Do You Really Love Him? || Pastor Diego Mesa

Father, I thank you so much for this time now where we can lean

in just a little bit forward. We've not come to hear the lectures,

nor the philosophies, nor the opinion of man. Man can help us and

man can change us. We live in a world today that is more confused

than it has ever been before. We live in a world that is more

dark and lost an unstable than it's ever been before. The answer is found

in the Gospel, the good News of Jesus Christ. So may we turn

off everything else in our lives. May we stay focused for the next few

moments to hear from God in Jesus' name Amen. For the next few months.

We are at starting a series Drew this summer called walk it Out.

Walk it Out as basically, have you ever had a desire an interest but

didn't know how to manifest that? And that's what walk it Out is all

about, is how to walk out our faith, how to walk out our

marriage, to walk out financial security or whatever. The theme is that our

communicators will be preaching. It's trying to take something that's more of an interest

and a desire and a want to and putting feet to it so that you

know how to get that thing done. Let's just say a good marriage or

whatever it might be. They're going to all be owls that they'll be sharing

with you, and I have the opportunity and privilege to open up with the

first ol. So I want you to stand on your feet as we read

God's word today, and I want to read this scripture to you today,

and I want to encourage you in your devotions this week to read the entire

chapter twenty one, because I'm just going to highlight a few verses, but

basically it's talking about after the resurrection of Jesus, during the forty days in

which Jesus walked after his resurrection and they saw Jesus alive, in which they

had saw him die. A few days forward, he is now interacting with

his disciples. Peter has already, as we know, denied the Lord three

times, which he said he would not do. He denied the Lord,

and we pick up the story where Jesus now is interacting and they are going

to see Jesus in his resurrected form. Now it says this, I am

going fishing Simon. Peter said to them, that's all the other disciples that

were with him at that time, weren't coming with you, they tell Jesus.

Tell Peter, they told him they went out and got into a boat,

but that night they caught nothing. Now, notice the term he says.

Peter says, I'm going fishing. Now, there's nothing wrong with going

fishing, you know, just getting in a boat and putting a pole in

the water and catching fish. But I want to take you back to three

and a half years before. What was Peter doing when Jesus entered into Peter's

life. He was fishing. Peter was a professional fisherman. His daddy,

his granddaddy, his great granddaddy was a fisherman. He is dealing now with

the rejection of shame in his life. He is feeling like a failure because

he forsook and he denied the Lord. So if you read this in its

original text, he's not just saying I am momentarily going to drop a pole

into the lake and go fishing. He has made a definite statement here.

He's saying, I am going back to the lifestyle that Jesus delivered me from.

When Jesus called me and told me follow me, I left my boats,

and I left my nets, and I followed the Lord. But I'm

a failure now and my shame and my guilt is getting the best of me.

So I am going back to what I once was before my reputation and

my image I'm going back to and it's amazing. We're the same way today.

The moment we experience failure, heartache, disappointment or hardships, we want

to go back to the world and we want to give up on our faith.

That's what he was saying. So it says this. When they had

eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon, Peter, Simon's son of Jonah, do

you love me more than these? Notice how it says love me this word

loved me in the Greek. He's saying this, Peter, do you a

god bae me? How many have ever heard the word of gopy? He's

saying, Peter, do you unconditionally love me without reservation, compensation, consideration,

or hesitation. Do you love me that much? Wat's what Peter says

to him, the same way we would flippidly say that back to Jesus.

He says this, Yes, Lord, He said to him, you know

that I love you kisses up cross loves you. But this is what Peter

says, which you don't know in the in the Greek. Here he's saying

this, I don't agopa you. I fialaale you. We know what the

word filale means. It means brotherly love you. I have feelings towards you,

and I have affections towards you, but I don't agope you the way

you agape me. Come on, let's be honest today. This is being

real now because Jesus knows if you filial him or you agape him. So

he goes on. He says, Then feed my lambs, he told them.

Go on. He says this a second time. He asked him Simon's

son of Jonah, do you love me? Yes, Lord, he said

again, unconsciously, flippidly, religiously, Yes, you know that I love

you, he says in Shepherd, my sheep, he told him. He

asked him a third time, Simon's son of Joe. Just imagine if Jesus

asked you three times, how would you be feeling? Do you love me?

