God's Love for People

The title of the message today is God's love for people. He said,

well, well, why I want to preach something so simple as that?

Can you talk about something more complicated? Well? That is complicated, actually,

and I want to talk about it too, but I want to delve

into the scriptures to see what it means. Is that fair enough? You

ever had a time in your life you felt like nobody loved you? No

one raises their hands quickly, but it's true. You ever had a time

in your life where you felt like you didn't love anybody else that you're just

in a survival mode. You really didn't have anything in you to give for

others. We've been there. And then more profoundly, have you ever had

time in your life you wondered if there's a God in heaven, if he

cares for you? I remember when I was a teenager, first responding to

the Holy Spirit at the age of fifteen. I don't even talk about my

life before I became a Christian, because it was awful. But I remember

as I was walking across a bridge, looking down into the water as the

junk was coming out of the creek at the furniture factories there in Gaelax Virginia.

I looked down, I saw my reflections mixed up with all the mess

of the debris coming down. I said, my life is like that.

And I remember just saying, if there's a God up there, help me.

Have you ever started your prayer with if? And then then you got

the help you needed? God loves people. I say that categorically today.

How many of you qualify as a people? A person, mind, heart,

emotions, dreams, plans. So I'm eighty four to ten for a

day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a

doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Notice the contrast, the house of God or the option is wickedness? Do

we need God's house? We need it? Hey, God forbid that the

house of God should become a house of wickedness? Does that make sense?

What an awful option? From time to time I go on the larens for

the church to make sure we have bathroom towels in hand, and maybe use

the bathroom towels in the church. Well, me and Mike and others,

we put our hands on that to put them in those racks trash bags.

So we can get the trash out of here, tissue paper, a few

other things that are surely needed to make certain that this church building is safe,

clean and pleasant to occupy and people are happy we come to church.

We don't even think about what others have to do. I'm not the only

one, but others have to do to make sure that the place is alive

and just is here. And that's what small town pastors have to do at

times. Because people work all day, we find ourselves doing errands. It's

just part of the program. It's all right. Now, I get my

workouts by weating the flower beds. Now we're gonna have to start weeding the

flower beds. I hope you're going to get a work out with me doing

grounds work. Also, we have eighteen acres here cutting down brush and trees.

We have a few fallen trees in the back. We need men and

if some capable women. If the men aren't as capable, and I hope

they are, to cut those trees down or clean a toilet necessary. In

fact, we every fourteen months, you'll notice a little league starts on all

these toilets. It's not going to just go bad, just a little seal

it has to be replaced about every fourteen months on every toilet in the place.

Now Michael Jones, who has who's our gifted spiritual leader in this capacity,

has taught me how to fix those toilets, how to take them apart

and put a seal there. And you know how good that feels to accomplish

something when you're awful at doing this kind of work. It's a good feeling.

This spring, I plan to be very busy in the morning pulling weeds.

How many of you have a health club you go to where you go

and you work out, get your work out, and you spend it ninety

minutes there. Come on, raise your hand, be a little honest anybody.

Okay, Well, you realize you can come to the church and pull

weeds and get the same workout. It's a fact. And look what you

would do for the House of God. It's huge. Now. The other

church helps me. They do about eighty percent of our cleaning here, but

we got to do deep cleaning. And it's because they have a larger body

and there's a good attitude there. Nothing's perfect on either side, but we

work together to keep this house. Okay. Now, I don't do nearly

as much as some of our deacons and elders and the children's teachers in the

church. I'm telling you, I'm amazed at how dedicated they are. But

I enter the mix of the good effort shared with others to serve the church.

Why because I love God and I love the church, and it's worth

it. It is in forensically worth it. Some people have come up to

me and they've said, Pastor, why do you do these things? Pastors

shouldn't be doing that. Well, they should be with people because it's our

church that belongs to God. We are custodians of it. Service is not

about me. It's about loving God and as people. It's put to the

test when service hurts, when it's hard, when it draws from you,

when you feel yourself divided, When you extend yourself and by God's grace stay

calm, it becomes an act of worship. That's what I've learned. I

can remember for many years mowing the lawn around here during the litigation. The

county was looking for reasons to get rid of us, and if the grass

got too high, they were going to hit us with lots of sanctions.

So I would be spending one day mowing ten acres, maybe two days of

my work week. And I was asking God, why did you do this

to me? Why did you send me to seminary so I could spend two

days mowing the lawn for six, seven, eight, ten years. And

then I realized I was praying, and it hit me. You put me

on this lawnlorder so to have two solid days to pray every week. Complain

a little bit, but pray a good thing. A good thing. Now.

