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Thank you very much. O say can you see, by the dawn, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave, O say can you see, by the dawn, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. O say can you see, by the dawn, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. O say can you see, by the dawn, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. O say can you see, by the dawn, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. O say can you see, by the dawn, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. O say can you see, by the dawn, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. O say can you see, by the dawn, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. O say can you see, by the dawn, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. O say can you see, by the dawn, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Tell all the angels of chorus, strangers who welcomed his word. Glory to God in the highest, peace and good tidings of heaven. Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Cast him alone in the desert. Tell him the days that were past. After our saints he was counted, yet was triumphant at last. Tell him the years of his labor. Tell him the story of Jesus. He was despised and convicted. Oh, blessed and capable. Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Tell on the cross where he nailed him. Write on him any wish or dream. Tell on the grave where they laid him. Tell how he lived in the grave. Love in the story so tender. They would never miss me. Slay them, be free, while you fight in this world. The vagueness of grief. Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. And with that, we'll go over the announcements. If you'd like to turn it around, let's go over to 246. All right, well, thanks for coming out, everybody. If you need a bulletin, go ahead and slip up your hand, and Brother Adam will bring you one. As always, we have our service times listed there. Every Sunday at 10 30 a.m. you get a 5 30 p.m. Thursdays at 7 will be in 1 Kings 6 this week. We've got the salvation's listed below that, as well as the baptisms. Any salvation's report going back to Friday or Saturday? We've got one on Saturday. What about today? Amen. All right, we've got the couple notes there below that regarding the church. Also, don't forget there's a soul-winning day trip to the U.S. side of Nogales this Thursday. If you're planning on going there, please speak to me as soon as possible. We've got the 90-day challenge, the preaching class coming up at the end of the month. So keep that on your calendar. We've got the children's weekly Bible memory verse passage. I don't know how many different ways I can call that, but it's there. And, of course, we've got the film coming up, the movie night on March 4th. So I'm excited about that. Also, the camp. I've got the preachers booked. I know who's coming. I'll tell you later. You really want to know? It's the Sunday night crowd. Maybe you deserve to know. Then again, maybe not. I don't know. But I did get this. I wanted to show this. I got the other prize Bible for the Operation Confiscation. So this is the large print Cambridge. So there's three Bibles in here. You're welcome to come and take a look at them. But I want to keep that in front of us as we're out there winning souls and talking to people to replace their false versions, not with this, but with a paperback that we provide with the soul and material in the back. You know the drill. Get that false version out of their hands. Sign the inside cover and throw it in the metal wastebasket by the Baptist tree. And then we'll tally them up at the end of the year. And first, second, and third place gets first, second, and third pick respectively. So keep that in front of you. Again, if you want to look at those Bibles, those are there. That's going to do it for announcements. We'll go ahead and sing one more song before we go into the preaching tonight. This child and forever I am Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, This child and forever I am, Redeemed, redeemed, This child and forever I am, Redeemed, redeemed, This child and forever I am, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, redeemed, This child and forever I am, I think of what I've seen redeemed, I think of Him all the day long, I see for I cannot be silent, His love is the key of my soul, Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, redeemed, This child and forever I am, I know I shall see it with you, Redeemed, redeemed, This child and forever I am, Redeemed, redeemed, This child and forever I am, Redeemed, redeemed, This child and forever I am, First one about me. At that time, the Lord said unto me, Do ye two fables of stone, weapons of the first, and come up unto me, and if they are not, and make pleasures of the first, and another should not, and make two fables of your hand. The Lord of the fables is the force of the first writing, and the tenth commandment, which is what is faithful to you, and the honor of the midst of the fire, and the day of the assembly. The Lord gave them unto me, and I cured myself, and came down from them, and put the fables of the earth, which I have made, and there they be, as their commandment. And the children of Israel took their journey from Yerba, and the children of Yahweh, from Oscea, and then Erebus, when they were there, and made their son, minister of the priests instead. But that's the journey of the good, the good that has been brought back, the land of rivers and waters. At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi, and led the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand in front of the Lord's ministers, and to bless his name unto this day. Wherefore, Levi had no part in the arrogance of his brethren, and the glory was inherited, according to the Lord thy God promised. And I say unto you now, before it is the first of the four days, before the nights, the Lord heartened unto me at that time also, and the Lord did not destroy thee. The Lord sent them unto me to rise, and take thy journey to the people, and to go in and possess the land, which I swear unto the Father of Israel. And now Israel, without the Lord thy God, and the fire of his heart, and with all thy soul, to use the commandment of the Lord, and the statutes of