Welcome in this morning. We are glad to have you with us here. We have a number of visitors here. I have some of my relatives are in town visiting us. And then we also have another family here, Brother and Mrs. Storm and then their family as well. So good to have you folks. And then the honor guard here from Offutt. We're delighted to have you. It'll be a good Sunday. We're excited about it. And so we're all going to stand. We're going to sing a song here. We'll have Brother Cub come. Take your notes over page 438, 438. Let's sing my country, tis of thee. My country, tis of thee, land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. On the last. Our Father's God, to thee, author of liberty, may we sing. Long may our land be bright with freedom's holy light. Protect us by thy might, great God, our King. if we remain standing for the presentation of the colors. Let's now sing our national anthem, Star Spangled Banner. 436 if you need it. Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming. And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Thank you. You may be seated. Again, it is good to have you all here with us today and a special day for us as we remember our independence and and the day that that was founded this weekend. When I worked with kids, I always like to remind them that they we call we call this holiday the Fourth of July. And I try to teach him, you know, what's another name for that? And it's Independence Day. And so I am thankful for our country and for the land that we live in and the freedoms that we have been given by God. And today's the day that we remember that. And then the men and women who've made that possible through which who God has used to give their lives so that we can continue to do that. And so we'll honor you a little bit later in the program. ushers if you could prepare for an offering at this time. If you're visiting with us today we're not asking you to give anything in this offering. This is for our regular folks who like to be able to give something. A couple announcements let me give you tonight we will not have an evening service. I know we're already thrown off here today because we started later than we normally do. But no evening service tonight. We're actually going to go to Logan Valley Baptist out in Lyons. We're going to join them for their evening service. And they have their special 14 year anniversary service today. And so there's going to be two preachers out there. Brother Epley is going to be preaching along with Brother Jesse Haley. And we're going to join them to help that make it be a special day for them. If you are able to come out, we'd invite you to that. If you need an address on that, you can see me or somebody who looks like they know what's going on around here. And if you're able to, those of you who are able to, if you're going out there, if you could bring a salad or a dessert of some sort, that would be greatly appreciated. And then it was good to get our young people back from camp. And so young people today, of course, we're not going to do any kind of testimonies, but be prepared to give some of those next Sunday. And we will look forward to that. Let's see here, anything else that I need to remember? We have Brother Lucan coming later on this month. He'll be, I think, the 16th is the Sunday that he's going to be here with us, so look forward to that. And I think that is all we're going to announce for today. Ushers, if you could come at this time and appreciate Brother Stephen and Danielle Cubb putting this together and doing the decorations. different flags representing different branches of military, and those of you who have served, and again, we'll recognize you here in a little bit. Brother Vince, would you pray for the offering for us? Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to be here in your house, and Lord, we thank you for America, and the blessing it is to live here. We love you, Lord, and we pray that you'd help us to glorify you, and that you'd use these tithes and offerings to provide the increase in the miraculous way. you Yeah. We have a men's group that's coming to sing for us. The song is called For the First Responders. When darkness falls, when fear is all around, you come to help us feel secure, to heal and hold, to keep us safe from harm. In times of need, your hand is sure. It's you who keeps our hopes alive when you arrive. This is our song for the first responders. You lift us when we fall. How good, how brave the life you save. You answer when we call. You give it all. Through flood and flame, the storms are raging on. You stride ahead, you turn the tide. You run to aid, with others safe and fed. These times of need, you're by our side. It's you who keeps our hopes alive when you arrive. This is our song for the first responders. You lift us when we fall. The good, the brave, the lives you save. You answer when we call. You give it all. We raise our song for heroes true. We honor you. We honor you. This is our song for the first responders. You lift us when we fall. The good, the brave, the lives you save. You answer when we call. You give it all. You give it all. Take your hand rolls over to page 437, 437. Let's go ahead and stand. Battle Hymn of the Republic, page 437. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible sword. His truth is marching on. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. His truth is marching on. Verse number three. He has sounded forth a trumpet that shall never sound retreat. He is lifting up the hearts of men before his judgment seat. Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer him. Our God is marching on. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Our God is marching on. On the last. In the media, as Christ was born across the sea, With the glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me. As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, while God is marching on. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. You may be seated. This time we have Lois Ripintrop coming to read a poem for us. Independence Day. Author unknown. In the year of 1776, that paper was decreed. They were tired of oppression and wanted to be freed. They wrote a declaration so the whole world would see that this was home of the brave and the land of the free. They signed that piece of parchment, the leaders of this land, knowing divided they would fall, but together they could stand. A new world lay before them. Untamed from shore to shore. They swore they would protect it even if it meant going to war. Battles have been fought and many lives have been lost. So sad something so basic has such a high, high cost. Seems freedom is a luxury, their sum would bind us all. Like then, together we stand, but divided we will fall. More than 200 years have passed since that day that each of us celebrate in our own different way. We should be proud and thankful, pay our share of the cost, not take freedom for granted, for it easily could be lost. Amen. Thank you, Miss Lois. And at this time, we'd like to recognize those of you who are here with us and you have served in some way. And we sang that song just a little bit ago about the first responders. And just folks that serve our country, there's many that serve in different ways, but we've even had here in the last couple weeks a couple things that have happened, a couple health scares and things, and we have folks who have been first responders, who have medical background, who have helped out. so we do appreciate you as well as our military as the poem just mentioned that does come at a cost and so if you have served in the military or as a first responder in some way if you would stand and we'd like to kind of recognize stand and stay standing I know some of you don't like to do that but let's get all of you and then we'd like to go around and just give your name and then where it was that you served, what branch it was, and then if you had any kind of tours of duty or deployments, things like that, if you would give that. And so your name, what branch you served in, or what capacity you served in, and then how many years and if you were any tours of duty. So we will start over here with Mr. Jim. Yes, sir. Amen. And Brother Jim is U.S. Marine Corps. All right. All right, Brother Jared. Okay, thank you, Brother Jared. Amen. Amen. Found a great thing in Vietnam. Amen. Terry? Amen. All right. Amen. Thank you for your service. Okay. Brother Wilson? Amen. Go Tim. Amen. North Bend Fire. Okay. And in the very back, you're standing back there. Ms. Schmidt. No? Oh, okay. All right. Let's go now to the back here. We'll work our way up. Brother Rex. All right, we'll go with Brother Rex. We knew there was fights between branches of the military, but we didn't want to have one break out right here. Okay, we'll start within the very back, Brother Rex. Amen, thank you for your service. Okay, Brother Harold. Okay, Brother Chris. Amen. Okay. Brother Wayne. Amen. And that's where he met his wife. Praise the Lord. Got a good thing in the military as well. So, all right, Brother Steve. Amen. Okay. Andrew. All right, the Bible says give honor to whom honor is due and that's what we recognize today. Oh, we got one more behind me. He wanted to be missed back here, but Brother Steven. Hooper Fires six years. Thank you for your service and let's give these folks a hand and tell them we thank them. Amen. Gentlemen, we have a treat for you. We've got a little gift bag, and so be sure to get one of those. Some of those are in the back. And then if we run out back there, we've got some more in the fellowship hall. If you can't find that, let me or Brother Stephen know, and we'll be sure to get you one of those. But we do appreciate you and your service for the country here. And at this time, we're going to have Brother Vince come up, and he's going to have a reading as well. This poem is Freedom Isn't Free by Kelly Strong. I watched the flag pass by one day. It fluttered in the breeze. A young Marine saluted it, and he stood at ease. I looked at him in uniform, so young, so tall, so proud, with haircut square and eyes alert. He'd stand out in any crowd. I thought how many men like him had fallen through the years, how many died on foreign soil, how many mothers' tears. I thought how many men like him had fallen through the years, how many pilots' planes shot down, how many dead at sea, how many foxholes were soldiers' graves. No, freedom isn't free. I heard the sound of taps one night. When everything was still, I listened to the bugler play, and I felt a sudden chill. I wonder how many times that taps had meant amen when a flag had draped a coffin of a brother or a friend. I thought of all the children, of the mothers and the wives and the fathers, sons, husbands, With interrupted lives, I thought about a graveyard at the bottom of the sea of unmarked graves in Arlington. No, freedom isn't free. This time we're going to have the choir come sing for us. ♪ One of our fathers, whose almighty hand ♪ ♪ Leads forth in beauty all the starry band ♪ ♪ Of shining pearls in splendor through the skies ♪ ♪ Our grateful songs before thy throne arise. Thy love divine hath led us in the past. In this we land, by thee our lot is cast. Be thou our ruler, guardian, guide, and stay. Thy word our law, thy paths our chosen way. From wars and wars, from death we pass to lands. Be thy strong arm, our ever sure defense. Thy true religion in our hearts increase. Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace. Refreshed like people on their toilsome way, lead us from night to never-ending day. Fill all our lives with love and grace divine. Let's take your hymnals once again for our last song, over to page 435. 435, let's stand. Oh, beautiful for spacious skies. Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains majesty above the fruited plain. Amen. America, America, God shed his grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. Oh, beautiful for pilgrim feet whose stern impassioned stress a thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness. Amen. America, America, God mend thine every flaw. Confirm thy soul in self. Control thy liberty in law. Oh, beautiful for heroes proved in laboring strife, who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life. America! America! ♪ May God thy gold refine ♪ ♪ Till all success be hopeless ♪ ♪ And everything be thine ♪ On the last. ♪ O beautiful for patriot dream ♪ ♪ That sees beyond the years ♪ Thine alabaster city gleam, Undimmed by tears. America! America! God shed his grace on thee. and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. Thank you. You may be seated. Amen. Take your Bibles if you would. Turn to the book of John chapter 15. John chapter 15. I love that song. I think one of my favorite lines in there is, God mend thine every flaw. And what a good prayer to pray that God would do such a thing in our land, in our nation. John chapter 15, we're just going to read two verses here. We'll let you remain seated as we read our text. And I am a fan of that battle hymn of the Republic. Apologies to you Southerners. If I am correct, I think that's a Yankee hymn. How many here are from the South? Let me see. All right. Brother Rex in the back. Did you sing along while we were singing that, Brother? He did. He did. He was a good sport. Now, how many are Northerners? Let me see a show of hands here. That's right. That's why we sang that one, Brother Rex. Amen. He's from Arkansas, so you can give him grief about that later on. But I love the nation that God has allowed me to be born in and to be raised in, and for as many problems as America has, and it's no secret that America has problems, but that's why we're here. That's why God has put us here, and we're to be lights in this nation. And I was gonna preach on a different thought this morning, and the Lord, I believe, redirected me, but God told his people when they were leaving into captivity into Babylon and God told them hey when you go there just go ahead and go with them you're going to be there for 70 years you can read about it in Jeremiah chapter 29 but he said you're going to be there for several years he said build houses plant vineyards, give your daughters in marriage and your sons, and continue that you might increase while you're there in the land. And he said, seek the peace of the land wherein you dwell and pray for it. He said, because in the peace thereof, you will have peace. And so that is how we are to see it, that we're strangers here and pilgrims in this land. And some of the songs alluded to that, to being pilgrims. And we are that very thing. Even in this country, this country is not our final home. It's not our final kingdom. And I think sometimes when we forget that, we get all entangled up in the politics of our day. And then we're just discouraged when we forget that our primary citizenship is not here, it is up there. And so we get all entangled. The Bible says, no man that woreth entangles himself with the affairs of this life. And so be careful about that. But you are supposed to be patriotic. That's why we have Patriotic Sunday. But patriotic as well as a pilgrim. And those two things can go together in a Christian's life. He is to be a patriot where he is, but still a pilgrim. That means this world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. And when you forget that, you will become very discouraged and disillusioned. And you will really be primarily attached to the wrong kingdom. But we are supposed to seek the peace of the land where we dwell. We're supposed to be good patriots. We're supposed to be willing to fight for our brothers. But at the same time, not becoming too primarily attached to this kingdom here and to this world. Always keeping our citizenship primarily in heaven. John chapter 15, just going to look at two verses here. John chapter 15 verse number 12. He says in verse number 12, this is Jesus speaking, he says, this is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this. that a man lay down his life for his friends. And if you got a bulletin when you came in, you would have seen that right there on the front of that bulletin. Greater love had no man than this. And I want to speak to you on that topic here this morning, the greatest love. And would you bow for a word of prayer with me? Father, we do thank you, Lord, that we are