Peter was greed, Dang, what's going on here? Does he know

something about me that I don't know? Has he been watching me during this

week? Has he been watching who I've been hanging around, what I've been

listening to, what I've been watching. Okay, he says greed. He

asked him a third time do you love me? And he said, Lord,

you know everything. I can't lie to you. You know who I

love more than you. You know what I love more than you? He

says, I love you. Know that I love you. Feed my sheep.

Jesus said, and here's this last statement. I'll come back to it.

And he said this to indicate what kind of death Peter would glorify God.

And after saying this, he told him, follow me, you may

be seated. I want to ask you some opening questions as we talk about

love today, walking out our love for God. Have you ever loved someone

who did not equally love you back? You know, be seen means before

Cindy, I put that love out there and they didn't love me back.

Have you ever said I love you to someone and they responded thank you.

Have you ever loved someone or something so intently and passionately only to see that

love faith away? There's a challenging message. He's talking to us today.

Me and Cindy just got back from Italy. We're celebrating our forty first forty

one years of being married, we had a grand old time. But here's

what I can tell you, Okay, in forty one years. I could

actually say longer because when I married Cindy, I was a virgin, but

I'll just say forty one years because that's how long we've been married. In

forty one years, I've never touched another woman's body. I've never slept with

another woman. I've never had intercourse with another woman. I've never made love

to another woman. I've never slept with another woman. Okay, so let

me tell you something. If she was sitting there, that's flesh and blood,

that's a human being. She doesn't have a heaven to put me into,

and she doesn't have a hell to send me to. She did not

die on the cross for me. How can I be so committed to make

a statement like that? And I cannot say that about Jesus. Never had

intercourse with enough? Have I had intercourse with something else? And never touch

anything in a defile way? Have I ever touched anything in a defile way?

Never had an affair on her, never cheated on her, Have ever

had an affair on Christ? Cheated on him? You see, where I'm

going with this? How can I be so devoted to a human being and

a person and cannot say that I am equally devoted to Christ. So let's

open up with this teaching. Does Jesus have a right to ask you and

I do you love me? Does he have a right to ask you more

than once? Do I love it? Or should we just say Jesus,

I said it once. I don't need to say it again. Cindy,

I told you forty one years ago I love you. Don't be asking me

every day if I love you? He bothered me like that? You insecure

woman? Jesus ask him more than once? Now you have to understand the

law of repetition that when something is repeated in the Bible more than once,

it's tried to drive a point to you that you have to slow down and

say what is he saying? That it has to be repeated over and over

and over. The third thing I recognize in this opening text is this,

does Jesus have a right to test my love for him? Does she just

have a right to test my love? Because some marriages can't handle the spouse

testing their love. They'll get mad, they'll get upset. But Jesus says

this, if you love me, then do something. He didn't say,

Well, thank you for saying you love me, and that's more than enough.

That satisfied me. Three times he told him, then you do something.

See, Jesus doesn't want lip service from us. He don't want us

to say we love him. And then in our actions, in our lifestyles

and our behaviors, and our responses and our choices in our disciplines, we

don't show that we love him. Because he says three times, Then Peter,

do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love you.

Then do something. Feed my sheep, tend to my sheep, show

me that you love me. And he does that to us also in the

same form, in the same fashion. Then he goes on. He makes

a statement, do you love me more than these three strong words? Here?

Do you love me more more? As a measurement God wants, God's

gonna measure your love. He's gonna measure your love because he knows every aspect

of your life. He knows everything you love. And he say, let

me just draw a scale here today, So let me just see if we

are. If I'm lesser, i am greater, I'm equal he knows it,

So he says, do you love me more? Then he says,

do you love me more than which is a comparison, And then he says,

do you love me more than these? Because he knows you're these.

He knows what's in your closet, he knows what's in your mind, he

knows what's in your affection, he knows what your interests are, he knows

what your pleasures are. He knows you're these. So let's break it down

to what he was saying to Peter. He said, Peter says, Peter's

right here, Jesus is right there, and all the buddies are right here,

all the equipment is right there. So he says, Peter, do

you love me more than these? Who would he be pointing at if you

were in front of him? So he said, do you love me more

than your fishing buddies, you're potting, your homagees, your gol fans.

Do you love me more than the Do you love me more than your success,

your vocation, your job, your occupation. Do you love me more

than your pleasure, your leisure, your stuff? Do you love me more

than your boat, your equipment? That's what he's saying, that's what that

representative, Peter, and that's what it represents to you and I. So

what would he say? You're these are that he would point to and ask

you. Do you love me more than your bad habits? Do you love

me more than your past hurts? Do you love me more than Instagram and

Facebook? Do you love me more than all the excuses you have why you

can't serve me? Do you love me more than your money or your job?

