Shownotes
Discover the true essence of love through authentic Christian teachings rooted in Scripture. Listen as Pastor Barbie explores the biblical definition of love, highlighting patience and kindness as its foundation, while uncovering what love is—and what it isn’t. Learn actionable insights to deepen your connection with God and others.
Scriptures Referenced
Matthew 22:36-40; John 13:34, 15:13-34; 1 Corinthians 13:4-7; 2 Corinthians 7:10; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 1 John 1:9, 4:20
Key Insights
- Authentic Christian love is rooted in patience and kindness.
- Understanding what love isn’t helps clarify what love truly is.
- Godly love reflects humility, honor, selflessness, and compassion.
- Love means walking in repentance, not avoiding accountability.
- True love surrenders personal desires for the well-being of others.
- Love’s authenticity is marked by endurance in difficult circumstances.
https://springhouse.captivate.fm/episode/obedience-the-love-language-of-heaven
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Gathering Times
- Sundays, 9:00 AM
- Sundays, 11:00 AM
- Thursdays, 6:00 PM
Contact Info
Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167
CCLI License 2070006
Transcripts
Is it just me, or is everybody sitting here going, "I'm gonna go have
Speaker:a bread bowl with a side of pasta"?
Speaker:Oh my goodness, I'm excited about what God is going to do. And
Speaker:I also had a moment— guys, listen, I have a little bit of a sarcastic
Speaker:thing that happens sometimes, and I know you've never noticed,
Speaker:and— but I'm thinking, You know what? All the introverts in the room just
Speaker:went, "He didn't say it had to be 40 different names."
Speaker:So I'm gonna be calling a lot.
Speaker:Like I said, he'll be back and I'll be in trouble. It'll be fine. Anyway,
Speaker:we're gonna talk about love this morning, which seems very
Speaker:appropriate on Valentine's weekend, you know? I love the way
Speaker:the Lord works that out. And we are going to— for some
Speaker:of you who who come on Thursday nights, are able to be in here on
Speaker:Thursday nights, we will call this an encore
Speaker:because Pastor Kevin, a few weeks ago, asked me if I would share
Speaker:this, this morning. Now, we do have some handouts if you
Speaker:feel like you want to take notes, and if you didn't get one coming in,
Speaker:you'll let us know. If you'll just raise your hand, we'll bring one to you.
Speaker:If you don't want to write things down, I would encourage you,
Speaker:if there's something in the path And there's gonna be
Speaker:a couple for, a couple of things I'm gonna ask everybody to take out your
Speaker:phone. I know it's a crazy thing to ask in the middle of a service,
Speaker:but there's gonna be a point in time, if you have a phone, then I'm
Speaker:gonna say, would you take a picture of the screen? Because I want it to
Speaker:be your screensaver for a week or two, if at all possible. So
Speaker:we're just gonna see what the Lord does with that. But if you need a
Speaker:handout, would you raise your hand for just a second? And we will
Speaker:have them run them down to you.
Speaker:God is so good. He is so
Speaker:faithful all the time. He is so faithful, and
Speaker:we are going to get into his Word. We are going to do what Pastor
Speaker:Kevin just asked us to do. We are going to get into the Word and
Speaker:abide. I'll never forget, for a lot of
Speaker:years here, Ash Wednesday, we would have
Speaker:we had a priest that would come and they would do the application of
Speaker:the ashes to enter into the Lenten season. And I
Speaker:just remember it was a very solemn
Speaker:occurrence. It was a very solemn assembly. But I just remember
Speaker:it really marked that season heading into
Speaker:what the Lord would have for us in this time. Okay, we got everybody?
Speaker:Okay, we are gonna jump into the Word in just a second. We are going
Speaker:to be reading from Matthew 22. If you have your
Speaker:Bibles, I encourage you, pull out your Bible.
Speaker:Don't take it for granted that I'm going to be telling you the truth.
Speaker:However, I am. I'm gonna do my best to. But you know what?
Speaker:Get in the Word for yourself and see it. And we're gonna begin with
Speaker:Matthew 22.
Speaker:And we're gonna talk about, "As I have loved you."
Speaker:As I have loved you. In
Speaker:Matthew 22, let me set it up for you just a second. We see
Speaker:the Pharisees and the Sadducees, it's like, you know, the Republicans and the
Speaker:Democrats, and they're trying to prove— it's the political parties
Speaker:and social hierarchy. One is richer than the other. One
Speaker:is supposed to be grassroots. Anyway, they're trying to trip Jesus
Speaker:up. And so they're having this conversation with Jesus and they're
Speaker:asking him questions. And they throw out the question of,
Speaker:well, you know, this man is married to this woman, and then this woman— the
Speaker:man dies, and then the woman marries her brother, and
Speaker:then the brother dies. And then they're throwing out all of this stuff about,
Speaker:well, whose wife is she gonna be
Speaker:when they reach eternity? And I love that Jesus
Speaker:doesn't buy into their stuff, doesn't buy into it.