able to gather here Today, Lord, in freedom, there are many places in the world that are dark and do not have freedom to assemble without fear of retribution, but Lord, we have that. And God, you have used, we certainly acknowledge our freedom comes from you, but you have used men and women who have been willing to lay down their lives, to give up their time, and Lord, to serve so that we can still have the freedom to assemble, and we thank you for that. And we pray your blessings upon them for doing that. God, would you help us this morning? Would you speak to us, Lord? Help our time to be profitable in your word, and would you nourish us from your word? Help us to be good ground today. Well, thank you, in Jesus' name, amen. The greatest love, the greatest love anyone could ever show is to lay down their life for the sake of another. Jesus himself, he said that no man can possess or demonstrate a greater form of love. Greater love hath no man than this. There's nothing that can exceed that. The act of laying down your life for the sake of another. For Jesus to say that something is great, that right there ought to catch our attention. For Him to say that there's nothing greater and then Him to point out something. My wife tells me that I am easy to please, hard to impress. And I kind of smile and say, yeah, I think you're about right. It's a little, there's not many things that I sit there and I say, wow. But there are things. In many areas, that may be the case, but not in every area. I was talking literally to a pest control person the other day, pest control specialist. And he was telling me about places that he goes into, and crawl spaces, and spiders that are dangling around, and all the creepy crawliers that he interacts with. And I said, wow, I was impressed. That is not my realm. And he said, I know, I'm one of those weirdos. I said, man, we need weirdos like you. That is a necessity. And I was very thankful for the work that he does. He's able to do that type of thing. Why because that is out of my realm so far out of where I want to be that that's impressive to me I was watching some people the other day do backflips and all kinds of acrobatic things and I said wow Why because that is not don't do not ask me to do a backflip. It's not gonna happen and that's not my realm What impresses us? The things that impress us. They're usually those things that are out of our realm of possibility The other day, here's what is still within my realm of possibility is doing a pushup. And I've been trying to kind of do a little bit of exercises here and there, and so I was doing some pushups. And I was trying to do them slow to make sure that I worked everything. And every time I was in the living room, and there wasn't really anybody around, but every time I'd go up, I'd hear a little voice say, wow. And I went down, and I pushed back up, wow. And I looked over, and our little one-and-a-half-year-old Sophie was over there standing, and she said, wow. That is a true story. And I think that she did it because when our kids do exercises, and they show us, and we say, wow. And so she was thinking, that's what you do when someone is exercising. You say, wow. And so we're generally impressed by things that are beyond our skill. I say that to say, so imagine being Jesus. There's not many things that make you say, wow. There's not many things that exist that you would say, wow, that is great. There were a few things. Not that it was outside of his realm of possibility, but there were a few things that impressed him. And he used the word great to describe. One of those things was John the Baptist. Did you know that of John, Jesus said that among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. He said, there's not a greater, Jesus used the word great for John. He also marveled when he saw great faith. There were a couple instances when he told someone, great is thy faith. Or he told the soldier, he said, I have not found so great faith. There's also times when he marveled at the great unbelief of people. And he marveled at their unbelief. It made him say, wow, in a negative way. But here, he explains a love that makes him use the word great. And if Jesus Christ, who is love himself, God is love, if he uses a word great, not only that, but in essence, he's saying this is the greatest love. There's no greater love than this. If he says that about love, we ought to stop and take note. And Jesus is saying, friends, I'm telling you, there is not a single demonstration of love that will ever exceed the act of someone laying down their life for someone else, for his friends. We all love stories of heroes who sacrifice their selves. to save others. We, especially around this time, if you get a chance, and we ought to do that, I mean, we ought to teach our children. We haven't been able to do that in recent years, but around Memorial Day, we have gone to the different memorials, Memorial Park down in Omaha, and now moving up here, I've seen the one out here, and just going out there just to observe, and just to remember, just to see that there've been people who have laid down their lives. That's one of the problems with us, and I speak as a, I hate using that term, but I'm in that category. I'm on the upper end of it. But we ought to look back at the sacrifices that were made so that we can be here. That's one of the problems with our generation is that we are unthankful. And what we're doing is we're looking back and