Love is the Way

So sign-up sheets are going to be on for that one, and we want to encourage you guys, again, we want to live out the mission that this church was founded on, and that's to reach Virginia Beach for Christ and to grow the kingdom of God. As far as our offering is concerned, there's three ways that you can give, online, by mail, and in person. Now, as of next week, next week we are going to start having a time of offering, not this week, because guess what? Giving is worship. That's part of worship.

So there's two other ways. Obviously, we sing and we worship the Lord, but we also worship the Lord and praise the Lord through praise reports, such as what David had did. Because we give glory to God because we let people know, look, this is what God did when he shows up on Thursday nights and our encounter nights. The third way that we do that is by giving of our tithes and offerings. Let's be honest, the Lord doesn't need your money, but what it comes down to is it comes down to obedience and what you're going to trust him with.

Are you going to trust him for the little or are you going to trust him for the much? And that really is what it comes down to. So beginning next week, we will be active in collecting the offering at that point in time. But today, we have by mail, in person or online, there is a box out at the front of the door if you want to drop that in. Also, it should be to the side, left or right of you.

I believe they're in a chair. There should be the connection cards. And we asked if you're new here, fill those out and then take them out to Lydia, our wonderful guest, our person out there. And if not, if you're, again, if you're new here, we'd love to just get to know you. And we're a growing church here.

And we just love the Lord. We're presence-driven. And we just love him. Amen? Amen and amen.

All right. Well, let's get started. Again, I'm still a little bit old school, but my kids tell me that I need to come up to the 21st century. And I use a computer, so you'll have to bear with me on that. So this past couple weeks, we started a new series called The Greatest Commandment.

We've been talking about love. If you were here last week, Pastor Hans talked about that. And we began to get into and dive into that series. Today is the second part of that series, and we're going to be talking about how love is the way. The key verse in this is what we want to focus on is in 1 Corinthians 12, 31.

Now, most people would say, well, you know, 1 Corinthians 13, that's the love chapter. We're going to be getting into that. But when you study the Word, you understand that Paul does a lead-in into that. And that's at the tail end of chapter 12 in verse 31. And it says, and I'm reading, this is coming from the NIV.

It says, now eagerly desire the greater gifts, and yet I will show you the most excellent way. Okay? That's going to be our key verse for today. But before we get into that, I want to go ahead and pick up, and if you have your Bibles or your phone or whatever, you could open them up to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. We're going to begin that.

We just read the last tail end, 31. But we're going to read verse 13 or chapter 13, and we're going to go down to about first, about chapter 8, I believe it is. So it says, in 13, it says, If I could speak all the languages of earth, and I'm reading from the New Living Translation. It says, If I could speak all the languages of the earth, and of the angels, but didn't have love for others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, if I understood all of God's secret plans, and possessed all knowledge, if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love for others, I would be nothing.

If I gave everything I have to the poor, and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't have love for others, I would gain nothing. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way.

It is not irritable. It keeps no record of being wounded. It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoice whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up. It never loses faith.

It's always hopeful, and it endures through every circumstance. So as we begin that, I want to kind of set the stage a little bit. We begin as Paul is writing this to the Corinthians. Now, if you understand the city of Corinth, it's a wealthy Roman port, and it's located and situated between northern and southern Greece. It's a crossroads of commerce, philosophy, pagan religion, and immorality, okay?

Known for status-seeking, competition, rhetoric, and self-promotions. What's that sound like? And that was over 2,000 years ago, okay? Kind of sounds like where we're living right now. Now, these particular values of status-seeking, competition, rhetoric, and self, they began to seep into the church.

Believers were generally filled with the Spirit, but deeply influenced by their cultural obsession with spiritual prestige and spiritual onemanship. The situation within the Corinthian church, as Paul observed it, it was divisions and factions. There was pride in leaders and gifting, moral compromise, chaos in worship. There was competition over the spiritual gifts. See, they treated the spiritual gifts as an assumption of superiority rather than tools of love.

See, now, when we get in and we talk about the spiritual gifts, that's a whole new sermon in and of itself, okay? But when we talk about the spiritual gifts, and one might say, well, what are the spiritual gifts? Spiritual gifts are simply outlined in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 12. You can look at it in Romans 12, 6 through 8, or Ephesians 4. And it talks about how wisdom, faith, prophecy, healing, miracles, tongues, unknown languages, teaching, service, administration, encouragement, leadership, kindness, and giving.

All of those gifts that were active over 2,000 years ago are active today. Now, I know that there are some denominations and some beliefs that say, well, you know, certain things exist then, but they don't exist now. This is what the Word of God tells me. God says, do not add nor detract from my Word. If it took place 2,000 years ago, I can pretty much guarantee you it takes place today.

