Greetings Living Hope Family! I’m Robert Duvall; my wife is Amy, and I have 3 sons: Alex (13), William (9), and Grayson (5). Amy & I have been members of Living Hope since 1996. I’m currently serving as the elder overseeing ABF and small groups. Amy is serving as a high school table leader & a high school girls’ small group leader. We are excited to see what God is doing at Living Hope as we take a step of faith each day to serve Him and bring glory to His name.
We talk about it all the time: “How are we going to close the gap?” The gap between broken relationships…. The gap between the amount of money we overspend & our income…. The gap between the amount of time we spend developing our children & the actual amount of time we invest in their lives….. The gap between loving our spouse like they’re the most important person in our life & the demonstration of love through our words and actions…. The gap between what we say & what we do. In today’s sermon, Pastor Richard spoke of the gap between our knowledge of God’s Word & its application in our lives. It is not enough to say we love someone or to say we love God. We must demonstrate this love. The apostle John writes in I John 3:18, “Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” Yes, Brothers & Sisters in Christ, we must do all we can to close this gap.
As part of God’s perfect design, we need each other to help close the gap. Rick Warren writes, “It may seem easier to be holy when no one else is around to frustrate your preferences, but that is a false, untested holiness. Isolation breeds deceitfulness; it is easy to fool ourselves into thinking we are mature if there is no one to challenge us. Real maturity shows up in relationships.” God intends for us to develop these authentic relationships so that we can both challenge one another & encourage one another. There must be a healthy balance between the two.
As Christ’s Church, as a country founded on biblical principles, as a local community of faith, as a small group, as a family, and as an individual, we realize there is little evidence of perfection. Consequently, there is a gap between our commitments and our accomplishments. To a world that would call us “hypocrites”, what can we say? Or a better question is, “What can we show?” There must be fruits of our labor culminating in an undeniable evidence of LOVE. I am proud to be part of a local body of believers who “get it” and who “show it”. At Living Hope, I believe our gap is relatively small. We understand, albeit imperfectly, that we have been called to love God, love each other, and love lost people. Certainly there is room for improvement, but I believe our members’ “heart’s desire” is to embrace Pastor Jason’s challenge to “be the most LOVING place on the planet.” We have seen this through our support of Hope House by loving people and expecting nothing in return. We have seen this in our deacon ministry by loving people in their most desperate hours of sickness and grief. We have seen this in our children’s ministry as volunteers love our kids through the teaching of God’s Word while having lots of fun. We have seen this in our senior adult ministry that celebrates God’s gifts of wisdom and self-sacrifice. We have seen this in our ABF’s and small groups by fulfilling Christ’s example of serving one another & speaking the truth in love. We have seen this in a senior pastor leading his flock with a simple, yet powerful, message of love, “To help people: Get to God, Grow in Christ, and Give to Others.”
Pastor Richard accurately said that we have a Family Reunion of God’s people each and every Sunday at church. Without hesitation, I can say that I’m proud to be a member of this loving Family called Living Hope. Let’s close the gap TOGETHER!
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