For many years I stayed up night after night doing paralegal work to assist

our attorneys. I learned to think like a lawyer. I didn't go to

seminary to think like a lawyer. Why to keep the cost down for the

litigation that was almost a million dollars to win this battle? Save money was

hugely important for our common future, and I believe it it would turn out

okay. Therefore, optimize everything you have in r so that the church is

a future. When my personal library was Arson, just a little back there,

we're pretty close to this cross was behind the church building. It was

Arson. Someone threw a inccenery device through the back window of the house,

the Hamburg farmhouse that was meant to burn the thing down. We used it

as a little worship center. We had marriages there, We did all kinds.

My library was there. I had a library that rivaled the library of

HMS Richards Sor in the back of that house. It cost me thousands of

dollars when the insurance settlement came. Before the insurance settlement, in fact,

the investigator sat down with me along with the ATF and the FBI, and

they interviewed me to see if I'd burned the facility down. And finally,

when the insurance investigators said, well you didn't burn it down, I'm relieved,

he says. But it took a lot of hate to do it.

For someone to throw that inscenary of device into the back of that window,

he says. I struggle and I shake to think of the hate in that

person's heart. I rolled the fifty thousand dollars insurance settlement for my personal library

into the legal fight for our church so i'd have skin in the game.

It didn't come back to me. I never recovered from that loss. Why

so we could win to build a place of worship, to have a church

home for our children and a generation yet to come. When I was in

the court and the different parties were fighting it out. I would turn to

Isaiah fifty four and claim the promise of a generation that God would protect after

the fight. Now my children have grown up and they've moved on. We

raised a whole generation of children here. But the church is here and there

are new children here now. Once a week. I used to mow the

church properties, I said, and I learned to prey on that lawnmowder more.

I'm thankful for our church building, the lush grounds, the beautiful trees,

the neighbors who come here, the church that rents here. Also,

I remember we had a renter lined up to come here that was in Washington,

d C. It looked like it was God's will. She'd been raised

the Seventh day Aventist. But there was just something not right. I visited

the church. I didn't feel the Holy Spirit working with him, and I

pray to prayer, Lord, if you don't want them here, make you

end it and you bring a church. They don't have to be perfect,

they just had to be seeking God. And I remember standing out there in

the parking lot, and it was before the interviews, so we would find

out whether not we'd have the renter or not. And I saw them.

I saw a group of people park near the end and just walk slowly down

the parking lot to where I was standing, and they said, you know,

we have a piece of land down the road, but we've been praying

and we don't even know if you'd be open to have us. And they

had the humility that taught me that something is right here, and that's the

Hosannah Church that's meeting with us today. God knew we needed them during those

seven years that we've just had because of COVID and other things. But you

know what, He knew that they needed us. Now. We're not perfect,

they're not perfect, but God brought them here. I pastor them.

I passed through our people too. I'm thankful for our church building. All

of this, friend, this was given to us by God Almighty as a

miracle of his kindness, of God's grace for us. He changed the law

of the United States of America so the Reaching Hearts International Church could be built

here after over ten years of struggle. That made history in this country.

I'm grateful for other people also. I'm grateful for every single person who comes

to our church who's wrapped around it. I'm grateful for the people who come

here, the driving school people, and they park in our parking lot so

we can pray with them, because God has given us this church to be

in a community, to make a difference beyond our local sphere of those who

come or don't come on a Saturday morning. Now that's the context where'm getting

ready to share with you. I was at the dollar Store last week.

I run errands, as you know. I get a lot of our stuff

from the Dollar Store to optimize money. I was at the dollar Store last

week where I buy the hand soap for the bathrooms and most of you use.

It's easier than just buying this industrial soap pouring in the container where it

just seeps out all over the counter. So it's a good fit. Now.

I was checking at the count I was checking out at the counter late

Saturday evening last week and a good while after sunset. I didn't just go

I don't try to quick all the sabas over and me go buy something.

I noticed a conscientious woman at the counter trying to process all the work she

had to do, overwhelmed in the midst of a mess created by other people.

People had gone through that store, they had put things on the floor.

It was a mess. It just so happened that another lady with a

credit card mix up had said I need to go to the car and get

some money, and she just stayed there, and so the line backed up,

seven eight, nine people long. That held up the whole line.

I just happened to be the one right there where she was when the lady

did all this. So I was the first in line of the seven.

This lady at the counter who was trying to process us had just experienced a

death in her family. She was upset about it that night, and she

began to verbalize it. As I said, I was next in the line.

