Love More, Forgive More, Serve More

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for for Tex for for cont V for for for for Hallelujah for [Applause] fore for Hallelujah for amen foru [Music] [Music] for [Music] fore [Music] for [Music] fore [Music] [Music] foree [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] fore [Music] [Laughter] [Music] fore slus let's say praise be to our Lord God is good he is merciful he is great he's given us this time because he's the one that holds the time in his hands and he's gifting them for us sometimes we get used to the things that we have the the blessings the the health and everything like that and when things happen it usually doesn't happen with us it's from someone around us they hear in the news from other people other places you know it's hard maybe to comprehend with our minds sometimes but we realize that everything we receive we receive from the Lord he's the one who saving us from ouro accidents he's the one who's saving us from some kind of uh terminal illness in our life and all the praise and glory be to him hallelujah praise be to him you know I would like to share a word with you that's being preached on this topic many many many times in or in churches you know it's a topic of love it's very hard to Define it but it's it's it's God himself and regardless what kind of Passage we might be reading from the word of God everything points to the love it is the most important is something that is a focal and Central Point in the word of God and when we interact with any kind of businesses or kind of company we do business with and when if you were to ask him what is your um mission statement is what is your purpose what do you do and for us is Believers the children of Christ we would say the main thing for us is love it is something Central that is in the word of God it is what Jesus did with his uh life being an example while living here on Earth it it what is apostles were writing and talking about and that's how the church the first church lived by it is love the love of God and if you were to open up our word of God in Book of Matthew chapter 22 verse 30 36 and 37 Jesus was asked teacher which is the greatest commandment in the law Jesus replied love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind and the second is like love your neighbor as yourself when Jesus add says there is a a second is like it love your neighbor as yourself I would like for us to highlight the word the second is like it or the same you know it is very easy to for a person to say God I love you you don't see him visually we read what he did for us and we believe in it visually we see all his blessings we see his son we see the the weather that we have an experience we can confidently say Lord we we love you for it and the second is like like it love your neighbor as yourself and sometimes we can Define that neighbor somebody who's really close to us maybe our children our spouses but it's not only uh those people it's also our neighbors maybe our co-workers [Music] you know the story The the parable that Jesus was say about the rich man and the poor man Lazarus and it says this rich man was receiving those noble men in his homes and he did not see the fact that the neighbor is that person that is maybe at the doorstep of his house there begging for some food or money and what's interesting he finally realized who his true neighbor is when he was in Shaw and then he remembered the name of the person who was actually at the doorsteps of his house he says send Lazarus that he would you know um put his fingers in water and he would then later put on my lips he finally comprehended and realized the difference between the two but his entire love life while he was living and when he had opportunity to do something about it and we know that he was ignoring this poor man because he did not get the real food but only the the crumbs that were falling off the rich man's [Music] table and those type of you know neighbors we can um experience or maybe know ourselves those are unpleasant people in our days maybe some of the the homeless people because Bible says that the the dogs were licking the wounds of this poor man Lazarus and you know you know these maybe a noble man they're visiting the rich man's house they maybe doing something very important maybe they were involved into building building because maybe they were involved into maybe uh giving some kind of uh helping financially in any way but he never mentioned this man that is standing at the doorsteps of his house and when we look at this picture more in a wider angle you know this man what was his life how long it was just a few decades and things changed so drastically and completely opposite Lazarus he was with Abraham he's resting and this rich man he is suffering he's struggling his end was very troubling was very very sad one and the second place I'd like to read is going to be uh um second uh 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 Verse one and below [Music] for until this verse we see the comparison and regardless what you might be doing in your life if we were to translate this passage into the reality of life that we live today we could say if you maybe one of the best employees at work or maybe you are the most successful businessman or the people that you know around or if you may be the most compassionate person there is and you're helping a lot of people or maybe you will lead a righteous life and you do all these different things