0:13 This morning I want to speak about three things, [snorts] three important exhortations that are given in the Bible and which are not popular. Number one, 0:32 it's found in Romans 12 verse 11. Maybe we can read from verse 10. Be devote to one another in brotherly love. Give reference to one another in honor. Not lagging behind 0:49 in diligence or zeal, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. I think in the other translates it says don't be slothful. That's a good exhortation for all of us. 1:08 Don't be slothful. Don't be lagging behind in zeal. [snorts] Fervent in spirit serving the Lord. That's the first exhortation we want to think about this morning. Don't be sluggish. 1:26 And the amplified version it says be a glow burning with the spirit. Other places it says boiling. [snorts] And it says serve the Lord enthusiastically. You know Paul gave this exhortation to the entire church at Rome. Not just to 1:45 the pastors or church leaders. All Christians, all the believers are to serve the Lord enthusiastically. That is God's will for all of us. And if you obey this verse, it will change your life. 2:04 The word enthusiasm is derived from two Greek words yen which means in and theos which means God. So enthusiasm literally means in God or God in us. That's the truly enthusiastic person is one who acts and 2:23 speaks as though if you were possessed to control by God. And that is the whole purpose of Christian life. We should be so controlled by the Lord, so controlled by the Holy Spirit, soul inspired by the 2:40 word of God that you also become an enthusiastic person. You know on the day of Pentecost. See they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they were full of praise, full of power. They began to witness about Jesus. Peter, he did not preach from the laptop 2:58 as often I say. He spoke from the heart. It was spirit inspired. Steven spoke fervently. Barnabas and Philillip, they were all fervent in spirit. Paul 3:17 was full of enthusiasm from the day he got saved till his death. Apollos, it says he was fervent in spirit. Priscilla and Aquilla. And that's the kind of people the Holy Spirit produced in the first century. 3:35 It says with great power they gave witness about Jesus. They were all enthusiastic about Jesus about the gospel though they did not even have the written New Testament. Unfortunately today so many believers are lukewarm, 3:54 cold, sluggish, passive, average, dragging their feet. [snorts] Why is it that so many are lukewarm? Perhaps they are not gripped by the gospel. They're not gripped by the gospel of justification by faith. They've not yielded themselves to the 4:11 Lord holy. They've not given their body as a living sacrifice to God. And they're not walking in the spirit. And [snorts] that's why by the time you come to the end of first century, you find the church of Davidia, the Lord had to 4:25 say, you are not hot, you're not cold, you are lukewarm, no zeal, no fire, no enthusiasm. The Lord says I'll vomit you out. So many brothers and sisters today, they're satisfied. Oh, I got a good job. I got a good house. I got a good family. 4:42 I got a car. I can come attend the meetings and go. But spiritually they're lukewarm. I want to say this morning, lukewarmness is not acceptable to God. And lukewarmness is not acceptable to us in CFC. I feel sad when I see so many young 5:01 people. They're not zealous. They're not enthusiastic. They become lukewarm. [snorts] Will you say to yourself this morning? I will I'm not going to accept lukewarmness in my life. And number first thing you have to do is first you 5:20 got to accept you lost your zeal and enthusiasm for you lost your connection with the Lord. And that's the reason lukewarmness is certain and maybe you don't even know that you're lukewarm. Shall we all say together lukewarmness 5:38 is not acceptable to God all together. All those who don't who believe that lukewarmness is not is not acceptable to God acceptable. And will you also say I am not going to accept lukewarmness lukewarmness 5:58 in my life in my life. Once again all together I'm not going to accept going to accept lukewarmness lukewarmness in my life in my life. Okay. In Revelation chapter 3, the Lord told the church in Levia, those whom I love, verse 19, those whom 6:16 I love are reprove and disciplined. Therefore, be zealous. That's a good exodation for all of us. You know what is God's will for all of you brothers and sisters? Be zealous. Be on fire. Have enthusiasm. And if you lost it, go back to the Lord. 6:35 Lord have mercy on me. I become such an average, passive, dignified, respectable brother and sister in the church. You know, [clears throat] a survey was conducted regarding a mainline church membership list and they discovered this 6:53 about the people in the church. I'm not saying about you. 20% people never prayed. 