Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 503 | Love Never Fails

Transcript

503 | Love Never Fails · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  God is in control.
• 0:05
  She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman
• 0:10
  at the Well Ministries, where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus
• 0:15
  like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
• 0:18
  Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
• 0:21
  Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
• 0:25
  or on our website at watwm.org, we invite you to sit down with us as we look
• 0:31
  to the scriptures to learn more about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
• 0:37
  Livin' her life for Christ She's a happy girl.
• 0:38
  Music.
• 0:48
  She's a happy girl.
• 1:01
  She's a happy girl The world would lead you to believe that love is easy and love is cheap.
• 1:07
  In the course of even casual conversations, you can hear people say,
• 1:11
  I love you, even to almost strangers.
• 1:13
  We hear it on television. We read about it in books. We read glitzy stories about it in magazines.
• 1:20
  The phrase, I love you, is popular in our culture, but rarely lived out in our lives.
• 1:25
  The way we love one another is in direct correlation to how we love Jesus.
• 1:30
  He said that we are to love one another and that people would know we are his
• 1:33
  disciples because we have love for one another.
• 1:37
  God is love. So when we enter into a relationship with him, we receive the love
• 1:42
  that is within him, and that love pulses through our veins.
• 1:46
  We can truly love unconditionally, completely, and honestly.
• 1:51
  Earthly relationships that are healthy and sincere give us glimpses of the love
• 1:55
  God gives us, demonstrates to us, and the love that flows through us.
• 2:00
  My relationship with Jesus gives me an other-centered focus,
• 2:04
  which puts me in alignment with God and creates the best possible scenario for me.
• 2:10
  Come join Kim in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries as she takes us
• 2:15
  on a journey discovering how to live I love you with a love that never fails.
• 2:20
  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
• 2:26
  We've entitled this message, Love Never Fails.
• 2:31
  And when we think about love, I think each of us probably have a different definition of what it is.
• 2:39
  And there are different kinds of love. There's the love of God.
• 2:43
  There's the love of the world.
• 2:46
  There's true love. And there's the love that we, as children of God,
• 2:52
  are to disseminate to those around us.
• 2:56
  It's the love of God that is placed in us. so that we can then love others.
• 3:04
  In 1 Corinthians 13, 7, he says that true love beareth all things,
• 3:13
  believeth all things, hopeth all things, endures all things.
• 3:20
  And in verse 8, he continues with, Charity never faileth, but whether there
• 3:26
  be prophecies, they shall fail.
• 3:27
  Whether there be tongues they shall cease whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away,
• 3:35
  charity and love are used interchangeable in this text and it begins to show
• 3:42
  us the difference between how God loves us and the purity and the honesty of
• 3:51
  that love which Romans 8,
• 3:53
  38 and 39 reminds us that nothing will separate us from that love and how we love.
• 4:02
  Christ loves unconditionally but all
• 4:06
  too often and so frequently we as children of God love on the condition that
• 4:16
  it's good for us on the condition that you can help us on the condition that it's worth our effort,
• 4:23
  on the condition that whatever it is we're getting from it is valuable,
• 4:30
  and we should continue to have some sort of relationship.
• 4:34
  But just the moment that you do something we don't like, or you make a mistake,
• 4:40
  there's no place for grace, and suddenly our relationship is not only broken, it is non-existent.
• 4:51
  And oh, aren't you so glad that God does not love us in that same manner?
• 4:56
  If God loved us that way, we would find ourselves moment by moment hanging by
• 5:03
  a thread and oftentimes cut our own self off from his love.
• 5:07
  But nothing can separate us from the love of God.
• 5:13
  And he tells us that we are to love one another like he loves us,
• 5:20
  that we're to continue in his love.
• 5:23
  In John chapter 15 and verse 9, he says, As the Father hath loved me, so I loved you.
• 5:34
  Continue ye in my love.
• 5:38
  In verse 12, he says, This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.
• 5:47
  These are strong commandments and
• 5:53
  i think for the vast majority of us we don't
• 5:56
  really delve into what it means
• 5:59
  to be loved by god and we certainly don't understand
• 6:02
  how strong his love is and so
• 6:05
  we have no concept of what is required of us in terms of loving another nor
• 6:12
  do we sometimes even seem to know how to do it because we're all about receiving
• 6:18
  God's love and we're pretty hesitant to distribute it. We kind of hoard it.
