I’m glad to have my friend Jonathan Autry back with us. Jonathan, come on up. This is the last time that you’ll be preaching here. You’re headed back to the Dominican Republic early tomorrow morning. Early. Early. Right and early. He was going to get to the airport at like 3.30 in the morning, and I talked him out of it to a more reasonable time. And I’m excited to have you here. Thank you for preaching last week. I want God put on your heart. And between last Sunday and today, I’ve gotten a lot of feedback and a lot of questions about the pastors conference in the Dominican Republic. And just kind of share a little bit about where pastors are coming from, what they need, what you’re hoping God will use us to do when this conference takes place. Definitely. So we will be accepting pastors from about 20 different states. The Dominican Republic has 29 states. They’re not called states. They’re called provinces.

But they’ll be coming from as far as five, six hours away to be with us. It’s just going to be an amazing time where we get to encourage these pastors, a shot in the arm that they might need. They’re in areas where they’ve never been cared for. They’ve never been loved on. Some of these pastors I haven’t visited in years. It’s so much easier for them to come out to where we are, especially if we’re going to facilitate a time and place for them to be, allow them to have a place to stay for the night and feed them. It’s going to be a wonderful time. I’m excited about it. And so talk to me about the kind of teaching that they’re going to need now. We talked about this this morning a little bit, kind of preaching for Friday night, the kind of teaching for Saturday morning. Tell us what kind of teaching they really need and why that’s really important. I think first and foremost, encouragement is a big thing.

They need to be encouraged. They’re out all by themselves. They’re in their own space with their people. They probably think that no one’s thinking about them. There’s no expectations out there for them. So just being encouraged, letting them know that what they’re doing is important. Serving those communities and seeing those people get saved is just as important as anywhere else in the world. I think that that’s going to be a huge deal for them. It’s going to be some practical teaching just to encourage them to keep doing what they’re doing, to maybe take what they’re doing to the next level, be more of a light in their communities and reach out into the communities to stop staying inside the church and venture out into the community to grow the church. I think that’s what we need to encourage them to do. So if you weren’t here last week, I talked about how Jonathan and his dad planted 63 churches in the last 35 years.

And you’ve got a seminary. We’re looking to see another 37 more churches. Somebody just got to throw that number out there. 37 more churches in the next 10 years planted. And this is an opportunity to take all of these pastors that are all over the Dominican Republic, bring them to one place, have them stay in a hotel they wouldn’t normally stay in or really ever stay in. Eat a meal they would never buy for themselves and preach to them and pour into them. And it’s something you’re going to hear more about in the future. We’re going to ask different church members and people to be a part of it, to write encouraging notes to these pastors. Let them know we’re going to pray for them for the entire year and find a way to be a blessing. And so Jonathan, thanks for letting us be a part of this and what we get to do. And if you want to be a part of it, we’ll give you more information in the future as to what you can do.

There’s already a small team forming that we’re going to run down there and hopefully be a blessing to you and to your ministry. Jonathan preached to us last week. I’m excited about the message that you’ve got today. Let me pray for you and then preach to us. Heavenly Father, I pray for my friend. Lord, would you fill him with your power? Would you give him the words to say? The way that we need to hear them. And Lord, would you speak to our hearts? Would you mold us? Would you shape us? Would you change us to look less like us and to look more like you? I pray in Jesus’ name, amen. Amen.

Before I begin the message, I just want to thank Northwest. The same way pastor wants to go and encourage our pastors, they’re spread all over the place in the Dominican Republic. Your church has been a special encouragement to my family this week. We’ve had a wonderful time. We’ve been able to rest as a family. It was a particularly hard week for us. God knew what he was doing and when he was doing it. We suffered a huge loss this week. A young lady that was very, very important to our family. She was my assistant for many years. She taught my daughters how to sing and how to play the piano. She was only 34 and she suffered a heart attack this week and passed away. And again, it was a hard time for our family, but just being here and being able to be together as a family was amazing. Some of you have gone up and beyond the call of making this a wonderful time for us and special gifts and everything.

And I just want you to know, almost all that went to our kids and they know it came from you guys. And to me as a third generation missionary, a missionary kid that was pulled off to a third world country without being asked if I wanna go, it’s wonderful to see my kids being blessed this way. I hope that they truly understand how fortunate they are that a church would think about them. So from my heart to you all, thank you, thank you, thank you for being such a blessing to our family this week.

