SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Some time ago, I was shopping at a store in California called Grocery Outlet, and as always, I wanted to try all the new and different products they have at that store, and we needed something for the kids to drink.
SPEAKER_01: We were going on a camping trip, and I thought I'm gonna opt for something a little more healthier than plain old soda.
SPEAKER_01: So my eye caught this bottle on the shelf with the enticing label.
SPEAKER_01: It had a bouquet of tropical fruit set on a sandy beach with coconut trees.
SPEAKER_01: I thought I'll take that.
SPEAKER_01: That looks healthy.
SPEAKER_01: To my surprise, on the checkout aisle, my eye caught the final print on the label.
SPEAKER_01: It said, contains 0% fruit.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: 0% fruit?
SPEAKER_01: Reading the ingredients, it was plain old water with the addition of, get this, high fructose corn syrup, ascopic acid, and nature identical flavors.
SPEAKER_01: What are nature identical flavors for crying out loud?
SPEAKER_01: I Googled it and it said nature-identical flavors are synthetic fabrications of natural flavors.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Well, they were chemically synthesized in the laboratory, I believe.
SPEAKER_01: You see that label on the outside promised something of a fruit cocktail, but it overpromised and underdelivered because what the actual contents were just fabrications of the real thing.
SPEAKER_01: In our churches, we might find the very same thing today underdelivering, but overpromising on love.
SPEAKER_01: The label on the outside might read love, but on the inside it is often artificially fabricated rather than divinely generated.
SPEAKER_01: The title of my message this morning is Love.
SPEAKER_01: Divinely generated, not fabricated.
SPEAKER_01: Love divinely generated, not fabricated.
SPEAKER_01: Longtime pastor and author Alexander Strauss will help us shed light on this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the longer we work together, the more we get to know one another's faults and annoying personality traits, which can make life together frustrating.
SPEAKER_01: Understanding the New Testament principle of love will significantly enhance healthy group leadership, group meetings, and congregational life as a whole.
SPEAKER_01: Without love, it is impossible to live and work together in Christian harmony.
SPEAKER_01: You see, love is often the missing ingredient in the local church.
SPEAKER_01: And I wonder if love that is missing from the churches as a whole is not the reason why the world accuses us of being hypocritical.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we have the label on the outside door that says church, will the encompassing trademark not be our love for one another, as Jesus said?
SPEAKER_01: I do believe churches are indeed hypocritical when there is little love for one another.
SPEAKER_01: If that component is missing, it is very off-putting and somewhat hypocritical.
SPEAKER_01: Because we should be known as a place where people love one another.
SPEAKER_01: Tragically, what we often find in churches is a substitute, something artificial, something fabricated.
SPEAKER_01: This love that is fabricated is humanly fabricated, it is not divinely generated, it is a human fabrication, it is artificial, it's an imitation, not the real thing.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, I do believe the missing ingredient in most churches today is not stellar preaching, neither vibrant children's programs, nor comprehensive doctrinal statements, but what is missing, the missing ingredient is divinely generated love.
SPEAKER_01: To help us get a better understanding of divinely generated love, I would like to take you to Romans chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: If you could take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll camp there for a little while.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna just read for us Romans 12, verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Let love be genuine.
SPEAKER_01: Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.
SPEAKER_01: Some other translations may read, let love be without hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_01: Detest what is evil, cling to what is good.
SPEAKER_01: That is a preferable translation of the Greek word agape.
SPEAKER_01: Agape is without hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_01: Agape is the Greek word for love in this passage, and I would like to uh go down a bit of a rabbit trail here to talk about the historical and cultural background of the word agape.
SPEAKER_01: Looking at this word love or agape in verse 9, we cannot underestimate the influence of ancient Greek culture on shaping the minds of people on the concept of love.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the Greeks expressed the concept of love mainly through their dramas, their plays, and other forms of performing arts.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Greek theater played a significant role in shaping people's minds.
SPEAKER_01: Very much like the movie theaters of our day shape our minds.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the Greek dramas were mainly stories about history, religion, and mythologies, but they were all blended together under this one main theme, namely love.
SPEAKER_01: The Greeks treasured all forms of love, but they had one thing that was known as noble love, noble love.
SPEAKER_01: And their concept of noble love was as follows.
