Outliving Your Life - Pt.3 | Rev. Terry K. Anderson

This morning the great apostle like an expert jeweler

displays love as if it were a brilliant diamond juxtaposed to the evil that love

is not to hold before us its many gleaming facets. He deliberately uses

the highest word for love in the Greek vocabulary and immediately it takes it

far beyond any definition of love known to the Greeks or to anyone else. Paul uses

the Greek word agape that great New Testament word for love that has a

meaning all its own. It is used of the love of God the Father for God the Son.

John chapter 17 and verse 26 reads that the love wherewith thou has loved me may

John 17 · chapter mention

be in them and I in them. It's the love spoken of in John chapter 3 and verse 16

John 3 · chapter mention

for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever

believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life and it is spoken

of of the love that Jesus had for his own. In the Gospel of John again at chapter

14 and verse 21 he says he that hath my commandments and keepeth him here it is

that loves me and he that loves me shall be loved of my father and I will love

him and I will manifest myself to him and because this kind of love does not

arise from our feelings listen to me because this kind of love does not arise

from our feelings it is commanded by God because it does not always coincide

with our natural inclinations nor is it concerned only with those for whom we

have some natural affinity you are not just supposed to love people who love

you since love is commanded it cannot be based on emotion are y'all listening to

me since love is commanded it cannot be based on emotion on the contrary it is

based on the will John chapter 13 and verse number 37 says a new commandment

John 13 · chapter mention

I give unto you that ye love one another and have as I have loved you that ye

also love one another and by this shall all men know that you are my disciples

not because you go to church on Sunday not because you have a large print Bible

not because you wear a cross around your ankle or your neck not because you have

a fish emblem on your bumper not because you answer your phone praise the

Lord not because you're too blessed to be stressed but men will know that you

are my disciples because you have love one for another look with me brothers and

sisters at love's concerns the first of love's concerns is to be Christ like in

suffering love suffers long or love is long suffering the literal meaning of

the word is long tempered when you love you are not short tempered I'm working

on that I'm a work in progress please be patient with me God is not through with

me yet long suffering long suffering however is more brothers and sisters

been patients long suffering is self restraint when faced with provocation in

other words love does not retaliate

love is never in a hurry to punish its enemy it's long suffering Abraham

Lincoln when he was president of the United States the 16th president of

United States had a mortal enemy named Edward or Edwin Stanton Edwin Stanton

could not stand Abraham Lincoln Stanton said that Lincoln looked like a

gorilla he said you don't have to go to Africa to look at a gorilla you can

just look in the face of Abraham Lincoln he said Abraham Lincoln is the most

two-faced man I've ever met and Lincoln who was always quick-witted says if you

really think I had two faces I would keep this one Lincoln was hated by Edwin

Stanton but Lincoln made Stanton his secretary of war and when asked why he

made Stanton his secretary of war Lincoln said because he's the best man for

the job he never retaliated Lincoln's love Lincoln's kindness one Stanton over

so that when Lincoln was assassinated Edwin Stanton stood over his coffin with

tears in his eyes and said the greatest ruler of men is this man who lies in this