the commandment of his faith, Behold the heavens, and the world with thy God, and the earth also, and the Father at their end, and the Father at their next. And when the Lord had the light, and had fathers to love, and he chose to receive after them, meaning that he would love all people, at the end of the day, circumcised in the force of the four skin of the heart, and ye no more stipulate. For when the Lord your God, and the God of God, and when the Lord of the great God, and hiding the terrible, and the God of not persons, but picketh of war, he doth execute. The judgment of the father is the widow, and loves the strangers, and even the food of anger. Loving that for the strangers, for the strangers in the ground of Egypt, thou shalt feel the Lord thy God, and hence shalt not serve, and hence shalt not plead, and so by Israel, he is thy perfect, he is thy God. And I have done for thee these great terrible things, which thy eyes have seen, thy father's been done with Egypt, with the least support of that person, and now the Lord thy God, as may be as a star of heaven and home. In the name of the great person. The Lord. Amen. So tonight I'm going to preach a message entitled True Love. True love. And you might think, does that have anything to do with Valentine's Day? And it might. I don't know. But I'm going to go ahead and preach this. I want to preach it because obviously people are thinking about, at least you're supposed to be. That's what they want you to do, right? This time of year you're supposed to be thinking about how you're going to express your love and all these things, and that's fine, but the world has a very different definition of love, or at least sometimes they have an alternate perception of love. They want to say that love is just this ooey, gooey feeling, this emotion that you feel towards someone, and I get that there is obviously that is true, but we have to remember that love is not just this emotion, that love is something that requires action on our part, and that there's different people that we're supposed to love, and we're going to look at three groups of people, I guess you could say, that we're supposed to love and how we can love them. And of course when it comes to true love, the first person we should love in our life is the Lord, and my first point is this, is that true love lives for the Lord. True love lives for the Lord. Now if you really loved people and you loved God, you would live for God. You would live to serve him, and in the process of doing that you would end up loving others, because one of the first things we're told is to love our neighbors as ourself. And you're there in Deuteronomy chapter 10, notice there in verse 12 it says, Now Israel, what did the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to love him. So God requires that we love him. We need to make sure that we do in fact love God, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. But notice that the love here that he's talking about isn't just this emotion that we feel towards God, that there's action involved here. Notice these verbs that are surrounding this word love. He says to fear the Lord thy God, and to walk in his ways. These are things that we do. And to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. God wants us to love him, but not just this feeling that we have. And look, I'm not against the emotion. I'm not against the feeling. It's good that it should be there. In all these relationships where love is required, we should have a feeling of love, but love is more than just this feeling. It's something that we have to express. It's something that we have to do. It's a verb in itself. It's an actionable verb. It's something like run or walk or jump. All these verbs that we would use to describe things that we do. Love would fall into that category. That love is something that we are supposed to do, not just feel. Now if you would, go over to Luke chapter number 7. Luke chapter number 7. So the first point is this. True love is to live for the Lord. If you live for God, you're going to love your neighbor and you're going to love God. But it's not just that you're going to have a feeling for God. You're actually going to do things for God. You're going to serve him with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength. These are things that we do. True love lives for the Lord. Jesus said, if ye love me, keep my commandments. He didn't just say, if you love me, know what my commandments are. If you love me, take note of my commandments. Jesus said, keep them. To keep something is to make them yours. They're something that you do. If you love me, keep my commandments. Jude said, keep yourselves in the love of God. The love of God is something that we have to practice in our life. It's something that we have to put into action. That's what true love is. Sometimes you wonder why is it that people who claim to love God have so little action in their life. They'll say, oh, I love God, but you wouldn't really know it if you observed their life. The Bible says, if any man love God, the same is known of him. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 8. That if any man loves God, the same is known of him. The same, the fact that he loves God is something that is known of him. Meaning this, it's known of him because of the fact that it's shown. It's something that's displayed. Other people can see that in that person's life. If any man love God, the same is known of him. God knows whether or not you really love him. I can get up here and preach this sermon and you can say, yeah, I love God, but God's going to know the truth when you walk out that door if you really do love him. We can also look at other people's lives. We can look at our own lives and say, do I really love God? Well, if I do, then I'm going to keep his commandments. I'm going to keep myself from the love of God. That's how I know that I love God. That's how it's going to be known of me by God, by others, by myself that I love God when I do what? When I keep his commandments. When I fear him, when I walk in his ways, when I love him, when I serve him. That's how I know when I love God. Not just because I got a little misty-eyed when I heard some Christian song come on the radio. Because I had goosebumps went up my spine when I saw a nativity set somewhere. That's just a feeling. But