(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

We've just jumped into this new series called Love Is. I was really excited because as you know my my hot pink Converse really fit in well with the backdrop here.

And but no I I really enjoy this and I know a lot of it Valentine's Day was Friday and you're gonna people ask me where are you taking McKenzie?

I said I'm not taking her anywhere.

She had the flu.

So I was good.

I went and bought her some pink Gatorade.

Made her some mashed potatoes.

Fine meal.

And she's here today.

So my loving care worked for my wife.

She's right over here today.

But this new series Love Is, I do think this is something very important for us to discuss.

Right?

Because our English language has kind of cheapened the word love just a bit.

Right?

Because I can use it for things like I love tacos.

Or I love loud rock-and-roll.

Or I love my wife and kids.

And I love God.

And I mean the reality is all of those things can't be the same.

Right?

I mean maybe it depends on the taco.

I get it.

Maybe it depends on the band that's playing.

But there is this distinction that we have to understand.

And the cheapening of that word love has now started really, I think, to confuse people about God Himself.

Right?

Because when we use the phrase, God is love.

Right?

That is a phrase that every Bible-believing Christian would shout Amen to.

Right?

That is something that we believe.

In fact, it even says in 1st John 4.8, it says this, whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

And there it is.

Right?

In Scripture.

Right?

It's indisputable.

But in our day and age, the phrase has been used to basically justify anything and everything that people want to do.

Right?

That if it makes them happy, that we as Christians have to accept it, because God is love.

And this distinction is so very important, because what they might be saying is God is love, but what they're really meaning is love is God.

And those are two very different things.

You see, if God is love, it's God who sets forth the parameters.

Right?

It is God who defines what it is.

And if something goes beyond that definition, it's no longer love.

At least not love in the way that God intended.

And if the phrase love is God, if love is God, we are saying that love, or whatever we call love today, is calling the shots.

We are saying that as long as it makes someone happy, God is all for it.

And we know that's not true.

Right?

Many of us in our own lives, right?

Let's not point fingers until we're pointing at ourselves, right?

Many of us in our own lives have done things and justified it enough to where we know that this can be the case.

And C.S. Lewis wrote about this, and he said that it's as if people today, right?

And when he says today, he was writing in the 40s and 50s, okay?

So this has been going on for a long time.

It's as if people today think of God as some grandfatherly old man looking down from heaven and saying, it's good to see young people having a good time.

Right?

Some of you might be those grandfatherly figures that maybe have seen that and been like, yeah, it's good to see young people having a good time.

But C.S. Lewis even went so far as to say when love gets installed as God, it becomes demonic.

Because it totally transforms what love is.

And so again, as we dive into this series, I want us to understand that this is such an important topic, that God's love is such an important distinction for us today as believers.

And the reason is, is because we are called to proclaim the truth of God to the world.

That's it.

No other agendas, no other issues, no other problems.

We are here as the church to proclaim the truth of God and only God out into the world.

And the truth is that God doesn't want me just to be happy.

Right?

God doesn't want me just to settle for happy.

I want to settle for happy a lot of the time.

I just want to be happy.

But what God wants is He wants me to be holy.

And that's something that I cannot do on my own.

That is something I cannot do following my own ideas of love.

And even though it might be a lifetime process, what God's Word tells me is that if I trust God and let His love do its work in my life, at some point I'm going to stand before Him and He is going to wipe away every tear and there will be no more death or crying or pain.

And I'll tell you what, Church, at that point I will be the happiest that I have ever been.

And so that's the God that we are invited to love, right?

That's the God.

This is the God that I am invited to love.

They're gonna start showing some pictures behind me, and I want us to understand that this God that is magnificent, this God who is just full of splendor, and it is around us all the time from sunrises to sunsets to beaches to newborn babies.

I mean, we have a few newborn babies in this church, and it is just so incredibly awesome.

But these are the things that stir our hearts.

And why is that?

It's because our Creator did them.

We look at that beauty and we go, yeah, that's what it's supposed to be like.

But what we know about human nature is that even though this love that is poured out on us is undeserved, and it's amazing, and it's miraculous, we walk away.

Right?

From the beginning, with Adam and Eve, we walked away.

And we thought we could do better.

Right?

We thought we could make better decisions.

We thought that we should be the ones calling the shots.

And we still walk away.

We still have wars.

We still have arguments.

There are still people being sold into slavery.

There is still illness.

There is still death.

There is still hatred.

