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[0:00] for your hospitality towards us and making Laverne and myself feel welcome as we come here. As I mentioned, I'm going to speak about love this afternoon.

[0:15] Probably some of that is going to be, maybe not, I'm going to share a little bit, pick up a little bit from this morning, but then also share some on love.

[0:27] Oh, just a thought on that as we get started. It says in 1 Corinthians, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be an anathema, which I think if you looked, you'll get some version that says let him be accursed.

[0:47] If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ. It's actually quite interesting to think that the first and greatest commandment, like as a father, if I would give a commandment to one of my children.

[1:00] This is the most important thing, and I'm commanding you to do that, is to love me. Isn't that beautiful when you think about it? That that's really what you're looking for, is love me.

[1:13] It's so important to God that he makes it his first and greatest commandment to love me with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength.

[1:24] Father, I just pray that this afternoon you would stir our hearts to do that very thing, that we would be, Lord, stirred in our hearts to keep the first commandment, to love you with sincerity, to love the Lord Jesus Christ, and to live our lives, Father, always before you with a heart after you.

[1:49] Lord, give us understanding of your heart this afternoon, of your thoughts towards us, that we could sense, Lord, your thoughts, your emotions, your feelings towards us, and your desire, how we would walk before you.

[2:07] In Jesus' name, amen. Stephen Charnock says, God's end, his ultimate desire, is not so much to be known by us as to be loved by us.

[2:21] And the discovery of himself is in order to a return of affections from us. It doesn't so much concern that we understand everything, it's more concern that we love him.

[2:37] And the discovery of himself is in order to a return of affections from us. I've thought about that already, that God being loved, what is the greatest desire for love?

[2:56] And what is the greatest disappointment from love? I think the greatest desire is when somebody is full of love, and here we're talking about God is love, not just that he has love, but he is love.

[3:10] The greatest longing for love is what? To be loved. Yes? It's not just to be obeyed, although the scripture makes it clear that if you love me, you will obey me, so we cannot think that we love him if we don't obey him.

[3:24] But that's not, love is looking for a response. And that's the greatest fulfillment, I believe, of love, and I believe the greatest disappointment love can have is if love is pouring himself out towards somebody and there's no response.

[3:44] Yes? Those of us that have sought marriage partners, those that are married, we understand that very clearly. You pour, you have a longing in your heart, and if there's no response, it's always, I remember, this one was, and I don't have this in my notes, I actually don't know things, I've already said some of them I don't have in my notes, but this one was kind of, I've hesitated to share this because I happened to look at somebody's journal and the journal was, the person was in a relationship, it was, it was, well, I won't go into details, but it touched my heart to think about the situation was, the person was in a relationship with a girl and was a little uncertain about if this was from God or not, but in the journal, the young man said, when he thought about how she would feel if he would break up with her, it broke his heart.

[5:06] And I was like, that's love. He wasn't thinking so much about himself, but thinking about how she would feel. And I felt like God, I believe is like that, that God in many ways doesn't need us.

[5:24] Now he does because he has love, so that's a deep, I think, thought pattern is outside of love, God doesn't need us for anything. Because he's God and he has everything in himself.

[5:39] So why would God go after us? It's because of love. And so, you think about that, is it possible that at times God would just forsake us because of our undoneness and our stumbling and our disappointing him, but he thinks about us and in his love for us, he thinks about how it would affect us more than how it would affect him.

[6:06] Isn't God amazing? He that loves me, Jesus said, shall be loved of my father. Stephen Charnock says, love does more firmly knit us to God than knowledge.

[6:23] Love knits us to God more deeply, more firmly than knowledge. And I hope by the end of this message, we can all purpose in our heart, I will love God.

[6:35] So the problem he had at the church in Revelation, you've left your first love. You've been doing all these good things and you're very dedicated, but you've left your first love. And I trust that today we can make a deeper commitment that God, by your grace, we will love you more and more and we will never stop loving you.