kai skin love when it is real is long-suffering David displayed this

kind of love this kind of patience in his relationship with King Saul on no

less than 24 separate occasions Saul tried to murder David but David knew

that he was God's anointed David knew that God had anointed him king so he

was patient enough to wait for God to give him the throne and those of us who

read the Bible will remember on several occasions David had an opportunity to

take Saul's life but David said I will not touch the

Lord's anointed nor do God's prophet any harm David would not retaliate and in

due course God handed him the throne let your enemies lie on you let your

enemy try to destroy you the Bible says no weapon I wish I had one or two more

witnesses formed against you shall be able to prosper because God will stand

between you and the weapon thrown at you the second of love's concerns is not

just being long-suffering but it is Christ like brothers and sisters to be

kind love is patient and then love is kind where patients and long-suffering

passively wait kindness is active goodness that goes forth on behalf of

another long-suffering is waiting for God to move but kindness is moving in

goodness and peace and mercy towards somebody who has done you evil the

greatest example of this other than Jesus is what David did with Mephibosheth I

need one or two more Bible readers here on 24 occasions Saul tried to kill

David but David would not do soul any harm Saul is now dead and David's friend

who was Saul's son their hearts were knit together like brothers Jonathan is

now dead and Jonathan has a son named Mephibosheth who is in the home of a man

named Zyba Saul has been long dead and David is now seated on the throne of

Israel enjoying God's blessings when he remembers how good Jonathan had been to

him I wish I had somebody who read the Bible which Saul tried to kill him

Saul's own son Jonathan warned David of his father's plans and Jonathan saved

David's life on several occasions and David became king of Israel seated on

the throne he started thinking about how good God had been to and how God had

used Jonathan to save his life and David said is there anyone left of the

house of Saul that I might show kindness because of Jonathan and brothers and

sisters you are in this church this morning enjoying God's blessings not so

much because of what you've done but somebody in your past was good and God

is blessing you on your grandmother's behalf

God is blessing you because you had a praying aunt or praying Sunday school

teacher somebody in your past was a blessing to somebody else and God is

blessing you because he's answering prayers of somebody who's sleeping in

their grave

and somebody remember that Jonathan had a boy named Mephibosheth David said

bring it here they brought Mephibosheth to David and David said he's gonna eat

with my sons at the table but they said no king he can't come because he's

crippled in both his feet he's deforned he's he's crippled he's limping he can't

sit with Solomon he can't sit with Amon and Tamar he cannot sit at the kings

take the king said bring him here I don't care what his handicap is I don't

care what his drawback is I don't care what his lameness looks like

sit him down at my table and I'm so glad that God let me sit at his table I

don't care what he looks like I don't care what he's done I don't care where

he's been bring him to my father's house

and all the crippled folk in here like me to all the broken people in here like

me to all the folk in here like me who got some decisions you wish you had made

some roads you wish you had never traveled but God lets you come in his

presence you ought to help me tell God thank you

love is his passion love is kind it takes nothing away from you to be kind to

people it does it doesn't take anything away from me to compliment somebody else

is preaching I don't have to be the one singing to clap for the song I don't have

to be the one praying to say amen for the prayer it takes nothing away from me

to compliment John Adolf I enjoy hearing him preach and hearing him preach takes

nothing away from my preaching I enjoy Marcus Cosby's preaching I enjoy Ralph

West's preaching we are not in competition with one another because

competition leads to envy

which leads me to the second thing I want to talk about when you really love

your content loves contentment in the first place love listen to me is never

envious the translation of the word in Paul's writing embraces both envy and

jealousy whenever jealousy whenever a person is jealous they desire to have

the same thing you have for themselves they want to style their hair like you

style your head if you color your head they gonna color their head if you

drive a nice car they want to try the same kind of car you drive they want to

talk like you they want to walk like you they want to act like you that's

that's benign that's that's no harm in that that's a sincere form of flattering

you they really want to be you I have no problem yesterday at the funeral the

preacher told me at the funeral yesterday said Reverend I might as well tell you

right now the sermon you preach today I'm gonna preach that as soon as I can and

I said to him Reverend I have no problem with that at all you know how many

sermons of other preachers I've preached as soon as I can because if you're

gonna preach like somebody you might as well preach like somebody who can preach

I mean it don't make sense to try to preach like nobody who can't preach

come on talk back to me if you can I mean you ain't trying to be ugly you're

trying to be as pretty as the person you trying to be like so what love when it

is real jealousy wants what the other person has but envy does not want you

to have it now they know they can't do nothing with it they just don't want you

to have it listen to me beloved since love is an act of the will the best way

to deal with envy listen to me the best way to deal with envy is to crucify it

and the way you crucify envy is by actively praying for and supporting the

one whose gifts you covet because it is impossible to be envious of somebody you

praying for I wish I had time to stay right there love does not want itself up

the word vaunted not itself means love is never egotistical love is never

narcissistic love does not draw attention to itself or to what it is doing

because it wants to be seen if you give something away and then tell somebody

you give something away that's not love love is not anxious to impress other

people you do your arms you do your good in secret you you you you do nice things

for people privately you don't you don't pay my bills and then go tell 30 people

you paid my bills I wish I had somebody to help me preach it you don't you don't

go out of your way to help me so you can put it on Facebook because you have just

committed a dead deed but if you do it in secret God will reward you openly you

know why so many people are blessed around here it's because they're going

out of their way helping people privately and God is blessing them openly

don't get mad with me cuz I'm being blessed openly do something nice

privately

moreover love is not puffed up one who is puffed up is the person who has an

exaggerated sense of his or her own importance

psychologically they suffer from what is known as Dunning Kruger effect Dunning

Kruger these two men Dunning and Kruger came up with this idea that's called the

Dunning Kruger effect the Dunning Kruger effect goes like this people of low ability

