All You Need is Love

Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. A little later in the program we'll tell you how you can get a copy of Dr. Graham's brand new book, Reignite. But first, here's his message, all you need is love. Romans 12 is our text. Verse 9 says, let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection.

Outdo one another in showing honor. Jesus told us that the first and greatest command is to love. In summing up the Ten Commandments He said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength.

And the second, wrapping it up He said is like it, love your neighbor as you love yourself. It's all about the love. And yet so many don't understand how to live this love out. So here we discover how, not just what love is but how love is worked out through our lives.

So what is love? Real love is true and trustworthy. That's why it says let love be sincere or let love be genuine.

Why? Because there's a lot of phony and fake love. We see lust rather than love in our generation. So there is a difference between pretending to love and actually loving. The word that He uses here, in fact in the old King James it's a word we don't use very much. Love does not dissimulate, which means love is not hypocritical.

In the ancient world the actors would perform with masks, various characters, a variety of characters, same actor, different mask. And so Jesus and New Testament Christians took that word to wear a mask to describe hypocrisy when we're just acting and showboating rather than truly living and loving. He said don't love wearing a mask to put on a show but let love be genuine. So this love is a sincere, authentic love.

Not pretentious, not manipulative, not shallow, not superficial, but sincere. Not only was this love sincere but this love is a sacrificial love. The word that the Holy Spirit uses to describe this kind of love is agape love, A-G-A-P-E, agape love. It's a Greek word which is descriptive of a new kind of love, the love of God.

It's a uniquely Christian word. The kind of love that the world doesn't understand or cannot comprehend. The world understands erotic love, the world understands the love of family and friends, but it is the agape love, the love of God, the love of Christ.

If you want to know what agape is then look at the cross because that is the sacrificial love of God demonstrated at the cross. And Jesus said in the upper room in John chapter 13 and verse 4, 34 rather, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. What's new about the love of God?

What's new about this kind of love? It is as Christ has loved us. The way God has loved us. It is the wonder of this love. Though we were undeserving and unlovable, Christ gave His life for us. He said, this is the love with which I'm leaving you. It's my legacy of love.

You love one another as I have loved you. The disciples were not always lovable and neither are we. God loves us not because we deserve it but because we need it. Jesus often spoke of this love and He told stories about how to love. He spoke of a certain man who went down to Jericho and on his way down to Jericho he was beaten by thieves and robbers.

They beat him within an inch of his life, took his money and left him to die. Jesus said along came a religious crowd, several of them walked by on the other side, didn't want to get their hands dirty, didn't want to get involved, too hurried to help the man. They walked by and then Jesus said a certain Samaritan.

Samaritans were hated among many of the Jews in that day. And yet He said a certain Samaritan. We call him the good Samaritan. Jesus never called him the good Samaritan. He said a certain Samaritan. He was only doing the good that everyone is called upon to do when we see someone in need. But others didn't do it, yet this Samaritan, he did. And what did he do?

He got down off of his horse and he reached out to the man and he ministered to him and he gave him medicine and poured oil and wine into his wounds and he got him up and he paid for his stay at a hostel so he could recover. There are people in life who will beat you up. And then there are others who will pass you up, walk by and never reach out. They're all into themselves, not all into love.

But then there are those who will pick you up. The mark of a Christian disciple is a godly, genuine love for people. The Apostle John was not always known as the apostle of love as he became known later in his life. He was the son of thunder, apparently known for his temper and competitiveness.

He was known to explode in anger. But time well spent with Jesus those three years turned his temperament around and tendered him up. John described himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. I've always wondered why John said that, describing himself as the disciple that Jesus loved because we know that Jesus loves everyone. He loved Peter and Thaddeus and James the Less and Andrew just as much as he loved John. But John was so overwhelmed by the love of God.

You know when you love someone and you feel like you're the only one? That was John. He felt so loved and he put his chest over near the heart or his head rather near the heart of Jesus and it's always astounded me to think that John heard the heartbeat of God. God's heart throbbing, beating for the world, about to explode in love for the world.

John heard that. He followed Jesus all the way to the cross and he saw Jesus die in agony and blood and yes with love. You know it was not the nails that kept Jesus on that cross but his love.

He could have called 10,000 angels to deliver him but he bled and he died for you and for me. Love fastened Jesus to that cross. God demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. John saw that, it changed his life. It changed your life if you will walk with John. He became the apostle of love and in 1 John chapter 3 verse 14, here's what John later said. He said, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. You want to know the mark of a Christian? You want to know that you're saved?

Here's how. Because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and see his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth. That's love with sincerity. That's love without hypocrisy. That's real love. It is true and always true. Paul would say in 1 Corinthians 13, you can speak like the angels.

You can sing like the angels. You can prophesy like a prophet but if you don't have love, you are nothing. It's nothing. Life minus love is zero. Love.

All you need is love. It's sincere. It is sacrificial.

Agape is also steadfast and strong. 1 Peter 4.8, love fervently or love earnestly. He says, above all, love earnestly.