I could see that about seven other people behind me, and she began

to just talk. At that moment, decided to speak up and let her

know that I was not in a hurry at all. I says, I'm

not in a hurry. You don't have to hurry for me. I said,

take your time, ma'am. I understand. At this point, the

group of people behind me were mad at two people, not one. They

were mad at her first for letting this lady go to the car, and

they were mad at me for saying what I just said. And then I

looked at her again and she just crumbled on the vine right there in front

of us. All crumbled. It called a meltdown. And then I looked

at her again, and I realized that she was in trouble. The pressure

had suddenly gotten to her. Something inside of her snapped in a moment of

raw stress. Now, friends, you can only take so much of emotional

abuse from people before you get tired of it. And there are different kinds

of emotional abuse. You realize it's emotionally abusive. Just to kind of frown

at someone and walk away. The shun game is abusive. Did you know

that when you shun a person, you're abusive? That doesn't mean a boundary.

People with cluster b disorders will do all kinds of manipulative things and the

like. Abuse isn't always just hitting someone. It can be something different than

that. But this lady evidently had had her fair share of it. She

snapped under the raw stress. You can only take so much of that,

weary of things that are crazy, your mind goes inward, and then who

knows what happens? People are complicated? Are people complicated? Yes or no.

People are complicated. She was truly tired, and suddenly she grew frantic

and frenetic in front of everybody. With tears welling up in her eyes.

She began to flail her hands, rock back and forth like a baby girl

lost on a street in the dark of the night. I can't forget it.

Have you ever cried out for help like that in your life when you

were at the end of your rope? She exploded with words of pain and

fear. She said, I'd do my best around here, to do my

job right I do. I still have to close up the building tonight.

I have to sweep the whole floor by myself and make sure it is good

for tomorrow. My boss requires me to do it right on time every day.

I can't do it tonight. I just can't do it tonight. I'm

too tired. I can only do so much today. I can't handle it

anymore. I don't know what to do anymore. That's where she was at

that moment. You could have cut the tension of her plea and pain with

a knife and blood would have come out. It was razor sharp, the

tension. So I asked, what do you do? And what do you

say to a person who's tired? Friends, there are people who come to

church who live lives that are close to Hell in their home, and they

come to church and they won't heaven, but they don't tell you. And

all it takes is a sneer, a rudeness from a church member, and

they'll never come back. A self centered attitude, a virtue signaling to where

it's all about me and not about them. So what do you do and

what do you say to a person who is tired, to a person who

has way too much to do, to a person who can't handle the load

and the pressure anymore? What do you do at that fragile moment in front

of those other persons we see they weren't just names and faces, they were

people. I reached out my hands. I don't know why I did it.

I felt impressed. I reached out my hands and placed her hand in

mine, this wonderful African American lady, bought by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Then my two hands and I looked into her eye. Now that's hard

for me, I've asked Burgers. Eye contact for me is a challenge.

But I looked into her eyes with tears that were ready to well up in

me because I felt her pain. I think God impressed me to do this.

I don't do that often. It was public. I could empathize with

how she was feeling at that moment. It was like her pain suddenly was

mine. Even though we men are awkward are sharing our feelings at the time.

I don't like sharing my feelings. I don't like crying in front of

people. I like men to be men. I'm frank with you, but

sometimes I do. And right there it was tough. I had felt the

same thing as her in my life. At times I could go back and

I had memories of where I felt like that. Maybe some of the people

on the line felt like that. It's a horrible feeling to have. I

value a hard worker, and if I was her boss, I would value

her. I'd give her a raise and I'd give her a break. She's

good and conscientious, But it seems that that's not her setting there. But

that night I valued her as a dear sister of God, a person in

this place just like me, who was in tears like I have been before,

but right there in front of us all and it's embarrassing for her friend,

you can spend a lifetime studying the meaning of persons and you'll never figure

it out at all. Paul Trenier wrote a seminal work on the meaning of

persons, well worth reading. It's out of print, but you go to

BookFinder dot com you can buy it. Every person is so meaningful to God.

Person's matter to God, not things. People, friend, God loves

people, So the only love of God that she could get that day is

if someone represents it to her as hard as my day was that day.

Holding her hand, I said, God loves you, sister. God loves

you a lot. God loves you like a whole universe. There was no

one else in the universe. I told her, God loves you as if

you were the whole universe. She was a Christian woman, but she was

at her Christian end of the rope holding up the line. Is because I

was holding up the line. Wasn't now the other person was me holding up

the line. I shared with her that I felt God sent me there that

night. I wasn't going to come by here, I said, I chose

to. I just felt heavily impressed to come by here. I'm not a

prophet, a son of a prophet or any of that. But I believe

it was for you to tell you that God loves you. I bowed my

head and I prayed for her right there in that line, holding up the

line for the person at the counter. I was embarrassed doing it. Suddenly

she grew calm and quiet. She was responsive to the Holy Spirit. She

wasn't just so into herself. She couldn't surrender to someone trying to calm her

in the spirit of God. And she grew calm and quiet. And I

said again, God loves you, and God cares about you. God loves

you. I'm not going to share her name here, I know it.

