The Power of the Unseen: Living by the Spirit’s Love

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
If you don't know Brother Bob White and his wife Becky, they are from Belleville, Michigan near Dearborn in Detroit.
[00:00:11] Bob was Joseph's pastor when he was a missionary up there as a North American missionary to Muslims through our denomination.
[00:00:19] And so Bob was here when our two churches came together for Mooresville and Lakeside to make Cornerstone.
[00:00:26] So Bob has a very special place in our hearts and with our congregation and we are delighted to have you here, brother.
[00:00:34] Good to be here this morning.
[00:00:35] God bless your heart.

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Thank you.
[00:00:45] As Andy was telling you where I live, near Dearborn, Detroit,
[00:00:53] For the sake of my friend over here, Brother Steve.
[00:00:55] Steve, stand up just a moment.
[00:01:00] I'm only 15 miles from Ann Arbor.
[00:01:02] Turn around.
[00:01:05] National champs, 92.
[00:01:10] I appreciate you, brother.
[00:01:11] He said he was waiting for me to get here.
[00:01:14] A Michigander coming down and being with him.
[00:01:17] But it's good to be at the church.
[00:01:21] You don't know the love that we carry for you, the prayers that we have offered on your behalf, especially over these last couple of years, for two churches to come together and having the privilege to be a part of that has just been a wonderful experience.
[00:01:42] And to be back with Brother Joseph and Brother Andy and the congregation and see what the Lord has done
[00:01:50] In your midst has been very exciting.
[00:01:54] It's wonderful.
[00:01:55] We can praise God for great things he hath done.
[00:01:59] Amen?
[00:02:01] If you have your Bibles this morning, turn to 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse number 8.
[00:02:12] Now last night I was preaching and I got excited and I talked about learning something from the books of the Bible and I asked a simple question, how many of you have learned something from Hezekiah?
[00:02:25] And I didn't get any answers.
[00:02:28] I want to say this, that's good.
[00:02:36] In my mind I'm wanting to say Jeremiah, but...
[00:02:41] That part of my mind is starting to slip, and I said Hezekiah, but we'll try not to make a mistake today.
[00:02:50] But the Lord has been good.
[00:02:54] I want you to finish this for me.
[00:02:58] We love Him because...
[00:03:02] Think about that.
[00:03:04] We love Him because...
[00:03:08] He first...
[00:03:10] He loved us.
[00:03:12] Just meditate on that for just a moment.
[00:03:18] He loved us.
[00:03:21] Praise God.
[00:03:24] When I was lost and undone in the miry clay, He loved me.
[00:03:32] The Bible teaches me that when I was in my mother's womb, He loved me.
[00:03:40] Then he says, even before the foundation of the world, I have loved thee.
[00:03:52] Each and every one of you that are sitting here today, he loved you.
[00:04:01] And now we have the privilege of loving him back.
[00:04:05] And I wonder how many can say amen to the fact
[00:04:11] That I know that he has loved me, therefore I love him.
[00:04:21] There is nothing more important in the Christian life than the love of God.
[00:04:29] But to be able to love him back is even greater.
[00:04:34] Because that means I have a personal relationship with him.
[00:04:38] I know him personally.
[00:04:42] Do you?
[00:04:45] I don't know the congregation.
[00:04:48] I don't know who's visiting.
[00:04:51] I do not know who's a member.
[00:04:54] But more importantly, I don't know who's saved.
[00:04:58] And I surely don't know who's unsaved.
[00:05:02] But you do.
[00:05:06] By what I've just said, the Holy Spirit of God
[00:05:10] Has already given you the blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
[00:05:15] Or he's touched your heart and says, I love you.
[00:05:19] Listen to me today.
[00:05:25] Do you know him?
[00:05:28] To know him is to love him.
[00:05:33] 1 Peter chapter 1
[00:05:41] Beginning with verse number 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
[00:06:10] Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season ye need be, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.
[00:06:20] Lest the trial of your faith be in much more precious than gold, that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto the praise and the honor and the glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
[00:06:35] Our text first, verse number eight.
[00:06:38] Whom having not seen, ye love.
[00:06:41] In whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
[00:06:56] The title of my message this morning, Loving the Unseen Christ.
[00:07:03] How many of you have ever seen him?
[00:07:06] How many of you have touched him?
[00:07:08] How many of you have heard him?
[00:07:13] Peter is talking to a group of people that have been scattered throughout Asia Minor.
[00:07:20] Many of them had not had the opportunity to see Jesus.
[00:07:24] Peter had.
[00:07:26] John, in 1 John says, we have heard him, we have touched him, we have seen him.
