Toxic Empathy Vs. True Love

For more information visit www.fema.gov For more information visit www.fema.gov For more information visit www.fema.gov For more information visit www.fema.gov For more information visit www.fema.gov For more information visit www.fema.gov For more information visit www.fema.gov For more information visit www.fema.gov For more information visit www.fema.gov For more information visit www.fema.gov We praise You, we praise You. This is what living looks like, This is what freedom feels like, This is what Heaven sounds like. We praise You, we praise You. This is what living looks like, This is what freedom feels like, This is what Heaven sounds like. We praise You, we praise You. This is what living looks like, This is what freedom feels like, This is what Heaven sounds like. We praise You, we praise You. We'll see You break down every wall, We'll watch the giants fall, You cannot survive when we praise You. The God of breakthroughs on our side, Forever lifted high, With all creation cry, God we praise You. We'll see You break down every wall,

We'll watch the giants fall, You cannot survive when we praise You. The God of breakthroughs on our side, Forever lifted high, With all creation cry, God we praise You. Oh We praise You Oh We praise You Oh We praise You Oh We praise You Oh We praise You Oh We praise You Oh We praise You Oh We praise You Oh Our father everlasting Lord ♪ In all creating one, God Almighty ♪ We praise You Oh We praise You ♪ Through your Holy Spirit conceiving Christ the Son ♪ ♪ Jesus our Savior ♪

♪ I believe in God our Father, I believe in Christ the Son ♪ ♪ I believe in the Holy Spirit, our God is three in one ♪ ♪ I believe in the resurrection, that we will rise again ♪ ♪ For I believe in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Our judge and our defender, suffered and crucified ♪ ♪ Forgiveness is in you, descended into darkness ♪ ♪ You rose in glorious light, forever seated high ♪ ♪ I believe in God our Father, I believe in Christ the Son ♪ ♪ I believe in the Holy Spirit, our God is three in one ♪ ♪ I believe in the resurrection, that we will rise again ♪ ♪ For I believe in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I believe in you, I believe you rose again ♪ ♪ I believe that Jesus Christ is born again ♪ ♪ I believe in you, I believe you rose again ♪ ♪ I believe that Jesus Christ is born again ♪ ♪ I believe in you, I believe you rose again ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ I believe in God our Father, I believe in Christ the Son ♪ ♪ I believe in the Holy Spirit, our God is three in one ♪ ♪ I believe in the resurrection, that we will rise again ♪ ♪ For I believe in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I believe in God our Father, I believe in Christ the Son ♪ ♪ I believe in the Holy Spirit, our God is three in one ♪ ♪ I believe in the resurrection, that we will rise again ♪ ♪ For I believe in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ For I believe in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ For I believe in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ For I believe in the name of Jesus ♪ We believe it. ♪ All my words fall short, I've got nothing new ♪

♪ I've got nothing new, how could I express all my gratitude ♪ ♪ I could sing these songs, as I often do ♪ ♪ But every song I stand, and you never do ♪ ♪ So I fold my hands, and praise you again and again ♪ ♪ All that I have is the hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ And I know it's not much, I'm nothing else before a king ♪ ♪ Except for a heart singing hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ I've got one response, I've got just one hope ♪ ♪ With my arms stretched wide, I will worship you ♪ ♪ So I fold my hands and praise you again and again ♪ ♪ Because all that I have is the hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ And I know it's not much, I'm nothing else before a king ♪ ♪ Except for a heart singing hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Come on my soul, oh don't you get shy on me ♪ ♪ And tell your soul, cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs ♪ ♪ Give up and praise the Lord ♪ Come on church, you sing it out. ♪ Oh come on my soul, oh don't you get shy on me ♪ ♪ And tell your soul, cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs ♪ ♪ Give up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Come on my soul, oh don't you get shy on me ♪ ♪ And tell your soul, cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs ♪ ♪ Inside of those lungs, give up and praise the Lord ♪ One more time. ♪ Come on my soul, oh don't you get shy on me ♪ ♪ And tell your soul, cause you've got a lion inside of those lungs ♪ ♪ Give up and praise the Lord ♪ ♪ So I throw my hands and praise you again and again ♪