I said, please let me help you sweep the store tonight so you can

go home to be with your family. I'll stay by with you to sweep

the floor tonight. Now, then everybody in the back of line's looking at

me. I wasn't asking them to volunteer. I pressed her on the point.

She said no. Now, probably her employer wouldn't let me do that

for reasons that are obvious. But I pressed back, please let me stay

and do this. I do this at the church. I come through here

to buy supplies. I clean my church like others do. This is not

above me. I will clean this place with you. She pointed to the

little broom in the side, which was just a broom no dust mop.

Now I'm gonna go buy her a dust mop and take it so she has

a dust mop to clean that Dollar store in the evening. I'm gonna do

that this week. So there we were holding up the line. She said,

no. Oh, However, she said she knew I was a pastor

because I've been through there before. She said, what is your church name

and where do you worship at? I told her. She says, well,

I work on Saturdays, so she works on the Sabbath day. She's

working today. It'll be a hard thing for her to come here on the

Sabbath day and meet us in this place. It doesn't matter in a way,

and it doesn't matter in one way, but another way, it doesn't

matter. Here's why, because what matters is her in her place in her

world. I had a chance to just be there for a moment, in

that place in her world. I was there after the Sabbath day to pray

for her there, not here there, And God made it so for her

and me providentially to feel it now as I was trying to show this dear

lady that people matter to God and that God loves her right now out immediately,

it took a little more time and then time again. We had to

stop pushing things. We had to stop hurrying. We had to pause because

the meaning of persons was in play. To make the point to her that

God loves her. I asked this question to you, why did God put

this church here? Our church? Did God do it so we would look

important, feel important, be able to show off a beautiful building He has

given us to say that we're leaders in this place, that we have a

great work going for God. Look what I have been able to accomplish because

of my gifted calling. Did he do that? Did he do it so

I, as a pastor have a big office Now My office is a storage

room because we need it right now. My office is at a home.

But he do it because we can have a big office, lots of staff.

We have none but volunteers, which is great for me. I value

everyone of God's volunteers. He'd do it so we can have well to do

connections, so we would be connected as a church. Sometimes people name their

church connections. Did you do it so we could lighten the burden of the

pastor I have more burdens now than when we read it. I carry a

lot more administrative responsibilities than before. He do it so we could look important

in our community, so we would have a high status to those around his

friends. As I said, God changed the law of the land so we

would have this church building right here in this place. He defeated an army

of lawyers, an army of lawyers politicians, so we could worship and freedom

right here on this holy ground. In this place. There's a hangman's noose

in my office. Someone put that there to persuade us not to build,

to put it right when they were building my office, put it right in

front of my office. The message was, you build this place will kill

you. The atf the FBI went door to door. I have it as

a trophy of God's grace in my office. Then why did God give us

this church right here in this place for this time? Did he do it?

Because why did he do it? I won't tell you why. No

mystery here. God did it because God loves people. Our church is here

for people. God loves us. First. See the love of God doesn't

start with them. It starts with us. God loves us first, He

showed us his love. Paul says. God commends his love toward us in

Romans five, that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. God

loves us before we were ever able to respond any love. God put his

love in Jesus. It's not like a representative love in Jesus. God loving

Jesus that died on the cross. God was in Christ, Paul says,

reconciling the world unto himself. So it starts with us. God loves us.

No matter how you interpret God, he loves us. That's got to

get through the head and the heart. I can't understand it why people would

stay away from church. After all God has done for us so we could

be here to experience his love for us. This church isn't here for any

one of us. It's here for all of us so we can love others.

God loves more than just us in this place. Though. Let's not

forget that God put us here so others can come home to God, so

others can know God. So children yet an unseen, can come here,

so we can plant a church school here for the future. We can map

out a future for our community and for the world. You know we are

reaching hearts international. Why because we have been around the world doing works for

God. We're here to do work for God in our own community, but

not stop doing it around the world. This church was born out of love

and suffering. It was raised up in love to relieve the suffering. And

only hate can kill love. I say that only hate can kill love if

love surrenders in a cowardly way to hate. See, people who use hateful

means are cowards, and every coward, the Bible says, will be in

the lake of fire. We cannot afford to be cowards, and we cannot

afford to hate. Loving people lived and died to give us this church right

here to make this dream come true. God's dream, not ours. So

I don't own it. You don't own it for people who don't even know

the spiritual journey that Abraham Porsani collapsed in our foyer guarding the place as a

deacon in the church. John Butler, who in many ways was an head

elder with Terry Martin the day he died, pled with God to remove the

Verizon poll so that we wouldn't be charged a quarter of a million dollars by

a company that wanted to gouge us for a move that would cost us only

sixteen thousand dollars in actual costs, And God answered his prayer. He died

that day, John Butler. Most people don't even know about these people.