[00:07:35] But Peter exhorts us as we
[00:07:39] Live today just as they were back in the day and hadn't seen Christ.
[00:07:45] He's exhorting us as Christians today that even though we haven't seen Him, we love Him.
[00:07:54] Christian love is unto Christ, whom having not seen, ye love.
[00:08:03] Christian faith is in Christ.
[00:08:06] Christian hope, or the joy of hope, is experiencing Christ.
[00:08:19] Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
[00:08:23] 1 Corinthians 13 says, And now abideth faith, hope, and charity.
[00:08:31] The word charity means love.
[00:08:34] These three, but the greatest of these,
[00:08:37] is charity.
[00:08:39] Why would Paul say that the greatest of these is charity or love?
[00:08:48] Because when you think of faith, when the Lord returns and we go home to be with Him, we won't have to live by faith any longer.
[00:08:57] We'll see Him as He is, for we shall be just like Him.
[00:09:02] We don't have to have the hope any longer.
[00:09:06] Because we're at home.
[00:09:07] The promise of going home to be with the Lord because we are saved has been accomplished.
[00:09:14] But that love, that love will go on forever and ever and ever.
[00:09:22] I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
[00:09:26] What's that word everlasting mean?
[00:09:29] without end.
[00:09:31] I've loved you before the foundation of the world.
[00:09:34] I love you today and I'll love you forever and forever.
[00:09:42] But he says here that we love him even though we've not seen him.
[00:09:48] So what is the possibility of loving the unseen Christ?
[00:09:54] I want us to realize, first of all, that in our own nature, this flesh, flesh cannot love God.
[00:10:03] Romans 8 and verse 7 says, because the carnal mind is enmity against God.
[00:10:11] There's a lot of churches around here that talk, around the United States, around the world, that talk about the love of God.
[00:10:18] Oh, God loves us all.
[00:10:21] God loves his little children.
[00:10:23] And there's a lot of Christians that believe because God loves us, surely he'll let all of us go to heaven.
[00:10:32] That's not according to the Bible.
[00:10:35] The Bible says we're an enemy.
[00:10:36] We're at odds with God.
[00:10:39] As a result, we cannot know that love.
[00:10:42] Yet, we love him because he first loved us.
[00:10:48] Now in that aspect, God made it possible by revealing his love to us.
[00:10:54] If you would, turn to Romans chapter 5.
[00:11:00] Beginning with verse number 5, And the hope maketh not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
[00:11:11] Those that are saved this morning know that they can love God.
[00:11:16] There's a reality of loving God.
[00:11:19] And why is that?
[00:11:20] Because God has shed His love into our hearts at the very moment that we come to receive Him as our personal Savior.
[00:11:30] But notice as he goes on.
[00:11:32] For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
[00:11:38] For scarcely would a righteous man will one die.
[00:11:42] Yet preadventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
[00:11:48] But God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
[00:11:54] Much more than being now justified by the blood, we will be saved from the wrath through him.
[00:12:02] For if we, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.
[00:12:10] much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life and now and not only so but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement to help us understand that just a little bit better I'm going to Ephesians chapter 1 and I want to point something out here we find that the love of God cannot be accomplished in the flesh
[00:12:40] But it can be accomplished in the spiritual.
[00:12:46] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that being rooted and grounded in love, and to know the love of Christ with passage knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.
[00:12:59] Now, if we put the two chapters together, we find that we are born into sin.
[00:13:04] We are born into this flesh.
[00:13:06] The Bible says we walk according to this flesh.
[00:13:09] We walk according to the principalities of this earth.
[00:13:12] We've walked according to sin or according to the devil.
[00:13:17] But then Christ came.
[00:13:19] And when Christ came, God commended his love towards us and that while we were yet sinners, while we walked in that flesh, Christ died for us.
[00:13:29] I point to the cross because Christ died on the cross for each and every one of us.
[00:13:35] As we come to receive Him as our personal Savior, the Holy Spirit of God comes in us.
[00:13:40] He's our token of the assurance that we are saved, that we are going to heaven.
[00:13:47] Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
[00:13:51] Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.
[00:13:53] The presence of God, the Holy Spirit of God in my life gives me that blessed assurance, that spiritual assurance that one day I'll go to heaven.
