The Church of Eleven22 - Saturated Friday: Pastor Derwin Gray

Episode Date: September 14, 2024

Motivated By Love: On Mission For The Sake Of The Gospel On Saturated Friday, Pastor Derwin Gray teaches us how Jesus wants to light us up with love and how that love fuels our mission for the gospel. Through the interaction between Jesus and the expert in religious law (Luke 10:25-29 NLT), Pastor Derwin reminds us about the greatest commandments: loving God and loving your neighbor. The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To learn more about how God is moving at Eleven22, visit coe22.com.

Oh, my goodness, that's funny. That is hilarious. We, uh, I filmed that at the university. It was Montana State University back in 2004. So that's 20 years ago. So no one asked me to tackle them because it ain't happening. It is not happening whatsoever. Now, um, there were some talk about the Colts and I understand I'm in Jaguar country.

You know, however, back in 1990, We're playing Jacksonville, and I was with the Colts, team captain, but who remembers? And it was late in the game. It was a crucial time in the game, and we punted the ball, and I was a gunner, so there was two of the guys that had to block me. And they didn't do a very good job. So I got down there, blew up the receiver, recovered the fumble, took the football into the end zone, and looked for a particular fan. you actually may be here who taunted me, and I let him know, who's your daddy? Yes, yes, yes.

Now, that was before I knew Jesus. I'm not nearly is that petty. Nearly, I said. Yeah. Y'all ready? Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Holy Spirit, we ask that you would come, not you're not our re-present because you

endwell your people. We ask you to come to remind us that we can only behold Jesus and he can only take hold of us because of your power revealing him to us. King Jesus, would you overwhelm us with the matchless magnitude of your grace? And, Father, would you scoop up the broken pieces of our lives and put them to you? together again? Would you light us up with love? That the fragrance and the aroma of our souls would be love.

That our thoughts would be motivated by your love. That everything that we do and say would be a result of the love that flowed from that cross in Jerusalem that walked out of that empty tomb, would you do? drench us in love so much so that people go, what kind of God is it that you serve? And we would say the one who is love in his name is Jesus. And God's people said, amen. Amen. So teenagers, and I'd know it's a bunch of teenagers somewhere around here.

I've seen y'all at. Where y'all at? Teenagers, okay, over there. All right, cool, cool, cool. So one of the questions I get all the time is this. pastor what's my purpose and what I say to him is what you're really asking is what should I do with my life meaning vocation or career and they go yeah that's what I mean and then I say I don't know like what are you good at you like to fly planes be a pilot you like to teach algebra do that in school

what you do with your life is not your purpose that's the vehicle for your purpose Our purpose is to know a person. Our purpose is to know a person, and that person's name is Jesus. So I want to take a moment here, and I want to lay out Jesus' TikTok bio, in case some of us may not be familiar with him. He's the one in which the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6 walked into the temple where God's presence is, and he's seen a sight that literally made him say, whoa, is me, because he's seen the unmatched granger of Jesus, because we know it in John 1241. It says Isaiah saw Jesus, and all the mighty angels could do is say, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty.

Holiness doesn't mean women don't wear pants. Holiness means that there is nothing like God. The greatest imagination that we have cannot conceive the greatness of who he is. And Isaiah sees him and he goes, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. He is Alpha and Omega. Teenagers, that means he has no origin. Jesus has no origin story. He is the one in which every story flows from his eternal being.

He is the lamb. of God. And He is as near to us as our next. He is Messiah. And he's the one who took your place and my place upon that cross to give us grace so that there would be space in his eternal family. Our purpose is to know a person in his name is Jesus. And he wants to light you up with love. You know what would be pretty cool? Now, for some of you, you're kind of young. For some of you, not so much. Wouldn't it be great if the preacher didn't have to lie at your funeral?

Because sometimes you'd be preaching funerals like, say what? Like, really? I mean, wouldn't it be great that when it's all said and done, people would go, this person was loving. Because Jesus said something. He said, you will know my disciples by the way they love one another. He wants to light you and me up with love. So let's skedaddle over.

