In the Word of God, Galatians chapter 5, the first four and one-half chapters of this book are written to convince us that Jesus Christ not only died upon that cross to pay for our sins, so that if we would trust him as our Savior, we would be delivered from the wrath of God, hellfire. Thank the Lord for that. but also that Jesus Christ died upon that cross to deliver us from conducting ourselves in the way that had merited that wrath of God and that hellfire. Jesus didn't just die to pay for our sins and save us from the penalty of those sins, but he died on the cross so that he could impart to us his Holy Spirit and teach us to live without committing those sins. And that's the theme of this book. And when we come to verse number, 16, we have the great contrast set before us and we choose one of these two paths in life. This I say then, walk in the spirit. That's your call. And ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The flesh continues to lust in the same way after the same things that it always did. You don't have to obey it or follow it. Four, the flesh lusts against the spirit. and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law. Now, right now, in the lives of saved people, right now, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, end beings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. If those things are characteristic in your life, my life, at any point in time, it is a manifestation that I have chosen to give the flesh control over me. That's the statement. I tell you, of the witch, I tell you before, as I also told you in time past, they which do such things should not inherit the kingdom of God. So we cut off our present inheritance as we studied in Luke chapter number 15. We choose to live as though we are paupers, servants, slaves to sin, though we do not have to be. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. They that are Christ have crucified the flesh. You do that with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, if you're saved, you live in the Spirit. Let us also walk in the Spirit. That's optional. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Notice in the passage, and then we'll pray, none of this is dependent upon another person. My walking in the flesh or my bearing the fruit of the Spirit is not determined by how someone else acts or how someone else treats me. It's determined entirely by how I choose to act and live and how you choose to act and live. And so in this passage, the Holy Spirit is mentioned seven times. Perfection. Seven times we are reminded we have the Holy Spirit. And the call from the passage is simply to allow the Holy Spirit to have us. It's not a question of coming to an altar after you're saved and praying, saying, God, give me the Holy Ghost, I need more. God, give me sanctification, I need more. It's a matter of taking what God has given you by inheritance and making use of that in your life. Three of these fruit, it's just one. It doesn't say fruits of the spirit, just one. They're all one combined unit here. Three of these are God word. Three of these are toward others. Three of these regard our self. This morning we are going to tackle in one short session, but the fruit of the spirit is love. And just before we pray, You are at a great disadvantage if you are newly saved. You're at a great disadvantage if you have been saved a long time, but have not yet forsaken the world's influence through the internet, the television, the movies, the music, rock and roll, rap, country, take your pick. Because when you read the Bible and you read the word love, you think that means gushy, mushy feelings. You think that means I'm floating on a cloud. You think that means I hear the music play when I see her face or see his face. That's not Bible. God so loved the world. You think he was feeling good on the cross? You think the angels were singing and the birds were chirping and he was thinking, oh, I just feel wonderful, this is great, I've never felt this happy before. Love in your Bible is you determining to treat the other person properly for their benefit. It has nothing to do with how they treat you or what you get in return. And so people are real confused. Well, I used to love him. I don't love him anymore. Why don't you love him anymore? Because he did this, this, and this. That's not love. That's your feelings and your emotions that ran out. I was in love with her and I'm not in love with her because she did A, B, and C. That's not love. That's not love. That's you, you wrung everything you could out of the cloth and now it's, now you're not getting, I'm not getting anything out of the relationship. That's not love. That's flesh, that's self, that's carnality. Many people in America today in their teens, in their 20s, in their 30s are searching for love after school and searching for love in the nightclub and then searching for love maybe in the church house and then searching for love on the internet and eventually they reach the place where they're in the middle of their life alone and bitter and angry with God and everyone else and they say, nobody loves me. No, somebody does, you, you do. The reason people end up unloved is because they don't love anyone. And you can't have loving relationships if you think a relationship exists for you to feel good and you to get your way and you to be happy all the time. You're going to end up with no relationships. Because God's relationship toward us is not built upon that. It's built upon love, but it's not built upon God getting anything from us. It's built upon God giving us, giving us, giving us, giving us, giving us everything He can possibly give