Full of Love

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected], dot. We would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Now. Enjoy the message. [00:00:24] Speaker B: Good morning and welcome to summer. Are the moms and the kids so excited? No. Kind of. They're like, yeah. Well, welcome to summer here in Texas. This is when we start saying, enjoy this nice, cool weather. Cause it's going to get hot. We know that it is. So welcome. We're so glad that you are here with us today. And we're in the middle of our brand new series over the summer, and it's called fruitful and it's on the fruit of the spirit, and we are ramping it up this summer. Sometimes in summer we feel like, oh, it's more laid back. But we just talked about this as a team, and we really want to say we want to go deep this summer. We want to challenge you guys to grow like you have never grown before, to step it up in your relationship with the Lord. We want to give you a devotional. And Amber talked a little about it. We'll talk about it at the end a little bit. If you've not registered for that yet, do that. Because all week, every week, this week, we're going to talk about love. Next week, we're going to talk about joy. It's nine weeks till we get to the end of self control. And every week, you're going to have stuff you're going to get to talk about with your family, read on your own. You're gonna get scriptures, prayer, all kinds of things to help you grow in your relationship with the Lord. Because here's the thing. There's no coasting, right? You're either growing towards the Lord, you're growing in your relationship with him, or you're not. So we want to challenge you guys all this summer to grow in your relationship with God. Dig deep. We're gonna get deep roots here as we work on this together. So I am so excited about this series. And even though school's out, we're going to have a little pop quiz, because going into it, I want you to already know what you're good at and what you're not good at, because you're not good at all nine of these. No one is but Jesus right so here's your questions. You can share them if you want to. You can just keep it in your head a little bit so you know at the end what it is. No. We're going to say yes or no and kind of keep a mental note of your nose because that's the one you're going to need to spend some little extra time with. All right. So, number one, are you known as a person of love? Someone that has an unusual capacity to not just love the lovable? We can all do that. Right? But you have the capacity to love the unlovable. Is that a mark about you? Do people say, oh, gosh, they are so full of love. I love to be around them? Yes or no? Answer it to yourself or on your paper. Number two, do people see how joyful you are in the midst? A really difficult time, not just when things are great, but when things are hard and you've been pushed to your last nerve. Would people say, they are such a joyful person? I love to be around them. Yes or no? Number three, this one gets a little bit more tricky. Are you a person that people know that you have a peaceful heart, a peaceful demeanor, that in the midst of crazy things you bring that stability of peace? People come to you when their life is crazy because they know you're going to talk them off the ledge, you're going to give them peace and calmness? Are you known as that person? Are you long suffering? And long suffering is a little bit different. This is the new King James version Bill wanted to use because long suffering is a little different than patient. They're both hard, but long suffering is being patient despite being insulted and hurt over and over again. It's a little bit harder to be. To be suffering, but to be long suffering. But people say that about you. We're going to learn how to do it. If you're coming up with all no's, don't worry, we're going to help you be better at all of these. Do those, dear you, say you were kind, you're considerate towards others, putting their needs before your own. Do people think you are good, have integrity in your character and your actions? Yes or no? Are you faithful, loyal, reliable and trustworthy, even when no one is looking? Right? The true definition of character is when no one is looking. Not when we can put on a good show for people around us, but at the core who we are. Next one is, are you known for having a gentle spirit, showing humility and compassion towards others? Does it hurt you when you see someone suffering and you give out of what you have because you can't just know that it's going on. Is that who you are, number nine? This last one would others say, you have self control, the ability to exercise restraint over one's desires and behaviors, particularly in the face of temptation, particularly when you're driving. I'm going to say that when people cut you off, do you have self control? Scripture calls all these character traits. We're going to call them the fruit of the Spirit. And Galatians is our base verse. We're going to have all this next nine weeks, and here's what it is. Galatians 522 and 23 says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. And against such, there is no law. That's what the Holy Spirit is like. So sometimes it's hard to describe the Holy Spirit, right? Because we got the Father and we've got the Son, and here's the Holy Spirit. And how do we describe the Holy Spirit? We look at his qualities and who he is and the fruits of the Spirit. The fruits of the Holy Spirit. This is what he is like. And in this