Speaker:He basically tells them, One thing
Speaker:he says, the very first thing on your paper,
Speaker:"You are in error because you do not know the scriptures
Speaker:or the power of God." In other words,
Speaker:he's looking at these power brokers in the room, and they're
Speaker:asking these questions trying to make him seem like he doesn't—
Speaker:isn't who he says he is. And he basically says, "You have no
Speaker:idea what you're talking about." Because you don't know the Scriptures.
Speaker:And so, they couldn't trip him up, and then the other
Speaker:sect comes in and tries to trip him up, and they do this.
Speaker:And if you would stand, we're gonna read one passage, just a very short
Speaker:Scripture. And let's read
Speaker:it so that Pastor Kevin hears this, okay? He's in East Tennessee, so I'm just
Speaker:gonna have to really do a good job. All right, ready?
Speaker:"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the
Speaker:law?" Jesus replied, 'Love the Lord your
Speaker:God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and
Speaker:with all of your mind. This is the first and greatest
Speaker:commandment. And the second is like it:
Speaker:Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law
Speaker:and the prophets hang on these two commandments.'
Speaker:Father God, I thank you that you draw bottom lines for us.
Speaker:I thank you, Father God, that you give us clarity through your Word,
Speaker:Father, a starting point. And Father, this morning, I'm asking, Lord,
Speaker:that you would awaken our hearts to be taught of you, Lord. That's the prayer
Speaker:that David prayed, and that's the prayer that we pray, Lord, that we would be
Speaker:taught this morning. And Lord, I just ask that your Holy Spirit would
Speaker:deliver the Word, not me, Father God. I thank you. Let my stuff fall
Speaker:and you stand, in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker:Amen. And the very first thing on your list is exactly what I just shared
Speaker:with you. When he spoke to them, "You are in error because you
Speaker:do not know the Scriptures or the power of God." And see,
Speaker:a lot of times, guys, we make mistakes or we head
Speaker:down pathways that aren't consistent with what the Lord would have because
Speaker:we don't know what the Lord really wants in that moment,
Speaker:right? Have you ever walked into a mall and seen
Speaker:a sign that says, "You are here"? And so you can kind of acclimate
Speaker:yourself to, okay, this is what This is where I am right now, and so
Speaker:I need to go this way, or I need to go this way to get
Speaker:where I'm going. Well, the Word does that for us. The
Speaker:Word tells us, this is where you are. This is your starting
Speaker:point. This is the baseline that I want to
Speaker:begin with you. And I believe that that is something that the
Speaker:Lord wants to do with today's message.
Speaker:Sometimes the most clarifying things we can do is to
Speaker:scripturally define the bottom line so that this can become
Speaker:our let's start here. Here, okay? Let's start
Speaker:here. We're not starting with doctrine. We're not starting with
Speaker:opinions. We're not starting with, you know, which religion is right,
Speaker:which person is right, which is— and what. We are starting with
Speaker:a bottom line. Why am I calling it that? Because Jesus
Speaker:was the teacher. He was
Speaker:the teacher. There were— you know,
Speaker:Scripture says, "Never a man spake like this man."
Speaker:Nobody talked like him. Nobody taught like him. So
Speaker:if we are going to listen to the words of someone who
Speaker:is the ultimate teacher, wouldn't you think if they
Speaker:said, "This is the most important thing," that we
Speaker:would want to know what the most important thing is?
Speaker:Well, that's where he's getting ready to take us. So this is where we're
Speaker:gonna start today. We are going to start Everybody,
Speaker:just in your mind right now, just erase that whole chalkboard that's going
Speaker:on in your mind of all the dos and the don'ts and the rules and
Speaker:the regulations and what it looks like to serve God and being
Speaker:a good Christian and all this. And we're going to erase all of that right
Speaker:now. And we're just going to go, we're going to start right here.
Speaker:We're going to start right here with when the— he says, which is
Speaker:the greatest command? He says, love the Lord your God with all
Speaker:of your heart, with all of your soul, with all your mind, with all of
Speaker:your strength. And the second is like it, love one another
Speaker:as you love yourself. Now,
Speaker:that's a high standard, right up to the point that you don't
Speaker:love yourself, right up to the point that you really
Speaker:aren't respecting who you are and don't really have such a high
Speaker:opinion of yourself. And then sometimes you just treat everybody else like
Speaker:that. And God is going, you know, I just, I want
Speaker:you to understand that there's a different way.
