Jesus, thank you so much for this morning. Thank you so much for bringing us together. Thank you, God, for bringing all these amazing young people. Thank you, Lord, for helping us as a church impact a whole generation of people that we believe are gonna grow up and live their lives connected to you. We believe they're gonna change our culture in ways we can't even imagine. So God equip us to do that. I pray that you would inspire many of us to step up and say, hey, I'm gonna serve the next generation at this church. And I just pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen. Well, for the last few weeks, we've been talking about what it means to be united. And so if you're here for the first time, I just met a friend of mine that's here for the very first time this morning. His name is Steve. He gave me a black eye two weeks ago playing basketball, and he's here this morning. Yay, Steve! I'm just challenging you guys, do you love someone enough to take a punch for them to get them to church? Because I do. So, you know, it wasn't really a punch, it was an accident. But no, um, if you've been here for the last few weeks, you know this, but if you're here today for the first time or you haven't been here in a while, we're talking about what it looks like to be united as a church. Because we're supposed to have a very special unity, a unity that we don't see in the real world. And look, we don't have to look very hard at the real world to see that there's a serious deficit of unity. We don't see a lot of unity in our culture. We don't see a lot of people coming together, and when we do see people coming together, often it's them coming together in opposition to something. Often it's them coming together out of mutual hate or mutual disagreement with someone else. Rarely do we see people come together out of mutual love for one another. We live in a culture and in a time when people are more and more becoming polarized, believing that those who disagree with them are evil, horrible people. We have a serious unity problem in our nation. And the answer that Jesus would recommend is the church. Like if you could you could go to Jesus like and talk to him face to face and say, Jesus, what's the solution for the unity problem in America today? Jesus would say, the church. My church should be the solution because Jesus dreamed, he dreamed and prayed for a unity that would exist with us that is completely uncommon in the world. In John 17, for example, this is Jesus right before he goes to the cross praying. He says, talking about his followers. I am in them and you are in me. He's talking to God the Father about his followers. He says, May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Jesus says, God, I pray that they are so united, that they are so together, that the world looks at them and sees you. That the world looks at them and goes, I know that Jesus must be legit. I know he must be real. I know that God's love must be real because look at the unity that exists in the church. And sadly, that is not the way most people would describe the church that they see. We are just as splintered as the rest of the world. We are just as unlikely to come together as the rest of the world. We are just as unlikely to set aside our petty differences and focus on what we have in common as the rest of the world. That's why churches are so splintered. I believe that's changing, by the way. Just this last year, we we took part in two big events as a church that saw thousands of Christians coming together, regardless of background, race, ethnicity, denomination, didn't matter. We were part of one race back in the summer. That was awesome in August. And tens of thousands of Christians came together at Stone Mountain in the name of racial reconciliation. It was amazing. I'm so glad we were part of that. In Cherokee County, back in July, we were part of this thing called Power and Unity. Over 30 churches coming together in downtown Woodstock just to worship together. Do you know how hard it was for the leaders of power and unity to get 30 churches together? Do you realize how many churches said, yeah, no, thanks? It was an unprecedented, like unprecedented thing to get 30 churches in one community to come together and worship for an hour together. How crazy is it that that's unprecedented? Like how crazy is it that it's it's never happened before? People will be like, we've never seen this many churches come together in this community, and I'm like, wow. That has to change. That has to change, and I believe it is changing. It's a good thing. I believe that God's doing something, and I believe that we we play a part in that. That as a church, we've got to be united together. That the world should see a love that exists between us, a unity that exists between us that is so uncommon that it literally proves to the world that Jesus is who he says he is. We've got to come together. And so we've been talking about what it really means to be united. What does that really look like in the church? How do we think about one another in such a way that we can really have actual unity, that we're not just coming together to attend an event once a week, but we're actually coming alongside each other and living life together like we should. And so we've talked about the fact that we're brothers and sisters. We've talked about the fact that we share the