series, we're going to learn how to access those gifts. We're going to learn how to not just know these things, but to put them into practice in our lives. So what is it? What is the fruit of the spirit and how do we get it? That is the big question today. And the fruit of the Holy Spirit is the result of the Holy Spirit's presence and mine in your life. The Bible makes it clear that everyone receives the Holy Spirit. The moment that they become a Christian, the moment that they ask Jesus to be their savior, the Holy Spirit comes. Bill always says, you get 100%. It's not on the payment plan. Right. When you ask Jesus to come into your life, the Holy Spirit is deposited into your heart. And the Holy Spirit does a whole lot of things, comforts us, helps us read the Bible and hear God's words. But one of its big jobs is to make us more christlike and for us to access the fruit of the Spirit. If you want to know what the Holy Spirit is not like, I always like to look at the opposites. Right? Okay, we know here's these nine fruits of the Spirit. This is what the Holy Spirit is like. What is it not like? Because sometimes we can kind of get those confusion. You're going to have to go back a couple of verses. And I love that Paul gives us these two, because sometimes when we know what we can't do? It helps us navigate towards what we should do. So in Galatians five, if you'll skip up a couple of verses in 19 and 21, it says, now the works of the flesh are evident, which are, and get ready, because there's 17 of these, there's nine of the fruits of spirit. But he's given us 17. Well, he says and the like. So it's going to be a whole lot more than that. But it's almost twice as many things that we are going to have temptation with over our flesh. Okay, here they are. Adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, rivalries and the like. So that's not what the Holy Spirit is. So if you are involved in any of those, and let's face it, we all are a lot of times, right, our flesh gets the best of us and we have an outburst of anger and we get involved in something that we should not be involved in. So right up front, if you are involved in any of those things and don't see it as a bad thing, that's a warning sign, right, that the Holy Spirit wants to do some work in your life. And since we're made of human flesh, I want to say right up front, those things are easy. They're not saying, hey, put on these great things because it's so easy for us to do. In contrast to the fruit of the spirit, we're going to have to work at and we're going to have to have God's help to do it. This is what we're going to learn really big in this series is all of these fruit of the spirit. They're only empowered by the spirit of God. And yeah, we can put on love and joy and patience for a good little bit, right? But we're going to come to the end of ourselves and God is unending and he can continue to fill us up when we don't think we have any more to give. So there's this tension, right? This tension of the flesh. We live in this world and we're tempted all the time, and these thoughts come into our heads and we try so hard to not say something. I'm speaking to myself here because I have a lot of words and I try so hard. And some, if I'm pushed far enough, at the end of the day, I'm going to end up saying it, right? So there's this contrast the flesh and the spirit. Who's going to win? It's the one you feed the most, right? It's like that old parable of the wolf. It's the one that you feed the most. If you're spending all of your time doing things of the world, if you're spending all of your time on social media and listening to all just crazy things that will start penetrating you, penetrating your heart. But if you spend the bulk of your time with christian people reading God's word, praying to God, those things are going to be on the tip of your tongue instead of the other. John 15 is a great passage because John starts talking about being attached to Jesus and that when we are attached to him, we can do the things that he wants us to do. I'm going to read a couple of verses. John 15, five, eight. It says, I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit back to the fruit of the spirit, right? Apart from me, you can do nothing. So you cannot do it on your own. Can you do some things? He's saying? No, actually, in all reality, you can do nothing apart from Jesus if you do not remain in me. You are like a branch that is thrown away and withers, and some branches are picked up and thrown into a fire and burned. But if you remain in me and my words in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. So here's the why. Why do we want to bear this fruit? Why do we want to reflect the fruit of the spirit? Because it shows people that we're God's people. And our one big job on this world, right, is to glorify God and bring other people with us to heaven. And one way we're going to do that is sharing him with people. Them seeing our life as different, they'll be attracted to that. To say, I want to have what you have. Very seldom am I seeing somebody going crazy at the grocery store thinking I want what they have, right. It's like, no, wrong line. Let me go to the other line. I always go on the wrong line. How about you? If you talk to me very long. You know, I have two granddaughters now. They're two and a half and five weeks. And what I remember, I kind of forgotten. It's 24/7 right? Moms and dads and grandmamas and granddads. You can't take your eyes off of them for 1 second. And they have to be attached