Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world, so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. And you were brought together, and that kind of got your attention. That's not love.
And you go through trials in life, and you realize that those things won't keep you together. And the sense of yes, it was attraction, and there was a lot of lust going on. You desired something for yourself, and you wanted a relationship, and all those companionships, and all those things. But realization of love being absent is a big realization, isn't it? And as I tried to share this morning about love, and you write down how many acts and words have actually come through me.
That were truly, purely acts of love, done simply because of, and not expecting to return, have a return on anything I do.
So thou hast left that first love. Return. Remember. Repent. Do the first works, and go back to that simple, simplistic place of pursuit, both in your relationships, but also with your with your Lord.
And then seek ye first. Say seek ye first. This will be my emphasis this evening. Lord willing, I will get there. And I want to conclude.
I want to do a quick review. And then Wednesday, we love him because he first loved us. You want to try that one? We love him because he first loved us, and he wanted us. In other words, and so what a wonderful thing it is to know that God wants you.
When God talked to His church in the Book of the Revelation, we see that He said to His church, "You lost. You left your first love." He Called them to repent. Or remember, repent, and do the first works. And as you think about relationships with God or with other people, you can even bring it to the family now—not just parents to children, children to parents, relationships with friends and whatnot. Make sure that your basis for your relationship is love.
It's a sign of discipleship or being a disciple of Christ that you have love one toward another. And having in mind what love is is very important. And for those of you that weren't here, I won't go through all the details. But love is a very powerful thing. It's beyond definition, but when you have what's called love, it is going to be in you, and it has potential power, potential energy to be unleashed through you to do amazing things.
And so, God desires for you to have this thing called love in you. And I'll give you a few examples of this. For God so loved the world that He what? He gave, and so when you consider love, you're going to see always an outpouring of this thing called giving. And I'm not talking about money.
I'm just talking about an outpouring of yourself, who you are, and what you have to bestow upon another. And that is a good, a beautiful manifestation of what love is. As you as you think of those powerful things that motivates you to do things, faith, say faith, and then say hope, and then say charity. These are powerful things. If unleashed in your life and channeled properly, can you can do amazing things with faith, hope, and charity?
But the greatest greatest of these. Powerful things, God said. The greatest of these is charity, and so when you think about love, think about your relationship with God and with your spouse or with your children or with your friends. Make sure that you have a love kind of relationship, and it's really important to have a good definition of what love is in your mind.
So we know that God so loved the world that He gave. We also know that greater love hath no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his what. For his friends, and so when you think about love, it's it's going to be associated with giving, and love is an invisible thing. Love is something that's intangible. It's you really can't hold it in your hand.
Give me, show me ten pounds of love, but it's but it but it is important in our lives, and it shows up the best through the way we give.
Now you can give things without loving. That is to say, you're trying to own someone or get something from somebody.
So love is not always displayed. You don't. Every time you see giving, it's not love. But you can't love, and this is not my saying. I've heard it a lot of times.
You've probably heard it. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. That's an impossibility.
So if you have this thing called love in you, it's important.
So my definition I gave this morning was giving of yourself. And this is my best picture, a biblical picture of what love is: giving of yourself or yours, for the benefit of another, without expecting anything in return. It's not a fifty-fifty, right? It's a hundred percent give. I don't want anything back.
And if you give expecting to get back, you're not loving. You're you're really self-loving, and in that essence, your desire should be: I'm going to do, and I'm going to give, and I don't think about it. I'm not going to let any my right hand know what my left hand is doing. And if you really think about love, as as I'm so glad I got another opportunity to speak, because when I got done, I said I should have said this, and I should have said that. And really, God is love, right?
First John four sixteen, and we have known and believe that the love that God hath to us, God is love. Say that.
Now we know that God is invisible. God is all powerful, and when you have this thing called love in you, it's really God unleashed in you to do what He's wanting to do. He's wanting to pour out something into people around you, and He does not want to do that with people expecting. That they have to do something in return to you, they God wants to use your life, and it's really when you think about loving, you're just letting God take over in your life to do and say what He wants to say, and do, and don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. It's best just forget it, just forget you did it, and do it for the glory of God.
Spend and be spent. Let it continue. Let brotherly love. Can say that it's a short verse, Hebrews thirteen one. Let brotherly love continue.
Continue means, and brotherly love is family love.
Okay, don't just think, oh my brother, you know, man, and you know, two men who get to love each other. No, family. Let family love continue. Continue to give. A lot of families are in a problem because there is a lot of expectations and demands in the family.