And people will see these pictures and they'll say things like, how can a loving God allow these things?

And some of you in this room today have had things happen to you and you've wondered that exact same thing.

And I'm sure if you shared your story you would say that very thing.

How could a loving God allow this to happen?

And today I'm here to remind you He never intended it to.

He never intended it to.

You see, God's plan was to live in paradise and in close relationship with all of us.

To walk with us in the cool of the evening.

To be by our side day in and day out with nothing to separate us.

And sin came into that.

And it ruined it.

It ruined what God wanted to do and it continues to ruin what God wants to do.

And not just the lives of people, but creation itself.

In Romans we're told that one day creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

It's crazy to think about, right?

There's so much in me that so often I think it's, God, you're not big enough, God.

Have you seen what's going on out there?

Have you seen what's happening in my family?

Have you seen what's happening in churches?

Have you seen what's happening in other countries?

And I'm just supposed to believe, God, that your love is going to change this?

And there's something in my flesh that thinks it's impossible for God's love to change all of that.

And yet what I have to trust and what I have to believe, because Scripture tells me so and I've seen it so many times in my life and in the lives of others, is that not only does that love do it, but it's still doing it today.

I want us to listen to these words.

Everyone's pretty familiar with this passage.

Love is patient.

Love is kind.

Does not envy.

It does not boast.

It is not proud.

It does not dishonor others.

It is not self-seeking.

It is not easily angered.

Keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects.

Always trusts.

Always hopes.

Always perseveres.

Love never fails.

See, now when we hear those words, and I heard it up here from the stage as soon as I started reading, there were a few people like, hmm, right?

We hear it and we feel it, right?

It's like sunshine on a cold day.

It just warms our soul, because we hear these words and there's something in my heart that goes, yes, that's the way it's supposed to be.

That's the way that love is supposed to work.

It gives us a hope that there could be something this good and wholesome and pure in this world.

Because, if we're being honest, many of us have never been loved like this.

I don't care how great your marriage is.

If you go through that whole list, not many of us have ever been loved like this.

And many of us here have been hurt by love.

And if I'm being really honest, I've never loved like this.

Patient, kind, always protects, always trusts.

And so why is this here?

Why is this passage even in Scripture?

Is it there just a dangle in front of me?

Just out of reach so I feel like a failure?

See, I don't think that's what God does.

I believe that what these words are, it's an invitation to become something and someone that brings healing and holiness into the world instead of brokenness and hate.

Right?

I believe it's a measuring stick for all of us believers who accept the invitation of Jesus to not settle for anything less.

Right?

That's what this is about.

It's about love that is what it's supposed to be.

Do not settle for anything less.

So that we don't settle for anything less and we realize that if we aren't there yet, if I don't love like that yet, then God's not done with me yet.

Right?

I might be on my way.

My wife wishes it was a little faster.

My kids wish it was a little faster.

You all wish it was a little faster, but I'm on my way.

We are all on our way.

And so as we continue in this series, what we have to understand is that love is only from God.

All that we can become as a people, as a church, as husbands, as wives, as sons, and daughters, as men and women, can only be fully realized if we know that it's God doing all the work.

Jesus tells his disciples, I chose you.

You didn't choose me.

And Paul writes in Philippians 1.6, he says, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

And so today I invite you, as Jesus does, to join me on this journey, to trust God at his word, and to see what love can really do.

This is what we are here for as a church, right?

Not to do it on our own, but to basically sit here and say, okay God, I trust you, and I'm willing to let you do your work in me, in all of us, so that we can begin to transform this world into your vision and your dream.

And so where we're gonna start today is love is an invitation, just an invitation.

In Mark 1 7 it says, come follow me, Jesus says, and I will send you out to fish for people.

In John 1 43 it says, the next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee and finding Philip he said to him, follow me.

In Matthew 9 9 it says, as Jesus went on from there he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collectors booth.

Follow me, he told him and Matthew got up and followed him.

Follow me.

It's simple, right?

But it's not a very detailed plan.

There were no follow-up questions, right?

Follow you where?

For how long?

What will we be doing?

What will we eat?

What are the salary and benefit options?

And I often wonder what it was like, right, to actually see and hear Jesus come to you and say, follow me.

I mean, there must have been something so captivating about him.

So captivating, right?

Like when we were reading 1st Corinthians 13 and all of our souls were like, yeah, that's right.

Jesus had that, but I bet like a hundred times more.

