Modern Worship | February 7, 2026 | Resurrection Online

37:59 our relationships. And we're going to be taking a look at this in light of a rather recent phenomenon taking place in our society and our culture in the United States. And we're going to be looking at this thing that people have started calling the friendship gap or the friendship recession and are decreasing or deteriorating social connectivity in the way that it's leading to an epidemic of loneliness, or what some people are referring to it as a loneliness epidemic. And so as we look at this, what we're going to be talking about is how is this impacting our life, and what can we do to kind of right the ship? And if you've never experienced this before, what the loneliness epidemic is and what it feels like is if you were to go on a streetcar in downtown Kansas City, and if you looked around the people that were on that streetcar, what you'd see is that one out of every five people on that streetcar would be dealing with a reality that says, I have no real close friendships. To make it a little bit more poignant is one out of every three people on that streetcar would say that they are dealing with chronic feelings of loneliness or isolation. And this is deteriorating our ability to connect with other people. Our social connection is decreasing or dwindling, so much so that we are not able to make or maintain or even have the energy to think about building new friendships. It's like we've forgotten how to do it. If you've experienced this, then you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, then I want to share with you something that was shared with me. It was an SNL short that kind of pokes fun at this phenomenon and our inability or our reluctance to make friends.

39:32 This one focuses specifically on men and our inability to know even how to anymore make new friends. It describes this picture of a place that doesn't actually exist. It's called the man park. Tell me if this resonates with you at all. Let's take a look. Okay, now this is, of course, making fun of men and our inability to be able to make or maintain friendships or to make new friends. But this is a reality that actually is applying to everybody. We're all struggling with social connectivity, not just men, but everybody, adults and kids alike. I want to share with you some statistics about our social connectivity that just came out of Harvard, a research project there, a study there. I want you to kind of sense the gravity of the situation that's really affecting us individually, but also societally. This study reported that 12% of Americans self-report having no close friendships. That's the current state of things. 12% of Americans have reported having no close friendships. This number has quadrupled since 1990, 12%. 49%, just less than half of Americans report only having three or less close friends.

40:46 Only 13% of the population reports to having more than 10 friends. And that number might not sound so bad or striking. 13% of the population having more than 10 friends, except that that number has fallen three times as much since 1990. It used to be that 34% of the population claimed to have more than 10 friends out of American adults. And that's because historically, American adults have spent a lot more time with their friends. On average, it used to be that adults would spend six and a half hours outside of work with their friends every week. Recently, American adults are only spending four hours a week with their friends. That represents a two and a half hour decrease, almost half as much time with our friends than historically we ever have in the past. What I think is fascinating about this is that during that same period of time, average adult Americans, American adults, they have spent six hours a day on their screens in that same period of time, which means that during a week, we spend 42 hours on average immersed in our screens by ourselves, and we only spend four hours a week with our friends.

42:01 That means we spend 10 times as much time with our screens on our devices by ourselves than we do with our friends. And it's impacting us. And it's not just impacting American adults. It's impacting our kids and our teenagers as well. What I find fascinating is that teenagers historically had spent, on average, 140 minutes with their friends every day outside of their schools and activities. 140 minutes a day is what we have historically spent with our friends as teenagers in the United States. Now, kids, teenagers, are spending just 40 minutes a day with their friends outside of school in activities, which means, on average, they're spending 10 hours less a week with their friends. During that same period of time, kids, on average, are spending 9 hours a day on their screens in the United States, which means throughout a week our kids, our teenagers, they're spending 63 hours on their screens by themselves in just 10 hours a week with their friends. That's a six-fold differential.

43:08 They're six times as likely to spend time with their screen by themselves than they are with their friends. This is huge when it comes to our social connectivity. This is huge when it comes to thinking about how it is that we build relationships and in the fabric of our society, even our individual well-being. And we have to do something about it. Vivek Murthy, who is the former Surgeon General, he concluded his last letter to the nation in 2023 by describing what it is that we need to do in response to the loneliness epidemic. And I want you to hear his words. This is what he says. If we fail to focus on our social connection, we will pay an ever increasing price in the form of our collective and individual health and well-being. And we will continue to splinter and divide until we can no longer stand as a community or a country. Instead of coming together to take on great challenges before us, we will further retreat to our corners, angry, sick, and alone. Okay, so why are we talking about this? Why am I sharing all of this?

