Love, Love, Love

there are those that are not able to be in service with us tonight and we want to pray for those we've had several that has has text and we want to remember and pray for brother and sister sloan as they continue their trip and they'll they're supposed to be back this weekend so we're glad for that but we want to continue to pray for them um let's just hold up those that are not able to be in service tonight so we want to remember all of those if you have special needs just lift your hand the lord understands them we have those needs that are on the board let's take these little to the lord in prayer right now in the name of jesus god we want you to reach down tonight lord that you would reach down and touch each and every one of our needs you know where we are you know exactly what's going on in the lives of men and women tonight god whatever it may be spiritual physical emotional financial we ask god that you would reach down and god show yourself true speak to the lives of men and women in this place tonight god and we give you glory and we thank you for it we thank you for your goodness and your mercy thank you lord jesus would you thank him right now we thank you jesus hallelujah hallelujah we thank you jesus god you're so good to us you're so good to us amen and everyone say god is good amen he is truly good to us we're going to continue continue our study tonight we're talking this month on love and i want to uh i want to take your attention to the word of the lord and and how many you know that that god's word speaks true it speaks true and uh we're going to be uh our title tonight is love amen we're going to be talking about love love and love we are going to be discussing uh some things that the scripture tells us and what god expects out of us as disciples amen and if you consider yourself a disciple of the lord jesus christ are you a follower are you apostolic that would be a good question but then these things are required of us i want to take your attention first of all we know that the greatest commandment was given god commanded his disciples and we want to look at one of the great commandments that he gives and let's take your attention to matthew the 28th chapter matthew the 28th chapter and most of you could probably quote the scripture but we're going to read it tonight matthew 28 19 and verse 20. when you get there say amen like to welcome everyone that is online those of you that are watching thank you and uh feel free to give we we have apps we have uh online giving please do that uh showing your respect to the word of god amen but in matthew 28 chapter verse 19 he commands his disciples and he is he has pulled his disciples together and he says i want you to do something for me and if you've got red letter edition in your scripture you know that these are the words of jesus he says go ye therefore and teach all nations everybody say all nations baptizing them in the name the father the son and the holy ghost verse 20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i have commanded you again notice what he says teaching them to observe the things that he had commanded them and he says lo i am with you always even to the end of the world he gives his commandment that we are to teach that's not to say that everyone that sits here today is a is a what we would consider a teacher but how many of you um you've you've been around nephews nieces you've been around children you've even some of you've even raised your own children but there was things that you taught them right there's things that you teach them some things are good and then there's some things that are not so good and and i i do and i i say this quite a bit but but i do believe that sometimes culture uh can can lead us in some wrong directions uh sometimes that can be an enemy of ours but when we look at how jesus has created the culture of disciples he he he teaches them he says i want you to i want you to teach others he says go into all nature's nations and teach them and then jesus also if we look back in matthew 11 if you've got your scriptures we've got several scriptures tonight that we're going to be using uh matthew 11 verse 28 and through verse 90. nine uh 30. i'm sorry we was going to read a long time wouldn't we uh matthew 11 28 through 30. i want you to look at this he informs them that i want you to learn some things matthew 11 28 look at this he says come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and i will give you what rest how many like that then he says take my yoke upon you and learn of me for my for i am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your soul for my yoke is easy and my burden is light in that scripture right there there are so many things that is to be learned and i i and and we're just going to kind of focus in tonight on what he talks about here he tells them and this is his words take my yoke upon you and learn of me how many of you understand when the scripture says yo what does that mean what would you consider a yoke uh and sister kathy you're old school now but when you when you think of yokes and and there are many things that we can we can really call out here but one of them would be if uh and and forgive me for using old terms but you have you have you've probably seen pictures of of of uh mules and and you've seen pictures and some of you may not have seen it in real life but if you've got two pulling some type of wagon there is going to be something that has put them together because if you had them separated and they weren't pulling together what would happen one would go this way and one would go this way but but he says my yoke is easy and and he's basically saying if you will get get in tune with me and and get underneath the same and lock yourself in with me and learn of me it's one of the things that we have a hard time doing when we are with the lord is is you know i would like to say well god i think it needs to be this way and he says no but after a while you realize that god knows best in teeming mules or or oxen