SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hi, my name is Michelle Steele. Pastor Philip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith Church. We have more resources available to help you build your faith and frame your world by the Word of God. From our website, lifeoffaith.net, you can connect to our YouTube channels. Watch the live stream feed from our church services. Access books and downloads in our web store. And discover more about Life of Faith Church, producing my city, state, nation, and world. Visit lifeoffaith.net today.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Well, let's go over to John 13. And we're going to continue with what we've been ministering on in both locations, the core values of the believer. In April of 2024, I had gone with Brother Jerry to Faith Life Church in Branson, Brother Moore's Church, and it was the last meeting. The Saturday morning meeting was the last meeting that we were going to be in. And he was ministering. As he was ministering, the Lord shared this with me and the core values of the believer. And he gave me seven things that he called the core values of the believer. And I know we've been looking at them. You may already have them written down, but we'll go through them real quickly. There's seven of them. Number one, put the word first place. Put the word first place. Number two, determined to walk by faith. Determined to walk by faith. Number three, refuse to be critical. Refuse to be critical. And there are things that he said under underlying all of these points that we'll get into as we get to each of them in the coming weeks. Number four, determined to be thankful. Determined to be thankful. Number five, something that we've been centered up on. We'll stay there for a bit. Determined to walk in love. Determined to walk in love. Number six, determined to be led by the Spirit through the inner man. Determined to be led by the Spirit through the inner man. And number seven, refuse to be double-minded. So put the word first place. Determined to walk by faith, refuse to be critical, determined to be thankful, determined to walk in love, determined to be led by the Spirit through the inner man, and refuse to be double-minded. Hallelujah. Now we've been centered up on number five, determining to walk in love. And here's why. Love is involved in all of them. And I understand that when you deal with love, when you talk about love, you know the world has an idea of love. And you know, the world's idea of love is that you never correct and you never uh say that anybody's doing something wrong, and you know, just uh uh daisies and posies, you know, and that's just love. Well, love is very corrective at times. If you've raised children or are raising children, you understand that one of the greatest acts of love sometimes that you demonstrate is correction. What would correction be? Correction would be you're going the wrong way. I want to help correct you. Are you correcting them because you don't care about them or because you do? If you didn't care, what would you do? Nothing. Love corrects. Love explains this is wrong. Now, this is not what we're teaching on, but I just want you to see there's the that the way the world views love is is this. They you know they talk about Christians being so judgmental. Well, if you if you were walking in love as a Christian, you wouldn't judge me. Well, I'm not judging you by telling you that's wrong. That's not that's not judgment, that's the truth. And and if you knew the word, the word says the truth will make you free. Glory to God. So so there's truth in in love, there's correction in love. Now, is there the is there forget forgetting in love? Of course. You love people, you forgive them, you forget. Right? You move on. When do you forgive? The moment they ask. Maybe before. Please forgive me. Done. Now, here's the thing. But forgiveness does not mean a lack of accountability. I was dealing with a marriage one time. You know I got stories, right? And and and these folks came and and there was a problem going on in their marriage, and the problem that was going on in their marriage, the Lord had already talked to them about it. The problem that was going on in their marriage is the husband enjoyed uh uh looking at things that he shouldn't look at and and uh being places he shouldn't be, right? And he wanted his wife to be okay with that. So they came in and they want counsel. Well, there's no counsel there. You gotta quit. Well, I I have. I don't, you know, I just need her to forget about it. I said, man, it was a week ago. It was one week ago. You've been doing this for years, and you haven't been doing it for a week. You say a week, we don't know. And you just want her to forget about it. She's got two or three years of betrayal. Can't trust you, and in one week you want her to forget it. Now you got some things to walk out, brother. I could see it in his face. He didn't want to walk nothing out. He just he just wants, you just be, you just submit, woman, and forget about it. It's under the blood. It is under the blood, and you gotta walk it out under the blood. Now, I'm I'm helping, I'm not just, this is not just the only scenario, but understand what I mean by this. So you forgive, but then there's accountability. Is that right? You forgive, but there's accountability. I'm trying to get you to understand. People look at love sometimes and say, well, if you forgive me, you wouldn't bring it up. I'm not bringing it up, I'm holding you accountable. Right? So, so you know the scenario I went through. I said, you know, you probably you need to passcode your phone and let your wife set all these limitations on your phone so you don't have access to all that. Oh, I feel like a little kid. You don't want accountability. If I love my wife, in that scenario, what would I do? I'll get rid of the phone if that's what you want me to do. I'll get rid of the computer if that's what you want me to do. I'll tell you where I'm going every hour of the day if that's what you want me to do. If I love you. Because that's accountability. Love without accountability is a fallacy. It's not love. I said, Amen. This is important. Why? Because people say, well, if you love me, you just forget what I did. I will. I'm not gonna hold it against you, but you must be accountable. See, the world wants love with no accountability. The world just wants to act like, hey, everything, everything's fine. I mean, I admitted it, you know, whatever. No, there's accountability. Now, when you come over into the church, when we talk about love, people focus on two things offense and unforgiveness. Don't want to be offended. Don't want to walk in unforgiveness. Folks, listen. If a person's constantly getting