Walking with God in Challenging Times

So let's welcome Ray Johnston. Thank you very much, Val. Alright, do you guys not love this lady? So Val, you do a great job. And first of all, I want to say this. I am so happy to be back here. It's 105 or something in Sacramento. So bring on the fog. It's fine with me.

I also want to say a couple things. My wife Carol and our twin daughters Leslie and Kristie are here today. And good to see you in church, girls. And I want to say this. I don't know if you're aware of how good you have it. Your pastor René, even though he has a girl's name, René is, in my opinion, one of the finest Bible teachers and communicators in America, let alone just the West Coast. And whenever I speak somewhere, I'll get back to my staff and go, what's it like? And I go, you know, Twin Lakes. They got the best communicator and the coolest staff of any church I'm aware of. And so I just hope you know how good you have it.

Okay, if you haven't been in another church in a while, don't even bother. They're just not this good. Now, a couple other things. First of all, I have message outlines and trust me, you're gonna need it. Okay, so grab your message outline out, grab a pen, turn to 1st Corinthians in the Bible, go to Genesis, hang a right, you'll run into Corinthians at some point. And while you're doing that, a couple of things I want to say is this.

First of all, your guest speaker list for the next two weeks is incredible. I don't know how you got him. Albert Tate is massively in demand, a world-class communicator, a ton of fun, very biblical, and Margaret Feinberg. How'd you book her? She is the number one in-demand speaker in America for groups that are 30 of age 30 and under, which I'm assuming everybody in here is. And I know how you got these people, but I'm pretty sure they went, okay, look, after Ray's done, we're gonna need two good people to unpack, do the damage he caused. Okay, so congratulations on that.

The last thing is this. We do a conference called Thrive and that conference is for anybody that just wants to thrive spiritually, relationally, and in what they do. And a few years ago, I was kind of going, you know, a lot of leadership conferences aren't very spiritual and a lot of spiritual conferences don't talk about leadership. So a lot of spiritual people aren't very effective and a lot of effective people aren't very spiritual. Does that make sense?

And we just said, what would happen if you took a full-on family conference and a full-on leadership conference and a full-on spiritual life conference and smashed them all together in one conference? Well, we thought let's try it and it exploded. It's called Thrive. I've never seen anything like it. It's sold out last week, six, ten weeks in advance with people from 30 states and six countries. We capped it at 3,000 people. We got up this year and we announced next year's Thrive theme is Reintroducing the American Church to Jesus because they've been introduced to everything else. It hasn't worked and Thrive, get this, it's sold out a year in advance. We couldn't believe it. So we doubled the size of it.

So if you would like to come, there is wherever that table is, it's out there somewhere. You can go out there, get a registration form. If you register this week using that form, you can get in for $99. If you want to register later for about triple that, go ahead. Okay? It is a really, really phenomenal experience. Most of the people coming are lay people, their moms, their dads, their people that are kind of just going, "I just need to stand under Niagara Falls for three days spiritually and leadership-wise and get challenged, get my heart refreshed." Because nobody lives well or leads well or does anything well unless they're encouraged. Would you agree?

Okay, so it's sort of like a massive dose. They're kind of like it's like church on steroids. And so you're welcome to do it. And then this book, which nobody has this yet. This is a book called This Changes Everything and I got so frustrated. It seemed Christians in America are known, we're known for what we're against, not what we're for. Would you agree? This book is what we're for and it is 31 different implications of the good news of the resurrection.

So if some of you are going, "Man, I just need to be an encouraged Christian." You read a chapter a day for the next 31 days. If you're going, if you know anybody that doesn't know Christ, they are, I would give them this and just tell them, "Hey, here's 31 benefits that flow into your life when you have an alive relationship with Christ." Okay, and for sitting in the front row, you get a free one. The rest of them are out on that table there. Okay, it's the pink socks.

Now, if you've got your message notes out, let me ask you a quick question and Val is going to be an IQ test to your church. First Corinthians chapter 13, the theme of that chapter is love. Would you not agree it is the most over-read, overused, least obeyed chapter in the entire Bible? No question about it. Now, First Corinthians 13 here, sort of just making sure you're awake. I know it's Sunday morning and some of you don't wake up till Monday. Here we go. First Corinthians 13 is found in which book in the Bible? First Corinthians, very good. Okay. Now, First Corinthians 13 follows First Corinthians chapter 12. Very good. Val, you are bright people and First Corinthians was written to a group of people living in a town called Corinth. They're short, well-taught people.