That's the Hebrew word for skedaddle. To the book of Luke, for those of you new to the faith or exploring a faith, Luke was a doctor. But what's important also is Luke is what's called a gomim. That's a Hebrew word for gentile. Unless you are an ethnically Jewish person, you are a Gonim, like I'm a Gonin. We were outsiders of the covenant that God had with the nation of Israel. And so he's kind of an outsider looking in, and he's sharing with us the heart of Jesus.

And so we're going to go through Luke 10, 25 through 37. And so I want you to put on your time machine, and we're going to go back to the ancient soil. of Israel, Jerusalem, where Jesus walked. So he's in a conversation, and it starts out this way in verse 25 of Luke chapter 10. One day, an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question. Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?

Now what's interesting, I'm teenagers, is the word test is written in the Greek language. language, it's not like he really doesn't want an answer. He's trying to catch Jesus in a trap. And most likely he was a scholar. And as a scholar of what's called Torah, which is the first five books of the Bible, he wanted to show everybody that this peasant from Nazareth surely couldn't be the Hamasiyah, the Messiah. Surely he couldn't. So let me just twist him up really quick. By the way, trying to trip Jesus is like trying to drink the Atlantic Ocean through a straw. It ain't going to happen. So verse 26, Jesus replied, what does the law of Moses say?

How do you read it? Let me pause here really quick. Let me just throw a little dark. Follows of Jesus, shut up. Listen more than you talk. Ask questions. Jesus asked more questions than giving answers because when we ask questions, the motives of people's hearts are laid out. Learn to ask questions. Learn to be curious about other people.

We live in such a culture that everybody wants to be seen. Everybody wants to be known. And what they're really saying is, I want to be known by Jesus. Because listen, if the whole world sees you, And the whole world knows you, but you don't know Jesus, you'll still be lonely. So let's learn to ask questions. The man answered, you must love the Lord your God with all of your heart,

with all of your soul and all of your strength and all of your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. So what he's doing is what a typical Jewish person is doing. He's quoting what's called the Hebrew Shama. Shama Israel, Adonai Elehaino, Adunah, Adonah, Adhad. Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is one. That's Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 through 9. So that deals upward with loving God. Then, by the time of Jesus, they added Leviticus chapter 19, 9 through 19, to the second part of that.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself. The way we say to the transformation church is upward, inward, outward. I want you to say it with me on a count of three. One, two, three. Upward, inward, outward. Jesus says, show you right. That's what it says in Hebrew, by the way. He goes, right, Jesus told him, do this and you will live.

So at this point, the religious scholar, a Jewish religious scholar is kind of like, oh snap, he knows the Bible. We don't have any text here, but I just wonder if Jesus is like, dude, I like wrote it. And all of it, it's about me from Genesis. to Revelation, but let's continue the game. Now watch what happens next, family. This is really important. The man, remember, he's a religious scholar, he's Jewish. The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, who is my neighbor? Another way of saying it is, well, who should I love then? Or who am I choosing not to love? Because I don't know who my neighbor is. Now, about 15 years ago, I would say, man, this guy, you know who your neighbor is. You just want to be stingy with love. But now, I've learned a thing or two. So picture this. You're a Jewish scholar, and your history with non-Jewish people have not been good. The Jewish people were held as slaves in Egypt. Not good. God frees them through the past.

over. Then they have to worry about other Gentiles called the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Jesuitites, the prejudice bites, and probably ants the bite. So they had to do it with them. Then they finally get to the promised land, but then they get into idolatry of the Gentiles, and then the Babylonians take them into captivity, and now during Jesus' day, the Roman Gentiles were oppressing them. So question, how would you treat people who have historically wanted to stamp you out and enslave you. So now I get why he goes, well, who's my neighbor? And Jesus is like, I'm going to teach you how to really love. Okay, you ready? 1122, you ready? It's easy to love people who think like us, vote like us, look like us. But if you really,