offended, they're a baby. They're immature. They need to grow up. Offense, mature people don't get offended. Oh, Pastor, it's hard. No, it's not. Not hard for an adult. You know, when when when your child was three, if they looked at you and said, I couldn't help myself, I had to get a cookie, you might believe it. But you walk in the kitchen, there stands your 50-year-old husband going, I couldn't help it. Couldn't help myself. Yes, you could. You are grown. Right? Babies get offended, and and please understand, I I know that things come. Jesus said it's impossible, but offenses will come. Unforgiveness is maturity. The more mature you are, the quicker you can forgive. But but with that maturity comes the understanding that forgiveness is not just carte blanche. Yeah, I just, you know, let you do whatever you want. I forgive and then I verify and I check up on you. Right? Now we're not teaching on either one of those today. But the point is that's what the church usually centers up on. Well, we need to walk in love, don't want nobody to be offended. We don't want anybody. You know, you need to not be offended. Walk in love. Listen, when you love more than anything grows you up. Amen. Remember how I now I can't say for everybody, but have you seen people they, you know, most people when they get married, they're very they they do love each other, but they're very immature. I guess I'm the only one. I I just right? I think after close to 35 years of marriage, my wife still wonders, is he ever going to grow up? But anyway, right? Whatever it may be. It's it's love, but it's immature love. That's why they have, you know, they have squabbles, they have, they get upset over things that don't matter. Why? Because it's immaturity. What happens as you start growing in your marriage and growing in love? You number one, you become far more acquainted with the person that you're married to. And you begin to understand how they act and how they feel about things, and you begin to understand their personality. Right? What's happening? Your love's maturing. And what happens? The squabbles go way down. And eventually they get to where they don't exist. And you don't have crosswords between you. Why? Because love is ruling. Because you're thinking if I love them, I'm not going to respond that way. If I love them, I'm not going to act that way. If I love them, I'm not going to treat them that way. Right? Because love is maturing. And so love does not get offended, that's absolutely true, but that's the elementary stage. That's to be expected. Now, we've spent a lot of time centering up on this fact that we are of God. Our nature is of God. And the Bible says God is love. 1 John chapter 4, 7 and 8 says God is love. And then it says again in verse 16, God is love. And everybody said God is love. Now think about this. God could have said he was a lot of things. Faith, power, right? Miracles. He said, I'm love. Right? So if God is love, then that means God's nature is love. If God's nature is love and you are of God, you are begotten of God. The Bible says, through the power of the seed of the Word of God, God hath begotten you. Alright? 1 John says, beloved, now are we the sons of God. Jesus said in John chapter 17, two different times, he said, Father, I pray that you would help my disciples, including us, to see that just as I am not of this world, they are not of this world. Is that right? It says, we are of God. 1 John 5, 1 John 4 says, Whosoever is of God, born of God, does not sin, and the wicked one cannot touch him. I don't continually sin, I don't constantly sin. Why? Because I'm of God. My nature is the nature of God. So walking in love should not be hard or foreign to the believer. It's our nature. Say out loud. I'm the love child or the love God. My nature is love. Amen. In John 13, so that's our introduction. In John 13, verse 34, notice what Jesus said. He said, A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another. As I have loved you, you also love one another. Now, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but look at that. As I have loved you, that's how you love one another. Well, how had he loved them up to that time? He had served them. In this instance, he had just washed their feet. He had just served them. He said, as I have demonstrated love to you, that's how you love each other. And that goes even to the cross now when he's going to give himself for the sin of the entire world. So he went all the way to the point of giving himself completely, that's how he loves. And he said, This new commandment I give you that you love one another as I have loved you. By this, this love, this agape, shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have loved one to another. So the demarcation fact, the evidence that we are disciples is that we love each other. It's not the name on the sign out front, it's not the denomination that we're a part of, whatever it may be. The fact that says we're the disciples of Christ is that we love one another. Try it out right now. Look at your neighbor and say, I'm a disciple of Christ and I love you. Oh, hallelujah. Amen. Do you see that? He said, A new commandment I give you. This new commandment of love is what governs the believer. Love is the higher standard. Whenever you bring love into a situation, it brings everything up to another place. Hallelujah. Romans chapter 13. Verse 8. This is a familiar verse. And it says, owe no man anything but to love one another. Now here's the thing. We're going to read some more verses. But very often that's that's quoted in the context of staying out of debt. And other translations do use that, keep out of debt and owe no man anything. Well, that's true. I mean, in the sense that it is in the Bible and you should watch that kind of thing. But the the perfect context is not allowing yourself to allow all these debts to remain outstanding and you're not paying your bills. So he says, owe no man anything except what? To love him. Is that right? For he that loveth another, what has he done? Fulfilled the law. Fulfilled the law, completed, summed up the law. For this, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet. Now we all recognize those from the Ten Commandments. And if there's any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended. It is briefly summed up in this saying love your neighbor as yourself. Love works no ill to his neighbor. So notice, he's making a statement and then giving us the answer. It's summed up, love your neighbor as yourself. And then he says, Oh, and by the way, love works no ill to its neighbor. Why? Therefore, love, now notice, if love works no ill to its neighbor, love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Say it out loud. Love fulfills the law.