And if you just keep just turn off that switch and say, "Okay, we need to love each other. We need to we need to pour out instead of expecting a lot of stuff in return." And in these relationships, you are going to have pain and you are going to have stress, but keep on loving. Don't withdraw the heart. And you say, "Well, preacher, you haven't been through what I've been through." Okay, maybe I haven't. But God does still call us, and if you think about it, God loved until He suffered the greatest pain you could ever imagine, and He kept loving.
And so, love does have an aspect of I'm going to get hurt, and and don't rob yourself of loving. And yes, it's going to be painful, but don't rob yourself of that experience. Do what God wants to do through you, and you'll experience the fellowship of the suffering of Christ. Even if they don't want it, even if they hate you for it, just keep on loving, and you'll experience a fellowship with God that's going to be next level. And that's what I want.
I don't know if you want that, but that's what I want in my life. And when you think about your relationships, God goes all the way back to back to the Book of Genesis, relating to His children. And he says that we as husbands should love our wives, and then he goes on and he says, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife; they twain shall be one flesh. And he says, this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. And you're like, wait a minute!
I thought he was talking about leaving family, and how does the church come into this? And he says, the relationship that you have with your spouse, with your in that relationship, you need to recognize something that God is trying to bring an illustration into our lives, and it starts in the book of Genesis. Say family is everything. To God, family is everything. He created, and as far as we are concerned, people.
Now He created everything for us, so that was created before us. But He created it all for family. And when you think about the theme in the Bible, Christ is a theme from Genesis to Revelation.
So is family. That theme, and I'll hope to help your families tonight in the conclusion where I'm going. And I did a little bit of review because I want you to know when I say love, what I'm talking about—a selfless outpouring and not expecting. A lot of families get in in trouble because they do something and they say, "Well, I did so much for you, and you don't appreciate it." You didn't love to begin with. Does that hurt you?
Does that feel good? Because I said it to myself so many times. And I have said it to people. I have done so much for you, and you know what? I just confessed that when I did it, I wasn't loving, and I created the monster, and it's my fault.
Instead of just simply having, I should have just done and given and forgotten about it. If you ever say those words, "I've done so much for you," how could you have done this? That's not an expression of love. Raise your hand if that hurts. Come on, come on.
Painful? Anybody?
Okay, two of you. That's good. The rest of you are liars. Just kidding. Love, love.
Get a good biblical definition of it. Remember it. And when you find yourself, and you come to the realization that you've been selfish in your relationship with your family, whether it's your spouse or your children or whatever relationship you're in, if you find yourself, I wasn't even loving to begin with. Just tell God. Isn't that our course of action, Lord?
I have been selfish, not loving. Right, so please help me with this, and then ask him to teach you or help you to let him love through you. Wouldn't that be a great experience? And then feel that great feeling of wow, God led me to do something, and I I I love that feeling when somebody comes to me and says, "I thank you for doing this," and I say, "I truly don't remember it," and I'm like, that's a biblical practice. I did something; they're grateful.
It had an effect in their lives. They come and thank me later, and I am like, "What? I don't remember doing that." And that is a good attitude to have instead of a demand or an expectation. Whatever you do, if you multiply it by zero, it's zero. And whatever act or word you say, if love is not the driving force behind it, it's nothing.
There is a whole chapter one Corinthians thirteen. A whole chapter. If you do all these famous, wonderful things, but love is not. Mingled in or multiplied in that, it results in God's inventory in God's mind. It might look big to man, but it's a zero if love was not the driving force behind it or the purpose behind it.
How many things have you done or said? That's a that's a convicting question. How many things and write it down. How many things have I done for my wife or how many things have I done for my husband or done for my children? How many things have I truly done for my ministry or anything I'm doing that was truly a selfless act of I'm just doing this for the glory of God, and it was convicting to me to write down a very short list.
And I've prayed many more many more times than a thousand. Lord, you know that I want my motive. I prayed it today, Lord. I'm here to speak. I prayed this prayer, Lord.
I'm here to speak. And if my motivation is not truly to love, to to to let God pour through me into you, and that hopefully somebody will get something from this, and it's all for the glory of God. That was my passionate prayer, and it's it's it's the heart that should drive us. And I want God to reveal when we get into heaven that this event, this evening, this night, was for the glory of God, in in an act of love. I've poured heart into this, and I want God to use me, and I beg God to give me a message, and I want someone's life to be touched by it.
And I pray, and I say, Lord, it's I I want to do it all for you. Amen. Isn't that a good thing? And and and then you just let it go. You say, "Okay, I've done what I can do for the Lord.