really want to know if you're loving? Jesus said, but I tell you, bless those who persecute you and love your enemies. Matthew, Chapter 5, 1st 44 and 45, been in the Bible 2,000 years, still there. You want to know if you're maturing Christ? You want to know if you're maturing Christ, if you're growing in Christ? Is your heart broken for the one who should be your enemy? Because if you don't forget, on the cross, the Bible says, you know, you know, says while we were yet sinners, God died for us. Verse 9 of Romans 5 talks about us being God's

enemies. And what did God do for his enemies? He loved them unto the cross. So watch this. When you lit up with love, number one, you're always on mission with Jesus for the sake of the gospel. I know not everybody here is a follower of Christ yet, but everyone who does, you know, does follow Jesus. Each and every one of us is a missionary. Wherever we are, we are on mission. I don't know about you. I don't know how you came to know Christ,

but I know how I came to know Christ. Listen, I didn't grow up in a fantastic church like this. You could have told me Elvis was in the Bible, and I would have believed you. Matter of fact, the first Bible I owned, legit owned. I stole it. No, seriously.

Check this out. Check this out. We're playing the Washington Redskins. I'm with the Colts. Yep, Redskins, there we go. And they're terrible. Okay, and so we get to the hotel, and I hear some of my teammates like Bible study,

and I'm like, well, I ain't playing too good. Maybe I'll go to the Bible study, you know. Maybe that'll help me. But I didn't have a Bible like the other guys. So I just happened to open up the drawer at the Marriott, and I saw this Bible call a Gideon's Bible. And I was like, I'll steal this Bible. Y'all, the Gideon's Bible's free. I stole a free Bible.

You know how lost you got to be to steal a free Bible? I stole a Bible that was free. That's how lost I was. So guys, I had a teammate with the Colts. His name is Steve Grant, but his nickname is the naked preacher. No, seriously, seriously. Every day after practice, he'd take a shower, dry off,

wrap a towel around his waist, get his Bible, and walk to my teammates' lockers, and he'd say, this is what he did, go, do you know Jesus? Do you know Jesus? In my mind, I'm going, do you know you're half naked? No, it was so strange to me. So I wasn't worried about covering Jerry Rice.

I wasn't worried about tackling Emma Smith, Barry. I was worried about the naked preacher. So one day I'm sitting in my locker and he walks up to me and he says, Rookie D. Gray, do you know Jesus? And I began this five-year conversation in which I watched him embody the gospel. I watched the way he loved my teammates. The same guys who made fun of him were. We're always at his locker when they needed advice.

And he was patient with me when I was just a jerk. He was so patient with me, praying for me, modeling, and just casting seeds of the gospel. August 2nd, 1997, we're at training camp with the cults. It's my fifth year. It's after lunchtime. And I'm walking back to my dorm room. and I am just, I'm supposed to be at the pinnacle. You know, my bank account is nice, beautiful wife, daughter.

I mean, I got the world, but I am so wracked with guilt, so empty. I get to the dorm room. I grabbed the phone, and this is when the phones were on the wall with a cord. And I distinctly remember calling my wife Vicki and saying, sweetheart, I'm ready to be more committed to you, and I'm ready to be committed. to Jesus. And the best way I can describe it is for the first time of my life, I knew that I was loved. And for three nights, I wept and I cried and I had this thought, how can someone like Jesus love somebody like me? Now I know all Jesus has is somebody like you and me.

So if you are busted up, toe up from the flow up, and if you are blown it, his grace is sufficient. There is no sin greater than the power is blood. There is nowhere you can run and hide from him who is merciful. And so this idea of being on mission, I didn't know I wasn't supposed to share my faith with everybody at every opportunity. It wasn't until Christians told me, bro, chill out. I'm like, chill out. Wait, hold on, wait. First of all, you don't know where I've been.

Homie ain't going back. And I don't want anybody to experience what I experienced. I want them to come to know Jesus, the God of abundant life, of forgiveness, of mercy, of kindness. Like, you don't know. The first wedding I went to was my own at 21, still married 32 years. You don't know.