people equate that with them loving God because they had a feeling. Look, love is an actionable verb. It's something that you do. And in the Bible, loving God is associated with action, with doing something. And if we are loving God, look, the same will be known of you. It'll be evident to God, to yourself, and others. We can look at other people and say, they can tell me they love God all day, but their life says otherwise. Their actions, their priorities, the things that they do says otherwise. So the question is this, why is it that so few take action? Why do so few do the things that we're supposed to? Why do so few keep themselves in the love of God? Well, it's because they love little. Because they love little. They have a small love for God. I'm not saying they don't love God at all, but you know, we're going to see here in Luke that the proportion to which you love or serve, the proportion to which you serve is determined by how much you love. That's what we see here in the story if you look there in Luke 7, verse 36. It said, And when the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet, verse 37, and behold a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him, weeping, and began to wash his feet with his tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with ointment. I mean, think about what's going on in the story. She's taking a very expensive alabaster box of ointment, and she's coming into this stranger's house. She's a woman who has a reputation. She's a sinner. People know who she is. That she's not, you know, she's not a moral person. She's somebody who has a bad reputation. But here she is in these Pharisee's house. She's in there with all these religious people who would claim to love God, and yet there she is, breaking this alabaster box. There she is, wiping Jesus' feet with her own hair and her tears. It says in verse 39, Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner. Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. He said, There was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him the most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thy house. Thou gavest me no water for my feet. But she hath washed my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss. But this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint. But this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. And here it is, Wherefore I say unto you, Her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. You know, I think a lot of people don't serve God to a great degree, or they don't serve God as much as they ought to, because they simply just don't love God. They just don't love God that much. And you say, well, why is it that they don't love God? Because they've missed the boat on how much they've been forgiven. You say, well, of course she would do that. She was a sinner. She was this and that. Look, we could all be in the same position. Maybe we didn't do all the things she did, but look, we're just as sinful in the sight of God as anybody else. And I understand that there's degrees to sin, but that doesn't make us look any better. Say, well, at least I didn't do this sin or that sin. We're still pretty sinful. We're still pretty bad. You know, the advantage that she had is that she was forgiven much. And because of that, she was able to love much. But how did that love express itself? Did she just write Jesus a little Valentine card once a year and say, here you go. I love you. No, she showed that love, didn't she? She brought and sacrificed this ointment. She brought and humbled herself at his feet. And she didn't care what other people thought. She was going to serve God. Why? Because she loved him. You know, that's one reason why so people learn to express true love and living for the Lord. Just because they don't have the love there to begin with. Because they don't understand how much they've truly been forgiven. A little love means little faith. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1, verse 8, You know, we love somebody that we haven't even seen yet. It isn't that, you know, the world, that's what they say. Oh, that's how you fall in love with someone. You look at them. And say, oh, they're so beautiful. Let me just fall in love with them. Right? And that's, you know, that's not us. We love somebody who we haven't even seen with our eyes. We've seen him in scriptures. We've heard his words. We've seen him at work in our lives and the lives of others. We've seen him at work in our lives and the lives of others. We've experienced his presence, but we've never seen him. You know, that means we're loving somebody, you know, in a sense, by faith, aren't we? Whom having not seen you love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. You know, I think that's why some people love little. It's because they lack the faith. They don't really see. What I mean is this. Is that it really hasn't settled in on them. You ever wondered about that? Why is it there's just this gap between people that are, you know, there's people that are saved and do nothing for God. And then there's people that are saved and do work for God. And it's typically, you know, there's that rule out there, the 80-20 rule. 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the people, typically. You know, that's true in the Christian life. The vast majority of the work gets done by 20% of the people. You know, that's true in the Christian life. The vast majority of Christians are just sidelined. They're not serving God. Why is that? Because, and this is my theory, and I try to explain this to myself. It's because I'm convinced it hasn't settled in on them. That there's somebody who they haven't seen, whom one day they will see. That one day we are going to be in the presence of God. Look, if that was the reality that settled in on you, you would serve God. You would love him. You would take action. You would live for the Lord. But what we see today, rather than love, which leads to action, is apathy. Just people, yeah, you know, I know I'm saved, but I know people are dying to go to hell. So what? I got other things to do. There's more important things I'd rather spend my life doing. It's apathy, is what it is. I read a quote, it said, apathy is the glove in which evil slips its hand. Apathy is the glove in which evil slips a hand. I mean, evil loves apathy. I