Healing happened when Jesus laid hands. He didn't say, do you want to be healed? He said, be healed. Today, we have that same power. The issue is, is do we act in that?

There are preachers out there. I've been involved in ministry for over 40 years. I've seen preachers go in, and they use it as a cash cow. Let me pray with you. If you send me $1,000, God's going to bless you.

God says if I'm obedient, He's going to bless me anyway. That's scripture. I don't need a preacher to stand up on a television wearing $5,000 suits and a $10,000 ring telling me if I send you $100 or $1,000 that your ministry is going to be, that you're going to be blessed. I hate to tell you this, brother, but I'm already blessed. If I stand on the Word of God, God says He does it because He loves me.

I don't need you. But there are other pastors out there, and I've seen them. And some of these guys, the apostles, the prophets, the teachers, they're active. I'm here to tell you they're active in this church. They're active in Fountain of Life.

They're not looking for recognition. What they're going is they're saying, I love you. And because I love you, I know that the God that serves, that I serve, doesn't want you to have cancer. He doesn't want you to live in debt. The problem with the church today, and I'll say this because I've been involved in it, the problem with church today is that the church forgot about the body, and it became a platform.

Because what we frog out about is the people that are walking through that door, they don't care what kind of car you drive. And I hear people all the time, they tell you, go, well, you know, I don't like these prosperity preachers. I just, you know, prosperity, prosperity, prosperity. I don't know about you, but when I sit here and talk to Pastors Miranda and Leon, you know what? If God says I'm going to bless you with an Escalade and a million-dollar house, Hey, God, I'll take it.

Because my God is the, he's the owner of a thousand cattles on the hills. God says, I want you. I remember, I remember being early in ministry, and my wife knows this. God blessed us when we moved down here in 2007. And the person that I worked for said, hey, look, I'm going to, we lived in their house.

He said, I'm going to give you, I'm going to sell you the land next to the house. It was about five acres. He said, but I'm going to give it to you at cost. And, you know, we're just, and God began to open doors. And my wife and I are like, because I remember when we left, she's like, I don't want to leave.

I love our house. And I loved our house. But we both looked at each other and said, well, God's got a plan. And at that point in time, we lived in what? It was a little 1,700 square foot house on an acre in a community, and we loved it.

And within two years of moving down here, we live on five acres in a 6,000 square foot house. Now we share that house. Now I'm not saying this to be braggadocious. Please, please understand where I'm saying. Let me tell you something.

I had somebody come to me, and they were a family member and go, well, you know, God says you're supposed to be poor in spirit. I go, what Bible are you reading? What? My God's a king. He says, if I go to him and ask him and say, God, now I've got to check the boxes and make sure that I'm living right.

I got to make sure that I'm doing, I can't sit there and go, oh, hey, God, you know what? I just spent 20 bucks on a pack of cigarettes, but I need some gas in my car. I need you to bless me. God's like, oh, are you kidding me? We have to live right.

But you have to understand, God loves you so much that he says, I want to bless you. See, when Paul was beginning to explain to the people that the Spirit gives different gifts to different members, no gift makes one person or gift is more important than the other. If you walk into the church and you have a willing to serve God and to see people to believe, trust me, nobody, nobody should be sitting here going, well, you know, you didn't go through the membership class and you know, we got to make, we have boxes we've got to check. We got that because we want to make sure that you're where God needs you to be. That's our job as a five-fold ministry.

The prophet, the apostle, the prophet, the teacher, the deacon, we, we, we pour into each other. We're not just going to sit there and kick you out and go, hey, you know, just go do what you got to do. Why? Because we love you. We want you to succeed.

That's the position that Pastor Hans, our lead pastor's in. That's the position that, that, that, that Pastor Leon's in because they want to see you succeed. I've been, I've been involved in a lot of, a lot of denominations and they're just like, well, you know, you got to go finish your degree and you got to go do this and you got to do that. I remember sitting, I was already leading, we were, we were in Baltimore, Maryland, already leading a worship, a youth group and they were in the process of looking for a youth pastor and I remember I said, well, you know, I'll throw my, my, my name in the hat, you know, want me to, well, you just don't have the experience. I'm like, are you serious?

I've been doing this for six months. I've been covering your butt and now you're telling me. So they bring a new guy in and the new guy's like, hey man, I just want you to help me out. I'm like, no, I'm good. I'm good.

I'm all right. Because my God says I'm nobody's lucky because I want to be around people like Pastor Leon, like Pastor Alex, like David and Ruth and like my wife that go, you are more than what you see in the mirror. You want to know why? And I'm not, I'm trying to, I don't want to go off on a tangent. We got a message to get to.

