“Do you love me?”
This was Jesus’ question to Peter.
It was personal, but it is a question Jesus calls us to answer too.
But that is not where the conversation with Christ ended.
“Do you love me?” is not simply a question we answer, like yes or no; it is something that changes everything, not just how we behave but what we deeply believe.
When we love, really love, it is more than something we do; it does something to us.
Love changes us.
But far more than just changing what we do, love transforms us. It renovates our hearts and revolutionizes the very reason we do what we do.
It is like a lens, that when we look through it we see the world differently.
Love is vastly more than feeling different; we radically realign our lives and become different.
We are going to explore what comes after, “Yes, I love you.”

Downloads

Notes Transcript Video Audio

1

Grace Fellowship Church

Buddy Hoffman

Series: John

May 22, 2011

If You Love Me

John 21

If you’re here this morning, and you do not have a Bible with you, slip up your hands. We want

to put a Bible in your hands. Turn to John 21. I want you to look at verse 15. You’ll remember

the background of this is post-resurrection. Lots of stuff we could talk about with the

resurrection. There is also a background with this with Matthew 18 of resolving issues between

family members, of resolving how we are to resolve differences, and Jesus goes to these people

individually.

Peter has absolutely failed in miserable ways. Jesus fixes breakfast with them. They’ve been

fishing all night. We talked about this last week. They looked in their nets. There was nothing in

their nets, and then they did what Christ told them to do, and their nets were full. I would just

come back to that and just remind ourselves that when God calls us to do something He knows

more about our business than we do. He knows more about our business than we do, and I would

just encourage us all to go about those businesses with open hands.

2

Verse 15: “After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love Me more

than these?'” (John 21:15) All kinds of questions have been asked about that. “Do you love Me

more than fishing?” Of course, that’s not the issue. It’s that comparison issue. “Do you love Me

more than these other disciples?”

“‘Yes, Lord,’ Peter replied, ‘You know I love You.'” (John 21:15) Now there are different kinds

of words that are used here, and sometimes we focus in on that, but notice He says, “‘Then feed

My lambs,’ Jesus told him. Jesus repeated the question: ‘Simon son of John, do you love Me?’

‘Yes, Lord,’ Peter said, ‘You know I love You.’ ‘Then take care of My sheep,’ Jesus said.

A third time He asked him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love Me?’ Peter was hurt that Jesus asked

the question a third time. He said, ‘Lord, You know everything. You know that I love You.’ Jesus

said, ‘Then feed My sheep.'” (John 21:15-17)

I have on your sheet there some proposals, some propositions, and they emerge out of this

encounter with Peter. These are the three statements, and you can agree with them or disagree

with them, and I actually couldn’t figure out how to punctuate them because I’m not sure it’s right

grammar.

1. To love well, we must be loved well. Okay? To love well, we must be loved well.

2. To be loved well, we must know well the only One who has ever truly loved well.

3

3. If we have been loved well, we will love well.

Those are the three propositions. To love well, we must be loved well. To be loved well, we must

know well the only One who has ever truly loved well. If we have been loved well, we will love

well.

Peter Drucker was a legendary organization guru. If you’re in leadership, you have heard his

name, and you have read his books. He made millions consulting business and really pioneered

leadership in the corporate world. He used to say the first question he would ask a business when

they called him in to consult was, “What business are you in?” It was often interesting. They

really didn’t know what business they were in. They couldn’t answer that question.

Drucker was a man of faith, and in later years, he focused a lot of his attention and his

considerable wisdom into helping churches, and he would say the first thing he would ask a

church was, “What are you trying to accomplish?” His observation was that most churches are in

a crisis of objectives, not a crisis of organization. You follow that?

They were in a crisis of objectives, not organization. The problem most churches face in his

opinion was not that they did not do anything; it’s that they do too much. The problem is not that

they are not doing things right; it’s that they are not doing the right things. In his mind, the

church, the primary problem was not proficiency; the problem was an absence of purpose.

4

So here we are. We’re sitting with Jesus, He looks at us, and He asks us a question. This is what

He asked Peter. What does He ask Peter? Does He say, “Peter, were you nice today? Peter, did

you pray this morning? Peter, did you get everything done you said you were going to get done?

