Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / The Key To Love- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:41Speaker 1: Everything.
- 1:00Speaker 2: But whether you're watching online or you're in one of
- 1:03Speaker 2: our overflow rooms or one of our other campuses, we're
- 1:06Speaker 2: so very very grateful that you're a part of this
- 1:09Speaker 2: wonderful Easter celebration. We've been trying to make people happy.
- 1:13Speaker 2: One hundred happy people. Some of us took the one
- 1:16Speaker 2: hundred Happy People challenge over forty days. And boy was
- 1:20Speaker 2: I made happy when two of our youngsters made me
- 1:24Speaker 2: an ice cream truck out of legos. Is that not
- 1:28Speaker 2: the greatest thing you've ever seen? And they're right here,
- 1:31Speaker 2: Michael and Max stand up? Is Max, look at these guys,
- 1:36Speaker 2: the lego men. Thank you so very much, thank you,
- 1:44Speaker 2: thank you. My next sermon series is going to have
- 1:47Speaker 2: the Empire state building with a book that Oh. The
- 1:52Speaker 2: problem with making people happy is that people behave so
- 1:56Speaker 2: much like people. They take the last apple fritter at
- 2:00Speaker 2: the bakery, They block the road that you need, They
- 2:06Speaker 2: take time, they take patience, They break promises, they break hearts.
- 2:11Speaker 2: The problem with loving people is that people behave like people. Now,
- 2:15Speaker 2: the Bible helps us love people by giving us some
- 2:19Speaker 2: verses that we like to call but one another verses.
- 2:22Speaker 2: And we've looked at these one another verses. I've told
- 2:25Speaker 2: you there's fifty nine of them by my count in scripture.
- 2:28Speaker 2: We've reduced them down into ten categories, and we've saved
- 2:31Speaker 2: the best one for Easter Sunday. Here it is. It's
- 2:36Speaker 2: ride out of the Book of First John. This is
- 2:40Speaker 2: what real love is. It is not our love for God.
- 2:43Speaker 2: It is God's love for us and sending his son
- 2:47Speaker 2: to be the way to take away our sins. Dear friends,
- 2:52Speaker 2: if God loved us that much, we also should love
- 2:57Speaker 2: each other. Love each other. But there's a different approach.
- 3:05Speaker 2: If you want to love somebody, you understand first how
- 3:09Speaker 2: much God loves you. Let's pray together, and then we'll
- 3:13Speaker 2: see what this has to do with Easter. Heavenly Father,
- 3:17Speaker 2: grant mercy please upon we who listen, upon he who
- 3:22Speaker 2: speaks for his sins, or many, grant that we could
- 3:25Speaker 2: see Jesus, just Jesus through Christ. We pray, and all
- 3:32Speaker 2: the Church said, all of the Bible can be reduced
- 3:36Speaker 2: down to one phrase, God loves you. Let him. The
- 3:42Speaker 2: big news of the Bible is not just that God
- 3:45Speaker 2: made the world, but that God loves the world. Not
- 3:49Speaker 2: just that God exists, but that a loving God exists.
- 3:52Speaker 2: Yes God is but yes, yes, yes, God is love,
- 3:57Speaker 2: and he loves you desately, personally, intimately, eternally, not because
- 4:07Speaker 2: you're lovable, because you aren't always, but because He has
- 4:12Speaker 2: chosen to love you. His word to you is simply,
- 4:16Speaker 2: I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love,
- 4:21Speaker 2: with unfailing love. I have drawn you to myself. This
- 4:25Speaker 2: is the message of the Bible, and this is a
- 4:28Speaker 2: major message of Easter. Any doubt about the love of
- 4:33Speaker 2: Jesus for people evaporated when the resurrected King showed up
- 4:38Speaker 2: and began showing up to his friends. The sweetest of
- 4:43Speaker 2: these appearance stories is found in the twentieth chapter of
- 4:48Speaker 2: the Gospel of John, and it begins like this. Early
- 4:53Speaker 2: on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went
- 4:56Speaker 2: to the tomb while it was still dark. This story
- 5:00Speaker 2: begins in shadows. If you like to fill in the
- 5:03Speaker 2: blanks on your outline, let's just use this word while
- 5:06Speaker 2: it was still dark. It was dark. The long, painful
- 5:11Speaker 2: weekend had come to an end, the betrayal of Thursday,
- 5:16Speaker 2: the crucifixion of Friday, the sad silence of Saturday, one
- 5:21Speaker 2: shadow after another, and then on Sunday morning, several women
- 5:26Speaker 2: made their way to the cemetery to anoint the body
- 5:32Speaker 2: of Jesus and conclude the work that they began on Friday.