♪ Cause all that I have is a calling, oh all a calling ♪ ♪ I know it's not much and I know it's not much ♪ ♪ But nothing else can put you free ♪ ♪ Except for my singing, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Sing hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ We give our praise to you Lord, all our praise to you Lord ♪ Let's sing that chorus one more time again, just your voices. ♪ So I throw my hands and praise you again and again ♪ ♪ Cause all that I have is a hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ And I know it's not much and I know it's not much ♪ ♪ But nothing else can put you free ♪ ♪ Except for my singing, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ Now today we want to talk about true love. What does the Bible have to say about love? This, this teaching in scripture about love, about true love. And we're going to compare true love to toxic empathy. Toxic empathy is something that Allie Beth Stuckey made. She kind of didn't come up with that phrase, but she popularized it in her book about toxic empathy. And toxic empathy is a feeling that's when you feel somebody's pain. Empathy is a good thing, but empathy can become toxic. And we have in our world today a battle between true love and toxic empathy. And I hope today to be able to define for us, what is true love? What does the Bible say about true love? What does the Bible say about empathy? And how can empathy become toxic?

And then about how to apply that in our world today. You know, we're called to be salt and light. We're called to make a difference in our culture. Just like salt makes a difference when it's put on food, light makes a difference when it comes into a room. We're called to make a difference in culture. As Christians, and sadly, the culture has made more of a difference in the church than the church has made in the culture. And a lot of that has to do with toxic empathy versus true love. So here's my question for you today. Has your empathy turned toxic and departed from true love? Before you answer too quickly, just know this. So many people who call themselves Christians have gotten away from true love and embrace this empathy that is truly poison. So, 1st Corinthians chapter 13, the love chapter as we like to refer to it as. It's sandwiched between 1st Corinthians 12 and 1st Corinthians 14, which are passages concerning spiritual gifts. And in the Church of Corinth, they were fighting over spiritual gifts, and they loved the sign gifts, the sensational gifts, the miracles, and speaking in tongues, and they wanted those. And they were starting to say, well, my gift's better than your gift. And there was competition about gifts, and in Paul's discussion on spiritual gifts, right in the middle of the discussion, he talks about love. Because if you're not operating in love, what difference does it make what your spiritual gift is? Because as Paul told Timothy, 1st Timothy chapter 1 verse 5, the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, and a good conscience,

and a sincere faith. 1st Corinthians chapter 13. I'll begin reading in verse 4. Love is patient. Love is kind and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant. Does not act unbecomingly. That means it's not rude. It does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. Now the last verse in chapter 13, 1st Corinthians 13, 13 says this, but now faith, hope, love, abide these three, but the greatest of these is love. Between faith, hope, and love, three really important concepts in the Christian life. Between those three, love is the most important. You know why? Because a million years from now, when we all get to heaven as we sing that song, What a Day of Rejoicing, that would be a million years from now, when we're in heaven with the Lord, we won't need faith because we have sight. We won't need hope because hope is realized, but love will still abide because God's kingdom is saturated with love. So between faith, hope, and love, the greatest of these is love because love never ends, love never fails. So three discoveries for this morning concerning love, empathy, toxic empathy, and then how to apply those truths. Discovery number one, true love, agape love, is foundational to the

