Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. Sounds to the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. So many times when
we experience something, we hear sounds. I was
just talking with someone this morning who had
went through what I would call kind of a traumatic
event, and they were recalling the sounds and
what they saw. And we hear, and there were sounds
that took place in the death, the burial, and
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, right? Today,
Christians around the world are celebrating Jesus
coming out of that tomb, stepping out of that
grave. 2 .38 billion, say billion. Billion. Billion
Christians worldwide. Today, we're celebrating
that Jesus came out of that tomb that he raised
from the dead. Billions who have experienced
salvation, new life in Jesus Christ, went from
an old creature to a new creature, a new creation
in Christ. And in one selfless act, one sacrifice,
Jesus going to the cross, and one supernatural
event, Jesus rising from the dead, Jesus provided
everything that we need. to take us from death
to life. How many believe that's something we're
celebrating? Amen. If you believe that, I want
you to jump up. Come on, jump up real quick.
I want you to give him applause. How many know
he's worthy? Give him an applause. We thank you,
Jesus. We give you glory. We give you honor today.
He's worthy. He's worthy. Amen. Amen. Amen. Listen,
before you turn around, sit down, give somebody
a high five and say, he's alive. He's alive.
He's alive. He's alive. Amen. Come on. There
were sounds with the man. And listen, some of
us in this house this morning. We've had a lifetime,
some of us got saved early in life, and we've
had a lifetime of Easter Sundays where we've
come together and we've celebrated the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. And there are others in this
house who this is the first time that they've
come and they've really found out the real meaning
of Easter. They got saved sometime in the last
year, and they find out this year that it's not
about chocolate bunnies, amen? Easter eggs, right?
Not even about getting all dressed up, but it
is about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And
the funny thing is that one of the questions
that comes from those who have maybe yet not
experienced Jesus as Lord and Savior, one of
the questions that you hear is why? Why? Why
the crucifixion? Why the resurrection of Jesus
Christ? Why did Jesus have to suffer this brutal
death and be beaten? Why was he crucified on
a Roman cross? Why was it so important that he
came back to life? And more importantly, why
should this be so important to me? What's so
significant about Jesus stepping out of the grave
several thousand years ago? Why should I celebrate
that? How many know that's a good question, right?
If you don't know Jesus, Lord and Savior, that's
a good question. And while they acknowledge the
amazing idea of Jesus coming to life and stepping
out of the grave, they want to know why Jesus'
story is so important and intersects their story.
Why should his story intersect mine, and what
does that mean? And it's a good question, and
it has a loaded, layered answer. There's level
after level we could talk about this Easter morning.
But this resurrection story, this resurrection
Sunday, I want to talk about one of the benefits
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it's
this, that he has covered you. He's covered you.
One of the messages of the cross and the resurrection
of Jesus Christ is that he got you covered. You're
covered. You're covered. Amen? Say, I'm covered.
Go ahead and just say it to yourself. You might
not know what it means yet, but just say it out
loud. You're covered, right? Tell somebody, he's
got you. Turn to somebody right now, point to
him and say, he's got you covered. He's got you
covered right now, right? He's got you covered.
He does. When Jesus was about to breathe his
last, Few breaths on the cross when he was suspended
between heaven and earth and was ready to go
to a borrowed tomb. How many know he only needed
to borrow it for about three days, right? He
was about to go to a borrowed tomb. He spoke
something. He said something. And in that, we
are covered. John 19, 30 says this. So when Jesus
had received the sour wine, now I want you to
picture Jesus suspended between heaven and earth.
He's on the cross. He's getting close to death.
And if you read in the word of God, he got thirsty
and wanted a drink. And instead of giving him
a drink of water, they took a pole and they put
a sponge on it and they put it in sour wine.
They called it gall and they put it up to him.
And when he was about ready to breathe his last,
he said this word. He said, it is. finished.
And bowing down his head, he gave up his spirit.
One of the things that Jesus finished at the
cross and three days later, stepping out of the
tomb was the work of covering us, covering us.
You and I need coverage. The person sitting beside
you. Needs coverage. The person that's down the
street needs coverage. The person you like and
the person you don't like needs coverage, right?
