The Fruit of the Spirit Week 2 • 1 John 4:7-11

Sunday, June 5th • Beau Bradberry

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." — 1 John 4:7

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Show Notes

June 5th, 2022 • "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." — 1 John 4:7

–
Podcast: https://pod.link/willowridgechurch
Website: https://willowridgechurch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/willowridgechurch
Facebook: https://facebook.com/willowridgechurch
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@willowridgechurch

Creators and Guests

Host

Beau Bradberry

Senior Pastor

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Thanks for listening.

I love our church.

I love our church.

I love...

Check.

There we go.

All right.

For a moment, was it Lou Gehrig that had that at Yankee Stadium?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, there we go.

That was fantastic.

I promise we check all of these things before we walk in here and get ready.

But what I was going to say is, I love our church.

I've never been anywhere where the worship leader jumped off of the stage for an appropriate

reason, right?

I've been there and seen it happen, not appropriate.

So, to see it happen for an appropriate reason was fantastic.

So, well done, everybody upstairs, getting us through that.

Appreciate and love you guys.

If you've got your Bible, open it up to 1 John chapter 4, is where we will be this morning.

A couple of things, if you missed it on our announcements there that I want to press forward, is VBS is

coming up.

And so, we'd love to have you and your family a part of that.

And so, please make sure that you get connected and accounted for for VBS.

Also, after the service this morning, we're going to have an informational meeting in room

200, which is the larger room when you first walk into your right in building 2, about our

family mission trip that we're going to do this coming September.

And so, if you're considering being a part of that and want to get some more information

about that, we would love to have you there where we can talk about Black Mountain in North

Carolina, Black Mountain Children's Home, where we'll be going to serve, the work we'll be

doing, kind of how the weekend will unfold.

It is a holiday weekend that we'll be going up there.

And so, we would love to have you there and to be a part of that.

And then also, we will be taking the Lord's Supper today as a church family.

And so, if you did not grab your elements as you walked in, right straight here in front

of me at the very back of the auditorium, we have some of those.

And so, you can get by there, pick those up.

It would be a wonderful time for us to do this together.

And so, we'll partake at the very end of the service with that together.

So, this is week number two in our summer series on the fruit of the Spirit.

And so, what we did last week in Galatians 5 is where Paul gives us the fruit of the Spirit.

So, last week, we looked at the context of the passage surrounding the fruit of the Spirit.

And what we were able to kind of take from that, if I could like break down what took

me 53 minutes, I know, to do last week, just to simplify that, is we talked about what it

looks like to walk by the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit, and to live by the Spirit, which

is what Paul gives us.

And it's really interesting words of what Paul does, and he builds on those, that we walk

by the Spirit, we are led by the Spirit, we live by the Spirit.

And what we saw in that is that there's this battle that is raging in all of us.

So, there's a commonality in the battle that we face in that the battle of the flesh versus

the battle of the Spirit.

And that those of us who are saved in Christ, yes, we have the power of the Holy Spirit,

the Spirit of God, the Trinity in us, right?

But we still struggle with the battles of the flesh, the battles of our sin, the battles

of the desire that we have.

Like, God didn't save us, and then immediately we're set free from those.

We still walk through that, right?

So, we still battle with greed and lust and anger and pride and jealousy and hatred and all

of those things, right?

We still battle with those.

And so, it's the battle of the flesh versus the battle with the Spirit.

And how we live in the victory, right?

We know that Christ has set and determined the victory for us, and that's what we long for

in that eternity with Him.

But we can live in that now.

And we talked about this, kind of our three action steps, right?

We set our minds on the things that are above.

We pray.

We dive into God's Word.

We meditate on the truth and the promises and the very character and nature of who God

is, right?

So, that's what it means to set our minds on the things of the above.

But we also know, right, that it's a battle.

Spiritual warfare is real.

And spiritual warfare doesn't just happen, right, to pastors and to missionaries and to the church

context as a whole, but all the way down to every individual leader.

And you know this, if we're going to be in a battle, we've got to be prepared to be in the battle.

And so, we talked about last week preparing to fight, right?

We've got to build the discipline.

We've got to sharpen the skill.

We've got to lean in.

We've got to take on the armor of God to do that.