[00:14:03] Do you have that assurance today?
[00:14:06] It's not something that's made up.
[00:14:08] It's not something that comes from the mind that is at enmity with God.
[00:14:12] It doesn't come from the flesh because the flesh lived in sin.
[00:14:15] But it comes from the Holy Spirit of God.
[00:14:18] And as God saved us, he picks us up out of that miry clay and he puts us on a firm foundation.
[00:14:24] That firm foundation is in a spiritual spirit.
[00:14:28] Now I'm not ruled by my mind.
[00:14:30] I'm not ruled by my flesh.
[00:14:32] I'm now being ruled or
[00:14:37] led along the way by the Holy Spirit of God.
[00:14:42] There is a spiritual sense that now I have been made alive.
[00:14:46] I was dead in trespasses and sin, Christ quickened me by the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and now I'm alive and walking with the Lord.
[00:14:57] If we fellowship with the Lord, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
[00:15:03] As a result, I'm awakened to that fellowship.
[00:15:06] I'm alive to that fellowship.
[00:15:08] I'm conscientious that there's a Holy Spirit of God in me, and he's leading, guiding, and directing me in the path that I ought to live.
[00:15:20] Christ in me, the hope of glory.
[00:15:23] I want to show you something this morning.
[00:15:26] We've mentioned here that God shed his blood that we might be saved.
[00:15:33] That God commendeth his love towards us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
[00:15:40] But most importantly, God has shed his love abroad in my heart.
[00:15:46] Brother Joseph, would you come up here just a moment, please?
[00:15:51] This is the lost man without God.
[00:15:56] Would you go give the love of God to some of these people?
[00:16:00] There's nothing there.
[00:16:03] Impossible.
[00:16:05] They that love not knoweth not.
[00:16:10] Amen?
[00:16:10] But God came and he shed his love in our hearts.
[00:16:24] That's what Christ has done for you.
[00:16:26] Thank you Joseph.
[00:16:28] Pastor.
[00:16:35] Each and every one of us that know the Lord as our personal Savior, we know that love.
[00:16:41] He first loved me.
[00:16:44] Think on that.
[00:16:46] Not only did we get saved, and people think about salvation as a means that I'm going to heaven.
[00:16:53] I don't know why we forget about the rest of our lives as we live here upon this earth.
[00:16:59] God said, I've left you for a reason.
[00:17:01] There's a purpose.
[00:17:04] As I preached these last couple of days, we've talked about the fact that God has saved us.
[00:17:11] That we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our what?
[00:17:17] Reasonable service.
[00:17:20] Well, there's a reason that God has saved you.
[00:17:22] He wants you to serve Him.
[00:17:25] And as we serve Him, He wants you to prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
[00:17:32] And how do we come to that?
[00:17:36] The Holy Spirit of God.
[00:17:38] And what is the Holy Spirit going to use?
[00:17:40] He's going to use love.
[00:17:43] This is what we take to a lost and dying world.
[00:17:46] We just want them to know that God loves them.
[00:17:49] And the way that they'll know that God loves them is they'll see the love of God in you.
[00:17:56] You're not going out and trying to persuade the Bible to them.
[00:18:01] All you're going to do is go out and witness that God
[00:18:08] I was once dead, but now I'm alive.
[00:18:15] Folks, it's not up to you to consciously try to get them saved.
[00:18:25] The Bible says I have called you to be witnesses.
[00:18:29] A witness is one who has experienced.
[00:18:34] Have you experienced the fact that you can love God because He first loved you?
[00:18:39] Have you experienced that the love of God has been put into you?
[00:18:43] Have you experienced the fact that God's love allows you to do as he would have you to do?
[00:18:50] What does he say?
[00:18:51] If you love me, keep my commandments.
[00:18:56] That's all he's asked you to do.
[00:18:57] You live according to what I want in your life.
[00:19:02] You live that good, acceptable, and perfect will.
[00:19:04] You live according to my commandments.
[00:19:08] You live according to my will.
[00:19:10] You go out and you live that way and others will see that you love me and as a result that love that you love Him with has been put in you that others will see that you love God.
[00:19:26] When we say we love Him, we just don't go around and say, well, you know, I love Jesus.
[00:19:33] Oh, how I love Jesus.
[00:19:37] I'd go around and sing that.
[00:19:40] It's a wonderful song.
[00:19:42] But listen to me.
[00:19:44] What we're talking about is that love that God has placed in us that enables us to love Him back.
[00:19:53] The same love that God has loved us, He first loved us.
[00:19:59] Now with that love, I can love Him back.
[00:20:02] And in that love I keep the commandments.
[00:20:06] I do His will.
[00:20:07] What am I actually doing?
[00:20:09] I'm listening to the Word of God.
[00:20:11] I was preaching last night talking about the power of the Word of God.
