Real Love in a Cold World

Hey everyone, I hope this finds you in safe and warm and hope you guys are having a wonderful day. And I just want to let you know that I love you guys. If you haven't already figured it out, yes, church has been postponed due to inclement weather. Here on the East Coast, we are experiencing snow, sleet, rain, wind, whatever they could throw at us. So we'll take that for what it is.

But real quick, I just wanted to share something that God kind of laid on my heart. This month coming up, we are going to be doing a sermon series called Love the Greatest Commandment. And I just wanted to kind of touch on that a little bit. We're going to go in greater depth. I know with Pastor Hans, Kyle down at Edenton campus, as well as I are going to be diving into this in our prospective campuses.

But being that it's February the 1st, I wanted to kind of just touch base on this. I was talking to our worship pastor TJ today about this. And we kind of got into a bit of a conversation about love being the greatest commandment. And there was a quote that kind of sparked my interest in I wanted to kind of just dive into this a little bit. I'm not going to take up too much of your time, but I just wanted to just kind of talk about this a little bit.

And it seems how February is what they consider the month of love, Valentine's Day being on February the 14th. If you haven't figured it out, make sure you get your wives, your girlfriends, guys, take care of it, fathers, daughters, that kind of thing. But in any case, just wanted to touch on this a little bit. And again, we're going to go in greater detail on this in the weeks to come. But a scripture that kind of comes to mind is Mark 12, 30 through 31.

And this is coming out of the New King James Version. And it says, and starting in verse 30, it says, And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. In verse 31, it goes on to say, And the second, like it, is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other greater, greater than these, commandment than these.

These, this commandment comes straight from Jesus himself. And as we begin to go into this month of love, if we turn on the TV or we look at social media and we can see that society today is lacking in just that of love. There's a lot of rage. There's a lot of anger. And I'm just being quite honest with you.

I believe a lot of that is manufactured. I believe a lot of it is from the enemy. A lot of folks being utilized by the enemy to drive us apart. The enemy does not like it when his church comes together and is of one purpose. And when specifically when we strive to be one, we strive to love one another.

We strive to get into the presence of God, because as we get into the presence of God, we become more like him. And he pours himself into us. And I came across this quote a couple weeks ago by an author by the name of John Orthberg. John Orthberg is a pastor, an author, and a speaker. He's been in ministry for over 40 years and teaches around a central theme of spiritual formation.

But his quote says this. For many of us, the greatest danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. I think that when we begin to get into what our belief is in the Bible and what the Bible talks about, the central theme of the Bible is just that of love. Everything is around that theme of love.

God's only son was sent here on earth who willingly sacrificed himself because he loved us. And we are given those perfect examples from Genesis through revelation of love. I know that over my 50 plus years of existence, I know that I've come across people that say, you know, I just I don't subscribe to the Bible because it's it's too many rules. It's too many regulations. I've heard, well, you know, I can't rightfully serve a God who says that he's going to cast or he's going to destroy these type of people or those type of people.

Or he doesn't love this type of person or that type of person. But the reality is, is that the Bible in and of itself is it's a guide to life. I know that it's something that I've subscribed to in my 50 years, 57 years of living on this earth. You know, it's we society says that we need to be inclusive. We all we have to include everybody.

You know, everybody, you know, if you're good, you'll get to heaven. And unfortunately, that's not what the Bible tells us. There are commandments and covenants that are set up in the word of God, not for the sheer sake of of having rules and regulations, because God says he wants to put your his thumb over on you and or any of that. It's done because of the sheer love that he has for you. There isn't a religion out there that has a central person, a central entity or personality that is willingly gave themself up, took the beatings that he did, sacrificed himself on the cross.

All for the sake of love. And in the mere fact, when we get into the word of God, and I know that I've had family members that say, well, you know, you know, when it talks about abortion or homosexuality or or relationships outside of marriage or different things like that. And they go, you know, God, I can't believe that God's going to, you know, that he would do, you know, harm to anybody like that. But that's not that's not that's not in the word of God. And that's what we need to understand.

There's a reason why there's commandments and there is things that are set up that way. And it has to do of his pure love for us. He knows what we need. He created us in his perfect image. You know, that's the whole thing about when we talk about abortion is, you know, the free choice and the will.

The enemy loves abortion because he hates the very image of God. And scripture says that we are created in the image of God. So every time we get up in the morning, every time there is a new child that is born, it reminds the enemy that his days are numbered because when he looks at us, he sees the image of God and he hates that. God loves us. God loves you so much that he says, you know, I don't care what you've done in the past.

