Thriving: Full of Love

You can be seated. I have a verse of scripture to read in just a few moments, but I'll let you remain seated for that. Uh the vision of Apostolic Pentecostal Church, what we see ourselves being, what we strive to be is an apostolic church faithfully connecting, growing, and serving others. But I did leave out an adjective there. What kind of apostolic church do we wish to be? Thriving. There we go. You gotta be happy with that, Pastor Brad. Right. Thriving. Exactly. That's our vision to be a thriving. A thriving. And each one of these words is packed with meaning. A thriving apostolic church faithfully connecting, serving, or growing rather, and serving others. And our focus in the month of April has been on what it means to thrive. And tonight, this concludes our study of what it means to be a thriving apostolic church. And we've based this from Ephesians 4:16. This is the verse I'll read to you. And again, you can remain seated, but this is from the New Living Translation. Pastor Brad gave me permission to read from it. Uh it says, there it is on the screen. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. Jesus Christ makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. And of course, it's that last portion that we have used for our definition of thriving, to be healthy, growing, and full of love. And it was on the first Wednesday of this month, April 2nd, that our pastor taught us about what it means to be healthy. I cannot at all if I even wanted to repeat that lesson. But just to give you a couple of high points in review since it's been a few weeks, we were told that the individual parts of the body must function properly for healthy movement of the whole body. So all the parts of the body have to be healthy and functioning properly if we're going to be whole. And I realize if you use the physical analogy, we can uh limp along with a sore toe or an arthritic knee or a bad hip or a bad back and and still be alive. But uh to be completely easily moving and painfree, everything needs to be working as it should. And I wish it was that way as we got older. Don't you? But uh that's the reality. And we're waiting for heaven as we've heard preached lately. That's going to change everything for us. But the point being is all the parts of the body need to function as they should for us to have full complete health. And a thriving church does call for its members to be spiritually healthy. I would say that's a no-brainer since we're talking about the church. We need to be spiritually healthy as individuals. But Pastor Brad also pointed out that there is something to be said about us being physically healthy as well as relationally healthy. And I don't know that he explicitly said it. By extension though, I would say it also stands the reason that we would be mentally and emotionally healthy too. So as individuals, if we can be healthy in all these given areas, then together collectively, we become a healthy church or a thriving church. And so that was our lesson on the 2nd of April. And then just a couple of Wednesdays ago on the 16th, Amber talked to us about growing. And she said among a number of things that spiritual growth is not about me increasing but it's about him the Lord increasing in me. That's the real crux of the matter. John 3:30 I must decrease but he must increase. And we measure our growth she pointed out against Christ. Not necessarily even ourselves uh say a year ago or six months ago but against Christ. And there's nothing wrong. I'm glad she pointed that out. Nothing wrong with measuring some progress in your life. That's good. But we've got to remember that the goal is measuring ourselves with Jesus. And so I'm not even looking back a year from now saying, "Man, I've really come a long way." No, no, that's not the point. You know, Nathan, whether I'm talking professionally or with my physical health, whatever. No. Am I more like Christ? There's the goal. And as we grow, to use the scriptural words, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, we've got to do that with a determination of an until attitude. And I told Amber that point really resonated with me a couple of Wednesdays ago. I will until. I will pray until. I will worship until. I will attend faithfully until. I will witness until. I will teach Bible studies until. And you have to have that determination as we're growing to be more like Christ. I'm just going to keep at it because again, until we make heaven, none of us is perfect, nor will we be. And then uh she wrapped up the lesson on our uh path of growth there, as you might imagine an analogy, uh ditches that we could fall into, uh get off the path and fall into ditches. She chose to just give us a couple of them. Uh, one was condemnation and the other was comfort. And if we fall into the ditch of condemnation, I kind of thought this sounds like Pilgrim's Progress a little bit, something. Maybe I need to come up with names. And I'm kidding. Uh, but if we fall into the ditch of condemnation uh because uh we don't feel we're growing at all or we're not growing fast enough. Uh she pointed out, we've got