Becoming Love pt. 2 | Pastor Dwain Wolfe

I want to talk to you a little bit about reconciliation.

So God was in Christ reconciling the world. And I'm

on this theme of love becoming love. We're still becoming love.

Anybody's still becoming low. Okay, So I want to draw

the cornerstone of your house. This is this is just

a personal revelation. I believe the Lord showed me. If

you like it, great, if you don't throw it away.

But this is your house. And the Bible says Jesus

has become the chief cornerstone.

Right.

So there's four cornerstones to building your life. Four cornerstones

to building your life. One is the position cornerstone. I

call this the position cornerstone. If you've been through restored life,

you've heard me talk about this stuff. This is the

purpose cornerstone. And this is the partnership cornerstone, because we're

not meant to build our lives alone. And this is

the power cornerstone, because we were meant to have all

power and authority over all things. So in the beginning,

we know that when Adam fell, that there was an

assault on hang on, for those of you that are

up front, when Adam fell, we know there was an

assault on the position cornerstone. So we went from sons

and daughters to slaves, right, So there was a there

was an assault on the position cornerstone. But every cornerstone

was inverted when Adam fell. Every cornerstone, the cornerstones that

that's required to build a profitable life, So these cornerstones

were inverted. Instead of having partnership with one another, we

were immediately at war with one another. So through the

fall there was enmity warfare introduced into humanity. So there

was violence, there was hatred, there was jealousy. Think about

all the things that are really pretty much common to

us experiencing every single day in relationships didn't even exist

until the fall. Those didn't even exist. Jealousy didn't exist,

Envy didn't exist, Animosity one to another didn't exist.

So you know, all of that.

Was introduced with the fall. And over here, what was

introduced with the fall was inferiority. So what would have

existed before the fall would have been the confidence, the

confidence of who we are and our identity. So our

position released us into confidence, it released us into purpose wherever,

and what was loosed into this period was inferiority. Remember

that inferiority, shame, and condemnation. Right, So those were the

big three of Genesis three fifteen through seventeen, shame and condemnation.

So those were introduced into the fall. So in other words,

we related to ourself with doubt, We related to ourself

with fear.

So not only were we relating to.

God with fear, we were relating to our self with fear,

and inferiority was introduced. So self doubt, regret, self hatred,

self loathing, self condemnation, all of these attributes were common,

uh to first Adam. After the fall, then here, as

you know, what happened is we came under Satan's authority

and so here we uh, we were subverted. We became

subordinate to Satan's influence. Right, So when we're restored, when

we're restored as a son or a daughter, then simultaneously

these are also restored at the same time, and and

we become and because because so positionally even think about this, positionally,

you're restored in harmony with every other person. Yeah, the

moment you're born of the spirit, you are stored in

harmony with every other person.

You become a carrier.

You are now infected with harmony. You're infected with shalom,

you're infected with reconciliation. So let's go to Second Corinthia,

chapter five, real quick, Second Corinthyon chapter five, seventeen through nineteen,

if we could go there. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,

the new Creation has come. The new Creation is not coming.

The new Creation has come. Now that doesn't mean you're

not working it out. You are working it out, but

it has come. If it hadn't come, you couldn't work

it out. You can only work it out because it

has come. So you're working your way into the maturity

of who you are. So he starts with the end

from the beginning. That's Isaiah forty six. He starts with

the end. He sees you perfect before you are. He

covers you with perfect blood and righteousness before you are,

and that enables you to work it out and to

bring your flesh under subjection, and to bring your soul

under subjection, and to bring demons who had a claim

on first atom, they had a claim on you, to

bring them under subjection. Put them under your feet. If

you tread upon them, they obey you. You don't obey them.

If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come,

the old has gone.

Then it is here.

All of this is from God, who reconciled us to

himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

So he reconciled us to himself. But when he did that,

because he broke down Ephesian Seu says, he broke down

the dividing wall dividing between us one to another, the

dividing wall of animosity. He broke that down and made

peace through his blood. He broke down animosity between us, tribes, races, tongues, kindred.

Remember at Babble, they were scattered. The scattering was the

overflow of rebellion that empowered even more, the animosity, the tribalism,

the warfare, the contention. This is why, as we near

the end, everybody beats their swords in the plowshares. I'm

trading my gun in for a harvester, right. So that's

because what's happening as peace is growing, reconciliation is winning,

love is triumphing. So he gave us and so he

gave us the ministry of reconciliation. So not only did

he reconcile you, but he gave you the ministry of reconciliation.

