[11:15AM] Welcome to Pursuit LIVE Online!

[Music] foreign [Music] [Music] more [Music] um [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] me [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning and welcome to the online worship experience here at pursuit church my name is cliff my name's scott and if you want to do anything for us before we even get kicked off is share this experience we say it every single week why because it's powerful and you don't know what god's gonna do in somebody else's life and i love it because all you have to do is hit the button and whatever god's doing in your life through this online worship experience through you sharing this content here at pursuit church it has the same opportunity to be a blessing in somebody else's life that's exactly right guys and while you're there if you don't already we encourage you to follow us on social media facebook instagram subscribe to us on youtube as well as pastor jordan's podcast channel it's dope pursuit worship we put out content every single week if you calculate all up it's like multiple times a day it is that we put out content simply to add value to yours lives to help you grow in your faith and your walk so just for the benefit of yourself yeah hit the follow button hit the subscribe button on the notification bell do it do it you got time before service today yeah we promise you it'll be worth it it will hey man first time guest if this is your first time clicking on me we at pursuit we don't believe in accidents it's not coincidental god is an intentional god and we're grateful we welcome you in the name of jesus christ and there will be a actual link floating in both our comments section on our youtube and facebook platform we've made it super simple all you've got to do is click on that link fill out just a little bit of information and we want to send a gift from pursuit church to you just to say thank you for being a part of what god is doing right here at pursuit church that's exactly right guys and if you've been under a rock the past few weeks maybe it's your first time tuning in yeah yeah forgiving we have been announcing something pretty pretty special over the past few weeks and we want to turn it over to miss terry broome for a very special announcement of something happening this week this week check it out hey ladies we just came off the mountain from the retreat and if you were there you know what god did he moved so big and i believe that was just a foretaste of what he's going to do right here in this room these tables are going to be full and i get to be up there teaching we're going to have worship we're going to have teaching and you're going to get to sit at a table with table leaders and you guys are going to have the best time discussing what you're learning god is going to bring so much fruit forth in you women i believe what he's doing in this place is changing this church changing this community changing this world and i believe he's doing it one woman at a time you don't want to miss it be here september 8th 6 30 pre-party we're gonna have some dessert and coffee and then we're gonna get in the word come be with us guys if that doesn't get you excited i don't know what will because it's incredibly awesome and if you happen to be watching right now and you're not local to this denver community we have if you don't know it will also be put online yeah so you'll be able to watch women's with miss terry broom mintz with cliff moore um so it'll be incredibly special and even if you're not local you'll still be able to be a part of it get your own group together at your house and go through this stuff it can be incredibly powerful that's right no matter where you are that's right listen man these women here at pursuit church what was it just last week went to the mountains and met with the lord i'm not going to say anything i'll tell you this i don't know about your wife but my wife's been talking about it ever since they've been back and my daughter actually got to go with my wife this year so super excited and we put together a small recap video to show you what god did on that mountain with these women so here it is check it out now [Music] please [Music] uh [Music] me [Music] what is it like being in a room full of women chasing after god it's just been so awesome to experience i told terry that i felt like it was pretty abnormal to find people who really wanted to chase after god most people just want to be comfortable and check their religious checkbox but i think it's been really awesome to see how god is using terry to create an atmosphere where chasing after god is the norm instead of the exception and i think that's really awesome [Music] it is not of this world to be in a room with women who are on fire and thirsty for god it is not anything like i've ever been a part of because usually you get women together and they get all crazy and catty but this is just evidence of god working through this body that these women are able to get together and just hunger and thirst for him and worship him on this mountain are you guys excited for next year yes excuse me here we go now [Music] uh [Music] what is something that god taught you throughout the women's retreat well a couple things the first one is that i need to know myself and even though we think sometimes we are okay we're good that there is still a lot of strongholds that we have to battle and the best way and i think we all can say the same is to get in our bibles i need something that i gonna start doing as soon as i get home trying to learn more and get deep on my bible i think questions that i have got has the answer in there how has this weekend been well it's been intense and we've cried we've laughed we've had so much work done in souls it's been utterly amazing [Music] man powerful you saw what god has done is continue to do with these women and even the bible even says it was david and psalms that said how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity and every single time god assembles these women here at pursuit church he does something absolutely supernatural and we're just going to sit back and just enjoy what god's going to do to the fruit that we believe is going to come from those women being on that mount last week that's exactly right man and to speak of just like what god is doing yeah i want to read a text uh from ryan smith one of our admissions directors here at pursuit shout out ryan just to shout out what our mission team is doing so i'm just going to read it just so you guys can see how god's given to our mission team yeah say good morning pursuit family just want the church to know what we've been doing lately haiti supplies which we got supplies together for the earthquake victims and hate that's right uh succeeded expectations so we packed 42 buckets full of hygiene kits that was a total of 365 kits going to haiti very soon pursuit gave over 2 000 just in donations just to that cause wow also last saturday 22 volunteers showed up to go to haywood county to help with flood relief we worked on six different homes clearing debris and mud outs so just incredible incredible work so thank you to our mission team for shout out willingness to serve my god absolutely awesome beautiful man my goodness another amazing way to worship the name of jesus christ and the partner with us here pursuit church is through your giving and there are two ways that you can give there's going online at our website at pursuitchurch.org forward slash