 Look at this, let's look at our passage together. First John chapter four, and please do your best to ignore this odd voice. We're gonna be looking at verses 14 through 21. I'll begin by reading verse 14, giving you some background and reminder, and then we'll move into our study. We'll be hopefully concluding today at verse 21. So beginning and remaining at verse 14, John says in first John 4, 14, we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Now, as we've been going through first John, John had just commanded the believers to love one another. And the reason he did so was because love for God and love for others is the earmark of the believer. This love of God for others and the love towards God is what identifies you, it identifies me as a genuine believer in Christ. Now, during this time, the kind of love believers exhibited in the world was considered to be unique. The kind of love that they showed was rarely seen and it was noticeably different than the world that Christians occupied. Somebody wrote, the Christian's love was so clearly demonstrated in actions that the sincerity of their heart was undeniable. Now, that was the result of living out God's word. It was the result of walking in God's love and God's grace. It's like what Paul told Titus in chapter two, verses 11 through 13, he had said there, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to everyone and instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live sensitive, upright and godly lives in the present age. As we await the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, when you read your Bible, the book of Acts gives us a description of the practice of the early church. In the book of Acts chapter two, verses 44 through 47, it says all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily, those who were being saved. And so they revealed that they loved God and the way they did this was by loving him and loving others. Again, that's the way of Christ. Ephesians five verse two says walk in love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God. So as we've been going through this, John has made it clear that the one who doesn't love doesn't know God because God in his very essence is love. And one of the elements of love and his love, one of his elements of who he is, his love and his love was revealed in Jesus' death. So the point is, if God loved us like that, John has made it clear we should love one another. If God loved us enough to send his son Jesus Christ to die in a cross for us, if God demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If God really did that, which he did, then the greatest evidence that we know him is that we would love him first for doing so and love one another. I was talking to my wife just recently. I talked to her so I can have illustrations in Bible studies and no, I'm just kidding. We were talking the other day and we were talking about the love of God. How that, for me, and I was sharing this with her, for me, the thing that drew me to Christ was the love I saw believers had for one another because I started hanging around with Christians. My friend Bill, at that time, had professed Christ and he was inviting Christians to his house. And I was remembering the other day how I would go to his, actually his apartment and when I would go there, I began to sense that there was something different in the people around me. And I didn't know exactly what it was because my background was very simple, like many of yours, it was a worldly background. I had been immersed in drugs and alcohol so the people I hung around with were not what you'd call sacrificial. What we were is we were people who were parasites, we would take advantage of each other. So if you had some pot, I'd give you a ride. If I had something you needed, there'd be an exchange but there never was really any generosity amongst us. And so I started seeing these Christians and I began to pick up very early that that they were generous, that they were kind to each other, that they weren't ripping each other off, they weren't hiding anything, there's so many things they saw and it was that that I didn't understand, it was that that I liked but didn't know its origin, it was that love that they had that was explained to me through the gospel. So when it got saved, it began to click, it began to make sense. If you love God, then you love others and that's what the Bible says, that's what we're looking at and John has been saying that. Now he had said in verse 13 of the same chapter, by this we know that we abide in him and he and us because he's given us of his spirit. So he is reassuring his readers, he's giving them words of encouragement, he's giving them an assurance of salvation and he's saying that believers can know that we abide in Christ. Now, how do we know that we abide in him? How can we know that we know him? How can you know that? I was thinking as I was preparing the study about an experience I had when I was in an airport, I was flying from, I forget, I think from Dallas and I was flying from Dallas back home and as I was there in this particular airport, I was by myself and a man was walking around speaking to different people and me, I'm one of these people who gets curious. I wonder what's he up to, what's he talking about? And so I know he's gonna approach me eventually and so I'm kinda preparing myself for whatever it is that he's talking about and he did, he walked up to me and he began a conversation and I appreciated the conversation and all and it turns out that he was a Hindu man and as he approached me he asked me if I wanted to buy a book of life and the book of life that he said he was selling, that's what he called it, he said the book of life. It was the Bhagavad Gita and it's one of