Speaker:When it comes to loving God and loving our neighbors, it is love for our
Speaker:neighbor that tends to suffer the greatest. You know, it's so easy to go,
Speaker:God is so good! God is so faithful! I love
Speaker:him so much! I love him so much!
Speaker:And that neighbor thing comes in there.
Speaker:You know, there's something that's kind of heartbreaking for me
Speaker:that has become a little bit trite and trivial
Speaker:in the church. You know, you hear things like,
Speaker:"Man, I so love God, it's his people I have a problem with."
Speaker:Or, "That church would be great if it just wasn't for the people."
Speaker:And, you know, we laugh it off, and we, you know, push
Speaker:it aside, and we make our jokes. And I believe that there's something
Speaker:in it that, that that God and the Holy Spirit are
Speaker:grieved by. Because see, I can look at
Speaker:Justin and Jessica, and I can go, "I love you guys,
Speaker:and I mean it. I mean that I love you."
Speaker:And then you follow it up with, "Oh, but that Lily and Noah."
Speaker:You know? Seriously. And you're going,
Speaker:"Wait a minute. Lily and Noah are their
Speaker:heart." And so, how can I tell them
Speaker:that I love them and totally disregard
Speaker:or have a disdain for the thing that has totally
Speaker:captivated their hearts? God
Speaker:checks our love language to see whether it's true and
Speaker:authentic. And see, that same love that captivates them with all
Speaker:of their babies now— all— let me say that again, all
Speaker:of their babies now, That
Speaker:is the love that God has for you. So
Speaker:much greater. And not just you, but the person
Speaker:who's sitting next to you. He feels that way about
Speaker:them. He feels that way about the person that made you
Speaker:the maddest this week. He feels that way
Speaker:about the person who cut you off in traffic this week.
Speaker:I'm not even going to tell you. Somebody was so ugly to me this—
Speaker:it doesn't matter. Okay, I'll
Speaker:tell you. They were so ugly to me, and I had a heart
Speaker:check. They were coming down the wrong lane, and they did
Speaker:things I should— I'm not even gonna tell you about. And— but they were
Speaker:upset with me, and old Barbie, last Tuesday,
Speaker:would have— old Barbie would have
Speaker:gotten upset. But you know what my response was? God, it's okay,
Speaker:don't hurt them. Don't hurt them, Lord. I know
Speaker:you're upset for me in this moment,
Speaker:but Lord, I'm gonna let it go. So Lord, you go ahead and let it
Speaker:go, okay? That
Speaker:$150 speeding fine that they're gonna get down there is
Speaker:not our fault, Lord. Anyway,
Speaker:God checks those places in us because he loves
Speaker:his people. And so he's not gonna let us get by with not loving
Speaker:his people. His people are not a footnote
Speaker:in the journey. They're not a footnote in the story.
Speaker:So when it comes to loving God, we need to be able to—
Speaker:"If anyone boasts, 'I love God,' and goes right on hating his brother
Speaker:or sister, thinking nothing of it," what does that say?
Speaker:He's using a word I wasn't allowed to use in my house.
Speaker:He is a liar. If he won't love the person he can
Speaker:see, how can he love the God he can't see?
Speaker:The command we have from Christ is blunt. Loving
Speaker:God includes loving people. You have got to do
Speaker:both. What? It's not an option? We don't get to pick and
Speaker:choose. Well, I like them, but them I'm not so
Speaker:sure about. It's not an option. It doesn't say, you know, if
Speaker:you feel like it, because most of us don't need to be doing the things
Speaker:we feel like doing.
Speaker:I'm just— I'm just putting that out there. Anyway,
Speaker:then he goes and does this. You know, we were
Speaker:doing pretty good. We could do okay when we could love somebody as we
Speaker:love ourselves, you know, 'cause we're pretty limited in that. But then he goes and
Speaker:does this. He says, "A new command I give you:
Speaker:Love one another as I have loved
Speaker:you." Can you say that with me? "As I have
Speaker:loved you." What? '"So must you love one another.
Speaker:By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love
Speaker:one another.'"
Speaker:Okay, Jesus raised the bar from "love your neighbor
Speaker:as yourself" to "as I have loved you." And in doing
Speaker:this, our blueprint became his love rather than
Speaker:our own. Wow!
Speaker:His blueprint. Became—
Speaker:his love became our blueprint. That's
Speaker:a higher standard. It's a deeper call.
