Transcription
Thank you for the precious blood. Hallelujah. We are redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Thank you, Lord. And we have boldness in your presence because of the blood of Jesus. That blood cleanses us from all sin, from all unrighteousness, through the blood of the everlasting covenant that you make us perfect in every good work to do your will while you work in us that which is well-pleasing in your sight. We thank you for that, Father God. Thank you, Jesus. Woo! Give the Lord a shout. Amen. Praise the Lord. Wow, what a great, great song. Praise the Lord. Trina and Cindy Black wrote that song after I preached a while on who you are in Christ. Amen. Hallelujah. Haha. You look a lot better in Christ than you do outside him. Amen. All right. Praise the Lord. Open your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. We're going to talk about walking in the God-kind of love. Woo! Man, walking in the God-kind of love. Amen. This is the victory. Amen. Walking in the God-kind of love. So, if you have 1 Corinthians 13, uh this is probably the most popular chapter in literature that comes from the Bible. It comes from the Bible, written by the Apostle Paul, which most theologians agree was not his favorite subject. But, it was something that he grew in and got better in and got revelation on concerning the God-kind of love.
So, if you have your Bible, I'm going to start off here in the King James version, and then we're just going to read first verse verse one. And he says, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and if I have not" Here he uses the word charity, but really the word charity is the word agape, which is translated the God-kind of love. So, he's not talking about natural human love. Natural human love turn into hatred overnight. He's talking about the God-kind of love. And it's translated into charity because we know charity is always something that you do. So, what he's saying is that really the God-kind of love is not passive. It's always something that you do. So, that's why it was translated charity, but really the word is agape, which means the God-kind of love. So, he says, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, if I do not have what love or the God-kind of love, I become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Though I have the gift of prophecy and I understand all mysteries and I have all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, if I don't have the God-kind of love, I am nothing."
All right, let's try that one more time. How many think we How many think he's getting pretty clear on it right now, especially for people who want to be impressive in following God? So, he says, "If you have all this," he said, "you could have the knowledge and mysteries and great knowledge and great faith and gift of prophecy and be very impressive in your speaking ability." He said, "But, if you don't have the God-kind of love," in other words, he said you're nothing. And one translation says, "You are a useless nobody." So, how many like to try to avoid being a useless nobody? In other words, there's a lot of things that we think are super important and are we very impressed with with other people. But, what he's saying is God himself is impressed with the God-kind of love when it's in manifestation in our lives and we can actually grow in it. So, he said, "If I have all these things," pretty impressive people. He said, "But, it doesn't impress God nothing." He said, "You're what So, you you're a nothing." And then in verse three, "If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, if I give my body to be burned, if I don't have the God-kind of love, it profits me nothing." Now, it might help them. He said, "But, it as far as my personal progress in following God, all the things that I could do, if I'm not walking in the God-kind of love," he said, "it'll profit you nothing." Woo! So, that gets pretty serious, doesn't it? Cuz you sure could waste a lot of time. Oh, let's try that one more time. I said, "You sure could waste a lot of time." He said, "You just better take care of this first." Don't look at anybody right now. I said, "But, you should just take care of this first." In other words, this is our priority. And so, just to take our temperature to see how well we're doing at it. He gives us the description of the characteristics of the God-kind of love. And he says this. He says, "Love suffers long."
So, I got it and I was meditating on this and I started reading a book by the by Henry Drummond called The Greatest Thing in the World. Now, my mama was really good at walking in love and my dad was not quite as good. So, I did I can't say I didn't know about it. And I knew it was important. And then I had to listen to Brother Hagin teach on it when it was not the subject that I wanted to hear him teach on. I mean, he's got a seven visions of Jesus. Could we deal with some of those instead of coming dealing with some of my attitudes? So, I'd go to his meetings. He'd talk in love. And then somebody gave me a little tiny book and you can still get it online. I I think it's it's really kind of out of print, but it it's a lot of different people have reprinted it and so it's called The Greatest Thing in the World by Henry Drummond. And he actually it's just a study of 1 Corinthians 13 and D. L. Moody said it's the greatest sermon he ever heard. And he just took a study and broke down the God-kind of love. And so, in his book, he tells you exactly how the love of God operates. So, when somebody gave me that book, it's just real simple. Illustration very simple. And so, when somebody gave it to me, I was preaching at a church in Arizona probably 35 years ago. And so, somebody gave me the little book. It was real small little book. Greatest Thing in the World. I thought, "Well, I need to know what it is." So, I said, "Oh, it's about 1 Corinthians 13." So, I started reading the book. And I got through the first chapter. I got through the second chapter. And I was I was in my bedroom preparing for the service that night. And so, when I got about second, third chapter, I took the little book and I said, "Can't nobody do that." And I threw it across the room and it hit the wall. I said, "Can't nobody do that." I just laid in my bed. The Lord said, "Go pick the little book back up." He said, "Cuz if you can't deal with that, nothing else you do is going to work right." So, I went and picked it back up and then I started meditating on it. When I got to the definition, "Love suffers long." First thing it says is it suffers. That means it's going to be painful. I'm just not interested in painful things. But, if you go to the Olympics, if you're a champion, there's a lot of painful things you'll go through to be a champion. So, the first thing he said, "Love suffers." So, if you're not suffering, you're probably not walking in love with somebody. And then he didn't just say he suffers, he said he suffers long. Long time. Man. And we hadn't got to the Amplified Bible yet. We're still in the King James. Love suffers long and is kind. Woo! Then it says, "Love envieth not." Not in competition. Doesn't get upset about what other people have or how they get ahead. And he says, "And love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." Hmm. Verse Verse five, "Love does not behave itself unseemly." Other translation says not rude or unmannerly. "Seeketh not her own." So, it means it's not selfish. "What am I going to get out of this?" Huh? He says, "It's not easily provoked." Other translation says it's not angry or harsh. Huh? "Thinketh." Wow! Well, I thought at least I controlled myself for a while. Then it started talking about how I was thinking. "Thinketh no evil." I said, "Well, at least I didn't say nothing." He said, "Now you're going to have to change the way you're thinking." "Thinketh no evil." Huh? Dad Hagin said, "This definition would be, if I'm thinking other people don't like me, I'm thinking evil of them." He said, "So, I don't even think about whether they like me or not. I just think I'm going to love them and whatever they do, that's their business. I'm not in control of whether they like me or not. All right, let's go. Rejoice is not in inequity inequity rejoices in the truth. Look at verse 8. Ready? Bears all things. Believes all things. Hopes all things. And endures all things. So apparently love affects all things. Let's try that one more time. I said this is GOING TO AFFECT ALL THINGS IN YOUR LIFE. It's going to affect your believing, your faith, your expectation, your hope. Come on, whatever you're going through, if you can grow in the God kind of love and walk in the God kind of love, he said it endures all things. One translation says it never looks back. It never gives up. So I like to say the God kind of love is is uh it cannot be defeated. Let's see where I wrote it in my little book here. It goes, it keeps on keeping on, trust God in every situation, expects God to act in all circumstances, and nothing can destroy it. So in my book I wrote it is inexhaustible and indestructible. This is some tough stuff. The God kind of love. Amen.
