Hebrews

Hebrews 13 1 to 9 is our first reading, and then we're gonna have a reading from Philippians 4.

Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison and those who are ill treated as if you yourselves were suffering. Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed be kept pure. For god will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. Because god has said neither will I leave you, never will I forsake you. Never will I leave you rather. Sorry. So we say with confidence, the lord is my helper.

I will not be afraid What can mere mortals do to me? Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today. And forever.

Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those. Who do so. And you can turn back now to Philippians 4 if you've got a copy of the bible and we're going to read verses 10 to 19. See, Apostle Paul.

I rejoiced greatly in the law that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want, I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. Moreover, as you Philippines know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not 1 church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only. For even when I was in thessalonica, You sent me aid more than once when I was in need. Not that I desire your gifts. What I desire is that more be credited to your account.

I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied now that I have received from epaphroditus the gifts you've sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice pleasing to god. And my god will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus, to our god and father be glory forever and ever. Our men, Pete.

While the god help us now as we look into this word, please challenge us. We don't wanna come and just sit and be nice. We want to be challenged by your word that we may be godly, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. I'm sure you've heard statements like this. Learn to love yourself.

You heard that? Learn to love yourself. You need to learn to love yourself. You'll never be able to love anybody or anything until you love yourself. Love yourself first.

Then you'll be able to love other people. Now that message has been openly preached in our country, and and, you know, strongly preached in our country for for over 2 generations now. And the great anthem, that you may know, to this self love is Whitney Houston's 19 85 cover of the song, the greatest love of all. Do you know that song? You probably do know it, and this is how the anthem goes in the chorus.

Because the greatest love of all, don't get me singing it, is happening to me. I found the greatest love of all inside of me. The greatest love of all is easy to achieve. Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all. Now for 4 decades, that him to self love has been around and influence lots of things and spawn men many children.

It's a message that's very seductive and is everywhere, if you think about it, we see it in the celebrity culture and the image obsession, especially in internet influences, that are branding themselves, personal branding, constantly self, presenting themselves as the norm. And there's something that we look at, and we long to be as good as them. We want that adoration and platforms like TikTok and Instagram. They amplify that sort of thinking. We see in the consumer culture, you deserve it.

Treat yourself. You've worked hard. You're worth it. And in that whole identity of of getting things for yourself and looking good. We see it in mental health epidemic, where, The more we focus on ourselves, the more unstable we become as a nation.

We see it in the breakdown of self giving relationships, like, like marriage, when my needs and my self fulfillment are the ultimate thing, then sacrifice feels, you know, just too much. It's not a good thing. I need to love myself. And, relationships become conditional on how I feel about it. I'm really pleased because I got married to Anne 40 years ago just after Whitney Houston's am at anthem to love yourself.

And I'm very pleased that I've got a wife that didn't take that message into our marriage. I did a bit, but she didn't. Whitney Houston says this about her song. It's all pretty obvious really, but she says this about her song. Our young people need to hear that song and realize it's about loving yourself.

It's quite hard not to realize that when you know the song, but nevertheless, we need to hear that song. And I think she means life is about loving yourself. If you can love yourself through all your rights and wrongs and faults, that's the greatest love of all. Now if you know anything about Whitney Houston, it didn't do her any good. She drowned at the age of 48 in her bath.

After having heart problems because she was a cocaine addict. It didn't do her daughter any good, who drowned in exactly the same way at the age of 22 a few years afterwards. This self love message has even tried to work its way into the church, and it's sort of imposed itself by twisting the words of Jesus. Jesus says this. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Says the self love people. That means that Jesus is saying you have to love yourself first and then you'll be able to love your neighbor. It's it's a massive distortion of it. Jesus is not commanding self love. He's just assuming it.

That's what he's saying there. Human beings are already he's saying. We already act in self interest. We seek food and comfort and happiness. That's where we start from.

He's saying, that's the baseline, not the goal. It's instinctive to us. To protect ourselves. We'll use that that sort of feeling for other people. Love your neighbor as yourself.

It's it's appealing to the natural concerns that we have about ourselves That's the measuring stick for how you should feel and act towards other people. That's what he's saying. And even people, and I know how you think, even people that say, well, there are people that that hate themselves. But even those people, if you look at it, are self absorbed, in some way, it's not a lack of self love, it's a distortion of self love, it's not an absence of it, because they're always focusing in on themselves. When you're cold, you seek warmth.

