September 12, 2021 Sunday 11:00 Live Service

[Music] [Music] and love is not a feeling to god love is a noun he is love but to you and i love is a verb it's on me it doesn't matter well i fell in love and i can fall out of love nonsense you are a sinner and you married a sinner and there'll be sin in the relationship and we can't escape it we can be forgiven from it we fell in love in a fallen world that had all has already fallen so we're talking about this fabulous relationship and we take a vow to love [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hmm [Music] [Music] and love is not a feeling to god love is a noun he is love but to you and i love is a verb it's on me it doesn't matter well i fell in love and i can fall out of love nonsense you are a sinner and you married a sinner and there'll be sin in the relationship and we can't escape it we can be forgiven from it we fell in love in a fallen world that had all has already fallen so we're talking about this fabulous relationship and we take a vow to love [Music] [Music] another one okay [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] b [Music] [Music] good morning from the second baptist we're really glad to see this morning why don't you stand as a worship this morning let's see who [Music] he opened the prison doors he parted the raging sea my god he holds a victory [Music] [Music] and we won't be quiet [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] there's joy in the in the house of the lord today and we won't be [Music] quietly in this [Music] now we're royalty we were the prisoners now we're running free we are forgiven accepted redeemed by his grace let the house [Music] now we're running free accepted [Music] and we won't be quiet [Music] and we won't be quiet [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] and we your praise [Music] [Music] good morning 11 11 please be seated we believe that that there is joy in the house of the lord today speaking of joy we've got some very special guests in the room i would like to introduce them to you this morning we have miles john schoner he's the son of madeleine and mitchell's showner this morning yeah you can clap for them go right ahead yes this morning dr young is presenting them with a copy of the new testament it's a symbol that this family is making a commitment if you will to raise this beautiful little boy in the truth of god's word and we have a chance a privilege to walk beside them to pray for them and so congratulations to them if you're a guest thank you so much for coming we're glad that you're here we believe that everyone who walks into this room through these doors is here for a reason and for a purpose and we believe that god has something special to say and communicate to each and every one of us and we're excited to be in worship today let's continue to worship together [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] would you stand with us as we continue to worship this morning [Music] there were walls between us by the cross you came and broke them down you broke them down [Music] there were chains around us [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] feel the darkness shaking all the dead are coming back [Music] you call me out of the grave you call me [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] us we shouted [Music] [Music] your love is stronger your love awakens awakens is [Music] [Music] is [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] there is a key [Music] where there is praise he will inhabit there will be grace and mercy all around every burden and every bird will be lifted in his presence every trophy will be laid down at his feet there is a name that reigns above all others jesus christ the king above all kings honor and glory worthy is [Music] buried in shame [Music] but risen in power he is [Music] [Music] and our savior holds the [Music] jesus christ the key [Music] [Music] oh [Music] when we will behold him and every tear can wipe away we'll be at home and the war will be over soon we will meet our savior face to face [Music] [Music] there is a jesus our christ will be [Music] [Music] jesus christ [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] when we give each week in this service we place our our money in the offering plan i want to remind you that you are literally physically placing resources in the hands of not just this church but the capital c church all across the world to be truly the hands and feet of jesus christ we are continuing through your giving to be able to be a beacon of light and hope in a dark and troubled world this weekend our country mourns it pays tribute it honors those that lost their lives and loved ones that were left behind on september the 11th 2001. we're also reminded of the opportunity we have to continue to lift up and pray for those in our military our first responders and those who hold public office and today we have one of our very own he's going to come and lead us in that prayer i want to introduce him to you gabriel q or he's a former staff sergeant united states marine corps and he active houston police officer we are thankful for his service in the service of men and women all across our country as they continue to hold up the banner of freedom to protect us and to serve us and with heavy hearts we all come together corporately today to pray for our country gabe pray for us thank you may we about his most gracious father you said that blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of god your word teaches in psalm 12 that you will keep your people even amidst a wicked and perverse world and so on today we ask that all of those who you have called to stand in the gap on behalf of others for righteousness sake the men and women of our armed forces police fire and emt and everyone who upholds the blood-stained banner of christ across this globe oh god help us in the unmatched name of your darling son jesus the christ we pray amen [Applause] [Music] so [Music] before i spoke a word you were singing over me you have been so so to me before i took a breath you breathed your life in me you have been so so kind to me oh the overwhelming never-ending reckless love of [Music] reckless [Music] when i was your fault still your love for me [Music] you have been so so good to me [Music] when i felt nowhere you paid [Music] recklessly [Music] i don't deserve it still you give yourself away all the overwhelming never-ending restless love [Music] there's no shadow you won't light up mountain you won't climb up coming after me there's