The Love Revolution By. Dr. Pete Norris

Today on Power in the Word. I don't understand why my son died. I don't understand why I had a heart attack. I don't understand why the car wreck happened. People don't understand why their spouse dies, why this happens. I don't understand those things. You're never going to understand those things. All I know is that it's me and him. And outside of that I'm pretty much lost. But I know that he's got my best interest at heart. And I know that he's got me every step of my life. And I know that I'm not leaving here until he's finished with me. And I want to be in my place every day to speak my word, to say those things, to make a difference in people's lives. I want to enjoy the journey. Welcome to Power in the Word. Life is a journey. And how we travel this journey is contingent on the unconditional love we have for one another. Well, today Dr. Norris teaches us that there's only one way to peace and joy in this life. And it's love. So you stay with us. Be challenged and encouraged. We're going to talk about the love revolution. Turn to somebody and say, I'm full of love. I love everybody. You know you just lied, don't you? Love's unconditional. There's nothing that can happen with love. God, there's nothing you can do to make God not love you. Then there should be nothing anybody else can do to you to make you not love them. If you got restitutions, you got reservations, if you got differences in people, you say, Pastor, I can't change the way people are. You can't change the way people are, but you can always change how you respond.

He said go. In Matthew 28, verse 19, he said go. Now I want to stop right there with go. He said go. Are you going? Where are you going? How many times have you been in a hurry to get to somewhere, and you met somebody on the road, and you knew you ought to stop, and you knew you ought to have done something, but it was about you instead of about them. He said go, therefore, make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Verse 20. Teaching them. See, guys, people don't know why they're mad. They don't know why they're angry. We've been sent to teach them. We've been sent to love them. We've been sent to help them. We've been sent to mentor them. We've been sent to change them. We've been sent to hold them. We've been sent to show them the grace and mercy that Jesus has. Think about it a minute. You can't never make anybody like you, but you can always make people love you. You say, Pastor, what do you mean? Love will cover a multitude of sins. The Bible said a soft word will turn away animosity and wrath. Teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you. Well, what did he command us? To love.

And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. Let me ask you a question this morning. Do you have some times that it's about you, and you're in the middle of your business, you're in the middle of doing your thing, and this person shows up, and you really ain't got time for them? Be honest a minute. Tell me any time Jesus hasn't had time for you. Tell me any time he hasn't took the time to be there. And I'm not speaking a condemning message today. I'm talking love. Do you love unconditionally? Or can somebody do something to make you not love anymore? Or has the world hardened you and calloused you, and that love that used to flow in you, you still say the same thing, but you know when you're alone that it's not true. You know when somebody hurts your feelings or offends you, you know we're on pins and needles now. Everybody's mad. Everybody's angry. Drive through or drive through? They look like they're going to eat you. I don't know if they'll bite or not bite now. Service is out the window. Why? Because we ain't got time for people. Guys, we need to wake up and realize that it's about the love of Christ. Look around in the world. We've got the Democrats, the Republicans, the Independents. They're knocking this one, they're knocking this one. Why don't we just talk about what we can do

and forget about talking about what everybody else has done? Why can't we love? Why can't we walk in a place of gentleness and meekness? Let's go to Matthew 22. And then one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him and saying, 20-36. Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law? 37. Jesus said that you love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Now you know this is Old Covenant, right? Because I asked the Lord about this one time. I said, Lord, I don't understand. I love Him with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind. How am I going to love and eat in the kids? Doesn't make any sense. But the law you're asking, what's the greatest of all the commandments? And all he did was answer it. But even under the old covenant, it was love. But under the old covenant, it was about you loving God. But under the new covenant, it's about Him loving you. And when you understand He loves you, see, here's the real kicker. And the Lord told me, He said, people will tell you that they know I love them, but they don't really know it. If you knew He loved you, you would love people. But the world has calcified us. It's made us hard. It's made us, we got our guard up. We got our offense up. We afraid somebody's going to take something from us, or we're afraid that they're going to do something to us to hurt our feelings. And we're just waiting for people to hurt us so we can cut ties with them.

Jesus is not waiting for you to miss it so He can cut ties with you. He's absolutely crazy about you. This angel made a statement to me, and I'm going to read this statement to you just like it was told to me. He said, Pete, fear and failure is an illusion in the mind of truth. Fear and failure is an illusion in the mind of truth, Pete. Look at 38. This is the first and the great commandment, 39. Second is lock it. Love your neighbor as you serve. How many of you love your neighbor like you serve? How many of you cooked supper for your neighbor last night? Really? Do you love your neighbor like you love yourself? Do you really love people like you love yourself, or do they have conditions on your love? Be honest. Because you know what? The great thing is love, guys. Great thing is love. Verse 40. And these two commandments hang on all the law and all the prophets. Now, this is not a condemning message today. Don't you walk out of here condemned. You can't love on your own. You can only love when you allow the Holy Spirit to shed abroad the love of Christ in our hearts. But are we walking in love? Or are we mad with the world? I want you to go to John chapter 13, 34 and 35, and this is what Jesus said. A new commandment I give you. Now, watch this. I want you to underline some stuff. A new commandment I give you.

