Love One Another as Christ Loved Us

I [singing] am [music] strong. Let the poor say I [singing] am [music] rich because of what the Lord [singing] has [music] done for us. Give thanks. [music] [singing and music] Give thanks with a grateful heart. [singing] Give thanks [music] to the holy [singing] one. Give thanks [music] because he's given Jesus [singing] Christ his [music] son. Give [singing] thanks with a grateful [music] heart. Give [singing] thanks to the holy one. Give thanks [music] because [singing] he's given Jesus [music] Christ [singing] his son. And now [singing] [music] let the weak say I am strong. Let the [music and singing] poor say I am rich. because [singing] of what the Lord has [music] done for us. [singing] And now [music] let the weak say I [singing] am strong. Let the [music] poor [singing] say I am rich because [singing] of what the Lord has done. [music] for [singing] us. Give thanks. [music] Praise God. For our second song, we'll be singing All to Jesus I surrender. [music] Oh [music] to Jesus [singing] I surrender. All [singing] to him I freely give. I [singing] will ever love and trust [singing] him [music] in his presence daily live. I [singing] surrender [music] all. I surrender [singing and music] all. All [singing and music] to thee, my blessed Savior. [singing] I [music] surrender all. [singing] All to [music] Jesus. I surrender. [singing] Hungry at his feet [music] I bow. Worldly [singing] pleasures all forsaken. [music] Take me. Jesus [singing] take me now. I [singing] surrender [music] all. I [singing] surrender all. All [music and singing] to thee, my blessed Savior. I [music and singing] surrender all. All [singing] to [music] Jesus I surrender. [singing] Lord, I give [music] myself to thee. Fill me [singing] with thy love and power. Let [music] thy blessing [singing] fall on me. I surrender [music and singing] all. I [music and singing] surrender all. All [music] [singing] to thee my blessed [music] Savior I surrender all. Praise God. Praise the Lord, my dear friends. You know, praise God that we're all able to come here today uh in this morning to worship God, to praise his name, and to learn about his word. And I want to uh do our Bible reading for this morning, which is going to be in Psalms 41, page 807 for the Bibles in the pews. Uh it would be in Psalms 41, page 807. And before you guys open up to that, I want to also kind of discuss on what the psalm is talking about. And it's when uh David, he is in a very bad position in his life. Pretty much he is sick. There's enemies going after him. They're trying to kill him. And he pretty much does not know what to do. And what the only thing he can do is trust in the Lord. And that's what he talks about. He says, "My enemies are coming after me, but all I could do is trust in God." So here, let's start reading. And that's going to be Psalms 41. And it says here, "Blessed is he who considers the poor. The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed on the earth. You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness. You will sustain him on his sick bed." I said, "Lord, be merciful to me. Heal my soul, for I have sinned against you. My enemy speak evil of me. When will he die and his name perish? And if he comes to see me, he speaks lies. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goes out, he tells it. All who hate me whisper together against me. Against me they devise my hurt. An evil disease, they say, clings to him. And now that he lies down, he will rise up no more. Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. But you, oh Lord, be merciful to me and raise me up that I may repay them. By this I know that you are well pleased with me, because my enemy does not triumph over me. As for me, you uphold me in my integrity and set me before your face forever. Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen. Praise the Lord. And now we'll have uh Pastor Tim say a couple announcements for this morning and then right after that, they're going to lead uh Pastor Tim and Pastor Gennady are going to lead a topic for this morning. God bless. Thank you Dimma for reading Psalm 41. And over here we can all uh get something very important very important is that when you are going through hard times in your life, turn to God. I've actually uh met a lot of people and those that truly have been going through hardships, but for some reason you tell them, "Friend, pray to God. He will help you. He will deliver you." They still go to man. They still try to find help from man. where over here David the the closest one was trying to do evil to him. Those were trying to destroy him. He has enemies all over his right, left, up, down. Yet he doesn't go to his second in command, his mother, his father. He cries out to God, "Lord, help me." Because only God can deliver us in those moments when things are out of our control. But I would like to uh bless our topic for today and also pray for the Sunday school. So please Sunday school come up and I'm going to be reading from Proverbs 19 20 and 21. It says that listen to counsel and receive instruction that you may be wise in your latter days. There are many plans in a man's heart. Nevertheless, the Lord's counsel that will stand. I like this over here. It