And so all the New Testament writers are in agreement. So let's look at several New Testament writers cuz we got what Jesus said about it in John 13:34 and 35. Y'all ready? Here's what Jesus had to say about it. Are you ready? What did he say? A new commandment. Cuz they really already had what you call the 10 Commandments, they weren't doing that very well. And Jesus said, "I but I'm going to give you a new commandment which is the new commandment of the new covenant." And so not only did they have the 10 Commandments, but they had the interpretation of those 10 Commandments with 102 110 more rules. To make sure you understood the 10, then the Pharisees added 110 more rules. Commandments. Jesus said, "I'm just going to give you one command." They're like, "Wow. Wow, thank you so much." But then after they read that they could we go back to the 110. Listen, he said, "I'm going to give you a new commandment. New covenant that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another." Woo, look at the next verse. He said, "And by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have All right, let's try that one more time. By this everybody's going to know that you are following Jesus. He said, "This is the one sign and we've got all the other things we come up with, but Jesus said, by this everybody will know that you're my disciples if you have love one for another." So now we've got the Apostle Paul and now we've got Jesus.
So turn over to 1 John chapter 4 verse 16. Here's what 1 John has to say. He's known as the Apostle of love. That means he he majored on it. He majored on it. Now how many of y'all know one way you can actually go to college and never graduate? Y'all know, some of y'all know. Just keep changing your majors. You become a professional student. But if you ever want to graduate, you got to determine what your major is. Are y'all still here? And so many times we know a lot about a lot of Christian subjects. But if you ever want to graduate, you're going to have to major on the God kind of love. Major on that. I love what I heard one preacher say, "What good is it if you can talk in tongues if you're mean in English?" So now 1 Corinthians 14. Boy, there's some mean holy people. How many know God's holy, but he's not mean? He is love. Woo. So when he says in 1 Corinthians 14, this first part, I forgot this before we go to 1 John. He says this, "Follow after love and desire spiritual gifts." Now if you have an amplified Bible, here's what it says. "Follow after love." And the message Bible says, "Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it because it does." All right, that's good. In other words, amplified I think it says, he says, "Make it your aim, your goal, and your great quest." In other words, he says, "Make this the greatest priority in your life is to follow after love, walk in love, grow in love, make it your quest." So I looked up the word quest in the dictionary and a quest is anything that occupies your full attention for at least 20 years. Not 20 minutes. Not 20 days, but the next 20 years you make it your quest to grow in the God kind of love and you'll grow in it best by practicing it. Come on, if you like football, they talk about the greatest players and you know what they always talk about? They talk about their their practicing. How they practice. The time they spend practicing. Basketball players, my grandkids, most of them love basketball and and one of them actually just won championship just the other day. Missed it, but they sent me the pictures. So great basketball players, but they study the best ones. And so when they study the best ones, then we take them to see different ones. So we took them to see Steph Curry a few years ago. And so then they got into all the stuff Steph Curry does every day. How many shots? They talked about Kobe Bryant who just passed away in an accident and they talked about he had get up he called it the 4:00 a.m. principle. He said, "I apply the 4:00 a.m. principle to all my life." He said, "I'm not any more talented than anybody else." He said, "But I'm up at 4:00 a.m." And he said, "I'm shooting the basketball. I shoot it thousands of times. I got one man 4:00 a.m. When I shoot he throws the ball back to me. I do it thousands of times." He said, "That's the first time to the gym is at 4:00 a.m. Then I usually go three to five times a day." So you see all the trophies, but you ain't there when they're having to practice. So if you're going to get good at walking in love, you're going to have to show up for practice. And you're going to get plenty of practice. You won't even have to leave church tonight before you get some practice. And when some bad stuff happens, come on and you feel like you're right and the other person's wrong, and the Lord said to me, "This is a good chance for you to practice." All right, praise the Lord. Go ahead and practice. Because if you walk in love, God said, "I'll fight your battle for you." So I learned from Dad Hagin. Dad Hagin said, "I'm going to walk in love whether anybody else does or not." So what are you saying? Sometimes people study the God kind of love just enough to recognize when other people are not doing it. I preached on it for like 3 months at my church and and and somebody came and said, "Pastor, I just want to tell you so-and-so in the church, they are not walking in love." I said, "And you're the one supposed to report, right?" I said, "And if you were, you wouldn't have noticed." So if you learn it just enough to point out where other people are not doing it. Are y'all still here? I go When you learn it just enough to say, "Well, I ain't doing it." No, you got to decide I'm going to do it if nobody else does it IN THE HOUSE. I'M going to WALK IN LOVE CUZ this God kind of love never fails. That means it's going to win, it's going to come out on top if I walk in love. Woo, 1 John 4:16.
