Thank you.
everybody and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If we can go ahead and find our seats,
we will go ahead and get started this morning.
And for this morning's first song, let's go ahead and grab our binders with our laminated
handouts, the binders, the black binders, they should be nearby. And for our first song,
we're going to sing through tribulation, something we're all familiar with through tribulation.
If you're familiar with the song, let's all sing it out as loud as possible.
The song is not meant to be quiet.
Through tribulation, let's all sing it out together on the first...
we love you and we just thank you so much for this church. Thank you for the
ability to gather here and sing unto you Lord. We love you and we just ask you to
help us lift up our voice unto you and fill this room with your spirit and
in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right for our next song let's go to song number
74. Song number 74. Christ returneth this might be a little bit of a newer song to
74
Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you did not already get a bulletin, you would like one.
Just lift your hand real quick.
One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin.
On the front, we have our Bible memory passage.
We're working in Jude 1,
and if you can quote the entire chapter,
you can get a special prize.
On the inside is their service times,
their soul winning times,
church stats, and we're still doing really good.
Let's make sure that we keep working hard. We got a lot of soul winning marathons coming up
still. On the right we have the list of expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for our expecting
ladies. Upcoming events next week is going to be Father's Day. Soul winning marathon in Shreveport
is at the end of the month and that's going to be a great opportunity to go out soul winning.
There's a soul winning marathon going to be in Springdale, Arkansas. I got it gets get a little cut off there on the bulletin
But that one's actually in Arkansas. It's probably about five six hours away depending on exactly where you're at
that's going to be July 4th weekend and
Brother Sam Foley is helping lead this and so if you have any questions about that particular event
You should ask brother Sam about that and then
Lancaster is actually Texas. It's actually really close to here. It's only like
20 minutes from here. We haven't really done hardly any soul winning over there, but it seems like it's going to be a really receptive
Opportunity, it's about you know, maybe 20 minutes east of us
So it's just on the other side of I believe the Soto so it's it's really not far from here at all
But it looks like a really receptive demographic. That's all I'll say
August 14th through the 16th is the men's retreat this year and we're actually still going back to our
our traditional place and the traditional event. So if you'd like to sign up for that,
keep that in mind. At least put it down in your, the date and your calendar and we'll get a sign
up sheet going pretty soon.
Pastor Enrique Reyes is actually going to end up coming and joining us and preaching for us for that particular retreat as well
the FBB F conference is August 28th through the 31st and
A lot of people are really excited about this
It's gonna be a lot of fun. We'll have a lot of activities. So
We also are gonna have our kids spelling bee still and I need to get the word list updated and put that out there for you guys to study
but
Again, even last year's list is going to be pretty similar, so there will be some updates
and changes, but it's going to be a lot of words in the King James Bible.
Teen Summer, we had a sign-up sheet, and I should have just updated this, but you can
kind of see the third.
Date of each one of these is the Saturday and we're going to go with that option
So this first upcoming one is going to be June 14th
And it's going to be a game night at the church at 5 30 and so if you can make it
We would love for you to participate dinner will be provided all
Teenagers are welcome to participate if you are 20 to 25
and you want to be kind of like a counselor or or still participate just see me or brother Milstead
and we are the ones kind of trying to help host this particular thing so uh July 26th will be a
bowling night and then August 9th is going to be an adventure park so uh if you just want to
circle those those third ones that's going to be the most uh it's going to be the best in general
If you have friends or family members or anybody else that you know as a teenager you can always invite them
So you're always welcome to participate
Bring others with you for that particular event. It is going to be limited though
To the 13 to 19. So if you're 12 and a half you still aren't 13. So just as FYI
And no one wants to hang out with their dweeby little brother or something, you know, so it's just it's just how it is, right?
No, I'm just kidding
So that's that's basically what we're trying to do and hopefully this is something we can
continue forward in the future and it should be something that the teenagers can be excited about
teen summer where they get a fun activity to do once a month for the summer months. On the back
we have our prayer list if you continue to pray for our church and that's pretty much all I have
as far as announcements we're going to sing our special song of the week where the spirit blows
It's Where the Spirit Blows.
All right, that was Where the Spirit Blowsed.
Where the Spirit Blowsed.
And on that last go, let's give it a shout.
Where the Spirit Blowsed.
Jesus told me.
in love.
the spirits.
because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ has come
in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come
in the flesh is not of God, and this is that Spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard
that it should come, and even now already is it in the world.
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that
than he that is in the world.
They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world,
and the world heareth them.
We are of God, he that knoweth God, heareth us.
He that is not of God, heareth not us.
Hereby know we the spirit of truth
and the spirit of error.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God,
and everyone that loveeth is born of God and knoweth God.
He that
Love is not, knoweth not, God, for God is love.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.
Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
No man hath seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his spirit.
And we have seen, and do testified, that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God,
and we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.
God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him
Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is
So are we in this world
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment.
He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
We love him because he first loved us.
If a man say, I love God, and hateeth his brother, he is a liar, for he that loveth
not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for this chapter of the Bible and for our church services today.
I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit. Help him to preach the sermon you've laid on his heart with clarity of mind and with boldness.
And give us ears to hear the message and apply it to our lives. We love you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
The Bible says in verse number 20,
if a man say, I love God and hated his brother,
he is a liar.
For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen,
how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
And this commandment have we from him
that he who loveth God love his brother also.
And the title of my sermon is coming
from the very beginning of verse 20,
where it says, if a man say,
I love God, and today there's a lot of lip service to loving God where people will say
that they love God, but then they end up not loving their brother, which is evidence of
the fact that they don't actually love God.
The Bible is helping us to understand that those who truly love God will love their brother,
If you can't love your brother, whom you can see.
He's saying it really is a contradictory position.
The person who truly loves God will love his brother.
Now this chapter is really emphasizing this particular point.
Let's go back to verse 7.
The Bible says,
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God.
And everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love.
The Bible is helping us to understand that a true, sincere, godly love only comes from God.
And those who are saved are really the only people that have this capability
of exercising a true biblical godly love.
The world does not have a biblical and godly love.
They have a very selfish love.
They have a love that's really about themselves
and benefits themselves.
It's not a true sacrificial love that we see here in the Bible
because he's going to describe for us
what true love really looks like.
He says in verse number nine,
in this was manifested the love of God toward us
because that God sent his only begotten Son to the world
that we might live through him.
The world wants to define for you what love looks like or what love feels like or what love is
But the Bible tells us the true manifestation of love is God the Father
Sacrificing his son to take our sins and this is what real love looks like is a sacrificial love a love
where someone is willing to pay someone else's burdens pay for someone else's sins and
The world is not like this.
The world is very selfish in their love.
Their love is really about themselves.
They love pizza in the sense that they love to eat pizza
because it tastes good to them,
but they're not gonna die for pizza.
They're not going to sacrifice for pizza.
They're not going to bear burdens for pizza.
They're simply consuming it because they like it.
They, in Hollywood, sing about how they love their spouse.
But they only love their spouse while they're
getting satisfaction from their spouse
or while they like the way their spouse looks
or because their spouse is under the age of 33
because Tom Cruise has to divorce you when you turn 33.
But that's not because he loves his wife.
He didn't really love that person.
He didn't really make sacrifices that person.
That person was just something to bring him satisfaction,
to bring him joy, or to bring him desire.
And as soon as it stopped benefiting him,
he discards it like trash.
And that's what Hollywood constantly does,
is they trash their spouse.
They trash all kinds of things
because they don't have a true, sincere, godly love.
False religion today does not have a true sincere Godly love because they trash things.
They're not willing to make sacrifice.
They're not willing to burden.
They're not willing to go through hardships for people.
This is true love.
And when we think about the love of God,
the love of God was not extended to those who deserve it.
No one deserved it.
In fact, many people were even going to reject his love.
He had to go through such an embarrassing trial the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father had to sacrifice his son for so many people
That would not be grateful for so many people that would not truly appreciate it for so many people that would never even get saved
And of course for all of us who did not deserve it. This is what true love really looks like is what God did for us
How could God love us?