we point fingers at everything that everybody did that was ever wrong and how previous generations didn't know anything about organic food and emissions and all this other stuff and yet we don't realize all the sacrifices that were made so we could be here. And so we ought to look at these. One of my favorite to observe is Audie Murphy. I've mentioned him in the past. He was, of course, an actor, acted in some Western movies and other things, but he was, we remember him for that, but he was also involved in many acts of bravery during World War II. One in particular stands out. He got many different honors and medals, but one they give says, after landing on Yellow Beach, Murphy's platoon was making its way through a vineyard when the men were attacked by German soldiers. He retrieved a machine gun that had been detached from the squad and returned fire at the soldiers. He took out two and wounded one. Two Germans exited a house at about 100 yards away. They appeared to surrender, but when Murphy's best friend responded, they shot and killed him. Murphy advanced alone on the house under direct fire. He took out six, wounded two, and took 11 prisoners. Eleven, that's one man. When asked after the war why he had seized the machine gun, they said, why did you do that? Why did you take and then charge on those guys? You were taking fire. You were way outnumbered. He replied, they were killing my friends. Greater love hath no man than this. Murphy received every U.S. military combat award for valor available from the U.S. Army for his World War II service. Here was a man who was willing to sacrifice his own life and safety for the sake of others. Now he survived, there have been many that did not survive, and we use times like this. This is why whenever this comes around, I like to be able to center a message around things like this so that we can recognize these people. There are also some that have done the same in the spiritual battlefield. There have been many martyrs through the years. There are books that are out there, the Trail of Blood and other books that talk about how there are heroes of the faith who have died. Some people say, well, the church has persecuted so many people, not the true church. True church never persecuted anybody. It's been so-called churches out there and so-called religions that have taken up arms against people, but God's true saints have not done such a thing. There was one of my favorites, his name was Bishop Latimer, Hugh Latimer. And I love the quote that he gave that he was sentenced to burn at the stake. And that's one form, they would do many different things and you could read the Fox's Book of Martyrs, but Hugh Latimer, he was sentenced to burn at the stake with Nicholas Ridley, another saint. And on the day that they were to be burned at the stake, Hugh Latimer said this, he said, be of good comfort, Master Ridley, play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England, as I trust shall never be put out. Men sacrificing their lives for their Lord and for others, for their best of friends. And we acknowledge their sacrifice. We love that type of sacrifice. But I'm going to take a turn here, not trying to be controversial, but trying to be biblical, that just laying down your physical life is not the total sum of what Jesus is talking about here. You say, well, isn't that what He said, to lay down your life? And that's the greatest love that anyone can show. Yes, but later the apostle says this. You know these verses. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, charity is the greatest love. That's the unconditional agape love. He says, if I don't have charity, I'm become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. He says, if I don't have the greatest love, even if I have all this faith, I'm nothing. Then he says, though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. If giving your life for your friends is the greatest love, how can you give your life and not have love? because laying down your life is more than just being willing to give your physical life. Yes, that may be a part of it. In Jesus' case, he was led to do that. I dare say that many of you, you probably won't have to die physically for your loved ones. I pray that would never happen. There's probably a 99% chance for most of us that that's never gonna happen. but we're still called to do it, to lay down your life. Let me give you just a couple of things, and we'll be brief, and then we'll close out. You have been in here quite a while now, and I appreciate that. First of all, there's a commandment to love. In verse number 12, we saw that there. He said, this is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you. You know, that is Jesus's heartbeat, is that you love one another. That's the heartbeat of Jesus Christ. Did you know that is the greatest of commandments? The Bible says that the greatest commandment is that thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, with all thy soul, with all thy strength. He says that's the greatest commandment, to love the Lord. But Jesus said the second is like unto it. That means it's really, really close. that thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." These are the two great commandments. Because if a man says, I love God, but he hates his brother, he says, I love God who he can't see, but he hates his brother, I'm sorry, God who he can't see, but he hates his brother who he can see, then he's a