Do you really love Jesus?

You know, some scripture nuggets. I like finding some nuggets in the Bible here. And just a little bit of a scriptural truth No, no, no, no.

Okay. It's just a short letter there. And if you're there in 1 John, I'm in Peter. That's not where I want to be. Okay, here we go.

I was going to say, that didn't look right. 1 John chapter 2. And look at verse number 15. Love not the world. We were just singing a great song, you know, I'd rather have Jesus than anything.

The battery off here? Did I push the wrong button? There we go. There I go, messing things up again. All right. So, we just sang that song, I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world could afford.

And these verses kind of go real well with that song that we just sang, verse number 15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Whoa, think about that for a moment. If your love for the world and the things of this world is more than your love for God, God, that should be a hint that you're not one of his.

You're living still for self instead of for God. If your passion is more for the things of this world than it is for God, that's a telltale sign of what's really going on in the heart.

You know, they can say what a person, there's two books you carry around with you that tell what you love. Your appointment book and your checkbook.

Where you spend your time and where you spend your money tells on you. Tells on what you love. When I was in college, it's the worst time to be falling in love.

When I was in Bible college, I was falling in love with my sweetheart. And that's the worst time because you're poor. I mean, you're just so poor.

I was so poor I could step on a dime. My shoe leather was so thin I could step on a dime and tell you whether it was heads or tails. But nevertheless, it seemed, even though I was poor, I seemed to somehow find some money to go out on dates with that girl and to buy her things and to do things.

And I'm still doing that stuff. That's what happens when you're in love. Amen. You know, it kind of shows where your heart is. Okay. Now it tells us here, look at this verse, verse 16.

So it says, love not the world. Now it tells us what the world is made of. It gives us everything that the world, that's in the world, in this next verse. Here it is.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.

If you've got a pen or a pencil, get ready to write something down. For the lust of the flesh, write down pleasure seeking.

That's what the lust of the flesh is, isn't it? I mean, give me pleasure. Fun, fun, fun. Isn't that what kids start off in this world with? I mean, the first thing in their mind is, at least for me, play.

Play, play, play, play. And, you know, just pleasures. Pleasure seeking. That's the lust of the flesh. What's the next one? The lust of the eyes.

Possession seeking. Possessions. Seeking of possessions. Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. You know, the old adage, you know, get all you can and can all you get.

Possession seeking. And what's the other one? The last one? The pride of life. Write down these two words. Position seeking. Seeking position.

Looking for status. Looking to be honored. And sometimes we buy possessions hoping that they might think that we're somebody.

There was a day in America we used to wear our labels inside our clothes. Now we wear them outside. Look at me. I'm wearing whatever.

I'm wearing this brand or that brand or whatever. Why? Because we want people to think that because I've got a little alligator on my shirt. Or whatever it may be.

Polo or thing. I must be something. And we do that with things that we buy. Cars and houses and boats and whatever else. Because we want people to think we might be somebody.

But also too, we're looking for pleasures. Pleasure seeking. And the possessions and position and all that. That's all that's in the world, is it not? You know, there's a lot in the Bible talking about love.

And I want to take you to our passage tonight. John chapter 21. John chapter 21. And we're going to be looking at a question that Jesus asked his disciple Peter.

And this is a very sobering question. And oftentimes when we look at this passage, we kind of miss something. And part of the reason why we miss something is because there, when we have the translation into English, it's correct because it used the word love.

But the actual Greek word gives us some more emphasis on what kind of love is being discussed here. And so tonight what I want to do is I want to get into this passage in John chapter 21.

We're going to begin in verse number 15. And we're going to look at this where Jesus asked the question three times. Peter, do you love me? Okay.

But by the way, let me point out something that I recently discovered. If you go to verse number nine, we see that, by the way, what's happened here is that the disciples are out there.

They're fishing and they haven't had any success. And Jesus says, cast your net on the other side and they pull in all this fish there. And then they realize Jesus is out there.

Now, let's understand some more context. Jesus has already died on the cross. He's already resurrected from the grave. This is the risen Lord that we're talking about.

He's already met with his disciples on numerous occasions. We know the Bible tells us that for 40 days he was seen. And he is soon about to ascend into heaven.

This is the end of the gospel of John. And by the way, can I add some other commentary here for a moment? When we talk to Muslims, I know we're talking about revival, but I can't help myself sometimes.

