This morning, let's turn back in our Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I want to let you know that we do appreciate your prayers. It is good to be back here. As I mentioned in our Sunday school class, I was thinking and praying about what was going on here while we were involved in our Sunday school and ministry down in North Carolina with my sister and brother-in-law's church down there, also a Grace Baptist church. So, missed you very much. prayed for you very much. And it's good to be back here. And it's also good to be in the pulpit where we can look at the word of God together. I enjoy going through these books and realizing and understanding that God has given to us his word in this manner and to go through an expository way, which basically means just covering verse after verse until you make it through a book. And we cover different topics and different themes. But overall, our desire is to get the word of God into our hearts and to understand it and then to live it. So I pray that this type of preaching is something that you're growing through and you know pretty much what's going to be covered in the next several weeks. So you can read through and study and pray through 1st and 2nd Thessalonians as well along with me as we search God's word together. 1st Thessalonians chapter four. We left off in verse 8 a couple of weeks ago, and this morning I'd like to look at verses 9-12 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. If you remember, in the first part of this chapter, Paul was writing about God's will for those people's lives, that they be sanctified, that they be made holy because God is holy. He gives us some very practical ways in which we can become holy in our lives as Christians. And then in verse 9 he writes, But as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed, ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia. But we beseech you, brethren, that you increase more and more and that you study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you, so that you may walk honestly toward them that are without and that you may have lack of nothing. Let's open with prayer. Father, we pray this morning as we have just read your word that, Father, you will be at work in our hearts even now. that, Father, we might truly be sensitive to the leading and the teaching of your Word. Lord, I know that there are many areas of our lives that need to be fully surrendered to you, and this message covers one of those. So, Father, I pray that we will apply what is being taught to our own personal lives, to not think about others, but to think about our own walk in relationship with you and to strive to have the kind of heartbeat that we need in this church toward each other. I pray, Lord, that you will speak to me and through me through this message, that, Father, we might be an example of the believers in this area of love. For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If someone had the choice, would they want to become a part of your family? Think about it. If the rules of adoption were reversed, And instead of you going to an adoption agency to find a child to see if you wanted one for your family, if the kids went to your house and they were able to make the decision about whether to join your family, what would they do? What would they do? You know, sometimes as a child, I wished I was a part of some of my friends' families. I hate to say that, but there were times when I would go to a friend's house and they had all this wonderful stuff. toys and games and video games and I thought, hmm, I don't have any of this stuff at my house. Every once in a while I'd think, boy, if I was just a part of this family, I would be able to have all this stuff. Sometimes I'd go over to a family and they would have these huge spreads of meals and just lots and lots of food and I could eat as much candy as I wanted. Now granted, all these reasons were very selfish reasons, But as I stayed with these friends and as I got to know these families, I realized something. I wasn't loved by these families the same way that I was loved by my family. And so even though there might have been times that I wished I was part of another person's family, I was always grateful to go home because I knew what really mattered, what was most important, was that I knew my family loved me. No one else had the kind of love that my family had for me. But what about our church? If someone had the choice, would they want to become a part of this family? Would they want to have that part in our family? Because we know from the Bible that a church is a family. We're called brothers and sisters. Throughout the Bible talks, dearly beloved, dear brethren, But like a family, love is to be at the very center of it all. In a family, a true family, a functioning family, according to the Word of God, the core center focus ought to be love. But without love, would anyone want to be a part of any family? We see families breaking apart. We see churches splitting apart. Why? Because the center of love is often not there. In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul has already written about how we ought to deal with the wrong kinds of relationships within the church. And he says, be holy. And here's how you can be holy. And now in the verses that I just read, he shows us what we need for the right kind of relationship within our church family, because it is a family. And the very core that we need is love. Love is to be the heartbeat of our church. Love is to be the heartbeat of God's church. Love is to be the heartbeat that comes from every child of God who has received the love of God in their lives abundantly. And now he shows us that love is to be the heartbeat of our church, and I believe in these verses he shows us why. Why is love to be the heartbeat of our church? We've already gone through this week, and I hope you were able to enjoy your Valentine's Day. I was able to enjoy a nice Valentine's meal with my wife and my kids, and it was just a real treat to be able to sit down in the living room and just enjoy a wonderful meal together as a family. If we didn't have that kind of love in our families, we can understand why families