SPEAKER_01: Tonight we are talking about uh being rooted in love.
SPEAKER_01: This is our uh series on that, rooted in love.
SPEAKER_01: This is week number three of four.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so I'm James Buntrock.
SPEAKER_01: This is Claire Buntrock, and we are associate pastors here at Glorious Way Church.
SPEAKER_01: And uh we're gonna get into the content tonight right after we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Right after we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Right after we pray.
SPEAKER_01: So y'all bow your heads with me, Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we love you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we thank you for the love that you loved us with when we weren't capable of love.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you poured your love on the inside of us and and and made us capable of loving you back and loving each other.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, we invite you to be here tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, breathe life on this word.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray that every word that is spoken tonight uh will go out and it will accomplish all the things that you intend.
SPEAKER_01: Your word always accomplishes, it never returns void.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, I pray for everyone's hearing that hears this tonight that they will hear precisely what they need to hear and nothing else.
SPEAKER_01: And we thank you for these things in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: We pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Well, um Pastor kicked off the first week of this uh series and uh talked about filling the holes, and we don't wallpaper over holes, um, but that uh uh God and and the Holy Spirit will help fill in those holes in our life.
SPEAKER_01: And uh where we've got gaps, um, we're gonna continue to work to fill those in with his word.
SPEAKER_01: Um and uh our our uh uh foundation scripture for this, if you're following along, is Ephesians chapter 3, verse 17 through 19.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna read that scripture here.
SPEAKER_01: It says, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
SPEAKER_01: And tonight we're gonna uh put uh put our focus on on verse 18 and part of 19 here.
SPEAKER_01: It says that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the length and depth and width and breadth of that you may know the love of Christ which passes knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: And so we've got some understanding on our side that the Holy Spirit is gonna help us with.
SPEAKER_01: Um that prayer is prayed so that we can comprehend.
SPEAKER_01: And there's there's a fullness of love uh that's probably gonna take a lifetime and then some for us to fully comprehend the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but it says that we can know something that passes knowledge, something that people don't uh regularly pick up on.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and we can learn how to apply it.
SPEAKER_00: So, in in all of these things that we speak of tonight, just keeping in touch in it, letting God come in, fill all of the holes and the little spaces.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the word says in Colossians that uh Christ is the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
SPEAKER_00: And He will let Him fill you up, let Him patch every hole in you so that then, and then we can learn how to apply it and start moving out with this love.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Um, all right, well, our first scripture uh for tonight, shall I?
SPEAKER_00: Um I just want to cover the the and it's in your notes here, but um the entire this is such an important topic about love that if we get love right, we can fix 90% of what's wrong in your life.
SPEAKER_00: People have complaints, they have uh they're unfulfilled in their lives and their relationships.
SPEAKER_00: And if we can fix that, it it will tie into every other, it will tie into your finances, it will tie into your peace, it will tie into when to let go of relationships that are dragging you down, all of those things.
SPEAKER_00: If we can, but we fix our love walk first, people say, Oh, I have a I have trouble with my kids, I have trouble with my spouse, trouble with my ex.
SPEAKER_00: I have trouble, trouble, trouble.
SPEAKER_00: And um, and uh we just want to make it so natural.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if God is love and we're filled with Him, then love is our very first.
SPEAKER_00: So our first point is how love is the first commandment.
SPEAKER_00: It should be our first response to every problem.
SPEAKER_00: It should be our first uh go-to our first everything.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what Jesus said uh to the rich young ruler in Mark 12, 29.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he said, the first of all the commandments is hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say love with all your heart, soul, mind, and with all your strength.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't really leave anything else.
SPEAKER_00: It means that God comes first, and not just God, not just serving God out of a but loving him.
SPEAKER_00: And um and then the second is like it is this you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard that somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: It's the golden rule, right?
SPEAKER_00: We love our neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: But first we love God, then we love our neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: I thought the golden I thought the golden rule was to do unto others before they do unto you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's right.
SPEAKER_00: It is, you're right.
SPEAKER_00: I got it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Before they you're right.
SPEAKER_00: Doing it.
SPEAKER_01: Now look, I threw her off track and she doesn't even know where she is now.
SPEAKER_00: I know right where I am.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: I love you.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so you shall love your neighbor as yourself, and there is no other commandment greater than these.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because if we can get love right, then we won't do all the other.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at the Ten Commandments, uh don't steal or commit adultery or bear false witness or all of those things.
SPEAKER_00: If you if you just loved, you wouldn't do all the other don't do's.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why Jesus knew that if we can get the love right, we can fix all the other stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and then so love first, it's a first commandment.
SPEAKER_00: It's also, if you go to Galatians 5, and we always talk about the fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we want to live in, the fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We want to have this fruit coming, popping out in our life everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: The fruit of the spirit is what love, joy, then comes a joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.
SPEAKER_00: There's no law against any of that.
SPEAKER_00: So, uh, in other words, all love fulfills the law, is the broader point that Paul is making in this, that love fulfills the law when we have all of these fruits in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and if we have love You can't really have any of the other fruits if you don't first have the love.
SPEAKER_01: The love is the first one on the lift, and it's a sequential thing that all the others uh flow out of.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, but they're all important.
