1 John chapter 3. You know every once in a while just a passage of scripture just should capture your attention and captivate your soul and just get you to the place to where you just can't look at nothing else for a little bit. And boy this one did that for me the other day. I've been thinking about this all week. I don't know what everybody else does to prepare a message. I'm not sure. This is what I do. I try on Monday morning to start on something and then throughout the week I try to see if the Lord will add a little something to it and see if there's anything to it, you know, and hopefully by the time I get to Sunday we got this whole thing together to where we got a little something anyway, you know. But I try to feed you a little something. And this fed me, so hopefully since it fed me, I can reciprocate and give you a little something this morning. Look at verse 1, 1 John 3, 1. And I'm going to read it slow because it's worthy of reading slow. He says, Behold... Now that, I don't know about you, maybe that's kind of like, pay attention, bud. That's the way I read it the other morning. He says, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. And I sat there and looked at that and I thought, ooh, what manner. That we should be called the sons of God. That's perplexing, isn't it? That we get in on something that we do not deserve. He says, Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. What a thing, man. take some nothing and make him a son of God." What a transformation. And it says, "...and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." Now this morning I said to you in Sunday school, I said we've got to keep our doctrine right or we're going to get messed up in the Bible. Now these next few verses have nothing to do with you doctrinally as far as your Christianity goes. It has to do with a person out in the tribulation trying to make it through the tribulation. Verses 4 down through about verse 18. And he says, Whosoever commit a sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and to Him and in him is no sin." Now see, we can all say amen to that, and that's absolutely the truth. It says, "...whosoever abideth in him sinneth not." Well, that's not going to match Pauline doctrine because we all know that after we get saved, we are still sinners. Paul's own commentary of his testimony in Romans chapter 6 and 7 was that he was still a sinner. If you read 1 Timothy chapter 1, he says, "...of whom I am chief." He's the chiefest of sinners. Notice there he says in verse 6, Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not, whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Now in the tribulation, that's going to apply. He says, little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous. You see, that'll give you a clue right there, because our righteousness is not us. It's not what we've done, it's what Jesus Christ has done, and He imputed His righteousness unto us. It's not our righteousness, because we do right. Look there in verse 8, it says, He that committeth sin is of the devil. Well, we know we're not of the devil, we're of God. We are of Jesus Christ. We are a son of God. He says, For the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him, because his own works were evil, and his brothers righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you." And it will. We can definitely get something out of that for us. He says, "...we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." I'm sure glad that's not a doctrinal statement for us, because if it was, we are going to be in some kind of trouble this morning, because there's a few of them that get on our nerves, amen? I'll say it for you, because you won't. Look at verse 15, it says, "...whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, And you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." I'm glad that's not doctrinal. Now there's a few I might, and there's a few I wouldn't. But Jesus Christ laid down His life for every man. It says, But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth 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 in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever he ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments." We don't have to keep his commandments. "...and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." No man in the church age has to keep the commandments to get themselves to heaven. You don't have to do them to get yourself to heaven. Jesus Christ fulfilled the law for us. It says, And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment. And he that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us by the Spirit which He hath given us. So now I want to talk to you out of this chapter about the love of God. Look back up in verses 1 and 2. Now I was thinking, you know, to myself, do you really love God? I mean, when I read Bible verses like that, you know, it says, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. So it's God, that prepositional phrase is showing you who loves who. It's showing you that God loves you. For God so LOVED the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He LOVED the world that much, and He died for the world, so that all men could be saved. There was a great love there. Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friend. So we all know that there might be somebody we might lay our life down for, but God in His rich mercy... I think the Apostle John over in John 13, I think he knew a little bit about the love that he had for Jesus Christ. I mean, he was the one that Jesus Christ even admitted, this is the Apostle that loves me. And he's the one that laid his head on Jesus Christ's bosom Not in one of those queer things like the world tries to make out, but it's because he loved Him. And listen, man, I'm telling you, he had a HEART toward God. And God knows your heart. He knows if you love Him. I've never been in that position of where I could lay my head on the chest of Jesus Christ and hear the heartbeat. Wouldn't that have been something? To hear the very heartbeat of God? Man, that would have been something. I think Lazarus knew something of the love of God because Martha and Mary, they said, He whom thou lovest is dead. Now isn't that a testimony that you knew that God loved somebody? Isn't that something? I mean, I think I told you one time a while back that we might know the love of man we might can comprehend the love of man and we may even be able to understand the love of man but in my little finite mind I'm not real sure if I can comprehend the love of God it's uh... it's way out there I don't understand it I mean I can read about it somebody can preach to me about it I can study about it but to understand it I'm just not real sure I don't know But I know that God's love is real. I know it took His love to hang Him on that cross to die for us. I understand that completely. I got that. Boy, I'm glad for that, aren't you? I want you to notice the presentation of the Father's love. He says, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. He presents it to us. I was thinking about this last Monday, you know, when we were little, you know, we started saying, you know, I love you, or this is what we'd do. We'd write a little note. I never did this, but you know how girls are, they'd write little notes, you know, and they'd put on there, do you like me? And then they'd put a box, and it'd say yes, and then they'd put a box, and it'd say no. If you like me, check the box, you know. You know what the little girls would do? They initiated the contact. And they wanted to know if the little boys liked them. Do you know what God did? He initiated the contact. We didn't go looking for Him. He came looking for us. He PURSUED us. I mean, man, now if you want a good wife, you better go to pursuing you a good wife. You don't want just one coming around that, you know, just any old girl. You want to find one, you know, that maybe God WANTS you to have. He initiated the contact. You say, how did he do that? Through a mediator. You know what little girls would do in school? They'd say, all right, here. They'd get their little friend and they'd say, go give this to Johnny. And so the little friend, go give it to Johnny, you know. And you know what they did? They did it through the hands of a mediator. Here's Jesus Christ. He's their great mediator. God gave him a love letter. He said, go see if those people love me. Tell them I love them. Ask them if they'll check yes or no in the boxes. Tell them that I love them. I've got a love letter for them. And I want to give it to them. And you're the mediator. You go down there and you show them how much I love them. And boy, he did, man. This is my friend and his name is Jesus and he's done so much for me and you guys are singing those songs about what a friend we have in Jesus. There's no greater friend that the world has ever known than Jesus Christ. Man has never had a friend like Jesus Christ. And I'm very careful when I say that, because I don't want you to think that He's a friend, you know, because familiarity breeds contempt. I don't want you to think He's the kind of friend that you can get so close to that you can say things about. You say things about Jesus Christ like this, I don't know why He loves me, but I'm sure glad that He does. I'm not sure why He died for me personally, but I sure am glad that He did. I don't know why it was that He left the ivory palaces and came down to this world of woe, but boy, whatever it was, His great eternal love made my Savior go. I'm sure glad that He came down here." You see, you say things like that. You see, it's a PRIMARY love. It's one of those, it's a PRINCIPLE love. Listen, you know, when we're thinking about love, we always think about WOMEN with CHILDREN. Because that is our example in our little earthly minds, you know, we think about women with children, how they love the children. And then men, you know, men never love kids, you know, we just raise them, you know. I mean, I reckon that's the idea in the world, you know. We just work and raise them, that's all we do. But women, that's their idea, is that they love children. Do you know, ladies, you couldn't have loved children if God hadn't given