Well, if you would turn to John Chapter 21. I'm thankful. For the help, Ty and Rebecca gave it the nursing home yesterday and. Sometimes people don't realize how big of a blessing it is just to show up, you know, just showing up as a blessing, but they went above and beyond. I was a blessing to the people there and I was just encouraged by that and I'm encouraged by my dad being here today and. I didn't. I didn't ask him to come or anything. He just said you know what time is the service and. You know, I'm just so thankful that he's he's here because. The Lord's had mercy on my dad and I'm just so thankful that he's got a relationship with the Lord. There's a time when I was at Quebec when I was requesting prayer for my dad. That that he would have a relationship with the Lord and y'all prayed for him and. I just praise the Lord. I'd rather have a crippled dad that it's gotta walk with the Lord and then a healthy dad that's crippled spiritually and I'm I'm so thankful that my dad's got a good relationship with the Lord that that just means so much so. John chapter 21. Let's read starting in verse number 15. Take this jacket off. Verse number 15, and we'll read through verse number 19. The Bible says, So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith unto him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he had said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had this spoken, he saith unto him, Follow me." Let's go to Lord and Prayer. Lord, thank you for the good day you've given us here today, and thank you, Lord, for meeting with us. I pray, God, that you would just prepare the hearts and speak to hearts today through your Word. I pray, God, that we would be helped by your Word and the example you set. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. This afternoon, I want to look at the subject of biblical love. Biblical love. God has given us a perfect example in His Word of how to biblically love. But in this world, the world we live in, the society we live in, has love all twisted up and all mixed up. The world thinks that it's love, true love, for a man to marry a man. They think true love and they think it's more reasonable to get a divorce if things are just going wrong. in this world. They think it's more. They think it's better to receive rather than to give. We see in 2nd Timothy Chapter 3 we read in the last times. This know also that in the last days perilous time shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves. Covetous boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. And so we've got in the society we live in, apart from the Bible, we've got love all twisted up and all mixed up. They think that true love, a woman could marry a woman. They think that it's OK to hate enemies and to do them wrong. We see this in the news. We see love. We see what they portray to be love and what they sing about in the songs and what they put on in the movies as to be what this picture of love should be. But it's the exact opposite of what the Lord has given us in the Bible. Thankfully, we have a book that tells us about biblical love, about true love, about God's love, and about how we're to love each other. Thankfully, we don't have to rely on what we see in the world, but we can look to the Bible. And we can figure out how to love one another. We can figure out how to love God. And we can learn how God loves us. And the best part is that the Bible doesn't change with the times. See, this idea of love that the world gives, it's kind of ever-changing. It's always ever-shifting. They have new ideas about it all the time. But in the Bible, it doesn't ever change. And so we can rest assured that this is the truth. Look down at Verse number 7 in chapter 21. Verse number 7. The Bible says, Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now, when Simon Peter I just want to look at a little bit of the context of this story that we read where Jesus was asking Simon Peter, do you love me? Lovest thou me? And the context is they're in a boat and they're fishing. And John is the disciple whom Jesus loved, noticed that after they had caught those fish, that it was the Lord. And Peter, being Peter, when he heard that it was the Lord, he girded his fisher's coat unto him, and he was naked, and he cast himself into the sea. And so Peter I think Peter was probably a little bit jealous here. I know it says in the Bible of speaking of John, that John was the disciple whom the Lord lovest, whom the Lord loved. But Peter had to kind of make a scene like he had done before and cast himself into the sea. The Bible says in verse number eight, and the other disciples came in a little ship for they were not far from the land, but as it were 200 cubits dragging the net with the fishes. So there was no real necessity for Peter to go off and to jump into the ship, but, uh, Perhaps he was jealous of the love that Jesus had towards John. Perhaps he was trying to maybe earn the love of Jesus by showing him, you know, I'll jump into the water for you. I don't know exactly what it is, but it obviously wasn't necessary because the rest of the disciples just stayed on the boat because they weren't too far. And in verse number nine, as soon as they were come to the land, they saw a fire of coals there and fish laid there on and bred. Jesus saith unto them, bring of the fishes which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to the land full of great fishes and 153. And for all there were so many yet the net was not broken. And so we see here again, Peter is almost trying to prove his love for the Lord, or perhaps maybe he's trying to gain the love of the Lord. But all the while, the other disciples are just fitting right in. They're not trying to prove themselves to the Lord. They're just really receiving the blessings of the Lord. And the Lord didn't even need their fish because by the time they had come to the fire, he had already had some fish on the fire. Now look down at verse number 12. Now I know it says that the disciple whom Jesus loved told Peter. So the disciple whom Jesus loved told Peter that it was the Lord. I don't know that he told anybody else, but I can guarantee that when John told Peter that it was a disciple whom he loved and Peter first just straightaway jumped off the ship. That was not the first time they had seen Peter kind of unreasonably step off of a ship into the water. So perhaps maybe they thought Well, Peter's never done this before. He usually doesn't just jump off into the water except it's the Lord. Maybe they thought, well, Peter's jumping off into the Lord so they know that it's the Lord. Verse 13, Jesus then cometh and taketh bread and giveth them and fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to the disciples after that he was risen from the dead. And so we can kind of see a picture here that the disciples are out on the sea. It was Peter's idea. And they're not catching anything. And the Lord calls unto them and says, you have