I mean what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visit is him
When you know you declare it when you look at the heavens when you look at the sky
When you look at the universe and you look how vast it is we are just a speck of dust in
His sight we're like ants or even less than in his sight and yet he cared for us
How many of us would sacrifice our son for an ant?
It's so meaningless to us yet. That's how much God really cares about us and how much he loves us and how much he's willing to
Sacrifice for us. We're seeing what it what what does love really look like?
God shows us what love really looks like without the Bible. We wouldn't even know what real love looks like
This is the story of sacrifice. This is the story of true genuine love is God the Father
And that's where we learned what love was really like and of course all the greatest
stories
movies
Books songs. It's always about someone
Sacrificing because that's what true love really looks like. It's the guy
rescuing someone, delivering someone, sacrificing themselves,
being willing to die in some cases even dying for their love
because that's the ultimate picture of love.
We don't have, there's no example that someone could show me
what is a greater picture of love than what the Bible shows of God the Father
sending his son to die
for the sins of the world. It is the greatest symbol of love.
It is the greatest story of love. Why? Because love is of God.
God is love according to the Bible. Verse 9 and verse 10, here in his love, not
that we loved God, but that he loved us and sin his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. You know verse 10 should be rebuke to that Lordship
salvation.
You know me getting saved wasn't me loving God wasn't me sacrificing or doing something for God
In fact the Bible is really clear not that we loved God, but that he loved us the gospel is not about us
The gospel is not about our love the gospel is not about our sacrifice
It's about his love and it's about his sacrifice and us accepting his free gift
We didn't love God. He loved us. How? By sending his son to be the
Apitiation for our sins, you know people get confused also what the Bible means like in John 3 16 for God
So loved the world, you know the Bible is not saying God looks down from heaven and sees us sinning
Sees us doing wickedly and he quote loves us
He loved us by sending his son Jesus Christ to die in the cross for us. That's how he loved us when he looks down and sees
You sinning. He's angry with you
He's upset with you. He's mad at you. That's why you had to send his son
Think about it. If he's just looking down from heaven seeing you sinning and just thinking like oh out of boy
Good job. He wouldn't have to deal with sin
He looks at it and he's upset and he's angry and he has the deal with it
So that's why he sent his son to show his love
His love is through his son is through the gospel yet
He's very angry with sin and he's very angry with our disobedience and a rebellion
And we didn't love God, he loved us.
Verse 11, beloved, if God still loved us,
we ought also to love one another.
Notice, God is saying, if you are truly a Christian
then you need to love like I loved.
We need to have his love, but towards other people.
We need to love one another.
No man has seen God at any time if we love one another.
God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us.
We've never seen God.
Who in here has seen God the Father?
I was just looking for people who need to kick out, okay?
Yeah, we've never seen him.
But we still can love him.
And we can still love God, and we can still love the Lord Jesus Christ,
even though we've never seen him.
And we love God through the Bible.
That's who God is.
In the beginning was the Word, in the Word is with God, in the Word was God.
So if you truly love God, you'll love this book.
That's why people that don't like this book, they don't love God.
The Bible says that, you know, of course, loving God is his commandments.
What? The commandments are in here.
How could you say that you love God and you don't like what's in this book?
You got to like all of it.
Not just John 3.16, but even the commandments, even Leviticus, even Numbers, even Deuteronomy.
And then he's saying, if you really love God,
how could you not love other Christians?
How could you not love other brethren
that are saved and redeemed?
If God so loved them and sent his son
to die on the cross for them and they've been redeemed,
how can you not then love them if you truly love God?
If you truly love God, then you will love God's people.
And we need to love one another like God loved us.
This is what the Bible is just hammering.
Verse 13 hereby know we that we dwell in him and he and us because he hath given us of his spirit
And we have seen to testify that the father sent the son to be the savior of the world
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the son of God God dwelleth in him and he and God and we have known and believed
The love that God hath to us God is love and he that dwelleth in love
Dwelleth in God and God in him notice that when you're loving people, that's what it means to be dwelling in God
and God dwelling in you.
Verse 17, here it is, our love made perfect
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment
because as he is, so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love,
but perfect love casts without fear
because fear hath torment.
He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
We love him because he first loved us.
You know, here's a good, just tip.
If you want someone to love you,
You kind of have to sometimes make the first step.
You have to love them first.
If you want young men, if you want a young woman to fall
in love with you and become your wife,
you need to love her first.
You need to sacrifice for her first.
Husbands and wives, marriage is a marathon.
It's a marathon.
And sometimes you can even have a feeling
where you're not really in love.
Okay, but you know what if you ever get to that point just do this just start loving them again and
That's how you can win the back over
You know, I think I think some people have this idea like maybe if I criticize them enough. They'll start loving me again
If I point out all their flaws enough, they'll like me again.
But God didn't do that to us, did He?
God didn't just have to point out every single one of our flaws and browbeat us into submission.
In fact, He just sacrificed for us and said, I still love you.
And then why do we love Him?
Because He loved us.
Why do we love Jesus?
Why do we love God?
Because of the sacrifice for us.
That's why we love Him.
That's why we appreciate Him.
And you know, your children, you want your children to love you?
You got to love them first.
You want anybody to love you, you want a friend to love you?
You got to love your friend first.
You got to show that first step.
And look, there's nothing wrong with being the first person
to love someone.
You know, isn't that like movies and shows and stuff?
It's always that awkward moment when the one person's like,
I love you, and then the other person's like, thanks.
Or they don't know what to say,
because maybe they're not there yet.
And again, that's not to say that that's wrong.
Maybe someone falls for the other person first, but you know what?
It makes it a little bit easier to fall in love with someone that's already declared
their love to you.
It's a little bit easier to reciprocate when they've already said, well, I love you, and
I'm waiting and I'm ready for you to love me back whenever you want.
And of course, what happens when you throw out your love?
Well, sometimes it gets rejected, can't it?
I mean, doesn't God throw out His love to everybody?
And then the vast majority of people are going to reject it.
And you know, that's the frustrating part about dating, is you sometimes, you love somebody,
you want somebody to love you back, and it just doesn't really work, and then, you know,
you have to move on.
But at least you try.
Sometimes you love someone or you love something and it's taken from you look at Job
He had ten children. He loved them very much
He sacrificed for them every single day and then yet they were taken away and of course Job's attitude was the Lord gave the
Lord took away blessed to be the name of the Lord
You know it's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all and we should be people that love
You know as a pastor of this church people are gonna come and go all the time
And I genuinely love the people that come to this church
and the members of our church,
and it hurts when you lose them,
but I'd rather love people and lose them
than just have a jaded attitude
and say, I'm just not gonna like anybody.
Or do good unto people or try to help people
and if they turn on you, then so be it.
Jesus loved his disciples, Judas turned on him.
Jesus loved us, we don't always reciprocate, we don't always do right.
You know what, the right attitude for us is just to love people.
We should just love people and do good and make sacrifice.
And you know what, it won't always work out.
You won't always receive reciprocal love for the love that you put out.
You know what, it's better to just love anyways, and we may never always get it.
And you say, but I'm kind of afraid.
putting my love out there. I'm kind of afraid of putting myself on the line
and being rejected. I'm kind of afraid of not receiving reciprocal love. I'm kind
of afraid of the consequences of this. But what does the Bible say? It says in
verse 18, there is no fear in love. If you genuinely love something, if you have
the maximum amount of love, you're not afraid of the consequences of that love.
And we could put this in a lot of different contexts.
How about this one?
How about that guy, he's dating a girl,
but he's kind of embarrassed about who he's dating.
Well, then he doesn't want to tell people.
They're like, hey, are you dating?
You have a girlfriend?
He's like, no.
Or like, hey, can I see a picture of her?
And he's like, no.
That's not perfect love, is it?
Because perfect love would be,
let's go to some verses here,
because I have a lot of verses that I want to go to.
Go through the song of Solomon, chapter two.
And I'm gonna get into some points here.
I'm just kind of trying to explain this passage
before I really get into some of these points.