for the Lord and it says even if somebody gives their life away everything that you can imagine but if you do not have love in your life sense nothing else makes sense Bible tells us it's nothing you know this passage is extremely deep and very serious message you know what really touched me personally when I was thinking on this topic of love you know the most the focal point or the central point is love are you able to come up with something when it comes to a Christian walk that does not contain love can you do something for the Lord without the love but if we are very honest about it but how often we lack this love in our life not only did we know the deep inside of us but a lot of times our actions show for others to see because it says that how they will know that you are my disciples because that there's love among you so the love will be determining factor and a lot of times we can examine ourselves when when we are able to see whether we are displaying whether we are showing that we are the children of God you know not in church because you know we maybe try for the moment when we are in the service to display that love in our life but I'm talking about the everyday life when it comes to our work school or other places it's a very serious it is something that we have to put a lot of effort and work on on focus on it is displayed and being said a lot about LA and what it says In this passage it gives us this instructions what needs to be done that love is longsuffering the love it displays Mercy love doesn't Envy love doesn't put yourself about others does not uh does is not proud does not seek What's um do not seek their their own you know if I have to ask you a question isn't that detailed enough for us to understand this I think there is no other way to explain it or to this show the details as it is written in this passage that we just read if you were to examine ourselves and by these criterias that are mentioned in this passage you can easily define whether that love exist in your life but that's the most important Christ said it is the greatest love the greatest commandment everything that we'll do before or after or around it it's secondary it is extremely important point for us to consider a lot of times we could be maybe going very seriously into certain things or even a Ministry and sometimes we don't realize or stop seeing ourselves how would we look from this side but we are lacking this love in our life and what we are doing means nothing then and may God bless us that we would remember that we would engrave those things on our hearts that everything we do regardless what we do that we do it for the name of the Lord that we constantly examine what do we have this love in our life the love for one another the love for our Lord you know our life is transformed it is it has different influence when we have this love in our life Bible tells us that God is love and John says the ones that does not love have not uh acknowledged or realized or understood God because there's no God's love in him and there is no such thing as there's too much love let me ask you this is there anyone in this place that can struggle with the fact that they receive too much love in their life whether it's for their mom or relatives or someone else I do not know about myself but maybe any of you here you know when you are being do something and you're being loved all you do is just receive and enjoy and and it's so pleasant that's how our God is God is love he is multi multi U uh um dimensional he is something that for us it's so hard to comprehend there is this topic is so deep we can AR derive and preach about different topics when it comes to this and you know it's so Global and it's this line is can be visible throughout the go the word of God praise be to the Lord God's love another thing I wanted to highlight is also you know the opposite of Love is hatred and this characteristics should not be even named or named among us but there is a lot of passages in the word of God and and I'm going to read three of them Romans 19 verse chter 12 verse 9 Romans 12 ver9 love must be sincere hate what is evil cling to what is good it says hate what is evil in Psalms we read the one who loves the Lord word hate evil and Amma says it says hate evil but fall in love with good you know in the word of God we can find a lot of passages that talks what God hates God hates sin but he loves The Sinner but the word of God is telling us it says we need to hate evil and you know at the same time it's kind of hard to comprehend how can hate and love go together where you need to in order for you to love something you have to hate something else you know somebody has shared this an example is um it's we can find is in automobiles you know love it's like a gas paddle it is the engine that drives the car and you know the evil it's like this brake paddle if you continue to just to keep on hitting the the gas paddle you can you know very easily make an car accident but if you to love but not not in the right [Music] way what I mean by that is to love the things that God hates to love the things that is sinful you know how many times we can find in our life that we love the things that God hates God it's not pleasing our God it could be things it could be maybe some kind of habits and Bible tells us you need to hate evil and you know when we have this hatred towards evil you need to use that padle it's there for a [Music] reason when we realize things that there is a line that we