Loving others same as yourselves

The speaker discusses their thoughts on prayer, miracles, and the operation of spiritual gifts. They mention that the Lord interrupted their thoughts and told them to love others more than themselves. They believe that learning to love others in this way is important for ministry. They also talk about the importance of sacrifice in all types of ministry, including intercessory prayer. They explain that intercessory prayer is not a gift, but a ministry that requires dedication and self-giving. They believe that many people are being called to a ministry of prayer in these last days. They emphasize the need for everyone to pray and the importance of developing in ministry. They mention that their goal as a pastor is to help people become the greatest Christians they are capable of being. They encourage listeners to learn what it means to love others more than themselves and to let go of self-centeredness. They acknowledge that not everyone is lovable, but remind listeners that Jesus died I want to just jump into this basically because I don't know what else to do is just jump in before I left after I was I it was sometime after I finished my last shift in Schenectady and before we left for Wisconsin the Lord I was I was dwelling on I was thinking about prayer and what makes prayer work and what makes miracles work and what makes the gifts of the Spirit operate and things along those lines I was just thinking about that and the Lord interrupted my my thoughts and I guess I could call it a meditation I would just like I was driving down the road wasn't doing anything special but I was just thinking about those things and thinking about how those things need to happen in our ministries more and more often they're just thinking about it and the Lord interrupted me when I was thinking about how to basically minister the way Jesus did the way the Apostles did and Lord said love others as you love yourself that means that he's been dealing with Amber along the same lines that's what that little that's what that giggle means okay yep okay so very good well that's what he told me love others more than you love yourself I don't think we really know how to do that yet I don't think we I think we are if we're going to give any kind of serious effort toward that and this is all has to be individually of course there's there's no way for for me to be able to preach enough to make you love somebody else more than yourself this is a very personal sort of thing and so whenever he's speaking anything to me I have discovered by experience that it also is for the church but whether this is just for me right now and for the church later I don't know but I'm just sharing it with you because I think it's good advice for all of us and lo and behold there are many places in Scripture which talk about that coincidentally and so I don't think any of us knows how to do that yet we have moments we have our moments where somebody else's need is more important than ours but it's just moments it's just flashes in time it's just it's just the opportunity presents itself and the Lord moves on us with such compassion that there's nothing more important than this person getting there and need answered in their prayer you know prayers met and all of that stuff we feel that from time to time Jesus felt that 24-7 he felt that all the time and we don't I'm including me and you we we do not generally at the end of the day as long as we are taken care of or our families are taken care of yes yeah there's definitely a convenience factor if it's inconvenient will have a tendency not to yeah it's and it's not it's not our fault entirely our culture that we have grown up in been raised in and lived in operates that way this country is horrible that way and yes we do and we have been made to operate that way our entire lives and so we bring that concept unwittingly unknowingly not meaning to but we bring that concept into the church and at the end of the day whatever happens here as long as I can go home and I have my food and I can get my rest in my particular way I want them well that's that that's fine then as long as I can have that as long as I can be comfortable and taken care of it may or may not have happened for them but I can I have this now so I'm fine and that is more important than the other at the end of the day that's how we operate that's how we operate and if we are going to have what we say we want we are going to have to learn how to love others more than we love ourselves more than we love ourselves there are ministries that are currently budding currently in the process of taking off many of them are prayer ministries not everybody that has a ministry that is beginning is here tonight most of those ministries that I'm referring to are here tonight not everybody but most of you you have a either you are operating a ministry to a degree or you are you're getting your feet wet and you're becoming comfortable in a ministry much of those ministries are prayer ministries not all but most of them fall into the category of prayer ministry and prayer ministry is no different than any other ministry doesn't work unless whoever or whatever you're praying for it is so important to you that that gets taken care of that you are willing to sacrifice your own time your own well-being your own needs to see that that happens all ministry is self-sacrifice no matter what label no matter what type of ministry it is all ministry is self-sacrifice all of it all of it intercessory prayer I'll just use that as an example because there are several ministries that are developing and we're becoming more comfortable and getting more active in intercessory prayer intercessory prayer is not a gift I used to refer to it as a gift years ago I used to refer to the gift of