[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] Amen, amen. [Applause] Say Jesus! I am going to ask
everybody to stand. Hello, everybody, how are you
doing today? Very excited about today's
message. Want to say hello to all our
campuses, San Marcos, San Ysidro, City Heights, East
County, USS Somerset. Give them a hand, God bless you. And also juvenile hall and
Donovan state prison as well, and people online. God bless you, we love y'all. I am a burden preacher, which
means when God gives me a message I know it's right when I
feel the burden of it. Out of all the messages that any
preacher can preach, not only talking about myself. I am going to talk about every
pastor in the history of the world. What I am going to talk about
today is the most important thing you as a believer need to
know. The number one most important
thing. You need to know is what I am
talking about today. My prayer is that God prepare
your mind to receive what I have to say and get it. I am going to summarize the
entire Bible today. In one thing. Sometimes I get criticized
because my sermons are in too simple. I pride myself in simple. This is going to be so simple. But it's the most important
message of the whole Bible. Lord, I pray you prepare us for
this message. I pray that we will be able to
receive it. Process it. Understand it. And Lord I pray that you would
encourage us. You love us. I pray specifically for Jean
Sowen's family, for Daniel and Sondra, I pray that you bless
and encourage them today. As she went to be with the Lord
and she is so good right now. So I pray you encourage her
family as they are going on miss her. You blessed them with her but
now she's with you. And so I pray that you encourage
them in Jesus' name, amen. Give the person next to you a
big hug and a kiss. Amen. Only kiss the person next to you
if they want you to kiss them. Amen. Amen. On the count of three, I will
ask you to lift your Bibles. On the count of three say word. Turn to I John 2. We will get there in a few
minutes. I John. It's the fifth book or so from
the end of the Bible, go to the back and count five towards the
front. You will get to I John, it's a
very small book. I want to tell you something
that I want you to think about in public speaking, one of the
most powerful tools of public speaking is silence. It's the pause. So I am going to say something
and then I am going to pause so you have time to let it sink in. God loves you. I want you to think about that. God loves you. It is the most profound thing we
could ever know. Is that God loves you. He knows all your junk. Say amen if you got junk. And he loves you anyway. And he wants so bad for you to
love him back. That's it. The whole Bible. Is in us having a loving
relationship with God. Not us using God, manipulating
God, playing God for a fool. Because he's not dumb. It's just receiving,
experiencing his love in the context of a relationship. Everyone say right brain. Say left brain. This is my right, your left. But in your right brain you
experience the here and now. Emotions. Feelings. Right now your right brain is
firing with excitement and joy because you feel really good,
can I get amen. Whatever emotion you are having
your right brain is processing the here and now. And the left brain is storing
information and involved in information problem solving. Good decisions come when your
right brain and left brain work together. When my kids were little, we
took them to the park, and first time to go to the park when they
could process stuff. They were scared to go to the
park, it was a new experience. Daddy hold my hand. No one in the park and scared of
the stairs and slide and teeter totter. Go up the stairs to the slide. Come with me. I can't, I am too fat. And I had to hold her hand up
the stairs and down. It was a new experience for
them. The right brain was saying I
don't know what this is how it happens. And they had to experience it. And the left brain didn't have
any information. Once they experienced that and
the swing, and their right brain experienced the here and now and
left brain stored that information. Next time we went, they had done
it before and the left brain was I got this, we did this before. And mommy and daddy, look what I
am doing. And then we went there were kids
in the park. Before we went, there were no
kids in the park. And now other human beings and
their right brain, I don't know about those human beings and
they are short and talk and different clothes. They may be mean or nice, I
don't know. And mommy and daddy go with me,
and yeah, boy and girl, and no knife or gun, everything is
good, don't worry about anything. And next thing they know, right
brain was scared and experienced the other kids and like them and
the left brain stored the information. And next time we come and they
go to the park and play with the other kids, are you following
