Life in the Spirit

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Romans 8:5-11.

            “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.”  The Apostle Paul, who wrote the letter the Romans, made that distinction between the flesh and the Spirit pretty often.  So did Jesus, for that matter.  In Galatians Paul tells us about the acts of the flesh versus the fruit of the Spirit.  As Christians, we are supposed to live our lives according to the ways of the Spirit, not the ways of the flesh.

            And we hear that, and we kind of nod our heads.  It sounds good.  Live by the ways of God.  Live as God would have us live.  Set aside our human concerns and focus on divine concerns.  Sounds logical.  Makes sense, if you’re a Christian.

            It sounds good, but actually living it is a lot trickier.  Because those ways of the flesh are pretty important to us.  And it’s perfectly understandable why.  I mean, this flesh thing is the only thing you and I have ever lived in, right?  And this world is the only world you and I have ever lived in.  It’s out entire reality, in a lot of ways.  It’s our only frame of reference.  It’s all we’ve ever known.

            And so we get pretty protective of this flesh we live in.  We do what we can to keep it going.  Most of us try to eat right.  We try to get some exercise.  We try to get enough rest.  We don’t always succeed at those things, but even when we don’t we feel like we should.  That’s why nobody ever lost money promoting a diet or exercise program.  We’re all trying to keep this flesh we live in going as long as we can.

            That’s also why we get so scared when something like COVID comes along.  And don’t get me wrong, this is not a criticism of anyone.  I’m not saying we should not be concerned about it or we should not take precautions to keep away from it.  My point is simply to emphasize how important this human body is to each of us and how much it scares us when our human body is threatened.

And again, that’s understandable.  I’m not saying it’s wrong.  But here’s the thing:  each of us, at some point, is going to die.  And of course, that was true long before COVID came along.  No matter how much we eat right and exercise and get our rest and get physical check-ups and get screened and everything else, at some point each of us is going to die.  This human body was only designed to last for so long.  Maybe eighty years, maybe ninety, maybe even a hundred or more.  But no matter how hard we try to prevent it, each of us is going to reach our expiration date.

            Now, again, obviously, I’m not saying that we should do anything to make that date come sooner.  God put us here for reasons.  There are things we’re supposed to do while we’re here.  And in fact, as long as we are here that means there are still things God wants us to do.  But the fact remains that, at some point, we’ll run out of time to do those things.  It will be time to leave here, move on, and find out what comes next.

            And so, while this flesh we live in is very important, our Spirit is even more important.  And so, as the Apostle Paul says, you and I need to live in the realm of the Spirit.  That’s the only way we can please God.  We need to have our minds governed by the Spirit.  That’s the only way we can have life and peace.  We need to have God’s Holy Spirit living in each of us.  That’s the only way we can truly belong to Christ.

            So, here’s the question--how can we do that?  How can we get past the importance of our flesh and get to where we truly live in the realm of the Spirit, so that we can please God?  How can we get to where our minds are governed by the Spirit, so we can have life and peace?  How can we have God’s Holy Spirit living in us, so we can truly belong to Christ?

            Well, I think it starts with a decision on our part.  I say that because God has already made His decision.  We know God wants us to live in the realm of the Spirit.  We know God wants our minds to be governed by the Spirit.  But God’s not going to force it on us.  We have to make the decision that we want that.  We have to make the decision that we want to live in the realm of the Spirit, that we want our minds to be governed by the Spirit, that we want to have God’s Holy Spirit live in us.

            Now, maybe it seems like it’s obvious that we should want that, but think about it.  If we really want that, then the chances are that we’re going to need to make some changes in our lives.  And I don’t mean to imply that we’re all bad or evil or sinful or anything like that.  I mean, yes, as Paul writes in the letter to the Romans, we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.

            What I’m talking about is that any time we want anything, at least anything that’s important, the chances are that we’re going to have to give up some things to get it.  When Wanda and I decided that I’d become a pastor, that meant I had to give up some things.  So did Wanda.  We both had to be willing to give up our employment.  I had to be willing to go back to school for three years.  We had to be willing to leave a town that we really liked, and leave friends who we really cared about.  Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s all been worth it.  I have never spent one minute regretting the choice we made.  But still, there were things we had to give up to get to where we are.  And there still are.  That’s just the way it works.

            And the things Wanda and I had to give up were not bad things.  There was nothing inherently wrong with the jobs we had.  There was nothing wrong with the town we lived in--we still like going back to visit there.  There was nothing wrong with the people--we still keep in touch with a lot of them.  But still, we had to give them up, because God had something different in mind for us.  It was a great place to live, with great people--but it was not the place God wanted us to be.  It was for a while, but then it was not.  And we had to give it up.

            I’m sure you can think of examples like that in your life, too.  Times when you knew you needed to make a change in your life, but you knew you would have to give up some things to do it.  There may have been nothing inherently wrong with those things, but you had to give them up anyway.  Because anything worth having requires giving something up to get it. Again, it’s just the way life works.  

            And God’s Holy Spirit requires us to give things up, too.  There may not be anything inherently wrong or bad about those things.  There may be nothing wrong or bad about the way we’re living our lives.  But even so, there is probably something, probably more than one thing, that we need to give up.  Because God has something different in mind for us.  And if we want to live in the realm of the Spirit, if we want to have God’s Holy Spirit living in us, we need to give up those things in order to have that.

            So it starts with a decision on our part that we really want God’s Holy Spirit living in us.  But it does not end there.  Because, this is not something you and I can do by ourselves.  We have to do our part, but we cannot do it by ourselves.  Because giving up things, things that we like, people that we like, a way of life that we like, is hard.  Even if we fully believe it’ll be worth it, it’s still hard.  And if we try to do it on our own, the chances are we’ll slip back.  No matter how good our intentions are, we will probably slip back.  We are not strong enough.

            So that brings us to the other thing we need to do.  If we want to live in the realm of the Spirit, if we want God’s Holy Spirit living in us, we need to pray.  