the collection of Hindu scriptures and so he told me that he had a book and that this book was going to reveal eternal life to me so what a wonderful segue into a conversation about the Lord. So when he said I have a book that will show you the way of eternal life, I normally carry my switchblade, it's pocket Bible and so I pulled it out and I said I already have a book that reveals that to me and then I said to him I know God, when I told him that this is interesting to remember because he said to me oh no, he said God is unknowable and so I said you're right, sin makes a separation between man and God and God to the sinner is unknowable and that's why he sent his son Jesus Christ who took upon himself human flesh dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory so this unknowable God I said to him has become knowable through Jesus Christ and the book that I have tells me how I can have that life for the one that I believe is the way the truth and life and so at that point he said thank you and walked away because that's what normally happens but how can I know him? How can I know that I know him? You see when I told him I already know him he said no God is unknowable but no God is not unknowable so John is making it very clear we can be sure that we know him. Now throughout this letter of 1 John he has revealed ways that we can have this kind of assurance. You see our relationship with God can be revealed through a variety of things. We've seen this in 1 John chapter two for example verse three he had pointed out that our relationship can be known through our obedience. He said now by this we can know that we know him if we keep his commandments. So one of the ways you can be assured of your salvation is your heart for obedience. In 1 John 3 14 he said another way is through love. He said we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren and went on to say he who does not love his brother abides in death. In 1 John 3 17 we can know we can have assurance because we have a loving charitable concern for others. There he had said but whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him how does the love of God abide in him? We looked at 1 John 3 24 and he had said there he who keeps his commandments abides in him and he in him and by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given. So we know him through our obedience, through our love for others, through the charitable concerns that we have. We know him by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. You see when we're saved the spirit of God takes residence in our lives. Remember this, God does not dwell in temples that are made with human hands. In the book of Acts chapter 7 verses 49 and 50 it reads heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? Sayeth the Lord, or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things? God does not dwell in a temple made by human hands. Human beings could never build a temple that is really suitable for him. So what he has done is he has created a temple for himself. The Bible tells us he dwells in us. In 1 Corinthians 316, know you not that you are the temple of God. The spirit of God dwells in you. I'd like you to rest on that for just a moment. It's a question that Paul was asking in the church which the question that the church of the 21st century could also be asked, don't you know the Holy Spirit dwells in you? Don't you know that you are the temple of the spirit of God? Don't you know that? There are numbers of Christians who live as if they don't know that. They're trying to earn some kind of favor with God through all their hard work and the way that they dress and the way they cut the hair. And there's so many places where they have so many rituals and so many legalistic commands. One church in particular, one movement, tells the women you can't wear makeup, you know? And if the barn needs paint, paint it. Yes, can I get an amen? And those are all masculine voices I hear. But you know, it's such legalism. It's so hard, you know? In Romans 816 it says the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit. We are children of God. And so the Holy Spirit makes it known to us. And so in verse 14 he says we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son and Savior of the world. In other words, when he says we have seen, he's speaking as an apostle and he's saying I am personal witness of the mission of Jesus and his mission is salvation. And that's what we testify about. Our commission is to proclaim the truth. Our commission is to tell the world why God sent Jesus. You see, Jesus in Mark 16 verse 15 said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. See, this is something we don't keep to ourselves. This good news of forgiveness, this good news of the transformed life, this good news of the love of God, this good news of the spirit living within us, this great news of God's love and salvation we've received in Christ. There's something you don't keep to yourself. It's something you share with people. And that's because God desires people to be saved. 