I have the memory of them. We had struggles along the way at times

with some who wanted to draw attention to themselves. See in that journey,

I can think of people who had ministries here who wanted it all to be

about them. Me and my ministry, Look what I'm doing. It's easy

to minister in God's names, so you can get a selfish, feel good

fixed from others. You know, you do something so people will need you.

You do something so you'll be recognized. You do something so someone can

say thank you friends. Have you ever considered doing something for God instead?

It's easy to serve in the church so others can praise and admire you for

your good efforts, your positions, your achievements. But Jesus could get care

less about that kind of motivation. Most of those who just wanted to look

important have left here over the years. Some have died, others have come

in, but some of those who have died with this attitude died early because

toxicity takes your life away. It makes you die early, It hurts your

health friends. Being a negative person, it hurts others, but also hurts

you. It shortens your life. We cannot afford to be anything less than

joyful, loving Christians with peace in our hearts. You know, God forbid

if you have been wronged, or you have a family member you're struggling with.

Now you rehearse that as if somehow God has been mean to you.

God died for you, irregardless of your family members. Sister White had trouble

with her son, didn't know if he'd be saved. She came to peace

with it because she realized God died for her first, and that her book

Bo was God's boy before her boy was her boy, his boy. God

didn't put it his people in this church to shorten their lives of others with

bad attitudes or causing trauma, or being mean to get their way, or

rude so they would be noticed, or destructive to win a war when no

one needs to fight a fight or peace should be the play in a Christian's

heart. The game. God didn't put his people in this church to draw

attention to themselves so they would realize some like dreams. Some people say,

I have a dream. I go to church, I can realize my dream.

Well, friends, we should go to church so we can realize God's

dream. We could share in God's dream. God put his people here to

be his wounded feet, on the move, tirelessly without complaint, ever zealous

to share the gospel of peace, with a peaceful mind and attitude full of

grace, knowing how to stay in your life. You know God has given

giftedness in the church in many areas. I don't need to be in everybody

else's business. God calls on this person of that work, this person of

that work, and together we are strong. If we love each other.

God could have put us here to be his kind hands, his tender touch

in the lives of others who are hurting, who will be certainly lost if

they do not feel the love of God, and you and me, as

God's ambassadors of peace to touch them. I know about you with the aspergers.

When someone touches me, it really is raw. You hear me feels

raw when I hear loud sounds. I just want to get away, But

you know what. I have learned that only a touch can heal you.

Sometimes God touches us. As a pastor, I've learned, by God's grace,

I mean God's grace, that I can put up with almost anything in

the church and not let it get to me. Not at first in my

ministry, but over the years I've come to that place. But there are

a few exceptions to this. There have been times when church members have screamed

at me literally, not the most, but it's happened, pastor. You're

a pastor of the world church. Has that ever happened to you where a

church member just lost it and screamed at you. Raise your hands so they

know I'm not alone. Yeah, say it's happened to you. This is

just part and parcel of what it means to be a minister. It's not

out of the ordinary because people, when they see you as a representative of

God, they blame you because they're mad at God. That's the way it

is. So screamed at me, why did you do this? Why did

you not do this? And I let it go. At times it has

reduced me to tears, and I don't like crying. I find that I

decompress in a quiet place alone where God and me can get it done.

I don't like dragging people through my stuff. That's how I am. I

have a saying. I mean it. I don't like to hurt people,

and I like people hurting me. Is that okay? I don't want to

hurt or be hurt. I like that. It's kind of a derivative of

the prayer of Jbez. Now, there have been times I was dragged into

court. There's been a time I was dragged in to court by church member

I'm serious, who drummed up nonsense, false charges and had me served at

the door of the church so they could come intoer ministry that the nominating committee

was not going to appoint them at because they were not safe to be leaders

in the church. And so they had manipulated the police officer and I was

served. And if I had not gone to court, been tried before a

judge and found not guilty, I would have been banned from this church right

here. Most of you didn't even know that happened to me, And that

person took some people away. They've tried to come back, and I think

we have a right to say no to that. Don't we no to protect

the church is okay. I've had people accuse me of being a heretic.

Now this is just part and parcel what it means to be a pastor.

