Now, being born in the 80s and growing up as a 90s kid is a unique situation because uh my generation is that like 1 ft in the world of analog and 1 ft in the world of digital. So, uh, so we grew up and the internet kind of grew up with us, uh but then as a kid, we did this crazy thing called play outside, uh that kids used to do. And uh and we would go, I remember I had a friend group, and we would, we would ride bikes and we'd play baseball, we'd watch Sandlot, and then we'd go play baseball like Sandlot, and then, and we'd get together, trade basketball cards, and then uh we would play Monopoly. Like I remember, uh, my friend Jesse and Sean and like my brother, and then they had the Tucker Brothers. Sounds like a TV show here, but it actually was Matthew and Mark, and so we'd go and we'd play Monopoly. And uh those games would get weirdly intense for a board game and competitive, and also because they would last for hours if you've played the game. But if you could win Monopoly, if you could defeat your friends in Monopoly, it felt so good, right? You felt top of the world. For that next week, you were king of the week, right? That's kind of how it felt to the next game, the next weekend. Uh, I say all this because as fun as Monopoly is, can you imagine if I took some of the Monopoly money and after church today, went down to Desert Ridge. And just tried to have myself a shopping spree down there. Like I walk into Target. I mean, I'm feeling rich, right? Like 500. OK, I'll take that, I'll take one of those, take one of those, like, and, and I tried to go buy stuff from Target with Monopoly money. Uh, they would look at me like I'm crazy. Right? When you check out at Target, and they have the options for payment, it's not debit, credit, cash, or monopoly money, right? Like that's not an option. Why? Because at the end of the day, this really means nothing. It's of no value in the real world. The reason I share this is because over the next couple of weeks, we're gonna talk about how God can work in our relationships. And today's message is what real love looks like. And my argument to you today is that we live in a culture and a society that puts forth a definition of love that really, at the end of the day, works like monopoly money. Like it doesn't add real value in your real life and into your real relationships. But thankfully, the Bible doesn't let us settle for counterfeit relationships, but rather shows us what genuine Christ-like love looks like. And so that's what we're gonna talk about today. And this really stems from this idea here, found in First John 2:6. In which the writer who's also known as the apostle of love, by the way, he writes these words in 1 John chapter 2 verse 6. He says, whoever says he abides in Christ ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. That if you claim to believe in Jesus, That you should walk as Jesus walked. Now, what's interesting is that other translations of the same verse, put a slightly different twist on it, but it's because it's the meaning of the same word. And so it says, other translations will say, whoever abides in Jesus ought to live as Jesus lived. And the reason that's fascinating is cause in most places in the New Testament, where you see the word walk, you should, you can substitute it with the word live, because they're meaning the same thing. That in other words, if you believe in Jesus, you should live as Jesus lived. It should be real in your relationships. It should be real in how you speak and how you treat the other people in your life. And so if you're taking notes, uh, today, I want you to write this down, that love is not a feeling you follow, it's a pattern you practice. Love is not a feeling that you follow, it's a pattern that you practice because in our culture, where we have movies and storytelling, uh, we love to paint this picture, uh, in romantic comedies, and these dramas and movies where you just get these butterflies, right? And, and it's all in how you feel and just do whatever feels good, right? And that when we look at life through the lens of reality. Then you realize it doesn't always work like that. Like, don't get me wrong, like everyone wants to be in love, wants that loving feeling, right? But there's a good chance tomorrow you're gonna get stuck in traffic on the 101. Or show up late for a meeting or forget the file back home, or when you're in the office, and you're gonna get a call from the school that one of your kids is sick and then you gotta go pick them up, and then when you get home, then you're juggling the schedules with one kid's got a sport over here, one girl's got dance over here, someone's got this thing, or what are we doing for dinner here, and they're gonna come back and like, oh don't forget, we got the science fair tomorrow, um, that we gotta start this project on, and then you got bills coming in, and you got all these things, and life just keeps life in, right? Well, the way that culture defines love is that it's all about me. And you got to just chase the feeling. And that if you have the latest car or the house or the device