Did you give of your goods? Did you miss church? Did you read your Bible? Were you nice?

Were you good?”

Those are good questions. Those are reasonable questions. I think it’s a good question to ask

ourselves, “Were you kind?” Amen? I think it’s a good question to ask ourselves, “Were we good

stewards?” It’s a good question, but that really isn’t the primary question Jesus asked Peter. Jesus

asked Peter what? “Do you love Me? Do you love Me?”

Now this is not a new song and dance for us, is it? Amen? I know because I know some of you

are sitting there going, “Okay, now we’re going to go to the most important questions in the

world again. I’ve heard Buddy do this over and over again. Here we go. We’re going to go down

that road, and I see it. It’s on the sheet right there. Matthew 22:35-40: “‘Teacher, which is the

most important commandment in the law of Moses?’ Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your

God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest

commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” (Matthew

22:36-39) Okay, I have it down.”

You know why I say it over and over? Because this is the big question. I mean, this is the

question at the end of every single day of our life, that we should lie down and night, and we

5

should say a prayer that goes like, “God, did I love You well today? Did I love You well today?”

We should pray a prayer like, “Did I love others well today?”

Every morning when we get up, we should say, “God, I love You, and I really want to love You

well today, and I want You to know I really do love You, and I want to love You well.” We

should look around at the people we say we love and make every attempt to love them well.

Years ago, I sat down. Actually for a week I just tried to work out like a personal mission

statement, and I wrote down all kinds of things, but this is the one I landed on and have landed

on for years, and it’s one I miss over and over. Extravagantly love God and others. Extravagantly

love God and others. Now you say, Well how do I know if I’m doing that? Well let me ask you

something. Do people ever say to you, “I think you just love God too much”? Or do people ever

say to you, “I really think your big problem is you love people too much”?

That conversation goes on. It doesn’t stop with, “Do you love Me?” There are three then’s. You

see that? We often stop right there. “You know I love You.” Notice what Jesus says, “Then feed

My lambs. Then take care of My sheep. Then feed My sheep.”

You know, Jody and I, on June 5, will have been married 35 years. That’s a long time, isn’t it? I

remember honestly like it was yesterday when I told her I loved her. I remember it vividly. I

remember where we were. I remember the time that I wrestled with the reality of trying to figure

out…did I have enough courage to actually say it? Courage isn’t usually my problem, and I just

wrestled with it because I had never actually in my life told anybody I was in love with them,

6

ever. Not a childhood crush. I had reserved that word, “I’m in love with you,” for the person I

was going to marry, and I had made up my mind very young in life, I will never ever, ever tell

somebody I’m in love with them unless I mean by that, “I want to marry you.”

I remember when I told her that because we had been really, really good friends for a couple of

years, and she knew me really well. When I looked at her and I said, “Jody, I’m in love with

you,” she knew exactly what I meant. She knew I meant, “I want to marry you, and I want you to

marry me.” Now here’s what she said: “I’m going to have to think about this some more.” It didn’t

trouble me at all.

By the way, guys, that shouldn’t trouble you. The object is to marry somebody over your head.

So if the first time you just broach the question and they go, “Yes! Absolutely! I’ve been…,” you

might think about that. I don’t mean we shouldn’t be very bold in saying to people, “I love you.”

If you love someone, you should say to them you love them. We should love the world, amen?

God so… What? …loved the world. We should love the world, and we should love other

believers. There is a familiarity and a family tie, and there are people in our lives, and you know

who they are in your life, that even if you have never said to them, “I love you,” you know you

love them.

I’m just going to say this to you: If there are people in your life who you know you love, you

should tell them. Amen? You should tell them today. You shouldn’t wait until tomorrow. You

shouldn’t even wait until you get home from church. You should walk out of here today, pick up

7

the phone, and call them up, and say, “I was thinking about you at church today, and I was

thinking about the fact that I really love you, and I want you to know I really love you.”

I’m going to tell you something: Love isn’t just something you do; it is something that does

something to you. It does something to you. It changes who you are and the people who love

you, who really love you, and who you let them love you. It is not just an emotional thing; it

changes who you are.