Let us love one another, for love is of God. Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Love one another." And I know, Caron Baptist Church, you guys love each other, and in relationships, I know that there has to be at least two people in this building that have a stress relationship right now with somebody in the church. Can you just try for just a moment to let love conquer that and the biblical definition of love?
Just keep on pouring out. You say, "Well, this person said or did or hurt." Why don't you try this formula? Try the formula of saying, "God, yes, it hurt, but I'm not going to stop loving, and I'm not going to stop giving. I'm not going to stop going. I'm going to continue to pour out, and I'm not going to withdraw." And I hope that will help you in that.
And and you say, "Well, you don't understand. Maybe I don't, but God does." Talk to the Lord and ask Him to help you to love, even the unlovely. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor. Yay! That's not where the sentence ends.
God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of. Love, no love. It's not really going to be in an inventory. Speaking the truth in love, the desire to say, "Okay, I want this to be poured into your life to be a blessing to you." Not to, you know, it's so frustrating.
Somebody walks up to me and says a word or something, and and I want to. I'm probably going to get in trouble. When you preach a message, you just want people to seek God and glorify God, and to hear the words, "Wow, that was a neat message." You showed me something, God, and it gets into the head of, "Wow, you are really smart." That would be a bad reaction, wouldn't it? What I desire the most is to speak the truth in love, and not not to expect someone to walk away and saying, "Wow, preach, Patrick, he can really." He says, "I don't want to hear that." And I have to say, I just you know, I gave a little confession.
Sometimes when I hear it, it gets into my heart and be like, "Oh yeah, that's not bad to hear." But if that's all I'm speaking to hear, it's a big zero. My heart tonight. I love Dr. Lee when he preached this morning. He couldn't sleep and he was disturbed because he wanted a he wanted the message that God gave to him to move somebody because it's a waste of time.
It's a waste of time if God doesn't move in, and that's where my heart was. I was like, Lord, to speak the truth in love and let You speak to these people because there's people going through stuff you can't even imagine, and if God can just minister something into their lives and give them that strength that they need, families are hurting and on the brink of explosion, minds are distracted, and I want God to use the message, speak the truth in love. First Corinthians three thirteen. By the way, everything that you do as pastor was preaching, and what a blessing it was to be here on Wednesday. I'm glad I was there.
I got amazing two amazing messages. I want to preach when I get home. But God in judgment say what sort it is. One, two, three. What sort it is, and that's that's in reference to what you've done.
And God is going to put through the trial. What kind of labor you had, and the fire is going to reveal that. The trial, the the judgment is going to reveal. And if love was not mingled into your actions, it's gone. Doesn't matter what you've done, no matter what you've said.
Let love be that part. I hasten for time, but I want you to know that in this relationship with God, this is a good verse, Jeremiah three fourteen. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord. For I am. Say it with me.
Married unto you, and when you think about relationships of love, the heart sometimes withdraws because things happen in relationships that you didn't want or expect. The one you love hurts you, or you hurt the one you love. You fail the one you love, or the one you love fails you. And in relationship to God, God lets you go through things that you don't think are fair, don't think are right. Just remember that you're in this relationship, and it should be a committed relationship, and don't back out of that.
Jesus once said to his disciples. This was supposed to be in the sermon this morning, and the and the the slides disappeared. I mean, disappeared into disappear zone. I mean, I couldn't even find them when I went home, and I was looking all over for these verses. And I thought I'd made a mistake.
And and I want these. I want you to see this. This is really. Maybe I want to get to the end, but this may be where we finish, and then I'll pick up Wednesday. But then said Jesus unto the twelve, "Will ye also go away?" Now, if you don't know the Bible, raise your hand if you know John six and the context there.
Don't be ashamed; it's not embarrassing. Raise your hand if you know the context. Raise your hand.
Okay, most of us don't. John chapter six. Jesus just taught him, and he said, "I'm the bread of life." And he told his followers, he said, "Eat my flesh and drink my blood," which is still a controversy to this day. Remember, I said that. Everybody say "bread of life," and say "eat my flesh," and then say "controversy." I'm going to get on a soapbox right now and tell you how frustrated I am.
Okay, to bring me back, okay, Dr. Lee was talking about colleges stealing our children. This morning, did you pay attention? And he was talking about secular colleges. I tell you, our Christian colleges are ripping the faith out of children of God.
We need a Charlie Kirk on on our. Christian campuses, they're leaving with more doubt in the Word of God from some of these so-called Christian institutions. I'm going to get in trouble. I should just keep on sticking with the message. Jesus said, "I'm the bread of life.