Now, what was Corinth like? You will never understand the challenge of living First Corinthians 13 until you understand the entire book of Corinthians is Paul's challenge to live a godly life in an ungodly culture. What do I mean by that? Check the front page of your outlining. I don't want to set this in historical context. Okay, you notice on the map on the right-hand side, you can locate Corinth. Corinth, nine characteristics of Corinth. Corinth was an absolutely beautiful place. It was beautiful and it was coastal. It's the geographical center of Greece. It sits right on the neck of Greece and it divided Greece and out.

Third is this, it's prosperous. Let me ask you a question. Ancient Greece, what was the intellectual center of ancient Greece? They might know. Athens, okay. Corinth was the business center. Okay, why was that? Because it was rebuilt in AD 86 by BC 86 by Julius Caesar and it exploded and it was heavily populated. It was sort of like San Francisco in the days of the gold rush. I mean, people exploded into this thing and let me tell you why. It was a very strategic city.

For the first time in human history, look up here for a second. For the first time in human history, you had Roman power and Greek culture colliding in the same city. That was a high-octane combination. The thing exploded. It became the place to live. You got all the benefits of Greece and all the benefits of Rome all in one spot and it was very prosperous, very strategic, and it was also a sex-crazed 101 culture.

You know, KG7 guys, it's so tough to walk with Jesus on today's high school campus. It's so hard to stay married in America. It's so hard to be a pure life in the internet culture. It would have been so much easier back then. I was in Corinth about two and a half years ago. Let me show you a couple pictures that I took in Corinth. I actually took this. This is the ruins of ancient Corinth. See that mountain behind there on the right-hand side? See that thing? That's a mountain called Acro-Corinth, Acro-Above Corinth.

Now, Acro-Corinth, see this? And that's more of a close-up shot of that mountain. See the ruins on the top left-hand side? See those ruins up there? Okay, those ruins are the ancient temple of Aphrodite. It was a massive temple at the top of that mountain. Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of, anybody know? Fertility. Okay, Greek goddess of love, Greek goddess of fertility. What was going on? At that location, the guide told me there were a thousand temple prostitutes, a thousand and during frenzied cultic worship, they would participate in sexual activity. I'm guessing church was way more popular with guys back then.

And that would guarantee your land would be fertile and then at night these thousand prostitutes would come down and ply their trade. It was a sex-crazed culture. And so when anybody goes, "Ah, it's a lot tougher living for Jesus now. It's a lot tougher living with integrity now than it was back then." Hey, then a thousand prostitutes at church back then. Okay, now that's not all. So it was heavily populated, strategic, sexually saturated. It was also the center of entertainment, trendsetting, and an area where taxes were high.

Now those nine characteristics, let me ask you a point-blank question. Can you think of anywhere in America that could be described with these same nine characteristics? Beautiful, coastal, prosperous, heavily populated, strategic, sexually saturated, center of entertainment. Can you say Hollywood? Trendsetting and the taxes are way too high. I don't know anything come to mind. Yeah, Iowa.

Now, you take a look at this and you realize Romans, I would argue this, Romans is the most important book in the New Testament logically. First Corinthians is the single most important book in the entire Bible if you want to live a God-honoring life in a culture that tries to take you in an opposite direction. And right in the middle of First Corinthians is First Corinthians chapter 13, which is in the shadow of a thousand temple prostitutes. The Apostle Paul writes this chapter saying, "Love is not what's going on at the top of the mountain. Love is First Corinthians 13."

Now the minute, here's the problem, the minute we say the word love, don't we use love for every conceivable thing? You know, it's great. I love my wife. I love my baby. I love my biscuits dipped in gravy. I mean, hopefully, there's a difference in this. And so I'm gonna take an in-depth look at this passage today. So y'all ready for this? Okay, I mean if you were hoping to sort of business as usual in church, you came on the wrong day. Here we go.

Now, First Corinthians 13, let me give you an overview. The power of love, first three verses. What does it mean to love people? What are the characteristics? Four through seven. And how do you practice love? Eight through thirteen. Now go to the next page, and I want to unpack first of all the power of love. First Corinthians says over and over again, the best use of life is love. The best use of life is not business success. That's a good thing. Not popularity. That's an okay thing. Not the best use of life is love.

And it gives a, it starts with a five-statement summary of why that's true. And he says this, number one, without love, all that I say is ineffective. All that I say is ineffective. He goes on and says, man, if I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, that's First Corinthians 12, but do not have love, I am what? A resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. Those are irritating, aren't they? Wouldn't you not agree Christians minus love that talk a lot are just irritating? Okay.

