So Ephesians chapter number five, I will be looking at verses one and two. After reading the passage, I will, as is our custom, say, this is the word of the Lord. I ask you to say with me in prayer to God, may he who gave it be praised, at which time I will remind us that it was given for our admonition and ask you to repeat along with me, may we who hear it obey. Ephesians chapter five, beginning at verse one. Be therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. This is the word of the Lord. He who gave it be praised and it was given for our admonition. So may we who hear it obey. Heavenly Father, as we come before your word this morning, I pray that you would quiet our hearts from the distractions around us, the things that so easily slip into our mind. I pray that you would give us focus and an appreciation for your word here. I ask that you would guide my lips, that I would not add or detract from the message that you have for us in any way. Father, speak to us. May we be willing, as we have just said, to obey the word that you have for us. We ask these things in your precious name. Amen. Well, as we consider our text, of course, we are looking at, as we've said for quite a while now, how to live a Christian life, how to live out the truth that is our reality as Christians. And so chapters one through three, as we've said, are talking about what God has done. And chapters four through six focus then primarily on what we should do in response. And the title for the message today is a command in a different form, called, we are called, to live like God. Now, hopefully you are not one who, when given the command to live like God, is quick to say, been there, done that. Pastor, I don't need today's message. I'm doing very good at this already. In fact, perhaps you're more likely to say, Pastor, what are you expecting of us? What in the world do you mean live like God? We are not God. We think ourselves more like God than we should sometimes. But we are not God, so how are we to live like God? Well, I think we see two things here, first from verse one and then secondly from verse two that explain what we mean when we say, live like God, or that we are called to live like God. Just two points this morning. First of all, God calls us to live like him. What are we supposed to do with that? Well, I think, first of all, it means to think God's thoughts. This word here, be followers of God, followers of God Imitators, some other translations say, the idea is that we are to conform ourselves to the image, the mind, the being of God. God is, and God is what God is, and we are supposed to be like that. Now this is, first and foremost, a humbling command. In Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9, we read this, the Lord speaking, So how are we supposed to attain to these Higher thoughts. How are we supposed to think like God thinks? Thinking God's thoughts is not merely knowing what God thinks. It's thinking along the same lines. It's thinking like he does. We all have individuals where we know how they think, generally speaking, right? You might know how a coworker will consider something because you recognize patterns. You understand how they think. That doesn't mean that you think the same way. It's not enough just to know what God thinks about certain things. No, we are to think the same thing. We are supposed to imitate his way of thinking, as it were. Speaking of our text, Joseph Excel notes this. While it thus humbles us, this precept ennobles us for what a grand thing it is to be imitators of God. It is an honor to be the lowliest follower of such a leader. As we consider who God is and meditate on his thoughts, we are overcome by his holiness. As you look into scripture, you see the holiness of God. Which leads us Secondly, to obey God's word. Think God's thoughts and obey God's word. Well, where are you going to find out how God thinks? This may not be immediately obvious in this verse, but the supremacy of scripture is the essential foundation to this command. To live like God. How can we live like God? Where do you start? How is it possible in any way to do or to think like God? You're always welcome to answer questions. How can we live like God? Where do you start? You go to His Word. And by the way, this is how you should start with anyone else. Too often, we are so quick to do other things, right? But on a very base level, if you want to know what somebody else thinks, you probably have to go talk to them and listen to what they say. Sometimes in the context of a marriage, we're more inclined to read body language and not talk, and then that's where trouble tends to start. I assume I know what they think, but I'm not going to ask them because then I might be proven wrong. Well, how many people are following what God thinks by inventing it as they go along? No, if you want to know what God truly thinks, if you really want to think God's thoughts after Him, you have to go to His Word. So obey God's Word. To state it very simply, if we close our Bibles, we cannot imitate God. We cannot be followers of God. Scripture reveals God to us, so it is impossible to follow him without following his word. This is what we read in 2 Timothy. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." As we study God's Word, we continually encounter God's holiness and recognize by contrast how far we fall short of His holiness. Then we see explicit commands that express the magnitude of our calling. 