The Love Commandment

But today, in Mark chapter 12, I want to bring to you what I feel like is in my heart — talk to you about the love commandment. Mark 12:28 says: And one of the scribes came, having heard them reasoning together, and perceived that he had answered them well, asked him: Which is the first commandment of all? Jesus answered him, and the first of all the commandments is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. See, that's first. And the second is like it, namely this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

And the scribe said unto him: Well, Master, thou has said the truth, for there is one God, and there is none other but he. And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered him discreetly, he said unto him: Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after just ask him any questions.

You know, the study on this, this love commandment that God was given here, where Jesus is — he responds — is something that has been preached and taught, I don't know how many times — hundreds of thousands of times it's been taught. But I think it's important to go back to things that we even know, because the familiar sometimes is the very things that we often forget. To me, when Jesus responded here, he was clear. He was very concise, that we must love God and we must love people. And I feel like his point was really clear, that the two were tied together. You cannot take one and leave the other. You cannot simply just love God and not love people. And you cannot really love people without loving God. He tied them together. Without the one, you can't have the other. You can't replace it with something else. There is no substitute.

I thought — I feel like it's important, and what I've come to realize and hope to convey in this message, is this fact: If you don't love God, eventually the one thing that has been the greatest drawing factor — his love — will end up becoming a curse. And I hope I can explain this in the word today. God loves you. And the fact that you don't love him is forever going to banish you from his presence. To say that you love God is an impossible statement without loving people. You cannot love him and hate people. To love God is to love people. It's a must. It is a requirement. And we struggle, all of us at times, with this fact.

One of the saddest statements about a man in the Bible, in my opinion, is found in Second Timothy chapter four, verse number 10, when it says this. It says: For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. Something inside of me wants to cry out: Demas, what happened to you? Where did you go? What captivated you? What drew you away? What possible thing could this world offer you that you would walk away from God? What was your downfall? What made you turn back on everything, Demas, that you know to be true? The only evidence that we have is the fact that he had misplaced his love. The word simply says: Having loved this present world. This is the only explanation that Paul gives us. Somewhere along the way, his love affair for Jesus dwindled, and his love affair for the world increased. He no longer acted or behaved the way that he should.

Having victory, ladies and gentlemen, in this world is simply a matter of how much you love Jesus and what you do about it. I'm going to say that again: Having victory in this world has simply to do with the matter of how much you love Jesus and what you do about it.

Paul, having written the majority of the New Testament that we know, we talk about — talks about the love of Jesus Christ in Ephesians 6:24. He says: Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. I don't think it was an accident that Paul used the words that he used when he declared him to be our Lord Jesus Christ. He was very purposeful when he wrote these words. We can know him as Savior. We can know him as friend. But we must acknowledge his lordship in our life. You've heard me say this before: It's not just the fact that he is your Savior, but he must be your Lord. He must be Lord of every, every area of your life. We must approach him the way Thomas did, when he declared this in John chapter 20 and verse number 28. And he said: My Lord and my God. I declare you to be Lord of all that my life is.

When you look at the scriptures and you see that Jesus was called Savior 23 times in the New Testament, but he was called Lord over 400 times — let's just show you a disproportionate amount of times that he's referred to as Lord versus Savior. Now, I love the fact that he is my Savior. I'm thankful for the finished work at Calvary. Where would any of us be without an empty tomb today? This would all be for naught. And all of those things are wonderful and great. But when he becomes your Savior is the beginning of your relationship with him. That's the

start. That's the bare bone minimum requirement, is that he's your Savior. But to have a life — a life abundant, a life full, a life with purpose — is when you understand that Jesus must be Lord of every area of my life. He's not just my Savior. He's not just my friend. He's not just my help in the present time when I have a need in my life. But everything I do, I do under the understanding that I have a Lord in my life, and I am obedient to what he has for me. Whatever his requirements, whatever his commands, whatever his desire — they trump every dream I have. They trump every desire in my life. They trump every opinion that's around me. He is my Lord. Period. There is none other voice. There is none other commandment. There is no other person that is more important than what my Lord Jesus Christ desires for my life. For him to be your Lord, it's a great difference. Everything that I do must be filtered through what my Lord desires for me.