love in the world? If it had not been for God, there wouldn't be any love in the world. You know, man, we're just a wicked bunch of little people is all we are. You're not born basically good, you're born basically wicked with a wicked heart and an evil heart. And you know what God did through the hands of a mediator? He showed you what real love is. You know what, ladies? We ought to be a little better at our love towards you as a man. Men generally show their love by protecting and providing. That's how men do those things. You know, if somebody comes and knocks on the door, here honey, I'll go get that, let me get that, I'll take care of that. Or if he was like me, I was usually asleep on Sunday afternoon when somebody knocked on the door, and Karen would go get it. She'd say, Mike, somebody's at the door. Yeah, I'll go get it. Karen, Mike, somebody's at the door. Wake up, honey. Yeah, I'll go get it. It'd be all right. I had her behind the door with a .38 one time. And she had the gun pointed through the peephole. We lived in kind of a bad neighborhood. And she had the gun pointed through the peephole. And I said, now, if they make a twitch, you shoot. And I was thinking, well, hey, if she could survive better in prison than I could, you know, I mean, if she goes, I think it'll be easier on her than it will me. Most men protect their wives, you know, they love them enough to protect them. Ours has been a little different relationship, you know. I was usually asleep on the job or something. Listen, you know what we need to learn to do? We need to learn, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God." I mean, if He says, BEHOLD... I mean, you're expecting me to say something, but what is there to say? I mean, He's altogether lovely. And He loves us. You know, in Him is no sin, and we are sinners, and He loves us. I mean, how do you explain that? I mean, I can quote the verse again if you want me to, but how do you explain it? For God so loved, how do you explain that stuff? I mean, He is our Creator, right? He's the one that gives us breath and life. He gives us all our needs, our supplies, our wants. Let me say that again, He gives us wants, but my God shall supply all your, according to His, by Christ Jesus. But boy, it sure is good because He gives us a whole bunch of wants too. Lord, I want this and Lord, I want that. And He said, well, I've already given you your needs, but I love you enough to where I'll give you some wants too. Ain't He good? Now how do you explain, behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us? You know what that bestowing is, don't you? That's honoring you. He's honored you with His love. You're my creature, and I'm going to honor you with the best I've got. He said, I'm going to bestow my love, a perfect love, Not a subjective or an objective love, but a perfect love. A love that I can't explain, I can't even comprehend sometimes. I can read it in the Bible, we can talk about it. Brother Stephen can text me tomorrow and say, hey man, Brother Mike, he said I found a verse over here on the love of God, I'm telling you it's a good one. And we can talk about it, but the comprehended To get a hold of it. You know when we're going to get a hold of it? When we step into the presence of God and we see Him in His glory and us knowing that we don't deserve to be there. And we get to see that and all of a sudden all that emotional stuff. You know love is not, it's more than emotion. Now our love is emotional. God's love is more than emotional. And we get to see all that glory and realize what He did for us, and we're standing there in His presence with all His glory, and we get to see all that. I'm going to tell you, that day it's going to hit you. And all that emotional stuff's going to hit you. And you're going to be on your knees and you're going to be thinking, Oh God, I don't know how I got here. I'm telling you, but I am so thankful that I'm here. Thank God for the mercy of God. I was thinking the other day, I was right. Sometimes I ride by myself and I was driving down the road and I was praying. I was thinking to myself, you know, I sure am glad that I got saved. I'm so thankful that I got saved. And I was thinking, where would my life be if it wasn't for Jesus Christ? Man, I'm so thankful I got saved. I mean, even though I mess up a whole bunch of stuff in life, I'm so glad I got saved. Because boy, if it wasn't for the Lord, if it wasn't for Him fixing and changing, You know what he does? He presents his love to you. It's just a primary love, it's a base love, it's a basic love, but it's a perfect love. And he presents it to you and he says, here, I love you. Do you love me? Psalm 31 says this, it says, O LOVE THE LORD, ALL YE HIS SAINTS. Boy, I don't know about you, but that's perplexing to me. HE'S HAVING TO ENCOURAGE US TO LOVE HIM. HE'S HAVING TO CHALLENGE US, IN A SENSE, TO LOVE HIM. NOW, YOU SEE, AT FIRST, I SAID TO YOU, YOU KNOW, WE'RE SINGING A SONG, AND I SAID, I LOVE HIM, I LOVE HIM, BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED ME, AND PURCHASED MY SALVATION ON CALVARY STREET. SO AFTER THAT, I SAID, DO