And to kind of throw in a few little things there. We often tell people, if you're going to talk to a Muslim and you want to show him how to get saved, take them to the gospel of John.

The gospel of John is one of the, I mean, all of the gospels are great. The gospel's in every one of them. The message of how to get saved is every one. But Matthew was written more to the Jew.

And Mark to the Gentile. So they had different targets. But the reason why John is very interesting is because he covers some subjects that the others do not.

In fact, you've heard of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that they're very similar. But John covers other details that no one else covers. And some have tried to discredit John because it goes into other things that the other disciples did not cover.

Suggesting that, well, maybe we can't really trust that book. That's what the Muslims are trying to do. Because they know we want to take them to John. And they're trying to discredit John.

But let me tell you some things about him. The apostle John, he was probably one of the youngest of the disciples. And we know that there's an expression that Jesus used or that's referred to him that he's the apostle whom Jesus what?

Loved. There was a deeper relationship with him. And you see many, many times when Jesus is with his apostles, there are three that are closer to him.

That Jesus draws them into seeing and experiencing some things that the other disciples didn't get to see. That's why John tells us of other things because the others weren't there.

He's an eyewitness to these things. And when Jesus was on the cross and he's dying, whom did he give charge to look after his mother?

John. John. So there is definitely a special relationship here. And John records some incidents in the Bible that the other disciples didn't.

Didn't mean that they're not important or that they didn't know about them necessarily. But God gives the moving of the Holy Spirit on him to include these things for our benefit.

And in this, we see Peter's going to get a roasting. Have you ever been around someone who just is a know-it-all? I mean, they just, you know, they're the first to blab out of their mouth all the answers.

And when you got someone in your group that are like that and you see them being taken down a notch or two, you're probably excited about that. And that's what's happening to Peter here.

Peter's getting roasted by Jesus. They're out of fire. Now look at verse number nine. This is interesting. Verse number nine. And as soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals.

That expression, that Arabic, Arabic, that Arabic. What language are we talking about here? That Greek word is only mentioned one other time in the whole New Testament.

And it's found in chapter 18 when Peter is at another fire. And at that fire, he goes to warm himself. And Jesus said before the crow's there, you're going to deny me three times.

And the last time, he's there at that fire of coals. And he denies the Lord and even curses. Well, wouldn't you know, God brings another fire of coals. And here, so at the first fire of coals, he denies him.

And over here, the Lord tests him three times. So let's look at the questions here. In verse number 15. So when they had dined, Jesus saith unto, and by the way, there's a little thing you probably didn't catch.

This is a proof text that the disciples were Baptist. Did you catch it? Verse 15. First few words. So when they had dined.

There it is. My case is settled right there. Perfect proof that they are Baptists. Anyhow, I just don't know Baptists who don't like to eat. If you don't like to eat, I doubt whether you're saved.

I really do. Anyhow. So when they had dined, Jesus saith unto him, saith unto Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?

He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, feed my lambs. Now, if I read the very next verse, we repeat what was just said.

Almost word for word. And I've got to admit, in my childhood, hearing this preached or reading it myself, and I've often wondered, you know, why the three times, Lord?

Because, again, in verse number 17, it seems like it's repeating the very same things as it did in the verses above. Why are you asking him three times, do you love me?

Well, yes, I love you. No, no, Peter, maybe you didn't hear me. Do you love me? Yeah, I love you, Lord. Did you not hear me? You know, no, no, Peter, Peter, hey, pay attention.

Do you love me? Yeah? I think I've already told you twice, I love you. Didn't make sense. Why the three times?

And is it right to think that maybe Jesus is roasting him because he denied him, so now he's going to take his digs and let him have it? I mean, is Jesus really doing it for that purpose?

Is that our Lord? I don't think so. Well, that sounds like he's doing something out of vindication. Some think out of, you know, really giving him one four for what he did.

But that's not the picture that we really have. That's here. Peter is being examined. In such a way. That it will change his life from this point onwards.

And I guarantee you, listen. No matter how long you've been walking with the Lord, you may have been saved 30 years or three years or three months.

It doesn't matter how long. I guarantee you, when you come to this stage in your development, in your spiritual walk, when you face these questions the way Peter faced them, it will change you for the good.

It will take you to a new level of Christian living. So what is it that we're missing? Because obviously it doesn't sound that dynamic in what we just read.

