Summer at Cherry Hills: Love God, Love People

well good morning everybody good to see you all so can we uh i know we're doing a lot of clapping but man rick can we can we just thank the elders of this church they've been just doing such a terrific job thank you and also before i dive in i just got to give a shout out to ramona ramona's been my boss in this season and she's been such a gift can we just thank ramona for all she's doing for this church um so something i've said to my two boys ever since they were just little bitty guys i asked him a question hey boys what's the two most important things in the world they look at me and they say dad love god love people isn't that awesome that's a picture of my family if you not met hank and cash hank is seven uh cash is four cash is like our little destroyer in the house i think every family's got one of those and my wife uh julie there been married for 12 years um so as i prayed about what to share with you all today the lord has led me in a a pretty interesting direction maybe a little different direction than than he would in other seasons many of you know that i lost my mom to cancer just a few months ago back on april 29th you know my mom would ask me for years tyler when are you going to be up there preaching on sunday morning just like any proud mom right well here i am and and mom's not here uh so this is a little bittersweet for me today if i'm honest with you i'm telling you she'd be right here on this front row she would have flown out here both services and so as i began to write this message obviously still grieving this huge loss in my life i wrote from a different perspective than i probably would in other seasons i began to ask the question if i had just one more message to give myself what would i say if i if i could just tell the church one thing today what what would you have me say lord i feel like god has given me some pretty solid guidance for us today you know in light of 9 11 and 20 years you know you think about all those people who woke up one day they never expected for some tragedy like that to happen my mom didn't expect to get cancer right in the middle of coving you know the average person only lives 27 775 days i didn't like count that i just researched that um that's all we get and and that's if we're lucky my mom wasn't that lucky my dad wasn't that lucky we got one life guys we got one life one shot and as the bible promises we really just have today we're not even promised a tomorrow and so a question i want you to wrestle with today is an important question is if you only got one life how are you going to live it how are you going to live this one and only life that you have been given and i know that that's a pretty heavy intro so how about we start with a little bit of fun okay before we dive right on in uh who would you say is the greatest athlete of all time who's the goat who who would you say would you say jordan jordan i'm going with jordan you're probably not going with lebron are you oh space jam one or space gm2 i'm going with space gm one all day who would you say is the greatest denver broncos quarterback of all time who are we going with elway yeah that's what happened at the last service elway hands down you know they're all kinds of greatest aren't their greatest choice of trucks you know for those of you that are truck people i see a few out there i'm a ford guy now i used to be a dodge guy but what's the greatest what's the greatest truck you know what what's the greatest movie greatest type of movie you know my one confession today can i confess something i'm not perfect um i'm a huge fan of romantic comedies any rom-com fans out there all the women are like amen amen i love a good rom-com um you know what about music you know where i come from there's only two kinds of music there's country and western right and here's one that we can all agree on what's the greatest place to live colorado yeah hands down we can all come to agreement on that you know god spoke of this idea of the greatest a few times in his word that's what i want to speak about today what did god say was the greatest what is most important to him most near and dear to the heart of god you know i think in these times of uncertainty these days where there's just so much unknown what's the greatest in my opinion has the amazing view to become even more crystal clear for us you know the word tells us that with lack of vision the people perish and as the people of god today we need vision more than ever and so let's start off in the old testament if you have your bibles you can follow along with me i'll have the verse up here on the screen there's also a note section in the app if you want to follow along there let's look at deuteronomy chapter six four and five we see the greatest commandment don't we hear o israel the lord our god the lord is one love the lord your god with you can follow along all your heart all your soul and with all your strength okay what does this mean you know this all starts with us knowing god and notice i say know him all right we can believe in god but not really know him we can believe in him and never spend any time with him believe in him and never experience him knowing him causes us to act towards him in all the right ways doesn't it look at first john 4 19 we love him because he first loved us you see we love him because he first loved us and so when we've experienced that love we can't help but return it and knowing and experiencing and surrendering to this love changes everything it changes us from the inside out this is where deep transformation happens when you experience the perfect love of the father he's not going to leave you the