SPEAKER_00: But we can have them when we have love.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how many know that they're how many know how many kinds of love?
SPEAKER_01: Have we talked about this in any other series?
SPEAKER_01: How many types of love there are mentioned in the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: Anyone take a guess?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we got four, because you guys got notes.
SPEAKER_01: You're cheating right there.
SPEAKER_00: But they're not even all in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we're gonna talk about four types of love tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Um, three of them are actually named in the Bible uh with a with a word uh for the type of love.
SPEAKER_01: In the New Testament, yeah, in the Greek.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and the fourth type is really uh uh a concept that is that is in the Bible, but uh and there is a Greek word for it, and we're gonna provide that.
SPEAKER_01: But I I I understand that Greek word might not be listed.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so these are just the uh the late great C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis wrote a book called The Four Loves, and since that time uh I grew up knowing about these types of love.
SPEAKER_00: They're useful in studying love because it looks at it at these different angles.
SPEAKER_00: And uh the fact that uh in Jesus' day and in the New Testament times, people understood what love meant.
SPEAKER_00: We just have one word in English, but there's four Greek words and they're pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get into them.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's dive right into them.
SPEAKER_01: So the first word tonight that we're gonna uh talk about is agape.
SPEAKER_01: That's the Greek word, agape.
SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's the divine love, it's unconditional, uh selfless, uh sacrificial.
SPEAKER_01: Um it's also called uh charity.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's translated that way: charitable love that gives without expecting return.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing expected in return, it's just purely uh a divine outward flow of love uh with no exchange.
SPEAKER_01: Uh no exchange needed to have this.
SPEAKER_01: And and really the the best place to uh see an example of that is John 3.16.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you gotta think about the condition of the world at that time.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what God did.
SPEAKER_01: It says in John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave.
SPEAKER_01: He so loved that he gave.
SPEAKER_01: He loved this thing that was in a terrible, awful, horrible, nasty, chaotic condition full of sin and death and awful things.
SPEAKER_01: And it says he so loved the world that he gave his only son.
SPEAKER_01: He gave his very best.
SPEAKER_01: And so that is the prime example of agape, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
SPEAKER_01: And so the hope of it was that he would bring all of us into his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: He loved us before we were capable of it.
SPEAKER_01: He loved us uh looking way out into the future at this time.
SPEAKER_01: He loved every one of you with a love that didn't require an exchange.
SPEAKER_00: It was just God's love for us, and that's yes, and so much of the love of God have we already spoken of in the prior two weeks.
SPEAKER_00: We've been mostly when there the word love is used in the New Testament, it's almost always the agapeo or agape love.
SPEAKER_00: It is this kind of divine love.
SPEAKER_00: And um, and then there's a few cases that we'll get into that aren't that, but um so when the love of, when we say the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, we hit that in both of the prior weeks.
SPEAKER_00: We have that love living in us, that same the same way that God loved the world.
SPEAKER_00: Then we can also love, we can love anybody, we can love everybody, in um in in different ways, of course, and we'll look at it.
SPEAKER_00: But um but some are harder than others, some are harder than others, uh, especially your enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 5, 44 and 45.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people, this is the great Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus tells us, I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you.
SPEAKER_00: That is that is crazy.
SPEAKER_00: And this right here is what separates followers of Jesus Christ from any other religion or system.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it is right here the ability to bless other people, even when they are cursing us, to do good to those who hate us, to pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you.
SPEAKER_00: I remember I had a a girl in fifth grade, her name was Nikki.
SPEAKER_00: She did not like me on the playground, she said mean things to me and about me behind my back, and I was sad and it hurt my feelings, and I was losing friends, and she was winning.
SPEAKER_00: And I cried to my mom and she said, Well, we're gonna bake her a cake.
SPEAKER_00: The word says to bake her a cake.
SPEAKER_01: Did y'all bake her a cake?
SPEAKER_00: We did.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my.
SPEAKER_00: We did, and you know what?
SPEAKER_00: She was nice after that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_00: The word the word works.
SPEAKER_00: But pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your father in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: See, and there's that that ties back in.
SPEAKER_00: Be imitators of God as dear children.
SPEAKER_00: We're we're God's kids when we can love as good as He can.
SPEAKER_00: And we can.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say, I can.
SPEAKER_00: I believe with God's help, I can.
SPEAKER_01: So if she's extra mean to you, then you should bake her a second, third, and fourth cake so that she puts on a few extra pounds, and then maybe you'll have a little bit of an advantage there.
SPEAKER_00: We not care about that in fifth grade.
SPEAKER_00: All right, but anyway, but we're we're kids of our father, because listen to this, and this is another concept.
SPEAKER_00: God make even this is how he loves his enemies, the sun still rises every day, whether you're evil or whether you're good.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you love God or not, you still got the sunrise every day.
SPEAKER_00: He sends rain on the just and the unjust.
SPEAKER_00: God is loving, and he is not, he still, he still provides for.
SPEAKER_01: The opportunity for people to turn around is always right there.
SPEAKER_01: It is one repentance away.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And and he he died for them just like he died for us, and they may be awful, awful, terrible people, but uh they do have the opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: As long as there's breath, they can turn around.