should not be Crossing you need to press that break paddle and it is also very important warning because Bible says that you have to get close with with good but hate the evil praise be to our lord for his word may your name his name be glorified let we always remember and examine ourselves do we display the love of God in our life do we see those neighbors of ours that maybe that you know it's hard to notice or maybe we not willing or naturally want to notice you know how easily it could be Jesus Christ himself maybe this person he just always wants something from me maybe it's the look that is so rejecting this person or maybe it's the the smell or other things but what Jesus says when you were I was in a prison you visited me I was in a hospital sick or maybe there was this Widow that is on by herself and the righteous people they were questioning and says Lord where where were you we have not seen how could we miss that but Jesus says what you did for the little ones of mine you did it for me may God allow us to see those people those the little ones because it is Christ in himself in our life he's testing and examine us whether we at the right uh place in our heart are we just reading the word of God are we actually practicing and exercising the word of God in our life the love of his in our life may God bless us may God name be glorified amen Hu for foruu foru for for [Music] foru fore [Music] for spee [Music] spee [Music] for p [Music] me [Music] foree [Music] for [Music] for [Music] P me P me [Music] p praise God can we say God is good amen amen after hearing that sermon I think we could say amen and go home you know sometimes they say um when God wants to say something he'll say it twice and interesting brother Vali kind of touch on one of the points I was going to speak today about so he made my sermon even easier but I think we did a good uh thing that we came here today God gave us another day to worship him uh to pray and listen to his word but if we care fully listen to his word I think we could receive something again it's up to us if we want to receive it we need to open our hearts and our minds to receive what God has spoken today I always like to say we invest into what we believe in so think today we're investing into our eternity can say can we say Amen as brother ho mentioned a lot of people don't want to maybe invest into the eternity because they don't come on these good days because they don't make that effort maybe to come on a Wednesday some people have excuses I'm working I'm tired or I'm busy but again today we made a good decision to be here and our lord is good amen and today I'd like to share some thoughts and that we could think about and Ponder upon as you know it's very custom at work or with people that you greet so especially for me at work they ask hey how are you and people say some people say I'm good some people say another day another dollar so I I started to say something different I said the day close to Eternity not everybody understands that it's my little sarcasm but with a little bit of Truth in it Believers smile they understand so next time someone says how are you tell him one day closer to Eternity plant a little proceed amen amen again every day we are getting closer to Eternity correct and it's something we need to think about and because the time that we're given here is limited and we need to keep that in mind and again the new year has started and as you time is flying by really quick we're almost done well halfway done through February and as every year starts people like to make resolution New Year's resolutions how about you have you maybe made a personal um um resolution that you like to keep um usually p uh people make different types of resolutions some of them might be physical to take care of yourself better eat healthier exercise stuff like that and it's okay that's not or some people do a better job maybe mentally to St mentally fit others spiritually and I think that's even more important but interesting you know the statistics say that 80% of resolutions fail by the second week of February so how's your resolution coming but again it is important for us to make resolutions and they're good but um today I'd like to talk about something specifically for maybe for our church to have a resolution us as a church Collective as one body and as I said brother already touched upon one of those points uh so let's open Psalm 90 verse2 it says teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom here this passage you could break it up in two different sections it say [Music] number of days and gain a heart of wisdom so first thing is number a days that's has to do with time again because God has given us a certain time on Earth and we need to use it properly but to use it properly we need that wisdom we all get the same amount of time we get 1440 minutes a day 14,440 how do we use it do we use it or do we abuse it and this is why I like this passage here because it gives us a sense of w we should use [Music] it because numbers on Earth are numbered our numbers here are numbered we don't live here eternity but sometimes we think we live here eternity so um scripture Wars warns us and teaches us how we should use our time uh let's open Ephesians 5 15- 16 see that you will walk circumstantially not as fools but as wise Redeeming the time because the days are evil again scripture teaches us that we need to be careful how we live so as we live our life everything is fighting for our time uh