But I want you to understand what this passage means
of, you know, there's no fear in love.
That perfect love casts without fear.
What does that look like?
Well, it means that you're just not going to allow
the fears of this world to stop you from loving this person.
And one of those would be just being embarrassed or ashamed of somebody.
You know, if there's somebody that you love,
you shouldn't be embarrassed or ashamed to tell people that you actually love that person.
Or to make it clear that you love that person.
And in Song of Solomon, chapter number two, look at verse number four.
He brought me to the banqueting house and his banner over me
Was love notice that this particular individual he's not ashamed of who his wife is
He's not embarrassed of who his wife is
He wants to showcase her and he wants to make it clear my banner over this person is love
I want everyone to know that I love this person because you're just not embarrassed of your love
What's another thing? You know your child's playing in the street in the cars coming
and they're not going to get out of the of the street in time so you run in there
risking your own life to grab them out because you're not afraid of dying you're
more afraid of losing that person and so that perfect love casts it out the
fear of the car coming and it causes you to jump in there and try to rescue them
it causes you to go into the burning building it causes you to go and slay the
dragon it causes you to do whatever is right because you're just not afraid
You know, hey, if you just love God, and you love the Word of God, you're not afraid to wear a t-shirt that says Leviticus 2013 on it.
Because perfect love casts it out fear. You're just not afraid of what the Bible says.
You're not afraid to say, yeah, I don't drink alcohol because of what the Bible says.
Hey, you know, if you actually love steadfast, you wouldn't be afraid to say that you like steadfast.
You know why someone's afraid to say where they go to church because they don't really love it?
You know why someone's afraid to say that they're King James only because they don't really love Jesus Christ?
And let me tell you something. You know why people are afraid to say they love pastors of the new FB?
It's because they don't really love God. I
Don't like that conclusion. Well, you just don't like the Bible and you don't like God
Go back if you would to 1 John chapter 4. I want to keep hammering this point for a second. I want you to get what I'm saying here
Hey, when you really love something you're not afraid of
Anything now we have to understand this context with God with God. We're always to fear God
But you can have a perfect fear towards God and a perfect love simultaneously
Because the fear that's being cast out is the fear of everything but God
The fear of death, the fear of embarrassment, the fear of sacrifice, whatever it is,
because Jesus Christ was always in the fear of the Lord.
And we know that Jesus Christ had perfect love.
So you can have perfect love and you can still have fear.
But it's saying, hey, all the other fears, all the other fears that we have in our life are completely cast out.
They're discarded. You're not afraid.
Just like Jesus Christ had to sit there in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Faced with the ultimate fears of death and pain and sorrow and suffering and he said nevertheless
Not my will but thine be done. Why because he had perfect love and that perfect love cast out all the fear of the cross
All the fear of the death all the fear of hell all the fear of all the shame and
embarrassment and their approach and he just said you know what I love God and I love
Mankind so much that I'm willing to just cast aside all that fear
And I'm just going to go through it.
And of course, when you have this perfect love,
you know what, you don't, you're not really afraid
of all the consequences, you can just act.
You can just respond because you just have that love.
Just like in marriage, you know,
you should have this mentality in your marriage.
Where you've just you know when you stood there before God and you said till death do us part
You know what you were saying? All right. I'm gonna strive to have perfect love
It doesn't matter if we're sick. It doesn't matter if we're poor
It doesn't matter if we're not having good times. It doesn't matter what's happening till death
So I just cast out all the fear
of all the bad things that could possibly happen and I just dedicated myself to you
and it's just we're gonna love each other no matter what
till death and that's why you have that perfect love. What is perfect love?
We just cast all that aside and then anytime you have a problem in your marriage
you're not afraid of the problem because you know you just love that person
you're gonna try and make
it work the best that it can. What are the circumstances? What are the situation?
Well I'm stuck anyways you know
Just think of your spouse as a body part, right?
I mean, I'm going to make my eyes work.
I'm never going to be like, you know, I'm just giving up my eyes.
I'm going to pluck it out, right?
I'm giving up on my hand.
Just chop it off, right?
No, you're going to try and make that thing work.
In fact, sometimes it gets cut off and you're like,
can we sew it back on like a finger or something?
You know, people are trying to make their body work
because it's like, it's their body.
They don't want to lose this thing.
And in the same way, you should be looking at that with your marriage.
It's like, hey, this is my body now.
I'm going to try and make it work.
I want to make this stuff work because you know what, I already have a perfect love.
I just love this and I'm never going to stop loving this.
It's mine and because it's mine and because I love it, I'm not afraid of whatever's going
to happen.
I'm just going to cast out all that fear.
Look at 1st John chapter 2 and look at verse 27 what happens though if you don't have perfect love
Well that you get embarrassed and you get ashamed and when you do this
Christ can be ashamed of you and you're gonna be afraid in judgment day
First John chapter 2, look at verse 27.
But the anointing which you've receded of him abideth in you,
not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teach you
of all things and his truth and his no lie,
and even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in him.
And now little children abide in him that when he shall appear,
we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
So if you abide in Christ, if you're doing Christ's will in your life,
you're not going to be afraid of judgment day.
Whereas, if you were just living for yourself, if you were living selfishly, if you weren't
being a good Christian, well, then you could be a little bit intimidated by that judgment
day.
And that's why it's bringing up in 1 John chapter 4.
Go back there and look at this, look at verse 17, here it is, our love made perfect, that
we may have boldness in the day of judgment.
Why would I have boldness in the day of judgment?
I loved God.
Hey, I can have boldness if if if I'm just doing what's right, and I'm always having the right heart and the right attitude
I'm just loving whatever it is then I can have boldness to say like hey, I did what I could do
Whereas if I'm not really loving if I'm fearing if I'm not making the sacrifices if I'm not doing what I should be doing
Then I could be embarrassed. I could be ashamed. You know Jesus Christ said this he said who's over there for shall be ashamed of me
and of my words
And as adulteress and sinful generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his father with the holy angels.
You can be ashamed before Christ.
You know, the Bible says, go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, I'll show you another verse on this.
Obviously, you know, once we get, once we go to heaven and after the judgment,
I don't think that there's really any more consequences to anything.
But we have to just be honest that the Bible does teach that some people are gonna have a higher status in heaven and
that there's gonna be that moment of a judgment with Christ even for the saved
Where you're gonna be embarrassed if you didn't really serve God if you didn't really have any works
If you didn't really do what he wanted you to do and you could be ashamed before him
Why because you didn't really love him
Because if you'd love Jesus, then you're going to stand there and you're going to be excited about the Day of Judgment.
Just like the guy that worked really hard all day, he's excited about his evaluation at the end of the year.
He's excited about the boss talking about promotion.
Whereas the guy that didn't get his task done, didn't do any work, didn't do his projects,
hey, when the evaluation day comes, whenever the boss is going to actually talk about promotion, he's afraid.
This is just how wife works and that's how I believe the Bible teaches God works and in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 look at verse 9
Wherefore we labor that whether president or absent we may be accepted of him. Not only am I saved
I want to also be accepted of God. I don't want God to just look at me and say wow, you're a great example of salvation by grace. I
Want him to say not only is this guy saved by grace. I also have accepted him
How he's changed his life around how he's trying to serve me
Why, verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
that everyone may receive the things done in his body,
according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
You know, we can have the wood, hay, and stubble, which is the bad stuff that doesn't last into eternity,
or the gold, silver, and precious stone, which then is added to our account,
and we receive reward for the works on which we've done.
But notice what it says in verse 11,
therefore knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
Why why does a pastor get up and just scream and yell about serving God and going soul-winning and going to church or reading the
Bible and being in a good church because I know the tear of the Lord and
I'm trying to persuade you to realize this is a fearful thing and you're gonna have to live with the
Consequences of your actions for all of attorney God is not mocked for what's a woman so if that's really also reap how you spent this life
You will reap for all of eternity
You may not realize it, and you may not even get the consequences or the rewards immediately on this earth.
You may not really have an exact idea of what it's going to look like.
But let me tell you something, your eternity is going to be determined on what you're doing right now.