I used to be a compulsive stutterer. Now I'm a preacher. You don't know. I scored a 16 on my ACT, and now I've got a doctrine. And Jobi, I've written eight books, working on nine. Oh, it's about to get Pentecostal now, because Pentecostals grab their microphone.

So we're all on mission. And you don't have to be, like your preacher is freakishly gifted. You don't have to be him. If God wanted you to be him or be me, he wouldn't have made you, but he made you. Because you have a uniqueness in your sphere of influence to be good news people to a gospel-starved world. We're all on mission.

And so Jesus tells one of the most famous stories there is, even for people who aren't Christians, they know about the good Samaritan, but they don't know about the good Samaritan. So we're about to know. Verse 30, Luke chapter 10. Jesus replied with a story, a Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho.

Let's pause here. There's an ancient historian named Josephus. and from Jerusalem to Jericho is like a 3,000 foot descent, and it's about 17 miles. Historians called it the bloody way because people were routinely robbed. A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes. Let's pause here. In a Middle Eastern context, to be naked. is a picture of shame.

Beating him up and left him half dead beside the road. Verse 31. By chance, a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed on the other side of the road and passed him by. A temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed the other man,

or also passed on the other side. So let's pause here. So think of the priests, the Jewish priest, So the Jewish priest, the temple assistant, you got the lead pastor and the worship leader. So they're in Jerusalem, so they've already worshipped. So there was no fear of touching a dead body and becoming unclean because they've already worshipped. So two Jewish men are walking down the road, the senior pastor, the worship guy. They've worshipped and it's been glorious.

I mean, the music was great and the worship leader is like pastor. you preach now. It was amazing. The way you exeged at that text was just splendid. Thank you. Man, your vocals tonight were just great. And they're walking and they're praising God. And then they see a guy who's stripped naked,

bloodied and beaten. And instead of going over there, they look and they go, well, let me, hey, the way you guys change songs. Oh, it was amazing. Well, preacher, that stuff you add it was great. And they just walk on by. Friends, singing worship songs is so that we can love people, which is a reflection of our love for God.

Listen, the greatest worship song you and I will sing is when we obey the king of kings in response to his grace as reflected in loving the untouchables, in loving the unlovable, in loving people who don't look like us, think like us, and vote like us. For the one thing I can't understand is how in the world can you reach somebody when people think you don't even love them? Have you heard of that strategy? Okay, we're going to reach the world by being mean.

Jesus like, come on, boys. Come with me down over here. we're going to really tell these people off. Actually, the scripture says the religious leaders looked at Jesus and said, why is he a friend to sinners? So they just walked on by. When you lit up with love,

you break through the demonic made barriers for the sake of the gospel. Oh man, guys. Verse 33 is like a spiritual nuclear grenade. then a despise Samaritan came along. Stop! If Jesus was talking to Jewish people, they would have been like,

Jesus, no, no, no, no, you're going too far, man. You are going too far. Pump your brakes. How dare you even say the name Samaritan? Okay, let's back, back up. When Jesus was born on earth in his humanity, there was a 700-year racial feud between Samaritans and Jews.

How did it happen? In 722 BC, the northern 10 tribes of Israel, because of their idolatry, was taken into captivity by the Babylonians, and out of that came this group of people called the Samaritans. They had a different way of worshiping. Also, this is pretty violent here. In 1 AD, no, no, 1 BC, the year before Jesus was born, some Samaritans snuck into the Jewish temple and desecrated it with dead man's bones. Y'all, you may not think that's a big deal now,

but back them, those are fighting words. That's like talking about somebody's mama, if you're from the hood. You feel what I'm saying? It was bad. So when Jesus is born, he's born into this deep, deep division. So when he says the word Samaritan, they're like, no, you can't say that.

But he's Jesus, and he can. He's trying to teach us to bring heaven to earth. He's trying to teach us how to fully be human. Then a despised Samaritan came along. Watch this. And when he saw the man. Did you catch it? Notice what it doesn't say. And when he saw the Jew, he saw a human being made an image. of God who was worthy of love. Hey friends, however you label someone will either limit how you love them or catapult you to love them. How do you talk about, hold on, hold a second.

