Like A Good Neighbor

Luke 6:27-38

Transcript

His 12 disciples with him. And there are some other disciples who are following after Jesus. They have left everything behind and they're following Jesus. And so Jesus comes to a level, a level place and begins to teach them. And we're told his face turns to his disciples and he begins to speak.
And last week we looked at what he was trying to communicate to his new disciples, and those were the Beatitudes, if you will. We talked about, blessed are those who are poor in spirit. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who suffer persecution for the sake of Jesus Christ himself.
And we talked about how Jesus is helping them navigate this life that they have been called into. There's something that I want you to understand about salvation. A lot of times we get caught up in the first aspect of salvation, which is we're saved from sin, were saved from slavery, and we're so satisfied with that that we don't remember or we don't often think about that we're also saved to something. We're not just saved from something, which we are, but we're also saved to something. And we begin.
And Jesus begins to confess this in his ministry, that we are saved to a new life in him, that we are to follow him in this newness of life. And this newness of life will look like what the kingdom will be like. And so it's kingdom life, it's Christlike living. And he's beginning to teach them what this looks like. And he first starts with the attitudes which we looked at last week, and now we're looking at the behaviors.
How does one now act in their new life? And I should mention here, that is the Beatitudes that fuel the behaviors that Jesus is teaching and calling us into on this journey, on the road of this new life that we are to live. And so right here in our Gospel lesson today, we are going to be looking at these behaviors. Now that we got the Beatitudes, let's get the behaviors down. And again, this is the beginning of their following in Jesus.
Now, what he is going to mention is going to be really transformational. It's going to be like anything, unlike anything you've ever been taught in your life. But this is no matter how challenging you find it, it's going to be what Jesus is teaching his disciples as they begin their journey with him. And right out of the gate, we learn what it is that Jesus wants us to do. He wants us to love, act, bless, and pray.
If there's anything you get from this morning, it's those four things. Love, act, bless and pray. Those are the actions that Jesus immediately calls our attention to right here in verse 27 and 28. As he turns his attention to his disciples and tells them about the Beatitudes, he begins on the behaviors by saying, I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. Love, act, bless and pray.
Now, because I know we're not all Greek scholars, and I'm not one of them, but in studying this, those are present verbs, those are action verbs that he is calling not to something later on down the road when they get a little bit more mature. But presently, right now, as they take their first steps in following after Jesus, he's saying, this is what I want you to begin to do, right? With your attitudes readjusted. Now I'm going to readjust your behavior and it's going to come out like, like this. Love, take that love of yours.
I want you to love your enemies, and I want you to act upon that love. And I want you to take your actions, and I want those actions to be defined with blessing. So they're just not any type of action. They're actions moving towards blessing others. Then I want you to pray for them.
I want you to pray for your enemies, for those who curse you, for, for those who persecute you. Because the reality is right out of the gate. As you follow me, you are leaving the world behind we talked about. The blessed are those who mourn and are sorrowful because they are being pulled from their previous lives, their previous world, the previous relationships, their previous behaviors. And they go through this process of mourning, all that, but the joy that is ever before them steals their attention from their mourning and they move towards this kingdom that Jesus is defining.
This kingdom is full of loving, those who are unlovable. This kingdom is full with action. God is always busy in the kingdom. And how is he busy? What is he doing?
He gives those enemies of his. The whole entire world riddled with sin, enslaved and shaking their fists, angry at God for the way things are. And he pours out his blessing upon them. He causes the sun to rise on them and the sun to set. He still causes the crops to grow.
He still allows them to bear children. He still allows them to experience his blessing. And so in these first glimpses of these actions, we see actually the character of God. Love, act, bless and pray. And just so we don't get confused, Jesus continues on and he's going to show us how.
He's going to give us three examples. Three examples. So three ways that this is to be fleshed out in our lives. The three ways are self sacrifice, self awareness, and self denial. The first one is self sacrifice.
This is in verse 29 and 30. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also. And whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.
When I was in college, I got involved with this ministry called Young Life. It's a college ministry geared towards high school students and giving them the gospel. And Young Life has these camps throughout all the country, and they're amazing camps. And at these camps, you have, like, the big Water Blob. They'll have a lake.