says, "There are many plans in a man's heart." Oh, friends, we have so many plans. So many plans. So many plans. We want to do so much. Nevertheless, the Lord's counsel that will stand. The Lord's plan for our life is what we need to be seeking because that's the thing that will stand. So, let's all stand up and we're going to pray that um the Lord teaches the the the young ducks, I would say, because this morning when I was driving, there was a family of ducks and ducklings walking by and I'm like, man, one parent and like 20 ducklings. Like, you don't see that. usually see two, three, you know. So, that was pretty cool. My kids are like, "So many, so many." But, um, [clears throat] we're going to pray that the Lord's the Holy Spirit comes into their hearts and produces seed, that the Holy Spirit produces seed in our hearts that it sprouts into something beautiful in our life. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for this time that you have blessed us with, Lord, where we can gather together to to talk about your word, to hear your word, to discuss your word, Lord God. God, I pray, Lord God, may this seed in our life sprout into something beautiful for your kingdom, Lord, that we can be used for your glory, God, to to teach those and reach those that are lost in this world, Lord, because you brought the the the greatest gift, Lord, and that's the gift of salvation through you, Jesus. May your name be praised and glorified in Jesus' name. Amen. And let's all meet and greet each other and then we'll get into our discussion. [music] That's good. Thank you. [music] [music] God. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] [music] Okay friends, we're going to be starting our discussion for this morning on our topic. This is the fourth and last love that Jesus refers to. Um the first three that we've already went through was love God. The second one was what? Anybody know? Love your neighbor, Mike. Third one here. Oh, he wasn't here last week. Love your enemies. That's right. And the fourth one is love one another. So we're going to be reading from let's open up to John 15. If anybody can help me with the page number from the Bibles in the pews. John 15 page 1559. 559. Okay. 1559. Thank you. And we're going to be starting out from verse 12 over here. It reads, "This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you." But let's go a little bit before that and and after that so we get this verse into context. As the father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just I has just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants. For a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends. For all things that I heard from my father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain that whatever you ask the father in my name he may give you. These things I command you that you love one another. And let's also go back to chapter 13. Chapter 13. It's going to be 34 through35. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples. If you love one, if you have love for one another. I wanted to before we get into our discussion, I I ran across this poem. Um, it's pretty cool. I wanted to read it to you guys. A commandment to you is this. You love one another just as I have loved you. Your name may not appear here in the world's hall of fame. In fact, you may be so unknown that no one knows your name. The Oscars and the praise of man may never come your way. But don't forget, God has rewards that he'll hand out someday. This crowd on earth, they will soon forget when you're on when you're not on the top. They will cheer like mad until you fall. and then their praise will stop. Not God. He never does forget in his hall of fame by just believing on his son. Forever there's your name. I tell you, friend, I wouldn't trade my name, however small. It's written there beyond the stars in that celestial hall. For all the famous names on earth, all the glory that they share. I'd rather be an unknown here and have my name up there. I was like, wow, that's that's pretty deep poem. And um you know, sometimes we want to be somebody here on earth. But the commandments of Jesus are very simple and straightforward to love one another. Not to love this world. Not to love trying to be somebody here, but to love one another. I I thought maybe we can go backwards on this because over here when we see Jesus says, "Love one another," he says something really important. He says, "As I have loved you," as I have loved you. And today we're going to be discussing how did Jesus love us so we know how to love one another? How did Jesus love us so we know how to love one another? Does anybody want to maybe share their um their thoughts? I'm going to turn to John First John 3 and I'm going to be reading 10 and below. You guys don't need to open it, but just listen. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another not as Cain who had who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brothers righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is the commandment that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us the commandment. Over here we see that Jesus he's not given us an option or an advice. He's given us a commandment. It's a command to love one another. And again, this love that we're going to be talking about is the love of agape. Agape, sacrificial, unconditional, selfless love, not emotional. And I was just thinking, well, how does that make sense? Agape, unconditional, selfless works, deeds, not emotion. Because in a church setting when brothers and sisters gather together, we we ultimately have this understanding that everybody loves one another already by default. But if Jesus is given this new commandment that means that he will that that he sees division even among the members of Christ. And over here he says, "Listen, there might be somebody in your fellowship, in your church, in your circle of believers who maybe did something wrong to you, but love them when they are in need. Still help them out. come out out of your way to help them. Yeah. So, I also like to take maybe the other side of love. Um, as [clears throat] Pastor Tim described, that's when we try to encourage each other, help each other out. But let's say when a person goes uh he lives in sinning and we just decide you know it's kind of uncomfortable for me to mention something about it and I try to show him my love my support is this the true love that Jesus Christ talking about or what are you guys thinking when a person lives in sin and I still kind of uh don't mention anything about it. I I will treat him exactly like a friend. Is this the true love? Is this the agapy love? The love that Jesus Christ talking about actually that's not. Yeah. If a person goes into the hell and I have no strength to tell him like it is that the way you live and you're going to end up in hell. This is not a agape love. This actually could be well either I don't feel comfortable or maybe I even have a feel this is someone close to me you know I don't want to hurt him and I being very friendly with him and that person continues goes going to hell so when Pharisees would come to Jesus why did Jesus Christ was so harsh against them I don't think it was in a character of Jesus just to hurt them and would call them all those names. Jesus Christ actually by calling some of those names he was trying to get into their hearts and maybe at first they would get mad. What does he talking about? But he was trying to show who truly they are. And even when we read in the Bible when they brought a woman that was in a sin and they brought before him and Jesus Christ did not condemn her because he knew well she needs help but when he actually help her out he said from now on sin no more. That's a true love. When we try to show to people how to get saved, when it says that Jesus loved one another like Christ loved you, what did Christ first do? He want to save all of us. And whatever it takes, sometimes he would actually say the way it is to get to our hearts and our heads. But his main purpose was to save the sinners. To save the sinner. And now he's telling us that's how you should love one another. Your main purpose. It's not to be a good guy and not tell the way things are. But it's to make sure the people with whom you interact, you do everything to save them. And if you see they're in trouble, you do everything to help them. And this could be someone where we would tell them, "Hey, you are sinning and sin no more." This is could be where we like Jesus Christ would tell them that, you know, you're a hypocrite because you come but you're not trying to serve Christ. And like this, you're going to end up in hell. But not because we don't like them, but because we're trying to save them like Jesus Christ was trying. That's a true love. That's that's the love of agapia. That's the love of what we try to do to someone good regardless how they going to think of us. Maybe they want to hate us after that for some time, but our main purpose is to bring salvation into their hearts. It's to make sure they're on the right path to salvation. That's a true love, the love of Jesus Christ. Yes. And um I guess we'll just start from the bottom up because that's what exactly what Pastor Henry just explained to us, the correcting love. And yes, we think that love is just like you have to sometimes we think that love is you have to always be nice and positive. Um and u like one preacher or pastor he said we love people to hell you know like you love them to hell uh in a way but over here a correcting love is love. It's unconditional. And like Pastor Henry said, exactly. No matter what they're going to think of you after you tell them that, that's unconditional love. And I want to share a story and maybe you guys can share a story. Well, in my early days of ministry, um there was this one person who I told about Christ and he repented and um I was kind of discipling him in a way. But then he's like, you know, I'm gone. I don't want this. I'm like, listen, I mean, this is what God wants. This is what God needs to see. This is a true believer's heart. And he didn't want to hear that. Anyways, he lost my phone number, how they say. Lose my phone number. You know, he lost my phone number. Literally four years later, I don't know how he got my phone number. He calls me and he tells me, "Hey Tim, you know all those things you were saying, it was all true because that's what the Bible says." I'm like, "Did you start reading your Bible?" He's