[00:20:15] Well now that power is available.
[00:20:17] It's like the battery in your car.
[00:20:19] That power is available.
[00:20:22] But the key is the love that we have.
[00:20:25] And as we turn that key we can sense the power
[00:20:32] Holy Spirit of God and as the Holy Spirit directs us as he brings us into his purpose as he directs us day by day we find that we're walking in the will of God we're obeying his commandments we're being his witnesses and as we cross paths with the one that he wants us to witness to or to carry a burden or to pray with we feel the power come and as a result we're able to do all things through
[00:21:01] That's the church.
[00:21:04] And only the church can do that.
[00:21:07] I challenge you, you listen to some of these false prophets that are around.
[00:21:13] The love that they talk about is a lovey-dovey love.
[00:21:20] We have a powerful love.
[00:21:23] We have a love that can change a person's life.
[00:21:27] We have a love within us that can change a person from being dead to being alive by the means of the Holy Spirit of God.
[00:21:36] Do you sense that when you're out witnessing to people?
[00:21:39] As you're praying for people?
[00:21:42] As you're witnessing and talking to people about the Lord?
[00:21:44] Do you sense that something has taken over in your life?
[00:21:49] And you're not thinking with your mind anymore.
[00:21:51] You're being led by the power of the Holy Spirit and out of your mouth comes Scripture
[00:21:57] After Scripture?
[00:21:58] After Scripture?
[00:22:01] You know, we have a lot of people who say, well, you know, I would do more witnessing, but I just don't understand that word.
[00:22:08] Well, the Bible says that if you study, He'll bring to remembrance the things which you have studied.
[00:22:15] And as he brings those back, we find that the power of God ignites us and brings us to that point that we can start talking about the things that we have studied.
[00:22:26] And all it is is the Word of God.
[00:22:27] The Word of God is truth.
[00:22:30] But the Word of God is delivered in love.
[00:22:33] Because I love Him, I'm going to serve Him.
[00:22:35] When I serve Him, I want Him to be honored, glorified.
[00:22:40] And as I speak for him, I'm an ambassador for Christ.
[00:22:44] I don't speak about myself.
[00:22:45] I speak on behalf of my Lord and my God.
[00:22:49] I'm an ambassador from another country.
[00:22:53] Are you?
[00:22:55] So folks, as we go out and we live our lives, we're going to be crossing paths with the lost.
[00:23:02] We're coming into experiences where people are carrying a burden.
[00:23:06] And we can be a help.
[00:23:07] We can be an encouragement.
[00:23:08] We can be a witness.
[00:23:10] And that's what God desires for us to be.
[00:23:13] So in that aspect, as we live our lives, I'm showing the Lord how much I love Him.
[00:23:21] Again, we love Him, though we've not seen Him.
[00:23:33] The proof of His love for us.
[00:23:36] Christ is confirmation of the reality of that love by the cross
[00:23:40] and by the Spirit.
[00:23:43] May I encourage you as you come to church, look at this cross before anything else.
[00:23:51] Be reminded that God commendeth his love towards us.
[00:23:57] And as we have come to the cross, as we have believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, given his life for us, then we can come and realize the love that is now in us.
[00:24:09] I encourage our people, the first thing that we ought to do is come in here and say, I love Him because He first loved me.
[00:24:19] And if He loves me, He'll take care of me.
[00:24:22] If He loves me, He'll walk with me.
[00:24:25] If He loves me, His grace will be sufficient.
[00:24:28] If He loves me, there's joy in the presence of the Lord.
[00:24:35] Let me ask you something.
[00:24:37] Have you walked in His presence this week?
[00:24:41] I wonder today, is there anything that you can glorify God over today that happened this past week?
[00:24:52] And all that is, Brother Bob, I'd like to tell you how the Lord and I walked together into this experience.
[00:25:01] Because all you're going to do is testify of Him.
[00:25:05] All you're going to do is glorify what God
[00:25:11] And shouldn't that happen every day?
[00:25:15] Now there's a lot of things that stick out as experiences.
[00:25:18] I like to call them landmarks.
[00:25:21] There's things that have happened throughout our lives that we look back and say, boy, if it wasn't for God, this wouldn't have happened.
[00:25:29] So we have landmarks.
[00:25:31] And those landmarks are reminders.
[00:25:33] It's sort of like the children of Israel when they were out in the desert.
[00:25:38] They were moaning, complaining, murmuring,
[00:25:42] And the word came to them and said, Don't you remember what I did for you?
[00:25:48] I think we have bad memories as far as the work and the experience with God.
[00:25:54] But I'm going to tell you something.
[00:25:56] If you love God and God has experienced that love in your life, you'll not forget that.