Now he doesn't stop there. He says, so without love, all I say is ineffective. Number two, all I know is incomplete. I know Christians are going, I know the Bible better than you do, so I'm deep and you're shallow. Check this out. He says, if I have the gift of prophecy and I can fathom all mysteries and all what? Circle Lord knowledge, all knowledge, but don't have love. I'm nothing. You know what I'm saying? You can be a walking Bible Encyclopedia. You could have Leviticus memorized. You could have such a deep knowledge of prophecy that you could outdo Harold Camping in setting the actual date Jesus is coming back. However, without love, he says, man, I'm a spiritual zero.

The third thing he says this, without love, all I say is ineffective. All I know is incomplete and all I believe is insufficient. There's a myth out there that, oh, you're a Christian if you believe certain things. He says, if I, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but don't have love, I am nothing. He said, well, I believe in Jesus. Well, so does the devil. The question is, do I love him and do I follow him?

Then he goes on to say a fourth thing. And all that I accomplish is insignificant. All that I accomplish is simply insignificant. He says, man, I can give all I possess to the poor, but without love I gain nothing. And number five, all I sacrifice is inadequate. All I sacrifice is inadequate. He says, and if I give over my body to hardship, that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Now look at those five things. All I say, all I know, believe, accomplish, and sacrifice. If you take a look, if you back up from that for a second and you take a look, those five statements break into three things. And these are the three things that Christians, Baptist churches, and other churches have been trying to build into people for decades. And here they are. The first two, those are, let's put it up, deep theology. Okay. Second two are powerful faith. Third and the four and five are visible commitment. Would you not agree we as churches are trying to produce people that are theologically deep, have depth, their faith is active and powerful, and they have visible signs of commitment and sacrifice? Would you not agree?

And he's saying this. I can have deep theology, powerful faith, and visible commitment, but without love, I end up being a spiritual zero. And I don't know about you, but I think the world is getting a little tired of people who have Christian bumper stickers on their cars, Christian fish around their necks, Christian radio stations and iPods and all of that kind of stuff and do not have the love of Jesus Christ in their lives or in their hearts. Would you agree with that? People are getting a little tired of that in our world.

And I actually had to have a few years ago, a conversion to compassion. And as a result of that, our whole church kind of got turned inside out. And I'll give you an example of this. We were, we have a mall near us. It's a Westfield mall called the Galleria and it's one of the biggest, fastest growing malls in America. And about what was it, girls? About a year ago, the mall got attacked. And a guy set off a deal in the mall and burned about, I think it was 40% of the mall was destroyed and kind of shock waves through our area. But nobody figured this out. All those people that were working in all those stores that got shut down lost their jobs. And a lot of them were day laborers who couldn't afford that.

And so this is kind of where 1 Corinthians for me kicked in. We had a staff meeting and I said, we got to do something about that. So you know what we did? We decided we didn't check with anybody. We decided let's take a second offering to support the poorest workers in the mall who lost their jobs. So we just said to people, we're going to take a second offering. We're not keeping a dime of this money. We're going to give every bit of this money away. People gave $86,000 in a second offering. It was awesome. Okay. And we then contacted the city of Roseville and the mall. And we said we would like to partner up and create something with you guys with $86,000. And we're going to give the entire thing just to help these families get through this tough season.

And so we have given all $86,000 away across the last year. I get letters almost every week from families that are writing saying, thank you. We would have lost our apartment. We would have lost our house. We would have lost all this kind of stuff. I don't go to church. I don't go to church anywhere. I've never been to church. I didn't even know you. Why would you do this? Okay. It was incredible. Well, the mall, it's about a year into it, they are now rebuilding. And they're getting ready to-- they're opening up in September or October again. We get a call a couple weeks ago from the mall. The mall calls us and says, hey, we've been thinking about our reopening. And we're doing a grand reopening of this thing. And they said, you've had such a great partnership with us. And you people have been so great to all of our employees. Would you-- the weekend we reopen, would you be willing to come in and do a worship service in the mall on Sunday morning and rededicate that section in the mall?

Okay. I'm sitting there going, yeah, if I get half-price coupons to every store. No. You know, I said, I said, here's what I said. Let me pray about it. Yes. You kidding me? Wouldn't it be great if every church was so like 1 Corinthians 13, that you wouldn't be great? What you-- you already are. Okay. Wouldn't it be great if every Christian in every church was so much like 1 Corinthians 13, that if we decided to shut Bayside Church down and to shut Twin Lakes Church down, there would be such an uproar in the community that they wouldn't let us close the church? Wouldn't that be great?