1 Peter 1, verses 15 and 16. The apostle says, as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. As we say very frequently when we see this word conversation in our King James, that's not just about what you say, that's what you do. It's a conduct. It's about your behavior as well as what you speak. Verse 16 there in 1 Peter 1, because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy. That's your charge as a Christian to be holy as God is holy. To live like God. I don't know about you, but that is a tall order to follow. as I see it, an impossible command to follow, frankly, yet a command that God gives to us. The next thing that we see here in verse one is that we are to think God's thoughts, obey God's word, and accomplish God's will. What does he say in the second part there? Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children or as beloved children. If we look just a couple of verses earlier, there in 1 Peter, we'll see a well-known passage that mirrors our text here in many ways. 1 Peter 1, verses 13 through 14. Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope for the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children. Now, friends, there is a difference between obedient children and children who obey. Now, all obedient children certainly obey. You're not an obedient child if you don't obey. But obedient children are a step beyond mere obedience. Some children obey out of fear of the consequences. Others obey simply because they know that's what is expected of them. This idea of obedient children is very similar to the beloved children, the dear children that we see here in Ephesians. And it is children who share the same motivation and purpose of the father. An obedient child is not one who has to wait for the command in order to obey. An obedient child is one who knows the father, anticipates the father's will enough that he doesn't even have to be told. I am looking forward to the day that my children are obedient children when it comes to getting ready for church in the morning. Because right now, the biggest step that we get to is this morning, first thing, Joseph wakes up and I say, hey buddy, are you ready to go to church this morning? And he's like, I need to get my shoes on. Now he's still wearing his pajamas and he's still lying in bed, but he knows that he needs shoes in order to go outside. So while there's a desire there, if we did not help him out tremendously and step-by-step get him dressed, he would not get here. Hopefully, when he's a teenager, he'll be able to notice the clock, though I'm sure perfection will not be there every week, and get himself dressed to be able to go to church on his own. That is the idea here. It is not only that we obey when we are instructed, it's that we are living out obedience to the will of God. Have you ever met a Christian who has put into place a certain standard or conviction in their own life and they can't really give you a chapter and verse for why they believe that they're supposed to do that? I think we have a tendency these days to look down at that and say, well, if you can't show me in the Bible where this standard comes from, then you're a legalist and you shouldn't have that standard. What if we applied that same logic to you on your anniversary as you're getting a gift for your spouse? Well, she didn't tell me she wanted flowers. How was I supposed to know she wanted flowers? She didn't tell me she wanted to go out for dinner. How did I know that she was going to want to go out for dinner? You see, at some point, the fact that you have to be told everything that you're supposed to obey points to the fact that you don't really love the one you're obeying, serving. We do go to the scriptures in order to know how we are to live, how we are to please God, but that's just it. We go to the scriptures to know how we are to please God because we already want to please God. That is the heart of an obedient or a beloved or a dear child. This is the beloved son who takes on the family business and runs it well so that it can be passed down to the next generation. This is the beloved daughter who takes upon herself almost a motherly role toward her younger siblings and who imitates her mother's godliness. Harold Hohner reminds us that this status is not one of our own doing. He states, our status as his beloved or dear children, the objects of his love, is the result of the gracious way he has acted toward us and described in the first three chapters. You are a beloved child of God, not because you are actually obedient to the will of God with perfection. You are a beloved child of God because God has loved you. I think of the words of one of my favorite modern hymns. The father looks on me and sees not what I was or what I am, He views the righteousness of Christ, not my cursed sin. The father looks on me and smiles, because it's Christ he sees. This is my own beloved son, he says, the one in whom I am well pleased. You are a beloved child of God if you are a Christian, not because of who you are or what you've done, but because of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done. Friends, it is a glorious privilege to be a child of God. Notice the command. Be ye therefore followers of God and be dear children. Is that what it says? Be ye therefore followers of God to be dear children. No. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children. You are already a dear child of God if you are a believer this morning. You are getting a taste here at the end of verse 5, the gospel of chapters 1 through 3, the done by God mixed in here with the do of Christians. It is such a tremendous privilege to be children of God. We are servants, but we are not just servants. We are soldiers, but we are not just soldiers. We are beloved children of God. If you are a Christian, you are a child of the king of kings and lord of lords. The God of this universe is your father, and he loves you completely. This is not what you are striving to become. This is who you are. If you belong to Jesus Christ, you are God's child. Paul writes in Romans 8, verses 16 and 17, the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. if so be that we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together. It is a tremendous privilege to be God's child and heirs of his glory in Christ. But this comes with a tremendous responsibility, the responsibility to live like him. So as we say, you are called to live like God. Do not for a moment think you must live like God to become his child. No, you can only live like God if you already are his child. When we consider how we can live like God, we recognize that God has given us the perfect example through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. So secondly, God calls us to live like him. Secondly, God models righteousness for us. As we look to the Incarnation, we see that God the Son took upon Himself humanity in all that it is to be human, yet without sin. And He lived a human life in total conformity and obedience to the will of God the Father. The primary purpose, humanly speaking, was to bring about our salvation through His sacrifice. A secondary purpose, though, was to model for us who have been saved how living like God looks in a fallen world. What does it look like to live like God? To answer that, we look to Christ. Both of these purposes are rooted in God's love for us Perhaps the most well-known verse in the whole Bible, John 3, 16, In fact, the whole of human history is a result of God's love. God creates out of love for the creature. God's love is seen all throughout the creation week. Days one through five, God creates what man will need before man exists. God creates Adam, and then God creates Eve. But he creates Adam first from dust. He lets him notice that he's missing something. And then he creates Eve from Adam's own body. God's love for Adam led God to create a helper for him, and God's love for Eve led him to create a leader for her. God creates out of dust, the man, and out of a rib, the woman, in part, may I say, to remind man when he struggles with his leader, you are but dust to your authority, and to remind man when he struggles with his wife. She is your equal in every way. God creates out of love, and then God forgives out of love. We see it first just after Adam and Eve sin, and it permeates all throughout the Old Testament. God should kill Cain, but he doesn't. God should destroy the whole earth, but he saves Noah and his family. God should send fire down at Babel, but he doesn't. He confuses them instead of killing them, as he should. God should judge Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but he forgives them instead. And Israel, though they repeatedly turn away from God to embrace idols, God forgives them out of love time and time again. All of this culminates in the Gospels as we see the bill comes due. At the crucifixion, as God in human flesh hangs on a cross and pays the penalty for our sin, we see that God forgives at great personal cost. God forgives out of love. God creates out of love. God saves out of love. And God glorifies out of love. Jesus Christ did not stay in the tomb. He arose to new life and he gives that same new life to all who believe in his name. We are beloved children. We are joint heirs with Christ because God glorifies us out of love. And this love transcends us as the elect, our God, the Father's love gift to the Son, and our redemption is the Son's love gift to the Father, and our sanctification through the indwelling Spirit is His gift to both Father and Son. So it is simultaneously true to say that God saved you because He loves you, and to acknowledge that God saved you for His own glory. Why would God save sinners? You have to give two answers. Because He loves us, yes and amen. And to glorify Himself, yes and amen. God's purpose in saving you is not just your glory, it is also His own glory. But God's purpose in saving you is not only his own glory, it is also your salvation and future glory. If we understand our Bibles, we come to realize that everything comes from God. Everything belongs to God. Everything reveals something about God, whether it's an example of what God is or an example of what God is not. And God is love. So theologically understood, it's not wrong to say that everything in this sense is truly all about love. We've heard that before, haven't we? It's all about love. And last night, Brother Claxton mentioned, love is love. When the Beatles sang that all you need is love and Dion Jackson declared that love makes the world go round, in a sense, they are right. When this world declares that love is all that matters, there's a sense in which the statement isn't wrong. The problem, of course, is in defining what love is, the world