When you're fearful, you seek safety. That instinct Jesus is saying is what you need about other people. Treat other people as seriously as you treat yourself. It's really easy for me to to show this up, and I'm not gonna spend hours doing it because I think it's pretty obvious that this self love philosophy is a disaster to our country, the UK statistics reveal a culture turned in on itself, not healed. The scale of mental, distress is epidemic, and we know that.

And a culture that is into self love doesn't produce wholeness. It produces an emptiness. It produces no peace. It produces emptiness. Learning to love yourself as the greatest love of all doesn't satisfy.

It feeds the self, and the self is always hungry for more. And it never delivers. We seem to have forgotten the old story, the old Greek myth of narcissus. Do you know that story? Should be around in every every school should teach it.

A beautiful young man, young god, falls in love with himself, falls in love with his own reflection, and even the the love song of echo, the goddess echo in a cave, crying out to love him. He doesn't hear. He doesn't care. He's not interested because he's seen a reflection of himself in the pool of water. And as he gazes at himself in the pool of water and his own reflection, he stoves to death.

Now into this narcissistic self love world, there's an oasis, a real pool, the church. A place that is not about people gazing into their own reflection, but loving 1 another. It's a place where people are to live in the light of the greatest love of all. Which is what? Well, listen to some verses.

1 John chapter 4 verse 10, that's in the Bible. Listen. This is love. Not that we loved god, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since god so loved us, we ought to love 1 another.

No 1 has ever seen god. But if we love 1 another, god lives in us, and his love is made complete in us. That's the mandate of the church. That's the extraordinary mission of the church. That's the purpose of the church.

That's the light of the world in a world of self love. That we understand god's love for us. And in understanding god's love for us, it comes out and grows, and there's fruit of that to love 1 another. And then god's love is seen. God is seen.

The unseen god is seen in the church when we love 1 another. That's the mission of the church. It's the mission of cornerstone. John 13, listen to Jesus. A new commandment I give you, love 1 another.

As I have loved you, so you must love 1 another. By this, Everyone will know that you are my disciple. If you love 1 another, you wanna be seen as a disciple of Jesus, then you love 1 another. See, self love is gazing in a mirror at our own reflection. Real love is looking through a window out to other people.

So that leads me to my first point then. Real love is the heart of the church. Real love is the heart of the real church. Here's Hebrews chapter 13 verses 1 to 3. We've spent 2 sermons looking at these already, but there's more.

So Hebrew is chapter 13 verses 1 to 3. Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it, continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison. And those who are ill treated as you as as if you yourselves were suffering. So here's the writer.

He spent chow 12 chapters, and we've gone through those chapters on the glory of the lord Jesus Christ. He's been showing us that he's the Messiah. He's opened up much of the Old Testament part of the Bible and pointed to Jesus and directed us to look to Jesus. He's given us some strong theology. He's told us about who Jesus is, the god man, and all of the complications of those things.

He's shown us that Jesus is the author and the perfecter of our faith. That is what a real Christian faith is. Real Christian faith is authored, not by ourselves, is authored by Jesus, the 1 who's laid down his life in love for the brothers and sisters. And now after 12 chapters of all of this theology and amazing stuff about Jesus. Chapter 13, here's the fruit of that faith.

Here's here's where faith and trust in Jesus lands in the reality of our lives. If Jesus is the author of your faith, then you will know it because you will love. He's the author. If you're the author of your faith, you'll love yourself. Facing Christ absolutely changes everything.

He's saying, including what we do with our short little existence on this planet. He makes us lovers And all the application of all the theology is love. If you've got a theology without love, your theology is faulty. It's not real. You don't understand what you're talking about.

Love, not self love, but love based on the lord Jesus Christ. Here's Paul. We we we saw this when we were looking at the first verse, but I just wanna remind you again. Here's Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. He's saying these very thing.

You can know lots of stuff. You can speak in tongues of men or angels. But if you don't have love, you're a clanging cymbal. You're a bang. Bang.

It's irritating. You push people away if you don't have love. You can have all the theology. You can have all the knowledge. You can fathom all the mysteries he says in 1 Corinthians 13.