And, you know, you jump on this blob and bounce off another person into the lake. They have a major swing, like all these fun rides. And then they have this ropes course. Well, in order to be a Young Life leader and to work at these camps, you have to go through all these courses and learn how it is that they work and to keep people safe. So it came time for me to learn the ropes course.
Now, I do not like heights. If you want to watch me cry, just put me up on a ladder. And so I don't like heights, but I had to do this. And so. And I didn't want to show I was in college, there was other college girls, and I wasn't going to show that I was fearful of height.
So I acted boldly and stirred up as much courage as I could. And I climbed this tree. And you have a hardness all over you, and you're attached to a little cord up here. And then you get to the end of the course, the rope course, you're climbing through the trees, up through the ropes, and you get to the end, and then you jump off and you try to, like, touch a flag, and then somebody belays you down. So you're jumping off into the midair, up high, and then you're just waiting on somebody to kind of like, slowly let you down on the rope.
I'm £275 at this point. I get up, it's my turn, and my friend Candy, who's 4 foot 11 and 97 pounds, is down there. She's learning to belay. And they're like, bruce, just jump. And I was like, no, I weigh 275.
I'm three times as much as her. And there's no way that she can belay me down. Like, it would just be one of those funny scenes where I come crashing to the ground and she's gonna be bolted up there and dangling from the pulley. And they're like, no, trust you. Like, trust us.
This will work. And I can tell Candy is so confident that she can do this. And it took me 30 minutes to have enough courage to jump off, hit the little bell or the little flag thing, and then not plummet to my death I was trusting her with. But let me tell you, after that 30 minutes, when I prayed the Lord to take me, my soul to keep, I jumped off that thing completely, has no vertical, and missed the flag. And I thought I was going to plummet.
And I looked down at Candy. Candy gave it her all with her whole entire being and things that she didn't possess. She was like wrapping the rope around and holding it down, and she slowly lowered me down to the ground. She spent her whole entire everything she had for my life to be ushered down to the ground safely. Now, why am I telling you that story is because the concept that Jesus is teaching you here is that you give your all.
You go to the fullest extent of offering yourself to people. If they are taking from you. If they strike you on the cheek, then you give them your all. You bring that other cheek. But here's the other reality, that we might do that for somebody, a friend of ours, like Bruce and Candy, right?
We were friends. But the reality is you're supposed to do that for your enemy, to give your all for your enemy, the one that doesn't like you, the one who has hurt you. You gotta belay them safely to the ground, no matter all the painstaking things that they've caused in your life. Jesus says you don't respond in kind to them. You don't become evil.
If they've treated you evil, right, you treat them with good. Jesus is expounding, or he's giving an imagery to a reality that Paul will capitalize later. In Romans, chapter 1221, he says, don't overcome evil with evil, but overcome evil with good. What does that look like? That looks exactly like what Jesus is describing here.
When somebody smacks you on the cheek, you turn and you give them the other. When somebody wants to get your clothes, you don't stop with just a shirt. You give them your cloak or your coat. Why? Because Jesus doesn't want you to return evil with evil.
He doesn't want you to reciprocate the actions of what is evil? If it's evil, then call it evil. And even if you feel you're just to do it, it's evil for you to respond in kind. And Jesus is demonstrating something that a lot of times we think that the stronger person is the person in power. We think that the person who strikes us is the person who is the strongest.
And oftentimes we cower to evil because it seems to be so strong and that the only way we can subdue it is by returning in kind. And Jesus says, no, the power over evil is actually good. And isn't this true? Isn't this how God has overcome your own life? You being an enemy of God, full of sin, even at times hating God, despising the way he's made things.
And yet God didn't return to kind on you. He didn't give you the judgment that you deserve. He didn't strike you down dead. Instead he struck himself down dead. He met your evil and your actions with his goodness.
And that's how he displays for us how to overcome evil with good. And the greatest example we see is the last moments of Jesus life. Do you remember at the end of each gospel presents a picture of the cruciate, the horrific death of Jesus Christ, right? Who gets slapped and yet doesn't slap anybody. Who gets his clothes while he's naked on the cross?
They're casting lots for his clothes and he gives it to him. He doesn't do anything about it. And who even goes so far as to those who are hurling insults at him in that moment, at his death, on his deathbed, says, father, forgive them, they know not what they do. My question to you is, is that a weak position for Jesus to be in? Was he just being passive over what was being done to him?