Christian life. It is foundational to. the Christian life. Now, in the Greek language, you have four words for love. Three of them are used in the Bible. One is not used in the Bible, but it's a word that we're familiar with. It's the Greek word eros. Eros is romantic love, sexual love. The Bible doesn't use the word eros, but the Greeks knew about eros. Well, the Bible gives us another word for love, which is phileia. That's a brotherly love. We have a city called Philadelphia. That's the city of brotherly love. I don't know how much love takes place in that city, but that's what it's called. Phileia is a brotherly love. It's friendship love. Then you have a Greek word, storge. Storge is family love, and that's used rarely in the New Testament, but there are some uses of storge. And then the word that's used over and over and over and over and over and over again is agape. Agape love. That's the highest kind of love. That's God's love. That's a love that's selfless. That's a love that is unconditional. That's a love that says, I don't love you because you do this and this and this. I don't love you because you, you know, meet these requirements. I have just chosen to love you. I love you unconditionally. Agape love is the highest kind of love. Now, love goes from the vertical to the horizontal. Love begins with God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. It starts in this vertical relationship between God and man. And the Bible says we love because he first loved us. Romans chapter 5 verse 8, God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And when we understand God's love as it's shown at the cross, and we respond to God's love, we enter into a relationship with the Lord. And it's a love relationship. Now, Jesus was asked in Matthew chapter 22, teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law? He said the greatest commandment in the law. He didn't go to the 10 commandments. He went to Deuteronomy chapter 6 and he says, hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one and you will, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets. Everything hangs on those two commandments. What is the commandment? Vertical, love God with everything that you are and then love your neighbor as yourself. We just had our membership class

and we welcomed 20 new members into the church last Sunday night. And we talk about our mission statement as a church. What is our mission statement? Loving God, the greatest commandment, loving people, the second greatest commandment, and speaking the truth of Jesus and sharing the truth of Jesus. That's the great commission. Go and make disciples of all the nations. Love is foundational to the Christian life and it goes from the vertical to the horizontal. Maybe you remember learning this song as I did when I learned it in college. A lot of people learn it earlier, but first John chapter 4 verse 7 and 8. Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God. For God is love. We always did the not. I don't know. None of y'all did that. Beloved, let us love one another. First John 4, 7 and 8. And that was, that's how you learn first John 4, 7 and 8 through that little song. But that's really true. The one who does not love does not know God. For God is love. Beloved, let us love one another. Now love in first Corinthians 13 is described more than it is defined. If you're learning, looking for a definition of love from the scripture, you don't really find it. You find it described more so than defined. And so first Corinthians 13 is quote unquote the love chapter, but we don't find a definition as much as we just find all these things about it. Love is patient, is long-suffering, it's kind, it's not jealous, doesn't brag, it's not arrogant, doesn't act unbecomingly. Love is not rude. It does not seek its own. It's not self-centered and self-seeking. It's not provoked. That means it's not easily irritated. Doesn't take into account a wrong suffered. Doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness. It rejoices with the truth and it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That is love. It's love described more so than love defined. But in that description, we learn this about love. Love is rooted in righteousness and truth. Look at verse 6 again. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness. That word means moral wickedness. It doesn't rejoice in that, but rejoices with the truth. It celebrates the truth. It doesn't celebrate wickedness. It celebrates righteousness. It celebrates truth. That is true love. Now, there are four words used to describe God's throne and right around God's throne. These are critical as it relates to the Lord. Psalm 89 verse 14, righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Loving kindness and truth go before