            Because, as I said earlier, God wants this for us.  God wants us to live in the realm of the Spirit.  God wants us to have our minds governed by the Spirit.  And so, when we pray, when we ask God to help us do this, God will give us that help.  God will strengthen our resolve.  God will help us resist the temptation to slip back.  God’s Holy Spirit will show us what God wants for us, and God’s Holy Spirit will help us get it.

            But here’s the thing.  And this may be the best thing at all.  What do we get for all this?  Paul tells us.  We get peace.

            And is that not what we all need right now?  Would you not like to feel at peace with everything that’s going on?  When it feels like so many things in the world have gone sideways, it would be awesome to feel peace.

            But what is peace?  It’s not things going the way we want them to.  It’s knowing that we’ll be okay no matter how things go.  It’s still okay to want things.  It’s still okay to ask God for things.  But if we’re living in the realm of the Spirit, we’ll have confidence that we’ll be okay whether God does those things or not.  We’ll truly mean it when we say, “Thy will be done.”  We’ll trust that God is in control, whether it’s obvious or not.  We’ll know that God is taking care of things, even if we cannot see God working right now.  

            But we don’t just get peace.  We get life.  Life in the realm of the Spirit.  And that helps us have peace, too.  Because we know that there is another life after this one.  We still want to keep our lives here, of course, and that’s okay.  We should want that.  Again, God has things for us to do while we’re here.  But we know that, even under the best circumstances, this flesh we live in is still only temporary.  And no matter how long we live, it’s not very long compared to eternity.  But when we live in the realm of the Spirit, we know this life in the flesh is not the only life.  We know we will go on to eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.

            So, will we make that decision?  Will we decide that we want to have our minds governed by the Spirit?  Will we decide we want to live in the realm of the Spirit?  And will we pray and ask God to help us make that decision a reality?

            Life in the flesh is important, but life in the Spirit is more important.  May we all find the life and peace that comes from living in the realm of God’s Holy Spirit.

Maturing as Christians

The message given on October 31, 2021 in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are 1 Corinthians 3:1-11.

            I’m sure some of us have heard that line of Paul’s before, about having to give people milk instead of solid food because they were not ready for solid food yet.  But the thing is, we don’t really look at the context of it enough to understand what Paul is saying.

            So many times, I’ve heard people explain this as Paul saying that people don’t know enough to get solid food yet.  He has to keep going back to the basics, because people just cannot or will not learn enough about Jesus for him to move on to more detailed, specific things about faith.

            But as you can see when you read this in context, that’s not what Paul’s saying at all.  The reason Paul has to keep giving people milk instead of solid food is not because they don’t understand enough about God or about Jesus or about anything else.  The problem is not that people don’t understand.  The problem is that people are not putting what they understand into practice in their lives.

            Paul says, “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.  Indeed, you are still not ready.  You are still worldly.”

            You are still worldly.  That has nothing to do with what people understand.  It has to do with how people live.  The people Paul is talking to, the people of Corinth, are not ready to live their lives the way Jesus wants them to live.  They’d rather keep living their lives the way they have been.  The way everyone else does.  The way the world wants them to live.

            But even recognizing that, we still tend to misunderstand this passage.  Because when you think of people living like everyone else does, living the way the rest of the world lives, being “worldly”, what do you think of?

            We tend to think of people putting too much emphasis on the things of the world, right?  Focusing too much on making money, or on having fancy cars and houses, or going on expensive trips, things like that.  Or, maybe spending your time on nothing but worldly pleasures, eating fancy meals, having too much to drink, that sort of thing.  Or, maybe we think of various types of sexual immorality.  But those and other things tend to be what we think of when we think of people being “worldly”

            But none of that is what Paul is talking about here.  Not that he approved of that, but it’s not what he’s talking about.  Listen to what he says.  “You are still worldly.  For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?  Are you not acting like mere humans?  For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?”

            Jealousy and quarreling.  Acting like mere humans.  Following mere humans, rather than following God.  That’s what Paul is talking about when he says people are being “worldly”.  And that’s what’s keeping people from being ready for the solid food of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

            Paul wrote that, of course, to the people of Corinth, and he wrote it almost two thousand years ago.  But I suspect that Paul would apply those same standards to you and me, today.  If we are subject to jealousy and quarreling, if we are following mere humans, if we are acting like mere humans, we, too, are still worldly.  And we, too, are not ready for the solid food of the gospel.

            I wonder how the people of Corinth reacted to that.  For that matter, I wonder how we react to it today.

            When I hear this, there’s a part of me that resists it.  I hear Paul talking about us acting as mere humans, and I think, well, of course I’m acting like a mere human.  I am a mere human.  That’s what God created me to be--a human being.  So naturally I’m going to act like one.  What else am I supposed to act like?  

            And maybe that sounds like a reasonable argument.  But it’s not.  What Paul is saying is that, if we follow Christ, if we’ve accepted Jesus Christ as the Savior, we are no longer mere humans.  We are new people.  We are saved people.  We are God’s people.  

Paul talks about that over and over in his letters.  When we accept Jesus, we are dead to sin.  Sin no longer has control over us.  When we accept Christ, we have new life.  

            And that new life needs to be different, needs to be better, than our old life.  When we accept Christ, our entire way of thinking needs to change.  We need to get rid of things like jealousy and envy.  We need to stop arguing and quarreling.  Our thoughts need to be on a higher level, a holier level.  We need to stop thinking the way mere humans think and stop feeling the way mere humans feel.  Instead, we need to think the way Christ thinks and feel the way Christ feels.  We need to acquire the heart and mind of Christ.

            That’s exactly what Paul says in the verses right before what we read today.  He says, “We...speak a message of wisdom, but not the wisdom of this age...No, we declare God’s wisdom.”  “We speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit.”  “The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for...we have the mind of Christ.”

            Now, I want to make one thing clear.  When we talk about needing to acquire the heart and mind of Christ, we are not saying we need to earn our way into heaven.  Paul is quite clear on the fact that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior, and not by the things we do.  Paul does not say, “Because you are worldly, because you are still acting like mere humans, you are not saved and are going to hell.”  That’s not the point.

