Identifying Love: Sermon Transcript.

Open your Bibles with me to 2nd Peter chapter 1 and as you remain standing let's read together

starting in chapter 1 verses 1 through 11.

2nd Peter chapter 1 will read 1 through 11. Simon, Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

those who have attained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and

Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of

Jesus our Lord. His divine power is granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness

through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has

granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become

partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because

of sinful desire. For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue

and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness.

Instead fastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection

with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing they keep you from being

ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these

qualities is so near sighted that he is blind having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former

sins. Therefore brothers be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure.

For if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be

richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. Father we ask for you to be here present with us as we open your word.

We ask you Lord to open our minds and our hearts that we may take what you say and apply it

that we may love you more and love each other better. We pray that you would keep me from saying

anything that would do harm to your word or to your people and that you would guide this time

as in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Just come off of a month in September of studying identity and what it means to have

our identity in Christ and as we were getting to the end of understanding our identity in Christ

there was one passage that kept ringing in my head that I knew I wanted to address

and then when I realized that it was also the last word of the list that we've been working through

all year in 2nd Peter it seemed to be right to marry those two and to preach today on our

identity in Christ from the last word of 2nd Peter chapter 1 which is the list we've been going

through which is the word love and the passage that keeps coming to mind is from the gospel of

John chapter 13 when Jesus says a new command I give to you love one another as I have loved you

you must love one another and then he says this by this everyone will know or identify you

as my disciples if you love one another I am so thankful for this body of believers because normally

I've had the opportunity to preach on love or a passage about love that was dominant two or three

times and normally it's in front of congregations that I think well here we go you know it's not

gonna it's not probably not gonna go good and when I stand before you now I think of so many of you

and what a loving congregation this is and so I want to just say to you how thankful I am

to be a pastor here and to gather with you as a loving people now having said that pessimistic

Devon will come back out which is the one I know most of you wait for and I'll tell you a story

there was the worst sermon I've ever heard preached was a sermon on love and I won't tell you

who it was because you may know him and it was about 20 years ago now and it was a it was an

evening service but I don't remember if it was a Sunday evening and I'll never forget this guy

walking around on stage and saying just over and over again God loves you

3k he's emphasizing that and I just thought gosh what is that and God loves you

and I just thought you know something seems wrong about that right something seems off

and I thought well maybe just because he's annoying and he was but there's also something else

that was wrong with that which is that he was missing the point of the love of God by making it

about feelings and this lovey-dovey idea that we were so wonderful and that you are so wonderful

that God just can't get enough and it was implied in every emotional emotion driven

word that he spoke somehow we have won the affection of God he just can't get enough of us

but that is not what the word means that is not the God love that we'll look at today

does not what second Peter 1 verse 7 says when it says that we are to be practicing love

and it's not what John chapter 13 means when it says you to love one another and therefore be

identified as my disciples Jesus is making the case that we will be identified we will be known

for our love but that love cannot be based purely upon how we feel it must be based on our commitments

our understanding of God and what he does in us that will be produced from us this is the way

this sermon is outlined so that you know I want to give a definition where I show you in the

scripture what this word means and then I want to remind you of second Peter and then I want to

talk about what love is and then what love is not and that's how we'll end okay so let's start out

first this morning with our definition the word here is the word agape many of you may be familiar

with that word you may have heard that word before agape it's from second Peter 1 7 it's also

used in Galatians 5 22 in when Paul describes the fruit of the spirit as I told you it's used

regularly it is a selfless action oriented intention for the best for God and for others around

it is a commitment to altruism an attempt to selflessly act out toward others

it's a desire to see good for others and for them to conform to God's character which by the

way when we say I want good for you the only way we can want real good for someone is if we're

wanting them to align with the character of God everything that deviates from that is not good for

a person even if it makes them happy this word agape is a desire for God to be worshiped and seen

as supreme in all situations occasions and relationships throughout all the world and in every moment

unlike other Greek words for love agape is a love for everyone a godlike love and represents