1st Timothy 2.4 says that God will have all men to be saved to come to the knowledge of the truth. So he's saying we testify of this. You are witnesses. If you're born again, you are a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I never had anybody witness to me until I was around 20, almost 20 years old. The first time anybody ever shared about Jesus Christ with me was in my 20th year. And there were believers, but nobody talked about Christ. I guess they thought it was just something you didn't speak about. You know, you don't talk about religion or politics and polite society and all of that. So I grew up in that, many of you did too. But when Christ began to move through the movement that I entered into and was saved in, the Jesus movement, we were told the opposite. We were told you tell somebody about what God has done. The first thing we were told to do is read the Bible, pray and fellowship with other people and tell someone what God has done. And that was the root of the Jesus movement is sharing with people. And so why? Well, God desires all men to be saved to come to the knowledge of the truth. And so in verse 15, he says, whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he and God. Now, when he says whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him, this is a direct challenge once again to those nostics. The ones who denied God in the flesh, you see to confess is to make a complete commitment to Jesus Christ as the son of God. And we confess, we agree with God, we speak in agreement with him that we're sinners and we need salvation and we confess to him and we confess him in front of people. In Matthew 10, 32 and 33, it says, whoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my father who's in heaven. Whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my father who's in heaven. That's why when we give invitations, we ask people to come forward openly. Why, because we wanna openly confess Christ before witnesses. So to be a Christian, we believe that Jesus is the savior of the world. And in faith, we confess that Jesus is God's son and that he is our savior. In verse 16, he says we have known and believed the love that God has for us. Now, in verse 14, he was speaking of a personal experience as an apostle. But here, he's speaking of those who have come to faith in Christ. He's saying we have together experienced the love God has for us and we believe him. You see, true faith is knowledge and experience combined. We committed our lives to Christ and God's love has been poured into us. Romans five verse five says that like this, God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us. You know, that's one of the things you can pray for. This is an unprepared thought, so I'll just kinda spew it out. But that's one of the things you should as a believer and I would say this as somebody who has learned the truth of this, one thing that I have prayed for for many years, for many years, 52 years. And I haven't arrived is to learn to love, to learn to love, to learn to love. And I've said this before, I'll say it quickly. From the time I got saved, I began to ask God, please help me to know what that means. Help me to know what the word means. Help me to understand because as a child, I had a lot of emotion, my father didn't like the fact that I could cry easily and therefore I learned not to and held it in for a long time. So by the time I was a teenager, I started getting in a lot of trouble and finally was arrested for burglarizing a jewelry store and had to stand before a judge. And so my dad had to hire an attorney and the attorney and my dad and I met in his office and the attorney was telling me that because I had been charged with a felony that I could spend some time in prison. And I didn't react, I didn't say anything, I just looked at him and he looked at my father and he said, this man doesn't have a heart. This man is made of stones, what he said. And my father says, oh, he's just deep. No, I was just an idiot and I didn't have emotion. I didn't show it, I didn't feel it, I didn't care. Like some of you, some of you may understand what I'm saying, I just didn't care, you know, you don't like it. When I went into the army, my mom and my dad, my two sisters were standing in the kitchen when I came to get a ride to the induction center and I had been out all night partying, I didn't get home till three. When I went to bed at three, I was loaded, I'd been drinking. My mom says, you know, your brother, when he went into the Navy, your brother climbed in bed between your dad and me and he cried because he was leaving and David, you didn't even come home. And I said, well, you know, what's the big deal? I said, I'll be gone now for a couple of years, you don't have to see me, so what? And that was my attitude. My father just shook his head like, you know, what's wrong with you? He took me to the induction center, he gave me $10, which back in 1971, was a lot of money. And they rejected me because they knew I had a felony on my record, I knew that had been expunged, but they said, we can take you in or we can call you back. And so I said, call me back. So I had a friend named Gary, Gary had a lid, he had some marijuana. He was rejected the same day. So he and I took off and smoked some pot and I bought him breakfast, called a friend. I came home, I was loaded, came stumbling into the house. My father was on vacation, he sees me walk in, he says, what are you doing here? I said, even Uncle Sam doesn't want me. And I went into my room and I crashed, I was loaded and I got even worse. Within the next month I lost, month and a half, I lost about, I think was 30 to 40 pounds because I stopped eating and I was just drinking, smoking pot, staying up late every day. That's what happened, that's what was going on. That was the conditions that were in my life prior to coming to Christ. And so when I began to see these weird people called born again believers, these Jesus freaks, they intrigued me because they had something I didn't have and I didn't know what it was. They were carrying, they loved one another, they hugged each other. You know, men don't hug each other, men don't hold hands, I was raised in that way. You know, and here we are, I get saved and I'm sitting in a prayer circle and before you know it, they're wanting to hold my hand and I'm, why do you want to hold my hand? You know, and it's the truth when I say I used to squeeze their hands real tight so