We're all sitting here as Christians because of the love of God. When you think about it, the reason you and I are here today is because of God's love for us. John chapter 3, verse 16 is a scripture that's used very often, in fact one of the most famous and I believe (who was it) Max Lucado wrote a book on it, John 316, the numbers 316. John chapter 3 in verse 16 we read this:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world (All of us were in the world when we were called. Or we were children of people in the church, but still having the attitudes that were still out there in the world.) that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

So we're all sitting here because of God's love for us. God so loved us that He gave His only Son on our behalf. In fact, the reason God did this is because the greatest attribute that you could attribute, that you could give to God is love. I John 4, verses 8 and 16.

I John 4:8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

If you wanted to say, what is the greatest attribute that encompasses all the others that God has, God is love and notice verse 16 once again it's repeated.

Verse 16: And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.

The very nature, the very way that God is, what motivates Him, in fact, what He is, is love.

It's interesting in Matthew 22, verses 36 to 41 when Jesus Christ was asked: What was the greatest commandment, we're looking for the greatest, we want to know what the greatest commandment is? What is the greatest commandment anyhow? Matthew 22, verses 36 to 41, He didn't just stop with one. Of course the lawyer had asked the question, tempting Him, wanting to trap Him and if He said love God, then why are you emphasizing us that we need to love our neighbor? He said love your neighbor and he said ah ha, what about loving God? So Jesus didn't fall into their trap.

Matthew 22: 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Verse 37: Jesus said to him: " You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul, and with all your mind."

I have a quote on this one I thought it was really interesting. I like this one in fact where I finish this section of scripture. When Carl J. Prince for many years the Swedish Console in Toronto appeared on T.V. on his 99th birthday, the interviewer said: "Give us the rule that you have followed during your long and useful life." The Prince replied: "I would mention one definite rule, one must be temperate in all things." Then he added quickly: "Perhaps I should say, except one. You should be temperate in all things except one, to love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. These are the only things that you could rightly do to excess." Be temperate in everything else, but if you want to go to extremes, love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and your being. Aren't those beautiful words?

Going back to Matthew 22, verse 38 He said:

Verse 38: "This is the first and great commandment."

Verse 39: "And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Listen to this brethren. We study the bible from Genesis to Revelation, we do our bible study and we do our prayer, but listen to what He says in verse 40:

Verse 40: "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

All the law and the prophets hang on whether you love the Lord your God and love your fellow man with all your heart. That you love both of them, that those sum up what the bible is driving to teach us, trying to teach us. In fact in Romans 13 and verse 10 tells why. We read this from the Apostle Paul following along Mr. Johnson's bible study:

Romans 13:10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment or the fulfilling of the law.

It takes the love of God to implement the commandments of God, to practice them, to follow them effectively and in fact having Godly love is a matter of life and death, having Godly love is a matter of life and death. I want to read you another quote before I continue.

Bertram Russell commenting on the complexities of this world in the most urgent need for this world, he said: "The root of the matter is very simple and an old fashion thing of things, so simple that I'm almost ashamed to mention it. For the fear of the derisive smile with which wise cynics will greet my words. The thing I need, please forgive me for mentioning it, the greatest need for the world is love, Christian love or compassion." The greatest need that our world has and it is.

How can you know you're headed for eternal life? How can you know you're in the right path?

I John 3:14 We know that we have passed (Or are passing or going toward) from death to life, (how?) because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.

So you see the love of God that we have should translate on how we love our fellow man, because see, if you can love God, you say you love God and you don't love man who you can see, who's made in the image of God and people in the Church of God who have the spirit of God, who have a little bit of God in them. Remember where it says Christ in you, the hope of glory? Christ in you, the hope of glory having the mind of Christ. If our love towards the Father, if our love towards God does not lead us to love our fellow man better, something is wrong with us. We're passing from death to life because we love the brethren. But it just can't be a worldly love and it can't just be an affection. It's got to be a love that we have that is us, that comes from within. Many of us can do loving things for people, but on the surface looks like love, but in fact two people could do the exact same thing, one could do it out of the love of God, one could do it out of the love of self. It really is a matter of the heart. It really is how we are, not from the outside. Well I did that, didn't I, it's the same thing as serving. Do you have a servant's heart? Of course, didn't you see me sweep the floor the other day? That's not a servant's heart, that was a servant's action. A servant's heart doesn't just do it once. A servant's heart doesn't just do it. A servant's heart is looking to do it. The love of God comes from within. I've often said, "People say, How can all these students who went to Ambassador College, who had four years of this, how could so many of them, I count about one tenth, stayed with the truth, and that's from any organization that stuck with the truth. About one tenth. How could they do that?'