Let’s look back up to my propositions. To love well, we must be loved well. To be loved well, we

must know well the only One who has ever truly loved well. If we have been loved well, we will

love well.

There’s a man who I met in college who mentored me for not just when I was in college, but all

the way through my ministry. His name was Max. He was a vice president of a college and

church planter. Any NASCAR fans in here? God bless you. Max started Motor Racing Outreach

chaplain programs for NASCAR. If you Google Max Helton’s name, you will find articles that

say Max Helton changed the culture of NASCAR. It’s interesting.

When Max was ever in town, he would call me, and we would drink a cup of coffee together or

eat supper together, and he stayed in my house numbers of times, and he never left that he didn’t

turn around and go, “Buddy, I love you.” Now you know what? When he first started doing that,

it really made me uncomfortable.

8

A few years ago, Max got a brain tumor. He was helping his kids move, and he was helping them

move a sofa, and he turned around, and he couldn’t remember the names of his grandchildren.

They thought he had a stroke, and they took him to the hospital and discovered he had a really

large brain tumor. He didn’t live a whole lot of time after that, but they put him on all kinds of

stuff.

I remember the last conversation I had with Max. He was feeling good one day, and he asked his

wife to make some phone calls for him. I got a phone call, and she says, “Max wants to talk to

you.” I know exactly where I was. I was on 78, and I pulled off of 78 and pulled the car over, and

I got out of the car and said, “Hey, Max.” He goes, “Buddy, I just…” and his voice was kind of

halting. He says, “Buddy, I want you to know something: I love you.” I said, “Max, I love you.

My life is different because you were in it.” That’s the last conversation I had with him.

Now listen, here’s what Jesus says: “I love you. If you have any questions about that, look at the

cross, but here’s the question I want to know, and I want you to be very clear with Me on this: Do

you love Me?”

“Yes, Lord, I love You! Yes, Lord, I love You! Yes, Lord, I love You!”

“Okay, if you love Me, there is a then.” This is then: Because if this is true, there is a then, and

there are three things there. If you want to jot them down, you can. One is we’re going to love

lambs. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to love lambs. Two, we’re going to look after

the lambs. And three, we’re going to feed the lambs.

9

1. We’re going to love lambs.

“Do you love Me?”

“Yes, Lord, I love You.”

“Well if you really love Me, love the lambs.”

“You love Me?”

“Yes, Lord, I love You. I love You a lot. I love reading Your Word. I love to pray. I love

thinking about how much You love me. I think about Your grandeur, Your majesty, Your

creation. I think about Your intimacy You have with me. How much You know me. How that

my name is written on the palm of Your hands. You know I love You, and I know You love me.”

Okay, if there is a love here, here is what it will look like: “If you really love Me, here’s what you

will do: You’re going to feed My lambs.” This is just what it’s going to look like. Now you know

this conversation was not private actually. John wrote it down here, told us about the

conversation, but I think if you look over to the book of 1 John, that little letter… It’s not quite a

tweet; it’s longer than an email.

10

Look at 1 John. Look at verse 7, and I’m going to read this out of the New King James because I

really think it reads better because in the New Living it uses the word, “Friends, let us continue

to love one another,” (1 John 4:7) but in the New King James it uses a word we don’t use a lot.

It’s the word beloved…beloved! It’s more than just a term of endearment; it’s you who are the

recipients of love. If you have been loved, you “Beloved, let us love one another…” are you

following along there? “…for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows

God. He who does not love does not know God…” (1 John 4:7-8) That’s a pretty strong, blunt

statement, isn’t it?

If you do not love, you do not really know God. Experientially you don’t know Him, “…for God

is love. “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten

Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but

that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved…” (1 John 4:9-11)

you see that again? Like 14 times agape is used here.

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any

time. If we love one another…” listen to this, “…God abides in us…” (1 John 4:11-12) Do you

see that echoing out of John 15? “Abide in Me and I will abide in you, and if you abide in Me,

you’re going to bring forth much fruit.”

