Serve Each Other in Love - 1 Corinthians 16:1-24

Have you ever been to an event, maybe a conference, or a vacation, where everything was so well run? Everything was so smooth that you almost forgot that there were like people making things happen, that you were just kind of absorbed in how well it was run. Several years ago, we took our daughters to Disney World. And from the moment we pulled into the park, from the person who greeted us at the door, kind of where, you know, as we drove our car to the parking lot, the whole time, I was just blown away with how smooth and well run everything was. You forget that behind the scenes there's people doing all sorts of things to make that happen. And we expect that, right? If you go to somewhere like Disney World, you kind of expect everything to be done well. You're paying good money to be there. They have paid people, really good money, to create that environment. And so you show up and you just go, I'm here to attend this thing, and it's so well done that you almost forget this people there. And I know I'm guilty at times, especially when I'll visit other churches. I'll go speak at other churches. And I forget that the church isn't an event that we attend. I kind of pay attention to how smooth things are run, how they've organized all this stuff. And I forget that the church isn't an event that we attend, but a people that we serve. Again, the church isn't like Disney World, where we just show up and everything's run really smooth, that the church is a people that we serve. Paul in 1st Corinthians 16, as he closes his letter to the Corinthians is going to highlight how this service works, how we're to serve each other. The idea I want you to take away from the closing of Paul's letter is this. The church is the people who serve each other in love. The church is a people who serve each other in love. And we'll see, when we look at chapter 16, that we serve each other with courageous, generous, supporting, and thankful love. Now, if you've been with us for a while, kind of working through one Corinthians, you may be thinking we skipped an entire chapter, a really important chapter, chapter 15. We haven't skipped it. Well, we did skip it today. We're coming back to it next week for 3 weeks as we do our Easter series on the resurrection and 1st Corinthians 16. is all about the resurrection. So we're going to finish the letter this week and then come back for 3 more weeks to look at chapter 15. Here we are at the end of the letter. Paul's been writing this letter to the Corinthians to a church that he deeply loves that is also deeply troubled. having a lot of issues. If you've been with us through our entire 1st Corinthian series, Paul starts by talking to the saints who are in Corinth, these believers, and then he spends a large part, almost all of the letter, helping correct them of things they were doing that weren't pleasing to God, from Lord's Supper, to how they were treating each other, to divisions that were created, to how they were abusing spiritual gifts. And now he's come to the end of this letter that he's going to send off. There was no phone calls in that day. There weren't, you know, quick text messages you could just send to someone. He's written this letter and off it goes. And it's kind of his final word until he shows up. And so the end of a letter. We may kind of just dismiss these kind of things pretty casually because we can communicate so easily across vast distances. But I think Paul, when it comes to the end of a letter, that we would often think is a throwaway part, he's trying to encapsulate how the church should treat each other and how it should love each other. And I think we can see 4 ways that he mentions this as we look through the chapter. And instead of starting in verse one, we're going to go look at verses 13 and 14. Right in the middle of this chapter, Paul has this kind of punchline that I think captures everything he's wanting to say in the letter as he's writing the ending of this letter, things he wants them to do, things to be aware of. He has this 2 verse imperative that says this. He says, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do, be done in love. Paul wants to see the church serving each other through courageous love. We all know this, right? Love isn't easy. That loves hard. As soon as we think, well, love is easy. As soon as I'm uncomfortable or I don't like this thing anymore, I'll just quit doing it, then we've got, I don't think you understand love. Paul in chapter 13 had laid out what love was. And when he says, do everything through love here in verse 14, he's just summing up the whole letter, the whole message of Jesus himself, which was, love God and love others. She said, the whole law, Jesus said, is summed up in these 2 things. Love God and love others. Chapter 13. Paul laid out the action of what love is. It's patient. It's kind. It's not irritable. It doesn't seek its own. These are all difficult things. And so Paul gives this list of imperatives about how we should be understanding our faith. And he starts with be watchful. Corinth was a military city. And a lot of the soldiers in the city would have understood Paul's language here. They would have been very familiar with it. This idea of being watchful, looking outwards for any dangers that may be coming. I imagine if you're like me, many of you have some security cameras in your house, some facing out, maybe a doorbell that has a camera on it now, other parts of your house. You're just watchful. You're aware