All right, good morning. If you can turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 22, okay? I promise today is the last day I'm on this text and then I'll be jumping to the book of Hebrews, okay? Matthew chapter 22, verse 36 through 40. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind." This is the great and foremost commandment and the second is like it.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And on these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets. Let's pray. Gracious and loving Father, we pray for your Holy Spirit to convict us, let your word go forth and mold our hearts, our lives, our thinking, and even the things, Lord God, that bring us pleasure.

May it be renewed and washed according to your word. So we ask, Lord God, that this sacred time is honored before you, that we would genuinely worship you in spirit and in truth. May God's word and its power that you have ordained fulfill its purpose this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

How many of you sometime this week saw the video that kind of went viral about this lady who was on an airplane and she kind of reclined and the person behind her got irritated and she was like banging on her chair. She was reclining her chair. How many of you guys saw that video?

Okay. Well, you guys aren't hip, you guys aren't social media. Okay. Anyway, so that video went viral and then there was kind of a big discussion that took place. Was it her fault or his fault? Was she in the right by reclining her chair? And then the guy who was sitting behind her happened to be in the last seat in the airplane.

Some of you guys may have experienced that. And because she reclined and he can't recline, obviously, you know, he's a bit cramped. And I guess he asked her to put it back up and she did it while he was eating, but then she put it right back and then she wouldn't return.

And then so he got mad and he started banging on her chair throughout the whole flight. And so the internet was divided in half where half the people were siding with him. He said, "That's rude of her. Knowing that he can't recline, he's uncomfortable. He should have never done that." And then the other half were basically saying, "She has every right.

You're on the airplane. How many times when we're on airplane long flights do we recline? We have a right to do that because it's uncomfortable." Now, wherever you land on that issue, right? The question that I have is how do you deal with people that irritate you, right? They get in your space, do things that annoy you.

That may be in your own home. It may be at work. It may be a neighbor that you live next to, right? It may be a friend or certain acquaintances in your life. Like they're annoying and it's very irritating to be around those people. And as a result, we have a tendency to kind of stiff arm those people.

We have a tendency to be very strict with our acquaintances, but we don't really spend a lot of time with them. Now, we talked about last week about this agape love. At the core of this teaching of agape love is loving people that are difficult to love. And then he goes even further and say, "What good is it if you loan money to people who can pay you back?

Everybody else does that." And then he goes even further in saying that he loved us while we were ungrateful and even sinners. So that word agape love is deliberately targeting and loving people that you wouldn't naturally love in your own flesh. It's difficult for us to be even around, even to be around people who annoy us, let alone make a conscious decision to love people who are slandering us, who've wronged us, who's out to get us, or we may think that they are.

So this idea of agape love is a beautiful message. At the core of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that's why we sing about it. We memorize scriptures. We encourage each other with it. But to actually practice this agape love is something beyond what you and I are able to do.

That's why, you know, it'd be great if we just talked about love of God and what He has done. But the problem with that is the Bible always starts with indicative. It always tells us about what happened and what He has done, but it almost always moves to "therefore." If you believe the agape love of God, therefore we ought to practice this agape love with one another.

If you've been studying the book of Ephesians with us, the first three chapters are primarily indicatives. It teaches us about adoption, about propitiation, atonement. It teaches us about His predestined love for us, in that even before the creation of the world, our God determined to love us. So that's three chapters.

So we're, what, in the middle of chapter two, and we have about a chapter and a half left before we get to chapter four, but chapter four is coming. Chapter four is coming because after that, Paul prays that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened so that we may have a deeper sense and understanding of this love.

And then if you do grasp that and you understand that and you believe that, chapter four, verse one, "Therefore I, prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called." There's a "therefore." If you love God or if God loves you, therefore.

So he says, "Walk worthy of the manner of which you've received that love." Then in verse two, he describes what that love looks like. Verse two, "In humility, in gentleness, in showing tolerance, in love." So the primary practice of the gospel that we proclaim to believe is to practice the same love with one another.