or the promotion, or if, if you get this injection or this surgery or this thing, if you look a certain way, then you will feel loved. Then you will have value. But in our hearts, I think we know that it's not true. And that we find ourselves still searching for something. That if you keep searching long enough, you come to realize that what you truly need comes directly from God. Now, we're gonna be taking a look over the next couple of weeks through chapters 5 and 6 of the book of Ephesians. And because it gets really practical in our relationships, and in our values and how we live as Jesus lived. But the reason we're gonna do that is because the city of Ephesus very much reminds me of our culture today. So to give you a little bit of background on the uh the church in Ephesus, and so we're looking about 2000 years ago. So right after the time of Jesus. Here you have this trade city in modern day Turkey, you can still visit it today. In fact, they got an amphitheater that holds, holds about 20,000 people that you can still visit today. That Paul spoke at in Acts chapter 19. And so, Paul goes and in Acts 18, then in 19, shares his faith with a few people, they get saved. Uh, he's, he decides to live there for 3 years. And then at one point, starts challenging people because inside the city of, of Ephesus is also the temple of Artemis, who it's, it's gorgeous. It's seen as one of the seven wonders of the world. So one of the biggest structures at that time in the world was this temple to worship Artemis or the Roman god of Diana, which is all centered around pleasure. And so, uh, sexual activity was centered as an act of worship, and that you pursue the things in order to just seek desire and pleasure, and that everything comes in is that it's idol worship, it's spiritual confusion. They didn't hate Christianity, they just mixed it in with everything else. And so what happens here is that you have a church that begins, and people claiming they believe in Jesus, but then still living like the rest of the Ephesians in that city. Well, Paul stands up in front of this large crowd in Acts 19, and he starts telling them about Jesus that you need to get rid of the idols, to the point that the people who were working outside the temple, they actually had vendors that would sell little idols. So think about like the vendors in New York City, right? Maybe you can buy a little, you know, Statue of Liberty, like foam hand or statue or t-shirt or something like that, right? Well, these people would actually build, sell these statues. And then, and Paul comes in and says, hey, they aren't God. And they actually says in Acts 19, and they're on verse 21, and then through verse 41, these guys, these craftsmen got mad. He says, they said, Paul is saying that gods made by hands are not actually gods. And they were losing money. And so they rally up all the workers in that area, and, and they didn't like being told that they were sinners. And so in a, in a crowd of, of like 19,000 people, Paul stands up in front of, I ain't scared, let's go. And, and so the people who are friends with Paul, like, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's value your life. Let's take you away from here, and then we'll come back later. And so he leaves, the church stays. Now, fast forward about 10 years later, now we're about 60 AD, maybe 60 to 62 AD. And Paul is in prison for sharing his faith and for the gospel, and he's awaiting a trial. And he writes back to the church in Ephesus, whose pastor, they had some crazy pastors, by the way, if you want to talk about a lineup. So they had Paul, they have Timothy, later, John's a pastor there. And so this city is pretty wild. And he writes back to Timothy to and tell people, hey, listen, your identity is in Christ. And that you live from your identity, not for it. We live in a culture that reverses that, that if you look a certain way, behave a certain way, do certain things, then you will have approval and identity. There's no, no, no, your identity is in Jesus. And so in his letter to the church that was meant to be passed around to the surrounding areas, to the church in Ephesus, Ephesians 1 through 3 talks about your identity in Christ. And then chapters 4 through 6 talks about the application. So there's the doctrine of who is God and who are we, and then there's the duty, or in other words, like how do we live in light of that? And so he said, let me just quote a couple of verses to you to understand our context that we're gonna pick it up in chapter 5. It says Ephesians 1:1, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. That's important to recognize because saint is identity, sin is an activity. We tend to reverse it. We identify ourselves with our worst moments with our sin. And then so we say, we say sin is an identity. And then we say, uh, faith becomes an activity. Well, I'm a Christian because I go to church, I do these things, and we start listing off stuff. When in reality he says no, your identity is being a child of God. Your identity is being saved by grace through faith. And that when you come to realize that