anything to eat? And they don't have anything to eat. And the Lord blesses them with all these fish. And now they're sitting on the seashore and the Lord's feeding them. And I can just imagine them all sitting around the fire eating the Lord's. They all know they're there with the Lord. So when they had died in verse 15, Jesus saith unto Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? And I can kind of picture, you know, Simon, he showed, or at least he acted straight way. Oh yes, that's the Lord. I want the Lord. But now they're sitting by the fire eaten and Jesus confronts Peter pretty directly. Do you love me or do you love these? And so I can picture Peter just probably feeding his face. He's probably stuffing his face with these blessings that the Lord has given him. And the Lord asked Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? And so he's confronted with that. And you can tell Jesus keeps asking him, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He says, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, feed my sheep. And he continues to ask him, and to ask him, and to ask him. But it seems as if Peter loves the blessings that the Lord gives him more than the Lord of the blessings. And this is something that we can fall into. This is a trap that we can fall into ourselves, is we might love the blessings of the Lord more than we actually love the Lord. We can look at all the things that the Lord has done for us. And it's good to be thankful for all those things. It would be sinful not to be thankful for all those things. And for our families, to love our families. Now that would be not right. But do we love the God that gave us the blessings? Or do we just love the blessings? And it seems to me Jesus Christ is trying to get the heart and intent of Peter He's he's we know that Peter loved to fish. And the Lord bless him with all these things. But this is the third time that the disciples got to see Jesus after that he was risen from the dead. You would think that he would almost be more interested in talking to Jesus talking, you know, learning from Jesus. But it seems as if Peter is more interested in the fish and the blessings than talking with Jesus. And this is something we can do so easily. So easily. So what about you? Do you love the Lord? Do you love the Lord? That's a simple question. I feel like even when I first started coming to church, I heard more people say, you know, I love the Lord. And they would give a testimony of how they love the Lord. But do you love the Lord? Or do you just love the blessings of the Lord? If we're not careful, we'll just be consumed with the blessings of God and we won't be consumed with God. We'll be consumed with all the things of God and these all the things that we see as a result of God, but we don't. We all we lose focus of God. We seek for His blessings in prayer, but we don't really seek for Him in prayer. And we want the benefits and the blessings of a good relationship, a good marriage, a good church family, but we just sometimes can neglect, like Peter did in this story, we can sometimes just neglect the God that we're seeking to give us the blessings. Luke 6.32. Let me just say first that this is not biblical love. The world's love is all about what I can receive. But that is not biblical love. Biblical love is defined in Luke 6.32-35. The Bible says, for if you love them which love you, What thank have ye? For sinners also love those that love them. And if you do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? For sinners also do even the same. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thank have ye? For sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much gain. But love your enemies and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest, for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil." And so biblical love is not receive, receive, receive. It's more blessed to give than to receive. And Jesus is teaching us here in Luke 6, love your enemies. Now what good has your enemy ever done for you? Your enemy doesn't give you something in return for your love. No, and it says Lind hoping for nothing again. It's all it's not at all about receiving anything. And you being the children of the highest. So this is as Christians, you know, Christians should be the best. Christians should have the best love. They should have the best, purest form of love towards people than anybody, because we have the best example of love. We're Christians, and Jesus Christ gave us the best example of love that anybody could ever give. Buddha and Muhammad and all these other religions, they don't have a great example of love like we have. God over and over and over shows us true biblical love. And it has nothing to do with what we can receive. And it has everything to do to what we can give, not expecting anything in return. Matthew 20 verse 28, the Bible says, even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. In Ephesians 525, the Bible says, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Ephesians 2, 4-5, But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. And so God's love, the way he loved us, And the way we're to love, you know, it's the Bible says, husband, love your wives and gave himself as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. It's all about the sacrifice and giving of yourself with with nothing in return. And it's not a love that you love your wife because she does this for you or, you know, she does all these little things for you. That's not really what it's about. It's more about loving your wife because of who she is. It's not about what she can give you. You see, that's the world's idea of what love is. World's idea of love is she can do this. She can do that. She can do this for me. Therefore, I love her because she does that. But that's not biblical love. Biblical love says you love her whether she does it or not. I think that's what the vows are about. And that's the way God loves us. And so Peter's trying to be that one that's trying to do those things to prove or to try to gain the love of Christ and all the while the Lord's probably thinking I love you Peter, you know, but the Lord's now asking Peter, do you love me though? That's the question that the Lord didn't say Peter, I love you. He says, do you love me, or do you just love what I'm giving you? See, that's a selfish, worldly mentality of what love really is. That shouldn't be the love we have, is basically what we're going here. 1 John 4.10, herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4.19, we love Him because He first loved us. And so when God loved us, God didn't love us because we had everything in the world to offer Him. God didn't love us. He loved us. I believe the Bible says in Romans 5, 8, but God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. while we were yet sinners. When I was lost and I was in sin, I had absolutely nothing to offer God. That's love when there's absolutely