May 10, 2026

Discover how love, community, and the call to serve one another can transform your faith and redefine what it truly means to be a disciple.

Pastor Dave's sermon begins at 18:49 min into the video. The music “I will worship (I will worship)", "Good Good Father", "The Love Of Christ", “My Jesus I Love Thee”, “Word Of God Speak”, and “They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love” are licensed under CCLI Copyright #2723035 and Streaming Media #22024223 licenses.

Pastor Dave opened this Mother's Day message from John 15:12–17 with a simple but weighty theme: love one another is not a suggestion — it's a commandment, and it's the foundation on which every other "one another" in Scripture is built. This message launched a new series exploring the fifty-plus "one anothers" found throughout the New Testament.

No Lone Rangers - Pastor Dave set the stage by reminding the congregation that there are no Lone Ranger Christians. We're called to community — committed to one another like family and connected to one another like a body. He drew a laugh when he noted that you can't choose your family, then added with a grin, "If you don't have anybody in your family you'd rather not have, you might be the one everybody else is pointing at." He reflected warmly on thirty-eight years of pastoral ministry and said plainly, "The faith community is unique and special because of the people that God has here."

Love Is a Commandment — Not Optional - Working through four passages, Pastor Dave made the case that loving one another is repeated at least fifteen times in the New Testament — and he had a theory about why. "If it came natural to us to love one another, it wouldn't even have to be mentioned. I believe it's mentioned fifteen times because it doesn't come natural to us." From John 15, he noted that Jesus uses the word "command" four times in just a few verses. He offered a softer way to hear it: "It's God's authoritative prescription for living. If you want to please God, here's your prescription — love others."

How Jesus Loved — and How We Should - The standard Jesus sets in John 15 isn't "love others like they love you" or even "love others as yourself." It's higher: love others as Jesus loved you — sacrificially, unconditionally, and in action. Pastor Dave brought it down to earth: "Husbands, it's an act of love when you take the trash out for your wife. Just saying." Laying down your life, he explained, is most often figurative — giving your time, your energy, your inconvenience for someone else.

Sincere, Fervent, and Pure - From 1 Peter 1:22, Pastor Dave unpacked two qualities of love: sincerity and fervency. "Don't be a phony," he said simply. "Be genuine." Fervency, he explained, is like a runner stretching for the finish line — full effort, nothing held back. He shared that a friend of his always signs off with "I love you deeply," and said that phrase has stuck with him. "That's the kind of love we're called to." For those who struggle to love a difficult person, he offered a practical prayer: "Lord, help me to love them like You do."

Love Fulfills the Law — No Loopholes - Closing with Romans 13:8–10, Pastor Dave pointed out that all the commandments — don't steal, don't lie, don't commit adultery — are summed up in one: love your neighbor. The obligation to love, he said, is a debt that never gets paid off. "We're never going to love so much that God says, 'Okay, you've loved enough.'" He closed with a challenge: we all have that one person who's hard to love. A well-known speaker's wife recently admitted that God had been showing her she might be that person to someone else. "Have you ever thought that you might be that person to somebody? Therefore it says to all of us — love one another. There are no loopholes."

Pastor Dave closed with four practical applications: serve the needs of others, speak words of encouragement, take a genuine interest in people's well-being, and bear with one another patiently. The congregation then sang "They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love" together before receiving a closing blessing from 1 Thessalonians 3:11–13.