"Love—The Greatest Gift" By Brother Parrish Lee April 26th,
2015
Giving honor to God Who is the
Head of my life. Giving honor to those
who have gone on before us in this ministry:
Our founding pastor, our pastor, on whose shoulders the ministry now
resides, he and his family. Giving honor
to all those who have stood in the gap and made up the hedge, to do the work of
God, that the work of God might be made known.
Amen. A beautiful time to come before
the Lord. As we have said, our theme for
the month would be, “Love is the Greatest Gift.” Our Scripture for the month: 1 John 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God
is love. We’ve heard it several times in
movies and songs made about it, and it’s all been true. It’s all true. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Charity
suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself,
is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not
easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail;
whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away. If you would bow your heads with
me for just a moment. Lord, at this
time, we come before Your presence and we thank You for Your good, and
wondrous, and perfect blessings that You’ve given to us. We thank You for this morning; You woke us up,
put us in our right mind, and brought us to a place where we could assemble and
just praise You and Your holy name.
Thank You, God, for all the good and perfect things that You’ve done for
us, God. We thank You for all the things
that You have brought us through. And,
at this time, we ask for a blessing on the reading of Your Word, God, as You
have said, that it would not return unto You void, but would surely accomplish
that to which You sent it. God, we ask
that Your messenger would stay out of the way, and that Your message would take
full and center stage. For we present
ourselves to You and we know that You are able to do exceeding abundant above
all that we ask or pray. This we do pray
and claim in Jesus’ name. And everyone
said, amen. A beautiful time to come into the
house of the Lord and worship Almighty God.
We started off this month, our first message of this month was an Easter
message, and it was titled, “All Hail.” In that message, we talked about to whom is
the Arm of the Lord revealed? and then we asked the question, why would God
send His arm here anyway? Why would He
send His Arm here, anyway, to be bruised and to be beat and to suffer all
manner of rejection, and to be spat upon?
His Arm, His Arm. Why would He do
all that? We’re able to answer that
question: He did it for us; He did it because He loves us. Our second message of the month
was from Brother Jesse, as he asked the question, “How far are we willing to go
for love?” He mentioned you have to be
willing to give for love, and that we are an example of Christ—so we have to be
willing to show the love that Christ showed, for if we don't show it, then they
won't know it. And, the message last week, from Brother
Chris Ulrich, he talked about representations of God's love. He talked about, do
I believe God loves me? Does my life reflect God's love? And then he talked about, is the love of God
in my life stronger than the worst hate? There’s a lot of talk about love
this month, but, the truth is, there isn’t enough talk about the love of
God. It’s seamless. And, as we’re going to get into the message: Part 1: Give
Love On the first point of this
message, I thought, “Hey! It would be real simple! We could talk about, ‘When we receive love,
give love,’" but, you know, that falls short of the mark. And then, I thought, "As we receive love,
give love," and that, too, fell short of the mark. Because, you see, I came to the understanding,
as we all do, that God didn’t put any conditions on His love. When God poured out His love, it was without
stipulation; He poured out His love, anyway.
And, you know, the truth is, when He didn’t put a condition on His
love—because, the ‘if-then’ relationship, if you this, then I will that,
that might exist for several things; it might exist for different things as far
as access, it might exist as far as His kingdom, it might deal with things as
far as the precious spiritual gifts; if you, then I will this. It might deal with repercussions, and things
like that, but it does NOT deal, it does not include the love of God. The love of God came regardless of
circumstance. You know, the love of God
has really put up with a great many things.
And, sure, sure, God desires that it would be reciprocated. He desires that we would give love back to
Him. God desires that this love thing
would be a two way street, but He didn’t put that stipulation on it. He didn’t say, “Unless you love Me back, I’m
not going to love you.” He didn’t do
that. He loved us first. And His love has put
up with many things. It has put up with
rejection, it’s put up with frustration, it’s put up with acclimation, it’s put
up with misunderstandings, it’s put up with contempt, it’s put up with many
things, and, yet, the love of God stands sure and true in our lives. Some of us know, some of us know, honestly,
truly—thank you for sharing, Brother Rob—some of us know that the love of God
had dig us out. We weren’t looking for
it; it found us. And, even when we were
fighting and scratching and kicking and moaning and groaning, and trying to run
away from love, the love of God is that all-enveloping thing to surround you
and bring you to that loving self-same God.