intercession when I look in the scriptures I don't see a gift of intercession it's not a gift like one of the gifts of the Spirit is a gift the gift of healing that's a gift gift of faith that's a gift gift of knowledge wisdom those are gifts intercessory prayer is not a gift intercessory prayer is a ministry it is a ministry not a gift a gift comes to you when you need it spiritually speaking it comes to you if somebody is walking up to you and needs healing for example the gift of the Spirit can operate you can pray for that person they can be healed that gift came to you so to speak so you could use it intercessory prayer is not that way intercessory prayer is not a gift intercessory prayer for those who are being called to that ministry is just that it is a ministry a ministry is something you give yourself to it is not a gift that comes to you it is a gift that you give yourself you are the gift to that ministry so to speak it's different it is 180 degrees different sometimes than what we think a gift versus a calling if you are feeling a prompting if you feel very very led to pray in any way you are being called to prayer and if you find yourself doing that very very often on a consistent basis that may be a calling to a ministry of prayer a ministry of prayer it is my personal belief that in the apostolic church in general worldwide I'm talking about worldwide there is probably the Lord is probably calling more people to a ministry of prayer than to anything else especially in these last days I believe that there is a minute he wants a ministry of prayer to be happening everywhere everybody needs to pray everybody must pray the Bible says it is a sin not to pray and so everybody prays but there is no such thing as a gift of intercession anymore is there than there is a gift of pastoring I found out there's no gift of pastoring by the way I have discovered that there is no gift of pastoring there is no gift of understanding the Bible either you have to give yourself to those types of things if you want them to succeed not telling you anything that you don't already know but I think the Lord is going to take these pieces that I'm giving us and put them together in such a way to where we will be more consistent in seeing the things happen that we want to happen and that will happen in two ways I'm all over the board here so please forgive me this will come more into focus in the days and weeks to come this will happen in two ways amen it will happen with your own personal sacrifice and your own quest so to speak if I can put it that way of loving others more than yourself as you get better at that then your ministry will operate like it needs to and it will also come from ministry development as we as the church as I some of the other leaders here help you to develop in your ministry and that will also cause your ministry to flourish brother Hasper had a saying years ago is one of the first things he told me when I set foot in this church and it was never a mission statement but it really is and he said that this church exists to help people to become the greatest Christians they are capable of being that's the baseline of what we're all about because if you become the greatest Christian you are capable of being that means that your capabilities as a Christian are going to match your potential they're going to match your potential not everybody who gets the Holy Ghost and is baptized in Jesus name is going to be the next Apostle Paul there are varying talents that the Lord gives there are varying degrees of understanding with us naturally and there are varying degrees of commitment with people some people are very committed to the spiritual things things of God some people are just casual always have been seemingly always will be so there's varying degrees of all of that that the Lord is using but if we and I'm pastoring here if I can help you to become the greatest Christian you are capable of being that just simply means that I'm helping you to reach your full potential in what you're capable of doing it takes the pressure off it takes the pressure off because I'm not asking you to be anybody other than you all you have to do is be the best you you can be whatever that means whatever that means and so those two things are in play and will will come up again and again and again as we start on this path when you learn what it means to love somebody else more than yourself there's a lot to that I think that part of that means that we should probably not love ourselves as much as we do that will make it easier for us to reach the bar if you have a very high opinion yourself or if you have a very strong belief that you should have your own things in your own world as comfortable as possible it is going to be very difficult for you to match that when you're looking at somebody else who may not be that lovable because not everybody out there is lovable sorry to burst your bubble if you thought they were there are some people and sorry this is all about real okay there are some people you look at him and you go and you take a step back ok those are the people that Jesus died for and loved more than himself everybody and we need to develop the ability to love everybody else not more than ourselves but equal to ourselves equal to ourselves love others as much as you love yourself how many of you have ever had a sick child when you were raising children raise your hand if you ever had somebody raising your Michael you had a sick child he's been holding out majorly I guess you're recording this right this will be one whale of a training sermon if I was in training so a lot of hands went up all of all of our six children were sick at some point of course as all children do get sick some of them quite seriously how many of you when you were in that spot and you were