As Pastor Nathan said, I am Pastor Rick Ice.
I run the youth ministry with the other great leaders that we have that help do that.
But today, I thought it'd be fitting.
You know, I deal with youth and youth get homework a lot.
Today's study actually has homework for everyone.
Oh, everyone's like, man, I haven't done homework in years.
What are you talking about?
But we actually have homework for you, or at least I have homework for you, but it's
good homework.
It's very important.
It's something that we need to do.
And today's study is really a reminder and an encouragement.
And this study, while I was studying it, was convicting to me as well.
It was a very convicting study of, man, Lord, I don't want to be this way.
I want to love you, and I want to do what you've called me to do.
So today's study is actually titled All We Need Is Love.
And no, I wasn't going for a Beatles theme.
I actually don't like the Beatles.
If you like the Beatles, like John does, it's OK, I forgive you.
But I want to just say this out the gate.
I'm not here to convict you.
I'm here to share God's word.
And if you're convicted today like I was, that's a good thing.
That means God's like, hey, there's something in our life that we need to work on.
And the beautiful thing is, is with this new year, right, everyone's creating resolutions.
Well, what does a New Year's resolution need?
It needs self-reflection.
What have I been doing or haven't been doing?
And this self-reflection is very important because I love you guys too much not to share
this and even have it shared in my own life.
And the fact is, is the importance of love in a Christian life.
That is what we're going to be talking about.
The reason it's All We Need Is Love is because love is so important, it's vital to a Christian,
and yet it's so easy to be forgotten.
So with that, we'll go ahead and pray in.
And we're not going to be in a single book today.
We're going to be jumping all over.
So there'll be words up there.
If I go too fast, it's okay.
If you want my notes, talk to me afterwards.
But with that, we'll pray in.
Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much for your love, for your love for us,
the love that started everything that brought you to the point of sending your Son for us
to die for us.
We love this all in love, which is who you are.
You are love, Lord.
And we just, we thank you for that.
We pray that you fill this room with your Holy Spirit.
Fill us all with your word and encourage us, Lord, to live out your love.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
So with that, we'll be starting in 1 Corinthians 13.
And most of you are like, oh, Rick's going to go through all the verses that, you know,
tell you what love is.
And I'm not.
It's your homework.
So 1 Corinthians 13 verse 1 says this.
If I speak with human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging
symbol.
If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I
have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away all my possessions and I give over my body in order to boast but do not
have love, I gain nothing.
These are very heavy words.
But to give you a little understanding, a little context of why Paul is saying this,
Paul is writing to Christians in Corinth, and these Christians are kind of obsessed
with spiritual gifts.
To a point where it's like, hey, I'm better than you are because I can do this spiritual
gift, like it's bad.
They're so obsessed.
And Paul acknowledges it, which spiritual gifts aren't a bad thing to desire.
They're not a bad thing to want.
I mean, this list that he puts on there, really, really good things, right?
Very impressive things.
Speaking in tongues, human or angelic, like that's a good thing to do.
Imagine you speak tongues and someone hears it and it blesses them and there's an interpreter.
It's amazing.
The gift of prophecy, able to speak into someone's life, hey, like this blessing's gonna come
into your life.
That's a good thing.
It's not a bad thing.
You've also got understanding all mysteries and having all knowledge.
I wish I had that.
It'd make life a lot easier.
But there's even, he says, faith to move a mountain.
Like I feel like my faith can't even move a pebble.
And yet he's talking about faith that can move a mountain.
And yet the best part is the last one.
Give away all your possessions.
And when he says here, give away your body, that means die for someone.
Like willing to die and put down your life for someone.
You could do all of these things and have all of these things, but if you don't have
love, it's pointless.
It doesn't matter.
And that's heavy.
That's heavy words.
Now Paul isn't saying that you shouldn't do these things, right?
You should.
These should be things that Christians do, but they should be done out of love.
And so that's why we're going to go over what love is and what love is to a Christian.
So let's look at some scriptures that show us what love is that's not the continuation
of 1 Corinthians.
First, we're going to start off in the very beginning of what love should be to us.