SPEAKER_01: It was the type of love that was a means to an end.
SPEAKER_01: Almost always there were personal rewards of self-gratification and self-glorification.
SPEAKER_01: This love was noble because it could achieve something.
SPEAKER_01: Noble love was not without ulterior motives.
SPEAKER_01: However, Christianity will change and challenge culture's prevailing views on love.
SPEAKER_01: While the Greeks treasured noble type of love, Christians would embrace a new word called agape.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love was contrary to the Greek concept of noble love.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, etymologists tell us that the word agape was hardly ever found in any form of Greek literature prior to the time of Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: Scholars are of opinion that the word agape only really started gaining cultural support with the advent of Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: Christianity claimed that word agape for itself.
SPEAKER_01: But Christianity went further.
SPEAKER_01: It started defining what agape is.
SPEAKER_01: It gave character to its nature and scope of applications.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the word agape in its noun form occurs over 116 times in our New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go and see what the Bible says about agape love.
SPEAKER_01: Firstly, agape is God's love.
SPEAKER_01: Agape is God's love.
SPEAKER_01: And here are four thoughts about God's love.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna run through them as fast as possible because I have a lot to say this morning.
SPEAKER_01: But firstly, agape is God's love because it encompasses all God's attributes.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, agape expresses the character of God's actions and dealings with the world.
SPEAKER_01: God expressed his love in the form of action, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world.
SPEAKER_01: This is how God loved the world.
SPEAKER_01: God loved the world in this way that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: However, God's love would not be reciprocated as expected.
SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless, God's love was not a mere emotion, neither was it mere speech, but it was expressed in sacrificial action.
SPEAKER_01: Namely, sending his only son as the sacrifice for sin.
SPEAKER_01: Then certainly, a copy of love is God's love because it embodies divine initiative.
SPEAKER_01: One thing about God's love is it takes the first step.
SPEAKER_01: It is proactive, not retroactive.
SPEAKER_01: God's love always initiates.
SPEAKER_01: First John four nineteen.
SPEAKER_01: We love because he first loved us.
SPEAKER_01: Our love merely is a reaction to God's initiative.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love does not only love the unlovable, but it initiates, it takes the first step, it leads.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love is also described as God's deliberate self-giving love that is expressed irrespective of a person's worth or merit.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore, God agape love is from God.
SPEAKER_01: God is the source of love.
SPEAKER_01: And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
SPEAKER_01: Firstly, agape love is distinctly divine.
SPEAKER_01: It has a divine origin.
SPEAKER_01: It is God's own word for love.
SPEAKER_01: It is the word that describes God's love.
SPEAKER_01: Now, every agape love is also the church and Christianity's own word for love.
SPEAKER_01: No one is allowed to just use that word agape.
SPEAKER_01: It is exclusively divine, exclusively the word for Christian love.
SPEAKER_01: Take your Bibles and turn to 1 John 4, 7, and I will show you a few things about that word agape and how the New Testament writers use it.
SPEAKER_01: Making my second point here, agape is Christianity's own love.
SPEAKER_01: I will have a few subpoints as we move along.
SPEAKER_01: But secondly, agape is Christianity's word for love.
SPEAKER_01: 1 John 4, 7, the apostle writes there, Beloved or loved ones, let us love one another, for love is from God.
SPEAKER_01: And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
SPEAKER_01: Firstly, what the apostle John tells us, and he was known as the disciple whom Jesus loved.
SPEAKER_01: He says there that God is the source of agape.
SPEAKER_01: We get agape from God.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, we must notice that the apostle also states that agape is in the grasp of only those who are regenerate.
SPEAKER_01: He says, those who are born of God and those who know God, not know about God, but those who have an intimate relationship with God have the ability to put their hands around agape love.
SPEAKER_01: Those who have been born of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ, through the knowledge of his son who died on a cross as a payment for sin, and who've made them, made him their personal Savior, will know and understand the depth and the breadth of God's love.
SPEAKER_01: It does not need to be concocted, it does not need to be made up or fabricated, but rather rather it flows.
SPEAKER_01: It flows from a heart that is being regenerated, from a heart that has an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: As one pastor once stated, he said, the saints' love for one another is an outflow from their union and communion and fellowship with Christ Jesus, who is the beloved Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: He goes further.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Agape love can only be expressed by those who have experienced the rebirth in its fullest sense.