SPEAKER_00: Amen, Saul of Tarsus.
SPEAKER_01: Are you calling me Saul?
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just speaking to the air.
SPEAKER_00: Saul, Saul of Tarsus, and then think about how unlovable you once were.
SPEAKER_00: And God in in Romans 5.8, James, you want to.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, we've been we've been saying that.
SPEAKER_01: God demonstrated his own love towards us, and that while we were yet sinners, while we were yet in this awful condition, he gave his life for us, paid the ultimate price.
SPEAKER_00: So I do want to hit briefly, I have 1 Corinthians 13 here because we would not be doing a series on love unless somebody combs out 1 Corinthians 13 and just massages all the goodness out of that.
SPEAKER_00: And we're not gonna do that tonight because it would take too long.
SPEAKER_00: But Pastor Joseph is gonna hit that next week and it's gonna be awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I do want to just bring a little bit of balance quickly because um a lot of there's a lot of confusion about unconditional agape love.
SPEAKER_00: And there is this feeling that love means that we have to just roll over and and have no boundaries and let people just kick us when we're down, and we just keep turning the other cheek and turn the other cheek.
SPEAKER_01: You can love people from a distance.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't have to be a doormat.
SPEAKER_00: No, there can be there can be firm boundaries, and I I think of all the ways Jesus, you know, he loved the Pharisees, but he gave them a sharp rebuke, and the sharp rebuke was designed to help them learn the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, after his uh death, burial, and resurrection, some of the Pharisees and Sadducees got saved.
SPEAKER_00: There's a record, and this there's a record that Caiaphas, the high priest, the ultimate whitewashed wall, got saved.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and he would have done, I mean, because Jesus loved him enough to tell them the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and we we love people sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: There's a time we have to tell the truth or have a boundary that we will not um you know uh allow someone to cross that over because then it would be bad for them if they're attacking us.
SPEAKER_00: It would actually be we can have compassion on them and still have a boundary.
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus said you brood of vipers, you den of thieves, it was still love.
SPEAKER_01: It was and and and I say that not jokingly, in all seriousness, uh, because he's the great shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is my shepherd, he's our shepherd, he is the great shepherd, and he carries with him uh a rod and a staff, and one's one's for correction, and the other's a comforting thing and a guiding thing.
SPEAKER_01: And so the correction can be a stiff rebuke.
SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, we don't have to confuse uh passiveness and weakness and being a doormat and something that somebody can abuse for love.
SPEAKER_01: That's not love uh to be that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but we can we we can with the love of Christ rebuke things that are wrong, and we should.
SPEAKER_01: And that's loving because to let people continue to go down that path in perpetuity means that they're gonna miss out on heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And so we speak the truth.
SPEAKER_00: That's true, that's true, and and it's true with our kids.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if we have an uh sometimes we think of a loving family as somebody who never fights or never, you know, but no, the word says who love you know, for your children, if you love your son, you'll correct him, and he'll bring you joy, he'll bring you peace.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be there'll be peaceable fruits of righteousness, whom the father loves, he chastens.
SPEAKER_00: So those all of those things are not so.
SPEAKER_01: So you you you talked about the the the loving family, and we're about to get into family, and I thought we'd run a uh a quick video of probably the most loving uh uh scene between a brother and sister than that I have ever seen.
SPEAKER_01: So let's see that.
SPEAKER_01: If we could watch that little video clip, I think this will help us for the next segment here.
SPEAKER_00: 15 seconds.
SPEAKER_01: 30 seconds go.
SPEAKER_01: Notice how many more words she had than he had.
SPEAKER_00: But he started it.
SPEAKER_00: He started it.
SPEAKER_01: You don't know what he what you don't know, you didn't see her, she pinched him.
SPEAKER_00: I did not see we have no evidence of that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we're gonna get off into the next segment here, uh storegay, which is really the the family type of love.
SPEAKER_01: Uh the natural affection, the familial love, uh, the fondness that develops through familiarity uh between parents and kids, uh siblings, long-term relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Um and yet this is not a a a common theme throughout the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: It's mentioned only a couple of times.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and and it's mentioned with in the in the negative side.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the word storgay is only used like twice, but it is a solid concept throughout the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna go through examples of this, but it's like a mother hen with her, and it's like a tender that there when Rachel comes, you know, she's got where's Rachel with Hannah, and so I see some of you moms out here.
SPEAKER_00: I see a little baby Nero.
SPEAKER_00: He is so handsome and he's got, and you know what, he's probably starting to say a few little sounds and things.
SPEAKER_00: And when he gets a little older, he'll probably form words.
SPEAKER_00: And only Amada will be able to know what in the world those words mean.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you or I were to walk by, we might not understand exactly, but she knows exactly what he's saying because there is such a strong store game, and she's gonna be there for him when he is five years old and he scrapes his knee, and when he is 18 years old and he graduates from high school, and when he's 35 or whatever, and now he's a dad and he needs advice, he's gonna be able to go to his mom and dad because there is a long-term family bond that will never so that's a that's a beautiful picture of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: And in no matter what kind of family you grew up in, if it was a good and stable family, if it was a rotten, awful family, no matter what it is, you have now been adopted into the family of God.