God saved you on purpose for a purpose, then you can in turn live out what that means. That's why he says things in Ephesians 2:8 to 10. He says, for by grace, you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works that no 1 may boast. He says, but we are his workmanship, created in Christ for good works, which God prepared before him that we should walk in them. In other words, God has saved you by grace, or through grace, by faith, so that you can go make a difference in this world and beyond. And so you have your identity, and then you have your application. You have your identity with Christ, and then you live as Christ lived. See, in John 14:6, he says, I am the way, the truth and the life. Now, we always equate that with eternity and salvation, cause he says no one comes to the Father except through me. But it also is not just a means to salvation, it's also a model through which we can live. So he says, I'm gonna save you for eternity, but I'm also gonna give you the example to follow right now. And that's why he gives us the picture of real love in this moment. And so in a, when he, when he transitions from theology and who God is, into the practical application of this, he writes this in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1. He says, therefore, um, I, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. It's another one of those instances where you can replace the word walk with live. I urge you as a prisoner in Rome, for God to live in a way worthy of the calling to which you've been called. That word calling is really two different words. There's crisis and Kaleo, and there's one meaning that is a divine invitation. Think about receiving an invitation for a wedding, right? Sometimes they're fancier than others, right? It's like, we cordially invite you to the ceremony and then it puts everyone's full names, right? If it was left up to the guys, it'd be like a text message the day before, you know, but they put out really fancy looking invitations cause it's an important occasion, right? And so one of those words calling is to receive a divine invitation. The other word for calling there, Cleo, is to be sent out, or to be to bear the name of God. So when you combine those two, what you're saying is, uh, therefore, as a prisoner of the Lord, I urge you to live in a manner worthy of receiving the divine invitation to bear the name of God. He's saying your life value is, is, is eternal, it's priceless. And if Christ came all this way to save you Then doesn't it make sense that we should live. And become the man or the woman that God has called us to be. So we're gonna pick it up here and get really practical and talk about how God changes our relationships from the inside out. And so through the 1st 7 verses of Ephesians chapter 5, we're gonna see 3 keys to loving like Jesus, 3 keys to loving people the way that Jesus has loved us. So if you have your Bibles, you can open up to Ephesians 5. Let me start out here in the first two verses in which we see this, that the first key to loving like Jesus is to walk towards sacrifice. Walk towards sacrifice. He says here, therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. There's so many cool things here. Let me just highlight a few. First, The very fact that he uses the imagery of walking is great because walking is the pace of relationships, right? Walking is the pace of relationships. Uh, I love that because walking works if you're old or young, right? We can go for a walk together, right? We can go for a stroll. It, it's quality time, it's quantity time. It's not trying to outdo the other person. Uh, I made the mistake last summer, uh, when I was trying to work out with my oldest son, who's a varsity athlete, said, hey, let's go for a run together. And like, yeah, I can keep up, you know, I played college sports, like way long ago. And so we went for a run and like 30 seconds in, he's like way ahead of me. I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm so out of shape. And sometimes I think we approach Christianity that same way, like we think it's the sprint that's forever going and, and in reality, God wants the daily stroll with you, the pace of relationship, the pace of grace, walking side by side with you, not just on Sunday mornings, but Monday through Saturday and Sunday, and, and every, every conversation, every decision. Every everywhere you go, it's this idea of walking with Christ, and Christ walking with you. And that's why he says being an imitator of God, as beloved children. That word imitator is actually the Greek word for that is where we get our word mimic, right? Children mimic their parents. They start to act or say what their parents say in the same way, we should hopefully start to imitate or mimic what Christ did. Well, what did he do? It says, walk and love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Now, if you were with us in the spring when we study the book of Exodus, you should, your ears should perk up a little bit when you hear the word fragrant offering and sacrifice. Because we talked about in the time of Moses when