Ah Ooh, ooh, ooh. Ooh, la la la la la la la la la Hallelujah. God ruler of the universe, you are. There is There's no one like you, God giver of the deepest dreams you are. There is no one like you.
God think of what tremendous thoughts you are Thinking for God Royal, holy, true you are. And there is no one like you. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Welcome to Love Never Fails. In these last days, revival will come.
but begins with our individual walk and personal relationship with Jesus. Let's join Brother John now. Angels proclaim. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. You're listening to Love Never Fails with Brother John.
You know as We were getting ready to come in here today. I was. Just uh Just like everybody else. You know, the day gets started, and the phone rings, and something else happens, and everything just kind of. seemed like wants to come in on you.
And and it's easy to s to just Throw your hands up, get frustrated, or whatever. And, you know, and then it's not like it stops. The phone keeps ringing, the messages keep coming. Whatever it is, whatever speed bumps are out there for today just come at you seemingly all at once. And so we got a late start this morning just because.
you know, people A million of one fires that you have to put out, if you know what I mean. And so as I was thinking about that this morning, because I usually like to start recording early, early, early in the morning, and that's when I'm ready. I've been praying. I've been talking to God. And I got up early this morning.
I I went to the grocery store 'cause it's one of my daughter's birthdays and and I got her uh stuff to make for breakfast. And I got home. I started cooking breakfast. Everything's good. And then eight o'clock rolled around.
It was like a faucet turned on. And the phone started ringing and text messages started coming and things that people, you know, I don't even have to describe to you all of it, but you know what I mean. And maybe you're driving down the road and some guy's cutting you off, or some guy won't let you in, or whatever happens, you know, whatever your situation is. And then. You know, you get delayed and and all these different things come on, and next thing you know, it's 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock, one o'clock, and you're like, oh my gosh, where has the day gone?
And I was thinking about that, going, man, What am I? I'm not ready to record. I'm not ready to talk to people about God. I'm dealing with all these little itty-bitty fires that, you know, there's a scripture that says the little foxes, you know, are what steal the harvest, steal the joy, steal the whatever. And it's like, man, I got invaded by foxes this morning.
And.
Okay. But I didn't let it steal my joy. And I was thinking about that. I was like, why? And I was talking to God just a little, and, you know, and.
It just occurred to me some of the things that I've done to try to help me maintain my peace in those situations. Last night I was uh Driving home to see my family. It was because of my daughter's birthday. And I mean, I was just. driving down the road talking to God, just telling him, you know.
Why has it always got to be about money or or clothing or or a house or you know, why is it always you know, why does it always seem transactional? And I just began to talk to God and and and just Next thing I knew I was singing. And you can probably tell from my voice I'm not. I'm not a singer. But I was just singing, and I was sitting there worshiping God.
The sun was going down. I'm driving down the road and just singing this song that was coming out of my heart. And, you know, woke up this morning, just, you know, same time every morning, five o'clock hour, get up and. And just Studying a little and listening to the word, and maybe sometimes I listen to worship. But then it It's like eight o'clock rolled around.
And damn And I have to chuckle because Part of me is like, eh, just walk through it. Just walk through it, get it over with, get it done, do what you got to do, stay on course, you know, and uh. You know, plow through. And I am one of those kind of guys. I just plow through.
I solve problems and I get paid to solve other people's problems in my business. And As I was going to record, I'm sitting there thinking. About What about people who maybe haven't spent years Studying the word or talking to God, or maybe you're not at that place where you're driving down the road just worshiping God like that. Maybe you're a new Christian, maybe you've not really heard anything, or maybe you're in a place where there isn't a good church, you know, wherever you are in the world. You know, I don't know your situation.
God does. And one of the things that I always said to God is, and I remember praying this to God just maybe 10 or 12 years ago: I said, Lord. He was impressing on my heart some things he wanted me to do. And I said, Lord, I will obey. I will do it.
You cannot I cannot do what you're asking me to do unless you give me the ability to explain it and teach it to others.
Okay. I don't want to be...
Some out of touch, out of reach. minister Who Don't understand, who says to you, for instance, I got a phone call last week from a friend of mine. And this is a young man that I mentored and got him going in his own business. And he's out there making it. He's making it happen.
Has a beautiful family. And he grew up in the church. His dad was a pastor. But he said to me, he goes, John, I'm having doubts. I'm having serious doubts.
So okay. And I'm driving down the road, so we're talking. And I just started to rejoice. He goes, What's wrong with you? I said, Brother, I'm excited.
He goes, Why? I said, if you're having doubts. It's because The devil is testing you. He's checking you for the word's sake. He's trying to find out what you actually believe.