SPEAKER_01: Likewise, another pastor said, a person who shows no evidence of agape love has no claim on Christ or on eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: So if agape love is within our reach, if we can love like God loves, because agape is God's love, it is the love that Christians have for one another.
SPEAKER_01: What will the character be of agape love?
SPEAKER_01: Let me help define the character of agape love because we want to make sure we have the real thing here.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want artificial imitations or human fabrications.
SPEAKER_01: We after the real McCoy, as they would say.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 12.9, let's go back to that passage.
SPEAKER_01: Your translation may or may not have the word hypocrisy in there, but I like the word hypocrisy in there because that is the word in the Greek text.
SPEAKER_01: It says there in Romans 12.9, let love be without hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_01: Literally translate it.
SPEAKER_01: It makes a claim, a statement about the nature and the character of Agape, love.
SPEAKER_01: The love is a hypocritical, would be a clumsy, but a very literal rendering of the Greek.
SPEAKER_01: This specific love that God has and that Christians have is a love free of hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure Paul is making a statement here about hypocrisy and about the influences of Greek culture, especially through their stage acting.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the word hypocrisy comes from Greek stage acting.
SPEAKER_01: You see, actors in those days wore masks.
SPEAKER_01: And they would use one mask, for instance, to portray a conquering hero, but that same actor would go beyond the stage and put another mask on and come out as the super villain.
SPEAKER_01: Simply switching the mask would essentially make him playing the hypocrite.
SPEAKER_01: That's where that phrase, playing the hypocrite, comes from.
SPEAKER_01: It comes from stage acting.
SPEAKER_01: And so what is Paul saying here?
SPEAKER_01: He says, agape love does not wear a mask.
SPEAKER_01: It does not portray to be something which it's not.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, agape love is to be classified as the love that is known for its purity and sincerity, its truthfulness, its genuineness, and of course, its authenticity.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think there's a command here.
SPEAKER_01: It's merely giving a statement about the character of agape love.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love has no ulterior motive.
SPEAKER_01: It can be taken for face value.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the noble love of the Greeks was a type of love that could manipulate and control people.
SPEAKER_01: It was a means to an end.
SPEAKER_01: The noble love of the Greeks was a type of love that you could uh use uh to achieve your own personal goals.
SPEAKER_01: Not agape love.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love has no ulterior motive, it's not a means to an end.
SPEAKER_01: It is authentic, it's honest, it's truthful without any pretense or ulterior motive.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love has no expectation of being reciprocated question.
SPEAKER_01: Can agape love exist within an environment where people are not really open and honest and truthful with one another?
SPEAKER_01: Can agape love exist within an environment where people put on masks and pretend to be something that they're not?
SPEAKER_01: Can agape love actually exists in an environment without masks, where people are authentic and honest and true and sincere with one another and relationally honest and transparent with one another.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, that is the environment in which agape love comes to its best.
SPEAKER_01: You see, agape love does not need circumstances to be perfect.
SPEAKER_01: What agape love needs is honesty and truthfulness.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 4 15 is uh another interesting passage.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 4.15 reads, rather, speaking the truth and love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is saying there in Ephesians 4.15 that we are to speak the truth and love, but very interesting there too.
SPEAKER_01: There is no verb there for speaking.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, what it does, it takes the word truth and turns it into a verb.
SPEAKER_01: You English majors and English teachers, I think they call it a gerund when you take a noun and you turn it into a verb.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I'm still trying to figure out the English language, but in any case, what Paul basically is saying there in Ephesians 4.15, he says, truthing in love.
SPEAKER_01: Truthing in love.
SPEAKER_01: That's my translation.
SPEAKER_01: If we are truthing in love, if we have this radical honesty and transparency with one another, we are not faking it.
SPEAKER_01: We in fact will create an environment in which love, agape love, will function at its best.
SPEAKER_01: And when agape love functions at its best, we will be growing up in every way into Christ.
SPEAKER_01: God wants us as a body of believers to grow up and mature in Him.
SPEAKER_01: But by mono means will that ever be accomplished if we are not truthful and authentic in our relationships with one another.
SPEAKER_01: God calls the Ephesian church here to quit wearing masks and to stop pretending in their exchanges with one another.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, in their honesty, transparency, their relationships will be fostered in the climate of agape love.
