October 6, 2025 • 36 mins
What if the most powerful love you’ll ever know doesn’t start with your resolve, but with God moving toward you? We dive into agape—love sourced in God, not manufactured by willpower—and trace how it actually works: it bears what’s heavy, believes when faith feels thin, hopes when the future looks dim, and endures when quitting seems reasonable. Anchored in 1 John 4 and the heart of the gospel, we unpack the big word that changes everything—propitiation—and why it means God isn’t angry at you in Christ. That assurance isn’t theory; it’s fuel. It frees you to cover faults instead of broadcasting them, to carry burdens rather than count them, and to trust that grace can reach the person you’ve quietly given up on.
Along the way, we challenge performative love and show why white-knuckled niceness fails where Spirit-grown fruit flourishes. If love is a fruit, then abiding is the soil: Scripture, prayer, honest worship, and a life that keeps saying yes. We share how to hold a generous view of others without being naive, how to pray for enemies with a straight face, and how costly presence turns conflict into a place for grace. You’ll hear practical stories, Spurgeon’s sharp wisdom on covering faults, and a reframing of “love never fails” that avoids clichés and lands in everyday choices—at the table, in the text thread, and in the moments you’d rather walk away.
If you’re weary of trying harder and ready to receive deeper, this is for you. Come discover how being loved by Jesus becomes the only way to truly love like Jesus—bearing, believing, hoping, and enduring all things. If it helps you breathe and believe again, share it with a friend, hit follow, and leave a review so more people can find this conversation.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:27):
Alright, so today we're gonna study.
We're gonna look at agape lovefrom four angles.
And you have to be careful whenyou're spelling that because
when I first spelled it, it wasfrom four angels.
But it's angles, agape love fromfour angles.
So let's let's begin by readinga verse not from 1 Corinthians,
(00:48):
but from 1 John.
In 1 John chapter 4, verses 7through 11, it says he says,
Beloved, let us love oneanother.
For love is from God.
Now last week we studied thefour different words of love in
Greek.
Alright, I'm about to hand outsome Jesus points.
So who who knows one of thosefour words of love?
unknown (01:13):
Agape.
SPEAKER_00 (01:16):
Alright, you get seven Jesus points.
It's his favorite number.
Alright.
Okay, now these ones are worthmore Jesus points because
they're harder.
What?
Yeah, Philly, Filio, Filio,which is like brotherly love.
Okay, now we're getting into theharder ones.
(01:37):
Arrows.
Yeah.
Figured you would say, no, I waskidding.
It's the that's the romanticlovey dovey love, you know.
And then what was the last one?
Storg.
Storg, storgy, however you wantto pronounce it.
And that's like the parent,child, and brother, sister love,
but mainly the parent, thefamily, familial love.
(01:59):
So those are the four differenttypes of love.
Um, the but the one that's usedin this verse that we're
studying right now, let us loveone another for love is from
God, and everyone who loves isborn of God and knows God, for
God is love, it says.
All the all all of those areagape.
And last week we talked aboutwhat love is patient, love is
(02:21):
kind, and then we talked abouteight things.
Love is not, it does not envy,it does not boast, it is not
proud, is not self-seeking, andall the other things.
So we looked at what that agapelove looked at last week, but
now we're gonna look even closerat what agape love is.
So he says, Beloved, let us loveone another, for love is from
God, or literally it meanssourced from God, sourced from
(02:42):
God.
So if you're gonna love, it hasto be sourced from God.
This kind of agape love, youcan't make it.
You can't do it.
It's like when I go into thekitchen, I am not going to
produce muffins.
I can't bake, I can't cook, Icannot do those things.
You're not gonna get somethingtasty if you send me into the
kitchen to it's not gonnahappen.
(03:04):
But God is the only one that canproduce agape love in our lives.
It says, Everyone who loves isborn of God.
Everyone who has this agape loveis from him and knows God.
He who does not love does notknow God, for God is love.
And then it says this in this isin this the love of God was
(03:26):
manifested toward us.
This is how we God showed hislove.
That God sent his only begottenson into the world that we might
live through him.
Now you might have thought thatthat he would have said that
Jesus died for you.
That proved his love.
But actually, the bigger proofof his love is that he would
(03:46):
cleanse you from all your dirty,rotten sin, he'd make you pure
and holy, and then he wouldchoose willingly to come and
live inside you and live throughyou.
That, he says, is the greatestmanifestation of his love.
That is the greatest part of hislove.
(04:07):
That's the greatest revelationof his love.
Because he doesn't just love youbecause he loves you, he loves
you also to love other peoplethrough you.
But then he says this in this islove, not that we loved God, but
that he loved us and sent hisson to be the propitiation.
We'll talk about that word in aminute, for our sins.
(04:27):
Beloved, if God so loved us, weought also to love one another.
Again, this isn't a law that youhave to love one another.
This is an identity.
You will love one another.
So we talked about him living inyou, but how can he do that?
How can he live in you?
(04:48):
Because he loved you first.
When you were unlovable, he wasyour propitiation.
That's a big$10 Bible word forit means that he satisfied the
wrath of God towards sin.
That means sin makes God angry.
Okay?
(05:09):
And you might be like, ooh, arewe are we here in vengeful God
preacher?
You know, fire and brimstonepreaching.
Well, the truth is, sin breaksGod's world.
He made a perfect world and sinjust messes it up.
It's like throwing mud on aRembrandt.
It's like God's like, no, don'tdo that.
(05:29):
My world was perfect.
My people, you were perfect, andsin came in and jacked it all
up.
We're where you we learn allsickness comes from sin.
That's that's the sort, that'sthe reason why people get sick.
It's the reason why people doterrible things.
All the things people are angryat God at about this world,
God's like, I didn't do that.
I made a perfect world, you guysmessed it up.
(05:52):
Yeah.
And and so he had thispropitiate, this anger towards
sin.
It it meant and sin hurtspeople.
So he hates that his people gethurt.
He hates the pain that we gothrough because he loves you so
much.
So what happens is because hedidn't want to hate you, he sent
(06:13):
Jesus to die on the cross.
God punished Jesus for all ofour sin.
And and literally he poured outhis wrath and his anger on Jesus
so that God will never be angryat any of us for our sins.
He's not angry with you.
That's the application here.
He shows how much he loves youby dealing with your sin, by
(06:37):
punishing Jesus for it, so thatyou can walk free and just know
that you're a child of God ifyou choose to put your faith in
Jesus.
It's salvation.
It is the gospel.
The gospel is that God loves youenough to punish Jesus for you.
So if you say, Jesus, I acceptyour free gift of forgiveness
(06:57):
and love, you will be savedforever and eternity.
