Sometimes when I'm sitting talking to somebody, and maybe they're having a bad day, and maybe they're trying to take it out on me, silently to myself I think, I love them.
I love them. And that steers the next thing I do, the next thing I say. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the Senior Pastor of the Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. As a follower of Christ, love is vitally important.
In fact, love releases the power of the Spirit in our lives and in our churches. Find out how you can love even better today as Pastor David continues in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Before we join Pastor David, we want to let you know about an outreach opportunity that could bring hope to countless prisoners.
This month, Cross the Bridge is teaming with men and women like yourself. In order to provide Pastor David's devotional book, Cross the Bridge Everyday, to inmates. When you call today and help support the ministry with a gift of $25 or more, we'll send you a book and also provide one to a prisoner in need. To take part in this important outreach, call 877-458-5508. That's 877-458-5508.
Or go online to crossthebridge.com. Now here's David McGee with his teaching, Like Produces Like, Love Produces Love. We're looking at 1 Corinthians 13, talking about love, continuing our study here, verse by verse, chapter by chapter through the book of Corinthians, that talks about how we're supposed to have a church. How we're supposed to do church, if you will. And how we're supposed to have relationships.
You understand that all relationships are based upon love. And I think it's fair to say that all of us, if we're honest, will admit that we need help in our relationships. And a lot of times we think, well, yeah, you know, everybody in my family needs to change. Amen. Everybody in your family needs to change.
Amen? Including yourself. A lot of times we think, well, yeah, the people around me are saying, no, no, no, no, no. You can't control the people around you. If you're more loving, I can assure you the people around you will be more loving. If you're more tender, the people around you will be more tender. If you're nicer, the people around you will be nicer.
If you're kind, the people, now I'm not saying all the time, everybody, we don't live in that kind of world. Let's pick it up, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and we're going to actually back up to verse 4. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in inequity, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That word all there is interesting in the Greek.
You know what that word all in the Greek means in English? It means all. Doesn't mean some or part or, say all things.
All things. See, this is what it says, bears all things, not just some things, but even the difficult things. Believes all things, even during times of hardship. Hopes all things, even when things don't look so good.
Endures all things. God created us, we're told in His image. Wonderful things about that is we have the power to create. We have the power to imagine. We can create things. Man has created some incredible things. I believe inspired by God. We can write music. We can write poetry.
We can do all these things, design buildings and paint paintings and all these things. I believe because we were created in God's image. Another thing is we created in God's image, we've been given the power to choose. A friend, this is a very, very powerful thing, to choose.
We don't think about it that much. But you made a choice today. You made a choice to come to this place or to view this program or listen to this program.
You made a choice. And in some cases, that will be a life-altering choice. We have also before us the opportunity every day to choose to love. Now, in some cases, friend, that will not come naturally.
It has to come supernaturally. You will not feel like burying all things. You will not feel like believing all things. You may not feel like hoping all things or enduring all things. But love will give you the power to choose, to do those things. The Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins. See, love never runs dry, not supernatural love. And understand that when we choose to love, and it's an act of the will.
See, Jesus tells us to love our enemies. That right there tells you it's not this feel-good, warm, fuzzy thing that you feel at, I don't know, at the end of a movie or at the end of a commercial. It's a decision. And sometimes you won't feel like loving somebody. But if you will give by the power of God, by the power of the Spirit, if you make the decision to love, what you're going to find is immediately God shows up.
I mean, you can sometimes sense the power of the Holy Spirit right at that moment you make that decision. You know, sometimes, I tell you, a secret to ministry, if you will, sometimes when I'm sitting talking to somebody and maybe they're having a bad day and maybe they're trying to take it out on me or they're having a bad week or bad month or a bad life and they're trying to take it out on me and they're saying this or they're saying that or a Facebook post or whatever, silently to myself, I think, I love them. I love them. And that steers the next thing I do, the next thing I say. See, I can't say I love them and then pop off some hate-filled email.
It's not consistent. That statement, I love them, guides my actions. See, I made a decision.
I'm going to love them. That decision guides everything I do after that. Now, friend, I am not so super spiritual that that comes naturally. Every one of us can make that decision. But what happens is when we make that decision, the power of God is released at that moment. First life lesson here is love releases the power of the Spirit in our lives and in our churches. Love releases the power of the Spirit in our lives and in our churches. Your decision to love, my decision to love, our decision to love, people that are going through difficult times, to love people that maybe aren't church people. When God chose the children of Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures, did He choose them because they were better or smarter?
No, no, no, no, no. We're actually told in Deuteronomy 7, verse 7, it says, The Lord did not set His love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples. Now, this tells us a couple interesting things. First of all, that God just loves them because He does, but look at this. The Lord set His love on you. You can control your love. You can control your love. You can set your love upon somebody.