It’s so easy to come into a church where you really don’t know the people and you get to speak because you get to say stuff that maybe normally you wouldn’t say to your own people and you don’t have people coming up to you after the service saying, well, thanks for getting all up in my business. That was just a conversation that you and me had. You didn’t have to write a sermon all about it. So to me, it’s great to be able to come and just kind of speak freely and basically wherever it falls, whoever needs it, great. You can say, God, thank you for thinking about me and that was for me this morning. But there’s never like a judgmental thought that comes through my mind. I just, to me, I truly desire for our people for them to have those spiritual aha moments. I don’t know if you know what I’m referring to. As a child, I had really a hard time learning math. Math came very difficult for me.

All throughout high school, I went to summer school every single year for math. So much so that when I graduated from high school, I actually became a math teacher, something I never thought would have happened and stuff. But I remember that aha moment for me in math. I could not get fractions and decimals for the life of me. I struggled so much. I mean, I’m in eighth grade and I still don’t understand how fractions work. And it took a teacher to buy a pizza and sit down with me and explain this is a whole pizza. It’s got eight slices. How many slices do you want? I’ll take three. All right. And then she just broke it down. And then it seemed like in five minutes, she resolved all the questions and just confusion that I had and I had that aha moment.

I was done with Bible school. I had been pastoring as a youth pastor. I had been a lead pastor for years. And it wasn’t until we went out to Punta Cana and we started our own church from ground zero and that we started having all these young people come to our church that I too had an aha moment with what grace is all about. See, I grew up in a church where we threw the word grace around like it was just, you know, just like the word salvation and Jesus Christ and love. But no one really explained what grace was to me. And I had this aha moment. And I just want to share with you. It’s not particularly about grace, but it has to do with the title of the message this morning. Love like Jesus love. And I know that that’s just like a simple concept, right? And a very practical title for the message this morning, but I’m hoping maybe someone this morning will walk away with an aha moment where you could say practically, think practically, I can love people like Jesus loves me.

We were singing a song just now and I had to get my phone out and write this down. I know who I am because I know who you are. That really struck a chord for me when I’m thinking about the message this morning. I know who I am because I know who you are. And I feel that so many people don’t know who Jesus is. I feel that so many people don’t know what Jesus has done for you, not just for all of us, for you, particularly for you. Your pastor just came up here and said, Jesus Christ gave his life on the cross for you. And again, I think that we think about this beautiful story and we think about Christmas and we think about Easter, we just think about this bearded man, Jesus, he just loved us so much and he gave his life, but do we really understand that he loves us and he knows us from the amount of hairs that are on our head to that ingrown toenail you got going on right now? Jesus knows everything about you and he loves you.

Just the way some of you have been blessed with having children and you love your children, Jesus loves you in that way. Here’s the aha moment for me. And here’s what I want you to think about when you think about that song. I know who I am because I know who you are. I know who I am because I understand what you have done for me. You lack forgiveness this morning. You lack in grace. You lack in love because you lack a fuller understanding of how he has forgiven you. You lack a fuller understanding of how much grace he has given you. You lack love towards others because you have not allowed yourself to understand the fullness of his love. I had a phone call this week and a very, very close friend of mine, he says, “I don’t understand how you are able to forgive Fernando.

I can’t forgive him. I saw what he did for you. I saw what he did to you. I saw what he did to all of us. I don’t understand how you could shake his hand and hug his neck. And I don’t understand how you accept him in your house. I don’t understand how you do all these things. I could never forgive him.” And you know what? As this friend of mine’s pastor, I had no words for him. I didn’t say anything to him. I just kind of let him say what he had to say. And I left it at that. But as soon as I hung up the phone, I thought to myself, “You can’t forgive Fernando because you don’t understand the forgiveness that you have received.”

You don’t understand it. You haven’t had the aha moment. I’m glad you’re coming to church. I’m glad that you’re trying to grow in your walk with Christ. I’m glad that you’re a part of the body. But until you have that aha moment and you really fully understand that Jesus Christ loved you and he gave his life for you, you being a filthy sinner, not deserving any of it, until you embrace that thought, how can you give what you’ve never received?