Do you love me more than pleasure or sex? Or let's break it

down? He would hit you hard. Do you love me more than that

dog you have that you got to just take everywhere with you as a comfort?

I don't mean to be me. Do you love me more than your

morning coffee? Just let me know when it hurts. Do you love me

more than your sports? Do you love me more than shopping? Now,

don't look at your neighbor? Do you love me more than food? That's

what he would be challenging us with when he says that. And last of

all, in this text, he makes this amazing statement. He's saying,

because if you love me, you're gonna follow me. Ye, But if

you don't know how to under if you don't know how to love me,

then you're gonna fail in your followship with me. It's gonna kind of be

a hit and miss in and out. It's gonna be kind of a distant

relationship than a close relationship. It's kind of gonna be for a while and

not all the time. Because he connects the two when he says to him,

after this whole love thing, he says, then follow me. Now

that we got this right and you're understanding it. Now, you could follow

me, but you can't really be a christ follower if you don't have your

love for God right, it won't stick. How many people husbands and wife

have stood there said for better, for res of original vore till death does?

How long did that last? How long did that last? Because they

didn't understand what that love commitment was really all about. And so he's saying,

you're not gonna be able to follow me based upon how I want you

to follow me if you don't understand about loving me. Then he uses this

big term in there and he says about death. He said, you won't

be able to live for me, and you won't be able to die for

me. Don't love me, you won't be able to die for me.

You won't live a fulfilled life, a satisfied life. Your life won't be

rewarded if you don't understand how to love me. So some of us won't

die for him. I I could die to the flesh. I'm not going

to give up my boyfriend or girlfriend. I'm not going to give up my

pleasures and leisures. And I don't know that I'm going to be around thirty

years from now, still in church, praising God and still saying I love

you. You know, I grew up in the church and I used to

hear songs like this, and Pastor Kinney will remember this song. I keep

falling in love with him over and over and over and over again. I

could see that you really got into the beat of that as I was singing

it. Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to me, the song

would say. You know, I have a phone like you, and I

was in when I was in Italy. My phone, like your phone,

has my favorite apps on it right has my favorite apps. So I'm on

my front page of my phone. I have Strava. Strava is uh and

you could follow me on Strava. If you want it shows all the workouts

that I do, it'll it'll just show all that. Then there's all the

people that I follow on Strava because I want to know how far they ran

or how far they swam, or how far they both rode their bike.

So it's my front, my front one on my front one. Also could

be I go to the gym to work out, so as spore across the

street, that's the front one because I just want to touch it and show

them my thing and walk in. Okays, might be email, or it's

the front one. Okay, So I'm in Italy right now and I'm going

to go to Strava to check up on my friends, and I go to

the front string and I don't see Strava, so I swipe it, and

I don't see Strava on the next apps I go to Strava, so I

have to go to the library and then I see Strava and I have to

hold my finger there and push it back to its front page or it's front

position. That's the way your love walk is with God. If you neglect

it and you ignore it, you're gonna lose it. And the next thing

you know it won't be on the front page of your life. It's just

gonna get lost in all the other apps that you love. But you gotta

purposely make sure that you keep your finger on it, that it's in the

front of everything that you do. So I want to look at the scripture

that's found here in Mark because Jesus will challenge us yet again. One of

the scribes approached when he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them.

Well, he asked them, which commandment is the most important of them all?

So we know that there are ten commandments? Okay, there are ten

commandments, So you're gonna ask Jesus, out of all these commandments, honor

thy father and thy mother, do not still, do not murder soon,

honor the Sabbath? What is the most important commandment? So Jesus gonna answer.

Jesus answered and said, now I want you, every time you see

the word all to yell out that the most important is to listen Israel,

the Lord, our God, the Lord is one, the Lord, the

love the Lord. With love the Lord your God, with your heart and

with your soul, and with your mind and with your strength. Let me

let's just ask the question. Do you think he really meant all? Why

didn't he put some there, because that'd be pretty good. Why does he

have to ask for all? Why does my wife have to ask for all?