there's dangers in this world, and so you have cameras facing outward to be aware of any dangers that are coming from the outside. You can also be watchful, though, by looking inward. So periodically at my house. I'll walk around, then I'll say, okay, what needs to be looked at? What do I need to tend to? I got to change the filter and the air conditioning unit. I need to make sure pipes aren't leaking. I need to cover my faucets on the outside. I almost took those covers off and now it's going to be 13 again. So right back on. We just do things, not because there's a threat, but to maintain. Paul says, be watchful. That's an active command from Paul about how the Corinthians are to live out their faith. Be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Have you ever found yourself, like, caught in a really strong wind, and it catches you off guard and almost knocks you over. Maybe it knocks you to the ground. But if you want to stand in the face of this wind, you can't just casually stand there, you have to brace yourself. You have to stand firm. Remember when I was younger, we'd play a game called Gladiator Hands. I won't bring Andrew up here to play because I would win. Gladiator Hands is very easy. You just stand still, you put 2 hands together, and whoever pushes the other person over, wins. You just have to stand firm because you're being pushed against our faith. Paul says, stand firm in the faith. He spent a whole letter explaining to them what it means to follow Christ, and now he's saying, you have to be active in this. You need to be watchful in your faith. You need to stand firm in your faith. He then says, act like men and be strong. This was military language that the Corinthians would have understood this idea of being courageous in the Old Testament. Places like 2nd Samuel 210 would say this, be of good courage. And let us be courageous for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what seems good to him. This was language used when they were about to go into battle that be courageous. Don't shrink back. Paul lays out very active commands here of what it means to follow Christ. We're not passive in our faith. We're not just sitting back going, well, whatever happens, I'll let it come my way, and he's saying, be watchful, stand firm, be braced against what's coming. Be courageous, but he says, do all of this in love. If you go back to chapter 13, Paul could say it this way. If I'm watchful, if I'm the most watchful. If I have a 1000 security cameras up, if I can stand firmer than anyone ever stood. If I can be more of a man than any man's ever been, if I can be more strong than anyone's ever been, but I have not loved, I'm nothing. Everything Paul is saying in this letter, in his ministry is to be wrapped up and understood in the context of love. And here he says, have this courageous love. It's the kind of love we need if we're going to survive. that a cowardly love won't work. Takes courage to love people. It takes courage to stand firm when things get difficult. And Paul's writing to a church where things are difficult. And be very easy to cut and run and say, I'm done with this. Persecution may come that way. Be very easy to cut and run and say, I'm done. It's too hard. Paul says, if we're grounded in the love of Christ, then we'll stand firm, will be courageous. If you go with me back to the beginning of the chapter, you'll see another way that Paul talks about serving each other, but this time it's through generous love. He starts this where he says, now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches in Galatians, so you also are to do. On the 1st day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me. You may wonder, what is he talking about? Well, he starts with now concerning the collection. Paul had received a letter from the Corinthians, and he's writing back to them, and in several places in 1st Corinthians, he'll say this phrase, now concerning. And that's something they had asked him. So the Corinthians had asked him about this offering, and what is this offering? If you read Paul's letters and end of Romans chapter 15, 2nd Corinthians chapters 8 and 9, and then Acts chapter 15 through 19. Paul had gone to the Gentiles to share the gospel. Jewish people and Gentile people in the 1st century, did not get along. There was great hostility between the 2 groups. And the Jerusalem church was mostly Jewish. Paul's churches were mostly Gentile, and the Jerusalem church was suffering under a famine and under poverty. And so Paul was going around to all the churches he planted and saying, hey, let's take up an offering for the Christians, the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. One, it's going to show that you appreciate them, that you recognize that the gospel came from Jerusalem. And it's going to show your love for them, showing that we're united. We're not just different groups of different cultures that don't like each other, that were united in Christ. And so he's collecting this offering. And he says, the Corinthians know about this, so they've asked him about it. He says, now concerning, here's what I want you to do. On the 1st day of each week, he tells the Corinthian believers, set aside a little bit of money as you prosper. He didn't tell them a percentage. He doesn't say, you need to set aside 5% or 10% or anything, says, as you prosper. He's gauging it to them. Set this aside each week so that when Paul shows up to gather this offering, it'll be ready. He says just go ahead and plan this generous gift