SPEAKER_01: You know how it goes, dear brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: Hi! Hi! Good to see you.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, really good to see you.
SPEAKER_01: Everything okay?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: You sure?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: I've just been noticing you've been avoiding me.
SPEAKER_01: No, no problem.
SPEAKER_01: I'm preaching to myself.
SPEAKER_01: Paul in 2 Corinthians 6, 6, makes a powerful statement about the character of his ministry.
SPEAKER_01: He says the way in which he conducted himself in his ministry was with the purity of heart, in honesty and transparency, and the sincerity of his love was a telltale characteristic of the way that he ministered to people.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Paul was blatantly honest so that he can be blatantly loving.
SPEAKER_01: If we are authentic and truthful and honest, our love for one another can be maximized.
SPEAKER_01: But dear brothers and sisters, this agape love has two tracks, if you like, in which the train of agape love goes forward to proclaim the glories of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Firstly, what agape love disassociates with?
SPEAKER_01: Agape love has certain disassociations, and agape love has certain associations and affinities.
SPEAKER_01: Let's think of first what agape love detests.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 12, 9 says there, let love be without hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: How is love to be without hypocrisy?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it must detest of everything that is evil.
SPEAKER_01: Some translations may read, abore what is evil.
SPEAKER_01: Abore what is evil.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love literally has a gagging reflex when it sees that which God hates.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, agape love is God's love.
SPEAKER_01: God loves, for he is love, but God hates.
SPEAKER_01: God hates.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, Psalm 5 says, verses 4 to 6, for you are not a God who delights in wickedness.
SPEAKER_01: Evil may not dwell with you.
SPEAKER_01: The boastful shall not stand before your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: You hate all evildoers.
SPEAKER_01: You destroy those who speak lies.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord abores the bloodthirsty and the deceitful man.
SPEAKER_01: God abores hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore his love cannot be hypocritical.
SPEAKER_01: You see, often there are supposed acts of love, no matter how tender, no matter how heart-moving, no matter how generous.
SPEAKER_01: If it fails the hypocrisy test, then it's not agape love.
SPEAKER_01: Even the slightest hint of self-assertion, self-seeking, self-promotion, or self-gratification will give this love an evil bent, and then it fails the test.
SPEAKER_01: Then it's not agape love, but some other form of love.
SPEAKER_01: So how are we to make sure that the love we have for one another is of that non-hypocritical kind?
SPEAKER_01: It is the type of love that must flee from all things evil.
SPEAKER_01: In 1 Timothy 6, 11, Paul speaks to Timothy, he says, But as for you, O man of God, flee these things.
SPEAKER_01: Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love.
SPEAKER_01: It is impossible to say I am pursuing the love of others, but with one eye we treasure that which is evil in the eyes of God.
SPEAKER_01: Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Kent Hughes explains it very simply in his commentary.
SPEAKER_01: He says, sincere love, agape love demands God honoring, moral resolve, regarding good and evil.
SPEAKER_01: You see, agape love follows tightly on the heels of those who flee that which is evil and pursue righteousness, godliness, and faith, as 1 Timothy 6.11 tells us.
SPEAKER_01: You see, agape love is known for what it hates.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love is known for what it hates, it hates that which God hates.
SPEAKER_01: But agape love is also known for what it cleaves to, what it's bound to.
SPEAKER_01: And it's bound to all that is good.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love clings to what is good.
SPEAKER_01: That is a good translation.
SPEAKER_01: That word cling means glued to.
SPEAKER_01: The Greek word is glued, bound to.
SPEAKER_01: Simply state it, agape love abores what the triune God abores, but it delights in what the triune God delights in.
SPEAKER_01: And God delights in what is good.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because in Mark 10, 18, Jesus makes the statement, he says, no one is good except God alone.
SPEAKER_01: God defines the standard of love.
SPEAKER_01: God will define what is the standard of good.
SPEAKER_01: Where is God's standards for what is good?
SPEAKER_01: To be found?
SPEAKER_01: In the pages of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 119, verse 68 says, You are good and you do good.
SPEAKER_01: Teach me your statues.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love is taught in the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love is therefore present amongst those who desire to obey the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: If there is no submission to the word of God, if we are not willing to be taught by the word of God and submit ourselves to the word of God, there is no hope for us to express a type of love for one another that is to be termed agape love.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to how 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 5 to 7 describes the godly.
