Speaker 1: 0:13

Come on, let's celebrate this tremendous story, let's celebrate you because you made it in the building today. Some of us are like that actually could have been me on the screen, like I'm actually not just here by faith, but I'm here because someone invited me to step into a moment. Welcome to this Hope and Help sermon series that we've been on. And if you, when you drove onto the campus, you saw the banners saying hope and help. I even have one of our cool little bracelets here that says hope and help, and if you don't have one, maybe you're just not as cool, I don't know, but you can go get one out there. It just says hope and help and this is a brilliant reminder throughout the course of the week that when life throws you a curve ball or when something just jumps out at you and tries to scare you from the shadows of the past or the shadows of the present, you can just look at this little reminder and say there's hope and there is help. We've been answering some whispers and some lies of the enemy and we've talked about this idea of am I accepted, am I known? Today I get a chance to tackle the conversation, am I loved? And for some of us. We've walked into this series and this has been the most transformative message series that we could ever encounter. And you've walked in. Some have walked in really excited, like yes, round three, come on, pastor, tell me what I need to do. And some have walked in very timid, like I'm just here, so no one calls me and asks where was I on Sunday. But I'm very timid about this series because it's been stirring up some stuff. Here's the cool thing no matter how you walked in today, it didn't catch God off guard. He knew you'd be here, he knew you'd be sitting in that seat, he knew the outfit you'd be wearing and he knew who you'd be sitting beside. So do me a favor today, everybody, do me a favor. Inhale, exhale, relax and determine who around you needs a breath mint. Okay, easiest way to do it, okay, the way you can give hope and help with somebody today and say I'm sorry, you need an Altoid. Help with somebody today and say I'm sorry, you need an Altoid.

Speaker 1: 2:22

This series about hope and help has really been. It's been a roadmap to healing for some of us. We've had an opportunity to walk through these mental hallways of our mind and discover these toe-to-toe and face-to-face moments with God, where we're running into God's truth and we're having to also confront the lies of the enemy. There's this thought out here that says and I believe it that if you spend 10,000 hours on something, you are probably an expert and a master on it. 10,000 hours and that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I became an expert on food. I spent my 10,000 hours on food All the restaurants across the nation. Anybody else in here expert on food? Raise your hand. That's right. We shall all be known today. Help us, lord.

Speaker 1: 3:06

And you know the good spots. You know when they're trying to trick you with vegan chicken. I'm an expert. You can't get me with that. I know when this has milk and almond milk in it. I know the difference.

Speaker 1: 3:19

I also feel like I've done my 10,000 hours in ministry. I know some things, and on music, I know some things stage, theater, and that's my resume. But there's a resume that each and every one of us have that we really don't want you to know about. It's the 10,000 hours I spent on worry. It's the 10,000 hours I've spent in sadness and grief. It's also the 10,000 hours I've spent in doubt and depression. I want you to see the 10,000 hours where I may be polished in one moment. But I don't want you to see the 10,000 hours where I may be polished in one moment, but I don't want you to see the 10,000 hours where I'm paralyzed and I'm stuck.

Speaker 1: 4:04

And the only way we journey through the 10,000 hours that whispers lies of the enemy is we have to start a journey of truth. And that looks like the word of God and what God is saying about us. Why? Because the enemy, all he what God is saying about us. Why? Because the enemy, all he can do is lie to us. Whenever the enemy presents a lie to us and he says something like you're not really loved, you're not really known, you're not really accepted, what he's trying to get is he's trying to really spark inside of us a little bit of doubt. That doubt will really spark inside of us a little bit of doubt. That doubt, if I can be a doubtful person. The Bible calls it a double-minded. There are two different thoughts trying to exist in the same place. And if he can stir up a little bit of doubt, here's what the Bible calls doubt.

Speaker 1: 4:48

It says doubt means to be without a way forward. Have you ever, inside of your mind, been stuck and you couldn't see a way forward. That's how we make drastic decisions. That's how the words that are behind me on the screen jump off of the screen and grab a hold to my back and push me down to the ground and say submit. Because the only option that you have is one of these words, because doubt makes you think I have no way forward.

Speaker 1: 5:18

Another definition of the word doubt is this to be without resources. Have you ever been at wit's end? Because mentally, you felt like I don't have any other resources. Isolate yourself. You're not loved. Interrogate yourself, accuse yourself, move away from the people who love you. Don't go to that church anymore. It's not helping. Why? Because they jump off of the screen onto your back and it makes you question am I really loved? Am I really known? Am I really accepted? What's the resource that the enemy really wants you to give up on? That resource is simply called love. You to give up on that resource is simply called love.