But then lastly, what we talked about of what it means is when we do fail and we will, when

we do fall and it's going to happen, we don't live in the shame or the guilt of that, but

instead, we live in God's forgiveness.

And I shared with the words of Billy Graham as he answered this of how often should a Christian

confess, repent before the Lord.

And his answer was basically, yes, continually, all the time, this is who we are.

But we have a loving father who's not sitting there just waiting to catch us, to punish us.

But we've got a loving father who's there ready to love and forgive.

And that's who he is and that's what we need to live in.

And so now for the remainder of the summer, what we're going to do is we've got the context

of the fruit of the Spirit.

We're going to take each week and look at one of the individual aspects or characteristics

of the fruit.

So while you're in 1 John, I want to look up at the screen here and we're going to see

Galatians 5, 22 through 23.

Paul writes and says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

And so these characteristics, and we're going to begin by looking at love today.

So we'll move each week.

In fact, I think you've got a handout on your rows as well of which characteristic we're going

to look at at different times.

But here's some things that just as we get into this, just some reminders, right?

It's not the fruits of the Spirit.

This is important.

It's not plural.

It's not the fruits of the Spirit.

So like we're not walking into the grocery store and saying pineapple over here, watermelon

over here, apples over here, oranges over here.

We're not navigating through, but instead we're looking at the singular fruit of the Spirit,

but the characteristics of the fruit are multiple.

Singular fruit, but multiple characteristics.

And that within this, that what we need to acknowledge is that the fruit is from the Spirit of God.

All right?

It's a characteristic of God.

So here's what I mean by that.

Each week, we're not going to be starting off by saying, what is our standard for this?

So we're not going to begin this week by saying, all right, everybody, how do we define love?

But it's a characteristic of God.

So instead, each week, what we're going to look at and not set ourselves as the standards of love,

but we're going to establish that God is the standard of love, and then how does He love?

And then flowing from that, what we understand is that this fruit has been given to us, right?

And so how do we reflect that?

How do we show that characteristic and that attribute of the Lord in our lives?

So it's not what we don't want to show the world.

It's just how we determine how we love, because we mess that up all the time.

But instead, we want to say, well, how does God love, and how does God love us?

And then how do we show the world, remember, He's always the hero of the story, right?

What it means to love.

And so let's look at that in 1 John 4, starting in verse 7.

Paul starts, and he says,

Beloved, let us love one another.

For love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

So at the very beginning in this verse, what we see is this evidence of faith.

Paul's writing to the church, I'm speaking to the church, I'm speaking to a group of people,

mostly who identify themselves as believers and followers of Jesus Christ.

If you were here today and you were not a follower of Jesus Christ, we could not be any more ecstatic and excited that you are here to hear this.

But as John is writing this, what he's giving this to is to the church as an evidence of their faith.

Well, look at this formula that he gives us.

He begins with giving this call.

Let us love one another.

Right?

The call to love.

Now, at the very beginning, we recognize, say yes and amen, and the ability to do this has to be from the Lord.

Right?

Because amen, it can be hard to love us sometimes.

Right?

It can be hard to love me.

And y'all are easier, but sometimes it can be hard to love you.

And we can look at each other, and we can look at ourselves and say yes.

But it's this call that he's given us.

He doesn't say, let us love one another most of the time.

Let us love one another some of the time.

Let us love one another when we feel like it.

He says, let us love one another.

And then he says this, because love is from God.

Now, here's what's important about this as we go through this.

Godly love for others is neither learned nor an innate virtue.

We can't set up a six-week class and say at the end of it, we're going to check all the boxes and here's how we're going to love each other.

And this is going to come from this wonderful book that we've come up with and this design that we have.

No, that we recognize and that we know that in our ability to do this extremely difficult thing, but when we see it happen, we recognize that that love is not from us.

It's not from me.

It's not from you, but that this love is from God.

But that if you love this way, the Bible says, you are both born of God and know God.

Now, here's what's cool about this.

Here's what I think when we read and understand this, that this means that we are both saved by God, but also have an intimate knowledge of God.

And what it paints in the life of a believer is maturity.