unknown 18:37

Love fulfills the law.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Hallelujah. So love is the fulfilling of the law. He said, briefly comprehended. It means that love is summed up in this one statement: love your neighbor as yourself. Now we're not going to go there, but you've got to watch that because you remember the scribe came to Jesus and asked him. He said, What's the greatest commandment? And Jesus said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. And the man said, Yeah, but who's my neighbor? See, that's worldly love. Hallelujah. Do you see this? That's worldly love. Who's your neighbor? Anybody on the planet. Anybody sitting in here today? That's your neighbor. And he said, What? Love your neighbor as yourself. And Paul said that is where the law is briefly summed up. Because you love another, you fulfilled the law. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Now, if I'm walking in love, the first thing I'll be doing is loving God with all my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength. If I'm walking in love. Because the first entity that I'm walking in love with is God. And my walk of love with God is shown by loving Him with my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength. Hallelujah. We talk about the commandments, and we'll say, you know, if you're walking in love, you'll fulfill all the commandments. And here's what we quote: I won't commit adultery, I won't commit fornication, I won't covet, I won't lie, I won't steal. What's the first, the very first commandment of the Ten Commandments? What's the first one? You shall have no other gods before me. It said love fulfills all those commandments. So what does that mean? If I'm walking in love, I'll have no other God before him. I'm walking in love with God in those things. If I'm loving God in this manner, I will not be breaking any other commandment. Because I love God with all my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength. Look at Matthew twenty-two. Matthew twenty-two and uh verse thirty-seven. One of the lawyers came to him and asked him, What is the great commandment in the law? Notice, Jesus said in verse 37, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbors yourself. On these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets. The Wee's Bible says, within the scope of these two commandments are suspended the whole law and the prophets. Within the scope of those two commandments. The New Living Translation says the entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments. Hallelujah. So what people have focused on over the years is trying to keep the commandments. You can't keep the commandments without walking in love. See, what were the commandments in the first place? Guardrails. Why, we're going to get into this in a moment. Why did God have to give those commandments? He was dealing with spiritually dead people. When you start reading through the word, the prophecies that God gave down through the years, he said, The day's coming that I will make a new covenant with you, and I'll write my law in your heart. Right? I'll take the heart of stone out of you and I'll give you a heart of flesh. What's the law that he wrote on our hearts? The law of love. Right? So I heard somebody say, you know, God had to redo the covenant because he saw that man couldn't keep the law. That's fallacy. That's wrong teaching. God knew from the very beginning man wasn't going to be able to keep the law. That's why from the very beginning he said Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In God's mind, the blood of Jesus had already been shed for the salvation of every person. The Bible says, Paul wrote in Galatians, that the law was a schoolmaster to bring me to God. It was to make me see this is what God wants out of my life. Could anybody keep it? Of course not. The word says nobody could keep it. But what did people do? Even with the law, even with the commandments, as their only schoolmaster, by faith, they put their faith in God. They put their faith in what God said. That's why you see some of the patriarchs, you see some of the patriarchs blowing it major. And they're listed in the Hall of Fame of faith in Hebrews 11. Why? It says, because they looked for a city. They kept their eyes on Jesus, even though he was invisible. They didn't even know who he was, but they knew there was one coming that was gonna make a way and produce redemption in the lives of every person in the world. They did it by faith. Amen. They attempted to keep the law and the commandments by faith. And what did God do? He brought them along little by little. And what does Galatians say? It says, when the fullness of time had come, when it was time, when it was the proper time, what did God do? He sent his son, born of a woman, to redeem mankind. Why did he wait? It wasn't the time yet. It's important. So he didn't redo the covenant. He always said, he all had already prophesied, the day's coming, I'm gonna make a new covenant with you. And it's not gonna be based on the blood of bulls and goats. It's not gonna be based on did you keep every commandment? It's not gonna be based on this. It's gonna be based on the blood of the Son of God. Hallelujah. So the answer is if I'm walking in love, all the demands of the law will be fulfilled in my life. Now I've got to be walking in love. Hallelujah. And in in whatever, whatever the area that it may be. If I'm walking in love, that's the new commandment. Now, while that sounds elementary, the liberty that it brings, see, people will say it's hard to walk in love. It's harder to try to keep all the commandments. That's hard to walk in love, harder to keep the law. Not just harder, you can't. The moment you try to keep all the law and the commandments, you'll break five of them on your way home. Think about this. He didn't just say the Ten Commandments, he said the law. You know, under the law, you got stoned if you were a railer. I don't mean stone like some of y'all used to do. I mean with stones. Used to be people come to church, they'd be like, eh, it's all right, man. No. Right? Think about that. If you were a railer, if you were an angry man, if you got mad, punched somebody. They took you to the city gates and stoned you till you were dead. Wow. Let's go back there. Right? Hard to keep the law. Why? That was never God's plan. God did not give Adam a law. He gave him one instruction. One. Don't eat of that tree. Could Adam keep that one construction? That one instruction? The answer is no, in case you're wondering. He didn't keep it. Well, why? Well, what's people say he didn't remember the word of God. That's absolutely the truth to an extent. He didn't put the word of God ahead of every other word. That's loving God. With all your heart, your soul, what did God say? What did God say about this? Amen. And so when Eve said, Oh, this fruit is wonderful and handed it to him, he should have said, God said not to do that, so we're not, I'm not doing it. And what would have happened? His obedience would have covered her.