Speaker 1: 5:58

Whenever I'm in a season of doubting, whenever I'm in a situation of doubting maybe some of us may feel hardwired in doubting here's what I have to realize the enemy wants to create some distance between me and God's truth. Have you ever gone through a bad season and you found yourself wanting to put distance? Well, I'm not going to go to Connect Group this week. I don't feel like a good person, and the distance between God and the data of what God, the information that God has said about you, seems so far and like it's for somebody who has it all together and it feels like it's for somebody who's good. And let me just be clear in this building, the person beside you doesn't have it all together and the person on the microphone in front of you with the nice cool gap in the leather jacket, doesn't have it all together. You have to realize that the enemy wants to try to present lies to everyone, no matter how. This is why we choose God every day, because every day when we wake up you take that breath that you just took. There is God saying grace and mercy is about to follow you all the days of your life, and the enemy says let me see if I can weave a little lie into this thing.

Speaker 1: 7:18

You know, father's Day was not too long ago and we all were celebrating fathers and shout out to all the fathers in here and shout out to churches who celebrate Father's Day, even though it's nothing like what we do on Mother's Day. I mean Father's Day, they're like, yeah, we got donuts sitting out in the lobby that everybody's been breathing on. Go get them, dads. But Father's Day is different. Mother's Day is the most attended day in all of church in all of America, and then mom gets to go to the restaurant of her choosing and we just, mom, we set a reservation for you. You don't even have to wait in line. Dad does not get that. You know what dad gets. Hey, are you going to grill today? Are you going to work on your celebration day? You know what are you going to do. And then people have the nerve to put in their favor. I really love when you cook the steak that way. Why am I working it as my day? That's my day, jesus.

Speaker 1: 8:11

When he said I'm going to teach you how to pray, he said he would always say our father who art in heaven. And Jesus talked about father who art in heaven a lot. But I was studying that long ago and he happened to mention another father. It wasn't God the father this time, it was Satan, who he called the father of lies and our entire life. We think about this heavenly father and our entire life. We think about this heavenly father, but we don't consider the guy who Jesus called the father of lies. That means that when he tried to whisper you're not good enough, that wasn't you. That was the enemy trying to talk to you. When he said that you aren't loved, that wasn't you. That was the enemy trying to convince you that you weren't good enough and you weren't loved. The father of lies wants to throw you off, and so those whispers come close to us and we don't often know what to do with this. So we need a sermon series like this that says I'm known, I'm accepted and I am loved. You know we've been really talking about these four buckets that we've been finding this whole conversation circled around and Pastor Larry is so geniusly navigated the conversation and work with professionals, and every week he's working with professionals just saying did I get it right and what can we do better? Because we really want to see our city shifted. And this is the four buckets we landed on, because we really want to see our city shifted. And this is the four buckets we landed on that.

Speaker 1: 9:40

When it comes to this conversation on mental health, we've discovered that some things are situational. That means that this time or this season is really coming up against me. And some of us have walked in here today and we're like I really thought that I had it together in Christmas, but I'm sitting here today letting you know that I have something going on and it is situational. I have a time or season that's really taking me under. I'm overwhelmed and overrun. For some of us it's clinical I need to go talk to somebody, I need to go see a therapist, I need to go sit with somebody that can help to excavate my soul and remove some rocks and debris, when I need to sit with somebody who can see a better day than I see and help me journey to the answer.

Speaker 1: 10:21

For some of us we're saying, pastor, it's biological. There's something inside of me that feels like it's hardwired, where I need something. I need something, I need answers to help be a bridge between this thought and a bridge to this thought, something that can support me, some solutions that can help me really figure out am I loved? And then the fourth thing there's situational, clinical, biological, and there is spiritual. There is something spiritual going on with me and I need Jesus to walk into my life and I need you to journey with me to find safety and freedom, to know that God is building something inside of me that I didn't think I could build on my own, to know that God is building something inside of me that I didn't think I could build on my own. I love what was said a few weeks ago. Sometimes it's one of the four, sometimes it's two out of those four, but have you ever been jumped by all four at one time? And you're just windmilling in the spirit trying to get it together, and you looked up and you're like I'm dealing with something that's situational, clinical, biological and spiritual all at once. Life will present moments and opportunities for you to have to journey through some moments, and I don't know where you find yourself today, but I want to let you know. Not only are you seen, known, accepted, but you're absolutely loved.