in hopes of maybe one day getting a little something in return, but rarely does that happen. We sang about the cross this morning. What was in that for God? We sang about Jesus dying to pay for our sins. What did He get for that? And so this love of God is supposed to define for us and explain to us the love that the Holy Spirit wants to produce in our lives. And as long as the world is singing about and making movies about and TV shows about and printing romance novels about love being I get something and so I feel good, you're gonna be very disappointed. Because you live in a world full of people who are primarily focused on self, and they're not the people you want to look to to get love. You can look to God, because he put you ahead of himself, and he'll love you. But everybody else is going to struggle just like you. We're off and running. Amen. All right, Lord, help us this morning, please. We need your help in this matter. We surely do. We live in a world that talks all day long about love. They sing all day long about love on the radio, and they put pictures and stuff on the internet all day long about love, and they're so full of bitterness and hatred and strife, they can't even stand to get through a day. And I pray, God, you'd help us to see something better in the scripture. Please, Lord, help us. In Jesus' name, we pray. And amen. 1 John, not the gospel, the epistle. 1 John chapter 4 and 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 4 and 1 John chapter 3, present truth for the one body found here in the words of the Holy Spirit. And compared together, 1 John chapter 4, verse number 7. 1 John 4, 7. 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. 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, in this manner, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Now what did you just read? The Bible manifestation of love is God doing something for someone who had no interest in Him, no care for Him, no devotion to Him, no obedience to His words, but out of His heart, His desire to save us, His desire to cleanse us, His desire to bless us, compelled Him to do what He did on our behalf. That's what you read. We ought to love one another. Meaning what? We ought to have this God-like desire to do all that we can to see to it that others are blessed even if they are not currently being a blessing to us. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all that roar of response there. I understand this is not where we want to go with this, but we're going to follow the scriptures. 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. You know, people say that those works of the flesh, one of those is murder. I'd never murder anybody. You witnessed unsaved people. I've never killed anybody. 1 John 3 verse number 14. We know we've passed from death into life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother biteth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer." How about that? You see, we find fault with the world. They're always trying to redefine words. They say man doesn't mean man, and woman doesn't mean woman, and boy doesn't mean boy, and girl doesn't mean girl, and marriage doesn't mean marriage. We say, man, these people are so corrupt. Well, then Christians opened the Bible and redefined the Bible. I'd never murder anybody. You hate your brother? I'll just read it. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. He said, I've never touched that woman. Whoso looketh on a woman lest after hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. You don't get to define adultery. Jesus does. You don't get to define murder. Jesus does. And the Lord said, I'm not talking about what you did. I'm talking about what you would like to do if you could get away with it. And so he says this, verse number 16, Hereby perceive we the love of God. Hereby perceive we the love of God. Because He laid down His life for us. So how do you know God loves you? He didn't send you a card. He didn't buy you flowers. He didn't make a little cherubim dance around your head. What did He do? He just died for you. He just sacrificed himself for your well-being, for my well-being. That's love. It's not a feeling. It's not an emotion. It's not a high. It's action. And the rest of the verse, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. I don't know what it means to love somebody. Sure you do. Just do for somebody else what Christ did for you. Give of yourself for their well-being without any return on your investment. Romans chapter 5 and 2 Timothy 1. Let's get these side by side. Romans chapter 5 and 2 Timothy chapter number 1. I just don't have that kind of love, people say. I just not capable of doing that, people say. All right, let's take a look again. Let's see what the scripture says. 2 Timothy 1, verse number seven. Anybody saved here this morning? All right, verse seven. For God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. So if when you got saved, when I got saved, God gave us a spirit of love. It's up to you to use it. It's up to me to use it. It's not up to me to say I don't have it or I had it, but I don't have it anymore. I have it. God had given us a spirit of love. Romans chapter five. And again, verse number one, therefore being justified by faith. Don't you like that? We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you like that? By whom also we have access, by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So we're happy about salvation. We're happy it's by grace. We're happy we can't lose it. We're happy for our blessed hope. Verse five, hope make it not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. which is given unto