or whatever you want to call whatever you're pulling uh whatever type of engine you got pulling it you want to team them together where there is one that leads one of them is actually steering everything and that's what we end up with when he says take my yoke up on me and learn of me in other words learn my ways and so he is instructing us to learn how he would do things he's he's already instructed later on there in those scriptures we find it and we read it just a few moments ago that he gave them a commandment he says i want you to go and i want you to teach what what are they going to teach they're going to teach what they've learned from the lord they're going to teach that notice what ii peter the first chapter let's look at this something that he instructs them in second peter the first chapter verse 5. notice this and besides them giving all diligence add to your faith what virtue and add to your virtue what add to your knowledge temperance add to your temperance patience into patience and to godliness brotherly kindness answer brotherly brotherly kindness charity now what's charity love and notice here he says for if these things be in you you abideth let's see what is that for if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren or unfruitful so if you've got brotherly kindness you've got you've got this the temperance you've got knowledge you've got all of these you've added all these together if you've got these working in you then you will not be bearing you won't be fruitful but if you don't have them you have no knowledge of the love of god isn't that what he said you have no knowledge of his love we we talked about it last week his love is that that he gave his only begotten son he gave his life for us and if we understand how he loves and how he would love us then what example jesus when he walked the earth he went about doing good for others he went about and there was so many things that he showed us and here's here's where i want to lead us for the next step of this is is you will notice that our title is there are three different loves there three different loves notice we've checked them all off you've got to have these areas of your life the first one we're going to look at here in matthew the 22nd chapter verse 37 matthew the 22nd chapter verse 37 he says jesus said unto them thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind every part of you must love who god you've got to find yourself number one love god you have got to fall in love with god if you can't love god that was one of the first commandments the first commandment love the lord thy god with all thine heart thou shalt not have any other gods before you is you've got to have one god in your life operating your life the god that you serve whoever whatever it may be you have one there can't be many there's one god you love god so that first example that he gives is that we should he speak he speaks this to his disciples he says love god with all your heart with all your soul with all your might this is commanded he gave this to his disciples to love both god and also number two your brother man notice what john says here john 13 34 and 35 he commands them a new commandment i give unto you that ye love one another as i have loved you again john 3 16. he showed us how to love ye also love one another he said i loved you you need to do the same now what example would you say that jesus gave us as a disciple let's just say that you and i were walking the streets with the lord in his day what kind of example would you would you get out of walking with him where would you see i i think he would wear me out right he yeah i i would be tired i'd read i'd be ready to okay when is when is it time to eat when is it time to sleep because we find that jesus went about and he he was so concerned about mankind notice verse 35 and let's let's read this i was catching a rabbit trail there by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you if you have love one for one toward another you love your brother you love your sister you love those around you my brothers and sisters you know there there is a way that you can uh be kind to people the scripture talks about kindness we just read that he talks about us being patient with people but you know he he really could have stopped at being kind and patient he tells us that we're to love that that that there alone is is when you love someone you are concerned about them you you're concerned with their well-being sometimes you you're asking questions because you love them right and that is that brotherly kindness that comes out you know we're just kind one to another but then when it comes to the love side we're like ah that's a little more personal isn't it but he asked of us to love like he did how many you know that jesus got in people's people's personal business uh he he really read their mail we we've got a lady that was that was sneaking out and going to the well site because she wanted to get water and get back without talking to anybody and and she'd been doing this for quite some time obviously and jesus tells his disciples he says look we we got to go over here why over there because that's just where we got to be and he goes and he sets down on the well and i'm sure that he was all beside himself and he had been walking quite a bit and he was tired but at the same time that wasn't just a casual set that was a god time that was a god appointment right and so he sits down there this lady comes out like she always does and and god and he begins to talk to her he begins to speak to her and jesus says says yeah you know i i need something to drink we two different people yeah we are and he says uh why why don't you won't you get a hold of your husband and have him come out here we'll have a cup of coffee yeah uh i don't have a yeah i know you don't have one and the one you with now is not yours you know so he had a way about dealing you know it folks we're we're to make disciples right and we're to love like jesus loved we're to be concerned with people