Some of us know that for a fact.
Yes, the love of God has had to deal with ignorance, it’s had to deal
with frustration, and still it remains more powerful than all that we have, put
together. If we could go to that same
scripture that you read, Brother Mike…
You know, there’s one thing that I’ve noticed about the love of
God: I’ve seen in the Bible where we can
fall short of grace; the Bible says that you can fail the grace of God (Hebrews
12:15), but not His love. His love is
truly unrestricted. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 Charity
suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself,
is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not
easily provoked, thinketh no evil; These
days, when you say charity, you think of a charitable organization. When you say charity, you think, “Somebody
has to be poor in that relationship.”
Charity is not looked at as a great word; it’s looked at as somebody who
is greater giving to somebody who is lesser.
That’s—when we look at charity nowadays, that’s what we see. ‘Charity’ isn’t used on an equal-par
relationship. So, therefore, it doesn’t
get used a whole lot unless somebody is over something else. You know, some people are going to give, and
they don’t expect to get anything back.
So, people go and spend time, and they’ll say, “Oh, well, I’m doing this
because I’m giving it to charity.”
Charity’s like, “Oh, that. One of
those things.” That’s how charity is
looked at now. But, back when God gave
charity, there wasn’t no big misunderstanding about it; we knew who was the
greater, and how He was giving it to the lesser, to us. We knew we didn’t have what God wanted to
give to us, yet He gave it, anyway. Yea,
the first real, honest, and true loving.
And it was not nothing to look down on.
It was not anything—that’s why it says charity, here, instead of love. Love, you hear about that, and you think
about a two-way thing. But charity, what
God gave, He knew He was giving to someone who could never give back as much as
He was giving to them. 1 Corinthians 13:6-8 Rejoiceth not in
iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: [Hallelujah!
Never faileth!] but whether there
be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease;
whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. Some time ago there was a book written—a
really good book—it’s called, “The Five Love Languages.” It talks—I read the book, and, you know what?
it is really—you don’t have to be in a relationship to really have that book
minister to you. It talks about how to
minister, how people receive things; really, there’s a whole bunch of stories
that go along with it. But it talks
about how there’s five particular languages that people respond to. People respond to words of affirmation; if
you give them good words, some people, that makes up their whole life. “Tell me, just flatter me. Tell me how much you appreciate me. Tell me how much you love me. Then, after you get done telling me, tell me
again.” And, some people, they respond to gifts. “Give me something; I don’t care what it
is. It could be a pencil sharpener or
something, just give me something.
Then I know that you’re thinking about me.
You’ve just got to give me something.
Give me, give me, give me.” And
it talks about time, quality time. Some
people respond—you can give them gifts, and you can tell them words, but if you
don’t spend time with them, they can’t hear that you really care for them. If you’re always too busy, then they can’t
hear that, they can’t respond to that, and the only thing they hear
communicated to them is that you really, really don’t value them. And then, it also talks about acts, acts of
service. Acts of service, doing
things. “You might give me a gift, but
if you don’t wash the dishes, then I don’t see the love.” So, it talks about acts, just doing something
for them. I don’t know if I have time to
tell the story, so I’m not going to tell it.
I heard the story; I read the book, and in the book, it talked about
this couple. This couple walks into this
pastor’s office, and the he said, “Hey, buddy,” and the wife says, “I can’t
stand this man. I’m up to here with
him. It’s over. It’s OVER.”