Your sin is washed away, andJesus will come live inside you
and through you.
So propitiation means Godsatisfied the wrath of anger.
He is not angry at anyone's sinsanymore.
Does that mean everyone is goingto heaven?
No.
Because if you don't accept hisfree gift of forgiveness,
(07:20):
there's no other place for youto go except being separated
from him and his love.
So there's there's another placethat you have to go if you don't
accept it.
But he wants to freely forgiveall sins.
God is out there saying, Go telleveryone I will forgive their
sins.
He literally, Jesus said, justgo into the whole world, tell
everyone you can be forgiven,just believe in Jesus.
(07:41):
And we've pretty much told mostof the people in the world to
the people have gone out, manypeople have heard, most of the
world has heard.
And if you're like, well, whatabout this tribe?
Then it sounds like God wantsyou to go there.
Maybe.
I don't know.
We'll see.
God invites us to partner withhim in this mission of spreading
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this amazing grace that God willforgive your sins and then he
will come live inside you andlive through you.
And that's that's how God showshis love for us.
Being loving in everything we dois what it looks like when Jesus
lives through you.
(08:23):
When you've accepted this grace,you will be loving in everything
you do.
You will have agape lovedripping out of you.
You'll sweat agape love.
Everything you do will be agapelove.
Wow, that sounds a lot like whatJesus does.
When Jesus lived, everything hedid was loving.
(08:46):
He says, In this is love.
The love of God was manifesttowards us that God sent his
only begotten son into the worldthat we might live through him.
Yes, and we live through him,through faith in his life and
his death.
He also lives through us.
(09:08):
This is the relationship ofgrace in the new covenant that
Jesus gives us.
So we've been, as we've beenstudying the book of 1
Corinthians, we've been puttingon our grace glasses so we can
see the world through grace, sowe can see life through the lens
of God's grace.
And here's where how we're gonnafocus today with these glasses
on love.
Again, we're gonna see how Jesusshows himself through your life.
(09:34):
His love is just gonna flowthrough your life.
And it's you could also look atit, this is how he's going to
bear fruit in your life.
The fruit of love is gonnahappen in your life.
So our verse that we're lookingat is verse 7, which says, love
bears all things, believes allthings, hopes all things, and
(09:57):
endures all things.
And let me just, this is adivine mystery.
In Greek, the word all means allwent to two years of college for
that.
(10:19):
It's not some things, it's ormost things, it's all things.
What does this mean?
It means love never fails.
Love never fails, which will bethe next verse we study next
week.
But um I there's a preacher fromthe 1800s named Charles
Spurgeon, um, and he's myfavorite preacher, and so uh
(10:42):
when I quote him, I go, Spurgeonquote, Spurgeon quote.
Here's a Spurgeon quote for you.
Love does not ask to have aneasy life.
Self-love makes an easy life itsaim, but true love denies
herself, sacrifices herself thatshe may win victories for God.
(11:13):
And I love that.
True love is not about self.
He says, love bears all things.
In Galatians chapter 6, verse 2,he's teaching us about it, and
he says, bear one another'sburdens and so fulfill the law
of Christ.
The law of Christ, I thought wewere free from the law.
(11:34):
I thought Jesus set us free fromthe law, absolutely.
But then he said, I'm giving youa new law, but it's it's not
really a law law, it's a it's mylaw, which is love other people
as I have loved you, not lovebecause it's the right thing to
do.
So there's a big difference.
If you think you're you'reyou're gonna be a Christian and
you're gonna love people becauseGod commands you to love people,
(11:54):
you're gonna fail miserably atloving people, and you're
probably gonna end up being abig jerk.
But if you become a Christianbecause you really believe God
loves you, and you look at theevidence and you look at what
Jesus does, and you and you'relike, man, God really loves me,
and you let that become youridentity, then his love will
(12:15):
flow out of you and through you.
This bears another burden, canuh another uh love bears all
things, can also be translatedcovers.
Love covers all things.
And in 1 Peter 4, 8, it says,Above all thing, above all
things have fervent love for oneanother, for love will cover a
(12:39):
multitude of sins.
Well, what about other when whenother people sin?
Can I be mad at them then?
Can I be angry with righteousanger?
Maybe it's my spiritual gift tobe a sin sniffer.
(13:00):
Maybe you can be angry and notsin, but I haven't figured that
one out yet.
Um Jesus tells us how to handlewhen other people sin.
He said, take care of the logthat's in your own eye before
you deal with the speck that'sin someone else's eye.
And then after you're done doingthat, just love them.
(13:23):
Just love them.
Spurgeon quote, spurge and quotenumber two.
This is a double spurgeon quoteday, a D S Q D, as I like to
call them.
Love covers, he says.
That is, it never proclaims theerrors of good men.
There are busybodies abroad whonever spy out a fault in a
(13:45):
brother, but they must hurry offto their next neighbor with the
savory news.
And then they run up and downthe street as though they had
been elected common criers.
It is by no means honorable tomen or women to set up to be
common informers.
Yet I know some who are not halfas so eager to publish the
(14:09):
gospel as to publish slander.
Love stands in the presence of afault with a finger on her lip.
Wow.
He's got some meaningful quotes.
If you think about oysters, wewere up at this thing last
night.
Anyone like oysters?
Who likes oysters?
(14:30):
Okay, you're a little weird.
I I can't do it.
And I eat almost anything, butI've been like, ooh, I don't
know if I can do that.
Um anyway, you know how when anoyster a clam pearls come from
clams, right?
Oysters?
Is it oysters or clams?
(14:51):
Oysters, okay.
I'm not dumb.
I just haven't been around thesea that much.
We don't have a lot of oystersin Colorado.
So but when that when we gotRocky Mountain oysters, that's a
completely different thing.
(15:13):
That is a completely differentthing.
Which I have not had thoseeither.
Um wow.
Okay, so oysters, when they getan irritant in them, like a
little piece of sand, um, youknow, they they they turn that
piece of sand into a beautifulpearl, they smooth it out, and I
(15:35):
think that's like what love doeswhen we get irritated.
When that's that's how love canprocess through things is just
cover it with love, cover itwith the life of Jesus through
prayer and agape love.
You can turn the irritatingthings people do into a
beautiful pearl.
All right, the next thing wesee, the next um angle is love
(15:57):
believes all things.
Agape love believes all things.
Love chooses to believe the bestabout other people.
Uh, this is more than justbelieving that people are good
or that they didn't intend tosin, right?
It's believing the gospel forpeople when it's difficult for
(16:18):
them to believe the gospel, whenit's hard for them to believe
it.