like jesus was concerned but you know when you wade off into somebody's business nowadays there's no telling what what's life was to happen but i do believe that god still talks through his people today he still expects us to be concerned about one another he still expects for us to look out about our brothers and our sisters if you see that there's something that can trip them up you need to be concerned about them you need to say hey uh be careful there that step right there can really hurt you that first step could be a doozy for you and and i i'm i'm saying that hypothetically but there's a lot of times that those are things that's happening in your life and you could you could be forewarning somebody of something in their life i'm not trying to to read into and get you to read into people's lives but at the same time we need to be concerned as as a brother and sister in christ we need to love one another these are those things that show spiritual signs in our life look at what first john says first john 2 verse 9. he that saith that he is in the light and hateth his brother is in the dark even unto now he that loveth his brother abideth in light and there is none no none occurrence that of stumbling in him i just i just stumbled right there is no no stumbling that can come if he if he loves his brother he he loves you then he's going to show that he shows that he has the light of god in his life uh if you love one another it's going to show right if you if you have hatred in your life then it will it will definitely show you can put that smile on all you want but it doesn't really tell the story right if you hang around somebody long enough you can find out whether they are right or wrong love your brother so what was the first one the first one was to love god you love him with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind second was that we love our brother love your brother the last one here and that's not the last of the lesson sister she got me last last week she said you you're going too short no no love the lost everybody say it love the lost you have got to love those that do wrong even when they are in in sin you love them that doesn't say that you approve of what they're doing that doesn't say that you will you will look at what they're doing and and uh just accept them the way they are i'm telling you folks we live in a generation now that that you just do whatever you want love jesus just do whatever you want just just as long as you love jesus i'm sorry you can't make it to heaven if you don't love god you don't love your fellow brother and if you if you're if you don't love the lost you're not making it i've heard people say you know i love god just don't like this thinking world well you better you better get to loving on folks if you want to make heaven you better get to loving on folks and love them even when they're doing wrong you love them and point them in the direction they need to be going you know what we're having church at 11 o'clock on sunday worship at 12. wednesday night we have bible study at seven o'clock i'm praying for you hello those are those things yeah yeah they're not doing right you you hear people say well they know they're wrong yeah but they need to be reminded of it let them know that you're worried about where they are right matthew 9 verse 35 matthew 9 verse 35 and jesus went about all the city and the village teaching in their synagogues and this is this is just kind of following jesus's map here teaching in their synagogues preaching the gospel of the kingdom of heaven healing eat every sick and disease among the people he he's he's making his way through going to the cities going to where they are and he's healing the sick and raising the dead and they say well that's i'm not called to do that well if you get an opportunity to witness to somebody i i've been guilty of the other it's been a few months back but i uh i had been talking to this guy at work and we had i'd been witnessing to him and he texts me something and so we have this family text on and i i'm a part of in our family you know i am a part of the family and so they're texting back and forth about some funny or maybe one of the grandkids i don't know and i actually opened it up and looked at it and then this other guy texted me and i read the text coming across and so i started answering it and i sent it and it was going through the family text and all of a sudden i get this look on there and it's like huh i said oh i'm sorry i was doing the bible study but but you you find opportunities right whatever the opera when the opportunity arises you're gonna show your love for the lost i i'm telling you folks if you knew this tomorrow that there was an individual that would be going into eternity i don't know about you but that would that would send some chills down my back and it would be saying hey what is it that i can do some weeks ago i made mention of this but i i had a cousin that i grew up with then after we got we got into our adult life he he decided that he was going to move away and he went off in his own direction and he he started doing things that he probably should not be doing and got himself into a lot of trouble went to prison went then got out of prison and come back and he went back to prison and you know just that lifestyle and and he uh he got out one time and uh ended up doing some things that he shouldn't have been doing and and his life was gone like that and i i had done everything i had been on the phone with him i i had even texted him when he had a phone but because he knew who to call and and i i did everything i knew to do and i i would get on the phone and talk to him for for hours sometimes and and and he ended up going into eternity and i after finding out about that they called me and told me about it i i i just something just wasn't right and i kept on and and i was i would yeah i don't know if you've ever done this but you you beat yourself up saying did i do everything that was possible did i do everything that i knew to do because