But you know why the enemy loves abortion? Because he hates the image of God. You are the very image of God. So when you accept that and understand that and you begin to abide in Christ and you move in him, God says, I've got a plan for you. And the enemy says, no, I don't want you to do that.

So what he's going to do? He's going to send you with anxiety, depression. He's going to hit you with all these things. And he's going to tell you that all these gifts that he supplied to you, miracles, tongues, teaching, service. And trust me, I'm just going to let you know now, we are going to be doing all these.

If you want to see God move, you're in the right house. We are a body. This is his house. We abide in his house. We abide in his presence every single Sunday.

That's why when we come on Thursday nights, it's not an, we come in expectation of what God's going to do. I have seen backs healed. I have a friend of ours who started coming to this church and she's known me and my wife for the last 20 plus years. For the first time in 20 years, she decided to show up on an encounter nights. Guess what?

She was standing all of about five minutes the rest of the night she spent on the floor. Why? Because that's where the power of God takes over and God says, it's me and you time because it's go time. See, Paul, Paul in writing 1 Corinthians 13, we sometimes look at this as this is a wedding poem, but it's not a wedding poem. It's a pastoral correction.

What happens is he's realigning the church. See, what he's saying is tongues without love is nothing but noise. Prophecy without love is nothing. Sacrifice without love is no profit. See, he begins to go after the Corinthians and he begins to dismantle their theology of power without character.

Love is not an emotion but a cruciform living shaped in Christ. Spiritual maturity is not measured by manifestations but by conformity to Christ's self-giving love. Everything we do is wrapped around who Christ is. See, in Corinth, the church in Corinth knew they had a lot of spiritual gifts. They had prophecy, word, tongues, but yet they were divided.

They were jealous. They were proud. They were unloving. I hate to tell you this, but it's much like the church today. We've divided ourselves up into denominations because we think one's right and the other one's wrong.

We live by different doctrines and theologies. I could tell you this right now, and I know this, that Christ says when he comes back doesn't make a daggone bit of difference what denomination you're part of. It just doesn't because at some point in time we're all going to stand before Christ and we're all going to have to answer for what we do, and you know what? The pastors, you better get your junk together because he says we're going to be, he's going to be holding us even more accountable, and this is why as far as, as long as I'm campus pastor of this church, I will surround myself within the five-fold ministry like with Pastor Leon and my wife and Alex and David, and I will surround them because it's not about me, and I will say this till the day I'm dead and gone. It's not about me as the entity.

It's about us as a church because this church belongs to Christ. It belongs to God. It doesn't belong to me. It doesn't even belong to Pastor Hans, and I love Pastor Hans to death. See, when we begin, see, Paul realized it all revolved around the sermon of the Lord's Supper.

We see that in 1 Corinthians 11 where people were coming who were poor and were not getting any food, but the rich were coming and they were eating everything. Then in chapter 12, it moves over. Paul begins to talk about unity. This becomes the big theme of 1 Corinthians, that unity, there must be unity in the church. We've got to have unity in the church.

We have to be of one accord. We cannot be divided because when the enemy divides us, he can conquer us. This is why I love, I've got friends who are, they're Baptists, they're in the church of God. But when the reality comes down to it, Jesus is the center of everything. And why?

It's because we love one another because that's the way. That's how we get the kingdom where it needs to be, when we love each other. See, then the point becomes he shifts, he shifts from that into the spiritual gifts. See, there's many gifts, but we follow and flow out of one spirit. If love is missing, gifts are misused.

Paul immediately at the tail end of this begins to redirect their focus by saying, let me show you a life that is best of all. He begins to discuss that love is the best way. Without love, we can't do anything. There's nothing we can do. You want a good marriage?

Love. I've listened to one pastor online, and I watched this guy, and he has no problems. He'll tell you, he goes, our ministry last year brought in over $34 million. We gave $5 million out. He tells people all the time, God will speak to him and say, you know what, you need to take care of that woman's finances, and he does it.

And God just blesses him and blesses him and blesses him and blesses him, because he's obedient. He's obedient. We hold on, we hold on to our money like it's the last dime we're ever going to have. The reality is, is when you begin to realize where that comes from, yeah, I work for it, but who provides the job for me? He does.

Ultimately, everything's his. So God, I'm like, God, okay, I'm going to give it back to you. God says, you know, this is the one thing God says you can test me in, but I digress. When he says love is the best way, way in the Greek is hodos. It literally means a road, a journey, a manner, or a life, or a path.