[6:57] I think Job, this was the test of Job. When Satan tested Job, it was a test and I think perhaps this is one of the ultimate tests we can see in the scripture of a man that when God allowed Satan, what was the ultimate test here?

[7:14] Did God love Job or didn't he? And did God love Job because of what God was doing for him or who he was? Sometimes it's easy for us to love God because of what we get from him.

[7:28] Yes? And that was the test for Job is Satan said, well, you remove your hedge and you allow me to do this and this and this and then we'll see if he still serves you.

[7:39] So the test for Job was, I believe, the ultimate test was did he really love God for what he could get out of God or did he love God just for who he was?

[7:49] And he, I would say, he passed the test amazingly that he continued to honor God even when it looked like God wasn't, he wasn't going to get anything from God.

[8:05] Getting back a little bit to the thoughts that we shared this morning, I'd like to just emphasize this scripture when we think about Christ being in us, the hope of glory, this is the mystery, Christ being in us, Christ dwelling in us.

[8:23] It talks about in the scriptures that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Be filled with all the fullness of God.

[8:34] So I want us to think about that, you know, when we think about Christ dwelling with us, is it possible that we can receive more and more of the fullness of Christ?

[8:45] that we can yield ourselves more and more fully and that we can come to the place where we are filled with all the fullness of God. As I thought about that verse, I thought about another verse that I had been inspired with a couple weeks ago on a Wednesday evening at church when we were reading out of Matthew chapter 5.

[9:03] We were studying that. Somebody else was leading out. And I thought, is there anything more incredible in the scripture than this one verse? But now this morning I was thinking, well, which one is more incredible, to be filled with all the fullness of God or the one that I was inspired with in Matthew?

[9:22] Because you think about it, that's an incredible thing to be filled with all the fullness of God. We shouldn't just say that's an interesting verse. We should say, wow, that would be incredible or that is incredible to think about a people, maybe it's an individual, maybe it's a church, but to think about a people, a person, that are filled with all the fullness of God.

[9:45] Is it possible that we can grow in that? In the book of Acts they said, choose seven men that are what? Full of the Holy Ghost. So when it says that, I think it's not, doesn't take much sense to say that not everybody was full of the Holy Ghost.

[10:02] Yes? Or how could they choose seven men that were full of the Holy Ghost? So it's like, okay, there's a man full of the Holy Ghost. That one maybe, probably not, but there's a person full of the Holy Ghost.

[10:12] So again, when you think about being filled with all the fullness of God, it's like, Lord, take us there. The one we were looking at in Matthew chapter 5, and I'm saying this to say, let's go deeper into the scriptures and say, what is the depths of this scripture?

[10:30] So I've heard this verse many, many times, that the pure in heart shall see God. But the other Wednesday night I was like, shall see God. That's incredible. If somebody would come to church and say, I saw God yesterday, would there be anything more incredible that somebody could say, I saw God?

[10:51] Would there be any greater testimony of for somebody to say yesterday, I saw God? Because the Bible says this, an invisible God. And yet it says, the pure in heart shall see God.

[11:03] But then this morning I was wrestling, like, which one would be more incredible? For somebody to be filled with all the fullness of God? Or for somebody to say he saw God? Both of them are promised to us in the scripture.

[11:18] So when we think about being filled with all the fullness of God, going back, retracting a little bit from this morning, I'd like to mention this. Sometimes we're searching for a place where Christ dwells.

[11:32] Right? We're searching. Where is Christ dwelling? That's what the disciples ask. And the very moment he's dwelling within us. Sometimes we're searching out there for Christ.

[11:47] And it's like, he's dwelling with us. Are you with me this morning? I remember years back I had a dream. It was a dream. And it was, the whole thing was a dream.

[11:59] I was sleeping. But in my dream, I was dreaming of being in the arms of my wife. And then in the dream, I realized that I was in the arms of my wife.

