Unpacking Our Divine Purpose

Sego Church - May 11, 2025

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

In this heartfelt sermon at Sego Church, Pastor Hannah shares a profound message on Mother's Day, focusing on the idea that people are not our problems but our purpose. Through personal stories and biblical teachings, she emphasizes the importance of viewing every interaction and relationship as an opportunity to fulfill our divine purpose of loving others as Jesus taught. Highlighting her own experiences and struggles, she calls on the congregation to embrace people, even those perceived as problems, and to love them with an agape love, which is fulfilling, intentional, and mirrors the love God shows us.

Highlights

Pastor Hannah shares a personal story about helping neighborhood girls. 🌟
Core message: People are our purpose, not our problems. 🎯
Even difficult bosses or coworkers have a purpose in our lives. 🤔
It's crucial to shift perspective on those who annoy or hurt us. 🔄
Love is the greatest commandment, tying back to Jesus' teachings. 📜

Key Takeaways

People aren't our problems; they're our purpose. 🙌
Embrace agape love, a divine love feast for everyone. 💖
Live out core values to guide your behavior and interactions. 🔑
Even challenging people are opportunities to practice love. 😊
Jesus' ultimate commandment is to love God and others. 🕊️

Overview

In this heartfelt and insightful sermon, Pastor Hannah at Sego Church emphasizes the theme of 'People are our purpose, not our problem'. Opening with a relatable story about unexpected guests at her home, Hannah illustrates the initial resistance we might feel but highlights the joy that comes from embracing and helping others. She discusses how this core value drives the mission of Sego Church and her personal life. It's a message that underlines loving each individual as an intentional act of faith.

Hannah delves into biblical narratives, sharing Jesus' teachings on love from Matthew and other scriptures. She contrasts two types of love described in the Greek language, agapo (taking pleasure) and agape (unconditional love). She challenges the congregation to apply these teachings, not just to loved ones but to everyone they encounter, including perceived adversaries or difficult individuals.

Closing with an inspiring call to action, Pastor Hannah urges the church to go beyond their comfort zones, drawing on their faith to transform relationships and lives, even when it’s challenging. She emphasizes the importance of prayer and forgiveness in embracing others, reminding her listeners that real change begins when we love people as Christ loves us.