How do you talk about other human beings that are made in the image of God? This is what we say at Transformation Church. Treat everybody like Jesus died for them because he did. So if Jesus died for them, they are worthy of my love and my respect. You don't have to agree with me for me to love you. You don't have to think like me for to see human worth and dignity in you. And besides, if I ever want to win you to Christ, I've got to get to know you. I've got to read the pages of your story.

we find is in the pages of our story, we have similar sentences that all say sinner in need of grace. Next, teenagers, watch this. He felt compassion. This may help you on your ACTT. Compassion is two words hamburgered together. It means to suffer with. What did Jesus do with us on the cross?

He suffered with us. us, the one who was without sin became sin that we may become the righteousness of God. He took upon our sin. He had compassion upon us. One of the signs that we are lit up with love and maturing in love is that we feel the hurt and the pain of other people. It's called empathy. Compassion.

He felt compassion for him. Aren't you that Jesus felt compassion for you? Aren't you, aren't you glad to before time ever began and before you ever called his name, he was on his way to rescue you? Aren't you glad that before you ever thought of him, he's eternally thought about you? You know, back in the day, Elvis Presley and Willie Nelson made a song very popular that says, You're always on my mind. It's like a love song, you know, some dude trying to get with some woman.

You're always on my mind. And that's not true. Only God can say, you've always been on my mind. You have always been on his mind. So if you think you were a mistake, you might have been to your parents, but you aren't to God. You are not a mistake. You have always been on God's mind. When you're lit up with love, number three, you give your first and best and are willing to count the costs.

And I totally stole that from y'all's church and your past. Pastor. Bro, I preached it last week. Epic. Epic. Verse 34, y'all. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothe his wounds with olive oil. Why olive oil to keep the wound soft? And then it goes and says, and wine, why wine? Because the alcohol kills the infection. And he bandaged him. He wrapped it up. Now, I want you to think about about this. Olive oil costs money. The wine costs money. The bandages cost money. Then he put him on his own donkey, which cost money, and took him to an inn where he took care of him. The next day, he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time I'm...

here. He was willing to give his first and his best. He was willing to count the cost for the other. For those of you who follow Jesus, if you haven't figured this out, loving people is hard. Especially loving people that the world says you're not supposed to love. Everybody is lovable. Everybody is lovable. And if you follow Jesus, you and I are the hands and feet of the one who is love. And we come with good news that there is a God who will forgive any sin, that there is a God who is merciful to be on imagination.

There is a God who says, not only will I forgive you, but I will throw your sins into the sea of my father's forgotten memory. and when you try to remind me of what you did, I'll say, I don't know what you're talking about, Willis. That was just for Gen X, y'all. Millennials and Gen Z, you're like, is that like a Hebrew thing? Is that one of those, there used to be this show.

Don't worry about it. Hey, but you know what, y'all, there's another cost here. Now, it's not in the text, and so I'm going to extrapolate, but I think I'm on solid foundation here. Play along with me. Can you imagine when the Samaritan gets back to Samaria. And he's talking to a Samaritan family and friends. He's like, man, Jerusalem was amazing. Had a great time. But there was this guy. Man, he was beat down. He was robbed. So you know

what I did? Man, I put olive oil on his wounds. I put wine on. I bandaged him, put him on my donkey, took him to an end. And if it goes over, I'm going to pay for him more. And they were like, that's awesome. What Samaritan was it? And he goes, no, it wasn't a Samaritan. It was a Jew. I wonder if they said, oh, so Jewish lives matter now? Oh, wait, wait, wait, so let me get this right. So you're going to love them? So let me get this right. So do you know what the Samaritans have done to us?

I mean, do you know what the Jews have done to us? Do you know how they think about us? Do you know, do you know? Let me tell you this family, an eye for an eye makes everybody blind, and our country is blind, and we have eyes that are open, and they're called to love in such a way. that it is unbelievable.