break apart. But when we think about our church, and this text is not just written about individual families, this text is written to you and to me as a church. He was writing to the Thessalonian church, and he's talking about the church family. So he's writing the very same things to you and to me today. And if we don't have love toward each other, and we have that kind of relationship with each other, as a family should have toward each other, than it's any wonder why churches are breaking apart. And we see offenses, and we see problems, and we see disasters on every turn. Love is to be the heartbeat of Grace Baptist Church. And we're going to see four reasons why this morning. First, in verse 9, it's because love ought to be natural to every Christian. Love ought to be natural to every Christian. Paul writes in verse 9, but as touching brotherly love, you need not that I write unto you. Why? For ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. Is love as natural for you as the beating of your heart? We all have a heart. I think we all have a heart. Some of ours are actual muscles, and I know that they have invented hearts, if you will, and they've been able to replace hearts. But all of us have something in our body that is beating blood in our life and in our body in order to keep us alive. Our hearts are muscles that pump life-sustaining blood. It is an involuntary muscle. What is an involuntary muscle? It is something that actually works without me having to constantly choose and make it work. My arm muscle is not an involuntary muscle. It's not going to continue working unless I mentally say, OK, arm, move. And then the muscle moves. I don't have to do that to my heart. I don't have to constantly think, OK, beat, beat, beat, beat. It does it naturally. Why? It is an involuntary muscle. Praise the Lord for that, huh? Because if it wasn't involuntary, I would be constantly thinking about beat, beat, beat, beat, beat instead of anything else that I have to do. And that would be a primary responsibility. But it is involuntary. It is not directly controlled by our mind. It is natural for a living human being's heart to beat. But when it comes to our lives as Christians, God has placed another heart in us. And that is a heart of love. It is natural for a Christian's heart to love, just as natural as it is for your physical heart to beat and to pump blood throughout your body. We see in verse 9 that love did not need to be taught by Paul. That's an amazing phrase. Look at that. The very first part of verse 9, he says, but as touching brotherly love. Okay, he's talking about something that is very important to the life of the church. We've already discussed this. It ought to be the center of our families and the center of our church. But he says, concerning that, you don't even need me to write unto you. Why? Because love is natural to a Christian. Here in this verse we have two different Greek words for love. And the first word that we see is the word that we get our word, our city, Philadelphia, from. It is that brotherly love. It is a natural family kind of love. He is saying this is to be something natural in your lives as Christians and between you as a church. This phrase and this word, to love as brethren, is also used in 1 Peter 1.22. You don't need to turn there, but it says, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto, for this purpose, unfeigned love of the brethren. He says, See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. In 1 Peter 1.22 and in other verses throughout the New Testament, it describes a love that is a natural response to being saved. If you're a saved person today, you have a natural inclination to love one another. Love is a natural response to being saved. And Paul says, I didn't have to teach you this. Why? Because it's natural, but also because love has already been taught by God to you. Look at the last part of verse nine. He says first, I didn't need to write this to you. Why? For you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. There's a unique word in that phrase, and that is where we get our translation. Taught of God. In the original, that's a unique one word in the New Testament. It literally could be translated, you are God taught to love one another. It's an adjective describing who these Christians are. It is so natural to you as a Christian that it is not something you had to learn. It is not something that you had to derive. It is something that God has naturally placed within every single child of His because He teaches directly to our heart. It becomes a natural instinct to every believer. As one writer says it, Love was engraved on their heart. And here we have the second Greek word for love, and that is the word agape. This word agape describes a love that comes from God and is also like God's love. It is a love that is unconditional. It is a love that grows. And it is a love that is strong and vibrant. It is a love that acts. It is a love that is selfless, a love that truly denies himself. This is the kind of love that every one of us, as a child of God, ought to have as our instinct. It ought to be so natural, so part of our life to love one another. My question is, do you have a love that is natural and involuntary, just like your heart would beat in an involuntary way? but especially toward your church. The lesson we need to consider from this passage today is that love is to be the heartbeat of our church because it ought to be the natural reaction and response of Christians everywhere. Do you have love toward each other? It ought to be the heartbeat of our church. Secondly, because love will spread from every Christian. In verse 10, Paul continues and says, And indeed you do it all or you do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia. Is love spreading from you like the blood being pumped out from your heart? Your heart has a huge job to do. And that's why it is involuntary. That's why it does beat and pump your blood to all the different areas in your body that you needed. Some statistics that are very fascinating. There are between 60,000 and 100,000 miles of blood vessels in your body. Isn't that an amazing thing? If you were to stretch out all your