Turn over there real quick. Here's what we're looking at. He says, "And we have known." 1 John 4:16. And there's so much there, but we just covered some of this. "We have known and believed the love that God hath towards us." First of all, it said we know about it. Then we believe it. How many believe God loves you? How much does he love you? Really, 1 Corinthians 13 is the description of how much he loves you. And I don't know about you, but with some of us, he's been suffering a long time. Don't look at anybody right now, but God's been putting up with some of us a a time. How many glad he's patient with you? How many think you could show that to somebody else? So, he says, "We have known about it and we believe we believe in the love that God has towards us. God is love. He that dwells in love dwells in God and God dwells in him." In other words, to dwell in the God kind of love, he said it's to dwell in God and God dwells in you. Our Dad Hagin says this way, "A step out of love is a step out of God." And the devil will attack you there. He said, "And if you step out of love, you better get back in as fast as you can." He said, "Because you're getting off on the devil's territory and that's here where he will attack you. Get back in love as fast as you can. You know it don't even take you that long to do it." Amen. Actually, Jesus said, "When you stand praying Let's try that. In other words, you can't stand there for 20 years. You can't say, "Well, they hurt me. It's going to take me a long time to get over that." It's going to take you about as long as it takes you to forgive. All right, let's try this side over here. That didn't go over too good. I don't know you might need a refund from your offering. Listen. So, he said, "When you stand praying he said, "Forgive if you have aught against any." He said, "For your forgiveness comes from your heavenly Father. You've been forgiven." He said, "If you have aught against any." I said, I told the Lord, I said, "Lord, I don't have aught against many, but I can't say I don't have aught against any." He said, "Any aught will keep your mountain-moving faith from working appropriately." Are y'all still with me?
So, I went to Dad Hagin's meeting many times. The last time we heard him right before he went to be with the Lord, he taught on walking in love, which is really one of my my moments of memories because I was preaching at the camp meeting. I was sitting on the front and he's talking about walking in love. I have no idea why he stood in front of me for so long. My wife might. But anyway, so, he So, he's there talking and he tells us stories over and over, wonderful stories. And so, I'm examining myself, you know. And then he had left his notes up on that Coliseum way up on the top and he had few pages of yellow pages. He had written a few notes on it. He said, "Mark, he said, 'Brother Mark, you're younger than I am. Run up there.'" So, he is 86, I think, at that time. So, I ran up there, got his notes, brought it back down and he finished preaching about walking in love. And so, he said concerning walking in love, he said um the the pastor's wife Remember the story? He just tells it say it's greatest story. The pastor's wife that he said, "We know we pass from death to life because we love one another and he who hates his brother is a murderer. And a murderer does not have eternal life in him." First John 3:14-15. So, he says, "One of the way you know that you're saved," he said, "is you love your brother." And he said, "If you hate your brother, you're a murderer." Hm. Wow, you know, you see that in the paper all the time. You see some murderer in there, somebody that went and killed a few people. Well, you don't have to kill somebody literally to be a murderer. You can just hate somebody. And with your words and your rejection, you might be listed as a murderer. Your picture might be up somewhere that he said you're a murderer. And so, now you got to judge yourself if you hate somebody. So, he is preaching there and the the pastor's wife, she said, "You got me all confused." She said, "You said I'm not even saved if I if I hate somebody." He said, "Well," she said, he said, "What's your problem?" She said, "I hate my mother-in-law." Well, they'd had some conflicts over the years. And she said, "And you say that I don't have eternal life if I hate somebody." She said, "I hate my mother-in-law." He said she said, "And I'll tell you this, well, I'm a Christian. I've been saved." She said, "I got filled with the Holy Ghost talking other tongues, you know." And and he she and she went through her whole history. Brother Hagin said, "I don't care how long you've been in church. I don't care how many churches you built. If you hate your mother-in-law, you're a murderer." Oh, man. Man, that threw her a loop. So, she said, "Uh well, well, well, what's the matter?" He said, "Well, look at me and say, 'I hate my mother-in-law.'" So, she looked at him and said, "I hate my mother-in-law." He said, "What happened on the inside of you?" He said, "Something scratching down there." He said, "That's your heart, that's your spirit. Cuz really you don't hate your mother-in-law. You just got those feelings in your flesh. And the love of God on the inside of you don't even agree with how you feel right now." So, really you don't hate her. You actually love her. He said, "Well, what am I supposed to do?" He said, "Act like you would if you did love her because you do." So, she said, "All right, I'm going to act like I would if I did." And she started, you know, going out of her way to act like she loved her mother-in-law. And then she found out, "You know, she's not a bad person at all." Invited her over to eat. Well, during that meeting, they called Dad Hagin up, this same woman, and she had her little one of her daughters, beautiful little girl, and that had seizures and had epilepsy. Some of the worst cases. And so, they'd been to the doctors. They said just nothing we can do about it. So, she's having a seizure and and they called Dad Hagin, said, "Is there any way you can come by and pray for our daughter?" So, he said, "All right." He's on the way to church in small town. So, he just stopped in there and he's going to go in there to pray for the daughter. So, when he went in there, he said the Lord said to him, "Don't pray for the child. Don't touch the child. Say to the mother, 'Say to the mother, mother, say, mother, say to Satan, I'm walking in love now. TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF MY CHILD.'" He said, "When she said," cuz he hadn't touched the child, "when she said, 'Satan, I'M WALKING IN LOVE NOW. TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF MY CHILD.'" HE SAID THAT SEIZURE IMMEDIATELY STOPPED. And the CHILD WAS HEALED THAT MOMENT. And the seizures never came back again the rest of her life. Are y'all still here? I'm walking in love now. In other words, she hadn't been walking in love just a few days before, but she just made a few adjustments. COME ON. SOMETIMES JUST A FEW ADJUSTMENTS TO WALK IN LOVE. I'M WALKING IN LOVE NOW. AND I CHOOSE TO forgive because the love of God IS IN MY HEART BY THE HOLY GHOST. AND THAT love's on the inside of me and I'm going to let it dominate me. I'm not going to let bitterness and unforgiveness dominate me. I'M NOT GOING TO LIVE MY LIFE MAD AT OTHER PEOPLE. I'm going to walk in the God kind of love. He said, "That love makes you more than a conqueror."
