Serving for God's Glory: Part 2

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Serving for God's Glory: Part 3

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God's love, God's pure light, that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
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I'd like to speak to you serving for God's glory. This will be part two of a three -part series.
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Lord willing, next week we'll be closing the third part of it.
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But today we're reading from 1 Peter chapter 4.
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So please go with me to 1 Peter chapter 4. Our text is verse 7 through 11.
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7 through 11. I will be reading from the
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NASB translation this morning. Hear the word of the
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Lord. The end of all things is near. Therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.
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Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another. Because love covers a multitude of sins, be hospitable to one another without complaint.
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As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
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Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which
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God supplies. So that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and the dominion forever and ever.
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Amen. May God richly bless the reading of His word from our ears to our hearts this morning.
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Let's pray and let's seek our Lord in the remaining of this worship service.
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Our Father and our God, we now come to You in the name that's above every name, the name of Jesus Christ, Your dear beloved
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Son, Your one and only Son in whom You gave, in whom
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You gave, You gave that we might have eternal life.
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Father, we thank You, we praise You, we thank
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You for Your greatness, we thank You for Your glory, we thank You for Your power, we thank
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You for Your grace, and we thank You for Your love. Oh, Your great love, and that which we can have eternal life through Your Son, Jesus.
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Amazing love, amazing pity, grace unknown, love beyond degree.
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Father, I just pray this morning that You now would glorify Yourself through Your word, and Father, I would pray that this morning that this message to us,
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Lord, will search us out, sanctify us with Your truth, that we would be more like Your Son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ, in every way, in loving one another, and forgiving one another.
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Thank You for Your grace, we thank You for Your love, and we ask this in the name of Jesus for Your glory,
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Amen and Amen. The return of our
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Lord Jesus Christ has always furnished the supreme motive for consistent
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Christian living. And here the Apostle Peter through the Holy Spirit says,
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The end of all things is near. Another translation says, The end of all things is at hand.
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And in his letter to suffering Christians, let us remember that's who he's speaking to, to the persecuted suffering
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Christians in Asia Minor, the Apostle gives exhortations to right conduct as citizens, as servants, to wives, to husbands, and innocent sufferers.
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And he closes this particular section in this epistle with a series of general and practical exhortations.
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These are commands, imperatives, based on the blessed hope of the coming of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and everything he says here, we must keep this in mind.
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Everything is in the light, these commands, these exhortations, is in light of the end of all things is at hand, that Jesus is soon to come.
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And that we will be standing in His presence, given an account for our life, and what we did with it, whether we were obedient or disobedient, whether we failed to be good stewards or bad stewards.
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So in light of the soon return of Jesus Christ, and that is really what he speaks of in verse 7, with that expectation, we saw that last
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Lord's Day, that the end of all things is near, so the first exhortation we looked at was to be of sound judgment, and of sober spirit, for the purpose of prayer.
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Serious prayer. That's the purpose. Sound judgment. Remember, sound judgment is a sound mind.
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Sober spirit. Godly thinking. Biblical thinking. We need this today, don't we?
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How lacking it is. Even in churches.
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So -called churches. We're the Bible thinkers of today.
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Those who think biblical. God's perspective. The eternal perspective.
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And godly thinking is at the heart of communion with God. Now think of that. Romans 12, 1 and 2 says this,
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The apostle Paul says, Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice.
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So we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, he says, a holy sacrifice, and then he says this, acceptable to God.
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Acceptable basically means, another translation would be well -pleasing to God. That is what is well -pleasing to God.
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Then he says, which is your reasonable service, or spiritual service, your reasonable, rational act of worship.
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And then in verse 2 he says this, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.
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Transformation. That's what God is wanting to do in our lives, by the Holy Spirit, to transform us by the renewing of your mind.
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Notice that. Our mind must be renewed, in order to be transferred. And that renewing of our mind, is through the
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Word of God. The Word of God. That is what renews our mind.
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And then he says this, So that you may prove what the will of God is, and that which is good and acceptable, well -pleasing and perfect.
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So back in 1 Peter, in verse 3 he says, I'm sorry, in verse 7,
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The end of all things is near, therefore be of sound judgment, be of sound judgment and sober in spirit, for the purpose of prayer.
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Now going back to Romans, there is one more verse I meant to bring out, of chapter 12.
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To make sense of everything he is saying, about the renewing of our mind. Notice with me verse 3.
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If you are there. For through the grace, given to me, even the apostle
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Paul recognized that he received this grace, that which was given.