that you're going to give. And each week, here's how you should do it. This is what the churches in Galatia are doing. This is what you should do. And as you prosper. This as you prosper, ties into something he says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 9, verses 6 through eight. He's talking about the same offering. So on the screen, it says this. The point is this. Whoever so sparingly will also reap sparingly, whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully, each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. And so Paul just tells them, give as God is leading you, and as you may prosper. He says, as you have to give, put it aside, plan for this generosity. And then he says, when I show up, you pick the people, and they'll take it to Jerusalem. And if you want me to go, if you think I should go, Paul says, I'll go with them also. Paul's wanting to make sure that no one in Corinth, no one in all the churches he's gathering from thinks that he's doing something inappropriate. that he's going to steal this money. There's always con men. We know this. There's always con men who would say, hey, you should give to this cause. You should give to this charities. You should give to this idea, and then they just take your money. And Paul saying, I want to make sure no one thinks I'm trying to scam you. And so once you've gathered this money, you pick Corinthians, your people, that you trust, and they're going to carry it, they're going to carry this cash. There were no wire transfers back in the day, so it would have been a long voyage from Corinth down to Jerusalem with a box full of money. And there probably would have been people from every church that gave money, taking this gift to Jerusalem, which was important that they do that because the gift wasn't just about, here's some money to support you. It was about their love for each other. Here are the people giving that gift. So Corinthians would have shown up with the gift that the whole church gathered, and a few representatives showed up for the church in Jerusalem. He says, love each other, serve each other through this generous love. But it doesn't stop there. If you look at verses 5 to 12. He wants us serving each other through supporting love. How do we support each other in the work that God's doing? He says, I'll visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter so that you may help me on my journey wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits, but I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me. And there are many adversaries. If you've read 1st Corinthians, you know Paul is writing to a church in which some of the members have a problem with Paul. He planted this church, he was the one who shared the gospel there, he deeply loves the people of Corinth, but there is a group in the church that has a problem with Paul. And he's saying, look, I wanna come and spend some time with you. I don't want to just stop by on a casual visit. You know, for a day or 2 on the way through. I hope to spend time. Maybe the whole winter. I could just settle in and we can hang out and spend time together. We've all had those kind of vacations, those visits, right? The one, it's a half day. Like I'm driving through. I'm going to stop and say, hey, we're going to catch up and then I'm on the road again. There's other times we go, I get to settle in. And we had this longer visit where we got to catch up and really spend time together. Paul is hoping for that because he deeply loves them. If you notice, though, he says, I want to come to you, maybe spend the winter so that you may help me on my journey. Earlier in the letter, Paul said, I have never taken any kind of offering or gift from the Corinthian church. There was some in Corinth that I think were challenging Paul, maybe trying to accuse him of being in it for the money. And he says I've never taken money from you. Other churches I have, they've supported me in my ministry, but here as he's right, he says, if I come to you, I want to spend some time and you can help me on my way wherever that is. Wherever God's going to send him next. He said, you can help support me in that way, as I carry out my gospel ministry, sharing the good news of Christ. I hope to come see you, spend some time with you. He does couch it with the language of if the Lord permits. Paul's been on his missionary journeys. This is his 3rd missionary journey. And he's had times where he says, I want to go over here. And God said, yeah, you're not going over there. I need you to go over here. And so Paul's very open to saying, God, where do you want me to go? How do you want me to serve? I have my plans, but I'm open to you changing them. If you will. So he tells the Corinthians. He says, look, I want to come spend time with you. If God allows that, right now I'm going to stay in Ephesus. There's this huge door of opportunity that's opened. A lot of opposition there, but I'm going to stay here. He then goes on to talk about Timothy. He says, when Timothy comes verse 10, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord as I am, so let no one despise him, help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers. Who's Timothy? Timothy was Paul's protégé. Timothy had been saved unto Paul, unto his ministry, and now he was following Paul's serving Paul. He was a younger guy helping Paul in his ministry. So Paul's not in Corinth. Timothy's heading to Corinth, and Paul is a little concerned that the Corinthians, some of them may mistreat Timothy, because