting in where He's leading, what that
looks like,
what that looks like is doing what He says.
And this is the second test, the obey and abide
test.
Are you trusting Him enough to obey and do what He says?
Are you willing to remain? In verse 24, that's where you see the word
abide. We've seen it throughout this series.
It means to remain, it means to trust.
And for John, abiding is the epitome......
of trusting Christ. Trusting Christ will result in confident
assurance for us
and love and action towards
others.
And the test question for us:
Am I obeying God's two foundational
commandments; faith in Jesus
and love for other people?
Now listen, these, these tests are not meant
to crush
or discourage Christ followers. They're meant to give us
assurance. They're meant to give us confidence.
But they're also there for another reason.
To nudge us just in case there is even a
little bit of spiritual
drift. And that can be
tough, but a loving God doesn't want us to
drift in a wrong direction. Now, earlier
I mentioned
a very uncertain time for my family in the wake of my
stroke,
and when we talk about love and action,
it's, it can get easy for us to dismiss it.
We can say things like, "Someone else'll step
up. Someone else'll do
it." And dependent on your level of cynicism, you could
look at a situation at, at a family and
say, "That's not so much. They should be able to
handle that themselves."
I want to share with you
how my perspective was changed. When we were
in a mess and completely overwhelmed and not sure what to do
next,
a group of people showed up.
We didn't ask. They showed up and they prayed and they
provided. They prayed for us and they provided for us.
And by providing, uh, uh,
mealss,
gift cards. They ran errands, like taking our kids to their
practices.
And listen, I know that on the giving end
some of that can seem insignificant and it's not that
much.
On the giving end, that's not that much, uh, it's no big
deal.
But I want you to know
that it is not insignificant
on the receiving end.
It is not insignificant on the receiving
end, and as Christ followers we have a significant
opportunity to make an impact on the world around
us.
Even with what might seem like small
things, small acts, insignificant,
they can change someone's
perspective, and when one
person's perspective changes,
that could be a catalyst for changing the
world. And so when I look back on that season of
uncertainty and I think it through, I can only respond with
gratitude
that my perspective was changed on how God loves
and how he's at work in the world. And let me tell
you, I hope you come to that realization
during this season as well. Let me pray for
you.
Dear Heavenly Father,
I'm so grateful
that even in s- uncertainty
we can be certain of your love towards us
because of the sacrificial, sacrificial love and
acts of your Son. Thank you, thank you, thank you,
and may we look at that and may your love and acts
frame everything that we do and think during this season, and that we
would respond
only with gratitude. And it's in your Son's name we pray.
Amen.