Where he just said, follow me, and they're just like, yeah, that makes total sense.

And they followed him.

And of course you would leave everything.

Of course you would walk away from family businesses, from tax collector booths, from your old life to follow this amazing rabbi.

And what I know about Jesus is that this is how it works today.

This is the simplicity of it.

It's that invitation.

All of us here have maybe heard it.

Some of us maybe have been, you know, keeping it at arm's length, but he always invites.

It's a simple invitation.

There's no great detail about what's next.

It's just something in your heart that when you hear it, you need to respond to it.

That's what it is.

My sixth grade Sunday school teacher said one Sunday that God was a heavenly father that would never leave me.

At that time I'd been going to church for three years and I loved going and I loved the people, but my heart had never been moved like that.

But as a child of divorce who never saw his father, those words triggered something in my soul.

And from that day forward, I followed.

And here's the crazy thing, as you begin to follow, right, all of those questions that you have have a tendency to just kind of melt away, right?

All of those questions of, what is this?

How do I do it?

What do I do?

What does this look like?

Am I praying right?

Am I, you know, am I dressed right for church?

Do I sing in the right key?

All of those weird questions we have about our faith, they just kind of melt away, right?

And sometimes it's because where Jesus leads you into situations where, you know, you're clinging to him because you don't want to be alone.

And if you know something goes down that you have, you're standing behind Jesus, right?

I was like this in high school when I played football.

I know, you could tell I played football, right?

That was your first choice.

Hey, must be a football player.

Yeah, right.

We were a bad team, right?

We were a really bad team.

But I was friends with all the linemen.

And so, like, it was it was really awesome because that way if anything went down, I looked really tough because I was there, but I would hide behind them, right?

Yeah, your mom!

I don't know why I'm ducking.

I've never had to duck behind anybody in my life.

But that's what it's like, right?

Those questions kind of melt away and I'm just like, oh my gosh, I just got to stay close to Jesus.

I just got to be with Him.

And then other times, it's like Jesus is like that crazy friend you have that you always wanted to be with because whenever you were, there was a great story that followed, right?

Some of you are nudging people like, yeah, you're that person!

That's why I hang out with you, right?

And that's who Jesus is, right?

And as you go through storm after storm, test after test, learning more about who Jesus is, your faith and your trust in Him and what He can do through you grows and grows.

And that's a word the Bible calls discipleship.

That's why we believe at this church that just praying the prayer isn't the end of your spiritual journey, it's the beginning.

That's why we have things like equip classes, where you can go and you can learn.

We have new believers classes that we put on, other classes where you can learn and grow in your faith and understanding of who Jesus is.

That's why we have life groups and we encourage people to join them.

Some of you, when you're walking in, you saw the tables out there and you wonder, what is that?

See, I got you.

That's the Marketing 101.

Get people asking questions.

As you go out today, a bunch of our life groups that are open and available for people to join are going to be out there.

I encourage you, stop by, talk to them, sign up for a group if it fits into your schedule.

Be a part of a group because the reality is, the invitation was never meant to be a solo journey.

And the reason is, is sometimes we get scared.

Right?

I start on this journey and and all of a sudden I get scared that I've done too much to be loved by God.

Right?

I get scared that if people knew the questions I have, they would think that I'm a bad Christian.

And yet I'm reminded in 1st John 4 18, it says, there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.

Because fear has to do with punishment.

The one who fears has not made perfect in love.

See, Jesus wants to perfect that love that he has placed in each of us.

Remember what Philippians said, the work he started, he is going to complete it.

Just keep following.

And I know that can be hard, but that brings us to our next point.

Love is something that sometimes takes us out of our comfort zones.

One of my favorite stories in Scripture is Jesus walking on water, and it's found in Matthew 14 verses 25 through 36.

And now this was immediately after the feeding of the 5,000.

And so everyone's excited, everything's going great, and Jesus says to his disciples, hey, head on out on the boat across the lake, and I'm gonna stay here and pray.

And they're so jazzed, they don't even think about how is he going to get there.

And so they just take off across the lake, and a storm comes up.

And what we read here in verse 25, it says, shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake.

And when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified.

It's a ghost, they said, and they cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them, take courage, it is I. Do not be afraid.

Lord, if it is you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water.

Come, he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus.

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, cried out, Lord, save me.

And immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.

You of little faith, he said.

Why did you doubt?

And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.

And then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, truly you are the Son of God.