We spent about three and a half years talking about the detailed teaching of the gospel in the book of Romans. Eleven chapters of exposition about what God has done and what he had accomplished, how he raised us up to be co-heirs with Christ. And then at the conclusion of eleven chapters of exposition, he gets to chapter 12 and he says, "Therefore, considering all that you have learned, I urge you, brethren, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice." And then he describes what that living sacrifice looks like in verse nine, "Let love be without hypocrisy." So the primary application of receiving the love of God, therefore, is to practice this love of God.

Like I said, today is the last day, okay? I made it through the first service, so I'm going to make it through the second service. We're going to jump back to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews, eleven chapters of Christology. Who is Jesus? Why should we love him? Why should we follow him?

Why should we worship him? That's eleven chapters of exposition. So he concludes in chapter 11, here's these people who, because of their faith, they lived a certain way. And then he concludes in chapter 12, "Therefore, considering all the indicatives that you have learned," here are the imperatives, "Therefore, since we have so great a crowd surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." So what is this race that we are to run?

Verse 14, "Pursue peace with all men." To practice this love that we proclaim and believe that was practiced on us. Again, Colossians chapter 3, 1 through 2, after two chapters of Christology about the supremacy of Christ, he says, "Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." And what does it mean to seek Christ above?

Verse 12, "Put on a heart of compassion, kindness, and humility." So you cannot be a worshiper of God and just erase the "therefore"s that comes after it. Because he says, "This is what God has done, and if you believe this, therefore, now practice this love with one another." Easy to preach.

I can literally open up any text in the New Testament and the Old Testament and preach about this agape love. But to practice it, actually apply it. So even this morning, if you hear this message and you start to think of it in your head, in theory, in theory, it's great.

But if you try to apply it even a little bit this week, I'm pretty sure you face frustration with your own flesh. Because you know how difficult that is to practice, even to just be around annoying people. We don't want to be around annoying people. To actually pursue somebody in this agape love who doesn't deserve it, there is nothing more sanctifying to a born-again Christian than the practice of this agape love.

Agape love is at the core of killing our pride. A proud man will never approach somebody because he has to humble himself. Agape love kills a self-centered life. Because at the core, our natural reaction is to run away from danger. So if somebody is causing harm, is slandering you, it is our natural reaction to run away from that person or even retaliate.

But the practice of agape love, it challenges and it kills a self-centered life. Agape love, it kills a comfort and safety-driven life. Where again, our natural desire is to run to safety, is to hide. But agape love challenges us to go sometimes in places of danger for the purpose of someone else's good.

But this agape love is also the reason why you and I are here. Not only does it kill our pride, a self-centered life, a life-seeking comfort and safety, it is the very reason why our sins are killed. And why it is the agape love that kills the fear of death, that gives us the strength to be able to live boldly.

Again, easy to talk about, but difficult to practice. In fact, let me go a step further than that. It is beyond difficult. It is impossible. Impossible. If you have somebody that you've been having a hard time forgiving, and they've been deliberately saying things to hurt you, I mean, not just to forgive them, but to actually love them.

It ruins your day, it ruins your appetite, it ruins fellowship. It ruins even probably as you're listening to the sermon now. Because there's a turmoil, there's a fight going on in your own heart, because you know how difficult this is. But there is no truer evidence of a born-again Christian than when the Holy Spirit convicts us to practice this love.

Because only people who are the recipients of this agape love would even consider practicing this love. It is the greatest evidence of a follower of Jesus Christ. That's what he says in John chapter 13. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another, as I have loved you.

So I want to finish this sermon, so I'm going to get to number two. Number two. This commandment is so practical. Because not only is this commandment like loving God, you cannot love God and not love people, but two, it says we are to love our neighbors. Now if you just read it, it's like, yeah, I mean, you probably memorized this first, but why is this significant?

Because he doesn't just say love the world. Because it's easy to love the world. Let me explain what I mean by that. Because the world is abstract. The world doesn't sit next to you. When that person is punching your seat because they're irritating, we don't think of them as the world.

When we think of the world, it's abstract. So it's very easy to say God loves the world, I'm going to love the world. He doesn't say that. He said love your neighbor. And who's our neighbor? I mean, technically, you can say somebody who lives next to us, but that's not what Jesus means by that.

He says in the Gospel of Luke, when a lawyer comes, he says, "Who's our neighbor?" And he describes an individual who basically was robbed and beaten. So he's not talking about just somebody who lives next to us, he's talking about people that we encounter on a day-to-day basis. In fact, the biblical understanding of neighbor is whoever's next to you is your neighbor.