SPEAKER_01: I I I I see this concept, and that makes me think of every Italian uh family I've ever seen on a movie or TV show.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you've you could show up on somebody's front doorstep, and you don't know the person on the other side of the door, and then and the doorbell rings, and you answer the door, and there's a kid on the front porch, and he says, Hi, my mom was so and so, my dad was so-and-so.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, your family, come on in, and you're immediately part of the family.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and they like to feed you too.
SPEAKER_00: More, more, more.
SPEAKER_00: Prego, prego.
SPEAKER_01: They bake cakes after cakes after cakes.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but but so storgay is a is a natural love that we would have, and it's only used twice in the New Testament, and it's both both times it's in the in the uh negative, like without natural affection, is how it's translated, and you will read that in the King James, and uh one of them is Romans 131.
SPEAKER_00: Do we need to turn to both of them, James, or just one?
SPEAKER_01: I'll just pick one.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 131.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so I have it here.
SPEAKER_01: Um and and this is in the context of uh a descending society going down the the spiral of sin and how things get worse.
SPEAKER_01: And the in verse 31 it talks about undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the store gay right there.
SPEAKER_01: So it's it's a store-gay.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's the negative of that unloving, unforgiving, and unmerciful.
SPEAKER_01: But uh the the unloving side losing the natural love of the family.
SPEAKER_00: That would be a mark, and later Paul says in 2 Timothy that that would be the mark of the last days in the latter time, the end times, uh, people are gonna have all these problems and they're gonna be unloving, they're gonna be without natural affection.
SPEAKER_00: And we see that, we see that on the rise in our the breakdown of the family.
SPEAKER_00: And it it is associated with, I'm not gonna say it causes all those other things, but it it is associated with uh envy and strife and murders and all of those other truce breakers and um disobedient to parents.
SPEAKER_00: And it has like lists, both of those different scriptures list out all kinds of maladies that we see everywhere in our society, and it comes from this breakdown of the Storgay family unit.
SPEAKER_00: And you can
SPEAKER_01: I think that's that's really what the devil is after today.
SPEAKER_01: He is he is going after the the structure or the order or the system that God has designed for a husband and a wife to love each other, to be joined together under the union of marriage and to uh procreate and have kids and to have the love of their children there.
SPEAKER_01: So the devil's really attacking that on all fronts.
SPEAKER_01: And you think about those two together, um, they represent or or reflect the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: They're image-bearers of God.
SPEAKER_01: So the devil is is continuously uh attacking the image of God and his love of creation and defiling it.
SPEAKER_00: We kind of make it easier too, because storgay is naturally like a a safe, very safe love that we kind of, and if we have it for too long, we take it for granted.
SPEAKER_00: And so then the giver, if we are not, if we don't have agape all mixed in up in with our storgay, then we start need we start feeling like oh what somebody's not appreciating me today.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And they've taken me for granted.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, my kid, they're ungrateful.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna well, I'm not gonna do that for my husband.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see what he and because I'm, you know, and so that that is like that is one of the flaws and pitfalls of store gay without the agape that supports it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, agape is gonna support all these other loves.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to have the agape up under it because it's the foundation of all of it.
SPEAKER_00: If we just have the natural store gay, then we're gonna feel they're taking everything for granted.
SPEAKER_00: Or um, it's based on familiarity.
SPEAKER_00: So I am so familiar every day with the people that I live with.
SPEAKER_00: You have y'all ever heard that old saying, it is not in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It is not in the Bible, but it's familiarity breeds contempt to govern.
SPEAKER_00: And so, oh, they're gonna do that again.
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, in in in some cases it it breeds love.
SPEAKER_00: When when we go out to a restaurant with the the kids the other not long ago when they were all home, uh we went out to a restaurant and they pulled out, they have like an imaginary bingo card that all the things that dad is gonna say, okay, dad's gonna tell the when the waiter asks if the food was good, he's gonna he his plate's gonna be empty, but he's gonna say it's awful.
SPEAKER_00: I need another plate.
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, he did that.
SPEAKER_01: Yep, he he knew they knew he was like, they pull up the bingo card, they start checking them off.
SPEAKER_01: I walk into the restaurant, how many a table for how many?
SPEAKER_01: 14.
SPEAKER_01: 14, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, there he is again.
SPEAKER_01: Same jokes every time.
SPEAKER_00: It tastes like chicken.
SPEAKER_00: You know, always say that.
SPEAKER_00: So, like it's on their bingo card.
SPEAKER_00: They're no, and but that's a safety.
SPEAKER_00: There's a safety in those rituals and those things.
SPEAKER_00: Um uh anyway, in Ephesians uh one, four through six, it's I want you to feel that adopt you're adopted into the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm gonna go to verse five.
SPEAKER_00: He having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise and glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the beloved.
SPEAKER_00: You are accepted, and once you have accepted Jesus into your heart, when Christ has been born in your heart by faith, when we talked about that back in the foundation scripture, now you have been adopted into the family, and you are every bit, God loves you every bit as much as He loves Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So you're on that doorstep and you ring that bell, and you don't recognize the person on the other side, and they don't recognize you.