Chapters

00:00 - 02:30: Introduction and Story of Tiredness The chapter 'Introduction and Story of Tiredness' begins with a celebratory note, acknowledging Mother's Day. It sets a warm and inclusive tone by recognizing the importance of mothers and celebrating the day dedicated to them.
02:30 - 07:30: Unexpected Visitors and Prayer The chapter titled 'Unexpected Visitors and Prayer' begins with an introduction by Pastor Hannah, who is one of the speakers. She sets the stage by describing a feeling of extreme fatigue, where one is so tired that simply keeping one's eyes open feels like a Herculean task.
07:30 - 12:30: Core Value: People Are Not Our Problem, They're Our Purpose The author shares an experience of extreme fatigue, illustrating a state of being so tired that any additional demand feels overwhelming. Despite this exhaustion, there's an internal excitement about the prospect of rest, reflecting on the importance of taking time to 'sit still'.
12:30 - 17:30: Difficult Boss as a Learning Experience In this chapter, the narrator describes a situation where visitors arrived unexpectedly while Chris was outside mowing the grass, leading to a mix of thoughts and emotions. The narrator reflects on the experience as an opportunity for growth and learning when interacting with challenging individuals.
17:30 - 22:30: God's Commandments and the Importance of Love The chapter opens with an unexpected visit late at night from a neighbor, Chris, who brings along three young girls dressed in swimsuits and looking frightened. Earlier that day, the girls had been seen enjoying themselves while playing outside. This incident seems to set the stage for further discussions or events related to community, safety, or unexpected experiences.
22:30 - 27:30: Illustration of the Wedding Dress Hanger In this chapter titled 'Illustration of the Wedding Dress Hanger', Chris narrates an incident where the children were terrified believing someone had entered their house. While playing outside, their parents briefly left for an errand. During this time, the children heard loud banging, the dog started barking, they noticed a shadow in the window, and saw the blinds moving, which led them to imagine that someone had sneaked in despite being in a bustling suburban area.
27:30 - 37:30: Living with Purpose and Loving Others The chapter explores concepts of purpose and having compassion for others as a means of understanding life better. It starts with an anecdote of teenagers seeking safety in a neighbor’s house due to an unexplained fear of entering their own home. The narrator, presumably a mother, shares her initial skepticism and defensive reaction, reflecting on her experiences as a mom.
37:30 - 42:30: Story of the Overson Family In this chapter, the narrator recounts a tense and emotional moment with two young girls from the Overson family. The girls are visibly scared and crying, prompting the narrator to comfort them. Suggesting prayer as a source of solace, the narrator encourages the girls to ask for divine comfort and peace, illustrating themes of faith and emotional support.
42:30 - 50:00: Loving Enemies and Forgiveness The chapter discusses an experience where the speaker joined their neighbors, whom they barely knew, in prayer. Despite not knowing these girls well, they bonded over a shared concern, and the experience highlighted a key message for the speaker: 'people are not my problem'. It underscores themes of finding community and forgiveness even in unfamiliar or challenging circumstances. Ultimately, the outcome was positive, with no harm done and nothing stolen, reinforcing the idea of letting go of preconceived negative notions about others and embracing forgiveness.
50:00 - 57:30: Making People Our Purpose The chapter titled 'Making People Our Purpose' focuses on the core value of prioritizing people in one's life. The narrator describes a scenario where a group of girls arrives, initially perceived as a problem due to their state - wet, cold, and afraid. However, the narrator undergoes a realization that these individuals are not a problem, but rather the reason for their purpose. This reflects a shift in mindset towards embracing and prioritizing others as a fundamental life value.
57:30 - 61:00: Conclusion and Prayer The chapter titled 'Conclusion and Prayer' emphasizes the importance of being a supportive and welcoming neighbor through faith and prayer. It highlights the strength of faith as a means to provide comfort, boldness, and a welcoming environment for those in need. The speaker reinforces that offering a safe space and support to others is a core value, making people feel like they are the purpose and reason for being there.