our day-to-day life our work family and then we also have church activities but all of it is around time but I think we need God's wisdom how to properly use this time when I was younger and maybe some of you recall too uh days used to be so long you could think how long this day could go on as I get older I've noticed that days are the days are getting shorter I don't know if it's you or just me but I think that's part of life time flies and my mom used to tell me all the time day flies like one your life will fly by like one day and it's important to keep that in mind and now like never we need God's wisdom how to use that time and why am I talking so much about time because depending on how we use our time will determine how we live our life uh one more scripture I'd like to look at James 1:15 again scripture tells us how and what if we are lacking wisdom it says if anyone lacks wisdom let him ask God who gives to all liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him God can provide that wisdom that we need to use a time wisely and when we use our time wisely us personally and as a church we can focus on main things and as a resolution for our church for I picked three things that i' would like us to make us uh make a New Year resolution for ourself and for our church so we could focus on love on forgiveness and on to serving so my my topic of the team today for us to love more for us to forgive more and for us to serve more these three things is a is something we should focus on brother already explained love very well why it's important in Christian life and we'll shortly touch upon the other the other two items we as a church are called to do these things personally and as a church but sometime we we waste time and we focus maybe on other things and we forget what is more important but I think as a church and US collectively focuses on these three things I think a lot more people would be able to see God's love and be able to accept him we are the example we are the salt of the world and sometimes we lose track of what is important and spend our time on other things uh so the first thing as we talked about already is today's love and we know that Jesus um um in John 13 ver vers 34 and 35 Jesus command us to love one another as he has loved us4 he loved us so much that he went on the cross for us he loved us unconditionally we didn't deserve anything for him him to love us that much but out of his mercy and love he went on the cross for us how about us uh do we love unconditionally do we show the same kind of love brother gave us a as um something we can compare against the uh for for love so you could ask yourself and we as a church how do we show love how could we show more love and it's our personal relationship first with Christ and then that love will overfill our hearts to share with others interesting we live in a world that's hurting and people are looking for that love again some people look in different long wrong places but we know where the true love comes from as scripture says God is love and sometimes it is hard to love because some people can act un lovingly they will hurt us they will betray us and they might leave us interesting but Jesus went through the same exactly thing but and he still continued to love so I think it's a good example for us that we need to continue to that we need to continue to love no matter what can we say Amen to that amen um second thing uh forgiveness how about forgiveness uh let's open Colossians 3:13 bear with each other and forgive one another if anyone if any of you has grievance against someone forgive them as the Lord forgave you again the scripture teaches us how to love and forgive it says forgive one another as the Lord has forgave you and we pray our um our um watch us we say our father in Heaven forgive us as we have forgive those again this is another one that sometimes is hard to do because uh people do people do bring us pain and we sometimes want to hold that against them and hold on to that but we forget that this unforgiveness is a baggage or a um Gro it's a load load thank you and only through Jesus we could receive that healing and he could take the load off us so we don't have to carry it alone but try but try find true forgiveness by forgiving also when we forgive it releases us and others from the bounds of unforgiveness how much time have we lost for due to unforgiveness and we maybe heard stories people carry this baggage through whole life till their death bed but God didn't want us that God doesn't want that that for us he wants to live Us in Victory and in Freedom again as a reminder that we need to forgive like the Lord has forgave Us and how often do how much do we need to forgive I Think Jesus answered that question once many times because we make mistakes we fall short and he forgives us and I think us in return being his disciples being his followers we need to also forgive and it may be hard we may not want to but if we come to our Lord Jesus Christ with Earnest heart and ask him to help us in this matter guide us and through the Holy Spirit he can help us can we say Amen to that amen amen uh one more thing uh so the third item is um how can we serve or serve more so so far we talked about love forgiveness and the third one is to serve more again as we know Jesus was the best example of serving one another Mark 10:45 says for even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as ransom for many Jesus throughout his ministry he dedicated his life to is