to you to grow and to learn and even for nourishment for a whole lot of things. And it's the same with us if we have to be attached to Jesus, to be able to have the spirit in us and to be able to pull off the christian life, to be able to reflect God, to be able to love others, all the things that we're gonna talk about during this series, we have to be plugged in to the source. We're gonna talk a little bit what that looks like and how to do that today. And I hope you're challenged by the end of the day to say, I can't do it alone. God, I get it. I get it. I've been trying to live this life on my own. I've been trying to do good things. I've been trying to go to church. I've been trying to read my Bible, and I've been thinking, I'm making you happy doing all of these things. Guess what? God doesn't want things from you. He doesn't need things from you. He just wants your heart, and he just wants you to be plugged into him. So it sounds easy, but in the world that we live, it's not always so easy, is it? But what we're learning today is when we're plugged into the source, we have an all access pass. Do you guys love all access passes? I've done it a couple of times at Disney and some places where if you don't know what it is, you pay extra. It's a lot extra. Right. And you don't have to stand in lines. Ha ha. It's not as long of lines. And maybe you get a backstage look at some things that the normal planet doesn't get to look at. And that's what we're learning today. And that's what Paul is saying. Jesus is your all access pass. He's it. We don't have to try to do all of these things for him to love us and be proud of us. We just have to be plugged into him, spending time with him, knowing what it is even he wants us to do. That's not going to come without spending time in God's word, reading God's word, growing in our relationship with him. That's how we're going to actually go up to the graduate level. And you might be thinking, I don't know if I have this all excess pest. To be honest with you, Mary, I hear this a lot as I'm talking to people and we're counseling and walking through some different things in their life and some struggles that they have. And usually this is pretty early on, I'm going to say, so tell me about the time that you accepted Jesus and Jesus is in your life and he's going to be the one that's going to help you through this. Tell me about that moment. Sometimes people just don't really have a moment. But they know they grew up in church. They know that they believe in Jesus. They believe in what he did on the cross and that he died and he rose again three days later. They know all of those things. But a lot of times the answer is, I have no idea what you're talking about. I've been going to church, I've been punching all these things that I thought would make God so proud of me. But I don't know about this relationship. Mary, what are you talking about? How do you have relationship with someone that you can't see or hear or know? I don't know how to do that. But that's what it is to be a Christian, right? And I tell them, well, all you got to do is pray. This is the easiest thing on earth. You just pray and you ask God to come into your life and the Holy Spirit comes in. This is the miracle of salvation. And then the rest of our lives is the sanctification part, right? All of those things we were involved in, they don't go away right away. But as we know Jesus, we just start becoming more like him and our want to changes, right? My mom used to say that to me. I don't want to do that. Well, your want to needs to change, right? Did you guys have those struggles, too? But the fruit of the spirit's not a checklist. It's a christian behavior. It's something that God calls us to do. When a lawyer asks Jesus, what is the greatest commandment? Jesus said, love. So that's where we're going to start today. Jesus says, you should love the Lord your God and you shall love your neighbor. According to Jesus, it's paramount in a believer's life. So now we know how to get the fruit of the spirit. We know we're going to be plugged in to Jesus. Now we're going to look at the first one, which is love, and how are we going to apply that to our lives this week? We're going to spend a lot of time this week on our devotionals at different times, looking at and some challenges. What does it look like to really love as Jesus loved and to understand and know God's love because it's not human love. Some of us have had really good homes and some of us have not. Some of us saw people who really loved us and put our needs before their own, and some of us did not. And we don't have a good framework of what that looks like. And we don't know how to receive it. And we don't really know that God loves us. Yes, we know John 316. Most everybody knows that verse, right? For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him would have everlasting life. We know God did it for the whole world. And generally he loves the whole world. But I don't know about me. Well, guess what? Even if you were the only one on this earth, God would have sent his son to die for you because he loves you that much. And to understand how important God's love is, we just have to look at his word. The Old Testament mentions love 250 times. And the New Testament mentions love 234 times. We're going to look at John today. We're going to look at one John, but all of John, John and the epistles, 1st, second and third John. He mentions love 74 times. That's how important love is. We have to be loving, but we have to know that we're loved by God almighty first. So we're going to look at one John 4711 today. And actually there's love in every single verse. It starts with verse seven. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. And everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love. Not that we loved God, but he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. So it's no coincidence that the first fruit of the spirit is love. It's the foundation, it's the bedrock of what we have to have. Our culture uses the world, the word love a lot, right? I love cheeseburgers. I love Doctor pepper, I love your dress, I love your hair, I love your car. Whatever it is, we say it a whole lot. But that's not the kind of love that we're talking about today. Love comes from God and for us to fill our bucket, our love bucket, to have an overflow, to love people, we have to get that from God. And I've not always done that. The best in my life. I don't know about you, I was kind of raised with a no nonsense family that you pull your bootstraps up and you can make it through whatever you need to make it through. You don't ask for help. You make it happen. And you love people and you put on a good face in the meantime. But you know what happens? We can get our bucket and we can go love some people and splash it on them. But pretty soon our bucket is empty and we have to refill that bucket by pulling it back up and showing it to God. I have a bucket here, and this is actually the bucket from our farm. I had Derek go get it out of the shed today and put some. We call them protein cubes. If you don't know what we feed cows, this is what it is. It looks just like this. And our cows love these protein cubes. And our little baby girl Katherine loves to go out and feed the cows. She holds her hand out and they lick her hand. Oh, it grosses me out. I can't do it. And their tongues. Y'all are this long and they're really rough and gross. But the cows eat hay. They eat all day long. But these are their treats and they come. Derrick whistles. He can do that big whistle. You know, guys, a lot of y'all and girls, a lot of people can do it. I can't whistle at all. He starts whistling and way back on the pasture, way on the other side, they hear him and they come and they run. They're so excited. I'm like, they're not getting that many of these. I don't even know why they care. But they come and he dumps them out. He has a trough and he starts jumping them out. And if Katherine's there, she starts throwing them to him. But pretty soon this bucket gets empty. Pretty soon there's no more left. And they're still looking. And our bucket is empty. And they know that Derek knows where there's more cubes and he can go get some more for them. So that's what we have to do when we get empty. I get empty about every day. How about you guys? Some days I come home, I'm thinking, I am so tired. Emotionally, I am so tired. I've talked to people all day long. I'm sorry. Dare I have about a two today? That's really about all I have to give you. I'm really tired. Well, guess what? That's not biblical. That's not biblical at all. That's when we say, all right, Jesus, I've got some people to love at home. Can you help me put all that other stuff aside and can you fill my bucket again so I have something to pour out on the people that I love the most and the people that you've called me to love, whatever that might be. We moved out to Springtown, and I've lived here in this area most of my life. And this is a very affluent area. I didn't really know that it was, because it's all I've known my whole life. And in Springtown, it's small town people. And the grocery store we have is called Brookshire's. You may have heard of it, you may have not. I had never heard of it in my life, but several times, I don't know what it is when I go, the people in front of me don't have money. And several times, I'm not saying it. I just pay for them because I feel so bad. Their chip card or whatever card's not working. But it has opened my eyes how God wants me to love people. So Derek and I went yesterday to get a couple things, and I was walking in first, and I kind of went over in the fruit section to get a couple, couple things. And these three cute little boys were with their daddy, and they said, can we have some fruit? And he said, no, we don't have money for fruit today, guys. We're just going to get a couple of things. Oh, that was a hard one. And then Derek and I were checking out, and the guy that was sacking was having a hard time sacking and keeping up. The bags just weren't opening great for him. I'm over there paying, and I hear Derek saying to the guy, hey, how's it going? Can I help you? Let me help you bag some things. And Derek said, how's your day going? And he was like, oh, I didn't get out of here till late last night, and I'm having some problems with some things, and he starts sharing it with Derek. And I watched Derek love that guy from an overflow of Jesus. We don't know him. We're never even going to see him again. But that is what we're called to do, to see it, to see the opportunities for us to love, to not close our eyes and walk through this life not engaging with the people that God has put around us, but he's calling us to look for it. I don't want to look for it because I'm tired, right? That's what we're saying to ourselves. But God's saying no. That's why I put you on this earth. That's why I want you to accept Jesus so I can have all of my people making a difference in this world around me. So what does it look