Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to the Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for tuning in today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Today's message is very important and pertinent to anyone who has struggled with the need of physical healing.

This message is not something I've read about or heard about, but one I have lived through and still apply every day for my own physical healing. Walking in healing by love.

I will start a two-part message. Today will be part one. We will begin in John 13 and verse 34. "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another."

Now, when he said, "I'm giving you a new commandment," we might pause for a moment and think, "Is it new? Didn't you tell us in the Old Testament?" In fact, in Leviticus 19:18, he said, "You should love your neighbor as yourself." So, what's new about this commandment? Because obviously, to love your neighbor as yourself is very powerful.

I mean, if we can love other people like we love ourselves, we are going to be really loving people. How many know that? Amen. Because you know what Paul said, nobody ever hated his own flesh. You know, only people that the devil has tricked and put a spirit on them, but normal Christians, we love ourselves. We love who we are because God made us who we are.

But if we will love our brothers and sisters the same way, that's a good thing. And yet Jesus said, "I'm giving you a new commandment." Now, the word new here simply is better translated fresh. I'm giving you a fresh perspective on this commandment about loving one another. Not brand new that you've never heard it before, but I'm giving you a new way to look at it.

And that, this is how I want you to look at it. "I want you to love one another as I have loved you." Now, it doesn't mean in the same exact way as I have loved you, because, let's, let's all just be truthful. We can never love anybody the same way Jesus loves us. Amen. We just can't love one another what Jesus did for us when we were yet sinners.

He died for us when we were unlovable. Amen. And we just can't do that. That's not what it means. Here's a better way of saying it. "Love one another because I have loved you." And you know, when you let that sink in and you think about it, it doesn't leave any room for not loving anybody.

Simply because he loved us, because he loved me, I can love you. Because he loved me, I can love you and you. Amen. And that's what Jesus meant. And he said, "This is how people are going to know that you are my disciples." Not because you have a certain doctrine that you stick to, and not because you wear a certain robes, or you wear your collar on backwards, or you have a name attached to you.

That's not how they're going to know you're my disciples. They're going to know that you are my disciples because you love one another. Now, think about when Jesus spoke this. If you read the beginning of the chapter, this is him talking after the Last Supper and after he has washed the disciples' feet. Even Judas. Even Judas' feet. Amen.

And it's just literally minutes away from him being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. And then for him being beaten at Pilate's whipping post and crucified on the cross. So what he would have said right before that is got to be of the utmost importance. The words of a dying person are to be acknowledged. Amen.

And you want to hear what they've got to say. And Jesus was going to say the most important thing that he could say right before his death. And he said that you love one another. Now, you know that the church of Jesus Christ got off to a great start. And you know that we can read about the church of Jesus Christ, that infant church, that's what the book of Acts is about. Amen.

Do you know that in the entire book of Acts, the word love is not found? It is in the New Testament countless times, but you will not find it even once in the book of Acts. Now, what you will find over and over again is in one mind, in one accord. For instance, I'll read to you what they said, you know, describing the time of Pentecost.

"These all continued in one accord in prayer and supplication. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all in one accord, in one place." You see, it was not necessary to keep talking about love when you're walking in love. They didn't have to preach about love one another. They didn't have to get their sermons about walking in love, because they were walking in love. Amen.

Now, later the epistles that we have by the apostles, we find that they exhort again and again how we're to love one another. I mean, think about John's three letters. John 1, 2, and 3. Over and over again, what does he say? "My little children, love one another. Love one another." Amen.

You can't say you love God and not love your brother. I mean, especially First John, it's just peppered throughout the entire letter, "love one another." And about Peter. Peter said in First Peter 1:22, "Love one another with a pure heart fervently." And in First Peter 4:8, he said, "Above all things, have fervent love among yourselves."

The word fervent there, you know, my first response is when I see the word fervent, I think of something that is um on, is hot, you know, but here is not the meaning. I was actually a little surprised when I looked it up, this particular Greek word in in First Peter 1:22 and and First Peter 4:8. The word fervent means to stretch out.