The man said, “I can’t wait for you to leave.” So, the pastor says, “Come on in tomorrow,
let’s have a talk. We’ll have a
talk.” After their bickering back and
forth for a while, the pastor said, “Okay, okay, okay, okay. Let’s hear what the real problems are.” And, he said, “Okay,” to the wife, “you
first. Why don’t you tell me what the
problems are?” And the wife sad, “He doesn’t listen to me. He never listens to me.” And the husband turned around and said, “Hey,
I hear everything you say.” The wife
says, “He never listens to me. You know
you don’t.” The pastor said,
“Okay.” He turned to the husband, “What
do you have to say?” He said, “Well, she
never does anything.” And the pastor
said, “Well, if you had your druthers, how would you like things?” And the wife said, “If I had my druthers, I’d
like for my husband to listen to me.”
The pastor said, “Well, husband?”
And he said, “If I had my druthers, I’d like my wife maybe to run my
bath water, every now and then. Maybe
cook me a meal.” The wife turned round
and said, “You run your own bath water and you cook our own meals. I don’t know why you need me to do
that.” The pastor said, “Couple, for two
weeks—just two weeks—husband, every time your wife talks to you, you are going
to put down the paper, turn down the TV, and you are going to physically look
at her. You will look at her until she
finishes speaking, and you will respond.
And, wife, not every day, but twice a week—twice this week and twice
next week—you’re going to run your husband’s bath water. And, three times a week, you’re going to cook
him breakfast. How’s that? Three times this week, and three times next
week.” Well, the pastor expected to see
them again in two weeks, but he didn’t see them. It went on for a month. Finally they came to him, and they said,
“Hey, we’re going on our second honeymoon.
We never knew it could be this good.”
The pastor said, “The problem wasn’t that they didn’t care for each
other, the problems was that they couldn’t hear each care, because they were
speaking different languages.” I told
this story to my sister and her husband as we were going to do a little
shopping, and my brother-in-law said, “Oh, so what you’re saying, Parrish, is
if you do things for your wife, you are communicating with her, and you’re
showing love, and that’s how you receive love, so if she were to do things for
you, too…” And my sister perked right
up, because she caught it. “Oh, oh, oh,
you’re telling me I’m not speaking your language. You want me to do some more things for
you. Yeah.” And that’ the love language story. So, it’s interesting how—it mentions five—and
it’s really good; it’s really good. So,
you have words of affirmation, you have quality time, you have acts of service,
you have gifts, and you have the fifth one, was touch. Some people feel like, “If you don’t give me
a hug, if you don’t shake my hand, you flat-out ignored me. If you don’t give me a little bit of
contact… I respond to that. Mothing overboard, of course, but I respond
to that.” You can find that that is true
in some people. This will pretty well
match up. But I think this list is a
little bit incomplete, because it didn’t include food. It should include food. I’m just saying. Anyway, this book came out in the eighties or
nineties or whatever. Great book. But, it didn’t match the book that came
before it. The book that came before it
was God’s book. God wanted to show us
how he communicates love. God said, the
Lord said, “If you love Me,” how do you show your love? “If you love Me, keep
my commandments.” (John 14:15) “Hear, O
Israel, thou shalt the love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind,
and strength.” (Mark 12:29-30) “If you
love Me, keep My commandments.” I can
show You I love You by keeping Your commandments. Then He said, “I already am telling you that
I’m showing you how I love you. I’m
showing you because, no greater love hath a man than this that a man would lay
down His life for His friends.” (John 15:13)
No greater love hath a man than this that a man would lay down His life
for His friends. So, in titling part 1, which we
actually just went over, the title is, “Give Love.” Without condition, without stipulation, God
gives love. As much as lieth within you,
give love. Part 2: Don't Give
Up On Love. For this we need to go to Psalms
145. This is an awesome verse. Very beautiful verse. Very small verse, and yet very key Verse. Psalms 145:9 The LORD is good to all: and His tender
mercies are over all His works. The Lord is good to all, and His
tender mercies are all His works. You
know what? God is good to bad
people. God is good to liars. He’s good to thieves. God’s good to people who don’t deserve
it. God is good to all of us. God is good to all of us. But His tender mercy, His tender mercy, His
affectionate love is over all His works.