same spirit. We've been studying the book of Ephesians, and in Ephesians, Paul takes this huge left turn. He's talking about Jesus and all he's done and all this stuff, and then he like rants on and on about unity for like a solid two chapters. And so we've been looking at Paul's rabbit trail on unity and trying to pull from that, hey God, show us how we can be more united. What I want to do today is actually read the entirety of Ephesians chapter 3 to you, and you have to understand this about Paul. Paul, he like has two modes. And if you're unfamiliar, Paul was a leader in the early church. He wrote a huge portion of the New Testament. Paul was one of the foremost leaders of the Jesus movement in the early days. And Paul is probably the most read author in human history. That's pretty crazy. And he's a great writer, but Paul has these like two modes. Paul is either methodical and he is just laying things out, and like almost like an amazing professor. Like Paul can just teach, and he can be methodical and meticulous, and everything connects, and then sometimes Paul just goes off. Sometimes Paul just goes off and he starts sentences and he doesn't finish them. And he'll be like, he'll be like all over the place. Like he's just had six cups of coffee, and he's like, all right, all right, so we're together. Did I tell you guys that the other day I was out and I was I was seeing some people, oh my gosh, I gotta tell you, like three weeks ago, you know, and he's just going crazy. It's like having a four-year-old, you know, and I have these conversations with my four-year-old all the time. Paul gets like that when he gets really worked up about something. And we see that in Ephesians chapter 3. This is Paul just going off about unity in the church. And let's read this together. Ephesians 3, starting in verse 1. He says, When I think of all this, and the all this is everything we've been talking about the last few weeks, that God has brought people together like never before. The Jews and the Gentiles were people in his culture that never got together, never spoke to each other, hated one another, and now they're part of the same church, the same movement. And Paul was a man who hated Christians, and he hated Gentiles, meaning non-Jewish people. He hated both of those people, and now he becomes the pastor of the Gentiles. It's crazy. And he says, When I think of all this, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the benefit of you Gentiles, and here comes the rabbit trail. Assuming, by the way, that you know God gave me the special responsibility of extending his grace to you Gentiles. And remember, right here, he doesn't finish this first sentence. He's already like way off track. He's just, he's going off now. He says, as I briefly wrote earlier, God himself revealed his mysterious plan to me. As you read what I've written, you will understand my insight into this plan regarding Christ. God did not reveal it to previous generations, but now by his spirit, he has revealed it to those holy apostles and prophets. And this is God's plan. Both Gentiles and Jews who believe in the good news share equally, equally in the riches inherited by God's children. Both are part of the same body and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus. By God's grace and mighty power, I've been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this good news. Though I am the least deserving of all God's people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning. God's purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God's presence. So please don't lose heart. Because of my trials here, I am suffering for you, so you should feel honored. So there's just Paul. He's in awe and wonder of what God has done. And he's just going off left and right. He's covering a lot of ground. He talks about Jews and Gentiles, he talks about rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. He's just all over the map. Because he is worked up. He's talking about how we're together, that we've been unified. He can't believe this. He can't believe what he's seeing. And then he goes on with another when I think of all this, verse 14. When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and I pray to the Father, the creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, forever and ever. Amen. And that is Ephesians chapter 3. It is Paul ranting and raving about the fact that we've been united together. Doesn't matter where we come from, doesn't matter what skin color we are, it doesn't matter what our ethnicity is, it doesn't matter our socioeconomic status, doesn't matter what kind of car we drive, what kind of job we have, none of that matters. We have been united, united together through Jesus. And it's something that he's done by what Paul says is his love. He says, when I think of all this, I I fall to my knees and pray. You see the intensity in what he's communicating. He's he's being honest. I fall to my knees and I pray. And what does he pray for? He prays that we would be able to understand how wide and how long and how high and how deep the love of God is. That is so powerful. He says, I pray that you experience the love of God, even though you can't even understand it. He basically says, I dare you to try to understand the love of God. You cannot do it, but you can experience it. He says that we've been united together