The Harvest Heart - Part 5 - Pastor Philip Steele - June 10th, 2026

Hi, my name is Michelle Steele.

Pastor Phillip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith First.

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Hallelujah.

Well, go with me to John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

And um we're titling this, the What We Have Been On, A Heart for the Harvest.

But the Lord, of course, Sunday is our uh salvation Sunday, and we're believing for people to be born again, touched by the power of God.

Um but the Lord kind of has had this percolating in my spirit, and um I've been meditating a lot on the love of God, and uh, you know, there are things that are not lost on me at times.

I was uh talking to my pastor one time, and I asked him, I said, uh, when did when did God first give you the name for agape?

Right?

Because that's, you know, I mean, that's something that's familiar to us, agape.

Uh, but you know, to name a church, agape, you know, the the the Greek word for the the highest kind of love, I mean it's um you know, it's something that God does, and it and it brands a ministry.

It's it's the it's not just the vision, it's the heart, the soul of that ministry.

And so I asked him that, and he said, he said it was in 1972, right after he got saved.

And uh they were at a Bible study, attending a Bible study, and they were doing a study on the agape love of God.

And he said it was during that time that God spoke to him and said that was the name for the church.

Now he wasn't even thinking about being a pastor then, but that's what the Lord spoke to him uh and gave him the name of the church, agape.

Of course, 1979, agape was founded.

And then in 1988, you'll remember uh when the Lord had him start VTN.

Remember what the Lord said?

He said VTN would be a window that the love of God could be poured through into the homes of the people in central Arkansas.

And of course, it's it's it's covering Arkansas and and other parts of the world now.

But the reason I go through that is because when when you start looking at this word, this word agape, this word for love in the Bible, in John 3.16, which is a verse that probably everybody could quote, but notice it says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Now, when you look at that, the word love has the prominent position in the sentence.

For God so loved the world that he gave.

And so it was God's love bringing eternal life into the world.

It was the love of God that brought eternal life into the world.

God's motive, love.

God's action, he gave, and his gift, which was Jesus, are one inseparable unit.

God so loved, he gave Jesus.

Love, action, gift.

One inseparable unit.

Love couldn't be love without its expression and without its gift.

All right, so for love to be love, for agape to be agape, it had to have its expression and it had to have its gift.

Hallelujah.

Both of these words, both of them loved and gave, are in the historical aorist to emphasize something, a definite fact.

God did this.

God so loved the world.

It was a definite fact that God so loved the world, he gave Jesus.

All right?

So the the result of his love was that he gave.

So one of the first things we see about agape is it is this giving love.

But it gives with no strings attached.

It doesn't give expecting anything in return.

You know, I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but do you know why God so loved the world?

Because that's God.

God is love.

God did not love the world expecting anything back from the world.

Sometimes people leave us with the idea that God saved me and now he expects something from me.

God expected nothing from you, he loved you before you could do anything for him.

So he shed his love on you, expecting nothing from you.

Because that's love.

That's the agape love of God.

Love, the agape love of God, never says, I'll do this for you, and then expect something from you.

Love just gives because that's what love does.

Love forgives because love forgives.

Love doesn't forgive and then say, after all I did, and after all I forgave them for, and then they treat me that way.

That's not love.

Love forgives, period.

Hallelujah.

So the agape love of God is a love that loves so profoundly it knows no limits.

It knows no boundaries as to how far it will go to show that love to the recipient.

It knows no limit.

It'll go to whatever limit, whatever boundary to show that love.

Right?

That's that agape love of God.

If necessary, agape will even sacrifice itself for the sake of the person it so deeply loves.

That's why the Bible says, remember in the book of Ephesians, chapter 5, husbands love agape your wives as Christ agape the church.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

And what gave himself for it.

Right?

So, so if if, and I'm not teaching on marriage, but if I want a strong, successful marriage, then I've got to have two people agapeing each other that are giving themselves with no strings attached.

I'm not loving you to get something from you.

I'm loving you because that's what love does.

Right?

Love doesn't walk away.

Love doesn't say there'll be better days.

Love doesn't say it's too hard.

Right?

It's like the story I probably told you before about the man that uh every day he would go to the memory care center and sit with his wife that he had been married to.

She was so far along in uh dementia and Alzheimer's, she couldn't remember who he was.

And he would sit there all day and she didn't know who he was.

And he would sit all day, eight hours every day.

And at the end of that eight hours, his daughter would come and pick him up.

