Embodying Christ's Love: The Essence of True Faith

### Quotes for Outreach

1. "What we celebrate today is nothing less than the most amazing sacrifice in human history. And what makes it most amazing is it's not a pure human who did this sacrifice, right? Fully God and fully man, as Paul said. And what I love is that you read this, and it's the majesty and the royalty, the holiness of Jesus. That's the same guy. We could flip back a few pages in the Bible and see the time when he took off his cloak. He kneeled at his disciples' feet. He's the teacher. He kneeled at his students' feet and washed them. For them. Out of humility. And as a sign for us to do the same. That's the Jesus we celebrate. That's the Jesus we remember. That's why we're here today." [19:30] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Basically, what Paul is saying is that talk is cheap. Talk is cheap with this first one. Talk is cheap. Like, we can say lots of things, right? But there's so, it's like there's tons of phrases about this, right? Talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words. We read in the first John. So John, John wrote this in a letter. He said, if anyone has the world's goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from them so you see someone who has a need and you don't help. How does God's love reside in him? Little children, let not us love with words or speech but in, say it out loud, actions and in truth. Actions and in truth, right? It's great to express to people that we see them, that we care. But if we don't act, then that's the problem." [45:28] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. It is not boastful. It is not arrogant. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not irritable. And does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." [53:42] (701 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Love does not keep a record of wrongs. This is super important. If you forget the rest, lean in on this one, because this gets at forgiveness. People are going to mess up. People are going to not be perfect. They're going to screw us over. Something's going to happen. And people are going to frustrate us, whatever. And we can hold it. We can hold that record. We can get out our little ledger. We can keep that ledger in our heart. It doesn't hurt them. Well, it does hurt them. You know, it hurts us more. It hurts us more. Forgiveness is key." [01:00:05] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "Dear friends, let us love one another. And again, agape. Because agape is from God. And everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not agape does not know God because God is. Agape. God is love. Not God knows how to love well. Not God does it better than any one of us. God is. That's his nature. He's the left column and more. God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way. God sent his one and only son into the world so that we might live through him. Love consists in this. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us. And sent his son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another." [01:14:37] (61 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


### Quotes for Members

1. "So we're in the series Greater Love. And as I said, we're opening the book of Corinthians and just seeing. And as I said, we're opening the book of Corinthians and just seeing what Paul said. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to go. We're in 1 Corinthians still. We're now up to chapter 13. So I'm going to dive right in and we are going to read together. I'm going to read to you the first three verses of chapter 13, which, by the way, is on the screens. If you have the Church Center app, this is really handy to know. On the home page, all the references are right there for every week. You can click on it and, like, open it on your Bible, which is cool because then there's maybe a verse that you want to highlight. And save. You can do it right there. So the answer to most of your questions here at Paradox to whether what park we're at or what Bible verse is he talking about, Church Center can give you almost everything. Here we go. It can't give you this. Paul gave us this. Paul said, If I speak human or angelic tongues but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gifts of prophecy and understand. All mysteries and all knowledge. And if I have all faith so that I might move mountains but do not have love, I'm nothing. And if I give away all my possessions and if I give my body over to boast but do not have love again." [43:35] (84 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "So what is he talking about? So. Basically, what Paul is saying is that talk is cheap. Talk is cheap with this first one. Talk is cheap. Like, we can say lots of things, right? But there's so, it's like there's tons of phrases about this, right? Talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words. We read in the first John. So John, John wrote this in a letter. He said, if anyone has the world's goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from them so you see someone who has a need and you don't help. How does God's love reside in him? Little children, let not us love with words or speech but in, say it out loud, actions and in truth. Actions and in truth, right? It's great to express to people that we see them, that we care. But if we don't act, then that's the problem. Just to keep it on the Cedar Point theme, I'll never forget this moment in Cedar, speaking of Cedar Point moments, right? I was at the park and it was near the front. Like, we were about to get in line. And there was a family and there was a gentleman there. And I honestly can't remember if he was going to take it. For some reason, he was walking backwards. If you've ever had that moment where you catch your foot on something going backwards, your momentum's all that way, you're done, right? Like, we've all had that moment where we've fallen backwards. He was a big, big guy. And he fell backwards. And the reaction of the crowd around was very interesting. As everyone's milling about doing their thing, you saw the people who immediately. Completely chuckled. I don't remember anyone, like, pointing and laughing. But you see the people who the comedic value grabs them and they immediately laugh. And then there was one guy in particular. And he jumped, like, he was right there. And he runs over to the guy, grabs his hand, and pulls him up. And then there's some other people who just were observing and watching. And I'll never forget that day because I was one of those people." [45:28] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "Love does not keep a record of wrongs. This is super important. If you forget the rest, lean in on this one, because this gets at forgiveness. People are going to mess up. People are going to not be perfect. They're going to screw us over. Something's going to happen. And people are going to frustrate us, whatever. And we can hold it. We can hold that record. We can get out our little ledger. We can keep that ledger in our heart. It doesn't hurt them. Well, it does hurt them. You know, it hurts us more. It hurts us more. Forgiveness is key. Look what Luke says in chapter six. No, this isn't what Luke says. Luke wrote it down. This is what Jesus said. Jesus said, do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Grace is an amazing thing. God's free gift of life and salvation for us, that's grace. Forgiveness is that thing. Jesus talks about it several times. If you can't forgive someone else, we need that. We need to get that down. Because God's like, you want to talk about forgiveness? Do you want to talk about wrongs? Do we need to get into it? Do you want me to pull out your record of wrongs? I can't, because I don't have it. That's not how I work, as God's speaking. But that's how you work. Tear it up. Tear up that record of wrongs. Show forgiveness. That's what love does. Love does not keep a record of wrongs." [01:00:05] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Love bears, love believes all things and hopes all things. This one's kind of got a two-parter. Like, like, we're talking about our relationship with other people. Right? So this is challenging us to trust we're going to believe the best in one another. And when you start at that place in a relationship with someone, like, like, even if they're not hitting the mark on something, they're like, no, I'm going to, I'm going to believe the best. I'm going to believe that you can do this. You are going to turn this around. And I'm with you and I believe in it. It just, it changes everything. It changes the entire dynamic. Love believes, it trusts, it hopes. And here's the thing where it doesn't, it's not that we just trust in people when we do that, when we choose to believe the best and hope in it. We're also putting our trust and our hope in God because we know that he can do all things. He's going to be working through that person's life to, to, to bring them along. Right? So, so, so if, in fact, if we take a position of, you're never going to get it. You know, I give up on you. You're just, you're just not seeing it. You can't do it. We're actually, we're actually slowing the work of God that he's trying to do. He can use us to help bring that person along. And instead, we're, we're, we're slowing that process or he's, he'll find someone else. If he wants that person to change, he'll find someone else. But we're missing out on the opportunity to be part of that process with him and that change." [01:10:11] (95 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "The greatest public display of affection that ever was was Jesus dying on the cross for us. Jesus, I read it in, God of heaven, creator of everything. He didn't have to do that. He did it for us out of love. I want to be like that. I want us to be like that. The world would be amazing if we all were like that. Lastly, the cool thing about it, because it can be hard, we can want that. I can want that. I want so bad to be like that. But I struggle to do it. Last verse, let me read this. Jesus said this. to my paper. Jesus said this. If you love me, you will keep my commands and I will ask the Father and he will send you another counselor to be with you. He is the spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn't know him. It doesn't see him or know him. But you, you do know him because he remains with you and will be with you. He will be in you. God himself, the Holy Spirit, Jesus says when we allow him to, he'll work in us and through us. He'll do it. He'll give us the eyes to see the needs. He'll give us the temperament. He'll give us the patience. He'll give it all to us if we'll let him. That's my prayer, is that we would be a people and we would be a church who know what love is because we know who Jesus is. It's as simple as that." [01:17:18] (94 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)