            What Paul is saying is that, because you are worldly, because you are still acting like mere humans, you are not truly following Christ.  What Paul is saying, really, is that people are trying to have it both ways.  We want the salvation that comes from faith in Jesus, but we don’t really want to live the way followers of Jesus are supposed to live.  That’s why Paul says he can only give us milk and not solid food--he’s saying we’re like children.  We want to do what we want to do, but we want our Father to be there for us and take care of us and clean up our messes when we get into trouble.  And then once we’re out of trouble, we want to do what we want to do again.  But we still want the Father to take care of us when we get into a mess again.

            Paul is telling us that, to truly follow Christ, we need to grow up.  We need to mature.  We need to live our lives in a way that’s different from the way the rest of the world lives.  We need to live lives that are better.  As Paul says, we are co-workers in God’s service.  Our lives need to show that.  And our lives won’t show that if we continue to surrender to things like jealousy and envy and arguing and quarrelling.

            Now, in saying that we need to live our lives in a way that’s better than the way the rest of the world lives, Paul is not suggesting that we should become arrogant.  He is not suggesting that we should become self-righteous.  Absolutely not.  Jesus reserved some of his harshest words for people who were self-righteous and arrogant.  Paul says that anything he has been able to do has been through the grace God has given him.  And anything we are able to do is through the grace God gives us.  We cannot take credit for any of the things we do.  That credit goes to God.

            Saying that we will no longer act like “mere humans” is not saying that we are superior to others.  It’s saying, again, that we are new people.  That we are saved people.  And that, with the grace God gives us, we are going to live like the new, saved people we are.

            And in growing up, in becoming mature, we also need to take on some responsibility.  Because Jesus told us we do have responsibility--responsibility for sharing the gospel and doing what we can to bring people to Christ.  Jesus laid the foundation for each of us.  But it is up to us, as followers of Christ, to build on that foundation.  And through the grace God has given us, we can do that.  We can build on that foundation.  But we can only do that if we stop acting like “mere humans” and instead live like people who truly do have the heart and mind of Christ.

            The pull of the world is strong.  It’s easy for us to stay “worldly”.  It’s easy for us to continue to act like “mere humans”.  It’s easy to remain immature Christians.  That’s the easy way--but it’s not the way that Jesus told us to live.  It’s time for us to grow up.  It’s time for us to mature.  It’s time for us to take on the responsibility of living lives that are different.  Living lives of service to God.  Building on that foundation that Jesus himself laid for us.

            Growing up and maturing as Christians is not easy.  But by doing that, we can lead people to Jesus Christ.  We can help them have salvation and eternal life.  And there is nothing greater we can ever do in our lives on earth than that.

 

Trusting God in Bad Times

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Isaiah 52:1-12.

            There are a lot of ways in which things on earth are not going well right now.  I don’t mean that as a political statement.  It’s just a statement of fact.  We could talk endlessly about why things are the way they are, and what we ought to do to change them, and we probably would not come to any agreement.  In fact, we might not even come to an agreement on exactly what things are not going well, much less why they are that way and what we ought to do about it.  

            But the fact remains that things are not going well right now in a lot of ways.  And it’s unsettling.  But maybe it’ll help if we remember that this is not the first time things have not gone well on earth.  There are many times in history when things did not go well.  Many times in the Bible when things did not go well, too.  And our reading from Isaiah talks about one of them.

            God, speaking through Isaiah, remembers the time when the people of Israel were sold into slavery.  He remembers when they were oppressed, first by Egypt, and now by Assyria.  God talks about how He is being mocked.  God talks about how all day long, His name is constantly blasphemed.  

            This was a tough time for the people of Israel.  It was a tough time for God, too.  I mean, not that anyone could do anything to God, but God clearly did not like the way He was being treated by the enemies of Israel.

            And so God says, this is not going to go on forever.  God is going to take care of things.  God is going to set things right.  And it’s going to be awesome.  People are going to shout for joy.  They will burst into songs of joy.  God will comfort His people and redeem Jerusalem.  “The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.”

            Now, we have to be a little careful at this point.  It’s easy to start making analogies here.  It’s easy to substitute the United States for Israel, and say that God’s promises to Israel will be fulfilled in the United States.  The Bible does not say that.  God does not promise that.  God does not promise to restore the United States the way God restored Jerusalem.  But I do think there are lessons we can take from what happened to Israel.  We can see how God responds in certain situations, and we can see how God expects God’s people to respond, too.

            First, God does not like being mocked.  God does not like being blasphemed.  God does not like it when He is not given the respect He deserves.

            Now, it’s not that God is thin-skinned or vain or anything like that.  But think about it. Here’s God.  God, the almighty.  God, the all-powerful.  God, the creator of everything.  God, the one without whom no one and nothing would even exist.  And here are these puny human beings making fun of Him.  Here are these puny human beings ignoring Him.  Here are these ignorant human beings speaking out against Him.  I think God has every right to not like it when He is treated that way.  And God has every right to do something about it.

            And God will do something about it.  God will “lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all nations.”  God will use God’s might and power to make things right.  When?  I don’t know.  God has been remarkably patient with human beings so far.  That’s probably another way we could describe God--as the all-patient God.  But God is not eternally patient.  There will come a time when God’s patience will come to an end, and God will set things right.

            We wait for that time.  Some will wait in fear, but as Christians, we really should not be afraid of it.  After all, we--I certainly hope--are not among those who are mocking or blaspheming God.  We may not always give God the respect He deserves, but when we don’t it’s usually more of a slip-up than true disrespect.  For the most part, we try to give God respect.  We try to be faithful.  We try to serve God as best we can, within the limits of our human nature.  If we’re doing that, we really don’t have to fear the time when God’s patience comes to an end.  In fact, we should look forward to it.  We should be among those who shout for joy and burst into songs of joy.

            But the question for us is, as Christians, as people who claim to be God’s people, what are we supposed to do?  Or are we even supposed to do anything?  Are we supposed to just wait quietly for the time God is going to act?