like to love God with all we have? Man, that's a challenge, right? What does it look like to love God with our words, with our possessions, right? With our money? We are called to love. And it's going to hurt a little bit because if it doesn't, it wasn't really a true sacrifice from God. And he knows we're not perfect and he loves us despite that. We're not perfect just as we do those in our lives. But we are the vessel that he has chosen, you and me. We are the vessel that he has chosen to love this world around us. That's a high calling. It's a high calling we should think about every day of our life when we get up. God. Hey, who is it today? What, randomly is going to happen to me today? That I'm going to rub elbows with somebody that I might be able to say, how's it going, man? I'm thinking about you, praying for you. What is that going to look like? So what is this love that God is calling us to give away? I wrote down some practical things because sometimes it just seems like it's way out there and I don't even know how to do it. Here's a few things. Love is more than an emotion. It's a commitment, right? It looks beyond the flesh. Looks at the heart and soul of people, cares about people. It cannot be bought. Here's a big one. Love gives with no strings attached. If someone is telling you you have to do something for them to love you, that's not love at all. Because love doesn't have strings. Love's generous and very unselfish. It's more fulfilling to give than to receive. Do you remember that when you were a kid and your parents were telling you that about Christmas? And I didn't really understand it, but I do now. It really is fantastic to be able to give something to somebody with nothing in return. That's what love is. Love is forgiving. Love is happy when others are happy. Love hurts when others hurt. Love does not keep accounts. Love is patient and that's God's love. That's what he does for us. All of those things God does for us. And he wants us to do that for other people. Romans 837 39 says, in all of these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Not through us because we love God. No, we are conquerors because of him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, nor height or depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He loves you. He loves you, he loves you, plain and simple. He's crazy about you. And you may not have known that before, but you know it today. It's what God's word says. God is the source of love. First, John 416. We'll have this on our screens. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. And whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them. Number two, Jesus died so we can have love. Second Corinthians 515 says, and he died for all that. Those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and for them, and was raised again. So it's through Jesus. And then here's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives power to love. God's the source. Jesus died so we can have it. But the Holy Spirit is the one that gives us the power within our lives. Romans five. Five. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to all of us. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is in you to allow you to do the things that you don't know that you can do just yet. Just as a lemon tree produces lemon, it doesn't produce cheeseburger or broccoli. Right? A lemon tree produces lemon. And as believers, we should produce the things of God, the fruit of the spirit. We have a tree on our farm and it's an oak tree and we bought this property a couple of years ago and actually it was one of mine and Derek's favorite trees. It looks like it's probably 150 years old and it's about 50ft high and it has the most beautiful canopy. We love that tree. But we had a big storm in our area and I came home and it was. It had stormed there and it didn't storm here. And I was kind of surprised. And when I got home, it was. It was eerie, dark. Have you guys seen that before? It's like almost green. Like you're thinking, oh, is this the end of time? This is like it's so quiet. The birds weren't saying anything. Nothing was going on. And I'm walking around the property, and it looked like a tornado had come through. There's limbs on the ground. I couldn't even drive all the way up the driveway. It didn't look very good at all. And then I looked out back at our favorite tree, y'all. Almost half of it is gone. There's one branch still sticking a little bit out. It looks kind of wonky. The other side still looks really pretty. And we lost about half of that tree. A lot of people said, cut it down. Just cut it down. They're like, that tree's been here 150 years. Let's see what it does, right? It's got a little bit of a hole inside. It's probably hollow. Who knows what's going on with that tree? But we couldn't do it. We've kept it. And I look out back, a hole all the time, and I'm thinking, grow deep roots, Mary. This tree made it because it grew deep roots. It had roots. Who knows how, right? If they're as big as the canopy and as tall as it is and all the way down, it's been able to hold up. I don't know how. I don't even know how it's holding up. It's not even leaning. And that's what happens with us when we get deep roots, when we spend time with God, when we pray, when we read our bibles even, you know what? Sometimes I've been like, I don't even know if I can read a verse. Sometimes it's just like, I just gotta lay the Bible on me, maybe say a verse I've memorized, right? Sometimes I don't have it. But God meets