That when we love one another in the godly manner which God has called us to love, recognizing that it's from God, it means that you've been born of God, that you know God, that you're saved by God, have knowledge of God, and that's the definition.

This is the mark of a high level of maturity.

This is what this means.

And John just didn't come up with this.

That's what Jesus teaches.

On the night that Jesus would wash the disciples' feet, look at what he said in John 13.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you're also to love one another.

Let's kind of pause there for a second, right?

Jesus doesn't just say, love each other in your love language.

Jesus says, love one another and let me be your love language, just as I have loved you.

You are also to love one another.

And then verse 35, by this all people will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Wow.

This is how Jesus says to the disciples who will be mocked, ridiculed, and executed for their faith.

This is how they will know that you are my disciples.

Not that you walk around and say, hey, for the last three and a half years I've been walking around with Jesus.

Not because you walk into a room and you're able to argue with the most knowledgeable Pharisees and rebuke their argument.

Jesus says, here's how they know that you are my disciple, if you have love for one another.

Pretty simple and extremely complicated all at the same time.

Another place, the Pharisees come to Jesus, because Jesus has been stumping every argument that comes to him, right?

People are trying to catch him.

And the Pharisees come to Jesus and they ask him a question.

A question, by the way, which Jesus, if not answered correctly, could be determined a heretic.

And Jesus answers in Matthew 22, verse 36, they ask the question, teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law?

And Jesus replied, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the first and the greatest commandment.

And the second is like it.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.

Now, here's what becomes very hard in this culture, in the world that we live in.

We're told, we're taught, what is ingrained in us is look out for number one, right?

Look out for number one.

Either you're first or last.

In a world that teaches take before it's taken away.

And if you don't believe that this is taught and this is ingrained, then watch babies, right?

We had the greatest social experience in the world by having two babies of the same age at the exact same time live in our house.

And you know what they did really well?

Was when one had something the other one wanted, before they could speak, they took it.

They took it.

And it wasn't like, oh, I'm going to set this down.

It's like, no, I'm in mid-bite of cookie, but I want cookie.

Let me take cookie, right?

Looking out for number one.

But God's word teaches us something different.

God's word says, hey, Jesus says, love one another.

Love one another.

So we're going to look at this and say, in the body of believers in faith, love one another, your brothers and sisters in Christ.

But he doesn't just leave that there.

Because it's not just loving about those that are in the family.

He also goes and says, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Your neighbor.

So the non-believer, the different lifestyle, the different political party, the different race, the different socioeconomic,

the person you know, the person you don't know, and everywhere in between, Jesus says, love one another.

And so it's this call, it's this standard, it's the mark of the believer.

And as Paul writes in Galatians 5, under the inspiration of the Spirit, it's the first one that he gives us.

And I believe that does matter.

Love, love, love.

Look back at 1 John 4, 8.

Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.

And again, church, as we read God's word, we can read these incorrectly as suggestions.

Or we can read this correctly as the truth of God.

And so this isn't a suggestion, this isn't a maybe.

1 John 4, 8.

Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.

And so what I want us to look at as we continue on in this is what we said we were going to do is understand that God's nature is love.

I read this from a pastor this week and I want to share this with you as he described what does it mean that God is love.

And here's what he said.

Love is from God the way that heat is from fire or the way that light is from the sun.

Fire gives heat because fire is heat.

The sun gives light because the sun is light.

And that's how God is love.

I'm trying to run, okay?

And you guys know that this has been an eight-year battle in my life of more failures than victories.

The other day I was supposed to run and I tried to run in the morning because in the south it becomes 115 degrees at 9 a.m., right?

And I don't know if you can tell, but this body ain't built for that, all right?

And so I tried to run in the morning, but the other day I couldn't run that morning.

I had obligations that I had to take care of, but it was a half day for our kids.

And so I was going to work that morning and take off that afternoon so that I could pick them up.

And Grayson, who's continuing on in his running, who he gets to experience the victories and I get to experience the moral victories through it all, right?

And I go and he's got practice at 3 o'clock in Lexington, South Carolina to run.

And I pick him up and we get there.

And when we get there, my truck is sweating, all right?

Like it's just condensation.

It's so hot outside.

And I pull up the weather app on my phone and it says, with the heat index, it feels like 102.