SPEAKER_01: But as soon as you say the right things, I'm part of the family.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, come on in.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, dinner's ready.
SPEAKER_01: You've got a seat at the table.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and and that's true of the uh the adoption.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we've been adopted into something, we're accepted.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Romans 8:14 uh or 8.15 says, For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry, Abba Father.
SPEAKER_01: He's our daddy, he's our heavenly daddy.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we're we're on equal level uh as an heir in that family with Christ, his only son.
SPEAKER_01: We're we're we're now he brought many into his family.
SPEAKER_01: And we've got we've got an equal position at that table.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know my mom's story.
SPEAKER_00: My mom lost her dad at uh she was nine years old and he died of a heart attack.
SPEAKER_00: And she went and sat on the church steps uh and she said, Jesus, I need you to be, I need you to be with me.
SPEAKER_00: And and she got a revelation that Jesus was her best friend, and he was like a dad to her.
SPEAKER_00: And where my aunts and uncles uh went astray and had a lot of heartache and misery and pain and are still paying the price today, those are um my mom was protected and she had a church family that gathered up around her and she went, she learned the word of God, and she was she could walk to and from church, and so instead of going to the bar to hang out with her family, she went to church and it saved her.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but she had that Abba father, she had a daddy, and you can have that.
SPEAKER_00: He will be, it's real.
SPEAKER_00: He is a father to the fatherless.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you can attest that is real?
unknown: Yes, it is.
SPEAKER_00: It is real, and not only that, your children, if then you're also heirs.
SPEAKER_00: So he provided for you.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't just bring you, birth you into the family of God, and leave you to fend for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: There is a provision for you, just like a dad would provide for his household.
SPEAKER_00: You have supernatural provision.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, it's our job to learn how to tap into it.
SPEAKER_00: And as a church, it's our job to help you learn.
SPEAKER_00: Um so uh, but there's suffering.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we're gonna suffer with him.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of suffering is it talking about there?
SPEAKER_00: If indeed we suffer with him, it's talking about the suffering of persecution, and we have to be resilient when people, again, with the loving the enemies, they're gonna hate their enemies not of us.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's enemies of the cross of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But we can bear that because we have such love in us, it supports us through that, and we're also gonna be glorified together.
SPEAKER_01: You have his name, and we're named with his name.
SPEAKER_01: We're named with his name, and and and the hating side, they don't hate you, you're just hated for his name's sake.
SPEAKER_01: It comes with the family name.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and and when you know that there's a devil on the other side of it, and it's not necessarily the person, um, it's easier to uh to to have compassion on the person who's just batting for the wrong team.
SPEAKER_00: So just some benefits of the store gay love is obviously you got food in the fridge, right?
SPEAKER_00: Provision, protection of a household.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have all of that in the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: Provision, protection, uh, guidance, love, all of those things.
SPEAKER_00: And um, but we have to be in, we have to be gathered up with the family.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Micah, he's uh he likes to barbecue.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we have men that like to barbecue.
SPEAKER_00: We have women like to anybody, anybody?
SPEAKER_00: So if you got a bunch of coals and your coals, you got one coal and you take it outside the fire, what happens immediately to that coal?
SPEAKER_00: It is a cold, it's cold, and it the fire goes out on that guy, but if you bring him back in, he'll light right back up with the other coals and he can cook something.
SPEAKER_00: And we just need to be in the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: We need to not forsake the assembling of ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We need to, Jesus said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you know, I I long to gather you together like it, my like a hen gathers her chicks.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and you wouldn't, you would not, and then, and then now your house has come to you empty.
SPEAKER_00: There's another prophecy that comes after that.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's no protection for you because you're not you're not gathered up, you're not in the secret place of the Most High under the shadow of the wing.
SPEAKER_00: All of that is storge.
SPEAKER_00: That's God's love, you know, gathering you up and protecting you and and keeping you.
SPEAKER_01: So, um, let's move on to the the next love word tonight, and that's uh philia, um, which means friend in the Greek.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's friendship or brotherly love, uh deep comp uh companionship based on uh shared values, interests, or virtue.
SPEAKER_01: Um sometimes this comes from uh from an experience and and a bonding experience or um long-term relationship outside of the family.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so Proverbs 1824 says, A man who has friends must himself be friendly.
SPEAKER_01: If you want this kind of love in your life, and we all need all of these kinds of loves.
SPEAKER_01: And and again, each one of these kinds of loves is shored up by the agape love, the the that's the highest love, the one that doesn't need anything in return.
SPEAKER_01: But a man who has friends must himself be friendly.
SPEAKER_01: But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
SPEAKER_00: Who is that friend?
SPEAKER_00: Come on now.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is that friend.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: But does it just do you just feel that automatically every day when you get up?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, some people can, but you know, there's a relationship that you develop that you learn, and that's the same thing with any friend.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna be friends with somebody if you never ever talk to them.
SPEAKER_00: People have this wonderful notion, oh, you know, but it uh but if we just pick up where we left off, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you picked up where you left off five years ago, you might not be friends anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You have to get reacquainted.
SPEAKER_00: But if you want to have a close personal friend, you got to develop that relationship.
