“A Lesson in Love” By Brother Parrish Lee October 8th,
2017
Oh,
great God in Heaven. You may
be seated, Saints. If, sometimes, I appear like I'm just newly saved,
can I be
honest, that's how I feel. This whole thing, it’s not tired and worn
out to me.
If it's tired and worn out to you don't leave before we visit this
altar.
Because, though our outward man perish, the new man is renewed day by
day (2
Corinthians 4:16) according to His Word and the Lord made us a promise,
"Behold, I make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5) That's the God that
we
serve. And to me, I feel like it was just yesterday I got saved. Yeah,
I've
been through a few things here and there. But, it's so
fresh, and He's such a present help. I remember, I remember, and,
no, this ain't the message. Well, ok, this will be part of it. I won't
go longer.
But I remember, I remember the hole, the pit from which I was dug
(Isai51:1)ah .
I remember what I was wrapped up into, I remember, and there was a long
list,
if I'm honest. I remember being an idolater. I remember going after
people who
would name the name of Jesus and call Him Lord and Master, and I would
make it
my business to rip them up. I would come with such a fury, so, why
would God
save me? Why would God allow the joy of his Gospel, the peace of His
Spirit?
Why would God choose somebody like me? Why? Because, for God so loved
the world,
every single one of us. He knew what we were into, and He loved us
anyway, it
wasn't about us loving Him, it was about Him first loving us. It's
still there,
it’s still new, it’s still fresh. It's a vibrant thing. As the singers
were
singing this morning, I couldn't stop—Normally I don't join the singers
on the
days that I have the message, but they were singing What a Mighty God
We Serve.
How are you going to sit down? How are you going to stay seated? How
are you
going to hold it in, when you're talking about a Mighty God we serve?
How are
you going to hold it in? I couldn't hold it in. I couldn't hold it in.
He's
been mighty to me—I would say all week—but He's been mighty to me for
fifty-six
some odd years. fifty-six years. He's been that kind of good to me.
That He's
been that good, even when, especially
when I don't deserve it. Yeah, He’s a mighty God, the Mighty God I
serve. So,
good morning, everyone.
Welcome to Christian Fellowship Church of Great Lakes. So many things
are
happening. You know, so many things are happening on both sides. You
know, so
many things are happening, and you can see, it looks like that's a
downer over
there, and there's so much going on over there. It's like wow, there's
so much
potential, there's so much going on, we could move. But we have to
realize in
every situation God is in control. God is in control when we let Him
be. Amen. Last
month, we had a wonderful
time in the Word. And this month we actually are talking about love.
Family
love and our Scripture theme for the month. I'm going to ask Brother
Todd, if he
would come up here, Todd Bostwick, if he would come up, and we're going
to ask
him to read from the book of John, chapter thirteen, verses thirty-four
and thirty-five. John 13:34-35
A new commandment
I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye
also
love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my
disciples,
if ye have love one to another. Our
theme for the month, that’s our
theme for the month. And
I do have just one
announcement to make; it didn't make the announcements. But, this
Wednesday is
our congregational worship. And this Wednesday, it's actually going to
be a
Bible study. And the Bible study is going to be the gifts and callings
of God;
what is our purpose? What is our purpose? But,
I must give honor and glory
to God who is the Head of my life, first, the Head of our life, our
Maker, our
Creator, our Sustainer, Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, and lover of
our souls.
He who makes the way out of no way. He who is the all lasting, all
caring, all-knowing
God. God, to give honor to Him to thank Him for all He’s done. And give
honor
to all those who have gone before us to our founding pastor, he and his
family
to our pastor, who was here last month, he and his family. And all
those who
have come and stood in the gap to make up the hedge. And, giving honor,
at this
time, to all of y’all, who present yourselves before that same God and
say,
"Lord, feed me. Give unto me that, which may be nutritious in our
lives,
that I might go forth to do more for you.” And,
and as we went over this, I'd
like to read it one more time before we have prayer. John 13:34-35
A new commandment
I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye
also
love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my
disciples,
if ye have love one to another. Could
we bow our heads for just a
moment? Almighty God, how can we thank You enough? When You do what You
do over
and over. God, it just seems so frail what we give unto You that which
we have.