And I had to make a decision in that moment what I was going to do.

Am I going to be a runner or not?

Now, here's the decision I made.

I got out there and I moved my feet at a faster pace than a slow walk, all right?

That's what I did.

And I call it running, but it was what it was.

But I made a decision.

This is what I'm going to do.

I made a decision that for the next 30 minutes, I'm going to get out there and I'm going to run around Lexington High School and pray that no one that knows me drives by, right?

Great time of conversation with the Lord.

Chad, you saw me.

That's embarrassing, man.

I'm sorry, buddy, right?

He's like, that's my pastor.

I'm like, right?

So, God doesn't wake up in the morning and try to figure out if it feels like loving today.

God doesn't wake up and say, man, this world's just a mess.

I don't feel like loving him.

God is love.

Never separated from that characteristic.

That it's in his very core of his nature and he cannot choose not to be love.

It's who he is.

And God is love.

So, what does it mean that God is love?

What are these characteristics, what does this attribute look like?

In my study, I just came up with these five descriptions of this.

I don't think it's all-encompassing, but as I studied this week, it's what the Lord brought me to.

So, I want us to look at these.

Number one, God's love is great.

God's love is great.

Ephesians 2, 4 through 5 says this,

But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us,

even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, you have been saved.

Look at that.

Because of the great love with which he loved us.

Not because of the love in which he loved us,

but the great love in which he loved us.

Now, I don't know that this has always been the case,

but I feel like more so than ever,

we live in a culture that loves to argue about the greatest.

Right?

I like sports.

I like sports podcasts.

I like sports TV shows.

And I feel like every time during the NBA season that I cut on a podcast or I cut on a TV show

that's going to talk about the NBA, the conversation is, well, who is the greatest?

I feel like every time I cut on during the NFL season and I watch the games that are coming on,

before they're talking about who is the greatest.

And that we continue on in this conversation of who is the greatest.

And it spills over.

If you're not a sports person, like, ask someone, what is the greatest movie you've ever seen?

And if other people are there, you can get great conversation going around the greatest movie ever.

Talk about the greatest meal or the greatest restaurant that you've ever been to.

And what you'll find is there are multiple experiences and multiple opinions

that point people back to the different things that they've been able to sample

and they've been able to taste in their life.

That defining what is and what consists of the greatest is extremely, extremely difficult.

And we can't do it.

And what I've found is we argue about what is the greatest because of two things.

Number one is because the margin between two options is probably extremely, extremely narrow, right?

If I ask you what's the best burger you've ever had and you tell me from this place

and I ask you what's the best burger you've ever had and you say it's from this place

and if I go and put those burgers together and sample both of them, I may have an opinion,

but I guarantee you that the margin between the two is minimal.

Another reason why it's so hard for us to agree on the greatest is because our perspective is different.

If I talk to someone from, I don't know, New York City about the greatest topping to put on grits,

they're probably like, can we have this conversation about oatmeal?

And I'm like, no, that's for cookies, right?

We're talking about grits.

This is for breakfast, all right?

This is what we do, right?

Why?

Why?

Are they wrong?

No.

No.

My people from Ohio say no, right?

Am I wrong?

No.

No.

Our perspective is different.

Where we were raised, what we got used to is different.

But the Bible says God's love is great.

It is the greatest.

And here's why.

It's because it's from and because of his love that scripture tells us that he takes us who are dead in our sin

and he brings us alive and unites us in Christ.

And here's why it's great.

Because no other love can do that.

None.

My love, my grandma's love, my wife's love cannot save you, cannot save me.

The greatness of God's love is because only God can do this.

No other love can.

Number two, God's love is transformative.

God's love is transformative.

Romans 5.5, God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

I want to ask you a question.

And I haven't done this in a while, so we're going to do this by a quick show of hands.

All right.

How many of you at any point in time have ever bought a project?

Raise your hand.

Project house, project car, project piece of furniture.

Leave your hands up if you've ever bought a project.

All right.

I see the hands there.

You can put your hands down.

All right.

Here's the, I've done it before too.

All right.

Here's the problem with a project.

There's always way more involved than you knew what it was going to be when you got into it.

Right?

You're like, ah, this will take a weekend.