            Well, here’s what God, speaking through Isaiah, says to his people.  God says, “My people will know My name” and “in that day they will know it is I who foretold” what was going to happen.  And because we know that, here’s what we should do.  In verse seven, God says that we should “bring good news, proclaim peace...bring good tidings… [and] proclaim salvation.”

            So, basically, what we are to do is proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, right?  Now, Isaiah does not mention the name of Jesus, because this is the Old Testament.  This is before Jesus came.  But that describes Jesus and His gospel right?  The good news--the word gospel means “good news”.  Peace--we call Jesus the Prince of Peace.  Salvation.  Salvation is only possible through faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  So, without saying the name, God says that what we should do, while we’re waiting for God to act, is proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

            And while we are doing that, we need to stay faithful to God.  We need to live our lives the way God wants us to live them, to the best of our ability.  God says, “Touch no unclean thing.  Come out from it, and be pure, you who carry the articles of the Lord’s house.”

            It was tempting for God’s people then, just like it’s tempting for God’s people now, to go along with what the world did.  Peer pressure is not something that was just invented in modern society.  It’s been around for thousands of years.  The pressure to conform, to do what everyone else does, to not stand out or be thought of as different or strange--that affected people thousands of years ago, just like it does today.

            God tells His people not to do that.  And you can see why.  If we’re going to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ--if we’re going to bring good news and proclaim peace--our lives need to show that we mean what we say.  People need to see that our faith makes us different in some way.  Now that’s not to say that we should be self-righteous or arrogant.  Jesus saved some of his sharpest criticism for people who were self-righteous and arrogant.  But if people cannot see that our faith in Jesus has any effect on our lives--if it looks like we’d be living in pretty much the same way whether we believed in Jesus or not--telling people about Jesus is not likely to be very effective.  We need to stay away from the things of the world that are “unclean”, as Isaiah puts it--the things that take us away from living the way the people of God should live.

            And the other thing God tells his people is to be confident.  Don’t panic.  Don’t get discouraged.  God says, “Do not leave in haste or go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard.”

            That can be hard to do.  When we look at the world, as we see things happening that don’t seem right to us--in fact, lots of things happening that don’t seem right to us--it can be easy to get scared.  It can be easy to get discouraged.  But in a way, this is a test of our faith, right?  This is where we find out whether we really trust God.  

If we don’t trust God, we probably will get discouraged.  And we may start to panic.  I don’t doubt that the people of Israel got discouraged sometimes, when they saw things going wrong for them.  But if we trust God, we don’t need to get discouraged.  If we trust God, then even when we see things going wrong--even when we see a lot of things going wrong--we can stay confident.  We can know that God is seeing all the things that are happening.  And we can know that God is going to use all these things.  God is going to use them, in some way, to bring honor and glory to His holy name.  And God is going to watch over His people while He does it.  God goes in front of us and behind us.  God will always be faithful to us.  We need to be faithful to God.

So when you look at the world, don’t be discouraged, and don’t be scared.  Instead, spread the good news of Jesus Christ.  Live your life in a way that shows you believe in that good news, and in a way that you are different because of that belief.  And be confident, trusting that God will take care of us and that God will ultimately make things go the way they are supposed to go.

Things may be bad, but God is good.  God is great.  And God always wins.  If we stay faithful to God, we will see the greatness and goodness of God.  And we will shout for joy and sing songs of joy.

 

Rescue Me

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, October 24, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 69:1-18.

            When we think of the psalms, we tend to think of things like the twenty-third psalm.  We think of something nice, something peaceful.  We think of something comfortable.  We think of something that talks about God’s protection, about God’s love.  Something that says everything’s all right, everything’s fine.  No worries.

            And there’s nothing wrong with that.  That’s a message we need to hear sometimes.  We need to know about God’s protection, God’s peace, God’s love.  We need to know that, in the end, God will make everything all right, and that we don’t need to constantly worry about things.

            But you know, that’s not the only message we need to hear.  Because life is not always nice.  Life is not always peaceful.  And sometimes it does not seem like everything’s all right at all.  In fact, sometimes, it seems like everything is all wrong.

            And the psalms recognize that.  Our psalm for today, psalm sixty-nine, recognizes that.  The person who wrote this psalm is not peaceful at all.  He’s in trouble.  Big trouble.

            We’re not told what the trouble is.  And I think that’s deliberate.  The author of the psalm does not want us to focus on the specific trouble.  He wants us to focus on his prayer to God.

            Look at how the author of the psalm describes his situation.  He is literally drowning in his troubles.  He says, “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.  I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold.  I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.”

            Have you ever felt like that? Like your troubles are about to overwhelm you?  Like you’re going to drown in them.  Like if something or someone does not save you, you’re going to be swallowed up by your problems?

            I’m sure that some of us have.  I don’t know exactly who, and I don’t exactly what the problems were, but I know there are some of us who have felt that way.  Maybe there’s someone here who’s feeling that way now.  

And by the way, that feeling has nothing to do with the strength of our faith.  Even if we have a strong faith, even if we firmly believe in God and believe in Jesus as the Savior, we can still feel like our problems are overwhelming us.  So if you do feel that way, please don’t feel like there’s something wrong with you or that your faith is not strong enough.  Don’t add guilt to all the other things you’re feeling.  It won’t help, and I don’t think God wants you to do that to yourself.

            And sometimes that feeling can last for a long time.  It did for the author of the psalm.  He says he has been crying out for help for so long that he is worn out.  His throat is parched.  Think about that--calling for help for so long that you’ve literally given yourself a sore throat doing it.  Then he says that he’s been looking so hard for God that his eyes are beginning to fail.  And still, he cannot find God.  He cannot see God, and he does not hear God answering his cries for help.

            Again, I am sure that there are at least some people here who have felt that way.  And again, maybe you feel that way now.  Like you’ve been crying out to God, like you’ve been looking all over for God, and--no God.  No God anywhere.  You cannot hear Him, you cannot see Him.  It seems like God is nowhere to be found.