Speaker 1: 11:39

Here's what I think about in this moment. I think about this moment of almost a decade ago. My wife and I. We had this great apartment that I truly loved, that had a little balcony on it, that overlooked the ocean in virginia.

Speaker 1: 11:52

But I remember standing in a moment of devastation. I remember looking, looking at our lives and God, there has to be more than this, and I've always been a worshiper, always been a worship leader. And I grabbed my little guitar because I said I'm going to sit on this balcony and I'm going to sing to God until things change. And I begin to strum that guitar and I sang one note and I stopped because right in that moment, life was so chaotic, life was so crazy, that I began to think of something I hadn't thought of before.

Speaker 1: 12:28

Why even bother singing? He doesn't love you. You messed up. Have you ever hit the pause button on your relationship with God Because you felt like what you'd done and what you said and your isolation put you in a position. He can't love me. I'm too distant from him. Why even sing? Why even raise my hand? Hey, I know the worship part must be for the people who have it all together. I'll just stand here because, in order to worship him, it's only for the perfect people and it's not for the perfect people. It's for a perfect God who looks at me in the middle of my mess and says if you would just interact with me, you'll see that I'm already interacting with you, that my love has been existing inside of your story.

Speaker 1: 13:16

And there I was, on the balcony digesting the lies of the enemy. You want to know what the enemy really wants you to do when he's lying to you. He wants you to repeat what he says, because it's one thing for him to say it, it's another thing for you to say it, because you're made in the image of God. We're made just like God. When we say something, it absolutely matters, and so if he can convince me to repeat it, then I now begin to start putting into my reality what he's whispered as a lie.

Speaker 1: 13:47

But I found something on that balcony that day. Don't repeat what he says. Report what he says. Who do I report it? To Report it to God? I want to snitch on you because you tried to lie to me. God, he's been lying and I'm not going to believe it to lie to me, god, he's been lying and I'm not going to believe it.

Speaker 1: 14:07

I'm so passionate about this because I know the moment of standing on that balcony, 17 stories high, and I heard the enemy say you should jump, you should throw it all away. And in the midst of that moment, whoa, why on earth did he tell me to jump? I knew right then. It wasn't God and it was somebody else. And that was the moment, when I was faced with that ultimatum, that I felt Holy Spirit say boy, you better wake up. And I said that's not my God, that's the father of lies, why I decided I had to report it.

Speaker 1: 14:40

I had to realize that God's love is not a reward for good behavior. It's a gift that he gives us freely. I don't have to earn it, I don't have to work for it. And for so many of us that's hard to understand, because growing up you know what it's like to work for love, that if you mess up, all of a sudden somebody is giving you the silent treatment. I'm not talking to you. Why are you not talking? Because I'm mad at you. Why are you mad? You may be a valid reason why you're mad, but do you have to take your presence from me? Maybe that's a trait that we can stop, maybe even in our parenting, maybe in our cultivating a family. Maybe we can stop abusing and weaponizing the silent treatment to show somebody isolation and distance and maybe we could say come closer to me. I need to give you some truths. It's probably going to be painful, but I'm going to set you up to win in the future. For many of us, love has been a performance thing, and God is saying it's not performance, it's literally a perfection thing. I'm perfect, john. And God is saying it's not performance, it's literally a perfection thing. I'm perfect.

Speaker 1: 15:44

John 3.16 is a scripture some of you may know. I know it because of an awkward way. I grew up in the 80s. We did not have cell phones, so when you went to the bathroom there was no TikTok. There was whatever magazine was in there and my mom kept Christian magazines in there, but mostly for some odd reason. Mom, if you're watching this, you've got to explain this to me. My mom just decided to write scriptures on the wall, for God so loved the world. Imagine when my friends came over from high school hey, can I use the bathroom Before you go in there? We're not crazy people. My mom wrote John 3.16 on the wall and so you can imagine when you're in the bathroom for a long time. You know, you've read that scripture about 32 times.

Speaker 1: 16:29

You don't really know what it means yet. But over living through life, see, because when we often encounter love the first time, you don't really have a definition for it. You have to journey through life to really figure out what love means for it. You have to journey through life to really figure out what love means. And it's journey through life that I begin to see John 3, 16,. For God so loved the world that he what oh, this is a good church, I love this. He so loved us that he gave something. Love gives, love gives, love gives.

