Sermon

Love Conquers!

Triumph Church Ireland

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  1. You're very welcome to today's Triumph Church podcast.

  2. We pray that you enjoy the message.

  3. So this morning we're going to be talking about love.

  4. And Pastor Bradley spoke him about spiritual gifts last week

  5. in First Corinthians and he mentioned briefly that the

  6. spiritual gift chapters would be like First Corinthians 12 and

  7. 1st Corinthians 14. And God put right in the middle

  8. of there First Corinthians 13, which we like to kind of call

  9. the love chapter. So let's go ahead and read First

  10. Corinthians 13 one through three.

  11. If I could speak with all the languages of earth and of

  12. angels, but I didn't love others, I would only be a noisy

  13. gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy

  14. and I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all

  15. knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move

  16. mountains, but I did not love others, I would be nothing.

  17. If I gave everything I had to the poor and even sacrificed my

  18. body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I

  19. would have gained nothing. Love has so many definitions,

  20. and like other aspects of the English language, the word love

  21. is complicated. I think in a general sense, we

  22. throw out that term and we understand what it means.

  23. But a lot of other languages have several different words for

  24. love. So this morning I'm going to go

  25. through a few different things. First, we're going to talk about

  26. the different kinds of love. Second, we're going to talk

  27. about the greatest commandment, and then we're going to talk

  28. about what it means to walk in love.

  29. There were four primary Greek words when the New Testament was

  30. written that you'll find. So I'm just going to go over a

  31. couple of those. The first one was Eros.

  32. It's a Greek term for sexual love, and it's where we get the

  33. word erotic. And then this word is referred

  34. to, you know, satisfying your impulses, your cravings.

  35. It also shares the root word with areo, which means to beg,

  36. ask or demand. Obviously this is the lowest

  37. form of love and it is only thinks about it what it's itself

  38. and only thinks about fulfilling its own desires.

  39. This is not the type of love that we as believers should

  40. aspire to. There is a better way then we

  41. have stare go and this word primarily paints a picture of

  42. love that exists between parents or family.

  43. It also is can be translated devotion and like a God, like a

  44. dog's love for his owner or like as if you might love your

  45. country. And it does appear in the New

  46. Testament I found in Second Timothy 33 where the apostle

  47. Paul says people in the last days will be without natural

  48. affection. And that's the word sterigo.

  49. And it's used to describe basically deterioration of being

  50. devoted to each other and like families and things like that.

  51. Phileo is the third Greek word for love, which describes

  52. affection between boyfriend and girlfriend, could even be

  53. husband and wife. It could be between two best

  54. friends. And the idea but with phileo is

  55. basically you realize you're compatible, you're well matched.

  56. It is a higher form of love than the other two, but it's still

  57. not as high as agape because phileo love is based on mutual

  58. satisfaction, and if somebody doesn't feel that love anymore,

  59. that love can be lost. Then we have agape, the fourth

  60. word for love, used in the 1st century Greek language, and it

  61. is used to describe the love of God, which is the highest level

  62. of love known. There is no love higher or finer

  63. or more excellent than the agape love.

  64. And there's a lot of words to describe this love.

  65. Also found as I was researching that that's it was very hard for

  66. translators to translate in so many different areas because it

  67. has so many different meanings kind of tied to it.

  68. So agape love occurs when an individual sees, recognizes,

  69. understands, or appreciates the value of an object or person,

  70. causing the viewer to behold that object or person in great

  71. esteem, awe and admiration, wonder and sincere appreciation.

  72. Such a great respect is awakened in the heart of the observer for

  73. the object or person it's beholding that it's compelled to

  74. love it. In fact, his love for that

  75. person or object is so strong that it's irresistible.

  76. The greatest display of agape in the New Testament is found in

  77. the words of Jesus recorded in John 316 for God so loved the

  78. world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever

  79. believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.

  80. This is the love that God had for humanity.

  81. Pastor Bradley often talks about Ephesians 2 four.

  82. It's his favorite verse where it says God so rich in his mercy

  83. and because because of in an order to satisfy that great and

  84. intense love for us and it goes on to describe that Jesus came

  85. and died for us. He had to satisfy this a massive

  86. intense love for you and I and you know, we are our own worst

  87. critics and we can even look around us in humanity and go

  88. really God, what do you see here?

