Good morning. Good morning. Good morning
Morning, despite some technological difficulties praise the Lord
We're here and on the internet and across the world praise God. So we're going to do that. We're gonna praise God
I don't know if you've been
Moving and I've been pretty excited about the things that have been happening at the same time
When every time God moves the enemy tries to rise up and do whatever he can to bog us down and mess with
things and so we're gonna give God all the glory and we're gonna praise him and
Before we open in prayer, I want to ask you to do God in great little activity with me
Okay
I was thinking a lot about the revival that that took place and I call it revival but basically a movement of God
That's the first Asbury College in Willmore, Kentucky and also at several other Christian colleges and places all over the nation's been going on right now
They came to church to worship for that chapel and they do it
wrote certain time certain day
They're required to go part of their schooling and so they went in thinking we're gonna be here for an hour or two
however long it takes to do chapel, I don't know if their time frame normally is that kind of thing and
Went on then for 11 days
Not an hour or two but for 11 days
People then by the 11th day people were driving as far as eight hours to come and participate and also
There's some people came from Brazil to go and you want to see a church hand and
So obviously we didn't do that. It's not about that time about the spectacle, but I want you to bear in mind this thought process that was in their heads
That day when they came to chapel they said we're gonna go worship just like normal
Worship just like normal hear from the word just like normal. We're gonna pray just like normal
We're gonna do just what we just did
Well, last time it was chapter nothing new nothing different
Somewhere during chapel that day
They decided God moved and they began to listen to the God of heaven
Over what they thought was gonna happen that day. Okay, thought it was just gonna be a normal
normal worship normal prayer
Listen to me. There is no normal encounter with God
You have even a scripture you can go beginning to end you will see that different people of different personalities and types
Encounter God in different ways God always interacts with people on a personal level
There is no simple normal basic in time with God
God shows up and does that every Sunday in our church will bless that you may not have done that for years of their chapel
We don't know right there does show up and there's no normal
So don't go. Well, this is just my normal time of prayer
I'm just here like I am every Sunday right put that thought on your head and say this is in the time of God
And I got the entire day, okay
Secondly at some point time in that chapel service. They started thinking, you know, I was supposed to go out to lunch after this
Or on like day two or three. They said, you know, I was supposed to take a shower today
Right and people left and came back and whatnot. But the bottom line is
There's no where that you have to do
And there's nothing that you have to do
This is time set apart for God by time. I don't mean this is one hour, you know
I don't know if you haven't noticed we don't do that. This is one hour we stop saying here
That's one of the reasons why we don't do that, right?
Because it's not just we do this and then we're rushing off. I know we have the pantry at two o'clock
I understand that and we will feed the poor we feed the hungry feed those who are coming in to a box
Somebody will have to go to that but not everybody
You don't have to be anywhere. You know, I got I got food in the oven or I got a cup lunch this afternoon
We make dinner. We got plans for family time. I want you to just let it all go for right now
Right and time comes we end our service and we go on and do what we do in our lives and and you still keep those
Appointments if you have today tomorrow and so on so be it but for right now
Just like had to happen there and really should happen every Sunday. I want you to just let those appointments
Those thoughts that you have the things that you're gonna do the games you're gonna play the fun
You're gonna have the work. We're gonna do the project. We've got to all the bills you gotta pay
I want you to just let all of that go
Because the truth is if Jesus Christ comes in person to take the church
Into the new kingdom before this service ends. You'll not pay those bills
You'll not love them anything. You're not suffering on the more pain. It'll all be done if you become a follower of Jesus Christ
And that's yeah, it's your worship. So we should have this is not about us
It's not about what we got to do email. Some of us worked hard. I study to be here and
And you did to I know there's a lot of folks this week. They did their their Bible verses
That's really cool. I mean the pot of things that we're gonna put tickets in for well, it's increasing
But that's not the point. It's the word increasing enough. That is the point and so just
One this is not your normal worship. There is no such thing
This is your time with God and to you don't have anywhere to be
You don't have anywhere to be later today or tomorrow
Just be with God now. That's it and God will do something amazing to her and in our lives
And it really is like that
It should be like that every time let's pray together
And then we're gonna worship God
I'm a good prayer request now
I'm still trying to get disability and I'm a boy that picked it up
And my dad has a another cousin of surgery on Friday
Let's pray for him
I got a prayer request
It's not tomorrow
I prayed for my mom and she's in three days
Father in heaven you know these things and they're folks that aren't here and they concern our hearts
They're our family. We love them. We care about them
They're friends and connections that we have are hurting
But there's folks out there that were gonna be here today that they canceled last minute
Or they got sick already sick this morning praying for him
The Lord I'm asking you to help us now to shed
Shed the worldly focus, shed the other concerns
That our schedule of presumption that we came here and it's gonna be like it's been before
And just let us be together with you today
Let these songs of worship be chosen for a purpose but the truth is none of them are absolutely essential
They only matter because they are the only thing that matters
Because they're a bridge between us and you today
And we are recognizing the holiness and the great gift and the grace that's given through Jesus your son
For honoring you
And yes we lift up the hurting, we lift up our family members
And the main reason we lift up our family members at opening prayer is so that we can
And I think we box this sometimes
So that we can set those concerns aside or in your lap really
And know that you're gonna take care of it, you're gonna make it turn out however it's gonna turn out
We just want to honor you with our voices, with all that we are, with our time together
We say always, you take over, you be in charge
So if there is a song in the order, if there's a word or a sentence or a paragraph in the message
And it doesn't belong, if there's a heart or an ache or a distraction in this room
You deal with it, you are more than capable, you have all the power, creation power for the entire universe
Resurrection power for the entire soul
We send our best regards to you, we pray this in Jesus name
Amen
Alright if you would please stand and join us for the next couple songs
Some of you look rather comfy in those heaps
I have a loose
I have friends that I trust to be, I trust to know them and help them believe, and in all sincerity they'll let me out of school
You lead, I follow, just slide the way and I'll go, send a room guide for me, it's more than I can treat, don't leave me on and on and on and on
There's a child I've heard your voice, there's a girl I've made my choice, there's no other way for me other than to you
You're my peace on a heavy day, you're the one that I'll stay
If any of the young people would like to join me, you can stick yourself on my Facebook page
I make my way to you, you make me feel better, I think I'm better than you
You make my first feeling, I'll pray, everywhere I look I see your face, your love has captured me, oh my God this love, how can it be
No music videos today, what did God's Word say this week?
What do you got, Jason?
So I was listening to a song in the radio and a couple of times it was in the recording and a couple of my lines came off the mic, right?
I was listening to a line that pretty much I needed, one of the parts it says the old way of smiles is to mask ourselves, to forget about it and to smile
The old way of smiles, so that it doesn't look like we're hurting and the one we care about the pain until tomorrow or the next day
Because we don't want to deal with it at that current moment
And then the other part it says, oh you're talking about saying the name?
Sometimes it's hard for us to speak not just Jesus but the Word of Jesus, the Word of God and what we think and what we feel
And it's hard for us to just push through and just say it
And you were talking about that first part, I watched an episode of a show that's from a long time ago now
It's called The Mentalist, this guy who's really smart, helps solve crimes
He used to be a fake psychic, he used to be able to read people so well and he'd pretend to be a psychic and make a bunch of money
And then his wife and daughter were killed by a mass murderer and he kind of turned over and became a good guy, right?
And they dealt with the tragedy of that and then there's a scene where this other detective that's on his squad
Her fiance turned out to be in the employ of a killer and her fiance tried to kill her
And she was forced to kill him to save herself because she's an FBI agent, or a CBI actually and he's a bad guy
And then they closed the case out finally and a necklace that he bought her the week before she was forced to kill him came back from the evidence room
And they said here's your evidence, here's your necklace
And she took the necklace, she was holding her hand and she was having a flashback to the event, she was having a death
And then she looked at Jane, Jane's a many character and then she said what do you think I should do? Should I keep it or should I throw it away?
And he said well you kind of have to make your choices, you have to make your choice yourself what you're going to do
He said I'll tell you what most people do, most people bury it down
You have to decide are you going to bury it down or are you going to deal with it
And when I look at my Bible I think God is calling us to deal with this
We have a tendency as human beings to deny, grief includes the faith in denial, you're going to do something wrong, man that's worse, you know whatever
And we have a tendency to deny, even the reality of what we went through, oh that never happened
Who's the loved one? You'll say well you literally believe, no this can't be right, they never die
Or you'll walk in the room expecting to see them, that's denial, right?
And you can go through a traumatic event, you can go through a relationship break up or you can go through a violent situation or whatever
And your mind is rubber banding back and forth between accepting it and dealing with it and denying it
And I think the Bible says deny yourself daily, take your cross and follow after me
And I think that means we have to deal with those issues and the way we deal with them is we give them over to Christ and let God make out of what he wants to make out of
That's horrible stuff and the Lord spoke to me during that scene about the same thing we were just talking about
And that was just like two days ago I saw that, it's really cool
And I agree with you as far as we have a tendency to, like I own, I want to every day all day own the fact that I am a Christian, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ
And I get dismissed a lot because they always say he's just a pastor, people pastor, you guys talk like that or things like that
And I hate that, that I get dismissed like that because I'm still a person, right?
