Defined I Week Three

<p>Over the last two weeks, we have been asking what truly defines us as the people called Shepherds.</p>

<p>We began with Hope—an audacious, active hope in Jesus Christ that we are called to share with the world. Then last week, we turned to Light and asked what it means to be a lighthouse: a people who point others away from the darkness of sin and death and toward the life we find in Christ.</p>

<p>And now, we come to the heart of it all: Love.</p>

<p>At Shepherds, we say, “With God’s help, we embrace and connect with all people and together experience the Love, Light, and Hope of Jesus Christ.”</p>

<p>But the love Jesus describes in John 15 is not greeting-card love. It is not simply being nice, saying the right thing, or feeling warmly toward someone.</p>

<p>This is a love that sacrifices. A love that shows up. A love that stays. A love willing to lay itself down for someone else.</p>

<p>We have been given that kind of love by Jesus Christ. So the question as we close this series is not whether Christ loves us. The question is: What will this church do with the Love Christ has given us?</p>

<p><em>Passage: John 15: 9-13 CEB</em></p>