            It’s a bad feeling.  It’s a helpless feeling.  And again, it’s not a matter of faith being weak.  You still believe in God.  You still believe in Jesus as the Savior.  It’s just that--you feel cut off.  You know God is there--somewhere--but where?  Where?  And why can you not feel God there?  You know God would never abandon you, but--why is God not responding to you?  Why is God not helping?  Why does God not seem to be doing anything?  God has to see what’s going on.  And you know God has to care, but--it does not feel like God cares.  You know God loves you, but--you feel cut off from God’s love.

            So the question is:  what can we do?  What can we do when we feel this way?  What can we do when we feel like we’re drowning in our troubles, and we’ve asked God to save us, and it does not feel like God is doing anything.

            Well, let’s look at what the author of the psalm did.  First, he acknowledges that this is, at least to some extent, his own fault.  He says, “You, God, know my folly; my guilt is not hidden from you.”

            It’s important that we recognize that.  Not in a way of making ourselves feel guilty about it.  Again, we don’t need to add guilt to all the things we’re already going through.  But sometimes, when things are going badly, we’re tempted to play the victim.  We’re tempted to feel sorry for ourselves, to blame fate or bad luck or even God for what’s happened.  And there are times when bad things happen through no fault of our own.  But most of the time, we had something to do with the problems we have.  Even if we did not initially create them, there’s usually something we did to make them worse. And it’s important that we recognize that and confess it to God.  If we want God to rescue us from our situation, we need to acknowledge that we had something to do with making the situation what it is.

            The next thing the author of the psalm did is go to God humbly.  He says, “I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face.”  “I weep and fast.”  “I put on sackcloth.”  Weeping and fasting and wearing sackcloth were signs of humility and mourning.  The author of this psalm is going to God in complete humility.  He does not make demands of God.  He does not act like God owes him anything.  He is making it clear that he does not have a right to God’s favor or God’s love.  He does not have a right to expect God to help him.  But he is asking for God’s help anyway.

            He is asking for God to help him.  More than that, he is begging for God to help him.  Not because of who he is, but because of who God is.  Listen to what he says, “I pray to you, Lord, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation.  Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink...Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me.”

            The author of the psalm is not relying on his own goodness.  He is not relying on anything about himself.  He is not asking for help based on who he is.  He is asking for help based on who God is.  He is trusting in God’s love and God’s mercy.  He asks for God’s help because he trusts that God is love.

            And notice, the author of the psalm does not say specifically what he wants God to do.  Rescue him, yes, but not rescue him in any specific way.  He does not tell God what God should do to solve his problems.  In fact, he really does not even ask God to solve his problems at all.  He just asks God to rescue him.  Keep him from being overwhelmed.  Keep him from drowning in his problems.  He leaves it up to God how to do that.  Whatever way God uses will be fine with him.  Just rescue me.  Somehow.  In some way.  Keep me from being overwhelmed.  Rescue me.

            I know that some of us have been through what the author of this psalm is going through.  Some of us may be going through it now.  And some of us may go through it at some point in the future.  Again, not because we don’t have faith, but because life can be hard.  Things can go wrong.  Sometimes really wrong.  Sometimes, so wrong that we don’t see how they’re going to be right again.

            When that happens, know that God understands.  And remember the words of this psalm.  Do what the author of the psalm does.  Go to God.  And in going to God, acknowledge that at least part of what’s going on here is because of the things we, ourselves, have done--not to make ourselves feel guilty, but because we need to recognize our own responsibility.

            And when we go to God, we need to go to God humbly.  We don’t go to God because God owes it to us to help us.  We go to God, not trusting in our goodness, but trusting in God’s goodness.  We go to God, not asking God to do anything specific, but just asking God to do something to rescue us.  Not necessarily to solve all of our problems, but just to somehow, in some way, keep us from being overwhelmed by them.

            Life can be hard sometimes.  But God is good all the time.  While we’re in this world, we will have trouble.  But if we go to God humbly when the trouble comes, God will keep us from being overwhelmed by our trouble.  No matter how bad things seem, we can always rely on God.

 

Heart Condition

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Proverbs 15:13-18.

            How’s your heart?

            I don’t mean the physical condition of your heart, although that’s obviously important.  What I mean is, is your heart cheerful?  Is your heart joyful?  Or is your heart heavy?  Is your heart sad?  You know, the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, used to ask people, “How is it with your soul today?”  He could just as well have asked, “How is it with your heart today?”

            We’d like it to be well with our soul, as the song we heard Lauren Daigle sing says.  We’d like our hearts to be happy, to be cheerful.  But often they’re not, are they?

            Now, no one can be happy all the time.  Much as we might like to be, it’s really not possible.  In life, there are things that happen to us.  We mess up.  People get mad at us, sometimes people we care a lot about.  We have serious setbacks--in our health, in our finances, in our relationships, in our work, all kinds of things.  I mean, even Jesus had times when he was down, so you and I have to expect it to happen sometimes, too.

            But even in those times, there’s an extent to which we can say it’s well with our soul.  There’s an extent to which we can still have a cheerful heart, a happy heart.  And our reading tonight, from the book of Proverbs, gives us some help in doing that.

            First, it tells us why this is something we should try to have.  It tells us that “a happy heart makes the face cheerful” and “the cheerful heart has a continual feast.”  And we all want that.  So how do we get it?

            It says, “The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.”  So there’s the first thing that will help us have a cheerful heart--knowledge.

            But knowledge of what?  I mean, they say that all knowledge is useful, and I suppose to an extent it is, but I know a lot about baseball, and I know a lot about ‘70s music, but I don’t know that it really helps me in life a whole lot.  It does make my heart happy, in some ways, but it’s a fleeting happiness.  That sort of knowledge is not the kind of thing that really gives us the long-lasting sort of cheerful heart the author of the Proverbs is writing about.