John 3, 16, for God so loved the world in this way, he gave his one and only son so
that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.
Love is the reason we are saved.
It is the reason we are coheirs with Christ.
It is the reason that we are part of the body.
This is all off of love.
God didn't just send Jesus for fun.
He didn't just send Jesus because, hey, I'm bored.
No, he sent Jesus because he loves you and I.
Because he loves us so much he was willing to put his life down and raise again, beating
death so that we can have a relationship with him.
And he even loves us so much that he did all of this knowing that people won't even turn
to him.
But he loved them so much that he still did it and then still gives them the free will
to not choose him because he loves us that much.
Man, I do not have kids, but the idea of like a father doing all of this for their son or
daughter and then being like, but I love you so much I'm going to let you choose your path.
Like, that is extreme love.
And kids, if you've got your parents in here, you better be thankful because they love you
way more than you'll ever understand.
And God loves us way more than even that.
So from that, we accept God's love, we accept his gift, we as Christians here are saved
because of his love.
And now from that, we go to church weekly, we read our Bibles, we enjoy worship music,
we do Christian things.
And 1 John 4 16 then gives us another understanding.
And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love.
And the one who remains in love remains in God and God remains in him.
So as we're going to church, as we're living our lives, as we have been saved by God's
love, by his actions, born out from his love for us, we find out that God is love.
It's not that just God loves us or that love is a characteristic of God, but God is the
embodiment of love.
And true love, when you have true love for someone, when you actually love not according
to what the world calls love, but what the Bible and God defines love as to be.
We're actually living out characteristics of God.
We're being godly and being Christ-like in loving people.
So this beautiful thing is through accepting God's gift, we understand God.
And we understand that love isn't just love, but love is from God.
It's not from us.
And we learn that all of these characteristics are how we have likeness in God.
And so a Christian really should be focusing on God's love and the importance of our love
to those around us.
And it also guarantees that we remain in him.
We remain within his will and his love.
So that's it, right?
That's love.
We're done.
Accept God's love.
Come to church.
Remain in his love.
That's it.
A little more.
Matthew 22, 37-39.
He said to them, and this is Jesus speaking, love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind.
This is the greatest and most important command.
The second is like it.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
So not only did God save us because he loved us, and not only are we to stay in God's love
and understand that he is love, but we're commanded to love.
As a Christian, we're commanded to love God.
And these are the two most important, right?
Jesus has asked, what's the most important commandment?
First, love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
And this list is not a that's it, one and done, one, two, three, you're done, over.
No, this list is actually a list that is basically ending with an et cetera.
List every single thing in your life.
All of those things should love God.
You should be loving God with everything, all of you completely.
That is how we're called to love God.
Not hey God, I love you with like 80% of my life, but this other 20, yeah, I want to keep
that.
No, 100% full out for God.
Now this means God might call you to do something you don't want to do, but Jesus actually
example loving God and doing his will even when he didn't want to do something.
Can anyone think of what that is?
Anyone?
Yes, garden.
When he was about to be crucified, or the night before, Jesus is praying, Lord, take
this cup, let this cup pass for me, but not my will, but your will be done.
Jesus was willing to face death, something he didn't want to do, because he's example
for us as Christians what it means to love God completely and to do what God calls us
to do completely.
And that is convicting, because it's like man, am I willing to do that?
And you have to think about that, am I?
And the beautiful thing is if you say no, guess what, you're not alone.
But that means there's something wrong in our heart and we need to pray, repent, and
seek to grow closer to God and start doing that and be like, Lord, you know what, I might
not want to do this, but I'm going to do it because I love you.
You love me and I love you.
Second is, love others as yourself.
And this means in all situations.
This doesn't mean love others as yourself when you guys are getting along.
You should choose to love people and put them first, just like we do with ourselves.
When you're hungry, you go get food.
When you see someone that's hungry, hey, maybe go get them some food.
It's so easy.
We live, especially here in LA, with a lot of homeless people.
It's very easy to go, ah, you know what, I don't want to give them money because they're
going to go do drugs.