looking at your child that was so sick would have traded places with them if it would meant that they would get better raise your hand if you've ever felt that that's what I'm talking about tonight that's what I'm talking about tonight that's what the Lord wants to do wants us to do for every single person we meet every single person that comes through those doors every single person you work with you whatever every divine appointment their lost condition and their desperate situation needs to be just as important to you as what I just described and all you have to do is think back to when your child was sick and that you would have traded places with them if they would have made better all you have to do is use that example and then look at this person and go do I want them to change do I want them to get saved as bad as that and that will be a good benchmark for you to figure out do I really love others as much as I love myself you wanted me back on Wednesdays here I am to love others as much as you love yourself means that if you were in their situation and they were in yours how badly would you want your problem solved would you want them to keep at it until you were actually fixed you would do we really want to keep at it a lot of times to actually see their problem fixed we are to a degree as long as the sacrifices and too much as long as the time commitment is only so much and we operate that way we operate that way I operate that way you operate that way to a large degree like I said we have flashing moments of victory when it's not that way but that's all it is and we label those as our testimonies are those we testify about testify about those things services that go that way we label those as good services and we wonder when we're going to have the next good service we're going to have the next good service when we reach out and love like we did with the previous service when we had our victory let me go back to the budding ministries in here for a minute now that I've said that if you are being called to a particular ministry and many of you are your ministry is not about learning how to pray or learning how to preach or learning how to teach those things are secondary it's not about that it's not about the function in doing it first and foremost it is about how much do you love the degree that you love others will be the degree of the success of your ministry whatever that ministry is whether it's a pulpit ministry whether it's a prayer ministry whether it's a teaching ministry whether it's a Bible study ministry whether it's a witnessing evangelistic type ministry the type of ministry doesn't matter the success or lack of success in any ministry matches your degree of being able to love others because when you truly love somebody else and you truly see them in a horrific situation you don't have to you don't think about former function you're not thinking about how can I analyze how can I best you jump in and go that's what you do you figure it out as you go but you jump in and go because I love them and they're in trouble gone ministry is that's really all ministry is every ministry is all about taking Jesus with you and going to help this person because you love them so much and you want to see them saved fixed delivered healed helped whatever the case may be they've got to hear about the gospel because they don't know about the gospel they're gonna be lost if they don't hear the gospel and I'm gonna give them the gospel and it comes from a love in your heart not from okay how am I supposed to witness to this person now you see the difference one is about form and function and trying to figure it out up here and another one comes from here Jesus operated from here he operated from here there's no way he could have gone to a cross except he had an unbelievable unfathomable love for the people he was hanging there for you don't walk through a whole crowd who's spitting at you and wishing you dead and hitting you and punching and kicking you and then hanging on the cross for their well-being it just doesn't happen it doesn't happen it doesn't happen and we cannot minister holding anything back because Jesus didn't hold anything back I can't remember where it is right now Lord just reminded over Paul was in one particular church and he said I've held nothing back from you camera which letter that's in you'll have to find it for me sometime I came is basically I came here and I gave everything that I could possibly give without holding anything back that's ministry that's successful ministry that's successful ministry ministry that is measured ministry that is only going so far ministry that will only you know make it so far that's only that's flesh that's where flesh operates true Holy Ghost ministry will take you further than you ever thought you were going to go you're going to be saying things that you never dreamed that you were going to be saying and you're going to have results that you know Jesus did that and not me because you took it into that area and it is love that takes us into that area that we typically call anointing it is nothing more than an outreach of love and when and here's your tipping point I used to I struggled for years how do I make the gifts of healing work I want to figure out how to pray for somebody that could be healed or you could do any gift of the Spirit well here's what it is uh-huh when your love for that person tips and it has become stronger than your love for yourself they'll get healed they'll get healed if it is the Lord's will if it is the Lord's will yeah remember you got it you got somebody else's opinion here at work you got somebody else's purpose that you are working for you're not working for yourself when you're but to consistently see people healed I don't know of anybody that every every