- 5:36Speaker 2: There were several women in John's Gospel. He focuses on
- 5:41Speaker 2: one of them, a woman by the name of Mary Magdalene.
- 5:46Speaker 2: We don't know much about Mary Magdalene, but we can
- 5:49Speaker 2: say this. In the forest of the New Testament, she
- 5:52Speaker 2: is the weeping willow. She is the one upon whom
- 5:56Speaker 2: tragedy cast its coldest winter. The Gospel of Luke says this,
- 6:02Speaker 2: she had seven demons before she knew Christ. Seven demons.
- 6:08Speaker 2: What does that mean? Seven afflictions? Depression, maybe loneliness, shame, fear,
- 6:14Speaker 2: or a combination of them all. Maybe she was a
- 6:17Speaker 2: recluse or a prostitute. Sometimes the number seven is used
- 6:21Speaker 2: in the Bible to describe completeness, so maybe she was
- 6:25Speaker 2: completely overwhelmed by fear and evil. Her story makes us
- 6:30Speaker 2: think of a tombstone in Lockhill Cemetery. Were you to
- 6:34Speaker 2: travel to the intersection of Fredericksburg Road and Hebner in
- 6:38Speaker 2: northwest San Antonio, right across from usaa's building, you would
- 6:43Speaker 2: see the lock Hill Cemetery it's an old, quaint grave site. Graveyard.
- 6:50Speaker 2: Enter under the archway and park your car, get out
- 6:54Speaker 2: and walk to the right up next to the wrought
- 6:57Speaker 2: iron fence. There you'll come across the grave site burial
- 7:00Speaker 2: place of Grace low Ellen Smith. Her tombstone has upon
- 7:06Speaker 2: it her date of birth, her date of death, and
- 7:11Speaker 2: then these words sleeps but rest, not loved, but was loved,
- 7:18Speaker 2: not tried to please, but pleased, not died as she
- 7:25Speaker 2: lived alone, such a sad epithaph. Mary Magdalene was headed
- 7:33Speaker 2: toward that same epitaph. But then something happened, or you
- 7:37Speaker 2: might say, Jesus happened. Luke, says Mary Magdalene, from whom
- 7:42Speaker 2: Jesus had cast out seven demons. At some point Jesus
- 7:47Speaker 2: intersected with the story of Mary Magdalene, and he cleaned
- 7:51Speaker 2: out those demons, those oppressive forces, those evils that had
- 7:56Speaker 2: worked their way into her mind and life again. Lot
- 8:00Speaker 2: more details we don't have them. We can only imagine,
- 8:03Speaker 2: but we can say this, for the first time in
- 8:06Speaker 2: a long time, Mary Magdalene could smile again, She could
- 8:11Speaker 2: look in the mirror and see a peaceful face. She
- 8:13Speaker 2: could eat again, She could sleep. Jesus restored life to
- 8:16Speaker 2: her life, and she reciprocated. She was among the first
- 8:20Speaker 2: female followers of Jesus who were contributing from their own
- 8:23Speaker 2: resources to support Jesus and his disciples. Wherever Jesus went,
- 8:28Speaker 2: Mary Magdalene followed. She saw him perform miracles, she heard
- 8:33Speaker 2: him teach, She helped him pay expenses. She may have
- 8:37Speaker 2: even prepared a meal. She was always near Christ and
- 8:40Speaker 2: John tells us that she was there even at the cross.