Sego Church - May 11, 2025 Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 [Music] Good morning. Happy Mother's Day. What a special day it is. If you're a mom or you have a mom, it's a special day. So,
00:30 - 01:00 thank God for that. My name's Hannah. I'm one of the pastors here and I get to share from God's word with you today. And I want to start with the story. Has anyone been so bone tired that all you can do is just sit still? Has anyone had that feeling where your eyes sting from tiredness? Anyone? where like it just it's and all the energy is sucked out of your body just to keep the eyes open.
01:00 - 01:30 And if you have to move a muscle, if anyone asks you for anything, you just feel like you're going to you're going to blow a gasket. Anyone ever been that tired? That was me last night. That's how tired I was at about 9:00 when I sat down on the couch and I was so excited internally. I could not exert emotion externally to show my excitement, but internally I was so excited to sit still. I was so tired. And I'm sitting on the couch and I'm reading one of my
01:30 - 02:00 favorite things. And I hear the door open. All the kids were doing their thing. Chris was outside doing his favorite thing, mowing the grass. And he all of a sudden I hear the door open. And he's like, "Hannah." I said, "Yes, we have we have visitors." Oh my gosh, you have got to be kidding me. I said, "Okay." He's like, "Come on in, girls." And I'm thinking to myself in my head, not nice thoughts, but I put
02:00 - 02:30 the smile on my face, but I'm like, "Who in the world visits someone at 9:00 p.m. at night? No one should be doing that." And so, in walks Chris with three very scared looking girls, 11 and 12 year olds. They're in their swimsuit. These are my neigh. One of them is my neighbor. She has two friends. And when we got home earlier that evening, I had seen them playing outside on a slip and slide having the time of their life. And now they're in my coming into my home
02:30 - 03:00 and their they're scared. And Chris gives me a quick rundown of what's happened. They were outside playing. Their mom went to their parents went to run a quick errand. And they had convinced themselves that someone was inside their house. There was loud banging. The dark the dog was barking. They saw a shadow in the window and the blinds came up and things were moving. They had convinced themselves that while they were outside playing in our very suburban neighborhood with lots of activity happening, somebody had snuck
03:00 - 03:30 in through the garage door and was now inside their home and they didn't want to go inside. So, they came inside of our house for safety. And in this moment, as Chris, I still even after hearing that, I had no nice thoughts yet. I want to tell you that cuz I've been a mom of teenage girls. And so I'm thinking, get no one's in your house. You want me to walk in there? I'll I'll show you. No one's in your house. You made this up. You're now all the girls
03:30 - 04:00 have worked themselves up together. That's what's still going in my head. And um it wasn't until I finally found the energy to move from my spot on the couch to approach them and I start giving them a hug and they're crying. These girls are scared. They're crying and so I'm comforting them and I got to say, "You know what, girls? When I'm afraid, I always pray. Should we pray? Should we take a minute and just ask God to calm our hearts and give us peace?"
04:00 - 04:30 And they're like, "Yes, let's pray. Let's pray." So, we huddled up. I don't know. I don't really know any of these girls. They're they're my neighbor and I know her name, but I don't really know them. But we huddled up and we prayed and it was sweet moment. And I'm here to report everything's fine. Everyone is good. The house was safe. Nothing was taken. But in that moment, the message that I'd been working on all week long presented itself to me that people are not my problem.
04:30 - 05:00 People are my purpose. And that's the core value that we're talking about today. These girls walked in and my heart and my mind wanted to tell me that they're my problem now. These girls are wet, cold, afraid, and they're in my home. And now their problem has become my problem. And it took me a minute, but I finally got there when I realized that's not a problem. This is why I'm here. This is
05:00 - 05:30 why I'm a neighbor that has the ability to pray for someone in need. This is why I have the strength of faith to say, "You might be afraid right now, but I'm bold in faith, and I'll pray for you, and you can come into my home of peace, and you'll be welcomed because you're not a problem. Take the towels that you need, have the snack, get a drink. You're my purpose. You're why I'm here." And so as we talk today about this core value, I think it's really important that we understand that that's not just
05:30 - 06:00 for me because I'm a pastor. That's for us because I'm God's child. That's for you because you are a person with purpose for people. And why did Chris and I leave our home of 20 years to start Sego Church for people? Why did God put a burden on our hearts to have another lifegiving church in Utah and bring light into a dark place so that people could know the love of Jesus for people? That's why we're here. It's the
06:00 - 06:30 purpose that we came with. It's the intention that we want to live with. It's the meaning of our life is to love God and to love people. And I think sometimes we forget this fact that that's why we're living. That it's not about us. It's about who God puts around us. And God will use messy, imperfect, broken, and hurting people like myself to to reach other people. That's what he