It’s over, it’s above, it’s higher, it’s greater than all His
works. I see some of our newborns in our
congregation today, and what is more beautiful than a newborn? What is more beautiful, more precious than a
newborn child? And yet, the love of God
is over that. You know, when you walk
out and you see a meadow or a forest, and a real brilliance of color—it’s
springtime, you should see… well, I think it’s springtime; around here you
never can tell. The calendar might say
that… But you see the greenery and
colors out here, vibrant, and it’s like, how beautiful, and you realize that
His mercy, His affectionate love is over even all the beauty of the
forests. And you feel the greatness of
the sun and how it rests in the sky and it gives light and brilliant. So brilliant, you can’t stand to look at it
for too long because your eyes just can’t handle it. And it gives, and it shines, and it gives
light and life, and yet his mercy is over even the brilliance of the sun. In this solar system, we have planets and the
sun and moons and in this galaxy we have several solar systems, and yet His
mercy, His tender mercy is over all of His works. How glorious that love of God is. I'm the type of person that makes
a lot of mistakes—and some of my mistakes, I should know a lot better—so I’m also
the type of person that needs a lot of forgiveness. I'm the type of person that
needs a lot of long-suffering. I'm the
type of person that gets frustrated, sometimes.
Sometimes I get lazy, hardhearted, and sometimes, sometimes I just don't
know what's wrong with me. Something is
just going on and, hmmmm, I don’t
know; I can’t put my finger on it; I don’t know when it’s going to be over,
but, right now, I just don’t know. I’m
just that type of person. If I'm honest,
that’s me. And you know, the truth is,
God knows that. He knows how I am. He knows the intricate parts—He knows my
triggers. He knows how long I’m going to
go. He knows when I’m fixing to get
up. He knows when I’m fit to be
tied. God knows all that, and His tender
mercy is over all of that. The Bible
says that He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or pray
(Ephesians 3:20). Above what we would
ask. Above, greater, more abundant than
we could think in our little minds. He
is able to surpass everything that we could think, and everything that we could
pray. A brother was telling me—we study
together sometimes—this brother was telling me, “I just can’t let the Song of
Solomon go. It’s been coming in my life,
and it’s rich! Oh, I love it so much.” I’m going to thank that brother for just
studying with me, and fellowshipping, and talking. It’s good stuff. We hardly ever go here. Those pages might not be all that worn. Song of Solomon 2:1-4 I am the rose of
Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As
the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the apple tree among the trees of the
wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I
sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my
taste. He brought me to the banqueting
house, and his banner over me was love. I am the rose of Sharon, and the
lily of the valleys. I went to look up—I
looked it up several times; never could get a specific answer—I went to look up
the rose of Sharon. Never could get a
definitive answer, and there’s a reason I couldn’t get a definitive answer. It says the land of Sharon was off the
Mediterranean. It was a very fertile
land, a land full of life. It wasn’t
very big, but it was a land full of life and fertility. It must have been gorgeous. The scholars were debating, “Well, if it was so
full of fertility and life, what could it have been that Solomon was talking
about? What could have been, when he
said that, in speaking, or writing down, or translating, or copying from the
Lord that He is the Rose of Sharon?
