All right. Good morning. How are we doing? We good. Ready to get after it? It's a tough weekend for basketball fans in Iowa. Everybody okay? All right. Sets priorities in order. Let's get after it. Open your Bibles first, John. Uh, if you're new, we've been working through this letter of first John for quite a while. We're going to be in it through, uh, the month of June. Um, it's got, it's a little book, but it's got a packs a big punch. It's got a lot to say. And we've been, um, I mean, it's really throughout the letter, but, but last week we started this focus in on love and, um, we're going to, we had five verses last week. We got three verses this week. And last week, um, we looked at the, the call to love righteousness and to love the people who love righteousness, uh, the brothers. But that's going to create a contrast with this world and that's going to create some conflict and leads us into this week where it's even a greater call then to love one another, to find ourselves in that pickle. Because love's a. That's a big deal for the Christian. And throughout Scripture we're called to love our enemies. We're called to love our neighbors no matter what they believe. But there's this emphasis on loving the household of God and one another. In fact, John makes it a validation of spiritual life. Our text last last week, he said, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. As in listen, if you don't, if you don't have this love for the brothers, it's a sign that like you haven't passed from life to death. You still abide in death. And it's a a sign of spiritual life in us. And the reason it's such a big deal in the Christian life is because it's the foundation of our relationship with God. We love because he first loved us. John. We'll get to that a little bit. But but we know John three sixteen For God. So what love the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. Like we're reconciled back to God because God loved us even in our sin. Um, and we know John three sixteen, but we should also know first John three sixteen. And that's our first passage today. And here's what it says. By this we know love. So similar to John three sixteen, by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. It's Palm Sunday, as Caleb said, where Jesus triumphantly heads into Jerusalem and everybody's ready like, yeah, be our rescuer. Like, set us free from Roman captivity. But Jesus had bigger things on his mind than that. That just set you free from Rome, but from sin, Satan, and death. And in this display of love, of laying down his life for that love is a big deal. And our call to love is not just a call to feel something for others, but it's a call to action to do something Then tangible to express our love. And this. This matters because you remember the the controversy that John is addressing with the Gnostics, that Jesus didn't really have a body. He just had a spirit. And the spirit is good and the body is bad. So it doesn't really matter what you do in the body. And that kind of heresy had practical implications in the church's life that you just live however you want. But John's pushing back. It's like, no, Jesus did have a body. Christianity does express itself physically and tangibly, and love expresses itself practically in life as well. And we're called to love not just in some kind of emotion or feeling, but tangibly and practically. Because this is the last verse that we're going to look at. Verse eighteen, he says, little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. So he's calling us to action. And notice he doesn't say, don't love and talk, but love in deed kind of making this like either or. He says, don't just love and talk. Love in deed and truth. Like don't separate. Like truth matters. Don't just love in deeds. You know, say something. Bring the truth. And don't just love the truth. Do something. It goes together. Our generosity should never be detached from the truth. Like that's the greatest help we have for people. Not just temporary help, but eternal help with the gospel of Jesus Christ. So never detach, um, practical generosity and care and compassion to people from the truth and truths should be accompanied by lives of love. Like we meet people with their needs, but we also bring with it the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't think anybody disagrees with that. I think. I don't think I have to make a strong case that the call of Scripture for that. But but the middle verse is going to make it make us think, right? Because we're looking at three verses. I've already read the first and the last. It's that middle verse that's going to make us have to put our thinking caps on a little bit, because he calls us to material materially. I can't even say that word. To care for people materially like to meet their needs practically. How do you do that? That like implementing a practical practice of generosity with with stuff can be tricky because there's a lot of needs. Anybody else feel that? I mean, you look around, you see a lot of needs. I know needs in my family. I know needs of my friends. I see needs in the church. I see needs in the community. There's people holding up signs when I go on a drive telling me their needs. There's people coming up telling me about their