The grace of God not only has the power to forgive, it has the power to change. It has the power to reshape what is warped and deformed! It has done so for thousands of years! And it is in our midst today … calling out … reaching out. God’s grace can make us totally new! And if we want it … we will find it.

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A recent World Health Organization report called noise pollution a modern plague. Real silence today is hard to find. Recent research has found that spending time in silence causes new cells to grow in our brain. Silence lowers blood pressure, boosts the body’s immune system, promotes good hormone regulation, prevents plaque formation in arteries, and lowers stress.

And to go even deeper, it is in the silence that we discover our soul … and it is in the silence that we find God. Habakkuk 2:20, “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him."

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The human brain is millions of times more powerful than the most powerful supercomputer that exists today and it is also vastly more efficient. Each thought we have can actually change the structure and function of our brains. When you create new memories you physically change your brain.

And wherever your brain goes, the rest of your life goes. If your mind is set on love, your body will follow suit. If your brain is filled with worry and fear and selfishness, you will live a fearful, worried, self-centered life. If your mind loses contact with God, your body follows.

And that is why when Jesus came He focused on changing the ideas and thoughts that fill people’s minds. The word “repent” is a word that literally means: Change the way you think. Jesus saw a world of people perishing because of the way they thought.

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“Wonder pulls us together – it is a counterforce to all that seems to be tearing us apart.” One of the primary, necessary elements in love is wonder at God. If you have eyes to see the wonderful, exciting kingdom of God that is all around you, you will find that you are someone full of agape love.

My prayer for you is that you would have a rich life of joy and power, abundant in supernatural results, with a constant clear vision of never-ending life in God’s world before you, and of the everlasting significance of your work day by day.

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For years, popular musicians have attempted to answer the question: “What is love?” There are over 10,000 songs on file at the U.S Copyright Office that begin with the words, “Love is …” Examples include: From 1912, “Love is a Sickness Full of Woes”; from 1927, “Love is Like the Influenza”; from 1968, “Love is Psychedelic”; from 1988, “Love is for Suckers”; and from 2007, “Love is a Losing Game”.

As we read this description of agape love in our passage today, we might feel as if we are playing a losing game – that this is impossible, I will never be like this. Well, I want to start this morning by letting you know that you were created to love like this. Jesus loved you into existence so that you could be as wonderful as Him – full of His love. And if Jesus has His way, it will happen.

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Imagine waking up in the morning and realizing, “Only one thing really matters today – loving other people. And if this is all I do – if I don’t get to the laundry, if I don’t get to clean the house, if I don’t finish my job at work – but I love the people around me, I have done what really matters.”

And on the other hand, if I do all that other stuff, if I run all my errands and accomplish all the tasks set before me, but I haven’t loved the people around me … I haven’t accomplished anything of value. In the eyes of God, all my work has been worthless. Did you know that?

Today, Paul is going to say to us: Love plus nothing equals everything. And if we would commit ourselves to learning how to do this one task, nearly all the problems we face in society would disappear.

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A physiologist and former British Olympian has unveiled a blueprint for what he describes as the world's ultimate superhuman. It includes the acceleration of Usain Bold’s legs (whose fast-twitch muscle fibers can accelerate faster than 99.9% of people), the lungs of British rower Steve Redgrave (whose seven-liter capacity means he can take in a third more oxygen than the average person), the brain of “human calculator” Scott Flansburg (who can add numbers faster than a real calculator), the vision of Veronica Seider (able to distinguish detail from up to a mile away, her sight is 20 times better than the average human), the ears of Daniel Kish (able to navigate his environment by measuring the echo response of clicks made by his tongue), and the voice of Georgia Brown (whose vocal range spans 8 octaves).

Well, God is assembling a body greater than that right here – the superhuman body of Christ! A body that has been gifted with such things (as we talked about last week) as: miraculous powers, prophecy, mountain-moving faith, healing power, life-giving mercy, and wisdom from another world. And if you are a follower of Jesus, you are part of that superhuman body.

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Are you acutely aware of the spiritual world? I want to say to you this morning that the reason Jesus was able to perform so many miracles, the reason so many people flocked to Him, the reason He was able to change our world forever is that He lived, thought, worked, and taught in the power of the same Spirit of God that is available to us.

It was not because He was also fully God. When Jesus came to Earth He veiled His divine glory, He emptied Himself in order to not just be our Savior but our example as well. While living on Earth, Jesus used His divine powers infrequently, if at all. The reason His life had such far-reaching power is that Jesus lived in complete dependence upon the same Spirit of God available to us.

Have you been neglecting the gift of the Spirit of God in your life?

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In C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, two of the main characters, Susan and Lucy, hear about Aslan, the Christ-figure in the story. They as if he is a man. And they are told: “Aslan a man? Certainly not…. he is the King of the woods … Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh!” said Susan. “Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous meeting a lion.” “That you will … and make no mistake, if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.” “Then he isn’t safe?” asked Lucy. “Safe? Who said anything about being safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.”

Most people don’t want such a dangerous God. They prefer a god who is safe. A god they can manage. And we have to decide: Do I want the real thing?

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If I wanted to have light in a dark room, my faith in the light switch would cause me to walk over to it and flip it on. Receiving the light of Jesus happens the exact same way. Because of my faith in Him, I walk right up to Jesus and ask for His light to turn on in me.

Do you have the faith to believe that Jesus can do that for you today?