serving starting with disciples to then the close ones and then everybody else he served till the last moment even on that cross he was able to serve that um one um Robert Robert on the cross next to him again as a church and US collectively we need to serve one another also to the ones that are lost they may need help directing back onto the right path they may need some direction or support and all of this if we have love we can do this again serving people is not easy as well because people have their own character they have their own understanding and it could be difficult but Jesus showed us an example again and again that no matter what when you serve with love and forgiveness it is possible to do so these things I think are important for us and the church to keep that in mind um Jesus Through um speaking of when it's difficult Jesus also saw these difficulties in his own Ministry when he fed the 5,000 and they follow him again he knew that they were looking just probably to get a new another meal but again he continued to serve also example about when you serve people not might be so uh thankful or grateful for what you do for them an example comes from the lepers when the 10 lepers came to Jesus they came to him and um he healed them he sent them off and how many returned only one so again he saw that some people will not be maybe grateful or be thankful for what you do for them so again but that doesn't that shouldn't discourage us to continue and keep on doing what is good but there are times that when we serve we do find joy and fulfillment amen so even personally I know I've seen this with um many times here at church when we do a SP or when we do a big um event conference it's hard during that process you serve you serve you serve but when it's all done and done when it's all done you get that satisfaction the Fulfillment because God put that in you to enjoy when you serve people to receive that satisfaction and the more we do it and God blesses it we receive that satisfaction can we say Amen to that so these three things that we talked about and again uh think the holy spirit is specifically emphasizing about love that we need that more and more in our life scripture says at the end in the last days people are going to be what lovers of themselves lovers of money so they're not going to they're not going to be the the the the light that needs to be this is where the church comes in and as we as the body of Christ need to show these these three things so as this year goes on let's make this re let's make this um resolution Contin continuously not just end in February but continue every day every hour every week every month until the time that we end up in eternity and to summarize God God has given us everything he given us time he's given us the scripture and he teaches us that if we need that wisdom to use the time wisely and it's up to us because it'll be sad when God shows you a timeline and he'll be a data or shows us how much time that we wasted for useless things um at my work I work with graphs or data that I get to display [Music] and we like a lot of people like dashboards where you could see what you've done or what things is going on in our system so one day when we stand before God I know maybe for me or whoever you'll get your graph or a dashboard of showing you how you lived your life and what you spent your time on he'll show us he'll show us a graph how did we love how did we forgive and how did we serve I think it's important for us to remember this and keep this in mind and pray that God gives us the wisdom to properly use this time that we have given us here today so we could love more forgive more and serve more can we say Amen let us [Music] pray their Heavenly Father father we come before you with a grateful heart we want to thank you for the things that you have spoken us today we thank you for the reminders that you give us today to love more to serve more to forgive we need this every day in our life but we thank you for your scripture that repeat that teaches us and reminds us what we need to do and how we should love like you loveed with unconditional love for one for us and everybody that you died for us we thank you for that we thank you for the unconditional love that we know but help us to be that light to show that light to others help us to keep these resolutions not just for day or one day or two but the entire life we live until we come to Eternity to show that we truly loved like you loved to serve like you served and to forgive like you forgive us we thank you for the time that we've given us we ask you to bless us to use this time wisely and we ask to give us wisdom for us individually also as a church and collectively to properly use this time that you you've given us to bring more souls to you so that more people may be saved more be saved and to come to know you as a personal savior again we thank you we ask you to bless this evening I ask you to bless each heart that's here today bless those who were not able to make it I ask you to work on their hearts to help them realize what it's important in life important to seek you to know you and to spell spend time fellowship with one another we thank you for this time that you given us we thank you for the time that we have to study your word to worship to praise you to give you glory we thank you Jesus and in Jesus name we pray amen [Music] for for for for for res for [Laughter] Fore for for Frank [Laughter] C Pim for fore for for for for for [Music]