they had the tabernacle, that inside of that holy place, there was an altar for incense, an altar in which the priest would go in before going to the holy of holies to offer a sacrifice on the day of atonement, Yom Kippur on behalf of the people would offer incense in that altar and then offer a sacrifice asking for forgiveness. Of sins. And so here was the high priest who would go in. We talked about how in the Old Testament, in the story of Exodus, that all those things were pointing to Jesus. And so now we read in the New Testament, another example that walk in love. OK, well, how did Jesus love us? He gave his life for us. Jesus died for you so that you would live for him. So this idea of walking towards sacrifice is that it gives us a definition of love. In Ephesus at the time, surrounding the temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the world. Was all around this teaching of pursue pleasure, pursue sinful desires as much as possible, that love is about self-gratification, physical desire, and taking what you can as much as you can, because that is love. What Paul writes here says, no, that's not love, that's called lust. True genuine love from Christ is not about what you can get, but what you can give. He says, love one another. In other words, love like Jesus loved, meaning Jesus gave his life for us. That love is all about sacrifice. And I, I think it's fascinating too, because if you go to the end of the Bible and Revelation chapter 2, there are some churches that receive letters. And to the church in Ephesus, it says, hey, you've done a lot of things. But the thing you've forgotten is that you have abandoned your first love. Here in this letter, we see that we are called to love God, and then we are called to love others the way that God loved us, which means real love is not about what you can get, it's about what you can give. It's not about self- gratification. It's about really the selflessness and a sacrifice that you can give to better others. There's a, a pastor, author, his name's David Nasser. I'm not sure if he's still there. He was a spiritual director actually at Liberty University. Uh, I met him at a youth conference years ago, and he actually wrote a book called The Call to Die, in which he shares his faith and tells his story that's now sold, I think over 200,000 copies. But what's fascinating is that he tells his story that he grew up in the middle of a revolutionary war in the middle of Iran in the 70s. And as a nine year old child one day went to school and actually had a gun placed to his head because it was one Muslim faction taking over another Muslim faction. And so seeing that, his, his dad said, we, I gotta get, I gotta get people out of here. And so they did everything they could to finally get out of that country, and they came to the states and they ended up in, in Basically, middle of nowhere, Texas, in Little Colleen, Texas. Now, imagine going from oppression in a war-torn country to now in Texas in the 70s and 80s, from being from. Iran. So they went from persecution to now, like racist comments and things coming in all the time. And so he went to school expecting freedom and the American dream, and then was being attacked and mocked and all these things. And so as an immigrant who left everything behind, his father opened up a restaurant and was trying to make ends meet. They had left the Muslim faith, but they didn't find anything else. Now they're just trying to survive. And so he's working at this restaurant. He's, he had nothing. He's going through his father was there, and this group of people come in. And because he was short-handed, because he was short staffed, the food was late, the service was slow. And this group of people that he knew was from a Christian church down the street stood up altogether. Now from his own experience, right, what's going to happen? Am I going to get beat up? Is my place going to get trashed? What's going to happen? And what those Christians did is they rolled up their sleeves. They didn't complain. They didn't fight, they didn't mock. But for the next 2.5 hours, they started busting the tables, they started working, they started cleaning dishes, and they started taking orders, and so they actually worked for the next 2.5 hours to help this man and his business who they did not know. And then they went to choir practice that night and said, hey, there's a man in our community that needs help, and they set up a team that for the next 3 weeks, they brought people from the church every day to work at that person's restaurant all day to help him survive. Now, eventually they would invite. The Nasser family to church. And they would hear the gospel, and they give their lives to Jesus. And David Nasser, now it's a world renowned evangelist, he said, you know, I wasn't saved. My story is actually not a political story of an Iranian immigrant that came over to the States that overcame racism to become something. He says, my story. Is the fact that a few ordinary everyday Christians saw a need and met it and showed me what biblical Christ-like love and hospitality really