What you do this afternoon, what you do tonight, what you do this week, what you do for the next 10 years.
Why would I not want to be in a church serving God?
Why would I not want to be in the best church serving God?
I mean, don't, aren't, isn't everybody in here
pretty much willing to change jobs
if it doesn't get you more money?
I mean, if you're like, hey, there's another company
out there and they're actually gonna pay me double
what I'm making to do the same thing,
wouldn't most people be like, I'm just gonna switch jobs?
And if I was like, hey, I'm evaluating churches,
and you know what, I can go to this one church.
And I'll get paid an ex-salary, I can go to this other church and I'll probably be motivated to make more money and I'll end up making more money.
But the boss yells at me a couple times, you know, he might actually manage me a little bit.
Well, you know, I think a lot of people they put up with a little bit more scrutiny when they know they're going to get double paid, don't they?
And so, you know, when you're evaluating a church,
what's the most important to you?
Well, I just don't want anybody to look at me.
I don't want anybody to evaluate me.
I don't want there to be any consequences.
I don't want there to be a rule book.
So I'm gonna go to the non-the-nom church.
But then you're not gonna get paid a very big wage, are you?
Whereas the guy that's like,
hey, yeah, there's a little bit of scrutiny.
Yeah, there's a little bit of pressure.
Yeah, you might get yelled at every once in a while.
But hey, you're gonna get a lot of wages.
It's like, hey, I'm gonna go with that one.
And, of course, you should expect that, hey, if you're getting paid a high wage, there's
probably some expectations.
You know, if you work a job at 7-Eleven, they're just hoping you don't come to work high.
Whereas, hey, you're making hundreds of thousands of dollars,
they're probably expecting you to produce, make tons of money,
come in with a good attitude, show up, work overtime without pay.
They're probably expecting you to do all kinds of stuff to really generate that kind of income
because you're getting paid a lot. So, you know, hey, a church like this,
there's probably a little bit higher expectation than the church down the street
that doesn't really do much, that doesn't really accomplish much.
But let me say said if you love God you're just gonna want to get into the best program that you possibly can
Because you know what perfect love casted out fear and you say well, I just love God
So I just want to get on the team that's doing the most for God
Because I just love God and I don't want to be ashamed before him at his coming
And I know the tear of the Lord and I want to persuade other people to realize hey
There's coming a day when all the vanity will be a parent
And only the works for Christ will last.
And boy, I would love to be happy on that day,
not disappointed, not be embarrassed, not be ashamed.
How do you do that?
Well, if you have perfect love,
you have boldness in that day, won't you?
Whereas if you didn't really love God very much,
you probably will be a little bit more ashamed.
And those people that say,
I love God, well, that's not really an account
for much on that day.
Oh, you loved God? Okay, let's see how you loved God then.
And I have some points that I want to make now of what this really looks like.
Go to John 15.
Number one, if you really love God, if you say, I love God,
here's something that you would do, you would lay down your life for the brethren.
Jesus Christ says he loves us, but he showed us that he loved us.
He didn't just say it, he really died on the cross for us.
He really suffered the worst and most excruciating pain.
He really took the riches of heaven and condescended down to men of low estate
and humbled himself and was made in the form of a servant.
He became like us.
He lowered himself. That's what it means to lay down your life.
Look at John 15 verse 12. This is my commandment.
that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this
than a man laid down his life for his friends.
Notice what true genuine love looks like.
It's a man laying down his life for his friends.
And of course, Jesus Christ modeled this for us
by laying down his life for us
because Jesus Christ is always our perfect example.
I want to go to Romans chapter five,
go to Romans chapter five.
I want to look at a lot of verses this morning, so I hope you like the Bible today.
If you don't, you just don't love God.
Romans chapter number five, point one is this, if a man say I love God, he'll lay down his
life for the brethren.
He'll lay down his life for the brethren, just like Jesus Christ did for us.
Romans chapter five or six, the Bible says, for when we were yet without strength in due
Look at verse 7,
for scarcely for a righteous man will one die,
yet, para-adventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
Notice he's saying sometimes man would even die for man.
You know what that is? That's perfect love.
Perfect love would be a man sacrificing for another man,
and he's saying very few people ever do this.
Very few people would ever be willing to lay down their lives for another person.
And they said specifically, pretty much only for a good man too.
Someone that's a communist dictator, someone that's a bad leader.
Often, hey, when push comes to shove, they're not going to jump in front of a bullet.
They're going to be like Brutus and they're going to be like, hey, I'm going to get them too, you know.
They're going to stab them in the back.
Only great men dying for great men is a rarity.
But it says this verse 8,
but God committed the love toward us
and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
So he's saying, yeah, there is a few people out there
that are exceptional and they might die
for another exceptional person and very rare circumstances.
But he says, you know what separates them from Christ?
Christ died for the ungodly.
Christ died for sinners.
While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
He didn't die for us when we were good, he didn't die for us when we were exceptional,
he died for us when we were sinners, headed for hell, yet he still died for us, showing
his love is greater than that we have.
But what is perfect love?
It's saying I'm willing to die for them whether they reciprocate or not, whether they're
good or not.
Go back if you went to 1st John chapter number three, because you know 1st John is a book
about a couple subjects, but one of them that's really hammered in the book of 1st John is
And what we have to understand, at least this is my opinion,
but I think it's pretty validated in the text,
is when you get in the later books of the New Testament,
it's kind of like going down the maturity checklist.
Like if you kind of want to understand,
like the Gospels is like level one,
and then acts is like level two.
Notice the Zionists couldn't even get to level two, okay?
They really kind of failed level one in some ways.
It's like then you get to Romans.
1 Corinthians. Really, when you look at someone's maturity,
whatever books that they can't handle is kind of like they haven't
progressed to that level of maturity. And if someone can't handle Romans at 1 Corinthians,
they definitely can't handle Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, and 1 John.
So when we look at the Christian maturity, the Christian life,
it really is kind of following a general pattern of just like, here's the next
layer of maturity.
And if you think about it, it's like first John is really hammering love for the brethren.
What is revelation kind of hammer?
Being willing to die.
Be thou faithful in the death.
That's kind of the, that's the end, because there's not really much you can do more than
that.
right? And so you kind of look at this journey and it's like it's kind of following this journey.
So that's what I'm saying when you get to 1st John,
we're talking about the high levels, the higher levels of maturity in Christianity, kind of the more difficult subjects of Christianity.
Of course, why do false prophets love to go there to talk about salvation? Because that's nothing to a salvation and it's about
extreme versions of maturity and they don't get it and they twist that.
into teaching on a works-based salvation.
Because once you get saved, it's important to do works.
So what is the Bible emphasizing in these later books?
It's emphasizing works.
James is emphasizing works.
First, John's emphasizing works.
Hebrews emphasizing works.
Why?
Because we need to add works to our faith.
First, Peter talking about adding to our faith,
virtue, and all these different aspects.
Charity, which charity is the ultimate.
What is charity? It's loving the brethren. It's willing to sacrifice for the brethren
It's laying down your life for the brethren
We have to understand these advanced topics in their context of the scripture and when we talk about
Loving the brethren, you know first John really hammers this look at verse 16
Hereby perceive with the love of God
Because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren
How much clearer could the text get?
We just see the love of God all throughout the text the Bible says hereby we see the love of God because he sacrificed for us
Because he laid down his life for us
And then what is our example that we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren?
But the reality is that most of us if not all of us
There could be zero situation where we actually have to take a bullet for one other
I mean, it's very likely that none of us will ever have to actually die for one another
But that's not the only context this can be applied.
The text gives us more ways in which the Bible brings up being laid down for the brethren.
Look at verse 17.
But whoso hath this world's good.
see this brother have need and shut it up his bowels of compassion from him how
dwelleth the love of God in him my little children let us not love in word
neither in tongue but indeed and in truth and hereby know we and hereby know
I'm sorry and hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts
before him so what is the Bible saying the Bible is saying hey it's one thing
Hey, I love you, man. Love you, bro. Hey, I need something. Well, be warmed and filled
No, the Bible is saying, hey, if you actually love this person and you have the capability of helping them
Then how do you really love God if you didn't?