no wall you won't kick down lie you won't tear down coming after me there's no shadow you won't light up [Music] there's [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] ending [Music] [Applause] my parents um joined the church i want to say in like 90 maybe 92 91 when we when we moved here really fell in love with the church and um as did my dad and my mom pretty instantly got connected into teaching and they really just lived out what they believed you were here every sunday and i started school here was here all the way through my senior year and i have the best memories here i fell in love with children's ministry at a young age i got baptized when i was eight i remember putting my handprint on the wall and it was red and i really found of course at a young age didn't know to call it community but i found community early on it just felt like family and has always felt like family and so now for to be able to bring my children you know here is so full circle and my husband grew up going to church here it's pretty wild just to to think about the impact that is con it's continuing to have on our family well i'm invested personally in it with you know and having a daughter um here and you know wanting what's what's best for her and watching her grow recognizing and looking back on the way that the lord's paved the way for all the generations and his faithfulness and his goodness we can look forward with anticipation that you know he's going to do big things and we get to be a part of that to have gracie now come through church and um hopefully in in the nearest future you know come to know jesus personally as her lord and savior and to see her baptize here to see her get to put her little hand in paint and put it up on the wall to see that here at 2nd baptist at a place where it has quite literally left a mark on every season of my life would be just indescribable i'm excited to to see what the lord has [Music] is that great it's awesome all right pretty soon we're all gonna have the opportunity next few weeks to make our mark hey so glad that you are here today as you know we are in a series we just started this series on relationships relationships whether you are single or married or somewhere in between or dating or wanting to date it doesn't matter we're talking about how we can improve the quality of our relationships now relationships use to be easy do you remember that do you remember when relationships used to be easy do you i do in second grade that's when they were easy before technology and match and all those things we have here today and texting and who knows what not we had some really good technology we had a way of relating with one another that i think is unprecedented so in second grade you would see someone across the room that you might like and so the way you got their attention the way you entered into a relationship with them was by this incredible piece of technology known as paper right you would reach in under your desk try not to get your hand caught in the gum that someone had placed in there earlier and you'd pull out a white piece of paper then you take another piece of technology that somehow has survived the test of time you would take out a crayon crayon can you imagine if we had invested in crayons years ago we would all be multi-millionaires but i didn't so i preach so you you get a crayon a crayon see the person you like you get your crayons out you look at the cold colors there are many more colors but of course you're wise this is all about love you choose red and this is the way young people hope you're taking notes this is the way your teachers and coaches and moms and dad this is how they did it back in the day they would write a note that would say something like this very the note's very complex it's very difficult to understand i'm going to explain it to you in just a second i didn't know it'd take this long to write it's kind of pressure writing here we go almost there everybody calm down all right stay this is the reveal here's the note i love you do you love me circle yes or no now this note though it looks really simple it's pretty as we say in texas pretty dang deep and profound when you think about it and part genius it's part genius i didn't invent this note i wish i did kind of like invested in crayons i didn't invent it but i used it and so think about this i love you that is a statement that's a declaration of intent and desire right you see him i love you so statement then the next one it's a question do you love me and and you want that love that you have to be reciprocated by the person you're sending this note to okay and it's pretty bold isn't it you kind of think about the risk right do you love me and then if you're in sales you know the abcs of sales always be closing and you give them the option circle yes or no and then later on when you kind of got rejected a lot of times you put maybe can we just be friends that we gave this but yes or no was the original option okay and you didn't know so you would take that note remember fold it up put their name on it and then you'd go up to that person directly and said here you go no it didn't happen like that did it you never went up to someone of the opposite sex directly back then no no no you went through another person so you went through their manager who was their best friend they would slip them the note and then he had to sit through all those crazy classes in elementary school waiting for the answer at recess and recess was either going to bring you a time of rejoicing and great love or it's going to be a time of rejection and melancholy around the monkey bars i love you do you love me circle yes or no it was so easy back then but as we get older we go we get into high school we change from you know a note to poster will you go to prom with me so we advanced a lot since then but relationships can often be dicey whether you're talking about romantic relationships marriage family friends it can be dicey and and relationships are a great place for joy and love but they're also a great place for pain and disappointment and if you've lived long enough like i have and some of you have in this room you've experienced the great highs and the great lows but no matter where you are today whether you're high or low when it comes to love and relationships we still all have this yearning this desire this started at a very young age didn't it to be loved and to love to be love and to love now fortunately for us the bible has a lot to say to us about relationships romantic relationships