Love (ft. Bethany Allen) | Advent 2025 E4

Hello and welcome to the John Markhamer Teachings Podcast. My name is Yinka Dawson and I'm your host. Each week we feature teachings by John Mark or other voices in the formation space. It's a wonderful to have you with us. Today we come to the final week in Advent with the theme of love. The teachings from our friend Bethany Allen, Associate Pastor of Bridgetown Church. She explores both importance and the challenge of receiving God's love for us. Here's Bethany. But you, Bethlehem Ephratha, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come from me, one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears' son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they will live securely for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth, and he will be our peace when the Assyrians invade our land and march through our fortresses. This is the word of the Lord. Peace be upon you. Let love find you. These are the words that have echoed in both my heart and my mind since last week, when I finally took a quiet moment to reflect on the last 12 months. It's definitely not normal that I sit so early in the Christmas season to take stock of what has been but this year has felt different. There's been a sort of restlessness in me, a growing desire to pack it all up, and close the last chapter of the year with some kind of neat summary so that I can magically start again when the clock strikes midnight in just a few weeks. Let love find you. As I sat coffee in my hands in the same spot, I sat every morning the slideshow of the year began to unfold in my imagination. As I tried to survey what had been, I heard it once again, but now against the backdrop of the images from the year both good and hard. Let love find you. These words are so simple and yet they have been so disruptive. God knows genuinely that these words were and are in so many ways a simple reflection of how this year has unfolded. Love coming to me in unexpected ways, meeting me in my lowest places, finding me even when I wasn't sure where I was actually at in the story. And yet I am fully aware that they are at the same time also an invitation to continue to let love find me still. Even in the places I unknowingly resist or try to hide. This year more than any other I have wrestled with the love of God. I have long to know it more fully and more deeply. And in that I have struggled to understand how it can be both painful and redemptive. How it can break you open and heal you at the same time. Love, as I've known it this year, has been unpredictable and disorienting. And yet in its potency it has been undeniable. Love, it turns out, isn't something I understand as clearly or as fully as I thought. But despite what I don't know, I have come face to face with the truth that I now can't shake. That it is one thing to know that you are loved. But it's another thing entirely to live as though that's true. Love, this often intangible and undefinable reality. It takes center stage in the season that we call Advent. The season we find ourselves in right now. Advent, as you'll hopefully remember, is not merely a time of remembrance. It's also a time of re-entry. It's a time when we as the church return and re-enter the story of God's coming. The moment when God entered into our chaos and redefined our understanding of hope, peace, joy, and love. As priest and writer Tish Harrison Warren so beautifully puts it, Advent is a season that calls us back to who we are by retelling the story of which we are apart. Now, if you've been following along with us, if you've been here a week after week, you know that we've entered this season through the story of the prophets, those who heard the voice of God and the darkest of times who lived with a deep longing for the promises of God and who learned to hear God's whispers, even while they waited for what they couldn't yet fully see or even understand. And today, as we approach the end of this season, we will once again be met with an invitation from another prophet, another voice, who will show us the story we are part of is not just about the rescue we need or the ruler, we will follow, but about a relationship, a relationship that redefined love as the world would know it. Now, before we look at our text again, because I know you're all chomping at the bit, I can feel it. I do want to take a minute to simply lean into this prophetic story. Before we look at it line by line, I want to give us a bit of context for where we're jumping in. Our book was written by a man named Micah, our author, and he is another prophet who was a contemporary of Isaiah. Who prophesied around the time of the Assyrian crisis, which might mean very little to you, but I just want you to know it wasn't the Babylonian crisis, which is something we've preached on before. Are you tracking? Tim Matthew be so proud of me. Now, this moment that Micah was speaking into was a time in Israel's story where they were once again faced with oppression from another nation. And Micah was a man and a leader who called the people and the leaders to put their trust in God and not in what they could do themselves. Like a true prophet, Micah didn't just speak to the