So you're a reconciler. That's the end of person him.

Thank you, pastor what were you thinking God? And God

was reconciling the world. Oh there's verse ieteen that God

was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting

people's sins against them, and he is committed to us

that ministry of reconciliation. Let's just say that again. Maybe

let's just meditate on that, not counting their sins against them.

How do we reconcile with people? Well, you just need

them to repent. I need them to change, I need

them to shape up, I need them to acknowledge, I

need them.

Oh really, God didn't need that.

God sent God sent his love to us in Christ

to reconcile us in Christ, not counting their sins against them,

meaning that the blood of Jesus, the sacrifice of Jesus,

the victory of Jesus on the cross, the payment, the propitiation,

the sacrifice, fast official payment of Jesus was sufficient for

the judgment we deserve. So if it's sufficient for the

judgment we deserve, then he doesn't need to talk to

us about judgment. Hello, some money I'm just messing with

us a little bit. I'm just trying to lead us

into this a little bit. Uh and uh, And I

want you to I want you to see that this

is this is when I say this is already, this

is already yours.

Uh, it's because you're in Christ.

And so Christ didn't Christ isn't recognizing Christ isn't reconciling

part of the world to himself.

What he did.

His love is flying up here at an altitude that

is above circumstances, and it's above situations, And it's above

whether you've burned it or not. And it's even above

whether you reject.

Him or not.

His love is hovering at an altitude that.

Is above all of that, his love for.

Us, so that every one of us can be reconciled

to God, every person can be reconciled to God. And

that is the love that now abides in you and

abides in me. And this love abides in us with

regard to our spouse. This love abides in us with

regard to relatives and friends and homeworkers. This love abides

in us with regard to unbelievers and believers alike. This

love abides so there's a love. There's a love that

abides in us. Can I make it bigger? I'll make

it bigger. It's more impressive, this love that abides in

us at this altitude, above every situation, above all rejection,

above all attitudinal fits, above all falling short, above all circumstances,

above all performance of earning. That love is constant, It

is sacrificial, It is unconditional, and it is flowing to us,

whether we're having a fit or not. It is flowing

to us, whether even if we're rejecting him. Here's this love,

This love is just still being poured out, a fire hose.

Of love over your life.

Now, here's what God, here's what the Bible says. That

love is so powerful that love will draw people to you.

It'll draw people to God. It'll draw And Jesus said,

if I am lifted up, if I am lifted up, Now,

why would the lifting up part be important? The fulfillment was.

The fulfillment was the picture of Him on the cross.

If I be lifted up, I will draw all men

unto myself.

How does that work?

Because love demonstrated through sacrifice is reconcilatory, It is powerful.

It draws people to you.

Whenever you behave in a manner that is beyond and

above what people deserve. That grace and mercy that you're

demonstrating draws people to you instead of pushes people away

from you. Are you hearing what I'm saying? First, John

four eight and nine. Let's go there. First, John four

eight and nine. This is where John quotes a problem.

John quotes a problem here. Whoever does not love does

not know God, because God is love. Oh, that's not

the one I wanted. Well, it's verse nine? Is there

a verse nine? No, I didn't load verse nine. Hmmm,

I don't think that's the one I wanted.

Lord, help my brain.

The one I wanted, the one I wanted you to see?

It says, what is it? What is it? Oh? First Peter? Sorry?

Sorry, sorry, first Peter. Four First Peter four eight nine.

I had a address verb. Above all love each other deeply,

because love covers. This is where he's quoting a proverb,

because love covers over a multitude of sins. Above all

love each other deeply. This is a gope. So he's

talking about a gope. Love the goape is not the

fhileo love fileleio. Love is brotherly kindness and brotherly kindness

is a conditional love. Eros is the third word for

love in the Greek. Eros is erotic. It's where we

get erotic love from. So it's more of a sexual love.

Right.

So, but this is a gope love above all, a

gope each other deeply, because a gope love covers over

a multitude of sins. So I want you to I

want you to see this is part. This is part

of reconciliation. Is that that I'm reconciled in Christ to humanity.

But I'm gonna work that out as a minister of reconciliation.

I'm gonna work that out as a minister of reconciliation.

As people are drawn to me, they'll be in the

process drawn to who I receive.

My love from. Does that make sense?

So this is why, this is why the Cross broke

down the animosity between me and one another. And the

Cross shows me, for one, is that because I'm restored

in Christ, you don't have my stuff. You can't get

my stuff. There's nothing you can do to me that

will surpass God's blessings that He already preordained toward me.

