Walking The Love Life By: Dr. Pete Norris

Today on power in the word So the Holy Spirit's been shed abroad in our hearts to do what? We're loving us But see people have a way of hurting us and then we build up walls and we build up resistance Then we get afraid to be around people because they hurt us we try to love people and they abuse us We try to get close to people and they upset us and disappoint us and frustrate us And then all of a sudden sometimes God comes along and he don't do something the way we think he ought to done it and then We get uptight with him and but we ain't gonna tell anybody we mad with God cuz that ain't right And so sometimes life doesn't deal fair with us But love God's love is always genuine to bring us through the seasons of our life when we want to quit Welcome to power in the word. How's your love life? Do you love like Jesus loves? Is your love unconditional? But today dr. Norris helps us to understand the profound nature of God's love and how God's love lives in us Providing us peace in a chaotic world you stay with us. It's a great message for all We're gonna talk about walking the love life. Look at somebody say are you in love with Jesus? Now everyone are you gonna answer? Yes tonight? Every one of you gonna say yes, I am but how many of you know how much he loves you Nobody in this building knows how much he loves you And so tonight I want to kind of get across to you how much he's crazy about you He's absolutely ridiculously crazy about you turn somebody's crazy about me. Well pastor. You don't understand. I haven't done the right thing He doesn't he don't have to do the right thing for him to be crazy about you. He's crazy about you So walk in the love test I want you to go with me to John chapter 3 verse 16 and everybody knows the scripture and you can quote it by heart Most of you learned it in Bible school when you're little For God so loved now, we're gonna stop right there for God. So love what do you love? He didn't love the church He didn't die for the church. He died for the what? Now the world the Greek word for world there's the word cosmos How many of you know that Jesus never lost authority or Adam never lost authority of the earth? He only lost the authority of the world system Jesus died not for the earth. He died for the world system Are you with me? So when Adam fell in the garden everybody in the world was lost

Earth was never lost Lucifer never had power over the earth Only you and I the Bible said the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof When you think about the world and you think about earth, you think about two different things They're totally two different things. So Jesus so loved the what? Now what's that? The cosmos that's not talking about God loved China and and Mexico and Hong Kong and and America That's not what he's talking about. He loved the world system He loved the world system. He loved the spiritual realm in which our system operated in and when Adam lost that system with the world He didn't lose power of the earth. He only lost power of the system of the world Are you are you with me? Now you gotta stay with me because I'm heading somewhere. This is not gonna be a little simple love story about you know Romeo and Juliet It's gonna be talking about some deep stuff of how much God's passionately in love with you He wants to live and dwell inside of you Adam lost that right Jesus restored that right today He's living inside of each and every one of us So God so loved the world that he did what? How many of you know every time loves involved there's giving involved Every time loves involved there's giving involved. You can tell how great your love life is by how much you give We're living in a world system that they didn't about anybody but them God was never about him. It was always about you Listen guys, that's Christianity 101 Okay, it was always about him loving you. How many of you know God loved you morning loved himself Because you were him See God's only looking for God So God so loved the world that he gave his what? His only begotten he gave his only begotten son before his only begotten was ever begotten So God so loved the world before the Sun was ever begotten, correct For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son big ass that whoever believes in the only begotten Shall not perish and it don't mean go to hell

Guys, come on read the word perish there the word perish They don't mean go to hell that word perish there means is not be sustained by revelation of who you are in a spiritual being But understand it is you're spiritually lost The spiritually lost mean you go into hell Or the spiritually lost mean you're separated from God down here. Oh, come on somebody. I'm getting too heavy for you That ever believe in him should not perish but have what? Everlast not the translation of the Greek word everlasting is eternal So if you're gonna perish if he believes in him should not perish in other words, it doesn't say he's gonna live in eternity But it says but that does away with everything in the past right but have eternal life So it says the people that are born they're gonna go have eternal life, but the ones that are not born again It doesn't say they gonna have eternal damnation the word perish is actually a latin word that means not surrender or receive what's available see I'm telling you we some kind of something because God loves you man and the love life is not based on your performance it's based on what he did on the cross he's absolutely crazy about you regardless of what you've done Romans chapter five and seven now watch this but for scarcely for a righteous man will one die for a righteous man will one die yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die how many of you ever seen anybody you'd die for outside of your kids but you gotta understand something you would die for your kids Jesus let his son die for you and you were lost you don't understand how big love is you were lost