Okay. That happens only when we get this chapter. It is not enough to be theologically deep. I know more biblical, angry Christians. And 1 Corinthians says this, you can have an advanced theological degree and you can out-argue Ray and René on every single point. But if I don't have love, I'm in spiritual diapers. I am a baby spiritually. I'm a spiritual zero. You can have a PhD in theology and be in spiritual wet diapers. Okay. I better move on.

Now here's the real problem. When you bring up the subject, what is love? Nobody's got a clue. And so Paul helpfully in verses four through seven says, let me give you 16 marks of whether somebody is loving or not. And here they are. It's right below there. And it's interesting to me. Eight of these are positive and eight of these are negative. I'll tell you why in a second. First two, he says this love is patient. Love is kind. Okay, those are the first two. And then he goes into eight negatives.

Now, why would he go negative on the subject of love? Would you write in your notes somewhere, write the word termites? He says, these are eight things that get loose in your house, in your marriage, in your homes, in your kids. These are eight things that will destroy a house, a home, and somebody from the inside out. Eight toxic things. So he goes on and says, hey, love does not envy. Love does not boast. In other words, when I seek to bless people instead of impress people, then I'm loving. He says, love is not proud. Here'd be a great one for Christians in America to get. Love does not dishonor other people. Love is not self-seeking. I don't actually like this next one. Love is not easily angered.

I'm going to come back to that in a second, but I have to say this. One of Caroline's goals was to raise kids that didn't whine much. Okay, that easily angered thing. I never wanted a lot of whining in our house. If there was any whining being done in my house, I wanted it to be from me. And so when we were living in a town called Folsom and we had a big rock in the backyard and girls, we nicknamed that rock. Whiny rock. Okay, and any time our kids started whining, we just go, all right, out to whiny rock. No, anything for whiny rock. They'd go out to whiny rock. They'd have to sit on it. It was raining. It's cold. It's foggy in Sacramento. It's 105 degrees. Nothing like you got here. And they're sitting out on whiny rock until they came back in with a good attitude. Sometimes they'd come back in. Okay, I'm sorry. No, not good enough attitude back at the whiny rock. Some of them spent a long time on whiny rock. One of our sons is still on whiny rock. We sold that house five years ago.

Love is not easily angered. Number nine, love keeps. No, this is an accountant term in the great love keeps no record of wrong. So come back to that in a minute. Love does not delight in evil. I want to talk about that for a second. He is now here. See those things right there and be boasting pride. Any one of those can enter a relationship and destroy it. So, for example, that last one, if you take a note, circle the word evil. And I'm going to move from preaching to meddling here for a second and say something that half of you are going to applaud about and half you're going to get mad.

Every you can check this out with a pastor. Talk to Dave Hicks, talk to René, talk to myself, talk to almost any counselor. There is an epidemic of broken homes going on right now in America because of affairs triggered by people being on Facebook with old boyfriends or girlfriends. And it is destroying homes in America at alarming rates. And I'm hearing this from pastors, from psychologists. I mean, it's a very destructive thing. And I have how many commands are in the Bible, by the way, this. This is church is not 10. 10. Good. Okay. Stuff about René being a good Bible teacher. Forget I said that. There are 10 commands. Okay, I'm going to add an 11th command. You all ready for this? Thou shalt not have any Facebook friends that thou used to date. Yeah, some of you are plotting and some of you going bummer. The go home, defriend them, hide them, don't explain to them. It's not worth it. Does that make sense?

Okay, now he goes and he gives these eight negatives that are termites and then he goes back to positive. He says, now, when those things aren't part of that, then this can grow. Love rejoices with the truth. Would you circle the word rejoice? That's a very good characteristic in a house. Just ask how fun is our house? Do we laugh a lot? Then he goes on to the four always. Love always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres. And then he goes on to wrap it up with this. Love never fails. In other words, when the above 15 characteristics are in my house, it will not fail.

Now, before I move on, I'd say it's been a really fun. I got great kids. Okay, our two boys are still on parole. So they're not here this morning, but our daughters are here and it's been fun. They go to a specific university. Would the ushers please come forward? And they've been home for the summer. And part of the fun part about having them home is they've helped me prepare messages. So when I the first time we're going over this message, we're sitting at the table and that led to a conversation about First Corinthians 13 says, here's what love is. The problem is this. Most people in America don't get it because they've been so conditioned by Hollywood.

Hollywood says, no, no, no, this is what love is. And First Corinthians 13 says, this is what love is. And sometimes they disagree with each other. Would you agree? So what we did the rest of this message, I'm going to compare the First Corinthians 13 to Hollywood. So if you would go to the next page, Hollywood really teaches three things about love. And the first one is this. Love, according to Hollywood, is how you make me feel.