When Jesus is truly Lord of my life, then everything falls into place. He is Lord of the good times and the bad, and everything that is in between. He is Lord. We have in sight of us — you and I — this driving force that wants to evaluate the good that we have done and evaluate the bad that we have committed, and use this information as a criteria for how we're going to get into heaven. But Jesus already answered this question for you and I. And it has nothing based upon the fact of how we balance things out on our scale. For he said in John 14 and 15: If you love me, keep my commandments. He said in John 15, verse number 10: If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love. John, writing again in 1st John chapter 5, verse number 3: For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not grievous.

You see, you and I will struggle, if he's not truly Lord of our life, with his requirements and what he desires for us. They will feel like they are grievous and a heavy burden for you and I to bear. But I promise you, that's all in a misunderstanding of his love. To truly be in his love is to allow him to be the Lord of every area — every area of my life. For it is Jesus himself who said: Come unto me, all you who are — what was it? — heavy laden. All of you who are carrying burdens. All of you who have stuffed your totem around that's causing you to be weighed down. Bring them to me. Give them to me, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. You will find that it is light to carry.

How is that possible? I was talking about that in the Next Steps class this morning. It doesn't make sense for us to give one burden and pick another one up. But that's misunderstanding the lordship issue in my life. What God is saying is: When you try to do it on your own, when you're trying to do it all by yourself, you're going to get weighed down with the troubles of life, and you're going to face things that you can't do all by yourself. But bring those things to me. Bring me your problems. Bring me your trials. Bring me your struggles. Bring me the broken pieces of your life. And what I give you back in return is light in comparison.

Oh, the world doesn't make sense of all this. It says what the word of God says is not, not proper and important for the world in which we live in. But I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen: If you're going to settle the lordship issue in your life, then that comes into being obedient to every command that the word of God has. And when I approach it from this standpoint — my God loves me. He's not putting burdens on me that I can't bear. But he's putting things in my life to keep me where I'm supposed to be. He knows what I'm going to face tomorrow. He knows where he's brought me from. And I trusted everything in my life will work out in order, in a good way, because of his love.

Are you keeping his commandments? His commandments to love includes two objects of your affection: a love for God and a love for people in your world. That means you can and must love anyone that might be incidentally or accidentally standing in your life. His word didn't say you would like them. It simply said you must love them. You and I — we feel like the only way we can love is, I must like. If there's not something in you I like, how possible can I love you? How is it possible that I could love you? But again, it's misunderstanding the lordship issue. Whoever is in your life — whether incidentally or accidentally or on purpose — you need to learn to love. Now, do not misunderstand me: This love will come with challenges. Can I get an amen?

When I get up every morning and I go to my time of prayer, after I spend my first few minutes just telling him how thankful I am that I got up another day, but I have breath in my lungs and the ability to walk, to thank him for the small things in life — the first thing I do is I turn to him and I thank him for the blessing of my family. I thank him for my beautiful wife. Thank him for my beautiful daughters that he's blessed me with. I ask him for wisdom and guidance to be the best

husband and father that I can be. That I need his help guiding me every day of my life. It's in those moments, as I'm talking about these things, it's very easy for me to talk about my wife and my children, because they are near and dear to my heart. I love them. But I'm going to tell you something, ladies and gentlemen: That is not all love is meant to be.

See, Jesus addressed this in Matthew chapter 5, verse 46. Says: For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same? It's easy for me to talk about my daughters and my wife, because I love them. They're mine. They belong to me. God's given me the gift and blessed my life with them. So it's easy for me to love. But walking in love that God asks us — calls you and I to a higher standard. We are called to love whether we are loved in return or not. And that, ladies and gentlemen, can be a tall order. Jesus himself set the example. He came to earth. He was unloved. He was unwanted. He was rejected. And still he loved. How can you and I refuse to do anything less?

I was thinking to myself, as he was heading up to Galgotha, Calvary's hill — he was being mocked. He's been hit. He's been spit on. He's been made fun of the entire time. We see that he's allowing his love to move forward. In fact, the first words that were ever uttered at Calvary were forgiveness. Forgiveness. Forgiveness was there. Why? Because he was setting an example that you and I could see, that we are to love. It's easy to love the ones who are nice to us. It's easy to love the ones who are kind to us, the ones who, who, who are in our life and they, they bring blessings. But what about the ones who, who seem to take away from us? The ones who seem to despitefully use us? The ones who seem to hurt us? Do we allow that love to continue to work?