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Then he says, I say to everyone among you not to think, underscore that word think, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think.
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So he tells us how to think. We are to think lowly of ourselves.
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Esteeming others more than ourselves. Right? Philippians 2. And then he goes on to say this.
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Notice in verse 3. The latter part.
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But then he says, To think so as to have sound judgment, sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
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Very clear, isn't it? Sound judgment. That's the way we are to think.
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Sound judgment which will lead believers to recognize that in themselves they are nothing. And we are nothing.
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Jesus Christ himself said to his disciples in John 15, 5. I am the vine, you are the branches.
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He says, without me you can do nothing. Not only can we not do nothing without him, we are nothing without him.
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And also, not only we are nothing, that in of itself will yield the fruit of genuine humility.
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And that's what we're going to look at this morning. As we look at fervent love and hospitality.
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Fervent love and hospitality. That's pretty much my outline.
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Now, 2 Timothy, another scripture for us. 2 Timothy 1, 7 comes to mind. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, a spirit of cowardness, but a power, that's dunamis,
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God's power, and love, that's agape, that's
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God's love, and of discipline, that is of sound mind.
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You can break that down, a little at a time, a little bit, precept by precept, and see that this is what
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God has given us, or not given us. He's not given us the spirit of fear, cowardice, being cowardly, timidity, but a power, and love, and a sound mind.
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You know that in another translation, what that sound mind means? Sound judgment. Now, a mind, that is a mind that is disciplined.
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That is a mind that is self -controlled. That is a mind that is properly disciplined under the control of the
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Holy Spirit. And if the mind is disciplined, then the life will be disciplined.
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And Peter speaks of being sober in spirit. Sober in spirit.
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This describes someone that is mentally alert. We looked at that. Be watchful. Be watchful, mentally alert at all times.
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Watchful. Living in the light of the second coming of Jesus Christ.
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And all this is for the purpose of prayer. The purpose of prayer. Can't say that enough, can we?
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J .C. Ryle said, do you pray? Do you pray? You know how much
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Scripture says about prayer? It's the very breath of the Christian.
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Prayer is our greatest asset because it is through prayer which we join our weaknesses to God's strength.
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We're too weak, but God is strong. We're too ignorant, but God has perfect wisdom.
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He's the mighty one that's able to save. We cannot save. Only He can save.
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Keep in mind on the night that Jesus was betrayed, it was His prayers that strengthened
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Him. It was His prayers that strengthened Him in the face of all the agonies and the horrors of the cross that He was about to undertake.
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And while at the same time, it was Peter's lack of prayer that led him to deny
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Christ three times. 1 Thessalonians 5 .17
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says, pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing. What does that mean?
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It means that we are to pray persistently. We're to be persistent. Crying day and night.
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That is the mark, a sure mark of a child of God. That we cry day and night unto our
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God. Persistent prayer. Why? I like what
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Spurgeon says about this. He said we need to pray without ceasing because we sin without ceasing.
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How true that is. Well, beloved, are you using good judgment in the light of the knowledge that Jesus Christ returned?
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Are you using good judgment in the light of the knowledge that Jesus could return at any moment? Are you on alert and watchful alert of Satan's devices?
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And alert each day and each moment for your need for spiritual armor each day in the warfare that we are under?
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Ephesians 6 .18 exhorts us. 6 .18 speaks about that whole chapter pretty much that whole chapter speaks of the whole armor of God.
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And he ends with a marvelous exhortation. With all prayer. Notice that.
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With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the
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Spirit, and with this in view, he says, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.
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Notice how many times he mentions all. With all prayer, all times, all perseverance for all saints.
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This is the general character of the believer's prayer life. One, with all prayer and petition, which focuses on the variety.
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Second, at all times, which focuses on the frequency. Third, in the
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Spirit, which focuses on the submission that we live with the will of God. Fourth, be on the alert, focuses on the manner of prayer.
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Fifth, with all perseverance, that focuses on the persistence of prayer. And sixth, petition for all saints, which focuses on the object of prayer.
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That pretty much summarizes the entire prayer life of a believer.
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Praise God. Summarized. And by the way, that's not original with me.
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I paraphrased that from MacArthur. So, I thought that was really good. You knew that I wasn't original on that.
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It's too good. Well, there we had the prayer life of each believer fleshed out, right?
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Now, let's look at verse 8. The next verse. This is a very convicting verse.
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As I was studying this, I was thinking, wow. I stepped all over my toes last week about having a prayer life and how we should pray and be serious about prayer.