25% people never read the Bible. [snorts] 70% never attended prayer meeting and 85% never witnessed to anyone about Jesus. 7:13 It's good to ask ourselves are you fitting in here? Of course, they all came to the meetings. They listened to the preaching, put money in the offering box and but they did not share the gospel with anyone. You know Jesus came to seek and save the 7:30 lost. That's the gospel to proclaim. Jesus came to save sinners. And brothers and sisters, if you're not enthusiastic about sharing the gospel with others, sharing the good news, the Apostle Paul always spoke about the gospel as good 7:45 news. I want to ask you this morning, do you have good news to give to others? You don't have good news to give to other. There's something fundamentally wrong in your life. Apos are so gripped by the good news. He say, I'm ready to 7:59 preach the good news. I'm eager to preach. He said he want to share the good news with as many as possible. [snorts] And I believe when you're not enthusiast to share God's word, God's the gospel with others, that's one mark that we are 8:15 cooling off. We don't have to be gifted. Every [snorts] one of us can share the gospel. I believe God has given us the Holy Spirit to ignite us so that we can have the fire of the Holy Spirit. But we can quench the spirit by walking after 8:29 the flesh, disobedience, compromise, worldliness. What a difference it will make to the church if each one of us [snorts] is zealous, enthusiastic, excited over Jesus and God's word and Christian life till the end of our life. 8:48 [snorts] You know when you're fervent in spirit, you love God with all your heart. You get rid of all idols in your life. The Old Testament reader about a man called Joo. Oh, he got rid OF ALL THE FALSE PROPHETS WHO worshiped Ba and 9:03 he said, "Come and see my zeal for the Lord." Last week we heard about Phineas. Phineas was so zealous. The Lord says Phineas was zealous for my sake. I want to ask [snorts] you, dear brothers and sisters, can the Lord say about you? 9:18 This brother, this sister in CFC, he's zealous for my sake. [snorts] I hope you'll get the testimony from the Lord. And [laughter] I believe if we are firm in spirit, we love God's word with all our hearts. The reason why so many are discouraged and 9:37 so many are poor spiritually is they're not digging into God's word, into God's treasures. And you know brothers and sisters the more enthusiastic you are to get into God's word you will become so spiritually rich and you will always 9:56 have treasures to give to others. So number one exhortation be fervent in spirit and if you've lost your ferveny I would say before you leave the meeting repent Lord I don't have fire in my heart. I don't 10:14 have zeal and enthusiasm. [snorts] Humble yourself before the Lord. It's very serious, brothers and sisters. The Lord says he will spit you out. That's the kind of brothers we want in the church. Those who are fervent spirit, enthusiastic about the gospel, 10:33 about the word of God, about Christian life, and those who serve the Lord enthusiastically. Okay. Number two, Peter was so gripped by this gospel. He said 1 Peter 4:E8 he said above all 10:52 keep firmament in your verse 8 1 Peter 4:8 above all keep firm in your love for one another because love covers multitude of sins you know what is the new covenant church one mark on new covenant churches people are fervent in spirit 11:11 And another [clears throat] mark of new covenant and church is they have fervent [screaming] love for one another. See 1 Peter 1:22 it says here since you have in obedience to the truth purify your souls for a sincere you love the brethren fervently 11:28 love one another from the heart in one episode he's written twice twice love one another fervently [snorts] you know when you love fervently the brothers and sisters you always defend the other you'll always justify the 11:46 other you'll always put a good construction. [snorts] When you don't love, you put the worst construction on the brother or sister. Oh, he's like that. I want to ask you this morning, how do you treat the brothers and sisters? What are your thoughts about 12:04 the brothers and sisters? Can you OVERLOOK ALL HIS FAULTS and failures and say, "He's a wonderful brother. She's a wonderful sister. Love things no evil. Love never gives up. Love bears all things. Love never fails. [snorts] 12:24 If you know to love, you're a good brother. If you don't know to love, you are not mature. Someone wrote in a good book, it's not worth living if you don't know how to love. All of us can manifest the love of Jesus to one another. That's a wonderful 12:42 ministry. says in Romans 5:5, the love of God is shared abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit [snorts] and you know the church consists of I think more than of the church consists of couples and if [clears throat] you have 13:02 wholehearted couples husbands and wives if they love each other fervently they will not have so much complaints against each It's [snorts] very sad that in many churches most of the couples are living 13:18 a average life. They say when they began their married life they say fell in love. I want to ask you this morning all those who fell in love. How is it today? Have you fallen out of love or can you say today I am in fervent love with my 13:36 partner? If you are in fervent love, you will not be meditating on all the faults and failures. Many times I hear the couples say, "Oh, he's like that, brother. She's like that." So difficult for husbands and wives to say some good words about each other. 