by the love of Jesus. And if you've been part of his hands for long, you know that we talk a lot about love. And we talk a lot about love because scripture talks a lot about love. Jesus talked a lot about love. Love is a constant theme that runs through the story of God interacting with us. Because he loves us. And if you're here today and you don't understand this, you've never really believed this or felt this, you are so loved by God you have no idea. He loves you deeply, he loves you passionately. And I think there's this tendency that we have sometimes, especially those of us who have been Christians for a long time, to kind of go, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get love, let's move on. Paul never moved on from love. I mean, Paul's basically saying, try. Try to grasp the intensity of God's love. Just try, try to figure it out, try to fathom how wide and high and long and deep it is. You can't. We will never cover all of God's love. We don't have time. There's no way to fully comprehend the extent of his love, but we have to understand that it's there, that it's a force more powerful than anything we can understand. And if there's anything that should unite us together, if there's anything that should make us love one another, like look at one another and be filled with love for each other, it's the love of Jesus. The more we get his love in our focal point, in our view, the more we look at his love and we fathom his love and we we take his love in, the more we should love one another. We are united by so many things, but the love of Jesus is as powerful as anything. We're united by love. Now, love's kind of an interesting word. In our culture, we use it for all kinds of things. It's a very general, general word. In the Bible, it's not like that. If you read the New Testament, anytime you read the word love, you're actually reading a Greek word that's far more specific than our word love. There were all kinds of words in the Greek language for love. Some words meant the love you have for family members, some words meant the love that you have for like a really close friend. Like phileo means friendship love. That's why Philadelphia comes from that same word. It's called the city of brotherly love, because brotherly love in the Greek language is that phileo, Philadelphia. Like that's Greek. There's a different kind of love that you have with someone romantically. It's a different word in the Greek language, we just call it love. And there was even a different word for the love that God has for us. That's called agape love. But we just call it love. And so in our language, we have this word love and it covers all these different ideas, and we just sum it up with one word, and it's a little nebulous, it loses some of its punch, it loses some of its impact. And so the result of that is we live in a world very confused about what love even is. What is love? What does it look like? No one really knows. There's no consensus. You see that when you look at culture in a variety of different ways. For example, love songs, right? Everyone have a favorite love song? You know, like, okay. Love songs are a staple. They are a staple of every music genre. It doesn't matter what the genre, doesn't matter what decade. Love is like, it's this thing, it's this force, you know, and so everyone talks about love, sings about love. There's all kinds of classic love songs. But if you listen to love songs, you will realize there is no, there's no consensus on what love is, according to the music industry. There's a lot, there's a lot of different opinions about love, and I spent way more time than I should have this week thinking about love songs. This was just gonna be like a little short illustration of the message, but then I I went on this huge rabbit trail, and I'm looking at like all these different songs and all these different genres, and and what I what I have found is that all love songs, I've been thinking about this for approximately four days, so I could I could be wrong, okay? I just want to disclaim her. Um, but it seems to me that all love songs fall into one of seven categories. One of seven categories. And I want to give you guys examples, okay? One of seven categories, and just so you know, I had six categories, and then I shared this with Megan, and uh she was like, what about this song? And what about that song? And what about this song? And I was like, Oh, okay, fine, you got me. And so I had to create another category to appease my wife. All right? Because that's what you do when you love someone. So seven categories, and I challenge you to find a song that doesn't fit one of these. Category number one, very common in love songs. It's called the overpromise. You see this happen a lot in love songs, where it's a song with someone saying all the things they're gonna do for someone or all the things they would do for someone hypothetically, and you're like, no, you wouldn't. No, no, no, no. It's a little like it's it's kind of overboard, it's exaggerated. You know, for example, um like Bruno Mars would be a really recent example of this. Go ahead, Alex. You might know this song. Bring it up a little bit. I jump your hand off a trade. Okay, so he said, I'd catch a grenade for you, which is a crazy way to start. Like, what scenario in life would you be with someone and some like you're on a date with a girl