Easy. Just like about one tenth of the brethren did it. You can easily externalize Christianity. You can look like a Christian, you can act like a Christian, and not be a Christian, because you can look the part without being the part. And that's why sometimes people get very frustrated in trying to grow and overcome because they've been acting for years. You can externalize it without internalizing it.

We must have that Godly love. We need to have that Godly love. Notice John 21. John was an apostle who loved. The apostle John, I love his books, in fact, faith, hope and love seem to symbolize James, I Peter and John's writings, faith, hope and love. John writes a lot about love. John writes a lot about faith. John was a man of thunder, but I believe he was the one that Jesus loved because I believe he came the closest to the way Jesus Christ was. He was a loving person, and Jesus Christ felt more of a rapport to him, I believe, than any other of the apostles or disciples. He loved them all, but the one that he was closest to, the one who camehellip;they always said, "Hey, John, you ask him. You know, you're closer to Jesus. You ask him."

He was the one who reclined next to Jesus after the meal, so I believe that John had a connection to Jesus because John understood better than the other apostles what it was to be loving. But John 21:15. Jesus Christ had to teach Peter about Godly love because Peter thus far, before his conversion, Peter externalized it. He had to be taught.

John 21:15 - So when they had eaten breakfast Jesus says to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of bar Jonah, do you love Me more than these?" "Do you have agape love, Godly love toward Me? And he said to Him, "(Yes, Lord; You know that I (love) like you." Different word. You know that I love you like a friend. I have friendship love to you."

Jesus said, "Do you have Godly love to Me?" Peter said, "I have friendship love to You." And He said to him, "Feed My lambs." Take care of My little ones.

Verse 16 ndash; He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of bar Jonah, do you love Me?" Do you have a Godly love toward Me? And he said to Him, "Yes, Lord, You know that (I love You.) I am fond of You. You know that I love You like a friend. You know that I love You with my love. But he didn't say, "I have agape love. It's philio. And He said to him, "(Tend) Feed My sheep."

Verse 17 ndash; And He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of bar Jonah, do you (love) like Me?" Didn't say, "Do you have Godly love for Me?" Peter was incapable of that at that time.

"Do you like me?" And Peter was grieved because He asked him the third time, "Do you love Me?"

"Of course," he said. "You know all things, and You know that I love You, I like you. You know that I have a human love toward you. You know that I care about You like a friend." But Peter at that moment was incapable of saying, "I love You with a Godly love." And so He said to him, "Feed my sheep." Peter did not have the Godly love in his life that he needed, that the world needs, that we all need. We need to have Godly love in our lives. It is essential.

First of all, let's define what is love. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary puts it this way: Affection based on admiration or benevolence, because I want to be good or because I admire you, I have affection towards you. Warm attachment to another. I like this part, unselfish concern. Seeks another's good. See, there again, it's generating from within; it's not just a "Well, I like you because I have admiration for you, but rather, it's thinking about that other person in a way, what can I do for them." Unselfish concern, seeks another's good.

Another quote. This comes from Mystery of the Ages, page 48, "Love is defined as out flowing, loving concern. It is the way of giving, serving, helping and sharing." Notice what he said. "It is the wayhellip;" See, I'm not saying let's all go out and do a loving thing for somebody. But that love must come from within. It must be in us, a Godly love. We must have the love of God in us so that we may then be helpful, giving, sharing.

I want to quote to you from an article that I've had for several years, and I love it. I've quoted a few times. It's entitled, "Love Adds the Chocolate," from Pastor's Story File that I have.