family's needs. Like you get on social media, you learn about needs. You're like removed from quite a bit. It's like you have a friend on Facebook and they have a cousin who has a friend, and they were in a bad car accident, and now they got a GoFundMe page and it's like, is that a bad thing? No, it's a good thing. But you're just aware of so many different needs coming at you. Like, where do I begin? Who do I help? How do I help? How much do I help? AM I actually helping or am I just feeling good about myself? Like there's some complexities to practicing generosity. And do you ever get compassion? Guilt? Like, I'm not talking like the Sarah McLaughlin commercials about the puppies. I'm not like real. Like there's just you've been made aware of so many hurts and pains that you just like, I can't do them all or I don't do them all. And then you just start to feel bad and it's like, you can't keep up with the needs around you. And on top of that, you got scams. Does anybody in here been tried to been scammed online before or anything? Just a few of you. I thought it would be more than that. It feels like at least once a month, our staff gets an email from me asking for gift cards, and it usually starts out with like, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and they're like, oh, that's not Jake. He wouldn't talk about it, but there's all these scams that happen and it just it's so easy to become cynical, right? It's like, oh, this isn't real. Or even if it's like, you know, I don't know what you're going to do with the money or I don't know your situation or do you want to be homeless or why are you here? And what choices have you made? And just like, it's really easy to get into a cynical situation. And in our context, the welfare system has complicated this command. It hasn't removed it. All right, so let me hear you say, hear me say that, but it has complicated it. And we can talk more about that on our Beyond the Message podcast. But it's certainly a different scenario for us than what John was dealing with. Like Rome wasn't giving out food stamps. Rome didn't have affordable housing programs. Rome didn't subsidize things like if you're poor in the first century in Rome, hopefully you got a loving family, or maybe you're part of the church. And if you are, that's what John's calling us too. Like you got to take care of one another. But but there wasn't those kind of situations or government programming in Rome. And to be poor, you. You were in trouble. And it's important to take care of your own. But. But for us, you got this complication of discernment that you're just trapped in of like, I don't know you, I don't know the situation. I don't know where I should help, I don't know how much I should help. I don't know, you just feel like lost in the complexity and the high demand of help. Yet we're commanded to love in deed. Like there's no way around that. That's a command we're. We're to love indeed. So I want to know, does the Bible help us navigate this at all? Not just a command to do it, but but wisdom in doing it because hopefully everyone in here would want to say like, I want to be a generous person. Like I want to help people. Like we would say that I just want to like, well, how isn't this like C of needs all around us? Help me navigate my way through this, and I'm just kind of talking out some of my own angst in this situation because I want to get it right. I want to do it well. And sometimes you hear people say like, well, it's not on me what other people do with money. It's just on me to give it. I'm like, I mean, I don't think we get points for foolish generosity. I think we're called to be stewards and give an account to what we did. And we got stuff. We got responsibility. So how do we do this? Well, how do we practice personal, practical, uh, tangible care to one another in the right way? What should, um, what should it look like? What's the best way to do it? And what is John calling us to here? So we got three verses to look at that's going to stir up all kinds of conversation over your lunch table. So let's get after this. You guys ready? All right. That was low enthusiasm. But you know where we're going. So here we do it. Verse sixteen. By this we know love that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Um, so he's saying by this, you know, love and just like, remember, we're in one continuous argument here. What? What's he saying? Verse one of chapter three. See what kind of love the father has given to us. And now we get over here to verse sixteen. It's like, you know, you know, this love, this is like the way that God has loved us shows itself in Jesus Christ that God took on flesh. He came and he died. He laid down his life for us. He's like, that's the way that you've been loved. It's a sacrificial love and it's a practical love. He laid down his life for us. He sacrificed himself for us. And it's a practical love. Like he met real needs. We were separated from a holy God. He gave us forgiveness, imputed his righteousness on us. He reconciled us back to God like he met a need. So this kind of love that God has loved us with. Seen in Jesus Christ as a sacrificial love and it's a practical love and the word he uses here for. No, it's not like you just know it intellectually. It's an