Like I still feel like when I'm saying something it really matters to me, not just because it's my job
So I wish that Christians, if you really love the Lord, I wish that we would all be like that
And then people would stop saying, oh it's just because you're a pastor, they could say, well it's just because he's a Christian, which would be better for me
So if we're all on board and we all start talking about Jesus then we'll be like, instead of them dismissing me because I'm a pastor, they can dismiss me because I'm a Christian
At least I'm suffering for Jesus then, right?
Alright, somebody else I saw hand-me-down, Caleb, Caleb, Caleb
Yeah, I was supposed to say, I'm going to focus on tomorrow because tomorrow might not come
Yeah, sounds good
Because we never know if tomorrow will be here
That's true, what does the Bible say about focusing on tomorrow, or maybe no Bible verse that applies?
Personal tomorrow because you're going to be in trouble right away
Say it again
Don't worry about tomorrow because you're going to be in trouble today
Close, yeah, really close, they could basically be moving away
Personal tomorrow because of my head is don't be angry
Okay, so that'll carry over to tomorrow, that's different
Yeah, that's the question
Don't worry about tomorrow because today has enough trouble of its own
James 5 says, don't post tomorrow because you're going to be in trouble
That's right, I'd rather say if the Lord wills will go here a better review
That's good, how many plans have you made? Good, very good
I was at work probably two weeks ago now
And normally when people come and go, they say have a good day, have a good weekend
And this one lady came in and she was talking about the situation
Which we see a lot of people in apartments and families trying to leave
And so when she had got up to leave I told her to have a blessed day
And she turned around so fast and she was like, I've never, people your age don't say that to me
I've never seen a little bit of your age talk like that
She probably thought you were 16
Go ahead
So I was kind of tough, I said, yeah, I've been new to the Lord God
A year ago my husband had helped me and she goes, well it's hard when you don't grow up with it
And I said, I didn't grow up with it
I said, I actually grew up with the down, I was opposed to anything that had to do with God or the Bible
And was constantly in my hair telling how awful it was
And so I said, when I met my husband, I didn't even want to go to church
I said, two years ago I was a completely different person, I wasn't a Christian
I said, I had nothing to do with it
But it's changed my life immensely
From the person I was, to who I am now, it's such a drastic difference I would have never seen for myself
And she just kind of sat there and just took it all in
She said, she had tried to become a Christian, but she didn't know her
And she had those voices in her ear too, telling her it wasn't worth it, it was a time
And she asked how I got over it
And I said, unfortunately I don't have a lot of relationships that I used to have because of it
Because I didn't want that negative voice in my ear telling me it wasn't worth it when I knew it was a lie
And so I don't not talk to them anymore
Because their opinions just don't matter to you as far as what they tell you I need to be doing
And so I just, it was weird to see that she thought that you have to grow up in the Bible to be able to be a professor
And you have to be practicing Christian
And I said, your age doesn't matter, I said, you gotta be very fair about that
As long as you're willing to do work
And so now I always tell people have a blessed day in case you come up in
Two of these things come to mind
If you tell somebody to have a blessed day or to be blessed, you say God bless you
And they're not saved, can God bless them?
Absolutely, right? He can bless them anyway
He does it, and in fact as he does do it, even if they're not saved
But the chief blessing would be what?
To say we get saved
That they would come into encounter with God through Jesus Christ
So when you say God bless you to somebody, when they sneeze
If you're earnest, I mean what I'm saying in a row, God bless you, God bless you
Sneeze four times, I'm gonna wait until you're done
Okay, God bless you, you might just be doing that, people do it, right?
But if you really mean God bless you, and it's like a little prayer for you
You say God bless you, you can say in Jesus' name, you can say that at your head
You don't want to say it out loud, you say God bless you
You're really praying for God to bless them
And how is God gonna bless them? Cheaply?
He's gonna bring them into contact with the gospel over and over again
Until eventually they get saved, right?
If he's honoring your request, and if you're a believer and you pray
And believe you have what you pray for, you will receive it
That's in God's will, it is in God's will that everything will get saved, right?
Not praying for a sparkling new car, because that may or may not be in God's will
But praying that they would be blessed, you can do that at any time
I encourage you to say God bless you or have a blessed day
All the time, say it all the time, but mean it
Don't say it if you don't mean it, like when I'm grumpy I don't say it
Because I know my heart's in the wrong place, whatever
And I know I wouldn't be meaning it if I heard God bless you
You know, or that's not the same thing
But if you mean it, if you pray it, God can bless you
The second thing is, what you just said right here
Can you believe, can you stretch your mind for a moment and believe
That there are people in the world, you do realize there are billions of people, right?
So there are people in the world that are in a similar situation to you
So Ron, you know there are other senior maintenance techs in the world, right?
How many senior maintenance techs do you think are in the world?
Tens of thousands, right?
And of those tens of thousands of senior maintenance techs
How many of them might have other factors of their life that line up similar to yours?
What? What's that?
Thousands
Thousands, sure, right
So now if you would get, you would talk with that person
Your story would resonate with them
Because they'd be like, well you're like me, right?
You have some of the same issues that I have, whatever
When I deal with pastors, I run into this quite frequently
That they have the same struggles, the same
That anything comes after them in the same way, things like that
But the bottom line is, if you just went out looking for the people
That would resonate with your story
You could find hundreds of people in your lifetime
That would go, well you're like me
And you got saved, you believe this
How can you believe this?
Because everything I see and tells me that it's not real
But then there's something inside me that says it is real
How can you believe this?
Right? If you can just find the people that will resonate with you
And then you can go beyond that
Because you'll find that little parts of your story
Resonate with other people in a big way
Like when I was, I used to work in retail
And one of the things Sherry and I discovered
Is you wouldn't have a life with your family
You wouldn't have health and be able to walk in your faith
It's harder to work in retail full time or be a manager
Because your schedule is all over the place
And it's whatever the business needs all the time, right?
And almost becomes like a, not just a master
Because everybody's job is a little bit of a master
But it becomes a vicious master, a wicked master
Who wants to hair out your life, you're not careful
And so whenever I'm talking with somebody in retail
I know my story, if we can talk about things
Like what they're going through, will resonate with them
And then at some point you can transition that same
But then I encounter Jesus Christ
And now let me tell you how I see that
That's it, what we're talking about is the vandalism
God does not ask you to explain the Bible to unbelievers
Check it, if you find a verse, it proved me wrong
There is not a verse in the Bible that tells you to go
And explain the Bible, what it means to teach the verses to unbelievers
Make you disciples and teach them all things I have taught you
You first make them disciples, right?
You plug them into Jesus, then we teach them all things
So if you're walking around teaching lost people to be honest
You are wasting your breath, right?
Now you might have to police, you might be an authoritarian
Or whatever, it might be your job to make sure things go correctly
That's all fine, you might have to write somebody up on the job
If they did the wrong thing, that kind of thing
But the bottom line is, you're just acting as a policeman there
But as a Christian, if you can find any part of your story
That can resonate with them
And I'm going to submit to you, most lost people
Just the fact that you were lost and got found
That you were lost and got saved, right?
That might be enough, but you find that part of your story
That resonates with them, and then from there
Just tell them how you did it
You don't have to tell them what the pastor said
You don't have to quote 10 Bible verses from memorandum
You got a couple that you can use to fit the situation
That would be cool, it would be a little bit extra, right?
But otherwise, just tell them how you did it
I just one day said
That from now on, I'm going to live for God through Jesus Christ
I'm just going to give Him the rest of my days
Or however you phrase it, or whatever
And because you already resonate with who they are
And they resonate with who you are
Whatever you did is going to resonate with them
They may not do it
They may go like, oh, you make that sound so easy
I can't think of any time before that
Does it at least?
You make that sound so easy
Like, well it is really just a choice
A moment in time, right?
And then after that, God's at work
And He'll help you make the next choices
Well, I have to stop drinking first
No, that's not the way it works
You can want to stop drinking
If you're in a relationship with God, He'll lead you to that
But you'll stop drinking if that's what God wants you to do
Once God pours you the power to do that
And people always want to stop everything
And fix everything before they come to Jesus
And that's just not the way it works
So, I really spoke to my heart
I would encourage you to say, bless the day, bless the night
Bless the weekend, be blessed
God bless you, all those things
And mean it as you're talking to people
I can honestly tell you that I have had thousands and thousands of non-believers
Say, God bless you to me
Can you believe it?
I don't think they probably got what they wanted
I wouldn't be able to get them blessed anyway
But I say, God bless you
And they say, you too, all the time
People that don't know God
Sometimes I'll say, God bless you
And they'll catch my head and go, what is this?
So, are you a believer?
And they'll say, no
And I'll say, can I tell you what I believe or can I tell you what the Bible says about that?
And you're sharing the gospel
If they said it backwards
You share what you did
And you share the gospel
And if you had asked her, would you say it?