Which one of these flowers does it compare to? We don’t know! We think maybe this one, we think maybe that
one…” But, the truth is, they were looking for a flower on the outside, and,
the truth is, that God was expressing, “Hey, the land of Sharon—that land that
is so fruitful, and so full of life—that land is in you, and I am the Rose, I
am the beauty of that life that’s inside of you. I am the blossom that exists inside of
you. I am the lily…” Notice it says the lily in
the valleys. One lily of many
valleys, because the Lord was showing us that in our lives we may have many
valleys, but He is always going to be the lily. The beauty, the fragrance, the life. He is going to be that which sets apart the
valleys rom that which brings forth hope in our lives. He is the lily of the valleys. Then, this in verse four—great God
Almighty!—verse four says He brought me to the banqueting house. He brought me to the banqueting house. Whenever we hear banqueting house, we think,
“Man, it must have been awesome!” I can
imagine a huge table and all manner of bread, and fruits, and meat, and
cheeses. It was bright, and it was
festive! There was many people there,
and it was so full of life and sustenance and food. He brought me there. He brought me to a house like that where it
was full of sustenance, and things that would provide for me, things that I
would delight in. Hey, well, that sounds
like around here. Yeah, that’s where God
has brought me. We have to look at the
banqueting house that God has brought us to: the banqueting house of joy, and peace, answers. The banqueting house of love, and
longsuffering. The banqueting house of
non-judgmentalness. The banqueting house
of comfort. The banqueting house of
comfort. The banqueting house of
brothers and sisters. The banqueting
house of eyesight, and hearing, and speech.
The banqueting house of His presence.
The banqueting house of His Word, His truth that sets everything
apart. Loving His truth in the
banqueting house. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
That’s the banqueting house that God has brought us to, and the table is
spread, amen, in our lives, every day! And the last part of that says, and His
banner over me, His banner over me was love.
It says there’s a sign over your life, over all of it. God puts a sign over you, He puts His ID over
you. God puts His description over you, and it reads love. So, when God sees
you, He sees love. His banner over us is love. This is where God has brought us
into. I heard this song recently, and it
was awesome—awesome! I think it went
along with this whole month, the message that God had for me in that song. In the song, they say at one point, "God
If you provide the fire, God I will provide the sacrifice/ Lord, if you provide
your Spirit, I will open up inside, fill me up God–less of me and more of You.”
Sometimes, you know, sometimes that has to be our prayer. That has to be our
prayer, even though our flesh might be saying, “Well, God, I don’t know if I’m
ready for You to fill me up. I don’t
know. God, You know, if You fill me up,
some things might have to leave, and it might not ever be the same. God, I don’t know what’s going to happen if
You fill me.” There’s an answer for
that: Fill me up anyway! Bless me anyway! Shake me up anyway! God, if I’ve got some more corners in my
life, then You need to jut press it in!
Press it in! Fill me up, God, because I know, after you fill me, it will
be greater than ever before. Fill me up,
God; less of me, and more of You. Part 3: Be
true to love. 2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not
given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. We've all heard some people say from
time to time, “You know, when I look into the Bible, it gives you that whole
fear thing. Fear, and judgment. That’s why I don’t like looking in the
Bible. It’s always about fear and
judgement, and I can’t handle that stuff.”
We’ve heard people say, “Christians, they don’t even know what their
religion is based on. It’s based on a heavy-handed God who’s smacking them with
a stick. Pointing out all your
faults! They need to know!” Yeah, as if Christians didn’t know all
that. But the Bible says here, that He didn’t give
us that spirit of fear, He has given us the Spirit of power, and the Spirit of
love-- the Spirit, mind you, the Spirit of power, and the Spirit of love, and the
Spirit of a sound mind. Power being, you know, power means the ability; the
power means, specifically, the Spirit of ability and meaning, strength and power,
and, yes, it also means work. He has given us the Spirit of work. That all sounds drudgery. That almost sounds like a negative
connotation, because we get tired of work.
But, it’s not the world’s work; it’s God’s work. He’s given us the type
of work that means something. The type of
work that lasts, and is written down. The type of work that God acknowledges. That’s
the type of work that God gives us. And the Spirit of love—yeah, love—affection,
charity, the Spirit of; the Spirit a love feast. God’s given that to us. The Spirit of a lovefeast. And, you know, sometimes you might
think, “I really don’t want to get outside the will of God. I’m afraid to! And that’s fear!” No, not really. Because the Bible says he’s also given us the
Spirit of a sound mind. A sound mind.