was he promised that you were going to turn right that's why he could allow his son to go to the cross and die for you because he knew you were going to turn right and he knew he was going to clean up and get everybody that was lost so that you say well pastor I don't know if God believes in sowing and reaping yeah he sowed a son to get a family he knew what was going to happen come on somebody God's God now you want to put him in your little box and stir him up and bring your religious service and then shout and worship him a little bit but I'm telling you he's bigger than your box you got him in he's bigger than your box you got him in and he's ready to get out of the box he's ready to have church and he's ready for people to start acting like who they are and believe in who they are and not dying in who they've been but live in who they are look at eight stay with me but God say but God demonstrated his own love toward who that's plural that's plural that's more than one in that while we were still now watch this something changes here guys you got to get this something changes here while you and I were yet sinners who died so God demonstrated his love for us his love toward us his love toward us the Greek word for toward means his love in us oh come on somebody

see we haven't got how much he really is crazy about you you listen to me you wouldn't worry about a thing if you understood how much he was crazy about you in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us go to Ephesians chapter two verse four and five stay with me but God hey but's coming up every time isn't it but's been in all three scriptures but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us verse five even when we were dead in trespasses he made us alive together with what not Jesus he made us alive in who Christ how did God become the son of God not the son of man verse one and four said because he declared us him righteous he declared him righteous why because he resurrected from the dead that made him the son of God the Bible said in first John three and eight that the son of God come to destroy the works of the devil the devil is defeated he is under our feet he doesn't have any power whatsoever because greater is he that's in us than he is in the world I'm telling you he's under our feet and he's defeated why because listen to me listen to me he is a done deal he's cooked he's toasted it's over and we're gonna come along and give him power and rise him up and make him look

all big let me tell you something Jesus nailed him to the cross delivered himself from the cross stood up in time out of death and said now you're defeated he said don't y'all y'all look at this dude right here he didn't go to hell and suffer and get beat up and tortured he went to hell and declared hey the victory is mine it's over the devil's defeated you can't go here anymore cuz I've delivered you from this place come on somebody he ain't sitting around waiting for you to slip off into eternity and go to hell he's delivered you and freed you by the Holy Spirit because there's too much love for you to go to hell he's full of love say he's full of love turn to someone and say he's full of love what's this what's this even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been okay I'm gonna stop right there even when you were dead now don't you don't you don't you to show me your part in this process even when we were dead in trespasses he made us alive together with Christ by grace have you been saved where'd you do anything in that scripture he said you were in trespasses and I made you alive together with Christ and by grace you've been saved who's got the grace you didn't have the grace is his grace that got you saved how did you get it by receiving his faith in his grace he already saw you have the faith he already saw you have the grace cuz he gave you the faith to believe to receive the grace that he supplied for your avenue and your destruction he gave you the faith that we believe and he also give you the grace to receive he did at all and the devil don't have any power because if that's the case then faith don't work and it's his faith so it cannot fall it cannot not come to pass it's got to go to John 3 17 you know you read John 3 16 everybody knows that one for God did not send his son into the if you know he didn't send him into the earth he sent him into the world he did not send him into the world to condemn the world but that the world through what's the world guys it ain't earth you so pastor you don't understand we don't have any authority the devil is the ruler of this world no he's not no he's not he lost the rulership of this world when Jesus took back over now we want to say oh he's still got power and

he's got authority I'm not saying the devil don't have any power I'm just telling you don't have any power over you or Jesus is full thing on the cross didn't work and he didn't step out of death because he stepped out of death and that means the enemy can still kill you so he had to step out of there so the enemy can't kill you anymore he can't kill you he's more afraid of you he don't want you to find out who you are the Bible said creation is crying out for the revealing of the sons of God come on somebody it's time for us to realize with some kind of something not because of who we are because of what he did he went to hell and shook the keys of death hell in the grave and said you know what nobody's coming here now because I've delivered them from it and everybody was there got up go me to John chapter 12 won't you see this this is good preaching it's better than y'all y'all acting like and if anyone hears my words and does not believe what's what he said if anyone hears my words and do not believe now John saying is you know John Jesus was tight okay have you ever used before Jesus died and resurrected if anyone hears my words and do not believe I do not judge him for I don't come to judge the world I come to boy some preachers got to do some repenting for judging you look at verse 48 he who rejects me and does not receive my words has that which judges him the word which I have spoken will judge him in the last days now guys this is not talking about at the end of time he was talking about the words gonna judge you at the end of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the new because what's he going to say he said I didn't come to judge you but that one that you like called Moses he judged you let's go to John chapter 5 verse 45 and we'll show you this all in Scripture y'all this is biblical you guys stay with me you got to love me when this is over do not think that I will accuse you to the father now why would he accuse you to the father tell him how bad you are if he's the intercessor between you and the father and he said he said I'm only living to be an intercessor how many of you know he can't do he can't tell the father anything bad because he's an intercessor and he sees him in you do not think that I shall accuse you to the father there is one who accuses you

Moses in whom you trust but look at 46 but if you believe Moses you believe me for he only talked about me he said if you if you don't believe Moses then you don't believe me for Moses only wrote about me look at this 47 stay with me but if you do not believe his writings how will you believe my words he's trying to tell look all the thing Moses wrote about was me the only thing Moses wrote about was me Moses wrote the first five books guys he wrote Leviticus he wrote Deuteronomy he wrote numbers he wrote Exodus he wrote all the first five books and all all those first five books are about who how many of the church folks you know read the first five books to find out how Jesus is let's go to 1st John 4 and 8 he who does not love does not know God for God is love for he who does not love does not know God because God's love stay with me guys he who does not love does not know God he who does not love does not know God for God is love now listen to me that's not God's attributes that's who he is now I'm gonna shake you gonna 1st John 4 and 16 and we have known and believed that the love that God has for us God is love he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him now watch this and we have known and believed the love that God has for us we have known and believed now the word the Greek word for known here is paraclete and it means we have become the love of which we believe in in other words who was the closest to God of the of the twelve John understood that God was love John understood that it was not about loving God but it was about knowing how much God loved John see the church hasn't discovered how much God loves them. If they understood how much that God loved them, they wouldn't be trying to love back. The reason we can't love people is because we can't trust people. If you can't trust people who you can see, how can you trust God who you can't see? Go to 1st John 3 and 23. John had it. John understood some stuff. 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 commandment. How many of you know that he gave us a new commandment, John 13 34? What is it? Love one another as I have loved you. How many of you love one another as he's loved you? Now see, only listen to me, listen to me, listen to me.

Here's how you can check. God spoke this to me Monday night, 20 minutes after 3. Here's what he said to me. He said, you can check your temperature of love, of my love for you, by understanding how much you love folks. Your love for folks determines your temperature with how much you know God loves you. Well pastor, that's just not my personality. Yeah, it is. What's keeping you from love is pain has come along and separated you from trusting folks. And everybody you get close to, you're scared to get close to because you think God's gonna take them out of your life and they're gonna be separated from you. See, real love never never never leaves, it just keeps on loving. God died loving you. You were the reason he died, by the way. He kept on loving. See, what you're afraid of is you're afraid to let people know who you really are because they find out who you are, they may not like you. So God said, I'll fix that. You know how God fixed that? God sent the Holy Spirit because he said you can't love on your own. So I'm gonna send you the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is gonna be shed abroad in your hearts. The Holy Spirit, listen to me guys, listen to me, listen to me, listen to me. Love is a fruit. You say, well pastor, I just I try to love but I can't love. That's just not my personality. No, it's because you've not surrendered to the Holy Spirit and let him love through you. I'm not trying to be condemning, I'm just I'm just I'm just sharing the word because the Bible said that love is a fruit of the Spirit and the Holy Spirit accomplishes in that Galatians 5 22. So the Holy Spirit does that in our life. Now if you can't have love, you can't have faith because ain't that one of the fruit too? What's the first one? Love. Isn't that amazing? So the Holy Spirit's been shed abroad in our hearts to do what? To pour love into us. But see people have a way of hurting us and then we build up walls and we build up resistance and then we get afraid to be around people because they hurt us. We try to love people and they abuse us. We try to get close to people and they upset us and disappoint us and frustrate us and then all of a sudden sometimes God comes along and he don't do something the way we think he ought to done it and then we get uptight with him but we ain't gonna tell anybody we mad with God cuz that ain't right. And so