44:12 And I'm doing it because I believe that something has to change, meaning it's time for us to spend time focusing in on the power and the art of relationships and what it means to meet and maintain friendships. It's time for us to close the friendship gap. And what we have to recognize in the process is that our relationships actually have the power to change everything. Pastor Adam, last week, he referenced the longest study ever conducted that focused on happiness. It was a scientific study that came out of Harvard, and it concluded that relationships matter. They They matter to our well-being individually, but also collectively. And the authors of this study, they wrote a book. It's called The Good Life. And in that book, they conclude this about relationships and their importance. They say the stronger our relationships, the more likely we are to live happy, satisfying, and healthier lives. In fact, the strength of our connections with others can predict the health of both our bodies and our brains as we go through life.

45:13 In other words, what they say is that we are better together. We need these relationships to make us whole, to make us fulfilled, to make us happy. They make the world better when we come together. Simon Siddick, who's a thought leader that I appreciate listening to, he's a pretty well-known big thinker. He's been talking a lot as of late about the power of friendship. And this past week, I was listening to a podcast of his where he began to describe how we as a nation and as individuals are facing all of these different challenges. He says we face mental health challenges, increasing rates of depression, anxiety, and inability to cope with the stress that we have, and even longevity. We long to solve for longevity. And friendship has the power to help us fix all of these things. He goes on to describe friendship as the ultimate biohack that can fix everything. I say it's like a superpower.

46:06 It's something that we have inside of us that could actually change the world, except we've forgotten how to do it. Cynic would say, when we want to get better, when we want to become better, we consult all of these different experts. And there's these big industries and experts that teach us how to become better leaders or to teach us about better nutrition or better physical fitness or better fill in the blank. But nobody is teaching us how to become better friends or even how to make friends. And yet this is that one biohack. or this is our one innate superpower that if we learned how to employ, everything could change. So who's going to teach us? That's where I think the church comes into play. You don't need to read a study or a scientific report or a letter for the Surgeon General to understand that relationships change us and they make us better.

47:07 This is what faith tells us. You only have to read scripture a few pages before realizing that we were created for this. That this is a part of how it is that we can experience life and experience it to the full through our relationships. You get to the first chapter of Genesis, God of the universe creates everything. The earth and everything in it. Creates one human and then gives that human power and dominion to subdue everything, to steward all of creation. And it doesn't take long before God, the creator, sees that it's not good that the human should be alone. Genesis continues then in the second chapter as this realization comes to fruition, where God sees that it's not really good for one person to be responsible for all of these things. And so what he does is he says, two is better than one. I'm going to create for that one human a helper, a friend, a companion, someone to shoulder the load, because we all know that that many hands make for light work.

48:06 And so he creates this helper, this companion, and says two is better than one. We are better together. Life is easier. Everything becomes better when we come together as one, two becoming one. That's how we can tackle the work and the life and the responsibility that God has entrusted to us is when we come together. Relationships help us to be better together. Some people, they look at Genesis 2 and they think this is a passage about marriage. And it does apply to marriage. Two becomes one, makes life better. But this is a passage about humanity and what it means to be human and our need for others. Especially when things are daunting and when the task at hand is difficult. Or we're walking through difficult periods of time like the wilderness. When we face these big things.

48:59 it's always better to be in those places together. And that's what I love about the gospel. The gospel teaches us that. Jesus's life teaches us this. I love the gospel of Mark, how it begins not with like the birth story of Jesus. It doesn't begin with Christmas. It begins with Jesus's baptism. And after Jesus is baptized, what happens is he goes into the wilderness by himself and spends 40 days and 40 nights in the middle of the wilderness, facing down temptation, doing all of this on his own, no one there to shoulder the burden with him. And after experiencing what at that point was his darkest hour for 40 days and for 40 nights, as Mark tells us he emerges from the wilderness, the first thing that Jesus does is so telling. This is what we read as the gospel of Mark continues. Jesus, upon coming out of the wilderness, he passed along the Sea of Galilee and he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. And so Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you fish for people.