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So much more could have been said about that. Do you know how many times throughout the whole Scriptures, it speaks about praying?
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Well, here we're going to talk about fervent love. The Christian is to have an attitude of fervent love and generous hospitality.
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Fervent love and generous hospitality. Look at the text. He says this.
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Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another.
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Because love covers a multitude of sins. Now, beloved, again, all this is in light of the second coming of Jesus Christ.
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Our whole life as Christians is to be lived in the light of the second coming of Jesus.
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And fervent love to one another should be the attitude of every believer. So it's the attitude of love.
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You notice every week we've been speaking about different attitudes. But let's look at this word, fervent love.
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The word fervent, as we've covered this before, is an athletic term used of committed athletes straining with every fiber within them to reach their goal to the finish line.
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To clear the bar, so to speak. To be stretched to the limit.
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To be straining as if a runner that's running a marathon who is moving at maximum speed with everything within him to reach and strain to the finish line.
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And that's basically what that word means is to stretch to the limit.
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Fervency. Stretch. Strain. That's the way we should love.
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Chapter 1 of 1 Peter, we looked at this. Look at verse 22. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere, that means unhypocritical, unfamed, unhypocritical love of the brethren.
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In other words, your love is real. Your love is genuine. Your love is not pretense.
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Your love is not play acting. Your love is genuine. You care. You love them.
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And then he says you're to have sincere, unhypocritical love of the brethren fervently.
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Stretch to the limit. Love one another from the heart.
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He didn't say from the mind even though the mind has a part with it. But here the text says you're to love from your heart.
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That's convicting. How many times we fail to love from the heart?
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Do we really care? Do we really care? Do we really love?
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And the end times require that we stretch our love to the limit to go that second mile as Jesus said for one another in the body of Jesus Christ.
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Now, I'm not going to go in detail on this but to understand what he's speaking of here about love makes me think of a text found in Ephesians 4.
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Notice with me in chapter 4 of Ephesians. He says this in chapter 4, verse 1,
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Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, employ you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.
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This is the attitude in which he gives. And then he says this, With all humility and gentleness with patience showing tolerance for one another in love.
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Tolerance for one another in love. That's the calling.
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Humility, gentleness, patience, showing tolerance for one another in love.
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That's humility, gentleness, patience are reflected in the forbearing love for others.
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And that's the way we are to walk. That's what we are called to. And then he says in verse 3, Being diligent to persevere of the unity, the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
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For there is one body, one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one
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Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
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So we are to walk in love. To walk in love.
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This is extremely important. Now if you turn to chapter 5 of Ephesians, I want you to see something very important.
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In order to see how we are to love with God's love requires also what we are to hate.
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Because God's love also hates sin.
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And I really believe this is the problem within the church today. And I say within the church what is called the church because of a misunderstanding of what love is.
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Because God's love is pure love. God's love is holy love. That is what people fail to bring out.
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It is not a love of their own in which they look at it in giving in and condoning sin.
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This is going to lead to what we have to say about fervently loving one another and that love covers a multitude of sins.
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And we are going to see what that text means. But I want you to see something here in chapter 5. Look at this.
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Therefore, he says, be imitators of God as beloved children. We imitate
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God because God loves, right? God loves. We are to love. We are
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His children. We bear His image. We bear
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His reflection. And in verse 2, notice this. And walk in love. Our walk is our daily walk, our attitude, the way we behave, right?
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And walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave
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Himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
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What Paul is saying here is that as Jesus Christ gave Himself up as a sacrifice, the
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Lamb of God, to the Father, it was the perfect sacrifice. It was acceptable. It's the only sacrifice that really pleased the
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Father. He said it was pleasing. He gave Himself up for us.
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He was an offering, a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. And the fragrance of His sacrifice pleased the
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Father. The Father audibly spoke. This is
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My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. But notice in verse 3.
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A lot of churches will stop right there in verse 2. They will not read verse 3 that follows.
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We are to love, and this is the way we are to love, but immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as proper among saints.
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Now he's being specific in how to love. And you mention this today and people think you're hating and you're warning and speaking the truth in love.
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And yet he says here, don't even, immorality and impurity and greed must not even be named among you.
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And then he says in verse 4, there must be no filthiness or silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting but rather giving of thanks.
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For this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
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Now I'm telling you that speaks volumes. And Jesus Christ is the perfect example.
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He's the supreme example as He sacrificed Himself for lost sinners. He took our sins upon Himself as the
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Lamb of God and gave up Himself that He might redeem us from sin.