You can even give your body up to hardship. You can look like a martyr. But if you don't have love, he absolutely says you gain nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

Real love. Is the heart of the real church. The church is not a club that you come to when you want to go to. The church is not an organization that you're sort of committed to. The church is not a business Too many churches are like this.

Businesses running as a business, bringing businessmen into the church to tell us how to run the church. The church is not an institution. The church is not like going to the cinema. You know, where you sit next to someone you don't want to, and you sit next to someone that you never wanna talk to, and you're irritated by them because they're smacking their lips when they're eating their popcorn and rustling their sweets. Church isn't that?

Church isn't a religious meeting. Church isn't a drive in church. Many years ago, I went to a drive in church in Florida, in America. You go in your car. I went in my higher car into like a car park, just like outside, and I stayed in my car, and there was a woman next to me in her car, and there was a bloke next to me in his car, individuals in a little bubble sitting there, and some bloke came up on a platform, and preach to us.

And then we took holy communion together by a bloke coming around on a motorbike and knocked it on your window and you wound it down, in those days it was that, and, he gave you the communion, you wound it up, and took the communion together and looked at the woman taking hers in her bubble. And then when it finished, everybody tried to get out of the car park as quick as possible. It was like Church is not a show where we turn the lights down. So we have our individual experience. Anything that does that is dodgy.

Turn the lights down. And the light is on the platform. And on the speaker and everything's about him and what's going on on the platform. So you can have your little experience of god. That's not church.

Church is a place of lovers. People who don't boast, people who are patient with each other, people who are not proud, people who don't dishonor each other, people who are not self seeking, people are not easily angered. We saw that in the sermon on love, didn't we? We're not puffer fish. Touch me.

You know, I blow out. I'm not an I'm not an electric eel. You know, that sort of stuff. Church is a family. That's why we do family things in church, like say happy birthday to people because we're a family.

That's why we pray for each other because we're a family. That's why we're deeply upset what's happening to Liza, aren't we? Cause we're a family. We're not even met the kid, and he's breaking our hearts, isn't he? He's hurting us in 1 sense because he's a family.

They're family. Church is about keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. The main new testament word for a Christian is brothers. It means sisters as well. But the main new testament word is that.

What this means is that every believer, genuine believer in Christ is my brother or sister, whether I like them or not. Jesus is the author of our faith. Jesus has brought the brothers and sisters together. Like in a family. You don't choose your brother, do you?

He's suddenly born. You know, you know what it's like when there's been 1 child in the family for years and then another one's born. You know what that's like, don't you? You've seen those videos. You've heard the stories.

You may have even been in it, where the the kid who's been around on their own is now introduced to mom and baby at the hospital. And the kid the kid says, what's that? And that's your new brother, your new sister. Take him back. You know, that is that's not how we do it.

You have to love. It's not about me. It's not self love. That's brotherly love. But brotherly love isn't for just people like ourselves.

We can easily naturally love people that like ourselves. Look at verse 2 then. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers for by, so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. It's very easy just to extend brotherly love to those who are similar to me. Jesus warns us of this.

Listen to the words of Jesus in the great sermon on the Mount. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

Then listen to this line. We often take this line out of context. This line is the application of that. Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect. Something about the perfection of the heavenly father is that he cares for the people that you don't get on with.

God so loved the world he sent his son to a world that are unlovable. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers. We had a whole sermon on that. It was brilliant. You must go and listen to it.

I mean, I know hospitality is much more than this, but we really should be using our homes as much as we possibly can if we have them. Many, many churches. It's a big thing in the New Testament, the home. Many churches met in the homes. There's a close connection between the advancement of the gospel and the use of Christian's homes.

Millions and millions of people have been blessed very powerfully by the use of the home bringing people into the home. That's why we do guess who. Do guess who. And that ministry can will enrich you because some have entertained angels and not knowing. When when my kids were were young, when Jerusalem and and Carl, we're young.

Every Sunday, it would be like, mom, dad, have we got anyone back for lunch on Sunday? No. Boring. We gotta sit with you 2. Yeah.

They loved the benefits. Of having angels amongst us was amazing, even slightly odd people, even people we didn't like, you know, even, you know, when they go, you say, cough, I thought they'd never go. But You know, it it adds to the friendship. It adds to sorry. I always say that.

