VALENTINE SPECIAL: – God and Love – Christian Dating Magazine

let’s frame I have only father we we are amazed and we were so thankful for the love that you have shown us through your son Jesus Christ father your love is greater than all of our pain all of our concerns all of our anxieties all of our hurts all the things that we’ve experienced in the past all that we will ever experience in the future your love preserves us and your love has come down your love came down in the person of Jesus Christ to redeem us to set us free father we do not deserve such a remarkable and incredible and priceless gift what I pray that each of us will lift up our eyes to you to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that ultimate gift the one who not only redeems us but sanctifies us the one who works in us the one who will never leave us nor forsake us the one who is faithful to complete that glorious work begun in us Lord let us fix our eyes towards that eternal City knowing that one day we will be home we will see you face to face or there will be no more pain no more loss there will be no more hurt and the full reality of all that love is will be fully experienced guide let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author the perfecter of our faith father we give this time to you and we present ourselves to you Lord we ask that you would be glorified as we open your word father we ask that the Lord Jesus be lifted up father I pray that if there are any here today who do not know you have not yet placed their faith in trust in you Lord Jesus that today would be that day and I pray for those of us who do profess your name Lord that we might better understand just how amazing your love is and all the vet amines and all that implies for us as your children in Jesus name Amen it’s good to see you today happy I’m just check-in hopefully you know this is an important day do you know have I read correctly that approximately 1 billion just less than 1 billion cards are exchanged on Valentine’s Day this time of year that’s mind bottling and if you read what happened in Iran Iran I believe it was some kind of a deal that they called that a satanic thing exchanging Valentine’s Day so while they may not be exchanging them freely in Iran all over the world people are exchanging Valentine’s cards now men husbands I should say if what I just said right now is scared you because you forgot something I mean I just strongly suggest that on your way out get D to a target rather quickly grab a card and maybe you can write something really nice and you might want to go out for a meal or something as well but I do pray that you do have a good Valentine’s bin’ is and wise if you’re here and this is not to exclude people who are not having them wise but know there’s my so just raise your hand wow that’s awesome this is awesome you know what your marriage matters and we’re going to talk today about a love that that we can build our marriages on but we’re gonna take also the broader look at all that is God’s love as best we can in the short time that we’re here now we can build our relationships upon the love of God the thing that’s real interesting about Valentine’s and I don’t know about you but my favorite Valentine’s Day gifts are not those and cars are nice those are nice right my favorite ones though that are those handwritten things that’s just me particularly those handwritten things that you know that mean a lot and and you go and someone took the time to write and and you think of when your kids you know parents any of your kids draw yeah little Valentine’s things for those the coolest thing in the world man hallmark can’t make anything like that and I think about Valentine’s cards and Valentine’s Day gifts is that we just don’t we don’t do that for just anybody right it’s for the people that are nearest and dearest to us those that we we love profoundly we want to say here happy Valentine’s I love you and to me what’s interesting about this whole idea of Valentine’s Day is this is one time of year there’s one time I’ve you ever want you say here I want to do something special to say I love you love is is is more than that it’s Valentine’s Day you get the card maybe get a box of chocolates maybe you get a gift card to the académie made you get flowers maybe some of your overachievers and you bought your spouse the BMW that’s waiting at home or or that gift from Jarrod’s and if so god bless you honey that’s not happening I’m sorry when you get home so but the thing is is that we show and we want to do things that say I love you but again it’s like it’s one time of year and all too often after that one time I fear things go back to normal right you go back to normal and what that really says to me about our understanding of love is just how frail and imperfect it is and how we’re all still in process of growing and understanding what love is and what love should be not only do we have this issue of what is love that it naturally pops up during Valentine’s Day but then there are also the cultural lies that we buy into as far as what love is and what love does and some of these things encourage some profound distortions for example the the Hollywood fairy tale Nicholas Sparks Princess Bride version of love that you complete me version of love that’s out there and so what happens is if we buy that lie then we run around and we look for a person who will do something in our lives that really only God can do no person can complete you we’ve talked about this before only God because all of us have this god-shaped hole in our lives and only he can fill it and when we look to a to do that we turn them into an idol and we’re asking them to do something they cannot do no person can do and so when we wrestle them we’re trying to understand what this is Lia this whole is with