us. So he didn't just give me salvation, he gave me the Holy Ghost. He didn't just give me the Holy Ghost, he gave me an abundant spreading of God's love, the love of God in my heart. So I've been given the spirit of love, I've been given the love of God, and now I've been given a direction in the book of Galatians. Use it. Don't receive it and bottle it up inside you, use it. You have a spirit of love, you have the love of God, and when we say, well, I will use it until it's not appreciated, I will use it until it's not reciprocated, the Lord says, that's not my love. My love doesn't work that way, that's not what I gave you, that's what you brought with you into this from your old life. I gave you something far superior to that. You say, where do you get that? Luke chapter 6. Let's go there. Luke chapter number 6. Luke chapter number 6. And verse 27. Luke 6 and verse 27. But I say unto you which hear, Your enemies do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. I can't imagine any of that producing good feelings. I can't imagine any of that yielding warm and fuzzy. Enemy. That's someone who's trying to harm you, tear you down, take what you have, persecute you, despitefully use you, curse you, hate you. He's asking us to love people who hate us. You can't do that in the flesh. You can't do that on emotion. If love is getting, as Americans think it is, this makes no sense at all. If love is giving, it's crystal clear. Jump down to verse number 35. But love your enemies and do good and land, watch, hoping for nothing again. And your reward should be great. You should be the children of the highest, for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. So what does he mean, love your enemies? He tells you right there in the verse. Love your enemies, He's kind. Love people who mistreat you, He's kind. He didn't say put your arms around somebody and make out with them. That's not love. You got that from the music you listen to. He didn't say stroll hand in hand together and snuggle on the park bench. No, that's a movie. God pours out His blessings upon the people of this world every single day of their lives, and they curse Him, and blaspheme Him, and deny Him, and ignore Him. And the next day, the sun shines on them. The next day, the rain shines on their fields. The next day, God gives them life and a chance to be saved. He never stops being kind. He never stops loving. And the fruit of the Spirit in my life, the fruit of the Spirit in your life is love. It is there to be had. It is there to be manifest. Praise the Lord, amen. Good preaching, brother. Keep going. 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. and 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 1 and 2 Thessalonians chapter number 3. 1 Peter 1, 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. 1 Peter 1.22, seeing that you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit. Have you done that? Under unfamed love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. So what? Well, how to make that happen? Verse 23, being born again. Not a corrupt will see, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. That's one sentence. But the Lord said, I want you to love one another with a pure heart fervently. And the answer, well, God, how do I do that? You've been born again. Well, Lord, let me tell you about this person you're asking me to love. You've been born again. Bless God, I got the Bible, the King James Bible, it's the Word of God, there's no mistakes in it, hallelujah. I believe this Bible from cover to cover. Okay, well that's the incorruptible seed by which you love one another with a pure heart fervently. So if I got Jesus Christ, I got the Holy Spirit, and I've got the incorruptible seed, which is the Word of God, it can't be your fault if I'm not loving you. It's on me. The Bible is pretty clear. Sometimes it's more clear than we'd like it to be. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse number 1. This is remarkable here. Finally brethren pray for us. that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you. And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not faith. So Paul the apostle, pretty good Christian, he is dealing with unreasonable men. Paul the apostle, pretty good Christian, he is dealing with wicked men. Paul the Apostle, pretty good Christian, he is dealing with men who have no faith. Verse three, but the Lord is faithful who shall establish you and keep you from evil. And we have confidence in the Lord touching you that he both do and will do the things which we command you. And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. So here's a man who goes to Corinth and never participates in their idolatry, never participates in their sexual immorality, never participates in their drunkenness, never participates in their mistreatment one of another. And he says, you know what the Lord did? He directed my heart into his love so that when I wrote a second letter to those people at Corinth, I could say before God without lying, I couldn't wait to get there and see them. Now, why didn't he stay home and say, there's some people in that church that are living like I don't think they should live? Why didn't he stay home and say, there's some people in that church that, I tell you, they're way out of line. Why didn't he stay home and say, there's some people in that church that, I'm telling you, their lives are not what they're supposed to be because God's love was working in his heart and he didn't go there so the church at Corinth could be a blessing to him. He went there so he could be a blessing to them. and their conduct didn't alter his conduct. How