Now, think about that for a moment. It makes sense when you think about it. If we have the kind of love that Peter's talking about, we're always going to be putting ourselves out for the other person. We're always going to be stretching out to help others. Like we're putting out this call for people to help Sister Linda Evans in her time of need.

It means to put yourself out, stretch out to help someone else. That's the kind of love he wants us to have. Not a I love me love, but I love you love. And I love you and I'm going to go out of my way. I'm going to go out of my way, maybe out of my comfort zone. I'm going to reach beyond myself to manifest this love to you. Amen.

And we know that Jesus in the book of Revelation wrote seven letters to the churches. And the first one was the letter to Ephesus. And we know that he commended them about three things. He commended them about their labors, they were hard working. He commended them about the fact that they had stood strong against the false doctrine of the Nicolaitans.

And that is the same doctrine that's out there right now, saints. Grace covers everything. Doesn't matter what you do, you got grace. Just God's grace just covers everything. If you repent and you say you're saved, now you can just, you know, do whatever you want because grace covers it all. And Jesus said, "That doctrine I hate."

Oh, that's another message I can't preach today. You know, Jesus just doesn't go around hating everything. But he hated that. Amen. And and you know what? I'm in good company. I hate it too, because it's tricking people. It's tricking people that's been saved for a long time. And now all of a sudden they can do what the world does.

They can go out and drink with the world and socialize with the world and live like the world and oh, but we're under grace, we're not under the law. And Jesus said, "I hate that doctrine." He commended Ephesus for standing up against it. And he commended them for their perseverance. But he told them they need to repent because they had left their first love.

And you know, that's something we have to watch out for. We can be so busy doing the work of God and the ministry of God, that we get away from the love. It becomes more of a business, you know, a job that we have. Amen. Especially people that are in ministry and ministers and pastors and all, they've got to be careful because after a while, they act like they're running a corporation.

You know, I've had the Lord rebuke me many times when I've been so busy and doing every, his work, folks, his work. He'll say, "Uh, ministry is about people. Uh, don't forget, Sharon, it's about people too." So, some days he'll have me take off a half a day or a whole day of all the other work and just have me write cards to people.

He said, "That's ministry too." Amen. That's what we're about. So that's why he rebuked them. So, finding out that we're to walk in love is going to radicalize really where we are spiritually even now, no no matter how long you've been saved. So, turn with me to First Corinthians the 13th chapter, and you will recognize it immediately as the love chapter.

Many Bible scholars say First Corinthians 13 is the most beautiful literary work of the New Testament. It's equal to the Psalm 23 in the Old Testament. And you will see it on many plaques and pictures and things like that. Amen. And uh, it's a beautiful chapter. And you know, Paul is usually always very dogmatic because he's preaching doctrine and he's correcting error, but this is so beautiful.

This shows really his true heart. Amen. So let's begin in verse one. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity." From now on I'm going to use love, okay? "I become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not love, it profits me nothing." Now, here's what's so interesting to me about First Corinthians 13 before we go further in dissecting this. And that is that First Corinthians 12 and First Corinthians 14 are all about the gifts of the Spirit.

He is telling us what they are. He's giving us the details and the mechanics of how they function. But he stops mid-stream and interjects with First Corinthians 13. He he cuts himself off in chapter 12, tells, gives us First Corinthians chapter 13, and then 14 goes right back into telling about the gifts of the Spirit.

So what is he doing? He's realizing that all of these gifts, as powerful as they are, if they are not motivated by love, they accomplish nothing. Amen. No matter, he says, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, I've got to make you people understand. I don't want you to get puffed up, because knowledge puffs up, but love builds up."

And so he stops in the middle and says, "Wait a minute, I've got to interject here. Let's have a parenthetical on love." Amen. So what he's saying, he says, "Now, you can have the gift of tongues, you can have interpretation, you can have prophecy. You can have those powerful gifts." He said, "But if they're not motivated by love," how many remember that show, the Gong Show?

That's what they sound like. They sound like a clanging gong. Amen. It would be like getting up there and just beating away on just the cymbals, just beating away on those cymbals. After a while, we would all be like this. Amen. He says, "That's what it is." He says, "All it is is a bunch of noise."