Maybe you’ve received it in your mind. You understand the concept, but have you really accepted it in your heart? I want to just give you four things this morning. And the message is probably gonna be a little quicker than last week. Just four things to think about. When we talk about love like Jesus loved, you have to understand that Jesus’ love is sacrificial. Now, I always tell our church a good way to understand sacrifices if it doesn’t hurt, it’s not sacrifice. If it doesn’t hurt, it’s not sacrifice. I mean, we have plenty examples of that. We have the widow who gave her two mites and all these rich people are coming in and giving their offerings and stuff. It didn’t hurt them. It didn’t cost them anything. It wasn’t sacrificial. She sacrificed. She gave what she didn’t have. When you forgive somebody, it’s gonna hurt. I’m not gonna stand here and say it’s easy. Oh, giving people, just showing grace, it’s easy.

Just forgiving people for backstabbing you, for doing you wrong, it’s easy. I’m not gonna say it. Loving people that don’t deserve to be loved, it’s not easy. Like I said last week, it was never intended to be easy. It wouldn’t be sacrifice if it was easy.

John 15, 13 says, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” You know, that’s a great verse. I’ve heard it before. And that’s easy to do for people you love. But how many of us would lay down their lives for someone they didn’t know?

He demonstrated it at the cross. His love cost him everything. If we have received sacrificial love, we are called to practice sacrificial love. He did it as an example to us. Not only just did he offer his blood as remission for our sins, because it was a necessary perfect sacrifice so that we could know salvation, but it was the example that he set on the cross and said, “Look, imitate me. Do as I do. Be willing to sacrifice.” And when I talk about sacrifice, I usually go to three places. I tell people, I said, “We need to be able to sacrifice our time, our talents, and our treasures at the cost of trials and tribulations.” Bunch of T’s there. It doesn’t translate in Spanish as well.

But I want to put my treasures, my talents, and my time. I want to put it all on the table and give it as much as I can, even at the cost of trials and tribulations. I want you to think about this. I also tell our people all the time, I possess nothing more precious than my time, besides my family and my salvation, of course, but my time is my greatest treasure. I mean, treasures, monetary things, material things, you can lose them, and you can get them back.

You can be, if you woke up the other day and looked at your investments, you probably weren’t happy about what you were seeing, but you also understand, that kind of goes up and down, right? It could come back. You lost your job, you might be going through a hard time. You know that tomorrow you could find a better job and do better than you’ve ever done. Talent, I can learn a talent. Well, my kids think I can’t learn how to sing, but I know I could learn how to sing if I wanted to.

One thing I can never get back, one thing I can never learn to reproduce is my time. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. But I lay these things out at the cost of trials and tribulations, understanding that that’s the way I can sacrifice and I can show love towards others.

Ask yourself, who in my life needs me to love them at a cost to myself? Who is in your circle, who is around you right now that needs your love? I feel so bad for when I, and I see this all the time, where people will put up these block walls, between themselves and others, for the randomest of reasons.

And they just kind of block people out of their lives. Just sometimes just because they don’t get along with them. They don’t like the way they dress. They don’t like the way they talk. God forbid I ever did that. I’m not saying I’m a perfect person. But again, if I’m going to exercise Christ’s love, His grace, His forgiveness, and I’m building up these block walls between me and my peers or those around me, how am I gonna be effective in showing them the love of Christ?

Who in my life needs me to love them at a cost to myself? You know what I see when I’ve been wronged by someone and I have the opportunity to love them, embrace them and forgive them? I see an opportunity to show them what Christ looks like.

It’s not about me. It’s not about my feelings. That’s the moment where I have to put me and my feelings off to the side and understand I’m giving a golden opportunity to do what Christ would do. That should be the aha moment for some of us right now. We just don’t understand that. And I’m sorry if this word’s gonna rub you the wrong way, but we’re so selfish that we can’t understand the opportunity that Christ has given us to say, hey look, you wanna be like me? Here’s your opportunity. Knocked that wall down. Show them the grace, the love, the forgiveness that I’ve shown you. Number two, Jesus’ love is unconditional, Romans 5.8, but God demonstrates His love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While you were yet undeserving, while you were yet unlikeable, obnoxious, while you were someone that really didn’t deserve anything from Him, He still loved you enough to say I’ll give you everything I can give you.