And I don't give homeless people money.
And you're like, oh, Pastor Rick doesn't give homeless people money?
I don't.
I buy them food.
Because I know they can't get drugs with food, but they can have food.
And I've found ways to where it's like, hey, I'm not going to encourage you to continue
in sin and do wrong things, but I'm still going to bless you.
And you need food, you need warmth, hey, we'll get you clothes.
And I want to help people.
And that is this love where we put others first, even if it means, man, I just bought
this food for myself.
Oh, well, here you go.
On top of that, right, treat others how you want to be treated, not just for the homeless,
but here at church.
Think about this.
Have you ever been like, there was one point in your life where it was your first time
to Hosanna?
And there must have been someone that came up and went, hey, nice to meet you.
I'm glad you're here.
What's your name?
I love you.
Awesome.
You would want someone to come up and talk to you when it's your first day.
So you should do the same.
You realize how weird it is when you go to a brand new church and you don't know anyone,
you're like, let me sit in the back left corner because I don't want anyone to see me and
just hide, right?
No.
You get up and go, hey, that's a new person.
I'm going to go say hi.
I'm going to go bless them and I'm going to invite them and invite them to small groups
or community groups that you run.
This is loving other people to step out of your comfort zone and step out of the me,
me, me and go, no, how can I love them?
How can I love them?
So remember, not only does Jesus say it's the number one commandment, but also Jesus
commands us to do it.
In John 13, 15, he says, or sorry, John 14, 15, he says, or I got that wrong, 14, oh no,
yeah, 14, 15.
If you love me, you will keep my commands.
If we love Jesus, we will keep his command.
What is his command?
Love God completely and love others.
Those are the two main important ones.
And the beautiful thing is John 13, 35 says, and this is Jesus speaking, by this everyone
will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.
Love is a definer or an identifier.
Just like if you see construction going on and you see people in their high vis gear,
but then you see the dude who's got like a full on suit with a hard hat and you're like,
oh, that dude's high up.
He's probably the inspector, the manager.
I could talk to him if I need.
There's always something that identifies people as with work, with other things.
Guess what?
What should identify us as Christians is our love for one another.
Us loving each other, not loving ourselves.
And this especially is spoken to brothers and sisters in Christ.
We as Christians really are a motley crew.
We are just a bunch of random people thrown together.
Because I pretty much would guarantee that I wouldn't know half of you if we weren't
all Christians.
I wouldn't.
And you wouldn't know me.
And you wouldn't know most of the people in here.
Why?
Because God is the glue that brings us together.
He's the one that brings us into his family so that now you and I are all brothers and
sisters in Christ and we all are supposed to love each other.
And the thing that identifies us is that love for one another.
And not just a selfish love, but a love that puts the other person first.
But loving others can be hard sometimes.
I'm not going to disagree with you there.
I am a very hard person to love because I am loud and annoying.
Right?
I get it.
It can be that way.
My wife has one of the hardest jobs loving me.
Like a lover to death.
But I can be annoying sometimes.
But so can you.
We're not all perfect.
So when you have that person that, man, is just really hard for you to love, guess what?
Sometimes you're really hard to love too.
And those people, I like to call them sandpaper people.
Right?
They rub you the wrong way.
It doesn't feel good when you talk with them or interact with them.
But guess what?
What happens to wood after it's been sanded and gone through the different grits?
It's nice and smooth.
And that's when you get the better grade furniture.
You don't want to sit on a wooden stool that's all just rubbed.
No, you want it to be smooth as butter.
Oh, sorry, sorry.
Those sandpaper people are going to teach you patience and teach you how to love people
that you don't really like.
They're going to make you better.
It might not be fun at first, but guess what?
All growth requires pain.
Not all growth.
Sometimes you can be smart and not do it that way.
But in general, growth requires pain.
Your muscles, it hurts to work them out.
But when you work them out, they get stronger.
Now, why should we do this?
Because God loves us.
And guess what?
Not only do I think we're annoying to each other, but I think there's times that we're
annoying to God.
Like the Bible says we can grieve the Holy Spirit.