YOU LOVE HIM? NOW, NATURALLY, WE'RE ALL GOING TO SAY, OH, YEAH, I LOVE HIM. But is He the center of your attention? Is He all of your affection? You know, when we first start courting, dating, whatever you want to call it, I don't know. He initiated the contact and He instigated the courtship. He's the one that started the whole thing, you know. I mean, whenever that happens, you know, and you're in that first stages of that young puppy love, you know, And you're, you know, that first time that you tell her that you love her, do you remember the first time I told you that I loved you? Okay, well I'm glad you don't. I was struggling there because I don't remember the first time. I'm sure we were riding in a car somewhere, going somewhere, there's no doubt. But you know that first time that you realize that you, there's some affection there and you do love them, you know, and you want to spend time with them. Remember the first time that you realized that God loved you? That Jesus Christ loved you? And that His love was far above any affection in the world? You remember that day? I mean, it's important to remember that day. And I'm very sorry that I don't, and we'll have to have a discussion of that later. But, what about the first time you realized that God loves you? I mean, you know, this God that you've never seen, you've never talked to audibly, but you've heard Him preach about all your life, some of you, and He loves you. You know, we all love David. He's adorable. We love David because he's adorable, you know. God don't love us because we're adorable. Do you see the difference? Do you realize that as a human being that we are the only ones that can grieve God? You know, the first time love shows up in the Bible is a father's love for his son, Genesis 22. But the second time love shows up in the Bible is Genesis 24 for an Isaac loving his bride. It's a husband and wife relationship. And it's a picture of the son loving his bride. I didn't know that until this week. I'd always got the Genesis 22 one. But here is Isaac loving his bride. You know what Jesus Christ does? He loves you. And He's waiting for you as His bride to come up there, and He's going to marry you one day. And He's been sending little love letters down here to you for all these years saying, Do you love me? Do you love me? Here's Peter, I may get back to this in a minute, I'm not real sure, I've got a good outline up there, we might get to it, I don't know. Here's Peter over there in John 21, and the Lord's out there, you know, on that sandy beach, and Peter's out there in the water fishing, fishing, fishing, and the Lord says, cast on the other side of the net, you know, and they cast on the other side of the net. Well, the Lord's been fishing all night, you know, can't believe we've got to cast on the other side of the net, you know, so he casts on the other side of the net, and they fill up their fishing, and the net does not break. That shows you in New Testament salvation that you cannot lose your salvation. You can't get out of the net. Alright, now here's Peter, he comes up on the shore, you know, and he sees the Lord fixing those fish, and don't you know he's wondering, where'd you get them fish from? I've been out there fishing, fishing, fishing. Where'd you get them fish? The Lord already has him some fish, roasting. Peter begins to eat that. I don't know when the time frame was, but maybe it was about the time that Peter was about to take that first bite. He looked at him and said, Peter, love us now me more than these. I don't know if he was talking about the fish or if he was talking about the disciples. I don't know what he was talking about. I never have figured that thing. I know there's some men that are smarter than me. He's got it all figured out. But I know one thing, Peter might have had that bite of fish about right here when the Lord said that, and his heart broke because he remembered that day whenever he denied the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, Peter, lovest thou me more than these? He says, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Thou knowest all things. Isn't the first one, it says, feed my lambs? And just a minute, Peter's about to take another bite of that fish. Maybe he got the first one choked down. I don't know. Maybe he did, he didn't. I don't know. Maybe when the Lord began to talk to him, Peter just lost his appetite. But here he's sitting there, and he's looking at the Lord, and the Lord looks at him again. And I guarantee you, they were looking at each other in the face when the Lord asked those questions. I don't think the Lord was looking off somewhere yonder. I bet he was looking at Peter, and he said, Peter, lovest thou me? Yeah, Lord, you know I love you. Okay, feed my sheep. And then the third time, this would be payback. Whenever the Lord was walking out of Jerusalem, ready to go to be crucified, Peter was down there warmed himself by the fire, and he looks up there and the Lord spots Peter. And I'll guarantee you that there was eye contact then. And that little maid was at, you've been with Jesus, I know you've been with Jesus. I ain't been with Jesus. Oh yes you have, I saw you. No, you didn't see me. She said, You were with Him, and she raised her voice, and all the people around heard that little woman say to Peter, You were with Him, I saw you. And Peter said, Oh no, I hadn't been. And he began to cuss. Don't you know that all that came flooding back into his system when he saw the Lord ask him that third time, and he said, Peter, lovest thou me? And Peter gets a little frustrated this time. You know why he gets frustrated? Because his conscience is bothering him. And he was thinking back to that day, and he was thinking, boy, I wish I wouldn't have. You ever think back to that day, wherever you say to yourself, boy, I wish I wouldn't have? Oh, I wish I could have that day OVER again. I wish that there was some way I could go back and replay that day and just not do some of those things I did. And Peter's reliving that moment in his mind and he just grieved. You know the Bible tells us, "...grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption." Here we are, we're people. We don't vex God, we grieve God. Esau grieved. his parents because he went down and married somebody he shouldn't have married. It was a grief to them. Do you know as a person that you can grieve God? You can grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Do you know what grief is? That's a great loss and you're grieving on the inside because you're hurting so bad. So now, here we got this great presentation of love. He initiates the contact. He instigates the courtship. Oh, how He loves us. I can't explain it. I can't understand it. I can tell you He does, and I know He does. There's facts that He does. But why He does? YOU'RE IN HIS SON WHEN YOU GET SAVED, AND HE LOVES HIS SON, AND THAT IS THE REASON THAT HE LOVES YOU. BECAUSE YOU ARE IN HIM. AND BECAUSE YOU'RE IN HIM, HIS LOVE IS TOWARD YOU. DO YOU KNOW THE BIBLE SAYS IN ROMANS THAT THERE IS NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD? NOTHING. I MEAN, ONCE YOU'RE IN CHRIST JESUS, YOU COULDN'T GET AWAY FROM THE LOVE OF GOD IF YOU TRIED. SO DON'T TRY. Now again, let me ask you, this is point one, the third sub-point on point one, do you love Him? I mean, my goodness man, look at all that He's done for us. We just might as well do this, look over in Ephesians 2. If I give you all these points, we're going to be here for three months. Look at Ephesians 2 and look down at verse 4. It says, But God, who is rich in mercy... You know, here we are, we're down here in this earth, we go after the riches of this world, but mercy is of much greater value than anything we get here in this world. It says, BUT GOD WHO IS RICH IN MERCY FOR HIS GREAT LOVE WHEREWITH HE LOVED US. I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT THAT DOES A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR ME. LOOK IN VERSE 2 OF I JOHN CHAPTER 3, GO BACK OVER THERE. IT'S A GREAT BENEFIT TO BE LOVED BY THE FATHER. I THINK SIMON PETER KNEW A LITTLE SOMETHING ABOUT GOD'S LOVE. I think, you know, I'm not sure if it was after that point, but I'll tell you one thing, from the time he got asked those questions in John 21 until the time of 2 Peter chapter 1, there was a change that took place with Peter. There was even a change from 1 Peter chapter 1 to 2 Peter chapter 1. I mean, the time you get to 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter is saying this, he's saying, Peter, a servant of God AND an apostle, 1 Peter chapter 1, he says, Peter, an apostle of God. You see, things change. As time goes on, we realize who we are and just how great He is. Look at verse 2. What a benefit. He said, Beloved, I reckon that'd be you, wouldn't it? Are you, if you're saved and you're in Jesus Christ, you're the beloved. Now are we the sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Look at Philippians three, hold your place there and look at Philippians three. I sure like them old country preachers. They can get her up in the high hum and keep her there for two or three hours. Man, I like them. That's just not me. I gotta be what the Lord made me and what He's developed me in to be. I can't be something I'm not. And I want you to get a hold of something out of this Bible so bad that if it would get a hold of you and you could understand it and you could see some of this stuff for yourself, I believe that it would change your direction. Look at verse 21, it says, "...who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." You know what the big takeaway is right there? That He's going to change our vile body to be fashioned like unto His glorious body. He says, but NOW are we the sons of God. Right now you are a son of God. What a title, man! Do you know no greater title could be bestowed upon you on this earth than to be called a son of God? Look back over in I John chapter 3, look down at verse 2. You've never seen a love like this. You couldn't even understand a love like this. I want you to understand what the father's love made us. It fixed some things in us for sure. It absolutely changed some things in us. You go home this afternoon, you sit down in front of your meal, and you're looking at your, maybe Thanksgiving would be a better example, and you're sitting down there, and you're looking at your meal, and you're thinking, oh man, that turkey or that ham, or that, for us, it's gonna be salmon, because I don't like turkey or ham. And you're sitting there, and you're looking at that meal, and you're looking at them deviled eggs. I mean, man, what is a meal without a deviled egg, you know? You're looking at that meal, deviled eggs and the cranberry sauce, that does it for me, that cranks my tractor on Thanksgiving, that's my thing, you know? And you're looking at all that stuff and you're sitting there and you're about to engorge. You're going to eat so much, you'd be like Jordan when she got done eating, she could not stand up, she rolled out of her chair and rolled around in the floor and she would say, Oh, I ate too much. I can't stand up. I can't do it. But before you take that first bite, I want you to look at that, not like a pilgrim that just came to the United States of America, because you're not. I want you to look at that meal like a Christian and say, boy, the Father must love me. to provide all of this for me so I can enjoy some of the good things of God. And you just sit and you just look at it for a minute. And then whenever you say, thank you, Lord, for the food, maybe you'll mean it. We're pretty bad about saying the blessing, you know, and we say, thank you, Lord, good food, good meat, good Lord, let's eat, you know, one of them deals, you know. But maybe when you look at it and you say, boy, the father must have really loved me. I was not born in a third world country to where I'm walking around on the streets trying to beg for food. I was born in America where I have had plenty all my life. I have never done without food. That's evident. There's no doubt. None of us probably have either. We've had food all of our lives. We understand what it is to eat. We know what it is not to go hungry. And you sit there and you look at that and you say, Oh my goodness, God has been so good to me. I had a buddy in school, his name was Tim Eller, he's up in Ohio now, and every once in a while Karen would have him and Chris Rue and Adam Trosklair over. All those guys were single, they didn't have anybody to cook for them, so Karen felt sorry for them, so every once in a while we'd have them over on a Sunday and they'd eat with us, you know. And so a while back I was talking to Tim Eller and he told me, he said, Brother Mike, he said, you have no idea what you and Miss Karen did for me, he said, because if you had not fed me on those Sundays, there would have been weeks that I wouldn't have had a real meal. I said, Brother, why didn't you tell me? You could have come eat every night, man, I wouldn't have cared, you know? Because you know when we get done, you know what we do. Chuck it in the trash can. We had enough leftovers to feed three, probably. Maybe not always, but we always seemed to have something. You're sitting there and you're looking at that food that God's provided and how much He's loved you and He saved you. He's given you a good mind. Have you not ever read 2 Timothy 1, verse 8? He's given you a sound mind. He's not giving you the spirit of fear. He's giving you a sound mind. And you know what you're supposed to do as a Christian? You're supposed to love one another. It's a preferring love. You ought to prefer one another. You ought to prefer to be around God's people more than you are anybody else in life. Because them people that are not saved, and I'm not being mean about it, they have no idea what you're thanking God for. You know, they've got all this stuff, and I'm glad that people are helping and doing all this stuff around the area. You know, it's a help. Just let me leave it at that. And I'm glad they're helping you, doing all those things. Just because somebody helps you, don't mean they're saved. And just because they bow their head in prayer while you're thanking God for something does not mean that they're thanking the same God you're thanking. Don't be deceived by that stuff. We get all emotional and we think that everybody's a child of God and everybody's saved and everybody loves God. Everybody don't love God. I know some Christians that don't love God. I KNOW SOME CHRISTIANS THAT HAVE BEEN HURT AND HAVE GOT OUT OF FELLOWSHIP WITH THE LORD AND THEY'VE GOT TO A PLACE TO WHERE THEY JUST DON'T CARE TO BE AROUND CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. THEY DON'T WANT TO LOVE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. I HAD A FRIEND OF MINE THAT WAS A PASTOR YEARS BACK AND HE GOT SO BITTER AT CHRISTIANS. YOU OUGHT TO RECIPROCATE SOME OF THAT LOVE THAT GOD'S GIVEN YOU AND DIRECT THAT TO SOMEBODY ELSE. YOU KNOW ONE OF THE WAYS THAT WE CAN IMPROVE ON OUR CHRISTIAN WALK? is to, as a Christian, God bestows all that love on us. What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, we can bestow that on somebody else. That verse we're reading that we ought to have patience with all men over there in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, if we love the Father the way we ought to love the Father, it wouldn't be so hard to have patience with all men. But the problem is, we get out of love and get out of fellowship. You know, divorce happens nowadays because people say, well, I don't love you no more. I ain't real sure they loved each other in the first place. You know, sometimes our love, if we don't understand what love really is, our love has more to do with lust than it has to do with love. You understand what I'm saying? And we just go through the motion, but boy, if you get a hold of that love, if you get a hold of the love of the Father for you, You know what one of your prayers ought to be? God help me to love so-and-so the way that you love them. And you know what it does? It helps you. It helps you in your attitude toward them so that you can have the Father's love bestowed upon you and then you bestow that on them and then you love them the right way. And then that way there's no inhibitions, there's nothing in there that you're trying to get one over on somebody. So whenever David hugs me around the neck and he's a big old bear of a man and he looks at me and he holds me, you know, like that, I think he could shake me like a rag doll. And he holds me and he says, I love you, brother Mike. I think he genuinely means it. And if he does you that way, just be on guard, man, because that is a hug. I'm telling you, that's a hug like no other in life right there. But I think he's genuine. Now you see, He does love naturally and genuinely and it's because the Father gave Him some love and He understood that and He bestows that on other people. You know what we've got to learn to do? We've got to learn to put aside our inhibitions and our worries about if somebody's going to get one over on us because we've become vulnerable and we start loving other people, You know? And then we get kind of skittish whenever we get around Christians and we're all, you know, we're offensive and defensive and we don't know what to say because we might say the love word. It's okay to love one another. I mean, the chapter's full of it. Love one another. You know, for no other reason so your joy may be full. You ought to love each other. NOT THE KIND OF LOVE TO WHERE YOU'RE TRYING TO GET SOMETHING FROM THEM, BUT THE KIND OF LOVE LIKE THE FATHER HAD THAT HE GAVE SOMETHING TO US. IT'S THAT CHARITY THAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT. IT'S THAT GIVING. JUST LOVING. WE DIDN'T GIVE MISS HAYGOOD BIRTHDAY PRESENTS SO THAT SHE COULD GIVE US ALL BIRTHDAY PRESENTS NEXT YEAR. THAT'S NOT WHAT THAT IS. They say, that's silly. No, it's not. You give a gift because you want to give because you love the person, not because you want something in return. You just give. I love you no matter what happens because you are my blood and you're a halfway decent guy. You're all right. Now you know something may happen and me and you get out of sorts and get out of fellowship and we might not talk for years, but we're still kin and I still love you and I'll still pray for you. That's not a premonition either. Now you see, we ought to love each other. You know how family is. You know, well, they're family. We got to love them. No, you don't. No, I don't even know where that comes from. No, here's your family and this family. They'll love you and they'll pray for you. Now, I'm not just saying that just to blow smoke. I really hope that you'll love each other and you'll pray for one another. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Aren't you glad that God loves you through His Son Jesus Christ? Aren't you glad that you're in Christ Jesus and you get that great love that God can give and only God can give? Now here's your last verse and I'll quit on this. 1 Corinthians 8, verse 3, it says, If any man love God the same as none of him. So if you love God, you don't have to go around bragging, I love Jesus. Well, I just want you to know I love Jesus, you know. Now, every once in a while it'd be good to brag about it. But if you love God, people are going to recognize that in you. It's going to be part of your walk and your testimony, your life. So once again, I got one point today and that's all I got. But do you love Him? While you're standing, that song that we sung this morning at the very end there, I love him. Don't that have just a little bit different meaning? Once you know what God done for you and how he gave you his love, unsolicited love, just gave it to you. Just the father giving you his love. If you would bow your head for just a minute. There's a purpose to all this. So that God could send his son, Jesus Christ to die for our sins and give us eternal life. It's a proper love. I mean, I could go through a whole list of peas. It's a perceiving love. And boy, if you ever get a hold of it, if God ever gets a hold of you, If God ever does something for you like that to where that you understand a little more about His love, it's going to change you a little bit. If He ever apprehends you with His great love, it's going to change you a little bit. You'll be a little different. You'll be for the better and not for the worse, that's for sure.