selflessness and sacrifice that goes beyond our personal relationships it is said as you heard

our brother read just a minute ago and first shown for that God is agape God is love it appears in

the fruit of the spirit when we are saved and we are believers the Holy Spirit resides within us

and what is produced from us it says the fruit of the spirit is love it's the first one a

sacrificial acting out toward those around us as opposed to a selfishness so there's two major

takeaways this kind of love is only something we will have if we've been born again with a new

spirit and a new heart because it's directly from God and toward God and flows from us as a result

of the spirit's work within us now that's important because of something in just a second number

two we are to practice this trait as if we are going to master it for the sake of presenting ourselves

to God as faithful servants the thing that I keep emphasizing in second Peter 1 throughout this whole

year we keep coming back to this is I want all of us to commit to a life well lived we have a

theological I wouldn't say problem but we ended up we end up often laying back on our theology

and saying well God's got this because of grace and I'm saved through grace and therefore we

conclude I don't have to do anything because you don't have to do anything to receive the grace of

Christ that's true but in when you receive the grace of Christ you do something you act out it

flows from you and if it doesn't you haven't received the grace of Christ and just because you have

received a new heart and a new mind doesn't mean you always know what to do or where to put your

efforts or what to practice and so when Peter gives us a list like this it's for us to look at

and if you see it and you go I want that I want to be that I want to do more of that

that is a good sign the Holy Spirit is in you crying out to be more like God for you to be more like

God if you see this and you go I can never do this is too much I'm out and it's a bad sign

that you don't value the things of Christ and therefore haven't been changed

now I love my definitions as you know because I think that we use lots of words and ideas that we

haven't defined and so just as much as we can define it in the positive I also want to define

it today by omission here's what it's not in first John chapter two 15 through 17 John writes

do not love the world or the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the

father is not in him for all that is in the world the less of the flesh the less of the

eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the father but is from the world the world is

passing away and also it's less but the one who does the will of God lives forever and here is

a definition of what Peter is telling us to practice by showing us the opposite you can

gin up a sacrificial love for the wrong things this word do not love the world is the word agape do not

self sacrifice for the purpose of things what things it would be very low hanging fruit to say

cars and houses and money jobs what's more piercing to our soul is do not self sacrifice for comfort

and for happiness and for an ideal situation that you think will make you satisfied we tend to

give ourselves a break when you think that these attributes aren't things of the world when

somehow we deserve those when actually the truth is those are things that we can love that are

of the world if anyone loves the world if anyone seeks to be comforted by this world the love

of the father is not in him and look at the contrast or listen to the contrast I should say

from the first verse to the last one the world's passing away but the one who does the will of

God lives forever not simply believes in God's will like the demons do but is doing the will of God

again emphasizing that love in action idea that it's not just I feel good about you it's that

regardless of how I feel about you I'm committed because of my relationship with Jesus to act out

toward you in the most selfless way I can think of this is a sacrificial action how do you know then

if you're in the right place how do you know whether you're loving the world or the things in the

world or loving God here's some questions how are you longing for something you don't have that you

think would make life better or are you enjoying doing the will of God are you wishing you had more

of something wishing everything was cleaner wishing everything was more comfortable wishing

everything was peaceful wishing everything was simpler or easier or are you enjoying your sacrificial

life lived for the father see our love is identifying what we pursue what we spend our time on

it's part of who we are it is an identity and so when Jesus says they'll know your mind

because of how you love he is telling us that there is an identity wrapped up in how we act

not just in what we believe and so we are called to action we understand that we are ever changing

growing beings that are not called to discover ourselves in some stagnant way but that we are a

box moving through time which things come in and out of that we are being sanctified if you will

that we are not one stagnant idea that we can stand on say this is me and you must accept it

but in Christ we are regularly growing and so we in humility say I am his and he is always changing

me this is not a feeling but a track record if you will for instance it would be easy to say I'm a

nice person I'm a nice person I I try to make myself believe I'm a nice person but if my track record

is that I'm angry and I cut people off and I say bad things and mean things and I'm harsh in my

judgments and I don't have many friends and I don't find people enjoying talking to me very much