            What the discerning heart seeks knowledge of, really, is knowledge of God.  Not a full understanding of God, of course--human beings are not capable of that.  But knowledge of the greatness of God.  Knowledge of the goodness of God.  Knowledge of how much God loves us and cares about us.  Knowledge of the forgiveness and grace and mercy of God.  Knowledge of the chance for salvation and eternal life that is available through faith in God and in Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            That kind of knowledge will make our hearts cheerful, no matter what the circumstances are.  How can we not have cheerful hearts, when we think about all that?  I’ve talked about this before, but it truly is an amazing thing to think about.  Think about who God is.  God is all-powerful.  God is almighty.  God is all-seeing.  God is all-knowing.  God is all-wise.  God is righteous.  God is holy.  God is perfect.

            Think about who we are compared to God.  Human beings are weak.  All of us are.  The president of the United States--regardless of who it is--is sometimes referred to as “the most powerful man on earth”.  God laughs at a statement like that.  The most powerful man on earth is nothing compared to God.  

            Think about the other things we are.  We have trouble seeing beyond next week.  We don’t know much of anything, really--if we did, a virus would not be causing the problems that it does.  The Bible tells us that God considers human wisdom to be foolishness.  And we human beings are certainly not righteous, or holy, or perfect.  Not even close.

            God is so far above and beyond anything we are or could ever hope to be.  There’s no comparison even to be made.  And yet, God loves us.  God loves us so much that God gives us the chance for salvation and eternal life.  God gives us the chance to go to heaven and with Him, to be in God’s presence even though that’s the last place we deserve to be.

            And God loves us so much that God does not even ask us to do anything hard to go to heaven.  We don’t have to live perfect lives or memorize the Bible or anything like that.  All we need to do is accept Jesus Christ as the Savior.  That’s it.  If we do that, God gives us salvation and eternal life in heaven.  That’s some incredible love.  Knowing that, how can we not have happy and cheerful hearts?  What greater thing could there ever be than that?

            That knowledge of the love of God, that assurance of salvation and eternal life, are all we really need.  They’re worth more than anything this world could ever offer us.  Listen to this:  “Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil.”

            Now, I know that no one here is wealthy.  But we dream of it, don’t we?  That’s why things like the lottery are so popular.  When the Powerball gets way up there, almost everyone buys a ticket.  We have that dream of hitting it big, of having more money than we know what to do with.  And yet, if we did hit the lottery, would it really make us happy?  

Probably not.  We would still have problems.  Maybe not financial problems--and yet, we’d still have those, too, don’t you think?  We’d be worried about what to do with the money.  We’d have people coming to us all the time, wanting us to give them some or loan them some.  We’d be worried about how to invest it properly, so we did not lose it.  And even if we were trying really hard to do what’s right and handle it the way God wants us to, how do we do that?  There are so many worthy causes out there.  How do you choose?  The money would cause us all kinds of problems.  And of course, we’d still have all the other problems of life--health-wise, relationship-wise, all the other things that come with life.

Happiness--true happiness--can only come from inside ourselves.  And it can only come from inside ourselves if God’s Holy Spirit is inside us.  And that’s where the love comes from.  Listen to the next line:  “better a small serving of vegetables with love than a fattened calf with hatred.”

We can only have happy, cheerful hearts through love--the love we receive from God, and the love we give to others.  Money will not do it for us.  A fancy house won’t do it for us.  Huge meals won’t do it for us.  Having fun and enjoying life won’t even do it for us.  Because, at the end of the day, and at the end of our lives, none of it means anything.  The only thing that really means anything, the only thing that will give us happy, cheerful hearts throughout all of our lives--is love.  

It’s really kind of sad, you know?  We see so many people looking in so many places for happiness.  They think, “If only I had this, then I’d be happy”  “If only that happened, then I’d be happy.”  If only I lived in this place, if I had these things, if I got this job, then I’d be happy.  They keep looking for happiness somewhere else.  And when they get somewhere else, they’re not happy.  And so they look in another place.  And another.  And another.  And they never find it.  Sometimes people search for their entire lives for happiness and never find it.  That’s really sad.

And what’s sadder still is that the happiness they’re looking for is right there in front of them.  It’s right there, and they cannot see it.  All they need to do is trust God.  All they need to do is accept Jesus as the Savior.  All they need to do is invite God’s Holy Spirit to come in.  The happy, cheerful heart they want is available to them.  In fact, God is eager to give it to them.  God wants nothing more than to give it to them.  But they cannot see it, and so they don’t take it.  It’s very sad.

But the good news is that it’s not too late.  As long as we’re on this earth, it’s never too late.  So if you don’t have a happy, cheerful heart, and you want one, now’s your chance.  Trust God.  Accept Jesus as the Savior.  Invite God’s Holy Spirit to come into your heart.  Let God’s Holy Spirit lead you and guide you.  Feel the incredible love God has for you.  Accept the incredible love God has for you.  And then, after you’ve accepted that love, share it with others.

“The cheerful heart has a continual feast.”  That continual feast is available to you.  Don’t wait until later.  Let’s dig into that feast now.  Tonight.

 

Repaying Evil

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, October 17, 2021.  The Bible verses used are 1 Peter 3:8-18.

            I don’t know how many of you are on facebook, but if you are, you’ve noticed that every once in a while there’ll be a saying that just takes off, “goes viral” as they say, so that you’re seeing it everywhere.  There’s one that’s been going around for quite a while know that is a quote from the singer Eminem.  It said, “I don't care if you're black, white, straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, short, tall, fat, skinny, rich or poor. If you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you. Simple as that.”

            We like that.  It sounds really good.  It sounds really inclusive, right?  I’ll accept you however you are.  Whatever you are, it’s okay, as long as you’re nice.  What a great attitude!

            The trouble is, it’s not really a Christian attitude.  What I’m talking about is the part that says, “If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you.”  Because the implication is that if you’re not nice to me, I don’t have to be nice to you.  I can treat you in exactly the same way you treat me, whether it’s good or whether it’s bad.

            Jesus said, “Do to others as you would like them do to you.”  Not do to others as they do to you.  Do to others as you’d like them to do to you.  In other words, we’re not supposed to treat people the way they treat us.  We’re supposed to treat people the way we’d like them to treat us.  Jesus said that if someone demands our shirt, we should give them our coat, too.  Jesus said if we’re hit on one cheek, we should turn the other to them.  Jesus said we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

            In our reading for today, Peter says something similar.  Peter says, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.  On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”

            That’s a really hard thing to do.  I’ll tell you right out that there are plenty of times I don’t do it.  There are plenty of times I don’t repay evil with blessing.  There are times I don’t repay blessing with blessing.  It’s a really hard thing to do.

