Key Life Network

Matthew: Discovering the true love of Jesus, the unstoppable force. Let's talk about it on Key Life.

If you've suffered too long under a do-more, try-harder religion, Key Life is here to proclaim that Jesus sets the captives free. We've invited Jerry Perry to teach us this week. Jerry is an author and the pastor of Christian Family Worship Center House of Grace.

Jerry Perry: Thank you, Matthew. Hey, Jeremy, it's our second day, man, and I'm telling you, I am just excited to be here. Yesterday, if you were not here, I did tell you that Dr. Steve Brown, the old man full of wisdom, has graciously allowed me to take over this week and sit in the seat. Hi, I am Pastor Jerry Q. Perry, one of the voices of Key Life, and of course, I want to thank Dr. Brown for this amazing opportunity to teach this week.

Before I get started, I always like to make a confession over our life. I believe that death and life is in the power of the tongue. So I want to make this confession and I want you to repeat after me and speak this over your life. That the favor of God is over my life. You say that. God is 100% pleased with me because of Jesus Christ. God is able to make all grace abound towards me. Wow. If you said that, get ready for God to do some amazing things for you as you continually make that confession over your life.

Today, I am talking about unveiling the extraordinary power of Jesus' love. Yesterday, I talked about that it is imperative that we love our neighbors as ourselves. I'm a little concerned about what I'm seeing in the world when it comes down to how we are not loving on each other as Christ would have us to love each other. It is important, people of God, that we show the love of Jesus. The Bible says by this shall all men know that you are my disciples. Not by the car you drive, not by the place you work, not by the place you live, but by showing love one toward another. Because of God's extraordinary power of love to love us, we have to take that same energy and love others.

One of the ways that we find out how to love each other even more is when we find out how much God has forgiven us for. When we realize all the things that we've done in our past, and yet God loves us, yet God has forgiven us. When we screwed up, when we messed up, when we didn't do things the way that He wanted us to do, yet He forgave us, yet He loves us.

And so the Bible tells us that we should give that same grace, that same love to other people. Whether they are our family, our friends, our coworkers, whether they're the same race that we are or not the same race, we have to be very careful to do what Jesus has done for us. And so that's what my teaching is going to be this week. It's a little challenging, I know, because sometimes we don't want to love people. We want to do things the way that we want to do it. I want to encourage you to really, really, if you really love Jesus, then you have to love who Jesus loves.

Let's go to 1 John 4:16. Listen to what it says: "For God is love and all who live in love live in God and God lives in them." Wow. That is a mouthful. God is love. And when you say, "I belong to Jesus, I belong to God, I belong to the family of God, that I am a Christian, I am a believer," then love should be a part of your life. And all who live in love live in God and God lives in them.

Verse 17 says, "And as we live in God, guess what happens? Our love grows more perfect. So we are not afraid on the day of judgment, but we will face Him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world." How did Jesus live in this world? He loved his brothers and his sisters. He loved sinners. He loved people that didn't look like him, act like him, talk like him, live where he lived. He loved everyone.

Verse 18 says, "Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is the fear of punishment and this shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect love." Verse 19 is what I like to read slowly. It says, "We love each other because He loved us first." Isn't that wonderful? Isn't it something that Jesus would love you and then you would look at your brothers and sisters and say, "Well, I ain't going to love them"? But Jesus says, "But I loved you." And you're going to say, "But I ain't going to love them, Lord, I'm not going to do it." And God says, "But I loved you."

So the Bible says we love each other. When you really realize that, when you really realize that you really need God, you really need the Lord's love, you really need the Lord's mercy, you really need the Lord's grace. When you really realize that you fall short in every aspect of your life.

God, I'm not living like I should, I'm not praying like I should, I don't give like I should, I don't do the things that I should do, and yet you love me. Then God says, "Now I want you to take that same grace that you want for yourself and I want you to give it to somebody else." We love each other because he first loved us. Verse 20 is another scripture that is kind of hard to swallow, but this is what the Bible says. Listen to what verse 20 says: "If someone says, 'I love God,' but hate a fellow believer, that person is a liar. For if we don't love people we can see, how can we love God whom we cannot see?"

Oh my goodness. You say, "God, I love you, I love God," but then you look at your brother and your sister, your neighbor, and you're saying, "I don't like them." God said you can't love Me without loving them. You got to be able to love somebody you can see before you can love somebody that you cannot see. In the African-American church, if I was preaching, I'd say it's tight, but it's right.

I want to challenge you. Sometimes David had to say when he looked at his life and looked at some of the challenges that he was having loving certain people or doing certain things that God wanted him to do, David said, "Create in me a clean heart and renew within me a right spirit." Maybe some of our prayer today need to be, "God, create in me a clean heart. Renew within me a right spirit so that I can love my neighbor as you have loved me."

And then I will experience the unveiling, the extraordinary power of Jesus' love. If I do that, God is going to bless me. He's going to give me the mercy, he's going to give me the grace, he's going to shower down on me the things that I release to others. Verse 21 says, "And he has given us this commandment: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers." You have to love people that you don't necessarily like because we are reaching to be like Jesus and we are reaching for the unveiling and the extraordinary power of Jesus' love.

Don't get involved in Facebook, don't get involved in sending messages and getting into social media. Don't be like the world. Be like Jesus. The Bible says in Romans, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." So it is clear that the Bible says we must love each other. I don't want to know what church you go to, I don't want to know what choir you sing in, I don't want to know if you're an elder of the church, I don't want to know if you're a pastor. I want to see Jesus through your love. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples when you have love one for another.

So create in me a clean heart and God, renew within me a right spirit that I can take all of these biases out. I can take all of these things that are not like you because who am I to hate someone that you died for? I want to love my brothers and I want to love my sisters, and I want to be an example for you in this earth realm. When people see me, I may be the only Bible that they may read. So I want them to see the Jesus in me become the Jesus that they read and that they see.

I want to challenge you this morning, whatever time you're listening to this. I want to challenge you. Go out and love somebody today. Just tell them, "I just want you to know that Jesus loves you and so do I." Try to find somebody that you're not connected to or that you don't know. Let them know that Jesus loves you and because He does, I do too. As Dr. Steve Brown would say, you think about that. Amen.

Matthew: Thank you, Jerry. That was Jerry Perry, one of the voices of Key Life and a dear friend of this ministry. The subject of loving others like Jesus seems so basic on its face, but do we ever need encouragement and exhortation in this area. We'll get more of that from Jerry tomorrow, so be sure to join us.

Here's something that might sound odd. God has a purpose for guilt. Really. Guilt is actually supposed to be a good and mighty instrument in the hand of God. The problem is, we haven't made the gospel good enough.

Steve spoke about this in a sermon called "What Good is Guilt?" and you are going to love this message because in it, Steve explains what God actually says about guilt. We'll send it to you on CD for free. Just call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at steve@keylife.org to order that CD, or go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the US and Canada. Again, just ask for the CD called "What Good is Guilt?"

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