they had a problem with Paul. So he says, can you make sure you put him at ease? Have you ever gone into a meeting at work and you were very nervous? You're like, I'm not excited about this meeting? Or maybe a discussion with someone in the family, like, I am not at ease about this at all? He says to the Corinthians, put Timothy at ease. The actual meaning of the word is make sure he doesn't have any fear. He shouldn't show up at the Corinthian church and be afraid. He says, welcome him. Send him on his way. Support him. Show the love that Christ has for you, to Timothy, who's serving Christ, and then send him on his way because he's coming back to me. And then he ends with this line about Apollo. He says, now, concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urge him to visit you with the other brothers. But it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity. Apollos and Paul, if you remember early in the letter, there was some friction, not between Apollos and Paul, but within the church at Corinth, because they had picked teams, they had said, I'm on team Paul, and some said, I'm on team Apollos. Paul planted the church. Apollos had been there for a while and had been teaching there. And there were groups who said, I like this guy, I like that guy. And they had probably created that there was some friction between Paul and Apollos also. And Paul says, no, I encouraged the policy to come see you. I won them too. He had other plans. And he's telling the Corinthians, you need to support a policy. He's not coming there right now. You need to be on his side, though. I'm on his side, Paul says. I'm supporting him. You should support him, and he will come there when he has the opportunity. He has a section where he's talking about the mission work that he's doing, that Timothy's doing, that Apollos is doing, and he's saying, support the work that's going on. Serve each other through this supporting love. Then he goes on in verses 15 to 23 to talk about serving each other through thankful love. He says this. Now, I urge you, brothers, you know that the household of Stefanus were the 1st converts in Achai, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints, be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. I rejoice at the coming of Stephanus, and Fortunitus, and Achicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refresh my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people. Give recognition to such people. Who are these people? More than likely, they were the ones that brought Paul the letter from Corinth. So Paul's out doing his ministry. The Corinthians write a letter, and they give it to Stefanus, Stefanus takes it to Paul. So Stefanus, Fortunitus, Achaeus, are there with Paul. And he's writing the letter that we're now reading, and they're going to send it back to the church at Corinth. And he tells the church at Corinth, you need to recognize, be aware of this household. They were the 1st ones to be converted to the faith in Achai. And they have faithfully served the church. So you should subject yourself, be subject to such as these, and do every fellow worker and laborer. They had shown up and refresh Paul and brought news of Corinth. Now they're going to be sending word back. They're bringing a letter, by the way, that's pretty rough. I mean, if you were in the church of Corinth, If we were the church of Corinth, could you imagine? We sent a letter to Paul and the letter we get back with 1st Corinthians, that's pretty harsh. You may go, I don't like you, Stefanus, you brought this letter back. You were there when he wrote it. You were probably a part of it. And Paul says you need to acknowledge these guys. They have served faithfully. He says, be subject to them. Because of their faithful service. Jesus told us how leadership works, how servant leadership works. He says, don't be like the Gentiles who lord it over people, who when they lead, they lead from a position of power, so they can tell people what to do. They can get their way. Everything's good for them. Jesus said, you should be a servant. You should lead from a position of being a servant to others. This is what Stefanus had been doing. And Paul says, you should recognize him. You should be so thankful of what he's done, of how he served. You should recognize everyone who has been serving in this way. Give honor to them. He then goes on with his list of greetings. We've all experienced this, right? My daughter is heading back to college today and when she leaves. Hey, so-and-so, hey, until so-and-so. Hey, all of our friends that we know, anytime you go somewhere, if you're with a group, they're all saying, hey, could you sell, you know, Billy Hay and Jimmy Hay and Sally Hay for me? Tell him I'm okay. Now again, we just get on our phone and text everybody. But back then, this was a way, and letters were expensive. And so all these people are now piling in to greet the Corinthians. Look what it says. The churches of Asia send you greetings, Aquila and Prisca, who used to live in Corinth. Together with the church in their house. They had opened up their whole house to have a church there, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. If anyone has no love for the Lord. Let him be accursed. Our Lord, come, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. There's this overflowing of love. All the churches are sending you greetings. The Corinthians weren't by themselves. There were churches all over the Mediterranean who were reaching out to them who were