If you're a guest in my house and you go, when you go, I always say to Anne, I thought I'd never go, you know. And if I'm a guest in your house, I always say to Anne, I thought we'd never leave. It's only a joke. Okay. S- sometimes.

Then verse 3, look, I just wanna show you verse 3, and then we're gonna get into verse 3. Continue to remember those in prison as you were as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are ill treated as if you yourselves were suffering. Do you see the ripples of love from the self? It's like throwing a stone into into a pool or a pond, isn't it? The stone plops in, and then the ripples move away from the cell from the stone to the margins of the pool.

And you see it here. Love the brothers and sisters. Plop. Yeah. And then it's going out.

Love the stranger, the alien, the foreigner. Love those that are not like you. And then it goes out. Love those out of sight. Those in prison.

So we've seen that stuff, but I wanna focus in now on verse 3 then. Love the prisoner. Love the prisoner. Continue to remember those in prison as if you yourself as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are ill treated as if you yourselves were suffering, true, Christian, Jesus authored life, loves, and it's not limited to a comfortable Sunday gathering. It ripples out, moves from us to the marginalized.

To the brothers and sisters, to the foreigners amongst us, to those that we've never even met who are suffering for Jesus. Knowing someone in prison for the gospel, was not an uncommon thing for first century Christians. 5 of the new testament letters written by Paul are from a prison cell. And nearly every new testament letter, has something of persecution or suffering in it for Christians suffering runs all the way through the new testament books. You you could almost really call the new testament a collection of letters from people that are forged in the midst of suffering and persecution and imprisonment.

That's the norm. We live the anomaly. We live in a country that is strange historically and worldwide. So we may not know someone in prison. But if you were a Christian in the first century, you would, and if you're a Christian in most parts of the world, you would.

So he says, verse 3, remember. The word translated remember the prisoners there means to bring to mind to actively hold some something as an awareness. It's a bit like a sort of an alarm. It's pull you back, pull back your attention. We're in a scrolling culture, aren't we?

We just scroll on to the next thing. It's very easy, isn't it to to read something about a persecuted Christian. Some brothers or sisters in North Korea, it's very easy to read that, and then you scroll on to the next funny video or something else. But the word that Hebrews is using here is don't do that. Don't scroll past suffering.

Stay there. Hold on. Click that. Keep watching it. Let it shape you.

Let it shape your prayers. Let it shape your priorities. Let it change your heart. Don't lose sight of this. Don't move on to the next thing.

He reminds them, what was life like earlier for them. If you go back to Hebrew's chapter 10, let me just read some of this. In Hebrews 10 verse 32. If you've got a barrio, if you haven't, then just listen. He says, listen to this.

There's there's a lot of connections here that I I really want you to get. Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, So remember the days when you first were a Christian, we had did a whole sermon on that. When you endured in, in a great affliction full of suffering, sometimes you were publicly exposed to insults and persecution, At other times, you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the, confiscation. What's the word?

Conv I can't say it. But did I thank you for that, of your property, they've taken your property away, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence it will be richly rewarded. Now see what he's arguing here. Remember those days, when you first became a Christian, you received the light.

Don't let that light burn low. It was burning then. And remember that you remembered the prisoners and the suffering. And when you remembered the prisoners of suffering, you remembered something else that we're going to a better country and that we've got a better and lasting possession and a better reward. So in remembering them, you remembered that we were going to a better place than this world can offer.

And as you stood by them and remembered them, you had confidence. Do you see that? Confidence doesn't come in looking into the mirror. When you look in the mirror, you're very unconfident, aren't you? See, I'm not looking in the mirror.

I'm looking out, and I'm a gorgeous looking bloke. I'm still 23. I'm alive, but when I look in the mirror, I think, who the heck is that? Who is that? When you look in the mirror, you see the spots The bogey hanging out your nose.

You see the hair in the wrong place. You suddenly think my goodness, is that me? And you have lack of confidence because you're looking at yourself, but when you're looking out of the window, when you're looking at those who are in prison, when you're caring for those outside of you. Suddenly, you understand this world is not what it's all about. They've got a better life to come, and so have we.