present judgment though he did, but he also spoke about the hope of a ruler who would come to save and not just Israel, but all people. Yes, God's judgment would come with pain, but God would not let that be the end of the story. And that's where our text picks up today. Chapter five, verse two, if you have your Bibles, look down at it. And let's do a little Bible study, yeah? Okay, Gerald's. All right, now these verses that we landed right here, they come at a bit of a crescendo moment. Yahweh has just been speaking to the people about the redemption he will one day bring. And then he says in verse two, "But you, Bethlehem, Ephritha, though you were small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me, one who will be a ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times." Now, this interjection, if you're reading the whole book all at once and you're not a Bible nerd or a scholar, can feel a bit odd. It can feel like there's a bit of momentum, bravado, even. And then there's a sharp turn to the specifics. But of course, that is intentional and important. Bethlehem, Ephritha, while it may seem just like a hard word for us to pronounce or a town we mentioned at Christmas, it's actually a significant clue and clarifier to those meant to hear this prophecy. Bethlehem and specifically Bethlehem, Ephritha, can you say Ephritha? Yes, some of you were scared, but didn't it feel good? Yes, I practiced so many times. Now, Bethlehem, Ephritha specifically was the place where King David was born, meaning the people when they heard this town mentioned would have in their imaginations been drawn back to King David, and to the promise that from him would come a new king. The mention of this town was a link to the past and a picture to the future. It's first here in this first verse that Micah, in a way that no other prophet had, not only foretells where the Messiah or the King would be born, but also subtly hints at the kind of King he would be. Humble, hidden, and emerging from the place you'd least expect. Bethlehem was far from a place of prestige. It was obscure, even insignificant among the territories. And yet from this unremarkable town would come Lee Messiah, the one who would change everything. And highlighting this, Yahweh is making a profound and yet subtle statement. He's saying this new King, this new David, he would not be like those who came before him. His arrival, it would defy expectations and mark the beginning of something radically different. The way he would come, and where he would come from specifically, would set the tone for who he would be to his people. A King, not of power or grandeur, but of humility and compassion and presence. As we read this first verse, we see the stage being set for the Messiah, whose greatness would not be measured by worldly standards, but instead by his ability to meet us in our lowest places. In that humble birthplace, Bethlehem, Ephraff, the true nature of God's kingdom would be revealed. Now, after Micah establishes this surprising and humble birthplace of the Messiah, and Bethlehem, he then shifts to an even more unsettling reality. Yay! The first part of this prophecy, it speaks to the hope of a coming ruler, a King who would emerge from the unexpected, from the least likely of places, but immediately after this declaration of hope to the people, there's a bit of a pivot. Verse 3 speaks directly to Israel's present situation. They are abandoned, suffering and waiting. So let's look at it. Verse 3, "Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time, when she who is in labor bears his son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites." Weird, but stay with me. Here, Micah begins to make a connection between the hope of the coming King and the painful reality that Israel was experiencing. The people would know a time of abandonment, not as a final rejection, but as a part of God's larger plan for restoration. The word "abandon" is not one of total forsakeness. I want you to think of it more as a time of separation for purification and preparation. Israel's sin and rebellion had to be addressed because God is just, but that was never God's final word. His purpose, even in judgment, was always restoration. It was always restored relationship. And we see that highlighted in the next line, until the time when she who is in labor bears his son. Now it's here that we find the convergence of both the pain of Israel's current situation and the hope of new life that would emerge from it. The imagery of labor it carries with it, the promise of birth, new beginnings, and redemption. Just as a mother must endure the pains of labor before giving birth. So Israel must endure a period of discipline before the birth of a long-awaited King. And I know, I'm nerding out quite a bit, but I'm sure you've suspected that there's more to this promise or this line that we're reading that meets the eye and you'd be right because beyond that truth, beyond this imagery that's being presented to the people of Israel and to us, lives another promise. The son mentioned the one born of this woman's labor, he would be the Messiah and he would be both fully human and fully divine. Born of and to a woman, I want you to think