read another quote, and this is me. Who said this? Me. Taking credit for this one. If the devil can't defeat you, he will try to dull you. And here's the truth, the devil can't defeat us, can he? I mean, I understand that he can wreak havoc in our lives, and if we get into sin, we can suffer the consequences, and we have an enemy, but ultimately, you know, we can have victory every single time over the devil. It's there. It's available to us. God will, you know, will make a way for us to escape when the devil tempts us. So the devil knows, hey, if I can't defeat this Christian, you know what I'm just going to do? I'm just going to dull him. I'm just going to make him apathetic, right? And that's that evil slipping into that glove. People just choose not to live for the Lord. They just choose not to serve God. You know, and we always think, well, people just always think, well, you know, it's only going to affect me if I don't live for the Lord. You know, I'm the only one that's going to suffer, you know, so God won't bless my life. Okay, I can live with that. I'll have my fun sinning. That's what people think. This is their mentality. What they feel to realize, and this is what I mean by it hasn't settled in on them, is the fact that if they don't live for God, people are going to die and go to hell. Because they didn't live for God. I believe that. I'm not a Calvinist, okay, and I'm not a closet Calvinist like so many Baptists are today. Well, if they're supposed to get saved, they'll get saved. That's wrong. There's people in this world that only I can get saved. Well, what do you mean you get them saved? Jesus gets them saved. Shut up. I understand that Jesus gets them saved. You know what, but Paul said, I become all things to all men that I may, what, save some. He didn't say, you know, I decided to go ahead and serve God just because I wanted to get some rewards. No, he said, you know what, I became all things to all men so that I could save some. And that's what we need to do, is save some. Save who we can save. Because there's people in your life that I can't reach. There's people out there in Tucson that if I go knock their door, they're going to take one look at me and say, no thanks. But if you go, you know, maybe there's just something about you, right? We know there's a lot about me to reject, right? But there just might be that special something about you that they just say, you know what, I'm going to listen to what they have to say. You know, I believe that. And I believe God will lead us to those people. They are out there, the people that are ready and willing to listen. But if we don't go, the consequence is what? Not just that we aren't rewarded in heaven, but that they go to hell. You say, well, you know, I'm just not going to live for the Lord, you know, I'm the only one that's going to suffer the consequences. Really? What about your family? What about the people that you have a direct influence over? When we get into sin, when we start doing wrong, when we're not living for the Lord, when we're a bad example to others, you know, that's going to have an effect on them. We could quench other people's zeal. You know, that's something we need to consider. That's what I mean by letting it settle in. Letting this spiritual reality settle in on you. And get these things through your head. And understand that true love does what? It lives for the Lord. It lives for the Lord. Not only that, but true love looks past faults. It looks past faults. If you would go to Colossians chapter number 3. So that's the first person that we should love is the Lord. Right? First and foremost. That's the first person that we're going to talk about tonight that we should make an effort and take action to show that we love him is the Lord. But there's another group, you know, the other group I want to talk about is the people around us. And the people that we come in contact. Our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Even the unsaved out in the world. We need to, if we're going to truly love them, we need to learn to do what? Look past faults. Look past faults. And by faults I mean sins, shortcomings, character flaws, things that would offend us in some way, shape or form. We need to learn to look past those things. And not pick people apart. You know, this is something that, you know, not the Bible, but there's a saying out there, you know, familiarity breeds contempt. Familiarity breeds contempt. That's true. Maybe you've never experienced this, but I remember when I was a kid, you know, I was just 8, 9, or whatever, 10 years old, whatever. And I had, you know, my group of friends that I hung out with. You know, I could only hang out with them for so long. Did anyone ever have a friend like that? I'm the only one. Okay, there we go. Thank you for not leaving me hanging. Otherwise, if not, I'll just move on with this illustration. We'll just get right into the sermon. But I can just remember times growing up, like, this is my best friend and all I want them to do is just go home. Because they stayed the night, I hung out with them yesterday, I'm going to see them at school. And, you know, I didn't know it at the time, how to put it into words, but what was going on was that familiarity was breeding contempt. And then, you know, then they'd go on their vacation with their family for two weeks. You wouldn't see them for a whole two weeks when you were a little kid. That's like an eternity. And as soon as they're back, man, it's like, hey, let's hang out, let's have fun, right? Because you've missed that person. The same can happen in our relationships, even as adults. You know, marriages, people can get so familiar with one another, they just start to pick each other apart. You know, this about you bothers me and this about you bothers me and vice versa and they just go back and forth at each other. That can happen. You've got to stay, you know, you've got to look out for that. You know, this is something that can happen to siblings, believe me, I know. Siblings can just get at each other's throat over what? Well, I just don't like the way he or she, you know, chews their food. You're too familiar, okay? You need to learn to look past faults. You know, what will help you do that is realize you've got plenty of your own and nobody's perfect. That's another group of people we need to learn to