We need coverage today. And Jesus' coverage is
a sweet thing. And I don't know if you've ever
been covered by somebody or with something, but
it's a great thing to experience. How many know
getting covered with a warm blanket on a cold
day is an awesome thing? Amen. How many of you
ever put it in the dryer right on a cold day
and just pull it out and wrap it up in you? If
you're covered with good car insurance and you
get into a car accident, how many know that's
a whole lot of awesome right there? Right? Yeah,
a couple of you just had accidents. Like, amen,
amen. All right? Someone covers you in prayer.
Best thing ever. You got a need in your life
and someone's covering you in prayer. Someone
covers your bill at the restaurant. You go and
have a meal and somebody across the restaurant
covers your bill for you. How many know that's
a happy day, right? You are blessed and highly
favored, right? Covered up by another person
when a bomb is about to ready to explode. The
ultimate sacrifice, sheltered by a hero. That's
incredible. There's something incredible about
being covered. And Jesus covered something. on
the cross and coming out of that tomb that no
one else before him or after him could ever cover.
And it is our sin that he covered. He covered
our sin. No one else could do it. Nobody else
was qualified. And to really fully understand
God's plan for the covering of sin, we got to
go back. Say, got to go back. Got to go back.
We got to go back. Say, we got to go back. We
got to go back to the Old Testament. Say, OT.
OT. I'm going to get you involved or I'm just
going to keep preaching all morning. All right.
OT. We got to go back to the Old Testament because
the Old Testament is this. The Old Testament
is a reflection. It is a mirror of what happens
in the New Testament. The Old Covenant with God
is a reflection of what the New Covenant is in
Jesus. And if you want to understand this covering
completely, you got to go back to the Old. The
Old is kind of like a prototype. How many know
what a prototype is, right? A prototype is a
preliminary model of something. And it's an initial
design set out to accomplish a task. It's a preliminary
design. And in the world of computers, if you
work in computers, they call it either alpha
or a beta model, right? That's a preliminary
design. It's a prototype. And they send it out
to thousands of people, and they try it out,
and they find out all the glitches. Well, there's
a prototype. The Old Testament is a prototype.
It is the shadow of God's finished work that
takes place in Jesus at the crucifixion and at
the resurrection. And it's a shadow, it's a rough
draft of the perfect work of God in Jesus. Now,
some of you may or may not know this, but I'm
a fraternal twin. My sister was born 10 minutes
before I was. So technically I'm a middle child
because I got a younger sister and I got a twin
sister who's 10 minutes older than me. And more
than once when I was younger, I used to tell
her, listen, you were the rough draft and I was
the masterpiece. All right. I wasn't born first.
I had to come up with something, all right? You
were the rough draft. You were the prototype,
right? And I was the finished product, right?
And it actually turned out the other way around,
but that's another conversation. But in the Bible,
right, the Old Testament was a prototype. of
the covenant of God to cover our sin. It was
a preliminary model. It wasn't complete. And
if we're going to understand the finished work
of Jesus covering us at the resurrection, we
got to go back to this prototype. So if you got
your Bibles this morning and you got your notebooks
ready, I want you to turn to Leviticus chapter
four. We're going to start in verse one, Leviticus
chapter four, verse one. And as you turn, I'm
going to pray, Lord. We thank you for this day.
We thank you for Resurrection Sunday. We thank
you for your son, Jesus. And Lord, today as we
celebrate Jesus coming out of that grave, God,
help us to see the covering that you provided
in our lives. Leviticus chapter 4 verse 1 says
this, Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak
to the children of Israel, saying, If a person
sins unintentionally against any of the commandments
of the Lord in anything which ought not to be
done, And does any of them, if the anointed priest
sins, bringing guilt upon the people, then let
him offer to the Lord for his sin, which he has
sinned a young bull without blemish as a sin
offering. He shall bring the bull to the door
of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord,
lay his hand on the bull's head and kill the
bull before the Lord. Then the anointed priest
shall take some of the bull's blood and bring
it into the tabernacle of meeting. The priest
shall... Which is in the tabernacle of meeting.
And he shall report. Pour the remaining blood
of the bull at the base of the altar of burnt
offering. Which is at the door of the tabernacle
of meeting. He shall take from it all the fat
of the bull as the sin offering. The fat that
covers the entrails and all the fat which is
on the entrails. The two kidneys and the fat
that is on them by the flanks. And the fatty
lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys.