I’ll put it all on the cross for you. It’s an unconditional love. When I saw my kids born, I put a post up on Facebook the other day. One of the great experiences we’ve had while we’ve been here is we were able to see, in my opinion, an amazing college this week with my oldest daughter. And I put some pictures up and I was just kind of remembering when she was born. I remember the day that Mariah was born. I remember it was like it was yesterday. I remember that my mom, she was here from the Dominican Republic. My mother-in-law was there present. My brother who was in the military, he drove up from Maryland as soon as we told him that my wife was in labor. I mean, she had so many people without even knowing it, just loving her without her even being born yet. And I remember her, I remember my mom and my mother-in-law holding this baby. I remember thinking to myself, I’m not ready for this.

I don’t know what we’re doing. Those first two weeks were tough. She was all colicky. Is that the word? I don’t know, it’s been a while. Come to find out, you know, my parents and my wife’s parents are telling us to keep shoving bottles in her mouth. And the doctor says, “Well, the reason she’s having issues and she’s crying so much is you’re overfeeding her.” He backed off the milk a little bit and all of a sudden everything she’s doing well. And so I said, “Look, you and me, we don’t know what we’re doing, Janine, but we’re gonna stop listening to everybody else.”

And then, you know, fast forward to now and we’re college shopping. I’m like, “Wow, that really did go by pretty quick, pretty fast.” It’s just been a wonderful thing to think about how many people have shown her love, have supported her and have helped her. And when I saw her without knowing what gift she had, without knowing what all she would do in the future, I loved her unconditionally. Like my life changed. I knew that everything from there on out was going to change from what I wanted and what I was able to do in life to what would I build for her future and my other children’s future. It was, again, one of those aha moments when I realized that life wasn’t just about me or me and my wife. We had something bigger to work towards. God demonstrated his own love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, undeserving people, Christ died and gave it all for us. Jesus doesn’t wait for us to clean ourselves up before loving us.

Why we think that we have to clean ourselves up and get ready to let Jesus in? I don’t know where that came from. I don’t know what church, what denomination. Why people think, well, before I go to church, I gotta fix this or I gotta fix that. Because when you understand that you need to go to the gym because maybe your weight’s getting out of control, you don’t say to yourself, well, let me drop a couple pounds before I sign up to Planet Fitness.

That doesn’t make sense. When you got a really bad cold and you need to go to the doctor, you don’t say, let me get well, let me take some medicine for a couple days and then I’ll go to the doctor. Well, it’s time to go to the doctor. You go to the doctor. Why do we think that we need to clean up our lives before we come to him? Again, Jesus loves you and he loves you just as you are. The parable of the prodigal son is a perfect example of this. The father runs out to embrace his rebellious son even before the son could finish his apology. The father’s love wasn’t based on performance, but we have or haven’t done. It was based on relationship.

It was based on the fact that the father already loved the son and Jesus already loves you. He loves you and you’re in perfect state. We often love people if they deserve it. We often stay away from people we don’t like, we can’t get along with. Jesus calls us to love even when it’s undeserved, even when we can’t get along with someone. Do I love people even when it’s not convenient? Another question to ask yourself.

I think that all of us have that maybe one family member that we just stay away from. They’re toxic, they’re this, they’re that, and I understand having healthy boundaries. That’s great. But don’t use your healthy boundaries as an excuse not to show the love of Christ.

Number three, Jesus’ love is compassionate. Matthew 9.36 is probably one of those verses that just really speaks volume in my life and it’s helped me in ministry so many times. But when he saw the crowds, he was moved with compassion for them because they fainted and were scattered like sheep without a shepherd. I mean, have you ever just looked at a person and felt compassion for them? I think it’s easier for us to show compassion to complete strangers than that coworker that we can’t stand.

There’s a problem there. It’s easier to give towards something or it’s easier to do something for someone that you don’t even know than that person that rubs you the wrong way. That’s not compassion. Compassion should be shown even to those that are closest to you. Jesus noticed people. He saw the hurting, the overlooked, and the broken. And the problem is we have people around us that are hurting, that are overlooked, and that are broken. And a lot of the times, we’re the one doing the hurting, we’re the ones doing the overlooking, and we are the ones that are breaking.

The Good Samaritan in Luke 10, you think about the Samaritan. The Bible says he’s just traveling. And as he’s traveling, he gets jumped. I guess he was over in that place where I had that first Airbnb here in Ohio. Walking down the street, he gets jumped. And the Bible says that two people come by, a priest and a Levite, before the Samaritan. Guys, this is another aha moment for me. I had read and heard the story of the Good Samaritan so many times since I was just a little kid. And one day when I was reading the story of the Good Samaritan, I realized something about Jesus’ story, because this is a story Jesus is telling. The first two guys that go by this man in need were religious leaders. And I said to myself, “Lord, please never allow my eyes to be closed to this. I don’t wanna be that religious leader that’s overlooking the hurting, the broken, and the needy.”