- 8:44Speaker 2: She stood near the cross, near enough to hear the
- 8:48Speaker 2: hammer pound the nails, near enough to see the blood
- 8:52Speaker 2: flow from the pierced side, near enough that when his
- 8:56Speaker 2: body was lowered from the cross, she was there to
- 8:59Speaker 2: help prepare for burial. On Friday, she watched Jesus die.
- 9:05Speaker 2: On Saturday, she observed with the other disciples a long,
- 9:09Speaker 2: sad Sabbath, and then early on Sunday morning she awoke.
- 9:15Speaker 2: She went to the tomb to finish the work that
- 9:17Speaker 2: she had begun on Friday. The sky was dark, the
- 9:21Speaker 2: trail was dark, It was dark, Her heart was dark.
- 9:25Speaker 2: She knew nothing of an empty tomb. She went expecting
- 9:29Speaker 2: to do nothing more than to wash the final clots
- 9:33Speaker 2: of blood out of his beard. And to say goodbye.
- 9:37Speaker 2: It was a dark morning. When she arrived at the cemetery,
- 9:41Speaker 2: things went from bad to worse. Mary Magdalene saw that
- 9:45Speaker 2: the stone was taken away. She assumed that grave robbers
- 9:49Speaker 2: had taken the body. She hurried back down the trail
- 9:52Speaker 2: and she got Peter and John. She told them they've
- 9:55Speaker 2: taken away the Lord out of the tomb. Peter and
- 9:59Speaker 2: John ran to the grave site. Peter, well, he got
- 10:03Speaker 2: there last. John was faster, but Peter was bolder. He
- 10:08Speaker 2: went inside, and he looked, and he saw the empty slab,
- 10:11Speaker 2: and he stared. John went in and he saw that
- 10:14Speaker 2: empty slab, and he believed, He said, this was the
- 10:19Speaker 2: moment that he believed. He believed that Jesus was risen
- 10:24Speaker 2: from the dead, not that the body was stolen, and
- 10:26Speaker 2: Easter had its first celebrant. Peter and John hurried to
- 10:29Speaker 2: tell the others. We would expect the camera lens of
- 10:33Speaker 2: the Gospel to follow Peter and John, after all their apostles.
- 10:37Speaker 2: They're the authors of epistles. They are two of the
- 10:41Speaker 2: three of the Inner Circle. We would expect that John
- 10:45Speaker 2: would tell us the story of what happened to Peter
- 10:48Speaker 2: and John. He will but not until he tells us
- 10:51Speaker 2: what happened to Mary Magdalene. He stays and turns his attention,
- 10:58Speaker 2: and he says, but Mary's too outside by the tomb weeping.
- 11:05Speaker 2: She didn't understand what had happened. She had yet to
- 11:08Speaker 2: have a moment like John. For all she knew, the
- 11:11Speaker 2: body of Jesus was on the back of a wagon
- 11:14Speaker 2: being driven by malfeasance. She lingered behind. Another translation says
- 11:20Speaker 2: Mary stayed right there, just outside the tomb, crying and crying.
- 11:26Speaker 2: Her face was awash with tears, her shoulders heaved with sobs.
- 11:30Speaker 2: She felt all alone. So it's just Mary Magdalene, an
- 11:34Speaker 2: empty tomb, and her sadness. As she wept, she stooped
- 11:39Speaker 2: down and looked into the tomb, and she saw two
- 11:42Speaker 2: angels in white sitting, one at the head and the
- 11:46Speaker 2: other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain.
- 11:52Speaker 2: And then they said to her, woman, why are you weeping?