06:30 - 07:00 does. And and instead of seeing how God operates through people, sometimes we only see the problem that people bring. And so the bottom line today is that people are not our problem. They're our purpose. And when we live with this core value, this is what core values do, right? They guide your attitude. They guide your direction and your behavior. When you decide to live by core values, it should be what helps guide your life according to God's principles. And so as
07:00 - 07:30 we do that, we're going to learn how to love God and how to love people. And so many years ago, I had a boss that uh was very difficult for me. Anyone ever had a difficult boss? Maybe right now you do. Yes. So you might resonate with this story. I had a difficult boss. And to me, he wasn't just a little problem. He was a big problem. In fact, he was the whole problem. Anything in my life that was wrong somehow got attached to my
07:30 - 08:00 boss at work. I don't know how this happens, but it's it was the case. And Chris and I had the same boss. We worked in the same environment. But this guy, he was he would say hurtful things. He was manipulative. He he needed to be the smartest guy in the room at all times. And he would use his words to make you feel smaller so that he could feel bigger. Anyone know someone like that? This is this guy. And and we worked with him for for over 10 years all said and
08:00 - 08:30 done. And I was always asking like I griped to Chris a lot about this and um I just couldn't understand like why is the guy a problem for me but he doesn't seem to be a problem for Chris? We're in the same office. We hear the same conversations. I'm telling you all the bad things he's doing to me. Why is this not a problem for you? And I had to realize many years later that God had put this problem in
08:30 - 09:00 my life for a very specific purpose. God was using him to show me things about me and things about God that I needed to know desperately. That God was using this person for a purpose in my life. and that the moment I could realize he wasn't he wasn't the problem that he he had things he needed to work on with the Lord, but that wasn't the problem with me. The problem that God wanted me to
09:00 - 09:30 see was what was in me. What was the shaping and the refining and the character um bringing about that God had for me. And when I could see that, then I could move towards what God's plan was for that situation and get released from it. Praise the Lord. People aren't our problem. They're our purpose. And God has a great purpose for me. And the cool thing is that I'm God's person. And you're God's person. Say, "I'm God's person." I'm God's person. You're God's
09:30 - 10:00 person. He has purpose for you. In fact, his whole point is for you because you're his person. So, you're not his problem. You're not some messed up kid. You're not some um too messed up adult to think that God, I'm I'm too much of a problem. God can't figure me out. I can't even figure me out. You're not his problem. You're his purpose. You're the whole reason he came
10:00 - 10:30 to be. And he wants to convince you of that. That's why he's done some drastic things to prove that. And it's God's greatest desire that we believe it, but that we live it out. And this is a major concern for God. matters because this is a major concern for him. This isn't like some little thing that maybe we should figure out how to love people in a good way. Maybe we should figure out that people aren't the problem. We should just avoid the messy people or avoid the
10:30 - 11:00 people that annoy us. Maybe it's actually a really big deal and that God thinks it's a major concern. In fact, he thinks it's so major that he said it's a commandment. It's one of the greatest commandments. And we know that when we don't follow God's command, we're not showing him love. And that breaks his heart. So I'm proposing to you that this conversation, this core value that people become our purpose isn't just a rosy idea. It's not
11:00 - 11:30 something that just makes us feel good. It's actually something that if it's not in place, it's breaking God's heart. It's hurting him and it's hurting the faith that we have in him. So, in Matthew 22, I want to read to you where Jesus talks about this. And the Pharisees come to Jesus. They want to trip him up and they they're trying to catch him in his words. And they ask him this question. What is the greatest commandment in the law? And the law was the five books of the Torah, what all
11:30 - 12:00 the Jewish people had to learn and and follow. They were rules and regulations. And they set the guideline for people to follow. And so the Pharisees are saying, "What is the most important? Like what's the greatest commandment in that that I should follow?" And this is what Jesus says in verse 37 of Matthew 22. He says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as
12:00 - 12:30 yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments." So this is a powerful text. He's saying that all of the law, everything that these people grow up learning, believing, following, and obeying, all of that, plus everything that the prophets foretold, the things that they said you need to pay attention. Um, the Messiah is coming. This is how you need to live. This is the the things you need to be aware of and pay attention. All of the law, all
12:30 - 13:00 of the prophets is hanging on these two commandments. That's a pretty big statement. That's a pretty powerful thing. Let's talk about the power of the hang. The hang. I have a hanger up here with a really beautiful dress. My wedding dress. This thing, this plastic hanger, according to Google, can hold about 5 to 30 pounds. And I've put that to the test. Actually,