Why can't you just take some? I'm gonna love you some of the

time, some of my heart, some of my soul. Someone and you

ought to be grateful that I love you some. I'm gonna love you part

of the time. I'mna love you partially. I'm gonna love it. Listen,

I'm gonna love you with my heart, soul, and mind and mid

part of the time, most of the time. But don't be asking for

my all. Do you think that a woman is gonna stay with a man

if he's not offering his all? Ladies, see what is Jesus trying to

tell me here? He doesn't want to part time relationship with you. It's

all or nothing. Just keep walking, then, don't call me lord,

don't do none of that. I want all your heart, I want all

your soul, I want all your I want exclusivity. I don't want to

share you with no one else, at least that measure of love. I

do want you to give it to your wife. I do want you to

enjoy life. But there is this thing that's exclusive to me that's not in

competition. There is no comparison of how I love my spouse versus how I

love working out versus how how much I love God. And if there is

competition, that's what he's gonna call me on the carpet about. How many

of you like in a work status, let's just say work employment status.

You have these classifications, and let's just say the classification is somebody who subs,

They subs, okay. Then you have somebody who this is not anything

I'm making this up. So you have a sub status okay. Then you

have a like an on call status okay. Then you have a part time

status, and then you have a full time status. What would be above

full time salary? You know what that means. If I'm your boss,

you better pick up that phone twenty four to seven when I call, and

if I tell you our job needs you here tomorrow morning at five in the

morning. That's why I pay you a bigger salary than I do the full

timers, the part timers, the call people, and the subs. God

don't want you to be a sub Christian, an uncalled Christian, A part

time christ not even a full time Christian. He wants you a salary Christian

all the time, even when you're on vacation, even when you're in Vegas,

even when you're on a cruise ship, even when you're having the greatest

fun in your life. There's I could feel something. I could feel you

like I can feel you right now. That's okay, you're here today listening.

I don't know that I measure up to that all the time. So

there's no perfection here. Nobody is trying to bring condemnation or guilty you today.

It's something that we're all trying to grow to and grow up to God.

Rather you be honest with him and say, listen, I love my

marijuana more than I love you, and I like what I do on Friday

nights with whom I do it with Friday night more than I love you.

I'll tell you when I love you. I love you till twelve thirty on

a Sunday morning. God would love you more if you were honest with him

and say, I know you can't love me with all your heart, soul,

mind and spirit without me helping you to do that. So when he

says here's what The breakdown is when he says, all your heart, all

your soul, all your mind, all your strength. He's trying to tell

you every aspect, the totality, the completeness, and the wholeness of who

you are is what you're to love God with. So every part of your

life goes into those four categories. That's what he's saying. So I broke

it down this way. Heart could be your passions, your sacrifices, your

time. Soul could be your what captures your attention, influences you, or

your personality. He wants you to love the Lord with your mind, which

is all your emotions, your feelings, your intellect, all your choices and

all the decisions you make in your life. And he wants you to love

the Lord with your full strength, which is your abilities. It could be

your gifts, It could be your actions, your deeds, all your endurance,

and all your energy. All of that means everything and in all areas

of my life. God doesn't want divided love, competing love, jealous love,

restrain love, limited love, hesitant love, neglected love, or disinterested

love. He wants again, exclusive love that you have with him with no

comparison and no competition and no similarity, and a vast difference between all your

other loves, which could be agape loves versus I mean, excuse me,

the fhialleio loves, which is but not the agape love that you have to

God. So you got to challenge yourself. I have to challenge myself,

see, because I have some loves in my life, and I love my

family very differently, but there is a vast difference between my love for Jesus

and my love for my family. In fact, when I was dating Cindy,

I told her, if you ever come between my love for Christ,

then I'm telling you I'm going to choose Christ. So before we take another

step in our relationship, this is before I even asked her to marry me,

I said, I will always love God more than I love you,

But if you'll let me love God, then I will love you more than

any other human being on this planet. It's clear. I would hope,

but I know I could say it for me, but I don't know if

I could say it for her. Maybe one day she'd speak, but I

don't want to put words in her mouth. It would break my heart.

I'd be devastated, but I can live without Cindy. I'm going to just

chill for a moment because I made a heavy statement there, and I have

judged my heart and I've prepared my heart to the best of my ability,

because Cindy is not number one in my life. Jesus is number one in

my life. Cindy makes me happy, Cindy satisfy me, Cindy fulfills me.

Cindy's the love of my life. But see is not the ultimate love

of my life. And if I end my life when Cindy dies, then

that proves out. If I stop, I give up, I quit.

I'm depressed, don't want to do no, don't want to see no one,

don't want to do anything. Well, there we go. Well I

could see that one just kind of was like dropped heavy. Don't worry.