13:55 I'm sorry to say many, many couples, they are not firm in love. It's not red hot boiling then you cannot entertain a bad thought about your partner about brothers and sisters. [snorts] 14:14 You know sometimes many wives remember what the husbands did 25 years ago. Such sharp, clever, remarkable memory they have. That's not the mark of love. However much Bible you know if you are not fervent in love if you don't know how to 14:34 cover the sins of the other people I want to tell you this morning I want to disappoint you you are not firmed in love you need to humble yourself and go to the Lord and say Lord teach me this basic lesson Lord in my Christian life I 14:47 want to say the church needs husbands and wives who are firm in love and many husbands and wives they have to repent radically go home today. Lord, how am I fervent in love? I don't want to have one complaint against my partner. I want to be so 15:06 thankful. I want to have good thoughts and good attitudes. And I want [snorts] to say you will contribute to the blessing of the church. Imagine more than 50 to 60 person sitting here. In Titus 2:14, it says we have to be 15:20 people zealous of good works. That means after we are saved and after we we become disciples, you have to be a zealous brother and sister. That's the mark of a new testament church. Okay. 15:34 Number three, third exhortation in James chapter 5 verse 16. The last verse, the fervent prayer of a 15:51 righteous man can accomplish much. First, you need to love Jesus with all your heart. And you will be zealous to get rid of idols. You'll be enthusiastic to follow the Lord and to love God's word and to share the gospel. Number two, you'll be 16:10 fervent in love. Number three, you will learn to pray fervently. [snorts] You know in Acts chapter 4 when the apostle were threatened, they came back [snorts] and they had a prayer meeting 16:29 and verse 24 onwards. Oh, they came back to the church and had a wonderful prayer meeting. You know most people never like to come to the prayer meeting and many times they pray in such a sleepy way they put others to sleep. That's not the 16:46 mark of a new covenant church. If you are fervor in spirit, fervor in love, you pray fervently. It says when they prayed, they were filled in the spirit. The place was shaken up. That's the kind of prayer meeting I want to be in 17:01 that we pray fervently and something happens. In Acts chapter 12, Peter was in prison. Verse 5, Peter was kept in prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church of God. That's the New Testament church. They 17:23 believed in prayer. They didn't know the police commissioner and director general of police or chief minister. They knew if they prayed, God will hear the prayer. No wonder God set Peter free from the prison. And uh brothers and 17:38 sisters, this is the privilege of every brother and sister. You know the one mark of the fact that we are backsliden is we pray in such a sleepy way and that's not God's will. Colossians chapter 4 verse 12. Here we read of a wonderful brother 17:56 called Ephas who one of your number born slave of Jesus Christ. It says here about him always laboring earnestly or fervently for you in his prayers that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. It doesn't say 18:12 here was a great preacher, great scholar. No, he was a man who knew how to pray and labored and kept on praying and praying and praying. I want to ask you brothers and sisters, have you thought about Ephesus? Have you ever 18:28 said Lord make me like Epherus? [snorts] You know there are so many needs in the church. Yeah, we thank God for those who clean the hall and wash the toilet. That's good. But I want to ask you, do you know to pray? Do you know to pray fervently? 18:43 [snorts] From today you can become a brother, a sister, get a connection with the Lord and pray for various needs in the church and the Lord will answer your prayer. And you know it says about St. James 5 16 19:01 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like us and he prayed earnestly that not rain and did not rain on the earth for 3 years and 6 months. Then he prayed again and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit. Jesus said we have to pray not to faint. 