to remember that growth is not instant. Okay? Just as with a child, it's not born and then the next day an adult. Uh it's incremental. Growth is incremental. And if you are in a place where you're feeling condemned because you're not growing like you feel you need to or as much as you need to, do keep that in mind. It's not instant. It's not incremental. I don't know if it's the best analogy, but uh if you plant grass seed, we have the landscape folks here. Maybe some are doing that already this spring. Uh if you the day you plant the grass seed, if you go out there and watch it minute by minute, or even check on it once an hour, you're not going to see much change. It hasn't germinated yet, but if you're just staring at it, but if you come back a few days, a week or so later, you start seeing the little blades of grass spring up. So, it it takes time. It takes time for there to be growth. And you can see all types of illustrations of this in nature. I if you'll pardon a personal reference uh way back in the year of our Lord 1,984 uh I had a a very wonderful year of growth personally, spiritually, just in a lot of ways. Uh it was a marked year for me. But if you would ask me just pull a date out and say, "Okay, May 7th, 1984, how did you grow?" I couldn't tell you. Or November 3rd, how did you grow that year on November? I couldn't tell you. But I look back at the year and I could even point out some specific things that happened, a season of that year or a little segment of it and and some things I did or some things that happened and transpired that that it caused me to grow. But I I have to look at it as a whole and just note that in that year's time and it may not even been precisely a calendar year, but that's just the the year I remember. In that year's time, it was really a year of growth for me and just a number of avenues of my life. And uh I I noticed that over the years, but again, I couldn't just pinpoint a day where this is how I grew because it's incremental. It takes time. It's uh something that is not instant. So, we need to remember that if we fall into that ditch of condemnation, I'm just not getting there like I want to. Just keep at it. Keep at it and know that growth will come as you're doing the right things. And then if we fall into the ditch of comfort as she called it, uh remember this that staying the same is not growing. So if you're comfortable and at ease and you know I'm fine like I am, that's not really growth. And so we have to note that and if we're not growing then we're not thriving. So those were the uh two that we looked at earlier this week. Now tonight we're uh exploring the third part of our definition and that is full of love. And originally I was scheduled to teach this lesson on April 16th. And I assume I I can only think this that I was assigned the topic because of my lovable nature. Well, I don't know what to think about those Snickers. Maybe I need one. Uh or maybe it could have just been that because on the 16th I was the only one around here because everybody else was at youth convention. I don't know. But regardless, it is my turn. And as my Englandborn aunt Vera would say, I'm going to give it a go. So, we're going to look tonight at being full of love and how that helps define us as thriving apostolics. And I thought it logical just to start out and talk if we're going to be full of something, we want to know what it is, right? So, let's ask ourselves just what is love? Well, we could go to the dictionary and get a definition and it's there if you want to look it up. Uh, I thought if we were in a small group setting, we could even go around the room and have uh, people just say what you think love is in your own words, maybe based on your experiences in life or your upbringing, just how you would phrase it or even illustrate it. Uh, if we could do that or we could even look to scripture and just say, well, it says God is love, period. And just let it go at that. And that would be fine. But I'm very grateful that the Apostle Paul uh gives us some very specific aspects of love and what it means. This is in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verses 4 through8. I'm going to look at the list from the New International Version. And uh I won't spend a lot of time I do want to look at each one of these. I won't spend a lot of time on them. I think as I do this you could recognize it could be an entire lesson if you really slowed down and delved into each one of these. But uh since we going to be full of this love or full of love I should say uh let's think about what it is according to scripture. And I I believe you'd agree that's the best definition of love that we could have as followers of Christ. And so first of all the apostle Paul says that love is patient. Love is patient. And I suppose we could just move right on. You you generally have what the idea of what that means. But to uh flesh it out a little bit, it means to bear with uh or bear under. Uh could be with someone or under a burden, under uh a matter, whether it's figuratively or I guess it could even be literally. And and typically we think of patience