Speaker 1: 17:03

If you walked in here today, stuck in one of the places of the bottom of one of the buckets we've discussed, I want you to hear this today Love gives. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Here's point number one I want to give you. Love is a priority. You are the priority of God's love. Sitting in your seat, coming in here today, whatever your past is, whatever your now is, whatever your future is, god is now is, whatever your future is. God is looking at you sitting in that seat, and he's getting close to you, as close as he was to Adam when he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And he's close and this is what he's saying you are my priority. He's looking at you. He's saying I love you, you love me, be a happy family. Okay, I know, maybe some of you need to play patty cake with God again. Maybe you need to bring back the joy of your relationship with him again, but God is looking at us and saying my love for you is my priority.

Speaker 1: 18:27

What's the second thing? Point number two love is a daily partnership. When you wake up tomorrow, oh, I feel compassion in the room. When you wake up tomorrow, and you wake up every day, love is a daily partnership. Philippians 4 and 8 says this. Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things. Here it is what do I want you to meditate on? Things that are true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious, the best, not the worst. Y'all see that right there. It says the beautiful, not the ugly, things to praise, not things to curse. He's saying when you wake up, this love thing is such a daily partnership. I want you to meditate on things that are good, that are godly, that bring you to your best. I was looking up that word meditate. That word meditate means to walk around something until you see truth in it. Some of us need to just continue to walk around God's love and start walking around thoughts that are noble and walking around things that are true. Don't wander off too far. Come on back and walk around it one more time until you begin to see what God has said about you, which is you are loved, daily partner with it.

Speaker 1: 20:04

Number three love is a prescription. I really wanted to put love as a painkiller, but I decided to keep it simple and go with love as a prescription. Love is a prescription. Now, many of us learned this early in middle school. When you're trying to get you a little girlfriend, the prescription for my love is you, girl, because I saw you looking at me when I was looking at you, when you were looking at me and you thought I was trying to cheat off your paper. No, girl, I was just trying to tell you I love you. That's how I be talking to my wife, right here on the front row. We've been married 25 years. That's just a girl. You are the prescription for my love. Let me find my light. Hold on Right. That's a better light for my love. Somebody said all 25 years we're still getting some alls. I love that. Love is a prescription when you implement love into scenarios of chaos, scenarios that seem like a virus, scenarios that seem like it's overwhelming overrun. Love is a prescription.

Speaker 1: 21:18

Psalm 31 and 7 says this I will be glad and rejoice that be is a choice. Right there, I will be glad. That's why Jesus said this is my son, jesus, he is my beloved son. In other words, be means over there. That means love is waiting for you right where you're going to Husband. Say that to your wife, girl love is going to be waiting for you wherever you go to on Tuesday. My love is going to be waiting for you. Wherever you go to on Tuesday, my love is going to be right there. It is right there. I will be glad and rejoice in your here. It is unfailing love, god's love for you cannot fail. He has no ability to fail. He does not know what failure looks like. He says I will be glad and rejoicing. Your unfailing love for you have seen my troubles and you care. I love this and you, god, care about the anguish of my soul. God, I got some stuff going on that's situational. I care about your soul, courtney. God, I got some things that's going on that's spiritual. I care about your soul, courtney. God, I got some things that's going on that's spiritual. I care about your soul, courtney. God, I got some things that's going on that's clinical. I care about your soul. God, I have some things that's going on that's biological. I care about your soul. God puts us in scenarios where he says I'm going to lead you to health. This is why I understand the clinical side of this.

Speaker 1: 22:43

I went to see a therapist for almost a year and a half. I really liked my therapist and let me tell you something. He was able to walk me through moments that I had gone through in the past that I didn't even remember, to help me figure out why I was so paralyzed in my now. He said, courtney, if you go back there, holy Spirit will meet you there and walk you through the health of it. And I just thought this is some crazy stuff. He walked me through it and I found healing and wholeness on the other side of this, and that therapist became a lifeline for me to live my best and my greatest life, because he helped me to find Jesus in the middle of disaster. And then, after a year and a half, he said Courtney, I got something to tell you. I don't need to see you anymore. You're done with therapy. I said are you quitting me. Now I need another therapist to deal with the rejection. Then my first therapist quit me. Now I have rejection issues all over again. No, no, no. He basically told me, courtney, now I have rejection issues all over again. No, no, no. He basically told me, courtney, this journey is finished, but the next journey works better. If you now go and help somebody else, will you go and tell somebody else?