us there when we're honest with them and we say, God, I don't really have it today. Will you show up? Can you come and do something in me that helps me do the things that I don't even think I can do? So people will know that I'm a follower of Jesus. If you came to church today or you're watching online, I think that's what God wants for all of us. Grow deep roots. Grow roots so that you're not going to sway with the breeze when things get tough and the storms come, and guess what? They're coming. If you haven't already lived through it, there's some coming because we live in a fallen world and God's there with us, and he's going to sustain us through it. But it's going to come. And if we have deep roots already growing, we're going to weather that storm. We might stand a little wonky like my little tree in the backyard, but we're going to make it. And guess what? The birds are on that tree and the squirrels are climbing up that tree. It's providing shade. Still, a great tree may not look great. God doesn't care what things look like. God cares about our hearts. He cares about the inside and what's going on. So love is our homework this week. If you've not signed up for the devotional, do that. We're going to look at some different ways to love. We're going to look at some challenges as well. We're even going to do a recap at the very end and we're even going to ask some information from you. Hey, what did you learn this week? We want to know you. We wanna know our church family and what God is teaching you. We want you to say, hey, honestly, I didn't do good with this, but I'm working on it. Or, hey, I got this one down pretty good. I've been through some rough things in my life and I have this one down. We'd love to hear about that from you. And the easiest way for you to invite a friend of church is during this next season. We all have somebody who wants to grow in joy, peace, patience. This is a great way to say, hey, come to church with me. We're learning about some things that are really applicable and really going to help your life. I know we all have friends who are going through a hard time who would love to know about Jesus. That's a great way for you to help change their life. It's always amazing to me when I talk to people when they're getting baptized. How did you hear about the Met? A friend. A friend invited me and I came and I just realized I didn't even know who Jesus was. I was doing a lot of religion, but I didn't have a relationship. So you never know what God's going to use from you to change somebody's life. As I close in prayer and as we think about our scorecard, I invite you to talk to God. Honestly, he doesn't want to hear. Sometimes I'm like, okay, God, God of heaven and earth, I love you so much. All of those things, and it's honoring to God. But that's not really what he wants to hear. He wants to hear about his child, what you're going through, what's difficult, what you love be honest with God. He knows anyway, right? We can't hide anything from him. And maybe you know about him, but you don't know this holy spirit I've been talking about. And I'm gonna give us a second to pray in silence. And I pray today is the day that you go on this fantastic adventure with God, and you ask Jesus to come into your life, you'll never be the same. He is gonna help you through difficult times. He's gonna help you be filled with this love that we're talking about to give to other people. Maybe you've been a believer in Jesus a long time, and you've just been coasting. We used to call it recommitted. I recommitted my life to Jesus. Did you guys grow up in church? Remember that used to be on the card in the seat in front of us? And you could say, I recommitted my life to Jesus today. I hope that's for you today. Maybe you're feeling like, okay, I think I need to delve deeper. I want to recommit. I want to make this a singular focus of mine, want it to be about Jesus. Scripture talks a lot about making altars to help us remember God's faithfulness. And today can be that altar moment for you. In Ephesians 317 21, Paul reminds us to look up to God and not ourselves. That's kind of what we've been talking about all today, where our source comes from. And that's why people a lot of times just pray on their knees, because then you're forced to look up and realize it's not all about you and your strength and what you can do. In Ephesians three, he says this, and I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all of the fullness of God, the fullness of the fruit of the spirit. Now to him who is able to do. I want to go back here now to him who is able to do immeasurably more. Him. Not you. Not you who can do more. The scripture is saying, now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Let's pray. Jesus. If anyone in the sound of my voice hasn't asked you to come into their life. I pray, as we have a couple of minutes of silence, it will be today. If somebody wants to recommit their life, if somebody wants to maybe fix some relationships, whatever it might be, to show love to other people, Lord, help us to be honest with you, confess that to you and accept your love. Jesus, give us your eyes and strength to see those who need us to love them. This week. May we say at the end of the day, God has filled my bucket with so much love. I have so many people I wanna give it to. Lord, help us to see them. Help us to be world changers. Lord, we love you so much in Jesus name. And all God's people said. Amen. [00:38:55] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.