Even though I've been to seminary, that doesn't mean I'm better than anyone else.

I've studied ancient Bible languages, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaics, Syriac hieroglyphics,

which is the hardest of the lot. I've been cited in scharly work

from under my unpublished work and chiastic research. The Ohio Workers meeting ended up

in a scarly journal. They didn't even tell me. I worked on that

in secret late at night. As I labored in the fight for this church

in the court system for many years, I've seen things behind the scenes that

would raise the hair on your heads. If I let you know what they

were in this fight to get this church, some of you would wonder why

I'm your pastor. Because the fight to get this church was a life and

death struggle. My children were stalked by a stalker, we were threatened.

It's been easy just to move on. But you know what, my dad,

my wife's dad, said something to me. He said Mike. In

nature, the weak die. You cannot afford to be weak. I was

crying when I was talking to him, he said, quick, crying settlement

conferences in court and dirty and gritty and mean interactions with lawyers. You just

want to eat. You alive. Where you have to be strong and kind

at the same time, because you have to be a pastor. You represent

Christ. But you can't be weak. Evil people out to destroy God's people.

A pastor has a rod in his hand, not just for sheep to

comfort them and heard them, but every now and then for a wolf.

I've had church members accuse me of this and that and everything else, a

few at the very time, and I needed rest from those kind of things.

When souls are responding to God's grace, I find that this is when

this kind of thing surfaces. I can put up with most of these kinds

of distractions and obstacles and move forward for God. Why. Here's why,

Here's what motivates me. Because God loves me. You with me, God

loves me. I feel it. Here is another why. Because most people

aren't that way. That's not the majority of what makes a church. But

you see when someone does that, you focus on it. It's easy to

generalize. We have a loving church family reaching hearts international. We have people

who serve God tirelessly, who demonstrate the few can outdo the many in terms

of the giving the impact that has occurred around the world. The few do

not define the many in the faithful Church of God, that is the remnant

church of the time to the end. But there's always a few who nurture

an evil attitude because they're unconverted, and Satan uses it to hurt others,

harming people who are on the way to know the love of God, people

who need the kindness in the church, and God will hold people back for

a time until that's fixed in a church. Some have criticized me for being

too decisive as a pastor. The conference has asked me to be more decisive

when it's interesting. Others have claimed I've let things go on way too long.

Some have said I am not sensitive enough, so others claim I'm far

too sensitive. You see what I'm trying to say. We cannot be all

things to all people. As a rule, I believe in giving people chances

to recover from their errors because God loves people. So if you ever watch

me, you'll know that I just kind of hang in there and observe if

something is off. I don't try to just hover in and correct something immediately.

I want to see if people will respond to the Holy Spirit and be

self correcting or allow others in the body to do that. And usually this

has come back to stay me. Patience is costly. It hurts the person

who's patient. I have seldom benefited personally from this kind of mercy in the

life. I've found that to be true. I've been advised, well,

you need to let this that happen, But I tend to hang in there

longer. But I tell you what I don't have patience with, especially as

I'm a seasoned pastor, and where it ends with me as a Christian pastor.

I'm angry when someone manipulates a new believer. I'm angry when someone uses

a child in the church to make a statement, or they go after the

weak person who's come to the church and needs encouragement and they put them down

or the hurting so they can use that person to get what they want,

use that vulnerable soul, making themselves look like a saint naturally at the risk

of that soul's fragile Christian growth and journey that makes me angry. I don't

lose my temper, but inside it drives me to my knees and I say,

God, what evil has come. Jesus said, if you mess with

the children, if you mess with the youth of the church in this way,

be better for you. If a millstone were tied around your neck and

you were thrown in the sea. There have been times in my ministry when

I saw self righteous church members, and I've been a self righteous church member

in my life before, so I'm not just talking down when I've seen self

righteous church members try to trip up new members in the church, the vulnerable,

in the weak. I've seen souls destroyed by this kind of thing when

it goes on too long unundressed. But I've also seen good people in the

church intervene to save people from these kind of attitudes, who take it on

themselves to reach out to try and heal so that that does not become the

toxicity that would overtake and destroy the church. Friend, God's love for us

is not just a patient love. God intervenes. It's a kindness, kind

of love that's tough and strong for the sake of the body. God's love

for us is there to save us, but it's strong enough to die for

us to the sick church of Ladscia. Jesus gave this message to John in

Revelation in three nineteen and twenty. As many as I love, I rebuke

and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent. He starts his admonition latesty

in church says I love you. It's the most awful church in the book

Revelation. But he says, I love you. Be zealous, get focused

in serving me because I love you, and repent. Don't think you don't

need you need to behold. I stand at the door and knock. If

anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him

and dine with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes,

I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also

overcame and set down with my Father on his throne. The three of us

with the river of the Holy Spirit, implied the ey, say my father

me on the throne of the Eternal God, and you'll sit there too,

because we love you. He who has an ear, let him hear what

the spirit says. The church as friends. God gave us this church in

this place, and God can take it away if we don't listen to His

voice to be zealous and to repent and to live for others in Him.