50:04 I love this because it's so simple and we rarely pay attention to the simplicity of the first invitation that Jesus makes while emerging from the wilderness. He had spent 40 days, 40 nights by himself alone facing the trials and temptation that presented themselves to him. And then first thing he does when he comes out is he's desperate to find people. And so he goes on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he sees a boat and two fishermen. He doesn't introduce himself like, hey, I'm Jesus. What's your name? Instead, he looks at those guys on the boat and he says, hey, come and follow me. And the guys in the boat, I imagine them going like, what? Where are you going? And Jesus said, well, you're fishermen, right? How about we go and fish for people? And Simon and Andrew, they say, well, that sounds good. Let's go. And they drop their nets and they get out of their boat. They go and they follow Jesus because it feels good to go and fish for people. We are created for relationships. It's better when we're together. And so they're like, he's going to go fish for people. That sounds interesting. Let's go and do it. And so they go and they walk a little further down the beach. Now it's the three of them. They see another boat, two more fishermen say, hey, guys, we're going fishing for people. Do you want to join us? Follow us. And they do too.

51:20 And this is how it all begins, with this simple invitation, this call to go and fish for people. This was Jesus's mission. And it's so clear, but rarely do we pay attention to that. But from that point forward, his mission was unwavering. Jesus was about meeting people, befriending people, loving people, healing people, caring for people, showing compassion for people, offering mercy to people, strengthening people. Jesus was all about fishing for people. That was his mission. He came to seek out and to save the least and the lost. And he wasn't exclusive. There was no qualification. Jesus was so plain about it. Everywhere he went, he sought to connect with everybody. It didn't matter who they were. It didn't matter if they were tax collectors and sinners or Pharisees or centurions or men or women or the sick or healthy. Jesus loved people without conditions. There was no qualifications. He made friends with everybody, regardless of their wealth or their health or their status or their intellect or cleanliness, nationality, gender or citizenship or faith or any other qualifier that we put on a person. It didn't matter. Everybody qualified.

52:35 Jesus was fishing for people, loving people, seeking to build communities rooted in deep, loving relationships with everybody, everywhere he went. And he was unwavering in this way. And it was that way even in the end. I love when you fast forward three years, you get to John, the 15th chapter, and Jesus is preparing to give himself up for us. And what does he do? But he decides that he's going to share one last supper with his disciples who had been with him on this journey. And knowing everything that was coming his way, he decided to invite them to share in this meal. And as he invited them to share in this meal, he gives them this new commandment. And this is what he tells his disciples. It's as simple as his invitation to go and fish for people. He says, this is my commandment for you, that you love one another as I have loved you.

53:31 Jesus shares this commandment when they're seated together. he shares this commandment with them knowing that just moments earlier a couple of those disciples were arguing contending over which one of them was the greatest he shares this commandment of love with with these disciples knowing that one of them you know a few hours earlier had betrayed him for a fee to his death he shares this with this group of disciples this passage of love, knowing that one of them was going to deny him publicly in just a few hours, and that all of them would eventually abandon him at his actual darkest hour. And rather than writing them off, rather than separating himself from them, he draws closer to them. He humbles himself before them. He washes their feet. He gives them bread. He offers them wine. He says, this is my body. This is my blood. I am sacrificing everything for you. And then he calls them.

54:34 He doubles down on his love for them. He calls them his friends. And then he commands them to love one another the way that I have loved you. Nobody has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I have called you my friends. You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and to bear fruit, to bear fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I'm giving you these commands so that you may love one another. this was such a simple command such a simple mission but it's so difficult to live out and yet Jesus desperately wants us to live and to love others the same way that he loves us first to maintain friendships like this Jesus commands us to do this and yet we struggle to do it You know, sometimes I think, wouldn't our life of faith be so much easier if it was just like individual?

55:56 Like if I could just focus all of my time individually, all of my effort individually on connecting and growing closer with God. Like what if faith only involved us like praying to God, reading scripture, falling in love with God, and it was just so like vertical between me and God? Wouldn't faith be so much easier that way?

56:16 And yet Jesus says it's not just that. We live out a life of faith with other people. There's more than just loving God with everything you have and all that you are. There's so much more to this world. I'm reminded of that passage in scripture from the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus is being confronted by an expert in the law. And the expert comes up to Jesus and says, Jesus, which is the greatest of the commandments? And he's trying to pin Jesus down. And I love how Jesus responds to him. He says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And then he continues by saying, But there's a second just like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. He was being pressed to answer which one of those passages was the greatest.