experiential. No, it's like you can know a lot about skydiving by reading a book about it, or you can jump out of a plane. He's like, you know, the love of Christ because you've experienced it. You've been loved. It's like, I know that you guys know this. You know, I know that because I know that you've been loved like you've been loved this way. So you you know what kind of love that I'm talking about? This sacrificial, practical love that I'm calling you to, you know it because you've been loved that way. And knowing the love of Christ should lead to loving others. And I say should, because John uses the word, we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Like there's this connection, there's this conclusion, like you, you've been loved this way. So the expectation is that you love this way. It's how you ought to behave. It's where this love leads to. This love. It should happen. And when we know that kind of love from God, we're positioned to love others like that. We're set free to love others like that. Like we've been so taken care of. I don't have to have this me first disposition. Like I've been cared for. I've been taken care of. So I'm now free to think of others. Warren Wiersbe said self-preservation is the first law of physical life, but self-sacrifice is the first law of spiritual life. It's like it makes sense when you're just like, I gotta survive. I gotta think of me. I gotta take care of number one. It's like, that makes sense in physical life. But when you've been born again, when you've been given spiritual life, life from God, you understand of like, oh, now the first law of that is self-sacrifice. I don't have to put myself first. I don't have to care about my needs first. I don't have to fight for me first. I've been so loved and so taken care of. I've been positioned to love. His love empowers my love. His love frees me to love because of how he's treated me. So in a general sense, you could say this. Christians should treat others as Christ has treated them. And he's like, I know. I know you know that I'm what I'm talking about. You know this love. You've been loved this way. It's a sacrificial love. It's a practical love. So since our love to others is coming from God's love to us, because that's, that's what verse sixteen is saying. He makes this connection. He laid down his life for us. We ought to love the brothers. Well, you could say we are to love others out of the overflow of how we've been loved by God. Like it's not it's not a duty demand he's calling to. It's a natural outcoming. It's an impact thing. Like if you've been impacted by the love of Christ, it's going to come out of you. It ought to. It should. It does that. Have you been impacted? Has it is it just flow out of you because of what has happened in you? Because remember, before we get into the sections like it should be obvious who are the children of God and who are the children of devil. Well, he's looking at this love test. He's like, is it obvious? Does it come out of you? Now, when I'm just talking about love and this call to love, I don't think anyone's really against it yet. Um, but we need to get a little bit more practical and I want to try to be pastoral. I want to try to be helpful. Um, how do we do this? And then in verse seventeen, John's going to give us some direction that I think can help guide us. Let's look at verse seventeen. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? He's making a question where he's given a question, but he's making a statement and John gives a negative example. So he starts out saying, you know, the love of Christ, he laid down his life for us, and you ought to love that way. So that's the positive. Then he turns it. He's like, so how can you know that kind of love and not give that kind of love? If you know that kind of love and don't give that kind of love. I'm making a conclusion that you don't really know that kind of love. Do you see what he's saying? And he's saying, basically, if you fail this test, you're not a Christian. Right? It should be obvious who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. And if you've been impacted by the love of Christ, ought to come out of you. So if it's not coming out of you, I got some conclusions I'm making. I got some questions. I'm saying like, you haven't crossed over from death to life. How? I mean, how does God's love abide in you if it's not coming out of you. Because notice the words that he chooses here. Because he doesn't just say that you don't love. You closed your heart to your brother. It reminds me of the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew eighteen. You can go back and read it this afternoon, but the parable of the unforgiving servant is you have this servant who was had this huge debt, like, no way he would ever pay this back. He was just crazy amount of money in debt. And the king forgives him of his debt by grace. He's like, I'm canceling your debt. He's like, no, I'll pay you back. Well that's ridiculous. Like everybody hearing the story and knowing the amount of money, like there's no way you will ever pay him back. But he's like, I'll pay you back. So he forgives him of his debt. And the servant goes out and he comes across people that owe him money and he demands that they pay him. And when they