giving one of our favorites is to download the pursuit church app where you have the opportunity to set up recurring giving that where your ties and offerings will always be on time that's exactly right guys and if you haven't already we would invite you now before we get into worship these last few moments hit that share button do it invite your friends and family and join us this morning and if you're a first-time guest don't forget click the link in the comments fill out that little form we'd love to get you know you hear your story of how you found us yeah and send you a free gift just for hanging out with us today guys and now it's our favorite time of the entire week it's the opportunity to worship the lord together with all of you guys let's go and in the sanctuary i love it so get excited stand to your feet and get ready because worship begins right now good morning church as we go into worship this morning we're going to start things off a little bit differently we're going to start with prayer today and then we're going to sing a song it's an older song we've done before it's called heart of worship and um i don't know about you but sometimes for me when i come in on sundays it's easy just to kind of go through the motions and just for it to be another sunday and um our heart this morning is as we go into worship that we'll just take a moment and we'll try to just clear our heart clear our mind just so we can focus on worshiping god this morning genuinely coming to the heart of worship where it is all about him all about worshiping him all about lifting up the name of jesus in this place that's our heart this morning we wanted to start with a prayer and let that be your prayer as we pray this morning guys we come before you lord i do thank you for this opportunity god that we have to truly worship you today god to spend time in your presence lord i pray it's never just another sunday god that is it's always a moment we have to encounter you to spend time with you whether we're in this room or whether we're at home today god your scripture says where two or more gather in your name that you'll be there god and we just thank you that you are in this room this morning i pray you make us aware of your presence as we worship as we sing and we just pray you're glorified through all that we do this morning in your name amen when the music fades and all is stripped away and i simply come longing just to bring something that's worth that will bless your heart and i'll bring you more than a song for a song in itself is not what you have required [Music] you search much deeper within through the way things appear you're looking into my and heart coming back to the heart of worship where it's all about you it's all about you jesus i'm sorry lord for the thing i've made it when it's all about you it's all about you jesus [Music] king of endless words no one could express how much you deserve [Music] though i'm [Music] and i'll bring you more you search much deeper [Music] [Music] heart of worship when it's all about you it's all about you jesus i'm sorry lord [Music] it's all about you jesus i'm coming back to the heart when it's all about you it's all about you jesus i'm sorry lord for the thing i've when it's all about you it's all about you jesus [Music] all about you [Music] it's all about you jesus [Music] i'm coming back to the heart of worship when it's all about you [Music] it's all about you jesus i'm sorry lord for the thing i've made it's [Music] this morning that it is all about you in this place we just lift up your name today god we praise you we thank you we pray all that we do is for your glory for your honor we pray as always you speak to pastor jordan god i pray you use him today god that your spirit speaks through him father god and it's a word that can only come from you we pray are glorified through all we do lord in your name amen [Music] so [Music] this is my surrender and this is my surrender here is [Music] whatever is want to do whatever [Music] [Music] [Music] here is [Music] [Music] to do whatever you want to do [Music] [Music] [Music] to to do [Music] do whatever [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] to do [Music] to do [Music] [Music] now this is my surrender and this is my surrender here is where i lay it down you are all i'm chasing now this is my surrender this is my surrender [Music] and i searched the world [Music] but he couldn't feel me see man's empty praise treasures afraid came along [Music] and put me back together [Music] and every desire is now satisfied here in your love [Music] oh there's nothing better than you oh there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing nothing is better than him and i'm not afraid [Music] to show you my weakness my failures and trolls lord you've seen them all you still call me [Music] and there's not a place your mercy and grace won't find me again [Music] oh there's nothing better than you oh there's nothing [Music] better than [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] than you love there's nothing better than you love there's nothing nothing is better [Music] i know it's true [Music] you give beauty for ashes you turn shame into glory you're the only one who cares [Music] dancing you give beauty for ashes you turn shame into glory you're the only one who kicks singing [Music] [Music] oh there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing better than you oh there's nothing nothing is better than [Music] [Music] is [Music] you're the only one who cares [Music] you turn season to highway [Music] you're the only [Applause] come on let's go [Music] y'all would have been hurt if y'all are in that tunnel with me dude i love worshiping god you like worshiping god come on i started a praise prayer a couple weeks ago for for our church because there's a lot of newer people showing up and coming back inside and it always takes newer people and people new to jesus and different denominations no offense to any other type of church but they they they're so calm and they're so collective and they're just so like worried about what everybody's thinking i started to pray the prayer that we would start to worship jesus like we didn't care who was watching us like we would start to worship and to pour our hearts out every single week before him like it was just us in him and i feel like that's happening i think that i want this house jesus says i don't want my house my temple to be a house of preaching he said i didn't want it uh to be a house a gathering i didn't want it to be a house of social circles i wanted to be a house of prayer i wanted to be a house of worship i wanted to be when people show up to connect with my father that's what we're that's the primary thing of what we're doing here amen and i love it i'm going to pray and i want you to pray with me this message today is it's a heavy message and it's one of those messages that that if you will open up your heart and you will let the lord speak to you it could change things for you it could change your relationships it could change your family it could change your marriage it could change so much of your life and so my prayer i've been i've been hooked on isaiah the lord gave isaiah this word he says my words like the rain and the snow like when it goes out it waters the ground it brings forth what it was meant that's how my word is my word goes out and whatever i sent it out for it accomplishes and that's my heart and that's what i've been praying for our church