To say thank You, and to praise You, and to lift You. For God, You are
the Giver
of all good and perfect gifts. We thank You for these things, Lord. We
thank You
for our time of worship today, to put You above everything else, to
give You
the praise that is due unto You, glory and honor, and benevolence. And,
Lord,
we come to this part of the service where we come before You, and we
ask that You
would add a blessing to the reading and the instruction of your Word,
that it
would not return to You void, but would accomplish that to which it was
sent,
that it might nurture us, that it might nourish us, God, that it would
feed us
as You would have it to do. Lord, that it would provide leading and
guiding and
answers to our lives, that it would be a sustainer and a strengthener
in us.
And God that it would provide that You and I could have a closer walk
from here
on. Because, God that's what we want, we want to be closer to You. We
want to
be more tight, more right with You Almighty God, and we just can't
thank You
and praise You enough. So, we come give You praise, thanks honor and
glory this
we pray and claim in Jesus name and everyone said, amen. Amen. So,
the title of today's message,
could have gone so many ways with this. The title of today's message
is: A
Lesson in Love. A Lesson in Love. And I'd like to read this just one
more
time.: John 13:34-35
A new commandment
I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye
also
love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my
disciples,
if ye have love one to another. A
new commandment. The Lord says, a
new commandment. And we're familiar with the other commandments that
had come
down, the big spectacle that was made, they were on a mountain. Moses
alone
could walk up, Joshua could walk a little ways, but Moses was the only
one that
was called to walk all the way up to receive the commandments to guide
the
people, so that they could know that they walked in God's ways. A new
commandment, He says, that we love one another, and as we look into the
New
Testament, over and over, we see this to be a theme that keeps coming
up. Over,
and over, and over, this love thing. This love thing. And, I say, a few
years
ago, Pastor Paine, he had actually given us a word and he said, you
know, when you
are in your life and you have things related to your life, you are
going to
find that the things in your life that relate to Christ begin with
love. It
starts with love. This whole life in Christ, this whole relationship,
the
things of the Lord, they start in love. They begin in love. But, if
we're going
to be a follower of the Lord, if we are going to be a follower of the
Lord, we realize
that we don't stop at the beginning. Love does not stop, which is our
first
point, here, love does not stop at the beginning. From the Book of
Luke, if I
could ask Brother Rob Severance to come. From the book of Luke chapter
eight,
and we're going to read verses one, two and three: Luke 8:1-3
And it came to pass afterward, that he
went
throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad
tidings of
the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him, And certain women,
which had
been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out
of whom
went seven devils, And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and
Susanna,
and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance. Thank
you, Rob. If we were to go
to Luke, chapter seven, if we were to go to what precedes this in Luke
chapter seven,
if we were to go ahead, we would see the occasion just before this.
It’s the
occasion of the Pharisee who had the Lord coming over to his house.
And, in
that scenario, the Pharisee had the Lord coming over to his house, and,
of course,
the sinner woman. And, as we see, the story goes, the woman who, yes,
she
washed His feet with her tears, and she dried them with her hair. And,
then
there was Simon. And, so, that whole scenario, the Lord only asked one
question,
and, He asked it, after Simon had a certain thought that came up, and
He only
asked one question: as He presented a certain parable before him, and
He said,
"Who loves the Lord the most? Who really loves the Lord the most?” And
Simon said, "I suppose, I suppose him that is forgiven most. I suppose
the
one that was forgiven most,” and the Lord said, "Thou hast rightly
judged.”
And, who, the Lord says, "Who really loves Me? Who really loves Me?”
And,
of course, He said, "Thou hast, rightly judged,” when he said, "Who has
been forgiven most.” Now, in this scenario, the Lord wasn't passing
judgment.
In this scenario, there's just the two, there is the Pharisee and there
is the
woman. And, in this house, you know that the Pharisee had things
squared away.
The Pharisee, he was a religious man, and he had this great person
coming over
to his house, so, you know he pulled out all the stops. You know he
would have
had the best furniture; you know he would have had everything cleaned
and
decked out. And you know he would have had the best China, and the best
silverware. You know that he would have had all the best that he had to
offer. He
would have made sure his clothes were clean. He would have made sure
that only
the good friends were going to be around, so he wouldn't be
embarrassed. After
all, the Pharisee, he was preparing the way for this Great Guy coming
over, this
Teacher of the Holy Scriptures, this Healer Man was coming over. And
the Pharisee,
he had to have things decked out just right. And, I'm even sure that he
used
the proper language, but, with the sinner woman, it was different. And,
so, the
Pharisee, as he would have had the proper diction, and said, “It's so
wonderful
to have You over, Lord, God. Oh, Jesus, You Teacher of the Holy
Scriptures.”