single person they pray for ever that is their healed I'm just using healing as an example because it's the easy one but coming up on Sunday we have somebody come up if you're praying for people and you approach somebody and they're sick instead of just laying hands on them and praying for them and then moving on to the next person what would you think would happen if you took a minute and just ask them what's going on what do we need to pray about and when they tell you you react to that problem as if that was your problem if that was your situation if you walk up to somebody and they say you know my knee has just been giving me so much trouble I can hardly walk and you see him limping in what if that was you limping in would you want that taken care of how about what do you think would happen if we prayed for that person like that was your problem instead of just praying for them I've prayed for them I've laid hands I've prayed for them and we move on what if you stuck with it and you prayed for them and you believe God like that was your needed needed healing and you'd be the one limping out of here if it didn't happen I wonder if that would change our prayer I wonder if that would change the way that we pray that's what Jesus did whoever he was praying for whatever the need was that need was so important to him because of his love for them that it was more important at that moment for that person to get healed than anything else in his world and it was person-by-person moment-by-moment sometimes it was a whole crowd of people the reason that he was able to multiply fish and bread a number of different times and feed thousands was because of his love for them he was concerned they were hungry you sit anywhere for three days they sat there no porta-potties yeah that's a town that's a small city 5,000 and well beside women and children whatever doesn't matter if it was ten or fifteen thousand versus five he was teaching them for three days they'd get up in the morning of the sleep I arise crowds still there day after day after day for three days and finally the disciples go hey Jesus send them away they got it we something man Jesus looked on them and he was just he was concerned that they hadn't eaten now that sounds like a mom doesn't it you got to eat something here you need vegetables all you've had is candy did it oh you need a good meal that is love and when Jesus looked out on those crowds he loved them and was concerned about showing off he could he was not what that was about he loved them and he said I don't want to send them away let's be faint on the way they've been fasting for three days and he knew that if he sent them away into town to go find food someplace that some of them were gonna faint on the way they weren't even gonna be able to make the journey that's love Jesus wasn't gonna faint it wasn't gonna be any skin off his nose okay guys you can go away go get some food you know I appreciate you being here for three days I love all of you go ahead and get some food go go go he didn't want them to faint in the way that's love that's compassion that was how he operated the Bible says God is love he is love you and I are not love except if the fruit of the spirit of love is operating we need to take pay way more attention to the fruits of the spirit than we have before because that is not uh-huh I know the fruits of the spirit are not gifts those are not gifts of the spirit if they were gifts of the spirit there would be 18 gifts of the spirit those are fruits of the spirit not gifts of the spirit a gift to the spirit comes from the spirit to us we operate it and whatever that gift is is done a fruit of the spirit is not just given to be used in a moment a fruit is grown a fruit is developed a fruit does not just come when you need it it has to take time to grow to develop to become sweet on the vine all fruit comes from a plant or a tree or a vine of some kind and is grown and developed it is grown and developed and that fruit of love is agape love it is God's unconditional love that is the fruit that fruit needs to be in our lives to such a degree that it is operating where we can reach out to somebody with a true heart of compassion no matter what they look like no matter what they smell like no matter what the background is no matter if they love you or hate you a true heart of compassion that looks like that it's like somebody comes up to you that is your enemy they would rather spit in your face than talk to you they don't want it they'd rather see you dead than alive and you would give them the last dollar out of your wallet and the shirt off your back and say if I could do more to help you I would they say I want you dead and turn around and leave with your dollar in your shirt that's where the fruit of the spirit makes up the difference because you and I are not capable of loving in that type of a situation we can't do it we can't do it you show me the most empathetic compassionate person in this world cannot love in that type of a situation it's not possible not possible only the unconditional love of Jesus flowing through you will operate in that situation and so the fruit of love needs to be developed in us all of us so that it flows all the time like it did with Jesus like it did with Jesus there's been very very seldom very very few times in the course of my spiritual life here I've served Lord now for almost 30 years and there's been a few times just a few where I have looked at somebody who was lost and was able to weep for them just because they were lost walking down the street sometimes so every once in a while somebody would catch my eye don't know from Adam or Eve and also I just start crying for him because they're lost and it just kind of wells up doesn't happen that often Jesus that happened all the time because