they didn't get any weird ideas about this man. True story. They're hugs and all of that. I mean, I had a friend of mine who kissed me on the cheek and I'm like, what is wrong with you? You know, so some of you know what I'm trying to say. It was such a different world. I mean, from what I did, I didn't have a problems feeling from friends, I didn't have a problem lying to them. I didn't have a problem with that at all. You snooze, you lose. I mean, that's just, you know, the love, the hunger, that's just the way it is. But when I started meeting people who cared and gave and didn't ask for anything in return, that was what drew me to Christ. It wasn't simply the gospel that told me I was a sinner because to be honest with you, you know, God had already made it clear to me that I was. I knew I was. I wasn't one of those who said there's no sin. I knew I was a sinner. But you couldn't scare me into heaven by telling me I was going to go to hell. You couldn't scare me in that way. Like, you know, that's what you believe. I don't believe that, so what? You know, my belief's the same. But when I saw people practicing love, that's what God used. You see, God, like he said, God is love. All love that is true originates. All love springs from him. And God's love is in our soul. And it's God's love within us that moves us and that emanates from us. And our lives are testimonies of the love of God. And we show the reality of God by his love, his love that comes from us. He says in verse 17, love has been perfected among us in this that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. Love has been perfected. Love has been brought to completion. That's what the word perfected means. It's been brought to maturity, to full expression. He's saying love is brought to maturity by our being loved by God and our loving him. There are those that say, well, I love God. But the Bible says if they don't have Jesus, they don't have love. And without this kind of love, they're not gonna have peace about this day of judgment. You see, God's love settles your anxious heart. No longer will you fear being rejected by him. No longer are you afraid of being judged by him because his love that was shown in Christ and his promise of mercy settles you and gives you peace. He says in verse 17, that we may have boldness. That word boldness speaks of confidence or assurance. So we can have this assurance because we have fellowship with God through Jesus Christ. And with that, Hebrews 4.16 says, let's approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need. You see, this bold assurance is the fruit of genuine fellowship with God. He had said in 1 John 2.28, now little children, abiding him that when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. So he says in verse 17, as he is, so are we in the world. Now we are in the world, as he said, but we are not of the world. Like Jesus, our desire is to please God. Our desire is to be unspotted from the world. I have for the longest time, I've wanted to have a better quality life. And I've sought the Lord for that for a long time. Lord, help me to be a better person. Help me to be more loving. Help me to be more caring. Help me to really have an empathy and a compassion for people. Help me not to be a narcissist. Help me not to be just looking for things for myself. Lord, teach me how to be one who gives and not expecting to receive and return. Those are things I've prayed for. Those are actual prayers that I have prayed for for 50 plus years. God, help me to be in your, I know I'm being conformed into your image, but help me to be better and better as a human being. It's not because of some weird guilt that I carry. It's because I just wanna be like him. And I know that he's conforming us into his image, but I want to be a participant in that voluntarily. So I wanna be unspotted from the world. In John 829, it says, he who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone. For I do always those things that please him. In James 1.27, James said pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the Fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. You see in verse 18, there's no fear and love. Perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment. Here's something that I think is practical for us believers today. Fear and love cannot coexist. Fear and love cannot coexist. We are children of God. We are no longer in bondage to the world, to our sin or to the fear of judgment. And we most certainly are not afraid of death. Now, I'm not suicidal. Let me make something clear about that. I'm not gonna run out in front of a car tonight saying I'm not afraid of you because I may go to heaven a little faster than I expected. But at the same time, and I think this is practical. Again, this is unprepared. I'm just kind of sharing my heart at this moment. When the COVID thing hit, so many believers became afraid and I didn't and neither did my wife. Why? Because my life is in God's hands. My life is in his hands. He holds my breath in his hands. And if he says, David, it's time to come home. Where's the loss in that? Where's the loss in that? I've been preparing for all these years to see him face to face and now I don't want to see. But at the same time, I didn't run around, pushing presumptuously. I think I did other than and you already know this but when Marie came down with COVID, she had it before I did. And I could see there were symptoms of some sort. So I, I kissed her in the mouth. And I said, I told her, you don't go anywhere. I don't go. We're going together in this. I got a lot sicker than she did. I promise you that. My brother, my son, Joseph, who is a nurse said, dad, I was this close to sending you to the hospital. He said, you were that bad. And I said, no, I