When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret.

And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country.

People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

Now there's so many layers to this story, it's absolutely amazing.

And first off, this is one of those stories that tell you that the Bible is true, right?

Because no self-respecting man would want it written down for history that he was terrified and crying out because they thought he saw a ghost, right?

Just what, you know, it was only John and Peter crying, like, let's change, like, not all of us were crying.

But secondly, I want to look at Peter, because if I was him, right, if I was Peter, I could think of a thousand other ways Jesus could prove it was him that let me stay in the boat, right?

Jesus, what'd you say to me the first time we met?

You know, right, like, there's a lot of ways I stay in the boat and I don't get out on that water.

And so why did Peter want to step out on the water?

And the reality was it's because that's where Jesus was.

That's where Jesus was.

Remember what I said, that as we follow, really follow Jesus, all the concerns and questions we had melt away and we just want to be where Jesus is because we know in all the world, in all the universe, that is the safest place to be.

That's the safest place to be.

Peter had just seen this man feed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish.

He had seen the sick healed, the blind could see, lepers were cleansed.

If anything amazing was going to happen, it wasn't going to happen in the boat.

It was gonna happen with Jesus.

And yes, Peter failed.

He messed up.

He doubted himself that he could even be where Jesus was and do what Jesus did.

And yes, he cried out in fear again, right?

Lord, save me.

But that next word, immediately, immediately, Jesus caught him.

There's no immediately unless Peter is on the water.

There's no immediately unless Peter is on the water.

And maybe the disciples made fun of him.

The old big man trying to be like Jesus, Peter.

Epic fail, Peter.

But you know what?

Peter was the only person other than Jesus who knew what it was like to walk on water.

Peter was the only one with the story, and it was because he was right where Jesus wanted him to be, by his side.

See, church, this is the purpose of the cross.

Sin has separated us from experiencing God's love in the way He intended, right?

And now a way has been made to restore that relationship so that we can be with Him wherever He goes, and He can be with us.

He wants to bring us to a place where He is once again our everything.

That the moment something happens, immediately, He can be there.

He wants to be our provider, our sustainer, our refuge, our strength, our ever-present help in trouble.

He wants to bring us into an inseparable relationship with Him.

In Romans 8, it says, For I'm convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from what?

The love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And so church, as we end today, here's what I ask you.

Where do you need to step out and step into God's love?

Maybe some of you do need to take that step into baptism.

Maybe today that first step is you just need to answer the invitation, follow me.

Maybe some of you need to join a life group, maybe some of you need to, we're doing some missions trips in June, maybe some people really need to get out of your comfort zone, go on a missions trip.

Maybe some of you in here need to get your marriages right.

And I'm here to tell you, I'm excited to tell you that in a couple weeks we're gonna be launching online a new marriage ministry and it's for couples who are looking to get married and couples who are married and it's an assessment that we have that will kind of show you your thoughts about marriage, your spouses, and where you might be missing it.

And we're gonna be able to sit with people and walk them through this assessment and show them that hey maybe you need to work on some things but we're here to work on them with you.

Okay?

And we've got people who have been trained to do these assessments and everything and we're excited to launch this because what we know is that if the family is strong the church is going to be strong.

And church we want to make sure that you are the strongest you can be because God's love hasn't completely transformed the world yet.

Right?

It's still a dangerous place out there and we need to be ready.

And that's all we want for everybody in here.

We want you to be ready to be used by God to experience that love and to live out that changed life out there.

Let me pray for you.

God we love you and thank you.

Father we appreciate the opportunity we have and it's a simple invitation God.

You come to each of us and you come to our hearts and you just say follow me.

And that's all it takes is just a willingness to go okay.

And that's where the journey begins.

And so father I want to pray right now for anybody in this room today Lord who needs to begin that journey with you.

Lord may their hearts prayer be this.

God I've heard your call and today I want to accept that invitation to follow you.

I pray that you would forgive me of my sins and cleanse me with the blood of your son Jesus.

Help me to begin a new life in you and Lord be with me as I walk every day from this point forward.

And Lord for the rest of us may you help us as a church just continue to follow you.

And father sometimes that might be in the boat sometimes that might be out of the boat we just want to be where you are.

And so father I pray that you would create a passion in our hearts to only desire to be closer to you yet tomorrow than we were the day before.

Lord I pray that you would help us to be the people you've called us to.

We love you Lord and it's in your name we pray and all God's people said:

Amen.