TV 1764| One Thing Matters Conclusion

There's not one of us that can look at somebody else and interact with them and see their faults that has any right to point a finger and say, what's wrong with you? Go look in the mirror. One way or another, you're the same way. We need the Lord, don't we? I feel like the Lord's burden is to just to remind us of this simple truth, this simple principle. I don't know how long I'm going to be, but I couldn't get away from it. I would say, well, Lord, I don't have this organized. I don't know. Is this really you? And then something else would happen, and something else would happen, and a thought would come. I'd say, all right. This must be what we need. It doesn't matter if we've heard it. Do you think God wants to be with us this morning, for starters? Do you think when people come in here, what is it that they want, they need to see? Just a friendly bunch of people, or do they need to see Him? Well, if they're going to see Him, He's going to have to be in, not just in us, but through us so that our relationships, our attitudes, our deeds, our everything reflects that spirit and not what we were born with. And that's what the Lord's wanting to clean up. And I guess I started to say a while ago, if God's going to change those things, and we are being changed into His image, meaning we're not there, we've got a lot of work. He's got a lot of work. But if He's going to do that, He is going to have to put you with somebody that you don't like, that rubs you the wrong way, and teach you how to act and react. Now, it's wonderful when He can take two people that rub each other the wrong way and work in both of them and bring out harmony.

That's wonderful. But what happens if He doesn't fix the other person? First place, it's not your job to fix them. Jesus said, love your enemies. You've got to be kidding. Well, He did. He died for all, didn't He? It was at both thieves on the cross that He was dying for them. Both of them were mocking Him at the beginning. Somewhere along the line, one of them woke up and started paying attention and realized who this really was. And he said, Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. And Jesus said, after the life you lived, you've got to be kidding me. No, He said, today you will be with Me in paradise. That's the heart that God wants us to have towards other people. There are people that could come in here that we would say, what in the world is somebody like that doing in our midst? Their lives are so messed up. They're such a bunch of sinners. That's the people Jesus came to save. If anybody feels that way, we're not much like Him, are we? We're going to have to have a heart that can see past need. With a song, He looked beyond my fault and saw my need. And we all got it, don't we? I just pray that God will do something fresh in me and in all of us, because this gets to the heart of everything. As I say, how can God move in power and change hearts and lives if we're not even letting Him flow in this very basic way? If He can't flow through us to somebody, how can He help them through us? And we're just sitting here pretending.

Now, I don't believe we're pretending, but you know what I'm saying. God wants to focus, wants to shine a light in every one of our eyes, in our lives, and say, oh God, this is the most critical thing. I mean, these people had grown up with a religion of commandments. The Ten Commandments, and then the law had sort of fleshed all of that out as to how it was supposed to work in society, and it was all about keeping the commandments, and if you mess up, you've got to offer a sacrifice. And Jesus said, one commandment, got one for you, love one another, as I have loved you. And doesn't Paul say in one place, this is the whole law. Love your neighbors as yourself. That's it. You do that. You don't need any of the other commandments because they'll all happen. I'll tell you what, we need Jesus to come and to live in us and we need to be willing for Him to change us and humble us when we need to be humbled and not make our love and our positive attitude towards somebody be dependent on their behavior and their performance. We all do it in some relationship or other. When you get right, then we'll be good, otherwise just stay away from me. I don't want to mess with you. God help us. You know, there's some pretty sobering words that John gave us. I may turn over there and read it at some point. But he said, you know, love one another for love is what? Of God. Love is from God, depending on the translation. Love one another for love is of God. That's where it comes from. That's the only way we can do it, God's going to have to live in us. But he that does not love does not know God.

That's why somebody who is just religious, never been born again, they can't even do this. But here's Jesus saying, love your enemies? And what we call, what humans call love is people who like each other and they form these little cliques and they connect together because they share common interests and they shut out others, they ignore them. That's not love. That's not love at all. And God wants to deliver us from every form of that. I guess I'm repeating myself in a lot of ways, but how do we do this? You know, one of the scripture that popped into my mind, I'll go ahead and refer to it. I don't want to get into all of the, all of what it says, but in Galatians, Paul was dealing with a problem in the church. Churches have problems. The devil does everything he can to undermine. He hates this message this morning. He hates this truth. Not that there's anything great about the message itself or the sermon, but he hates this truth. He's going to do everything he can to divide God's people and to make them feel justified in that division. But these people had been misled, somehow the law of Moses had come into it and they had been taught that, yes, thank you for what Jesus did, but you've got to keep the law to be accepted by God. Paul says that's not the basis at all. It's looking to what Jesus did from the heart. And so he says in the last part of verse six of chapter five, the only thing that counts, interesting translation, the only thing that counts is what? Faith expressing itself through love. You want to know the essence of the kingdom of God?

There it is. Because it tells you love is the center, but how do I get to that? How do I acquire love and how does that even happen? I'm going to have to have faith. Well, it certainly isn't faith in me, it's not faith in a preacher, it's not faith in a religious movement, it's faith in Jesus Christ and his promises and all that he has purchased for us at that terrible price on the cross. My hope is going to be built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly, completely lean on Jesus' name. There's going to have to be not just a theoretical thing where I know all the right stuff here, it's going to have to be a living day by day relationship where I am drawing, I'm plugged in. We've used that expression many times. There's a source of power, but I'm not just saying, yeah, there's the power, I believe in it, we're connected. We're literally going to him every day, every time we feel the sense of need of any kind whatsoever. Lord, I've got a need, but I know where to go. I know what your promise is, I know that you're here to strengthen me and to help me do what I have not the power to do. But what is that power for? So we can feel powerful? No, it's so that we have the power to express through love. And that working, that expressing itself through love in the Greek is work, it's energy. It's working, it's the word from which we get our word energy. And it means this is a working thing, and its present tense means this is a lifestyle. This is the characteristic of our life, that when people encounter us, they're encountering the love of God because His love is operating in us and not just a theory we practice on Sunday. I don't know what else to say particularly, but I pray that God will do something fresh