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Is not this the Christmas message? Thou shalt call His name
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Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins. That's love.
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That's love. He saves us from sin. But we need to use wisdom in how to approach people and how to warn them.
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And we need to always check our heart's motives and the way we warn against the sin that would destroy them.
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Now let's go back to 1 Peter. This fervent love. This fervent love anticipating, stretching our love to the limit for one another in the body of Christ, anticipating others' needs, making sacrifices to meet that need.
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And did not Jesus command us to love one another? John chapter 13, verse 34 and 35 is a familiar
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Scripture, but may we never ever become apathetic toward this Scripture and this command that Jesus our
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Lord, the head of the church, says this. He gives the command. He says, a new commandment.
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A new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you.
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That's high. That's a high standard. Even as I have loved you. What did He do? He died for His church.
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He died for His people. It must be a dying love, a sacrificial love.
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And then He says that you also love one another. In other words, I have loved you, now you do the same.
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And He's commanding it. He's not suggesting it. He commands it.
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Verse 35, By this, not some men, all men, all men, will know that you are my disciples if, where is that if?
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If, you have love for one another. In other words, if you obey.
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If you keep this command. If you truly, fervently, love one another from the heart.
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And that's what He's talking about. So, really, you cannot get any more fervent than this command here.
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Did not Jesus have a burning, white, hot love toward His people? He still does.
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The command actually He gives is not a new, in a sense, of stating a new way.
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Let me make this clear. Because Scripture already says, from Deuteronomy 6, 5 and 6,
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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which
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I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. And then in Leviticus 19, 18, the
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Word of God says this, You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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I am the Lord. Do you see what I'm saying? That was in the
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Pentateuch, the book of Deuteronomy. Jesus quoted quite often from Deuteronomy. And here, what
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He means by new, however, Jesus is commanding us to love one another.
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And what does He mean by a new command? He is raising the bar. It makes me think of the athletes when they are pole vaulting.
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Did I say that right? Vaulting. And they're running toward this bar. And you notice, in order to win the competition, the bar keeps getting raised.
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When Jesus raises the bar so high, it's like, who can really jump that bar?
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It is a standard that's far above what is even given in the
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Old Testament. Because He raised the bar. Jesus Himself, like He's the one that went ahead and He jumped the bar, so to speak, in a place where no one else could even reach.
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Yeah, we are to try to do everything we can by the Spirit of God to attain that by the
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Holy Spirit. But Jesus actually raises that standard. He raised the bar. God's love, even from the
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Old Testament. Jesus fulfills all that from the Old Testament, but He is the fulfillment of it.
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He is that love for God, for one another.
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The reasons being, first, that the love Jesus commands is a sacrificial love that is modeled after His own love.
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Let's keep that in mind. He is the model. He is the perfect model of that love.
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Beloved, that's the same, like I said, a very, very high bar, a very high standard.
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But second, it's a love that only could be produced through the Holy Spirit. And let me say this, it only could be produced by the
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Holy Spirit, by the power of the Holy Spirit, it is in terms of the new covenant.
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What do I mean by the new covenant? The new birth. And the reason
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I mention this is there's no one, not a one of us, not one of God's people, God's children is capable of loving within ourselves unless we have a new heart.
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We must have a new spirit. We must have a new heart. Because we're fallen, we're depraved creatures, we're not capable to love fervently as Jesus loves, are we?
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Within ourselves, we're not. This is even a struggle with us at times even as children of God.
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And do you ever think that is exactly why Jesus gives the command? The command stands.
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Because He knows that our affections is cool and warm. They go up and down.
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Not so with God. God is consistently loving. That's because that's His nature.
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Scripture says God is love. That is His nature. Within our own depraved nature, we are not loving, right?
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Look at the world today. Can you honestly say that we live in a world that really loves people?
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The opposite. They hate people. They hate themselves. They hate others. And sadly to say they violently take it out on themselves through suicide and take it out on others by killing and murdering others, even innocent people.
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Sad, isn't it? Very case in point. We live in a world that's dark.
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We live in a world that's enemies of God. And we were part of that at one time too. We have that same depraved, unregenerate nature.
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And here, what He's speaking of that we are not capable of loving unless through the new covenant, by the transformation of the
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Holy Spirit, that God gives us a new spirit, a new heart, puts new laws within us,
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His law, and being born again. And this is exactly what
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Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus about. God forgives our sins.
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He gives us a new heart. He removes the heart of stone. He puts a heart of flesh.