Absolutely not. Jesus displayed his power over evil by being good. Because he says, no one takes my life from me. I lay it down. See, when you get hit on this cheek and you offer them the other, you're telling them, oh, I'm in control.
I'm the one that actually offers my cheek. You don't get to strike it. I'm going to offer you myself, and you can take as much of me as you want because you can't kill me because I believe in Jesus. You are displaying the person who is in control. Jesus is saying, when somebody's taking from you, striking, you don't flinch in the face of evil, but instead overcome that evil with acts of good.
And when you begin to do that, when you begin to give them the other Cheek all of a sudden to those who are watching by, it becomes quick and obvious who is evil and who is good. The person who goes for that second blow on the other cheek that you're offering to them becomes even more evil in the sight of everybody to see they're perpetuating their evil. You're demonstrating that these are evil acts and you continue to be evil and evil. That's what's taking place. And you are the one presenting.
Position yourself in control. You don't slap me. I offer you to slap me. You don't take my shirt. I offer.
There's nothing I'm attached to here. I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. You can take my life and you might feel like you're in control, but I've trusted my life into the one who is in ultimate control. Right? Think about our lectionary reading in the Old Testament, Joseph's story, right?
What did his brothers do? They did an evil thing. They threw him into a pit, sold him to slavery in Egypt. They wanted to kill him. They wanted to do bad things to him.
And what did God do? He didn't chastise his brothers, he didn't throw them into a pit. He didn't return in kind. Instead he used their actions for evil. And God works good.
And that's how God operates. And that's why Jesus is telling us God operates with this. He has overcome the evil world with utter goodness because of his loving kindness. Loving kindness and goodness is stronger and better than evil and it can overcome it. And so he teaches us this concept.
Overcome evil with good. Offer yourself in sacrifice as you journey with me. Because I'm going to tell you that this is going to be a hard road. But as your enemies who are watching you follow after me, sneer and insult you, you don't stop and sneer and insult them. Instead, love them, act with blessing towards them and pray for them.
Because the best way to get evil people to stop is for God to transform their lives and make them good people.
The second thing that Jesus reveals is that he's calling us to be not only self sacrificial, to give up everything for others, but he's calling us to be self aware. He says in verse 31, treat others the same way you want them to treat you. In order to do that, in order to treat others the same way you would like to be treated, you have to have a level of self awareness. You have to put yourself in situations that maybe you've never experienced in order to say, well, I've Never been homeless, but if I were to be homeless, this is what I hope somebody would do for me. I.
I have never been in that situation, but as I put myself in that situation, I'm self aware to know this is how I would want to be treated. That's what Jesus is saying. He's saying you need to be self aware and then use that reality of what you would want for yourself, for that person to bless them. I have, for whatever reason. And this is not a boast, this is not me gloating sometimes it's actually really stressful.
But I do feel like I possess some level of gift of empathy that means I somehow can feel the sadness or the sickness or the turmoil of other people's lives. Even though I've never experienced a situation, somehow I just feel it. I can't explain it all. I know that there's a word out there that's called empathy that I feel and it helps me make my decisions. Let me give you an example.
We were flying. Usually on Thanksgiving, we fly to Melissa's family out in Phoenix. And we were riding in the very back of a Southwest airplane. And that's when they hit turbulence. The plane just does this and you get oozy all over the place.
And I knew what it's like to get motion sickness. And I begin to just watch Beau and I begin to see how he's moving and gesturing and I can feel that he's getting sick. And I immediately reach for the bag and I open it and I hold it. And at that moment he just, let's go. And he fills that bag up.
How did I know that? It's because I for some reason felt what he was feeling. I knew and sensed, okay, when I feel like this, I'm usually going to vomit or do this thing. So I'm wondering if he's going to do the same thing. I treated him the way I wanted to be treated if I were to feel like that, right?
So I was empathizing with him. And thank the Lord that I did that, or else we would have been cleaning up a lot more of that. But we're able to do that. That's one example of what empathy means. And to be self aware.
When you're self aware and are able to put yourself in the situation of your enemies of other people's lives, you begin to understand how you would like to be treated. And what Jesus says, well, don't fight for your own right to be treated a certain way. He says, take that knowledge, take that reality of how you would like to be treated and go and treat them that way. Treat others the way you want to be treated. And so that's what Jesus is teaching us right here.
