If you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 14, starting from verse 13 to 19. And I know Elder Gerald already read that, but again, I want you guys to be familiar with the text that we're going to be in this morning. Romans chapter 14, 13 to 19.

"Teachers, let us not pass judgment on one another." Oh, sorry. "Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but is unclean for anyone who thinks it's unclean.

For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So thus let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we entrust this time to you, asking Lord God that you would bless us. Let your word speak and convict and guide and encourage this morning.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. If I was to ask you a question, how do you measure if someone is a mature Christian or not? The way you answer that question may depend on your background, what you have been taught, maybe the previous church that you came from, maybe the denomination.

Some people might say that, again, if you go to a heavily Bible-emphasizing church, that if you know the Bible well, if you read plenty of books and you know theology, that maybe that's how we measure if somebody is mature, because they spent a lot of time wrestling over theology.

If you happen to come from maybe a charismatic background, the way that that community may have emphasized, and maybe various spiritual gifts, and maybe you have healing, maybe you have prophecy, whatever it may be, maybe in that context, that's how you measured if somebody was mature. They had many encounters with God, many testimonies.

Or maybe you came from a background where there was a lot of discipline emphasized, structure. And so the way that spiritual maturity is measured by how disciplined you are and how many disciples that you have made. All of these things, on the surface, may point to certain things and say that that may look like what a mature Christian should look like.

But it's not as complicated as that. I think the scripture is pretty clear what we ought to be looking for to measure if someone is a mature Christian or not. All of these things may be true, but in and of itself, all it does is make someone a good Pharisee.

In Matthew chapter 23, 23, Jesus says to the Pharisees, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others." The problem was not that they didn't study the Bible or they didn't pray enough or they didn't evangelize enough.

He said you should have done all of that, but they were neglecting the weightier matters. And if you look at the weightier matters, the weightier matters were things of internal, of mercy, of justice. In fact, Jesus made it very clear. You could tell someone by what? By their fruit, what they produce.

Now all of these things that I've mentioned, whether it's proper theology or discipline or discipleship or spiritual gifts, all of these things may be signs of fruit, one of the fruits. But the main fruit that the scripture tells us to look for is what? The fruit of the Holy Spirit.

In the fruit of the Holy Spirit, in Galatians 5.22, it says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is first and foremost," what? "Love." Love is the primary fruit of the Holy Spirit. The evidence that the Holy Spirit is indwelling in an individual and having its effect on us is love.

And all these other descriptions of peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such things there is no law. All of these things are directly connected to the fruit of love. You can't have peace if there is no love. You can't have kindness if there is no love. You can't have goodness if there is no love.

So love is not just one of many fruits, it is the fruit in how we ought to determine whether somebody is mature or immature. Because without love, and you can have all these other spiritual qualities, but without love it just makes you a good Pharisee. And that's exactly what Jesus was saying to these Pharisees.

That you are so concerned about these external matters, but internally all you are is a nicely decorated tomb. Paul has been talking about in 11 chapters of what justification of faith looks like. How we've been justified, the blood of Christ, what does it mean? What does adoption look like?

What does it mean to be saved? He's in 11 chapters of exposition, and then now we're in chapter 12 describing about the application considering this mercy. And he begins by offering your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, not to be conformed but be transformed by the reading of your mind.

And then since then he's been on this topic of love. Even though whether he used the word love or not, you can clearly see starting from chapter 12, the whole application of our Christian life is the practice of love. Jesus himself said, if there's one quality that's going to distinguish you from the world is love.

How you practice love, what kind of love you practice, the kind of love that he practiced with us. So all these other qualities, there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, as a maturing Christian, these are qualities that we should be growing and increasing in. But in and of itself, devoid of love, only makes us hypocrites and Pharisees.

So this morning, we want to look at these few verses that Paul is describing about the practice of his love. Like, what does it mean to walk in love? If walking is love is the central, most important aspect of Christian life, what does it mean to walk in love?

So again, today's message is pretty simple. It's a two point outline. And then if you pay attention, you'll realize it could only, it really is just one. But I separate it in two so that I don't lose you in the middle of the sermon. Okay, but really it's just one point.

What does it mean to walk in love? The first point, Paul describes in verse 13, walking in love means to judge to build and not judge to condemn. Let me say that again. Walking in love means to judge to build and not judge to condemn. Romans chapter 14, 13, in the ESV, you don't really get the full meaning of what Paul is trying to say here.

In verse 13, it says, "Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother." The word for decide here in the ESV is actually the same word for what he used to, in English, translated judgment.

So King James actually translated literally, and this is what you would read literally in the English if you were to translate literally. "Let us not therefore judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way." So in other words, he's saying, don't judge to condemn, but judge to build up.

He says it again in 1 Corinthians 10.23, "All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up." Let me clarify this before we go any further. Paul is not advocating relativism in the church. He's not saying, it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere about it, so let's just not fight over any issue.

He's talking about, remember last week we talked about who is a weak brother and who is a strong brother. He's talking about in the matters that are not essential, in the matters that are not essential, that we ought to practice grace and love. Paul has a clear opinion upon this, but how do you deal with issues where you can easily divide because of various opinions?

The reason why Paul says what he says in Corinthians 10, where he says, "All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful," is because this is exactly what was happening in Corinth. Remember what the problem was? The problem was not a divide between a group of people who wanted to chase after the world and another group of people who wanted to have idol worship and other people who wanted to follow Jesus.

That's not where the divide was happening. The divide was happening with sincere believers who had a difference of opinion of who should be the leader of Corinth. It should be Apollos because he's the gifted guy. It should be Peter because he's the leader among the apostles. It should be Paul because Paul is the one who first brought the gospel to Corinth.

So it is in the context of doing what they believe is righteous, but they weren't on the same page. And then this divided the church and all kinds of chaos came into the church. They couldn't deal with sin. The worship was in absolute chaos. Even the communion table ended up causing bitterness and anger.

The root of all of that was a church who was refusing to give in to each other. So that's why Paul says, "All things are lawful." What you're doing is not sinful, but it's not helpful. It is not building up the church. It's dividing the church. Again, in 1 Corinthians 14, 12.

So with yourself, since you are eager for manifestation of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. This was a church that was blessed by God and all kinds of spiritual gifts were given to this church. They had prophets. They had speaking in tongues. They had various manifestations of the gifts in the early church.

And they were practicing this without considering how their practice of the gifts were affecting other people. So one of the things that Paul points out here is that they had a group of people who were speaking in tongues, but they were coming out and they just didn't care how it affected other people.

And then there were people who were prophesying in the middle of the server, just standing up. "I have something for me to tell you." And they were just prophesying one another in chaos. So it's in that context where Paul is saying, all of these things may be a blessing to you, but the purpose why he gave it to you was to bless and to build up the body of Christ.

So this division in the church wasn't happening because they wanted the world over God. It was a group of people who wanted to pursue God, but had differences of opinion. And it is in that context he says all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. Some people eat, some people don't eat, but the end conclusion of our judgment ought to be not to condemn, but to build up.

Let me make this very clear. And this really is the main point of the whole sermon. The practice of truth without love always leads to condemnation. The practice of truth without love always leads to condemnation. If we pursue truth without practicing grace and love, ultimately for the purpose of building up the church, there is nobody who will pass this test.

Some people have been Christians longer, some people may be more disciplined, some people may have better theology, but nobody will pass this test of somebody's intention to examine everybody else to see if they're living up to what they deem to be righteous. You won't know enough theology. You won't be disciplined enough.

You won't be sacrificial enough. If we pursue truth without love and grace, it will always lead to condemnation. And I'm going to revisit that later on, because that's the main thrust of what Paul is really trying to say, that we ought to judge to build and not judge to condemn.

The church is a tremendous blessing that God has given us. We mourn together and we celebrate together. We encourage one another. We lean on each other. As a church, there are things that we can do that we would never be able to do by ourselves. The reason why we're able to go out to China and to India and then Japan this summer and do all we do is because of the collective body of Christ that we're running this race together.

There's a benefit of having diversity in the church from various backgrounds, education, different fields, various ages, different culture. All of these things benefit the body of Christ. Especially now, we live in a culture where there really isn't true community. More and more people are becoming isolated, where you work in a little cubicle, you sit in front of a computer screen, you go home, and then you sit in front of another computer screen.

Then if that's not enough, you sit in front of a tiny computer screen. You go to a coffee shop and you blast the music so you can't hear each other. True community really doesn't exist, at least in our generation, at least not where we live. This is a tremendous blessing from God.

In fact, I would say I don't ever remember not attending church. Some of my best memories of childhood was from church. My dad was a pastor as long as I can remember. Earliest childhood memories is celebrating Christmas together at the church and doing presentations up on the stage and receiving gifts and somebody dressing up like Santa and passing out gifts.

Whether you agree with that or not, that was some of my best memories as a child. But also, some of the worst memories I have of childhood is also in the church. Slandering, divisions in the church, backbiting, sometimes even physical fighting I've seen in the church. The church could either be a place of tremendous blessing, but if love, the glue that brings us together, is not the central motivation, is not the central pursuit of the church, all of our diversity becomes a conflict.

All of our differences, all of the different perspectives, all of it ends up becoming a source of contention in the church. It's no different in the marriage. In Romans 14, 16, it says, "So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil." What he means by that is eating meat or not eating meat, in and of itself, could be a blessing.

It's just food for you. But if you eat that, just completely ignoring the context, while it is destroying the conscience of other people, the very gift that God has given you can easily turn into something evil. The very blessing that God has given the Corinthian church, the spiritual gift to build up the body of Christ, but because they were completely ignoring other people, it was causing confusion and bitterness and hatred toward one another.

That's what he's saying. Don't turn what is good and turn it into evil. God gave them the gospel to build up the body of Christ, to continue to spread this good news, but because they were fighting over, "Well, who should we listen to? Who shouldn't we listen to?" All of a sudden, this very gift of God became a source of contention because it broke up the body of Christ.

That's why, again, in 1 Peter 4, 7, and 8, it says, "The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers." He says, "The end of all things is coming, so therefore, you should live as if there's a countdown, there's a clock ticking, that every minute of our lives should really be intentional in what we invest in." But he says, in verse 8, "But above all, above prayer, above being self-controlled, being sober-minded, above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins." If we practice prayer, righteousness, reading, theology, devoid of love, all of a sudden, all we have are people who are practicing righteousness, pointing out what's wrong with everybody else.

And let me say it again. Pursuit of truth without love always leads to condemnation. I'm going to keep saying that so that you're going to remember this after this service. Pursuit of truth without love always leads to condemnation. And he's teaching this church, above everything that you know about Christianity, above all of that, practice love, because if you do not have love, you will not cover over the sins of others.

If you've ever studied Corinthians, especially 1 Corinthians, you know that the highlight of 1 Corinthians is chapter 13, right? Even people who don't know, never studied the Bible, they know chapter 13. It is a chapter of love. It hangs on people's walls, even non-Christian stores, you'll see sometimes chapter 13, you know, 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

It's a beautiful chapter about what love is. But just like everything else, you have to understand it in context. You can't just take chapter 13, it's a beautiful chapter, and just kind of use that. And in and of itself, there's a lot of significance. But when you understand it in the context of what Paul has been arguing, chapter 13 is a culmination and the conclusion of an argument that Paul's been making starting from chapter 1.

The problem that the church had is described in this way, "If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." Do you think Paul is just talking theoretically? That something like might happen? No, he's talking to the Corinthian church.

And when he says, "If I have tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal," he's talking to a specific problem in the early church. And he mentions that later on in chapter 14. God has given you this gift to speak in tongues, but because you're not practicing in love concerned about the other people, all it's producing is noisy sounds and clanging cymbals.

This is not just some theory. He's talking to a problem in the church. He says, verse 2, "And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." I mean, this is the superlative.

I mean, you can say, "Paul's exaggerating, even if he had prophetic powers." Again, he's not talking theoretically because this is exactly what was happening in the Corinthian church. They were tremendously blessed. There were prophets in the church. There were people who had the gift of knowledge who were prophesying about what God was revealing to them, but they weren't practicing in love.

They weren't concerned about the other brothers, the weak brothers, the new brothers, the people who had come from the outside. They weren't concerned about any of that. He said, "I have this gift and I just wanted to use it, and it was causing all kinds of divisions and chaos in the church." Consider what he just said.

I mean, in our generation, if somebody has a PhD in theology, you know, and spent the last 15 years studying, you know, theology, we automatically assume you must know God better than me. He says if you have all the prophecies, all the knowledge, all the mysteries, even if you have faith, I'm going to get to that later on, even if you have that as to remove mountains, can you imagine if somebody actually removed a mountain?

I mean, the whole world would be flocking to listen to him. But Paul says, "Even if you did all of that and you have not love, you are nothing." Again, this is not theory. He's talking to a church that was divided, causing all kinds of chaos because these spiritual gifts were not being used to build up the body of Christ.

If I give away all that I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I am nothing because this was causing the problem in the Corinthian church. Again, all in the context of pursuing righteousness, all in the context of practicing God's gift, all in the context of wanting to supposedly do what pleases God.

And yet they missed the whole point. That point was to practice love. That's why in verse 4, it's a description when it says love is patient and love is kind. I don't think Paul was just kind of sitting there thinking like, "What is love?" And he's thinking about all the philosophical things and all the beauty of love and just sat there and just jotted these things down.

I think if there was any book, just humanly speaking, obviously the Holy Spirit is the ultimate author of all of these things, but He used human agents. I think Paul probably put more thought into writing 1 and 2 Corinthians than any other letter. Maybe Romans, but outside of Romans, maybe 1 and 2 Corinthians because he was grieved over what he was seeing in 1 Corinthians.

This is a church that he literally almost gave his life to bring the gospel, and then now he sees this chaos, and then now they're questioning his apostleship. So he was heartbroken over what was happening. So when he says love is patient and love is kind, I don't think he was just generically getting these things out of the sky.

I think he was probably thinking about a particular person. He was probably thinking about a particular circumstance, a particular conflict. And he's trying to teach this church, if you want to practice this love, love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. It does not boast. Maybe the reason why the church was divided was because there was envy.

They were competing. There was jealousy. There was one-upping one another. It is not arrogant. I think Paul is saying that because he's seeing some arrogance in this division. He's seeing some envying and boasting. It is not rude. It does not insist on its own way. Wasn't that what was causing this division?

People who have maybe good intentions could not come to terms with each other. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Why would somebody rejoice in wrongdoing? In the context of pursuing righteousness, and the person who is on the other side, they start to fumble and fail.

If you don't love that person, it's like, "I told you. Look what happened to that guy." You start to rejoice over their failing. That's what he's saying. If you really love, you wouldn't rejoice in wrongdoing. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Jesus said to pursue the things that have eternal value. Everything that is on earth is going to perish when Jesus comes. Our whole life is to be lived to invest in things that we're going to be able to carry with us when he comes to eternity. He says, "All prophecies, once it has fulfilled its purpose on here, it will end.

They will pass away. All tongues, it is temporary. While we're here, it'll cease. That's for all knowledge. There's no use for it when we get up to heaven. But love, love that is sanctified and learned and practiced, it will never end. That is something eternal that we're going to carry on for eternity.

All other things, all the theology that we know. You can be a PhD. When you get in the presence of this holy God, all of that stuff is going to just go out the window. Because now you have a first-hand view. And so much of our knowledge of God is going to seem so elementary when we're in the presence of his glory.

All the spiritual gifts, all the disciplines, all the stuff that we have achieved, when we get into the presence of glory of God, you're not going to be wrestling with your flesh. I mean, you're going to want to give him the glory. And you're going to beat yourself on the head thinking, "Why didn't I notice this earlier if God is this good?" All of this is going to pass when he comes.

But love, love will never end. Love is going to continue. You're going to invest it in here, and you're not going to regret it when you get there. That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, 13, "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but greatest of these is love." Think about what Paul's been saying for 11 chapters, that salvation is by faith and by faith alone.

The righteous shall be saved by faith. Without faith, we don't have God. Without faith, we don't have forgiveness. Think about the importance of hope. Without hope, we can't persevere. Our tomorrow, no matter how dark it gets, we are able to persevere and make it because of hope. Think how important faith and hope is.

He says, "They abide, but of them love is the greatest." Love is our goal. Love is our purpose. Love is what we are pursuing. In 1 Timothy 1.5, Paul tells Timothy, this young man, to go back to Ephesus and command these men who are teaching false doctrines to stop preaching the false gospel.

He was giving Timothy authority as the apostle of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, authority to go and stand up for the truth. But he wanted to make sure that Timothy didn't get carried away, that he was going to practice righteousness without grace. So he qualifies his command by saying in chapter 1 verse 5, "The aim of our charge is love, that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." He's calling Timothy to fight.

But in this fight, he says, "Don't forget, the goal of this fight is to love." The reason why you need to judge is to love. The reason why you need to stand up ultimately is for the purpose of love. Test of truth without love always leads to condemnation. Because all it does is truth is like a flashlight that we put on everybody to see if they're going to pass this test.

But the bottom line of the gospel is nobody passes this test. Nobody passes the test of truth. Nobody. The only reason why you and I are here is because we've been covered because we were all failures of this test. So if we pursue truth without love, it only leads to condemnation.

Romans 14, 17, "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." In other words, Paul is saying it's not about eating or drinking. It's not ultimately about rule keeping. The kingdom of God is about peace and righteousness and joy.

This is not a new command in the New Testament. It's not all of a sudden God had one way of dealing with people and then comes a New Testament and he introduces something brand new. He says the same thing in Hosea chapter 6, 6, "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, knowledge of God rather than burnt offering." Why does he say that when he's the one who commanded them to give sacrifices?

We've been studying Leviticus and the burnt offering was commanded to be given every single day morning and night. Why does he say it? Did he change his mind? All of a sudden he said, "No, I don't want these burnt offerings. I don't want these sacrifices." No. Hosea is one of the few prophets who was sent by God before Israel went into exile.

So we call them pre-exile prophets. Hosea was one of them. Amos was one of them. Isaiah was one of them. And in those prophets, it gives the same warning to Israel that they are busy giving many sacrifices but they were just noisy gongs and clanging cymbals to God. Because in it, they were neglecting or ignoring the weightier matters of mercy and grace and love to the orphans and widows.

And so God says your burnt offering means nothing. It's empty. This is not a new teaching in the New Testament. This is what God's been telling them all along. The purpose of all of this is love. Romans 14.8, "For if we live, we live to the Lord. If we die, we die to the Lord.

So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." In other words, you can glorify God in life. You can glorify God in death. You can glorify God by eating or not eating, by being sick or being healthy, by living long or short, by being rich or poor.

Because the whole purpose ultimately is to honor and glorify God. The kingdom of God is not about eating or drinking. It's about peace. And what brings God the most glory is when we reflect Him. And what is it about Him that we are to reflect? Jesus said that very clearly.

If you love one another as I have loved you, then they will know that you are my disciples. So if there's one character that's going to glorify God above everything else that we pursue, He says it's love. So the first thing we are to judge, to build, and not to condemn.

And again, the second point is really the same point, but I want you to stay with me. Walking in love means to consider others first. Walking in love means to consider others first. Romans 14, 15, it says, "For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love.

By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died." Again, Paul is not calling us to relativism. Paul makes it very clear what his opinion is. In verse 14, he says, "I know, and I'm persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in and of itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean." We talked about, I'm not going to get into that this morning because I've already talked about it, that the weaker and the strong brother, he says he's strong, and the weaker brothers are the ones who are taking their time transitioning into the new covenant.

And so he's asking the church to be gracious and be conscious in the context of pursuing Christ, not to be divided over this eating or drinking. Paul goes even further than that, and not simply to say, you know, to be concerned about their conscience. In Philippians chapter 2, 3 to 4, Paul said, "Do nothing from rivalry or conceit." Do nothing.

"But in humility, count others more significant than yourself. Let each of you look not only for his own interest, but also to the interest of others." Whenever we read something like this or 1 Corinthians 13, it sounds beautiful, right? Jesus is the perfect example of somebody who had the highest glory and emptied himself, became nothing.

And we look at that and we admire that, we sing about it, we share about the love of Christ and how awesome it is. But as we draw near to God and God commands us to practice that, I say, "Are you kidding me?" I mean, we want to honor you and want to thank you for what you did, but you don't really expect us to practice that.

And we don't practice it. I mean, humanly speaking, our natural instinct is to survive. And in order to survive, we have to be selfish. We have to look out for us. The house is burning, we're going to run out, right? I mean, even on the airplane, it says, "Well, you survive first.

You put the air, oxygen on, and then you take care of your kid." And obviously, we know that there's wisdom in that, but it's our natural instinct to look out for ourselves. We don't teach our children to go to school and say, "Everybody's better than you." We wouldn't tell them that.

If your child comes home and say, "Somebody bullied me." It's like, it's okay, because they're better than you. Consider them better than you, right? We would never tell them that, even when we tell them to share, right? They have to eat and then you have this, "Oh, okay, you don't need all of it." So you take what you need and the stuff that you don't need, you share with other people.

So that's being a good parent, teaching them how to share, but you're not going to say, "Don't touch any of that. Give it to them." "Oh, but I'm hungry." "But they're better than you. Give it to them." We would never teach that. We don't even value that. So it's beautiful to read, to hang on the wall, but to practice this, to make decisions because it benefits them, even at my own harm, but yet that's exactly what he's called to do.

And that's what agape love is. And Jesus said that the greatest love is to lay down his whole life for his friend. Jesus' love goes even beyond that, because he laid out his life for enemies. We can celebrate that, we can admire that, we can sing about that, we can worship that, but the Bible tells us to practice that.

If there's one command that will filter nominal Christians and genuine Christians, it's this command. This is not something you can do in the flesh, because it is not in us. We don't value this. We'll celebrate it from a distance, but we would never practice this in our flesh. If there's any commandment, if there's anything about Christian discipline that divides between lip service and genuine worship, it's this.

Because only an individual who has experienced this love can practice this love. Only an individual who understands that he failed the test, that he was the weak brother, can ever even think of practicing this. This divides the church. This tests the church to see who is real and who is not.

This is the test. This is the litmus test of an individual who has seen the glory of the gospel in Jesus Christ and has broken over his sins, and as a result, he lives a reasonable life, offering his body as a living sacrifice. You can know theology without practicing this.

You can avoid the world and live an aesthetic life. Even Buddhists do that. You can be very disciplined without practicing this. You can read tons of books and know all the answers and be the best counselors, and yet not practice love. And at the end of your life, it was all for nothing.

This you cannot practice until you have not only seen it up close, until you've experienced it yourself. And that's why Paul says, "The love of Christ consumes me. It compels me to do what I do." The reason why he doesn't walk away from this church, the reason why he doesn't burn this bridge is because he's been affected by the love of Christ.

This is not something we can do in our own flesh. Ultimately, what Paul is calling us to do is to do exactly what Jesus did with us. Romans 8.26 is, "Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words." How many of you struggle with praying and not knowing what to pray for?

I've never met anybody who didn't struggle with this. And I've met some prayer warriors, you know, in the 30 years, 30 plus years that I've been a Christian, I've met some prayer warriors, but I've never met anybody who didn't struggle in prayer. He says, "The Spirit helps us in our weakness." He saw our weakness and he didn't say, "You know what?

I've given them enough. I've erased their sins and do you want more?" He said, "God knew we were going to struggle in prayer and in our weakness, he came and covered us and gave us the Holy Spirit. Even when we didn't know what to pray, the Holy Spirit is interceding on our behalf, groaning.

There's prayers being offered to his children constantly, whether we know it or not. The Holy Spirit is interceding. He saw our weakness and he didn't walk the other way. He saw our weakness and he didn't condemn us." If Jesus practiced truth without love, you and I would not be here.

If he looked at us to see who was weak and who was strong and he drew near to condemn the weak and strengthen the strong, we would not be here. All he's doing is telling us to practice what he did with us. Hebrews chapter 4, 15 to 16, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Not only did he see our weaknesses and then not run the other direction, he came and he took on our weakness. He sympathized. He walked among us.

He was humiliated. All for what purpose? To draw weak people to himself. So that when he says, "Come," that we would not be afraid. That we would not be trembling in fear when he says, "Come." Because we were weak. If we were strong, he didn't need to. See, only an individual who has been deeply affected by the love of Christ can practice this love.

You can love your children. You can love your husband. You can love the world. You can love like the world loves, but the love that Jesus practices can only be practiced if you've been a recipient of that grace. You see why this is central to the church? Central to our worship?

That's why he says, he sums it up in Romans 14, 18, 19, "Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men." It is this that causes Christ to look at us and say, "He is approved." So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

As we contemplate and think this morning, this afternoon, what is it are we pursuing? Especially those of us who are busy, whether it's being disciplined and doing the right thing and serving and evangelizing, memorizing scripture, and all of these things are great. Every Christian should be propelled to do that.

But never forget what Paul says to Timothy. The aim of this commandment is love. If love is not our pursuit, if love is not the glue that brings us together, if love is not the reason why we fellowship, persevere, are kind and patient with one another, sooner or later it will just lead to condemnation.

This morning as we invite our praise team to come, if I can ask the praise team to come. We've given this time after the service so that we can, not just so that we can praise, but give you time to respond in prayer. So they're going to give us some time to pray and then they're going to lead us in the main part of worship.

I really want to encourage you, if there's anything that we need to practically apply, it's this. Because there's not a single person in this room where this does not apply. You may be oblivious. You just need somebody to remind you. But there's not a single person in this room where this does not apply.

Not to simply be hearers of the word and say, "Well, okay, that's great. That's another beautiful thing that we've been reminded about the love of Christ." And to not to admire God from a distance. Worship God from a distance and watching him from a distance and say, "Wow, that's great.

That's awesome." Never drawing near to God. The whole purpose of salvation was to open the door so when he says, "Come," that we would come, come to him. As you recognize that there are aspects of our lives that we practice truth without grace. We practice truth without love. That we would come before the Lord in very specific application.

That we would reflect his glory. If you've been affected by the love of Christ, respond and bear fruit to practice what he did with us. And that by doing so, that we would bring glory to him. So let's take some time as our worship team leads us to pray before God.

And if you're not aware, to be very specific and come before the Lord, "Lord, soften my heart. I've been practicing truth without love. Give me the grace that I need to reflect him." So let's take some time to pray and to apply as we take some time to come before the Lord and worship.