I didn't say it any other services because she wasn't here. But I have

some loves in my life and again, but there's a vast difference between my

love for my family. I love oldies music. I love nineteen sixty and

nineteen seventy music. I don't like KR today that plays nineteen ninety oldies music.

I don't even know nineteen ninety music. But I love Jesus more than

my oldies. I love to work out. I'm a workaholicout it. What's

hard for you is easy for me. What makes you cry, I laugh

at it. Brings pain to you, brings joy to me. That's why

i've small try to stall neighborhood groups to work out. And people say,

I thought he prayed when he worked out. I thought he read his Bible

when he worked out. I prayed with you when we started, and I

said goodbye and I took off. I love following my family on Instagram,

but there's a vast difference. I love my frozen smoothies today. I will

have one every day of my life that i'm home. I have a frozen

smoothie made out of raw milk, raw eggs, blueberries, and honey.

But I love Jesus far more than that. And I want you to know.

I love classic cars. I'll watch them, I'll go to a museum,

I'll watch them on the shows, the auctions I've had the pleasure.

But my love for Jesus is far more. Here's something that you don't know

that I love. I love funkle pops. I'm a funkal pop collector.

So I'm embarrassed to tell you how many Funkel Pops that I have, but

I don't just I just don't collect the doll. It's always with the signature

of the actor that played it. So this is one of my favorite.

Nacho Libre is one of the funniest movies that I think I've ever saw,

and that's Jack Black his signature right there. But there's a vast difference between

my love for Funkel Pops and my love for Christ. And I never want

them. I never want all those things to make my Lord jealous and say,

I never see that emotion you're giving your funkl Pop that I don't ever

see for me. I never see that affection that you give towards those loves

that I never get. I never want to make the Lord jealous. I

never wanted there to be a competing thing in my life as it relates to

that. He says this, and he'll come back in Second Corinthians, in

which we'll read it. He says, wherefore, my brethren, you also

have become dead to the law the bot dead to the law by the body

of Christ. In other words, we were old Testament states that would follow

the law either the ten commandments or the obscene amount of commanding with seven hundred

and thirteen commandments that they follow. He said that you should be married to

another. We were once married to the law and can never fulfill it.

Now we are married to Christ, he's saying, as new believers. Then

he goes on in Second Corinthians and he says this, for I am jealous

over you, with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused you or married

you to one husband that I may present you a chased virgin to Christ.

So he's talking to us in a love relationship that we are married to Christ

and through that marriage, you and I ought to be faithful to that relationship.

But he's talking about a marriage that is content fulfilled, satisfied, and

complete. I'm not asking you to judge anyone else, but have you ever

seen a marriage that is not content Have you ever seen a marriage that is

not satisfied? Have ever seen a marriage that is not fulfilled? In their

lives, then at that point they are subject to affairs, adultery, flirting,

and cheating. In our relationship with Christ needs to be so secure.

I can never be tempted by anything that the enemy would bring into my life.

I am not looking to have an affair on Christ in forty one years.

Listen, let me tell you something. I humbly. I'm not a

bad looking man. I was a better looking man when I was younger.

I've gotten older. I've got wrinkles. I don't know where they came from,

but they've come. So it's not like ugly. Was never a temptation

to a woman, especially when I smiled in my dimples would show. One

of the reasons, outside of the grace of God and my deep, deep

love for Him, is the fact that I never have flirted with a woman

in my life. I can see nobody wants Amen, It's okay, I

don't need you. Amen. If Cindy was in the front row, she

said amen. Ye, the he mean kelling calling. I've never put myself

in a position, though I have been attracted extremely but I never crossed the

line of flirting because I knew if I flirted, I didn't know where my

flesh would go. I don't want to flirt with the things of this world

because I don't know where my flesh is gonna go. And the next thing

I know, I'm having an affair on Christ. Somebody's getting it. The

rest of you will get it later, so we're fulfilled. I remember early

in our relationship. For an example, Let's just say Cindy didn't see me,

and she'd be walking in a parking lot coming out of work. She'd

be walking to a car, and I'd be in the car and I'd come

by by, and I'd whistle at her to see if she didn't know me,

to see if she turned around and look. I'd honk the car to

see if she'd turn around and look, I'd gawk at her. I mean,

even know what I mean when I say, God, oh you fox

the monk, Come on now, shake it real good, like that jelly.

You're working, you know, I said, Just as she wouldn't.