And it's a word here, I love the picture because it's a love that means to stretch a muscle. The love of God, the love of Jesus Christ is a stretched out love. It's a strong, muscular, robust love that reaches out to people and does whatever is necessary and what is needed to demonstrate the love of Jesus. We are to love people unreservedly and unconditionally. Jesus said, as I have loved you. You say, how do you love like that?

Beautiful. But Romans 5 says the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love. A lot of people get excited about spiritual gifts. But the sign of a Spirit filled life is not a spiritual gift. The sign of a Spirit filled life is spiritual fruit. And the fruit of the Spirit is love. So that's love. It's sincere. It is true. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message. All you need is love. Bring fresh passion and joy to your faith with Dr. Graham's newest book Reignite, an intimate account of how God led Dr. Graham through one of the darkest seasons of his life.

Whether you're facing disappointment, doubt, depression or heartache, Reignite offers biblical insights to encourage you in your pain and help fan the flames of faith in your life. And it's our way to thank you for your gift to PowerPoint. This is the last week of this offer. So call today. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627.

You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional. Our website again is JackGraham.org. Now let's get back to today's message. All you need is love. Secondly, love is tenacious. Love is tough. Because the second part of verse nine says in contrast, hate, hate what is evil and cling to what is good. Love is tough and tenacious in the sense that while we are to love unconditionally and unreservedly people, yet we are to hate and despise what is evil and never endorse what is wrong.

It's a thin line we walk. But love is discerning, you see. And the reason that we're counseled here, commanded here to hate what is evil is because evil will destroy love. Sin destroys love.

I've seen it over and over again how evil and sinful behavior destroys the love of a husband and wife, destroys the love of a family, destroys the love of a church, destroys the love of a community, destroys the love of a nation. Hate what is evil because God does. God is perfect and pure love and yet He is of purer eyes than to behold, to even look at evil according to the prophet Habakkuk.

God's eyes are so pure that He will not even look at evil. The word here, to hate, abhor that which is evil is the strongest kind of word. It's so wicked, it's so bad, it's so filthy that you can't even look at it, you turn from it. That's what the scripture is saying here, hate it, turn from it. Don't even look at it.

Don't even get near it. The Bible describes sin as disobedience and it is. We disobey the commandments of God. That's sinful behavior when we don't do what God has called us to do or when we do what God says not to do.

That's sin, that's disobedience. Sin is also called disease. It's like a cancer in the soul and every human being is infected with this blood cancer that destroys the soul. It's a disease. The wages of sin is death.

So if you love health, you will hate cancer. And love, or rather sin, is also called a defilement. It's described in the Bible as filthy rags. Idolatry is described as the detestable and we're to hate it. The Bible says that we are to abstain from every form of evil, which literally means don't even allow a hint of evil in your life.

Not a hint, not a scent of it as a believer. Not playing around with sin, we are to despise it. And yet how many of us are entertained by sin?

We use media of all kinds that is celebrating sin and evil behavior and we applaud or we cheer or we just quietly watch it knowing that it's eating away at our souls. God says no. That will kill you.

It will destroy your testimony and everything that is good. Hate! Hate! Every kind of evil. There is sin, there is evil. And we're never to endorse it. And we should confront it in our own lives first. Jesus said before you get the speck out of your brother's eye, get the plank out of your own eye. So we should confront evil and sin and sinful behavior in our own lives.

We should hate, hate, hate it. And instead cling to what is good. Another vivid word picture here.

It means to stick like glue. To be facileth. And never let go. Oh I know the struggle is real for all of us. We often live in Romans 7 with the Apostle Paul in that day when he said, the things that I want to do, I don't do.

The things that I don't want to do, I do. There's that civil war, that spiritual struggle, this struggle within. We're always fighting and yes, at times we fail, other times we fall, but what are we to do? We're to get up and then grab hold of good again. Grab hold of that which is right again.

Never stay down but get up and stay fastened like glue. Never let go. Hold it fast.

Hold it fast. Hold the good. You say well what is the good? The word good here means intrinsically, innately good.

You say well what's that? Read your Bible. Read your Bible. You will find in God's Word what is good, what is righteous, what is holy. Get the Word of God in your life. Allow God's Word to penetrate and transform your mind.

We read about it earlier in Romans 12 too. The renewing of your mind. Don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Biblical meditation and scriptural memory is key to the transformation of your thinking, the way you think, the way you live.

You want to know what's good? You want to cling to what's good? Cling to God's Word. Fill your heart, your mind with what Paul talks about in Philippians chapter 4. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, just, pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence, anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Think about these things. Well, if you are saved, you will hate evil and you will love good. The Bible says in Psalm 97, 10, O you that love the Lord, hate evil. Proverbs 8, 13 says the same thing, the fear of the Lord is the hatred of evil.

Now it doesn't say hate people who are evil. We're to love people. We're to even love our enemies. We hate evil. We love people.