[12:10] And so I'm saying that to say that sometimes we're dreaming of like, it'd be awesome to have God dwelling with us and we need to wake up and it's like, God is dwelling with us.

[12:21] Was it Jacob who said, when he was laying on the rock or something and he's, God is in this place and I knew it not. It's like, we just need to have our, be more sensitive to the reality.

[12:37] And I'm not sure who, I kind of, I just copied and pasted this over so I'm not sure if this was A.W. Chozer, I think it was. It says, whatever else it embraces, true Christian experience must always include a genuine encounter with God.

[12:53] Without this, religion is but a shadow, a reflection of reality, a cheap copy of the original once enjoyed by someone else of whom we have heard about.

[13:05] Are you with me? True Christianity must always include a genuine encounter with God. It may include other things but it has to include a genuine encounter with God.

[13:18] Then he says, the spiritual men and women of God in past, the spiritual giants, he's talking about men of God, women of God, the people of God that really knew God became acutely conscious of the real presence of God and maintain that consciousness for the rest of their lives.

[13:42] If we're going to be really people of God, men of God and women of God, I think it was, I think I'm quoting A.W. Chozer, we have to become very keenly aware of the real presence of God and we have to maintain that consciousness for the rest of our lives and that can, I believe, be life-changing for us.

[14:05] Yes? I mean, just think about even how life-changing it will be. How could I sin against Joseph when he was tempted by the woman? It's like, no, I'm in the presence of God.

[14:16] I'm one of God's children. This in itself will just keep us from evil, I believe, when we are very much aware of God's presence with us.

[14:28] Again, Jesus said, abide in me and I in you. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit and without me you can do nothing. May God give us a greater conviction to say that if we're going to bring forth fruit, we have to have him abiding in us.

[14:46] And to come to the place of understanding, without that, we can do nothing of any value. He also says, continue you in my love. You shall abide in my love.

[14:59] This afternoon, we're going to talk some about love. Continue you in my love, Jesus said. And then he said, if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love.

[15:10] It's awesome to think that we can abide in the love of God. Colossians chapter 1, we read this this morning and now I'm going to, I found it interesting that Ephesians 3 makes some of the same statements.

[15:25] So Colossians chapter 1, what we looked at this morning, what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Again, what is the riches of the glory of this mystery?

[15:41] The riches of the glory. What is? And then Ephesians says that he would grant you, that God would grant you, Paul was saying, I'm praying for you, that God would grant you according to the riches of his glory.

[15:54] The other one, it was in Colossians about the riches of the glory of the mystery. This one is Ephesians, that God would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, being rooted and grounded in love and then a couple verses later that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

[16:20] So I believe the topic of being filled with all the fullness of God and having our eyes open and understanding all the riches of his glory, really, a large part of that is being rooted and grounded in his love.

[16:37] I'm going to read this. This is actually fairly long. Andrew Murray. I'm not sure if I'll read the whole thing or not, but going back to God dwelling in our midst, God dwelling with us, the most sacred part of the temple for that which all the rest existed, the temple, everything else existed and which all else depended was the holiest of all.

[17:00] I mentioned a little bit about this this morning, but it's good for us to try to grasp this. This is the temple and there's many things happening in the temple, but everything that is there is for the purpose of the holiest place, the holiest of all.

[17:16] Even though the priests might not enter there, never enter there, and might never see the glory that dwelt there, all their conduct was regulated and all their faith animated by the thought of the unseen presence that was there in the holiest of all.

[17:32] It was this that gave the sprinkling of the blood and the burning of the incense their value. It was this that made it a privilege to draw near and gave confidence to go out and bless.

[17:42] It was the most holy, the holiest of all, that made the place of their serving to them a holy place. Their whole life was controlled and inspired by the faith of the unseen, indwelling glory within the veil.

[17:57] Would to God that that would become more and more the church, that our whole life, our whole church activity, our whole Christian life, would be controlled and inspired by the faith of the unseen, indwelling glory within the veil.