Oh, Pastor Kevin, you're asking for a lot of hard stuff. I'm not asking for anything different than what Jesus himself asked in his word. Matthew 5:44 says: But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. And pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Do you hear those words? There's nothing there that sounds like logical sense. Nothing. There is something that we willingly laser hand up and say: Sign me up for those that are going to abuse me, those that are going to mock me, who are going to persecute you. Those are the ones I want to love, those people. But he didn't give us an option out. He didn't give us another method for here. He didn't give an alternate way to do it. He simply says: But I say to you, love your enemies.

Sooner or later, God is going to allow you to encounter someone on your road of life who puts this to the test. Now don't go pointing fingers — isn't that time? Someone is going to despitefully use you. Will you be able to love like he loves? Will you be able to do what he asked? This is how you know. You want to know the litmus test? You want to know how it works for you? Do you want to know if you get past it, if you're in the right place, if you're, if you're loving the way Jesus asks you to love? I'm going to tell you now. You know this is because what, what, what your desire is going to be is to go directly to them, and confront them, and to put them in their place. We have no command for that. There is no word of God for that. That's not what the Bible says at all.

If you want to know what you do if someone has hurt you — if someone has, has come against you, if someone has offended you — oh, what a world we live in today. I've seen a sticker on the back of a car at the red light right up here, as I was heading to work last week. It just made me chuckle. And the sticker was — simply was on the back of a van window, and it says: Good morning, America. What are we offended by today? Man, we live in a world everybody's offended about something. And that doesn't mean it doesn't happen in the church, because people are offended in the church too. But if you need to know what you do with that, then you need to read Matthew 18. And if you're not following Matthew 18, anything else is wrong. To publicly call somebody out: wrong. To use your social media platform to put somebody in their place: wrong. Your heart is wrong. You're not right with God. You're not even close to being right with God. You're directly in defiance to his word.

It says you're to go to them directly — directly, privately. You're to speak to the person who's offended you. You're to ask them. You're, you're to reconcile with him. And if that doesn't work, then you take somebody back with you, and you try to fix the problem. And then, only then, is it brought before the church as a matter to be dealt with. Any other way of handling the issue is a sign that your heart is in the wrong place. And you can't love people, therefore you don't love God. I'm going to say that again: If you can't love them, then you don't love God. You may pretend to love God, but you're not right. You don't have to amen me. I'm preaching

the word of God to you today. I'm not preaching my opinion. I'm in the word of God. Go read Matthew 18 and what you're supposed to do. Yet I'll rebuke that in Jesus' name right now.

See, what we don't — what we, what we struggle with is we get so consumed inside our own little self, and what we deal with. And man, are we dealing in a, in a world of selfishness right now. It's running rampant in our world. And it just bothers me at the very core of everything that I am, that we are so consumed with self right now. I mean, that's, that's why we're dealing with, with so much rudeness in our world. Everywhere we go — from the checkout line, to, to driving down the road, and to just trying to, to live in this world — we're constantly bombarded with people who are so concerned with their little world. And, and something being — I mean, people will just cut in front of you. People look at you. People just — they flip you off, and they say such derogatory things about all this stuff. They'll get on social media and just lay the waste everybody around them, with no concern or thought whatsoever about what actions they have just set in motion. Because as long as they feel good in the moment, then it's all better. Because it's all about me, baby. And in those moments, you have never acted more like the devil — never — than in that moment when you're so consumed with self.

Mark chapter 4. Jesus gets in the boat. I didn't give them this verses, because I'm, I'm following the Spirit right now. Mark chapter 4, verse 35: On the same day, when evening had come, he said to them: Let us cross over to the other side. And when they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was. And other little boats were also with him. Say that. Say: Other little boats. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat on the boat, so that there was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke him and said: Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Hmm. Other little boats.