People you're sitting next to. I mean, that could be somebody who lives next to you. It could be your husband, it could be your wife, it could be your own children. The people who are the closest to us are our neighbors. Here's a reason why he says to love our neighbors.

Because when we get convicted about these things, we can say, "You know what? I'm going to love the world as God loved the world." And it's abstract and it's hard to apply. But he makes it very specific. He says in 1 John 4.20, "If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar.

For the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen." So let me stop right there. When I read that, at least the first time I read that, it's like, loving God is actually much easier than loving people. Most people will admit, "I mean, God, what did he do?

I mean, he loved us, he sacrificed his only begotten son, he suffered on my behalf. How can I not love him?" He's actually much easier to love. So many people say, "I love God, but I hate people." I mean, we can understand that. People are much harder to love.

So what does he mean by here? If you can't love the people that you can see, how are you going to love a God that you cannot see? See, in theory, you can love God easier. In theory. The way you feel, it's easier to love God. But that's not what he's talking about.

He's talking about an agape love that is tangibly practiced. And if you can't practice with the person sitting next to you, how are you going to practice that with somebody that you can't even see? Let me give you an example of how often this gets applied. You know, whenever we get convicted about evangelism or world mission, you know, we get convicted about China.

We get convicted about Japan. We get convicted about India. And so we prepare and get ready, and then we go way to the other part of the world to share the gospel and sacrificially love them. You know, we're willing to eat food that we don't like in order to love these people.

But then we don't practice the same thing here. He said, "If you don't practice the love of Christ here, if you don't share the gospel with people who are here, who you can speak the same language, share the same culture from your own home, where you're with seven, eight, nine, ten hours a day, how are you going to love people way over there that you don't even speak the same language with?" That's what he's talking about.

In other words, his first calling for us to practice his love is with the people who are the closest to us, right next to us. That's why they say the qualification of an elder is to make sure that he's a good husband, that he's a good father, because the proving ground, first and foremost, is with whoever he or she is the closest to.

It's easy to practice love from a distance, in theory, because all we have to do is say we love them how we feel toward them. But that's not what he's talking about. He says he calls us to love our neighbor. In Matthew 25, 35-40, Jesus says, "For I was hungry, and ye gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in. Naked, and you clothed me, and I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me." And the righteous will say, "When did we do that?" And Jesus says in verse 40, "He who has done it to the least of my children has done it unto me." In other words, the love of God was expressed to the people that was in need around us, immediately, tangibly.

But a lot of times, the way we practice love is in theory, how we feel. But the Bible is very practical, right? He didn't call us to love the world. He said, "First and foremost," he says, "to love our neighbor." And our neighbor oftentimes is our very wives, is our husbands, is our own children, is our own parents, our brothers, our sister.

And then at church is the people who you're sitting next to. He said, "If we don't practice the love with the people who are right next to us, how will we practice this love overseas? How will we practice this love with a God that we cannot see?" We are to love not in word, but in deed, in action.

That's why in Hebrews 10, 20-25, Apostle Paul, I think it's Apostle Paul, but whoever wrote this book, he says, "Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering." In other words, he's been telling us about who Jesus is and what he has done. Hold fast basically doesn't… it doesn't just mean like, "Oh, just continue to feel a certain faith toward God." He's saying, "If you genuinely believe this, like hold fast means to make it yours.

Hold fast without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds." Stimulate one another. So look at verse 24. It's very practical. "To loving our neighbors," he says, "to consider." Meaning that we don't wait passively to practice love.

We don't wait until somebody annoys us and says, "You know what? I'm going to love this person." Or somebody who's ungrateful in our lives. He says, "No, let us consider. Let us contemplate and plan to practice this. Consider how to stimulate one another." You know the word for stimulate in Greek is a very strong word.

A more accurate translation of that word would be to provoke. Typically when we use the word provoke in English, provoke typically has a negative connotation. Like somebody provoked you to grace. We don't usually use it that way, right? You get provoked to anger. So it's a very strong reaction.