can't pay him, he demands justice. So he didn't treat other people the way that he was treated by the king. Well, this news gets back to the king, and the king throws him back in jail for his debt that he will never pay off. So how long is he in jail for? Forever, right? It's a death sentence, and it's like it doesn't make sense. This doesn't make any spiritual sense for you to receive such grace and never show such grace. So he's like, you don't get it. And John's saying like, it doesn't make any spiritual sense for you to claim to receive such love and not show such love. Like there's a disconnect here and he's making some conclusions. He's saying it's evident that you don't really get it or it hasn't gotten you. Um, you may you may know about the gospel. You haven't been rocked by it. Or another way to say it is you're a dud. You know what I mean by that? How many of you play with fireworks? Come on now. You're worried like is the neighborhood. You know, chat room on here that's gonna get mad at you. And we're not taking pictures. You play with fireworks? You light a firework. There's an expectation that a firework is going to do what a firework is meant to do. And if you light it, it's going to go boom. Right. That's what they do. That's what you expect. But sometimes you get a dud. You light it and it burns and no boom, it's a dud. Don't be a Christian, dud. Don't be so like you've been lit by the Holy Spirit in your life. supposedly. And we're expecting love and no love. That's what John's saying. Well, then, how can the love of God abide in you? You didn't go boom, right? You're supposed to go boom. You didn't do what you're supposed to do. It didn't. It didn't rock you. It's not evident in your life or a sign that you've got it is that you give it a sign that you've got it is that you give it. So don't make practical material care for someone else. A small matter, it's a big deal. It's a really big deal. A big enough deal where John's saying, you, you fail this test. I don't know if you get the gospel. Big deal. So don't make this a small matter, but let's let's see what he's saying. So let's read verse sixteen and seventeen together. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him. How does God's love abide in him? So there is a greater to lesser than argument happening here. So he starts out with Christ gave his life. How about we start with giving some of our stuff? Okay, so you got the greater to lesser than our I mean, like, let's look at Christ. He laid down his life for us in love. I want to just challenge you about sharing some stuff that you have. And he says, if anyone has the world's goods now, it's not necessarily extravagant. Sometimes we read this and be like, oh, he's talking to rich people. No, no. Which globally speaking would apply to everybody in this room. But that's not what he's talking about. Um, it's not necessarily extravagant. It's um, and everyone tends to think like, well, if I was really rich, then I'd be generous. Um, money or more money is just going to further reveal the heart you already have. So John's not just talking to rich people. He's talking to people who have stuff. So how many in this room have stuff? Okay. If somebody by you didn't raise their hand, get their name, we want to help them. They have no stuff. And we're here. We're here for you. I want you to know that we're here for you. Alright? So no, it's all of us. Like we all have stuff. And he's saying, okay, have you got stuff you're responsible for that stuff. You're responsible for what you do with that stuff. You're responsible with how you care for others with that stuff. And he's, he's saying, listen, if you got the world's goods, I'm talking to you now, okay? If I'm responsible to practically or materially love others with my stuff, where do I begin? Because I'm overwhelmed, I'm overwhelmed with how much need there is. And I'm like, there's a lot. Like, where do I even begin now? In one sense, there's a bit of like, hey, don't sweat it so much because he connects our love to others with God's love abiding in us. So in one sense, there's a, there's this idea of like, well, if you have the Spirit of God in you and you've been loved by God, you'll navigate this like it'll come out of you. Like you're going to have this loving disposition because of how you've been loved. So in one sense, it's like it's going to be a natural outflow of, of being loved and understanding how you've been loved. But he also gives us some practical wisdom here. Look back at verse seventeen, but if anyone what has. I'm only going to give you small words here. But if anyone has the world's good and his brother in need. All right, let's let's look in on this a bit. So he has the means to help and he sees the need to help. There is an ability and there is an awareness. Now if you don't have the ability, you can't help. Like if someone's like, I need to borrow a chainsaw, it's like I don't have a chainsaw. I wish I did. If I had a chainsaw, I'd let you use it, but I don't have like, I can't help if you don't have the ability. You can't help but also if you don't know, you don't know, right? You can only you're only responsible for what you know. It's like, I didn't know you needed a chainsaw. If I knew, I would have let you use my chainsaw. So