"Love Adds the Chocolate." A house is a house is a house until love comes through the door that is, and love intuitively goes around sprinkling that special brand of angel dust that transforms a house into a very special home for very special people, your family. I can't help but remember and recall a recent article I read, there was a family that was in transition. I think their home had either been burned, or they were moving, or something. They were waiting for their house that they were purchasing to open up for them, and they were sitting in this ndash; like ndash; real estate person's office, and little children were playing there on the floor. And the lady said, "Well, I guess you can't wait to get to your new home?" And the little child said, "No, we have our home. We're just waiting for our house." Because being with her parents, being with the family, was home. Houses are made into homes by the love that's spread in that area. "Money," of course, continuing this quote, "can build a charming house, but only love can furnish it with a feeling of home. Duty can pack an adequate sack lunch, but love may decide to tuck a little note inside." Can we see that what love is, is going beyond, what love is, is an attitude of heart and mind that leads you to do the right thing and do Godly things, and do unselfish things. Obligation send children to bed on time, but love tucks the covers in around their neck and passes out kisses and hugs, even to teenagers."

And I remember this well. When our daughters were little, we'd be visiting late at night and come home, they were already in bed. I'd be out visiting, Barb was home with them, put them in bed, and when I came home, I'd go upstairs before I was ready to go to bed, and I'd go into their bedroom, they're both asleep, and I would kiss them, each one, on the cheek. And the next morning, they would say, "You kissed us last night, didn't you." And yet they weren't awake, but they somehow knew that they were cared for.

"Love goes beyond. Duty writes many letters, but love tucks a joke or a picture or a fresh stick of gum inside. Obligation can pour a glass of milk, but quite often, love will add a little chocolate."

Do you get the sense that love goes beyond. Love is giving. Love is caring. Love is sharing.

I Corinthians 13:1-13. I'm going to read it to you from the New Living Translation. It flows rather smoothly. The apostle Paul wrote:

I Corinthians 13:1-13 ndash; If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth, but didn't love others, I would only be making a meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy and I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything but didn't love others? What good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move without love, I would be no good to anybody. If I gave everything I have to the poor, even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I would be of no value whatsoever. Love is patient and kind, love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable and it keeps no record of when it is wronged. It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out. Love never gives up; love never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance.

Verse 8 - Love will last forever. Prophecy, speaking in unknown languages, special knowledge, that will all disappear. Now we know only a little and even the gift of prophecy reveals little, but when the end comes, these special gifts will all disappear.

It's like this. When I was a child and thought and reasoned as a child does. When I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror. But then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me.

There are three things that will endure, faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love.

So, that gives some definition, gives us a better understanding of it, but let's take a look at God's love because we want to have God's love. And what's rather interesting, I John the first chapter, has twenty-six times mentions the word love, at least in my King James. Twenty-six times in I John 4, and I'm not going to go through the whole chapter, you may if you chose to, as a Bible study for yourself, but I John 4:7, let's begin verses 7 through 11 and let's understand the love of God.

I John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God (If you love one another with a pure heart fervently, that's Godly love) and everyone who loves is born of God (or begotten of God) and knows God.

If you don't love, you don't know God. If you don't love with Godly love, if I don't love with Godly love, we don't know God.

Verse 8: He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

You don't know the way He is and yet that love is available to us, isn't it? We'll see that in a moment as well, how to have it.

Verse 9: In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world (John 3:16) that we might live through Him.

Verse 10: In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

God loved us, He reached out to us first. It's up to us to enter into a position that wherever that superior position is whether it's a parent to a child, a husband to a wife or a mother to a child, it's up to us to teach our children by reaching out to them first as God did.

Verse 11: Beloved, if God so loves us, we also ought to love on another.

Verse 18: There is no fear in love; but perfect love (That's Godly love) casts out fear (See fear is about incoming isn't it? I'm afraid this might happen, this might happen to me. It's incoming. What is love? Outgoing. Perfect love pushes that out. Why? Because perfect love is about thinking about others and drawing in from God, drinking in the love of God certainly in order to be able to give it out. But if you have perfect love, you're giving it out, it's not about you, it's about others) because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

Verse 19: We love Him because He first loved us.