She would have been saved
That's pretty cool stuff
Anybody else got one real quick?
Two things
First thing is
I can only all add to what
Cable was saying
Because I was
Me and my wife when we first started out were similar
Mine was a much more extreme case
Because I was a human misdrewer
So
But it was
It's crazy to me to look back and
Talk to some of my old friends
Because I still have contact with some of my friends
That I had when I was in high school
And I'm like, dude, you're so different now
You're not as wild
As you used to be
And I'm like, well, for one, I grew up
I realized that I had to grow up
Because I got kids and a family to take care of
And I tell all of them
And for two, I've learned who Jesus was
And like
The looks on their face
Are like, what? Are you kidding me?
Like, you're a church boy now?
Church boy
A lot of them, that's what they call me
And there's a couple of them, that's what they say to me
When they say that, they say, no, my son's a church boy
I'm a church man
Well, it just makes me laugh because
It's just
People don't really know you
And when you start telling them things
Like that, it really goes to show that
You will never
Fully know somebody
You could be married to somebody, like, no, I've been married to my wife
For going on
Almost 13 years
And there's still things about her
That I'm not aware of, and it's the same with her for me
You could be married all of your life
And you're gonna learn new things about that
Person that you didn't know
And which goes back
Which kind of rolls into the second thing I have
So I love to write
But I'm not
I'm not a big reader
So it's kind of weird, but
I'm writing this book
And I've been writing on it for a while
Actually, I started it when I looked at it
It's kind of funny, I looked it up
I started it four years ago in March
So I've been working on it for a very long time
A little bit here and there, what not
And there was a while where I just didn't do anything with it
But I started working on it while I'm at work
Like on lunch break or
Down time, I'll start working on it
And a couple of you guys asked me, what was I doing
Because they're like
Are you writing a book or something
And I go, yeah, that's exactly what I'm doing
Like, what
Oh, really? You're really writing
Yeah, I'm writing a book
I enjoy writing
It's crazy to me that
That's not a more common thing
And people find it so weird
And then
Which the
Like I said, this leads me to this
The fact is that
The reason we do things
There's reasons we do things that we don't understand
And
Writing for me is one of those things that I've done for a long time
That I've never really fully understood
Until more recently
Over the last couple years
And it's a way to
Like, I guess escape from reality
Get my mind off of things
But the other thing is
Whatever I'm writing
It makes me feel like I'm
Trying to pull closer to something
And usually
Usually I'm trying to pull closer to God
And I was looking back
One of my earlier things that I wrote
When I first got saved
And it was so dark
And it was
It terrified me, it scared me
To read it because I'm like, that's who I was
And
I still struggle with that same thing sometimes
But
I would encourage, I guess
Everyone to write a little bit
Even if it's just a little bit because
You could do that, you can look back
Four or five years
From now and go, man
I really come far
And I know
There's no way I would be where I'm at right now
If it wasn't for God
And I've pulled all my friends at work
And I've pulled them all the same thing
There's no way I would be where I'm at right now
If it was not for God
And it's just phrasing to me
That it's similar like that
People are like, wait, really?
Like, yeah, seriously, that's it
You accept God and things change
For me, they've done nothing but change for the better
Good word
30 seconds
Sorry, I'm counting
When you're encountering God
You're encountering someone else
There's always a shock factor between another person and another person
Because they don't know you
But when you're encountering God and God's encountering you
You have a shock factor, but God doesn't have a shock factor
He's not shocked at all
He has love, He has courage, He has grace
He has strength, He has compassion, He is merciful
This is who God is with everybody
So when you're encountering God
For you it's like, whoa, but God is
I'm your Lord, I'm your Savior
Here I am
I'm stopping there before you start preaching my sermon
I gotta teach kids
Amalia, would you pray for us
As we transition, we're gonna do a little more worship
Let the Lord reign
Thank you Lord, I'm really glad you think you're gonna stay
Thank you for bringing us all here this morning
To worship you
To draw closer to you
To the people that you have chosen
To get that message this morning
I ask for your guidance and your blessings as we go from here
We will make the decisions we even have to make in our real life
And be blessed for it
I ask this special friend this morning
For those who are sick
For those who are getting sick
For those who are unwell in the time where that's very common
I just ask for your blessing upon my family
And my church family in this room
Thank you Lord
Thank you
The sun has come
The heaven looked away
The sun has galvanized
In the garden tree
The bathroom in the grave
The warm under the tree
The power of hell forever broken
The ground began to shake
The stone installed
The ground began to shake
The stone installed
The ground began to shake
The stone has rolled away
It's perfect
And the rest of me has been in love with you, yeah
Our memories, is all that's left
Our memories, is where you are
Our memories, is where you feel the love
Feel the love
We sing hallelujah
The reaches over town
We sing hallelujah
The reaches over town
We sing hallelujah
We sing ha- Avec- Ell
The Lamb has overcome, we sing hallelujah
We sing hallelujah, we sing hallelujah
The ground we end to shake, the star will fall away
Your perfect good will come to me, oh, oh
Now that we're in the upstate, our resurrection day
Has come to an end
For your glory is glorified
For your glory is blessed
For your glory is blessed, blessed
Blessed
There's a lot of my soul, oh, oh, my soul
She can't go on with me
She might never be born
Oh, my soul, how much I live for
Sometimes I'm hit through the day, darling
It's hard to sing this song again
Whatever may pass and whatever might be boring
Let me be singing when the evening comes
There's a lot of my soul, oh, oh, my soul
She can't go on with me
She might never be born
Oh, my soul, how much I live for
You're reaching out for my heart
From that day when my strength is failing
The end of year and my time has come
Still my soul will see no bridge unending
Ten thousand years have lived forever alone
There's a lot of my soul, oh, oh, my soul
She can't go on with me
She might never be born
Oh, my soul, how much I live for
Oh, my soul, oh, oh, my soul
She can't go on with me
She might never be born
Oh, my soul, how much I live for
Sometimes when I look at my Bible, I like to take it from another point of view.
I realize that in the world there are those who study this word, this written historical book,
and they decipher it with a purpose in mind other than which it was initially intended.
Arden is taking an ethics class at school, and he and I have gotten into some interesting discussions
surrounding the material that he is studying, and there is a definite truth that God is the originator
of all things moral and ethical. He is holy, just, He is love, He is righteous,
and wrote this book with those intent. However, it is also true that many men will read this book
to gain knowledge from it. I always use this illustration. It cracks me up.
Back in the late 90s, early 2000s, a man named L. Ron Hubbard wrote a book called Dianetics,
and he based that entire book, which is a pretty stinking thick book, a self-help book on how to get control of your life
and how to live vibrantly and how to be happy. And he wrote it all based on one proverb.
Now, he didn't tell anybody that he based it on a proverb from the Old Testament,
but he wrote it all based on one proverb, and it made the New York Times bestsellers list.
And L. Ron Hubbard was not professing Christianity at the time. I don't know if he became one or not.
The bottom line is, people look at, you tend to look at this book from their own perspective,
and when you're searching and you don't know God, you have not met God through his son, Jesus Christ,
you'll find lots of wisdom in here. And so today, we're going to take it from a slightly different point of view.
We're going to look at the book of, in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, we will read the entire chapter,
but don't panic, it's only 13 verses. It's not, like, it's a super long thing.
But we'll use a couple of other supporting verses before we're through.
And we're going to look at it from the point of view of how to take advantage of someone who loves you.
All right? And so this chapter will give you everything you need to know on how to take advantage of someone who loves you.
So maybe get a little excited, say a hoot, holler, amen, or a uh-huh, as we go to 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
Not a single uh-huh in the house. I gave you that opportunity. Okay.
I knew you were, I knew you were, brother. All right. 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
I will read it, I will break it down. We won't spend a ton of time in the actual text,
but you're going to, it's not hard to understand, really, especially if you know Jesus.
If you don't, you may find some of the twists and turns a little complicated,
and I'll try to break those down the best I can as well.
Verse 1, if I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And so the tongue of angels might be the gift of tongues, or it might be the way angels speak.
Don't worry about it too much. But the bottom line is, if you talk like that, but you do not have love,
what you say will be worthless. It's just big and loud, and you may correct me,
it was like when I mentioned the inspirational moment, teaching people to be honest who do not know the Lord.
That's just being like a clanging cymbal.
You're teaching them to do something that they really cannot do on their own.
Maybe they can for a while, but not necessarily lasting.
Verse 2, and if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
Pretty good stuff in there. I want to know a lot. I like to study, learn.
In fact, I can't study and learn as much as I would like to.
I would like to have the gift of prophecy. Sometimes I feel it. Maybe I do have dreams,
and then those dreams will later come true. I write the dreams in my dream journal,
so I know I didn't make it up or imagine it, and I'll dream something,
and then I'll put it in my dream journal, and then a few months later it will happen just as it was in my dream journal.
And I'll go, oh yeah, that was there. And if I had only known, I could have done something about it.
Occasionally I'll be sitting there and go, oh this is the day of my book. We were here right there before.