my heart and what is love we must ultimately look to our Lord and Savior we must look to him to understand what love is this is not just a romantic love that’s a lower form of love we’re talking about a highest the highest form of love the kind of love that God has for us the kind of love that calls that he calls us to have and that is a love that that we call agape love a love that is a commitment to the other person a love that is an act of the will it goes beyond emotions and it goes beyond to the the warm fuzzies and let me in just let you in a little bit of a secret if you’re hoping to get married one day or if you are newly married or whatnot emotions have been flow things like that change and so if you build your marriage upon your emotions that’s a very dangerous thing okay but when we understand love is agape love is an act of the will and which we say I I willingly want to choose to to love even if it’s not I don’t always have the warm fuzzies even if it’s hard at times by God’s grace I’m going to ask him to enable me to love as I should and that’s that’s for the great love stories it’s real wonderful love stories come from you want some more the most beautiful thing in the world to me is when you see a couple that says oh we’ve been married X amount of years 40 50 60 in that amazing that’s beautiful but in our culture today what you often hear like what we fell out of love it didn’t work out we fell out of love and and and the idea that again that’s basing love on emotion there is a higher form agape love which again requires the work of the Lord in us it requires us being continually filled with the spirit it requires the Word of God dwelling richly within us and transforming our minds it requires us abiding in Christ so that we can be common so that we can love as we are called to do and it also requires for us to have a true understanding of what love is and this is not our text and also what love does a true north so to speak as opposed to the Nicholas Sparks version of love must be reminded of what Paul said in first Corinthians and we’ve gone over this text in detail before but what love is and what love does the kind of love that God calls us to is this in first Corinthians 13 4 through 8 you can just write this down love is patient and kind love does not envy or boast it is not arrogant or rude it does not insist on its own way it is not irritable or resentful it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth love bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things love never ends so this is our true north what we’re aiming for we’re not aiming for the the thing we see on the Hallmark card or the thing we see on the what was ever the channel is it shows all the the one ok the Hallmark Channel I guess they have my own channel too we’re not aiming for that well we’re aiming for is that we’re aiming for that which is true ok that which is true Romans 5:8 this is not our primary text either and so I know you’re probably thinking get the primary text Romans 5:8 is also something that helps us understand again that true north and this is what God has done for us for God demonstrated his love for us in this while we were still sinners Christ died for us while we were still sinners is really the huge part in this because it’s not like while we were great and wonderful people that God said oh I just am so amazed by how lovable they are in fact what God is doing is he’s saying this is my sinful creation I created them they rebelled against me and yet I love them and I’m going to pursue them and I’m going to show them my love by sending my son who will die and take the punishment that they deserve that is love we don’t deserve that so again these are True North things things that point us in the right direct action your things that should amaze us God’s love is immeasurably great so on Valentine’s Day is we think about love I really want to encourage us to think about the greatest love that exists the love that God has for us and if we want to understand what true love is to look to him and as we understand how God loves us we can better understand how we too are called to love our spouse is our family our friend our neighbors one another so now we’ll get to our primary text please turn to first John chapter 4 not the Gospel of John but first John towards the very end of your New Testament okay first John chapter 4 we’ll be looking at verses 7 through 10 first John chapter 4 verses 7 through 10 first time is a very short book and so if you if you feel like I’m it just just keep looking it’s back there you’ll hit it but first John chapter 4 verses 7 through 10 John writes this the Apostle John beloved let us love one another for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love and this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through him and this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins now we’re going to break this down verse by verse and make some application points along the way so let’s start with verse 7 beloved let us love one another for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God verse 7 is the key to this entire section here okay so everything that flows from here is really verse 7 is kind of like the linchpin upon all of this john is addressing Christian’s here and how we are to love one another and central to this the kind of love that John is talking about is the kind of love we spoke of earlier not friendship love not romantic love not sensual expressions of love it is again that committed love that is called a gap a love the kind of love that God has for us he calls us to have one another it’s not based on emotions it’s not based on worthiness we’re not based on the one that we were called to love this love is actually an evidence that we belong to God notice again in verse 