as as bearing with a provocation. You know, somebody has provoked you. Maybe it's a hardship. Maybe it's pain that you have, whether emotional or physical. Uh but you're doing all of that with fortitude, uh with calm, and without complaint. Without complaint. And that that's what Paul is saying. Love is patient. It's it's bearing under, bearing with uh whatever it is that you're facing with some strength or fortitude, some courage, but you're doing it calmly. You're doing it without complaint. That's what love is. Love is patient. He also says that love is kind. And that too is probably uh understood very quickly, but I'll say it this way. It's good and benevolent disposition. Good and benevolent disposition. And a key word to me when it comes to kindness is considerate. If you're kind, I think it's pretty safe to say you're considerate of others. You're thinking about what affects them or how something might affect them. You're thinking about how they feel, what they're going through. You're kind. And it could be just kind gestures of opening a door or smiling. Uh but then it could go into other realms such kindness that you try to help out in ways. So it's a good benevolent or beneficial disposition that you have. You're considerate. That's what love is. And uh if you haven't done this, it wouldn't hurt to make a a column of these uh definitions, a checklist, and just go down whether you check yes or no or reach yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 or something like that. Uh but this is what love is according to the Bible. Uh thirdly, love does not envy. Love does not envy. That means there's no uh discontent or covetousness of another person's advantages, their success, uh their possessions. Literally, uh you're not jealous of who they are or what they have. If you love, you're not jealous, you're not envious, you're not discontent or covetous, but you're the opposite. You're content that, hey, they've been blessed, and you're thankful. You celebrate what they have, what they've done. So, love does not envy. And then it says it does not boast. And here we're talking about speaking with exaggeration or excessive pride about yourself. And I think you all know what that is. And you've heard it probably a time or two in your lives from others. Not you, of course, but just bragging. Bragging about self and who you are, what you've done, and so on and so forth. Love doesn't boast. Love doesn't boast. Then Paul writes that love is not proud. Love is not proud. Now I will insert here. I think that pride can have a place and be of some merit. Um I if you're a grandparent in here, I know you're proud of your grandkids, right? In fact, I texted my oldest grandson this morning. I just told him, "I'm proud of you and what you have achieved in a certain area of school." And uh so, you know, we have that pride over our loved ones and and that kind of thing. But here what Paul is getting at is having an overly high opinion of yourself. That's the kind of pride that love is not. A overly high opinion of yourself, your importance, or just feeling superior, that's not love. If you're feeling superior, if you are thinking of yourself more highly than you ought to think, as Romans says, uh that's not love according to this passage of scripture. Love is not proud. Then it says it's not rude. Love is not rude. And here I guess all of us have been rude a time or two. Hopefully it's unintentionally. You know, if you're really tired or if you're sick or if you're hungry. I imagine we've all been a bit rude or impolite. But this is really talking about being deliberately so. Deliberately impolite, deliberately discourteous. Uh love isn't that way. Love is not rude. And then uh Paul writes, "Love is not self-seeking." So here we're told love isn't selfish. It doesn't seek its own interest because of that love in you. Love is not easily angered. Now I'm very glad the way this is worded here. It doesn't deny that there's anger. We get angry. The scripture notes that. But it says not easily angered. And so it's not this feeling of displeasure or hostility that comes quickly or or just flares up with little provocation. Uh you know, and I realize that depending on your personality and your upbringing, some of you might struggle with that a little more than others. Uh I I was reflecting a little bit earlier today. I grew up in a home. I don't know that I ever saw my father get angry. I I know he was frustrated a time or two, especially with me, but uh disappointed. Yeah. but just flat out angry. I I don't know that. And so I'm saying that to say I was blessed to be in that kind of environment where he just didn't ever get angry. If he did, he kept it hidden from me. Maybe maybe it was in private moments. I don't know. Or maybe at work. I don't know. I'm kidding. But uh I just didn't. So if you've had an upbringing like that, it's to your benefit. Then if you've not, then maybe that's had an effect on you. But uh certainly anger does come. But it's love doesn't get easily offended or upset or angered in this case. Uh feeling displeasure and hostility just like that. And then love keeps