Three years later, right?

Three years later, you're finished with that piece of furniture.

Right?

Like, we take on projects, and also, if you're like me, sometimes I take on projects

that are way above my ability.

Right?

I have no need, I have no ability to do this, but I think that I could.

Right?

God knows that you and I are projects.

We need to be transformed.

We need to be changed.

We need to be molded and shaped.

And here's what he does.

He saves us anyways.

God knows the depth of the level of project that you and I are, even more so than we do.

As bad as I know that I am, God really knows how bad I am.

And he saves us anyways.

Because here's the thing.

God loves us too much to save us and leave us how we were before.

So he transforms us.

He gives us the Holy Spirit who lives in us and who's working in every moment.

In every moment.

Every moment of joy and every moment of defeat.

He's working in every moment to knock off the pieces that don't need to be there.

To smooth over the rough spots.

And to soften what was once hard to make us more like Jesus.

Right?

And that's what he does.

He transforms us.

So God's love is transformative.

But then also, number three, God's love is unchangeable.

Romans 8, 35.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

So tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Have you ever loved something?

Had a bad experience with it?

And then your feelings changed.

Like, the other night, we went out to California Dreaming with our kids.

Our kids have never been to California Dreaming.

We're like, we'll go to California Dreaming.

And they were talking to us about what we were going to get at California Dreaming.

Now, it's probably been 15 years since I've been to California Dreaming, and probably the exact time for Aaron to go to California Dreaming.

And our kids said, well, what are you going to get?

Well, we went back to 15 years ago.

Right?

And here's what we got 15 years ago.

15 years ago, every single time I walked into California Dreaming, I got a California Dreaming salad.

Right?

I'm not a salad guy, but when you double up on that bacon dressing, I'm down for it.

All right?

All right?

Extra salad dressing.

All right?

And potato soup.

All right?

Because you got cheese.

And again, bacon.

All right?

All in there.

And then the cherry on top is what?

The croissant.

Right?

Oh, boy.

And it's got the honey on it.

And then Aaron, as we were sharing about how great this was to our kids, she looked at me, she's like, I'm a little nervous.

Like, what if it's changed?

What if we built this thing up and, like, we walk in and it's like, no, that's not what this needs to be at all.

But yet we've had this, but now it's changed.

And how we felt about it would no longer be how we feel about it.

Well, in the work of the Lord, I still feel the same way now about that salad and about that soup and about that croissant as I did then.

But we've experienced that, right?

We've gone into restaurants and had a bad meal and we would go there all the time and now we'll never go there again.

We watch a TV show that we loved when we were growing up.

And then we watch it as adults and we wonder, how did I ever watch Saved by the Bell?

Right?

How?

How?

We enter into relationships with people.

And we love them.

And we care about them.

And then they hurt us.

They attack us.

They abuse us.

They speak poorly about us.

And our feelings toward them change.

But not with God.

That as we walk through the experiences of life, God's love for us is unchangeable.

So when I don't offer God my best, when I spiritually cheat on Him, when I choose to disobey Him, when I wander from Him, He still loves me.

He still loves me because God's love is unchangeable.

The fourth thing, God's love is unmerited.

God's love is unmerited.

Romans 5, 8.

God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Just simply and briefly, when it comes to God's love, you and I did nothing to earn it.

You and I did nothing that one day God just looked at us and said, oh, now, yeah, now they've done this.

I love them.

Right?

God's word even tells us that in our sinful state, that you and I, we didn't even pursue God, but instead He pursued us.

Right?

That God's love is unmerited.

God's love is shown for us that while we were still sinners, meaning enemies and opponents of God, Christ died for us.

We didn't come to God and make it right to restore the relationship, and instead, God's restored the relationship so that we could come to Him.

Unmerited work of God.

And then also, number five, God's love is sacrificial.

Let me read Romans 5, 8 to you again.

God shows His love for us that while we were still sinners, what Christ died for us.

I don't know if y'all remember this, but in 2004, Oprah gave away a few cars.

Anybody remember that?

Yeah, some of us do.

Oprah Winfrey announced to a national audience that she would give away that day 276 Pontiac G6s to everyone who was in her studio audience that day.

Do you remember that?