7 beloved beloved let us love one another for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God so a few things as far as main ideas here the main idea first of all is that love is to be a habitual practice for those who belong to God that we learn to love one another it’s expected because we’ve been born again and the Spirit of God lives within us God has poured out his love on us and we are therefore changed and in the process of being changed and because God is love we are to be like our Heavenly Father it’s not always easy is it is love easy no it’s hard work at times it’s very hard work and that’s one of the things I get concerned about when it comes to marriage is that sometimes people like me and this is just so hard yes sometimes love can be and marriage can be hard work but it’s worth it you don’t dispose you don’t flow away because what we fall we fall out of love or this that or the other God calls us to love and the kind of love that we’re to have for one another is an act of the will and so we ask the Lord Jesus to enable us to become the people that we might love as we should we’re also empowered to love by the Spirit of God because we belong to God and we’re now new creations in Christ this is also evidence that we belong to God that we were his children he says whoever loves has been born of God and knows of God so this is pretty important stuff how well we love or if we do love and it’s talking about a pattern of being a loving person as an indicator that we belong to the Lord Jesus is that we belong to God whoever loves as God loves has been born of God or born again and knows God now why is that again the standard is agape love and that can only come from God that can only come from God doing that saving work in our lives giving us a new birth making us new creations his spirit working in us enabling us and ways to love that we would not ordinarily do so and again that’s not always easy because the spirit and our flesh are at times at war with one another so this text is not saying that you’re not going to blow it okay I think if we were to ask how many of us have blown it in terms of how well we love you bouncing yeah I’ve blown it I’ve blown it as long as you’re on this side of eternity you will it’s why in John’s letter this first John that when he wrote this to Christians that he acknowledged it we’re gonna have struggles on this side of eternity write this down this is also in first John it’s earlier first John chapter 1 verses 8 through 10 if you’re one of those people who right now are saying you know what wow if if if John is saying that how well I love others is it means you know is a direct relationship between how if I really do belong to God man sometimes I’m really struggling so what do I really belong write this down first John 1 8 through 10 if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves again this was written to Christians and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we say we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us in other words you are not perfect I’m not perfect she’s not perfect we’re not perfect sometimes love is really challenging and sometimes we’re gonna blow it okay but when we do were able to confess that to our Father and he forgives us now this idea and this understanding that we’re not perfect that we will not fully yet be all that we desire to be until one day we’re on the other side and we were finally free from this body of sin and death is not a reason or an excuse for us to say oh well that’s just who I am and I’ll just do what I want to do I don’t have to worry about anything no one’s perfect so I’ll just you know whatever no that’s not what love does and that’s not how love behaves and I’m very glad that God does not treat us that way every time that we fail him John flips this thing around now to make sure that we understand this big point if everyone who loves as God loves is born of God and knows God therefore it follows in verse 8 anyone who does not love and this means a pattern of love and you want to design have this pattern of love does not know God because God is love this is look at what John is saying it’s pretty important what John is saying is if a gap a love does not character life characterize whether your life in general if there’s no fruit showing that kind of love and in your life or in my life then John go so far as to say then you really don’t belong to God that’s a strong statement now why is that because God Himself is love so a graceless loveless person doesn’t belong to God because they’ve not yet encountered God who is love they’ve not yet been transformed and so if you have all this junk in this hatred and whatnot and then say oh yes I I love God but I hate people there’s something wrong right there’s something wrong there and no one actually says that it’s usually an attitude the heart so if I have all this stuff inside of me so yeah I love God but inside there’s hatred and all sorts of things that are displeasing to God then know something’s not right something is really wrong that’s what John is saying love is inherent because of who God is love is inherent in all that he does everything that God is his nature the fact that he is love even God’s judgment and wrath that’s a whole other theological discussion even God’s judgment and wrath are in perfect harmony with his perfect love so here’s what God wants us to know I’ll make it very simple God wants us to know this my children bear a family resemblance does that make sense my children bear family resent resemblance my mom is here and my stepdad is here and always Glavine when I get to see them and they drive all the way over here to worship with us and the family resume wasn’t if it you can see myself my mom at time then because if he knew my if you’d see my dad before he passed away there was a resemblance there but you know what it’s like and you can see it in your own children those family resemblances right God expects to see that in us and there should be a resemblance if we say we belong to him there should be things in our life that say you know what I can look at that person and I can see Christ because I mean I look at that person’s that person is perfect but I sees things within that person that say yes that is a reflection of their relationship with the Living God so how well we love or do not love tells us a lot about whether or not we belong to God or even if we truly know God according to John that’s a huge statement if you look at that passage does not anyone does not love God does not know God now when he talks about no there that word no does not mean no things about is talking about relational knowledge being in relationship with so anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love truly knowing him when I was you know one of the things that this is this something just an insight into into pastors okay and the things that when you’re preparing a sermon that you wrestle with and that you go through every single time and it happens without fail and so this last week on February I think the 8th was my 29th year anniversary and ministry which was like like man time time goes fast so all those years are preparing messages this that in the other one of the things there’s always been a constant it’s been very interesting is is that when I go through a text and I tell this to you all the time I am NOT preaching at you I preach to myself first because as I’ve prayed over and worked through the text over the course of the week man God just works on me first does that make sense I hope it does I want you to understand that’s something that’s really significant to me because I don’t want to get up and ever just slap something together and just preach at people it has to go through me first and so when I was the preaching calendars been up for some time is the things I prayed through and I saw I was going through this and I was like okay well I need to really pray and wrestle through this and one of the things that really struck out if we are called or struck me where they’re so strongly we are called to love in this way okay the God calls us to love this profoundly the thing that really convicted me was like okay Kevin identify whatever those things are in your life that would hinder you from loving as you’re called to love and we all have things that hinder us things that we allow into our life it may be that we elevate something above God that’s called idolatry right so if I’ve got to say my idol is success whatever success is and whatever your field is and that is the thing that I serve the most then guess what I am NOT going to love God as I should because he now is second and I’m not gonna love others first because success is my idol or it could be money you see what I’m saying could be any thing like that right that would be a stumbling block I need to identify what those things are I need to deal with them ruthlessly remember Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount What did he say if something caused you to sin he went to great extremes right your right eye causes you to sin do what now of course he didn’t mean that literally that was hyperbole to drive home that point it was to deal with it deal harshly and ruthlessly with sinner life don’t let it fester and so if I’m called to love this way I have to identify the things in my life and say okay these are things that might grieve the spirit and not enable or get in the way of me loving as I should so therefore I must deal with them and I want to encourage you to do the same things as well as to just to pray and to say okay lord help me to see those things that are perhaps in my life that I need to give over to you so that I might love as I should because it’s very apparent you expect me to love and I’m going to tell you this just so that you can know so you can hear it from the horse’s mouth because I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings okay so I want you to hear me correctly one of the things that really hit me was and I’ve been talking with Priscilla about this probably the past three years when I work with the denomination I worked with college students Facebook first launched right the year that I started and that was a way and my launch time he went public to everybody it was just the college student thing that’s all that’s the only way they communicated so I mean you set it up and you go and over the years of preaching you get all these quote-unquote friends you you accumulate from all over and I’ve been until embers sold that past cult beers I was like man you know what it’s just the past few years it seems like civility is going out the window man I like looking because I like seeing pictures of my kids friends I like seeing funny things like that yeah I check the notifications right but there were time to pass fewer I said man I’m just gonna dump the whole thing but it’s like well Zuckerberg he’s got all my pictures though so I can’t do that I don’t know how to get him back from Zuckerberg so if you know how to do that let me know I’d like to know how to do that there’s thousands of them there I can’t notice it over the last few years I never will forget that there was Sun I just kept I was like oh man this is and so I was kicking I was you know that TV show Survivor you know one thing where you get voted off the island or whatnot I had to vote people off the island over years they’re like some folks were just like oh it’s just horrible this continual that justice stuff it’s like I don’t need to see that and after walking just be it can it can really get to you it gets a cumulative effect and some of the past