You walk continuously. It's the whole way of life. Paul is literally talking about a lifestyle that governs everything else. Understand this. Christianity, and this drove me nuts for years.

People will go, what religion are you? What do you mean, what religion I am? Well, you're a Christian, okay? Well, I said, let me explain something to you. Christianity is not a religion.

It's a lifestyle, and that lifestyle is embedded in the word of God, and that's how I choose to live, and when I go, oh, oh, oh, I don't, I don't, the whole religion thing is just kind of like, I have a lifestyle. I get into the word. God says, get into the word. Pray. This is what I want you to do.

Love, love, it is love now becomes an action. Paul understood that love isn't just a feeling. It's how Christians should act towards each other. See, there were massive problems in the Corinthian church because Paul was saying, you feel love towards one another, but he's saying you have to show love one to another. See, let's be honest.

I'm going to put my neck out here. There's a lot of times my wife ain't in love with me because I'm not exactly the great, the easiest person to live with, but I will tell you this, but the fact of the matter is love isn't, because she realizes that love isn't just a feeling. It's an action. I stay committed to you. I'm committed to you.

We live, we grow up in a society where one out of three marriages becomes a success. I thank God, and I don't say, I'll say this boastfully. I've been married for 35 years. I thank God for that. I tell her, I said, you should have divorced me a long time ago, but I tell you what, in the divorce, you get me in a divorce.

I'm just stuck with me. But see, that's the problem. We live, we live in a society that's like, it's throwaway. We want everything microwave. We don't want to do anything.

A good garden, a good garden takes time. You know, the one thing, and I know the bears, Mrs. Bears here, you know, JB, when JB popped out of the womb, he didn't go, hey mom, give me a surfboard. I'm going to go ahead and start surfing. No, it takes time.

It takes practice. It takes love. Because what happens is, is his mom sees talent in her son. She loves her son so much, she says, you know what, I'm going to pour everything I have into you because I love you. And because I see more into you than anything.

And that's what's important. God says, I see what you're going through. I see your depression. I see your anxiety. But you have to give it to me.

So when we begin, we understand that love is a character of Christ formed in the believer. Gifts can exist without maturity. They can exist without maturity. However, this way cannot exist. And this is how it looks.

And we're going to quickly roll through these. Love is patient. In Greek, it means, and I'm going to butcher this, Pastor Leon will correct me later, makrothume. Is that how it is? Okay.

God, in other words, God was patient and kind towards humanity. Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you into repentance. This is a passive aspect of love. It is patience. It hangs in there.

It waits. It doesn't overreact. There's too many times when, look, when it comes to a good marriage, men are just, we're naturally fixers. We want to fix things. But sometimes with a wife or a woman, they just, you know, I just want you to hear me.

I don't need you to fix it. I just want to know that you hear me. And there's a lot of times that I look at and go, I'm listening. And she goes, you're listening, but are you listening? Do you hear me?

And see, when we begin to hear that person or a friend who's pouring their heart out, are you thinking in your mind, okay, how can I help them fix that? Instead, you know, I used to counsel kids from broken homes. I myself was from a broken home. And I learned well onto it that the greatest way to help these kids is just to shut up. Let them talk it out.

Because a lot of times they just want to know. I remember, and my wife knows this, I sat, we were counseling a kid, his mom and dad just split up, and he sat in the back of my pickup truck, and he cried. And he said, this is my fault. And I went, no, it's not. And he goes, Pastor Carl, it's my fault.

I go, no, it's not. I said, your parents are idiots. And he just kind of laughed. And I said, no, this is not your fault. But the fact is, is I sat there and I listened to him, didn't say a word.

And that's a lot of times, that's what we need, is we need people to just listen. And that's what the church is about, is just listening. Love has a long fuse. It has a long timetable. Maybe your spouse or maybe your friend is angry with you, and they don't want to, they don't want to, they just want to talk, but they're not willing to fix it right now.

Give them a day. Let it percolate. Because love's patient. You let them know, I'm here. I'm here.

You know, I've had Alex. I've been frustrated. And Alex will look at me, and he goes, dude, he can read the room. He just, he'll look at me. He goes, I understand.

He goes, dude, just give me a call when you're ready. I'm here. David, the same way. Up until, I will tell you this, up until this church, I came into this church, there were very few people, if any, in my inner circle. I was very, very well guarded.

My wife used to tell me, she goes, you need to get friends. And I was like, yeah, no. I'm good. I'm good. She says, no, no, you really need friends.