no record of wrongs. You have a little book of records. You better toss it tonight. Okay. Uh love keeps no record of wrongs. Uh that is if we love we don't keep a score sheet. We don't uh track offenses and hurts and failings of of people. Uh we just don't do that. We love. And so there's no record of wrongs. Uh when you love someone, love does not delight itself in delighted in evil, but rejoices with the truth. And that's kind of self-explanatory. Um but I noticed I was trying to put together evil and truth. don't seem seem like it would say delights in falsehood and truth to make it perfectly contrasted but it says doesn't delight in evil and maybe that contains false speaking but it rejoices with the truth and the truth is what is factual what is proven what is uh genuine or actual uh that's where love rejoices in what is true what is true then uh after all of these things it isn't uh we find a few things that love is and love does uh one, it always protects. Love always protects. That is, it defends, it guards, it covers, it shields. And I was thinking of trying to think of an illustration. And I think in creation, God's creation of humanity and the animal kingdom, uh there's probably no better illustration of love that protects than the maternal instinct. I don't know if any of you saw that video clip when they had the earthquake in San Diego, but elephants at a zoo uh instinctively formed a circle around a young elephant calf and they were all backed into each other facing outward in in a posture of protection because they didn't know what was going on with the the uh earth that was shaking and that was just their instinct. So, even in nature, and you've heard the expression mama bear, you don't want to mess, but uh you know, if you want to see how love protects, just pick on a mom's child. You're gonna find out pretty quick that love protects. I I've said this before, and I I'll you know, my wife and I have two daughters. And no, my wife and I, so they're my daughters, too, right? But, uh I found that if I tease around about with them or about them or say a little something, man, she flares up and is like, "Come on, they're my kids, too. I'm just kidding, you know, but mama bear, you don't mess with a girls. And uh I love them like there is no tomorrow, but I I like to have a little bit of fun sometimes. But that that's probably the best illustration of love protecting in the maternal instinct. Just don't mess with mom's kids. All right? Uh and you'll be fine. Then love always trusts. That means it has confidence or the benefit of a doubt. And I know we could have a big discussion on trust needing to be earned. And I would not argue with that. I think it is my my father who I mentioned earlier, he used to say, uh, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. So, you know, if you get burned, if you get hurt, you're you're going to be a little more apt to to take it carefully the next time with someone or even anybody for that matter if you've already if you've been hurt. But the fact is love, it's kind of a a way that it goes. It's having a confidence or a benefit of a doubt just from the outset and and all through loving people even if though you might have to be a little cautious in certain instances but love always trusts and then love always hopes that is it believes the best it expects the best and then it always perseveres this might be the active definition of the very first one patience uh there you're bearing under or bearing with and here you have the idea of uh persevering not giving up uh persisting, hanging in there, and you always love always perseveres. And then to to wrap this up, Paul says, "Love never fails." So all these qualities, if you've made this list, even mentally, uh, a column of these qualities, they never fail. They're dependable. They're constant. They're always there. Love never fails. So you're you're patient, you're kind, and so on and so forth, uh, on a constant basis. And I don't know if I came up with this years ago or someone else. I guess so I won't be boasting. I'll say somebody else gave it to me. But uh I kind of came up with a two-word or somebody did summation of these qualities that are listed here. And that is love is selfless and sacrificial. I didn't look at each point carefully, but I think most if not all of those points would fit under one of those two categories. Selfless and sacrificial. Selfless and sacrificial. That's what love is. And if we're thriving, that's what we need to be full of. The scripture tells us we need to be full of that kind of love defined there in 1 Corinthians chapter 13:es 4-8. And then let's ask ourselves how important uh being full of love is to our health to to thriving. Well, Jesus said in Matthew 22, and this is one of our foundational scriptures. He said in Matthew 22:37, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. Romans 13:10 says, "Love does no harm to its neighbor." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. So with these two verses in mind, loving God uh with all your heart, soul, and mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself, knowing that love is the fulfillment of the law, love is vital in pleasing God, in doing his will, and it makes us thrive, and we're full of that love. It makes us thrive as individuals and then certainly as a church. So, it is very, very important that we be full of love. It's an essential element of what it means for us to thrive. The heart. Uh, this is found both in society and scripture. The heart is a symbol of love. We know in society if you do any texting, you've got all those emojis and I don't know why they're all different colors, but they are the heart. Uh, and you've got them all kinds of different ways they express things, but it's basically love. And Valentine's Day, that's the big symbol, the heart. And uh even in scripture Jesus figuratively said in Matthew chapter 15 verse 19 that the unregenerated heart that is the heart that's uh unsaved or carnal has in it out of the heart come evil thoughts murder adultery sexual immorality theft testimony and slander. And obviously that is a figurative sense because the the literal organ inside your body that pumps blood that we call the heart, you know, that that literally doesn't have those qualities in it. So it's a figurative thing Jesus is saying. But he's saying from within us come all these evil things before we're saved, before we're redeemed by the blood of the lamb. But then after a new birth, when we are uh we've repented and been baptized in his name, filled with his spirit, then uh if we're going to keep our hearts full of love, we must guard it from being drained and filled with all those natural tendencies. You know, we don't believe a once- saved always saved doctrine. So, when you're born again, you you got to walk the walk, right? You got to live the life. And uh if you're not careful, you can be drained of all the goodness God puts within you, the fruit of the spirit and so on and so forth. And those natural tendencies can come back. So you've got to uh stay spiritually renewed. Spiritually renewed. So vital. And this is a mature congregation, so I don't have to go down the list of what that entails and how you go about that. But be spiritually renewed. But I would also add this. You also need to make godly choices. Godly choices. And 1 John chapter 2:15 says this, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, here's what happens. The love of the father is not in him." So you can't have both according to that verse. So what John is saying is love is commanded. So it's a choice. God says, "Love me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." Well, that's a command, but you've got the choice whether or not you do it, right? Love your neighbor as yourself. You've got the choice whether or not you do that. So love is a choice and John says that we choose to not love the world uh because if we do then we won't have the love of the father within us. So the choice needs to be to love God and do what pleases him. And in the scriptural definition of love, uh, we choose to love by, as we've learned here, we choose to love by being patient and kind and not envying, not boasting, not being proud or rude or self-seeking, not being easily angered, not keeping record of wrongs, not delighting in evil, but rejoicing in the truth. And then we protect, we trust, we hope, we persevere, and we don't fail, or we don't give up. That's the choice that we make regarding love. And as we consistently choose to love and stay renewed in the Lord, uh loving, I would venture to say, becomes easier as time goes on. When we constantly consistently rather choose to love and stay renewed in the Lord, loving becomes easier and can really become our default, our carnality, the default. I just read what Jesus said, evil thoughts, etc. But if if we can get to a place in the realm of the spirit and and through effort and work and good choices and spiritual renewal, it can be a default that all those qualities that Paul said are love will be in us and flowing from us as we make that effort. Um, Mother Teresa who uh many of you may know from history was a Catholic nun over working in Kolkata, India. She had a poem called Anyway, I'm told it was inscribed on the wall of her children's home there in Kolkata. And uh it kind of speaks at least to me of the mindset of choice. And I I wanted to share it with you here. I find it pretty inspiring. Said people are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of being selfish or having ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you. Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. But give the world the best you've got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God. It was never between you and them anyway. And those verses from the poem to me uh illustrate the idea of making consciously that choice to keep loving. She's got a variety of things that she lists there, but in our lesson tonight, we're talking about loving. So, just love anyway, keep at it, keep making the choice. In Hebrews chapter 5:14, uh I I don't think I'm taking this too much out of context. I'm trying to draw out a principle here. It underscores the idea of of choosing love. In this verse, Hebrews 5:14, it points to a principle or a process of continual effort. It's referring to those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice or use to distinguish good from evil. The New Living Translation says, "Through training, these people have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong." So, as you mature, as you grow, as we learned a couple of Wednesdays ago, uh as you keep practicing and training and and using uh the God-given things that you have, uh you learn over time to more easily distinguish between right and wrong through practice, you know, practice makes perfect. And the the point I make here is if you apply that to the idea of being full of love, the more practice we have at choosing love, choosing the things that uh speak of love, the more full of love we become. And the result is that we thrive. And so you got to practice, you got to train yourself, you got to use uh your abilities and your common sense and your choices and your times of spirituality and disciplines uh and making that over time it just becomes easier and easier and easier and again it can reach a point where it's your default that you just that that's what comes out of you love even though uh things might be going crazy around you. But one way to uh stay full of love this is a bit of a paradox that I want to share with you. Uh, love fills us more and more. You ready for this? As you give it away, we get filled up more and more with love as we give it away. Luke 6:38, Jesus said, I think this is a familiar verse. Jesus said, "Give and it will be given to you. A good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." If you've heard that verse, it likely was around offering time or a pledge drive, something like that. And it's true. You you give into the kingdom, God's going to give back. And according to this verse, uh you get more back than you give. Pressed down, shaken together, running over, it says, shall be poured into your lap. However, it's not just limited to money. Just the idea of giving, and if we put it in the context of our lesson tonight, love, what if we say it this way? Give love and love will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap again. For with what measure you use, it will be measured to you. Galatians 6:7 says, "Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man seweth, that shall he also reap." So what you sow uh you reap. What you give, you get back. And this is a principle that can certainly be applied to the idea of love. And so as we give love, if you believe these verses in Luke and Galatians, you get love. It comes back to you. you you know it doesn't make sense I know but there are lots of paradoxes in scripture as you give away you get more back uh I had an interesting experience speaking of a April uh 16th that was when the youth convention started and the old man here decided on Friday night he would go to the youth convention I shocked Jared almost swallowed his teeth to see me there but it was free that night no registration so but I did give my 20 bucks in the offering oh I'm not supposed to say that now I lost my blessing oh well uh but it was registration wasn't an offering but Uh I I decided to show up Friday night at the youth convention and I got in I just got in the lobby and I saw uh Cody and Savannah. They were working this table with candy bars selling it and come to find out was for missionary. So I'm just yakking with them and some lady comes up and if you know me I just jumped right in with the salesman pitch. I said come on step up buy all these candy bars good cause and blah blah blah blah blah just going on. She looked at me she said are you Nathan Reaver? I said yes I am. And come to find out, she was a former quizzer. Uh I maybe seen her once or twice at a a conference or something since then, but back in 2002, uh we had our North American Bible Quiz Tournament in Phoenix, Arizona, and she and her sister, some of you know it's Jackie Dornbach, Gary Dornbach's wife, uh those two were traveling home from Phoenix up to California, and were in a terrible car accident. And Tiffany, Jackie's sister, was uh injured the most. She had pelvic injuries and just just went through a long healing process. Thankfully, she's okay today. But, uh, she's she told me, she said, "I just want you to know that that when I had that injury, you and your wife had flowers sent to me and, uh, you followed up on me and and you were checking on my condition." I remember talking to her mother and just keeping up with different things. And since then, I haven't seen her in so long. I've kept up with her through Jackie a little bit. But uh she told me, she said, "I just want you to know that uh not only was the love you and your wife showed me helpful because I had been injured so severely, but she even added to it, which I I would have never thought of." She said, "I I was at a vulnerable place as a young teenage girl and just just all of this stuff and the emotions and the pain, everything that I was experiencing." He said it just meant the world to me to have somebody show love and concern and interest and and uh you