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How many like to be loved? Let’s start in Matthew 10:34, Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me is not worthy of me. I think that scripture tells you as much about who is saved and who isn’t as any place in the Bible. He’s not come to send peace but a sword, and that is to divide those who don’t want God. They may say they do, but they’re religious. Jesus said, I’ve come to separate those that want Me and those that don’t. Those who don’t want Me can go their own way but I’m going to have a people on the earth who love Me and want Me. You may have some contact at times with those who don’t want Him, but the reality is if you allow someone to own your soul you’re in trouble. You have to understand the difference between owning and authority. Those that have authority you submit to. We need to understand that God sees and knows that your enemies are your family more than anyone else. In our social church today they really frown on that. But Jesus is the one who said it. He said, I am so valuable to you that if you love anyone else more than Me, you’re not worthy of Me. He’s looking for a wife. The church is the wife, and He says, If you don’t love Me more than anyone else in the world, or anything, I don’t want you. I’m not going to marry you. The only place you’ll find true love is from Jesus. He’s the one who will teach you what true love is. True love is harsh if you don’t have grace, because true love is truth. Jesus came full of truth and grace. He tells you what to do, and He gives you a period of time to learn how to do it. That’s what grace is. He said, if you love anyone more than Me, you’re not worthy of Me. If it wouldn’t be Jesus speaking, I would say that’s arrogant. But because He is perfect in all of His ways, and He and His Father own everything, it’s not arrogant. We need to understand before we even talk about love, what God expects of you and me. Matthew 16:24, Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. If any man comes after Jesus, for Him to love you, and know you, you have to deny yourself. Do you know how hard it is to deny yourself? You have to be in a place where you don’t know anything. That’s almost rare in our society today. Everybody thinks they know everything. But to get God’s attention, we have to come to the place where we are broken and humble, knowing nothing. Verse 25, For whosoever will save his life shall lose it… God called Jacob a worm. To save your life is not to be a worm and crawl around the issues that you need to face. Stand up and be a man, you worm. How would you like it if I would tell you that? That’s what God said to Jacob. You’re a worm. You’re crawling around. You’re not facing reality, you’re not facing what you need to be facing. If you crawl around like a worm you’re going to lose your soul. …and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Our attitude must be, am I doing what Jesus said I’m supposed to? If He didn’t commission it, it’s not worth anything. It won’t get you where you need to be, or where you want to go, if you want to get to heaven and be with Him. Verse 26, For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? If your soul isn’t prepared to meet God, what are you going to give in exchange for your soul to get there? There is nothing. Jesus came to save your soul and the soul contains all of the information God needs to know whether you were obedient to Him or not. 2 Corinthians 12:15, And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. The Corinthians had a lot of problems, so Paul had to be pretty straight forward with them to try to help them straighten out. He said, I will very gladly spend and be spent for you. I will help you and I will let you get mad at me, but I’m going to tell you the truth. Then he says, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. The more I love you, the more I want to help you. When I tell you I’m done, do it yourself, then you’ll know I’ve had enough and that’s all I’m going to do. It’s the same way with God. But Paul said, the more I love somebody and want to help them, the angrier they get at me. Isn’t that a wonderful life? I’ve experienced that many times. The more you help somebody the more likely you’ll get ripped off. When you help people you have to understand that you need to first examine, do they really want to change? I’m saying this because that’s what God is looking for. Is there someone on the earth that wants to change and enter into My labor? Would that be a logical thing for God to do? Then it’s not unfair. He’s looking for laborers that will enter into His labor to accomplish what He said He was going to do from the foundation of the world. Romans 9:13, As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What is that? One didn’t want to enter into His labor and the other one did. God loved Jacob because he entered into the labor of God, what His plan was before He started the world. But He hated Esau because he took what was rightfully his (his birthright) as being something that was light and he didn’t think much of it. So God gave it to Jacob and because of that He said, Esau, I’m going to fight your generations until there isn’t anything left on the earth of you. Sweet Jesus. But if we enter into His love, it’s a different story. Romans 10:3, For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. There’s a difference between being righteous and religious. Religious people establish their own laws and righteous people take the laws that God established and they walk in them and obey and get accomplished what God wanted that generation to do. We can’t establish our own righteousness. We must establish the righteousness of God in our lives if we want to walk in His ways. In Daniel 9, Daniel started looking at the numbers in the books and saw that the seventy years were about up. So he began to pray, Lord, you said seventy years ago that after seventy years being removed from the promise land you would start bringing them back. Verse 21, Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. When God gives you a project, a job to do, He gives you skill and understanding. Verse 23, At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved. What could be more precious than an angel coming and telling you that you are greatly loved in heaven? You are greatly loved in heaven because you’ve given up your life, your goals and visions of what you wanted to do and be. You gave it all up and you just did what the Lord asked you to do. That’s what Daniel did from a young age, and in the middle of hell. Daniel 10:8, Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. When God gives you a vision, you see heaven and the purity of heaven, and when you see it, you realize how wicked mankind is and how much you have not yet fully removed the world in you. And that’s what Daniel did. When he saw that vision, he melted and all he saw was the corruption that was still in him. When that happens there is a quick move to say, Lord, whatever you want done I’ll do. You realize how much you need Him and it solidifies the fact that you have to do exactly what Jesus said. You have to give up everything no matter who or what it is, to accomplish His will in purity. Jesus even told His own mother, what do I have to do with you? This gives you a background of what God is looking for and what it takes to enter into His love. You can’t enter into His love unless you have done the things we have talked about up to this point. You can’t enter into His love. He will labor for you, but He doesn’t give His love to just anybody. In fact, in the first church in Revelation He says if you don’t return to your first love He will come and take it away from you. John 13:31, Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. If you give God the glory so the world can see that there is a living God, He will then glorify you in the death of the world in you. When the world is removed from you then He puts His glory on you. Verse 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. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice. John 14:6, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. The only way you can enter into the presence of the Father is through the veil, and Jesus is the veil. We must serve the Lord that He can cleanse us so we won’t die trying to enter into the Holy of Holies. John 14:12, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. I believe the greatest work that we can do is put satan’s helpers in the bottomless pit so those that are in dungeons and prisons can come out. Satan’s little helpers are those that keep people in prison. We can’t save anybody, but we can put those that have died not in the Lord and are trying to keep others in prison and away from God so they can live in you, in the pit. When someone dies without the Lord they will go to live in someone who is still on the earth to try to live their life through them. They speak to you in the night through dreams and nightmares. If you are full of the Lord and you love Him and are fellowshipping with Him, He will come and speak to you in the night, in night visions and night dreams. But He can’t do that if you have demonic activities in you and they are speaking to you in the night through dreams. We have to remove the unclean spirits still living in us. The greater works we will do is putting the kingdom of satan in the bottomless pit. Jesus never did. He sent them to arid places but we are to put them in the bottomless pit. But it’s still Him doing it because without Him we can’t do it. We’re just the vessel that carries the authority of God. John 15:9, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. We come to the Lord because of His purity and we learn to love God and His Son and Holy Spirit and His kingdom. When we begin to love His kingdom we’re willing to go through a whole lot more. We can tolerate many things. I believe that I am where I’m at today as a result of my experience with Jesus when He came into the room after months and months of studying, trying to figure out if God was who everybody told me He was. I said, if He is going to be mean I don’t want to be there. I want to go somewhere else. So I studied and studied and He finally came to me in His love and when He put His love on me it never left. The first church in Revelation lost their first love. He says you need to renew your love. Verse 10, If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love. Jesus said, if you love Me, keep My commandments, which is to say, if you really love Me, My commandments will not be grievous to you. …even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. To have joy is to have love in your heart. Verse 12, This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. I have cattle and I went to a cattle breeder not too long ago. When I pulled into the drive he had beautiful show cattle around the front of the barn. Then he said, I want to take you out and show you my cows. We went out there and their backs were sticking up, where they didn’t have any meat on the back bone. They weren’t anything to look at. They looked like a bunch of broken down old cows. What am I trying to say? I’m saying this: God’s not looking for a show Christian. He’s looking for an old cow that is willing to give up their beauty to bring forth what He wants. You can’t have a fat cow have little ones and expect to not have any problems. But you switch from a show animal to one who produces. When a woman gets married, she prances around all fixed up and everything is nice. But then when it comes time for children to come, things change from a show wife to a wife that is going to produce, and there’s a difference. Maybe you’ve never noticed, but I do. That’s what God is looking for. He’s looking for a person who is willing to be a laborer and not one that shows by looks. You have to dig in there and you have to get it done no matter what it takes and that’s not pretty most of the time, but that’s what it takes. Verse 16, Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. It talks in other places of the scripture about being ordained as well. God took me and broke me, and then He took me to a place where I could be with Him, and as I prayed and was broken before Him, He came and ordained me to do a job. Do you know what it means to be ordained? It means to give you everything you need to accomplish the task. I believe that President Trump is ordained of God to accomplish a task, and it’s going to happen. God ordains every person that is holy to do a job. That means going beyond righteousness. Holiness is giving up everything for Him. He said, I chose you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. God is looking for those He can ordain to accomplish His will. We need to think of it in these terms: as God loves us and ordains us to do a job, we can do it. That’s why we have to come to a place where we aren’t moved by what anyone says or thinks of us. Romans 5:5, And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. There was a time after someone tried to destroy me that I walked in shame. But that shame is removed because God’s love is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit. One time I went shopping with my wife and she went into a store and I stayed out in the common area. There was a young man and woman sitting there and he was a mess. But she was crawling all over him, kissing him, right there in the center of the mall. She didn’t have any shame at all. She was all over him right there in front of everybody. I thought, you know, if Christians would be that bold and not be ashamed of the gospel what we could do. Because she loved him she didn’t care what anybody else saw or thought. We shouldn’t be ashamed because the love of God is shed in our hearts, and if it’s shed in our hearts then we can’t be moved because we know who we are in Christ. Romans 8:28, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. That’s the way God thinks. All things work together for good to them that love God, because we were given a gifting and we accepted it and we’ve been ordained. And if we stay faithful to Him it will be accomplished. 1 Corinthians 2:5, That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. This passage right here is the foundation of my laboring to know God. When I got tired of being in charge I said, I know that the church has not told me very many truths because I don’t see any of the things happening that are in the scripture. I ran across this passage and I said, this is what I want, God. I want to know who You are. I want to know the deep things of God, so I can serve the living God. He won’t share His glory with a spiritual force in you. He came and loved me when I had a lot of stuff in me, but I was seeking Him with everything I had. That’s what we need. When we die without God’s love, we will never feel His love again. Now is the time to know Him and His love. 
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AuthorLarry Troyer |
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