and someone throws a grenade at her? That's bizarre. She's she's like a war criminal. That's what's going on, like you should run away. But he says, I'd catch a grenade for you, I'd throw my hand on a blade for you, I would what does he say? I'd jump in front of a train for you. Later on, he goes, I'd take like a bullet to the brain, and then the the song goes, but you won't do that for me. And it's like, you probably because you're crazy. Like, if you're on your third date and you're like, I would die for you, I would literally jump in front of a train for you. If someone threw a grenade at you, I would catch it, which by the way, does nothing to help the grenade situation. Like, kick it back, catch the grenade, you're still dead, whatever. Um, Bruno doesn't understand grenades, like it's just this crazy overpromise. You know, and if if you said that to guys, if you say that to a girl on like date two or three, she's gonna run away. She's like, he's nuts. But there's a lot of songs like that. Brian Adams, you know it's true, everything I do, I do it for you. No, you don't, Brian. You know. So that's category number one, the overpromise. And there's a lot, a lot of overpromise songs. Now, category two is melodramatic. Kind of like overpromise, but it's not so much the commitment that you're making, it's just the way you're talking about love. It's a lot of metaphor, it's a lot of language, um, and it's just like overly dramatic. Too much, too much. It's just too much. You know, for example, um, this is one from the 80s that I love. It's like one of my favorite songs. Alex, go ahead and hit it. You might be familiar with this one. Little cutting crew. I love that song. I just died in your arms tonight. I played that song on a playlist the night that I proposed to Megan. I remember that. I love that song. I'm a big 80s music fan. I think 80s music is by far the best like generation music. It's the best. I love the 80s. I feel like all the genres in the 80s are like they're they're in their sweet spots. You know, you can really pick anything. And cutting crew, I just died in your arms tonight. Even the way he says died, it's like died, you know? And there's a lot of songs like that. They're just melodramatic. It's just like, I died for you. I I would, oh, it's just too much. It's melodramatic. It doesn't have to be, by the way, it doesn't have to be just like the language used in the song to be melodramatic. It could also be the tone of the song. It could just be like a bit, a bit too much, a bit too intense. If it sounds like a man is standing on a mountaintop in a rainstorm with his fist in the air, just singing about love and like a chorus of angels comes behind him to sing too, it's just, it's melodramatic. So, Moody Blues, Knights in White Satin, classic song. Like any anytime you can do that to a song, pull it back, dude. Just pull it back. You know? It's just melodramatic. That's a fantastic song, by the way. And I'm grateful for my parents introducing me to a lot of music that I wouldn't know otherwise. But like, great song, beautiful voice, just you know, a little bit, a little bit dramatic. Category three, selfish. These are songs where it's not about how can I serve you, what can I do for you, it's just about I want you to do this. I just I want there's a lot of songs like this. Cheap trick. That's a classic example. I want you to want me. I need you to need me. That's the same argument that a three-year-old has when they want something, you know. Like my generation, Backstreet Boys, I want it that way. You guys know that song? The lyrics, very confusing song, by the way. The lyrics literally say, I never want to hear you say that I want it that way because I want it that way. That's the song. It's crazy. It's just selfish. If if the theme of the song is what you want, selfish. That's one of the categories. Um, another, another one is what I would call like conflicted, where just the person singing the song hasn't thought through what they're even singing, and in the song, they actually like add a disclaimer. They're like, you know, yeah, uh, totally love you. Uh, but it's kind of how that goes. Meatloaf would be, I think, the best example of this. I would do anything for love. I would do anything for love. But not that. When that song hits its climax, he says that part like three times. He's like, I would do anything for love. And he gets like big, and he says it three more times, then he goes, but I won't do that. You know? It's like in the song, he's saying, I'll do anything for you. You know, scratch that. I just realized a few things I won't. It's just conflicted. Okay, next category. What are we on? Is this category five? Category five is just confusion. Just the song, these songs are great because they're honest. They they're just right out front going, I have no idea what love is. I don't even know what this is about. So, classic example, Hadaway. What is love?

Baby don't hurt me.