“If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12)

That means it grows to reality. “By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He

has given us of His Spirit.” (1 John 4:13) That’s really important, and we’re going to go deeper

11

into this later, but this is how we know it. His Spirit comes through us. He has given us this

Spirit.

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever

confesses…” and that confession means that this is more than just a mental acknowledgement; it

is an alignment with that reality, “…that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in

God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who

abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:14-16) Now if that seems kind of

convoluted, it is circular. It is! It is very circular. Listen, you can’t really abide and not love. It’s

just going to happen.

Verse 17: “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of

judgment…” (1 John 4:17) I think there’s an appropriate comment here. I got so many phone

calls about Jesus coming back yesterday. I offered to watch everybody’s dog the day that it

happened. Listen, don’t let people scare you about Jesus coming back. That’s a good thing.

Listen, always be skeptical about somebody saying, “Jesus is coming back, and my address is…

Here’s where to send your check.” If Jesus is coming back, they don’t need any money. You

understand that? Yeah. Don’t get swallowed into that.

Listen, when Jesus comes back, I’m excited about that. Amen? That’s not something, “Oh no,

Jesus is coming back!” No, that’s, “Oh yeah, Jesus is coming back!” He’s good! He’s love! He’s

kind! He’s going to set things straight! That’s exciting. Man!

12

“…because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out

fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” (1 John

4:17-18) Now listen to this: “We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) You hear

that? “We love Him because He first loved us. If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his

brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love

God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God

must love his brother also.” (1 John 4:19-21)

This is what he says: “And His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3) It’s a joy!

Nobody tells me I have to love my grandkids. I love my grandkids because they’re my grandkids,

because I’m their granddad, right? It’s not like, “Oh no, got to go love the grandkids.” That’s silly!

Now again, these are my propositions…To love well, we must be loved well. I think there are

some people here that you have not entered deeply into the love well. You haven’t let God love

you well. You feel this sense of burden on your heart because you don’t know how lavishly,

ridiculously generous God is. Read the stories Jesus told about the Father.

You know when it talks about the prodigal son? The prodigal son was a prodigal, but let me tell

you something. The father had the problem. If your kid goes off and spends all his money on

prostitutes and parties, and he comes home, you don’t throw a party. You put him on probation.

What kind of father does that? Well I’ll tell you what kind of father does that. That’s our Dad! He

is ridiculously generous, amazingly kind.

13

To love well, we must be loved well. To be loved well, we must know well the only One who has

ever truly loved well. If we’ve been loved well, we will love well. It just happens that way. Now in

that priority, we must love the lambs. I could talk to you all day long. You know this is our heart

to reach the next generation.

Do you realize (it’s hard to come up with specific numbers), but when they study missionaries,

90 percent of the missionaries when they say when they came to faith, it was before they were 11

years old? Before they were 11 years old! Studies show that 75 percent of all people who come

to know the Lord come to Christ before the age 14. That’s insane! Do you realize that? Seventyfive

percent before they’re 14. I believe if you were to throw in the numbers of those who came

to faith before they graduated from college, you would probably be somewhere in the 90 percent

range of people who come to faith before they get out of college.

Sometimes people ask me, “Why do you guys spend so much money, so much time, so much

energy, and all that stuff on kids? They don’t pay the bills.” That’s true! We’re sending more than

600 kids to camp this year, and by the way we’re upside down in our budget, and we’ve never

had more kids who needed scholarships to camp…never! Kids who would never ask for it.

If you asked them, “Hey, why aren’t you going to camp?” they’ll go, “Oh, I just have something

else going on.” “What else do you have going on?” They don’t want to tell you. Come to find out

that some of them because their father or mother can’t afford it because they’ve lost jobs, and

we’ve said to them over and over again, “We will find a way for you to go to camp.” You know

14

why I know that? I know what kind of people you are. I know what this congregation is made of.

I know where our heart is.

This whole Downtown thing, there are hundreds of college kids, and we spent…I don’t

know…literally hundreds of thousands of dollars planting that church downtown, but how do

you calculate the worth of a soul? How do you do that? You can’t do that.