[18:12] It is no otherwise with the believer. Until he learns by faith to tremble in the presence of the wondrous mystery that he is God's temple, because God's spirit dwells in him, he never will yield himself to his high vocation with the holy reverence or the joyful confidence that becomes him until he learns to tremble in the presence of this wondrous mystery that he is God's temple.

[18:39] There, the holiest of all was, I'm skipping some things, but there, the holiest of all was the central point. It was the essential thing, essential thing. It was all dark, secret, hidden, till the time of unveiling came.

[18:53] It demanded and received the faith of priests and people. The holiest of all within me too. It is unseen and hidden, a thing for faith alone to know and deal with.

[19:05] The holiest of all he's talking about within us. Let me, as I approach to the Holy One, bow before him in deep and lowly reverence. Let me there say that I believe what he says, that his Holy Spirit, God, and one with the Father and the Son, even now has his abode within me.

[19:26] Hallelujah. Do we believe that? Each one of you, do you believe he's dwelling inside of you? I will meditate, Andrew Murray says, and be still until something of the overwhelming glory of the truth falls upon me and faith begins to realize it.

[19:47] I am his temple and in the secret place he sits upon his throne. As I yield myself in silent meditation and worship day by day, surrendering, setting up my whole being to him, he will in his divine, loving, living power shine into my conscience the light of his presence.

[20:09] As this thought fills the heart, the faith of the indwelling, though hidden presence, will influence the holy place will be, the holy place will be ruled from the most holy.

[20:21] the world of consciousness in the soul with all its thoughts and feelings, its affections and purposes will come and surrender themselves to the holy power that sits within on the throne.

[20:35] Again, he's talking about the throne of our hearts. He's sitting there and we meditate, we ponder, we try to grasp the reality of this incredible truth and then we let him be Lord over our lives.

[20:47] This then, R.A. Torrey says, this then is the work of the Holy Spirit to cause Christ to dwell in our hearts, to form the living Christ within us, just as the Holy Spirit literally and physically formed Jesus Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

[21:04] The result of the coming of the Holy Spirit to dwell in their hearts would be the coming of Christ himself. It is the privilege of every believer in Christ to have the living Christ formed by the power of the Holy Spirit in his own heart.

[21:18] Paul said, to the Galatian church that had received Christ, but he said, I travail in prayer until Christ be formed in you.

[21:30] So they had received Christ, but he was praying, interceding for them that Christ would be formed in them. And that should be our longing that we could be filled with all the fullness of God.

[21:42] That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

[22:02] the essence and substance of this prayer is that we may be filled with all the fullness of God and that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith so fully that we will know the breadth the length and depth and height of his measureless love.

[22:20] Now I'm going to jump over to Naomi because we're talking about love. Naomi you know the book of Ruth and she had two sons that died so she had two daughters-in-law and she was asking them a question why will you go with me?

[22:40] She said she's going back to her hometown and both of them said Orpha and Ruth said that they will go with her and she said well why will you go with me?

[22:53] And I want us to get something out of this that here we can see that and we've talked about this Laverne back in Lancaster something recently that the motive God tests our motives and so here I believe they were really being put to the question when she's saying why will you go with me?

[23:15] What is your reason you want to go with me? And she's reminding them that if you go with me I don't have anything to offer you because if you're thinking that you're going to get more husbands from me I'm too old to provide husbands for you so again I don't have all those in my notes but I think that's what she was saying is like look I don't have anything to offer you so what's your reason?