And I said, and that's a good thing. That's just confirmation that you're really not as far off as you think you are. And he said this to me because well, I mentioned to somebody else and they said, well, there must be sin in your life. Of course, I laughed at that because so many religious people will tell you: well, there must be sin in your life. And they use that as the end-all.
It's almost like I'm better than you. I don't ever have those doubts or whatever. And that's not the kind of person I want to be. And I don't want to forget where I came from. And, you know, there's so many Christians out there, you know, whether you realize it or not, you're neurotic.
Because people have said to you, Well, there must be sin in your life, and you go home going, What's sin? What's sin?
Next thing you know, you're digging up generational curses and studying about past sins and that what can past sins do to me. You know what, folks? The blood is the blood, is the blood, and it is enough. And once you put your life, your hands in Jesus' hands, you put your life into his hands, the blood. is enough.
And what happens is you come across the path of somebody who, on the outside, appears to be so holy. They wear these cloaks of Christianity, but yet they don't know how to reply to an answer of I'm having doubts, or what do I do about this? The first thing they do is, there must be sin in your life. Really? Really?
Thanks.
Okay, I live in this world, this fallen world, and we all come from that same place. There's not a person walking who could legitimately use that there must be sin in your life, inferring that they're not having there's no sin in their life. Yes, thank you. Paul made the argument. We talked about this a few episodes back.
Paul made the argument. One of the greatest men to walk this earth, post Jesus, and it's like he says, my flesh was right there with me daily, and I have to kill my flesh daily. You know what? That also could be called sin. And so I really want to encourage you today.
If you're in that environment where you're like, you don't know heads from tails and you don't know what's going on as a Christian and you're frustrated and you're worn out and what do I do? What do I do? I don't think I'm hearing from God. I don't know how to hear from God. I don't want to go to church.
You know, people at church just think that I have sin in my life. But, you know, listen, there is a time and a place to check your life. There's a time and a place to be introspective. And examine your life. It is a good thing to repent to the Lord from time to time for things.
I mean, you can never go wrong with that. Anytime I'm in a service or I'm somewhere and I hear people praying a sinner's prayer, I pray it right there with them. But I don't go run into the altar every Sunday because I think I need to get saved again. No, I know that I'm born again. I have a confidence.
I know that, I know that, I know because of his love for me. It's not because I have a date inside of a Bible that says I was born again on such and such day. No, it's because there's a confidence in me. Which is him. That lets me know, that that ministers to me, that that Gives me that As some people say in religious terms, blessed assurance that I know.
I'm born again. You know, many of you, maybe you sit in church services and you hear people preaching and next thing you know, they're doing an altar call, and you feel this tugging at your heart. A lot of times, what that is just bad teaching. Because you don't need to be running to the altar to get saved again. What you need to be doing is interceding.
That's the Holy Spirit trying to get you to intercede. for the people that do need to go to the altar. Not always, but that could be what's going on. And so. This morning, I just want to share with you scriptures.
And one of the things I did years ago, and I got laughed at by some preachers when I told them I was doing it. And and that is, I basically just started going through my Bible. I started in the book of Psalms, and I started going through my the verses, highlighting All the stuff. Where it shows God's on my side, God loves me, God's in it for me, God has my back, whatever you want to say. And so today, I just want to start in the book of Psalms, and I just want you to listen to what God says about you, listen to what God is saying about you.
There's no reason for you to be excluded from what I'm going to read to you right out of the scriptures. And I just want you to be encouraged today to know that God loves you. He has a great plan for you, He has a great purpose for your life. And Now, we've talked about this enough. I don't want anybody, if this is the one and only time you're listening to the show, that you go, Oh, he's just some love-grace guy.
Nope. I am the love of God guy because I'm becoming love. I do not see love as a single word, I see it as a person and a being. I know that agape is a noun because it's who God is and it's what He wants me to become. I know that agapeo is what I must practice on a day-to-day basis because that's what God demonstrated to me.
That while I was yet a sinner, God demonstrated His great love for us. Love is not just some word that our English Bible uses over and over and over when it's translated from 32 other words. There is depth and meaning to this word, love. And when you begin to grasp it, you begin to understand it, you begin to understand how much he loves you, it will revolutionize your walk. It'll revolutionize your home and your family and the people around you.
And it will, as Paul said, become your greatest adventure in life. Everything in Christianity boils down to your love walk. Are you walking in love and are you becoming love? For years, I studied the sons of God. I was all excited about, you know, Romans 8, 26, that all the creation waits with eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
And there's multiple scriptures concerning the sons of God. And I would search and search and search and search. And maybe there was this naive, you're going to be like Superman or you're going to, you know, but what it really is, is you're going to be like Daniel. 11:11, where it says, And those who know their God, those who have an intimate, loving, knowing relationship with God, will do great exploits. I don't want to be a superman.