sometimes life doesn't deal fair with us but love, God's love's always genuine to bring us through the seasons of our life when we want to quit. Because everybody wants to quit. But the Holy Spirit's been put in our lives for us to be able to capture how much he loves us. Turn to someone and say he loves me a bunch. Let's go to 1st John chapter 4 verse 13 and I'm gonna prove what I just said. By this we know that we abide in him and he's in us because he has given us of his spirit. So you gotta understand something. He said I got to go away cuz if I go away, if I stay you're only gonna have me. If I go away all of you gonna be me. Think about it guys. You have his spirit living on the inside of you. Now how is that spirit that's living on the inside of you, that's his spirit, not gonna have love? It's impossible for that to be. That's impossible to be. Amen? You're full of love. You're full of love. You're full of love. Love is not a feeling, it's decision. It's a fruit that the Holy Spirit accomplishes in you. Let's go to Proverbs chapter 4 verse 23. Watch this. Keep your heart with all diligence. Guard your heart away from the crises and pains of the world. Guard your heart against the resistance of the things of the enemy when he's trying to talk to you and make you think well they don't like me, they don't really don't like. You ever get around folks and you come into a crowd and they're talking and when you come up they stop talking? What's the first place your mind goes? Oh they're talking about me brother. Well good they're letting me rest. He said keep guard your heart with all diligence for out of it springs the forces or the issues of life. Guard your heart. Guard your heart. Guard your heart. Jesus saved you but he can't keep you. He can't keep you from thinking whatever you want to think. Matthew 12 34. Brew of vipers how can you being evil speak good things? For out in the abundance of your heart your mouth speaks. See right here I tell you a little bit about yourself in just a few minutes. You ever get around folks you can tell exactly what's on their heart? Ephesians 5 and 1. imitators of God as dear children. Verse 2. How many of you are imitators? To imitate God what does it mean? Walk in what? As Christ also has loved us and given himself for us for an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. Guys you

got that? Sweet smelling aroma. Is your life a sweet smelling aroma? Once you go to Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth but what is good for necessary edification. How many of you know edification means to build up that it may impart grace to the hearers. How many of you know that it needs to impart grace to the hearers? Is everything coming out of your mouth imparting grace to the hearers? Is everything coming out of your mouth imparting grace to everybody hears it? Let no corrupt communication out of the mouth but what is good to build up everybody. Do you build up everybody? See genuine love says the right thing. Let's go to verse 30. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Now how do you how do you how do you grieve the Holy Spirit? How do you grieve the Holy Spirit? I just told you. By what comes out of your mouth. It ain't about you doing right or wrong it's about what comes out of your mouth. That's how you grieve the Holy Spirit. Well God knows what I meant. No he doesn't. What comes out of your mouth is exactly what you meant. Matthew 12 34. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouse what? Speaks. Now look at 31. Let all bitterness wrath anger clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. 32. And be kind to one another. Be tender-hearted. You ever heard people say well a tender-hearted person they get hurt a lot. I'd rather be tender than calloused. I'd rather be sensitive and pliable than rough and rugged. Well pastor when you when you're tender-hearted you get hurt a lot. Yeah you may get hurt a lot but you don't die angry and alone. Forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you. Now I'm gonna make a statement right here because this is a this last five six seven words here is the most powerful words in the Bible and 90% of people don't have never read them. How many of you know that God could not have forgiven you without Christ? God did not have the power on his own to forgive you without you being in Christ. Without him giving his only begotten Son he could not got more sons. He didn't have the ability to forgive you without you him Christ dying and resurrecting. That's how much he loved you. And he did that because he loves you that much. He did that because he cares that much about you. He did that because he wanted to