Some people are doing the night at the Roxbury thing right now. That's good. Let's see that. The title of that song is What is Love? And when he says what is love, what he follows it up with is Baby Don't Hurt Me. Like that's I don't know what's going on. It's not love though. Whatever that is, it's not love. Or, you know, I won't I won't play this one, but like I think even a better version of that category would be Foreigner. I want to know what love is. You know, like I want to know what love is. Ding, ding, ding, ding. I want you to anytime you're doing this again, if you have to reach up, if you're going Celine Dion, it's just pull it back. It's too much. Too much. That's that category. It's just confused. I don't even know what love is, but at least that category is honest. This is the one I had to add to appease my wife, category six. Because she started listening out a bunch of songs that I'm like, okay, okay, you have a point. She said, Justin, your list is too cynical. It's just too cynical. And I'm like, you I'm I tend to be that way. And uh, and she's like, what about this song? And I was like, yeah, it's it's just sweet. Just song, yeah, sweet, pure, sweet songs about love. Some of these can be kind of cheesy and hokey, you know, like like imagine me and you, I do. You know what I'm talking about? I think about you day and night. If you're like doing this to a song, it's kind of cheesy, you know, but it's sweet. It is sweet, you gotta give it credit for being sweet. Or songs that they that they're not cheesy, but they just have a really beautiful description of the way someone feels about. Someone uh like like Joe Cocker, classic example. Come on. Every woman in the room is like nudging their husband. Please sing that song to me. Can't you see? You know, he goes on and on. That's just sweet. It's sweet. So there is a category of just good, sweet, pure songs. The last category, number seven. Pain. Just flat out pain. Love stinks. You know what I mean? Like it's the worst thing in the world. I think maybe one that just sums it up really well would be would be this one. Go ahead, Alex. Bring it up because we've all felt this. We've all felt this. Like you can you can hear the pain in his voice, you know? In fact, we could even sing that one together. I didn't plan this, but if I said love hurts and you go, you know that let's do that, right? Love hurts. Love hurts. You gotta get high. You gotta get the falsetto. All love songs. All of them. They all fall under one of those seven categories. And so you can tell that our culture really conflicted about love. Don't really know what this thing is, don't really understand it. Uh sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, sometimes we don't know what it is, it's painful. What what even is this thing we're talking about? I wonder if you could if you could try to fit the love of Jesus into one of those seven categories. If you could try to lump the way that Jesus loves us and put it in one of those categories that we have here in this this world, those categories that I just invented this week, so you know, whatever. Um which would be the best category to describe the love of Jesus? And you know, it wouldn't be it wouldn't be like the overpromise. Jesus never overpromises and underdelivers. It wouldn't be melodramatic. Jesus is not trying, he's not like making it seem like his love is more intense than it is. It definitely wouldn't be selfish, not at all, wouldn't be conflicted. There's not a lot of buts in Jesus' love. You know, when he says I'd die for you, he does it. So it's not conflicted, it's not confused. Jesus has has no confusion whatsoever about what actual love is. When you when you read some of the most powerful things that have ever been spoken about love, it's by Jesus. He knows what love is. It is sweet, it really is. His love is sweet, it's pure, but it's also so much deeper than just warm fuzzies, it's so much deeper than sweet nothings. Like there's there's something really raw and powerful about Jesus' love. In fact, I really think the best category to describe the love that Jesus has for us would be that last one pain. Maybe a better word would be passion. The truth is, pain and love are often linked together. And that word passion, that's what it is. It means like love that hurts a little bit. We don't always think about the word passion that way because words change over time. That even happens in one generation. The word passion has changed dramatically throughout history. So, for example, we we often think of the word passion just being something we're really we're really into. Like I'm really passionate about basketball, I'm really passionate about this or that. The word passion didn't mean something you're really excited about until the 1700s. It's the first time in history that it had that meaning attached to it. Sometimes we think about the word passion as something that's like intense emotion, really intense emotion, but that was just a few centuries before that. That's like the 1400s. In the 1500s, that's the first time we have an example of the word passion being used in a sensual way, in a romantic way. Until that time, passion never had anything to do with romantic love. That was like a new meaning that was attached to it. If you want to look at the original meaning of the word passion in our language, the original definition. If you were to go back to like the 12th century, which is where we really first start seeing this word pop up in history, the word passion had one meaning. One meaning. And here's what it is. I think they have it on the screen. I don't know if they do. If they don't, which they don't, it's okay. Second service, they will. You guys missed out. The suffering of Jesus on the cross. And in history, the original meaning of the word