unknown 29:19

Thank you, Lord.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

So what was the main issue? There was not this constant understanding of keeping what God said in the forefront of my mind. Whatever God said about love, and we're going to get into those issues going on in this series, but whatever God said love can do, you can do because you have the nature of love. I have to give it that preeminence in my life. Love is the higher standard. Hallelujah. So the answer is if I'm walking in love, all the demands of the law will be fulfilled in my life. You cannot live a successful Christian life outside the law of love. You cannot. Amen. That's why Jesus said, This is the commandment that I'm giving you, and it's a new commandment. That you love one another. So laws, feast days, things that I could physically do govern spiritually dead people. The spiritually alive, born-again believer is governed by the law of love. And when something violates the law of love, I have to pay attention to that. There are obviously the very evident things, lying, stealing, those things, obviously. But when anything wants to violate that law of love, unforgiveness, offense, anger, undue anger, argumentativeness, temper. That's violating the law of love.

unknown 31:13

Why?

SPEAKER_01 31:13

Because love doesn't rail. Holding things against people. Love doesn't do that. Now understand, it's easy just to tell you what love doesn't do. That's why we've been focused on you have the nature of God. You can do whatever the Bible says love does. Amen. After, you know, we look at all those things and then we ask ourselves the question: do we know anybody that's perfected in love yet? We know people that are in process and in progress. Why? Because the Bible says love will last forever. Amen. These three things are eternal faith, hope, and love. The greatest of faith, hope, and love is what? Love. Why? It powers the other two. And so what do you do? If you see yourself react out of love, what do you do? You get back in love as quick as you can. You ask God to forgive you. You ask them to forgive you if you need to, you get right back in love. Why? Because I want to be over here where everything's fulfilled. I want to be over here where there's no other requirement but to walk in love. Amen. Think about this for a moment. Why do you tithe? Here it is. Because you love God. Not because you're afraid of a curse. Or because you have to, or everything will dry up. That's not love. You know, I determined something. And I tried with all of my children. I wanted to capture their heart. I wanted to get to the heart of things. I wanted them to change at the heart level. Not just to do what I wanted them to do because they felt like they were being made to do it, but because they saw that it was the right thing to do. I wanted them to serve God because they saw it was the right thing to do. Right? So I had to work to get them in connection with their heart. How do I do that? I have to get them looking inside. There's a certain Pastor Michelle and I don't allow Liliana to do gaming. All right? Now, what I mean by that is like online gaming, now I'm not going to get into everything that's out there, you might allow it, and that's your business, you're the parent. But we don't do it because of a lot that's going on in society. We just don't think it's safe. Now, if you do, that's that's again, that's that's obviously your right. But here's the thing is instead of just saying, you're not gonna do that because I said, the pathway I'm on now is okay, I understand you want to do that. I want you to take that request and go pray about it. Pray in the Holy Spirit about it. And tell me what you sense. There is no Holy Spirit Jr. The same Holy Spirit that speaks to me will speak to them. They're filled with the Holy Spirit, they're alive under God. Right? Now understand what I'm how I'm saying this. They could obey me out of law, and they would learn nothing. They would just be doing what I said. What would happen the very moment they don't have to do what I say? They'd open themselves up. What if I capture their heart? Right? What if they're doing it out of love? And love is the guiding force, and it's not just being made to. You know how many times I heard this growing up? Because I said. Okay, well, I'll do it because if I don't, my father's favorite word was I'll tan your hide. Hallelujah. There for a while I thought I was the most tan hide in the world. But here's the point. I'm not running them down. What did that do? It produced a lot of frustration for me. Because I'm trying to I'm trying to find out why do I have to do this? Why can't I do this? If the answer is always, because I said, now I'm under law. There's no room for love. What if I sit down and explain it? Have you ever explained something to your child and you know you're right, but you can just see that they don't think you're right?