Well, in my testimony, I WENT TO ALL THE MEETINGS and I'm doing my best to to live by faith and and blessed, but I kind of hit a place spiritually where I wasn't growing and the blessing wasn't flowing. So, I went to hear Brother Hagin. I heard different sermons. But that particular night, that big Coliseum, he said, "I want you to turn your Bible John 13:34. 35." I went, "Oh, here we go again." Cuz I've heard it before. Now, we're going to hear it again. I said, "Lord, I came all this way. I wanted to hear something about visions of Jesus and angels and we're going to John 13:34 and we're going to First Corinthians 13. Come on." So, he taught the same stuff I'm telling you. It's real quiet during the whole sermon. Not a lot of shouting and running during these kind of messages. He went through all the different things about walking in love and about walking in forgiveness. Amen. Then I'm sitting in the minister section and at the end he said, "Now, if some of you hadn't been walking in love and you're going to make the adjustment tonight and you're going to forgive others." He said, "I want you to stand up." And I'm sitting there. I said, "I'm a I'm a pastor. I'm not going to stand up. I'm in the minister section. I'm not going to stand up. I don't have to stand up. I can sit down here and just take care of it here while I'm sitting down. Besides that, I don't want everybody to wonder who I'm thinking about. So, I'm just sitting right here. He said, "I said, if you need to forgive somebody, I want you to stand up." And I went, "Oh, Lord." I just stood up. I thought, "This is killing me right now." He said, "Now, repeat after me. I'm going to walk in love with anybody else does, and I'm going to freely forgive those who've done me wrong or mistreated me. I just let it go. I freely forgive them. I've been forgiven, and I'm going to walk in love." So, we went through the whole confession. He said, "Now, let's just thank the Lord." That moment, the glory of God. Come on, you can't have the glory if you're not walking in the God kind of love. The glory of God hit me, the presence of God. Listen, and what I had struggled with financially, even though I'm a tither, EVEN THOUGH I'M A GIVER, WHAT I STRUGGLED with financially, WHEN I GOT HOME WITHIN 30 DAYS, I was totally out of debt in 30 days time. Do you know how expensive it is to hold a grudge? DO YOU KNOW HOW EXPENSIVE IT IS TO HOLD unforgiveness in your heart? Well, years ago, I had a I had a preacher say something about me. And you know, I'm I don't know what the deal is with me, but that's just something that I just don't like. And I'm pretty much going to let you know I don't like it. And if you want to talk about it, let's just talk. Well, he said so. I said, "I'm going to I'm going to let him know talk like that." And then, you know, the devil's going to make sure you hear it. If somebody said something about you, cuz you always got a repeater somewhere. So, I said, "I'm going to let him have it." And the Lord said, "You're going to forgive him right now, and you're going to drop it, and I don't want you to ever repeat it." And I went, "All right. I'll drop it right now." That same preacher called me up and asked me to preach at his church on Sunday, just a few weeks later. I never said a word about it. Act like we were best friends. He gave me a check for $50,000 for one Sunday. The Lord said, "Would you rather have the 50,000 or would you rather tell somebody off?" I said, "I'll just take the 50,000." Come on, get down off your HIGH HORSE. SAY, "I'D RATHER HAVE THE BLESSING OF THE LORD. I FREELY FORGIVE." I SAID, "I'D RATHER HAVE THE BLESSING OF THE LORD. I FREELY FORGIVE." And sometimes you say, "WELL, I JUST CAN'T FORGIVE." YEAH, you can. The love of God's in you. You can forgive. Luke chapter 17, where where Jesus talked about forgiveness. And so, Peter wanted to talk to him about it. So, Peter says something. Lord, how often we going to have to do this? Cuz I'd kind of like to know just so I can kind of figure it. I'm willing to forgive, but you know, let's just like you do me once, BUT YOU MESS WITH ME TWICE, AND WE FINISHED. SO, Peter said, "Well, let me suggest seven times. How's that sound, Lord? Sounds pretty generous to me." JESUS SAID, "NO, 70 * 7." IN A DAY. 490 TIMES. How many of Y'ALL ARE COUNTING UP HOW MANY TIMES YOU'VE FORGIVEN them already? No, 490 TIMES IN ONE DAY. And he wouldn't tell you to do something that he wouldn't do for you. Woo, how many know he's had to kick in that forgiveness a lot in one day for some of us? COME ON, YOU'RE FORGIVEN. NOT ONLY FORGIVEN, HE FORGETS YOU EVER DID ANYTHING WRONG. That's the God kind of love. I said, "That's the God kind of love." THAT'S WHAT MAKES CHRISTIANITY DIFFERENT. Is the God kind of love. Praise the Lord.