Well, what we're missing is the Greek words. So let me throw the Greek words in as I read them. And then you're going to see that there's something going on in this conversation that we miss.

Okay? So verse number 15. So when they had dined, Jesus saith unto Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, agape thou me more than these?

Now we're not quite sure what the these are. Maybe it's the fish because he was a fisherman. Do you love me more than the trade of fishing? Or do you love me more than the disciples?

We don't quite know. Well, we can only interject our opinions. But that's not really where I think the message is at, what the these are.

He's saying, Peter, do you agape me? Now, most of us have been around the Bible's teaching enough to know that the word agape is the strongest word for love that anyone could ever conjure up.

Agape is an extreme level of love. It is a self-sacrificing love. It is a love willing to give up anything that one may possess, even their very life, if necessary for the object of the person that they love.

It's a kind of love that a mother or father, a parent would have for a child, where they'd be willing to lay down their life. So let's look at the response of Peter, because Peter speaks Greek, too.

I'm sure he understood what the Lord was saying. Simon, son of Jonas, agape thou me more than these. And he saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I phileo thee.

I philos thee. He didn't return with the same intensity of love. He used actually the lesser of all the words of love that could be picked out of the dictionary.

He used that word to say and describe the depth of his love for his Savior. Yeah, Lord, you know that I phileo thee.

Now, can you understand why he asked the question again? He comes back in the next verse, in verse 16. He saith unto him, a second time, Simon, son of Jonas, agape thou me?

He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I phileo thee. He saith unto him, feed my lambs. Now there's feed my lambs, feed my sheep and stuff there.

And that's another message. And I don't think we want to be here until 11. So we'll save that for another time. So now do you understand why he's repeating the question?

He's saying, no, no, no, Peter, I asked you, do you love me? I mean, really love me with a sacrificial love. Is that the kind of love you have for me?

And Peter said, yeah, I phileo thee. I like you. I'm fond of you. You know, the word phileo, there's another word in the Greek language for love, and that's eros.

Now, that would be really strange if he said that, because eros is kind of the word we get erotic from. You know, that's the word that you use between your husband and wife stuff, okay? All right, so glad that's not being thrown in here, okay?

And so, but he uses, Jesus is saying the supreme love, and he's using the lesser word for love. It's like the word you and I might say, I love pizza.

Now, if you say, I eat ros pizza, then we've got problems, okay, you know. Now, if you say, I agape pizza, then you really have problems, too, okay?

I mean, pizza's pretty cool, but I wouldn't die for it, okay? But using the word phileo is a word that you say, well, I, you know, in a sense, it's kind of like, I like you.

I'm fond of you. You make me laugh. You're pretty cool to be around. I like hanging with you.

That's what he's saying. And maybe, perhaps, that's how most people are living. I'd like to speak to you, before I continue, about what it is that motivates you.

What motivates you to live your Christian life? What is your motive for being here? Why do you come to church? Why do you do what you do for the Lord?

What is it that's your motive? I've been in ministry now for years. I'm scared to count these days. And I've discovered that a number of people will serve God for various reasons, certain motivations.

Some people serve God simply because they have to. They feel obligated. It's an obligation. They do what they do out of duty.

But nothing more. That was me growing up. I didn't have much choice about going to church growing up. I had a drug problem, actually, I admit.

I was drugged to church. And so, you know, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, visitation night, you name it, we were at church. I thought we might as well just move to church.

And now that kind of happens when you're in a preacher's home. You know, you're going to do church all the time, right? But I've got to be honest with you. I didn't do it because I wanted to.

I did it because I had to. And the motivation was, whew, if I didn't. You know, speaking of that, my mother and father disciplined me in different ways.

They have different, you know, personalities there. My dad, his, the way he would discipline, usually he would first say, go to your room and think about what's coming.

That was almost worse than what was coming. Your mind is left to all the imagination of the blood and the tears and the whining and the crying and all the pain and all that stuff there.

And sure enough, after about a few hours of being up there, it might have been minutes, but it seemed like hours. You know, you'd hear him come upstairs. And, you know, judgment day is coming.

And he gets to the door, opens the door. And for, in our situation, it was like, okay, you know what's coming, so get in position.

And while I got in position, he would pull out his belt. That belt is now bronzed. It's lying over the fireplace. Inscribed other words, I need thee every hour.