Speaker 1: 23:54

First, john 4 and 9 says the light of God's love shined within us when he sent his matchless son son into the world so that we might live through him. By the time we finish the summer in this series, there's going to be a light shining on the inside of you that when you get to September, someone who has not seen you all summer, they will say oh, my Lord, you've changed so much. What's going on with you? The light's been turned on. I'm no longer walking around in the shadows of the darkness of my past, of my triggers and my traumas. The light's been turned on. Why? Because God knows me, he accepts me and he loves me.

Speaker 1: 24:27

Number four love is pioneering. Love breaks out new ground. This is necessary. It's transformative. It is literally transformative.

Speaker 1: 24:37

First, john 4.10 says this this is how God showed his love for us. God sent his only son, his only son, into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we're talking about, not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to clear the way, to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. So many of us probably walked in here today so damaged, but with a seed of faith that God, if I keep showing up, you'll build something inside of me that I didn't imagine I could become. You'll build something inside of me that I didn't imagine I could become. Point number five love is the pattern. Love has to be the pattern. What is the pattern that you're going to build with the rest of your life? You are going to look like a masterpiece. Why? Because love is the pattern.

Speaker 1: 25:38

Verse 11 says delightfully loved ones. If he loved us with such tremendous love, then loving one another should be our way of life. It's not enough for us just to say yes, it's not enough for us just to say I'm loved. I have to now love someone else. Have you ever had to love an enemy before? I mean, let me ask over here, have you ever had to love an enemy before that person who cut you off on the highway and you were about to show them what direction heaven was in with one of your fingers, but Holy Spirit said you better not love them. And you said let me just let them get over. In Jesus name, come to Northgate, we'll help you. Have you ever had to love your enemy? Have you ever had to pray for someone who did not like you?

Speaker 1: 26:38

The Bible says if we have been loved, one of the greatest things that we could do with that love is to go and to serve, like we did last week, or to love someone else. Are you loved? You are loved. Now. You go and love somebody else. When we can love because we've been loved. That's the moment that we recognize this love that I have is unconditional, because I received it from God and I give it away.

Speaker 1: 27:02

And unconditional love can be hard to understand. I can tell you how I know that I grew up with a mom who loved me. I mean my mother loves me. I mean, if my brother and sister are watching this, she loves me the most. I got back up to prove it what I didn't grow up with, though, was a father's love, because my father was so distant, and he was so far, he was so absent that I understood what it was like to be loved by my mother, but this idea of dear heavenly father was lost on me. But this idea of dear heavenly father was lost on me because all I could see God with if my earthly father is conditional, clearly you're conditional. That means I do good, I get good, I do bad, I get bad. That was my thinking.

Speaker 1: 27:52

I couldn't understand this idea that God genuinely loves me, because, I said, my earthly father doesn't want to have anything to do with me. And let me tell you my earthly father. He was a musician. I'm like we are just alike. But I said, how are we just alike? But you are distant from me, and I thought that was God. I'm just like you, but you're distant. Boy was the enemy trying to play a mind game on me, and it wasn't until I began to go to therapy and began to work out some thoughts that I became the best version of myself, fully understanding what it was like to watch this, not just recognize God's love, not just receive God's love, but to digest God's love, because everything that comes to me doesn't go through me, and so I had to know what it was like to recognize, receive and digest his love.

Speaker 1: 28:44

Point number six love is enough. It's enough. Love is enough.

Speaker 1: 28:52

First, john 4 and 18 says this perfect love, that's God's love. It literally has the power to cast out fear. Love, it literally has the power to cast out fear. Did you walk in here afraid today, afraid to believe, afraid to have hope, afraid to pursue help? May you feel the perfect love of God. Cast out the fear. For some of us in here today. We're afraid to love, we're afraid to be loved, because the version of it we've experienced on this earth has felt so toxic.

Speaker 1: 29:33

For a quick second, can I kind of exist as the sample, for a second, of the person who did not love you well on earth, and I want to say to you what they may not have the understanding to say or the courage to say, or the courage to say. I want you to hear me say, on their behalf I'm sorry that I did not love you well. You may never get the apology from them, but standing in this moment, it was a tragedy that they could not see the value in how they should have loved you, but I want you to hear it on behalf of them. I for sure apologize. For some of us it's like love has been broken and distant.