I'm difficult sort of mean it really doesn't matter what I feel does it really doesn't matter

that I say or think myself a nice person the reality is I'm not and so how we feel doesn't really

matter compared to how we treat other people if I think myself a good person but have no self-control

and make everything about me if I'm impatient and grumpy then the way I have acted means that

I'm not loving not good I'm not nice and the reason I emphasize this so hard is because the

word of God comes back up against the culture that we live in which says that your feelings should

be maintained and I'm asserting that your feelings will be maintained through the right course

of action unto God but even if they're not the right course of action unto God is still the right

thing because the scripture has said so and God has spoken and it is final how we love how we act

out what we sacrifice for these are what identify us so I just put a lot on you and I just said a

whole lot of things so now let's go to second Peter one and let me just remind you of some familiar

things okay those remind ourselves of just some familiar things that we already know in relationship

to this word some people have even said this is not very expositional because it's such a deep

dive into a singular word instead of seeing the passage as a whole but I think that the deep dive

into each word in the list in second Peter one five through seven is effectively showing us

what he's asking for because as we have it really exhausted ourselves looking at each attribute

when you come to the end you can see if you were actively working at each one of these things

out of a desire to know God better then you wouldn't be unfruitful and you wouldn't be useless

in your ministry and you wouldn't feel like you don't know if you're saved because these things

if you're about this business these things are reassuring these things are strengthening

and they're not easy and so you will have been wrestling with God and coming to a better place

so we know Peter wrote it we know who he wrote it to which is to believers he doesn't expect lost

people to be able to do these things nor is he expecting them to want to in verse two he emphasizes

knowledge over emotion which is mentioned eight times throughout the book operate based up

on what you know not based on your desires desires lead us astray he will say in the course of

three small chapters we are called through knowledge which is in contrast to making decisions

based upon emotions that we are to be sanctified not earning our salvation but sanctification is

what happens when we are already saved is the process of God growing us up as people to love

what he loves and hate what he hates your salvation changes your heart and mind making us want to

be good want to know God and change the way we respond in relationships and circumstances and

situations because we have new goals salvation will change your love for the world your self-sacrifice

for the things of the world to a self-sacrifice for Christ deny yourself Jesus says pick up your

cross and follow me this is what salvation does it doesn't change that we can love it changes what

we love and it changes the degree to which we pursue it we are given these divine traits and you

remember Dr. Orrick talked about the divine traits that were given from the first few verses

there in verses three and four where we have a we have a new nature and he talked about how we

don't want to go too far with that because we're not divine but we have a divine nature because

we are born again and being born again means that we have new intentions what makes us unhealthy

physically is usually our refusal to eat healthy or exercise or stay active and the same is true

for our spiritual life you don't have a good spiritual diet you don't discipline yourself

you become useless and unfruitful and unsure of your salvation and Peter knows this which is why

when he writes this out he ends with that whoever lacks these qualities is near-sided and blind and

forgotten the things that matter they were cleansed that if they are nodding if we are not increasing

in these qualities verse eight that we will be ineffective and unfruitful and so we pursue these

things and understand these things that we have a nature we're able to do them then he gets to verse

five verse five begins this list where he says supplement supplement and that is the idea of

come alongside bring a chorus that backs up the play God has provided all you need in salvation

but you can make it sing so supplement your faith with these attributes and he says first virtue

moral excellence that is and then moral excellence with knowledge knowledge of our own heart

and God's truth knowledge with self-control self-control or temperance discipline to be and to

pursue Christ both in the good and the bad self-control with steadfastness or hupa maune as we

talked about a an endurance a patience the idea that you choose to suffer hard and difficult

things for the sake of honor and usefulness steadfastness with godliness which is true worship

godliness with brotherly kindness or affection and brotherly affection with love and also point

out to you that it seems as though Peter is putting these in a sequential order so that they make

up for one another so we can misuse our attempts at these and we need the next one in order to