And one day they were walking out and she said, Dad, how can you keep doing this?

She doesn't even know who you are.

And he said, But I know who she is.

See, that's love.

Love doesn't say, Well, I'm I I can get out of this now.

Love says love just keeps giving, and love just keeps giving, and love just keeps giving, and love just keeps giving.

Hallelujah.

With with what?

No expectation to receive anything in return.

Because love, it's a self-sacrificial love that moves the lover to action.

Whatever it costs me, whatever it means to me, my job is to love.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

You know, a lot of times when we minister on things, we talk about taking the low road.

Love has no problem doing that.

Very often that's that's touted as something that's a big thing.

That's just walking in love.

You know, forgiving is just walking in love.

That's what love does.

We are children of a love God.

We are love children of a love God.

Right?

If God is love and I am of God, then I'm love.

So it's not something that I have to labor to make happen.

It's my nature.

My nature is to love.

Amen.

Yeah, but you know, Pastor, the the old nature, the old nature's dead.

You've got to quit looking at yourself as a dual nature person.

You don't have dual natures, you have one nature, and that's the nature of God.

But I have to let that nature of God not coexist with my flesh.

I've got to allow that nature of God to overcome, to overwhelm, and to be the nature that I live out of.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

Agape is a love with no strings attached.

You owe me nothing.

Right?

You, I mean, you owe me nothing.

If I forgive you, you don't have to do anything for me.

That's what love does.

If I help you, that's what love does.

You know, there's not a scripture in the Bible that says you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.

That's not a scripture.

Right?

That's right.

We help whether we get helped or not.

What's the Bible say?

We love.

Why do we love?

Because He first loved us.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Look at uh Romans 5 and 8.

The love of God.

And the uh the scripture, Romans 5.8, it says God commends or God shows, or God demonstrates, or demonstrated his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

One translation says, He died for us when we were of no use whatsoever to him.

Now, again, when we read this, notice God loved us before we were able to love him back.

God loved us when we didn't want to love him.

God loved us when we refused to love him.

Hallelujah.

Because God doesn't say, I love you if you love me back.

He just says, I love you.

Now that's important.

Because, see, God doesn't need any, God is the epitome of completeness.

He needs nothing.

I've heard people say, well, God needs our praises and God.

No, he doesn't.

It says he inhabits our praises.

It doesn't say he needs them.

If God needed something from a man to make him more complete, he wouldn't be God.

He's the epitome of perfection and completion.

He doesn't need you to love him.

That's what makes his love so astounding.

Is he doesn't need you to love him back, and he loves you anyway.

That's agape.

Amen.

Think about how much turmoil between people would be stopped if people loved that way.

I don't need you to be nice to me.

I love you.

Hallelujah.

We've all heard the story when David Wilkerson went to uh Harlem in the 60s, and he had gone and he had seen that uh trial that was going on with those teenagers that had that had uh murdered this uh young kid in a wheelchair at a school, and he was pastoring in Pennsylvania, and God so touched his heart, he went there to see how he could help.

And he started ministering to on the streets and ministering to the gangs then, and and Nikki Cruz was the president of the Mau Mau gang, and David was ministering, and Nicky Cruz came up and spit in his face, slapped him, and then pulled out his knife and said, I'm gonna cut you up, and David Wilkerson, remember what he said?

He said, Nicki, you could cut me up into a thousand pieces and lay them all out here on the street, and every piece would be saying, I love you.

And Nicki Cruz has said over and over again, no matter what I did to him, I couldn't make him stop loving me.

Hallelujah.

Do you see this?

And so to be a spiritual production center, love has to be at the core because that's what produces everything spiritual is love.

Faith is not what produces spiritual things.

Love produces spiritual things.

We'll read it in a minute, but in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul said this by the Holy Spirit.

He said, follow after charity, follow after agape.

And while you're doing that, desire spiritual gifts.

Why did he say follow after love after agape?

And while you're doing that, desire spiritual gifts.

Because everything about spiritual gifts is embedded in love.

Love is what makes them effective, love is what makes them right.

Hallelujah.

God put the gifts in the church because he loves his people.

Oh, hallelujah! So agape is not looking for what it can get, but for what it can give.

How can I give more?

How can I be a better husband?

How can I be a better wife?

How can I be a better child?

How can I be a better friend?

How can I be a better neighbor?

Ever what it may be, right?

It's not looking for what it can get, but for what it can give.

Agape is compelled to show love regardless of the response.

Regardless of how people respond.

Agape just loves without any thought or expectation of receiving love in return.

And that's how God loved us.

That's how God loves the world.

Hallelujah.

He's not expecting a response, but he just loves them.

Think about this.

Every person on this planet, seven and one half billion people now, think every person on this planet, ever how many are not saved, can at any time repent of their sin, turn to Christ, make Jesus their Lord, and immediately they're born again.

Without doing anything but choosing to do it.

Why?

Because love has kept that door open.

He gave his son a sacrifice for all.

So that whenever all would turn, the ability to be changed and saved would be there.

Oh, hallelujah.

So it loves without any thought or expectation of receiving love in return.

That's why love is the mark of spiritual maturity.

You know, immaturity is I'll do this for you if you'll do this for me.

Hallelujah.

You know, we we we've we've raised kids and and you know they they they get to the point where they they figure something out that you know they can make money for doing stuff around the house.

Then they start finding things to do.

Oh, well, I'll do this, and what will you give me if I do this?

Well, you know, there are just things you just do because you're part of that home.

Right?

There's those things you just do expecting nothing in return.

Is that right?

I I cook, I cook dinner, and I, you know, if they say it's good, that's great.

If they say they liked it, that's great.

If they tell me how wonderful it was, that's great.

But you gotta eat, I gotta cook because you gotta eat.

I love you.

So, so, right?

I don't go to uh uh uh Michelle and Lily and say, Where's my tip?

Right?

Put a tip jar out there on the island, you know, tip the cook.

Hallelujah.

Now that that's a simple illustration, but right?

You know, I and and and I know sometimes we look back, you know, when when we were raised, and you know, it was a long time ago.

And it was a it was a different time.

And you know, if you're my age, you were raised by parents that had, you know, had come out of the out of World War II.

I mean, uh they knew what it was like to have to ration things, and they right, and they were raised by parents that came out of the Great Depression, right?

And so they they they knew, and so you know, when when I was growing up, if you would have said, Well, what do you give me, you know, if I do this, here's what it would have been.

I'll let you stay here.

I won't, you know, you'll have a bed tonight.

Amen.

I can't tell you how many, I can't tell you how many times I heard things like, boy, listen, your mother cleans your clothes, she makes your bed, she uh cleans this house, she cooks for you.

Whatever she puts on the table, you better eat.

You better not turn your nose up at it, you better eat it like you like it.

I'm not saying that was the best way to parent, but what, right?

What I'm saying is what they were trying to instill in us was there are just things you do because you love people.

Right?

How many times have you set up at night with the child that you're believing for healing for?

They have a fever, they don't feel well, and you want to go to sleep with everything within you, but the child needs you, and you're not looking at the child and going, I can't believe after all that all I did for you, and I sat up with you all night and and cared for you and rubbed your fevered head, and you're gonna treat me this way.

We don't ever do that because we love that child.

No strings attached.

Oh, hallelujah! No strings attached, and and notice they don't even expect it.

Love doesn't even expect it.

You every believer has to grow to the place where we don't expect anything, we just walk in love.

Expect nothing and be thankful for everything.

That's something I've I've I've I've I try to live my life by.

Expect nothing and be thankful for everything.

You know, every time I come and I and I minister the gospel, I minister the word in our churches.

I'm just so thankful.

People are coming to hear the word tonight.

They're here tonight to hear the to hear the gospel.

They're here to hear what God has given to me.

Right?

I I expect nothing and I'm thankful for everything.

If one person would show up, I'm thankful because one person showed up.

Hallelujah.

Look at John 15.

John chapter 15 and verse 9.

John 15 · chapter mention

It says, as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.

Continue in my love.

One translation says, I have loved you just as the Father has loved me.

You must remain in my love.

So continue, remain, abide in agape, in this self-sacrificial giving love.

Stay or remain in this love.

That goes much farther beyond just not being offended or unforgiveness.

I mean, I understand those can be things in people's lives.

I mean, I do understand that.

But mature love is never offended.

Because offense is the result of blocked goals or you feeling like somebody didn't do.

Something the way you thought they should have done it.

Well, why'd that person get offended?

Oh, they said so-and-so didn't speak to them.

Oh, so they thought so-and-so had a responsibility to speak to them.

That wasn't love.

Right?

So that's immaturity.

Well, I'll tell you what, why didn't they speak to me?

Maybe they didn't see you.

Right?

Or maybe they had something, maybe they're in a hurry to go somewhere.

Or maybe they didn't think about it.

You know, there's been times I walk by people and they're looking at something in the church or whatever.

I don't want to go up and interrupt whatever they're doing, so I just walk on by.

I'm not trying to disregard them.

I thought they were doing something.

Hallelujah.

This is important.

Because offense is this feeling that, well, somebody should have done this for me, and because they didn't do it, they didn't do what I expected.

Right?

Yes, everybody should walk in love, and everybody, every believer should do that.

But I have to always put myself in the position that I'm not going to be offended.

Because I'm going to walk in love.

And love won't be offended.

It goes beyond unforgiveness.

Love just forgives.

There's no unforgiveness in love.

There's no holding a grudge in love.

Right?

1 Corinthians 13, we've heard it before, but it says love pays no attention to a suffered wrong.

Love keeps no record of a suffered wrong.

I remember years ago I was studying that, and the idea in the Greek is of an accountant sitting making marks and recording the figures about every cent, every penny, every dollar, every nickel, every dime, every quarter that comes in.

They're making a detailed account of that.

Love doesn't do that.

Love doesn't remember what a person did to them.

I mean, they can recount the story, but it's not a problem to them.

They can say it happened, but it's not a problem to them.

And so there's no room for unforgiveness because the first thing love does is forgive.

That's the first thing love does.

You know, we're quick to say, don't let the sun go down on your wrath.

The sun can't go down on your wrath if you forgive immediately.

Right?

Don't wait until you're about to go to sleep.

Somebody might fall asleep.

If they do, wake them up and forgive them.

Then they'll have to forgive you for waking them up.

But this this think think about that.

Unforgiveness.

Unforgiveness.

Meaning that there's a void of forgiveness in that person's heart.

That's not agape.

That's not agape.

You know, we talk about Jesus being rejected by his own people, uh being put to death, and all these things, and how forgiving he was.

That's our example.

That's our model.

That's the forerunner for us.

Right?

When he was reviled, the Bible says he didn't respond.

Why?

Agape does not have to respond to accusations, lies.

Amen.

And they were accusing Jesus, and he said nothing.

He forgave them on the cross.

Now I know that's an extreme example, that's an extreme time.

But think about this.

What he's saying is this if I can forgive the people that put me on the cross, you can forgive the person that did you wrong.

He went to the extreme measure that I'll never have to go to.

And showed me if he can do it to that extreme, I can do it in this little petty manner matter that's at hand right now.

Hallelujah.

So to be a spiritual production center, we have to be founded on this love.

Because there is no spiritual production without love.

There is none.

Faith receives what God has promised, but love is the engine that powers it.

Love is the engine that powers it.

In John 15 and 12, Jesus said, This is my commandment that you love one another as I love you.

Now, if we're looking at that, a lot of times when we read the Bible, you've got to put the emphasis in it.

You know, I don't like text messages a lot of times because there's no way to put inflection in it.

There's no way to put emphasis in it.

And it's easy to look at a text and go, what do they mean by that?

Well, nothing.

They just can't put it, you know, I guess they could put in parentheses there, joking, you know, or whatever.

I don't know.

But here's the thing.

He says, this is my commandment.

Why would he start that with this?

This is my commandment.

Because previously in this discourse, he had talked about all the requirements that the legalistic people and uh legalism would put on people.

And now he comes here and he goes, but this is my commandment.

This is my commandment.

What is it?

That you agape each other.

You love each other with a self-sacrificial love.

A love that expects nothing in return.

A love that has no strings attached.

Amen.

The Weast Bible says this is the commandment which is mine, namely that you should be loving one another with a divine love and self-sacrificial love just notice as I have loved you.

Love one another just as I have loved you.

So if I go through the four gospels and the epistles, and I see how Jesus loved me, then that's how I'm to love you.

How did Jesus love me?

Well, freely, fully, unconditionally.

Then I'm to love you freely, fully, unconditionally.

And people will say, well, aren't there times, you know, that you know you you know you love people, but you know you love them from across the street?

Yeah, I mean, there is.

There are times.

But that's not what you're looking to do.

Love is pursuing reconciliation, first of all.

Now, if that person won't be reconciled, I have to love them from across the street.

Amen.

And see, this is what I'm saying.

When you begin to rehearse the fact and declare the fact that you have a love nature, then you're not loving because you're commanded to, you're loving because that's who you are.