Now, there's an old movie that some of you saw. And I want to see actually how many of you Baptist saw this movie. I'm going to play it, but I want you to listen to what the guy says at the end of this movie. And then I'll give you the theme of the movie. Here we go. Watch this. Had to be the top four, right? It's the best. All right, I'm coming up. So what happened after he climbed up the tower and rescued her? She rescues him right back. Welcome to Hollywood. What's your dream? Everybody comes here. This is Hollywood. Land of dreams. Some dreams come true. Some don't. But keep on dreaming. This is Hollywood.

Alright. Now, how many of you Baptist saw that movie? Okay, most of you. I did too, just to keep up with the culture. And as I understand the theme of that movie, here's the theme of the movie. Okay? Julia Roberts is a prostitute in the movie. And basically, if you choose that lifestyle, then here's what's going to happen. You're actually going to have a pretty good lifestyle. You're going to be unbelievably attractive. And at some point in your life, a multi-billionaire who looks just like Richard Gere is going to drive up outside of your third-story apartment in an 18-foot white stretch limousine with flowers in his mouth, climb the stairs, and you'll go away and live happily ever after. And that's how life works, according to Hollywood.

Does life actually work that way? A buddy of mine is a youth pastor. He was so concerned that his kids in his youth group would buy that garbage. He went out the next Wednesday night, and he hired a prostitute all night for a Wednesday night. He brought that prostitute with her permission to his youth group, and he interviewed her about what life was really like as a prostitute. And she talked about being beaten up, stabbed, robbed, abandoned. She showed him broken teeth. She had broken bones, all this kind of stuff. And he went, "It was interesting." Hollywood says, "Oh, here's how life turns out if you live this way." And real life does not turn out anything like Hollywood says. Would you agree, by the way?

By the way, a youth pastor is also still looking for a job, but it was a good idea. And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the problem. Hollywood's message is this. Love is how you make me feel. That is not love. That is thinly veiled selfishness. It is saying to somebody, "I'll love you if you make me feel this way, but the minute you stop making me feel that way, then I will stop loving you." 1 Corinthians 13 says this, jotting it, "Real love serves." Real love serves. Serve one another in love, according to Galatians. Love is more than talks. It's more than sentimental feelings. Love always reveals itself in action.

It's something you do. Like the boyfriend who says to the girlfriend, "Hey, I'll die for you." And she says, "Well, you keep saying that, but you never do it." If you're taking notes, jot this down. Genuine love always shows up in service. And would you agree, real love is not how somebody makes you feel. Real love is getting up in the middle of the night with sick kids when you don't feel like it. That's real love. Would you agree? Because real love serves.

Now, there's a second thing that Hollywood says, and this is my favorite. Here we go. Love is an emotion you feel. "I'm in love. I'm all shook up. Whoa, I feel..." You know, that sort of thing. Now, and here's the problem. I hear this from people all the time. Why are you getting a divorce? "Well, I just don't love him anymore." Why are you leaving her? "I just don't love her." Why are you ditching your spouse for that new person? "Well, I feel love for her, and I don't feel love for this way." And they bought into the number one myth that Hollywood communicates about love. And here's the myth. Love is an emotion that's uncontrollable. Love's an uncontrollable emotion.

That's why we even use phrases like this. "I fell in... I fell in love." Like it's a ditch. And 1 Corinthians says, "No, no, wait a second. Love is not about feelings. It's about faithfulness, or you will never have stability." 1 Corinthians says this, "Real love sustains." Real love sustains. Because it's not about... it is not about feelings. It's about faithfulness. Now, where do you find that? This is one of the... in my opinion, this may be the single most profound thing ever written on the subject of marriage and love. Here it is. "Love always protects. It always trusts. Always hopes. Always perseveres." You see any word in there that repeats? The word "always." Because love is about faithfulness, not just shallow feelings.

Now, we're preparing this at the table, and my daughter, Leslie, who is an expert on all things Bachelorette. Which that is now one of the top... I think it's in the top 10 things that people are watching. Matter of fact, watch this. How many of you are watching Bachelorette? Come on, admit it. I knew you were watching. Look at this. Everybody in here. Except for Val. Val, do you watch it? Sure. They... it's... and Les... we're preparing this and we're talking about this whole thing about like staying faithful and stuff and... "steady your feelings and love's not a ditchy fuck." And my daughter, Leslie, goes, "You should show them the Bachelorette clip from last week." And they go, "What happened?" She goes, "Well, this girl is interviewing this guy." And you'll see him. He's a very good looking, very cool, attractive guy. And... but he got a divorce three years ago and she's kind of grilling this guy, trying to figure out if the odds are pretty high he's gonna ditch her too when he falls out of love with her.