We love God because He reached out to us first. That really is what we all need to do. If it's equal, then we both do it, but if its perceived that someone's in a superior position, whatever you want to call that superior position, whether there's a deacon, and you're a layman member, the deacon should reach out to the layman, the elder should reach out to the deacon, the pastor should reach out to the elder, deacon and lay members. Reach out, that doesn't say they're to blame if you don't give it back. God expects us to do it, He expects the fathers to reach out to the children, He expects the mothers to reach out to the children. Now they love me, then I'll feel good about them. Wait a minute, do you reach out to them? I remember one man who said, he was separated from his family and he tried writing to his daughters and they wouldn't write back because his wife had turned them against him. He said he was just about ready to give up and I said: "Never give up. You write your daughters and every special event whether graduation, or birthday or whatever it happens to be that she celebrates. You write her, don't try to badger her about anything, send her a card every time. Don't fail." He wrote me about a year later and said my daughter's writing to me again and she apologized for neglecting me all those years. He was ready to give up on reaching out, she reached back finally to him. Don't give up.

Verse 20: If a man says I love God and hates his brother (Or doesn't love his brother) he's a liar; for he who does not love his brother (Talking about a brother in the church) whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

If you don't love somebody that you see in them the love of God manifested, which is God's love, you see it, it's there, how can you love God whom you haven't seen? You see them day in and day out. How come you can't love them if you say you love God?

Verse 21: This commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

How important is love? It's vital brethren for us. Not pretended love. I Peter, chapter 1 and verse 8. Not pretended love. We can all put on pretended love, it's got to be genuine.

I Peter 1:8 Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

You love Christ even though you haven't seen Him.

Verse 22: Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit to un-pretended love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.

Don't be the great pretender. Perry Como years ago I believe, did the song, "Oh Yes I'm the Great Pretender." You can't pretend the love of God, it's either there or it isn't and we need it because it is a matter of life and death.

II Corinthians 6:6 can't be pretended.

II Corinthians 6:6 By purity, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by love un-pretended.

We can't pretend.

I Thessalonians 1:3, it's got to be genuine and how can it be genuine? I'll show you that in a moment. Paul says this:

I Thessalonians 1:3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, your labor of love (It takes effort to love) and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father.

Luke 11, verse 42. Not all these are pretended, they're also intended to strengthen us, to expound this, what love is and what it is not.

Luke 11:42 But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs and pass over (Pass over what?) judgment and (What do they pass over?) the love of God. (You pass over, you're very good at little finicky things but what about the big things? Of love, doing it out of a Godly approach.) These you ought to have done and not left the others undone.

In John 13, verse 35, what is the sign that you can see that people are God's people? Do they have a little tuff of hair on their bald head? Do they look weird? Do they appear odd? What is the sign of God's people?

As I told them in Pittsburgh the first time I went to church, I had not gone to church before 1958. My brother Dave was coming back from a baptizing tour in Pittsburgh and church had just started and so they were only going about a month and I went there with my brother Dave and he was saying well you know we won't be able to pick out the people, they're the ones who won't have make up on, they're the ones that are carrying bibles, just follow them. Sure enough there weren't very many by the way, only around 40 or 50 people there the first time and we followed them in to this big, huge soldiers and sailors hall in Pittsburgh, a huge place. We walked in there and we turned right and followed and this couple probably thought we were menacing or something because they were looking back at us every so often, it was a family of four, the Berkly's, they were a black family and we were following them. It was a tell tale signs, no make up and carrying a bible. Now a lot of people could have no make up and carry a bible. The Nazarenes could do that, not necessarily a sign of God's people.

John 13:35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

It's not pretended love, it's not fake love, it's not (oh I love you, you dirty rotten) not pretended. It's a deep abiding love and it has to be a love of God. It's a matter of life and death brethren, you know you're passing from death into life if you love the brethren. I think it's the most critical need that we have because you see the days coming when the love of many will wax cold. People won't love each other. Can you disagree with someone and still love them? Absolutely. Can you see things in a different way and still love each other? Yes. The love of God we need and it's a way. I remember Mr. Armstrong defined it, it's a way, it's not just I did that once, I did that twice, I did that three times, it's a way of life and it must be our way. How may we have this?