take away all the hell that you're living in on the earth and bring heaven down and embed it into your hell. Because there's people in the world living in hell. You say well pastor wait a minute you trying to tell me there's not a hell. I'm not even going there. You know I know there's a hell but we ain't going. Amen. And so there's a lot of people living in hell right here on earth that are going through struggles every day. How does a young man 20 years old take a gun and blow his head off? There's pain there guys. There's hell. There's destruction. There is going through torment internal torment and Jesus is the answer for that. You're never gonna find the answer in the world. You're never gonna find that answer in a person. You're never gonna find the answer in a marriage. You're never gonna find the answer in a bottle in a drug. You're never gonna find it anywhere except in Jesus. When you can have peace with yourself and in him you're gonna find peace outside of yourself. Listen a mate ain't gonna give you the answers. A mate ain't gonna make you happy. But look what he said here. Forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you. So if it had not been for Christ he couldn't have forgive you. So you better thank God he got up. Because if he stayed dead you'd still be lost. How much does he love? Go to Galatians 1 and 4. Who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from hell. Guys that ain't what he said. Who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present age. Present evil age. According to the will of our God and Father. So why did he give his son? Why did his son take our sins? To deliver us from what? From hell. No. From the present evil age that you and I are in. Lost in Adam. He delivered us. Guys we've made this complicated and tried to make ourselves self-righteous by the right things we've done and the programs we've done and all the things we've done. But I'm telling you it's Jesus and Jesus only. When Peter, James and John looked upon the man of transfiguration they saw Moses, Elijah and Jesus. And all of a sudden Peter said you want us to build three tabernacles? He said no son you don't You don't need no three-tack, but now you just need me. And all of a sudden he looks up and Moses' lodge is gone

and there's just Jesus. I'm telling you, it's Jesus plus nothing. It ain't based on a performance, it ain't based on a churchism, it ain't accept, believe, and confess. It's just Jesus, and Jesus only. You try to add anything to it, you've missed it, because it's just Jesus. Go to Galatians chapter five, verse six. Stay with me, I said I was gonna be calm. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or uncircumcision availeth anything, but faith worketh how? That's why 90% of people's faith ain't working, because they ain't loving. You're doing all the religious things, you're sowing and you're reaping and you're trying to reap, and you're gonna reap a harvest and you're sowing and you're being blessed, but you ain't happy. And you go through life and you say, well, you know, nothing good ever happens to me, poor old pitiful me. Woe is me, you ever heard that song back in the day? Woe is me, I'm going out and eat worms, big fat juicy ones, slimy, skinny, tall. You ever heard that song? That was a song back in the day. And so we wonder why things never fall into place. Why does my ship not come in? Why is things not happening to me? Why is not good things happening?

Why is this happening to me? Why, why, because the Bible said that faith only works through what? Love, so you check your love thermometer. And if you love thermometer, your faith's gonna be working. But nothing's gonna work without love. Everything works with love. And I'm gonna talk to you about love. Go with me to 1 Corinthians 13. And here's what he said. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and I have not love, I am becoming a sounding brass and a tlingling cymbal. We got a bunch of sounding brass and tlingling cymbals. They say all the right stuff, say all the church stuff, but look at two. And though I have the gift of prophecy, oh, I can tell you what's wrong in your life, baby. I got words for you. And I understand all mysteries. And though I speak in tongues and I got all kinds of knowledge, I'm puffed up. And though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains and I have not love, I am nothing. There's the answer. It's love. It's love. It's love. It's love.

It's love, because God, listen, you can't know God and not love, because God is love. Now watch this, let's go to verse three. And though I bestow all, you can give all your money away and feed the poor and do all kinds of wonderful things, get you some plaques on the walls and some ribbons in heaven and some accolades on earth, it won't do anything. Though I give my body to be burned, but I have not love, it profiteth me nothing. You know, Jesus said something that spoke to me last night about 20 minutes after three and I was reading and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and he said, son, read this. Jesus said, I gave my life for the brethren, and the least you can do is to give your life for the brethren. 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.