Thirdly and quickly, real love is not only tough, tenacious, and true, it is also tender. So verse 10 says that we're to love one another with a brotherly love. He's talking here about our response to one another as a band of believers, brothers and sisters in Christ. He's talking to the church because you see the church, we the people of God. It is not an organization to join like you would join a club, but it is a family to share. We are blood-bought and heaven-bound together. We are born again by the Spirit and into the body of Christ, God's church. And so, we have this spiritual connection and we are to love one another as brothers.

It's a different word than agape, it's phileo, that means the love of friends, the love of family. And we're to love one another like that. How many of you believe that you should obey the Bible? All right? All right, that's most all of us I think.

All right? One of the one another commandments in the Bible is to greet one another with a holy kiss. How many of you did that this morning? Well, you said my wife, but a 17-year-old kid just ran to the student ministry right there. No, greet one another with a holy kiss.

What does that mean? Well, of course, in the Middle East, even to this day, people will greet one another with a kiss on each side of the cheek or the face. It's customary, it is cultural. Even today, we might greet one another with a peck on the cheek. But of course, the whole point is as brothers and family, we embrace one another, we love one another, and we greet one another with joy and a smile. You know, we don't necessarily do the kiss thing, but you know, maybe a holy handshake or a holy hug.

I mean, we should love being together and seeing one another. It's brotherly affection. We love God and we love His church, brotherly affection. One final thing, real love is not only true and tenacious and tough and tender, brotherly love, but it is thoughtful.

Now, you're going to like this because I love this right here. It says, outdo one another in giving honor. Outdo, it's a competitive word. Now, I'm fairly competitive. In fact, some people would say I'm too competitive.

And I try to, you know, chill that down a little bit. But, here is a case that you can't be too competitive. It is actually a word which means compete to outdo one another in love and showing honor in serving. It means prefer one another. Put others first and not yourself.

And in this me-ism, selfie generation, how appropriate is it for the church of the Lord Jesus to love like this? There's so much disrespect in our culture. He says to honor one another.

Outdo each other in showing love. Wait on others to go first. You don't always have to be the first. You don't always have to take the shot.

You don't always have to be on the platform. You don't always have to be the one that somebody calls your name. Most churches I've seen in the past that get divided is because somebody wants their rights or their power or their prestige and they're not getting it, so there it goes. We should outdo one another. We should live in a culture in the church of honor and respect of one another.

Outdo one another. It's like, you go first. No, you go first. No, no, you go first. No, you go first.

Well, nothing gets done like that. Somebody has to go. But we are to have that attitude of saying after you, giving preference to others. Outdo one another in giving honor. All you need is love. Love that is true, sincere, not phony, not hypocritical, not dishonest, not just a clanging symbol, but real. Love that is tough and tenacious that hates evil but holds on to what is good. Love that is tender with brotherly affection. Love that is thoughtful.

You say, you go first. It focuses on others and not ourselves. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message All You Need Is Love. Chances are you've faced your share of crisis.

Maybe you're even in the fight of your life right now. Or maybe you're simply feeling exhausted by the busyness of life and sapped of spiritual strength. Whatever you're facing, we want to help fan the flame of faith in your life by sending you Dr. Graham's newest book, Reignite.

This personal account of how God led Dr. Graham through his own crisis will help you focus on God during difficult seasons so you can experience fresh passion and joy in Jesus. And we'll send you a copy as thanks for your gift today. This is the last week of this offer so call today. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional.

Our website again is JackGraham.org. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? Jesus has told us to share the gospel, to share the message of hope and life and eternity with people all around us who don't know Christ. They're dying without the knowledge of the love that Jesus has for them. And as you're listening today, you need to see that if you don't live the Christian life, if you're not authentic and if you don't tell them and show them the love of Christ, how can they know him?

How will they ever find out? I'm reminded of a story in frustration. A young lady had come to the end of her life and it seemed to be an absolutely hopeless situation. So she went to the edge of a pier into a bridge and she leaped off into the darkness to her death. She anticipated her death.

She just didn't think there was any reason to live, no purpose for her life. There was a young man who saw what happened. He was walking there and he saw the young lady go over. So before he even thought, he jumped over himself into the turbulent waters. He began to drown because this young man forgot to consider one thing.

He didn't know how to swim. And so as he's going under, the young lady saw what he did, saw what happened, and she reached over and began to save him. And she was able to bring him to shore. And as a result of that experience, they became acquainted with each other. They became friends. They developed a relationship. And I know what you're thinking, but no, they didn't get married. Well, that's the only bad thing about this story.

I mean, it would be great, but they didn't get married. But as a result of that man's risk taking and her saving his life, she realized, I do have a purpose. I do have a reason for being here and is to put others first rather than thinking about myself, to love others as Christ has loved each one of us and to sacrifice, to do what is necessary in order to bring people to Jesus. If you're a Christian, that is your purpose.

It is to put Jesus first in your life and then because you love him to share his love with others. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember when you give a gift to PowerPoint today, we'll send you Dr. Graham's brand new book, Reignite, as our thanks. Call 1-800-795-4627.

That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131. Text PowerPoint to 313131. On the next PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how to live in the freedom that comes from forgiveness. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. Reignite with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.