And you know, you should always take this test
It's like hey if Jesus came to me and Jesus is saying hey, can I borrow this colt and fold an ass?
Hey, can I borrow this? What would you say?
Yeah, immediately give it to him, right?
Because he has it.
It's not like he can't live without it.
It's extra, and he's just like here.
Now, again, this can help you too.
It's like the Bible is not saying
help every single person, period.
What does the Bible say?
But who so hath this world's good?
It's not saying like, hey,
max out your credit card
just giving people stuff.
It's saying, look, if you have it though,
And you don't have to have it. It's not a need for you.
You're not taking food off of your child's plate to put it on someone else's plate.
You know, you're basically, hey, this is something that I don't have to have.
It's not something that I have, I couldn't go without. Then you give it to your brethren.
And it's saying like, how in the world could you claim that you love God
if you have something that you could just depart and give it to somebody else and you wouldn't?
This is an example of what it means to lay down your life for your brethren.
of saying, hey, it's not about me, it's not about my goods,
hey, this person has a need, notice what it also said,
and see if this brother have need, not want, have need,
and you say, hey, I wanna help supply this need.
Hey, someone needs a job, maybe you could help them
with a job, right?
If someone is wanting money so they can buy drugs,
well, that's not a need, is it?
If someone is wanting money so they don't have to work,
that's not a need.
Obviously, people get down on their luck, but you know, I like to help working men.
I like to help people that are in a bad situation at no fault of their own, or even if it is
their fault, it's not something that they were purposely doing to harm themselves, right?
They're not like trying to hurt themselves.
We all make mistakes.
We all have blunders.
We all make dumb decisions.
We all don't have foresight, but you know what?
And if you have the opportunity to help that person,
you don't, well, you don't really love God.
Just like the Samaritan, hey, he sees this guy have need
and he helps him, he actually has the love of God.
Whereas the Pharisee and the Levite, they just walk by
and they don't help him.
They don't do anything unto him.
But you know what, they're gonna go to temple
and they say, I love God.
How many people today will say they love God
and they don't?
Most, most of them.
Why? Because they won't lay down their life
for their brother.
When push comes to shove and look laying down your life or brethren is a burden
It's not a benefit. This is what people don't understand. Oh, I love this guy. That's blessing me. I love this guy
That's helping me. I love this guy. That's popular. Well, that's not love
Love is helping the guy would have became unpopular like
He's from Samaria or he's from another part of the world or this guy got beat up
or this guy needs money, or this guy needs help,
or this guy's down in his luck, or people have turned against him,
or, hey, Paul's thrown in prison.
That's what it means to actually love that person
is to come and help them when they're in need,
not when everything's going well.
Don't be a fair-weather friend.
Don't be a fair-weather Christian where you only help people you only love people when they're convenient to love
When it's beneficial to love when they're blessing you to love. Yeah, it's real easy to love the guy
It's gonna take you out for a steak dinner, isn't it?
It's not as convenient to go help them do something
that's gonna cost you money, time, effort, and energy,
or when they're going through a hard time to come and help them,
talk to them, encourage them.
That's what it really means to lay down your life.
Go to Ephesians chapter 5. Go to Ephesians chapter 5.
Hey, we need to lay down our lives with the brethren.
And you know what? The Bible extends this in all areas of our lives,
of our relationships. Marriage is another one.
That it brings us up look at Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25 the Bible says husbands
Love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and notice this and gave himself for it
You know, I think that some men are attracted to new IP preaching because they listen to about half of it
They listen to the half of their in charge like men are in charge
Women are the weaker vessel do what I say and they love that
But then they don't listen to this part which says specifically that they're going to lay down their life like Christ did.
You know what that means? That means that you're going to actually make sacrifices.
You know what that means? That you're actually going to do things, you're going to lift off burdens from them.
You're going to do things that are difficult.
You're going to put away selfish ambitions,
and you're going to pick up, hey, the desires of your wife,
the desires of your family, you're going to try and help them,
you're going to try and do good under them.
You know, we need both.
Hey, we need to tell, you know, husbands and wives,
hey, the husband's in charge, follow his example,
but then we also need to encourage men to actually lay down their lives
for their wife and for their family and for their children
and to do good under them.
We need that balance, otherwise it doesn't really work.
Yeah, we need the dictators, but we need the benevolent dictators. Don't we and if you're benevolent and you're not a dictator
Well, it's gonna fail
If you're a dictator and you're not benevolent, it's gonna fail
You know, we kind of have you kind of have to walk that that balance a little bit of saying hey
Yeah, I'm in charge and I'm gonna make all the rules
But I'm gonna try and make decisions that are gonna benefit you and I'm gonna try and make decisions where I'm
Sacrificing from my own ambition in a lot of ways to help bless you and to help do good unto you
You know and ultimately that's what women want. They want you to read their minds and do what they want, right?
Without having to ask. You just made the decision. Hey, we're just gonna do exactly what you want without you saying it
That's what they would love
Okay, but we're not mine readers. So just tell us and then maybe we can do it. All right
Verse 26 that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word now
Here's the thing. He's not giving into the selfish ambitions of the wife
Just like Christ isn't giving into the selfish ambitions of the church,
but at the end of the day, He's still trying to help us.
Christ is trying to help us serve Him, and we should help our wives to serve God.
By being a godly wife, by being a godly mother, by being a godly Christian,
we're trying to help clean them up.
So sometimes, you know, this is not fun, but sometimes you have to correct your wife.
Sometimes you have to try and guide her in the right steps.
You have to tell her, hey, this is what you should be doing.
This isn't right.
This isn't the best way.
But you're trying to make those decisions to benefit her, not just yourself always.
You're not always doing it for selfish ambition, but you're doing it to the glory of God.
That He may present it to Himself, a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.
You know, we have to nourish and cherish.
Not all parts of our body can handle everything.
You know, you punch with your fist because your fist can take things, but there's other
sensitive parts of your body that can't take the same brute force.
Your face can't take the same brute force.
There's sensitive parts of your body that can't take the same brute force.
And you wouldn't want to put them in combat or battle in the same way that we shouldn't
always expect our wives or children to be able to handle all the same things that we
can handle.
And so sometimes we have to nourish them, cherish them, protect them.
We have to gently lead them as men.
Men gently lead their wives.
Not wives gently leading their husbands, alright?
She should not be harder than you.
She should be softer than you.
You should be harder than your wife.
And it says in verse, let's just keep reading verse 30,
for we are members of his body and of his flesh
and of his bones for this cause shall a man
leave his father and mother
and shall be joined into his wife
and they too shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery,
but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular,
so love his wife even as himself
and the wife see that she reverents her husbands.
We need to love our wives.
Go over to Romans 16.
I wanna go to another passage on this point,
but notice that when we love God,
we will lay down our lives for the brethren.
If you love God, you will love your wife.
There is not a man who loves God and doesn't love his wife.
And let me explain this.
The guy who divorces his wife does not love God.
Right, that's right.
Period.
He can sit there and pretend like he loves God. He can act like oh look how spiritual I am, but he is a phony
He is a fake. He does not love God
If a man loves God, he will love his wife till death do him part
Hosea had to be married to a whore to a literal harlot and raise children that were not his your situation is not worse, buddy
And if he can love her, you can love your wife.
And let me tell you something,
that's how God has to love a lot of people.
He has to love a lot of spiritual harlots
and a lot of spiritual bastard children in a sense.
And you know what, he loves us.
And we can see the heartbreak that he has to go through
is like the heartbreak of a man raising a bastard child.
The heartbreak of paying your wife
not to commit adultery against you.
The insanity of that, how much that would break your heart, and you know, Christians
act like that sometimes to God.
It's embarrassing, it's sad.
But don't let someone trick you, don't let someone fool you, no, no, I really love God.
That's why I had to divorce my spouse, liar.
Romans 16, look at verse 3, Greek, Pasilla, and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who
under whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches are the Gentiles.