Somebody did something to get a very strong emotional reaction. But that's the same word that is used here to describe somebody who is deliberately contemplating and carrying out how my behavior is going to provoke you to do the same. And he says not to do this passively, but to actively contemplate.

How can I do this? Not forsaking our own assembling together. Why do we forsake our own assembling? Typically people don't take the assembling seriously because the typical thinking is there's nothing there for me. They're not reaching out to me. I don't fit in. I don't like this. I don't like that.

So there's nothing for me. Typically when we don't value assembly is because we are self-centered. But he says to consider, to think carefully, plan out to provoke others to love in good deeds and not forsaking the assembly of other people, not being self-centered as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

And all the more as you see the day drawing near to provoke. I remember back in college I was doing quiet time in this passage and I was taught that whenever I do quiet time that I need to make a practical application, which we should always do. If you read the Bible and you never get to the therefore, you never practice what you're reading, it just becomes a lot of knowledge.

And a lot of knowledge ends up after all it does is puff you up. So I sat there and I made a how can I deliberately provoke other people? As some of you guys know, my spiritual gift is not encouragement. Some of you guys who are snickering know who I am.

It's not because I don't want to be. And I really wish I was more encouraging. In fact, I wanted to name one of my kids Barnabas. Because I wanted one of my kids to be son of encouragement. So far, Isaiah has the best chance. And even when I'm trying to be encouraging, people get hurt.

So I know that that's not my gift. I know that. So how can I practice this? So in my limited imagination, I went out and bought a bag of lollipop. This is back in college. So I would carry it in my pocket. And then whenever I ran into somebody or felt the need to encourage, since my words are usually useless in encouragement, I would just give them a lollipop.

And they were all weirded out. They're very weirded out by my behavior. But that was my application of this passage. How can I provoke other people to be encouraging, to love other people? Some of you are very provoking. I see some of you who are very intentional. When you see a newcomer, you don't turn your eyes.

Because of typical people, because it's awkward. Because you don't know these people. And you make eye contact. And you've got to say hello. But some of you, I notice, you go out of your way to be welcoming. You're so hospitable. And you provoke me. When I watch your behavior, I'm provoked.

Some of you are genuinely hospitable. I see strangers and people who are new, people that you're not comfortable with. And not because they're your age and you have similar things to share with them. But just because you're hospitable. And the word hospitable basically means to love strangers. And some of you are so good at that.

Hospitality isn't inviting a lot of your friends over to your house. The word hospitality means to bring people who are not like you, who are strangers, who are outside of your comfort zone. And I see some of you who are very provoking. That's what it means to provoke, that your behavior in your life is provoking other people to do the same.

You know, I know some people in this church who are very intentional with their finances. You know, aside from the tithing and the gift that they give to the church, they have, there's people in our church who've set aside thousands of dollars just in case somebody is in need.

And so whenever there's a need, they're the first ones to call or email and say, "Hey, I have this money set aside. Can I use this for this?" See, those are the type of things that he's talking about to provoke other people. That by our behavior, by our life, intentionally, that it causes other people to do the same.

You know, when we went to India this winter, out of the 15, I think there was about 11 of us who were married. And we had a lot of couples. You know, for the first time in any of our mission trips, we had more couples at the trip than we had singles.

And the reason why that was so encouraging to me is because a lot of these couples, deliberately, they come out because they want to use their marriage to glorify God together. And so, you know, we had one couple who just got married, and the very first trip that they took outside of their honeymoon is they wanted to use their money and time to use what God has given them to provoke other people and to make sure that it's being deliberate.

Because typically, obviously, when you get married, you want to travel, you want to eat good stuff, and that's just how we are. You know? But these young couples, and again, it wasn't just one. We have other couples in our church who wanted to make sure that early on in their marriage that they wanted to establish Christ at the center.

And just being with them provokes me, that they want to be deliberate with their youth. One of the things that I always think about that provokes me to want to do better and to make the most of every opportunity, I remember years ago, back in college, a group of us went up to Oregon to share the gospel.

And we were out this one particular park, and it was filled with people, and there was this little tiny bridge that went over the stream. It's probably the best place to go to kind of relax and look at the scenery. I saw this old man that was standing up there.