same he's going to transform your life you know it's easy to think that god has all these expectations and demands of us right you know god he just wants my time he just wants my money my church attendance if all those things happen i'm good right that's not true this slowly if that's kind of how you live what that turns into is religion formalism institutionalism you're just kind of jumping through the hoops you know what god really wants he just wants one thing he wants our love he wants our love you see if if he's got our love he's got us if he's got our hearts heart mind soul strength everything he's got us that's what he wants and if this happens and i'm telling you truly happens in your life i'm convinced the rest will follow if it's not coming from love he doesn't want it anyways he doesn't need it what god wants most from you and most from me is our love leviticus 19 18 we see the second greatest commandment in scripture it says do not seek revenge or bear grudge against anyone among your people but love your neighbor as yourself he goes on to say i am the lord how easy is it for us especially today to seek revenge to bear grudge you know our flesh in us our flesh always wants to strike back pay back take vengeance into our own hands doesn't it we're just naturally wired up that way but the scripture tells us to do the exact opposite this all belongs to the lord it says we're commanded here to love our neighbor regardless jesus even takes it to another level in the gospels and he tells us to love our enemies i mean it's clear that god is serious about this love business isn't he you know what c.s lewis said about this he said everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive this is hard work you know most people think love is a soft thing love is hard work love is the bible defines love is is intensely hard work biblical love requires forgiveness it's not an option for us we're forgiving people that's what our whole faith is built upon but yet oftentimes we're the worst of forgiving matthew 22 36-40 what does it say teacher which is the greatest commandment in the law here we go again jesus replied love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind this is the first and greatest commandment the greatest thing that god ever told us to do the second he doesn't say here is the greatest but he said it's like it love your neighbor as yourself all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments so when you do some commentary study on this text one of the things you begin to discover is the question here was meant to trap jesus they're trying to trap him they're trying to corner him their hope was to get jesus to show neglect to the other areas of the law but what does he do he does what jesus does he summed it all up in just two things you heard him say i'm from oklahoma i'm a simple guy kind of like that he just summed it all up in two things do these two things if you do these two things the rest will follow love god love people so what is love i mean we throw that word around a lot don't we i mean i love me some chips in queso is that right amy i love me some some late-night nachos i say that word in that way right my wife was here earlier i looked over at her i i love my wife i tried my best as we're taught in scripture to love my wife as christ loved the church i love my wife you saw that photo of my boys i love my boys i do anything in the world for hank and cass they're my boys right that's a different way of using that word love isn't it you think about all the grandparents in the house if you're a grandparent you're experiencing maybe the best love right now aren't you yeah what do you get to do you get to love on your grandkids and then ship them back off to their parents you know it's been said you never know the love of a grandparent until you become one i can't really speak to that love yet because i'm not a grandparent but i can imagine it's got to be pretty darn special as i've lived some life i'm not quite 40 yet i'm getting close uh kind of to that half-life midlife crisis here um i've discovered that biblical love is really hard to kind of put in this like neat kind of tidy little box isn't it i continue to discover as i get older that love grows it changes it it evolves it gets deeper through the losses and through the gains love grows battles in life blessings in life love changes you know at the end of the day what we see in this text today is the greatest commandment in the law we're told to love god and to love people everything hangs on these two commandments you know this is simple in some ways that's why i like it it's kind of like a little motto in our home love god love people my young boys as i mentioned can even get it there's a simplicity a child like faith to behold but at the same time this is really difficult work if we're really going to live out what the bible defines as love this is going to take some work you know in so many ways we'll spend the rest of our lives growing in just this one thing and i'm telling you today i think it's worth it i think it's worth it and just to be clear up top culture the world out there social media doesn't define love for us as followers of jesus what defines love for us is god what defines love for us is his written word that he's handed down to us this defines love for us as believers we have to be very very careful today to not fall into the trap of trying to define love by how we feel by how we think we don't have that option god told us what love is have you ever thought about what's the goal of the christian faith like at the end of the day like even being here today like what's the purpose of this what's the point of all this what's