Good morning. How's everybody doing? Good? Glad you're here. Thanks for coming today. I am excited to be here. It's going to be an exciting weekend with the baptisms next service. What an awesome thing to have that many kids between teenagers and children that are going to be baptized next service. And we're so excited about that. Excited for what's coming up, Christmas Eve services. On Christmas Eve, I know it's a concept maybe we're not prepared for, but Christmas Eve, two, four, and six Christmas Eve services, well, three of them, so make note of that. And of course, our Christmas FX, this is the first one we've done with Grace Kids. It's gonna be a great night, whether you have kids preschool, man, I'm loud up here, preschool or elementary age children, we're gonna have a great time together, families enjoying and celebrating Christmas, Pastor Matt is gonna wrap up the night out in the lobby, we're gonna light the Christmas tree, he's gonna lead us in Christmas carols, it's gonna be a fun time. And in case I may get this wrong, but the announcement said that winter camp is for high school. It's actually for middle school as well. I'm waiting to see if Jesse's in here to correct me, Pastor Jesse. No, we're good. Yeah, middle school and high school for winter camp. So we're gonna be in Mark chapter 12. I've become, and this is now 25 years I've been in full-time ministry, and it's safe to say I have shared the message more on Thanksgiving weekend than any other weekend in 25 years. Now, it used to be a little bit more of a challenge for me, because I used to go out and shop on Friday. Oh, by the way, you're getting the extended version of the message, because there's no baptism, so I have a lot more time. Yeah, yeah. You clap now. You're like, really? But it was a little hard to get going for the weekend after shopping on Friday. But now that I've kind of moved on past that, it's not quite so tough, but this is a weekend I look forward to. For whatever reason, God has placed me at this time, and Pastor Jesse has taken the weekend off. I've discovered, and don't tell him this, but I figured something out about Pastor Jesse, if you haven't figured it out. When he takes time off, Well, he does, but then there's always work involved because he's just doing business, he's getting ready, and he's a guy that likes to be prepared, and he's already prepping us with the sermon series after the next sermon series that I think is after the next sermon series, because he's just that way. And I appreciate him so much, and I appreciate that we have a chance to give him a break this weekend and let him enjoy family time, and just humbled that I can be here. So we're gonna be in Mark chapter 12, We're going to pray in a moment. We have been in a series called Move Beyond. And this series has covered a lot. Moving beyond oppression, religion, fear, desperation, deliverance, rejection. I went through and checked all these because I had to make sure I had them all. Logic, cultural norms, silence. We've heard a lot about what we should be and can move beyond with Jesus. And this weekend is really what I call the weekend to move beyond expectations. To move beyond expectations. And I was at a gathering yesterday and I was sharing with somebody, I said, I have three versions going on in my head. The Lord's got me to work on three different versions of this message. And he goes, here's what you do. Finish all three. First, I'm like, yeah, right, that's gonna happen. Finish all three, and then come up front and say, ask the congregation, you want A, B, or C? I'm like, yeah, you're funny, you've never done this before. That didn't happen. Thankfully, the Lord helped me land the plane, and we've got it figured out. So we're gonna pray that we hear from God, and we are guided by His Holy Spirit as we begin to move, be challenged to move beyond even our own expectations. So let's pray together, Father, Today, we gather both here in the room and online. We're so grateful and so thankful for what you do for us, how you love us. I pray that today, in this moment, we would hear from you. that our hearts would be open, our minds would be receptive, and we'd be challenged. If it gets uncomfortable for someone, like it's been uncomfortable for me this week, praise the Lord. If it's been inspiring and inspires someone, we praise the Lord. We thank you for what you're gonna do. We thank you for how you helped us to enjoy and celebrate this Thanksgiving, and I pray that for everyone within the sound of my voice, they have had a special day on Thursday, Today, God, we celebrate the students, the kids that are gonna be getting baptized, and most importantly, we celebrate you in the season that we're stepping into. We love you, we commit this time to you, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. There is one of three basic truths that we share down with elementary kids. It's somehow wrapped into our teachings every once in a while, more often than not, but it's the basic truth of this. Treat others the way you want to be treated. You know, if a child can move into junior high, into middle school and high school with a foundational understanding and rock-solid, determination to treat others the way they want to be