that was his mode of operation he didn't try to he didn't have to conjure that up he wasn't trying to figure out how to do that there's no figuring out how to do that you either love or you don't and if you truly love like Jesus did you'll weep and you'll reach out amen raise our hands for a minute I'm all over the place I'm just trying to follow the Holy Ghost but I think you get the idea of where he's taken us in Jesus name in the name of Jesus in the name of Jesus Jesus name in Jesus name in Jesus name if you are being called to a ministry if you are being called to a ministry this is where you need to put your focus this is where you need to put your focus it's not about a title it's not about a position it's not about doing this or that it's not about having a place in the church so to speak not about any of those things if the Lord is calling you to a ministry it means he is calling you to service to people he is calling you to be service in service to people whether it's in a particular place or if you're out on the street no matter what it is that you're doing you are simply being called to serve strangers with a love that Jesus supplies to you so you can serve those strangers and do God's will in the process that is all ministry is you may have a title you may not have a title you may it doesn't matter if you have a specific place or a specific title no matter if you have a desk or an office none of that stuff matters none of that stuff matters that's just organizational bottom line is if you are being called to a ministry if you're being called to a prayer ministry Jesus knows you're going to have a very difficult time to pray for hours for people you don't even know your brain is going to come up with 50,000 other things that are more important for you to do I know I've had them all prayed through my mind when I was trying to pray Jesus knows you our ability to love is going to limit how far we're going to put ourselves out there for somebody else and unfortunately the majority of the apostolic world is operating in that way we have operated in that way again we have flashes of glory where God let us reach past all of that but I believe the Lord is trying to take us to a place where it's more consistent and it's as we develop our ability to love others that is where that's where it's going to come from that's where it's going to come from ultimately that's where it has to be at as bad as this world is getting as bad as this world is getting doesn't matter when the end times what stage we are doesn't matter when you know Jesus come before after the tribulation forget it none of that stuff matters none of that stuff matters the Bible says that when Jesus comes back whenever that is whenever that is this world is going to be in the same condition it was in Noah's day we are going to be literally surrounded by people that can't even think any good thoughts let alone do anything good you are literally going to be surrounded by wickedness that we cannot we're starting to see glimpses of it we're starting to see it but the scope of it is going to blow our minds it really is how can you look at somebody like that and love them as much as you love yourself it's only going to get harder so they're going to get harder for you to be able to get yourself into a place of prayer and pray your guts out and cry and intercede and get in the spirit and exhaust yourself for people that are lost that you know they slap you in the face just as much as look at you that requires anointing that requires love that requires the anointing from God that comes from a heart of compassion that only can come from Jesus Christ and that heart of compassion becomes a part of you as a fruit of the Spirit it can't be separated from you as you allow that fruit to develop it becomes a part of you so you become more like Jesus in that area the fruits of the Spirit are they get overlooked compared to the we see the nine fruits of the Spirit and we see the nine gifts of the Spirit and all a Pentecost goes I want the gifts they do I did for a long time I almost ignored the fruits of the Spirit for a long time because I wanted to guess uh-huh guess how the gifts come by not ignoring what comes and there's eight other fruits of the Spirit besides love lots of them we've named them here pretty often actually for the for the purposes of this next little while if we're going to develop what the Lord wants us to develop I think we can ignore the next eight and just focus on loving others as much as we love ourselves if you begin be careful if you begin praying Lord help me to love others as much as I love myself you will yep happen to me in Appleton I guess it's just this little thing the Lord allowed me to step into that he would let me pray about he would let me study but he did let me get cut off in traffic what's your reaction my reaction was not anger it was totally supernatural I didn't react the way I normally would act and nobody else do it but I was in my mind I was going I'm not as far away as I thought I was I guess I truly felt sorry for the person and then on the drive back he let me cut somebody off it almost created a road rage incident that was fun I was moving over into a lane and we were on the first through way I think we were in Ohio and oh wherever it was there's somewhere along there and I was moving over and of course we came back with much more stuff than we left just which is normal for us because there's so many things good things to buy out there and come back with it and so I couldn't see very well out of the back window of our car and so mirror was clear what I could see behind me was clear I mean I paid attention I before I moved over I don't know if they moved over from another lane I don't know where they came from but I was halfway into that lane all of