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And that heart, within that heart, is a motivation that truly loves because the
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Spirit of God's there. Again, it is utterly impossible to love
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God and one another unless the Spirit of God does this work of regeneration within us. And beloved, if you are a believer today,
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God has done this for you. God's Spirit abides within you.
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God's Holy Spirit dwells within you by faith, through grace.
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By grace, through faith. Romans 5, verse 6,
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For while we were still helpless, at the right time,
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Christ died for the ungodly. Aren't you glad? He didn't die for the righteous.
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He died for the ungodly. And then He says this, For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man someone would dare even to die.
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But God, there's the transition, God intervenes.
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But God demonstrates. Don't you love that word? God just doesn't say it.
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Even though that's enough for us as far as I'm concerned. God says it whether we believe it or not.
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It's settled. But God demonstrated it. How did He demonstrate it?
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Through Jesus Christ. He demonstrates His great love through Christ. He demonstrates
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His own love toward who? Toward us. And that while we were yet sinners, what did
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He do? He died. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Christ died for us.
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Ruined sinners. Helpless we. Spotless Lamb of God was He. Hallelujah.
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What a Savior. Christ died for the ungodly. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God, notice here, here it is.
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The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the
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Holy Spirit who has been given to us. That's the gift. That's the gift. We can love
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God. We can love one another because only because the love of God has been lavishly poured out to the point of overflowing within our hearts.
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Like rivers of living water. That's the rivers. That's the love of God. And may, let me say this, that because this has happened through regeneration, it is the evidence of God's love and God's love, of us loving one another that gives the believer the security in Jesus Christ.
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That gives the security. This is one of the sure evidence, folks, that we have been born of God because we love
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God and we love one another. And you know something, so frequently you see this in Scripture, especially the book of 1
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John. He speaks about loving one another, loving one another, loving one another. And you know, if that love one another is not evident, then how can we say that we love
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God? People go around and say they love God but they don't love one another.
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That gives in question that they even love God. John talks about that.
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They're basically a liar. I really believe this. The way we live is a reflection of everything, of our relationship to God.
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If people can't respect one another, they don't respect God. If they don't love one another, they don't love
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God. It's a reflection of their relationship with God. Talk is cheap.
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Actions is what speaks and that's why Scripture says that God demonstrates His own love.
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He demonstrated it by His Son going to the cross and dying and shedding
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His blood there. That should bring us face downward. And He has given us
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His blessed Holy Spirit that we may do the same, that God has implanted within us as a sure evidence that we belong to Him, that we love
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God and we love one another. Fervently. Stretch it to the limit.
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Go the other mile. Even though we may not feel like it, go the other mile. This is the kind of love, supernatural fervent love that Peter is speaking about in verse 8.
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Agape love. It's God's love. Love, agape. The badge of a believer in this world.
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That's the badge. That's the banner. That's the banner. Especially in times of testing and persecution, right?
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Believers need to love one another fervently. With eagerness, intensity. And that word fervent speaks of how to love.
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That's how to love. Fervently. We can't hear this enough, can we?
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To strain, to stretch to the limit. Just as an athlete works his own skills with discipline.
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And it's not a matter of how he feels or emotional. He disciplines himself. He must do it by duty.
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And he gets out and he's committed and he's dedicated by the will. And he sacrifices. You know, for an athlete to win in the games, he must be committed.
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He must be focused. And he must not go by his emotions.
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He must be focused and committed. His will and he sacrifices. That's the way the
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Christian is. The Christian love means that we treat others the way God treats us.
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We forgive others as God has forgiven us. Obeying His commands in His Word.
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And this is the one great fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is what? Love. Notice love. It's not by accident that love is the first there.
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You know, it's kind of like a cluster, but it's one fruit. Because if you go to Galatians chapter 5 and read that, it doesn't say the fruits of the
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Spirit. It says the fruit, singular. It's a cluster of one fruit.
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And love is the first because it is at the ground of everything else. If joy comes out, it's because of love.
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God's love. If there's peace, it's because of God's love. It's all based on the love of God.
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We could testify to that, right? Because that's what God is. He's loved us in salvation and given
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Jesus Christ. And we have joy unspeakable, full of glory because He loved us. We have peace that passes all understanding because He loved us.
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It's all from the river. The fountainhead of God's love. The great fruit of love.
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Agape. Forgiving. And also it produces forgiving. That's why you love one another.
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And basically what Jesus is saying is you forgive one another. Notice with me.
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Verse 8. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins.