Now praise God, they didn't even actually have to die.
But it's basically saying there was some event that happened through the Book of Acts
where the Apostle Paul was going to potentially die
and these two individuals, husband and wife,
are willing to literally put their life on the line to save and rescue and deliver Paul.
They're willing to risk their own neck.
For the Apostle Paul this is literally laying down their life for the brethren
You know, it's like almost sometimes people have this attitude. They say, you know, if you you're obsessed with loving pastors
Well, then you need to get a hobby. Well, what if they had told a kill in Brazil of that?
Then we wouldn't have Paul. Yeah, you know, you can't love someone too much
I don't know if you realize that you can't love God too much
You can't love men of God too much.
You can't love your spouse too much.
You know, we shouldn't try to diminish love towards anyone.
We should increase our love.
The Bible talks about Jonathan.
He loved David as his own soul.
The Bible says that he was knit to David almost like you would think in a marriage in a sense
You know, why don't you find a friend that you just knit your soul to and you just say I'm just gonna love you I
Mean there's nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong with just picking somebody and just saying you know, I'm just gonna love you
Would you really hate that would you really hate it if someone said hey, I'm gonna love you and be your friend no matter what?
Oh, isn't that what Jesus did for us?
Isn't that why we love Jesus is because he did that for us?
Hey, you're gonna really hate that when your spouse says,
hey, I love you no matter what.
I'm knit to you no matter what.
My soul is yours.
You have my heart.
You have my affection.
It doesn't matter how much you screw up.
It doesn't matter how much you don't put the seat down
after you pee.
It doesn't matter how many dishes you leave out.
You've got my heart.
You've got my soul.
You know what?
You're gonna be like, yes.
I mean, it doesn't matter what context we put this in, people love this.
You know, sports fans, you know, the team doesn't want the fans to be like, when are
we, don't love you anymore.
They want you to love them no matter what.
They want you to be on their team no matter what.
Hey, you know what, everybody in church is the same way, we're not different, spiritual
Pastors have feelings too, and you know what?
There's nothing wrong with loving pastors,
and you know what?
Pastors like people loving them.
You know, pastors don't love is how people go to church
and then they just disappear.
You wouldn't even believe me,
but it's like virtually less than a handful of people
when they've left our church told me.
It's just, they just like disappear, and that hurts.
Just like it would be if you had a best friend, just disappear.
I mean, what if you had a job, you have employees,
and an employee just doesn't show up for work,
and you're like, where are they?
And they just ghost you.
I mean, we had somebody in our church that was an usher
that was preaching regularly in the rotation
of inner ministry preaching and randomly just disappears.
I text them and message them and say, hey, what's going on?
Never respond.
Just completely ghost me.
How do you do that?
You know, it's just, it's like, what do you, what?
Oh, but you know, the problem is loving pastors.
That's not the problem.
Loving pastors is the problem, right?
Loving churches is the problem.
No, no, no.
Loving pastors is good.
Loving your spouse, good.
Loving your friends, good.
It's it's just a bad look. It's a bad way to leave a church
It's a bad way to behave yourself, and you know you treat people like that
People might treat you like that
Go over to Roman chapter one, you know
It's just it's just embarrassing for other people sometimes when they act like that
And look don't ever do that to your boss at work
If you're going to leave a company, leave with grace and have a reference for the next
time you have a job.
You shouldn't burn every job that you have.
You should exit with grace.
You should exit with humility.
You should be appreciative of the time that you got to spend at that job.
You should take the full two or four weeks or whatever they need or expect you to put
in your notice.
Don't rage quit at your boss.
be respectful, do the exit interviews, be kind,
praise the good things that were there,
exit with grace and move on to the next company.
And you know, I can say with an honest heart,
I've never raged quit any job.
I've always exited with grace
and it's always been a benefit to me.
I've had, I even had companies where they were having me work
to the last seconds of me being there
because they weren't afraid of me being there
and they were actually mad that I was leaving.
They didn't want me to leave.
And you know what, that should be how people act about you.
They're like, they don't want you to leave.
They're not like, I'm so glad you rage quit or something.
Romans chapter one, look at verse 16.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God and the salvation
to everyone that believeth,
to the Jew first and also the Greek.
Point one is this, if you have perfect love,
if you say you love God,
you will lay down your life for the brethren.
But here's point two, you will not be ashamed
of the brethren.
Just like you wouldn't be ashamed of the gospel, you know, we shouldn't be ashamed of the Word of God
We shouldn't be ashamed of the gospel. How many Christians end up becoming ashamed? Peter didn't have perfect love
He was ashamed to say that he knew Jesus Christ wasn't he?
And you know, we live in a world today where people will be embarrassed to say, yeah, I don't believe in Lordship salvation
I don't believe in repent of your sins. I don't believe Catholics are saved
They'd be embarrassed to be around Catholics and say, yeah, I don't think Catholics are saved
Why? Because they don't have perfect love.
Because they don't actually really love God, and they don't even love that person.
Because if you love that Catholic, you'll tell them you're unsaved and you're going to hell.
People that don't go soul-winning and confront people on their salvation don't really love them.
If you really love people, you won't be ashamed of faith alone.
You won't be ashamed to say, hey, your works plus salvation is not salvation.
You're not saved, and I love you too much to just walk away and pretend like you're going to heaven.
So I'm going to tell you you're not saved.
And hey, I can be gracious, I can be kind about it, but I'm going to love you and I'm going to tell you the truth.
You know, the Bible says, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner,
but be the upper taker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.
The person to be most embarrassed of would have been Christ.
He was obviously crucified, he was mocked and ridiculed.
The disciples fled at the fear of knowing him and saying they knew him.
Even shortly after, it still kind of remains with Christ where Peter and John are preaching in his name
and they're saying you can't preach in this name, but they're not embarrassed, they're not ashamed.
You know, that doesn't only limit
the embarrassment towards Christ because we then see Paul come on the scene
and Paul's the greatest Christian at that time
at that generation and then a lot of people become embarrassed of Paul
but in the same way it's just like being embarrassed of Christ
because Paul is nobody, Paul represents Christ
Paul's an ambassador of Christ and when you're embarrassed and ashamed
of Paul you're really just embarrassed and ashamed of God
And let me say something, when you're embarrassed and ashamed of the men of God, you're embarrassed
of God.
You don't really love God because if you love God, you'll love the ministers of God, you'll
love the people that are laying their lives down for God.
And the people that are sacrificing their careers and sacrificing their livelihood and sacrificing
their mental well-being and sacrificing all kinds of ways to love God and then you don't
love them, you don't love God.
The Apostle Paul going around making all kinds of sacrifices, enduring things, and then people are ashamed of it when he goes to prison.
Well, you know what? You just don't love God, do you?
Because the person that loves God is not ashamed of the brethren.
He says, I like Paul.
You know what? I like Pastor Stephen Anderson, too.
And I like all the new IB pastors.
Not ashamed of them. I love them.
Go over to Romans chapter 12.
Why because if you really love God you have to love them
Just love them for their work's sake even if you don't like their face
Even if you don't like something about them it doesn't matter because it's not about them
It's about the works of Christ. It's about loving God
It's about seeing God work through that individual to cause people to get saved and do great works for God
And when you don't love that person you really just saying I don't really love God somehow
Romans chapter 12, look at verse 10,
be kindly affectioned one toward another
with brotherly love and honor, preferring one another.
If you love God, you will honor the brethren.
You will lay down your life for the brethren,
you will not be ashamed of the brethren,
and you will honor the brethren.
Notice in honor, preferring one another.
What does the Bible say?
Be kindly affectioned one toward another
with brotherly love.
You know, you're not gonna be proud,
you're not gonna lift yourself up,
you know, thinking that you don't need other people.
Thing that you don't need God, you know, we're fragile
We need other people and we need to encourage others and we need to realize our importance
Let me say this to you if you leave this church
You will hurt other people
You are important
There's not anybody here. That's not important. We're all important the Bible says that we are the body of Christ
Go to 1st Corinthians chapter 12 go to 1st Corinthians chapter number 12
If I lose a fingertip, my whole body's gonna hurt.