57:11 and he says, or there's this one satisfying the requirement, but he says, but there's another one just like it. And Jesus is reminding us that our life of faith is rooted in the love of God with everything we have and all that we are, but it's also found in our love for other people. So when I think about like what that looks like, Jesus saying we need to love God with our whole being, you know, that looks like this vertical relationship, right? God is up at the top and we are down at the bottom. And so we connect with God. We love God by paying attention to spiritual practices. We read scripture. We pray regularly. We attend to the sacraments. We live our life of faith individually, us and God. But Jesus says there's so much more. We're called also to love one another. We're called to be horizontal in our relationships. We need to pay attention to the people that are around us, on our sides.

58:05 We need to love others the same way that Jesus loves us, which begs the question, what does that kind of love look like? it looks like loving others without condition it looks like loving others without any qualification it looks like loving everybody even those people that disagree with us even those people that we don't know even those people that that don't live near us don't have the same status as us that don't have the same kind of geography as us we're called to live and to love all those people what does that look like well it looks like this it looks like the cross it looks like sacrificial unconditional, sometimes painful, risky, eternal love. To love like Jesus is to love like that.

58:53 And for a lot of grownups, that's challenging. For adults, that's hard. And so we focus on our screens, less time with our friends. there's something about kids though that don't seem to struggle with our faith and our practice their beliefs and their ability to live out those beliefs and i spent some time with my kids this past week i have a 10 year old freddie and a five-year-old poppy and and uh and both of them when they look at the world or people wherever they are they they see those people as opportunities to make friends. And they're different in their way of doing this. But for Poppy, my five-year-old, she's fearless. I was just riding bikes with her the other day. And as we were riding these bikes, there were these teenagers down by the creek near the place where we ride our bikes.

59:45 And they were in their own world doing things by the creek. But Poppy saw them. And so she immediately hopped off of her bike, threw her bike down, and she ran as fast as she could to where those teenagers were by the creek. And she runs to them and she says, Hi, my name's Poppy. What's your name? And these teenagers were like taken aback. They didn't know what was happening. But Poppy was so eager. Once she saw anybody to make friends with them, to introduce them, she was fearless in her desire to fish for people or to build Christian community with other people, to befriend other people. Freddie is a little bit different than Poppy. And one of the things that Freddie and I talked about this past week is that we learned that one of our friends was potentially leaving Kansas City, moving to another place. And in response to that news, I sat down with my 10-year-old and I said, Freddie, like, how are you feeling? How does this, you know, you know, sit with you? And I said, what would happen if we ever had to move?

1:00:42 How would that make you feel? And so Freddie, he sat there and he was thinking about it. And he said, well, if we had to move somewhere else to like another city, that would be okay. and I was kind of surprised by his answer, taken back by his answer. I said, tell me more, buddy. Like, tell me more about why it would be okay. And he said, well, if we go to a new city or a new place, then I have an opportunity to make all sorts of new friends, like friends I don't even know. And that would be okay. And I thought to myself, like, wow, that's a great perspective. That's a great answer. And I thought to myself how that answer is so different than my answer. because thinking about going to a new place or a new city, making all these new friends, it's kind of exhausting for me. And as I think about that exhaustion, I think what isn't in us that causes us to be reluctant, to shy away from loving other people the way that God loves us?

1:01:44 This is Jesus's way for the son of man came to seek out and to save the lost. And even though Jesus had the power to do it by himself, he sought to invite as many people possible to join us, to join him. And this is what we're called to do. This is the pathway toward life.

1:02:06 Jesus longs for us to love one another the same way. So how can we do that? This first week, it's all about figuring out how do we close this friendship gap? How do we love one another? How do we make and maintain relationships? and make new friends. And so I'm going to give us three practical ways that I want you to start thinking about that as we prepare to close today. But before I get into those three practical ideas, if you are one of those people that are chronically lonely, of the 12% that reports that you have no friends, close friendships, what I want you to know is that our church is here for you. We have pastors on staff. We have congregational care ministers. We have counselors in a counseling center. And I would love for you to reach out to us, that you would connect with one of our pastors or our care ministers or a counselor so that we can walk with you to shoulder the burden, to make light work with many hands.

1:03:02 So I wanna invite you and I wanna urge you to go to core.org slash next if that's you. And I want you to know that we're here for you. Reach out to us, let us know that you're here and we would love to connect with you. But for everybody, all of us, I want to give you three practical ways that I think God might be inviting you to close the friendship gap, to combat this loneliness epidemic. And the first thing I want to invite you to consider doing is joining us here at Church of the Resurrection. You know, our purpose is to build Christian community where non-religious and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians, which means everything we do here at Resurrection is intended to create a space for you to grow closer to God, to draw nearer to God through knowledge and love and understanding of who God is and who God calls us to be, but to do so while connecting, building community relationships with other people. And in two weeks, we're gonna be launching a new short-term three-week Lenten study.

1:03:57 And it's all about how little shifts lead to a big faith. And this is gonna be a three-week study that's happening at all of our nine area locations. It's gonna be happening online as well. For three weeks, we're gonna be engaging in spiritual practices that draw us closer to God through this season of Lent, preparing us for Easter while intentionally connecting you with other people on the journey. This is a great way to take a step to build relationships, to build community, to draw nearer to God while also learning how to love one another. So I wanna invite you to take a step to respond to that invitation. You can go to core.org slash next. You can find that invitation there as well. And then a similar idea, just like that one, but applies only to men, is that in two weeks, we also have a men's conference coming. It's Determined Men's Conference. It's happening February 27th and 28th. It's going to be happening at our Leawood location as well as online. It's not Mann Park like we saw in Saturday Night Live, but it's something similar to it.

1:04:52 It's close to it. It's a chance for guys to gather together to hear from some great speakers. Our senior pastor, Adam Hamilton, is going to be one of the keynote speakers. Carlos Whitaker, who's a great thought leader and faith leader. I'm going to be leading there. Pastor Bill Gepford from Resurrection West will be there, as well as Robert Johnson and Joshua Clough. We have all of these different leaders that are going to be speaking to this group of men. And so you have great ability to draw near to God, to grow in the knowledge and understanding of who God is. But it's also a chance for you to connect with other guys, doing guy things. And so we're going to be eating barbecue, and we're going to be throwing these kind of inflatable axes. We're going to be drinking lots of coffee, at least I will. And we're going to have all these fun ways to engage with each other. And I want to invite you to consider doing that, to meet friends, to build relationship, to draw closer to God, but also each other at our Determined Men's Conference. But we have all sorts of other things like that too. So just go and go to check it out at core.org slash next or connect with a pastor. We'd connect you with something where you can meet new friends and connect with other people as growing closer to God as well. But if going to the church is not for you right now, taking on something new is too much for you, then I want you to assess and evaluate your current friendships. I want you to think about the friendships that you have and in your role as a friend. And I want you to begin to shift your understanding of friendship as a vocation. When Jesus calls us his friends, he's giving us an identity, which means our role as friend is a vocation. It's a way to identify us.

1:06:23 Our friendships should define us. We should be defined by our ability to be a good friend. And so I want you to think about your friendships. Think about your relationships. Are they definitive? Do they define you? Do they reflect upon you based on that vocation? Do they reflect that you are, in fact, a good friend? I want to remind you that we are choosing screens over time with friends, and so there's ways that we can grow into that to prioritize friendships. And I'm going to give you three ideas for how you can begin to invest in your current friendships, maybe even friendships that have lasted. And so the first thing I want you to think about. Instead of spending, you know, six hours on a screen, what would it look like if you resolved to text one friend a day? It takes about 10 seconds to send a text message to a friend or an acquaintance. What would it look like if you sacrificed 10 seconds a day, seven friends a week, and you sent text messages connecting with friends in a new kind of way? It takes 10 seconds.

1:07:26 Similarly, it only takes about 10 minutes to make a phone call to a friend. What would happen if you resolved to make three phone calls a week to three different friends? It's just 30 minutes total per the week. What would it look like for you to intentionally reach out to give 10 minutes a day three times a week to connect with friends, to build relationships, to grow closer with them? It only takes about an hour to set up an in-person meeting with a friend, to sit down for a cup of coffee or to go and connect with somebody out in the community. It only takes an hour of your time. What if you resolved every week to set aside an hour to actually meet up in person with one of your friends? You can do this with existing friends. You could do this with new friends, maybe your neighbors or acquaintances, coworkers, classmates. What have you resolved to these kinds of activities? Seven text messages a week, three phone calls a week, one in-person meeting a week. How might that begin to change your social connectivity, your friendship fabric?

1:08:23 It might begin to define you the way that Jesus does as a good friend. But even that might be too much for you, reaching out to other people right now. You might not have the bandwidth or the readiness to it. And so for those of you who aren't ready to take step one or take step two, I'm going to challenge you to just say yes. We all get invitations over the course of our week or over the course of our month, invitations from acquaintances or friends or organizations to come and join you, come and join us. And I'm going to challenge you to say yes, to respond to those invitations, to show up when a friend asks you to be there, to be present with them, to listen to them, to spend time with them, to be a good friend by simply saying yes to an invitation that they extend to you. By this, we have the power to actually change the world, to give our time in that way to a friend in need.

1:09:19 Look, Jesus, he commands us to love one another the way that he loves us as friends. What we know in Genesis is that God creates us one for each other. We're better together. What we know is that the world has this loneliness epidemic that seems to be plaguing us. Our social fabric, connectedness is deteriorating. And it's time for a change, to close the friendship gap, to love others, everybody, everywhere it is that we go, to make friends out of strangers, to change the world, to better reflect the kingdom. And my prayer is that we would do that together. Let's go to God now in prayer. Gracious God, we pause and we thank you for today, for this time together, for seeing us, for knowing us, for showing up for us, for loving us as friends.

1:10:14 God, now we pray that you would inspire us by the power of your Holy Spirit. Remind us that you have chosen us, that you've equipped us, that you've made possible for us to actually love others the way that you first love us. And so we pray that you would give us the courage to do so, that you'd inspire us to live differently, to see the world and everybody in it as ripe with your potential, to eliminate qualifiers and conditions, but simply to love others the way that you first love us. Help us to do that, we pray,

1:10:53 until thy kingdom come here on earth, just as it is in heaven. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, I want to thank you once again for worshiping with us today. It just means so much to us that you are with us. And as we prepare to leave, I'm gonna invite you to go to core.org slash next. Our hope every time that we gather together for worship is that you're gonna be inspired to take next steps in your life of faith, to join us in building Christian community and to grow in your faith individually. And so I wanna remind you of two things that we want you to consider being a part of. One, the Determined Men's Conference that's coming up on February 27th and 28th. It's a great opportunity for all of our guys to connect and to build community with other men here at the church. We're gonna have great speakers and great opportunities for you to engage your faith and to build your social connection, your social network. So come and be a part of that. It's going to be awesome.

1:11:45 We also have a Lenten study, a short-term study that's kicking off in two weeks where you can drop in and you can make new connections, grow in your spiritual practices and prepare for Easter in a really non-threatening kind of way. So we would love for you to consider taking one of those steps. And then next week, we're going to conclude this series of sermons. We're going to focus on when relationships get difficult and some of the reasons why we're reluctant to engage or make new friendships is because of how difficult they are to maintain. And we're living in a time where people have different opinions, sharp contrast when it comes to their worldview. We're more polarized perhaps than ever before in recent memory. And so sometimes we're reluctant to engage in those kinds of relationships, not knowing where the other people stand or how much we disagree with each other. And so we're going to talk about how do you manage relationships and disagreements inside of relationships and differences of opinion inside of relationships. And so if you know somebody that applies to you, that might apply to you, we would love for you to come and be a part of worship with us next week as we conclude this series, focusing on when relationships get difficult.

1:12:46 And with that, as we pray to go now, I'm gonna invite you to join me once more as we close by going together to God in prayer. Let's pray. God, we pause and we thank you for the gift of today, for the ability to worship you, to remember your love for us, a love that never leaves us or forsakes us, but that's with us always and empowers us with the ability to love others in the same way. So I pray that you'd fill us with your Holy Spirit and that you'd send us forth into the week ahead as we seek to love one another the way that you first love us. In Jesus' name we pray.