few years until wall is working through this this past week I was just like you know Lord I just think this is one of those things the world is dark enough as it is there’s enough real junk going on as it is and so this is not anything I’m telling you the church to do okay this is my own conviction I’m as being honest with you that I need to deal ruthlessly with those things in my life that would prevent me from loving the way that I should and so I am downsizing just a family to the people that have known me for years one of my pastor friends said this he goes yeah I’ve bought Facebook friends if anybody in my church I just think because no matter what it is a pastor puts up someone the church is gonna misinterpret it which is true what are you talking about me like no it’s just just putting stuff up so I just want you to know there’s nothing I love you on too soon have a church directory it’s actually I’ve gotten to know a lot of your faces and names it’s been very helpful but please don’t be upset if you see why did pastor Kevin unfriend me what I’m actually doing is I’m gonna unfriend about 3,800 people and that’s gonna take a long time but I’m starting them cuz I realize you know what I don’t I I have a choice I can either choose to continue allow this stuff to roll in and that affects my heart and my ability to love as I should or I can say no you know what I I want to guard my heart and Jesus said to deal ruthlessly with things that might cause me to stumble so that’s what I’m doing yeah is that clear folks do you understand it’s not anything vindictive towards y’all I’m actually gonna tell everybody else no offense nothing like that but I just feel the need to create that safe space okay so that my heart will be protected and I would encourage you back to the original point whatever is in your life whether it’s an idol or a potential stumbling block that prevents you from loving as you should may I submit to you deal with it ruthlessly so that you won’t stumble and fall okay Paul Paul John transitions now from talking about us and what is expected of us to what God has done for us and this is where we see this amazing picture of love in verse nine in this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through him here’s another reason John gives that we as Christians love the unbelievable gift of God’s love for us the sacrificial gift and sending his son to redeem us God’s sending his son to die for us that we might live through him John is pointing us to the most incredible display of love in human history God sending his son the greatest gift ever given to humanity greater than anything you’ll ever receive in your entire life he did this that we might be born again that we might be given new life that our sins shame and guilt would be covered by Christ look at verse 10 because what’s amazing in this as in every true love story someone pursues and the Nicholas Sparks Tufts you have you know well things change now these days but you always have one person whether it’s the guy pursuing to rescue the girl the girl pursuing the rescue the guy someones pursuing someone even greater than this is God pursues us in this verse 10 is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins please note how does this love relationship with God how is it initiated do we do it look at the text look at me look at the text who’s pursuing who God’s pursuing us God pursues us we don’t initiate it in fact in our natural state the scriptures say quite clearly read all of Romans chapter 3 if you would that we are spiritually dead that we are God’s enemies according to Scripture – in fact read all of Romans if you would in our sinful state that we have all taken up as CS Lewis said arms against our Creator and committed high and cosmic treason we do not pursue God in our rebellious nests rather God in his Grayson and his love pursues us but again for those of you who are married and almost going to assume for a live you miss men how many of you men pursued your wife dummy better raise your hand and just saying remember those days tell you what when when Priscilla when I my introduction even I was like wow and I you know I I was just like committed to staying in ministry and I really wasn’t really thinking about wanting to I don’t know I just wasn’t thinking in terms of things and and I’m at the gym where I workout and her pictures on the wall but the very first time the man who was the manager of the gym is a Christian and I asked made a statement I walked by I said wow that is a beautiful well turns out beautiful lighting well she teaches one of our classes in here I was like huh I’m auditor robux kind of a guy but I can always just kind of meander my way over there you know and he said I’ll introduce you now I never forget because as well as weird deals in that I you know not the kind of person was they you know that was a girl there and you get inert and nervous remember somebody’s no it’s like a nervous wreck that day I just sort of like why am i nervous I’m it was this is ridiculous and he introduces us and I’m sure I stammered and probably spoken gibberish and whatnot but I never forget when I when I saw her I was like that person it wasn’t us because of her looks it was just the way we were talking and she’s a Christian and resonating and I just like man wants chase her I’m gonna pursue her and I did I did love pursues right and this is like the amazing thing and we look at that in our own light it’s okay I get that love pursues but you see here’s the thing let’s say you know we’re driving home you know that I’m not saying it’s about you let’s say that we sat down the very first time that I met her and I’m sitting on that gym bench and she’s sitting there and we’re talking let’s say that she looked at me and she just like whatever who are you you’re a loser