SPEAKER_01: The God-fearing person in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 5 says, For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness.
SPEAKER_01: And godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
SPEAKER_01: You see, agape love does not stand in a vacuum.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love is cultivated amongst those who pursue the glory of Jesus Christ and his righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew Henry says, Thus love, the greatest of all Christian graces, out of faith, the root, spring the seven fair fruits of godliness, of which love is the fairest and the sweetest.
SPEAKER_01: If we wonder why agape love so quickly slips through our fingers, it is because we fail to grasp the essence of personal holiness, Christ-like holiness, and obedience needs to be grabbed with both hands, or else agape love will slip through our fingers.
SPEAKER_01: You see, personal godliness, dear brothers and sisters, is like fertile soil, and Christ-like obedience are like the rays of the sun.
SPEAKER_01: Without fertile soil and the rays of the sun, those who sow will sow in vain.
SPEAKER_01: Sincere love demands God honoring resolve, regarding good and evil.
SPEAKER_01: You may ask, okay, well, give me some examples of how Agape love exerts itself and expresses itself in the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Go back to Romans twelve and verse ten.
SPEAKER_01: It says there.
SPEAKER_01: Love one another with brotherly affection, do one another in showing honor.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
SPEAKER_01: You see, when the people of God are devoted to one another, when they are committed to one another, when they are committed to honoring the other person more important than self, where they serve one another, where they persevere together in tribulation, when they are devoted and committed to one another to pray for each other, and also not only pray but actually contribute to each other's needs, and they practice hospitality amongst one another, dear brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, agape love is there.
SPEAKER_01: But you see, agape love cannot take root in the crusty soil of unaffectionate people, envious, proudful, lazy, and self-serving people, you will not find agape love and they must.
SPEAKER_01: Agape will not grow in the barren, fell soil of those who are miserly, cowardly, grumbling, prayerless, cold-hearted, and inhospitable.
SPEAKER_01: But indeed, agape love is the first fruit of the spirit, as Galatians 5.22 says.
SPEAKER_01: But agape love can only issue from a heart and a mind that is indwelt by the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Timothy 1 5, Paul says that agape love issues from what?
SPEAKER_01: A purified heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.
SPEAKER_01: Now the goal of our instruction, Paul says, is love.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love.
SPEAKER_01: And where does that agape love come out of?
SPEAKER_01: It comes out of a pure heart, a purified heart, a cleansed conscience, and a sincere faith.
SPEAKER_01: A few months ago, my wife sent me on a mission to buy tea tree oil for her.
SPEAKER_01: And that was uh quite a challenging mission.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure if you guys have ever experienced it.
SPEAKER_01: Your wife sends you out to find the holy grail type of thing.
SPEAKER_01: And so here I go in the store, and there are bottles for six dollars, and there are bottles up towards twenty, thirty dollars.
SPEAKER_01: I picked up a pattern.
SPEAKER_01: The smaller the bottle, the greater the price.
SPEAKER_01: And so I went over to the person that worked there.
SPEAKER_01: I said, could you help me find some tea tree oil?
SPEAKER_01: Because uh obviously there are many types available.
SPEAKER_01: And the person said to me, Look, it's all about the purity.
SPEAKER_01: It's all about the purity.
SPEAKER_01: And the purer, the smaller the bottle, but the higher the price.
SPEAKER_01: But remember, purity equals potency.
SPEAKER_01: So, okay, give me the smallest, most expensive bottle.
SPEAKER_01: I'll go home with that.
SPEAKER_01: The greater the purity, the greater the potency is true for tea tree oil.
SPEAKER_01: It is true for love too.
SPEAKER_01: You see, love can only come out of a heart that is pure, a conscience that is cleansed, and a faith that is without hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine I came home with one of those used motor oil cans.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, honey, I've uh the guy just decantered some of this tea tree oil in this motor oil can.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think she would even ask whether that can is clean.
SPEAKER_01: She would just say, This is not the suitable container.
SPEAKER_01: Likewise, dear brothers and sisters, sweet water doesn't come out of a brackish spring, does it?
SPEAKER_01: Can a fleshly uncircumcised heart generate agape love?