with this message and so i want you to pray that with me that god's word just penetrates our heart our soul our mind and accomplishes what he wants it to accomplish this morning let's pray father god i just come before you lord lord we just humble ourselves unto your mighty hand father we're here for you today god and we're here to hear from you father and we're praying god collectively together and in faith father we are praying lord that your word god penetrates our hearts penetrates our minds god digs deep within the depths of our souls father and accomplishes god what you've sent it out to and i pray lord this morning that you'll open up our minds to you god that your holy spirit will take every word god like a fire lord it would just burn up all of the junk in our lives god like a hammer that it would just smash the walls around our heart i pray lord right now that you would speak to us that you would change us father god every single person in this room every single person at home father god i pray lord right here right now god change people's lives by the power of your word and your spirit in your holy name amen this has been a a very unique series uh for me it's it's been it's been powerful in my life and i hope and believe that it's been powerful in your life and and i struggle sometimes with with uh the way series you know messages line because this is this is the message i think of this series this is there is a heaviness to this message in the best way and and i my heart and what i believe is that god can change your world with it god can change your life with it god can change things in your life if you will let his word dig deep in your heart and your soul and your mind but one of my fears is in a message like this dealing with the scriptures that we're going to deal with in john 15 9-17 john 15 9-17 that the entirety of the scripture hinges on a word a word that is extremely common a word that is extremely normal a word that we use almost every day of our lives a word that might be one of the most used words in existence and when you have a word like that the problem is is that you already think you know the fullness of what it means because you use it so often every day but our human brains are kind of jacked up sometimes and our human brains they don't even met a guy that he just no matter what uh nobody nobody that knows me pointed me but that no matter what he just he struggles to not know like if he doesn't know like he'll almost just like make you just like he's making something up like you ask him and he's like oh yeah the flongam dinger yeah in germany it was made science and stuff yeah and it was all right my heart our brains are like that when we don't know something our brains are not okay with not knowing and so what our brains do is when you hear a word and you don't know the fullness of what it means it pulls from your life experience and it literally fills in gaps to make sure that you have to give you something whether it's wrong or it's right to give you its best uh definition of that word and what the problem is is that if you carry this word that's based off your perspective the lens that which you see life through and how you use it that you carry that meaning and when other people use it or it shows up in scripture that you perceive it to mean one thing when it might actually be something totally different altogether and so my fear this morning one things that i've been praying for and with is as we go through this message that we would all understand that the word that we're going to talk about this morning that god has defined this word explicitly clearly in scripture and that it carries with it a significant weight and that we need to just drop our definitions of this word and let god pour the power of this word really into our lives in our minds and i know you are just sitting there on the edge of your seats and you cannot wait to hear what this word is can you can you no you're not excited about this word the word is love it's one of the most misused words of all time it's a word that that we use even when we don't mean it a lot teenage girls and guys a lot it it's a word that that that carries so much power truly it carries so much power that that if we if we could truly start to grasp what love really is it in itself would have a dramatic effect on the way that we live our life this word love is of epic importance and in the context of the message day in john 15 9-17 this is the foundation and the primary point in the context and everything that we're talking about it's centered around love it begins with the idea of love and it ends with the idea of love and jesus gives in this in these few verses he commands twice to love and so i want us to make sure as we go through this just to make sure everybody's here paying attention not on your phones we're going to read john 15 9-17 together and every time we get to the word love i'm going to point at you and you guys are going to say it collectively and loud now the first service they did it amazing because they love jesus so i don't i'm not it's not about com you know competition but i just want to make sure that we because i i it just it's important so i'm this is it don't don't i'm just going to show you for example so don't practice don't be the one guy that mishears and shouts it by yourself and then you feel bad and then you don't like as the father has and then don't i'll point i'll say as the father has and then i'll point and then everybody will say loved it'll be up here on the screen okay you guys ready you guys ready come on wake up second service this is the second service you got to sleep late and you're here the lake will still be there come on wake up all right here we go john 15 9-17 as the father has me so have i you remain in my if you keep my commandments you will remain in my just as i have kept my father's commandments and remain in his i have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete this is my commandment that you one another as i have greater greater has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends you are my friends if you do what i command you no longer do i call you servants for a servant does not understand what his master's doing but i have called you friends because everything i've learned from my father i have made known to you you did not choose me but i chose you and i appointed you to go and bear fruit fruit that will remain so that whatever you ask the father in my name he will give you this is my command to you one another now is there any doubt in anybody's mind the foundational thought process of what jesus is teaching us here it's love the whole thing is about love it matters what we think about love it matters how we define love because understanding love in this moment is what is going to set the power of this scripture loose and free in your life love love love is not what most people think it is in 2014 they did this massive uh like survey a statistical study on on different varying thought processes and one of the conversations they had on love and they put out love and they said how would you define love and they had five different options and one of the options was it's an emotion 76 percent of people circle that love is an emotion love is not an emotion love is not an emotion the bible is very clear that love is not an emotion emotions we know what emotions are because we're emotional creatures and we have a lot of emotions and our emotions they kind of come and go anger