Amen.

Glory to God.

So this is my commandment that you love one another.

So, how do we do this?

The answer is in the statement: divine, self-sacrificial love.

Self-sacrificial, divine love.

That's how we love each other.

Divine, self-sacrificially.

That's how a church loves a city, is with this divine love.

That's how, that's the key to being a spiritual production center is self-sacrificial love.

Amen.

Again, I talked a moment ago about uh offense.

You know, offense is just a result of blocked goals, of expectations that I had that somebody should do this or should do that.

Amen.

You know, in in pastoring a church, uh you're you're always trying to care for the people.

And, you know, after nearly, well, 28 years this year, full-time pastoring, you know, I mean, I haven't been 100% in anything.

I understand that.

You know, there are times that people have expectations and you don't meet their expectations.

Hallelujah.

I had a person one time that that uh something had happened and somebody ended up in the hospital or something like that, and nobody told me.

Nobody called the church, nobody said anything, and they got mad at me because I didn't come to the hospital.

Well, I didn't know anybody was in the hospital.

Had I known, I would have worked something out.

Now I'm not blaming them for anything, I'm just saying that's an expectation.

Well, Pastor should have come up.

If Pastor would have known, Pastor would have come.

But I didn't know.

Right?

I got a guard against that kind of thing.

Amen.

You see that person, though they they slapped me.

They tripped.

They tripped over something and hit you accidentally.

That's what it was, wasn't it?

Amen.

Well, you know, Pat.

No, I mean, I understand.

You know, maybe they really did smack them.

But love says they didn't mean that.

They didn't mean it.

They tripped.

That's an accident.

You meant to hug me and slap me by accident.

Amen.

That now that's how love thinks.

Hallelujah.

I picked up on this years ago.

I'd still tell my wife this.

Somebody can act ugly and I say, they just don't know me.

They don't know me.

If they knew me, they'd love me.

If they knew me, they'd love me.

Amen.

I mean, y'all know me, you love me.

I know y'all, I love you.

Amen.

This is important.

And I don't mean that, I don't mean that in drug.

You know, sometimes like, well, I know him and I love him anyway.

That's not what I'm talking about.

Amen.

Glory to God.

Yeah, we gotta, he's my love project.

Oh, glory to God.

He's still working on me.

Glory to God.

Let's go over here to 1 Corinthians 14.

Oh my goodness.

But that's that's how love responds.

Agape love.

1 Corinthians 14 and 1, it says, follow after charity.

The word there is agape.

Follow after agape and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy.

So again, that word charity, love is agape.

He said, Pursue this agape, self-sacrificial love.

Other translation says, one says, keep on pursuing love.

Moffat says, make love your aim.

And another says, the B E R says, make love your great quest.

And so the constant quest of the believer is this continuing to walk in love.

Continuing to walk in agape.

The we says, be constantly pursuing this love, earnestly endeavoring to acquire it.

Earnestly endeavoring to acquire it.

So, you know, I'm constantly checking my love walk.

Constantly.

No matter what is going on in our life.

It's not just when things are going, when things hit a wall or something like that.

It's just consistently.

How am I doing with this?

Because, right?

Because, you know, a lot of times when people are dealing with things, they go to scriptures that are specifically about what they're dealing with.

For instance, if a person is dealing with sickness in their body, of course they begin to declare healing scriptures.

Well, what if they need to correct something?

They need correction scriptures.

Right?

So there might be something further than just by his stripes I'm healed.

Right?

So if I'm constantly checking the love walk and everything stems from the love walk, faith works by love.

My ability to believe works by love.

Right?

My sensitivity to the Holy Spirit is based on my love walk.

And so if I'm if I'm constantly checking on that, amen.

And that's why, you know, we talk about people getting upset in traffic, and and the question that we need to be asking is why does that upset me so easily?

Not fretful.

Look, I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about me.

I asked myself these things.

Why did that bother me?

Right?

I've had people before, you know, you're at a restaurant or whatever, and they they're flippant or whatever, and you're like, or I am anyway, maybe you're not, but you know.

But I asked myself, why did that bother me?

That shouldn't have bothered me that easy.

See, what are you doing?

You're making love your quest.

You're making love your quest.

Love, the Bible says love is the bond of perfection.

All right?

And when we talk about bond, it's an evidence.

Love, and that word perfection is maturity.

So love is the evidence of maturity.

Amen.

Yeah, that's why when you when you hear most people talk about marriage, their disagreement days was in the early days of their marriage.

Why?

They were immature.

They didn't know much about love.

They didn't know much about each other.

Hopefully, now I have ran into people that even 30, 40 years, they're still not very mature.

But the point is, hopefully, we're growing into that.

So, what's my great quest to walk in this divine self-sacrificial love?

Amen.

And he says, he says in verse 2, and and uh uh or at the end of verse 1, desire spiritual gifts.

So while you're doing this, walking in this love, be desiring spiritual gifts.

But what was the problem with the church at Corinth?

Desire for spiritual gifts, no love walk.

Right?

Preach, pray, and prophesy, no love.

Word of wisdom, word of knowledge, gift of prophecy, tongues, interpretation, tongues, discerned spirit, get the faith, healings and miracles, no love.

Same person that wanted to prophesy would put you at the end of the table because you didn't bring anything to eat.

Same person that wanted to give a word of wisdom was drinking too much wine.

And I mean, that's right.

And so they were making people that didn't have sit there and watch them eat.

There's nothing more rude than that.

And he said, here's what you need to do.

You need to desire these spiritual gifts from a standpoint of agape.

So, what does this tell us?

So, love causes me to examine all of my motives.

Why do I want to do what I'm doing?

Why do I want to do this?

Why do I want to be involved in this?

Whatever it may be, it causes me to examine my motives.

Because the motive has to be love.

Amen.

I'm so glad I never tried to climb that ladder, you know, that doesn't exist.

You know, people are always trying to climb in ministry, in churches, and in whatever.

They're always trying to climb a ladder, get to be something, get to be known, get to this, get to that, get to the other.

When the reality of it is, Jesus said, This is the commandment, love one another as I have loved you.

You know, if you have a gifting, a calling, an anointing on your life, the best thing you can do is cultivate agape love, and then God sees you as fit to use the gift that He's placed in you because agape is first.

See, agape is first.

That's what's so important.

I told my wife the other day, yesterday, as a matter of fact, we were talking about our pastor.

There's such a quiet strength there.

There's such a quiet strength in him, and it stems from agape.

It stems from being a person of love.

And of course, I wouldn't tell him, but he's told me stories of different things that people have done over the years.

And I asked him a question one time.

He had gone far above and beyond.

We were, we were, that trip I was talking about Sunday night, we had gone to Jasper, Alabama, and we had flown back, and at that time Pastor kept his plane out at Conway, and uh we were driving back from Conway.

Pastor Michelle's gonna pick me up at his house because we at that time we were living in Perryville, and so we were gonna go from there, Ferndale to Perryville.

And anyway, uh I was talking about this certain thing, and agape and pastor and the church had invested a lot of money into a certain situation.

And uh the person that they had helped in this situation uh decided that uh, you know, they they wanted to do their own thing.

And I asked Pastor, I said, What did you do?

He said, I let them go.

And I just asked him, I said, How could you do that?

I said, that number one, that's a lot of money.

And and and number two, I mean, it was because of you that all this happened.

And he made this statement to me.

Watch, he made this statement.

He said, That person prays.

And because I know they pray, if God needs to deal with them about something, he will.

And he said, I walk in love and I stay above the fray.

Changed my life.

That's what comes up to me all the time.

I walk in love and I stay above the fray.

I went, I was, we were going through something one time, and I and I and I contacted him and I told him what was going on.

And the first thing he said to me was, he said, Philip, walk in love and stay above the fray.

And then he made the statement.

Then he went on because of the voice he is in our life.

He said, That person is being used by the devil to steal, kill, and destroy, whether they know it or not.

And he said, But you gotta walk in love because here's what you gotta do: you've got to be able to declare no weapon formed against me will prosper.

Every tongue that will rise up against me in judgment, it is my heritage to condemn it.

But if you're not walking in love, that scripture won't work for you.

Because I have to forgive them for what they did.

Hallelujah.

Yeah, but they tried to do this, and they tried to split the church, and they tried, yeah, but we're gonna forgive them.

Why?

Because we have to have that power of God working in our lives.

Oh, hallelujah.

Do you see this?

So when you look at any successful ministry, when you you look at at Pastor Caldwell's ministry over 30 plus years in in one church, people's lives change.

What was the key?

What was the what was the linchpin?

Love.

Walking in love, agape love.

Loving people.

Amen.

I've had people tell me, what's the secret to an interracial church?

Love, man.

Love.

Love everybody.

You know, love doesn't see colors.

Love is colorblind, doesn't see colors.

I used to go minister and I was raised, you know, in Pentecostal holiness.

And a lot of the churches that I ministered in were, some of them were Pentecostal Assembly of the World.

All right?

Now, if you don't know what Pentecostal Assembly of the World, it is the oneness version of Kojik.

Alright?

I was raised oneness.

Now don't worry, I got my theology all ironed out.

But I was raised Jesus only.

Alright, and I am still Jesus only because he's the only way.

But my my theology on the Godhead is right, okay, according to the scripture.

But I would go and Pentecostals.

Assembly of the World is an historically black organization.

And when I'd go ministering, I'm a young man in my teens.

And every time, you know what I'd hear?

We're so glad to have our white brother.

How about our brother?

I mean, how would you like that?

You show up at the family reunion, they say, Well, our ugly brother's here.

Right?

No.

No.

Love doesn't, love doesn't.

So what's the answer to that?

What's the answer to all of the things that the world supposedly wants to see reconciled?

Racial reconciliation.

All of these issues that people are facing?

Agape love.

Agape love.

Then then things don't, right?

Then things don't become a god to me because I'm loving the right thing.

Race is not a god to me anymore.

The color of my skin is not a god to me anymore.

Because I'm walking in the agape love of God.

You know, nobody's any worse or better because of the color of their skin.

Nobody's a worse person because of their skin, and nobody's a better person because of the color of their skin.

The Bible says we're all made of one blood, that we all have one Father as believers.

God created everybody in his likeness and in his image.

So the answer is to walk in love, to have this agape love of God in our lives.

Oh, hallelujah.

So we're making that our aim.

Galatians 5 6.

Now we've read this before, but it bears repeating in the last five minutes we have.

The King James Bible says, For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything, but faith which worketh by love.

So the Holy Spirit, when we read 1 Corinthians 14, the Holy Spirit could have said, to constantly pursue any number of things, faith, power, gifts.

But he said, constantly pursue love.

Why?

Because love causes all the other things to operate properly and at their highest expression.

When he said that in Galatians 5, 6, the Wees Bible says, but faith coming to effective expression through love.

So my faith comes to its effective expression through the channel, the avenue, the means of love.

And so in our circles, very often we emphasize that, you know, if your faith isn't working, you need to check up on your love walk.

You should check up on your love walk every day.

Every day's a faith day, right?

But I'm checking on my love walk every day.

There's no way, there's no, there's no there's no time to ever quit taking the temperature of my love.

I want to consistently do that.

Hallelujah.

Why?

Because I want everything in my life coming to its fullest expression.

Now, our last verse, let's look at John 13.

Because when the atmosphere is is love saturated, the Holy Spirit has that free reign to operate the way that He wants to operate.

You know, Brother Hagin wrote the book years ago, now decades, love the way to victory.

Love is the way to victory.

And you know, the the thing with with love, this agape love, is that's our center.

That's what keeps us rooted and grounded.

Amen.

You know, you've heard people over the and and and some of it's right.

You know, you'll hear people say some of the meanest people in the world are Christians.

Well, unfortunately, that's true.

But it's Christians that are not walking in the agape love of God.

People talk about, well, I got hurt in the church.

Well, you can get hurt in the church, but how much of that hurt is that person not walking in love and getting offended and calling it hurt?

Because if if you know, if I'm walking in love, you really can't hurt me.

Because I'm not expecting anything from you.

How can you hurt me if I'm not expecting anything from you?

Well, what if they say something bad about you?

Well, what was I expecting?

Was I expecting them not to say something bad about me?

Was I, I mean, however it may be.

My point is, is if my feelings are there, if that's what's guiding me and leading me, if that's what I use to gauge whether I'm everything's okay or not, if they're just out there, they're going to get hurt.

But love can't be hurt.

Love cannot be hurt.

You know, God sent his, we read it earlier, God sent Jesus into the world, according to John 3.16, and by and large, people rejected him.

Bible says he came to his own, and his own didn't receive him.

But what did God, the God of love, do?

He had Jesus go on and go through with it, die on the cross, and the very people that rejected him, he died for them.

So instead of God getting upset and saying, Well, I sent my best gift to you, and look what you did, he said, That's why I sent him.

See, love understands that everybody is not going to do right.

But I can love everybody, even whether they do right or not.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

John 13 and 35.