Speaker 1: 30:40

There you are in this current marriage, but still broken from the relationship in college, trying to love, trying to love your kids best as you can, but it always seems to come up a little bit short because one of the buckets seems to not just have a hole in it, but how do I even fill this bucket? It is going to be the love of Christ that fills that bucket and because of that I circle back around to John 3, 16. That reminds me if there's going to be love, it's because, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Love is enough to break through the mud and break through the past and break through the scenarios to find you, hug, you love, you whisper to you you're more than enough. I'm your dad, I got you and I'm not letting you go.

Speaker 1: 31:42

You want to know one of the biggest things I found out sitting on that balcony that day. I found out that I had this list that God wanted access to. I had a list and if you would have asked me, I would have said they would have said what's your list, and I would have said they would have said what's your list, and I would have said what's your priority list. I would have said well, god is at the top. My family, my church, my job, my hobbies and my cousins, who I see three times a year. They're at the very, very bottom Because one of them owes me money. I want my money. Stay focused. What did you learn in church today? I want my money. Leave them alone. I had my priority list God, family, church, hobby, whatever, whatever, whatever. And it was literally sitting on that balcony of me getting this download from God that I realized my list was a fraud list. My list was not the list God wanted for me. As a matter of fact, god ministered to me.

Speaker 1: 32:54

Courtney, I have no desire to be at the top of your list. You got to reshuffle this list. I don't want to be at the top of the list, courtney. I want to be at the center of everything on that list. That way, there's no distance. There's no distance between God and my number four. God is sitting in the middle of my family. Four God is sitting in the middle of my family. God is sitting in the middle of my job. God is sitting in the middle of my hobby. There's no distance from the top to the bottom. God's love is waiting at the center of every layer, and maybe that's the difference. Maybe we've seen this relationship with God is so transactional that we don't see that he wants to be at the center of the best of you, the worst of you, the worst of you and every bucket that exists.

Speaker 1: 34:04

Stand on your feet with me for a second. I came up with these acronyms that I think would just be a gentle reminder that you can hold on to for this week. It's just simply called reach. Everybody reach for a second. Reach up, there you go and go ahead, pull it down. Some of y'all just use that to stretch. I see y'all like, oh, thank God, stand up time Reach. Everybody. Say R oh. Say it loud like you're at a game. Say R R oh. Say it loud like you're at a game. Say R Okay, that was a little loud. It says remember God's promise. Everybody say E.

Speaker 1: 34:43

Engage in daily prayer and meditation on Scripture. Give me an? A. Activate the truth of God's love through positive confessions. Give me a C. Y'all are so good at this. Connect with supportive community of faith. I'm going to say it again Connect with the supportive community. Connect. I need you to come back next week. Everybody, give me an H. H means help others experience God's love through acts of kindness, pastor Courtney. What does it mean to meditate on the word? Pastor Courtney, what does it mean to meditate on the word? Out in the lobby you'll see these cool cards and it says the first five.

Speaker 1: 35:27

Pastor Larry and the team have developed these daily discipleship moments that you can listen to so that way it can speak into you and cultivate something you can put it on on your. It can speak into you and cultivate something you can put it on on your drive to work or your drive home or while you're getting ready in the morning. We need to hear something that speaks to where we are. You're in this building today and you're like Pastor Courtney. I know what it's like to not feel so loved, but I really want to get on this journey of not just receiving God's love. I know what it's like to not feel so loved, but I really want to get on this journey of not just receiving God's love, but I also want to get on the journey of releasing God's love and I want to join the conversation and the journey of God, starting that inside of me. Today. I realize that when I lean into this moment and say yes, he's going to start building something in me that's greater than myself, and it's not because I'm perfect, it's because he's perfect.

Speaker 1: 36:35

No-transcript. If your hand's not up, would you applaud the people who have their hand up right there? Come on there, you go, wave your hand in the air, wave it like you just don't care. I'll see you in the back just waving your hand. Can I pray for you, father? Thank you, jesus. In this moment, we thank you for loving us so deeply, loving us so thoroughly that we can come into your house and experience your presence but receive a download that goes deeper than our past, into our now and launches us into our future. You see my tears, you see the sobriety of this moment. I'm going to look like you and I'm going to sound like you, because I realize I am loved. In Jesus name, we pray amen. Come on, give God a hand clap of praise for that message. Today we're going to respond in worship. With this new song we just want to sing it over you, but also and anybody grateful for God's good plans for our life.