SPEAKER_00: That's the same way with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It it comes from living living some life together, doing some things together.
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, you got long-lost friends, and you can how many have met up with somebody that you know they were acquainted with or close friends with at one point in your life, a long time ago, and 10 years, 20 years go by, and you meet up with them, and it's awkward.
SPEAKER_01: You can't just pick it up where you left off.
SPEAKER_01: Life has gone on, you've gone different places, you've had different experiences.
SPEAKER_01: You you don't have that fellowship anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, we got to maintain that fellowship with our Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: We do, and then and then this the file is based on shared values, interests.
SPEAKER_00: You know, like you can have your tennis friend.
SPEAKER_00: I don't play tennis, but let's just say you have you have all your tennis friends, and that is really funny.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all have so much fun playing tennis, and it's great, and you are best buds until somebody brings up politics.
SPEAKER_01: Happens to me all the time.
SPEAKER_00: It's tough.
SPEAKER_00: Um so how deep is that friendship?
SPEAKER_00: And uh what is that terrible song?
SPEAKER_00: I am a child of the 90s, uh 80s, actually, but the Breakfast at Tiffany song, like no, how does it go?
SPEAKER_00: We don't have anything in common, but we like we both like the same movie, you know?
SPEAKER_00: So I guess that's one thing.
SPEAKER_01: I guess that's one thing.
SPEAKER_00: One thing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's not good enough to base uh your friendships on things that are shallow and what's your favorite color, and what um I mean, so So an example out of uh out of the Bible on that comes from uh 1 Samuel 18.
SPEAKER_01: This is David and Jonathan.
SPEAKER_01: You think about the the close friendship that they had uh in verse 18 it says, Now when he had finished speaking to King Saul, the soul of Jonathan, that's Saul's son, was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
SPEAKER_01: Uh then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him with his own soul, and Jonathan took off the robe that he was that that was on him and gave it to David with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt.
SPEAKER_01: And so there was an exchange, a covenant exchange there uh of a very close uh friendship because they they shared the bond of things, you know, what they had in common.
SPEAKER_01: I think about in my life, I I spent time sailing on board a tall ship.
SPEAKER_01: I lived on it for a year and a half, and the people that I lived with on that ship and sailed with and did life with, and and we went through storms and hurricane force winds, and we had all kinds of adversity out there, and we had each other's back when uh when we landed in in uh uh Bristol, England, and and there were some hecklers on the uh on the on the quay on the dock there, and and they started doing things that might have caused damage to the ship.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I ran off the off the ship and took on seven of them at one time, and and I had a friend come with me because he wasn't gonna leave me alone at that, you know, and so I I had one friend.
SPEAKER_01: It was the one guy on the on the deck that's two versus seven, how'd you fare, James?
SPEAKER_01: Um we uh by the mercy of God, um, they left.
SPEAKER_01: And that's another story.
SPEAKER_01: But uh but you know, if one if something happened to one of us, you had to mess with all of us.
SPEAKER_01: And that came, you know, I think about people who serve in the military, brothers in arms, the SEALs who go in and and and and do things together.
SPEAKER_01: They have each other's back, and then and then the military service is over, and yet their families are knit together, they're tied together.
SPEAKER_01: They will go live in the same community, they'll they'll go out of their way to live next door to each other.
SPEAKER_01: And that's that deep friendship uh that comes from that close bond, that close communion.
SPEAKER_00: So this word obviously was not used in the David and Jonathan example because it was in the Old Testament, but Philea is a Greek word, and it was used to describe Jesus' love for Nazar for Lazarus.
SPEAKER_00: Remember when Lazarus died and Jesus wept?
SPEAKER_00: He loved him, he phileaed him.
SPEAKER_00: They had a bond, a personal friendship over time.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had that same bond with his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I like this passage in John 21.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's worth turning there if you have your Bible with you.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't actually write out the passage on this notes, so but it's worth going there.
SPEAKER_00: Um remember, this is after Peter has denied Jesus three times.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus went to the cross, but he rose again.
SPEAKER_00: And now they're meeting together, the resurrected Christ with Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter's probably, he's probably feeling really like unworthy, don't you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus uh said to Simon, Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?
SPEAKER_00: Do you agape me more than these?
SPEAKER_00: And Peter said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I Phileia you, Phileo.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, feed my lambs.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you agape me?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord, I phileo you.
SPEAKER_00: Agape.
SPEAKER_00: Peter kept saying, I've phileo.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus finally just gave up and said, Well, come on, Peter, do you do you phileo me?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, now he's grieved.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's grieved.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_00: I phileo you.
SPEAKER_00: You're my you're like like a brother.
SPEAKER_00: It was the only love that Peter knew.
SPEAKER_00: He did not, he hadn't had agape yet.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have that experience.
SPEAKER_00: He was not yet a born-again person because Jesus had not yet brought the blood to the mercy seat.
SPEAKER_00: There he was not born again.
SPEAKER_00: So he could not, that love of God we've been talking about was not shed abroad in his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And he was grieved about it.
SPEAKER_00: The best he could do is love Jesus like a brother.
SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty good love, but it wasn't enough, and he was grieved.