was never afraid. He said, you don't have to be afraid to be close to death. But you know what guys, are you afraid of death? I, I, no, I'll say I'm not, I'm not, I don't want to put you on the spot because somebody might stand up and say, yes. All I know is that death is an enemy, but death has been conquered by Jesus that I do know. And I know that when I close my eyes here, it's only to look at him face to face. I know that too. That's what my whole life is built on. So why would I now be afraid of going through that passage to see him? So I'm not, I'm not afraid. Perfect love casts out fear. Why fear has torment. The person who's not right with God is actually in torment because he doesn't know where he stands. And God has given to us his spirit that awakens us to the reality that we are his children. And as his children, we're not in bondage to fear anymore because perfect love casts it out. So we have confidence in the day of judgment because again, love drives out fear of judgment. You see, Satan uses fear, but God draws with mercy and grace. In Hosea 11 verse four, I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love. And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck, I stooped and fed them. Fear and love do not coexist where there is fear of judgment. Love is absent. Somebody said for a Christian to be fearing, final judgment reveals a concern for personal condemnation and judgment, which in turn reveals an imperfect understanding of salvation. So perfect love literally drives out fear. Because it does not exist in real love. Perfect love produces perfect or mature confidence. It's the result of a genuine conversion. It's not the result of self-deception, it is a genuine conversion. Now, obviously judgment is coming, all will stand before God, but Christ took our place and satisfied his father's requirements. And through faith in him, we have a standing before God. In second Corinthians 521, God made him who had no sin to be sinned for us so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus took upon himself the sin of the world. He became sin, he took upon himself our sin, and he took what was mine, and he took it upon himself. And then he took what was his, his righteousness, and he gave it to me. So he took upon himself my sin, your sin, but he gave to us his righteousness. That's what salvation is, and that produces confidence. It's a confidence that we have in the day of judgment. And the one who fears he says, it simply has no assurance of salvation because in a relationship of mutual love there's no room for fear. Now in verse 19, we love him. We love him because he reached out his hand and he saved us. He drew us by the fact of his love, not the fear of his judgment. Now in verse 20, if someone says I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? That's a good question, right? Again, very simple, simple to say. If we truly love God, we love people also. Why? Because God loves. I never knew that driving could really be a trial. I really didn't. But I find myself being grateful that I'm not God because when I get cut off by somebody, I probably would destroy them if you really love God. You'll love your brother. If you really love God, you'll love others. You know what my desire for us as Christians is? I'll say it real quickly. My desire for us as a fellowship, we're going on our 42nd year. I'm gonna have to fire Jared who said 43. It's actually 42. He'll never see 43. My prayer this year. My prayer has been this way all along, but I'll say it out loud again. I've said it before. It is very simple. It would be that when somebody walks in the doors of our fellowship, that they would sense something there that they haven't sensed any place else. They've never been to church. That's what happened to me when I went to Calvary Chapel Co. Samesa when it was just a small church, little building before they had the tent, before they built the structure that they now occupy there in Co. Samesa. I went to the small place. And that's what I experienced. I walked in and I sensed it. There weren't people looking at me weird. They weren't acting weird towards me. They were accepting. They didn't make me feel out of place. They didn't make me feel unwelcome. There was something so unusual about that environment that after I got saved, I came to realize what it is. It's the love of God. And again, for someone who was estranged from God who knew not what love was and didn't know anything about the Lord, really, there was the presence of God. And I asked the Lord for that here. I asked the Lord that when people come in that they'll sense there's something here. And it's not just cause we're trying hard to be loving but because we are. But because we as a fellowship, we as a Christian family, you may be here for a while and be taken to some place else. It doesn't really matter. But while you're here, you're a family in a visible way. And I just want people to walk in and to say there's something different about these people. And not because we're wacky or weird or odd and not cause anything other than they sense the presence of God. And that's what it's all about. And so when someone says, I love God, but I hate my brother, he says, how is that possible? God is invisible. You don't see him, but you do see your brother. How can you say you love the invisible when you can't even love that which is visible? How can you say that? And that's why he's saying that's not true. If someone says, I love God, he says in verse 20 and hates his brother, he's a liar because loving people is an evidence of salvation. Love for God is expressed through love for one another. It is possible to pretend to love one another. That's called hypocrisy. Eventually it's revealed for what it is. And that's why he