I don't want to be a superhero. I want to be love. I want to become love. And that way, when I walk into heaven and he asks me, Did you learn how to love? I can look at him and ask him, or hopefully, he can turn around and say, Look at all those you loved.
But The point of Christianity is not to just have a birthday. The point of Christianity is not to just go to church and pay tithes and be coached every Sunday to have a great week. The point of Christianity is is to become love. And the thing is, because we don't major on that as a church, that's why the world mocks us, because everybody else knows it. The thing that separates Christianity apart from every other religion, there's actually two things.
One, Christianity is completely and wholly supernatural, and the other is Christianity is the only one that can walk in divine love. The only one. Everybody else walks in philejo love, brotherly love, kindness, patience. But what we're talking about is not just kindness, patience, and doing good deeds. What we're talking about is agape love.
And so, as I read to you today, understand I'm not just reading to you. Uh To make you feel good, I'm reading to you because I want to encourage you. And bless you. And I'm only going to read these scriptures that really edify. And I need to move this thing over here.
Hopefully, it doesn't get too loud. I'm going to move this over here and get this in the right place. I want to read scriptures to edify you and bless you. And we'll talk about them as we go.
So let's just start right here in the book of Psalms. Verse 1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor seated at the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day, night, And night.
So, what he's saying is: if you're the person, if you're the man or woman. That chooses to delight in the law of the Lord and His law that you meditate day and night. What is meditating? Meditating means. pray about, murmur about, talk about, to murmur to yourself about it.
You know, so when you meditate on the law of the Lord and you go, oh, does that mean I have to meditate on the 660, 13 verses and the 10 commandments? No, no, no, no, because we've talked about this when we did the, go look up our episodes, the Romans journey. We talk about this, Romans 13, Paul quotes the commandments and then he says, but all of them are summed up in this one command, this one law that you love. and you become love. He uses both those words in that sentence.
Jesus himself said, today I renew with you in John 13, 34, the original command. He used the word bosco. The word bosco means to renew something that always was. It was always there. It would be like going to check out a book at a library and you decide you want to keep it longer.
You just go in and you don't have to give the book back. They just give you another stamp. Jesus on that day in John chapter 13, 34 says, I renew with you today the original command. Law that always was and always will be. One of the things you've got to understand: the law of love supersedes every other law and commandment.
Jesus Himself said. On this law hinges all of the law and the prophets.
So without love, the 660 or the 613 commands and the 10 commandments are useless. And that's where Jeremiah comes in because Jeremiah was pleading and crying to the pastors and the religious leaders of his day: please teach the truth. Let's get back on the ancient path.
Well, what was he referring to? If it was an ancient path in Jeremiah's day, how ancient is it now? See, to us, now it's a fairy tale.
Now it's something we see in Hollywood movies. But we don't live out in our daily walk anymore. It's a fairy tale because what was once the standard becomes a history, and history becomes legend, and legend becomes a thing of fairy tales. And so, you know. When we meditate on the law of the Lord day and night, it brings growth, it's fertilizing, it's feeding that thing that Romans 5:5 and 5:8 says was deposited in our heart.
What was deposited in our heart?
Well, when you confess Jesus as Lord, He deposited a measure of His love in your heart, in your soul, in your inner man.
So he says But he who delights in the law of the Lord, what will happen?
Well, he said in verse 1: blessed is the man. Who walketh not? in the counsel of the ungodly. Or in the way of sinners. Sinners don't love.
Sinners don't care about other people. Sinners have one thing in mind: themselves. Yeah. The core to sin is selfishness. And so he goes on to say, but delights in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night.
And here's what he says is going to happen to you. And you shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of the water that bringeth forth your fruit in season, and your leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever you do shall prosper. Oh my goodness, have you been living your life beating your head against the wall?
Okay. Why isn't this working, God? Is this as good as it gets? What's wrong with me, God? Why doesn't this work?
How come it works for that guy and not for me, God? And what does he say?
Well, first off, you need to quit looking at other people. Second off, you need to begin to meditate on the law of the Lord day and night. I remember the day I said, okay, I'll do it, God. I remember, and I was so apprehensive prior to that, even though I'd been studying love, studying love, studying love. I was so apprehensive because I had this fear of what would he make me do?
Where would I end up? What would I have to do? Or what would I have to apologize for? What would I have to repent for? You know, is that going to be embarrassing?
You're going to turn me into a flake, God? What are you going to do to me, God, if I actually obey what you're telling me to do? And he didn't do any of that. He didn't do any of that. That was just fear.
And that wasn't from God. Yeah. So you shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth your fruit in season, and your leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever you do shall prosper. Do you need to prosper? Are you doing everything?