aware of them, sending greetings to them, being thankful for what God was doing in Corinth through this church. And Paul is hoping that the Corinthians would be the same way. They have this overflowing love. Thankful love. for them. Paul finishes his letter to the Corinthians. With this list of ways that the church could serve each other. I think he's exhibiting to them just in their action, as he's saying, here's what you should be doing, the way the church should function, how we should serve each other with courageous love and generous love, supporting love and thankful love. That was 2000 years ago to a church with very specific situation. How can we apply this today? What are some practical things we can do to live out that same type of love for others? First, serve each other through courageous love. Stand firm, be watchful. Look, we get this church, right? When church is going well, it's easy. When families going well, it's easy at times. Oh, this loving each other is so easy. It's so much fun. It's so enjoyable. And then things get difficult. And then times get hard. And then we realize, okay, love is, love is difficult. Love is hard. I have to be courageous. I have to be watchful. I have to stand firm. that you may have in your life right now some hard situations where you're going, it's difficult to love. It's difficult to stand firm in that situation. Paul's encouragement is to be courageous. The Corinthians had problems loving each other. There were all these divisions in this church that he was trying to work out, that he was trying to encourage them to be watchful, to stand firm, to be courageous, to lean into the love they have for each other. Knowing that it's not easy. It's not automatic, it doesn't just happen. That when we can think of love, we often turn into this kind of Hollywood idea that you just see someone there's love and it's this feeling and that's all it is, this kind of chemicals running around in the brain. The biblical view of love, is that we care more for others than we do ourselves. And so we work to help them, even at great sacrifice to ourselves. So Paul says, be courageous in this. He then tells us to serve each other through generous love. We can tell what we value pretty easily. If you keep a budget, it doesn't take much at the end of the month to say, what did I value this month? Paul wrote to the Corinthians and he says, I need you to gather up some money each week so we can help the people in Jerusalem. That's not our situation today, but the application is the same. Paul said, I want you to have some planned generosity. And he says, as you prosper to the Corinthians, you're to give. And he's saying the same thing here. There's nothing in the New Testament that says, everyone in Corinth had to give 10%. He doesn't say that. He says, as you prosper, give. As the Lord compels, give. But he does say that it's planned. I can look at my budget every month and I know what I'm planning for. You can too. We all have planned giving of different sorts. If you have any sort of streaming service like Netflix. Every month you plan to pay them. If you have rent or a mortgage every month, you go, I'm planning to pay them. If you have a car payment, you're planning to pay them. You've got a line that says gasoline. You're planning to pay that, right? We all have planned giving every month that we have said, this is what I have to give. Paul saying, let's have a line called generosity. Plan giving the care for others. And it is scaled, very clearly. I have friends when I help them with their budget. We go, you've paid your rent. You bought some food, you paid your electric bill, and you have almost nothing left. I can tell what you value. You value eating and shelter. And you have money for those things. And then as people have more money, more disposable income is the term we use. We can either spend it on those same things. Or we can put a line in there that says, God, as I prosper. Help me to increase the amount I give to others. Help me to plan for that giving. I would encourage you. Go over and look at your budget and say, where do we value things? Paul's telling us to generously love others. An easy way here at North. We don't take up a collection for the saints in Jerusalem, so to speak. We have a fund called Love Your Neighbor. It's one of our giving lines. And it's a line that just goes to help people in our church and in our community who have fallen on hard times. I was talking with one of our pastors, Willie Hunter, and he said he'd had 7 people in the last week, recheck, reach out with different needs from car repairs to needing help with electric bills, that your generous giving keeps that fun going. If you're saying, where can I give that's just going to go to help someone? Very much like the Corinthian offering, love your neighbor. Just going said, I'm going to give to love your neighbor fund. That goes directly to caring for those in our community. When you give here to Northland Church. We support missionaries, the ministries that we're doing. But Paul's generosity, I think, just spreads out into our life that, as Christians, we are to love generously, not just with our money. I think our money matters. I'm not afraid to talk about money in this regard. Paul talked about it. It shows where we put our heart, but also with our life. Like, we need to have some planned generosity just in things we do for people, not financially, necessarily, but just caring for them and taking care of them. And then we need that spontaneous giving, where we