nothing that the one you're going to love. It's not about what he can gain from me. He just that's his love. That's biblical love. Do you love the Lord? Or do you just love what you can get from the Lord? Luke 14, verse 25 through 27. The Bible says, And there went great multitudes with him. And he turned and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Now this can be a hard thing to read. But the truth is, when we talk about our blessings and the things the Lord's given us, we talk about, thank God for a good father, right? Thank God for a good dad. Thank God for a good mother and a wife and children. These are the things we're thankful for, right? These are the things we should be thankful for. But Jesus says, if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children. Well, the point Jesus is trying to make is, if you love them more than you love me, you can't be my disciple. If you love your wife more than you love me, you can't be my disciple. And the point of all that is, is Jesus is saying, I should be number one. because if you love me number one the rest of all your other relationships are gonna you're gonna be able to love correctly but if you esteem your love of your wife and the love of your children and your family in your own life also if you love those things more than your love towards them isn't gonna even be correct it's probably going to be selfish but if you love the lord above all things, above even your own life, then you're going to be able to have a good perspective of love towards your wife, towards your family, and even towards yourself. So, the Lord gives us a great example of what love is. Let's look back at verses 15 through 17. The Bible says in 15, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? And he saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, feed my lambs. And then in verse 16, lovest thou me? And and Peter says, you know, I love you. And he says, feed my sheep. And then he asked him a third time. And he says, feed my sheep. And so Loving the Lord is directly correlated by Jesus Christ to feeding sheep. To serving. To giving. To others. It's directly correlated. Giving to others. Loving others is directly correlated to loving the Lord. And so if our mindset is constantly about what can they do for me? How can they help me? See, this is what the world, this is what the devil wants us to be thinking all the time. And it can happen very quick to get in this mindset where you're not thinking about what can I do for others. You know, if our love, you know, we had our faith promise. And I praise the Lord for our faith promise. But if our love isn't right, then our faith promise might not be right. But if our love If our love is right, our faith promise is going to be more than what the number was, really. I mean, if your love towards the Lord is right, we might have a higher faith promise than 224,000. Why? Because we love others. That's what the whole thing is about. It's about giving. Feed my sheep. That's what we're doing. And so if your love towards the Lord is number one, The Lord's going to bless that he's going to bless that. But the problem is that Christians. Might be the worst hoarders there ever were. Christians might be the worst hoarders hoarders. You see those TV shows and I back in the day I had TV. You would see the the hoarders people that you walk into their house and their walls are full of just junk and you wonder how in the world could they live like that, right? Well, we receive, okay, not just physical things, but we've got spiritual things that the Lord, so many things the Lord has given us. If someone were to walk into our house, our spiritual house, they would see all the blessings, all the things, and be like, why are they keeping all this stuff? Why aren't they doing something with all this? First Peter 4.10, as every man hath received the gift, Even so, minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. And so I know in my life, I've received so much from the Lord. I've received just forgiveness. If that's all I had, if that's all I had received of the Lord, that would be so much. And that would be just enough for me to go to the next person and say, look, You know, I'm just here to tell you about the love of Christ and that he died for your sins. He can forgive you. He can give you new life. He died for you. He was buried, and on the third day, he rose from the grave so that you could be saved. Even if that's all I had, if that's the only knowledge I had, I could go give somebody the gospel. But we hoard it. We come here every Sunday, and we receive it like our missions conference. We had a good, I feel like we had one of the best missions conferences that I've ever been a part of at Quebec. I think it was great. And people got to church early, and there was good preaching, and there was a good spirit, there was a good buzz around the place, and everything was good. And it was all centered around missions. So why does that mentality, why does that spirit and attitude have to end? after missions conference? Well, it doesn't. But when notice how when we have a missions conference that is literally centered around giving more money than some of us have, when it's centered around giving of ourselves, the you see the attitude change. But then when we start zooming in on ourselves and we forget about missions and we forget about giving and we forget about others, then that attitude, that spirit, that buzz around the church, showing up to church early, all that kind of just dies down and it kind of gets stale again. But if we keep our attitude towards others and loving others, look, we could come to church every Sunday of the year and it could be that same attitude. There's no reason why it's not like it's not like there's a mystical power going around around missions conference week. There's not. We're just we're focused on getting people the gospel. And if we could stay focused on getting people the gospel, getting people the things that we've received, even if we just focus Monday through Friday, trying to, you know, something Brother David preached, we've given it to somebody that we work with, something focused on others, just focused on others all the time, trying to give them some truth, trying to give them the gospel. I can guarantee we'll come in Sunday morning. We might even show up early. We'll probably have a good attitude. We'll probably be praising the Lord. will probably enjoy the song service, might amen the preacher. I mean, we were doing that just the other week, weren't we? I mean, I was hearing amens from people I never heard amens from, right? I mean, people were getting excited because we were focused on not ourselves, and we had a way better attitude. So I just want to encourage you, don't love the blessings of God more than you love the God of your blessings. Love God. Love God for who He is. Love God's Word, what it says. Just love God, and He'll take care of the rest of it. Amen.