blood vessels, arteries, veins, and capillaries around the earth, it would go around the earth two, maybe three times, stretched out, hundreds of thousands of miles, and your heart has the job of pumping the blood through all those blood vessels, thousands and thousands of miles of blood vessels. And if certain parts of your body aren't getting the blood that you need, you know what your body can do, what God has made your body to do, and we see that our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made, is that new veins and new blood vessels can grow in order to get the blood where it needs to go through a process called angiogenesis. Isn't that an amazing thing, how God has made our body? But the same thing will happen when we have love as the heartbeat of our church. Just like the heart will beat the blood to all the extremities, going through all the veins, all the arteries, all the capillaries, thousands of miles to reach the very part that needs it the most. If you and I truly have the natural instinct of Christian love, you know what's going to happen? It's going to spread. like blood spreads throughout our body. Love will spread from Christian to Christian and we'll find ways to show it and to spread it. It won't have to be something that you force. It will be a natural spreading just like theirs did. Their love was spread throughout all Macedonia to all the Christians, not just the ones in their church. I believe it will spread in an active way. In verse 10, Paul says, Indeed, ye do it toward all the brethren. What is the it that he's talking about in that verse? That word it is referring back to that brotherly love that he mentioned in verse 9. He says, I don't have to write to you about brotherly love because you already have it. It's naturally God taught to you. But now I see that you are doing this love toward all the brethren in all Macedonia. we see that this love was active. It's not something that you feel. It's not something that you possess. It is something that is displayed and shown. They did love. They acted according to love. 1 John 3.18 gives us another illustration of this when he writes, My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. We were to take a survey and pass out a little sheet of paper here this morning and ask you and have a list of your church members and ask you, do you love these members of your church? Yes and no. We got the survey back. Probably most of those boxes would be filled yes, because you believe that you love one another. You believe that you have that feeling toward each other. But when we look at this verse, Paul is saying this wasn't just a love that was felt. It is a love that is displayed. It was done to people. It was an act of spreading. My question is, can we then say that my love for them is real? If I don't see an active spreading of love toward the people within my church, I've got to go back and wonder, is my love even natural to me? Have I been God-taught this kind of love? It ought to be a spreading actively love. Now, how does this kind of love act? Just a few other verses. I don't need to turn there. I'm going to go fairly quickly. But to know what kind of love you have, and to see whether your love is spreading actively like the Thessalonians, you've got to consider these verses too. Christian love forgives. Colossians 3.13 says, forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on charity. That's that agape form of love, that God-like love, which is the bond of perfectness. Your love will spread actively when you actively forgive those who have a quarrel against you or who have offended you and you have difficulties with. And if you don't have that kind of forgiving attitude, you don't have that kind of love that acts. You might say, well, you don't know what they did to me. If they're a child of God and they're a brother and sister within this church, we need to have a heartbeat of love toward each other. And if we don't, no one will ever want to be a part of this family because it's not the center of our family. There's got to be love. Christian love forgives. Christian love also forbears. Whereas forgiveness is what someone has done to you, an offense to you, and you're going to forgive them. Forbearance is having a patient attitude toward each other. Ephesians 4 says, forbearing one another in love. I've asked these questions before, but sometimes we wonder, well, what have I done to offend someone? But then the other question is, why am I so easily offended? Real Christian love forbears one another. We don't look for faults. We aren't ready to go up to a fight. It is a love that forbears because it is a love that acts. It is a patient love. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 talks about this kind of love. It's on your bulletin this morning. Read that kind of love. Love is patient. Love is kind. This is the kind of love that we ought to have toward each other as a church. And if we don't have it, why is it not natural to us? Why haven't we been God taught this kind of love? Christian love forbears. Christian love forgives. But Christian love also favors others. 1 Thessalonians 5.13, referring specifically to church leadership, it says, esteem them very highly in love. But I think we can apply it to everyone within our church body because there are other places in Scripture that says we ought to esteem others better than ourselves. Some of the reasons why we don't forgive, some of the reasons why we don't forbear, is because we don't esteem others and favor others the way God has favored us. We think about ourselves, our own hurt feelings, our own problems, our own rights and our own responsibilities. And we fail to look at others. And that is not the kind of love that acts. In fact, that's a self love and a selfish love. Christian love will favor and esteem others better than themselves. Christian love will forbear. and be patient with each other. Christian love forgives those that have quarreled against you and offended you, but also Christian love fellowships. Colossians 2.2 says being knit together in love. I've never done any knitting. Maybe when I was a kid, my mom was trying to teach me how to knit, but I don't really care for