  89. He sees something so amazing and precious.

  90. Well, he sees himself because you are made in the image of

  91. God. So even though mankind is held

  92. captive by sin and Satan, the God of this world, He loved us

  93. so deeply that he had to do something to save us.

  94. So the agape love, it knows no boundaries.

  95. In Ephesians 318 it says, may you have the power to

  96. understand, as all God's people should, how high, how wide, how

  97. long, how high, and how deep his love is.

  98. This is very hard for us to comprehend sometimes, but we'll

  99. keep going and hopefully we'll get a little something out of

  100. it. So, but the God kind of love it,

  101. it brings one to action. It's not just a feeling, which

  102. you can feel it and that's good, but it's, it's further than

  103. that. It's more than that and and

  104. loving people and loving humanity.

  105. It's a decision that we make. So in contrast, we have Eros

  106. with the self seeking love. We have stair ghosts, which is

  107. limited to your family or relation.

  108. And then Phileo is based on feelings, on mutual

  109. satisfaction, which can be disappointed and can be lost.

  110. But Agape is a love that has no strings attached.

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

  112. it can give. It's in awe of the one who is

  113. loved. And it's so deep and compelled.

  114. You're so that feeling of love, you're compelled to shower that

  115. love on someone else. It's also a sacrificial love,

  116. and God loved mankind without expecting anything in return.

  117. And that's what's also unique about agape.

  118. When you love with such a pure love, you expect nothing in

  119. return. It's impossible to feel hurt or

  120. let down by the response of the recipients, which is probably

  121. hard for us to say that we can kind of feel that way.

  122. Agape is that highest level of love, so the greatest

  123. commandment that Jesus gave us. Now let's talk about the

  124. covenant for a minute. And I've had some people ask me

  125. about the nation of Israel recently and about the Jewish

  126. people and about what's the what's up with them, right?

  127. And as we as Christians, how are we supposed to feel about the

  128. nation of Israel and how we're supposed to feel about Jewish

  129. people? And I'm not going to get into

  130. anything political here, but I want you to understand a little

  131. bit of the history there. So, you know, we have Adam and

  132. Eve and then they send and separated themselves from God.

  133. Basically, there's just a communication breakdown.

  134. God cannot be where sin is. And therefore we've we've lost

  135. that relationship. And it's not too long after when

  136. we see with Cain and Abel, they're both sacrificing, one

  137. out of what he feels like his duty, one out of love in his

  138. heart for God. And then of course, Cain kills

  139. Abel. God is losing touch with

  140. humanity. And then we have we see Noah,

  141. where he has one family left basically to save the world

  142. because it's gotten so bad. And then not too far after that,

  143. we have Abraham. So God says, OK, Abraham is

  144. listening. He's looking for someone who

  145. listens, someone he can talk to, someone he can connect with, and

  146. he's connecting with Abraham. And he tells Abraham, come on,

  147. let's move. Let's get you out of this place

  148. around your other family, around your what you know is

  149. comfortable. And I want you to follow me.

  150. And so he follows him and he gets that relationship with God.

  151. God desires a relationship with us, so Abraham, and then we have

  152. Isaac, and then we have Jacob and then we have his sons, which

  153. then turned into the nation of Israel.

  154. And throughout the Bible you can see where people were grafted in

  155. that weren't of that nation. People could be grafted in,

  156. people could become part of the Jewish nation.

  157. But what set them apart was they got divine instructions from God

  158. and they followed them. They followed him.

  159. They believed in him. What's kind of cool is the story

  160. of Rahab when they went, you know, to the walls of Jericho

  161. and she said, we heard about your God.

  162. But she said, I didn't just hear about him, I believed in him.

  163. And that's why she was saved in her whole family, because she

  164. believed in God. So if you believed in God, you

  165. can be grafted in just like Ruth and different people we see in

  166. the in the Bible. But the nation of Israel through

  167. Moses, Moses got the 10 commandments, Moses got the law,

  168. right? And it's funny us as human

  169. beings, because there's this side of us that wants to be told

  170. what to do. And then there's this side of

  171. us. Don't tell me what to do, right?

  172. But then there's this times when you're just like, will somebody

  173. just tell me how this works? Well, somebody just tell me

  174. exactly what I need to do from A to B.