And he... you watch this guy dig a hole for himself. This is awesome. So, ladies and gentlemen, for the first time at Twin Lakes Baptist Church, the Bachelorette. Let's roll it. Now, your relationship when it closed off, is it something that was completely closed or is there still residual feeling or resentment or anything like that? You know, I'm always gonna care about my ex-wife. I mean, we were together so long just all through college, you know, college sweetheart. So, the love was gone. The passion was gone. So, I don't want you to worry about that. You know, it's been almost three years now. I just have a void in my life right now and I know exactly what it is. It's just find an awesome woman again, you know. And my ex-wife was awesome, you know. It just didn't work out. We both just fell out of love and I hate that term. I don't know if that exists but I guess I don't know how to really explain it. So, I'm wondering is that something... how are you gonna deal with that now? Like, if you were to be in a new relationship and you lost the passion or how do you keep the passion alive? I'm not the type of guy that gives up on anything, ever. I know you were upset last week and it just killed me because we wouldn't... at least me, I would not be here if I didn't see some kind of connection or I wanted to get to know you more or whatever else. So, but you're a sweetheart and you're beautiful and I would love to get to know you better. If you were her dad, what advice would you have for her? Run! Run! Get away! Why? Because it's gonna repeat again.

Because here's what 1 Corinthians says and write this in. Nobody should be allowed to get married until they can write this statement. Love is not an emotion you feel. It is a state you create. Love is not an emotion you feel. Emotions come and go and come and go and emotions are very... it's a bad foundation for a marriage or a family or anything else in life. It's an unstable... Love is not an emotion you feel. It is a state you create. Well, then the million dollar question is this. How do you create that state? And I want to give you 5 questions and this is going to be the uncomfortable, very tough to swallow part of this message. And here are 5 questions to ask your friends, your spouse, your loved ones. And these 5 questions, say you're in a really good mood someday and you'd like to be in a bad mood, just ask these 5 questions. It's the 5 questions that determine where my love level is.

Number 1 question, it's bad. Number 1 is this. Am I harsh? Am I harsh? Just go ahead and sit down with your wife or husband. Honey, am I too harsh? Because love is patient and love is kind. And that's the opposite of that is someone who's harsh. Number 2 is this. It gets worse. How many didn't like the first one? Second one's worse. Here it is. Do I always have to win? Or right below there a better way I think to actually put this. Am I always right? Or do I have a hard time saying I'm wrong? Because love does not envy, does not boast and is not proud. So am I harsh? Number 2 is do I have to win? Anybody not like that second one? It gets worse. Number 3, am I self-centered? Do I always have to get in my way? Love does not dishonor other people. Interesting. It is not self-seeking.

Number 4 is really bad. It's my least favorite. Do I have a short fuse? Do I have a short fuse or a long memory? Do I have a short fuse or a long memory? Now some short fuse people, like I am, you know, you have a short fuse. Yeah, but it's my ethnic group I belong to. Or it's this. Or here's my favorite one. Yes, I explode, but then I'm over it quick. All my wife would go, yeah, but so's a nuclear bomb. Or do I have a long memory? In other words, you know, seven years ago you did this, or you always do this, or you never do that. Notice this passage is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs. And the last one, star this is this. Am I cynical? Have I gotten cynical? And star that one because when that enters nothing can get better because I won't emotionally allow it to. And so that says, "Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres." And those, I tell you, those five questions just create some time, go out to coffee, go to some place where you can't really have a public fight, and just ask, I dare you, ask those questions and you can turn a good day into a bad one really fast.

Now, he says this, "Love serves, love sustains." In other words, love is a state you create, and answering those five questions will help to create that state. Then he moves into the last one, which is this. Hollywood says, "Love is a sensation that you feel." Love's a sensation that you feel. And 1 Corinthians actually says this, "No, it's not. Real love sacrifices." Real love actually sacrifices. You only spot somebody that is good at love if they're good at sacrifice. What do I mean by that? Mark 10, 45. "Even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." The greatest act of love in history, Scripture says, is when Jesus Christ gave up his life for you and I.