19:17 We have to be enthusiastic and fervent in spirit till the Lord comes. We have to be fervent in love till the Lord comes and we have to keep on praying fervently till the Lord comes. I hope here on year afterwards our prayer 19:30 meeting will be wonderful times [snorts] and David said if you regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me. So that's the reason you know if you want the lord to hear your prayer you can't have any casual attitude to 19:44 sin. You can't tolerate any sin because if you tolerate any sin in your life, the Lord will never hear your prayer. Apostle Paul learned to pray for so many churches. He kept on praying for many many churches. If you have a difficulty 20:02 in loving a brother, best thing to do is to pray. You pray for that brother and things will change. And I want to encourage all of us this morning. Think about these three things. Be fervent in spirit serving the Lord. 20:20 Ask yourself, how fervent are you this morning in your spirit? Are you zealous to love the Lord, to follow the Lord, to read the word, obey his word, to share the word? If not, humble yourself this morning. Lord, I 20:39 have backsliden to such an extent, I've lost the zeal and fire. And if you got complaints against brothers and sisters, I'm amazed and grieved to hear so many comments brothers make even about elder 20:58 brothers who have served the Lord faithfully for years. I want to tell you your condition is pretty bad. First ask yourself, have you grown up to love the brothers and sisters? If you don't know to love, you need to learn 21:16 ABCD in life. Oh, we want to be a church where we know to love and love and cover up the sins and faults and failures of other brothers and learn to appreciate, learn to value, learn to honor them and be firm with such love. 21:35 Ask yourself what are the temperature of your love. Is it passive? Hi brother. Or you say brother I love you. I wish the best for you. I want you I want you to grow in the Lord and I'll also exalt you. If you're wrong if you're going 21:50 astray I will tell you you are backsliden. You've lost your fire. [snorts] Do you have such brothers and sisters? Will tell you the truth straight on your face. Now just be nice. Nice. That's the mark of a brother who loves 22:05 you will come and tell you straight on your face you're not what you were before. You you have become such a cold lukewarm brother today. [snorts] You should be thankful if you have such a good brother [snorts] and if you lost your fence in prayer 22:23 some of you say brother I don't have a ministry. You can have a ministry of prayer. Oh brothers and sisters, let's repent this morning and say, "Lord, have mercy on me. I want the fire. I want the fire of the Holy Spirit in my life." That's 22:39 my desire till the last day of my life. I don't want to grow cold. I don't want to grow lukewarm. I don't want to lose my fire and enthusiasm for the Lord. [snorts] Will you say, "Lord, make me like that." And can you stir up the other brothers 22:56 and sisters in the church? Young people, I'm sorry to say many of you, you are not what you ought to be. The Bible says the glory of young men is zeal. All the young brothers and sisters ought to have a zeal for the Lord. 23:14 To live for the Lord, TO FIGHT SIN, TO FIGHT THE DEVIL, to obey the word of God, and not just be a respectable, quiet, silent brother. I want to say that's not God's will. [snorts] Just like as I said all the couples they 23:30 can contribute to the love of the church. All the young people can contribute to the zeal of the church. We want young people who are zealous for the Lord. And [snorts] we want brothers and sisters who are enthusiastic to 23:43 serve the Lord and to pray. You know you don't need a gift to pray. May God give us a heart of repentance and listen to what the Lord has to tell us. Be zealous and repent. I hope you would pray. Lord, from today 24:01 I never want to be a backsliden, cold, lukewarm, passive kind of a brother and sister. Lord, set my heart on fire. Give me grace. And you seek the Lord, the Lord will change you and make you like that. And even if you have only 25 people in 24:20 the church, I would rather have 25 people who are on fire for the Lord than have a big congregation who are compromises. May God help us, brothers and sisters. Shall we close our eyes and pray? Lord, we pray this morning that you will help 24:35 us to be amongst that small number of fervent, those who are fervent in spirit, those who know to love you fervently, those who can pray fervently, Lord. And we pray Lord that number will increase. We pray Lord you will give us 24:51 grace to be like that till you come Lord. And we want that number to increase Lord. Send a revival amongst us Lord. Help us mightily Lord. Heal us Lord Jesus. Touch