drastically over estimate their own abilities in large part because they are

incapable of understanding what they don't know can I run it by you one more

time Dunning Kruger effect people of low ability drastically over estimate their

own abilities in large part because they are incapable of understanding what

they don't know the person who comes immediately to mind is Donald Trump

because Donald Trump's statement when he ran for president in 2020 his statement

was this exactly only I can fix it that's Dunning Kruger effect that's

over estimating your abilities because you are incapable of understanding what

it is that you don't know and so when you don't understand what you don't know

you lie about what you do know I mean you just start talking about stuff you

don't even know anything about the hardest thing in the world for us to do

is say I don't know somebody start talking about in bombing you ain't

never been to a funeral home but you know everything about in bombing

somebody start talking about a naval ship you ain't never been in a swimming

pool but you know everything about a submarine just say you know I'm gonna

shut my mouth right here because I don't know what the devil I'm talking

about I wish I had somebody to help me preach it love is never eccentric it

does not behave itself like the fool we just put out of here a minute ago it

does not behave itself unseemly love knows how to act in every situation it's

the devil that makes you disrupt the worship service the spirit of God will

never have you disrupt worship because that's behaving unseemly in other words

love has good manners it does not exhibit inappropriate behavior but it

always treats others with compassion with respect and with consideration love

when it is real is genuine and not artificial because if it's artificial you

can't keep it up but when it is genuine you love in all seasons then too love is

never seeking its own way true love is never selfish it's never self-centered

it does not insist on having its own way those of us who read the scripture

will remember when when Abraham and his nephew Lot were taken off to where they

had gone and their their herds started to grow disproportionately and their

servants were were growing out of proportion and and there was no more

room in the land for them to dwell and Abraham's herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen

got into a dispute because there were so many of them and so many herds to take

care of and Abraham who is the older of he and Lot comes under his nephew and

says let's not let's not argue with one another let's not fall out over this land

because we are brothers he said I'll tell you what we're gonna do you take the

land that you want and what you don't want what you leave leftover I will take

it now Abraham had every right to take all the land if he wanted to because God

had given it to him in the first place but Abraham who does not want to seek

his own way says to Lot you take what you want and what's left over I will

take it and you know the story Lot took the highlands of Sodom and Gomorrah and

Abraham wound up in the lowlands of Mamre Lot got a hold to land that had

been angelically tagged for demolition Lot got his hands on land that was

about to go up in a fire sale Abraham got the lowlands of Mamre and God said

to Abraham don't worry but lot he has the land but you got the promise and when

you know God has given you the promise let them think they've gotten the upper

hand

let them think you ain't gonna ever make it after you after I leave you you

ain't gonna be nothing

boy please

the God I said some of y'all over thought they remember Reverend Ike

Reverend Ike had a saying that goes real good right here you can't lose with the

stuff are you a better saying come from the scripture if God be far off who can

be against us I don't care who walks out of your life make sure God walks into

your life and when God walks into your life he'll take back what the devil

tries to steal from you

yeah

furthermore love is not easily provoked love is not roused to a spirit of

anger and bitterness love refuses to be exasperated even though it may be justly

aroused to righteous indignation it is not insulted or carries a chip on its

shoulder because true love only responds in anger to that which makes God angry

when you're a loving person you put blinders on and you don't pay attention

to people's insults you don't pay attention to people's criticism you

don't pay attention to people's lies because when you are when you are sure

of yourself and confident in who you are people will mistake your confidence

for arrogance when your confidence is really ability and when you know how

God has blessed you and how God has made you and what gifts God has given you

you don't have to bury your stuff to make somebody feel good about themselves

you don't have to make yourself look small in order to make somebody else

look big if you got that kind of ego problem you need to get out of my life

I need to unfriend you on Facebook I need to divorce you if I got to make

myself look small in order to make you look big you got a problem not me

small people we get around some big people and get big to death

love thinks no evil the word translated here means love does not keep

account of how many times it's been wronged love suffers long it takes no

no worthless inventory sisters need to learn that

because brothers if you can help me tell the truth and go home

women don't get hysterical they don't they don't throw a knife at you no more

they don't back over you with their car and all that and not not because they

don't feel like it they don't want to go to jail so they don't do all that

and they don't they don't carry a switch blade and they buzz them and all that

no more they don't get hysterical when it's time to fight they get historical

you remember they bring up all the stuff you did all the stuff you should

have done but didn't do talk back to me if you can they remind you of stuff you

forgot you try to hold in hand on behold in my hand get back get on your side and