• 6:26
  I think even more sadly, sometimes we don't even recognize it.
• 6:32
  I think there are blessings in our lives and things that happen to us on a regular
• 6:37
  basis that we don't even attribute to the love of God, which is why he is blessing us with it.
• 6:45
  I think we forget that he never leaves us or forsakes us, like he tells us in
• 6:49
  Hebrews 13.5. That's a love, friend.
• 6:52
  He does not tire of our voice.
• 6:56
  He does not tire of our presence.
• 7:00
  He doesn't even become frustrated of our failures.
• 7:05
  Instead, he gives us 1 John 1.9. that says if we confess our sins,
• 7:10
  he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
• 7:16
  There is much the word of God has to say about loving one another.
• 7:22
  And as Erica read in your hearing the opening for this message,
• 7:28
  we all too often say I love you, and it is meaningless.
• 7:32
  We say it so habitually that if we're not careful when we are on a phone call
• 7:38
  with someone that we don't even hardly know, we might end up with,
• 7:42
  see you, love you, because that's how we talk to our friends,
• 7:46
  and that's how we talk to our loved ones, and it becomes so habitual that it rolls off your tongue.
• 7:53
  When I was working as a professional scientist, I was having a conversation
• 7:58
  with someone that I talked to quite frequently from a municipality who was funding
• 8:04
  a very large study for the U.S. government.
• 8:09
  And at the end of this conversation, I have no idea what happened other than
• 8:14
  I said, love you, and hung up.
• 8:18
  As I was hanging up the phone, my ears were processing what I had just said.
• 8:25
  I didn't mean that any more than I can fly, but now I was in a professional
• 8:29
  situation where I had spoken the words, I love you,
• 8:35
  to a business professional whom I had no relationship with whatsoever.
• 8:42
  And it not only dropped the professionalism of the conversation,
• 8:47
  but it put me in a very awkward situation.
• 8:51
  And so as I'm sitting at my desk with the other people who were on this conversation
• 8:57
  in front of me, and all of them looking like they had seen a ghost.
• 9:02
  We're trying to figure out how I am going to call this person back and apologize
• 9:09
  for this very unprofessional thing, and yet not offend him in any way.
• 9:17
  So there was actually a conversation about whether or not we thought he heard it.
• 9:23
  He'd heard everything else I'd said, but we were wondering if it was so casual,
• 9:28
  the conversation ending, and
• 9:32
  so common probably in his life among the people who truly did love him,
• 9:38
  that perhaps when he heard it, it did not even register.
• 9:42
  Because not only do we often say, I love you, without thinking about it,
• 9:48
  we often hear it without thinking about it.
• 9:52
  So several minutes went by and
• 9:55
  this project was so valuable to the government we
• 9:58
  couldn't take that chance and i had to make the phone call and i had to call
• 10:05
  him and have a conversation based on a conversation where i said i loved you
• 10:12
  and i didn't mean it at all so when i pick the phone up, and I call him,
• 10:18
  and he's on the other line, and I'm stuttering and stammering,
• 10:22
  and finally I called him by name, and I said, look,
• 10:25
  when I hung the phone up in our previous conversation.
• 10:31
  I inadvertently, those were the words I used,
• 10:34
  inadvertently said I love you, and I apologize for the casualness of the statement,
• 10:42
  the unprofessionalism of my words,
• 10:48
  and whatever awkwardness you might have felt.
• 10:53
  And then it got really awkward, because there was silence.
• 11:00
  And he says to me, Kimberly, that's how formal the conversation was,
• 11:07
  Kimberly, I didn't notice.
• 11:10
  He's kind of a grandfathery type. But now that you've called me back,
• 11:15
  does that mean you really don't love me?
• 11:18
  And everyone in the room just kind of gasped.
• 11:22
  And then he kind of chuckled and he said, I know, as colleagues,
• 11:28
  you think highly of me. I didn't notice the statement, we're all good, and he hung up.
• 11:36
  And all the people around me all had this blank face, and my heart was pounding.
• 11:44
  And now it wasn't because of an embarrassment professionally,
• 11:49
  but it was of an understanding that I had used one of the most powerful,
• 11:56
  precious sentences that a human could hear casually, without thought,
• 12:05
  and fully without meaning.