And here's what he said. He said, "I convey nothing. My message conveys nothing. If I have wisdom, if I have knowledge, if I have revelation, even if I have mountain-moving faith." How many want mountain-moving faith? Come on, every hand ought to be raised up, because I guarantee you at some point in your life there is going to be a mountain.

It may be like I'm facing, it might be a sickness, it might be an infirmity, it may be your marriage, it may be your finances, it may be your children. You know, whatever it is, you're going to face a mountain in your life, and we all want and need mountain-moving faith. That's a miracle-working faith.

But he said, "If love is not your motivator," he says, "if it's not my motivator, I am nothing. I convey nothing. I gain nothing." I want to draw your attention to the fact that he said, "I, I, I," not the gifts. Not the gifts that he's preaching on before and after. Amen. Oh, no. He said, "It's me. I'm the one. I have to have love. If I have love, then is God uses me in any of these gifts." Amen.

"Oh, then it's going to be profitable, then it's going to be a blessing, then it's going to do in the body of Christ what God designed it to do." Amen. Now, quickly we're going to read verses 4 through 6. I'm not going to discuss them because they would in and of themselves take at least an hour. But you know what?

You people are very smart. You've got Bibles and you've got dictionaries and you can Google. That's your homework. I would say, look these words up, especially in some other versions, and you will really get a blessing. Because love suffers long, or is long-suffering, and it's kind. Love envies not, it's not jealous.

Love vaunts not itself, in other words, it's not a braggart, it's not a bragadoccio, trying to everybody look at me, hear me, what's all about me. It's not puffed up. But love does not behave itself unseemly. When you see people acting badly as a Christian, there's something wrong with their love walk. Amen.

It seeks not its own. It's not selfish. It's not easily provoked. Oh, wow. You need to look that one up for sure. It thinks no evil. Wow, our toes are getting stepped on more. It rejoices not in iniquity. And these all three these uh dovetail together, "but it rejoices in the truth." So as I said, you would do well to do a little study on what this is.

Now, let's move along. "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is part shall be done away with.

Now, when I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, or when I became an adult, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know even as also I am known.

And now abides faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. Amen. So what is he saying in here? It believes all things, bears all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. The word bear here means to cover. It means to cover. And um, I quoted First Peter 4:8 a moment ago and said that um he said that you should have fervent love amongst yourselves.

I didn't finish it. The last part is, "Because love covers a multitude of sin." And that would give you the meaning of what love is. Now, you all are very smart. You know it doesn't mean you cover up sin and let it get by, but it means that you are not trying to uncover people's sin to embarrass them, shame them, humiliate them, because all you're going to do is chase them away.

Amen. That's not love. Amen. That would not be love. If God showed me something about someone that I see that they're going down the wrong road, I'm not going to stand up here and say before everybody. But what am I going to do? I'm going to give them in private. And I'm going to say, "The Lord put me on your heart."

So it means to to cover them, to believe all things, and to hope all things is actually the same Greek word. Elpiz. Elpiz, which we all know means hope. So it where it says believes all things, it's talking about a continuous hope and support. Remember, right before Jesus was led away, he saw Peter and he said, "Peter, Satan has desired to have you to sift you as as corn is sifted, but I have prayed for you, and when you're converted, I want you to go strengthen the brethren."

What was he saying? He was saying, "Peter, you're about to mess up big time, but I believe in you. I still believe in you, Peter. I love you, I believe in you, and I know that you're going to get converted, and then you're going to be able to use your situation to go and strengthen other people." It hopes all things. This is beautiful. It means this, "It expects the best."

It always expects the best. Have you been around people that always expect the bad and the worse? They pull you down. And you try to counteract what they say with something good, but bless your heart, they come back with something negative. And after a few times, you just decide, let's change the subject. Oh, but be that person that expects the best.

Amen. That always is looking for the best, because no matter how much a person has fallen short or failed in some way, there is still something God has put in them that's good. And we've got to support that and bring that out. Even when you're dealing with your children, you should not jump right to the bad thing they just did.

What do you do? You say, "Now, you know mommy loves you because you are such a sweet kid," and tell all the good things, "and I love it when you do this, that, and the other, but you know what you just did, mommy doesn't love that because that wasn't a good thing." Of course, when they get older, you won't be saying it quite that sweetly. Amen.