Eat my flesh, drink my blood." Well. I have it hard to swallow. I find something hard to swallow means I have something hard to believe. And the word "eating" in biblical sense was Jeremiah fifteen sixteen. That words were found, and I did eat them.
Eat this roll. It simply means take it in, think about it, meditate upon it, make it part of your life. It's not. It's nothing to do with cannibalism, transubstantiation, consubstantiation. That is all foolishness and of the doctrines of the devil.
But Jesus said, "Take in everything I am. I am truly the bread of life." I am everything you could ever imagine. If you only knew who I was. And he just was trying to reveal, this is God Almighty, come to save His people. And he said, "Consume me, drink in my life, follow my example." Is that a blessing?
And at the end of that message, everybody left him. Everyone. One hundred percent of the congregation left, and he had twelve in front of them. And he says to them, "Will ye also go away?" Peter stood up and said, "Where we going to go?" In the in the area of relationships, when when when you don't understand what's going on. Are you going to leave me?
Are you going to leave me? How many wives or husbands have gone to sleep wondering, "Is my my spouse going to leave me?" And then the kids go to sleep crying, "Is my mama going to leave my daddy? Are you going to go away?" When you think about this thing of your relationship with your loved ones, family, or with God, no matter what you go, you say, "Well, God says something in His Word, and you you withdraw your heart, or you don't understand." And Jesus says, "What are you going to leave me? Just because I said something difficult, hard, are you leaving me now? I mean, you loved it when I said I'm going to take you to heaven and forgive you, isn't that was wonderful?
And now I tell you something else. Are you leaving me now?" So whether it's a relationship with God or a relationship with man, I remember this word. Don't don't let Jesus say to you, "Are you leaving me?" Or wonder if you're going to leave you. Stay dedicated. Job, I'm sure, had a trial in his life.
Jeremiah, and you, you've gone through some stuff. Joseph in Egypt, bless his heart, mercy mine. You talk about a guy who went through it. Are you going to leave me, Joseph? Have you had enough?
I'm trying to save the entire world right now, and by the way, the salvation plan is in there. Are you leaving me? Your family rejects you. You have all these things going on in your life, whether it's false accusation or forgotten or whatever. And he's in prison.
He's like, "What's going on?" And then God's looking down from heaven. And are you going to leave me? When when when is it going to be too much? Let your dedication be known to God. John six and verse number twenty nine.
The Bible says, "This is the work of God that you may believe." Jesus answered and said unto them, "The question was, 'What must I do to work the works of God?'" Answer, "This is the work." Now don't miss this because faith is not a work. Say faith is not a work. But the hardest thing you'll ever do is have faith. You take God at His word. He says something.
You claim His promise, and it seems easy then. But then trials, tribulations, difficulties, struggles, and all the things come in, and you start questioning the very word of God. Your hardest job in life is going to be to continue to rest upon those promises, regardless of what's happening in your life. That's the work of God.
So that's why Jesus told him, "This is the work of God that you believe on Him, who He has sent." He said, "What does that mean? You're going to have to keep on in this relationship, saying, 'I still want you, God. I still believe in you, God. I don't get it, but I love you.' And there's no question in my mind. And you see my heart.
I'm not going anywhere. And He loves to hear that because He says it to you all the time, doesn't He? I'll never leave you, nor..." He he says it to you all the time. How much do we say it to him? In conclusion, John chapter six and verse twenty nine.
I love that verse.
So don't withdraw. Keep loving, even when it hurts. I loved it when you sang.
Well, I tell you, you know, a sermon, a song, a life. You know, you just can't reject somebody who continues to serve in the face of adversity. What a testimony! None seeketh. Romans three and verse number ten, as it is written, there's none righteous, no not one.
There's none that understands. There's none that seeketh after God. Say that with me, none that seeketh after God. And then here we have Isaiah fifty three gives us a revealing truth. And some people say, well, God says seek me, but then He says you can't seek me.
Nobody seeks me. And they have this all kinds of weird doctrine about Arminianism and Calvinism, and they create all kinds of doctrines of devils. I'm sorry. I should have. I probably offended fifty and fifty because it's fifty probably Calvin and fifty.
I mean, I'm just joking. I should probably even stay away from that. The reality is, is that God says no man seeks me, but then He reveals why in Isaiah chapter fifty-three. And when we shall see Him, there is no what, no beauty. We say, well, I love Jesus.
Okay, let me let me say I do too. I love him as my savior, Vicky. Was it hard to love him as our heavenly Father when we buried Sarah? Yeah, you see, you don't see the beauty when he has to do something that's not very fun, painful, hurtful. But let's put that aside.