- 11:56Speaker 2: She said to them, because they have taken away my lord.
- 11:59Speaker 2: I do not know where they have put him. Mary
- 12:02Speaker 2: Magdalene mistook angels for men. It's easy to see why
- 12:07Speaker 2: it's still dark outside. It was even darker inside the tombs.
- 12:10Speaker 2: She was upset, her eyes were tear filled. She had
- 12:13Speaker 2: no reason to think that there would be angels inside
- 12:16Speaker 2: the tomb, bone diggers, maybe, caretakers perhaps, but visitors from heaven.
- 12:23Speaker 2: So she says, they've taken away my lord. I do
- 12:27Speaker 2: not know where they have laid him. This is where
- 12:30Speaker 2: Mary's world officially hits rock bottom. Her master was murdered,
- 12:40Speaker 2: his body was buried, and now his body is stolen
- 12:45Speaker 2: and she doesn't know where they've taken him. Maybe you've
- 12:50Speaker 2: had an experience like this, where what is bad gets
- 12:54Speaker 2: worse before it gets better, and sorrow just wraps around
- 12:59Speaker 2: you like shroud and what you never imagined what happened happens,
- 13:04Speaker 2: and you even come looking for Jesus and you can't
- 13:07Speaker 2: find him. If your story is like Mary Magdalene's this weekend,
- 13:14Speaker 2: I can't wait for you to hear what happens next.
- 13:17Speaker 2: Because even though her world was dark, right in the
- 13:20Speaker 2: midst of her dark world, look what happened. The sun
- 13:23Speaker 2: came out. Now. When she had said this, she turned
- 13:29Speaker 2: around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know
- 13:33Speaker 2: it was Jesus. Jesus said to her woman, why are
- 13:37Speaker 2: you weeping? Whom are you seeking and supposing him to
- 13:41Speaker 2: be the gardener said to him, Sir, if you carried
- 13:45Speaker 2: him away, tell me where you have laid him. I
- 13:47Speaker 2: will take him away. She didn't recognize her lord, and
- 13:54Speaker 2: so when she didn't recognize him, he did something about it.
- 13:57Speaker 2: He called her by name, Jesus said to her Mary.
- 14:04Speaker 2: Maybe it was the way he said it. Maybe it
- 14:07Speaker 2: was the intonation, the inflection, the tone, the Galilean accent.
- 14:12Speaker 2: Maybe it was the memory associated with it. When she
- 14:15Speaker 2: first heard him say her name, and for the first time,
- 14:20Speaker 2: the demons didn't speak it. Whatever, when she heard his voice,
- 14:27Speaker 2: she knew the source, and she turned and said to him, Rabonai,
- 14:36Speaker 2: which is to say, teacher. In that moment, in that second,
- 14:41Speaker 2: in the pivot of a neck, in the amount of
- 14:43Speaker 2: time it took her to rotate her head from this
- 14:45Speaker 2: way to that, her world went from dark to light,
- 14:49Speaker 2: from a dead Jesus to a living one. And then
- 14:52Speaker 2: she threw her arms around him. She embraced him. We
- 14:57Speaker 2: know this because of what Jesus says. Next, don't hold
- 15:01Speaker 2: on to me, because I have yet to go up
- 15:05Speaker 2: to the Father. Maybe she fell at his feet and
- 15:12Speaker 2: held his ankles. Maybe she knelt before him and took
- 15:15Speaker 2: his nail pierced hands. Maybe she just put her arms
- 15:19Speaker 2: around him. We don't know how she held him, but
- 15:24Speaker 2: we know she did, And equally important, we know Jesus
- 15:29Speaker 2: led her. He was not so holy, not so otherly,
- 15:36Speaker 2: not so divine, not so conquering king, that he didn't
- 15:43Speaker 2: have a moment to receive the kind touch of one
- 15:49Speaker 2: of his dear friends. Someone should paint this scene. Someone
- 15:55Speaker 2: should transfer it from palette of oil to canvas and
- 16:00Speaker 2: frame it. When you do, be sure and make that
- 16:04Speaker 2: sunrise brilliantly orange and the grass deliciously green. And let
- 16:11Speaker 2: that stone be rolled away sitting in the background, the
- 16:14Speaker 2: angels looking on, And make sure that you capture the
- 16:21Speaker 2: glisten of the sunrise in the tears on Mary's cheeks,
- 16:26Speaker 2: and make sure you capture the smile of Jesus. This
- 16:33Speaker 2: moment in the Eastern Story serves a sacred purpose. This
- 16:40Speaker 2: moment reminds us of both the power of God and
- 16:44Speaker 2: the love of God. The power of God to defeat death.