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Now we need to know what this text means and what it does not mean. Now Peter is actually quoting from Proverbs 10 -12, which says,
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Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions. True love always, always seeks the highest good for another.
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Amen. True love always, always seeks the highest good for another.
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Pastor John MacArthur in his commentary said this. I thought it was really good.
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It is the nature of true spiritual love, whether from God to man or Christian to Christian, to cover sins.
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Romans 5 -8. And he goes on to say this teaching does not preclude the discipline of a sinning, unrepentant church member.
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According to Matthew 18, 15 -18 or 1 Corinthians 5. It means specifically that a
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Christian should overlook sins against him if possible and always be ready to forgive insults and unkindness.
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End quote. In other words, love does not condone sin.
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The real, true, genuine love of God does not condone sin.
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Rather, we truly love someone, we warn them from the wiles of the devil and against their own sin because it grieves us, it grieves
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God. To see why. Because sin destroys. Sin corrupts.
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Sin will take people to hell. Sin will hurt themselves.
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By the way, that's the only thing that can really hurt us. I've got a quote here by Peart and John Bunyan. Listen to this.
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Who said this in his book The Holy War? It's the second book from Pilgrim's Progress.
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He says, quote, Nothing can hurt you except sin. Nothing can grieve me except sin.
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Nothing can defeat you except sin. Therefore, be on your guard, my man's soul.
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Be on your guard, my man's soul. Because it's sin that destroys. It's sin that destroys us and it's sin that destroys other people.
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And it's love that tells people the truth. Amen? It's love that warns people from the wrath to come.
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It is love that says, I'm going to reach out to you with everything I can to pray for you because sin is taking you down to a path that will destroy you.
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God loved us so much that He tells us the truth. The positive side of this text is love, agape love, covers the sin.
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Isn't that beautiful? What does it mean by cover? Well, first of all, let me say this.
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Love motivates us to hide the sin from others and not to spread it abroad. 1
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Corinthians chapter 13, one of the most convicting chapters in the Word of God. I'm just going to read the definition here.
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In verse 4 through 7 gives us the right definition of agape love. This is
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God's perspective of love. It says this, Love or charity, you could say charity, is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, love does not boast, it doesn't brag, and is not arrogant, does not act with comely, it does not seek its own, it is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered.
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That's what he's talking about. Peter's talking about here. It does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but it rejoices with the truth.
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It bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things, it endures all things.
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That is agape love. And the agape love of God covers the sin that love motivates us to hide the sin from others and not spread it abroad.
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Where there's hatred, there's malice. And where there's malice, malice causes a person to want to tear down the reputation of an enemy.
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This leads to gossip, doesn't it? And slander. What about Proverbs 11, 12 and 13?
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Listen to what Solomon said. He who despises his neighbor lacks sense.
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Another translation, he lacks heart. But a man of understanding keeps silent.
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He who goes about as a tail bearer reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy, that word trustworthy means he's faithful of spirit, he's faithful of spirit, conceals a matter.
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Proverbs 17, 9. He who conceals a transgression seeks love. Notice what he says.
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He who conceals a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends.
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Oh beloved, sometimes we try to make our gossip sound so spiritual, don't we?
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By telling people things that they might pray more intellectually or specifically about, and yet we have entered into a sin of gossip.
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We've spiritualized it. If you can't say amen, say ouch. Because we're all guilty of it, amen?
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Beloved, no one, I say no one, can hide sins from God. No one can hide sin from God.
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God is aware of even the most secret of sins. And believers ought to try and love to cover each other's sins, at least from the eyes of the unsaved.
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Have you ever thought of that? There's a reason for that. After all, if the unsaved crowd finds ammunition to shoot us down with, persecuting us because of our good words and good works, what would they do if they knew the bad things the
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Christians are doing? Well, they'd tear us apart. Now there's a beautiful illustration from the
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Bible that gives the principle of the law of covering sins here. So much time I've got left.
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Go with me to Genesis. Chapter 9. Isn't it beautiful?
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I love this. And there's a great lesson for us. There's a principle here. And I'd like to bring out several things here about this.
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I have heard preachers bring out some things from this particular transgression that took place, this sin, that does not say specifically what actually happened in these moments.
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But I have heard with my own ears, folks, ministers of the gospel read into something here that's not in the text.
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Let me read it. Look at Genesis 9. Look at verse 20.
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We'll read it to 27 because he ends up cursing his youngest son.
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Verse 20, Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk.