there's times when people do the wrong thing you say things to them and sometimes you feel that it drives them away but the truth is i'm trying to get you closer to god if it drives you away from me and it gets you closer to god i want it that way but i had to come to grips with the fact that that i i i did try my best i never did get a clear answer if i'd done everything but i did what i could and and that's that's what i'm saying is the lost when you know that it's in a split moment that somebody could be gone i mean i have been in church services where where people were sitting in and knowing that they weren't right with god and leaving the church and getting out on the road and then their lives be gone and you knew that you were just in the service with them just moments ago and a car wreck happens and boom they're gone now i'm saying all of that to say this we have got to find ourselves in love with the lost a love for lost people i'm not talking about their sin but you have got to you see somebody that is that is just really dragging it through the mud so to speak is there anything that i can be doing no don't go give them all your money because the truth is they're in a place that they they won't do the right things with it but is there something that i can be doing for them yes i can pray yes i can spend time in fasting and praying for them but do they know that i really care about where they are i love god i love my brothers and sisters but the man that walks in or the woman that walks in off of the street that is hurting that needs god do i love them do i love them enough to ease in beside them in the service knowing that they're being stirred but they don't understand why they're being stirred or how they're being stirred and be able to to lay a hand on their shoulder or or pray with them jesus name god help us god help us i want us to look at the and then again these are those three demonstrations now let's look at the demonstrations of love let's look at those showing our love how do i show my love the three demonstrations number one we will show it through our worship everybody say worship when you come to the house of god the illustrations that we give and and the the demonstrations that we give of the lord through song through lyrics and even in our raising of hands our clapping of hands it shouldn't be something that we do just to show right i'm showing the lord that i love him and so when i do it through worship then i should not be worried about what those next to me think or what those online think i i know it's one of those things where you have somebody that's jumping up and down and you get and everybody else is not jumping but you got that one person that's jumping and you're looking at them well it ain't time for that hello we're not supposed to be doing that yet it's just getting started nobody gave them to cue right but the truth is you don't know what that person's going through or you don't know what that person's just came out of so they're doing that they're not doing it for you i hope they're not i clap my hands unto the lord i lift my hands unto the lord when i sing even if it's off-key singing key to the lord we bless his name we call upon his name those that sing and worship they do it in spirit and in truth john tells us that in verse 4 we do it unto him in spirit and in truth the second way of illustrating this would be through fellowship everybody say it fellowship scripture tells us in hebrews the 10th chapter that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together this is a demonstration of love that i love my brother i love my sister we get together and i know pastor likes to say it brother covet i i understand that but that doesn't mean that we can't fellowship as a matter of fact i i just think the enemy just likes the fact that he can keep us apart he likes that if he can get you over here and get you over here lou then then then he's doing a good job of keeping us apart right if you love your brother and your sister you're not going to you're not going to stay apart you're going to make sure that you fellowship that that second one is that we we demonstrate it through our fellowship number three the demonstration of fellowship would be through evangelism and you'll know notice that all these three correlate with the ones we just talked about through the lost the way we demonstrate is through evangelism personal evangelism is that that we find somebody and throughout the day that we're able to witness to those things that we talk about speak of the goodness of god those things that that god is doing in their life giving testimony and and maybe somebody that needs prayer calling them saying hey i just feel like that you needed some extra strength today and i want you to know i'm praying for you those are those things that we do and that is that is called evangelism that is called reaching for the lost jesus manifested this within himself and within his disciples he he he compelled them he had compassion for the loss we find that there was many times in in jesus's life as he walked upon the earth that he would be sitting among sinners we had an instant where the scribes and the pharisees really got upset with jesus one time and they looked at each other and says why is he sitting among sinners why is he having dinner with them and jesus is up to his elbows with center and good food and jesus passes the word down the line hey just tell those guys that they that are whole have no need of of a physician he didn't say it to them he had it passed on he said just tell them go on and do your studies and go on and do all of your bookkeeping that you need to do but i have come for these people what an example of love for the loss evangelism going into the opportunities that arise going to the houses of those that are that are sick going to the hazard of those that that are physically spiritually and sometimes mentally sick saying hey i'm here to minister to you no we don't walk in with our bible and say hey i wanna i'm gonna i'm gonna preach