I'm sure he would have used all the proper diction, but this woman,
this sinner
woman—and that's the only description that we’re actually given in the
Word, in
this scenario, was that the Pharisee said, "If this man knew, if He was
a
prophet, He would know what kind, what kind of woman this is, for she
is a
sinner.” The only description that’s given in the whole scenario is
that she is
the sinner that's on the scene. That's the only description that's
given, and
yes, we're talking about a lesson in love. But as the Pharisee decked
everything
out, and as the Pharisee pulled out all the stops, and he would have
made sure
everything was prepared for the Lord coming there. This sinner woman
just only
knew that He was going to be there. It wasn't her house; she couldn't
call
things out to be like she would have had them. And, all she knew was
that He
was going to be there and she needed to be around Him. So, this woman,
she
didn't pull out all the stops and all that; no, she just came and bowed
herself
down and she washed his feet with her tears. That's what we read in the
Scripture,
in the scenario preceding this one. And, we also read that she wiped
them with
her hair. Now, I've got five sisters, a mom and a step mom. Their hair
is kind
of a precious thing to them. You touch their hair in my family, you're
probably
going to get slapped. You're probably going to get slapped, and I don't
mean a
light slap, either. I mean you're going to have a mark left, because
their hair
is precious. And, the Bible says it was given to women for a covering.
It was
given, especially, to women for a purpose, but, she took the purpose
for what
it was given to her and she chose to use this something special that
was given
to her to actually wipe the feet of the One that she loved. She washed them with her tears, and she wiped
them with her hair, and, according to the Bible, she broke a box of
ointment
across them. And, so, she didn't come with flattering words, and she
didn't
come to make a big deal out of things, she didn't come to show that she
was
special. And, she didn't come for that great Teacher of the Holy
Scriptures, and
she didn't come for that Healer of the blind and everything, she didn't
come
for that Guy; she came for the one who was the Lord of her life. It
wasn't a
special guest to her; it was the one that she worshipped and loved. It
was the
one that she wasn't afraid to be embarrassed and humbled in front of.
It was
the one that she looked forward to. And they tell me that that box of
ointment
that she broke and put over his feet, they tell me that that was very
precious,
it was very expensive, when you look at the research, it says it was so
precious, it could cost anywhere from six months to a year's labor. It
was that
kind of precious thing that she chose to anoint the feet of her Lord.
And then
the Lord would say, "Well, who loves Me most? He who prepares, or he
who
shows love?” Now,
this is the difference between those that know that
they need a great God in their life, and those that think, "Basically,
I'm
not that bad. I'm pretty much all right. Compared to me, you know, as a
matter
of fact, if I say so myself, I'm pretty good.” Here is the difference
between
those who know they need the Lord, because they can't go any further
without Him,
and those who think that they're all right. Those who know that they
need the
Lord, you see how they give some thanks when He comes. But, those that
think
they're basically all right, you don't see them getting tremendously
thankful
about what God does for them, because, to them, it wasn't a big deal,
because they
are half-way all right, anyway. But, when you know that, "God, I can't
get
out of this, except you do it. God, I am in trouble. Lord, I've got
things in
my life that I can't handle.” And, when you know that God reaches for
his hand and
pulls us up out of that muck, and mire, that dirt. When you know that
your sins
that follow after you and you prayed and God took them away. Then, the
sinner
man, the sinner woman, the sinner person says, "Hallelujah! I’ll give a
hâlal to that God! He's not a
special guest in my house. I don't just set things up for Him. I just
stay
right where I am, and I worship Him, I give Him the praise, I give Him
the
glory, because He has shown that He, alone, is worthy.” That God, that
God. And
that God, alone, is worthy of all our praise. Now, when you know that
you
didn't get here on your own. And we could take it for granted, the fact
that we
opened our eyes, this morning. We could take it for granted, the fact
that we
got in a car, if we got in a car today. And the car, whether its paid
for or
not, it had gas in it, we could take all that for granted. We could
take it for
granted that we walked into a place where we could talk about King
Jesus, and that
is going to be the subject. We could take all that for granted. But,
you know
it wasn't just but so long ago, for me, that I would have looked at a
place
like this and thought, "They don't have nothing for me.” Because I
couldn't see the Lord that was in that place. And when God opened my
eyes and
shined the light of the glorious Gospel in, it's never just a light
thing.