Speaker:There's more to it than that. And when I look at that, I'm like, okay,
Speaker:how do we do that, Lord? Because, you know, your love— I mean,
Speaker:you know what? The disciples probably could have told you what Jesus loved to like,
Speaker:what he, you know, what he enjoyed. And, you know, I'm sure John
Speaker:could have told you all about his love and how much Jesus loved him more
Speaker:than everybody else. But John would have known about the love
Speaker:of Jesus. He experienced it on a daily basis.
Speaker:Peter experienced it in a completely different way. But if
Speaker:you put their voices together, these are the people who walked with him daily,
Speaker:in and out, good days, bad days, horrible days,
Speaker:blessed days. They could have told you about the love of Jesus, right?
Speaker:I can look at people in my life and I can tell you, I can
Speaker:tell you that my husband's love, the way that he loves is
Speaker:faithful, and he is a protector, and he is
Speaker:witty, and he is gentle-spirited. And
Speaker:I can tell you what he is like. He is as faithful in
Speaker:his love as the day is long.
Speaker:But that's because I have walked with him for almost
Speaker:43 years, and he has been consistent,
Speaker:consistent in it. Now, if I try to tell you about the
Speaker:love of Jesus, I can tell you what it looked like in my life and
Speaker:what that redemptive price that was paid and who he is He has
Speaker:been in my life. But according to scripture, you know, it would
Speaker:be really dismissive of us to go,
Speaker:"Well, yeah, but Jesus died for everybody, and so his love
Speaker:was that sacrificial love that just died," you know, "and did that." And it seems
Speaker:so far beyond our ability to do anything like
Speaker:Jesus did. And yet we wear these shirts like,
Speaker:"Love like Jesus."
Speaker:And we don't even know what that means, nor
Speaker:do we move toward trying to do that.
Speaker:So, I'm looking at this, and I'm going, "Okay. Okay, God, then I don't really
Speaker:know how to love like Jesus. I don't really know. If you said,
Speaker:'As I have loved you, so you must love one another.'"
Speaker:I believe that the Word will give us instruction on everything that he
Speaker:asks us to do. And I don't think he ever asks us to do anything
Speaker:that's impossible, right? So, I believe he gave us a
Speaker:plan and an idea. Scripture tells us, All
Speaker:Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,
Speaker:rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the
Speaker:servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good
Speaker:work. Would you say that learning to love your neighbor as yourself
Speaker:would be a good work? Would you say that learning to love
Speaker:like Jesus, that, that He could teach us how to do that,
Speaker:that He could correct us when we're not getting it right, and that He could
Speaker:train us so that we can love like Jesus? I believe
Speaker:He can. Well, if all Scripture is God-breathed,
Speaker:then it would be a natural progression for me to go, "Okay, Lord, where
Speaker:in Scripture do you talk to us about how to love?" Because
Speaker:if you are going to teach me how to love, and I'm not talking
Speaker:about Cupid love, I'm not talking about box of chocolates
Speaker:love, though those are nice. I'm not talking about
Speaker:Valentine love. I'm not talking about that, and neither
Speaker:is he. Neither is he. So, we're gonna see,
Speaker:I believe that when Jesus— when the Holy Spirit
Speaker:breathed 1 Corinthians 13, I believe he was
Speaker:breathing a teaching to tell us this is how
Speaker:Jesus loves. And this is the instruction that I'm gonna
Speaker:leave for you in my last will and testament. I'm going to
Speaker:leave this instruction for you so that when you read somewhere
Speaker:down the road in 2026 that I'm asking you to
Speaker:love like I love, I wanna show you what that looks like. And so, that's
Speaker:what we're gonna do this morning. All Scripture
Speaker:is God-breathed. I also believe this. I grew
Speaker:up out in the country. I know it shocks you with this accent,
Speaker:you know. You're thinking London, Britain, whatever, but
Speaker:I grew up out in the country, and I had a cousin, and
Speaker:he was a snake handler before snake handling was, you know,
Speaker:exciting. And he was— he knew exactly
Speaker:what he was gonna grab hold of. And I remember one
Speaker:particular day— now, his mama wasn't very fast,
Speaker:but she was that day. Anyway,
Speaker:his mama wasn't very fast, and I just remember him coming in
Speaker:the room, and he had this snake by the head,
Speaker:and his mama's backing out of the room, and he's going, "Momma,
Speaker:it ain't poison. And look at here at its head,
Speaker:it's diamond-shaped. It ain't poison. And it's skinny, it's
Speaker:skinny. It ain't this." Because see, he knew that his mother's
Speaker:peace relied on what it wasn't rather than what it was.