  175. It's like raising children, right?

  176. It's like, where's the manual? Just tell me how I'm supposed to

  177. do it. And but The thing is, is with

  178. before what Jesus did, we couldn't have the Holy Spirit on

  179. the inside of us. Now the Holy Spirit could come

  180. upon people and speak through people that were set apart to

  181. hear from him like the prophets. And so we got the 10

  182. commandments, kind of basic, some things that probably are,

  183. you know, your heart, it's going to condemn you about don't kill,

  184. don't steal, honor your father and mother, don't covet what

  185. somebody else has. These are some basic

  186. instructions. Then there's a lot more to the

  187. law, and it's something I told my kids.

  188. It's like the law. It's like me telling you to look

  189. both ways when you cross the street.

  190. You would think that my child was really crazy if they were

  191. like, mom's making me look both ways when I cross the street.

  192. This is so stupid. I just want to walk across the

  193. street if I want to, right? Well, I'm telling my kids to

  194. look both ways before they cross the street to save their life.

  195. And all these things in the law were further protection, you

  196. know, in the dark ages when people are eating on pewter and

  197. dying, not the Jews because they had the law and the law said

  198. don't eat on mixed metals. They had the law that saved them

  199. from things before science even knew why they were doing it.

  200. It's amazing. God's word is amazing.

  201. And everything he's does is for us and for you and I to bring us

  202. closer to Him to help us through this life.

  203. So I'm getting a little off track here, but we have those

  204. commandments and it doesn't mean you do away with all the things

  205. like even in America, because maybe there's a higher

  206. population of Jewish people, but you'll have a whole kosher

  207. section. So all the food's prepared.

  208. The way the Israelites would want it, Jewish people would

  209. want it prepared. So anyway, you go in to Matthew

  210. 2236 through 40 and they said, teacher, what is the most

  211. important commandment in the law of Moses?

  212. And Jesus replied, love the Lord your God with all your heart,

  213. all your soul, and all your mind.

  214. This is the first and greatest commandment and the second is

  215. equally important, that we're to love our neighbor as our self.

  216. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets hang on

  217. these two commandments. John 1334 through 35 says so now

  218. I'm giving you a new covenant. Love each other just as I have

  219. loved you. You should love each other, and

  220. your love for one another will prove that you're my disciples.

  221. If there was an investigator around here, would they find

  222. love between us? Could could they prove our love

  223. for one another? Would they know us by our love

  224. for one another? So Jesus fulfilled the law.

  225. And what's really remarkable is we can receive the Holy Spirit

  226. on the inside of us. He changes us from the inside

  227. out. So the children of Israel had to

  228. be led by the fire by night and by the cloud by day.

  229. But we can be led by the Holy Spirit on the inside of us.

  230. So we have this law of love. They didn't have what we have,

  231. so they leaned a little heavier on the exact things.

  232. Don't kill. OK, Wait, got to remember that

  233. one, You know, Don't want what my neighbor has.

  234. OK, I'm happy with what I have, you know, And it's not like

  235. those aren't good things to look at, But if we're loving, then

  236. those things are fulfilled. So now in well, and Romans 13

  237. kind of says the same thing. I mean, there's so many

  238. scriptures about love where he kind of reiterates.

  239. He talks about the 10 commandments.

  240. He says you must not commit adultery.

  241. You must not murder, you must not steal, you must not covet.

  242. These and other such commandments are summed up in

  243. the one love your neighbor as yourself.

  244. Love does no wrong to others. Love fulfills the requirements

  245. of God's law. And Ezekiel and Jeremiah wrote

  246. about the new covenant. They wrote about it yesterday.

  247. If you have the Bible app, it was the verse of the day.

  248. And Ezekiel 3626 says I will give you a new heart and I will

  249. put a new spirit in you. I will take out your Stony,

  250. stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.

  251. Hebrews 8 talks about doing away with the old covenant and

  252. bringing in this new covenant through Jesus.

  253. So loving our neighbor as our self, loving others.

  254. Is that even possible? Can we do it?

  255. But it's just like what Ezekiel says, we can because we have

  256. been born again in God's spirit. Basically that born again is our

  257. spirit is reborn with the life of God on the inside of us.

  258. So as believers, we are called to walk in agape love.

  259. When you walk in the Spirit, you will not gratify the selfish

  260. cravings of your flesh. And Galatians 516 says walk in

  261. the spirit and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh.

  262. Now I chose the new King James Version.

  263. You can put up Galatians 516 and then we're going to do Ephesians

  264. 2. I don't know if you can see

  265. those. And in the new King James

  266. Version, it uses the word walk and they translate it a little

  267. differently in different translations because it's the

  268. word walk in maybe isn't something that we kind of a term

  269. we use. I'm going to go into the

  270. definition of walk. That Greek word is called Perry,

  271. pateo. It's 2 words Perry and pateo.

  272. So Perry means to go around or encircling and then pateo means

  273. to walk. So it's not just simply walking,

  274. but it's walking the same route over and over and over again.

  275. So it's a habit. So we're supposed to walk in the

  276. Spirit. We're supposed to habitually

  277. walk in love. So Galatians 516 says walk in

  278. the spirit, you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh.

  279. And Ephesians 52 says that if we walk in love as Christ has also

  280. loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice

  281. to God for a sweet smelling aroma.

  282. So this is not something we do occasionally, just every now and

  283. then, just when I wake up on the right side of the bed.

  284. It's supposed to be something that we habitually do Rick

  285. Renner is somebody that I follow and study after and he is making

  286. his own version of of the Bible, his own translation, and he

  287. likes to dive into and then he studies also cultural aspects

  288. around the words and things like that.

  289. So his version of Galatians 516 is really cool and I thought I

  290. would read it to you. It says make the path of the

  291. spirit, the place where you habitually live and walk.

  292. Become so comfortable in the spiritual path that you learn to

  293. leisurely and peacefully stroll along in that realm.

  294. So agape love is love with no strings attached.

  295. It's not looking for what it can get when we're walking in the

  296. spirit. Galatians 522 through 23 says

  297. the Holy Spirit produces the this kind of fruit in our lives.

  298. So when we're walking and the first fruit is what love,

  299. Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness,

  300. self-control. So when we love with a pure

  301. love, the agape love, we don't expect anything in return.

  302. It's impossible to feel hurt or let down by people if we're

  303. walking in love. 1 John 314 says in the New Living Translation.

  304. If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it

  305. proves that we have passed from death to life.

  306. But a person who has no love is still dead.

  307. And verse 16 says we know what real love is because Jesus gave

  308. up his life for us, so we ought to give up our lives for our

  309. brothers and sisters. Galatians 220 says My old self

  310. has been crucified with Christ, so it's no longer I who live,

  311. but Christ who lives in me. So I live in this earthly body

  312. trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for

  313. me. Romans 611 says so you should

  314. also consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and

  315. alive through Christ Jesus. So my dad is a funny guy, but

  316. and he, he explained this to me and we talked, we would talk

  317. about this and if I ever was so upset about something that

  318. somebody did or said to me, he would say, well, just not dead

  319. enough yet. Thanks Dad, appreciate that.

  320. But he was right. The Lord brings that to

  321. remembrance from time to time because let's face it, you know

  322. that saying. I'm sure you guys might have

  323. heard the saying before, sticks and stones can break my bones,

  324. but words can never hurt me. Anybody know that phrase?

  325. Well, obviously it's not true because words can hurt and

  326. things can really, really hurt us.

  327. But if you're walking in the Spirit, if you're walking in

  328. love, if you've truly been crucified with Christ, well,

  329. it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

  330. What can you do to me? What can you do?

  331. And I can choose to love. I can choose to walk in love.

  332. Now this takes crucifying the flesh.

  333. This does take you doing something.

  334. And this does take you putting your flesh under, because your

  335. flesh is going to want to retaliate.

  336. Your flesh is going to want to react.

  337. Your flesh is going to want to feel something and act on those

  338. feelings, but they aren't. It's not the way that God wants

  339. you to act. The apostle John explains the

  340. role of agape in our life. 1 John 318 in the amplified says,

  341. little children, believers or dear ones, let us not love

  342. merely in theory, with word or tongue, giving up lip service to

  343. compassion, but in action, in truth, in practice, in

  344. sincerity, because practical acts of love are more than

  345. words. Love does something through

  346. God's grace and through His ability in our life.

  347. We can love the way He's asked us to love.

  348. Now let's read First Corinthians 13 verses 4 through 7.

    1 Corinthians 13:4–7

  349. And then I just kind of tapped in 8A, the first part of eight,

  350. because this would be something that would be great.

  351. I challenge you to read every single day.

  352. How about we make that a challenge?

  353. We read First Corinthians 13 verses 4 through 7 every single

    1 Corinthians 13:4–7

  354. day this week. See how maybe it helps you

  355. change your love walk. Love endures long and is patient

  356. and kind. Actually, you know what?

  357. Why don't you repeat after me? Let's do that, OK?

  358. Ready. Love endures.

  359. Oh, this is a different version. Oh, they don't have amplified

  360. classic. Amplified Classic's so much

  361. better. OK, just repeat after me.

  362. Love endures long and is patient and kind.

  363. Love is never envious, never boils over with jealousy.

  364. Even though my daughter's on a cruise right now and I really

  365. wish I could be there. Not jealous, OK.

  366. It's not boastful or vainglorious, Does not display

  367. itself haughtily. It's not conceited, arrogant or

  368. inflated with pride. It's not rude, unmannerly.

  369. It does not act unbecomingly. Love, God's love in US, does not

  370. insist on its own rights or its own way.

  371. It's not self seeking. It's not touchy or fretful or

  372. resentful. It takes no account of the evil

  373. done to it, and it pays no attention to a suffered wrong.

  374. It does not rejoice at injustice or unrighteousness, but it

  375. rejoices when right and truth prevail.

  376. Amen. Love, hold on.

  377. We're not done yet. Love bears up under anything and

  378. everything that comes. It's ready to believe the best

  379. in every person. Its hopes are fadeless under all

  380. circumstances. OK, we're almost done.

  381. You can do this. It endures everything without

  382. weakening. Love never fails, never fades

  383. out, becomes obsolete, or comes to an end.

  384. Now what if we read that every day this week?

  385. It's going to help, right? It's going to help because we

  386. all live in this flesh and we all have a mind that needs to be

  387. renewed and we need to remember that God's love has been shed

  388. abroad in our hearts. You can do it.

  389. You have the ability to do it now.

  390. Ephesians 432 says be kind and tenderhearted, forgiving one

  391. another even as God Forgives. So really I just thought I would

  392. tack this in there because forgiveness and love kind of go

  393. hand in hand. And how can we forgive as God

  394. Forgives? How does God forgive?

  395. Well, actually the word of God tells us, God said, I, I blot

  396. out your transgressions and I will not remember your sin.

  397. That's how we forgive. Just like in First Corinthians

  398. 16, it says takes no record of a suffered wrong.

  399. So we're not supposed to remind our spouse of what they did last

  400. week that really bugged us. We're supposed to forgive them.

  401. I remember having this lady come to me and it was about her

  402. mother-in-law and she, she reiterated the story over and

  403. over again. And she's like, I just don't

  404. know if I can forgive her. And I said you can and I'm going

  405. to challenge you in this because I could just, I just knew by the

  406. Holy Spirit, I said, you need to not tell that story again.

  407. You don't want to tell the stories of people.

  408. Love covers a multitude of sin. Love covers because the grace

  409. and mercy of God is enough to reach that person and cleanse

  410. them from all unrighteousness too.

  411. And you can't go on a go on around telling what somebody

  412. else did to you. If you've truly forgiven them.

  413. You have to stop talking about it.

  414. You have to stop talking about it.

  415. And so obviously the enemy is going to bring things to your

  416. remembrance and you will remember.

  417. But you just have to say, no devil I dealt with that.

  418. I forgave them of that. You can take those thoughts

  419. captive. Mark 1125.

  420. Pastor Brad brought this up last week.

  421. You know, Mark 1123, if you say to this mountain be removed and

  422. be cast into the sea and not doubt, you'll have what you say.

  423. But what does the next verse say when you stand praying?

  424. Forgive, forgive. And a lot of reasons why our

  425. prayers aren't getting answered might be because we're not

  426. walking in love. Might be because we're harboring

  427. unforgiveness. And it's like the thing that

  428. clogs up the pipe or the drain, that connection between you and

  429. God, that unforgiveness turns to bitterness and it just stops the

  430. flow of the Spirit in your life. 1 John 314 to 15 says we know

  431. that we've passed out of death into life because we love the

  432. brothers and sisters. He who does not love remains in

  433. spiritual death. And everyone who hates works

  434. against his brother in Christ and is at heart a murderer by

  435. God's standards. And you know that no murderer

  436. has eternal life abiding in him. And I just want to challenge you

  437. today. Really, the word hate should not

  438. be in our vocabulary and I've heard even other Christians, oh,

  439. I hate this or I hate them or I hate that.

  440. And it's like, no, hold on. We can hate the enemy, we can

  441. hate Satan, we hate the devil, but we have to be careful how we

  442. talk about God's creation. Now, this does not mean

  443. accepting and being a doormat for people to walk all over.

  444. You understand Well, I it is it is a challenge and how we and

  445. how maybe how we understand how to love people.

  446. But we shouldn't use I don't think we should use the word

  447. hate. We do have to crucify the flesh

  448. and the Bible says that our faith works by love.

  449. So one Peter 3 verses 8 through 9 says finally all of you should

  450. be of one mind, sympathize with each other, love one another as

  451. brothers and sisters, be tender hearted, keep a humble attitude.

  452. Don't repay evil for evil. Don't retaliate with insults

  453. when people insult you. Instead pay them back with a

  454. blessing. That's what God has called you

  455. to do. I got somebody a gift basket

  456. once. They treated us horribly.

  457. It was terrible and it was kind of a parting of ways situation.

  458. I just got them big old gift basket, filled it with tons of

  459. stuff. I said, I'm just this is my way.

  460. I'm going to love you and gave it to him.

  461. And so, you know, whatever you feel like maybe you need to do,

  462. but do good. You know, he says love your

  463. enemies and do good to those who hate you.

  464. But Jesus remarked on how he could forgive those who

  465. persecuted him when he was on the cross.

  466. Remember, he said, forgive them, Lord, because they don't know

  467. what they're doing. And a lot of times people just

  468. don't know what they're doing. I don't.

  469. I mean, OK, maybe in some cases, but people don't go around

  470. trying to be horrible and hurtful and mean.

  471. And a lot of times we know that hurting people hurt people.

  472. And so we know we don't wrestle with flesh and blood.

  473. Just like that situation that I was in, it was not a flesh and

  474. blood situation and I could tell it was a spiritual situation.

  475. And that's how you deal with situations in the Spirit.

  476. You know, we are all created by God with a purpose and a

  477. destiny. And we have to surrender our

  478. lives. We have to crucify our flesh.

  479. Believing in God is not just, it's not enough.

  480. The demons believe. The Bible says the demons

  481. believe and they tremble. But what sets us apart because

  482. we put ourselves under the Lordship of Jesus Christ because

  483. we serve him, because we say not my will, but your will be done

  484. in my life, Lord, not what I want to do, but what do you want

  485. me to do? That's the earmark of a true

  486. Christian. So I want to try to tackle, you

  487. know, loving people who maybe aren't lovable.

  488. We aren't supposed to have close fellowship with people that are

  489. in darkness. And John Adams said facts are

  490. stubborn things, but the truth cuts to the heart of the matter.

  491. And the truth is that if you serve the Lord your God, if you

  492. love him with all your heart, like he said, and you love

  493. others, then you're in the Kingdom of light.

  494. You're in God's Kingdom. But if you don't, there's only

  495. two kingdoms. I'm not trying to be mean or

  496. something, but there's the Kingdom of light and there's the

  497. Kingdom of darkness, and there are those who don't believe.

  498. There are those who are not, are walking in darkness.

  499. And so we are not supposed to be yoked with unbelievers.

  500. There's a second Corinthians 614 says don't be unequally bound

  501. together with unbelievers. Don't make mismatched alliances

  502. with them inconsistent with your faith.

  503. For what partnership can righteousness have with

  504. lawlessness or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

  505. So it's kind of like I explained to my children, like a bull's

  506. eye. And you have at the center your

  507. core beliefs, your, you believe in God, your values and all of

  508. those things. The people that you let in your

  509. inner circle, the people that you do life with every day that

  510. you open up your heart to, those people should have your same

  511. core beliefs. They should be, you should be

  512. united in that there's going to be people on the outside of that

  513. ring that you can hang out with that you, it's not like we're

  514. asking you to be in a bubble and you don't have anything to do

  515. with the world. Of course not.

