The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 3: The Greatest of These

Episode Date: September 20, 2020

We love because He first loved us. - 1 John 4:19

Amen and amen. How are we doing, church? Everybody all right? You look good. Are you still saturated or did it leak out? I don't even know what to do this week after last week. How many of you went to saturated? Was that not just absolutely incredible?

Praise God. Hey, a couple days to celebrate there. Last week, during saturated, we had 40 people surrender their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Praise God. We doubled in our attendance with our online live views. pretty awesome, praise God for that. 400 of you texted, send me to 44, 1122. That's 400.

That's pretty incredible. We baptized 12 people last Sunday at all of our locations. And speaking of baptism, if you have never been baptized as a believer, you should. We've got a class right after the service all weekend long at all of our services. And a week from Sunday will be beach baptism. So the momentum just carries on through from saturated to beach baptism. You need to be there for that. All right.

If you got your Bible, 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, is where we're going to be. We're wrapping up a three-week series called These Three Remain. And tonight, we are talking about love. How fun is that? The idea for this series came from 1 Corinthians 13 versus 12 and 13. I'll read them. It says this, for now we see in a mirror dimly. The now means on earth while we're alive here on earth.

That's the now. For now we see in a mirror dimly. That's earth. But then, face to face, that's heaven. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. Verse 13. Here's the subject for this three week series. So now, faith, hope, and love abide, these three.

But the greatest of these is love. Why is the greatest love? The greatest is love because love is eternal. Because faith is very important. You know how important faith is? The Bible says, without faith, you can't please God. Faith is the currency by which we know Him. It's very, very important.

However, when we get to heaven, faith is not faith anymore. Faith is sight. Nobody in heaven is going to come up to you and be like, do you have faith in Jesus? Be like, well, he's sitting right there. I don't know what that means, okay? Because our faith becomes sight. Hebrews 111 says, now faith is. is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

So when we get there, then those things will be seen. So it's very, very different. And the reason that love is greater than hope is because when we get to heaven, when we get there, now we're not hoping for eternity with him. We are experiencing eternity with him. It is hope realized. Remember last week we talked about hope deferred, makes the heart sick? Well, hope realized makes the heart full.

Romans 824 says, for in this hope we were saved. Now, hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen. But when we get to heaven, love is eternal. And the reason that love is eternal is because God is love. Now, if you've been around Bible study, or even if you've just been to a wedding recently, you have probably heard of 1st Corinthians chapter 13. And that's where we want to dive into as we talk about love. I want to be very, very practical. about not just the idea of love, but are we loving people? And the Bible is clear about what love is. Our world is very confused about what love is. In fact, in English, love, the word love almost is meaningless. I mean, think about it. Today, I have said things like, I love you to my wife. I've said,

I love God, I love tacos, I love all kind of stuff. In Greek, there's a bunch of different. words that describe love. And in our culture, I mean, we get all of these mixed messages about love. In the 90s, we asked the question, what is love? Baby, don't hurt me. Oh, no. I don't know what that means, but that's just what I remember. Tina Turner said in the 80s, what's love got to do with it? I think a lot. In the 60s, the Beatles said, oh, you need is love. And they broke up. So apparently they didn't know what it is. Now, when we think about love, In fact, our culture talks about love like an accident. Like, oh, I'm sorry, I fell in it.

It wasn't my fault. I didn't mean to hurt you, but it's not my fault. When I fell into this, then it took control over me, and we talk about it as if it's an accident. But when the Bible talks about love, it talks about love as an action. And so in 1st Corinthians chapter 13, the chapter breaks down into three sections.

Versus 1 through 3 talk about the necessity and primacy of love, versus 4 through 7 describe what love is, verses 8 through 13 speak of the permanence of love. So in week one, we asked you the question, do you have faith? Because we spent the whole week on faith. Last week, we asked the question, do you have hope? And so tonight I want to ask you the question,

do you have love? And if I were to ask you, are you a loving person? Most people say, well, of course I am. But what we mean when we say that is, I have these feelings trapped inside He, hear and because I feel love, then yes, I am a loving person, but the Bible doesn't talk about love as some kind of emotion or accident. Biblical love is expressed through action. It is more than a feeling. First Corinthians 13. Here we go. Paul says to the church at Corinth this, if I speak in