I think that Jesus, he did that on purpose when he mentions a Levite and a priest that just go by on the other way. But it took the Samaritan. And if you know anything about how complex the relationship between Jews and Samaritans were, I would encourage you to take some time to think about how deep the story of the Good Samaritan really is. Jesus is, he is nailing race, spiritual differences, religious differences. I mean, he’s just nailing all these different things and he is making a whole bunch of people uncomfortable as he’s speaking.

But the Good Samaritan, the inferior person, the person that didn’t know what holiness was, the person that wouldn’t follow the instructions and rules and laws the way he was supposed to, he was superior to the priest and to the Levite because he showed compassion and he showed love. And the Bible says that he stopped and he bandaged the guy’s wounds and he paid for all his expenses. And he even told the innkeeper, “Hey, it’s not gonna stop here. When I come again, just let me know what I owe you and I will settle the debt.” Read the story. It was a lasting love that went for this man even beyond the initial care. That’s what love looks like. That’s what compassion looks like. That is compassion in action and it’s called love. And love is more than an emotion. It’s interruption. It’s stopping for the hurting, coworker, the struggling child, the lonely neighbor. Who around me needs compassion instead of criticism?

Number four, last one. Jesus love is transforming. Jesus love is transforming. Second Corinthians 5.17 says, “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, old things have passed away. Look, all things have become new.” When you are in Christ, when you have accepted his love, when you have accepted his forgiveness, when you have accepted his grace. And by the way, let me go back to that word grace just in case you didn’t know because I was again always confused on what grace really is or what’s the difference between grace and mercy. Mercy is when you’re supposed to be punished, but you’re not. I’m gonna just put this as layman as I can, as easy again. When you deserve to be punished, but you’re not because you’ve been shown mercy. Grace is when you’re given something that you don’t deserve. And I always, poor guy, use JJ as an example of that. So many times I have to show him mercy because he did something wrong.

And I tell him, when we get home, we’re gonna talk about this. Then we get home and nothing happens. I haven’t forgotten, I’ve just shown him a little mercy. Now my son’s 11 years old. He has done nothing to deserve this, but I bought him a phone. I bought him a phone really because I wanted to stay in touch with him. I wanted to be able to text him and call him. He goes to soccer, he’s very active. So I thought he needed a phone, but he didn’t deserve that. He didn’t work for it. He didn’t earn it. My wife threatens every week to take it away from him. But that’s some grace. And again, I’m taking something that’s really so much deeper and just trying to make it simple for us to understand this morning. So when we talk about how we’ve received mercy when we deserve damnation, when I say that we’ve received grace, we’ve received salvation, a gift that we don’t deserve. And then we read 2 Corinthians 5, 17, therefore if any man is in Christ, I wanna be in Christ.

I wanna be in Christ. I don’t just wanna know Christ. Have you noticed that everybody is a Christian nowadays? Everybody’s putting verses up on Facebook. Some of you younger people saying, who uses Facebook? I still use Facebook, okay? I don’t know about here in Ohio, but in the Dominican Republic, everybody’s got bumper stickers on their cars. Everybody’s putting up these status notices with the verse of the day. Everyone’s a Christian. And you ask them, what is your belief? I’m a Christian. So much so that I no longer, Jonathan Autry, I no longer identify as a Christian. Cause I don’t wanna be associated with something that it’s not. So what do I identify with? I tell people now, I’m a disciple of Christ. Well, that’s deep. No, it’s not. Are you following him? Yes. Well, you’re a disciple. If you’re following Jesus Christ this morning, you’re a disciple. You might think I don’t wanna go in that deep.

You’re a pastor. I can understand you saying a disciple. No, I would hope that my children are disciples. They read their Bible every day. They’re trying to walk a Christian walk. They’re trying to follow Christ through disciples. I’m not just going to be a part of this culture, this Christian culture. I wanna be something more. I want to be in Christ so that I can be a new creature. So the old things, my lack of compassion, my lack of grace, my lack of forgiveness, my lack of love will be passed away. And behold, all things will become new. I can now start acting like him. I can start doing things that aren’t expected of the normal person.