treated, it's a win. It's a win. That's just one of them, but it's kind of what this message is going to be about today. I have shared on this passage in Mark 12 before. It's a passage that you'll all be familiar with, but before we read it, I want to set us up for it. Does that sound good? All right, a little story time with Pastor Mark. But it really isn't a story, it's really God's word, starting back in Mark chapter 11. Now let me set the scene for you. Jesus is coming into Jerusalem. He's entering into Jerusalem, and frankly, by this point, he's stirred it up in the country of Israel. He stirred it up everywhere he's gone. I mean, he has got people thinking, he's got people challenged, he's been healing, he's been changing lives. He has been doing so much and now he's walking into Jerusalem for this great entry into Jerusalem. There's some attention on him. and no greater attention on him than those in religious positions of authority in Jerusalem. And why do I know that? Glad you asked, because scripture tells us that. Starting in Mark chapter 11, he arrives in Jerusalem and right away, coming from the high priests and the leaders at that time, they're already trying to question his authority. because he's been speaking about it, and they're threatened by it. They're uncomfortable with it. And so they challenge him, and he gives an unexpected answer. He answers with a question. They weren't expecting that. He answered with a question. Now, that can drive some, does it drive you nuts when somebody answers your question with a question? How many of you, really, seriously? There are a few of you. Yeah, I love doing that. I love it. Well, you know, it's raining today. Really? Why do you think it's raining today? I don't know. I just enjoy that. I enjoy doing that. It's kind of fun. And it kind of inspires conversation, right? It's not just a yes or no answer. And so Jesus kind of threw them off their game right away. He answered the question with a question. You want to know what the question was? You have to go read the text. But then into Mark chapter 12, you know, I got a limited amount of time. Mark chapter 12, He speaks in a way that he's spoken in a lot. In the beginning of the chapter, he speaks in the terms of a parable. And he speaks up, uses the parable to speak about those priests and leaders that he just threw a question back at. And the parable wasn't real polite towards them. It was actually pretty direct. They didn't have to go later and go, what was he talking about? Like they knew right then and there, whoa, he's, really irritating us. He's talking about us in ways that we don't appreciate. I'm sure there was, I don't know what else they would have said, but they weren't expecting to be talked about like that. It wasn't what they would be expecting. The Bible tells us they wanted him arrested, but the reality was is they couldn't. Why? Because the crowd was so large, and I believe, and I picture in my mind like this intensity. You've ever heard the term leaning into something? lean into something. I think this whole crowd was leaning in to this because they were, Jesus was calling some people out that frankly don't like to be called out. And the crowd was like, yeah, he's saying what I'm thinking. Yeah, yeah. They got a little intimidated by the crowd, so they didn't do anything. Well, until verse 13, they sent some Pharisees to Jesus, now Jesus by then is in the temple, he's there and the priests send the Pharisees to try to catch Jesus and have a reason to arrest him, like they are looking for just one way that's just tangible, physical evidence like, ha, gotcha, you're out, lock him up, right? Let's take him and throw him in prison. They tried, so they sent some Pharisees, some people that would challenge him. Jesus called them out. He basically didn't answer, but he said, I know what you're doing, you're trying to trap me. You are trying to trap me. That was his way of saying, that ain't gonna happen today. I see what you're doing, I see the game you're playing, and it's not gonna work. And moving farther into chapter 12, the priest sends some Sadducees. Now, I think I've told you before, I just look things up when I want to learn about something. I'm not one that's been in eight years of school. We've got all this information. I try to be a self-learner, self-taught. And if you don't know what Sadducees are, these are people, basically another group of leaders, and one of their foundational things is that they just don't believe in the resurrection of the dead. They just don't believe in it. So they come to Jesus with another series of questions that really, ironically, is about that. It's about that. And Jesus comes back with this, basically, the God I speak of, the God who is my father, the I am of Moses and Abraham, that God, he's not the God of the dead. He's the God of the living. I can't even imagine what those Sadducees were thinking, like, I wasn't expecting that. I wasn't expecting that. So here are these groups of people, and his responses get them to a point of beyond what they were expecting. They were getting answers that they couldn't respond to. They were afraid, and they were amazed at his responses. Amazed. And that takes us to the final 30 minutes of a two-hour movie. in Mark chapter 12, starting with verse 28. You know those movies, like an Avengers movie, a Marvel Comics movie, it's that last 30 minutes, right? It starts to build and build, and there's friction, and there's tension, and it starts to build some more, and pretty soon, pretty soon, it's like, it's coming, it's coming. This is it. You ready? It's gonna be on the screen. We'll read it together, starting with verse 28. One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. It was a debate going on. Catch it up here. Just keep looking at your Bible, don't look at me, I'm just fixing my notes. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, of all the commandments, of all the commandments, which is the most important? The most important one, answered Jesus, is this. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this. Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. Well said, teacher, the man replied. You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. When Jesus saw that he'd answered wisely, he said to him, you're not far from the kingdom of God. And from then on, no one dared ask him any more questions. You see the conversation turned, it turned. An intellectual and respected teacher asked him a question and he responded, And basically, it was one of those Captain Obvious moments. It was one of those things where like, well, of course, that you said, of course, that's exactly, exactly the most important thing. And then I think what he didn't expect to hear, but he did. And again, I could be reading into this a little bit. But again, I try to visualize what's been going on and what's been leading up. And you know, it wasn't like this group of people came and then they left. I think the chief priests were like in the back somewhere. They're like, bringing the Pharisees. He's over there. Oh, that didn't work. Bring in the Sadducees. He's over there. They're calling him in. Like, if that didn't work, we'll try something else. We'll try something else. And finally, when it got whittled down to the most important thing, and there was confirmation from somebody respected that, yep, that's the most important thing, they were done. They're like, yep, I guess that's it for today. Why? Because in our world, I think the application for us that I want to talk about today is in a world that is different. I'm just gonna leave it at that. It's different. It's different from this corner to this corner to the back row. We all are dealing with different right now, very uniquely, and we're being challenged, am I right? With some very challenging, difficult circumstances. Am I correct? So let me cut to the chase. We wanna boil today's message down to no matter what you're dealing with, there's always gotta be one thing we're called to. Well, actually two. Love God, love your neighbor. You know, nothing else matters. You say, well, Mark, there's a lot that matters to me right now. I get it. There's a lot that matters to me too. I've had a crazy week. I knew this message was gonna be a challenge for me. I mean, I can't even, I would like to take 10 minutes right now and share with you my most traumatic moment ever last week, but I can't. Let me just say it has to do with where I live and a rat. You fill in the blanks. Catch me sometime later. I'll walk you through all the gory details. But that was just one thing. I mean, I had plumbing problems. I had electrical problems. I had a son-in-law who solved my plumbing problem and he solved my electrical problem. I mean, I had a week. I couldn't, I mean, I would sit down and start on this and then something would happen. Something would happen. So I knew more than anything, if not for anybody else as normal, the message was for me, but it boils down to this one thing. Love God and love your neighbor. It's foundational. It's expected. It's expected to love God, isn't it? Doesn't God just expect us to love him? And he makes it very clear from the beginning passages in Deuteronomy all the way through when this is brought up, there are things that God just expects of us. What are they? Well, we read them. We're to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. They'd be up on the screen right now, but I didn't have my notes ready. Those four things. And so for me, when I prepare a message, I always do a lot of application, because I feel like that's very helpful for me. This one, I did some silly thing like, oh, I'm just, at first, I'm just gonna rate each of those statements in my own life from zero to all, from zero to 100%. How am I doing loving God with all my heart? Can I tell you something? If you do that, be prepared. I mean, if you do that sincerely, which I'm gonna challenge you to do, be prepared. Because even the first one, I went, God, how do I demonstrate that I love you with all my heart? All of it. The whole enchilada, all of my heart. all of my feelings, my desires, and my attitudes when I'm at home, when I'm at the shopping, in the shopping line, when I'm cut off on the roads by some guy that doesn't, I mean, doesn't know how to drive. I mean, all those things and more. How do I still love God with all my heart? How do I love God with all my heart? And how am I doing with that? Excuse me with