about that? He's writing this letter we're studying, this Galatian letter. They're way out of line. And there he is, having fellowship with them. Simon Peter is way out of line. Paul rebuked him, and then wrote about what a great brother he was. Peter wrote about what a great brother Paul was. You know why? Because sometimes your kids are wrong, sometimes your spouse is wrong, sometimes your friend is wrong, sometimes the church is wrong. Okay, great, you ever wrong? I know a couple of you never wrong, but most of us would say this morning, I've been wrong, you ever been wrong? All right, you want people to still love you? Well, you can't love anybody that's ever been wrong. God's not like that. Thank the Lord. And His love, Paul said, I am not under the directions, I'm not taking directions from my flesh. I'm taking directions from the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit directed my heart into love. And if you'll let Him, the Holy Spirit will direct your heart. If I'll let Him, Holy Spirit will direct my heart. He'll direct our heart into love. People all the time, they're going somewhere, they don't know how to get there. You can ask directions, you can get directions from your watch now, you can get directions from your phone, you can get directions from the dashboard of your car. If you're old school, you can take out a map and get direction from the map. You can pick up the phone, call somebody and write down the directions. If you wanna get somewhere and you don't know how to get there, if you want to get there, you will find out how to get there. Well, I just don't love him anymore, I don't love her anymore, I don't love them anymore, I don't love church anymore. Why don't you ask directions? God could direct your heart into his love if you wanted to get there, if you really wanted to be there. All right, 1 Thessalonians 3 while we're in the neighborhood. 1 Thessalonians 3 and Philippians chapter number one. 1 Thessalonians 3 and Philippians chapter 1. Man, there's stuff in the Bible, in Zechariah, there's stuff in the Bible about these things that fly and shoot ray beams and kill people in the house and don't even hurt the house. Wild, man. There's stuff in Ezekiel about these creatures. They got faces on every side of their head and eyes all around. They fly around outer space. There's stuff in the Bible about these giants, 13 feet tall and taller, walking around corrupting things. And you know something? If you're interested in all that, I am too. But if you're interested in all that, while you have not one decent relationship in your life, you're not biblical. You're not scriptural. God didn't give you the Holy Ghost so you could find weird stuff in the Old Testament that nobody ever saw before. God gave you the Holy Ghost so you could do better than you were doing in the flesh when you could only be kind to people that treated you the way you wanted to be treated. Amen. That's a fact. All right, 1 Thessalonians 3 and verse number 12. Where's that thing about the... I've never seen that ray gun thing before. That's in there. First Thessalonians 3, verse number 11. Now watch, here it is again. Now God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, there's the Trinity. Anybody here believe in the Trinity? God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, so the Holy Spirit's God, direct our way unto you. Okay, so if God was directing, what would be our path? Verse 12, the Lord make you to increase and abound in love, one toward another and toward all men, even as we do toward you. To the end, he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. Now that's quite a, Quite a statement there. What he just said is, my heart's not stable. Not because of how you treated me, but because I stopped loving you. It destabilized my heart when I let someone else's misconduct Take God's love from my heart instead of giving it to them, I withheld it from them, and the Lord said, I can't be established. We think our lives are destabilized by the mistreatment of others, and they're not. They're destabilized when we allow the mistreatment of others to get us in the flesh instead of in the Spirit. Oh, you know, I went to work and I got this guy on a job. We've all got a guy on the job. You should see the guy I work with. And he says the same thing. Listen. Do you think everybody on your job is going to be Christ-like all day? Do you think everyone in your circle is going to be Christ-like all day? Of course not. And people do you wrong, and then you watch, and you watch, and you watch. How come they don't feel bad about it? How come they don't drop dead? How come God doesn't bring them under conviction? They don't even know they did anything wrong. It's wrecking you. It's messing you up because you stopped loving them because they did something unlovely and it's not affecting them, it's affecting you. Lord help us, Lord help me. Look in Philippians chapter one, Philippians chapter one. And let's just, you're here today at the Bible Baptist Church with a couple of visitors. Most of you are church members here, regular attendees. So is this your thought process on a Saturday night? Is this your thought process on a Sunday morning? Verse number three, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. If I just started naming the names of people who go to church with, oh, yeah, yes, I just yesterday I was thanking God for that man. I was thanking God for that woman. Verse four, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy. Do you joyfully make prayer requests on behalf of the people you go to church with for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being