So, here's what Jesus said in Luke 17. We know Mark 11:23 say to the mountain, but in Luke 17, Jesus said, um How many times forgive? And he said, "70 * 7." And Peter said, "Increase our faith." All right, let's keep going. So, So, Jesus, instead of using mountain in that verse, he says you would say to the sycamine tree, "Be plucked up by the roots, and it would obey you." So, I was reading the commentary years ago, and it said when Jesus used the word sycamine tree, he said he never used the word without a meaning. And he said, "When he said sycamine tree, be plucked up by the roots." And so, somebody said, "If you're sick of yours, I'm sick of mine." So, we got a a sycamine tree. The roots. So, it gave the five characteristics of a sycamine tree, maybe Trina can help me. So, I wrote it down. Five characteristics of a sycamine tree, you say, "Be plucked up by the root." And here's what it said. Number one, a sycamine tree grows in the driest desert areas. Because the area is so dry, it has a very deep root system. The fruit of a sycamine tree is so bitter, it is only eaten by poor people. And the fruit is pollinated by the stinger of a wasp. And the WOOD OF A SYCAMINE tree is used for caskets. So, when Jesus said, "You tell that sycamine tree, GET PLUCKED UP BY THE ROOTS. And if you don't, the root system WILL DEFILE YOUR LIFE IN SO MANY areas that you don't even understand. IT WILL AFFECT YOUR SOUL, IT'LL AFFECT YOUR FAMILY, it'll affect your future if you allow that unforgiveness and that root of bitterness to grow in your life." But he said, "YOU CAN COMMAND IT TO be removed." COME ON, YOU'RE NOT HELPLESS IN THIS SITUATION. SAY, "YOU KNOW, I JUST CAN'T HELP IT." YEAH, YOU CAN'T HELP IT. PLUCKED UP BY THE ROOTS. AND he said, "And if you don't deal with it, it can cause you bitter fruit and the wood for your casket." Are y'all still with me? So, when he said, "When you stand, pray, and forgive," he's simply saying, "Wow, look at what God has forgiven YOU. LOOK AT HOW HE'S forgiven you. Look at how many times he's forgiven you." And yet, somebody does two or three things, and you just say, "I ain't ever letting them forget that." He says, "You can forgive while you're standing there." I freely forgive. So, I made the adjustment. Anybody want to know what happened when I made the adjustment? Man, the blessing of the Lord. Did you know it will even affect your health? Woo, how many of y'all happy already? All right, turn to 1 Peter 4:8. 1 Peter 4:8. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 1 Peter 4:8. Wasn't expecting a lot of shouting, so it's all right. 1 Peter 4:8. So, we've got who? We've got Jesus. We've got John. We've got Paul. Now, let's see what Peter has to say anything about it. 1 Peter 4:8. Peter says, 1 Peter 4:8. He says, "And above all things, and above all things, AND ABOVE ALL THINGS, AND ABOVE ALL THINGS, AND ABOVE ALL THINGS." You say, "Well, you don't know my my favorite subject." It don't matter. You better make it your favorite SUBJECT TONIGHT. ABOVE ALL THINGS. I SAID, "ABOVE ALL THINGS." ABOVE ALL THINGS. HAVE FERVENT THE GOD KIND OF LOVE. HAVE FERVENT LOVE AMONG YOURSELVES, for the God kind of love will what? Cover a multitude OF SINS. ALL, THERE'S A BIG COVER-UP GOING ON RIGHT NOW. IN OTHER WORDS, YOU'RE NOT TRYING to expose what's WRONG WITH SOMEBODY ELSE. COME ON, YOUR ADJUSTMENT IS TO TAKE care of what YOU'RE DEALING WITH YOURSELF. AMEN.
So, he says, "The God kind of love is not talking about and exposing what's wrong with everybody else. And now, let me tell you about my mama. My mama's real good at this. Because there's four preachers in the family. We all come home for Thanksgiving, Christmas. And so, we all sit around the table. Well, we know preachers from all the East Coast to West Coast all around the world. So, we sit at the table. And sure enough, one of the preachers did something. Oh, there's always a preacher that does something. And if you if you I mean, so it's always some preacher did something or didn't do something. Always something going on. And so, some preacher's name come up at the table. And some of the brothers, you know, and start talking. Well, they did something. What What happened? What happened? What happened? WHAT HAPPENED TO WHAT HAPPENED TO WHAT DID IT GO? WHAT HAPPENED TO WHAT HAPPENED TO WHAT HAPPENED TO WHAT HAPPENED? WELL, PEOPLE FEED ON THAT. THEY'RE LIKE IT LIKE FISH. You're like They want to know the details about it. Tell me the details. So, we're sitting at the table. And whoever's name could be somebody in the church, even. Plenty of problems in the church. No perfect people in the church. If you want to see the list of some of the most imperfect people, read Hebrews 11. I asked the Lord why he had to tell all of their faults and failures. He said, I told the Lord, "If I was you, I would have edited the Bible. I wouldn't want everybody to know what David did, what Abraham did, what Noah did, what Moses did." He said, "I WENT AHEAD AND TOLD THE WHOLE STORY." HE SAID, "BECAUSE 2,000 years later, there's going to be somebody that failed and made a mistake. And if they'll dare to have faith in God, I'll pull their life up out of that and I'll make their life significant." So, we're talking. Here's what my mama did. She did this every time. She would sing a little song that we learned in children's church. And we would sing this song. And here's the song. Very simple. It goes like this. Help me, Trina. Let's talk about Jesus. That's how That's where it goes. And here's where it goes. Let's talk about Jesus. The king of kings is he. The lord of lords, supreme throughout eternity. The great I am, the way, the truth, the life, the door. Let's talk about Jesus more and more. So, we're at the table still talking about this other guy or these people. So, my mama starts singing, "Let's talk about Jesus." All right? We're like, "Why's your mama singing at the table?" She's just singing. So, if you didn't stop talking about somebody negative, if you're talking negative, then she turned it up louder. She go, "LET'S TALK ABOUT JESUS." She go And she would get louder UNTIL YOU SHUT UP. "I'M TIRED OF TALKING ABOUT WHAT'S WRONG WITH EVERYBODY, AND I WANT TO TALK ABOUT JESUS. IF YOU DON'T MIND ME TALKING ABOUT JESUS." SO, WHEN MY MAMA GOT TO BE 80-SOMETHING, she end up kind of in a wheelchair a little bit and she'd walk sometimes still in a wheelchair. So, my my my mom's sisters' daughter came over, which we helped raise because she had gone through a divorce and and now she's going to be with the Lord. And so, my my mom's sister had some business and stuff. She's pretty successful. But she just liked to drink. Drink at the most unusual times. And just show up drunk. It's the funniest thing. Until she was in the street without a clothes on. Now, that wasn't funny. Now, we're not talking about some ignoramus here. We're talking about somebody that's an executive for a for a corporation. But on the weekends, she going to drink. I'm not telling everybody's name, anyway. So, so her daughter came over. And she started talking about her mother, which was my mother's sister. And because of my mother's sister's problems, then my family raised her daughters. So, she wants to tell my mama what's wrong with her sister, which happens to be her mama. We've had this discussion before. But I guess it never gets old when you really want to talk about somebody. So, mama's sitting in a wheelchair. My sister's there. And the aunt she's you know, they they they um they drive big Mercedes. They got lots of fancy stuff. I won't tell you too much more about my family. But anyway, she has lots of fancy stuff. So, she starts telling on my mama's sister, her mama. Well, my mama's 80-something years old. So, my mama starts singing. Let's talk about Jesus. The king of kings is he. The lord So, she's singing this. And my aunt looks at my sister. And she thinks my mama has lost her mind. So, she says to my sister. And she going to look at it. She goes, My mama's name Velma. You don't know many Velmas, do you? She said, "Velma, she goes, she she's kind of starting to lose it." MY SISTER SAYS, "NO, SHE AIN'T LOSING IT. SHE JUST DON'T LIKE WHAT YOU'RE SAYING." COME ON, YOU CAN CONTAMINATE A WHOLE HOUSEHOLD AND THE ATMOSPHERE AND EVERYTHING while you're talking HATRED AND WHAT'S WRONG WITH EVERYBODY. MY MAMA SAID, "LET'S TALK ABOUT JESUS. HE'S THE KING OF KINGS. HE'S THE LORD OF LORDS. LET'S TALK ABOUT JESUS." COME ON, IT'S HIS LOVE THAT CHANGED OUR LIFE. So, next time you're talking to somebody at church, and somebody's negative behavior comes up, and people stay on it a while, I dare you. Let's talk about Jesus. The king of kings is he. Just Just keep singing. If they keep talking about that person, you go, "Let's talk about Jesus."