us this morning in Jesus name I pray. Amen. 25:10 We read in Romans 12:11, be not slothful but fervent in spirit. You know in the early church slothfulness was considered 25:26 one of the seven deadly sins. And the word sloth comes from an a tree dwelling animal sloth. Some of you must have seen it on natio and animal planet. Now it is such a slow lazy animal 25:45 that I I read that it uh in captivity it sleeps from 15 to 20 hours in a day and uh its movement is so slow that in a day it moves about 26:04 125 ft roughly about 38 m in a day. That's one of the laziest animals that we have on this planet. And that's the word that the Bible uses. Don't be slothful like that. 26:22 Some young people are so slothful and so sluggish, so um lazy that they don't want to get up from the bed. Even on Sunday morning they want to just you know 26:41 sleep longer and miss the they would rather miss the meeting than miss their sleep. It's pathetic if you are one such God have mercy on you. It says in Leviticus chapter 6 verse 9, the Lord said, "Command Aaron 27:05 and his sons, saying, this is the law for the burnt offering. The burnt offering itself shall remain on the heart on the altar all night until the morning. And the fire on the altar is to 27:23 be kept burning on it. And verse 12, the fire, it shall not go out. Verse 13, the fire shall be kept burning continually on the altar. It is not to go out. 27:42 You know, sisters know it better. When you boil milk and you switch it off, when it comes to the boiling point and you keep it aside and you keep it for a day and another day, it turns sour 28:00 and you keep it aside for another two days, you'll see some worms in it. Have you seen that, sisters? Yeah, it happens. Try that and see. But the same milk, if you keep on 28:20 boiling every now and then, at least twice a day and keep it, you can keep it for a few days. But once it was boiling hot the first time, and then you kept it, it cooled down, then it turns sour, then it bread worms. This is what will 28:40 happen. Once upon a time, you may have been on fire for the Lord, but how is it today? If you're cooled off, it's only a matter of time before you see some worms crawling in it. Worms like jealousy, worms like backbiting 28:58 and so many such things. No, that's why the Lord said the equivalent of this verse in the new covenant is in Romans 12. By the mercies of God, I urge you, my brethren. Verse one, Paul says that you present your bodies as a living 29:16 sacrifice. What does it mean to give our bodies as a living sacrifice? That means we have to keep ourselves on the altar where the fire is all the time burning. How do we do that? In the old covenant, they used to cut up the 29:32 animals and the dead animals were put on the altar because that had no choice but to remain there and be burnt up. But in the new covenant, a live animal or live human beings like us. We are supposed to be on the altar. But we have a choice to 29:52 come out of that. When the fire becomes hotter and hotter, you have all the um liberty to get out, jump out of that. But we don't do that because we know the one who is in control of the fire, he knows how much you can bear. 30:11 And the meaning of that is that when you are tempted to sin, you want to look at something uh you want to feast on something that your eyes love to look at and the word 30:27 of God says shun it. And you obey God and then what do you do? You deny yourself there. Denying yourself is your sacrifice that you are making. 30:44 And when you deny yourself instead of looking at that or instead of speaking back to someone who has spoken to you rudely and give him back a piece of your mind, you want to die to that. 31:01 And you want to you don't want to let that dirty word come out of your mouth. You're dying there. That is being on the altar. And you are a living sacrifice there. That is what it means. [snorts] And how do I know 31:21 that I'm making progress in my Christian life? [snorts] It's not just coming to the meeting and saying hi and bye. on Sundays here. That's not that is not the test. The test is between Sundays how you are when you are faced with difficult 31:40 situations in the office or at home. We heard about being I mean remembering what happened 25 years ago. life partners. You have such sharp memory that your husband spoke like that or your wife spoke like that. 31:59 You remember 25 years ago in that house you spoke like this. You did this to me and you are so you know like these historians. You're so historical. And if you're so historical, it's only a matter of time before you become 32:19 hysterical. And it is true. And all those people who have not cleansed their past and not deleted their so-called emails mentally speaking and they still have it. And when the 32:37 time comes, they pick up that they go back to their email and dig that mail up and say, "See here, this is what you said. This is what you wrote." And you hold it against people like that. God will treat you exactly like that. That is scripture. 