And Paul again capitalizes on this in Philippians 2. He says to the church, do not merely look out for your own interests, your personal interests, but also for the interest of others. I've said this so many times and this is what I do. Marriage counseling. I always talk about the relationship of a marriage between a husband and a wife.
And that is you are coming together in a covenant agreement to say, I'm not going to look after my own life, Melissa, you're going to look after my life, my interest, the things that would benefit me, and I'm going to look after the things that benefit you. And that's the exchange of a covenantal relationship. And oftentimes the reason why we fight is because I want something and I don't have it and, and she's not getting it for me. And that causes tension between us. But you gotta have faith and trust.
The right way to do this relationship is you look out for my interests and I'm gonna look after you. You want chickens, I'm gonna get em, you know, you know, I wanna relax and watch a movie and veg out for a second. She's like, I wanna keep Beau at bay. So he's not bothering you. You're like, it's a giving back, it's a take and give, right?
And that's what Jesus is saying. Be self aware, look out for the interest of others, including your enemies. Love, act and that action is to bless them and to pray for them. And lastly he teaches us that the way to love, act, bless and pray is also seen by self denial. This is what he says in verses 32 and 34.
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. Jesus is pointing a reality here is that you are no longer a sinner and he doesn't want you to behave like a sinner. Sinners have a certain type of morality, a certain kind of thing that they do that seems right and good in people's eyes, but their motives are selfish and concern for their own interest. He says, I'm calling you to behave absolutely different. Don't do anything for selfish gain.
You do things out of love and you supersede that. This is in the context that if you go to Matthew, Jesus will be talking about this and he's pointing the reality to the Pharisees who are morally good. There is not one person, there is not one Pharisee that we would look at that we wouldn't say, like, man, they have their lives together. They are really good, moral people. There's nothing I can find fault with them.
We would say that about them. And yet Jesus says, your righteousness that is required of you has to supersede that of the Pharisees. And you're thinking, that's impossible. How better can you get than that? And Jesus exposes it right here.
He says, you know what the world looks at as being good? Yeah. You give to people and then they give it right back to you. You lend out five bucks and you get five bucks back. The balance remains the same.
That's what sinners do. Sinners, the world will just bless somebody as long as it gets reciprocated. And they get that acknowledgment like, yeah, that's what sinners do. Jesus is saying, I want you to behave entirely different than the way the world does, that when you give $5, you don't expect it back. Because we're supposed to be self sacrificial, self aware.
Wouldn't it be nice not to have to give that five dollars back? If you were actually in need of five bucks, you'd probably wish that for yourself. So give that to somebody. He says, you gotta deny yourself, deny those impulses, deny that old way of life that sinners would do. And now begin living the new life I'm calling you into.
And that life looks like a giving away. Think of everything that Jesus did. Did Jesus ever use his power in his ministry to get anything from anybody? His whole life was a giving away, healing and cleansing, people, giving up of himself, being tired, eating with people, giving them life, doing this. He never does this.
He gives it all away. And he says, that's what I'm calling you. It's a denial of self. Give it away. Somebody's in, help, help them and expect nothing in return.
Give it away. Give yourself away. Deny yourself. Your behavior has to supersede that of the sinners and the ways of the world because you're no longer living there. We're literally walking in the newness of life.
You're following me. We're denying ourselves. We're picking up Our crosses. And we're going, we're dying to this world so we can live to the kingdom. That's what Jesus says.
And so Jesus says, on this journey and following me, you've left everything behind and you're leaving this world behind. You're leaving your relationships behind, and you're following after me. It begins with your attitudes. Those need to change. And now it begins.
And it also begins with your behaviors. The way you see the world, the way God wants you to live, is completely new. And I get it, you haven't experienced it before. But you need to trust me that it's the right and good way to live by following after me. And like I've already mentioned, Jesus doesn't just teach us these things.
He goes on as they're following, as his disciples are following, he goes on to demonstrate them. Jesus isn't asking you to do anything that he hasn't already done for them and for you. He leads the way. He shows what it's like to be slapped and offered the other cheek, to be reviled but not revile in return. Like a lamb led to a slaughter, he remains silent in order for his enemies to benefit and be blessed with salvation.