Now, the greatest lesson about love in the entire Bible because of that is this. Love is when you do something to put somebody else's needs first when you don't want to. Love is when you do something to put somebody else's needs and interests first when you don't feel like it. Where do you get that from? Jesus Christ. Did Jesus Christ want to go to the cross for you and me? Did he want to go down the cross? No. Three times in the Garden of Gethsemane, he goes to God and says, "Let me out of this. Can I get out of this?" He did not want to go to the cross, but he did. The greatest act of love in history is when you do something to benefit somebody else that you don't feel like doing or want to do. That's ultimate love.

Real love is not some shallow deal of limousines and flowers, though I like both those things. Real love is not something about tingling feelings, though those are cool. Real love is not a sensation. Real love serves. Real love sustains. And real love sacrifices. And America will only get on a solid foundation again, morally and family-wise, when it gets this. Any family, any marriage is doomed to create havoc in the lives of their kids. By the way, unstable people produce insecure children. And the only stable people I know are people that grow up enough to drop the myths of Hollywood and replace it with real love serves, real love sustains, and real love sacrifices.

Now, here's the problem with all of this. Some of you are going, "I have never been loved like that, so I have nothing on the inside to give anybody else." If you're toxic on the inside, that's all you have to give people. If you're empty on the inside, I have nothing to give people. So where do I get the kind of love to invade my life so that I can love other people? That's the million dollar question, theologically and psychologically. And the next verse in your outline talks about that. 1 John 4 says this, "We love," we can love, why? "Because He first loved us." Until I've been loved by God, I'm going to have a hard time giving 1 Corinthians type love to anybody else. Only when the love of Christ has invaded my life am I going to be able to then go around and turn and love somebody else with that.

And I want to give you a picture of what I mean, and this may help some of you feel the lengths God went through for you. And it's one of my favorite movies, it's called Apollo 13. Anybody see that movie? It's just a great movie. It took the country by storm. Well, what happened is it's really about NASA's worst fears and greatest moment. It was, I think, in 1970, we had launched a rocket and the capsule was going to go to the moon and then return. And their worst fears happened. I mean, picture this. They hear an explosion on the spacecraft. And everything that could go wrong went wrong. Heat shields damage, which probably means they're dead on re-entry. The guidance system damage, which meant they're not even going to be able to get this thing turned around. Air conditioning systems, heating systems, all this stuff shot. I mean, the whole onboard everything just wrecked.

And I'm telling you, all of America went into panic mode and prayer mode. And NASA went 24/7, all of them going, "We got to do whatever we got to do, whatever's impossible." And I mean the entire country held its collective breaths as NASA worked to try to get these three guys home safe. And then during re-entry, the whole nation turned on the TV and sat there. You'll see shots of that kind of thing. And everybody held its breath during the three-minute radio silence, after which we'd know if the heat shields held up. Back story on this, the president and news media had already written the story negatively to sort of prepare America. They had leaked out information to prepare America to kind of get through this and get over this and someday get beyond this. Get out your Kleenex and watch this screen.

Expect entry interface in 45 seconds. And on my mark, your velocity will be 35,245 feet per second. Mark. You find me, I've lost the radio contact. Roger that. Expect to regain signal in three minutes. It depends on the heat you. Back to the regime and our live cameras there. Maybe recovery and rescue helicopters already airborne, circling, waiting for first... Coming in at all three minutes until time after deployment. Standing by for new reports. Back position. One minute and 30 seconds to end of black. No re-entering ship has ever taken longer than three minutes to emerge from blackout. This is the critical moment. For the heat shield hold. For the command module survive the intense heat of re-entering. If it doesn't, there'll only be silence.

Mommy, you're squishing me. I'm sorry, sweetie. Sweetie. Okay, flight, that's three minutes. We are standing by for acquisition. Coming in. Odyssey, Houston, do you read me? Odyssey, this is Houston, do you read? Expected time of re-acquisition. The time when the astronauts were expected to come out of blackout has come and gone. But all any of us can do now is just listen and hope. We're about to learn whether or not that heat shield, which was damaged, as you remember, by the explosion three days ago, has withstood the inferno of re-entering. Odyssey, this is Houston, do you read me? Odyssey, Houston, do you read me? That's four minutes, standing by. Odyssey, Houston, do you read? Hello, Houston, this is Odyssey. It's good to see you again. Odyssey, Houston, welcome home. Glad to see you.

Is that not a great scene? Just go, "Nah, just wipe your eyes and the shoulders of the person next to you, you'll be fine." You know what I love about that? To me, that reminds me of the central story of the entire Bible. The great lengths that NASA went through to get those three guys home safely is nothing compared to the great lengths that God went through, through His Son Jesus Christ, to get you home safe. So He could wrap your arms around you and to get you home safe. And the Bible says this, "We love because He first loved us." And some of you may be sitting here going, "You know, I can love people without God." Not in the same way or not nearly as deeply.