And I'll be able to predict the next thing that's going to happen, because I dreamt it previously.
And most of the time I'm right. So sometimes I think I have the gift of prophecy, but I don't know for sure.
But boy, it would be nice to have the gift of prophecy, for sure, and to know all mysteries and all knowledge.
But even if you do all of that, and hold on, and if I have all faith, right?
So I trust God. I believe in God. If you're a believer, then it's because you have faith.
But then this is a deeper gift of faith. It's something that you can work with, act on.
It's all faith, he says. So much faith so as to remove mountains.
But if I don't have love, I am nothing.
And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, there's self-denial for you.
And if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
So it doesn't matter if you go to the stake in our burn for Christ, or give all that you have in this world to do good works.
If you don't have love, it profits me nothing. And here we go.
Now we're going to get the definition of love. And I submit to you that in here,
and I'll try to break it down a little bit as we go by, and then I'll come back in the points and make it maybe more precise.
Verse four. Love is. So this is how people who love, love. This is what love is. Love is patient.
So in other words, it doesn't get irate. It doesn't move too fast for whoever it's dealing with.
It doesn't get upset when they can't move fast enough. Love is patient. Love is kind.
I think we got that one. And is not jealous. In other words, you're not bothered by the fact that others are doing well.
If you love them, you want them to do well, right? In fact, you parents often realize somewhere along the lines that you really want your children to be better than you did.
And not go through what you went through and not put themselves through what you went through to get where you've gotten to.
So if you become a parent, then hopefully if you love your child, you want better for them than what you have.
And therefore you are not jealous when you see them doing well. So love is not jealous.
Love is also not jealous when it sees one's spouse, for example, maybe having time separate or something that they're enjoying or whatever.
And so rather than trying to control them, capture them, keep them close to you, love lets them free knowing that they will always return.
And if they didn't return, well, that's a different thing altogether. Love is not jealous. Love does not brag.
Love is not constantly talking about how good love is or how well you've done or how many things you've done or how good a worker, how good a spender, how good a saver, how creative, whatever.
Love does not spend its time talking to others about itself. Love does not brag. And is not arrogant.
Love doesn't think, well, see, I deserve, I have rights, I should be getting X. Love does not think, I put myself up there, I built this.
I did this. Love is not arrogant. Love does not act unbecomingly.
This one is very challenging because when you love someone, you kind of want from them that to be returned.
And so you may do certain things in order to manipulate them to get you to do what you want them to do. That is not love.
When a teenager, teenage boy, tries to talk to a teenage girl into doing something behind her parents back, that is definitely not love.
When a teenage girl says, oh, they'll never know and tries to get him to do something, that is not love.
They can say, I love you, but they don't love them because if they love them, they would not be acting unbecomingly.
And there's a lot of ways you can act unbecomingly, but love does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own.
So even though you can benefit maybe by loving more than anything else in the world, by loving someone and going out of the way and love like what we're talking about, you don't do it to get the benefits.
And you don't do it to get them to favor you. You don't do it to get them to even, you really want them to do well.
And so I'm going to do a lot of things to make them get to do well so I can feel good about myself for having made them do well.
To parents who will cover up their children's crimes to make sure they didn't go to jail, that's not love.
Because they are not covering up their children's crimes self-sacrificially.
They're covering up their children's crimes so that they won't have to see their children go to jail for what they've done wrong.
Sometimes going to jail and receiving the punishment for what you did is the just thing. And justice is often what's best for people.
Now if you yourself are wrong, you can forgive them. That's grace. You give them grace. You forgive them and go above and beyond.
And therefore you're not seeking your own. Right? But where the law is concerned, that's different.
Love does not seek its own. Is not provoked.
So if you love someone, something goes wrong, whatever it might be, you're not provoked.
It's hard to love perfect strangers, but if you're driving down the road and someone cuts you off and you are provoked,
understand that it's clear that you do not love that person or have not become loved because you've been provoked.
Someone says something nasty or wrong to you, someone takes a swing at you, right?
And now your anger is up and you have to come back at them with whatever you've got.
Realize you don't love them the way the Bible describes love. Love is not provoked.
Love does not take into account a wrong suffered. This one's really hard.
We always talk about forgiving everybody, right? But we say I forgive but I don't forget.
But according to this, love forgets. Love literally forgets.
Like as in, oh you did this wrong to me a year ago, but I am not going to weigh that in my decision making process at all.
I don't take that into account. That's what it means. It does not take into account a wrong suffered.
You wronged me, but I'm not going to take that into account when I deal with you in the future.
Love essentially forgets or does not take into account a wrong suffered.
Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness.
This one's important because we think about someone hurt me and I'm not going to take that into account in my future decision making, right?
But at the same time, I am not going to allow them to continue in unrighteousness.
So I'm not going to allow them to continue to hurt me, right?
So I'm not taking into account the wrong that they wronged me, but I'm also not going to put myself in a position where they're attempting to wrong me again.
It requires a balance. Also when someone says I'm going to live a certain way, I'm going to do a certain thing,
if love loves them and love does because that's what love is, then love will say, no, I don't want you to do that.
I don't agree with that course of action. Not the other way around.
The world is teaching today, which is they can do whatever they want and you have to accept it because you love them.
Right? Love does not bear with unrighteousness.
Love does not want to see that person in unrighteousness.
Not excited about it for sure. People go, well, I'm so happy.
I decided to do this and now I'm so happy. And if you love them, you're happy that they're happy. Right?
But when you realize the reason they're happy is because of unrighteousness, then you say, no, I can't be happy for you.
Sorry. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.
Love rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things. What's up with everything? I'll put up with whatever.
Believes all things. This is going to work out. God is going to take care of this.
You're going to get somewhere better eventually. It's going to work out.
Hopes all things. God can do this. We can get there. Don't quit. Endures all things.
You can hit me, but I'm not going to hate you even if you hit me.
Love never fails. But if there are gifts of prophecy, that's that thing you said we really wanted,
but if we had it, it wouldn't, without love, it would be worthless.
But if there are gifts of prophecy, telling the future, speaking for God, if there are those things,
they will be done away. There's going to be a time where there's no more need for anyone to speak for God.
If there are tongues, they will cease. Eventually, everyone's going to shut up except to say, Jesus is Lord.
Every knee bowed and every tongue confessed that he is Lord. And then after that, praising God for an eternity.
If there are tongues, special languages, angelic languages, foreign languages, they will all cease.
If there is knowledge, it will be done away. See, knowledge is done away when we know everything,
when we get there. And then he goes on to explain in verse 9, for we know in part, like right now, we get it.
We might know. Like, listen, the most knowledgeable person about the Bible in this room, whoever that might be,
and I'm not saying who it is, if it's me or if it's RJ or Tony Brister or we lost Tony Tate,
but it doesn't matter who it is. But whoever that is, ultimately, their knowledge is not enough.
They don't have enough knowledge. They don't know it. They can't even tell you.
Like, my guess is you could go, okay, what book is before and name the book, and they would have to go,
it's, unless it was one that's really common, right? Right away, can anybody go, what's the book before Obadiah?
Right now, can you do that? Can you tell me what the book of Obadiah is about?
How about just the first chapter of Obadiah? Can you do that?
See, our knowledge is limited, and it always will be. No matter how much we study or how far we go,
that knowledge is always going to be limited. We know in part, and we prophecy in part.
Even if you have the gift of prophecy and can tell the future, you're only going to be able to do somewhat, right?
We have prophecies about the next coming of Jesus, and we only sort of understand them
because they weren't totally complete or laid out.
We can say, in 2041, Jesus will return, and this is exactly how it will be,
and what the day will be like, and what color people will be wearing,
and the history and predictions that will be in place at that time.
It's not complete, right? Because prophecy is limited in what it can do.
We know in part, and we prophecy in part. But when the perfect comes, that means the complete,
the partial will be done away. So in other words, you no longer need partial knowledge or partial prophecy
because you're going to have total understanding of what God is doing when that time comes.
When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child.
When I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly,
but then face to face, now I know in part. I was thinking about this within,
I read a little excerpt a Southern Baptist pastor wrote about going to the revival
that was going on at Asbury College in Willmore, Kentucky, right?
He said, my wife and I, he said, when Star Wars came out, we stood in line for three hours
to buy tickets and an hour to get seated. So we thought, you know, if there's a revival
or something amazing happens, it's worth the effort. So they drove eight hours to go to Willmore,
Kentucky to go to get into revival. And he said, when they got there, they stood in line for five hours,
and they finally got in and they were able to worship for three hours as part of the service.
And one of the things that he said was there was a lot of things that seemed underdeveloped.
Like a person did a devotional and the devotional was kind of not really theologically strong.
It didn't really, it wasn't covered by the Bible. The points that the guy was making wasn't quite right.
Okay. And then he said, a speaker got up and spoke and they were just very blunt and direct.
And they asked people to confess openly their sins and to turn to God and so on.
And he said, that was pretty sound, but it didn't use a lot of Bible.
So what I'm getting at is even as young Christians or as growing Christians,
we're always going to kind of get part of it. Right?