That you what? As I what? That you what? Now, he said two times, as you love one another, as I've loved you. But if you don't know how much he's loved you, how are you going to love folks? Look at 35. By this, you will know that you're my disciples. Why? Because you love one another. Three times in two scriptures, he said, love one another. You reckon he's trying to get a point across to us? What do you think that point is? Love. How many of you know that God is love? That's not his attribute. That's who he is. He don't have a choice but to love you because he's love. He don't keep a record all the things you've done wrong because love doesn't do that. He's not puffed up or bitter or uptight or have anything in animosity. He don't even remember anything you've ever done. Do you remember what people's done? I'm trying to take you to a different place where the world can't deceive you and manipulate you and take you to a place where you're so consumed with him that nothing else matters. Then when people want to persecute you and come at you, Jesus went to the cross and died on that cross for you and I and he still wasn't angry because he understood it was a journey. He understood it was the journey, man, and not the destination. Are you in for the journey or you just want the destination? The journey is people. When the journey is not about people anymore, we've missed the purpose. The journey is about folks looking in the eyes of hurting people and saying, I got the

answer for you. It's about getting up every morning and not being about Pete but being about him. Man, it's a journey in your life. It's a journey meeting those people you meet every day that tears you up and gets you all tore up and you want to walk away from. Sometimes that's your journey. Oh, man, it's about the journey. Anybody can quit, but it's about the journey. What's the journey for you? Is those people worth the journey? Are they worth the pain? Are they worth the struggle? Guys, there's got to be some tribulation. trials in your life. There are going to be some struggles in your life because you don't come out as fine gold without some struggle and some pain and some fire and some pressure. That's the journey. All God is doing is refining us. He wants us to walk through this earth and this is only a sideshow for the real destination. But it's about the journey, it's not about the destination. I'm so tired of hearing people write me letters and saying, Lord, I'm looking for Jesus to come. Do you understand how many people are hurting and lost? Do you know how many people are struggling with their identity and who they are? They don't even know if they're boys or girls. Lord, don't we have an answer for that? It's love. It's love. It's unconditional love. Look at John 15, 12. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I've loved you. He said, this is my commandment. This is in red, guys. Jesus is saying, this is my commandment. He gave us one new commandment, John 13, 34, to love one another as he's loved us. And then he tells us in John 15, 12, this is actually my big M. This is my commandment, guys, that you love one another. Do you love? Or is it about what you can get from somebody? Love keeps on loving. Love keeps on enduring. Love just keeps on, keeps on, keeps on, keeps on. Mercy keeps on loving. Well, Pastor, isn't there a limit? Well, you know, he said seven times seventy. How many of you know seven times seventy is what? 490, right? Isn't that what Daniel talked about in seven times seventy?

What was he talking about? Unconditional forgiveness. What if all that eschatology thing is really about forgiveness? I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to mess up your theology. I'm trying to crush it. I want you to be so understanding of how much he loves you that when people want to afflict you and tear you down and get you disappointed, that you're irresistible from it. Because you don't know who I know. You don't know where I've been. You don't know what I've seen. I want you to understand today, it's about the journey, guys. It's about the journey. It's not about getting to heaven and resting up there and seeing Grandma and all of them. It's about the journey. God, show me what I need for my journey. Show me what I need to understand for the journey that you put me on. I don't care anymore where this journey takes me. I'm not looking to go to heaven. I want to enjoy the journey. I don't want anybody to miss him because of my clock. Because I didn't have time to stop and say, you know what, how's your day? What's going on with you? Some of the people walking in the greatest wisdom are on the street pushing carts around. 1 John 3. And this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of the Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandments. So this is the core of the Christian faith, guys, to love one another. Do we really love? Do we really love? And then he showed me John 14. Go to John 14. Do we really love? What does love look like? What does love look like? God's taking us on a journey. And sometimes we question God and sometimes I question God. Sometimes I don't understand what God does, what he does. And sometimes, you know, God doesn't speak fast enough for Pete. God needs to show up a little sooner. God needs to tell me the deal and let's get it over with and move on. But it's the journey. Am I going to trust him when I don't understand? When things happen in my life and I don't understand why they happen, am I going to still know that God's got my best intention? Or in the back of my mind, do I just say the church stuff? But really, deep down, I'm hurting him and I'm in pain. It's okay to tell God you're hurting and you're in pain. It's okay sometimes to tell God you don't understand. David got on the mountain and cried out, but God was merciful. He said, there's a man after my heart, brother. And there's something that always moved me about David. God said he liked David. Ain't nobody else in the Bible he said he liked. Because I'm going to show you something very powerful. And I pray the Father, he'll give you another comforter, another helper, that he may abide with you forever. Verse 17. The spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him. For he dwells with you and he shall be in you. Now let me ask you something. Here's Jesus hanging on a cross between heaven and earth. And they're doing all kinds of things to him. He never opened his mouth. Part of the journey. It's a part of the journey. People are your journey. The destination's always evolving, but the journey is always the moment. Or are you so consumed with you that it's not about anything but you reaching your destiny? Sure, we all want to go to heaven, don't we? We don't want to go today, but we all want to go, don't we? But what about the journey? What about the ones that are around you that believe in you? What about the ones around that you have influence in? How about the ones around you that you struggle sometimes to understand? You know, just about less than a year ago, I can understand Eric's situation. Because Anita and I were in a serious wreck and she could have been gone in a minute.