know we weren't looking for anything special but here 2002 2025 2025 I'm reaping this just learning that that just a simple action I I don't think it was anything you know above and beyond that we my wife and I did but uh it just it was so rewarding to find out that it had meant so much to her and today she he and her husband are youth pastors there at the church in Independence and doing great It's just a a thrill. And so my point is you don't know know exactly how or when it's going to come back to you, but it has a way and maybe sometimes you never find out and that's okay too. Uh but God knows uh when you're giving out, he has a way of giving back to you. And uh what I find is that giving and receiving according to Luke 6:38 here, it enlarges our storehouse. So it might be a little difficult to illustrate, but let's just say this small circle of my hands is your capacity, a reservoir of love. If you give out of that and then Luke 6:38, you give and back more according to what it says, then it becomes a little bigger, doesn't it? Then you give out of that and you're blessed again and it gets a little and so your storehouse or your reservoir, whatever you want to call it, your treasury, it enlarges as you give out and get back so much more and keep giving and keep getting back and it becomes more and more. So my point is as you give it away, uh you can remain full of love by giving it away because you'll always get back. And I can remember times I've I've left hospital visitation calls and uh I've walked away, you know, I gave my time and I listened to their stories and I prayed with them and I'm not complaining one bit, but I I walked away feeling like a million bucks because I had given of myself. I had given my time. I had taken interest. I'd volunteered to run an errand if they needed it. Something like that. And my whole point is that giving has its own reward. And and God says it here in Luke 6:38. So if you want to be full of love, give it away. Give it away. And God says, "I'll give it back to you." According to the scripture, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, it will come to you and running over, it'll be poured into your lap or into your storehouse, if I could use that word. So, if you want to be full of love, give it away. And then lastly, this is just for the record, I suppose. Uh, to whom should we give love? Uh, the easy answer would be to say everyone. Have you stand and let's go. But you're not going to get off that easy. So, we give our love, yeah, to everybody. But let's break that down a little bit. First and foremost to God. Mark 12:29 Jesus says the most important command is this here. O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And then the second is this. Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. Love God supremely. I I'll shorten it that way. And love your neighbor as yourself. And so you give your love to God first and foremost, but then to others. And how does the others break down? Well, I think it's pretty obvious. Family. Uh we know the scripture says, "Honor your father and your mother." Uh it talks about providing for your family. Uh husbands loving your wives, wives respecting or reverencing your husband. Uh we give love to friends and acquaintances, neighbors, co-workers, uh even strangers. And I would put in that category the lost. People who don't yet know about the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. We can love them even not knowing them. And so loving strangers, loving the lost. And if you're ready for this, it even says we're to love our enemies. Don't you hate that? I'm kidding. Matthew 5:45, Jesus said, "But I say unto you, love your enemies." And it goes on, "Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. Pray for them which despitefully use you." I thought there that might give new meaning when somebody says, "I'm praying for you." I don't know. I hope not. Pray for them which use you. I'm just kidding. We we mean well when we say that. And persecute you. So love your enemies. Do good to them. And so love is for everybody. God foremost, but then all the various relationships categories of uh our social life, they're all applied. So loving God supremely and our neighbor is key. And that leads to us, of course, doing God's will uh and fulfilling the commandments. And really, if you think about it, and the scripture bears this out, if if we just obey those two commands, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself, that's all you need. That's the law. Uh you you'll please God, you'll do his will. You'll you'll do what's right. But of course, uh the scripture does give us specifics, and I guess it's necessary because of our humanity. Uh, but if you love God supremely and love your neighbor as yourself, you're going to fulfill all the commandments. And I'll give you an example. Let's just pick one out of the ten commandments. Thou shalt not steal. Well, if I love God, I'm not going to steal from you because that that's going to my conscience is going to be spitting. It's something's not going to feel right. It just, you know, I shouldn't be taking something