go, I had no idea I was going to help you, but I have a little extra, and you needed it. I didn't know I was there, so I gave that spontaneously. I have plan generous giving, and I have spontaneous giving. I have planned kind of generous living, where you care for people and reach out to them, and you have spontaneous giving. That's going to be this week, someone's going to call and say, hey, can you come here, move something? and you'll go, wasn't on my calendar, but I am free in that time. Sure, I'll come help you move. Kind of spontaneous. Others, though, you're going, I'm planning this. I want to be generous with my love. Third, we want to serve each other through supporting love. I think that happens 2 ways here at Northland. One way is just as we support missionaries and the work that they're doing. There's a wall. If you leave the sanctuary and head down past the bathrooms, there's a wall that has missionaries and church plant people that we support on the wall. It's a good way to see people we directly support, very much like Paul and Timothy who are out serving in different parts of the world. And as you give to Northland, we're able to support them and take care of them. Our campus plant that is starting next week is down right now, setting up and doing a dry run, and some of the money you give here is helping support them and the work that they're doing to reach riverside. There's a sense where we need to be supporting those who are doing ministry, kind of holding the line for them as a Corinthians were doing for Paul. And as he was telling them to do for Timothy. And we're also to be hospitable. He said, could you put Timothy at ease when he comes there? And I want to come spend time with you, is what Paul said, that the relationship that he had with the Corinthians was a supporting relationship, not just that they helped him financially, but that they were supporting him in what he was doing. And here at Northland. We need to cultivate community outside of the confines of scheduled events, Sunday morning worship, abide forge life groups. those are all great things. We can come together and spend time together. But I want to encourage you, be hospitable. I think this week, who can I invite? To go to dinner? Maybe to come into my home and have a meal, or go out and get coffee somewhere, that you're cultivating community outside of the event structure that the church kind of creates, that we say, here are some things you can come to. You are starting to cultivate this supporting love as you care for others and lean into them and hear about what's going on in their life and spend time with them. And then finally serve each other through thankful love. Paul gave this idea of Stefanus, who has served faithfully. One famous. He was just doing his thing in Corinth, and Paul says, recognize this guy. There are people in your life who serve faithfully. And care for you deeply in all sorts of ways. And I want to encourage you this week to put someone in your mind and go, I'm going to let them know I am thankful for the thing they do. I'm thankful for the work they're doing. I want to honor them and give recognition of them. I wanna serve them through thankful love through telling them, hey, I recognize the thing that you're doing. I've seen the service that you've given. I want to recognize you. I see you. Because a lot of times most of the service people do. It's not in front of people, there's no award ceremony for that. They're just out serving and loving. And sometimes you just need to say thank you. It may be a spouse. It may be a brother or sister. Maybe a next-door neighbor who's done things. Could be someone in this church. People in the nursery who watch our kids during service or teach our kids downstairs. And you say, I want to thank you for what you do and compliment them and just put in your kind of rotation, things to do this week. Find someone this week and next week to say thank you too. To compliment, to recognize the service that they give. God's called us. to serve each other in love. We are to love God and love others. Our worship team, Micah is going to come up here and lead us in a song of worship. And as you're singing, I want you to think about how can I courageously, and generously, and thankfully serve others. How can I support others with my service? How can I care for them? And if you're here and you don't know who Jesus Christ is and why we talk about love in this way, I encourage you to come see myself or go to the back corner. We have a prayer corner. If you need to pray about anything, Pastor Blake's back there, he'll love to pray with you. and work with you with any situation that you have. But if you're struggling with, I need to learn to love more. Head to the back. We'd love to help you with that. that we would be a church that's known for serving each other in love and not just attending an event. Will you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for your son. That he came, not to be served, but to serve, and that he gave his life, to ransom us from sin and death. Father, we pray as a church that we would reflect that truth in our lives, that we would love others. generously and thankfully. Father, you would, through us, give hope to those around us, because of your son, you would open our eyes to opportunities this week, to share your love with people. to show them that we care. And that we see them, that we recognize them, and that we honor the service that they've done. Father, we love you. in your son's name, we pray. Amen.