a sudden somebody was blaring on their horn and like holding on like I could hear it like somebody there and I moved back well they didn't let it go after I moved back over they spent past me kind of swerved over to the car a little bit and then got in front of me and slammed on their brakes yep the old me might have operated a little differently but coming back from that it didn't bother me it just didn't bother me they carried on their little tirade and then they took off I was happy they took off here you know that one must have been on me I still don't know where he came from the thing that holds us okay pride okay I'll just say it pride pride pride is what makes our stuff important to us pride long story short if our needs and our comfort and our whatever is more important than somebody else's that's pride we don't look at it like that we're not trying to be prideful we're not thinking about it like that but when it comes right down to it whenever you're putting yourself before somebody else that's pride and if at the end of the day we can look at somebody in a hard situation and we've prayed for them or whatever we've we've talked to them and we can let them go on in our mind we're kind of thinking well glad that's not me I get to go home to this that's precisely the thing that is holding us back that that mindset that mindset that is what whole is holding us back and shutting down the anointing to the degree where the gifts are not operating as they normally would Jesus never did that he never did that and that what I just described could manifest itself in a thousand different ways in our life there's no way for me to be able to preach about them all that's where we all this becomes a very individual thing if you truly want to be used by God and all of you do I know you all do I do if we truly want to be used like the Apostles were and have the results that the Apostles had it's not a matter of understanding scripture better it's not a matter of looking at scripture until we figure out the key the key because the key is not a scripture the key is this the key is love the key is love the key is love if you love somebody as much as you love yourself your natural tendency will be to reach out to them and help them in whatever you see their need is to be a natural tendency you want to figure out how even if you do it wrong just the fact that you reach out with a heart of compassion when in reality it doesn't make any difference one way or the other if their problem gets fixed to you you still get to go home you still get to go have your things you still go eat supper whatever it is but when that starts to when their situation starts to matter to you to the degree where you have to see that fixed for them that is a sign that you have a heart of compassion and you are loving them as much as you are loving yourself your own situation I don't want to go too much longer because I could go for hours days but this is where the Lord is taking us we just read this last little passage of scripture here and we'll probably call it a night depending on what the Holy Ghost wants we've read this so many times Matthew 22 starting in verse 36 greatest commandment second commandment after that I knew by your giggle Matthew 22 36 to 40 master which is the great commandment in the law Jesus said unto him thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy mind this is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it in my mind that means down it only this far below you can't even hardly measure the distance between what's top and what's next second because they are both basically just as important with God of course edging that out because he's Jesus and we have to love him first and foremost but Jesus only wants us to love him maybe a millimeters more than everybody else so the second commandment is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself as you love yourself this is the second commandment it is like unto the first commandment because God loves everybody like that and he commands us if we're going to be like him to love everybody like that but there's another verse right after that which sometimes gets overlooked on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets in other words the whole rest of the Bible is supported by the ability your ability to love God first and to love other people as yourself those two capabilities cause the rest of the Bible to work for you it's that important just getting these first two commandments down to where you love Jesus until your heart is bursting overflowing with love and you love people that same way on those two things your ability to do those two things literally all of the law and all of the prophets in other words the rest of the Bible the functioning of the Bible we try to make the Bible work for us we try to follow scripture and have it work for us and we do to a degree but all of those scriptures are supported by the fact that you can love Jesus first and foremost and you can love others as you love yourself that is what makes the rest of this work and when we don't love others as we love ourselves there's an awful lot of scriptures that don't work for us that's that word hang on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets all the law and the prophets Sunday comes anyone of you might be praying for somebody to receive the Holy Ghost how do you know they're going to get it when you love that person to the degree that you want to see them receive the Holy Ghost more than you want to eat dinner that night they'll get the Holy Ghost they'll get the Holy Ghost when you're praying with them just as hard as you would pray yourself if you were receiving the Holy Ghost trying to receive the Holy Ghost that's when they're going to receive the Holy Ghost it's when your love for them