So you're no longer my enemy or my competitor. You're

my completion. So in Christ we complete one another. We

don't compete with one another. In Christ, we become partners.

And we see that in Christ that I can't fulfill

my purpose without you, I'm actually meant. I'm actually meant

for purpose fulfillment. To see that manifested with you and

not alone. That makes sense. So let's talk about the

covering part, because that's what the blood does. The Old

Testament talks about the covering of the shed blood, and

the covering of the shed blood of a sacrifice is

so that mercy would be shown to a person, so

that a person wouldn't rea see what they deserve. So

wherever there is this word covering, as in the Old Testament,

and then here Peter's quoting it, wherever there's this word covering,

then what's happening is that where you've got a chasm

in a relationship, love is going to build a bridge

over that chasm. And it's going to build a bridge

over that chasm because love is the sacrifice love, and

love is costly, as if you were shedding your blood.

The love that we show to one another.

When there is separation, where there's animosity, where there's rebellion,

where there's rejection, where there's failure, where there's contempt, where

there's difficulty, where there's disagreement. The love is at a

high altitude. That love doesn't need somebody to be perfect

for it to be demonstrated, and that love isn't pointing

out the chasm. That love is building a bridge over

the chasm.

But that's costly.

It's costly to love when things are tough, when things

are challenging, when things are negative, where things are of

a bad report, when things it's it's costly, it's hard

to do. It's going to mean, it's sacrificial. You felt

what I'm saying. It's sacrificial to love that way. That

sacrifice is as if there's the shedding of blood. You're

giving up yourself. I'm going to love you at my

own cost, at the cost of me. I'm going to

love you. Why am I gonna do that? Because I'm loved,

Because I'm loved, and because I'm loved and have received love,

and I'm no longer functioning in a need to be loved.

This love doesn't even need to be loved. You know

what's wrong with mom and dads today? And their kids.

They need their kids to love them. You know why

they need their kids to love them, because they aren't

secure in God's love. If you aren't secure in God's love,

you need your kids to love you. If you need

your kids to love you, You've got an inverse relationship with

your family, your children. I'm talking about raising kids. I'm

not talking about adult kids, well even adult kids, even

adult kids.

I don't need them to love me.

I need to love them.

I live to love them. I don't live for them

to love me. I live to love them. Are you

with me? Let me?

I want to give you an example of how this

kind of works. Last week I talked to you about

and part of what I'm talking about is like living

in an atmosphere of forgiveness, creating within you, creating within

you an atmosphere of forgiveness, Like this is what you

walk in. So instead of walking with an inner atmosphere

of offense, looking for people to fail you and looking

for how they're failing you and looking to point that out,

you're walking in an inner atmosphere of forgiveness, you know

what I'm saying, So that you're constantly looking for opportunities

to pour out mercy and grace. That have to pour

out judgment. Where are our opportunities? Because when you pour

out mercy and grace, it draws people to you. When

you pour out judgment, it pushes people away from you.

This is how God got all of us in this room.

He got all of us in this room because Jesus

was lifted up in love. He was the demonstration of

the fullness of God's wilful a godad choice toward us

when we didn't deserve a thing, when we were unworthy

as can be, when there was no way for us

to earn ourselves into a place with God. God sent

the sun as a demonstration of love, and that's how

he got us in this room. We are drawn to

him not because of judgment. We are drawn to him

because of mercy, because we deserved so much more judgment.

We deserve judgment, but we're not getting it. I'll give

you just a couple examples, a practical one. I talked

to you last week about Airbnb when we went to

Pasadena two weeks ago.

And I'm a netpicker. What's the nitpicker? I don't know.

Will that fly on the television? Nitpicker? I find everything

wrong with everything, you know, potentially probably sometimes you might

be better at that than me, because.

I overlook a lot, I cover a.

Lot, but I have airbnbs, so when I go to, say,

in an airbb, I catch stuff right, and and the

others in the house with us, you know, we had

others from staff and elders with us, and they catch stuff.

So on the thread, I started sending him some notes

him or her, you know, sending some notes. You know, hey,

we found this wrong. The master bedroom lights don't work,

and and you know we only you know, he left

us six coffee pods, so I think we could use

some more than you know. And I just shot him

a bunch of notes about the airbnb. Well, you know

that I was building a chasm. Now Ephesians four fifteen says,

speak to truth and love. Well, it's hard for him

to pick up any love in a thread on a

text message. Most people read a text message with negativity,

with fear. So I'm building this good chasm. So he's expecting,

he's expecting a one or a two star, but instead I.