She says, because I can't take you. She goes, you need friends. But what I learned, but what I learned from my wife, and watching the example of my wife, as I will watch, my wife had a, she had a contingent of friends in her inner circle, one or two, that she could confide in, and she could talk to. You need to be very, very careful who you let into your inner circle, because that is what's going to happen. They're going to be, they can sit there and listen and comfort you, and don't have to say a word.

Love is kind. This is what's considered a hapax lego mononi? Is that how it is? I don't know. I don't know that one.

Meaning that, here's the, the meaning, is that once in a specific body of literature, Miss Miranda may know this one, Greek meaning means something only said once. Love is kind. Significance is that there is importance for translation and interpretations, particularly in ancient texts. There are words that meaning cannot be compared to you, to others' uses. Therefore, in this, that love is kind only occurs in Christian writings in the ancient world.

It is the active side of passive patience. These two, patience and kindness, appear together in the fruits of the Spirit, as in Galatians 5, 14, and 5, 24. They coincide, because basically what Scripture is saying is, is that you can't have love is patient, love is kind, without the two. Because if I'm going to love you, I'm going to love you out of kindness, a gift, and then I'm going to be patient with you. A couple things, several things that love is not.

Love does not envy. Love does not allow fellow believers to be in rivalry or competition or curry people's favor in order to gain adherence. We see this in Job 5, 2, Proverbs 14, 30. As a heart gives... ...

As hard at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. We don't envy. I don't envy Pastor Leon and how well he dresses, okay? I don't. I love him.

He dresses well. He could surf a lot better than I can have at it, but we don't envy. What we do is we love each other and we build each other up, and that's what it is. Love does not boast. It does not vaunt at itself.

The message says love doesn't strut. It doesn't behave as a braggart or a windbag in inordinate calling attention to oneself. Love is not proud. That kind of goes hand in hand. The message says it doesn't have a swelled heart.

In other words, in the King James Version, it says it's not puffed up. This was the Corinthians' greatest sin to Paul to be proud and arrogant in the face of such gross sin that was going on among them. And a lot of times we have that sometimes in our church today where we have those that are in leadership that really quite honestly shouldn't be in leadership at all. Because if we honestly took an inventory of their closets, they shouldn't be where they're at. But yet they have a position where they sit and they have that authority, that seat of authority that they could tell other people to do what they need to do, and yet they look and go, well, look at me.

Now, again, it goes back to who do you surround yourself with. These are my inner circle. These are the people, again, Alex, David, my wife, Leon, that can look at me and go, you're wrong. And see, that's what's important. Because a lot of times as pastors, even in some Christians, we get to this point where people will look at us and go, no, you're wrong.

You know the old idea of we agree to disagree? No, I just disagree with you. I'm not going to agree. I just disagree, period. But the problem is immediately when that happens, there's a defense mechanism that kicks in and goes, how dare you?

Do you know my degrees? I have hanging on the wall. I've spent months in school. I was a little unorthodox. If you can tell, I'm not.

I'm not as refined as some. I'm just not. I'm just not. And I listened to somebody one time and I was like, hi, I'm Carl. I'm a construction worker.

I could swing a hammer. See the scars on my hands? And look at him and go, yeah, you're just not that important to me. I'm like, please, okay, please. The fact of the matter is, is when we humble ourself and we can sit in front of people and go, it's not about status.

It's not about, I'm not boastful. I'm here to love on you. I'm here to help you. Brother, sister, I want, I see you here. You feel like you're here.

But my job is to lift you to here. That's my job. That's my calling. Jesus, you know, the Bible says that when we hurt, Jesus hurts. And that's as pastors, as even believers, we need to learn.

We have to hurt for one another. Feel for them. We don't, you know, don't think of yourself. In Romans 12, 3, it says this in the New Living Translation. Don't think you are better than you really are.

Because my grandfather, my grandfather grew up in the Depression. And he'd look at me and he goes, son, let me tell you something. Listen, he goes, you get a little tall in the saddle, trust me, there's going to be somebody that's going to knock you down. And I learned that at a young age. There's always somebody that's better than me.

I learned in construction when I was, when I started up in construction. And I had one of my son's friends said, hey, Mr. Carl, you know, I want to get into construction. What kind of advice can you give me? And I said, honestly?

I said, you find some old guy that's got 50 years in the business. I said, you get up underneath him. I said, you keep your mouth shut. You watch everything that he does. I said, you mimic him.

I said, you mimic his style. You mimic everything about him. I said, because that, at some point in time, that's going to be gone. That's going to be gone. These old pastors, these old evangelists, my love, you know, it's my taste for podcasts.

So now I listen, my wife comes up, she goes, what do you listen to? I said, some preacher I found. Just listen, I love listening to preaching. I never thought about that. I was like, my mom will call me.