If you are lost, there is nothing in God that's beautiful.
So he says in verse number verse number two, he says, "There's no beauty that we should desire." In verse number three, says he is what loved, embraced, cherished, adored. And you say, "Well, don't judge." Listen to me. There are many people that get saved and love him as Savior, but they don't like everything else that God does in their lives, and they forsake him because they're not impressed with who he is anymore. You know what God's saying? No one's seeking after me.
No man seeks after me. He says nobody wants me. Do you remember what it was like to be wanted? I'm talking about the husbands and wives. Remember what it was like to be wanted, pursued, cherished, adored.
Remember that? Wasn't that awesome? What a powerful, empowering feeling. You know what God likes? Though He doesn't give with expectation, He really, as I read the scriptures, He really adores when we want Him.
Because sometimes he's misunderstood in his actions, and we don't understand why he does things or allows things, and he wants you to still see him as beautiful, even in those times where you don't get him. He goes on and he says he despised rejection of a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our what we hid our faces from him.
Now, the context of "we" in my opinion would be more of his children. In hard times, Pastor, how many people do you know that turned tail and forsook God because of what they were experiencing in life, and God was no longer beautiful to them because they didn't understand? Is there a number? There's no number, untold. What God wants in a relationship is this constant pursuit.
In conclusion, number two, because you guys like that word, conclusion. Jeremiah chapter twenty nine verse number thirteen, and ye shall say it with me, seek me, and ye shall what?
Now did he did he say that as a joke? Because he says in the book of Psalms, and he says in New Testament, Old Testament, no man seeketh after me, right? And then he says here, ye shall seek me and find me.
Well, we know why people aren't seeking him because there's no beauty in him. He's not desirable to the world and and oftentimes to his children. But what does God want? He wants you to want Him.
So He says here, listen: if you want Me, you shall seek Me, and you shall what? Find Me. If you go to church on Sunday and read your Bible once a week, that's that'd be like if you talk to your wife one day a week and do one nice thing to her once a week, right? Listen to her, talk no. Ye shall seek me; ye shall find me.
We shall seek from me with what all your heart. Isn't that a good thought? And this is my concluding thought. I was supposed to conclude somewhere else. Psalm twenty-seven, in verse number eight, when thou said, "Seek ye my face," my heart said unto thee.
Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Does that ring true to you? Is that something that sings in your soul like it sings in mine? God said, "Seek me," and my soul says, "Here I am." I and don't forget. Whenever I said "seek," replace it.
Not correcting the Bible. Don't throw stones. When I say "seek," say "I want you." Say "I want you." See, seeking something means you want it, right?
So just keep telling God. God says, "Want me," and my heart said, "I want you." And what an invigorating thing that is! What what an empowering thing that is in a relationship, when you can say to your to your loved ones as well, "I want you." That's pretty cool stuff. Amen. Isaiah forty-five, verse number nineteen.
I have not spoken in secret and in dark place of the earth. I said not unto the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain. I, the Lord, speak righteousness and declare things that are right.
So throw Calvin and Jacobus Arminius in the trash can, please, and believe the Bible. No man seeketh after God. Not because he commands all and only those he commands and allows to come seek him will, hogwash. People don't seek him because they can't see the beauty. I don't have time for this, but the tabernacle.
You know, we always see the Sunday school materials. What do they carry in the ark? And you see the gold-covered ark, right? Nobody saw that. It was supposed to be wrapped up and covered, both with blankets and also waterproof shielding.
The only thing you ever saw was two sticks around a big ball. There's no beauty until you get inside, and the tabernacle is the same way. It was always covered. On the outside, it was always badger skin, sun beaten. There is no beauty until you step inside.
But when you're inside. And he becomes beautiful, and you get to know him, and you fall in deeper love than you've ever been. He says, "Let me take your hand. Where are we going? Got a valley over here.
Looks scary. It's called the Valley of the Shadow of Death." And when you get down in there, you're going to feel like you're going to die, and you'll never be able to get out. And you're going to feel like you're alone and forsaken. But when you walk through the valley, the shadow of death, I'll be with you. You still want me?
Because I'm going to bring you out on the other side, and we're going to ascend to a mountain soon. But I really want you and trust me. I'm trying to get you where you're supposed to be. That's a sweet thought. He becomes beautiful, and the closer you get to them, and he leads you to a new place.
And in the valley, everything's dark, and it doesn't seem like he knows what he's doing. But hold tight to that hand. He wants you to lead you through it. When you consider Jesus, he says, "Do you still believe in me?" Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast.
The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192, or via the web at KerwinBaptistChurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.