comes and goes and and a little bit of happiness kind of comes and goes and sadness kind of comes and goes and and the younger you are it seems like the more flipping like my little boy hudson he can be like on top of the world in a nano and a half second later because there was four chocolate chip cookies and not five he's like on a different downward spiral to the ends of the earth love is not an emotion we know what emotions are love is not an emotion the bible says that love it describes it in first corinthians 13 it says that there's three dominating powerful things that work in this world faith hope and love and the greatest of these is love love is not an emotion and we are such an infinite emphasis on faith in the church as it should be because faith is the thing that leads to salvation faith in christ faith putting our faith our trust our hope in jesus hope is significant but the bible says that love as great as faith is and his greatest hope is that love is greater than faith and hope the old testament describes love it literally says love is stronger than death it says that love is stronger than death love has a strength love has a power that is even greater than death itself love is significant uh in first corinthians 13 it also paints the picture of that love is the only real true sign of spiritual maturity it says that when i was a child i thought like a child now that i'm a man i think like a man it's saying that when i was a child when i was uh immature in the faith immature in christ and i haven't grown i thought like an immature christian but now that i've grown and i'm a man and i'm a grown woman and now i i think like a grown woman a grown man it's all in the context of love it's saying that love the love that you have the love that you have for god the love that you have for people is the sign of spiritual maturity it even says that you could prophesy and you could have all gre this great knowledge and all this great wisdom and you could ray people from the dead and you could do miracles and you could do all these crazy things and not have love and it says you're nothing so when we look at spiritual maturity and we look at you know the speakers and teachers and prayer warriors and we look at all this stuff the way the bible says is that don't gage their spiritual maturity off anything else but the way that they love people love is of epic importance powerful when the pharisees ask jesus what is the the greatest commandment trying to trick him he laid it all down and he said i'll tell you the greatest commandment in fact he said all of the law all the commandments everything that's ever come out of the mouth of god you can obey it all it all hinges and it all hangs on two commandments the first is love the lord thy god with all i saw all that heart all thy mind and the second is like it love your neighbor as you love yourself so the love is so powerful that if you can learn to love people you don't even have to know all the law you will naturally follow the law by loving people love is epically powerful love is so powerful that that just a few verses prior to this in john 14 at the end of john 14 jesus makes this statement it's a series of verses that carry uh epic power and you could write books about just these verses and never run out of stuff to write about he he tells him he says i'm about to leave the ruler of this world the enemy of this world is coming he's on his way here he says now he has nothing on me he has nothing in me he has nothing against me but i have got to show the world he says it's important that the world knows i love the father so i'm going to let him take me he says i'm going to lay my life down give myself over because it's so important to jesus that the world knows and sees that he loves the father for christ love is something greater and deeper than we understand it to be so like when you say like oh man i love whoppers okay or like you meet somebody you know like you know at a football game and you're like stacy i love you and she's like my name's crystal like love is so much more powerful than what we think it is and and to really understand the weight of love we have to know what the way that the bible defines love and this this is love and i i need you to to hang on to this because it super matters love is literally a the divine love is agape in the scriptures it's agape and the word literally means it's like a divine preference it's literally a discriminating affection that involves choice and selection it's the idea uh that that if you love a woman like i love my wife i love my wife that means that i prefer my wife over every other girl on the planet that means that i love my wife so much i prefer her i might have positive thoughts about other women i might think other women are smart and pretty and god created them and and they're all kinds of good stuff and have but i i prefer my wife that's why i wanted to marry i wanted to stand before god and and make an oath to god that i prefer her i love her i want my soul and her soul to be knitted together in one and i want us till death do us part to be together love is a choice i chose her and she chose me i i i prefer her over everyone else and she prefers me over everyone else that's what love is it's like you love me hopefully you love me but you don't love me like you love your children amen it's okay you can be horrible people if you want it's fine but if it came down to it and and and i'm sitting there and i'm about to get hit by a car and your kid's sitting there and he's about to get hit by a car who are you saving you're a kid let's just be honest with ourselves okay because you love that that's that's why when the scripture people struggle with the scripture when they're like why did jesus tell me i got to hate my family the idea of agape is this divine presence it's that the way you choose christ or you love christ your affection toward christ is so great compared to that it's as if you hate your family that it's so great that it's so powerful this is what love is is divine it's if you have you can go right you can go left both are good but you love what's down right you prefer it that's literally what it's it's a divine performance you you you prefer it that's your preference and so you go right because you prefer it over what's left it's a powerful word and the action of loving the action of of of of showing affection and choosing and making a selection and chasing something there's power in it love's more powerful than that it's more stronger than that there's power there's power and when you choose something and you say no i'm i'm go i'm going after this i love this i want this more than this all right the world's got some things to offer me but i love christ and i love the kingdom and i'm going after the kingdom there's power in this and so when you when you step into the scripture understanding this jesus is he's about to open up something incredible about the advancement of god's kingdom on this earth and in us and through us through the idea of love and so he says as the father has loved me so have i loved you meaning the way the father the creator of the universe loves the son jesus christ jesus says i love you in the same way and now he makes this statement remain in my love remain in my love if you keep my commandments you will remain in my love just as i have kept my father's commandments and remain in his love i've told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete bonus message real fast different