makes reaches that tipping point equals your love for yourself that is where the point where ministry is successful that's the point where ministry works that's the point where you come out of an intercessory prayer session and God has literally moved heaven and earth while you were praying you know it you can't describe it to anybody else but you know what happened you were there and the Lord used you in that way that only works with a here's an old Christian ease term burden burden what is a burden a burden for a person means that you love them so much and you want to see this happen for them so much that you're willing to put it out there and that becomes the fuel and the weight for that prayer and you can only quit praying until that burden lifts that's what fuels intercession that is literally nothing more than the love of God coming through you reaching for that person that he loves that much that's what a burden is made of a burden is nothing more than God's love flowing through you if it stops up in you it can't reach the person and that thing doesn't work like it all comes to a grinding halt when you can truly love somebody else that's when that burden will flow and that's when that prayer ministry will become truly effective because that's when Jesus is interceding for that person through you it's when we can love others more than we love ourself and in our American Western culture we can equate that easiest by asking ourselves a few simple questions would I be willing to give up everything I have if somebody could receive the Holy Ghost things like that am I willing to literally exhaust myself and be done for the rest of the day when I have 20 more things to do if this means this person will get saved some people will answer no if they're going to be honest I can pray for him but I've got these other things to do and they're important things and they might legitimately be important things that's that's that's the thing right there and the Lord began showing me all of that by simply just saying you need to love others like you love yourself and I just sat with that thought in my brain for the last week and a half or so not knowing where it was going to go this isn't even begun yet I know that it hasn't I know that it hasn't this is just following the Holy Ghost and you will discover truly how important you want your ministry to be if you've been called to a ministry you've been called by the Lord you know you've been called by the Lord just I don't know if I've been called to the Lord to do the things that I'm doing even before I had all of this type of thing is even thinking about along these lines I always wanted to do the best job for Jesus that I could I wanted to be successful not because I wanted success I wanted to do the best if he called me and if he placed me here to do the things that I'm doing I truly want to do the best job for him that I can do I've always had that mindset I've had that going for me anyway not had gotten everything right but I had that mindset anyway I always wanted to do the best for Jesus that I could and sometimes I felt miserable but I always came back to that always want to do the best job that I can possibly do for him and that's all really that can be expected of any of us but he's going to take that if you have that mindset he's going to take that and multiply it and add all these things and you'll be wildly successful more than you ever imagined you could be simply by learning how to love strangers sometimes unlovable people just by learning that I've actually had a very good just personally speaking put your Bibles away done reading scripture but just being in the medical field alone does give you pretty good practice for this sort of thing because I have put people on my CT table and when taking x-rays of them I can't tell you how many people over the years that I have x-rayed their hands because they punched a wall or a door out of anger hundreds I know it's hundreds probably several hundred and they always have what's called the boxers fracture fifth metatarsal right here is always and they come in their hands all swollen what happened punched the wall and I'm putting their hand on the x-ray plate going you idiot and the more I have learned to love people the less I have put their hand on the plate and gone you idiot doesn't do that doesn't happen that way anymore doesn't work that way anymore even though it was totally self-inflicted totally unnecessary you almost got both hands early on I even said a couple of times you should have used your left hand but to care for others in the medical realm in any way when you know their background and you know they don't have to be here and what they were doing was illegal or totally stupid and to care for them anyway with true compassion is a natural version of what we're trying to do in the spirit it really is those of you that haven't had the pleasure the opportunity to do that sort of thing in the medical world I'm sure there's other ways where you can kind of relate to what I'm saying and so I've had some practice and many of you have had some practice doing these types of things and the less you have to work through in your brain whether you've ever ministered to somebody or you've dealt with a situation that was completely unnecessary and they're just being idiots or in the medical field or whatever the less your brain is telling you really stupid you don't say these things but you're thinking you're thinking of it is just on this Jesus didn't do that he didn't think that he didn't struggle with those types of things first the Bible doesn't tell us what all was Jesus was thinking but at the bottom of it the bottom line his motivation was always just a heart of compassion a heart of compassion a heart of compassion it was his that was it it was compassion