I'll tell you right now that things that I learned when I was five years a Christian,
some of them have like become so rich and powerful for me that I literally do them every single day
or I want to do them, I'm always thinking about them. And others of them I go, you know, that wasn't quite right.
And I kind of let it fade. I didn't quite have the right idea there. Right?
And so we're like little kids growing up into the faith and we get, we want prophecy
and we want the faith to move mountains and all that.
But it's all going to kind of be done away with when we get there and it's all done.
And you're going to look back and go, I was my best understanding at that time.
Man, I was really driving hard on what God wanted me to do based on my best understanding.
But now I get here and I face the face of God and I realize that was all trivial.
Hear me now. If you have any kind of thing about worship,
you're like, I want to sing as loud as I can because God deserves glory.
Or I don't want to sing because I don't think that people will want to hear my voice.
You know, I'm not really a singer. That's not my thing.
Or anything in between. Your thoughts about worship are infantile as a baby.
Right? Because we're going to get there in the presence of God
and such an overpowering awe is going to strike you
that you're going to become the best worshiper being you could ever be.
And you're going to put all this hope of being a good worshiper, all this pushing yourself
or trying to discipline yourself or trying to sing when you don't really feel like it or whatever.
All of that is going to be behind you because you're going to encounter Holy God with such a sense of awe
that all you can do is declare His work and when you're worshipping, that's it.
And so when you squeak out the feeble when I was a young Christian, I thought,
man, nobody wants to hear me sing and I used to sit away from everybody else
because I didn't want to sit by anybody else because I knew my voice wasn't,
didn't sound good and I didn't want to throw them off and whatever.
That was infantile. That was me as an infant.
And now I'm like, I don't think my voice sounds good, but I just belt it out there
and I realize who God is and He deserves that and a thousand times more.
And the development that I've done now in those 25 years, 27 years is minimal.
It's nothing compared to the instant change that's going to take place
when I come into His presence and know it all for what it is.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.
Now I know in part, but then I shall know fully, just as I also have been fully known.
Last verse, but now abide, that means remain, continue, faith, hope, and love.
These three, but the greatest of these is love.
Okay, so there's a few things I want you to see in here
and in the middle part of it is how to take advantage of someone who loves you.
The first thing I want you to see in here is that this passage, often read at weddings, right?
Like a lot of times they'll read this passage at weddings because if you're getting married,
you're supposed to love your spouse this way.
Some Bible scholar in the room might know that in the Koinei Greek
there are essentially three words for love.
There's agapao or agape love, it's a kind of love.
Agape is an adjective describing it and agapao is to love that way, I love that way.
And then there's Philadelphia, that's what the city of Philadelphia is named after.
It means brotherly love, like he and I are, you know, he's my brother and I love him and that kind of thing.
And then there's eros love, which never occurs in the Bible.
Eros love is passion love. I love her, she's hot. I love him, he's handsome.
I want to be with him, I'm driven in my flesh to be with him.
Right, that's eros love. It's in a lot of literature, but it's never in the Bible.
The two that are is Philadelphia and agape.
The difference is brotherly love is we love each other because we're brothers or sisters
or we're both Christians, right?
And we love each other because we love God and so we share love with each other as part of the family.
Like I love my brother Tom, we disagree about a lot of things, but I love him because he's my brother
and it's brotherly love.
But agape love is this love. Every time that love appears in this passage, it's like this.
And so at weddings a lot of times they'll read this and they'll say,
you got to have this kind of love in your marriage.
Now I want you to stop and think for a minute. Let's be just a little critical, shall we?
How often does this kind of love appear in marriage?
Well, that's problematic.
And so what people want to say is this is excellent love.
This is the best kind of love.
And I'm here to tell you today this is not excellent love.
It's not. It's the only love. It's love.
It says love is this, love is this, love is this.
It does not say excellent love is this.
Well worked love, practiced love, try hard love.
The King James says the word charity instead of love here and in other places
in the same word it'll translate it love.
Because when someone was reading this passage of scripture they wanted to say,
love, practice, as if you might have love and not practice it, right?
But based on what we just read, can you have love and not practice it?
No, the answer is no.
Can you despise someone and at the same time love them?
The answer is no. Love is love. That's it.
There's no excellent love. I love you excellently.
I'm doing a good job of loving you. I'm doing a poor job of loving you.
You love or you don't.
And if you don't love then you might look at this and go,
well I'm not patient with the person I say I love.
If you are not patient with the person you say you love, you don't love them.
I'm not saying it.
Paul said it as led by the Holy Spirit.
Love is patience. Love is time.
Are you patient and kind with the person you say you love?
This is not excellent love. It's just love.
This is what love is.
Now immediately think, well, yeah, it's really hard for me to do.
I submit to you it's entirely possible, I'm being a little philosophical here,
but it's entirely possible that unless you've encountered the Jesus that I know,
you cannot love this way.
In fact, unless you have encountered the Jesus that I know,
your love will be temporal and this says love abides, it continues.
And so at the moment you die, unless you become a Christian,
the moment you die you will cease to love anyone that you love,
even if you were loving them by the standard because you will go to hell for an eternity
wherein love does not exist.
Let's assume for a moment that you're going, yeah, love, I see.
If you just ascend to this point with me.
This is what the Bible says love is.
You can do that. It's not this is an excellent kind of love.
This is a good kind of love. This is a kind of love to work for.
This is what the Bible says love is.
You can read it for yourself. Love is. That's what it says.
So then based on that, you can very clearly see how you can take advantage of someone who loves you.
And essentially there's like three ways.
The first way would be to presume.
Well, they love me and so since they love me, they're going to be patient with me.
They're going to be kind to me.
They're not going to be jealous.
All of these things.
And so I can do whatever I want to do because they will bear with all things.
I can do what I want to do even though it hurts them.
They're going to accept it because they love me.
I will do this. It's going to bother them a little bit.
And it'll bother them for as long as I do it, but I'll do it as long as I want because they will endure it.
See, so now this love, if someone truly loves you the way the Bible says,
gives you license then to do whatever you want to do and still receive that love.
You can presume they will love you that way.
In fact, I submit to you that if they love you this way, you would be absolutely correct.
You can presume to do whatever it is that will bother them, hurt them, make them sad, break their heart even.
You can do all of those things, minor irritations all the way up.
You're blowing your top, being stupid, taking their stuff, hurting them physically, whatever.
And they will continue to love you because love is these things.
And once they are practicing it, they're not going to stop practicing it just because you're stupid.
So you can presume that they will continue.
And in presuming that they will continue to love you, you can take great advantage over them
because you can go, well, I'm going to do it.
Yeah, I know it'll bother them. I know their heart may break.
I know that, hi, Sierra, they may be struggling, whatever.
But even so, I am going to presume it's going to be okay.
I'm going to presume that this person is not going to walk away from me.
I'm going to presume they're not going to blow their top.
I'm going to presume they're not going to hurt me physically, psychologically, emotionally, et cetera.
I'm going to presume.
So you can take advantage of them by presuming how they're going to behave because they love you.
Secondly, you can be repetitious.
You can repeat bad behavior, bad behavior, and they forgive you, bad behavior, and they forgive you, bad behavior, and they forgive you.
They may say something because they don't rejoice in unrighteousness, but they will not say, well, okay,
now you're doing what you shouldn't be doing.
And I don't agree with that.
I don't love it that that's happening that way, but I still love you so you can do it as you want.
Repetition in the same areas because now you know this is a beaten path.
We've been down.
I know that they will be.
They'll bear with me.
I know that they'll still believe I had a young man that I was trying to help.
I cannot tell you how many times told me in fact he told me it was a hundred days sober.
And then about a month later told me it was already sober.
I'm a hundred days sober today.
Why? Because when the first time he told me it was a hundred days sober, he was drinking and he forgot that he had told me it was a hundred days sober.
So then he told me it was a hundred days sober.
I said, you just told me a month ago that it was a hundred days sober.
Oh, yeah.
And he played it off as I had discounted or whatever like that.
But a number of times it came up and I'm trying to be critical, but I'm just going to be simple about it if I can for a moment.
And that is that it's quite often that alcoholics use stages and they'll say, I know you love me.
I can see that.
And I want to make you happy.
I want to tell you what you want to hear so that I so that you feel happy even though it's not true.
And then you rejoice to hear what they've done.
And they've essentially tricked you in rejoicing in unrighteousness because you're rejoicing in what they've done, but it's actually a lie.
Later you find out. And what do you do?
You forgive them and love them because that's what love does if you're actually loving.
But the bottom line is you can see based on this that either by presuming what they're going to do in advance, which you license to do whatever you want to do, or by repetition, you can easily take advantage of someone who loves you.
Can easily take advantage of someone who loves you.
And then the third thing is more overreaching.
And it is this.
You can choose.
The best way to take advantage of them would be to choose not to love them back.
And as long as you choose not to love them back in the biblical sense of love, what we're talking about love, to honestly, earnestly love, simple love, real love, what God says is love.
As long as you choose not to do the things that they are doing, you will always have the upper hand.