Good judgment, discipline, self-control. That’s the Spirit He’s given
us. Being able to know the
difference. The Spirit of a sound mind. So, if we ever find ourselves not having
enough of this power, this love, this sound mind, what can we do? What can we do if we want more? The Bible
says simply, “He will withhold 'no good thing from them that walketh uprightly.”
(Palms 84:11) “I want more power, more love, more discipline, more
self-control.” Walk uprightly. And then, there's one more thing we can do. We
can ask, “God, I need You more. More in me. More of You in me, and less of me
in me. That’s what I need.” All we have
to do is ask. Had the chance—I’m about
to wrap up here—had the chance to be with a few of the teens a couple of weeks
ago, we were having a fellowship teen meeting, and we decided to watch a movie. The movie—I’d never heard of it before,
actually, but it was actually kind of a decent movie. The movie was about some people who missed
the Rapture-it was about what it would be like to miss the Rapture. It was a
decent movie, there wasn’t none of that goofy—well, it’s not like anybody
knows; it’s intent was well, not some of the other things. But, one of the
things that was in the movie that stood out to me, there was this one part
where, all of the sudden, all of these people were dead, gone, you know, and
the people that were left behind, they were trying to figure out what had
happened; what just happened. Was it an alien invasion, or what? A few of the
people figured out what it was pretty quickly, and they said, “Well, I think
that what that was, it was just the Rapture.
You have to look at the people who are gone.” There was one young lady
who said, “The Rapture? No, it wasn’t.” She said, “I went to church with my
parents all the time! I did everything right! Why would I miss the Rapture?” Very
thought provoking question, but it led to the premise that maybe you should
have asked that question before now. Anyway, I have a little experience
on that myself. Some years ago I was out
at—we had a church office out on O'Plaine Road. Well, one evening I was going out
there to take care of some business, and, normally, it was always manned, and
they had several people in there to work, the treasurer, the church secretary,
all those people, the music department, all that stuff. I was going out there one night, and, as I
was preparing to turn in to the driveway, there was this car came out at
blistering speed, it was like, screech, vroom! I was thinking, “What’s wrong
with him? What’s wrong with him? That ain’t no testimony driving like that! I’m
going to make sure somebody speaks to him; that wasn’t right.” And, as I drove
around—I drove around because we always used the back door for the entrance—and
I drove around to go in the back door, and the back door was locked. I thought,
“That’s strange, because the back door was never locked. Everybody knows that
this is the way we get in and out. All right, so, no big deal, I’ll just go
over and knock on the window, and somebody will come over and let me in.” As I
went over to knock, these great big picture windows, and you had the music
department, and the office here, and you had the big main office over here, and
you had the foyer, and all of that, and it looked like all the computers were
on, the telephones were ringing, coffee was still hot, it looked like all the
papers were all there, and the people were gone! I was thinking, “Why ain’t
these people on their job? Why ain’t
these people on their job? Something’s going on, and I need to get to the
bottom of this.” And I asked myself, “Why would all these people be gone right
now? Why ain’t they on their job? And what’s wrong with that guy? Why is this
door locked?” and a thought came to mind, "What if you missed the Rapture?"
and I thought, "ungh-ungh. I didn't miss the Rapture. No way. Why would I
miss the Rapture?" As soon as I asked that—shows you how faithful God is—as
soon as I asked that, all these things came to mind: people I hadn't forgiven,
things I hadn’t repented of, and it came in a string of abundance; these were
reasons why. Then I experience the fear of the Lord. It was a couple more minutes
later when somebody finally did show up. But the experience was duly noted. It taught
me not to take my Christianity, my Salvation, the presence of God, it taught me
not to take it for granted. Not to wash over, not to make it simple to settle for
anything. Amen, amen. And I can say, “Oh, my goodness!” So, our Scripture for this, and
our last scripture is: Malachi 3:16-17 Then
they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened,
and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that
feared the LORD, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be Mine, saith the LORD of
hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man
spareth his own son that serveth him. Hallelujah. Give the Lord a praise.
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