like, "I did. I bought one and I started reading." I'm like, "There you go." So, at the moment, yeah, it feels like I lost a friend, but that the work of the Holy Spirit didn't leave him alone. So, that's the correcting love. If you see somebody stumbling, sinning, and this could be somebody in church, this could be somebody that that you're a believer that you're that you're interacting with. It's usually the hardest to what? To tell those who are the closest to you. It's the hardest because you don't want to maybe break that relationship. Yet Jesus, he didn't look at that. Um uh we see when Jesus was preaching and there was a few hundred people uh his disciples and they and he preached and he said something offensive to those people 200 something stood up and left and only 12 stayed. Was Jesus chasing that crowd like hey sorry I'm sorry what I said I'm sorry. No, because he was just speaking the truth knowing that later on they'll realize what they'll need to do and that's accept Christ. And to that I also like to mention that just recently we were at the funeral of one older man. He he was an evangelist but he himself I think was um was a Muslim and he lived among Muslims. And when Christ saved him, he actually started preaching. And his message were very simple because many of those people they were addicted to alcohol, to drugs. They were uh live a very moral lifestyle. And but he loved those people. He loved those people because they were part of his community and all that stuff. And so his simple message was is that he would go and he would tell everyone on streets to his relatives if you will hey if you will have faith in Jesus and follow him you will get into the heaven if you will have no faith in him and would not follow him you're going to hell and many of his relatives they hate him for this for that that he was telling them that they would go to hell. But at the end they all came to Christ because of that simple message. And the simple message if we love people we would tell them that if you are live sin regardless how you think that uh or regardless if you give excuses to yourself well I know Jesus Christ. The problem is not know Jesus Christ. The problem is not know that he's a savior of people. The problem is are you following Christ? And what's mean following? Can we struggle with a sin by following? We can. But if we are his children, we going to do everything to ask Christ to free us from those addictions, from the sin. Because Jesus Christ is my savior every day in my life. and I actually follow him. And so the simple message to those people we have follow Jesus Christ because the great commandment Jesus Christ said go and make believers in me. Actually not he said go and make disciples. Disciples it's those who follow Jesus Christ. And it's our duty if we love those people, we go and we actually make followers of Jesus Christ because we care about people who are perishing. That's a true love. That's a love of Jesus Christ because he cared of people those who are perishing. But at the same time, if you would take a humanly, you would think, man, Jesus Christ probably hates those people. He would call all those names. He would actually uh call them the brute of wipers. And I'm like, looks like he's not loving them. But it says, so God loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. No, he loves them. And that's why he would call them those names because when someone calls you you brut a viper maybe this is the already the last stage. You're like what what what does he mean? Um and then you start thinking and some of the Pharisees they actually start believing in Jesus Christ because finally he was able to get to them. That's a true love because the true love it doesn't matter what people going to think of you. Can I somehow bring this person to salvation and end up being in heaven? That's the main goal. Amen. Does anybody want to share any stories or or have any questions on that before we move on? Also, Jesus showed his sacrificial love. How we read in uh John 15 13. He says that no greater man has love than the one who lays down his life for his friends. and I call you my friends. And Jesus's love was sacrificial love. He sacrificed his whole life to save people. And sacrificing in our life could be what? Um, it could be our time time to like we'll sacrifice our time to go and tell somebody about Christ or um to build somebody up. Somebody is sick. Say at a member, a believer or just anybody is sick laying in the hospital. We're sacrificing that time to go and visit them, showing that love. Um, what I guess I have a question. What other ways can we show that sacrificial love to our brethren? I would say what other ways are we able to do that? Uh, raise your hand if you if you um want to answer. What other ways are we able to show that sacrificial love? You know, while you guys thinking, I'll add what first came to my mind is that when Jesus Christ was preaching, they hated him so much that they put him on a cross, but then they were saved. I mean, are we ready to actually be like Jesus Christ where maybe at some point people will hate us? They will uh do all the harm to us. But I'm ready to sacrifice my reputation of what I have in order to save some people. That's what Jesus