She goes, what are you doing? I go, mom, I'm listening to preaching. She goes, boy, didn't you come a long way? But I do. I love listening to how they, what they do.

I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, people. I'm just not. I got a three-year degree from Zion Bible Institute. And I tell you what, I excelled at being a C student. I graduated, man.

They put that thing on me. I was watching other people get the decorative ropes and everything. I'm like, man, I'm just happy to be walking down the aisle. I was like, I made it. Like, good Lord.

Yeah. Oof. Best thing that came out of Zion Bible Institute was my wife, and she's standing right there. That's the best thing that came from her. No, it's all good.

Love does not dishonor others. It doesn't force itself on others. Love is not self-seeking. It doesn't seek its own, but sees the good of others. In some ways, it is the fullest expression of what Christian love is all about.

It does not seek its own. It doesn't believe that finding oneself is the highest goodness. It's not always, in the message it says, it's not always about me. I'm not always to be first. Love is not easily angered.

Love does not keep record. Literally, in the Greek, it does not reckon with evil. In other words, it doesn't spend time thinking on it. No records are kept of wrong. It purges them.

I could tell you a little story, and we're going to keep moving on. But about 12 years ago, well, no, 20-some years ago before we moved here, I was in business with one of my cousins. And we had a business, and we were doing really good. We did really well our first year. But then I didn't know it, but behind my back, my cousin, a family member, close family member, he was working a side gig with somebody else.

And I remember it kind of came to a head. We had a tornado that kind of rolled through Westminster up in Baltimore. It was 45 minutes outside of Baltimore. And I called him up, and I said, hey, man, I said, we've got a two-story house we're working on. I've got to get a tarp up there before, because the homeowner said they've got two inches of water coming into their basement.

And he's like, yeah, dude. He goes, I'm not going to be able to make it. He goes, I'm sitting down at dinner with my family. He goes, you're on your own. So at 9 o'clock at night, and luckily the homeowner was a very, very good friend of mine.

He was a very good spiritual, kind of a spiritual father to me. Here we are at 10 o'clock at night, 30-mile-an-hour winds, handling a 100 by 50 tarp to try to cover his house, hoping to God I don't get killed. But the moment I hit that floor, I wanted to kill him. I'm just being honest. I was done.

Time went on. We had to go through mediation. We went through all these court stuff. And I was just, every day I was talking about it. Every day I was just, I was replaying it in my head, replaying it in my head.

And my wife came to me one day. Finally, I think she just had enough. And she looked at me and she says, you need to stop. And I go, what? She said, God is taking care of you.

She says, but every time you bring it up, it's as if God is not, that he forgot about you. She goes, you need to stop it. I said, okay. I said, I'm not going to talk about it anymore. God began to bless us and he moved us down here to Virginia.

And I kind of just put it aside. I mean, it caused a big rift in our family. It caused a big divide. And I remember one day we were sitting out and we were out on the porch and just kind of watching the dog run and the kids play. And I got a phone call from an unknown number.

And it was my cousin. And he said, before you hang up, just listen to what I got to say. He said, you have every right to hang up. But what I'm asking you is to please just give me a couple minutes. I was like, okay.

He said, first of all, he goes, I want to ask for forgiveness because I hurt you. He said, you and your brother led me to the Lord and I hurt you. And he goes, and I'm sorry. He goes, I can never give you back everything that it cost you. And he goes, and you can never speak to me again.

You don't ever have to talk to me again. He said, but I want you to know that I love you and I'm sorry. And I said, okay. And I said, okay. The hardest thing that came out of my mouth is, I forgive you, and I hung up, and right now, today, when my brother passed away, the first person I called was him, and he asked me, he said, how are you doing, and we talked.

Love doesn't keep records of wrong. I told you before that I was from a broken home. I watched my father do things that no man should ever do to a woman. I held grudges. I stopped talking to him for years.

Several years ago, before we started moving into different things, and God was beginning to move in my life, we were called up to New York, and a good friend of ours, a pastoral mentor to ours, and we sat down and talked with him, he says, God's getting ready to do things in your life and whatnot, and he said, but God told me, and he didn't know anything about this. He said, God told me there's one thing you have to do, and I was like, what's that? He goes, you need to go to your father and ask for forgiveness, and I went, yeah, that ain't gonna happen. I was like, I didn't do anything. He goes, this isn't negotiable.

He said, God said, you need to go to your father and ask for forgiveness, and I was like, we were already six hours out, because we drove up for the day, and he said, God's telling me, you're gonna pass this house on the way home. So 10 o'clock at night, I knock on the door. My dad's sitting in his easy chair. He comes to the door, and mind you, we haven't spoken in years, and he looks at me, and he goes, hey, son. I said, hey, dad.