that. I don't know, how are you doing with it? How are you doing? Loving God with all your heart. Well, I'm doing pretty good. That's great. Is it all of it? Hmm. I'll leave it with that for you. With all your soul. Well, let me ask you this. With all your heart. Here's the question. What's holding you back? What's holding you back from loving God with all your heart? If it's even an issue for you, say, no, actually I'm good, okay. But if you're here, you're watching, you're in the room, what's holding you back from loving God with all your heart? Not just some of it, but all of it. See, I'll just share with you. I have a long list to these questions of all the things that I need to change, that I need to approach and address one at a time, with all your heart. And then there's the other one, the next one, with all your soul. All your soul. And I tried to, you know, I stopped and said, well, God, what's the difference between my heart and my soul? Why would the scriptures be separated to you? Because they kind of feel like the same thing at first. And I figured it out. At least for this week, I did. Maybe the spirit, you know, God will use to speak to me different, you know, in a couple years, I don't know. But for this week, for me, with all my soul, is this. How am I talking to myself? What's going on inside me? What's my attitude about myself? Where is my confidence in myself? If you start paying attention to what your soul is saying, it'll wake you up a little bit. You catch yourself going, oh, I just said that about myself. I actually have that attitude about myself. I mean, there's a lot of people out there doing coaching and life coaching and things to help us with trying to speak better about ourselves inside where nobody else can hear except us. We're not good enough. We're not good looking enough. We're not successful enough. We're not the parents that we're supposed to be. We don't love our neighbors. We'll get to that in a minute. Whatever, I'm not capable. I was having some work done at my house slash our house slash trailer. And I had this moment, my son-in-law says to me, hey, he goes, you know, this is something, he brings this tool over, right? I don't even know how to use it, turn it on. It doesn't matter what it was, but the concept was he brings something over, he says, hey man, you gotta get one of these. This thing's amazing. I'm like, I don't need one of those. He kinda looked at me like, what do you mean you don't need one of those? I'm like, you have it, why do I need it? You just bring it with you. But that's the attitude, I need to feel good about the fact that I'm, God's blessed me with someone who can help me with that. I don't have to feel bad about myself because I can't do it. Hopefully there's some application there for you. With all your mind, loving God with all your mind, that's your intellect, your knowledge, your understanding. with all your mind. Now this is the one I kind of lean into most because I like to, I told you I'm a learner and I like to read and I like to just, I like to have those moments. Generally it's between 9pm and midnight, but that's just where I roll when it comes to intellectual stuff. I do reading then, I do a lot of pondering and thinking then and God, how can I give you more of my mind? Like, when was the last time we took time to really just get rid of all these distractions and sit with God, with our Bible, with a devotional, and just consider what Scripture really is saying to us? Like, taking a passage of Scripture and thinking about what it must have been like. instead of just skimming and reading and, oh, okay, got it, where we actually stop and go, I wonder what was leading up to this, and I wonder what was really going on at the time, and oh, I got everything at my fingertips. I can look up what a Pharisee is and a Sadducee, and I can, you know, what's a Herodian? I mean, there's a Herodian. I'm like, what's a Herodian, right? What if we take the time to broaden our understanding as an act of worship unto our God? I was down in the low percentiles in all of these. Especially this last one. With all your strength. With all your strength. Love God with all your strength. I don't have as much strength as I used to. But that's not exactly what I think God is saying, what Jesus is reminding us here. all your energy, whatever God's given you, your actions, your physical life. You know, I'm just gonna publicly say this. I haven't shared this with anybody. I generally not like this, but I feel like this is the place for it, seriously. So, as many of you know, our life changed a while back. We had a traumatic situation go on in our life. My middle daughter went to be with Jesus ahead of us, and I've been using that as an excuse to buy bigger clothes, because my other ones don't fit anymore. That doesn't work unto the Lord. You see, this is God's temple. Your body is His temple. The Holy Spirit lives in this temple, and I'm gonna show you an object lesson a little bit that really contradicts what I'm about to say, but it's time for me and many to say, God, I need the energy that you can give me if I take care of my body so I can do the work you're calling me to do. That's how I love God with all my strength. And if I can't lift it, I call my son-in-laws. They take care of it for me. That's how it works. All my strength. How are you doing in those areas? What's the one that jumps out at you? And this is just the stuff that God expects of us. But I wanna talk about what moves us beyond expectation. If that wasn't enough, the reason Jesus connected loving your neighbor with loving God is they do go together. It's peanut butter and jelly. It's whatever two ingredients that really fit better in your life together. It's what goes together. They're handing love together. Loving your neighbor as yourself, yourself. Like, that's connected? Yeah. As much as you love yourself is how you'll love your neighbor. I might have just skipped over three pages of notes right there, but that's the truth of it. The truth of it is how you feel about yourself is how you're going to treat your neighbor. We'll talk about that. It's the next level. It takes us beyond expectation to where we are called to live, especially now. If there was ever a time in the history of the world for us to live beyond expectation is now. The world is upside down. You can land over here on a topic. You can land over here on a topic. I mean, when did it happen? Where did the shift happen where if you didn't agree with somebody, that meant you had to be disrespectful to, or you had to be angry because they didn't agree with you? When did that happen? Why can't we lovingly disagree with someone? Why can't we respectfully? Oh, and they love Jesus too. It's not like if somebody doesn't even know the Lord, like you can justify that away. But when you sit with someone that loves Jesus as much as you do, if not more, and they don't agree on something that doesn't, what do you mean you don't agree on that? And all of a sudden it's like, No, love your neighbor as yourself. Are you frustrated with yourself? Where does it connect for you? I don't know, but I do know that Jesus put this together, God put this together because they're related. Treating others the way you want to be treated, loving your neighbor as yourself. And it's based on how we see ourself. Our success, a lifestyle that shows that we love our neighbor, that goes beyond the expectations is one that is focused on others, focused on others. And rather than trying to attempt to rephrase it and try to help you understand it, there's a guy that writes about it really well. His name's Paul. Oh man, he's what I would call, if he was a disciple, I'd call him the smash mouth disciple, but he wasn't a disciple. He's the apostle, so I just call him the Apostle Paul. But he was in your face. And he could write to an audience and speak directly to that audience where they would get it. He wrote to the Romans, he wrote to the church here, he wrote to the church there. He could just speak clearly and appropriately to the people he was speaking to. And so he does a great job of connecting all this together, and I wanna read these to you. The first one is Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter five. We're gonna read just a few verses, 13 through 15 in Galatians five. Okay, it's gonna be on the screen, it's in a different translation. Yep, there it is, you guys are great. Just gotta trust them, it's always there. Galatians 5, 13 through 15, Paul writes this. You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. That word freedom's come up a lot lately, hasn't it? Talk about our freedoms, right? That's why this jumped out at me. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command, love your neighbor as yourself. If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you'll be destroyed by each other. Just let that percolate a little bit. Do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. You with me so far? Okay, don't need to say much more than that, do I? Nope, nope. Yeah, I had a long pause at home on that one too. And then about five, 10 years later, Paul writes this, Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13, starting with verse eight. Different audience, same topic, Tweaks it a little bit so the audience understands. So I'm banking one of the two that we read is gonna speak to you, and maybe in a greater way, I don't know. It's a little bit longer, so again, it's right there. Romans chapter 13, starting with verse eight. Owe nothing to anyone except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law. For the commandments say, you must not commit adultery, you must not murder, you must not steal, you must not covenant. These and other such commandments are summed up in this one commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God's law. This is all the more urgent. for you know how late it is. Time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Let's stop for a second. When did you first believe? For me, it was February 29th, 1980. That's a long time ago. My salvation's nearer now than it was then. The time's coming, the times have changed. Doesn't it just feel that way? Okay, most of you feel that way, that's good. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes and put on the shining armor of right living because we belong to the day. We must live decent lives for all to see. Don't participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living or in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, clothe yourselves with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and don't let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires. Smash mouth, kind of speaking, right? Like, doesn't mince it up. doesn't beat around the bush, doesn't come around at an angle, he's just right in your face. Here's what you're to do. I looked up, and other such commandments and other versions, it's like, whatever other commandments there may be, is another translation, or any other don'ts that you can think of, or any other commandment. It's like, I feel like Paul's saying, man, make a list, what aren't you supposed to do? You're not supposed to do this and this and the commandments say this. Really, whatever the don'ts are, whatever the commandments are, here's one that takes care of all of it. Love your neighbor. Love them. When they don't agree with me, mm-hmm. But it starts with how we love ourselves. See, if we have bitterness, If we have frustrations, if we haven't resolved the inner turmoils in our lives that are based on, I don't know, an addiction, a broken relationship, guilt, I don't know, it feels like what God's telling me and what he's telling us is if that stuff's in the way, how can you love your neighbor any different? How can we be Jesus Christ with our neighbors, when we don't have all of Jesus Christ being experienced in our life, all the love in our heart, mind, soul, and strength, all of that, because when it gets in there and fills us up, and it pushes out all the stuff that we're hung up on, and I don't make light of it, because, man, we can get hung up on a lot of things, and they're deep, and they hurt. They hurt. You know what hurt looks like for you. It hurts. It gets in our way. So before we can love our neighbor the way we love ourselves, we first need to address the self part based on how Jesus sees us, not on how we see us. Start there. I think I'm almost, I am, man, I'm just cranking out. I'm doing pretty good. Be sure to next service, love our neighbors. And you know, there's a way to do that. And I told you I was gonna contradict what I said earlier. Yeah, I'm about to do that. I'll be right back. I have to see things that helps me remember. I'm just an object lesson kind of guy. I'm also a guy who wouldn't surprise you that I like chocolate. You just have to look at me and know there must be something that I like that's probably not good for you. Yeah, I like chocolate. I mean, this is not any kind of advertisement for Christmas gifts or anything. Don't take it that way. Please don't take it that way. But I love M&Ms. I do. No, I don't love them. I really like them. I don't love M&Ms. But I really enjoy them. I really enjoy them. I want to use M&Ms maybe to help take home, land the plane on what we're trying to talk about today. between how God loves us and how we're to love others, okay? Now, it used to be that M&Ms came in one size. One size. And you can say, well, that size of bag isn't as big as it used to be. Yeah, I would agree with you. I would agree with you. But they've come out with a lot of other sizes of M&Ms. Now, I like milk chocolate. You might like a different one. There's about 15 different flavors. Who knows? Maybe more than that. But the first size, the smallest size of M&Ms, and this is really wrong to have a bag this small. It's just wrong. It's just wrong. I mean, there's one, two, three, four, there's a half a dozen M&Ms. This is just enough to get you fired up, just to get you ready for more, right? But this is a bag that you hand out to the kids at Halloween in most neighborhoods. But there's, you know, that's the size. This is, they call this the fun size. Right, real fun, fun size, right? This is the new regular size. It's not labeling anything because you're supposed to be smart enough to know that this is the size you can. Now, I used to buy this for 25 cents. I'm sounding like my father and my grandparents right now. I used to buy this for 25 cents. Now, if you get lucky, you get them for like 99 and they're smaller. I can almost count the amount in there. This is the regular size. This is the share size. For me, this is the new regular. You know what I'm saying? Share. I'm not making this up. It says share size. Wait, there's more. This is the one that reminds you you're supposed to share. It's the sharing size. Sharing size. All right? Land the plane, Mark, bring it home. Okay, this is the family size. Family size, family. This is the one you put out in the little bowl for Thanksgiving and you hope there's some left over so you have something for Friday. Oh, maybe that's just me. Wait, and then there's the party size. Party! This is the party size. Did I tell you? This is the party size. Yeah. This is the kind, now they've changed and they go to a Ziploc kind of top. I don't really need it. But they put one on there for some that can't handle it. And then, as if that wasn't enough, There's the Costco size. Again, it's not labeled, but you know there's only one place you can really get this. It's Costco. Convenient handle. Wide mouth top. I mean, pouring size. And then there's the M&M stores or the candy that have the big cylinders, right? That's the God size. And