32:55 The Lord said, "Do unto others as you want them to do to you." If you are treating your life partner like that, God will treat you exactly like that because you are praying Lord forgive my sins as I forgive those who sin against me. And you have not 33:15 forgiven your life partner or whoever it is and you want God to forgive you. God will take you at your word. You prayed to me that I should forgive you just as you forgive or you didn't forgive and I will treat you exactly like that 33:31 according to your word and we and you will be surprised why God is not has not forgiven me and forgotten these things because you're not forgiven and forgotten. It's just righteous on God's part to do that to you. Exactly. 33:48 So how do I know I am making progress? I make progress or I know that I make progress is that the love of God is being shed abroad in my heart. Like we read in Romans 5 through the Holy Spirit even to the 34:07 worst sinner who has done harm to me. Like Jesus said to Judas, he called him friend even when he betrayed him. And do we have that attitude? Jesus said, "What what credit is there 34:26 for you if you greet only those who greet you? And if you love only those who love you, even the tax gatherers and the heathens and the pagans do that. In what way are you different? In what way are you different from them?" and call 34:42 yourself to be a son of the living God. That's what Jesus said in Matthew 5. 44. Matthew 5:44. He said, "I say unto you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you in 35:02 order that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. For he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous man's field and as well as the unrighteous man's field. For if you love those who 35:18 love you and re what reward have you? Do not even the tax gatherers do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly 35:37 father is perfect. Perfection in love. God is not asking you to be perfect in [snorts] some something that is beyond you. He's asking you to be perfect in love. How do we do that? We cannot do it with our own 35:53 strength. We read that by the power of the Holy Spirit who is shed abroad in our hearts. We love even our enemies. When we come to that place and give a 36:08 smile, a warm smile even to our enemies, even those whom we don't like or those who have hurt us and done damage to us. We give them a warm smile, not a weak or plastic smile. 36:27 We look them in their face and smile at them without anything in our heart but love. Then that is how I know that I'm growing in the Lord and making progress. May the Lord help us to come 36:44 to this kind of life so that we make progress and grow in grace. we heard right at the beginning that verse from Romans 12 verse 11. [clears throat] I want to read that from another 37:02 translation about being uh fervent in spirit. And in this translation there are four things that are mentioned. I thought we can uh look at them carefully because there is an order mentioned in in this 37:20 uh four things. It says be a glow. First stage be a glow. Second stage be on fire. Third stage be burning. And last stage be boiling. Serve the Lord 37:39 enthusiastically. So we can see here four stages of fire in our heart in our lives. The first stage is a glow. We are a glow with a a small fire from the Lord. But we can ask the Lord to take us to the next stage to 37:58 be on fire where our heart is slowly catching the fire of the Lord to be on fire and then we can ask the Lord to take us to the next stage to be burning. when our heart is burning with love and devotion to our Lord Jesus and then we 38:17 can ask the Lord to take us to the next higher stage of being boiling where all the dross and all the impurity in our heart has been burnt up. The heart is boiling out of a pure and sincere and passionate love for Jesus. That is the 38:37 place God wants us to come to. Brothers and sisters. That is the goal that we must all have. Today, this morning, I believe the Lord has spoken to all of us. It's good for us if we examine our life and see Lord, 38:55 which stage am I at this morning? And wherever we are, whichever stage we are this morning, we can ask the Lord to take us to the next higher stage. And this is the longing of God's heart. This is the desire of God's heart to take us 39:12 up to that next higher stage. His heart longs to do this for us more than anything else. If you reach out to him and if you honestly tell him where you are this morning, the Lord is faithful. He will lead us higher. You know in revelation chapter 2 verse 4 39:30 and 5 we don't have time we can turn but we don't have time to look at it in detail you know we read about one of the best churches Ephesus there's