• 12:08
  That's what we're talking about today, is our love you should mean something.
• 12:16
  We have cheapened it, we have weakened it, and we have rendered it powerless.
• 12:22
  But we have to take it back and look at what God said through his son,
• 12:28
  Jesus Christ, that we are to love one another as he loved us.
• 12:32
  And let me tell you, it was intentional on the cross. It was purposeful on the cross.
• 12:39
  It was sacrificial on the cross. It is enduring on the cross.
• 12:44
  And when Jesus says, I love you, he stamps it with his life.
• 12:49
  And he speaks to us, especially in John 15, about how we're to live our lives.
• 12:58
  We can truly love unconditionally. We can love completely.
• 13:02
  And we can love honestly as God loves us through his son, Jesus,
• 13:07
  as Jesus loves us through his death, burial, and resurrection and constant presence in our life.
• 13:14
  If we understand that God is love and through his son, Jesus,
• 13:22
  we have access to God and through the demonstration of Jesus Christ's love for
• 13:28
  us on the cross of Calvary, shedding every drop of blood he had because he loved us so much.
• 13:37
  That he had to make a way so that we could live eternally with him in heaven.
• 13:43
  And then he says to us, we are to love one another that self-same way.
• 13:53
  But I'm afraid that instead, we love conditionally.
• 13:58
  We offer our heart and our minds in a way that is just good for us.
• 14:06
  As I read in your hearing that true love, it believes all things,
• 14:11
  it hopes all things, it endures all things, and it bears all things.
• 14:15
  How quickly are you ready to turn your back on someone who believes you love them?
• 14:29
  How sacrificially do you love those that God has placed in your inner circle?
• 14:38
  Are you a person that just takes
• 14:40
  and takes and takes and takes from the relationship, or do you contribute?
• 14:47
  Are you willing to go out of your way to help someone?
• 14:53
  I remind you in John chapter 4 that Jesus says he must needs to go to Samaria.
• 15:03
  So that he could wait on the woman at the well because he needed to have a conversation with her.
• 15:12
  And here's the conversation. In John 4, verses 13 and 14, Jesus answered and
• 15:18
  said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
• 15:22
  But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
• 15:26
  But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
• 15:31
  up into everlasting life.
• 15:33
  This well of water that is given to us by Jesus allows us to distribute the
• 15:40
  love of God that is imputed into us when he imputes his righteousness so that
• 15:45
  those around us can feel and know the love of God.
• 15:50
  He doesn't just love us for our own good. He loves us so that we will love others,
• 15:57
  so that we can glorify our Father and build the kingdom.
• 16:02
  Because just like we know the love of God, when someone else knows the love
• 16:07
  of God, they're going to want a piece of that too.
• 16:11
  But instead, we have this love of the world, which leaves you dissatisfied,
• 16:17
  unhappy, seeking, searching, wanting more.
• 16:21
  Whether you're spending money to fill that gap, or whether you're having false relationships,
• 16:27
  or maybe you are indulging in drugs and in alcohol, or perhaps illicit sex,
• 16:35
  Whatever it is, you're just doing whatever you can to fill this void.
• 16:40
  But Jesus said in John 4, verses 13 and 14, he was clear.
• 16:47
  He says that the water that I shall give him shall never thirst,
• 16:51
  but it'll be a water that will spring up into everlasting life.
• 16:57
  Friends, we who know Jesus as Savior, we have a well of life within us.
• 17:05
  We have the love of god within us the love of the world it'll leave you lonely,
• 17:12
  because it when the first little hint of something bad comes along it'll just crumble and fall.
• 17:21
  But hebrews 13 5 says let your conversation be without covetousness and be content the satisfaction.
• 17:30
  Be content with such things as you have, for he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
• 17:39
  In your deepest, darkest moments, in your brightest, blessed days, he is always there.
• 17:45
  In Revelations 3.20, he says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock,
• 17:50
  and if any man will open the door, I will come in and I will sup with him.
• 17:56
  Jesus loves me, this I know. And his love is true, and it's honest,
• 18:01
  and it's complete, and it never fails.
• 18:04
  And he said in John 15, 9, that ye shall continue.
• 18:11
  My love. When we are loved by God,
• 18:15
  we are filled by his love, and it will motivate and inspire and gives us the
• 18:21
  charge to love as he loves all of those whom he puts in our path.