When Jesus loved people, they changed. If you love Jesus, you will see change. If you read the story in Luke 19, there was Zacchaeus, he was a corrupt tax collector. But one encounter with Jesus, one encounter with the love of Jesus led him to repay what he had stolen and lived differently. Love changed him.

When we truly experienced Jesus, his love, we cannot stay the same. If you’ve truly experienced his love, his forgiveness, his grace, you’re not gonna be the same. You’re going to be transformed. You’re going to be different. And when we love others like Jesus, we become ambassadors of transformation in their lives. Is my love helping people move closer to Christ? I’m asking a lot of questions this morning because again, I wanna provoke that aha moment or maybe you think a little bit deeper about your faith. Is my love, that simple four letter word, is my love helping people move closer to Christ? Well, I gotta explain my religion to them. I gotta explain my faith to them. No, you can live out the love of Christ to them and they will see that you’re different and it will promote them to transformation. They will ask you instead of you having to tell them. Jesus loved and he loves you so much.

John 13.35 says, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples.” If you love one another. So let’s do this. Maybe let’s start with loving one another and then let’s start expanding out and loving those that we don’t know. Loving those that we’ve never loved before. And you know, it’s so awkward because there are people here, I am sure of this, that have neighbors that you would never say good morning to and if it was up to you, they’d move out tomorrow.

Again, there’s your first opportunity. There’s your first God given opportunity to show the love of Christ. You know, you could be the only thing between them and knowing Jesus Christ. You could be the only bridge, the only message they will ever hear. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, that you are my followers. If you have love one for another. The world will not recognize us by our big buildings.” What do you think about that this morning? As we came in to Northwest this morning, my wife said, “They have such a beautiful building. I didn’t add that into my sermon.” But you know what? Northwest is not gonna be remembered by their bigger building.

You’re not gonna be remembered by your big building. No matter how phenomenal your music is, Northwest will not be remembered by their incredible musicians or their great worship. You’re not gonna be remembered by your programs. You’re not gonna be remembered by how many people came through the doors.

What you will be remembered by is how you loved others. I would say that we need to receive his sacrificial love. Receive it. This morning, if you’ve never received it, whether you’re a non-believer that just hasn’t taken that step of faith and accepted him as your personal Savior, I say just receive it. It might be that this morning, you’ve never fully received that unconditional love because it’s just so impractical to you. You just can’t understand it. Well, understand it. Just realize that someone loved you so much that he didn’t care about all your faults and imperfections.

Reflect his compassionate love. This is a time for us to take what we’ve received and reflect it towards others, show it to others and release his transforming love. Just release what he has done already in your life. Some of us have phenomenal stories about how Jesus has transformed our lives, and we’ve never even told our pastor, much less someone else about it. And I think that God does amazing things in our lives and changes us in amazing ways so that we can use it as a testimony to tell others about him.

You cannot give what you have first not received. Give his love back to this lost and dying world. I just wanna encourage you, love like Jesus loved, and as simple as the title is, it can be simple to do. It can be simple to do. It’s gonna be a struggle. You’re gonna have to understand the fullness of his love and grace to you. But when you embrace that and you understand, wow, he really does love me, even with all my imperfections, even as as much sin and as many things as I’ve done in this life, he loves me. I can’t understand it. When you’re able to reflect that to other people and they can’t understand why you’re showing them love, why you’re showing them grace, why you’re showing them forgiveness, guess what? All you have to do is point it back to him. I can’t understand it either, but I can show you the person that showed it to me first. His name is Jesus. Can I tell you about him?

Lord, we thank you so much this morning because you gave it all on the cross. The Bible teaches this is in Hebrews nine that without the shedding of blood, there’s no remission of sin and you were the last, the last sacrifice, the only perfect sacrifice.

And you gave it to us, undeserving people. You gave it to us, sinful people. And I don’t understand your love for me. I don’t understand your grace. I don’t understand how you can forgive me for everything that I’ve done, but Lord, I accept it, I receive it. And if that’s the way you’re gonna love me, if that’s the way you’re gonna forgive me, if that’s the way you’re gonna give me your grace, I would ask you that you would help me to reflect that love to others so that they would not see me, but that they would see you in me. Lord, I pray that we would stop being Christians, stop being simple believers, and that we would be Christ followers, and that we would walk in your very footsteps, that we would use our testimonies, we would use our life ways to push people back to you.

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