looks like. So that's my story. You see, true love is love that is sacrificial, not love that gives, but love that serves. Love that's willing to lay their preferences down for the sake of benefiting others. That's the first key. The 2nd key that Paul uses here is that if you want to love like Christ, you have to walk away from distorted desires. And the key there is distorted desires, because God's gonna change your heart. And he's gonna use really strong language here. But the reason he uses such strong language is because it matters. Again, they're in a city that is defined by paganism, pursuit of pleasure, do whatever you see fit. And you had a church that was trying to claim Jesus, but then living this way. And so he writes these words in verses 3 to 5. He says, but sexual immorality and all impurity or covenantness must not even be named among you, as is proper among the saints. Let there be no filthiness or foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, or that is an idolater has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Oh, It's kind of harsh. I don't like that verse, right? You don't typically see that on Instagram these days. Although you could see someone and be like, hey, I read Ephesians 55 and thought of you today. Pray for you, OK. Um. Why would he use such strong language for that? Well, I don't think it's about perfection, I think it's about direction. Right. It, it's all about context and purpose. That's why it's distorted desires. Right. A a fire in a fireplace in a home. What is that? Oh, it's cozy. It's warm. Right, it's Hallmark. Like we don't have a fireplace in our house, but at Christmas, my daughter will put on the fireplace on Netflix, just to get the resemblance of it, right? The little crackling in the fire. It's, it's, I love it, right? A fire in the fireplace brings warmth, light, love fills the room. Fire outside the fireplace, what burns the house down? Paul said, I don't want you to, I don't want your house to burn down. That word sexual morality also gets translated fornication, or it comes from the Greek word pornea, where it literally gets the root word for porn. And that we live in a culture that says pursue pleasure at all costs, whatever you want. And he's saying here, no, it's designed for the context for which I've created it. So not just acting, but also it says even how you speak, how you speak matters. And then it talks about coveting and, and idolatry, it talks about lust. You know, in sports, you hear there's no I in team. Well, let me tell you, there's an I in sin every time. Right? It's right there in the middle like you are pursuing a desire and a craving for self. And who are you placing in the God position when you make selfish choices like that? Self. And God's saying, that's not how I designed you to be. I've heard it said that when you're born, you look a lot like your parents. But when you die, you look a lot like your decisions. And what you decide and what you go after matters. Paul later would say, look, I'm the worst of sinners, so he's not coming at it from a place of judgment here, but what he's saying, this is, this is killing you. This is counterfeit. This is not going to help you in real life. Whether it's sex, whether it's drug, whether it's pornography, whether it's, it's, it's drink, whatever it is that you're trying to fill in your life. If it's not coming from the spirit, if it's not coming from God, it's not gonna fill your soul. It's what Satan's gonna do to try to pull it away. Let the pornography is normalized, sexual boundaries are blurred, greed is rebranded as ambition, impurity just becomes justified, more corruption. And this idea here is that it doesn't belong to God. That these things break down a healthy relationship. That if you pursue sex outside of the way that God designed it, it's gonna break down what God intended for you, that you're inviting sin and Satan into your relationship, so that then it's gonna create a space that's only gonna lead towards destruction. Now, there is grace available for all. There is, in fact, the last verse of chapter 4 says, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. So there is grace evolved, but understand that that path that you're on, when you're justifying sin. Leads to destruction. If you find yourself saying, it's not a big deal. It's probably a big deal. If you find yourself saying, You know, it doesn't matter. Other people are doing it. If you find yourself saying, well, God just wants me to be happy. He does want you to be happy. He does. But true joy is found in Christ. True joy is is found in a loving relationship that's marked by sacrificial giving and service to one another, and unhiddenness and openness and honesty and trust. That when you have these things that you come before him because scripture is going to confront what society celebrates. And he and God wants what's best for you, that you can't walk with Jesus and be in step with sin at the exact same time. Now you can go through both. But you're gonna get exhausted going back and forth. Here's what I mean. See, loving like Jesus, #1 