Being able to come into his presence is everything for the Saints. He
clothed
us, put us in our right mind, and then He gave us something that the
world
doesn't have: That peace that passes all understanding. That love that
makes a
difference, that changes situations wherever we go. That Jesus, yeah,
that
miracle working Jesus. And, the difference, here, we have to highlight,
the difference,
here—and this isn't even the main message, but the difference, here, is
what
the Lord said about her. And if we were in Luke chapter seven, we would
see
what the Lord said about her. “Yeah, she, her whose sins are many, are
forgiven,”
and then, He said one thing, He said, "Because, because, because she
loved
much.” And if you look at the Scriptures, it doesn't say how much, it
just says
she loved much. But who did everybody see that she loved? Who did
everybody
know that she preferred above herself? Who did everybody see, that she,
with
her own actions, said, "This is the one who is so much more than even I
am,
He's worthy of any of my labors. He is worthy of my tears, and He's
worthy of
the very best that I have, to the very lowest part of Him.” Everybody
saw who
the love of her life was, right there. And the Lord said, "Her sins are
forgiven because she loves much, she loves much.” She never even said a
word
she just showed it. I firmly believe that, whether the Pharisee was
there or
not, as she would have done it. She just looked for the opportunity to
bring
her worship before the Lord. Point number
2: The Example of
Mary Magdalene The
example of Mary Magdalene. I’m
going to ask Brother Rob to come back up, and, this time, I'm going to
ask him
to read verses two and three from Luke chapter eight. We could easily
spend the
rest of the service talking about the first woman, because there's so
much in
the action that she did. But, we have to talk about this next one. Luke 8:2-3
And certain women, which had been
healed of
evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went
seven
devils, And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and
many
others, which ministered unto him of their substance. Thanks,
Brother Rob. And certain
women, and certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits. It
wasn't just
one woman, there were women that were
healed of both evil spirits and infirmities. Now, when it says they
were healed
of the evil spirits and healed of the infirmities, the evil spirits,
yes,
spiritually healed, emotionally healed, and the infirmities, the
physically
healed. And sometimes, sometimes those kind of go together. You know, I
mean,
if you encounter somebody who has a real bout of arthritis, you, you’re
going
to think they have an evil spirit that they're going through, I know if
it's me
and I am having a migraine, I'm just saying, "Get away, leave me some
time.” If I am having a migraine, I want the door shut, I want the
phone off
the hook, I want the shades pulled, no sound, nobody talking, I don't
even want
you breathing in the same room. Please, stop whatever you're doing,
please
stop. I don't know what it is, just stop. And, you would think that
infirmity
and that evil spirit are just the same thing together. Yes, so,
sometimes it
seems like that. But, the truth is from time to time when those things
happen, we
see that one of these examples shows us that, the Bible says that He
healed seven
devils out of Mary Magdalene, seven devils. It doesn't name the devils,
and
that's for a reason. It doesn't name what they were. You know why?
Because if
it would have named them, we could let ourselves off the hook. If it
had named
the seven devils that He healed out of Mary Magdalene, we could say to
ourselves, "Oh, He healed that one, and that one, and that one, but,
He, He
didn’t heal the one that I’ve got.” And we would tend to let ourselves
off the
hook, but the truth of the matter is, it didn't matter what the seven
were; the
Lord Jesus was on the scene. And He healed all of them. And seven, in
the Scripture,
is the number of completion. So, every infirmity that was there, was
healed out
of her. I
had a coworker that—actually Andy
knew him too. I just found out. I got a message from a friend who said
that our
coworker had died, he didn't work for us anymore, but he was forty-six
years
old. Forty-six and he died, and when we got the word my friend was
telling me.
He said yeah, he had talked with my ex-coworker's brother. And his
brother said,
"Yeah, our whole family. Our whole family is... What can I say? We're
all
addicts, we're addicts to something, we're all addicted to something.”
And he
said, "In our family, we've got people who are addicted to alcohol.
We've
got people who are addicted to drugs. We've got people who are addicted
to all
kinds of sexual things. We've got people who are addicted to gambling.
In our
family addiction just runs rampant through all of us.” And, he was
saying, he
just went on to name more and more and as my friend was telling me the
whole
story I thought, "Wow, and, if you were to name some of the addictions
there, you might get off track, and you might think, ‘He healed that
one, and
that one, and that one, and that one, and that one, but He didn't heal
the one
that I've got,’” and Mary Magdalene is the testament to say, yeah,
He'll heal
them all. He will heal them all, and I've got to have a sidebar on this. If
there is a devil that is after
you, the Lord Jesus is on the scene to heal you. If there is a devil
that has
been coming after you, there is the Lord Jesus who is here, to take
care of
everything. We must first take it to Him. He says, "Come unto me all ye
that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” That is a
promise.