That's what we are called to do. And it begins with all those behaviors, right? Begins with the little steps that we take in our lives. You know, Ephesians, chapter five. Again, going back to marriage.
You know what it says about husbands? Husbands, be ready to lay down your life for your wife. Like Christ laid his life down for the church. And a lot of men were like, absolutely. I can't wait for there to be a war, an army show up at my front door.
I'll protect my wife. That's oftentimes what I have in my mind. But I bet you guys have in your mind, too. But you know how that actually plays out if you're willing to say that you're gonna lay down your life for your wife. But when she asks, hey, honey, could you give me a drink of water?
And you're sitting there on the couch, comfortable as all get out, and you're like, can you go get it? That demonstrates in that small act that you're not willing to lay down your life for her. When it comes to the big that shows up at the front door, or if she says, you know, hey, I'm just tired tonight. There's a lot of dishes, and I know you cooked. Can you do the dishes?
I'm just so wore out. Are you gonna fight for the fact that I cooked dinner for, like, the Last two hours and all you could do is just wash some dishes. Other than we're a teamwork or are you gonna say absolutely, I told you I'd give my life for you. And it matters in the small things too. That's what Jesus is calling us to.
It's not just a self denial for the big things, but those little things we need to be loving. We need to take that love and make it action. And just not any type of action, a blessing action, not just towards our friends, not just towards those that we're comfortable with, towards our enemies. All that's so hard. Matter of fact, it's so hard, it's, it's impossible.
You actually can't do it. And I just want to draw one last attention to the fact that Jesus turns his face towards his disciples, not to the world. Only those who trust in Jesus, place their faith in him will be given his spirit to empower your life to do such beatitudes and behaviors. You can't do it. This is not something that we could do.
A conference and invite the world to come in and say this is the best way to live life. They won't be able to do it. They're going to get frustrated and think that Jesus is a farce. But what Jesus says, you trust in me and you take those steps to follow me. I'm going to fuel and empower your life with my spirit and you're going to be able to accomplish these things.
So this is a message only for those who claim to be a part of the church who believe in Jesus. Only those who could truly love their enemies are from God. Because only God in the history of the world has ever loved enemies rightly.
And so as we close, let me just remind you of the example that Jesus set before you, that he has done all those things for you. And there's a reward at the end of this. Jesus doesn't stop there. He briefly goes into the fact that if you were to do those things, if you were to have this attitude and be of this mind and to act in this way, do you know that you will become like your Father? You will be sons of the Most High God.
Guess what? That's what humanity was created for. For God says, let's make man in our own image. And in his image he created man. And yet we have failed to image God rightly.
But guess what? Jesus says, I'm here to tell you how you can image God and be called sons of the Most High God. And that's if you do these things if you love, act, bless and pray, you will be like sons of the Most High God. You'll be like me. But not only that, the extent and the measure by which you do this in your life will also be given by my Father to you.
Jesus is teaching us at some level that the extent that, that you love your enemies to the extent that you bless others, to the extent that you act and pray is the extent that God will pour in his blessings into your life. He says, if you will do this to other people without judging their actions towards you and just do it freely to them, to love them, I will pour my love into your life. So much so, and I'll shake it down and I'll make sure there's no empty space in your life and I'll fill it up and it's going to overflow. The same measure that you do this in your life, the Lord will pour into your life.
As we close, there's something that I didn't know how I was going to do this, but oftentimes I know in sermons we can pound on the fact that we're not doing something and we need to do more of something. Right? And we don't always find encouragement in the word that's being preached to us because we're preaching to a person who's dead and trying to revive a new life out of him. Right? We want to get rid of the old man and start living in the new.
Well, in order to get rid of the old man, we got to preach that he's sinful, and we got to preach Christ crucified in him, raising us from the dead. Right? But I think there is a point in time when we can encourage, and I want to encourage you guys. And so I am encouraged that I get to serve in a church that is doing these things. Can we do more?
Absolutely. Can we mature more in these ways? Absolutely. But I hope today that you feel encouraged because of what you all have decided to do. Let me read to you a letter from someone that you have chosen to love, act, bless and pray for.