Christ did. Yet they hated him so much they put him on a cross. Those people for who he was dying. Yeah. Actually, there's a person that I know that I met not long ago. Um but he he passes out burritos. uh if he wants to say it, raise his hand, you know, uh you can share, but if not, I'm going to share it for you. So, he's sacrificing his comfort because every Thursday he's carrying he's not a young gentleman, an older gentleman. Um, and he's carrying 20, 30 pounds of burritos and just going to those people in the streets and there's somebody laying like he'll put a burrito next to them, sacrificing his comfort, his back, his health to go and show the love of Christ. Um, another way to to show the love of Christ is by helping financially. And this this doesn't mean see see like like in all of this we have to be wise. Uh we have to be wise because um we have to also discern and this is where we need the Holy Spirit to to help us discern who is there just to uh take advantage of you like and who is there who's who's actually in need of help. Um and this is where the Holy Spirit helps us out. But another way is financial help. There's a lot of people who are struggling and right now people are losing their jobs. Right now people are are uh losing their their homes, their cars and maybe paying for somebody's car payment until they get on their feet. Yeah, there's those that um I would say that that's all they want you to do is pay for them. But then there's those that are actually in need of help. So sometimes we do have to help financially to show that love of to our uh believers or even non-believers. Another Yes, Vasili. Thank you. Not not keeping scores is is another um agape love. For example, oh um I wash the dishes, so you're going to go bathe the kids. You know, uh sacrificial love is not keeping a scorecard. Okay. There's also uh we'll go down unconditional love means that you need a lot of patience for this one. Patience and longsuffering because imagine how patient Jesus was when um after three and a half years teaching and preaching to the disciples and those people around them. It's like did you guys learn anything? Uh because when the arrest came they they all scattered. It's like did you learn anything? Come on. [laughter] Sometimes we as Christians lose patient with one another. But Jesus was very patient with us and that patience brought forth salvation to many. So be patient with who you're discipling or working with or there's that annoying person or that difficult person. Um just be patient with them, pray with them, teach them, and help them. So in here in verse 13 that we read, there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. And in most cases, we're thinking, well, it's probably dying for your friend. But this actually could be where we commit our lives to live for other people. Whatever we do, we all like to live for ourselves. Yeah, we like comfort. We like good things and all that stuff. But Jesus Christ came from heaven and pretty much all those 33 years he was here and then I mean all 33 years he was try to be prepared and then serve other people. So when we became Christians we start we need to have that mindset that from now on we live for Christ it's mean that we also live for other people we try to do something to help other people and our life is actually [snorts] now not to live for ourselves but to live for other people and I know we have families and we have to find that right balance balance but at the same time we have to find in our hearts uh the the understanding that now I cannot just live for me myself I have to also live for the other people that's how I lay down so I give my life for the other people not for just my wellbeing and my indulgence. Well, we just have a few minutes left and I wanted to leave us off with the um like we already read over here in John 13. It says, "By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another." And we [clears throat] Christians, we believers set the standard of love for this world. We are the standard and example showing the world how how love should be loved in a way. And um like I wrote some things down, but if we don't love one another, what are we? We are not the disciples of Christ because Jesus says if you have love for one another then you are my disciples. The world should see something different. While they are divided we stand united. The world is in chaos. There's division all the time. Let not this division come into the church of Christ. Because the world even though it could hate the church, but it always looks at the church. What kind of love is happening among the brethren, the brothers and the sisters of Christ? While they look out only for themselves, like Pastor Henry said, we care for one another, helping one another. The world sees that, man, I want to be I want to be there. They're always helping each other. I'm with my friends. I'm with my relatives. Nobody's helping me. But this church, they're constantly helping each other. Showing the love again to the world, the love of Christ, how it should be loved. While they hate, we choose to love. People all the time, they have hate. Oh, I hate this person. Oh, I hate that person. I hate that person. But then when they see a believer and the