doesn't look to Jesus Christ, which is exactly what God told us to do. God models righteousness for us. God models what it is to be loving for us, and he does so through the life of Jesus Christ. This is a deeper theological point that we haven't the time to investigate further, but the fact is, the sentence, God is love, is not descriptive of God, but descriptive of love. That's true with all divine attributes. When we say God is good, that does not mean that God lives up to some standard of goodness apart from himself. When we say God is good, we are affirming that if God does it, if God thinks it, if God commands it, it is good. Because to be good is to be like God. good derives its significance from God, not the other way around. And the same is true with love as well. So to say God is love does not describe God as if God has to uphold some other standard outside of himself that we have of lovingness. No, it is to say if God does it, if God says it, if God commands it, it is loving. So to find out what it means to love, we must look at the example God gives us through Jesus Christ. What do we see here from verse two? It's exactly what Paul is saying. And walk in love as you define it as your culture. Walk in love as most of your peers are going to define it. No. Walk in love. How do I know what love is? As Christ also hath loved us. You want true love? You want to know what that means? Look at the life of Christ. That's who you mimic. Friends, the love of this culture, the love of our world has nothing to do with the love we are commanded. to live out. It is a completely different thing. The love that we are to have for others is the love that Christ has for us. So, what does that look like? Well, first of all here, love humbly. Love humbly. How has Christ loved us? Well, it says right there, He has given Himself for us. Christian, never think for a moment that something is beneath you. In Philippians 2, verses 5-8, we read this, Paul says, "...let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men." Christ was God. He is God. The point is, He was God prior to the Incarnation. The Eternal Son. God, in all that that means, did not look at his divinity, look at his supreme power as something to hang on to. He was equal with God. I thought it not robbery to be equal with God. So he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man. God became man. Humanity was beneath him. He is our creator, not our equal. He humbles himself, he lowers himself. God the Son who existed eternally and equal with the Father from before time began is God and God as God is not to be lowered to humanity. The one who created all things came into his creation as a helpless child of two impoverished parents under the accusation of scandal and subjected himself to the cruelties of human beings. Don't ever think that some sort of service for Christ is beneath you. Frankly, the cross isn't beneath you. Eternal damnation in hell is what all of us actually deserve. Don't say I'm too good for that. Whatever menial task it might be, Because no friend, you are not too good for anything. In fact, if you got what you deserved, you would be in hell for all eternity. That is true for every one of us, except Jesus Christ. The cross was beneath Christ, yet he took your place and paid the penalty for your sin. What does it look like to love like Christ? Well, first of all, you can't even do it. You are physically incapable of taking upon yourself something that is beneath you, spiritually speaking. So do the next best thing and take up the task, whatever it is that He calls you to do, because you know nothing is beneath you. And He did take upon Himself a sacrificial task that was far beneath Him. love humbly." Next we see, love sacrificially. Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us. 1 Timothy 2 verses 5 and 6, we read this, for there is one God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all. to be testified in due time. Commentator Francis Foulkes reminds us here that there is not a single place in Paul's writings, nor in the New Testament generally, where the death of Christ can be spoken of as only an example to be followed without the further expression of its atoning significance. This is stated here in our text when it said that he died for us, presenting himself and offering and sacrifice to God. This is not the main point of the cross. You are off in theological la-la land and heresy when you believe the representative view of the cross. That Jesus Christ came and died on the cross to show us how we ought to live. And it stops there. No, the, picture of atonement on the cross is penal substitution. Christ didn't go to the cross to show you what you ought to be willing to do for God. Christ went to the cross because you deserve that and he died in your place. He is your substitute on that tree. But as a secondary significance, you should be willing to suffer and sacrifice for Him when He has given the ultimate sacrifice for you. That is not all that you should glean from the cross. No, He is truly there in your place. But when you take that part out, you actually weaken the example tremendously. Peter speaks of Christ's sacrifice for us clearly as well in 1 Peter 3 verse 18. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that he might bring you to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. Turn with me, if you will, to Romans chapter number 5. Another very well-known verse. Keep your finger there in Ephesians, of course, but Romans 5, verse 8. But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. love sacrificially. By the way, Paul applies this. If you turn just a couple of pages more to Romans chapter eight, he applies this so fittingly. Romans eight, beginning there in verse 16. We've already read verses 16, I believe. Verses 16 through 18. This is what Paul says, Romans 8, verses 16 and following. The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. An application of this truth in verse 18, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Pastor Claxton stated it so well last evening when he said that the world calls love, what the world calls love is actually infatuation. The world's love is all about getting from you what my flesh desires. Now that might be companionship, that might be acceptance, that might be wealth, some sort of status, of course sexual fulfillment is at play here. But in any case, it makes love a selfish endeavor that is rooted first and foremost in me. If I don't get what I want, then you're not loving me. Love, as our modern culture understands it, begins with this. What do I want? And how do I get it? What the world calls love is self-centered and makes love a game of manipulating those you claim to love. Because I'm trying to get something out of this. It doesn't matter if it is a marriage that looks incredibly healthy. They've come alongside on similar things. We both want similar things, but we're each doing it for ourselves. I'll be faithful to my wife because I want her to be faithful to me. I'll do nice things for my wife because I want her to do nice things for me. I'll buy her flowers on her anniversary because I want her to buy me flowers. I don't think my wife's ever bought me flowers, but I want her to do something nice for me. I'll go to the restaurant she likes because in a few weeks, I want her to go to the restaurant I like. And it just becomes this trade-off We see this so clearly in our culture as it promotes selfish ideas under the title of love. You've heard this all before. You have to love yourself first, right? We're all just looking for love. Or we'll talk about acts of self-love, right? This is why what the world calls love can fly under the banner of pride, because that's where it all starts. Friends, if it starts with pride, it's not loving at all. Love truly defined and biblically understood stems from humility and manifest itself in self-sacrifice. What the world calls love is all about getting what I want out of you. What God calls love is all about giving what I have for you. True love is selfless, humble, and focused on the good of others. There was nothing in you that made you worthy of God's love. When Christ went to the cross, it was not because he was trying to get something out of you. He was doing something for you, something you could never repay, something you could never deserve, something you could never give back to him. You say, I could give back to him. I could be a martyr. I could die for Christ. He died for me and I could die for him. No, you cannot. You cannot do the same that he did for you on the cross, because as he died on the cross, what happened? The Father looked away from him. You see Stephen as a martyr who is glaring into the eyes of Christ at his death. You cannot die apart from God for him because Christ alone could do that for you. I am not here to minimize the martyrdom of the saints, but I am here to say it is not the same thing Christ did for you. It is far less. And if dying for Him is far less than what He's done for you, how could anything else that He asked you to do be more, in your estimation, than what He's already done for you? The only way for that to happen is for us to, frankly, minimize the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. You cannot look at the cross with an accurate recognition of what God has done for you and in any way think He has called you to do anything close to that for Him. This is why, as I've said before, people don't like it when I say this, but spiritual burnout starts with a wrong heart. You cannot burn out in ministry with the proper appreciation of what Christ has done for you. Your appreciation for what God has done for you has to be minimized in your own thinking and selfishness in what God's not doing for you according to your own thoughts. That's where burnout starts. Many a believer has gone to their death for Christ. Apostle Paul is a wonderful example of one. Went through many, many horrible things. And if the modern Christian is to look at the Apostle Paul's life, we would say, boy, he should have burnt out long ago. But he didn't. Why? Because burnout, spiritual burnout, spiritual just giving up. That's not a result of the tasks God has placed upon you, that's a result of a heart that no longer appreciates him as you should. We started to take the love as God defines it and replace it with the love as man defines it. We say, God's just not loving. Again, God is love. That's a definition of love, not of God. When we say God is not loving, we have taken a different definition of love and are trying to force it upon God. We can't do that. God's love is sacrificial love that graces those whom he chooses to love in spite of our unworthiness and our worthlessness. When we do this, when we burn out, when we say something like, well, God, you're going to have to find somebody else to do this. There's pride in that. because we think we were the ones doing it in the first place. If it was anything worth doing, God was the one doing it through us. The idea, well, God, you're gonna have to find somebody. What did he say in the triumphal entry? If these people kept silent, the rocks would praise me. God doesn't need you. The fact that he uses you, the fact that he calls us into this thing that is his plan for all eternity is a gift to us. It is not a burden upon us. The work of the ministry can be hard, but friends, it is not a burden. It is a privilege. So love humbly, love sacrificially, and finally, love God supremely. Love God supremely. Back in Ephesians. Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, but it doesn't end there. And hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savor." Jesus' love for you, if I can put it this way, is not ultimately what led him to the cross. Jesus' love for the Father is what ultimately led him to the cross. How do I know that? Because in the garden he said, nevertheless, not my will, but thine. Not y'all's. He wasn't talking to the disciples. He's speaking to the Father. Our love for God should surpass all other loves in our heart. Jesus said this in Matthew 10 verses 37 through 39. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake will find it. If you value your family, if you value your friends, if you value your own life more than you value Christ, you're not worthy of him. He must be your first love, your supreme love. Jesus went to the cross for you, so he deserves your primary allegiance. But further than this, we see that this is the example Jesus gives us as well. Christ's death on the cross, while it is a sacrifice for us, it is also a sacrifice to God the Father. You see, this is why the doctrine of the Trinity is the only way in which a loving God can truly be loving in all that he does. God the Father does what He does in creation, not only out of love for Himself, but in love for the Son. He creates for the Son a bride to be His. God the Son does what He does in the incarnation, not only out of love for us, but out of love for the Father to redeem us whom the Father has called. And the Holy Spirit does what He does in our sanctification, not only out of love for us, but out of love for the Father and Son, to purify the bride that God has given to the Son, to purify us for the Son. So the whole universe is the outworking of God's love for God, and it is not a selfish love, it is a selfless love focused on another because our God is triune. The Son loves the Father and Spirit, the Spirit loves the Father and Son, and the Father loves the Son and Spirit. Friends, if you're beginning to think, man, I'm pretty small in this transaction that you're describing, realize as you come to grips with the scripture and the reality, we are called to just be thankful and recognize we are pawns in God's universe. We didn't set this in motion. We're not the ones that the story is all about. God the Father creates along with the Son and Holy Spirit to make God the Son the hero of the story. So that there is a bride of Christ present at the end to praise and worship for all eternity. You have a place in His story. but you're not the main character. You were in his mind on the cross, but you were not the primary motivation. You are loved by God, but God loves God more than God loves you. Which is why, if you do not repent, God's love for God leads to your condemnation. But if you will repent, it is God's love for God that brings about your salvation. Friends, this is what the family is meant to represent. A husband loves his wife, the wife loves her husband, they both love their children and the children love them. And you see a strong family that is built not out of everybody loving themselves, but everybody loving each other. Everyone loves humbly and sacrificially and the family is strengthened. But if everyone loves selfishly according to worldly love, the family, the church, the society falls apart. If Satan can redefine love in the minds of humanity, he can throw the whole world into chaos. And he's done a good job of that in many ways. We as beloved children know what love is. We have experienced the love of the Father. What did he tell us? Walk in love as Christ also hath loved you. It's really not that complicated. Just look at what Christ has done for you and do that for everyone else. So we conclude this morning, it really is true that love is all you need, but love must be defined as God defines it. We need God's love to be saved, and he offers it to each one of us. Then we must live like God, as modeled for us in Jesus Christ, and by loving others humbly, loving them sacrificially, and loving God supremely. we will live like God. A glorious calling, a tremendous responsibility, and possible only through Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that you have given us the love that we never deserved, we could never earn, love that is beyond our comprehension. Father, I pray that we would be ambassadors for you, that we would take the love that we have received and give it to others. Lord, help us to love humbly, help us to love sacrificially, and help us to love you supremely above all else. Grant us your grace for none of this is possible except through you, by your power working through us. We ask these things in your name.