marriage divorce you name it the bible says it tells us a lot about relationships it's silent about some issues it's not about these issues which i'm glad because hey i'm a guy i need help so let's turn to first john chapter four we were there last week and let's look at where our yearning this desire for love i love you do you love how this can be mets and satiated look at this first time 4-7 john writes i love this dear friends 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 eureka god calls you and me to love one another to love one another but this passage goes a little bit further doesn't it it says if you say that you love god and know god but you don't love other people then you really don't know god you're really not born of god so love how we love each other is a litmus test if you would it's proof as to whether or not we really have a relationship with god and we're going to talk about how that works itself out in the next several weeks and we have the honor and privilege of having gary thomas with us he's on our staff and he has been giving conferences on marriage and relationships for decades so he's going to be obviously a part of our series but right now let's look and see what this passage talks to us and reveals to us about this love first of all i think it's interesting that when you look at love from our perspective for us love is a verb can we do a little bit english here today love is a verb love is an action love is something that you do oh love is love no love is not love love is an action when someone says i love you basically what they should mean is i am committed to you and i'm going to show the actions to prove that love is not simply an emotion love is not simply an attraction love is something that we do love is an action verb for god love is a noun love is a noun god is love god defines what love is and what love is not god sets the boundaries for love and god's essence is love not the kind of love we've heard about growing up the love that we've watched in the movies the love that we've seen in our favorite netflix series we've been binging not the love that we hear about and all the pop music and rock music not that kind of love but god leads us and talks to us and shows us a type of love that's on a whole nother level c.s lewis talks about the different types of love there's eros that's romantic love there's phileo that's friendship love there's store hey that's another kind of love and then there's agape in the greek god's kind of love god defines what love is god is the source of love if someone says they love you they need to show that and demonstrate that by the way they live love is an action word for us love is a noun for god god is love he's the source of love at the essence at the heart of the universe and the world is the agape love of god at the same time i'm very thankful that love is also an action word for god it's a noun and a verb for god so we all believe that god exists god's existence is almost unarguable we can look around us and look inside of us and know that there is a god but is this god active does this god take action if there is a god is he a personal god or is he some type of force no he's a personal god and he's a god who takes action he is love in action look at first john again chapter four look at verse 9 it says this is how god showed his love among us this is how he showed us the love show us the love he sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him listen you're not designed to live your life solo god's not calling you to enter into your relational world with your family and your marriage with your friendships and your dating world to try to love someone and your own strength no he wants to love through you verse 10 this is love not that we love god but that he first loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins i love this again dear friends dear friends since god so loved us we ought to love one another no one's ever seen god except a couple of tele-evangelists but no one has ever seen god but if we love one another god lives in us and his love is made complete in us the overwhelming never-ending reckless eternal infinite ineffable love of god what's god's love like we're trying to describe his love as we work through these passages in this series we're trying to apply this love we're trying to understand and grasp the stuff what's god's love like first of all god's love we see here is a tenacious love it's a tenacious love it's a love that seeks us out god loved us so much that he made this world he made this creation he fine-tuned the universe he fine-tuned this planet that we could exist as human beings and as human beings we were designed and created and longing for this love and god pursues us with this love even when adam and eve were screwed up and made a big time wrong decision took that path caved into the temptation god still pursued adam and eve through their disobedience and wanted to bring them back into a love relationship and then god sends his prophets in the old testament then god chooses and shows his love to israel and then god finally in the fullness of time comes down to earth and the person of jesus christ his only son pursuing us with a tenacious love even when we didn't know god from godzilla he was pursuing you with his love even before you made one little step in the church or one little step towards god or you were about to hit your knees god's love was already there he had already finished it and he pursues us even in dark times even in difficult times with his tenacious transcendent love god's love is also tender god loves us so much that he sent his son his son laid down his life as a sacrifice and died for you and died for me that's a tender personal love i wouldn't do that i would not send my children to die for you to die for anyone maybe our country if they chose to volunteer to go into the to the military or to the police academy or something but i wouldn't as a father god the father sends his son shows us his tender love his sacrificial love for us also god's love as we talked about last week is transformative once we begin to realize that there is a god not only there is a god but this god loves me personally warts in all just as i am with my shame my guilt and all of my mess of my life and all of my sin once i realize that his love cannot be earned it cannot be lost god loves me as is that begins to change my life it changes how i view god it changes how i view others it changes everything love is utterly transformative changes the way we live and