  516. We're supposed to be a light to the world, but we're supposed to

  517. be the influencers, not them be the influenced, right?

  518. And so when we are yoked together, like just imagine

  519. you're going to do a business venture, you're going to go into

  520. business with somebody. Well, a lot of Christians have

  521. found themselves in a lot of trouble because they went into

  522. business with someone who wasn't a believer.

  523. Relationships. This is a big one.

  524. And a lot, there's a lot of Christians who are like, well,

  525. you know, they are, they're OK with me going to church.

  526. Well, yeah, but the Bible says we're not supposed to yoke

  527. ourselves together with unbelievers.

  528. And there's a, there's a, there's a definite reason for

  529. that. However, a lot of times too,

  530. people have a hard time loving people who aren't like them.

  531. And what does that look like? You know, the church for a long

  532. time had a hard time with the unwed mother, let's just say.

  533. And well, I mean, we can go back to the scarlet letter, right?

  534. Or whatever. And and then if I feel like the

  535. church kind of got more comfortable with that and

  536. learned how to love people through that.

  537. And now, you know, there's, you know, we have the LGBTQ movement

  538. and different things. I mean, I will just say sin, a

  539. sin, some sins have different consequences than others.

  540. So we shouldn't stand over there like Jesus said and point out

  541. the speck in somebody else's eye.

  542. Well, we have a giant plank in our own, but sexual sin does

  543. have more repercussions to it. I mean, it's soul ties.

  544. It's Jesus says you become one with that person.

  545. You might want to be careful who you become one with.

  546. And look, you know, we've all made mistakes and we've all been

  547. there. God can heal you of those soul

  548. ties. God can heal you of those things

  549. and cleanse you and make you brand new as if it never

  550. happened. So there's no condemnation for

  551. any of that. But consider how you walk with

  552. the Lord. Consider how you move forward.

  553. But loving people who aren't share.

  554. Don't share our core values. Don't share our heart.

  555. Don't maybe believe like we do. You still love them.

  556. The fruit of the Spirit still applies.

  557. Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness,

  558. self-control. And they shall know us by our

  559. love. They shall know us by our love.

  560. I remember hearing a story about a man, a young gay man and he

  561. grew up, it doesn't really matter, but he grew up without a

  562. father. He, he was in and out of same

  563. sex relationships. But there was this one couple in

  564. his building, his apartment building, and they just were

  565. always nice to him. And he was really, really sick.

  566. And they came and checked on him and he was in bed and he didn't

  567. have anybody around. And they, they came and they

  568. brought him meals and they nursed him back to health.

  569. And they were Christians and they prayed for him and they

  570. prayed for him and they brought him to church.

  571. He gave his heart to Jesus and got married.

  572. And that's just the real quick version of it.

  573. But do you see how we can love people?

  574. That doesn't mean we're putting our stamp of approval on

  575. everything that they do. But we can love people and, and

  576. show them the love of God because the love of God leads us

  577. to repentance, doesn't it? So I just thought I would, I

  578. would throw that in there. You know, redemption is a

  579. beautiful thing. It's so wonderful to to see that

  580. we all have that in our own lives and to see it and see

  581. people the way God sees them. You know when I first started

  582. off that description of love? When you see and recognize and

  583. understand and appreciate the value of a person beholding that

  584. person with great esteem, awe, admiration, wonder, and sincere

  585. appreciation, such great respect is awakened in the heart of the

  586. observer for that person that they're beholding, that they're

  587. compelled to love it. And though it may be a challenge

  588. to see people that way all the time, especially when confronted

  589. with ugliness or different behavior, and it's a challenge

  590. for us, isn't it, To see people the way God sees them?

  591. Because every single life was created by Him.

  592. Every single life has a purpose and a destiny.

  593. Every single person deserves that love and has been given

  594. that love by God, regardless of whether they choose to respond

  595. to it or not. So let's pray.

  596. Thank you for listening to the Triumph Church podcast this

  597. week. If it was a blessing to you,

  598. share it with someone you know. For more information on Triumph

  599. Church, you can visit us at www.triumphchurch.ie.