silent night. Yeah? This child, he would be a signal. He would be assigned to the people that the King they longed for was now with them. This verse, it points not just to the truth that there would be a rescue for Israel, but that this rescue would again be nothing like they had known before. God, he would so often been perceived as distant or abstract, was now being promised as one who would come to live among them, one who would know their human struggles and bring a new kind of life to them. This King, the son, he would gather his people and he would be to them not only a leader, but a brother. Now, Micah moves from describing this coming Messiah as a son to describing him as a shepherd, which, by the way, is a striking image, especially for a king. We read that he will stand and shepherd his flock and the strength of the Lord and the majesty of the name of the Lord, his God, and they, his people, will live securely. For then, his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. Now, a shepherd, it isn't typical language or imagery we used today for talking about great leaders. It's just not, but it is common biblical language for a king or a ruler who both protects his people and who rules with compassion or rules with love. Meaning, this King, he would not simply rule with power and decree, he would know his people. He would have just offered them guidance from afar, he would enter into their story and into their struggles. To shepherd means to know the sheep and this is the most ancient definition of it. To shepherd is to see your sheep, to listen to their cries, to protect them and to be willing to lay down your life for them. The imagery of the shepherd is intended to paint a new picture of what it meant for God to come to Israel's rescue. Again, God wouldn't just send help from a distance, he would now insist on relationship. This coming King, he wouldn't just administer relief, he would be with his people. Present, in their pain, offering both protection and care. The coming Messiah would not define or be defined by power or wealth, but by his ability to draw his people into relationship with them. That's the tagline. He would offer them peace and security that only a good shepherd could. And this relationship is perfectly captured, I think, and summed up in the final statement of our text, which is verse 5a, and it says, "And he will be our peace." Micah ends with what feels like a holy exhale. A final summary of all that he has declared about becoming Messiah. And this declaration carries layers of meaning. Yes, it speaks to practical peace, the kind that ends conflicts and heals divisions, and even has the power to restore broken relationships and make wrong things that have been done to us right. But it's also more than that. And the biblical sense, peace, or shalom goes beyond the absence of conflict. It refers to the ideal state of flourishing where everything is in right relationship. Our relationship with God, our relationship with one another, and the world around us. It's wholeness or completeness and a restoration of what was broken. It's marriages being restored, it's bodies being healed, it's dead things coming back to life. It's the world as it once was, and the world as it should be, and the world as it one day be. This peace, this coming Messiah would bring, it would not just be a distant hope, but again, a personal, transforming reality. It would be peace with God, peace within ourselves, and peace with each other, and the peace he would offer, it would transcend our circumstances and invade every part of our lives, reflecting the fullness of God's intention for humanity. In other words, the peace this king would bring would be deeply personal. It would be about you, it would be about Israel, and it would be about me. And it would meet us in our lowest most broken places and make us whole. Peace, or maybe better said redemption, this was God's plan. Over the last few weeks, I'm totally aware that we've been walking through many prophecies about the new coming king, and Messiah, the one who would one day come. And in each one, you probably noticed a reoccurring theme or thread, maybe it's felt redundant to you, I don't know. But each prophecy speaks of the Messiah as a rescuer, a deliverer for the people who will bring ultimate and lasting deliverance. Describe him as a ruler, someone with the power to write the wrongs of the world, someone who will govern with perfect justice and righteousness. But what we can't miss is we come to the end of this season, what we can't miss, especially in light of those two truths, is that the Messiah prophesied about would also create a new way of relationship, a new way to experience and know God and His love for us, a new way to know love fully, completely, like we were always meant to. And this, I think, is what Micah's prophecy emphasizes. The prophetic voices, they weren't just delivering hopeful messages for the sake of making people feel good or easing them and their suffering, they were actually calling for transformation, calling people to come closer, to enter into the story and the promises that were being prophesied now, to consider where the truths and the realities about who the Messiah