I looked at him, and I said, hey, I just wanna let you know. I said, I'm not gonna stay long. I said, I just wanna ask your forgiveness. He just kinda looked at me. And he goes, well, yeah, you were wrong.

I looked at my wife, and my wife's like, so we were getting ready to leave, and I said, okay, dad. I said, you know, I just wanna ask you. He goes, where are you going? He says, come inside. We sat there for 45 minutes and got caught up.

Is the relationship completely better? No. But I will tell you this. This is where we were yesterday, hanging out with my dad, my stepmom, and I'll tell you, and we're gonna, got a couple more to go through. We went from that.

Yesterday, we sat down, and we had lunch. We were getting ready to leave, and as we're getting ready to pull out, my wife looks at me, and Colleen goes, there's something going on. Your dad's in a fight. I went, what? I looked over, and sure enough, this young kid was getting ready to take my dad out, and I jumped out of the car, and I stood between him and the kid.

This is a man that I watched do things that nobody should, and I sat there, and I defended him, and I looked at this kid, and the kid looked at me, and he goes, who are you? And I looked at him and said, it doesn't matter who I am. I'm just somebody you don't wanna mess with right now. And I looked at my dad, and I said, Dad, go. I said, Pops, go.

I got this. Unfortunately, most of you older men know he's a Vietnam vet. Yeah, that didn't go ever so well. But we went from not talking to I'll stand and defend you. That is God.

That's God. Amen. Amen. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in truth. It refuses to take delight in someone's downfall.

Love rejects rejoicing over evil. Love always protects. It bears all things. Love has a tenacity in the present buoyed by the absolute confidence and continually to pour itself out on others. We learn to protect each other as a family of God.

I look out for you. You're going through something. I wanna help you. Love always trusts. I was talking to Stefan.

That can come sometimes get sticky because you have a hard time. People, you have a hard time trusting in people, especially people that hurt you. But when you go back to the word, and these were the two things that I know Stefan and I were talking about, and it says love trusts, but love also gives hope. And this is one thing I knew growing up. I was not born with welcome written across my chest.

You stay in your ground when need be. But you do it in love. You do it in love. Because the fact of the matter is, is the world is watching you. The world's watching you.

But you do it in your love. You don't, look, God's not asking you to be a welcome mat. Don't be a welcome mat. Stand up for your faith. Contend for the faith.

Stand up and when people start pushing back and you push back. But you do it in love. You do it in a way that does not bring or throw shade to you or to God. And you always look at people that the hope. My wife looked at me yesterday when she says, she goes, I'm going to tell you right now.

She goes, I saw how close you were. She goes, that kid was demon possessed. I said, trust me, you were there. I said, I wasn't, trust me. Love always perseveres.

It endures all things because it believes in hopes. It believes in hopes that no matter what the situation that you're in, we're going to believe that God's going to do something good. We're going to believe that God's presence is going to do what God needs to do. Love never fails. True selfless love, agape love is eternal, consistent, and never fails.

Unlike temporary human accomplishments, emotions, or gifts, it's a permanent force that outlasts all others. It's everlasting. It's not performance-based. True love versus human, it represents the ideal sacrificial love that continues to endure. Agape love, that's what it's about.

I love you unconditionally. No matter what you do, I'm still going to love you. I don't have to like what you did. Christ says, I don't like the sin. You hate the sin, but you love the sinner.

You have to love on them. Because eventually what you want to do is you want to love them out of that sin. You hold their hand. There are times, you know, I tell my kids, I said, look, you can walk your path. You can do what you want to do.

God's never going to leave you nor forsake you. He may stand off to the side and go, knock your socks off. Go right ahead. But he's always going to be there. Love fulfills the law.

Active and sacrificial love for God and others satisfies the core purpose and moral commandments, rendering strict adherence to legalistic codes absolutely unnecessary. In other words, the key aspects of this is it's summed up in commandments. It's summarized that the law, particularly in loving God and loving one another as oneself, it's active. We talked about that before. It is active.

It is not passive. It goes beyond merely avoiding wrong. It's proactive in doing good. We want to do good because we love it. And thirdly, and I think most importantly, what it does is that it focuses on others first.

We put others before ourself. I don't want to ever do anything that's going to throw shade on the Dunnings. Why? Because this is their house. I've got their house, but they've got to have the confidence in me that I've got their backs.

I'm going to build on what they did. I'm not going to tear it down. Not to mention, he's a lot smarter than me. And he's my boss. So, he's my brother.

So, as we get ready to end this, in essence, what we are learning from Paul's writing is, don't just ask, what has the Spirit empowered me to do? Ask, am I walking the road that looks like Jesus? See, the more excellent way is a cross-shaped life that makes every gift edifying instead of self-serving. See, walk away with this. Without love, ministry becomes noise.

With love, even weakness can become a witness. You are not weak when you love. We, as men, sometimes have a hard time with that. We feel like if we give in, or I'm going to show weakness. There's been many times that God has so crushed me.

Not because he hated me or because I did something wrong. Yeah, maybe I screwed up. But he crushed me because what he's trying to do is he's trying to bring me into something. And it hurts. And I don't know how to deal with it.

I don't know how to deal with it. I don't know how to deal with it. And I have a partner in life, and there's been many times that she's known where I literally, I sit at her feet and I cry, because I'm tired of hurting. I'm tired. I'm exhausted.

And she stands over me and she says, honey, we got this. He's got you. And I'm here to tell you that no matter what you're going through, no matter the anxiety, no matter the depression, no matter the life situation, no matter where you're at, I'm here as a messenger from God to tell you, God's got this. He sees you. When you think he doesn't, he sees you.

He sees you in your pain. He sees you in your hurt. And he's telling you, daughter, son, I see the hurt in your heart. I'm going to walk with you. And what he does is he puts people in that, in that circumference, in that area that comes alongside of you and goes, I don't care what you've done.

I don't care who you think you are. I'm going to love you because of you. There are people, yes, there are people that are going to irritate you. But the fact of the matter is, here's what I will tell you. When you love on them and you look at them and you hold them in right standing and you love on them, God, you'll begin to see God break them.

You'll begin to see God do things. I've seen people come to them. I've seen people come to me or my wife and they go, you know what? You didn't tell me what I wanted to hear. You told me what I needed to hear.

And sometimes you didn't tell me anything at all. You just loved on me. Stand with me. Praise you, Jesus. If you're here today at the sound of my voice and you're watching online and you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, I want you to know that you are invited into the kingdom of God.

As we stand here today and you don't know him, but you say, Pastor Carl, I want to know him. I'm not happy with my life as it is. I want a personal and more intimate relationship with him. I'm going to say a prayer. And what I want you to do is in your heart.

I want you to agree with that prayer. Heavenly Father, I fully submit myself to you. I cast all my sins at your feet. Father God, I recognize you as my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Take over my life right here and right now.

I ask, Father, that you would begin to restore me to right standings in you. I repent of every sin. I repent of hurting others. I repent of selfishness. And I ask right now that, Lord Jesus, you would help me to see my life through your eyes.

If you said that prayer, what I want you to do is I want you to go online or I want you to fill out the card and say, I renewed my heart. I've renewed my relationship with the Lord. I gave my heart to the Lord. And we want to pray with you. We want to join with you.

Flipping that coin today, we talk about love. I know there's times in this day and age we throw love around like it's a cheap piece of candy. It's not. As salt church representation, I want you to understand we love you. We don't care what you've been.

We don't care where you've come from. We don't care what you look like. We don't care how much metal you got in your head, how many tattoos you got. I just, if you're online, we don't care. If I don't care what you look like, you need to be here.

You need to be here. Ten years ago, this church was founded for the outcast. It was found, we call this now, we call this house, the house of misfit toys. We're the house of misfit souls. You have a home here because we desire to live in the presence of God.

Because God is the one that restores. We want to love on you. We want to hold you close. We want to cheer. We want to be your biggest cheerleader.

So come. Join us. Heavenly Father, I just pray for those that are here and those that are online. Right now, Lord God, I pray blessings and anointing on them right now. I curse every foul spirit, every foul plan that the enemy has against them.

I curse it right now in the name of Jesus. And I decree and declare healing and health and blessing and honor over their life. I pray, Father, they would live in the more than enough. I pray, Father, right now that they would live in the presence of the glory of God. I pray that, Father, when they walk out today and they get in their car and they walk and they cross their threshold, that immediately they begin to feel a change.

Church, I pray that you would be with them this week, touch them, minister to them, love on them. And I thank you for them. I count it as an honor, Lord God, as your servant, that I get to stand in front of these wonderful people, your children, and tell them about the love and how you, Lord God, are the greatest way we do. Amen and amen. I love you guys.

Thank you for coming. We love you. Thank you for coming to Salt Church. Get to know us. Fellowship.

Hang out as long as you want. I know that I'll be out front. I know Pastor Leon will be out front. And Pastor Alex is in the back. We'd love to meet you guys.

Shake your hands. Give you a big old hug. And go with God. He's going with you. Amen.