SPEAKER_01: Well would it take a shot at it and produce something that looks like it, but it's artificial.
SPEAKER_01: It's fabricated.
SPEAKER_01: Impure hearts can only take a cheap shot at fabricating agape love.
SPEAKER_01: But dear brothers and sisters, you can maybe synthesize the flavors of oranges and pineapples and coconuts, but there's no artificial equivalent for agape love.
SPEAKER_01: You see, agape love comes from God, it is generated within us.
SPEAKER_01: It is not fabricated, it does not need to be fabricated, it's more like a faucet that just needs to be opened up.
SPEAKER_01: An olive tree cannot produce a single ounce of canola oil, no matter how hard it tries.
SPEAKER_01: Likewise, 100% pure agape love cannot come from a heart that is not 100% transformed.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith, as God makes clear to us in 1 Timothy 1.5.
SPEAKER_01: Let's bring this home to us.
SPEAKER_01: Here is the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Let us bring it home to where you are sitting at home, dear brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: If we claim Christ, we're wearing a label that says agape love.
SPEAKER_01: We are the people of agape love because we worship the God of Agape love.
SPEAKER_01: But what the label says on the outside must be true for what is happening on the inside.
SPEAKER_01: Does the label overpromise, but the inside underdeliver?
SPEAKER_01: Just like that tropical fruit juice that upon closer inspection had 0% fruit.
SPEAKER_01: But we have this assurance, dear brothers and sisters, if we are born of God and our hearts and our minds and our spirits have been purified and washed by the Spirit through the Word of God, all we need to do is open up, unleash that which is inside us.
SPEAKER_01: You see, dear brothers and sisters, it is not that we have to fabricate or concoct Agape love, but we tend to be standing in its way.
SPEAKER_01: It might come out of the faucet clean, but soon it gets polluted with other things.
SPEAKER_01: Let us trust and rest upon this promise that agape love will be regenerated by God.
SPEAKER_01: We will never run out.
SPEAKER_01: It is not like the faucet that you turn on and the water stops after a while.
SPEAKER_01: Because God is love.
SPEAKER_01: He is our source, our infinite source of agape love.
SPEAKER_01: My dear brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: Agape love in its purest form is available to the saints.
SPEAKER_01: It can be expressed.
SPEAKER_01: Only the purest and the best is fitting for our Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let me close with this saying that I grew up in South Africa, a country known for its diamonds.
SPEAKER_01: And many years ago there was a diamond found, one of the larger diamonds called the Cullydon Diamond, was found not very far from my home.
SPEAKER_01: Diamonds, they tell me, is coal.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, that turned into a diamond.
SPEAKER_01: But guess what?
SPEAKER_01: I've never heard of anybody finding a diamond in a coal mine.
SPEAKER_01: But interestingly, this diamond mine, the Cullinan diamond mine, found one of the most valuable diamonds of its time, not because it was large, but because it was pure.
SPEAKER_01: And that diamond ended up being the centerpiece to the crown of King the King of England.
SPEAKER_01: Likewise, agape love is that diamond that makes the centerpiece of the crown of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Not because it's big, but because it's pure and sincere.
SPEAKER_01: My prayer, dear brothers and sister, is that when someone walks into the four walls here of Faith Evangelical Free Church, that they will find the finest, the purest of love.
SPEAKER_01: Let us ask God to help us because He desires to help us.
SPEAKER_01: Dear Father God, what a high standard for love.
SPEAKER_01: Only the purest love is good for your crown.
SPEAKER_01: Only the purest love will bring you the praise and glory.
SPEAKER_01: I pray God that we will make time.
SPEAKER_01: In a time when we are slowing down, in a time that we ought to reflect on where we stand with you.
SPEAKER_01: I pray God that we will look at our hearts to make sure that it has been cleansed, that it has been purified.
SPEAKER_01: Let us make sure that our hearts are indeed pure, sincere, and authentic.
SPEAKER_01: And that indeed it has been cleansed by your blood, and that it's being regenerated by your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I pray for this time that we will live in relative isolation from one another, but let our love for one another not grow cold.
SPEAKER_01: Let us desire, despite the circumstances not being ideal, desire to unleash our agape love on one another.
SPEAKER_00: Not because we must, but because we can.com.