Can you believe that God is ableand willing to work in someone's
life even when you think they'rebeyond all hope and you think
they're so dumb or so such ajerk or just they don't have the
value in your eyes, right?
Can you believe that if any manwill humble themselves and
(16:41):
become and exclusively trust inJesus, that God will meet their
need, forgive them, andtransform them, that that he can
do that by the power of hisspirit, that's love believing
all things.
That means I can believe thatGod can love the worst person in
the world.
Agape love will believe thatthere is no one beyond God's
(17:07):
grace.
No one is too far, no one is toohardened, no one is too drunk,
no one is too addicted for Jesusto save.
Even you.
You're not past Jesus saving.
(17:28):
They might look like mountainsin your mind and in your heart,
you might feel, I'm never gonnaget free of this.
I'm telling you, Jesus will blowyour ever-loving mind.
Even your husband, God can workin their life, even your wife,
even your cranky parent, evenyour wandering child, even your
(17:58):
sworn enemy.
Agape love chooses to believethe gospel for these people.
Jesus can save them, and I'mgonna love them.
While there's breath in yourlungs, God will absolutely save
anyone who calls out to them,calls out to him in faith in
(18:18):
Jesus Christ.
God will absolutely save you.
He's saying, I am so ready tosave you, I'm so willing to save
you, and I'm so able to saveyou, but it has to be through my
son Jesus.
It's never through anyphilosophy, it's not through
religion, it's not through thischurch, that church, it has to
be Jesus, my son.
That's it.
It's exclusive.
The offer is one ticket, oneway.
(18:38):
Jesus said, I am the way, thetruth, the life.
I'm not one of many, I am theway.
Love will believe on behalf ofthose who can't believe that
yet.
They're like, I'm I'm just lost,I don't know what to do.
You'll get there.
God loves you.
We love you.
(19:00):
We can tell them there is hopefor them because Jesus is
unfailing hope.
In Mark chapter 2, there's thisreally interesting story.
It says, They came to him,bringing a paralytic who is
carried by four men, and theycould not come near to him
because of the crowd, so theyuncovered the roof where he was,
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and when they had brokenthrough, they let the bed down
on which the paralytic waslying.
And when Jesus saw their faith,he said to the paralytic, Son,
your sins are forgiven you.
And some of the scribes weresitting there and reasoning in
their hearts, saying, What doesthis man speak blasphemies like
this?
Why does he do this?
Who can forgive sins but Godalone?
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But immediately Jesus, when heperceived in their spirit that
they reasoned thus withinthemselves, he said to them, Why
do you reason about these thingsin your hearts?
Which is easier to say to theparalytic, Your sons are
forgiving you, or to say, Arise,take up your bed and walk.
But that you may know that theSon of Man has power on earth to
forgive sins, he said to theparalytic, I say to you, Arise,
(20:05):
take up your bed and go to yourhouse.
Immediately he rose, took up hisbed, and went out in the
presence of them all.
So they were all amazed andglorified God, saying, We never
saw anything like this.
Satan wants us to despair, togive up, to say, Well, tough
(20:27):
tough to be you.
Sorry, you're paralyzed.
Sorry.
They can never change.
You can't change.
What can change?
They won't ever get saved.
That person is too far gone.
Who have you given up on?
(20:51):
Jesus, soften our hearts andteach us to pray for our
enemies.
Jesus, fill us with your love.
Jesus, help us to have a heartthat believes all things and the
gospel for people.
All right, the next thing we seeis love hopes all things.
(21:14):
So love has confidence in thefuture, not pessimism, right?
When hurt, it doesn't say it'sgonna be this way forever, it'll
probably get worse.
It hopes for that best becauseits hope is in God.
Our confidence is in God's gracethat he will heal us, that he
(21:34):
will heal others.
These are his promises, this ishis work.
He says, I'm gonna do greatthings through you.
So you can cheer up, you canhope.
In Isaiah chapter 61, it has thejob description of Jesus when he
would come, or we call him theMessiah.
And so this is the jobdescription of the Messiah.
(21:55):
So these are all the thingsJesus would do, written 600
years before Jesus was evenborn, and it says, The Spirit of
the Lord God is upon me becausethe Lord has anointed me to
preach good things to the poor.
He has sent me to heal thebrokenhearted, to proclaim
liberty to the captives, to openin the prison to those who are
bound, to proclaim theacceptable year of the Lord and
the day of the vengeance of ourGod, to comfort all who mourn,
(22:17):
to console all who mourn inZion, to give them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy formourning, the garment of praise
for the spirit heaviness, thatthey may be called trees of
righteousness, the planting ofthe Lord, that he may be
glorified.
See, Jesus says, He will giveforgiveness and a new heart.
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And when you believe that, thatis the greatest courage you can
ever show.
It's not, let's just get throughthis.
This life is gonna suck.
Amen.
It's my God is making all thingsnew.
And someday my faith will besight.
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Someday I'll be able to see howhe makes all things good and all
things new and all things worktogether for the good of those
who are loved by love God andcalled according to his purpose.
I'll see it someday.
But right now, we have to liveby faith in that.
And when we it's love, his lovefor us that causes this to be
real in our hearts.
(23:28):
Sometimes we wish we could seethese things happen sooner, all
the things Jesus promised.
But hope would be nothing if wehad it happen right away.
So hope needs to be real bybeing delayed.
The answer needs to be delayedin our life for a certain amount
of time.
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And God is glorified when wechoose to live by faith here in
the difficulties, in the trial,in the trash that we live in.
God is glorified when we fix oureyes on Him and say, My faith,
my trust is in Him alone.
Alright, the last one, the lastangle we're looking at is that
love endures all things.
(24:09):
Any Cowboys fans in the house?
I'm just saying, just asking.
You guys, an illustration ofGod's enduring love.
I love it.
I love it.
In two weeks, the Broncos playthe Cowboys.
(24:33):
It'll be an epic week of trashtalk.
And I'll take it.
It's alright.
We'll take it.
Let's go.
Let's see.
All right, love endures allthings.
The greatness of agape love isto keep on bearing, keep on
believing, keep on hoping, notgiving up.
I would say this agape lovedestroys your enemies by turning
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them into your friends.
It destroys your enemies bymaking them your friends.
Don't expect it to be easy tolove.
Enduring all things is gonnacost you probably all things.
(25:18):
Just ask Jesus.
In 2 Corinthians 8-9 it says,For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ that though hewas rich, yet for your sakes he
became poor, that through hispoverty you might become rich.
Oh, how much he gave up to giveyou grace, to set you free.
(25:48):
Oh, that we could give up ourwhole lives.
Oh, that we could give all ourmoney and all our reputation and
all our comfort to just honorHim.
