Love One Another

All right. Can you hear me? All right. Let's see if we can get a computer up and running.! I'm going to sit down and just let you preach, because I know I can't.

It all comes from you. Lord, I just ask that you're here in the forefront, letting us know what you want us to know about loving one another.

I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. So, back in the 1980s, there was this singer-slash-entertainer named Tina Turner.

I know some of you know who she is, some of you may not, okay? So, she wrote this song, and it's called, What's Love Got to Do With It? And the lyrics kind of go like this, What's love got to do with it when love sets a second-hand emotion?

And she was wrong. Love is not a second-hand emotion. Now, the love I think she was talking about was the kind of love they call pornosia, which is like when I see a fast car, like a Porsche, because, you know, Mark's up at a Porsche, was at a Porsche museum yesterday.

So, and I told Tammy to tell him, Bring me back one, because, you know, I like Porsches. I think they're pretty. Same thing with pickup trucks. I think they're pretty. That's kind of the love she was talking about.

Not the agape love that Jesus commanded us to have for one another. And that's the difference.

So, we're in John chapter 15, still in 15. And we're in verse 7 through 17.

We're only going to do like 10 verses today. And we're still, and this is, again, this is when they're still in the upper room. This is still part of the upper room discourse. When Jesus is talking to the disciples.

And he's teaching them what they need to know. And telling them what they need to know before he goes to the cross. Now, they don't understand that he's going to the cross.

But this is what Jesus knows is. And Jesus is teaching them this before. And next week, we're still in chapter 15 with somebody else's preaching.

But the point I'm making is we've got these 10 verses. And the whole 10 verses, as you read them, is about the love Jesus commanded us to have for one another.

So, if we look at 7 and 8, it says, If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.

My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciple. And I think Jesus is talking here to the disciples about when they go out in the world and they preach.

Or they teach or they feed those that are needing of food. And if we ask Jesus, like my daughter Courtney, she's in Bolivia as a missionary, full time.

And she's just taken care of. Because she's doing God's work for God, not for herself. Like yesterday, somebody got married yesterday the day before.

Or some famous person. At Madison Square Garden. And I'm thinking to myself, why would you do that except you're too prideful to give it to God?

Because it was about them. It wasn't about God. Like when we come in here and we worship and we're worshiping God. It's God it's for, not us.

Worshiping and telling God we love you. God, we want you to run our lives and be in charge of us. And teach us.

That's what we're doing when we're worshiping. And God likes that. But when we're prideful, he doesn't like that. Because that's a sin. Because then we care more about us than we do others or God.

And as 9 through 12, it says, Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you.

Remain in my love. If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love. Just as I have obeyed my Father's commandments. And remain in his love.

I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you. And your joy may be complete. Excuse me. My commandment is this.

To love one another just as I have loved you. And we see as we look at these verses. As we break them down.

Again, Jesus is talking about loving one another. He's saying, remain in our Father's love. In God's love. And when we reach out to those in the community or around us, we remain in his love.

Let me use an example for you. So, about two, three years ago, there was this man that Glenn knew whose wife passed away.

And Glenn invited him to come to our church. And George, you know I'm talking about you. And I warned you I was going to talk about you. And, you know, George told me last week.

He goes, you know, Mark, you guys saved my life. Think about that. And the way we did it was showing him love.

We reached out to him. And we were there for him when he needed someone to love him. And we showed him love.

And I've heard him say, oh, yeah, I love that church because they love me. He comes to, you know, the men's breakfast. And, you know, he'll buy me sausage. Say, Mark, here's the sausage.

That way you'll make sausage gravy. And I do. And he loves the sausage gravy. I know my son, Mark, and his wife, they'll go to George's house just to bring him dinner from time to time.

That's an act of love. And I know there's others that have done that. But as a church, we're not like the church in Revelations that Jesus says, you stop doing these things.

And so we need to continue to do the love showing. Showing people that we love them. Showing them Christ's love.

George, sorry if I picked on you too much, but it was just too perfect. And we love you, George. I say that from my heart.

And I know I say that for everyone here. We know that. So it's important. So I want to share this other story with you real quick.

Horatio Spafford. Does anybody know who he is? That is the author of the story. It is well with my soul. So let me tell you a little bit about Horatio.

Horatio was a Christian. And he lived in the 1800s. Like around 1871. He was friends with D.L.

Moody. Y'all know who D.L. Moody is? So he was good friends with D.L. Moody. And he had a wife, a son, four daughters.

And he was a lawyer. And he lived in Chicago. Right around the time that the Great Chicago Fire happened. And his son died right before the fire.

Not sure how, but his son died. Then the Chicago Fire happened. And before it happened, he was planning on taking his wife and daughters and going to Europe and spending time in Europe with D.L.