He told me later on that he was about 86 years old. And clearly, he was not in good health. So he was leaning on the bridge, and he was just hanging out, just watching. So I decided to go over there and share the gospel with him. And so I started going over the bridge illustration about, you know, "All have sinned, fall short of the glory of God." And it took me about 10 minutes to go through.

Then after I was done, you know, I was expecting him to, "Okay, you know, move on your way, kid." Instead, he grabbed my hand, and then he reached into his pocket, and he took out a bunch of gospel track. So I said, "Oh, you're a Christian." So immediately, I thought, like, "Why did you make me, you know, present the whole gospel to you?" And he had a big smile on his face.

And he said, "I just wanted to see how good you were." So we started talking, and then he said, "The reason why he was there is because he doesn't have the strength to walk around like me. He used to do that, but once he got to a certain age, he couldn't.

So he didn't want to be stuck in his nursing home. So he comes out, and he stands on that bridge because that's the best place for people to come. And usually, people will come sit there and look at the scenery. And when they come, he would strike up a conversation.

And then he would take out a Bible track and share with them." Man, that was provoking, you know, because evangelism is one of the hardest things to do. I know next Saturday, we have an evangelistic team going out and sharing the gospel. And our tendency is because we don't like being rejected, "Oh, it's too hot.

It's too cold. I didn't get enough sleep. I'm not trained properly." We have all kinds of reasons why we can't do this, we can't do that. But here's this man, you know, having a hard time even walking, just standing there, leaning, and waiting for somebody to come. Even 32, 33 years later, I'm still talking about this guy because I was so provoked.

I was so provoked by this old man who was just standing there, just being deliberate with the retirement. See, that's what he means when he says, "To consider, to think, consider how we may provoke one another on toward love and good deeds." Let me give you one more illustration.

You know, I was reading this week, you know, with the coronavirus going crazy and, you know, a lot of people are concerned, you know, when is it going to come here? What should we do? You know, the epicenter of this is Wuhan, that city where it started. And there are over 11 million people, and they're all kind of spread out, and the streets have been completely cleared, nobody is outside.

Then I read about this small underground church, wanted to make the best of the situation. And so they're taking the mask that everybody is looking for, and they have a few boxes. And while everybody else is hiding in the building because they didn't want to get affected, it's just natural response.

We want to protect our children, we want to protect, you know, we don't want to, you know, get sick. But this church is out on the street with these masks and passing it out to people who are in need and using that as an opportunity to share the gospel with them.

While everybody else is running back into the building and protecting themselves, these people are risking everything and they're out on the street sharing the gospel. Man, that was provoking. Because it is natural human response to want to be safe, want to live, want to be happy to protect our children.

But it is a God-paid love that causes us to live differently than the rest of the world. Ephesians 5, 15 to 16, "Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil." Practical, right? Not to love in theory, but in deed.

Thirdly, we are to love as we love ourselves. To what degree? Maybe we can practice this God-paid love when my needs are taken care of, when I'm safe and I use the money that I have to make sure that everything in my life is good. And then with leftovers, possibly I can begin to think about provoking other people.

But the Bible is very practical. It says, "No, we are to love as we love ourselves." You know, the God of this age, Satan, God of this age, Satan, the primary deception, primary temptation, primary rebellion of mankind isn't worship of Satan. In fact, years ago, and I shared this before, years ago, I was trying to do a study on Satanic Church and what they believe.

And if you go to the Satanic website, right? If you go to a Satanic website or website of Satan, or I don't know how to describe that, but Satanic Church's website, right? Their primary creed isn't devil worship. If you look at the front page, their primary creed is, "Do whatever makes you happy." Okay?

So, some of you guys who have extra time today, go look it up, right? Satan.org, right? I made that up. You're going to have to look that up yourself. Some sort of Satan... Go to their website. Their primary doctrine is, "Do whatever makes you happy." And that's the teaching of this world.

You first. You first. Before there was this #MeToo movement, there's always been #MeFirst. #MeFirst. In fact, there's a whole song about this. Anybody know who Whitney Houston is? Is it already... Really? Anybody know who Whitney Houston is? Wow. Are you serious? Linos. Yeah. Whitney Houston. Okay, look it up.