I want to read another quote I have, I think I have it here, quote number four. "Love is not what you do but what you are."

Romans 5, verse 5. The apostle Paul again clarifies this topic for us.

Romans 5:5 Now hope makes no one ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.

How may be have the love of God? By having the Holy Spirit in us and letting the Holy Spirit work within us, we may exhibit and use the love of God.

I've done things for people that have been my love, not the love of God. It's been a selfish love. If I do this I'll look better. If I do this they might like me. That's not the love of God. The love of God is I do this because it's right. I do this because they need help, not well maybe they'll help me when I have a need. I just lost it, that's selfish love. We can all love our children, we love them because they're our children. I love my dog (when I had a dog, it died a few years back) because it was my dog. I spent all my time on my dog, it was my dog. I love other peoples dogs but not as much as I love my dog because that's selfish love. We cannot have that type of love or it's not the love of God.

We can say like Peter, I like you but I don't have the love of God towards you. I find no where it says if you have like for people you are passing from death into life, if you have the love of God it is a Godly love that affects who you are. It just doesn't affect one circumstance. Are we perfect in it? No none of us is, but we need to be growing in letting the love of God become our way of life instead of just a sometimes thing; once in a while there's a flash there that I had the love of God. The flash ought to be when we do wrong, when we don't have quite the love of God and have more of love for self. The love of God is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit enable us to do, enables us to bear beautiful fruits of the Holy Spirit which are love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness and agape, the love of God, a Godly love within us? It's not just a love for God. The agape love leads us to love God and leads us to love our fellow man.

Romans 13:8 tells us we shouldn't owe people anything, but there is one thing we do owe them.

Romans 13:8 Owe no one anything, but to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

See everything in the law drives us to love. The ten commandments are done in love; love toward God, love toward fellow man. It takes love to fulfill them. It takes the love of God to do them and we love God, we pray and we study so we can have the strength and power and the Holy Spirit of God so that we can love our fellow man. How is our love toward God manifested? How is it shone? That we are Godly people by the love we have one for another. If you can pray and study and come back and treat each other wrong, if we can do that, something is wrong with out study and prayer life, something is very wrong. Our love toward God, having the love of God needs to lead us all to love others in a more powerful Godly way.

How may we show the love of God? Before I do this one I have one more quote for you; my last quote. "Anyone can be a heart specialist. You know you can be a heart specialist. The only requirement is loving somebody. If you have love towards others and a Godly love, you are a heart specialist, because without love a heart dies."

They had an account in one of the stories I was reading about an elephant. The elephant had a mate for I don't know how many years and the mate died. After that mate died, the elephant that lived would not eat, would not drink, and died; died of a broken heart because it had no mate to give it love back in the zoo. It's interesting, even animals feel and animals do. Animals can tell. I had this one man who came to our house and every time he came he teased my dog. Anytime he would come and he came several times over the course of a few years, every time he came in the dog barked and came over and sat by me, barked at him and came over and sat by me; they know. Animals know when you love them, they just know it and they want to be loved and people want to be loved too, but not with pretended love, not with fake love, with the love of God.

So how may we show the love of God, how may we show it? I have seven points and I'm just going to go through them rapidly so hopefully I'll wrap it up in about seven minutes. How to show the love of God:

Number 1 - Through feeling. You should feel the love of God toward people. It should be a feeling. In John 11, verse 5 we see this example:

John 11:5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

Jesus had a feeling for them. I love those people. He didn't say marital love, he didn't say romantically love. He said I love those people. I love those people is how He put it. Mark 10, verse 21 is another beautiful example of feeling. Jesus Christ felt love for people. Do you feel love for people? Do we feel care for people? Mark 10, verse 21; this man had come and asked Him, Master, what good thing may I do to have eternal life?

Mark 10:21 Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him.

That's a feeling. He saw this man and He said: I love that guy. Do you have feeling that say, I love that person? That's a loving person, I love that person, I care about that person. It's a feeling. You don't have to do anything, it's just that you feel. That's one way to show the love of God is to have feelings for people because those feelings will translate into what you'll be able to do for them. So love shows it through feeling. Jesus Christ felt love for people.