And confidence comes. You become a more confident person. So the amazing thing continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison. The phrase is really powerful because it's sharing the chains. That's where it comes from.

Paul writes in colossians chapter 4. He says, I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, and he still uses the same word, remember my chains, grace be with you. In remembering his chains, suddenly grace is with you. You experience more, not less when you look out the window and not into the mirror. God is calling us, you see, to radical feelings.

Put yourself it's saying in their shoes. If you were in prison, what would you want? Will live like that. You'd want cloves and food and letters and visits and recordings or medicines and and not only that, what are what are you gonna be thinking if you're in prison? You're gonna be thinking your family How are my children?

How am I? How's my wife? How's my husband? How how are they getting on? So we should consider them.

What do you want if you're in prison? See the ripples, going out, moving out, or making us more confident. Let me just read some passages. I hope this isn't too much. But I'm gonna just read some passages to show you.

What you need in prison. You need care and concern. Listen to Paul. He's writing from prison. We just read it, but let me read it again.

It's Philippians chapter 4 and verse 10. Listen to Paul writing. He's in prison, and he says this. He wants this care and concern. That's what you would want.

I rejoiced greatly in the lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. Then verse 14, yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. See that was sharing in the troubles. Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not 1 church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only.

For even when I was in thessalonica, you sent me aid more than once when I was in need. Not that I desired your gifts. What I desire is that more be credited to your account. I have received full payment and have more than enough. I'm amply supplied Now that I have received from epaphroditus the gift you sent, they are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice pleasing to god.

My god will greet, will meet all your needs according to the riches of his of glory in Christ Jesus. You see the the benefits even of giving. You give To someone who's in prison, you care, your concern for someone in prison, and it's a smell to god. He goes, beautiful. That's my people.

That's That's a faith that is authored by my son. That's a faith that's perfected by my my glorious son. You see that? Prayer is another thing we should do, care, and concern, and prayer. Here's Paul, in prison again, in ephesians chapter 6, and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for the lord's people pray also for me that it whenever I speak, words may be given to me, so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fiercely as I should. He wants prayer. But if I was writing from prison, I'd be saying, oh, you know, I'm I thought it's awful. It's awful here.

Pray I get out. He's saying, pray that in this awful situation, I'll share the gospel. And if you read Philipp, you know that he did that. He was chained to a Roman soldier every 4 hours, but he turned it the other way around. The Roman soldiers were changed to this gospel preacher every 4 hours.

Pray. So we're care and concern, and we pray, and we visit. We've already seen that. We visit Paul again into Timothy talks about, the household of 1, this is from us. That actually visits him in prison so you've got visiting.

And then when Stephen in the early church is martyred for preaching the gospel, the young men, what do they do? They come out, and they take his body, and they care for him. You see, there's care. And then Hebrew says not only the prisoners, but remember those who are ill treated. And the word ill treated is mistreated, oppressed.

Think about those. Think about those Christians. Think about the refugees who are displaced from their home because they're Christians. Think about that. Think about that before we shout out, go home.

Think about that. Think of the workers who are exploited and underpaid because there are Christians. Think about the hardships they go through. Think about believers facing hostility for their faith. In the workplace or in their families.

We can often be emotionally distant from these people, and Hebrews is saying, don't be. You can't be. They're family members. That pulls the distance back to you. Remember?

That leads me to my last point. It won't take so long. Gospel transformation. Jesus authoring and writing and perfecting the faith in our lives. Whitney Houston's greatest love of awe reverses the ripples.

Brings the ripples from the margins back to the stone, and it sends her into a small world where all she can do is look in the mirror in the bath, taking her drugs, and drowning on her own. A church, like that, is not authored by Jesus. 1 of the most unchristian characteristics of all this self love is a church saying, we've got our own troubles. We can't be bothered to pray for those that are in prison around the world. That is a terrible callous self love, selfish indifference, and it's not Christianity at all, real love sends ripples out.

And why? Because that's what god did in Jesus. He didn't stay distant. He came into this world. He came into our condition.

He entered it. He was bound. He was mistreated. He was crucified. He identified completely.

He bore our sin. We remember others because Christ is the author of our faith who did that for us. When I really belong to a church, then my brothers and sisters success is my success. When I really belong to a church, then my brothers and sisters disappointments and sufferings are my sufferings. Paul says this in Romans.