in me. I pray that as we get together, that God will help us, and if there is anything between you and somebody else, that God will get you right regardless of what happens to them. Don't make your love conditional. God's love for you is not conditional, it's there. Now He may not approve of what you're doing, He may love you enough to tell you about it, but He's not standing there looking down demanding something from you before He'll accept you. It's not conditional. He loves. It's just, it's something I can't even hardly, I can't put it into words because we don't, we just don't think that way. Anybody here just thinks that way, right? We don't. Think about how He loves you. You think maybe we need to spend more time with the Lord and meditating on what He's done for us and understanding that He actually really, really does love us right here, right now. And that doesn't mean He approves of everything because He's working on me because there are things that He wants to change, but He's not waiting for me to change so that He'll love me, which is how we do it. And I tell you, God is so merciful to us and so wonderful. I think I just will read that passage in 1 John, it's something we often read, but there's so many simple truths in this. And John was there when Jesus said this, of course he wrote it in his gospel. Verse 7 of chapter 4 of 1 John, dear friends, let us love one another, why? For love comes from God. If you lack this in your life, open your heart and say, Lord, help me. Lord, I believe in what you did for me. I receive your love based upon your heart and your promise, not based on my qualifications. I could never qualify myself to be loved, impossible, but I don't come on the basis

of my own efforts. I come because you've promised. Love one another for love comes from God. Everyone who loves in this sense, this kind of love, has been born of God and knows God. That's what it takes. It takes a new heart and a new spirit on the inside, which He's willing. I'll tell you, if there's somebody here or somebody who hears this and the Lord's convicting you, you have every right to come to Him based upon the cross and all that was done. And just give yourself to Him. Belong to Him. All the songs we sang were just right on point this morning. Praise God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us. He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. Now, this is something we've said, but I'll just refresh your mind. God's love coming into us is like a fountain flowing or a source of water flowing, but He doesn't want that just to sit here and pool up in us. It's meant to flow out. And if we turn the handle, that love will ... and allow that love to flow out. But if we let human nature get in the way and we start judging one another and reacting to one another in the flesh, that gets in the way, doesn't it? Do you think that God maybe just wants to remove all of that kind of thing before we get together? Do you think it would make a difference?

Do you think maybe it would be good to go to God and say, Lord, shine a light where it needs to be shined? We don't have to be afraid of that. He's not ... it's not like He's going to shine a light and say, oh my God, that's why I'm such a mess, I can't even come to you so bad." The whole point is he wants you to come because he loves you. He's already dealt with that. That's not a question. The question is, are we willing to be transparent? Are we willing to be what we need to be and let God worry about the other one? Let us be channels of his heart and his spirit. I'll tell you, we're going to see God work in mighty ways in our midst and change hearts and lives if we'll be more in tune with him. His love is made complete. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us. He has given us of his spirit and we have seen and testified that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the son of God, that's not some casual mental thing. This is a real heart acknowledgment and lives in them. God lives in them and they in God, and so we know and rely on the love that God has for us. Thank God I'm not relying on anything else. Every time I look in the mirror, if I'm paying any attention at all, I'm seeing a guy that just has needs. I'm not relying on him. I'm relying on the one who made me and gave himself for me and has an eternal hope that he's planted in my heart by the spirit that's come to live on the inside. Thank God. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them.

This is the essence of what God is looking for us. It's not some fancy something or other. It's so simple that we miss it. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment. In this world, we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. I'm thankful that there's a love that takes away fear instead of giving it. The devil wants to make us afraid to come into the light and find out about our needs because it'll mess everything up. But there's no fear in this kind of love. I wonder what difference it would make if we were that way with each other more than we are. Yeah, we've got room to grow, don't we? The Lord loves us enough to tell us about it, but He's not telling us to make us feel bad or feel rejected or somehow discourage us. He wants to lift us up and say, this is the way. Do this and I will be in your midst and I will be active in your midst in ways you can't even imagine. There's nothing that I can't do, but I want to work in you and through you. Don't get in my way. I think a lot of times that's what we do. No fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear. Because fear has to do with punishment. You've got a legalistic situation where I've got to do this to be accepted, to be loved. Now you've got grounds for fear. That's what the devil wants to paint. Thank God it's not that way. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us.

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen. And He has given us this commandment, anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. There's not a thing we've said this morning we haven't heard before, but I just have this sense that this is what we need to hear today. You see, we need not just what Jesus said, we need what He's saying. He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying in the church. And He's saying it to me. I need to check up and check what are my attitudes toward other people? How do I treat them? Is that Jesus coming out? And then we need to recognize our needs, but we can do that in the context of a God who shines a light because of love, not to make us afraid to come into that light. Yes, it'll show my need, but I will experience more of His love in that. And the more I experience of His love and mercy to me, the more I can show it to somebody else and they're going to see Him, they're going to come to know Him and He's going to change their hearts and their lives, and it's going to be a living ... faith and a living hope instead of just a religion that we practice. What do we want? I believe there's a good company of people here who want Him. So we just need to listen to His voice, don't we, and do what He says, and know that every motive in His heart is one of love toward us. To Him be the glory. Praise God. This has been the Midnight Cry broadcast. If you would like a DVD or CD of today's message in its entirety, please request it by program number. While it is not required, a donation of $10 for DVDs and $5 for CDs is suggested to help

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