unknown 36:30

Right?

SPEAKER_01 36:30

I'm not the only one. All that when there's laughter like that, I know I'm not the only one. So what am I doing? I'm going after their heart. Am I helping you with this? Anything in that scenario that a child has to do because they feel like they have to do it, they're being made to do it, it's a law, it's a regulation, they're not getting it on the heart level. They're not getting it on the heart level. So what happens then when I when they've saved up enough money for the car and you know, you get the first car and you hand them the, we used to say the keys, the fob, whatever the device is, right? How do I know that when I tell them you're not allowed to have more than three people in your car? How do I know that when I tell them you can't do this and you can't do that? How do I know they're not gonna do it? Well, I told them not to. If they're not connected here at the heart level out of love for you, when they get out of your sight, they're gonna do what you told them not to do because love is not keeping them within the confines of your desires. I need them to love me as their parent and respect and honor me, and that will keep them in proper alignment. When you love God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength, it keeps you in proper alignment. There's things I won't do by nature because I love God too much. Hallelujah. I have a simple answer for you. You know, a lot is going on in certain preachers' lives nowadays. You've heard it. I'm not going to rehash the trash. But here's the thing: people getting into all kinds of ungodliness and all kinds of junk. And people will come to me and they'll say, How come them to do that? And how come them to do that? Here's the simple answer. They did not love God with all their heart, their soul, their mind, their strength. Well, he said he loved God. Did his actions prove it? Amen. You remember what the word says? It says, if the love of God is in you, and somebody comes into your assembly and they don't have what they need to wear or to eat, and you say, be blessed and be filled, go on your way. How's the love of God dwell in you if you don't give them what they need? So what's driving that? Just charity, just social justice? My love for God. So what does that mean? There are things I will do for Lex because I love God. Now listen, not because she deserves it, but I love God. You're not doing anything wrong. I've been knowing her for a long time. Right? Do you see what I'm saying? So people will do, we're using illustration of kids. If I teach them to honor God first, love God first, if I teach them that their parents are here as a representative of God, as a representative of the things of God, and they honor me and they love me and they love their mother and they honor their mother correctly, there are things that we'll avoid because we've captured their heart. God, see, all the way through the Old Testament, God wanted people's heart. That's why he talked about the heart all the time. I'm gonna give you a new heart. I'm gonna write my law in your heart. I don't want just lip service and outward service of keeping the law. I want your heart. I don't want you to just go clean your room because I told you. I want you to clean your room because you love me and you honor me and you understand what I'm trying to say to you. That's why love fulfills the law. Amen. Do you see that? And that's why you'll hear people say, I'll tell you what's wrong. This, this, just, this generation. And you always hear this generation, this generation, and they're smacking and bashing what they call this generation. How in the name of ever-loving God are we going to reach a generation that doesn't feel like we love them? How is that ever gonna happen? It won't. I say it won't. We got to capture their heart. And so, all the way through the law and the prophets, God wanted to capture the heart. He explained it to them from the very beginning. Am I helping you all? He explained it to them from the very beginning in Exodus. He said, I did not deliver you because you were the greatest of all people or the strongest of all people. He said, But because I loved you, I delivered you. So, what did he deliver them out of bondage based on? His love for them. He said they were a disobedient and gain-saying people. He said they were a people that had largely forgot about me, and I came down and delivered you anyway because I loved you. So if they would have left Egypt with the understanding of how much God loved them when they got out in the wilderness and it looked like things were drying up, they would have said, God loves me too much to let me go under. God delivered us because he loved us, he's going to keep us. He said, We're going into the promised land. God loves us enough to bring us into the promised land. What happened to that generation that fell in the wilderness? God never got their heart. Never got their heart. They never gave it to God. See, when you see a person that's operating in strong faith, you can be assured that's a person that loves God with all their heart, their soul, their mind, and their strength. Why? Love powers faith. Am I helping you? Love doesn't doubt the other person. Love doesn't doubt God. If I love God and I know God loves me, will God fail me? Do I think God will fail me? No. Hallelujah. Say this out loud. Say, Father, you have my heart. It belongs to you. I love you with everything that's in me. Hallelujah. See, so so that's that's the remedy. Not only to the law and the prophets. You know, Brother Hagin used to say this. He said, I go years at a time, don't even know I have a body. And people will say, Yeah, he he never got sick. He never no. He his body never rebelled against him. Walking in. Love. Wrong doctrine has taught us something. Hallelujah. Let me see. Jamie, come up here for a minute. I haven't done this for a long time. Who else can I pick on? Oh, hallelujah. Brother Kevin, you come help me. Amen. And Kevin and Carol. Carol, they just look so so cute. I'm telling you what. I just love that family. I love all of our families. But I came in and saw, boy, he looks sharp. And Miss Carol over there just beaming. Praise the Lord. They look like they just got married. How long y'all been married?