That belt was slow but deadly. Every stripe met its target. Now, my mother on the other side, she was different.

She believed where you committed the sin is where you got disciplined. There was no sending you to your room or making you think about what was going on. Judgment was going to come immediately.

And my mother's favorite instrument of discipline was her spoon. Or, if we were out from home, was her hairbrush.

And I kid you not, if you go to the encyclopedia, the Britannica's encyclopedia, and look for the picture of the person who can strike you the most times in a minute time, my mother's picture's got to be there.

And as she is disciplining me, she's telling me why I'm doing what I did, what was wrong. I told you you're going to behave. I can't get as fast. I don't know how she did it. So I did what I did because I had to.

Maybe some of us can relate to that. Then I find, though, there are some people who do what they do. They serve God because they are trying to get something from God.

I'll do for you, and you do for me. I bless you, and you bless me. Let me tell you a story.

I was 11 years of age. My dad and another missionary had, we were missionaries in England then, and our churches were in the Midlands, but dad and another missionary would drive down to Oxford to an American Air Force base, Upper Hayford.

And they started Bible studies there amongst the men, the Air Force, and that grew into a church. And that church was having a watch night service.

How many of you know what a watch night service is? Okay. I wish we'd bring those things back. I really do. I miss them. It would give people, usually what we did in our watch night service, men would get to preach for their very first time.

Young preacher boys, eager to get out and preach their two-hour sermon and get done in five minutes. And it would take them 20 hours to prepare it and five minutes to be done.

And how do I know that? Well, that's what happened to me. So, yeah, I thought this is going to go on and on and on, and I'm going to wax eloquent there. And five minutes, I was done. I said it all. And so, you know, we were at a watch, and the room was much smaller than this here, but imagine the width of these chairs going back there, maybe to the back wall there, about the size of the room.

And I was sitting in the back like a good Baptist does, and you could tell we were in a Baptist meeting again. That wasn't the food. They were taking up an offering. Another giveaway. Another sign.

Baptist meeting. And so I was sitting in the back like a good Baptist, and they were taking up the offering, and God began to meddle with me in that offering. Now, it's unfair that God has omniscience, that he knows all things, right?

And he happened to know at Christmas I had Christmas money still in my pocket. All two British pounds. Back in the day, they were paper then.

And I had them folded crisp in my pocket, and I had special plans for it, like candy, things like that. And God started telling me that he wanted me to give those two pounds in the offering.

Well, back then, two pounds was a lot of money. That was more than my two weeks of allowance. And so the offering plate's getting back closer and closer and closer to me is moving to the back there, and I'm trying to figure out what to do, and I try to bargain with God.

Well, what if I give one and keep one? Will that work? But no, God wanted both of them. He wanted it all. And I was trying to remind God, well, I paid you on Sunday already.

I already gave my tithe and gave my faith promise. You know what? This is mine. Well, finally, the offering plate came to me, and I held onto it for a moment. It felt like minutes.

And I reached in my pocket, and I grabbed those two pounds, and I put it in and passed it on. I didn't think much about it afterwards. The service continued on, and there were more preaching and more singing, and then it came to the end of the meeting, and Dad and I, we were going to drive home, and an hour drive at least for us there, but the roads had gotten icy.

It's New Year's, and New Year's Eve, there's a lot of people filled with the Spirit. The other kind. And so a family there, Henry Glickler, he was a Jew that my dad had led to the Lord.

Henry said, well, why don't you come over to the house, spend the night with us, and then, you know, the roads will get better, and you can head on home, have breakfast with us, and go home. So we went over to the Glickler's home.

And there, I got to play with his Christmas present. His wife bought him a Mattel football game.

Remember those handheld? These were the first computer games that you held. Just red lights, just a little, you know, black screen with little red lights and stuff like that. I was having a time.

I'd never seen anything like it before in my life. Oh, I was cooking. I was smoking on that thing. And it got 2, 3 o'clock in the morning, and Dad and Henry were talking.

Finally, he said, you know, let's get some sleep. And so Dad took the game away from me, told me to go to sleep on the couch, and I don't know where he slept, but I woke everyone up in the morning to beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, all through breakfast, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

Then it was time to go home, lay the game down, walking out, got into the car. We were backing up, and Henry came running out, came to the window.