is walking towards sacrifice. Number 2 is walking away from distorted desires. And number 3, it's walking in truth, in honesty, in openness, in vulnerability, because he says these words here in verse 6 and 7. It says let no one deceive you with empty words. For because these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not become partners with them. What God's saying here is that, why are we celebrating the sins that Jesus came to die for? In chapter 4, it talks about putting off the things of the world and putting on the new life in Christ. You know, in the Easter story, we can talk about it because it just happened, right? Last week, we celebrate. Then in John chapter 20 verse 7, there's a really interesting note. It says when they went into the tomb, there was no, they didn't find Jesus, but there they found his grave clothes folded. Pause for a second. Way to go, Mary, right? I mean, we think about that as a parent. She got Jesus so well trained as a child, that Jesus rose from the dead and the first thing he did was fold his clothes and make his bed. But why did Jesus fold his clothes? And there's a few things. Uh, one easy one, dead guys don't fold clothes. Right? And he folded. Why? Because it was done. The grave that was done. He left the grave clothes behind, that he's coming back, that he was gone, that it's not a mess that we have a God of order, that we have a God of structure, a God of placing things where they need to be. So when Jesus rose from the grave, he took the grave clothes off. How many of us as believers, we claim freedom in Jesus, and yet we're still living trapped in the same sins that have led us down to destruction in the first place? I want you to picture yourself walking down a road. And on one side, you got following Jesus. You guys are looking pretty spiritual. OK, that's good. So this spiritual side of the room. OK, on this side, clearly the sinners on this side, OK? This is the way of the world. Yes, this is for sure, confirmed. OK. Now, You can claim in Jesus, but we're still human, right? Like even the same writer of Ephesians, right, in Romans 8, he's like, what I don't wanna do, I end up doing what I what I do wanna do, sometimes I don't do. And so like there's this battle, right? But you can't be in step with Jesus, and in step with sin at the exact same moment. So what happens is we come to church on Sunday, and we're like, I wanna be more like Jesus. Oh, I wanna be more like Jesus. Then Monday comes. I wanna be more like myself. No one tell me what to do. I'm gonna do whatever I want. And then we come back and we're like, bless God in the sanctuary. I'm gonna live for whatever desires I want. And like her, like, you know, like, and we find ourselves going back and forth and back and forth, and we go back and forth. You know where you get at the end of the week? Exhausted. Some of you come to church exhausted. Because you're trying to live multiple lives. And you're wearing multiple masks or multiple hats. And God's saying in here, just stop. Those are empty words. Come clean, repent, be honest, bring it into light, repent, turn. Allow me to change your life from the inside out, and if you start to walk with me a little bit more, you're gonna start to love people the way that I have loved you. And what you're gonna find is the more you walk on this path, the more you're gonna find peace. It's, it says in there in verse 6, it talks about, let no one deceive you with empty words. Almost think of it like food. Uh, a lot of my stuff is connected to food, but you know me by now. So, um, but if you ever had junk food, it's got, if you heard the phrase empty calories, right? And, and you don't feel good after, right? What I'm learning too as you get older, the amount of time between eating bad food and feeling bad gets shorter and shorter and shorter. Right? Like if you are young, you can eat junk food and then go out and run and feel great. Right? Last night, I went to the movies and I found myself at home feeling awful. I was like I had too much sodium tonight, right? If you've ever uttered any phrase about having too much sodium in your life, you know what you're talking about and you get, I know what I'm talking about and you're getting old, right? Cause you eat junk food and you don't feel good. Why? Because it doesn't actually fuel your body. You eat, you eat, you eat, and you still are craving something. That's what happens here, that in a world defined by lust, you eat, you eat, you eat, you, you take in, you take in, you think you long, you drink, it's drugs, it's pornography, it's the relationships, it's, it's sexual activity, all these things, but it doesn't actually satisfy your soul. So those are empty words. That's the very reason God came down to die on the cross. So why are you trying to live for this very thing that Jesus died for? But the good news is. Is that Paul's not coming in saying this is fear-based religion. He's not coming in to attack, he's not coming in to point fingers. What he's coming in and saying is, look, I want you to have life. That you are a child of God. If you're saved by