you a sermon no but we're there to share good tidings of great joy i have found it in many times in my life that i've gone to minister to people and then ended up with ministry coming to myself i don't know if you felt that but there's been times when you meant to encourage somebody and you were encouraged when you left that is the way that the spirit of god works that once you start generating that that love for mankind and that that ministering spirit that god begins to flood you and you beca you become that pipeline you become that conduit that god's able to do something through and when you leave you feel that uplifted spirit that's the love of god that is that demonstration of his love that maybe it's just a devotion that you that you give or maybe it's something that you do in school maybe it's something that that you're able to share with someone and and yeah it may not be all of that spiritual but you have brought a good message to someone that day thank you lord amen we do these things and these are the things that we do for the kingdom of god that is he has called us to be laborers he has he has commanded those and we read that earlier that he's looking for somebody that will go into the field and and do his work but you must demonstrate these things demonstrate them the way that he said show your worship you want to be an example to your children to your grandchildren to those that are around you your brothers your sisters worship it's not a show it's showing you that i love god and it won't be long i i i watched it just a couple services ago actually i think it was sunday i'm standing over here and and uh and you'll notice that i grabbed the grandbaby a lot of times at prayer time and it's not that i'm just wanting to hold a baby right but i'll get him and i'll stand over there and you know i'm worshiping and i'm lifting my hands and all of a sudden i look over here's this 10 month old and he's got his hand like this now he's probably looking at the lights through his hand i don't know but he knows that i was got his hand up and so he's doing the same thing and if i'm speaking the name of jesus it won't be long until he'll be saying jesus you understand what i'm talking about is this these things and jesus teaches us to teach and if it's nothing but teaching your grandkids you teach them of the love of god you're teaching that little one right there right right now whether you know it or not god bless it i'm so so thankful that it's in the house of god and and and it has made it this far i tell you what we could just worship the lord for that right there amen that's a blessing right there would you just love the lord for that thank you jesus thank you lord that we've got this baby we've got it here and we've got it in our arms and thank you lord for what you're doing in his life oh hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah got him in bible says i'm so thankful that i've done the first bible study with him in it and i won't ever forget that and see i got pastor that time let's see yeah amen but that is a part of who we are we're supposed to be it's we we're supposed to teach let's look at philippians and this is the last scripture we'll read for tonight philippians the first chapter in verse nine philippians first chapter verse nine and i'm sorry media i i did i wrote this one in so you forgive me philippians 1 verse 9. this i write that you love your love may abound what you know what i think i got the wrong version and this i pray that your love may abound yet more and more in the knowledge in all judgment more and more more and more that your love just continues to grow more and more i don't know about you but i i want to learn to love even more you say well i i have an understanding of what love really is but i i mean let your love grow let it grow let it continue to grow let it let it continue to uh and and he the writer even told us earlier in in our lesson that that we we add to we add to our brotherly kindness we add add charity those things those are all building blocks those are things that they cannot operate without without the other and if you love god you can't help but love your brother right and if you love god you can't help but love the lost because he's already told us he wants us to be like him he wants us he gives us an example of what so you you love god you don't have a problem with anything else that's one of the very first things that i do in a bible study when i'm when i'm teaching brand new people is we talk about the ten commandments thou shalt have no other god before you and if you've got if you've got god in you and you're dealing strictly with the things of god and you're allowing god to be a part of everything in your life then you're not gonna have a problem with killing and stealing and taking people's wives and all that other stuff amen you don't have problems with that because god in you is not going to let you do those things you see well but we are all flesh yeah and he was too and he showed us how to use that he showed us how to live a godly life he said well he was without sin yeah we were born in sin we were shaping iniquity but that does not mean that we cannot live a godly life we live in a world in a generation that thinks i keep saying generation it's just the culture of things sometimes that we've created we we've created this thing to say well you know what well just again love god if you truly love god you're not going to have a problem with any of the other you're not gonna have a problem with your brother you're not gonna have a problem with the sinners that you face because you're gonna know how to love them amen god bless you amen would you love him and thank him for his word thank you jesus thank you for your word thank you for truth and ask god that you will continue to bless us help us to understand the things that you have created the things that the things of love let us let us stand fast for those things that you have in your word in jesus name in jesus name everyone say amen amen god bless you in jesus name