It says, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another.

If you have love one to another.

By this, what?

Love one to another.

That's how people know we're his disciples.

Not notice, not power, not faith, not a nice new car and a big house, although that's great and we we love it, and God's good to us.

But he said the way people will know we're his disciples is after we love one another.

The word is agape.

So we're loving each other self-sacrificially.

What can God do in an atmosphere where people are loving each other self-sacrificially, not paying attention to suffered wrongs, offense is not involved in what anybody's doing, unforgiveness is not there.

See, that's that's and I and I go back to these stories a lot, but the Lord told Pastor Calwell, he said, if, he said, if you can raise up this church and pastor this church and keep it walking in truth with no church splits, if you can do that, then you'll be ready for your second assignment.

Which was VTN.

You'll be ready for your second assignment.

Well, he evidently he did it.

Nine years later, he started VTN.

VTN's still going.

Hallelujah.

What can God do for a church?

So whatever assignment God gives a church, it is incumbent upon that body to walk in the agape love of God.

Because that's what's going to be required to see that assignment come to pass.

One translation says, the mark by which all men will know you for my disciples will be the love you bear for one another.

The love you bear for one another.

And so, if you're a believer, if you're a brother or sister in Christ, then my responsibility is to walk in this love towards you.

Not if you believe just like me.

Are you a believer in Christ?

I didn't say you know about Christ and you think he's a good man.

Are you a believer in Christ?

That takes away all those distinctions.

That's not my Baptist brother, that's my brother, because he believes in Christ.

That's not my church of God, brother, that's my brother.

That's not my assembly of God, brother.

And you'll hear people say that.

Well, he's a good guy, but I mean he's assembly of God.

Well, what's that mean?

I was assembly of God.

Yeah.

We lived in Florida, and that's where we went to church, assembly of God church.

Good church.

Pastor Carter, good, good pastor.

Amen.

I preached for a lot for assembly church of God people.

Amen.

What does that mean?

Well, you know, he's a good guy, but he's Baptist.

Well, what does that mean?

I'll close with this, with this story.

I had a uh uh for about 12 years, I did uh substance abuse program and Bible study at the Johnson County, Kansas Adult Detention Center.

And uh the chaplain there was a uh a guy he was Baptist named Larry Rutherford.

And Larry was, he's probably in heaven today.

He was 74 or 5 when I knew him then.

And uh we would talk in between classes.

And he was a Sunday school teacher.

He wasn't a he said, I'm not a preacher.

I'm I'm a Sunday school teacher at our at he taught Sunday school at Lanexa Baptist Church, big Baptist church right downtown Lanexa, Kansas.

And we were talking one day, and he was talking about the results that we were seeing in our class, packed out classes, and and I mean, people just coming getting delivered, getting set free.

And and he said, uh he said, you know what, Philip?

I said, What's that?

And he said, You're never gonna convince me on that tongue business.

He said, but you sure can't argue with the results you're getting.

You know, I never tried to convince him about tongues.

That wasn't why I was there.

We were brothers.

He he sent people to our church.

I can't tell you how many people he sent to our church and said, When you get out of this facility, go to this church.

They'll help you.

Why didn't he send them to his own church?

I mean, I'm not running his church down, but my point is, that's where he went to, that's where he taught.

He helped build that building.

Why didn't he send them there?

Evidently, he believed they could get something at ours, they couldn't get there.

I don't know.

But here's the thing: there are people that I know that would have made such a sharp distinction because he's Baptist, he don't believe in speaking in tongues, somehow he doesn't have whatever.

Listen, we know the fullness of the Spirit, the fullness of being filled with the Spirit, with the evidence speaking in other tongues.

We know that it's right according to the other scripture.

Never begrudge people that don't have the light that you have.

If you can, help them come into that light.

But don't begrudge them because they don't have it.

This is important.

Because I don't know everything.

I say, I don't know everything.

You know, most word of faith churches that I know, they're not getting nearly the people saved every Sunday morning that Baptist churches are.

I heard my pastor say one time, he said, by the time we wake up, the Baptists have the other half of the world saved.

Amen.

Two institutions known around the world, Coca-Cola and the Assembly of God, they're everywhere.

Amen.

But we're gonna love one another.

Amen.

Say it out loud.

Say, Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for this agape love of God that has been shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost.

I intend to make every effort to walk in this love of God.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Will let's stand on our feet tonight.

Praise God.