love is the people around us. And in order to do that, you know, that's not just, you know, once a year I'm going to write you a card and send you a box of chocolates. It means every day I'm going to practice loving you by looking past your faults and forgiving you when you've offended me. Leviticus 19 verse 18 says, I'll read to you, thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people. He's saying don't avenge yourself and also don't bear any grudge. You know, we shouldn't be the type of people that just somebody does us dirty, somebody does something wrong to us and we just, man, we just sit on it. And people do this all the time and they turn into old, bitter people and they'll be mad about something that happened decades ago. Something will happen to them. And look, I'm not saying it wasn't offensive. I'm not saying it wasn't hurtful. I'm not saying it didn't do them any harm. But they're the ones that chose to just what harbor bitterness to just bear a grudge against somebody. Bible warns against it, not just for the sake of the people that you were bearing a grudge against, but for your own self. You don't want to, you know, have that carry that around turning into a bitter, mean, nasty person. Thou shall not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt what? Love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord. So what is the loving your neighbor being associated with there? An action of what? Looking past faults, forgiveness, not holding things over people's heads. That's what it is, an action. You know, it's not just this feeling, it's forgiveness. You're there in Colossians chapter number three. I'm going to read to you from 1 Corinthians chapter 13, which is, of course, the quintessential passage on love, right? That's the charity chapter. You know, charity is just another word for love. It says that charity suffereth long and is kind. It suffers long. What does it mean it suffers long? It means it puts up with, it endures. It ends in that same passage of verse seven. Endureth all things. It suffereth long and is kind. It does what? It endures all things. You know, if you really love somebody, you're going to put up with all those things that bother you. And you're going to learn to look past them and realize, oh, you know what? They aren't perfect in this area. But you know what? They're good at this area. You know, that's something you should, if you're struggling with this, this is probably something you should put into practice. When someone is, you know, when there's somebody in your life that you are bearing a grudge against or you're just having a hard time loving, because they, and look, I get it, people do things. But maybe you should just say, well, I know they did that, but what can I think about that they do well? What is something that I appreciate about them? And focus on their good attributes. You know, that will help you to love your neighbor as yourself. It'll help you to forgive. Look at Colossians chapter 3 verse 12. Because look, we're going to offend. People are going to offend you. You're going to offend people. It's going to happen. He said in Colossians chapter 3 verse 12, Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness. There's that word again, longsuffering. Just like charity suffereth long, you have longsuffering. Doing what? Forbearing one another. It means, you know, putting up with one another. And not just, you know, having a radar on people. Because people live their life like this. They just, they go through life with a radar, just putting out a sonar. Who's going to offend me today? Who's going to, who do I get to get mad at today? I've known people like this. They say, I woke up today and decided I was going to be nasty. I woke up today and I just felt like being mean. People live their life like that. They have, you know what, you know what they're not doing? Because they're not longsuffering. They're not forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any men have a quarrel against any. And here's the kicker, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Well, how far do I have to, how much do I have to forgive them? To whatever measure Christ has forgiven you, you're required to forgive others. So that's the question. Do we forgive to the degree to which Christ has forgiven us? You know what that tells me? That there's nothing that I can't forgive people for. I mean, I understand there's some sins that are beyond the pale. I get that. But I mean, I've, you know, the vast majority of things that are an offense to me, they're pretty petty, if we're honest. I mean, the things that people do that we get just so bent out of shape and upset over, sometimes they're just pretty petty, aren't they? And I can just imagine Christ looking down and going, boy, I forgave a whole lot more when it came to you. I remember when I went to the cross and died for your sins. And it wasn't just that annoying little habit that you have that drives other people nuts. You know, it was an actual, you offended me, you know, the Lord speaking ears saying you offended God and I went ahead and forgave you for that. Well, I can't forgive so-and-so because they did X, Y, and Z. Well, are you God? Well, then how much could they really have offended you? Go over to 2 Corinthians chapter 2. The Bible says in Psalms 103, He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. See, how much has God forgiven us? How much has God forgiven us for our sins against the holy God? As far as the east is from the west. How far is that? You can't measure that. It's unmeasurable. But that's how much God has forgiven us. He goes on and says, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. You know why you should just go ahead and forgive people? Because they're just dust. They're just as frail and flawed as anybody else. You might as well just go ahead and forgive them. Now, I understand that, you know, that, well, let me just say this. To forgive is to forget. I believe that. To forgive is to forget. I mean, can we say if we've really forgiven somebody, if we haven't forgotten, if every day we just think about how they've offended us? If we just think about some transgression that they've committed against us, it's every time we see them, all we think about is how they offended us in some way. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 6. It says, sufficient to such a man is the punishment. Which was inflicted of many. Now, obviously there is a time to punish. You know, this is referring back to 1 Corinthians 5 where Paul was pointing out the fact that there was one in the church that he had committed fornication that was not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife, and he commanded that they put one out from among them. Saying, kick him out of church and don't let him back in until he gets right. And they did that. And he's saying that that punishment on that such a man was what? Sufficient. He's saying, you don't have to go beyond what's appropriate when it comes to punishing people for when they've done wrong. And there's a reason behind that. Look at verse 7. He said, so that contrary wise you ought to rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be should be swallowed up with over much sorrow. You know, this is talking about letting people live things down and not constantly reminding them about some offense that they committed. You know, we've never, I don't think we've ever had to kick anyone out of church here, I don't know. I can't remember. Not because I forgave them, I don't know. But you know what? Chances are we're probably going to have to someday. You know, someone's going to come in and violate 1 Corinthians 5 or some other passage where they commit an offense that's worthy of being kicked out of church and put out of fellowship. You know, it's probably going to happen because we do enforce, you know, church discipline here. And you know what's going to happen is those people, you know, not always, but some of those people are going to get right with God. You know, it's going to have an effect. They're going to get out there and they're going to say, man, I need to get right with God. My life's a mess. I'm really making some mistakes here. And they're going to clean up their life and they're going to get that sin out and they're going to want to come back. You know what we're going to do? We'll all get them back with open arms. And you know what else we're going to do? We're going to forget. We're going to forget and not bring it up to them. Hey, remember that time you got kicked out of church? Well, don't do that. You don't want to be like so-and-so over there. Let me tell you about this time we kicked so-and-so out. I mean, I know I've talked to people that, you know, not here, but up in Tempe that have been kicked out of church. And I've totally forgotten that that ever happened to them. And look, this is something you have to put in practice. You know, this is something you have to try to do. Go to Micah chapter seven. Micah chapter seven. I'm going to drive this one home a little bit because this is important. This is preventative maintenance. You know, we don't want to, if and when this happens, we don't want to have to remind people of this. You know, we want to have this spirit already in our church, a spirit that is willing to love people by doing what? Looking past their faults. Looking past some offense they might have committed. He says in Micah chapter seven verse 18, Now that's not an attribute that God has. God doesn't just hold on to things forever because he delighteth in mercy. You know, the Bible says it's an honor for a man to pass over a transgression. It's his honor to do that. The Bible says that God is a God who delights in mercy. He loves to show mercy. You know, I like to show mercy. Especially, you know, with my kids. Almost to a fault. You know, to where it's like they need to be corrected and it's like it's got to happen. And a lot of times I just look at them and say, you're going to do it again? No. I'm like, all right, mercy. Then they go and do it again. You know, that could turn into a fault. I delight in it too much. You know, maybe I'm just being lazy. I don't know. But God delights in mercy. Look, if you have an opportunity to show mercy upon somebody, you got to jump on that. Because, you know, he's going to show with the merciful, thou wilt show thyself merciful. I don't know about you, but I have been and will be in need of mercy at some point in my life. He says in verse 19, he will turn again and he will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. I love the poetry of the Bible. He's going to take those sins and just into the depths of the sea. You know, that's where we get that song, right? The sea of God's forgetfulness. That's good enough for me. And look, I understand that, you know, we forgive people, but that doesn't always mean that trust is going to be restored. I understand that. I get that. But what we should not be doing is harboring animosity, bitterness, anger against people. We need to do what? We need to look past faults. That's how you love other people. That's love in action. Now, the last group of people I want to talk about is yourself. True love, not only does it live for the Lord, not only does it look past faults, but true love lets you. I think this is one that a lot of people struggle with. I know this is something I've dealt with in my life. You need to learn to forgive yourself. Forgive yourself. Honestly, because I think sometimes people really beat themselves up way more than they should over things that they've done in their life. If you would, go over to, you know, we could read all the very familiar passages, but go over to Philippians chapter 3. True love lets go. You know, you need to let go of your own mistakes. Let go of your own faults. Let go of your own shortcomings. And not just, you know, constantly be reminding yourself of how you failed in some area. Or telling yourself, well, I could never do this or I could never do that because of my past. Learn to let go. Forgive yourself. The Bible says in Philippians chapter 3 verse 13, Brethren, I count not myself to be apprehended, but this is one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth under those things which are before. Now Paul obviously in that context was talking about all the achievements that he had attained. You know, leaving those things behind. But in the same token, people need to forget those things which are behind, which are things that they regret. They need to let go of past mistakes and stop letting them hold them down. They need to learn to forgive themselves. They need to learn to let go. If you would, go over to 1 John chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 7, For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. But the sorrow of the world worketh death. I'm going to read that again. It says that godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. Now it's not talking about our spiritual salvation of going to heaven. It's talking about a repentance to salvation, meaning we're not going to suffer the consequences of sin here. That's what it's referring to. Godly sorrow. There's a godly sorrow that works repented to salvation, not to be repented of. If you're there in 1 John, look at verse 1, verse 9. It says in 1 John 1, verse 9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's a promise that we have from God, isn't it? We put that into practice. We mess up, we sin, we fail in some way, and then we go to God, and we confess it, and we pray, and we trust by faith this verse. That if we confess it, he'll forgive it, and he'll cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He that confesseth his sin and forsaketh it shall have mercy, it says in Proverbs. Those are promises that we stand on. And we believe that about God, but the problem is so many times we get up from praying that prayer and quoting those verses and claiming that promise, we forget to forgive ourselves. We carry that baggage with us. We go out for the rest of our lives blaming ourselves for some shortcoming, some failure that we've committed in our life. We have a lot of regret. And look, these are the generic verses when you talk about learning to let go and forgiving yourself. A lot of times that's just where we stop as preachers. Just say, quote, read these verses and tell people just forget the past. And that's easier said than done, isn't it? But I was reading something recently and I thought this was a really powerful concept when it came to this idea of regret. Because we associate regret as such a negative thing, and it is negative. But regret is also something that could work a lot of good in our life if we frame it in the right way. If we think about regret in the right way, it's actually a very powerful motivator. Because, you know, here's the thing. You need to learn to frame regret in the right way. One, because of the fact that everyone has regrets or will. You know, some of the young people are thinking, well, I haven't done anything. Just hang in there. It's coming. You know, eventually we'll all get there. I'm sure everyone in the room, for the most part, can look back in their life and say, I regret what I did or what I didn't do. Everyone's going to have regrets. So you need to learn to frame your regrets in the right way, in a positive way. Now I'm not saying don't minimize regret. Look, regret is something that is real and can be very intense for people. Regret can be something that really buries people. And I'm not saying we need to minimize that. I'm just saying, here's the thing. Because of how intense and how real regret is, often what people do is they try to get it out of their minds as quickly as they can. And distance themselves from regret. And I'm saying, look, you need to learn to let go. You do need to get past regret. But I think the best way to do that is to fully embrace it at first. And to really let your regret sink in. Because regret is something that can propel us in the right direction. It's something that you should not distance yourself from too quickly. You need to let it run its course in your life. Here's how you do this. This is some practical application. In order to do this, you need to learn to do this. It's to separate yourself from your mistakes. Separate yourself from your mistakes. And this is the difference. You say, what are you talking about? Here's what I'm talking about. It's the difference between saying, I am a failure and I failed. You see the difference there? If I go through my life saying, I'm a failure. Look, we're all going to fail. We're all going to make mistakes. You need to learn to let go. You need to learn to forgive yourself. You need to learn to separate yourself from your mistakes. Instead of just saying, I am a failure, what you should be saying is, I failed. I'm not saying ignore it. I'm not saying to not recognize it. I'm not saying to acknowledge the fact that there's failure. But I'm saying, don't let that define who you are. Rather, just understand that there's something that happened. It's something that you did. It's not who you have to be for the rest of your life. You need to separate yourself from your failure. And it's the difference between saying, I am a failure and I have failed. And when you do that, when you start to frame regret in the right way, it's going to do several things for you. One, it's going to help you to avoid future mistakes. The problem with regret sometimes is people, they just want to put it on their minds so fast, they don't feel all the shame and all the regret that they should that they end up just doing that same thing again. When you really let the regret sink in, you really feel it and you really know it, you say, I don't ever want to do that again. I don't ever want to make that mistake again. I don't want to fail that way again. It's something that's going to help you avoid future mistakes. I mean, all regret really is, is a form of reflection when you think about it. I think regret's actually a good thing. It's a great motivation. It's something that you can use as a compass, right? It's something that you can say, wow, when I got off the path, I regretted it. It made me feel this way. Let me make sure I don't feel that way again. It's a compass. Use regret as a motivation. Separate yourself from your mistakes and use the regret that you do feel as a motivation. And look, I know this is some self-help stuff that I'm preaching up here right now, but this is the stuff that people need to hear. And I can just quote these verses for you and say, let's pray and go home, but is that really going to help you? Because I'm telling you, I know people live with regret. And if they aren't already, one day they're going to encounter something, they're going to go through something, where they're going to experience regret in their life. And they're going to do one of two things. They're going to say, I am a failure or I failed. And if they can frame regret in the right way, it's actually going to help them. It's