- 16:47Speaker 2: That's the empty tomb, but the tender love of God
- 16:53Speaker 2: for people like Mary Magdalene, that's Jesus with her at once,
- 17:01Speaker 2: the conquering King and the gentle shepherd. This is our God,
- 17:09Speaker 2: this is our Jesus. Well, then Mary Magdalene came and
- 17:14Speaker 2: told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and
- 17:17Speaker 2: that he had spoken these things to her, to her,
- 17:20Speaker 2: of all people, to her. Maybe the angels wanted him
- 17:25Speaker 2: to go to Caesar. Maybe there was a group wanting
- 17:29Speaker 2: him to go and make an appearance to Herod. There
- 17:31Speaker 2: were ten thousand angels ready to serve him. Maybe they
- 17:34Speaker 2: were ready to crown him and make him king. He
- 17:36Speaker 2: told everyone, wait a second. He went to her. Why her?
- 17:45Speaker 2: We never read of her again. She doesn't appear in
- 17:48Speaker 2: the Book of Acts. She didn't write an epistle. If
- 17:51Speaker 2: she had a miracle in her life, were not told
- 17:53Speaker 2: about it? Why her? The only thing I can come
- 18:00Speaker 2: up with is this, This is what loved us. This
- 18:06Speaker 2: is what loved us. Love shows up in hard times,
- 18:12Speaker 2: sad places, dark corners, and brings hope. And Jesus loved her.
- 18:18Speaker 2: And listen to me. Jesus loves you. He does. He
- 18:25Speaker 2: enters your world, and if you don't recognize his face,
- 18:29Speaker 2: he'll call your name. He knows your name. He says, see,
- 18:33Speaker 2: I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.
- 18:38Speaker 2: Your name is not buried in some heavenly pile. He
- 18:40Speaker 2: doesn't need a name tag to jog his memory of you.
- 18:45Speaker 2: Your face is ever before him. You are tattooed on
- 18:48Speaker 2: the palm of his hands. He has more thoughts about
- 18:50Speaker 2: you than the Pacific coast has grains of sand. You're
- 18:56Speaker 2: everything to him. Some time ago I read a story
- 19:02Speaker 2: about a priest who journeyed from Detroit to his native
- 19:07Speaker 2: poem of Ireland, or in Ireland, to visit his relatives.
- 19:12Speaker 2: Well he was there. He and his uncle Seamus got
- 19:15Speaker 2: up one morning and went to Lake Killarney to watch
- 19:19Speaker 2: the sun come up. They stood on the shoreline and
- 19:23Speaker 2: watched the sun come up. The two scarcely spoke for
- 19:25Speaker 2: twenty minutes. Finally, when the sun was up, they resumed
- 19:30Speaker 2: their walk back, and the priest noticed that his uncle
- 19:33Speaker 2: was smiling. And he turned to his uncle and said,
- 19:38Speaker 2: you look happy. He said, I am why? And he said,
- 19:46Speaker 2: because the Father of Jesus is fond of me. He's
- 19:53Speaker 2: fond of you two. Do you find that hard to believe?