• 18:29
  But the world doesn't love like that.
• 18:32
  It leaves you dissatisfied, it leaves you lonely, and it leaves you afraid because
• 18:39
  you can't count on it because it's dark and bad things happen in the dark.
• 18:46
  But Isaiah 41 10 says, fear thou not for I am with thee.
• 18:54
  Be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee.
• 18:59
  Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
• 19:04
  The love of God is the exact opposite of the world.
• 19:09
  The world will tear you down. The world will bring you down.
• 19:12
  The world will disappoint you.
• 19:14
  The world will expect more of you than you can possibly produce.
• 19:18
  But the Lord loves you and he helps you.
• 19:22
  In fact, in Hebrews 13, 6, he says, so that we may boldly say the Lord is my
• 19:28
  helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
• 19:31
  The Lord is on my side. Whom shall I fear? And he is steady.
• 19:37
  And he is sure.
• 19:40
  And he loves us. So if we're going
• 19:43
  to continue in his love, we need to understand what the love of God is.
• 19:48
  In 1 John 4, 16, he says, And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.
• 19:54
  God is love. And he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him.
• 20:03
  So love of God comes from God himself.
• 20:08
  It's modeled by Christ. He says, but God commendeth his love toward us,
• 20:14
  in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
• 20:18
  We were at our lowest. We were at our deepest despair, a debt we couldn't pay.
• 20:26
  Christ, through his love, sticks to his plan, dies on the cross of Calvary,
• 20:34
  sacrificing himself, but on the third day he rose again and he defeated hell, death, and the grave.
• 20:40
  God is all-powerful, he's all-knowing, and he's all-loving.
• 20:44
  If you're on the wrong end of God's love, it's because you've chosen not to receive it.
• 20:50
  He loves us. Nothing we do, nothing we say, nothing that anyone else thinks
• 20:57
  about us, Nothing that we don't do can separate us from the love of God.
• 21:02
  That's what he tells us in Romans 8, 38 and 39.
• 21:06
  But in Romans 10, 13, he says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
• 21:13
  And perhaps the greatest view that we see about God's love isn't that it's free
• 21:21
  to all that we just spoke about in Romans 10, 13, but that it cleanses us.
• 21:27
  In 1 Corinthians 5.21, this is what he says.
• 21:32
  For he hath made him, it's actually 2 Corinthians 5.21.
• 21:37
  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made
• 21:47
  the righteousness of God in him.
• 21:50
  For he made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made righteous in him.
• 22:00
  The love of God comes from God. It's modeled by Christ. It's free to all.
• 22:08
  And here we read, it cleanses us.
• 22:12
  Though our sins were as filthy rags, they will be washed white as snow.
• 22:19
  The sinless, perfect Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, loves you so much that He will
• 22:26
  forgive you of your sins.
• 22:29
  The love of God is forgiving.
• 22:33
  In 1 John 1.9, he says.
• 22:41
  In other words, what he says is, exactly in 1 John 1.9,
• 22:48
  if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
• 22:54
  cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
• 22:58
  There isn't any sin that you have done that is beyond the forgiveness of Christ.
• 23:07
  His blood washes away all our sins and gives us the righteousness,
• 23:16
  that allows us to access God the Father through him and know him personally,
• 23:22
  his ways, his character.
• 23:24
  And the defining character of God is his love for us.
• 23:30
  And his love sets us free.
• 23:34
  In John 8, 32, he says, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
• 23:41
  In John 14, 6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life,
• 23:46
  and no man cometh unto the Father but by me.
• 23:49
  In John 8, 36, he says, if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
• 23:58
  The love of God. It comes from him, is modeled by Christ.
• 24:05
  It's free to all who will believe, and it cleanses us and forgives us, and it sets us free.
• 24:13
  Romans 8, 2 says, For the law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus has
• 24:18
  made me free from the law of sin and death.
• 24:23
  That's what the love of God is. We don't have the power to forgive other sins.
• 24:30
  But we have the power to forgive the wrongs that people do to us.
• 24:36
  To make a place for grace when someone errs in our relationships,
• 24:42
  when someone hurts us, realizing that God every day has to bestow incredible
• 24:49
  forgiveness upon us as we reject Him and we reject His way and we reject His word,
• 24:55
  and we do not recognize His blessings. We ignore Him.