said, how can you love the invisible when you don't love the visible? And so he says in verse 21 in this commandment we have from him, it's a commandment, not a suggestion that he who loves God must love his brother also. Christianity had already begun at this time to become an idea and not a practice. And we still have this danger. People say that they go to church, but they forget that they are the church. And being the church involves being with people. A church service is more than a theater, it's a family, it's a community, it's a family that reaches out and meets the needs and loving service. We, I'll close with this. I mentioned that we went, we were gone last week, we went to Utah. And my daughter, my oldest daughter had asked if we would go with them. And so all of us, the whole family, the Rosales clan, went to Utah and stayed in one house. And there's 21 of us. All right, you know where I'm going with this. Is it easy? Four different families. Every one of my kids, sad to say, is like me. We have our way of doing things. Every one of us. And you know this, you put a family together and it's like taking cats and putting them in a bag and shaking the bag. And so we drive. All right, I'll say this too. My, one of my daughters, my nana. On a, on a, said, dad, we'll just rent a car so you can drive Zoe and me with mom and you. And I took my grandson and his girlfriend with us. And so our vehicles aren't big enough. So my daughter was kind enough to spend my money on renting a car for them. So we took this long drive and we got there late at night and then for the next day, we went to some place called Brian's Head. Some of you are familiar with it. I don't know anything about it. I'm no skier, snowboarder. And so we went one day and we stayed and watched our grandchildren and two of our babies, one of our babies who was taking it up. We love it. And for the next few days, we didn't go out into the sun. The snow we did a couple of times, you know, one time really, Marie and I took a walk. We felt like athletes. We walked a half mile in the cold. Why am I telling you this? Well, because when you get a family together, even though you were raised together, you have the same father and mother as in a family, human family, you still have your own ways of doing things. And you have to find places of compromise or else you'll be at each other for days. That's what happens. I wish I could say that I raised the perfect Christians because I'm a perfect Christian, but it's Marie's fault, but we... So what do you do when you're crowded, 21 people in a house? You learn to get along. You learn to just get along. Church is no different than that. I'm gonna leave that church because they don't smile at me. Well, the next church you go to, they won't smile at you either. I'm not gonna go to that church because it's filled with sinners. Well, if you find a perfect church, don't go there. You'll ruin it because you're a sinner. And so what we do is we learn to love one another. Love isn't easy. Is it? Love isn't easy. It's dying. Dying to me, dying to my needs, dying to my narcissism, my plans are always right. It's dying to that. So that together we can experience something, right? That's marriage, that's raising kids, and that's church. So instead of losing faith in that person, in the sense of, well, he says he's a Christian and look what he does, that's where God's love comes in and we learn to encourage them and share with them. And when given opportunity, maybe to speak to them, but we don't abandon them. We're there for them to the best of our ability. Of course, Jesus is always there. I can't be, I know that. But I wanna be as much as I can. I wanna be a help as much as I can. And I think that's what Christianity's all about, guys. Is loving one another and forgiving one another because love covers a multitude of sin. It's a demonstration that God really dwells in me because God loved me even while I was yet a sinner and Christ died for me. So I've been praying for years. God, help me to love my brother. Help me to love my sister. Help me to see him as a brother and to see him as my sister. And that way, Lord, the family of God, well, we might be able to get along and we may be able to reach a world that is so lost and doesn't have a clue what love actually is. And when they're looking around to see what is love and they see a church that squabbles or there's gospel or there's mean as a spirit or self-righteousness and that can be in any church. You know, I've had people who left the church because that church has people who have tattoos. You know, come on, come on. Oh, they had piercings. I'm not big on piercings. That must hurt. I've seen some people and I've thought, you know, how must it hurt, you know, for what they did to your face? You know, if you think that's cute, it's up to you. But you know what? We used to have a song that said, looking past the hair and straight into the eyes. What we learned to do is we learned to look past the things that made us different so we could see the things that joined us together. And what is it that joins us together if it's not the love of God? If it's not a mutual love for Jesus Christ. That's what it's all about. And that's why John would say, the one who doesn't love doesn't know God. God is love. The one who says he loves God but hates his brother. How can he? How can he say I love the invisible God, the God that he cannot see and yet he hates the one, his brother, whom he can see? How can the love of God dwell in such a man? So God comes, changes our hearts and teaches us to care for other people. And we become a community of the redeemed. We're not perfect but we are family and that matters in the house of Christ. That matters. Our Father, I pray that we would learn.