me. And next time they are playing
with the kids and garbage truck comes and makes a loud noise and
never heard at the park. And boom, they run back to mommy
and daddy. It's just the garbage truck,
they come to our house every day. And oh, yeah, and next time the
garbage truck, I keep playing. And are you following me. And the right brain with that
information and left brain stores that information and no
problem, they are perfecting the decisions. Can your love be perfected? All God wants you to do is love
him. Not necessarily go to church,
even though this is part of loving him. But it has to be out of love. How do you love God? So we are going to talk about
that today. Very simple. How can you perfect your love of
God. We started the series last week
called relationship goals. And we talked about how the
father, son and the Holy Spirit had the perfect relationship. They always pursue the purpose
of God together. They always did whatever it took
to glorify the father together. They were the model and still
are our model relationship. So for us when we talk about
love, we have to understand what love is and what loving means. Any time you hear the word love,
used in culture. You want to always know what the
Bible says. What does God say about love. So we don't create our own
version and experience and express a form of love that
actually brings pain into power life. So number 1, God is love. I John 4:8, God is love. The verse on the screen... Any time you say the word love,
I love this, love that, whatever it is that you use the word love
in. You have to insert the word God. Because if that love is not
consistent with God, it's not the kind of love that God made. It's a different version of
love. Number 2, love is obedience to
God. I John 5:3, this is the love of
God that we keep his commandments and his
commandments are not burdensome. This is very important. The greatest commandment is to
love God with your heart, mind and soul. The greatest of all
commandments, you can take everything in this book, number
one thing is to love God. What does that mean? Do what God says. Stop right there. This is the most important thing
you need to know about this entire book. When people come to me and get
saved, they say what do I do now. Learn to obey God. And when come to me and away
from God and messed up their life, does God forgive. What now? Obey God. People with their ministry
purpose, obey God. There is no other answer. You do that by studying and
praying and worshiping, whatever. The foundation of all love in
every relationship. Whether you are dating,
marriage, best friend or whoever. The foundation has to be obeying
God. Next one, love is based on
truth. Not a feeling. This is the one that is going to
sting. It don't matter what you feel. I don't want to obey God. That ain't love then. Loving God is loving God whether
you feel it or not. II John 1:6 in your notes, this
is the word in the commandments. Loving God means obeying God
whether you feel like it or not. As a matter of fact your love
for God is most proven when you obey God in the times you don't
feel like it. It's easy to go to church when
you feel like it. If this is your process, you are
not getting a lot of brownie points. It's raining out and nothing on
TV and I am up, I might as well go to church. Okay, good for you. Versus, I'm going. I want to be in the house of
God. I want to pray. I want to be with the people of
God. And you know I have got a lot of
stuff to do and watch on TV. But this is my first priority. When Jesus was crucified the
Bible says he was in agony. He was sweating blood. And he said to God, the father,
is there any other way? Do I have to do this? I am paraphrasing and you can
read it in Luke 20. But not my -- here's what Jesus
said, I am in agony sweating blood. In agony to the point of death,
the Bible says. This is going to be hard, they
are going to arrest me and crucify me, is there any other
way father? Not what I want, but what you
want, out of obedience. So loving God is doing what God
says period. The Pharisees were the religious
snobs of the Bible. And in every church in every
community you have Pharisees. And let me explain it in case
you might be one. You don't want to be one. Look at the person next to you
wherever you are and say, I don't want to be a Pharisee. The Pharisees they had lots of
information in their head. But they didn't obey. Here's what the Bible says. They are gossiping. And here's what the Bible says,
and they are lusting. And here's what the Bible says,
and watching pornography. You are giving Jesus a bad name,
don't tell people you are saved. Don't. They have all of this
information, it means nothing if you don't do what it says. Three simple points. Number one in your notes, love
is perfected over time. By the hand of God. Remember the kids in the park. Over time you will learn to obey