you. Those four things, righteousness, justice, loving kindness, and truth, those are all connected to God and His throne and His rule. Those are not competing with one another. Those are not opposite of one another. They all fit together. And if something is unrighteous, it doesn't fit in God's throne and God's kingdom. If something is untrue, if it's a lie, that doesn't fit in there. If it's unjust, it doesn't fit in there. If it's not gracious and kind and loving, it doesn't fit in God's kingdom and in God's rule and in God's throne. So, true love, agape love, used over 250 times in the New Testament, foundational to the Christian life. Second discovery, empathy is understood. Empathy is to understand, to share in, and to feel another's pain. That's what empathy is. Interesting. Empathy is a word that came into being in the early 1900s. It's not a Bible word. Not even with new translations of the Bible, empathy is not used. If you do a word search on most Bible translations, you'll not find empathy used anywhere in the Scripture. But it's a concept that's taught in the Bible, and empathy is seen in Scripture as sympathy and compassion. It's kind of put those two things together. Those are good things. Sympathy is good. Compassion is good. Those two words fall under the banner of love, of true love, agape love. Agape love is going to be sympathetic. Agape love is going to be compassionate. Why? God is that way. The Lord, the Lord God. Exodus 34, where God introduces Himself in His glory to Moses, and He passes by Moses, and He says, the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth. God is a compassionate God. The Scripture says to us in 1 Peter 3, 8, to sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, and humble in spirit. That word for, in the Greek, sympathetic, means to have fellow feelings, to mutually commiserate. Romans 12 says, we're to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. And then it says in Colossians chapter 3, that we're to put on, as those chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion. Compassion means literally in the English, compassion, to suffer with. Calm means with, and passion is suffering. That's when Mel Gibson did the movie, The Passion of the Christ. The word passion means suffering. And so, compassion means that you suffer with that person. And so, we commiserate with those who are hurting, and we suffer with those who are hurting, and that is sympathy, and that is compassion. You know, in Matthew's Gospel, when Jesus healed blind Bartimaeus, and he says to Bartimaeus, what do you want me to do for you? And he said, Rabbi, I want to

regain my sight. And the Bible says that Jesus was moved with compassion. And the Greek word there, splanktona, means a pain in your gut. He could feel it inside, and he had strong feelings for this guy, and for his plight. That's compassion. And so, empathy is really seen in Scripture as sympathy and compassion. And as long as empathy, here is love. The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and a sincere heart. their faith, agape love. As long as compassion and sympathy are right underneath love, everything is good. But here's where empathy gets toxic. When it detaches from what the Bible says about love, love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. As soon as love, as empathy loses its moorings with truth, then it becomes poisonous. It becomes toxic. It becomes not part of love, but a competitor to true love and an enemy of true love. Hey, if you get your empathy, your sympathy, your compassion, I feel your pain for people outside of truth and outside of righteousness, you're in trouble. Why? Because then you'll start affirming unrighteousness. You're going to prioritize feelings over reality, and you're going to start validating lies and supporting destructive choices. Now listen, our culture is saturated with toxic empathy. We've lost sight of true love, and it's just empathy that's gone rogue, which brings me to discovery number three. God commands us to be wise and to speak the truth in love. We're commanded by God to be wise as we live this world. Don't walk as unwise men, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil, Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10 verse 16, behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be shrewd as serpents, wise as serpents, and innocent as doves. We need to be shrewd. We need to be wise as we live in this world. We need to know what is going on, and we need not be naive about what is going on. And the Lord says, I am commanding you to be wise, and I'm commanding you, Ephesians 4 15, to speak the truth in love. And that's what we're called to do. How are we, as we said last week, how are we going to be faithful to the Lord, to stand before the Lord and hear him say, well done, my good and faithful servant, or good and faithful slave? How do we do that? By sticking to the word, by knowing what the word says, by telling people the truth. As Paul said in Galatians chapter 4 verse 16, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? But here's the thing, if you tell people the truth, they get mad. Because the time will come where people will not endure sound doctrine. Paul told Timothy this, in 2 Timothy

4, the last chapter he ever wrote, the time will come, Timothy, when people will not endure sound doctrine, but they're going to want to have their ears tickled. Because when you scratch them behind the ears, it feels good, and they'll turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. And Jesus told his brothers in John chapter 7 verse 7, the world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its deeds are evil. Jesus told everyone the truth and they crucified him for it. You know what the charge was for them to bring up to Pilate why he should crucify Jesus? Pilate wanted to let him go repeatedly. And in John chapter 19, they finally said to him, we have a law and by that law he deserves to die. For he said, I am the son of God. That was true. He was, he is, he always will be the son of God. Why did they crucify Jesus? For telling the truth. Why did they crucify Peter upside down? For speaking the truth. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Why did Paul get his head cut off? For speaking the truth. They wouldn't back down. They wouldn't shut up. They wouldn't let up until they were taken up to glory. They were faithful until death. As Jesus said, be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life. They spoke the truth and we are to speak the truth and speak it in love. We are to be salt and light in a lost and dying world. And just know, Jesus said in John chapter 15, hey, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you're not of the world, I have called you out of the world. Therefore, the world hates you." Now we have a lot of Christians who want to get along with the world because they don't want to ruffle feathers, they don't want to get people upset, they don't want to get people mad at them. So, I'm just going to be quiet, I'm going to zip it, I'm just going to go, you know, just go along. I'm going to get along to go along, that kind of thing. And the Lord is saying, wait, have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous, do not tremble or be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

I've given you a message to share with them. And I've given you the word to say, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. And the people who are marching on the broad road to destruction, if you really love them, you're not going to pat them on the back and cheer them as they walk toward hell. You're going to say, hey, wait, you're going the wrong way. And you need to turn around, you need to turn from sin and turn to the Savior. So, with all that said, let's talk about some issues that are destroying people's lives, that are destroying our whole nation. And so many Christians buy into the lie that love says you support these things, when in reality that's not love, that's toxic empathy, and it's an enemy of love. The first situation is abortion. Abortion is not reproductive health care, it is murder. That's what abortion is. Now we have people on the left telling us, oh, that's reproductive health care. That sounds a lot better, doesn't it, than murder. They don't want to call it murder, so it's not really a baby. You know, it's just a fetus, not a baby. Well, when does it become a baby? Well, it becomes a baby when the baby's born. And so you have those who argue that we ought to be able to abort a baby up until the time of delivery, because it's just a fetus until it is born. How sick, how twisted, how perverted is that? Abortion is not health care. If you could interview the baby who's being aborted, hey, how's the health care going? Well, I'm dying, so it's definitely not helping my health. But you have people with toxic empathy, and they say, oh, you don't understand. See, here's the thing. If you have a woman who is violently accosted and violated, and she becomes pregnant, well, she should be able to abort that baby, because you're going to traumatize her all over again by making her keep the baby.

And that sounds like, well, I feel your pain. Yeah, you're right. I guess in those instances, no, that's not right, because love does not rejoice in unrighteousness. It rejoices with the truth. This and as horrible as that violation was, you don't compound the horribleness by adding murder to it. Here's what the Scripture says in Psalm 139. You put me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because you made me in such a wonderful way. I know how amazing that was. You could see my bones grow as my body took shape, hidden in my mother's womb. You could see my body grow each passing day. You listed all my parts, and not one of them was missing. 2025 in America, we murdered through abortion over a million babies. Seventy-three million were murdered around the world in 2025. The womb, which is supposed to be the safest place on earth, has become a killing field. And listen, it is definitely not loving to encourage or to support a woman who is in crisis pregnancy and wants to murder her unborn child. Listen, abortion is not the unpardonable sin. And many of my dear friends, I say many, many people I know have done that and repented and received forgiveness from the Lord. You can be washed white as snow if you've done that, but that doesn't change the fact that abortion is murder. And we have to stand up for that truth. Secondly, or well, let me just say this. Adrian Rogers was at a congressional hearing. This was years and years ago. And he talked about the murderous ways of abortion. And a woman came up to him afterward, and she accosted him and stuck her finger in his face. And she said, you, you Baptist preacher, you don't know anything.

You're a man. What do you know about the trauma? She goes, you don't know about the trauma. Trauma that women have and that's why they have an abortion because of the trauma. And he said, ma'am, am I to understand that if someone's giving you trauma, you can murder that person because you're giving me trauma right now. She started backing up. She was a little concerned, but he was making a point. Speaking the truth in love. Abortion is not health care. It is murder. Secondly, homosexuality is not love. It is perversion. Well, you stand up for that. People get mad. You've heard, I've heard no doubt the statement for those that are pushing for same sex marriage and got it passed with the Oberfeld decision that love is love. I had a guy tell me one time we were talking about that kind of arguing back and forth. He said, well, love is love. So that's the end of that discussion. Well, homosexuality is not love because love does not rejoice in unrighteousness. It rejoices with the truth and God's attitude toward homosexuality has not changed. Homosexuality is wrong. Homosexuality is sinful. The Bible says in Leviticus 18 verse 22, you shall not lie with a man as one lies with a male, as one lies with a female. It is an abomination.

It's utterly detestable to the Lord. People say, well, that's Old Testament. That's Leviticus. I mean, Leviticus tells us a lot of things that we're not supposed to do. You got to remember in the Old Testament, you had national laws for Israel. We don't have those anymore. You had ceremonial laws for how they were to do things and conduct things. We're not under the law. We're under grace. But then you had moral laws. Those haven't changed. God's attitude toward sexual immorality, God's attitude toward fornication and adultery and homosexuality have never changed. And we see that again in the New Testament. And Paul or Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 2, where he talks about Sodom and Gomorrah. God used Sodom and Gomorrah. He made that an example for those who would live ungodly thereafter. What do we know about Sodom and Gomorrah? Rampant homosexuality. We get the sin of sodomy from that place, Sodom. Homosexuality is not the unpardonable sin either, but it's sin and we need to call it out and we need to call people who are pursuing that lifestyle. We don't need to cheer them on. We don't need to say, well, I guess the Bible could say that. It doesn't say that.

It's very clear that it doesn't say that. So you speak the truth in love. Is the world going to applaud you for that? No, the world's going to hate you and call you a hater and call you a bigot and call you a homophobe. But we're not living for the praise of the world. We're living for the praise of one. And so we speak the truth in love. Homosexuality is not love, it's perversion. Thirdly, gender is not fluid. It is binary. That means there's two. You're either male or female. Genesis 1, 27, God made them male and female. Jesus repeated that in Matthew chapter 19, verse 4. He answered and said, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? Just two. And it's really not hard to figure it out. I mean, little kids know the difference between girls and boys. You're either X, Y male or X, X female, and nothing's going to change that. And here's the thing. When a person goes that route, you are calling God out. You're saying, God, I heard Bruce Jenner say this. God, you gave me lots of gifts, but you missed it on my gender because I was not supposed to be a male. I was supposed to be a female. Really? God blew it. God missed it.

No, he didn't. The Bible says in Proverbs 19, verse 13, that the foolishness of man ruins his way and his heart rages against the Lord. We have people in, they would call them the trans community, and their hearts are raging against the Lord. People in the LGBTQIA plus community, their hearts are raging against the Lord. How dare you say what I'm doing is wrong? How dare you say that I can't be what I want to be? I'm going to do it my way. Well, there's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. God is not wanting. you to destroy yourself. And listen, you students in here, if you want a surefire way to wreck and ruin your life, then embrace transgenderism because that will do it. That will destroy your life. It is so much better to not let your heart rage against the Lord, but to yield to the Lord and say, all right, Lord, I lift up my hands to your commandments which I love. Your ways are right concerning everything, and I'm going to go in the direction that you want me to go. When you do that, guess what? You're blessed. But if you go your own way, you're going to experience heartache and hardship. The way of the transgressor is hard, the Bible says. It is awful. And because we love people, we're going to tell them the truth. We're not going to celebrate their fantasy. That's not love. That's toxic empathy that says, well, you feel that way, so who am I to say that that's wrong? Well, you're nobody, I'm nobody, but God says in His Word, and we stand on the Word. I had somebody say, well, you know, you shouldn't judge people. I said, I'm not the judge. The Lord is the judge, but I can tell you what the judge has said. And you want to know what the judge has said because that gives you an opportunity to turn from your sin. If you wait until you die, then you're going to stand before the judge, and there is no coming back from that. It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that, the judgment. And

our God is a consuming fire. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And we love people, so we want to tell them the truth, and we want to give them time to repent, for the kingdom of God is near. Fourthly, we hear this a lot in the news today, immigration. Immigration laws are not cruel. They are necessary. You have to have immigration laws to keep your country safe. Nobody has a house that doesn't have doors and locks on it. And I would imagine everybody in this room, everybody watching under the sound of my voice that's not nails at me right now, says, yeah, you know, at night I lock the doors. Even during the day I lock the doors. Because not because I hate people in the neighborhood, it's because I want to be very careful who I let into my house. I'm just not going to let anybody and his dog into my house. Definitely not going to let somebody in there that would want to do me harm. Well, the nation is just like a house that you blow up. And so you have to have laws, and you have to be able to vet people that come in. Listen, we have people in our country today who will march and say death to America and burn the flag. And they're citizens of this country. Now, it's like, why would we do that? You know, we don't let somebody join the church that doesn't buy off on, here's what we're, here's the direction we're going. If you're not going in that direction, then this isn't the church for you. You can't come to work here unless you're going in the direction we're going. But we let people come in, and they want to fundamentally change the country. And we think that's good, and we think that's loving. And we think that if we say something negative about Islam, that we're Islamophobic. You've heard me say it. It bears repeating. Islam is satanic. Muslims are the mission field, but Islam sends people to hell by the millions and by the billions, and we have to stand up and speak out against that. And God forbid we'd let that come into the house, so to speak, the house of America, because that will destroy America. And let me say this, you love your children, you love your grandchildren, you love your great-grandchildren, what are you leaving for them if you're not going to stand up and fight? Nehemiah chapter 4, that's worth—Nehemiah chapter 4, verse 14, as they're building the wall to keep the citizens of Jerusalem safe, to keep the enemy out, they said, we're going to attack you, we're going to kill you. And Nehemiah said, when he saw the workers' fear, when I saw their fear, I said to them, remember the Lord who is great and mighty and fight.

Fight for your sons, for your daughters, for your houses, for your wives, fight. We need to fight. We don't fight physically, as we sing that song, and when I fight, I fight on my knees, and we need to be praying, and we need to be standing up and speaking for what is true and what is right. Isn't it interesting, Revelation chapter 21, talking about the eternal state, the last two verses, the last two chapters of the Bible, Revelation 21 and Revelation chapter 22. It's the eternal state. No more people are being born. Judgment has all been given to the unbelievers, and it just talks about what our eternity is like. And it says this, and he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone as a stone of clear crystal jasper. It had a great and high wall with 12 gates, and at the gates, 12 angels, and names were written on them, which are the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel. Heaven has a great wall, has gates. And it goes on to say, and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. God is not against walls.

He's not against borders. He's not against saying, hey, you can't come in unless you are going to work with us and not work against us. And then lastly, social justice is not justice. It is racist and unjust. We hear about social justice. That's part of the critical race theory. Social justice, you say, what exactly is social justice? Here's the definition of social justice. It's the redistribution of advantages and resources to disadvantaged groups to satisfy their rights and achieve social and economic equality. We believe in equal opportunities. We don't believe in equal outcomes. The Lord doesn't make us all the same. So we have equal opportunities. That was Martin Luther King's dream. I have a dream that my four little children will be judged not on the color of their skin, but the content of their character. And if their character is good and they're hardworking and they're trustworthy and they're industrious, that they can get ahead because America is the land of opportunity. Hopefully we believe that. That is biblical. You know, our constitution was birthed out of prayer and it was steeped in scripture. And we believe that, but the social justice,

the Marxists, because social justice is Marxism, they say, no, we want equal outcomes. We want everybody to have the same. Well, that is not biblical. Chris preached on the talents, Matthew 25, where the Lord gave this guy five talents, this guy two talents, this guy one talent. Talent is a unit of weight. It's a big sack of money. And he didn't give them all the same. He gave them talents each according to his own ability. And the inference is do business with this until I return. Well, you remember the parable, the guy with five talents went out and made five more. The guy with two talents went out and made two more. The guy with one talent didn't do anything with it. He buried it in the ground. And when the master comes back, the five talent guy said, look, master, you entrusted five talents to me. I made five more. And the guy with two talents, look, master, you entrusted two talents to me. I made two more. Both of those guys got the same commendation. Well done, my good and faithful slave. You were faithful in a few things. I'll put you in charge of many things. Enter in the joy of your master. The one talent guy did nothing with what he had.

He buried it in the ground. And he told the master that he was an exacting man. He reaps where he doesn't sow. He's basically a thief. He's insulting the master. And the master says to him, you wicked, lazy slave. You didn't do anything with what I gave you. And this is what he does. He says, take the talent from the guy that has one and give it to the guy that has 10. And they said, well, he's already got 10. Well, to whom much has been given shall much also be required. But when somebody proves himself faithful, the Lord adds more to it. If you prove yourself unfaithful with the one talent you had, guess what? You lose it. He doesn't take all the talents and say, well, you know, we gotta even this out. You have 10, that's too many. This guy's only got one. So why don't you give him 80 years and we'll even it out. He doesn't do that. You're gonna stand before God. You're gonna give an account of your life. It doesn't have anything to do with me. It has to do with you. You before the Lord. Social justice is injustice and it's racist.

And we need to stand against that. And these things are coming into our country. They're coming into our lives. They're coming into our communities. And where's the church? We have to stand up. We have to shine the light of truth into the darkness. And are people gonna like it? No. Quinn told me the other day, we were talking and he said, he said, Jeff, you know, if we had something happen at the church and somebody wanted to do harm, he said, I think they'd come at you first. I said, well, I hope they would come during the song service. And anyway. But he said, you're the one that's saying stuff that makes people mad. And you know, I don't try and do that. I don't even think about it. It just comes out. It's just, thus says the Lord, that's what he says. And I wanna speak the truth in love. And if it makes you mad, oh, take it up with God. I didn't write the book. I'm called to preach the book. And listen, in all these things, as we stand up for truth, we do it in love. We speak the truth in love. We're not cruel to people.

And listen, I know that there are lots of women. I don't know you by name, but I know there are lots of women that come to church that have had an abortion in their past. And I want you to know that God loves you. And you can be forgiven. And if you have a past of sexual immorality and homosexuality and all sorts of adultery and whatever, you can be forgiven of that. The blood of Jesus, God's son, washes white as snow. If you have struggled with gender dysphoria, God can do a work in your heart. We wanna help you with all those things, but we're never, ever, ever going to affirm you in sin. That is wrong and that is unloving. So I wanna challenge you. So I wanna challenge you. Will you stand up and be counted and speak the truth in love? Now we come to the most important question of all. Have you turned from sin and selfishness and given your heart and life to Jesus? Listen, if not, today is the day for you. Just pray this simple prayer from your heart. Lord Jesus, I need you. I know that I'm a sinner and I can't save myself, but I believe, Jesus, that you are God in the flesh. I believe you died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead. And right now, I ask you to forgive me and save me,

come into my life, change me, make me the person you want me to be. I surrender my life to you and I promise to follow you all the days I have left. Now, if you pray that kind of prayer and mean it, the Lord will come in and your life will never be the same. Listen, I would love to hear from you. So please contact me and share with me what's going on so we can pray for you. And if you are ever in the Texarkana area, we would love for you to visit us live and in person at FBC Texarkana. Listen, you really are important to God and you're important to us and we're here for you.