She has a song called "Greatest Love of All." You may have heard it. Maybe you just don't know her. I'm really shocked you guys don't know who Whitney Houston is. You know who Michael Jackson is? Okay. Anyway, Whitney Houston was a superstar of our generation, and she has a song called "Greatest Love of All." This is what it says.

And you probably... Many of you may have sung this at karaoke or something, right? Without really understanding what you were singing. "I decided long ago never to walk in anyone's shadows. If I fail, if I succeed, at least I'll live as I believe. No matter what they take from me, they can't take away my dignity because the greatest love of all is happening to me.

I found the greatest love of all inside of me. The greatest love of all is easy to achieve. Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all." How many of you sang that satanic phrase? You go home and repent now, right? Yes, this is the theme of our generation.

This is the theme of human rebellion. You first. You can practice love with other people, but you first. Whatever makes you happy first. In fact, the Bible describes end times, the primary description of the end times. And when it describes end times, we're talking about a sin of mankind that has kind of come to a boiling point.

And the natural conclusion of man's rebellion, right before Christ comes and brings judgment, this is how it's described. 2 Timothy 3.1, "But realize this, that in the last days, difficult times will come, for men will be lovers of self." Now, let me stop there before I even read anything else because everything else is connected to this.

He says, "The primary rebellion of mankind, when it has reached its full fruit, is described as lovers of self." It doesn't say worshiper of Satan, idol worshipers. I mean, yes, there's sexual perversion that's all connected to this, but the primary thing is, if it makes you happy, why is it so bad?

There's another song. I don't know who sang it, right? Some of you guys probably know, right? If it makes you happy, why is it so bad? And he said, "That's exactly how the end times is described. Lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossip, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." The book ends of how this is described as lovers of self and lovers of pleasure.

All of this is interconnected. It's me first. And when that is expressed in the church, they have a form of godliness, although they have denied its power, avoid such men as these. Form of godliness. The reason why people hold on to a form of godliness where there is no power is because what they're ultimately seeking is reputation.

Reputation. So as long as they have a reputation of being godly, as long as they have a reputation of being faithful, that's all they're seeking for because it's self-seeking. It's not seeking God's glory. So even though there's no power in it, it doesn't matter because they're self-seeking, even in the church.

But in Romans 12.10, it says, "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Give preference to one another in honor." In other words, them first. Romans 12.10, "Love one another brotherly at ESV. Outdo one another in showing honor." Outdo, compete. You know, our natural inclination is to compare and complete.

You buy a nice house, you go to your friend's house, their house is better. And all of a sudden, your house isn't good enough. You got a nice Toyota Camry, you're feeling good about it, the fresh car smell, you got a good deal. You come to church, somebody's riding a Tesla.

And now it feels like a piece of junk. That's our natural tendency, to compare and to compete. He says, "If you're going to compare and compete about anything, compare and compete in love. Outdo one another." If you see somebody loving other people saying, "Oh, yeah?" Watch this, right? Quietly, humbly.

NIV is even clearer. "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourself." So this "me first," it contradicts everything about this agape love. It is not "me first," it says "them first" in Philippians 2.1-4. "Therefore, if there's any encouragement in Christ, if there's any consolation of love, if there's any fellowship of the Spirit, if there's any affection of compassion." In other words, if there's even an iota of love for God, if there's even a tiny bit of faith that you believe that God loved you with a love.

He said, "To practice this love." Right? "Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. But with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourself. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interest of others." You know, the definition of a good community and a bad community is very simple.

A good community is a community filled with people who are deliberately seeking other people's interests first. And so you have a church that are gathering together, contemplating how I'm going to provoke other people toward love and good deeds. A bad community is a room filled with people waiting for others to provoke them, waiting for others to initiate.

And again, when you have a church filled with people self-seeking, "What do they have for me? What did I get? Nobody's reaching out to me. I don't fit in. And nobody's doing anything for me." And you got a church filled with these people, you have a bad community. You got a frustrated community.

And eventually, that community falls apart because they begin to forsake their own assembly. It goes... That's applied to everywhere. That is the definition between a good marriage and a bad marriage. Like I said, easy to talk about, hard to practice, but at the core of good marriage, I mean, you can go to a bookstore and you can find hundreds of books, maybe thousands of books to have good marriage.