You go to church every Sunday, you pay your tithe, you don't lie, you don't cheat, you don't steal, you're kind, you do all those things. No guarantee you're not going to prosper. No guarantee, but it does say right here: this is a guarantee, this is a promise from God. This is a verse, so I'm going to skip now to Psalm 2. And.
Verse twelve he says, Kiss the son, lest he be angry. and ye perish from the way which his wrath is kindled a little. Blessed are all that they put their trust in him. Man, I was driving down the road yesterday and I said, Lord, Lord, Lord and this just came rolling up out of me last night. I said, Exactly how do I kiss the sun so he won't be angry?
Yeah. How do I kiss the sun?
Okay. And I s I'm thinking about that going, Wow There are so many ways. One is by worshiping him. By spending time with him. That's what I was doing last night, driving down the road.
A song came up out of me that I'd never heard before. You know, that's what we do when we pray and we talk to him. And maybe, you know, there's different things, but God's followers are followers, those who worship him in spirit and truth. And we know that spirit and truth, we've talked about this as the word and the spirit, or the word and love.
However, there's so many things that are interchangeable in there.
So the thing is, is how do we worshi how do we kiss the sun? What's love? Intimacy. Paul called it a great myst mystery. How we interact with God and the Holy Spirit.
That's a good verse to meditate on as you're driving down the road. Listen to this verse: Salvation belongeth unto the Lord, and thy blessing is upon thy people. It's his salvation. Listen to this verse, Psalm 3.3. But thou, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory, and the lifter up of my head.
I cried unto God with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. I laid me down and slept, and I waked, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of 10,000 that have been set themselves against me. You have nothing to fear. You have the peace of sleep, the peace of kings when you're running with God, and nothing to fear.
But know that the Lord has set him that is godly for himself, and that the Lord will hear when I call on him. Do you strive to be godly? Do you strive to walk in love? You know, the whole thing about being godly is it means to act godly like God. How does God act?
He's a God of great love, that while we were yet sinners, people around you offend you and make you mad and do things to upset you. But will you choose the path of love? If you do that, then you're acting godly. And God will then hear when you call on him. Stand in awe of who?
God, and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still, Shalah. Offer sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord.
So he's telling you here in Psalm 4, verses 3, 4, and 5: Man, when you're laying in bed, when you're driving down the road, and when you're walking down the street, talk to him. It it commune with him. Communion doesn't just mean that you have to eat a piece of cracker and drink a drop of wine or grape juice or whatever. You can commune with God every night in your bed. You can commune with God every morning over a cup of coffee sitting in the backyard.
As a kid, I used to climb or go all the way out in the back of the fields and sit on what we called the pond hill. There was a hill at one side of the pond. And I'd sit there and I'd look off where I couldn't see any houses, just woods and pastures, and I'd just talk to God out there. I communed with God. I didn't know that's what I was doing, but I would talk to God.
I would pour my heart out to God. And I did that time and time and time again. Psalm 5, verse 8, Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies, and make my way straight, thy way straight before my face. When we commune with God, when we talk to God, when we fellowship with God, He We'll make our way straight. My defenses of God, which save the upright in heart.
You see, I love that because this is Psalm 7, verse 10. Because. Another way to say this is, My shield is God who saves the just. I have no uneasy or fearful feelings as to the future. Do you have concerns about the future?
Do you have fear about the future? You know, right now, this is such a great verse. Let me read that again. My defense or my shield is God, which saveth the upright in heart concerning the future. What an incredible verse for right now when everybody is claiming antichrist this and antichrist that.
And oh, you know, the blood moons and this and that. And listen, I study all that stuff. I pay attention to all that stuff. I mean, I understand that this whole battle is between God's seed and the devil's seed. That's the promise that was made.
Jesus or God himself said in Genesis after the fall. He said it'll be between your seed and his seed. And so the devil has his own seed. God has his seed. And when we become born again, we become God's seed.
And when we become God's seed, we don't have to worry about the future. We don't have to be concerned about these things. There is no question about where we're going and what we're doing or how we're doing it. You may not know the path. I take that back.
You do know the path. The path is love. The path is righteousness. You may not know what's down the road. But because you walk with God, because He's your shield, and you attempt to walk godly and upright, there is no fear of the future.
You don't have to fear all those things. And you've heard me say this before over and over and over. All these people preach it as in the days of Noah.
Well, in the days of Noah, it was dark. It was evil. I mean, and the Bible tells us that if it were not for the, because of the iniquity growing, the love of many will grow cold. In these dark days, as they were in the days of Noah, you cannot let your love grow cold. But here's the thing you've got to remember.
God found his people in those dark days. It was Noah's family. And it says that they were pure. We are of that same family, my friends. There is no need for you to walk in fear thinking you're on the outside of the ark.