- 20:00Speaker 2: Do you think I'm talking to someone else, someone who
- 20:06Speaker 2: is holier, wiser, better, someone who didn't screw up a
- 20:13Speaker 2: marriage or mess up a career, someone who didn't get
- 20:18Speaker 2: hooked on porn or pills or pod or popularity your pride.
- 20:24Speaker 2: You think I'm talking to someone else. I'm not. I'm
- 20:28Speaker 2: talking directly to you, and I'm telling you that the
- 20:33Speaker 2: big news in history is the news that God didn't
- 20:38Speaker 2: just make the world, but that God loves the world.
- 20:41Speaker 2: And right now, at the control center of the universe,
- 20:44Speaker 2: there beats a heart of love, a heart of love
- 20:48Speaker 2: that is unconditional, that does not depend upon you, and
- 20:54Speaker 2: that He loved you before you knew him, and he
- 20:57Speaker 2: loves you when you have forgotten him. Listen to me.
- 21:01Speaker 2: You have never lived one unloved day of your life.
- 21:09Speaker 2: He loves you. Someone told you that God loves only
- 21:13Speaker 2: good people. That's wrong. There are no good people. As
- 21:18Speaker 2: Someone told you that if you love God, he would
- 21:20Speaker 2: love you back. That's wrong. He loved you before you
- 21:23Speaker 2: ever even existed. Someone told you that God is perpetually
- 21:28Speaker 2: ticked off, angry, ready to settle the score with a
- 21:31Speaker 2: human race. Wrong. Wrong, wrong, We're perpetually angry, ticked off,
- 21:37Speaker 2: ready to settle scores. But God, God is sheer, mercy
- 21:42Speaker 2: and grace. He's not easily angered. He's rich in love.
- 21:45Speaker 2: He doesn't endlessly nag and scold, nor hold grudges forever.
- 21:49Speaker 2: He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay
- 21:51Speaker 2: us back in full for our wrongs. As high as
- 21:55Speaker 2: the heaven is over the earth, so strong is his
- 21:59Speaker 2: love to those who fear him, as far as the
- 22:03Speaker 2: sunrise is from the sunset. He has separated us from
- 22:07Speaker 2: our sins. As parents feel for their children, God feels
- 22:14Speaker 2: for those who fear him. As I was sitting down
- 22:18Speaker 2: to review this message earlier in the week, my daughter, Jenna,
- 22:21Speaker 2: my oldest daughter, stepped into my study. She is as
- 22:25Speaker 2: round as a tick. She could deliver any moment, it appears,
- 22:31Speaker 2: But the doctor says, we're still four to six weeks
- 22:34Speaker 2: out from the arrival of her baby girl. Yep, Max
- 22:39Speaker 2: and Dinlon are going to be grandparents. Let me tell
- 22:44Speaker 2: you something about that baby girl. I already love her.
- 22:51Speaker 2: I already love her. I would do anything for that girl.
- 22:56Speaker 2: That is not hyperbole. I would do anything for her.
- 23:02Speaker 2: And I've never seen her face. I've never held her.
- 23:09Speaker 2: I don't even know her name. She's never brought me coffee,
- 23:16Speaker 2: she's never hugged my neck, She's never done me a
- 23:19Speaker 2: little dance, but I would do anything for her. You
- 23:24Speaker 2: get that. Why because there is a little bit of
- 23:30Speaker 2: me in her. I love all of your kids, but
- 23:35Speaker 2: I really love my own. Why because there's just a
- 23:40Speaker 2: little bit of you and them. There's just a little
- 23:42Speaker 2: bit of me in her. Why does God love you?
- 23:49Speaker 2: Because there is something of Him in you. When they
- 23:56Speaker 2: told you you were just a lady, they were wrong.