But the biblical principle is very simple. The biblical principle is very simple. Stop saying, "What about me?" Stop saying that. If there is any affection, if there's any love, if there's any compassion, if there's any connection with God, make my joy complete, right? Make my joy complete and have the same mind of Christ, who being equal with God in every way, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he gave himself.

He emptied himself. He became nothing. Not only did he not touch his glory, he humbled himself, became a man. Not only did he become a man, he humbled himself even further than that, was crucified on the cross, most humiliating thing, most painful thing that a man, even the humblest of man, could have experienced.

He said, "The highest of the being experienced the lowest of humiliation, all so that you and I can have eternal life." If there's any connection to that, he says, "Therefore." Therefore, practice this love that we sing about, first and foremost, with our wives. A good marriage is two people who are together, sacrificially loving each other.

To love somebody that you may be sharing the same bed with and you're constantly saying, "She doesn't deserve it. She doesn't deserve it." And you're absolutely right. She doesn't deserve it, but neither do you. My children don't deserve it. You're absolutely right, but neither do you. And so, the application of redemption in our lives is to practice this agape love.

Not me first, but them first. And then finally, he says that we are to love as the ultimate and final goal because it fulfills all the law. Romans 13:8, "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law." Okay, let me stop right here, okay?

Because, you know, in a church, I mean, our schedule is so packed. You know, we have Bible studies, we have prayer meetings, we have counseling, we have, you know, we have service team meeting, logistics meeting, we have children's meeting, and we have enough to keep us busy every day from morning till night until we die.

And in and of itself, there's nothing wrong with any of that. All of these things are efforts to build up the kingdom of God. But if we forget the primary purpose and primary goal of why we do this is to elevate the love of Christ, then you missed the whole point.

Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 1 to go back to Ephesus and fight with these false teachers, to teach them not to teach false doctrine, but in the context of commissioning him to this spiritual battle, he reminds him in 1 Timothy 1, 5, "But the goal of our instruction is love." The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, good conscience, and a sincere faith.

So if the goal of even preaching right God, even fighting against wrong doctrine, is love, then that has to be the litmus test that we examine everything. Before we talk about discipline and how many people are coming to church or how many times I share the gospel, before we examine any of that, the first and foremost that we need to examine is, is this love in me and am I practicing this love?

The goal of right doctrine is love. The goal of spiritual battle is love. The goal of discipleship is love. Let me conclude with this. If you go out of this room, say, "Yes, I mean, agape love is beautiful," and you're just going to suck it up, right? You're going to suck it up.

There's some... I can think about four or five people that I need to put up with, you know. "I'm going to be a good Christian. I'm going to do something." I mean, it will destroy you. I mean, you're hard. I mean, you're going to be wrestling back and forth, and it may be a good battle, but you're going to be frustrated.

Because the strength to love other people is not in us. It's not in us. This is an alien love. That only those who have seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ in response to that love, we love. We love because He first loved us. And that's why the book of Ezekiel, it says, "In the new covenant, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." You can't love God with a heart of stone.

You can't mold stone. And that's why our heart needs to be turned to flesh. So let me take a step back here and ask you a basic question. Do you know this Christ? And that may be a strange thing to answer with a bunch of people who come to church and hear me every Sunday, but that really is the fundamental question.

Do you know this Christ? Have you been affected by this love? Is there a true connection in the Spirit? Is the agape love that you sing about and talk about, is it in theory? Or have you truly been born again? Until we meet this resurrected Christ, this is not an imperative that you're going to be able to practice.

Until we are broken over our own sins, until we see the depth of our depravity, and until we see the glory of what it meant for Christ to die for us, and the hope that we have in His name because of it, and as a result, we desire to declare His glory with that same love.

Do you know this Christ? Have you assumed all your life because you attended church, your parents were faithful, that you were baptized at a certain age, that you gave and you were serving, maybe you were a leader at a church at one point, and we just assumed. But do you know this Christ?

Are there genuine fruits of this in your life? My prayer is that not a single person in this room, not a single person in this room knows this Christ in theory, holding onto a form of godliness with no power. You know, as I conclude, maybe asking like, "You know, you said you're going to be talking about knowing Him and making Him known.