I occasionally meet people that go, "I just don't think Jesus makes all that big of a difference." I grew up in an executive, jet-set, Southern California home, where 1 Corinthians 13 was the farthest thing away. None of my relatives were Christians. Nobody had anything to do with Jesus Christ. I met Christ right before college, and they kind of mocked that for about five years. But I tell you what, Jesus made all the difference in the world. Let me tell you why. My mom and dad ended up getting divorced. That's no great surprise, because as far back as you go in my entire family tree, there are no lasting marriages, not one. Neither set of grandparents' marriage lasted. I got people getting divorced before it was popular in my family tree.

My mom had two sisters. One of them was married and divorced three times. The other was married and divorced once. One of her marriages only lasted three days. I do. I don't. I've got two sisters. One of them had been married and divorced three times. The other one just doesn't get married. As far as I can look back, in my entire family tree, I cannot find one lasting marriage. Carol and I, last year, celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary, which means we now have the longest-running marriage in the history of my entire family tree. We took my family tree, we cut it down. We're using it for kindling to build a whole new deal. And I love it when somebody goes, "I just don't think Christ or Biblical values make that much difference." I go, "You've got to be kidding. Let me show you 200 years of family history." He makes all the difference in the world. Does that make sense? He makes all the difference in the world. We love because He first loved us.

And if I have been out of connection with God, I'm going to end up never having the kind of love to give other people that I could have. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes right here? Just kind of nobody move. Just you and God time. You may be here, and you may be going, "Man, I would like to love like that. I just don't have it. I can't give away whatever. I'm so empty on the inside. I'm so discouraged on the inside." And I'm going to pray a prayer of recommitment, and of you allowing and asking Jesus Christ to invade your life and to love you on the inside so that then you have that love to give other people.

And some of you coming to church this morning, you're going to get way more than you bargained for because I actually don't care how you walked in or where you were when you walked in. We care deeply about what happens to you in here so that you walk out different. God doesn't care what your past has been like. But if some of you are here saying, "Man, I need forgiveness on the inside. I need to let go of guilt. I'm filled with guilt and filled with fear and filled with the toxic emotions of grief and grudges, and I need to let that stuff go." If you're here this morning going, "Man, I'd love to walk out of here knowing I'm forgiven, knowing I've got a clean slate, knowing I've got a fresh start, knowing I've got the presence and power of the living God invading my life, knowing I'll never be alone, then I can love people with the love of God because He's put that in my heart." That's the Christian life.

And so I'm going to pray a very simple prayer of commitment and fulfilling. And I just want to invite you, if this is what you need, if you're going, "Man, I need to reconnect with God," or, "I need Christ as my savior for the first time," "I need this stuff. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I need a brand new start." That can happen right where you sit. So I'll pray out loud. You can pray with me silently, but this is what you need. It will make all the difference in the world. So if this is what you need, pray with me, would you? Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, thank You for the lengths You went through so I could be forgiven and have a relationship with You. And Lord, right now I pray that You would forgive me for all my past sins. I let them go. Come into my life. Jesus Christ, I believe You died on a cross and exploded out of that grave. And so this morning I ask You to come into my life, be my savior, and I commit my life to You. Be my Lord. Make me the person You want me to be. Give me a fresh start. I let the past go. Make me the person You want me to be.

And with your heads bowed and your eyes closed and nobody looking around, if You prayed that prayer, I'm not going to call You out. I'm not going to embarrass You, but I would love to pray for You this morning that the rest of your life would be the best of Your life. So if you prayed that prayer right now, would you just put up your hands, raise your hands, put it up right now. That's a C of you. Put them way up and just leave them up while I pray for you. Lord God, we haven't gathered here to go through the motions this morning. We thank You that You are here. You promised You'd be here when we gather. So I pray right now that You would by Your Spirit walk up to every one of these men and women. Would You wrap Your arms around them right now? Help them to know that they are forgiven right now. Help them know the past is gone right now. Fill them right now. Move in their life.

And Lord, I pray the whole rest of this day they would be blown away by the joy that comes to people who know the past is past, the hope that come to people who know they have the power and presence of Jesus Christ, who said, "I will never leave you and I will never forsake you." So wrap Your arms around them. Bring them home safe. Thank You for Your love, in Jesus' name. God's people said, Amen. Hey, I want to thank you all for listening and for having me back. It's great to be with you. God bless.