See, here's what happens when we get so consumed with ourself, is that we forget that there are other little boats in our world. And then we get hurt, or we get mad, and we get upset. Instead of doing the biblical thing, like Matthew 18 says, we take it on our own to let the whole world know that we have been upset, we have been offended, that somebody has hurt us. And then, in the middle of our land blasting, we don't realize that there are other little boats who are sailing along right with us. There are others who are in that storm, who are facing the very same things that we're facing. But we don't care about those other little boats, because we are the one who are feeling it in the moment.

Let me ask you a question in this moment: If the disciples would not have went back and took their problem to God — they took it to Jesus. They went in, and they woke him up, and said: Do you not care that we're all facing this? Who's to say that those other little boats would not have perished? You know, I've been in this long enough to see this. I have seen people who have, who've acted in such selfish ways, who, who try to set things right in a non-biblical fashion. And there's always collateral damage on what goes on. But they don't think about what goes on. They don't wonder about what possibly could happen if I handle this in a non-scriptural way. Instead, they just go out, and they just — this, this spew all their venom on everybody else. And when they do that, they set in motion things that should have never been set in motion. And then they wonder later on: Well, I wonder why — why, a while, my kids are acting this way. I wonder why this is going on. I wonder why nobody else is in my life. Well, you didn't understand the principle of the other little boats. You were in a storm, and you needed God. But instead of handling, and taking it, and doing the scriptural thing, you decided to take it on your own and handle it in a way that wasn't obedient to his commands. And when he did, you set things in motion. And there was more damage than you could imagine.

And you don't have to agree with me. But when you don't do it God's way — when you don't take it to him, when you decide you're just going to handle it on your own — I promise you, there's way more at stake than you can imagine. And this selfish mindset this world has pushed on us, and you buy in, when you find yourself being all about me. See, what you miss is this: When they went to him, he said in verse 39: Then he arose and rebuked the wind and said: Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. There wasn't just a great calm in their boat, but there was a great calm in all the other boats that were around them. See, here's the deal. You know, you know what this says? This says offenses will come. Did you know that? Did you know the word of God said the fences are going to come? It's just part of life, ladies and gentlemen. You're going to face something that's going to offend you. You shouldn't be surprised by that. But are you ready for what you're supposed to do when you are offended? Because the, the theme of the day is

to let everybody know. But that's not what the Bible says. It's not what the word of God says. I don't care what the world says. I don't care how it says you're supposed to — supposed to, you know, create a hashtag and put it out there and let everybody know. Because you have been wronged. If you're living and breathing, you're going to be wronged. It's a part of life. But at some point you got to deal with the fact that if you can't love people, if you can't love all people, you can't love him. Matter of fact, Jesus himself, he said: If you can't forgive, you're not forgiven. I'm going to say that again. He said: If you can't forgive, you're not forgiven.

The parable that Jesus used in that moment was a man who owned — who owed, in today's money, over a million dollars. And he went in and asked for mercy. And the king said: I give you mercy. Forgave his debt. And then he left the room and went and found somebody that owed him a hundred dollars. And he took him by the throat. He said: Pay me. And he couldn't pay him. God asked the same question. He said: Give me some time, I'll pay. No. Threw him in jail. And then when the king found out what the servant did, the king fetched the servant back and said: Oh, you wicked servant. You asked for mercy, and I gave it. But you couldn't extend mercy. Now all your debt — listen to this — all of your debt is back on you. And threw him in prison. And Jesus said: This is what my father will do to you if you refuse to forgive someone. Tell you, ladies and gentlemen: If you can't forgive, it all comes back. That should be a very sobering thing in your mind. Maybe just for me, because I know what he's forgiven me of, and I don't want it coming back. I have to live in a constant state of forgiveness.

So I ask you again: Are you able to love like he loves? I'm going to tell you this. I look at his example. He stood there on Calvary as they spit on him, as they beat him, as they whipped him, as they put that crown of thorns on his head, as they raised him, and he said: Forgive them. For the, the word of God says he could have called down ten thousand angels and stopped the whole thing. He had all power. He had — no, that's what he said: All power never given unto me. But I'm going to tell you something: Power withholding itself is greater than power exerting itself. Power withholding itself is greater than power exerting himself.