What does this have to do with evangelism?" Everything. Because until the love of Christ is what propels us to declare His glory, all we are doing is regurgitating information, just like a good sales presentation. Somebody told us what to say, and I'm going to take this script and I'm going to give it to somebody else.

There is no power in that. The power of the gospel is a changed life, is a power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. You know, when we go to India, you know, again, going to India is, the older I get, it's becoming very tiring, like physically.

16 hours on one flight, and then I get another four or five hours, and then we get on another car to go five hours, and then we're at a hotel. It's fairly comfortable, you know, and the food is delicious, you know, and then we drive another hour and a half to two hours, and we have to make sure we go to the bathroom because, you know, the bathroom facility is not good, and we're always kind of under pressure.

We don't know what's going to happen, especially with the persecution. But man, every time I go, I feel like every single second I spend there is not wasted. You know, let me give you an example. You know, every time we go, you know, it's not a warm response, right?

They're not hostile, but it's not necessarily a warm response. It's almost kind of skepticism. What are these people doing here? And I remember the very first year we went, we went to this one particular village, and we started sharing the gospel with our testimony, and you could tell that the village people were upset.

The men began to yell at their children and their wives to get out of the tent, and they were chasing them out. We didn't speak the language, but we knew that it was a very negative response. So we got kind of nervous because there was a lot of people, a lot of men sitting back there upset.

And it was clear because we started sharing the gospel openly. Well, the village leader who happened to be sitting there, he stands up and he calms everybody down, and he's speaking their language, and he says a few things, and then everybody just kind of calms down. The noise subsides.

We're able to finish the work, finish our presentation. Then after it was done, you know, we went to the interpreters, and we asked them, like, "What did he say?" And clearly, they seemed angry. And sure enough, it confirmed what we were seeing. They were upset. And then the village leader stood up, and he basically calmed them down, saying, "These are our guests.

And the only reason why we were in that village is because that village leader asked us to come because he knew we were doing a medical camp." So he kind of calmed them down and said, "They're our guests. Don't treat them poorly. You know, they're talking about Jesus, but he's, you know, he's not different than our gods, and he was trying to, you know, like, water things down, and then calmed everybody down.

So we're a bit nervous. You know, how are they going to react when we begin to actually do the work?" So they got out of the tent. They're just kind of walking around, curious. It's like, "Man, you know, I hope nothing happens here." But once we started the work, slowly, they started coming and standing in the line.

Then we started doing eye exams and, you know, wound care, VBS was going on. And so after about two to three hours, we had a packed house. And these same guys who were angry were coming and standing in line, and one by one, they're getting their eyes checked, wound care.

And then the most common response that we get, not only from that village, but even all the other villages, is, "Why do you guys do this?" He said, "We thought that you came here just to see the Christians. But when we started to see that, you started opening up to Hindus." And he said, "Man, you guys are doing great things." And they would hold our hands, just grateful and thankful.

And they said, and this is the common thing that we hear, he said, "Even our government doesn't come out this far because they're so remote." In fact, the poor village people in India, the lowest caste people, you know what they're called officially? They're called untouchables. It's not a derogatory term.

That's actually what they call themselves. So they'll say, "Oh, we're all untouchables." And say, "Even our own government doesn't come this far. And you Christians are coming and you're willing to share all this, and all these doctors and medical professionals and people come in here to do this." And so every time that happens, it gives a platform for the pastors to share the gospel with them.

Why do you do this? And the answer is, because the God that we love did this for us. So this agape love that we practice in the church is the platform in which we stand to proclaim the love of Christ. We cannot be a good witness if the love of Christ is just theoretical in speech only.

It has to be the character of who we are. That's why this is directly linked to our vision. We want to proclaim Christ. We want as many non-Christians, we want as many family members to come to Christ, know this Christ, and have their sins forgiven, and have the hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ.

But the only way that we can have a platform to do this is if we also practice what he practiced with us. We love because he first loved us. So my prayer for us as we go forward is, you know, some of you guys are very smart, you have a lot of experience, maybe you have resources, and all of these things can be used for God's glory.

But in the end, the Bible says, "If you want to bear fruit," what does he say? "You have to abide in me. You cannot bear fruit until you abide in me." And the most central thing that God calls us to abide is his agape love. And I pray that that would be our pursuit, and that would be what we are known for, that Christ may be exalted.