- 23:58Speaker 2: You're a child of God. I told you you're just
- 24:00Speaker 2: a guy in a cubicle. They were wrong. Your God's idea,
- 24:05Speaker 2: and he doesn't have any bad ideas. When they told
- 24:08Speaker 2: you that you're getting too old, they were wrong, wrong, wrong.
- 24:13Speaker 2: There is something of God inside of you. You were
- 24:17Speaker 2: made in the image of God, in the image of God.
- 24:24Speaker 2: You're unlike any other species on our planet. You have
- 24:28Speaker 2: been set apart for a holy purpose, and He has
- 24:32Speaker 2: placed a divine spark within you. And when you say
- 24:35Speaker 2: yes to Him by trusting what his son did for you,
- 24:40Speaker 2: there is a spiritual activation that happens. And this love
- 24:44Speaker 2: blows upon that spark like a gust of wind on
- 24:47Speaker 2: a ember, and a life begins. Jesus called it being
- 24:52Speaker 2: born again. Something new happens and that light continues to
- 24:57Speaker 2: increase until you give warmth and light every person you
- 25:01Speaker 2: see in every place that you go. You're not perfect,
- 25:04Speaker 2: but you're being made perfect by Christ Jesus himself. Why
- 25:07Speaker 2: because he bought you, He owns you, and he has
- 25:13Speaker 2: this wild and inexplicable love for you that does not
- 25:18Speaker 2: depend on you. If it depended upon you, and me
- 25:22Speaker 2: would go wacko trying to figure out how to please him.
- 25:26Speaker 2: But it doesn't. So he's not gonna love you more
- 25:29Speaker 2: if you're better, he's not gonna love you less if
- 25:30Speaker 2: you're worse. His love for you does not depend on you.
- 25:35Speaker 2: I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. So
- 25:41Speaker 2: your Easter assignment comes down to simply this. Let God
- 25:45Speaker 2: love you. Just lett him. Just look in the mirror
- 25:50Speaker 2: when you get home and say, whooh, he loves that
- 25:53Speaker 2: person you're driving the car. Just go whoa, Oh, God
- 25:58Speaker 2: loves me. Learn to live and bask and appreciate. Let
- 26:03Speaker 2: your happiest thought be the thought God is fond of me.
- 26:09Speaker 2: And as you let God love you, here's something that's
- 26:12Speaker 2: gonna happen. You're gonna learn to love other people. This
- 26:15Speaker 2: is the sequence that Scripture gives us First, we were loved.
- 26:19Speaker 2: Now we love He loved us first. You see, as
- 26:23Speaker 2: you learn to trust God's patience with you, you'll be
- 26:26Speaker 2: more patient with others. As you learn to trust God's
- 26:29Speaker 2: grace towards you, you'll give grace to others. As you
- 26:33Speaker 2: learn to believe God accepts you with all of your quirks,
- 26:36Speaker 2: guess what, you'll accept him or her with their quirks.
- 26:40Speaker 2: Something happens. Your heart gets softer, you become less judgmental,
- 26:46Speaker 2: less bitter, and you give a love that you've been given.
- 26:49Speaker 2: I think this is why the apostle Paul made this
- 26:52Speaker 2: his highest prayer. He said, may you have the power
- 26:55Speaker 2: to understand with all God's people, as all God's people should,
- 26:58Speaker 2: how wide, how long, how hi, how deep his love is.
- 27:02Speaker 2: May you experience the love of Christ, though it is
- 27:05Speaker 2: too great to understand fully. Then you will be made
- 27:09Speaker 2: complete with all the fullness of life and power that
- 27:12Speaker 2: comes from God. God loves us. Consequently, we love others.
- 27:18Speaker 2: So if you want to love others, let God love you. Period.
- 27:22Speaker 2: End of story, end of sermon, end of sermon series.
- 27:27Speaker 2: Let God love you. Let God make you happy, and
- 27:33Speaker 2: you will in turn do the same for others. By
- 27:39Speaker 2: the way, what happened to Mary's going to happen to
- 27:41Speaker 2: you and to me. Jesus came and appeared to her.