He shall remove. As he is taken from the bull
of the sacrifice of peace offering. And the priest
shall burn them on the altar of the burnt offering.
But the bulls hide in its flesh and its head
and its legs and its entrails and offal. The
whole bull shall be carried outside the camp
to a clean place where the ashes are poured out
and burned on wood with fire where the ashes
are poured out and it shall be burned. The priest
shall make atonement. Say atonement. Atonement
for him. For his sin that he had committed in
any of these matters and it shall be forgiven
him. The prototype, the Old Testament, the temple
before Jesus, the covering for our sin. If someone
sinned in their lives, this was the process.
This was the procedure. You would bring a bull.
You would bring a goat or a lamb. You can find
that in other places in Scripture. And verse
13 tells us that it would become the atonement
for our sin. The atonement. The word atonement
in the Hebrew is kafar. And it means to cover
over. It means to cover over. The only way to
cover over our sin is with a sacrifice. It's
the only way. There has to be a sacrifice. In
the Old Testament, the prototype was a sacrifice,
was an animal sacrifice that was brought to the
temple. And the procedure for this, you know,
I don't think you would soon forget if you were
actually experiencing this. If we actually had
to do what they did back in those days and come
to the temple and experience this. Because if
you sinned and you had to come before the temple
and come before the priest, this is what it looked
like. You would have to bring a bull. And for
some of you that are farm challenged, some of
you suburbanites and city folks, that means a
male cow. Some of you are like, yeah, I know,
I know. But you would have to bring a bull, and
you would find one in your flock, or you would
have to purchase one, and you would come to the
door of the temple. And at the door of the temple,
the priest would come out to meet you. And when
you got there, the priest would have you do something
symbolically. Symbolically, you would take your
hands and you would lay your hands on the head
of that bull. And that was symbolic of your sin
being transferred onto that innocent animal.
And I think the next thing that would take place
would probably stick in the minds and the hearts
of everybody in here. And even if you're listening
online. Because then the priest would hand you
a knife. And your job was to cut that animal's
throat. and watch it expire. Once that animal
expired, the priest would take the blood from
that animal, and he would go to various places
inside the temple and sprinkle the blood that
God had signed for that covering to take place.
And it won't look anything like it does this
morning, right? It wouldn't be getting all dressed
up for Easter and coming into the house and heading
over to the photo booth and getting an Easter
photo with your family and grabbing a coffee
or a latte, right? And coming over to your seat
and get ready to celebrate. This would stick
in your mind. This was a picture. This was serious
business. Probably almost even a little traumatic,
some of us would say, right? But it helped them
remember the true nature of sin. The deep cost
of sin. The sacrifice that is necessary to cover
our sin. How the innocent pay when we sin. There's
got to be a sacrifice for the covering. There's
got to be a sacrifice. And it doesn't matter
if your sin is large or little. I don't even
actually know if that's a thing, right? It doesn't
matter if it's black or white lie. It doesn't
matter if your sin is intentional or unintentional.
There's got to be a covering or a sacrifice for
that sin. And that is saying something, that
our sin has to be covered. Intentional, unintentional,
doing something that we should not do, or maybe
leaving out something that we should do, right?
Different kinds of sin. Sins of commission. Those
are sins that we actually commit, right? Then
there are sins of omission. Those are the things
that we omit. Those are things we don't really
want to do, so we just kind of leave it out,
right? We know we're supposed to do it. We know
God said to do it. We can sin in all kinds of
ways. There's sins of commission where we're
willingly and purposely diving into something
that we know is contrary to God, right? If you
steal something, That's a sin of commission.
You know you stole it. How many know you don't
accidentally steal something? Come on. You do
not accidentally steal a cookie out of the cookie
jar. You know what you're doing. I'm speaking
from experience. Okay? You know if you shoplifted
or something, right? You know that. If you cheat
on your time card at work, you know that. That's
a sin of commission. You cheat on your taxes.
I had to say that because my wife's a tax preparer,
all right, this morning. If you steal answers
for the test that you're going to take on Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, whatever, it's a sin of commission
if it's sexual behavior, right, that goes against
God's word. If I hate my brother or sister, if
I'm envious of what someone has and I covet what
they've got, if I get jealous, Because someone
else is getting the attention. Somebody else
is getting the accolades. We know what's wrong.