Let's hold nothing back.
Let's hold nothing back.
(26:12):
God doesn't need it.
But boy does He deserve it.
Our whole heart.
He doesn't care about yourmoney, He doesn't care about
your possessions, He cares aboutthe heart.
There was a rich man and he cameto Jesus and said, I'll do
anything to follow you, andJesus was like, No, you won't.
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How did Jesus know that?
Because Jesus knew he didn'thave the guy's heart.
So Jesus said, Yeah, why don'tyou go sell all you have, give
it to the poor, and then yourheart could be mine.
But right now you're you'repossessed by your possessions.
They own you instead of youowning them.
I'd like to own you.
(26:55):
I'd like to have your heart.
What are we holding back fromthe Lord?
You can't endure all things ifyou can't let go of all things.
How do we gain this love?
How do we how does this gift ofa loving heart, this agape love,
(27:17):
how do we get it in our lives?
In Galatians 5, 22, it says, thefruit of the Spirit is love.
And then it says joy, peace,long suffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, self-control.
Against such, there is no law.
But I think the the fruit of thespirit, because it's singular,
(27:40):
is love, and all those otherthings are descriptions of what
love looks like.
Love is a fruit.
It's a gift, it's a fruit.
Like we said last week, thespiritual love, the agape love
that God wants to give us is agift that He has already chosen
(28:00):
to give you.
But it's a living gift.
It's a living gift, which meansyou have to abide in the living
God to see his living fruit flowfrom your life.
If I give you an apple tree, Idon't like apples, peach tree,
pear tree, ooh, I like pears.
(28:21):
If I give you a pear tree andyou're like, great, and you just
throw it in your garage, it'snever gonna produce pears, even
though that's the purpose of it,and the gift was for you to have
pears.
But if you plant it in soil andyou water it and it has sunlight
and you put it in an environmentfor it to live, you will get
(28:43):
living fruit from it.
Yes, God has already given youan agape heart, He has given it
to you.
And some of us hide our agapeheart in our garage of
self-focused living.
Instead of letting it be ourlife, saying, Jesus, my whole
life is you, you are my wholelife.
(29:05):
I don't look to myself foranything.
You can't just decide you wantto love.
That would be sourcing lovethrough your flesh, and it would
be a sad imitation of what thisagape love we've been talking
about really is.
It has to be a fruit of thespirit, which means it can't be
developed overnight.
(29:25):
You're not going to becomeloving overnight.
It's developed as you dig intoyour relationship with God, you
read the word, you pray, and youbelieve the truths that God
reveals to you by the spiritthat lives inside you through
his word.
You listen at church to themessage of the gospel and you
believe it.
(29:46):
This bears fruit in your life.
You can't just decide I'm gonnabe loving.
That would be fleshly.
In John 13, 34, it says, A newcommandment I give you that you
love one another as I have lovedyou, that you also love one
another.
(30:06):
See, his love to you is a giftdelivered to you by his spirit,
and you have to know his lovebefore you can ever love anyone
else with agape love.
You have to know his agape lovefor you.
You have to drink it before youcan puke it.
It's weird, but it works.
(30:30):
In John 15, 12, he says, This ismy commandment that you love one
another as I have loved you.
Same thing again.
This new law, this newcommandment is nothing like the
old law.
The old law was based on whatyou can do.
The new covenant of grace isabout what Jesus has done for
you and will do through you.
(30:52):
We used to depend on ourselvesto do God's will.
You have to love other people.
Love God, love others.
That's what was the law.
But the new commandment is Ihave loved you, so now you can
love others when I live throughyou.
You can depend on God's gracegiven through Jesus, and he will
produce this love by his mightypower.
(31:12):
But you can't do it by your ownefforts.
And then finally, in 1 John 412, no one has seen God at any
time.
But if we love one another, Godabides in us, and his love has
been perfected in us.
Again, the only way to love oneanother with agape love is to
(31:33):
receive his love for you.
He abides in us because he lovesus.
He stays with you and he says,I'll never forsake you.
I'm never gonna leave you.
I won't.
You screw up.
Guess what?
Probitiation has alreadyhappened.
I'm not angry.
I'm never gonna be angry at you.
I'll be honest with you and I'llcorrect you and you'll have
(31:55):
discipline in your life, but I'mnot gonna ever do it out of
anger.
We never have to be afraid ofour relationship with the Lord.
He has washed us clean in hisblood, and in the new covenant,
he literally lives inside yourpure body.
He says he's cleansed your body.
So I know that before Christ youslept with all kinds of things.
(32:18):
Before Christ, you you did allkinds of drugs.
Before Christ, you polluted yourbody.
Jesus says, I have cleansed it.
You're a virgin again in everysense.
You are brand new, you are pure,you are holy, and nothing you do
will change that.
That is your identity.
(32:38):
Even if you go back and messaround with the same stuff
again, you're forgiven.
And people are like, you can'tsay that because the people will
just go keep sinning.
And I'm like, lies.
Tell them they're free.
And God's love will transformtheir lives.
When you understand that he'snot angry with you, you're gonna
(33:01):
run to him as a child will whenthey mess up.
Agape love is the perfectexpression of Jesus and the
perfect proof that Jesus livesin you.
So if you want proof that you'resaved, you want proof that Jesus
lives in you, agape love flowingout of your life is a great
(33:26):
proof of that.
But you can't produce that.
You can only ask that it flowsthrough.
You can only give your body toHim.
Jesus, here's my heart, here'smy hands, here's my mind, here's
my mouth, here's my feet, here'severy part of me.
I give them to you.
(33:47):
I believe, Jesus, that you diedon the cross and I was there
with you.
I was crucified with you, and mysin was destroyed on that cross,
and you fully paid the price forit.
You will never be angry with mebecause of the cross.
And then you were died, and youdied, and you were buried, and
then you rose from the dead.
And I believe that in yourresurrection, I was raised with
(34:11):
you, and your new life is now mynew life.
And so the heart that I now haveis not the one I was born with,
it's the new one that was yourheart when you rose from the
dead.
That's the gospel.
And you can't believe that andsay, and I still want to go keep
on sinning.
You can't do it.
(34:33):
It's his life becomes your life.
Would you guys stand with me aswe pray and as we're gonna close
with a song?
Jesus, there is a uh a peace foryour people.
(34:57):
There is blessings that we couldnever even name all the
blessings.
There is joy and there is lovethat we can show this world, but
first, God, we have to acceptand we have to receive that you
love us and that you have doneall that we could ever have
needed.
And you freely, freely, freelyoffer to forgive us and to live
(35:24):
through us.
Lord, I pray that we wouldchoose to respond today with
full surrender of our hearts.