• 25:01
  We believe that He should continue to love us when we have nothing to base that
• 25:06
  on and everything to believe it because the Word said it.
• 25:11
  He loves us despite our sinfulness and our wickedness and our unrighteousness.
• 25:18
  Jesus loves me, this I know, and that love comes from God Himself.
• 25:23
  The world leaves us dissatisfied and lonely and afraid, but God cleanses us,
• 25:33
  cleanses us up, makes us righteous,
• 25:36
  forgives us, sets us free, and never leaves us.
• 25:41
  And He's always seeking us.
• 25:45
  God's love is true love. And this is where we need to learn what he's asking
• 25:51
  us in John 15, 9, when he says, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.
• 25:59
  Continue ye in my love.
• 26:02
  It's important that you understand the character of God's love.
• 26:09
  We've seen what the results are, but here's the character.
• 26:14
  And we're going to refer to God's love as true love.
• 26:19
  True love we learn about in 1 John 4.10, when he says, herein is love.
• 26:30
  Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and he sent his son to be the propitiation
• 26:36
  for our sins. This is true love.
• 26:40
  It's further defined and summarized in john 3 16 when he says for god so loved
• 26:47
  the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him
• 26:52
  should not perish but have everlasting life friends.
• 27:01
  Here's the practical application of John 15, 9.
• 27:09
  Love is active. For God so loved the world that he gave.
• 27:16
  If we are to continue loving others as Christ loved us, as Christ loved God, as God loved Christ,
• 27:25
  if we are to continue in the love of God, we are going to have to get up and
• 27:30
  get out and show up for other people's lives.
• 27:35
  We're going to have to be in the nitty-gritty with them.
• 27:39
  We're going to have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
• 27:42
  We're going to have to walk in dark times. We're going to have to walk in despair.
• 27:47
  But my friend, we also have the blessing of walking in the good times,
• 27:53
  in the blessings, in the bountiful provisions that God gives not only us but others.
• 28:00
  But we can't be fair-weather friends, and we can't be that person who's just
• 28:07
  watching from the sidelines.
• 28:10
  Love, true love, is active.
• 28:14
  Love is focused on the object of your love. There is no room for narcissism in true love.
• 28:23
  You cannot put your needs first.
• 28:26
  When you truly love someone, you want them to be happy. You want them to succeed.
• 28:34
  Their needs, their wants, their desires, their best interest is what you are focused on.
• 28:44
  True love is focused on the object of your love. So if everything's about you,
• 28:50
  you can be sure that your love is self-centered and not true love.
• 28:57
  Romans 5.8, as I said earlier, says, But God commendeth his love toward us in
• 29:03
  that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
• 29:08
  Christ died for us. the object of his love has been, will always be, and is now us.
• 29:19
  He never leaves us. He watches us. He provides for us.
• 29:26
  He supplies our every need. He never sleeps. He never slumbers.
• 29:32
  He is our protector, our provider, and our peace because we are the object of his love.
• 29:41
  Our image is in his hands.
• 29:45
  Ever lives to make intercession for us, Jesus does. And God loved us, so he gave us his son.
• 29:53
  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man would lay down his life for his friends.
• 29:59
  True love is self-sacrificing.
• 30:02
  You got to show up, even when you don't want to,
• 30:06
  even when you're not prepared, even when you are lost and don't know what to
• 30:11
  do, even when it's hurting you to the very fiber of your body.
• 30:17
  The object of your love must fuel your unconditional presence,
• 30:24
  your absolute help, your adoration, and your assistance.
• 30:31
  And true love goes the distance. In Philippians 2.8, we read,
• 30:37
  and being found in the fashion of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient
• 30:42
  unto death, even the death of the cross.
• 30:46
  It goes the distance. When the going gets hard, true love digs in deeper, stronger.
• 30:56
  It doesn't shy away from difficult situations.
• 31:02
  True love, when it says I love you, doesn't have to say it with words.
• 31:08
  Your actions, your thoughts, your behaviors, they're all showing what you feel
• 31:15
  about the object of your love.
• 31:18
  And Christ said that we are to love others as he loved us. And he died on the cross.
• 31:25
  He went the distance and he self-sacrificed.
• 31:29
  And love is not a matter of convenience.