it. And my daughter has taken up a little bit of knitting. And in order to knit a scarf or a hat or a glove or a mitten or whatever, you actually have to have yarn and you actually have to have the knitting needles. And then you actually have to put those two together in some way to knit them into this fabric, into this scarf. If you don't have the needles or if you don't have the scarf or the yarn, you're not going to do anything but look funny if you're doing it in the air, right? So it is with Christian love. If you don't come together as Christians, you can't demonstrate that love to each other. That's why we have church. That's why we come together for fellowship, because Christian love fellowships. This is part of the act of fellowship and the act of love. And if we don't want this kind of fellowship, if we don't do this kind of fellowship, we don't have the kind of love that knits us together and makes us the kind of family that we ought to be. This kind of love also is a Christian love that fulfills, fulfills needs. Christian love fellowships, it favors others, it forbears others, it forgives, but it also fulfills needs. Galatians 5.13 says, by love serve one another. How do you know that you love one another? Because you can see it. You can see it. It's not just by word. It's not just in your tongue. It's in deed and in truth. We've all heard it said, don't tell me that you love me. Show me that you love me. Paul is saying the same thing about the Thessalonians. You didn't just say you loved each other. You showed it. And my desire this morning is we think about love and the necessity of love being the heartbeat of our church. Don't just say that you love each other. Show it. And how do you show it? Through what the Bible teaches, by forgiving one another, by forbearing one another, by favoring each other, with fellowship with each other and fulfilling each other's needs through service. Is this how your love acts? Is this how your love is spreading? Is this the kind of love that is reflective of God's love towards you? Think about how he served you. Think about how he forbears you. Think about how he forgives you. Think about his favor towards you. Jesus said, as I have loved you, love one another. If you have this kind of spread, this kind of love, it will spread actively. But it will also spread comprehensively. In verse 10, he says, You are doing this love toward all the brethren which are in awe of Macedonia. There's two words, awe, in that verse. The first is a personal awe. He says you are going to your own brothers in Christ and you are showing love to them in the ways that I've mentioned. But then it didn't just stop there. It was comprehensive. It grew. It spread even further, not just in a present sense, but also in a regional sense. Your love spread throughout all of Macedonia, your entire state, if you will. People knew that you loved one another. If we truly love each other the way we ought to love each other, the word will get out. There's a church that loves. There's a church that forgives. There's a church that forbears. There's a church that favors each other. There's a church that wants to fulfill each other's needs. But how far does our love go now? Can we say that it is spread out to all the brethren, which are in all Macedonia or in all Greenfield or in all Indiana? It will spread comprehensively. In other words, the kind of love that Christians ought to have and will have as a natural God taught response to their salvation. It's not going to be a selective love. We all know how easy it is to love some people and how hard it is to love others, right? You've heard it said you can't choose your family. But God has chosen your family. That's just your family at home, but God has chosen your family here for you. God has brought together this family so you can learn who you ought to love. There might be someone that you don't like. God says you need to love them. There might be someone that offended you years ago, and God says you need to love them. You can't choose your family. He's a Christian. She's a Christian. They're believers in Christ. You need to love each other no matter what. This is the natural response of a Christian. It's to teach you how to love. If Christ loved us the way we love one another, we would still be in our sins, wouldn't we? But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. What about our selective kind of love? God wants us to love the unlovely, the unlovable, and those that hate us. Some of the verses that I read this morning, don't be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. Demonstrate that love because of God's love for you. Sometimes we don't love one another because we feel what's been going on between us. It's because we've forgotten what's happened between us. And when we truly understand the kind of love that God has demonstrated to us, a love that forgives, a love that forbears, a love that fulfills, a love that favors, a love that fellowships, we will have the same kind of love toward each other. God has chosen for you when to love. Love should know no boundaries. There's a relief organization called Doctors Without Borders. Some of you probably heard of that before. It's an organization for doctors and nurses that have practices here in the States and in other countries as well. And they have their practices here. They have their degrees from here. They know what they're doing. They're great doctors and nurses. And yet for a period of six months to a year, they go overseas and they go and become Doctors Without Borders and they want to serve others. But the fact is they still have a practice at home. It's all good and well for us to practice and show love to others without these walls. But Paul is saying it wasn't just in Macedonia. It started here. It's like a ripple effect. Yes, we need to love others outside these walls, but the love of Christ needs to start where? Here. When you throw a pebble into a pond, what happens? It starts a ripple right there in the middle where that rock sunk into that water. That's where it started. But then it spread and it was visible. You could see it. If we do not love one another here, we will not have the kind of love that must