I'm pretty sure we can also annoy him sometimes.
There's times where he's like, really?
Again?
You're doing it again?
Like come on.
I don't know.
I could be wrong.
God could be like, hey, you shouldn't have said that.
And I'm sorry.
But maybe I was annoying him right there.
I don't know.
But what if someone makes me want to sin?
Like someone cuts you off.
Man, that person cut me off.
That's not fair.
Stop.
Slow down.
We're way too quick to things.
That's why I love the Bible says don't be quick to anger, right?
Don't be quick to it.
I think the key word is quick.
Because if we stop and think, how many times have you cut someone off because you're in
emergency or you got to do something?
But instead, no, someone messed with me and caused me to have an inconvenience.
So how dare they?
It's like, yo, I just did that two lights ago.
So it really is a slow down and choose to love people.
Now with this love, right, that has brought us all to the family, it is our identifier.
We find out and learn that God actually is love and that we get to live out and be like
him as we love others.
Well, first Peter four eight then says, above all, maintain constant love for one another
since love covers a multitude of sins.
So someone cuts you off.
Love them.
Because then you won't sin against them.
One of the things that I like to say is when you're actively loving someone, you won't
sin against them.
Keyword is actively.
When you're choosing to love someone, you won't sin against them.
Just like you won't lie or steal to someone that you love.
It's like, man, I'm really loving this person right now.
You could say you love someone as you pick their pocket and take their wallet.
Or you can actively choose to love them because love isn't a feeling and say, you know what,
I'm not going to do that.
I'm not going to lie to my friend.
I'm not going to shout at the guy that cut me off.
I'm not.
I'm going to choose to love them.
And this works towards God and humans.
Because when you sin, this is what I like to say to the kids.
When you sin, I like to think of it as literally backhanding God in the face.
Why?
Because the Holy Spirit resides within us.
He loves us and more often than not, we choose to sin.
Especially now as you get older in your life and older in your walk with God, you know
what sin is more often than not.
There still are times where you don't know and it's like, hey, I didn't realize that
was sin.
But there's times where you're like, no, I just chose it anyways.
That's an active backhand to God's face and he still loves you.
Just like he still loves me when I mess up and fail.
And that's the beautiful thing.
So if we actively love, if we're like, no Lord, I love you so I won't do this thing
because I love you too much.
So choosing to actively love and be in love will keep you away from sin.
So when you're tempted, choose to love the person.
Now if you failed, that's okay.
Repent.
And repentance simply means to turn around and walk away.
It's the easiest way I like to put it.
You're walking this way, hey, I failed.
This is how I'm living.
I'm gonna turn away and I'm gonna go live this way.
I'm gonna stop choosing the sin and start choosing to love.
And the beautiful thing is if you read Ephesians 4, and I'm not gonna get into it and go through
it, but it basically is putting on the new man and taking off the old.
It's not a list, and some people will see this as a list of don'ts.
It's not.
It's not a list of don't do this.
It's a list of do this instead because you love someone.
Don't choose to do this evil, sinful thing.
Do this new thing that is actually a part of you and who you are as a new person.
Don't steal.
Instead, have a job to do what?
Give to those that are in need.
That's a very loving thing.
It's not have a job so you can take care of your own stuff.
It's have a job so you can take care of those in need.
Notice it's don't do the selfish thing which is stealing.
Don't do the loving thing which is giving.
And this, as we are Christians, a new person in Christ who is based off of love, saved
by love, learns that God is love, identified by this love, we all should be putting on
the new man and loving one another because it will keep us away from sinning against
each other and against God.
But there is a problem I've noticed within the American church.
Now, I want to preface this because I don't want people to go, Rick pointed fingers at
me and hates me and I is no.
I'm sorry that was pretty loud.
But because Hosanna is part of the American church, guys.
We're here just like there's generalizations for things that you can see in characteristics.
Just like I talked about how we have to self-reflect, the American church has to self-reflect as
well and if someone outside of America saw the church, I believe they would see that
there's a characteristic amongst it that's not good and that is a church that lacks love.