I rolled down the window, and he lent in. He said, Tommy, I want you to have my game. I knew exactly what was going on. not even six hours earlier, God was testing the heart of a young boy to see if he'd be obedient.

Now, at first I wasn't. I argued. Now, I know you wouldn't. You're more spiritual than me. But I did. Now, I didn't want to do it.

But I was obedient and I gave. See, I had heard many times, give and it shall be given unto you. Press down good measure. By the way, you know that verse?

Go there. Luke chapter six. Luke chapter six, I think it's verse 17. Luke chapter six, verse 17. If I'm wrong on the verse, it's in there.

Chapter six, Luke chapter six, okay? And in there, it's every time. Let's find that verse. Let me get my glasses on. Luke, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.

That's still before. John, Luke chapter six. Verse 38. Oh, right. Well, I'm glad someone told me there. Thank you. I've been looking for a long time. Verse 38.

Give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure. Press down and shaken and shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom. See, I had heard that preached.

My dad would preach that. You give and God's gonna bless you. You give like your spoon worth there and God's gonna open the windows of heaven and get his shovel. His spoon's bigger than yours. And he'll pour you out a blessing that you'll not be able to receive it there.

And I see, I'd heard it. By the way, every time I think of that verse, I think of a Wendy's Frosty. I don't know how many years ago it was. I was a young missionary and I happened to be down in Florida and I ordered a Frosty.

And I don't know why I was watching this guy, but I was watching him. And as he put the cup under the thing, he pulled the lever. He was doing this number with my cup. And I was wondering, what is he doing?

That's odd. And then he did a little, and then ended it and brought it over to me. You know what the guy did? He's a crook. He's a criminal. He was, all that good, delicious goodness was oozing out, but he wasn't filling my cup.

He was robbing me and putting an air pocket in the middle of my cup and tried to cover up his sin by a little zip over the top.

And he put it down on the counter and that little zip over the top began to fall to the bottom of that cup. I took that, Frosty, and I went, now fill it up.

And when you fill it up, put a lid on it. And if it oozes over the side, don't wipe that up. I'm gonna lick it. That's how I want my Frosty.

Pressed down, shaken together, and running over. And I had heard that if you give to God, he'll bless you that way. And I had never experienced that, but for the first time in my life, at 11 years of age, I knew exactly what God was doing.

He was blessing a boy because he gave the night before. And have you ever seen a Baptist turn Pentecostal? Now that's not easy to do when your pastor's sitting next to you.

Inside I'm going, woo-hoo-hoo, glory to God, hallelujah, praise Jesus, and all this stuff. And it came out in a Baptist voice, you know, praise the Lord. And all the way home, dad heard, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

Now I'll tell you that story to brag on what God did. But now I'm ashamed to tell you what I did afterwards. Afterwards, I got to thinking.

Two pounds, game. Cool. I couldn't wait for the offering on Sunday. When I got my allowance on Saturday, I didn't take the tithe and the faith promise out.

I brought the whole thing. And on Sunday morning, I threw my whole allowance in the plate, and I went home excited because I was going to get a brand new bike.

Cool. Ten speed, red. Oh, man. Monday came by. Tuesday came by. No bike. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, no bike. Saturday came by. No bike.

And it got to thinking, we're talking about a bike here. So the next Sunday, I went and threw it in again. Folks, I'm still waiting on that bike. I never did get that.

Of course, you know why. The first time I gave out of obedience, God blessed that. But the second time when I gave, I gave out of greed.

I gave out of, I thought I could manipulate God. Hey, God, I'll do for you because you'll do for me. What is it that motivates you?

Why is it that you do what you do? I'm here to tell you, God measures your heart. Let's get down to it. What should be our motivation?

Why should we do what we do? Here's the answer. We should do it because we love the Lord. We love the Lord.

But I'm here to tell you, you can love the Lord in different ways. And Peter's learning something here. And he's learning something that he doesn't like about himself.

Now listen, listen. Why did Jesus ask the questions? Do you think he asked for his information? Do you think he's thinking, I don't know if Peter loves me.

I better go ask him. Any time the Lord is asking a question, it's not because he's looking for information because he doesn't know. He's trying to teach you something.

Remember Adam and Eve? Where art thou? It's not because he didn't know where they were. They needed to know, why am I hiding from God?