[23:40] And so I think this is good for us to question why did we leave our religion or why are we what is you know what if we're put to the test like she was is like I don't really have that much to offer you and this is the test of true love is are they wanting to go with her because of what they could get out of her or because they really loved her and one of them failed the test and the other one passed the test and then she said to them turn again my daughters go your way she said I don't have anything to offer you go turn go back and you know God does this to us we can see that in Elijah and Elisha Elijah told Elisha go back because I'm going to go on and Elijah three four or five times maybe I think it was three or four times Elijah kept saying no Elisha kept saying no I'm going to go with you

[24:41] I'm going to go with you the disciples they saw that when Jesus spoke a hard saying and many of the disciples quit following Jesus then Jesus looked at Peter and the disciples and said will you also go away and he was giving them the opportunity like do you want to leave me it's up to you and Peter said to who shall you go you have the words of eternal life so we can see Peter was like look where else am I going to go and it's good for us to follow him regardless of what we're getting out of it but because we love him Orpha kissed her mother-in-law but Ruth claved onto her so Orpha kissed her mother-in-law but Ruth claved to her and then Naomi said to Ruth your sister-in-law has gone back return with her why did she not return I believe it was because she really loved her mother-in-law

[25:44] Ruth said Ruth said Naomi when Naomi said look your sister-in-law has gone back you should go back too Ruth said don't entreat me to leave you or to return from falling after you for where you go I will go where you lodge I will lodge your people will be my people and your God my God where you die I will die where you the reason I'm sharing these scriptures is may we all have that heart towards God and say God please don't ever entreat me to turn back wherever you go I'm going to go even if other people don't follow you I'm going to go there now I'm going to use the life of Peter to bring out a point we're going to see three different portions of scripture in the life of Peter Jesus said to them all of you are going to be offended because of me tonight because it is written I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered but after that

[26:47] I am risen I will go before you into Galilee and Peter said to Jesus although everybody is offended I shall not be offended you see the commitment of Peter very committed yes and Jesus said then merly I say unto you Peter this day even in this night before the crow twice you are going to deny me three times but Peter spoke more vehemently with great emphasis he declared if I would die with you I am not going to deny you in any wise wow he was very committed wasn't he what was missing here he was very committed and by the way it wasn't just Peter they all said the same thing I think they heard Peter saying we're not going to be out done by Peter so they all said the same thing likewise also said they all but here's Peter speaking very strongly against what

[27:48] Jesus instead of praying instead of saying Jesus Father God keep me from evil keep me humble he's rising up and saying not me I'm dedicated I'm fully committed and I would so now Peter sat without in the palace and the little girl came to him saying you were also with Jesus of Galilee this is now in a different portion of scripture but Peter denied before them all saying I don't know what you're saying it was going out into the porch another girl saw him said to Peter this fellow about Peter this fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth again Peter denied with an oath I don't know the man and after a while they came unto him that stood by and said to Peter surely you are one of those people because your speech we can tell it's betraying you then

[28:48] Peter began to curse and to swear saying I know not the man and immediately the cock crew and Peter remembered the words of Jesus which said to him before bitterly now we saw two portions of scripture the one is Peter being so committed to Jesus declaring his dedication declaring his commitment that even if I would have to die I would not deny you and declaring it very strongly and then we see these other portions of scripture is here he's doing that very thing just from a girl you know confronting him and saying I think you're one of those people and he begins to boldly declare deny and curse and say look I don't know what you're talking about how does Jesus handle that how does

[29:49] Jesus deal with Peter when this happened first of all Jesus knows very clearly Peter had declared I would never deny you even if I have to die with you and now Jesus knows that Peter actually did that now how does Jesus deal what is the way that Jesus interacts with Peter Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon son of Jonas do you love me do you love me more than these others do you get my point here what would have kept Peter from denying Jesus not a greater commitment and Jesus didn't come to Peter and say Peter are you going to make a stronger commitment he simply asked do you love me it's love that's going to keep us faithful to the

[30:50] Lord are you with me it's love many waters cannot quench love it talks about in Song of Solomon so Jesus says to Peter do you love me and Peter said well yes Lord you know that I love you he said feed my lambs he said again the second time you love me he said yes now you know that I love you he said to him the third time do you love me Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time do you love me and some people say probably he asked him three times because Peter had denied him three times and it was giving Peter the opportunity to redeem himself if you might say that he said to him