unknown 44:33

45 years.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

45 years. Glory to God. All right. So here's here's what here's what we have. And and and I'm I'm I'm uh this is a simple illustration. But here's how we're taught in religion. You know, you get saved, and you get born again, and you're a new creature in Christ. But you got this fella called the flesh. And here's what religion teaches you. The flesh is always fighting. Flesh always fighting. Flesh, flesh, flesh. Flesh. Nasty, mean flesh. Flesh is so strong. Flesh is so mean. Flesh is so this, that, and the other. Flesh. Now you know you're not flesh. This representing the flesh. Over here's the spirit. Wall-to-wall, Holy Ghost. Right? They've tried to separate them in this sense. They are separate spirit, soul, and body. But here's how it is always presented. You gotta watch out for the flesh. Because the flesh this, and the flesh wants to do this, and the flesh wants to do that. And the idea that's presented is that you just wake up one morning, your flesh just runs away with you, and there's nothing you can do about it. The Bible says, here's the spirit. Through the spirit, I put to death the deeds of the flesh. How do I do it? Through the spirit. What's the spirit energized by? Love. The spirit says, nope. I love God. It says it makes no provision for the flesh. Never make the mistake of looking in the mirror and think you're seeing the real you. Because you're not. This is the carrying case. It's not you. The real me is in my spirit. That's not the real me. This carrying case has to be allowed to do whatever it does. And the Bible says, we read it, the Bible says, if I'm walking in love, his voice is muted. His actions are inert. Right? And so when I look and I and I see this, that the flesh is carrying the spirit around. It's my right, it's my avenue of exercising authority on the earth. It's my right to be here. It's not me. Hallelujah. Love fulfills that. Where love is in operation, the flesh has no voice. How is it that I can keep the flesh from being offended, walking in love? How is it I can keep the flesh from being upset about walking in love? So when I choose to walk in love, now watch, this is important. So when I choose, not I, when I choose, when I choose in my spirit to walk in love, flesh has nothing to say about it. Nothing to say about it. Why? Because you put to death the deeds of the body through the spirit. Thanks, guys. Amen. You see this? And so, how is it that Jesus could walk in love and forgiveness when he was on the earth because he was the first man born spiritually alive? Amen. And so the issue is not, are we flesh? Oh, you're always going to be dealing with your flesh because you know we're in a flesh world and we live in a flesh body and this, that, and the other. But there's no scripture that says the flesh will always overcome, that the flesh will, right? Paul wrote in Romans chapter 7, and that was not an illustration of you and I as born-again believers. It was Paul showing himself before Christ, before being born again. Before I was born again, he said, I wanted to do the right thing. I knew what I should do, but I found a law in my body. That when I wanted to do right, sin was present. Is that right? Where was that law at? In his heart. He said, I knew what was right. I knew what was right. And he said, I tried to do what was right. And I did pretty good for a while. But then the commandment came. And what happened? Sin revived. And what happened? I died. But listen, look at the opposite of this. What happened when the new commandment came into your life when you were born again? Love showed up. And what happened? Your spirit was created in the image of God. And what happened? Sin died.

unknown 50:21

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 50:24

When you were born again, sin died. Sin quit being your master. Sin quit having any say in your life. Well huh? How is it that Christians can sin? They step out of love. They quit loving God with all their heart, their soul, their mind, their strength. People that love God with everything in them don't go sin. Yeah, but you know, Pastor, we all sin. We all make mistakes. We do all make mistakes. And love is right there to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But 1 John says, whoever is born of God does not willfully, always knowingly sin all the time. You just don't do it. Why? Your nature has changed. It's the nature of love. Am I helping you? Look at Mark 12. Whew. See, this is why love is so much deeper than just not being offended. First John says that we love, meaning each other, because he first loved us. Mark 12, we'll start in verse 29. One of the scribes came to him and asked him the first commandment of all. And Jesus answered him and said, The first of all the commandments is here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, all your strength. This is the first commandment. The second is namely, is like, namely, this you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There's none other commandment greater than these. Now think about that. That fell from the mouth of Jesus. There's no commandment greater than these. The scribe said unto him, Well, Master, well said. You have said the truth. Well, there is one God, and there's none other but he. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Now we're going to read another verse here, but this is important. You've got to understand how much of a different way of thinking this was then. They didn't think that way. The emphasis was on how much you did. The emphasis was on making sure you dotted every eye and crossed every T. The emphasis was on all of these things that Jesus just said, love fulfills. And he said, these two is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And look what Jesus said. When Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, when Jesus saw that he answered him wisely, he said, You're not far from the kingdom of God. You're not far from the kingdom of God. How does the whole kingdom of God operate, love? Now, now I'll I'll I'll uh I'm watching my time. I'll I'll quote this uh story to you from from the Word of God. Uh and we'll minister on it in the weeks coming. But you remember the story of the two people, the two, the the king, and said there was a king, and that he uh began to reckon his accounts, he began to uh take accounting of his books, and he found out that one of his people that worked for him, one of his servants, uh uh the uh the uh modern equivalent of what he owed him, 10,000 talents, I think it was. The modern equivalent is 12 million dollars. In in the the uh strong concordance, it says uh innumerable amount, basically an amount he could never pay back. And it said he called him up and said, Look, what about this? I found you that you owe me this money. And he said, I'm gonna have you put in prison. And the man fell down on his knees and said, Please give me time, I'll pay all I owe you. Right? And you remember what happened? It says, he forgave him the debt. And the man went out immediately and found somebody that owed him $20 and started choking him, saying, Pay me what you owe me. And the man said the same words. Give me time, I'll pay it. Oh no, put him in prison. Now watch. They went and told the king what happened. He called him back in front of him, called him wicked, and said, I forgave you all that debt. And then notice what he said, you should have done the same. You should have done the same. Right? Hallelujah. Everything. Now, the reason I told you that story is when Jesus started telling that story, he said, This is how the kingdom of God is. This is how the kingdom operates. How's the kingdom operate? On love. Forgiveness. Amen. So you have one man that there's no way he could pay the money back. No way at all. And he's just forgiven. And he goes out and finds somebody that can pay that money back. He just hasn't had the resources or whatever. He starts choking him, puts him in prison. Is that loving your neighbor as yourself? Is that loving the king for what he did for you? That's how the kingdom of God operates. It doesn't matter what depth of sin you were delivered from. Everybody under the sound of my voice were on your way to a devil's hell, and there was nothing you could do about it. And Jesus showed up in your life and saved you and forgave you a debt that you could never repay on your own. That means that every person that I encounter, I need to be walking in love with them, every believer, because God did something for me nobody else could do, and I'm going to love everybody I can. Because that's what I should do. It's what I should do. So this man that we read in Mark 12 understood that walking in love was greater than all the sacrifices under the law. And Jesus said, You're not far from the kingdom of God. In other words, you're not far from understanding how the new covenant's going to operate. You cannot walk in the new covenant successfully without walking in love. Cannot. The law governs spiritually dead men and women. And we made the statement that the spiritually alive believers govern by the law of love. You remember what Jesus said when he was at the feast that Matthew had prepared for him, and the Pharisees and the religious leaders talked to his disciples and said, Why does your master eat with publicans and sinners? And Jesus made the statement, he said, because the well don't need a physician, the sick need a physician. He said, the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost. And then you remember what he went into then? He said, Listen, you can't put new wine in old bottles. You can't put a new piece of garment on an old tear. Because it'll shrink and it'll make it even bigger. Hallelujah. If you're gonna walk in the new covenant, you gotta walk by the law of the new covenant, which is love. The deficit that is produced in a person's life by not walking in love is far greater than the benefit they think they'll get by refusing to walk in love. The deficit is greater. It'll cause a great, uh, a much greater deficit. Years ago, I would make the statement that, you know, walking in love is is is, you know, boy, it's hard on your flesh. And the Lord help me see one day that you're emphasizing the part of that person that's not important in the sense of walking things out. Who cares if it's hard on the flesh? It's right in the eyes of God. We tell our flesh what to do, it doesn't tell us what to do. Now, folks, that's in any area. I know that you can think that I'm just talking about sin and forgiving people that have done you wrong. Listen, when you go to the doctor and they say, we found this disease and it's terminal, you better tell your flesh what to do or make your funeral arrangements. And if you're not practicing every day telling your flesh what to do, you'll have a hard time telling it what to do when you got to believe God for something like that. I go back to analogy with children. We're constantly, constantly training this way. We don't panic, we don't fall apart, we don't lose it. Why? I don't want your flesh to rule you. Yeah, but everything's going no, calm down, calm down. Everything is not going wrong. There's a lot of things going right. That might be going wrong, but that's not everything.

unknown 1:00:43

Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:44

Why? We've got to tell our flesh what to do. And that's why the Bible says what? It says, when evil tidings come, the man who's rooted and grounded in the things of the God of the Lord will not fear. He will not fear evil tidings. Because his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is fixed like a spike in a beam, holding things up. It's fixed. When you're walking in love and you're living by the new commandment, your heart's fixed. Can't be moved. Think about the biggest problem that you're facing right now and understand that God loves you so much that He's going to fix that. Well, how do you know that? I'll give you the answer. Because I love him with all my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength. Amen. Remember what God said about Abraham? The Bible says in the book of James that Abraham was what? God's friend. And when he was sending the angels to Sodom and Gomorrah to do that judicial investigation to see if it was as bad as it seemed? What did he say to those two angels? Should I hide from Abraham the thing that I'm going to do? Seeing he'll command his children after him in all their generations? What does that mean? God had confidence in Abraham. You know God loves you so much he's got confidence in you? He believes you're going to make it. He believes you're going to overcome. He thinks the best of you. How do I know God thinks the best of you? Because God is love. And the Bible says love thinks the best of every person. Hallelujah. Yeah, but that person, you know, they did me wrong, and they'll they'll they'll never change. I understand that. I look, I get it. And we're back to that accountability thing. But you gotta walk in love. You gotta hold no animosity. Doesn't mean you don't hold somebody accountable. You just don't hold animosity. Listen, I have a family member right now that I love with all my heart. I love them with everything that's in me. If they text me or called me and asked me for anything, I would say no. That's not very loving. No, every every time you do anything for them, they take it and mess things up with it. If you give them $20, you can be assured it's not for what they're saying. It's not that I don't have the money. It's money's not their answer. They need to change. So love says hold them accountable. Get a job, keep a job. Be stable. That's love. Do you see what I'm saying? I don't think the best of them, and I'm thinking the best of them as much as I can, but they're not accountable to this. Glory to God. Love is the victory. Love is the pathway to overcoming everything that the enemy wants to try to throw your way. Amen. Just let him keep running up against that wall of love. I'm believing for this child to be saved. This is surround them with faith and love. Surround him with faith and love. Every time you think about it, Lord, I surround them with faith and love in the name of Jesus. I surround them with faith and love. Now I'm saying this, and I know I'm taking a minute, but we need to hear these things. Quit talking about your child like what they are and talk about them the way you want to see them. Or they're not living for God. Is that what you want? You're the one that has authority in that situation. Thank God my children are living for God. They're fulfilling the plan of God for their life in the name of Jesus. Father, I surround them with faith and love. I thank you, Father. They're encountering good relationships. They're encountering people that are going to influence them for the things of God. That's how love talks. Every time love sees a wayward child, it's not telling them how much they're on their way to hell. You know better than that. You need to get saved. Live right. You know what they're hearing in their mind? Yeah, because I said. You need to get saved because I think you're living wrong. You need to get saved because I think you're doing wrong. Lord, I surround them with faith and love. I surround them with faith and love. Try it out. Say, Lord, I surround them with faith and love. Say it out loud. All of my children are surrounded with faith and love. I thank you for loving them. I thank you for keeping them. I thank you for bringing them to yourself. In the name of Jesus. And when you do that, you can lay your head on your pillow at night with no concerns. Because they're surrounded by faith and love. If we really believe that. I've heard people say, God loves your child too much to let them go to hell. God loves your child so much that he'll let them make the choice of where they get to go. My job is to surround them with faith and love. Hallelujah. Isn't that wonderful? I hope you're receiving today. Because this is a big subject. It's a vast subject. Hallelujah. Thank you. Let's bow our heads.