was, where that might intersect with their own needs, where it might intersect with their own desperation, where it might intersect with their own desire to know God and to be loved by Him. The invitation of each of these prophetic voices has been to find yourself in the story, and not just as an observer, but as a participant. And our invitation and our invitation today is to do the same. Let love find you. I gotta be honest, that is easier said than done, and I'm a pretty confident woman, you know what I'm saying? Turns out for me, it has looked a lot less like a meditative ambient and soft embrace and more like wrestling and wet hippopotamus. Now, to be fair, I want to be honest, and you guys know me, that could just be me and my own personality, but nevertheless I have found that letting love finds you, letting God in His perfect love collide right where you are in the story with your pain and the beauty of your life and your desires, it is and it can be one of the most difficult things we can do. Now, I probably could not have articulated that a few weeks ago, but after entering into advent by force because of a professional Christian, I have found language for what has been following me these last few months. This year, you probably heard me say it from this pulpit, at least three or four times, but it has been one of the hardest in the last ten. I've lost relationships, I've processed years of suppressed pain and the realities of abuse, I've had my safety threatened and I have been more than confused about where I am in God's story and where I am in the greater story of the world. And at the same time, I have traveled to beautiful places, I have gone deeper in some of the most important relationships in my life, I have seen people be healed and seen God in the midst of the great suffering of many of you in this room. One of the greatest privileges and joys of my life. My hard year, I'm realizing, is not just been hard because of the suffering and pain I've experienced, it's been hard because of my own incapacity and sometimes resistance to letting love find me. To letting love meet me in every moment whether good or hard. It's one thing to know your love, but it's another thing entirely to live as though that's true. You see, when I bumped up against this year and when I'm bumping up against in this Advent season, in this beautiful Christmas story, it's not God's inability to love me but my inability to welcome and receive the gift of love that's on offer. Everything in this story, everything in these prophetic messages we've been hearing, it shows us who God is and what He's after and what He would do to be near to us. How He would break down every barrier and shout even louder just so we would know He loved us, just so we would know that He was and He always will fight for us, that He is steadfast and unwavering in His affection for us. But what we do with that and how we live honestly with that reality, how we receive that, that is what will change our actual lives. That is what will change how we experience the gift of this Messiah. That is how Christmas moves beyond a surface level annual celebration into a threshold for an encounter with God. I recently heard it said that we cannot fully know and experience God's love until we have first received it. But man, receiving, receiving that love is not as easy as it sounds. In fact, my guess is that it's the work of a lifetime. It's not a one-time event, but a continual journey of opening ourselves up to the fullness of what is on offer to us through the gifts of King Jesus. And while it's hard, it is necessary because only by actively and regularly receiving God's love can we truly understand the depth of what He has made available to us. We have a tiny perception and He has the perfect view. Look, receiving God's love and doing it over and over again, it matters. Especially to those of us who have been on the journey for a long time, it matters. Fighting to know His love fully matters because in doing that, we're not only fueled to love Him and others, but we are freed to see ourselves rightly and get this. But we are formed, actually formed, not only look like Him, but to actually love like Him to experience the fullness of what's on offer through Him. So of course, I need to talk about that for a minute. You ready? I guess receiving love, it fuels our relationship with God. Love is the test of any relationship. It's the foundation that supports nurturers and sustains us through the ups and downs, through the good emotions and the bad emotions. When we truly receive God's love, it is what keeps our relationship with Him from becoming a mere religious exercise or a transactional dance of do's and don'ts, which by the way we all fall into. Love instead, it transforms our relationship into something deeply personal and dynamic and real. It moves us beyond our rituals or duty into an actual authentic connection with a God who is not distant, but as we've heard over and over again over the last few weeks who is intimately near to us, whether we are awake to it or not. It makes us awake and alive to a God who desires to walk with us and to actually care for us and to draw us into his heart. Without the experience