• 31:32
  You can't just love somebody when it's to your advantage that's not true love,
• 31:38
  you can't just help somebody when you don't have anything else to do that's
• 31:42
  not true love you can't accept an invitation to hang with somebody just because
• 31:48
  you don't have a better one that's
• 31:50
  not true love john 4 4 says this and he must needs to go to Samaria,
• 31:57
  do you realize that Jesus went to see the woman at the well knowing that he
• 32:01
  was going through a difficult,
• 32:03
  dangerous place where everybody there wanted to kill him?
• 32:07
  And he sit and he waited, the King of kings and the Lord of lords waited for her to come.
• 32:14
  And then he gave her a well of springing water within her that would give her everlasting life.
• 32:24
  It's not a matter of convenience. The disciples didn't want him to go that direction.
• 32:29
  They were concerned for his life, and no doubt theirs.
• 32:33
  It's important that you're willing to give, to sacrifice.
• 32:41
  Requires it. If you would, I'd like you to turn in Luke chapter 8, beginning in verse 43.
• 32:50
  And a woman having an issue of blood, 12 years, which has spent all of her living
• 32:55
  upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him and touched
• 33:00
  the border of his garment.
• 33:02
  And immediately her issue of blood staunched. And Jesus said, Who touched me?
• 33:08
  When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master,
• 33:12
  the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
• 33:17
  And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me, for I perceive that virtue has gone out of me.
• 33:23
  And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling and falling down before him.
• 33:28
  She declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him,
• 33:32
  and how she was healed immediately.
• 33:35
  And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort,
• 33:38
  thy face hath made thee whole
• 33:41
  go in peace jesus
• 33:45
  was busy with the crowd her faith was so strong she was pushing her way in and
• 33:52
  she touched him he did not see her but she touched him and he knew that his
• 33:57
  healing power through the faith she had placed in him had healed her but this
• 34:03
  was not a place of convenience.
• 34:05
  This wasn't the hospital. This wasn't a visit to the woman's house.
• 34:10
  He was where he needed to be.
• 34:12
  She was where she needed to be. There was faith involved, and Jesus did not.
• 34:20
  Continue what he was doing without acknowledging her and healing her.
• 34:26
  See, sometimes we say, we're just too busy.
• 34:29
  I'm just too busy to go help so-and-so. I'm too busy to visit so-and-so.
• 34:35
  I'm too busy to fix a meal. I'm too busy to pray.
• 34:42
  Jesus said that we're to continue.
• 34:46
  Love one another, as he loves us, and he ever liveth to make intercession for
• 34:52
  us, and he tells us that we are to pray one for another,
• 34:55
  that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,
• 34:59
  we are to pray without ceasing,
• 35:01
  we are to lift up others and ourselves to Christ, to be who he wants us to be,
• 35:07
  true love goes the distance,
• 35:11
  no matter the inconvenience.
• 35:14
  And perhaps the hardest for all of us.
• 35:19
  We've spoken about it over the last few minutes, but let's just talk about it.
• 35:25
  True love is unconditional.
• 35:30
  Absolutely, positively, unconditional. 2 Peter 3.9 says this,
• 35:40
  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness,
• 35:44
  but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish,
• 35:51
  but that all should come to repentance.
• 35:53
  That person you can't stand, Jesus died for.
• 35:57
  That person that just irks you.
• 36:01
  Christ doesn't want to go to hell, and they're in your life.
• 36:06
  What are you showing them?
• 36:08
  Are you showing them a difference of the world, or are you loving like the world?
• 36:13
  Are you bringing Jesus to them through your words, through your deeds, through your love?
• 36:21
  Or have you just walked away?
• 36:23
  Wash your hands of them.
• 36:26
  Matthew 11, 28 says, Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
• 36:32
  If you're weary, come to Jesus.
• 36:36
  He's not forsaken you. He's calling you. You are at the end of your rope.
• 36:43
  Let's make sure it's the thread of his garment.
• 36:47
  Tried it all. And you can't get anywhere with that person. They're still hurting you.
• 36:54
  Listen, love goes the distance.
• 36:56
  And maybe you just have to love God and Jesus and let him change your heart
• 37:01
  till you love that person.
• 37:02
  But if you love God and Jesus, you will distribute the love God has put in you
• 37:07
  to them, regardless of how they receive it or how they respond.