calm for this very thing that he which has begun a good work in me? No, in you. We'll perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. People read Philippians 1 6 and bless God, that verse proves I've got eternal security. No, it doesn't. It proves the other person has eternal security. That verse isn't about you, that's about the people you love and pray for. You saying I don't have? No, I didn't say you don't have eternal security. I said, how come you're certain of yours, but you got so many doubts about everybody else's? Because they got that verse in their Bible. Verse 7, even as is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart in as much as both in my bonds and in the defense of the confirmation of the gospel, you're all partakers of my grace, for God is my record. How greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ, and this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more Oh, you don't know that person like I do. In all knowledge, you don't know what they did. And in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ and the glory and praise of God. You know what he said? God's love will not be diminished the more you know about the people you go to church with. God's love will not be diminished the more you find out things that are improper and incorrect about members of your family and members of your circle and friends of yours because God knows you, God knows me thoroughly and His love is not diminished. Praise the Lord. Now what we're talking about here is this American carnal fleshy thing that's called love that isn't love where I'm paying you You treated me the way I wanted to be treated today, so here's your reward. I'll be nice to you. You didn't treat me the way I wanted to be treated today, no reward for you. You're going to bed without supper. That's not love. That's a penal colony. It's a prison camp. It is. What if God just said, are you kidding? You witnessed to how many people yesterday? None. You prayed for how many people in your church yesterday? None. Okay, forget it. You're blind until you get it straightened out. You're deaf until you get that corrected. You lose your job, you lose your health. I'm gonna give you the Job treatment, because you didn't treat me properly yesterday. He never does that. And we are so confident in our relationship to God because we know it's not conditioned upon our actions. That's how everyone in our life should feel about their relationship with us. Absolutely confident because it's not conditioned on their actions. That's love. Not a lot of love going around. A lot of songs about love, but not a lot of love going around. All right, John chapter 15. Let's talk about Jesus Christ a little bit. John chapter number 15. John 15. And the passage here is about bearing fruit. Galatians 5 is about bearing fruit. John 15, verse number nine. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Well, now wait a minute. I get this. The Father, see, sinless, right? The Father, sinless. The Son, sinless, makes sense. The Father loves the Son because the Son never disappoints the Father. But Jesus said, the way the Father loves me, that's how I've loved you. That's not a no-disappointment situation. That's not a everything's-always-just-fine situation. That's the Father and the Son, unconditional. The Son and the disciple, unconditional. Now obviously, the love the Father gives the Son is not because of the Son's loveliness, it's because God is love. And obviously, the love that the Son gives the disciple is not because the disciple is lovely, it's because the love of the Son. And the Bible says, the love of God, Father and Son, is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. It's there. It's there. Verse number nine, as father loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. So something is going to rise up and say to us, stop loving. Why else would he say that? Stop loving. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love. even as I've kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." So, when does my joy seep out of my heart and I find myself no longer enjoying life, no longer enjoying relationships? When I stop loving. Not when the other person, when I stop loving, out goes the joy. So somebody gets saved, they come to church, and they start learning the songs, they start learning the Bible, they start participating in the activities. They are just as high as you can be spiritually, they're on top of the world. And then a year in, two years in, three years in, four years in, skipping services, not excited, bad attitude. interested in everything but the word of God and spiritual things. What happened? It's not they found out something disappointing about God. It's not they found out something disappointing about Jesus. They found out something disappointing about God's people. Well, they were everything you know they are before you knew they were. So it's not what they are that took the joy out of your heart. It's what you cease to be. Well, you know, that preacher, that preacher, anybody here could have told you about that preacher before you found out about that preacher? So where did the joy go from our hearts? It wasn't taken by that person's misconduct. It was forfeited by my misconduct. So where you get that? Well, look at verse number. Verse number 12, he's talking about love in verse number 9. If you keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, as I've kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. And so this is where, again, this is where all those Beatles songs and, you know, love, love, love, all you need is love. It's a great song written by a guy that