Listen carefully. Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn. That's the larger teaching of all of this. According to that teaching, what happens to our fellow Christians feels like it's happening to us. It has to affect us.

Rejoice with those who rejoice more with those who mourn. Don't we do that? When you hear about the Smith's a little acer, he's come home and then suddenly the elders had a text. We've called the ambulance, please pray. What what what what does your heart do?

Oh, I think I'll have another bite of my sausage roll. What does your heart do? It it it goes out, doesn't it? You as I say, he's won our heart, and I haven't even met him. We're to love.

But what about those brothers and sisters in persecuted lands that are in prison? We need to love. We weep with those who weep. Are you weeping with those We rejoice with the we rejoice with the 90 year olds. Don't we?

What a joy to have 90 year olds amongst us? You know? You might get there too. It won't be long. We rejoice with those.

That's family. We're not an organization that doesn't say things like that. We're family. We celebrate. We hurt.

We have pain. That's why we go to the prayer meeting. It's painful. Hey, listen to this. This is a very interesting thing.

I don't know whether you ever thought about this. The apostle Paul, the great apostle Paul, who is a great church planter. The greatest 1 went on 3 missionary journeys around Europe. The great apostle Paul suddenly spends his time gathering money and taking it to a suffering church in Jerusalem. What a waste of time?

Can't someone else do that job? Why the great apostle Paul? Isn't church planting the most important thing in our life? You see? He says no.

Because I love the brothers. And he was prepared to go and then be arrested and all kinds of things happen because he took the money to a suffering people. It's absolutely essential in our church life. To love the brothers who are suffering. It's essential.

Don't scroll past it. Don't flick onto something else. Don't say it's not my business. Don't talk like that. Don't talk like Whitney Houston's song.

Don't do that. Let's pray for those who are persecuted. Now if you want more information on that, I did a talk several months ago, and you can look it up, and it was a much shorter than this 1. It was 10 reasons why we pray and give to the persecuted church 10 reasons Have a listen to that. Pay through those 10 reasons.

Go to open doors. We support open doors, and we should support it more. Go to open doors, get their magazine, read about Christians. Think about our brothers who are persecuted, the Belarusians, those in Poland that we know that have had to escape Belarus. It's 1 of the reasons why you as a church sent me and Andy Brewans to Belarus last year.

We wanted to see the brothers that are going through persecution. The greatest love of all should be demonstrated in the church. Please god that it would be in Kurdistan. I've got another version of Whitney Houston. Do you want me to sing it?

Okay. We can mourn together, or we could rejoice together. I won't sing it. I've never liked the song. I don't like Whitney Houston's music, so anyway, there we go.

Just to get I had to get that out. I don't know why. The greatest love of all is happening to us. We found the greatest love of all inside the church. The greatest love of all is something to achieve, learning to love the lord.

We'll write the greatest love of all in us. The greatest love of all. Is learning to love the lord, and then you'll love the church. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we know that, all over this world right now, there will be men and women and boys and girls who are in different types of prisons because they love the lord Jesus.

And some of them will, have the hope of release and others not so. And we thank you for the encouragement and the challenge to remember these suffering brothers and sisters. It is embarrassing how much time we spend thinking about ourselves and how little time we spend thinking about these people or researching where they are or how we can pray for them. And we're sorry for our infatuation with ourselves. Please free us from it.

Please help us to move away from the mirror of self and to start looking more through the window of the gospel and out into the world and to your people. Father we know that only by fixing our eyes upon Jesus, is this gonna happen? We thank you that the the spirit of the 1 who loves others so deeply is the spirit in us. And, we want more and more of his spirit in us. We want more and more to be influenced by his self giving and his other centeredness, lord so that you would grow this fruit in us.

We thank you for the lord's supper that we're about to take and that is a meal that reminds us of love laid down, sacrificial love. We thank you for the bread reminding us of the body of the savior who has died in our place for our selfishness. We thank you Jesus for the the juice reminding us of your own precious blood heaven's blood, spilt for selfish sinners. We pray your forgiveness for us and thank you that this meal takes us back to the cross where where we are forgiven and where we find all of our power to change. Thank you that we take this together as a church family and bless us as we do now in Jesus' name, amen.