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Now, the reason why, the wine became fermented, folks. In that day, there was no alcohol.
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There wasn't Budweiser or Miller or Lowlife to support the alcohol.
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It was fermented and he became drunk. Okay? Verse 21, He drank of the wine and became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent.
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Basically, he was naked. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.
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Okay, right there. Let me stop. Notice, he went exactly and told his brothers. He did not himself cover up his father and save his dignity.
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He shamed him. As a son, he's shaming him already.
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Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father and their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father's nakedness.
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And when Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.
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And he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants, he shall be to his brothers.
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He also said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.
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And may God enlarge Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem and let
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Canaan be his servant. The youngest son,
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Ham here, did not show honor to his father even though his father sinned.
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And this is the point. Love covers. Do you see that?
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It was Shem and Japheth that covered their father and they did not even look.
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But Ham looked. The story is very familiar.
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It's amazing. Noah is a preacher of righteousness. He's a preacher. He falls into sin.
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He gets drunk. Shamefully uncovered himself, his son, Ham saw his father's shame and nakedness and told the matter to his brothers.
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And in love, Ham's two brothers covered their father and his shame.
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And you see, Ham had no intention of covering him. And let me say this.
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This is the note I'm giving of what I've heard. A lot of people feel that there was there was some perverse activity going on here between Noah and his youngest son.
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That is not in the text, folks. I have heard this myself. There's nothing in the text that some kind of perversity was going on between Noah being drunk and his son.
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But sin was taking place. Sin did take place whatsoever for any reason that that same perverse action here in this text, so many people have tried to assume it.
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But because of Noah's youngest son seeing his nakedness, but sin was present, probably maybe a sinful thought, no doubt.
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But Ham goes in and he thought he would win his brothers. That's usually what gossip does, right?
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You go to gossip, you think, well, I'm going to get this person on my side, I'm going to get this person on my side to make me feel a little better about what's going on.
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But Ham goes to inform his brothers and thinking that they would really share his feelings and they did not share his feelings.
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So the sin could have been that, I don't know, Ham was rejoicing to see his father reduced to weakness, some has alluded.
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Maybe because his uncovering shamed his father's dignity and his authority.
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Well, the point is this, true love, true love does not rejoice in iniquity, right?
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Neither should we rejoice when anyone falls into sin. We should do everything we can to cover.
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Now it doesn't mean in the sense of church discipline, we're not talking about that. Let me go a little further.
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Chapter 4, verse 8, such love would not publicize the faults and failings of other believers, but would protect them from public view.
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Someone has said this, hatred makes the worst of everything, love entitled to bury things out of sight.
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Hatred makes the worst of everything, but love is entitled to bury the things out of sight. So true.
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Love covers a multitude of sins. A multitude of sins. Beloved, the guilt and the penalty of sins can only be removed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
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That's what we point people to. That there is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
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Sinners can plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. We don't go about and spread their sins out and to destroy them and defame them, we point them to Jesus Christ.
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One commentator said this, William McDonald, quote, neither should the statement be used to condone sin or to relieve an assembly from its responsibility to discipline an offender.
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It means that true love is able to overlook minor faults and failures in other believers.
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End quote. Well next, our Christian love should not only be fervent and forgiving, but it should be very practical.
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Fervent love always leads to hospitality. Generous hospitality.
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Let's look at this very quickly. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. The Greek word basically means love of strangers.
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We're to love strangers. Love is very practical, just not emotional. It's sacrificial. And hospitality brings that into practical living.
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Peter's day included opening one's home, caring for others, needy Christians, persecuted
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Christians, opening up one's home and servicing them and servicing their needs.
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That's what hospitality does, isn't it? Hospitality is a Christian duty, a command, a grace, and is a fruit of fervent love.
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It is a fruit, it comes out of ferv... He was just talking about being fervent in love. Now he's telling us this is how you stretch your love.
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You open up your home. Hospitality is never selective, is it?
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Hebrews 13, 1 and 2 says this. Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to the strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.
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Showing hospitality is a grace, it's a favor, to the extent of loving, it extends,
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I'm sorry, love to strangers. Romans 12, 13. Contributing to the needs of the saints.
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Practicing hospitality. Another word for practicing hospitality is pursuing hospitality.
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The word contributing means, from the Greek, means with calm malady, partnership, mutual sharing, which is translated fellowship and communion.
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And you can see that in Acts chapter 2, verse 42 through 44, that the church practiced this on a daily basis.
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Didn't they? They did. They opened up their home, they shared their meals, they had communion, they broke bread with one another.