You can make the decision to love somebody. And if you love that person or those people, part of what this verse is saying, love doesn't pick somebody else apart. Love doesn't look for what might be wrong with somebody. Love doesn't look at somebody, okay, well, it's only going to be a matter of time until you mess up. Love doesn't look at somebody, oh, you're dressed, oh, wrong. And love doesn't look at somebody, you don't look quite right. Love doesn't do that. Love doesn't look for what could be wrong.
Love looks for what could be right. Amen? Amen. You can say amen. Amen? Amen. Yeah, I know it's convicting, but when you're convicted is when you really should say amen.
Amen. See, love doesn't look for what's messed up. Love's not suspicious.
It's definitely not paranoid. John chapter 15 verse 12, Jesus says, this is my commandment. Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. And you are my friends if you do what I command.
Love each other in the same way I've loved you. When you look at how Jesus loves us, loves you, loves me, that's pretty challenging, isn't it? If you look at his interaction with the disciples, if you look at the fact that he didn't point out to Judas in front of everybody else what was wrong with Judas. If you look at the fact that Peter, though he messed up in such a big public way, Jesus never pointed out to people.
That's love. As a matter of fact, after the resurrection, when the angel was sent, the angel said, go tell the disciples and Peter. Jesus and the angel wanted to make sure that Peter knew he was included because Peter messed up. Friend, if you've messed up today, God's heart, God's love is calling to you to come to him, to respond.
Not so he can parade whatever you've done wrong, but so that his love will wash away your sins. And let's understand that that word is somewhat polluted in our minds and in our hearts. We think of love as this thing that maybe Hollywood has presented to us. Love looks like this. Boy, if you're looking to Hollywood to define love for you, you are in trouble.
Or if you're looking to music, now music can certainly stir your love, amen? But don't look to pop music or rock music or whatever to define love. This chapter gives by far the best definition of love that is in existence.
And it's challenging. Next life lesson here is love believes the best and does not pick people apart. Love hopes for the best and does not predict the worst. Let me say that life lesson again, and it's kind of just a take on, a paraphrase, if you will, of this verse. Love believes the best and does not pick people apart. Love hopes for the best and does not predict the worst. And what we have to do in our day is ask ourselves at that moment when we're feeling carnal, when we're feeling selfish, when we're feeling fleshly, am I really walking in love? Am I speaking in love? In boldness, you should let your friends know, your family know. You know what? I want to love more.
Will you help me? And when you see me not walking in love, will you point that out? Love bears all things. Love believes all things. Love hopes all things. Love endures all things.
You're listening to Cross the Bridge with David Magee. We'll be back to the teaching in just a moment. This month, we're focusing on prison ministry, and I have the chance to sit down with Pastor David. Pastor, we know that sharing the Word of God is always important to you. And why is it so important to get God's Word into the prisons as well? Our prison system is built around trying to change the lives of people who've made bad decisions. And yet you can't change a life without changing the heart. And that's where God's Word and God's Spirit are so powerful. They can change a life.
They can change a heart. We can share the Word of God with somebody. You can help send us into the prisons to share the plan of salvation, see that prisoner get saved, and then begin to disciple him and teach him the Word of God so that when he gets out, he is different than when he came in. With all that is going on in the world today, why are you so interested in prison ministry? You know, Paul was in prison, and he spent his time in prison writing letters to churches to encourage him.
Now, we know these letters as the epistles of the New Testament. We have those because Paul made good decisions about how to use this time while in prison. We want to help people who've made bad decisions and find themselves in prison to make the best decision they've ever made and to choose Jesus Christ, to ask him to forgive them of their sins, and then to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, following him, learning the Bible, allowing us to help teach them the Bible so they can follow Jesus.
Thank you for sharing, Pastor. If you're listening and agree with David about our need to help those in prison, we would love to hear from you. You can call 877-458-5508.
That's 877-458-5508. And when you give $25 or more, we'll send you a copy of Cross the Bridge every day. Not only that, but we'll match your gift by sending another copy of David's devotional to an inmate in need. Also, your gift of $200 or more will provide a case of 10 books that will be used to help change lives for eternity.
Again, that number is 877-458-5508, or go online to crossthebridge.com. Now let's return to Pastor David's teaching. You know, one of the most awesome, to me, one of the most awesome examples of love is the life of Jonathan and David in the Hebrew Scriptures. Jonathan was the son of Saul, who was king. Jonathan was the rightful heir to the throne. But Jonathan also understood that God didn't choose him, that God chose his friend, David. Jonathan is so loving and so understanding. We often forget that God chose David instead of Jonathan. And yet, Jonathan loved David.
It's as if you were in a career and you were coming up for an incredible promotion, president of the company, if you will, and there were two people vying for it, and the other person got it. Could you love them the way that Jonathan loves David? Well, the answer is yes, supernaturally.