the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a nor. noisy gong or a clanging symbol. In other words, if I can preach the paint off the walls, no amen, no nothing. You amen, Doug Logan, every time he breathed out loud and I got nothing. No, that's fine, whatever. No, you missed it. That's all right. Just tweet the hand thing, okay? No, fire, fire. No, it ain't. Okay, here we go. Let me try that again. If I can preach the paint off the walls, didn't feel the same. Don't loveless to me. But have not love. I'm a noisy, gong or a clanging symbol. When Paul says noisy gong and clanging symbols, that was how pagans worship at the pagan temple. In other words, what he says is you could come into church

and have phenomenal sermons and incredible worship leaders, but a loveless worship experience is a worthless worship experience because you might as well be worshiping a false God. He's starting off strong here. Verse two. He says, and if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge. I mean, that's kind of a big deal, right? Like, if you had the ability to not just see the future, but prophecy often also means to speak the truth or to rightly assess your situation and perfectly tell where your life was headed every time, if you could do that, and you could understand all mysteries and had all knowledge, you had the answers to every question that people had.

Like if you could come here and I could rightly tell you exactly what God's plan for your life was, if I could answer all of your questions, everything from who shot JFK to when COVID is going to be over. If I could answer all of that but had not love, there'd be a problem. And if I have all faith so as to remove mountains. Like if you could, you didn't talk about faith

in the abstract, you would say, you want to see my faith in Christ, watch this. And with your mind, make the Jags win the Super Bowl. Praise God, you understand? Hey, we're on track. Might as well believe. All right, fanatics. That's what we're called. Fans are crazy people, so I'd go ahead and get on the bandwagon now, and it ain't going to be long.

Okay, anyway. If you have all the faith so as to remove mountains, in other words, you could do miracles, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all that I have. if I give away all that I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing. You know that we are, we're kind of coming to the culmination of this one initiative, this two-year discipleship journey where we are believing God and we're asking this question, is he the one thing that drives everything?

And we believe that we need $60 million over two years in resources to accomplish all that God has called us to accomplish like we've planted over 150 churches in the last two, years and launched campuses and all of that. If you heard that message and you said 60 million, oh, I'm going to sell everything I have and I'm going to write you a check. Here you go, I can handle that and you do it without love. You gain nothing. Now, we'll still keep you checked because that's between you and Jesus. You understand what I'm saying? We gain plenty, but you gain nothing. So listen to what he says. He says, you have nothing, you are nothing, you gain nothing if you have not love.

You know what we would call that? We would call that abject failure. That you could buy the biggest house, lend the sweetest dream job, you could outperform the competition, you could shoot one under, you could buy the sweetest boat, you can impress the most people,

your YouTube video could go viral, you could pass the fastest glory church in America, and without love, you have failed at this thing called life. Why? Because this lawyer goes, to Jesus and says, all right, Jesus, of all the laws in all of the old covenant, what is the most important? And he said, that's easy. Love God and love people. Remember the Shema? Here,

O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And as a result of seeing God for who he really is, our normative response is love, that we would love God with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind and all our strength. So what is love? Well, it ain't just a feeling. Here's my definition. I made it up. It's got to be good. Love is your joy in the Lord expressed toward others at great expense to yourself. That's what love is. Let me say it again. Tweet this if you want to. My definition of love. Love is your joy in the Lord expressed towards others at great expense to yourself. And you say, where do you get that from? From Jesus hanging on the cross? His joy in the Lord expressed towards others at great expense to himself.

Now, most of the time when we say, I love you, what we actually mean is I love me, and you help me love me better. That's literally what we mean. You know, you say nice things to me. You make me feel better about me. You cook a fine meal. People think I'm cool when I hang out with you. Therefore, I love you. And actually what I mean is, I love me, and you help me love me.

It costs me nothing to say, I love you, so keep, help me, help me, love me. Now, the Bible's going to define it very differently. I want us to walk through a description from the Bible of what love is and see how you're doing. And I'm just telling you, every single time I study this, it is incredibly convicting to me. Incredibly convicting. Some of the things I excel out are things like leadership and doctrine and strategy and courage. and I have these feelings of love all in here. Like if you ask me, do you love your kids?

Of course I do. Do you love your wife? If I talk about her too much, I'll cry right now. All of these things in here. Those things, though, do not make the list in 1st Corinthians 13 about what love is. So here we go. Why don't you just, you know, oftentimes we'll say that the Bible is both a map and a mirror. So let's just hold up 1 Corinthians 13 as a mirror to just see how we're doing.

Ready, number one, verse 4. love is patient and kind. Well, I'm over for two. I don't know why you laugh. You want to hurt my feelings. Listen to me. I mean, think about it. Have you ever described me with those two words?

Has anybody ever asked you, hey, where you go to church? 1122. Tell me about your pastor. He's so patient and just kind. See? You'll laugh loud. Gracious, man, people. In fact, one time years ago, I was studying this passage, and I called Gretchen all rattled on the way home from the woods.

I was like, baby, I owe you an apology. She said, what are you talking about? I was like, I love you, but I have not been loving you. And so I got home and we started talking about it. She's like, what do you mean? You're good to us. And da-da-da-da-da. I go, okay, let's look through here.

How about what you think? Love is patient and kind. She said, all right. What else we got? Don't get much better. Patience is the passive reaction of love to tough circumstances in people. That's what I look. Patience is the passive reaction.

action to tough circumstances and people. Are you patient? I'm the worst. Every time I get on the highway, I feel like everybody in front of me is winning. I just got to get around them. Gretchen's like, why you got to pass them? Because they're in front of me. If they were behind me, I wouldn't care, okay?

I don't know what that is. I don't know. Let somebody be slow on me. I just, it's not good. Kindness is the active action towards those same people. And here, our culture is. losing the ability to be kind to one another. And Twitter's killing us.

Twitter's killing us. I think people used to be more kind because if you said that to somebody to their face, they'd punch you in the nose. That'll make you a little more kind. And we are, I mean, what happened to kindness? So I got a lot of work to do here. Let's keep going.

Love does not envy or boast. The only one I feel decent about is the envy thing. I feel real good about the skin God put me in. No problem. Not the actual skin. It's getting a little flabbier than it ought to be, but that's not what I mean. I walk in in a gospel confidence of what God has called me to do. No problem there.

But you know what envy is, some translations will say, love is not jealous. You see, there's the difference between being jealous of and jealous for, because the Bible also says that God is love. That love is not jealous, that God is love. does that work? Because, you see, being jealous of is actually an affront against God. When you're jealous of somebody, when you're envious of somebody, it's actually, you're saying, God, you didn't get this thing right. You didn't know what you were doing. Why did you give her that and you didn't give me that? You were supposed to give me that and not him so much. You see, remember

last week, Paul said he learned the secret of being content in any and every situation? It's because he was never jealous of anybody else. And when the Bible says that God is not jealous, It means that God is not jealous of us. You think God is jealous of you? You think he saw you getting ready? He was like, God, look at those pants. I wish I had some pants like that. Look at those granite countertops.

We have had these things forever. You know, that's not what he does. But he is jealous for us, which means he wants what's best for us. So when the Bible says that God is a jealous God, the only illustration I can think of that makes sense is to be jealous for, it's like a mom knowing that their nursing baby needs them more than anything else on the planet.

That's how God feels towards us. But love does not envy and love does not boast. You see, because when we boast, what we begin to do is we begin to take credit for God's action and activity in our life. And both envy and boasting basically say, yeah, yeah, enough about you, let's get back to me. And love always says it's not about me. So love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. Love is not arrogant or rude.

Arrogance believes I'm better than you. And rudeness treats somebody that way. Listen, I'm going to tell you, man, when I was in college, a waited tables, I think any person that ever eats at a restaurant on a wait table, so you can understand how horrible it is, okay? And all you people that wait tables, God bless you. You're the best, all right? You should be missionaries, and we'd save the whole.

whole world. Anywho. And what, man, you know what I, you know what we would cringe at when we would wait tables? If people would pray, when people prayed before their meal, we thought, oh, no. Because the Christians were the worst. They were the worst. First of all, they didn't drink, so they didn't tip worth a mess. It was terrible. And then they were the worst. They were the pickiest. They were the rudest. The more you prayed before your meal, the more likely you were, dear your steak wasn't cooked right. And I'm talking about. And I'm trying to tell all my waitstaff pagans because they were all them were pagans and i was trying to tell them about the good news of the love of jesus christ and one of the biggest stumbling blocks to that

were the arrogant and rude christians and that's why nobody were to work on sunday and nobody tipped you tip a fake $20 thing that had the good news of the gospel on it with a fake $20 how you're going to offer somebody eternal life and it cost you nothing that is not how the gospel works put a hundred and then write out John 316 on it if you want to. Do you understand that arrogance is when you believe that you're better than somebody and rudeness is treating them that way? So let me ask you this. When you walk in the door, does love and peace walk in with you?

Or do you believe that everybody in your world was put there as an extra into the epic saga of the great movie all about you? You see, because love doesn't do that. Love is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way. Do you have to have everything your way? Or another way to ask it is this. Do you have to have the last word?

Do you always have to be right? I always have to be right. Because I am right. Sometimes when Gretchen and I are in moments of intense fellowship, you know what I mean? and she'll say to me, why do you always have to be right? And I say to her, who wants to be wrong? Why don't you just switch, come over out of the dark side to the light side. We could be right together.

This would be awesome. You see, ultimately, when you have to have it your own way, what you're saying is it's all about me, and I expect for the whole universe to revolve around me. That love is not irritable or resentful. Some translations say, love is not easily angered. Are you easily angered?

Are you irritable? The Greek word for irritable, it means to like poke or a cut. I think the word picture here that Paul is giving is, are you short temper? Do you have a short fuse? Because if you do, there's probably some sort of unheeled wound that's going on there that you just hadn't dealt with. You see, like if I was irritated here,

I had some kind of rash or wound and you bumped up against it, then I would overreact to the situation because you didn't see the wound and you bumped up into it. If you bumped into somewhere that was all healed, even if there was a scar, then I could take the bump because it wouldn't hurt. So what's actually going on in there? And you do that long enough, if you're irritable long enough, it will lead to the next word, which is resentment or resentful. Resentment is a result of harboring unforgiveness. It's just this low-grade disappointment because you didn't get what you want. Is that you?

Because that's not what love does. You see, and you do this long enough, and then eventually you get to the point where you wake up, like no thing has even happened to you in your day yet, and you just wake up, irritable and resentful. Look like you were weaned on a pickle. Somebody says, what's wrong with you? You just woke up.

And honestly, you're like, this is scary. I don't know. I don't know. You see, most often, there's just unforgiveness that you've hung on for so long. It's become your identity

and it makes you resentful towards people. And you're easily angered or irritable. You ever like cut your finger? Man, I cut the end of my finger off a couple weeks ago. I was cutting a steak and my finger went to with it, you know? Not a lot, just the tip, just the important part. And apparently, I walk around like this everywhere I go. I didn't even know it.

You ever notice that? These fingers didn't touch a thing all that time. This finger got there one minute before the rest of my body every single time. And then what do you do? You pull back like that. That is what irritability and being resentful is. And again, then what we begin to do when we're easily angered or when we're resentful is we always, man, we cast the blame somewhere else.

We blame them our circumstances. Well, you don't understand. You don't know what my boss did to me. You don't know what my wife did or won't do for me. You don't know how I was raised. You know, my daddy didn't hug me, my mom didn't breastfeed me. It's not my fault.

It's not my fault. It's just the way I am. It's my personality type. I'm a D, I'm an eight, whatever it is. And we begin to make excuses. And ultimately, the problem is that's not what love does. It's not what love does. Here's a little exercise for you.

on the way home tonight, if you came here with somebody, ask this question, what's it like to be on the other side of me? What's it like to be on the other side of me? Because when we walk around easily anger, do you know what happens in the lives of the people that we love most? They have to always have their little inner investigator on. And when you come walking in the door in 0.08 seconds, they've got to figure out who they're dealing with that day.

Is that you? Now, the problem is that if you're easily angered, they might not tell you. They're telling somebody. They're telling somebody, I promise, you want to create the kind of environment that you could ask that question, hey, what's it like to be on the other side of me? And then when they respond to you, here's how you answer. Thank you. That's it.

That's it. Sometimes when I come in that way, Gretchen, should just say, should just say, I can tell you. you've been leading meetings all day. And what she means, and it's good, it's a warning. It's a little like, yep, you're right. And what she's saying is, and I don't want you to lead me that way. And it's just a way for her to help me say, hey, hey, hey, hey, don't you walk in here like that. And again, my response is not, yeah, I've been leading meetings all day, and that's why we get to live indoors and eat hot food.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not loving. Verse six, love does not rejoice at wrong. doing, but rejoices with the truth. The NIV translates it this way. Love keeps no record of wrong. Do you keep a record of wrong? You see, married people.

You know what happens sometimes? See, when some people fight, they get historical. Some people get hysterical. Some people get historical. You know what I'm saying? Like somehow, my mind, I can remember all kind of useless stuff. Like, I can remember everything that everybody's done wrong, and I can remember every lyric from a song in the 80s.

And yet I walk in the kitchen and can't remember why I walked in the kitchen, all right? It's not that good. And what oftentimes we do is our inner lawyer kicks in and we're just keeping a record of wrong so that when you get into that robust fellowship at the house, you can make sure that you prove that you're right and she is wrong. Well, guess what? Love doesn't do that. In fact, that word there is logizomai from the root word logos, which means love doesn't even talk about it or bring up the past. You see, there's a bunch of relationships. You see, there's a relationships that are handcuffed in the future because you're still stuck in what happened in the past. And love rejoices with the truth.

Do you spend more of your time pointing out negatives or praising positives? Love does not overlook the word of God. Love does not overlook the truth of God for our own comfort and convenience. Now we live in a crazy time. We live in a time right now that says, if I disagree with you, then that's to hate you. That's a lie from the pit of hell. Rick Warren said this a long time ago. He said our culture has accepted two huge lies.

The first is that if you disagree with someone's lifestyle, you must fear them or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don't have to compromise conviction to be compassionate. Let me ask you this. do you love the friend or the friendship more? Because what love would compel us to do is to love the friend even at the expense of the friendship.

It is not love to see somebody rebel from God run in disobedience and run their life over a cliff and you stand there and politely cheer them to their own death. That is not love. I hope and pray that I've got enough men in my life that love me enough that if they see me leading my life over a cliff, then they would love me and love me. enough to say the hard thing and the hurtful thing and stand there and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

whoa, whoa, whoa, this path leads somewhere that you don't want to go. That's what love is. I'm not saying it's comfortable. It's just loving. And then he says love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. This is what love does. In other words, love never quits. According to first Corinthians 13, the opposite of love is not hate. The of love is selfishness and apathy. And here's what this means relationally if you're a believer. That love never gives up. They love never quits. So Christian, don't ever give up on that marriage. Don't. And you may feel like you're a million miles away and some papers may have even

been filed, but that's okay because the papers don't define who you are. God tells you who you are. And if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And if If you are divorced, mom and dad don't ever give up on your kids. I know it's complicated, but the thing that they will remember more than anything when they are grown is that my daddy never gave up on me. He'd had to drive a long way. He moved into a new house. He came to the ball games.

He just didn't tap out and say, this is too hard for me. Don't ever quit. Don't ever quit on the friendship. Don't ever quit on the relationship. Don't ever think that it is irreconcilable again. because if we could be reconciled to a holy and perfect God, for sure two sinners could be reconciled in the name of Jesus. Love bears all things. Love believes all things.

You hear that? Love believes all things. In the absence of facts, love trusts. When there is a gap between what is expected and what is experienced, love decides to fill up that gap with trust and not suspicion. That's what love does. Love hopes all things and love endures all things. Now again, every time I go through this passage, I legitimately have to go home and apologize to my family.

I do. I have to apologize to my family. Men, you want to lead your family? It doesn't necessarily mean that you know the most Bible. I know the most Bible in my family, but it's just because that's what I do for a living. But you want to lead in your family? How about be the lead apologizer?

How about be the lead repenter? If you have not been doing these things, then maybe the action step for you tonight is before you get to the car, you just lean over and you thank the person you were here with for anything that they got right and you apologize for all the things that you got wrong. That's what love does. Verse 8. Love never ends. Why? Because love is eternal. Because God is love. Think about this. 1 John 4.8. We'll get there in a minute. God is love. God has to be stirred to wrath, but God is love. See, a lot of you think that God is wrath, that he's just kind of ticked off and he's angry and he's waiting for you to screw up so he can get you. That's not who God is. God is love. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. as for knowledge it will pass away.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. Do you know what this means? As important as prophecy and knowledge and tongues are, as important as church services are, as important as sermons are, one day there will be no more sermons. You realize when we get to heaven,

I won't be doing this anymore. It's not like the elders and the creatures and the tribes, songs, the nations will be gathered around Jesus on his throne, singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. And then over the heavenly intercom, attention, heaven, in Ballroom 4,

Pastor Jobi is going to be teaching on 1st Timothy. And then I'm, I, Paul, hey Paul, to you, Timothy, hey, what's up, Tim? Actually, maybe y'all should just tell us what you were doing. See, we don't need that anymore. And you don't need a word of not. knowledge and you don't need a tongue. Why? Because you're just with the father. He doesn't have to speak miraculously through some people with those spiritual gifts anymore for the edification of the

church. You can just be like, what's that? It's like going on vacation with your dad. If you need something, you're just like, hey, because you're right there. And what are you going to pray for? You're a co-air with Christ. All that he has has has already been given to you. But the thing that keeps on going is love. Then verse 11. Paul said, when I was a child, I spoke like a child, and I thought like a child, and I reasoned like a child. And when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. Do you realize when we are rude and we are irritable and we are easily angered and when we boast and we're not patient and when we are unkind and when we have to have our way, we're not being tough. We're being toddlers. This is what he's saying. Because listen, children are not patient.

I know. We just dedicated some children at our campuses. They're adorable little cute snowflakes, but there's some impatient little snowflakes, are they not? And are they jealous? Yeah. Has your kid ever said, here you go, mom, I've had enough ice cream. Why don't you have a bite? Has your kid ever come you and said, hey, mom, mom, mom, you know what? You look like you've had a busy day. Why don't you just have a few minutes to yourself? No, they're rude. They're rude. Like just right in the middle of church. Just scream. Why? Because they didn't get what they want. They're immature. Are they patient? Miss one nap. I wish I could get a nap. They miss one nap. Ruins their whole week, right? Pitch a fit. And Paul says, yeah, when you're unloving, you're actually immature. You're not being

tough. You're being immature. And it goes on to say, for now we see, here's the verse we started with, for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face, now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now, faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is Love. Again, my definition of love. Love is your joy in the Lord expressed towards others at great expense to yourself. So how you doing? If at this point you're not thinking, I've got some work to do, then I am not doing a very good job as a preacher, okay? By show of hands, anybody saying, anybody's saying, you know what, I'm crushing it. I mean, I think there were nine verbs on there. I'm nine for nine. Anybody? Anybody like, this is a little kindergarten? I wish you would have added a couple of

these more because this is pretty. Anybody crushing? Okay, good, because love does not boast, and if you raise your hand, then you're already out, all right? Now, you see, the problem, though, is, is if you look at this and you just click into the works, righteousness, try harder method, you could pull it off, some of you longer than others. You know, if you just grit your teeth and be like, you know what I'm going to do this week, I'm going to be patient. You realize the moment you try to be patient, it's terrible, okay?

You see, ultimately the point is this, it's in 1st John 419, we love because he first loved us. We love because he first loved us. And the only way you can give something is if you got something. So like if at Hope Clause it, we ran an 8-track special right now and said, hey, we need a bunch of eight-tracks. There's a bunch of us that could just run to our basements or whatever and pull out some 8-tracks. Y'all Google 8-track, all right?

It was like, it's hard to explain. It was cool, love. You remember, you flip it, you fast forward for the reverse. You remember this? Just me? Okay. But you would have to go and get something in order to give something. And so when the Bible commands us to love one another, you can't give what you don't got.

You can't. And so the key is not just hunker down and try harder. The key is to grab hold of love. And the Bible says that God is love. I've got a whole bunch of verses here. I'm going to run through real quick. 1 John chapter 4, verses 7 and 8. The Apostle John starts with this word, beloved.

Beloved, let us love one another. Beloved. This is the title that the Bible gives the believer. beloved. I don't know if you use that word a lot. It's not a word we typically use. I didn't roll in here and see the band and Michael Olson be like, beloved. That's not going to fly. But God the father over his children calls us beloved. If we could just receive that word, I mean, look at it. If we could just be loved, get it? If we could just be loved, guess what? Loved people, love people. And not only that, the covenant name.

of God in Exodus chapter 3 is Yahweh. It's a tetragram. It's just four Hebrew letters. There were no vowels in Hebrew. And the way it's pronounced Yahweh. It was supposed to sound like breathing. Breathe in, breathe out. Yahweh. And God tells Moses that his name is Yahweh, which is translated, I am that I am, or I be what I be. I like that one better. And then when John writes to the church, He says that be loves you, be loved, beloved. Oftentimes are the reason that we don't love one another is because we're still all hosed up on the reality that God loves us.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. Do you know God? Do you know the kiss of the Father? That in the beginning, God said, let us create mankind in our own image and this perfect love relationship.

Not because God was needy. God was not walking around heaven going on what we're going to do with all this space and time. Oh, I got an idea. Let's create children that will sing us songs on Sunday and then disobey them all week. That sounds like a grand idea. That's not how it went down.

That out of God's love for God's self, He speaks into existence and then creates image bearers and breathes the ruah of life into us and pours love into us. To not know loves, to not know God because God is love. That God loves you and as image bearers, then we are the only created thing that has the ability to love one another. Like I know you think your dog loves you, your dog doesn't love. love you. Your dog responds to you. I know I got two dogs too that humans created so that won't

they won't shed or smell, okay? I understand. And they seem like they love me because they run up to me, but what they love is bacon. And if I died in my house, they would eat my net meat to survive. That is just true, are they? They would not have a funeral and bury me. And your cat, you don't love anybody. It don't even like you. My man. But God created us. God is this perfect love relationship in and of himself and then creates us in his image so that we can give and receive love. And the reason that we can love, 1 John 419, is because he first loved us. And how did he love us? John 1513 says, greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends, for his friends. Romans 5-8, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for

us. 1 John 4.10, in this is love. You want to pay attention when the Bible defines a word like love for us. In this is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin. I love that word propitiation. Come on, you know this 1122. Propetuation means a payment that satisfies. Look at you theologians, man. Your theologians. Most churches don't even use the word propitiation because they don't think you're smart enough, but I believe if you can order a Carmel Machiaato, you can understand the word propitiation, okay? A payment that satisfies. The reason this theological term matters, because what happens is at the cross of Jesus Christ, the wrath of God is satisfied, the law of God is satisfied, the payment for our sin is satisfied, which means then if

you are in Christ and he at the cross fully satisfies the wrath of God, then God cannot be dissatisfied in you. And so many of us have this nagging lie from the enemy that God's just a little ticked with you. That one day when you die and go to heaven, maybe he'll welcome you in, but you're such a disappointment right now. Do you know why God is not disappointed in you because disappointment comes with surprise. Disappointment is when you expect one thing and then you get another thing. God has never set up in heaven and be like,

what in the name of me are you doing right now? That has never happened. He knew all that he was getting in you when he sent his son Jesus to be the propitiation for your sin. And when he says, it is finished, that word, Teletestai, It means paid in full that all of our sin has been paid for. Therefore, this is why the Bible says that God delights in his children, that God dances over his children, that God sings over his children. Like if God's got a refrigerator, you're pictures on it.

But you can't stop there. Then you get a little idolatrous. But God in worshiping you, he's most glorified in the fact that he saved you. that's how that works. That's what love is. And then Paul says in Galatians chapter 5 verse 22 he says but the fruit of the spirit

he names a bunch of them love joy peace, patience kindness, kindness, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. And you know who bats? Lead off. And the fruit of the spirit, love. Now fruit is produced. It's not manufactured. There's a big difference.

There's a big difference. That I can't just rip a couple of lemons off a lemon tree and nail them to the podium and say, look at my lemon tree. That's not how it works. The lemons won't last very long that way. This is why the try-harder method doesn't work. This is why Jesus is going to say in John chapter 15,

here's the secret, folks, abide in me and I will abide in you. Abide is a Greek word that means stay close. Draw near to me. Come here, come here. Let's discover and deepen our relationship with Jesus. Christ, you put yourself in the kind of environment whereby your affections for the Lord are stirred, things like worship and fellowship and Bible study and mission trips and all those kind of things. And then what begins to happen over time, not overnight, that the fruit of the spirit,

things like love, you begin to think, well, I'm not a very loving person. Well, if Christ is in you, it's part of the fruit of the spirit. So you are. What is hindering you from being? a loving person because the love of God is in you because the spirit of God is in you. And as you continuously cultivate that relationship with Jesus Christ and you're continually blown away by the reality that this is love, not that we love him, but he loved us and sent his son as a propitiation for our sin.

Who am I that he would take my place? And if he loved me like that, I don't want to be a cul-de-sac of his love. I want to be a conduit of his love. And then again, what will begin to happen is you will begin to love. some unlovable people, and you go, ah, it's happening. It's happening. I hate my sweetmate. They're terrible. They're the worst. They eat my food. They're messy. They smell weird. And then one day you begin to realize through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, oh my goodness, I was the sweetmate to God that I was aggravating and irritable and messy and

smell weird. And yet, God demonstrated his love for me and this, that even before I ever did anything to clean up my act, God loved me. And that kind of love becomes a conduit. And then that is how we love one another. So I read a commentary that said, what you ought to do when you study 1 Corinthians 13 is you ought to put your name in each of the sentences and see how you're doing. And I got about halfway through and I quit. Jobie is patient and kind. There you go laughing again. See? Good gracious. Jobie doesn't envy your boast. Jobie's not arrogant or rude.

I got about halfway through and thought, well, this is worse. This is worse than when I started. You see, I don't think you should do that at all. I do think you should hold up the text as a mirror so that we can see, like James says. It's like a man that looks in the mirror and realizes something needs to change

and he does something about it. Okay? But, you know, if the Bible says, in 1 John chapter 4 that God is love. And in 1 Corinthians 13, it says love is patient and kind. And I think what we actually ought to do is put God's name there, not ours. Listen to this and think about how God loves us.

Is God patient with you? I mean, aren't you glad God doesn't treat his children the way we treat our children? Like how patient is he with us? You ever struggle with the same thing over and over and over. Anybody? Me and this guy?

Cool. Okay. Everybody else is a liar. That's your struggle? Okay, you're struggling with it right now. No doubt, man. So when my kids don't do what I tell them to do the same thing over and over and over, I just start taking stuff away.

Yet when I struggle with the same thing over and over and over, the patience of God is unbelievable. And how kind is He? It's God's kindness that leads us to repentance. That's how he treats us. And God does not envy or boast. that God is not arrogant or rude, that God does not insist on his own way. Think about this.

He doesn't insist on his own way. Jesus stepped off of the throne of glory and came and was treated as a criminal and murdered on a cross. He put our sin problem above his title at the cross. That he's not irritable, that God is slow to anger, he's not resentful. How about this one? God keeps no record of wrong. And when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, Colossians tells us that he takes the record of wrong and nails it to the cross. That's what he does with our transcripts. That God does not rejoice at wrongdoing. That God rejoices with the truth, that God bears all things,

that God believes all things, that God hopes all things, that God endures all things, that God never ends. You see, because he lives in me, then I can love the way he has loved me. Because he lives in you, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, then you can love because his love flows through you. So maybe what you need to do tonight is before you go to bed, you need to talk to somebody or call them on the phone. Let's don't text this. And you need to apologize. You need to apologize. us. Not because of anything that I have said, but because the conviction of the spirit of God through his word. And there's some things. Husbands, you need to be the chief apologizer in your home. And you need to just go and say, you know what, I'm so sorry. Because when I walk in the room,

peace doesn't walk in with me. I'm easily angered. I'm rude. I'm arrogant. I'm proud. Will you pray for me? Will you help me? And wives, when he doesn't do that, when he does that, when he confesses that thing, please, that is not the time to be like, well, it's about time. get all neck shaking. You understand? You just need to give a little hercules, hercules. That's what he needs right there. Just a little encouragement. Okay. And that may be in a marriage relationship. Maybe you need to call your boss that were, say, I'm sorry, been disrespectful. Maybe you need to go to your roommate and say, hey, this is on me because for whatever reason, I thought that everything in this apartment would revolve around me. Maybe you need to apologize.

us. Many of us need to go to somebody and say, thank you. Thank you for loving me. You're so patient with me. You're so kind with me. You're so forgiving with me. You keep no record of wrong. You always hope the best. You believe all things. You bear all things. Thank you. Thank you. And what some of us need to do is you need to look at people and say, I love you. And then for the rest of week, act like it. Would you please stand and let's pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, Lord, I pray that we would not be conformed to the pattern of this world who has twisted

the word love into something that is irreconizable as compared to what you mean when you say love. But Lord, I pray that we would be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Lord, I pray that we would begin to see ourselves the way you see us, because then and only then will we be able to love others the way you have loved us. God, I pray for marriages. I pray for business relationships. I pray for friendships. Lord, I pray for reconciliation.

Lord, I pray that the defining characteristic of this church, it wouldn't be preaching, it wouldn't be singing, and it wouldn't, it would be love. Even with people in our city that don't agree or believe anything that we believe, the thing that they would not be able to deny is this, that that is a loving group of people. God, may we love one another because you have first loved us. We pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.