And I need coverage. I need coverage. It's purposely
sinning in my head and in my heart and in my
actions. And I know I'm doing it, right? Now,
I need to clarify something right here. Because
sometimes when I get talking about sin, people
get all jammed up. Because sometimes somebody
thinks if a thought comes in your head. That
that's sin. That's not necessarily sin. That's
temptation. All right. You could get a thought
in your head that I hate that person. I was going
to have you raise your hand, but please don't,
all right? And certainly don't look beside you,
okay? All right? But I hate that person. That
could be a thought that comes in your brain.
That is not sin. That is temptation. That's a
thought that flew in your head, and you got a
choice at that moment, right? One of two things
are happening. You're either going to slide into
sin, or you're going to kick out the thought.
You're going to be like, nope, that's a wrong
thought. I'm going to shut that down. That's
wrong. I'm not doing that. God says I'm not supposed
to hate anybody. Done, right? Or you're going
to be like, you know. How many know you can encourage
yourself in sin? Come on. Like, you know, I do
kind of hate it. You can talk with yourself.
You do it all the time. Right? You know, I kind
of agree with my thought that just came into
my head. Right? I kind of relish that thought.
You start repeating the thought over and over
in your head. And then you start to practice
on the thought. But a lot of people beat themselves
up because they get the thought at the beginning
and they think that's a sin. No, that's temptation.
Jesus was tempted. The Word of God tells us that
when he went into the desert, he was tempted
to do the wrong thing. You can get the thought,
but it's what you do with the thought after that,
right? Where you start to head into the sin of
commission or omission of some kind. Because
there's sins of commission and there's sins of
omission. Anyone ever get involved in the sin
of omission where you leave out, right, what
you're not supposed to do? It's when you know
to do the good thing, the God thing, the right
thing, and you just simply choose not to do it.
James 4, 17 says this, therefore to him who knows
to do good and does not do it, to him it is what?
Sin, right? We know the right thing to do. We
just skip. We skip over the sin. Turn to somebody
right now, point your finger. My granddaughter
does this. You got to do this. You got to try
it, all right? My granddaughter, Kensley, she'll
look at you and she'll wag her finger. She'd
go, uh -uh, Poppy. Uh -uh. All right. Turn to
the person beside you. Wag your finger. All right.
Tell them don't skip over the right thing. Don't
skip over the right thing. Wag your finger. Come
on. We got to do the right thing. You can't omit
it. How many know when you go up to the dishwasher
in your house and you open that dishwasher and
it's full of clean dishes, you got a decision
to make. You got a conundrum on your hands, right?
All you did, you were just coming there to get
a clean fork because your piece of cake is sitting
on the countertop. All you wanted to do is get
a clean fork for a snack, and you weren't even
opposed to a dirty one. You're just going to
wipe it off, right? You're going to get it because
you want to eat your snack. And you open that
thing up, and it's full dish. And you know it's
only going to take you 10 minutes to empty it,
but you've got to decide, do I do that or do
I eat the cake? Right? Do I do the right thing
or do I grab the fork? And here's what most of
us do. We get the fork and we quietly close the
door. Right? And you get your cake and you go
to your office, you go to your bedroom, you go
to your bathroom, you go anywhere you can get
away with it. And you eat the cake. I omit the
part that I don't want to do. Now, is it a sin
not to empty the dishwasher? No. Well, maybe
at your house, but no. Right? It's not. It's
not. This is just an illustration, but we omit,
we let out the things that God tells us to do.
We do. We admit loving our neighbor as myself,
right? That's an easy one to admit. You know,
I think I'm, Jesus, I think I'm just going to
pass today. Have you met my neighbor? All right.
I'm just going to pass. I hard pass Jesus. Sin,
right? I know I should serve Jesus. I know you
told me to serve. I know my church tells me to
serve. I know the word of God, Matthew 10, 45,
right? We wear it on t -shirts because we get
to do this. We say, you know, for even the son
of man did not come to be served, but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many. I
know this, but Jesus, I think it's time for me
to take a serve sabbatical. I think I'm going
to take a serve sabbatical this week. All right,
I'm going to do it. We just omit the commands
of God. We put them off to the side. You know,
How many know we need coverage? Amen? We need
coverage. Sometimes we ignorantly sin. That's
when you're sinning and you don't even know you're
sinning. That can happen, by the way. All right?