And so the wreck's over and she can't get out of the car. I understand the situation. I understand the moment. But I refuse, I refuse to not see the good in situations in my life. Because what the enemy wants to do is take you off your journey. Take you off your purpose and your destiny. Guys, it ain't about where you're going to go. You all know you're going to go to heaven, that's automatic. But how are you going to act along the way? Go to me to John 14, 23. Stay with me. I know this is different. Jesus answered and he said to him, If anyone loves me, he'll keep my word. What's his word? Love one another. And my father will love him and we come to him and we'll make our home with him. Guys, do you understand that that person that you're angry with, if they've been born again, God's in them too? And what are you doing when you're talking about them? What are you doing when you're criticizing them? What are you doing when you're upset with them? What are you doing? Where's the love? Where's the love that consumes us to a point? You're always going to have questions from God that you're not going to understand. There's things you're just not going to understand. I don't understand why my son died. I don't understand why I had a heart attack. I don't understand why the car wreck happened. People don't understand why their spouse dies, why this happens or why the... I don't understand those things.

You're never going to understand those things. All I know is that it's me and him. And outside of that, I'm pretty much lost. But I know that he's got my best interest in heart. And I know that he's got me every step of my life. And I know that I'm not leaving here until he's finished with me. And I want to be in my place every day to speak my word, to say those things, to make a difference in people's life. I want to enjoy the journey. I want to get to a point in my life that you get around me. And when you get around me, you're going to know that you know, that you know that you've been in his presence. They could tell Peter and John had been with Jesus, man. Why? These last three days, I'm telling you, it's like you didn't have a care in the world. Lord, you know you can't stay there because then you won't enjoy the journey. Go to 1 Corinthians 3 and 16. Do you not know that you're a temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you? How many of you know you're the temple of God? You're the temple of God. You are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you. So let me ask you something. How can two people have the same spirit and have a different revelation of certain things? Because of the way they see it and because of their past. You can take a person that's never been in church in his life, he can read a scripture and he'll get a different revelation than a person that's been in church and been programmed their entire life. We've been programmed with church. Why do you think people don't go to church? Because they've been hurt there.

They've been hurt there. And so to them, everybody's the same. But the bottom line is, what about the goodness and mercy of what God wants to do in you and the significance that all of us could make in the world? Look around today, guys. And I'm not trying to be critical. I'm not trying to be negative. But let's take a real look at the world. Everybody in politics is born again, they say. Right? Everybody knows Jesus. Everybody in politics knows Jesus. Everybody you talk to, oh, yeah, I believe in Jesus. I don't want prayer in the school, but I believe in Jesus. That guy over there is a hoodlum. They don't say that, but I'm cleaning it up for you. But I believe in Jesus, but he gonna stick you if he gets a chance. Think about it. Do you think that's the real way Jesus would handle situations? He told us, this is what he told him, this is what he told Paul. He said, Paul, when you go into the city, if you've not received, shake the dust off your feet, don't cause any commotions, and move on down the road, bud. But we're gonna let people know we right, because we got a violent faith. Truth is always gonna be revealed. When David was coming back, and he had took the men out, and they'd come back, and the Ammonites had invaded everything, and took everything, and took his wives, and took all the cattle, and and David wanted to vindicate and said, Lord, I can go get them. I can go get them. I can take them out. David was a man after God's heart, but he'd fight you till in a minute, because David had a temper. Matter of fact, he killed a man to get his wife, remember? Then had a baby by her, and the baby died, and he threw a party. David was a real dude. But he came back, and all the men turned against him because they had lost their wives, and lost their families, and lost all their

