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Love like Christ
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Apr 2, 2025
Love like Christ
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good morning and welcome to Midweek
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Insights with Pastor John I'm Pastor
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John Moore from Popular Assembly of God
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Like to welcome you to another episode
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of Midweek
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Insights If uh you're watching us and
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you enjoy the messages that we're
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sharing please go down below and click
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like and follow us Today we're going to
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talk
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about God's unconditional love You know
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John 3:16 is 25 words of the most
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picture perfect example of God's love
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for people It says "For God so loved the
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world that he gave his only begotten son
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that whosoever should believe in him
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should not perish but have everlasting
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life." And it tells us that God loved us
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when we were unlovable It tells us that
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um he loved us even when we didn't love
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him and that he gave for us before we
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knew anything about him And in the uh
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John's in the first
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John 4 11 and 12 it says "Beloved if God
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so loved us we ought also to love one
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another No man has seen God at any time
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If we love one another God dwelleth in
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us and his love is perfected in us And
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it's really
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important especially in
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uh a Christian's life to learn how to
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walk in love according to the way Christ
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loved us Um as human beings we have a
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hard time
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uh distinguishing that if somebody does
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us bad then we we carry grudges and hard
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feelings and we want to do something
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back towards them And in reality what we
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should be doing is we should be loving
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them the same way Jesus did us He said
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to love your enemies to uh pray for
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those that use you And um it's really
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hard sometimes for us to wrap our mind
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around the concept of loving someone who
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doesn't love us
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back And so we get into these places uh
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where it causes a problem for us because
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we try to love according to the world's
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love rather than according to God's love
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And God's love is
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so expansive that we can't really wrap
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our mind around how much God loves us
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And the reason I say that is because we
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equate that
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with whether or not when we extend love
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it's extended back to
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us And Jesus said that you have to love
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even if they don't extend it back to you
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And that's that's the hard part because
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we will within our own thoughts our own
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minds we'll think well why should I love
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this person you know if they don't love
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me and what Jesus said was you have to
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love them anyway Paul the Apostle Paul
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said you get unto all
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men especially those of the household of
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faith He also said to live at peace with
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all men as much as you are able So we
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have a
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responsibility to
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Christ to
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present Christ as he is We have to
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present his love And it's it can be
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difficult because there's some people
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out there that we would say are
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unlovable There are people out there
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that no matter how well you treat them
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uh they don't they don't respond in kind
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And we we have a hard time with that And
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it takes a while and it takes a lot of
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work and it takes a lot of prayer to
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love people even when they don't love
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you And
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people we we all have an we all have a
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built-in need to be loved And we we find
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it very hard to love uh without
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reciprocation And if you're going to
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serve Christ if you're going to be who
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Christ said you need to be then you have
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to learn how to love the
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unlovable Uh it's the same same concept
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when it comes to dealing with people
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that are homeless or haven't
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uh have no relationship with Christ or
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the addict or the prostitute or any of
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these other things is in the state
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they're in
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In the eyes of the world they're
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unlovable They're people that uh don't
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deserve our attention or us reaching out
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to them And according to God's word
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that's not true According to God's word
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we have to love them anyway
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We have to give them every
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opportunity to have a relationship with
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Christ not based on what they do but
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based on what he did And that's that can
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be difficult at times for us because we
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want them to act a certain way to be a
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certain way to
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to respond in a certain way And Jesus
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didn't make that
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distinction He says that we we love him
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because he first loved us And we can't
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get away from that
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fact None of us were lovable None of us
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were uh had anything good about us It
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says all have sinned and come short of
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the glory of God
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And we have to keep in mind that
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when we came to our knowledge in Christ
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we were unlovable
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too And it's difficult at times You know
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you have people that do do things that
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uh I try not to use this word but they
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do stupid things and the stupid things
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they do
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uh can be very hard to deal with when
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you have people that you're investing in
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of yourself You're putting time into
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them You're trying to build a a godly
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relationship with them and they
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continually over and over and over
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reject it or they come to you with the
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uh attitude of you owe me
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Um
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and J God didn't owe us anything but he
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came and loved us anyway He came and
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died for us
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anyway And that should tell you just how
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great God's love is Um John 3:16
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explains it so well and and is what we
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need to look at Um Matthew 7:12 it says
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"Do unto others as you would have them
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do unto you." And that's a hard concept
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because people treat people bad Uh
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people do things that are horrific and
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and crazy
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and and we say "Well you know why do I
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have to try to reach them why do I have
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to love them why do I have to do all
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these things?" Well because Christ did
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it
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first He came first to love us to show
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us the way And we have to do likewise in
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return We have to let people see the
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love of God that's within us because
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that's our reasonable service to him
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It's often difficult
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uh takes a lot of prayer takes a lot of
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time uh spending time in God's word
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because the more you get Christ's word
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into you the more you become like him
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And that's what being a Christian is
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That
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word means Christlike And we should
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focus on things like are the things I'm
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doing showing other people Jesus or are
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they showing me and my own selfish
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nature And so it's really
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important that as you go through
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life and you're walking your Christian
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walk and you may be new to a life in
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Christ and you really don't know what
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what to do
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uh is to learn how to love like Christ
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loves Uh I always have people ask me
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when they first get saved well you know
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now that I'm saved and and I know I need
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to read the Bible where should I start
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and I always tell them start in the in
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the Gospel of John It's the Gospel of
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Love It explains who Jesus is And it
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will give you a solid foundation where
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from that point of view you can begin to
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study the Bible and study it from God's
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point of view And so I just want to
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encourage all of you especially right
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now cuz we're in Easter season
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Everybody's thinking about the
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resurrection Everybody's thinking about
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what Christ did for us And it's
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important to understand that even though
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he did that for us we also have to keep
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our mind on the fact that we have to
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treat other people the way he said we do
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And so having love for your brother love
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for your sister in Christ is more than
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just words The word in Greek is
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agape Uh it means benevolent love God's
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love and it's based on a word agapeo
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which literally
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means to love in truth And so it's
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important for us to know and to keep in
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mind that God hasn't changed He's never
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going to change In fact Jesus said he's
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the same yesterday today and forever And
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that his
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word is just as eternal
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And so as you're going through this next
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couple of weeks as we're g going gearing
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up towards Easter celebrating the death
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burial and resurrection of Christ we
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need to move
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from having
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that desire to share with other people
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about Christ from this time of year that
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we set aside as a holiday season to that
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becoming the way our life is in everyday
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life We need to show people daily the
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love of Christ and we need to do it in
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such a way as they can see Christ in us
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because we are Christ's
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ambassadors Um we are Jesus with skin on
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and when people meet you if what they
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see is Jesus they're drawn onto you
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Jesus said "If I be lifted up I draw all
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men unto me." So spend this time lifting
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Jesus up Spend less time lifting
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yourself up And you'll find that things
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change your attitude your thought
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processes the way you look at people uh
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how you like people uh to come and want
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to fellowship with you not because of
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how great you are but be h but because
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of how great he is So I want to leave
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that with you Learn to love like Christ
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loves because that's the way we're
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supposed to We'll see you guys next week
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Thanks