not something that we should, you know, we're living in a world where no one wants to feel any negative emotions. They want to just pop a pill or take some drugs or veg out, tune out or whatever. God has given us negative emotions so that we can feel these things. Because even these negative things can be used as a motivation, they can be used as a compass to guide us in life. Here's an interesting thing I read about regret. The author said, regret tells not only that something is wrong, I mean, that's usually where we stop. Well, I did something wrong. It tells us not only that something is wrong, but that we can do something about it. It also tells you you can do something about it. I mean, isn't that how we often think about things that we regret? Man, if I had only done this. Or if I hadn't done that. You know, what you're telling yourself, whether you realize it or not, is that you have the choice, that you have the ability to do something about it. Now, it's too late, the past is in the past, but look, in that same situation, you know, you find yourself in that same circumstance, you can say, wait a minute, I remember how the regret I felt from last time, I can do something about this. That's what regret does for us. It tells us that we can do something about it. So, here's what you need to do with regret, is you need to see it as an opportunity to improve. Look, when we've failed in some way, when we regret things, and look, if you just never regret anything, I'm worried about you. You know, you're probably a pretty callous and cold person if you just never feel regret about anything. You know, probably everyone here has felt regret to some degree or another in their life. Or at least they should, over missed opportunities or things that they did that they shouldn't have done. But you need to see regret as an opportunity to improve. There was some researchers that got together, and they did a bunch of research, I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but they said this, that the feelings of regret are strongest when the chances for corrective reaction are the clearest. What he's saying is that when people felt the most regret is when they had the greatest chance to react in a positive way. If you follow that, people are feeling the most regret when they can actually do something about it, when they have the most opportunity to change. I mean, that's how it's been in my own life. You know, we start out New Year's Day, you know, and we've got all these goals, get two months into it, and it's like, oh man, I didn't do this, and I didn't do that, and I didn't do this. All these feelings of regret. But what all that's telling us is that we have the opportunity to change. Regret will point you to possibility. That's what it'll do. Go to Lamentations chapter number three, we'll end there. My points tonight were that, you know, true love is an action. It's not just something that you feel. And that there's three people, you know, there's three groups of people, I guess you could say, that we ought to show love towards through action. We should live for the Lord. True love lives for the Lord. True love, let me turn there because I'm forgetting my own points, looks past faults. It forgives others. And not only that, but true love lets go. It forgives people who need to learn to forgive themselves. In the right way. I'm not saying run away from regret, run away from negative feelings. I'm saying frame them in the right way, understand what they are, and not tell yourself that I am a failure, but that I simply have failed. And see it as an opportunity to improve, because that's really what it is. Look at Lamentations chapter three, verse 22. The Bible says it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because the compassion fails not. The only reason we're not consumed is because God is compassionate. He's long suffering. He's merciful. His compassion fails not. The Bible says that they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. It's one of the, you know, very famous verse. And it's something that we need to remember when it comes to this idea of forgiving ourselves. And learning to let go of things that are in our past. Is that God has cast them in the sea of his forgetfulness. Our sins are as far as the east is from the west. If we've confessed them, you know, he's forgiven them. But we need to learn to do that for ourselves. And you can do that every morning. It's new every morning. So that's the point, you know, that's kind of the last, to sum up the last point is this. God hasn't given up on us. God hasn't given up on us. And, you know, we shouldn't give up on him in return. And we also shouldn't give up on others. And, you know, God hasn't given up on other people. Why have we? We shouldn't. And lastly, you know, God hasn't given up on us, you know what, so don't give up on yourself either. You might have made mistakes, but you know what, God's mercies are new every morning. And if you learn from those mistakes, then you know what, it wasn't in vain. Let's go ahead and pray. Dear Lord, again, thank you for your mercy and your compassion and your patience with us. Lord, I pray that you would help us to have those same attributes, Lord, in our lives. And help us be patient with others and with ourselves, Lord. And help us to love you, not in his word only, but also in Jesus Christ. Amen. Alright, we're going to go ahead and sing one more song before we go to the next one. Play that song number 147, meaning one of the everlasting notes. We are a fellowship, what a joy we are. We are the everlasting art. What a blessing it is, what a place we are. We are the everlasting art. We, we, we, sing this to you from all our hearts. We, we, we, we, we, we, we, we are the everlasting art. Oh, how sweet the love it has given, We are the everlasting art. Oh, how bright the path goes from day to day, We are the everlasting art. We, we, we, sing this to you from all our hearts. We, we, we, we, we, we, we, we are the everlasting art. What am I to dread? What am I to fear? We, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we are the everlasting art. What a blessing it is, what a place we are. We, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we are the everlasting art. We, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we are the everlasting art. Thank you for watching!