spread from here. This is your family. This is the church where we must practice an active, spreading kind of love that is not selective. but as comprehensive for the family that God has given to us. Do you have a love that is spreading in this active and comprehensive way within this church? Love is to be the heartbeat of our church, and when it is, it will spread in this way. A third reason why we see that love is to be the heartbeat of our church is because in verses 10 through 11, love is the responsibility of every believer. After Paul commends the love that was demonstrated by the Thessalonian believers, then he comes to verse 10, the last part, and he says, But we beseech you, brethren. In other words, I've seen your love, but you need to keep on doing it. We beseech you, brethren, that you increase more and more. In what? In that love toward each other. And that you study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we have commanded you. Do you realize that you have a responsibility to love those within your church? You have a responsibility to do that before you start loving those in other churches outside. of these walls, your responsibility is toward one another. Now, just like each of your organs has a different responsibility, each of you have a responsibility to love the members of your church. Your lungs responsibility is to breathe air. Your brain's responsibility is to think and your heart's responsibility is to pump and your responsibility is to love one another. in the active, comprehensive way that has already been taught to you by God. That is the kind of love that is your responsibility. Love is a personal responsibility we see in verse 10. Paul wrote, we beseech you. And this message is directed toward you and to me. This is my responsibility. It's not where I'm thinking, boy, that other person ought to love. Preach it. That other person really needs this message. No, this message is for you this morning. You have a personal responsibility to love one another with the active, comprehensive, God-taught love that we've just seen. A love that is from God, agape love, and a love that is like God's. This is our responsibility toward each other. It's a personal responsibility. And each one of us has a lot more room to grow here, don't we? Paul said, I want you to increase more and more. He already said you have been God taught this and he's already said he's commended their love. Your love is shown everywhere. But I want you. And your love to increase more and more, do you realize that there is no boundaries to love? There's no boundaries to love. Within the body of Christ, there are no restrictions to love. We can love one another to the nth degree. We need to love each other in that way. There is no limit to how much your love can grow, and it is your personal responsibility to love in this way. But love also ought to be a passionate responsibility. Yes, you might think, well, okay, I need to work on this. But I've got a lot of other responsibilities and sometimes we emphasize certain responsibilities. Well, I've got to do this. I've got to do that. I have this ministry and I have that ministry and I have this area of service. I've got this family member. I've got work and I've got all these responsibilities. And the Lord says, you know what? You need to make this a matter of priority. In verse 11, he says, you need to study to be quiet and to do your own business. and to work with your own hands as we have commanded you. There is no greater responsibility than to love one another as Christ has loved us. Verse 11 seems to dive off into another direction, doesn't it? It seems like it's talking about something completely different. But it is very closely related to our responsibility to love. And I think it's probably because some of the words that we see here, we don't fully understand what they mean. The word study here is not to study like a bookworm. Like Tom does in his library home, or any of us do in our library at home, right? Where we read and read and read and read and read. That's all it's talking about here. The word that is translated study here is more like a business executive that is striving to climb to the top of the corporate ladder. It is a word that describes an ambition. I want to be the best at what I want to be. This is what he's describing here. It's an ambition. But what kind of ambition? It's an ambition to be quiet. To hold your peace. How many of us have this kind of ambition? We need this kind of ambition, but how many of us have it? Because if someone asks us a question, we always have an answer. If someone has a problem, we always have a solution. If someone has an issue, we always have an opinion. And so often our words get the best of us and we trip over them, don't we? And we do not have an ambition to be quiet. But how many fires would have never started within a church? If we studied and had an ambition to hold our tongue. To hold our peace. To be quiet. How many rumors would have been squelched if we strove to have this kind of love. This ought to be a passionate responsibility. Another word for this would be meekness. How many of us have the kind of meekness toward each other? Because when we're weak or when we are meek and we strive to control how we respond and we control what we say, we show a lot of love. You and I need to get passionate about being quiet. You and I need to be passionate about demonstrating a loving meekness toward others, where we think better of others than ourselves. And we think before we speak. Love is a passionate responsibility, and this ought to be a primary one for us, especially in the area of love. But not only is it that, but it is a practical responsibility because in verse 11, again, very closely related to verse 10, it says also you need to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you. Now, if you look at that verse and keep it separate from verse 10, you think, well, he's talking out of two sides of his mouth. How can you show your love toward all the brethren and then do your own business and work with your own hands and ignore your brethren? Well, he's not just saying that at all. He's already told you what your business is. Your