what God says especially in the midst of your right brain
telling you you shouldn't obey God. Look at what it says in I John
2:5, whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is
perfected in him. To be perfected meant to be
complete, to be matured. To reach its intended purpose. Over time you would learn,
despite what your right brain is saying. And by the way, your right brain
is not necessarily wrong, it's just telling you part of the
story. In other words God is saying, go
over there and tell that person sorry in your life. And your right brain is saying
no, you know what they said, and talking this trash, say amen if
you know what I am talking about. And the left brain, the fact is
that the Bible says to obey God. Your right brain says don't do
that. You have to make a decision. Are you going to obey the here
and now or the eternal word of God? Your love is perfected and
matured and treated and reaches purpose and goal when you
practice obeying God day in and day out. Despite what you feel. Despite what you perceive. Despite what you know. Because we walk by faith. Not by sight. Which means you don't know and
never will know everything ever. Even when you take -- inhale,
every day you inhale your entire life until the day you die. Every day you take a breath and
you don't see what is going in your lungs. And you don't see unless in the
cold what is coming out of your lungs. And by faith you know you are
going to live. And God says the more you obey
me the more the ability to obey is perfected and completed. That's the whole Bible. Go to Life Class and learn about
yourself. And your right brain, what are
they going to teach you, you know who you are. Your right brain is talking this
trash and no, I am going to go because my church is providing
this to help in life. And just go by faith. And when you get there, you may
realize that someone that had the same fears you had. Get that money, how you pay that
bill. God is telling you to make that
investment in the kingdom of God. And by faith you say yes, God, I
trust you. Why? Because God has never ever let
you down. Ever. Ever. [Applause] So you're ability to obey God
internally because God wants to do something in you. He's maturing something in you. Your ability to hear and
experience and feel all of these emotions and thoughts. And say, yes to God anyway. That's it. If all you do is say yes to God
when it's convenient. You are just a religious person. I mean that's easy. If all you do is love your
friends and not your enemies. That's easy. You don't need God for that. You don't need God for that. The Holy Spirit came in your
life so you could do what you don't normally do. Your love is perfected. Number 2. Love requires a renewed mind --
Ooo. Some people can't obey God
because of their emotional issues. Some people are so insecure in
their relationship or how they view themselves. That they won't obey God because
they don't want to offend somebody. Hey, why don't you go over there
and tell that person, kindly, lovingly, positively with
patience that they were wrong in what they said about your
co-worker. No, God I can't do that. They may not like me. And they may turn against me and
talk about me. And I may be black balled from
the in-group and I don't want to do that, I value too much my
image here. And God says, you are telling me
what is more important is to please man over me. And yet you are a Christian and
you are praising God and coming to church and God is telling you
to do something, and you don't do because of your personal
insecurity. That's where Christianity has to
change your life. It's one thing to come to church
and have Christian habits, and read verses and this life that
is completely contradictory to God. And God is trying to get through
to you to bring perfection to maturity. So you can obey God at a higher
rate. So you can love God at a more
perfected level. That's all it is. The greatest commandment is for
you to love God, so the greatest commandment is obey God. Perfect. It's not about information. It's not about religious things
that you feel comfortable. It's God telling you do this and
do that. And by the way, those do this
and do that. Let me tell you, I have been
walking with God 33 years. He's going to change stuff. I don't like change. Well, you got the wrong God. Because if our God didn't change
stuff, we would have 70? weather every day, and even in San Diego
that isn't true. And the east coast people, can I
hear from east coast people, we left that stuff because it does
change. And God is saying with your life
on cruise control and he will say, Urrrttt. We don't want to do this, excuse
me, this is my show, God's show. Probably the best exercise you
can do is not read more books. I am not saying don't read more
books. One of the best discipleship