of his love and the perpetual experiences of his love, our faith becomes dry at best and mechanical at worst. When we truly receive and rest in God's love, no God's love, it fuels us in a vibrant relationship that is alive, that is ever growing, that's filled with joy. And it won't always feel perfect. It just won't because guess what? You are broken. You are that weird, broken, chucky, cheese thing. That's you. But love, it's active, and it means that anything is possible. And of course, it's not all receiving God's love also frees us to see ourselves rightly, which by the way you probably don't do very well. When we receive God's love and we truly receive it, it radically changes how we view ourselves, how we view our own identity, which by the way changes how we show up in the world. And this is true in our human experiences too, right? I mean, if I am actively loved by someone and they live lovingly towards me, consistently reminding me of how they see me and how they hear the words that I speak or how they see me with others, then I actually begin to see what they see. You think I'm hot? I think I'm hot, you know? You know, anyway, maybe not everyone, not to everyone. But I just say that to say, if that's how someone sees me, then at some level I'm showing up to the room a little bit more spicy, amen? Yeah. A word for the church, I guess. When we receive love and just follow that track with me, when we receive love, we no longer have to define ourselves by our own definition, our own perspective, our own successes, our own failures, or even how the world perceives or sees us, which by the way, even if it's good news, isn't that great news? Instead, when we receive God's love, we're actually allowed, we're enabled, we're enabled to see ourselves the way that he does, which is perfect. He's looking at me and he's like, "Damn, what a wonder, what a weird little wonder you are." Then he sees me perfectly, and he sees me consistently, and all he ever says is that you are holy and perfectly loved. The identity of God's love, it doesn't always change with circumstances or opinions, but it is a reality that grounds us in the eternal, unshakable love of our Creator. That simply said, "That can change us." Receiving God's love, it helps me hold rightly to who it is that He has made me to be, and it gives me the gift of living into that dignity and offering it to others as well. Finally, receiving God's love, it forms us, which if you've been around Georgetown for five minutes, you know that's what we're a little bit about. When we can receive God's love, we will always, always, always, always be changed by it. God's love, it orders in us what is disordered, and it is impossible to not be impacted by the love of God. His light, it meets our darkness, and because of how perfect it is, it swallows it up. His shalom, it meets our anxiety, and it casts it out. His perfect love, it pushes out all of the fear that lives in you, your mind, body, and imagination, and it is able to flood you with peace. It is love, it is a force that changes us, and there is nothing, nothing, nothing more potent or powerful than His love on this earth. This reality, this is what we were meant to know, the oomph you feel right now, that is what you were meant to know because your spirit is saying that's true, that's true, that's true. The reality we are meant to know, meant to be changed by day and in day out, is this thing called the love of God, and we are meant to experience it over and over and over again until we see Jesus face to face. By receiving God's love, hear me when I say we actually become love, and this is the goal. God's love isn't just something we experience once and then move on, it's an ongoing healing reality of life and light in our eyes, lives, not eyes. It never stops, which means it not only has the power to heal all of our brokenness, mend all of our wounds and make us whole, but it has the power to keep doing those things in us. Through His love, we are actually made new, day by day by day. As theologian William Willeman once said, "I suggest we are better givers than getters, not because we are generous people, but because we are proud, arrogant people." The Christmas story that one, according to Luke, not Dickens, is not about how blessed it is to be givers, but about how essential it is to see ourselves as receivers. William is "while a bit punchy," which I respect. It does challenge us to confront and consider what keeps us from receiving God's love. For most, he ironically points out we are much better at giving than receiving, but not because we are naturally generous, he says, but because we are proud. And I have found that to be very true in my life this year. So, what keeps us from receiving this gift of love? I want to ask it more personally, what keeps you? For both personal experience and some psychological research, I have found that, annoyingly, the very thing that holds us back from receiving love is also what is required for us to actually experience it. Receiving love as most of us knows it requires a healthy dose of humility. It demands a cocktail of surrender, vulnerability, and trust. Three things most of us humans, and especially us Americans, instinctively