13:00 - 13:30 um I've had many hangers, right? Cuz I don't want to buy more hangers, so I just keep stacking more clothes on top of one hanger, you know? And like then the hanger is like down here. I've broken some. But this plastic hanger, 5 to 30 lbs. You've got picture hangers that can hang like 50 lbs, right? Like one little wire somehow holds up 50 pounds. Or heavy duty joists that can hold hundreds of pounds. Valuable objects. This is a valuable object to me. This is I think
13:30 - 14:00 at the time this was a couple thousand dollar dress. I loved it. I wore it really well. And now it hangs in my closet and I see it every day. It's valuable to me. And it h this valuable thing, this really important thing hangs on a plastic hanger on something so small. But if this wasn't hanging up, if this had nothing to hang up on, maybe it
14:00 - 14:30 could be put in a box and put away. But there's something for me really special about seeing it hung in my closet every day. A memory, a commitment, a covenant, all on the power of this little hanger. And when when Jesus is saying that all the law and all the prophets, everything hangs on these two commandments, I hope you get a visual of
14:30 - 15:00 how important that is, of how weighty and valuable what he's saying is and what it hangs on, that it hangs on who Jesus is. And so the Greek word for hang is cremenyani or something like that. really close. It literally means to hang. And it's the same word that's used in Acts in reference to Jesus hanging on the cross. So what he's saying, all of this
15:00 - 15:30 hangs on these commandments. Same word that Jesus proved. All of me will hang for all of you. You are my purpose. You are my people. I'm strong. What what could possibly be strong enough for all of the law and all of the prophecies to hang on? Only the cross of Christ could be strong enough. Only he could prove that point in such a beautiful
15:30 - 16:00 way. So following the law, listening to what the prophet said had to hang on something strong enough that is Jesus. And that's why we can't see people as our problem. Because imagine, just think for a moment of your life. The messiness of it, the sinfulness of it, how you've strayed and you've come back, how you've had drama and trauma and tragedy and heartbreak.
16:00 - 16:30 You've been a mess. And Jesus could have said, "Sorry, I don't know that I have the emotional bandwidth to put up with you, Hannah. I don't know that I have the capacity to deal with that. My life feels like that sometimes. And God said, I have enough for you. And God says, I want to give you, Hannah, enough to have that for other people. That's how the point
16:30 - 17:00 and the purpose of what I hang on that cross for gets proven true generation after generation, story after story. That if I live the kind of life that God's called me to live by making people my purpose because I know he's made me his purpose. This is how the gospel keeps being proven as true because they will know us by our love.
17:00 - 17:30 So, how do we actually live this out? How do we apply this to our life? How do we make loving people, making them our purpose real? And a lot of you in this room already do it. Go ahead, pat yourself on the back if you want. Feel good. But there's always room for growth. There's always room for improvement, right? None of us do this perfectly. So let's lean in and see what could I do today, this week, this year to live more aligned with making people my purpose. So I want to break down
17:30 - 18:00 Matthew 22 just a little bit. The the Greek word that's used in this verse is agapo and this is means to take pleasure in to take pleasure in God's creation to take pleasure. So when you say I love hiking, I love watching sunsets. I love going to the ocean. I love hanging out with my friends. You're talking about agapo love. You love taking pleasure in God's people and creation. That's what this verse is talking about. The word
18:00 - 18:30 neighbor in this verse when he says love your neighbor. Take pleasure in your neighbor the way you take pleasure in yourself. Neighbor here isn't literally your neighbor like my neighbor last night. It's your countrymen. It's those who are close to you. It's your co-workers. It's the people that you find and target in the same aisle as you. It's it's your countrymen. And so the verse is saying, take pleasure in God's creation the way you take pleasure in yourself. Take pleasure in your
18:30 - 19:00 countrymen the way you find pleasure in yourself. That's what agapo is. But there's a greater love that God instructs us about in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Many of you know this. You may have had it read at your wedding, right? Love is patient. Love is kind. Um it talks about I'm going to skip right down to verse four. It does not envy. It does not boast. It's not proud. It doesn't honor dishonor others. It's not self-seeking. It's not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does
19:00 - 19:30 not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes and perseveres. This is a different Greek word that's used for this word of love. This is agape love. And this is the love that God is saying, "Hey, you can do really good things. You can be a really good person. You and you can talk about those acts all day long.
19:30 - 20:00 You can check the list. You come to church. You give to church. You serve to church. You go and do homeless shelters. You are Wow. You are the best Christian. Good job. But if you don't do it with agape love, if you just do it out of your own strength or to give yourself the accolade so that you feel good about