No, you're in the ark, baby. You're in. But you've got to continue to walk after him and talk with him and commune with him and develop this relationship of love. And then what happens to the fear and the apprehension of the future goes away. Oh, it'll come back around.
It'll try to tempt you and try to entice you to worry. But because you walk with him, You have peace.
Somebody asked me a while back said, How do you do it?
So what are you talking about? Everybody else is stressing and worrying and you just Keep going. Because I'd pursue peace. I'm after peace. And I have peace because I walk in love and because I'm becoming love.
I meditate on the Word, I meditate on Jesus, I meditate on His love for me. 1 John 3:1 says, How great is the love of God? That he's lavished upon us, that you and I should be called the children of God. We are his seed. And because we're his seed, it doesn't matter what the world does.
As long as we don't participate in that iniquity and we continue to walk with him, our love will not grow cold. And just like Noah, we will hear from God, we will be led by the Spirit, and we will be hopefully. depending on what denomination you belong to, caught up with him. Rescued and protected out of all of this. And I can do a whole teaching on.
The shield and the favor and the protection of God and the seal of God and all that, but that's not what we're doing this episode. My defense is of God, which saveth the upright in heart. And let me read that other version, which is so good. One more time before we move on. My shield is God who saves us.
Hence, I have no uneasy or fearful feeling as to the future. It's good word. Psalm 10, verse 17: The Lord has heard the desire of the humble. Thou will prepare their heart, and thou wilt cause thine ear to hear, to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress. Think of that.
The Lord is king over ever and ever, and the heathen are perishing out of his land. Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare our hearts, for you will cause your ear to hear us. Gods listening He's listening. Who shall Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle?
Who shall dwell in the holy place? And here's the answer to that question: chapter 15. He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart. What is that? That's love.
He who walks in love and works agape, heyo. Do you walk in love? Do you walk in uprightness? Do you pursue walking love? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart.
He that backbiteth not with his tongue. Oh my gosh.
So you can't be a gossiper. You can't be throwing people under the bus. You can't be trying to blow out other people's candle, hoping that it makes yours look brighter. You can't backbite. Nor does evil to his neighbor.
Oh, there you go.
Sound this sounds so familiar.
So familiar. Nor does evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up reproach against his neighbor, in whose eyes a vile person is is condemned. But he so he's talking about what kind of person does it. No God that doesn't have the protection of God. Or who, or who will not abide in the tabernacle.
Jesus said, If you abide in me, I will abide in you, and my father and I will come and make our home within you. He said that in John.
So what kind of man qualifies? for Jesus to abide in us. and for us to abide in Him. You know, when I heard that verse that he will make a home in me, I said, I want that. I want that.
What do I have to do, God? What do I have to do? To become the home of Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit. And He's telling you right here in Psalm 15. Yeah.
He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in love. You know, really, that boils down to the great command: if you walk in love, you will walk uprightly. Yeah. Because people go, well, Brother John, that's talking about not sinning.
Okay, one, quit focusing on sin. See, part of the problem in the world and in the church is that we. Those of us cloaked in our Christianity are so accustomed to speaking sin all the time. We attack sin. We're going after sin.
We go after all this. But what we're really doing is regurgitating and reprogramming the mind that sin is powerful, that sin has a place. Because when we're always looking for sin, We're glorifying it. We're promoting it, or as some people have said, we're sin conscious. You can't be sin conscious and abide in God.
You have to be humble. But how do you humble yourself? You repent and you turn to God and you endeavor to walk upright. You endeavor to walk in love. But too many people are so sin-conscious that when something in your life isn't working the way it's supposed to, Whatever that may be, they immediately go to the whole sin consciousness thing.
But that's not what God was saying. God says, he that walketh uprightly worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart. He says That if you walk in love, God will abide in you. That's basically what that says. And then he gives you a description of those who will not abide in God.
He that backbideth not.
Well, actually, he's saying he that does not backbite with his tongue, nor do evil to his neighbor, nor take up reproach against his neighbor. I was reading that wrong, wasn't I?
So you cannot backbite, you cannot gossip, you cannot throw people under the bus. Why? Because how you treat others matters. You got to remember this always, friends. Uh here.
He's not just your dad. He's their father. And he will come to their defense. And if you're constantly backbiting and talking and gossiping and throwing people under the bus, but then you need help, God's going to, listen, He's a just God. He's a just God.
You cannot go around destroying other people and then turn around and think that God's going to bless you. Because whether you want to believe it or not, this Christianity thing has rules. Yes, he loves you with an unconditional love. But once you become born again, at some point, and Paul makes this argument, you have to begin to grow and act like. Your father You can't keep drinking milk.
You've got to begin to act like your father. Which means there's no gossip allowed. There's no backbiting. You don't throw people under the bus. You don't destroy other people.
