Love God’s Church & Love God’s Word Series

Sermon series- 6 qualities for spiritual health part 4

4) I love God’s Church and God’s Word.

- Today I’m picking back up with the fourth part of my series about 6 qualities for

spiritual health.

- With the turmoil we’ve had in recent days. I don’t know how closely everyone else

looks at everyday things around you, but I do.

- From the Sunday I chose to have a meeting our Sunday school lessons taught on

coming together, & then working together.

- Our bulletins reflected a similar message.

- Now today, mind you I had these 6 topics put in order well over a month ago.

Q- What should our fourth quality be?

- Love God’s Church & His Word!

- Let’s open our Bibles to John 13:33-35

- To be a healthy Spiritual person, It begins with a mindset.

John 13:33-35

33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.

34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Prayer

> A study was done on sports teams. They found that the more optimistic teams created more positive synergy and performed better than the pessimistic ones.

> Another study showed that pessimistic swimmers who were led to believe they’d done worse than they had were prone to future poor performance. Optimistic swimmers didn’t have this vulnerability.

> Also studied were 34 healthy Hall of Fame baseball players who played between 1900 and 1950, optimists lived significantly longer.

> Other studies have shown that optimistic breast cancer patients had better health outcomes than pessimistic and hopeless patients.

- Immediately from the day God created mankind, He gave us the ability to

better/prosper ourselves or condemn ourselves.

- This is why Jesus literally spells it out to us,

John 13:35

35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

- The Word disciple means follower. This wasn’t clarifying the salvation of these

people.

- It was showing them that to be a true witness of the form of Christ, you must show

the same love that Christ did.

Q-Did Jesus die just for those that loved Him?

- No! He died for those who despised & hated Him.

Q- Do you remember the centurion at the feet of Jesus?

Mark 15:39

39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

Q- This is the only mentioning we have of this man, but don’t you think he was soon to

be saved by the same Jesus he was crucifying?

- This same event is happening all across the world.

- People who we would say, torment will freeze over before they ever get saved, are

getting saved.

Q- How are these people being saved?

- By God leading them away from themselves to the foot of the cross.

- What’s more amazing is, He can use His disciples in this leading.

- From Wednesday night to today I have seen God’s hand moving all around me.

- On Thursday, I had been in deep thoughts & conversations with God all night

& had made a completely out of the norm trip to the post office for stamps.

- I ran into a lady who just asked, can I pray for you.

- We talked & prayed some more.

- God was using one of His Disciples to tell me, I’ve got you Son!

- Listen to this,

1 Thessalonians 4:7-12

7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

9 But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

10 And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;

11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;

12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

- Paul says, Now reach out to the stranger. The one who isn’t in Macedonia.

- Let’s be so close to God that we hear His guidance.