[31:50] Lord you know all things you know that I love you if Jesus would come to us today and really dig deep like do you really love me we say yeah I love you he asked again you're really putting some pressure on do you really love me it would be good for us to be in that situation and to examine our hearts said well I know I just denied you so how am I going to answer this I know yesterday I just you know I know yesterday I said something I shouldn't have said or I know a month ago there was some things that I was in unbelief how am I going to answer this but Peter looked and he said no I do love you Lord you know I love you the good news is is that even in the Song of Solomon Jesus the type of Jesus there his name is not in the Song of Solomon but he says you have overcome me with one of your eyes it's an amazing if you do the study in the

[32:58] Song of Solomon to see how the bride and the bridegroom there it's an amazing study and you see that even when one of her eyes was on the bridegroom he says you have overwhelmed me with your love sometimes it's just one of our eyes sometimes we're not totally there yet but he brings us into that love Jesus said abide in my love he wants us to enjoy his love and he wants from us love Song of Solomon says set me as a seal upon your heart as a seal upon your arm for love is strong as death I was pondering on that one recently love is strong as death and I was thinking yeah death is pretty strong right death is pretty difficult to overcome once it's come upon you and once you're dead there's a lot of strength there the resurrection I think is stronger than that I know it is but without the resurrection you know death is actually pretty strong but what does it say here love is stronger than death you say praise the

[34:07] Lord think of the strength of love you think of the strength of death but here the word of God proclaims love is strong as death because it doesn't say stronger it says love is strong as death then it says many waters cannot quench love many waters those waters I believe are talking about trials difficulties darkness they cannot quench love neither can the floods drown it I was pondering on that one as well the floods what's the biggest danger with a flood you're going to drown right but here it says the floods cannot drown love love is as strong as death Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 1 and this is a different version than the

[35:08] King James but I think the King James makes it clear as well God's speaking to his people he says I remember your devotion when you were young how as a bride you loved me and you followed me even through the desert I believe what God is looking for from us is just that we would love him he's looking for your love more than your performance yes you can read your Bible real diligently you can pray real diligently but if there's not a burning love for God it's really unfulfilling to God you may lack in Bible reading at times you may lack in prayer and I'm not promoting that we are slacking that I'm just saying if you the whole time are just passionately loving God that's acceptable to him so may we today just make a clear get a clear glimpse vision of what

[36:12] God is looking for he's looking for a people that will love him the amplified says I know you're enduring patiently you're bearing up for my name sake you have not fainted or become exhausted or grown weary but I have this one charge to make against you that you have left abandoned the love that you had at Jonathan Edwards says love to God will dispose us to walk humbly with him for he that loves God will be disposed to acknowledge the vast distance between God and himself it will be agreeable to such a one to exalt God and set him on high above all and to lie low before him a true Christian delights to have God exalted on his own abasement because he loves him a true Christian delights to have God exalted even if it means it becomes difficult for you Jesus said if you would love me you would rejoice because he had said he was going to go and they were all sad because they were thinking about themselves and that one it's quite interesting to think you know if they would have been thinking about

[37:24] Jesus if they would have been thinking about they because they would have realized this is going to be glorious for him but they were thinking more about themselves so they were sad he is willing to own that God is worthy of this and it is with delight that he casts himself in the dust before the most high from his sincere love to him if you're going through trials can you because of love for him just cast yourself down and even embrace the trials that you're going through as long as he is glorified do all you can to strengthen your love to Christ do everything let's do everything we can to strengthen our love towards Christ we say this prayer as another person prayed spirit of God descend upon my heart wean it from the earth though all its pulses move stoop to my weakness mighty as you are and make me love you as

[38:29] I ought to love make me love you as I ought to love Francis Fenelon is a writer a long time ago there's a little book that he wrote the perfection of Christians or something like that in that book he makes a statement and he says he's like asking God a question where are the people that love you simply for who you are not for what they're getting out of it and then he makes an interesting statement he says if there are none make some create some people like that it it was like he had a longing Lord you're worthy that there would be a people that just love you for who you are and he asked Lord are there any people like that that just love you just for who you are I was reminded of the woman in the city which was a sinner and she came into the house of the Pharisee which was much more not a sinner than but the person that was not as much a sinner he looks at her and she's there washing

[39:39] Jesus feet she brings an alabaster box of ointment and then Jesus defends her and says she loved much so when did you when I came in he was talking to Simeon what did you do for me but this woman this woman this woman he said I think about three times but this woman who you're looking at as a sinner look at how much she loved me Jesus said I love the father even as the father gave me commandment even so I do you can see why why he was obedient as the father gave me commandment I do that why because he started out by saying I love the father may we find ourselves doing what is asked of us not just out of duty but because we love the father

[40:41] God I ask you to stand to your feet as we ask God to bring us to a deeper place of just loving him A.B.

[40:52] Simpson says this the Holy Ghost is so anxious to accomplish in us and for us the highest will of God and to receive from us the truest love for Christ our divine husband that he becomes jealous the Holy Ghost becomes jealous when in any way we disappoint him or divide his love with others is it possible that the Holy Ghost as the servant was sent out to look for a bride for Abraham's son Isaac is it possible that the Holy Ghost is looking for a bride for the Son of God it's interesting to see what the prayer was it wasn't just if when I ask her to do this for me that she'll do that but if she even goes beyond and says that she'll water my camels as well you see that's what

[41:59] I believe the Holy Spirit is looking for that we would love Christ so much that we would do things for him even beyond what he would expect or what he would require of us if you might say so I'm going to read these verses yet this one is inspiring to me in these verses you can see David saying I will trust you I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised I will trust I will call I will praise him but he says something before that a psalm of David the servant of the Lord who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul and he said I will love thee O Lord this was the day when when Saul was delivered from all of his enemies and from the hand what did he say he didn't say just like

[43:06] God thank you for bringing me out or you know he said I will love thee O Lord and may we find that in our hearts when we see God bringing us out of difficult situations and we say God I will love thee raise your hands with me if you would and let's just make that proclamation I will love thee O Lord I will love thee O Lord Hallelujah again remember this is the first and the greatest commandment that you love God with all your heart all your mind all your soul and all your strength surely when he's looking for an abiding place where would you look mostly if you want to abide somewhere would it not be where you are loved just where you feel loved you just feel cared for you just feel loved and God is looking for a people that would just love him that all of our praise all of our prayers all of our religious duties that we do which are correct they would all be with the foundation of love for God evangelism when we reach out to the lost just because we love

[44:33] God let that be the foundation of this church that everything you do is simply because you want to express to God your love for him love is as strong as death and the floods cannot drown love love is an amazing thing so love love one another love one another God would say that I believe to you today to us today walk in love walk in love towards each other again if we say we love God but we don't love our brothers how can God dwell in us how can God dwell in us if we don't have love towards each other and again we say well we love God but we lack in love so I'm praying that the love of God would be shed abroad in our hearts by the

[45:47] Holy Ghost and that when we are the evidence of us being have God in us would be ultimately the main evidence would be love because God is love and that we would never try to deceive ourselves that we are full of God unless we see love flowing more and more out of us unless we see love being perfected in us this would be our ultimate test to judge ourselves is God really dwelling in me today am I really filled with God do I have love for my enemies do I have love for the lost hallelujah hadn't thought of that verse but I think there's in John

[46:48] I think it's clear that he that abideth in love God dwells in him or something like that connecting that with our thoughts this morning that God dwelling in us I think 1 John is pretty clear that that if we love then God will dwell in us I'm going to turn the time over to the elders here to the son .

[47:27]  . . .