My prayer for this church and our church and every church in America is that lost people would go, why do you love me like this? And we go, how can I not love you like this in light of how he has loved me? When you're lit up with love by the spirit's power,

you embody the mercy of God. The mercy of God. the mercy of God. Verse 36. So Jesus has literally and lovingly fillet this religious scholar open with one of them sharp knives, Pastor Jobi guy.

He gave me some of them as a gift too. Yeah. I feel very macho. Which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits. Jesus asked, man, can you imagine being in that space? And the religious scholar's like, I can't get out of this one? The man replied, the one who showed him mercy.

Then Jesus said, yes. now go and do the same. Mercy doesn't start with us. Mercy starts in the very heart of God. And by the way, family, we don't make God merciful. Mercy is a part of his infinite, unchanging character. What a loving and incredibly merciful king we have. I mean, we make a wreck of God's creation.

And what does he do? I'm going to get wrecked for you on the cross. We make a mess of God's creation. We make a mess of each other. What does God do? I'm going to be made a mess on the cross. I'm literally going to be your substitute. All that is ungodly and broken,

I'm going to take it upon my flesh, and the Father's wrath is going to be executed upon me, but my grace and mercy are going to flow to you. so that you can have a new power to be gracious and merciful. The world has a lot of smart people, but I'm not sure the world has enough gracious and merciful people. We are to be gracious and merciful. For, it is the mercy of God that brings repentance, Romans 2.4.

Now, I would be the world's worst. preacher if I stop right there. Because there's a greater story within this story. You see, you and I are the Jewish man on the side of the road. Oh man, the devil has stripped us of some things, hasn't he? For some of us, there are things in our closet that we want nobody to ever see Matter of fact, for some of us, our closet, we can't even keep it closed anymore. There's so much stuff in there. He has stripped us and he's beaten us of our dignity. And we are spiritually bleeding and we're hemorrhaging and we're on the side of the road.

But here's where we mess up, though. We think that being on the side of the road, we think we can pour wine on our wounds and we think we can pour olive oil on our wounds and we think we can bandage ourselves and we're just flopping around on the bank of life like some fish out of water. Can I tell you something right now? Please hear my heart.

Stop trying to fix yourself. Stop trying to fix yourself. Stop trying to fix yourself because I know a carpenter and he specializes in fixing people. He has a hammer of grace and nails of mercy. You see, you and I are the men on the side of the road, and Jesus is not a good Samaritan that came from Jerusalem. He's a good God who came from the throne room of heaven via the womb of the Virgin Mary,

who was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, went to the temple, showed the religious leaders. I do my father's will. Grew up and at 30 said, I'm taking you, you, you, and us 12 are going to change the world. and he went to the cross and he thought about you and he thought about me and when he was nailed there don't get it twisted it wasn't little old nails that held the hands of the creator of the universe upon a cross it was love for you it was love for me

it was love love love that kept him there and he bled and he died and he forgave and on the third day he rose again in power and in glory and he called your name and he said come out of that tube with me. Come on out of that tube with me. But guess what? But then he says, but then he says, peep this, my father has a mansion with many rooms in it. And I've already paid it in full. And when I come back, I'm taking you with me. There's going to be a new heaven and a new earth. But until that glorious day, lo, I am with.

You. So I'm pretty much done. I got a question. Just a couple here. First one is this. Jacksonville, a lot like Charlotte. It's the Bible belt, right? And what's dangerous about the Bible belt is a lot of times there's no Bible under the belt. A lot of times we can enter into a church, but that doesn't make us a Christian anymore than if I enter into my garage, I'm a Volvo. So my first question is this, is do you know Jesus? Now, I'm not talking about, know about Him. Do you know Him? There's like this supernatural exchange that happens where your affections, that means your heart, the totality of your being is like, I cannot believe. I cannot believe.