Why am I ashamed? Something's happened here. They needed to learn something about themselves. Why is the Lord asking Peter these questions? Do you love me?

Not because the Lord didn't know. Peter needed to learn something about himself. He was not willing to admit. And you're going to find that in the next verse.

Look at the next verse, verse number 17. Let's go back to John chapter 21. John chapter 21, verse number 17. And he saith unto him a third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?

Now what's the word he used? What's he been using? Agape me. Do you agape me? But here in verse 17, he doesn't use that word. He now uses Peter's word.

He says, Peter, you agape, you phileo me? You just phileo me? Now look at his response.

Look at what Peter did. Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, phileo thou me. He's saying, Peter, is that all you have for me?

When you say you love me, is that, that's the love? Phileo? And it grieves him because the Lord's telling him what he had been telling the Lord.

And we continue reading and he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things thou knowest that I phileo thee. Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. He keeps coming back to tell him, still do the same work.

Even though your love's been shallow, even though you're admitting that, still do the same work. That's another message. Okay. But let's get into what the Lord is saying.

You phileo me. Now, I've got to be honest with you. When I first understood this, I was in college and I was studying Greek. One of the hardest classes I ever had to, I'm not good with languages.

I'm just not. I just don't have those abilities. In fact, actually, there were 70 of us in our language aptitude class when they tested us all on our aptitude of foreign languages there.

and our professor met with us privately at the end there and here's what she said to me. He said, well, Brother Tom, the Lord knew what he was doing when he called you to England because you have the worst scores I've ever seen.

Not only in this group of 70 people, I've never seen a worst score in all my years of teaching language aptitude and you just suck. You know, you're just kidding. And I said, well, I could have told you there.

I just, I can't do, I can't do well with languages there. And, but here I am, I'm in the Greek class and I'm learning these things and I'm diagramming this passage and I'm discovering for the first time what Jesus is saying to him in the Greek and what Peter was saying back.

And when I came to this understanding that Peter, the great apostle, when asked the question, do you agape me? The only thing this guy could say is I phileo thee.

I got to tell you, it made me mad. I was angry. I was upset. Back then, we were married. My wife and I were there and she knew I was bothered by something.

What's wrong? There's something bothering me. nah, just something, I just, I get frustrated when I don't have answers. You know, something I'm studying, reading, I don't, I can't figure it out and it just frustrates me.

It bothered me for a whole week. When I'm bothered, you don't want to be around me. My wife will tell you that for sure. Sometimes she says, you just need to go somewhere and figure this out.

You know, just be gone. And then finally, something hit me in verse 17 that I didn't see. Look at this. Verse 17 at the very end. The Lord says, Peter, do you phileo me?

Yes, Lord. And he's grieved because he said it to him a third time. Yes, I phileo thee. And then he said this. And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things.

Thou knowest that I phileo thee. You know, you knew before you started asking me these questions. You know all things.

There's nothing I can hide from you. I hid it from the other guys. They're suckers. They think I'm something because I got all the answers for all the questions.

Lord, you know me better than I know myself. And I'm not fooling you by the way I live and the way I serve. You know, and I'm ashamed.

I'm grieved. I'm embarrassed to admit that all my love is shallow.

It's like a drum. It can make a lot of noise, but it's just empty. Empty noise. I love you, but only with phileo love.

You see, phileo love is like a Christian coming to church and think that church is like a buffet. Oh, I'm here.

I like this church. Boy, the preacher, he makes me laugh. He gives me knowledge. I get puffed up because I get knowledge. And I like certain things on the menu here.

I like the music, the song leader. He's pretty decent. Whatever. And they're looking at all these other different things and they're looking for what they get out of it.

They're takers. Phileo love Christians are simply takers. They're looking in it. What's in it for me? What do I get out of this?

Peter, what did he get? Status. He was in the inner circle. Paul, he got to go with Jesus and see things that the others didn't. So he probably was filled up with himself about that.

But he really wasn't there because it meant everything to him. Now, he was under the impression he did. He spoke in terms like he did.

I mean, remember at the upper room when the Lord said, one of you is going to deny me. One of you is going to betray me. Now, notice too that they all didn't say, yeah, Lord, we know who it is.

Him. Judas. He's a fake. He's not a Christian. He's a phony, phony, phony, phony, phony. He's not truly with us.