resist. But these qualities, they are foundational if we are to experience love in its fullest form. So, if we want to know it, we are going to have to lean into each one, determine in our hearts, decide in our hearts to lean into each one and embrace them. So, let's talk about them first step, surrender. To receive love, and those of you who are loved, which you all are, but experientially, it is to surrender to something. It is yielding and letting go of what we cannot control, and yielding that to the one who is offering love to us. It is the regular practice of releasing the ways we protect ourselves from pain, or the fear of it, and giving up to God our assumptions about what that will or could be. Surrender is the willingness to yield ourselves to what we cannot yet understand or foresee. It is an invitation to be dependent. Yikes. To set aside our self-reliance and self-sufficiency. Yikes. And to be open, or to open ourselves to the possibility of receiving something we actually cannot create on our own. It is an Americans' worst nightmare. Surrender is the release of self-protection, perception, and assumption. And that it's core requires us to yield to an unknown outcome, and to trust that what is given is enough, even when we can't predict it or control it. Surrender, yielding yourself to God as the first step in receiving love. And it is also the first step in coming close to God's presence. It's our way of saying to Him, which is where we have to start. And not the key. I am not the Messiah. And in fact, I need help. It is what Israel did as they cried out for their Messiah. And it is what moves God's heart to come near to us. Receiving love, it also requires vulnerability. That means letting go of the walls we've carefully built to protect ourselves from being hurt. Yikes. You know what I'm saying? This is to be like a therapy session to anyone else, full-blown confessional. Now, for most of us, being vulnerable is super difficult. And I am charming and win some, and I'm passionate about the love of God, but being actually vulnerable with people is a really hard thing to do for me. Because I've experienced a lot of abandonment, and rejection, and pain in my past. And I imagine many of you have experienced the same, so it's hard. And it's okay to say that this is hard. But here's the thing. Love can't be received if we don't allow ourselves to be seen for who we truly are. Not just the parts of us that are polished or presentable, but the messy and perfect broken parts too. Chucky cheese. Love. True love. I mean this. True love. The kind on display in our Christmas story it isn't earned couldn't be. It is freely given. And to receive it fully, we have to show up without pretence or protection, otherwise we'll never actually experience it. To be loved, to receive God's love means we must be willing to be vulnerable enough to allow him to see us fully as we truly are. Now, for some of you, this might mean taking off the mask and setting aside the pleasantries in your prayer life, and letting God know exactly how you feel without pretence. For others, it might involve learning to bring your whole self before God, which is a really hard thing to do. It involves bringing the things you did last night and the struggles you carried into this room today, both in honesty and his presence, can look a lot of different ways. But vulnerability, it's about the offering or it's about offering to God everything without censorship and allowing him to meet you in the raw honesty. And it's going to feel like he might not come. But he will. And here's the other secret. He's already there. He's waiting for you. He's prepared a table for you. Vulnerability is choosing to believe that God is both able to see you as you are and love you just the same. Vulnerability, it is yucky. And that's a quote. It is costly and painful for most. But it is the threshold for actually knowing God's love, or for any type of love, for that matter. Without vulnerability, love is merely an illusion. Love, God's love, it doesn't just come to the parts of us we think are worthy that we do live that way quite a bit. If it's real love, it comes to every part of us. Especially the parts of us we hide out of fear or shame. Finally, receiving love, it requires trust. At the heart of receiving, "Oh, it's trust. You're like a thought she was going to stop." No. Trust. Or the trust that's required is trust in the giver and trust in what is being given. Trust. This is a relational word. It is conditional only in a sense that it demands openness and vulnerability from two parties. To trust is to believe that the other has our best interest at heart, that they will not harm us, but rather meet us where we need them most. The context of receiving God's love of letting His love find us, trust means believing that He knows us completely, that He sees our flaws and brokenness that He still chooses to love us without any reservations. Trust. This will always require us to let go of fear and to believe that what is being given is truly good because it's the foundation of love. Again, it's a relational act of faith and it is the gateway to not only experiencing love but knowing the God behind it. Love, receiving