the goal if there's a target what would it be what would jesus say is the primary aim as a follower i believe the bible's pretty clear on this one thing first corinthians 13 13 tells us this and now these three remain faith hope and love what does it say but the greatest of these the greatest there's that word greatest is love i mean this is powerful because faith is important right it's impossible to please god without faith hope where would we be as christians without hope but it goes on to say the greatest of these is love we've got to pay attention to that right over in the next chapter first corinthians 14 verse 1. what does it say this is the message translation i won't have this up here but it says go after love as if your life depends on it because it does let me say that again go after love a life of love as if your life depended on it because it does the new living translation says let love be your highest goal i love that let love be your highest goal you know the beginning of this chapter if you look at the beginning there chapter 13 verse 1 it says i speak in the tongues if i speak in the tongues of men or of angels but do not have love i'm only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol if i have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge and if i have faith that can move mountains but do not have love i am nothing if i give all i possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that i may boast but do not have love what does it say i gain nothing this chapter is one of the most quoted chapters at weddings isn't it i mean it's a beautiful chapter on love but when you study this chapter in context what it's actually talking about is spiritual gifts it's helping the corinthians to see that the primary focus should be on love they had gotten off a few degrees it's basically saying love god love people keep your focus on the main thing love you know the bible defines god as love like his character is defined as love like he's even love in his anger i don't fully understand that yet but but he's love that's that's who he is it's his character it's his leading attribute first john 4 8 tells us this whoever does not love does not know god because god is love that's his definition that's that's who he is that's his character what god wants most from us is our love church he wants a complete love a holistic love what does the text say heart soul mind strength that's everything i want you to take a moment right now and i want you to pause and i want you to try to go back to a season in your life where your love for god and your love for people was just off the charts go back to that place maybe it was college high school maybe it's just a decade you go back to them and you're just like i was loving god i was loving people my guess is and i could be wrong here is you probably had solid strong community around you in that season like if you really think about it you know you imagine like a campfire and you you have this like fire that's blazing and you take a piece of that uh firewood and you set it off to the side right what happens when you're isolated alone and that log is isolated alone it goes black but you put it on that fire and it's just lights back up i think it's such a beautiful picture of what happens in community we are created for community one of the first points i want to make about love is love doesn't go alone love doesn't go alone our love for god and others grows best in the context of authentic community and you know apart from true biblical community we miss out on a lot of things but we miss out on joy we miss out on love we miss out on the abundant life promised to us in john 10 10 when jesus said i came to give life and life to the full we're all designed at our core to have community we're at our best when we have it and oftentimes we're at our worst when we don't we are also designed at our core to have an intimate relationship with god i love what pete greg says about this he says the most important discovery you will ever make is the love the father has for you that's pretty powerful you are loved do you know that you know that like you really know that you are loved deeply loved the most important thing for us to grasp as a as a christ follower is just how loved we are a woman named penny in our church gave me this book a few months ago and in this book i came across this hebrew word hessen hesed this word means enduring covenant love kind of takes love to the next level lamentations 3 22 says the steadfast love of the lord never ceases the esv translation uses that steadfast love the niv translation says great love for this word great love for this hebrew word hessed within the christian faith what this book talks about is the glue if you don't have hesed you're not going to stick together this is like the super glue in the christian faith it holds us connected to the father as our love is steadfast and great for him it connects us to one another hessed is important in the family of god you know as i look back on my own spiritual journey what's crystal clear to me is that so much of my walk with god has been about character formation character formation so much i didn't mention this in the beginning but i've been a pastor for almost 20 years this is the first sunday sermon because of working in larger churches like this so much of the last 20 years has been god forming my character it's not that i haven't taught or preached or been a pastor in some ways people have asked me why is this your first time up here it's because god didn't want me up here yet i guess so much of life is about character formation growing in an abiding and intimate relationship with god recognizing how deeply loved i am and surrendering to that perfect love sounds easy but that's hard work hard hard work once you do that you recognize that you were a son deeply loved you're a daughter deeply loved you can't help but that love's just going to come out of you it just pours out of you you know i've had seasons of my life where this has been easier than others but in every season if i pay attention one thing has been constant and that's god always trying to grow my love for him and my love for others god loves people doesn't he god loves people i mean people matter to him we don't have to look any further than that cross right there that tells us everything we need to know we can look at that cross and just go on home because that tells us everything right as christians we preach christ crucified romans 6 23 for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of god is eternal life through christ jesus our lord we don't have to look any further than that cross we are loved people he loves us and so our good father he cares a lot about our character formation you know he cares more about who you're becoming than what you do it's so easy for us and and i'll just get honest with you um this is a struggle for me you know there's some sort of fleshly thing in me that like feels this need to try to earn or prove to get god or others to love me that's not how god works he loves you he cares more about who you're more about who you're becoming than what you do you know because he knows that out of that place you'll do even greater things for him it'll be more pure it'll be from your heart it's not you trying to muster it up it's out of god's love transforming your life it's more about abiding in him versus achieving in him john 15 points us to this remain in the vine you remain in connection with jesus you get filled up with jesus the fruit's just going to come the harvest is just going to come because the holy spirit's working in and through your life that's how that works you know jesus taught us i love paying attention to jesus in the gospels because he always had a different way didn't he he wasn't trying to go with this group or that group he just had a different way jesus taught us and showed us a different way to live there's always a different way the first followers of jesus were called the way you know why because jesus was the way the truth and the life and they just focus true north jesus we're following you we're going to do it how you did it everything he said and did flowed out of his intimacy with the father jesus spent a lot of time with the father he waited on the father and he said things like i only do what the father tells me to do i only say what the father tells me to say how many of us just live life where we do whatever we want to do we say whatever we want to say jesus didn't call us to live like that church love will be the bright light that shines on this hill for the world to see jesus said these words in john 13 35 by this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another if you love one another he could have placed a lot of other things right there he wants us to be known by love you know our vision here at the church is all about love love expressed up to god in worship giving him praise giving him glory he's worthy you know we we become like that that we worship that's why god is always trying to get us to get rid of our idols because he wants us to become like him we become like that we worship we worship god we express love to him we experience love down in discipleship it's a big part of our vision right here becoming christ-like in our discipleship looking more like him loving more like him we experience his love down in discipleship and we extend that love out in mission like we did at love extended just a few weeks ago right matthew 5 14 you are the light of the world a town on a hill cannot be hidden when we extend love like that you can't hide that we're all going to be known for something may it be love and i want to emphasize this here because this this is really important right now it's so incredibly important because we live in a day where everyone is more concerned with being right winning the argument than being loving let me say that again we live in a day where everyone is more concerned with being right winning the argument than being loving again jesus had a different way didn't he his kingdom is upside down things didn't always make sense in the natural but in the supernatural everything is made clear you know we train our smog posts at alpha to win people versus arguments you know you might win the argument you might be right but you lose the person and if you lose the person they stop showing up and if they stop showing up they miss out on hearing the gospel every single week you know it's not that truth doesn't matter truth matters we preach truth every week but it's more about how it's being done creating a safe space for people to ask big questions that just don't have easy answers i love what john stott has to say about this he says truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love and become soft if not strengthened by truth i think that's a really powerful quote what we see there is it's both what do we do oftentimes we want to swing this way or this way it's both again the kingdom of god is upside down we can't follow the cultural trends we can't even follow a lot of the popular church trends today we have to offer something that is counter-cultural as followers of jesus we're to be set apart i want to emphasize this with this point here in the gospels jesus was asked 183 questions you know how many he answered directly three he asked over 307 questions back there's a lot to learn right there guys we see jesus do three things multiple things three things i want to highlight love listens doesn't it jesus was a great listener you know listening is as close to loving that the average person can't even tell you the difference quick to listen slow to speak love also asks great questions you know what alpha when an atheist shows up oftentimes they come in with this really heavy hard question to answer but if i don't answer that first question or the second question or the third question you know what ends up happening i get to the real question and that's some pain or trauma or something that's happening in our life that's causing them to not believe in god there's power in a great question love asks great questions you know what love never gives up love never gives up especially on people you might ask why has god ever given up on you i know he's never given up on me god doesn't give up on people we shouldn't either and i have a good friend named jonathan jonathan uh has showed up to uh this church to go through alpha he's done alpha three times okay three times he's done alpha he's still agnostic but can i tell you something he's probably going to come back for a fourth time you know what jonathan shows up here to our church he feels loved people will listen to him people will ask great questions of him and we're certainly not going to give up on jonathan he's part of our family he he belongs with us before he believes that picture you just saw his three girls he he actually wants to baptize them he's not quite ready but god is at work listening asking questions not giving up on people is powerful a few years back another friend jason he was actually here at the first service sitting right over there it came to alpha and you know what he didn't say a single word for five weeks we just allowed him the space to be where he was at no pressure love was experience you know what happened we eventually discovered once jason started talking about five six weeks into the course he was the first police officer on the scene at the aurora movie theater shooting just right up the road from here as you can imagine a guy like that had major questions about how why a good loving all-powerful god would allow such a tragedy that's the real stuff right and you and can you imagine what would happen if we tried to give him an easy answer on week one to a question like that he wouldn't have shown back up no easy answers to a question like that but you know what jason felt loved jason felt listened to we didn't give up on jason jason ended up accepting christ into his life filled with the holy spirit and was baptized with his two boys can we give god some praise for that and i would also like to take a moment to thank jason and all the other first responders in our community what a year can we just say thank you to them i got nine minutes as harvey kerry would say i gotta get going here love listens love asks great questions love never gives up jesus jesus he's the primary personality of the church the chief cornerstone he's the head he's in charge he's the commander his love compels us love throughout the entire bible is the primary message jesus always acted in love you know even in his anger he didn't sin i love what pastor albert tate said kind of towards the beginning of the pandemic people have not been very loving towards one another over the past year have you noticed that you know what he said i love this quote jesus flipped tables he didn't flip people jesus flipped tables he didn't flip people this is such a warning for us during this time where there's so much division hostility hate happening all around us now is the perfect time as it gets darker and darker out there for our light to shine brighter amen so what do we do you might ask let's look back at first corinthians 13 4-8 one of the best definitions of love right here in the bible love is patient love is kind it 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 it keeps no record of wrongs love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth there we go again love and truth together it always protects always trust always hopes always perseveres love never fails what does love feel like what does love look like it might feel like tear drops falling in your hands let me tell you a quick testimony here a few months back i lead the prayer ministry here at the church and after we got done praying for people one sunday it was right before my mom passed i needed prayer and so i asked one of our elders gary and his his wife rita if they would pray for me and they said absolutely and so if you can picture me standing there as a pastor i'm broken as well i need prayer sometimes myself i'm not perfect i'm there receiving prayer my eyes are closed and all of a sudden i feel read as tear drops just landing in my hand that's what love feels like in the family of god it was incredible i'll never forget that moment you know what else love looks like it looks like luke chapter 15. we see a few parables about what true love looks like love looks like going after the one doesn't it it's going after the one people first god loves people so people first we're going after the one it looks like people mattering so much to us that we're willing to leave the 99 to go after the one look at verse 7 i tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent love looks like finding that one last coin doesn't it and when she finds it she calls her friends and neighbors together and says rejoice with me i have found my lost coin love looks like that father running towards his prodigal son that prodigal son who just messed it all up he screwed up royally but what do we see the