I love you now. But in order for me to get you from here to there, there's got to be certain things. You know, the Bible says that in John, it talks about that that he gave his only begotten son. Because he loved us. You know, when we think about love, the biblical perspective of love, it's actually two directional.

It's vertical and it's horizontal. Vertical in that we love God fully. That's that relationship between. Between. Here and there.

We love Him fully. Covenantly worship obedience and affection. We look at the Word. We don't just read it. It gets in us.

And when it gets in us, we become more like Him. We begin to understand that there are certain guardrails that are set up in the Word. Why? Not to control us. It's in order for Him to say, look, I care so much about you.

In your life that these guardrails are here because I have a purpose and a plan for you. And that's vertical. So when we enter into that covenant and we worship Him fully, we obey Him fully, and we show full affection for Him. It's those things that, you know, the Scripture says, you know, you wouldn't, if your child came and asked you for a loaf of bread, would you hand him a scorpion? No, you wouldn't.

Because you love your child. And so it is with God, with us. He does not want to withhold any good thing from us. But there are so many times where we get to the point where God just, He wants to do things for us, but we are the stopgap. Whether it's because of anger, bitterness, or we turn our heart from Him, we have to understand that God is not some mystical being that is waiting to slam a hammer down on top of us.

That's not it at all. God looks at you, and He gives you a free will. He gives me a free will. And He's not waiting around the corner to hit us upside the head in order to get us to the point where we need to go. He's like a father that loves his child so much, He just sits there and He goes, I'm going to wait.

I'm going to wait. I'll walk at a distance. And when you're ready, I'm right here. You know, that's the vertical love that He's looking for us. Then there's horizontal.

When we have this connection vertically, at that point in time, we can live in the overflow. Because now the horizontal love transfers to others. Because you can't, you cannot love God, hate yourself, and then in turn hate others. That's not possible. As we go through these series, I want you to grasp and really take hold.

Listen to what Pastor Hans says. Listen to what Pastor Kyle says. Listen to what we preach at Salt on Sundays. Because I want you to understand, there is no greater commandment than this. That we love God with all our heart, but in tune we love our brothers and our sisters more than we love ourselves.

When we look past that, are we going to have disagreements? Absolutely. There's the old saying of, I can agree to disagree. But we've lost that ability to agree to disagree. Because now what we've done is we've gone to such an extent that, well, if you don't agree with what I think, then I'm going to deal with you with hate.

And sometimes in some instances with violence. We've gotten so far away that we've forgotten how to have a conversation. Conversations that are just so important that where we could sit down and talk one to another, that we can bear one another's burdens, that we can share thoughts. And yes, there are times we're going to get up from the table and we're not going to be able to agree. But we can get up from that table and understand that that table is always there for us to come back to.

The understanding that love isn't what divides us, not love of something, an idea, an ideology, a religion. That true biblical love is something that brings us together and we need to grasp it wholeheartedly, especially in days like this. There are brothers and sisters and friends and family that are out there that are dealing with hurt, anxiety, depression, things that we could barely even begin to understand. And there are people that we are acquainted with or that we know or those that we don't even know that that deal in a different ideological, politically, ideologically. You know, and I think what we need to do is we need to look at each other through the lens of the Bible, and that is through love.

Now, does that again, as I said before, does that mean we're always going to agree? No, we're not. We're not always going to agree. But I will say this, that when we live our life according to the word, now understand this, we cannot pick and choose that which of the Bible, which we like and which we don't like. We live our life according to the word of God because it is our guide.

That's my guide. Am I going to be perfect? Am I going to do everything perfect? No. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

I'm human. I still get angry. I still get depressed. I still get, you know, I get down. I have a range of emotions and feelings.

But where this comes into play is that when I get into the word, I knew who loves me more than anybody in this world. And that's Jesus Christ. And I know that he walks with me day in and day out. When I get up in the morning and my feet hit the floor, he's waiting for me. Understand this, my friend.

There is nothing that you have done or could do that could ever separate you from the love of God. But you have to understand that your days here on earth are, in fact, numbered. You are not guaranteed the next minute, the next hour, the next day. And I would urge you to seriously consider turning your heart around to the one that truly, truly loves you. Because even as a Christian, even as a believer, I may never get to that point where I will ever renounce my faith.

But my worry for the church today is that we will turn soft. We become distracted. We become rushed. We become preoccupied with a mediocre version of what the Bible, of what we believe the Bible to be. The Bible is meant to convict.

The Bible is meant to guide us. But the Bible is also meant to remind us of his unfailing love. And when we strive for obedience, and when we strive to fully live in the covenant of God, we desire not a mediocre version of the Bible. We want to get into it. We want to dive into it.