you have to have the ability and you have to have the awareness. But when the ability and awareness meet, there is a call to help. There's a call to love, practically. But I know what you're thinking. Or at least I know what I'm thinking. There's a lot of needs that I am aware of. Where do I begin? Like help me navigate this and where do I start? I mean, I, I technically have enough. I just met this person. I could give him my chainsaw. I don't know why I'm stuck on chainsaws, but that's just where we're at. Or maybe I have enough money to buy a chainsaw and I can just give them a him a chainsaw. I mean, Christ loved me sacrificially. Practically. That's what I'm supposed to do. And then how often? What? Like there's there's just this kind of overwhelming thing. And and my fear is in the overwhelming need all around us. Our temptation is to do nothing. Right? You can't help everyone. So I'm not going to help anyone. And we're not living out this command. But but also is there more guidance for the call to love one another? Let's look at these verses again. By this we know love that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? If anyone were to love the brothers, if anyone sees his brother. And we've talked about this before, brother here doesn't refer to just your fellow human being. Although we are called to love our fellow human being. Love your enemy. Love your neighbor. Yes, to all of that. But there is an emphasis on the household of God. John's calling us to this fellowship that we're supposed to have. John's representing Jesus. Remember how this letter started? I was there with Jesus. I heard him right from his mouth. I touched him like I'm passing on. This isn't an old commandment or a new commandment. I'm just giving you what he said. And in John's gospel, he quotes Jesus that that other people are going to know you're my disciples. By what? The way you love one another. They're going to know you're with me by the way you love one another like this, this kind of family love that I'm calling you to. And then here in this letter, John's calling us to fellowship, have this certain kind of fellowship that we need to have. There's an emphasis on loving the household of God. And in verse sixteen he uses the article, we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers, the brothers. Now you think about the situation the church was in when John's writing this. They're a persecuted group of people. They're not liked. They're being burned at the stake, thrown into the lions in the Coliseum. Practically taking care of each other in that situation. Be a big deal, wouldn't it? Like, hey, you're a hated group of people. You got each other. So have each other like that. That matters. Like, know the situation, but also what's the controversy? You got a group of people that are saying like, hey, as a Christian, it really doesn't matter how you live in the body, you can live however you want. And then you got another group of people who are like, no, it does matter. Like, we need to live holy lives. And if you choose to live holy lives, that's just going to further isolate you socially. So taking care of one another is a big deal. To care for one another and support one another and meet each other's needs matters. Now we don't deal with that. That's not our situation. But the church is still where relationships transcend social class. You can get involved in a church, a lot of different people, a lot of different backgrounds, a lot of different experiences, a lot of different social economic positions and standings in our society. Right? And you come to a church and you all have the most important thing about you in common. We are children of God. We are part of the household of God. We worship the same king and have the same Savior. And then you get into community in that group and you're called to love one another and support one another and be in relationship with one another. And now you're in relationship with people that are in very different social standings within society. Like this is the place where care is supposed to happen. Because not only do you know needs, you know, people, you're in relationship. Like this is the greatest context for practical material care to happen. Listen, compassion happens best in a community of accountability. Compassion happens best in a community of accountability. Let me read something that Paul wrote. This is in second Thessalonians. It says, now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you receive from us. For you yourselves do not or know how you ought to imitate us because we are not idle. Um, he's not talking about like, like idol worship. He's not like being idol, like, inactive. You guys knew that. You're like, okay. Um, we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. But with toil and labor, we work night and day that you might not be burdened. Be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. So this call to care existed in a community with accountability. Like we're not just here to meet your needs. We're also here to help you live a godly life and hold you accountable to godly living. And that is the greatest context for care to happen. And care in a community of faith is a motivation for a life of faith, because the community that's helping