so many wonderful things mentioned in that uh in that verse the Lord commends them 39:45 appreciates them for so many good things they did uh as a mature church did but one thing that grieved the Lord We we know that we read that in verse four and five is that the church had 40:03 left their first love. There was a time when Jesus was everything to them. There was a time when Jesus was the passion and the desire of their heart. They did all that they did out of that love and passion. But slowly as the 40:19 years went by, the works were there, the things were there. But that that first love that pure love for Jesus had come down. And that is what grieved the heart uh of the Lord. And when the Lord writes to them, that's what he mentions to 40:37 them. Repent. Come back. I want to bring you back to first love. Repent. And this morning too, the Lord can uh do that for us, brothers and sisters, if we reach out to him. uh sincerely acknowledging the condition we are in. 40:55 The Lord can help us. I just want to uh quickly mention we don't have time. I just want to quickly mention one or two things that can keep us from coming into that fervent love for Jesus. Uh we can turn to John's Gospel chapter 2 and verse 17. 41:13 John's Gospel chapter 2:1 17. I'm reading from the Amplified Bible. This is the the first time that Jesus came to Jerusalem at the beginning of his public ministry and he and he cleansed the temple and Jesus took a whip and we know 41:27 he chased out the money lenders and those who were selling sheep and doves and when the disciples saw Jesus doing that his discip in verse 17 and his disciples remembered that it is written zeal for your house will eat me up. I 41:47 will be consumed with jealousy for the honor of your house. It was so obvious to the disciples when they saw the life of Jesus. And what Jesus did in the temple, it was so obvious to the disciples. Zeal for the Lord and the 42:03 house of the Lord has consumed him. That must be true about us too, brothers and sisters. When others watch our life, our wives, our children watch our lives, it must be true. They must be able to say like the disciples could say about Jesus 42:19 zeal for his house has consumed me that we must make that our goal all of us we can make that our goal you know I in I was reading a few verses ahead of that and uh I [snorts] was thinking one of the reasons that can stop us from uh from being uh fully 42:37 zealous for the lord we read uh in verse 16 then to those who sold the doves He said, "Take these things away out of here. Make not my father's house a house of merchandise, a marketplace, a sales shop." 42:57 You know, this this can be a reason, brothers and sisters. If in our heart there is a desire for profit, in our heart there's a desire for commission, for some side benefit when we come to the house of the Lord, that can stop us 43:12 from being fervent and on fire for the Lord. What Jesus said here, it spoke to me, you have made my house a sales shop. And if we have that attitude in our lives, the Lord cannot make us firmament of heart and spirit. And one more thing, 43:32 one last thing I want to share and end with that sometimes it is possible, brothers and sisters, that we may be upset with something or somebody or something that happened in the church and we can go into a period of being 43:45 upset and being uh [snorts] offended. We we read that about King Ahab in 1 kings chapter 20. I would encourage you to read that passage sometime uh uh verse uh chapter 20 and verse and 44:04 chapter 21. You know I I'll just give a a brief background. uh a pro uh a prophet had told the told king Ahab when he was going to fight uh against the king of Syria that it was the lord's will that he completely 44:23 you know completely uh destroys them but you know in the in the battle they destroyed the army and those who uh ran away the lord made a wall collapse on them and killed them and only the king was left but ahab spared the king he was 44:40 not supposed to spare the king, but he spared the king. And on his way back after the battle, a a prophet of God comes to him and asks him, "Because you have spared him, you will lose your life." And then because Ahab heard that 44:55 in verse 43, we read, "Ahab went to his house resentful and sullen, and he came to Samaria, his capital." That that word that the prophet had spoken had upset Ahab. It made him sullen. It made him have a 45:13 long face. And he came into his house. And that offense in his heart led him to the next sin. We read in chapter 21:1-5. The next sin. He asked Neabboth for his vineyard. And it was a law in Israel that a man who had inherited a property 45:30 from his father, the parental inheritance, he need not sell it. So Neabboth didn't want to sell it. But Ahab asked him for that vineyard. Neabboth said no. He again got even more offended and we read in verse four