She would not budge to turn around. She was the kid brought contentment,

satisfaction, and fulfillment. She didn't need to look anywhere else before call waiting.

I used to do that on the phone. I used to call her

and I changed my voice and I could do that and I say, oh,

lah, hello, how are you. My name is Javier Juan Romers.

Want to I've seen you at work. I want to know if I

could take you out there and she'd hang up. I said, shoot,

kids, got it. Call it insecure, call it wisdom, call it

stupidity. I don't care what you call it. I want, if I'm

ever tempted by the devil, to say I can't go there with Diego he

just in love with Jesus. I want us to get to that point in

our lives. One John two point fifteen says, to love not the world

nor the things that are in the world. I want to make sure that

our love can handle being tempted by any of the devil's lust, appetite,

cravings, or attractiveness. I want my love to be tried. Then,

no matter what mean and ugly and wicked person comes before me, I will

choose to love them no matter what. And I want my love to be

tested that no matter what difficulty or hardship or failure or disappointment comes, I

won't blame God, but I will stay in love with God. And I

don't know that we're there yet. We can allow temptation to get to us.

We can allow trying people to steal our love for God and begin to

hate them. And I don't know that we've ever been tested where we say,

you know what everything in my life has fallen apart. It seems as

though my prayers are not answered, and all kinds of failure and losses.

But I'll keep coming to church, I'll keep praying, and I'll keep loving

the Lord. That's the kind of love that you and I need to have

for Jesus Christ. Not a flimsy love, not a weak love, not

a lightweight love. We need to have something that's very, very strong in

our lives. Our love needs to be tested sometimes, and I think Jesus

will test our love so that it remains strong. How many of you know

that when you're dating someone, sometimes you need to test their love when they

say they love you. The problem with the relationships is is that we don't

test the love, and that's why we experience failure in it because we never

tested their love. And the moment they failed that test, I'm not saying

you should have given up, but it should have talked to you. Cindy

tested my love to her because early when we were dating, we'd go out

on a date and then we'd finish eating, and then the bill would come

and she'd reach out to get the bill and she'd say, let me at

least pay for half. Well, I grab that thing because it was a

privilege that she would accept my date, and I paid for it. Now,

if I was wrong, I'd say go ahead and pay for a woman

pick take care of both of us. Man, take care of your man.

There'd be no Nathan, Caleb or Adam today. She would have kicked

me the curt. This guy cannot pass my test. I'm trying to help

the brotherhood today because they don't understand when they're being tested, and women need

to test men. If a man. If I was dating Cindy today,

she come and she said, look, let me see your phone. What

do you want to see my phone for? That? My business? What

are you talking about? She's testing me. She's testing me their test.

When I was dating her, she said, would you go? I want

to. I want to introduce you to some of my closest friends. She

was testing me if I feel comfortable with people that might be able to judge

me, or that know her or could see through me. And so love

has to be tested, and sometimes God will come and test it. Love.

Can you handle temptation? Can you handle being tried? Can you handle

being tested? Is what I'll ask us as I close this up. I

want to share this last scripture with you. Matthew twenty four. Matthew four,

he says, because of lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will

grow cold. Nobody likes cold coffee at least when they want it hot.

Nobody likes cold soup when they want it hot and warm. Nobody likes cold

French fries. Let's make sure that our love for Christ does not grow cold

while some other love grows hotter in our lives. So this is what he's

saying, is I land this plane. Now? What he's telling to us

today is this, you can allow your love for me. Jesus says,

like Pastor Adam massively talked about the church at Ephesus that lost their first love

though they had great performance, so they came into church, though they kept

their hallelujah, he was not their first anymore in their lives. So he's

going to teach us now how we can judge, or I want to give

you a list of how we can judge whether we're loving the Lord with all

our heart, soul, or mind and strength. You love the Lord with

all your heart, and you won't grow cold when you love his word.

You gotta love the Word, from Genesis to Revelations. You got to love

his word. The Word gives you the direction of your life. The word

of God gives you the answers of life. The Word of God reveals who

he is. The Word of God gives the expectations of our lives, the

responsibilities of our lives. You can't love God outside of his word. So

the way to stay in love with God, You've got to be in the

Bible every day. Number Two, you got to spend time with Him,

which is through prayer. It could be coming to church, it could be

worshiping, but I'm just gonna use prayer right now. The reason why I'm

still in love with Cindy is because we spend time together communicating, and you're

going to spend time. You got to make time to pray and to talk

to God. Number three, you got to hang around Christians who are in

love with Him. If my marriage was failing, I'd hang around marriage and

I would note how they hold hands, how they listen to each other,

how they talk to each other, how kind they are to each other.