SPEAKER_00: And so, but Jesus said, gave him something to do, tend my sheep, uh, feed my sheep, most assuredly, 18.
SPEAKER_00: Most assuredly I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished.
SPEAKER_00: But when you were old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.
SPEAKER_00: This he spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: And when he had spoken this, he said to him, Follow me.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus said, You know, you can't agape me yet.
SPEAKER_00: I understand that.
SPEAKER_00: But someday you're gonna you're gonna agape me, and you're gonna prove it with your life.
SPEAKER_00: That's what, and we know that Fox's Book of Martyrs records it that Peter was crucified upside down, that he actually was gonna be crucified right side up, and he said, I'm not worthy to be crucified in the same manner as my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Find another way.
SPEAKER_00: And um and so there is a uh there is a a there was a brotherly love there, there was a discipleship love, and then there was that agape love that endured through the world.
SPEAKER_01: And that that came when Jesus laid down his life and uh and made him and us capable of that kind of love.
SPEAKER_00: We can have it, we can have it, we can, and we do have it.
SPEAKER_01: All right, what's the next one?
SPEAKER_00: Finally, we gotta we gotta wrap it up.
SPEAKER_00: The Eros love is not mentioned in the Bible, but it is a obvious component of love.
SPEAKER_00: If we don't cover that type of love, romantic love, then we haven't really covered the topic, have we?
SPEAKER_00: Do y'all agree?
SPEAKER_00: And uh, but in the Bible, there certainly are many examples of romantic love.
SPEAKER_00: And so the first one uh would I would just call out, we're not gonna read the whole chapter, but Song of Solomon, chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: I want to point out in every one of these that you already, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you already have all of these loves working in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I do not care if you did not have a Valentine or if you were alone or you whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you are not alone.
SPEAKER_00: You have the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is your rose of Sharon and lily of the valleys, verse one right there.
SPEAKER_00: I've put it in yellow.
SPEAKER_00: Um He is your first love.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation talks about that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ever leave your first love.
SPEAKER_00: He is your first love.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and then if you read along, it's uh it talks about the uh then then the the the Jesus type type character says, like a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus looks upon you and he values and he sees you as something so unique and special and different.
SPEAKER_00: Bonus if you can bring this into your uh marriage relationship, if you can view your spouse as so.
SPEAKER_00: And then she views him like an apple tree among the trees of the woods.
SPEAKER_00: There's a whole forest full of regular old trees out there, but my man, he is an apple tree.
SPEAKER_00: He has he has fruit, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and so there is that so exclusive is their love that they would not even consider um, you know, other people just look like it just they pale in comparison.
SPEAKER_00: So I thought that was, I want you to feel loved and especially by the Lord first, and then you can make your spouse feel that way if you have one.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, I would say that people think that they need marriage help, but really, if we would all just treat our spouse as good as we would treat Miss Gertrude in church, you know?
SPEAKER_00: If we would just walk in love toward our spouse like we would to our next door neighbor who brought us a plate of cookies and we didn't want to bring the plate back empty.
SPEAKER_01: Don't just greet a random person in church with Eros love, okay?
SPEAKER_01: That's not what she's not where she's going with that.
SPEAKER_00: That would be bad.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do that.
SPEAKER_01: Had to say it.
SPEAKER_00: It does say greet with a holy kiss, but it's a holy.
SPEAKER_00: Holy kiss.
SPEAKER_01: That was also a different culture.
SPEAKER_00: Micah said ain't me.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be greeting me with a holy kiss when we walk when I walk in.
SPEAKER_01: A handshake will do.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all, seriously, though, remember COVID when we couldn't touch each other?
SPEAKER_00: I honestly think that God wanted us to share germs in some kind of way with our people because it would build our immune system.
SPEAKER_01: We did greet with a holy hug.
SPEAKER_00: We did do that.
SPEAKER_00: We still can, but all right, side hugs.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: He brought me to it, verse four brought me to his banqueting house.
SPEAKER_00: His banner over me was love.
SPEAKER_00: Are you loved by God?
SPEAKER_00: Then, but then here is a warning about not putting arrows up on an idol's platform.
SPEAKER_00: Do not, verse seven, do not stir up, nor awaken love until it pleases.
SPEAKER_01: Until the right time.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a timing for that one.
SPEAKER_01: Now, earlier we we made the point that uh uh the devil is always attacking all of these structures that God put in place and all the various types of love right here.
SPEAKER_01: And so he has absolutely attacked this kind of love.
SPEAKER_01: And he has worked to destroy what God meant to be uh a beautiful thing, uh uh a precious thing between a husband and a wife.
SPEAKER_01: The devil has worked to destroy that.
SPEAKER_01: There's an unnatural love, there's a counterfeit love, he's hijacked love, uh, he's distorted it in all kinds of ways.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want to go back to Romans, it's not in your notes, but Romans 126.
SPEAKER_01: Um and I'll back up a little bit further, and uh and we can kind of work into the hierarchy of this.
SPEAKER_01: So in verse 24, it says, Therefore, God gave them up to uncleanliness uh in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves.
SPEAKER_01: And these are people that are rejecting the God of creation.