Speaker:And so, he was going really quickly to describe everything
Speaker:that it wasn't. And that makes total sense when you begin to look
Speaker:at 1 Corinthians 13. Because what we
Speaker:find in this passage of Scripture is that the Lord gives us
Speaker:2 descriptors of what
Speaker:it is and 8 of what it isn't. You
Speaker:know what that tells me? It tells me that the Holy Spirit
Speaker:knew that we would have a problem trying to call something
Speaker:love that wasn't. And so, sometimes
Speaker:we're better served by knowing what something isn't rather than what it
Speaker:is. Because those are clarifiers, guys. If I can
Speaker:give you some things from the Word that go, "This is what it
Speaker:is, and this is what it isn't," you might just be able
Speaker:to grab hold of it and go, "Oh, okay. Okay,
Speaker:Lord." And that becomes your starting point.
Speaker:Because guys, some of the things that we call love, it
Speaker:ain't. It ain't love. It's got other words
Speaker:for it, but it ain't love. And I hope, and my prayer would be,
Speaker:that we would begin to define some of this. According to the
Speaker:Scripture, true love has two
Speaker:initial authenticators. If you want
Speaker:to know if it's love, the two things that it will be
Speaker:is it will be patient, and it will be kind.
Speaker:Love is patient, and it is kind. And if
Speaker:you are in a relationship, or you're seeking a relationship, or you're looking
Speaker:for that person, and boy, they're pretty, or boy, they're
Speaker:handsome, are they patient? And are they
Speaker:kind? Because that's gonna matter in
Speaker:your life. That is gonna matter in your life.
Speaker:Looks fade. Popularity wanes. Kindness,
Speaker:patience, that's what you want.
Speaker:Kindness, and patience. Let me
Speaker:give you this first one. Patience is the
Speaker:level of endurance one exemplifies in difficult
Speaker:circumstances before moving into negativity.
Speaker:How patient are you? How patient
Speaker:are you? When things start to go south, do you jump in the deep end
Speaker:with them? Or do you try to point them toward the shallow end,
Speaker:a way out? Do you go negative? Patience.
Speaker:You know what? Patience destroys
Speaker:the— I'm sorry, impatience
Speaker:will destroy kindness. It will just destroy it.
Speaker:Patience, the level of endurance.
Speaker:When people talk about you, or your name gets brought
Speaker:up, do they say that about you?
Speaker:Do they like, "Oh man, they are just so
Speaker:positive. They are so positive. They live in this land
Speaker:of positivity." It's a
Speaker:marker of His love. And then there's this,
Speaker:kindness, marked by good and charitable behavior,
Speaker:having a pleasant disposition, and showing genuine
Speaker:concern for others. Is that you?
Speaker:When people talk about you, do they say, "They have the most
Speaker:pleasant disposition"? Or
Speaker:when you start down the hallway at church, do you see people starting to pretend
Speaker:they're on their phones? Because that could be an indicator.
Speaker:When all of a sudden they have a phone call and step into a side
Speaker:room until right after you pass.
Speaker:Do you have a pleasant countenance? Has God done enough in
Speaker:your life for you to be grateful and walk around like you're grateful?
Speaker:I mean, seriously, come on. We're not all
Speaker:born happy, you know? But the goodness of God and
Speaker:what he has done should provoke a smile from time to time.
Speaker:I mean, we should be the most peace-carrying people on
Speaker:the planet, and yet we look so miserable sometimes.
Speaker:Speaking of driving in cars, as we were talking about earlier,
Speaker:Have you ever looked at people's faces as they drive past you?
Speaker:Oh my goodness, did they have a bad day?
Speaker:Or a bad year? We don't know. But it's like,
Speaker:when the Lord started pointing that out to me, I have the fakest
Speaker:smile when I drive because I'm like, "What if somebody passes?"
Speaker:But I'm honest about it. Anyway,
Speaker:patience and kindness. Guys, those are the only
Speaker:two things he says that love is.
Speaker:Love is patient. It is kind.
Speaker:That's what you want. That's what you want to be, and that's who
Speaker:you want to be involved with, right? Now, let's talk about the
Speaker:nots. Let's talk about what it isn't. Because
Speaker:a lot of times, the enemy tries to tell you that what you are
Speaker:experiencing is love, and it's
Speaker:not. Patient kindness. And let me tell you what else it
Speaker:isn't. "Love is not envious or jealous,
Speaker:boastful or proud. It is not
Speaker:dishonoring or self-seeking. It is not easily angered or unforgiving."
Speaker:Now, let's break that down for just a second. Okay,
Speaker:envy. Everybody's like, "Oh, envious and jealous, they're the same things." No,
Speaker:they're not. Envy is rooted in
Speaker:fear.
Speaker:No, I'm switching those. Jealousy is rooted in fear. Jealousy is
Speaker:rooted in fear because you are afraid someone is going to
Speaker:take something that you have. And so, you are
Speaker:jealous and you're not at peace with it because
Speaker:you don't want anybody messing with what's yours. Well, it ain't yours.
Speaker:It ain't yours. Anything we have, God gave into our hands, and either He can
Speaker:keep it in our hands or He won't. And if He doesn't, we didn't need
Speaker:it in the first place. Jealousy,
Speaker:envious. Envious is to be rooted— it's rooted in
Speaker:lust. Envy is rooted in this place, "Well, why did they
Speaker:get that? They've got this, and I want that, and
Speaker:I deserve that, and I want that." And that is jealousy and
Speaker:envious. If you are in a relationship where the person you are with
Speaker:does not celebrate your victories and wants to hold you back and keep
Speaker:you from moving forward in the Lord, this is an area of
Speaker:prayer. Because we're not supposed to be jealous or
Speaker:envious with our mates. We're just not supposed
Speaker:to. Boastful or proud. Guys, listen here. If the person
Speaker:that you are trying to do life with wants to tell you how good they
Speaker:are all of the time, it's probably not a good, good reason to be with
Speaker:them. If somebody gives you their resume, You know,
Speaker:can I just tell you, there's no reason for
Speaker:one single person in this room, myself
Speaker:included, to boast.
Speaker:I don't have anything to brag about except the goodness of God,
Speaker:and that's on Him. He did that, not me. I don't need
Speaker:to tell you what I've done. And if somebody else— now, if somebody else
Speaker:wants to talk to people about how good you are, yay! Yay!
Speaker:God has done something with your reputation, and that needed to be done anyway.
Speaker:But if somebody else wants to do that, that's fine, that's good, but don't sing
Speaker:your own praises. And if you're with somebody who wants to tell you how
Speaker:lucky you are to be with them, don't be.
Speaker:Proud, proud.
Speaker:Do you receive correction? Are you
Speaker:able to go, "Yeah, I was probably wrong there. Yeah, I'm sorry about
Speaker:that." Love means never having to
Speaker:say you're sorry. Who made that
Speaker:up? I say it multiple times
Speaker:every single day, and it's necessary.
Speaker:Seriously, apologize. You know what? I
Speaker:don't need to be prideful. I missed it. I miss it all
Speaker:the time, and I'm so sorry.
Speaker:Be quick. That's called repentance.
Speaker:Turn and go the opposite direction. If you've got to say— tell
Speaker:the Lord you're sorry. Now listen, there is a sorrow that
Speaker:leads to death, according to Scripture, and it is a worldly sorrow.
Speaker:And you can be sorry all day long and never change a thing.
Speaker:But there is a godly sorrow According to Scripture, that
Speaker:leads to repentance, and that leads to life.
Speaker:Don't just be sorry, repent and don't do it again.
Speaker:Rowan and Nora were playing this past week, and I
Speaker:think Nora took something from Rowan, and they started
Speaker:bickering, and I said, "Okay guys, okay, all
Speaker:right, stop." They're 4 and they're 5, but I've heard 40 and 50-year-olds
Speaker:do it too, anyway. But I said, "Okay guys, stop.
Speaker:Now, let's fix this." And Nora says,
Speaker:"Okay, Rowan, I apologize."
Speaker:And he says, "Well, I forgive you.
Speaker:I forgive you, but we're not gonna do that again."
Speaker:And sometimes that's okay, right? You
Speaker:know, I forgive you, And he said, "But that wasn't okay."
Speaker:And sometimes, it's okay to let people, "You know what? That
Speaker:wasn't okay. I forgive you, but that wasn't okay."
Speaker:You know? Anyway, it's not
Speaker:dishonoring or self-seeking. It's not easily angered or unforgiving.
Speaker:Okay, this is the one, if you are willing, I would like you to
Speaker:get a
Speaker:Screenshot. If you've got your phones, would you pull them out? Because
Speaker:I feel like this is where we're supposed to live for just a little while.
Speaker:And if it's on your phone, I know people look at
Speaker:their phone at least once a day, you know, once a second
Speaker:anyway. This right here.
Speaker:Love will not bring dishonor.
Speaker:It will not cause you to feel shame or disgrace.
Speaker:It will not remove your honor, diminish your worth,
Speaker:affect your honesty, or compromise the integrity
Speaker:of your personal values.
Speaker:Love will not remove your honor,
Speaker:diminish your worth, Affect your
Speaker:honesty or compromise the integrity
Speaker:of your personal values. Lay
Speaker:that against the blueprint, guys. When the
Speaker:enemy comes and tries to tell you, "Oh, but it's love, but
Speaker:it's love, but it's love," is it that? Are you
Speaker:compromising? Is it affecting the way you're walking in the earth? Are you
Speaker:having to lie to your parents? Are you having to make up excuses?
Speaker:What is it? Love does not dishonor you.
Speaker:It just doesn't. Jesus' love,
Speaker:His love will not bring dishonor. So
Speaker:we, to love like Jesus loved, cannot put
Speaker:ourselves or anybody else in a situation where
Speaker:we're calling something love and it's bringing dishonor.
Speaker:Okay? Shouldn't affect
Speaker:your honesty. Shouldn't have to lie about it.
Speaker:Shouldn't have to hide it. Love is pure. Love is
Speaker:pure, and it's kind, and it is patient.
Speaker:Anything that isn't that, you need to really
Speaker:examine it. It
Speaker:isn't self-seeking, guys. Contrary to
Speaker:popular belief, love doesn't put itself
Speaker:first. You don't get everything
Speaker:your way. It's not all going to always work out
Speaker:to where you win.
Speaker:Love will take a back seat
Speaker:and allow other people to shine and prosper and grow in
Speaker:Him.
Speaker:It isn't easily angered. This takes us back
Speaker:to the very beginning, guys. One of the initial
Speaker:markers was that it was patient and it was kind.
Speaker:It isn't easily angered. Now listen, I get— I
Speaker:run into this from time to time, more often than I would like to,
Speaker:people who have issues with anger. People who just blow off
Speaker:steam at the people that they say they love the most. And they
Speaker:just, they're just easily angered in this a hair trigger and you can go off
Speaker:with anything. And what I hear the most is, "Well, I'm just like
Speaker:that," or, "Well, he did," or, "She did."
Speaker:Listen, you are not like that.
Speaker:God did not create you with a short fuse. The world
Speaker:did that to you. And if you are struggling, and if you are
Speaker:anger-driven, and you're causing everybody in your household to have to walk on
Speaker:eggshells, That is
Speaker:not a— that is not part of your personality. That is a lack of the
Speaker:fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit of self-control. And
Speaker:if you will begin to pray, the Holy Spirit can bring about
Speaker:self-control in your life. Guys,
Speaker:as long as we make excuses, as long as we make
Speaker:excuses, the enemy will let us make excuses, and
Speaker:we will continue down with patterns and things in our life that God
Speaker:never intended for us. You know what? God created
Speaker:you whole, not broken. God created you with a
Speaker:propensity toward the eternal. He created you to
Speaker:love, and to be kind, and to display all
Speaker:of the attributes of the fruit of the Spirit. So when you find yourself
Speaker:deviating from those things that He says, then it's a
Speaker:spirit issue. It's not a flesh issue. We try
Speaker:to fight it with our flesh, and we can't. And that's
Speaker:why we say, "I'm just like that." No, your flesh is just like that.
Speaker:But if you will flip the triangle, and if you will allow your spirit
Speaker:to lead you, you'll find that you have more strength, more
Speaker:integrity, more honor, more patience, more peace
Speaker:than you ever dreamed imaginable.
Speaker:Because that's what God does, and that's what the Holy Spirit does when
Speaker:he takes control. Love is
Speaker:not easily angered and it isn't unforgiving.
Speaker:I'm going to ask the worship team to come out here in just a second,
Speaker:if they'd come on out. Can I tell you something?
Speaker:Love doesn't throw your past up in your face.
Speaker:Love doesn't get into arguments and remember what you did 3 years
Speaker:ago, and when you said this, or you did that. See, the love that I
Speaker:see from God says that He casts our sins as far as
Speaker:the east is from from the west into the sea of
Speaker:forgetfulness. His love erases that
Speaker:in our life, right? So, when you find
Speaker:yourself wanting to throw someone else's past up,
Speaker:understand that yours can be brought up too. And I
Speaker:sure don't want the Lord bringing mine up. I sure don't want
Speaker:to have to deal— I already dealt with my past once, or twice, or three,
Speaker:or four, or five, many times, all right? I don't want to have to go
Speaker:there again because he's not going there again. God
Speaker:has cleansed my heart. God
Speaker:has forgiven me. The Word tells me that if I
Speaker:confess my sins, he is faithful
Speaker:and just and will forgive me
Speaker:and, and cleanse me
Speaker:from all unrighteousness. You can't change
Speaker:what happened yesterday. You can't change how you
Speaker:behaved yesterday, but you can do a "let's start here."
Speaker:You can do a "let's start today." Let's start to
Speaker:redefine what relationships look like in my life. Let's
Speaker:begin to redefine what I'm putting out
Speaker:into the world. What kind of love am I portraying
Speaker:in this world?
Speaker:Now, if we know what it isn't,
Speaker:that means we know what it is, right? Because that
Speaker:would be the opposite, correct?
Speaker:I'm going to share this, and then we are going to stand and sing,
Speaker:and then I'm going to finish it because I want to
Speaker:show you If it isn't this, then
Speaker:it's this. And after I've read these to
Speaker:you, we're going to take just a moment and
Speaker:we're going to worship. We're going to just have a moment
Speaker:where we allow the Holy Spirit to take these things and
Speaker:to examine our heart. And then we'll come right back
Speaker:into this because this is what it says. If knowing what
Speaker:it isn't serves to clarify what it is, we can know this:
Speaker:if it isn't envious, it is content.
Speaker:It is content. I know that doesn't make sense to some of you, but
Speaker:when you're not satisfied, when you're not
Speaker:satisfied with what God has done, you
Speaker:lose that contentment. If love isn't envious, it's content. If it
Speaker:isn't boastful, it is modest.
Speaker:Has a right estimation of who they are in Christ. It's
Speaker:settled. If it isn't proud, it is what?
Speaker:And if it isn't dishonoring, it is
Speaker:honorable. Honorable. If it isn't self-seeking,
Speaker:it is selfless. If it isn't
Speaker:easily angered, it is— and if
Speaker:it isn't unforgiving, it is
Speaker:compassionate. How is that? How is that?
Speaker:Because see, if I can't forgive you, then I'm not having compassion for where
Speaker:you're standing. I'm not able to go, I,
Speaker:I'm, I have so been there. We have a high
Speaker:priest who is touched by the very feeling of our
Speaker:infirmities. And when you
Speaker:blow it, or I blow it, and they mess up, and everything
Speaker:in you wants to get angry, my prayer would be that compassion would
Speaker:rise and go, Lord, I've done that myself. Lord, except for the grace of
Speaker:God, there I would be. Lord, birth
Speaker:compassion as you are compassionate,
Speaker:as you are compassionate, as I have loved
Speaker:you. Guys, we're just going to dim the lights for a minute. I'm going
Speaker:to get you guys to just ponder this a moment. Go
Speaker:ahead, Jonathan.
Speaker:I believe the Lord is sharing this with us
Speaker:because there's a higher call in a world that
Speaker:doesn't know what love looks like, that doesn't understand
Speaker:this kind of compassion, this kind of calling. God is going,
Speaker:I need you to be that. I need you
Speaker:to be that. Love like I love.
Speaker:Jesus' love was content, modest, humble,
Speaker:honorable, selfless, patient,
Speaker:and compassionate. And in the end, guys,
Speaker:the stamp of love's authenticity is its willingness to surrender its own
Speaker:will, and in doing so, serve a
Speaker:greater good that we sometimes cannot see or understand.
Speaker:We're not always going to see the end result. We're not always
Speaker:going to see why the Lord has us apologize or
Speaker:move this way or act in compassion or lay down our
Speaker:rights or, or set things aside. We're not always going to know why,
Speaker:but we can know that he is faithful and he is good,
Speaker:and he sees the beginning from the end, and he
Speaker:knows the outcome. Guys, there's a
Speaker:better kind of love, a better kind of love.
Speaker:Greater love has no one than this, to lay down
Speaker:his life for his friends.
Speaker:As I have loved you,
Speaker:so must you love one another. He
Speaker:wouldn't have asked us to do it if it wasn't possible. He
Speaker:wouldn't have put that in front of them and it be unattainable.
Speaker:So this is what's on my heart this morning. If you will allow, if you
Speaker:would stand, I would like the honor of praying over you.
Speaker:And if you feel led, if you just raise your hand.
Speaker:Father God, I thank you so much for each of these, and I thank
Speaker:you, Lord, that you set the standard, not
Speaker:anybody else, Lord. You set the standard. And so,
Speaker:Father, I thank you, Lord, that you are calling us, entrusting us
Speaker:with a higher kind of love, a better kind of love, the only kind
Speaker:of love that you offer that's selfless and kind and
Speaker:compassionate and patient, Father God. And Lord, I
Speaker:pray even at this moment, Lord, that you would do something in our
Speaker:hearts, Lord, that we would move toward that kind of love.