Gave him a five star.

Because as we're talking through the thread, he's like, oh

thank you, oh thank you, for letting me know about that.

Oh that's good. I didn't know that. We'll jump on that.

I'm not figuring this guy gave me a shack on purpose.

He posted his airbnb. He's just a scoundrel. It's just

a shack. He just posted his shack on purpose. He's

just ripping me off on burpose. No, no, no, I'm

not thinking that. Because love a gope that floods your

heart and my heart.

Firs.

Corinthians thirteen defines it, and it says that love thinks

the best of all things. Love believes the best. Love

thinks the best. And so I'm not thinking the worst.

I'm thinking the best. And so he's texting me back. Okay,

we'll jump right on that one. But he knows there's

a big chasm because I've sent him for these big messages.

But when it's all done, I gave him a five star.

See the truth. The truth.

Set the stage for a chasm, but love built a bridge.

So he immediately sent me fifty dollars. He's like, Wow,

I can't believe you did this. This is amazing. Thank

you so much for not docking me's you know, like

you had every right to dock me and thank you

for not docking me. We're gonna jump right on this stuff.

And here's fifty dollars off of you know, here's fifty

dollars off. So that's just a little practical thing. Thursday night,

I asked if I could tell him, Elder Jeff, he's

not here to defend himself now. The first service he was,

and so I asked him graciously if I could shame

him in front of the whole congregation. He said yes,

that'd be fine. So but Thursday night we had Restored Life,

I had to be in a different meeting in the building.

So I'm back in this other meeting.

So I reached out to Elder Jeff, who's familiar with

the Restored Life in the class. I reach out to

Elder Jeff ahead of time, many days ahead of him,

and I said, could you cover, you know, be the

MC for Restored Life. We're going to show a video

and then I want you to open this way. I

want you to close this way, and then you know,

get some reflections and thoughts and we could put people

in small groups and you know, prayer over people and

that kind of thing, and we'll just have a great night.

And oh, yeah, I'd love to do that. When I

came out of my When I came out of my

meeting at seven twenty one, in the back of the building,

Adriana was up here, our restort life assistant was up

here on the microphone leading the meeting, and they weren't

sure in the video yet, and I'm like, you know,

so I came in the back and I gave her

that deer in the headlight look, you know, and she's like,

oh yeah, And so, you know, she gets us to

a place where she could, you know, break us into

the video, and then she comes and she's like, I

don't know who this older Jeff guy is, but he

never showed up. So so I, uh, I texted him,

you know, I texted him as point in the night,

not at that moment. By the way, what a lot

of us do is we react to things before we

think a lot of us what we're what we're doing

is we're not thinking how can I how.

Can I build a bridge?

We're thinking how can I dig a chasm? And so

when things go sideways, we pull out a shovel. We

pull out a shovel, and we start pondering how we're

gonna dig that chasm. I'm gonna tell them a thing

or two. Wait till I get them on the phone.

Can I don't do. I have to wait till the

end of the meeting. I can't believe how they made me.

Look look at this now, everybody thanks restored. Life is stupid.

The leadership is stupid. You're gonna blame the whole thing

on pastor Dwayne. He's stupid too. And we're just digging

this big shovel. I'm gonna give them a piece of

my mind. Right, And this is what happened. We don't realize.

We gotta we gotta stay over here? Is it?

No matter what, nothing can steal who? Uh?

You know what this is? By the way, this is

this is uh. This is self love. Self love, self

love abides in. I am loved. The proper Romans says,

nothing can steal God's love from you. Nothing, tribulation, hardship, hunger, famine, difficulty,

nothing can steal God's love from you, Nor can someone

failing you. Right, So that means we can stay up

here in this realm. I can only love you. This

is my partnership. This is loving others. I can only

love you to the degree that I love myself. I

can only love myself to the degree that I receive love.

But there's another factor, because many times we don't get

delivered from those voices that belong to first atom. So

many of us, even in this room today, including your yours, Truly,

I'm doing better second service because I had to preach

to myself the whole first service, because uh, what I

tend to do, and this is this is unclean, it's wrong,

it's not right. But what I tend to do is

I tend to when somebody fails me and somebody does

something wrong, somebody messes up. Could even be that beautiful

thing that this five foot seven that I live with

h I like to let them know. And usually when

I'm letting them know, it's not there's not like an

Ephesians four fifteen tone to it.