There are times — listen to me — every one of us feel like we want to get up there and pull the trigger and let all the barrels blow. It happens to us all. There are times that, that I get frustrated and I'm just — well, I mean, pull the ears off side of my head. But power withholding itself is greater than power exerting itself. Just because I can doesn't mean it's what I should.

There will come a time in your life when you will be placed in a position where you have a choice. You'll find yourself in a situation where you can say the words that are going to affect somebody's future and their destiny. They've mistreated you. They've abused you. And they deserve the payback, in all human logic. But how will we react? Because here's the deal: Power is only — it's only safe in the hands of love. Power's only safe in the hands of love. Let us never forget what Jesus has done in our lives. I don't want to forget what he's done for me. I don't want to forget for where he's brought me from. I don't deserve what he's done in my life. I don't deserve his mercy and grace. I don't — I don't know about you, but I don't. I can speak for me. I've known me. I know what I've done. I know what he's done in my life. I have not deserved. I have not — I've not earned. There's not enough good in me to deserve what he's done. So I can't forget those things. I don't want to ever forget where he found me.

See, love requires attention. Some of you go to great lengths to make sure things in your life are the way. Some of you — you treat your animals better than you treat human beings. And I'm not — look, I'm not trying to make fun of you, all right? I know sometimes I get funny and I say things about cats and all that. I'm not gonna do that, all right? Just, I'm being serious. But for some of you, you go to greater lengths for your animals. You go to greater lengths for your, for your, for your plants. Then you're kinder to those things than you are to someone in the checkout line. Too many of you treat your soul with less care and attention than you give your plants and animals. Once a week trip to the house of God and no contact in between is starvation for the soul.

In John chapter 21, the disciples encountered Jesus on the beach after his resurrection. We see a very important conversation taking place between Peter and Jesus. They fished all night. Peters went back to what, what he knew to do, all right? Jesus was dead. Ministry seems to be over. So he goes back to what he knew to do. He was a good fisherman before, so went back. Things didn't work out the way they thought. They thought he was coming to establish the kingdom. They thought he was going to overthrow Rome. They thought all this stuff. They were bigger. He

— they seen him raised to death. They seen him do the miracles, open the blinded eyes, cleanse the lepers. They've seen all this stuff. But, but yet, he, he's dead. It's over. So it goes back to his old ways. Preached a message one time: Peter, sell the boat. I'll go back to you always: If God's taking you out of something, don't go back to it. That's a great word. We can say amen right now, and that's a great word. Don't go back to it.

But they're out there. Jesus calls from the shore. They don't know who he is. He's far enough they can't recognize him. He's like: Hey, how's it going? Cast your nets on the other side. For whatever reason, they decide to listen to the guy. They throw the nets over there, and all of a sudden they catch a hall. And then it clicks: Hey, wait a minute. I recognize that voice. That's Jesus. Peter swims the shore. He's got breakfast made for him. There's, there, there they are. And, and everything's going good.

And it says this in verse 15 of chapter 21 of John: So when they had done, Jesus saith to Simon Peter: Simon, son of Jonas, loveth thou me? The one of these. Jesus understood something that we should know: The time to know where you stand on, on loving God is not a question when everything's going wrong. Think about it. Okay, think about this, man. You're okay. I know I'm going slower. I don't know if I teach you a principle in the word of God. Look at this right here. This is what we know: They're out fishing. They caught a bunch of fish. Things are going really good. And it's in this moment, it's in this moment that Jesus asked him: Do you love me more than these? Now, there's been a lot of controversy of what was the more than these. You know, was he, was looking at the great hall of fish? You know, was he looking — was he looking at the other disciples and said, do you love me more than these? We, you know, I don't know. You know, I got my thoughts, but I don't know. I really pinned it on anything there. A lot of people spend so much time on that, they missed the point of the principle. Whatever these represented, the question that hung in the air was: Do you love me?