Sometimes you can get caught up in pride. You
know, somebody annoys you, and the thoughts that
are going through your mind, you don't stop.
Right? They annoy you, and you're thinking, they're
such an idiot. You'll think things like that.
How could they be so stupid? They're so stupid,
I can't even believe they can breathe and walk
at the same time. Right? Yeah, we think stuff
like that, right? You know, and I can't believe,
that's how they, and we're completely unaware
that we're in pride, that we're sinning. We need
coverage, right? Caught in revenge. When we get
caught in revenge, something happened to you,
and you're thinking, I'm going to get them, I'm
going to show them. Matter of fact, when I come
and get them, they're not even going to see me
coming. They're not even going to know what hit
them. Come on, we get caught up in this. We need
coverage. Sins of ignorance. We need coverage.
And I'm here to tell you this morning, it doesn't
matter if you're intentional, unintentional,
if it's a sin of commission, if it's a sin of
omission, if you don't even realize you're doing
it, that sin needs to be covered with a sacrifice.
It is the only way to cover up our sin. Worship
team, if you'd come and make your way to the
stage. And the Old Testament sacrifice, right?
The OT, the old, there was a sin sacrifice and
it was a guilt sacrifice, just two. And the sin
and offering sacrifice, the sin sacrifice was
when restitution was impossible. You couldn't
go back and make it right. There's times you
sin, you're never going to be able to go back
and make it right. You could steal from somebody
and somebody passes away. You're never going
to get the chance to make restitution. There
was a sin offering for that. And there was a
second one that was mandatory. It was the guilt
offering. And when that, that you, you, came
and that was when restitution was possible but
both these old testament sacrifices were a graphic
right it was a graphic prototype of how serious
it is and jesus became the sacrifice In the New
Testament. With the new covenant. That was the
old covenant. When Jesus came, God said, I'm
going to make a new covenant with you. I'm going
to perfect what we had a prototype of back here.
And God will send one innocent man to be the
final sacrifice for all of mankind's sin. Not
just the man, but his very own son. One final
perfected individual to pay the ultimate price
for every sin, for every man, woman, child who
sins against God. One blood sacrifice that would
provide the necessary coverage for all of our
sin. All of it. Once and for all. Jesus would
provide the final and perfected covering for
sin. Hebrews 10, 8 says this. When he said...
When he said above, you have neither desired
nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and burnt offerings
and offerings and burnt offerings and in sin
offerings. These were offered according to the
law. That's OT. Then he added, behold, I have
come to do your will. He does away with the first
in order to establish the second. And by that,
we will have been sanctified through the offering
of the body of Christ Jesus. once and for all.
He is the unblemished lamb to be sacrificed.
He was willing to give himself up and die, shed
his blood, shed his blood one final time, one
final sprinkling for our sin, and his body would
be mutilated. A Roman crucifixion almost made
a temple sacrifice pale in comparison. Because
in a Roman crucifixion, they would first scourge
Jesus. And if you don't know what a Roman scourging
is like, they would tie the individual to a post.
They would actually tie him around the post.
And very skilled Roman soldiers with whips, and
they weren't just whips with just leather on
them. They would take the whip and they would
embed metal in the ends of those whip thongs
at the end of them. And a skilled Roman soldier
would be able to, they would flail that thing
forward. And a lot of times they even had lead
balls to make sure it would impact. And it would
go in, it would go right into somebody's flesh.
And when it would dug into the flesh, they would
pull back, peeling away flesh from the back of
the back legs and the neck. And a Roman scourging
wasn't just one or two or three or even four
lashes. It was 39 times that they would come
across the back. Jesus suffered this scourging.
And when that was completed, they would take
him and they would make him carry a cross up
the Delevingne Rosa up to Calvary. And they would
place him on that cross and they would drive
nails in his hands and they would drive nails
in his feet and they would suspend him between
heaven and earth. They would then thrust a spear
into his side. And the word of God says that
water and blood would come out. Jesus would become
the sacrifice for all of us. He is the atonement.