20:00 - 20:30 yourself at the end of the day, if you don't do it out of an agape love, which in the Greek means, get this, love feast, a love feast. God has prepared a feast of love for us. And he says, "I want you to serve up the world a love feast that comes from me. I want you to go to church. I want you to give and serve in church. I want you to go to the homeless shelters. I want you to take care of the poor and the orphan and the
20:30 - 21:00 widowed. I want you to do those things, but I want you to do it out of a love feast, out of an agape love that doesn't come from your own ability, but from God in you, that comes out of of you. Out of you." And so we have to learn how to make people our purpose and to love them in this way. How do we do that with the annoying co-worker? Has anyone ever had one of those? You're like, I just would like to not talk about your drama today at
21:00 - 21:30 lunch. Could we just maybe talk about the weather? Really? I'd really prefer the weather. So, how do you show love, a Godfocused, honoring love to the person that you just you'd rather like, oh, okay, well, looks like my lunch is done. I'm out of here. In the moment you ask God to help you and you sit down and you take time to listen. And I really believe that when you take time to listen, your heart is going to be
21:30 - 22:00 shifted and you're going to actually have something to add. you're going to you're going to be able to give an encouragement or to show some love to that annoying co-orker. I want to share a story of the Overson family. This is um a family that we knew we went to church with in Minnesota and when their child was born, they they had were first pregnant. Um they had just gotten a new house, their baby was born, baby Sky, and she was born very premature and with a lot of
22:00 - 22:30 complications. She had a lot of challenges and it was heartbreaking and it was something that they were unprepared for. And if we're honest, there she is on the screen. You can see her little preeie picture and then she's developing and growing. Uh if you you know there's a lot of excitement and joy around having a baby, but when your when your baby is unexpectedly born with a lot of complications and problems, some of that
22:30 - 23:00 excitement and joy doesn't show up. In its place is anxiety or anger or confusion. And all you see is problems. How am I going to pay for this? How am I going to take time and take care of this baby that has this many needs and this many a doctor's appointments and it's just one problem after another and you go to an appointment and you get another problem and this family the overs I love
23:00 - 23:30 I wanted to share this with you because what they could have seen as just problems and carried it with heaviness and burden and heartache they carried with a joy because this became their purpose because they realize this could be a problem. But maybe God's called us. We get to help take care of this. She's ours and we get to pour a love into her. A love feast like no one
23:30 - 24:00 else could. God chose us to take care of this. And I do not think this is a stretch for everyone in this room. God has put people in your life that look like a big messy problem. and he's chosen you to get to speak into their lives, to get to pray with them, to get to carry their burdens with them. And often times we want to run from the mess. We want to get away from the problem instead of leaning in and saying, "God, I know that you have a way
24:00 - 24:30 for me in this and I need to lean in." And so I wanted to read to you what the mother wrote on Skye's one of her heavenly birthdays. She wrote this. Happy heavenly birthday to our sky. You were born seven years ago today, and I thank God for the gift you've been to us. In your short life on earth, you've taught us to love richly, to surrender all of our hopes and dreams to God, to see the joy in everything, to choose to laugh and smile no matter what comes our way, and to cherish the gift of life. We
24:30 - 25:00 could not imagine this life without you. You are forever loved, sweet girl. I believe that where there are problems, there's also a purpose and that we can insert ourself to help fulfill God's purpose through the problem. We have to shift our perspective. We have to see things through a lens that our human eyes can't
25:00 - 25:30 see on their own. We need God's perspective in these situations. Now, some might say that it's easy for Sky and the Oversons because of course you're going to love your daughter. So, that's easy because you you kind of have to love people that are closest to you. But the Bible is very clear in Matthew chapter 5 about what we have to do for our enemies, too. And this word for love in Matthew chapter 5, it's not agapo, it's agape. So, let's read this with that in mind.
25:30 - 26:00 Jesus saying, 'You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbors and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your father in heaven. He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not
26:00 - 26:30 even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect. People are not our problem. They're they're our purpose. And the enemies in our lives are not something to avoid. They're something to lean into. They're something to pay attention to. God is very clear how he wants us to steward the friend, the neighbor, and even the enemy. And we can't get away
26:30 - 27:00 from the fact that people have to be our thing. It's how God created the world to work. And he's given you a way to work within it. Even when you get super annoyed by that, by the annoying co-orker or the disrespectful boss or the challenging child, how do I show love in these situations? How do I really love and bring value to these
27:00 - 27:30 people? I think the first thing we have to be aware of is we have to learn to forgive. If we're going to really love people, we have to hurt learn to forgive their hurts and their offenses, we have to recognize that maybe God has something to teach me in every offense that I've picked up. And here we are in Utah. It's almost six years later and I have picked up on I I can honestly say this is not an
27:30 - 28:00 exaggeration. I have picked up more hurt and offense in my short time in Utah than all other 30. Well, I'm actually 43, so do the math yourself. But in a lot of years of my life, I had not experienced the hurt and offense the way I've experienced in my short time here in Utah. And the very thing that God called us here to do to to love people, it felt
28:00 - 28:30 like every person that I was trying to love actually was more of an enemy that they it seemed like, man, I feel like I'm set up for failure. I feel like they they're not actually for me. I feel like we're we're not in this together. and these people that I want to love and serve just hurt after hurt. And I think the enemy loves to use
28:30 - 29:00 our hurts and our offenses to build a wall so that love's no longer flowing out. So that we're so protected so that we don't lean into even taking pleasure in people anymore. that we'd rather be by oursel doing our own thing. Maybe even just with your own people like it talks about in Matthew chapter 25 where it talks about if you're just greeting your own people. What is that? Everyone everyone can do that. Everyone can be
29:00 - 29:30 friendly to their own people. We have to be in a love feast with people. We have to extend the banqueting feast of God's presence and his joy and his spirit in our life with people that do not look like us. Do not act like us. Do not do the things that we do. The things and the people that you might consider enemies in this room because they have very different religious difference beliefs than you. The people that have different lifestyles than me.
29:30 - 30:00 that we might not call them our enemy, but think about how you think about them in your mind. I'll just be honest. How I think about them in my mind is, "Oh, I I don't get along with them. I don't even know them, but I'm in my mind. I'm telling myself I don't get along with them because they're so different from me." It's subtly classifying someone as my enemy. And Jesus is saying, "Love your
30:00 - 30:30 enemy." If Jesus never went into the brothel or the bar, if he never went into the corners where the Pharisees and religious leaders never dared to step, how would they have known that he had prepared a feast for them? And so for me, if you hear about Hannah
30:30 - 31:00 being at the local bar, I don't want you to get offended, okay? I'm I'm kind of joking. I don't drink alcohol, but I would hang out in a bar if it meant I got to talk to someone about Jesus. I am going to go
31:00 - 31:30 there. I don't necessarily agree with a homosexual lifestyle, but I would absolutely hang out with them if it meant they got to see a Christian that loved them where they are, who they are. And I would hope to God no one in this room would get offended by that or draw your own conclusions and have your own judgments. Can we be people that make people our purpose? Can we be people that don't
31:30 - 32:00 just look for all the Christian groups and concerts that we can be a part of because that's where we feel at home and safe and that's what God has for us. Can we be people that are stepping outside of the lines and the comfort zones to show them there is a God who hung on a cross that was strong enough for them and that because he did that for me, I'm now able to hang on to him with all I've got and prove the gospel is alive and
32:00 - 32:30 it's true. Will you stand with me? We're going to pray. And we're going to end with a song of worship. But as every eye is closed and no one's looking around, I want us to be really honest with oursel. I had to be really honest with myself this week. And God used last night with those scared girls to help
32:30 - 33:00 prove his point even further. And today, I want us to respond. If you in your heart, in your mind, in your actions and responses with either people at your workplace, people in your home, people in your neighborhood, people you don't yet know. If you need God to help you make people your purpose, would you just raise your hand all over this room? We're going to pray together. We're going to make some declarations. We're going to believe that God has some agape
33:00 - 33:30 love to pour out on us this morning. And so God, I pray for every hand that's raised. I thank you for the hearts that want to be moved by you that don't want to live in their own bubble of safety or security or even what's known. But God, we want to go beyond and step into what you have for us. God, I pray for every hand that's raised that there are going to be opportunities this week that they're going to encounter people that drive them crazy, that get them angry right away, where there's going to just
33:30 - 34:00 seem like there's messes and problems. But Lord, would you quicken to their hearts? Would you remind them of this moment where they raised their hand and said, "God, I am willing to step out and to love people in a great way, in a deeper way." And God, I pray for the people in our lives right now that we face that seem to be problems for us. Would you shift our perspective, God? Would you help us to see that they're not our problem? That you would want to
34:00 - 34:30 use them to teach us how to love you and to love people with a great love. With the kind of love that stirs hearts towards you. With the kind of love that proves that the gospel is alive, that there's good news for us. So God, we submit our hearts and our minds to you. We humbly ask for your strength in our lives.