and she just starts to insulting me just adding the other right I’m not gonna pursue her I’m probably gonna go tuck my you know tail would Tim I like walk away and say okay forget that that didn’t work out or I might even really ticked off and said he didn’t want she is a jerk I’m not pursuing her we don’t do that in our human relationships right when someone but God does that to us we’ve sinned against him and every sin that we ever commit is directly against him and God is a holy God the just God and it grieves him and it breaks his heart so no God did not pursue us because we are such wonderful loveable warm fuzzy people we are wretches and God pursued us to save us because God is love that should amaze us we don’t deserve this god is love he’s also holy and he can’t fellowship with sin and again because we’re sinners by nature and because God is just and must punish sin and we’re deserving of that punishment yet God demonstrates his love for us in this Christ Jesus died for us whereas John wrote in his and his gospel for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believed in him would not perish but have everlasting life God pursues as undeserving as we are and this should be so amazing and this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins this love is not amazing this story of love between God and man is not amazing because we decided to love God that we pursued him it’s amazing because he chose to love us because he pursued us because He gave His Son for us that we might be rescued that we might be reconciled that we might be forgiven that is love that is Grace when he says he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins that word propitiation you might say well what does that mean it’s a Greek word that means to be that means appeasement or satisfaction meaning the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross satisfied all the demands of God’s justice and His Holiness for the punishment of sins Jesus satisfied or appeased all of the demands of God’s justice against our sin on that cross Jesus on that cross took our sin upon himself and took the punishment that we deserved and God’s justice and his holiness and his righteousness were satisfied because of Jesus we did not deserve that if you’ve been paying attention this whole text on love is really the story of the greatest love ever God’s love for Humanity the story of God pursuing us it’s a call for us to grow in love and to love as we should so the questions as we close for today the first and they the ultimate question for all of us who are here today have you received that love through Jesus Christ have you given your life to him have you received that free gift because that’s where everything starts if you haven’t you can’t earn yourself to be forgiven you can’t clean yourself up God is the only one who can do that that’s what Jesus did on the cross and it’s offered freely as a gift for all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved you’ve not yet done that that’s where you’ve gotta start God loves you and you can receive that gift today for those of us who would say yes I am a I’m a follower of Christ I think the next challenge for us with a big challenge for us is to say lord help me to love the way that you call me to love because it’s not always easy but I want to bear that family resemblance to you I want to love as as you call me to love the last thing I would say for all of us Valentine’s Day once a great anything wrong with Valentine’s Day but let’s not settle for the idea of a once-a-year time in which we express love because for the Christian love is to characterize who we are well others to characterize who we are unlike Kristen Bowery has we’re an award of Prayer followed by a time of invitation and this is a holy time and so it asks that you please not disturb your neighbor and and she’d let the person next to you respond however they need to if you’re here this morning and you have not yet received that free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ as you saw a chase in the baptistry he his story is one of em giving his life to Christ and him beginning to follow Jesus you can do that today when we stand and when we sing if you want to know what that’s like or how to do that I’m gonna ask you to do something very courageous and that’s just to leave where you’re seated and you can just walk down the aisle and you can just I’ll be up front and you can say I I want to know how to follow Jesus I just want to give my life to Him I want to know this love if you’re looking for a church home and you believe this is where the Lord wants you to plant yourself I also would ask you to during this time of invitation while we’re singing this to come forward you can see out I’d like to plant myself here I wanna this is where I want to belong and we’ll set up a time to meet and we’ll share with you how you can you join this church yet others you may want to come forward and use the front as an altar to pray maybe want someone to pray with you this is an open time you respond as the Lord leads okay Heavenly Father I want to thank you for the amazing love that you’ve shown us through your son Jesus Christ father you desire and you expect to see a family resemblance within us and so we ask Holy Spirit that you would make us very sensitive to you to our father and that we would grow in that resemblance to our Heavenly Father help us to love well and father for those who are here today who were really not sure where they stand with you well I ask that you might grant them courage to come forward and just to express that so that they can leave here today not confused but assured father we give you this time of invitation and we ask that you would help each of us to respond to you as you were leading and I pray this in Jesus name Amen you