And if you're not in love with Christ like you should be hanging around someone

that is and it could rub off on you love the things of God.

This one's really hard because people will say all the time, I love God,

but they don't always love the things of God. To love the things

of God is that you love not only the ice cream found in God,

but you also love the spinach found in God. So to love God is

to love the things of God, which means I love attending church, I

love tithing. Oh I don't love. Then you don't love God with all

your story stolen mind. You love some part of God. So you have

to love the things of God. Serving, witnessing, forgiving people, being

kind, being generous, being thoughtful, being affectionate, smiling at people on

your job, saying hello to people, saying you're sorry. See, we

love God, but we don't love the things of God. And you can't

love God without loving the things of God or the ways of God. It's

amazing if you stand at the door and see how many people come to church,

walk through the doors, and you say hello to them, how they

ignore you and they don't say hello. So to love God, you've gotta

love the things of God. And then you've got to obey him. You

gotta do what your flesh doesn't want to do. This is part of that

trying and testing part. You gotta stay faithful when you don't want to be

faithful. You gotta continue when you don't want to continue. You gotta fight

when you feel like giving up. You gotta lead when you don't feel like

leading. You gotta sign up when you don't feel like signing. You gotta

obey what God is telling you don't do. And then, last of all,

you talk about him to others and strangers. Because I love Cindy,

you will hear her part of my conversation in her presence as well as outside

of her presence, you talk about it. I end with this little thing.

Can you give me just three more minutes? I'll take it anyways,

even though you won't give it to me. But here's what I oh,

man with us? What does it matter if I don't love the Lord?

It's the big thing? Well, thank you for your honesty. What does

it matter? Well? I have to break it down. Are you talking

about from an unbeliever's perspective or from a believer's perspective? Because one word denotes

both of them. If you don't love the Lord with all your heart?

Can I say this for a believer, you just miss out. You miss

out. For a believer, you'll miss out on a deeper relationship with Jesus

Christ. So just be very superficial. You don't have a very very deep

you'll never really enter into the joy of the Lord, the joy of the

relationship. Beyond duty, beyond ritualism, beyond ceremonialism. There's joy. There's

great delight and satisfaction and fulfillment, not talking about the rewards that will take

place one day and even in this lifetime. Because of that, you will

miss out as a believer. You'll miss out on the move of God.

You won't even know what the move of God is. You'll miss out on

the moves of God. But for an unbeliever, if you say, what

does it matter if I don't love the Lord, here's my answer to you.

You can't love the Lord, and you won't love the Lord. That's

so strong because some people could push back and say, wait a minute,

I'm gonna say you can't because you're spiritually dead, and only through becoming born

again are you a spiritual a lie And the love of God is shed abroad

in our heart by the Holy Spirit. So you don't even have the Holy

Spirit, so you don't have the capacity to love God back. So you

can't love God, and you won't love God as a believer, and you

will miss out. You will miss out on a relationship with Christ for eternity.

I want to end with this story. More than seventeen years ago.

We built this property, so I thirty acres. If you were to look

it at an aerial view, it's a circle. It's a circumference, and

we own three fourths of the circle. If you move up and go toward

the north area, you'll see the Kindred Hospital, and then you move more

toward the east area, you'll see a business park there. But then it

moves to us, which is the three quarters of the property. Okay,

are you with me? Every day, almost every day, you'll see somebody

walking on the sidewalk. They're either walking their dog, they're at the great

of the hotel right there. They work within the businesses here. Monday through

Friday, they could be jogging up. Many of our small groups jog around

the property. So let me ask you a question. Let me ask you

a question. Here's the question. Who designed the sidewalk, Who made the

sidewalk, who paid for the sidewalk. If you said, city, you're

wrong. We did. We did. It cost us more than a half

a million dollars because when you were buy raw property, that rock property did

not have a sidewalk around it. So can you imagine the city made us

pay for a sidewalk that we don't own, that the public gets to walk

on, that dogs get to poop on, that people get to chew gum

and spit on every day. Hey, what I'm trying to tell you is

this, as people walk around this sidewalk thinking it is their right and don't

see it as a privilege. And don't even you think somebody would come and

knock on our door and say thank you for building that sidewalk for us.