If I just get a mosquito bite, the whole body hurts.
Because we're one body.
And when one member suffers, everybody suffers.
And you are important.
If you give up, other people are gonna give up.
If you take sin lightly, other people are gonna take sin lightly.
If you gossip, other people are going to gossip.
How you behave and how you act will affect other people in this room.
And do not think for one second that this church is based on any one person.
This church is built on the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word.
But you know what? We are that body.
And it takes all of us to make this church.
And there's something special about church because it's one body.
Other organizations are not like church. They're not as special. This institution is special.
We are one body and when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.
Look at verse 26.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Are one member be honored?
All the members rejoice with it.
Now here's the thing, you have to understand about how the body works.
If the body gets cancer and we lose the cancer,
We're all happy about it and you know sometimes people come in this church and they're just cancer
So we're not upset when they they rage quit. We're like sweet
You know some people are fat no one gets upset when they lose fat
We're all happy that we lost some fat, you know, you lose a body part that hurts
You lose something that's a part of the body that's needful boy
It's gonna be the whole body is in pain and you know what people in this room are body parts and it hurts
But you know what we rejoice when we build muscle don't we?
We add new people that are strong boy. That's great. We grow we get taller. We rejoice
Hey, we want our legs and arms to be strong and you know here's the thing
I don't want to be a guy where you look at me and I have these chicken legs
And my left arm is scrawny and then just my right arm is just, just giant.
Like one of these arm wrestlers.
You know, one of those guys that does this for a living or something.
Isn't it like over the top?
You know what movie I'm talking about.
It's just like just their right arm's giant.
You know, and that's what some people want.
Some people in this church, they just want to be the right arm
and they want everyone else to be scrawny so they can stick out.
But you know what, it looks weird.
You know what if you're strong you should want the left arm to be strong too if you're the right arm if you're the right
Bicep you should hope there's a left bicep somewhere here and hey if you're the calf
You should hope there's another calf and there's a thigh muscle and there's all the different body parts
You don't want to sit here and just say like I just want to be the one strong bicep
No, hey, we want a whole body to be strong
We want to have a body that's full of all kinds of strong things because you know what?
If you have this raging awesome bicep, you want strong legs so that you can actually compete
Because if you want to be like a football player or something you can't have scrawny legs
You got to have strong legs and the strong bicep and there's things we want our church to compete
So we want to have a strong body everywhere
So we go out there and fight the tough battles and do something really important for Christ
Go to Revelation 3. I'm gonna have to speed up for sake of time, but
There's so much we could talk about.
If you say you love God, okay,
do you lay down your life with a brethren?
Are you ashamed of the brethren,
or are you not ashamed of the brethren?
And at the end of the day, do you honor the brethren?
Hey, if you're that right bicep,
are you concerned with telling everybody
that you're the right bicep,
or do you talk about the left bicep?
Hey, actually, I really like them. I really like the legs. I really like this part. Hey, you know what?
You should be constantly praising other people
and honoring other people and lifting up other people as opposed to being like, well,
I got more people saved to you than you this day or something.
Good job, buddy.
Well, I reached this person, you know, that's the carnality in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 is always bragging about who got who saved and
Who's doing what who cares?
Does it really matter?
You know, it's not like in this room like if someone came to our church and said I got saved by so-and-so
I'd be like well, you're not welcome here because you got saved by so-and-so or I can't baptize you because you got saved by
So-and-so we're all in Christ team here
And why would I treat one group of people?
Like, I shouldn't be like,
hey, the people in this church that I got saved
are more special than the people
that got saved from someone else.
No?
Hey, if you're saved, you're saved.
We're on the same team.
We're on the same playing field.
It's not like there's a special section
of Pastor Shelley's converts or something like that.
And that's that, you know, that's pride.
That's pride that says, look what I've built,
look what I've done, look what I'm doing.
Who cares, it's about, we're all handed on Christ's team.
And you know what, we've all entered
in other men's labors anyways.
So you should just stop worrying about who's of who
and who's of what and who does what.
Hey, are we all here for Jesus Christ this morning?
Yeah, amen.
Are we all here with the King James Bible in our hand?
Oh yeah.
Hey, when we go out soul winning,
are we trying to say like,
hey, now you're the grandchild of so-and-so?
Wow.
Dude I've only heard one person say that to me and he's a weirdo. I'm the grandchild so get away from me
Hey, if you love God here's another thing you won't do you won't suffer sin on the brethren
Revelation 3 verse 19 as many as I love a rebuke and chasen be zealous therefore and repent
Christ rebukes us. He chastens us. He won't allow us to just do whatever we want.
Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faith are the wounds of a friend.
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Go to Leviticus 19. You know the Bible says in Romans 13,
Love worketh no ill to our neighbor.
Now here's the thing. Chastening or telling someone they're sinning is not working ill.
Working ill is harming them.
We should not harm our brethren.
We should not do things that hurt our brethren.
Jesus didn't come down here to hurt us.
He came down here to minister
and to give his life a ransom for many.
We should love the brethren.
We should do good under the brethren.
We shouldn't harm our brethren.
We shouldn't kick them when they're down.
We shouldn't rub dirt in their face.
We should only try to do our best to love them
and do good under them.
But at the same time, we don't suffer sin upon them.
Hey, if your brethren does something wrong,
hey, here's what you did wrong, don't do this.
You know, some people get confused about this.
It's like, hey, if there's a person out there
that's my friend or was a pastor or did whatever,
and they do something wrong, we should call them out on that.
And you know, depending on how you love them,
hey, it's a lot of times better
to tell someone they're wrong and private if you can,
isn't it?
You don't always have to make
a public spectral of everything.
But at the end of the day, you know, we should be corrected.
And you know what, that's really loving the brethren
is correcting people.
But people get offended by being corrected
because they're prideful and they don't want to be corrected.
No one is above being corrected.
And let me say this, when you think you're above being corrected,
well, then God will show you that you're not.
If you think no man can correct you,
he'll say like, okay, fine, then I'll do it.
And he will correct you and it will be ugly.
It will be ugly.
We need to correct ourselves and humble ourselves
before the Word of God.
And you know what, when a friend tells you
what you need to hear, he's a friend.
There are people out there that'll just say yep good like you whatever you say is right
That's a bad person a
Good person will say hey, this is wrong. I don't like this. I don't agree with this
Have you thought about this? You know I've had a tough conversations with some of my friends, but I try to do that in private
I don't try to go around and just shame them necessarily if I don't have it
But at the end of the day, you know what opener bucke is still better than secret love
You know it's better than not correcting them public correction
It's like private correction best, public correction below that, not correcting them below that.
Suffering sin upon your brother means you don't love them.
Look at verse 17.
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart.
Thou shalt in any ways rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him.
Verse 18.
Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people,
but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, I am the Lord.
Look, loving your neighbor as yourself is not hating him and it's rebuking him.
You know, the Bible says he that spared with his rod, hated his son, but he that loveth
him chastened with the times.
If you love God, you will spank your kids regularly.
The person that does not spank their kids does not love their kids and does not love
God, and they're a liberal Democrat.
They don't love.
The boss that doesn't correct his employees doesn't love them.
Let me tell you this.
You can sit here and say, oh, you know, you're going to pass the sally's church and he'll preach about you
And you'll call out your sin. Yeah, because I love you
The pastor that never calls you out and never makes you feel uncomfortable does not love you and does not love God. I
Feel uncomfortable. It's called love. That's the feeling that you're uncomfortable with
Sorry, you don't like love. Sorry. You want fake kisses from an enemy
You want to just be told how great you are and how wonderful you are and grace grace grace grace
Well, you know what that grace will send you to hell sometimes too, won't it? Oh Catholics are safe. That'll send you to hell
The loving thing is to tell the Catholic. Hey, you're not saved. You need to get saved
I'm not going to suffer that false gospel on you and let me tell you something when your friends committing fornication
When your friends are drunkard when your friends committing stupid decisions when your friends not going to church you just say hey brother
You're being an idiot get yourself back in a church quit drinking alcohol quit committing fornication
Get right with God because you know what? I love you too much to not say something
Hey, you're acting a fool act like a godly Christian
You know the Bible says he that sweareth to his own hurt and change it not is what the Bible says
You know what? You should love your brother and you should never go back on your word to your brother either
Over to Hebrews 13 will finish go to Hebrews 13 will finish
Point one is this if you love God you will lay down your life for the brethren
Point two if you love God you'll not be ashamed of your brethren point three if you love God
You'll honor your brethren point four if you love God
You will not suffer sin upon your brethren and here's the last point if you love God you will not forsake your brethren
Hebrews 13 verse 5 let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have free as said
I will never leave thee
nor forsake thee." We are supposed to love like God loves.