Now, I'm not a Greek scholar. I barely speak English. I do speak good Southern, though. There are four major words in the Greek language. Most of you know this. When it comes to love, in English we have one. You know, I say I love my wife — and I do, I love her — but I love me some nachos, too. That love word better mean a few different things between her and nachos. When Jesus asks Peter: Simon, son of Jonas, loves thou me more than these? That love word, we all know, was the Greek word agape. All right? We've heard it Sunday school up. Some of you had a flannel graph lessons about that. If you don't know what that is, Google it. He was asking: Do you love me deeply, more than anything else? And Peter said: Lord, you know I love you. The word he used was — it was the Greek word phileo. Basically, Peter was saying: Yeah, Jesus, I'm fond of you. So we asked him again: Do you love me? Agape. Peter responded again: Yes, I fellaio. I'm very fond of you. Then the third time he asked: Are you fond of me? Jesus, this time he changes the word: Are you fond of me? Peter, frustrated with this, says: Yes, I'm fond of you.

Jesus must have known that in time Peter would realize their relationship had to transcend fondness. See, this is what I'm afraid of, ladies and gentlemen. Can I just, can I just put it right out here, right? I don't often times hide this. I'm not hiding where I'm going, okay? You cannot just be fond of him. That's what he's dealing with. He's dealing with this. You know why he's dealing with? Because, because Peter denied him. He told him: Peter, Satan desires to sift you. But I pray for you. I pray for you that you can withstand. I pray for you that you have strength. I pray for you, because you're going to be tempted to be upset by this, and even get offended, and walk away. And guess what happened to Peter? He failed. He lied. He cursed. He walked away. He went back to the very thing that God had delivered him from. And it's in this moment that Jesus shows back up and says: Do you love me? I'm fond of you. Oh Peter, do you love me? I'm really fond of you. He's trying to get to the point, to let him know: I can't just be something that you're fond of. I can't just be something that you highly respect. The relationship will never work the way it's supposed to work, Peter, if I'm only something you're fond of.

Listen to me, ladies and gentlemen: He can't just be something that you're happy that he was your Savior. You have to move to the point that he becomes your Lord. Because only through lordship can you actually learn to love. First Peter 1:7-8 — we see here Peter speaking. This was interesting, because from, from that moment forward, every time Peter wrote, he never again used the word phileo. Go study. Yeah, he didn't. From that moment forward — Sister Sue Brand, go check it out for me — he never used the word fileo again. He used agape every time from that moment, because he got it. He got it. He says, First Peter 1:7-8: That the trial of your faith, being much

more precious than that gold that perisheth, though will be tribal of fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearance of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, ye love. You love. God, be — in whom thou now you see him not, you believing, yet rejoice with joy and speakable and full of glory.

What bothers me today — and I believe for far too many people, they call themselves Christians — they're only fond of Jesus. You know why? Because their actions speak louder than their words. They kind of like him. They kind of like his people. They kind of like his house. They're simply fond of him on the very surface. However, that's not a relationship. Is he truly your joy? Is he really your joy? See, here's how I know you can actually love people. Here's how I know: Is when you can earnestly pray that God blesses them. Yes, they've used you. Yes, they've abused you. Yes, they've talked about you. Yes, they've come against your family. Yes, they've done all these things. But, but, but you're not right with God until you can pray for them. And when I say pray, I don't know — oh God, I pray hellfire and damnation. God, give them hemorrhoids. God, just put acne all over their face. God, no. See, you're not right. You're not right. But when you can say: God, I pray you give them blessings in their life. I don't know — I know they've been hurtful to me, but God, I pray that you just blessed their life. God, put good things in there. God, I pray for them, that they can get right with you. I pray, Lord, that there would be a right relationship. God, I pray that they'll come to a moment where you can be Lord in their life. That's how you know. Do you want to know if your heart's right? Can you pray for him?

See, when he said pray for your enemies — how — well, if, if you love me, you can love your enemies. What? No, no. He said: If you love me, then you can love your enemies. The only way he can really love me is you got to love people. They're tied together. John 14:15: If you're loving me, keep my commandments. John 15:10: If you keep my commands, you shall abide in my love, even as I've kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

Jesus knew that, that his response to the scribe in Mark 12 would not be enough for mankind. So here's what he did, right? He just said — what was the response? Love. Love God, right? With all your heart, mind, body, soul, effort — everything you do, give it. Love God, and love your neighbor. What? Okay. But see, he knew that wasn't enough. He knew, he knew, he knew this. Because if you go to John chapter 13, verse 34 and 35, he said this. Look at it. What does it say right there? A new commandment. What, what, what? Because he knew — you know why he knew this? Look at me. Look at me, everybody. Don't miss this point. He knew because some of you don't love yourself. Because he said: Love your neighbor as yourself. But some of you don't love you. So instead, he changed it, and he came back and said: Look, I'm going to give you a new commandment: That you love one another, as I have loved you. But it didn't stop there. Right next verse, verse 35: By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you can love one another.