love. This is just in case you missed it. It is the heart of Advent. It is the heart of every story we've been telling. It's the heart of Christmas. Knowing God and knowing His extraordinary love, welcoming His coming and what it means that that is the experience we're having with love. And this love has meant to change our lives. As we re-enter the story of Jesus of God sending perfect love to us that has meant to call us again more deeply into who it is that we are and were made to be. It can't do with lip gloss. It's a wake-up call to us. It is meant to be a little valentine slipped in those weird boxes we made in elementary school. It's a moment where God says, "Looks us in the face and says I love you and I always have and I always will and I'll always go to the uttermost to find you." Receiving God's love, it is more than just a theological idea. We are bouncing around here in this holiday season. It is an active life-changing invitation to become the people we were always meant to be and to experience the life we were meant to live. Christmas, it is about saying yes again to this invitation, to this radical, extraordinary, boundary-breaking, personal, and intimate love. You need to do that again and again and again. First John 410, it says, "This is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us." It's not that we love God, but that he loved us. This is the heart of the Christmas story. From the prophets to the gospel writers from Genesis to Revelation, we hear a constant refrain, a divine invitation, and this year it sounds like. Let love find you. I don't know exactly what that means for you today, but I do know this. As we allow love to find us. As we open ourselves up to receive God's love and deeper and more profound ways again and again, we will be transformed. Love, and I've said it a thousand times today, but let me say it again, it has the power to change us. Some of you came in here today, desperate for God to change you. You didn't have the language, but that's what you're carrying in your heart. God changed me. Change my circumstances. Help me to see. Love, it has the power to change you. It has the power to change how you see yourself. The hatred you've carried in, the self-loathing you've carried in, it has the power to change that, to flip the script, to take back what the enemy has meant for evil, and to bring about good. Love, it has the power to change how we see others. Those we do not want to offer forgiveness to. Those we do not want to offer compassion to. The people who will sit around the Christmas tree in just a few days. It gives us the power to love and love again when we feel like we can't love. It has the power to change how we see the world. And in that, we get a taste of what was, we get an experience of what is, and we begin to glimpse. We get to get a glimpse of one day what we will know fully, which is a love without limits, a love that restores, and a love that redeems. Advent, it isn't just about celebrating Jesus' first coming, it's also about waiting for him to come again to complete his work and fulfill all his promises to us. But the truth is, he is all ready with us. Every moment of receiving his love in this life is a reminder of the coming kingdom. The fullness of God's presence and the ultimate restoration of all things. So this Advent, may we open our hearts wide to the love that finds us, that calls us and changes us. That was a great line from Bethany. It's one thing to know where I loved, but it's another thing entirely to live as though that's true. We can study God's love, talk about God's love, even teach about God's love, and still keep it at arm's length. We're so used to earning approval, managing perceptions and protecting ourselves, the receiving love, just receiving it, can feel vulnerable and uncomfortable. So to end, let's just take a moment to receive God's affirmation and love by asking Him what He sees when He looks at you. Start by taking a few deep breaths with me. Bring your thoughts to this moment and the reality of God with you. When you're ready, ask the Holy Spirit, what do you see when you look at me right now? Remember to pay special attention to the first thought. I'll keep in mind that God's Word always aligns with Scripture and His character and often resonates within us. Once you send something, just to rest in it and do your best to receive His love. I'll give you 30 seconds here to do that and then close with Amen. Thanks for listening. This podcast is from Practice in the Way. We develop resources to help churches and small groups apprentice in the way of Jesus. Thanks to Little Thoughts for our show music. We're a crowd-funded non-profit, so everything we make is completely free because it's already been paid for by the Circle, our Community of Monthly Givery. Special thanks to James from Stafford, Virginia, Barb from Blueford, South Carolina, Brandon from Harvard, Montana, Jared from Hunger, South Carolina, and Nicole from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Thank you all very much. To join these friends in the Circle or learn more about our resources, visit practiceintheway.org. Until next time, with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.