            Peter goes on to talk about why we should do this.  And this is important, because I think we get it wrong sometimes.  

I remember the stories I heard when I was a little kid.  I don’t know if you got the same stories when you were a little kid that I did, but a lot of times in those stories, the hero of the story, the nice guy, goes to the bad guy, to the bully, and treats him or her with kindness and respect, and as a result the bully changes his or her behavior and becomes nice.  

Well, it’d be great if real life worked that way, and maybe sometimes it does, but there are a lot of times when it does not.  In real life there are a lot of times when we treat the bully with kindness and respect and the bully just takes advantage of the situation and bullies us farther.

Peter did not tell us to repay evil with blessing because that will make the evil person change their ways.  It might, or it might not.  If it does, that’s wonderful.  But that’s not why we’re supposed to repay evil with blessing.  The reason we are supposed to repay evil with blessing is because it’s the right thing to do.  It’s what the Lord wants us to do.  And it’s what Jesus actually did.  

Not only may doing that not change anyone, Peter said that we may actually suffer for repaying evil with blessing.  But he said that if we do, we don’t need to worry about it.  We’re in good company.  Jesus did that, too.  Jesus suffered, and even died, for our sins.  Jesus suffered the ultimate evil, and he repaid it with the ultimate blessing.

The only reason we’re supposed to do this is because it’s the right thing to do. Jesus showed us that.  Peter says that for our trouble, we may have people talk about us.  They may say all kinds of stuff about us that’s untrue.  They may even threaten us.  But Peter says it’s okay.  He says it is better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

            Still, of all the things the Bible tells us to do, I think this may be the hardest.  We like the gospel according to Eminem a lot better.  We like the gospel that says, “If you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you.”  That’s a lot easier than the gospel that says, “If you’re a jerk to me, if you threaten me, if you talk about me behind my back, I’ll still be nice to you.”  We know it’s what we’re supposed to do.  But it’s really hard to do it.

            I wish I had a nice, simple way that made it easy for us.  I don’t.  As I said, I struggle with this as much as anyone.  So, instead, what I’m going to do is talk about some things, that, when if really think about them, might help us do these things.  Here they are.

            One of them is to remember that we don’t know someone else’s story.  All of us are shaped by a lot of things.  The family we grew up in.  The place we grew up in.  The people around us when we were growing up.  The experiences we’ve had since we got older.  The jobs we’ve held.  The people we’ve worked with.  The places we’ve lived.  The things we’ve gotten involved in.  The chances we’ve had.  These and all kinds of other things all contribute to make us who we are.

            And that can be for good or for bad.  If I’d grown up in a different family, if I’d grown up in a city rather than on the farm, if I’d grown up with more money or with less money, if I’d been better looking or worse looking, if I’d been more athletic, if I’d gone to school in a different place, if I’d gotten a different job, if I’d never met Wanda, I might be different in a lot of ways.  I don’t know what those ways are.  I might be better or I might be worse.  There’s no way to know.

            And there’s no way to know about other people, either.  So when we run into people who treat us badly, who are not nice to us, who basically act like jerks, we need to remember that.  We need to remember that we don’t know what went into making them that way.  That does not justify bad behavior, but it can make us more understanding of bad behavior.  It can help us make allowances for people and treat them well even when they don’t treat us well.

            Another thing we need to remember is that all of us, each and every one, are God’s children.  That’s true of the nicest person you’ve ever met, and it’s true of the biggest jerk on the planet.  Each one of us is one of God’s children.  That means that every person we see is our brother or our sister.

            That can help.  It can help when we’re dealing with someone we’d rather not have to deal with.  It can help us to remember that God loves that person every bit as much as God loves me.  After all, we say that nothing can separates us from the love of God, right?  So nothing can separate other people from the love of God, too.  That person we don’t like, that person who did not treat us well--that person’s a child of God, just like we are.  That person is our brother.  That person is our sister.  Again, that does not excuse bad behavior.  But it does help us remember that we need to treat each person with respect and love, no matter what they say and no matter how they act, because they’re family, just like we’re family.  We’re all part of the family of God.

            There’s one other thing that helps, too.  It helps when we remember that we claim to be Christians.  Because as Christians, we don’t follow some other human being.  We follow Jesus Christ.  And Jesus Christ did not say, “If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you.”  Jesus said you can curse me and I’ll love you.  Jesus said you can beat me and torture me and I’ll forgive you.  Jesus said you can kill me and I’ll die so your sins can be forgiven.

            If Jesus had said, “If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you,” none of us would be saved.  Because none of us has been nice to Jesus.  Oh, maybe sometimes we are, but not always.  There are a lot of times we ignore Jesus.  There are a lot of times we pay no attention to Jesus at all.  In fact, there are plenty of times we deliberately do not do what Jesus told us to do.  If Jesus had said, “If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you”, we’d all be lost.

            But Jesus did not say that.  And as people who claim to follow Jesus, we should not say it, either.  You and I, as followers of Jesus, are called to love everyone.  Even the people who we think don’t deserve our love.  After all, Jesus loves us, and we don’t deserve his love.

            So let’s try to love everyone the way Jesus loves them.  Is that a tough standard?  Yes.  Will we always meet it?  No.  But we can try.  And we can keep trying.  Let’s not just be nice to people who are nice to us.  Let’s show Jesus’ love to everyone.  If we do, we’ll be a lot closer to being the people God wants us to be.

 

God's Love, Our Hope

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 51.

            One of the most important parts of the Christian faith is hope.  The Apostle Paul says that God is a God of hope.  He also says that, in the end, there are three things that will remain:  faith, hope, and love.  He says the most important of them is love, but faith and hope are very important, too.