So I'm gonna ask you — and this is meant to hurt: Can people look at you and how you love, and say that you follow him? Can people look at how you speak, and say that you love him? Does your conversation, does your actions — does it, does it line up with his word? Because he said: People will know you belong to me when they see how you love each other. All right? Not just how you love your family, but how you love each other. How you love your enemies. How you love them who talk about you. I didn't say it was easy. He didn't either. But he simply said: If you love me, you'll keep my commandments.

The first of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is what? Love. Because you know why? Because if you can't love, none of the rest don't work. Yeah. You're not going to be patient if you don't love. No way. It's impossible. Have to start with love. There is power in love. We know that he loves us. And when we love him in return, people that we come in contact will realize there's something different about us. Love must be expressed in both word and deed. And our soul salvation hinges on the fact that we are not reservoirs of love, but we must channel it. How many of you love feeling his love in your life? But, but you're not meant to hold it. You're meant to be a conduit that love flows through, all right? Because if you stop it — that's why it's connected, ladies and gentlemen. He said: If you love me, you love people. Because his love is always going to flow where there's a need. So when I'm right, we can be right. But if I'm wrong, chances are you and I are going to be wrong. And I can't be wrong with you and be right with him. That's why he said: If you come to the altar to bring your sacrifice, and you remember when you get here you have ought against your brother — leave your sacrifice. What's he saying? I don't want it yet. Don't bring your praise in here. Ah, leave it right there, and you go fix the problem.

And then come back to me, and I'll receive it. I know this is, this is just straight-up Bible teaching to you today, on a Sunday. But I'm telling you, something in me is saying: The world we're living in is so broken. People, people throw around the word love, and they don't mean it. They don't mean it. They're not living it. People inside the church — people, people, people, Christians, people, apostolic — they don't mean it.

I'm getting ready to close. Revelations 2. Everybody say: Oh, he's going to Revelations now. Verse number one: Unto the angel the church of Ephesus right: These things saith he that hold the seven stars his right hand, who walketh and miss the seven golden sticks. I know thy works, and thou labor, and thy patience, and how thou cannot bear them which are evil. That thou tried them which say their apostles and are not, has found them liars. And hath born, and has patience, and for my name's sake has labored, and hath not fainted. Never the less, I have somewhat against thee, because thou have left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come quickly.

What's the first works? Repentance. Says: You've left your first love. You've got to go back and repent. You've kept all this. You've been good. You've been patient. You've labored. You've worked, and you're tired, and you've told — you've done all these things. However, I'm upset with you, because all of that doesn't really matter if you've walked away from your first love. Go back and do the first works. Our first love is putting Jesus ahead of everything else. Ephesus' problems spiritually can be seen in churches today. God will not allow compromise, but on every hand we see just that. People are compromising on the commandments. They don't necessarily buy into — Second Timothy three and 5 says: Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such turn away. Perhaps the church at Ephesus had begun to entertain more than teach. We must examine ourselves to make sure we're putting God first. Jesus warned the church to repent and do the first works. And he says: I come quickly, and I will remove the candlestick from you. But you got to repent. Is possibly — excuse me — it is possible to be doctrinally right and spiritually wrong. Doctrinal truth alone is not enough. That's what the Pharisees had. What they had — they had the law. They understood the man. They wore the t-shirts. They had it on there. They, they lived it to a T. But they didn't love. They didn't love. All they were about were pointing out what was wrong, never encouraging how to be right.