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They basically opened up their homes. So as we as believers should literally be pursuing the love of strangers, not merely entertaining one's friends, but also in the
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New Testament times, travel was very dangerous in that time period, as Jesus basically gave the story of the
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Good Samaritan. That's how we would love our neighbor.
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The inns were very evil, as Jesus was to make His debut when He was born.
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You notice they were filled to the capacity, and there was no room in the inn.
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They were packed to the capacity. They were very evil, scarce, and expensive.
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So expensive that Joseph and Mary could not afford to rent one of the inns.
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And as you well know, Jesus came into this world born in a feeding trough.
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Beloved, this hospitality is a grace that every believer should share, and also every church leader should practice as well, because that's part of his qualification as a leader of the church, according to Titus 1 .8.
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Church leaders should be a role model of this grace. Hospitality does not ask, do
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I know you well, or do I like you? It rather asks, how can I love you?
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How can I serve you? How can I meet your need? How can I minister to you?
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Hospitality, being hospitable to one another without complaint, without grumbling. And notice that.
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It basically gives, he's given us, and this is the motivation, this is the motive in which you are to be hospitable.
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You don't do it just out of mere duty. You do it because you want to do it.
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You love to do it. Be hospitable to one another without complaint, without grumbling.
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There's always a cost attached to hospitality. Someone else in your home, someone else is in your space, someone else is in your recliner.
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You share it. Notice I said the word your.
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Leads me to another point. It's not ours. Rather, we are stewards.
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We can become very selfish, very resentful, when we start thinking that this is our house, my house, your house, your food, your chair, your time, your, your, your, my, my, my.
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No. God forbid. It belongs to God.
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Amen. It's God's. We are to be stewards of everything
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God has given us. The truth is it's on loan to us from God. It's not ours.
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It's God's. It's God's house. It's God's food. It's God's time. Everything is a gift from God.
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And we are stewards and we're going to give an account on the day of judgment and how we use that.
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God desires us to love, care for one another so that in practical way we can love one another.
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Now, I got to skip a lot here. I cannot finish this. There is a parable
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I want to get to, but my time is out. Oh, my.
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I knew this was going to happen. Can I share one parable with you? I'll read it and we'll pick up there,
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Lord willing, next week. Go with me very quickly to Luke. I cannot leave this out. I know my time is gone, but go with me to Luke chapter 14.
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I'm just going to read it and then comment very quickly and we'll close. Look at Luke 14.
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Very quickly, let me tell you. We've been here a couple weeks back. We looked at the parable of the lost sheep.
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If you look at 14 and 15, there's a cluster of parables. And this parable is the parable of the feast, or the ambitious guest.
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And it speaks about hospitality. It speaks about generosity. So it's just not one parable.
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Jesus kind of clustered parables together in a chain connected. But notice with me very quickly.
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Let me read this. Verse 7 to verse 14.
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And Lord willing, we'll pick up on this next Lord's Day. This is a good place to leave us.
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He began speaking a parable to the invited guest when he noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, when you're invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him.
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And he who invited you both will come and say to you, give your place to this man.
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And then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place. But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place.
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So that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher.
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Then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. And this is the whole key to this whole parable.
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Jesus says, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted.
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And he also went on to say to the one who had invited him, when you give a luncheon or a dinner, and he's talking about hospitality, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors.
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Otherwise they may also invite you in return that you will be, that will be your repayment.
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In other words, they're going to pay you back. Then he says in verse 13, but when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you.
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For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous, at the last day.
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This is exactly what Jesus meant about do not store up your treasures on earth, but store them in heaven, where moth and rust does not corrupt, and thieves break in and steal.
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Everything is upside down. Praise God. May we be hospitable.
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May we fervently love one another, as God has commanded us, unto
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Him for His glory. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank
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You. There's so much more that could be said here today. Lord, I pray what has been said pierces our hearts.
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Lord, this is convicting to all of us, because Lord, You have loved us with an infinite love.
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So great is Your love. Great is the Father's love. So rich, so pure, so vast, so wide,
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Lord, is Your love toward us, that You sent Your one and only Son, that He died.
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He died, He sacrificed Himself for us, and we are to do the same for each other.
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Love one another just the same, and to forgive one another, because Your love covers a multitude of sins.
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It does not rejoice in iniquity. So, Father, help us to look to Your Son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us eternal life, and as the wonderful hymn, the carol says, truly
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You have taught us to love one another. Your law is love, and Your gospel is peace.