There's nothing sacred about us keeping something. If we are not kept by God.

God doesn't send us the people we like. God sends us the people

we must learn to love. Why Because God loves us, he found a

place for us. Messed up though we be, Jesus says, as many

as I love, I rebuked and chasten. Latest love letter in the book

Relation is the love letter to the Church of Ladesea, the people of the

Judgment. As many people interprets Adakia, but it's really the people of unrighteousness

ad Dakia no righteousness, people who think they righteous and arn't the end time

church that needs to have it right. No one gets into the King of

God without overcoming and being disciplined in their lives. That's what Jesus says to

him. Overcomes, friends, there will be no toxic latesty in kind of

Christians in the King of God to spoil the universe's happiness. If you're toxic,

if you can't respond in a way that will love in spite of how

you've been treated. Then you're the problem, and God has to save you

before you can save you, your family, or those around you. The

cure for loveless lives, toxic false Christianity, and unkind believers is to believe

that God in Jesus loves me first, that God was in Christ on that

cross, as Paul says for me, that God's love was revealed from me

before I knew better. Kindness begets kindness at the cross. Love is the

source of love. At the cross. You cannot give what you have not

received at the cross. God is loved, but you cannot share what God

has not shared with you if you don't let his love into you at the

cross. Paul says in Romans Too for that the kindness of God leads us

to repentance. And Jesus says, you are the light of the world,

a city on a hill, the sult of the earth. The light shines

with the warmth of God's love. The city on a hell is the high

place where love is a home and a heart for faith and worship, a

welcome sight to see. The salt is the life of love that has flavor,

and that preserves the fire and the wound that heals. The light shines

with the warmth of God's love. Light, city salt. God loves people,

and we are to love people. I never get tired of John chapter

three. Let's put on the screen. There's nothing old about this verse.

Let's read it together, New King James version. For God so loved the

world, that means you and me that he gave his only begotten son,

that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now verse

seventeen should be read with it. For God did not send his son into

the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be

saved. So Jesus was in the saving business, not the condemning business.

Right, the church is to be in the saving business, not the condemning

business. God loves people. That's why Jesus came to earth to save you,

to be one of his people. The universe is a loving, uncondemning

church beyond the stars, and thy will be done on earth as it is

in heaven. Jesus prayer. Now, I had to put this sermon together

quickly yesterday because a person reached out to me, a person one of the

people that God loves from the radio ministry that some have said that we should

get rid of, but not most, but some. I don't often share

my text messages with people, but I'm going to share this one with you

so you can pray for James. Is that fair? I love to work

for people like this man who knows of us, who considers himself a member

of our church, and who needs to come here to be baptized into Jesus

and be saved. He texted me as Pastor Mike. He said, Pastor

Mike, I spent ten years in prison. I didn't want to tell you,

but that's where I found you and God. I listened to you for

ten years, every night, Monday to Friday. You're on the radio a

long time. I was so upset when they reduced your time on the radio.

I was there for it all. It was very personal for me.

I'm not a weirdo pastor, but I kindly asked to sit and he has

a t and I don't know what tea means, and then he says lots

of laughter, Lol. Acronyms are slow for me. I'll call you this

week, sorry for holding you up. My mom's name is Bernice and she

loves you so much, and then gave me the telephone number. I texted

back, thanks for that number. He texted me back, High, Pastor

Mike, it's me again. I'm in the Treatment Center Avenues in Prince Frederick,

Maryland. They let me use my cell phone for a few minutes,

and I wanted to use the time. Wisely, I won't be able to

respond because after this text I'll have to turn my phone back in. Pastor

Mike, I wanted to ask you if you would mind wouldn't mind sending me

any reading material from your favorite theologian Like you say on the radio in the

past, do you have a Revised Standard Versions at RSV in quotes Bibles lying

around? I have the nkg U King King James Version Nelson Study Bible.

I like to compare because it crystallizes the verses from me. Anything you approve

of me reading, I will be so grateful. It just this amazes me.

I have Desire of Ages and Ministry of Healing and the Great Controversy by

Ellen G. White. Hear that melody, see not just Great Controversy.