But the point is is you start off with the good stuff, because your kid, no matter how bratty they are right now, they are a wonderful kid. There's something good in them. I know sometimes it's hard to find. But it's there. Amen. When Todd was in first grade, he he had this cold, cold, aloof teacher.

She was one of those kind that showed no emotion and she just didn't. And she had Todd written off as incorrigible and he she had, honestly, I'm not exaggerating, she had the kid in jail as an adult. That's how bad he was. He's five years old, people. She said, "I know how these kids turn out." Of course, now he works for the FBI.

So they had me up at school constantly. They were wanting to put him on medication, which I refused to do. We had to just suffer through first grade. Second grade, he got a teacher that was the pat on the head, give you a little hug, and he fell in love with that teacher. That kid like night and day. He turned into uh just not only a a a sweetheart, which he already was, but a great little student because the difference in the approach. Amen.

And love endures all things. Hupomeno. It means to hold up under and never give up. Never, ever give up. Now, here's what we learned here. When we get to heaven, we are not going to need faith and hope. We're only going to need love. Amen. We're only going to need love in heaven. Right now we need faith and we need hope because we're looking through the glass darkly, or we're looking through a glass.

How many know when people today on their vehicles, they get them tinted so dark, you can barely see the person inside there. Amen. And you're trying to figure out who it is and it's dark. Amen. That is kind of a picture of what he's saying. Right now, we're trying to see heaven. We're trying to see God and Jesus and all of this.

We're trying to see this, but we are looking through a tinted glass. And so sometimes it's hard. But that's when you've got faith, and that's when you've got hope that tells you, "It's true, it's real, believe it, hang on to it." Amen. But he said, "When you get to heaven, you won't have to hang on to faith or hope," because he said, "then you're going to see him face to face."

You're going to see him face to face. What did he say in First Corinthians 5:7? "We walk by faith and not by sight." Amen. We're looking through a a glass that's that's opaque, if you will. Amen. And we're having a hard time sometimes believing and seeing the victory. Oh, but let me tell you something, if you will just hold on to hope and faith, I'm telling you and knowing that God loves you, love will never fail you.

Now abides faith, hope, and love, but the greatest is love. Greatest. Greek word mega. We know what mega means. It means superlative love. Because you see, without love, faith fails. And without love, hope dies. Amen. But when you know that God loves you, you, it allows you to hold on to your faith and your hope. Amen.

Amen. What an insightful and invaluable word for us today. Walking in healing by love. Do you know that in the book of Acts, the chronicle of the early church, the term love is not used once? However, the terms in one accord and in one mind are found 13 times in the first few chapters. You see, it was not necessary to have to keep talking about love when they were all walking in love.

His great teaching on the gifts of the Spirit and First Corinthians 12 and 14, Paul stopped mid-stream to write chapter 13, on the role of love in the operation of the gifts. He made it clear that unless love is the motivator for the gifts, I am nothing, I convey nothing, and I gain nothing. Not even mountain-moving faith can operate fully without love, because, and this is the key to getting healed and staying healed, faith works by love.

Paul concluded that there now abides faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love, because love never fails. But without love, faith fails, and hope dies. This is why it is impossible to walk in faith and not walk in love, and it is why some Christians do not receive their healing and or keep it. Walking in love is both vertical and horizontal.

When we know how much God loves us, we believe his word to heal us, and we don't allow fear to paralyze our faith because perfect love casts out fear. We must also walk in love towards others in the body of Christ. So, if you have done all you can do to purify and strengthen your faith, and you feel your faith is rising, and yet still you have not received your healing, it's time to check your love walk.

Where there is bitterness, criticism, judgmentalism, jealousy, a lack of faith is not the problem, but a lack of love. I learned all these things on my journey to healing that I still must apply every day. And this groundbreaking teaching is a two-CD set and can be ordered for a love gift of $15 or more for the radio ministry.

To order Walking in Healing by Love, mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or shop online at SoundofFaith.org where it's also available on MP3s. Till next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying, Maranatha.