If not, do you remember this phrase?

You get a car, you get a car, you get a car, you get a car, right?

And everybody lost their mind.

The generosity of Oprah.

In 2004, the value of the Pontiac G6 as a brand new car was $28,500 per car.

Meaning that on that day, what was given away was $7,866,000 worth of automobiles.

Here's the catch.

The show made you feel like Oprah went out to the lot and said, let me buy these.

But she didn't.

Pontiac donated to the show every single car.

And then, if you were in the audience that day and you received a car, Pontiac paid for the state sales taxes for those cars.

And you're thinking, everybody in the audience is like, this is fantastic news.

But then what you found out was if you were lucky enough to be in the audience for Pontiac to give you a car that Oprah took credit for and then them pay the state sales taxes,

you were hit with a bill from the government for $6,000 that you owed them for the free car that you didn't ask for that you were given, right?

Six years later, Pontiac went out of business.

I don't know if it had anything to do with that, but it's what happened.

And through this all, Oprah got the credit.

But she really didn't do anything.

You see, it didn't cost her anything.

God's love cost him greatly.

God looked at a bunch of rebels, a bunch of sinful people who ran from him,

who pursued others other than him,

who at their core was his enemy,

and who had so built up a debt of sin that they could never repay.

And God said,

I'll pay for it.

That the unmerited grace that he gives us was the sacrifice of his son.

And it cost him greatly.

That's what God's love is.

1 John 4, 9 through 10.

In this, the love of God was made manifest among us,

that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.

And this is love.

Not that we have loved God,

but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

And so God shows his love by sending Jesus.

Not just to teach.

Not just to heal.

Not just to unify.

but to die.

But to die.

But to die.

And it's not that we loved God, is what scripture says.

But it's that God loved us.

That God loved us.

God didn't send Jesus because he saw our potential.

God didn't send Jesus because he knew that he couldn't do all of this without him, without us.

God sent Jesus because he loves you.

Because he loves you.

And here's what I want to say to everyone in this auditorium, everybody watching online.

Whether you love him or not, he loves you.

Whether you accept him or not, he loves you.

Whether you believe in him or not, he loves you.

Whether you obey him or not, he loves you.

He loves you.

He loves you.

But I've done.

He loves you.

This is who I am, but he loves you.

But this is the decision I made, but he loves you.

And he loves you so much.

It's not by a simple gesture.

But it's at the cost of his son.

That's how much he loves you.

Let's look at the last verse.

And we're going to look at this morning.

Verse 11 and verse John 4.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

We're saved to love.

We are saved to love.

Called to reflect the love of God of what we are experienced by those around us.

So I want to ask you these questions.

And we'll conclude with this.

Is your love for others great?

Here's what I mean by great.

Is it marked by the sweetness and the truth of the gospel?

Is your love for others transformative?

Meaning, do you love others with a desire to seek to see them and yourself grow to be more like Jesus?

Is your love for others unchangeable?

Meaning, is your love covered with the grace of God in all circumstances?

Willing to push through the experience of this life?

And choosing to love those who choose not to love you?

Is your love for others unmerited?

Do you love others not for who they are, but for who you are in Christ?

Is your love for others sacrificial?

Setting aside yourself as primary, as the focus, and instead keeping your eyes on the Lord and loving one another and your neighbor, as he calls us to.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for this time that we could be here this morning.

Lord, we thank you for the love that you have for us, Lord, and the love that you call us to.

Lord, I pray if there's anyone in here who does not know you as their Lord and Savior.

Lord, I pray today that these words would resonate in them.

That even though they don't love you, you love them.

That even though they haven't accepted you, you love them.

That even though they may not believe in you, you love them.

That even though they do not obey you, Lord, you love them.

And you love them at a great cost.

The life of Jesus.

Lord, I pray as we prepare our hearts to partake in the Lord's Supper together.

Lord, I pray that it would be done out of a response of the love that you've shown us.

The sacrifice of Christ.

Made so that sinful man could be made right with the Lord.

In a growing, thriving relationship with him.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Thanks again for listening to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast.

We hope that you enjoyed listening to this week's message.

If you'd like to learn more about who we are or explore additional resources,

visit us online at www.willowridgechurch.com

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