then you start thinking what not what what what did I do and then if you can't

think of nothing they just mad cuz today is Sunday but love girls bears no

resentment love does not walk around with a butcher knife love does not hold

grudges genuine love does not attribute evil motives to people and does not

dwell on the evil that people have done to you it is natural to love them that

love us but it is supernatural to love them that hate us I'm trying to hurry

here love rejoice is not iniquity love does not rejoice when bad things happen

to people who've done us wrong true love does not gossip true love does not

rejoice in the German word shortened Friday shortened Friday means when

something terrible happens to somebody you don't like you're happy about it I

don't get happy when something happens evil to people who don't like me because

the Lord says be careful the ditch you dig for them

somebody helped me preach it you gonna fall in it yourself finally loves

convictions love rejoices in the truth it rejoices when truth is proclaimed and

when truth wins the day a lie will run around the world while truth is still

putting on issues love bears all things to bear all things means love

patiently endures and overlooks the faults of others it literally means that

when you love somebody instead of always looking for failures and faults you

know what their faults are but you cover it that's what true love means you you

you look at people and and you don't and you and you say to yourself how can you

be friends with that person you know how crazy they are but you cover it how

can this pretty woman love this ugly man she covers it let me let me let me let

me give you a biblical picture of that you remember in the book of Genesis when

Noah got drunk his son Ham saw him in his drunkenness and laughed at him and

went and told his two brothers when Shem and Japheth heard of their father's

drunkenness they took a blanket they took a covering and walked backwards and

laid the blanket on him backwards not to look at his nakedness and Noah blessed

Shem and Japheth and cursed Ham because Ham laughed when the other two covered

it one Friday on a hill called Calvary Jesus covered my sin and I'm in this

church this morning because I'm covered by the blood of Jesus Christ I'm saved

today because Jesus covered me with his own blood

what can wash away my sin nothing but the blood of Jesus what can make me hold

again nothing but the blood of Jesus I want you to hear me brothers and sisters

stop stop thinking that you in here because you are so loving you're not

in here because God needs you you're not in here because somebody else can't take

your place you're in here because God loves you and the love of God hopes all

things believes all things endures all things because love never fails let me

run across the field right here I got one or two more things in my nose but

let me just cut across the field could be running out of time love endures all

things and the closest thing we can come to to that kind of love before we

get to the love of God is the love that a mother has for her child fathers love

their children but they don't love their children like mama love their children

because when a baby cries the daddy just think the baby is crying but the

mama knows what the cry means one cry means they're hungry another cry means

they need to be changed and nobody could know that but somebody who is

sensitive enough to know what that cry means somebody ought to help me close

here sometimes mama and daddy get mad with their child the child is going to

jail or the child has gone astray and the child is on drugs and the child can't

be trusted in the house by themselves because they've made all kinds of foolish

childish mistakes and the daddy will say I don't want nothing to do with that

boy don't don't don't let him come in my yard I don't even want him at my house

I don't want to have nothing to do with him anymore I'm through with that boy and

the mama said you're right he's done wrong I'm through with him too I don't

want to see him no more the longest I know I brought him in this world but I

don't want to have nothing to do with him and then that boy will come back when

the dad is not home

and mama said listen I'm gonna give you this money but you better not tell your

dad where you live boy mama gonna come bring you some food because her mother's

love is almost the love of God I said almost the love of God I said almost the

love of God let me tell you what the real love of God is like while we were

yet sinner we were on our way to hell Christ didn't just give us some food

Christ didn't just tell us we could come to church Jesus went to the cross and

died in my place the just for the unjust the righteous for the unrighteous

now the only folk who can shout right here is folk who've got some stuff in

your past that you shame to talk about you've got some stuff in your closet

that if you open the door all your skeletons would fall out right now

Jesus knows what your skeletons look like Jesus knows what your sins look

like but he loves you so much that he died for your sins and then he rose for

your justification and even since you've been saved you've committed some

horrible sins I need somebody here who has sinned since you've been a child of

God you have lied since you've been a child of God you've gone astray since

you've been a child of God God does not dismiss you once you sin but if you

confess your sins he is faithful and just and he will forgive you of all your

sins and then cleanse you from all unrighteousness I need somebody who's

been cleansed this morning I need somebody that God has washed away your

sin God has covered your foolishness God has rescued you from the mess you got

yourself in God is look beyond your faults and has seen all your needs

God has made a way out of no way God has smiled on your life and you are blessed

this morning beyond what you ever could have imagined when you look back over

your life and see where you are right now your soul don't have to wonder how

you got over you already know it was nobody but Jesus if you know it and

you're not ashamed to testify if he's been good to you and you don't care

who you're standing by if he's made a way for you and you don't mind opening

your mouth if God has shined on you and you don't mind testify right now is a

good time this morning is a good morning to give God your best hallelujah you

might not make it back here next Sunday you might not live to see another day

so why you have a chance why don't you lift your hands and tell God thank you

for where you brought me from thank you for the doors you've opened thank you

for the tears you've dried thank you for the people you took out of my life

thank you for the people you put into my life thank you for making a way for me

thank you for saving me thank you for raising me thank you for keeping me

living he's saying buried he carried my sins far away but rising he justified

freed me forever one day he's coming back what a glorious day but in the

meantime before he comes back I'm a shot I'm a given glory I'm a praises name I'm

telling thank you

he walks with me he talks with me he tells me I am his own and the joy joy do

you have joy if you got joy why don't you grab somebody tell him this job the

world didn't give it the world can't take it away yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

yeah yeah yeah yeah I know he's alright