And that's bold and I'm not saying that you here are lacking love.
I'm not calling anyone out.
I'm saying this is time for us to self-reflect and go, am I lacking love or am I not?
Because, let me get into this.
This characteristic of missing love shows itself in our actions.
It shows us itself in why we do things.
Because the American church, just like in 1 Corinthians, we've done great things.
We're doing good things and we're doing good things for God, but if we don't have love,
it's pointless.
Oh, I gave food to the homeless guy the other day, but I had a snarl on my face because
that was my lunch and I'm hungry and I...
What does that help?
Cool, he's got food.
Thanks.
You know, like, no.
It comes out in our actions if we actually have love, especially for God, which should
be the driving force.
So the thing about the American church at large is I think it's let culture influence
it, instead of us influencing culture.
Because culture, actually, even though they like to say love is love and love whoever
you want, it's not a very loving culture.
It's a very selfish culture.
It's you accept me and I call that love.
Accept what I want and we'll call that love.
That's not love.
That's selfishness.
One of the things that I've noticed is consumeristic Christians, right?
We live in, especially California, but we live in America, a very consumeristic society.
All about me, me, me.
Give me.
Give what I want.
What can I get out of this situation?
And this kind of tends to plague more mega churches and nothing against mega churches.
I think you guys are great.
Nothing against really big churches, but it's really easy to be a consumeristic Christian
there because it's really easy to hide.
It's really easy to show up late to church, you know, show up in the middle of worship
so no one sees you, walk in.
I don't have to talk to anyone, sit down for the study.
I got the study for me because that's what I needed.
Check off my little box for the week and then leave during the last worship song so no one
else can talk to me and I don't have to love anyone and it was all about me.
That is very easy to do at church nowadays.
And guess what?
There's been times in my life where I've been that way too.
I'm like, I don't want to go early.
I don't want to talk to people because I was being selfish and not loving.
And that's a problem and that's why we need to self-reflect.
And if you see this in yourself, man, repent because you're only coming for yourself and
you're not coming because you love God.
You're not coming because you love others.
You're not doing the command that God has left you.
This is heavy.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying if you're late every once in a while, that's
life.
I'm not saying don't ever be late.
But I'm saying if you've made a habit to come late so you don't have to interact with a
single person and you can hide in the corner and mark off your box for going to church
for the week and then you don't even apply the word, like that's, man, that's a sad place
to be in because you're missing God's love.
And I've, again, I've been there with you.
If that's you.
I don't know if it is or not.
If it's not, praise God.
I don't want anyone to be like this.
But we need to look at ourselves and make sure.
But this Christian really is full of selfishness and lacking love for others.
Church worship and Bible reading is something they do because they're a Christian, not because
I love God.
It's no, I'm a Christian.
So therefore because I'm a Christian, I go to church.
Because I'm a Christian, I go here.
What did Jesus say that identifier of a Christian was?
That they go to church, that they worship, that they read the Bible?
No, that they love each other.
And all those other things stem from their love for each other and for God.
John 15 13, Jesus says no one has greater love than this to lay down his life for his
friend.
The example we're called to have for love for one another isn't just willing to show
up early and talk to people and pray for others.
No, it's willing to put your life down for them.
Willing to die for another person, to end your life short so that they can live longer.
That's an example of love.
This action.
And it's displayed to us through Jesus.
God doesn't call us to do anything he hasn't done.
That's the beautiful thing.
He's already laid his life down and he calls us to do the same.
Whether that be by not getting angry at the person that cut you off all the way to dying
for someone to help them, to keep them alive, to save them.
Man, I mean even Paul writes about how he wishes he could trade him for the Jews to
know Jesus.
That's the love we need.
But that's not the only issue of lovelessness that I've noticed.
There's another one.
The loveless worker.
Someone who serves and does Christian works without love.
This person is less selfish than the, in my mind, I could be wrong, but compared to the
consumerist Christian because they understand like, oh I need to be doing something for
God, you know.
And I'm a Christian so that means I have to be doing something.
But there's the problem in the thought and idea is because I'm a Christian I need to
do this thing.
It's not because I love God I'm gonna go do these things.
And the problem with this I've noticed and I don't know about you guys, like I like watching
YouTube and putting on like podcasts and stuff and listening to apologists and people who,
who, and evangelists and talk with Christians.
And there's a bunch of great evangelists and apologists.
I love listening to like Frank Turek and Mike Winger, Ray Comfort, I love them all.
But then there's others that I'm not gonna name because I don't want to deal with YouTube
backlash.
But that when I see them debate others, talk with others, especially those that aren't
saved, there's no love.
It's, it's, man it just feels like they're just condescending.
And this really is stemming from, from technology, right?
You, every kid nowadays and young adult wants to be a streamer and influencer.
Well, what does every Christian kid want to be now?
They want to be an apologist and a streamer and YouTuber.
They want to share God on these, which is a great thing.
But you have to make sure you do it with love.
Because when I heard this debate between a progressive Christian who, right, not really
a Christian, if you're progressive, I don't think you are.
Because you don't believe in who Jesus is and you're like, oh, he get, they get into
gay affirming and they get into do whatever sin you want and it's okay because God loves
and they have the wrong understanding of love.
Another Christian was debating this guy, condescending the whole time, just railing at him.
Oh, you're horrible.
You're so stupid.
Like literally called him stupid.
And I'm just like, how is that showing God's love?
Sure, you're debating with him because that's the right thing to do, right?
You should be trying to correct people and point them to Jesus.
Like you're not pointing to Jesus by beating them over the head with the Bible.
You're not, it's, it's being an apologist or evangelist or doing God's work isn't like
this free pass to be condescending to people and make you feel better and have this superiority
complex.
But this also applies so much to just other works.
Man, I don't, I go to church and I'm the security guard, man, I don't want to come to this, right?
The point is love should be the thing that causes us to do these things.
I've even told my counselors at one point and I've even done this to myself and told
myself, Hey, I love that you guys are here working, but if you don't love these kids
and you're not here because you love them, get out.
And I know that's blunt, but I even tell myself that because if I don't love the kids and
I'm going to do all these great works and try and teach them and all this, guess what?
What?
Uh, uh, first Corinthians says it's pointless.
There's no love.
It's pointless.
Doesn't matter.
I could give the best sermon in the world, but no love.
No one's going to hear.
Why?
Cause they're going to hear this loveless, pointless voice coming from me.
It's sad.
And you might be wondering, can a Christian really do this?
Can a Christian come to church or share the Bible and do these works and not love?
Like, that's not possible.
There's no way.
Rick is crazy.
That's beside the point.
Revelation two verses one through seven, right to the angel of the church of Ephesus.
Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the
seven golden lampstands.
I know your works, your labor and your endurance that you cannot tolerate evil people.
You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and have found them to
be liars.
I know that you have perceived or persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name
and you have not grown weary, but I have this against you.
You have abandoned the love you had at first.
Remember then how far you have fallen.
Repent and do the works you did at first.
Otherwise I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.
Let you do this.
You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the spirit says to the churches.
To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in
the paradise of God.
So this, if you don't remember from Pastor Nathan going over it quite a while ago, because
it's in the beginning of Revelation, is the letter to Ephesus from Jesus.
And it starts off by saying, yo, you guys are doing great things.
All of these things are good.
You've been persevering for my name.
You've been doing all of this, but there's one issue.
You've abandoned the love you had at first or you've abandoned, you've left your first
love.
That love is for Jesus.
That love is for God that he's referencing.
You've left that love for me.
You do these things because you're just a Christian.
Yes, you're a Christian.
You believe in truth.
But the reason you debate and argue is simply for that.
It's not for me, for my love, for the love you had for me at once.
So turn back to it.
Repent.
Turn back and love me.
And what's crazy is, he says, repent or I will remove your lamp stand.
If you remember, lamp stand represents the churches.
That's what the lamp stand represents in these.
Jesus is saying, I would rather have no church in Ephesus than a church that does good works
but doesn't love me.
That's heavy.
But that's Jesus speaking, not me.
That's him saying, I want you to love me and do works because you love me, not because
it's my obligation.
I'm a Christian, I have to do it.
No.
I want you to love me.
That's the main goal.
That's the first and most important commitment.
Love me.
Because if you're loving me, then it will make it so much easier to love others and
then you'll be identified as one of mine.
And you'll do these works because you love me and others will become saved because they
see the love of me in you.
Jumping ahead a little bit, sorry.
But why is this important?
Second Corinthians 520, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ.
Since God is making his appeal through us, we plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled
to God.
Guys, we as Christians are ambassadors for Jesus.
And if you're like, man, they're just, you know, high political people, that's all that
means.
No.
Ambassadors, especially back then, had the authority of the king they represented.
Whatever happened to the ambassador is as if you did it to the king himself.
And whatever the ambassador said, it's as if the king said it.
So think about that, about the times when you've been loveless and been angry and done
something wrong and you weren't loving, you were misrepresenting Jesus.
And guess what?
I've done it too.
It's hard because it's realizing you, I want you to think about this, right?
We don't have Jesus walking this earth nowadays.
But you are an ambassador.
You represent him.
So you might be the only Jesus that anyone sees.
There might be someone in your life where you're the only Jesus they ever see.
And what if they see you being mean all the time, unloving?
Is that the right representation of Jesus?
No.
And that's why we need to look at our hearts, we need to self-reflect and repent if we are
doing this wrong.
So in closing, if you're convicted today by this study and you're like, man, that really
hurts, I'm sorry, but I'm also thankful.
Because if you're convicted, that means now you're one step closer to repenting.
You can't fix something you don't know is broken.
So when you learn that something's broken, now, hey, it can be fixed.
And so just like me being convicted in this and going like, Lord, I am sorry.
Turn back from this and return to your first love.
Read about the love that God had for you and what he did for you and see his character.
See the fact that he is love and then love him and live that out with others.
Now if you weren't convicted today, good.
I'm glad.
I do have something for you.
Pray for those that were.
Be there for those that were.
Go and talk to others and love others and see if there's needs or there's help.
And for those that were convicted, hey, step up and ask someone for help.
It's real easy to be like, man, I'm convicted.
I'm going to go run and hide.
No, repent, talk with other people, get an accountability partner.
Guess what, because as the body, we're called to lift each other up, to pray for one another.
Again, how are we identified as?
We're identified as Christians because we love one another.
So let's practice that.
Let's do that.
So again, I have homework for you guys.
Go home and read 1 Corinthians 13.
All the way through, it gives you a great understanding of what love is and what it
means to love others.
What love is beside the idea of it being this emotion.
Emotion is with love, like it's alongside, it's a buddy, but the emotion isn't always
there.
Those that have been married for more than two years already know this.
You choose to love your partner because love is an action.
You choose to love them, even when the feeling ain't there.
That is why we should read through in your homework, it's 1 Corinthians 13, because it
gives you this beautiful list of love is, love is, love is, and it helps you write it
down.
Be like, hey, where do I need to improve?
Where am I failing or where am I doing good?
So I don't want to end this on a downer of, hey, here's homework.
So here's our encouragement.
1 Corinthians 16, 13 through 14.
Be alert.
Stand firm in the faith.
Be courageous.
Be strong and do everything in love.
So with that, we'll pray and we'll invite up Pastor Nathan.
Lord, thank you so much.
We thank you for the love that you have shown us through you dying on the cross for us,
through you sending your son, and the beautiful thing about that whole situation, Lord, is
before even the foundation of the earth, you being an all-knowing God knew that you would
have to do this, and you loved us so much before we were even born that you already
had the plan for Jesus to die for us.
Thank you so much, Lord.
We love you so much.
And I pray for anyone here who is convicted online, in person, anywhere that has been
convicted that they're not loving, but doing out of Christian habit, Lord, which habits
aren't bad, but Lord, bring us back to our first love.
Help us to go back to our love for you, our love for God, Lord, and help us to love others
and be right and good examples and ambassadors of you here to everyone that sees us, Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.