message for a different day but something you need to hang on to look at why jesus says i'm having this conversation with you for jesus your joy is a priority and he says i'm coming to tell you something about joy joy is one of the things the human heart wants more than anything the two things the human heart wants more than anything else besides love is joy and peace and we will go to war over trying to get joy and peace we will trade things that are so valuable and so important and trying to get joy and peace but the idea of joy and peace this is a fruit of the spirit this is something that can only come from god joy and peace true joy you can get pleasure from the world and you can get temporary you know happiness and giggliness and and look but true sustained joy and true sustained peace come from god and god alone and jesus is saying it's important for me to you know that i'm telling you what i'm telling you so that my joy can be in you and your joy can be complete so this is a big deal he said i want you to know i'm telling you this because i want joy to just be overflowing in your life and he says i'm telling you this to remain in my love and if you want to remain in my love the way you remain in my love is to obey my commandments or to keep my commandments i want to tell you something in my opinion i believe this is one of the most uh un biblical perspectives the way that i've heard this taught the way i've heard this taught the way people read it and understand the way i've heard other preachers teach and the other denominational leanings they take this verse and they start to teach you something that i believe it doesn't say at all it's they start to teach you something like this that that jesus is affection for you that jesus is love for you it's there but if you want jesus to keep loving you then you need to perform well and perform better that jesus loves you up front but you need to obey the commandments you need to keep the commandments so that jesus will keep loving you this is absolutely 100 not the gospel of jesus christ it is not biblical and there is a thousand scriptures that clearly tell you up front that god's love is eternal that god's love is strong that god's love never changes there's even a scripture that says god's love is so powerful that there's not an angel in heaven or a demon or hell or sword or famine or pestilence that can separate you from the love of god god's love christ's love for you does not ever ever change it is not limited by your performance it is not limited by your lack of faithfulness and it he loves you he'll never love you more than he loves you right now he'll never love you less he loves you to the fullest extent you can love somebody jesus came because god loved the world you cannot perform to get christ's love christ's love has you okay you've got to capture this you've got to understand this because one of the greatest misunderstandings and the way i've heard this preach is that they try not to say it as clearly as i just said it but they lay it out that if you want christ to keep loving you and you want things to keep going well for you then you need to learn to obey the commandments you need to learn that is not what it's saying at all and i want to i want to clarify this because we have to get this to get the next part he lays this out and he says now remain as the father has loved me i've loved you now remain in my love he's saying i love you here's my love now stay inside of my love abide in my love remain in my love and to do that you keep my commandments but very specifically he drops down and he tells you point blank this is my commandment that you love one another as i have loved you so i it would be wrong of me to say that jesus isn't talking about all the commandments he is but remember what jesus teaches about love if you love the father and you love people all of the law all of the commandments hang on this one thing this entire scripture this entire verse and what he's teaching is about us learning to love people and he says so to remain in my love is to love people you love each other like i've loved you and this is how you remain in my love he goes on he says point blank he says this is my commandment that you love one another as i have loved you greater love has no one than this than to lay down his life for his friends so he's saying the greatest of love the greatest height of love is you will lay down your life for friend you will you will selflessly humbly lovingly give of yourself all the way to the point of death for the people that you call friends and for the world around you because that's what christ did for us and so we have to learn to love people to remain in love and so i i want to walk i want to make sure that we get this i want you to think about love like like a fortress of love okay it's a fortress of love which should have been like a 70s disco song but it wasn't okay it's a fortress of love now when you're in the fortress of love just like a real fortune you're the fortress of love there's protection there there's provision there's a warm bed to sleep in there's food in the refrigerator you know there's guidance everything's great everything's amazing everything's okay in the fortress of love it doesn't matter what's going on on the outside it doesn't matter what the enemy's doing on the outside it doesn't matter who's attacking you doesn't matter the chaos that's on the outside because you're inside the fortress of love and everything's okay as long as you stay in the fortress of love but if you decide to walk out of the fortress of love if you choose to walk out of the fortress of love the fortress is still there the protection's still there none of that's changed the provision's still there none of that's changed it's just that you've chosen to walk outside of it and do life outside the fortress think about it like this it's like if you have a kid who's being raised by two genuinely amazing parents who truly love their son and and they've provided a house for him to live in and food and a warm bed to sleep in and they have resources to give him and to take care of him and their love is so strong but he chooses to leave the house and to go outside and to run away has their love for him changed absolutely not has the provision changed absolutely not they didn't kick him out of the house he chose to walk outside of the house and do life outside of the confines of that love that they have for him he can come back at any moment in time it hasn't changed it's very similar to this and so i want you to understand this that what christ is saying he's saying that you need to remain in my love and to remain in my love is to love one another the way that i've loved you to remain in my love to stay in my love to abide in my love is to learn to love the way that i loved you i want to show you this i need to i need a volunteer anybody do you want to come come on how are you good how are you feeling good yes you yeah i like your shirt this is really pretty oh yeah this is a stage right no it's not a stage you're wrong this is the fortress of love okay okay we're on the inside of it inside the fortress of love everybody listen and sell the fortress of love inside this love it is impossible inside of this love for us to do anything but love each other i i i can't do anything when i'm in this love when i when i'm when i'm in christ's love and i'm living in christ's love i'll i live by the law of love and all i can show is love to her and all she can show is love