One of the things that I find so despicable is when people come in and bend the ears of leaders and slowly but surely they manipulate in order to make other people look bad. And then what happens? Then they come in and they set their wares, they put their things in place, and they slowly begin to run off the good people. And the next thing you know, your house of Isaac's is turned into a house of Ishmael's. And you wonder how you got there.
Because you let your ear get tickled. And you let people out in who backbite and murmur and complain and Do everything that God just says right here not to do. You know, one of the things he says does not take reward against the innocent. He that doth not these things shall never be moved. I know of a pastor.
Who uh a a lady well, a person was running Uh from abuse. And her children had to run, and it was an evil situation. And the pastor turned her in for the money. And not long after that, Yeah. That church burned to the ground.
You know, I mean, even pastors do that. They look for the reward of money instead of who's innocent. You know, and there was a day and a time when you went to the church, and if you were innocent, you could trust them, and you could, you could. You find sanctuary there, but you can't hardly do that anymore in this world. Because people care more about money.
Yeah. protecting the innocent. Listen to this first. Keep me as the apple of the eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings.
Oh. Mm. That's a good one. I want to be the apple of his eye. How do I become the apple of his eye?
I strive to be like him. How do I strive to be like him? Walk in love. If he is love and love cannot fail, why would I want to act in any other way? Why would I want to act differently?
You know, If you want to be a great baseball player, You go find a great coach, or you go find somebody who's good at the game, and you let them teach you. If you want to be a great lawyer, you go in turn. for a good lawyer. If you want to be a you know, over and over in the in society we see people who will go spend time with people doing what they want to do and learn from them so they can become better than them or become as good as them. And a teacher should always want his students to b to do better than him.
And he and God if God is love Then that's the one thing we can act on. to become like him So that we can Obtain everything he has for us.
Now, you might say, well, well, well, Brother John, so what you're talking about is that, you know, all I gotta do is walk in love, and all the blessings of God are mine.
Well, yeah, and I'm not trying to get the cart before the horse. And I'm not saying that If you're not being blessed, it's... Oops, you know that if you're not being blessed, just start walking in love and it'll happen. I'm not saying that, but what I am saying is that the Bible is very clear that if you will walk in love, your character will change, your actions will change, your motives will change. And then at that point, When those things change, That's when Deuteronomy says it'll run you down and overtake you.
And you will not be able to contain it. Why? Because maybe God will let you believe anything just to get you started. But because it's a lot easier to steer a car that's moving than one that's parked. And some of you, you know, go, well, I don't know if my motives are.
Well, just get in. Just get in and start practicing. Get in, practicing walking in love. Get in, practicing dwelling on the law of the Lord. Get in, even when you don't feel like it, when you don't sense that you're totally right.
That's what faith is. If you believe it, then start doing it. You can't wait to get ready to do this. This is something you just start doing, and when you start doing it, everything else begins to fall into place.
Well, when I'm able to break this addiction Nope, start now.
Well, when I'm able to pay Nope, start now.
Well, nope, nope, nope, nope, stop. Start now. Stop making excuses and start to day. Start today Give up gossip. Give up backbiting and devouring other people.
Give up murmuring and complaining. Give up something in your character that you're doing that goes against the nature of God. Give up one thing. If you have to, for the next 21 days or the next, however long it takes, make a plan and say, I'm not doing that anymore. Tie a ribbon around your wrist.
Put a mark on your nose. Whatever you have to do to keep yourself in check and quit doing those things and begin to practice walking in love. Then maybe go out and buy somebody's groceries who's not expecting it and get out of there before anyone else notices you. You don't need attention for that. You know, don't film it and put it on YouTube.
Don't try to make it into a ministry. Just do those things. No strings attached, is how God does it. Yes. And then what happens is slowly, not ma, some of you might have a fast, so I shouldn't say that, but what happens is you begin to walk in love, practicing love.
H his word comes the past in your life. I mean, it's like Isaiah said: arise and shine. You have to stand up first. Then The glory of the Lord will rise upon you. Sitting where you are, making excuses for the condition that you're in.
does not qualify you for the glory of the Lord. You must rise up and begin to do what God does. It does you no good to die on the cross. It does you no good or anybody else any good to be a martyr. That was already done and satisfied with what Jesus did on the cross.
He fulfilled that law and poured the blood out, the covenants in place. All you need to do is start learning how to walk according to the rules of the covenant. And the rules of the covenant, the rules of this government of God, are very simple. Walk in love. And as you begin, you know, Paul said, let us therefore lay aside every sin.
and hindrance. What is your hindrance? Is it backbiting? Is it gossip? Is it greed?