Moody. Because he went on an evangelistic tour. So right before they were going to leave, these things came up that kept him from getting on the ship.

So he told his wife, honey, take the kids, go over to England, and I'll join you after I get all this evened out. They were on a boat called the SS Ville du Havre.

I don't know if I pronounced it right, but that's the way I looked at it. And so this steamer, which probably had like sails too, ran into another ship.

And this other ship and theirs sank. His wife made it to England, but his four daughters did not.

So she sent him, when she got to where she was saved and she could, she sent him a telegram and letting him know what had happened. And he got on board.

He got a ship and, you know, rented one or got a passage and started heading back, heading to England so he could be with his wife. And the captain stopped where they think the two ships collided at.

And he had written a poem and the poem was called, It is well with my soul. And it's important that we know this, that even though Horatio had all these terrible things happen to him, he remained in God's love.

He didn't blame God for it. Kind of like, almost a little bit like Job. Job had all those terrible things happen to him.

Horatio had all these terrible things happen to him. And he praised God with the song, It is well with my soul.

And he continued to love God thereafter. He joined D.L. Moody and went with D.L. Moody on his evangelistic tour.

And it just shows us how important it is to remain in God's love. And the joy that we'll get from it. Because no matter how hard it gets, it's important to remain in God's love.

And in 13 through 17 it says, No one has greater love than this, that one lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends.

If you do what I command you, I no longer call you slaves. Because the slave does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father.

You did not choose me, but I chose you. And appointed you to go and bear fruit. Fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask, the Father in my name he will give you.

This I command you, to love one another. Think about that. Number one, he says, you're no longer slaves.

You're my friends. Think about this. He says, he chose you. You didn't choose him.

He found you. Wherever you were at. He chose you. And he went into your heart. And he loved you. And he died on the cross for you.

He gave it all up. So that you, when you finally go to heaven, you get to go to heaven. And when you're standing before God, God's going to say, well, look, Cody, you did this.

And you did this. And then you did this. And then Jesus is going to say, ah, I got that. And you're going to go in. And it's because he loved us that that happens.

And it's because he still loves us that that will happen. And that's what he's telling his disciples. I don't think they get it yet. They're not going to get it till like the next morning or three days from then.

But he's telling them it. And the most important thing he tells them is, I command you to love one another. Because he loves us.

He wants us to love one another. So I want to introduce you to a Matt brother or sister. So if you look in Luke 5, chapter 5, 17 through 39, that's that story of when the four men put a hole in the ceiling.

Okay? And they cut a hole in the ceiling. They lower their brother down so that he can be healed. Right? So we all have Matt brothers and sisters.

My wife is my first one that I'll say. Because I can tell her anything. And she just tells me, look, Mark, that's not how it is. You need to understand.

And then there's my son, Mark. Mark and I, we have, number one, it's kid love we have. Kid and dad love. But also, he's there for me and I'm there for him.

Like the other day, I was angry at, I mean, I was really angry, in a bad mood at Spectrum. Because they kept giving me all these excuses why they couldn't put internet at my new house.

And they had missed three appointments already. And I was really in a bad mood. And he calls me up and we're talking about something. And he says, Dad, you're in a bad mood, so I'm just going to hang up.

And then I said, Mark, I love you. And he says, Dad, I love you. So even though we're in a bad mood, he knows I'm in a bad mood. We still loved each other. We showed love towards one another.

I remember when he was about 12 or 13, that's when Kenny had passed away. And I was the one that had to tell him.

I held my son in my arms as he cried. Because he had known Kenny all these years. So you see, Mark is one of my Matt brothers. Then there's Matt Garrett, who's one of my Matt brothers.

And I say that because there are times that both of us have done things that we didn't agree with. And we could tell each other things.

We could bring it into proof. We could be honest with each other and not have to worry about the other feeling bad about us. Or thinking bad about us. Because we're Matt brothers.

And it's important that we have those Matt brothers and sisters. Because that's loving one another. That's showing the love of Christ to each other.

The same way, I hope that all of you have Matt brothers and sisters. You can show the love of Christ to you every day.

And when you're out in the world, we need to continue to show the love of Christ to those people we don't know. Like the people that don't have any food.

Or they don't have a place to live. And if you can do something small for them. You know, it's going to make a difference in their lives. The same way, when we showed the love of Christ to George, it made a difference in George's life.

I know I'm picking on you again, George. But it's just so amazing how we can change a person's life by showing the love of Christ.

Which is what Jesus commanded us to do. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, Lord, we just thank you. This message I know came from you and it did not come from me.

You show us what real love is. You died on the cross for us. You loved us. You showed us how we can love one another. You showed us how we can be brothers in arms and sisters in arms and brothers and sisters in Christ.

Lord, please continue to love us like that. And please continue to show us what we need to do to love you. I pray this in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Amen. Thank you.