[00:26:03] My wife and I have been married 53 years.
[00:26:06] Now listen to me.
[00:26:08] It has all not been easy.
[00:26:11] There have been some rough times that we've had to face.
[00:26:13] Not between me and her.
[00:26:16] But in the circumstances of life, there have been difficulties.
[00:26:20] But what has sustained us is the love that we have for each other.
[00:26:24] That whatever we go through, we're going through it together.
[00:26:29] The same thing is true with the Christian and God.
[00:26:34] God is with you always.
[00:26:36] He'll not leave you nor forsake you.
[00:26:39] And in that aspect is the love.
[00:26:42] I spoke last night about us losing our daughter to COVID.
[00:26:47] That was difficult.
[00:26:49] But what got us through and what continues, because the memories continue to come up.
[00:26:54] I just cried last week because it was her birthday.
[00:26:58] It hit me like a ton of bricks.
[00:27:01] But as I sat there and I cried, I said, Lord, thank you.
[00:27:05] That my daughter knew you as her personal Savior.
[00:27:07] That she loved you.
[00:27:08] That she served you.
[00:27:10] And for the promise that one day I'll see her again.
[00:27:14] That's hard to go through.
[00:27:15] But as we went through that, the love of God surrounded us.
[00:27:19] The love of God comforted us.
[00:27:22] And as a result, that's an experience in my life that I'll never forget.
[00:27:27] Do you have those types of experiences?
[00:27:31] All the most precious times that we have loved each other are our history together.
[00:27:37] We've known each other since the seventh grade.
[00:27:43] We never dated anybody else.
[00:27:50] But we can go back in our lives and we can talk about experiences in high school.
[00:27:56] We can talk about our experience of being married.
[00:27:59] Oh, that's a funny one.
[00:28:05] But I can talk to you about the experiences of having our children born.
[00:28:12] And it's all because we have loved one another that we have that experience.
[00:28:17] The same thing is true with God.
[00:28:20] He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I'm His own.
[00:28:28] He loves me, He loves me, this I know.
[00:28:34] Do you know that He loves you today?
[00:28:37] And if you know that He loves you, do you love Him with all your mind, strength, soul?
[00:28:50] Love the Lord thy God with all that you have.
[00:28:57] Notice the purity of loving God.
[00:29:03] Y'all know that we have a unique God.
[00:29:06] There's none besides Him.
[00:29:10] Therefore, to love Him simply because He is.
[00:29:17] Think of that for a moment.
[00:29:19] We love Him because He is.
[00:29:24] It's the highest form of worship.
[00:29:29] As we come here today, we worship the only God.
[00:29:36] We have a privilege to come boldly to the throne of grace.
[00:29:41] To the throne of God.
[00:29:44] We can come boldly before Him today.
[00:29:47] And we can worship Him.
[00:29:49] We can pray to Him.
[00:29:53] The Bible says, cast all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.
[00:30:01] But as He is,
[00:30:04] He is, I am, that I am.
[00:30:09] Now that is more than a mindful, that's a heartful.
[00:30:15] I am that I am.
[00:30:19] Before anything, I am that when this starts to be accomplished, you'll know that I am.
[00:30:30] He's before anything.
[00:30:32] He always has been, always will be.
[00:30:36] I am.
[00:30:39] Therefore, He's eternal.
[00:30:44] Revelation 1.8 I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
[00:30:58] And I think that
[00:31:00] You that have gone through the 31 days in the Bible, you have learned that.
[00:31:07] He always has been, he is, and he always will be.
[00:31:18] Can I have a sip of his love?
[00:31:23] Excuse me.
[00:31:26] He's faithful.
[00:31:28] Deuteronomy 7 verse 9.
[00:31:30] Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, a faithful God, which keepeth covenants and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments a thousand generations.
[00:31:46] You see, we have the privilege.
[00:31:48] You think back in the Old Testament, those old saints, they did because they loved him.
[00:31:54] You think in the epistles and the apostles as they wrote those letters,
[00:32:00] Demonstrate and they describe their life with Christ.
[00:32:06] He's been faithful.
[00:32:07] He is faithful.
[00:32:09] He continues to walk with Him.
[00:32:12] But the aspect is that they all loved Him.
[00:32:16] And as they loved Him,
[00:32:18] From generation to generation that love was passed on.
[00:32:22] The faithfulness of God.
[00:32:25] The omniscience of God.
[00:32:27] The omnipresence of God.
[00:32:30] All of that has continued on.
[00:32:32] And here we are the church today in 2025.
[00:32:35] We have the privilege of picking up what the apostles, what the saints have talked about.
[00:32:41] How they lived their lives.
[00:32:42] We have the possibility of picking that up and carrying in our lives and living it today that we might be able to pass it on to the next generation.