Now let's all admit that within and of ourselves, that's a difficult proposition. We also see another picture of not envying when we look at the life of John the Baptist, don't we? Now some people came to John the Baptist to stir him up, because that's what we do. They went to John the Baptist, John, do you know that people are following this new guy, this new ministry?
That he's baptizing more people than you? And John said, you know what, he couldn't do it if it wasn't for God. Man, that's love. Back to the title, like produces like, love produces love. In Genesis chapter one, verse 24, it says, Then God said, Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind, livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals, and this is what happened. God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. Verse 26 says, Then God said, Let us make human beings in our image to be like ourselves. You see the trinity represented there in Elohim back in the Hebrew as well.
They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground. So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. One of the things you see there is that like produces like. You produce according to your own kind. If you're a woman and you're pregnant, you're not wondering, you know. You're not thinking you're going to have puppies. Your kids may be hoping for puppies, you know. Why don't you have puppies, mama?
What? Like produces like. There was a guy, Mendel, and he was actually a very spiritual man, but he did these experiments with peas, and there's, and this is not a lesson in biology or anything, but there's two genes. You have a dominant gene and what's called a recessive gene. Okay, the dominant gene is the one that is expressed, that you can see usually. It's stronger, if you will, than the recessive gene, which is still present. And that's how sometimes, you know, perhaps two blue-eyed parents can have a dark-eyed child. Or two darker-eyed parents can have a blue-eyed child, you know. I got two older brothers and I had a middle brother.
I had way too much fun with that one. He came up to me and said, have you ever noticed you look different, mom and dad? I said, yeah. I said, wait a minute, why is that? He said, you're adopted.
And if you ask them, they're just gonna lie to you. So we all have these dominant genes and these recessive genes. You have in you also the desire and the ability to hate.
Every one of us has it. We live in a fallen world that does unimaginable things. People do those things. You know, when I was young, I used to read about people doing horrible things.
And I used to think, man, I can't believe that. And then as I grew older and experienced more and saw more, I realized how much each person is actually capable of doing. If you go on the negative side, we're capable of doing some pretty horrible things. We're capable of being pretty violent, pretty hateful. But we're also able to do incredibly generous and kind things beyond imagination. Jim Elliot was a martyr, died for his faith.
His son actually forgave the man who took part of the murder. That's powerful. And to me, that doesn't show the pinnacle of human expression.
It shows the power of God, the power of love. Why am I bringing this up? Because we're tempted as we read this chapter to feel just like worms. I mean, I don't think anybody can read this chapter and go, yep, check. Did that, what's next?
If you think you can, just ask somebody around you. Ask somebody in your family, I think I'm doing that whole chapter. What do you think?
Your spouse is going to turn to you and say, actually, I have my own list. But friend, understand, this is describing love. And if you will, it's almost a biography of Jesus. This is what Jesus is. This is what love is. So as we look at this, understand that this is what we're capable of by the power of God. As you have a relationship with God, this kind of love expressed in this chapter begins to grab you and take hold of you.
And it will drive you and propel you passionately to love a world that gets so crazy. 1 John chapter 4 verse 8, the Bible tells us, he who does not love does not know God, for God is love. If I was not propelled by the love of God, I would have stopped doing what I'm doing now a long time ago.
I would have stopped the first time I really got opposition or somebody said something ugly or something. That verse also reminds us that if somebody's not loving, it's because they don't know God. Now maybe they're saved, maybe they've been born again, but there's part of their life that's not been exposed to the light and the love of God. There's some part of them that does not know. What's another thing for does not know?
Another word would be ignorant. They are ignorant of the presence and the power of God to be a light in a dark place in their life. If we understood that, when you act unloving, when you do, it's something in you that is not walking in the power and the knowledge of God. Galatians chapter 5 verse 22 tells us, it says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law. Through the Spirit is love. He fills you with love. You are baptized, filled to overflowing with love. You then have the opportunity and the ability to love beyond anything you ever imagined. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?
You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.
Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.
And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.
Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.
You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we would love to hear from you. You can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. God is using Cross the Bridge to impact lives across our country, including the lives of those currently serving time in our nation's prisons. While materials provided by Muslim organizations continue to increase within our prisons, our distribution of Pastor David's book, Cross the Bridge Every Day, has been making a significant impact for Jesus with prisoners. And you can help continue that outreach by calling today. When you call today with a gift of $25 or more, we will send you David McGee's devotional book and then match your gift by sending a copy to a prisoner in need. And if you are able to give a gift of $200 or more, we will send a case of 10 books to inmates who are without hope. Help us reach those in prison. Call today at 877-458-5508.
That's 877-458-5508. Or go online to crossthebridge.com. Also, if you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 9 and 1130 Eastern. Just visit crossthebridge.com and click on our live stream link. There you can watch Pastor David teach from his home church, The Bridge, in Kernersville, North Carolina. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening. We hope you'll join us next time as we continue to cross the bridge.