All right, let me finish up with this. Go back 1 Corinthians 13. I'll finish up with this. So, the love of God's in us. Nine characteristics of the God kind of love. And that love is in us. That's how we know we're saved. It's in your spirit. It's in your heart. And it's the first evidence that you're saved and you're a child of God. It's the God kind of love. Amen. And because it is a fruit of the spirit, you can actually grow in it. That means you can get better at it. Amen. And so, Henry Drummond said, "Here's the nine characteristics of the God kind of love. Number one, patience." Come on, just me in traffic. Listen, if people died if what I said about them in my car, I said, "You idiot, get out the road." "WHO TAUGHT YOU HOW TO DRIVE?" "GET OFF THE PHONE. WHAT THE MATTER WITH YOU?" How many OF YOU EVER TALKED TO people while you're driving? And some people wonder why God has not promoted them faster. We have one of those four four-wheelers, you know, we call it a side-by-side. And it'll go pretty fast. So, my granddaughter, you know, all the grandkids grow up and so, they wanted to drive. And so, we let them once they learn how to drive. And so, my granddaughter she wasn't ready to drive. So, she said, "Poppy, take me take me on the side-by-side. Let's go." I said, "All right." I said, "You you drive, but I'm going to control the accelerator and the brake." "OH, POPPY, LET ME DO IT ALL." "NO." But I will let you drive. So, sit here on my knee. So, they got steering wheel. And I got accelerator. I said, "TURN TURN IT." GOING to hit the tree. "TURN IT. I GOT IT, I GOT IT, POPPY. THEN YOU KNOW WHAT THEY TELL ME? Go faster, POPPY. GO FASTER. I SAID, "IF you would steer better, I would go fast." So many times we're TELLING THE LORD, "LORD, I'M READY TO GO FASTER." THE LORD SAID, "IF I TOOK YOU ANY FASTER, YOU'D HIT A TREE ALREADY. SO I'M GOING TO GO AHEAD AND SLOW DOWN ON YOU." All right, let me give you these. I'm I'm I'm I'm ready here. Patience, kindness, kindness, generosity, generosity, humility. Always watch out for people who tell you how humble they are. The guy in the church won the most humble man in the church. So they gave him a pin. They had to take it away from him because he started wearing it. So we got humility. Then we've got courtesy. COURTESY WAS JUST SIMPLY GOOD MANNERS. Come on, you ever want TO TELL SOMEBODY, "DIDN'T ANYBODY EVER TEACH YOU ANY MANNERS?" Just regular manners. So he said, "That's love in little things." And he said, "If you walked in love, you could fit in with the highest parts of society and the lowest parts." Courtesy, unselfishness. The next one is good temper or good disposition. Now, sometimes you do need to say something. But you need to examine if you need to say it that way. Uh let's go over that one more time. I mean, how many ever knew you need to say something? But you need to hold on to that a while till you can say it a little different. I love this little quote here. They asked a doctor and the physician, and he said this. He said the the greatest the best medicine for humans is love. Someone asked him, "What if it does not work?" He smiled. He said, "Increase the dose." Woo! Or Henry Drummond said, "The God kind of love is the greatest secret of personal influence." He said, "If we are to influence others and lead others, nothing is more powerful than the God kind of love."
I can tell you this, my dad and four deacons had to get me out of jail when I was 17 years old. Thank God for his mercy. I was 17 years old. My dad had a '55 Chevy, did some bad stuff, ended up in jail. Called my mama from the jail. I said, "Mom, come get me out of jail." She said, "Where you at?" I said, "I'm over here in jail, county jail." I said, "Come and get me." She said, "Well, you know it's Wednesday night." She did. She said, "We got church tonight. So just prop up your feet and stay a while." All right. Well, about midnight afterwards, my dad and four deacons showed up. All right. So I'm in the elevator with my dad and four deacons. I had a '55 Chevy. I never saw that Chevy again. To this day I don't know what happened to that car. We're in the elevator, and those deacons are staring at me. I'm 17, and I'm staring at them. And I could see the look on their face. Like you are a real disappointment. You're a failure. And I'm like, "And you. I will burn your house down tonight when I get in. You stinking hypocrite." Come on, we got some rebellion problems here. And in the elevator was one man, one deacon, that had just gotten saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, and before that had been one of the meanest men in town. Just a mean cussing, but man, he got saved in the love of God. And those other guys staring at me, and that one deacon, he put his hand on my shoulder, and he said, "Mark, you're going to be all right." I'm 67 years old, and to this day it still goes all over me when I say what he told me. Because I didn't think I was going to be all right. But only one in the elevator talked to me in the God kind of love. Only one. In other words, it gave me hope for myself. The God kind of love in those words. When people feel like a failure, words of faith and hope and love. He says, "Good temper, guileless, guileless, sincerity." And I'm going to read this last of all in the amplified Bible. Y'all ready for this? And then I'll be finished. The God kind of love, everybody say, "I'm going to grow." Amen. And here's all Dad Hagin said to do about it. He said, "Number one, is renew your mind in it. Renew your mind in it. That means he said, "Your mind don't stay renewed any more than your hair stays combed and your teeth stay brushed." In other words, you won't grow in it if you don't take it serious and renew your mind. So every day we just take the scriptures out. He said, "Go over them almost continually." And you know,
I mean, I don't see how you could be any worse than I could have been. I mean, I'm not telling you this cuz I'm good at it. So I started renewing my mind.