beat his wife. Oh John Lennon sitting at the piano, you know, imagine there's no heaven, we just all live in peace and Yoko starts mouthing off and he punches her in the face. Well so you can write a love song. That's not what we're talking about here. God says, you have my love in your heart and my joy in your heart and my joy will slip out of your heart if you don't love people and you won't love people if you don't keep my commandments. And people don't wanna hear that love and commandments are partners. Because they think love is just God says I can do whatever I want. No, your parents taught you that by letting you do whatever you want. And you end up unlovable. So look at Galatians, come on, look at Galatians again. We're not done with John, but we'll look at Galatians for a minute. Verse number 16. This I say then, walk in the Spirit. You know what that is? That's a commandment. Verse number 26, let us not be desirous of vainglory. That's a commandment. Verse number 19, works of flesh are manifest for these. Adultery, thou shalt not. Fornication, thou shalt not. Uncleanness, clean it up. Lasciviousness, stop watching it. Idolatry, witchcraft, don't participate. Hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. Well, he did this, she did that. He said this, she said that. Just stop it! It's a commandment. And we think the commandments, God gave us these commandments to put chains on us and bind us up. Galatians 5 says, you're at liberty. Disobedience is the chain. Disobedience is what binds you up. Because if you don't obey God's command to stop striving and hating and quarreling, joy will slip out of your heart. And love will slip out of your heart. And then you'll be saved and miserable like you were before you got saved. These poor people out there in the world, They just, you know, shrapnel all over their face and they're all pierced up and tie-dyed and everything else and protesting this and protesting that and mad at this and mad at that. You know what their problem is? They don't obey God. And they think they're unhappy because of the government. They think they're unhappy because of their parents. They think they're unhappy because of how an election went or didn't go. They think they're unhappy because of this political situation. They're unhappy because they won't obey God. They can't find any joy. They can't find any peace. They can't find any love in their life. Nobody loves me. My dad didn't love me. He tried. My mom never loved me. She tried. Look at you. You're looting, burning, rioting, pillaging, sleeping on the street. And that's your mom's problem? That's your dad's problem? That's God's problem? It's your problem. People think love is gimme, gimme, gimme. The people that hate this country the most are people that have everything in the world given to them, all their life. It's not where love comes from. It's not even love. So it's tied to obedience, obeying commandments. Look at John 17. No, I'm sorry, John 15. We didn't finish John 15 there. John 15. Verse number 12, this is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you. Now some in our circles, when I say our circles, people still care about what the Bible says. We would take don't commit adultery as a commandment. Look at that person, that person is committing adultery and God commands them not to. Thank you for pointing that out. It's very helpful. That person is stealing and God commanded them not to. That's very true. Thank you for pointing that out. And you don't love them and God commanded you to love them. Well, that's different. It's not different. It is not different. One's a commandment of God. The other's a commandment of God. One is a commandment of God that affects you, affects me. If it's against you, I get it. If it's against your church, I get it. But the fact some football player cheated on his wife has no bearing upon my life at all. The fact that some gang stole a bunch of stuff in New York City has no effect upon my life at all. But if I don't love you, If I don't love my neighbor, if I don't love the sinners in my town, it affects me because I lose the joy of the Lord that could be in my heart. People get home, they go home from church. They go home from church. Power up. Oh, look what they did. Oh, look what they did. Oh, look what he did. Oh, look what she did. You're leaking joy. It's just pouring out of you with every click of your mouse. And you think you don't have any joy because the world's messed up. You don't have any joy because you won't love people. Well, look at them. Try the eyes hanging on the cross looking your way. How's that look? Not great. Not great. John 17. John 17. John chapter 17, verse number 25, O righteous Father, This Jesus, this is the last prayer that He prayed with His disciples before He went to the garden, to the judgment hall, to the cross. Verse 25, O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them. The last prayer Jesus prayed for his followers at the end of 33 and one half years of living down here on this earth was, Father, I pray that not just that I will be in them, but that the love, the love with which you love me will be in them. That's his last prayer. You know what the last prayer he prayed after 33 and a half years living on this earth? You know what the last prayer he prayed for unsaved people was? Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. I put my heart next to that. I got a ways to go. How about you? I got a ways to go. All right. Two more stops. 1 John 2 and John 14. John 14, you're right there close, and then 1 John, you remember where that was, 1 John chapter number two. 1 John two. And John 14. It is tied. to commandments, it's not tied to feelings, it is tied to obedience, it's not tied to emotions. 