I showed you that so much earlier in the text, and how does God love us?
He loves us by not forsaking us. God does not forsake us. He will never
forsake us. Go to Proverbs 27.
It's the last place I'm going to have you turn. Proverbs 27. We need
some people today to love God. You say, what's the problem with
America today? People don't love God.
What's the problem with churches today?
People don't love God.
What's the problem with pastors today?
They don't love God.
What's the problem with members today?
They don't love God.
It's just a lack of love.
And they always say, hey, love wins.
I agree.
Y'all just don't have any love.
Y'all have the absence of love.
And we are love, and we keep winning.
They keep saying love wins, and we keep winning,
and they keep losing.
Where are they?
We're steadfast.
Wrong church to protest
Hey, we're unmovable
Always abounding the work of love, but you know, we'll actually move locations. So it's even more dangerous for us
You know, we won't move and we'll move at the same time
We love God, but we hate you, you know, you got to get these words in the right context, don't you?
Hey context always matters, buddy
Here's here's a verse that you need to get deep in your heart. Look at verse 10
Thine own friend and thy father's friend forsake not
Neither go into thy brother's house the day of thy calamity for better as a neighbor that is near than a brother that far off
You know the Bible commands you to never forsake your friend and not even just your friend your father's friend
Hey people that are your friend. I mean
Think about this if you could just forsake friends then nobody could count on anybody for anything anymore
You know, you know why you need a friend
When things are going bad not when they're going good when they're going good. You know what you do you help other people
When you're strong you bear the infirmities of the weak when you're the man you help your wife
When you're the man you help your children. That's why you're the man
That's why God made you stronger.
Not to go around and prance around and act like you're stronger.
No, to show us that you're stronger by bearing the infirmities of the weak.
By actually helping other people.
You know, God made you mentally strong and mentally tough
so that you could deal with people that are not mentally strong and not mentally tough.
Sometimes men will cry.
Not for a good reason.
And we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak
and cover that up and be like, man, you know, get under control.
Cover that up, not necessarily, you know, not help them.
Hey, when a man's weak, us that are strong,
let's help him, right?
Let's help him become a man.
Hey, when men get offended by words,
let's be like, come on buddy,
sticks and stones may break my bones,
but words can never hurt me, right?
And at the end of the day, we are to be strong
and we're supposed to be godly
so that when someone screws up,
when someone's weak,
When someone's being attacked, when something bad happens,
we're there and we're saying,
hey, well, I'm not gonna forsake you, though.
Others may forsake you, but I'm there to help you.
And look, life is ugly.
Life is extremely ugly.
Have you read the Bible?
It's real bad.
All kinds of just family drama.
I mean, the Bible literally just says
you're gonna have horrible family drama.
There's gonna be people in this room
that have some of the worst family drama
that ever happens.
Whether it be wives, children, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, whatever.
People are going to go through drama with work.
People are going to get horrible sicknesses.
People are going to lose people.
I mean, you're going to have miscarriages.
You're going to have children that get buried early, you're going to have parents that get
buried early, you're going to have spouses that get buried early, you're going to have
people that know the right thing and divorce their spouse anyways, you're going to have
people that commit adultery, you're going to have people get drunk and do something
stupid, you're going to have people commit crimes, you're going to have people hit people
and hurt people and do dumb things and say dumb things and make bad decisions and you
know what would be nice if you had a friend that says hey even if all those things are
I might have to say like, hey, you screwed up, buddy,
and we need to deal with it.
I'm not gonna stop being your friend.
Hey, I'm not gonna turn on you.
Hey, you're in prison, I'll visit you in prison.
Hey, you're naked, I'll put my coat on you.
Hey, you did something wrong.
I mean, isn't that the love of God?
I'm so glad that God didn't look down from me
and say, man, you're just too much of a screw up.
I can't die on the cross for you.
Oh, you screwed up again after getting saved?
Well, I'm not going to make propitiation to the Father.
I'm not going to intercede to the Father.
I'm not going to be a mediator anymore
because you screwed up too many times this week.
No, no, I'm so glad that I can come boldly
under the throne of grace to find help and time of need.
No, I'm so glad that God is such a great...
friend and such a loving God towards me that no matter what he's just never going to forsake me.
He's never going to leave me. I mean even when Samson goes with horror after horror
and screws up and gets his head shaven well you know what God was still with him
and even when Joseph was thrown in prison God was still with him and when all men
forsake the apostle Paul you know what the Lord didn't forsake him but he strengthened him.
You know what the Bible says about that he says I prayed to God that that charge would not be
All meant for sick me, but the Apostle Paul prayed for grace and mercy to all the people that were sick him because it was wrong to forsake Paul.
It was wrong.
They were in the wrong. It was a sin.
The sin was not loving Paul too much. The sin was forsaking Paul too much.
And let me tell you something, the Bible commands you to love your friends.
And you know what? There's only so much time in this world.
There's only so many friends in this world.
that's actually a good friend, do you know how to lose that friend?
It's so hard to make friends that are real.
It's so hard to have lifelong friends.
I mean, how many people here are still best friends with their high school friends?
Okay, we got a couple, but that's very few.
That's like less than 5% of the room.
You know, it's going to be hard to have lifelong friends, and when you get somebody that's
actually a good friend, you know, you stick with that person.
You don't forsake them, you love them, you stay their friend.
That doesn't mean, hey, if they're getting drunk and doing stupid things, hey, let's,
you know, get some distance, but you still be their friend and tell them what's right,
try to restore fellowship.
That's what it really means to love God.
And you know what?
The person that forsakes their friend does not love God.
If you don't like the Bible, you don't love God.
The person that loves God will not forsake his friend.
And you know what? I constantly think of this in my mind.
I constantly think, like, how many people have I just walked away from?
And it's hard for me to ever think of that person. I don't even know who that is.
I'm not saying it hasn't happened.
But it's just hard for me to think about the people I walk away from.
There's people I call out. There's people I say, you need to change.
There's people I've said, hey, this is wrong.
And then they usually do this. They walk away.
They get mad.
They drop me like a bad habit. You know what? Hey, I don't want to be the kind of person that's constantly walking away from people
And you know what when you do that you're modeling for other people to just walk away when things get tough. I
Don't want my wife to think that I'm not walking away from my wife period
till death
I'm not walking away from my friends
I'm not gonna walk away from my church. I'm not gonna walk away from God's people
I'm not gonna walk away from the brethren because I love God and I don't want to walk away from God
If God can lay down his life for me,
then my reasonable service is to lay down my life
for the brethren.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for loving us.
Thank you so much for the sacrifice of your son.
Thank you for just never heaving us or forsaking us
and condescending the men of low estate.
Thank you for not giving up on us.
Thank you for giving us grace no matter what we do.
I pray that you would help people to love you more,
to love the Word of God more,
and to love their brethren more,
to love their wives more,
to love their children more,
to love their pastor more,
to love their church more,
to love their brothers and sisters in Christ more.
I pray that when things get tough,
when things get difficult,
we wouldn't desert our wives and our family
and our children and our friends and our church,
but rather we would embrace them,
we would love them, we would do good unto them,
we would love the brethren.
I pray that you would help increase our love
and that we would try to follow your example
in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, in closing, let's go to song number 389.
Song number 389.
Bring them in
The master speaks to thee. Go find my sheep, where ever they be, bring them.