He is the covering. And Jesus sealed the deal
when he stepped out of the grave three days later
for you and I. Amen. I'm going to ask you to
stand. Jesus paid a price that you and I could
not pay. There's not one in this house, there's
not one on the face of the earth before him or
after him that could pay that price. There was
no spotless lamb in any of us. As a matter of
fact, Romans 3 tells us that we've all sinned
and we've all fallen short of the glory of God.
We're all short of God's standard. So he went
ahead, God the Father went ahead and sent his
son to die on a cross, go into grave for three
days and rise from that grave and seal our coverage.
And he said, the only thing you need to do as
your part, you no longer have to get a bull and
place your hands on it and slice its throat.
You no longer have to do something symbolic in
nature. He said, a couple of things are required
of you. One, you have to believe that Jesus is
the son of the living God and that he did come
and die for you. One, you have to believe. Two,
you have to confess. How many know you got to
name your sin? Amen. Sometimes we're going to
come, Lord, just forgive me of my sin. No, you
got to name that thing. You got to name it. You
name that sin. You put it before him, right?
That's confession. And you don't do it to me.
You don't need to do it to anyone else. You give
it to him. You do it in prayer. And then the
word of God says that we repent. We repent. And
when you do those things, and repent means to
turn from, right? I was going this way in sin.
Now I realize I was sinning, and now I'm going
to go this way. I'm going to follow God. And
when you do that, the word of God says you're
covered. He's got it covered. You don't pay the
penalty of death. It's no longer held against
you. You will never even have to answer for it.
As a matter of fact, the word of God says it
will be as far from you as the east is from the
west. How many know that's infinity? Amen? As
far as it gets. It's not a part of your identity.
It's not who you are. It does not define you
in any kind of way, shape, or form. You are free.
He covered it. He covered it. So for some of
you in the house that know Jesus as Lord and
Savior, I'm just here to remind you what he covered
in your life. Amen? I remember what he covered
in my life. I'm covered. You're covered. But
if you're in the house for the first time, and
maybe this is the first Easter, you're hearing
about something different than Easter eggs, right?
And going out on Easter egg hunts and pastel
colors. This is the first time you're hearing
the real meaning that Jesus died on the cross.
And just one of the things that he did was cover
you and make provision for you. To be set free
from sin and to come into relationship with him.
If that's you here today, this is your day. This
is your day. Because he paid all the price. All
you have to do is say, yes, Jesus, you are Lord.
I want you to forgive me of my sin. You can name
those sins. And I repent. I'm going to follow
you. I'm going to ask you to bow your heads this
morning in the house. If you're listening online,
you can bow your head right where you're at.
There's somebody there online with you that will
be glad to lead you through. But if you're in
a house this morning and you don't know Jesus,
Lord, Savior, and you want to, if you want this
coverage in your life, you can raise your hand
up, put it right back down. That's all I'm going
to have you do this morning. If you want to raise
your hand. Thank you. Father, we come before
you. God, as those online to listen, those in
the house, Lord God, this morning, as they come
in prayer, Lord, as they come before you, they
recognize and believe that you are Lord and Savior.
They confess with their mouth that they are lost
and that sin has separated them from you. And
they want coverage this morning. Lord, they're
going to turn from that. They're going to begin
to follow you. They're making that commitment.
They're going to begin to step with you. And
Lord, you're going to bring them into new life.
They got a new inheritance. They got a new name.
God, Lord, they don't even know all the things,
Lord. God, the blessings that are going to come
in your hand. But Lord, I pray as they pray that
heartfelt prayer this morning, God, that you
will speak to them. And Lord, you will help them
feel and sense your presence so that it might
be healed. hope in Jesus' name. And amen and
amen. For the rest of us, how many remember when
you got saved? How many remember, some of you
are so young, you're thinking, well, I got saved
when I was 10. How many remember, there's sometimes
these spots in life where you're like, man, I
started to realize what Jesus really did for
me. I started to really understand what He did
for me. How many remember those places and those
spaces? You need to celebrate that. He covered
us. Amen? Say it with me. He covered us. He covered
us. I'm healed, whole, and alive today because
he covered us. personally affected by our ministry
and you would like to partner with us as we love
God,