He said, "After you renew your mind, there'll come a time you'll get some practice." He said, "Then just determine I'm going to walk in love whether anybody else does or not." Woo! Let's read it in the amplified Bible.
He said, "The God kind of love endures long, is patient and kind." And I wrote on here, "Is not in a hurry." Love never is envious, boils over with jealousy. It is not boastful or vain glorious. It does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited, arrogant, inflated with pride. It is not rude or unmannerly, does not act unbecomingly. Love, God's love in us, does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking. It is not touchy, fretful, resentful, takes no account of the evil done to it, pays no attention to a suffered wrong.
You say, "WELL, LORD, I'M SUPPOSED TO ACT LIKE I'M IGNORANT?" NO, HE SAID, "YOU'RE SUPPOSED to act like you're walking in love." Okay. He said, "If you'll do it, I'll fight that battle for you." Does not rejoice at injustice, to see other people go wrong or unrighteousness. Rejoices when right and truth prevail. It bears up under anything and everything that comes.
SOME PEOPLE SAY, "WELL, I'VE HAD THIS I'VE HAD I'VE PUT UP WITH IT LONG ENOUGH. I AIN'T PUTTING UP WITH IT NO MORE." I'm going to glad God never said that about you. Is ever ready to believe the best of every person. Hopes are faithless under all circumstances. Endures everything without weakening. Love never fails.
Our love is the greatest secret to success. No corporation in the world would reject anybody with those characteristics. You would make that company a success. That's the love of God. Hallelujah. That's the love that's in you. That's the way God loves you. And that love in you, and you can love others that way. And you can even TELL THE DEVIL, "TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF OF MY LIFE. I'M WALKING IN LOVE NOW, MR. DEVIL." And the Bible says, "Perfect love cast out all fear." That means you could be afraid of nothing when you're perfected in the God kind of love. Woo!
Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Lift up your voice and let's just thank the Lord. Thank you, Lord. Your great love, the way that you love her. You help us to grow. Your spirit, the Holy Ghost living in us in the God kind of love. Oh Lord, we will purpose in our heart. We'll make it our quest, our great aim, our goal is to grow in, to walk in. Whenever we step out of love, we'll jump right back in as fast as we can. And we'll freely forgive others. We'll even forgive ourselves. We receive forgiveness because this is the way God loves us. Thank you, Father. We receive your love. We receive your forgiveness. We'll grow in love. And we'll grow spiritually. And you'll take us faster to our destination as we grow in the God kind of love. And you'll protect protect us and surround us. The love of God, we dwell in that love. In the atmosphere of our house, the atmosphere of our our friends, and the atmosphere of our mind, the love of God will prevail. The love of God will prevail. We'll not look around and judge others whether they're doing it or not. We'll just say, "I'm going to walk in love whether anybody else does or not." Hallelujah.
Can everybody say, "I'm going to walk in love whether anybody else does or not?" Come on, I believe God can fight your battle for you. Come on, Dad Hagin said, "Anytime you're feeling mistreated, he said, you know the devil's working on you." Woo. The devil bring up how somebody mistreated you. Well, we had a big situation not too long ago where somebody clearly clearly robbed me of thousands of dollars. I'm like, "I will not tolerate that. I will beat their head in, you understand?" I knew the person. I said, "I will beat your head in." "You think you can just walk away like that? You're wrong, absolutely wrong." So, I let him have it. Anybody want to know what to do after I let him have it? The Lord said, "Now, call him back." "I will not call him back." Took me a while. I said, "I want you to know I'm sorry for what I said and the way I said it. And I want you to know I forgive you if I never see that money. God'll take care of me. He has taken care of me well. And I want you to know I'm letting it go right now." And I said, "Furthermore, I do not tolerate that kind of behavior out of me." He said, "What?" I said, "I do not tolerate that out of me. I'M TIRED OF THAT. I look in the mirror AND SAID, 'I'M TIRED OF YOUR ATTITUDE AND YOU'RE GOING TO STRAIGHTEN it up right now.'"
Anybody want to know what happened? Man, the Lord blessed me so much. The Lord said, "You think that'll take care of it for you?" I said, "It'll take care of it real good for me, Lord. Just forget ABOUT IT." HOW MANY OF YOU THINK GOD CAN MAKE IT UP TO YOU WHEN IT LOOKS like somebody's getting the best of you? COME ON, NOBODY CAN GET the best of you and do you wrong if you'll walk in love. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Now, anybody here tonight you're kind of like me at that Hagin meeting. And you're saying, "I I need to make some adjustments about walking in love. And I know what they are. Love or forgiveness. And you just want to stand up just right now and just say, 'That's me and I I'm going to make the adjustment.' Just stand up on your feet. I've had people tell me, they said, 'I think you saved our marriage.' I said, 'I didn't save it, God saved it.' Amen. Amen. I'm going to make an adjustment. First place to practice is at the house. Woo. Amen. And at church and at work. Let's lift our hands up right now. Everybody say, "Father God, thank you for the blood of Jesus. And you cleansed me. And you've forgiven me. And you washed away my sin. And tonight, I'm making an adjustment. I freely forgive others. I'm going to walk in love whether anybody else does or not. And I'm GOING TO HAVE YOUR LOVE AND YOUR PRESENCE in my house. And I'm GOING TO HAVE JOY. AND I'M GOING TO HAVE PEACE. AND I FREELY FORGIVE OTHERS. I FREELY forgive them. And I'm going to walk in love. And I'm going to grow in love. And every day, I'll renew my mind. Then I'll practice my behavior and my words. And when I step out of love, I'll repent. I'll jump right back in real fast. AND NOW I SAY, "DEVIL, TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF MY FAMILY. TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF MY BODY. AND OFF OF MY MIND. AND OFF OF MY MONEY. I'M WALKING IN LOVE NOW. I'M WALKING IN LOVE NOW. AND VICTORY'S MINE."