Because when they do something you don't like, you can make them beg for forgiveness.
You can make them ask you.
You can make them commit.
You can make them have a track record.
You can make them pay reparations.
Whatever. You can hold it against them while in turn they love you and are not doing the same things.
You will always have an advantage because you can choose not to love them back.
And I submit to you based on what I said initially, it's possible you may not be able to choose to love them if you have not met Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
Bottom line is this is not a version of excellent love.
This is a version of what God says love is.
The only one.
It is what God says love is.
And secondly, you can see how out of this you can easily take advantage of someone who loves you either by presuming what they will do in advance.
I've played a lot of chess over the years.
If you know what the next person is going to do, their mood next, what you're thinking.
Some people are a little transparent.
You know for sure what they're going to do next.
Then you can adjust your mood according to that.
So just knowing what they're going to do, you can presume it and you can behave in a way that controls the situation.
You've got an advantage.
Secondly, you can repeatedly do the things that you want to do and expect them to forgive you, to behave loving towards you.
And then third, you can just choose to not love them back.
And in all those ways, you will have a serious advantage position.
I think about women who are being beaten by their husband.
They keep going back and they say, oh, well, it's just because they're dumb.
They believe that he'll stop.
They believe every time he says, forgive me and blah, blah, blah.
And people say, well, it's psychological and they have an addiction or whatever like that.
Well, it could be that they love him.
Now, the truth is if they love him and they keep going back as he says and his promises and he does whatever to make it, to supposedly make it right, there is no making it right.
Then the fact is they don't love him the way this says because they don't they continue to put him they continue to put him in a position to do wrong again and again.
If they really loved him, they would give up what they want and get away so he can't beat them anymore.
And it would be an act of love that they're walking away to bring to an end that acidic relationship.
First thing, this is not an excellent love.
It's just love.
Second thing, here's how you take advantage of someone who loves you.
Now, the third thing is the outcome.
If you should choose to take advantage of someone who loves you in this way, let's say you say, well, I can see they love me.
I want to behave because I know what they're going to do.
So I'm going to do what I want to do, knowing what they're going to do.
Or you say, I'm just going to keep repeating my bad behaviors because every time they keep forgiving me and I know they love me and they'll not walk away from me even though I'm being stupid or borderline abusive or whatever.
Or you say, well, as much as they love me, I did not find it in myself to love them back that way, that kind of self-sacrificial love, the love that's described here.
I'm not going to do that.
So I'm going to take advantage of them in that way because they're going to let them continue to love me in the way that they're supposed to while I don't do it back in return for them.
Here's the problem.
And it's all in verse 13, essentially, and a couple of other passages that we'll look at real quick.
It says this in verse 13.
But now abide faith, hope and love, these three.
But the greatest of these is love.
You know, the Bible says this is love that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Jesus clearly set that example.
Also in Mark, in the book of Mark 13, Jesus is speaking and he basically says he gives the commandments.
He sums it up, if you will.
He says love your neighbor as yourself. Same word, love.
In 1 John, chapter four, John writes it this way.
1 John, chapter four.
Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
It's so difficult to love the way the Bible says love is.
You say that very clearly.
You know why it's so difficult to love the way the Bible says love is?
Because outside being born again, it's impossible.
And so if you're walking down the road right now, the road of your life, as two people, one who is born again and one who is not,
if you're living a divided self, if your soul sometimes rolls like the pinball into the pit of the old self
and you're staying where it belongs into the light of the new self,
then you'll find that you'll love like your old self loves, which is not love at all.
Not the way the Bible describes it. Not what God says love is.
He says, beloved, let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
By this, the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him.
And this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
That means he paid for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
No one has beheld God at any time if we love one another.
God abides in us. That means God lives in us, remains in us, and his love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit.
That's his Holy Spirit.
And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.
And I would extend that and say, John says, and we come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.
God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Get it?
So yes, this is love. Not an excellent love, just the only love.
Secondly, it's easy to be presumptuous towards somebody who is loving you and get an advantage.
It's easy to repeat towards somebody who is loving you and get an advantage.
Or it's easy to just choose not to love them back, or even if you should choose to love them,
if you don't know the Lord, you could struggle in loving them the way you're supposed to.
Even if you chose to do it, you really wouldn't be able without a knowledge of God,
because God is love, he is that kind of love, he remains in us as that love, and so on.
And then here we see the real problem.
If they love you this way, if they love you the way that God has given, and you choose not to,
at the end of the road, do you see what happens?
They remain, and you don't.
So caution. Be aware.
The one who loves this way loves God's love.
The love that God declares what love is will remain, but the one who does not will not.
Now the problem is obviously then, if I love this way, others will possibly take advantage of me.
It's pretty easy to do. They may do it by presuming, by repeating, or by just not loving me back the way I love them.
Is that not exactly what happened with Jesus?
Jesus came to earth, lived a sinless life. I submit to you, he lived a sinless life because he did what he saw his father doing.
Well, what was his father doing? His father was loving people. His father was loving.
So he lived a sinless life out of love, and then he even submitted himself to die on a cross
to pay the price for people who did not love him back.
So you say, well, I'm embarrassed. I'm sore. I'm in pain. It bothers me. Love bears all things.
I'm provoked. If you're provoked, then you're not loving the way God gave for you to love.
And the Bible says, love one another.
In Galatians it says, this is the fulfillment of the entire command of God.
Love. Let's get it right.
It is subject to the moment. It is about what's going on right now. It is making a decision.
So they behaved in an unrighteous fashion. I can't rejoice in that.
So how do I bear with that and accept that and not rejoice in it?
Well, it sounds a little bit like this. Listen. This is what I see.
I see you're doing this and that's what you think is right.
I'm here to tell you that I can't rejoice in that.
Because according to God's word, according to what God says, according to what I know to be true,
it's not right. It's unrighteousness.
I have to disagree with that course of action based on what God's word says.
However, I still love you. I'm still going to bear with you. I'm still going to be patient with you.
And it is my hope that you will one day come to God through his son, Jesus Christ,
and truly accept that God does have a pattern for your life.
God does have a plan by which you will live and you too will be able to love others this way.
It's not being translated. It's not getting you to practice.
Because Christians who say they're Christians, say they follow the Lord Jesus Christ, are not practicing love.
We want to practice the commands of the Bible and do the things that God has told us to do.
Jesus said, this is love. Follow my command. So we say, OK, I follow your command.
But when it comes down to loving people the way God has told us to love people, we stop short.
Because why? Because we can feel them getting an advantage over top of us.
And it's easy. It's easy for them to get that advantage, to presume or to repeat or to refuse to love us back the way we love them.
But realize that if you are the person who is doing the loving and they are the person who is doing the getting advantage,
ultimately what happens? You remain and they will not.
And so if you're loving them just to feel better about yourself or just because they're pretty or just because they're handsome
or just because they have money or just because they say the right things or they smell good,
realize ultimately they're going to go to hell if they don't get born again, if they don't accept the price of the Lord and Savior.
And you're going to be loving them while they do it.
Because you're going to remain in love and you're going to continue to love them right while they go to hell.
Which is why we can't rejoice in unrighteousness, why we can't further their presumptions or further their repetition.
But at the same time, we still bear with them, still patient, still kind, still love them.
And then that brings us to our conclusion.
Real quick over the three. Number one, this is just love. It's not an excellent love.
So this is a standard that you must hold yourself to if you're going to be, I'm going to say it this way,
you're going to be a follower of Christ. You have to love this way.
And yes, it will take a miracle with some people. I submit to you, it took the power of God for Jesus to be on the cross
and beg the Father for their forgiveness and say, Lord forgive them for they know not what they do.
While they were not loving Jesus, you don't crucify people you love.
So they were not loving him, he was praying for their forgiveness by the Father in heaven.
It took a miracle for him to be able to do that. But he did it and we can do the same.
And so I submit to you, we must love this way. It is the only way to love.
I would say to you that if you're going to keep saying I love you, you better start thinking about what it means.
I say I love you to my kids. I say I love you to my wife. I want to say I love you to myself, but I'm not good at that.
Sometimes I say I love you to my friends. I say I love you brother.
If you love somebody you say I love you, you better think about what you're saying.
What does 1 Corinthians 13 say love is?
And if you can't do it, if you honestly would look at whoever you're married to or whoever you're friends with,
whatever and say I can't love them, I don't love them that way, I'm not going to put up with their crap.
They're going to come in line with my way of doing things or else.
And if that's the way you're living, you need to question your salvation.
Because without the love that God has sent, that God Himself is, you will not remain.
If there's somebody in this world that you're angry, you have anger in your heart towards somebody right now,
or you feel vengeful, or every time you think about what they're doing or the way they're behaving or what they've done to you,
all you get is a feeling of disgust and you want to spit their name out of your mouth.
But there's somebody like that in the world, it doesn't matter what they did to you.
There's somebody like that in the world.
God's not going to let that in heaven.
What if they go?
What if that person somewhere down the road or even since you've talked to them,
haven't talked to them in years, has been born again?
We talked about how we're so different, we're changed so much.
What if they get saved and it comes time to stand at the beam, at the judgment seat, right?
And God says, what did you do with my son?
And they say, I submitted my life to the Lord at X years old and I've lived for Him ever since.
I forgive everybody who ever harmed me and I've been loving people and I've been serving,
I've tried to do other things, but I know none of my works of righteousness, they're all a stokely rag.
I come in because of Jesus Christ, who is my Lord.
And that's why I have done all the things I've done.
I've been trying to live this way, I know I've messed up, but here I am,
totally submitting myself to your judgment, God, through Jesus, your Son.
He says, well done, good faith, and they go in.
And you get up there and you say, yep, at such and such an age I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior,
and I've been living and I've been doing and I've been given and I've been serving, I've been doing all this,
and all my works of righteousness are as filthy rags, and I trust you with the judgment, Lord,
I trust you with the judgment because Jesus died for me, I want to go to heaven.
That's the only way I can go to heaven and I know that.
And He says, okay, well let's just say, I just want to ask you about this guy Joe, who's in heaven right now.
You've lived the last X years of your life having to grudge against him, being upset with him,
spit his name out of your mouth, anger.
So what about those people, when they bothered you, where was your patience?
Were you patient with them? Were you kind?
So I get it, you worked, you served, you gave, you showed up, maybe you sang, maybe you didn't, that's a problem,
but okay, you can deal with that. All these things, I get that,
you were some of the spiritualists, you were some of the well-wishers, you didn't.
But where's the love?
And you're going to be like, uh, well, he hurt me, he doesn't deserve to go to heaven.
And you're going to say, he missed the doctor.
Nobody deserves to go to heaven, you included.
If everything that you have was given to you by God, why do you act as if some of it was not given to you by God?
No, He's going to put you over with the goats instead of the sheep.
He'll say, you got your advantage in your lifetime by not loving them the way they love you.
You already got your advantage. Now you don't get to go in.
The writer of Hebrews puts it this way.
He says, therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity,
not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and the faith toward God.
In other words, we don't have to keep repenting and saying that we're just doing what we're doing for God
and putting aside the things that we're not doing for God over and over and over again.
Now we can actually do things for God instead of setting aside things of instruction after washing,
laying on hands of resurrection of the dead, eternal judgment.
And this we shall do if God permits.
This is that transition passage that we studied about a year ago.
For in the case of those who have once been enlightened, means they figured it out,
and have tasted of the heavenly gift, they began to think, hey, this is salvation,
and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit.
God visited His Holy Spirit upon them and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.
Hey, we can do things we never could do before. We can be things we never were before.
I think we're moving in a direction of being like God.
He says, and then have fallen away.
It is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again crucified to themselves the Son of God
and put Him to open shame.
He says, for the ground that drinks the rain, which often falls upon it and brings forth vegetation,
useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God.
In other words, if you start to produce the fruits of God, if you allow the things to grow in you that God would have you,
what is He talking about? He's talking about love.
And I get it, he needs patience, hope, all of those things, fruits of the Spirit,
but He's saying if the one who grows like that, okay.
But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed and it ends up being burned.
Beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you and things that accompany salvation,
though we are speaking in this way.
For God is not unjust, so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name
and having ministered and instilled ministering to the saints.
We desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,
that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who keep faith and patience and hereth the promises.
Don't you get it?
God can tell you this is not an accident of love, it's just love because He is love.
God knows and God shows and God is love.
And if you will close out that love, if you will not love others that way, your wife, your children, your church members,
co-workers at your work, your students at your school, if you will not love others that way,
then you need to go back to square one and ask yourself, okay, have I accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?
Savior means He paid the price for my sins and Lord means He tells me what to do.
What does He tell you to do? Love your neighbor as yourself. Love others as yourself.
Love the brothers of others in your church. Love your family.
That part ought to be easy, but it's not, not because they're not easy to love, but because the flesh man is not good at loving.
Born again, get out of bed each day and ask yourself, what does God want me to do?
And on that list, better be love others because if it isn't, that's not Jesus who's Lord of your life.
Now we can look away from our weaknesses. We can say I've been a bad lover. I have presumed. I have repeated.
I have declined to love back those who have loved me and just plow forward and continue to live that way.
Or we can, as the Bible describes, repent of our sins and let God bring us.
Can you recognize that you have failed to love people the way that you were called to love them?
Can you allow God to work in you to do that?
Do you understand that there is a possibility that any one of us in this room, God forbid,
that we could have to give our life and it might sound easier, but it really isn't all of our time for all of our money,
for all of our self-esteem, for our egos, or the way we think things should go.
We may have to give all of that to God.
Lying on a cross, burned to the stake, shot in the head. Say, no, no, that doesn't happen.
Do you like a list? Do you like a list of the people that it's happened to in the last 50 years in the US?
You'll find that list numbering in the hundreds of people who have died for their faith.
There was a church in Texas guy who went in and shot up and killed everybody in the room.
They had a policy, checked their firearms, the door, so they didn't have their firearms, and he knew it.
He went in and shot everybody in the room and killed them all.
One woman's son who only occasionally came to church, he came in there and found them all dead.
He saw the guy driving away, and he had a hunting rifle in his truck,
and he pursued the guy cross-country in like two, three miles away, and there shot him with the hunting rifle and killed him.
But his mom and his siblings and his friends all died worshiping the Lord.
And a girl named Mary at Columbine, the guy put a gun to her head and said,
you'll deny Christ, I'll let you live, but if you stress Christ, I'll shoot you now.
And she refused to deny Christ, and he shot her in the head, and he died.
I was in Columbine, Colorado, just by coincidence, a week after that incident happened.
I've never seen so many black flags, ribbons.
People are dying for their faith today.
To be able to do that, if we would even have a chance to be able to do that, and therefore to be translated immediately into heaven.
You know, the Bible says, the martyrs come into the kingdom of God first.
I think it's in Matthew, the kingdom of heaven, but come into the kingdom of God first.
In order to be able to do that, we have to love.
And in order to be able to do that, we have to turn over the daily events of our lives to God.
And let Him guide us.
And yes, we have to practice spiritual disciplines, and we have to train ourselves.
And whenever we feel that old man coming up in us and making us get mad or frustrated or irritated with somebody who did something we didn't like,
we have to remind ourselves that we have to love them.
I'll close with this illustration.
Some years ago, probably 12, 12 years ago, something like that, we had a Thursday night, men had a Thursday night Bible study in my living room at my house.
And there was about six of us, and we were meeting there on Thursday nights.
I had been struggling with my kids, and Arden was little at the time.
So he was four when it happened. So this was 14 years ago specific, because I remember he was four.
And the day before, I had a meeting, an association meeting, I had to take him to the babysitter,
and he had wanted to get a drink of some Kool-Aid out of the refrigerator.
And I was rushing to get ready for the meeting because I had put off some things, the craft made it, it was my fault.
And I said, just get it yourself.
So he went to the kitchen to get the Kool-Aid, and he poured the Kool-Aid.
When he did, it tipped too much, and it poured Kool-Aid all over the kitchen floor, and I poured it for a puddle, and he puddled and soaked the rugs.
Now, Andrew was already running late, and so I came in and I gave him what for?
Because he made a huge mess, and we had to mop it up and clean it, it was sticky, and get the rug to the washer and blah blah blah.
And I go, the rug's probably ruined now, I've just wasted all the Kool-Aid.
He's just standing there crying, he's four years old, just there crying.
And I knew there was something inherently wrong with me, that I would do that to a four-year-old little child.
That I was psychologically abused, and I was already a Christian, had done for a while, I was already a mission pastor at that time.
And so I'm struggling with it myself, trying to figure out who I am that I would do that.
I didn't hit it, I just belittled it.
And in that men's Bible study that night, Spirit talked to me and showed me that every time a child asks you for something,
every time a child misbehaves, every time they say what you would rather they would not say,
every time anybody, and I think that translated to an adult, any time somebody does what you would not want them to do,
it's an opportunity to show your love for them.
And so that night, in that men's Bible study, and a couple of you were there, that night in men's Bible study, I prayed like this.
I said, God, help me remember always from now on, that every time they come to me for something,
something they can't do, and I always push my kids, we don't like can't, and our household kids say can't, I tell them we don't say can't.
If you really want to do it, you'll try until it's no longer possible.
If you fall asleep, if you die, there's no can't, right? Or you get help, right?
If it's too heavy, I physically can't lift it, then you get a lever, or you get people to help, whatever the hell can't.
If it's yours to do, you just do it. That's what I always tell them.
But at the same time, that night I prayed, Lord, help me remember that whenever they come to me saying I can't,
or I need help, or asking me for help, or asking me to get up, or whatever, that I would always remember,
that that's my opportunity to love them.
That's not my opportunity to show them that I love them, whether they figure it out, that's what I'm showing them or not.
That's my opportunity to live with the God of heaven. I'm asking you today,
will you start thinking of when people bother you, when people affront you, when they seem to be provoking you,
when they do exactly what you know, what they know will get your goat,
or when they seem to behave presumptuous towards you, thinking that they'll know how you're going to behave,
or when they seem to be repeating bad behaviors over and over again,
or when they seem to not be loving you back, will you under those circumstances say to yourself,
will you hear from the Lord, will you hear from the word of the Lord saying,
this is your opportunity to love people the way Jesus loved people, and if you'd say yes,
and if you know it hasn't been so to this point, then you need to turn to God again to make it so,
just like I did that night. Now have I gotten it right every instance since then? No, I've made mistakes, I make mistakes.
But I've never forgotten it all these years. After Arden poured that Kool-Aid on the floor that day, unintentionally,
it took two and a half years until he was almost seven years old before he would pour himself a drink again.
Your not loving people is causing them post-traumatic issues. It's causing pain.
And if they're trying to love you, it's making it all the more difficult for them to love you,
and to love others the way that they should. I'm asking you to repent and turn to God and love people
the way we are taught to love people. This is not an excellent love. It's what love is.
And if we're not practicing it, we're not practicing love. And if we're not practicing love,
we need to repent and turn to God and be born again today, in earnest.
I'm going to ask the praise team to come forward and lead us in the song of this time.
This is your opportunity in your heart to deal with what God has given you, to let the God of Heaven overcome it.
Or if it's a pyre of resistance to burn it down, if it's a holdout somewhere in you, a dark room that you won't let the light in,
for Him to invade, this is your opportunity to say, I am living the rest of my life for Jesus,
and I'm not going to let anything stand in my way. Not as long as God keeps knocking things down,
I'm just going to keep plowing forward and following you. I'm not saying theology might not always be correct.
I might not know everything about the Bible. Does anyone? The answer is no.
You may not have the gift of prophecy, but if you have all of those things, everything that you can have,
and don't have love, you're nothing. Today, turn to the Lord and commit to love, and win the day.
Win the day. Win the day. Win the day. Win the day. Win the day. Win the day. Win the day. Win the day. Win the day.
Would you stand with us and sing this song, if the Lord is speaking to your heart today,
and you have some kind of decision made public, then you come and let us know what that is.
I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus.
Go turning back. Go turning back.
Go with me. I still will follow.
I will not let you down. I will not let you down. I will not let you down. I will not let you down.
If you have been in the situation where someone has not loved you,
I don't mean, and I really want to stop saying this way, because there is no alternative way.
If you have been in the situation where someone has not loved you, and most of us have,
that contributes to our inability to love people the way we're talking about, to love people earnestly, to truly love people.
The reason is because we're beings that tend to repeat what we see.
Right? Do you hang around somebody for a while that has a nervous habit? Do they touch your ear?
Within an hour, you'll touch your ear. You don't have a problem with your ear. No reason to touch it. You'll do it.
Because we tend, we're like that. We repeat activities that other people do.
Worse, we have this saying, right? Pull me once, shame on you. Pull me twice, shame on me.
So when we realize we're not loving us, I'm not going to do what God has told me I need to do here.
Because if I do what God has told me I need to do here, then they're going to get away with it.
So here's my justice. Right? It's like forgiveness is for you. Right?
You need forgiveness from God, and if you found it through Jesus Christ, you have it.
And then when you forgive others who have wronged you, that releases the burden, the pain, the suffering, the chance to heal, etc.
You need to forgive. You're created to be. In fact, the Word says if you cannot forgive, you cannot be forgiven.
Talking about Jesus, loving is the same way. Loving is the expression of what we are created to be.
It's who we are. Not just in Christ, but human beings were made for this, to love.
That's why we will exist, which in turn is why suffering exists.
That's why Adam and Eve had to have access to those two fruit trees, even though they weren't allowed to eat them,
because they had to have access so they could have the free choice not to eat of the trees. Right?
As an act of love toward God, he commanded them not to. This is love. Follow my commands.
They chose to eat of the trees, even though they had to have access to the trees, because without the access, they couldn't have love.
They were created to love, and we were created to love. This is what we are.
Loving people is sometimes hard, painful, causes bleeding, all kinds of nasty side effects.
Loving the person who has been bad to you may seem like the most difficult thing,
but the truth is once you're on the road to actually loving, the moment you actually start doing it,
boom, God's in it, and the power that's in it, and the effect of God in you, and the Holy Spirit gifts start to flow,
and the spiritual discipline starts to be exciting, oh man, I've got to figure out how to love this guy.
I need to go to my body, I'm going to read more, I'm going to pray more, I'm going to search more, I'm going to worship God,
I'm going to sing songs, I'm going to do all these things because I'm being empowered,
because I was created to love, and now I'm doing what I was created to do, but I don't know how.
So I'm going to have to have God teach me. But as long as we're willing to go, that love thing, yeah, I got that now.
Nobody feels. Am I patient? No, well no, I'm not patient, but I'm working on it.
I get provoked sometimes, but they know that's going to provoke me, they're only doing it to get my go,
they're only doing it because they know it will get me upset. Do we love the Bible?
The answer is repenting and turning to God and running in closer to us and do something amazing,
and then as we do that, wow, what God can do.
You may not get all the theological points or questions or understanding exactly what it says, right?
You don't have to, because there are only three things that remain, faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.
Let's go to the prayer for this time.
It's kind of funny that this is what you were talking about today, because I've,
one of my biggest struggles is loving other people, caring about other people, because I was always raised to,
you show me respect, I'll give you respect, otherwise I won't respect you at all.
And that teaching has been like born into my head through just growing up in rough neighborhoods,
I mean that's how it is when you're growing up in a rough neighborhood, you show people around you respect,
they're going to show you respect, but the minute you disrespect somebody, it's game over.
And over the, I've been really struggling to try to do that and try to keep that in my mind,
that's not the way that God wants us to love everyone.
And it's been really, really hard for me over the last couple weeks to have a lot of struggles to show people that I love,
to show them that I care, and especially when they say something that they know is going to upset me,
and like you just said, it's like they're provoking me to try to get violent and try to be angry at me,
and it's really, really hard for me not to, because it's just, that's how I was raised, that was all I knew for 20 plus years.
God said, have you considered my servant Job?
The devil said, can I test him?
The guy said, yeah, you can test him, but here's the limits, you test him to those limits,
and he came back and said, you let me go so far, but you wouldn't let me go to striking his flesh,
you let me go to striking his flesh, he'll curse you and die.
God said, no, I don't think he will.
Okay, go ahead and test him, test him.
Here's the truth, if you say you're going to love people, the devil, you will scare us the world system, and humanity in general,
going to test your love.
And I'm going to submit this to you, if your love stands the test, you will remain.
And if it does not, you will not.
It's God, what's his limitations?
We are not.
Let's pray that we recognize God and have no limitations.
Father in heaven, God, love.
In a day where the word has been perverted in exchange for other things,
we realize your word defines what love is.
Your actions make clear what love is.
The same resurrection power that brought the dead body of Jesus back to life
is available to power love in us, to be love in us.
When we don't love, we recognize from your word that when we don't love this way,
at best, let's love your Holy Spirit.
We are telling you that you cannot do to us what you want to do.
And at worst, we have fooled ourselves and don't belong to you at all.
No more foolery.
You are God.
You have to breathe love.
And we intend to live out of it.
Even though the city might want, or politicians might want us to run a pantry,
to cut down on desperation in households so that people are less likely to commit crime,
they have the opportunity to learn, they can go beyond their circumstances,
all of those kinds of things, and they may need to think that that way,
we will think of it as love.
Even though pastors all over the world may have to hammer their people and say,
we've got to pray more, we've got to study more, we've got to read more,
we've got to learn more, all of that is true.
We will think of it as fueling our love,
even figuring out the pathway of how do we love those who make it hard,
or those who seem unloved, those who seem to be getting an advantage out of our life.
We are not disadvantaged.
You know, they've got to be winners.
As long as we know it's you on our side,
no one can stop us.
This world offers many things.
Many of them are enticing.
Some of them are disparaging.
We can't go down this road of loving others.
It could just fly out of wrong.
You are God.
You have unlimited power.
You can make it so.
Living in us, every time we love and stretch ourselves to love when it feels difficult,
stretch ourselves to love when it feels like Jesus is taking advantage of us,
stretch ourselves to love when it feels like we just shouldn't or can't,
we realize that the real Holy Spirit who is living in us will be given free reign
to reduce love as a fruit,
and clean us in peace and patience.
It's often told that sometimes we should be bad.
Lord, please,
forgive us that we may love others.
I don't think there are any excuses like we're trying to learn to love or I'm not quite there yet.
I think it's more about whatever we are, wherever we are now,
whatever we can do, whatever we're capable of,
to love others,
disallow certain behaviors.
Thank you, Lord, for loving us.
And may we never despise the gift of salvation,
the power of your presence,
and the awesome exhibition of love.
May we never despise it.
And may we always cherish it
and attempt to replicate it
and love others that way.
I pray all this in Jesus' name, Amen.
Okay, this concludes our services at this time.
Thank you so much.
Go ye therefore and love like the church.