passion is the suffering of Jesus on the cross. So you could actually say that Jesus is the first passionate person. Because if you were in the 12th century and you were talking to someone and you use the word passion, the person you're talking to would have had one thought, Jesus on the cross. Not someone who's in love with someone else and that person isn't loving them back, not someone who just really, really wants something to happen, but it's not happening for them. They would have had one thought in their mind and that is Jesus dying on the cross. Because passion, real passion, means that you're willing to suffer for something. When you are truly passionate about something or someone, you are willing to suffer for them. And no one, no one can claim to have the kind of passion for people that Jesus has. Because no one has ever suffered for people the way that Jesus did. You know, we have this tendency, I think, when we think about Jesus on the cross to make it so much more tame than it actually is. You guys remember when the movie The Passion of the Christ came out about 15 years ago? Um that's that's actually why it was called the Passion of the Christ, right? The suffering of Jesus. That movie got some you know some critical knocks because they said it was gory and over the top. But the Bible says that after Jesus was beaten, before he was hung on the cross, that his own mother couldn't recognize him. And you have to ask yourself, how badly would someone have to be beaten for their own mother not to recognize them? That movie, if you ever watch it, if you haven't, it's intense. I recommend it. But that movie does not, it does not pull back, it's not an over-the-top, exaggerated version of what happened to Jesus. It's just that we've gotten so used to seeing imagery, artistic renditions of Jesus on the cross, and there's not a bruise on his body. He's not bleeding, he's just sort of there on the cross, and and it's very, very tame. And I understand why it's tame in art, I get that. But it causes us, I think, to lose a connection that we have with what he actually endured, what he actually went through, the passion that he has, the amount of suffering he was willing to go through for us. You know, we take Lord's Supper every week and we take the bread and the juice and we say, hey, his body was broken on the cross and his blood was poured out, but but still in our minds we have this tame version because there has never been, there has never been a form of death invented by people more brutal than crucifixion. And there may have never been a person who was crucified as brutally as Jesus. And I don't talk about this just to like emotionally manipulate you. I'm not talking about this to like try to tug at heartstrings. I'm talking about this because it's what happened. Because when we talk about love, the love that Jesus has for people, the passion that Jesus has for people, you have to understand what this actually means. I mean, Jesus said it himself. There's no greater love than this than to lay down one's life for one's friend. And he laid down his life for you, and he did it in such an intense way. It started by him being beaten. It was called a scourging in the Roman world. And they used this kind of whip called a flagrum. That's where we get the word flagrant from. And uh, and this whip had multiple tails on it, like strands of leather, and at the end of each strand of leather was a weighted bead and a piece of bone or glass or something like that. And what they would do is they would whip it so that it would wrap around the person's torso, those pieces of glass and bone would grab a hold of the flesh, and then they would pull that. And that happened to Jesus 39 times at least. 39 times. His body was ripped apart. And he was beaten, the hair was pulled out of his beard, he was given this heavy wooden beam to carry up a hill. Can you imagine what it would feel like to have just had your back completely and totally shredded to pieces and then have to carry a dirty, heavy piece of wood on that same spot? The pain that that would cause. The whole point, by the way, of scourging wasn't even the physical pain that it would endure. The reason it was 39 lashes is because the Romans believed that 40 would kill a man, and it was very common for people to die while being scourged. Jesus was beaten badly, it was about humiliation. Roman citizens, no matter what their crime, were not allowed to be scourged. It was viewed as too humiliating. So if you were a Roman citizen and you committed mass murder, they would not scourge you because you were a citizen and we won't put you through that. But Jesus was not a Roman citizen. So he's scourged, he's he's led up to the hill, he's he's carrying this weight, and then he's actually on the cross. We all know how that works, right? You get nailed to the cross, and yes, he was he was nailed to the cross. He had a nail in each of his hands or wrists and a nail through his feet, which would have been incredibly painful. He had a crown of thorns placed on his head, and you think thorns, the thorns in that area, they're at least an inch long. That would have been driven into his skull. And then he's hung up there to die, and you don't die on a cross by bleeding to death. You die on the cross by suffocating. Because when you're hanging like that, you can't breathe. Your lungs actually collapse