I’m sitting here listening to these kids, and you know what I’m thinking? I want to start a church

in Athens. I do! Listen, we have to go after the next generation, and you know why we have to go

after the next generation? If we understand the heart of the Father, if we understand the heart of

Jesus Christ, we will love lambs. We will.

Matthew 18: You remember this is that passage that is in the background of John 21. Matthew

18:1 says, “About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Which of us is greatest in the

Kingdom of Heaven?’ Jesus called a small child over to Him and put the child among them. Then

he said, ‘I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will

never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, anyone who becomes as humble as this little

child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.'” And listen to this verse 5, “‘And anyone who

welcomes a little child like this on My behalf is welcoming Me.'” (Matthew 18:1-5)

You think that’s true? “And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on My behalf is

welcoming Me.” (Matthew 18:5) What if I told you we had baby Jesus down in the nursery

15

today? Think we’d get some nursery volunteers? “Hey, I’d love to go down there and hold baby

Jesus!”

What if I told you, “High school Jesus is going off to college today; anybody want to pray for

Him?” You’d be climbing over chairs to put your hand on His shoulder. You would! Here’s what

Jesus says: “Anyone who welcomes a little child welcomes Me.” Listen, this is what He’s going

to say at the end of the age. He’s not going to say that 85-year-old guy out there collecting

millions of dollars in California was right. You know what He’s going to do? He’s going to say,

“When you did it unto the least of these My brothers, you did it unto Me.”

We’re going to say, “When did we…?” He says, “When you clothed the hungry, when you went

to visit the people in prison, when you set at liberty the captives, when you sat in that nursery

and you sang to that crying baby, when you sat in that love program night after night, when you

prayed over those children, when you found that little girl who had anorexia, and you prayed

with her, and you cried with her, and you worked with her, when you found that boy who was on

crack or selling drugs.”

Listen, do you know Matt Reynolds who leads our campus downtown was the drug dealer for

Parkview? Now some of you are saying, My kids are not going down there. Well he met them

selling drugs. Listen, we have this amazing opportunity. He said, “When you welcome one of

these kids on My behalf, you’re welcoming Me.”

16

There’s a triad Jesus uses there in that story. It’s kind of funny actually. He says, “But if anyone

causes one of these little ones who trusts in Me to lose faith…” now listen to this, “…it would be

better for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around the neck.”

(Matthew 18:6) I think if most of you had been standing there, you would have said, “Jesus,

that’s a little dramatic,” because you understand what He does. A millstone is bigger than this

piano, okay? It wouldn’t take a millstone to get you to the bottom of the ocean. Like two concrete

blocks would do…kind of like they did with bin Laden.

He uses something they are very acquainted with that you can’t move. If you’ve ever been to the

Middle East, you’ve seen these massive millstones. You really just can’t move them. Then He

uses something else that absolutely is terrifying to them. It’s the ocean. Now we go the ocean

because it’s kind of fun. We walk along the beach. They looked at the ocean like it was a raging

beast that just sucked people away. They were terrified of the ocean. People would go sailing,

and most of them would… I mean, it was a dangerous, dangerous profession.

So He uses the depths of the sea, a millstone, and drowning. Drowning was used by the Roman

government as a means of capital punishment. So it’s like Jesus triangulates the worst nightmares

anybody’s going to have. Like a millstone, the depths of the sea, and drowning! He says, “It’d be

better for that to happen to you than to mess with one of these kids.”

2. We’re going to look after the lambs. So how do you know if you’re looking after lambs? Can

you tell when people have kids? You ever watch people newly married? Man, they get married,

and they just run off to the beach, run off to the mountains, run off to movies, go out to eat, sleep

17

all night, buy whatever kind of car they want, don’t worry about plugs at the house or poison

under the sink. I mean, your life is so simple until you have kids.

You have kids; your life changes, doesn’t it? Say amen. Yes, yes. Do you remember the first time

you took a vacation after you had your first child? The child is this big, but what you have to

pack is not doubled; it’s exponentially more! It’s not like you go, “Oh yeah, they have little

clothes. We can get a little bag.” No! It takes more, more, more of everything.

If this is your last kid going off to college, you’re telling them, “Oh, I’m so sad. I’m going to miss

you,” but I know… You go to bed when you want. You don’t wonder if their car is in the

driveway. Listen, there are not many of them in here, except you, little guy. This is not true. We

love you. They complicate our lives! They do in so many ways, but our lives are so much richer

because they’re in it.

This is how you know if a church looks after lambs: It’s complicated. It’s not an easy place to

run! It’s problematic. There are a lot of bills to pay. There’s space they use you wish you could

put your stuff in. You look and go, “We could do so much with that space if they weren’t in it.”

You know what I mean. If you have kids, you know what I mean. If you don’t have kids, there’s

no way to explain this.

3. We’ll feed the lambs. One of the things I like about this community is this community loves

kids. It does, and it’s obvious. You don’t have to drive around long before you realize you see the

18

schools and the athletic fields and the playgrounds, the stores that choose to locate here. If we

really love our kids, we’ll make certain they’re fed the Word of God.

Because I’m going to tell you something: They need the Word of God more than they need

soccer skills. They do. They need the Word of God more than they need T-ball. They need the

Word of God more than they need that score on the SAT. They do. I know in this community,

the gods that the community bows down before are athletics and academics. That’s what we bow

down before. That’s what we celebrate. That’s what we gather around. That’s what we talk about.

That’s what we go, “Hey, good job! Homerun! My kid pitched baseball the other day. That’s

really amazing.”

Let me tell you something: What you celebrate you cultivate…whatever it is. I’m not saying we

should not celebrate athletics, and I’m not saying we should not celebrate academics, but listen,

we need to celebrate when these kids come home and say, “I want to be a LUG head.” You need

to go, “Hey, I want to take you to dinner, kid.”

When you look at that kid’s Bible, and it’s written in, and when they talk about somebody they

shared their faith with, you need to go, “Wow, that’s the most amazing thing I can possibly

imagine.” As much as you get special coaching for your kids in all those other kind of things,

you ought to be looking around at men and women who can pour into your kid’s life and say,

“Listen, would you please be a mentor for my kid?” Amen.

19

I have 27 verses here. You can read them when you want to. “‘The time is surely coming,’ says

the Sovereign LORD, ‘when I will send a famine on the land – not a famine of bread or water but

of hearing the words of the LORD. People will stagger everywhere from sea to sea, searching for

the word of the LORD, running here and going there, but they will not find it.” (Amos 8:11-12)

May this not be true of us, of our families, of our children.

Lord, thank You so much for You. Lord, I pray for the young parents in this room. I pray for

these kids who are headed off. I pray for the stewardship You’ve given us of our children here.

Lord, we pray for the adequate resources to fund these ministries. Lord, I pray for maybe some

families here that financially they’re under pressure, and it’s causing more pressure on these kids

with arguments that are going on and debates that are going on.

Lord, I pray we’ll be a family who loves one another well and that we will enter into that loved

well depth of understanding of how absolutely insanely You love us. Lord, I pray for maybe that

person who doesn’t feel loved, that they know it in their head, but it just hasn’t seeped down into

that heart of their identity. Lord, I pray for that person who needs the courage to make that phone

call to tell that person they love that they’re loved.

Just keep our heads bowed just for one minute here. I feel like I just want to ask a question. If

you don’t know Christ’s love, if you haven’t experienced that love, if you’ve never trusted His

cross and His payment for you, I want to tell you something: Over here on my right, there’s a

prayer room. There are people standing around by the Communion spaces who’d be happy to

pray with you.

20

If you’re a father or mother, and your kid’s going off to college, and you just want someone to

pray with you about this journey you’re in, we want to pray with you. I wouldn’t be surprised if

the person next to you would be happy to pray for you.

If you’re here this morning, and you say, “Man, I really do need prayer about some of these areas

about loving my family or somebody I need to communicate this love to,” just slip up your hand.

Just slip up your hand right where you’re at. Amen. God bless you. Go do it. Go do it. If you’re

struggling with just experiencing that love, just say it out loud to God. “God, I need to

experience that love I know in my head.”

Lord, we thank You. In Your name we pray, amen.