• 37:11
  Because your love isn't conditional. The love that Jesus has deposited in the
• 37:16
  heart of every believer,
• 37:18
  and the charge that he has given to every believer is to love without an expectation
• 37:24
  of return, to love unconditionally,
• 37:28
  and to not be weary in well-doing.
• 37:32
  Hebrews 4.16, he says, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace
• 37:38
  that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
• 37:44
  You might have to spend more time on your knees praying for God to help you
• 37:48
  love that person than you spend in their presence.
• 37:51
  But when you are in their presence and you need to seek the opportunities to
• 37:55
  be in their presence, when you are, you have to give them the love of Jesus.
• 38:00
  It doesn't give you a pass if they don't love you, especially if they don't even know who Jesus is.
• 38:06
  They don't have the unconditional love of God flowing through their hearts.
• 38:12
  They're not understanding the blessings of God and the favor of God.
• 38:18
  They don't understand what is happening every day because of the strength and
• 38:23
  the breadth and the depth of the love that God has for his children. But you do.
• 38:29
  You've got John 15. And if you don't have a Bible, you contact Woman at the
• 38:34
  Well Ministries. We'll get one in your hands.
• 38:37
  You need to have the Word of God.
• 38:41
  Is unconditional. Romans 8, 38 through 39, I've said it multiple times tonight.
• 38:48
  For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,
• 38:52
  nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
• 38:56
  nor things to come, nor heights, nor depths, nor any other creature shall be
• 39:00
  able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• 39:04
  Nothing will be able to separate you from the love of God.
• 39:09
  That means nothing should separate you from loving others.
• 39:15
  Now, I'm not asking you to endure abuse verbally, physically, or any other which way.
• 39:23
  I'm not asking you to stay in relationships that are unhealthy.
• 39:28
  I'm saying when you remove yourself from the abuse, your heart has to be right
• 39:33
  with God and dipped in the love
• 39:35
  of God, and you must continue to love them and make a place for grace.
• 39:40
  You may not make a place for your face in their life, but you've got to make a place for grace.
• 39:46
  And if it's just that they irk you and there's no harm done,
• 39:52
  you might want to talk to the Lord and let him reflect with you about the number
• 39:56
  of things you do that are contrary to the word of God, and how if he would allow
• 40:03
  himself to be irked, we would keep on his last nerve.
• 40:07
  But he doesn't have a last nerve. He has an enduring nerve.
• 40:11
  If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
• 40:15
  cleanse us from all unrighteousness over and over and over again.
• 40:19
  He tells us that we are to forgive everyone over and over again.
• 40:27
  Will of god this is the commandment of god and you can't do it on your own but
• 40:33
  when you are in the will of god when you are seeking him first when you love
• 40:38
  him with your whole heart soul mind and spirit and you allow his love to flow
• 40:43
  freely through you and you pray for that individual,
• 40:48
  i promise you you can't hate a person that you're praying for and the bible
• 40:53
  says if we hate we have committed murder in our heart.
• 40:55
  You can't even strongly dislike someone you're praying for. So start there.
• 41:01
  If you've got someone that God has in your life on a regular basis that is keeping
• 41:06
  you upset, uproar, stressed, distressed, constantly angst, worried, and fretting,
• 41:17
  Start by praying. Pray for them.
• 41:20
  Pray for yourself to love them.
• 41:23
  Prayer changes things.
• 41:25
  And prayer surely changes me. Love never fails.
• 41:31
  And Jesus said that we are to continue in his love. Remember,
• 41:36
  you are loved. Jesus loves you.
• 41:46
  Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
• 41:51
  quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
• 41:54
  We pray today has been a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through
• 41:58
  our app, our website, or our Facebook page.
• 42:01
  You can find our app by searching for Woman at the Well Ministries in your app
• 42:05
  store or through our website at watwm.org.
• 42:09
  We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash watwm. If you visit our website,
• 42:15
  you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits, a daily devotion written by Kim and.
• 42:19
  Delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
• 42:22
  Woman at the Well Ministries is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving our Heavenly Father.
• 42:28
  And it is through your loving and generous support that our ministry continues to bless others.
• 42:33
  To learn how to partner with Woman at the Well Ministries, please visit our website.
• 42:37
  Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
• 42:42
  We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
• 42:47
  Remember that God loves you. You are loved.
• 42:53
  Music.