exercises you can do. Not go to church every Sunday,
even though you should. Not get on your knees every day,
even though you should. But bigger than all of that,
trust me. Right in the list of things that
you don't do, that God wants you to do. And that you are not doing them
every day. And say God, I want to be
obedient in that one. I want to be obedient in that
one. As a matter of fact, show of
hands and ask all campuses to do this. If you find yourself wanting or
needing to raise your hand, don't feel embarrassed because
you are not alone. If you have 10 things, I would
say 100 but don't have time to count that high. If you have 10 things that you
need to change to be more aligned with the word of God. Raise your hand. Yeah, look around the room. Say to the person next to you,
you have some work to do. I want to read a verse to you. If you said, I am going to write
just five of them down. Just five and say, God, today we
are going to pick up number one. I want to be in obedient in
that, and by me being obedient in that, I am loving you. Yes. Whether you feel like it or not. All of you married, know that
love is not only a feeling. If you are married, and just
talk to the married people for now. If you are married and you had
to do things for your spouse that you did not feel like it,
say amen. Un-HUH. A guy was training his son and
dad what do I need to do to be married, say you are wrong. I didn't do anything. Say you are wrong. I didn't do anything. Say you are wrong. I am wrong. Now know how to be married. Number 2 in your notes, love
requires a renewed mind. Why? Because God is going to tell you
to do stuff that your mind doesn't want to do. He will tell you to serve. To give. To pray. To sacrifice. He's going to say be humble, and
you are going to say no. You need to make a decision, and
you need to decide who to obey. That's the whole Bible in one
sentence. If you are not doing it, you are
just a Pharisee. That's it. And you are playing a game. And God will say I never knew
you. And churches that raise and heal
and God will say you were playing a game and not doing
what I said. II Corinthians 10. Says, for the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down
strong holds. They are spiritual, the weapons
of your warfare are spiritual. Casting down arguments and every
high things that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. There are arguments and
philosophies and word views and politically correctness that is
against the word of God. It says that you bring every
thought in captivity making it obedient to Christ. Your weapons are spiritual. And they are warring against all
of these opinions that are contrary to the word of God. And you are to bring those
thoughts into captivity and say, no, I am feeling an urge to say
this, do this. And yet the word of God is
saying no. I have to make a decision. Am I going to obey God or obey
my impulses. My friends. Culture. This is where the rubber meets
the road. My favorite time of every day
beyond the shadow of a doubt is when I go to bed to go to sleep. It is my favorite -- can I get
amen. Anybody. There is something so good. About sleep. And when we pass and go to be
with the Lord, it's going to be a good day. A good day. So when you go to sleep, you go
through a lot of cycles in your brain. It just has a lot of functions
that we don't have time to get into right now. I don't want to tell you all of
them. Because I don't know them. But I will tell you one, rapid
eye movement, rem cycle and during rem cycle your brain is
going through a renewal process and during rem cycle when go to
sleep and when you wake up, during that time is your most
vivid dream. And a lot of times you have a
dream and wake up. When you wake up like you are
coming out of space and reentering this atmosphere and
wake up. When you are in rem, when you
are sleeping, it's call rem paralysis. You cannot voluntarily move. And why do you want to voluntary
move? Because when you are dreaming
and experiencing emotions and flying and all of things you are
doing in the dream. And your body can't do it. And the reason that God created
rem paralysis because he didn't want you to physically do what
you are experiencing in your dream. Can you imagine how life would
be -- I don't need to finish that sentence. None of y'all would be married. Some of y'all would be in jail. And other of y'all would be
dead, you would jump out the window, I don't know, I can fly. And the dreams are so real and
emotional. And in rem paralysis you are
half awake and half sleep but paralyzed. And you kind of sense there is
somebody in the room over here. But you are laying on this side
of your body and you can't move your head and your eyes are kind
of open and you sense somebody in the room and you can't see
them. And you want to turn and scream. But you can't see them but you
feel they are there. And you are trying to scream and
trying to look, but you are paralyzed. And doing -- AHHHH and you can't
move. Can I get amen if you know what
I am talking about. So you are paralyzed. And your mind is telling you to
look, scream, call for mommy. And your body is going no. No. There is going to be times in
your life that God is going to tell you to do something, your
flesh is going to tell you to do something. And you have to say no. Culture is going to tell you to
believe something. Against the word of God. And you say no. Your fear, your lust, your
greed, your pride, your ego is going to tell you to say
something and believe something or look at something and you
have to say no. You take this -- you will obey
God. That is loving God. Whether you feel like it or not. And my challenge to you as you
walk through your day and you start sensing God telling you to
do something or the world encouraging you to do something
that is disobedient. And you say right now, right
now, I have to express the love of God right now by obeying God. That has nothing to do with your
feelings. Now your feelings are definitely
in it, but if you feel like obeying God, that's irrelevant. I have to obey God. Number 3 in your notes, love
must be received before it can be given. What does that mean? That you have your natural love
but God wants to give you his supernatural love. The Bible says that when you ask
Christ to be your Savior, you admit you are a sinner. The Bible says all have sinned. The Bible says that Jesus Christ
died to pay for your sin, that was an act of love by the way,
because he had no sin. He died and buried and rose from
the dead in three days. And the Bible says if you
confess in your heart and believe that in your heart, you
are saved. And what happens? The Holy Spirit comes to live in
your heart, and the Bible says that the Holy Spirit pours the
love of God in your heart. What does that mean? That you have a level of
intensity of love for people way beyond your natural desire. Your natural ability. That you can forgive people that
you wouldn't normally forgive. When Jesus was being crucified,
he was forgiving them as they were crucifying them. Nailing them in the wood, he
said, father forgive them right now. As they are doing it, they don't
know. They didn't ask for the
forgiveness. Just forgive them. And the Holy Spirit pours his
love in your heart. I was in juvenile hall years ago
and I went in to see a white supremacist and he is calling me
the "N" word and cursing me and in my heart, that brother just
needs Jesus. He needs Jesus. His father beat him. So I said, I will come back next
time after he thinks about what he said and pray about them. Because that brother needs God. He is already forgiven. He got fed a lot of garbage and
went back to him and talked to him and he ended up getting
saved. The point is that God is way
bigger than his words. It's a broken heart speaking. And when you say give me love
for people in situations to enable me and empower me to
forgive way more than I can imagine. In a moment we will have an
opportunity to ask Christ to be your Savior. And receive the spirit of God
that will empower you with the desire and ability to obey God. Not necessarily feel something
all the time. Because let me tell you, you
will not feel good all the time. You are not. Sometimes you will be
discouraged. Sometimes you will be scared. Sometimes you will be depressed. And sometimes you will be angry. And sometimes mad at God and
your brain doesn't understand, saying that God betrayed you but
you come to your senses. But the Holy Spirit will never
leave you or forsake you. And then pray and take communion
together. Please bow your head and close
your eyes. Those online and juvenile hall
and Donovan state prison. Coronado, and all microsites,
God bless you. Close your eyes. Jesus I thank you for all of
these people here, and I thank You that You know every single
person. And that we have an opportunity
to surrender our life to You. That You may fill our heart with
your love, your passion, a supernatural ability to obey
You. Even through the most difficult
times of our life. If you realize that you are a
sinner and you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sin
and rose from the dead. And you would like to ask him to
forgive you of your sin. And fill your heart with the
spirit of God. The spirit of God that pours the
love of God in your heart. I want you to pray this prayer
with me in the privacy of your heart. Pray, dear God, I believe You
love me. And I want to love You. I believe You died and rose from
it the -- from the dead for my sin. Jesus please forgive me. Fill me with the spirit of God. I surrender my life to You. Thank You. As eyes are closed and heads are
bowed. If you prayed that prayer in a
minute, I am going to ask you to slip your hand really high. If you prayed that prayer to ask
Christ to be your Savior. Slip your hand up high so I can
pray for you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. In the room and all campuses we
see you. God bless you. You can put your hands down. Lord, thank You for all of those
people and thank You for your faithfulness in Jesus' name,
amen. Give those people a hand. God bless y'all. [Applause] I want y'all to take out in all
campuses, take out your communion cup. If you don't have a cup, raise
your hand and the ushers of get one to you. Keep your hand up really high. God bless y'all. When we take communion, it's the
one thing that Jesus told us to do in remembrance of him. And here's what He said. I am going to take the bread, I
am going to break it and you are going to eat it and I will tell
you it's my body because I am getting ready to be crucified. You will drink the blood --
drink the wine, that is representative of my bloodshed
for you. And blood shed for you. I want you to do this when you
think of me, and I suffered for you because I loved you and
wanted to give you an opportunity to love God and have
a relationship with the father. When you think of me, think of
the sacrifice I made because I am asking you to do the same
thing. To make a sacrifice on behalf of
someone else, so they can know God. Whether you like them or not. Whether they like you or not. That's walking with God. So I want you to take out the
bread. The little wafer on top. And as they were eating and
Jesus took the bread and took and blessed it and said, take,
eat, this is my body. Lord we thank you that you
allowed sinful man to bruise your body. And we take this acknowledging
your sacrifice in Jesus' name, amen. Open up the cup carefully. He took the cup, gave it to
them, and said, drink from it all of you. This is my blood of the new
covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins. You could not have forgiveness
unless there was bloodshed. Jesus shed his sinless blood for
our sin, that's love. Trust me it was not pleasant. Lord, thank You that You shed
your innocent blood for our sinful lives. And we take this acknowledging
that in Jesus' name, amen. Here's what we are going to do
right now. I will ask all of you in all
campuses to bow your heads and close your eyes one more time. There are many of you who raised
your hand. You asked Jesus to be your
Savior about five minutes ago. You prayed a prayer. Asking Him to forgive you. And pour His love into your
heart. In a minute I'm going to ask you
to stand up. We do this every week. I want to encourage you, if you
are going to stand up, grab your family members hand to come with
you, so you won't be alone. We want to acknowledge you and
give you an opportunity to acknowledge Jesus. Your right brain may be telling
you, you don't need to do that, there is going to be people
looking at you, you don't know them. And discourage you from taking a
step of faith today. Is it scary? Oh, yeah. Are you with family? Oh, yeah. Are we going to celebrate you? Oh, yeah. Do you have anything to be
worried about? Nope. So eyes closed, heads bowed. I am going to count to three, if
you prayed that prayer, your first step of faith as a new
believer is to step up here when I count to three. If your family is here with you,
ask them to stand with you, and they will -- they better. On the count of three, if you
prayed that prayer a few minutes ago and yes, I want Jesus to
forgive my sin or prayed to recommit your life to Jesus,
that's fine as well. I am going to ask you to stand
on the count of three. One, two, three. Stand to your feet. God bless you. If God spoke to you during that sermon and you feel like you want to ask Christ to be your savior, it's as simple as A-B-C. Admit and accept that you are a sinner. The Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died for your sin and rose from the dead. Then confess yourself a sinner and say, "Jesus, please forgive me a my sin." If you would like to ask Jesus Christ to be your savior, just look at me right now, and pray this prayer with me in the privacy of your heart knowing that God knows you and loves you very much. Say, "Dear God, I believe that I am a sinner." I know the penalty of my sin is death. I don't want to die and go to Hell. I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died and rose from the dead for my sin. I confess myself a sinner and ask Him to forgive me of my sin. Jesus, please forgive me of my sin. And fill me with the spirit of God. In Jesus name, amen. If you prayed that prayer, If you just asked Christ to be your savior we want to know. We want to email you some resources. If you just prayed that prayer with me to accept Jesus as your savior, click on the link that just appeared. We want to send you some free resources. God bless you and we will see you in heaven.