Speak the truth and love.

You know, when you speak the truth and love, it's

probably like, honey, honey, love, come here, let me give

you a kiss.

Honey.

Did you know that when the dish rag is in

the sink filled with crowd, it's just not that wonderful.

Could we partner together on cleaning it better and hanging

it up.

Right? Yesterday.

I'm saying that because yesterday I'm like, she's behind me.

I'm like, honey, I really don't like the dish rag

down in the bottom of the sink. You hear that tone,

you hear that you kind of have to raise your

voice at the end of it.

That's the sink. You know what? She said.

So gently? I heard the sparrow from behind me. I

don't either. I'm like, she just popped the balloon. She

just she just took the air right out of my

my little You know, I was gonna.

Give her a jab right there. I know she's the

one that did it. She put that dish rag down here,

give her a little jab. She just popped.

Oh oh, you don't. I wonder who put it in there.

Then I was just okay, well, I'll talk to Bob

when he drops in next time.

Like, what do you say with that? Right? First? Sean

for God is love. This is verse sixteen. Whoever lives.

In Love lives in God and God in them. And

this is how we know, and this is how love

is made complete among us.

This is I think this is the envy. I don't

know what it is. God is Love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them.

This is how love is made complete or perfect among us,

so that we will have confidence in the day of judgment.

In this world we are like Jesus. For in this

world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love,

but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to

do with punishment. The one who fears is not made

perfect in love. In other words, whenever we incite, whenever

we incite fear or punishment or punishment which will always

bring forth fear because punishment will bring forth fear concerning

the next failure. Relationally, Whenever we do that, we aren't

helping that other person rise up into being loved and

dismissing the fear that's now attached to the relationship.

Give you an example, you want to hear the rest

of the story.

So I text Elder Jeff some kind of a very

kind thing, just said, hey, I was hoping to see

you tonight.

Is all okay, right?

And then he shoots me another Yeah, how can I

call him so? On my way out of the gate.

You know, we called each other and and he's like,

he's ready for punishment. You know what I'm talking about

in our relationships, when we fail one another, we're ready

for punishment. There's the fear of punishment, and we're ready

for punishment. But perfect love dismisses that fear because in

perfect love, our goal is not punishment, it's to build

a bridge and win the other person.

By drawing them near. With Grayson Mercy, so he.

Starts going off on his Yeah, I switched to another calendar,

and I'm so sorry, and he's just giving me this

mountain of a mountainous, beautiful, you know, repentance. But I'm like,

it's okay, you know, don't worry. You know, we had

it covered. It worked out just perfect. I walked out

at the perfect timing. Nothing was lost, Everything's fine. I

had every right. I had every right, as does Adam.

First atom, first atom, not the new atom. I'm now

born in the new Atom. I'm now born again of

holy Spirit and the love of God. The gopy of

God is trying to burst through my spirit man, through

the arguments of my soul, and be animated through my

body and my mouth. But first Adam has every right

to be like, Jeff, what in the world happened to you?

Dude?

You let me down. You made the whole thing look terrible.

We were scrambling, we didn't know what to do. Just

so stupid of you to miss. Aren't you a grown man?

I can't believe you did this. Do you do this

with other stuff?

No?

And or something? Have you talked to Karen Lateley? No wonders.

She's like, what in the world with you?

You know what I'm saying. This is how we could relate.

This is how the old person would relate. But we're

called to reconcile every relationship. We're called to reconcile every failure,

every hurt, every damage, every bruise, every faltering. We are

called to build a bridge over those things and to

throw our shovel away.

Throw your shovel away.

Do not dig a deeper chasm when your brain starts

going into that realm like I just can't wait to

give them a piece of my mind. You better throw

that mind back in the baptismal tank. That's the wrong

mind to give them a peace of them. The mind

you need to give them the peace of is one strength.

In thirteen, you're gonna believe all things that are true

and lovely. You're not going to see them in malice.

You're going to see them the best in them. You're

going to be faith. Your love is up here at

an altitude. Your love is flying at an altitude that

circumstances can't touch. Situations cannot touch, failures cannot touch, rejection

cannot touch for four months, or the lack thereof cannot touch.

Your love is God's love. You are filled with God's love.

And whatever's contradicting that is not of God and needs

to be thrown out and dismissed. And no longer do

we listen to that which contradicts God's love.