[00:32:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
We are not living for ourselves.
[00:32:53] Church, you are not here to please and benefit of yourself.

[00:32:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
You are here to fulfill what God has started, what God wants you to continue, and that will prosper the church of tomorrow.
[00:33:07] Those little kids that are in the other part of the building, that's what we're living for.

[00:33:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
That's what this church is for.
[00:33:14] It's from generation to generation to generation.
[00:33:18] I was once young, now I'm old.
[00:33:21] I have the privilege of pastoring the church I grew up in.
[00:33:25] I started there in 1963 when I was 11 years old.

[00:33:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
And what God taught me in Sunday school
[00:33:35] What the preacher preached to me, what my youth pastor taught me, came into my heart.
[00:33:43] And as a result, he was training me, he was perfecting me for the work, he was establishing me.
[00:33:49] For what reason?
[00:33:51] That I might be able to give him the glory, but more importantly, that I can do the good, acceptable, and perfect will while I'm alive, while I'm on this earth, that I might be able to do what he calls me to do,

[00:34:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
For the benefit of the next generation.
[00:34:08] We've got to hold on to the anchor.

[00:34:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Don't let it slip.
[00:34:14] Know the Word of God.
[00:34:15] Love the Lord thy God.
[00:34:17] Serve God.
[00:34:19] Because it's a benefit to those who are going to come thousands and thousands of generations later.
[00:34:26] Now I don't think we have much time left.
[00:34:29] I think the Lord's coming.
[00:34:31] Don't you?
[00:34:32] I mean the signs are out there.
[00:34:34] You look at this whole world.
[00:34:36] He said it's going to grow worse and worse.
[00:34:39] Man, when I was a child, we'd go out and ride our bicycles, be out after dark and so forth, not worry about a thing.
[00:34:45] I'm worried about my granddaughter.
[00:34:47] She's just going out the door.
[00:34:51] It's changed.
[00:34:53] And because it has changed,
[00:35:06] Do we know that?
[00:35:14] Oh, the love of God.
[00:35:16] I'll love you with an everlasting love.
[00:35:19] I want to pass it on to my grandchildren.
[00:35:21] By the way, can I just take a moment?
[00:35:25] I want to share with you my first hearing of the Word of God.
[00:35:31] I was probably eight years old.
[00:35:34] My parents...
[00:35:37] Their parents were still alive.
[00:35:40] But my dad, his grandfather, my great-grandfather, was a tremendous Baptist deacon.
[00:35:50] Many times he was called on to preach in absence of the pastor.
[00:35:58] Christmas, Thanksgiving, and any other time that we'd go up and visit, we'd have dinner together.
[00:36:05] Then my grandfather had a favorite chair.
[00:36:08] And he would sit down in his chair, and he would have his Bible with him.

[00:36:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
And I said, wow.

[00:36:26] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Confused.

[00:36:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
But what he would do, he would take his Bible.
[00:36:35] Now my mom and dad weren't saved.
[00:36:37] We were all saved together in 63.
[00:36:38] My mom, my dad, my brother, and I.
[00:36:43] We were saved at the same time.
[00:36:45] That's a story within itself.
[00:36:48] But when we go up to visit my grandfather, my great grandfather,
[00:37:13] Let me start reading.
[00:37:16] God promises that His word will go forth and not return void.
[00:37:20] Let me read you something.
[00:37:22] For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
[00:37:30] Bobby, you know what that word perish means?
[00:37:34] It means separation from God.
[00:37:35] It means you'll die.
[00:37:39] Now listen to the whole family sitting around.

[00:37:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
He's written it to all of us.
[00:37:51] I was eight years old.

[00:37:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my grandfather prayed for my mom, my dad, my brother and I. Lord, you saved them.
[00:38:08] They're my children.
[00:38:10] Lord, you touched their hearts.
[00:38:12] They need to be saved.
[00:38:15] He prayed for three years.
[00:38:18] One day Brother Crawford was preaching.
[00:38:22] Brother Crawford was an unusual man.
[00:38:24] He was a compassionate man.
[00:38:28] When he got done preaching the Word, you knew he was done because he started crying.
[00:38:34] He'd take his glasses off, he'd pull out his hanky, and he'd be wiping his face, and then he would say,

[00:38:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
One Sunday morning, I'll never forget it.
[00:38:53] He's wiping his eyes.
[00:38:55] He come off the platform.
[00:38:58] He stood a minute.
[00:39:01] And then he walked over to where my dad was.
[00:39:03] It was my dad, my mother, my brother, and myself.

[00:39:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
And it's just as if it was yesterday and I could hear it so plainly.
[00:39:13] He come over to my door.

[00:39:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
My dad looked down at him and said, yes, sir.
[00:39:36] He said, come on, buddy.
[00:39:38] Bring the boys.

[00:39:42] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
And we all walked down to the front.
[00:39:43] We sat down in the front.
[00:39:44] Brother Crawford got back up behind the pulpit.
[00:39:47] He said, today, the white family, he wasn't being racist.
[00:39:59] Today,
[00:40:01] The white family has come to receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
[00:40:10] He said, I'll deal with them after we close the service.
[00:40:19] Once he closed the service, he said, folks, would you come up here and sit in the choir a little?
[00:40:24] My dad, my mother, me, and my brother.
[00:40:29] He come to my dad.

[00:41:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Praise God, Jim.
[00:41:25] It's good to have you in the family of God.