We want to devour it. Because we want it to become so part of us. Because as it becomes part of us, we can then understand that the more we get the word into us, what happens is that we will be ready in season and out of season. So that when we come across somebody who is depressed or angry or frustrated or going through any myriad of different things in life, that we have God's love so much in us that we can... Overflow into their life and truly help them and understand that not only are we here to love on them, but there's a God that loves them more than anything in the world.

So as we get ready over the next several weeks that we're going to be going through this this series, begin to prepare your heart now. Begin to, I would even challenge you, Pastor Hans did a Wednesday night Bible study, go back on YouTube, and he began a Wednesday night Bible study. He gets into the Word and I believe he got into 1st John and he started into that. I would challenge you to go back and listen to that in its entirety. Pastor Hans Hess is one of the most educated men I've ever met outside of some of my professors that I've dealt with in Bible college and even throughout my 35 plus years of ministry.

But the one thing I can say is that being educated, I've never met a man who is more humble. And he takes the word and he brings it down to a level that is completely understandable because he wants you to get it. And it's the same with Pastor Kyle. These are men that I serve with that don't desire to show themselves that they're above anyone, but maybe that they're equal to because the fact is, is that what they want to do is show you truly, truly show you the love of Christ. And how much God can change your life in a way that you will never, ever imagine.

So go back to YouTube. It was this past Wednesday and tune in and listen to that again. And in the weeks to come, tune in on Sunday, Fountain of Life, the Elizabeth City campus, both 9 and 11 o'clock. I think Pastor Kyle's service, I believe, is at 10. And I think I may be wrong, but you can check that on the on the interweb.

I know Salt Church, we do ours at 1010. If you're in the area of Virginia Beach, please come by and see us on Sundays at 1010, 961 South Birdneck Road. If you happen to be in the Elizabeth City area, Fountain of Life would love to have you stop in and on Sunday, 9 o'clock or 11 o'clock service. And then in Edenton, go see Pastor and Pastor Kyle and Tiffany Harris. They'd love to have you guys.

This is an exciting, exciting time to be in. And when we begin to get these principles and precepts into our life, we will begin to tap in to a relationship with Jesus Christ. That far surpasses anything. That we could that we could possibly imagine. It doesn't matter what you're going through.

Doesn't matter how depressed it doesn't matter how addicted it doesn't matter if your world's crumbling. If you give the Lord Jesus Christ a little bit of time, he will change your life. He did mine. He did mine. And I know a lot of other people.

That he did. I also want to challenge you. Tune in just about every morning. Pastor Alex Rubio gives a little devotional. He's an awesome man of God.

He's got a heart like no others. Tune in. If you if you haven't checked him out, go ahead and friend him on Facebook. Alex Rubio. And you'll begin to see his his little devotionals in the morning.

He's a great, great guy. He served. I served with him and all my team. They're awesome people. So I just want to say I love you and please be safe.

I know that with the snow and the weather and this too shall pass and I look forward. I also want to encourage you guys that if you're in the Virginia Beach area, come join us on Thursday night. Between seven and eight at our encounter nights. They are absolutely awesome nights. We've already had some people healed.

Back injuries, neck injuries. We've had some people that were delivered. They were having nightmares and anxiety. And we've gotten tremendous, tremendous praise reports. People are telling us, look, I've had my first night great night sleep in a long time.

I can bend over. I can. God's doing something. These nights are specifically set up for us to come together and support one another and get into the presence of God and just let God have his way. There's no agenda.

We pray. My wife and I, Colleen, we're there. Alex Rubio is typically there. Ruth and David Jandro are typically there. And we have our whole team is typically there.

And we want to pray for you. We come together in prayer. TJ comes in, will sometimes lead us in worship. And these are nights that are just so important because I believe these are the, this is the time where we get, God can prepare us. He can heal us.

He can heal us bodily. He can deliver us. We get a fresh anointing. Come join us Thursday nights from 7 to 8 o'clock, 8.30.

We'd love to have you. Encounter nights are important to us as a church. Church, and we believe wholeheartedly, I believe wholeheartedly that once you come, you're always going to come because you're going to understand that I want to be in the presence of God. You're going to come and join us and you're going to get something. I fully believe that.

Come join us. And again, if you live out of state, tune in to Fountain of Life, Elizabeth City, Edenton, Salt Church in Virginia Beach. And again, we love you guys. Stay safe. Be good.

Get a hold of your word. Devour it. Devour it. Commune with God. And be purposeful that you're going to take your next year and you're going to contend for the faith and you're going to live like no one else for Jesus Christ.

I love you guys. Have a good evening.