grace, through faith. That as his son or daughter, he wants what's best for you, and what's best for you is to rec to receive the love of Christ into your life and that you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and that in turn, you love others the way that Jesus loved us, and then as you do that, what you're gonna have is what's called the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, patience, peace, kindness. It's time to take the grave clothes off. Be honest and repent and turn from those things, and then instead turn to who God is. This year, I, uh, I, I'm started wearing a watch. And uh it measures everything, you know, like steps and tracking your sleep and all the stuff. And can I be honest, I, it's kind of annoying. I say that because like, I think I'm better than I am. Like, oh man, I moved a lot today. And then I checked my steps. Nope. You know what I mean? Like, I, I, I'll be there watching a show or a movie or something, and then my watch will go, ding, you should stand up now. Like, and I'm offended by a watch. But I'm wearing the watch, so like, and uh it's just telling me the data, right? So I tried to put it on my golden retriever to get my steps, you know, like put on my dog Sophie, and say, go run. And so I got my steps in, but I also got a notification I should get tested for fleas, but I'm just kidding, I didn't actually do that. But here's the thing, is that I want you to think about this, OK? What would happen if you put a spiritual Fitbit on your heart? That at the end of your day, you go back and you examine and you check the steps of, OK, how was I in that conversation? How was I with my spouse, with my kids? Was I honest? Was I loving? Was I kind? How did I treat my employees? How did I treat the people in the community? Like, Because the data's there. We just got to look at it, right? Because the reality is, if you wanna have real love, real love is not a feeling you follow, it's a pattern you practice. Jesus says, look, I'm giving you the pattern. Love others the way that I've loved you. Walking towards sacrifice, walking away from those distorted worldly desires, and then walking ultimately in truth, being able to call sin sin and service, service and love, love, because you're treating people the way that Jesus would. So I want to end this morning and, and really give you just three practical applications for you. As you head into the week, I want you to do 3 things this week, every day. Number 1, I want you to rate your steps. In other words, can you examine your heart? Can you take a look at your spiritual Fitbit? Ask yourself, Was I loving today? Were my words honest and kind? How did I spend my time? Did I distract myself with something of the world lesser than because of a desire I had. Or did I grow in my relationship with God that then infiltrated how he treated others? After you rate your steps as you do your spiritual Fitbit, can you redefine your relationship through the lens of Jesus? Are you defining your relationships based on what you can get from people or what you can give to people? Are you willing to sacrifice and serve and be honest and open? For the benefit of others, whether they do it in return or not. Because real love, not, not the counterfeit, not the play money, not the thing that the world thinks you need, but real genuine life transforming love comes when you are willing to lay your life down for the sake of others, for his glory. And the last thing then is, are you willing to remove your compromise? Is there an area in your life? That you find yourself going, it's not a big deal. Other people do it. It's fine. If you're thinking that it probably is a big deal. And I wanna encourage you to take off the grave clothes, the things that are pulling you away from your relationship with God, and put on the things of a new life. To walk in love, to walk in light, to walk in a way that honors God and treats people well. Cause if you do that, that's what changes things. That's what it means to love people the way that Jesus loved us. Because love is not a feeling you follow, it's the pattern you practice, and we have the pattern in Jesus. Let's follow his example today. Will you pray with me? Dear Heavenly Father. I thank you for the people in this room. God, may we mimic you. May we become imitators of you. May we walk in love, when we live and love and love people the way that you did. Not pursuing the things like lust and and desires and the old habits and old patterns of life that ultimately lead to destruction, but instead, we seek you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and in turn, lay our lives down for the sacrifice and betterment of others, because you are the example. You are the one who shows us what real genuine life changing love looks like. May we become a little more like you today and learn to obey and follow your pattern and put that into practice. It's not about perfection, God, but it's about the direction of our life. Help us to take a step in that direction with you today. We love you, God. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen.