Love Becomes This

1 Corinthians 13:13 | September 13, 2020

Do you ever lose focus?

A business leader was giving a speech to a non-profit group outside at the local amphitheater and said, “I don’t always lose focus, but when I do…squirrel!”

Some people don’t lose focus, they just seem to be focused on the wrong thing.

Two friends were having coffee one day and one of them said, “You are never going to please everyone, so, just focus on me.”

Whether you are losing focus or have the wrong focus, a report out this week might be some help. 

Psychology Today evaluated 527 placebo-controlled studies on supplements to help you focus and published a list of the few that had the most science-backed influence on healthy adults.

Yes, caffeine was on the list, but out of kindness to our coffee nuts I’m not going to talk about that one since I would have to discourage you with what the article notes about the risks and legality issues of caffeine – that’s right you may end up in jail from the side effects or side actions of being overcaffeinated – some of you have gotten closer than you are willing to admit.

On the positive side if you have too much coffee you can always win a blinking contest.

One of the supplements on the focus list is known as bacopa monnieri, an herb native to a number of wetland areas around the world.

It is also known as water hyssop, thyme-leafed gratiola, herb of grace, and Indian pennywort.

I just don’t know that I want to be focused enough to take something called pennywort.

The benefits of this herb are a small amount of improvement in areas like:

• Mood
• Nervousness
• Memory
• Energy
• Cognitive processing

Are there any risks with taking it?

Well, you’ve got a 50% chance of it having an impact on your digestive system and then a small risk of some of the following:

• Headache
• Insomnia
• Vivid dreams
• Drowsiness
• Allergies
• Skin rash
• Vertigo
• Palpitations
• Nausea
• Muscular fatigue
• Cramps
• Increase in felt stress
• Worsened mood

Yep, when I want to be focused, I want to be more stressed and in a bad mood.

It has been said that you are controlled by what you focus on, so, what are you focused on today?

What is controlling you?

I can’t vouch for Indian pennywort, but there is one focus that will change your life and the only lasting side effect is satisfaction.

What kind of focus is that?

Let’s find out.

The Apostle Paul was writing to people in the ancient city of Corinth and said this in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 13…

13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three;

What does it mean for something to abide?

It means it stays – it remains. 

In looking back a few sentences, Paul is saying something very unique to the church – he’s saying that…

Someone can preach a moving, charismatic sermon, or teach an electrifying Zoom class about the prophecies of God and the end times, but prophecy will not abide – it will not stay, it will not remain – it is temporary. 

Or someone can step into a situation in a local parking lot or a market place on the other side of the world and suddenly have the ability to speak or understand a language that they do not have prior knowledge of or they could be in a personal prayer time or a church service and have some kind of non-normal spiritual utterance, but those tongues, those languages, those utterances will not abide – they will not stay, they will not remain – they are temporary.

Or someone can beautifully and systematically be able to connect all the dots of prophecies and tongues and theologies and philosophies and historical intricacies and authenticities in the Bible, but that ability in knowledge will not abide – it will not stay, it will not remain – it is temporary.

There are only three things that will remain.

There are only three things that will survive:

• Every pandemic spread
• Every polarizing opinion
• Every political election
• Every potential health issue
• Every personal tragedy
• Every promised reality

What will survive?

• Faith
• Hope
• Love

Let’s consider each one of those for a moment. 

Why will faith survive?

Why will faith abide and remain and stay?

Because faith is first and most from God.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Someone can boast about a sermon or teaching a Zoom class on prophecy – they can say that they’ve had a unique vision from an angel and that on February 29, 2024, a certain politician is going to leap over the establishments of democracy and create an evil new world order not through the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, but through the Jumanji Party and the proof of this prophetic vision is that the Jumanji Party headquarters will be located at 222 Chicken Gristle Road in Washington, D.C.

And why is that the proof?

Because if you take 222 and multiply it by 3 you get a certain number from the Bible that blows the whole agenda of the Jumanji Party wide open. 

Someone can boast about that kind of prophetic vision, but they can’t boast that their good prophetic vision makes them right with God, because that can only come by faith and first and most faith is a gift from God.

Faith is not temporary – it abides and remains and stays and survives because faith comes from God and faith takes us to God and God is the one, true, ultimate, lasting reality in the universe. 

What about hope?

Why will hope survive?

Why will hope abide and remain and stay?

Because hope is first and most from God.

By definition, hope is a feeling or a desire or an expectation that a certain thing will happen. 

We hope for a lot of things in life. 

• We hope our team will win
• We hope we make a good grade on the test
• We hope our kids will graduate
• We hope our grandkids will get good jobs
• We hope the doctor has good news

We hope they won’t run out of green-egg-grilled burgers at Ted’s Butcherblock in Charleston before we get there for lunch.

But that’s not the kind of hope Paul is talking about.

In his greeting to his letter to Titus, Paul said he was writing…

Titus 1:2

in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago,

The hope Paul is talking about is the ultimate hope – the hope of eternal life. 

Think of it this way…

Spiritually, every single person in the universe lives forever. 

Everyone has eternal life. 

But there are two types of eternal life, and only two. 

• Eternal life with God
• Eternal life separated from God

Even if you don’t believe in God, you can relate to the concept of being separated from someone you love.

A newborn baby may be taken down the hall for some normal pediatric observation, but that new mom has the confident hope that the baby will be back in her arms in an hour or so.

That is a temporary separation. 

• Eternity is not temporary
• Eternity is not just down the hall
• Eternity is forever
• Forever with God
• Or forever separated from God

Eternal separation from something good does not create hope.

It kills hope.

The life of a new mother changes when she has a baby. 

There is a new joy and a new hope in her life.

• Her education
• Her career
• Her gardening skills
• Her exercise goals
• Her travel plans

Those things will still be important to her but won’t have the same shine and shimmer they had before. 

She is now holding a brand-new life in her hands.

What is it that we are offering with this thing called Christianity?

William Barclay

It is the offer of God's power for our frustration, of God's serenity for our dispeace, of God's truth for our guessing, of God's goodness for our moral failure, of God's joy for our sorrow.

William Barclay

The Christian gospel does not in the first place offer men an intellectual creed or a moral code; it offers them life, the very life of God. 

That’s what the Christian gospel has to offer the world – the very life of God!

The hope of eternal life is the hope of the very life of God.

Hope is not temporary – it abides and remains and stays and survives because hope comes from God and hope takes us to God and God is the one, true, ultimate, lasting reality in the universe.

What about love?

Why will love survive?

Why will love abide and remain and stay?

Because love is first and most from God.

Like with hope we can say we love a lot of different things.

• We love our team
• We love good grades
• We love our kids
• We love our grandkids
• We love good news from the doctor

We love green-egg-grilled hamburgers at Ted’s Butcherblock in Charleston.

But that’s not the kind of love Paul is talking about here. 

He’s talking about God’s kind of love.

What is God’s love like?

Well, it is love.

• God’s love is where love comes from
• God’s love is the origin story of love
• Without God’s love there is no such thing as love

1 John 4:8

…God is love.

Have you ever seen a weathervane on top of a building?

Often, they are in the shape of a rooster and they have a directional arrow that shows you which way the wind is blowing.

The story is told of a farmer that put a weathervane on his barn.

Instead of a rooster on top it had the words “God Is Love”.

A little snarky guy was walking by the barn one day and saw the weathervane and called out to the farmer and said, “Does that mean your God changes with the wind?”

The farmer replied, “No, it means that no matter which way the wind blows, God is love!”

Love is not temporary – it abides and remains and stays and survives because love comes from God and love takes us to God and God is the one, true, ultimate, lasting reality in the universe.

But as they used to sing on Sesame Street, one of these things is not like the other. 

Which one?

Paul tells us in the last part of verse 13…

13 but the greatest of these is love.

Why?

Why is love the greatest?

I was reading something this week that said God could have planned all this out differently. 

He could have made faith the greatest and said, “I just know they'll eventually grow up a little and turn their lives around. I have faith in them.”

But God knows better than that.

Or he could have made hope the greatest thing and said, “I sure hope they come to their senses and choose life rather than death!”

But God knows better than that too.

Instead, God made love the greatest.

He made love the greatest thing that will survive and remain and stay forever and ever and ever. 

How did he do that?

He loved the world first and most. 

In fact, he so loved and dearly prized the world that he gave up his one and only Son so that whoever believes in Jesus and relies on Jesus and trusts in Jesus and clings to Jesus will not perish or be destroyed but will have eternal, everlasting, satisfying life.

Do you have that life today?

Has the love of God found you in such a way that you have repented and turned to Jesus and right now no matter which way the pandemic or political winds blow you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will only die once and then you will live forever in and around and under and in the middle of the love of God?

And how do you know if you have eternal life?

Jesus gave us two super simple ways to know…

Matthew 22:37-38

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the great and foremost commandment.

 

Matthew 22:39

The second is like it, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

So, do you love God?

I’m not going to try and qualify or explain or expound on that question – let’s just keep it simple and real…

Do you love God?

None of us are perfect, but when you look at your life this past week, your attitude about things, your actions towards things, your apathy about things, can you look at the normal patterns of your life and honestly and truthfully say that with your attitudes and your actions that you love God?

In asking that question you will answer the second question…

Do you love other people?

J.C. Ryle

What is your temperament? What are your ways of behaving toward all around you in your own family? What is your manner of speaking, especially in seasons of irritation and provocation? 

J.C. Ryle

Where is your good-nature, your courtesy, your patience, your meekness, your gentleness, your toleration? Where are your practical actions of love in your dealing with others? 

Jesus put it this way…

John 13:35

By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

• Do you love God?
• Do you love others?

The story is told of a little boy that one day said…

“If my grandfather goes to heaven, I hope that my brother and I will not go.”

Someone asked him why he would say that.

He replied, “Well, if he sees us there, I sure he will say what he says now, ‘What are these boys doing here? Get them out of my way?’ He does not like to see us on earth, and I suppose he would not like to see us in heaven.”

Look at your life…

• Do you love God?
• Do you love others?

By the way, others includes people that…

• Don’t look like you
• Don’t think like you
• Don’t dress like you
• Don’t vote like you
• Don’t eat like you
• Don’t exercise like you
• Don’t spend money like you
• Don’t cheer for the same team like you

Let me see if I can make this more practical and more difficult at the same time.

Who are you having a hard time loving right now?

It might be…

• A political candidate
• An attending physician
• A nagging spouse
• An apathetic spouse
• An overprotective parent
• A rebellious child
• A meddling grandparent
• The guy who just got the last burger at Ted’s Butcherblock

You got their name or their face in your mind?

Ok, here we go…

Wendy Alsup is writer and speaker and a single mom with two boys – she lives on her family’s farm in South Carolina.

Wendy Alsup

If you are in a season of struggle with those God has called you to love, God doesn't expect you to change your loved one.

Let that sit for a second – and go ahead and roll your eyes and get that “ugh” out of your system….ok, let’s move on.

Wendy Alsup

His call is to bear long in love, to endure, and to believe the best for that person while he changes them.

Ok roll your eyes and “ugh” again and let’s keep going…

Wendy Alsup

And if you are not in that season but are friends with someone who is, weigh carefully the tone of your suggestions or encouragements. Hold your friend up as they bear long and patiently endure.

Wendy Alsup

Believe with them that grace works and that loving unconditionally for the long haul is the most effective tool we have for influencing change in the ones we love.

Wendy Alsup

May you and I rest from our attempts to change our loved ones and find refuge in God's ability and promise to do so. And may the greatest peer pressure we put on each other in such situations be to bear in love for the long haul.

Is that the greatest peer pressure you are experiencing?

To love?

Is love the greatest peer pressure you are giving?

Or is it your political views or your pandemic opinions or your theories of economic recovery or your football prognostications?

And why should love be the greatest peer pressure?

Because love is the greatest thing in the universe?

And why should we bear in love for the long haul?

Because if you are a Christian, if you are in Christ, you have been given something – actually, three things.

Three things that cannot be taken away from you – ever. 

Why?

Because they came from God and they are being fueled by God and they will ultimately take you to God.

What are those three things that define your life and give you focus and help your soul breathe in the hardest and most difficult moments of life?

Faith, hope and love – but the greatest of those is love. 

Why?

Because God so loved you that he gave Jesus to save you and Jesus loved you and gave himself up for you.  

No matter which way the wind blows, there is no greater love than that.

Message by Dow Welsh |

September 13, 2020 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

 

more |

Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-most-needed-peer-pressure-in-christianity

https://theologyforwomen.org/

 

So do you ever lose focus? I mean, I ever, ever lose focus. There was a businessman that was speaking at a conference in the town amphitheater, and as he was speaking, he told them, He said, You know, I don't always lose my focus, but when I do squirrel Sorry, I just had to do that. I had to get out of my system. It was in my notes. Some people lose focus, and some people have the wrong focus. A couple of friends were hanging out a coffee shop, having a cup of coffee together, and at 1.1 friend said to the other, Look, you're never going to be able to please everybody, So just focus on me. That's kind of friend. You all right? Just just may just pay attention whether you lose your focus, whether you have the wrong focus, A report out this week might be help to you might be something that will help you along the way. That's a report from psychology today. What they did is they evaluated 527 placebo controlled studies about supplements that help you focus, and as of those studies they pulled just a handful that they said had the most science behind it. The most positive, healthy science behind it. Now, in that short list of things that they pulled out, yes, caffeine was one of the things. Okay, now for our coffee lovers, though, I'm not going to use that as an example. Because then I would also have to tell you about the risk and the legal issues associated with caffeine. Yeah, that's right. You could go to jail for drinking too much coffee. I mean the side effects of drinking too much coffee. Some of you have been pretty close to that. You're just not willing to admit it yet. On the positive side, if you're a big coffee drinker, you probably will always win a blinking contest because your eyes will never close. You'll always be wide awake. One of the supplements in the study was known as the Copa Monetary. Think I'm saying that right? It's an herb that's found in wetlands, really all over the world. It's also known as water hyssop, Time leave, grad Eola, Herb of Grace and Indian Penny Wart. Now I just don't think I want to focus enough to put anything in my body that has the word wart on it. E think I would be all right just like I am. Don't know about the war. Benefits of this little herb provide a small improvement in some of the following areas. Mood, nervousness, memory energy and cognitive processing. So there's some positives. But there are some risk, according to this study, likely that about 50% of the people had some digestive issues from this supplement, and then a very small amount of people had some of the following things. Headache, insomnia, vivid dreams, drowsiness, allergies, skin rash, vertigo, palpitations, nausea, muscular fatigue, cramps in the last two increase and felt stress and a worsen mood. Yeah, when I want to focus, I want to be more stressed out and I want to be in a bad mood. So yeah, that's that's a good supplement to take. It's been said that you are controlled by what you focus on, so a little question for your mind and heart today. What's what's controlling you today? What's controlling you? What are you focusing on? Because what you focus on will control now I can't speak for Indian penny wart, but I can speak to stress in all of us can speak to anxiety and stress and frustration and all those things in life. So I don't know about the Indian Penny Ward, but I can tell you this there is something to focus on. There is this one focus that can change your life, and it only has one known lasting side effect on that side. Effect is satisfaction something. What kind of focus has satisfaction? Let's find out the Apostle Paul was writing this folks in the ancient city of Corinth. First Corinthians, Chapter 13 The first part of Verse 13. He says this. But now faith, hope, love. Abide these three. What does it mean for something to abide? Well, it means that it remains that it stays its's still there. It sticks around. Now, if we back up to the previous sentences of what Paul's talking about, we'll see that what he's trying to explain here is this. That you can be a person that preaches a charismatic, wonderful sermon or a great zoom class on the prophecies of God and the in times. But the prophecy is temporary. It does not abide. It will not stay. It will not remain. That's not what it, ISS or Paul would say that someone can step into a situation in a parking lot somewhere here in our country or in a marketplace in another part of the world. And they suddenly and supernaturally in a moment, we'll have the ability to speak or understand a language they have no prior knowledge of. Or it could be that someone in a private prayer time or in a church service has some non normal utterance that comes out of their mouths and any of those tongues, any of those languages, any of those utterances they will not abide. They will not stay. They will not remain. They are temporary, or someone can have the ability to take all of the deep knowledge from the Bible. All of the historical authenticity is all of the tongues and the languages, and the philosophies and theologies and their ableto connect all of those dots. But that knowledge will not abide. It will not stay. It will not remain. It is temporary picture that Paul is painting for us here is that there's only three things that will remain Onley three things that will survive so to speak. And what will they survive? Well, by the nature of what they are, they will survive every pandemic spread, They will survive every polarizing opinion. They'll survive every political election. They'll survive every potential health issue, every personal tragedy and every promised reality. And those three things that will survive are simply this faith, hope and love. Those are the things that will stay. Those are the things that will remain. Those are the things that will abide. So let's just camp out on each one of those for just a moment while well, faith survive. Why will faith remain? Why will faith stay well Because faith first and most is from God. Ephesians, Chapter two, Verses 89 Paul sayss This for By Grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no 1 may boast. Now someone can boast about having a sermon or or a zoom class where they say they have this prophetic vision. Okay, that angel has come to them. And the vision is that on February 29th, 2000 and 24 that a certain politician is going to do away with democracy and create a new evil world order. And that new evil world order is not going to be created through the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. But it's going to be the Jumanji party that's going to create this. And the reason we know that all of this is true And that this prophetic vision is, is really is because the headquarters of the Jamaat E G party is going to be a to to to chicken Gristle road in Washington, D. C. Now why in the world with 222 chicken gristle road be proof that this prophetic vision is really well because if you take 2 to 2 and you multiply it by three, when you get a number from the Bible, that just blows open the whole agenda of the Jumanji party Yeah, hopefully all of this is made up. But you know, somebody could boast about that so I could say, Oh boy, I've had a vision. Let me tell you about my vision. Let me let me create a website about my vision. Let me let me create a ministry around my vision. Please send me your money so I can build a headquarters next door to the Jumanji headquarters. We're going to We're going to keep this vision going So you can You can boast about a vision you can boast about a sermon you can boast about zoom class. But you cannot boast that your prophetic vision makes you right with God Onley faith does that and faith is first and most a gift of God. Faith is not temporary. It abides. It stays. It remains because faith is from God and faith takes us to God. And God is the one true ultimate lasting reality in the universe. Faith of IEDs without hope. Why will hope survive? Why will hope stay? Why will hope remain about definition? Hope is a feeling, a desire and expectation that a certain thing is goingto happen. Right way Hope for lots of things, right? We hope that our team will win way hope to get a good grade on a test. We hope that our kids do good in school and they graduate way hope that our grandkids get good jobs. We hope that the doctor has good news for us. We hope that we will on our way to lunch in Charleston will make it toe Ted's butcher block before they run out of the grilled hamburgers they make on the green egg out back. We we hope for things in life, we hope. But that's not the hope that Paul is talking about. Paul's talking about a different kind of hope. When he's writing his letter to his friend Titus. He began the greeting by saying he was riding with this in mind. Titus, Chapter one, Verse two. I'm writing in the hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie, promised long ages ago. The hope that Paul is talking about is the ultimate hope. Eternal life, the hope of all hopes. Think about it this way. Every single person in the universe will live forever. Everybody has eternal life, eternal life with God or eternal life separated from God. Those air the only options. Now, even if somebody don't believe in God, they understand the concept of being separated from something good, separated from something that they love. A mom who's just had her first baby understands that there may be a time where they take the baby down the hall for, you know, an hour or so toe do some normal pediatric observation, but that mom has a confident hope that that separation is temporary and about an hour or so that that baby is going to be back in her arms. Eternity is not temporary. Eternity is not just down the hall. Eternity is forever, forever with God or forever separated from God. Those were the only two options and eternal separation from something that's good. Eternal separation from the one thing that is good and happy and holy and satisfying does not create hope. Being separated from that which is perfect and good, perfect and love, perfect and grace, perfect and mercy, perfect, Enjoy, perfect and peace. Being separated from that doesn't create hope. It kills. How so the pictures Today, if you're in Christ, no one can ever steal your hope. And if you're not in Christ, if you're not a believer, there is no true hope. A mom with that new baby understands that everything in her life has changed. She has a whole new perspective on joy. A whole new perspective on hope, some of the things in her life, good things like her education, her career, her gardening skills, her exercise goals, even her travel plans. They're good, but they lose their shine and their shimmer compared to this new life in her arms. So what is this thing that Christianity offers? What is it that we're offering with the whole notion, the concept of Christianity? We M. Barclay put it this way. It is the offer of God's power for our frustration of God's serenity, for our this piece of God's truth, for our guessing of God's goodness, for our moral failure of God's joy for our sorrow, he says. This the Christian gospel does not in the first place offer men and intellectual creed or moral code. It offers them life, the very life I've got. That's what the Christian Gospel has to offer the world with life of God see the hope of eternal life. The hope that Paul is speaking of is the hope of life in God, the life off God that is the hope of all hopes. There is no hope that compares to that. So that's why we say that hope is not temporary, that hope abides, that hope stays. That hope remains because hope is from God, and hope takes us to God and God is the one true ultimate lasting reality in the universe. Hope abidance about love While will love survive? Why will love remain? Why will love stay well again? Because love is first and most from God. Hope is first and most from God. Faith is first and most from God. Love is kind of like hope. We have things that we love right. We love our team. We love good grades. We love our kids. We love our grandkids. We love good news from the doctor. Love of Burger, grilled on a green egg. Ted's butcher block. You're going to wanna go, I promise, you know, But you have to get there early. Really, they really do run out. We love things, but that's not the kind of love that Paul is talking about. He's talking about God's kind of love and what is God's kind of love? Well, God's kind of love is love. See, God's love is where love comes from. God's love is the origin story of love Without God's love. There is no love. It doesn't exist. John put it very simply this way. And Christiane, for a God is love. He's loved. He's the definition. The embodiment of love. There's no concept of love if God doesn't exist because love is God. God is love. Love comes from God. It is who he is. You're seeing a weathervane on top of a building, a house or something like that. It's usually like a like a rooster. You know, it's got a little direction arrow, and it spins around, let you know which way the winds blowing. There's little markers north, south, east and west. A story about a farmer that put a weathervane upon his barn. But it was not a rooster on top on top, it just simply said, God is love. A little snarky guy came walking by one day and saw it up there on top of the barn. Went over to the farmer, and he's like, so that mean you're God changes with the wind, the farmer said. No, It means that no matter which way the wind is blowing, God is love. So he is. It's his character. It can't be changed. So when we say that love abides, were saying that love is not temporary, it stays. It remains. It abides. It survives because love is from God and love takes us to God. And God is the one true, ultimate lasting reality in the universe. But as they used to sing on Sesame Street, one of these things is not like the other. So which one is not like the other? No. Paul tells us in the last part of verse 13. But the greatest of these is love. Why? Well, I just love the greatest. Why not? Faith? Why not? Hope was was love the greatest. I saw something this week that put it this way. God could have planned all of this out in a completely different way. God could have made faith the greatest. He could have made faith the greatest and looked out on the people in the world. Said, You know what? I just I got a feeling, you know, I just got a feeling that they're just they're going to come to their senses, you know? They're going to they're going to grow up and grow out of it a little bit, and they're going to they're going to turn their lives around, and I just have faith in them. See, God knows better than that, or you could have made hope. The greatest thing could have made hope the greatest thing and looked out on humanity and said, You know what? I just I just feel like they are going to come to their senses. You know, they they're going to choose life over death. I just I hope that they will change. You see, God knows better than that, too. And that's why he made love. The greatest love is the greatest of that which will abide and remain and stay and survive. Why? Because God first laughed. That's why it remains. If God is love and God loves first, then that means it has to be the greatest. How much did God love? Well, he so loved. He so dearly prized the world. And you that he sacrificed gave up his one and only son and Jesus loved you and gave himself up for you and the plan since before the foundations of the world were that for those who would believe in Jesus and rely on Jesus and trust in Jesus and cling to Jesus that they would not perish or be destroyed. But they would rather instead have ultimate, eternal, everlasting, satisfying life. That's what the love of God does And so a question for your heart today is Do you have that life? Do you have that? Life has the love of God. So captured your heart so captured your mind that you've turned, you've repented. You're following Jesus in such a way that beyond a shadow of a doubt, you know that there will come a time that you will Onley ultimately die once. And then you will live forever in and around and in the middle of the love of God. Do you know that? Is that life in you? How would you know? How would you know? If you have that life, I mean, is calling the church office and just making sure your name is on the computer. Is Is that enough, or is there another way? Well, Jesus gave us to amazingly simple measurements to help us see eternal life in our lives. This is what he said, Matthew. Chapter 22. Jesus said you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost command. And then he went on to say this second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So do you love God. Look, I'm I'm going to keep it pretty simple. I'm not going to try to explain that one. Not going to try to expound it. Not going to try to preach another sermon on it. Just we're going to leave it really and leave it simple. Do you love God? Do you love God? I mean, just let's just go last seven days, okay? Just look back over the last seven days. Look, look at your attitude about things. Look at your outlook on things. Look at your approach to things. Look at your apathy about things which look, look it any way that you have approached anything in life and when you look at your attitudes and your actions, the normal things of your life, the normal things of who you are, is there something in there that says yes, I love God, but look, we're not talking about being perfect. None of us are perfect. We're just saying Do you love God, you know, Is it a pretty simple question to answer in your life? Or do you have to hesitate? Do you have to think through it? Do you have to try to remember when you went to church last Or can you just say, Yeah. My heart has been captured by the gospel and I love God. You see, if you can answer that first question, it really helps to answer the second question that Jesus put out there. And that is this. Do you love other people? Do you love God and do you love others? J. C. Ryle, Ask it this way. What is your temperament? What are your ways of behaving towards all around you in your own family? What is your manner of speaking? Especially in seasons of irritation and provocation? Where is your good nature? Your courtesy, your patients, your meekness, your gentleness, your toleration? Where are your practical actions of love in your dealing with others? They're hard questions, but they're easy questions. I mean, it's not like we have to go. Don't know. The answer is that we know the answers to it like immediately. We we kind of know where our love meter is. This is what Jesus said in John 13. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another. So So the very nature of our lives is a reflection of whether or not we love God by the way that we love others. So do you love God and do you love others? It's a story about a little boy that one day was talking. Don't know who he was talking with. Maybe Mom. Grandma, Teacher? I don't know. He said, You know what? If my grandfather goes to heaven, I hope my brother and I don't go to hell. So I said, Well, why in the world would you say that? He said, Well, I'm just thinking that in heaven he'd be the same way that he is here on NATO. How is he here? Well, here, Anytime my brother and I are around, he always says, What are these boys doing here? Get them out of here. Get them away from me, he said. So I just assumed that if he doesn't want us around on Earth, he won't want us around and have. That's a pretty good reflection of where our love iss again. None of us are perfect, you know. But I was told today is Grandparent's Day. So grand parents, if your grandkids think that about you bless your heart and by all means run to the Lord. Run to the Lord today. Do you love God and do you love others? Now remember, loving others includes people that don't look like you. Don't dress like you. Don't think like you don't eat like you don't vote like you. They don't exercise like you. They don't spend money the same way you do. They don't cheer for the same team that you cheer for. Loving others is not always just loving people who are like us. Let me see if I could make it more practical and even more difficult for us. Who's someone You're having a hard time loving you right now. Hey, somebody you're struggling, loving right now, It might be a political candidate. It might be an attending physician. It might be a nagging spouse. It might be an apathetic spouse. It might be an overprotective parents. It might be a meddling grand parent. It might be the guy who just got the last hamburger and Ted's butcher block, you know, I don't know. You know? Who is it that you're having a hard time loving? So you got their name their their face in your head. Now that kind of crossing your mind can hang on to that name. Hang on to that face, hang on to that person and let's let's kind of step into this just just a moment. Wendy Allsup is a writer of blogger writer, a speaker, a single mom with two boys, and she lives on the old family farm here in South Carolina. Interestingly, she has a heart for teaching the truth of the Bible to folks who have a strong feminist IQ leaning. If you go to my my notes this week on the website, I'll put a link to her ministry page. But this is what Wendy says If you're in a season of struggle with those God has called you to love, God doesn't expect you to change your loved one. All right, So let's just do this. Some of us are going to wanna roll our eyes and do a little, uh, going to inside like love again. Love and people. I don't want love right now. I got it, I got it, I got it. But hang in there with get the, uh, gout, get their old eyes out, and then we'll move on. Okay, here's what she says. Next God's call is to bear long in love, to endure and to believe the best for that person while he changes them. Some of us are vulnerable. Rise again another because we're like, Hey, I've been at this a while, but at this few weeks, few months, few years and God doesn't seem to be changing them. So I understand this thing. I'm supposed toe bear long in love. All right, let's keep going when he goes on. And if you're not in that season that are friends with someone who is way carefully the tone of your suggestions or your encouragements. In other words, if you have permission, or even if you feel like you have permission, just always be wise with how you tell people to handle their relationships. After 30 years of doing this, I can say this most of the time, people just want you to listen. They really don't want your opinion about how toe fix any relationship in their life. Sometimes they do, but sometimes they just need somebody to listen. And so we do need to be wise in our encouragements and our advice and our council. Its's good for us to give good biblical counsel. We need to give good biblical counsel, but sometimes just remember to be a good listener first. And then, as God opens the door, share his truth when he goes on to say this, Hold your friend up is they bear long and patiently endure Believe with them that grace works and that loving unconditionally for the long haul is the most effective tool we have for influencing change in the ones we love. Now we really have to hear that again because everything in us fights against that sentence, especially in 2020. You know, we are an instant, immediate gratification culture. I don't care how old you are. If you're eight, you want it Now. If you're 88 you want it now. This is our entire culture. We are a wanted now, people. It's it's who we've become. And so this picture is is difficult, hard, but it is beautiful. So listen to it again. Believe with them that grace works and that loving unconditionally for the long haul is the most effective tool we have for influencing change in the ones we love. This is what she says. Next May you and I arrest from our attempts to change our loved ones and find refuge in God's ability and his promise to do so. And then she says this and may the greatest peer pressure we put on each other in such situations be to bear and love for the long haul. Let me ask you a question. What's the greatest peer pressure in your life right now? You know, it doesn't matter how old you are way here, peer pressure. And we think teenagers, I'm telling you, some of the greatest peer pressure that I've ever seen in my life over the last 30 years starts about age 65 or 70. You know, it's it's peer pressure in every age group. It's different peer pressure. You know, it may not be the pier person. Go hang out with cool kids, but it's the peer pressure to go hang out at the breakfast joint. We spend three hours over coffee talking about how to fix the world, you know, or are being on the phone or being a beauty shop, gospel or whatever it is, there's there's plenty of peer pressure for every single age group. So what's the greatest peer pressure in your life right now? What do you feel the most pressure in in your life? Is it love? I mean, that interesting terminology is the greatest peer pressure in your life right now, Love are the people in your life, and I'm just going to throw us a Z Believers in the conversation Are the Christians in your life pressuring you toward love? Is that the greatest peer pressure? No. And what is the greatest peer pressure that you're giving is the greatest peer pressure you're giving the pressure of love. Or is it your political opinions or your pandemic opinions or your football prognostications or whatever else it is? Or is it love? Why should love be the greatest peer pressure? Why should love be the greatest peer pressure, especially for believers? It's because love is the greatest thing in the universe. Its's the greatest of all. And so the reason that we should bear in love for the long haul as believers is because we've been given something. We have something. If you're here and you're a believer, if you're watching online and you're a Christian, you have something not just something. You have three things. Three things that have been given to you by God. Three things that cannot ever be taken away from you. Why? Because they came from God. They are leading you to guide. And one day they will connect you for all eternity With God on what are those three things Faith Hope I love. That's it. Faith, hope and love. But those are the three things that you've been given. Those are the three things that help your life. They change your life. They give you the ability to breathe in the hardest and most difficult moments of life. But the greatest of those is love. Why wise love the greatest We love the greatest because God love you. God sent Jesus to save you own that as a verse truth for you Not not just the general God so loved the world God so dearly loved you that he gave Jesus to save you. And Jesus so loved you that he gave himself up for you No matter what way the wind is blowing, there is no greater love than that. The wind will blow differently This afternoon and tomorrow The wind will blow differently in the news. The wind will blow differently at your doctor's appointment at the hospital are in traffic. The wind will always be blowing differently. But the reality of God's love no matter which direction the winds may blow. God's love is always really. It is always true. And his love through Jesus is the greatest love will ever know what the world needs now his love not not just loving others in general, but they need this love that never fails. That never gives up that saves that redeems, that rescues that helps that heals. That gives faith that gives her that defines block. There is no greater love than the love of God, yeah!