We're talking about the Desire of Ages, Minister of Healer. Other books by

L. G. White. Just so you know, I need some guidance

amy reading the Bible. Is there anything in special you think I should read?

Please let me know now. I'll let you know. I had a

hard time responding to him because I had fires going on in the church that

distracted me from meeting with him as I but I'll continue reading. They will

let me use my cell again after this week, so I'll come back and

check to see what you wrote. I wanted to tell you I'm working on

being close to your church. I'm on probation and I have like eight months

left and I'm waiting for approval to move to Maryland, so I would have

to commune from Virginia, which is okay, said so he heard it in

a prison in Virginia. I know what the Lord has put on my heart,

and I just want to be around you and be in God's house.

People automatically think that because of my past, I automatically lie, cheat,

and steel. I have done these things in the past, but that has

not been the trend lately. For the past five years. Even though I

relapsed, God has been working on And then he didn't say me, but

I got many ment to gaze he says, God has been working on to

gaze at the beauty of the Lord all the days of my life. Sorry

for the bombardments of texts. Thank you for your prayers and listening to me

and your kindness. It means the world to me. I responded back,

what's your address? He gave me his name the address. I'm not going

to read it to you. He said, no pressure. I texted back,

thanks, let me see what I can do. God bless you in

Jesus. I can drop them off now. That is a ninety minute drive

to that spot, in a ninety minute drive back. It's three hours of

a day. Here's his name is James. He says, I know you're

so busy. Thank you for everything. I said, yes, absolutely you

can. I'll sign a release and let them know. And then I responded

back, I look forward to baptizing you, James. And then he texted

me back, yes, Pastor Mike, I can't wait. I don't want

anyone else to baptize me. I graduate four eighteen. It's April eighteen.

That's coming now. I'm going to be in Fort Benning. There's a chance,

Elder Dila Santos, when you preach here he may be in church that

Sabbath. I don't know, but you look for James. He belongs to

God and he belongs to us. He said, I have to go.

Thank you God, bless you. And then I texted him back, we

will baptize you shortly after Jesus is king. That's the interaction, Hew,

Look, that takes time. I sat down to write my sermon yesterday and

for some reason it came fast, and it was three point thirty, and

I felt the impression you drive you find that Bible for James. Now,

I went down into my library and I only had that Revice to Revice center.

I have is about one hundred plus dollar bible, which is a copy

of the one I use. It's a replacement Bible. That's the one I

chose because the only one I had, and I would have given it to

him. But then I came to the church looking for literature, and we

didn't have an organized literature rack here with the broad literature we would need to

minister to people. So we need to buttress this in our thinking to purchase

literature for there and in the back. But I did find these wonderful spirit

of prophecy books that I looked in the Great Controversy section. I gave him

another Great controversy because I thought you had friends there, you know, and

we may take a bunch of them over there. But I put together a

series of books that would help. And I had had a gift bag,

and I took one of the great controversy bags, melody that you have,

and I put all the books in the Bible in the bag. I got

on the phone, I called the facility. The social worker slash counselor said,

we can't guarantee you can see him, but we're going to let you

come. And so I was able to deliver them yesterday. I got home

last night. And that's just how it is. So I drove those three

hours yesterday to give him that RSV he wanted so badly. God loves James,

God loves you and me. He loves our children. Here's a man

who, in his suffering wants to come to this church to serve. That's

what he's told me. I just want to serve God. Is there a

place where I can do something for God in your church? God loves people.

He made the church for people. I want to end with one John

one to eleven one John to verse nine. Not for that which was from

the beginning, which we've heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which

we've looked upon, and our hands have handled touched. Concerning the word of

life, that's Jesus the life, not a life. The life was manifested,

and we have seen that word manifested. Mare. It's a Daniel prophetic

term. It's the Greek equivalent. We have seen. We bear witness,

declare to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to

us, the appearance that which we have seen and heard. We declare to

you that you may also have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is

with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ. And these things we

write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which

we have heard from him, and declare to you that God is light,

and in him is no darkness at all. If if we say that we

have fellowship with Him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not

practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in

the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus

Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we

have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

And I love this promise in verse nine. And let's read it together.

Let's read it as a church family. If we confess our sins,

he is faithful in just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from

all unrighteousness. Why because God in Jesus loves people. God loves us.

Dear Father God, I'm grateful the Godhead as a family. Somehow, there's

love at home, You've said, Thou Lord, hast been our dwelling place

in all generations. Love at home, and Father, just be at home

here. We're not always good children, but we're your children. And so

Lord, thank you that Jesus died for his people, not just any people,

He died for his people in the whole world too. And so Lord,

I just pray you give every person here love at home in their own

homes, in this home of faith in Jesus' name. Amen.