to me that means that that when i have a chance to be arrogant and prideful that i don't i choose love and i go humble that when that that when i have a chance to gossip about her and to tear her down that i choose not to verbally murder her but i choose i lean on christ and i lean on that love and i choose to to love her that that when i have an opportunity to sacrifice her to gain or to get out of greed that i don't do that when i have an opportunity like in the workplace to get involved in the politics and the divisiveness and to tear apart to try to get ahead that instead of doing that that i support her and i love her and i lift her up even if she doesn't lift me up that while we are in in the fortress of love to remain in my love that it is impossible for me to do anything else but love her that even if i wanted to do something different that i couldn't do it while i'm in while i'm in the love of christ why i'm remaining the love of christ all right but that's because i'm i'm a saint and i'm perfect she's not though okay so she said my husband will tell you that so while she's in here listen while she's in this she wants she she has something you want to help me yeah come on hey you helped me in the first service remember stay out there you're a sinner this time you were the you were the good one the first time but out here this is the fortress of love and you guys are all the horrible sinners okay and so she's in the forge of love and and this uh young lady is starting to gossip about her and tear her down and she starts to get this desire i want to go out and i want to knock her teeth out i want to tear her down i want to gossip about her i want to rip her soul i want to get out there i just want like mortal kombat finish him rip the heart out while it's still pumping and just watch him drop down was that too much here's the thing i want you to see while she's in here she cannot operate like that and so if she wants to operate like that she has to make a conscious decision that she's going to walk outside of the love of christ so that she can hate her so this is the fortress of love you've made a horrible life decision you're going to go out there now that she's outside she's walked outside that was hilarious i tried to work past it she walked outside of the fortress of love she walked outside of the love of christ so that she could gossip so that she could tear her down so that she could hold that against her so that she couldn't forgive her she wanted to live in that unforgiveness she wanted to get venge revenge she wanted to be vengeful she wanted to tear down she wanted to see herself or she would see her pain so in order for her to do that she could not do that while remaining the love of christ so she stepped outside of the love of christ so that she could tear her down and be unloving does that make sense all right no i'm just kidding you guys can love each other all right give him a hand clap so this is the thing that i want you to see in this i want you to see that christ is painting this picture he's saying i want you to remain in my love but to remain in my love is to operate by the law of love and so that he's saying that when you get to this place when you you get to this moment that when you have opportunities all right and listen this is the reality and this is why this is such a hard message is because our natural inclination is not to love not even our own kids especially when we didn't get a good night's sleep right when i walk in and i'm tired and hudson's like you know like daddy i wanna let's go outside and let's you know let's get bats and hit the house and i'm and i uh what i wanna do is just like yell and just be mad and not be patient and not explain to him that we can't do that because it's dangerous and stupid and like like i don't want to be i don't want to walk through i just want to go put him in his room i just want to yell at him i just want to spank him i just want to put him away and then i just want to sit down and and do my own thing like my natural inclination like when we get in me and my wife which we never fight because we have a perfect marriage obviously but like when we get in to it with my wife and she's horribly wrong as she is and i'm there and i i wanna i wanna just tear her down or i just wanna tell her how wrong she is or i just want to argue and debate and it feels so good my natural inclination is to make sure that everybody knows that i'm right because i always am so i don't understand why everybody gets a problem with it but like that's my natural inclination that's what i want to do and it's easy and what christ is saying is that is that when you get in that moment when you get in that place and you want to tell her what's up and you want to prove your point and you want to win the argument and you want to stand over her and make sure she feels little and knows who's in control and you want to tear her down or you want to you want to be impatient with your kids and you just want to put them outside you just want to give them the phone and let blippi raise them so that you can just do your own thing no judgment right that's the temptation i know oblivious for a reason that it in that moment you decide no i'm gonna love i'm gonna love it and i'm i'm not i'm not gonna be i'm not gonna scream and i'm not gonna get mad i'm gonna sit down i'm gonna be patient and i'm gonna walk with him through this i'm gonna i'm gonna try to be understanding i'm going to walk through this i'm going to humble myself i'm going to be gentle i'm going to be kind i'm going to love her in this moment when people are tearing us down and we just want to get get in the game and knock their teeth out that we we choose love and we choose to remain in christ's love when we have the opportunity to hate we love when we have the opportunity to take we give when we have the opportunity to tear down we build up when we have the opportunity to take revenge we forgive this is what christ did for us this is this is what he's saying to remain in my love and you've got to get that to get the next part because the next part is so powerful he comes on and he says but i have called you friends because everything i've learned from my father i've made known to you you did not choose me but i chose you and i appointed you to go and bear fruit fruit that will remain so that whatever you ask the father in my name he'll give you this is my command to love one another so jesus he says listen i've chosen you you didn't choose me i chose you and i appointed you i pointed you to do something i pointed you to go out and bear fruit and this is where the message gets a little confusing for me a little bit of tension right here because the whole first part is about remaining in his love and staying in his love and abiding in his love and then right when you get the understanding to that point okay i'm supposed to stay he said but i've chosen and appointed you to go stay in my love but go and bear fruit courtney talks a lot like this a lot of times makes it harder babe what do you want for dinner i just really want some mexican and japanese okay well i just want the chips and the queso by sushi roll all right so babe how can i help you i just want you to hold me and clean the kitchen like what do you want to do this weekend i just want to go out on a date but just stay home and rest okay all right this is what it is i want you to stay i want you to remain but i want you to go i want you to remain i get your frustration dude i get