Welcoming – Online Minister Ernie

Online Moment – Online Minister Ernie

Hymn Sing – Pastor Dave

Pastoral Prayer – Silent Prayer, Lord’s Prayer – Pastor Linda

Scripture Reading – Online Minister Ernie

Message – What Is Love? ‐ Pastor Dave

Communion – Pastors Dave & Linda

Benediction & Response – Let There be Peace on Earth #431

1 Corinthians 13:1-7 – The Message

¹ If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

² If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

^3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

Learning to love is not only essential in our relationships, but also in fully living our faith. It’s loving in ways that endure, that are not just a one time or temporary way of caring. The Apostle Paul reminds us that love cares more for others than self. Doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off handle, being able to love way of Jesus, not holding back. Loving in an unconditional way is hard for humans and so we turn to God’s help to love this way. Many of us were raised with a distorted view of love, which could be highly conditional love the love Jesus talks about takes us out of our comfortable places to find & meet our neighbors. Love always extends itself. Love embraces unexpected request/need.