cattle. And what did David say? David said, we can go get them if you want to right now. What did God say? God said, David, if you vindicate yourself, buddy, you're in trouble, because I'll take my hand off of you, but if you'll let me, I'll vindicate you. See, I'm telling you right now, God is gonna vindicate the people that are right, that don't fall into the... Oh, he's gonna bring restoration. There's a glorious thing right around the corner, if you can hang on long enough to hang on to the rope, and say, you know what? I may fall, but I'm gonna fall in his arms. But he's gonna vindicate. He's gonna vindicate. There's people that have called you bad and crazy. They're gonna come back and have to tell you I was wrong. Come on, somebody. You know you love that. You want them to come back and apologize to you. But look around. What does love look like? Let's go to 2 Corinthians 6 and 16. And what agreement had the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God said, I will dwell in them, I'll walk among them, and I'll be their God, and they'll be my people. Think about it a minute. Jesus died that you'd be free. That person that you absolutely hate, God died so they'd be free. That person that hurt you the deepest, God died so they would be free. And the Bible said in 1 Corinthians 10 and 13 that God won't allow anything to come upon you that you can't overcome, and in all your way he'll find you a way of escape. What's his way of escape? Through him. You gotta trust him. Because no matter what's going on in your life, God's gonna turn it to your good. If you can just stand and trust him and say, you know what God, I don't understand this bad boy. Listen to me, if you understood anything you wouldn't need no faith. The word in them means to inhabit in the strong. So what is he doing? He's dwelling, he's making his home inside of us. That person that you may be uptight with, if they were born again and God's making his home inside of them, leave him alone. Don't let people get you off track and respond to their craziness. I've told my children all the time, don't even respond to ignorance. Don't respond to it. What I'm trying to get you to see is this, what is wrong with truth? And truth has results, but what I'm trying to get you to see is that God's love is truth. And love should be everything that we

base everything on. But then there's a lot of us that are afraid of love because we've never experienced it. And so it's hard if we've never experienced love to trust God's love for us. Go to Colossians chapter 1, 26 and 27. The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations but now has been revealed to his saints. What's the mystery? That means that's hidden truths. They've been hidden from the ages and from generations but now has been revealed to his saints. 27. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory. See God, here's the mystery, Christ. Everybody says I believe Jesus died and resurrected. Where's the love? Because everything was done through love. Where's the love? Are we really walking in love? See grace is not an avenue for you to be mean. It's not an avenue for us to be mean. Now, I want to show you something that the Holy Spirit spoke to me. I was reminded that because God would not live in people that believed in Jesus, we need to love Him in the dwelling place, in those people who believe in Him. Did you get what I just said? We would need to love Him in the dwelling place, in those who believe in Him. Well, Pastor, they just don't agree with me, and so we just can't be together. Well, then what are you going to do when you get to heaven? You going to live on the left side and they going to live on the right? He's making Himself accessible to us in our brothers and our sisters, but it would be impossible to love Him if we didn't love the brother and sister that we now live in. He's making Himself available, guys, to you. A lot of things He wants to show you is through your brothers and your sisters. Do you understand if you want a hug from God, it's when you hug your brother and your sister. That is hugging God. That is hugging His presence. Well, Pastor, I don't like to hug. I understand that. I understand that.

I don't have a problem with that. You're just missing out on a lot of stuff. But that doesn't mean you're wrong. Well, I don't like that affection. Some people are just not affectionate people. That doesn't make them wrong. You'll be surprised sometimes how a hug will change somebody's day and change somebody's life, or just a phone call, or just, I'm thinking about you, or I believe in you, or I'm trusting in you. I value you. Those things are important. People need to be valued. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. Thirty-six. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Thirty-seven. Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and we fed you, and thirsty and we gave you drink? Thirty-eight. When did we see you a stranger and we took you in, and we naked and we clothed you? Thirty-nine. When did we see you sick or in prison and we come to you? Thirty-forty. And the King Jesus answered and He said to them, surely I say to you, inasmuch as you've done this to the least of one of my brothers, you've done it to me. Why do you think we feed people here?

I'm not going to go ask a man, I'm not going to go up to him and say, why are you in so much trouble? Ain't you got a job? Show me that in the text. He said, I was hungry and you fed me. I was in prison and you visited me. I was sick and you come to see me. I was struggling, I was naked and you clothed me. What do we do around here? Why do we do what we do? Because He commanded us and that's what love does. That's what love does. Love keeps on giving. Thank you for joining us today at Power in the Word. All of us here at Harvest Fellowship Church want you to know that God is not mad with you, but He loves you so very much and He has a plan for your life. Please feel free to contact us here at Harvest Fellowship Church at our website, HarvestFellowshipChurch.net. So until next week, please remember, there's power in the word.