in on themselves. The only way to breathe is to actually push yourself up by either pressing weight on your feet, which is nailed, by pushing up on that, or with your shoulders by by lifting your body up. So every time when you read an account of Jesus' crucifixion, you see him say something, you see him speak out, like when he says, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. That is Jesus having to push himself up on those nails just to have the ability to take in a breath so he can say that, so he can pray that Jesus used that kind of effort to pray for us. That's passion. That's passion. When you when you died on the cross, when you died on the cross, it was not uncommon for your arms after they would take you off to be over an inch longer than they were when they put you up because your shoulders would eventually dislocate from the weight of your body. Like that's what Jesus went through. You know what you call that? Passion. Passion. Love. Passionate, passionate love. That's the love that Jesus has for us. And worship team, you guys can make your way out, but here's what here's what I'm trying to say with this. This is not, by the way, about you feeling bad for what Jesus went through, because Ephesians chapter 1, this was what God wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure to do this. This didn't happen to Jesus by accident. This was the plan all along. Because he wants you to know how passionate he is about you. I want you to understand this morning that when you have that picture in your mind, that Jesus did that for you. But you know who else he did it for? The person sitting next to you. That he's passionate about them. The person sitting next to you is Jesus' passion project. He went through all of that, not just for you, but for them as well. The person that you hold a grudge against, Jesus is passionate about that person. The person you can't stand, the person who annoys you, the person who offends you, Jesus is passionate about that person. The person who holds views that you disagree with strongly, the person who holds views that you condemn that you believe are as wrong as they can possibly be, Jesus is passionate about that person. The person whose lifestyle you would look at and judge, Jesus is passionate about that person. The person who has wronged you, the person who may have wronged you deeply, and this is where it gets hard, Jesus is passionate about that person. If there's a whole group of people that you have an issue with, Jesus is passionate about every single one of them. Something we have to come to terms with as believers that is if you hate someone, that means you you hate someone God loves. And you got to deal with that. Jesus, he is passionate about people. But do we interact with one another? Like we're interacting with the passion project of our God. I mean, how often do we dismiss someone because we don't like what they say, we don't like the way they act, and and we devalue them in our own minds, failing to realize that they, in God's eyes, are worth everything. They're worth everything. Because every single one of us in this room, every single one of us in this room, every single one of us outside of this room, Jesus is passionate about people. And we've got to start treating one another like we actually believe that. We've got to start interacting with each other like we actually believe that God is passionate about the person I'm looking at, God is passionate about the person I'm talking to. As a church, we've got to be passionate about one another. We've got to be willing to suffer together with one another. Because life is not easy. I love this church and I love the people in it. And if you're here for the first time or the third time, this church is a family. And I want you to know on the front end that we will suffer with you. Because that's what love does. That we're united together by the love of Christ, we're united together by the love of Jesus, and real love is passionate, real love is willing to suffer much. We've got to understand that there are people in our midst that are suffering. We really need to understand that. In the last month and a half, there's two families here at our church who have lost sons in their 20s. Two weeks ago, there was a man named Elmer, dear man at our church, whose wife passed away. They have a seven-year-old and a ten-year-old that are part of our church. Right before the service, um, let's see if I have this. Pockets. Ah. Irene, who did Lord's Supper, Irene's one of our volunteers on the prayer team. Irene handed this to me. I haven't read it yet. She said, this is something that Elmer wanted to speak, and I had to pray whether or not to share it. So, Elmer, I hope you didn't cuss in this because I'm reading it. I lost my wife last Sunday to cancer. I just want every man to tell his wife every morning and every time you come home that you love her and to thank her for all she does. To call her during the day to tell her you love her. When she calls you, answer the phone. It doesn't matter where you are, who you're with, what you're working on, she's more important than any meeting. I want to encourage every man to spend more time together. I will never be able to do that again. She will never answer her phone again, and I will never hear her voice calling me. Cherish every moment you have with her. Love her kiss, hold her