temper us so moral excellence can make us feel good about ourselves and we can do what feels right

and we need knowledge to come alongside that and provide those parameters and knowledge can

puff us up spiritually and get us a lot of things practically and so we need self-control

and self-control can wane and so we need steadfastness or endurance and to voluntarily choose to

suffer which is steadfastness or endurance we forget why we are doing them which is why we need

godliness and godliness which is obedience to god we can do that to such a degree that we begin to

be intolerant for those around us who are not as far along as we are and so when you brotherly

kindness and if we are to act out selflessly only toward those who agree with us and our way of

thinking then god gives us this final command which is to love even those outside the church

because he loves them and tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us

they step in that way so this is where we're at this is the last word of the list and so now let's

look at what love is and what love is not and so because we are diving deep into this one word

we're going to primarily look at what love is from first John if you want to turn over there

and what love is not from first Corinthians 13 and we'll look there lastly so let's begin

and the what love is by looking at first John and if you're in second Peter just turn over

couple pages there and you'll see and let's begin and look at first John 4

I've put these in numerical order for those of you who like to take notes I believe they're also

up on the screen what love is number one love is god's character as seen in Christ

this is one of those ones you can't spend a tremendous amount of time on because

you would be here all day and all week god's character is summarized in first John chapter 4

verse 7 through 10 as being love

his character there's so much to that that it's its own sermon we just have to wrestle with

I give it to you to wrestle with god is love and everything about god fits into that

and we know things about god that are hard to reconcile with that concept which is why it's

worth our time to understand and to recognize but the but the picture that John paints is that

god is love because we see him the god man Jesus sent for sacrifice selflessly serving the

father and not himself and giving himself for us and that is the greatest testimony of sacrificial

love and love in action that we can possibly have love is god's character as seen in Christ

number two love is our commitment to other believers particularly the church and what I mean when

I say the church see we talk about churches if we come to church but church is the group of people

gathered together it's not the building it's us so when I say love the church we're loving

loving believers we're loving those who claim the name of Christ and who are fighting the fight

and walking the walk alongside us that's what I mean that's what the Bible means when it says it

look at first John chapter 3 this is what I had Tobias read for us today

the message we've heard from the beginning that we should love one another we shouldn't be like

cane well duh right should murder people that's the best a bad alternative why does he bring this

up he's he's making a bifurcation right he's he's splitting something into two pieces and saying

examine them in their opposites you can either be selfless in how you act out glad for those people

around you whose successes that you see or you can hate them for doing better

and I want all of us to be honest enough to say we've all been there where we see someone else

doing well and despise them for and that's not a loving attitude that's not in tandem with Christ

and so he brings up the idea that cane was that the evil one murdered his brother why did he

murder him because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous do not be surprised the

world hates you we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers

whoever does not love abides in death do you love the people of God do you want to be with

them do you find it exhilarating and fulfilling and and motivating to be with the people of God

or do you see it as just a convenience I'll get there when I get there I'll see them when I see

them I'll talk to them when we're together or do you find that there's a a a drive in you that says

we need to do life together for the good of us both and for the glory of God

rejoicing in other successes the beginning of a true love for the brethren love means being

happy for people who get titles and successes that you've always wanted or thought you deserved

this is counter to everything we naturally feel we want success we push forward we try

hard and then when somebody else gets that thing there's nothing that is natural about going

praise God I'm so happy for you I'm glad that you're doing well I'm glad this happened

I want you to be good that's that's very counter now it's not counter to say it out loud it's

counter to mean it we all know how to be polite hey good for you I'm so so thankful for it that's

awesome wow great so with promotion really making more money that's fantastic I'm so glad

and on the inside we hate them and I can tell because you say it to people that you trust

and quiet really they deserve that we both know they deserve that or you write it on social media

which is the worst thing you could possibly do happy for people's hard and through success

especially in for our church it'll be a great test because coming into simmer will have this

deacon training and some of you will become a deacon and some of you won't and it'll be a great

test of the love of Bellpoint Baptist Church to see how we respond to those who become a deacon

and those who don't are you going to be loving and have a good attitude and choose that this is

good and right and that you praise God for it or are you going to be hurt and offended and

aggravated and resentful we love each other well when we look for people doing things right

and tell them I see that and I'm thankful for your example how many of you when you came here

this morning were thinking about who you could encourage when you got here don't raise your hand

don't tell me this is for self-reflection how many of you were thinking about I don't want to answer

either okay so let's just let's all just commit to keeping it to ourselves you know what I mean

so how many of you when you came this morning I'm going to encourage someone when I get there

versus you drove here thinking wonder what's going to be like wonder how I feel wonder he'll talk to me

right if we have a mentality of others oriented oriented then we look for opportunity to

find people doing things right and tell them further we love each other when we're able to say

brother stop that it's bad for you it's sin sister you are walking away from God in that way

that's love if you really believe sin is destructive then it's loving to tell someone to

not go that way to stop doing that thing that's the most loving thing we could do

otherwise we're letting them wander off into pain and suffering and walk away from God himself

we show that the love of God is put within us and we want to be around other believers if you

don't want to be with God's people or you avoid God's people when you're here you are not loving

you are being selfish and you might have a poor relationship with God

we don't gather together to avoid each other and I know how hard it can be to engage and to

get over yourself and your own fears and your own I understand I'm not being un compassionate when

I say we don't gather together to avoid each other or to talk to as few people as we can to just

get the God that we came for and get out but we've passed from death the life because we love

the brothers now this brings up the fact that grace the grace of Christ is what allows us

to do this okay hear me out if you're a person that's very legalistic and so everything you do is

based upon the law this is what's right I gotta I gotta keep to this I gotta make sure this is

exactly how it should be if you're bound by the law and and you try to keep it people who are

legalists only know what to do and therefore do not have goals but only restrictions this is a

problem with obeying the law no one ever talks about much but people who obey the law always know

the limits of what they shouldn't do but they never think about the goals of what would be possible

grace allows us to try without fear of embarrassment or disappointment

when you are obeying the law you're not truly loving people but rather just avoiding

hurting people the grace allows you to act out selflessly in love toward those around you

what a joy that is we're an amazing thing that is if you try to love someone and it it doesn't

go well and it isn't received well grace says it's okay you can just try something else

thank you I give you grace you go didn't work like I wanted to but I'm gonna give you grace

or not receiving it well and we'll try again if that sounds too good to be true perhaps you don't

know what grace is or you've never experienced it grace is so radical it's so amazing that the word

amazing fails to describe how it permeates everything when you're in Christ you've been given

a gift that you not only didn't deserve but if the opposite of what you did deserve you deserve

hell for eternity and you didn't get that anything else would be amazing but you have access to the

God creator of all who you will know and enjoy for eternity that is not something you woke up one day

and decided that that was a good idea but that God woke you up and he took you and he loved you

and he gave Jesus so that you could experience that and you're just the recipient of that

and as people who received that we should be the most gracious people on the planet

so then why do Southern Baptist churches particularly have such a terrible reputation for being so

angry and critical and judgmental and stubborn and foolish maybe because most of us are lost

we're not really saved we don't really know grace so we can't really give it

my love language when we're first married my love language I use a love language as an

analogy only it's not the Bible it's not the end all be all don't come at me about the love

language thing don't come at me about the love language thing my love language was words of

affirmation my wife's love language was quality time and so when we were first married I would

self-sacrifice to to make sure I told her good things that I saw about her and she would just sit

beside me that's what that's what quality time people do they just she's there and that was a

that was a self-sacrifice right because she thought this is what I want to love and so I'm

going to give it to you and I thought this is what I want to love so I'm going to give it to you

and we would miss each other because this wasn't what we were interpreting as love right so what

grace does is allow us to have that conversation like I'm seeking to love you but it's not going

good so what do we need to adjust here well you're giving me what you want not what I'm receiving

is love oh okay that's an adjustment I'm happy to make and so is she but you have to have enough

grace to give that kind of have that kind of conversation or otherwise you're just upset all

the time that the person is not responding like you want but grace allows us to listen all right

number three love is our relief from fear first John 418 says there is no fear in love but perfect

love cast out fear for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love

I love that John make sure to include that because so many of our presenting actions so many of

the things that we present forward anger excessive happiness sadness all comes really back a lot

of the time to a root of fear when you sit with someone long enough you will uncover what they're

afraid of we usually fear losing something that's not ours anyway or losing someone that's not

ours anyway and it ultimately is a mistrust in God that results in our fearing the future but

when we relate rightly to God enjoy fellowship with him fear falls off I love that picture it's like

you you carry this burden and when you see God rightly that he's sovereign he's in control that he

is the one then fear just it falls off and you're not bound by it anymore number four love is action

or actions that are inconvenient first Corinthians 13 this is where we'll end as we see what love

is not go over to first Corinthians chapter 13 everyone knows this passage pretty well first

Corinthians 13 4 through 7 says love is patient and kind love does not envy or boast it is not arrogant

or rude it does not insist on its own way it is not irritable or resentful it does not rejoice

at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth love bears all things believes all things hopes all

things and endures all things and so when we talk about number four love is actions that are

inconvenient hear me when I tell you that there is less attributes ascribed to love that are

positive than there are negative so Paul tells us in first Corinthians 13 4 through 7 love is not

eight things and says that love is seven things okay that's worth noting because it's far more

descriptive to put to pull back on things that are nature once then it is to give us a goal

and so you think about this list in light of love is actions that are inconvenient we do not need

to be patient until we are annoyed we do not need kindness unless we want to be mean we do not

need to bear all things unless we feel like not taking it anymore we do not need to believe unless

we doubt we do not need hope unless we feel like change will never happen we do not need to endure

unless we want to give up we do not need a reminder to not insist on our own way unless we believe

that getting our own way would fix everything and we want it so bad we're willing to sin to get it

this love list is often read weddings as some sort of just beautiful picture and I submit to you

that it is a picture of spiritual war if you're going to love someone you're going to love as we

have called you're going to war spiritually speaking so when second Peter the letter tells us

the supplement love it's telling us to practice pursuing God showing grace rejoicing and other

success resting in Christ so we aren't defined by fear living an inconvenient life for the joy

in the purpose that is set before us and if we are doing those things then we see their beauty

and keeping us from being unfruitful or useless so let's end today with what love is not

what love is not and I'm going to take this from 1 Corinthians 13 because he says how many things

love is not starting with the first love does not envy I'm going to I'm going to go through these

fast so that we're not here forever but I'm going to give them to you and then I'm going to say one

thing about them for you to write down or think about as application number one love does not envy

and the question I want you to ask is can I think of anybody right now whose life I would rather have

that is not love that is envy you cannot simultaneously be genuinely happy for someone and jealous of

them you cannot simultaneously be thankful and jealous contentment in Christ is key in loving people

well because if you want what others have you will not be able to love them jealousy and contentment

are not bedfellows love is not threatened by others doing well number two love does not boast

every time I did well on baseball every single time I had to wrestle with God if I hit a home run

in Little League I would tell somebody and I would brag and I would boast and I would strike out

the next time every single time and every time I would strike out after doing well and telling

someone then strike out I would walk back and I would be praying in that secret place repenting I

know why that happened because I would feel the weight of my sin I I boasted I know I did and I

would almost associate that with the discipline of God glad that he didn't let me get away with it

because I knew it was wrong what I've learned later is posting a self-absorption you can't simultaneously

love someone while talking excessively about yourself and that means good or bad by the way

you go on and on and on about how bad you are or how sinful you are you're still pridefully

going on self-absorbed number three love is not arrogant or rude this means that to really

love others we cannot think ourselves more important we cannot believe the lie the enemy tells

us which is that our abilities are better we can see more clearly than everybody and if I just

got my way everything would be better this is arrogance you're not too good to wait you're not too

smart to learn you're not too righteous to fall rude is arrogance acted out being rude to someone

is arrogance acted out I'm better than this and I'm going to treat you so that you know I think

I'm better than whatever I'm having to endure this is not love love number four does not insist

on its own way you cannot love while only demanding from people love is seen in how we lay down our

lives for our friends remember what Christ said when I asked my kids that they could define love

they all gave a pretty good definition it was Evan who said so this type of sacrificial love would

be like a man who dives in front of a bullet to save his family because he cares for them and I

said yes I think that's a great picture for this kind of sacrificial love right because it's a

modern day idea of Jesus dying on the cross sacrificing himself for to love us and to love the

father so I appreciate that analogy it's a great example of sacrificial love to take a bullet for

your family but I must ask for all of us because there's so many of us men and women here right now

who are more than willing to take a bullet are you willing to take a seat and shut up

I know that some of you would rather take a bullet then take a seat and shut up I would on occasion

love does not insist on its own way can you love by giving up your way you can give up your life

you can take the bullet you can give up your life but can you give up your way love does not

insist on this by the way this is not a matter of right or wrong as far as righteousness love not

insisting on its own way is talking about preference and it takes a good walk with God and the

amount of discernment to help you in your heart divide the difference between what is a healthy path

and what is just your preference and you need that number five love is not irritable or resentful

irritability is often a result of small momentary resentment resentment fundamentally is when

you feel entitled to get something you didn't get or listen to this entitled to avoid something

you did get resentment comes from entitlement I deserve this sometimes we believe we deserve

something that we didn't get and sometimes we believe we didn't deserve something that we did

get and how do you keep your heart from becoming resentful and unforgiving if we love with the

love that is be given to us in the divine nature says in second Peter one three and five and

through the spirit which is says in Galatians 5.2 and we are seeking to implement our identity

in Christ by living out and practicing the attribute of love that we cannot believe that we

deserve any better than what happened to Christ himself we cannot believe that we deserve any

better than what happened to Christ himself what do you deserve truthfully love from God is that we

deserve nothing and therefore can extend grace and peace and patience because there is nothing

better than whatever we have been allotted and number six love does not rejoice in wrong doing

bunch of things we could say about this but I want to point out this is why this church practices

church discipline we do not rejoice and you doing wrong we aren't glad you're getting away with

anything we aren't glad you're in sin love rejoices in truth and so what we want to see

for you out of love is that you have a relationship with Jesus that is right and good and true and

healthy and if we don't say anything we have not loved you so this is what God did and we must

understand is God did not feel lovey-dovey or emotionally swooned by you in order to set his love on

you he did not see anything good in us nor did he just want our attention so badly that he rescued us

God was not lonely nor was he emotionally moved by our state God based his love for us in his own

goodness because it is good for him to save a people to bring glory to his name for

all eternity in this way despite our feelings we are called to act out sacrificially selflessly

toward those around us wanting the best for them doing what's best for them based not on what

they deserve but based on the grace that we have received I just say to you if this sounds

funny to you, you may be lost you may be on your way to hell and you should not leave this place

today until you talk to somebody anybody don't leave without talking to somebody

and asking good questions and telling them what's going on because we want you to know Jesus

for those of you who are here and believers I bring you back to the idea of 2nd Peter 1

and this list or remind you that the reasons we have done a deep dive is because we are practicing

this for the fruitfulness and usefulness of our walk with Jesus we don't doubt our salvation

when we are aiming at him and to conclude our study on identity this is how we identify with Jesus

this is our identity in Christ that we walk this way that we act out this way

and that those who see us say we know them because of their love let's pray together Father

but thank you for this opportunity to open your word and I just pray that all we have said all we

have looked at all we have discussed would be glorifying to you that it would motivate us that

can that your spirit would convict us and that through your word through your spirit that we

would be changed into people who are amazed by grace who see it flow out of our being and our

personhood to those around us and who are committed to practicing this agape sacrificial godlike love

put in our minds put it in our hearts let us walk in your ways we love you when we praise you

this is Jesus name amen