SPEAKER_01: Like, it is obvious there's a God, and he wants particular things, and these are people.
SPEAKER_01: Who have rejected this, and so God is turning them over uh to their own flesh, to their own lust, for their own destruction.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so uh to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature, the create the creature rather than the creator, uh who blessed forever.
SPEAKER_01: And so they're they're they got false gods, they're adulterous, they're they're they're going the wrong direction here.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 26, for this reason God gave them up to vile passions.
SPEAKER_01: For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature, what is against his design.
SPEAKER_01: Likewise also men, uh leaving their natural uses of the women, and burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and even that they did not like to retain a knowledge of God, he gave them up to a reprobate or a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting.
SPEAKER_01: Um being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, uh maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they're whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, and it goes on.
SPEAKER_01: It is, it it gets into the it goes work gets worse and worse and worse.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but God has turned them over to something, and the devil has the unnatural, the counterfeit, uh, and the hijacked uh version of what God designed and God intended.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you recognize that the devil is working to destroy the foundational principles, the foundational things, uh the man, the woman, in his image, the unity of man and woman, which is the covenant of marriage.
SPEAKER_01: A man and a a man is not a covenant of marriage, a woman and a woman not a covenant of marriage.
SPEAKER_01: A marriage is between one man and one woman, and they procreate and create uh children, new life.
SPEAKER_01: And and they have that love for their kids.
SPEAKER_01: All the loves are wrapped up in the structure that God designed from the very beginning, and the devil's working to destroy it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: But God's working to rebuild it in uh in society through us and in your own family.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So I will not go all through Ephesians 5 because we are out of time, and I want y'all to be able to talk about how you would apply some of these things and give your uh opinions about them.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but uh read Ephesians 5, 22 to 33.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not married, read it anyway because clearly this is a wonderful marriage passage about how to have a good marriage.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul clearly says it's a great mystery, but this whole thing, I'm talking about Christ and the church.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not just about how to be a good husband or a good wife, it is about how to be a good bride of Christ and how to submit to him as the head.
SPEAKER_00: And if you read this passage, you will see all of the yellow I highlighted here in your notes is all just every time it refers to the fact that this is an analogy.
SPEAKER_00: Hello, I'm not just talking about husbands and wives, earthly things.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about as Christ loves the church.
SPEAKER_00: Also just as Christ, as the church is subject to Christ, just as Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And all of these things, and there is it's an analogy, and so we need to live Ephesians 5.
SPEAKER_00: Now, whether we're married or not married, we're living this as the bride of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You'll notice that um uh we love that the husband is supposed to love his wife as his own body and as he loves himself.
SPEAKER_00: There's that whole thing again where we love as we love our as we love ourselves, then we love.
SPEAKER_00: Gotta love ourselves first before we can love.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, that's just a theme.
SPEAKER_00: I keep seeing that.
SPEAKER_00: John, remember Jonathan?
SPEAKER_00: David loved Jonathan as his own as his own soul.
SPEAKER_00: So there's that, you gotta love yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Find a way.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus does, so you can.
SPEAKER_00: And then I looked at this.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife.
SPEAKER_00: We've studied that.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know Jesus left his father to be joined to the bride of Christ, to be joined to you?
SPEAKER_00: He left heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It was comfortable there.
SPEAKER_00: He was born in a dirt house, laid in a manger, so he could come and be with you.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh let that wash over you.
SPEAKER_00: Let yourself feel.
SPEAKER_00: And then in and I just combed through here and got all of the things that you are now as a body, part of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You are loved.
SPEAKER_00: He loved you and gave himself for you.
SPEAKER_00: You are set apart, you are washed, you are uh that he might sanctify and cleanse, right?
SPEAKER_00: So you're washed, you're presented holy to the Lord, to himself.
SPEAKER_00: You're present, he presented you to himself holy.
SPEAKER_00: You are perfected, you are nourished and cherished by God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to really feel that.
SPEAKER_00: And then, bonus, as you begin to feel that, then you will begin to let others feel that.
SPEAKER_00: Please let your spouse feel.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just set apart, prioritized, special from everyone else, set apart.
SPEAKER_00: Let your spouse feel like they're presented to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You've saved part of yourself to present to your spouse that you're um you're nourishing and cherishing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, quite literally, thank you, James, for providing food.
SPEAKER_00: He gets up and he makes my eggs almost every morning.
SPEAKER_00: He nourishes me.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Um that's my James.
SPEAKER_01: Also do the dishes.
SPEAKER_00: He does a lot of dishes, doesn't do all of the dishes.
SPEAKER_00: I do some.
SPEAKER_00: But um anyway, but but nourished and cherished, and and uh so find a way to make that to receive that from the Lord so you can give that, and then with that, we need to.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this this Ephesians uh section right here is is is really uh the perfect love of Jesus loving the church and gave himself for the church, and all these loves are wrapped up uh right there.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm gonna finish with Romans 8.37 and 39, and then we're gonna break out into groups.
SPEAKER_01: But in 37, Romans 8.37, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
SPEAKER_01: For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, depth, or any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We there is nothing that can separate us from his love, and we should not let anything separate us from loving him, or the horizontal love that we've been filled with and capable of loving others.