No, they didn't know. He was an unsaved man. They couldn't even identify that. But you know, all of them, who's the one who goes to the Lord? Now, Lord, I don't know about these other guys.

Well, maybe I do, but you know, I can tell you though, I can't really speak for them, but I can speak for myself. I'll never leave you nor forsake you. See, someone who talks that way talks like he agapes the Lord.

He was a big talker. He could put on a show. Can I say something that just really, okay, can I get on a small rant for a moment? I have seen again and again and again some people, and I hope what I'm gonna say you don't think of someone in this church that you can say, that's who he's talking about.

I hope this is not going on. And if that is, don't point him out. Okay? But I have seen in now 40 years of ministry, I mean, it's almost like clockwork.

There are some people in the church, they just show their godliness at every minute that they can. And they almost show it as if they're putting other people down. How much Bible knowledge they've got, how many souls they've led to the Lord, they've got the notches on their gun belt to prove it.

And they talk about how spiritual they are, they don't have this vice in their life and that vice in their life, and they like, they live like they're part of the Trinity. And I tell you, I've seen it again and again and again.

These are the people that are usually hiding a secret sin. And somewhere soon comes out they're having an affair or they're doing something that you would just be the last person you would think.

they're hiding their real, true identity behind a facade of glorious, righteous living.

Who they are, are really, they're the, they're the Sadducees and the Pharisees in the churches. But they haven't been changed spiritually.

Those are people that exactly like what I'm talking about. they don't know agape love. They sound it, they really broadcast it, but inwardly they're just out for something of their own gain.

Oh, we need repentance in the church today. And I may not be describing someone in this church and I hope not. I guarantee you, it's out there.

And I'm almost like, you know, my radar, when I see that in a person, I'm like, I kind of was like, tick them in my box and think, just wait. Just wait. We'll probably see something in their life.

And sadly, sure enough, we do. But I don't know where you are in your Christian walk. You know, we're here to talk about having a revival.

There are times in our life, in our Christian walk, no matter how far away you're going, you can be walking with the Lord for a number of years, but I guarantee you, you'll have times that you'll slip away. Bible calls it backsliding.

But backsliding doesn't mean that you're leaving the Lord to live in riotous living, but it just means that you sometimes slip away just enough to where you're not as devoted like you used to be.

And it shows in some ways, but you hide it well. But you know within, there's something not right here.

You know, even in marriages we have this. Sometimes we just need to rekindle our love. Not like we're falling out of love, it's just sometimes we, you know, allow, you know, casualness get in and life.

How many of you know that life happens? And life can throw you a curve. And it can throw you in a spin like you didn't expect.

And you may not have realized it, but it might have parted you a little bit from God. Sometimes we want to love God with agape love, but unfortunately we let ourself get involved.

And the fact is is that we struggle with the love of the flesh. We still have to live in it. And that flesh is deceptive. Sometimes we need to be reminded.

You could still serve, Peter served with Phileo. The truth is he made a lot of bumblings, a lot of mistakes, a lot of open mouth insert foot moments.

But after this point, I believe you see Peter being used of God like God has used very few men. And what made the difference? I think what made the difference is that he was called out for what he was.

He was living his spiritual life in his service for God. Only in the Phileo, he couldn't lie to God. He couldn't fool him. God knew his number and God was calling him out for it.

And now he's exposed. And now that he's exposed and he's got nowhere to hide, he realizes, oh God, I don't want to live that way. I don't want to continue this way.

Oh God, use me and change me and mold me and make me what you want me to be. And I think Peter stepped from the Phileo into the Agape and God used him in mighty ways.

And I'm here to tell you God can do the same with you. And he'll not be satisfied with the Phileo. He'll want the Agape.

After all, that's what he has given you. With every head bowed and every eye closed. So how is it? How is it with you, my friend?

If you're in the hot seat and the fire of coals is burning and the Lord is drilling you with questions, what would be your response?

I think many of us would have to say, oh dear God, I'm so sorry. I don't like what I'm having to admit. but I can change it and I'm going to change it tonight.

Father, please have your way in this invitation. I'm going to turn things over to the pastor to close as he sees fit. What a shame it would be for you to be speaking to someone's heart tonight and them not respond the way that you want them to.

They'll be tempted to continue and they may feel they've gotten away with it one more night. Oh God, may that not happen.

May they live as they should in Jesus name. Amen. again.