business, your responsibility is to love each other. Now get to it. He says your responsibility is to love each other. Now do your own business. Love is your business. Work with your own hands. That is an active work of love. Show your love. We need to get busy showing our love toward each other because it's a command. Paul said, we commanded this to you. He's commanded it to us. And we need to love in this way. Love is your greatest spiritual duty. Verse 11 can be applied to other duties, but I believe the greatest duty is the spiritual duty of love that it is describing there. And it is a duty that we must have toward each other. And my question is, are you taking your responsibility to love one another seriously? If you are, we will see the acts of love spreading within this body. Love is to be a heartbeat of our church. And finally, verse 12, we see that it is because also love is important for every Christian. Paul finishes and says that ye may walk honestly or honorably or decently toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. Is loving one another as important to you as your heart is? We know people that give certain parts of their body to science or to other people, you know, somebody needs a kidney, here's a kidney, someone needs a lung, here's a lung, they donate a lung. But unless you're actually dead, how many people here would donate their heart to someone in need of a heart? None of us would. Unless you're dead already and someone has chosen that for you. Why? Because it's important to your life and to your body. The heart is a vital organ. Without it or something doing its job, you will die. In fact, one of the most expensive medical conditions in the United States is heart disease. Nearly 50 billion dollars every year is spent to treat heart disease. And that's okay, because the heart is very important. How important is love to you within your church today? Is it so important that you will strive to have the kind of love that we ought to demonstrate toward each other and toward others without these walls? We need to realize how vitally important love is for our church. In the first part of verse 12, we see that it is vital for your witness. Do you realize that? Your love for each other is vital to your own witness and testimony to others outside this church. He says, so that you might walk honestly toward them that are without. That word honestly is not just to have a good account, but it is to be honorable. It is to show and reflect the honor of Christ. It's not to bring down Christ in people's eyes, but to hold up Christ in people's eyes. If you don't love or show love within your church, there's a whole lot more at stake than your personal relationship with someone here or your feelings. What's at stake is, as one writer put it, the credit of the Christian name outside of the church. Can you believe that? That's an amazing statement. The very credit of our church and the name of Christ is dependent upon our love for each other. It's dependence upon it. And if we do not have love for each other, our witness for others or to others will never be effective. That is why love ought to be the heartbeat of our church. Without this kind of love inside the church, we are giving those outside the church reasons to criticize and reject our Savior. Now, I've seen this firsthand. Years ago, I was working at Charles Schwab and one of my fellow brokers We got into conversation about the Lord and he said, I don't want anything to do with Christ or churches. Why not? Because I see what churches do to each other. They're split off. He admired the Roman Catholic Church because at least they seemed like they're a unified system. He says Protestant churches he has no desire to be a part of or even go to for any reason. Because they don't see love. He didn't see love. It affects our witness. It affected my witness to him. And it wasn't even the love about my church. It was just the love that he saw, the lack of love in other churches. Love is essential for your witness and my witness. And that's why it needs to be a priority to us. But also it is vital for our growth. Look at the last part of verse 12. He says, and that ye may have lack of nothing. When you demonstrate your love to each other, you will, as he puts it, have lack of nothing. In other words, you're going to grow. You're going to grow because without love, you cannot grow as a Christian. And without love, the kind of love that we've already looked at, the God taught kind of love that is active and is comprehensive, without love you are not growing. No matter how much growth you think you are growing, you're not. Because love must be at the center of that growth. 2 Peter 1, verse 7 says, Add to godliness brotherly kindness and brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things..." What things? Godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. "...but he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." If you don't have love, you're not growing. Love is essential for our growth and is more important than anything that you might spend for your physical health. We spend a lot of money on insurance and deductibles. What are you paying in order to demonstrate a love for each other so that you can demonstrate real Christian growth? Without it, we will never grow. Love is to be the heartbeat of our church, and I'm very concerned this morning that it may not be. Paul said that he didn't even need to write to them about brotherly love. Could you have said that about us? Could you have said that about you? Is our love for each other natural? And is it spreading in an active, comprehensive way? Do you see it as your responsibility? And do you see its vital importance to your growth and to your witness outside these walls? Make sure that every beat of your heart for this church spurts out love. And maybe there's someone or an area in your life that you are not demonstrating the kind of love that you are being taught by God even now. Get it right. Because not only will we not individually grow as Christians without this kind of love, our church will never grow. No one wants to be a part of a family that has no love in it. Love is to be the heartbeat of Grace Baptist Church.