We do that every day with Jesus, we walk and experience his love and

we don't appreciate him in any form or any fashion. We think it's our

right. You're here today, you have a marriage, you have a family,

have job, you have health, you have some good things in your

life, all an expression of God's love. Father, I thank you today

for the message help us, just help us because we want to. We

want to love you with all our heart, with all our soul. With

all our mind and with all our strength, and we sometimes just don't know

how to do that. And the world is so strong God, with all

its loves, it can sometimes intrude upon our love towards you. But we

want to make sure that we draw a clear demarcation God, that that love

for the world and the things of this world then always have to be sinned

stops at a certain point and can never come into our place with you.

Of God. You captivate, You have exclusivity in our heart of God,

and we just want to love you that much. In Jesus' name. Amen,

thank you for waiting till the end. We're going to walk out of

this church together a matter of moment's. Paster Nathan is going to say the

benediction the end of the prayer, and we're going to walk out of here

together. Every week one to three funerals are done here in Patriot Church.

One to three funerals. I wish I could tell you that they are all

eighty and ninety year old people who are in hospices who are sick that we

fore knew and knew that they were going to die. They're not. They

are people that are your age exactly your age. Some are children, some

are teenagers, some are young adults. Some are just going off to call,

some are just getting married, some are going on vacations, some are

getting ready to retire, and most of the time they're in perfect health.

And this is how it comes down. Who died? How did they die?

Oh my god, OMG. I just saw them on Sunday. I

was just talking to them the other day. They were just planning and preparing

for something wonderful in their lives. How did it happen? And it usually

comes in these kinds of classifications. They were coming home from work working a

double shift, and they fell asleep at the wheel. They were slid slide

by a construction truck or something, and it took them out. A drug

driver hit him. Oh my god, Yeah, it happens. How does

that. Somebody goes in for minor surgery, there's absolutely one hundred percent success

weight, but they can't revive them on the table. Something happened. Died.

Here's how it happened. They do something that they've done a thousand times,

no risk, but something breaks and severs their throat or their artery and

they get a concussion. They die instantly. I'm not putting fear into you.

I want you to live another hundred years, but should that happen,

I want you to be ready because sometimes we don't have time to get right.

We have to live in a state of readiness. Whether it is tonight

and I don't wake up, or whether it's one hundred years from now,

I am just simply ready to meet my maker. I have my peace with

God. I've made my eternal reservation that when I die, I'm going to

have it. If not, there's a whole lot to risk called eternity,

which is forever and forever and forever by you not getting it right. Jesus

is the way, the truth in the life. No man goes to the

Father, which is Heaven, but by him. He proved his love to

you by dying on a cross. He's the only means of salvation. Without

a shadow of doubt, I'm a Christ, but I'm not serving the Lord.

I don't know that. I love the Lord with all my heart,

and I've taken on a lot of loves in my life. Right now,

it's this hit and mis relationship. If my life would appear on that screen

over the last thirty days with a hidden camera. How could I say I'm

a Christian when I do that. I need to get right today. I

need to stop being religious. I need to stop being ritualistic or ceremonial,

justifying or excuse me or rationalize HOWMB living. I need to get right today.

When I count to three, I'm going to ask you to raise your

hand as high as I'm raising my hand, not because I need to see

it, because Jesus needs to see it. You're not acknowledging me, You're

acknowledging him. My last image is Jesus dying across marred, beaten and naked

with no loincloth, dying for you. He's unashamed. The least you could

do. I've been saved all my life, and I'd get drunk in front

of you. I'd fornicate in front of you, I fight in front of

you. Now, all of a sudden, I get saved, and I

want to do it my way and be ashamed of it. That's not how

I lived in the world. That's not the way I'm going to come to

Christ. One two, one two across the sanctuary, raise your hand for

Jesus. One two three, Raise your hand all across this auditorium, wherever

you might be. I want you to stand on your feet. If you're

raising your hand, you had the courage to raise your hand, go all

the way. Now stand on your feet for Jesus. Stand up. I

want to lead you to prayers. Say this with me from your lips.

Dear Lord Jesus, you know who I am, you know my address,

you know everything about me. I come before you now with all the sin

in my life, all the scars in my life, and I ask you

to forgive me and to heal me and to deliver me. Today. I

ask you to be my Lord and savior, and I surrender my life to

you. I believe with all my heart you died from me, and for

that I will follow you all the day days of my life in Jesus' name. Amen,