in your arms. Because you never know what tomorrow brings. And he says, make sure your wife gets her yearly check tomorrow. Screening for cancer. We have to understand if we're gonna be a real church, and that's what this whole United Series is about. If we're gonna be a real church, and we've got it, we've got to understand that life is hard and love does hurt. But are we gonna be a group of people who are willing to hurt together? You know, firefighters run into a fire, and you're not supposed to do that. You're like supposed to run away. Christians run into pain. We run into awkward situations. We run into the hurt that people feel. And I think there's a lot of us in this room right now that are dealing with hurt, that are dealing with pain, and we're afraid to reach out, we're afraid to tell someone around us, like even the person sitting next to you, you're afraid to tap them on the shoulder and say, Hey, would you pray for me before we leave today? Because you wonder if they'll understand. But I want us to know this morning that this is real. That we're gonna be a church that lives out the dream of Jesus, that we will be united, that we will come together, that we're not gonna be afraid of each other's issues, you're not too messy, you're not too broken to belong here. Your problems, as painful as they are, they're not they're not even unique. Because we're all going through things. That's why it says in 1 Peter that whenever you're going through these troubles, remember that all your brothers and sisters are going through these troubles. And I would love to ask you to do something with me. I don't really do this ever, but but let me just say this. If you've ever been through an addiction, would you would you stand up if you've ever been through addiction? And I'm standing by the way, because I have. Those of you in the room right now who are dealing with an addiction, look around. If you're here this morning and you've ever lost a loved one, like a really close loved one, someone that was as close to you as could possibly be, would you stand up if you've if you've experienced tragic loss in your life? If you're someone who's just experienced that, look around you. If you've ever lost your job suddenly and found yourself in a financial crisis before, would you would you stand up if that's ever been your story? Look around. These people will understand you, they know what what you're going through. If you've ever battled anxiety or depression, would you stand up? Look around. You're not alone, you're not alone at all. I could I could go on and on, and I wouldn't even have to say much more. If you've ever been through a divorce, stand up. You're not alone. Everyone's already standing. I should have said jump, I don't know. I love you guys. And and I I just want us to know that this does not have to be a place where we come and we sing a few songs and we listen to someone talk about Jesus and we laugh together, then we go and we miss the chance to actually connect. And we miss the opportunity that we actually have to say, Hey, I'm here for you. There is someone in this room that understands you. There is someone in this room that deeply, deeply connects with what you're going through. And I want to encourage us, challenge us, like Paul, fall to my knees and just pray and beg that we start acting that out, that we start living that out. That if you're going through something this morning, that you wouldn't walk out of here without sharing it with someone. That if someone around you ever taps you on the shoulder and says, Would you pray with me, that you wouldn't go, oh great. That you would say yes. And if you don't know what to pray, the Holy Spirit will give you what you need. Just wrap your arms around him and pray for him. Are we gonna be a church? Or are we gonna be the church? United by love, united by passion, willing to suffer, willing to endure through the hard times. I love you guys. And I can tell you, when it comes to me, when it comes to our staff, when it comes to our leaders here at His hands, we are here for you. We will run into any painful situation, arm in arm with you. But it's not just those of us who are in staff, it's not just those of us who have a leadership role, it's every person here. Look around the room. You are not alone. Let's love each other, let's be passionate for each other, let's be willing to suffer anything together because that's what a church is. That's the church that Jesus dreamed of. Pray with me, please. Jesus, thank you so much for this incredible group of people. Thank you so much, God, that we have this opportunity. We have an opportunity every morning to come. Every morning we get together to come and be in your presence. And that means it's an opportunity, God, for us to be healed of our pain, to be healed of our hurt. It's an opportunity, God, for us to have people come alongside us. But I pray that you give us the courage to just say, Hey, I need help. I need prayer. Lord, remind us that we're not alone. That the people around us they understand more than we realize, that you understand everything. God, make us a church that is passionate for one another, that we're actually willing to suffer together. Make us that church, Lord. Make us a church that looks like you. You are so good to us, and we love you so much. And it's in your name Jesus we pray. Amen. Love you guys.