for others compassion c.o.m. compassion means with passion c.o.m. means with with passion it wasn't just it wasn't just a casual thing everybody he looked at everybody it was with a very strong love that was how he operated and that is how we need to operate if we're going to reach this world as hardened as they are becoming as bad as it is getting they have to feel the passion coming off of us they have to understand that when we go to pray for them this is important to me as it is to you this needs to get taken care of we don't just say that verbally we go we do that in our actions with they understand how much we care by how we approach them and how we talk to them if you truly love them you're going to talk to him and they're going to love is going to come through it's going to come through but you can't fake it you can't drum up this sort of thing at the moment when you see the moment is calling for it it's there or it's not it's there or it's not and if Jesus is flowing through you all of us have the potential for that to be there it can be there it can be there let's all just raise our hands I'm all done preaching for now let's all just raise our hands and ask the Lord to give us this love amen for allowed to let us experience this compassion for others to allow that to become a part of us through the fruit of the Spirit we need this all of us need this all of us need this amen if we're going to succeed as a church going forward it has to be love we have to operate through love we have to be able to love unlovable people we have to love people that are indifferent to us we have to love people that are conflicted we have to love people that are angry we have to love people that are afraid we have to love people that are working against themselves and against our own efforts to help them we have to love all of them with a heart of compassion that Jesus will flow through us with the fruit of the Spirit amen he will allow you to experience negative things from people until you can love them through those experiences instead of becoming defensive instead of recoiling back instead of trying to protect yourself instead of reacting with anger or reacting to them amen there will be a love of compassion that continues to flow when you're mistreated when something doesn't go your way when somebody takes advantage of you all of these different types of things when you can love them through all of that you are becoming qualified to operate the ministry that the Lord Jesus Christ has called you to become in the name of Jesus in the name of Jesus in the name of Jesus in the name of Jesus it's love it's love it's love the love we are going to feel with everybody throughout all eternity in heaven starts here on this earth it starts with us reaching them with them in love so that we can rejoice in eternity together with them with love amen that love in eternity starts here on earth thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus praise God praise God praise God praise God praise God amen amen amen here's how you start something like the Lord is going to give you a starting point so you can understand where you are in this process he's not just going to say what he's just said so far and go okay good luck have at it here's your starting point here's what you do to start you think about the person who has hurt you the most and you pray for them until you can legitimately pray for them to be saved to be blessed to be happy this is what you do the Lord is instructing you to do to start this whatever we're starting for love you think about the person that has done you the most harm who has hurt you the most in any way and you begin praying for them and when you can pray for that person for the Lord to legitimately bless them you pray for them to be happy you pray for them to be blessed who pray for the Lord to give them whatever open the windows of heaven for them and when your feelings match your words what you're feeling inside truly matches that what you're saying you have started on your way to loving others as much as you love yourself that's your starting point and you go from there you go from there I'm back you wanted it amen amen I have to I have to shut up I could the anointing has to stop for this but you guys have had enough oh that is that is excellent yeah so and there is that little verse of scripture that says whatever judgment you meet out is going to be you're gonna be judged by that standard yes yep so I have thought many many many many many times oh I have matched that or exceeded it at times absolutely yes often often often so use that as a good starting point in all of this start there and when you've accomplished that then congratulations and the Lord will take you to step to whatever that is for you no there's never a stopping point in this you can stop when you've met Jesus how about that you can stop when you have matched Jesus amen when you can truly pray for somebody that has hurt you horribly and legitimately feel it that you want them to be blessed you want them to forgot to love them you want them to be saved all you've done all you accomplished at that point is just forgiveness really that means you've really forgiven them that's that's really all that means but it's a good starting point because it gives you a way to measure your feelings against your words it measures your feelings against your words and your feelings have to match your words before you can graduate on the kindergartner in this in this this thing oh yeah if all of our steps as a righteous person are ordered by the Lord if that truly means what it says that means the Lord has allowed you to experience some of these negative things at the hands of those people like you say I better shut up or we might be here a long time at least we have bathrooms nearby you