- 27:45Speaker 2: He's going to come and appear to us on the
- 27:47Speaker 2: final day, and you will see his face, and I'll
- 27:50Speaker 2: see his face just like Mary saw his face. And
- 27:52Speaker 2: I believe he's going to call our names. I don't
- 27:54Speaker 2: know exactly how, but I just have a feeling he will,
- 27:57Speaker 2: and I do know when he does, we're going to
- 27:59Speaker 2: want to do and be allowed to do what Mary did.
- 28:02Speaker 2: We're gonna put our arms around him and say, thank you, teacher,
- 28:07Speaker 2: Thank you, Amen Lord, this is the day for which
- 28:11Speaker 2: we're looking toward, which we're looking for, which we're living.
- 28:16Speaker 2: Thank you, Father for these wonderful, wonderful stories that tell
- 28:21Speaker 2: us not just of your power, but of your passion
- 28:24Speaker 2: and show us that you also that you can love
- 28:27Speaker 2: people as well as defeat death. Thank you for being
- 28:30Speaker 2: such a gentle shepherd to us. Thank you. We offer
- 28:34Speaker 2: this prayer in Jesus name, and all the church said Amen.
- 29:00Speaker 3: A A A A A A.
- 29:36Speaker 2: A.
- 30:18Speaker 4: And I'll be all right.
- 31:27Speaker 2: You don't have to stay if you've already chosen.
- 31:34Speaker 4: I won't stand in your way. I can feel it
- 31:40Speaker 4: in your distance and the way you barely speak.
- 31:46Speaker 2: Like your heart is somewhere else now, somewhere I can't reach.
- 31:53Speaker 2: I was trying just too hold us. Why are you
- 31:58Speaker 2: slowly slipped away?
- 32:01Speaker 4: Now I'm left with all the sides you didn't wanna say.
- 32:10Speaker 4: Maybe I just held long to something already gone. I'll
- 32:23Speaker 4: be fine.
- 32:24Speaker 2: You can leave.
- 32:26Speaker 4: You don't know me anything. If your heart has found Louis,
- 32:34Speaker 4: how do what we used to be? How be fine?
- 32:39Speaker 4: Don't look back?
- 32:41Speaker 1: How survived this empty space?
- 32:45Speaker 4: Not tonight, maybe not soon.
- 32:48Speaker 2: But holler to be okay. We don't need to fake
- 32:57Speaker 2: the feeling I can see in your eyes. There's no
- 33:04Speaker 2: reason left the stand.
- 33:07Speaker 4: When the love already died.
- 33:12Speaker 2: Through the quieting your voice, I.
- 33:20Speaker 4: Can't hear your choice. Be fine.
- 33:27Speaker 1: You can't leave.
- 33:29Speaker 2: You don't know me anything.
- 33:33Speaker 4: If your heart has found how do what we used
- 33:39Speaker 4: to be?
- 33:41Speaker 2: Be fine?
- 33:42Speaker 4: Don't look back.
- 33:44Speaker 2: I'll survive this empty space, not tonight, maybe not so,
- 33:51Speaker 2: but I'll learn to be okay.
- 33:56Speaker 4: I don't need a reason why. I can see it
- 34:01Speaker 4: in good bye.
- 34:04Speaker 2: And to break me a Dutch.
- 34:06Speaker 4: But I won't ask you to stay I'll be fine.
- 34:15Speaker 3: You Kelly, you don't know me anything. Give your heartiest
- 34:23Speaker 3: found away. How do what we used to be?
- 34:28Speaker 2: How be fine?
- 34:30Speaker 4: Don't look back?
- 34:32Speaker 3: How Survi have this sempty space?
- 34:36Speaker 2: Not tonight, maybe not so, but I'll learn to
- 34:42Speaker 4: Be okay, I'll be all right.