Are you ever undercover greedy? That's a good emote a lot of Christians are. A lot of Christians are under cover greedy. And I could demonstrate to you in a few minutes that many of them are. I have a simple thing that I'm not going to share it on air, but you can figure it out real fast.
And and a lot of them are people who've never missed a tithe. Never missed the church service, but yet they're undercover greedy. What if God had held back. What if God had sought Popularity and attention. when he gave.
What if God Was about making excuses instead of just giving his son. See I want you to be free. I want you to live. the life that God has for you to live. There will always be speed bumps.
There will always be mornings like this morning. There will always be trials and tribulations. But the difference is Those who know their God walk through it. And maintain their peace? They maintain the blessing.
They maintain, you go.
Well, what about Job?
Well, Job. I'm not saying any of you have to go through what Job went through. But what I will say is, and you never forget this, at the end, God told Job's friends to stand up and brace themselves like men. Because their advice was bad. But then Job received double what had been lost.
And he never Backbited God. And so, you know, people say, oh, you know, before you start comparing yourself to Job, let's make sure your character is where Job's character was. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm just, I know I'm being a little hard.
I'm being a little harsh. But. You know, so many of us, we go to church on Sunday morning, we hear all these promises, and then we go back the next Sunday and hear a whole new set of promises. When do you expect those things to begin to come to pass in your life? Why aren't they?
It's not very hard to figure out. Are you a gossiper? You love to talk about other people at the party or at the dinner table. You love to talk about people on Facebook or whatever. Do you need attention for everything you do?
Do you need everybody to know who you are? You're not going to be blessed. Oh, you might be successful by worldly standards for a time being. You won't remain there.
Something, judgment will come, especially if you claim to be a Christian. God will. Change things in your life. And maybe that trial you're going through is because if you're already going through it, maybe it's because he's trying to get your attention that you're missing the mark. That all your backbiting and gossip and all the bad seeds that you've sown have caught up with you because whatever you sow, you will reap a harvest of.
So maybe what you're going through is is because you brought it on yourself. That's the difference between trials and tribulations and us reaping what we've sown. Trials and tribulations come for the word's sake. They come to test the word. But I fear that many, many, many people are going through things that have nothing to do with the word.
It has to do with their lack of character. But who do we have teaching what Christian godly character is like anymore? Oh, be patient, be kind, be nice and gentle. People can do that on Sunday morning. Have you been on social media lately?
They're not that way on social media. And so I say to you, my friends, is you want the blessing of God, you want the peace of God, you want things to change, but have you begun to make the change in your own life?
Well, what do I change towards well, that's what we've been talking about. You change to become more like God. He created you in His image. And then when you were born again, he dropped a little piece of that down into your heart and said, Now make it grow. And what have you done with it?
What have you done with the agape love that was deposited into your heart that day you got you you confessed Jesus your Lord? And and you know I'll say this because I've said it before, if you got up from that altar and you have not changed and begun to grow, is your insurance policy still in effect? I have to wonder. But Jesus said, By this all men will know that you are my disciples, my children, my followers. How?
Love. He didn't say people will know you're a Christian or my child because you go to this church or that church or you drive this car or you pay your tithes or you dress this way or look this way or speak this language or you're from this country. He said they will know because of your love. The way you love one another. And here's the thing: you can't love people if you don't first love God.
But you've got to start somewhere. You've got to begin striving on a daily basis to do something, to walk in love. It is a doing because it's not just saying, but it's a doing. How do you treat others? Oh.
I'm going to share a story with you, some stories with you. And the only reason I'm going to share them with you is because the people that were on the receiving end have no idea who I am or who did it. And you have no idea what I look like. And so you're never going to meet me.
So great. You're not going to, you know, there's no benefit in me telling you this other than hopefully to teach you. Yeah. As Grocery store. Sunday.
And I forgot something.
So I ran back. I went and got it. But there were these two young ladies that were behind me in line and and You know, the place was crowded that day. Crowded. And I had been waiting in line about 15 minutes, and these two ladies were behind me.
And I went, Oh my gosh, I forgot something.
So I ran and got them. And when I got back, they were pushing my cart up closer to the re the checkout. Instead of moving me out of line, they were kind of keeping my stuff together. I'm like, Thank you, thank you, thank you. And there were other people there kind of scowling and looking at me like I, you know.
Murdered baby Jesus himself. And I was like, you gotta be, you know. And I paid for my stuff. And when I got done, I handed the cashier.
some money. And I said, please pay for their stuff with this money and whatever change is left over, let them keep it. And she looked at me, shocked. Her eyes started to well up with tears. And I just I looked at him and said And I said they could have been disgruntled and given me a hard time because I forgot something, but they acted like Jesus.
And I turned around and got out. I left. I didn't wait for anybody to reply. I turned around and got out. You know, I was at a grocery store once and A bunch of kids that we had with us were in the park.