His name's Shannon, and this is a letter that he wrote to me last night, several times in the middle of the night last night, and he wanted me to share it with you. And unfortunately, he's sick today. He's the gentleman that we are housing over there in the parsonage. And this is what he wants me to read to you church. He says, I believe that God puts people in your life for a reason.
And I'm so grateful that he cared enough for me in this situation that I was in and led me to Fairview Methodist Church. I met the pastor this past summer through the food pantry. It was a hot day, my car was down, I had no food, and so I rode my bicycle. I don't know if you're familiar with Bailiton, where Walker Brothers is, but that's where I was when I went to church that day. That's how I first met the pastor, where there was a couple of times when my power was cut off and I would have to swallow my pride and ask for help.
I didn't have any way of working. I have no family or friends I could depend on or ask for anything. But I'm grateful that God led me to Fairview Methodist Church a few weeks ago. My power was off again. I lived with my girlfriend then and called the pastor again asking for help.
That day. He said something to me on the phone that opened my eyes. He asked me if the church could help me in any way. What then? What's next?
My mind was blank. I didn't understand the question, and my mind was just blank. And I think what he meant, and I believe he said, what then Was what's next about my salvation. I got choked up. Then what?
What are you going to do? I was letting the world take me over. Anxiety, depression, loss of loved ones overwhelming me. This was a horrible, horrible time in my life. I would rather be dead than take another breath.
I was alone for quite some time in my head. And physically I was in a relationship that was just horrible. It was so bad that I was afraid to lay my head down at night. Depression was about to be the death of me. But I tried every day to put on a face and act like everything was okay, and it wasn't.
I was at the pastor's house doing some work in exchange for the electric bill that he paid for me. And towards the end of the day, he came to me and started to talk to me. He asked me if everything was okay, and I told him no, it wasn't. My life was chaotic. I broke down to him and the best I could do with the tears that were falling from my eyes still, I told him about how things were in my life and home.
And I prayed to God to take my life. I'm so thankful he didn't because I would not have never experienced what I have come to experience now. His grace through his church. Every time that I prayed, God, please send me a sign to give me a way out of this life that I was living. The night Before I went to the pastor's house, I was laying there in bed, and just out of nowhere, the words were spoken to me.
Walk out on faith. That's the only thing that I was. That was in my head. Walk out on faith. You know, walking out on faith is scary.
So what will I do? Where am I to go? There was nothing. There was nowhere. It was just total darkness.
Nothing. All that was in my head was, walk out on faith. And I did. So I went to work the next morning. As it got closer to the day of getting off that day, I thought, what do I do now?
Where do I go? God help me. Where am I going to stay? How am I going to keep warm and dry? And that's when the pastor approached me and asked if everything was okay.
And he helped me. He put me in a hotel room. He got me out of the cold and the rain. God puts people in your life for a reason. And I'm so grateful that he has led me here to Fairview Methodist Church.
You all put a roof over my head, you put food on my table, and you've sent me work. My gratitude. There are no words. And most of all, my soul is being fed. There has been.
It has been a long time. It has been too long, and I'm hungry. I need the word. I need to get back to the basics of life. And through the grace of God and you guys, I get the opportunity for life one more time.
I want to thank you. I can't tell you how much I love you and care for every one of you guys. I know you don't know me, but I love you and want to thank you for listening. If there's anything I can ever do for any of you, I'm here. Don't hesitate to ask.
Thank you, Shannon Collins. Thank you for loving, acting, blessing and praying. Just one guy who you don't know. Thank you, church. Be encouraged.
Walk and follow, Jesus. Love, act. Bless and pray. Let's pray.
Thank you, Jesus, for everything you've done for us. That while we were still sinners, you died for us. That while we were your enemies, you blessed us. You gave us your whole entire life so that we can overcome. So that our evil lives can be overcome by your good life.
And give us a kingdom to look forward to. That you save us from our sin, but also save us to your righteousness. I pray that you would be exalted in each and every person's life. That we, together as your bride, will take on your identity and take action the way you have led us.
Help us to love harder and better. Help us to act quicker and stronger. Help us to bless even those we don't want to. Help us to pray. Because we know at the end of the day, you are the one from whom all blessings flow.
May you be lifted high here at Fairview Methodist Church. May this be as a city of refuge and a strong tower to run into where you love and overcome people's lives with your loving kindness. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.