Our psalm for tonight shows us why hope is so important.  Look at what the author of the psalm says about himself.  He says, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.”  He says he has done what is evil in God’s sight.  He says that he was sinful from birth, and in fact he was sinful before he was born, because he says he was “sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”

            That’s someone with a pretty low opinion of himself.  The author of that psalm is definitely not trying to make anyone think he’s better than he is.  He’s not trying to fool anyone.  He’s not even trying to fool himself, which is always a temptation.  He is quite honest about who he is and what he has done.

            Can you relate to that?  There are times when I can.  I mean, I like to think of myself as a pretty good person, but when I’m honest with myself I know I fail a lot.  I know there are plenty of sins I commit over and over again, every single day.  I know I’m every bit as much a sinner as anyone else, and probably more so than a lot of people.

            When we think of ourselves that way, it can be easy to get discouraged, even depressed.  And when you look at the author of the psalm’s description of himself, you might think he’d feel that way, too.  Again, he says he’s been a sinner since he was conceived, he has done evil, he’s always being confronted with his own sin.  It’s no fun to think of yourself that way.  And yet, the author of the psalm is not discouraged or depressed at all.  He cries out to God, but not in desperation or despair.  The author of this psalm cries out to God in hope.

            He hopes for mercy--the psalm starts off by saying “Have mercy on me, O Lord, according to your unfailing love.”  He prays that God will “wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”

            The author of the psalm says this in complete hope.  He knows he’s a sinner.  He knows God has no obligation to have mercy on him or do anything for him at all.  And yet, he has every hope that God will have mercy on him.  It’s not a forlorn, desperate hope.  It’s a completely confident hope.  He has said all these terrible things about himself, and yet he says to God, “Cleanse me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.”  

            And in fact, he has more hope than that.  He believes that God can do more than just wash away his sins.  He believes God can make him a completely different person.  Listen to this:  “Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit within me...Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”  

            Think about all the things the author of this psalm is saying.  He knows he’s a sinner.  He knows he’s failed.  He knows he has no right to expect anything from God.  And yet he asks all these things of God, and he asks them in complete confidence, without fear.  He is completely hopeful that God is going to do what he has asked.  He believes God will have mercy on him, God will wash away his sins, and God will make him a new person, a person with a right and willing spirit.

            Can you relate to that?  That one might be a little tougher.  Do we have enough trust in God to believe that God will do those things for us?  Do we trust God enough to believe God will have mercy on us?  Do we believe God will wash away our sins?  Do we believe God will truly make us new people, people with a right and willing spirit?

            It can be hard to trust God that much.  It’s hard because we know we don’t deserve those things from God.  And we know God has no obligation to give them to us.  There is no real reason for God to have mercy on us and wash away our sins and make us new people.  And so it can be hard to believe that God will actually do that for us.

            And so the question is, do we really believe that God loves us?  Because that’s the only reason God would have to do those things for us--love.  In fact, it shows how faith, hope, and love are related, because it’s our faith in God’s love that gives us hope.  The only way we can believe that God would have mercy on us and wash away our sins and make us new people is if we believe God loves us.

            So, do we believe God loves us?  Do you believe that God loves you?

            That’s not always easy, either.  We’ve said that God is not obligated to do anything for us.  So God does not have an obligation to love us.  And we know that we have done nothing to earn God’s love.  So why should God love us?

            The thing is, love is never something we earn.  If someone says, “I’ll love you as long as you do this and that and something else”, that’s not really love.  That’s a business transaction, a quid pro quo.  Love, to be love, is always a gift.  Love has to be a gift.  It’s not something we deserve.  It’s something we’re given, freely and willingly, with no expectation of anything in return.

            That’s the kind of love God gives us.  But still, it can be hard to believe it.  If it’s hard for you, think about this.

            If you think about it, love is the only reason that God would’ve created us at all.  What other reason could there be?  God is complete in and of Himself.  There’s nothing we can do for God that God cannot do without us.  In fact, God could probably do everything better and easier without us--the chances are we just mess things up and get in the way.  God does not need us at all.  And God was complete in heaven.  Yet, God created all this other stuff, all this stuff that God, in and of Himself did not need.  God created the universe.  God created the earth.  God created the land and the oceans and the plants and the fish--and everything else. 

God did all of that--for us.  For you and for me.  So we would have life.  So we would have a place to live that life.  So we would have food to eat and clothes to wear and everything else.  And God created lots of us, so we could always have someone to love and so we could always have someone who loved us.  So we would never have to be alone.  God created all of this just for us.  It’s all God’s gift to us.  The only reason for God to do that is love.  

            Our knowledge of God’s love is what gives us hope.  A God who loves us will always show us mercy, if we go to God and sincerely ask for it.  A God who loves us will always forgive our sins and wash them away, if we go to God and sincerely ask for that forgiveness.  A God who loves us will always give us another chance to be new people, the people God wants us to be, if we’re truly willing to take that chance.

            God wants to create a clean heart in us.  God wants to grant us a willing spirit.  If we truly want those things, God will always give them to us, because God loves us.

            God will give them to us, but we need to be willing to receive them.  And the way we show that is by doing what the author of the psalm does--offer God our hearts.  He says, “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”

            The way we receive that clean heart is to give it to God.  The way to have a willing spirit is to join our spirit with God’s Holy Spirit.  If we are willing to allow God to lead us, if we are willing to surrender our desires to God’s desires, if we are willing to give up our own will to follow God’s will, if we really mean what we say in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done”, then we will have that clean heart and that willing spirit.

            That does not mean we’ll suddenly be perfect.  We won’t be, not while we’re on earth.  Even if we truly desire to let God lead us and surrender to God’s will, there will still be times when we mess up.  We will always have to battle our own sinful nature, and no matter how hard we try to we’ll still slip sometimes.  But when we do, we simply need to ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness again.  And we can ask that in confident hope, knowing that God loves us and that God will give those things to us if we ask for them sincerely and willingly.  And God will give us yet another chance to be the new people God wants us to be.

            You and I can always rely on God’s love.  It’s a love that gives us hope.  It’s a love we can count on.  It’s a love that we always be there for us, because it’s a love that’s given to us as a gift from God.