you is also the community that's holding you accountable. And when you put those two things together and the help is connected with the call to living faithfully, that's a motivator to live faithfully. Guys, it's it's easy to give money to a stranger. It's different to give money to a friend in a community of faith with accountability. But that's what we're called to and that's what's most helpful. Listen, if you're part of this church and you find yourself in a situation and you lose your job because of faithfulness to Jesus Christ, we got you right. We got you. But if you lose your job because you're an idiot. We also got you like we're going to come not not in a different way. Like we're going to like, let's help you do better in a different job. Compassion happens best in the community of accountability. So John saying like, hey, love in deed and truth practically with the world's goods. And then you have Paul coming in and saying like, hey, you don't work, you don't eat. You need, you need to be accountable to godly living. And then first Thessalonians or excuse me, first Timothy five, we won't get to it. But, but all these, uh, requirements of which widows to support, not support like there's standards in the community of faith. So you take that together. My conclusion is this Christians should prioritize sacrificial, practical generosity towards others within a community of faith with accountability. Let me say that again. Christians should prioritize sacrificial, practical generosity towards each other within a community of faith with accountability. Now, I don't think he's is confining our generosity to this, but he is emphasizing it like this is the front lines of it. This. This is the way that it works best. This should definitely happen here. Um, and here's the point. And this is, this is important to get. This isn't primarily about helping people, and we tend to make it all about helping people, people in need. We need to help people. We need to help people. And who wants to be against helping people? And we want to help people, right? But that's not primarily the main point. Why do we want to help people? Why do we Christians primarily want to help people for the glory of God? Or you use language from this text, um, to magnify or properly reflect Jesus Christ, because how does this whole argument start out? By this we know love that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. So our love is being pulled out from his love. Where to love because he first loved. Like we. We reflect Jesus Christ. We are the church of Jesus Christ. We are the body of Jesus Christ. So when people look at us, we ought to properly represent Christ, and we ought to love radically because he loved radically. We ought to love practically, because he loved practically, like we're called to make much of Jesus and how we love. So imagine this. You are a part of this persecuted group of Christians in the first century. You are losing your job, your threat, your life's in danger. You're ostracized in the community. Like this is not scoring you any social points like you're part of this group. Why would anyone want to join us? Right. Hey, come follow Jesus. You might lose your job. They might kill you and put you in jail. Why is anybody going to want to join this group? Socially speaking. And by the way, Christianity skyrocketed under persecution when Christianity became the official religion of Rome, it started to go downhill, but under persecution it boomed. Why? Why would people want to join? I mean, yes, the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm not not saying that, but the power of the Holy Spirit expressing himself. How? Man, those people love each other. And that community. That's like family. Where else do you see Jews and Gentiles love each other? Where else do you see Greeks and barbarians love each other? They call each other brother and sister. They meet each other's needs. They'll give you the shirt off their back. Like there's this an attractive appeal to this community. So here's what John is advocating for. One, represent Christ well, but but practically create a church family that others want to be a part of. For the glory of God. And John saying this because he lived it, he experienced it. You know what church John was a part of. Go back to acts two. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, which included John and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers, and all came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, including John, and all who believed were together and had all things in common. They were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need, and day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. He added to their number because of the attractiveness of their community by the way, that they loved each other. There was radical care in radical community as a response to radical love. That's the church. And if you don't get radical love, you probably don't engage in radical community and you don't engage in radical community. You're probably not going to experience radical care. But this is what we're called to. And Veritas, the same thing applies to us. We don't live in a time of persecution like John's stressing here, but people are lonely. They're