It is not about us, it is notabout our reputation, it's not
about our comfort, it's notabout our plans, Jesus.
(35:46):
Our lives belong completely,100% to you, and we're gonna use
every day that we have left onthis earth to serve you, to
glorify you, to love you, and tolove the people whom you also
love.
And to invite as many people aswe can to know that their
forgiveness is real and thatthey can be adopted into the
(36:10):
family of God.
Jesus, fill us with your love.
Jesus, we rejoice in your love.
Jesus, comfort us with your lovewhen we're going through pain
and when we have things that arejust terrible in our life.
(36:33):
Love endures all things, andJesus, you love us and you will
never give up on us.
We are grateful for that.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Alright, so today we're gonna study.
We're gonna look at agape lovefrom four angles.
And you have to be careful whenyou're spelling that because
when I first spelled it, it wasfrom four angels.
But it's angles, agape love fromfour angles.
So let's let's begin by readinga verse not from 1 Corinthians,
(00:48):
but from 1 John.
In 1 John chapter 4, verses 7through 11, it says he says,
Beloved, let us love oneanother.
For love is from God.
Now last week we studied thefour different words of love in
Greek.
Alright, I'm about to hand outsome Jesus points.
So who who knows one of thosefour words of love?
unknown (01:13):
Agape.
SPEAKER_00 (01:16):
Alright, you get seven Jesus points.
It's his favorite number.
Alright.
Okay, now these ones are worthmore Jesus points because
they're harder.
What?
Yeah, Philly, Filio, Filio,which is like brotherly love.
Okay, now we're getting into theharder ones.
(01:37):
Arrows.
Yeah.
Figured you would say, no, I waskidding.
It's the that's the romanticlovey dovey love, you know.
And then what was the last one?
Storg.
Storg, storgy, however you wantto pronounce it.
And that's like the parent,child, and brother, sister love,
but mainly the parent, thefamily, familial love.
(01:59):
So those are the four differenttypes of love.
Um, the but the one that's usedin this verse that we're
studying right now, let us loveone another for love is from
God, and everyone who loves isborn of God and knows God, for
God is love, it says.
All the all all of those areagape.
And last week we talked aboutwhat love is patient, love is
(02:21):
kind, and then we talked abouteight things.
Love is not, it does not envy,it does not boast, it is not
proud, is not self-seeking, andall the other things.
So we looked at what that agapelove looked at last week, but
now we're gonna look even closerat what agape love is.
So he says, Beloved, let us loveone another, for love is from
God, or literally it meanssourced from God, sourced from
(02:42):
God.
So if you're gonna love, it hasto be sourced from God.
This kind of agape love, youcan't make it.
You can't do it.
It's like when I go into thekitchen, I am not going to
produce muffins.
I can't bake, I can't cook, Icannot do those things.
You're not gonna get somethingtasty if you send me into the
kitchen to it's not gonnahappen.
(03:04):
But God is the only one that canproduce agape love in our lives.
It says, Everyone who loves isborn of God.
Everyone who has this agape loveis from him and knows God.
He who does not love does notknow God, for God is love.
And then it says this in this isin this the love of God was
(03:26):
manifested toward us.
This is how we God showed hislove.
That God sent his only begottenson into the world that we might
live through him.
Now you might have thought thatthat he would have said that
Jesus died for you.
That proved his love.
But actually, the bigger proofof his love is that he would
(03:46):
cleanse you from all your dirty,rotten sin, he'd make you pure
and holy, and then he wouldchoose willingly to come and
live inside you and live throughyou.
That, he says, is the greatestmanifestation of his love.
That is the greatest part of hislove.
(04:07):
That's the greatest revelationof his love.
Because he doesn't just love youbecause he loves you, he loves
you also to love other peoplethrough you.
But then he says this in this islove, not that we loved God, but
that he loved us and sent hisson to be the propitiation.
We'll talk about that word in aminute, for our sins.
(04:27):
Beloved, if God so loved us, weought also to love one another.
Again, this isn't a law that youhave to love one another.
This is an identity.
You will love one another.
So we talked about him living inyou, but how can he do that?
How can he live in you?
(04:48):
Because he loved you first.
When you were unlovable, he wasyour propitiation.
That's a big$10 Bible word forit means that he satisfied the
wrath of God towards sin.
That means sin makes God angry.
Okay?
(05:09):
And you might be like, ooh, arewe are we here in vengeful God
preacher?
You know, fire and brimstonepreaching.
Well, the truth is, sin breaksGod's world.
He made a perfect world and sinjust messes it up.
It's like throwing mud on aRembrandt.
It's like God's like, no, don'tdo that.
(05:29):
My world was perfect.
My people, you were perfect, andsin came in and jacked it all
up.
We're where you we learn allsickness comes from sin.
That's that's the sort, that'sthe reason why people get sick.
It's the reason why people doterrible things.
All the things people are angryat God at about this world,
God's like, I didn't do that.
I made a perfect world, you guysmessed it up.
(05:52):
Yeah.
And and so he had thispropitiate, this anger towards
sin.
It it meant and sin hurtspeople.
So he hates that his people gethurt.
He hates the pain that we gothrough because he loves you so
much.
So what happens is because hedidn't want to hate you, he sent
(06:13):
Jesus to die on the cross.
God punished Jesus for all ofour sin.
And and literally he poured outhis wrath and his anger on Jesus
so that God will never be angryat any of us for our sins.
He's not angry with you.
That's the application here.
He shows how much he loves youby dealing with your sin, by
(06:37):
punishing Jesus for it, so thatyou can walk free and just know
that you're a child of God ifyou choose to put your faith in
Jesus.
It's salvation.
It is the gospel.
The gospel is that God loves youenough to punish Jesus for you.
So if you say, Jesus, I acceptyour free gift of forgiveness
(06:57):
and love, you will be savedforever and eternity.
Your sin is washed away, andJesus will come live inside you
and through you.
So propitiation means Godsatisfied the wrath of anger.
He is not angry at anyone's sinsanymore.
Does that mean everyone is goingto heaven?
No.
Because if you don't accept hisfree gift of forgiveness,
(07:20):
there's no other place for youto go except being separated
from him and his love.
So there's there's another placethat you have to go if you don't
accept it.
But he wants to freely forgiveall sins.
God is out there saying, Go telleveryone I will forgive their
sins.
He literally, Jesus said, justgo into the whole world, tell
everyone you can be forgiven,just believe in Jesus.
(07:41):
And we've pretty much told mostof the people in the world to
the people have gone out, manypeople have heard, most of the
world has heard.
And if you're like, well, whatabout this tribe?