believer is like, "Well, I'm going to pray for them. I'm going to love them." They're like, "It doesn't make sense." Whoa. Again, setting that difference from the world and a true believer of Christ. While they tear down each other, we build each other up. I think this is a huge one actually because there there's some sometimes in our life we feel that oh there's somebody better than us. Therefore uh like we want to kind of diminish them in a way. So what happens when we want to diminish others? We start to gossip. Oh, did you hear this and that? Did you hear what they did? You know, and we feel like, oh, now we put that bad spot on them and now all these people are going to think evil of this. So, we're trying to diminish their image. But in return, that's what the world does. That's what the world does. They're constantly, you know, uh, bickering at each other. Uh, I'm not sure if you've if you've seen the the the election. Um, I would say before the election, they have those debates and they're always bickering and they're like, "You suck. You're a loser." You know, this and that. You know, and [laughter] that's how that's how they they show their love. But God says, "Don't be like them. Be like me." Yes, I might correct you, but it's for building you up. I might help you, but it's for building you up. So, with that, I don't know if Pastor Henry wants anything else. Uh, with that, we're going to pray and let God help us to to have this love for one another because we're not perfect people. And um sometimes even between believers, there's divisions, there's um hate. But let us understand that Jesus commands us to forgive and to love one another, to help no matter how you feel about them. Okay. So, let's stand up and pray. Lord God, we thank you for this time, Lord God, that we could about loving one another. Lord God, we pray, God, that you give us the strength, Lord God. Maybe there's somebody here this morning, God, that has hate for somebody, God. Maybe there's somebody this morning that was uh trying to tear somebody down. Lord God, forgive us. Forgive us, Lord. And help us to to love others how you loved us, God, because the world is looking at us to see how are we treating each other, Lord. God, help us, Lord, to follow your commandment and to keep it in our heart in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. And for our last song, we'll be singing Holy of Holies. Take me past [music and singing] the outer courts and through the holy [singing] place. Pass [music] the praise and altar. Lord, I long [singing] to see your face. Ask me by [music] the crowds of people, the priests who sing your [singing] praise. I hunger and thirst for your righteousness and [music] it's only [singing] found in one place. Take me in to the [singing] holy [music] of holies. Take [singing] me in by the blood of the lamb. Take me [music and singing] in to the holy of holies. [music] Peace. Take the cold, [singing] cleanse my lips. Here I am. Bring me [music and singing] in the inner court and pass [music and singing] the golden light and through the surn. Lord, I long to [music and singing] see your light. Let me touch the colored curtain and clothe in linen [singing] white and part the [music] veil that's singing. Oh that keeps [singing] you from menight. Take me [music] in to the [singing] holy of holies. Take [music and singing] me in by the blood of the lamb. [singing] Take me [music] in to the holy of holies. [music] Take [singing] the call. Cleanse my lips. Here I am. Take [music] me into [singing] the holy of holies. Take me [music] in by [singing] the blood of the lamb. Take [music] me in to the holy [singing] of holies. Take the [music] call. Cleanse my [singing] lips. Here I am. [music] Praise God. Now, praise God. Friends, our service has come to the end and um our announcements. So, Sundays 9:00 a.m. we're here. Tuesdays 8:30 a.m. we gather for Bible reading at Cafana off of State Street. Then Thursdays at 6 PM we have Bible study here. So, if anybody wants to learn more about the word, uh please join us. Brother Michael, he's asking for us to pray for him. He has a need, a very important need and um God knows and we're going to ask for God's mercy and help. Does anybody else have any needs before we pray? Okay, let's stand up and pray. Lord God, we are thankful Lord that we could hear learn your word Lord and just help us God to follow your commandments Lord. It's not an option God. It's not a suggestion. It's a command to love one another, God. And help us to love one another the way you loved us, Lord. The sacrificial, the selfishest, the the unconditional love, but also the love that corrects, Lord God. Lord, and if we see something in our life, God, that is not pleasing to you, Lord, give us the strength to change it, to turn away from it, like you told the woman, "Go and sin no more." or help us Lord to follow you in such a way. God, we also pray for Michael. Lord, he has a need, a very important need. Lord, you know it. God, please have mercy upon him Lord God. Show your hand upon him Lord. May everything be resolved Lord God and please help him out. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For your kingdom, your power, and glory forever are yours. Amen. Be blessed. for see you in the