Number Two. Love through caring. III John, verses 1, 5 amp; 6.

III John: 1 The Elder ( that's John) to the well beloved Gaius. (Gaius is loved by so many people He said) whom I loved in the truth.

Why did he love him?

Verse 5: Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers (because he cared).

Verse 6: which have borne witness of your love before the church. (He cared for people, when people came through the area and needed somebody to lodge with, somebody to look after them, somebody to send them on their way, hey Gaius was the one, let's recommend him. He was a man of love because he cared.) whom if you bring forward this one that I am recommending now (who was Demetrius) on their journey, after a Godly sort, you will do well.

He was commended because he was a loving person because he cared for others. Do you care?

Number 3. We need to show the love of God through giving. Giving.

Giving is handing over something without expecting anything in return. Giving. I'm handing over the possession whatever it is, money, goods, service, time, effort, whatever without expecting anything in return.

I John 3:17 But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

If this person sees his brother have a need and doesn't respond, how can God's love be in him? That's what he says. It's through giving.

Number 4. We can show the love of God through sacrificing.

I John 3:16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

And what is sacrificing? Foregoing something valuable for something greater, of greater value. You're willing to give up something that you have that's valuable for something of greater value. For instance when you give your time and effort to someone else because you value their need higher than your own, that is sacrificing and its close to giving, I will admit that. John 15, verse 13, but it has a sense of giving up, a sense of giving up something as opposed to donating or giving of your time. This has a sense of foregoing something valuable for something of greater value, to aid some other sense, giving it to someone else.

John 15:13 Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down his life for his friends.

He's giving up his valuable life, his time and every time you do something for others you've given up your life because what is our life? Our life is just so many minutes, so many hours, so many days, so many months, so many years. That's what our life is. Every time you give up a few minutes for somebody else, you just sacrificed your life on their behalf; to cheer them up, to encourage them. If you take a few minutes to write a card or whatever, it might be sacrificing.

Number 5: Doing. Just doing. Deeds.

Whenever we do in deed. I John 3:18 he wrote.

I John 3:18 Let us not love in word, but let us love in deed and in truth.

Doing. Love involves doing. Doing whatever it might be involved. Not just thinking about good thoughts about people but actually being involved in doing something, in stepping out, action in other words.

Number 6: We can show the love of God through obeying.

I John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

God's commandments lead us to obey Him. Paul wrote to the Philippian church, he said: Brethren as you've always obeyed, not in my presence only, but in my absence too. It was just the hallmark of God's people. They listened (don't sit here, o.k. I'll sit over there. Don't put that there, o.k.) We obey, that's what its about. The love of God leads us to obey and showing the love of God through serving, through serving, looking for ways to help others. Let me define serving for you. Give service to, to aid, to assist or to give, to help somebody, to be with them, to assist them, to aid them.

Number 7. We love through serving.

The love of God leads us to be willing to serve. We look for ways to help others.

Galatians 5:13 For you brethren have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Godly love leads us to want to serve, whether its in the family, whether its with our children, whether its our friends, our family, our job, whatever it might be, Godly love leads us to serve.

Those seven areas again. Love of God through feeling, caring, giving, sacrificing, doing, obeying and serving.

In conclusion, we desperately need the love of God in the end time. Matthew 24 says that the time is coming when the love of many will wax cold. John 17, verse 26, Jesus Christ in His final prayer that we have recorded. John 17, verse 26 is the Lord's prayer. Notice what He asks:

John 17:26 I have declared to them your name and will declare it, that the love with which you have loved Me may be in them and I in them.

Christ's final prayer on earth, the one that we have recorded called the Lord's prayer enjoins us to have the love of God in us as Christ had it in Him. Jude 21, the brother of Jesus Christ learned from His brother's example, not necessarily from His brothers preaching because He didn't like it when He was walking the earth but notice what He says:

Jude 21: Keep yourselves in the love of God. Keep yourselves in the love of God.

Remember what we read, John 13:35 and this is the sign that we are the people of God today. Let's make sure we keep ourselves in the love of God.