liar, Jesus says. And so he says, the greatest of commandments is to love. Jesus said, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another. That's the mark of a disciple. Well, the mark of a disciple is if you're willing to die for Jesus. No, Jesus said it's if you have love one for another. The mark of a disciple is how much of your Bible that you can memorize and spout off. No, that's not the mark of a disciple of Jesus Christ. He said, by this, they will know that you're my disciples, if you have love one for another. Friend, ask yourself, how is your love for others? I mean real love, because we're commanded to love. There's a commandment to love. It is commanded in Scripture. He said, this is my commandment. And not just love like I have an affection for you. He said that you love one another as I have loved you. So your love doesn't just, you don't get to kind of rate how your love is by your own measures. You have to rate how you love by how Jesus loved. So there's a commandment to love. Secondly, there's a commitment to lay. He says in verse 13, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. A commitment to lay. As we mentioned, this is not just to physically die for someone. You may die for someone, and it may not be someone that you loved very much. Someone said, oftentimes, many husbands are willing to die for their wives, but they're not willing to love them during their lives. That's a true statement. Remember Peter, he was willing to die for Jesus. I mean, he pulled out the sword, and they came to get him, and he took a swing, and Jesus said, put your sword away. But then when it came time to warm himself at the fire and be amongst the people, and they said, you're with this man, weren't you? He said, I don't even know him. So what was going on there? It was that he wasn't really willing to lay down his life. Jesus said, nobody takes my life from me. I lay it down. He told Peter later on, he said, lovest thou me? Peter said, yeah, Lord, and Jesus said, feed my sheep. I've used this illustration before. When I was young, I loved to be helping in the kitchen. That is not the case anymore and I didn't learn very much back then and my son is the same way now He loves now. He knows a lot more than I do and as far as the kitchen He tells me where stuff is and how to kind of do stuff and he knows the names of spices and things like that but but when I was young I'd see mom and she'd be getting ready to make something in the kitchen and cook a big feast and so I'd come in and say, you know mom, I want to help you know, I love you and And I want to be able to help in the kitchen, and so give me a task." And I'm thinking she's going to tell me to, you know, cut up some vegetables or use some cool equipment like the mixer or something like that. And she would say, oh good, I need somebody to take out the trash for me. Take out the trash. And see, I didn't really want to do that. because cutting up tomatoes has so much glory in it. You moms didn't know that, did you? I mean, when you're little, to use a knife, that's great. And doing something like that or working with some equipment or pouring something in, that would have satisfied me, but taking out the trash is what she needed me to do. And if I'm doing something because I love her, it's not gonna be something that pleases me or brings glory to me. When you love someone, you lay down yourself. That is that when someone makes that comment that's offensive to you, instead of reacting and fighting, you lay down your life. When someone does something hurtful to you, instead of holding on to bitterness and holding on to the grudge, if you love them, you lay down your life. That is your right to be angry. I have the right to hold onto this. You do, but not if you want the greatest love. Then you will lay down your right. That is when your spouse is at odds with you, which I know never happens in this room. And the still, small voice says, why don't you say I'm sorry? And you say, because I'm not sorry. That's when you lay down your life. That is the greatest way you can love. That's why it's easier for us to say, I'll die for you, than to say, I'm sorry. Would you forgive me? I'm sorry I offended you. I'm sorry I did that. Paul said, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. That's why the opposite of love and esteeming someone is vain glory. It has a show of love. Like, I love you, that's why I'm doing this thing that's bringing me a lot of glory right now. But it's vain glory. but to esteem others, to where you lay down yourself, to where you don't get the credit for something, to where you don't get the pat on the back, to where you don't get lifted up, to where you don't get to even feel good and satisfied about what you did. That's laying your life down. That's why Jesus said, love them like I loved you. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted." How many of us are tenderhearted? No, I'm supposed to be strong, I'm supposed to be hardened. No, you're supposed to be tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you, laying down your right to a quarrel to a goal, being disposable, expendable. We were talking to a preacher not long ago. He's a preacher who's got a big congregation. He's well-known. And I admire the man, not because of his congregation or any of those things, but because of who he is. And he was helping out with something, and at the end of the phone call, it was a couple of us that were on the phone there, and he made the statement, he said, well, whatever you need, feel free to reach out. He said, I'm at, now he's kind of a Southern guy, he said, I'm at y'all's service. I'm at your service. No, you're not at our service, I mean, we're at your service, you're the, no, Jesus said, look, if you wanna be the greatest, you're gonna be the servant of all. He said, I'm at your service. But you're so busy and you have all these things and, well, I've got somewhere to be. Sorry, I don't have time for you. I don't have... No, you lay down your goal. You lay down what it is that you've got to do and that you want in life. You be at everybody else's service. Even laying down your life for God, he says, present your bodies a living sacrifice. I was talking to my wife the other day, and I said, I want to be at His disposal. I said, even as a pastor, this isn't my church. It's God's church. These aren't my children. They're God's children. It's not my life. And there's sometimes things that happen, I say, well, I don't really like that. But I say, but if that's what He wants, I mean, He's the boss. I told somebody the other day, I said, I'm not God, I just work for him. He's good at what he does. And I just want to be at his disposal. That's how he said, present your bodies a living sacrifice, lay down yourself. Because you can give your body to be burned and still not have love. You can give yourself, you can die, but it's not really for love. So there's a commandment to love, a commitment to lay, and lastly, there's a commencement of life. Do you know that when you do that, you say, well, I'm just gonna be stepped on. This caught my attention the other day when Jesus was transfigured, I believe it was, and he was talking with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, and the Bible says that they were discussing with him his death and how he should accomplish it. Accomplishment, death is usually not something you accomplish. I mean, graduation, that's an accomplishment. You know, marriage, maybe raising your children, maybe if you secure a really good job, you feel a sense of accomplishment or finishing a project, but dying? Yeah, it's something I'm really, I'm trying to accomplish. It was something he was working towards. You know, when this is done, it's gonna be successful. That's the attitude of a Christian, is to accomplish death. Do you know that's the goal, death? You say, that's a miserable goal. We're called to die, and I'm not talking about a physical death, I'm talking about you dying to yourself. Paul said, I die daily. and try to accomplish this, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, if I could reach that point where I accomplish death. You say, that sounds miserable. It does, but here's what Jesus said. He said, he that findeth his life shall lose it. And he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. You know, you actually don't really start to find true life until you die. You don't really find the abundant life until you accomplish death. Commencement, we had commencement exercises when we graduated from college and you think, wow, four years, that was like the happiest day of my life. And my wife, she looks back on college with fondness and I look back and I shut her. Never want to go back there. And the professor got up and he said, this is what we call commencement. He said, commencement is not the end of a thing. It's just the beginning. And when you die, it doesn't mean the end of your life. Jesus said, if you figure out how to lose your life in giving it and laying it down for everyone around you, for God's sake, I'm not talking about just being pulled in every direction by whoever. No, because you are working for God, you are laying down your life for the sake of others. He said that's when you find life, if you will lose it. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit. A seed can't produce fruit until it falls into the ground and dies. And some of us, all of our lives, we have remained a seed, trying to accomplish what we want to accomplish in life, trying to figure out how to get the most out of life, trying to live for whatever it is that you're living for, trying to hang on to the satisfaction, the things that please you. And Jesus says, All you're doing is losing life. You're losing time. If you will let go, and if you will lay down, and if you will endure hurt and absorb it, rather than giving it back and retaliating, and if you will be in the service of the King and be serving others, you'll find life. That's when real life happens. That's exactly what Jesus did. He laid down his life, not just physically. He subjected himself to mockery, criticism, pain, ridicule, evil speaking, and he put up with people. And then at the end of it all, he gave his physical life. Friend, Jesus did that for you and me. I wonder this morning, have you received his gift of salvation? That's what he did so that you and I could live. And some people in here, uh, you have never truly received that for yourself. You've never truly accepted the fact that Jesus died for you, that he laid down his life for you so that he could call you a friend. He paid your sin debt on the cross, shed His blood. Will you take it? The Bible says that he that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Friend, I wonder this morning, are you willing to partake of the greatest love? Would you stand with me this morning with your heads bowed, your eyes closed,