WELL, GIVE THE LORD A SHOUT. HALLELUJAH. OH, HALLELUJAH. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Glory to God. You may be seated. Amen. Man, I was just sitting down there saying when y'all everybody was doing confessing that, I just said, "Miracles, glory to God, released in this place." Hallelujah. Say it again, "I'm walking in the God kind of love." I know Laura text me or met leaned over me during the thing. She said, "Is he preaching that cuz you asked him to?" I said, "I don't know. Maybe he was going to preach it anyway." But you just get to walking in this and you realize love is the greatest thing of all. You know? It's the greatest of all. And uh you know, I just text Laura, wrote something down. I said, "If you get your love right, your faith will work easy." Yeah, it's powerful. Anyway.
Well, we want to have our ushers come on down. Amen. We want to receive a final offering tonight for the Hankins for these meetings. If you came prepared to sow. If you need an envelope for your giving, lift your hand. The ushers will be happy to serve you with one. And they're going to put up the text to give. You could also go on melodychurch.com and do that. Uh it just takes a moment. If you haven't done online giving, I'll tell you if you're a sow-er, online giving and text to give is the greatest thing that's ever been invented. I love it cuz I don't carry I don't generally carry cash. I don't have a Half the time I don't have my wallet with me. But uh man, you set up that on-time give online giving. We got online giving set up with several ministries. And I'm If I'm at a meeting, I go to I don't have my wallet or my card. I go in and plug it in. I was like, "Oh, I'm already signed up. I just give whatever I want." Amen. Then I don't tell my wife and then later she said, "Why did you give that? You didn't tell me." Glory to God. Love is not a side show. Amen. It's the main course. And I think, you know, just for me personally, when you realize how tough sometimes it's tougher you I thought, man, people I know some of y'all I thought it too a while back. Think, man, I wish he could have preached on faith or in Christ or But see, that's just something you want. You're looking for something for We're looking for stuff for ourself. But sometimes we got to grow up and eat the vegetables. Amen. You got to grow up and say, "I got to learn how to let something flow through me. I can't A lot of the body of Christ is give me, give me, give me." And there's nothing wrong. We need to hear teaching on faith and, you know, in Christ. And I'm I'm all for that. I wish we could have another 5 days of meetings and listen to all that. But I thought just on this last night, you know, we need love. We need to We need to grow in love. Amen.
Praise the Lord. Well, everybody Anybody ready to sow tonight? Amen. Got a I saw about three hands. So, thank y'all for being generous tonight. You're going to have to walk in love, ain't it? Praise the Lord. Well, hold up your offering. Amen. To the Lord. Father, we just release our faith. Come on, let's release our faith in our seed. Glory to God. We release our faith right now as we release, Lord, our precious seed into this good soil, into this We receive the word that's been sown into our hearts. Now we return back. And Lord, we sow of our finances into this good ground, this good ministry. We release our faith right now. And we release our seed into the Hankins in the name of Jesus. We just receive, Lord God, thank you for a bountiful harvest from the seed sown in Jesus' name. Everybody said Amen. You may receive the offering. Praise the Lord.
Yeah, go ahead. One time the Lord said this to me. He said, "You get some places because you trust me. And you get other places because I trust you." It's good. I like that. Praise the Lord. God is good. Amen. We were uh while they're taking up the offering, you know, Laura and I we we've been married, I think going How long we've been married, babe? Be 20 years or 19 years. Going on 19 years this May. It changes every year. But the first few years we were married, you know, I I just graduated from Rhema. I thought I was a love expert. And then I Laura and I were married on our honeymoon. On the second or third day of of honeymoon, I realized I'm not the expert I thought I was in love. I said we can't even get by that into the past the week of the honeymoon. It's supposed to be just honey on the honeymoon. But we got into the bees nest on the on the honeymoon I thought, "Good Lord." So we ended up getting into a disagreement about something and Laura's wondering what I'm about to say. She's looking at me. Let's talk about Jesus. But you know, those first few years you know, I grew a lot in love. I grew a lot in love. And then there came a time where I wasn't doing so hot, you know, and then Laura carried me with her love. Isn't that powerful? But now we're both walking in love. Isn't that good? That's what makes the I don't know. I don't care what Oprah says, man. If you don't walk in the God kind of love, your marriage isn't going to work. I don't know how these folks out there in the world do it. I think they're lying. They're doing some other thing, huh? And I will always love you. Oh, we're going to get out of here before it gets ugly then. We got to get that drinking music going and we'll be drinking all night. Amen.
Stand up on your feet. Praise the Lord. I tell you if you didn't act on that word tonight, I'm going to pray over you right now that you don't make it that you don't you're going to be just miserable until you ain't going to sleep. You got to get it right. Amen. You got to you got to get that stuff off you, man. I tell you it's like a thousand pound weight lifts off you when you you just forgive and you realize that one of the greatest things you realize you cannot control people. It Oh, oh, here's a big one. You're going to go ahead and love and forgive someone and don't expect nothing in return. Cuz they the way you forgive them may not be the way they act towards you. But then guess what? You just say, "I love them and I'm just going to move forward." Amen. I bless you tonight. Thank you for being such a blessing. Give it up for the Hankins. Amen. What a powerful line of meetings. Make sure to go out and get all the remaining stuff they have out there on the product table 50% off. Get it. They're the best resources you'll find. Get them and listen to them daily. I love you and I bless you. Amen. See you all Wednesday.
If you haven't already, go ahead and share our Facebook message tonight so that others around you have the opportunity to hear the message of the God kind of love. It's such an exciting message, but it's so life-changing. It's so vital to the body of Christ that we walk in God's kind of love. If you'd like to partner with us financially and specifically give toward the Hankins meetings, you can either do give two ways. You can go to our website and click give at the bottom of the page and you can set up a one-time gift and you can allocate for guest speaker or you can text 77977 to Melody Church. We are so excited that you decided to join us tonight. If by chance you just clicked on and you didn't see the whole service, we encourage you go ahead and watch from the beginning because there was powerful stuff that was released to the body of Christ tonight. Have a great week and we'll see you Sunday. Be blessed.