how we live and what we want to do what we don't want to do it's amazing and this transformative love is constant he pours his love through us it says he wants to live in us and through us in verses 9-10 to live his life through us to empower us to love others and then we look at the cross the cross is it's not it's not decoration it's not something that you wear the cross is the ultimate symbol of the love of god the tenacious tender transformative love of god we see that at the cross as christ dies a death that no one else could die he lived a life that no one else could live he rose again to prove that he was who he said he was and that we might be connected with this infinite eternal transformative love of god one of the reasons that we don't have peace many times in our life is because we're not looking at christ we're looking at our sin and looking at our failures and looking inside of us instead of looking outside to what god has done for us in christ and he invites us into this love he invites us into this love it's the love of god it's the kindness of god that leads to repentance it's the love of god the tenacious love of god that pursues us that gives us hope for tomorrow and strength for today the love of god how do we connect with the love of god because i want to know that i'm loved by god i desire to know that god loves me not intellectually or theologically the theology is important i want to also know his love primarily experientially and in my heart well one of the ways to begin to start understanding god's love and to continue to understand god's love is by saying this i'll just say it for me hi my name is ben and i am a desperate sinner that's where it starts hi my name is ben and i have not loved god with all my heart mind body and soul i have not loved my neighbor as myself i ascend in many many ways all this before noon on sunday have a nice day i'm a sinner i sin i break god's laws i've broken god's covenant i have real shame real guilt i am broken and i need forgiveness and i need god's personal love and i'll always need his love but god loves me just as i am god loves me right now god knows who i am god knows the sins i committed at 10 o'clock today god knows the sins i'll commit years from now and by the way god's love and power is going to give me the grace to break free from that and break the chains at the same time god loves us holistically and he wants to start living a life based upon his love and it starts by acknowledging the fact that we are sinners we are needy we are broken in front of him dietrich bonhoeffer who is a 20th century theologian and martyr for the faith he said this he said the grace it is the grace of the gospel which is so hard for the pious to understand pious people people who are self-righteous people who think that they have it all together and they figured it out and will cancel you that it confronts us with the truth and says by the way i don't want to live in a world where there's not forgiveness do you do you want to live in a world where there's not forgiveness i don't want to live in that world i'll know the message i apologize back to bonhoeffer you are a sinner a great and desperate sinner now come as the sinner that you are to a god who loves you he wants you as you are he does not want anything from you a sacrifice a work he wants you alone that's awesome he wants us and loves us as we are and so my prayer for you today is the prayer for myself to allow god if you would to let love god love you right where you are just let god love you right where you are let him love you right where you are i want to be great you ever thought about this wouldn't it be great if god would kind of give you one of those love notes that i talked about in second grade if god could write a personal love note to you with your name on it to tell you personally that he loves you and he still has a plan and purpose for your life and want to be great if he sent someone to deliver that note to you that you might receive it and understand it oh wait a minute god has done that he's done that i've read that personal love note a lot of you have too for god so loved the world i love you that he gave his only son that whosoever do you love me would believe in him would have everlasting life circle yes or no god's already done it god's written a love note with your name on it house he showed us the love he spread his arms open wide i love you the cross his arms are wide open and you know what god wants you to take out the crayon in your heart if you would a circle yes yes yes corinthians says in second corinthians chapter one that all of god's promises are a yes to us and we that's why we respond with a yes listen a love note like this already implies a yes on the other side god has already said yes to you yes to your life yes to your forgiveness yes to your restoration yes that you can experience the love of god in christ god's already circled yes will you circle yes will you say yes i trust and his love yes i believe in his love yes i'm going to lean upon his love and allow his love to mold and to shape my life and all of my relationships he says circle yes circle yes some of you have never really circled yes you kind of know of god maybe you went to church you had some kind of religious background but you've never really circled yes others of you you have a lot of you here have circled death and say man i know what you're talking about i've experienced this this love of god personally that i cannot explain and that's wonderful but here's what i've discovered in my life is that it's not just a one-time circle yes or check the box no i've got to go back you know go back into god's word go back into prayer and to circle yes again to affirm and to say that i really trust that god still loves me god is still in my life and he's loving others through me even when i may not feel love i circle yes that god loves me and i go back again and i circle yes again and as i go through a trial and things are hurting and painful i circle yes again i believe god loves me i circle yes again i circle yes i circle yes i circle yes i circle yes until i almost have that kind of red waxy feeling over my little love note from god as i'm going back to the cross as i'm going back to his word as i'm going back to prayer and saying yes thank you god that you love me hi my name is ben i am a desperate sinner i don't want to be i want to be set free i want to know your love and i know you've circled yes for me god help me to live from that yes of your love [Applause] circle yes probably the