As I bring this to an end here — I'm going to end this because God desires to do something. But, but listen, be very careful, okay, how you approach this, this, this whole attitude. This consumerism is coming to the church, big time. Be careful. Be very careful what attitude you bring into the house of God. It really hurts when, instead of talking about the lives that were changed during service — about people being baptized in Jesus' name, people that were filled with the Holy Ghost — you know, there's, there's — it is rare that a week goes by here that somebody doesn't receive the gift of the Holy Ghost in this church. Rare. More often than not, people receive the Holy Ghost on a regular basis. You may not know about it. But just because you don't know about it doesn't mean it happened. They had three — was it three in kids church? Three in kids church last Sunday. We baptized two over here. Yeah, it happens constantly around this church. Constantly.

Really hurts me. For you — not, not personally, okay? I'm a big boy. If you've offended me, man, you had to work hard. I mean, you had my wife — she lives with me — she — I just don't get offended. I don't laugh at you, a bunch of idiots. But where it hurts my soul is I'm seeing this consumerism come in, where it's about me. It's about my preference. It's about what I want. Me. My lives are being changed constantly. Truth is being taught constantly. Yet that spirit of complaint just out there. I worry. I worry. I wouldn't be a pastor worth my salt if I couldn't stand up here and tell you: I worry about you. Instead of seeing things come out of you that, that are uplifting, that declare he's Lord of your life, I see things that are selfish, and self-centered, self-focused, and self-consumed. I'm sorry. You're not bearing the right kind of fruit. When I, when I hear you consciously using words about me and my — oh, I worry about you. I worry about where you're at. I worry about him being Lord of your life. Be careful what you say. Be careful. Be careful when you, when you, when you have terms about saying things like: Where I pay my tithe. It's not your tithes. Sorry. You have that attitude, you use that quote, you use those words — you're wrong. It's the Lord's tithe. It's the Lord's tithe. Words matter. It's a big indication of what's going on in your life. I worry about you.

If you can't love — don't, don't, don't tell me you love him and you can't love people. At his coming, he will separate the wheat and the tares. I, I cannot know how much you love God. I can't. I, I — there's no way. I can't look at you and say: Oh man, you're on a 98, and you, you're on a 60, and you're on a 12, and you're negative. I, I can't. That'd be great, maybe, if I could. Maybe if you had a little readout on your forehead, we'd

know which word, which way to go. I can't. There, there are things that, that indicate the direction you're leaning. I, I can, I can look at the fruit. That's what the word of God says: You'll know them by the fruit that they bear. But, but in the end, when Jesus comes back, only then will we know. In your heart, as an individual, you can know right now: If you love Jesus, everything's going to be okay. If you don't love him, it'll make itself known. It doesn't matter how many times you sit on a church pew, or how big an offering you give, or, or what kind of face you try to put on. When that day comes, when the wheat and tear separated, there will be no hiding the truth. Either you will have loved him and kept his commandments, or you will have not.

Jesus said there will be many in that day that will say: Lord, we cast out demons in your name. We did all these things. And he'll say: Depart from me, for I never knew you. That, that word "no" is the same word "no" that is, is taught — intimate. It's an intimate relationship, like a husband knows a wife. I, I was never intimate with you, is what he's saying. He was saying: You loved the Savior aspect of me, but you didn't love the lordship. You wanted me to take care of your sin, but you didn't want to dedicate your life to me.

Remember these words of Paul to the church at Rome. This is my last verse I'll say to you. Verse 37, chapter eight: Now, and all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, or things to come, nor height, or depth, or any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. But selfishness can separate you. Yeah, you can separate you. Paul said: I'm convinced, I'm persuaded. Listen to his words: There is nothing I'll face in this world that can keep me from, from, from his love. But you can keep you.

Now here's my altar call today: If there's anything in you that is a little bit hesitant on whether or not you're right where you need to be, I would come to the altar. We're living in the day and age that I don't, I don't think we're taking chances. You know, the tongue's interpretation went out at the very beginning the message. And that was God confirming me. Because I'm telling you, I was still on the rope until I stood in that pulpit about which way I was going to go with this message. But I knew in that moment, that that word went out, he was telling me: You speak what I put on your heart, and don't question. So I've delivered my heart. He's coming back soon. And it would be a shame that you would let some little hurt, some little indiscretion, some little thing, that would prevent you from being fully engaged in his love. And when it comes time to separate the wheats and the tares, you don't make the cut. Because he said: If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. If you love me, you'll love people. And you're going to love people the way I loved you. So this altar is open.