son said to him father i have sinned against heaven and against you i'm no longer worthy to be called your son but the father said to his servants quick bring the best robe and put it on him put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet bring the fat and calf and kill it let's have a feast and celebrate for this son of mine was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found so they began to celebrate jesus is always going after the one i think about our daughter her name enrique the root meaning of that name is cherished one he's going after the one he invites us doesn't need to join it join him in that mission who's that one person who's that one person you love who's your one could you invite them to alpha here in a few weeks next week september 22nd to a safe place to be able to wrestle with these big questions of the faith church family loving god and loving people is the greatest thing we can ever do i got four minutes and 51 seconds that's what harvey would do right there so this all might sound basic to you but i believe there are times in their seasons where we have to get back to the basics you know my football coaches growing up they say this phrase boys if we're going to win games we got to get back to the basics blocks and tackles blocks and tackles blocks and tackles i'm here to tell you today church love god love people love god love people love god love people the world will know where christ disciples by what i love last point i want to make love for god and others can still grow in painful circumstances so many of us we hit these hard times in life and all of a sudden we begin to question god's love is he for me we're not as loving towards others let me unpack a few thoughts here about 10 years ago my dad 50 years old was killed in a tragic accident for three years after that accident i had a dark night of the soul as you could imagine i asked the questions i was struggling the accident was so horrible i didn't get to say goodbye to him all i saw as i said goodbye to him was a was a cloth over over his face it's traumatizing i had so many questions and i didn't get answers to every question i had but i will tell you this i'm 10 years almost from that accident and looking back i can see god's love i can see his love he was near to me he was working and he never left my side he was faithful even when i wasn't he was good even when i wasn't his character didn't change and you know what this is what i find interesting through the pain of that season my love for god and my love for others grew i'm not the same man today that i was 10 years ago what if god is a god who takes the worst of the worst in our lives and turns it into the best of the best i believe that's who he is he can turn any season any situation around for good and this isn't just what i think let's look at romans 8 28 it says and we know that in all things god works for the good of those who love him who've been called according to his purpose and let me tell you that ache that i feel it's there every single day but god takes that ache and he uses it for good and those of you that have walked through hardship like that you know you're not in your head's out there you know that god works through the worst of the worst as i mentioned at the top of the message my mom 59 years old passed away recently due to a battle with cancer she battled leukemia for almost a year but unlike my dad's tragedy i was able to say goodbye to her i traveled down to oklahoma she was in the hospital i got to spend two days just her and i talking about everything we left nothing undone nothing unsaid i apologized to her for some things i could have done better as a son if your mom's still around call your mom and more the last service kind of laughed at that i guess you guys are better at calling your mamas she forgave me i forgave her all of us kids got down there before she went back into the hospital and we got to spend a weekend with her you know what she kept saying this is my make-a-wish this is my make-a-wish she had all her people together we filled the time up with all her favorite things she loved to play texas hold'em she wanted to go to the zoo we took her to the zoo we went and had mexican food i gave her one of the biggest hugs i've ever given her and she even said tyler that was such a great hug a few days before she passed she wanted to pray the salvation prayer again she was already a christian but she just wanted to pray so i walked her through the gospel and she prayed along with me at the end of the prayer she said i just felt something left my mom was ready to meet jesus god also gave me the gift of being there with mom for her twenty final 24 hours my brother sister her best friend and i she was put on comfort care her eyes were closed she didn't open them up the entire 24 hours right before she passed away the door to her hospital room just kind of opened up on its own and the nurse even looked over and was like how did that just happen that's weird i knew what happened the atmosphere shifted we gathered around her bedside to say goodbye my mom's eyes opened up like clear like heavenly clear i'd never seen anything like it and she didn't say anything but she said a whole lot with her eyes she just looked at each of us she took her last couple breaths and she passed and we sang amazing grace over her we wept we were standing in what the celtics would call a thin place have you ever heard of a thin place before the thin place is this sacred and holy place where heaven touches earth for just a brief moment some of you have experienced that it was beautiful so today i stand up here what a lot of grief counselors would call an adult orphan right i'm