[00:41:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Betty, do you know that Christ died and went through the very same thing?
[00:41:37] I don't believe in this religion.
[00:42:40] It's an experience I'll never forget.
[00:42:43] But it was my introduction to the love that God has for me.
[00:42:48] And as I have been saved for 62 years.
[00:43:04] He has shown that love in the most unusual of ways.
[00:43:11] I stand before you today not to promote myself, not to hear the accolades.
[00:43:18] I'm standing before you because God called me to preach.
[00:43:23] And the Bible orders me to preach the Word.
[00:43:27] He orders me to preach the Word because the Word will go forth and not return void.
[00:43:33] He's telling me to preach the Word that won't return void because it'll do something to somebody's heart today.
[00:43:39] It may be you.
[00:43:42] You may be here without Christ.
[00:43:45] And that word, however I preached it, God has a means of putting it into your heart and into your mind for whatever your need is.
[00:43:55] You may be to be saved today.
[00:43:57] There may be somebody that needs to be encouraged today.
[00:44:03] Through this same message, He can encourage you.
[00:44:07] There may be somebody that needs comfort.
[00:44:09] He can comfort you.
[00:44:13] Do you need strength?
[00:44:15] He can strengthen you.
[00:44:20] All because He's a loving God.
[00:44:26] Jeremiah 31 verse 3, The Lord saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness I have drawn thee.
[00:44:41] How many of you are feeling today that the Lord is pulling on you?
[00:44:49] He's your help.
[00:44:51] I like what David says.
[00:44:53] He's my portion.
[00:44:56] He's exactly what I need today.
[00:45:00] If you're lost, what you need today is the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:45:06] If you're struggling today,
[00:45:08] You need the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:45:10] We were studying in Proverbs when we got to the oxen and the strength of the oxen.
[00:45:14] And I started thinking about, take my yoke upon you.
[00:45:20] I was going to mention that, but I thought I had said enough in Sunday school.
[00:45:28] He says, take my yoke upon you.
[00:45:33] All he wants you to do is just come and allow him to carry your burdens.
[00:45:40] Whatever it may be, because he's your strength.
[00:45:46] My grandfather owned oxen and he had the big collar and the two would work together.
[00:45:54] But he was always selling off the little ones.
[00:45:58] He always kept the one.
[00:46:01] I asked him, I said, Grandpa, why don't you sell that old ox?
[00:46:06] He said, Bobby, that's the most important possession I have.
[00:46:10] I said, what do you mean?
[00:46:12] He said, that ox knows.
[00:46:15] He knows exactly what I want, when I want it.
[00:46:18] He knows what we're going to do, how we're going to do it.
[00:46:21] He's the one.
[00:46:23] He said, now Bobby, when these others come along, I put them in with them in the yoke.
[00:46:30] And as a result, they are trained by the older one.
[00:46:34] Doesn't the Bible teach us that older men ought to teach the younger ones?
[00:46:41] And that's what I love about your church, your pastors, the opportunity to bless Sunday school and your Bible studies and your getting together.
[00:46:49] The older ones, 51 years old, the older ones.
[00:46:57] Just think what it would be if you had a real old one.
[00:47:01] But the older ones are to teach you.
[00:47:03] And it's not necessarily 51 and 47 and 33 and so on and so forth.
[00:47:08] But it's a man who's mature in Christ teaching the younger ones who are immature.
[00:47:14] He's teaching you the way.
[00:47:16] They're helping you by strengthening you.
[00:47:19] Because one day that older one's going to die off.
[00:47:22] And that younger one's going to switch places and come over here to the older menu.
[00:47:28] And as a result, he'll start teaching the younger ones.
[00:47:31] That's what the love of God does for us.
[00:47:34] Let's look at, for just a moment, the product of loving the Unseen Christ.
[00:47:40] Go back to 1 Peter there, chapter 8, or verse number 8.
[00:47:45] And it says, Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
[00:47:51] Where is our life headed for?
[00:47:53] What are we looking for?
[00:47:55] We are looking for the return of Christ.
[00:47:58] He's talked about the suffering here, that we might have to suffer for a little while.
[00:48:02] But that suffering is going to be worth it because one day we'll see Him as He is.
[00:48:07] When we see Him, we shall rejoice.
[00:48:11] We will be full of joy and glory.
[00:48:15] Notice, ye shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
[00:48:20] Rejoicing is the blessing to those who love God.
[00:48:25] The world is not going to rejoice when Jesus returns, but we will.
[00:48:32] The love of my life is coming.
[00:48:35] Kind of reminds me as I was standing down there at the front of the church aisle, and the preacher said, let's begin.
[00:48:44] And I looked back there to those double doors, and there was a woman dressed in white.
[00:48:50] And she started down that aisle.
[00:48:53] When she started down that aisle, I started to cry.
[00:48:55] Not because I said, oh, what did I get myself into?
[00:49:04] But as she was coming down that aisle, oh, how beautiful.
[00:49:08] Look at this woman.
[00:49:10] She's mine.
[00:49:14] And I'm hers.
[00:49:17] One day, Jesus is going to return.