it he said i'm telling you remain in my love but i've appointed you to go and bear fruit and remember the whole context of love what he's what jesus is saying he's coming to you and he's laying out this reality he's saying listen i want you to remain in my love the way you remain in my love is to be loving and he says in the same way that i love you i want you to love each other and he says not only am i telling you to remain in my love but i want to remind you and he's taking ownership over it i chose you you didn't chose me and i appointed you to bear fruit in other people's lives my commandment is to love one another he's saying that if you love people you love one another as i've loved you you remain in my love and when you have an opportunity to show love to the world and you choose to show love to the world you will bear fruit in their life fruit that is eternal it he paints the idea that that while you're you know in school when you're sitting in class and you're doing your thing that that to love people is not just to remain in christ but to love people who hate you you will bear fruit in their life and their life will never be different i'll i may never be the same i want to take you back the same thing jesus said in john 14. he said listen he said the enemy's coming the ruler of this world is coming but the world has to know how much i love the father and that's why i'm going to obey that's why i'm going to lay down my life that's why i'm going to go with him i'm going to lay my life down so the world will see how much i love the father loving and showing love for christ he says it's so important that even the lost and dying sinful world will see the action of love and it will bear fruit in their life he's saying that it is love that when love touches people when love gets into their heart and they can see the visible act of love that it's so powerful that it begins to change things in their life over and over and over again christ says these different statements it he says listen i've got a new command for you he says i want you to love one another and he says in the way that you love each other that's how the world will look in and know that you follow me jesus said there's some they can be lost they can be filled with sin and they can hate you but when they look in and they see the love in your life there's something so powerful about love that when they see love they will no matter what they think about you they will know that you follow me and they will know that i'm from the father it says that the love the power of love can reveal to the unbeliever that jesus is really the messiah and savior the the action of love it it changes people's lives love jesus paints this picture that love is literally like a declaration of war on hell itself it says that hell can grip people's soul the enemy can grip people sin can control people but that love has the power to open up their heart to be receptive to christ love is that powerful love is that powerful this is what this is what he says the reason i'm going to die on a cross is to show not just to say the father loves you not just to say that i love you but i'm laying my life down so that you can see so the world can see the greatest version of love is that one lays down their life for someone else what do you think saved us love when we look on the cross that's what we're seeing we are seeing love poured out on golgotha we're seeing love poured out through the crucifixion we're seeing the god who created you out of love also save you out of sacrificial love love is powerful is stronger than death and jesus is saying if you will capture this and you will get this and you will understand that it's showing love and it's loving people that not only causes you to remain in my love but also changes their life and changes eternity and the heart of this is like you be you want your marriage to change start loving people start loving your spouse okay love is you can't fall out of love because love isn't an emotion love remember it's a discriminating affection that involves choice and selection you're saying to your spouse i didn't just fall out of it it just didn't happen randomly i chose something else to prefer over you and over our marriage and over our family choosing to love somebody else more than you i'm choosing to love my career more than you i'm choosing to love my freedom more than you do you know one of the things that bothers me more than anything that i see people sacrifice their families for i love the idea of what life was supposed to be like was in my 20s and so now i'm gonna go chase a fantasy and start going to the clubs and start doing all the things that i missed because i was working and you sacrifice your family to go throw your life away for absolutely nothing i just love the idea of what should have been i just haven't sowed my oats right i i i love i i love my kids but i really love goth more i love i love my marriage i love my family but i really love this over here more this is this is the reality of love is love is a divine preference it's a discriminating affection that involves choice and selection and what you choose to love has the power to change your whole universe or destroy it there's a weight in this he says you want your marriage to start being better start loving them start loving them start choosing them over yourself start choosing the family of yourself start start choosing selflessness over selfishness start choosing your friends over yourself start stop starts choosing what christ says is valuable love people you want to change your kid's life start loving them not feeding them loving them not distracting them with sports and hobbies on youtube but loving them training them teaching them you want your whole family to change start loving you want your social circle to change start loving people you want this church to change start loving people you want the community to change start loving people you want the world to change start loving people see we've tried everything else except for this we've tried to change the world through facebook posts we've tried to change the world through comments we've tried to change the world by just blocking it out and pretending it's not there we've tried to change the world by just staying inside of our our little homes and doing our thing this is the reality of what christ is saying he's saying if you will understand the power of love and you will start to love people every time you visibly actively love someone they will change it now be a full change you may not see it up front but when you love you change someone when you love you declare war on hell when you love you soften their heart when you love you break chains in their life when you love you open up their heart and you open up their mind to the divine love is of epic importance love is of epic before he says listen this is why i'm here god so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son god is love and the thing that we're missing in so many areas of our life is love it's love and i don't want you to feel judged and i don't want you to feel condemned because loving someone else is the hardest thing you'll ever do because it's in our sinful nature not to and that's why christ claims ownership over you he says don't don't forget i chose you you didn't choose me and i appointed you i pointed you to go and bear fruit he's saying i picked you and i believe in you and i'm not going to let you fail he says so in this context in this context