Then it sounds like God wantsyou to go there.
Maybe.
I don't know.
We'll see.
God invites us to partner withhim in this mission of spreading
(08:02):
this amazing grace that God willforgive your sins and then he
will come live inside you andlive through you.
And that's that's how God showshis love for us.
Being loving in everything we dois what it looks like when Jesus
lives through you.
(08:23):
When you've accepted this grace,you will be loving in everything
you do.
You will have agape lovedripping out of you.
You'll sweat agape love.
Everything you do will be agapelove.
Wow, that sounds a lot like whatJesus does.
When Jesus lived, everything hedid was loving.
(08:46):
He says, In this is love.
The love of God was manifesttowards us that God sent his
only begotten son into the worldthat we might live through him.
Yes, and we live through him,through faith in his life and
his death.
He also lives through us.
(09:08):
This is the relationship ofgrace in the new covenant that
Jesus gives us.
So we've been, as we've beenstudying the book of 1
Corinthians, we've been puttingon our grace glasses so we can
see the world through grace, sowe can see life through the lens
of God's grace.
And here's where how we're gonnafocus today with these glasses
on love.
Again, we're gonna see how Jesusshows himself through your life.
(09:34):
His love is just gonna flowthrough your life.
And it's you could also look atit, this is how he's going to
bear fruit in your life.
The fruit of love is gonnahappen in your life.
So our verse that we're lookingat is verse 7, which says, love
bears all things, believes allthings, hopes all things, and
(09:57):
endures all things.
And let me just, this is adivine mystery.
In Greek, the word all means allwent to two years of college for
that.
(10:19):
It's not some things, it's ormost things, it's all things.
What does this mean?
It means love never fails.
Love never fails, which will bethe next verse we study next
week.
But um I there's a preacher fromthe 1800s named Charles
Spurgeon, um, and he's myfavorite preacher, and so uh
(10:42):
when I quote him, I go, Spurgeonquote, Spurgeon quote.
Here's a Spurgeon quote for you.
Love does not ask to have aneasy life.
Self-love makes an easy life itsaim, but true love denies
herself, sacrifices herself thatshe may win victories for God.
(11:13):
And I love that.
True love is not about self.
He says, love bears all things.
In Galatians chapter 6, verse 2,he's teaching us about it, and
he says, bear one another'sburdens and so fulfill the law
of Christ.
The law of Christ, I thought wewere free from the law.
(11:34):
I thought Jesus set us free fromthe law, absolutely.
But then he said, I'm giving youa new law, but it's it's not
really a law law, it's a it's mylaw, which is love other people
as I have loved you, not lovebecause it's the right thing to
do.
So there's a big difference.
If you think you're you'reyou're gonna be a Christian and
you're gonna love people becauseGod commands you to love people,
(11:54):
you're gonna fail miserably atloving people, and you're
probably gonna end up being abig jerk.
But if you become a Christianbecause you really believe God
loves you, and you look at theevidence and you look at what
Jesus does, and you and you'relike, man, God really loves me,
and you let that become youridentity, then his love will
(12:15):
flow out of you and through you.
This bears another burden, canuh another uh love bears all
things, can also be translatedcovers.
Love covers all things.
And in 1 Peter 4, 8, it says,Above all thing, above all
things have fervent love for oneanother, for love will cover a
(12:39):
multitude of sins.
Well, what about other when whenother people sin?
Can I be mad at them then?
Can I be angry with righteousanger?
Maybe it's my spiritual gift tobe a sin sniffer.
(13:00):
Maybe you can be angry and notsin, but I haven't figured that
one out yet.
Um Jesus tells us how to handlewhen other people sin.
He said, take care of the logthat's in your own eye before
you deal with the speck that'sin someone else's eye.
And then after you're done doingthat, just love them.
(13:23):
Just love them.
Spurgeon quote, spurge and quotenumber two.
This is a double spurgeon quoteday, a D S Q D, as I like to
call them.
Love covers, he says.
That is, it never proclaims theerrors of good men.
There are busybodies abroad whonever spy out a fault in a
(13:45):
brother, but they must hurry offto their next neighbor with the
savory news.
And then they run up and downthe street as though they had
been elected common criers.
It is by no means honorable tomen or women to set up to be
common informers.
Yet I know some who are not halfas so eager to publish the
(14:09):
gospel as to publish slander.
Love stands in the presence of afault with a finger on her lip.
Wow.
He's got some meaningful quotes.
If you think about oysters, wewere up at this thing last
night.
Anyone like oysters?
Who likes oysters?
(14:30):
Okay, you're a little weird.
I I can't do it.
And I eat almost anything, butI've been like, ooh, I don't
know if I can do that.
Um anyway, you know how when anoyster a clam pearls come from
clams, right?
Oysters?
Is it oysters or clams?
(14:51):
Oysters, okay.
I'm not dumb.
I just haven't been around thesea that much.
We don't have a lot of oystersin Colorado.
So but when that when we gotRocky Mountain oysters, that's a
completely different thing.
(15:13):
That is a completely differentthing.
Which I have not had thoseeither.
Um wow.
Okay, so oysters, when they getan irritant in them, like a
little piece of sand, um, youknow, they they they turn that
piece of sand into a beautifulpearl, they smooth it out, and I
(15:35):
think that's like what love doeswhen we get irritated.
When that's that's how love canprocess through things is just
cover it with love, cover itwith the life of Jesus through
prayer and agape love.
You can turn the irritatingthings people do into a
beautiful pearl.
All right, the next thing wesee, the next um angle is love
(15:57):
believes all things.
Agape love believes all things.
Love chooses to believe the bestabout other people.
Uh, this is more than justbelieving that people are good
or that they didn't intend tosin, right?
It's believing the gospel forpeople when it's difficult for
(16:18):
them to believe the gospel, whenit's hard for them to believe
it.
Can you believe that God is ableand willing to work in someone's
life even when you think they'rebeyond all hope and you think
they're so dumb or so such ajerk or just they don't have the
value in your eyes, right?
Can you believe that if any manwill humble themselves and
(16:41):
become and exclusively trust inJesus, that God will meet their
need, forgive them, andtransform them, that that he can
do that by the power of hisspirit, that's love believing
all things.
That means I can believe thatGod can love the worst person in
the world.
Agape love will believe thatthere is no one beyond God's
(17:07):
grace.
No one is too far, no one is toohardened, no one is too drunk,
no one is too addicted for Jesusto save.
Even you.
You're not past Jesus saving.
(17:28):
They might look like mountainsin your mind and in your heart,
you might feel, I'm never gonnaget free of this.
I'm telling you, Jesus will blowyour ever-loving mind.