[00:49:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
And we're going to see him.

[00:49:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
He's mine!
[00:49:31] And He's coming for His own!

[00:49:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Are you part of His own?
[00:49:38] If you love Him, you are.
[00:49:41] And because you do love Him, because you long to see Him, you'll rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
[00:49:54] That joy resides in the unseen Christ.
[00:49:58] John 17 verse 13, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
[00:50:06] What did, I believe it was Paul, but what did Paul write in Hebrews?
[00:50:13] That Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him.
[00:50:20] He's an example of that.
[00:50:22] The joy that is set before us as Christ is coming and we're going to heaven.
[00:50:26] Are you looking forward to that?
[00:50:28] Will that bring great joy?
[00:50:29] Absolutely.
[00:50:32] It's unspeakable.
[00:50:33] The joy is beyond human efforts.
[00:50:36] Psalm 139 and verse 4, David writes, For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, Lord, you know.
[00:50:47] Have you ever been so excited about something that you were speechless?
[00:50:52] You wait until you see the Lord and the joy overwhelms you.
[00:50:56] It's the joy of the Spirit of God that we're going to be reunited with Him.
[00:51:01] It's going to be a joy that you won't be able to think of.
[00:51:05] You won't be able to muster up.
[00:51:07] It's a joy that comes from the very bowels of our soul.

[00:51:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
It's the Holy Spirit of God that jumps and says, There He is!
[00:51:16] He's come to get me!
[00:51:20] We're going home!
[00:51:22] Praise God!

[00:51:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
What a day that will be.
[00:51:29] And then it will be full of glory.
[00:51:31] Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices.
[00:51:36] Psalm 16 and verse 9.
[00:51:39] That heart is a heart of confidence.
[00:51:44] We have in the Lord's presence the protection and the providence of God.
[00:51:52] God knows you today.
[00:51:55] He knows you quite well.
[00:51:58] And in that presence, in that protection, and in that providence, He's my portion.
[00:52:08] But then it says, and my glory.
[00:52:11] My glory is a song of praise.
[00:52:15] That song of praise comes from the heart.
[00:52:19] It comes from the soul.
[00:52:21] When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home what joy shall fill my heart then sings my soul my Lord my God to thee how great thou art.
[00:52:46] Do you find him great in your life today?
[00:52:50] My greatest love is sitting with me today, as far as this old world is concerned.
[00:52:56] But he who is my portion, who is the greatest, who is the loveliest, is the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:53:06] If you can't understand that today, the Bible says you love not because you know not God.
[00:53:15] You need to come and let the preachers tell you how you can know Him.
[00:53:22] If you're here today and you've lost your first love, you need to come back.
[00:53:29] You need to get back right with God.
[00:53:32] And that's what these altars are here for.
[00:53:34] You need to come and confess it and He'll faithfully and justly forgive you of that sin and He'll cleanse you from all unrighteousness and that love
[00:53:55] Father, in Jesus' name, we come before you this time thanking you for your love, your mercy.
[00:54:03] We thank you for the privilege today to open the Word of God.
[00:54:08] Lord, thank you for allowing me to deliver a message that we need to hear in this old world, that there is a love that continues on.
[00:54:16] There is a love that is substantial.
[00:54:19] There is a love that is established.
[00:54:21] There is a love that the Bible teaches us that nothing shall separate us from that love of God.
[00:54:28] Whatever we go through, the love of God can be experienced however we feel.
[00:54:33] The love of God is so important.
[00:54:37] And Lord, I pray today that you would help us to realize in all that we try to do,
[00:54:42] To be the Christian that we ought to be.
[00:54:44] To be the church member that we ought to be.
[00:54:47] To go out and to tell others that they ought to come to Christ.
[00:54:50] The most important thing is that we do all of it in our love for Thee.
[00:54:57] I pray, Lord, today that You would help us to show You how much we love You.
[00:55:03] We love You in the same manner in which You first loved us.
[00:55:11] Bless us now, Lord, as we go into the communion service, as we pause and we remember the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:55:24] We remember his death on the cross of Calvary.
[00:55:29] We celebrate the blood and the body that were crucified for us.
[00:55:38] Lord, help us to approach the communion service in the love that you have given to us, in the love that we can demonstrate, and in the love that we're to share with one another.
[00:55:55] Thank you for Cornerstone Presbyterian Church.
[00:55:59] Lord, bless this congregation.
[00:56:02] Unify us together in the love for one another.
[00:56:06] We pray in Jesus' name.
[00:56:09] Amen.