1 John chapter 2 verse number 5. But whosoever keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected, hereby know we that we are in him. So how does the Holy Spirit produce this fruit in my life, in your life, of love? We keep his commandments. We keep his word. How do I love somebody? How'd God tell you to treat them? How'd God tell you to talk to them? What did God say specifically about that particular relationship? It's not about feelings. One more verse, I'll get to it in a second. So we're going to have a wedding here in how many days? It's no longer days now, there's an excitement in the number of days. And praise the Lord, we're looking forward to that. And that young lady is gonna walk down this aisle, and that young man's gonna be standing right about here, and the preacher's gonna be praying, God, please don't let me mess up. Please don't let me mess up. And so we're gonna do all that. And we want the rapture. We want the rapture. We want the Lord to come, take us all to be with himself. And these young people are gonna get married, and they're gonna, hug and kiss and handhold and build a house together and start a family together. And it's just going to be great. Gage and Lauren got up here and sang. They got two little kids and toys all over the place. And it's just great. It's just great. And you know something? If all that is is feeling and emotion and kissing and trying to find the next high, What happens when Molly's home with cancer and Jeff doesn't love her? What happens when your husband's in the nursing home and you don't love him? What happens when the drunk driver hits the car and breaks your spine and your spouse doesn't love you? Look, enjoy all the good feelings you can. Enjoy all the happy times you can. Laugh every time you get a chance. Love is something a whole lot different than how you feel at the moment. Love is your obedient sacrifice of yourself for the well-being of someone else, and it will result in your joy. You just have to believe God enough to try it. We want these young people to fall in love. And by that we mean fall in some kind of weird emotion that I can't shake. We're okay with that. And hope it lasts as long as it can last. I hope it lasts. I still love my wife like I've never loved her before. Praise the Lord. But now the things we're looking forward to are like, is the money gonna run out before the nursing home gets it all? It's not, you know, where you want to go next, what mountain do you want to climb? It's, can we hang in there? Will this thing hold together until it stops? And if all you got is those feelings you got off songs, and all you got is those imaginations you got from watching dumb movies, you're in trouble. Love is trusting God enough to where if he says, husbands, here's how I want you to treat your wife, you do it. And wife, here's how I want you to act toward your husband, you do it. And parents, here's how I want you to raise your child, you do it. And church member, here's how I want you to stay in fellowship, and you do it. And all of a sudden you find the world hadn't changed, but your heart's full of love. And nothing out there is any better, but your heart's full of peace. And you're still dealing with all these situations in your life, and there's joy, and you don't know where it came from. It came from the Holy Ghost. That's where it came from. It didn't come from the, you can't get it from the other person. It comes from the Holy Ghost. John chapter 14. John 14, somebody sent me this thing, there's this football player, and he's got like, it said he's got like $500 million, and he's married to this woman who's a prostitute. She got rich parading around in her underwear. And they're getting a divorce, and they say, we just drifted apart. You know why you drifted apart? Because you got a billion dollars between you, but you don't have the Holy Ghost. You got fame, and you got fortune, and you got adoration, and you got recognition, and you got yachts, and you got trips around the world, but you don't have the Holy Ghost. And none of that junk this world has to offer that all these young people, I wish I could be a football hero, I wish I could be a model. How about you wish you could be a Christian? and have some lasting, happy, wonderful relationships in your life. That's what God has to offer. John chapter 14, John 14 and verse number 23, Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words. You see that? This modern megachurch thing that tries to separate obedience and love, they're crazy. Can't be done. If man loved me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings. The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. Your children need to hear you tell them that you love them, but they also need you to obey God. Your spouse needs to hear you tell them that you love them, but they also need you to obey God. Your brothers and sisters in Christ, they need to hear you say that you love them, but we also need to obey the word of God, because this culture is real big on redefining words. And the first one they redefined was love. And when you define love as, I feel good because you give me everything I want, you're never going to have any love in your life. You're going to end up all alone, all alone, because love is not getting, it's giving. And God showed us that. Amen. All right. Heavenly Father, help us, help us, help us, help us, help us, please help us. not just throw around a word that means so much, but seek you, allow you, have your way in our life. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.