He loved me enough to take my place on the cross. I cannot believe he. I believe he, he rose again. And he wants me. He's calling my name. Listen, I'm not asking if you are a fan of Jesus. There's lots of fans. I'm asking, have you said Jesus? By faith, I believe you took my penalty on the cross. And I believe that on the third day, you rose again. And I believe that by faith you have rescued. Now listen, when the naked preacher was sharing Jesus with me for several years, I always thought, okay, when I clean my life up, then I'll go to Jesus. Friends, that is such a lie. We can't clean her lives up. It's the blood that cleans us up. He wants to give you a blood

bad and it'll clean you and make you holy and blameless and righteous. Listen, come as you are. Listen, bring your addictions. Big for him. You know what he's going to say? My grace is. Grace is something that is unearned and undeserved. It is a gift.

So in a moment, I'm going to pray for those people to receive Christ. We're going to have a moment where our heads are bowed down, our eyes are closed. I'm going to ask you to raise your hand, and the great team hit 1122 is going to be able to identify you. And then after that, I'm going to have another challenge because I know you're human. I know that there are those people you don't like. There might be another political persuasion. It might be your spouse right next to you. Don't do nothing.

Okay. It's time for us to be so lit up with love that our love seems unreasonable because it's from heaven being manifested here on earth. And I'm going to ask you to come up and this is going to be your altar. And we're just going to ask God. We're going to surrender to him and say, just unleash that love through us. We want to love the people that are hard for us to love. I got them and you got them, but more importantly, Jesus got us. Let's bow and pray. Holy Spirit, take the words that have been proclaimed from song and in proclamation of the gospel. And do what it is that you do best, save sinners.

Right now, if you're saying, hey, Pastor Derwin, I want to know Jesus. I want to receive his forgiveness. I want his substitution on the cross to be for me. I want his blood to wash me pure and clean. I believe that on the third day he rose again. And I'm ready to follow and receive his life. I'm ready to receive this free gift. If that's you in the silence of your heart,

Jesus is here. His nail pierce hands are stretching to you. He's calling your name. Just say this to him in the silence of your heart. King Jesus today, as I look at the cross and I see you there, it should have been me. All of my sin was put on you so that I could experience forgiveness of sins. So I believe that you died on the cross for my sin and I believe that you lay in that tomb for three days.

And I believe you rose again. and today by faith I trust you as my God and king would every head bowed and eyes closed if you prayed that would you raise your hand really high God bless you God bless you God bless you God bless you

God bless you God bless you God bless you God bless you God bless you God bless you Father you will complete the good works that you started. We know this to be true. Next, I want to pray for those of you that you were challenged

by this message because you know that there are the hard people to love in your life for whatever reason and you're tired of being held bondage to it. You're ready to be fully lit up with love. You're ready to be a conduit. You want to express this love of Christ in such a way that the world goes, what kind of God it is that you serve. If you're ready to be lit up with love and love that way, I want to ask you to just to get up out of your seat right now and just make your way to the front. This is our holy altar. This is our holy altar. God bless you. God bless you. We're going to ask the Spirit of God to love in us. This love is going to be like a spark. and that this incredible church is going to continue to be a church for all people,

where people go, what are they doing there? We have never seen love like this, mercy like this, forgiveness like this. These families are loving. Lord, break the hard ground. Break the hard ground. Lord, I know that there are some people in here who experience some form of abuse and for so long they have been held hostage by the past. Today is the day to be set free.

Today is the day to forgive. Today is the day to love. Dark powers, you have no authority here. The chain-breaking love of King Jesus is present. And when the name of Jesus is proclaimed, the dark powers have to flee. Love is his name Love is his power

He is merciful He is good He is a freedom fighter He is setting us free And Lord I pray For the teenagers that are struggling With their parents To got a divorce

They don't know Everything that took place But Lord do not let An angry root Grow in them Break that root of anger And plant a garden Of grace

Father, in the name of Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit's power, give us the power to bless those who persecute us and to love our enemies. You said the world will know that we are your disciples by the way that we love one another. May the perfume we wear be the scent of love. And Lord, we know what love looks like. It looks like a bloody cross.

and an empty tomb. We pray this in Jesus' name and God's people say.