greatest the most influential theologian of the 20th century had to be carl bart b-a-r-t b-a-r-t-h carl bart and carl bart influenced both the catholic side of the church and the protestant side of the church he wrote volumes and squillions of books and theological treaties and at the end of his life he actually preached in prisons in basil switzerland and he was a a prolific man a prolific writer and toward the end of his career he was touring the united states and he had this big press conference where all this media was out in front of him and he's behind the table and the microphones right there and one reporter asked him a question i said dr bart out of all the things you've learned and heard and read what is the greatest most profound theological truth you've ever discovered and without hesitation dr bart said jesus loves me this i know for the bible tells me so yes jesus loves me he loves you yes jesus loves me he loves you and we can live from this love he's already circled yes for you circle yes and we'll all rejoice at recess pray with me god your love is truly overwhelming truly amazing truly almost inexplicable and undefinable thank you god for speaking and showing and revealing your love to me and to us god in so many ways thank you for circling yes for us and god i pray for those here who have never circled yes to your love and your plan and your purpose for their life god may today be the day that they stand and walk down front and circle yes and say i want to really follow god i want to know him and i want to receive his transformative tenacious and tender love god may they stand today and say yes and circle yes got others here today so many here today they they know you they've they've circled yes they know your love and they're simply looking for a church home a place where they can belong and serve and you're leading them here to second you're leading here to this church family so god i pray that they would stand to come families and couples and young professionals and students would stand and come down front and say hey i want to be a part of a team i want to make a difference right here may they come and stand and say yes to membership and connecting here with this your church this is our prayer in jesus name right now our band is going to sing us a great song the reckless love of god how appropriate and if you're here and you say hey i've never really circled yes i've never really entered into a relationship with god he's leading you to do that today as we sing this song you stand to come make your way down these isles make your way down these paths pastors are standing standing down front to greet you maybe hearing you say hey i've said yes to god i know him i know his love i simply want a church where i can belong and serve god's leading you to second you stand to come make your way down these aisles pastors are down front to greet you we'll show you how you connect and be a part of this community as god leads i invite you to stand and come before i spoke a word you were singing over me you have been so so good to me [Music] before i took a breath you breathe your life in you have been so so kind to me oh the overwhelming [Music] reckless [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] i want to welcome you to come down front today if you guys can step out to your right just follow danny we have a time of one-on-one prayer with you and show you how you can sign up here at second all right terry has a few more pertinent announcements before us before we go thank you when you guys walked in i want to remind you you received that brochure about the the new building the make your mark campaign that the ben mentioned i want to make sure everyone knows in the coming weeks she'll hear more and more about that project we're truly excited about that this wednesday night something unique we don't do it very often this wednesday night september the 15th at 6 30 p.m in the fellowship hall right across the way here we are going to have a presentation on that project the building itself and a few of the things that we have going on here at second there will be a church vote on moving forward with those projects we invite all of you to come hear more about that and participate in that as members of this church visitors once again no matter where why you're here where you came from i believe that everyone who shows up here on a weekend is important we'd love to connect with you and help you get plugged into community here you have to take that first step if you take that first step i promise you we will walk beside you help you find ways to get connected grow in your faith and be a part of the second family all you have to do is simply meet us right over here at the red door we have people standing by they would love to connect with you and it's the red door uh doorbell it seems we've got a special delivery at the red door graham graham go ahead and bring the special delivery up here it looks like we've got amazon on the campus this morning take your time amazon guy there you go perfect yeah amazon's in the house let's see we've got a red door delivery for our guest is that what it is red door leave it for the for the guests graham won't you graham go ahead and just open it up i don't trust amazon always see what's in there a gift bag for the guests and what's what do we have in the gift bag there pull one of those out oh look at that look at that straight from amazon this morning if you're a guest we've got a gift for you it's the coffee mug from second baptist so guess once again meat is over here at the red door everyone's going to be there amazon our pastors our staff we'd love to meet you face to face and walk beside you as you find community here at sec and let's stand for our closing prayer happy father we are reminded with humble hearts of your love for us today the word that we've heard father we also joined fellow americans as they pray and lift up those who were affected 20 years ago we're thankful for a country that values freedom that stands up for justice and for liberty and so father once again we lift up the families the loved ones and those who who are on the front line still fighting for that freedom we're grateful we lay these requests at your feet help us to be salt and light in a dark dark world when we leave this place today we ask these things in christ's name amen [Music] you

Channel: Second Baptist Church, Houston

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Length: 71min 30sec (4290 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021