an adult orphan both my parents are no longer here and i know that that's true to a certain degree but you know what god's word tells us in romans 8 15. i love this verse the spirit you receive does not make you slave so that you live in fear again rather the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship and by him we cry abba father and so what's true i'm a son who's been adopted into the family of god i have the best abba i have the best dad and i have a church full of grandpas and grandmas and moms and dads and brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles i've been adopted i want you to know today the same is true of you you've been adopted that's what love looks like that's the greatest love jesus died for us so we could be adopted into the family of god adoption is the gospel my wife julie and i in hopefully just a few weeks we will meet our daughter for the first time we've been officially matched we have seen photos of her i can't wait for that day to meet her london enrique joy estimated to be right around eight months old she was abandoned picture that but god is going after her isn't he he's going after her god is love he is always always always writing a much larger love story can you see it can you feel it the greatest thing he wants from us church family is to love him heart soul mind strength he wants it all and to love others putting them first sacrificing for them forgiving them real love biblical love is hard work but i'm telling you it's so worth it and no matter what's going on in your life today i want you to know if you look deep enough i think you'll hear the father saying come a little deeper come a little closer there's more i want to love you i want to love you so you can pour that love out into this lost and broken world so i don't know where you're at today but i'd love to pray over you and so if you'll bow your heads with me let's close in a word of prayer well father we come before you right now sons and daughters your church and god i i don't know where everybody's at today but i do know um that you know that you know what your kids need and god i love that your word tells us that you love to give good gifts to your kids and so father as your kids are sitting here in need of different things we take this moment to just have a little time of ministering god would you minister to their hearts god i pray for those in the room right now that just need a fresh dose of your love in their life they feel empty they don't feel loved right now they feel shame and they feel guilt and they feel all these other things god i pray that you would remind them that they are loved today that you see them you see their hurt you see their pain and god i pray that you would fill their hearts today with your perfect love come holy spirit fill their hearts with your perfect love the love of the father and father i also want to pray for those here today and i know many are here today i spoke with some after the last service that have been harboring a ton of unforgiveness holding grudges ready just to strike back payback at the right moment god i pray right now that you would do the work of forgiveness in their heart god we have been forgiven for so much help us to be better at forgiving others god i pray that you would give them strength that you would give them courage god i pray that you would help them to be the first to apologize the first to say i'm sorry and god i pray that there would be reconciliation that comes from today that there would be healing that comes from today that forgiveness would be offered jesus we thank you for your forgiveness help us to forgive those who have hurt us and lastly i pray for those in the room who come today and we're so glad you're here who haven't said yes to a relationship with you today and i just want you all to know that the bible tells us that today can be the day of salvation now all we have to do is call upon the name of the lord and we'll be saved and that today could be your day to do that and if that's you i want to pray just through quickly a simple prayer i prayed with my mom just a few months ago and the first part of the prayer is just saying sorry it's just telling god you're sorry god i'm sorry for my sin i'm sorry for all the mistakes i've made i'm sorry for all the ways i've turned my back all the ways i've done wrong just get honest with him he can hear you he knows he's not surprised by anything just tell him you're sorry the second part of the prayer is just saying thank you thank you jesus for dying on that cross for me thank you that it's not about what i can do but it's about what's already been done jesus thank you that you demonstrated your perfect love on that cross and then the last part of the prayer is just saying please please jesus come into my heart come into my life i open up the door today i receive you come in and the bible tells us that he is delighted to come in he's not going to force his way but you say please come in he's coming so holy spirit fill them right now as they pray and if that's you we want to celebrate with you in a moment and we want to follow up with you you just prayed the best prayer you could ever pray and god again i just pray for this church body that we would continue to be known by love that we would express love to you in greater ways that we would experience your love in greater ways and we would extend that incredible love to a lost and broken and hurting world and all god's people said a man amen awesome

Channel: Cherry Hills Community Church

Views: 77

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: Ax2icWxlv44

Length: 41min 50sec (2510 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021