that doesn't belong to me and my relationship with and if I love you, why would I take something from you? If anything, I'll give you something, right? if I love you. And so my point is when you love God and you love your neighbor as yourself, you're going to do you're not going to kill, you're not going to steal, you're not going to lie, uh all the things that we're commanded not to do. And I'm glad we have them listed for us, but you're just going to do them. You're going to fulfill them or not do them in the ca as the case may be because you love God and because you love your neighbor as yourself. Uh first John 5:2 gives us a gauge here. It says, "This is how we know that we love the children of God." And you could say that every human being is a child of God. This is how we know that we love the children of God. By loving God and carrying out his commands. So if you love God and you're carrying out his commands according to this, uh that's all you need to know that yeah, I've got love in me. I've got love in me because of that. And of course, if you're full of love in our definition here tonight, it causes you to thrive. So in closing, in our quest to be a thriving apostolic church, uh we have these measures. We've heard about him all this month of being healthy, growing, and full of love. And periodically, uh I don't know that we do this every day, but we could. Uh but periodically, we can visit or revisit these characteristics and just evaluate ourselves. Am I healthy? Am I growing? Am I full of love? And fortunately, it doesn't have to only be a self-exam. I thought about this. We of course have the word of God, which is the foundation of all this. But we have the spirit of God. We have church leadership. We have spiritual adviserss in our lives. And we have brothers and sisters in Christ in the family of God to help us with this aspect of thriving. And I suppose I'd be remiss if I didn't pause right here just before we wrap this up and say on on the subject of having brothers and sisters in Christ, I am very grateful for each of you at APC. I know just because of life's busyiness and different schedules, we we're not all uh best buds and spending gobs of time with each other, but I want you to know I love you and I'm grateful for everything you've invested in me as people here. And then just looking at the the bigger picture of a church with 90 years history, I've grown up here. And so there's a lot of people that are no longer here. They've gone on to be with the Lord who invested in me. So there is a gratitude in my heart tonight uh for God's people, past leadership and what they have invested in me and certainly coming back to the present all of you and I trust that we all feel that way. We have one another to help us be healthy and growing and full of love or to thrive. So let me give you this verse of scripture in closing. 2 Thessalonians 3:5. It's a prayer in a sense says, "May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ." May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. If you'd stand with me, just before Pastor Brad comes, I'm going to ask you just to pray that prayer in your own words. God, would you direct my heart to your love and to your steadfastness, your perseverance? Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you so much that you have redeemed us. Thank you for love and mercy and compassion that you've shown. Lord, we just continue and pray right now. This is such a critical prayer point that we would walk in that steadfastness in love. Jesus, help us, Lord, to be healthy and growing and full of love. Oh God. Oh Jesus, help us to have this wonderful fruit of the spirit, to have love for one another, to have love for others and for you. We need your help to fulfill this, Lord, knowing that all the law and the prophets hang on this. We need you, Jesus, in your help. In Jesus name. Jesus name. Amen. Took note of first passage first Corinthians. Paul says, "If I speak with the tongue of men and angels, but I don't have love, basically I'm nothing." Then he begins to list other things. If I have all these things, but I don't have love and I'm not full of love. I He actually says, "I am nothing." And for the Christian, loving God and loving others, that's everything. It's everything. It's how this body grows and edifies one another through love. And I am so thankful. I've never had to wonder if I was going to be loved here at APC or loved by our heavenly father. I think it'd be awesome just to take a moment and thank the Lord for the love that exists both here and from our heavenly father. Can we do that? Lord, I'm so thankful that you are full of love, that you love each and every one of us. And I'm thankful for the love that I found here at this church family, Lord, for so many years. I thank you, Jesus, that that love has always been there, Lord. I don't ever want to take it for granted. I thank you, Jesus, for your love that is unending and unconditional. And I thank you that I get to share that love with others around me. Thank you, Jesus, for that opportunity and reminder in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.