disconnected. They often come from so much brokenness and hurt, and they got real needs, real practical needs. And the church is supposed to be a family that magnifies Christ because of the way we love each other. And if you don't experience this, let me put it this way. You don't experience this as just a tender. And that's not meant to be a rebuke. That's meant to be an invitation. Join the family. Church is not an event you attend. It's a family you join. And we're not going to create this kind of community as a church with a mindset of consumers, where we just come and judge and want to get like a, you know, I want the music to be like this and I want the coffee to be like this, and I want the facilities to be like this. And I want the parking to be like this. And it's all about what I want and what I want and I want. What John would say is like, if that's the case, how can the love of God abide in us? We're making it all about us. That's not how we've been loved. So listen, here's the call. Create a church family that loves each other in a way that others want to be a part of it. Create a church family that loves each other in a way that others want to be a part of it. Not because it's like, oh, I love the music or I love the facilities I love. I want to be a part of this family. They love to love each other, and I want that because people are wired for that. It's like, where did you learn that? It's how we've been loved. We know love because of Christ. He laid down his life for us, so we're free to love. Listen, church, it's very different than than you've heard before, so I want you to listen to it. One of the best evangelistic things you can do for your unbelieving friends is be more devoted to your believing friends. Now it sounds backwards, but hear me, one of the best evangelistic things you can do for your unbelieving friends is to be more devoted to your believing friends. Show them family. Show them spiritual family. Show them spiritual care. Show them this is what it means to be a part of the household of God. In a way that's like, I want to be a part of that household, and we want to be a tight family with an open front door, like come and join the family. But this is what it means to be family. Like this is how we treat each other. And I just want to say, and I probably get a better seat than than you guys do in this. You guys do this so well. I hear so many stories of how you love each other. In simple, simple things that you probably take for granted. If it's just being a part of a church family, it's just like, well, yeah, like when you move and you have five pickup trucks just show up to help you. You have a baby in this church, you're probably going to get food delivered to your house for the next three months. I'm talking about, let's just have another kid for the dinner. Like, let's just do that. Those days have sailed, But like, there's just you hear so many stories of people just helping each other, giving each other things, loaning each other things like it just happens in this church. So awesome. But I want to say this growth as a church takes greater intentionality in the body for that to continue. Like we can't program that. Like we can set up things as a church. Maybe help that happen more, but you can't program it. We can't come up with a program that produces more love in you. That's fruit of the spirit. That's what the Holy Spirit does. But if we have a church full of people, full of the Holy Spirit producing the fruit of love, that's an awesome church. Like you want to be a part of that. And it doesn't matter what programs you have or don't have. You got a church full of people who love one another? Well, that's an awesome church. And that's what John's calling us to. So. So here's what I want to say. A lot of times my message is it's just like, crank it up, right? Do better. Here's what I want to say. Keep it up, keep it up. Uh, going over my notes this morning, this passage came to mind. I just want to share it with you. It's. I don't put it on the screen. I just want to read it to you. It's first Thessalonians four nine and ten. He says this now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. For that indeed is what you are doing. To all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, more, more and more. Keep it up. Keep doing it. For some of us. Let's be reality. Let's be real about the tension. You feel this pull of materialism and. And to take your stuff and be like, no, mine. I don't want to share. I don't want to care. And just like make it about you. It's kind of we fight. We fight that in our world. It's all around us. So let's fight it. Let's fight it. And if you think that's not a temptation, you're just not honest with your own heart. And John tells us how to fight it, you know. By this we know. Love that he laid down his life for us, that we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. We know how we've been loved. So let's turn our attention there. Amen. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would indeed ignite in us a passion for you that spills out in how we care for one another. That we would not be Christian duds. We'd go boom. We'd go boom with love. And everybody would take notice of it and give glory to you. We pray this in your name. Amen.