I say that because how do you see yourself? If M&Ms were the love of God, what's in you? Is this it? Well, God, you love me, you saved me. Makes me feel good, that's kind of fun. Is there enough love in you You can pour them out and share them. Forget about the share size and the sharing size. Let's just go to the Costco size. It's conveniently created for us to share. You see, when you and I discover, as we love God with more of ourselves, we have a desire because it's Jesus in us creating the desire to love others differently, to love your neighbor. It doesn't matter at that point what they think about a topic, whether red's their favorite color or blue, whether they voted for whoever or whatever. It doesn't matter. What matters is the day is coming. Our salvation is nearer than ever before and you and I, are called to take the strength and the abilities and the passions and the knowledge that we grow in and pour out Jesus through that to our neighbor. No time in all of history, I believe, are people gonna notice and not expect the love of Jesus if you share it. Because there's so many reasons to keep to yourself. There's so many reasons to do it what's expected. How about we live beyond and move beyond expectation? How about if we do the unexpected to the people around us? I don't know. How about if we give somebody a gift that we, you know, would never think to get it from you for Christmas? I don't know. What if you were the one to take the first step to mend the relationship? What if you decided to risk enough to trust somebody else with something so deep and so difficult for you that you don't even share it with anybody? What if you just move beyond what's expected and wait on the Lord to do something unexpected in you and through you? How about that for Christmas? Because you see, for God's so loved, Nope, nope, that's not big enough. For God so loved, he brought an M&M store down with all the tubes and he said, I'm not just gonna give you one flavor, I'm gonna give you all you want. I'm gonna lavish my love on you. Amen? And his name is Jesus. And if you've never, if you think Jesus only comes in small packages, or you don't know Jesus is Lord and Savior, can I tell you, start there. Just simply tell him you're sorry for the mistakes in your life. You realize that you haven't put your trust in him. You realize you're living a life that's... doesn't bring any pleasure to him, that you're separated and that eternal life is not yours to enjoy because you don't have a relationship with Jesus. Start there and invite him in to be your Lord and Savior. Confess your mistakes, your sin, and invite him in. He died for you. Christmas, the world stops for Christmas. It stops for Christmas. It may have a color of red, white, green, and any kind of color, but the bottom line is the world stops and recognizes a day as the birth of Jesus. It may not be the exact day, whatever, but it's a day. The world stops to celebrate the birth of a baby. Are you kidding me? It's getting really foggy up here. Are you kidding me? The world stops. God loves you that much. He loves you that much. but he loves you so much he's gonna keep pouring his love out in your life. Pour it out, pour it out. There's only gonna be as much room as you make for him. If you only give him 80% of your heart, there's 20% more space for more M&Ms, I mean more love. More, he's got more. You can't, he won't run out. There's nothing that you've done, nothing that you will do that keeps him from loving you. There's nothing your neighbor has done that should stop us from loving them. Nothing, nothing. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for the reminder of how important it is to love our neighbor. Father, I pray for this group in this room and online. I pray for them that if there is Now, let me change it. There is something that keeps us from being at that 100%. Well, there's some in this room that are so scared about next week, for whatever reason. Can they keep it hidden one more week? Can they deal with that person for one more week? Can they live in hiding for one more week? Father, may we confess now our need for you. May we confess now those things that need to be given up and given to you. Father, we want more of you in our lives, more of you. the things that shouldn't be there, the things of this world that we focus on. Father, help us. Help us not to listen to those lies that get spoken into our lives. Man, let's call them out. Let's look into you, Jesus, and be reminded that you lavish us with love. It's never ending. We worship you. There's nothing that can't be fixed in your name. There's nothing that can't be corrected in your name. There is nothing in our lives that's hindering us that can't be taken care of in your name. Because you did it, we didn't. You died for us. We love you. I just want to pray more, but I know we have time. We need to make later, we gotta prepare for later. But God, today, would this group be challenged today, God? May your Holy Spirit speak into their lives in such a way that as they step into this week, they would look at how can they love their neighbor better. Show me. God, how to love my neighbors better. We love you and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.