uh the same words [snorts] uh and Ahab 45:48 already depressed by the Lord's message to him came into his house resentful and sullen because of what Neaboth the Jeffrey had said to him I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers and he lay down on his bed turned away his face and would not eat 46:04 food we see here how if we allow offense If we allow something to upset us, how it can stop us from having that fervor for the Lord. Ahab was all upset. He was tossing on the bed. He turned his face 46:21 away and he would not eat food. Brothers and sisters, if we allow anything to upset us, if we allow some something or somebody uh or something somebody said to offend us, we can be like Ahab and we have we can lose 46:38 time. The Lord wants to all of us to be on fire for him to really burn with a fire that is from him. And if he can cleanse our heart of of these things that we just spoke about, the Lord can lead us higher and he can make every one 46:54 of us redot for the Lord. I believe the Lord is in our midst and if we reach out to him this morning, he will heal us and he longs to lift us to the to the higher ground and he will do that do that. May God uh help us to really reach out to 47:12 him this morning that he can be make us a church that is redh hot for the Lord. Amen. Praise God for what we heard. God is dealing God's dealing with us is full of love. You know we heard about the fervent 47:31 love. I was thinking the love is a motivating factor. Love is the driving force. You know when God came to us, he came with the love. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son. When we are filled with God's love, we 47:51 love one another. I believe that that it will help us. No, I was thinking about uh the word we read from 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 8, most important of all, continue 48:13 to show deep love for each other, for the love covers a multitude of sins. And I want to read in this context, verse 7, it says, "The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers." And 48:31 then verse eight it says most important of all continue to show deep love for each other and love covers multitudes of sin. I believe that uh Jesus said in Matthew 24:12 it says because [snorts] of lawlessness is increased most 48:49 people's love will grow cold and because iniquity abound the love of many will be waxed cold. That's what King James version it says. And I believe we are in the last days where the Lord is reminding us when we see around the lawlessness, the wickedness 49:07 that is growing and we God's people a love can become grow cold and it can go wax and that's why Paul writes to Ephesians Ephesians 3:16 and 17. I pray that the Ephesians 3:16 and 17. I pray 49:26 that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. And I pray that you be being rooted and grounded in God's love. I 49:43 pray that the Lord would give us a desire in our hearts to ask the Lord to that to be rooted and grounded in God's love so that that will overflow and we can love one another and we will be verse 18 it says able to comprehend with 49:58 all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth. God wants to do that. You know the restoration begins with love. When God met Peter, when he was failed thoroughly, he came to him to restore him. He said, "Do you 50:15 love me?" When the Lord is looking at some of us who are lacking in love, we are cold like the Jesus said to the church in Ephesians, you lost your first love. When we look at our own condition, maybe we lost our 50:33 first love. We grown cold. And today the Lord wants to restore us with the restoration of love. Do you love me and Peter was convicted. My brothers and sisters, we can come to God. He is love and he 50:51 can fill us with his love so that we can love one another. We don't find difficult. We can come to God. We heard it that verse again and again. Romans 5. The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. you know 51:07 in closing one verse in 2 Timothy chapter 3 2 Timothy chapter 3 [clears throat] from verse 1 onwards but I would like to read uh we don't have much time so but realize this in the last days 51:25 difficult times will come for men will be lovers of self lovers of money and it goes on to say many things unloving unholy And then it goes on to say lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. We 51:43 are living in these days where lawlessness abounding. The wickedness is abounding. The sin is crouching at the door to devour us. But we can and many can many people's love can grow cold. But we can ask the Lord through the 52:02 power of the Holy Spirit that he may fill our hearts with his love. May God help us. May we seek for that true love where he is full of love. He brought that love for us and we can go to him and love the Lord fervently and love one 52:19 another. May God help us.