of love this context of remaining in my love and loving people to bear fruit in their life in this context of of remaining but going abiding and staying but going and bearing fruit in this context of love if you will seek me and ask anything ask my father anything he'll give it to you because it's hard i just want to be honest with you it's hard to be selfless do you know how selfish i want to be how easy it is to be selfish you know how easy it is to be prideful you know how easy it is to just lose your anger and just rage out on somebody how easy it is to just honk and flip people off you know how easy it is to just get involved and out deceive them and and out you know politic them and just do it you know how easy it is just to tear people down that's what's easy and that's what our nature wants to do it's difficult to love it's difficult that's why marriage just fall apart it's why relationships die that's why kids and parents go their separate ways because it is hard to love but christ said if you will if you will seek me in this context and you get the value of this anything you ask my father will give you and so the challenge is this is we're interacting with people and and family members and kids and marriages and relationships and social circles and co-workers and students and all all the areas of our life that if we get in there we say god show me the unloving ways in my heart and replace them with loving ways expose the pride in me and give me humility so that i'll lift others up instead of tearing them down god give them give me a selflessness that i can lay down my wants and needs and desires for the good of other people and jesus will do god the father will give it to you he will start to change you and i want to end and as i close in this incredible thought process i want you to know remember why jesus said i'm telling you this so that my joy can be in you and that your joy can be complete you're chasing joy and peace and contentment in this life and jesus is saying i'm telling you right here and right now the only way you're going to get it is through love he says i'm telling i want you to know i want you to know that if you will learn this about love and you will start to pray like this and you will start to live like this and you will start to lean this direction and love when you have a chance to hate and forgive when you have a chance to get revenge and to give when you have a chance to take that if you'll do this he goes my love will be in or my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete and if you could just if we could just wrap our minds around what jesus is saying to us you want to live a life that everybody truly wants learn to love people learn to love people there's power in this this is when the message is it's hard to end because i don't know how to end it but the heart of it the foundation of it and the overall point of it you got to remember this was the last thing jesus taught his disciples before he was arrested and died for our sins he says a few more things of the like and then he prays it's a beautiful prayer that we'll actually get into in a different series soon but this was the thing jesus wanted to leave his people with jesus wanted you and me to know 2 000 years later loving people loving people changes everything loving people changes you loving people changes them loving people changes eternity and so all that junk that's in our life that we want to not love god he says if you'll ask i'll give it to you and i love you guys and i want to see our church i want to see our church change eternity by loving people and i want to see your families at the height of joy because you learn to love people and i want to see marriages make it because you learn to love people this is this is it there's power in this so don't miss this moment don't miss this moment because if you can grasp it and you let words god's word go deep he will reap a life worth living in your home and your family and your friend group let's just pray because i don't know how to end it you guys will stand father god i just come before you lord father any message on a topic like this there's there's no way i could ever do it justice there's no no one there's no man no woman that could ever teach something worthy enough god of this topic of love as a father i just humbly come before you and i ask god that you will take this word that you will pierce it to the depths of our soul and you will accomplish what you desire to accomplish in our lives i pray for every single individual in this room for every single marriage for every single family for every single parent for every single child for every single friendship group for every single relationship and general father that when human human connection is here god that they will learn to love god the way that you love us change the world through our love god in your holy name amen [Music] [Music] you turn shame into glory you're the only one who cares [Music] you're the only one [Music] you're the only one who cares [Music] [Music] man ain't that cool it is so good to be here today glad you're here glad you're tuning in man what a powerful powerful day we do got to draw this service to a close our volunteers what we find in their places a couple announcements i want to let everybody know coming up i think the 26th this month on a sunday ryan smith is going to be taking a group down to louisiana to do some mission work down there for the folks that was uh devastated by the hurricane so that's coming up so if you want to be a part of that stop by the connect tent they'll have some information out there so you can be a part of that also if you were if you're here today or you're out there in the broadcast and you were planning to be here for our grief share today that is not going to happen today that that meeting has been canceled it will resume again next sunday so you know we have watched and witnessed god's work in some powerful ways over the years and of late god has brought people out of darkness we've watched god in the middle of tragedies provide and right in the middle of some of our worst heartbreaks we watched him comfort and you know how he does that he does that through us he does it through you through love what a powerful message today jordan thank you for allowing the holy spirit to just bring one of the most powerful messages that we can ever grasp i believe don't miss what god's wanting to do in you through you he will do it whether you're here in this room or out there in the broadcast don't miss what god's wanting to do he can change your life and those around you simply through that powerful love join with me as i close no gracious god i thank you for your love today thank you for loving me thank you for saving me thank you lord for doing that to many in this room and many out there in the broadcast thank you holy god oh teach us today to remain in that love that we will love when we could have hated that we will forgive when we could have held on to that oh gracious god let us be more like you every day that we will love love love and watch what you can do in our lives and all those around us you receive glory for today holy god we love you thank you for who you are in the name of jesus amen god bless you see you next week [Music] uh [Music] [Music] uh [Music] so [Music] [Music]

Channel: Pursuit Church

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Id: ZssxY29T14I

Length: 84min 48sec (5088 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021