That is a guarantee. You don't have to have an excuse for not having
victory. And,
yeah, it might be a thorn that you have, and you'll get relief as you
pray,
some of the thorns, some of the spirits, some of the battles, you have
to fight
off daily, and that's for a reason, that we don't get slack, and think,
"That's all cured I can go home and watch TV now.” It's for us to be
around the Lord. And, the testament here, the testament here is that
Mary
Magdalene had these ones healed, but there were these other women, and
He had
healed all of them. All of them had evil spirits, all of them had
infirmities,
and He had healed them, and the testimony was that after they got
healed what
did they do? They continued following the Lord. After they got healed,
they
didn't go home, make a ham sandwich, and sit on the couch, and see what
was on
the tube. After they got healed, they made it their business to be
around the
Lord Jesus. After they got healed, that became their business to be
around
Jesus. He didn't heal them for them to go back and do what they used to
do. He
didn't heal him to go back to their own ways He healed them that they
could have
new ways. Him, the giver of life. Part 3:
Everyone That Loveth
Is Born of God. You
might say, "Brother
Parrish, you've been talking a whole lot about women today. What about
the men?”
Well, the truth is, there is a woman that we can all be a part of: The
bride of
Christ. We are all in that woman, the bride of Christ, from the Book of
First John,
chapter four, verses seven and eight: 1 John 4:7-8
Beloved, let us love one another: for
love
is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
He
that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. Saint
John, the Apostle, Saint
John of Patmos, Saint John the divine, the disciple whom Jesus loved.
This one
turns around and says everyone that loveth is born of God. Every one
that
loveth and uses God's love is born of God. He asks us to bring love,
therefore,
into all of the situations, bring love into our fellowship, bring love
into our
home, bring love into every situation that we encounter, bring God's
love everywhere.
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, one towards another.
When I
first got saved, I noticed that a lot of people could quote a lot of
Scriptures.
Well, the people that I was around, were teaching me Bible studies. It
was just
amazing that people knew Scriptures in the Bible. They could, you know,
rattle
them off, and I thought, "Well, that's really neat. That's really
good.”
And that was one of the marks that I saw of Christians. And, then I saw
that
some could really sing, and other ones they could really worship. I got
really
emotional and I thought, "Oh, those are the signs of being a Christian.
You know, you worship, and you sing real good, and you can quote
Scriptures.
Those are the signs that will tell that you are Christians.” And I
never could
get a lot of peace with that. Because, here, the Scripture says that
they will
know that we are his disciples by our love, one toward another. If you
don't
ever know how to quote a Scripture, if you don't ever sing on the right
note,
and if you don't get the kind of happy that you might see other people
get, they
will know that we belong to Him by our love, one toward another. When
we are
able to minister to people who can't minister back to us, when we're
able to
love people who can't love us back the way we show love to Him, they
will know
that we are His disciples. And in chapter first, Peter chapter four
verse eight,
our last scripture: 1 Peter 4:8
And above all things have fervent
charity
among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Above
all things, above all things,
have fervent charity—godly love, godly love—have fervent charity, one
toward
another, have fervent charity among yourselves, I'm sorry, for charity
shall
cover the multitude of sins. Charity or godly love will cover the
multitude of
sins. I've got something between me and a brother, or me and a sister,
I've got
something between us. Oh, I need to bring charity into the situation.
If I
bring charity into the situation, if I bring God's love into that
situation, it
will cover the distance in that multitude of sins. “Well, you know, I
kind of
got this slack a thing going on here. I kind of got, you know, I kind
of want
to get a little rebellious.” But I need to bring charity into the
situation. If
I could bring God's love into the situation, then I can find resolution
from my
laziness and my slothfulness, and say, "You know what? I've got to get
back on track. I've got to get back on top of things.” He’s just loving
me like
that. “Well, I'm not able to show emotion and concern to people,”
because I
haven't brought enough charity. When I bring charity into the
situation, then
they will know, they'll know; it will cover a multitude of sins, and
they will
know that I am his disciple. And God tells us, as He said in the first
Scripture,
"A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, as I have
loved
you, that you love one another.” Amen. Give the Lord a praise.
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