Even your husband, God can workin their life, even your wife,
even your cranky parent, evenyour wandering child, even your
(17:58):
sworn enemy.
Agape love chooses to believethe gospel for these people.
Jesus can save them, and I'mgonna love them.
While there's breath in yourlungs, God will absolutely save
anyone who calls out to them,calls out to him in faith in
(18:18):
Jesus Christ.
God will absolutely save you.
He's saying, I am so ready tosave you, I'm so willing to save
you, and I'm so able to saveyou, but it has to be through my
son Jesus.
It's never through anyphilosophy, it's not through
religion, it's not through thischurch, that church, it has to
be Jesus, my son.
That's it.
It's exclusive.
The offer is one ticket, oneway.
(18:38):
Jesus said, I am the way, thetruth, the life.
I'm not one of many, I am theway.
Love will believe on behalf ofthose who can't believe that
yet.
They're like, I'm I'm just lost,I don't know what to do.
You'll get there.
God loves you.
We love you.
(19:00):
We can tell them there is hopefor them because Jesus is
unfailing hope.
In Mark chapter 2, there's thisreally interesting story.
It says, They came to him,bringing a paralytic who is
carried by four men, and theycould not come near to him
because of the crowd, so theyuncovered the roof where he was,
(19:22):
and when they had brokenthrough, they let the bed down
on which the paralytic waslying.
And when Jesus saw their faith,he said to the paralytic, Son,
your sins are forgiven you.
And some of the scribes weresitting there and reasoning in
their hearts, saying, What doesthis man speak blasphemies like
this?
Why does he do this?
Who can forgive sins but Godalone?
(19:44):
But immediately Jesus, when heperceived in their spirit that
they reasoned thus withinthemselves, he said to them, Why
do you reason about these thingsin your hearts?
Which is easier to say to theparalytic, Your sons are
forgiving you, or to say, Arise,take up your bed and walk.
But that you may know that theSon of Man has power on earth to
forgive sins, he said to theparalytic, I say to you, Arise,
(20:05):
take up your bed and go to yourhouse.
Immediately he rose, took up hisbed, and went out in the
presence of them all.
So they were all amazed andglorified God, saying, We never
saw anything like this.
Satan wants us to despair, togive up, to say, Well, tough
(20:27):
tough to be you.
Sorry, you're paralyzed.
Sorry.
They can never change.
You can't change.
What can change?
They won't ever get saved.
That person is too far gone.
Who have you given up on?
(20:51):
Jesus, soften our hearts andteach us to pray for our
enemies.
Jesus, fill us with your love.
Jesus, help us to have a heartthat believes all things and the
gospel for people.
All right, the next thing we seeis love hopes all things.
(21:14):
So love has confidence in thefuture, not pessimism, right?
When hurt, it doesn't say it'sgonna be this way forever, it'll
probably get worse.
It hopes for that best becauseits hope is in God.
Our confidence is in God's gracethat he will heal us, that he
(21:34):
will heal others.
These are his promises, this ishis work.
He says, I'm gonna do greatthings through you.
So you can cheer up, you canhope.
In Isaiah chapter 61, it has thejob description of Jesus when he
would come, or we call him theMessiah.
And so this is the jobdescription of the Messiah.
(21:55):
So these are all the thingsJesus would do, written 600
years before Jesus was evenborn, and it says, The Spirit of
the Lord God is upon me becausethe Lord has anointed me to
preach good things to the poor.
He has sent me to heal thebrokenhearted, to proclaim
liberty to the captives, to openin the prison to those who are
bound, to proclaim theacceptable year of the Lord and
the day of the vengeance of ourGod, to comfort all who mourn,
(22:17):
to console all who mourn inZion, to give them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy formourning, the garment of praise
for the spirit heaviness, thatthey may be called trees of
righteousness, the planting ofthe Lord, that he may be
glorified.
See, Jesus says, He will giveforgiveness and a new heart.
(22:43):
And when you believe that, thatis the greatest courage you can
ever show.
It's not, let's just get throughthis.
This life is gonna suck.
Amen.
It's my God is making all thingsnew.
And someday my faith will besight.
(23:06):
Someday I'll be able to see howhe makes all things good and all
things new and all things worktogether for the good of those
who are loved by love God andcalled according to his purpose.
I'll see it someday.
But right now, we have to liveby faith in that.
And when we it's love, his lovefor us that causes this to be
real in our hearts.
(23:28):
Sometimes we wish we could seethese things happen sooner, all
the things Jesus promised.
But hope would be nothing if wehad it happen right away.
So hope needs to be real bybeing delayed.
The answer needs to be delayedin our life for a certain amount
of time.
(23:48):
And God is glorified when wechoose to live by faith here in
the difficulties, in the trial,in the trash that we live in.
God is glorified when we fix oureyes on Him and say, My faith,
my trust is in Him alone.
Alright, the last one, the lastangle we're looking at is that
love endures all things.
(24:09):
Any Cowboys fans in the house?
I'm just saying, just asking.
You guys, an illustration ofGod's enduring love.
I love it.
I love it.
In two weeks, the Broncos playthe Cowboys.
(24:33):
It'll be an epic week of trashtalk.
And I'll take it.
It's alright.
We'll take it.
Let's go.
Let's see.
All right, love endures allthings.
The greatness of agape love isto keep on bearing, keep on
believing, keep on hoping, notgiving up.
I would say this agape lovedestroys your enemies by turning
(24:57):
them into your friends.
It destroys your enemies bymaking them your friends.
Don't expect it to be easy tolove.
Enduring all things is gonnacost you probably all things.
(25:18):
Just ask Jesus.
In 2 Corinthians 8-9 it says,For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ that though hewas rich, yet for your sakes he
became poor, that through hispoverty you might become rich.
Oh, how much he gave up to giveyou grace, to set you free.
(25:48):
Oh, that we could give up ourwhole lives.
Oh, that we could give all ourmoney and all our reputation and
all our comfort to just honorHim.
Let's hold nothing back.
Let's hold nothing back.
(26:12):
God doesn't need it.
But boy does He deserve it.
Our whole heart.
He doesn't care about yourmoney, He doesn't care about
your possessions, He cares aboutthe heart.
There was a rich man and he cameto Jesus and said, I'll do
anything to follow you, andJesus was like, No, you won't.
(26:33):
How did Jesus know that?
Because Jesus knew he didn'thave the guy's heart.
So Jesus said, Yeah, why don'tyou go sell all you have, give
it to the poor, and then yourheart could be mine.
But right now you're you'repossessed by your possessions.
They own you instead of youowning them.
I'd like to own you.
(26:55):
I'd like to have your heart.
What are we holding back fromthe Lord?
You can't endure all things ifyou can't let go of all things.
How do we gain this love?
How do we how does this gift ofa loving heart, this agape love,
(27:17):
how do we get it in our lives?
In Galatians 5, 22, it says, thefruit of the Spirit is love.
And then it says joy, peace,long suffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, self-control.
Against such, there is no law.
But I think the the fruit of thespirit, because it's singular,
(27:40):
is love, and all those otherthings are descriptions of what
love looks like.
Love is a fruit.
It's a gift, it's a fruit.
Like we said last week, thespiritual love, the agape love
that God wants to give us is agift that He has already chosen
(28:00):
to give you.
But it's a living gift.
It's a living gift, which meansyou have to abide in the living
God to see his living fruit flowfrom your life.
If I give you an apple tree, Idon't like apples, peach tree,
pear tree, ooh, I like pears.
(28:21):
If I give you a pear tree andyou're like, great, and you just
throw it in your garage, it'snever gonna produce pears, even
though that's the purpose of it,and the gift was for you to have
pears.
But if you plant it in soil andyou water it and it has sunlight
and you put it in an environmentfor it to live, you will get
(28:43):
living fruit from it.
Yes, God has already given youan agape heart, He has given it
to you.
And some of us hide our agapeheart in our garage of
self-focused living.
Instead of letting it be ourlife, saying, Jesus, my whole
life is you, you are my wholelife.
(29:05):
I don't look to myself foranything.
You can't just decide you wantto love.
That would be sourcing lovethrough your flesh, and it would
be a sad imitation of what thisagape love we've been talking
about really is.
It has to be a fruit of thespirit, which means it can't be
developed overnight.
(29:25):
You're not going to becomeloving overnight.
It's developed as you dig intoyour relationship with God, you
read the word, you pray, and youbelieve the truths that God
reveals to you by the spiritthat lives inside you through
his word.
You listen at church to themessage of the gospel and you
believe it.
(29:46):
This bears fruit in your life.
You can't just decide I'm gonnabe loving.
That would be fleshly.
In John 13, 34, it says, A newcommandment I give you that you
love one another as I have lovedyou, that you also love one
another.
(30:06):
See, his love to you is a giftdelivered to you by his spirit,
and you have to know his lovebefore you can ever love anyone
else with agape love.
You have to know his agape lovefor you.
You have to drink it before youcan puke it.
It's weird, but it works.
(30:30):
In John 15, 12, he says, This ismy commandment that you love one
another as I have loved you.
Same thing again.
This new law, this newcommandment is nothing like the
old law.
The old law was based on whatyou can do.
The new covenant of grace isabout what Jesus has done for
you and will do through you.
(30:52):
We used to depend on ourselvesto do God's will.
You have to love other people.
Love God, love others.
That's what was the law.
But the new commandment is Ihave loved you, so now you can
love others when I live throughyou.
You can depend on God's gracegiven through Jesus, and he will
produce this love by his mightypower.
(31:12):
But you can't do it by your ownefforts.
And then finally, in 1 John 412, no one has seen God at any
time.
But if we love one another, Godabides in us, and his love has
been perfected in us.
Again, the only way to love oneanother with agape love is to
(31:33):
receive his love for you.
He abides in us because he lovesus.
He stays with you and he says,I'll never forsake you.
I'm never gonna leave you.
I won't.
You screw up.
Guess what?
Probitiation has alreadyhappened.
I'm not angry.
I'm never gonna be angry at you.
I'll be honest with you and I'llcorrect you and you'll have
(31:55):
discipline in your life, but I'mnot gonna ever do it out of
anger.
We never have to be afraid ofour relationship with the Lord.
He has washed us clean in hisblood, and in the new covenant,
he literally lives inside yourpure body.
He says he's cleansed your body.
So I know that before Christ youslept with all kinds of things.
(32:18):
Before Christ, you you did allkinds of drugs.
Before Christ, you polluted yourbody.
Jesus says, I have cleansed it.
You're a virgin again in everysense.
You are brand new, you are pure,you are holy, and nothing you do
will change that.
That is your identity.
(32:38):
Even if you go back and messaround with the same stuff
again, you're forgiven.
And people are like, you can'tsay that because the people will
just go keep sinning.
And I'm like, lies.
Tell them they're free.
And God's love will transformtheir lives.
When you understand that he'snot angry with you, you're gonna
(33:01):
run to him as a child will whenthey mess up.
Agape love is the perfectexpression of Jesus and the
perfect proof that Jesus livesin you.
So if you want proof that you'resaved, you want proof that Jesus
lives in you, agape love flowingout of your life is a great
(33:26):
proof of that.
But you can't produce that.
You can only ask that it flowsthrough.
You can only give your body toHim.
Jesus, here's my heart, here'smy hands, here's my mind, here's
my mouth, here's my feet, here'severy part of me.
I give them to you.
(33:47):
I believe, Jesus, that you diedon the cross and I was there
with you.
I was crucified with you, and mysin was destroyed on that cross,
and you fully paid the price forit.
You will never be angry with mebecause of the cross.
And then you were died, and youdied, and you were buried, and
then you rose from the dead.
And I believe that in yourresurrection, I was raised with
(34:11):
you, and your new life is now mynew life.
And so the heart that I now haveis not the one I was born with,
it's the new one that was yourheart when you rose from the
dead.
That's the gospel.
And you can't believe that andsay, and I still want to go keep
on sinning.
You can't do it.
(34:33):
It's his life becomes your life.
Would you guys stand with me aswe pray and as we're gonna close
with a song?
Jesus, there is a uh a peace foryour people.
(34:57):
There is blessings that we couldnever even name all the
blessings.
There is joy and there is lovethat we can show this world, but
first, God, we have to acceptand we have to receive that you
love us and that you have doneall that we could ever have
needed.
And you freely, freely, freelyoffer to forgive us and to live
(35:24):
through us.
Lord, I pray that we wouldchoose to respond today with
full surrender of our hearts.
It is not about us, it is notabout our reputation, it's not
about our comfort, it's notabout our plans, Jesus.
(35:46):
Our lives belong completely,100% to you, and we're gonna use
every day that we have left onthis earth to serve you, to
glorify you, to love you, and tolove the people whom you also
love.
And to invite as many people aswe can to know that their
forgiveness is real and thatthey can be adopted into the
(36:10):
family of God.
Jesus, fill us with your love.
Jesus, we rejoice in your love.
Jesus, comfort us with your lovewhen we're going through pain
and when we have things that arejust terrible in our life.
(36:33):
Love endures all things, andJesus, you love us and you will
never give up on us.
We are grateful for that.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
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