And I went in to go get bread, peanut butter, and jelly, and some chips or something. And When I went in, There was an older man, and and a younger man behind him, and the younger man looked like a gangster. And he was obviously trying to intimidate people. And I'm in front of them and doing my thing. And clear as day, I just knew.
I was like, oh man, I've got to pay for their stuff. Just and I do this is something I do quite often. And so I kind of hung around the register until I paid for my stuff, hung around the register, and when the man Went to uh paper stuff. I reached over and I swiped my card and I paid for his groceries. And he goes, What are you doing?
I said, Well, Jesus told me to pay for your stuff. I said, Appreciate you. Hope you have a great day. And Jesus loves you guys. And when I said that, I looked right at that young.
Wanna be gangster. And his eyes were wide open in shock. And I got out of there. And It's funny because You know, I had a waitress one day. Who She wasn't great.
She wasn't There was nothing about her that made her stand out. But I was sitting there drinking coffee and there were some There was a little bit of a crowd with us, just family and friends. And I knew I said, Oh, there it is. And all I can tell you, it's a leading of the Spirit that we'll teach on some point. But as you do things like this, it'll come out of you.
And Dino, I said to her, I said, what's the biggest tip you ever got? She said, $50.
So every everybody at table who knew me, they knew what was about to happen. My kids start laughing. One of my kids even goes, Okay, you're about to get the biggest tip you've ever got. One of my kids said that out loud.
Okay. I I gave her $100. after I paid for the meal. She began to cry. The restaurant was closing.
It closed at two. It was a breakfast place. And she began to tell us how she needed this, she needed that, she needed this, she needed that for her newborn. And the hundred dollars was going to be enough to help her get all of that and not put her behind. And I was, you know, praise God.
You know, and I tell you, friends, that over and over and over, we do things like that. Why? It's just money. Am I rich? No, I'm not rich yet.
I'm not, I don't have a big bank account. I mean, I don't have all of that, but I always try to carry a little extra with me because I know what it's like to not have an extra penny. I know what it's like. I was on the mission field for years, and there were many times people were like, hey, Brother John, are you going to eat with us? And I say, no, I'm fasting.
And I never wanted to tell them that I didn't have money, that I couldn't afford to eat. And there was one, I was in one country in Southeast Asia for several months and only had $200 the whole time I was there. And I lost so much weight. But I also spent a lot of time just, I just counted it as a season with God and just blessed God for it. And people.
Thought I was just fasting. I was like, you know, years later, I tell people I'm on a forced fast. And there's been many times I've lost all of my belongings. I've never been fired from a job, but I've lost all of my belongings because somebody did us wrong or something happened. And instead of, and people go, well, you need to stand up for yourself.
You need to go fight that. And there are times that I stand up, but a lot of times the Lord has made me sit back.
So, I'm not telling you these things to go, well, Brother John, you've got this, you've got that. No, I'm not any of that. I mean, right now this radio show is being recorded in a 3x3 room full of clothing. I don't have some fancy studio. I'm sweating because the heat is on outside and and I I can't figure out how to get it cold in this room.
So I'm not so I'm just telling you these things folks because it doesn't matter where you are in life. It doesn't matter where you sit right now to this instance. You can begin to act like love. You can do it. It will change things.
It'll turn things around. And your life will become all that you expected and you dreamed of. But you can't wait for things to get right. You can't wait for your ducks to get in a row. You just have to start doing it.
And it will come back and bless you.
Okay. You just have to start doing it, my friends. That's all there is to it. You have to start listening. and obeying.
And and if you're not reading the Bible. Get a Bible or email me. Love never fails with brother John. At gmail.com. Email me and I'll find a way to get a Bible to you.
We helped send 300,000 Bibles to a country last year. I can get you a Bible if you need a Bible, my friend. I don't care where you are in the world. I'll figure out what I got to figure out. I know people in other countries that are closed, we can get you a Bible.
So if you need help, ask. But And that applies with God too. If you need help, ask God. But you've got to start doing what you're supposed to be doing. and that is you're supposed to start walking in love.
All of the law, all of the prophets hinge on this command, that we love one another. And sometimes that means you do things that nobody else can make heads or tails of. But you and God do. And when it's you and God, you cannot fail.
So, listen, we love you. We appreciate you. I hope this has been encouraging. And I think we'll probably just pick up with this on the next episode. But I really, really, really truly appreciate you.
We love you. And remember, Jesus loves people, and love never fails. Thank you for listening to Love Never Fails as we pursue revival. Remember, Jesus loves people and love never fails. For more information on Love Never Fails and ministry events, please email us at love neverfails with brojohn at gmail.com.
That's love neverfails with B-R-O-J-O-H-N at gmail.com. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah
