Well, good morning again. I want to encourage you all to take your Bibles. And this morning I want you to open them up to 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5. Our time in God's Word concerning the love of God that has been poured out into our hearts began the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and we were in Romans 5 at that time. In Romans 5, verse 3, and we went all the way through verse 8 as we studied the love of God. But this morning, as I want to focus on the love of God that we possess, actually possessing us, I want us to turn to 2 Corinthians 5. And we will go back here in just a few moments and read over what we've learned earlier on the love of God from Romans 5. But for this morning, let's begin here in 2 Corinthians 5, verse number 14. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. And he died for all, so that They who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. The title of the message this morning is, Are You Possessed by the Love of God You Possess? Are You Possessed by the Love of God You Possess? Let's pray. Our great eternal Almighty God, What an immense privilege, blessing beyond words to describe it is to have your love poured out within our hearts. To have our hearts infused with the eternal, matchless, indescribable love of God, who himself is eternal and matchless and holy in all of his attributes. Father, what a possession we have in Your love. Yet, Lord God, we understand that there is a purpose for you pouring out that love in our hearts, and the purpose is for that love to control us. As we contemplate your love, we understand, Lord, that we are to be controlled by that love. Yet, Lord, the sin that reigns within us, the selfishness that reigns within us, the self-will that reigns within us fights against everything we know to be true. And so, Lord, we come before you this morning as very needy children. I realize, Lord, that there are some here who are not your children. I pray, Father, that before this message is finished, that enough will be said and that it will be said clearly enough that your Spirit can take the truth of your Word, take the truth of the gospel. and reveal it, Lord, to those who are not your children in such a way that today they might become a child of God, that this would be the day that you deliver them from the dark domain of sin and transfer them into the beloved kingdom of your Son. But Father, for those of us who've already been so richly blessed with salvation, and we know that we are your children, we come to you this morning, Lord, pleading with you, help us, Father, to crucify the flesh. Help us, Lord, to die to the ways of the world that we even see promoted and pushed upon us from other Christians. Help us to understand that there is a particular way that You want us as Your children to live. Many of us have been studying this in the study of the Beatitudes. We've seen it in the study of the book on the mortification of sin. We've seen it in the study of the book of contentment. We are to be different. We are to be controlled by a different force. force of the love of God is to control us. So help us, I pray, Lord, this morning. May your spirit be pleased to take again the foolishness of preaching and use it in our lives in such a way that we'd find ourselves not just possessing this love that you've poured out within us, but be possessed by it. We pray this in Christ's holy name. Amen. Again, as I mentioned earlier, this message was supposed to be preached on Christmas Eve, but God had other plans, and we trust God's sovereignty, and so we will preach it this morning. But this concept of the love of God is really something that God has providentially led us to this Christmas season, and I didn't mention it. But when we first started looking at that first message of the love of God, we talked about how when we go through difficult times, we understand that we go through difficult times to better understand the love of God. And we understand that we go through difficult times because as we better understand the love of God, He's strengthening our faith. And I had mentioned that if you're going through a hard time and you don't know what to pray, at least pray, God, I trust you. God, I trust you. First thing I prayed when I got on golf links is, God, I trust you. God, I trust you. God, I know you're going to reveal your love to me in a greater way than what I knew it this morning. The Word of God has been given to us to strengthen us. The Word of God has been given to us to conform us into the image of Jesus Christ. As a Christian, God has a purpose for your life. You don't need to wonder what your purpose is in life as a Christian. Your purpose in life as a Christian is to allow God to use every event in your life to conform you into Christ's likeness. We live to be conformed into Christ's likeness so that He can be the preeminent one among the brethren. certainly so that he can be the preeminent one in each one of our individual's lives, but so that we as a church, we as a local body of believers can manifest, glorify, exalt, and make Jesus Christ known. That is why we are on this earth. That is our purpose as Christians. And as we study the love of God, the Holy Spirit desires to take that teaching and help us to accomplish our purpose in life, to be more like Christ. So on November 26th, we first understood that we are to boast in our tribulations because they manifest the love of God. Go back with me. Don't lose 2 Corinthians 5, because we're coming right back there. But go back with me to Romans 5, verse 3. Romans 5, verse 3. But not only this, but we also exalt, and we recognize that that is better understood as boasting. But not only this, we boast in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint. Why does hope not disappoint? Because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. The understanding of those verses, we realize that the ultimate goal of tribulation is to help you better understand the love of God that has been poured out into your hearts through the Holy Spirit. And the word there, poured out, is infused. When you put faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells within you, and He takes up residence within you. And when He does that, He infuses your entire being with the love of God. And then the following week we went to Paul's prayer in Ephesians 4 to better understand that love where Paul says he's on his knees. And he's praying to the Heavenly Father from whom which we all get our name. He's praying to the Heavenly Father who has predetermined that we would enter into the church, predetermined that we would be his children. And he's praying to this Heavenly Father and he's asking this Heavenly Father that according to the riches of his glory and that according to the power of the Holy Spirit that Christ would dwell in our hearts to such a point that we'd be rooted and grounded in love and that we would understand along with the rest of the saints, saints who have been martyred for their faith, that we would understand the length and the height and the depth and the breadth of the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. Doesn't that just blow your mind away? We're going to come to know something that's beyond our understanding? Why? So that we might be filled up with the fullness of God, who's able, now listen to this, who's able to do far more abundantly than anything you ask or think. Our God can do far more abundantly than anything we ask or think, and our understanding of that is dependent upon our understanding of His love. And God loves us so much, He wants us to understand that love, so we'll understand all that He can do for us. He loves us so much that He's willing to watch us go through tribulations, because it's through those tribulations that we begin to really understand that love. And then it was on December 10th that we began to understand that this love that we possess needs to possess us. We read this verse here that we just read in 2 Corinthians and realized that the love of God that we possess needs to possess us. And so the idea was to go back, let's go back and look at that love of God to make sure we understand what we possess so that we can be possessed by it. And the first thing that we looked at is what is the source of this love of God that we possess? And the source, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that regenerates us, the Holy Spirit that indwells us. And we talked about the need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and how when Paul talks about being filled with the Holy Spirit there in Ephesians 5, 18, literally what he's saying is be being kept filled with the Holy Spirit. Well, how do you go about being being kept filled with the Holy Spirit? The way you go about constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit is to let the word of God richly dwell within you. So Christians, you have to ask yourself, How much time do you spend letting the Word of God richly dwell in you? Let me tell you, if you're not doing that, God loves you too much to allow you to be indifferent to His Word. He's going to bring heartache into your life, because He wants to get you back in His Word, because His Spirit cannot dominate and control you unless you're in His Word. When times get difficult, don't turn your back on God. When times get difficult, don't turn to the ways of the world. When times get difficult, don't respond to the difficulty the way the world responds to the difficulty. Run to the Word of God and study the Word of God and let that Word of God richly indwell within you. Well, understanding that, we went to the Word of God. We went right back to Romans chapter five, verse six, where it talks where Paul talks about that love. And we first thing we looked at in Romans chapter five, verse six, seven and eight and verse 10 was to understand our condition before the love of God was poured out within our hearts. And that was on December 17th. We looked at our condition. Let's just review that very quickly. Verse six, for while we were still helpless. We were helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. We were helpless and ungodly. For one would hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrated His own love toward us, and that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Verse 7, there are some that are worthy dying for, but not the sinner, not the helpless, ungodly sinner. He's not worthy dying for. So prior to this love being poured out within our hearts, we're helpless, ungodly, worthless, and verse eight says we're sinners. And then when we go to verse 10, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. Not only are you a helpless, ungodly, worthless sinner, you hate God. And in the midst of that, God pours out His love into your heart. And His love just continues to become more and more unimaginable, more and more difficult to describe, the more we understand what we were like before we received that love. Every single person born into this world, you may struggle with this, But I'm telling you, God's perspective of you is you are a helpless, ungodly, worthless sinner who hates Him. but God demonstrated his own love. In verse, back here in Romans 5, verse 6, it says, at the right time, at the right time. God's love is a pre-planned love at the right time. It was just at the right time, literally according to a fixed time. And we studied and we learned from Ephesians chapter one that all events in life are planned by God to occur at a time in a manner that will bring about his perfect purpose for creation, which is to glorify God. Everything in life is planned by God to bring about his purpose for creation, which is to glorify him. The crucifixion was purposed and planned by God so that God could make a marvelous display of his love just at the right time. God allowed the crucifixion to take place. It was pre-planned. Why did God allow the crucifixion to take place? So that He could demonstrate His love, so that He could manifest His love. I was going to talk about this last week and it just didn't seem to be timed. But I realize that we live in a world that one of their biggest problems with God is we as a church, we as Christians say that God is all-powerful and God is loving. Well, if God is all-powerful and God is loving, why does He let so much evil into the world? Why does He let the evil into the world? Why is the world in the shape it is? God has allowed sin to come into this world so that he could demonstrate his love through redemption. God has allowed sin to come into this world so he could demonstrate his justice, so he could demonstrate his mercy, so he could demonstrate his grace. That's why God has allowed the world to live in darkness, is so that he can demonstrate his love through redemption, the greatest demonstration of God's love. Why does God do that? So that we as creation can turn around now and glorify God for his love. We would not know the love of God if it were not for the sin of this world. We would not know the mercy of God if it were not for the sin of this world. We would not know the grace of God if it were not for the sin of this world. We would not understand how much God's justice means to him if it were not for the sin of this world. We wouldn't understand the wrath of God if it were not for the sin of this world. The greatest demonstration of the wrath of God is the cross. The cross is the greatest demonstration of all of the attributes of God. We would not know God the way we know God if it were not for the cross. And God manifested his love on that cross, why? So that we can now glorify him for the loving God that he is. Now doesn't that seem like a little bit of an egotistical God? He wants to be glorified. And I've given this example before, and it's the best example that I can come up with. that when Kathy and I went to the Grand Canyon, we gloried in the Grand Canyon. We were amazed at the Grand Canyon. It just blew us away, the beauty and the grandeur and the awesome of the Grand Canyon. So we're standing there just glorying in the Grand Canyon. Does the Grand Canyon receive anything out of that? No, the Grand Canyon does not receive anything out of it. God did not create creation to give him glory because he's egotistical. It's not because God needs glory. It's not that it adds anything to God. God is complete in himself before he ever creates. God did not create for his own individual pleasure. God created so that creation could enjoy him and we enjoy him best when we glorify him. Kathy and I walked away from the Grand Canyon full of joy. and thrill. And one of the things we want to do someday is go back there again and look at the Grand Canyon. God reveals himself so that we as Christians can come and enjoy the pleasure of glorifying him so we can enjoy him. And the cross was a key part of that providing redemption for man and enabling man to be able to glorify him. It was pre-planned. The love of God demonstrated in the cross was pre-planned. And not only was it pre-planned, it was put on display in verse eight. But God demonstrated his own love for us. It was put on display to provide evidence of a personal characteristic to a particular claim. That's what that word means. God provided evidence of his personal characteristic of his love through a claim. It was a nonverbal claim, a nonverbal action, his son dying on the cross. And the word there also talks about how God is demonstrating things in such a way that he makes it stand with you. He demonstrated his love in such a way that that manifestation of his love is meant to stand with us. It's meant to stick with us. It's meant to be a part of who we are. God demonstrated his love in such a magnificent, powerful way that as you continue to grow in your understanding of your sin, and you continue to grow in your understanding that God still sent his son to die for you even though you were a sinner, that that love sticks to you. It becomes a part of who you are and you interpret every event in life through the reality that God loves me. God loves me. We also saw that it was a personal love. God demonstrated his own love. It is a personal love. God's love cannot be separated from all who God is. I won't go again through the list of the attributes of God that are connected with this love. But God demonstrated his own love. And that love is a holy love. That love is a righteous love. That love is a just love. It's a merciful love. It is a gracious love. It is a love that will not negate wrath. And it is a love that wrath cannot triumph over. They have to work together. The love of God belongs to God. It's his own personal love. The own personal love of the eternal self-existent, existing before time, self-sufficient, God who does not increase and decrease. It's that love, his love, his love, that he poured out upon the cross. It's his love that he demonstrated. And it is a boundless love. It knows no boundaries. Romans 8, verse 32, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? What is it that you need in life? If it's within the bounds of God's will, He will provide it. You can take that to bank. Anything that you need that is within the bounds of God's will, He will provide it. But that's a key exception there. Within the bounds of God's will, the problem is we want things outside of God's will. The problem is we don't trust the goodness of God. And that again is the flesh. God's demonstrated His goodness. He's demonstrated how much He loves you. by sending his son to die for you, helpless, worthless sinner, ungodly hater of God. He demonstrated his love for you. How can you question his goodness? How can you want something outside of his will? Anything you want within the will of God, he will give it to you. Everything you need to get through this life, his life, his love is boundless. It knows no boundaries outside of the will of God. And not only that, it is a beneficial love. But God demonstrated His own love toward us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That preposition there is such a powerful preposition. It speaks of an activity done on the behalf of another. You see, we were to die. Because we have sinned against the holy God, we were to die. And I'm not just talking about a cessation of life. Where your heart stops beating and you're laid in a grave and that's it. Now, I'm talking about the second death where you go to a place of conscious, non-ending torment in a lake of fire. That's the death that all helpless, ungodly, worthless sinners who sin against God justly deserve. They deserve that death. But Christ came and He died in our place. He took our place. The wrath that would be poured out upon us in the lake of fire was poured out upon Him. He stood there. He hung there, rather, hung there on the cross. And he took every drop of wrath that each and every one of your single individual sins deserve. Why? Because God loves you. And it is that love that needs to possess us. without getting to 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14 just yet, I've got five different aspects or five different characteristics of one who now is possessed by this love that they possess. Certainly there are many others in the Bible. This is not an exhaustive list of the characteristics, but these are five that I want to share with you this morning. First of all, The life of one who is possessed by the love of God is the life of one who does not doubt his salvation, does not doubt his salvation. Listen to what Charles Hodge has to say about the love of God. If God loved us because we loved him, he would love us only as long as we love him and on that condition. And our salvations would depend on the constancy of our treacherous hearts. But God has loved us as sinners. Christ has died for us as ungodly. Our salvation depends, as the apostle argues, not on our loveliness, but on the constancy of the love of God. Understand that God did not have His Son die on the cross for you. He did not demonstrate His love towards you because of something lovable within you. It wasn't because of something desirable within you. Christ's death on the cross is dependent upon a love of God that does not change. It's dependent upon the love of God that does not change. It's not dependent upon you. It's not dependent upon whether you can maintain a loving attitude. It's not dependent upon anything in you. It's dependent upon the love of God. And the love of God does not change. God does not change. If God were to change, he would cease to be God. This is the stability of our salvation. It's dependent upon the unchanging love of God. If you have trusted Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and if you have trusted in the righteousness of Christ to be made right with God, then nothing can ever separate you from that love. Nothing can separate you from that love. Not death, not peril, not sword, not anything, not even yourself. It wasn't dependent upon you. It was dependent upon the love of God. And when you understand that, you can have the absolute assurance that your salvation is secure. Your eternity is secure. No matter what you go through on this earth, no matter how bad it gets, You have the eternal hope of spending eternity with God. You have the living hope of spending eternity with Him. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. Now let's go back to 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14. Paul says, for the love of God controls us. Why does it control him? Because he's figured this out. He's figured this out, and basically what he talks about here is the same thing that we've been talking about in Romans chapter five, verses six through eight and verse 10. He's figured it out, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. When the love of God controls you, you stop living for yourself. Those who are controlled by the love of God, those who are possessed by the love of God, have a life of death to self. They live a life of death to self. They have died to themselves. They don't live for themselves. They live for God. We see this concept in the Philippians chapter two, verse three. Turn there with me in Philippians chapter two, verse three. Do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look out to your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourself, which also was in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. As Christians, we are to do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. We are to have a humility of mind regarding everyone else to be more important than ourselves, regarding your spouse to be more important than you, regarding your other fellow Christians to be more important than you, regarding everybody else to be more important than you. Do not merely look out for your own interests. Now, if you have an NESB translation, you see the word merely is in italics. That means that it wasn't in the original. The word merely is not in the original. Some of you may have a translation that says something like this. Let each of you look not only to your own interests. The concept of not only is not there. Literally what it says here is do not look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. We are not to look out for our interests at all, at all. We have no concern about our own personal interests. Our interest is in the interests of others. And we know that's the proper way to view this verse because who's the example? The example is Jesus Christ. What personal interest was Jesus Christ looking out for when he became man and went to the cross, was obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross? Christians, if you're possessed by the love of God, you stop living for yourself. You begin to live a life of self-denial. We as Christians need to stop worrying about our own personal well-being. I'm tired of hearing Christians talk about their own personal well-being. I have been maligned and I have been suffering and I have gone through such difficult times throughout so many years of my life. It's time for me to start looking out for myself. It's time for me to start being concerned about my personal well-being. I have to take care of myself. To not die to self and to focus on self is to listen, I believe, to the deceitful spirits who preach the doctrine of demons. There's nothing more than Satan would like to do than to get you to focus on yourself. Nothing more than he would like to do than to get you to be more concerned about yourself than others, to be concerned about your own personal well-being. Most of what falls under the heading of Christian counseling today is the doctrine of demons. Even among Christians, there's this constant push to be looking out for self. You got to do what's right for you. let alone in the worldly counseling. Seeking the well-being of the counselee without any regard to the offense of the counselee's sin is against God. The Bible speaks of denying self, of dying to self, of crucifying self. The counselor speaks of nurturing self, doing what is right by self, retaining a sense of self-worth. We end up thinking more about what is being done to us rather than what our sin has done to a holy God. We need to remind ourselves what our sin has done to a holy God. There's nothing that's been done to you that surpasses what your sin has done to a holy God. The Bible tells us to deny itself. The Bible tells us to die to self. The Bible tells us to crucify ourselves. The world is telling us to nurture ourselves. The world is telling us to do right by ourselves. The world is telling us to retain a sense of self-worth. Those who are possessed by the love of God have ceased being concerned about self. I know you ladies have gone through the Beatitudes in your ladies' Bible study. The men have gone through five of the Beatitudes now in the men's Bible study. What's the first Beatitude? Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who understand they're spiritually bankrupt. Blessed are those who are growing in their understanding that they are helpless, worthless, ungodly sinners who have offended God. Blessed are those who understand that they are poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those whose understanding of their poverty in spirit and whose understanding of their sin offending God has caused them to mourn. and they mourn over their sin. They're grieved over their sin. Those Beatitudes go perfectly together. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who are meek. Why would we be meek? Well, if I understand my sin to the point where it's caused me to be broken and contrite over my sin, I'm not going to worry about what others do to me. What is meekness? It's power under control. It's having the right, the power, the opportunity to retaliate, but not retaliating. Why don't you retaliate when you have the right, when you have the power, when you have the opportunity? Why not? Because I'm just concerned about what my sin has done to a holy God. It's those that are in that position that then can begin to hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God, and they will be satisfied. God will pour out his righteousness within them. But again, it's just another concept that as Christians, even our study of the Beatitudes has told us as Christians, There's no room for self. There's no room to be concerned about ourselves. Our study of contentment in our book on contentment taught us that. Our study on the mortification of sin is teaching that. Everything that God is providentially teaching this church is telling this church, you have to stop being concerned about yourself. You must die to self. The love that you possess is meant to possess you and cause you to die to self. The love that you possess is meant to possess you and cause you to live a life of devotion to Christ. We must never doubt our salvation, we must die to self, and we must be devoted to Jesus Christ. Look with me at the parable in Luke chapter seven, verse 36. Luke chapter seven, verse 36. Now one of the Pharisees was requesting him to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. And there was a woman in the city who was a sinner. And when she had learned that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume. And standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing his feet, and anointing him with perfume. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this person is who is touching him, that she is a sinner. And Jesus answered him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he replied, say it, teacher. money lender who had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii and one 50. When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more? Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more. And he said to them, you have judged correctly. Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. "'You did not anoint my head with oil, "'but she anointed my feet with perfume. "'For this reason I say to you, "'her sins which are many have been forgiven, "'for she loved much, "'but he who is forgiven little loves little.' "'Then he said to her, "'Your sins have been forgiven.' "'Those who were reclining at the table with him "'began to say to themselves, "'Who is this man who even forgives sins?' "'And he said to the woman, "'Your faith has saved you, go in peace.'" You notice this woman did not have any regard for herself. She knew what the Pharisees would think about her. She knew the ridicule that she would face, but she had no regard for herself. She just wanted to go and to worship her Savior, to worship her Lord, to demonstrate her devotion to the Lord. You notice she had no concern at the cost. She would pour out whatever she had. She'd give whatever she had to worship her Savior. Devotion has no regard for self. Devotion is concerned for only the master. What can I do to serve my master? There's no task beneath me. There's nothing too low that my master asks me to do that I will not do. He deserves whatever he asks me to do, no matter how low it is. What can I do to serve my master? There's no cost too high to serve my master. What is the master asking of you this morning that you have refused to give because it costs just too much? This level of obedience is just too much. I just cannot obey at this point. I just cannot love at this point. I can't forgive at this point. I can't give up this sin. This just costs too much. What act of obedience is just simply too costly for your pride? You notice the difference between the woman and the Pharisee. The Pharisee didn't really understand the depth of his sin. He's focused too much on his self-righteousness. The woman is done with self-righteousness. She knows she has nothing to offer. Do you realize that when you refuse the master, what you're really saying is the master is not worth your devotion? What you're really saying is there's something about you, there's something within you that puts you above the sinners in the world that causes you to be just a little bit better and you do not need to serve the master. The reason people are unwilling to be totally devoted to Christ is because they do not have a full understanding of the magnitude of the debt of their sin that was paid by the death of Christ on the cross. They fail to understand spiritual to poverty. When we really get to know them, you find out that they have a high view of self. They deserve better than the life that God is giving them. How many Christians are living their lives saying, I deserve better. I've been obedient long enough. I've followed God long enough. I don't like my life where it is. Now I'm going to start to do it my way. There is no expiration date on God's obedience. We are to be obedient, irregardless of how it works out for us. John the Baptist said it very plainly, he must increase and I must decrease. Any counseling that I do, on the very first time, I will counsel someone. Sooner or later, we come to this verse, and sooner or later, I tell them, it's not about you. It's not about you. It's about the glory of God. It's not about what the person's doing to you. It's not about what you're going through. You need to die to yourself. You need to fall back and understand the depths of your sin, and you need to be devoted to Jesus Christ. That's what it means to be possessed by the love of God that you possess. So we never doubt our salvation, we die to self, we're devoted to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and we live a life of obedience. 1 John 5, verse 3, for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. It's not burdensome for me to live my life the way that God has called me to live my life, because I understand His love. I understand His love and I'm growing in my understanding of His love. And as I obey Him in the difficult times, His love is becoming even more and more magnificent and revealed more and more to me. And I comprehend the incomprehensible nature of God. And I feel myself being filled up with the fullness of God. And I realize this God can do far more abundantly than anything I ask or I thank. And I love to obey him, even when it is hard. I love to obey him, even when the rest of the world is telling me, you don't need to go through this anymore. You can abandon, you can do things your way. God says, if you love me, you will obey me. John chapter four, verse 34, Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me. and to accomplish His work. We are to emulate our Savior, Jesus Christ. He came to do the will of God. He came to accomplish God's work. We are on this earth to further the work that Christ began. We are on this earth to not just proclaim the gospel, but to live our lives in such a way that our lives become a platform from which the gospel can clearly be seen and clearly be heard. Psalm 19, verse 14, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. When you go to bed at night, ask yourself, have your words been acceptable to the Lord God, your rock and your redeemer? What you say, has it been acceptable to God? Are your thoughts, what you are thinking, have they been acceptable to the Lord your God? The King David, he says in Psalm 139 verse 23, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way within me and lead me in the everlasting way. Search me, O Lord, where am I not living my life for you? Show me where it is. Reveal it to me so that I can live my life for you. Is your desire to be obedient to God at that level? You think about everything you say you think about all your thoughts and you just want God to show you Anything that might be contrary to him because you want to live your life for him Now, let's go to Ephesians chapter 5. I said we would go there. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 5 and let's begin in verse 18 Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 I wanna go back to the source of our love that we possess so that we can see how we should be possessed in every area of our life by the love of God. This works its way into every area of your life. Ephesians 5, verse 18, and do not get drunk with wine for that dispensation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's where we got this concept of being kept filled with the Holy Spirit. The word there filled means to be permeated, to be dominated, to be controlled. We are to constantly be permeated with the Holy Spirit. We are to constantly be controlled by the Holy Spirit. We are constantly to be dominated by the Holy Spirit. What does a person look like who is filled with the Holy Spirit? They're speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with their heart to the Lord. They're worshiping. If you're constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit, you're worshiping. Not only that, they're grateful. Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. You're worshiping and you're filled with gratitude. And not only that, there's humility. There's humility. The one who is constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit is humble. And he demonstrates obedience to God because he is possessed by the love of God in every area of life. This passage now will hit everyone. No one can escape any one of these areas here. Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Listen to me, wives. Be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is also the head of the church, he himself being the savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. There's much that could be said about how we demonstrate our being possessed by the love of God as wives and how we respond to our husbands. But let me just say this one thought. Wives are supposed to be a helpmate suitable to their husbands. That takes some time, wives. You've got to understand your husband. You've got to understand what God wants to do with your husband. You've got to understand what he needs. In your goal, outside of worshiping Christ, the next goal is to be a helpmate that's suitable to your husband. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water of the world, that he might present himself that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own body. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church." Husbands, apart from worshiping God, number one goal, worship and devotion to God. You worship and devote your life to God by demonstrating obedience. How do you demonstrate your obedience as a husband? What are you doing, husbands, to promote holiness in your wife? We can say that I will demonstrate love for my wife the way that Christ demonstrated love for the church. Christ was willing to die for the church. Therefore, I'm willing to die for my wife. I will die for my wife. But you notice what Paul is really saying. Why did Christ die for the church? He died for the church that he might present to himself a wife who's spotless and holy and pure. Husbands, how much of your goal in life, how much of your focus in life is doing what it takes to help nurture holiness in your wife? Peter tells us in 1 Peter, I think it's chapter 4, maybe chapter 3, that husbands are to live with their wives in an understanding way. That means we need to understand them, man. We need to know what our wives need. Our wives are gonna be different than any other wife. Just as the wife needs to take time to study her husband to see how she can be a helpmate suitable to that husband, so we as husbands are to study our wives and understand what they need and understand how they can be helped to become more like Christ. You gotta study your wife and know her. Do you take time to study your wife? Do you take time to understand who she is? This is a part of obedience. If you love God, you'll be obedient in this area. And this passage goes on to talk about how we are to be obedient as parents in the raising of our children, how children are to be obedient in the way they respond to their parents and respect their parents and obey their parents. This passage goes on to tell us how employers If you're a Christian employer, you have an obligation to be an employer according to the word of God. You need to read this passage and see what it means to be a Christian employer, what it means to demonstrate your love to God by being obedient and being a Christian employer. Employees, many of you are employees, and you are to be an employee the way that God has commanded you to be an employee. You are to demonstrate your love to God in the way you behave as an employee. And in this workforce today where there's such a poor work ethic, what an opportunity that you have as a Christian to be obedient and to work hard because you love the Lord, your God, your Savior. What an opportunity to make Him known. What an opportunity to be a light in the workplace. We are to be obedient to our Father in every area of life. And if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you will be the wife that God has called you to be, and you will be the husband that God has called you to be, and you will be the parent that God desires you to be, and you will be a child that pleases God, and an employer that honors God, and an employee that honors God. This being possessed by the love of God reaches into every part of our lives. Lastly, not only will the life of the one that's possessed by the love of God not doubt their salvation? Not only will they die to self, not only will they be devoted to Jesus Christ, not only will they be diligent in obedience, but they will also demonstrate love. They will demonstrate love. Look with me in 1 John 4, verse 19. 1 John 4, verse 19. We love because He first loved us. Go up to verse seven. Beloved, let us not love one another, for love is from God. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. And everyone who is born of God knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. If we understand the love of God that we possess, we will love others. Turn with me now back to Ephesians, Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians 4, verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind-hearted to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. You could go all the way up to verse 25 where it says, lay aside falsehood, speak truth to each one of you with his neighbor, for you are members of one another. Verse 26, be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down in your anger. Do not give the devil an opportunity. Verse 28, he who steals must steal no longer, but rather must labor, performing with his own hands what is good so that he will have something to share with one who is in need. Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth. But only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ has forgiven you." Why? Because we're to be imitators of God. Therefore be imitators of God. How would it be imitators of God as beloved children were to walk and love just as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma Stop being bitter Stop being full of wrath Stop being angry and clamor and and begin to tenderly loving heartedly forgive one another forgive each other Do not use unwholesome words. Do not use harsh words. Speak with kindness to one another. Why? Because we're supposed to be imitators of God. We're supposed to demonstrate Christ-like love, His love for the Father. He offered Himself up as a sacrifice, an aroma pleasing to His heavenly Father. He did this out of love for us and He did this out of love for His Father. If you possess The love of God, it will possess you. And it will begin to make a difference in every single relationship you live in. Your relationships will begin to change. We struggle in our interpersonal relationships as Christians because we don't allow the love of God that we possess to possess us. We don't die to self. We don't remain devoted to Jesus Christ. We're not concerned about obedience. We're not concerned about demonstrating love. We're concerned about us, individuals. And that's why we struggle in this world. That's why there's difficulty. Surrender yourself to Jesus Christ. Let the love of God possess you. Let it take control of you and begin to experience the peace that surpasses all understanding. As far as it depends upon you, live at peace with one another. Live at peace with one another as far as it depends upon you. Doesn't mean it'll work out, doesn't mean that the relationship will be restored, but your relationship with God will be restored. That's what you really need to focus on. live through the difficulties of interpersonal relationships, live through the difficulties of this life in such a way that you are going to be determined to allow that situation to increase your relationship with God, to deepen your relationship with Him, that you will understand the love of God that He's poured out into your heart. There's nothing that's more difficult as one who has seen this and Kathy and I, we've experienced the love of God and how desperately we want everyone to know this love and to see Christians, Christians struggling in life because they will not let God have control of their lives and let the love of God possess their lives. If you're here this morning and you don't possess that love, you need to understand you are a helpless, ungodly, worthless sinner who hates God. But God demonstrated his own love towards you and that Christ died for you. This is the reality of the love of God. Sinner. Christ died for you. He went to the cross. And he paid the penalty of your sin so that you can be forgiven. And just as God put your sin upon him. and treated the perfect one as if he was a sinner. So if you trust in the righteousness of God, the righteousness of Christ, God will take the righteousness of Christ and he will put it upon you and he will treat you like he treats his own son, even though you still are a sinner. Today you can have your sins forgiven. Today you can be made right with God. It happens, it comes about by putting your faith and trust in Christ's death for the forgiveness of your sins and by putting your faith and trust in the righteousness of Christ to be made right with God. That's the love of God. You will never experience a greater love than that when you surrender yourself to Jesus Christ. Put your faith in Him as the only means to have your sins forgiven. Put your faith in Him as the only means to be made right with God and begin to experience the immeasurable and unfathomable love of God. Let's pray. God, we praise you this morning for your love. We know we have done absolutely nothing whatsoever to deserve that love. Father, we know it. We don't always live like it, but we know it, that what we deserve in this life, if we want what we deserve, what we deserve is your wrath. Our sin has offended your holiness. Your justice says such an offense deserves your wrath. You're righteous, pure, and holy, and this is absolute truth. It is nothing wrong with this. This is justice. This is what we deserve. We deserve your wrath. But you sent your Son to die on the cross to save us from our sins, yes, to deliver us from our sins, yes, but more than that, you sent your Son on the cross to save us and to deliver us from your wrath. He took your wrath so that we would not have to bear it. This is your love. There is no greater demonstration of your love. Irregardless of what we see going on in and around us, nothing, Lord, matches your love. You are a loving God. We know you are a loving God. We look to your Holy Spirit to continue to cause us to grow in our understanding of the height, the length and the depth of the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding so that we might to be filled up with the fullness of God so that we might begin to comprehend that you are a God who can do far more abundantly than anything we ask or even think. To you be all the praise, glory, and honor forever and ever, Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, in your Son's most precious holy name. Amen.